Thursday, March 28, 2024

4 Ways Alice Heiman Helps CEOs Achieve Their Sales Goals

Experienced sales strategist, Alice Heiman, has mastered the art of building sales organizations to achieve exponential growth.  She has a way of translating the CEOs vision and offering solutions that move the company’s growth ahead effectively.

For over twenty years, Heiman has worked with CEOs across the world to help them reshape their mindset about growth. She suggests specific adjustments to completely transform the sales experience from the customer’s point of view. Her advice will ultimately increase revenue (profitably) for the company, whether it is big or small. 

Heiman shares four insights to get your sales where you want them to be.

The Insights:

1. The customer experience

Now more than ever, CEOs need to understand how their sales work from the outside. Often, there is so much focus on meeting the sales goals themselves that CEOs forget about what needs to be the number one priority: the customers. 

When developing your sales strategies, it can be helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

  1. How does the customer perceive and interact with the company?
  2. How easy is it for them to acquire the information that they need?
  3. Once they make contact, what is their experience?

With the answers to each of these questions, you want the experience to be clear and helpful for the customer. It sounds simple, but the customers need to be at the forefront of sales initiatives. You have to see it through the customer’s eyes so you can close the gap between the way the customer wants to buy and the way you sell.

Alice Heiman notes the importance of understanding the customer experience. “Work to better understand your customers’ journey, remembering that it starts when they first discover they have a need and doesn’t stop when the deal is closed; in fact, it never stops as long as they are your customer.”

2. Define and align

After evaluating the customer’s experience and perspective, it’s important to understand the internal interactions that create that customer experience. Each level that interacts with the customer, including sales, accounting, and marketing needs to be aligned so that there is a consistent and effective service company wide. They also must clearly define their expectations and roles so that everyone is on the same page. 

On her blog, Alice tells a story about a company whose sales and marketing departments were not aligned, which ended up costing the company $90,000. She tells readers that the sales department wanted a collateral for one of the products, and the marketing department fulfilled the request with something unhelpful and unattractive. The sales department was frustrated that their expectations were not met, and the marketing team lamented that their collaterals were not utilized. Ultimately, everyone’s time was wasted, and the customer experience suffered. 

This example shows the importance of communication and clarity between the departments so that everyone is working in the same direction and each department is as effective as possible. Clear communication and aligning the individual teams as a company can save the business time, money, and frustration, while creating a better customer experience. 

3. Website Appearance

Going hand in hand with the customer experience and aligning as a company is the functionality and usability of the company website. Gone are the days that cold calls were the primary form of selling. Now, there are a variety of ways for B2B sales, and most of them are online. 

That said, you have to make sure that your website is easy to navigate and find. As you reflect on your webpage design, be sure that you consider the following questions:

  1. What do your customers find when they type your name into Google? 
  2. Does your webpage communicate the purpose and goal of your company so that your customers know where and how to buy?
  3. Is it clear from your webpage what you are selling?
  4. Do you have contact information on your website? And for that matter, do you respond in a timely manner when a customer attempts to reach you?

The customers of today want clear and fast information, or they tend to look elsewhere. Don’t make them comb through your website to figure out what the company does, and respond to their inquiries promptly if they reach out. There is a limited window of time before they lose interest and take their money to the next easily navigable website. Heiman says, “sales are about the way customers buy, not just about the selling.” It’s important to make it easier for the customers to buy your product. 

In addition to webpage navigability, social media is here to stay. If you haven’t yet jumped aboard, you are going to sink quickly. Having social media content is another way for customers to learn who you are, and then, of course, to buy from you. If they are taking the time to research your company, make sure they find what they are looking for!

4. Learn your customers!

Finally, it is important that your marketing and sales teams alike understand your ideal customer and what their needs may be. Beyond knowing who is buying, you need to understand your customers’ professional position and potential problems they may encounter. Alice notes “ If you understand their industry, how they are positioned in it, their company, goals, and challenges, you will be better able to know if there is a solid fit between their need and your solution and, if there is, get better positioned to earn the business.” Knowing the customer’s needs will help all company teams align and understand how best to sell.

It’s also important to recognize that occasionally, your ideal customer may change. Pay attention to the customers your teams are attracting. If it’s not who you expected or would prefer, make adjustments accordingly.

The Success: 

Alice Heiman has been helping businesses for decades, and her advice  will give your sales the boost you have been looking for. Though it’s always uncomfortable to shift practices or adjust perspective, sometimes the reason that sales numbers aren’t improving is because your strategies have become stagnant. Alice Heiman guides businesses to achieve their sales goals with a new “customer experience” viewpoint, an aligned team, a knowledge of the customers, and a deep look at what your customers find when they encounter you on the internet. 

Visit Alice Heiman’s website to learn more strategies for CEOs.

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