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Who doesn’t love a loyal customer? But do we fully understand and appreciate the benefits of customer loyalty? In a recent article for customerthink.com, Turning Client Defection into Client Perfection, author Tom Cates quantifies the value of loyal customers, stating that compared to transactional customers, loyal customers… Produce 3X the amount of business Require 41% less work Stay engaged in the relationship 4X longer Cates asserts, “Each of these benefits is directly correlated to increased profit and a strengthened bottom line. The longer the relationship, the higher the retention rate and the more opportunities there are to up-sell, cross-sell and obtain referrals.” In Carew’s Dimensions of Professional Selling® sales training, we use the Position Progression Model to assess our position with each customer or client organization. Customer loyalty is the single most powerful driver of Position Progression, and only sales professionals who possess the skills to build trusting and productive customer relationships will have the opportunity to function in the role of trusted advisor and ultimately attain Preferred Position. How, then, can we cultivate the customer loyalty that drives Position Progression? Cates identifies six dimensions of a loyal, trusted advisor relationship: Integrity – Are you reliable and trustworthy? Competency – Do you have the skills and capabilities to deliver on your promise? Recognition – Do I feel valued, or am I just another relationship? Proactivity – Do you look out for me and protect me from surprises? Savvy – Do you understand my world and help me to be successful? Chemistry – Do I like working with you? To the degree that the Position Progression Model helps us assess our status with any given customer, assessing our function in each of these six dimensions may help us identify specific opportunities to strengthen the relationship, improve customer loyalty, and ultimately attain Preferred Position.

Who doesn’t feel a little surge of joy when we hear a customer complaining about a competitor, or encounter any negative intel regarding our competition? But we should pause before jumping in to participate in badmouthing the competition. We need look no further than the current political stage to recognize the ugliness of negative campaigning. Likewise, sales professionals don’t do themselves any favors by criticizing competitors; in fact, doing so will likely do more harm to our own interests than to our competitors’. Here are 4 reasons to resist trash talking the competition: 1. Negative, petty or angry energy simply isn’t attractive; it alienates, and casts you in a bad light. Think about the impression one makes on a first date when he/she spends the evening trashing former boyfriends or girlfriends. It doesn’t matter whether the complaints are justified, the behavior isn’t very likable. And in order to build lasting customer relationships, we need customers to like us. 2. It reflects a lack of integrity. To build productive customer relationships, we also need customers to trust us. Talking badly behind someone’s (or some organization’s) back isn’t a trait of high character. Social media has greatly expanded the opportunity and temptation for bashing competitors, but be warned: no platform is truly anonymous, and the risks far outweigh the benefits. 3. Pointing out the flaws of your competitors can inadvertently cast a negative light on your entire industry, so everyone loses. 4. Time with customers is precious! Every minute you spend badmouthing a competitor is a minute you didn’t spend communicating your own solutions and value to the customer. Sales professionals are better served building their own brands and giving customers a reason to buy from them versus sharing reasons to avoid the competition. A strong competitive spirit is a hallmark of any great sales professional. We just need to be sure we are competing on our own merits versus the weakness of others. At the end of the day, what customers want most from their sales professional is good, accurate information and insight, and a robust return on their investment. Let’s impress them with exceptional value and professionalism and leave the muckraking to those with nothing more important to talk about.

Our success as sales professionals is dependent upon our interpersonal skills, which, in turn, are dependent upon many variables – including body language. In his recent blog forLinkedIn Pulse, best-selling author Dr. Travis Bradberry (Emotional Intelligence 2.0), shares the 15 most common body language blunders that we should all avoid. Here’s his list: Slouching Exaggerated gestures Watching the clock Turning away Crossed arms Inconsistency (between words and facial expressions) Exaggerated nodding Fidgeting Avoiding eye contact Eye contact that’s too intense Rolling your eyes Scowling Weak handshake/Too strong handshake Clenched fists Getting too close What caught your eye when you read the list? Most of these habits probably don’t apply to you. It is just as likely that there is one (or a few) that made you pause because you recognize it as part of your own persona. This is good news, since awareness of any problem is the first step toward its solution. In the coming days, monitor your body language for habits that could be undermining your customer interactions and your overall sales effectiveness. For more detailed information on each item in the above list, read Bradberry’s entire article, 15 Body Language Secrets of Successful People

