Nike. Kleenex. QTips. While these are all household names, we first recognize the Brands because we know the quality behind them. When we shop for these products, we already know that by purchasing them, we will be getting a top quality product, that will last a long time. In most cases, these name brands are actually more expensive than their store labeled counterparts. Most people won’t care about paying a little more. They know that the quality is worth it.
Now…think for a moment about what “brand” your Customers think of when they think of doing business with you and your company. Do you make it easy and comfortable to do business? Do you throw obstacle after obstacle up in front of your customer so that he has to jump through hoops to get his work done? Do you add stress to your customer’s day and fill his email inbox with unnecessary clutter? Or….do you make it easy, simple, safe and comfortable to work with your company? Through every step of the sales process, we never want our customer stepping back and questioning their buying decision. We want them thinking ahead, to future business, because we made it so easy to work us on their last [...]
Losing a job involuntarily at any time isn’t fun. Been there, done that and have the emotional scars to prove it. Losing a job due to company cut backs during a tough economy is even worse. And if you’re a sales person there might not be a silver lining, but there is good reason to have a lot more hope for your short and long term future prospects than the average worker.
After all, you see it on the news quite often. Job cuts, unemployment rising, and right now the economy is, despite what a lot of us would like to believe, still consuming jobs at an alarming rate. It’s arguable whether we are pulling out of the recession or not. To some economists it’s arguable as to whether or not we ever pulled out of the down turn created by the Dot Com bubble nearly a decade ago. Still, the headlines on TV and in the paper tend to focus on the labor force and the manufacturing jobs at the hardworking all American companies who produce the goods and services our economy consumes. Yes, I know those are the larger numbers and it makes for better headlines and helps to sell papers and advertising. In most cases though, the news of the day never mentions and systematically seems to forget guys and girls who make the cash register ring and the shipping departments bustle. No matter how you explain this oversight, perhaps the truth of the matter is that people in the sales force are in a better position than the average non-sales person who loses their [...]
One of my favorite places in the world is the barber shop. While that wasn’t always the case during my long haired mid teen years, as a little kid I loved my barber. Bill was a great guy. He had enough sense around the time I turned 10 to listen to what I asked for in the way of a haircut, and what my mother told him to do. And for the most part both of us were happy with the results, although my mother had some abnormal obsession in me not having any bangs, but that is beside the point. It also didn’t hurt that he had one of those old fashioned coke machines and I got a dime to get a bottle of soda after my hair cut was done. Of course this was in the days when the family-run gas station still ruled the countryside. And quickie marts and corporate monolith gas and grocery marts hadn’t moved too far from the cities.
Over time, my childhood barber [...]
