SOLD July'2012

July 2012

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Get Loyalty through Royalty INTELLIGENTLY Manage Prospect Follow-Up p. 16

SHEP HYKEN shares how to create the amazing customer experience p. 54

VISUALLY Engage Your Audience p. 40

Everyone Wants to Move Forward Now, you can learn HOW YOU CAN is a book of HOW . . . specifically how to improve your personal performance and achievement.

In this groundbreaking new book, renown peak performance expert John Von Achen walks you through a proven methodology guaranteed to help you reach your maximum potential.

There is no hype in this book, no filler and no excuses. Only solutions for how YOU CAN produce better results in everything you are doing.

Meet the Author One word describes John Von Achen, RESULTS! John Von Achen is one of the most respected thought leaders and peak performance experts in the world today. He has become a legend when it comes to helping individuals and organizations achieve their maximum growth, performance and profitability.

Known as an inspiring, forward thinking business leader, John Von Achen has consistently provided his clients “real world” solutions they can transfer into immediate results.

Learn more at www.youcan2012.com/

Founder of SOLDLAB.com and SOLD Magazine John Von Achen Editor-in-Chief Helen Bereschinova Copy Editor Oleg Vetoshnikov Designer Lubov Karmanova Cover story: Shep Hyken Contributors: Facts&Numbers Sales Crunch Confidence Harlan Goerger, Art Sobczak, Bruce Zimmerman, Mark Pickles Networking Tom Searcy, Diane Helbig Influence Nido Qubein, Brent Nauer, Mike Weinberg Presentation Anne Miller, Ian Brodie Negotiation Jeannette Nyden, Sean McPheat, Tibor Shanto Loyalty Shep Hyken, Charles H. Green, Bill Quiseng Interview Wendy Weiss COLUMNISTS: Zeke Camusio, Stan Billue, Maura Schrier-Fleming, Jeff Koser and Chad Koser, Peter Temple, Phil Waknell, Errol Greene, Arnold Sanow, Greg Williams Owned and Operated by CENTE MEDIA, LLC. Address: 1800 Pembrook Dr Ste 300 32810 Orlando, Florida

CONTENTS 08 Confidence or Comfort 11 Are you investing in... You? 12 Be Like Warren Buffet: Turn Failures into Opportunities

and Eliminate Rejection 14 What You Aspire Towards Is Just Outside Your Comfort Zone...

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20 16 Professional Stalking – Managing Prospect

Follow-Up 19 Using Social to Sell. How to Use Pinterest and Instagram

to Boost Revenues 20 Sales Requires a System 22 Success Secrets from a Sales Super Star.

Buyers are Liars

24 24 Customers Expect More 27 SOLD Q&A. Ask the Sales Pro 28 Who’s Making It About Price, You or the Customer?

29 Restructuring with Sales

Customers Expect More

32 Chasing Zebras. Selling to Zebras. The Untold Story …

For salespeople

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July 2012

July 2012 34 Death by PowerPoint 36 Selling without Slides 38 SOLD Interview. The Cold Calling Survival Guide by Wendy Weiss 40 Visually Speaking. Three Powerful Rules to “Visually” Engage Your Audience 42 Presentation 2.0. Introduction

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44 7 Pearls of Unconventional Wisdom:

Business Leaders Share Negotiation Best Practices.

48 Mr. Buyer – Please, Object!

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50 A Powerful Way to Handle the Spouse Objection 52 Advice from the Master Negotiator.

You Can Be a Super Negotiator

54 Get Loyalty through Royalty 59 The Customer Is Paying for His Experience, Not Yours 61 Sales Research. FUD – Research Shows It Just May

Be the Salesperson’s Best Friend 62 Up Your Charm IQ. Charm and Customer Service 64 Are You Client Focused or a Client Vulture?

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http://www.salescrunch.com/

or

Confidence Comfort

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July 2012

H

ow comfort is mistaken for Confidence You’ve been there, the person talks about how great they are at something and how confident and competent they are. Oh, if only I could be as confident as they are, life would be wonderful!

Often times we think about what it takes to change and become an “expert” like the one on stage or creating the fabulous outcome. It looks easy, they seem competent and confident! Or are they?

Over the past weeks I’ve had several conversations and incidents around the topic of “comfort” versus “confident” and what the difference is. Question to you; Is there a difference? See if you agree with me by reading on…

Let’s take two people, John and Jeff. Both are similar educations, family backgrounds and histories.

John has been a teacher for 10 years and has been Teacher of the Year just recently. He is very competent, great with the kids and very well liked. He appreciates the regularity of teaching, a set schedule and lots of predictability. Everyone feels he is very competent and confident in his teaching role.

Jeff has worked with the company for 10 years and is just getting his fourth promotion up to a division manager. His climb up the later has been unprecedented in the company’s history and the CEO is very aware of it. When people talk about Jeff they say he is a real go getter and there is not much he will not tackle if handed to him. Many say he is one of the most capable and confident people they know.

The question now becomes, is John comfortably confident in his position; or does he possess true self-confidence?

Here is more insight. With the Teacher of the Year award came some interesting opportunities. One was to become assistant principle at a small school.

It meant some changes, different thinking and skills, along with more learning and adapting his existing

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skills. In talking with John about the opportunity, the responses were all driven by fear of change. “This is going to be a lot of change and challenges, I’m comfortable with the teaching I’m doing.”

Does this indicate self-confidence or comfort guarded by fear of change or the unknown?

Jeff in his last interview before taking on the division was talking with the CEO. “There are a lot of challenges in this position, many you have not yet experienced. How will you deal with these unknowns?” asks the CEO. “I may not have an answer right now, but I know it can be figured out and solved, just as I’ve done in the past, just a bigger challenge and more change in myself is all.” was Jeff’s answer. The CEO smiled.

What does this indicate to you; self-confidence, cockiness, over confident, stupidity?

Here is my take, anyone with enough time and effort can become good at something. They do it so often that it becomes automatic and not a real challenge for them anymore. Yet they are very comfortable in the situation and enjoy that comfort.

Let’s take driving a car, you drive 30,000 miles a year on good roads and weather and feel very comfortable driving, to the point that 90% of your actions are on autopilot. Are you confident or just comfortable with the norm? Suddenly a deer jumps out with a fawn! What do you do, panic; lock the brakes; hit the ditch; hit the deer; go into the other lane? What happened to your confidence? Was the confidence truly there? Was it just comfort and not really confidence?

The reality is, most people freeze, lock up the brakes and either wreck the car, hit he deer or hit another vehicle, or all three! A confident driver would certainly react, yet depend up quick thinking to find the best alternative and then act on it, even if it might be wrong. Is there a difference?

Yes fear affects us all. On our way back from Sturgis, SD the other week, the group was cruising between 80-90 mph most of the time.

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This is on country two lane highways with little traffic (rural SD where Buffalo use to roam).

At first the curves were a bit intimidating as I hadn’t ridden for a few years, yet soon I found myself having to slow as I came to close to the leaders out of the turns.

Along the river road there were curves and hills and no guardrails of any kind, yet it was comfortable looking at the great scenery. Now some will say this was crazy, or I was falsely over confident, and both may be right. What I had been doing is every turn and curve the current envelop was being pushed a bit. Skills, reactions and insights were being learned and developed. A lot of old skills from 30 years ago were coming back fast! You can develop a lot of skills on an 8 hour ride.

Another rider was in front of me most of the time and had been keeping up. Then one incident of not leaning enough got them close to a guard rail on a very wide turn, nothing like the sharp curves we had just been on, and the speed dropped to 60 mph and even slower on other turns. They now had fear running through their veins. Rather than learn from the incident, they allowed the incident to control them. Forgetting the hundreds of curves they had just been through and conquered with ease, this one shut them down. Were they running on comfort or confidence?

Now how would you rate the self-confidence of the people in these examples? How many were running on comfort rather than confidence?

As I see it Selfconfidence behaves this way: I know there will be change and I’m ready for it Problems will occur and I will figure out how to solve them I will have to gain knowledge about something I did not know before Change will be a constant, that is ok I will be uncomfortable most of the time Many things, ideas and actions will be new and different I know I will have to be alert to the things I do not know yet Increased stress levels may occur and I will learn to contend with this My comfort zone will be invaded on a daily if not hourly basis With all this in mind, when do I start!

So my question is, are highly successful people “comfortably confident” or truly “self-confident”?

Imagine having this type of discussion with a group of high earning sales professionals and how they could use this to increase their sales productivity. What would that do for you? Look for more information on the upcoming Sales Leadership Summit.

by Harlan Goerger

I know there will be change and I’m ready for it

Later that week a conversation about motorcycles came up with a business owner I know. Yes they had owned a road bike a few years ago, but every time they were on it they thought about getting hurt, rather than the enjoyment of the ride. They sold the bike. Was this man confident in his own ability to learn, adapt and apply in a new situation?

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President, H. Goerger & Associates, aka AskHG.com Performance Changer in Leadership & Sales.

Learn more about Harlan at www.askhg.com/leadership

July 2012

Are you investing in... You? In years gone by most companies would provide their sales organizations with an on-going training. It would run the full gambit from full-blown multi day training sessions on the latest sales process and methodologies du Jour to basic sales techniques to product and pricing strategies.

On rare occasions there might be a special training session utilizing one of the many available sales gurus covering prospecting skills, objection handling, closing skills, etc.

But in recent years, with the economic downturn, cost cutting measures, and massive reductions in force (layoffs), sales training has become a rarity; even considered by some organizations as a luxury.

Problem is, the sales game has changed dramatically over the last couple of years, and what used to work two or three years ago, may not be relevant in today’s selling environment.

To be relevant in sales today, it is incumbent upon the individual sales professional to selfeducate. In other words, you need to invest in yourself.

So what are you doing to invest in you? It’s time to take your education to a new level. You, as I like to say, need to some continuous innovation and continuous improvement?

Here are (5) five things you can start doing to investing in yourself:

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1

Read constantly

Remember the expression, “The more you read, the more you know, the more you know the further you go”. Invest the time to read as much as you can. There is so much valuable information available today.

Read sales books (e-books or traditional), sales blogs, white papers, and case studies. I make it a point to read at least two hours a day. Is it all at once? No. I read when I can wherever I am. Read something first thing in the morning or over lunch. Instead of wasting time watch TV at night, pick up a book. If you read just one hour a day you can read approximately 50 books a year. That’s powerful!

2

Jump on a webinar

Yes a webinar. This is an easy way to pick up some invaluable knowledge. It doesn’t take much to find a good webinar these days. There are all types covering a variety of topics. Most are an hour in length and are held at a variety of different times. Being in the Mountain Time Zone, I’m fortunate that many are held during the lunch hour. Grab a sandwich, invest in you, and learn something new.

3

Get on the Social Media Bandwagon If you aren’t using social media today you are missing a major opportunity. I have learned so much via the various social media platforms

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over the last year and a half. I have also, met some awesome individuals, from all over the world, that have taught me so much. If I can adapt to the new reality of selling, so can you.

It’s true; an old dog can learn new tricks. Great sales skills + Social media = Social Business.

4

Network, network, network

Reach out and talk to as many people as you can. Network with co-workers, your customers, old acquaintances, friends and even your neighbors. If you’re in sales, you are accustomed to meeting and talking to new people. You never know who you might meet or talk with. The old saying “it’s not what you know, but who you know” is a fact!

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Be a Mentor or Coach

Being a mentor or helping to coach a new sales person is one of the most rewarding things you can do as a sales professional. Not only can you help a fellow sales pro, you just might learn something along the way. There are many different ways that people learn but there is a school of thought that says: learn it, do it, teach it. For me, this method has always worked well.

With the changing dynamics of the buyer/ seller relationship, the reduced amount of sales training, and with the claims of a dramatically drop in the need for direct sales professional; it is incumbent on you to make yourself relevant. Take the steps necessary to arm yourself for success. Take the responsibility for your own training program. Remember the saying “If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me”!

by Bruce Zimmerman

Bruce Zimmerman is a

Be Like Warren Buffet: Turn Failures into Opportunities and Eliminate Rejection

A

t age 19, his application to Harvard Business School was rejected. He was devastated at the time.

However, exploring other options, he quickly regrouped and sent in a late application to Columbia, where two investment experts that he admired were teaching. He was accepted. There he learned the values and principles that guided his investing.

Today he is the second wealthiest man in America and the most famous stock investor in the world.

Of course I’m talking about fellow Omaha native, Warren Buffet. (No, I do not know him, and he does not call me for advice.)

Buffet is a big believer in looking for the opportunities in setbacks. Which is what all great salespeople do as well.

In a Wall Street Journal article, Buffet said,

The truth is, everything that has happened in my life… that I thought was a crushing event at the time, has turned out for the better.

seasoned Sales and Sales Management professional who is passionate about sales and helping other achieve success. He shares his thoughts, perspectives, and experiences on a variety of topics related to sales, sales leadership, and sales enabled technology on his blog, www.brucezim.wordpress.com.

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He said that with the exception of health problems, setbacks teach "lessons that carry you along.

You learn that a temporary defeat is not a permanent one. In the end, it can be an opportunity."

Buffet has many examples of negatives becoming positives. He said when he was young he was terrified of public speaking – so much that he sometimes threw up before an address. Knowing he needed

July 2012

to do something, he enrolled in a Dale Carnegie speaking course, and says the skills he learned there enabled him to woo his future wife, who was a champion debater.

"I even proposed to my wife during the course," he said. "If I had been only a mediocre speaker I might have not taken it," meaning that the extreme negativeness of the situation is what resulted in the positive.

I have a process I have used for many years that enables me to keep my own personal attitude up during even the most difficult situations, find positives in negatives, and although it sounds cliché, turn problems into opportunities. I believe it would do the same for you.

Two Magic Questions Whenever you experience something that you perceive as being negative – many fall into this category… really now, many people blow things way out of proportion – or, you are faced with something that truly is devastating, take a deep breath, stop, clear your mind, then ask yourself these two questions:

"What can I learn from this?"

"What good can I make from this?"

Begin implementing these two questions today, and I know you will view things differently, and see more opportunities where they might not have been there otherwise.

Eliminating "Rejection" How about never experiencing "rejection" again in sales?

That’s in the title of three of my books, and I’ve been berated by critics over the years for making that claim. Of course, those people never took the time to read the part of the books where I show exactly how you can avoid rejection. I’ll give you the simple process right now.

What is rejection anyway?

Is it a ‘no’ you hear at the beginning of a call? Is it losing out on a competitive proposal? Is it being hung up on?

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If you think it is, it is. Now, I’m not going to get all out-there-philosophical on you, but let’s keep this simple: -Stuff happening TO you in sales (getting no’s) is inevitable, if you are placing calls.

-What HAPPENS to you is not rejection.

-Rejection is the definition that someone attaches to what happens to them.

-No one person or situation can cause you to feel rejected unless you allow it/them to.

-Change your definition of rejection so that it does not include getting a no on a call.

-After no’s, ask yourself the two questions I presented earlier.

-Ensure you get a win on every call by accomplishing something, or even attempting something, regardless of how minor. This is what I call your Secondary Objective.

More than almost any other profession, how you feel when you are performing your job affects your outcome. Coupled with the fact that all day long we proactively put ourselves in situations where the outcome may not be the one we desire, there’s little wonder most people would never consider sales as a career, and many have left because they couldn’t handle what they defined as "rejection." This underscores the need to follow processes like I’ve outlined.

You are a special person for doing what you do.

To continue surviving, thriving, and ensuring you will have your best year ever, implement these ideas for turning challenges into opportunities, and never experiencing rejection again!

by Art Sobczak

Art Sobczak helps sales pros use the phone to prospect, service and sell more effectively, while eliminating morale-killing "rejection." He presents public seminars and customizes programs for companies. Art has a number of books, CD's and other learning resources to help sales reps. See free articles and back issues of his weekly emailed Smart Calling sales tips at www.BusinessByPhone.com. Also ask for a free copy of his monthly Telephone Prospecting and Selling Report newsletter and Telesales Success magazine by emailing ArtS@ BusinessByPhone.com, or calling (402)895-9399) Also go to Art's Telesales Blog www.TelesalesBlog.com where you can hear actual recordings of good and failed sales calls.

