What Is An A Cappella Leadership Team?

Any parent knows the huge popularity of a cappella singing these days. In fact, at a small college we just visited Saturday, there are no less than 5 a cappella groups on campus ( one of which sang at the opening session of the visit). For the uninitiated, a cappella singing is a small group of people using no instruments but their voices which blend into some amazing harmonies.

It’s not a new music art form of course (in fact I always say the original a cappella hit was written in the 1630’s- have a listen here to that). But of late, we can thank super groups like Pentatonix and others for the surge in popularity.

And it’s fantastic. I love people singing together without “a net” or in other words, the safety of instrumentals to fall on. When done well, it is a glorious sound of a half dozen folks who are uniquely gifted in their own ways but listen, really listen to each other blend together perfectly.

I won’t beat the metaphor alluded to in the blog title too hard, but there’s a lesson in a cappella for the very best leadership teams. Every day it seems we are surrounded by Executive Leadership teams, Division leadership teams and more. You yourself may be on one of them. In the best kind of environment these leadership teams aren’t awkward, faceless or sound like a soloist performing with a couple of backup singers. Nope –these teams perform like an a cappella group.

The a cappella Leadership Team members aren’t the same cookie cutter images of each other. They look different and sound different and each has his or her unique gift of range, talent and responsibility – and would never be confused with one another. Yet each sings from the same strategic score and must listen to each other equally – for if just one of them is dissonant, the whole thing falls apart.

These a cappella Leadership Teams are genuine and transparent. There’s little in the way of policy, history, or hiding behind “the way we always do things” that an a cappella Leadership Teams lean on. They are open, exposed and work without the trappings of a score recorded years ago or being played today by someone other than themselves.

Done beautifully, the a cappella Leadership Team knows their sound and messages must stir the people who look to them for direction and guidance. They know they have to work very hard to impress, retain and attract followers based on their performance.

Take a look (and a listen) at a cappella from every angle and consider the lessons throughout. It makes perfect sense and perfect pitch to me.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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How to Better Respect Small Business

How to Better Respect Small Business

I had two recent experiences that made me think differently about respecting small businesses. And if you are in the business of marketing, selling, servicing or supporting small business that’s an important thing.

The first was while reading some research. The research said that Small business owners overwhelmingly see themselves as unique and define themselves additionally by their unique contributions to society.

And I thought why do we so rarely acknowledge and respect small business owners for how they respect themselves?

Sure we respect them by acknowledging their value as a customer, their membership in an industry, their work ethic, their entrepreneurship, their common pain points, their challenges, their contributions to job creation as a whole and blah blah blah…..but don’t you see it?

There is little unique about that to the Small Business owner, instead it’s a wide swath acknowledgement of them as a group which exactly not how they see themselves individually. And there is nothing respecting their unique contributions to society.

Last week I tagged along with my wife to a local business association gathering at a new restaurant that recently opened in town. There had to be near 40 local businesses represented sipping on wine and appetizers.

This was not how I remember these meetings way back when I used to attend in another life. This meeting was about toasting to the “Alan’s business that is driving the benefit tomorrow night for the family who lost their home in the fire last week.” It was about the “needed sponsors for the summer band series”. It was about how proud the association was for being the “sole group responsible for installing a landmark historic clock in the center of town”. So little of the time was promoting their business and when they did – 80% of them shared how “different” they were than any another accountant, or restaurant, or mortgage broker, or Mary Kay representative they knew.

So why do I (and I suspect, we) forget so often what our eyes see, our ears hear and our research tells us about acknowledging and respecting a small business?

What if we were to ask more often “What are you most proud of”, “What defines you” or “What contribution as an Small Business owner inspires you?” when we talked with small business owners? What could we do with that? What would we learn? What if we identified their perceived or real unique differentiators and societal contributions and embedded those into our variable data printing or emails or CRM data or Facebook pages we build for them? The leverages are infinite.

Respect anew the small business owner in the ways they respect themselves. It just makes sense.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Book Review: Effortless Experience [Matt Dixon, 2013 Penguin Books, CEB]

Book Review: Effortless Experience [Matt Dixon, 2013 Penguin Books, CEB]

Delighting your customers are you? Waste of time. Focusing on First Call Resolution? You don’t get it. Worrying about what channels customers prefer to communicate in? Don’t be silly.

I couldn’t put this book down; read it in two chairs and one plane.

And what’s not to love with another Matt Dixon book (think The Challenger Sale) that is steeped in research from Corporate Executive Board and real life company examples of what you could truly do in the world of Service that improves loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

Dixon says and I believe him; “Service is the crucible of customer experience where all the companies’ claims, missions and values are tested.” Gulp.

The secret though has nothing to do with service levels, getting higher satisfaction scores or striving for legendary service experiences (ya know, like the Nordstrom folks).

