Find out the benefits, how to do PC (VOIP) phone integrations and what is on offer by a top supplier here: Practical CRM & ERP integration tools
Well, it didn’t take long. Less than a full week in fact, for the first GDPR-related court cases to surface against social tech giants Facebook and Google.
It was as if lawyers were just waiting to pounce on them for their apparent failure to protect our rights as online users. This pertains specifically to issues relating to data privacy and the sharing of private details mainly with third-party marketers.
How Facebook stores and shares your data has been clarified by several intense inquiries in the US and recently in Europe. This is where the law is set to benefit users of the social media platform in that geospatial area of the world.
The said lawsuit, however, focuses on the opt-out clause that forces you to make a choice to comply or leave. The claimant is a privacy campaigner. He has made the Billion-Euro complaint on behalf of several users; seemingly a challenge to Facebook.
Additionally, he has launched a separate suit against Google, accusing them of “pressurizing” users into accepting their data collection policies.
This ‘comply and accept or get thrown out’ clause could leave you without your routine dose of social media consumption. Such a clause is thus deemed unfair.
It could cost Facebook a lot if they get their way based on the terms stipulated in the new law. The social media giant could be fined up to a few billion or a sizeable fraction of their earnings in punitive damages.
The passing of the new regulation on May 25th, 2018, better known as the General Data Protection Regulation {GDPR} has been a long time coming.
Despite the warnings of the “kick-in” of the regulation, many are unprepared for it. Some of the reactions to the law include confusion, anxiety by both large and small firms alike, and plain comical hysteria!
Non-compliance now carries heavy fines and penalties, up to 20 million euros for anyone operating within the EU borders.
Well, it boils down to a right that has since the launch of the Internet to the mainstream, been waivered and overlooked. Gaining CONSENT to use your data for anything other than the reason you went public on the Internet is very crucial.
This has become a contentious issue as many companies have over the years, unscrupulously benefited from data acquired (mined) – without your consent. Facebook only brought this into the spotlight recently.
If you hold a folder, database of clients whether online or on your internal server, you would have to comply with the rules which stipulate full disclosure. This includes who you share your details with, and how the information is tracked, shared, and kept secure.
Furthermore, research in March this year showed that only 39% of the Fortune 500 companies in the UK and 47% had GDPR compliance taskforces.
Another UK firm commissioned study found that our buying behaviours are heavily influenced by we perceive our data is being handled by companies.
The consent given to use your basic information cannot be taken for granted – even in the medical environment.
German doctors’ practices, in the wake of GDPR, are manually making you sign consent forms. Doctors are now required to fully disclose who they share your contact information with.
There are simple ways you can stay GDPR compliant. One method is to adopt an attitude of embracing it rather than just complying with it. You can be transparent with your customers by doing the following:
Add a cookie bar to your website. You can also add a clause/paragraph to that effect (website disclaimer) in your ‘About Us’ section.
Similarly, you must state clearly on any opt-in forms. Newsletters and any forms where their data is collected, used, and passed onto other third-parties must be announced. State clearly who they are and which data they have access to.
You then need to give your customer the option to select what they want to share. Even if such data may not be necessary for them to receive services from you.
Constantly review your relationships with third-party affiliates and partners to ensure that they are also complying with the law.
They could be jeopardizing your data compliance efforts – as Cambridge Analytica did with Facebook.
The last and most challenging step requires the action of what is promised above. This means an upgrade of your internal software to include security/encryption.
You can obtain full compliance by using a GDPR-compliant package like Office 365 Enterprise E3. This package has email software specially designed for those of you dealing with sensitive client’s data that need to be kept for long periods. Litigation hold, heavy archiving features; as well as basic email encryption are all included.
You can add supplementary encryption software such as Azure Information Protection as an extra layer of security. This helps you to safeguard emails and stored data from being lost, compromised, or accidentally shared.
All said and done it is likely that if you are a bigger firm, you would either need to create the position of a data security officer internally. If your lawyers are not up to date with digital laws, however, you can simply outsource the service.
Let’s face it, if you really were going to quit Facebook, you would have a few years ago. Fact is, you should have asked the serious questions when the ‘free’ social media platform started turning over billions of dollars.