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What you aspire towards is just outside your comfort zone...

Think of an athlete, for instance a long distance marathon runner. This athlete didn’t just wake up one day and start running competitive marathons, there was a steady build up in the distance he ran, from 5 miles per week, to 10 miles per week, to 20 miles per week, to 40 miles per week and then finally to 26.2 miles in a few hours. This build up or growth process would have been hard work, and by hard I mean wretchedly tough and ongoing, day in day out, week in week out, year in year out. This ongoing discomfort is the price the athlete pays, to grow mentally and physically tough enough to consistently compete at the top levels. What’s more, to stay at the top, the athlete has to keep paying the price. There are no short cuts.

Professional selling is no different, as no one ever wakes up one day and instantly becomes a peak sales performer. There will always be an ongoing, challenging and frequently uncomfortable process of growth, which the sales person has to endure and progress through, to reach the top. Most sales people will always take the route of least resistance, so they won’t go the extra mile, or in selling terms they won’t make the extra sales calls, they won’t ask the tough questions and they allow their minds to adopt limiting beliefs about what they are worth, what they can achieve and the achievability of their targets.

Let’s make no mistake, like the athlete’s world, the salesperson’s world is tough and it frequently hurts. A professional salesperson has to be mentally tough, to continually stretch their comfort zones, to resist the endless onslaughts of negativity and limiting beliefs and to keep going day after day, month after month and year after year. If you can live just outside

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of your comfort zone, you will inevitably grow strong, and in sales that’s the only way to reach and stay at the top. As a very green and rookie rep selling OTC pharmaceuticals to chemists, I learnt to thrive on the buzz of living outside my comfort zone, and my mantra was; “No matter how much it hurts, I can always make one more call”. With that attitude, I could not fail, and my territory soon had the fastest growth rates and highest market shares throughout the entire company. If you want to excel in sales, first get tough with yourself, as you are your own biggest competitor.

There are no short cuts. If it’s uncomfortable...that’s because you are outside of your comfort zone and all importantly you are growing. Professional salespeople need to be constantly stretching their comfort zones, and they need to welcome the discomfort for what it really is, their own development and progress. Never expect to grow too fast too soon, but have the personal discipline and accountability to take small incremental steps outside of your comfort zone, each and every day. A marathon is 26.2 miles long, but it is always run step by step. You can always take one more step, and for the salesperson, no matter how tough it may be, you can always make one more call.

by Mark Pickles

Mark Pickles is the Sales Director of B2B Sales Solutions www.b2b-sales.co.uk

July 2012

Magazine Subscribe to SOLD Magazine Today its FREE! Yes, that’s right . . . you can subscribe to SOLD* magazine right now for FREE, and each month receive relevant and practical insights from some of the world’s leading sales professionals, experts and trainers. They will share with you their sales secrets and their best practices for winning in today’s challenging sales environment. Each month, learn how you can: • Increase your confidence as a sales professional • Find qualified customers faster, with less effort • Improve your presentation and demonstration skills • Flawlessly negotiate with power, purpose and elegance • Overcome objections and challenges with ease and precision • Increase the level of loyalty from your customers • Close more sales more often (and close larger sales too) • Use the latest technology to streamline your sales process

visit www.soldlab.com now!

Every day we post new articles, videos, podcasts and audio programs on the SOLDLAB.com site that are not included in SOLD Magazine. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to make sure you don’t miss anything.

*SOLD is a monthly digital publication dedicated to helping sales professionals rise above their competition and earn larger commissions.

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Professional Stalking– Managing Prospect Follow-Up I’m working with a team of sales people right now – good sales people – who have one teensyweensy problem: follow up.

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July 2012

T

he sales process for all of us includes a large number of transactional communications. They may include coordinating a meeting, securing a key piece of information, getting approval from Procurement or Purchasing, sign-off from a superior, the review of the proposal, signing the contract and so on. Every one of these communications must be completed in order to land the deal. If you participate in the sales process, you understand that rarely have you suffered more indignity or unprofessionalism than in this cycle of unanswered, unreturned or ignored emails, voicemail messages and sent and unsigned documents. And it’s done WILLINGLY. I’ve watched frothy-mouthed-screaming-at-officials-soccer-moms, who when faced with following up with a prospect who agreed to an action and hasn’t done it, say “Well, I’ll just give it another week. I don’t want to be too pushy.”

I’ve seen bar-pounding-get-me-my-beer-nowguys wait for weeks for a response on a proposal.

Weeks!

What is the right amount of time to wait before following up with a prospect? Not just any prospect, but a big prospect. I know that you don’t want to be pushy or desperate. I get that. But you also need to keep moving the process along. We are looking for the Goldilocks “just right” level. Here are some pointers before I give you the timing guidelines: Ask. My favorite approach came from a guy in Ireland pitching me some commercial real-estate. He said, “Thomas, the line between persistence and annoyance is a fine one, and I wouldn’t want to be crossing it. When should I be getting back to you so I’ll know you’ll be picking up the phone.” In every direct communication, ask when they want to have you get back to them and be specific. “Early next week” is not specific. “Tuesday at 10am” is specific.

Set expectations. It starts with setting expectations. In voicemails, emails, face to face or by phone, never end the conversation without setting the next time. Tell them when you will be calling or sending an email, specifically.

Be impeccable. Never miss a time or date. Not by a minute. If you are going to set the time for follow up with precision in your email or voicemail, then you have to hit it. You are creating a perception of attention detail and reliability. Just because they are not

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impeccable does not give you a pass not to be.

Allow some leeway. Sometimes, my calls for appointments and follow ups are missed by the person whom I am calling. I leave this message, “I have us scheduled for a meeting today at 9am. I probably just missed you or one of your other meetings is running over. I will call back in 15 minutes to connect.

I look forward to our conversation. Thanks.” Then I call back. If I don’t reach the person, my message sounds like this, “I’m sorry we didn’t get connected today, I was looking forward to our conversation. Your day may have just gotten away from you, I know that happens to me sometimes. I’ll call you back at end of day today, say 5:00pm, to reschedule this call.

Thanks.” Don’t wait for a call back or an email. Keep pressing forward.

Drive, don’t ride. I don’t expect that people will be calling me back. I’m driving the process, so it’s my job to drive the communication. I am always willing to be surprised in a good way with a responsive person, but my control needs dictate that I can’t be waiting.

I have to drive. How about you?

Walk away. Like the movie title says, maybe “He’s Just Not That Into You.” At some point, continued follow up is groveling. Don’t grovel. (see Brando Don’t Audition) If they are not responding, it means that they have moved on. I send an email or leave a voice message that sounds like this: “I’ve been in this business a long time, and when I stop being able to connect with someone it usually means that the timing for us to work together is not good. This is my last call to you for 6 months. I’ll circle back around then to see if timing is better for us to work together. If something changes for you between now and then, please feel free to call me.“ Having said all of this, here are some guidelines for proper Hunt Big Sales Prospect Follow Up Etiquette:

Prospecting Calls 1st Prospecting Call – You can call or email an unresponsive person within 48 hours.

2nd Prospecting Call – Within 48 hours of last call 3rd Prospecting Call – Within 48 hours of last call 4th Prospecting Call – Within 72 hours of last call

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Final Prospecting Call – Within 72 hours of last call

Trade Show Follow-Up – This gets trickier depending upon the volume of contacts.

Pre-Set Personal meeting – Within 48 hours of trade show closing.

Good conversation on floor – Within 48 hours of trade show Passing conversation on floor – Within 72 hours of trade show closing Fish bowl business card – Within 7 calendar days of trade show closing Prospect listed in program – Do you really have time to chase someone who you never met at the show? Don’t be a psycho stalker. Let it go.

both the attorney and the champion. Your approach should always be helpful: “What areas are of the most concern in the agreement? Which parts of the agreement are we going to be able to leave the same? How can we help to work through this agreement?”

Getting the prospect’s team to move. Stuck. I hate being stuck. Usually it’s IT, but not always.

The process gets tends to get bogged down while your champion of your new client is waiting for someone in his or her organization to do something. Now everybody is waiting. Your follow up here has to be vigorous and consistent but friendly. You are working within 4 hour cycles of commitments. Any time that a time or date has been missed on a commitment, you follow up within 4 hours. If they are not missing commitments, then your follow up is within 1 hour of commitment completion to thank them for completing the commitment. 20 commitments?

20 thank you’s.

Information requests. Use the same guidelines as “Getting the prospect’s team to move.”

Guidelines are not laws. When in doubt, use your own judgment. Always remember though, YOU ARE DRIVING. Tom Searcy

Never miss a time or date.

Not by a minute

Proposals. Assuming that you are sending a requested proposal, rather than an unsolicited one, your follow-up cycle should be declared in the cover letter. It should be within 24 hours to confirm receipt and distribution if appropriate. The time should be set at that time for a full review of the proposal within 72 hours. The house goes on fire outside of 8 calendar days – you must get connection and confirmation of interest and progress within 8 calendar days or you are dead.

Contracts. Who is driving? You are. Contract cycles within clients are a misty and dark area of the sales process. Lawyers think of themselves in this process as the stewards of their company’s risk, which they probably are. Because of this, they are slow, methodical and indifferent to you. First, get an understanding from your champion how long the cycle usually takes. Cut this time by two-thirds and follow up at the one-third mark in the cycle. Work

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Tom Searcy is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and the foremost expert in large account sales. Tom is the author of RFPs Suck! How to Master the RFP System Once and for All to Win Big Business and the co-author of Whale Hunting: How to Land Big Sales and Transform Your Company.

July 2012

Using Social to Sell How to Use Pinterest and Instagram to Boost Revenues Two popular social apps that can help your bottom line by creating awareness and free viral marketing for you are Pinterest and Instagram. 27 million users are on Instagram and Pinterest, with 18 million unique monthly visitors, is a huge tool for driving more traffic than Google+ and LinkedIn.

Pinterest It’s the ultimate bookmarking site. People share interesting, funny, strange, beautiful information; all with pictures. With your Pinterest account, create different boards where you post images of your product.

Name your boards with keyword rich descriptions and do the same for captions. Make sure your image filenames look like “portland-sales-agency.jpg” instead of “DSC_1083.jpg”.

Within each board, you can pin or post the images with a caption from your website or blog. Don’t pin too much at one time – you don’t want to fill up people’s walls with your pins and annoy them. You can tie your Pinterest account to Facebook and Twitter, but you should be aware of who you are sharing Pins with and how much.

The big key with images on Pinterest is to have them be high quality. People love sharing great images.

Install the “Pin It” button on your site so your visitors can pin your images easily.

Install the Pinterest Button on your site and blog to invite people to follow you.

A great way to increase engagement is with Pinterest contests.

Follow Pinners in your area and repin and respectfully comment and like their pins. You don’t need to interact a ton, but just enough to keep people happy. The more you give, the more you get back. When people on Pinterest love your boards, chances are that they will create their own board based on your product.

Instagram This fun iPhone visual app, which was recently purchased by Facebook for $1 billion is a great way to promote your brand in a visual non-hard sell way.

Create an account as your company and then post pics of interesting angles of your offices, behind the scenes shots of products or people in your office. It’s best to be very creative and use funky filters. Post only your best photos and do this about two or three times per day (early morning, lunchtime and evening).

Editing is key in Instagram, so download editing apps to make your photos stand out. Some great ones are Snapseed ($4.99), Adobe Photoshop Express (free), and Frame Magic ($0.99) Geotag your photos with your location.

Instagram is similar to Twitter in its use of hashtags. A top 100 list can be found at http://web. stagram.com/hot/ Follow other instagrammers and local groups (for instance @igers_Seattle) and always like and comment on other photos. The more you interact with other instagrammers, the more visibility you get.

A great way to generate comments is to do things like posting a mysterious photo and say “Can you guess what this is?” Or post a picture of a pint of beer and say “The best place to drink this would be (fill in the blank)” To get even more engagement, have a contest.

People love having their photos highlighted. Read the Instagram post on How to Host a Photo Content on Instagram.

Host an Instameet in your city to get engagement.

Go to meetup.com/Instagram and get started.

Integrate Instagram with Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Foursquare. Whenever you post a great picture on Instagram, make sure you share it, but don’t over share.

by Zeke Camusio

Zeke Camusio is the CEO of The Outsourcing Company, one of the fastest-growing Internet marketing agencies in the US. Contact Zeke at zeke@theoutsourcingcompany. com to talk more about promoting with Social Media Marketing.

Sales Requires a System I meet with sales people all the time and the one thing that is consistent is the lack of systems used to succeed. It’s really a shame because systems are critical to sales success. There’s an interesting pattern that happens to sales people and it goes like this: they start prospecting, meeting with potential clients, creating proposals and building relationships. So they stop prospecting. It’s as if they are so busy with sales appointments that they don’t think they have time for prospecting. They get stuck in a mindset that tells them they have a lot that’s about to pop.

Sound familiar? Of course it does! You’ve probably been there. There are two problems with this.

The first is that until you have the business, you don’t have it.

We always feel like we had a great sales meeting and that the business is inevitable.

And then weeks and months go by without a decision from the prospect.

The other problem

20 |

is that you’ve stopped prospecting so you have no other possibilities in the wings. You’re dry as the desert.

There are a myriad of reasons why a prospect doesn’t make the commitment. So, you can’t bank on them. Building structure around how you deal with them and try to get them to make a decision is one part of the sales system. The other part is making sure you have a continuous prospecting system that you are always initiating.

Take a look at diagram 1 for an example of a prospecting system. It’s like a flowchart. It’s structured and easy to follow. Moreover, it’s easy to keep it rolling because you don’t have to think about it.

See, that is the true value of systems. You create them so the tasks are automatic. This allows you to be really present and aware when you are interacting with prospects, clients, and referral partners. You won’t be trying to juggle

July 2012

Target Market – Information Gathering Introduction

Tap Your Networks (who knows them)

Contact for Meeting

Potential

No Potential

Quote and Close

File Thank

activities and thinking about next steps. When we don’t have a system we are basically recreating the sales strategy over and over again. Stop!

Create a process once that works and makes sense to you. Then use it as a template you can implement in a cycle.

The other great thing about having a sales system is that it makes it easier to track what is working and what isn’t. There has to be a goal attached to the system with a target date. Then as you are navigating your system you are always cognizant of your progress. If something

No Introduction

Cold Call

Sales Letter

Create plan for cold calling and letter sending. When will you leave voicemail; what day of the wk/time of day will you call; what will you do if you never reach your target?

isn’t working well you’ll find out right away. The alternative is getting to the target date and discovering you didn’t hit your goal. At that point you have to retrace your steps to try to figure out where you went wrong. Using a system will help you maneuver more easily; you’ll be able to adjust and amend in the moment.

Try it out and see how a sales system works for you. It may sound simple but it can simply have a dramatic impact on your results.

by Diane Helbig

After a success 20+ year sales and business development career, Diane took her experiences and launched a coaching practice in early 2006. She is now an internationally recognized business and leadership development coach and consultant, author, speaker, radio show host, and workshop facilitator. As a certified, professional coach and president of Seize This Day Coaching, Diane helps businesses and organizations operate more constructively and profitably. She evaluates, encourages, and guides her clients. Learn more about Diane at www.seizethisdaycoaching.com

www.soldlab.com

| 21

Success Secrets from a Sales Super Star Buyers are Liars

Stan Billue has been a Student of Sales an average of one day for 35 years. Each month he is sharing several Success Secrets with SOLD readers to assis t you to achieve your next level of Success.