It’s simpler but not nearly as sexy; Reduce the effort. Don’t aim for delight, aim for relief. Don’t dazzle customers, just fix the darn problem. Reduce the customer effort before and after and you mitigate the rampant disloyalty that exists today.

Dixon and co. dismantle some beliefs for us too: We have this illusion that our service departments are moments where we can inspire great trust and deeper loyalties with customers, yet data shows ANY customer service action is four times more likely to drive disloyalty than to drive loyalty.

A lot of the book focuses upstream before a customer even gets to you the service department, and delves into systems, websites and the need for simplicity. Focus on Customer Effort Scores (CES) and not satisfaction scores. Do that and you’ve mitigated the ease to jump ship.

Arguments and research abound about how incentivizing self-service vs. discouraging live service makes more sense. How new hires should start their day 2 searching your websites and FAQ’s for jargon that confuses them and therefore complicates the customer experience. How focusing on First Call Resolution misses the point that service issues are usually far more than that call but are “events” that may have begun weeks before ( like the purchase of a new service) and could continue weeks after. How Delight based on corporate data, does not pay and how opening new ways for clients to reach you isn’t a real advantage as people will go wherever they get the best help.

I loved the robust chapters on teaching people to use “carefully crafted and thoughtful language” to engineer an experience that “actively guides a customer through an interaction”. There is much neuroscience research there as well as in- the-trenches proven tactical applications that will have you rethinking your customer call approach.

I can’t do the book justice in less than 500 words but more than that and this post becomes an Article and not a blog.

Go get the book. Take notes, highlight and/or export. Study and then apply accordingly. Here is a link to the book on amazon.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Not Even A Dog’s Year Old

Not Even A Dog’s Year Old

A small trip down memory lane today. 6 years ago on this day, this blog began. I started it to help 10 sales folks I was working with at the time and it has become something different than that – but not really. It is an effort to write something short, perhaps interesting but most importantly, something you can use that day to help you be better at what you do, and to grow the business.

Though not even a dog’s year old, there are more than 350 posts (and over 50 others in draft form so awful that you will never see them) and 180,000+ words blathered in blog form. Thought it would be fun to share the most popular posts based on the stats as well as some of my favorite posts and a few more of my favorite posts today.

Have fun rereading or reading these today (I did). And thanks as always for reading and sharing.

5 Most Popular (based on your views and shares)

“Piano Man” is a Bad Song

My 25 Secrets for Selling To Small Businesses

The 6 Rules of Marketing and Sales

Treat Your Boss Well

Stumped

Some of My Favorites

I am Joe’s Lead

6 Questions Never To Ask a Customer

The Perfect I’m Sorry

Angela’s Assist

Platinum Questions Are Better

My Other Favorites (a bit closer to home- but lessons nonetheless)

My Great Pumpkin Lesson

Bailey

The Luckiest Man in the World

A Wii Bit of Advice

4 Minutes with Little Miss Dangling Arms

Fixing a Throwback Problem

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Role Players

Role Players

The New England Patriots are going about it differently this year. The players have only received Playbooks; they are not practicing. Sure, they’ve had lots of meetings at camp discussing and talking about the plays, why they are constructed as they are and why the plays will work. But not a single player has practiced the routes, the blocking schemes, the throws or the running plays.

Why would they bother? It’s not real. Heck most of the time in camp they are playing against each other on the same team! How silly is that? Nothing counts and someone could get hurt and what’s the point of that? Besides, they’ve studied the plays; they get it.

Not.

Of course the Patriots are practicing this year. Of course the Patriots are learning their roles by practicing these routes, those blocking schemes, the throws and the running plays.

But we either hate doing that stuff or just don’t care about doing it.

The day I walk through a sales site and see a coach and a sales rep leaning up against some old file cabinets on a sidewall spontaneously practicing a customer scenario about objection handling; I’ll just about have my coronary and end it right there. I have never ever seen that in real life.

The day I can go to 3 training sessions in a row (live or virtual) where the role play portion wasn’t cut off, or skipped due to time or just wasn’t part of the session – I’ll have that second coronary (well hopefully not with the medication I’m on now and the life changing behaviors I’d have adopted) but—you get the idea.

The day that sales manager from half way across the country Skypes his sales executive and forces her to go through the competitive differentiation portion of the conversation that’s going to soon happen in the C-Suite with a real customer, I’ll have that 3^rd myocardial infarction (metaphorically of course).

Maybe I need to get out more often and this stuff happens all the time now. But maybe it doesn’t.

The sad part is I have a lot of memories when people do some intense role play and apply that Playbook in sessions with their coaches or in war rooms or in “bull in the ring” sessions. I have lots of memories where those people said, out loud, that that was the best part of working their boss or in the team meetings or in the training classes.

