“That’s Not a Real Puppy”

“That’s Not a Real Puppy”

“What? Thats not a real puppy. That’s too small to be a real puppy.”

I love this commercial on a lot of levels. And I love that line about the puppy. I quote it often when I see heads down staring into the great smartphone abyss (and my family thinks I’m crazy because I say it). Have a look at the commercial first and refresh your memory – I’m sure you’ve seen it. Then, let’s talk about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUGmcb3mhLM

I get it’s about a car. And about how this car ( the Toyota Venza) actually gets you somewhere to interact with people.

And I get it’s about how “younger” people may not quite understand what “being social” really means and Mom and Dad do. OK cool. Great message.

But it says a lot more to me than that.

It says that sitting at a computer or with your smartphone all day with your fans, friends and followers probably isn’t a good thing all an all. And it is starting to show.

Last week in USA today, it was noted that driver’s license acquisitions across the US are way down over the last few years with many teenagers delaying the getting of a liscence till nearly 19. A key factor attributed is the rise of social media and requisite devices we all have; that the need to hope in the car and physically “get together” is not there.
One of the hottest Training trends is Companies creating courses for new employees teaching them how to speak effectively in meetings and on the phone. The courses also contain training about how to use proper eye contact. All this because “conversation isn’t something folks are that good at anymore”.
It’s no surprise that in the developing worlds you are far likelier to see investment in wireless networks than in roads development first. Makes sense on a competitive level but getting connected and getting around isn’t getting easier unless you have smart phone.

Are we destined to in 5 years time be holed up in our basements, bedrooms and boardrooms connecting online and online only?

Technology at its best, is disruptive and changes the status quo. But when part of the status quo was a round of handshakes and a smile, a face to face lunch in in the cafe with a colleague, attending a party or an outdoor cookout, or a backyard game of volleyball or going for a walk – what’s so wrong with that?

I’m as guilty as anyone taking too much time online connecting with my Blogging. Twitter and the like and I can see how easily it can keep you in your chair. I think we have to fight that and fight it hard. I think that soon – digital isolation is not going to just hurt you at home (“687” friends isn’t really possible) but at work too. If you have only an all-digital relationship, how long before your prospects or customers say.. “What? That’s not a real person. That’s too small to be a real person..”..

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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I am Joe’s Lead

I am Joe’s Lead

I am Joe’s Lead.

Here I sit, in Joe’s queue. And It’s way boring man.

All I can see sitting in this CRM is this big banner over my head that says “moc.ecrofselas” That cursor thingy keeps swiping by me now and then, but never quite lands on me.

It’s been 2 darn days.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

And I am dying fast. Way faster than anyone realizes, particularly, Joe. He doesn’t get it. I’m a Small Business Lead you see. We don’t wait for anyone. We are crazy busy. If we ain’t moving – we’re dying.

I raised my my hand two whole days ago! But I am dying so fast I am starting to lose my memory as to why I am here. When Joe finally clicks on me and calls my business owner he’ll probably flat out forget why the heck he made me. He might even deny I exist at all because frankly he can’t remember why he filled out the form, and dammit, he’s busy.

Joe has a bigger problem about me, Lead. He doesn’t get me at all. I’m not “his lead” or his “commission ammunition” or his “meal ticket”. That just ticks me off. I am not something to burn thru, beg for, to be traded around or worse – to be ignored. And don’t think I don’t hear Joe dissin’ me and my peeps when he occasionally says we are “weak” or a “joke” or “trash from corporate”. If I could ( stupid glass!), I’d reach out and slap Joe’s scowl and headset clear off his face when I hear that.

Nope, Joe doesn’t get me. I raised my hand somehow, some way 2 days ago. It doesn’t matter how high I raised it – I raised it! And I am not a Lead, I am a Need of my business owner! I’m a gap, an idea, a dream, a pain that won’t go away, a prayer to save a business, a chance to go big, a plea for some education because I just don’t understand, a fear of my competition, a hope for a few more sales per month or a chance to put a stop to all these customers leaving us.

I am all of those things and more. I am a Need, not a Lead.

Hope this clears things up a bit.

So Joe do me a favor will ya? Click on me man. Do it fast before I forget how you could help me. God knows I needed something.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Educate

Educate

Educate. It’s part of the sales process many can’t get used to.

But sales people have to do it.

Sure there’s lot of buzz and research about how prospects do all this learning online about a business before they even get to a sales person. I’ve preached that research before myself. But I’m not buying that it is entirely true hook, line and sinker any more.

