In one way or another, all employees in your organization sell. From answering emails and phone calls to creating invoices to delivering the product or service - everyone coming into contact with customers in some way influence that customer's experience with your business.
Help all your non-selling employees be better "salespeople" by increasing their overall company knowledge. Employees well-informed about the business they work for have a greater appreciation for their contribution to the bigger picture.As the New Year approaches, ask yourself if most or all of the non-sales employees could answer the following questions:
- Who founded our company?
- How did our company get its name?
- Who is the longest-term existing customer?
- In which year did they start doing business with our company?
- Who is our largest customer today?
- How long have they been our largest customer?
- When did they start doing business with our company?
- Which clients come in at #2, #3, #4, and #5?
- What countries do we sell products in?
- Which country is second after the US?
- Which product do we sell the most of?
- Which product is the most profitable?
- Our top month for sales revenue is usually which one?
- Our bottom month for sales revenue is usually which one?
- On which day of the week do most customers place on-line orders?
- On which day of the week do we receive the most incoming calls?
- Which product is ordered most frequently on-line?
- Which product is ordered most frequently over the phone?
- How many people visit our website each year?
- Which product page do they go to first?
- How many minutes do they spend there?
- Which product has the highest return rate?
- Which product has the lowest return rate?
Some of these questions might not apply to your business. You may want to keep certain information private. That's fine. Select the questions you feel comfortable with. Add a few I didn't think of.
Get creative. During the first all-company or department meetings of the year, create a quiz from some of the questions above. Maybe play a Jeopardy-like game. Tally the score and hand out prizes to those in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Company leaders may be surprised to hear a lot of comments like, "Really? I never knew that," or "I always thought the Martinson Corporation was our number one client," from the staff.
Knowledgeable, informed employees make better "salespeople." For instance, those visiting, taking a call from or delivering to a customer they view as difficult might feel differently upon realizing that this customer ranks #4 in overall sales. They understand the customer's worth to the organization and how it could affect the company if the customer went somewhere else. That changes everything.
Happy Holidays to all of my readers! - Suzanne
