Customer Servces
Customer Impact: The Winner's Edgeby Kare Anderson
Many years ago, a racehorse named Achmed became one of the first horses in history to win more than $1 million in a single season. During that same season, there was another horse that came in second in almost every race that Achmed won.
Interestingly, Achmed won 15 times as much money as the horse that consistently came in second. Later, the champion was sold for ten times more money than the second runner. A big difference, huh?
Does that mean that Achmed was 15 times faster than his nearest competitor? That question intrigued a sportswriter, so he made a study of the times logged by the two horses. Achmed's finishing times averaged only 3 percent faster than the slower horse.
Simply stated, the champion that year had a winner's edge of only 3 percent over his nearest competitor, but it was enough to bring his owner 15 times more prize money and give him ten times as much value!
When it comes to making a sale, there are only winners and losers - no one comes in second. You either make the sale or you don't, and the winner gets 100 percent of the money.
For most salespeople, income is directly proportional to the number of sales made. Although you may be able to change jobs often enough to remain ahead of a draw, or you may jump from one salaried selling job to another and keep some income coming in, sooner or later, it will catch up with you. If you don't close sales, you won't make a living as a salesperson.
Don't Just Show Up For The Game; Play To Win
Life clearly not about "just making a living" - that's the loser's mentality. Losers feel privileged merely to be in a big game, but winners always play to win it.
As a college football coach for 14 years, I learned that you can almost always predict the outcome of a championship game by listening to what the coaches and players of the two teams say before the starting whistle sounds.
It's now ancient history, but the 1986 Super Bowl offers a great example of how it works. The Chicago Bears won it decisively.
Make no mistake about it: the New England Patriots brought a great team to the championship game that year. They had many talented players and excellent coaching, and they had overcome great adversity and defeated some strong teams on their road to the biggest game of the year in the National Football League.
But the difference in the two teams showed clearly throughout the tail end of the season. The Patriots seemed surprised that they had made the playoffs, shocked that they'd won their conference championship, and amazed that they'd earned a right to play in the Super Bowl.
"We're just glad to be here and have an opportunity to play in this game," several of their players told the press in the week before the big game.
However, the Bears had decided before the season started that it was to be their year to win it all. They were convinced they could win every game they played that year, and they did win all but one. "No team in football can beat us!" boasted their cocky quarterback Jim McMahon before the big game.
Then he and the Bears confidently went onto the field and backed up their claim with a dazzling performance. When it was all over, they were clearly the champs.
Customer Impact: How To Get More Of It
I suspect that you want to become a winner at the selling game. The truth is, you probably are already a winner. Losers seldom read articles like this, but winners read anything and everything that can help them keep their winner's edge honed to razor sharpness.
It's clear that the ability to gain and hold the attention of enough of the right people is what gives the top 5 percent of salespeople their winning edge.
If you have a champion's heart, your next question is likely to be, "How can I get more customer impact?"
In a way, that's what sales is about. Every sales idea is designed to do one thing: to enable you to connect with and influence enough of the right people to do the right things to get what they want out of life. Let's take a brief look now at how to boost your customer impact.
I've been around selling all my life. My father sold for 43 years, and I've been selling all my adult life. Even when I was coaching, most of what I was doing was selling. What's more, I've had some excellent teachers and mentors in the selling profession. More recently, I've spent many years training salespeople for some of the world's leading organizations.
During all that time, I've noticed that the salespeople who have high customer impact reflect three basic qualities:
1. Strong personal attributes and attitudes
2. Specialized knowledge and skills
3. A propensity for doing the right things at the right times
What we are talking about is people with positive attitudes, in real situations, dealing with real motivational forces, and taking real-world, tangible actions to produce desired results.
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Kare Anderson. All right reserved. For information contact Frog Pond at 800.704.FROG(3764) or email susie@frogpond.com.