Few things are more frightening for a sales professional than an angry customer! But like all scary things, fuming customers are less intimidating if you have an effective, proven process to address and defuse their anger. Here are six tips to deal effectively with angry customers: 1. Start with the right frame of mind. Don’t take their anger personally, and understand they just want to be heard and helped. 2. Use LAER to understand the issue and defuse their anger. Carew sales training graduates will recall that LAER (Listen ▪ Acknowledge ▪ Explore ▪ Respond) is a key strategy for overcoming customer objections. It is equally effective for understanding and defusing customer anger. The mere act of venting and airing concerns will go a long way in defusing the customer’s pent up frustration. 3. Take notes. During the Acknowledge step of LAER, you will use verbal and non-verbal forms of acknowledgement (nods, “yes,” “I understand”). Taking notes is a terrific demonstration of acknowledgement and will help you accurately recall important details later. 4. Take a moment to apologize to your customer. It’s surprising how often this simple, but crucial, step is forgotten. It is also a natural transition from your Acknowledge step to the Solution step, and it shows that you are taking responsibility for the issue/problem. 5. Follow up. Circle back around with your customer a day or two after the problem is resolved to assess your customer’s satisfaction with the solution, as well as his or her overall frame of mind. At this point, you can assess whether additional action or management involvement is needed to fully restore the customer’s satisfaction. 6. Analyze and correct. What is viewed as a problem for one customer will likely be problematic for all customers. Take time to trace the problem to its origin, understand how it occurred and fix the root cause to prevent a recurrence, or worse, a proliferation of the issue. Angry customers concern us because we fear the relationship, or the business, could be at risk. However, if we address a customer’s anger in the appropriate manner (demonstrating our concern, dedication and effectiveness), the process can actually improve the long-term customer relationship!

Ten years ago, Danish toymaker LEGO was experiencing double digit losses annually, and was at risk of debt default. A decade later, in 2015, the company reported a 25% increase in revenues and a 31% jump in profits. How’d that happen? That’s the question answered by branding expert and best-selling author Martin Lindstrom in his recent article for LinkedIn Pulse. Lindstrom was retained by LEGO in 2004 to understand and reverse the company’s downward spiral. At the time, LEGO had reams of “big data” that concluded that LEGO had no future, due to the exploding popularity of video games and millennials’ desire for instant gratification and more excitement than building blocks could provide. That dismal outlook changed dramatically the day LEGO marketers talked to an eleven-year-old boy in Germany. What they thought they knew, based on interpretations of “big data,” was completely wrong. Only by exploring with their young customer to understand his passions, needs and motivations were LEGO leaders able to develop a vision, and map a path to success. Considered one of the world’s foremost branding gurus, Lindstrom is known for recognizing big implications and opportunities in the smallest of details. Often, those “details” come from exploratory conversations or observation to uncover consumers’ true purchase motivations. And while LEGO’s story is remarkable, it will not be surprising to those who have experienced the power of the Exploratory Process and effective listening practices as a means of driving successful sales outcomes. Read Lindstrom’s complete article here: LEGO engineered a remarkable turnaround of its business. How’d that happen?