No free service can generate that amount of money out of goodwill and thin air. So much that they could list on the stock exchange. So, we are not quite sure why everyone is acting amazed or why the knee-jerk #DeleteFacebook campaign is only now coming to light.
There really is no such thing as a free lunch. If you believe that all these online social platforms would keep it that way, then you are as naive as they are hoping you to be.
Think about it, the companies behind the platforms, actively recruit in pretty much tens and hundreds of cities globally.
And the simple fact of the matter is that in order for them to pay all their staff of programmers, developers, executives, lawyers, and other stakeholders. They need to be paid!
Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snapchat, and any social media platform that has over 100 million users sit on a goldmine for advertisers.
The commodity, however, is not just what their users wish to own in the short term, or their purchasing power directly for that matter.
The commodity is simply you, the user. So, your preferences, habits, and views along with their personal data are analyzed via machine-learning systems to study behaviours and habits.
The data, in turn, is used for constant revenue maximization. In some extreme cases, it is used for political, psychological, and social manipulation!
“Your ‘payment’ on a social media platform is your consent to have your information used for marketing purposes. Opting out of marketing would give you true ‘free use’ of the service. But no profiteering company offers you that privilege today. The best you can get is a month’s free trial.”
Your likes, spending habits, music preferences, political views, location and working habits enables marketers to present their goods and services.
They can position their offerings (sometimes subliminally) into spaces where you are likely to indulge in them.
Social media platforms, in this case, become the marketplace for them to ‘mine’ data to use.
Source: © Statista 2018
Data mining is not a new idea and completely legal if presented transparently in the terms and conditions of any service. The terms get longer by the day (small print) that we don’t bother to read them.
Microsoft envisioned this a decade ago and changed the way its operating systems work (with its Windows 8 series).
Its operating systems are now more of a social, interactive, and information gathering system. Allegedly designed to “help you” organize things better.
This is fostered by a voice-activated app called Cortana – all under one Microsoft account.
Amazon has its own ways of data mining via your shopping habits and Alexa – is its own voice-activated search and information-providing device.
Google (owned by Alphabet company) has the biggest stranglehold of the lot. They must, therefore, be the most cautious when it comes to data privacy and security.
This applies especially with its partnership with Android, which makes it a requirement for you to use for all their devices to link all your data.
These include phone contacts, emails via Gmail, pictures via GoogleDrive, apps (music, movies, etc) orders via the Google (Play)Store, and social media (Google+).
You can even have your search fields stored and synced onto your devices – from your laptop to phone and tablet via Google.
You are now having to give up your personal details to unknown affiliated marketers and partners of tech giants. They get first dibs on this data – and paying good money for it.
Read more about Affiliate Marketing here
The main violation by Facebook, therefore, might not even be non-consensus selling of data to marketers. Such things could be countered with a clause.
They may have strategically stuck one in while you were busy posting selfies and liking random videos of cats.
The real issue is the potential use of the data for political or advanced manipulation of data for fraudulent purposes. This can be facilitated by the use of artificial intelligence to influence you without your knowledge.
Read more about the uses of Artificial Intelligence here
It is possible for you to have full data privacy and absolute freedom from advertising on social platforms. This, however, comes at a ‘cost’.
This was reiterated recently by the COO of Facebook who admittedly confirmed that ‘opting out’ would mean you will have to pay to use Facebook in the future.
They had just not put this in place but will now forcibly have to make it a clearly visible option.
The fact of the matter is we are in an era of Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and AI. All of these require your data to ‘operate’.
Though many were reluctant at first, pretty much every company now has a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page. It serves as a platform to showcase and communicate with thier clients via the newly termed phrase ‘social engagement’.
This has turned out to become a strong branding and marketing tool for them.
And if you think you are out of it by leaving one platform, just remember this: Facebook owns WhatsApp & Instagram; Google owns YouTube; Microsoft owns LinkedIn, and so on.
There is, in fact, nowhere to hide if complete online privacy is important to you. And let’s not forget your web-browser: Not many of us actively use ad-blockers: but your browsing data is being scanned and processed by external third-parties companies.
