Not too long ago I had a young lady come in for an interview for an Account Coordinator position. Our office is in a loft format like many ad agencies today, so it’s an open floor design without individual offices. I heard the young lady arrive and speak with someone as she entered the office. I didn’t even have to look at her to know that she was not the right person for the job. Why? Unfortunately it wasn’t her skill level or education, it was her voice.

As an Account Coordinator working with an agency that does national business a lot of your time is spent on the phone. Professionalism, friendliness and confidence has to be vocalized using the instrument of your voice.

I realize that we are all born with our voices, but they can in fact be trained. If you spend a lot of time on the phone conducting business perhaps it’s time to assess your own voice skills. Your voice is in fact a tool. It’s a tool that can gain you business or lose you that next business deal.

Five key factors when it comes to having a voice of success include:

• Your Tone
  What does the tone of your voice sound like? Does it reflect confidence? Strength? Assurance? Perhaps your tone reflects fear? Boredom? Immaturity?Be honest with yourself, do you need to work on your tone? Grab a close friend or co-worker – ask their honest opinion. It’s important to find someone who will give you just that. Listen to what they have to say and take their criticism as constructive to help you develop a voice that will get you where you want to be in life.
• Voice Inflection
  When speaking and thinking about the key points you want to emphasis, make sure the inflections of your voice does just that. Inflection alone can change the meaning of a sentence.
• Delivery
  Practice, practice, practice. The delivery of your message when training your voice is key. Don’t be afraid to rehearse a pitch a proposal or even just a phone call. You won’t always have to do this, just long enough to where a good delivery is natural and you can do it with confidence.
• Sound
  What do you sound like? Have you ever really just listened to your own voice? For example, when you record your outgoing voicemail message what do others hear? A smile? Joy? Authority? Don’t be afraid to use a tape record as you train your voice. A tape recorder will allow you to hear exactly what others hear.
• Energy
  Similar to tone, but different. The energy in your voice allows people to feel like they are in the room with you. Does your energy make them want to be in a room with you? Put it in check. One thing that I have to watch is the speed at which I speak. I can rattle things off faster than most people can keep. I always know when I’m doing this because I often get asked to repeat myself. Breathe, think about what you are going to say and fill it with the right energy for the moment.

Most the time voice can be trained by just becoming aware, sometimes it may take a voice coach or someone to help you with the things you struggle the most with. It’s not uncommon for people to seek out the help of a voice trainer or coach. If you assess that your voice may be hindering your success, it may just be time for you to take that next step.

By Laura Lake
http://marketing.about.com/

To talk less means you have to ask questions that truly engage the customer. However, this doesn’t mean you need to develop complex questions. Instead, the best tactic is to ask shorter ones. Long questions tend to result in short answers, while short questions will generally result in long answers. An example of a great short question is, “Why?” In my opinion, there isn’t a better follow-up question you can ask after the customer has shared with you some information. Consider how your customers would respond to other short examples like, “Can you elaborate on that?” and “Could you explain more?” These shorter questions elicit detailed responses and that’s just what you want. On the other hand, asking complex questions often tends to perplex customers. Because they are not sure what you are looking for, they respond with the universal answer representing total confusion, “What did you say?” Questions should not be your means of showing your customers that you are an expert. Save that for your statements.

When preparing your sales presentation, a guideline I subscribe to is to limit yourself from talking for more than 20 seconds at a time without asking a question. The question you ask should be one directed at the comments you just made. By doing so, you’re checking with the customer to see if they understood what you just shared with them. Again, this is something many salespeople overlook. They get caught up in sharing with the customer their expertise and the features of their product or service and forget all about what the customer is thinking. Even if your product or service requires a complex presentation, you should still follow this rule. Whether you’re selling software, high value medical equipment, or technical tools, it’s essential to check your clients understanding by asking a question every 20 seconds. Your goal on any sales call is to talk only 20% of the time. To help ensure that this takes place, you have to plan ahead. Before you start developing your sales presentation, create your list of questions. This is contrary to the pattern of most salespeople who often spend a substantial portion of their time developing their presentation and, at the last minute, develop their list of questions.

Consider that if you’re expecting to have a 20 minute presentation, you should have 40 questions (2 questions per minute). Even though you may not use all 40, you’ll definitely be more prepared. In addition, you’ll be able to pick and choose which ones you want to ask. If you’re following the rule of asking short questions, you’ll ensure that the customer is doing most of the talking. You’ll learn valuable information that will help you better understand the customer’s needs. If you want to move your questioning process to the next level, make half of the questions you ask be ones that help the customer see and feel the pain they have. By doing so, they will be much more open to receiving your solution. For example, if you’re selling computer back-up systems, you might ask, “Can you explain to me what happens when data is lost?” This short, concise question is designed to get the customer thinking about the risks they face. Furthermore, the beauty of this type of question is that no matter what the customer’s response is, some good follow-up questions will naturally arise. By adhering to these guidelines, you will be able to see dramatic results in the number of sales you are able to close. As simple as it sounds, the more you shut up, the more you’ll sell. And, the easiest way to achieve this goal is by asking more, short questions. So, shut up and sell!