Editor Note: “This is the second article in a regular column in SOLD where THE Sales Training Legend, Stan Billue, shares some great secrets of Qualifying” For Part 1 of the article, please check SOLD April-May at www.soldlab.com/archive

Use their Favorite Words and Phrases.

you can open some New Accounts without knowing it, however the odds are that you will never do a bunch of repeat business with them unless you know what they are trying to accomplish with their hard-earned dollars.

A phenomenal technique to use is the “Banker Question”. You’ll need to change the actual amount depending on the Income and Net Worth of your Prospect, however here’s how it goes; “Let’s pretend for a moment that your Banker called you tomorrow morning and said that someone had just put $50,000 in your Bank Account and it’s all yours, tax-free, however there is a catch. You can’t save it or invest it and you have to go buy something.

In fact, you have to spend every penny by 5 o’clock tomorrow or you loose the entire amount. Now imagine for a minute that you have $50,000, tax-free, all your bills are paid and you have to go buy something.

What’s the one thing you’ve always wanted to buy for yourself or your family?”

It might be a Boat, a Cruise, a getaway Home in the Mountains, etc., however whatever they say, you simply say; “Tell me about it.” and listen.

They will now describe it in great detail because that’s really what they want to accomplish. You’ve just discovered their Hot Button.

You will never do a bunch of repeat business with them unless you know what they are trying to accomplish with their hard-earned dollars

An advanced technique is to listen for and use the other person’s Favorite Words and Phrases. The average person uses an average of 3 of their Favorite Words or Phrase during each minute of talking. These will be Words of Phrases that we recognize however they aren’t necessarily part of our everyday vocabulary.

Write them down and the next time you talk with them, feed back their Favorite Words and Phrases.

If you ask someone what amount of extra Money would improve their lifestyle and they answer with; “$400 or $500 a month would sure keep the wolves away”, when you are doing your Presentation you would say; “Most people feel that an extra $400 or $500 a month would sure keep the Wolves away, how about you?”

99% of the people that you use this advanced technique with will have no concept of what is going on. All they know is that they are starting to feel extremely comfortable with you. Why? Because you’re talking their language.

Find their Hot Button.

If you’re selling any type of Investment, it’s absolutely critical that you determine their Hot Button. Oh sure

Are they Conservative or Aggressive?

Another advanced Technique when selling Investments is to ask if they consider themselves to be Conservative or Aggressive. Notice that I didn’t say; “are you”.

Always ask if they “consider” or “see” themselves as being Conservative or Aggressive. It’s almost like asking someone if they want you to use Conservative words and phrases or Aggressive ones to assist you in making the Sale. Do a little homework in the Dictionary and write down every Conservative and every Aggressive word and/or Phrase you can find. As long as it legally fits to describe your Product or Service, use as many as you can from the appropriate List.

Bumping for Big Bucks.

Here’s an incredible technique for Qualifying for Money.

It’s called the Disappointed Technique. There are many variations on my Audio Series, however here’s the easiest because it’s only one word. You would say; “If this sounds like the type of opportunity you’ve been looking for and feels comfortable to you, what amount of liquid and available dollars would you consider setting aside as far as your initial position?”

Whatever amount they mention, you simply say; “Oooooh”.

A majority of the time they will come back with something like; “Why, do I need more?” which gives you the right to talk about a larger amount.

Finally, this next one I learned from a Super Star mak-

ing One Million Dollars a year PLUS in commissions.

He would use the exact phrase in the above paragraph and when they respond with a figure, he then says: “Up to?”

When they give him the next figure, he now says; “And no more then?”

The odds are that you’ve just bumped them by 20 to 50%.

As powerful as this technique is, I added one more choice of words, which is; “And if you really got excited about it, what’s the max you would consider?”

If you only learn to BUMP EVERY TIME MONEY IS MENTIONED, you will become successful and wealthy beyond your wildest dreams.

by Stan Billue

Stan Billue is known as the Sales Training Legend as he is credited with creating more 6 and 7 figure a year Income earning Sales Pros than any other living Trainer.

You may subscribe to his free monthly Newsletter and weekly Marketing Tip by visiting www.StanBillue.com

Stan Billue

The Sales Training Legend

Stan has trained more 6 and 7 figure a year income earning Sales Pros than any other Trainer.

27 Years in Business Visit www.StanBillue.com for a complete catalog of his bestselling Audio, Video and Printed Training materials.

Make it a “Fanta$tic” Future!

Customers Expect More 24 |

July 2012

What makes a successful salesperson?

I’ve often asked that question at seminars, and the answers have been all over the ball park.

“You’ve got to have the right product,” some say.

I

t helps. But we’ve all known salespeople who went broke trying to move superb products and others who could make fortunes selling ice cream on an iceberg. A really good salesperson can rack up more sales with a mediocre product than a mediocre salesperson can make with the greatest product in the world.

“You’ve got to make plenty of sales calls,” others say. “The more calls you make, the more sales you’ll get.”

As a general rule, that’s true, but it doesn’t go far enough. If you think about it, the more passes a quarterback throws, the more passes he’ll complete.

But a quarterback who completes three out of four passes will put points on the board much more regularly than one who completes one out of four, even though both may throw the same number of times.

A baseball player who hits .350 will cross the plate much more frequently than one who hits .200, even though both take the same number of swings.

Similarly, a salesperson’s success doesn’t depend on the number of calls. It depends on the number of sales. An effective salesperson and an ineffective salesperson may make the same number of calls, but it’s the effective one who eats steak and lobster instead of hamburger.

Still others say, “you’ve got to master the mechanics.” That helps, too. But mastering the mechanics won’t put you on top of the sales charts unless you master the right mechanics.

In today’s market, as in none before, it is crucial that we learn selling savvy. The sales environment has changed radically in four distinct ways:

Customers are better-educated, more sophisticated, and more value-conscious.

1

In other words, they are harder to please; they want more for their money.

www.soldlab.com

Think about your own demands as a consumer.

You insist on quality goods and efficient service. You don’t want some slick con artist trying to trick you into buying a product or service you don’t want or need.

And you don’t want to be abandoned after the sale.

You expect follow-up service. If something goes wrong, you want to know that the salesperson and the company are going to stand behind the sale.

This means that salespeople have to stay on top of their markets. They have to be knowledgeable about the products and services they are selling. And they have to be honest, and sincerely interested in helping their customers find value and derive satisfaction.

Customers expect more from us than ever before.

2

Competition is stiffer.

Customers now have so many options that price will always be the deciding factor – unless you can offer a strong differential advantage.

With companies producing similar products at similar cost, it’s getting tougher every day to offer substantially lower prices than the competition does.

That means that you have to offer something that sets you apart from all the other salespeople who are trying to get your customers to buy from them.

You have to provide quicker service, more up-to-date product knowledge, and better follow-up.

It’s not enough to provide products and service as good as those of your competitors. Yours have to be better – a lot better. Moreover, your customers must acknowledge the superiority of your products and services, and the object of your presentation should be to lead them toward that recognition and acknowledgment.

If you can’t lead your customers to that acknowledgment, you won’t get the sale, no matter how good your product. Your success in selling depends less and less on the product you are selling, and more and more on your skills as a salesperson.

| 25

3

Technology is rapidly replacing peddlers.

People are buying more through direct mail. And such media as interactive television and the Internet are making it possible to buy almost anything you want by pressing a button or clicking a mouse.

Companies are no longer looking for peddlers to handle items that are much easier to sell by phone or through the mail. In many cases, they’re setting up self-service systems that can be operated by clerks.

Of course, there are plenty of very good opportunities for really sharp salespeople who can sell with power and skill, especially in the industrial field.

To be successful as a salesperson, you must find ways to distinguish yourself from the inexpensive clerks and the commonplace peddlers. You must rise to the challenge with proficient skills, depth of knowledge and a positive attitude.

Time has become a priceless commodity – for salespeople and for their customers.

4

Prospects don’t want salespeople wasting their time.

And if you’re serious about becoming successful, you don’t have time to wander around showing your products or services to anyone who will look at them.

To survive in today’s volatile marketplace, you need a clear and effective strategy. You need the skills to implement that strategy. And you need the know-how to make that strategy work for you.

When you acquire and apply these things, you’re demonstrating selling savvy.

Five Ingredients for Selling Savvy

What do we mean by selling savvy?

The answer lies in five ingredients that are vital to your team’s success as professionals: 1. Selling savvy is understanding the selling process well enough to approach it as a highly educated professional.

2. Selling savvy is understanding people well enough to influence them to buy.

3. Selling savvy is knowing how to execute.

4. Selling savvy means developing street smarts.

5. Selling savvy is having the self-discipline to carry out every detail of your strategy al day, every day.

26 |

Professionals Versus Workers I often draw the distinction between a person with a worker mentality and a person with a professional mentality.

Workers tolerate their jobs as burdens to be endured for the sake of putting food on their tables and roofs over their heads.

Professionals see their jobs as rewarding components of their lives. Their careers and their personal lives complement and support each other. Their jobs are part of who they are.

Workers wait to be told what to do. They don’t reach out for new responsibility, because they don’t want responsibility. They take care of their own immediate tasks without worrying about how their tasks affect others in the organization. In fact, they don’t see themselves as part of the organization. They see the organization as an outside entity that may have a negative or positive impact on their lives. They refer to it in the third person: as “it” or “them,” and not as “we.” The organization is something they have to respond to, although they’re not a part of it.

Professionals see themselves as part of the organization. To them, the organization is “we.” When it succeeds, they succeed. When it suffers reverses, they feel the reverses.

People look up to professionals because they recognize them as being good at what they do. They’re good because they’ve walked the extra mile toward excellence.

They absorb information about their chosen fields, and they share their knowledge with others. They’re jealous of their images and are always careful to avoid compromising them. To be a professional, you have to look like a pro, communicate like a pro, and exude the confidence of a pro. You must set a high standard for yourself and never allow yourself to fall below that standard.

by Nido Qubein

Nido Qubein is an international speaker and accomplished author on sales, communication, and leadership. He is president of High Point University which has an enrollment of more than 4,500 undergraduate and graduate students. Dr. Qubein serves on several national and local boards and is the recipient of numerous awards. He is also chairman of Great Harvest Bread Company with 220 stores in 43 states. For more information visit: www.nidoqubein.com and www.highpoint.edu.

July 2012

ASK The Sales PRO Maura Schreier-Fleming, sales strategist and consultant answers your sales questions. What sales issue are you facing that you want some direction? Ask Maura.

1

What are the most effective sales techniques and what are some alternatives to cold calling?

The most successful selling is when someone the customer trusts recognizes a need and highly recommends a salesperson who can sell a product to solve that need. This means that strategic sales professionals make sure that everyone they meet knows what they can do for prospects, who is an ideal prospect, and what situation or condition needs to exist so the salesperson can sell something and add value. The best strategic relationships are with other business professionals who sell to your customers and prospects, but don't compete with you. Their customers trust these sales professionals and value their recommendation so you shorten your sales cycle when they recommend you.

2

How do you make connections with the key players in a certain industry?

The best way is to "mine" your network of contacts and ask who knows someone who knows the person you want to contact. I find that the best place to meet key people is to join the same trade associations, technical organizations or business chambers where these people are members. You get to volunteer along with them. They get to know you informally and appreciate the work you do for another organization. These informal relationships often result in business. So get out, join business and technical organizations that are relevant to your business, volunteer and build strategic relationships for your business.

3

What effective customer engagement strategies have you seen?

(Helen, not sure what this really means, but I'll answer it and you tell me if that's what you were looking for.)

The most successful strategies I've seen are the ones I've used and recommend for my clients. I have my clients identify the trade associations where their customers and prospects are members. They joined those organizations and got involved. Often, a chamber of commerce is the perfect place. Rotary clubs are also good for those sales professionals whose business is local. You get to know key business professionals and they get to know you. People do business with people they know and like when they need your products.

So, get out and be the one who is top of mind when someone you know needs what you sell or can recommend you to those in his network when they do. Also, see question 1.

4

What are the key tools you use to communicate with your customers?

Communicate with customers the way they prefer. Often, with busy customers, email is preferred. The telephone is also appropriate. Be sure to ask your customers what they want. Don't forget about "snail" mail, especially for prospects. You want customers to think of you first when they need your products. What's most important in communication is regular intervals for prospects so they remember you and a timely response for customers when they need you. Customers today have many choices and when they need you, they want a quick response--with whatever communication tool you choose. Remember, when a customer has a problem, first assure them that you're working on the problem. You don't have to have an answer immediately. But, no response from you is a bad. You frustrate a customer and you just might start them looking for your replacement.

by Maura Schreier-Fleming

Maura Schreier-Fleming, is an international speaker and sales consultant. She works with business and sales professionals on their persuasion and communication skills. Her books include Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results and Monday Morning Sales Tips. She writes the women in business blog for Allbusiness.com and is a sales coach for them. She's been quoted in the New York Times, Selling Power and Entrepreneur. Clients include UPS, Fujitsu, Capital One, Ebby, the Houston Texans, and Conoco. She was Mobil Oil's first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. and sold $9 million of industrial lubricants when hydraulic oil was under $2.50/gallon. Website: www.Bestatselling.com

Who’s Making It About Price, You or the Customer?

Salespeople love to complain that all the customer cares about is the price. When we don’t get a deal, we’re quick to point to our higher price as a major cause of defeat. My friend Anthony Iannarino has written extensively on the topic of price, and he points out that this excuse is usually a lie we tell ourselves. I’d encourage you to link over and read several of his thought-provoking posts about price.

I’m really in tune with the whole price thing right now because one client asked for custom coaching content on selling against a lower-priced giant competitor. Another had me do a “success study” comparing behaviors and attitudes of their topperformers against those were weren’t doing as well converting leads. One of the big findings from that study was that those struggling with conversions viewed the lead as price shopping vs. reps who were more successful that took a consultative approach, assuming the prospect had a problem that needed to be solved. And a third client of mine is fighting an industry trend of declining prices. Their sales team is hyper-sensitive about being priced at a premium and I’m continually getting an earful from them about being competitive. So with all of that as backdrop, my antennae are up regarding price conversations and I’m disturbed by what I’m discovering: More often than not, it’s the salesperson who is making it about price.

Sometimes it’s intentional. Sometimes it’s just habit. Whatever the case, it’s killing them (and me).

Time and time again I see the salesperson initiating the price conversation. It’s coming through in their attitude, in their approach to the customer, and in the words they are choosing.

Salespeople are supposed to be professional problem-solvers and value-creators. When we view ourselves as problem-solvers and take a consultative approach believing that our prospects potentially have problems or issues for which we have solutions, then

28 |

price should be the last thing on our minds. But time and time again I hear salespeople fretting about their pricing, and starting telephone and face to face calls convinced that the prospect is hugely concerned with price. Recently I’ve heard: “give us an opportunity to look at this and we’ll see if we can save you some money.” Another told a prospect “I’d like to quote this for you and see if I can do better.”

What in the world, people? Why would we ever talk like that? Let me be blunt: If all you’re doing is selling price, then why do we need you? You bring NO VALUE as a price quoter. None. No value to your prospect and certainly, no value to your company. If all that matters is price, why don’t we just walk up and down the aisles of airplanes handing out price lists or put our pricing front and center on our websites? If it is indeed all about price, we’re all pretty much about out of a job.

[One disclaimer: I have personally been involved in a sales process where the way we quoted projects, asking killer questions, providing options and alternatives for efficiencies and greater impact, was a significant differentiator. But that's very different than what I am talking about in this rant.]

Two very different sets of words that produce dramatically different outcomes: I love when a salesperson asks great probing questions. I’ve believed for a long time that we can accomplish a whole lot more selling by asking great questions that demonstrate our expertise than we can with a slick presentation. Something magical and wonderful happens in the prospect’s mind when we ask insightful and penetrating questions. They see us as someone who can help them, and it positions us as that consultant and problem-solver I mentioned earlier.

