Delta Does the Right Thing: Customer Service Training

Customer service is a critical success factor for any business in today’s consumer-oriented marketplace. If your company is not spending time and resources on ensuring that your team has the right skills through effective sales training, then you are missing new possible clients and customers!

Delta Airlines gets it. They have recently chosen to send a large portion of their employees to sales training, in order to boost the company’s service, reputation and profits. According to a recent article by Richard Weaver, “Delta is sending 11,000 of their agents to customer service training workshops,” because they placed last in customer service ratings compared to their competitors.

As a result, Delta management is taking great measures to ensure that their front lines are all trained with the same successful communication and customer service techniques. “Included are gate agents, ticket counter agents, and baggage check-in agents. The announcement this week follows a Department of Transportation report that Delta had the highest rate of complaints per passenger miles of the country’s largest airlines,” Weaver says.

Delta has gone to great lengths to resolve their customer service concerns. In fact, the article claims, “This is the first mandated training devoted to the single issue of customer service in more than a decade for Delta – and potentially the first for those employees that transitioned from Northwest following the merger of the two carriers.” For a company that has not made customer service and sales training a part of their business model, Delta’s choice to invest in this training will revolutionize it’s customer experience for the better.

How about you? What are you doing to jump start your sales in the area of customer service? The first step is to think about sales in the right way – with a servant’s heart. Sales training is not about pushing a sale on your prospects. It’s about learning to most effectively serve those who call your office, inquire by email or walk in your doors. Once you’ve impressed these prospects enough to make them into clients, then your customer service should be continually earning their loyalty, so that you are obtaining qualified client referrals from them. If your sales techniques are right, your clients will be sending their friends and family – based on the positive customer-oriented interactions and experiences that they have had with your team.

At our training workshops, we have worked with businesses of all kinds to boost profits by bettering the customer service and sales techniques of the entire team. Through easy-to-understand communication techniques, we are able to increase sales anywhere from 20%-100%! By practicing skills of positive attitude, upbeat tonality, building rapport, maintaining the appropriate zone of information detail, role play, voice inflection and much more, we have consistently brought success to companies who are facing a similarly needy customer service situation to Delta Airlines. Whether your staff has had little training or no training, we can help you – at a price you can’t resist. Call us today to learn more or get started!

References:

http://www.examiner.com/human-capital-in-detroit/last-customer-service-delta-airlines-sends-all-agents-to-training

Matthew Linklater, Sales Training Expert, Publishes a New Blog on Split Second Selling

Matthew Linklater, author of Quick Witted: Saying the Right Thing to Win Big and trainer in the areas of business and personal success, writes about the importance of setting yourself up for success within the first half second of starting your sales pitch.

Chicago, IL – February 16, 2011 - Matthew Linklater, certified practitioner and coach of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, expert in Time Line Therapy^TM, hypnotist, speaker and author, recently published a blog on his website (www.thelinklater.com) emphasizing the fact that it only takes .5 seconds to make or break your sale – both on the phone or in person. The blog, titled “Your Split-Second First Impression,” urges sales representatives to leverage their first half second in approaching a prospect, for a winning outcome.

Linklater writes, “You don’t have 10 minutes to make your first impression. In fact, you don’t even have four minutes for that. No, the time you have to impress your prospective clients and customers is less than 60 seconds! It’s less than 30 seconds! You have exactly ½ of a second to win the approval of your prospects. Bam! That’s all you have, whether you’re speaking in person or on the phone. How well do you and your team work within that split second?”

“Has your sales force training properly covered effective product scripts, to leverage that critical first impression? The business and sales training programs that you choose should absolutely not miss this pivotal point: the .5 second opportunity to make a winning first impression will make or break your sale,” argues Linklater.

Matthew Linklater and Denise Wayman are co-founders of TheLinklater.com and former Vice Presidents of three fortune 100 companies and are accomplished motivational speakers and life-changers.  Authors of three books, Quick Witted: Saying The Right Thing to Win Big, Basic Training: Sales Boot Camp, and Counter Attack with legendary Brian Tracy, these two Sales Gurus combine extensive business experience with their expertise as certified master practitioners, trainers and coaches of Neuro-Linguistic Programming in conjunction with Time Line Therapy^TM to help you exceed your sales goals!

The entire blog can be found at http://thelinklater.com/2011/02/your-split-second-first-impression/

About Matthew Linklater and Denise Wayman:

Matthew Linklater, and his business partner and fiancée, Denise Wayman, help clients with personal development, positive thinking and action orientation – teaching others to effectively identify and grab hold of their dreams. In addition to their specializations in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and Time Line Therapy^TM, this high-impact duo utilizes their expertise in hypnosis for their clientele’s personal and professional development and training. The dynamic success mentoring team works with individual clients on their career goals as well as business teams on sales and performance goals, to manifest extraordinary success for top-line growth and bottom-line profits. Together, Matthew and Denise have a revolutionary Live Your Vision process that aligns mind, body and spirit in the right direction for success.