If you aren’t using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), you should seriously consider it! Along with some good plug-ins to help secure your online browsing from all types of behind the scenes snooping and ransomware.
It will be interesting to see the outcome and verdict of the probe into the Facebook case.
Rest assured, many other heavily used platforms will be deleting and removing ties with data mining marketers. Especially ones that have had a similar agenda to what Cambridge Analytica was accused of conducting.
There really is no such thing as a free lunch and if you believe that all these online social platforms – who may have started off with sole intentions to provide a free service, would keep it that way, then you are as naive as they are hoping you to be. Think about it, the companies behind the platforms, actively recruit in pretty much tens and hundreds of cities globally. And the simple fact of the matter is that in order for them to pay all their (global) staff of programmers, developers, executives, lawyers and other stakeholders – they need revenue.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snapchat and pretty much any social media platform that has over 100 million users, therefore, sit on a goldmine for advertisers. The commodity, however, is not just what their users wish to own in the short term, or their purchasing power directly for that matter. The commodity is simply you, the user. So, your preferences, habits and views along with their personal data are analysed via machine-learning systems to study behaviours and habits for constant revenue maximization or in some extreme cases: political, psychological and social manipulation!
“Your ‘payment’ on a social media platform is your consent to have your information used for marketing purposes – opting out of marketing would give you true free use of the service. But no profiteering company offers that privilege today – the best you can get is a month’s free trial.”
Knowing your likes, spending habits, music preferences, political views, personal information including location and working habits is enough for any company or institution to cater their goods and services and position them (sometimes subliminally) into spaces where you are likely to indulge in them. Social media platforms, in this case, become the marketplace for them to ‘mine’ data to use.
Data mining is not a new idea and completely legal if presented transparently in the terms and conditions of any service – which are getting longer by the day (and smaller in print) that we don’t bother to read them. In fact, Microsoft envisioned this a decade ago and changed the way its operating systems work (beginning with its Windows 8 series), to more of a social, interactive and information gathering system – designed to “help you” organize things better. This is fostered by a voice-activated app called Cortana – all under one Microsoft account.
Amazon has its own ways of data mining via your shopping habits and Alexa – is own voice-activated search and information-providing device. Google (owned by a group called the Alphabet company) has the biggest stranglehold of the lot and must, therefore, be the most cautious when it comes to data privacy and security.
This applies especially with its partnership with Android, which makes it a requirement to use for all their devices (phones and tablets) to link up all your data including phone contacts, emails via Gmail, pictures via GoogleDrive, apps (music, movies and games) orders via the Google (Play)Store and social media via Google+. You can even have your search fields stored and synced onto your devices – from your laptop to phone and tablet via Google.
You are now having to (almost mandatorily) give up your telephone number, location, and other preferences indirectly to unknown affiliated marketers and partners of the tech giants who are getting first dibs on this data – and paying good money for it.
The main violation by Facebook, therefore, might not even be non-consensus selling of data to marketers, because such things could be countered with a clause they may have strategically stuck in while you were busy posting selfies and liking random videos of cats making funny faces. The real issue is the potential use of the data for political or advanced manipulation of data for fraudulent purpose with the use of sophisticated and artificial intelligence to influence you without your knowledge.
Read more about the uses of Artificial Intelligence here
Full data privacy, though not conceivable, and absolute freedom from advertising on social platforms is possible – but at a cost. This was reiterated recently by the COO of Facebook who admittedly confirmed that opting out of the terms to have your data sold or used would lead to you having to pay to use Facebook in future. They had just not put this in place but will now forcibly have to make it a clearly visible option.
The fact of the matter is we are in an era of Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT) and AI – all which require data to analyze. These platforms are thus here to stay and still serve their specific functions well. More importantly, they’re also the livelihood for many small-to-medium-sized businesses. Though many were reluctant at first, pretty much every company now has a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram page to showcase and communicate with their clients via the newly termed phrase ‘social engagement’ – a strong branding and marketing tool.
And if you think you are out of it by leaving one platform, just remember this: Facebook owns WhatsApp & Instagram; Google owns YouTube; Microsoft owns LinkedIn and so on – there is nowhere to hide if complete online privacy is important to you. And let’s not forget your web-browser – not many people actively use ad-blockers unaware that even their browsing data is being scanned and processed always by external third-parties companies.
