SOLD Dec'2012

December 2012

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N O I T A T PR E SE N PHIL WAKNELL explains how to create the fantastic slides that SCORE and SELL p. 40

PETER TEMPLE shares how you can grab your audience AT THE START p. 48

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 stories: Phil Waknell and Peter Temple Contributors: Bruce King, Bob Burg, Michael Goldberg, Ardath Albee, Bill Lee, Phil Waknell, Peter Temple, Jeff Koser, Michael Schatzki, Colleen Francis, Dr. Jim Anderson, Steven Walden, Paul McCord, Lien Brusselmans COLUMNISTS: John Brubaker, Jason Forrest, Jeff and Chad Koser, Maura L. Schreier-Fleming, David Steel, Gavin Ingham, Arnold Sanow, Stan Billue, Dan Waldschmidt, Greg Williams, Shep Hyken Owned and Operated by CENTE MEDIA, LLC. 1800 Pembrook Dr Ste 300 Orlando, Florida 32810

CONTENTS 10 Train Your Brain to Win the Game 14 Embrace Your Inner Salesperson 16 Creating Urgency for Sales Success.

The X Factor Creates Urgency

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18 The Coach Approach. How’s Your Sales Ape? (Part 1)

28 20 How to Network at a Holiday Party 24 Chasing Zebras. Selling to Zebras. The Untold Story…

For salespeople Chapters 21-24 26 The Steel Method. Google+ – A Social Network with the Features People Want 28 Success Secrets from a Sales Super Star. Making 2013 everything you Deserve

30 Making Assumptions About the Buyer's Journey 32 7 Things Your Customers Can Do Better Than You 36 Sales Shift: Make Quantum Leaps In Your Sales Results. 2013 Your Best Year Yet

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38 Up Your Charm IQ. 7 Ways to Build Rapport by Boosting

Your Humor IQ 39 SOLD Q&A. Ask the Sales Pro

December 2012

December 2012 40 Slides that SCORE 46 Focus Your Presentation to Improve Your Sales Pitch

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48 Grab Their Attention – Open With a Problem!

52 Selling on the Edge. Why Buyers Hate Your Sales Presentation

54 Value Add Negotiating for Sales Professionals 58 5 Sales Negotiating Skills for You Should

Be Working On Right Now!

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59 What Makes a Successful Negotiator?

Five Steps to Negotiating Like an Expert 62 Advice from the Master Negotiator.

Use Negotiation Strategies to Enhance Presentations

68 64 What the heck is Customer Experience Management!

A value-based approach 68 "Referrals" Are a Waste – Introductions are Gold 70 Social Media for Customer Service. Why? How? 73 Create Customer Amazement. Three Customer Service

Strategies to Take You into the Future

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Great Sales Tips for a Great

2013

“In 2013 spend more timing wooooing the right customers. Start with 8-10 variables that make up an ideal customer. Then find customers that fit that profile and message your advantages. Be passionate.

And don't back down. If your profile is as "ideal" as you think it is, you should close all of them.

Some now. More later.”

- Dan Waldschmidt

“Always unlock doors before you push them. If you go to a meeting with the aim of presenting your product from slide 1 through 50, you’ll bore your customer and raise resistance. Instead, aim to listen more than you speak. Ask leading questions. Find out everything about their problem. Show you understand it, and share their pain. Do this right, and they’ll be asking you to solve it for them. Then and only then should you talk about how you can fix it. Sales is 90% unlocking doors and 10% pushing them.”

– Phil Waknell, Ideas on Stage

Networking is a WE Thing Not a ME Thing “My 10 year old daughter Jessica beats me miserably at the video game Wii. Wii Bowling, Boxing, Baseball, you name it.

One day, I asked her how she got to be so good.

She replied, “Daddy, it’s a Wii thing!” The way you network and ultimately communicate with people is a WE thing – not a ME thing. Should WE exchange business cards and explore how we might help one another? How might WE refer each other more business? How you talk to people is critical [1] Believe in to how you network and develop important and Yourself [2] Adjust fun relationships. Who do you need to conyour Attitude [3] Set Goals tact today to practice your WE Thing?”

[4] Know your Numbers – Michael Goldberg, Building [5] Have a Game Plan [6] Record Blocks Consulting and Critique [7] Learn a New Skill Everyday [8] Brain Pick a Pro [9] Review and Adapt “The key to [10] Reward Yourself. Please sales success in 2013 see his Article this month is to be an expert. Experts for more details. dance with their clients, they – Stan Billue don’t dance for them. They don’t dance to the tune of the client’s pipe like everyone else because the cli“Whether 2013 ent doesn’t play their pipe for the signals the end of a reexpert, they ask the expert what cession or we face a continued downturn, transforming from a com- music they should be playing together and why!” pany into a sales organization increase sales (both in the short and long term), and build actively-engaged sales teams. In a sales organization, salespeople are high-performance sales professionals and sales managers are sales coaches. But the transformation doesn’t stop there – a complete transformation requires a top-down culture change. Employees in all departments must be on board.

Executives especially must believe and promote the transformation.”

- Jason Forrest, Forrest Performance Group

– Gavin Ingham

“What is the logical sequence of these numbers? 8, 5, 4, 9, 1, 7, 6, 3, 2, 0 If you answered that they are in alphabetical order you’re correct. (99% of the people do not arrive at the correct answer) Why? Because we’ve been conditioned to look at numbers mathematically not alphabetically.

Now you're looking at that same sequence with a new set of eyes. Our sales prospecting isn’t all that different. We enter conversations with as“Improve you prospects sumptions and stereotypes about our prosby focusing your efforts pects. In 2013, I encourage you to view Recalibrate your sales efforts in the your prospects, challenges and oppornew year. Pursue only those leads that tunities with a new set of eyes.” look most like your ideal client and you will - John Brubaker have more success with less effort. Your ideal clients are those for whom you provide the most value – and therefore are most likely to remain clients. That’s what you want in a new client.

So analyze current accounts, identify best customers, create a perfect prospect profile “Stick based on their shared attributes, then tarWith the Basics get prospects that most closely match The basics never go out the profile. You’ll have better reof style. With all of the cool technology and social media sults – and better clients.” trends, don’t forget the basics of great customer service. You still have to hire right, train right, manage right and always work at creating a customer focused culture.”

- Shep Hyken, best-selling business author

– Selling to Zebras

“The only way to differentiate yourself and become less of a commodity in the marketplace is through excellent service. Excellent service consists of having a great attitude, being reliable, responsive, credible, appropriate appearance and empathetic. And remember, “to the extent that you treat someone as special they will continue to sing your praises and use your services” – Arnold Sanow, MBA, CSP – speaker, coach, trainer and facilitator.

"More than anything else, build trust in Get organized. I see 2013. Trust will trump everytoo many sales professionthing as economies likely contract als who don't organize their sales amidst currency pressures and process. An organized salesperson can global uncertainty. I expect customers quickly retrieve information for a prospect or to hunker down; and look for optifor strategic planning. All too often the disorgamized value with their budget-sensinized sales professional either doesn't keep notes or tive dollars. They will buy that value spreads them all over the place. How can you run from companies, and salespeople, a business without being able to retrieve information whom they feel they can trust, about your prospects and customers? With today's unequivocally.” technology, it's easier than ever to organize your - Mark Holmes selling information. Whether you choose to create your database in the cloud or on your PC, it's imperative to use technology to keep yourself organized. Nothing is worse than missing a follow up call with a prospect because the task fell through the cracks.

Maura Schreier-Fleming

“Votes Are In – You Win 2013? – Negotiate Better” In the beginning of 2013, with the possibility of another recession looming and the US dangling over a fiscal cliff (i.e. possible tax cuts abated, cutback in federal spending, tax increases, business people unsure of the future), resources and opportunities could be fewer. Thus, salespeople and business owners will have to be diligent in how resources are allocated and how they negotiate the allocation of those resources and opportunities. If the economy starts to abound or continues to move at its current snail’s pace, in order to be successful in 2013, salespeople and business owners will have to sharpen their pencils when it comes to consummating deals, by negotiating more stringently. They’ll also have to play an inside and outside game. That means, keeping your current clients very close (inside game), while being very selective about the prospects that you go after (outside game). 2013 can be a bellwether year for you! Commit to making it so, by increasing your knowledge about how to negotiate better and reading body language … and everything will be right with the world. Remember, you’re always negotiating.”

– Greg Williams, “The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Train Your Brain to Win the Game

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December 2012

I will often start a keynote speech or Sales Master Class with the question, “Who wants to double their sales in the next three to six months or sooner?” Almost every hand is raised and in some cases, both hands. My second question is “and who believes that is possible?” Very few hands are raised.

W

hat I am going to share with you in this article is a process that will ‘train your brain to win the game’.

You can use this process to win any game you want – anything you want to succeed at; but for the purpose of this article the game is to help you towards doubling your sales in the next three to six months or sooner.

‘Train your brain to win the game’ has nothing to do with sales techniques. It may well be that you need to improve your selling skills in order to Double Your Sales, but using the techniques I am going to share with you in this article will certainly help you to increase your sales considerably. Why? Because, selling skills aside, the key to doubling your sales is getting your mind in the right frame to achieve that and harnessing the extraordinary power of the subconscious mind to help you achieve that.

The process which I have been using myself and teaching for over twenty years is one I call the GAVA process and there are four steps to this: 1

The first stage is Goal setting – establishing clear, specific and exciting goals.

2 1

The second stage is Affirmation – that is used to repeat over and over to yourself a statement telling yourself you have already achieved your goals.

3 2 1

The third stage is Visualisation – that involves seeing a clear and detailed picture of yourself in your mind as having already achieved your goals.

4 3 2 1

The last stage is Action.

That’s GAVA – Goals, Affirmations, Visualisation, Action.

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Now here are some interesting statistics. According to behavioural psychologists, sixty percent of people who attend any workshop or seminar, read an educational book or an article such as this never do anything with the information they receive. Twenty percent use it half-heartedly and do not get any significant results and twenty percent put what they see and hear into practice and, subject of course to the quality of the information, they achieve extraordinary results.

The statistics for my talks are slightly different. At the end of my talks and by the time you have finished reading this article, twenty percent of you may think I am a raving lunatic and should be locked up. But that is OK with me providing the twenty percent are part of the sixty percent who would not do anything anyway. But just so that you know that I am NOT a raving lunatic, let me tell you a little about my background and what led me to talk and write on this subject.

I left college in the late 60’s. Hippy Times. Some of you may remember those days – long hair, flowered shirts and flared jeans. Like many other people of that period, I wanted to save the world, or at least a part of it. I got very involved in the field of complimentary medicine. It was called alternative medicine in those days. I studied nutrition, acupuncture and, in particular, how to use the power of the mind to help people heal themselves. I had my own radio program on Radio London, I wrote for several magazines and I ran an alternative medical centre – one of the first in the UK. After five years of trying to save the world, and not making a sufficient income for my growing family, I decided to save myself instead and I went to work in sales.

I was a top sales performer with several large organisations. I moved into management and trained my own sales teams and I was even more successful.

Then I set up my own business in financial services and was even more successful. The reason I was

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so successful in sales and the reason I was so successful training other salespeople, was that I used the same techniques I had used to help people heal themselves, to help them become more successful in business and in sales.

But I made one BIG mistake; I made a very bad business decision and the business I had built up to be worth several million dollars went into liquidation in 1994.

I was in serious trouble. I had a large mortgage, two children at private school, little savings and no income. I needed money and I needed it fast! My wife was paranoid and asked me what we were going to do. It took me a couple of days to decide. Then I told her that I was going to write a book on sales combining my GAVA techniques with the sales techniques I had learned and developed over the years. I told her that it would become an international best seller and as a result, I would be speaking at conferences around the world and being paid a lot of money for doing it. My wife also thought I was a raving lunatic!

But, every day, I applied the GAVA process. I had my goals, I practiced my affirmations and visualization and I created a title for the book. It was going to be called ‘Psycho-Selling – How To Double Your Income From Sales In 8 Weeks’. I went into action and started to write it.

Three days later I met up with an old acquaintance called Peter Wayne to see if I could do some sales training for his company. I also showed him the book outline and asked him what he thought of it. He said he liked it and asked me if I had a literary agent. I said ‘no’ and he said – ‘let me introduce you to mine’. I had no idea Peter was a published author and it was more than a coincidence that of all the hundreds of people I knew and could have approached, I picked Peter. I met the agent later that day. Her name was Mandy Little from Watson Little.

She liked the outline of my book and she took me on as a client.

Two days later Mandy called me and said she had arranged a meeting for me with the Editor at BBC Books and could I go that afternoon? I met the editor, we chatted for a while about the book and she said she loved the idea and asked me something I had not visualized happening. She asked me how much of an advance I wanted. I was flabbergasted!

I had no idea that authors who had never been published before got advances and so the question took

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me totally by surprise. The only thing I could think to say was ‘You better speak to my agent about that’.

Mandy called me a few hours later and said – ‘Bruce, they’ve offered you a $20,000 advance to write the book. What shall I tell them?’ ‘Take it!’ I said. That $20,000 saved my life. It was a lot of money seventeen years ago. And my wife didn’t think I was a lunatic any more!

I wrote the book in two months, it was published three months later and because the BBC had an excellent export department, it was sold to publishers in several different countries within weeks. The rest, as they say, is history. I have been speaking to audiences around the world ever since and I keep using the same process, every day to ensure I continue to achieve my goals.

There is not the space within the confines of this article, and as I would do at a workshop or keynote presentation, to explain how the human brain functions and how the GAVA process works; suffice to say that it is supported by a large and ever growing body of scientific evidence. Instead, I shall just take you through the GAVA process and what you need to do to ‘train your brain to win the game’.

First of all – Goal Setting. The G in GAVA. I know you know about the importance of goal setting, but do you really set them religiously? If you do not have a specific goal, how are you ever going to know when you have got there? The most powerful thing anyone ever said to me was – “Bruce you have two choices in life; you can either be an extra in someone else’s dream or the star of your own. If you want to be the star of your own, you need clear, specific and exciting goals”. In our case our goal is very simple – it is to DOUBLE OUR SALES. Now here is a critical point. It is a proven fact that when goals are written down they are far more likely to be achieved. So you must write this goal down.

Get a pad of self-adhesive notes and write on them as follows: ‘I (insert your name) am in the process of doubling my sales and will achieve that by (insert a date). Having a date is also essential. A goal without a deadline is nothing more than a dream or a delusion.

Write out ten of those and stick them in places where you will come across them frequently. That could be your bathroom mirror, the dashboard of your car, the corner of your computer screen or anywhere else where you will see them regularly. After a while you will not see them – but your subconscious

December 2012

mind will. Doing this will ‘train your brain to win the game’ – it will program your subconscious mind to do everything in its power to make that happen.

Now to Affirmations – the first A in GAVA. An Affirmation is a brief paragraph you write which describes you as if you have already achieved your goal.

So let us say that your goal was to double your sales, buy a red Porsche 911 and move home, then your affirmation might be: ‘I (your name) am so excited that I am already selling twice as much as ever before. I love driving my new red Porsche 911 and living in my new five bedroom detached house’.

You say this out loud, with feeling, twenty-five times first thing in the morning and again last thing at night and as many times in between as you can remember to do so. It is OK to read it at first until you have memorised it. Doing this will program your subconscious mind to do everything in its power to make that happen – it will ‘train your brain to win the game’.

The next thing you do is VISUALISATION EXCERCISES – THE V IN GAVA. You find a quiet place where you are not going to be disturbed for fifteen minutes.

Maybe a room in your home, your office or even your car. I prefer doing it in my car. I find my car a very private, personal space; almost like a cocoon. You sit down, get yourself comfortable, close your eyes and get very relaxed. The simplest way to relax is just to listen to the sound of your breath going in and out of your body. You do this for just two minutes For the following thirteen minutes, you create a picture in your mind in as much detail as possible of precisely how your life would be if you had already achieved your goal. You see the pictures in the greatest of detail and see yourself in those pictures.

At the same time, you also need to hear the sounds associated with those pictures and to get in touch with your feelings. You need to feel as you would feel if you had already achieved your goal and were experiencing everything that went with that.

So again, if your goal was to double your sales, buy a red Porsche 911 and move to a new, five bedroom detached house. You might create a picture of you receiving a huge bonus cheque and being applauded by the rest of the sales team, or, if it is your own business, writing the cheque out to yourself.

You might see yourself driving your new Porsche 911. See the colour of the car, see the colour of the upholstery. If you love powerful engines, see yourself opening the bonnet and looking at and admir-

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ing the engine. Hear the roar of the exhaust. Feel how you would feel sitting at the traffic lights on a bright sunny day with the top down. You could see yourself driving into the drive of your new five bedroom detached house. See the house. See the color of the brickwork. See the color of the front door.

See your partner and your children in the front garden waving to you. See the big Great Dane you’ve always wanted sitting on the lawn. BUT be careful what you visualize because the Great Dane is going to need a five mile walk every day! Whatever the pictures, sounds and feelings would most represent to you having already achieved your goals, is what you visualize. You need to do that visualization exercise twice a day for 15 minutes, first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Doing this will program your subconscious mind to do everything in its power to make that happen – it will train your brain to win the game.

