By: Gil Effron
CBS runs a series called Undercover Boss. While a little too melodramatic for my tastes, the moral of the story is germane for every business owner and for everyone responsible for sales and marketing.
In case you haven’t seen Undercover Boss, the premise is that a boss, CEO, or president of a business goes undercover to work alongside his employees. He sees what they see… and experiences first hand what it’s like to work in the trenches.
Obviously, the boss sees things from a very different perspective. At the end, the boss is humbled, everyone hugs and cries, and a few employees are singled out and rewarded financially.
As business owners –– and as those responsible for sales and marketing –– it is equally as important for us to go undercover as a prospect to our own business or organization.
So what if you could disguise yourself as a prospect and come in contact with your business or organization for the first time, what would your experience be?
Or better yet, on a continuum from great to poor with “barely acceptable” in the middle, how would your business score when it comes to attracting your attention in the first place, greeting you properly, making you feel important, educating you, listening and understanding what you as a prospect wants and needs, and so on?
How would your business score on the sales presentation? And most importantly, would you buy… would you become a customer or client as a result of their efforts?
Marketing and the sales process are not stand-alone activities. Each, individually, is a process. Combined they are a process. And every process can be improved.
Knowing that, the key to bringing about significant, across-the-board improvements starts when you take a good, hard look at every aspect of your marketing and sales process and, of course, when you are willing to make those changes or improvements to the process.
While the producers at Undercover Boss might not choose to feature you in one of their upcoming episodes, you can create your own episode by putting yourself in the shoes of your prospects and clients.
By doing so, you could go a long way toward improving your sales process, streamlining it, shortening it, and making it more efficient and efficient… to the end that you see a better outcome (defined as more sales and profits).
GIL EFFRON is an experienced business advisor and marketing strategist. As founder and CEO of New York City-based Strategies For Growth, he works with established businesses as well as startups to help them avoid critical mistakes and maximize opportunities.
Gil also heads Strategies For Growth’s 10-Day Marketing Makeover initiative. This program is designed to help owners of small to medium-sized businesses increase sales and profitability by streamlining and shortening their sales process and installing the most appropriate and effective marketing to support that sales process.
Read more articles by Gil at www.gileffron.com