If you aren’t using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), you should seriously consider it along with some good (some free) plug-ins to help secure your online browsing from all types of behind the scenes snooping and ransomware.
It will be interesting to see the outcome and verdict of the probe into the Facebook case and rest assured, many other heavily used platforms will be deleting and removing ties with data mining marketers that have had a similar agenda to what Cambridge Analytica was accused of conducting.
A change in verification of marketers, data storage, management and data security laws (such as the new GDPR law targeting businesses coming in May 2018 to the EU region) were long overdue, and Facebook will now be the scapegoat to enforce data security laws on social media.
Working in a service industry environment can come with its operational challenges. When you are dealing with customers, it is easy to get overwhelmed with contacts, referrals, emails, and appointments.
There are, however, solutions designed for small to medium-sized businesses, that will help you keep track of processes through well-coordinated business automation.
Traditionally, business (process) automation is the task of an individual or team overseeing the digital transformation of your company. This role has been refined into what is now formally recognized as a business analyst. It involves a highly detailed audit of your business’s processes and workflows.
This is priced as an input (operational) cost or some form of revenue. The business analyst is a role like that of a quantity surveyor – but essentially with operational software.
The aim is to minimize your operational costs while expanding revenue via the tools and processes used to run your business.
A collaboration tool like Skype for Business can help you avoid unnecessary inter-departmental meetings. This would save you loads in travel, hotel, food, and other expenses.
A quick assessment or analysis can help you shift the focus and costs away from a non-responsive product to one that will drive profits.
If a potential product required more attention from a quality or marketing point of view, you can pick up trends using a good business intelligence (BI) tool.
The application would pool all your numbers (prices, product-related interactions) usually stored in your Excel sheets. You could then present in real-time to reflect sales, revenues, staff retention, product demand, elasticity, and return on investment.
These useful actions and reports can be performed with a few clicks of the mouse using the right BI software. Again. this saves you time in meetings and limits the unnecessary requests for data from your colleagues.
That brings us to the next tool that helps you to collate data into central repositories for quick access. File-servers have existed for several decades but are outdated as they can crash. They can also slow down when overloaded or just not hold compatible data.
Secure online file-sharing solutions can help you resolve this. By “online”, we mean the data can be accessed remotely from anywhere in the world on any device with a broadband connection.
But what is the point of having data centrally stored when you cannot access it once you leave a certain parameter/network?
When it comes to security concerns (people outside the organization or worse yet – a competitor, accessing your data), you can rest assured!
File-sharing providers have long thought about it. After all, none of them want to get sued for losing your data!
Today several banks and even public institutions consume utilize cloud services for this very reason. Companies like Microsoft, IBM, and Google are making their services more secure as well as compliant to data storage regulations nationally or globally.
They are, however, forced to charge you a small fortune for that added service!
There several examples of how automation helps you streamline or improve operations. For more practical examples and a cost-effective and easy-to-use online tool that you can use, check out Messegely.
Consider social media integration (to where most of your targetable markets are). “Social engagement” is progressively becoming a buzzword.
Having applications that link to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram used to be ‘nice-to-haves’. They are now a necessity if you want to stay in touch with your audience or market.
The onus is on your business analyst to source the right (most effective) SaaS tools to help channel the digitalization of your company’s social and business operations.
Not doing this may leave you at the mercy of creative destruction. Consider companies like Yahoo, Nokia, and Blackberry.
Failing to adapt to a changing landscape or being rigid with the innovation. Nokia and Blackberry allowed Apple and Samsung to snatch their market share with touchscreen tech.
Failing to streamline how you operate can cloud your judgment. This will lead to you failing to even grasp what the customer needed in the first place!
Automation can help you pay more attention to the client’s needs because you spend less time taking notes. Instead, you will be able to perform the most important task when dealing with customers – listen!
Visit the resources page for an array of top-ranked automation tools you can use. These tools will ensure that you are being as productive as you can – saving you time and of course money in the long run.
