Everybody sells! Transforming exceptional service into revenue growth.

• Author: Zeglinski, Walt

Even as the economy hints at an imminent rebound, markets are becoming more competitive, and some products and services are rapidly becoming commodities. As customers cautiously begin to spend their tightly held dollars, companies are realizing that reestablishing previous customer relationships isn't enough. The success of their growth strategy depends on increasing customer acquisition and loyalty.

Traditionally, sales organizations were charged with executing successful growth strategies. However, in today's upside-down economy, all employees are being asked to contribute to achieving revenue goals by upgrading their sales capabilities as part of an overall commitment to growth. Therein lies the first dilemma: how to acquire new customers and increase the number of products or services purchased per customer, while maintaining the high level responsiveness customers have come to expect. With the economic downturn, customers still demand high levels of service.

Illustrative Sample Conversion Worksheet Stock Sale to an Asset Sale RLO Corporation Stock Sales Basis: Our conclusion of value of a 100% $4,006,000 interest in the common shares of RLO Corporation Conversion to an Asset Sale Basis Assets/Liabilities to Be Retained by Seller: Assets Cash $1,050,000 Receivables 1,273,000 Due from shareholder 99,000 Liabilities Current liabilities 511,000 Long-term liabilities 47,000 $1,864,000 Assets to Be Sold Fixed assets--equipment, furniture, etc. (Net of Depreciation) $185,000 Prepaid expenses 13,000 Deposits 8,000 Goodwill 1,936,000 Totals 2,142,000 Grand Totals (Asset Basis) $4,006,000 Nonauthoritative: for Discussion Purposes Only If you can identify ways to transform employees' service best practices into "service-selling" behaviors, you can expect to increase your customer base and the bottom line. That brings us to the second dilemma: convincing your service employees to integrate selling practices into their customer interactions. This means getting these employees to move beyond their current perception of selling and understand how their compliance with ethical principles in selling can be a service to customers.

Understanding Service-Selling

In a pure service culture, organizational and employee behavior are contingent on employees' knowledge and skill in responding to customer questions or concerns. However, in a service-selling culture, employees adopt the attitudes, beliefs, and skills that help them to understand customers' wants...