SOLD Mar'2013 by Elena Bereschinova

№ 21

March 2013

NETWORKING ON THE EDGE Connect with only the most valuable prospects DAVID STEEL explains how to become a dangerous networker p.14

MICHAEL GOLDBERG answers the networking questions from top sales guns p.18

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.youcan2013.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: David Steel and Michael Goldberg Contributors: Colleen Stanley, Holly Gage, Jeff Koser, Mark Gibson, BRODY, Deborah Gardner, Dr. Jim Anderson, Craig James, Lynn Hunsaker, Jeannie Walters COLUMNISTS: Jeff and Chad Koser, Jason Forrest, Stan Billue, Sean McPheat, Maura L. Schreier-Fleming, Dan Waldschmidt, Michelle Mazur, Phil Waknell, Peter Temple, Greg Williams, John Brubaker, Shep Hyken Owned and Operated by CENTE MEDIA, LLC. 1800 Pembrook Dr Ste 300 Orlando, Florida 32810

Are you ready to be dangerous? It’s a quality you wouldn’t expect to strengthen your relationships with your customers… but it will. In fact, they are likely to reward you for being “armed and dangerous.” Arm yourself with the content your customers seek and you'll build trust. Freely share that great content in social media and industry forums and you’ll build a solid network through association and participation. Like a rock star, you’ll be perceived as being dangerous, but having a presence your customers can’t resist.

Networking is a skill—learn it! You’re not alone when it comes to misunderstanding networking and missing its golden opportunities. Networking even challenges the champions in your sales arena. The good news is that networking is a skill you can learn… and with it you could quite possibly replace one of those sales champions. Successful networking is all about the right approach in the right place, being a good listener and helping customers solve their problems with the right information.

SOLDLAB.com: the core of your network One of the important takeaways from this month’s issue is that information drives successful networking… and SOLDLAB.com is central to that success. You’ll learn more about networking and many other topics that are important to your sales effort. Plus, you just might find the one kernel of information that will help a customer move forward… and take you with him or her! SOLDLAB.com is always buzzing 24/7 with new ideas, the latest insights and powerful podcasts. Our Facebook page and Twitter feed are part of the SOLDLAB.com network and your first stop for updates.

Keep on Closing!

CONTENTS 06

06 Busy or Productive 08 Can You Train a Man to Sell as One Would Train a Parrot? 10 Chasing Zebras. Selling to Zebras. The Untold Story… For Salespeople. Chapters 33-36 12 Creating Urgency for Sales Success. Maintaining Your Position of Strength

14 How to Be Dangerous 18 Networking Hang Ups... and What to Do about Them

21 Stop Chasing Every Prospect 24 Success Secrets from a Sales Super Star. Profitable Prospecting and Notable Networking

26 Can You Send Me a Sales Proposal? – I'm Sorry, We Don't Do Proposals 30 Selling on the Edge. How to Stop Being a Creepy, Annoying Sales Networker 31 SOLD Q&A. Ask the Sales Pro 32 Sean McPheat's Money Magnets. Top Tips for Getting a Warm Response from a Cold Call

March 2013

March 2013 34 Why Every Professional Needs to Master Presentation Skills 44 Presentation 2.0. The ABC of Preparation 46 Visually Speaking. How to Make Graphs Persuasive and “Active” 48 Pitch Perfekt Presentation. Fearless Speaking?

52 Negotiating Is the Game of Life

56 Selling Around Objections 58 The Secret to Dealing with Deadlines: What Negotiators Need to Know 60 Advice from the Master Negotiator. Negotiation, Networking and Body Language Tips that Turn You into a Superstar

62 Increasing Customer-Focus in Voice of the Customer for Business Results 65 Execs Still Don’t Get Customer Experience 67 Create Customer Amazement TM. Before You Can Be Customer Centric, You Must Be Employee Centric

68 The Coach Approach. Got Lagniappe?

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Busy or Productive What Will You Stop Doing in 2013? 6|

March 2013

It’s first quarter and you have 10 months to achieve your sales quota. Your focus is probably on what you are going to do. Perhaps it’s time to change your perspective and ask the question: WHAT WILL YOU STOP DOING IN 2013? It’s easy to keep doing what you’re doing, even if it’s not producing the best and most consistent results. We get caught up in being busy, rather than productive. (Can anyone, besides me, relate to a picture of a gerbil on the treadmill?) Hop off the sales treadmill, slow down, and analyze your business from 2012. Make it a goal to work smarter in 2013.

he first item on your working smarter agenda is conducting a win-loss analysis of sales in 2012. Do you know why you won business? Lost business? If not, there is a good chance the only sales strategy you are deploying is the ‘shot in the dark’ approach.’ Here are a few win-loss analysis questions to get you started on stopping. STOP CALLING ON CHEAP PROSPECTS. The internet has changed the game of business and sales. Look for buyers and markets where the expertise and personal touch of a salesperson is still valued. For example, in our business, we focus on fast growth companies. The vice president of sales in these organizations is stretched too thin. She values the shortcut we provide as her partner in training and coaching. We also win business with prospects that are involved in a complex, business to business, sale where they sell on value, not price. We don’t win business where sales are viewed as transactional because those prospects value only one thing: low price. STOP CALLING ON NON-DECISION MAKERS. You might be calling on the right vertical but not connecting with the right decision maker. This sales challenge is often misdiagnosed in sales organizations. The CEO or sales director keeps preaching to the salesperson that he needs to call on the ‘C-suite.’