Now what really is really astonishing is when people ask how a CRM can actually help their business. Often one gets asked what CRM stands for or even means!
Now granted, it is a technical and industry-specific jargon depicting an online tool. More specifically, it is software used on hardware like PCs, tablets, scanners, point-of-sale devices, and modern cash registers).
What it does, however, is something many businesses both small and large take for granted – and mostly to their detriment.
We use CRM solutions a lot more than we think. Take our Smartphones for instance: they are basically miniature customer (data or content) managing tools and though personalized, they serve the same function.
Now to put this into perspective very quickly and simply: our phones store and manage all our contacts. Our friends, family, businesses, and clients are kept in records primarily to help us access and communicate with them quickly.
Mobile phones, have also evolved to now enable you to not only manage your contacts to just make calls or send SMS. You can now share all sorts of content with via the various social media platforms.
Each of these platforms naturally has its own purpose and account. Android phones, for instance, come with (need to be activated by) a Google account.
You can then subsequently use it to access many applications (via an app store) and not just your email.
CRMs manage a company’s accounts in a similar way. They enable you to quickly get a hold of people to either sell directly to, create or follow-up on a sales lead, or nurture the lead until it becomes a sale.
This is carried out by software that sits on the front-end of a database stored on a local server or on the cloud. The software is normally user-friendly for it to be adopted and used frequently by end users.
This enhances your productivity and therefore increases revenue for your business.
They are used more by salespeople and staff of companies that offer a service via their customer support services or front-end teams.
So, when you call your local phone company because you are behind on a payment or would like to hand in a product for repairs, it is a CRM system that is used to log, track and manage the case till is solved.
The transcript, along with the call logs and resolutions are kept for a later date or time for if you make a follow-up call, request a new service. These records are stored in a database or what is called an instance.
Depending on what your company does, it will have several (national or regional) instances to help access data even faster.
A CRM can help you manage a healthy relationship with your clients to ensure that you are not calling them several times a day to put them off.
It will stop you from forgetting to follow-up on scheduled calls or emails or worse yet, sending them the wrong product or information about your offerings.
A good CRM package also comes equipped with a means for you to create and store brochures, create effective and targeted marketing campaigns, generate quotes and invoices (PDFs). It will also come with a solid built-in knowledgebase.
This is a stored pool of resources containing processes and scenarios to help you quickly resolve a problem, prescribe a product or log a case.
And nowadays, like a mobile phone, a good CRM software can seamlessly help you integrate with social media platforms to follow, service or attract customers from those digital marketplaces.
Several CRM tools out there that offer different functionalities and depending on the size of your business, you can get a basic one that just manages your contacts and interactions.
Then you have ones that handle full-scale operations (back-office processes like warehousing, inventory, accounting, finance, payroll, and HR).
Those fall under another high-level category of CRMs known as Enterprise Resource Planning tools or ERPs. A topic for another blog perhaps as they are a totally different animal altogether.
CRMs are however, an component of ERPs and bigger companies would need both to handle large scale operations.
So you see how useful a CRM is in helping to run your company. They are now being even more automated with the help of Business Intelligence and AI.
That makes it even easier for you to use them to grow your business to levels where ERPs you would eventually need an ERP.
It is quite hard to understand why anyone would bother to ask (sometimes silly) questions these days when answers lie within the tips of our fingers – literally.
Back in the day, we used to have the ordained task of trekking to school or public libraries, or in some cases, rely on the local nerd to help answer questions and grasp difficult concepts.
Most of you don’t realize it, but we carry information boxes via our smartphones and tablets daily. It is easy, however, to get bombarded by misinformation and what is now dubbed ‘fake news’.
This is why it’s important for you to be able to identify credible sources when conducting research or looking for quick answers.
One source of information that we subconsciously consume daily is social media. Thanks to the advent of the Internet, news, and information can reach us within milliseconds.
We can now tune into local news broadcasts only to get things that are specific to our areas of interest.
A quick and ill-prepared online search for a diagnosis, however, can lead to you discovering that you only have three days to live.
Worse yet, you might even “uncover” an imminent evil ploy to destroy the world and have us living underground or under the ocean.
