PUMP UP THE SALES – January 2012

TO: ALL KBC TEAM MEMBERS

FROM: PAULA                                                

PUMP UP THE NEW YEAR

– HERE’S TO A GREAT 2012!     

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR 2012

 – CHOOSE 5 OR MORE AND MAKE THEM HAPPEN!.

 (Give your branch manager a copy of your’s by January 15^th – we’ll check back with you throughout the year to see how you’re doing with yours.  Branch managers, let me know your team’s successes so that we can share them company wide.)

1. Steal time from the insignificant.  Less chatter, more sales?

2.  Make sales goals. Turn fantasy into reality by making a step by step plan to reach your numbers.

3. Ask your clients questions about what they do, how they do it, what they use to do it….and get to know their businesses and what they need.  Sell them more by knowing more.

4.  Your image, your first impression, your best foot forward.  Do you look good?  Feel good?  Sound good?  (Hey, even if our clients can’t see you on the phone, you know what you look, feel, and smell like.  Don Johnson’s half shaven look only works on Miami Vice reruns and fashion models – shave or grow a full beard or moustache. )  Smile on the phone!  Greet clients with warmth in the showroom.  Put your best foot forward.

5. Get your clients involved.  Let them push, pull, play, and profit by trying the product, involving them in the solution, getting their hands onto the tools.  This works great in the showroom, but even over the phone you can have your client imagine themselves using the new machine, the new measuring instrument, etc. with your words.

6. Get to work on time….every day!

7. Stop personal calls in and out.

8. Make your clients feel good.  Let them know they made a smart choice when they chose that tool or KBC.  Tell them when you read a nice article about their company.   Be sincere.

9. We give.  We get.  A client is super patient when waiting to resolve an issue, thank them with a small discount, a mug, some KBC Kash, lunch on us, etc.  Have a client who uses a ton of hand cleaner, abrasives, etc.  – offer them a sample….get an order in the future.

10. Why not now?  Why wait till tomorrow, this afternoon, for an hour….?  Do it now, then do some more.  Stop procrastinating.

11.  Get to work …every day!  Stay well, stay healthy, get enough sleep.

12.  Sell a spiff a day.  Tell every client about the SPIFF of the week, and get orders.  Sharpen your pitch, and watch your numbers grow.

13. Send a flyer with every Retail client’s order….by courier and at the front counter. 

14. Persistence – make one more call.  Ask one more question.  Bring the order home.

15. Learn something today about the tools we sell.  Read the catalog, watch a video, ask a client or vendor. 

16.  Think bigger.  Ask bigger.  Why be satisfied with selling one when you could be selling hundreds?  Other companies have clients who do millions of dollars with them in tooling.  The client you are speaking to may be one of them, but only does $1235 a year with us.  Go for the gusto.

17.  Continuous improvement.  Come up with 5 ways to improve what you do every day.   Then share the improvements with your team and all KBC branches.  Send Paula an e-mail and brag.

18. Be positive.  Half full or half empty?Half alive or half dead?Half pleasant or half grumpy/grizzly?  It doesn’t cost anymore to smile.

19. Help your team mates be better at what they do.  Teach them the tricks of the business.  Show them.  Encourage them…..and learn from them also.

20. (make your own KBC New Year’s resolution):                               

21. (make your own KBC New Year’s resolution):

22. (make your own KBC  New Year’s resolution):

23. Embrace change.  Get frustrated, get educated, get even, but get going.  We are changing our computer system.  Change is happening.  Get on board. 

24.  Quit smoking.

25.  Go for a walk at lunch.

26. Pack your lunch, a healthy one.   Save your waist and your wallet.

27.  Have fun.  Enjoy what you’re doing.

28.  Be proud of what you do and accomplish every day.

29. Put your clients’ needs first.

CHOOSING A NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM

Well it all finally came down to what the system could do for us, but during the process we sure saw a whole range of selling techniques.

One company forgot to introduce themselves, didn’t ask our names, and during a conference call repeatedly called me Pamela.  (Hint: get the person’s name who signs the check or the P.O. right.)  They let us order lunch, get it, and pay for it.   The other two contenders took care of us in a whole bunch of small ways:

-They introduced themselves and asked us to introduce ourselves.

-They used our names…correctly.

-They offered us water and refilled it. 

-The sales team joked nicely with each other, not at each other’s expense.

-They used our terminology vs. theirs. 

-They asked if we understood, and when we were quiet they explained it without any jargon or fancy words.