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Sales leaders, apply some common sense. Your salesperson knows what to do. (You’ve had this conversation more than once.) In over two decades of working with salespeople, I find that the real reason they are not calling on the right decision maker is due to lack of emotional intelligence skills such as self regard and assertiveness. A salesperson with high self regard, shows up to sales meetings confident of his ability to hold a conversation with a buyer that has a bigger title and a bigger office. He knows that he is an expert in his field and recognizes the contribution his product or service makes to a potential buyer’s business.

Confident salespeople ask for what they need in order to conduct a win-win business transaction |7

The salesperson lacking confidence spends most of his time worrying that he will get asked a question that he won’t have the answer to. As a result, he doesn’t even ask for the meeting—he just sits in his office worrying about a sales meeting that is never going to happen! Assertiveness is the ability to state what you need nicely, without becoming offensive or aggressive. Confident salespeople ask for what they need in order to conduct a win-win business transaction. And what they need, is an audience with the buyers that are going to be impacted by the buying decision. The non-assertive salesperson goes along to get along. He is uncomfortable asking for the appropriate meetings and keeps ‘busy’ writing practice proposals. STOP THE INSANITY. Insanity has been defined as doing the same behavior and expecting different results. Analyze your business and determine what sales activity is generating the most profitable sales. Is it cold calling, email, referral partners, client referrals, social media, association involvement, speaking, PR? Your leads group might be fun. Is it yielding any results? You love tweeting and hooting. Is your prospect listening and responding? You are on several association committees. Are you meeting anyone or putting in a lot of work for nothing? In 2013, ask yourself daily if you are being busy or productive. Get off the sales treadmill with the endless loop to nothing. Call on the right prospects and meet with organizations that treat you like a partner and are willing to invest in your services. Meet with the right decision makers and quit settling for low hanging fruit meetings. Execute a business development plan that gets you an audience with the right prospects at the right level. What will you stop doing in 2013? Good Selling! by Colleen Stanley

Colleen Stanley is the president of SalesLeadership Inc., a business development consulting firm specializing in sales and sales management training. The company provides programs in prospecting, referral strategies, consultative sales training, sales management training, and hiring/selection. She is also the author of “Growing Great Sales Teams: Lessons from the Cornfield.” Reach Colleen at 303.708.1128 or

Can You Train a Man To Sell As One Would Train a Parrot? Sales Advice from 1927 Recently I was sorting through a pile of books that had belonged to my grandmother, and I came across a little gem: a book of lectures on salesmanship published in 1927. The author of the book, William G. Fern, was apparently a motivational speaker in his day and had previously published books with great titles including: Marvels of Will Power, Developing Man Power, and, my favorite, Are You Upward Bound? This book opened a door onto the world of salesmanship in Britain in an era in which it was “somewhat infra dig to talk about sales people; you call them ‘commercial travelers.’” Indeed, The Master Salesman was published in the same year that saw the first transatlantic phone call from New York to London. Selling and attitudes toward selling in 1927 Britain were very different: “My bank friend says, ‘Well, I think salesmanship is absolutely unnecessary in a bank.” That is the trouble with banks, insurance companies, and civil servants, for they all think in the same way, to a large degree, that selling does not affect them; someday, sometime, somebody will wake them up.” Although perhaps some things haven’t really changed:

visit www.salesleadershipdevelopment.com.

March 2013

A lot of people expect sales without building up confidence first. Lots of people want orders before they have done anything to establish confidence. William Fern was not afraid to share his opinions, and, from the tone of his lectures, he certainly didn’t lack confidence himself. Here are some of my favorite nuggets of Fern wisdom: “Appreciate yourself. The most successful marriage belongs to the man who is wise enough to sell himself every day to his wife. So you have to build appreciation, because what is the successful marriage but passing out your good points to the one who matters? “I have been able to analyze quite a lot of people and quite a number of marriages. I know this, that successful marriages always happen to the women who are wise enough to say, ‘By Jove, yes, splendid, you did that remarkably well.’ ‘Yes, my dear.’” “If a man wants a car, do not try to sell him butter.” “You will find that the average traveler (salesperson) thinks he has done all his duty when he has shown the samples in his bag, in an endeavor to get business; the result is that he keeps on travelling. That is one reason why some people in this country cannot, or do not, sell goods – because they think it is only necessary to travel and not to sell.” Do you know why we cannot find salesmen in this country? Because many have ‘wishbones’ instead of ‘backbones. “We are all salespeople; please do not advertise the fact that we are not. We all have something to sell; please accept that fact. If the people of England would accept the fact that we are all salespeople, the sooner we would succeed.” “Get up every morning and say, ‘I am a man of action.’” “The English are the hardest sales resisting people in the world. To sell in this country is a great task, and there is an increasing need for people who can sell. Americans come over here and give it up in disgust.”