The last A in GAVA is Action. As a result of your goals setting, affirmation and visualization exercises, you are going to have a lot of thoughts popping into your conscious mind from your subconscious mind suggesting ways for you to achieve your goal.

You must take action and any action will do. The more action you take on the advice of your subconscious mind, the faster you will find more ways to achieve your goal of doubling your sales.

I will conclude by asking you the same question that I would ask you at the end of a keynote presentation or Master Class. ‘On the basis that it only takes seven days for you to start seeing some extraordinary results, how many of you here are going to train your brain to win the game? A show of hands please’.

by Bruce King

Bruce King is recognised internationally as a leading sales, marketing and personal growth strategist. He is a highly sought after keynote conference speaker, sales and marketing master class presenter and sales trainer, business adviser to SMEs, a personal coach and best selling author. Bruce has more than thirty years experience working with organisations from SMEs to major international companies and speaking to audiences around the world on the subjects of sales, marketing and achieving greater results in any area of their business and personal lives Learn more: www.bruceking.co.uk

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Embrace Your Inner Salesperson Selling!”… “Never Sell Again!”… “Salesless Selling!”

Have you noticed the proliferation of teachings and articles telling you that you don’t need to sell in order to … sell?

I often hear salespeople try and deny they are salespeople.

Examples: “I’m in sales but I don’t really sell…I just help people.” Or, “I don’t consider myself to really be in sales.” This sales-denial is not meant to be dishonest. They really believe it when they say it.

What’s the confusion? Like most things, it goes back to a false premise; in this case, the term “sales” or “selling.”

If you believe that selling is somehow immoral or … yucky, you’ll do practically anything to avoid identifying yourself with it. This makes total sense, doesn’t it? The challenge is that – since you know you are in sales – that is a disconnect costing you a lot of money in lost business. Just as importantly, it’s keeping a lot of people who would have benefited from your product or service from doing so.

In Go-Givers Sell More, John David Mann and I responded to several false definitions of selling.

Sales is not a talking people into buying something they don’t want or need; it’s finding out what they do want or need and helping them to get it.

Sales is not taking advantage of others, but giving them more advantage through your excel-

lent products or services (assuming it genuinely meets their needs and can benefit them).

Sales is not about taking but about giving.

Heck (yes, I said “heck” – I apologize) the Old English root of the word “sell”, “sellan” meant… ”to give.”

And, exactly what do you give when you sell?

You give time, attention, counsel, education and empathy. And, most of all, you give value.

You should be proud of that, proud to be in sales, and proud to say that you are a sales professional.

Of course, what the non-selling claims at the beginning of this post and others we often see are trying to communicate is “selling without using manipulative tactics.” I understand. And, again, I’ll go back to the premise: If you really believe that selling is based on “tactics of manipulation” (actually, this describes a con-artist, not a salesperson) and you are an honest person, then that false definition is hurting your sales. After all, how do you effectively do something that – in your gut – you feel is wrong.

So, reframe, my salesperson friend. And, do this by understanding what sales is and – just as importantly – what it isn’t. Focus on providing your exceptional value to the lives of many, and thrive.

Oh, and do products ever actually “sell themselves?” No. That’s why you are so badly needed.

by Bob Burg

Bob Burg shares information on topics vital to the success of today’s businessperson. He speaks for corporations and associations internationally, including fortune 500 companies, franchises, and numerous direct sales organizations. Bob regularly addresses audiences ranging in size from 50 to 16,000 – sharing the platform with notables including today’s top thought leaders, broadcast personalities, Olympic athletes and political leaders including a former United States President. Although for years he was best known for his book Endless Referrals, over the past few years it’s his business parable, The Go-Giver (coauthored with John David Mann) that has captured the imagination of his readers. Learn more about Bob at www.burg.com

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December 2012

Get your copy of John’s latest audio book

free

Creating Urgency for Sales Success

The X Factor Creates Urgency

by Jason Forrest When I was eight years old, I watched my dad present three one-carat diamonds to a young couple.

The stones were identical to the naked eye and ranged from $3,000 to $15,000. But after my father demonstrated the differences with special equipment, the couple bought the most expensive one.

They spent five times more for something they couldn’t even see. Without my dad’s ability to communicate the value of the superior diamond, the difference would have meant nothing to the couple.

Market conditions don’t sell big ticket items. And neither do circumstances, features, and incentives.

People do. Sales professionals are the X factor. And whether you’re reading my books and blog posts, watching my videos, or listening to me speak, you’ll hear about the X factor again and again – X factor coaches, X factor sales professionals, X factor beliefs, and ultimately, the X factor revolution. I even have a whole blog dedicated to X factor beliefs right here with SOLD. So what is the X factor? It’s the one variable in a big ticket sales process that has the most influence on whether prospects turn into sales. It’s you. And if you can truly believe that you are the differencemaker in the sale, you will be an UNSTOPPABLE force.

In this column, we’ve been talking about creating urgency in buyers. Well there’s one belief that gives you the confidence and just plain swagger to pull it off – that you are the X factor in the sale. The first step to breaking free from circumstance is to create your strategy for success. You’ve got to determine where you are now; why you’re there; and what it will take to achieve the success you desire.

Where are you now? Maybe you’re struggling to make your monthly sales goals. Or maybe you’re making your company goals but falling short of your personal ones. Maybe you are saving up for an experience or a car. If you choose not to blame any circumstances that are beyond your control (such as price and/or traffic), then you are left with the one factor that you can control – your conversion rate.

If you lower your price, you’ve got to increase something – either your traffic or your conversion rate – in order to reach your revenue goal. So how about increasing your traffic? Well, let’s say your conversion rate is currently 1 in 20 leads and you want to make four sales in a month.

Well then, you’ll have to quadruple your leads and get 80 units. So start writing down all your ideas for quadrupling your leads this month and every month following. It’s a ridiculous idea no matter what kind of market you’re in.

So all that’s left is your conversion rate. One sale per 20 customers just isn’t cutting it. But here’s the good news – your conversion rate is a factor that you have the power to control. Taking control of it requires you to make a choice. In order to quadruple your sales, you just need to convince three of the remaining 19 people to choose you.

Once you’ve chosen to increase your conversion rate, you need to figure out how you’re going to do it. The key to increasing your conversion rate is creating emotional urgency in your customers.

We’ll talk a lot more about that in future articles, but for now, just remember that you must show your prospects how your product can satisfy their

The key to increasing your conversion rate is creating emotional urgency in your customers

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December 2012

mission to improve their life. Because that’s what they’re there for. Something isn’t working and they’re looking to you to help them fix it. If you do, you’ve got a sale.

It’s the single most powerful understanding you can have in sales – a person’s desire to improve their life has more influence over their buying decision than any other factor.

When a customer buys from you, their final decision comes down to more than just market conditions or price. They are choosing the product that they believe will improve their lives.

Only you, the sales professional, can tap into this desire and develop the buyer’s urgency to purchase. If customers fall in love with your product, they will choose you over the competition.

They will purchase regardless of market circumstances.

You – not price, not traffic numbers, but you are the X factor. You make the sale happen. Your choice to create emotional urgency will create success for you, market-in and market-out. Nothing in life is guaranteed. Unforeseen circumstances can and will affect you. But, you do have to make choices in

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life, and all I want you to do is to make the choice that gives you the highest probability for success.

You achieve success by choosing to convert more sales from the traffic you have. And how do you do that? You do it by building up the customer’s emotional urgency – by showing them how your product can satisfy their mission to improve their life. Increasing your conversion rate by creating emotional urgency will give you great success even in tough markets, and it will give you unthinkable success in good ones.

One of Training magazine's Top Young Trainers of 2012,

Jason Forrest is an expert at creating high-performance sales cultures through complete training programs.

He incorporates experiential learning to increase sales, implement cultural accountability, and transform companies into sales organizations. Forrest is the author of Creating Urgency in a Non-Urgent Housing Market and 40Day Sales Dare for New Home Sales. Consulting for many of the leading homebuilders in the United States, Canada, and Australia, he is a regular speaker at professional builder association events and national conferences and a member of the National Speakers Association’s Million Dollar Speakers Group. www.forrestpg.com

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The Coach Approach

How’s Your Sales Ape? (Part 1)

by John Brubaker This is the first article in a two-part series of articles on sales APE (Attitude, Process, Effort) by John Brubaker There are really only three things we have control over as sales professionals. Each of us has total control over the choices we make. Specifically, three choices: our attitude, our process and our effort also known as our APE. It is a waste of time and emotional energy to try and control anything else. Controlling our APE can reduce a great deal of negative thinking, behavior, actions and mistakes made out in the field.

The moment you realize that you need to take complete and total responsibility for your APE is when your results will begin to sky rocket.

What we are talking about is mastering the mental game of selling. Most sales professionals spend 90% of their time preparing for the physical elements of their sales calls; things like the PowerPoint deck, the account history, memorizing details from the quarterly report and company prospectus before they call on the buyer. When I ask my clients and workshop participants what percentage of selling is mental I get a variety of answers, usually somewhere from at least 50-75 percent is attributed to mindset; yet when I ask them how much of their time they spend training their mindset versus traditional “sales training” the answer is always under ten percent. So if selling is half mental shouldn’t you be spending at least half your time training mindset as opposed to focusing on product knowledge, closing tactics, and various other traditional sales training?

In major league baseball it is commonly said that a pitcher’s control problems are 90 percent mental.

So, if a pitcher makes it to the major leagues, he is clearly physically able to throw strikes. If the ball is not making it across the plate consistently, there is something else getting in the way. The same can be said for sales people. If you’ve survived in this industry for any period of time you have a proficient “sales pitch” you can throw strikes so to speak. If you’re not

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hitting the numbers you want, something else is inhibiting your performance.

Strong training in the mental game of selling enables you to face obstacles head on and work to your fullest potential. And let’s face it the game of selling has changed, there are new obstacles and the goal posts have been moved on us in this economy. What can we do about it? Adapt, change and adjust in a resilient manner.

A= Attitude and Appearance ATTITUDE Attitude is not a trait; it’s a muscle which means it can be strengthened with proper training. Exercise physiologists will tell you that if you don’t use a muscle after 48 hours it will begin to atrophy. You can move from being a victim to being a victor just by training your attitude. In the sport of business every day is game day so you need to show up with a champion’s mindset. A major part of mindset is how you show up.

Your client or prospect doesn’t care if your morning commute was like hand to hand combat and they certainly don’t care if you and your spouse had an argument before you left the house they care about the value you can deliver. Your attitude is a decision and you control making that decision every minute of every day. Feed your mind positive thoughts and do not read or watch the news, 99% of it is negative.

APPEARANCE Your appearance isn’t limited to dressing for success.

It is as much about how you show up as what you show up in. Consequently you need to have a go to transition ritual to signify your willingness to leave any mental baggage behind and become a sales professional before you walk through the prospect’s door. It is mission critical for sales people to select a definitive action and time that represents leaving the mental baggage behind. Peak performers have trained themselves to compartmentalize issues and

December 2012

focus on the present by pushing those issues aside in their minds to be dealt with later after they’re done competing that day. Whether it is a Navy SEAL, an Olympian or a world-class sales person; the best of the best stay focused on the mission.

I encourage my clients to make that shift when they change into their work clothes. Changing your attire represents a symbolic change in your role. When you are physically taking off your “home” clothes tell yourself that you are also mentally removing your concerns and issues that are not related to work. Additionally, as you don your “work clothes”, tell yourself you are putting on the uniform of a sales champion. Your business attire is a visual cue reminding you that you’re poised, self-assured, focused and prepared for any challenge.

The other part of your appearance is your body language. Research indicates only seven percent of our communication is verbal. Therefore it is clearly more important to communicate trust, enthusiasm and confidence via your body language. Do you carry yourself and communicate with confidence? I don’t mean only when things are going well, that is easy. It’s easy to look confidence after you made a sale a trained chimp can do that. I am talking about carrying yourself with

confidence after facing rejection. Success is about moving from adversity to adversity without losing faith or confidence. It is about being a good actor. You can act your way into feeling but you can’t feel your way into acting. When you act confident you will convince your mind that you do indeed feel confident.

Next: Read HOW’S YOUR SALES APE? (Part 2) in January 2013

John Brubaker is a nationally renowned performance consultant, speaker and author. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Brubaker helps organizations and individuals develop their competitive edge. Brubaker is the author of The Coach Approach: Success Strategies Out Of The Locker Room Into The Board Room and co-author of the book Leadership: Helping Others To Succeed. John is also the host of Maximum Success: The Coach Bru Show on 1510 NBC Sports Radio Boston. He is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and he also earned a master’s degree in personnel psychology from FDU. Brubaker has completed his doctoral coursework in Sport Psychology at Temple University. www.coachbru.com

The Coach Approach Success Strategies From The Locker Room To The Board Room “The lessons and insights in The Coach Approach may be rooted in sports but they apply to just about every aspect of leadership in business. Through behind the scenes experiences with his teams John shows you how to take your organization to the next level. If you’re interested in winning, you will love this book. If you’re committed to winning, you need this book.”

Patrick Sweeney, President of Caliper and New York Times Best-Selling Author of Succeed on Your Own Terms

“The Coach Approach is the one book on leadership and teambuilding I’d have if I could have just one.”

Don Meyer, the winningest coach in NCAA men’s college basketball

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| 19

How to Network at a Holiday Party

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December 2012

Holiday parties are great! Whether it’s your company party, client’s gathering, association festivities or celebration with family and friends, it’s a chance to have fun and get into the spirit of things. Of course, there are also some great networking opportunities to be had. Especially if you’re an agent and looking to get a fresh start for next year.

N

etworking at holiday shin-digs may be a bit different from the usual chamber meeting or networking event so here are some quick tips on how to “work the room” while socializing and celebrating. Cheers!

Keep it light!

Yes, it should be light fare! Probably not the best time to get into heavy conversations about mergers, real estate listings, long term care, annuities, the economy, or anything else pressing. It is a time to get to know people and have fun conversations about the good things happening both in and out of work. Keep it light, fun, and positive.

Know who will be at the party.

It’s important to learn about the people that may be rounding out the guest list. Who do you need to meet?

Who should you reconnect with? (Whose name do you need to remember?) Who do they need to meet?

How can you help one another? The more you know the better you can prepare.

Have your tools of the trade.

Leave the tool belt at home. Best to have business cards, a couple of throw away pens, index cards (so you can jot things down), your Blackberry, Smart Phone, or whatever (just don’t use it when speaking with others face to face), maybe some breath mints, a name tag (worn on the right if possible so it’s in eyeshot upon shaking hands), and some holiday cheer!

Initiate conversations.

It’s always a great thing if you can initiative a conversation rather than waiting for someone to come over

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and meet you. Especially when there’s so much holiday hub-bub so spread the word! I think when you initiate a face to face conversation with someone you don’t already know, you can set a nice tone while showcasing your smarts and confidence. (I’m confident of that!) Also, if you can help make someone who’s standing alone feel more comfortable, you’re both ahead of the game.

Have questions to ask others – especially about big plans for the coming year.

Ask the right questions and you get the right answers! So what type of work do you do? Where do you work? Do you like what you do? What kind of year did you have in your business? What’s in store for next year? Any big plans for the holidays? Who else do you know here? From a business standpoint, is there anyone here I can introduce you to? How can I help you in your business? (Only if you like them and can truly help.) Of course, any questions about current events and light social banter are always welcomed.

Ask to be introduced.

In knowing who might be at the party, you can always ask for an introduction. Perhaps a good business contact, someone that has insight about a college you’re researching for your kid, or someone who targets the same markets that you do. I find the best way to ask for an introduction is to offer one – if you can. Or simply let the person with whom you’re speaking know what type of people (industry, profession, whatever) you’re ultimately looking to connect with. Be careful to never

| 21

disrespect or downplay the conversation you’re currently in. Just saying!

Be polite in terminating conversations.

In a business networking setting, I generally don’t speak with people longer than about 8 minutes (without ever looking at my watch!). But at a holiday party, I may be a bit more relaxed about timeframes as conversations typically have more of a social flair – which is of course fine. When you want to end a conversation say something like, “It was great getting the chance to chat and I look forward to seeing you later (or again soon).”

Meeting great people is always much more productive and fun than hanging out with whiners

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The only thing you are selling is you.

I was at a holiday party last year and there was a guy that was there for the sole purpose of generating venture capital for a product he was developing. He wasn’t looking to establish rapport or build a relationship. He was simply there to see if anyone was interested in a “business opportunity”. I was speaking with him for about two minutes before he hit me with a pitch – and an awkward good bye (for him!).

So remember, marketing collateral, PowerPoint presentations, and sales pitches are a big no-no. There should be no fact finders or mention of products and services. The only thing you should be there to sell is you.

Have a specific objective.

