a new way for an old game

How to stop the Buddy’s, Chiefs, Champs and Mates (your clients) being asked if they’ve been fixed-up.

We all know that we never get a second chance to make a good first impression. As part of an assignment to increase sales and margins with an agribusiness, we conducted mystery shopping surveys and documented over 30 different client greetings!

Two of my favorites were: “G’day mate, have you been fixed-up yet? My sense of humour is not always funny so I refrained from replying, “No, but my wife’s been on my back about getting it done.” The other memorable greeting was, “Hey Chief, do you need a hand?” This may have been an appropriate greeting if I was wearing a head dress made of feathers.

The promotional (or communication) mix is one of the four P’s of marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion. When prompting and selling consumer or retail products, the order of importance is:

1. ​Advertising – this is a pull strategy (pull clients into our store). Sponsorship, web site, advertising, etc. It is the reason McDonalds, Woolworths and Bunnings do so much advertising.
2. Sales Promotion – Short term incentives e.g. buy one get one free, go into a draw to win, cash back, loyalty programs etc.
3. Personal Selling – This is a push strategy e.g. “Would you like fries with that?”
4. Publicity – Any media releases or unpaid for promotion.

However, when promoting and selling the majority of agricultural products, which is business-to-business selling, the order of importance is:

1. Personal Selling – establishing a personal relationship with our client is the most important component.
2. Sales Promotion
3. Advertising
4. Publicity

best practice: remember to use client’s names

The first step in establishing a relationship with another person is to remember and use their name or accepted nickname. If though, a client rides into your store on a horse, wearing a head dress made of feathers, then you could call him Chief.

the benefit of setting personal selling standards

Reason #1: Improve outputs by improving inputs.

As general rule, improving business outputs – gross profit, sales, client satisfaction, low levels of rework etc. – is dependent on improving business inputs in sales. We have helped clients improve sales and margins by agreeing on and implementing sales improvement and margin protection standards, policies and procedures (inputs).

Reason #2: Not everyone is the same and the majority of clients would rather we use their names and not call them mate!

When it comes to dealing with clients you should just treat them how you want to be treated. Right? No, wrong. Not everyone is like you. You wouldn’t develop a marking plan based on a random sample of one survey, would you?

We encountered a sales person in a rural supplies store who was discounting most of their sales. He explained that he was just treating clients how he wanted to be treated when he went shopping!

set personal selling standards

You could meet with your team to discuss and agree on standards for:

• Client greeting/first impressions – greet clients by name or nick name. Shake hands with and introduce ourselves to new clients.
• Establishing needs – ask questions. Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• Clarifying needs – repeat in our own words, their needs. (This is a rework reducer)
• Suggestions solutions – sell the features, advantages and benefit of products. Add-on-sales.
• Margin protection – what to say and do when clients’ ask for a discount.
• Closing the sale – ask for the order. When giving a price ask the clien, “Would like us to put that aside for you, or would they like us to deliver it?
• Last impressions – at the end of a sale ask the client, “[Client’s name], is there anything else we could help you with?”

​What you could do with the personal selling standards once staff have signed off on them:

• Managers should model the new standards and lead by example.
• Cascade the standards into staff position description and performance review templates. Performance measurement and feedback drives performance improvement.
• Catch staff applying their new standards and celebrate success.

So then Chief…all the best in setting personal selling standards for your team and stopping the ‘Buddy’, ‘Darls’, ‘Mates’ and your clients being asked if they’ve been fixed up!