I keep hearing prospects confused, unsure or frustrated about certain services or products. I keep hearing prospects so busy at work and so inundated with messaging and marketing- they don’t have time to research and learn.

If you are a company selling somewhat abstract services like money management, digital marketing, brand development, risk avoidance, sales training, marketing solutions and the list goes on – you have to understand that many prospects just really…don’t understand.

These prospects aren’t going to shout this out to you but not understanding stops any sales process or worse – prevents it from even starting.

Educating can happen with great marketing, branding or advertising but educating prospects live with real humans (i.e. sales people talking with prospects) often gets above the clutter. Face to face or voice to voice is the single most intrusive attention getting sales activity- and we must learn to better use it to teach vs. pitch.

Learn how and invest in finding ways to educate prospects first. Call to invite dozens to your live webinar. Produce YouTube videos with you explaining the marketing place and call not for an appointment but to share links with your prospects. Build education however brief into your conversations – not about your product or service but about the industry, the data, and the research – something intriguing that the prospect did not know. Offer incentives to learn; not just to buy.

If you skip the “educate” part of the sales process and focus like always on the offer, the snazzy presentations, the closing skills and the sales contest then you’ll severely limit yourself with the number of qualified leads you could have really had.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

I Hate You Ann Peterson

I don’t really. Just in a few trying moments now and then.

Anyway I wonder if what she said works elsewhere in life or at work.

Ann said something 5 minutes into our first running session that really hit me.

“It’s not how far you run, its how much time you run”.

Really? Since when? It’s all about distance when I was running back in the day (way way back in the day). It was all about running 1 or 2 or 3 miles every time and if time got involved it was “can I run those 2 miles faster?”

But I did what we as a big group of us were told. We had all joined the “Couch to 5K” running club a couple of weeks back. Ann is the leader, the one with the whistle and the stopwatch. And in that first session we ran for a few minutes each time, walked for 3 minutes, ran for 3 minutes. Rinse and repeat. Increase the time running each week she said. Hard. Brutal. But I like it the concept. Makes sense.

Let the time you run each week grow, not necessarily caring about the overall distance.

While I can’t say I’ve enjoyed the running these last 2 weeks (I still cursed Ann out last night in fact while running in Stoll Park a thousand miles away on business here in KC) The stopwatch can’t be right—these time intervals are the longest ever! But I really like the premise of focusing on time.

Maybe I don’t need to get through my whole to-do list today but rather spend one hour solely focused on that to-do list every day.
Maybe I don’t need to read those two books by next Friday, but rather focus an hour a day every day on just reading. Period.
Maybe if I am a sales rep, I don’t have to focus on making 45 calls out before lunch today but rather focus on 3 hours of just making calls as quickly and wonderfully as I can.
Maybe it doesn’t matter what I do with the kids on Saturday but how long we just “do” something that matters.
Maybe if I quit counting stuff (am I the only one who does that?) and focus on counting the time I spend doing stuff I should, maybe the results would better.

Let’s hope I’m right ( and I think I am) – I don’t need any more reasons to be taking it out on Ann.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Sudden Death

Sudden Death

I don’t like going to the Doctor much but he’s a smart and funny guy, so it’s kind of bearable.

Bantering with him last week (cuz’ the longer I can keep him talking, the less prodding he ends up doing – which is fine with me), I joked about how I read that recent studies suggested a daily aspirin regimen could cause some nasty side effects like stomach issues. (I don’t have a problem with the daily aspirin he recommended but like I said, the more I keep him talking….. )

Anyway, being funny but mostly smart, he said, “Well then don’t take the aspirin Einstein, it’s no big deal to me. The side effect though could be Sudden Death for you – so have fun with that.”

Hilarious.

But it hit me as a bit more poignant as I walked out of his office thinking about how we do some horn blowing at work about the perceived awful side effects of doing this or that, but sometimes we forget the side effects of making a change to something we know works could be a lot worse.

You can give up walking over to talk to someone or using the phone: Heck, a stroll down the hall wastes time because you don’t know if someone is there. A phone call or Skype doesn’t get recorded so you don’t have a record of what you talked about like email does. But truth is, face to face and/or voice to voice carries a gazillion other intangibles that are still valuable. And the “Sudden Death” impact of giving that up? Sudden Forgetfulness of YOU. Do people only know you by your emails? If so, you matter little to them no matter how many you write.

