IDA Universal

I DA U N I V E R S A L M a rc h -A p r i l 2 0 1 8 4 EDITOR'S NOTES Nancy Estes, MBA, CAE Executive Director/Editor I believe in people. at is why I chose to work with member associations throughout my entire career. When people take the time to genuinely get to know each other and realize they have some common needs and solutions and goals and begin pulling in the same direction… amazing things happen. at's what I wanted to write about so I began watching YouTube. It is a wonder! Simply list one topic in the box and before you know it you have watched a dozen presentations and it is midnight. By far the most interesting was presented by Harvey Mackay. You might recall some of his books: Swim With e Sharks, Without Being Eaten Alive and e McKay MBA Of Selling In e Real World. Mackay's presentation was on his 66. is referred to his 66 questions to use to build a customer profi le. "A er many decades of being a business owner and salesman, I have never, ever changed my Golden Rule of Selling: Know Your Customer." "Customers are the reason we open our doors every day, and keep the machines humming all night long. Customers deter- mine what we eat, where we live, whether we stay in business. We can keep our factories and offi ces going until we run out of money, but unless we have customers to sell to, we have no purpose. Any Google search can tell you all you need to know about a company you want to sell to — in fact, more than you need to know. But that doesn't mean you know your customer because the company isn't your customer. ere's a person in that company who makes decisions about how the company is going to spend One-On-One money, and who will get their business. at's your customer. When I was a young salesman, I developed the Mackay 66, a 66-question customer profi le that focuses on the person who does the buying. What are they like as human beings? What are they proud of accomplishing? What's their life like outside the offi ce? How do they want to be seen by others? In other words, what makes them tick? Getting to know that person and building a solid relationship will dramati- cally increase the probability you will get the business over the long run. People buy from other people because of likability and because of people skills. You must perform. en no one will take that business away from you." e last question, Number 66, was " DOES YOUR COMPETITOR HAVE BETTER ANSWERS TO THE ABOVE QUESTIONS THAN YOU HAVE?" If you would like to check out all of the questions: [http://www. harveymackay.com/wp-content/ uploads/2016/01/mackay66.pdf] Having an established relationship with a real live person is the best way to avoid being undercut on prices. And it's the only way to keep selling during rough patches in the economy. In his book Selling in Tough Times, Tom Hopkins writes, "If you have provided an exceptional level of service to your clients, there's a wonderful side benefi t. During tough times you will likely be lower on their list of services to reduce or eliminate than another company that hasn't provided your level of extraordinary service." Of course, you can only provide that extraordinary service to another human being. Hopkins makes fi ve points about cementing that person-to-person relationship, all of which bear remembering: • Loyalty is built over time and by giving consistent attention to your clients. • End every client meeting with these words: "Is there anything else I can do for you?" • Have multiple ideas for build- ing client loyalty through phone calls, e-mail, and postal mail. • Know how to approach a ne- glected client to regain their trust and keep their business. • Begin a study of other compa- nies that have loyal clients and incorporate some of their strate- gies into your business. Most of you have been selling your whole lives. You already know that people don't care how much you know, quite so much, once they realize how much you care. It takes a whole heap of time to make them believe you do care about them and their needs. Lots of time consistently given to assure they know you are their "go to" person. at is what the IDA Conven- tion provides. Time to really get to know your customers as human beings (talk and laugh), and learn more about the compe- tition and what is happening to others in the industry. And remember the attendees at the IDA show are almost all decision makers. Time where there are not ten billion people and miles to go before you're through. Don't miss this very important show. e IDA Show is about One-On-One. My best to you and yours, Nancy

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