I don't know about you, but I need a haircut.
The past few weeks have been interesting to say the least.
I'm working with several clients, some new and some I've worked with for a while, but I've also had a lot of inquiries from those who have yet to engage with me.
As I talk to these prospective clients, I realize many of them are struggling in many areas I've been discussing in these Tuesday Tidbits forever, and they're having even more of a challenge now in a remote working environment.
Two of the most common themes that come up have to do with the following:
- There's a disconnect between the expectations of the sales team and the executive team. Before COVID19, they had few or no good ways to measure if the things they hoped were getting done were actually being done. Now, with everyone working from home, it's turning out to be even more challenging!
- There's a lack of structure and process around sales, marketing, customer service, and retention strategies.
As I've been having these discussions, I thought it would be useful to share with you ten growth-focused questions to help you diagnose where you're at and key areas you could be working on during these difficult times.
Here are the questions.
1) What are your expectations for sales activity? By this, I mean prospecting for new business, making calls, client research, asking for referrals, etc. How many calls per day? How many new prospects per week? How are you tracking this activity?
2) What does the customer experience look like in the current operating environment? What is different now?
3) Besides reaching out to see how existing clients are doing, how will you retain new customers acquired during these times? How will your retention & ongoing engagement process be different after things start returning to normal?
4) What measures do you have, or are you putting in place to show you when salespeople or customer-facing people are underperforming (especially in a remote working world)?
5) Are your sales & marketing teams collaborating more frequently to ensure messaging and promises are being made congruent with what's being delivered?
6) Do you have warning signs in place to alert you of when your high-value client's behaviors are changing? If so, and you see that change, what efforts do you have in place to save those clients?
7) In a COVID19 world, are you confidently able to measure sales & marketing effectiveness?
8) Do you have regular coaching in place with your top talent? If not, you should, and here is a free, simple framework you can use.
9) Are you confident your customer service issues are being handled in a timely fashion? How often are you testing those assumptions? Are you managing customer expectations? (i.e., shipping delays, production delays, service delays, etc)
10) How quickly are you able to respond to valid suggestions/concerns/challenges brought up by your sales, marketing, and customer service teams?
When working with a new client, these are the types of questions and discussions that help us find the lowest hanging fruit to generate some great results.
As you consider these questions within your company or your team, pay attention to where you feel uncomfortable or even slightly embarrassed.
Pay attention to the areas where you say, "Well, we don't need to do that because…"
Those are the areas where you are most likely to find an opportunity to grow, which can only improve your customer's experience and increase your revenue.
Your challenge for this week is to carve out an hour of your week and consider these questions. Schedule a zoom call with your team and work through the list.