3 Ways Any Employee Can Be Your Best Salesperson
If you’re in business, chances are you’ve got salespeople, whether they’re on the phones or greeting people as they walk through your doors. But not all of your employees have the title “salesperson” do they? You might have an accounts payable employee, a person working in your tasting room at your winery or you might have someone who stocks shelves in your store. So how do you get those people “selling” for you?
They Need to Like Their Jobs
Even the most mundane jobs can be fun! It’s time to inject some fun into the jobs of your employees. Why not try having contests around specific tasks your employees need to do. Then reward them in a fun way with a gift certificate or an award.
Recognizing a job well done might even be more important than cold hard cash. So make sure you do this in a public forum to ensure your entire company knows a great job done.
They Need to Like Your Company
One way to make employees proud of your company is to give them a reason to be. People like to work for award-winning companies, so why not display your Yelp sticker or any award you’ve received prominently in your workspace so that every time they pass by it’s a reminder that they work for a successful business? Also include these awards all over your site and in your marketing materials.
Employees who are advocates for companies also know what’s happening in the company so being very vocal, especially if you’re doing well, could go a long way.
Employees also like companies that give back to their communities. I know that here at VerticalResponse, one of the things that employees are very proud of is that fact that we give our product away free to non-profits. I bet that each employee has had at least one conversation about us to someone they know in the non-profit world advocating our program.
You might even encourage your employees to get their friends to work at your company. If you’ve got top-notch employees, chances are they’re hanging with other folks who would do as good of a job as they do. In my opinion if they get their friends to work for you, this is the utmost sign that they’re advocating your business.
They Need to Like Your Customers
People want to work with customers they like. If your customers are saying nice things about you, why not let your employees know about it. Post your customer testimonials on your walls or your website, or email your staff when someone has something nice to say about your business on Twitter or Facebook.
At VerticalResponse we host special events and seminars for our customers. We try to get as many employees as we can talking to our customers to find out what really makes them tick. We learn things that customers like and don’t like, which in the end helps us be a better company. Our employees often leave energized and wanting to do more for our amazing customers who took time out of their busy day to be with us.
If you’ve got employees who like what they do and who they do it for, chances are they’re already your best salesperson. After all, it’s what they spend most of their day doing!
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We’ve been utilizing similar approaches in our home office to make sure that our employees are happy and becoming our best “salespeople.” Now we need to figure out a way to do the same with our outsourced sales team. We’ve had a little too much turnover. I think Joseph’s got a great point about the employee relationship with their manager, so we’re trying to develop that.
Good advice.. better advice would be love. Marketing genius Jay Abraham puts it this way, “The secret to success is to fall out of love with your product, service, or store, and fall in love with your customers.”
Take care of your customers.. or someone else will.
Chris
3 good rules, but I would add a fourth: They Need To Like Their Manager.
For many employees, their relationship with their manager is more important than their relationship with customers or other areas of the company. By supporting good managers, you can demonstrate to your employees that their well-being matters to the company. Conversely, ignoring or suffering bad managers will send negative messages and can convert an otherwise happy employee into a bitter one.
3 good ways your employees are all in ‘sales’.
I like the way you show how business owners are responsible for supporting employees in all 3 areas.
Have you had good employees get their friends to work for you?
Michael
This is a great post reminding business owners that they must be conscious of the fact that their best salespeople may in fact be working in a different department.
Also, it is possible that as a business owner, you may want to consider outsourcing your sales.
I agree with @Joseph. There has to be good working relationship between the employee and the manager. Even if the salesperson likes working as one, likes the company and the customers, he/she also has to like the people around him/her in the workplace because it will boost his/her performance more.