Sales

experience

How’s your Customer’s Experience?

Leave a Comment / Entrepreneur, Industry News, Marketing, Sales, Tips / By / / , , , , , , , , , ,

Ah, the customer experience. When you are the customer, it’s very easy to describe your experience with a business – what you liked, what you didn’t like, what you wish they did differently or did more of – the list goes on. However, as a business owner or employee – trying to figure out your customer’s experience – and making sure it’s a good one – can be really hard.

Let’s first define what “Customer Experience” actually means – it’s the impression your customers have of your brand as a whole throughout all aspects of the buyer\’s journey. It results in their view of your brand and impacts factors related to your bottom-line including revenue.

The two primary touchpoints that create the customer experience are people and products/services. Positive customer experiences are crucial to the success of a business – not only do you get loyal customers, but they can also refer you more business! There is no better marketing than a customer who is willing to promote your business for you via word of mouth and is a brand advocate.

Creating an excellent customer experience is something that you should obsess over.

When it comes to purchasing products and services, it’s not the business owner who has the power, it’s the buyer. Why? Because customers not only have the internet at their fingertips to research anything and everything, but they have options – usually both locally and online when it comes to purchasing products or services.

It’s not about getting just ONE sale from a customer, it’s about creating sticky customers – repeat buyers. If you want customers to continue doing business with you, then you need to provide a remarkable experience and make them WANT to continue doing business with you.

 How to you measure your customer experience?

  1. Send surveys – Use customer satisfaction surveys on a regular basis, and at meaningful times through the customer journey – to get insights into your customers’ experiences with your brand, people, and product/service. This is where that Net Promoter Score comes in handy! Analyzing NPS from multiple touchpoints across the customer journey will tell you what you need to improve and where you\’re providing an excellent experience already while showing customers you\’re listening to them and care about what they have to say.
  2. Look at customer trends – Look at your churn rate. How often and how many one and done customers do you have – and why? You need to understand if your rate of churn is increasing or decreasing and why so you can prevent it from continuing. Is it a faulty product, is your time to perform service to long, is it a bad employee experience, did they move, etc.
  3. Look at your FAQs and support tickets/returns. If you are constantly being asked the same questions from customers, be proactive, and put more information on your website or in your brick and mortar to make their experience better. Are you getting a lot of return requests or service issues about certain products/services? You need to analyze all this information and distill how you can make a streamlined and enjoyable experience for customers.

Want to make a great customer experience? Make a customer journey map, create buyer personas, establish a positive connection with customers, ask for and act on feedback, create helpful content, and build a community.

How’s your Customer’s Experience? Read More »

The Power of your Net Promoter Score!

Leave a Comment / Market Reports, Operations, Sales, Small Business, Tips / By / / , , , , , , , , ,

For those who don’t know, Net Promoter Score ®, or NPS ®, measures your customer’s experience, how likely they are to refer people to you, and predicts business growth. You’ve probably even provided information for this business metric without even realizing it during a survey response.

How is the Net Promoter Score calculated?

The NPS is calculated by using the answer to one key question, answer by using a 0-10 scale: How likely is it that you would recommend [COMPANY NAME HERE] to a friend or colleague?

Answers include the following response options:

Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.

Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.

Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

Subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters yields the Net Promoter Score, which can range from a low of -100 (if every customer is a Detractor) to a high of 100 (if every customer is a Promoter).

Why your Net Promoter Score Matters

Ultimately, you need to be aware of how your clients perceive your brand and products.  NPS data allows you to insight into the customer’s mind about their experience & journey with your company. If they aren’t a promoter, where can you improve, what went wrong, and why wouldn’t they recommend you to others? Your NPS is a prediction of your growth, so if your responses aren’t showing Promoters, then we have a problem!

How Can I use Net Promoter Score in my Business?

Net Promoter Score allows you to segment your customers by loyalty as well as identify unsatisfied or at-risk customers. It also allows you to benchmark against industry or competitor scores and uncover customer loyalty drivers. It is easy to complete with a fast one-question format and can be used to predict future trends.