As Authors, Speakers and Success Coaches, Matthew Linklater and Denise Wayman offer powerful business consulting and high-impact personal coaching. They have trained business leaders to increase in the critical areas of sales coaching, building instant rapport with others, 3D Communication for negotiation and conflict resolution, motivation of team members, goal achievement, product scripting and leadership. This team’s personal coaching methods incorporate powerful NLP techniques, Time Line Therapy®, the Live Your Vision experience and the Ericksonian Hypnosis method.

To learn more about Matthew Linklater, please visit www.thelinklater.com.

Your Split-Second First Impression

You don’t have 10 minutes to make your first impression. In fact, you don’t even have four minutes for that. No, the time you have to impress your prospective clients and customers is less than 60 seconds! It’s less than 30 seconds! You have exactly ½ of a second to win the approval of your prospects. Bam! That’s all you have, whether you’re speaking in person or on the phone. How well do you and your team work within that split second? Are your sales training tactics in place for a successful outcome?

Consider this scenario: you are speaking with someone at an association meeting, and when you approach a prospect after the meeting ends to introduce yourself, you are being judged by that person before you even open your mouth. They are quickly and even subconsciously evaluating whether they get an acceptable vibe from the way you walk, the appearance of your clothes, and your mannerisms. Critiquing you on whether they see a right fit for their needs, they have already measured you up on their judgment of confidence, professionalism and capability… before you’ve even opened your mouth.

Then, you actually do open your mouth, and extend your hand for a greeting. As they grip your handshake, this prospect is simultaneously gauging whether they like the firmness of your handshake as well as listening for a comfortable sound in the tone of your voice. They can tell whether you are nervous, or at ease, just by listening to your vocal steadiness. If you are smiling easily, they have probably concluded that you are friendly and likeable. That split second counts significantly, and you’ve barely even mentioned your name!

Now, consider how much more critical this split-second first impression is when on a phone sales call. Has your sales force training properly covered effective product scripts, to leverage that critical first impression? The business and sales training programs that you choose should absolutely not miss this pivotal point: the .5 second opportunity to make a winning first impression will make or break your sale.

Catch your prospects’ genuine interest with the right approach to the sales process. Call us today for a consultation!

Personal Coach and Business Mentor, Matthew Linklater, Hits Amazon Best-Seller List With New Book, “Counter-Attack”

Matthew Linklater, personal coach and sales training expert, recently hit Amazon.com’s Best-Seller List with the new book, “Counter Attack,” climbing to #2 in the Direct Marketing category.

Orlando, Fla. – February 14, 2011 – Sales training coach and expert, Matthew Linklater, recently joined a select group of America’s leading entrepreneurs and businesspeople to collaborate and co-write the business and marketing book titled, “Counter-Attack: Business Strategies for Explosive Growth in the New Economy.” The book also featured noted business development expert, best-selling author and speaker, Brian Tracy. Celebrity Press™, founded by JW Dicks, Esq. and Nick Nanton, Esq, is a business book publisher that publishes books from thought leaders around the world.

Personal coach, business mentor and success-seeker Matthew Linklater is an accomplished motivational speaker, author and life-changer. His multifaceted approach uses his expertise as a certified practitioner and coach of Neuro-Linguistic Programming in conjunction with Time Line Therapy® and Hypnosis to help Live Your Vision.  Matt is also the author of Quick-Witted: Saying the Right Thing to Win Big and the forthcoming Basic Training: Sales Boot Camp.

The book, “Counter-Attack: Business Strategies for Explosive Growth in the New Economy” was released on Thursday, January 27, 2011.  The book features business lessons that business owners can use to fight against declining revenues and learn the secrets of success in the new economy.  On the day of release, Counter Attack reached best-seller status in two Amazon.com categories: Marketing and Direct Marketing. Matthew Linklater authored a chapter in the book titled, “Live Your Vision.”

From CelebrityPress:

With the economic upheaval we have all experienced in the new economy, it’s hard not to feel that the way we do business is under attack. Traditions and the status quo have all been replaced with “New Normals,” making it more and more difficult to find a clear-cut path to success. In this refreshingly authentic book, thirty-five business leaders from around the world with very diverse backgrounds have teamed up to share what’s working now-so you can stop wondering and start profiting.