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Many salesmen have ‘wishbones’ instead of ‘backbones’ But what of our title? Did William Fern really believe that you can train a man to sell as one would train a parrot? I’ll let him have the final word: “Unfortunately for those so misguided, the buyer is always a variable.” Do Fern’s lessons hold true today? by Holly Gage

Holly Gage is Marketing Director EMEA for The Forum Corporation, a global learning organisation. She has been with Forum for seven years, during which time she has worked in Singapore and London. www.forum.com

Chasing Zebras

Selling to Zebras

The Untold Story… For Salespeople Chapters 33-36 by Jeff Koser | Chad Koser

Selling to Zebras The Untold Story… For salespeople

OR purchase the eBook directly from Amazon.com -Find Your Stripes!

Chapters Chapter 33 – Turning process into action Chapter 34 – Life through zebra glasses Chapter 35 – Scotty is fired Chapter 36 – The year of the Zebra Epilogue

Jeff Koser Chad Koser

Chapter 33 – Turning process into action Chapter 34 – Life through zebra glasses Chapter 35 – Scotty is fired Chapter 36 – The year of the Zebra

Everyone buys in! Zebra creation has been established, documented and presented. Share in Kurt’s excitement to roll it out and execute. And Scotty’s future?? The epilogue describes the year’s progress and results. The Year of the ZEBRA! Did you miss the previous chapters? If so, they are available through SOLD; previous issues. www.soldlab.com/archive

Chapter 33 Kent and I share a cab to the airport. I have been excited to discuss the enthusiasm among our peers. I share my meeting notes with Kent and explain that I have added the Zebra score to my list of key salesproductivity metrics: Sales productivity is measured in terms of: Actual sales productivity as percentage of quota by division, sales manager, sales representative, and presales consultant. Revenue generated per sales team head count. Revenue generated per sales expense dollar. Pipeline close rate. Average age of pipeline (because time kills all deals) Average Zebra score. Link to remaining chapters

Jeff Koser is the 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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March 2013

info@sellingtozebras.com

Creating Urgency for Sales Success Maintaining Your Position of Strength by Jason Forrest In order to maintain your position of strength, you must accept and execute your role as the leader in the sales professional to customer relationship. As the person who knows the most about your product, you are the natural leader in the relationship. You are like an experienced mountain guide who knows every twig, every stone and every fork in the trail while your typical prospect is an amateur climber who needs and desires your leadership in order to reach the summit. Without you, they cannot make the journey. Therefore, you must act as their leader so that they can find the product that improves their lives. It can be difficult to assert your position of strength when the economy is down and customers know they have the upper hand. It’s simple supply and demand. The reality is that when you have more demand than you have supply, it’s a seller’s market. And when you have more supply than demand, it’s a buyer’s market. A toy store during the holidays is an example of a seller’s market. That’s a time of year when customers are eager to find and buy the year’s hot toy before someone else snatches it up. In a troubled market, the atmosphere is much different. Buyers don’t burst through the door with urgency. Their lack of enthusiasm drains the energy right out of you, so you might not feel eager to talk with them. You might just greet them and hand them a brochure or some prices. This does not make you a bad person. It just proves that, when you allow the customer to hold the position

Many sales professionals don’t see the difference between persuasion and manipulation 12 |

of strength, the sale can take a bad turn. The key is to gain and maintain control no matter the market by finding ways to change the position of strength to your favor. And just to ease your mind – I’m not talking about being manipulative. But I am talking about being persuasive. What’s the difference? Intent. Persuaders use their position of strength for the customer’s benefit and wellbeing. Manipulators have ulterior motives, and are concerned only with their own wellbeing. Their goal is to coerce the prospect to purchase regardless of whether or not the product satisfies their needs, wants or budget. Unfortunately, many sales professionals don’t see the difference between persuasion and manipulation. They feel that they are one in the same, so they shy away from persuasion. To avoid coming across as aggressive, pushy and manipulative, they try to become the customer’s friend. They essentially abandon their position of strength and hand it over to the customer. An example of this would be giving the customer the information and then sending them on their way to make a decision without you. How can you help the customer make the right decision for them if you aren’t there to help identify their needs and what you have to offer? Walking a prospect through the process is just one way to exercise your position of strength. If you struggle with persuasion, you need to change your perception of it. Early in life, I learned that the way I see the world affects how I interpret things. And my perception of the world is created by the experiences of my past. For example, let’s say that as a young child you had a terrifying experience on an airplane. You flew through a thunderstorm at night, and the turbulence made you feel as if the plane were going to fall from the sky at any moment. As an adult, you would probably approach airplanes with an understandable fear. Many others, however, might perceive flying to be a safe and even fun way to travel. They could step into an airplane without giving it a second thought. If you want to be like these people, and rid yourself of the fear of flying, you will have to work on undoing the damage from your past experiences and change your perception of flying. That’s not

