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I believe that one of the keys to retaining customers is to build a long term relationship with them and to deliver outstanding service. Of course we all make mistakes and sometimes we don’t live up to our own or our customers high expectations.

The good news is that these opportunities, when we let a customer down, can become our best opportunities to strengthen the relationship.

Recently I hired a car from Alamo car rental to go from Glasgow to Edinburgh airports.
The lady processing our booking at Glasgow was a bit harassed but was polite and the customer service was acceptable if not outstanding, however our reception at Edinburgh was a different story.

When we returned the car, the returns desk was in chaos, everyone seemed to be returning vehicles at the same time and the staff were run ragged. Key’s were being misplaced and tempers were becoming frayed. Even the simple act of returning our vehicle was not as pleasant as it should have been.

To compound matters, when we got to the terminal. we discovered that we had left a small bag in the car. We returned to the desk int he terminal, waited our turn in the queue and listened to the stressed customer service people snap and snipe between themselves and their customers. Finally, when we got speak to someone, he told us that the check in office had closed and that he couldn’t get anyone to check the vehicle for our bag. “Leave your details and somebody will phone you!”

We left to board our flight with a heavy heart, not impressed with Alamo and fully expecting that we wouldn’t see our bag again.

Thankfully the Alamo staff came good. We got a phone call, our bag had been found and, if we gave them our address they would post it to us the next day!

And sure enough, the bag turned up yesterday, intact and undamaged. Well done Alamo.
My faith has been restored. I can empathise with the staff who were doing their best under difficult circumstances. Let’s face it we’ve all made mistakes.

What made this experience difference is the way the Alamo team recovered! As a result I feel positive about them and will certainly use them again.

Why do so many presenters forget about their audiences! Just because their subject matter is relevant to them, they automatically assume that their audience will automatically see the importance too…

Unfortunately the reality is usually the opposite. If your audience can’t see some benefit to themselves within the first couple of minutes of your presentation, chances are you’ve lost them.
I remember once sitting in on a presentation by someone who obviously knew his subject and indeed was fascinated by it. Unfortunately he failed to engage his audience. This lack of engagement was pointed out when one of my fellow audience members scribbled a note and showed it to me. It said “Why are we here? how is this relevant to me?”

Now contrast this disaster with the deputy headmaster of City of Portsmouth Boys School who was addressing the whole of year ten, setting the scene for a day long Enterprise activity I was involved with recently.

He started by picking up a chair and lifting it high above his head. “Imagine I decided to design and manufacture a new style of chair. What would I have to think about?”

Immediately hands went up throughout the group and bright eager faces started to fire off excellent and relevant suggestions. “Check if anyone wanted a new chair”, ” Draw up a design” “Choose the materials”, “Make a prototype”, “Work out how much it would cost to make” “Find a manufacturer” etc.

Immediately he had involved the boys and started to establish relevance. He then went on to explain how the project they were given today would give them a chance to explore those skills further and to work as a team to produce a product and market it to the “dragons den” judges.

He had the boys eating out of his hand. And that’ was impressive because 14 year old boys must be one of the toughest audiences on the planet given all the hormones flying round their rapidly changing systems - Remember Harry Enflield’s character Kevin?

So next time you make a presentation please remember your audience and make sure you establish the relevance of your subject to them quickly!

Dear Blog Reader
Sometimes writing a blog is like peeing yourself in a dark suit. You get a nice warm feeling but nobody else notices!

I really would like to know the answers to three simple questions and I’m prepared to give you something in return.

1. What do you think of this blog as it stands currently? What do you like? What don’t you like?
2. What sort of issues would you like to read a blog relating to presentation, public speaking or selling skills

You can let me know directly by email or just post a comment on the blog - it really is that simple.

In return I’ll send you a free copy of one of my e-booklets either The Reluctant Sales Person’s Manual or the Reluctant Presenter’s Manual.

Hows That for an offer?

Those of us who sell face to face and over the phone really can learn a thing or two from successful Internet marketers. If you want to know more then read on…

Last night I had the pleasure of listening to Internet psychologist and web marketer extraordinaire Graham Jones. Graham was talking about the fact that most websites are all about the company and not about the audience they are trying to reach. As a result most websites fail to hook our interest and build a relationship with us.

How often do face to face salespeople fall into exactly the same trap. They talk about their products and their services and what they do rather than spending most of their time uncovering what our problems are.

Graham shared the story of an Internet entrepreneur who spotted a gap in the market for books about Archery. Now everything this author knew about Archery could be written on the back of a postage stamp with some room left over but he didn’t let that stop him.

He created a website saying that he was writing an archery book and wanted to ensure that it answered all the questions people could possibly want answered. If people would let him know their questions, he would ensure that their questions were addressed.

With a little bit of help from Google Adwords he got almost 200 questions and 25o email addresses. His next step was to commission a freelance writer to write an ebook that answered all those questions. Once the book was ready he emailed all the people who has submitted a question, with details of where to buy the book, specifying on which page their specific question was addressed.

The result was almost 250 immediate sales and a product that consistently sold several copies a day for over six months, all of which earned him a tidy profit as well as a mailing list of satisfied customers.

So what can we learn from this?
Well it’s simple. Find out what problems your target market are looking for solutions for and then give them it. Great for an Internet marketer but also excellent advice for any budding salesperson.

Thanks Graham for another inspiring presentation.

The number one mistake of inexperienced or ineffective salespeople is the tendency to equate selling only with talking about their product or service.

No I haven’t lost my mind. But think about what I’m saying for a moment. If the salesperson doesn’t take time to find out what their clients really need and want and why you want it, their chances of providing you with the right solution to meet your needs are slim to none.

