TeneoTalent

Customer Visit ‘Ride Alongs’…

September 1, 2010

By Ken Eiken

One of my favorite activities as a sales leader (second only to writing commission checks) is visiting customers with members of my team. Getting out in the field is an excellent time to build relationships with your employees, help them improve their skills AND get valuable “face to face” time with customers. Too often, we get trapped in the office and all of the activities that come with it – meetings, report writing, etc. So getting out on the road is ALWAYS a welcome event!

Today, I want to present some thoughts on how to use Customer Visit “Ride Alongs” as a coaching tool you can use with your team members. As usual, I welcome your thoughts and best practices!

· Setting up the visits: When setting up customer visits with your sales people, reinforce with them that they need to schedule these visits as they normally would even if you weren’t traveling with them. There will always be the temptation on your staff’s part to introduce you to only their best customers. Don’t let this happen! Explain to your team member that you want to see:
o Existing customers – you want to visit satisfied customers as well as those that need some attention.
o Prospective customers – you want to visit those that are early in the sales process and those that are almost closed.
o NOTE: When scheduling these visits, make sure to have enough time between visits to adequately debrief. As a rule of them, I set aside 30 minutes for the debrief. You can do this while traveling to the next customer, but optimally, you will be able to stop and discuss over a coffee or a meal…
· Before the visit: Your sales person should prepared for the visit EXACTLY the way they normally do. The only exception is to be prepared to explain why you (the sales manager) is visiting with them. I always tell customers that I am there to meet face-to-face with customers and bring their feedback back to headquarters. This is a legitimate reason AND may help establishing rapport with the client/prospect.
· During the visit: THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO DEMONSTRATE YOUR SUPERIOR SELLING SKILLS! You are there to do the following:
o Support your team member by…
§ Listening to the customer, picking up cues that may mean more opportunity
§ Observing your employee in action, finding some opportunities for improvement to discuss during the debrief
§ Validating that they are important to your team and worthy of your investment of time
o Support the customer by…
§ Giving them insight into upcoming improvements in products / services that the sales person may not yet be aware of
§ Learning more about their business, potentially brainstorming new applications of your products to meet their needs
o Support your the organization back at home by…
§ Bringing back “authentic” customer feedback to the organization
§ Using your positional authority to solve a customer problem BEFORE they find alternative providers
· After the visit: Now is when your coaching begins! When I flew fighters in the Air Force, we would debrief approximately 1 hour for every 15 minutes of training in the air. I’m not suggesting that a 4 to 1 debriefing time ratio is required, but am using this example to demonstrate the importance of a structured debrief. Additionally, people learn best immediately following the activity, thus, it is important to debrief right after you leave the customer site, not later in the evening during Happy Hour! Here is my checklist for the sales visit debrief:
o Preparation – did your sales rep know…
§ the background of this customer / prospect?
§ where they were in the sales process?
§ what needed to happen to move them to the next stage of the process?
§ the effectiveness of the visit agenda moving the process forward?
§ “hip pocket” high-impact questions that they needed to ask?
§ what curveballs to expect? what to do when the customer threw ones they didn’t expect?
§ after the meeting, was it a successful visit?
o Conducting the call – did your sales rep…
§ meet the objectives they established prior to the call?
§ learn any new information?
§ discover any new opportunities during the visit?
§ ask the right, “high impact” questions?
§ follow up those questions with “next level”, probing questions?
§ know if they had a meeting with the decisions makers?
§ if not, did they learn from the meeting who the real decision makers are? and get sponsorship to meet them?
§ build the relationship with the customer?
§ identify how to improve their rapport with this customer?
o Preparation for the next call – will your sales rep…
§ take learnings from the previous visit and apply them to the next visit?

I cannot over emphasize the importance of coaching your team IN THE FIELD. Take advantage of the opportunity to build the relationship with your employees and help them improve their skills. Your sales people will appreciate it!

Ken specializes in turning around underperforming sales teams through effective
leadership.
His methodology includes coaching and mentoring, creating and
implementing sales process and fostering teamwork between the sales and operational
teams.

Feel free to contact Ken at ken@k2econsulting.com or 720-921-5493.

Share

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Brian Jeffrey September 2, 2010 at 10:48 am

Excellent advice. I’ve found that having a post-call coaching checklist helps me to have a productive post-call curbside coaching session. I try to coach as soon after the call as feasible rather than waiting until the end of the day. That way, lessons learn on one call can be put into practice on the next one.

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: