Clifton Warren's Blog

Future Proofing

Clifton Warren — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 05:21:20 +0000

Each year over 17,000 new grocery products are introduced. Yet the average supermarket only stocks 30,000 items. The knowledge and skills requirements in your market, industry and job are doubling every 3 to 5 years. As a manager you should constantly be looking for ways to reinventing yourself, think of it as futre proofing.

Why Be A Lone Wolf?

Clifton Warren — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:36:53 +0000

One of the major banks is restructuring the way is pays commissions to mortgage brokers, the airlines and insurance companies have been doing a similar thing as they seek ways to reduce their new business acquisition cost. In the case of banks and insurance companies the market is highly competitive with over a dozen companies each competing for market share. With this level of competition when you attempt to reduce cost by altering the way that commissions are calculated and your competitors don’t follow you can find yourself loosing market share now if that is your ultimate strategy then fine however what tends to happen is that decision is reversed when find yourself as the lone wolf.

The major issue for brokers in financial services is new business acquisition and retention. A better strategy for financial service companies to differentiate their offering and remove the commission issue by helping your channel partners (brokers) grow their business. You can provide commission reductions if you also assist them with building a clientele so that it’s win win for everyone.

Eliminating Fear

Clifton Warren — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:04:21 +0000

Prospecting for new business is tough work even for seasonal professionals but it has to be done if want to have a thriving business. Fear of prospecting is natural however you must be able to overcome this or at best effectively managed it if you’re to make the successful transition from simply being a provider of services to sales person and marketer.

The most effective way to overcome your prospecting fear is by working from your comfort zone. We all have comfort zones, the difference between average prospectors and successful ones is that they are constantly expanding their comfort zone. To establish your zone first determine your ideal market, create a profile of your existing clients and list their characteristics and traits these can include, size, geographic location, services etc.

Identifying targets of opportunities that fit this profile makes sense as you already understand their problems and challenges, fluent in the language regarding their top business issues. This will reduce your stress, save time and allow you to focus on what you do best.

Value Propositions

Clifton Warren — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 10:53:07 +0000

The fastest way to professionals to advance in their firms is by leaning to sell to more work, today more than ever professionals must make the transition from being a servicer/account manager to salesperson marketer. Generating new business should be the the # 1 priority, however for most professionals and salespeople prospecting for new business is the most difficult part of the sales process.

An effective way to develop leads and attract business is by having a strong value proposition that communicates your value to your target market. A strong value proposition allows you to overcome fear and leverage your valuable selling time. All professional service marketers including accountants, lawyers, insurance brokers, mortgage brokers ect, should take the time create a value strong value proposition; it does take time but effort is well worth it.

New Realities of the Market Place

Clifton Warren — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:32:44 +0000

ASIC has introduced new laws for mortgage brokers and finance professionals this now means that the ball game has changed. The professionals are going to have become much better marketers and focus will be the ability to prospect and build a client base. The best prospecting system for professionals is the one that allows you to market from your comfort zone. The toughest for all professionals is prospecting, that is finding someone to tell your story to. Most are fine once they are in front of a prospect the hard part is getting there.

The other factor is time, it is very easy to get caught up with processing existing business, handling customer problems and doing paperwork; however despite all of this new business is the lifeblood and in the era for finance professionals it’s going to get tougher. The most effective kind of prospecting is focused prospecting that allows you to build your client with referrals. This works well as you can work from within your comfort zone using your existing networks and contacts.

New Prospecting White Paper

Clifton Warren — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:36:46 +0000

You can download a new white paper High Touch Prospecting from my site http://pii1.com/articles.php

The 21 century services provider

Clifton Warren — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:07:39 +0000

Three key success factors for financial service providers, insurance brokers and mortgage brokers are:
1. Having a good reputation
2. Maintaining excellent customer relations
3. Marketing skills

This means that to thrive and not just survive as provider of services you must become customer centric. Everything about your company and the way it does business has to be about the client. The starting point is understanding your client base and the type of business that you have.

This lays the foundation for developing a strategy to enable you to maximise your strengths.

Walking the talk

Clifton Warren — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:02:36 +0000

I drive an Mitsubishi Outlander their top range model, it comes with a 5 year warranty and road side service. The other day I noticed that driver side seatbelt was making a funny noise and not full retracting. I drove to my local dealer for them to look at it.

The service said I have some good news and bad news, first the seatbelt is faulty and its covered by the warranty, however the bad news is that the car not roadworthy because if you have an accident the seat belt will fail. I signed a waiver form to drive the car home which is only 5 min’s away.

The next day I received a call from Mitsubishi customer service advising me that there are no seat belts for vehicle in Australia and they will have to shift one from Japan but we are not sure how long this will take. However since your vehicle is covered under warranty, we have arranged a vehicle rental for from Avis and the towing of your vehicle from home to the dealer until it can be fixed.

Now that is great customer service. What examples do you have of great customer service?

The best salespeople are great propsectors

Clifton Warren — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:50:02 +0000

Let’s face it sales prospecting is hard work most sales people do not enjoy prospecting and try to minimise the time spent in this area. Having a good sales prospecting process will help stack the odds in your favour and make prospecting more enjoyable as your become more efficient and achieve a high return on your time invested.

I suggest a 3 step process consisting of prepare, Align and engage. In future post I’ll share techniques on how you can master each of these areas to make prospecting more enjoyable and profitable.

Clifton Warrren

One of the Best Prospectors that I’ve Ever Seen

Clifton Warren — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:00:39 +0000

Recently I was at McDonald’s having a quick snack, as I approached my chair an elderly gentleman approach me and ask me if I would like to make a donation to save something, I did not catch what it was because I quickly waved him.

This kept working the room, as McDonald’s is a fast food place most people eat fast and get out, so this guy had plenty of prospects. I watched him work the room for 15 min’s approaching each person with a 30 second presentation before asking for a donation. I estimate he had a 60% strike rate.

What are the lessons? First he was working a place where there was a steady turnover of people, second they had money, third he did not take rejection personally.

I’ve trained hundreds of salespeople of the years but this guy was good. Prospecting is hard work especially when you’re cold calling but you can stack the odds in your favour by making sure you fish where there are fish and just keep working the room, the law of averages will take care of themselves.

clifton warren 2010