I have had a lot of clients lately who have come to me looking for ways to increase the rates they are able to charge clients without losing them. So many are providing a Rolls Royce solution but only charging Lada prices. They realise that they are doing a lot of good work and yet not getting paid enough for it.

If you are in this situation then a good first step is to check the market to see what your competitors are offering. You may find that if your client could go someone else but they would be unlikely to get the same level of service. Alternatively, you may find that you are about the same but that does not mean that you cannot still increase rates provided you have something additional to offer. Ideally something that does not cost you a lot of money but is valuable to your client and worth paying extra for.

The technique I use with clients makes it much easier to negotiate changes is rates. I call the technique 'Terracing' and it involves creating multiple service levels.

For example, I was working with an adviser who was attracting lots of clients based on low rates but frustrated that he was not making enough money from it. His service level was much higher than it needed to be, yet he was uncomfortable with charging more or taking away some of the services.

One service that he was providing was traveling to see clients rather than them having to come to see him. During the traveling time he was stuck in the car and not earning. He did not charge for traveling time. We worked out some service packages and gave them each a name, list of contents and price. There was a service package that had the current pricing but excluded some things like traveling which went into a higher level package with a higher price.

The outcome is that most of the clients were quite happy to accept the lower service level which meant that although the sales income for those clients did not increase, the service became more profitable and freed up a lot of time. Some clients did decide that having the extra service saved them time and money and were happy to pay the extra. Giving them the choice made the negotiations so much easier.

If you are currently charging a reasonable rate for what you do then you could still look at the Terracing technique in order to create more revenue by upselling certain clients onto packages that provide extra value added services. Creating lower tiers can make lead generation easier by using price and then upselling to the high value added packages if required.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_J_White

The fact sales training doesn't work isn't exactly a news flash. Neil Rackham uncovered this fact years ago. Yet sales people and business owners continue to invest millions of dollars a year on sales training in the hopes they'll get some sort of a return from their investment.

Here are just 3 reasons sales "training" doesn't work:

1. Sales "training" is too generic
2. Sales "training" typically teaches you to do the very things that make your prospects defensive and resistant/li>
3. Sales "training" is too focused on techniques, tricks, and tactics/li>

In order for sales trainers to work with the most people they develop their training in a way that can fit the most people. That means they purposefully intend to use the exact same program with people selling products in a retail setting, people selling products in a manufacturing setting, people selling a service, people selling low cost products or services, and people selling high ticket products and services.

When Neil Rackham began his research he actually set out to prove the value of these sales programs. What he found instead was these sales courses only work for people selling low cost products. In other words, if you are selling a high ticket product or a service of any kind these types of sales programs will not produce the results you want. Sales "training" is not the right fit for you.

The reason sales "training" is a bad fit for people selling a service of any kind or a high ticket product is because that type of sale requires a high level of trust. When you use the techniques, tricks, and tactics you learn from sales "training" they immediately trigger your prospects defenses and increases their level of skepticism making your job all that much more difficult if not nearly impossible.

The techniques, tricks, and tactics you learn from sales "training" teach you to focus on:

* Your motivation
* What you want
* Asking for things you haven't earned the right to ask for

Unfortunately, no one told your prospects they should care about what motivates you. They really don't care what you want. Plus they really resent you for asking for things they don't want to give you.

There are 5 things you really should focus on when it comes to increasing sales. Unfortunately, you'll never hear about these five things in a sales "training" program of any kind. You won't hear about them because they all happen before you ever sit down for a sales conversation. You can read all about them in The Blueprint for Increased Sales.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cheryl_Clausen

That spark of interest in a potential consumer that ignites when they find a product interesting, is one that needs nurturing from spark to flame - to inferno. The inferno is of course the final sale, with money in the bank and no refunds asked for. What am I talking about? Lead management. This is the process of ensuring that any lead that should result in a sale, does result in a sale.

But naturally, it is not easy to keep tabs on what can sometimes be a huge number of leads. In a large organisation, with huge wage bills and overheads, it is crucial that all these leads are seen through to fruition. Lead management of the traditional kind involves various pieces of paper, usually, or systems that do not often keep full track of what is going on in the lead-to-sales process.

The original lead is usually generated by the marketing department, and getting this first sniff is crucial for any company. The first bite will come from an internet advert, or a TV advert, or a radio advert - or perhaps an advert printed in a publication of some sort. That lead might have been generated from cold calling sales calls, or street marketing; in fact, there are a huge range of ways that a lead can be generated - and then lead management comes into play.

But lead management can be a complex business, and many leads can get lost. This is a great shame as some companies spend a huge amount of money on marketing only to see a large swathe of it go to waste because the leads are not well-managed. Some firms turn to specialist software in order to organise their lead management, as this can take what is often an overwhelming amount of information and lead to a situation where staff members know where a lead is in its life cycle - these staff will ordinarily be sales people.