Although the Net Promoter Score has gained huge popularity, there are some that criticize it. It can be seen to provide only a limited view of customer experience and the NPS question alone doesn’t provide any specific insights. This can be negated by adding open-ended follow questions or additional rating questions.

If you are part of our Red Barn Newsletter or a client, you’ve probably been sent a survey or two before and one of the questions we always ask is the Net Promoter Score question. However, we are firm believers in diving a little deeper and finding out why you answered the way you do. We always want to know what you like, if you find value, where we can improve – because if you don’t know the details, you can’t fix things and it can prevent you from getting a bad review on social media!

The Power of your Net Promoter Score! Read More »

Can you sell something you don’t believe in?

Leave a Comment / Sales, Small Business, Tips / By / / , , , , , , , , , ,

Imagine you got each of the emails below from someone you know who wants to sell you something.

  1. [FIRSTNAME] OMG, you have GOT to go to this website RIGHT NOW and buy this WIDGET – it’s AMAZING and it will change your life. Truly, it’s that great – I grabbed one for myself and just emailed my entire family to place an order before they sell out.
  2. Em, hi [FIRSTNAME] – my company sells widgets that are better than the widgets you already have. They work really well. Go to our website to place your order.

Which “sales pitch” sounds more convincing?

Unless you are some type of alien being, my guess is you chose #1.

The Sell – It’s about Passion and Serving

 #1 gets the hands-down FOR THE WIN because the person trying to \”sell\” you something isn’t selling at all.  She 100% believes in the product, but more importantly her “sales pitch” was more about helping her friends and family have the same awesomesauce experience she had.

#2 Is probably more the classic salesperson who simply isn’t confident in the product. They are just looking to sell the damn product and try to make a buck.

Without belief – the sell is a lie.

 If you are a salesperson who is struggling – step back and look at the product and/or service you are trying to sell.  What is your belief scale?

  1. You need to believe in the product
  2. You need to believe in yourself
  3. You need to believe that you yourself would use the product and would 100% feel comfortable telling your closest friends and family to use it.

If all 3 don’t apply – you need to up your belief level or quit.  It’s that simple.

Customers can smell BS from a mile away

Let’s cut to the chase and be honest. We’ve all been pitched by the snake oil salesperson – haven’t we?  The robodialers who just get on the phone and dial for dollars – they don’t even know what they hell they are selling.  Or how about the owner\’s daughter who was pushed into a sales role and doesn’t want to be there, doesn’t give two craps about the product, and here you are on the other end expected to buy from them.

So if you wouldn’t buy from the snake oil person, don’t be a snake oil person.  What is snake oil anyway?

Going back to the beginning of this article and example #1.  True sincerity doesn’t need any fancy marketing materials or even a sales pitch – it speaks for itself.

I guess that’s all that needs to be said on the subject of can you sell something you don\’t believe in.  Believe to Achieve.

Can you sell something you don’t believe in? Read More »

How to handle a Bad Review or Post on Social Media

Leave a Comment / Culture, Entrepreneur, Sales, Tips / By / / , , , , , , , , , ,

Working your brand on social media is GREAT until it isn’t – ugh, a bad review comes in.

As business owners we are all human, which means we make mistakes.  Perhaps we were late delivering on a promise, or a job we promised to be perfect ended up taking a wrong turn or we have an employee that does something inappropriate – it happens more often than we like, or think.

So what happens when the dirty laundry shows up on social media in the form of a bad review, a nasty-gram post, or the troll that just goes all out and posts everywhere how horrible you are.

Well there is a right way…and a terribly WRONG way to handle it.

  1. Own it. If you’ve done something wrong, if you have an unhappy customer just own it.  Don’t make excuses, don’t blame someone else. As the owner, it’s your role to take the hits 100% of the time.
  2. Understand that most unhappy customers just want to be validated and have you take ownership (see #1).
  3. Address the situation PUBLICALLY – so say, “Annie – I’m so terribly sorry you are upset and this happened to you, I’m sending you a private message now so we can get to the bottom of it”. Of course, pen the response according to the situation.
  4. Take it OFFLINE – you don’t want to get in a pissing match with someone in a Facebook feed. Take it off line – call them, email – whatever it takes.
  5. Get to the bottom of the issue – because we all know it could just be they were having a bad day and a minute little mishap has now turned into catastrophe! If you can – make amends.
  6. If you can fix things – ask them to kindly remove the post. It’s better if they do it versus you deleting it.

