5 Things You Will Soon Lose (But It’s OK)

Your Resume: What you think of and how good you are about getting or keeping customers (the only thing any employer truly should care about) will soon best embodied by your blazing trail on the web via your blogs, slideshares, tweets, posts and commentary by businesses and customers you’ve influenced ( or not). Your web fingerprint is a lot more credible than that single pager of spin we’ve grown to love.

Your Thirst For Big Numbers. You’ll soon despise having 500+contacts in LinkedIn or 10,000 followers on Twitter. Instead you’ll yearn for being part of as many smaller networks you can. It’s a bit sad, but we are embracing ever more tightly, the belief that “the bigger the network is the lower the trust of those within it.” Tough business this world of trust is.

Your Memory: Well, at least the loose data stuff. With the Googlization of the world and how it changes how we use our brains (it’s a fact by the way) to find out about stuff, you’ll need just a swipe or a couple of spoken syllables into your (insert wicked smart battery powered thingy here) to get that memory jogged. Good news it that neuroscience studies show it leaves more focus for the brain to work on more important stuff.

Your Social Skills: Tragic but we’ll soon be hard pressed to remember how to make eye contact, know which hand to lead with to shake hands and remember that unlike IM, you have to wait for someone to stop talking before sharing your thought. Forget “Virtual Meeting”, “Flesh Meeting” will become two dirtier words. Happily, when we realize what we’ve lost we’ll get a fresh start on new and improved social skills.

Your Boundaries: It will happen. Meeting at10 am. Meeting at2:30 pm. Go home at4pm. Play with kids. Nice dinner at6pm. Watch reruns of 3 and a ½ men (Sheen came back from the dead- it was of course, just a dream). Meeting at9pm with New Zealand staff. Sleep. Meeting at8am in UK client. Meeting at10 am. Rinse and Repeat. Global is big. Global is different. But global is money.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Reminders

Apple IOS 5.0 came with a new App called Reminders. It’s pretty cool. It didn’t come pre-populated though with any real helpful reminders about work so I thought I would do that in case you’ve forgotten.

Discovering needs is dead. Creating needs is alive and well. Big difference folks; a huge difference. One assumes your prospect is a helpless victim of their environment, the other presumes they are definitively in charge of where they intend to go.
Have you ever heard such a hue and cry for information and knowledge before? Consumers and businesses yearn to understand social media, global marketing, internet marketing, economics, new languages, tablet and smart phone technologies and more. Teach people too. Teach people and you’ll corner that market and never go hungry.
It’s not like it used to be anymore. Before you ever hear from that prospect or customer they’ve been to your website and done lots of digging already (but they won’t tell you that). When they finally get to you- you best deliver something other and better than a screen shot rehash.
You can choose not to have a credible or professional web presence for yourself online but that would be unwise. Trust is at an all time low. People, prospects, customers, partners and employers all want to see what your brand is and what you represent before they invest in you for real.
You can have too many contacts, too many followers, too many fans, too many friends. There’s a point where your influence like it or not, looks like it’s for sale or it’s too easily given away; either way – trust deteriorates, hits the tipping point and it becomes a zero sum game.
Be Invaluable. Differentiate. Simplify. Hard to go wrong if you do those three things. Just a reminder is all.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Email: mark.mccarthy@deluxe.com

Internal Blog: http://blogs.deluxe.com/Mark/

External Blog: https://growthebusiness.wordpress.com/

Twitter at: http://twitter.com/GrowTheBusiness

Customs Fail and Redemption

Maybe it was the long drive. Maybe it was just the thoughts of the most recent conference call that ended on our cell phones. Or maybe it was the pressure of seeing the guns they were holding.

Regardless, it was failure.

Years and years of living, leading, preaching and teaching about our company’s Transformation had just fizzled into 7 tepid words.

“….Checks and forms and stuff like that……”

That was our answer given to the Canadian Border guards to the question “So tell me, what does Deluxe do?” when the three of us attempted to cross into Canada on our way to the Mirimichi, NB site from Groton, Ma.

Waah. Wah Waaaaahhhh.

After our passports were inspected, our trunk searched and our vehicle registration scrutinized, we sped away and realized immediately the enormity of our missed opportunity.