Here are two phrases that two different salespeople who work for the same organization share with prospects very early in the conversation. They use these to set-up a line of questions that need to be

July 2012

asked in order to provide pricing. Both have good intentions, but man, are they different in what they communicate to the prospect (and what they say about how the salesperson views his role).

“I’d like to understand exactly what your situation is to see if I can help you.” vs.

“Let me ask you a few questions so I can get you a price quote.”

Both phrases start out well, but they go in down very different paths after that. One communicates that I exist to solve problems, and I’d love to understand what you’re facing to see if we’re a fit to help. The other assumes the customer is only interested in the price and, worse, that you’re only interested in providing a price. Night and day.

So, I ask again: who’s making it about price – you or the customer?

Listen, I get it. There are plenty of organizations working to cut costs. And there are almost as many procurement (one of the worst words on the planet) people trying to prove their worth by making us cut prices! And we’ve all got lame competitors whose only weapon to beat us is price. Everyone understands. It’s tough out there. Great. Having said all that, as professional salespeople, can we please make the supreme effort to examine ourselves and our approach to make darn sure we’re not the ones turning it into a price conversation.

by Mike Weinberg

Mike Weinberg's specialty is new business development. He coaches sales teams and sales

Restructuring with Sales

H

ow has the current economic tide been affecting your business? Are there any positives to come out of it? It’s safe to say this isn’t the kind of environment that inspires confidence. The latest global economic concerns have predicated a mass hysteria that really isn’t anything new, but is a crisis nonetheless. If your business is feeling the effects of the volatile environment you should stay proactive, rather than reactive.

The silver lining of a crisis is that it forces you to streamline your business model. It’s the sort of sink or swim that makes you think about long-term sustainability in a way you never had to before.

We have seen the competitive landscape shift as companies reorganize with a sharp focus on revenue and cost-cutting initiatives. The low hanging fruit has really been picked and squeezed, selling to early adopters in robust markets, without the need for a focused sales strategy.

You probably understand that economics is cyclical and this is why the current economic crisis shouldn’t go to waste. More than ever companies are scrambling for those problem solving solutions.

What does that mean? More than ever, companies are ready to buy! Ergo, you have to be ready to sell your solution in a way that solves those restructuring objectives. Just yesterday Cisco CEO John Chambers said his customers don’t see a recession. As they reorganize you can be assured they are going to focus on the value they create and that their customers have come to appreciate.

leaders and consults CEOs of midsize companies on issues related to sales success. Mike was named a Top 25 Sales Influencer for 2012

by OpenView Labs, and his first book, published by AMACOM, will be released this September. He was the top-performing salesperson is three different organizations and currently leads The NewSales Coach consultancy. Mike is a transplanted New Yorker who lives in St. Louis with his wife and three children. Learn more at: www.newsalescoach.com

www.soldlab.com

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“Our customers are saying they do not see a recession” ~ John Chambers Cisco CEO

Uncovering Value ROI alone is not enough to garner attention anymore because everyone presents it and everyone presents a good one. You must align the parts of your message you think are important with what your prospect thinks are important. In effect, it needs to be simple, yet differentiated.

Reaching out You should treat all of your sales as partnerships and by that I mean your customers should get the feeling your success rides on theirs. You aren’t selling widgets, you’re guaranteeing success.

Start by reaching out to your current and past customers. Getting the right information is about asking the right questions. (Join the discussion in our new sales community and share your best questions!)

Why don’t you buy?

Why do you buy?

What do we do best?

They will lead you to value you didn’t sell them. For example, maybe you provided new energy efficient windows to a university. You’d be surprised to find out that since installation class attendance has improved by 15% in addition to the anticipated energy savings. Discovering what resonated after the sale stirs a positive feeling of surprise and added benefit. Your genuine curiosity also improves your partnership, creating healthy up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.

If that isn’t enough already, remember our goal is to translate this differentiated value to new prospects. The more transparent your positive surprise is to new prospects, the more receptive they will be.

merger and acquisition news. Identify where you can enforce value and how you supplement current operations. Determine who Power is. Change is disruptive to any organization and your ability to recognize and overcome that barrier is crucial. Part of that is speaking to the right person. If you start too low in an organization you get resistance and a small budget. Latch on to current sustainability initiatives and missions that contribute to their longterm vision.

Partnering I mentioned partnering before; it’s important enough that it keeps coming back. Once you have differentiated your solution and distilled it down to what your prospect cares about, you know whether or not you have a zebra. With that in mind, present your business case to the executive you’ve identified as Power. Sure you will have your ROI along with other conservative estimates, including EVA, payback period and a monthly cost of indecision…, but you want their critical business issues front and center in the discussion. Your financial benefit claims ride on these rails. Your goal at this point isn’t to sell, it’s to partner. You have to earn trust before you can sell. If you peak interest, ask, and they will grant you executive sponsorship to verify your value. Once they confirm and adjust your figures internally, you will reduce your sales cycle, increase your deal size and improve your pipeline close rate.

To dig deeper into all the steps of our process: Read the book and bring your expertise over to the sales community.

by Brent Nauer

Brent is a contributing author at the ZEBRAselling Blog, where he writes about complex sales, corporate strategy, and technology. He is a graduate of Marquette University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. You can follow him on @ZebraBrent for the latest. Selling

Research New Prospect

To Zebras is the company behind the ZEBRAselling sales

Filter through a company’s annual report and 10k, Google headlines, and scour their website. You’re looking to understand the culture and initiatives in place. If you have a management tool, search for

process, and provides the tools and training to realize

30 |

sales growth. Brent serves a primary role in developing and automating the financial model used to start a valuebased discussion.

July 2012

http://www.sellingtozebras.com/

C hasing Zebras

Selling to Zebras.

The Untold Story … For salespeople SOLDLAB and Selling to Zebras have teamed up to provide a platform for our latest eBook; an intriguing story of overcoming the obstacles within the sales/ buying cycle that any sales person can relate to. Each month, SOLD Magazine will publish 3-4 chapters. It is our hope that the story will resonate and inspire. Please check back each month to follow Kurt’s progression through the “Zebra” methodology from colleague and mentor Kent Clark, (Yes that’s his name). Be sure to check back each month for subsequent chapters.

The eBook is also available in its entirety through Amazon.com SOLDLAB and Selling to Zebras have teamed up to provide a platform for our latest eBook; an intriguing story of overcoming the obstacles within the sales/buying cycle that any sales person can relate to. Each month, SOLD Magazine will publish 3-4 chapters. It is our hope that the story will resonate and inspire. Please check back each month to follow Kurt’s progression through the “Zebra” methodology from colleague and mentor Kent Clark, (Yes that’s his name). Be sure to check back each month for subsequent chapters. The eBook is also available in its entirety through Amazon.com -Find Your Stripes!

Chapters Introduction: Why This Book Now? Chapter 1 – Kurt is in trouble Chapter 2 – Frustration Chapter 3 – Problems at work, problems at home Chapter 4 – The new normal Chapter 5 – Kent Clark Chapter 6 – Activity management Chapter 7 – Zebra Chapter 8 – Focus Chapter 9 – Quantity verses quality Chapter 10 – What to measure Chapter 11 – When it rains it pours Chapter 12 – Pursuit of a solution Chapter 13 – Invitation to the East Coast Chapter 14 – Power-level Business Issues Chapter 15 – Force Success Chapter 16 – Zebra Buying Cycle Chapter 17 – Sales is not a democracy Chapter 18 – Self Pity

Chapter 19 – Sports-to-business analogy Chapter 20 – Goals of business Zebra Chapter 21 – Zebra Creation Chapter 22 – Sales resources Chapter 23 – Courage of your convictions Chapter 24 – The turnaround Chapter 25 – Power penetration, power presentation Chapter 26 – New lease on life Chapter 27 – Life is fun again Chapter 28 – Zebra for all Chapter 29 – Zebra white paper Chapter 30 – Gaining commitment Chapter 31 – Push button zebra Chapter 32 – How executives buy Chapter 33 – Turning process into action Chapter 34 – Life through zebra glasses Chapter 35 – Scotty is fired Chapter 36 – The year of the Zebra Epilogue – Predictable ending

Introduction “How can we most effectively approach today’s business sales environment?” This is increasingly becoming the challenging question facing marketing, sales, and sales management, and the challenge is only growing tougher.

With each passing year, companies reduce the size of sales territories and the number and availability of professional sales-support personnel. At the same time, competition is getting better and more varied, and prospective customers are becoming more sophisticated.

Too often the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system has further burdened salespeople by automating the collection and analysis of transactional data and statistics. This automation has made it easier to

quantify sales activity, but if that is all the CRM is used for its use is ultimately counterproductive. Only rarely does a CRM technology solution have a profoundly positive effect on sales. Problematically, companies end up using CRM systems to measure the quantity of sales activity rather than the quality.

The average company closes 15% of its forecasted sales pipeline. This means that sales, marketing, presales, sales management, post sales, and many administrative and professional employees waste 85 percent of their time on activities that will never produce revenue!

Unlike waste in advertising, most waste in sales can be eliminated. In fact, it is possible to close 90 percent of the potential deals that appear on your sales pipeline forecast.

Although a work of fiction, this book is based on techniques that have been used in real-world situations to achieve pipeline close-rate effectiveness of up to 90 percent.

The sales organization can fix broken processes cross-functionally throughout the company. Selling to Zebras will help you address your organization’s salesrelated issues, which might include the following: Eliminating “non-decision” sales cycles A repeatable best-practice approach to sales Focus on Executive-level Business Issues that drive high-margin business Creating solution differentiation Shortening sales cycles Successfully addressing these issues will increase sales.

Chapter 1 – As I arrive at work early this morning, an unfamiliar sight catches my attention. Scotty (known to the world as William Neversale Scott, president and CEO of C3 Technology) is at my office. Scotty’s red Maserati in the parking lot gives him away. The Maserati is one of several vehicles Scotty owns, and it’s the one he leaves at his summer home in Chicago.

The average company closes

15%

of its forecasted sales pipeline Although this isn’t Scotty’s office, he requires us to keep a labeled parking space for him. Usually, I have the office to myself for the first hour and a half of the morning, and suddenly I feel an invasion of my space.

I park my Toyota Celica in its customary spot, which is always open – not because it’s labeled with name and title but because no one else cares to arrive this early.

Walking into the office, I sense something isn’t right. I believe everyone has a sense for knowing when things are amiss; profiting from this sense is just a matter of paying attention and learning to listen. Over the years, I’ve parlayed this sense into an ability to predict when we would win a sales opportunity, but recently I have let it slip into the background. Our sales quota numbers have grown so large and seemingly unachievable that we are forced to chase every prospect that moves, regardless of whether it seems viable. Still, we are not making our numbers.

Walking through the entrance and around the corner, I see that a light is on in my office. My stomach churns. Is Scotty in my office? Did someone die?

Link to remaining chapters.

by Jeff Koser, Chad Koser

Jeff Koser has more than thirty years of experience

Chad Koser Chad Kos-

in consulting, executive sales management, business

er, Co-authored Selling to

strategy, and sales enablement. In addition to his many

Zebras after over a decade

speaking engagements, Jeff is co-author of the award

of experience working with

winning book, Selling to Zebras, HOW TO CLOSE UP TO

ZEBRAselling philosophies.

90% of the BUSINESS YOU PURSUE, FASTER, MORE EAS-

Using Zebra principles, Chad

ILY and MORE PROFITABLY. And the recently published,

established a reputation for

Selling to Zebras The Untold Story, for salespeople. And In 1999 founded

exceeding sales targets at organizations includ-

Selling to Zebras, Inc. Selling to Zebras, Inc. is a sales enablement company

ing Baan Supply Chain Solutions, VoiceStream

offering unique, effective and winning sales solutions to businesses. Using

Wireless (now T-Mobile) and GE Medical Systems

the ZEBRAselling Process, Jeff and Selling to Zebras, Inc. have established

Ultrasound. Chad's contributions have helped

a proven track record of successfully helping companies increase sales in a

Selling to Zebras, Inc. customers to penetrate

variety of industries. The ZEBRAselling process is chronicled in the book Sell-

Power-level decision makers, thus shortening

ing to Zebras. Learn more at www.sellingtozebras.com

sales cycles and increasing average deal sizes.

Death by PowerPoint

34 |

July 2012

Putting PowerPoint (or any of its presentation cousins) into the hands of some sales reps is like putting matches into the hands of some children. The results often lead to disaster.

A

s members of the Information Age, we may have come a long way in our presentation technology, but one could argue that some reps are no better at creating visual presentations than their ancestors who first carved visuals on cave walls 30,000 years ago.

Electronic Excess No matter how many flying bullets, builds, or fades you can produce with your computer, if buyers are confused or bored by what they are seeing, you will have struck a bad visual chord with them. Don’t go overboard with the technology. Keep it simple. You’re there to make a sale, not to win an Oscar for special effects.

Do you remember the term “visual aids” from school? The screens in your PowerPoint presentation are just that: “aids.” They are meant to clarify and communicate a message, not to muddy and overwhelm it.

The Killers People make many mistakes with visuals. Below are three of the biggest ones that I see in my seminars.

Compare these to the ones in your current presentations. Are they working for you as sales messengers or sales killers?

Killer No. 1: Drowning with words. “Hey, I know.

I’ll include as many full sentences as I can to describe what my site/service does.” If you want to know how effective that is, may I suggest that you put a phone directory on the floor, turn to the page where you think your name is likely to appear, put the directory opened to that page on the floor, and try to find your name looking down at the page. Now you know what it feels like to an advertiser who is trying to make sense of what you are showing when you show all text pages.

Instead of using text-heavy visuals:

Use bullet points; have a maximum of five to six per page Ruthlessly edit – a maximum of five to six words per line

www.soldlab.com

Separate with white space Compare the following:

Text-heavy visual:

We have 23 million unique users per month, which makes us No. 1 in our category.

Another advantage is that we offer an unduplicated audience for your advertising.

Non-text-heavy visual:

No. 1 – 23MM unique users per month Unduplicated audience When you present text-heavy pages, you tend to read them, which becomes remedial reading. So not only are you boring your advertisers, but you are insulting their intelligence as well. Moreover, since the human eye moves faster than the human mouth, your advertisers are reading point number four, while you are still presenting point number two, so they are not even listening to you. A disaster all around. Hit that space bar, and edit, edit, edit!

Killer No. 2: Smothering with visual sameness.

Bullet-point visuals are best used for lists and summaries. Page after page of even good bullet-point pages becomes numbing to listeners. Graphs, charts, and pictures have much more impact.

Pick up a copy of your favorite business publication, whether it’s Business 2.0, Business Week, or The Wall Street Journal, and look at the business-tobusiness advertising. The overwhelming number of ads show a picture with the text because copywriters know what good presenters know: The eye picks up and remembers pictures far better than it does words. Look at any publication’s graph, chart, or table, and invariably there is a pictorial element to it, for example, oil wells used in an energy growth bar chart.

(Some call that the USA Today effect.)

Use the guidelines below to liven up your message.

Explaining trends? Use line graphs Describing a series of steps? Use a diagram Comparing capabilities? Use a table

| 35

Showing comparisons? Use a pie chart or bar graph Explaining how your site works? Show the site In all of these, include color and, where possible, pictures. The bottom line is that by showing real visuals versus screen after screen of words, you will be helping your advertiser truly understand your message. Even Einstein preferred real visuals.

He said, “If I can’t see it, I don’t understand.” If Einstein had problems with words-only information, think about the effect of your wordy visuals on just us regular folks.

Killer No. 3: Torturing advertisers with meaningless titles. The last thing in the world you want is your advertiser thinking “Why is this person showing this to me? Who cares about a headline that just describes what’s on the visual?”

Give meaning to the information you are presenting by replacing descriptive headlines with headlines that sell.

Headlines That Tell versus Headlines That Sell Our Statistics versus Reach Your Best Customers Advertisers versus Be With the Best Reporting and Targeting versus Tailor to Your Needs Since many of you leave hard copies of your presentation with advertisers to review, you want to be sure they get the selling story straight. The proper headlines will do that job for your information.