If a sales person, for example, does not follow up a lead within a certain amount of time, that lead can be passed to another sales person. This is where lead management software might help, so that all leads are followed up before they go cold. People who are considering buying something do so because they are in the mood and they have the money - by waiting too long, they go 'cold' and the sale 'dies'. There are various lead management packages available to companies in the UK and indeed around the world, and the internet offers a great way to investigate the right one for your enterprise.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gino_Hitshopi

CRM software solutions have progressed considerably in recent times. While the key ingredient in a successful system is always the design and planning, the software solution can also make or break your CRM. The first step is to plan your system based on your needs - and then match a best of breed solution that best fits those requirements.

Obtaining expert knowledge of the market leading CRM platforms is critical if you want a truly tailored CRM system - designed to improve your business from day one, and be robust enough to grow as your business grows.

What is CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. You can find a number of different definitions for CRM. CRM does not stand still; it evolves as "CRM solutions" and is used in a greater number of ways. This has now been termed xRM - Anything Relationship Management.

CRM is a process or methodology used to learn more about customers' needs and behaviours in order to develop stronger relationships with them. There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM in primarily technological terms is a mistake. Traditionally, the more useful way to think about CRM is as a process that will help bring together lots of pieces of information about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends.

CRM helps businesses use technology and human resources to gain insight into the behaviour of customers and the value of those customers.

Using CRM, a business can:

* Provide better customer service
* Increase customer revenues
* Discover new customers
* Cross sell/Up Sell products more effectively
* Help sales staff close deals faster
* Make call centres more efficient
* Simplify marketing and sales processes

CRM software traditionally has a number of 'out-of-the-box' modules that can be turned on and off. Each vendor application has different features.

Sales Force Automation
Most companies today look to achieving the highest levels of efficiency. With CRM, they are able to automate various tasks that can be made available to anyone involved in customer service. This includes direct sales staff, management, accounting, ordering and customer service. Automating your sales force means you can free up time spent on repetitive tasks, and use that time more effectively.

Considering sales force automation, you need to answer of a few basic questions:

* What tasks are my staff doing repeatedly
* How much time is spent on this task
* Can the "thinking" be easily defined?
* Does the human element make the task more correct or more likely to contain errors?

There are a number of primary benefits of sales force automation:

* Storing contacts allows you to track and manage your clients and prospects with an up to the minute view of where they are in the sales cycle.
* Managing sales leads is often difficult, but essential to the health of a company. Being able to forecast and track leads in your sales pipeline enables you to have a clear understanding of predicting your revenue and profit.
* Lead management can assist you to manage specific campaigns, improve conversion rates and measure ROI on that campaign.
* Sales force and sales management productivity will increase with a more simplified and easier access to greater information on each client/prospect to give a view of the end to end sales process.
* Customer information is shared and easily used across your sales, marketing and customer-service divisions.

HostedCRM or SaaS (Software as a Service)

* Web based CRM is a simple customer relationship management solution for growing businesses.
* In a hosted environment, all the software, hardware, and technical support and administration are made available by the CRM hosting provider via the internet. Some of the advantages of hostedCRM include:
* You gain all the benefits of a more traditional CRM solution, but the maintenance and support of the infrastructure is managed by your web based CRM provider.
* A distributed workforce is able to work more effectively satisfying customers with the most up to date client information. This works particularly well for a mobile sales team needed to keep track of orders.
* HostedCRM solution is a cost effective solution as you pay a monthly subscription.

Customer Service

* Call Centre Software allows you to manage a large number of calls. By queuing calls and processing them as quickly as possible you can maintain high levels of service.
* Help Desk Software helps you manage problems and enables a quick response to your customers or employees. By having a repository of problems and resolutions, you create a knowledgebase for faster issue resolution. Additionally, you can create problem escalation processes and service level agreements (SLA) and report on them.
* Service Desk Software is the evolution of Help Desk Software. By incorporating ITIL best practices with management best practice, Service Desk Software now does more than resolve a 'Case' or 'Incident'.

Partner Relationship Management

Contract management software automates the contracting process from contract creation, through tracking, managing, compliance and renewal.

Distribution Management Software enables you to work more effectively with your partners by creating, tracking and managing your distributorships and partnerships.

xRM

xRM (Anything Relationship Management) has evolved from CRM. Today, companies require a more integrated approach to managing their business and a key component of this is the access to mission-critical applications and information. As such they are managing anything (X) in their organisation going beyond just the customer relationships.