What’s on your mind and how can a contact that you make be a resource? It could be a business objective or perhaps a personal one. I’m always looking for advice, insight, and recommendations on my marketplace, networking organizations, books, articles,

December 2012

and newsletters. I’m also happy to talk about personal interests like sports and any books that might be out there that I should know about. The more I can learn from the people I meet the better.

Have your elevator pitch handy.

An elevator pitch (it should really be a positioning statement) is something you should always have top of mind – even at a holiday party. When someone asks about what you do be specific and clear. If you can have a prepared (not rehearsed) statement about what you do, whom you help, what you know, and what you’re after, you might meet someone that can help you. If you’re not prepared with such a statement, you may never know.

Be positive!

Look to meet with those that aren’t complaining about how bad things were this year. Between natural disasters, a tough (but growing) economy, and other factors in the newspapers everyday, it’s been a tough year for many. That said, who wants to hang out at a holiday party with a bunch of whiners? Answer – a bunch of whiners. It’s always a great thing to chat it up with professionals that love what they do and want to meet others that love what they do. I particularly enjoy meeting people that have big plans for the New Year – starting a new business, expanding into a different marketplace, planning a big vacation, buying a new car, joining a gym, running a marathon. When people are excited and passionate about what they want to do, I get excited and passionate about talking to them. I also get that much more excited about the things I’m doing. Excitement is contagious – or at least it is when you’re not complaining. Meeting great people is always much more productive and fun than hanging out with whiners. 

Offer help.

You won’t hit it off with everyone at a networking meeting or holiday party. But when you do it’s always great to offer help. After learning about what someone does for work and what their initiatives are for the New Year simply offer to be a resource. That’s what networking is all about! By offering to be of help to others they may return the favor. That’s how it works!

Plan to follow up.

Whenever you meet someone at an event, this is just the start of what will hopefully be a long lasting relationship. This is where handwritten “nice to meet you” cards, invitations to LinkedIn, and future meetings come in handy. Certainly, send an email or make a phone call to learn more about their business (as in the other person) and see how you can help one another. If you made a promise to connect someone to someone else, send an article, or provide further information, make sure you live up to your word over the next 24 or 48 hours. Remember, busy people get things done!

Have fun!

Ever meet someone at an event that simply doesn’t want to be there? Maybe they needed to go because their firm made it mandatory. Hey, it’s a party! If you can’t have fun at a party, where can you have fun? If nothing else, make it a point of having fun. (Fake it if you must.) Others may look to talk to you and be part of the action. It’s party time!

The big payoff from networking doesn’t happen immediately. At least not usually. It does take time and work. Remember, it’s net-work! Hey, you might make a friend as you take on the New Year. Prepare your list, check it twice, and have fun. Just avoid the funny eggnog and the venture capital guy!

by Michael Goldberg

Michael Goldberg has helped thousands of sales producers generate hundreds of thousands of dollars to their bottom line. His expertise is in the areas of networking, referrals, recruiting – and believe it or not – amateur boxing! Michael has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences and has been referenced in the Harvard Business Review and the Wall Street Journal. Clients include MetLife, New England Financial, Mass. Mutual, Northwestern Mutual, Jackson National, Thrivent Financial, Securian Financial, Chubb & Son, Aflac, Prudential, and New York Life. Michael is an award winning adjunct instructor at Rutgers University and donates time to speak at networking groups focused on job search. Knock-Out Networking! is available in bookstores and online now! Michael runs a popular group coaching program called Training Camp that forces sales producers to get in “fighting shape” to see more people, write more business, build great relationships, and fight the good fight! Weigh in at www.MichaelNetworks.com!

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| 23

Chasing Zebras

Selling to Zebras

The Untold Story… For salespeople Chapters 21-24

by Jeff Koser | Chad Koser

Selling to Zebras The Untold Story…

For salespeople Jeff Koser Chad Koser

Did you miss the previous chapters? If so, they are available through SOLD; previous issues. www.soldlab.com/archive OR purchase the eBook directly from Amazon.com -Find Your Stripes!

Chapters Chapter 21 – Zebra Creation Chapter 22 – Sales resources Chapter 23 – Courage of your convictions Chapter 24 – The turnaround

Chapter 21 – Zebra Creation Chapter 22 – Sales resources Chapter 23 – Courage of your convictions Chapter 24 – The turnaround

CRM – friend or foe? Kurt’s team is ready to get their hands dirty. Time to dig in and create their Zebra.

Leverage their resources and make a change. It requires a shift in thinking, but is everyone on board?

Find out!

Kurt references Kent’s team which uses the Zebra as the foundational tool for a process they call “Selling to Zebras The Science of Deliberate Selling and the Art of Sales Execution.”

Chapter 21 I start the meeting by reviewing my Zebra notes, Kent Clark’s C3 Software Division Zebra, and Kent’s results using the new approach. We discuss how Kent’s team has closed more than 80 percent of the deals in their pipeline and how they grew their division by more than 27 percent last year – no small feat given that Software is C3’s largest division and the only one showing growth.

Next we review the data Dee and I gathered from Bertha this morning. After disclosing that sales have been lower since the implementation of Bertha…

Link to remaining chapters

Jeff Koser is president and owner of Selling

Chad Koser is the co-

to Zebras, a sales acceleration software company.

author of Selling to Zebras.

The software implements the successful ZEBRAsel-

Chad established a reputation

ling methodology and helps clients to bridge the gap

for exceeding sales targets

between low or plateaued sales and dramatic sales

by successfully applying the

improvement. Jeff has more than thirty years of

ZEBRAselling methodology in

experience in consulting, executive sales manage-

multiple organizations over the

ment, business strategy and sales enablement. He is the lead author of

past decade including Baan Supply Chain Solutions,

the award-winning book, Selling to Zebras, HOW TO CLOSE UP TO 90% of

VoiceStream Wireless (now T-Mobile) and GE Medical

the BUSINESS YOU PURSUE, FASTER, MORE EASILY and MORE PROFIT-

Systems Ultrasound. He has also worked with Selling

ABLY and the recently published, Selling to Zebras The Untold Story, for

to Zebras customers to successfully implement the

salespeople. Learn more at www.sellingtozebras.com

methodology in their organizations.

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December 2012

info@sellingtozebras.com

The Steel Method

A Social Network with the Features People Want

by David Steel In this day and age, most everyone is on at least one of the popular social networks. Chances are they’re probably on several of the networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but there’s now another option that’s gaining more users all the time. About a year ago Google announced its social media platform, Google+ and it already has more than 400 million user accounts, of which about 100 million are regularly active on the site. Not bad for a newcomer to the social media world.

What does this mean for business owners? It means that many of your friends, family, and especially customers that might not be on Facebook or Twitter could be using Google+. It also means that you should set up a Google+ account so you can become familiar with how it works and learn all of the features it offers before your competition figures it out first. Don’t wait to start connecting with more people, get ahead of your competitors by becoming a part of this latest trend and getting comfortable within the platform.

Why Social Networks Remain Popular We know that social networks have been around for quite a few years, and they’ve steadily grown more popular. This isn’t going to change anytime soon.

They offer quite a few benefits to users and make it possible for people separated by thousands of miles to close the gap between businesses and their prospects or customers on a daily basis. Companies can connect with clients and peers around the world 24/7 if they’d like just through social media sites alone.

Once you get into Google+ and see everything it has to offer; you’ll see why it’s quickly becoming one of the top choices for businesses. Aside from the reach and flexibility of creating dynamic content, like other social networks, Google+ is also free and this will most likely remain the case.

No More Invitations When Google+ first appeared on the scene, it was an invitation only social network. That meant that only a few people were able to join and they had a certain number of invitations they were able to give to

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friends, co-workers, and clients to participate.

This seemed to be a very smart move on the part of the Google advertising team because having a social network that wasn’t open to everyone in the beginning was a good way to build some interest in Google+ and make people desire an invitation all the more. It generated a demand and that got people talking and created a buzz. That’s really the hallmark of good advertising. Create a demand by making everyone want your product or service while at the same time making sure there’s a limited amount of availability. It worked and now, of course, anyone is able to join the site, even businesses. However, at this point, in order for them to become a part of the action, the representative from the company must first have a personal account, and then they can build a business profile.

Features to Love with Google’s Social Network While it has some similarities to Facebook, Google+ doesn’t have the same functionality which surprised many people. The biggest differences weren’t merely cosmetic they were more involved but if given the chance, Google+ clearly has features that are beneficial. It may take people who favor Facebook some time to learn all of the ins and outs of Google+, but it‘s just a matter of getting comfortable and being open to using this social network.

What are some of those features that set Google+ apart from the other social networks? To begin with, the integrated search feature is nice. It gives you more control and allows you to search through only your friends or the entire platform for the terms that you’re looking for in the network. For example, if you want to see what one of your colleagues posted a month ago about a product, you can use search terms such as your colleague’s name or the product you’re interested in to pull up the information.

Another feature that makes Google+ an interesting choice is the Hangout. Basically, it’s a way for people to video chat with one another. But as a business owner it can become a valuable tool to meet with employees in different locations, for example

December 2012

franchise owners. For companies with forward thinking customers who appreciate the latest technology and social networking sites, it’s an opportunity to communicate in the marketplace and show that you appreciate the latest trends too. It’s also a great way to launch a new product or service by inviting prospects to Hang Out for exclusive specials or deals.

Circles are yet another feature that helps make Google+ different from the other sites. While they might seem confusing at first, they really aren’t complicated at all. Create and name your circles by category – Prospects, Clients, Co-Workers, Family, Friends, etc. and then drag and drop people into the different circles that fit in each category. If the individual fits into multiple circles, that’s not a problem, they can be dropped into more than one category. This gives you more control over who sees your content and makes it easier to see

who is following your posts then follow them in return.

Plus this makes the newsfeed easier to understand

Personal Users and Businesses Turn to Google+ Many companies are turning to Google+ because it’s a different type of social network than the existing platforms in the social marketing world. In fact, businesses are creating their personal profiles and then adding business sites just as quickly as people are starting their own individual pages. Why not get in there and check it out for yourself? Chances are you will find a lot to love about Google+ and the worst that can happen is you’ve reached more customers than you would have if you hadn’t set up an account.

Who knows? Maybe it will even become your favorite social network!

For nearly two decades, marketing visionary David Steel has taught companies how to engage customers and prospects to drive sales. After founding his first company at the age of 20 and successfully growing and selling it to a Fortune 150 firm, David founded “Sneeze.it” one of today’s fastest growing social media businesses dedicated to helping companies build online revenue streams and integrating social media into an organization’s sales process. David is a renowned keynote speaker, motivator, trainer, and strategist. He is widely recognized for his ability to help organizations to monetize social networks. David’s latest book – Sneeze It is due out later this year. Contact David for more information 800-223-4342

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| 27

Success Secrets from a Sales Super Star

Making 2013 Everything you Deserve Stan Billue has been a Student of Sales an average of an hour a day for 35 years. Each month he shares several Success Secrets to assist you to achieve your next level of Success.

by Stan Billue Believe in Yourself Most people don’t desire more out of Life because they don’t believe that they deserve more out of Life.

Consequently, if you don’t honestly believe that you deserve greatness, 2013 will probably end up being just another disappointing year. On the other hand, if you are convinced that you were not put on the Earth to be less than the best you can possibly be-

come, you will start to set new Production Records and probably dramatically increase your Income.

Adjust your Attitude It takes a mix of Sales and Negotiation skills PLUS a consistently great Attitude to achieve more out of Life. Since very few people are naturally “up” all of the time, we need to appreciate that we need to work at being Positive. Start each day by reading, watching, listening to or doing something that makes you happy and be willing to revisit that source of happiness throughout the day as needed.

Set Goals We’ve all heard that the best definition of Insanity is to keep doing what you’ve always done and expect different results. However when I ask Salespeople what kind of year they are going to have, they usually respond with something like; “I hope better than last year”. In other words, they have absolutely no Goals in mind to shoot for or a Game Plan to accomplish any improvement. It’s like they are going into the Woods, firing a Rifle and saying; “Boy, I sure hope something runs into that bullet”. In order to have a Record Breaking Year, have a firm Goal in mind and put it in writing, such as: “I am earning $___ on or before December 31, 2013”. Remember, you might not hit or exceed each and

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December 2012

every Goal. The real value of Goal setting is the person you become by reaching out for more out of Life.

Know your Numbers If you know your Numbers such as how many Dials you need to make to reach a Prospect, how many Prospects you need to reach to make a Presentation, how many Presentations you need to make in order to get an Appointment or make a Sale, you’ll be able to determine how many more Sales you’ll need to make to reach your new Goal. You should also know the average size of each Sale and even the average time spent on each Call since you’ll also want to look for ways to improve every Number possible.

Have a Game Plan Once you have your Numbers it’s easy to determine what you’ll need to improve on in order to increase your Sales by 10, 20 or even 100%. Quite possibly, an improvement in your percentages by only 5 to 10% can increase your Production and/or Income by 50 to 100%. That could include number of Dials per day, working through or around Screeners better, not being blown off the Calls as fast, more and better Appointments or Sales, improving your Closing ratio, larger Sales, more repeat Sales and becoming a master at getting Referrals. Just as in Baseball, 2 Hits out of 10 at Bats means you are at 200% and in the Minors. 3 Hits out of 10 at Bats results in an average of 333% and you are a Super Star in the Major League. 4 Hits out of 10 at Bats means you are one of the Best of all time.

Record and Critique The single best and most powerful suggestions for constant self-improvement, is to Record and Critique one Call a day for your entire Career. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll hear that you missed when you were in the trenches ducking bullets. Possibly you weren’t Pacing yourself to your Prospect or Client, you might be stepping on their Answers, you might not be listening when they are talking, you might not by finding their Hot Button or Buying Motive, possibly your answers to their Questions and/ or Objections indicate that you have diarrhea of the mouth, you might be missing Buying Signals or you simply aren’t trying to Close the Sale, etc.

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Learn a New Skill Everyday If you appreciate that “School is never out for the Pro”, you’ll be willing to learn one new Skill, Technique or even one new Word a day to add to your arsenal.

Imagine how great you would become by learning 5 a week, 20 some a month and over 200 per year. I’ve met a bunch of So-called Salespeople that have been in an Industry for 10 to 20 years and they don’t have 10 to 20 years’ experience. They have one year’s experience 10 top 20 times over because they quit learning and still rely on time worn words and phrases which have been so over used and abused that they actually turn off Prospects and Clients.

Brain Pick a Pro How would you like a free 10 to 15 minute Sales Training Session each day by a different Sales Super Star? You can call your competition and simply pretend to be a Prospect. You might say; “I don’t have an Account with you however we could be talking some serious dollars here so I don’t want to talk to a Rookie or Trainee. I want to speak with the top Sales Pro in your Office.” Now you listen and take Notes and receive free Sales Training from a top producer.

Review and Adapt If you have daily, weekly and monthly Goals, it’s easy to sit down once a month and review your progress and then adapt as needed.

Reward Yourself Everyone should have Rewards waiting of them when they achieve their Goals. It might be as simple as a special Snack by hitting an hourly or daily Goal, or a new piece of Clothing when you hit a weekly Goal, or a special weekend Trip or attending a special event when you achieve a monthly Goal or a nice Trip or Vacation when you top an annual Goals. Everyone needs to be appreciated even if it means showing yourself that appreciation.

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

| 29

Making Assumptions About the Buyer's Journey

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December 2012

I'd like to take pause to question how marketers are using the term "buyer's journey." This also applies to buying process, buying cycle, sales cycle, etc.

I

f you've been reading my blog lately, you know I've been on a bit of a quest to get marketers to stop and think about what the terms we use every day actually mean. We're moving so fast and trying to expand our skill sets in real time and I think we adopt terms and apply them to what we're doing without really analyzing the underlying meaning.

So, let's take on the buyer's journey.

I write a lot about the buyer's journey/process. In fact, I took a very hard look at it when I was writing my book. Since I work with B2B companies with complex sales that have very long periods of prospect gestation, I came to the conclusion that the usual definition was just too broad to be meaningful.

I'm talking about the usual nod to: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase.

If the cycle takes 9 months, that's a lot of gray area for each stage. And all stages are not created equally in length of time or objectives that must be met for the continuation of forward motion. Plus, it occurs to me that the construct above is for us more than it is representative of our buyers.

I chose to break the buyers' journey into 7 stages based on how I've seen prospects navigate problem solving: Status quo – Their situation today before they are actively trying to resolve a problem Priority – Their realization that a problem exists that's worth solving Research – Actively seeking education, best practices and whatever they need to know to determine a viable course of action Options – Determining who has the expertise to help them solve the problem with the least risk Step Backs – Handling the doubt that occurs to restore confidence that all their questions have been answered and they're on the right path. Answering the "What if...?" questions Validation – Verifying that they're making the right choice in solution and vendor Choice – Making the purchase

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However you choose to define the buyers' journey is fine. There are many roads to Oz. But what's important is that we consider this process from the buyers' perspective, not ours.

For example – let's say you use Awareness as your first stage. For some reason, marketers assume that if prospects are just "aware" of their company and solution that they will move on to the consideration stage.