In summary, Peter Drucker quite rightly said that communication takes place in the mind of the listener, not the speaker. Look at the visuals in your presentations from an advertiser’s point of view. Are they sales killers, or are they as strong as they can be to help sell your story?

by Anne Miller

Anne Miller is a leading sales and presentations specialist. She works with people in high stakes situations sell millions of dollars worth of products, services, and ideas in one-to-one or one-to-athousand settings. Her clients come from financial services, professional services, and the media. Anne is the author of four books. Her latest is "Make What You Say Pay! The language that opens doors, closes deals, and wows crowds." Learn more about Anne at

17

8IP3

Selling Without Slides "It’s a scenario played out in millions of sales meetings every year. The eager consultant (or lawyer, accountant or salesperson) has finally managed to get a meeting with one of his A list target customers. The customer meets him at reception, takes him to a meeting room and opens with “tell me a little about your company”.

“I’m glad you asked” says our hero as he brings out his pack of slides (or perhaps a glossy brochure, or even worse, his computer) and proceeds to give a thoroughly professional presentation – which unfortunately, does nothing to further the client relationship. After a brief discussion afterwards the client offers to “call you when we need something in your area”, and the two never speak again.

Of course, it’s hardly news that initial meetings with clients need to be about establishing relationships and trying to identify the client’s critical needs. The problem is that far too many of us rely on the use of slides or a pre-prepared presentation as a crutch – without realizing that the presence of the visual aid radically changes the dynamic of the meeting.

Firstly, the potential client is no longer having a face-to-face dialogue with you – they’re looking at your slides or brochure – or worse still, they’re looking at a screen and you’re not even physically close to them.

www.annemiller.com

36 |

July 2012

Secondly, if you present material, the meeting changes from dialogue to presentation. From a peer-level discussion to a “master-servant”, “I’m trying to impress you” dynamic.

Finally, the most likely outcome of a presentation is that they begin to ask questions about the presentation – when in fact you really need to be questioning them, trying to find out what they’re looking for, what their challenges and problems are.

A far more effective approach is to be able to briefly describe your company in a few sentences, then turn to asking the client about their company, their challenges and what they are hoping to achieve. You can establish your and your company’s credibility far more with intelligent questioning and a few “that’s interesting, we worked with a client who had what looked like a similar issue recently, they…” follow-ups.

If you need to illustrate points, try a “pencil selling” approach. Have a few blank sheets of paper situated between you and the client and sketch out what you want to show them. It’s far more effective and demonstrates your knowledge of the subject rather than just your ability to show slides which could have been prepared by someone else. Better still, you can hand the pencil to the client and get them to share in the process – adding in their thoughts and taking co-ownership of the solution or plan you are creating together.

And without the distraction of slides, brochures, or even worse, a computer to look at; you can begin to establish real human to human rapport. This may be the most crucial aspect of all as a potential client is highly unlikely to begin to open up and tell you about any significant problems they have until you establish a base level of trust and credibility with them. And that’s so hard

www.soldlab.com

If you need to illustrate points, try a “pencil selling” approach to do when you are presenting preprepared material.

So why do we rely on slides and brochures so much?

Very often it’s because we have neither the confidence, nor have we done the homework needed to allow us to work without our visual aids. We can’t remember all the key points they we to get across, the major benefits to the customer, and our great testimonials. We put all our preparation time into creating the presentation – rather than in thinking about how we should present it.

Ironically, we need to know our presentation and our slides absolutely off-pat – so that we can then do without them and begin to build a real dialogue with our potential client and stand a much better chance of turning that potential client into a paying client."

by Ian Brodie

Ian Brodie is a marketing and sales specialist who works with consultants, coaches and other professionals to help them attract and win more clients. He was recently named by Top Sales World as one of the Top Marketing and Sales Influencers Globally for 2012, and by Salesforce.com as one of their European Social Business Dream Team. For more articles with practical, effective marketing and sales tips, and for free access to Ian's Pain Free Marketing Blueprint, head over to www.ianbrodie.com.

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SOLD INTERVIEW The Cold Calling Survival Guide: Start Setting Appointments in the Next 24 Hours New Book by Wendy Weiss: The Cold Calling Survival Guide: Start Setting Appointments in the Next 24 Hours. www.coldcalling911.com.

Why did you write this new ebook?

Cold calling is a basic sales skill set. It is the ability to quickly communicate with a prospect and have that prospect immediately grasp how the product or service might help them. Yet, every day I hear from sales professionals who are struggling to with this basic skill set. And to make matters worse for these struggling sales pros, prospects have become less and less accessible.

The old disproved chestnuts of cold calling, “Smile and dial,” “It’s a numbers game” and “Go through the ‘no’s’ and hang-ups till someone says, ‘yes’ to you” never really worked very well. Today they do not work at all.

Cold calling does work today, but it has changed. What used to work, doesn’t.

I wrote the Cold Calling Survival Guide to help sales representatives who are struggling. The subtitle of this book is Start Setting Appointments in the Next 24 Hours.

It is an easy-to-read, step-by-step guide about what works today, in 2012 to reach prospects directly and gain their agreement to meet – and what will simply create frustration and angst and waste your time.

With so many other ways to reach prospects – email, social media, webinars – why cold call?

If you really want to build a solid sales pipeline that is packed with qualified prospects, there are only four ways that you can do so: 1) Marketing activities. Most large sales organizations have marketing departments that function to generate qualified leads, to drive traffic to the company’s web site and/or to the company’s inside sales team. If you’re a solopreneur or small business owner, you’re the marketing department.

Email, some social media and webinars fall in this category.

2) Leveraging (Referral selling): Contacting existing customers and/or people within a representative’s or business owner’s circle of influence and asking for referrals. This is an excellent way to develop new business.

3) Networking: Joining leads and/or networking groups and/or using social networking sites/Web 2.0 resources.

4) Cold Calling.

While all these activities will generate leads for sales, only one is directly under your control. The first three are essentially passive, in that once you initiate the activity you must then wait for someone else to take action – a prospect to call in or a customer or networking contact to come through with a referral. Because you have to wait for the results – that is, for prospects to come to you – these processes also take longer to generate sales.

When you cold call you can target the companies with which you are interested in doing business, make a phone call and begin your sales process. While cold calling is not as easy as say, clicking a link on a social networking site, the good news is that cold calling is a communication skill (heavy emphasis on the word, ‘skill’) and like any communication skill it can be learned and improved upon.

People who say that cold calling does not work today or that cold calling is dead are a little like someone playing softball that when up at bat, swings and misses the ball. They throw the bat down in disgust and say, “The bat doesn’t work.” The bat works fine… it’s just that you missed the ball.

Cold calling is a lead development process that works very well. The way it works, however, is different from the way it worked 20 years ago. It is no longer enough to rely on sheer volume of calls. And this is still the strategy employed by most people who are making cold calls. And, if that’s your strategy today, then cold calling won’t work for you.

Cold calling is a lead development process that works very well In order to be successful in 2012, cold calling must be strategic, targeted and skilled. A cold calling campaign that is all three will succeed in developing new business.

Anything else will waste your time.

I call and call and call, and finally I get through, but they say, “I’m not interested” and then hang up on me. What did I do wrong?

The number one reason that prospects say, “I’m not interested” and then slam down the telephone is that the caller is not saying anything that the prospect finds to be interesting.

On the telephone, you have approximately 10-30 seconds to grab your prospect’s attention – and if you do not do that, your call is probably over. 10-30 seconds is not a lot of time.

From the moment your prospect says, “Hello,” your goal is to gain your prospect’s attention so that prospect is hungry to hear more. Ask yourself: Whom are you calling? Why should they be interested? You’re looking for hot buttons, those issues that are so important to your prospect that

when they come up, that prospect will stop in their tracks to listen. When you are trying to hook someone, you have to have some sense of what’s important to them.

Ask yourself: What is the value that I (the company/ product/service) bring to customers? How do they benefit? How do I (the company/product/service) make customer’s lives easy, stress-free, happy, profitable etc?

Once you’ve determined that value, however, lead with it.

The answer to this question is deceptively simple: Do your homework. Do what ever is necessary to truly understand your prospects. Before you ever pick up the telephone, have the answer to the question: “Why should this prospect be interested?” If you have that answer, you will never again hear: “I’m not interested.”

by Wendy Weiss

Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling™, is an author, speaker, sales trainer, and sales coach. She is recognized as one of the leading authorities on lead generation, cold calling and new business development. Her clients include Avon Products, ADP, Sprint and thousands of entrepreneurs throughout the country.

To download her latest e-book, The Cold Calling Survival Guide, at no charge, go here.

Visually Speaking Three Powerful Rules to “Visually” Engage Your Audience It’s often basic communication principles we inadvertently toss aside in the heat of “presentation panic” that get us into trouble. I’ve done it, too – thrown up bullet point after bullet point to support a presentation without thinking about how my audience takes in information. Big mistake.

Boring doesn’t sell. Neither does the thing we gravitate towards – logic – in most cases.

What does sell is your ability to conjure up images in the minds of your audience – their images, not yours.

If you can engage your audiences’ imaginations, you’ve got them! There is absolutely nothing more powerful in the art of persuasion.

Here are three rules that should serve as the foundation for your visual support decisions:

1

Pictures are memorable; words are not.

We don’t think in words; we think in pictures. It’s images that engage minds.

Think back to caveman days (not personal memories, but rather what you know about how they communicated). The walls of their caves were filled with rudimentary visual images of their exploits. They shared stories in pictures.

Of course, they hadn’t invented language yet and so this was the only means they had to share their knowledge. But language is only a set of symbols that represent pictures in our mind.

Take this example: If I were to ask you to think of an “ice cream cone,” it’s pretty likely you won’t think of the words. Rather, you immediately conjure up a visual image of an ice cream cone.

You see, when we read a word, we actually see it as a whole bunch of little tiny pictures. We look for features like horizontal or vertical lines, rounded corners, etc. and then we think back to our “brain library” of letter images and match it up to what we’ve stored from the past.

Over time, we get pretty darned good at this process and it takes us milliseconds to do all the calculations and read a sentence. Reading text is highly taxing on our brains. As a result, text presentations are simply not very effective for transferring information.

Whether we read or hear words, the impact is much the same. In fact, if information is presented orally,

we remember about 10% three days later. However, if a picture is added in, that figure goes up to 65%.

We don’t remember words. What was the last series of word screens you remember from a presentation?

Exactly!

The point? Keep your screen text to a bare minimum and use powerful words (or phrases of no more than three to four words) that conjure up powerful images in the minds of your audience.

2

Carefully select your visuals for impact.

Visuals can sometimes detract from the emotional substance of your talk. For example, real emotional impact comes from the use of your audience’s imagination. The more concrete you make an image on a screen, the less it “belongs” to your audience. It’s your image, not theirs.

They don’t “own” the image because they’re not emotionally connected to it.

In the 1930s, radio plays were today’s film blockbusters. They drew far greater audiences than any other format – “radio for the mind.” You would listen so intently as actors portrayed scenes so vividly written that you were completely drawn in. Sound effects helped make them “mind candy.” Talk about engaged!

You can do the same with words and images, but only if they’re carefully selected to involve the audience.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you attempt to integrate visual support with your message: Is this screen critical in helping me make my point? If not, it likely detracts.

What level of emotional impact will this screen have on my audience? Is it a screen that’s necessary to my main point? Or is it just “interesting?”

Interesting is clutter.

Does this screen reinforce, or add clarity to my point? Remember, “Less is more.” If not, let it go.

3

Emotion sells, not facts.

We make decisions based on emotion and justify them based on facts.

The majority of people don’t buy a car based upon how economically it will get them from A to B. It’s usually something else … like the most new gizmos,

Text presentations are simply not very effective for transferring information the color, the speed … or just the way it makes them feel.

If they can imagine themselves enjoying driving that particular car, the sale is made.

Even in the corporate environment, emotion is most often the factor that will sway your audience. How they feel about the information presented will likely be the deciding factor as to how they react. The fact that it might be logical to follow a certain behavior or action often has little to do with the result you’ll achieve.

Olympic athletes overwhelming need to emotionally connect themselves with a win; they must mentally imagine themselves crossing the finish line. Once they do this, they’re fully committed and convinced they can do it. It’s the power of engaging the imagination.

In the same way, you can use visual support to engage your audience. But it’s their minds that are the target. Capture their imaginations and you’ve captured their hearts and their minds.

Are you engaging your audience’s imaginations with the screens you’re using? Are they simply there to fill space? Do they add to the point you’re making? If not, they’re likely making you less effective.

It’s important to base your presentation on logic, on facts and figures, but don’t forget to include a bit of emotion, as well. Yes, even in business presentations.

I’ve won many a contract based upon emotion, because I offered security … a guarantee … something to make them feel more comfortable saying “yes.” Or I simply made them laugh.

Emotion engages. Facts do not.

So … lead with the head … but don’t forget a good dose of heart.

by Peter Temple

Peter Temple has been a writer/ producer/director in the corporate world for over 35 years. He has designed and written countless presentations and speeches and now helps executives, managers, and salespeople use technology effectively in presentations. For more articles and video about using speeches and presentations effectively, go to: www.presentationsforbusiness.com

Presentation 2.0 Introduction This is the first article in a regular column in SOLD where Phil Waknell, one of Europe's foremost experts in fantastic presentations, will share sales-specific presentation tips to help you present better and sell more.

Most presentations suck. Ask most people to close their eyes and imagine themselves in the audience for a presentation, and they will break into a cold sweat. Presentation should rhyme with communication, inspiration and fascination – but all too often, it simply rhymes with boredom.

This means two important things for salespeople.

Firstly, if an audience is bored, they're not interested, they're not listening, and they're not buying. Secondly, if most presentations suck so badly, those salespeople who make an effort can rise above the crowd, communicate better, and sell more.

So upgrade to Presentation 2.0, and make your presentations interesting, effective, and memorable. Here’s how – four disciplines which others ignore or suck at: preparation, storytelling, visual design, and delivery.

Preparation Any great edifice needs a strong foundation. For a presentation, that foundation is the preparation. This is where you analyze your audience and their needs, set clear and concrete objectives, and choose a few key messages to help you achieve those objectives.

The audience will forget most of what you say. They might recall three things. Don’t leave it to chance and hope they remember the right things – choose the three key messages you want them to remember.

Storytelling Storytelling is the art of structuring your presentation to communicate messages effectively and interestingly; and using narrative techniques and devices to make them memorable.

When Steve Jobs pulled a Macbook Air out of an envelope, that was storytelling. It was a technique designed to communicate a key message – “The world’s thinnest notebook” – and make it stick.

I once sold a print services contract to a major Brazilian customer, but first I had to convince them they had a problem. So I demonstrated that each year, their printed pages laid end-to-end would stretch from the source of the

Amazon all the way to the Atlantic (mouths gaped open) – and then back again (jaws hit floor). That’s storytelling.

If you think hard enough, you can find a way to make anything interesting and memorable.

Visual Design Ever suffered “Death By PowerPoint”? Buyers face it every day, so they dread the moment when a salesperson asks to switch on the projector.

Most slides obstruct communication. They assume the audience can read and listen simultaneously, that bullet points are memorable, and that the audience doesn’t mind the presenter using slides as speaker notes. Wrong, wrong, and wrong again.

But it doesn’t need to be that way. A deck of slides can assist communication and make your key messages memorable. It’s just a question of good design.

Delivery A great presenter can make anything fascinating. It’s about voice, speed, gestures, comfort, eye contact, movement, humor, charisma, and above all, preparation and rehearsal.

You can learn this. We’re not born orators. As Emerson said, “All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.”

Working hard at each of these four disciplines will make your presentations interesting, effective, and memorable.

