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By Chuck Jones
You've often heard that business isn't about transactions;
it's about relationships. And if there's one point Loyalty-Based Selling
by Tim Smith drives home, it's how to turn a customer into a friend.
This may sound a little New Age or touchy-feely, but
according to Smith, it's the one sound way to keep your clients loyal
to you. In fact, one of the points he makes is that for most people, it's
hard to turn your back on a friend—and that's to your sales advantage.
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Loyalty-Based Selling
Tim Smith
AMACOM
$17.95, paperback
800-714-6395
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Smith writes: "Has anyone ever heard a statement
like this one: 'You will never get the business from that customer. The
Acme rep is a good friend of the key decision maker!' You hate to hear
that about your competition. You know how tough it will be to get the
business from that customer. You may feel that it is not even worth trying.
"That is exactly how you want your competitors
to feel. Your goal is to make good friends with your customers. Friends
make loyal customers who are not attracted by competitive promotions and
do not leave you at the first sign of difficulty. Friends are understanding
and tolerant of your mistakes; they stick with you through challenging
times and work with you to create the great times too; they refer you
to their friends. … [But] pretending to be friends with customers,
using them to close sales and disposing of them thereafter is a tactic
that will come back to haunt you, and rightfully so."
The seven magic steps
In addition to simply advocating this philosophy, the author offers "7
Magic Steps" for turning a customer into a friend. In a nutshell,
they are:
- Get as much personal and economic information, about your client
as you can.
- Make friends by establishing trust.
- Take care of the big things first, such as reducing stress, providing
service and reversing negatives.
- Do little, pleasant things to surprise your client.
- Have fun with your client.
- Give yourself time to work and play.
- Get feedback from your client.
Smith's secret to success is for you to be completely
client-centered. And he gives lots of helpful how-to advice on how to
achieve it. For example, he suggests you keep a "Friendly Facts"
sheet on all of your clients. This is a form that lists, among other things,
hobbies and interests, not only of the client, but for his spouse and
children as well. There are also spaces for the names of the client's
high school and college and the years he graduated, the name of his hometown,
his religion, sensitive subjects, his birthday and gift suggestions. Smith
doesn't say to sit down with your client and fill out the form. Rather,
you fill in the blanks gradually, after each meeting or phone conversation.
Find out a little at a time, and use the information to open the door
for an appointment later on.
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| "Your goal
is to make good friends with your customers. Friends make loyal customers
who are not attracted by competitive promotions and do not leave you
at the first sign of difficulty." |
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Get motivated!
Smith can also be motivating. Read his take on turning a negative situation
into a positive one: "Your competitors shake in their shoes at the
thought of a customer having a big problem. You, however, hunger for this
situation. You crave it. You get downright excited about this opportunity
because you know that resolving a problem for a customer may be the supreme
way to blast off. … Solving problems effectively separates the great
reps from the wannabes. When customers are stressed and you turn the situation
around, you give your customers desserts ('stressed' spelled backward
is 'desserts'). You have converted their pain to pleasure. The bigger
the problem is, the bigger is the impact."
As you can tell from the stressed/desserts line above,
the author can get a little cute. For example, he ends each chapter with
continued pieces that rhyme with "… Your sales numbers grow
…" And in his preface, he explains that readers don't usually
read prefaces and leaves the next couple of pages blank. But these are
only minor annoyances and don't detract from the book's usefulness.
While the relationship advice in the book is sound,
Smith can go a little overboard. For instance, in a section that was suggestions
on how to thank your clients for their business, he suggests sending them
a thank-you card, movie or lottery tickets or a subscription to a favorite
magazine. Those things are certainly doable. But he also suggests treating
them to a night on the town, babysitting their children and arranging
for autographed sports paraphernalia and celebrity photos.
Although Loyalty-Based Selling is not written
specifically for financial advisors, the book offers good advice about
client relationships, how to establish them and how to make them grow.
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ADVISOR TODAY
also recommends
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J.K. Lasser's Choosing the Right
Long-Term Care Insurance
By Benjamin Lipson
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
www.jklasser.com
$16.95, paperback
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Open Book
Voices
From the Field
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