Chalk it up to what some call “primacy” where under pressure we revert to what we learned first about something years ago. Maybe that was it. Or chalk it up to tiredness or laziness or just plain ol’ choking when you got your chance at the plate.

Either way it was bad, very bad.

All week in Mirimichi we skulked from meeting to meeting and pondered the blunder. Elevator speeches are critical and come in all sizes and in all places. Even, we sadly learned, at border crossings. What Deluxe Corp really does today is so much more than checks and forms and stuff like that! How could we have dropped that ball? What does that mean about ourselves and our next “test” whenever that is? Will we ever recover?

3 days and 5 hours of driving later, we had our chance.

We were crossing back over to the other side.

Sunlight glinting off the M-16 rifles slung low by the two border patrol agents, we sat patiently at the checkpoint awaiting our turn. Even from 25 yards away, our eyes narrowed and locked on to the men almost daring them to ask us – no not ask –interrogate us about exactly what Deluxe Corp does!

Our turn came. We rolled slowly forward with shoulders back, heads held high and with military like precision slowly lowered the three car windows to proclaim as one, our company Transformation and nail this chance at personal and corporate redemption.

“And what does Deluxe do?” asked our chiseled, square jawed inquisitor.

“We provide online and offline marketing services and thousands of other products for all kinds of businesses and financial institutions.”

The agent nodded his head and smiled. It made perfect sense to him.

Was it perfect? No. Did it capture everything we do or can do? Heck no. But by golly, it was real, it was different and it was tangible. It couldn’t be some catchy slogan, analogy or metaphor or these guys for sure would have given us a different and more personal kind of search this time. Bottom line- We did it! It was a lead story about Deluxe that was so so far away from just “Checks and forms and stuff like that.”

Don’t do what we did on the way up to Canada. Be ready. Someday someone (hopefully not with guns drawn), is going to ask you what your company does and how you answer that can be a very big deal.

Don’t fumble the pitch or mumble the wrong story. It can be the difference in how well you break through to the other side.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Fixing a Throwback Problem

Wiffle Ball (backyard baseball) is a real love of mine. A plastic bat, 2 or 3 players, 6 to 8 Wiffle balls, a homerun fence about 70 feet away and you are good to go.

Unless you have pet peeves. And I do.

One of which is this; When you are pitching to the other team or player, the least you should expect after throwing all the balls in, is that all the balls get thrown back somewhere remotely close to you. For 30 years and thousands of games, this has been a problem.

Because no matter who you play with from young kids to your adult friends, you are liable to get balls thrown back to you that are 10 feet left, 10 feet right, 10 feet short or 10 feet over your head.

It slows down the game and frankly drives me insane.

So until a few weeks ago my effort to fix this problem was to progressively ask, then beg, then whine, then complain and then scream for everyone to please try and throw the balls back at least close to me, the pitcher.

It didn’t work. Balls were thrown back any which way (including the dreaded “soccer kick” and “plastic bat golf swing” of the balls back to the mound).

About 4 weeks ago it dawned on me. I put a little plastic bucket at my feet when I pitched (see picture above of actual bucket in my backyard) and proclaimed new rules that an automatic run would score if upon the throwback to the mound, the ball landed in the bucket.

It’s a rare moment when a ball actually lands or bounces into the bucket (it’s only 6 inches deep) so you’re not changing the outcome of any game and throwing the balance of the world out of whack but since then, almost every ball gets close to the bucket and hence, the pitcher. Now everyone uses the “bucket rule”. Problem solved. Game on.

The point is kind of simple. It’s either (or both) that I am a full Ginzu set of knives short of a silverware drawer for not thinking of this for 3 decades or it is that to change behaviors, sometimes asking for or demanding a behavior change does not work.

Sometimes an incentive is better.

So the questions are, what work behavioral pet peeves do you have? And what could an incentive do for you?

Your sales team is struggling to make the time to learn more about the industry they call upon or service? Bury “incentives” in the details of industry knowledge materials you post on the Wiki. (i.e. offer rewards for learning or knowing)
CRMor lead generation data not getting updated correctly or completely? Add a small “accelerator” to your SIP for quality detail about and for our customers.