Not all such theories, however, are far-fetched. Soon we will be seeing flying cars and man-manned drones such as the EHANG 184.
And whether rumour of fact, these quick news snippets get us thinking and prompts further research into more credible sources.
Your football clubs, politicians and musicians are all actively using them to break new signings, announce new albums or push new policy or campaign objectives.
In addition, most, if not all companies, banks governmental institutions and even religious organizations now have a presence on social media. They use it to aggressively promote their brands or agenda.
So, you see, ignoring the news and social media completely these days is the equivalent of retreating to a cabin in the woods or cave. You would be shutting yourself completely from family and the rest of the world.
A social media detox is probably not a bad thing to do. We often get overly bombarded by information. However, skipping a week can leave you feeling as though you just emerged from the stone ages!
Here is a quick guide to the mainstream information sources that you can use as starting points for your research.
The biggest search engine and while it generates more results (quicker than other search engines ) – it also naturally, carries a lot of misinformation.
Google specifically has great features such as the voice-activated ‘OK Google‘ feature. It is quite responsive and good if you can’t be bothered to type but need voice-activated quick responses.
You can quickly get the latest football scores, the next flight to Tokyo, or the latest stock price of Oil or Bitcoin.
Always a quick reference guide (commonly used here). Bear in mind that their entries are put together by ordinary people.
So while fairly accurate, you should cross-reference information there especially when it comes to dates and events.
The website, however, gets reviewed/verified regularly and is therefore still quite a practical ‘go-to’ source for you to get quick facts. Be wary of the usage of short ‘Wikis’ though.
For credible and simple to understand finance-related terms concepts on the go along with related news and great blog. They even have a great simulated stock trading game that you can enjoy.
Brandishing the iconic blue bird logo, Twitter is quick, instant, and addictive to some (no names mentioned).
Twitter is the best platform enabling you to announce and share information quickly via your mobile devices. News often breaks on it often before mainstream can media can announce/publish it.
It’s even quite common for news anchors to quote the tweet handle of a politician or celebrity when delivering news these days.
Launched as the first real (public) social media platform. It was designed to connect university/college peers. It has since grown to be the one source of finding your old flames, colleagues, family.
Authorities and companies are known to have used it to find out criminals or veto job candidates.
The platform was even allegedly used as a source for political campaigns and meddling with outcomes of a certain major presidential election.
It has, since its inception in 2004, been a place where many applications such as gaming application developer Zynga have made millions by capitalizing on our addiction to mobile games.
Facebook also has its other uses. It serves as a large marketplace to sell things, sends instant messages (with video-calling), and provides us with security alerts in times of terror attacks and natural disasters.
This app is important but often overlooked source of company information, recruitment, and career-building website. Though it looks similar to Facebook, it is more career-oriented and a great source for recruiters to head-hunt find you online.
LinkedIn gives you an extra professional ‘leg-up’ and even enables you to quickly convert your profile into a well-structured PDFed CV.
So useful, that it was acquired by Microsoft late last year. It is a powerful resource for their CRM solutions to be able to track individuals, companies, and decision-makers.
This has become a lot more than a place to post pictures of your dog´s gourmet dinner. This picture-based app has a fully-fledged marketing engine backed up by hashtags like Twitter. Like Whatsapp, it also now belongs to Facebook.
It has become a necessary tool for both, individuals and businesses and of course, celebrities like Kim Kardashian.
Instagram took over, in terms of popularity, the likes of similar older picture sharing platforms such as Photobucket or Flickr.
Owned by Facebook (if you didn’t know). This phone and the desktop-based app got their edge by taking over the SMS function from mobile operators.
We don’t send SMSes anymore. And if you still do, it’s usually because your phone is too old – or you are up to something shady! 🙂
Blackberry (R.I.P) started this idea with the BBM Messenger. But like others that tried and failed using exclusivity, not everyone wanted a Blackberry just to use that feature.
Enter WhatsApp with the ability to use your mobile phone number rather than the device itself to set it up. And just like that, it snatched up the whole market!
Running off Wi-Fi or your mobile data, you can instantaneously share videos, links, and pictures.
