Is Your Company Technology Going It Alone?

“Silo,” in information industry terminology, is not a place to hold the grain on your farm but is a data system that can’t interact or communicate with another data system. They’re separate, not connected – silos in other words.

There may be plenty of practical uses for information silos – but sharing data between sales and marketing is not one of them. When you have one system for sales, one for marketing – and never the two shall meet – you’re asking for lost opportunity. And why would you ask for such a thing? Seriously. To align sales and marketing, you’ve got to be able to share information.

So take a look at your information technology infrastructure and see what you’ve got going on. For example: 

• What software systems have been implemented?
• What can they do? What are they doing?
• How many systems do you have?
• Can they be (or are they) integrated?

Software upgrades sound like overhead to many a businessperson, and they are. But they’re also investments that can put the technological infrastructure in place to grow your business – without which opportunity is lost.

If your sales and marketing systems aren’t synched, and you have to go into them manually, you’re risking error, omissions and lost time. But when they are synched, you’re laying the groundwork for effective lead nurturing.

As lead nurturing is automated, the information is there for whoever in your company needs it – emails sent, opened, clicked through, requests, contact, proposals, service/installation records, referrals, etc. 

And here’s some of why all of this matters. According to Brian Carroll, author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, only 5‑15% of the names you collect through your website/marketing campaigns will be ready to buy from you right away.

Obviously, in contractor terms, that assumes that this is not an emergency repair call, but would be a home improvement that can allow time for the customer to research options. Regardless, to keep the large majority of people not quite ready to buy within your company’s sights, you need to nurture the lead, which calls for consistent, relevant communication – beginning with marketing but moving to sales at the appropriate time through one seamless system. 

Download These CSR Scripts

I rant about customer service a lot. We all do. We choose our restaurants, hotels, clothing stores and shops based largely on good or bad service. If poor, we quit using that company, tell our friends or even post negatively online for all to see. How costly is that?

Many paying customers QUIT their contractors. Not due to pricing, or technical skill, but due to one thing: Poor Customer Service. The treatment – actual or imagined – was poor, thus the experience was wrecked. And there goes the customer, referrals and reputation right along with it.

So guess what a large number of contractors do? Shocking answer here, plus some Top Contractor CSR Scripts.

They prefer to pay almost no attention to customer service training. They want to squeak by for “as little as possible,” not realizing that this so-called “savings” is among the costliest money drains known to man. You can do all the research you want: even if everything else is right, bad customer services skills can kill a business.

Remember, ALL who speak to customers become THE spokesperson and representative of your company. However, too often, a company just puts “somebody” on the phone, communicating through email, and making social posts. Or, worst of all, they allow technicians to stand face-to-face in customers’ homes, communicating unprofessionally or setting you up for disaster.

It’s not their fault. They were NOT trained in the lucrative art of customer service. So they just “wing it,” communicating indifferently, sending signals of “amateur” or “sketchy” or sometimes just plain rude.

The Fallacy of “Nice People”

It is TOTALLY false to say, “No, we don’t need training because we hire nice people.”

Wrong. Nice people OFTEN over-promise and can misstate facts. Do nice people know how to upsell? How to handle a complaint? Generate a referral? In fact, here are just a few areas where Top Trained Customer Service Reps excel:

• Effective phone answering, hand-offs and outbound
• Appointment Confirmations
• Upsells
• Callbacks
• Angry Customers
• Referral Generation
• Positive Review Generation
• Agreement Renewals
• Tardy appointment scripts, emails

Imagine if EVERY ONE of those were improved? What would that mean to your bottom line? And what would this cost you to implement vs. what it’s costing you to NOT HAVE?

Now imagine if you focused on each area, just 2 per week; in just over a month, you’d have greatly increased your company image, professionalism and sales.

The Power of Scripts and Professionally-Crafted Written Communication

Some shy away from “Scripts,” assuming this is for robots and recordings. Hardly. The best speeches ever made are scripted. Yet an effective delivery means they’re comfortable with the POINTS of the script, without memorizing them verbatim.

Same with written communication. We supply clients with dozens of email and follow-up ‘mail’ templates (all prewritten) which can be easily personalized. The point is:

Better to have a strategic outline for all written and verbal communications than none at all.

Get 5 Scripts Here.

