In my last post I took a macro view at the impact education has on the experience we create for our clients, and their customers. Education is the foundation of an empowered brand with a loyal following of customers. An empowered brand with loyal customers becomes in turn a loyal client, but how do you develop a client, their brand, and their customers into empowered ones? This is the question I will answer today.
1. Know Your Team
When it comes to empowering brands it all starts with educating your sales team. Since the root of educate means to bring out what is already within, we must have a deep understanding of each sales member’s unique abilities and how to leverage them.
To accomplish this, we utilize the personality test, Strength’s Finder 2.0, which provides valuable insight into the unique gifts of each individual. Understanding the propensities of our sales team members allows us to put them in positions that will allow them to flourish.
2. Give Your Team a Map
When it comes to the HOW, I always bring it back to our sales cycle. The sales cycle is like the client lifecycle. It is the experience we provide for our clients that turns them into empowered and loyal clients. Just as our sense of giving is integrated into our sales cycle, so is our sense of empowering. There is no coincidence here that every one of our core values is integrated into our sales cycle.
The sales cycle is the pathway to the brighter vision of our company. It is the guiding light for our sales reps as they navigate the difficult road of empowering clients, brands, and customers. Each step of the sales cycle provides opportunities for our sales team to educate our clients to make empowered decisions.
3. Focus on Creating an Experience, Not a Sale
At Kaspo, our sales team members are referred to as brand loyalists. The title of a brand loyalist reminds our sales team what is at the essence of their everyday function when interacting with clients.
Brand loyalists are educated on the processes, products, and suppliers that are involved in accomplishing the objectives of the client. With this foundation they are able to guide clients to empowered decisions.
For example, when a client calls and says they want pens the brand loyalist does not respond with an “OK” but rather with a deeper question of why do they want a pen, how do they see the pen functioning as a piece of their marketing campaign, and what are they hoping to accomplish with this pen.
The deeper questioning reminds the client that they are in good hands and that we are the experts in empowering brands.
We know our products, we know our clients brands, and we know marketing. With these cornerstones we craft on experience that yields an empowered client. What you get out of your sales team is all about what you put into them.
