Six specific “thanks yous” to your internal customers

The next thing to remember in our 10 Days of Christmas countdown is that anyone in your organization who touches the customer plays a vital role in the sales process.

In fact, it is that specific group of non-traditional salespeople who ensure your commission every day.

They deliver on the promises that you’ve made.  They make sure that your customer feels the love that you committed.  They serve, they help, they fix, they direct, they listen, they cure, and they deliver.

In fact, without what they do, you cannot do what you do!

When is the last time that you took the time to say THANKS to your internal team?  Every other month this year, you need to identify and go out of your way to let someone know that you appreciate their efforts.

Remember, you are on the top or the bottom of someone’s to-do list every day.

Isn’t it better to be at the top?

Action Step

Identify and write down the names of those individuals in your organization who play a role in your customer care.

• Who do they speak with when they have a problem?
• Who speaks to them regarding their billing?
• Who delivers your products/services to them?
• Who handled their issues most often last year?

Now, immediately schedule the time to sit down with them to express your gratitude for their efforts and to have a conversation about your customers.  Throughout the course of the year, you need to express your thanks (catch them doing something right) in six unique ways.  Ideas could range from a handwritten note to movie tickets to dinner gift certificates.

Praise in public, because the things that get recognized and rewarded, get done again and again!

Photo by ClearlyAmbigious, via Creative Commons 2.0

An attitude of gratitude: the top 10 things for which I’m grateful

Every year my family and I get away for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Whether we visit extended family or it’s just our immediate family, I always look forward to the reflection time I get.  I’ve noticed that as I get older, I often will take stock of and give thanks for three specific areas:

A.    I look “back over my shoulder” at the things that I have been able to accomplish, the people I have met, the business that I have done, the wins, the losses, and the growth during the previous 10 months.

B.    I take full inventory of where it is that I am now and where I stand in reference to my goals in business, quality of life, relationships, health, spirituality and personal /professional growth.

C.    And I look out over the upcoming year and begin to outline and plan who and what I will connect with in my business and personal life.

Each year, regardless of the economy, I find myself adding up the many good fortunes that I have been able to leverage. Also, like most, I start listing some of the challenges that I faced in accomplishing everything I wanted to.

For the purposes of this article, I have listed the Top 10 Things for Which I am Thankful every year:

1.    I am thankful for being given the blind faith and enthusiasm to believe that I can achieve most things to which I set my mind.  I have read many books on self-belief and attitude to the point where I guess I am just dumb enough to believe that it is me who, in fact, decides.