And more…..

What if they are a troll just trying to make your life miserable? Delete the post and block them.  That’s not to say they won’t find another place to vent. You can’t fix it all.

What about bad Google Reviews?  Unscrupulous competitors will leave negative fake reviews just to be jerks.  Even if it’s FAKE do the following:

  • Address the complaint and apologize for whatever they are complaining about
  • State you can’t seem to find them in your records as being a customer
  • Offer to fix whatever is the problem, give them contact information to whomever is the “fixer”
  • Flag or report the review as fraudulent

NOTE: *Even if you flagged the review, prospects and customers may still see it, or it may not be removed—this is why you ALWAYS respond.

 The big answer: RESPOND.  100% of the Time. 

 If you ignore or just delete, it’s only going to fuel the fire.  If you find yourself in a bad situation and the complaints are piling up – this of course is a bigger problem.  Turn off the review option on social media and watch Google, Yelp and other platforms like a hawk.  Be honest – “we are overwhelmed with orders and are doing our best to catch up” – etc.

In the end, negative reviews are usually overpowered by the GREAT ones! So It’s in your best interest to get as many 5 Stars as you can. So the best response to a negative response is not to have any in the first place.  Make sure you understand your customer journey, your staff is properly trained and your operations are in check.

Struggling?  Give us a call.  We won’t manage your negative press, but we will get you in tip-top shape!

How to handle a Bad Review or Post on Social Media Read More »

improve sales

Improve your sales skills even if you aren’t in sales

Leave a Comment / Entrepreneur, Featured, Must Read Blogs, Sales, Small Business, Tips / By / / , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sales, regardless if you are an actual salesperson or not, is just part of life and your career. Sales doesn’t always mean selling a product or service to a customer, in fact, you are probably giving sales pitches just about every day. That’s right, every time you pitch an idea, make a suggestion, or even go on a job interview, you are “pitching” yourself. So how can you improve your sales skills if you don’t pitch people often?

First off, selling kinda has a bad rap. You typically think of a sleazy used car salesperson, telemarketer, or door to door salesperson. But if you think about it, sales is really the most fundamental life skill. People think sales is pushing someone to buy something they don’t need, want, or can afford. But really, sales is moving someone to take action. And if you think about everything you did today, I’d bet quite a few of your actions involved selling. Am I right?

People are often uncomfortable with sales because they 1. Don’t understand it and 2. Can’t get past the used car salesman cliché. Selling is all about persuading, inspiring, and leading. It’s about collaboration and driving change. The best salespeople make you feel like the sale was your idea. Why? Because you trusted them, they had a genuine interest in your problem, they provided a solution that they knew would fix your problem. You wanted to buy from them.

People often buy for 2 reasons, to gain pleasure or avoid pain. Your job is to figure out which one it is. Sales really is about networking and listening to your customers. Find out who the decision-makers are, learn as much about them ahead of time as you can. When you talk to them take an empathic approach, one that focuses on understanding the other person and what they need. Serve, not sell.

What do the best salespeople have in common? They plan and practice. You wouldn’t show up to a golf tournament and expect to win having never swung a golf club in your life, right? The best in the biz have mentors and coaches who help them practice and make sure their conversation flows – they help them improve their delivery. Practice on friends, peers, coworkers, family, etc. until you get your pitch just right.

Making your “pitch” can be very nerve-wracking at times, but even with all that adrenaline flowing, it’s important to stay calm and not ramble. People don’t want to listen to someone drone on and on about how great something is. Selling should be a conversation, not a lecture.

A good salesperson knows when to fold ‘em and when to walk away. Yes, the late, great Kenny Rogers knew what he was talking about. Most salespeople hear no at least a few times before they make a sale, but they know when to press on, because that no is really a “not yet”, and when to throw in the towel. They are flexible and understand the path that their customer has to take in order to move forward.