You can give up making quality cold calls: Cold Calling has awful side effects at times that can be painful, depressing and darn near ruin your day or week. So you can hire someone else to do it for you or fire off a gazillion emails and skip it altogether, hoping the darn phone rings. Or you can suffer the Sudden Death side effects of not cold calling and not make any sales at all. Good luck feeding the kids with that.
You can give up saying fervently “Thank you” or “I’m sorry” or “I appreciate you” or “Mr.” or “Ms.” to customers: After all, everyone has no time, everyone is busy and heck, there are a lot more important things I should be saying to customers. But no, your getting in the words “today’s special promotion is…” or the “the confirmation number is…” or the “best number to reach you if we get disconnected is…” doesn’t trump the power of the smaller phrases or titles. The Sudden Death impact of losing those little ones is the erasing the difference between you and someone that can be replaced by a computer.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

What Needs To Be Tougher

What Needs To Be Tougher.

We are all competing on a global stage today. No joke. Our prospective and existing clients have global options for highly intelligent, well trained partners, providers and suppliers that are literally seconds and clicks away.

But if I’m going to compete, I like to win. If you read this blog regularly, you do too.

Some things then, need to be tougher for us to keep winning.

Training: Tougher should begin at home. (Training is where I lead today). Training needs to be tougher. Think Training Idol. Think harsher judgments, tougher role plays, more tests and certifications. We’re not talking Gladiator camp here but learning what you need to learn has to stick and stick better.

Coaching: Not in the way you think. A lot of us coach (me included) and a lot of us “wing it”. That’s not fair to folks who need us to help them and frankly, it is not effective. If you coach, get smarter about it. Get a structure. And most importantly- plan in advance; give it some hard thought and do it more often.

Representing The Brand: You are an extension of your brand. Period. You must wear it well especially when you are in front of clients and prospects. It’s not enough to just fix the problem, enter an order, answer a question, blather an awful answer about “what you do” at a party or pull together some information well for a prospect. You must proactively extend the brand’s promise. How you help clients, how you differentiate, how you bring amazing to the marketplace. Brand Matters. This isn’t easy to do. You have to do it in ways that don’t raise tension or confuse or annoy but you must do it. The stage is bigger now and we all need to stand out.

Tougher isn’t a bad thing.

On the other side of tougher is a better chance of winning.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark.

On Dislodging

On Dislodging

You best be getting better at dislodging the competition. It’s going to get harder out there.

Oh sure it’s fun to sell products/services to small businesses who have never had a website, or any online meeting software, or water/ coffee services, or insurance, or you fill in the blank.

And it’s not just fun, it is darn easier too. Everyone knows that.

Every salesperson ormarketer knows it is a heck of a lot easier to get that small business into some product or service they never had before than to dislodge the competitor and stealmarket share.

I remember us sales people back in the day ( I was one of them), nearly careening into each other as we screeched out of the parking lot upon hearing a new construction site was opening up. Oh to be the first one there to sell the contractors on stuff! So much easier than kicking out the competition.

But you can’t bank on being first anymore – it’s just harder. More competition from not just your local region but from around the world. More competition because that small business prospect is not waiting for your knock or your call but is on the web looking at you and your competition making decisions and placing orders while you are snuggled in your bed unawares.

And soon, very soon – every small business new or old, is going to have things like a website package, online meeting services,POSsoftware, promotional products, outsourced legal support, business cards and more often right at the time of their business launch and just as likely right at the time you decide to give them a ring or a knock on their door. Now you may be lucky and all that business belongs to you, but I’m guessing you’ve got a bigger quota to hit than relying on that pipe dream.

All is not lost – Here are 5 Keys to Dislodging:

Find The Trigger: When you need to dislodge a competitor or another means in which the client is getting something done, search for that opening -be it a new sales leader or business partner that moves in, a new location that opens up or they just started putting a Twitter logo on their materials. Whatever that trigger is – there is a chance that new blood, new ideas or new budget is involved and your chances of dislodging have just gotten better.
Make is Easy & Fast & Painless to Come to You. Get it all done inside 24 hours; be it the product, the demo or the proof that gets in the clients hands. If you can, offer to cancel the competitor service for the client (like Geico does). Pain to change and pain to switch is as big an enemy of dislodging as anything else.
Remove The Risk; If there is no pain to “try you out” or “run side by side” or “guarantee you will be more satisfied” then you have great shot. Gutsy stuff for sure but what you do with that shot is what really matters. And do the math, compare this CTA ( Cost to Acquire) versus CTA for new business and you’re often surprised it’s cheaper.
Say it/ Script it: “I want you to come to us”, or “We can do better than what you are doing today” are great phrases. I know one group of sales people today who are having success dislodging by saying right up front to customers – ” This year we are committed to an aggressive approach towards competitive packages based on an annual volume.”
Be Incomparable or Comparable ( not anywhere in between) : Sometimes the worst thing you can be is “kind of like the other guy “. Nothing bores like a perceived commodity. Be, and accentuate the difference(s) hard or go straight up head to head ( like Flo’s Progressive insurance company ads do.) If you are decidedly different in one area – that is your lead story. If you are similar across the board to the competition; share that, be an advocate for getting the right solution for the client and beat the competition more often than not on price, service or quality.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Time Forward

Time Forward

Sales isn’t about moving the ball forward. Sales isn’t about getting to the next agreed upon step. Sales isn’t about pushing it through the pipeline.

