insight

Useless Vs. Priceless Phrases

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Useless Vs. Priceless Phrases

I have three Priceless Phrases that can make your life easier (and/or more successful) if you chose to use them immediately.

But before I get to those, let me share some favorite Useless Phrases so the distinction between the two types of phrases becomes very clear to you.

3 Useless Phrases 

  • I’m a big fan of shouting “Lords of Light!” when surprised.  ( Silly phrase – Just darn odd too)
  • Being of Irish Boston heritage I will say a whole lot of (when angry)    “ _______, Mary and Joseph!” (I left it blank because I swear my Mom still can hear me and she would not be happy).
  • If you are a faithful blog reader you know that lately I’m partial to randomly saying “That’s not a real puppy. That’s too small to be a real puppy”.    I use this phrase (stolen from a TV commercial) when I see people obsessed with social media.  

None of these phrases really do anything for me.  Nor certainly, will they do anything for you.

But now these next phrases – Have at em’ – They will set you free!

3 Priceless Phrases 

“OK, let’s talk a bit more and see what we can do”.  Is part of your job helping people?  My guess is yes.  Is part of your job getting requests or demands from colleagues or customers?  Then this phrase is for you.  Nobody likes to hear “no” right off the bat (and few of us like to say it).  This phrase takes requests or demands and gets you both a little time (critical for discovery) and focuses on what “can” be done vs.  what can’t.  Tension is therefore reduced and work can begin.  Make it your own – “talk” can become “meet”, “we” can become “I”.  You get it.

“Who besides yourself…”  So easy, but nobody says it.  Talking with customer, colleague or service provider no matter – this phrase gets you way more than you think.  Want to talk to the decision maker?  Presume the person you are talking to has some kind of influence and ask “Who besides yourself has a say in investing here?” Otherwise you risk disconnect or diversion.   Protect the pride and ego of the people you talk to- it helps you.

“Tell me more about that…”  Fantastic for a networking event, or easing the challenge of going to party with people you may not have ever met or simply doing some good discovery with a client.  We all love to talk about ourselves or what we do.  This phrase fuels that making you also perceived to be “such a great listener!” No harm in saying “Tell me more about that” a dozen times in an hour at a convention, conference or party.  Bonus:  You can make this phrase more effectively open up your clients, new friends or potential customers by narrowing the focus (vs. the broad word “more”).  Ask “Tell me the best part about that”.  It allows for often a faster focus point for the responder and better, it keeps that person focused on the positive – all good when they think back on talking with you.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Mark’s Blog

Mark’s Twitter

3 Keys To Giving Great Advice Fast

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3 Keys To Giving Great Advice Fast

Smart sells.   Smart and Fast sells even better.

If you are in the B2B space there is little more valuable today than insight.  Insight is attractive.  Insight gets attention and sets you apart from competitors.  Insight leads to influencing client behavior which leads to sales. 

Good advice giving is important today especially in the abstract service spaces like online digital marketing or insurance or payroll services or social media services etc- you get the picture.   And Business owners (especially SBs) are pressed for time and even more pressed for advice and counsel. 

So when they talk with you Mr. or Mrs.  Salesperson or Consultant; they expect you have something smart to say or something to share that they did not know before and the reality is, they have very little time to stand around ( or hang on the phone) to answer your 20 questions and wait for you to absorb, analyze and provide that insight. 

So if you are charged with having to provide important tips or advice in very little time to a prospect or client, how do you do it?  And how do you do it fast? 

3 Keys

  • Set the Table Correctly Before Asking Any Questions At All:  It’s a rare day when you can amble up to a business owner or chat with them while they are calling in to place and order, and start to pontificate smart advice.  At a minimum, a question or two usually needs to be asked.  But it’s how you preface asking those questions that makes a difference.  Tee up the questions with a statement that respects the appeal from the customer/ prospect’s perspective.  “I know your time is short so let me ask just three quick questions about your business so I can then give you something interesting to think about”    Business owners love the words “quick” and  “three” ( they know when it is over!).  And you have totally respected the time issue.    Do this and you have just improved your chances of your questions being answered honestly and completely enough as he/she wants what you want –to give/get good insight, fast.
  •  Be an Industry Informant.   There’s nothing wrong with taking a tact that starts with “You know what I’m hearing from a lot of the accountants I’m talking to these days…” Or “I gotta say the contractors I talk to today are hammering social media and print marketing pretty equally..”   This approach doesn’t respect the client’s individual business needs (yet) but makes you sound very smart (you must talk to people just like me every day!) and therefore the advice has credibility.   And of course, nothing is more influential to a business owner than what other businesses (who are just like them) are doing.   Key here is you have to leverage Lines of Business or even some deeper segmentation (gulf coast contractors for example) that appeals to clients’ sense of your industry intelligence. 

