storytelling

It Never Was About You

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In business to business selling (particularly small business selling), good sales people begin to fail when it becomes about them.  

I see it all the time but I don’t mean when it becomes about being number one, or hitting the goals or maxing out on commission plans;- ain’t nothing wrong with that. 

Consider rather, the talented Sales Rep who begins with a new company or now has to sell a new product.  He or she is trained and coached to present to the small business owner not only what this product or service does for them but what it does or has done for small businesses just like the prospect they are speaking to. 

That makes perfect sense because the credibility of the solution or product obviously is not with the Sales Rep – it’s with the common customer experiences of customers that look just like the prospect.  Just like it should be. 

But then something strange happens.   

As the sales person becomes more successful, they start to believe they can skip all that “other customer stuff” because after all, they understand it all now.  They start to omit the small business statistics, the stories and the testimonials of other small businesses in their pitches.   The sales rep begins to launch into monologues about what they themselves know, what they themselves believe and what they themselves recommend.  

But the problem is “they themselves” still have comparatively little credibility with a small business prospect and frankly boasting about their time or years selling the product is a poor substitute for sharing what other small businesses are actually doing.

It’s never good to stop leveraging with other like small businesses do.  Never.   Sure, your credibility and experience counts over time but know your audience (SB’s) –  Survey after survey will show “what others do” is a highly influential variable in the sales process with small business.

If you are a sales rep who had a great start last quarter or last year but are starting to tail off or perhaps you coach sales reps that have had a great start but are fading; think hard about why.  If there’s scant reference to other successful customers and what they do, then it’s time to pretend you don’t know much about your product and sell like that again. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

 Mark

Customs Fail and Redemption

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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

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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)

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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.  🙂

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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

Your Cheatin’ Start

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I was young when I learned that if you combine working hard and cheating you often get something that actually pays off.    

I sat at the piano when I was 8.   The M*A*S*H song was the first real tune I played plunking out each note quite shocked that it actually sounded remotely like the theme song. 

I haven’t stopped playing since.   But my story doesn’t blossom into me learning to really play the piano and how I got to play a couple of gigs for Journey or for Springsteen when they came to town.  I’m not a good piano player by any stretch. 

I need that music in front of me.  I taught myself the guitar chords symbols to play on the piano and know enough sight reading to plunk out the melody in the right hand.  I cheat.

But I work hard at cheating so that most people can’t tell I’m staring at the guitar chord symbols as I accompany anyone who cares to sing.  I even play in church on occasion in front of sometimes hundreds of people.

They don’t realize how much hard work this is for me and that I am in fact, cheating.  But they seem to like it.   That can’t be all bad.

In fact, it’s not bad at all, it’s OK – Happens all the time.

  • Your boss or your colleague is sooooo good at coaching people.  It comes so naturally to them.   You on the other hand, sit at your desk and bang out “How to deal with conflict in the workplace…” like 4 times a week on Google looking for a darn answer.  You find it.  You print it off.  You sweat it.  It works.   Tis’ that combo of hard work and cheating payin’ off. 

 

  • Your buddy’s closing deals like Vin Diesel in the movie Boiler Room and yet he looks like he just rolled out of bed most of the time.   You listen over the wall and start stealing his lines left and right with what he’s saying to customers.  You try em’.  You memorize em’.   You steal em’ for a week and soon you start landing deals.  Tis’ that combo of hard work and cheating paying off.  

 

  • The team needs an answer.  It’s brainstorming time.  Have to find a way to drive some more sales.  You are clueless, tired and it’s been a long week.  You trip over a book that fell off some table you walked by, pick it up, pour over it and find the answer.  You go to meeting.  You share the idea.  You don’t (gulp) share that you accidentally found the answer in a book you tripped over.   Tis’ that combo of hard work and cheating paying off. 

Here’s the deal.   Hard work mixed with cheating has its place.   Sometimes it’s for a specific need at a specific time.  Sometimes like my piano playing, it’s forever. 

When it comes easy to you it comes easy to you.   When it doesn’t, that combination of hard work and bit of cheatin’ can get you some darn good results and no worries, nobody needs to know.  

And for those of you aghast that I could condone cheating well, let’s just call it like it should be called in this case – stealing shamelessly. 

Gotta run, have to “practice” some Billy Joel.

 

Till next time,

 Grow The Business.

 Mark

When Just Do It is Just Worse

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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

Inside Thoughts

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I suspect some things are better left unsaid.   

I know this when my 14 year old son, mortified about something I’ve just uttered, hangs his head and tells me,  “Dad, I think that….. was an inside thought.”

Here are 6 random thoughts that probably should have stayed inside but if they did, there would be no blog today. 

  • I saw those “End of the World 5.21.11” Billboards over the last few months while traveling but no lie, I did not make the connection to the Rapture thing until this last Sunday – I thought they were just an ad for new movie coming out.

 

  • I think Old School Prospecting is dead.  Really dead; not even a fundamental anymore.  New School Prospecting today is about giving something of value freely first – be it product, information, kindness, advice or a stick of gum.  But it won’t be just “give free” for long – soon enough we’ll all have to Future School it and “buy” the right to be heard all the time.   I’m OK with that.