By Mark Hunter
http://marketing.about.com/

• Repeat your phone number twice. If the person can’t quickly write your number down, you’ve given them a perfect reason to not call back.

• Avoid asking ask the person to call you back at a certain time. This provides them with an excuse not to call you.

• Never state in the message that you will plan to call them back. Again, this only gives the person an excuse to ignore your message.

• Messages left on a Friday afternoon are the least likely to be returned. For most people, Monday mornings are very busy and, as a result, only high–priority activities will get their immediate attention.

• Do not leave voicemail messages at odd hours of the night. Most voicemail systems offer a time stamp and the person hearing the message will immediately suspect you really did not want to talk to them.

• The best hours to leave voicemail messages are from 6:45 AM to 8:00 AM and from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM. Aggressive people are usually working during these time periods, and the person receiving your message could potentially view you as one.

• Wisely use time zone changes to make as many calls as possible during the optimal voicemail periods listed in the previous tip.

• Voicemail messages are an excellent way to introduce yourself to a person. Be personable, yet professional, and link your message to something of interest to the person you are calling (such as another person or event). The recipient may view your message as a waste of time if you have no purpose other than getting your name in front of them.

• When leaving a message with multiple points, be sure to immediately disclose how many you will be making. This will prevent the recipient from accidentally fast-forwarding or deleting it before it is completely heard.

• If you can’t say it briefly, don’t say it at all. Voicemail is not “story time”. Leaving a long message is an invitation to have the entire message skipped. The optimal voicemail message is between 8 and 14 seconds.

• When leaving your phone number, do not leave your website address as well. This will give the person an opportunity to make a decision about you without calling you back.

• Leave a “PS” at the end of your message. A “PS” is a very quick, additional piece of information that will connect with the person.

• Mention the person’s first name at least twice in the message, but don’t use their last name. Doing so comes across as very impersonal.

• Refer to a mutual acquaintance in your message as a way of connecting with the recipient. (Caution: Make sure they think positively of that person!).

By Mark Hunter
http://marketing.about.com/

Everyone has dissatisfied or disgruntled and complaining customers and clients. Businesses have them, organizations have them, government certainly has them, and, unfortunately both employees and employers have them.

Anyone offering ideas, information, skills, services or products has obligations:

1. The first obligation is to what is being offered – to make sure that what is being offered is presented in the best possible manner, given the limitations of time, space, effort, and/or money. These limitations should not be used as excuses for a poor presentation.
2. The second obligation is to give customers enough choices (more than one of two or yes or no but not so many as to confuse customers) so they believe that in making their decision to buy or not they have made the best decision. If customers sense they are not being given enough options, they will delay their decision until they find the right options to satisfy their needs.This is called giving customers a “marketplace,” a place where they see what their options are. A marketplace can be in time, location, space, size, color, material, effort, services, or money. There are almost 100 ways to make a marketplace.
3. The third obligation is to make sure one’s customers are never embarrassed for accepting or, even, contemplating accepting what is offered. If a customer thinks they will be embarrassed for buying or even contemplating buying or accepting what is offered that they will not bring it before their family, friends, associates, acquaintances, customers/clients. Often this is because the business did not give the customer the information necessary to use in their presentation when relating their experience. The result may be that the customer will bad-mouth the business, the business’s presentation and the products much to the detriment of the business and the business’s products.Conversely, customers have three obligations,
   • To pay for what was received as agreed in time, space, effort, and/or money.
   • To expect, and possibly demand, that everything be presented in its best possible manner.
   • To complain if they don’t like the way they were treated or the way something was presented.

   When a Customer comes in to complain, they are exercising their obligation to whomever is offering the idea, information, skill, service or product. When an employee receives a complaint from their supervisor, the supervisor is exercising their obligation to the employee. When management receives a complaint from their employee, the employee is exercising their obligation to their management.

   No one likes complaints. If a business doesn’t have complaints, it’s not doing anything . . . and that will bring on the complaint from someone that the business isn’t doing anything.

