July 29th, 2008 by Brian Cors
The handwritten note is becoming a lost art. Within ten short years, we’ve become an email culture, addicted to its ease-of-use and the speed with which emails can be composed1 and delivered to its recipients.
Today, we are overwhelmed with emails and mass-produced marketing materials. In this sea of non-personal communications, the handwritten note stands heads-and-shoulders above the crowd. The handwritten note conveys heartfelt emotion like no other medium, and has the highest chance of being read by its recipient.
I remember several years back when my father – then a senior executive at Corning – described what was perhaps the most distinguishing trait of its then-current CEO, Amo Houghton. Despite Amo’s extremely busy schedule, he would take the time to craft handwritten notes that he would send to customers, colleagues and employees. The impact was palpable. Recipients clearly knew that Amo had taken the time to craft a personal note customized just for them. What a great way to motivate and leave a lasting impression!
Today’s salespeople who are looking to stand above the crowd should incorporate the handwritten note into their repertoire. There are numerous occasions for which a handwritten note is the perfect communication vehicle. They’re great for expressing gratitude when you’ve gotten together with someone or recently obtained a new customer. They are also an ideal accompaniment to an article that you’re sending to a business associate.
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July 16th, 2008 by Brian Cors
CorsPro deals with lots of companies who are resellers of technology such as business telephone systems and computer networks. Many times, the “proposal” efforts of these companies are restricted to schedules of equipment that place the focus on pricing, resulting far too often in customer buying decisions that are based on the best price available and – at the end of the day – low-margin sales.
Companies can use proposals to differentiate themselves from the competition and increase margins by focusing on two basic areas within their proposals:
- The benefit(s) to the customer provided by the proposed hardware/software solution.
- The benefit(s) to the customer provided by the company implementing the proposed solution.
If your company competes in a market where many (or most) of the products or services that you offer are also offered by your competitors – which is probably the case with most companies – then it’s the second area that can truly set you apart from your competition.
How can you go about crafting benefits-oriented proposal template documents? We recommend starting the process by mapping the features that your products, services and company provide against the business benefits provided by those features. For example, a “starter” benefits map for a company selling customer relationship management (CRM software solutions might look something like this (click to enlarge)…
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July 3rd, 2008 by Brian Cors
In many organizations, there is a resistance from sales people to use CRM (customer relationship management) software tools to track and manage customer contact and interaction information. The most common complaint is that the software has been implemented by management as a means of spying on the activities of the salespeople.
While in some cases this may be true, best-in-class CRM implementations focus first on the needs of the users – not management – and most particularly on the needs of the sales people. Such software can benefit salespeople directly in many ways, enabling them to become more effective and productive in their day-to-day sales activities.
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