To order a copy of the book, go to http://www.amazon.com/Counter-Attack-Business-Strategies-Explosive-Economy/dp/0982908342/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296240376&sr=8-1

After such a successful release, Matthew Linklater will be inducted into The National Academy of Best-Selling Authors™, an organization that honors authors from many of the leading independent best seller lists.

To learn more about Matthew Linklater, please visit http://www.TheLinklater.com

To learn more about CelebrityPress™, please visit http://www.CelebrityPressPublishing.com

About Matthew Linklater:

Matthew Linklater, and his business partner and fiancée, Denise Wayman, help clients with personal development, positive thinking and action orientation – teaching others to effectively identify and grab hold of their dreams. In addition to their specializations in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and Time Line Therapy^TM, this high-impact duo utilizes their expertise in hypnosis for their clientele’s personal and professional development and training. The dynamic success mentoring team works with individual clients on their career goals as well as business teams on sales and performance goals, to manifest extraordinary success for top-line growth and bottom-line profits. Together, Matthew and Denise have a revolutionary Live Your Vision process that aligns mind, body and spirit in the right direction for success.

As Authors, Speakers and Success Coaches, Matthew Linklater and Denise Wayman offer powerful business consulting and high-impact personal coaching. They have trained business leaders to increase in the critical areas of sales coaching, building instant rapport with others, 3D Communication for negotiation and conflict resolution, motivation of team members, goal achievement, product scripting and leadership. This team’s personal coaching methods incorporate powerful NLP techniques, Time Line Therapy®, the Live Your Vision experience and the Ericksonian Hypnosis method.

To learn more about Matthew Linklater, please visit www.thelinklater.com.

About Celebrity Press™:

Celebrity Press™, founded by JW Dicks, Esq. and Nick Nanton, Esq, is a business book publisher that publishes books from thought leaders around the world. Celebrity Press™ specializes in helping it’s authors grow their businesses through book publishing. Celebrity Press™ has published books alongside Brian Tracy, Ron Legrand, Mari Smith, Kelly O’Neil, Alexis Martin Neely and many other of the biggest experts across diverse fields.

If you’d like to learn more about Celebrity Press™ or to see if we’re a good fit for your book project, please visit http://www.celebritypresspublishing.com/contact-us

About The National Academy of Best-Selling Authors™:
The National Academy of Best Selling Authors™ was founded by two attorneys, JW Dicks, Esq. and Nick Nation, Esq. who are also best selling authors and represent authors and experts nationwide.  Both of the attorneys are members of multiple organizations, associations and academies that recognize and honor the best in the business, and they thought a similar organization should be created for Best Selling authors who don’t always get recognition for their accomplishment. Authors themselves, they recognized that only a very limited number of books made the major New York Times Best Seller list and just like the awards shows put on by the entertainment-based organizations, they wanted to have more categories for authors to be accepted and recognized for their accomplishment. The National Academy of Best Selling Authors™ now honors authors from many of the leading independent best-seller lists.

To find out more about The National Academy of Best-Selling Authors™ visit http://www.academyofauthors.org/

Stories Sell and Products Tell

Have you ever tried to sell something and had your client have a glossed over look in their eyes?  Have you ever tried to lead a team or a small group to not have your thoughts and ideas sink in all the way?  In both situations your success is inevitably not the level that you wanted to achieve.  The issue is not necessarily that you did not have a valid goal or valid ideas.  The issue is that you were unable to deliver the message in the way that your audience needed.  Too often we do not put ourselves in the audiences shoes to achieve maximum success.  We revert to lingo and jargon, which only really pertains to your industries.  The issue is that our clients are not in the exact line of work that we are in.  If you are a drill salesman you are not in the business of selling drills.  You are in the business of selling holes.  So why go into torque, speed and bit size.  You need to develop a story that draws on the dream of achieving the hole.

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During my lifetime I have competed in sports such as baseball, football, and wrestling.  As an athlete more often than not I learned what not do from coaches.  These coaches probably knew the game in and out, but they did not know how deliver the message.  Thus, the players did not learn effectively or were not motivated enough to do the right things.  I have also been apart of sales organizations including ones at fortune 100 companies.  Selling everything from pneumatic wrenches, to annuities and being a financial advisor.  In all these arenas success boiled down to delivering a message that people could understand and that would motivate them to buy or follow. I have learned early in my career that delivering a message to a sales prospect in a conceptual way was more effective than breaking out a brochure and running through all the statistics, figures, charts and graphs.

