Merry Christmas

It’s been a funny year with business confidence going up and down like a fiddler’s elbow finishing at all time low or with encouraging signs dependent on who you believe (Grant Thornton , BDO or Nottingham University ). It is at this time of the year that people reflect on the year gone and the year to come.

24th January 2011 is the date apparently when most New Year resolutions are broken or forgotten, so what’s the answer? Two obvious answers – employ a coach to help make them happen or set resolutions that you really want to achieve. No point saying you will give up smoking, if you’ve no intention of doing so; equally achieving goals is not cosmic ordering. (Of course I would like everyone to use a coach and preferably me.)

Nothing is ever achieved without input or action. Nothing worthwhile is ever achieved without hard work and lots of effort along with, most importantly to my mind, an idea of the purpose or vision. Sometimes in the heat of the action the vision is lost in the effort in getting to Friday, focus is always required and going back to goals.

Thanks for reading so far – of course if you want to know more phone me - 0787617344 or email me pc@bostonclarke.co.uk .

I hope you have a great Christmas and a very prosperous New Year.

Paul

Customer Service and Cold Calls

Cold Calls

Some days I get a lot of cold calls, most of which are badly done, which makes then more annoying than normal. The last one was from a SEO company I think. This is a service which I do not use for a variety of reasons which I carefully explained to the caller.
His objection handling technique was to quote, sarcastically, a variety of stats to prove I was wrong. I may have been wrong but as a prospect that is my choice and even my prerogative. The customer or prospect is always right until proved otherwise, a sure fire way to lose most customers is to insult them.
So I thought I would outline my thoughts on cold calling –

1 Don’t lie
2 Come to the point; introduce yourself and your company as soon as possible
3 Never deny that it is a sales call
4 Make sure you know why you are making the call – appointment, info gathering etc
5 Know what your first statement is going to be
6 Keep going, if all is not going well, may be review your content
7 If the call is successful, keep going
8 If the call is successful, confirm details and deliver
9 Be yourself

Customer Service
Talking to a trainer this week – she that customer service was all about attitude. Absolutely correct. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and look at how your service is?

Thanks for reading this

Have a good Christmas

Paul