coaching

[100 Words or Less] Persuasion

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You’ve got a way of persuading.  What is it?

Persuasion is crucial to your success.  Can you articulate and write down that process?  Is your way the same for customers as it is with colleagues?  Is your way the same for your boss or with your family?

What pray tell, is your way? 

If you don’t know, you can’t fix it when it’s broken or when the world changes around you.  If you don’t know it, you can’t influence, lead, close or help in any consistent way.   Persuasion for the best, isn’t by feel, luck or hope.

It’s known.   

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Mondays are busy enough.  Any Monday post is 100 words or less. 

Help for Loooonnngg Sales Cycles

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Too much information running through my brain
Too much information driving me insane
Too much information running through my brain
Too much information driving me insane

 

            – The Police “Too Much Information” (Ghosts in the Machine 1981)

The Police (Sting’s old group for you youngin’s-) had it right way back in the 80’s with this song.   Too much information is indeed a problem.

But 30 years later, insane would be better result than some of the other stuff that happens today because of information overload. 

For us business folks, the sales cycles are getting longer.  It feels like it is taking longer than ever for prospects to close or move to the next step or to just say “no” and allow us to move on.  That hurts.  That also makes us crazy. (Fortunately crazy is a tamer version of insane).

One of the biggest reason sales cycles are getting so long is that there is just so much information out there.

Today a prospect has a quadrillion options on line to learn about your industry, your company, your product or even you.  And what’s worse is that this prospect given the tough economy and the corporate trust issues, feels obligated to do that research.  He or she feels that due righteous diligence means a lot of research and study that years ago just wasn’t available. 

You do it too.  Used to be you threw the Sony Walkman on the beanbag, slipped on the Members Only jacket, jumped in the Taurus and trundled to the local department store to get a new fridge cuz’ the Kenmore up and died. 

Now you analyze product reviews, consumer reports, price shopper sites, debate whether to buy online or offline, wait for Twitter and Facebook replies from friends before you trundle anywhere and have a look.    Businesses do the same.  Your competitors are all over the world and they all have a website.  There’s a never ending supply of helpful online groups and associations to solicit feedback from.   Testimonials aren’t requested any more, they are already there and must be read through.

So much to look at.  So many options to study.

That takes time.  And that lengthens Sales Cycles.  That’s some of the pain of too much information. 

So what do you do?  Here are two strategies to help.  

Set A Table of Urgency: 

Some of the ownership of “over analysis” by clients lies with us sales and marketing folks.  Our meetings or our phone calls or our emails don’t always set the best expectations (often none at all) around time.  If they did, they might speed up the information review.

  • Set Up “Tentative” Meetings:  Trying to set up a meeting for real can be difficult when the prospect has all this information they want to review.  Set it up at least tentatively as you end the call or leave the meeting.  Use the word “tentatively” (it keeps that buyer tension low) and get it on an Outlook Calendar.   A recent study I saw said prospects are 70% more likely to keep a tentative meeting on a calendar than just an open ended invitation.

 

  • Build Checkpoints up front into the sales process. (Always position as a benefit to the prospect of course).  “At the end of this meeting you should be in a position to say you want to review more materials or not. Your time is not something I want to waste.”  Or “If you are interested in going to the next step after this meeting, the next 3 days are fully staffed for us to run numbers with your data groups”. 

 

Prescribe The Research:

 

Part of the problem with too much information is the prospect wondering where to begin to look- further stalling the sales cycle.

  • Share What To Do.   Give your prospect the competitor names, the associations to solicit feedback from and the sites where they can see objective product or company reviews.  Send them the links to the videos or the white papers and encourage them to dig in.    You’ll be surprised how this cuts the time and builds your credibility simultaneously.

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

You Had Me At Hello (and then, you just let me go)

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Dear Sales or Service Rep,

What the heck happened when you had your chance?

I had to speak with you today.  I needed to talk to a human because as a small business owner, I’m super busy and sometimes it’s just faster.  So you got me and I got you.

And I know it’s a big deal to talk to me, given how much I and my fellow small business owners are in demand.   I’m all over TV.  Seems like every company wants to help me, or guide me, or build a special site for me to visit.  That’s nice.