March 2013

an easy task, but with the right support and education, it certainly is doable. Like the young child on the nerve-wracking flight, many sales professionals have had negative experiences with salespeople in their past. Maybe they tagged along with their father to the used car lot and heard his speech that salespeople are con-artists whose goal is to rip you off. Or, perhaps they’ve dealt with a lot of rude, self-serving telemarketers. Whatever the case, encounters with manipulative people can leave a bad taste in our mouths and the desire to never, ever behave that way towards our customers. If this is you, if you are fearful that maintaining a position of strength will scare away your customers, I challenge you to change your perception of persuasion and see it for the positive tool that it is. When you engage in persuasion, you are building a case for your product so that the customer may make an informed purchase decision. There is nothing unethical about it. You uncover the customer’s needs and wants, provide the customer with solid, honest information about the products that satisfy those needs and wants, get their feedback, answer their questions,

www.soldlab.com

and then invite them to close on the product that best improves their lives. No games. No tricks. If you’re concerned that you’re being manipulative, examine your intent and determine whose interests you have in mind. If you’re looking out for the customer, you’re engaging in persuasion and you’re good to go. If you only care about your own wellbeing, you need to reevaluate your priorities and seek a change of heart. If you’re looking out for your prospect and genuinely leading them toward the product that will improve their lives – keep going. And feel good about it too. One of Training magazine's Top Young Trainers of 2013,

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 40-Day 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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How to Be Dangerous If you have gone through any sales training courses in the last 20 years, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve probably noticed that nothing has significantly has changed. There is still the division from transactional sales and the consultative sales, and the divide between them seems to be getting bigger over time.

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March 2013

his gap is not only apart in direct sales, but in networking as well. We need to appear to everyone around us; customers, competition, industry observers and alike. It is all about shining brighter and having people look for us because we are more knowledgeable and in the long run will help them make a better choice. It is not easy to make the transition from salesperson to Rock Star. Why? One reason is that we are all asked to do more with less, and that holds true for both the sales side and the buying side. Buyers are forced to use gatekeepers, and those gatekeepers are giving technology. I often refer to the gatekeepers as the sharks and the technology as lasers (“Sharks with Lasers” for all of you Austin Powers’s fans out there). The divide has also gotten larger because of the Internet. Buyers have so much information at their fingertips these days that they feel they know more than the salesperson who is trying to solicit their business. We will assume that is not the case, only the perspective of the buyer. This model has to change. No longer can we go from professional visitor to price seller and bridge the gap with extraordinary probing to get to needs satisfaction seller, because we are not even getting in front of the buyer. These days the buyer is often making a decision without meeting with anyone. A savvy buyer can do the research and legwork to come to a decision by themselves without ever leaving the comfort of their couch. The internet has made prospective clients feel powerful in that they have, what they believe to be, everything at their finger tips. We need a better way. So, why not fight fire with fire and use the Internet to bypass the entire traditional sales model? There are three phases to the new model that I am proposing: Almost dangerous: where customers tell you who they are Dangerous: where customers accept your phone call Dominating: where customers call you For this article we are just going to get you to be Dangerous. To be dangerous we need to have an arsenal

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of content (the information inside your head) that differentiates you from everyone else. This is the reason you might often brag about the fact that customers buy your product because of. We need to get that information out to your buying audience. Earlier, I talked about a buyer making decisions and being smarter than a lot of sales people. The information that the buyer is arming themselves with is the information we need to get out there. This content must build Trust through Knowledge, Association and Participation. It does not matter if your product or service is a commodity or the best thing since sliced bread. You need to become the go-to person for information. Next, we must make it easy for the person to get to you. That means you must be everywhere. So, get on your computer and start signing up for social media applications as well as industry forums. Participate. Give your knowledge away, and do so without trying to sell anything. You will soon begin to notice buyers and other people in your industry will start to engage you. Unless you have top secret information that you can not share with the public, don’t be afraid to put it out there. If you are worried that your competition will get a hold of your information, don’t worry about it. They probably already have it. Being out there with great content makes us almost dangerous. Customers will start to relinquish their anonymity. The key is one size does not fit all. The content offered must be what that particular prospect is looking for. For example let us say you are a realtor that sells commercial and residential properties. Those are two different buyers and each wants to deal with an expert in the property they are looking for. You would steer commercial property buyers toward one type of content maybe an eBook on how to buy a commercial property, however that is even too vague as we want to be specific. Remember, the more specific the content the more credible you become, and you can’t be all things to all people. We begin by segmenting customers down to their buying needs and where they are in the buying process. From that one example we might have a certain amount of content created for the person just starting to look at commercial property for an investment, another for someone looking for commercial