The Patriots aren’t fools. They know they have roles to play. And they know they need to play these roles and practice even when stuff ain’t real. They know because when the time comes; they need to be ready.

And so do we. Hut! Hut!.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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That Hero Formula

That Hero Formula

In a recent post, Haven’t You Changed Yet? 3 Things Sales People Must Do Now I got a few questions about the 3^rd piece of advice around storytelling, particularly about the Hero Formula.

The customer who feared/resisted change or was down on their luck.
Took the leap of faith.
Ran into some unexpected challenges.
Recommitted to the effort.
Achieved mastery and had awesome results.

The hero formula has different iterations and is hugely popular in movies of course (think Rocky, Good Will Hunting, The King’s Speech and a dozen more). But it is great in sales (no matter what you sell, be it products or ideas). And it is great in marketing and business (think Apple/ Steve Jobs, the band Aerosmith etc.). Good stories stick and help you sell whatever it is that you do.

I got some questions about how it really sounds with a product or service. Here is an example and it is true – I’ve heard it first hand from people in the trenches. That is the key- don’t make stuff up. Instead, craft (as I did here) the truth leveraging the formula- you’d be surprised how often success follows the formula.

“An electrician I know lost most of his commercial business in a bid. CVS stores were his life and now they were gone. He needed to get into residential work in a big way and started smartly to build an online presence like a website, a Facebook page and trying to blog etc. as he knew the way word of mouth works is changing. But he did it on his own and it was a huge amount of work for him and his family- much more than he thought. He called us for a reorder of business cards one day and I started sharing how we could do a lot of that work managing his online presence making it so much easier for him and 4 months later he’s got close to 1000 followers on his Facebook page and gets about 30 solid leads a week off his website for residential work.”

The nice thing about hero stories is they don’t have to be yours. You can share regardless. “One of my colleagues has a client that…” will work just fine. Hero stories are sticky sticky sticky. They are centered on the Hero and how your product/ idea or service helped the Hero in their journey to success. That’s nice. And better, that’s effective.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Mark’s Blog

5 Phrases You’re Not Using Enough

5 Underrated Phrases

Words matter. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

“Tell me more about that…” Great at client meetings, great in customer conversations, great in coaching sessions and great at parties! You don’t lead unnecessarily, you don’t shut someone down and you don’t force anyone down any path they don’t want to go. You learn and they get to talk and share. Great sales people know this. And any of you actors out there know this is the one of the keys to great improv acting—it always keeps the conversation moving and don’t we all want that?

“We love you…” What is wrong with us? Do you think your customers give a flying hoot that you “value” them or “appreciate” them or “thank” them? Blah Blah Blah. Don’t you really love them? And if not, shouldn’t you? (Their business puts food on your table). Use “love“, “adore” or “cherish” in your print materials or email marketing and even those live conversations or voicemails. There’s nothing wrong with saying “You folks are one of our absolute greatest customers”. Make it your own—but make it different and real. Get above the clutter and stand out.

“Let’ me figure out what I can do.” Who knows why we humans default all the time to what we “can’t” do. It’s maddening and so hard to break. But you say the same thing except far better by saying “Let me think about it and come back with what can be done.” Vs “I can’t do this.” It’s a world of difference be it at work in service, sales and even in your personal relationships. Positive Resonates; Negative Detonates.

“Who besides yourself…?” Add any ending to Who besides yourself as in “has a say in the decision”, “wants to review”, “would like more info”, “would benefit from a demo”? Too often we push our contacts away (whether we know them well or they just answered your call) instead of protecting them, their contributions and frankly their egos. Always include, never insult unintentionally by presuming they do not play a role in the next step.

So you’re all set, this will get you (insert pursuit, dream or goal)”: Easier than it seems but sadly at the end of most meetings, transactions or purchases we limp along and wrap up the pricing, the purchase order or the specifics of the next contact instead of inserting how what just happened is so critical to what the client or the business wants. They don’t want the copier you’re selling; they want more time to focus on real work. They don’t want business Facebook page built; they want to get more customers because they’ll be found more easily. They don’t want to just list out action items for the next meeting; they want to know how what they did today is going to make a difference. Tie off each meeting or interaction that way no matter what you do—you’ll solidify the value and strengthen the partnership.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Haven’t You Changed Yet? 3 Things Sales People Must Do Now

Haven’t You Changed Yet? 3 Things Sales People Must Do Now

You know it’s true.

You know that when a prospect calls, fills out a web form or pings you with an email these days that they have already and absolutely done research about you, your products and your company. Like a lot of research.

I’ve read a dozen studies that say most folks are 50% to 75% through the sales process by the time they get to you, the live breathing sales rep.

Well that stinks. It’s sure not like the old days.