There are a dozen more pet peeves for sure but don’t wait for years to figure out a solution to a nagging behavioral problem like I did. I only wish I had thought of the “bucket rule” back when I was 12 and I probably would have gotten a few hundred more games in.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

“Can I Help You With Anything?” (Ugh)

My wife went to look for a dress on Friday.

She told me about it later (must have been a commercial break as I’m not inclined to really listen to mall shopping stories) but I was so pleased to have heard it.

As she entered the store, the associate walked up to her and didn’t say “Can I help you with anything?” She also didn’t say “Hi, how are you?” She didn’t say too “If you need anything just let me know”…

What she did say was – “What brings you here today?”

[How Wonderful!]

My wife hesitated, (it’s just harder to blurt out “I’m all set” to that question!), then mumbled she was looking for a dress and the associate smartly followed with “…for a special occasion?….”

By golly, yes she was. Happiness and an extra large charge on the credit card ensued. 🙂

What a great reminder of how idiotic in sales we often are.

Shoppers who enter your store or call your phone already have an interest in something (or um….they wouldn’t be there right?).

Yet how often do we neglect to enhance that energy or fuel that fire but saying silly things like “How can I help you today?” or “Can I answer any questions for you?”

Take a lesson from the associate my wife met on Friday and instead ask “What brings you here today?” or “What prompted your call today?”

Energy and Need propelled the shopper to walk into your store or to dial your phone, don’t drain it with inane meaningless questions – fuel it!

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

My 25 Secrets for Selling to Small Businesses

Since 1988 I’ve sold, serviced and essentially provided for my family via the results of my interactions with, and strategies toward in large part, small business. Maybe that’s you too. Maybe you are an indepent, an employee of a large firm or even a small business selling to small businesses – no matter — this is all good for you.

I’ve forgotten far more than I’ve learned I suspect, but here are my 25 best kept secrets for selling to small businesses.

The worst time to sell to a small business is M-F,10am to 12pm and 1-3pm. Ain’t nobody in small business interested in doing any business but their own at those times. Work harder on the fringes!
New In Business is gold. It’s a little like a chick imprinting on you just after hatching. Help a small business when they are starting out and they will be fiercely loyal to you.
Not every SB wants to grow! (but they sure as hell want to at least keep what they have). Use a maintain angle.
Testimonials are so table stakes now. What you need are testimonials from someone your SB prospect knows.
Surprise! Surprise! Small business owners are or once were; sales people. They can smell your trial closes and rotating yes’s from 100 yards away.
The most important word to think, proclaim, represent and lead with when talking with a small business owner is the word “easy”.
Never forget how prideful, ego laden and direct a business owner usually is about his/her business!
I’ve never said the word “small” to a small business. Ever. I just won’t do it.
Your price, your service, your terms and even your competition are not remotely close to the biggest problem you face with small business. Time (and getting it) is the biggest challenge by far.
Whoever answers the phone at a small business is good at customer service, great at connecting you to brother Billy and a pro at getting rid of salespeople like you.
Everyone in a small business has at least some influence in the decision. Sorry. Dems’ the apples.
If you don’t make it easy to switch to you, you won’t get a sale.
You get to go home to your kids. The SB owner’s kids are in the back room coloring on the folding table. Free up their time to spend more time with family and you win.
The first step in the SB sales model isn’t discovery or introduction or greeting or any other silly thing; it’s building credibility. That needs to be your obsession.
Time is so precious that “either/or” leading questions about anything are always better than open ended questions for a busy small business owner.
Your customers have customers. If you focus your solution on how it impacts your customer’s customers then it’s a win-win and the sale is easier.
“What most people do..” is the most powerful phrase in small business sales. Use it liberally.
The SB’s website and/or storefront is the “face” of the business. You can tell a lot by just looking at someone’s face. Do that first!
I bet a killer secret- to- be in cold calling is the phrase “Did I catch you at a terrible time or do you have 90 seconds?” right after you say your name and company. (I just learned it so try it and let me know!)
Your SB’s don’t realize yet (most of em’ anyway), that that cherished Word of Mouth is changing. Not in value, but in the tools being used to pass that along. Help your SB’s see the value of social media!
SB’s don’t want to hear about your “8:30to 5 shift” (they don’t have no stinkin’ shift) the old small business you had (that failed) or the other business you go to “just like theirs” (their competition). So just knock it off.
It’s not what you think, believe or analyze about your SB customer or prospect so much that matters- it’s what they think of you.
Asking for help always worked for me. And you know what worked best? 2 sales people knocking on doors (one being a trainee). You always got time! People (SB’s too) like to help people.
Slick, coiffed, corporate and the King’s English doesn’t fly in Small Business. Be normal, polite and smart but don’t be everything SB’s hate in the first 30 seconds inside the door.
The greatest secret to selling to Small Business? They aren’t a sale, a lead, a customer, a prospect, your commission or even a business; they’re human and would just like a little help.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