Sales is a numbers game – it’s highly possible you will fail more than you succeed. However, it’s important that you don’t quit. You need courage and to always remember the long game. Sales is never rarely a one and done deal, and most times it’s actually not about you. If a customer is happy where they, they won’t get pleasure from buying and aren’t experiencing pain, then now is not the time. Check back in 3 months.

Have any great sales advice to add, we’d love to hear it! We also wrote a blog on increasing sales without a sales team, check it out.

Improve your sales skills even if you aren’t in sales Read More »

Social Media – Quality vs. Quantity

Leave a Comment / Entrepreneur, Marketing, Must Read Blogs, Sales, Small Business, Tips / By / / , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Does even thinking about posting to social media stress you out? How many times to post, what to post, when to post, etc.? Are you putting content out just for the sake of putting content out on social media? Are your followers just not engaging and your audience isn’t growing? When it comes to social media posts, quality beats quantity every time.

The norm has always been that consumers expect companies to have content readily available to consume – blogs, social media, enewsletters, downloadable ebooks, white papers, etc. They still look for this type of content, however just having a large library of stuff isn’t enough – consumers want quality of resources from companies they do business with – not just fluff.

First, we need to back up and define what quality means to consumers – it’s targeted, more personalized, highly creative messaging. Content that is focused on better understanding and interacting with your clients. Even small brands can easily produce content that looks just as good as the big dogs.

When a prospect is looking to learn more about your company, yes, they will Google you and visit your website, but they will also look to see what social media channels you are on, the type of content that you post, and how long ago you posted. Just throwing posts up that your customers and prospects don’t care about is not going to help you engage with them. However, one good quality post on Facebook can do way better than five poor quality posts.

Some tips to posting high quality content are:

  • Photos – they don’t need to be done professionally, but make sure they are well lit, not blurred or grainy.
  • Videos – also need good lighting and good sound.
  • Sharing Blogs – need to be interesting and relevant topics but also have good spelling, punctuation and grammar. It should be around 500 words or more to keep readers on your website for longer which is a good SEO signal to Google.
  • Sharing 3rd Party Content – share content from reputable sources that don’t require signing up for memberships. Articles from newspapers, magazines, etc. are usually good sources
  • Your content – only 20% of your content should be around your business – if you are constantly pushing a sale people will unfollow you

I get asked a lot about the best times to post on social media. There is no concrete answer to this. You need to post when and where your audience is going to see your posts. Why post on Twitter if your audience is on Facebook? If your audience primarily engages in the mornings, don’t wait to post until the afternoon.

Don’t get hung up on the numbers. Many people will engage in campaigns to buy likes or followers. This might seem great in the short term, but these people are most likely not your ideal clients and will never engage with you. At the end of the day, your goal is to be seen as an expert, a trusted advisor, and of course to get traffic to your website as that is where the sale is. If your engagement is low, then ask yourself if it is the quality of the post or is that the content isn’t resonating with your audience.

When it comes to social media posts quality will always beat quantity. You aren’t Gary V or Jenna Kutcher – you don’t need to keep up with the quantity of posts that they put out daily – they have teams of people who do this for them. For the DIYers – just focus on the quality. That’s all you need to do.

Social Media – Quality vs. Quantity Read More »

customer experience

Marketing Trends 2020 – customer experience

Leave a Comment / Featured, Fun Stuff, Marketing, Must Read Blogs, Sales, Small Business / By / / , , , , , , , , ,

What we do as an industry has dramatically changed over the past decade.  We’ve shifted from trying to convince people to buy, to do, to act, to honing in on our customer’s journey and customer experience.

CX will rule Marketing and Advertising in the next decade.

The Customer Experience (CX) is king. People no longer want to be told what to do, instead they want to be educated, they want to be wooed and they want an AMAZING customer experience – one that they willingly will pay more for.

Read that again:  They will pay MORE for a better experience.

Not that cheap, one and done is gone – there will always be price shoppers, but the trend is more on “show me what’s in it for me” as in the customer not the vendor.

So how do you have a Fab CX?