It’ll help you stand out from your competitors. If your customer sees four boring and forgettable 1.0 presentations, and one effective and memorable Presentation 2.0, it’s clear who has the advantage. Make sure it’s you.

by Phil Waknell for SOLD Magazine

As Partner at Ideas on Stage, the leading presentation design and training firm,

Phil Waknell trains executives, entrepreneurs, celebrities and salespeople to create and deliver memorable presentations, and speaks regularly at corporations and business schools about the need for a new way of presenting. He also shares ideas on his popular blog www.philpresents.com.

http://ideasonstage.com

sales@ideasonstage.com

Pearls of Unconventional Wisdom: Business Leaders Share Negotiation Best Practices 44 |

July 2012

Seven business men and women gathered recently in Seattle over an early morning breakfast to discuss negotiation best practices. Over the course of two hours they discussed a wide variety of negotiations that they had been a part of over the years. The seven best practices that follow share one thing in common: Much of the advice is unconventional.

B

est Practice #1 – Get past needing to compete

This was the first best practice mentioned that morning. Everyone was in agreement that competition, while a part of the negotiation process, can destroy longterm relationships, which in turn can destroy your bottom line. Therefore, you must be able to balance competition against the desire to foster long term relationships.

Critical aspects of this balancing act are, building trust, meeting people half way in the end, and coming to the table with the underlying premise “I want to be fair.”

One gentleman talked about his negotiations with very competitive, high networth individuals. He found that while highly successful individuals liked the competition of getting a good deal, many were not interested in ruining him or the company he worked for. In fact, the more emotionally secure the individual, the more likely they wanted him get a fair deal too. The less emotionally secure people tended to want to drive bargains that were overly onesided.

The end result was that the business man did not want to develop a longterm relationship with those highly competitive individuals. He decided that the repeat business was not worth the hassle of working with these people.

Ultimately, you have to be able to trust the people you do business with. That means that if you

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drive too hard a bargain, distrust will develop into a real fear of being taken advantage of. That fear will lead to a complete breakdown in the relationship.

Their advice to you: Get past competition.

Best Practice #2 – Get down to the real issue One business man talked about the importance of being able to separate the real issue – the driving force of the negotiation – from the all the less important issues that take up time. It seems that like cats, business people can be diverted from important issues by shiny objects. These shiny objects in the business world often take the form of tangential issues.

These issues appear to be important, but at the end of the day, focusing on these issues takes time and energy away from the real issue – reaching an agreement.

Our attention gets diverted when we try to get our point across about “facts.” Facts appear concrete, when in actuality what we talk about are our perceptions of the facts. Our perceptions can vary widely based on our position, education, and moral underpinnings, like our definition of fairness. By arguing the “facts”, you are diverting your attention away from the underlying reason you want or need to negotiate.

Many shared stories about their customers’ unreasonable requests, or the unreasonable things

| 45

Strong emotions, whether positive or negative, can create a fog that their direct reports did. In the end, the business leaders agreed that all the squabbling about the “facts” supporting the position obscured the real issue. Their advice to you: Get down to the real issue.

Best Practice #3 Know and use your leverage It seems obvious to encourage business people to know and use leverage, but is it surprising how little people really know about their leverage. Once people know that they have leverage, very few know how to appropriately use leverage. A business man shared a story in which he had leverage and used it appropriately. The business man hired a company whose job is to evaluate buildings for significant flaws.

Years later, the business man learned about a significant flaw in his building. In fact, it was the kind of flaw that would have influenced him not to purchase the structure. When called about the failure to uncover the flaw, the company owner did what a lot a business owners do: He denied responsibility.

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The business man had leverage and used that leverage to get what he wanted. The business man was aware that he could sue the company. But, hiring an attorney, pursuing the litigation, and getting a judgment would not solve the immediate problem.

The real issue was getting the flaw fixed immediately. The man used the legitimate threat of court action to persuade the company to work with him to fix the flaw. The company was smart enough to understand that it could not afford protracted litigation and returned to the bargaining table. At the end of the day, the company paid for the repairs. Their advice to you: Use your leverage appropriately.

Best Practice #4 – Don’t assume that people will act in rational ways This best practice received the most discussion.

We’ve all dealt with people who are emotional and irrational. Yet, we continue to use reason to make our point. The bottom line is that you cannot use rational arguments with people who have an emotional charge. It just doesn’t work.

July 2012

To be perfectly clear, no one advocated breaking off the negotiations. What people talked about was recognizing that some issues cannot be solved using reason alone. You must be able to separate the emotional from the rational. Strong emotions, whether positive or negative, can create a fog.That fog actually acts as a barrier to rational arguments.

As a professional mediator, I’ve been trained to recognize emotional fogs.

The best advice I can offer you is to address the emotional content by naming the emotion as you see it, and without judgment. One particular emotional fog that we talked about is Loss Aversion. People who are suffering from Loss Aversion will take riskier and riskier bets to recuperate their losses. Imagine gamblers who bet everything for the next big pay off rather than walking away with the little they have left.

This particular emotional fog plays a significant role in business transactions that have gone awry.

Rather than accepting a negotiated settlement, a business might try their luck in court. Naming this fog helps business people recognize that the bet is too risky and they should come to an agreement. Their advice to you: Don’t assume people are rational.

Best Practice #5 – Things are not black and white.

The scientist in the group reminded us of this important lesson: Life is lived in shades of gray. Americans in particular like to talk in terms of the “bottom line”, bullet points and principles. The reality of the situation is that what you are negotiating is not likely a black and white issue. There will be nuances and shades of gray.

Your success in business will be recognizing that issues lie on a continuum somewhere between black and white. This could play itself out in any number of ways. Working with customers who are late on their payments is such an issue. Your inclination might be to say that this is a black and white issue. You provided a product, and it’s a good product. No problems there. Therefore, they owe you. That simple.

The economy has changed and so must you. You might choose to look at ways that you could accommodate their payment schedule with your needs for cash flow. One client of mine was able to balance ex-

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tending payment date to a customer against the volume discount they had offered the customer. In the end, both got what they wanted. By recognizing that there are many factors that result in customers not paying, you are inviting people to brainstorm solutions. Those solutions are the gray areas. Their advice to you: Things are not always black and white.

Best Practice #6 – Don’t let bad things linger.

This piece of advice got the most laughs as they remembered times when matters got really ugly. A former COO for a franchise company talked about situations where his company was in the wrong somehow. He took the position, “Let’s get this settled before matters get any worse.” He did not have to take that position. In fact, he could have used his corporate power to let things linger hoping that the customers would give up. What he learned was that matters just get worse the longer they linger. They don’t go away. This is in direct opposition to what another business man experienced. In best practice three, a business man related a story in which the business owner denied responsibility. We all came to the conclusion that intentionally allowing a situation to linger will only create a much bigger mess in the end.

People are generally forgiving. If you extend a hand to resolve some situation, you will likely have an easier time getting the problem resolved. You may also avoid the situation from turning into a purely emotional issue. Their advice to you: Resolve bad situations quickly.

Best Practice #7 – Let bygones be bygones.

This is the best practice that generated the most heated discussion.

Some business people said that they’d rather let go of hard feelings once someone did something to correct a wrong. Other’s disagreed, stating that they would have a hard time trusting the other person again.

In the end, all agreed that letting go of past hurts is a good practice at the bargaining table.

People make mistakes. People also do really stupid things, like denying responsibility for their obvious mistakes. People are also forgiving by nature. We would want someone to forgive us if we’d made

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a mistake. For the good of business, it is wise to let bygones be bygones.

The one area that everyone agreed was not suitable for this best practice was in using superior knowledge to take advantage of the situation. In other words, if someone else has access to superior knowledge, and uses that knowledge against you in some way, it is an unforgivable act.

It violates trust to such a degree as to warrant some sort of decisive action for your own preservation. Most other circumstances, including highly aggressive behavior, competitive behavior and even rank stupidity can be forgiven in a business relationship. Their advice to you: Let bygones by bygones.

I’d like to thank the men and women who took time to attend the negotiation roundtable. Their contributions to negotiation best practices will help improve business to business relationships.

7 Pearls of Unconventional Wisdom Best Practice #1 – Get past needing to compete Best Practice #2 – Get down to the real issue Best Practice #3 Know and use your leverage Best Practice #4 – Don’t assume that people will act in rational ways Best Practice #5 – Things are not black and white.

Best Practice #6 – Don’t let bad things linger.

Best Practice #7 – Let bygones be bygones.

by Jeanette Nyden

Jeanette Nyden, author, negotiation coach and mediator, is the president of J. Nyden & Co., Inc, a Seattle based negotiation skills training company. For more information about her coaching services visit www.jnyden.com. Jeanette can be reached

Mr. Buyer – Please, Object!

Many sales people, managers and sales leaders spend a lot of time and energy worrying about “buyers’ objections”; making this even a worse problem, is the fact that much of that time and energy is spent on trying to avoid “buyers’ objections”.

Realistically however, there is only one way to avoid objections, it works every time, with the only side effect being a lack of revenue; the secret is to stop interacting with the market. If you don’t make or go to the call, you will not face rejection. Surprisingly, many is sales have chosen this path, and have maintained employment with some pretty lackluster companies. But assuming you are looking for revenue, growth and success, the above is not the strategy for you, you are much better off dealing with or managing buyer objections as they come up.

The fact is, I don’t really understand why it is sellers want to avoid objections to begin with, after all objection indicate the beginning “engagement” at some level, and isn’t engagement what we are after? Ideally quality engagement, but without a beginning, it is hard to build quality.

Once you accept that objections are not the enemy but an opportunity to leverage and expand on a point or a line of discussion. How you do that will differ slightly based on you current relationship with the buyer, and when in the cycle the objection surfaces.

at 2067233472 or jn@jnyden.com.

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July 2012

What you hear as an objection, often is a vocalization of their weighing the pros and cons Early in the cycle, the initial call, maybe even a cold call, you are likely dealing with two dynamics, first their need to avoid yet another interruption from a sales person. As has been discussed in this blog before, the one thing you and the buyer have in common is the 24 hour day, how you use it will determine success, our call, is an attempt by an unknown party to steal some of that precious time, so unless you are calling the exact right person, at the exact right time, you are an interruption, a time thief, something to be avoided.

Second, the basic instinct of reluctance to change. Even if you can get past the point above, change requires time, money and effort.

What you hear as an objection, often is a vocalization of their weighing the pros and cons of considering and/or acting on the change. If you can look at it that way, you can also understand what you have to do to help them take on the consideration for change, and move the process from prospecting to selling; in the EDGE vernacular, from Engage to Discovery.

Late in the cycle, objections are manifestations of another factor, but one that extends from the risks and realities associated with change. Even though you may have effectively dealt with this earlier, it comes up again just before they agree to move forward. In other words, the objection is good, and ripe with opportunity. Unless you blow it by getting defensive and

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start “justifying things”. If you executed the Discovery stage well, and used what you learned to gain commitment, there is no need to be defensive. Just reiterate points you agreed to and gain agreement before moving on or glossing over the point.

Remember, they are about to bring on a change, while they may be comfortable with it, they carry the risk if something goes slightly wrong, even if only a temporary glitch, they are in the spot light in their organization and in front of customers. Their objection is more a cry for reassurance than indication that they do not want to commit. Give me that objection any day, as it is a clear opportunity to reassure and win.

by Tibor Shanto

Tibor Shanto – Principal – Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., is a recognized speaker, author of the award winning book Shift!: Harness The Trigger Events That Turn Prospects Into Customers, and sought after trainer.

Tibor is a Director of and a contributor to Sales Bloggers Union, and his work has appeared in numerous of sales publications and leading websites.

Tibor can be reached at info@SellBetter.ca. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it, or +1 416 822-7781; blog: The Pipeline; Twitter: @TiborShanto.

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A Powerful Way to Handle the Spouse Objection

“W

ell, everything looks good. But I just have to ask my wife about this…”

“Yes, it is a great offer, but I always discuss things like this with my husband first…”

Is It an Objection, a Stall or a Condition?

We are all familiar with the spouse objection, and before I give you a great way to answer this stall, let me first make one thing clear: You first must make sure that you are dealing with an objection or a stall and not a CONDITION. What I mean is that if your sales process is such that to have a qualified prospect, you need both the husband AND wife together, then you are not dealing with an objection or a stall. If you are doing a “onelegged” presentation, that is a condition. In such a case, you need to strengthen your qualifying and appointment setting. Closing is not the issue.

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However, in situations where a couple is not the DM (decision maker), then you have, in most cases a stall, sometimes an objection.

The Real DM You have the business owner and you know that the spouse has absolutely nothing to do with the business. Yet the shop owner tells you that he has to speak to his wife. Or the doctor or accountant tells you that she has to “run it by” her husband first.

In these cases, try the answer below.

This answer, however, is not for the faint of heart. It takes a strong sales person. As always, the words are nothing more than an example of the concept and not meant as a script. Also, it will work for either spouse, as well as for other unconnected people that the prospect wants to use as the basis for a stall.

July 2012

Shame On You! As soon as you get that stall, your reaction needs to revert to one pure shock and utter disappointment. You cannot believe what you are hearing. Then, very sincerely and almost defeated, come back with something like this…

Sales Person “Ah…wow. Um, I really just don’t know what to say, Steve. I mean, I ah…I really don’t know what to even think about that.”

Prospect “What? It’s no big deal. I always talk about things like this with my wife.”

Sales Person “Steve, let me get this straight…you run this business every day, and make all the decisions every day, is that right?”

Prospect “Well, yeah…”

Sales Person “And, you have your finger on the pulse of this business. I mean you know what is going on every minute; you manage the daily operations, correct?”

Prospect “Yes. But like I said, I like to talk to her about things like this.”

Sales Person “Steve, you know this business inside and out, and more intimately than anyone on earth can know this business, including your wife. Then, on top of that, you have me, right here in front of you, giving you ALL of the information you need to make an informed, intelligent business decision…AND I’m right here, now, to answer questions.

Now, with all of that, YOU are apparently STILL not able to make a business decision.

So, you are telling me, you are going to go to your wife; who knows one-tenth of what you know and understand of the needs of YOUR business…then you are going to give her just a small fraction of the information.

Steve, I have spent three years learning how to deliver the information I just gave to you in the last 45 minutes. There is simply no way possible for you to give her the same information and you will not have all of the material I have either.

But, you are going to ask your wife; Sarah, right?

Who has but a fraction of the knowledge and understanding of your business, and you are going to give her but maybe 10% of the information needed to make an educated decision…

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When you make it clear to the buyer what they are actually telling you, usually you will get the truth And you are going to PUT 100% of the RESPONSIBILITY to make YOUR business decision on HER shoulders?! Steve, I just cannot believe you would put that type of PRESSURE on your wife.

I’m shocked and a little disappointed. I’m sorry.”

The Truth While that example may be a bit exaggerated, that is exactly what the prospect is saying. When you make it clear to the buyer what they are actually telling you, usually you will get the truth.

Prospect “Well, no. I mean. I make the decisions. I just wanted to talk to her. Actually, the main thing I want to talk to her about is the monthly payment. I’m just a little concerned about that…”

If it is a one-legger, you done. If not, this close may salvage a few sales you may have thought were lost.

Happy Selling!

by Sean McPheat

Sean McPheat is the founder and Managing Director of MTD Sales Training.

MTD have delivered training to over 2,000 different organisations around the world and to over 50,000 staff. Sean is well known within the sales industry and the media as the “GO TO MAN” that business owners, directors and sales people turn to for advice on how to improve their sales and marketing and has been referred to in the media as “The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling”. Sean has been featured on the BBC, ITV, CNN International, scores of radio stations and has been in over 250 different media publications. Learn more at www.mtdsalestraining.com

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Advice from the Master Negotiator You Can Be a Super Negotiator What does it take to become a super negotiator? You have to be aware of which tactics and strategies to implement in the appropriate situation and implement them at the appropriate time. In addition, you have to know how to balance playing offense and defense.