How do you craft a story in such a manor that is relevant to your client’s interests, ideals and dreams?  The goal of Quick Witted is to build on an ancient art and practice of story telling.  The leading sales people in any industry that I know are masters at using metaphors and analogies.  Not only are they usually entertaining, but are effective in getting an individual to visualize whatever they may be buying.  This practice becomes even more important when you are selling a service rather than a tangible product.  I am reminded of the first time I bought a suit.  The salesperson had me put on the suit.  Then he proceeded to tell me how great I looked in it.  He played up the fact that I had an athletic build.  He mad me feel like a million bucks and more importantly that I was going to make a million bucks wearing the suit.  On the other hand, what if you are selling software, financial services or any of the other countless services in the economy?  These services are impossible to have your client try on, so how do get them to visualize how these services will help them?  You have to use a story, anecdote or metaphor to help them try on the product.  You have to get them to visualize what the product will do for them without them “trying it on.”

Matthew Linklater, Sales Trainer, Personal Coach and Business Mentor Expert, Publishes a New Blog on The Critical Element of Storytelling in the Sales Process

Matthew Linklater, author of Quick Witted: Saying the Right Thing to Win Big and trainer in the areas of business and personal success, writes about a sales training tool that more clearly motivates prospects to buy your product or service – metaphors and stories.

Chicago, IL – February 1, 2011 - Matthew Linklater, certified practitioner and coach of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, expert in Time Line Therapy^TM, hypnotist, speaker and author, recently published a blog on his website (www.thelinklater.com) explaining how your sales team can learn to drive sales in your buyer market, rather than simply inform them about your product. The blog, titled “Stories Sell, Products Tell,” urges sales representatives to leverage compelling and relevant metaphors and stories to help prospects engage in understanding and desiring your product or service.

Linklater writes, “Flexibility of thought utilizes creativity and comparison and is a critical element of your sales team’s training for success. I call the skill of leveraging stories and metaphors in the sales process, Million Dollar Stories. Why? Because your prospects can connect with those metaphors better than they can your new product.”

“If you were explaining social media for the first time to someone who’s never heard of it, you could use the metaphor of Facebook, since it’s a widely familiar social media site. If your corporate sales team were pitching a daily deal sales tool, your employees could utilize the story of Groupon, one of today’s most popular discount deals published every day,” argues Linklater.

Matthew Linklater and Denise Wayman are co-founders of TheLinklater.com and former Vice Presidents of three fortune 100 companies and are accomplished motivational speakers and life-changers.  Authors of three books, Quick Witted: Saying The Right Thing to Win Big, Basic Training: Sales Boot Camp, and Counter Attack with legendary Brian Tracy, these two Sales Gurus combine extensive business experience with their expertise as certified master practitioners, trainers and coaches of Neuro-Linguistic Programming in conjunction with Time Line Therapy^TM to help you exceed your sales goals!

The entire blog can be found at http://thelinklater.com/2011/01/stories-sell-products-tell/

About Matthew Linklater and Denise Wayman:

Matthew Linklater, and his business partner and fiancée, Denise Wayman, help clients with personal development, positive thinking and action orientation – teaching others to effectively identify and grab hold of their dreams. In addition to their specializations in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and Time Line Therapy^TM, this high-impact duo utilizes their expertise in hypnosis for their clientele’s personal and professional development and training. The dynamic success mentoring team works with individual clients on their career goals as well as business teams on sales and performance goals, to manifest extraordinary success for top-line growth and bottom-line profits. Together, Matthew and Denise have a revolutionary Live Your Vision process that aligns mind, body and spirit in the right direction for success.

As Authors, Speakers and Success Coaches, Matthew Linklater and Denise Wayman offer powerful business consulting and high-impact personal coaching. They have trained business leaders to increase in the critical areas of sales coaching, building instant rapport with others, 3D Communication for negotiation and conflict resolution, motivation of team members, goal achievement, product scripting and leadership. This team’s personal coaching methods incorporate powerful NLP techniques, Time Line Therapy®, the Live Your Vision experience and the Ericksonian Hypnosis method.

To learn more about Matthew Linklater, please visit www.thelinklater.com.

Ask Questions, The Right Questions

I have been in sales for 13 years. I was an air tool salesman, a life insurance salesman, an annuity salesman, and a manager of salespeople. I have sold many things myself and been on the wholesale side of things as well. Thus, I have been on joint appointments where someone was trying to resell my product or where I have sat in on one of my representative’s calls.
One of the most important steps in the sales process is profiling or listening to what the customer says to your questions. I have seen some great set ups in the profiling stage for it to all come crashing down and the salesperson completely ignore what the prospect has said.
My first day traveling with someone as a sales manager I witnessed what I call could have been the worst sales video ever made. My sales representitive, lets call him Steve, completely came off canned and insincere. This particular sale was a consultative sell. Thus, meaning our product could replace the current product, compliment the current product, or compliment the product suite the prospect was using. Steve’s opening line in his best-used car salesman voice was, “You and I have never met and don’t know each other, but what I want to do is… Steve proceeded to ask numerous questions about all the other products the prospect was using not even related to what we sold. Not necessarily a bad thing. He then, went directly into his sales pitch on his product. Steve went through every little detail. He could have avoided this by asking the appropriate questions and knowing where his product fit in and filled the gap of his client’s business. So, first off make sure you ask the right questions.