Essentially xRM does not distinguish between the traditional customer view and your "internal" customers. Having uniformity in the entire process, regarding all those in your company involved in satisfying your clients requirements requires uniformity of data, applications and processes accessible at all times from a single place.

xRM is a strategic approach to systemizing how your business runs in the most cost-effective and customer oriented manner.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Antony_Dutton

Many sales managers tell me that their salespeople don't meet their expectations. The sales manager pleads, begs and even threatens, but the salesperson just goes through the motions of selling and following through on proposals and sales calls. He or she never really engages in their jobs or careers. The sales manager simply doesn't inspire confidence, credibility or have a firm grip on the performance of their sales team.

I could give you a long list of reasons why sales managers lack respect from their sales team and why their credibility is shot. However, I want to focus on the one problem that I see quite often. The quickest way for a sales manager to lose credibility with their sales team members is their lack of taking decisive action when dealing with poor sales performers.

Too many sales managers, for myriad reasons, fail to address the issues associated with a poor sales performer. They talk about them with other people or managers. They listen to excuses month after month. The sales manager may think changing the salesperson's compensation plan might help or even providing a new territory or product will fix the problem.

Instead, what really happens is the salesperson in questions monopolizes the sales manager's time and energy while the other salespeople shake their heads and shrug their shoulders each night as they go home and download to their spouse. They can't figure out why their co-worker isn't pulling his or her own weight and why the sales manager isn't doing anything about it.

Allowing poor performers to hang out too long simply reinforces poor performance. If no accountability is in place, then why should the poor sales performer step up and make an effort? Empty promises and hollow threats from the sales manager don't mean a thing. The salesperson still collects a paycheck and the rest of the team gets more and more frustrated with the lack of decisive action.

If you have a salesperson that isn't performing, it's your responsibility to take action to find out why and work to resolve it.

Here are just a few reasons why your salesperson is not performing:

* Insufficient product training
* Lack of effective sales training
* Micromanaging sales manager
* Lack of leadership in the company
* Poor sales hire - they're not "wired" for the job
* You inherited a poor sales performer when you started as sales manager
* And many, many more...

I'm an advocate for always attempting to first find the source of the lackluster performance and fixing it, if possible. However, if you haven't discovered it through diligent analysis, then your options are reduced to either moving the salesperson to another position in the company or removing them completely.

In either case, your attention to this serious problem is desperately needed on the part of the sales team. It cannot function as a sales team unless you build the confidence of the members that you're right for the job. You must prove that you will make decisions that are in the best interest of the team and have a strong desire to create an environment of success for everyone.

Remember, the viability of your sales team rests on your shoulders. Don't let them down.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barrett_Riddleberger

Have you read all the articles predicting the end of the recession? The front cover of Newsweek announced the recession is over - but the recovery will be tough? Economist do believe the fundamentals of a deep recession are behind us. So what's next?

Everyone is anticipating the winners and losers just like the handicappers at the horse racing track. Which industries will rebound first, which ones are on the verge of failing forever? You could take the crystal ball approach and wish for things to turn for you or you could take steps to get out of the tunnel and back into the light. It is all about the perspective you have - half-full, or half-empty.

Right now your competitors and most businesses are tunnel visioned on today. Cut expenses further, hold off on hiring, perhaps still considering cutting staff to get through the storm with a skeleton crew. Making today's numbers is vital to your survival as a business but if you put all your eggs in "today's" basket, you'll lose tomorrow. Here are some simple reminders to make sure your fourth quarter and 2010 are brighter than they may appear today.

1. Dig Deeper - Review your active customer list from first quarter. What is your action plan to renew, up sell or get referrals from these clients? Have you done a gut check with them to see what's changed since they did business with you in the winter months? Given the current business climate I'll bet a lot has changed...don't wait for another vendor to get in there with fresh ideas.

2. Have a plan - have a plan for all - Develop a written sales plan for your team. Go off site or lock the door and have a meeting (make it interactive and fun not a lecture) and set goals, timelines and an achievable action plan to make your numbers through 2010 with input from your team. Include milestones you can check in on your progress and incentives to reward your team for their efforts. It is most critical to get their buy-in and participation in this process.

3. Tune It Up - Freshen up your sales materials and presentations. If you are using the same template and ideas from three years ago...guess what...you WILL be outsold in this "new economy". Adapt, consolidate. Find out what works for retaining and up selling your best customers and use these best practices to win over new customers or those you haven't engaged in awhile.

4. Get Visable - be known - Get out in the field. Set aggressive benchmarks for your sellers and management to see your top customers and your active target accounts. Nothing beats a face to face meeting with a client to uncover objections, finding out what your competitors, are doing identify new opportunities , and how to complete the sale that may be "stuck". Things are changing too fast for a quick e-mail or phone call "to touch base" to count as a true customer interaction.

5. Go Richer - Go deeper - set a goal to improve the number and level of contacts in your customer's organization. This is preventative insurance against an aggressive competitor, pricing wars and sales turnover. If three or more individuals in your organization are actively engaged with three or more at your customer's you have a much greater chance or retaining and growing that client.

