Make sales, hit targets, grow relationships, grow the business, grow your pipeline, network, the list goes on as to the expectations of a sales person and on top of this you need to know a few important rules as well

Acknowledge

Over the years I have seen a number of people I work with fail to do this simple thing, acknowledge. Acknowledge a customer email, a colleagues email, customer requests and questions. As soon as you see something like this from a customer or colleague, the first thing you should do is reply and tell them you have seen their note and will reply asap or by a time/date you can comfortably and reliably respond. If you don’t do this you are likely to forget, it could make you look unreliable and the customer will think twice about coming back to you in the future. Acknowledge.

Update

Update your customer with every step of a project, query or escalation. Don’t ever leave them waiting even if there is no update, send a note or have a quick call to explain anything that’s been actioned or you are waiting to action. This will make your customer a happy person knowing they can trust you to come to them before they ask for updates. Your customer like you, reports to someone who also wants answers, and when you are providing timely updates you make them look good. Be sure to update frequently.

Do exactly as you say you will

Customers will come at you with all sorts of requests and if it’s something that will take some time, or may be difficult to achieve, explain you need to investigate, but if you answer your customer with a yes? Make sure that you do exactly as you say and within the timescales you have stated. If you find you can’t, you need to update the customer immediately to explain your reasons and what you can achieve for them, but what ever occurs make sure you complete the task as described as it’s a great relationship builder.

Be proactive

When you are running a project for a customer, whatever the scope maybe, make sure that you are proactive on that project. Don’t let the customer contact you for updates, be proactive and keep them informed of what is happening. Keeping proactive builds trust and ensures your customer that you are there to help, know what you are doing and care about the results of the project.

Be transparent

You have made a sale, the contract is signed and the project starts. You may have a kick off meeting and then follow up calls and meetings to update the customer and the delivery team on any actions. Everything that you have described to the customer is correct and progressing well… but, things can go wrong! We have all been there, let down by a supplier, timescales drift, a member of the team is on leave etc etc. The very first thing you should do is be proactive (as above) set up a call or meeting and explain the issue, any possible outcome and what you are going to do about it. What ever happens you have to be open and honest straight away and do your best to resolve the delays with newly agreed timescales to assure your customer of your intentions to help them.

These few rules will make you stand out from your competitors and help you build great relationships, meaning you will get more enquiries and more sales, so please give them a try, internalise them and learn them until they are natural to you. You will see the difference in your performance.

Thank you for reading

Andrew