To the degree you implement the role and strategy you’ve set for yourself in a negotiation, you’ll employ a specific set of strategies versus others; there’s always a fine balance between utilizing the right strategies that cast you in the right light compared to being perceived as overreaching in a negotiation. By using strategies that cast you in a combative versus agreeable position, with a negotiator that has an opposing perspective, you diminish the chances of a successful negotiation outcome.

If the balance between being perceived as equitable and overbearing is not struck amicably, your negotiation efforts will be fraught with pitfalls.

This article examines a few strategies you might consider implementing based on with whom you’re negotiating, their negotiation demeanor and style, and what’s being sought from the negotiation.

Defense Versus Offense: In a negotiation, there’s a fine line between being perceived as playing offense versus defense, and yet in either case, you can turn such a position into a winning negotiation outcome.

When a negotiator is playing defense, he will tend to be more cautious and less aggressive. Thus, he will create the impression that it’s more difficult to sell his negotiation position from what should be perceived as a less than tenable perspective. Turning that position into a successful negotiation outcome is dependent upon how well he implements such a position, which is partially due to the person with whom he’s negotiating. If the opposing negotiator is strong-willed and likes to project an “I’m in control” demeanor, allow him to believe he’s in control.

Do so until he displays his strategy for the negotiation (i.e. bullying you into submission) and then take control by turning his strategy against him (e.g. the only way you can receive ‘x’ is if I receive ‘y’).

When a negotiator is playing offense, he tends to project that he’s in a leading position, which implies the opposing negotiator is being moved along a trajectory that

leads in the direction that the leading negotiator wishes him to go. If you’re playing offense, be tentative until you’re sure the other negotiator will not spring a trap door that causes you to display the strategy you have for the outcome of the negotiation. There’s a fine balance between playing offense and defense and the roles can flip instantly. Know what role you and the other negotiator are playing and be mindful of when/if the role switches.

In your negotiation, consider if it’s beneficial to allow the other negotiator to perceive himself as leading or following. Depending upon the demeanor of that negotiator (i.e. wishes to be in control vs. amenable) he’ll be more disposed to display the tactics that he’ll utilize to achieve the outcome he seeks. Once you’re aware of his tactics, you can decide if you’ll reverse the roles by adopting a different perspective then you’ve shown of your negotiation characteristics.

Anger Versus Passive: You can also influence a negotiation by displaying anger or by being passive.

Screaming, pounding objects, or constantly frowning, can be a way of displaying anger and/or dissatisfaction during a negotiation. It can be contrived but when executed correctly, it can become a potent tool in a negotiation. You have to be cautious when exacting such a display, because you may be perceived as being out of control, which could cause the other negotiator to adopt a rigid negotiation position, or one whereby he walks away from the negotiation.

After displaying the characteristics of someone that’s been angered, you can become passive. The latter position would be reflected in you appearing to succumb to the wishes of the other negotiator (i.e. making minor concessions). When it’s appropriate, do so to extract a concession of your own from him. In so doing, you give the impression of allowing the other negotiator to mollify you with concessions. Psychologically, he’ll be rewarding you for bad behavior (i.e. you switching from anger to becoming passive), which he should not do, but if it works, use it. Once he’s in such a mindset, you can maneuver him into giving you one concession after another. Just be cautious not to overplay your hand and avoid giving the impression that you’re taking advantage of him, as he perceives it.

Reading Body Language: By being able to read and interpret body language, you can more readily convince the other negotiator that your demeanor is authentic. An added bonus in accurately readying and interpreting body language is the fact that you can gain insight into his mind and thus evaluate to what degree he’s buying your performance.

In order to assess how he’s interpreting your actions, observe to what degree and when he sits forward, leans away from you, tilts his head, rubs his eye(s)/ear(s), and/ or twiddles his thumbs. Such indicators will give you insight as to the degree he’s engaging you, disengaging from you, or comforting himself. When he’s displaying an engaging gesture (i.e. leaning forward) he’s acknowledging through his body language a desire to be more embracing, which is an indication that he believes what you’re saying. A tilting of the head could indicate that he’s in a quandary state of mind and evaluating what you’re saying. The rubbing of the eye(s) and/or ear(s) is an indication that he doesn’t believe what he’s seeing or hearing respectively. If he starts to twiddle his thumbs, he’s performing a comforting gesture, which means he’s attempting to make himself feel better. As in any situation in which you’re interpreting someone’s body language, you must first establish a base line of that individual (i.e.

determine how they use their body in different situations – stress, non-stress, etc.)

In conclusion, in any negotiation, you should plan the path upon which you might travel in order to achieve the results you seek. In so doing keep in mind that perception is reality. Thus, the way you’re perceived is dependent upon how you position yourself in and during the negotiation. Based on that positioning and the strategies you implement throughout the negotiation, you’ll enhance or decrease the probability of a successful outcome. If you implement your strategies in the appropriate manner success will await you … and everything will be right with the world. Remember, you’re always negotiating.

by Greg Williams

Greg Williams, a member of National Speakers Association, is a people-oriented business professional, with an extensive background in Public Speaking, Training, and delivering Keynotes, in the subject areas of: Motivation, Negotiation, Interviewing Strategies & Techniques, Strategies to becoming Successful, The plight of small, minority businesses in turbulent economic times. Learn more abot Greg at www.TheMasterNegotiator.com

The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert wants to know …

Would you like to be more successful in life?

Do you want to earn more money, gain more respect, and be perceived as someone with prestige?

Are you someone that wants to achieve more in life?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above …

YOU need to become a better negotiator and discover how to read body language.

Uncover how you can use negotiation tactics and strategies to get more out of every negotiation, while reading body language to enhance the process.

For a Free negotiation assessment and insight into how you can become a better negotiator, contact…

Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert at … www.TheMasterNegotiator.com (609) 369-2100 Scan with Smart Phone to watch – “Seven Steps To Negotiating Successfully”

http://tiny.cc/qwqn4

Get Loyalty through Royalty How to Create an Amazing Sales Experience That Builds Loyal, Long Term Relationships 54 |

July 2012

Imagine that you are walking on a busy downtown street during lunch hour, surveying random executive looking people and asking them one simple question: "What is the function of a business?" How do you think most people would respond? Most people would say, "To make money."

Unfortunately, they would be wrong.

I

n his book Marketing Imagination, Dr. Theodore Levitt, professor at Harvard Business School, makes the case that making money is the goal of the business. The function is to get and keep customers. The problem is that if you confuse the function with the goal, you don't always achieve your goal.

So the focus of this article is going to be on keeping the customer. In other words, building a long term relationship and creating customer loyalty. And, here is one of the most important strategies on creating loyalty: keeping the customer doesn't start after you have made the first sale. It starts at the beginning of the sale.

The key is to start creating confidence and trust at the beginning of the relationship. This will build over time to the point when a customer will buy from you.

However, you still have quite a ways to go. The word that will keep coming up is confidence. You must create confidence. While the customer may be confident enough to buy from you the first time, it will take some after-the-sale follow through to give the customer enough confidence to buy the second time. And then a third time.

After a period of time, the customer who continues to buy from you will eventually own the experience you provide to them. They will know what to expect.

And as long as what you sell is doing what it is supposed to do, be it a product or service, and you are delivering it in a manner that meets, if not exceeds, the customer's expectation of customer service, you have a shot at loyalty.

So, why focus on loyalty? The rewards are strong.

Some of them include:

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1) More sales from existing customers (frequency of purchases).

2) Higher sales per transaction (higher average sale).

3) Word of mouth referrals from happy customers (your evangelists).

4) Price becomes less relevant. That means the sale is based on the features and value you bring to the table, not the price.

5) Profit – More money to the bottom line.

Before we go any further IÂ want to share some important concepts about customer loyalty.

First is my Customer Loyalty Formula: Great service + Confidence = Loyalty (or at least potential loyalty) In other words, you can deliver great service, but without confidence, you may not get the next sale.

Your customers must own the experiences they have with you. They must be confident that they are going to get what they expect. By the way, customer service is not just a department. It is a philosophy that is focused on the relationship you have with your customers as well as the way you meet and exceed their expectations.

Second, no matter how good the product or service you sell is, if you don't deliver it with great customer service, the customer will find another person or company to buy from that makes him/ her feel better. Conversely, no matter how good the service experience is, if your product or service doesn't do what it is supposed to do, the customer will seek out another source. You need both: a great product and great service.

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You can deliver great service, but without confidence, you may not get the next sale

Third, most people think that loyalty is about creating a customer for life. They are wrong. At every interaction you have with your customer, you should be able to positively answer the question, "Is what I'm doing right now going to make sure that the next time the customer needs whatever it is that I sell, they will buy from me?" You see, loyalty isn't about a lifetime. It's about the next time, every time.

Fourth, the goal shouldn't be customer loyalty.

The goal should be 100% customer loyalty. That takes you to a higher level, and that is partnership, which is loyalty on steroids. Loyalty may mean a customer buys from you again and again, but may still be buying similar products from a competitor.

Partnership is when a customer trusts you enough to give you 100% of their business (or close to it).

You may think this is a play on words, but let me give you an example.

The majority of people who have investments have more than one account with more than one financial institution. A retirement plan may be at a bank. Individual investments might be with another broker or firm. A company 401K may be at even a third location. You get the idea. My financial advisor's goal is to be so good that his clients invest 100% of their investible assets with him. He wants to be so good and create so much confidence that his clients are willing to let him be their partner in their life-time investment goals. You want a relationship that is so strong that your customer wouldn't think of doing business with anyone else.

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Understanding these simple premises are keys to building customer loyalty. But so far, this is all just theory or concept. So, what comes next are some strategies – twenty of them. Many of them you are already doing, so this list will serve as a reminder. Most of them are common sense, but unfortunately, they are not always so common.

So, take out a pencil or pen and put a check mark next to the ones you are currently doing and circle the ones you want. I'll even allow you to cross out a few you might disagree with.

Keep the customer in the loop. Letting a cus1 tomer know what is going on is important to their comfort level, which bolsters confidence.

Stay in touch, especially at off times. Out of 2 sight, out of mind – it’s true. The goal is to always be "top of mind."

Follow through. Always do what you say you 3 will do.

Meet deadlines. Maybe even come in a little 4 bit ahead of schedule. And don't be late for appointments either in person or on the phone. Being late is one of the quickest ways to erode confidence.

Just be polite. Say please and thank you.

5

Return phone calls, emails and social media comments quickly. Expected response time seems to be getting quicker and quicker, as we live in a world where technology allows us to easily stay connected.

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July 2012

Under promise and over deliver. This cliché, if you follow it, will serve you well. Set an expectation that is agreeable with the customer, and then exceed it.

Create value in the relationship. For example, 8 show up early, stay late, and do something more than expected.

Build rapport. Get to know your customer on 9 a level past business.

Be accessible and easy to reach.

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10

Be a problem solver. Make the customer's problem your problem.

Speaking of problems, if you can catch a prob12 lem, call the customer before they call you.

Practice pro-active service. Think about the 13 server at a restaurant that fills your water glass before you have to ask.

Care about the customer. If you care about the 14 sale more than the customer, you may not have the customer long term. Eventually they figure it out.

Ask yourself, "Why should someone do busi15 ness with me instead of my competition?" What makes you different? Educate the customer on why he/she made the right choice to do business with you.

Be a great communicator. Ask lots of ques16 tions. Make your customers feel as if you understand them.

Pay attention to the details. Don't let anything 17 slip by.

Don't blame others or make excuses. Be ac18 countable.

Be consistent. Consistency creates confi19 dence.

Always show appreciation. Don't forget to say 20 thank you. It can be a thank you note, a phone call, or if appropriate, even an email.

So, after this list of common sense strategies, I thought it might be interesting to think about what can kill loyalty. I once wrote an article focused on "loyalty killers," and the list I came up with warrants repeating in this article. While this may seem negative, please don't view it as such. Look over this list to confirm that you are avoiding any of these behaviors. Avoiding these "loyalty killers" will help build and maintain your customer's confidence.

1) Uncertainty is a loyalty killer.

2) Complacency is a loyalty killer.

3) Apathy about your work is a loyalty killer.

4) Lack of confidence is a loyalty killer.

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5) Bad customer service is a loyalty killer.

6) A bad attitude is a loyalty killer.

74) An aggressive attitude is a loyalty killer.

8) Indifference toward a customer is a loyalty killer.

9) Lack of enthusiasm is a loyalty killer.

10) A communication breakdown is a loyalty killer.

11) Inconsistency is a loyalty killer.

12) A weak relationship is a loyalty killer.

13) A long wait time is a loyalty killer.

14) A slow returned phone call or email response is a loyalty killer.

15) Arguing with a customer is a loyalty killer.

16) Making a customer feel that they are wrong is a loyalty killer.

17) Making a customer feel ignorant is a loyalty killer.

18) Being impatient with a customer is a loyalty killer.

19) Using unfamiliar jargon or acronyms is a loyalty killer.

20) A failed promise is a loyalty killer.

As we come to the conclusion, here is something important to remember:

Customer service is not a department.

It is a philosophy.

When you tie it to sales, customer service takes on an interesting spin. It is no longer about just creating a "nice experience." It's selling with service, which is taking care of the customer throughout the sales process. Sure, you can give them a "nice experience," but if you look at the strategies listed above, it is more about building a relationship and creating confidence.

Practice the loyalty strategies listed above. Avoid the "Loyalty Killers." And watch your customer's confidence grow, along with your sales, your reputation, and your overall success.

by Shep Hyken

Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees. For information on Shep’s speaking programs, books, and learning programs please contact (314) 692-2200.

Web: www.hyken.com – Click here for information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs (www.TheCustomerFocus.com).

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The Customer Is Paying for His Experience, Not Yours The goal of any business is to attract and retain customers. And customers actually make it very easy for you. No customer walks into your establishment and says to you, “Here is my money. Now, dissatisfy me please.” In fact, your customer comes in with an expectation that what you offer could be more valuable than his money. Nobody knowingly expects to pay good money for a poor product or service.

If it’s so easy, why isn’t your business doing so well that you are literally turning away customers?

It’s because you already are turning away customers and you may not even know it. You cannot think you are only selling a commodity or service to your customers. You are not in the product business.

You’re not even in the service business. You are in the experience business.

Think of your top three competitors. They have a similar product. In fact, if your competitors really wanted to, they could come pretty close to replicating it. What they can’t replicate are your people.

And it is your people who deliver your experience.

A recent American Express survey found that 70 percent of consumers are willing to spend an average of 13 percent more with companies they believe provide excellent customer service. So the good news is that if you understand that your company is in the experience business and you get the experience right, you reap more revenue and repeat customers.

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The bad news is that, in the same survey, 78 percent of consumers claimed they have abandoned a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience.

Ultimately, for you are to retain your customers you have to think like your customer. You have to understand that you are in the experience business and the customer is paying for his experience, not yours.

So how do you create an experience that will retain your customers and attract new ones? Here’s how in just three steps: 1) No Surprises.

2) No Excuses.

3) One Percent more.

No Surprises. Find out what that expectation is of your customer. Then deliver it plus one percent more. That’s a take on the “Underpromise.

Overdeliver” service mantra. As a hotel general manager, I defined that the restaurant could never run out of any item that was on the menu. Think like the customer. The menu is actually our promise in writing. The customer orders and the server says they have just run out of it – an unexpected bad surprise for the customer. The server, manager and chef thinks it’s OK to run out of something – our experience. If they kept everything in stock beyond demand it would lead to higher food costs – still our experience. But the customer sees

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To the customer, it is not the one big wow that will separate you from your competitors it on the menu and expects that he can get it with no surprises – his experience. And the bottom line is the customer is paying for his experience, not ours.

No Excuses. Of course, on busy nights, we did sell out of certain items or it took too long for an order to be served. Step two: No excuses. “I’m sorry, we had more people order that than we expected.” or “I’m sorry, we’re a little understaffed tonight.” All that is really the restaurant’s experience – our experience. Think like the customer.