 

  • I worry that someday I’m going to watch TV and see my headless body walking down the street (“Hey, that’s my shirt!  Hey, I have those same pants!  Hey that’s (gulp) me!”) as Eyewitness News does yet another story on obesity zeroing in on those fat belly close ups.

 

  • Consensus decision making is overrated.  It has its place but an important decision or action that takes 5 times longer when 8 to 80 people get involved is a problem.  Add to that, that the quality of that decision often degrades with everyone “giving in” along the way, ending in a watered down decision or plan.  Some decisions are better made by just you with whatever degree of input you want or need.  That goes for buyers, sellers and everyone in between.

 

  • Who decided so many years ago that people who answer a phone should enter orders or update screens?  Isn’t the skill of verbal communication something to rethink as far as value goes?  Answer the phones hands free! – The art of the language and the phrase.  What could we do with an obsession and admiration of that?

 

  • Phone selling is going away.  It’s coming full circle.  Years ago it was always face to face and before you know it, it will be again.   Smile at your Tablet folks,  your non verbal expressions are going to matter again!

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Lyrical

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I remember fighting off my brothers and diving for that sports section each morning.  I loved to read his columns.

What a thrill to meet him last week.

“I try to be lyrical” he told me about his sports writing.  “But today nobody really cares about that – just bang it out.”

Sad.  Great communication is lyrical.  It has a cadence; it captures hearts, minds and dollars.   

And it will come back. 

Great communication skill of all types will matter again as soon as we get past this giddy era of dumping content anywhere and in anyway we can.

Be ready.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Mondays are busy. All Monday posts are 100 words or less. 

I Love Dirty Jobs

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I love Discovery TV’s Dirty Jobs.  

They are always looking for new ideas for those dirty jobs.  I wonder if I should send a note to the producers and invite them to come out my way.

 

Dirty Jobs is a popular show where host Mike Rowe performs some of the most difficult and frankly, disgusting jobs done by real people.   These jobs run the gamut from the needed cleaning of shipping lane buoys ( crusted molting squishy marine life that needs to be chiseled off) to scuba diving for hippo poop at a zoo ( where else is it going to go?) and everything in between.

My wife loves Dirty Jobs too but I think she’s just in love with Mike Rowe.   He’s funny, smart and good looking.  Whenever the show pops on she’ll stop whatever she is doing and say “Oh, my Michael is on.”  Once, as she sat next to me on the couch watching the show, she began think out loud and dreamily blathered to nobody in particular, “I wonder if he’s married.”   (He isn’t).

Mike might be a smoldering hunk of handsomeness to some but truth is Dirty Jobs is a tribute to the people who do these jobs.  Mike Rowe simply adores these folks and it shows.  Most are people take great pride in either the “dirty job” at hand or they take pride in that the dirty job is just part of a larger endeavor that needs to get done right.  We here in our work have some jobs like these.  Jobs that are difficult and tough and hard and done by prideful, caring people.   They may lack the “ick” factor for TV but I’m betting they’d be some of the toughest work Mike and crew would love to try. 

Selling On The Phone:   Lots of rejection.  Lots of pressure.  Lots of importance.  Mike and crew would arrive and he’d strap on a headset and give selling a good try.   And he’d fail.  He’s get a lot of “no’s” and even more “annoyed” customers.  He’d get the kind of rejection Mike probably isn’t used to being a TV star and all.  But that’s OK because he would spend time with the pros who do sell well and then cut to a new scene where he’d share what he learned and say “It’s not really “selling” with these sales people, it’s more like they are helping out someone”.

Training:  Especially the “stand up in the classroom 10 hour day with the adults” kind.   This is simply exhausting stuff.  You have to be “on” all day.  Be on target, on message, on time and totally on hand with people who all learn differently and bring and array of attitudes to the party.   We’d give Mike a couple of hours to prep and have him lead the class.  By4 o’clock he’d be triple dog tired and barely able to speak.  No worries though, he’d turn slightly, smile into the camera and tell us how “crazy and tough” real trainers need to be to make learning happen.

Team Leader:  They’re the boss, the support, the help desk, the number watcher (and often the number cruncher), the master listener, the coach and oh by the way, they have one of the most difficult professions in the world; continually improving the performance of people (and sometimes 30+ people at a time).   Mike would set up in a cube and start leadering’ and Boom he gets an irate customer, then the system crashes ( everyone on paper!), the mid day numbers deadline comes and goes and then his boss walks by wondering where first pass of all the employee reviews are.  That’s enough and as Mike’s head is nodding in surrender he looks up at the camera and says “Boss’s day only comes once a year?  What a rip off!”

I think the producers of Dirty Jobs would like the opportunity to come here.  If they decide to come, do me a favor and keep it just between us.  My wife doesn’t need to know.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Larry Bird?

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image credit retroplanet.com

 

 

There’s a board game called TriBond where you identify the commonality of three clues given.  It’s pretty fun.

Last weekend, my 14 year old son was given these three:

“Big…Larry….Jay”

He correctly said “Bird”.  Then asked, “I know Big Bird and a Jay Bird, but what the heck is a “Larry Bird”?

Sigh.

Wow.

What else do I incorrectly assume is a basic reference with someone I know well? Or with colleagues, employees or customers?

It’s worse than that actually.

I assume this blog makes sense to you.   But how many are saying “Who the heck is Larry Bird?”

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Mondays are busy. All Monday posts are 100 words or less.