WEEK 20

FOCUS ON YOUR CLIENTS’ SUCCESS

You strive to be successful. This is certainly understandable and admirable, but it can bog you down. You can become so focused on the bottom line that you forget about your top line—your clients—and then both your bottom line and top line and everything in-between come crashing down.

I often see the negative effects of bottom-line thinking in sales departments. A manager sets a sales quota, and the sales staff becomes so focused on meeting the quota that they stop serving the clients. Even worse is when the client becomes aware that the salesperson needs to meet a quota by a certain date—this gives the client the upper hand at the negotiating table, forcing the salesperson to cave in to unrealistic demands just to make a quota.

You can use sales quotas as a way to measure your progress and inspire you to work more diligently to serve your clients, but they should never take your focus off of what is most important—your clients’ success. In this chapter, I shift the focus from your success to the success of your clients.

YOUR SUCCESS IS MY SUCCESS

I write books. I mentor. I coach. I have earned a reputation as someone who makes other people more successful. Nothing is more rewarding to me than to hear that a strategy or technique I passed along to someone improved his or her business.

I always introduce myself to everyone I meet for the first time, especially when I travel. I tell them my name, what I do, and what I sell, and then I ask about them. On one trip, I flew into Los Angeles and had booked a room at the Ritz Carlton, Laguna, Niguel, about an hour and fifteen minutes from the airport. On my way to the hotel, I struck up a conversation with the taxi driver. As usual, the driver asked me what I did for a living, and I explained that I sold real estate.

When he heard I was in sales, he wanted to know what he could do to increase sales. He wanted to sell more rides to the airport. I asked if I could see his business card. He replied that he didn’t have one, so I said, “The first thing you need to do is have business cards printed up with your cell phone number on them, so people could call you directly instead of having to go through the dispatcher.” I wrote down his cell phone number, so I could call him whenever I needed a ride during my eight-day stay.

The next day, I called the driver directly. When he arrived to pick me up, he handed me his new business card. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had put my first suggestion into practice so quickly. He asked me if I had any other suggestions to boost his business.

I noticed that he had bucket seats in the front of his cab, so I said, “If I were you, I’d put a TV/DVD player between the seats and play movies. Your passengers could watch a movie on the drive from the airport to the hotel.”

He wasn’t too impressed with this suggestion. He replied, “But the ride is only an hour and fifteen minutes. They’d only be able to watch half the movie.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Then they’ll have to call you for the ride back to the airport if they want to see the second half of the movie!”

Months later, I called the taxi driver to see how everything was working out for him. He was now running his own limousine service in Laguna.

SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS

The more people I help, the more people seek my help. If this book makes you more successful, you are likely to recommend it to other people you know who could benefit from it. When you want to learn even more about sales success, you will be more likely to order other books and training materials I have developed or hire me to coach you. The more successful I make you, the more successful I become.

This is true in any profession, but it is particularly relevant in sales. The more successful you can make your clients, the more they will rely on you to provide them with products and services and the more likely they are to refer you to others.

YOUR MISSION STATEMENT

As a salesperson, part of your mission statement should be, “Your success is my success.” If you can help make your clients more successful, you benefit in at least three ways:

• Your clients will be more willing to purchase from you again.

• Your clients will have more money to purchase more products or services from you in the future.

• Your clients will send more referral business your way.

When you are on a mission to build your clients’ success, this may mean that you don’t make a particular sale. You may even send the client to one of your competitors, if your competitor is better equipped to meet the client’s needs. Remember, you are building a reputation and relationships that will draw business to you throughout your career. Losing one sale is a small price to pay for establishing a positive relationship that will pay dividends for many years to come.

 

Ralph’s Rule: As you discovered in Week 5, goal setting is an excellent motivational tool, but never let your goals take your focus off what is most important—your clients. Serve your clients well, and your goals will take care of themselves.