We watched Rocky again Saturday night. It’s the hero formula we love.
Someone who is down on his luck, down on his skill or down on himself who faces obstacles, has a dream and against so many odds, succeeds. Doesn’t matter if it’s Rocky or Rudy or even the King in The King’s Speech – it’s all the same and we love it when we see it.
Try feeling it.
There’s something out there that nobody thinks you can do, including maybe even you. Go do it anyway.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
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.
I stared at it every day.
A lot of snow on it for sure.
Lots of snow everywhere. 75 inches of snow so far this year where I live. I know, I keep track.
I’d take the dog out and yes, I’d stare at it. Gee, that’s a lot of snow on that. It was pretty in the snow.
I’d put the dishes in the sink, make the coffee, rinse a plate or two and I’d stare at it more out the window.
There’s a lot of snow on that roof. Boy, it’s snowed a lot this year. It’s a big old shed the previous owner built. He was a contractor. It was strong. I don’t have a garage, so that shed is very helpful. I put the lawn mower, the bikes, the paint, the old furniture and a dozen other important things in there- you know how it works.
On Sunday I stared at it more.
The snow on the roof was gone. Wow. Where did it go?
I stared at it more and realized the snow was gone because the roof was gone.
Collapsed. Crushed.
The shed exploded actually. The sheer weight of what had to be 4 feet of snow crushed it in the center crumpling out all 4 sides. Truth is, the shed looks like it might have been stepped on by a brontosaurus. Drive on by my house and you’ll see it; it’s quite the sight.
Ugh.
I soooo realized Sunday that sometimes problems are right in front of us but we simply don’t see them.
Literally.
I had heard the warnings on radio about roofs and buildings collapsing under the weight of snow but I did not really hear. I saw the neighbors taking snow of roofs of sheds and homes and schools for fear of collapse but did not really see. I stared at the bloody shed for weeks and really did not act.
Wow. A lesson right there in my own back yard.
What will you notice now? What can you learn from my now crushed shed I just stared at for way too long?
What is right in front of you and gnaws at you? What doesn’t look right? What just “bothers” you that you stare at every day. What do you “hope” does not happen so much that you just avoid it? What are people telling you that you uncomfortably just “brush off” or ignore?
Be wary. Whatever it is if you do not act, it could collapse. And you’d be crushed.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
It doesn’t make you a bad per
son.
You’ve got a job to do. You’ve got to feed the kids and pay the bills. And you have to hit your quota.
But, you have to just stop it.
It doesn’t become you and it’s certainly not helping you.
Stop being so selfish.
Ask any sales rep just before they dial the phone, or walk in the prospect’s door or start that client webinar, “What’s your objective?” and I’ll guarantee that 99.996% will say something about themselves.
“I’m calling to let her know we have some specials and more to offer on…”
“I’m looking to try and get an appointment with purchasing…”
“I want to discover in this meeting what they are doing next year as far as initiatives go…”
It’s all about you isn’t it.
Don’t lie. I’ve been there too. I’ve sold door to door, on the phone and in the C-suite. You and I both know if we had to answer that question about objectives on the fly, we’d most likely blurt out something about what we want because that is what’s in our head.
Selfish objectives don’t work.
There is a big difference when you call on a client with the sole objective of making them feel valued vs. introducing that new sales and service program. The customer experience is far better and it leads to more sales.
There is a big difference when you open that door with the objective of taking something off the prospects plate vs. letting them know what you and your company can do. The customer experience is far better and it leads to more sales.
There is a big difference when your objective is to surprise and delight a prospect vs. to show what you’ve learned about their company. The customer experience is far better and it leads to more sales.
Today, when I call out to a training client or step out on to the sales floor to coach, my crystal clear conscious objective to “make the customer happy” or “this sales rep will walk away with something they can use today” is a heck of a lot more effective than in the old days when I’d call out to see how we are doing or coached on the floor so I could teach em’ some stuff.
So take a stab at being more selfless when you think of your objectives. Selfish doesn’t make you a bad person; it just makes you a bad sales rep.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
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.
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;
Till next time,
Grow The Business,
Mark
Everyone’s a little smarter now about sales I suspect.