  1. Put yourself in YOUR customer’s shoes. You need to know them inside and out.  What makes them tick, why do they buy from you – and why do they not?  Knowledge is complete power here.
  2. KNOW your Value Proposition and make sure your team does too. It comes from the top.  Empower your team to make decisions on behalf of bettering your client experience.  Be it a refund, sending flowers, giving a bit more – the list goes on.  In the end you’ll not only increase client retention – but employee retention. Happy Employees = Happy Clients.
  3. Over Deliver – I mean OVER DELIVER. Just woo the socks off them.  Be Chewy – train your team to LIVE your value prop and DELIVER. DELIVER. DELIVER.
  4. Share your happy client stories – but let it be focused on them – not you. There is an art to it as to not look self-serving.  Again, put yourself in their shoes

Marketing today is less about telling people what you do and more about showing people how you can improve their life and help them – even if it doesn’t involve what you sell.

CX should be at the core of your 2020 business and marketing strategy.

Marketing Trends 2020 – customer experience Read More »

Personalize your Marketing efforts

Leave a Comment / Entrepreneur, Featured, Marketing, Must Read Blogs, Sales, Small Business / By / / , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Everyone (well, most people) wants to be noticed, loved, accepted and validated. It’s human nature.  So many marketing efforts forget this very important fact when they are building out their strategies and campaigns.

Put YOURSELF into your CUSTOMERS and PROSPECTS shoes.  It’s the Golden Rule – do unto others.  When clients ask me if something they’ve done is good, or if it will work, I ask them what they would do if they were one of their customers and THEY got that email, saw that billboard, saw that ad?  When they tell me their response – I say “exactly” – good or bad.

So, what are top brands doing to increase engagement and conversion?  They are getting deeply personal.

  • Know your data, your audience, and their actions. You don’t need a multi-billion dollar budget to do this – you just need a system.  It’s important that you are looking at your email open rates, your Google analytics, and your social engagement on a consistent regular basis.  Know what’s working and what isn’t.  More importantly, you want to SEGMENT out your DATA.  Find the highly engaged followers or readers and give them more, more, more of what they are looking for.  Next, you want to do a deep dive on who those high engagers who convert to clients are – what is their demographic?  If you find commonalities, you are building your TCP – your target client profile.
  • Personalize your delivery. From simply adding a first name or company name within an email marketing campaign to redirecting email and social media campaigns based on behaviors and actions taken, to highly personalized website experiences based on previous actions or their demographical makeup.  Artificial intelligence will play a big part in all of this over the next 5 years – in fact, big brands are already using it.
  • Be real. Once again I’m preaching authenticity.  Your customers want to know that you “get them” – the only way to do that is to be on their level and connect with them.  You won’t appeal to everyone but you will appeal to those who love love love you – and don’t you want them as clients versus the ones that could give a rat’s ass about you?  Enough said on that subject 🙂

In the end, you have to connect with your clients and prospects on a deeply emotional level.  Heart and soul, transparency, storytelling, BFF personal kind of level. When you do – the magic happens.  Try to constantly be pitching and making assumptions – rarely works.

Personalize your Marketing efforts Read More »

Email in Her Forties and Going Strong

Leave a Comment / Entrepreneur, Featured, Marketing, Must Read Blogs, Sales, Small Business / By / / , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In 2018, marketing email celebrated a 40 year anniversary – crazy to think this was happening when I was in high school – but it was!  The first mass email was sent in 1978 by Gary Thuerk of Digital Equipment Corporation to 400 potential clients. Mr. Thuerk claims that email resulted in $13 million worth of sales – more importantly it was an AHA moment.  Email marketing worked and well – the rest is history.

I’ve heard email marketing is dead.  For the 1000th time (or more) I’ll say “Nope, still relevant and effective” to the naysayers.

I’ll also tell people – the more the merrier.  I get looks, gasps, and OMG I can’t spam my clients with email.

If the content is GREAT, you aren’t spamming – you are bringing value. 

Not everyone on your list will read every email you send out.

Yes, some will go to spam.

Yes, some firewalls will block you.