You can use it to host – or rather – facilitate group events like the planning of a surprise party, a birthday party. It can help you also get serious things done. You can collaborate on assignments, prepare a presentation, or (for start-ups on a low budget) launch a marketing campaign.
The funniest thing is how we now have people walking with more authority – with the title of “WhatsApp group admin”.
This animated short video-making application is more for the youth but you can also use it for enterntainment. Snapchat is used mostly by celebrities like DJ Khaled – who is often viewed as its ‘ambassador’. He even owns shares in the company.
It also has also recently surged in popularity (number of users) and earned a place with some of the business powerhouses on the NYSE.
By successful, we refer the whole process: from convincing the customer that your product or service will meet his/her long or short-term needs. This is after listening carefully to their requirements through thorough discovery. The client is then able to the payment without hassles and take timely delivery of the goods.
Finally, the customer acknowledging and thanking you for it with the hopes of coming back should be the most rewarding part of the sale. That coupled with your commission of course!
A successful sale is a step-by-step process and must have all the above elements.
Anything short of that is paramount to a quick-fix or even a scam. It is only lazy salespeople (taking shortcuts) that give the trade a bad reputation.
Granted, not all of your sales interactions will turn out to be complete success. Some elements of the above process could be stymied by aspects out of your control. For instance, the client’s lack of funds, suppliers’ delivery delays or a faulty product can mess up a good sales cycle.
Some of the most successful sales are even conducted by faceless agents. Once, while based in Johannesburg, we sold a product (that was mass produced in China) and had it delivered from New York to Cape Town via air-freight.
This was based on a demand (order) that was placed on a then operational website. The actual sales were brokered via correspondence by email and phone.
Luckily, the product (and delivery) quality was good enough not to warrant a face-to-face visit, though in those days having Skype for Business would have been a great resource to at least give ‘a face’ to the sales rep.
They were, however, willing to deal with the agent several times without having met them personally based on the quality of the (medical) product. This was in addition to the vote of confidence and guarantees provided throughout the intensive sales interactions.
This little anecdote proves that it doesn’t matter what you sell, if the product is of good quality, and meets all (compliance) requirements including the recent GDPR law – the sale actually becomes the easy part.
You will, however, still require a little bit (and the right kind) of presentation skills to position the product/service adequately enough to execute the sale.
There is no real art to selling – we all do it all the time without realizing it. From the time we apply to a kindergarten or high school, to university and finally to all the jobs in our working career.
As salespeople, we must present ourselves (our unique skills and character) and persuade a ‘buyer’ to take us on. This is also something no automated sales agent or Chatbot can do and is an area that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not beat us on.
And just like a brand, everything we do is intended to enhance our value and the more we beef-up our brand (with educational, mentorship and technical qualifications). The better our brand, the more demand for your offering.
But back to selling. We sell people ideas: something as simple as convincing your mate to meet at the pub after work or your girls to join you for a weekend spa takes skilful persuasion. And even more so if they had other plans or options.
That is essentially what sales is about – persuading a buyer to choose your product or service over that of others using tools such as the consumer black box.
Such persuasion obviously can be genuine or fraudulent. Those salespeople trained by their leader Jordan Belfort as illustrated in the 2013 Wolf of Wall Street movie are a testimony. The revealed how persuasion can be used effectively when capitalizing on with an inherent human trade – greed.
Being truthful, however, (even if it means letting go of a sale) will determine whether you get repeat customers. This is something most successful salespeople make use of to boost their conversion rates and pipelines.
Debunqed.com likes to follow unconventional salespeople who use unorthodox but effective methods. These are not necessarily the textbook style of selling but will help to inspire you to address the potential client’s needs honestly.
Such ‘on the ground’ learning is done with the help of a mentor. Shadowing one or two mentors that are passionate about what they do can rub off a few skills that can supplement traditional sales theory.
Sales is a skill best learned on the ground and you will hardly find an institution offering it as an elective course.
Such revenue-multiplying potential that repeat-customers can provide for your sales portfolio or pipeline beats getting a quick-fix by conning people no matter how big the ‘score’ is.
What you should be doing as a salesman is gaining your customers’ trust whilst solving their problem.
A trusting customer will always look you up for more purchases.
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