Why? I'm aware of a lot of companies that I never buy a thing from. So are you. What creates that defining moment that speaks to your prospect and motivates them to take an action to learn more about you or from you in relation to a problem they are trying to solve?

If they do learn more, do you assume they're now in the consideration stage? Or are they just becoming more aware? What is the catalyst that creates a stage transition? And how do you evaluate that?

With buyers taking control of their "journey," what makes you think you have the inside track?

These are not easy questions to answer. Developing a strategy to engage buyers by answering their needs as they look for solutions to problems requires hard work, research and continuous testing as markets evolve and priorities shift.

The starting point (in my opinion) is buyer personas. You've got to compile insights across the entirety of the process to determine what to provide, when.

And how to provide it in a way that works for them.

This includes uncovering the questions they need to answer to open up a path of discovery with the intention to solve a problem.

I think that in order to do this well we need to forget about format and think about information. For some reason, marketers always want to assign formats to stages before they think about the information that prospects need. I see this a lot.

Should we use a case study here or a blog post there? Who cares? If the information isn't what the prospect is looking for, it doesn't matter what format you put it in.

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I took a road trip this summer and it occurs to me that turn-by-turn navigation from my GPS is pretty much definitive of the buyers journey. In other words, you can't turn right on Main Street until you take exit 12 off the freeway.

The same is true from an informational perspective. For example, until I know what my problem is costing me or what I'm giving up by letting it persist, I may not be motivated to seek change. So if your information is about why your solution is the right choice for solving my problem, I'm not interested because I haven't decided it's worth doing...yet.

If you want to know where your buyers are in their decision process, you've got to create tightly targeted content that will tell you based on their interaction with it.

And that's where marketers tend to miss the point.

One interaction with your content doesn't prove a thing. How do you know it was really what they were looking for? Did it resonate or did they walk away after viewing it unimpressed?

Only by observing patterns of behavior over time can we ascertain how interested someone is and if we're truly seeing the display of intention.

There's much more to be said about the buyer's journey, but I'm stopping here. I'd like to know what you think. Where can we improve how we address problem solving for our prospects?

In fact, maybe it shouldn't be called a Buyer's Journey at all. Maybe it should just be called Problem Solving. For without problems, there would be no need for solutions, right?

And for those of you who look at the other end of the stick, an opportunity that isn't realized is due to a problem that is limiting potential. Just saying...

by Ardath Albee

Ardath Albee is CEO and B2B marketing strategist for her consulting firm Marketing Interactions, Inc.. She taps over 25 years of business management and marketing experience to help her clients create customer-focused eMarketing and content strategies that produce more sales opportunities. Ardath also provides training workshops to help B2B marketers develop the new skills they need to address the demands of The Content Marketing Continuum. Learn more at www.marketinginteractions.typepad.com

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7 Things Your Customers Can Do Better Than You

Here’s a Hint: They All Boil Down to “Sell Your Products and Services”

I

f you think your customers exist solely to “buy your stuff,” you’re missing a huge part of the picture. Bill Lee, author of The Hidden Wealth of Customers, says your customers are uniquely equipped to influence your product development, sing your praises, and even close sales for you. He describes seven things they can do better than you.

Bill Lee wants you to see your customers in a (lucrative) new light. The old paradigm, he says, works like this: Your company produces goods and services that help customers get a job done. In return, the customers pay you money. You take that money and invest a good portion of it in traditional sales and marketing efforts – including product developers, creative people, and salespeople, all of whom are paid to figure out what buyers want and to say good things about your company – in a quest to get even more customers.

December 2012

Wouldn’t it be far more effective to let the customers themselves drive your sales and marketing efforts and fuel your growth?

“The new approach makes so much more sense,” notes Lee, author of The Hidden Wealth of Customers: Realizing the Untapped Value of Your Most Important Asset (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012, ISBN: 978-14221723-1-5, $27.00).

“No matter how much money you spend on third party marketing people, they’re still a layer removed from those who buy. They can never really understand customers because they aren’t customers themselves. The organizations that achieve rapid growth are those that don’t just think of customers as ‘buyers of stuff’ but as advocates, influencers, and contributors.”

In his book, Lee offers a compelling vision for a more reliable way to grow a business by maximizing “return on relationship” with what he calls “rock star” customers.

When this is done right, a company’s best customers will prospect for the firm while also speeding product adoption and improving customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty. It’s all part of a virtuous cycle: Companies improve what they offer customers, which allows customers to gain more value from products and services, and thereby improves what customers can offer companies.

The truth is, your customers are incredibly well equipped to market, sell, and even develop your products and services. Here are seven things they can do better than you: Attract high-value information from other customers. This “inside knowledge” of their peers creates stratospheric value. Facebook is the quintessential example. Imagine a traditional company that tried to generate the kind of information Facebook generates: real-time data on what movies people are watching, what restaurants they’re visiting, what vacations they’re taking, and what books they’re reading. Facebook dispensed with all the research most companies would have tried to dig up, and instead focused on letting customers provide it.

“Westlaw, which provides legal research services for law firms, is another example,” says Lee. “It realized that its clients were interested in how they and the markets they serviced stacked up to other firms and markets.” So Westlaw created Peer Monitor, which

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aggregates anonymized data on firms’ financial and operational performance, collected from participating clients with their permission – and this turned into a lucrative new business.

Believably promote your product. It’s this simple: You’ve got something to sell. Your customers don’t. This makes them far more credible to other potential customers than agencies or internal employees. SAS Canada is a good case in point. The company was having a noticeable customer retention issue several years ago. Retention rates had declined from the high 90s to the mid 80s, which senior management felt the need to address quickly. SAS software was doing an excellent job of keeping up with customer needs. Unfortunately, the customers didn’t seem to realize this. So a small group within SAS, led by Wally Thiessen, built a team of 250 “customer champions” along with 50 “super champions” to spread the word for them.

“SAS saw that it would be futile for the company to keep pointing out how great they were,” notes Lee. “However, they knew that defecting customers might listen to what other SAS customers had to say. With support from Thiessen and his team, SAS customer champions established regular events in more than 20 major cities, set the agendas, selected speakers (and made presentations themselves), and stayed in touch afterwards via online forums and e-newsletters. As a result, retention rates rebounded back up to the high 90s.”

Why would customers make such an effort? “SAS customer champions certainly didn’t do it for rewards or prizes,” notes Lee, “a mistake many companies make with their customer advocates. Rather, they did these things because a) SAS software really was doing a terrific job, and b) getting the word out to their peers helped the customer champions build social capital. It increased their visibility in their professional community, put them in positions of leadership, and gave them access to insider industry information from SAS Canada that they could then share with other customers.”

Close the sale. Your customers make better salespeople than you do, precisely because they don’t have any (obvious) skin in the game. Plus, they can honestly say, “This product or service worked for me. It can work for you, too.” Marc Benioff realized the persuasive power of customers in the

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early days of building Salesforce.com. Lacking the multi-million-dollar budgets of competitors like Oracle and SAP, he relied instead on face-to-face meetings with prospects and customers in major city markets.

“He was surprised to find that prospects at such events were much more interested in talking with SFDC customers than with him and his executive team,” says Lee. “And he was delighted to find that 80 percent of prospects who attended the events – and interacted with customers in such ways – wound up becoming customers themselves. That’s an amazing close rate for any offering. And unlike salespeople, SFDC’s customer salespeople didn’t require a bit of training.”

and pre-teen girls was initially formed to promote feminine hygiene products,” explains Lee. “Because P&G knew TV and print ads made its young audience uncomfortable, it enlisted experts to provide content. When this created little interest, P&G established forums so that girls could talk to each other about the issues and challenges of growing into young womanhood. Finally, the site took off. Girls from around the world were eager to get into the conversation – and P&G was able to market its products more subtly and effectively than before.

“The bottom line is that customers are more apt to trust and care about information when it comes from a peer rather than an organization,” says Lee.

Understand buyer needs. Many leaders believe that customers can’t articulate their needs, much less develop ideas for products to satisfy them. “This is just not true,” says Lee. A substantial body of wellestablished research has shown that many if not most successful innovations are customer-originated. In one compilation of studies of 1,193 commercially successful innovations across nine industries by MIT’s Eric von Hippel, 737 (60 percent) came from customers. That’s why companies that struggle with product development should consider looking outside to customer innovators.

“3M’s Medical-Surgical Markets Division tried a last-gasp project in the 1990s to kick-start its consistently poor innovation record,” says Lee. “It formed a team designed to bypass the internal innovation process and search for breakthrough innovations being created by outside ‘lead users.’ When the results were compared with ordinary product development projects at 3M, the differences were dramatic: Leaduser innovations achieved average revenue of $146 million in their fifth year, compared with $18 million for internally generated innovations.”

Energize your online and social media marketing. Many firms are getting nowhere with their web and social media marketing efforts. “That’s often because they’re trying to adapt traditional marketing communications to these mediums,” says Lee. “They need to get creative about bringing customers into these programs.”

Intel, for example, credits well-designed customer testimonials and other customer content for an explosion in the creation of qualified prospective customer interest and inquiries through its once-lagging social media and web marketing efforts. “The company can’t share the numbers publicly, but I can say that within a few years, it expects to bring in a significant percentage of all its new business through its website efforts,” says Lee, “and the key to this growth is content from its existing customers.”

In 2011, Salesforce.com cut traditional lead generation spending by 69 percent while increasing spending on customer videos (by 1,300 percent) and social media. One early result from that was an increase in contacts generated by social media of 400 percent.

by Bill Lee

Connect with your prospects (a.k.a., their peers). By nature, most all of us are open to creative new ways to affiliate with our friends and peers.

On the other hand, we’re not that excited about getting close to companies – a mistake many companies make when they set out to form communities around their brand. (Let’s face it: Corporate logos and official spokespersons don’t exactly promote the warm and fuzzy connections that invite confidences!) The key is to figure out a way to foster a dialogue between customers and their peers that touches on issues related to your products.

“Procter & Gamble’s BeingGirl community for teen

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Bill Lee is author of The Hidden Wealth of Customers (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012). He is also CEO of Customer Reference Forum, and has spent the last eight years building vibrant communities of customer advocacy professionals. His conferences have attracted leading global firms, such as Microsoft, Apple, Wells Fargo, McKesson, Salesforce.com and others. Bill is also the author of Mavericks in the Workplace and has written for a number of publications, including the Wall Street Journal.

December 2012

rshanley@theiegroup.com http://operations.theiegroup.com/sop-las%20vegas

Sales Shift: Make Quantum Leaps In Your Sales Results

2013 Your Best Year Yet

by Gavin Ingham

The primary topic for SOLD this month is Presenting and I love presenting, so I was looking forward to sharing some strategies for grabbing and holding an audience and for creating compelling calls to action.

But when I was asked if I would write something about 2013 and what I predicted for sales and the economy, I was even more excited...

It probably comes as no surprise to you that I get asked this sort of thing all of the time. Many businesses are struggling. Many salespeople are not hitting their targets. Many companies are having a hard time.

It seems a good question to ask. And I am as good a person as any to answer it. I work with thousands of salespeople every year, I speak to business owners, business leaders, salespeople and other professionals... and I did predict the recession would happen.

But you know what? What I think will happen to the economy and sales is irrelevant. It’s what you think that is critical. If you think you are going to have a hard time and if you think your business is going to struggle then you’re going to cut your cloth accordingly.

Entering the recession, I saw many companies stop recruiting, halt the training of their staff, stop innovating, cut back on marketing and stop investing in the very activities that brought in their sales. What did they think was going to happen?

One company I am aware of stopped attending conferences and events and these were the life-blood of their new business. What genius came up with this plan? If you’re entering difficult trading times and you stop doing all of the things that bring your business you must

surely be expecting nothing less than a hard landing.

Conversely, I saw business startups and existing businesses sharpen their approach, take massive action and accelerate their businesses forward. They invested in their teams, they fine-tuned their sales and marketing and they sought to add more value for existing clients as well as new ones.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying that the economy is irrelevant. I’m not saying that you should operate the same in all trading conditions.

And I’m certainly not saying that you shouldn’t adjust accordingly... because you should. But the key word in that sentence is accordingly. When the going gets tough, the tough get smarter. But it knows where to get smarter that is the key piece.

Measuring your sales activities and doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t make sense.

Cutting your sales activities back like they’re some kind of Japanese Knotweed does not. Investing in quality staff and helping them to add more value for clients makes sense. Hiring purely to put bums on seats does not.

So, in my opinion, the critical piece for you next year is to give 100%. The critical piece is to get your stall straight. The critical piece is to make sure that you do well. And you can start with some simple rules from my 5.5 Steps to Sales Success programme.

What you do determines the results you get

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1

Sell from a “10”. Always give the best that you have to offer.

Make sure that all of your salespeople are on top of their game. Ensure that every client interaction is the best that it possibly can be.

December 2012

2

Cultivate superstar beliefs. What you believe determines how you feel. You need to ensure that your salespeople believe that they can sell, believe that they can add value for their clients and believe that they can succeed, irrespective of what the market does.

3

Share Sales Success Stories (My 4S Principle).

The stories that are told within organizations determine to a great part the sales momentum within those organizations. Many companies are full of “weak” stories. You need to ensure that great and heroic stories are told within your business.

4

Dream BIG! Reject average thinking. Reject realistic thinking. Reject the mediocre mindset of sales losers. The companies and the individuals that dream BIG are the ones that motivate and inspire salespeople and clients alike.

5.1

Roll with the best, raise the bar and keep learning. Ensure that you spend next year surrounded by winners. People who live all of the above principles and make them work for them. Raise the bar for yourself higher than anyone else ever will.

Not just for sales results but for every other aspect of your business and your life. And keep learning. If you want better results then you need better actions and the only way you can achieve these is if you have the knowledge and the skills to know what they are and to action them.

Whether the economy is good or bad, 2013 will be what you make of it. Start planning now and make the decision to make 2013 your best year yet.

Copyright Gavin Ingham, Sales Author & Speaker, www.gaviningham.com, 2012.

Gavin Ingham, Sales Author &

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Take Action. If you want better results next year than this, then you need better activity. What you do determines the results you get. I have already started planning my activities for 2013. Have you?

Speaker, www.gaviningham.com, 2012.

Free sales tips, strategies & tools. Join Gavin Ingham's sales success newsletter www.gaviningham.com /gavins-success-newsletter/.

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Up Your Charm IQ

7

Ways to Build Rapport by Boosting Your Humor IQ

by Arnold Sanow

In my business as a professional speaker and trainer focusing on communication and presentation skills, it is imperative that you have humor in your presentations. In fact, when I first started someone asked the question, “Do you need humor in your presentation?”

The answer was “Yes, if you want to get paid.”

The problem these days in delivering a presentation to one person or one hundred is the fact that the attention span of an adult is diminishing quickly. A recent study showed that the average attention span of an adult is only eight seconds. People will listen longer, however if the presentation is not interesting you will quickly lose the attention of your audience. This is why humor is essential in all your conversations. Not only will you keep attention, the audience will remember what you said. People remember humor six times longer than anything else you say.

You don’t have to be a professional comedian to be funny. You just have to have a willingness to look at the lighter side of life.

Here are some ideas for adding a little humor to your rapport: Use humor that’s appropriate, timely, and tasteful. Being the target of someone else’s bad taste or poor judgment is never funny.

Avoid telling stories or jokes that focus on race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, sex, sexual orientation, or other subjects that may be disrespectful, critical, or condemning to others.

Scan your material for irony or double meanings. Humor is often based on them.

One of our speaking colleagues, Ron Culberson, a humorist, suggests putting together two unrelated points with an unexpected spin to capture the laughter you’re after.

Use self-effacing humor. Make a joke about yourself, never about anyone else.

Some possible areas to focus on include your height, weight, disability, career, looks, hair (or lack of it), or a personal situation.

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Glean funny or strange stories from the media. Humorous or bizarre events appear right along with the headlines every day – bungling crook capers, parodies on politicians, and other humorous everyday events add welcome comic relief to a stressed-out and all too-serious world.

Collect funny jokes, stories, and anecdotes. Gather stories with humorous twists.

For endless resources, check out search engines on the Internet with the keywords “jokes” or “humor,” or drill down even more specifically: “business humor” or “parent humor.” File them away in your collection for adding a light-hearted accent. If telling jokes or stories doesn’t come naturally, be sure to invest some time to polish them up with a little practice. Always remember the punch line and work on your timing for flawless delivery.

Keep a list of humorous quotations. Check out the library, bookstore, or Internet. Do an Internet search using “humorous quotations” as the keywords for peppering your conversations or presentations with humor.

Watch comedians in action. Observe how they weave together stories along with their impeccable timing, delivery, and gestures.

Arnold Sanow, MBA, CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) is a customer and workplace relationship expert who speaks and consults. He is the author/co-author of 6 books to include, “Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere” and “Present with Power, Punch and Pizzazz.” He was recently named by Successful Meetings Magazine as one of the top 5 “best bang for the buck” speakers in the USA. www.arnoldsanow.com – speaker@arnoldsanow.com – 703-255-3133

December 2012

SOLD Q&A

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.

by Maura Schreier-Fleming What are the best sales tactics that will work in 2013?

