1. Immediate Relatives and Friends – A young sales person will usually get the immediate family members to be his first customer.  This will follow by his relatives then friends, and then uh-oh… he is out of networks… Personally, I wouldn’t recommend selling to your relatives unless it is a really fantastic product that really benefits your relatives.  Picture this; if the product (1) wasn’t what your relative wanted in the first place or (2) does not prove it is beneficial or worth to your relative, you will be labelled for life for selling crappy products to them.  That will leave you with two choice, either stand up to the possible mockery in future or be absent from family gatherings.  But of course, not all failure stories end up that way.  However, if what you sold was genuinely good for them, then that is a plus point and they will propagate the benefits to their friends becoming your strong first line network!
2. Reconnect with long lost friends – Take time to look through the list of old friends.  Those during your college days, your previous company or friends from the old neighbourhood.  Browse through social network sites that you have accounts in and see if your friends are there.  You will be surprise at how your friends have grown and changed over time.  That point aside, do some catching up through online chats or an email.  Be genuinely interested in the events of life that they have gone through and not blast your latest offers immediately.  It is easier to link up with old friends as there are common topics to talk about.  This reconnection can reveal a network of different expertise or help that you need (but do not know where to find).
3. Get to know more friends at work – Have conversation with colleagues of a different team.  Arrange lunches with colleagues from those teams.  Not only you break the boring routine of having lunch with the same group of colleagues, you get to know what you do not (or may not know) that is happening (rumours) in the company, open new problem solving ideas and build links (and trust) to with another department!  Birds of the same feather fly in a flock.  It holds certain truth in this phrase.  You will have the same mentality (group culture) if you persist to stick with the same group of friends.  By interacting more with peers of different teams, you build a supportive network and trust and will be useful when an inter-team effort is required!
4. Build relationship by extending your current ones – Lastly, from your existing relatives, friends and colleagues, always take the opportunity to find out more about friends of friends, friends of relatives, friends of colleagues, etc… you know what I mean.  Get to know your friends and his friends.  Take the opportunity to build a relationship with this possible new friend.  Ask to be included in their next friends meet up sessions or even propose to link up with this new friend yourself!  This will help you expand your existing network to a bigger one!

These are just ways to build a strong network to support your goals.  Remember, network is your net worth!  So how do you build your strong network?

Unhappy customers are trouble for any company. It only takes one of them to spoil the entire mood and momentum for everyone. What is worst, is having one that spread negative information and present negative images to prospective customers of the company. They have reasons to be unhappy. Some don’t feel well that day. Some may have unrealistic expectations while others are just bad character.

The customers may not be always right but even so, we should keep our cool and appease them in every way. Remember they are our profit $$$! They are our future businesses too! Thus we want them to be happy again! We need to take control of customer complaints and turn them to our advantage. Here we present steps to resolve their complaints which have proven over the years to work well. Do not allow time to lapse and make things worse by avoiding the. Be fast and responsive to their unhappiness is the key success in resolving their complaints!

1. Listen with your heart – Pay attention to your customer. Do not attempt to interrupt them. Let the finish what they want to say. They feel there is a need for their story to be said out and want it been heard!

2. Thank Them — Thank the customer for bring up the problem to your attention (even though deep in your heart you really not want to hear about it). If you don’t feel this way, make yourself feel that you are aware of a new problem

3. Apologize – Sincerely apologize to the customer for the situation that they are feeling. This will cool them down for a moment. Do not justify your cause or the company stand. This is not the time for reasons or justification. An apology is all that is ever needed here.

4. Seek the Best Solution – Find the best solution. Ask them first what they would like as a solution. You be surprised that they do not really want the solution you have in mind.

5. Reach Agreement - Reach an agreement of the solution proposed to resolve the problem. This includes the time to get the resolution completed.

6. Take Quick Action – After all the talk, it is time to act. Act with a sense of urgency. Customers will feel pacified when you are reacting immediately to their needs.

