Warren Speaks About Leadership

Warren Speaks About Leadership

Warren Greshes On The Tod Novak Show

Last Friday, I was a guest on Tod Novak’s Club Novak radio show. We talked Sales, and during the show Tod asked me to give him my 3 top keys to sales success.

Feel free to leave feedback by posting a comment below!

Customer Service: You Either Want to Do It or You Don’t

I just had an absolutely amazing customer service experience. It was so unique I had to write about it.

For almost 24 years, or since I started my business, we have been buying our office supplies from a company in the Chicago area named Reliable (www.Reliable.com). I don’t think you could find a more appropriate name for a company. They have always been reliable, responsive, available and accommodating. No problem too big, no task too small.

Today I opened an envelope from them that had been sitting on my desk for a week. I thought it was a bill but it turned out to be a statement saying my last invoice was past due. This was strange since I always pay their bills on time.

I pay all my bills online so I looked it up and found the payment was sent on January 29th but as yet, had not cleared, which was strange, so I called Reliable. Here’s where it gets good.

I dialed the phone and a real, live person picked up before the phone even rang on the other end. How they did that I have no idea. Better yet, why can’t more companies do that?

While I was impressed, I figured now I’m going to have to tell my problem to this woman who will only switch me over to someone else: WRONG! She not only was the right person to speak to but she knew exactly what the problem was (they had closed their Chicago box where payments used to go and now had a PO Box in Atlanta for payments. My payment obviously went to Chicago and would be coming back.), explained it to me in words I could understand and gave me 3 choices.

Pay the bill now and wait for the first payment to come back. Wait for the first payment to come back and then pay the bill. Or, put a stop on the first payment and then pay the bill. In all 3 scenarios the late charges would be wiped out.

Since I trust them implicitly (their return policy is so hassle-free it’s almost fun to return stuff. Almost.), I paid by credit card right then and there and was off the phone within 5 minutes: A truly unique experience.

Why are experiences like these the exception and not the rule? What that woman at Reliable did was nothing anyone else or any other company couldn’t do. It was only what most people and companies have no desire to do; that’s the big difference: Culture.

- Warren?

I can’t wait to hear from you!

Here’s a quick reminder that tomorrow at 6pm I will be simulcasting my effective prospecting seminar live! This is a great opportunity for you to get on track with your sales prospecting for 2010. We will have a Q & A period where you can ask me anything at all about your prospecting efforts.

You can attend this simulcast via phone or your web browser from wherever you are. All attendees will receive a digital recording after the event.

Sign up now by clicking this link and have your questions ready for me tomorrow at 6pm EDT! I can’t wait to hear from you!

Prospecting: The Warm-up Letter

A while back I received a call from Pierre, a financial advisor who works for a major bank in Canada. Pierre called to tell me he had just listened to my online audio program on prospecting, Don’t Count the Yes’s: Count the No’s; really enjoyed it and had a question.

He wanted to know if when preparing to make your calls, after identifying who you will be calling, would it be helpful to send an introductory letter to each person telling them you will be following up with a phone call. The answer to this is not as cut and dried as you might think.

First off, for those of you who think sending the letter makes the call “warmer,” it only makes the call “warmer” for the caller. The people receiving the letters either don’t read them or forgot what they read soon after. On the other hand, and this is what I told Pierre, if sending a letter will make it easier for you to overcome the fear of calling, then, by all means, send the letter. Since call reluctance is the biggest problem salespeople face, anything you can do to motivate yourself to generate more activity, to me, is a good thing.

If you are going to send out a letter before the call make sure, at the end of the letter, you write, “I will be calling you on (and plug in a specific day and time) to set up an appointment so we can discuss this further.”

By doing this you are making sure you keep the focus on what you want to achieve (getting the appointment) and you just might find there will a small number of people who will actually be expecting your call. One word of caution: if you tell people you’ll be calling them on a specific day and time, make sure you follow-up and do it.

If you found this idea useful and want to learn more about how to sell more appointments, get in front of more hot prospects and increase your business, make sure to click here and sign up for my next Prospecting Simulcast (Jan. 20th at 6pm EDT) to get your sales effort on track for 2010! You can attend by listening via webcast or by calling in from wherever you are. Additionally, you will receive a recorded version of the event.