It's the same ones that worked before, except today there's less margin for error. You have to come to the meeting prepared. Do your research. Prepare your selling questions. Demonstrate your expertise.

All will help build credibility with your prospect and shorten your sales cycle. In the not too distant past, salespeople could get away with "So tell me what you do." If you said that today with the overloads people experience in tasks, information and activities, you would be shown the door very quickly. The best tactics are to have a persuasion strategy ready.

Be able to "read" your customer so you can build rapport quickly. Your questioning strategy should include the questions that guide the customer to understand there's a need, it's an important one and he has to buy from you now. Last, keep every promise you make.

Make sure you do everything you say you will. Those tactics will serve you well in 2013.

What are the negative connotations you have to deal with as a sales professional?

Everyone has experienced buyers remorse or regret from making a purchase. Too many people have also had a bad buying experience from a pushy salesperson. As a result, it's sad, but true that too many people mistrust salespeople. How can you get past that? I tell my clients that you must treat everything you say as a promise. You then have to keep all your promises. If you say you're going to call a prospect at a certain time, you must call then. If you say you're going to submit a proposal by a certain date, you had better deliver by that date. People will trust you if you honor your commitments.

You will find it immeasurably easier to sell when your prospects trust you. Who knows? When all salespeople honor their commitments, they just might change some of those negative sales stereotypes.

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

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Slides that SCORE Most slide presentations suck rotten eggs.

Seth Godin knew this years ago, and if there’s one community on Earth who still knows this today better than any other, it’s buyers. Buyers generally have a healthy (or occasionally unhealthy) disrespect and even dislike for salespeople, but if there’s one thing a buyer dislikes even more, it’s a salesperson with slides.

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December 2012

Y

et visual aids, when properly used, can make your messages much more memorable. Research quoted by Dr John Medina in his excellent book Brain Rules demonstrates that while people tend to remember only 10% of what they hear after three days, with strong visual images associated with key words, that can rise to 65%.

So every salesperson needs to know what makes a great, effective visual aid – and what doesn’t. You don’t need to be an expert in design or in PowerPoint. The best slides are simple, don’t take long to create, and don’t use any fancy features. If you learn a few basics, you can rise above 95% of sales presentations, and transform a typically mind-numbing ordeal for your customer into a positive and memorable experience.

To begin, let’s take a look at what not to do.

Stop the slideuments First, you need to unlearn the conventional ‘wisdom’ about slides. The correct number of bullet points on a slide is not seven. It’s not five. It’s zero. You heard me – zero. Bullet points have their place in a written document, where they call out a list of points from the main paragraphs of text. You don’t have paragraphs on your slides (at least, I hope not) so you don’t need bullets.

In fact, you don’t need much text at all. Why? The simple point to understand here is that we cannot read and listen at the same time. It’s just not possible, unless we are reading and listening to the exact same words.

And the number one bugbear of slide presentations is when the speaker is reading his slides.

Besides, the audience can read faster than the speaker, so they’re not listening anyway – they are reading ahead, and wondering when you are going to catch up. It’s a waste of their time, and yours.

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So the bottom line is this: if you put lots of text on your slide, then your audience will be reading it, and not listening to you. Yet we put all that text on there, all that detail, because we fall into the slideument trap.

A slideument is 50% slide, 50% document – and 0% effective. We get trapped by trying to kill two birds with one stone, creating slides that just about work in a live presentation, and just about work as a hand-out that we give to the customer afterwards so they just about remember what you were banging on about.

The problem is that what you achieve is just about nothing. Add all that text to the slide and it becomes useless as a visual aid, and it will actually obstruct the communication that’s supposed to be happening. Yet even with all that text, it’s still no replacement for the detail of what you’re saying, so by reading your slide afterwards, your audience will have the illusion of understanding, but not true understanding.

Trying to kill two birds with one stone, but not killing any – that’s not much use, as Garr Reynolds wrote in Presentation Zen, unless of course you’re a bird.

So you need to get out of the slideument trap. Produce a simple, short but clear document to give your customer as a take-away, and separately, produce great visual aids that drive your points home and make them stick.

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Clean up the visual pollution Another major problem with slides is the visual pollution we cram onto them. If you are not going to give your slides to your customer afterwards – because they mean nothing without your speech, and because you’re instead giving them a clear and comprehensible document – then you no longer need to treat them like documents.

Get rid of anything superfluous on your slides. You absolutely do not need the page number. You do not need the date. You do not need your name or the place on every slide. Do you really need your logo on every slide? Apple rarely shows its logo in its product launches. If you need to remind your customer who you work for mid-way through your presentation, then you have problems that go way beyond your slide design.

You do not need that confidentiality notice in 8-point text either. It has zero legal value – as lawyers have confirmed to me many times. If what you’re talking about is highly confidential, then have your customer sign a non-disclosure agreement before unveiling it. In that case, no need for a confidentiality notice on your slides. If it’s not that confidential, then guess what – you don’t need the confidentiality notice either.

Drop the visual pollution, following the excellent design advice of French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.”

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SCORE with your slides So now you’ve cleaned up the visual pollution, and let go of the desire to kill two birds with one stone, it’s time to create some fantastic slides that will help your key messages to stick. Here are five characteristics of great slides.

Simple Leonardo da Vinci famously wrote that “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”.

A simple slide is one that can be understood in less than five seconds, so your audience can focus right back on you and what you are saying, without losing attention and spending their time wondering what that complicated pie chart is supposed to mean.

This means that you’re not going to put much text on there, because if the audience has to read it, then they stop listening. A few large words can be fine because with just a few words, we recognize the shape of the words and understand them pictorially, so we can actually keep listening. This is why Seth Godin advises putting no more than six words on a slide.

If your slide is that simple, then you don’t need it to stay on the screen for minutes at a time. Remember the ‘rule’ that said one slide equals three minutes? Forget it – it’s as obsolete as the theory that the Earth is flat.

December 2012

A slide has no duration – it is what you say that takes time. And as long as the audience has understood the slide, they won’t mind if you move on.

When launching the Macbook Air, Steve Jobs had one slide showing “The world’s thinnest notebook”. It was shown for all of three seconds. It didn’t need any more to be memorable.

Keep your slides simple, and don’t worry about having more slides than minutes in your presentation. In fact, that’s probably a positive sign because it means that your slides are easy to understand, and your presentation will move at an engaging pace rather than getting bogged down in detail.

Clear The next key characteristic of great slides is clarity.

This means first of all that everything should be easy to read, even for the person at the back of the room.

So the few words you may use should be big. Forget the 14-point text. In many meeting rooms, 24 points may be big enough, but if you’re not sure, aim for 32 points or bigger. I have seen rooms where 64-point text was just about big enough.

If you’re not sure your text is big enough, it’s not big enough.

Contrast is another frequent problem. If you are pasting a pie chart from Excel® into PowerPoint®, it may have small black labels on a red or blue background. While you may be able to read them on your computer screen, they may be impossible to read on a projector screen. Remember that the contrast is usually much worse on a projector screen, so clarity is also about using as much contrast as possible between the elements on your slides.

If you’re not sure you have enough contrast, you don’t have enough contrast.

The message of the slide should also be clear.

It should either ask a clear question, or give a clear answer. Sometimes the best slides ask or raise a question, making the audience listen carefully to find out the answer. At other times the slide may show the answer, on a graph for example, but in both cases, the slide’s message must be clear. If the audience spends too long figuring out what the question or answer is, they will not be listening to you.

If you’re not sure whether your slide's question or answer is clear enough, make it clearer.

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Sometimes the best slides ask or raise a question, making the audience listen carefully to find out the answer Original Good slides are original. People hate seeing things they’ve seen before. This is why most cinemas show new films, why most hit music is new music, and why artists usually only cover older songs which people have mostly forgotten and can rediscover.

If you are delivering slides which people have seen before, they will lose interest. If your slides look completely like something they have seen before, that can also be a problem. But it doesn’t mean you can’t use a corporate template, as long as it isn’t full of visual pollution. Apple always uses the same slide background, the same font, and the same color scheme, but they don’t reuse the same slides.

So use photos that people haven’t seen before.

Show new data, or old data in a new way. Use a font which isn’t tired and overused. If you use Calibri, which has been the default PowerPoint® font since 2007, then it tells your audience “I didn’t take the time to choose a good-looking font for these slides – I just used the default”.

Stick-man clip-art was cool and new in 1996, but so was the Macarena. It’s not original. Give your audience something they haven’t seen before, and they’ll discover each new slide with interest and anticipation, and they will be paying attention.

Relevant The slide has to fit properly with the message you are aiming to convey. You may have a simple, clear and attractive picture of a tropical beach at sunset, but if it is not relevant to your message, don’t use it.

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Pretty pictures do not a great presentation make. There is a danger of simply replacing Death By PowerPoint® with Death By Pretty PowerPoint®. It’s just sharpening the axe. It doesn’t help communication.

So use pictures, graphs and even entire slides only when they are relevant to your message. Occasionally you might need to show a slide which is not so attractive. That’s acceptable. Never ever show a slide which is not relevant.

Enjoyable A slide should also be Enjoyable – pleasant to look at and to digest. This is important because the audience will be impressed with good-looking slides, as it shows you have put time into your preparation, and therefore shown respect for the audience. If they have a positive impression of you via your slides, they will have a more positive feeling in general about your message, and they will remember those positive emotions.

The opposite is also true. People remember ugly slides too – they don’t remember what was on them, but they remember how ugly they were. And a speaker who has not shown enough respect to the audience to take time to create good-looking slides is a speaker who doesn’t deserve the audience’s respect in return.

Take the time, therefore, to ensure your slides are pleasant and visually appealing. They are a part of your company’s visual identity, just as much as your logo, your web site, and your product design. Your product deserves beautifully designed packaging.

Don’t let it down with unattractive slides.

So those are the five characteristics of great slides: they are Simple, Clear, Original, Relevant and Enjoyable. For each of your slides, ask yourself whether it passes all those tests. If it does, then

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you’ll likely SCORE plenty of points with your customers.

Wrap-up Slides can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. Customers usually hate slides because they are used to Death By PowerPoint, so you’re better off using no slides than bad slides, and often you’re better off discussing rather than presenting. But when you decide to use slides, make them SCORE – Simple, Clear, Original, Relevant and Enjoyable – and not only will you be communicating more clearly and more memorably, next time you meet your customer they might even ask you to switch on the projector...

by Phil Waknell 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.

December 2012

http://ideasonstage.com

sales@ideasonstage.com

Focus Your Presentation to Improve Your Sales Pitch Salespeople love to talk. It’s the nature of the beast. And when it comes to their product (or service), most believe that if they tell you enough about it, you’re going to buy. Unfortunately, that leads salespeople to create PowerPoint presentations that are an endless succession of hackneyed claims and mind-numbing minutia.

These sorts of presentations are not only boring, they’re ineffective. The most compelling sales arguments are lost if they are swimming in a sea of banality. The strongest presentations are those that focus on a few relevant points and cover them in as brief and succinct a manner as possible. As they say, “always leave them wanting more.”

Know your prospects’ real concerns

and concerns, the first step to creating a persuasive presentation is to view the world through the prospects’ eyes.

Let’s be clear. Developing this type of sales presentation takes time and preparation. But the results are worth it.

If you prepare properly, you will know at least some of the prospect’s chief concerns such as: The market forces posing challenges to the company New regulations that are affecting the industry Effect of increased domestic or foreign competition Workforce skills and/or knowledge gaps which may be creating problems In other words, you will have proved that you have attempted to “walk a mile in their shoes.” Preparation of this type will earn you the right to have a different, more productive dialog.

Audiences are not created equal. A mid-level manager has different needs and perspectives than a CEO. As a result, a presentation that is geared to the former will be ineffective with the latter. Powerful presentations are audience-centered.

In professional comTaking the time to analyze a munication circles, product or service in relation to this is known as beeach prospect’s chief concerns ing “rhetorically senmay be daunting initially. But positive” and it is key to sitioning a product or service in effective communilight of real issues and concerns cation. While it is human nature to dwell is both powerful and refreshing. first and foremost with our own needs

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Adapt the sales message Taking the time to analyze a product or service in relation to each prospect’s chief concerns may be daunting initially.

But positioning a product or service in light of real issues

December 2012

and concerns is both powerful and refreshing. The competitive advantage when put in these terms will truly stand out. So it is well worth the required time and effort.

When talking to executive-level prospects, the primary concerns will fall into areas such as increasing productivity, decreasing costs, expanding markets and improving competitive positioning. This is why it is important to determine how the product or service will help the prospect address these issues. A value-based argument using hard data is the most effective way to support contentions. Consider including data such as: How much money the prospect will save (or be able to earn) The cost of doing nothing The anticipated ROI The break-even point A case made in these terms communicates that you are a serious business person who understands the prospect’s chief concerns and offers potential problem-solving options worthy of further investigation.

Keep it short Let’s face it. Everybody’s stretched thin today. The goal should be to complete the presentation in less than 20 minutes. If it is well-prepared and focused, that should be plenty of time to cover the key points and still leave time to agree on the next step.

Include references to similar problems that have been solved and value that has been created for customers that “look like” the prospect. This presentation is not about product or the company you represent. It’s about three things: The business issues facing the customer that are creating a problem or opportunity Confirmation that the executive cares to address these issues How these same issues have been addressed with other customers The value possible if these problems or opportunities are addressed An agreed upon next step It’s great if the product has some shiny new feature that has just been rolled out, but if it doesn’t help

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If you feel compelled to include something about your company, put it at the very end the prospect save money, earn money, be more competitive or solve some other real business issue, it’s not relevant. Leave it out. And finally, if you feel compelled to include something about your company, put it at the very end. In the first meeting it’s not about you, your product or your company.

This is a presentation about solving problems. It’s about them!

Reap the benefits A well-prepared, rhetorically sensitive and solidly delivered presentation demonstrates respect for the prospect’s time and a clear understanding of their needs. The quality of this presentation can differentiate your company from the competition and ultimately be the difference between winning and losing. by by Jeff Koser

Jeff Koser is president and owner of Selling to Zebras, a sales acceleration software company. The software helps clients to bridge the gap between low or plateaued sales and dramatic sales improvement. Jeff has more than thirty years of experience in consulting, executive sales management, business strategy and sales enablement. He is the lead author of the award-winning book, Selling to Zebras, HOW TO CLOSE UP TO 90% of the BUSINESS YOU PURSUE, FASTER, MORE EASILY and MORE PROFITABLY and the recently published, Selling to Zebras The Untold Story, for salespeople. Learn more at www.sellingtozebras.com.

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Grab Their Attention – Open With a Problem!

T

he most common question I get is, “How should I begin my presentation?” Or, “How do I get my audience’s attention right from the start?” I also get queries about using a story to open, because stories are “so powerful.”

Yes, they are… very powerful! However, unless they are painstakingly crafted, you’re taking a real chance leading with one.

In persuasive presentations, you need to get to the point, particularly in business. People don’t have the time to listen to a long story without any idea what it’s really about or how it might relate to them or the situation at hand.

Stories have their place, but it’s usually not at the beginning of a presentation, unless it’s structured so that the point is obvious … and alluded to up front.

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What I suggest is this simple but powerful presentation structure: Problem, solution, why.

I was in Toronto recently sitting across from my sister. Her back yard is like a little oasis in the north of the city, with roses and lilacs bursting with color. The barbecue was all set up, and the steaks were idling, just waiting to get “sizzled.”

We had been out for a sweltering day of golf and we were just sitting back with a bottle of beer, to trade stories with my 92 year-old mom. She still lives alone, drives around town, and completes the Toronto Star crossword puzzle just about every day. She doesn’t miss a thing.

The phone rang. It was the host – my brother. He runs a top-notch catering company in downtown Toronto and had promised to host tonight’s dinner in

December 2012

honor of Mom’s birthday. But it was 6:30 and he was overdue.

My sister answered her cell and listened. Then came “the look” … along with a roll of the eyes. There are certain looks you share with family members that speak volumes. It signaled that it was indeed my brother and that we were already into “the story.”

Mom giggled in the background. We’d been here before.

She dropped the phone and hit the speaker button. My brother’s voice filled the small space as we all peered at the phone. He’d had a long day – you could hear it in his voice.

After the usual pleasantries, he began to tell a story of having a last minute client request that caused him to have unexpectedly work during the afternoon.

His delivery driver went home sick and so he was just about to drop off the van and head home to change.

He went on the explain that he have to drive home, run to the store along the way, and then head up to meet us for dinner … and on, and on.

The story continued for at least three minutes while I rolled my eyes and my sister made a circular motion with her hands to express her “get on with it,” not-so-inner feelings. Finally, he asked whether my sister could host the dinner instead, and pick up some roast potatoes from the store down the road.

He’d be another hour or so on the road.

Oh …. ! So the whole point was that we had to make a quick trip to the store. No problem. I couldn’t help thinking, “Why not tell me sooner? I could have been there and back by now!”

The most important part of a persuasive presentation is “the start.”