So there I was, live and on the phone with you.

You blew it.

You totally had me when you said “Hello”.  I was waiting.  I was shockingly semi focused on you and what you were doing.  I had a need when I called and you had a real voice.  But in the end, the stuff you did and didn’t do, just let me go.

I’ve been a customer for 4 years but I don’t know if  you knew that- you didn’t say.  With my customers, it’s pretty much the first thing I notice.  Sticking with me means something to me, but to you? I guess not.

You called me “Steve” but frankly only my friends; my doctor and my family call me “Steve”; at least not without asking permission first.  Heck I’ve never called any of my customers by first name unless I knew them well or they insisted.    You folks don’t realize how that rubs us business owners who are also customers the wrong way.

You tried to up sell me and cross sell me stuff like you were afraid.   Huge turnoff.  Have some confidence!  People forget I am in sales too or else my kids don’t get fed.   And while I may not be a pro at selling, I darn well don’t do it meekly.  I have to up sell and cross sell too to make my business grow.  So if you’re going to sell me, do it with pride and strength, not like your praying I won’t notice.  When I sell, I’m proud of what my products can do.  You should be too.

You had me at “Hello”, maybe next time you can keep me to “Goodbye”.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

SMILE Goals

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I think I’m done with S.M.A.R.T. Goals. 

It’s the time of year now when so many of us are in a frenzy over setting and writing annual goals for ourselves or our staffs.

You remember those SMART goals don’t you?  Goals that you set, according to the formula,  should be;

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Realistic
  • Timely

 

Yeah OK; got it.

It’s not that there is something terribly wrong with SMART goals; the tenets are solid.   It’s more that I’m not sure SMART goals go far enough in reflecting what drives real people and real business anymore.  It’s more that SMART goals may not be so..um…smart anymore.

For 30 years (yep, in 1981 this formula first appeared) SMART Goals have served us well.  But it’s time for a needed upgrade.  The world is in a different place.  And people are in a different place.  

So before you put those final touches on the SMART goal setting sheets you have proliferating your desks and email boxes, have a look at what I think is a better way.  

S.M.I.L.E Goals  

Strength Focused:  No one person will ever be perfect.  And no one person typically has as many weaknesses as strengths, yet much of our goal setting is often focused on goals  that “fix” a problem or weak area.   But what if all of your annual goals were focused on taking your greatest strengths and either applying them more or making them stronger? Where would we be?  Let’s say you are great at networking.  Set a SMILE goal to build a seminar on that topic where you are required to teach others. What if you are great at floor coaching?  Set a Smart goal that has you delegate many of your other tasks to staff or colleagues so you can do significantly more floor coaching.    Strength Focused goals get you to do more of what you do well.  That’s smart.

Modifiable:  This tenet is the acknowledgement of the age old “elephant in the room” in that many goals written at the beginning of the year are often by the end of the year, ridiculously irrelevant.  Every December from my staff, I usually get two lists; one list that is all the evidence and data to support the SMART goals we set on paper a year before and the other list is called “Accomplishments”.  Rarely do the two match.  Sad.  You could say that that reflects on poor goal setting on my part but often you would be very wrong.  Stuff happens.  Stuff changes.  Business happens.   Business changes.  In the space of a week or a month, your initiatives and priorities could be yesterday’s news.   Often your SMART goals set in February are meaningless by June because you are working on things completely different, more needed or more important.   Modifiable allows you to edit, amplify or delete.  That’s smart.

Inspectable: There’s a difference between measurable and inspect-able.   Measurable is measurable.  Inspect-able is measurable but transparent.  You have stakeholders be they your customers, your boss, your team or your shareholders and inspect-able brings a higher level of trust when it comes to measuring.  Trust I contend, is far more important today in business, than it was in 1981.  Post your goal metrics on the shop wall, in your cubicle or at your desk.  SMILE goals should be ones that don’t require 4 hours of data collection each quarter and a 1 our meeting with your boss to see how you are progressing “so far”.  Inspectable makes it easy to see how you are doing.  Inspectable goals show you have nothing to hide.  That’s smart.