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property for themselves (or the company they work for), and yet another for a person who has found the property already and is negotiating a lease. It is like this, often times we explain to prospects, one way or another, the reason to buy from me is because of my expertise. All I am asking is for you to put your expertise out there and take nothing for granted. What you have learned from years on the job may be something you take for granted and way above your audiences ability to grasp the information. I recently made predictions for 2013. One of which is that the phone will be the cornerstone of sales strategy in the upcoming year. That alone may be counter intuitive to what I described as the “old sales model” no longer being as effective. However, combined with the right strategy of becoming an industry expert, the right highly targeted buyer will start accepting your call, or at least call you back. In the past, using traditional marketing we were told to take an average of all of our customers’ attributes to come up with an Avatar, a person who looks like all of our customers, but at the same time none of our specific customers. However, using social media, we are able to target the exact customer we want and duplicate that process over and over again. Using social media we can find that prospect and their interests, hobbies and the like. Probably more information than we want, and more than they want us to know. We can then find out what groups they belong to, associates they may have, etc. Using this information we can then target the customer specifically. Imagine this scenario; you are watching at your favorite sporting event. You see your prospect in a crowd of 30,000 people and you are able to place a piece of paper on his chair before he sits down, before he even knows that he wants what you are selling. Not only do you place it there, but on the seat of their car, on their front porch, desk at work… everywhere they look. If there is value in what you leave, eventually they will read it. Social media works the same way. We can leave information for a person or group of people over and over again. Information that helps them make buying decisions. What do you think is going to happen when you call that buyer now?

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What do you think is going to happen when you call a buyer when they already perceive you as a Rock Star? If the content you provide has value, and is given to the right audience, they will find the right time to read it. Unfortunately it is going to take a lot more to find out when that right time is, but if you do it often enough, the odds are going to be in your favor that the customer will be receptive. What problem does your product or service solve? Type that problem into a search engine to see what comes up. In particular, look for forums or discussion groups and read what they are saying. The more information you give the more notoriety you will receive. All we are looking to do is become an expert to that one person who is looking for our products or services. Unless you’re in an industry with top-secret information, don’t be afraid if your competition obtains the information. Often time’s competitors will end up spending more time on you and less time in the field. Bombard your industry with your knowledge. Become a Rock Star. It is time to create your own social media marketing strategy that targets your customers with content that is focused on value. You need to stand out, become a Rock Star and engage your customers where they hang out online and build trust. So that the next time you pick up the phone, the buyer will be ready to take that call. Put yourself out their spread the knowledge and wealth of information you have stored up and outshine everyone around you. Then you will become dangerous. by David Steel for Sold Magazine 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

March 2013

Networking Hang Ups... and What to Do about Them

few weeks back, I spoke at a conference to a group of insurance sales folks. Not just any group of insurance sales folks but the sales leaders, top guns, big kahunas, crème de la crème – you get the idea. This group represented a huge slice of the northeast region so the meeting was a pretty big deal. The topic was networking and I started by asking about some of the specific networking related questions they had. Remember, these are top sales reps – did I mention that? I captured many of their questions on index cards so their responses remained anonymous, and therefore honest. The questions that these top producers asked might be surprising to you – I mean they are top producers. But here’s the point. Many of us have the same questions with regard to networking – no matter how successful or seasoned in a given field. And so it goes for meeting professionals, financial advisors, realtors, professional speakers, et al. As a sales professional (in whatever industry) you might “talk

18 |

good” or be outgoing (or not) but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a great networker. Below are some of the “top producer” questions and my responses.

How do I open a discussion at an event or meeting if I don’t know anyone? The easy way would be to approach someone that is alone. Don’t worry; they’re probably thinking the same thing as you. A good start would be to introduce yourself and ask what brings them there. Ask them what they do, how they do it, and perhaps how they market their business (one of my favorite questions). You might get lucky and they may ask about you too. It happens! Often enough, I don’t even mention work stuff – I may mention the ball game last night or some other event that might make fun conversation. I’m all about talking about the fun stuff! How can you go wrong? If you’re having fun, it’s easy to parlay your conversation into business. And it doesn’t have to be right there at the event – it can be in the follow up.

March 2013

What’s the rush? The not so easy way would be to politely interrupt a conversation and introduce yourself to all parties. If they’re nice, they’ll do the same. If not, they may call security. (I doubt it.) Either way, do your best to make your conversation about them. How do I find the best places to network – where people I need to know are? A better question might be, “Who do you need to know?” Are you looking to meet meeting planners, public school superintendents, or commercial property owners? If you know this, you might be able to determine where they hang out. Are there associations or conferences coming up aimed at these professions? Do people in your network know who you are looking to meet? (Do you?) Have you asked them? Can they provide an introduction?

How do I stay focused on those with whom I am speaking? Ever watch Will and Grace? In one episode, all four main characters – Will, Grace, Jack, and Karen – are at a cocktail party. They’re schmoozing with a group of folks and Karen (who is very obnoxious) eyes another group entering the room. She exclaims, “Gotta go, better people!” Funny on TV, rude in real life. Stay focused on those with whom you are speaking by being attentive and engaged in your conversation. Be polite when the conversation ends (hopefully within a few minutes) and either collect a business card or exchange handshakes with a ‘nice to meet you’. Or politely excuse yourself if you must and promise to circle back. The ‘better people’ will be there later.