   An adage is, every business deserves the customers they have. By this, it is meant that when one has a demanding customer one has to understand why that person is so demanding. There could be many reasons:

   • The customer does not believe they are getting “added-value” — they want to get more than they are paying for or, as with a complainer, they want to pay less, i.e., complaining with the idea that they will get their money back.
   • They have a problem, they are being challenged by someone else and in order to come up with an answer to alleviate the problem they will be take that problem back to the seller. This is known as the-squeaky-wheel-that-gets-the-grease syndrome.{/li]
   • They have been sent on a mission to come back with the “right” (in someone else’ mind) and they believe something or someone is getting in the way. Hence, they will be “punished” i.e. embarrassed for not having the information wanted.
   • It could be that they had “buyer’s remorse” in that they could not justify their purchase without getting something additional from the seller that would give them the “power” to justify the purchase.

When people find that their or others’ complaints are not met, they will get even in any way they can. This could be to come in and yell where others can hear them, delay paying or not paying, telling others their side but not the seller’s side, of the problem, story, etc.

There are many ways to handle complaints. The first thing is to let them know that not only are you listening to them, you are writing down what they are saying as they are saying it because they see you do it, and that you want them to repeat the complaint several times so you know you have it right.

If a customer keeps calling about trivial things it may be due to any of the above or it may be that doing so makes them feel that, by doing so, they are letting you know that they have confidence that you will not steer them wrong. It may be that calling you makes them feel that they are an important customer even if you don’t think so.

While disgruntled customers may not fit this term, certainly complainers are often called “customers from hell.” Customers from hell are those that do not come in but tell hundreds of others that you are a vendor from hell. When that happens you may both meet in the same place.

Handling complaints can be outline in four steps:

1. Make sure the complainer is sitting down. If left standing when the recipient of the complaint in interrupted or goes to look up some records the complainer will become impatient or just leave the situation. Sitting in a chair can be tantamount to having the Customer glued to the chair.

2. If possible, do not put a table, counter, or desk between the complainer and the person receiving the complaint. Doing so makes it adversarial. Selling is a partnership – and the listener before, during and after the hearing the problem is the complainer’s liaison to the organization or business. Of the customer senses that their time, effort, space or effort is being wasted, it can acerbate the problem. When one’s Customer/partner has a problem, guess who has the problem?

3. Get out a pad and pencil, ask the complainer to state the problem. Write down what they are saying as they are saying it. This has two different effects on the situation. First, the Customer’s complaint is intangible until it is put down in tangible form. By writing down all the particulars of the complaint it becomes tangible. Secondly, since the listener cannot write as fast as the complainer talks, the complainer while waiting for the writer to catch up will be slowing down their presentation, hence causing a calming effect.

Get the Customer to repeat the story as many times as possible and note each change in the story. Each time, more pertinent information will come out.

Very often, the complainer has been told what to say by someone else. It is their sales presentation. The person receiving the complaint is the buyer and will not buy the validity of the complaint unless they can sell the validity to someone else.

Many complaints stem from the fact that the customer was not given, in tangible form, the answers to questions they needed to answer the questions before the question(s) were asked.

4. Process the complaint as soon as possible. Let the customer know when they will be getting a reply . . . and get back to them before that time. If the service or Products is defective, do not argue! Make it right, right away. Do not hesitate to replace it, do it over, or give a refund.

If the reply is negative to what the complainer wants, the negative reply has to be sold to whomever the dissatisfied or disgruntled or complaining customer will be talking to.

Lastly, it is everyone’s obligation within their working or familiar environment where the problem arose to discuss the problem, the situation and the solution. This information will help others handle the problems later.

By Alan J. Zell
http://marketing.about.com/

If thoughts like these often cross your mind, ask yourself this — who are the biggest names in your profession? In your line of work, who might be considered unquestioned experts, those with maximum credibility? Now, how did you get to know about those people’s work? Did you read an article or book they had written, hear them interviewed, learn about them on the web? Or perhaps you were told about them by others who had heard them speak or read their words.

The point is that these well-known people became well-known because they showcased themselves, usually in multiple ways. They shared stories, examples, and ideas about the work they had been doing with a wider audience than just their friends and family. You know about their work because they showed it off. And I’ll bet it never occurred to you to call them unprofessional for doing it.

Showing off your work doesn’t have to sound like, “Ta da! Aren’t I great?” It doesn’t have to contain even a hint of bragging. There are a host of very dignified and appropriate ways to let a wider audience know how good you are without ever saying so. Here are a few you might try.

