“If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” Such a simple maxim, really. And one we have all grown up with and should have mastered. I mean think about it, from the time you were a kid, you wrote letters to Santa asking for the coolest toys of the year. During Halloween you had to say, “Trick or treat!” to get your candy. If you wanted a treat before dinner, you never got it unless you asked. Even later in life, when you wanted to date that cute guy or girl – you had to ask. When you wanted to marry that cute guy or girl, you had to ask. When you got that job – yep, you had to ask. And now if you have kids, you probably teach them that if they want something, they have to ask. No matter the situation, if you want something you have to ask.

The same holds true in business. You want your customer service representatives (CSRs) to book more calls. You want them to sell more services. You NEED to make sure they ask for the appointment when they’re on the phone because if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

I listen to CSR calls from businesses all over the country, and without fail there are a number of them who never ask to book an appointment. You wonder why and even act surprised when you have a low volume of booked calls! Think about all the expense and effort that goes into advertising and staffing your business; all of that is worthless if your CSRs aren’t asking for the appointment.

So, let me offer a little secret that will increase your number of booked calls dramatically, teach your CSRs to ask for the appointment at the beginning of the call. A potential customer is calling you because they have a problem, as soon as your CSRs understand the problem and affirm they can help, have them ask when the customer would like to have a technician come out to their home.  “When would you like us to come out”…it’s that easy.

Now do the math. If your CSRs only book one more call a day because of this tip, how much would that equal over the course of the year? Just one appointment per day. If your average ticket is $200 and you book just one more call per day, that equals an extra $52,000 a year in your pocket – and that doesn’t include weekends! $52,000 in revenue (or more) a year and it doesn’t cost you a thing! Yeah, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Power Selling Pros can help you implement this tip along with many others that will help you book more calls. Contact us today to see how many more calls we can help you book.

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People like to talk – no, scratch that, people like to be heard; and people like to be heard about everything. No matter where you go – out to eat, out to drink, for entertainment, for education, to get help or to give help – you will be able to find someone who has offered an opinion of your destination. Want to buy a new camera, shirt, or coat of paint for your bedroom? You can find someone who has graciously offered their opinion of the quality of the camera, shirt or paint. In fact, it’s becoming difficult to buy something without hearing someone’s opinion about it.

The internet and its increasing sociality make it easier than ever for people from every corner of the world to be heard. To illustrate this, let me ask a question, “What is the fastest growing website of all time?” Facebook? Not a bad guess, but that’s not it. Twitter? A good guess, but no. My Space? An excellent guess, but there is one that has grown faster. The fastest growing website in the history of the internet is the latest social media giant, Google+.

To give you an idea of the enormity of the growth Google+ experienced, look at the phenomenal growth of some other, huge websites. For example, Facebook took just under three years to hit 25 million users, Twitter about two-and-a-half years and MySpace just under two years. But, Google+ managed to hit the 25 million user benchmark in less than two months. Twenty five million users in under two months – that’s an unbelievable growth rate and solid evidence that people want to share their thoughts and experiences more than ever.

So the obvious question here is, “So what?” Yeah it’s interesting Google+ grew so fast, but who really cares? You should. See, fifteen years ago, if a customer was elated with your product or service about the only thing they could do to spread the word was to talk with their friends either face to face, or over the phone (I suppose they could have written a letter, but even fifteen years ago that was a dying form of communication). Similarly, if they were super upset at your service, they could really only tell their friends and family – and unless they were a person with a lot of connections, it didn’t really help or hurt your business that much. But today when even an average person can instantly connect with millions of people across the globe, even one person who has a good or bad experience with your company can have a profound impact on your bottom line.

That means you need to be more conscious than ever of your customer service representatives and how they portray your company. Make sure you are listening to their calls and giving them meaningful feedback based on their performance. Train them on how to handle the various types of calls they can expect. Give them a plan they can follow so that it becomes second nature for them to give good service.

In addition to using social media to protect your name, take the expansion of social media and connectivity and use it to be meaningful to your customers. All too often, businesses try to build an image of being a friendly, customer service centered, and neighborly kind of business; but these same businesses have very little contact with their customers outside of business transactions. Go a step further than your competition and use social media to really build a community of people you know and who enjoy your business. You can easily do it using social media. Take a minute and look at your company’s Facebook friends and do more than pitch to them; wish them happy birthday, send good wishes on their anniversary or wish them luck as an important day in their life approaches. Being involved with your customers only takes a few extra minutes a day, but makes a lasting impression on them and holds them closer to your business so they are more likely to use you again in the future.

Whatever you do, don’t just sit idly by until you have a problem, be proactive. After all, you don’t want to be the subject of the next negative viral video or conversation on Facebook and Google+. Make sure your CSRs offer excellent customer service so you can reap the enormous benefits of the good message people can spread via social media, and make sure and use social media to be meaningful to your customers.

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