From Have to Believe

It’s best to move on now from what you have, to what you believe.

If you are transforming from a commodity-like company to a knowledge and service based company, its best to move on from what you have, to what you believe.

So many of us are doing just that. Whether we are a company or a sales rep or a marketer or a trainer; more and more of us are adding (or must add) insight/ intelligence to our stable of widgets or even in some cases, instead of our widgets.

The market is starving for direction.

Don’t get me wrong, what you have is fine for they are the products and services. Thankfully, they pay the bills and feed the kids.

But too often we eagerly share, shout and talk about those products and services. Too often we earnestly show what we have for products and services on our websites, in our phone calls and during our webinars. Too often we study too hard about what we have for products and services. Too often we train too much about what we have for products and services.

And we spend so little time talking about what we believe.

That’s right, what we believe. What your company believes. What you believe.

You thought I was going to tell you to focus not on what we have but on what your products and services do for the customer; how they solve a problem, how they fit a need.

Good lord, that is so 80’s. And that’s table stakes now.

Belief sharing is better. Belief sharing is needed now more than ever. Belief sharing is the new black.

We spend so little relative time in sharing our credible prescriptive path to success for our customers. We spend so little relative time espousing our beliefs about the direction our clients must go to achieve what they want to achieve.

Products and Services are critical yes, but amazingly, they are too often fun, too easy to count, too easy to have sales on and in fact can crowd out the very essence that they should be an extension of a very passionate and clear belief– not just about what our products and services do but what we believe the path is to get there.

An obsession about what we have may work well for widgets, gum and shoelaces, but what we believe matters more if we profess to be in the Advice and Counsel game; the Insight game or the Knowledge and Service game as so many of us do ( and need to do).

Customers are drawn to those who have passionate beliefs. Small businesses for example, line up to get counsel from SCORE, to join Mastermind groups, to access advice and counsel from Hubspot, DuctTape Marketing and Amex’s Open Network. .

The difference between saying “We have this and this and this……” and “We believe the best route to success is …” is awesome. And powerful.

What you believe in the knowledge and service game sells the products and services that you have. It’s not the other way around.

We must also be consistent about those beliefs from the company home page to the person in the field or on the phone. And we must be different from the competition. And we must be religiously true to those beliefs as if they were inscribed on tablets made of stone; not just in what the results will be but in the prescriptive method of how those beliefs are executed upon.

It’s OK to teach and lead customers to your beliefs. It’s more than OK. In a shaky economy and a world that gets more confusing everyday, it’s got to be your lead story now.

For without that rock solid, credible path about what you believe, nobody will come to you, or listen to you or give a darn about what products or services you have no matter what they do.

Take a stand. Have a belief. Preach it, teach it, brand it, package and sell it. Leave the obsession with products and services behind.

If your customer is so inspired, have no fear, they’ll ask you what you have.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

When Just Do It is Just Worse

Tried to fix a vacuum yesterday. Almost did too.

Nearly finished, I dropped the vacuum putting the last screw in. Exploded all over kitchen floor. Now it won’t even turn on.

I do this a lot. I get all jacked up on a whim to tackle these little projects usually on a weekend. Move a couch and instead rip the fabric. Fold down the lawn mower to make room in the shed and instead snap off the starting rope. Change the shower head cuz’ gosh darn it, the other one is so old and now I’ve got a leak I didn’t have before.

When I do these little projects things often get worse. I realize I don’t prepare or think too much in advance of these things. I just do it.

