Transforming Service Channels into Sales Channels

Your sales have been sluggish.  Optimistic targets you set at the beginning of the year are already looking out of range.  Sales staff have been returning from visits with long faces, and customers are still blaming the recent economic crisis.

Hopefully I’m not describing your situation.  But if this sounds familiar, or even remotely close, now is the time for you to start thinking about alternative channels for getting your products into your customers’ hands where they belong. 

You’ve heard the phrase, “Everybody sells”, and this should be true for your organization.  So let’s think for a moment.  Who else in your organization knows your customers as well as your sales people do?  How about customer service?  Are your customer service people taking an active part in growing revenues by upselling and cross-selling during customer interactions?

Transforming your service channels into sales channels is not an easy task, and can be quite sensitive – especially for service people who believe that they weren’t hired to sell.  However, with a few tactful adjustments, you can help your service people understand why “Everybody sells” is important to your organization.

One of the first issues you may need to address is changing the mindset of your service staff.  Service people thrive on resolving problems and making customers happy.  You can maximize this by helping them understand that upselling and cross-selling are also ways of providing solutions.  Their ability to get another product into your customers’ hands helps them achieve even higher levels of customer satisfaction.

As you develop your new cross-selling strategy, encourage service people to contribute ideas.  This is not just a sales or marketing initiative; it’s company-wide and service people have unique insight with customers, often being able to tell you what will work and what won’t.  Giving service their say will give them self-worth, incentive and, most importantly, ownership in your initiative. 

Selling may be new for many of your service staff, so provide them with the tools that they’ll need to be effective.  Product and skills training will be necessary.  Incentive programs will also be useful.

To ensure success, make your organization’s commitment to this initiative obvious.  An internal campaign elevating the program will make company goals clear to everyone.  Special recognition of outstanding service-turned-salespeople will demonstrate your backing.  The extent of your visible commitment will determine the initiative’s success.

Once your service people realize that they’re reaching out to your customer base in a personal, cost-effective way, you’ll see how “Everybody sells” can have a positive effect on your revenues.