7. Follow-up – After the resolution is being acted on. The problem should be resolved. Do a final closure to their complaint. Follow-up with the customer to ensure that they are fully satisfied. Ask them if there is anything that they need to be addressed if they are not fully satisfied. Be patience and you will reap the reward of a satisfied customer that will come back to you for business in the longer run.

Problems happen every now and then. It is how we admit it honestly and handle them suitably which counts. Customers will remember you for resolving their complaints and will give you another chance to delight them with the correct solution. However, a cautious note, do not drag any resolution. Be swift and accurate as possible in resolving the problems. A prolonged resolution will only worsen the customer expectation of you.

1. Communicate effectively – Be clear and concise of the things you are communicating.  This way you avoid misalignment and misinterpretation of goals and objectives
2. Be approachable – Allow your customer to approach you.  Your customers want to be involved and be updated of the progress of their deals.  What they do not want is his sales person is unapproachable and not revealing anything after the sales deal is done. J
3. Get them involved – Get your customers involved in the things that you do.  Keep them in the loop.  They want to know what they are getting along the way and not just the end product.
4. Build a seasoned team – Your customer wants to be confident in your team.  To do that, you will need to have a strong experienced team that delivers consistent results.  Their confidence may be slightly shaken if they see your team comprising of young inexperienced staff.
5. Anticipate their needs and wants – Be always ready of their new needs and wants.  Your customers will be delighted to know that you are always looking out in their interest.
6. Ensure good work – Nobody wants to accept a crap piece of work.  Deliver something worthwhile that both you and your customer can agreed that it is good work!
7. Keep your promises – Whatever promises you made to the customer should be honoured.  What customers are looking up in you is your integrity.  Once you broken the promises made over and over again.  They loose confidence in you and will be considering another company to address their needs in future.
8. Exceed expectations – Deliver more than what you had initially promised to your customer.  They will be delighted and will be keener to further any new businesses with you.  Not exceeding expectations will put you like any other competitor in the market.  Eventually, your customer will look for better alternatives in future if you are not able to win their heart!
9. Meet their goals – Last but not least, deliver what they want and meet their goals!

1. Power of attention – You naturally feel valued and important when someone slows down and give his full attention.  In contrast, if you get the feeling that the other person is patronising you, it indicates that something or someone else is more important than you are.  It’s easy to be distracted when you feel harassed and under pressure to deal with other people, even customers.  If that is happening to you, you might be actually sending your customer a silent message that, whatever words come out of your mouth, you are actually less interested in them and their needs that you are in something else.
2. Slow down improves focus – Slowing down helps improve focus on the topic.  The best way to restore full focus on the task in hand, or the customer in front of you, is to slow down. Customers prefer to deal with people and organizations that treat them well and make them feel important. They judge value by how well their needs are met and any problems they have are solved, fully and permanently. They aren’t interested in your sales quota or the pressures you face to make your budget. As far as each customer is concerned, they are the only one, and that’s how they expect to be treated.
3. Quick Fixes Won’t Help – Sometimes, quick fix solution may not be the right solution for everyone.  Everyone have different needs and problems.  The best way to win a customer heart is to listen carefully, ask questions and fully pledge your time to address the customer’s concern.  Most sales people know that this is important.  What prevents them from following it is unreasonable pressure from their own management, who often equate more business with more busyness.
4. Time is a Precious Gift – Time is precious!  And that means driving more sales in a limited time.  However, on the contrary, this perception is held by your customers too.  By spending more time with them, you are making them feel more valuable.  You are giving a silent message that they are important and you are willing to spend the additional time and effort to discuss about their needs! The overworked sales or customer service professional trying to deal as quickly as possible with current clients to free time to prospect for more, is forced into actions that are very likely to lose business instead of win it. His employer who values such organisation behaviour is acting in the most short-sighted way imaginable.

Slowing down seems counterintuitive when you are feeling under pressure, but it is nearly always the best way forward. Try it and we believed you can win more customers’ heart than you can imagine!