1. Writing articles – Putting your expertise in writing and sharing it with publications your target audience reads is a powerful — and very professional — way to let more people know about your unique talents. Submit your articles to both print publications and web sites that serve your niche and watch your visibility grow.
2. Public speaking – Appearing as a speaker allows you to broadcast your expertise with three different audiences — the people who attend your talk, the people who are invited by the sponsoring organization but can’t attend, and the people you tell about it before and after. If standing in front of a room makes you too nervous, serve on a panel of experts instead. You’ll get to sit behind a table and speak from notes.
3. Media interviews – Being interviewed by magazines, newspapers, or on radio and television can spread the word quickly about your capabilities. Landing interviews is not that hard to do if you remember to start small. Begin by approaching easy targets like association newsletters, neighborhood newspapers, and local cable programs or talk radio.
4. Telling stories – One of the secrets to effective articles, talks, and interviews is to tell stories about your clients. When you describe their challenges and accomplishments, you reveal the value of your role in helping them without having to boast about it. You can use the same technique in a client presentation to boost your credibility without being arrogant.
5. Testimonials – Whenever you do a good job for a client, ask them to write you a simple thank you note describing what you did to make them happy. Then make their words available on your web site, brochure, or other marketing materials. Let them tell others about your value, and you won’t have to say it yourself.
6. Building a portfolio – It’s not just artists that should capture their best work to show off in a portfolio. You can collect photos, examples, and other evidence of your accomplishments and display them on your web site, in a marketing kit, or with a PowerPoint presentation. You don’t have to sell people on your abilities when they are seeing for themselves what you can do.
7. Creating products – Packaging your work into merchandise that prospective clients can take home and sample gives them a compelling way to discover your real value. Products like ebooks, white papers, and audio recordings allow you to showcase your expertise and increase your credibility. They can often be advertised more widely than your services can, giving you another avenue for getting your name known.

Pick just one of these ideas to pursue and make a plan to showcase what you can do for a wider audience. If you truly want to spend less effort on marketing yourself, start letting your prospective clients know how good you really are.

Okay, so you’ve targeted suitable companies, found the name and title of the decision maker for your product or service, and the Trojan-like envelope has made it past the always-suspecting secretary/assistant, and the decision maker has opened up the letter! What will your letter read like? The following checklist will hopefully ensure an image to set yourself apart from the pack.

• Ensure the message matches the needs of the target audience.
  Does your offer of products and/or services match the needs of the recipient? Don’t make your pitch to a company president if your message only applies to the marketing staff.
• Get to the point.
  If you begin your letter with general, hazy information – you risk losing the reader. It’s critical you make your point in those first few lines.
• Be clear and concise.
  “Brevity is the soul of wit” – William Shakespeare. Right on, Bill!
• Sell benefits, not features.
  Many businesspersons love to list and discuss product features. However, your potential customers want to know how he/she will benefit from using the product. It’s okay to list features, but also include the end-user benefits. For example, a feature of the word processor is that it allows you to write and edit content electronically, so you don’t have to retype the entire page. The benefits are that it saves a lot of time, and increases productivity.
• Keep it personal and conversational.
  Given today’s access to current data, there is no excuse for sending out form letters. Personalize each letter you send out in your direct mail campaign. In terms of writing style, just write like you talk – and you’re sure to make a warm, genuine appeal to your reader.
• Use letters to generate leads – not sales.
  The goal of a direct-mail letter is to generate a response, not a sale -whether it be a return mail card, a fax, email, phone call, or fax. The purpose is to open doors – the sale is the next separate and distinct step in the process.
• Write at a grade-school level.
  Studies have shown that most of us read at an eighth-grade level. Avoid big words to make the letter easily understood. You can be technical if you choose, but simplify your language as much as possible.
• Postscript (P.S.) is your friend!
  Case studies indicate that the typical letter recipient’s eye moves down the page to the P.S. before they read everything in the letter! Try to restate your proposition in the P.S.
• Use white space.
  Readers are often turned off by large gobs of text. Try to use short paragraphs, and bullets and/or numbered lists. Give the reader some breathing room!
• Keep it to one page.
  Most presidents, purchasing agents, plant engineers, and other decision makers are very busy people. Make your point, sell the benefits, make it easy to read – and keep it to one page.
• Make a “no-risk” offer.
  Offer the recipient something – and make it no risk. Offer free information, an article, some industry tips, free tutorial, or product sample.
• Create a deadline.
  Whether there is a real deadline or one you create, make one. Usually, a deadline increases the rate of responses because of the limited amount of time to act.
• Call to action!
  Ask and ye shall receive . . . Why not ask for the order? “Call our toll-free number, 800-555-SALES, for a free consultation”.
• Use postage reply mail.
  Include a business reply card for better response. Make sure it has pre-paid postage. Don’t lose an inquiry for the cost of a single stamp.
• Include a guarantee.
  If you can offer a guarantee – be it your follow-up, delivery, customer service, or pricing – do it. By offering a guarantee, you offer integrity and credibility to your products/services.
• Include testimonials.
  Nothing speaks louder for your product or services than a satisfied end user. However, if you use names and companies, make sure you get a signed authorization from them.

By Brad Dunn
http://marketing.about.com/