  

  • “Think” / “Consider” vs. “Do”:  The worst kind of advice to give to someone you don’t know that well just yet is to tell them to “do” something.   Particularly in those more complex, abstract services and especially when those people you are talking about are business owners who have a pretty large sized ego, pride and sense of entrepreneurialism.  Know your audience.  Telling someone to “do” something can get backs to arch so to speak.  Try “Consider some payroll options, a few things to think about are how much time you spend per month…”   Or “One thing to think about is investing in some kind of trackable answering service…”.   Semantics?  Nope.  Insert the word “do” in the last 2 examples and pretend you’re a business owner talking with someone you just met.   Yeah- fun uh?  Encouraging business owners to “think” and “consider” is smart.  Not when you are suggesting buying a pen or upgrading to larger quantity – that’s fine use a form of “do”.  But when you are in those more complex products or services, it shows you get how these folks work and that you are advising not closing at this stage. 

Be Smart and Sell More! 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Mark’s Blog

Mark’s Twitter

Surprisingly Attractive

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Suprisingly Attractive

It’s why we like to fish.  It’s why we like Bingo and love gambling.  It’s why some of us even like checking the mail ( any kind of mail I suppose).  It’s why we like looking for seashells or walking thru old cemeteries or even trolling for old friends on Facebook.

We like surprises.  We are wired that way.   There is a thrill and pleasure of seeking – yet not really knowing what you are going to get or find.   There is a ingrained yearning, a waiting and a hoping for good, interesting or just plain “cool” stuff to surprisingly appear.

I know people like that.  People on the “cool” end of things.  People like Mike who whenever you see him, you know he’s got something exciting to tell you, to teach you – heck – even his emails you don’t open right away cuz’ you have to be ready to take it all in. 

People like Mary, David and Walter who when you are talking with them face to face or on the phone,  are constantly surprising you with stuff or ideas to the point you walk away and write it down, google it or better – act upon it.

There are a handful of colleagues I roll the dice with often and on some days I land the  800 lb. Wicked Tuna of surprises talking with these folks.  Brilliant stuff that makes you want to cash in and celebrate on the spot.

Surprise attracts;  good surprises especially.   All of the people above are successful, are always surprising and have huge fan clubs or client lists  and are on the speed dial for more than a village of folks. 

Are you a constant pleasant surprise to your customers? To your employer? To your family?  Shouldn’t you be?

Are you offering valuable ideas, insight or selfless help to the point you attract people, prospects or those in need to you?  Shouldn’t you?

If not you, is your company, your division or your team constantly surprising in a good way?

Good Surprise is great.   We like it.  We yearn for it.  We manufacture entire industries around searching for it.  And those individuals who do surprise well, tend to be the accomplished  types who are magnets to those around them.

Surprise is, when you think about it, surprisingly attractive. 

Go do that.

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Mark’s Blog

Mark’s Twitter

Move Along, Nothing To See Here

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Move Along, Nothing To See Here

Watching inane television, rubber necking at traffic accidents or viewing any of the top 10 YouTube videos on any given day are just 3 things that are an insipid waste of time and focus.  Move along, nothing to see in any of that. 

Here are some other things not worth focusing on for you folks who Sell to feed yourself and your kids. 

  • If a prospect’s hand is raised (no matter how high) then you needn’t start from scratch with that selling process.  Move along, nothing to see here.  No need to create interest already created, rather fuel the interest and move the sales process forward.
  • If you had that cup of coffee already and got caught up on your colleagues weekend activities (or better yet didn’t waste time getting caught up) – get in your car or get on the phone and start connecting with prospects/clients.  Move along, nothing to see here.  Keep moving – time is precious and hard to get from your busy clients. 
  • If you have presented the solution, painted a compelling picture of how the client benefits from using it and removed the perceived risk of their investment then you needn’t hang around that part of the selling process any longer.  Move along, nothing to see here.   Ask for the business or presume you have it and move forward.
  • If you’ve got a few questions answered from your client then quit asking more.  Move along, nothing to see here.  Incessant discovery of clients’ wishes, dreams and goals is exhausting for them- teach them something smart instead.  That will move the sales process forward.
  • If you’ve gotten two “Send me some info’s”, one missed planned call and a couple of “I’ll look it over’s..” then you needn’t keep nurturing this lead.  Move along, nothing to see here.  The prospects willingness to change is not there- they will stay with whatever they are doing today (including nothing) and are just trying to be polite. 

 

I bet there are a dozen other wasted foci out there; feel free to share (and teach us) in comments!

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Mark’s Blog

Mark’s Twitter