Business growth and development is a major factor determining the sustainability factors of a business. Sadly, most businesses in Ghana survive for few years and go out of market. It is undebatable the the economic factors such as the exchange rate, interest rate and inflation rate play a major factor in affecting business development, however one major factor which has not been given the needed and necessary attention is regular training and workshops for business executives.
It’s sad to note that businesses invest so much in infrastructure, branding, research and development amongst other factors but little or no investment is set for the training of business executives who represent the business in all areas and literally influence the sale and level of loyalty of the clients.
In this article, I will address 3 reasons why businesses is not growing in respect to poor sales and client relationship management.
- Assumptions that your sales executives are skilled enough – One of the major reasons why most businesses deliver low productivity is because CEO’s, MD’s and Human Resource Managers assume their sales and customer service executives are trained enough and they must deliver perfectly. In as much as this has a level of veracity and the onus lies of employees to be the best at their job, not training sales executives is like shooting yourself in the leg; they may be good but won’t be at their best without regular training on the new and pragmatic methods to make them better in their role.
The fact that sales executives are working hard and doing well with targets does not mean that’s their optimum and capacity. Your sales executives can double their output in months if only you will start investing in them the same way you invest in your Research & Development, Infrastructure, Products and all those investments that make you competitive.
Quality products do no sell themselves so tell me, what is the use of a good and quality products if there aren’t equipped and skilled people to sell them?
2. Not keeping in touch with your clients – This is prevalent especially for companies that provide services. Some people do not keep in touch with clients after a sale (once they have their money, then business is done!).
It is expedient to note that every client has an immediate value and a lifetime value. Immediate value is what you gain from a client per a one-time purchase and a lifetime value is what you gain from a client over a long period of time. If a client purchased a service worth GHS 100 in a month, that is his immediate value; however, if you had nurtured the relationship and the client stayed loyal to your brand for the rest of the months in the year, you would gain GHS 1,200 in a year, GHS 2,400 in two (2) years etc. Lifetime value also includes all the friends and family they would refer to you. So now tell me, won’t you want to learn the new and modern techniques and skills to make and keep clients?
3. Ignoring your clients because they were unhappy with your service:
One of the things you may experience especially when you haven’t yet understood the The Art of Managing and Satisfying Client Expectations (to be treated at the Masterclass) is that you may have a lot of people who aren’t happy with your product or service and because of this situation, you may stop picking their calls whiles they are waiting for you to deliver a service or you may totally ignore them after delivering the service. You may think you are trying to keep your peace of mind by avoiding a disappointed client but what you do not know is you are killing your brand; this effect is usually seen in the long term and it’s called the DISSATISFACTION RIPPLE EFFECT.
Every client has a family and friends and no matter how quality and amazing your product/service is, their family and friends will trust them more than you. Once you avoid picking calls of a client because you haven’t been able to deliver the service yet per agreement, or you once ignore a dissatisfied client after a dissatisfied service, you are not only losing the lifetime value of a client but you are downgrading your brand to that person’s network. That person will tell most of the people in his network about how ‘crappy’ your customer service is; without confrontation, all the people in that client’s network will believe this and they will also tell their network.
Imagine the number of people who have heard about your ‘crappy service’ over these years and imagine the revenue opportunities you have lost over these years. Imagine if you understood and knew the techniques to ‘Manage and Satisfy Client Expectation In All Situations’ and the benefit it would have delivered to your business today.
In conclusion, business growth and competitive strategies aren’t only limited to quality products and perfect infrastructures’ and technology but most importantly the
how equipped the front-line executives who interact with your customers are.
This kind of investment carries more weight in determining the perception about your brand than any other factor. Invest in training these executives at least quarterly to sharpen and equip them to deliver even better results.
Written by
Daniel Sarpong Jnr, MBA
AFRICA’S GREATEST SALES COACH