-They made the sales pitch relevant to us, the client.  They talked about our business, our products, our needs, and our wishes….not theirs.

-When we asked questions, they said, “Good question.  You’re right.”

-They asked, “Does this take care of 80% of what you need?  Do you need the other 20%?”

-They listened.

….While the other company’s reps shot themselves in the foot time and time again, the other sales reps didn’t kill their sales, but let their product speak for itself.

Are you shooting yourself and KBC in the foot time and time again with your sales techniques, lack of care, lack of attention, OR wowing our clients with your genuine interest in them and their businesses?

Wow them!

 

Wishing you a wonderful, happy, healthy, and sales filled 2012, 

Paula

 

 

 

PUMP UP THE ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE – January 2012

To: all A/R  Team Members and Branch Managers                                         
From: Paula

January 2012 – Happy New Year!

Pump Up The A/R! –

Keep the money coming!

So, have you been naughty or nice?

With the holidays just over, I’m sure the answer is pretty evident by the pile of presents or the lack thereof.  The question though is not whether your friends, family, and Santa felt that you were naughty or nice, but whether our clients did? 

Nice: You speak to our clients with care, concern, and compassion.  You use a friendly, open tone to ask questions.  You pepper your conversation liberally with: thank you, please, and I will be happy to take care of that immediately for you.  You are respectful and use the client’s name as a greeting.  You thank client’s for their business and the number of years we have worked together.  You build relationships where the client’s payable team wants to help you resolve any issues outstanding.  You speak with sincerity and honesty, and thus the clients respond in kind.  You get paid in a timely basis, and you even get a verbal or written thank you occasionally for your help.  Nice does win the race…and get the presents!

Naughty:  You scold, whine, chastise, berate, and speak too loudly at clients.  You make clients feel like they are naughty little children awaiting their punishment.  Getting a call from you is the client’s least favorite thing that happens during the day, the week, or even the month.  You ask questions that sound condescending.  You make people feel stupid, while trying to make yourself bigger and better.  You don’t listen, and you finish their sentences.  You interrupt.  You don’t care why there is an issue, just that you are right….and they are not.  You call too often even when you know the client’s payment patterns….and they haven’t broken them.  You are impatient with return phone calls or e-mails, and just keep calling and bothering them.  ….and these are our old and good clients.

Now for the very, very few of the clients who are working to defraud us, string us so far along, lie to us repeatedly, break every promise, etc.  I have my own special methods for handling them in a completely  separate category.  It certainly is not Nice…and it definitely is not Naughty.  Perhaps it`s best called Tasmanian Devil – a whirling dervish of whatever it takes to get under the client`s skin and stay there until we get paid.  You can check with your Branch Manager before you resort to any of these over the top methods for the few times you need to.

p.s. Listen to yourself.  If you sound a little like your mother when she caught you feeding the pot roast for dinner to the dog, you don`t sound nice!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, twas the season for gifts.  So many gifts, so little time, such little closet space, so many calories.

Ok, so the holiday gift giving season is made up of lots of good intentions, piles of wrapping paper, a bevy of bows, and sometimes not a clue of what you really wanted this holiday.  One of my all time favorite gift giving blunders was a `Romance Kit`complete with candles, bubble bath, champagne, and a feather given to me by a well wishing friend during one of my perpetually single periods in my life.  What a thoughtful gift – if only it came complete with a man!  After a few misty eyed moments I promptly put it away in the closet, never to be seen again.

So, what do you do with those gifts?

REUSE – These are your clients/gifts that you want to get every year.  They pay on time, they buy, and they keep on doing so.  You can help them to reuse their accounts by keeping them current and able to buy.  Taking care of any of their returns or inquiries with speed and care will make sure that both you and they can keep on buying.  They can Reuse their account time and time again knowing that everything will sail through the process with ease because both you and the client have been making sure everything is taken care of.  With attention to detail, this gift will continue for many, many years.  Hey, we have some of our first gifts/clients that keep on giving joy for over 45 years now!

REGIFT– Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh….those few and memorable clients that run you ragged with abuse, demands, threats, rants on public forums, returns…..and they still do under $200 a year with you.  These clients are wonderful clients to Regift to your favorite competitor.  (Yes, these are the same clients that were probably regifted to you by another competitor a few years earlier.)  Go ahead, gently and politely suggest that we just don’t seem to be able to help them with their tooling needs, but ________________(name your least favorite competitor)would probably be a better choice for their tooling needs.  Put a gift bow on their head, say goodbye, and thanks for their business.

