As a salesperson, or sales team leader, it is important that you recognize exactly when a customer has crossed the line from profitable to draining. While it is important, from a customer service aspect, for each customer to feel as though he’s your largest client, the truth is that you should be spending most of your time attempting to retain the clients who are the most likely to make repeat purchases. Otherwise, you’re simply spinning your wheels and your book of business will never grow.

So what happens when that book of business becomes overrun with costly clients – clients who want you to give them discounts, throw in free services, and simply make more customer service requests than a reasonable person should? They end up draining you and, in the end, they end up costing you money.

What are you going to do about it? You’re going to fire your customer. Alright, not literally. You’re going to raise their prices and be firm about the increases when they complain. You’re going to stop offering discounts and you’re going to charge for every added service they request.

They’re going to respond in one of two ways. They’ll either recognize the value of your services and start paying or take their business elsewhere. In the end, it would be nice to see them pay but it won’t hurt your profit margin if they walk.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Leadership Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

What’s one of the best ways to keep your team motivated? Help them avoid negativity in the workplace, of course.

Here’s what I mean. The other morning I was sorting through some emails that had piled up in my inbox. Amongst them were a bunch of newsletters from sales experts. I decided to glance at a few of the articles and by the time I was done I was feeling glum about the state of the economy and sales market. If I had kept reading I might’ve been convinced that my team and I would be out of the job by the end of the year.

What did I do about it? First, I recognized that it was the newsletter itself that was causing me to have so many negative thoughts – so I unsubscribed. Then I thought about the sales newsletters, customer service newsletters, and emails that get sent to my team members (from myself and from others within the organisation). I wondered – if I feel so bad about reading these things, how must my team members feel?

Pretty horrible, I imagine.

I urge you to take a few moments out of your day to reassess the types of communication you send to your team members or employees. Are they mostly positive or negative? It’s often difficult to completely avoid adding a piece of negative information (the loss of a friend, retirement, illness, etc.) but does every newsletter need to be made up of mostly negative articles? No way.

Keep this in mind as you write your next employee newsletter, update email, or communication. Remember that the more positive the information you present, the better the mindset of the receiver. The better they feel, the better they’ll work.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Leadership Development

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

A very respected business theoriest known as Dr. Ichak Adizes outlined a very interesting theory regarding the life cycle corporations go through. Formally known as the Corporate Life Cycle Model, the theory contains 10 distinct stages each business must pass through as it moves from a simple idea, through realization, and to its ultimate end.

Let’s first look at the 10 stages of the Corporate Life Cycle Model. They are as follows:

1. Courtship is the period during which you have an idea you are toying with in your head. You alk about development, create business plans, look for funding, etc.
2. Infancy describes the very first stages of a business, immediately after the official public launch.
3. The go-go stage occurs when a business is still relatively new. This stage tends to be very busy and in some cases is very chaotic.
4. A business is in its adolescent stages when it begins to define itself but still experiences growth.
5. The prime stage of any business model occurs when it is at it’s most profitable and competitive point.
6. A business is in the stability stage when it is starting to lose its edge but is still considered popular and profitable.
7. Aristrocracy occurs as a business begins to lose more of its edge and market share but still has a strong presence; it can’t keep up with new technologies.
8. Recrimination occurs when people begin to have doubts about the future success of a business and begin to feel threatened. They lose sight of their original goals.
9. A business will turn into a bureaucracy when the administration begins thinking only of themselves. At this point, you’ll notice many of the investors looking elsewhere and key players in the organization leaving for other opportunities.
10. Finally, a business will just die off. It will be sold to another company for the sake of a client base, file for bankruptcy, or simply close.

The trick, in any business, is to keep a business in the early and middle stages for as long as possible. This means using innovative marketing strategies to come up with new products and new marketing techniques in order to stay as competitive as possible for as long as possible. You and your team should always be looking forward, wondering what you can do next to make things better. If you fall into a rut, you’ll only push yourselves further towards the end of your careers.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Development

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”