I probably don’t have to tell you that this approach doesn’t work in business. In fact, it doesn’t often work in personal conversations, either. But, it happens so often. We tend to want to let the boss down easy.

Many bosses simply aren’t polite enough to wait through a long story to hear the point. They don’t have the time in a busy day for a puzzle (i.e. “What on earth are you talking about?”).

That’s why it’s important to begin with the problem or opportunity – in conversations, phone calls,

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emails, and yes, presentations. Particularly presentations.

There are other reasons to start your presentation with the problem (or “opportunity” – although most presentations in business tend to be fundamentally about solving a problem).

Here are five great reasons to begin your persuasive presentation with a problem: 

1

It puts you on the same page as your audience. In a presentation situation, the audience is there for one reason and one reason alone – to get a solution to a problem – to stop the “pain.” In order to cement the fact that your solution is a credible one, you must first agree on what the problem is.

Many problems have shades of grey to them. It’s really important to articulate the problem up front – it shows you’ve done your homework and creates a common foundation from which you can build to your solution. It’s the most powerful way to grab and hold their attention. After all, you’re talking about them.

2

It puts you on the same side as your audience. In many sales situations, you can be perceived as someone out to make a sale – someone interested more in you and your product or service than that of the audience. However, talking about the problem right up front puts you both on the same side of the situation.

If you can show empathy for their position and give them the feeling that you truly understand the gravity of the challenge, this can set the problem up as a third party, if you will. You and your audience are on one side, the problem on the other.

3

It tells them instantly what you’re going to talk about. I’ve sat through way too many presentations that leave me wondering after the opening, “What on earth is this thing about?” I’m sure you have, too. It’s critically important to “get to the point” in a persuasive presentation. That’s why focusing on the problem right away (along with briefly suggesting the solution) is the most effective way to begin your persuasive presentation.

You need to leave you audience with no doubt as to what it is you’re talking about so that the remainder of the time you have with them can be spent on addressing well-thought-out, targeted benefits.

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4

It signals that their issue is really important to you by putting it right up front. In presentations, arguably the most important part is the start. If you hook your audience then, you’ll have their attention throughout. There’s nothing that will hook them like a challenge that’s been bothering them. Putting it right up front signifies its importance.

5

If you’ve researched the problem and show you really understand it, it gives you instant credibility. I have yet to meet a prospective client who is not tremendously impressed by a presenter having taken their own time to talk to staff, do some reading, research the net – whatever it takes to really get a grasp on the underlying “pain.”

6

If your presentation gets cuts short, you’ll still deliver the core – to the person who counts the most. The decision-maker is often the busiest person in the room and, as a result, the first to leave. I can’t count the number of presentations I’ve done where the key to my success doesn’t stay until the end. Invariably, their cell phone rings and they’re out of the room in a shot.

For this reason, it’s important to have a strong opening that describes the problem and offers a solution. Your most important point should follow, then points of lesser importance, in order of priority to your audience. The decision-maker can always pick up on the details later, but if you have a powerful opening that grabs their attention, they’re going to remember it.

Let’s get back to that phone conversation. If my brother could have started with, “Some complications came up and I’m going to be very late getting there. Would you be willing to host in my stead and pick up some items from the store?” You’ll likely get belittled and cajoled – all part of being a close family member. Then you could tell the story, if needed, or better still, leave it for dinner.

Your introduction and ability to create rapport with your audience also contribute to being persuasive.

There are two more elements that come before the opening and they’re critically important. The first is the introduction. The very best scenario is for you is to write your own introduction and have someone with authority deliver it (after they’ve had a chance to become familiar with it). The more powerful and succinct the introduction, the more persuasive you’ll be and the more fun you’ll have. The introduction should: help set the tone for your presentation, and link your background and experience to your ability to solve the problem.

Finally, the element of creating rapport – often, the first words you utter. I use the analogy of “shaking hands”; it may be a line or two relating to your introduction, or how you got to the event. There are many ways to create rapport and there are fabulous articles on the web about this aspect of your presentation alone. Don’t forget to do it and make sure it’s appropriate to the situation.

I don’t believe there is any part of your presentation more important than the opening. It should be well thought-out, rehearsed to some degree, and delivered with the utmost of confidence. So, in your next persuasive presentation, consider starting with the problem (after you’ve “shaken hands,” of course).

If you grab them at the start, you should have them with you all the way!

by Peter Temple

Peter Temple is a business presentation strategist. He helps executives craft focused and compelling messages that win business, influence behavior, or positively affect business outcomes in difficult or sensitive situations. He has been international award winning corporate television writer/director/producer for over 35 years. He brings

Problem, Solution, Why. It’s a simple structure, but it works for everything from conversations to presentations. It can be simplistic for presentations (they’re usually a bit more complicated), but this structure still forms the foundation for a highly persuasive presentation.

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the finely honed skills of communicating through electronic media to the executive level, in both live and on-camera situations. Across his career, he’s worked with international film stars, well-known Canadian politicians, and highly successful, international business leaders. Find him at www.presentationsforbusiness.com

December 2012

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Leave your competition in the dust. Ramp up your win ratio. Present strategically and persuasively.

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Selling on the Edge

Why Buyers Hate Your Sales Presentation

by Dan Waldschmidt Somewhere between the evolution of the cave man and the invention of the Model T assembly line, the sales presentation became the mode of pitching somewhat interested buyers on the possibilities of spending their hard-earned dollars on our products.

You’ve seen the drawings in your history book, 20,000 years ago spear-makers were enticing local “long beards”with their new-and-improved stonetipped killing machines. It’s right there on the side of the cave. You’ve seen the stick-pictures.

A brave hunter ventures deep into the wood with only his spear, looking for roaming Caribou to feed his hungry family. And as he stalks his prey, he fails to realize that he too is being hunted – by a killer sabre-tooth tiger.

Out of the corner of a pocket of trees, the snarling tiger lunges, eager to bring down the hunter. But the hunter springs to action. Taking two short steps to his left, he falls to his knees and thrusts his spear deep into the lunging tiger.

The stone-tip of the spear rips into the heavy muscles that protect the tiger’s heart. Instantly, the tiger collapses. Dead.

What’s the message?

It’s actually quite simple.

Buy a better spear and stay alive a little longer.

Skimp on a cheaper wooden spear and you’ll find yourself “tiger dinner”.

That message works. Our brains understand it.

But then we decided to change things.

Somehow we’ve gotten too smart.

We’ve made facts and figures the premise of our meetings. When was the last presentation you heard that was this exciting?

Seriously? Most of the time it’s a crappy PowerPoint Presentation with 8 point font and 47 bullet points on each slide and an accompanying Excel spreadsheet with mindless formulas and resulting 3-D bar charts.

And we’re so proud of our silliness.

In fact, we put our foot down and refuse to talk to customers unless we have this presentation ready ahead of time. God forbid we show up and down have the spreadsheets ready to hand out.

What ever will we say?

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And that’s why buyers hate our presentations.

Because they don’t want facts and figures. They want hunters and spears and sabre-tooth tigers.

It’s how their (and your) brain was made. Along the way we’ve mutated into blase pitch-deck-pushing, conference room jockeys. And it’s killing our ability to generate business.

After hundreds of years of hypothesis on how our brains work, advanced technology like fMRI scans reaffirm how very primitive our brains still are.

There are three main ways that our brain handles any information that it receives: 1.If it’s boring or expected, the brain ignores it.

2.If it’s too complex, the brain dramatically summarizes it.

3.If it’s threatening, the brain makes us fightor run.

That hasn’t changed since the beginning of time.

The brain doesn’t care about features-and-functions.

Heck, even most benefits are too boring to get the attention of the brain. They’re just ignored.

And your hard close is so threatening that the brain immediately becomes defensive, skeptical, and distrusting. So we can rule that out as an option.

Numbers and complex engineering discussion is so complicated that the brain leaves out most of the details and creates a gut-impression that it stores as a memory. Probably not a good one.

Buyers end up confused, frustrated, and wondering why they decided to listen to your pitch in the first place.

Which is rather ironic because they probably could use the spears you are selling.

You just need to stop with the rest of the nonsense.

It’s time to get back to cave-man days..

Dan Waldschmidt is partner in a private equity technology accelerator and a former technology CEO. He is an early-earlyearly adopter of game-changing technology.

He blogs regularly on his motivational selling blog danwaldschmidt.com/blog.

So read the blog, check out his resources, send him an email. Whatever you do, don’t just sit on the sidelines!

December 2012

NOW Practices for Professional Selling

Value Add Negotiating for Sales Professionals 54 |

December 2012

Imagine this scenario. You are a sales representative for Baker distributing. One of your long-time customers, Albertson Metals, operates a mill that produces high nickel alloy ingots. Each year, this mill purchases approximately $500,000 worth of MRO products such as bar conditioning wheels, flap wheels, grinding belts, cutoff wheels, steel shot and grit, and other products for the mill’s laboratories.

Unfortunately, you are usually able to obtain only about 30% of this business.

D

uring the last six months, you have been working intensively with the mill’s management to convince them of the value of developing an integrated supply arrangement with you. They have reacted positively to your ideas and you have developed a proposal that you believe fits their needs perfectly. Among other things, you will: manage Albertson’s inventory. stock all items with sufficient buffer stock to assure JIT availability. supply Albertson with OSHA-certified safety seminars on appropriate topics to be mutually agreed upon. provide 24 hour emergency delivery. invoice biweekly for items drawn from consignment.

You have submitted your proposal at a price that you believe fairly compensates you for your high level of service and for the special features included.

A week later you call the plant and are told, "We got your proposal and it’s excellent. However, we have to refer anything of this magnitude to Corporate Purchasing." You call the Purchasing Department and speak to the buyer responsible for this contract. He says, "You’ve submitted an excellent proposal, and obviously you have done your homework. Unfortunately, we have something of an embarrassment of riches here. Two of your competitors also submitted excellent proposals.

You should be aware that your pricing is extremely high compared to your competitors. As a result, at this time your proposal really is not competitive."

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You explain to the buyer how you’ve worked with the plant for the last six months to develop this proposal. You discuss at length your excellent service record and how you have gone the extra mile to meet the plant’s needs. The buyer acknowledges this but says, "Your competitors also have excellent service records but are willing to meet our needs at a much lower cost."

Did you see this coming? You worked hard to meet your customer’s needs. You solved problems with your customer. You anticipated a win/win for everybody. Your goal was to avoid a price negotiation by differentiating yourself and focusing on your services and your added value to the customer. Now, at the last minute, price rears its ugly head. In fact, the purchasing agent says that price is the determining factor.

What do you do now? What should you have done throughout the sales process to prepare for the possibility of a serious price negotiation?

In our sales negotiation training programs we stress four key steps that will greatly improve your chances of making that sale while successfully negotiating to maintain your margins.

1. Be prepared for a price negotiation but don’t lead with your wallet.

2. Think like the buyer.

3. Be brutally honest with yourself as to what your added value is really worth.

4. Be aware that the negotiation starts when you say hello.

Let’s look at each step.

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1

Be prepared for a price negotiation but don’t lead with your wallet. As buying organizations have become more sophisticated, many realize that the key factor is not price but total cost. Therefore, it is sometimes possible to avoid price negotiations if the customer sees enough value. We know of one manufacturer who was approached by an automobile company to take over production of certain parts because their current supplier was not meeting expectations.

The manufacturer called in its machine tool distributor with whom they had had a very good relationship. They said to the machine tool distributor, "We promised the automobile manufacturer that we could do it. Now it’s up to you to make it happen. We’re not here to negotiate the price – just make it work." The distributor sold $10 million worth of machine tools at list price, including a full turnkey operation and the placement of a full time technician at the manufacturer’s location.

There’s a lesson to be learned: If you think there is a possibility that you can make the sale based on your added value and services, try to leave price out of the discussion. Don’t start with price concessions or discounts but focus on the added value.

On the other hand, with today’s ferocious pressures to reduce costs, buyers never forget that price is an important component of cost. Usually, buyers will want to have the best of both worlds. They want you to solve their problems, add value, reduce their costs, and in addition, give them a better price, which further reduces their costs. Don’t be surprised, don’t be shocked, and don’t be hurt. That’s just the way the game is often played. As you start the process, you need to move forward in such a way that while you don’t invite a price negotiation, if there is one, you’re prepared.

2

Think like the buyer. To negotiate effectively, take up residence in the buyer’s mind. Say to yourself, what might actually be going on vs. what they’re telling me? What they say may be the least important information. What they say to each other and what they’re thinking is the key.

Let’s go back to Albertson. We could imagine three different scenarios.

Scenario 1 – Plant: "This proposal from Baker is great. We’re going to save all kinds of costs and solve all kinds of problems. I know they appear a little pricey, but the cost savings are worth it." Purchasing: "Have you

56 |

looked at any competitors?" Plant: "We’ve looked at two who say they can do it and have offered a much lower price, but their services really aren’t there and we don’t believe they can produce the cost savings." Purchasing: "Would you mind if I use the fact that you got two competitive lower cost quotes to try to bring Baker’s price down?" Plant: "No problem, as long as you promise that we will get a contract with Baker without losing any of the services and added value they have promised us."

Purchasing: "You have my guarantee."

Scenario 2 – Plant: "This proposal from Baker is great. We’re going to save all kinds of costs and solve all kinds of problems. I know they appear a little pricey, but the cost savings are worth it." Purchasing: "Have you looked at any competitors?" Plant: "We’ve looked at two other competitors. They’re almost as good as Baker and they are cheaper." Purchasing: "How much more do you think Baker is worth than the best of the two competitors?" Plant: "We think they’re worth about 10% more." Purchasing: "O.K. We’ll try to get Baker down so that they’re no more than 10% above your best competitor, and of course we’ll try to get them even lower than that. If we can’t get them down, then we’ll go with your No. 2 choice." Plant: "Sounds good to me."

Scenario 3 – Plant: This proposal from Baker is great. We’re going to save all kinds of costs and solve all kinds of problems. I know they appear a little pricey, but the cost savings are worth it." Purchasing: "Have you looked at any competitors?" Plant: "We’ve looked at two other competitors that can do the same thing Baker can. They all appear to have the same quality and would produce the same cost savings."

Purchasing: "Then you don’t care which one we go with as long as we get the best price." Plant: "Yes, they’re basically the same, so go with the best price."

The buyer will almost always want you to believe that Scenario 3 is happening. But is it really? The profitability of your sale may depend on your ability to determine which scenario really is in operation.

3

Be brutally honest about the worth of your added value. If it comes down to a price negotiation, your added value is worth only what the buyer is actually willing to pay for it. Say, for example, that the only difference between you and your prime competitor is that you have a better reputation in the marketplace. Is that of value? Of course. Is it important?

December 2012

Absolutely. Is it worth anything? That depends on the buyer. If a one buyer says, I’m willing to pay 2% more to go with Company A because of their better reputation, then it’s worth 2% to that buyer. On the other hand, if another buyer says, I’m not willing to part with any hard, cold cash because of Company A’s reputation, then for that buyer it is not worth anything."

For each sale where you have one or more potential competitors, you need to do a value-added analysis in order to figure out the most the buyer would pay you vs. your competitor. Let’s make up a simple example where you have just one competitor, Company A, and let’s assume there are just four different components of value: service, reputation, delivery, and problem solving ability.

Based on your knowledge of the customer and the competition, you believe the customer thinks that you have a better reputation, provide better service and have better problem solving capabilities, but that your competitor is a little better on delivery. Furthermore, although your customer likes your reputation, they won’t pay more for it. They like your service and feel that’s worth up to 2% more. They believe that your problem solving capability has helped them overcome significant difficulties and that that’s worth 4% more. On the other hand, you have had some delivery problems. While not fatal problems, the customer would be willing to pay your competitor up to 2% more for their better delivery.

Your value-added analysis sheet would look like this:

Value Added Item Vs. Company "A"

The Most Your Customer Would Pay Extra for That Added Value

Reputation

0%

Service

2%

Problem Solving

4%

Delivery

(-2%)

good. You’ve got to get much more competitive with your pricing." If you’ve done the value-added analysis and it’s accurate or reasonably accurate, you can see behind the purchasing agent’s mask to what is really going on.

4

The negotiation starts when you say hello. At this point you may be saying, "Everything you say is true but if I’m the Baker sales representative talking to the Albertson purchasing agent and he says to me, ‘Your competitors are lower and you have got to cut your price,’ what do I do now? That purchasing agent isn’t going to tell me their real scenario, what they said to each other, or what they really think our added value is worth vs. our competitors."

Correct. If the first time you thought that there might be a price negotiation was when you were talking to the Albertson purchasing agent, it’s too late.

You don’t have the information you need, and it’s going to be difficult to get it.

And that takes us back to our first point. Be prepared for a price negotiation while you try to avoid one. The negotiation starts when you say hello. The time to start finding out who potential competitors might be, how your customer views them vs. you, the problems they’ve had with competitors, whether anybody can do as good a job as you can, etc., etc., is from the very beginning of your discussions with your customer.

Have as many contacts with your customer and with as many people in your customer’s shop as possible. Ask direct questions, indirect questions, feel people out gently, and try to get a picture of their whole situation.