6. Be Ahead of the Game -Budget season - everyone is gulping and getting ready to fire up Excel and engage their advisors on planning for 2010. Get in front of your customers and ask for feedback on what they are expecting and how it will impact your working relationship. Don't wait some companies are already well underway in their planning for next year.

7. Be In Touch - Non-"ask for the sale" contacts. Time and time again companies may do business with a seller but not have "a connection". The theme I hear over and over is "they only call to ask for business or when they have a special offer to sell me". Businesses want value...they want a relationship...they want a partner to help them through what is likely the toughest selling environment they have EVER seen. Birthdays, anniversaries, thank you cards, holiday gifts count. These little touch points let your customer know you care about them not just the order.

8. Be Focused on your "hedgehog" - Cut your losses....too many businesses in an effort to make up sales are expanding their offerings, bundles in a "paintball approach" to winning over clients. If something is unprofitable and not a core business for you - get out. Focus your precious time and resources where you can be #1 or #2 and make every waking moment count towards that. Focus wins every time and the good news is it might be easier than you think as your competition is reeling and distracted trying to make "today". Doing what you are best at doing - and doing it over and over again - is mining your hedgehog.

So if you feel like the darkness is closing in and the light is slipping further away...step away from the daily billing goals, this week's leads, the % you are behind last year and focus on these steps to not only impact today's business by tomorrow's , next month and next year.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Austin

I received a call from a Sales Director recently who told me that his Sales Managers fail to hold their salespeople accountable. He said: "My Sales Managers are too soft on their salespeople 95% of the time and too hard on them 5% of the time." He went on to explain that when attempting to hold their salespeople accountable, the Sales Managers "soft sell" the conversation.

They don't firmly communicate the facts about the salespersons actions or the reality of the pending consequences. On the other hand, when the Sales Manager lets the poor performance go on too long, they allow their emotions to build up, eventually exploding and then losing control in front of the salesperson. Neither scenario is effective.

Fear has a nasty way of controlling even the most well intentioned Sales Managers. Although many may not want to admit it, fear of not being liked, rejection, or being talked about behind their backs by their sales team is a fate worth avoiding at all costs.

How does a Sales Manager effectively hold salespeople accountable? Here are five things you can do to aid you in having difficult conversations focused on accountability.

Clearly Define Expectations - You cannot hold someone accountable unless they know and understand the expectations by which they will be measured. Defining expectations means the salesperson knows what it means to be successful or not. When they know what's expected of them, then you simply point to the expectations as the standard when they fail. This way, you remove the emotion from the situation and can stick to the facts. This removes the fear of "attacking" someone. Instead, it measures their performance against a pre-set standard.

Focus on the Issue - You may be fearful of coming across as too harsh or overbearing. Here's an easy tips: Be easy on the person but firm on the issue. Don't allow yourself to get caught up in an emotionally charged situation or feel you must defend your position. Just stick to the issue - failure to meet quota, lack of prospecting effort, poorly qualified pipeline, insufficient follow-up, etc. Don't be afraid of what they might say - just focus on their activities and how you can help them redirect their actions toward more productive means.

Connect Behaviors with Outcomes - Sometimes, the salesperson may not know that they are engaged in unproductive activities. Help the salesperson see the "effect" of their actions. Good behaviors drive positive results, and bad behaviors drive negative results. Your salespeople need their sales coach to open their perceptions to the impact their actions make on their performance as well as the teams. For example, If they continually fail to qualify buyers, then help them connect that to why they have low closing ratios and unproductive sales calls.

Control Personal Neediness - As a Sales Manager, you must control your impulse to be liked. Stay conscious and "mentally present". You must have that conversation with yourself that keeps you focused on speaking truth, staying in control and managing your emotions. Don't let negative thoughts permeate your mind and erode your responsibility to maintain performance within your sales team. Remember, you control your mind - not the other way around.

Do Your Job - In the end, it's your job responsibility to meet a sales quota. If your salespeople are not meeting their individual quotas, it's ultimately your fault - whether it was a bad hire, ineffective training, or poor management. The buck stops with you. If you inherited a poor performer, then you have to exercise your authority to either attempt to fix the situation through development or terminate them. Again, either way, it's your job.

Salespeople must be held accountable for their results. This is a fact of Sales Management. Ideally, you'd like for them to do it themselves... absolving you of that unenviable responsibility. In a perfect world, that would be an option. However, that's not reality. What helps is hiring good salespeople with good products and services to sell. Also, managing and leading them well is an asset. In the end, how you handle that difficult conversation is entirely up to you. Hopefully, you'll see that you can do it and can garner even more respect when you do it well.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barrett_Riddleberger