Remember the days when prospects or clients needed you to tell them all about your company, the products, the pricing and the options? Yeah, I do. It was like the early 2000’s was the last time that was real life. But now there is the internet, the websites, the blogs, the reviews and all that good stuff. What do the prospects need you for? (Answer: to confirm pricing, terms and other such mundane stuff it seems).

But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are three things you should be doing all the time now dear sales person, before and during that time when that phone rings, that load leads or that email arrives.

Differentiation is Your Lead Story: If the prospect is contacting you – they already have a need; so ease up on hitting the needs discovery so hard up front for criminy sakes. Instead, focus on differentiation and do it presumptively. An old colleague of mine taught me the critical question sales must always answer for prospects; “Why with all the competitive alternatives available to me, should I buy from you?” OK – you know that is important but you need do this presumptively without being asked. “Yes, it runs around $60 a month and what makes that unique versus others that may offer the service is….” Or “My guess is you’ve looked hard at options here, one thing to consider unusual but awesome about how our products delivers is…..” Your job with differentiation as your lead story is to snap the prospect out of price or terms shopping – that’s where they think they are when they call you – and that is what you must change.

Teach Existing Customers Something New Every Single Day: Some of the best sales reps in the world don’t like the leads they get today. They really don’t. The leads they get today as I’ve said are often folks who have so much research available to them that by the time they contact you – you’re just a talking head sometimes confirming stuff they already know. The best sales people create their own leads. They educate and teach before the need arises or do so in such a way that they create the need and therefore are front and center playing the role of a human (and way more engaging) source of research and information than the web. And they teach about new products and services for sure but in such a way that they are problems solvers and industry challenge averters and hurdles faced but that help to succeed. Maybe you’re in the lead generation business in your role, maybe you are in the closing end of it too. It makes no difference – teach, teach, and then teach some more.

Be a Story Teller: You know what doesn’t work all that well on the web? Customer Testimonials. They really don’t. No offense to any of the talented marketing folks who nurture, create and publish testimonials. Some are effective for sure; some are even emotionally moving videos about using a product. But by and large, the quotes, the blurbs and the statements supporting the products and services on a website or brochure are let’s be honest, not always believed to be credible to the prospect. But a story told by a real sales person like you who had a real interaction with a real customer who better yet, looks a lot like the prospect you are talking to; A story told well that way – now that has influence! Get good at telling stories. You all have them. You have those real success stories with real customers. (Bonus tip; Fit your story into the Hero model for greatest impact; 1) the customer who feared/resisted change or was down on their luck 2) took the leap of faith 3) ran into some unexpected challenges 4) recommitted to the effort 5) achieved mastery and had awesome results!). Story telling was never part of anyone’s sales training class – that I can assure you; but it darn well should be now!

Times change. Technology changes. Buying processes change. Make sure you are too.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Pardon Me While I Sell You This Chair

Pardon Me While I Sell You This Chair

Mark’s Blog

4 essential reminders on how to really create interest and sell just about anything. In just 139 seconds.

Till Next Time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Refreshingly Heartwarming

Refreshingly Heartwarming

I sat in on a training class yesterday for a couple of hours yesterday morning. It was heartwarming. Odd word to use I know, but stay with me; it’s something you’d like to see all the time I suspect.

The class was essentially about a slew of new products and all that goes with that. The trainer was pretty smart so she let the group after about 30 minutes; take some time to dive into a catalogue she made with all the new product pictures, sizes, quantities etc.

I was in the back of the room flipping through the pages myself when I heard the first “Ooohh” and then some “Ahhh’s” and then a few “Oh my gosh(es)” . Soon the whole crew was engaged in chatter and page flipping and laughter and shouting out a bunch of “Oh look(s)!”.

I was kind of surprised and curious because this training was a lot about change and workarounds and for sure some new processes, procedures, conversions and quoting to come etc. So I asked the group what all the excitement was about.

This is the cool part; the heartwarming part.

“My customers are always asking me for this stuff…!”

“They are going to be so happy we have this now…..”

“I’m not going to have to tell them “no” or try and do some crazy outsourcing”

“Now they can get it one place, it will be so much easier for them….”

And it went on.

“They want these quantities so badly!..”

“They are going to love what we can do with these now on both sides!”

“I had a customer last week – she would have liked this so much better..”

So it was then I realized how different this moment could have been.

It could have been easily a lot of “Thank god, it’s about time I’ve got something else to sell…!” or the opposite in “Great, now I have to sell something else that’ll be added to my quota..” or “This is just more stuff we have to remember…..”

I’ve been around a while, I’ve seen all of that before and I get it.

But this was different. And it’s a testament to these folks and their leaders and their culture. And it’s a nod to the product and business leaders who author the changes. And best, the reaction bodes as promising for growing the business as anything I’ve seen. The folks in this training class have a great affinity for their customers; that is the heartwarming part. And when they see new products – their first thought is a refreshing “I’ve got something else to help these people with….”

How awesome is that?

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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