How do I listen better? When someone is speaking to you, it’s common to focus on what you’re going to say next rather than on what’s being said to you. See how you are? A good listening exercise is to restate (or paraphrase) what is being said to you whenever possible, reflect on emotion, summarize for clarity, and ask questions when you want to know more or take the conversation elsewhere. (Any questions?) Your intention has to be to actively listen to what’s being said (tough for those of us that like to talk). Remember when the teacher would say, “The following will be on the test on Friday.” You were listening then, right? That’s actively listening. (Hint: Works best when not texting or peeking at the iPhone.)

www.soldlab.com

How do you follow through on contacts and cultivate the relationship? The best way to follow through on contacts you make at an event is to take the lead and do what you can to help them. Offer them information about meetings they should attend, articles they should read, and people they should meet. If you know they do great work, give them referrals – lots of them. Relationships happen at the speed of trust – so go out of your way to build it.

How do I gain more confidence while networking?

Your goal should be to learn from and help everyone you meet. (Well, not everyone. Just those you like! But that’s another article for another day.) How? Ask them questions, clarify their responses, and give them info they need if you can. If you can’t, introduce them to those that can. When you help others, it takes the pressure off of selling them (which you shouldn’t be doing anyway). No pressure, no problem, mom. If you connect with someone and genuinely try to help, they may return the favor – for the long haul. You will gain greater confidence as you get better at helping people and communicating (when asked) how they can help you. That’s how it works. Try it and see. Feeling more confident yet?

How do I strengthen networking with key partners? Easy answer – give tons of referrals and information to those with whom you partner provided they are competent, credible, and ethical in their practices.

Ability to network and exchange business increases in direct proportion to how quickly the relationship does | 19

If they aren’t and you refer them business anyway, it will make you look bad. Real bad. You need to give to get. Not so easy answer – if you give lots of referrals to your key partners and get nada, it’s time to get new key partners. Or time for an uncomfortable conversation (if you’re comfortable with that). Your lead in may sound something like this. I think we should discuss how we can refer more business to one another. What is an ideal referral (piece of business) for you? An ideal referral for me is… In the meeting, focus on your key partner first. How can I help you more? You may not want to mention how much you give and how little you get. Then again, you might. If you don’t get a positive reaction from your key partner (or it’s all one sided,) guess what? They’re not your key partner! Remember, your ability to network and exchange business increases in direct proportion to how quickly the relationship does.

How do I leverage friendships into business contacts? (Without jeopardizing the friendship) Same as above. Meet and find out how you can help them and teach them how they might help you. It’s all about openness and education. Just don’t be too pushy – good friends are hard to come by.

What events have the least amount of competitors? I find that associations aimed at your target market are great places to find the least amount of folks that do what you do. And the best place to meet those in your target market. Of course, it helps to have a target market. Ask yourself, what industries, professions, or types of individuals do you like to work with? What type of prospect is a good (or the best) fit for you? What type of prospect is in dire need of your products

and services? (And it can’t be everyone, someone, or anyone because that leads to…you guessed it…no one!) Once you figure your target market out, find the most respected association that supports that market. How? Just go to your favorite search engine and press the buttons.

How do I get referrals from existing clients? Just ask them. But not when you close the sale. I know, I know. Your sales manager wants you to ask for referrals when you close the business, sign the case, and seal the deal. Or you as a sales person feel you should. Question – have you had an opportunity to deliver great service? Establish trust? Build confidence? Develop a body of work? Earn the right to be referable? The reason it’s tough to ask for the referral right away is because you haven’t accomplished any of this – yet. When the time is right (and only you will know), ask your clients a few questions. Can you give me some feedback about our working relationship? Why do you work with me? How have I provided value? What areas can I improve? How can I help you more? Ideally, the people (or companies) I help best are…. If you would be open to introducing me to (name specific economic buyer by title or name), I would appreciate it. Bottom line, this networking stuff takes a lot of work and some guts. The good news is after a while, it takes less of both. If networking was easy, then all sales people would be doing it. Of course, networking may not be for you. It may not fit into your business model. Heck, you may not see the value. It might require too much time, too much giving, too much follow up. And there’s so much to it! How would you keep up with all those contacts, leads, and referrals anyway? Maybe it’s easier to just cold call. 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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March 2013

Stop Chasing Every Prospect Or Risk Squandering Time, Resources and the Opportunity for Success Don’t pursue every lead. That’s a hard message for salespeople to hear. But even the most competitive salesperson in a moment of self-reflection will admit that some prospects just aren’t worth chasing. Of course, it’s usually the prospect with little money to spend that is easily rejected. Any salesperson can shrug off that deal. The trick is to learn to walk away from a prospect with deep pockets when that prospect is not the right fit.