If you take the time to ask great questions and listen to the answers, the chances of you making a sale are much higher. When you do finally come to talk about your products features and benefits, you only need to talk about the things that are relevant to your client based on what they have already told you.

Another benefit of this approach is that you get far fewer objections because you really understand what client’s position and are recommending solutions that are appropriate.

If you find using traditional linear PowerPoint presentations restrictive and boring then you need to take a look at Robert A. Lane’s website on Relational Presenting.

Robert and his team have developed an inspirational way of harnessing the functionality already built in to PowerPoint to allow flexible presentations that can be customised on the fly. The Relational Presenting methodology may change forever the way you look at and utilise PowerPoint.

I love the approach because it fits with everything I have been striving to do with visual aids

• Increase the flexibility and relevance of your presentations
• Be able to choose the level of detail you go into and change it during the presentation without leaving your presentation
• Increase audience recall my reducing the amount of words on your slides and increasing the visual content of your presentation
• Follow the principle of one main idea or concept per slide.

I recently bought Robert’s book and have been working through the clear step by step tutorials provided. I can honestly say I have learnt more about PowerPoint in the last 5 days than I did in the previous ten years. He also offers an online workshop process which you can try out for free via the website.

If you want to get more out of PowerPoint you must take a look at this website.

In this post I’d like to share a simple and powerful model that the confident presenters I modelled use to “get in state” prior to their presentations.

As an NLP Master Practitioner, modelling excellence is a key tool for me. When I was training in the USA, we were given a project to model the most confident presenters in the class. We observed them, interviewed them and came up with the following model which we then tested out and it worked.

Personal Presence Strategy:
The following mental strategy was modelled from an excellent presenter. And is a representation of the process he went through automatically before presenting.

Step 1 – In your mind’s eye, access a space within which you feel completely comfortable and familiar e.g your office, garden, lounge etc.

Step 2 – In you imagination overlay this ‘comfort zone’ over the place you will be presenting and allow yourself to feel comfortable with the presentation space.

Step 3 – Recall a time when you knew you had all the knowledge you needed and were confident of that knowledge. Allow yourself to fully re-experience this state. Allow it to intensify and then expand it outwards until it surrounds you.

Step 4 – Take this state of knowledge and confidence and step into the presentation space where you have previously overlaid your ‘comfort zone’.

Step 5 – Make eye contact with your audience and allow this state of presence to expand and include the whole audience.

Step 6 – As you engage with your audience smile and imagine welcoming them into “your space” for the duration of the presentation.

Everyone knows that its easier to get business from existing customers than it is to find new ones yet many businesses seem to forget it. Today I’d like to give you an example of how one professional does it naturally.

This morning I had a phone call from a salesman for Kidsafe. They are a charity that manufactures and distributes a road safety board game to primary schools throughout the UK. I have supported this project for the last two years.

Mark, the salesman started well. He introduced himself and his company, checked if this was a good time to call and then made a little conversation by asking about how my business was going and what my holiday plans were.

He then went on to pass on the thanks for the schools in the region for supporting this worthwhile project (made me feel good!) He went on to tell me how the incidence of children involved in road accidents had decreased by 6% in the past year which equated to 64 fewer incidents. (This made me feel even better!)

Then he asked me if I would be willing to continue to support the project for another year and that if I did so, the cost would be frozen at last year’s levels. Given Mark’s professional and pleasant manner I agreed.

He then reminded me of the higher levels of sponsorship opportunity available and asked me if I’d be interested in upgrading my level of support. I declined on this occasion but he had got a definite commitment from me to renew by support.

As I put the phone down, I was smiling as I though of how well Mark had handled the call.

• I liked his pleasant, conversational manner which created a quick and easy rapport between us
• I liked the way he asked about me and my business first
• I liked the way he confirmed that I my previous support had been appreciated and worthwhile
• I liked the natural way he linked this to a simple direct request for me to renew

At no time did he pressurise me or try any hard sell tactics, it was a pleasant sales conversation and I’m delighted to be supporting Kidsafe for another year.

I bet that you, like me, can think of a number of sales people , who could do with a lesson from Mark.

The key to 99% of sales is the relationship between the salesperson and the client. It’s just a pity that more people don’t realise this. Before you can sell your product you need to sell yourself.

Now I know that there are many sales professionals out there who know the power of this truth and yet there are still millions who just don’t get it. I think part of the reason for this is their natural tendency to focus on the product or service rather than the people. They assume that if the product is right and the price is right then the customer will buy.

Have you ever been in a shop looking to buy something? You know what you want or at least you think you do, and the shop has that product in stock. The only problem is the salesperson.
For whatever reason, you walk out of the shop empty handed because you don’t like or trust the person on the other side of the counter. Doubt in the person becomes doubt in the product and the sale is off.

But conversely I’ll bet you have been into a shop to buy something and you have come out with either a more expensive model or some additional products or services that you never originally intended to buy. How come? Well I’ll bet that it most cases it came down to the attitude and the approach of the salesman or woman. What was it about them that was different?

Here are some of the things that usually cause these sort of results:

• They smile and look interested in you!
• They listen and ask questions before making a recommendation
• They make eye contact
• They make recommendations that relate to the information you have given them
• They talk about what the product or service will do for you and paint verbal pictures
• They empathise
• They aim to help you make good decisions
• They relate to you as a human being first and a customer second

None of these things are difficult yet so few people seem to remember them. As a professional salesperson and sales trainer it drives me nuts to see people make basic mistakes. Just imagine how many more sales and how much more job satisfaction the people who do these things, get!