Every day, we utilize the communication and relationship-building skills we learned in Dimensions of Professional Selling (DPS) sales training to drive our sales effectiveness with customers and prospects. But if we limit application of these skills only to our professional lives, we may be missing out! Here are just a few examples of how your DPS skills will enhance your personal life: Odds Are – When you return home at the end of your day, who gets to go first talking about their day? Do you show the appropriate amount of interest in hearing details from others, or do you just wait for your turn to talk about your day? LAER – Spouse mad at you? Use LAER to defuse his/her anger and gain a complete understanding of the issue and his/her needs and motivations. Practicing LAER at home can get you out of the dog house today and prevent future occurrences down the road. It’s also not a bad way to model the behavior you’d like in return. GAP Analyses – This is a terrific tool for teens, or anyone who has a tendency to think in terms of immediate need, versus broader, strategic goals. For example, say your daughter wants to go hang out at her boyfriend’s house where you’re not sure if any adults will be home. After exploring to confirm her desired outcome of spending time with him AND staying in your good graces, see if other alternatives would satisfy all her goals: coming to your house, going to the mall, or hanging out at Starbucks. Diamond Presentation Process – Its simplicity makes it a terrific tool for teens to use in their class presentations. Teaching them to end their key statements with a Benefit statement that connects to their audience’s “desired outcome” will help make that high-impact connection they’re looking for and possibly ace the assignment. For once, you may lend advice that your teenager actually uses! JADIK Matrix – This is such a powerful tool for improving the quality of challenging relationships, whether it’s your imposing mother-in-law or a “difficult” peer at work. Working on expanding the Common Ground will improve the relationship, reduce conflict, and facilitate cohesion. DPS participants often share how the tools and practices they learn in DPS sales training also improve their personal relationships. Leveraging these practices in your personal life will also sharpen your skills for better application on the job.

Trust. It\’s a powerful word. Sales professionals know that in order to build and maintain the kind of interdependent customer relationships that drive success, they must first earn their customers\’ trust. In his article, \”How to Build Customer Trust: 9 Rules,\” author Geoffrey James, offers tips to help build client relationships that are based on a foundation of trust. Below is a summary: Be yourself. Don\’t go into a sales meeting acting/sounding like a sales person. Be conversational, and treat the meeting as if you are talking with a client. Value the relationship. Truly believe in the fact that the client relationship is important and that you have something of value to offer your client. Be curious about people. Customers are drawn to sales professionals who show interest in them. Curiosity also provides you with the opportunity to learn new things about your client and make new connections. Be consistent. Do what you say you will do, and be persistent with it. Giving your client the chance to be able to predict your behavior will make him or her more likely to trust you. Seek the truth. Your sales strategy should be based on your genuine interest in finding the right solution for your client\’s needs (GAP). Working on discovering the solution together can result in the emergence of trust. Keep an open mind. Show your client that you\’ve got his or her best interest at heart by being open to other solutions. Have a real dialog. Keep the meeting conversational in nature, and most importantly,listen to your customer. Don\’t just present a sales pitch or chit-chat with him or her. Focus on discussing real business issues. Be a professional. Show that you are serious about what you do, and take the time to learn everything you can about your client and his or her industry. Show real integrity. Never promise what you can\’t deliver, and be willing to show decisiveness and take a stand on what you believe is the right solution. Following these 9 tips can help sales professionals experience the full power of trust in their customer relationships, which is the foundation of long-term sales success.

Reviewed by: Ed Albertson, Partner, Carew International At first glance, it might seem like a stretch to recommend to a business audience this book by a liberal social scientist and psychology professor. But author Johnathan Haidt is not a partisan with an agenda, and his book, The Righteous Mind, simply uses American politics to illustrate much broader insights about the nature of morality and its profound impact on our motivations and behaviors. The parallels between political processes and the business of sales, marketing, branding and buying are all too striking (and fascinating) to ignore. On the surface, The Righteous Mind appears to explain how and why people can possess such divided views on politics and religion despite their shared cultural foundations. However, upon exploring the chapters and sections of the book, business readers will recognize illuminating research and unexpected findings that help explain 1) basic human behavior and decision-making, including how much we all rely on self-deceiving intuition over rational strategies, 2) diverse perspectives and the barriers that can subvert understanding and hinder cooperation, and 3) how we can transcend self-interest and achieve cooperation through awareness of our differences and a search for our common ground. An example of Haidt\’s contribution to business practitioners: \”Intuitions come first: strategic reasoning second.\” Understanding the dynamic tension between our conscious reasoning and our gut reactions provides us with new and valuable insight on how we can better persuade others who seem unresponsive to facts and logic. Imagine what a productive talent this is for sales professionals, negotiators and business leaders! There is great potential to readers to improve communication skills, increase negotiating effectiveness, and enhance leadership strategies through Haidt’s informative and entertaining road-map of moral psychology. The Righteous Mind is a righteous read!