In the old days it used to be all about pounding out phone calls, or having a killer discount or overcoming tough objections. But we know especially now, what the real challenge is;
It’s about getting attention. It’s about standing out a wee bit against a worldwide online bevy of competition. It’s about getting that customer to even notice you’ve changed or have something that might help them. It’s about grabbing “eye time” with an email or a first page Google ranking or getting one real minute (or maybe two if you are lucky), of a prospect’s face time or phone time.
That’s the real challenge. It’s not the “selling” that’s tough once you get attention necessarily; it’s getting the attention (however brief) that you need to even start the sales process.
So how do you do it? How do you grab attention?
You don’t have to go far or deep to figure that out. Look around; your attention is piqued all day.
So attention getting isn’t so much about features and benefits and special offers. It’s talking about, structuring and extending your sales and marketing approaches around simple things that get your attention every day.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
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
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
When you visit a small business, lean in and take a little peek thru that half opened storeroom door. You just might be able to see a little arm attached to a littler hand holding a bright crayon scribbling away on papers laying about that worktable. Of course then you realize, that Kristen who is tallying the receipts out front, is this little one’s Mommy.
When you grab that coveted Hi back stool at the local bar (you know, the chair just opposite the TV but kind of on the corner so you see everything), go ahead and order that Sam Adams and as you wait, lean in a bit and you just might see a purse on the floor overflowing with bills including those yellow “final notice” ones. For a second you get that sick feeling in your stomach too- you’ve been there. Of course then you realize, Mary must have just raced here for the closing shift and is praying she makes enough in business and tips tonight to at least get the late late late ones paid.
When you take Max for a walk and see “Mike’s All Pro Painting” truck next door at Dave’s house you’re curious so you step a little closer. You notice the truck is clean with a nice logo on the side- a real pro. But lean in a bit and take a look inside the cab and you might just see a catastrophe of burger wrappers and coffee cups. But as you look even closer you see in the midst of this mess a copy of Entrepreneur magazine and WSJ’s guide to Small Business. Of course then you realize, Mike has much bigger dreams.
These folks and many other small business owners have kids, bills and dreams.
And many of you have the chance every day in what you do to help these folks grow their business. You have the advice, the ideas, the products and the services that can do that for them.
But So what? Growing their business doesn’t really mean anything. At least not always to us it doesn’t.
We have to think deeper.
Helping Kristen, Mary and Mike grow their business is way more than just growing their business to them. Growing helps them pay for that after school program, or for those late late bills or for that seminar to learn how to secure an Angel investor and live that dream.
Growing is often a wonderful means to an end for small business owners. And those ends aren’t much different than what you and me have in mind.
So lean in.
But lean way in this time and give em’ a hand.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
It’s been 5 years now, to the day.
So I’m hoping that you won’t mind too much if my Dad joins me here for a bit.
I still stare at his picture now and then and try to articulate in my mind what this man meant to me and my family. And truth be told, I’ve recently come to think it’s not so much about what he was that matters. But rather, what he wasn’t.
And, I think there are some lessons here for perhaps more than just me.
He was one who carried a gun of course, being a policeman. But he wasn’t a man who glorified that or let his five kids see the gun much. He wasn’t afraid of it for us; he just knew what it was really for. Into the house he came, walked right to the bedroom, opened up a safe (at least that’s what we thought we heard as we were never allowed close enough to actually see) and locked it away.
He was one who spent his days (or night shifts) dealing with horrible actions committed by equally horrible people but he wasn’t a man who ever brought that work home. For years we eagerly sat around the kitchen table jousting to be the first to ask “Did you catch any bad guys today?” And his answer was always the same “Sure did, kids, sure did.”
He was one who never made a lot of money. But he wasn’t a one to complain, he just worked harder right along with my Mom who was a nurse. More work details and more shifts were the means for them to find a way to send the boys to a private high school and who knows what else we didn’t realize then, was a real financial burden.
He was one of the Greatest Generation raised by a single mother in a tough Irish Catholic neighborhood. But he wasn’t one like so many of that generation who was always quiet, almost stoic about what he felt. “Have I told you lately that I love you?” was something he said to all of us well into our teenage years. The letter he wrote me when I was 17 (which I still have) expressing how much he loved me and how proud he was of me is something I cherish to this day.
For 5 years and maybe because he left us earlier than expected, I’ve struggled to define in my head who he really was, what he taught us and what he believed.
But it’s when I start to think about what he wasn’t; that’s when I start to see who he really was.
That’s a great lesson for us too Dad, thanks.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
Mark McCarthy's Blog 