RECYCLE – The art of taking something and making it into another.  If you have clients that the relationship just isn’t working as it is set up, what can you do to have those meaningful conversations that will allow you to transform the relationship that works for both parties?  Do we have them set up as Net 30, but they only have one check run during the month?  Are we being too restrictive with their credit limits based upon old information?  Can we update the references or D&B report?  Have we offended someone in the past that we need to reach out to and recreate the relationship?  Have there been misunderstandings? 

REDUCE– You love them.  You talk to them often.  You are always calling for late payments, outstanding invoice balances, inquiring if they got the invoice copy you sent them, working to figure out when and how the return they sent us went out, etc.  They call often too, sometimes to just say Hi! They are loveable, sweet, and sometimes just disorganized or waiting for your call.  Can we have that lovely and friendly relationship with less calls, less frequent contact?  What can you do to make your clients understand our process better or to help them with theirs?  Can you show them what type of notes you need from them to apply their checks appropriately?   Do you have the right address, attention to, e-mail, etc. to get them their paperwork?  Do they have ours?

 

New Year’s Resolutions

It’s time to make some New Year’s Resolutions….and keep them.

This year we want to focus even more on making A/R a profit center –a part of our fine oiled machine that keeps our clients happy, buying, paying, and growing.  What can you do to make it happen?

This year I will help grow the following accounts by reviewing their credit limits:

1.                                                        6.

2.                                                        7.                                          

3.                                                            8.   

4.                                                            9.

5.                                                        10.    

This year I will make every effort to respond to e-mails from clients with __________ minutes.

This year I will work to find creative solutions to keep clients buying.  Here are 3 suggestions:

1.

2.

3.

This year I will help the branch manager and sales team increase business by identifying clients with big potential.  I’ll do this by reviewing incoming credit applications, keeping my ears open, looking for trends in purchases, etc.  Here are 3 accounts that seem to have potential for growth for 2012:

1.

2.                                                                                                                   

3.

This year I will (fill in your own resolution):

Happy New Year and happy A/R! 

PUMP UP THE SALES – December 2011

PUMP UP THE SALES

December 2011 

As you may all know, I’m not much on words, either written or spoken, without coming straight to the point.  We all hear time and time again about utilizing Substitutes and Related Items to keep from losing and/or building a sale.  But, as I have said time and time again, the Pumping is more about Knowledge, Service, and last but Not least, Stock; and so that Paula doesn’t have a heart attack, Not excess stock or over stock, but the Right stock!

Delta has one customer that buys 1-812-550 and another that buys an odd tool bit.  So, it is imperative that we have ample inventory or stock in the pipeline.  We are Not the only supplier for these items, so if we don’t treat them right, someone else will be more than happy to. 

St. Charleshad a customer that came back to KBC because the order desk at MSC told the customer that they could Not guarantee them consistent quality on an item; that “whatever is in the box is what you get”.  In that case, they had stock but Not the right stock, or the service level to assure them they would take care to get them the right stock.  We all have these special customers with not so special needs.  We need to treat them special even if they’re Not.   It is Not only important to be knowledgeable about what you sell but just as important to “know your customer and his needs”.  They’re people; don’t be afraid to talk to them, ask questions – Not to interrogate, but because you are interested and want to know, and you will, as a result, sell them more because you will know more about them and their needs.

All of our special needs customers will be easier to service when we are up and running on our incoming ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system.  What little we have seen has been quite exciting in how it will enable us to have better and faster ways to have the right items in the right places.  We have also all heard the phrase “Garbage in, Garbage out”.  Now is the time to be clean and accurate in ALL aspects for easier extraction and manipulation of data.  We should all have clean and accurate:

• Customer Lists
• Customer Notes
• Inventory                                                             
• Backorder Report
• Open Order Report 

With our new ERP it will also allow us to have better control over silly back ordered items like Sets and Kits.  It will allow us to have more “landed costs” to bothMichigan,Mississauga, and the balance of the branches as opposed to expensing out all additional costing related to Transfers, Direct Ships, and Remotes.  Now is the time to get and keep ALL your records as clean and as up to date as possible.  I know that Paula’s theme for A/R this month was associated with Pirates; this is No time to have one eye covered.  Be aware and keep Both eyes on the ball.

Our new ERP will enable us to be more transparent with less blind spots (i.e. Limbo, double orders and knowing time frames on items being transferred……..).  All in all, it will force us to be more efficient while allowing us to get to the next level.

Here’s to wishing All of you and yours ALL the Best for a Happy, Healthy, Safe and Successful Holiday Season.

xoxo,  John