Prepare vigorously for a price negotiation, and at the same time do everything that you can to avoid one.

by Michael Schatzki

Michael Schatzki is a master negotiator who, for over 20 years, has provided negotiation training and coaching for thousands of people in

Under this scenario, your customer would be willing to pay you up to 4% more than your competitor. Of course your customer will often say, as our Albertson purchasing agent did, "You guys are all the same. You all provide good quality except your delivery isn’t very

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the U.S. and globally. More than 75% of Mike's programs are for satisfied, repeat customers. The Negotiation Dynamics® system really works. Mike can be reached at (888) 766-3530 or at www.negotiationdynamics.com.

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5

Sales Negotiating Skills for You Should Be Working On Right Now!

Is it ever too early to talk about planning on what negotiating skills you should be working on next?

Hopefully not because that’s what I’d like to have chat with you about. In order to be a world-class sales negotiator, you have to master literally 100's of different skills from learning how to manage your negotiating power, how to prepare for a negotiation, etc. On top of all that, there are five areas that most sales negotiators overlook and yet, they may be the most important negotiating skills that you need to be working on…

The Big Five You’re not going to find this list of negotiating skills written down in a book or learn them in a class.

They come from that school that we all eventually end up graduating from called the school of hard knocks. Read the list and be thankful that you’re learning them now instead of having to realize what you should have known after a negotiation has gone South: Good Judgement: we would all like to have the ability to make sound decisions.

The challenge here is that all too often the only way to develop this skill is by experience and

Not moving too soon can be a very powerful negotiating tactic

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we gain that by making poor judgements. The secret here is to become a careful observer of others: watch the decision that they make and learn from them.

Patience: in our 21st Century world this is an amazingly powerful negotiating skill that all too few of us seem to have enough of.

I hate to say it, but it seems that the younger the negotiator, the less of this skill there is. If you can develop this skill, then you’ll have the willingness to let any negotiating situation take its time and evolve. Not moving too soon can be a very powerful negotiating tactic.

Persistence: people who don’t do a great deal of negotiating often are too willing to give up when they run into resistance.

Good sales negotiators realize that opposition from the other side is simply another means of communication and as long as you are talking, there is still hope that an agreement can be reached. Never give up!

Stamina: nobody ever gets into the field of sales negotiation because they think that it’s going to be easy. It’s not easy. However, the ability to keep at it and put in the hard work that any negotiation requires is what separates the successful negotiators from the unsuccessful ones.

December 2012

Involvement: at its lowest level, any negotiation is simply a conversation between two people. If you want to have this conversation result in a successful deal, then you’re going to have to go the extra mile and connect with the other side of the table on a personal level. It’s this kind of involvement that makes people feel comfortable saying “yes” to your proposal.

What All of This Means For You Nobody is a perfect negotiator. We all have a lot still to learn. You should always be trying to find out what you don’t know so that you’ll know where you need to be spending your time working to become better.

We’ve identified five negotiating skill areas that are all too often overlooked by negotiators. We have a bad habit of always looking for the magic “silver bullet” skill that will allow us to become more successful in our negotiations. It turns out that no such thing exists.

Rather, there’s a whole collection of skills that can provide us with what we need to become better than we are today. Take some time and review this list – now you know what you need to be working on.

Do you think that you are a patient person and do you think that this is a skill that you can only develop as you become older?

by Dr. Jim Anderson

Dr. Jim Anderson is a business communication skills consultant and the president of Blue Elephant Consulting (www.BlueElephantConsulting.com). Dr. Anderson shows individual technical professionals and groups how to use their business communication skills to change the world. He accomplishes this by showing them how to become successful communicators which will allow them to set their

What Makes a Successful Negotiator?

Five Steps to Negotiating Like an Expert

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y husband loves to negotiate. So much so that whenever I need to buy new running shoes, he always buys a pair, too, with the hopes that he can swing a "deal" with the store by buying two pairs at once. Of course, he never gets a discount, but what I find fascinating is the number of times he asks for a discount, doesn't get it, and still buys the item at full price anyway.

I started thinking about this from the seller's perspective, by analyzing my own negotiation techniques, and those of my clients. The questions I wanted to answer were: Exactly what makes a successful negotiator? And what do they do differently from the rest of us to get the price they want, while still leaving their customers feeling that they're getting a good deal?

The following simple five-step process can help maximize your res u l t s e a c h t i m e you

ideas free thereby changing their world. Dr. Anderson provides consulting, coaching, speaking and training products and services to help in 3 key areas of business communications: public speaking, negotiating, and managing (teams, departments, and products).

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negotiate. Even better, I find it works wonders at every stage of the sales process, from negotiating price to discussing delivery, added product features or any other terms your prospect is looking for a break on.

Step 1: Get into the right frame of mind The first thing you have to do when negotiating is make sure you're in the right frame of mind. Do you really believe that your products or services are worth the price you're charging? If the answer is no, then you won't be able to negotiate successfully.

Period.

If you implement the next four steps of this plan, I can guarantee that those readers who truly believe that their products are worth the price they charge will walk away with more deals at full price.

Those of you who think your products are too expensive, on the other hand, will continue to sell at a discount.

These steps aren't necessarily easy, and in fact may take some discipline to implement. But for those of you who are willing to put in the effort, I promise that they will help make negotiation easier, and more natural.

Step 2: Hold firm Sales experts suggest that sales people in the top 20% of their fields never cave in on the first round.

So don't give in to what your prospect is asking for right away. Remember, to those who love it, negotiation is a game. It's the "art of the deal." And to make those people happy, you must be willing to play.

Nothing frustrates negotiators more than a sales person who caves in and drops their price on the first round. If a client asks for a 20% discount and you immediately say yes, they walk away feeling two things: The price must have been inflated to start with; and I should have asked for bigger discount.

Next time, I will!

Neither of these outcomes is good for you. So the next time your prospect asks for a reduction in price, instead of just giving in, try responding with one of the following instead: I can appreciate you're looking for the best deal, but I can tell you that we've already given you our best price.

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In order to be successful, you really need to believe that you are already giving your prospect a great price You're smart to be looking for the best deal, but our pricing is always competitive, and I just can't go any lower.

A discount? (in a surprised tone) This is the stage of negotiation during which your belief system is challenged. In order to be successful, you really need to believe that you are already giving your prospect a great price. When I was selling for London Life years ago, I was once approached by client who wanted a 10% discount on his group health benefit plan. I was so shocked by his request – nobody had ever asked for a discount before, and I knew that we had the least expensive plan he was looking at – that all I could say was, "huh?" Not very professional, I admit. But he responded with "well, I just had to ask anyway…" and then paid full price for the plan.

Typically, 40% of all customers will respond the same way, with either "I had to ask" or "I just thought I'd try." Unfortunately, over 50% of sales people cave in on the first try, and give the client the discount they're asking for. This is lose-lose for everyone. Your company reduces its profit. You reduce your commission. And your customer walks away dissatisfied because you refused to play the game.

Learn how to hold firm, and practice your responses in advance.

Step 3: Repeat Some clients will press ahead with their request for a discount even after you've given them one of the responses outlined above. The vast majority of them, however, are just looking for assurance that

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you really are giving them the best possible price, and there is no room to move. In other words, they want to make it a little uncomfortable for you, making sure that you sweat just a bit.

My advice in these cases is again: hold firm.

Work to reassure your customer that they're getting the best price, and remind them of all the hard work you've both put into the deal. Try something like: We've been 6 months putting this project together, I would hate to see it not go ahead because we can't settle on price; or knew you'd be tough, so we provided aggressive pricing up front. I would hate to see this not go ahead because we haven't been able to meet your budget.

We find that an additional 20% of all business is closed at this stage – that's 60% of all business closed without ever having to reduce your price.

Unfortunately, by this point, 80% of all sales people have also already caved. You do the math.

Step 4: Take their mind off the bottom line If after all this your prospect is still pushing for a discount (and 40% of them will be), then find something else to give them that doesn't reduce your price.

Free shipping. Extra manuals or training. A client profile on your Web site. What you choose will be specific to your business, your markets and your client base. The key is to have the list of things you're willing to offer prepared in advance, so you can draw on it during the negotiation.

It's hard to think creatively in the heat of a negotiation, so planning ahead could give you a readymade solution that leaves both you and the client feeling satisfied with the transaction. For a copy of the worksheet we developed to help you plan your "no money" concessions, just contact us.

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"Why is an x% discount important to you?"

These questions will flush out any last details that could help you find a different way to structure the terms and pricing, which will allow you to keep your price while letting the customer walk away with their needs met as well. If, however, you ultimately do have to reduce your price, make sure to follow these two rules: Never reduce your price without getting something in return. Getting something in exchange for a pricing concession is key to managing customer expectations that future discounts will not be easily dished out. As with the "no money" concessions above, what you get in return for a price reduction will be unique to your business and markets, but could include references or case studies, a bigger order, introductions to senior level executives or cash up front. Again, whatever you ask for, prepare the list in advance so you can respond quickly and smoothly.

Get a firm verbal agreement from the customer that this discount is all they will need to get the deal done. Try asking them something like "I'm not sure if I can get you this price, but if I can, is it fair to say that we can go ahead?" OR "I'm not sure I can get this discount for you. If I can, though, are you willing to sign the agreement this week?"

Nothing is worse than coming to an agreement on price (especially a reduced price!) only to find out that your prospect is still looking for other concessions.

By asking them this last question, you can ensure you get all the issues on the table first, giving you the chance to deal with them fairly once and for all.

by Colleen Francis

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Colleen Francis, Sales Expert, is Founder and President of Engage Selling

Step 5: The last line of defense

Solutions (www.EngageSelling.com).

Finally, if your client is still asking for a discount, you may have to give it to them in order to close the sale. But before you do, always ask them one of the two following questions: "What is important to you about an x% discount?" or

Armed with skills developed from years of

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experience, Colleen helps clients realize immediate results, achieve lasting success and permanently raise their bottom line. Start improving your results today with Engage's online Newsletter Sales Flash and a FREE 7 day intensive sales eCourse: www.EngagingIdeasOnline.com

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Advice from the Master Negotiator

Use Negotiation Strategies To Enhance Presentations

by Greg Williams

Do you use negotiation strategies to enhance your presentations? Making a presentation, and negotiations, contain some of the same components. To deliver memorable presentations, consider stating a statistic that will jar your audience, or make a statement that the audience may not agree with and tell them that you’re doing so.

Regardless to how you begin your presentation, engage the audience quickly and stay engaged throughout it. Skip the hyperbole.

The following are insights that you can use to enhance your presentations.

Style Vs. Substance: When presenting, a majority of your message is conveyed via body language; studies have indicated that messages are expressed up to 93% via body language. Therefore, you have to be very mindful of the message your body language conveys. As an example, if you state something as a positive (i.e. you will become rich as the result of doing what I tell you) and deliver the message without the conviction that such a pronouncement should embody, your message will not be perceived as believable or with the impact intended.

To enhance your presentation, deliver your message with a fine eye to style (body language) and substance (content). Depending on the audience, too much body language could be perceived as incongruent (i.e. something’s wrong with him). Such actions could detract from the perception of your message. Also keep in mind, no matter how truthful your claim, if it’s not relatable or believable, it will be received with skepticism (e.g. you’ll save millions of dollars a month by implementing my plan, delivered to someone that earns $25k yr.)

Positioning/Framing: Depending upon the emotions you want attendees to experience, consider starting your presentation with a statement or question that makes them feel uncom-

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fortable. The purpose of such positioning/framing would be to ease their pain with the solution you offer during your presentation.

By framing the content of your presentation, you’ll be creating the lens through which your audience should view and evaluate your content. That means, you’ll have more control over how they perceive your information.

If you don’t give the audience the lens through which to perceive your content and frame it appropriately, they could end up missing your main theme and blaming you for not being a good presenter.

Observe Room Temperature: By ‘observing room temperature’, I’m speaking of both the physical and mental comfort of your audience. If the room is physically too hot or cold, you may experience a negative reception to your presentation.

If you want to enhance the reception of your presentation, take note of facial expressions and the movement of your audience members while they’re seated; facial expressions and seatsquirming will give you insight into their state of mind. If you note any form of mental discomfort (i.e. facial contraction – sitting adjustment), shift your message to a more plausible perspective.

As when negotiating, you should have alternative paths in your presentation to reach a successful outcome.

Humor: Humor can be a very strong and dynamic ally in a negotiation and during a presentation. Humor can also be a double edge sword. If you’re not the best humorist or you’re unsure of how a humorous situation might be perceived, don’t use it. You can get into a quagmire if you attempt to use humor and the audience finds it offensive. Follow the axiom, when it doubt leave it out.

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Paralinguistic: Paralanguage includes pitch, loudness, rate, and fluency. Those aspects affect the way your audience will receive your message. If the pitch is too high, you’ll be perceived as being less authoritative than if your pitch is lower (i.e. lower pitch connotes authority). If you speak too loudly, too fast, or you’re presentation lacks fluidity, you run the risk of being perceived as less credible. People have a range for which they’re accustomed to assimilating information; if you’re too far outside of their boundary, they internally turnoff.

Speak Subliminally: During your presentation, at times speak subliminally (e.g. When we work together, what outcomes do you foresee?). The subliminal implication being, you’ll work together. You may also consider placing subliminal suggestions in your presentation that eases the receiver’s mind (e.g. those that have purchased this product have become very successful in the sales profession). This is also called, “Risk Reversal” (i.e. showing that others have done so and received a positive outcome).

By speaking subliminally, you decrease the negative possibility that your pronouncement might receive, if it was delivered more directly, (e.g. I guarantee you’ll sell more, if you buy this product.)

Conclusion: If you plan your presentation appropriately and take into consideration the components mentioned above, you’ll be viewed as more credible, informative, and insightful. You will deliver your presentation in a manner that best suits the way your audience receives information; you will wow them, and for you … everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating.

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 about 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”

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http://tiny.cc/qwqn4

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What the heck is Customer Experience Management!

A Â value-based approach

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Having worked in Customer Experience for many years, one of the things that most strikes me is the level of confusion that surrounds the term; I mean what does ‘Customer Experience’ mean anyway? As one of my colleagues put it, there are a lot of people talking a lot of bla..bla…bla. The danger of this is, of course, that without a clear definition, Customer Experience risks going the way of many business trends by becoming defined by what sells most software, as we saw in Beyond Philosophy’s recent Global Customer Experience Management Survey 2011.

I

feel this is a significant risk, but to be honest another cause of the ‘bla..bla..bla..’ lies in the very ambiguity of the word Experience itself. For instance, does it mean ‘Wow!’ that was an Experience (let’s call this the entertainment dimension; I use the term loosely to demonstrate wows and emotional pulls – emotional experience being the key differentiator for Beyond Philosophy here) or does it mean Experience as in ‘everything that I experience’ about you (let’s call this the process dimension or the Theory of Everything! As another eminent CE authority called it).

It seems to me that the two are in conflict for almost without exception, firms seem to emphasise the latter – it’s about everything we do – while at the same time emphasising in their examples of great Experience the former: as in look at the Wow Experience of Disney, Lush and so forth.

For me what I think would be truly helpful is to look at Customer Experience not as a separate ‘process’ and a separate ‘entertainment’ thing but as one concept bound by a simple but quite revolutionary approach. That we can differentiate and create value from ‘our experience’ ‘outwith’ the goals customers traditionally seek from buying from you in the first place. In other words, for a retailer price and product are, yes, part of the Experience world but Experience value-creation in its truest sense is found in the process of shopping; a process that can impact and uplift my experience by being ‘a good and more emotionally engaging process experience’ or be an

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additional reason in itself to shop by being ‘a good and entertaining process experience that clearly has a stronger emotional hit’. Consider the following: Traditional Marketing value: I go to 1 your store to buy a can of beer because the price and products you offer are the most competitive. This represents a classic marketing offer.

My goal of going to your store is focused on achievement of my core need, to buy that beer.

Process Experience value: I go to your 2 store to buy a can of beer because the car parking is great; the staff are friendly, oh! and I get that beer. That is an experience offering. My goal of going to your store is still focused on achievement of my core need, but in my buying decision your good performance on process makes me feel and think you are the best to buy from.

Full Experience value: I go to your store 3 to buy a can of beer because it’s in a fantastic shopping mall with marbled halls, the car parking is great, the staff are friendly, oh! and I get that beer. This is a full experience offering, maximising the emotion inherent in how you can entertain me or Wow! me. My goal in this example now becomes twofold and in some ways reversed, firstly I want to experience your entertaining and emotionally engaging process – it does more than just uplift my traditional marketing goal as it is a goal in itself – and I want my traditional core goal (buying that beer, which is at that point a pretty commoditised offering).

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The emphasis on creating differential value through ‘process’ because that ‘process’ creates its own goal state the consumer would pay money to Experience seems therefore to be key. Likewise, there is an assumption that the core Marketing offer is under commoditisation pressure and you no longer get sufficient margins from price competition or new product/ service offerings are easy to copy.