Learning Focused:  If you are not learning you are dying.  Goals to achieve are fine. Goals to achieve that don’t reflect learning or growth are not.  You can do both.  You must do both.  More than ever, landscapes in business change at speeds that make even the hardest working the brightest folks cringe.  It’s hard to keep up, but we must.  In fact, keeping up is just table stakes now and keeping ahead is what is truly needed.  Achieve those numbers yes, but SMILE goals must have an aspect that force you to continuously and consciously learn from that achievement and position you for more success in an ever more complex business world.  Learning focused gives goal setting a leading edge.   That’s smart.

Enduring:  If I had a dollar for every time I forgot what my SMART goals were for the year I’d be rich.  If I had a dollar for every time I and my staff forgot what their individual SMART goals were I’d be filthy rich.   You know it’s true.  Goals are often either “the same every year” (hit forecasted quota plan of….), or “breathtakingly boring” (manage expenses within a budget of….).  Take the expected stuff out of the goal setting and do it the SMILE way.  Create goals that endure, that people remember and that will stick:  “Land face to face meetings with 2 fortune 500 companies by the end of Q2…”, “Create a video campaign that generates viral buzz with 5 digit visits and link backs from 2 of these 15 influential bloggers..” or “Make the pain of the customers from brand ABC as they transition to brand XYZ go away by the end of Q1…”.  You get the idea.  Enduring makes it easier to remember, easier to focus and easier to succeed.  That’s smart.

S.M.I.L.E goals reflect a truer reality of the human and business condition; i.e. what drives people and what really happens (and is needed) in the business world.   SMART goals aren’t something I’d necessarily throw away.   They are a decent formula but my advice is you should use them only if you start with a SMILE.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

The APG3

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It’s a pretty simple formula.

Elevator Speech = A+PG+3.   Or as I’ll coin it an APG3

An Elevator Speech that leads with a powerful Analogy, offers the removal of some Pain or the addition of some Gain and has Three(3) parts that illustrate how that all happens; is simply the best.

That is if you think the Heath Brothers who wrote the best sellers Switch and Made To Stick, a world renowned writer and speaker Brian Tracey and Apple’s Steve Jobs know exactly what they are talking about. (Hint: they do).

Combine three of these genius’s passions and you’ve got a great recipe for Elevator Speech success.

  • The Heath brothers in their books, exude the power of the analogy (it brings instant vision, a feeling and an understanding to the listener).  Think about the famous Hollywood pitch later made into that blockbuster movie Alien,…  “It is just like Jaws but takes place in space.” Steal from them.
  • Brian Tracey has for years spoken of the power of “pain and/or gain” from a clients perspective.  Love Brian.  Love this perspective.  Steal it.
  • Steve Jobs lives and loves “3’s” in all his presentations.  Watch him on YouTube.  He is the master of getting a compelling message out so steal from him.

Combine the three and you’ve got a killer approach to an elevator speech that is short, sounds like a human could say it (instead of the sound when it belongs in a brochure) is customer focused, attention getting and leaves em’ wanting more.

Let’s try one.  Let’s say you offer marketing to businesses for a living…

“I’m like a smart GPS for how to grow your business with marketing.   I know exactly where to go and make it incredibly fast and easy for a business to get that done right.” 

“And there are three things I do really well to make this happen…”

 “First, I keep my customers because I do what I say I’ll do;  after almost 10 years, I’ve grown to nearly 100 customers that continue to trust me, and trust is a big deal”

 “Two, I “get it“, I know how to bring new business into businesses.  I’ve created new tools and training that frankly impress the heck out of clients when they see it.

“Lastly, I obsess over the service and help after the campaigns.  I know what business needs when it comes to marketing and it isn’t this “one and done” type stuff. Most of my time and development goes into ensuring there is continuous sales improvement.”

“So let’s dig a deeper and let me show you a couple of the tools that impress retailers in particular OK?“…

So that’s a start.   Tenses can easily change to “we”.  Analogies can be changed to different better/ more interesting.  Pain/ Gain can change dependent on what your focus is and the 3 things done exceedingly well are all fair game.  