And if I’m honest with myself sometimes this happens at work too (though with my boss subscribing to this blog too, I’d rather not share exactly what I’ve made worse thank you very much :))

But the hindsight view is usually the same – it’s a result of not a whole lot of preparation or thought before tackling an issue or an opportunity; I get all jacked up and um… just do it.

When just do it makes it just worse, then it’s time to ditch that catchy marketing phrase at home and at work and just leave it on the ball field.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

5 Tips for Better Summer Selling

It is engrained in all of us whether we are buyers or sellers; this summer season.

We all went to school at one point in our lives and most had “summers off”. More of us had summer vacations than winter vacations. There are more 3 day weekends, barbecues and down time no matter where you live during the summer season. It’s just the way it is.

And if you own a business or sell to a business that physiological indoctrination doesn’t just go away. It’s there.

So that old belief about selling and buying being a bit tougher in the summer has some truth to it.

It can be tougher. But rather than fight it; Embrace it.

Intensify Activity Mon – Wed: The summer weeks get compressed. Bring your A game to Work Habits and Sales Skills in a big way Monday through Wednesday. Start early and stay late. These three days in the summer week are the times when attention, interest and consideration of what you have to offer is best consumed. By the end of the week on a Thursday or Friday, the decision maker wants not to discuss much more (or can even find all the right players to gather and discuss) your proposal – but they do want to be able to make that decision, call you, get it done and move on.

Free Up Client’s Time; It’s about sharpening your sales messaging during the summer. There isn’t necessarily more time for business owners or executives to take off, but there is a strong desire to do so. Make your visits or calls to “take something off the plate”, or “to wrap things up before August”. The summer is when it is especially important to remind clients how brief and easy it will be to get things done. Talk in “minutes” not “appointments”, talk in “3 simple steps” not in “Let’s get this process started”. Time pressure in the summer is often higher than the rest of the year.

Focus on Low Stress Contacts: You don’t want to disappear from your customers mind for 3 months, so summer is the perfect time to arrange face time or phone time but in low stress (ah…summer…) ways. Arrange for the customer satisfaction survey, the yearly review, the product review session or the just plain ol’ “thank you for your business” call or meeting. Ask about ways you can make working with you easier or better. Ask about what’s happening with their social media efforts and how that’s going. These moments can often lead to a summer sale but if not, they at least keep you in mind.

Summer Clearance; You don’t hear about winter clearances much. And every savvymarketer knows if you have a reason for a sale like “We are changing over our inventory!”, or “Clearing out overstock!” people will buy. Summer clearance makes sense; create the need. You can create your own summer clearance message as a salesperson or within a sales team and frankly, the smaller the time window “July Fire Sale before they are all gone!” the better.

Focus on Strategy: Business owners or C-Suite types aren’t shutting down their brains in the summer. In fact, though vacation time is up and speed to decision time often slows, this is the time that these folks are thinking strategically. They are planning next year’s budget, ormarketing objectives, or sales strategies during the summer. Now is the time to plant those strategic seeds with your client that can help them. Share industry best practices, white papers or send links to informational pieces and talk strategy be it during a planned meeting or when they call you.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Sharpen Your Sales Message

Stop yourself just for a moment. Breathe. And Think.

Listen to yourself or look at what you are writing. Is it really what it should be?

Sharpen your Sales Messaging.

It’s odd sometimes how much energy we spend pulling all the levers that we do to improve sales but often don’t take enough time to look hard or re-look at the very first lever – the most critical lever: Sales Messaging.

If your sales messaging is poo then it doesn’t matter how often or in how many ways you say it or distribute that sales message – it’s still poo.

It’s not “We have a special right now..”, it’s “This special we have right now is flying out the door..”

It’s not “We can help you get Online..”, it’s “We can help you get more good leads …”

It’s not “There’s a price break at 2,000….”, it’s “Hold on, let me save you some money here…”

It’s not “I’m calling to see what your supply of..”, it’s “I’m calling to take something off your to do list..”

It’s not “We’ve updated the product to include…”, it’s “Most people are flocking to the updated product because….”

It’s not “We have a some brand new Holiday cards and gifts this year…”, it’s “ Let’s help you stand out from your competitors this year..”

It’s not “We can customize this for you and add those things you want..”, it’s “Let’s make your life easier for you…”

You get it.

But be honest with yourself. Are you doing it?

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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