- Do you need more business?
- Do prospects seem to just get away?
- Do you understand the best prospects for your business?
- Do you seem to loose as many customers as you get?
These, and many other questions are answered in the 105 readings in Business Proverbs for Getting Customers. Each reading utilizes Scripture to directly impact your efforts in landing customers.
Samples below:
When asked pointed questions about your service or product, do you give direct answers, or talk in circles?
Shall a multitude of words go unanswered? And a talkative man be acquitted?
Job 11:2, nasb
The Thought: Prospects and customers will ask pointed, direct questions. Consumers expect, and deserve, honest answers to their questions. Develop the habit of being precise, direct, and complete with each answer.
Most people have a limited ability to listen effectively. When you keep your responses short and to the point, you increase the chance that your customers will remember what you’ve said. If you talk too much, your best points will likely get lost in the clutter.
Effective answers begin with careful listening. If you are not certain you’ve understood your customer’s question, solicit clarification so you can get to the point. Salespeople too often try to cover a lack of knowledge with a lot of words. In high school, I had a teacher who deducted points on essay exams for irrelevant material. In today’s marketplace, customers will deduct sales if you beat around the bush. Be direct and close more sales.
All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing crooked or perverted in them. Proverbs 8:8, nasb
Do you understand how your product stacks up against the competition?
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6, nasb
The Thought: Customers have a choice of where and when to spend their money. Our job as salespeople is to convince them to become our customers. When we advertise and communicate with prospects, we need to understand how our offerings stack up against others, and this requires a clear knowledge of our competitors’ offerings.
A furniture store may offer the best selection of leather furnishings, but the salespeople still need to know what other stores are selling, in terms of quality, selection, and price. If the store offers the high-end quality, and thus has higher prices than its competitors, the sales staff must emphasize quality—because, if price becomes the issue, the store will lose that sale. If the store instead has lower prices, that’s the competitive advantage that should be emphasized.
We don’t need to fear our competitors, but it’s important that we understand them. A Web-page designer knew that many other designers charged upwards of $3,000 for a basic site. In response, he developed a range of basic packages priced from $300 to $800 and used his price advantage to attract new customers.
Sam opened a sandwich shop near a downtown shopping district. He reasoned that foot traffic in the area would be brisk during lunch hours. Unfortunately, he failed to account for the fact that the area already had an ample supply of lunch-type places and the market was already fragmented. He was entering in a market where his competitors had already carved out their niches, several were already struggling, and a newcomer was in trouble before even opening the doors. The result for Sam was a quick business failure, primarily because he had failed to understand the competition in advance.
Understanding the competition, and then differentiating ourselves from them, is one key to success. We must be prepared, because only rarely will we have no competition.
Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding. Proverbs 4:1, nasb
Do you ensure that your customers are served promptly?
Why are you standing around looking at one another? Genesis 42:1, nlt
The Thought: Customers deserve to be greeted and served as promptly as possible. Have you ever entered a store or restaurant and waited for assistance while the employees chatted with each other? It makes you feel unwanted as a customer, doesn’t it?
Train and manage your wait staff to greet all customers promptly and courteously. Teach your employees that if they are serving another customer or completing a task related to the business, they should still greet new customers and explain that they will be available to help them shortly. I have encountered salespeople who were so engaged in a personal discussion that they failed to even notice customers who were waiting at a checkout counter.
Some jobs can be boring if you have to stand and wait with little action. Train your salespeople to redeem the slow times with useful activities. Car salespeople can call back customers who have taken test drives; retail employees can straighten up the merchandise. Give some direction as to which tasks can and should be done while waiting, and teach your employees to respond quickly to customers who enter the store.
Likewise, if you bring members of your staff to meetings with customers, ask them to spread out to different tables rather than banding together. This allows your staff to connect with as many customers as possible; and it keeps them focused on business, rather than using the time to socialize.
As you reduce the time your staff stands around and chats, and instead use that time productively, sales will grow.
Come up to us quickly . . . and help us. Joshua 10:6
|