My example set aside, these pieces rightly so must be crafted and crafted well.  A very worthy effort for you or any sales groups to be focused on.    A good Elevator Speech makes for darn good voicemail, blog About page, email or Facebook post as well.

So that you can play this game at home;  Here is the APG3 in summary;

  • Analogy:  Be impressive and memorable with this.
  • Pain and/or Gain: not for you, for the prospect!
  • Three(3):  pick the best, leave em’ wanting more!

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business,

Mark

4 New Words for 2011

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I heard yesterday that the word “App” was voted as the “Word of the Year” in 2010.  Makes sense.  It’s a nice word.  Not a new word (it’s short for “application”), but it gets the job done. 

Ho Hum.

If you’re going to have a Word of the Year you’d think it should be at least new.  What’s going to win next year, “ping?” or “tablet?” Please.  And I’m thinking we could really use some new words round here.  New words are important when the world just keeps on changing. 

Here are 4.  We need these.  They are in alphabetical order (for my friends at the Oxford English Dictionary), have phonetic spellings (for my linguistic phonology friends) and have a bit about what they mean for the rest of us. 

Authorical ( aw-thor-i-cal):  This is what you want to be.  Way better for sales people and marketers than just being an expert or an “authority” yet has the cool factor of being “historical” too.  When you are so credible for so long as a person (or a business) that people lean forward pen in hand, ready to write down your every wisdom or advice; you are Authorical.   Given the wild untrusting marketplace today that’s a great way to be.

Cryoritize (cry-or-ri-tize):  “Prioritize” the word, has become weak.  Today “Prioritize” unfortunately has come to mean more about “What you should do first” rather than what you should do instead of something else.  Lists get reshuffled but rarely get shorter.  What we need is to cryoritize.   It takes courage to cryoritize; people can get upset and people might even cry as their project, their idea, or their need gets cut.  But business is tough.  And it’s tougher when you only prioritize.

ICrutch: (eye-cruch) It is a terrible affliction.  It’s when one uses the Smartphone, the blackberry or the IPad to keep those eyes low and thus avoid talking to someone and stay tuned out.   It’s when one posts a blog instead of having a needed meeting. It’s weak and it’s selfish.  It’s when someone Texts when they should have picked up the phone or looked you in the eye.  Sufferers of ICrutch here see technology as a way to collapse their scary world instead of confidently expanding it.  

Intervaluepropositionalistically ( in-ter-val-you-propp-pohs-zish-shon-nal-liss-tick-al-lee )  Ah yes, finally a word that reflects when you are speaking about a product or service’s complete set of value propositions!  You can use the word in just about any ol’ meeting using phrases like “Intervaluepropositionalistically speaking, I’d say we have a real advantage here!” or “What a game changer, intervaluepropositionalistically speaking that is!”  AND the best part is, it gives the current longest word in common use (i.e. non-medical) “interdenominationalistically” (meaning across all faiths) a beat down as our new word is 32 letters long versus a measly 28! 

Here’s to hoping these words help you in a changing world and here’s to rooting for one of these guys to win Word of the Year in 2011.  Love it when a Rookie wins.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

3 To Listen For In 2011

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Yep.  Listen closely Sellers.  They’re gonna happen. 

Best be ready.

1) Clickety clack clickety clack.  “What’s your name again?” you are asked by the prospect and then you hear the sound repeated: clickety clack, clickety clack.  Yep, she’s typing away and Googling you Mr. Sales Rep checking to see if you are worthy to meet with or even just to listen to anymore.  You best have a very compelling web presence.

2) “When can we see each other?”  It won’t be those 20 lbs you lose creating your sudden irresistibility or even your liberal spraying of Axe that will make this phrase be heard in 2011 but rather, your clients will really just want to see you before they move forward.  What do you look like Ms. Account Manager?  Do you have a professional YouTube video I can see?  Can we Skype our next meeting?  Where can I see your face; on LinkedIn?, Twitter?,  Facebook?   Ironically (yet fittingly), faces will mean more than ever in this increasingly digital but less trusting world.

