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How will we sell in 2009?
2009 will definitely be a year we haven't seen before. We've faced the dropping stock market, the lack luster economy, historical lay-offs, and rising unemployment...How does your company survive and grow during times like these? Apply the basic selling principles that worked five years ago. If you've been in this business long enough you'll see all things are cyclical. There are up times and down times. Yes, this is a down time; however, as we enter 2009 there's energy in the air, a country ready for change.
People seem more willing to listen and chat and are up for a conversation about what you have to offer and how it might affect their bottom line. Take this opportunity to put the personal back into the personnel business!
Don't attack the client, barrage the client, bother the client, rather it is your responsibility to educate the client and let them know your company is an asset to their business. Find where you can help them and then associate your products to their needs. Will you increase their productivity or bottom line?
Evaluate your service and share your top three qualities which set you apart from your competition. Everyone strives for excellent customer service, make sure your firm achieves it. Everyone promises promptness, ensure you guarantee it. Everyone screens their applicants, be the staffing firm that screens so well you only send clients the cream of the crop. Place these phrases during sales presentations and calls.
Build trust with conversations and follow-up, engage your clients and their needs. When you are placing your calls, leave a specific time and day you are going to call back and then do it. They probably won't be there the first, second or even maybe the third time and following up when you say you would builds trust and respect. When you call the prospect back remember they are busy. Be sure to ask if they have time to speak to you; it is not only courteous but usually the person will speak with you right then or they will offer a more convenient time to call back. When the time if offered be sure to be there!
Follow through. Once you've made the sale, ensure the process happens. All too often as sales people we are ready to move onto the next sale. Continue to build rapport with your client. Follow up on their services, discuss new services offered, and check in with them on a personal level.
2009 will bring a twist to selling, an old twist, a walking the walk and not just talking the talk. Be sure you are prepared to go the full mile!
by Karen Connor |
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Monitoring Client Fall Off
With COATS you can stay on top of client activity and non-activity. Use these four reports to track your clients and your staff's follow through:
- Client Fall Off by Invoice Date
- Client Fall of by Contact Date
- Contact by Salesperson
- Contact By Staffer
Client Fall off by Invoice Date allows you to instantly see which clients were not invoiced by date range. With this report have your salesperson and/or staffer follow up with the client. Why did they close the order? Why were employees let go? What are we doing right as an agency? What could we have done if anything differently as an agency? What incentives could we offer for your recurring business?
Client Fall off by Contact Date allows you to instantly see which clients have not been contacted by date range. Use this report to have staff follow up on clients who may have fallen through the cracks. Have your salesperson and/or staffer follow up with the client. Have them call at least three days in a row. Each day, when not reaching the prospect, leaving a message of a specific time they will call back, and then calling back the very next day at that specific time. They can export their contacts into Outlook with a right click on Add Comment in order to schedule the EXACT time to pop up as a reminder. If the client continues to not answer, don't even stop after three days. In this economy the client will need to tell you to stop calling! Get them on the phone and see how you can service them as an agency. The three day follow through builds trust with them that you do what you say you are going to do.
Use the Contacts by Salesperson and Contacts by Staffer to follow through on your STAFF! It's just as important that managers have a check and balance on their staff as staff has a check and balance on their clients! If you request 50 contacts, have them pull the report showing those fifty contacts. All contacts should be placed under the Client/Sales area. The salesperson attached to the client record can pull their Contacts by Salesperson for all their clients. The staffer entering contacts under any client can pull their Contacts by Staffer for all client contacts entered.
Using these reports will help you remain in close constant contact with your clients. Following up on your staff shows you are serious about the client/agency contact you expect!
How to use these in COATS Standard:
Client Fall off by Invoice Date is found under Reports/Client Reports/Client Fall off/Invoice Date. The user can pull this report by Date range. Remember the date range pulled will then produce a report of clients who were not invoiced within that date range.
Client Fall off by Contact Date is found under Reports/Client Reports/Client Fall off/Contact Date. The user can pull this report by Date range. Remember the date range pulled will then produce a report of clients who were not contacted within that date range.
Contacts by Salesperson is found under Reports/Client Reports/Contacts by Salesperson. The user can pull one salesperson or all, by date range, by prospect or active or both.
Contacts by Staffer is found under Reports/Client Reports/Contacts by Staffer. The user can pull one staffer or all, by date range, by client or all clients.
How to use these in COATSsql:
Client Fall off by Invoice Date is found under Reports/Client Reports/Client Fall off/By Invoice Date. The user can pull this report by selecting a date. Any client who has not received an Invoice prior to that date will appear.
Client Fall off by Contact Date is found under Reports/Client Reports/Client Fall off/By Contact Date. The user can pull this report by selecting a date. Any client who has not received a contact prior to that date will appear.
Contacts by Salesperson and Contacts by Staffer are found under the same report. In COATSsql there are no longer Salespersons only, but rather all Salespersons are also staffers. Therefore to pull a report for a salesperson or a staffer, the contact details are found under the same report and can be found under Reports/Client Reports/Contact Report. The user can pick one staffer or all staffers.
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We've certainly all read and seen a barrage of recent news regarding the current crisis affecting Wall Street, the financial sector and the U.S. economy. As Advance is intimately involved with the credit market and financial markets, it is certainly understandable that you may be wondering how this crisis and potential government actions may impact our businesses.
The short answer is that Advance is actually well positioned to survive these temporary challenges, and very likely to prosper further during this period. Here are a few quick "FAQ's" that explain what puts Advance in such an excellent financial position.
Does Advance have restrictions or limitations on growth?
Absolutely not. In fact, we remain focused on growing, in the form of bringing in new clients to our company and helping existing clients to expand. In contrast to many of our direct and indirect competitors, we have capacity and are trying hard to put it to work.
Will Advance need "tighter" management of clients and prospects?
No. At this time, no special underwriting or credit management considerations are needed to address the situation. No matter the economic climate, we are responsible to be diligent in managing the risks of our business. We have done a terrific job managing our portfolio performance to date. We will continue to review each potential new client and debtor based upon the relative strengths or weaknesses of: the staffing firm, the owners of the staffing firm, the A/R aging, and the underlying debtors.
What factors will contribute to Advance's success given the current economy?
Advance has many strategic advantages that put us head and shoulders above our competitors. Right now, the main focus, and the issue on everybody's mind, is financial stability and the ability to continue to help companies grow. Our major financial strengths are:
* The fact that we are */not/* a bank, nor are we owned in any part by a bank. Although we use banks just like every other business in the country, our relationships are strong, our leverage is low, and our performance has been excellent. We have significantly greater flexibility and less exposure than a bank.
* We are not a publicly traded company. We are a family owned business (just like many of our customers). As such, we are not subject to trading volatility that may negatively impact the capital position of some competitors. We are not beholden to nameless, faceless "shareholders"....we are beholden to our clients, our employees and the staffing community.
* Only a portion of the capital we use to manage our business comes from the banking community. Furthermore, the banks we work with are among the strongest and healthiest in the country at this time.
We understand the concern and nervousness that is out there. We want to assure our customers, prospective customers and the entire staffing community that we have every confidence Advance will continue to grow and prosper, in this economic environment or any other. Advance remains ever committed to our mission of helping staffing companies grow!
Sincerely,
Joel Adelman
President |
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 Miss a Newsletter?
COATS has been sending an emailed Newsletter since August of this year. If you missed one of our monthly newsletters, click below to see what you missed!
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COATSsql Version 3.2.1
released January, 2009
COATS Standard Version 8.3.7 released December 29th, 2008. Click here to view Enhancements
You will need your Customer Only User Name and Password to access the above sites.
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