Determining prospects that are the right fit Too often, salespeople consider a prospect worthy of pursuit if it has two attributes: The company is a target market for the products/services being sold. It has sufficient resources to be worth the salesperson’s while. Unfortunately, this often results in time that is wasted pursuing accounts that were never going to break a salesperson’s way. For example, an enormous amount of personal and company time may be spent responding to the RFP (Request for Proposal) of a company that meets these two criteria. This is almost always time that is wasted. RFP’s are usually done to meet government or corporate requirements to put work out to bid. In reality, a vendor is already chosen (at least informally), and often the RFP is written to that vendor’s strengths. Meanwhile, multiple companies jump through hoops to meet the RFP requirements, committing time, talent and money that would be better spent elsewhere. To avoid this trap, it is imperative to know all of the attributes of a strong prospect. And there is no standard list. The attributes of a good prospect

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will vary from one company to the next. For example, the perfect prospect for two services firms in the same industry such as a business consultancy might be very different. Two medical equipment manufacturers, in the same space, making the same or similar devices, might also have two very different perfect prospects. As a result, the only way to determine the right prospect is to analyze the customer base and identify who the company’s best customers are and why. This will determine the attributes of the ideal prospect.

Conducting a customer analysis Once again, when evaluating customers it is important to look beyond just how much they spend and how much they need the product or service being sold. An evaluation of the customer base should identify all of the attributes that make a company a good fit. This is the profile of the ideal customer. Typically, it reveals the following:

Learn to walk away from a prospect with deep pockets when that prospect is not the right fit | 21

The customer’s needs match the solution offered There is a strong fit between the two companies philosophically, demographically, politically and culturally The customer appreciates the way the company sells The company is given or is able to earn access to key decision-makers The customer is ready to buy if the return on investment is right The customer is a good fit relative to service, operations and technology When there is compatibility across all of these dimensions, long-lasting relationships tend to follow. This is another reason why it’s critical to target the best prospects when selling. It is much easier and less expensive to sell into existing accounts than new accounts.

Using the profile with prospects When applied to prospects, this profile narrows the field. Though this may sound discouraging on the face of it, it’s actually good news for the savvy salesperson. Time, effort and company resources can all be applied to prospects that are much more likely to buy. In addition, when the right prospects are targeted, sales cycles are shorter because access to key decision-makers is gained more quickly. And as mentioned, the right prospects tend to become long-term customers. So how is this profile used in the sales process? To be an effective tool, the profile must be written down and used as a guide throughout the sales process. There may be a tendency to want to fudge results if considerable time and effort has already been invested in a prospect and it is learned that there is

Determine the attributes of the best customers to develop a profile of the perfect prospect. Then use the profile as a guide throughout the sales process.

significant mismatch on an important dimension. This is a mistake. The best approach is to acknowledge the mismatch and adjust expectations. Accept it as a sign to proceed with caution. It may be that it’s merely a bump in the road and the companies are well-matched overall. However, if other mismatches crop up, then the prospect really isn’t ideal, and it’s better to recognize it and cut your losses.

Understanding the value of the perfect prospect profile The true value of a perfect prospect profile can only be appreciated over time as the results of its application become clear. Targeting ideal prospects will result in: more focused sales efforts a smaller number of sales being lost to competitors or ending in non-decision shorter sales cycles In addition, ideal prospects become ideal customers with whom long-standing relationships should be possible. So while it may go against the salesperson’s instincts to selectively pursue prospects, the benefits will be almost immediate and the long-term effects outstanding. Mismatches are not missed opportunities. In fact, all that is really missed is wasted time and effort. by Jeff Koser

Jeff Koser has more than thirty years of experience in consulting, executive sales management, business strategy, and sales enablement. In addition to his many speaking engagements, Jeff is co-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. And In 1999 founded Selling to Zebras, Inc. Selling to Zebras, Inc. is a sales enablement company offering unique, effective and winning sales solutions to businesses. Using the ZEBRAselling Process, Jeff and Selling to Zebras, Inc. have established a proven track record of successfully helping companies increase sales in a variety of industries. The ZEBRAselling process is chronicled in the book Selling to Zebras.

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March 2013

Get your copy of John Von Achen's latest audio book

free www.johnva.com/crisisproof-free4

Success Secrets from a Sales Super Star

Profitable Prospecting and Notable Networking 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 Although most Businesses and Salespeople agree that they need a constant supply of new Prospects to turn into Customers and/or Clients, most waste tons of money to buy Leads. In reality there are many sources which are available for little or no money. Depending on your Product or Service I urge you to determine how many of these Ideas and Tips you can use to dramatically increase your Market Share.