3) Sploouurgshhthwwppt!  Yes, you guessed it!  That is the sound of a self inflicted needle plunging into the eye of your customer.  Gross yes, but it is often metaphorically a choice people make versus listening or considering us and we just can’t hear it over the sound of the customer sigh.  The stakes are higher now with each and every client impression.   Information is free.  Reviews about you or your company are free.  Products & advice are often free so when we interrupt a customer via marketing or sales in 2011 we had better bring our A game.  .  When you waste client’s time by not bringing value in every contact you just might hear that sound as that crazy busy customer yearns to suffer a different pain.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

I Sent My Wife Roses For No Reason. What Did You Do?

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Yesterday, I sent a dozen red roses (in a beautiful vase I might add) to my wife at her place of work. 

I sent them just because I love her; no other reason.

In fact,  the card read….“Just because I Love You.”   

Upon receiving such a thoughtful delivery and reading the attached note, my lovely wife apparently teared up in front of all her co-workers, which of course made said co-workers tear up, and they in turn even got visitors to tear up.   Love all around and tissues for everyone.

Ahem.  🙂

I know.  All you guys are looking real bad right now.  

Some other guys are looking bad right now too but they don’t even know it.  They will of course when they get home and see this blog post taped to the fridge like a sentry guarding the bottles of beer that lie within. 

Fun.

But my friends, I’ll take the heat because here’s my point; you can’t be boring or predictable, you gotta keep it fresh.  You gotta surprise.

  •  Are you the sales rep that sent the Thanksgiving card out to the client to say thank you for their business?  Probably not, but some other partner/ supplier somewhere else, probably did.  You go ahead and send out just one card like everyone else.
  • Are you the sales leader who suddenly sat down and called out on behalf of your sales person to set up 5 appointments just for her, so she had a chance to knock em’ dead with her presentation?  Probably not, but some other sales leader, somewhere else, probably did.   You go ahead and keep coaching her on her presentation.
  • Are you the sales rep who called looking to hit voicemail  (cause you knew if you got your customer live for this, it would be interrupting) and left a message about the link you sent to help them deal with a problem totally unrelated to what you sell?  Probably not, but some other sales rep, somewhere else, probably did.   You go ahead and call only when you are looking to hit your quota.

You love your significant other.  You love your customers.  Keep it fresh.  Surprise the hell out of em’ now and then.   You know it’s good.  And yeah, you beat back the dreaded “boring” and the competition every time. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

What’s Easy

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image from hockeyindependent.com

I write a lot about easy.  But this one’s a little different.

I write often about how important it is to small business customers and prospects that your products are easy, that your website is easy, that your billing is easy, that your ordering is easy, or that your customer service is easy.    Basically easy is what small business needs.  

Here’s the rub though.  What’s easy for small business isn’t necessarily easy for you.

What’s easy for small business is:

  • To Keep Who They Got:   Dislodging a vendor in a small business is not easy.  Last I checked SB’s don’t have a team of sales or process strategists charged with looking at the value of bringing something or somebody in brand new.  Nope it’s more like, “I’ve been with them forever”, or “I know his family”, or “It’s too much work to change mid year”, or “This thing is like 1/100th of my budget why do I care?” etc. etc.     You have got to make it easier to switch.

 

  • To Blow You Off:   Heck, they themselves are or were, sales reps or account managers in one way or another for their own business-most of em’ anyway.  And they have staff trained to get rid of sales reps and marketers like you and some personally make it an art to avoid everybody but customers, family, their accountant or their banker.  It’s not that they don’t think you have a good product, it’s just that there’s no darn time to spare.    You have got to make it easier to see why just a little time with you might be valuable.

 

  • To Not Believe You:  The Small Business owner who has that type A personality, and is the wearer of all hats, and with the ego through the roof and the work ethic like nobody else;– Is she going to flat out just believe you when you say you can help grow her business?  Heck no.  You have to make it easier for her to trust you. 

 

 

I usually end all my posts with real applications, real ways to get it done.  I usually give you a few things you can just run with right now and tackle the problem and grow the business. 

That would be too easy. 