Yes, you will get some opt-outs  Who cares?

How do you win?

  1.  Sanitize your lists. If they haven’t opened an email in 90 days – remove them.  They aren’t interested.
  2. Let them Opt in. We’ve all added folks to our email lists, and I’ve known more than one company who has bought lists.  The BEST ROI from your email marketing will come from an opted in list or lists.  If someone opts in – they want to get information from you.  It’s really that simple.
  3. People DON’T want to be sold to. People do want opportunities, they do want to solve pain points, they do want to add value and pleasure to their life. THEY want to make that decision based on information they’ve garnered and digested.  If you are constantly asking for the sale and offering no value in return – you will get deleted.  Go back and look at the emails you’ve read AND ones that you’ve taken action from.  WHY did you do it?  Your customers are no different.
  4. Tell a story. Your email marketing should be conversational.  People want to feel like they are sitting across a table from you at the little coffee shop on the corner, or sipping a scotch at the local country club – whatever that vibe is – they need to FEEL it when they are reading your emails.  The best brands make you FEEL, they pull you in, and they are masters at FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) as in OMG if I don’t have this I won’t be part of the inner circle or my life will never be the same.  Seems crazy – but FOMO has worked for as long as humans have walked the earth.
  5. Be Authentic. Damn if I haven’t preached this for decades… but I’ll say it again.  You can’t fake it – be authentic. Show your true colors, not the colors of your competitors – you can’t be a copy cat and win.  Just be yourself – you will attract the right clients and the right time and the right place.  Trust me on this one – just be you and let your team be them.

 Happy 41st Birthday Email Marketing – Damn we love you lots and wish you a long long life.

Email in Her Forties and Going Strong Read More »

How to take time off from your small business during the holidays!

Leave a Comment / Entrepreneur, Featured, Fun Stuff, Marketing, Must Read Blogs, Sales, Small Business, Uncategorized / By / / , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Depending on the type of business that you run, your business can either be super crazy during the holidays, think retail, or it could experience a bit of a lull. Many service providers, especially small businesses, often see a drop in business during the holidays. But just your potential buyers have checked out and gone on autopilot and decided not to decide until after the New Year doesn’t mean you put your marketing on hold for the last 2 weeks of the year.  Even if your business and customer engagement levels slow to a crawl this time of year it doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. And don’t worry – you can still enjoy some time with your family during the holidays too!

Reach out to top prospects before they check out for the season. Before the calendar rolls over to January, many businesses evaluate current contracts and services that they are using. Make sure you check in with your top prospects to stay front of mind, BUT you need to also make sure your current clients are happy and will continue to stay loyal to you. A little extra love during the holidays won’t hurt and may increase your sales.

Embrace the season of giving. Make sure that your clients know that you appreciate them. Sending them a holiday card or even a small gift will remind them that you care and take their business serious. At Red Barn, we bake cookies for our clients and we share the wealth with any top prospects that we are looking to woo as well. 😊

Optimize your email. Whether you plan to take a few days off or a few weeks, making sure your customers don’t feel neglected or ignored should be top of mind. Create an out of office message that lets people know when they can expect to hear from you, additional ways to reach you if it’s urgent, and when you may be checking emails while away. You should also list any special products or services with links to more information to help increase sales while you are away. You can also link to an FAQ page on your website that may be helpful to some common questions that you may receive. Be proactive!

Schedule, Schedule, Schedule. Just because you are going to be spending time away from your business, it doesn’t mean that all marketing and content comes to a halt. Create a bunch of content in advance and pre-schedule those weekly emails and blogs, and daily social media posts. Of course, you’ll need to check emails to see if you get any responses, and monitor social media for any messages and comments, but it takes a lot of the burden off when you automate and schedule in advance!

Don’t allow the demands of running your business overwhelm you to the point where you don’t know if you can take any time off for the holiday break. Everyone needs some down time and the holidays can be both stressful for your business and personal life. There’s no reason to miss out on a sale or lose customers just because you want to recharge and enjoy some family time – just set yourself up for success before you unplug!

How to take time off from your small business during the holidays! Read More »