Now, if we look at our process and our entertainment dimensions together (see below) we can see how a firm can generate Experience value. Crucially this will depend on where they stand in their market (i.e., their starting point) and whether they wish to focus on uplifting through better process their traditional marketing offers (customer goals) or they wish to take a more radical approach, building in additional Experience – as in ‘entertaining/ emotional wow!

– related offers (customer goals).

Customer Experience Management: a valuebased view

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So from the above box:

Marketing goal related value Low Process, Low Entertainment: a utility may seek differentiation by taking the dissatisfiers out of the process.

High Process, Low Entertainment: a Telecom may seek differentiation by making the process smooth and easy (as well as taking out the dissatisfiers).

Experience goal related value Low Process, High Entertainment: a Pizza restaurant may seek differentiation by adding cost of entry through themeing the restaurant (but not caring too much about Pizza quality). This cost barrier to entry use of Experience can also be seen in brand advertising. This is a particularly

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interesting use of Experience, and more common than realized. It does reduce market competition but is ‘copiable’ as Entertainment added value is undermined by a denuded core product offering.

High Process, High Entertainment: a Construction company may seek differentiation by adding wows! to the process of doing business (e.g., great sandwiches, concierge service on site) as well as delivering a smooth and easy experience with low dissatisfiers.

Management Implications Be clear about Customer Experience Management, this is not about ‘just’ a rehash of traditional marketing.

Think about which value-box you are and 2 your competitors are in.

Consider how you will differentiate yourself in 3 the market.

Use relevant research (both analytical and 4 creative) techniques in your approach i.e., for instance, do you understand the dissatisfiers; what could create a more satisfying process; where the emotional levers are to create an entertaining experience; how you could innovate and what new ‘goal-states’ might work? See last blog on managing your Creative Equity.

Think about your organization; is it ready for 5 the change?

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A Few Key Questions

Q1) What does outwith mean?

A) My apologies I am betraying some Scottish roots.

Outwith means: outside of something; not within something It's usually this 'not within' or 'not part of', that we are stressing when we use this expression. I wouldn't say that this is a dialect word, being used rather in educated language, also known as Standard Scottish English. It is most often used in Scotland in quality newspapers, on serious programmes on TV etc.

To re-express the comment: ‘For me what I think would be truly helpful is to look at Customer Experience not as a separate ‘process’ and a separate ‘entertainment’ thing but as one concept bound by a simple but quite revolutionary approach.

That we can differentiate and create value from ‘our ex-

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perience’ outside the goals customers traditionally seek from buying from you in the first place. Let me explain: For a customer of a retail store getting the right product at the right price would be a traditional goal (let’s call this the Traditional Marketing value).

The extra value of Experience would be found however in the very process of shopping (let’s call this Experience value); a process that can either (a) impact and uplift my experience by being ‘a good and more emotionally engaging process experience’ or (b) be an additional reason in of itself to go shopping at your store by being ‘a good and entertaining process experience that has a stronger emotional hit’.

Q2) “What about Amazon? ‘This is in the top 20 in the US for customer experience. You could say the shopping experience is excellent – but I would argue its all process and about Amazon getting out of the way and simplifying the process. This description works for Harrods but not for Amazon – yet both are excellent.”

My answer to question 2 is that, yes I agree.

Amazon for me is an exemplar of Customer Experience within process. From a goal state view, I want my books, I get my books, it’s an excellent experience without being entertaining – although parts no doubt are. I do not see being in a ‘High Process, Low Entertainment’ region as being ‘not Customer Experience’ orientated, the emphasis is still on process. But, with reasonable competition (probably not now) the Amazon.com type monopoly could breakdown as others come up the curve; then is the time to move into the Top Box of High Process, High Entertainment . So, it depends where your starting point is.

Q3) “I like the model and the contrasts but I think the customer can reward you for being 90% entertainment and 10% process or the other way round – it certainly needs some form of combination to pull it off. But his paper sort of implies 50:50 in some way to me. “ My answer to question 3 is again to agree. You can and companies do create value and cost barriers to entry by being 90% entertainment and 10% process and the other way round. The key point here

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is what is differentiating in your market today?

Where should you move to, to be differentiating?

I would think 50:50 is not the right thing to say for the ‘High Process, High Entertainment’ box. Here it’s more like maxed out best process capability and differentiate in the consumers mind through being Entertaining i.e., they want to buy from you because of the Entertainment goal state first. So really the reward is much more about Entertainment. The process reward is there but is not differentiating from a ‘High Process, Low Entertainment’ value company.

"Referrals" Are a Waste – Introductions are Gold

Q4) Why do companies focus on the process view rather than the Entertainment view?

Well I would agree that this is a function of ease of measurement, level of comfort – it’s easier to break fix than think of value adds, it provides for repeatable, predictable and less volatile solutions. But also for many companies getting process right is enough of a challenge!

Of course ‘being entertaining and creating Wows’ is also a challenge to creative thinking and the analytical mindset of many organizations.

Q5) I’m a believer that the problem is usually about being caught in the middle – Lidl and Waitrose both trash Tesco and Sainsbury’s for CSAT scores but for polar different reasons. Expectations low, price low, value high vs Expectations high, price high, value high.

The initial Wow at IKEA is look at the price of that cupboard it’s amazing, the delivery and pickup a nightmare Being clear about the differential value proposition and delivering to that is key. So for ‘caught in the middle companies’ they may well be focusing on different aspects of process and entertainment, but they are not executing these well.

by Steven Walden

Steven Walden is Senior Head of Consulting and Research at of Beyond Philosophy one of the world’s first organizations devoted to customer experience. Steven is an international co-author of Customer Experience: Future Trends and Insights. Beyond Philosophy provide consulting, specialised research & training from offices in Atlanta, Georgia and London, England.

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eferrals get your calls answered and open otherwise closed doors, right? Not really. Find out what you really need to make referrals work.

Rick's client was somewhat uncomfortable with his request. The sale had gone well enough – everything considered. But this last question about referrals was a little uncomfortable. His client was completely caught off guard. He wasn't the least prepared to give a referral and wasn't comfortable giving one.

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But Rick asked and stood his ground until his client coughed up the name and phone number of one of his vendors that might be able to use Rick's services.

Rick was excited; as the referral he received was to a company he had wanted to get into for quite a while. Better yet, it was a referral to Nadia, the company's COO, the exact person he had been wanting to reach. He quickly thanked his client and headed to his office to call his new prospect.

As soon as he was in his office, he picked up the phone, called Nadia, and got her assistant who, despite Rick's insistence that one of the Nadia's clients had asked him to call her, refused to put him through.

Instead, the assistant insisted that Rick leave his name and number, and she would pass the information along to Nadia who would call if she were interested.

Rick tried several more times to reach Nadia.

He called and left messages. He took the liberty of emailing her. He sent two letters. Finally, after months of trying, he gave up.

Unfortunately, this scenario is played out thousands of times a day. Salespeople get "referrals," thank their client, rush off to call the prospect, and never have the opportunity to make contact.

Why is this such a prevalent result of "referrals?"

Because Rick didn't get a referral. He simply got a name and phone number. For Rick, and most other salespeople, a name and phone number and the permission from the client to use the client's name as the referring party are considered a referral. In reality, it is nothing but a name and phone number.

By simply getting the name and phone number and running off to make the phone call, Rick committed the most common error salespeople make when they get a referral. He failed to capitalize on the power of the referral and instead turned it into a warm call.

The power of a referral is its potential to open doors, generate interest, and get an appointment. Seldom can a referral sell for you. That's not the goal of a referral. The goal is to open a door and, hopefully, begin the relationship from a position of strength and trust.

When you receive a referral, you are hoping to build a relationship with the referred prospect based on his trust and respect of your client. If the prospect trusts and respects your client, a portion of the trust and respect he has for your client is imbued to you because someone he trusts referred you.

However, that trust is useless if you fail to set an appointment with the prospect. In many cases, the

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fact someone he trusts gave you the prospect's name and phone number is not enough by itself to convince him to meet with you. You need something stronger than just your client's name to open the door.

That extra push is a direct introduction from your client to the prospect. A direct introduction is powerful for several reasons: It is unusual. It isn't often that someone is personally asked by someone he trusts to meet a salesperson. The act itself places you in a different category than other salespeople.

It demonstrates trust. A direct introduction demonstrates a high level of trust. Most people will not go to the trouble of taking the time and effort to give a direct introduction unless they have a high degree of trust and respect for the person they are introducing.

It makes it difficult for the prospect to decline a meeting. There is implied pressure on the prospect to meet with you since he doesn't want to offend the client.

A call using the client's name doesn't have the power of an introduction and gives the prospect an easy out – he simply doesn't accept your call or declines a meeting. After all, the client wasn't really involved – you simply used the client's name.

On the other hand, a properly executed introduction virtually guarantees a meeting.

In most instances, you have three introduction methods at your disposal:

A letter of introduction written by you for your client's signature A letter from the client to the prospect is the most basic form of introduction.  Rather than asking the client to write the letter, write it for him on his letterhead for his signature. Let the prospect know what you

A letter from the client to the prospect is the most basic form of introduction | 69

accomplished for the client; let him know why the client referred you; give a specific time and date to expect your call; and have the client ask the prospect to let him know his impression of you and your company after you have met.

Mail the letter and then a day or two after the prospect should have received it, give him a call. Don't introduce yourself first. Rather, introduce the letter and client first, then move to asking for the appointment.

A phone call from your client to the prospect A phone call is stronger than a letter and almost guarantees an appointment as it is very difficult for the prospect to say no to your appointment request while the client is on the line. The call gives the opportunity for the prospect to ask specific questions of your client and to get detailed information. Do not have your client call unless you are present – you want to know exactly what was said.

A lunch meeting with your client, the prospect, and yourself A stronger method than either a letter or a call, a lunch meeting allows you to get to know the prospect as a friend before you get to know him as a salesperson. Like a phone call, it virtually guarantees a private meeting. Also, in a lunch meeting, your client becomes your salesperson and you're there as the consultant. Although a very powerful introduction format, most clients will only agree to do one, maybe two at the most, so use judiciously.

If you want to turn your "referrals" into real referrals, don't settle for just getting names and phone numbers.

Learn how to turn those names and phone numbers into real referrals through a direct introduction to the prospect. Not only will the number of appointments you set go up – your sales will increase, your income will increase, and you'll find selling to be a lot easier.

by Paul McCord

Paul McCord is President of McCord Training and Development, a sales training and consulting company focused

Social Media for Customer Service.

Why? How? Companies can no longer deny it: customer service through social media is becoming a must.

Up until now many customers had only one way of reaching the companies whose services or products they use: the telephone.

Some companies have their own callcenter, others work with external partners. Whatever the case, these phone calls almost always involve music on hold, waiting, being put through, and so on. Social media however, has provided customers with a new way of getting in touch with companies.

on helping companies develop high production B2B sales teams. He is the author

What’s in it for the customers?

of the highly popular Sales and Man-

As with the telephone, social media offers a direct line between companies and customers.

agement Blog. And may be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com

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However, as most of social media conversation takes place in the public space, customers can feel more powerful towards bigger companies.

Other customers can and will be listening as well. It’s even possible that they come up with an answer. And the best part: no more being put through and no more holding the line while listening four times in a row to a clarinet solo!

What’s in it for the companies?

Companies might regard this as extra work that makes customer service too complex. They can choose to remain mute and not answer the customers’ questions online. However, I would warmly advise you not to think this way. Why not?

What is now considered extra work, will soon become the norm. More and more people will discover the benefits of asking questions through Twitter or Facebook. Gradually the telephone use flow will decrease, and the social media flow will increase. It’s best to adapt to this new situation now and not in a few months or years.

Social media and especially Twitter, urges people to be clear and concise. This way many customers will ask straightforward questions. Internally you can pass these questions on to the right people in your team, who can come up with the correct answer. It avoids some typical back and forth communication. With the right tool, frequently asked questions can even be answered automatically, further improving your speed of service.

It can drastically reduce the cost of your callcenter. After receiving a complaint, you can quickly send out a message such as ‘We noticed you had an issue with our product. Please pass us your customer number so that we can help you.’ The customer feels as if he is being helped instantly, while the customer service employee does not lose time waiting untill the customer passes his customer number. In fact, he or she

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can answer other questions in the meantime!

It takes a lot of stress away from the customer service employees, as they have to deal less with impatient men or women at the other side of the line.

Your social media customer service will be visible to everyone online. If you handle your customers’ questions in a polite and efficient way, your brand’s reputation will definitely get a boost!

How should we get this organized?

At the moment, many companies still use a variety of tools and services to handle their online presence. However, managing it all from one and the same tool, is the best solution: it’s a time-saver, supports your workflow and it keeps everything structured.

Expand your customer service with social media Will you handle all messages in which your brand is mentioned, or just the ones that are directly addressed to you? An example: MissY tweets – “I hate my phone company! This is already the second time this week I can’t send any texts! #companyX” MissE tweets – “@companyX I can’t send any texts. What’s the matter? #already-second-time-this-week” As CompanyX, you can decide whether you will answer in both scenarios, or only in the second case.

The second tweet is really one you can’t deny.

If you do deny it, chances are high this MissE will send another tweet into the world, complaining about not even getting a response from you.

Make sure to always handle messages that are addressed to you.

The first tweet however, opens up an opportunity: it’s not like MissY is asking for help, but she is still tweeting for a reason. Reaching out to her will really help your reputation. It positions your brand as caring and helpful. No doubt very soon

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Social media is changing the way companies need to work these customers will start praising your customer service. At least that’s what I do when I’m pleased with a company’s support, even when I did not really ask for it. Free publicity that is!

To remember Social media is changing the way companies need to work, whether you like it or not. This definitely brings about many many challenges, but it also provides new opportunities. With social media there now is a direct line between your company and the people you want to engage with. It allows you to build up a long-term and loyal relationship with them, based on user experience and conversation.

Oh, and one more advice: don’t be afraid for the negative comments that will be visible to everyone out there. And definitely don’t try to hide or erase them (from your Facebook page for example). Perfect people don’t exist and neither do perfect companies. You can only show you are trying.

Create a free 14-day trial and start using the Engagor Inbox as the perfect Customer Relations Tool.

that help you to follow up on marketing campaigns, your online reputation, your social profiles, etc. Finally the tool helps companies to manage all their social profiles from one place: post new content, comment on status updates or tweets, reply to customers, etc. Engagor is used by many companies in different industries, all over the world. Some of their customers are Microsoft, Ikea, Volvo, the European Parliament and Carlsberg.

by Lien Brusselmans

Lien Brusselmans graduated in June 2010 as Master in Linguistics and Literature: English-Spanish. She finished her education with a Teacher Training but eventually decided on

What is Engagor?

Engagor is an online tool for social media monitoring, analytics and engagement. With Engagor you can follow the online conversation about your brand, your competitors or your industry.

The tool covers a wide variety of sources, including social media, news sites, forums and blogs.

Engagor also offers many meaningful analytics

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discovering the business world. In February 2012 she started working as Marketing Manager at Engagor, an online tool for social media monitoring, analytics and engagement. Here she's responsible of everything concerning marketing and communication. In this fast-growing start-up Lien is rapidly gaining experience, which she is happy to share with the world in frequent blog posts.

December 2012

Create Customer Amazement TM

Three Customer Service Strategies to Take You into the Future

by Shep Hyken To be the most effective, customer service must constantly evolve and keep up with changing trends. Here are three strategies for successful customer service today:

No. 1: Connect through Social Media Like it or not, social media is here to stay, and you must find ways to make it work for you. Your customers use social media to comment on your business, and their friends and acquaintances read their comments. You need to monitor social media channels like Twitter and Facebook to be aware of the buzz about your business – are you getting good reviews or complaints? Interact with customers, thank them for positive comments and for their patronage, and quickly correct any complaints.

Look at complaints as a PR opportunity and use social media channels to start a conversation – tell the customer and his or her followers what you will do to remedy any problems. You can turn negative feedback around to your advantage.

And go beyond just using social media to react and respond – actively use these channels to create more value and interest for your customer.

Offer suggestions and tips about the use of your product, highlight special customers, and make your presence known to current and potential clients in the social media community.

your product’s features, including videos created by you as well as by customers sharing their personal experiences with the product or service, or simply offering testimonials. Much that has traditionally been in print form, such as product manuals and support information, could also be offered in video format.

But, understand that this is an ongoing project – one video will fade away, so you must post new videos every week or month to keep it fresh. Be sure your descriptions optimize the YouTube search engine (which is owned

by Google).

The YouTube strategy falls under the category of customer service, rather than marketing, because it is a way to give the existing customer a value-added experience.

Continue to build your customer focused culture by hiring the right people

No. 3: Don’t Forget the Basics

In your quest to connect with customers by keeping up with the latest technology, don’t let the proven basics of customer service fall away. Continue to build your customer focused culture by hiring the right people, training them well and managing effectively.

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

No. 2: Build a YouTube Channel YouTube is much more than music videos and cute kittens. Smart businesses are using it to connect with the world by offering informational videos and more. You could feature videos that teach about

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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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