The above should help you a ton. Of course, we have dozens of scripts, emails, follow-ups, referral requests, renewal letters, thank you cards and more Customer Service pieces. (Ask your coach or email to request more info.)

As we head into summer, I just wanted you to have these scripts to help you get and keep more customers, while conveying a better and more professional image.

Hope you put these to good use. Enjoy!

Men Are Way Smarter

As guys, we think we can make most things better, or fix stuff (including PEOPLE that don’t want to be ‘fixed’). And to avoid things like “feelings,” we just come out and say it. Ladies can do this too, but are more subtle.

Here’s an example:
 
LADY EXAMPLE: (to the guy in her life) “Are you going to wear that?” This is often said even if the man pretends to know how to dress himself. This is the “indirect” approach and hard for a man to understand. For clarity, I’ve translated it into guy language:
 
“That shirt wouldn’t be acceptable even if you were visually impaired. And with your shape, the gray pinstripe jacket makes you look like a mattress with arms. Change clothes now.” Can you see the difference? No matter our communication differences…
 
Here are "5 Things Women Are Right About Every Single Darn Time.”

1.    When women say “That person is trouble” or “There’s something about them I’m not sure of,” you need to get that person out of your life. This means run, catch a plane, change your name, get a job in a remote part of Bora Bora. Women can “sense” things like this, like when Lassie used to know when the bridge was going out (mainly because Lassie had an engineering degree).

Women can sense deceitfulness, shallowness or people with puffed-up views of themselves, which happens to include ALL men. (We help you hone this skill and give you purpose.) Women also sense that all young and attractive females within 7 miles are pure evil and need an exorcism. 

2.    When there’s a discussion and she says, “Just listen first,” it seems they’re suggesting we MIGHT NOT be right about something, which is, of course, impossible. However, when I have “listened” before jumping to my always-correct assessment, there are occasions (nearly 87% of the time) I have heard something that causes me to be even more right than I was before! Hardly. Okay ladies, you got us on this one.

Men, if you will control your mouth (another use for Duct Tape!) and listen first, you might find insight, wisdom or the mistaken notion that your silence indicates either. A no-lose situation.

This next one could save your marriage, your life and possibly civilization as we know it…

3.    “I’m not sure that’s a good idea” or “We shouldn’t do that.” If you do not follow Item 2 when this phrase is said, three things may be the culprit:  1) You have lost your ever-loving mind. 2) You have miscommunicated WHY it’s a good idea to spend ¾ of your savings to go to the motorcycle rally in Sturgis (follow-up sales tactics must be used pronto!) or 3) You have a desire to lose some of your body parts (or allow others to die from non-use).

Certain controversial studies suggest that even if it IS a “good idea,” some ladies might turn it into a very, very bad idea, causing this to be 100% accurate every time. Again, I’ve only “heard” of this and have no actual evidence, save for a nervous twitch and mild knee pain.

Just when you think you have it right, they keep you guessing…

4.    “We need to relax. Get away. Slow down.” This is much like Item 3, in that NOT following this suggestion results in a desire to remove your own organs. Often – and I’m being serious – she can tell when it’s time for YOU to relax better than you can. Though I know I’m my normal bubbly and charming self all the time, sometimes when trying to run a business, be a husband, father, financier, Mr. Fixit and then must pull the intake manifolds off a 28-year old car “in my spare time,” I might get a little cranky. Getting away can be a VERY good idea.

NOTE: If your lady’s idea of getting away includes said trip to Sturgis or other such indulgence and you are not yet married, pop the question now. You need to recognize pure gold when you see it.

And lastly,

5.    If a loving woman who has put herself second most of the time just so you could be first says “I’m behind you,” she’s not talking about first and second place, you moth-brained head of lettuce. She means spiritual support, emotional support, physical support, plus food, energy, comfort and a sacrifice of all that she is so you can become all you can be.

If for some reason you’re not there yet, probably not her fault. A trip to the mirror could prove useful. (Voice of experience.)

And if you’ve been married 29 years this month to a lady you’d marry all over again, a revisit to these truths seem especially important.  Happy Anniversary and I love you.
 
Yet to redeem the men-folk, there are TWO things ladies are always 100% wrong about:
“I’ll need a couple more minutes to get ready” and “I might go shopping.”
 
I guess we can put up with those if you put up with us.