Sales Tips From One of the the Top Sports Training and Consulting Companies- 
Altitude Premium Consulting

BennettTIPS
Weekly Sales Training Tips From Greg Bennett of Altitude Premium Consulting  
a Kroenke Sports Enterprises 
Partner Organization 

Art of Renewing a Client

Segment 1: Mistakes Salespeople Make in Renewing a Client

Segment 2:
Renewal Strategies for Before the Initial Sale

Segment 3:
Renewal Strategies for During the Engagement

Segment 4:
Saving a Client Relationship After You Hear, "I Want Out"

Past Training Tips

Non-Verbal Communication

Negotiation Strategies That Win

Merged Selling

The Art of Renewing a Client 

Time Maximization Strategies

The Art of Renewing a Client

How to Get Clients to Stay Engaged With
Your Organization Year After Year

-By Greg Bennett

Segment Three:  Renewal Strategies for During the Engagement

In the last segment of our four-segment series on The Art of Renewing a Client we reviewed some unique steps we can take BEFORE the initial engagement to set-up the POST-BUY, long-term relationship with the client (the renewal).   If we successfully add these steps to our sales process, it will make the "during" steps (the area we'll be discussing in this segment) much easier down the road.

This segment will focus on what happens once we're in the engagement with the client...maybe it's a month in, a year in, or three-years in.  We'll talk about how to conduct a mid-buy review, how to flush out "issues", and finally how to deal with those issues and move forward in a positive way. 

Doing a Successful "Mid-Buy" Analysis (MBA's we'll call them here)

• First of all, your MBA's should be scheduled in advance and on everyone's calendar.  To make them easy to remember, you might tie them to a regular time each quarter, or bi-monthly, for instance you may go with the last Friday of each quarter at 9:00 a.m....or every other month on the 3rd Tuesday at 4...these meetings can be done over the phone, or more preferably, face-to-face...
   

• Have a written agenda for the meeting (if you're doing a phone meeting make sure you email it over to the client)...without a written agenda  the meeting may wander around and not cover the core points.  Plus an agenda helps keep everything on track and within a certain time period.
   

• Check your initial notes from your first meetings (pre sale) with the client, and come up with 3 or 4 areas of impact you'd like to review.  Try to write open ended questions that require details, vs a close-ended question, or ones that will get you short, meaningless answers (example:  "How is your prospecting efforts going?"  "Fine"...)  Check the last few tips to review the information on how to form better questions.
   

• DON'T GLOSS OVER TOUGH AREAS, OR 'ISSUES'...this is what we're after...problems, issues, concerns...we should be sensing these issues and actually be happy to hear them...we'll want to sound like this...

  • You: "Mark, you looked a little uncertain when you answered that question about how you feel the program is working to solve your name-awareness issues...what are your concerns there?"

What To Do If You Hear Bad News

• There is an old phrase I've used for years...Get Curious Not Furious... which means to ask questions vs hop to defend the reasons WHY, trying to defend your reasons...
   

• If a client is upset or has issues...let him speak...clarify...ask more questions...use the Green Light Phrases:

  • "Tell me more about that..."

  • "Can you go into that more..."

  • "By ____________ you mean???"
     

• This process I call "Giving them a mental enema"...just letting him go without cutting him off...
   

• Ask what the client's expectations are for solving this issue...in many cases the client's "fixes" aren't as drastic as what you were prepared to offer...
   

• Try to come up with more than on solution for the client to chose from...this allows the client to feel they're more in control of their situation...
   

• Remember, some of the problems the client may be having could have to deal with their misuse of your product or service, or lack of full implementation...we have to subtly remind them of this, and encourage them to follow the program
   

Exercise:

• Create an MBA for your organization, complete with the specific questions you feel you need to ask during the engagement to make sure the program is on-track...

In the next segment, the final one in this series, we'll address how to do an "exit interview" with a client who says he just wants out.   Stay tuned...  

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Greg Bennett, a partner in the innovative brand expansion and consulting organization, Altitude Premium Consulting,  LLC, has been one of the top sales and sales management trainers in professional sports and entertainment since 1988.  He has created and delivered training programs for over 80+ professional sports teams and leagues, along with several Fortune 500 companies.   Altitude Premium Consulting provides training as well as the creation of premium-branded goods for pro sports teams, entertainment companies and corporate sponsors, and is in a partnership relationship with Kroenke Sports Enterprises, owners of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Pepsi Center, the Colorado Mammoth and several other sports and entertainment entities throughout the United States.  Bennett can be reached at (303) 405-6110, or you can email Greg directly at gbennett@pepsicenter.com .