At the Ottawa Airport this morning, someone’s boarding pass drifted past my feet as I walked to my gate. I picked it up and went over to the agents for the appropriate flight.
“Good Morning, ladies,” I said to them both (it was 7 am), holding up the boarding pass. “I … .”
But I didn’t get to finish my second sentence. One of the agents, without looking up from her computer screen and making eye contact, ...
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by The Phone Lady
on Apr 28, 2013
- 1 Comment
Dig the well before you are thirsty. Chinese Proverb
This quote came across my desk on Thursday. I had just returned to my office from prospecting practice at The Hub (see below, News and Events, May 30), so it was very appropriate.
On the large white board we had created an imaginary time line for gaining new customers. (I’m convinced this is the most common mistake of entrepreneurs and salespeople alike – to focus on the customers ...
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What is the cost in terms of time and lost opportunities when salespeople “chase” unqualified leads? This was the focus of a vibrant discussion I had this week with my colleague Peter Skakum (http://tangentstrategies.com/).
For me, in addition to the cost, the element of disrespect weighs heavy as well.
Now it’s true that sometimes our best research doesn’t provide perfect clarity on a potential client and we must approach them in order to verify their need for ...
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cold calling,
customer service,
entrepreneurs,
phone communication,
phone fear,
phone phobia,
phone sales,
practice,
prospecting,
selling,
service,
telephone communication,
telephone sales
When we pick up the phone to call a customer or a potential customer, our objective should be to inspire conversation.
With our customers, we want to learn more about them, find out how we can provide more or better service. After all, they are the ones that really know why they’ll stay with us for the long term.
And when we are prospecting, we want to confirm we have reached our target market. One thing I ...
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Riding the subway in Toronto recently I was inspired by the slogan of one of the local cellphone companies. Adapting it slightly, I want to introduce it as a foundation or core value for business success: “How do you keep your customers and clients happy; how do you win new customers or clients? With your ears.”
Makes sense doesn’t it.
And one of the best ways to put our ears to work is through the practice of ...
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Is it the excitement of summer vacation – or any vacation – that causes people to suddenly become, well, thought-less? That’s my guess.
I do empathize. There’s nothing like that last day of work before a holiday, the focus we have as we “tie up loose ends” and that moment when we’re ready to walk out the door, embrace our well-earned time off.
And I’m guessing that this moment, the one just seconds away from freedom, is ...
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Despite Sunday’s snow here in Halifax (which I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed – it’s the Timmins, Ontario in me) Spring is here. We have officially ended the first quarter of our business year and I have to ask “How were your sales? And what are your predictions for this quarter?”
I know these feel like “personal” questions, but they’re not – they’re factual, logical questions we all need to be asking, whether we are ...
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One thing I know for sure – it is human nature to think and speak in close-ended questions.
Another thing I know for sure – close-ended questions don’t help us get to know our customers, or serve them better.
So this week’s post is dedicated to open-ended questions and the words we learned back in primary school – who, what, when, where, how and why.
We’ve all experienced it, a great phone call or meeting where we believed ...
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White space, which simply defined means the space on a page not covered by print or graphics, has always appealed to me. I learned its value way back in the early 1980s when I was a newspaper journalist (in the days when hot wax and rollers were used to hold type on broadsheet pages before printing – imagine!). We used white space to draw the reader to a story – or a certain aspect of ...
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