And there’s a better way.  Though this blog is only 6 months old, type in the search box the word “easy” (10 posts) or “value” (13 posts) or “credibility” (7 posts) or any darn word you think might be make sense.  Therein is a lot more help to make it easier for you and your customers.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Chairvolution!

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It’s the easiest and most effective “how to sell” prop in the world. 

The simple chair.  

When I get a chance to speak to sales folks, I’ll occasionally launch into using a real chair that happens to be lying around to help folks learn how to sell.  Every time I do it; I see heads nod in enlightenment and jaws literally slacken as many salespeople have “aha” moments.

It resonates so well that I typically walk away from these little talks saying to myself “Geez, I’ve got to do that chair thing every time!”  But then, as I am apt to do; I forget to do it the next time.   Not any more, I am committed to embracing the chair!

So with apologies to the office furniture and chair sales folks out there, I must explain that the ubiquitous chair is the perfect prop to represent your “product” or whatever it is you are selling or marketing.  It is precisely because the “chair” is so common and so “everywhere” that it works.   It works because it allows you the teacher, speaker or trainer to easily put emphasis on more than just the product and focus on the positioning, credibility and solutions your product or service really needs to get sold.

The chair is big.  Really big.  You could spend a whole day preaching and teaching a lot more than just the 6 lessons below but heck, it’s a start.  

Welcome to my Chairvolution.   Please steal shamelessly.

6 Easy Chair Selling Lessons

Start by saying “I am going to sell you a chair” and then follow the guide below as you teach and preach.

Lesson 1: Put the chair behind your back and ask (as if you are the sales rep) “What kind of chair would you like?”  This is a great first lesson because it is about what not to do.  In this harried, crazy, no time and no trust world of buyers we live in; the age old “Tell me what you dream” is really just about dead.  Open ended,  out of the blue questions more often stop sales processes, not start them.  You’ve got to lead folks or give them a comparative reference.  Psychology notes that comparison is less brainwork than creation.   Discuss.

Lesson 2:   Bring the chair back from behind your back and say “This is our most popular selling chair”  Pause, then ask the group –   “How many of you just ever so slightly had their interest piqued?”   Here is a great 2nd lesson in the value of popularity.   Popularity is so important that the next 2 lessons using this chair go even deeper there.  There’s a reason Amazon built that algorithm! 

Lesson 3:  Continue holding onto the chair and say   “This chair is the most requested one by the folks at your company”.   Pause and ask “What’s different in this lesson?”  What’s different is that Popularity positioning you shared in Lesson 2 has been turned around and is now positioned with something more valuable to the client.  That is that prospects “like them” ( i.e. those people that work in this company) love this chair.  No doubt the interest of the group is piqued about the darn chair.  Discuss.

 

 [Here is a good place to remind the group that we have yet to talk about the features and specs of the chair as a means to sell it,  and oh by the way…in all of these lessons today-we won’t!]

Lesson 4;   “Everyone in your department on the first floor has this chair”   Here it’s getting obvious that the closer you get to the truth about popularity of product by customer and prospect type, the better.  Study after study shows that most people need to and love to do what other people just like them do and make similar choices.  Yep, like the Amazon pop-ups and the Net-flix pop ups; you get it.

Lesson 5:  Switching gears, look longingly at the chair and say “This chair will make your back feel better” or “This chair will get that capital expenditure under control” or “This chair will give your employees that “Google” office feel they want”.   The point here is that you are showing just how much work needs to be done before you talk about the darn chair to prospects.  What problem it solves, what pain it eases, what yearning it fills.  Have fun with this part as nary a mention of price, height or color is in sight. 

Lesson 6:  Take the chair and roll it up next to one of the participants in the room and say “Your mother suggested I talk to you about this chair”.    Have a good laugh at those who say “I don’t like my Mom” but the point is this –  The best selling approach ever is a credible referral from someone the prospect trusts or even better; loves.   Sales people should work hard to secure referrals and references.   Frankly with those in hand, there is no real selling involved, it’s already done.

Don’t couch this one folks.  Unseat all those beliefs that selling is about price and options.  Lay it all on the table in a different way this time and use that chair!  I promise it will open a brand new door to how salespeople think about sales.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark