What should you do if your Industry is getting too Crowded?

A little incident 2 weeks ago ...

As part of good customer service (well, I teach that in class and of course I practice that too!), I visit all my major clients regularly to gather feedback about my sales training. During one recent visit, I asked them if they need help in any other areas of their business or if they need recommendations of trainers in other fields. Their answer surprised me!

Basically, the message was right now they have a list of trainers that have written to them, offering them training, consultancy and coaching. They really do not need any "extra" help at this moment, but they will always keep me in mind as the "guru" who can connect them to other areas.

It appears that the training industry is getting really crowded. This will be a real concern to many trainers who can't market or sell themselves well.

Unfortunately, with globalization, increase competition is something we cannot avoid in almost every sector of the economy.

What are my suggestions whenever my students share that they are feeling the heat of competition in their business?

I have got 3 ideas ...

1) Differentiate
2) Differentiate
3) Differentiate!

Differentiation does not necessary comes from the uniqueness of your product, although having a unique product will definitely make you stand out from your competition. Differentiation also does not mean you must have the best quality, although that helps too. It can be from a softer aspect of business ... and not in anyway related to the product, such as....

1) Customer service.
There is no such thing as a perfect product. Most products are stronger in one way, but weaker in another. Thus, many a time, there is no perfect fit. However, good service can make up for what is short - especially after sale service.

2) Follow-up.
Increase competition brings about increased marketing effort (and budget too). Consumers are continuously bombarded with more advertisement and sales pitch, thus becoming skeptical. This may also lengthen the selling cycle. Good follow-up means calling your prospect to not only ask for a buying decision, but also feedback when they don't buy. It also means keeping in touch with your prospect even if they do not buy anything from you at all. Remember, like what my great mentor told me: things change every 100 days. If they don't buy now, one day they will.

3) Personal care - love your client.
Feel privilege that they have given you the opportunity to serve them. Take care of them, not because of what their organization bought from you, but because you treat them as friends. You want the best for them. They will remember you since most people cannot remember when was the last time someone really cares about them.

4) Other personality traits and values of the sales profession serving the client.
If you are sincere, hardworking, and happy, your client will remember you. This is due to the simple fact that most people are not. Hence, all these traditional values still matter after all!

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

Is Price an issue with your Prospect?

Had an interesting sales training a few hours ago.

A participant in my class insisted that price is the main issue in his industry and country (in this case, Singapore). In other word, he believes that everyone is competing on price and consumer is mainly looking at price.

He is entitled to his opinion, of course.

I always advise my students that price is never an issue in the selling process, unless you are selling a product or service that is not differentiable. It is the sales people that make an issue out of price.

2 challenges will arise if you think and believe that price is the main concern when you are selling.

1) You will not look for ways to differentiate yourself, since price is already the main subject.
2) You will not ask for more compensation if you are running your own business. You are afraid that you will lose on price.

I believe that it possible to differentiate ourselves, at least in most cases.

Some of you may remember in the 1970s in Singapore, bread were generally bread. Everyone seems to be eating the same kind of bread. While some bakery attempt to put their brand name on the packaging, non were able to stand out from the crowd.

Then, in the late 70s, a company called Gardenia was started. The rest was history.

While I do not know the founders of this great company, I believe they never tell themselves that consumers were buying based on price and the only way to get them to buy (or buy more) is to reduce price.


A friend of mine owns a car rental company. Her cars are mostly quite unique and her target customers are wedding couples.

Recently she approached some bridal shops to explore possible collaboration. In one shop, the owner told her that her cars were great! Many of his customers will love to rent them. Ironically in another shop within the same street, the owner told her that no one would like such cars.

She asked me why 2 companies in the same industry in the same location could have a totally different view on the business. My answer was simple: It all boils down to belief system.


Whether you believe that price is or is not an issue in your industry, you are right.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

What do you do when someone say you never reply a message?

Selling today is very different from 20 years ago.

An elderly participant in my sales training class once told me this: when he got his 1st job in 1981, after graduating from university, he had no email, no mobile phone, no voice mail, no fax machine on his working table. Now that he looked back, he wondered what he had been whole daylong!

Nowadays is different. I got friends who accused me of “typing” too slowly on my mobile. So they called me before I finish replying their sms.

Sign ...

Technology has truly changed the world and our way of life.

The typical sales professional today can be reached anywhere, anytime.

The typical sales professional today receive no less than 100 emails and sms every 24 hours.

So it is not uncommon for sales professionals to “lose” a couple of messages from time to time.

Question is what do you do when this happen to you?

My recommendations:

1)Do not argue with the sender about whether the message has been sent.
2)Apologise immediately
3)Retrieve the message if you can find it. If not request for a resend immediately.
4)ACT on in now! You are already late.

Last but not least, to get the best out of time, all messages should be replied, deleted or filed (saved) immediately.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com