Fearsome Focus

Time and time again distractions tend to interrupt our groove, take away from productivity and prevent us from reaching full potential.

Had enough?

Two simple answers:

First, put in place segments of your day into focus blocks. I call it "Paytime". This is the time in the day where you prioritize your activities that yield the highest results. Whether it be cold calling or balancing the budget, schedule 45/15 time blocks. Translation...45 minutes of absolute uninterrupted time on the activity followed by 15 minutes of catch-up activity (emails, follow up etc.)
- Alert your peers that you are implementing a new plan to increase sales

- When people interrupt you during these blocks (and they will) gently but firmly tell them you'll connect with them 45 minutes past the hour (or whenever your 45 minutes end). Honor your commitment and follow up with people who need it.

- Be consistent about the application of the process; try to schedule similar activities for the same time every day.

-Condition your colleagues to expect to hear back from you on urgent emails at the bottom 15 minutes of the hour.

-Schedule time to talk to your colleagues rather than dropping in.


Second, get help! You don't have to do everything yourself.
I can do it faster and better myself are the fatal last words of the overwhelmed who never acheive their potential.

Take advantage of available resources. Hire a virtual personal assistant to handle low value activities. Low value activities are the biggest time wasters for sales people. Job out your excessive internet research, data entry, confirming or changing appointments and customer service issues. Be creative...customize your needs/requirements.

For $40 per month you can hire an assistant who will handle basic tasks for you; for around $250 month you can hire an assistant for 20 hours. These assistants are highly skilled at taking care of the administrative and life tasks that you waste time on. You can even try them for free for a week. Go to www.asksunday.com.

Take back your day and make the most of every minute.

What's Your Retention Rate Look Like?

Has the economy had an impact on the quality of your customer retention program? If the answer to this question is “what retention program” you may be in for some costly surprises.

With a downturn in the economy many companies have been forced to cut costs and in many cases freeze spending all together. Most departments are typically effected and expected to do more with less. Especially Sales!

When revenues are bleeding, CFO’s seem to always pay “high radar” attention to funnel conversion rates and the anticipated revenue forecasted. CFO’s inherently emphasize the bottom line, with the bottom line being how much new business is being generated. As a result, costs associated to bring on new customers are expected. While, conversely, costs to gauge existing customer satisfaction and maximize retention rates are, in cases, lower on the budget.

Revenue is revenue, regardless of where it comes from. In fact, in downturns it is critical to invest in insuring satisfaction and loyalty with existing customers
for the following reasons:

1) New Customer acquisition can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining existing clients.
2) A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%
3) The average company loses 10% of its customer base every year.
4) A 5% reduction in customer defection rate can increase profits by 25-125% depending on the industry.
5) The customer profitability rate tends to increase over the life of a retained customer.

Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway…,we all know how difficult and expensive it is to win customers back! Having a proactive approach and process www.attivio.com to minimize defection rates and monitor customer behavior (detect dissatisfaction) goes a long way to keeping your most valued customers on board.

Here are the tools:

CRM….Call Support Centers….Blogs and News….Web Analytics…Social Media…
Surveys….User Groups/ Product Councils…...Internal Reports…..ERP Systems >>>
All lead to the Customer!

These tools should provide:

 Every interactive representative with a documented deep understanding of the customer at every touch point
 A deep mined profile of the customer to avoid uncertainty of the customer at all levels
 Each representative armed with decision support and knowledge base so they are able to implement “A level” service support and performance

The key is to primarily provide timely insight into the customer during each interaction and to maximize satisfaction through all internal levels and media outlets. In a high performance system, additional business opportunities are uncovered fostering up-selling and cross-selling solutions to a “long term” satisfied customer. CFO’s like this kind of revenue!