Thousands of hours spent with sales professionals and sales leaders reveals a central challenge to sales effectiveness: our failure to distinguish between “urgent” and “important”. This relates to customer issues, as well as our own internal organization issues, with the inclination to devote too much time and energy to urgent. We all agree that urgent matters are unavoidable; as we know “stuff” happens. These problems are usually tactical, logistical or some prisoner-of-the-moment issue. Important issues are strategic in nature. For example, extinguishing a fire is urgent; preventing fires is important. One can also see that time spent on the important issues will prevent urgent issues down the road. And so it goes in the sales profession. A personnel change at your client can create a crisis. Networking within the client organization to create broader, deeper and more engaged relationships with decision makers and influencers is important, and may prevent vulnerability when your contact leaves the client organization. What keeps us mired down in urgent matters? We often lack, or don’t use, strategic sales practices that can prevent many emergencies. Secondly, we lack confidence (driven by a lack of selling skills), that enables sales professionals to function in a more strategic capacity. Third may be pure habit or the adrenaline rush provided by urgent problem solving. While putting out fires can be very stressful, success in doing so provides instant gratification. This feeling of accomplishment comforts the sales professional whose skills to function as a strategic partner are not well developed. Urgent issues are often easy – addressed immediately, in a single day, with a phone call, and they have the sales professional saving the day both internally and externally. Important solutions require extensive thought, energy, networking, research and insight. Important endeavors require precise communication and interpersonal skills, as well as stellar diagnostic and exploratory skills, and the ability to make effective presentations. Having a significant network with trusting relationships is not only necessary, it’s essential. If we don’t fully understand the operational dynamics of our client’s organization, we won’t be able to proactively identify potential problems within that organization. If we don’t understand our client’s industry and competition, we can’t offer solutions that create competitive advantage. Ask yourself this simple question: Am I a strategic resource to my customers and my company because I put out big fires? Or do I deliver value to my customers by creating competitive advantage for them and never viewing my product/service or theirs as a commodity? Take off your fire helmet and start understanding what’s IMPORTANT TO YOUR CLIENTS.

There is no challenge in the professional world more prolific than that of our overstuffed work days. In his recent article  for Forbes, Peter Bregman, author of the bestselling time management book, 18 Minutes, points out that \”we start every day knowing we are not going to get it all done. So how we spend our time is a key strategic decision.\” Here are 5 time management tips for improved productivity and sales effectiveness: 1. Start with a Daily Plan. Take a few minutes at the start of every day (even before you dive into email) to consider what will make this day productive and successful. Bregman writes, \”By taking a strategic step back, you can set priorities for your day and determine what will make your precious time most rewarding.\” 2. Put it on the Calendar. Take those most important things you just identified, write them down, and then schedule them into time slots. \”There\’s a tremendous amount of evidence that…if you really want to do something, you have to decide when and where you will do it,\” writes Bregman, asserting that making a list or having a vague sense of intent is not deliberate enough. 3. Tackle Hardest, Disliked Items First. Procrastination is among the most detrimental time management flaws and is often prompted by tasks we dislike. Make it a rule that you cannot dive into other tasks until you have finished the dreaded task (like when your mom made you eat your vegetables before you could have dessert). Tackle them early in the day when you are fresh and have more energy. 4. Learn to Say \”No.\” The work may be infinite, but our time is not. Learn to distinguish between urgent and important tasks, and then give important tasks the priority (see Start with a Daily Plan). Use this insight to guide which requests you will accommodate (and in what time frame) and which you will decline. 5. Review and Refocus. Every hour or two, stop for a moment to assess whether you spent your last hour (or two) productively. Identify where you made the most progress and where you wasted time, and utilize that insight moving forward. If you have drifted off task, these mental check-ins will prompt you to refocus on your strategic goals of the day. There are many different ways to address time management, but if you don\’t really understand why time management is important, even the best tips and tools won\’t help. Time management isn\’t just about time; its true objective is to focus your time on the most important, high impact activities as a means of maximizing your effectiveness and overall success.