The other side of the coin I have seen people ask numerous questions, but then just cram the product down the prospects throat. On most occasions either the sales representative made up her mind before the prospect came in on what product she was going to sell them or she was not diverse in her knowledge of product offerings and just sold one product. For instance lets say you were selling a piece of fruit. You could sell any piece of fruit an apple, orange, pineapple, kiwi, etc. Let’s say you start to ask profiling the client asking questions. The first question:
Salesman: Are there any colors you just can’t eat?
Prospect: Yellow
Salesman: Are there any flavors you don’t like?
Prospect: Sour
Salesman: Great! I think that you should purchase this lemon today!

This sounds silly but I have seen circumstances where the salesman was blinded by their knowledge or love for a product that they only could sell, in this case the lemon.

The lesson is if you are going to profile a prospect, LISTEN! We have all heard the old adage, God gave us two ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion.

Another listening challenges that I see are at restaurants and coffee houses. These servers profile you. Then take the order back to no avail get wrong. Recently, I was at a coffee shop in San Francisco. I wanted to order coffee and oatmeal. I changed the oatmeal order slightly from what was on the menu.

Menu: Oatmeal – Whole milk, Brown sugar, Raisins, Berries

How I Ordered: Water, Berries

How it turned out: Oatmeal – Whole milk, Brown sugar, Raisins, and Berries

I know what you are thinking; this person works at a coffee shop and does not take the job as serious. I just think it is a great example to illustrate what average salespeople do each and every day they call on prospects. Two things, ask the questions and do not have preconceived answers to them, and LISTEN intently.

Asking For the Business

Over the years I have found my number one mistake and my fellow salespeople’s number on mistake was not asking for the business. My issue was not asking enough times or not asking at all. The key is to be persistent. How many times have you thought, “Mr. Gotssomemoneytospend is never going to buy from me?” Then one day on another feeble attempt to stay in contact with the prospect they illustrate some serious buying signs. They may even on their own accord further the sales process and ask if they can come in to sign the dotted line. We know this could be for many reasons. Their current supplier may have crossed the line for the final time. The prospect is in a good mood. Whatever the case your persistence paid off. Either way the key is to never get discouraged or negative, but be as positive as you can. You never know the day may come where you ask in slightly a different way or your stars just line up with the prospect. So, number 1 is being persistent! Don’t ever take no as an answer. You are the professional and know what is best. Always ask for the order.

The worst is not asking for the business. This works in all walks of life. In the United States economy we are all sales people of some sort. If we do not further the sale xyz competitor down the street will undoubtedly steal the business. If xyz does it enough they will surely eliminate your job or put your company out of business. So no matter what your role, customer service, sales, service, you need to help close and keep business. I have repeatedly talked about how a waiter or waitress is sales person. They have a variable piece to their compensation, which are tips and tips directly reflect on their salesmanship. Recently, I was taking 4 clients out to a well-known steak house in Chicago. We decided to sit in the bar at round high top table and eat there. A waitress who I have had on many occasions was taking care of us this particular evening. During one of her passes by my table she was remarking how some gentleman were sitting at a table kiddy corner from us who ordered from the bar and have not ordered anything from her. I told her to go ask for the business. She looked a bit puzzled. I said, “They look like business men and should appreciate what you say.” She asked me, “Well what do I say?” I told her, “Politely walk up to the gentleman and say, I would appreciate that you guys order your next round from me. You ordered the last from the bar and this table is for sale by me. Being businessmen you can understand that my tips/commission are depended upon me selling this table. So do you guys mind either ordering your next drink from me or can you stand by the bar so I can sell this table?” The gentlemen’s faces started to light up with smiles and laughs and they completely understood. Business closed, they ordered their next round from her. She came back and was laughing at what just happened to her. Second, Always ask for the business.

I think too often we do not value ourselves and our businesses enough to take the pride and ask for the business. I have heard many people in the financial services industry compare themselves to many professionals like doctors and lawyers. This comparison is only accurate if you act with the same business acumen. Take your self and your business as serious as any other professional and ask for the business.