That’s way too advanced.

Sales is about earning time forward.

Sales is about doing so well in the first 5 seconds that you earn 10 seconds more from the prospect or client. Sales is about doing so well in the those next 10 seconds that you get the big prize which is maybe 30 seconds more of that prospect or client’s attention.

And if you nail those 30 seconds really, really, really well you might just get the equivalent of what feels like a week’s worth of time in this rough and tumble world of Sales, and earn maybe 5 whole minutes more.

And then and only then, you may garner the right to purchase (yes, I do mean purchase) more of your prospect or client’s time.

You see, time is the most precious commodity there is today. Worth more than gold I’d say. And to earn this time at the beginning and to do so well that you get the chance to buy more of it later, that my friends, is what you ought to be obsessively focused on doing right now with all of your time.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Your Favorites & Mine

Your Favorites & Mine

Happy Friday and New Year,

Here’s a quick look back at 2011.

The votes are in (ok the views). Here are the top 5 (listed 1-5) most viewed blog posts at this site in 2011; presumably your favorites. Good taste I’d say and thank you for your readership. I’ve added 5 others I’d add as my favorites.

Look around a bit. What’s the worst that can happen? Steal something shamelessly and grow the business?

Top 5 Most Read Posts (2011)

You Had Me At Hello (and then, you just let me go)

The Most Powerful Phrase In Sales

Offline, Online & Flatline

My 25 Secrets Of Selling To Small Businesses

Help For Looooonnngg Sales Cycles

My 5 Favorite Posts of 2011 (aside from above!)

Customs Fail and Redemption

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

3 Little Words That Will Rock Your World

It’s not “I love you” cuz’ I don’t. Not really.

But no worries ( and sorry if I just rocked your world :)), those aren’t the 3 little word types I’m talking about anyway.

Actually, I’ve got 3 sets of 3 little words that are a heck of a lot better than what we usually say.

These words are perfect for pros in Sales, Marketing, Training, Leadership or just plain ol’ Life in general and should be used all day long.

So good are these 3 little words that they will Rock Your World. They will do better than that and make Glorious your entire 2012 if you chose to use them liberally.

So the question is, do you want to improve your performance, have people really love you more, crush quota or get promoted this year?

Oh Hell Yes! (Um…These are any of the 3 little words I am talking about- but I like them).

Here they are. Print these and tape this across you’re the face of your smartphone- that way I know you won’t forget them.

“What I Can”: Oh to have a dollar for every traditional phrase I hear of “there is no way” or “I can’t” or “It is not possible to hit that date” and I’d be super rich. “What I can” followed by the word “do” or “say” or “give” is so much better. Simple psychology here- focus on the positives or what is within the realm of possibility. The opposite i.e. “can’t” is an automatic tension raiser. Use “what I can” this in sales, coaching and collaboration and people, no matter what you do, will see you as someone who always says “yes!”

“What We Believe”: This is especially for you sales and marketing types. Usually we blather on about “What we have” in the realm of the products or services, or options and promotions etc. Instead of starting your sales and marketing conversations with “What we have are ____ and ____…” replace it with “What we believe is small businesses should take advantage of______ “or some phrase like that that espouses intelligence. Customers/ Prospects know your darn products (heck they went online before they called you!). What they want is advice and counsel. They want a company or a person that has an opinion, a belief. It’s less risky that way. They want to hear what you believe. Do this and you will make more sales.

“What Most People”: Throw away everything else – these are the most powerful words in sales,marketing and training. There is comfort (especially in a sketchy economy) in what other “like” people or businesses do. Just lead with these 3 words! You don’t need to explain it, tee it up or cringe before you say it. “What most people buy is the _____”. Or “What most people say is within 120 days they see great results”. You get it. But no one really says it often enough. People and businesses (especially some say, small businesses) wont’ move till they know it works and most others are doing or using it. Say it 50 times a day or more and you win!

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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