The customer decided to eat in the restaurant with the expectation of being satisfied. Any reason the restaurant gives to the customer is “heard” as an attempt to explain why the restaurant could not

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deliver – an excuse. Here is what the customer is hearing “So what that you’re sorry. I still don’t’ have what I wanted.” No excuses. Better to respond to your customers with an “I apologize.”

Since you could not deliver their expected experience, you need to give them something, at the very least, a sincere apology. Then follow up with a gesture of atonement.

One Percent More. Deliver an experience that is just a bit more than what the customer expected. For example, customers expect your business to open on time. As a customer doesn’t it frustrate you when you go to a store that clearly posts that it will open at 8:30 a.m. and it actually unlocks the door for its first customer at 8:45 a.m. – their experience. And if you were that customer on your way to work, didn’t that 15 minutes seem more like an eternity with each passing minute – your experience. And as the customer, you were paying for your experience, not theirs. Your customers expect the same from your business. So what’s the 1%? Just make it a Best Practice to open 10 minutes before and stay open 10 minutes after your posted times. Remember, to the customer, it is not the one big wow that will separate you from your competitors; it will be the 1001 little “wows”, those one percents, that will make the big difference.

So remember, the customer is paying for his experience, not yours. Deliver their experience with no bad surprises and if there is a surprise for the customer, apologize and fix it with no excuses.

And always add just that one percent more.

by Bill Quiseng

Bill Quiseng, Chief Experience Officer at billquiseng. com, is an award winning writer, blogger and professional speaker in the areas of customer service for front-line associates and associate engagement and leadership for managers. Bill's blog offers tips to improve your company's customer experience. His Facebook page and tweets are your #1 source for practical tips, insight and inspiration from various sources to improve your personal delivery of customer service.

July 2012

Sales Research

FUD – Research Shows It Just May Be the Salesperson’s Best Friend Not long ago, Verity did a retail survey asking about upcoming trends in retail store technology. As usual, we found the usual list of new technologies that were planning to be deployed, emerging issues that the industry was addressing, etc; however, we did find one thing that I think anyone in sales can benefit from: Their #1 concern – which over 2/3rd’s reported – was the fear that their company might be falling behind the competition in regards to not keeping up with emerging technology.

This turned out to be the overwhelming – and primary – motivation for companies that were considering a technology upgrade.

The thought that competitors might be finding better ways to address long queue’s, get merchandise into stores more quickly, determine the needs of customers, deliver goods more efficiently… all kept our respondents up at night.

As a result, 67% planned to deploy initiatives that they might not otherwise have considered, specifically to keep up with competition. Their reasoning was that the retail competitive horizon moves so quickly that falling behind would quickly cost them money and quite possibly put them out of business, which is of course, quite true.

The interesting thing about this though, is that we then went back to other opt-in respondents in other industries and asked them similar three questions to see if this mindset transferred to other industries, it did.

Verity found that 91% of fleets who were planning to upgrade their technology to keep up with perceived pressure from competitors. We found that 54% of com-

panies involved in shipping/logistics felt the need to update their technology to adapt to remain competitive with emerging technology in their industry. And finally, we found that 47% of wholesalers were considering new technology to better compete in their industries as well.

In short, companies now know they must adopt new technologies and solutions in the new economy quickly, or else run the risk of being left behind. And in today’s business climate, that’s simply not an option.

As a result, smart and sincere (emphasis on sincere) salespeople can help their prospects and customers by bringing an informed understanding of current market conditions to the table, and helping them better navigate the competitive waters in their industry.

Illustrating to prospects and customers emerging trends within their industries – and in turn, helping them stay ahead of them – has tremendous value to them. They realize that this information can be the difference between them staying in business and remain competitive, vs. having several quarters of reduced revenues and profits.

So what’s the good news for you if you’re involved in sales? That simply helping your prospects/customers, providing them with business intelligence as to emerging industry trends, and in turn, assisting them to be more competitive is a way that you can provide genuine value to them. And according to research, if you do that, the rest should take care of itself.

by Errol Greene

Сompanies now know they must adopt new technologies

Errol Greene is Principal and founder of Verity Insight Partners, a company that specializes in sales and marketing research and demand creation for businesses in a variety of industries. After a career in sales and sales management, most recently at Psion Teklogix, Errol founded Verity Insight Partners in 2009, where his vision is to provide companies with insight into their prospect and customer database that can be used to dramatically improve their sales and marketing efforts. For more information contact egreene@verityinsightpartners.com or call 800-599-8740, ext 101.

Up Your Charm IQ Charm and Customer Service Have you ever met someone who makes you feel like you are the only person in the room, who gives you their full attention, makes you feel good about yourself, listens intently, expresses good will and is empathetic? If so, you have met someone who is a charmer.

How does this relate to customer service?

There is a saying that everything being equal, people deal with people they like and trust and everything being unequal they still deal with people they like and trust. In other words, your communication, charm, charisma and personality will play a big role in getting customers, keeping them and getting enthusiastic referrals.

So how do I improve my charm to improve my customer service?

Here are a few things you can implement right now Keep your attitude adjusted at all times. Everything begins and ends with your attitude. If you are in a bad mood, your words, tone and body language will reflect your feelings and it will be felt and observed by your customers. To alleviate this and keep your attitude adjusted at all times, I would like to recommend the “flip-side” exercise. I have used this for a number of companies I have worked with to do customer service makeovers and I have noticed anywhere from 17% to 47% less customer complaints the following year. In a nutshell, the flipside exercise focuses on the fact that no matter how bad things are there is always a flip side. Therefore, if you “hate your job”, the flip side is “I at least have a job” or if you put a “dent in your new car” the flip side is “ at least I wasn’t hurt or if “I have to pay a lot of taxes” the flip side is “I am thankful that I did well enough to pay taxes.” And here is a sure-fire way to keep your attitude adjusted. If anything is going wrong, ask yourself immediately, “what am I grateful for at this moment?”

If you ask that question, you can’t but help stop feeling sorry for yourself.

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Be interested, not just interesting – Become a great conversationalist by being genuinely interested in the other person. Don’t just talk about yourself, find out about them. To improve your ability to converse with anyone, anytime, anywhere, focus on the fact that a conversation is about you, them or the situation. Be prepared to talk about all of these.

Be responsive – Being accessible, available and willing to help will put you leaps and bounds above the competition. Something simple like returning a phone call makes you look like a customer service genius. It’s not that big of a deal, however since so many people don’t do thisyou look good.

Show you care – If you don’t care about me, I don’t care about you. In other words take your time with customers, be interested in them and don’t interrupt. Recently in doing some mystery shopping for one of my clients, I noticed that one of the staff was talking with a customer. His phone rang and instead of ignoring it, he ignored the customer and took the call. He didn’t even apologize!People have walked out for less!

Show empathy – Empathy means putting yourself in the other shoes. The more you can understand where your customer is coming from, what her needs, challenges and concerns are the more you will build rapport, relationships and charm.

Create Connections by paying attention to proven “charm” qualities – Make a positive impression and strengthen your people-connecting power by regularly projecting the following qualities; authenticity, appreciation, compassion, confidence, engaging style, enthusiasm, friendliness, good communication skills, humor, neat appearance, positive attitude, social skills, respect and sincerity. On the flip side, if you slip into any of the negative behaviors listed below, remember that these traits typically turn people off or turn them away; abrasiveness, apathy, coldness, insensitivity, insincerity, lack of appreciation, lack of confidence, lack of humor,

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Don’t just talk about yourself, find out about them

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negative attitude, poor body language, poor communication skills, poor social skills, profanity and rudeness.

Practice the art of conversation – Do you sometimes find it challenging to strike up and carry on a conversation? Do you experience anxiety from long, uncomfortable silences? Have you ever missed opportunities to meet someone intriguing or important because you didn’t know what to say? Are you ever afraid of saying something that might make you sound stupid? If you feel conversationally challenged here are some tips to improve your conversation IQ and increase your charm: Observe your surroundings – talk about the furnishings, pictures, awards, family members, office space Go fish! – Probe for areas of common interest.

Hobbies and special interests – Do they like to golf? Ski? climb mountains? Volunteer? Are they history buffs?

Reading interests – Ask, “What do you like to read?”

Weekend activities – See what they are doing on the weekend.

Goals and dreams – See what goals they may be working toward and what inspired them to pursue them.

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Travel – Ask, “Do you have an opportunity to travel often?” “What are some of the biggest travel challenges you have encountered?” “What other places would you like to visit?”

Current events – Keep abreast of local, national and lifestyle concerns.

Advice – Ask people for advice related to their expertise. People enjoy being acknowledged for their wisdom, experience or perspective.

Getting customers to love you is not about you. It’s about how you make them feel about themselves. By following the above guidelines you will increase your charm and as a result your customers will keep coming back and singing your praises.

by Arnold Sanow

Arnold Sanow, MBA, CSP is a customer and workplace relationship expert who speaks, trains and consults for companies and organizations worldwide. He is the author of 6 books to include, “Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere” and “Present with Power, Punch and Pizzazz.” He was recently named as one of the top best “bang for the buck speakers “ in the USA by Successful Meetings Magazine. www.arnoldsanow.com – speaker@arnoldsanow.com

“Arnold’s program was perfect. He was terrific with lots of humor, relevant information, and effective examples. Overall A+.” ~ Lorelei Long, HR Manager, Mayer, Brown, Rowe Law Firm

When You’re Looking For:

✓More Than Just Another Rah-Rah Rally ✓More Substance and Less Hype ✓More Humor, Interactivity, and Content ✓Specific Strategies and Solutions You Can Use ... NOW! Arnold Sanow, MBA, CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) will deliver a customized, entertaining, information-packed, interactive and non-boring presentation with plenty of “walk away” information that can be used … Immediately!

Arnold has delivered over 2,500 paid presentations to more than 500 different Companies, Governmental Agencies and Associations.

Over 90% have hired him again. He is the author/co-author of 5 books to include, “Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere”, the “Charisma Card Deck,” and “Marketing Boot Camp”. He is a frequent guest in the media (USA Today, Wall Street Journal, CBS evening News) and a former adjunct Professor at Georgetown University.

www.arnoldsanow.com • speaker@arnoldsanow.com

703-255-3133

Are You Client Focused or a Client Vulture?

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uch has been written about client focus.

We hear about sophisticated clients who will leave if we don’t focus on their needs.

We hear about the virtues of client loyalty, and the virtues of measurements like client profitability. The key to competitive success is to do a better job serving clients than the next guy. And so on.

But there’s a dark side to that theme. The reason to be so clientfocused is almost always phrased in terms of the benefits to the seller. And that changes everything.

Client focus, as it is too often practiced in business today, is the focus of a vulture. It is all about the benefit to the firm – not to the client. When client benefits are discussed, they are as discussed as a means to the seller’s ends. Yes, we want to serve clients better – but for our sake, not theirs.

Should we be surprised, then, when clients become cynical, send out RFPs, and refer us to third-party buying agents? In our rush to dissect the client brain, we have forgotten that motives matter.

I’m not talking about ethics – I’m talking about the simple facts of trust. We trust those we believe to have our interests at heart, and we distrust those we believe to have their interests at heart. But we particularly distrust those

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July 2012

who pretend to be the former, while behaving like the latter.

Sometimes it’s hard to see trust faults in our own business. By way of metaphor, consider an industry recently hard-hit by trust issues – pharmaceuticals. One of the drug manufacturers’ wounds is self-inflicted – the failed relationship between physicians and reps.

Doctors long relied on reps to keep them up to date on new drugs – an important and valuable advisory role. In recent years, the drug companies tried to increase reps’ sales effectiveness. They increased the number of reps per doctor, focusing on hiring young and attractive people. They introduced complex measurement systems to evaluate rep performance, and purchased sophisticated statistical data to calibrate the impact of rep visits on physician prescriptive behavior.

Sensible steps all, it would seem: but they’ve produced negative results.

Less than one rep visit in 10 now results in a conversation with a physician, and lasts on average only 90 seconds; Personal relationships have been reduced and curtailed; reps are valued only for the samples they leave, turning them into pill-pushers; The doctors have little respect for the reps, which in turn is debilitating for the reps.

How did this happen? Each change in the system was motivated largely, if not entirely, by a desire to increase physician prescription-writing of drugs produced by the pharmaceutical company. That motivation was very clear to the doctors – and they saw no benefit evident to them. Like most clients, the doctors reacted negatively. A past trusted relationship was degraded because the seller was motivated only by the seller’s needs.

Relationships and Fake Trust When client focus becomes a tool for seller profit improvement, clients notice and become cynical.

Lately, the language of client focus is adopting the language of relationships, fostering yet another layer of cynicism.

Think of “relationship,” “loyalty,” and “trust.”

All once had significant emotional connotations –

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for “loyalty,” think “semper fi” or “’til death do us part.” For “trust,” think the bonds of a handshake, or of fiduciary responsibilities.

Today, loyalty gets defined behaviorally as repeat purchasing behavior. “Client relationship management” software is sold on the basis of its ability to create client profitability analyses (to the software owner, that is, not to the client).

In the dating world, it’s considered forward to say you want a relationship on the first date – but in business, some firms have gone one better and built “relationship” into a marketing slogan before even meeting the client.

Relationship concepts have been hijacked in service to selfish motives. When a company’s ad copy says, “you care about your children; that’s why we here at X YZ corporation are doing blah blah blah” the company is not only lying, but lying baldly and shamelessly about their motives.

What is at stake here is no less than the meaning of words, and therefore the credibility and trust of the company saying them.

Being Truly Client-Focused The most difficult act for us as sellers of professional services is to stop viewing everything from our own perspective. And it has to be a personal act – a self-willed, psychological belief or attitude.

The economics of trust-based selling™ rest on a paradox: if we do what is good for the consumer, we will eventually gain more than our proportionate share of business. It may not come from this transaction, in this quarter – or even from this client – but it will come. Nothing motivates repeat business or referrals better than a trust-based relationship with the provider.

If our motives for being trusted are not truly client-focused – then it all falls apart. This is the paradox. Great results come from client focus – but only if you stop doing client focus in order to achieve results for yourself.

In today’s business climate, “best practices” and financial analyses are defined in ever-smaller, ever-shorter, ever-narrower slices. They are often not “best,” but among the most insidious.

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When client focus becomes a tool for seller profit improvement, clients notice and become cynical These practices are harmful because they blind us to opportunities to serve our clients.

In the perennial Christmas movie Miracle on 34th Street, Macy’s Santa Claus is nearly fired for recommending that a client go to competitor Gimbel’s for a particular product. That is, until Macy’s Chairman realizes the profound increase in client trust produced by Santa’s approach – having faith that doing right by the customer will end up helping Macy’s anyway.

Being truly client-focused means believing in the superiority of client relationship strategies over competitor-focused strategies; the medium- and long-term over successive short-terms; and truthtelling over spinning.

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The good news is the field is wide open for firms willing to practice what everyone else only preaches – serving the client, believing that to do so will ultimately return more than the self-serving narrowly calculating strategies of the vulture can ever hope to do.

A truly client-focused relationship strategy built on trust is the best deal going. It is rare; most competitors are afraid to try it. It is powerful; ask any successful salesperson about the power of trust. And it is proven – just look at your own behavior as a buyer in relation to a seller you trust.

Trusting relationships have to start with the selling firm, not the client. Go ahead, take a risk. The ultimate paradox is, taking a risk ends up being the lowest risk.

Being trusted is a very low-risk, high-return strategy.

by Charles H. Green

Charles H. Green is a speaker and executive educator on trust-based relationships and Trust-based Selling in complex businesses. He is author of Trust-based Selling (McGraw-Hill, 2005), and co-author of The Trusted Advisor (with David Maister and Rob Galford, Free Press, October 2000). Visit his website

July 2012

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NOW Practices for Professional Selling

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