The Best Prospects in the World The greatest Sales Pros always agree that the very best Prospects in the World by far are Referrals. Of course if you don’t ask for them, the odds are that you won’t get them. Your goal should be to make every contact Profitable by asking on each and every contact. This especially holds true when talking with a Prospect who doesn’t Qualify or for whatever reason is not going to Buy from you. Since you’ve got some time, energy and money invested in reaching them and then you determine you’ll never speak with them

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again, why not invest another 30 to 60 seconds to try for a few Referrals? Asking for Referrals is much like trying to make a Sale by asking for an Order. You’ll need to make a Presentation as well as have prepared Answers to their Objections, which all need be Scripted and then Practiced, Drilled and Rehearsed. You’ll then need an additional Script and ways to handle their Brush Offs when you call on the actual Referral. Since Selling is a Numbers Game, you should start asking for Referrals on every single contact. An example might be; “Everyone I chat with is nice enough to share 2 or 3 quick names of folks who might be interested in (stress a benefit). Before you give me those names allow me to mention that I’ll simply give them a courtesy call, introduce myself and share a few brief details with them. Plus, I won’t even mention your name if you prefer. This might be a friend, business associate or someone you enjoy an activity with. Who’s the first person who comes to mind?” Once you start to master the art of getting

Your goal should be to make every contact Profitable

March 2013

Referrals, you’ll quickly appreciate how to identify Centers (COI) of Influence. A COI is a person who is so well liked or respected that whatever this person does in life, a majority of their friends and associates do the same things. Each COI can be good for 5 to 10 New Accounts for you over a year’s period of time.

Networking Tip # 1 – Associations One great way to gather a gold mine List of Names is to always ask each and every Prospect and Client what Associations or Organizations they belong to which are specific to their Industry. You might have to actually join to get a list of Members however many times these Lists are available if you simply ask for them. Once you locate one or more Centers of Influence and have their permission to use their Names(s), this can be like shooting Ducks in a Barrel.

Networking Tip # 2 – Trade Shows Another outstanding source of Leads can be created by always asking what Trade Shows or Conventions they attend which are specific to their Industry. You might want to attend or Exhibit or possibly even Speak at these events to quickly establish yourself as an In-

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dustry Expert and gain tremendous exposure. Even if you can’t attend or Exhibit or Speak at these events, you can at least try for a copy of the Attendee List and/ or the Exhibitor List and work them if there is a fit.

Networking Tip # 3 – Publications The last of the three killer areas to explore is Publications. Always consider asking what Publications they subscribe to which are specific to their Industry. You might want to Advertise or better yet, contribute something for them to print. On that subject, I highly recommend a Tip of the Month rather than 1 or 2 Articles per year. Even if you can’t or won’t write you can at least try for a copy of their Subscriber List. In the above examples, you should concentrate of learning the language of the particular Niche Market you are working in to help your Prospects better identify with you.

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

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Can You Send Me a Sales Proposal? – I'm Sorry, We Don't Do Proposals 26 |

March 2013

Why Responding to Proposals You Did not Influence Is a Bad Idea In sales we get the opportunity to learn lessons by making mistakes and those lessons usually serve us well through our careers.

ccasionally we get to learn the same lessons over again, either because it was so long since the last time it happened and we forgot, or maybe we moved into a new line of business and went along with the buyer's request, because we were learning the ropes in the new market. In December, I received two proposal requests; an inbound lead and an inbound phone call from seemingly genuine and very nice people. I typically generate about 50 inbound leads per month, but these are not proposal requests, they are downloads of ebooks or whitepapers or webinar registrations. I don't advocate salespeople selling complex B2B products sending proposals when they are solicited by prospective customers and they come out of the blue. Why? But what if the buyer has been reading your blogs for a while and follows you on Twitter....what's wrong with sending a proposal? To understand my reasoning on this point we need to take a closer look at how customers buy and I will use the IMPACT cycle from the book Why Killer Product's don't Sell, by Dominic Rowselll and Ian Gotts to illustrate this point.

The Universal Buying Process IMPACT There is a pathway or process that all organizations follow to reach purchasing decisions. This process

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does not vary across industries or even regions of the world, because it is inextricably linked to instinctive human behavior. It is just the speed that organizations or individuals travel through the process that differs. The process is called IMPACT.

Identify – Mentor – Position – Assessment – Case – Transaction The IMPACT process may be followed in a formal way or it may be tacit and informal. It may involve large numbers of people, both inside and outside the organization, or it may be driven by one individual. It is guaranteed that any idea which leads to a purchase in an organization, be it corporately or personally driven, has followed this process. The six key phases of the process are easy to remember as they have an enormous IMPACT on your company’s performance:

Every purchase goes through all six phases, with or without the supplier's assistance. What differs between the four different buying cultures is the point at which the supplier is given permission to engage with the customer and this is governed by product maturity and risk. If you are selling commodity products, you will be engaged at transaction.

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If you have a hot new disruptive technology product, early adopters looking for a jump on the competition will seek you out and you will be engaged at Mentor The reason that most salespeople don't recognize this process is because the customer goes through the process on their own, and only invites the supplier in for the last one or two steps. This correlates strongly with current research that indicates the buyer is 60-70% through the buying process when they first contact vendors. But more of this later. First, let’s understand the IMPACT process.

Phase 1: Identify

The identification of ideas for changing or improving a business that are good enough to warrant investigation. This is the ideas phase. This may be the executive team going on an offsite with strategic consultants to plan its future. The executive team will be looking for ways to grow revenues, create competitive advantage, increase shareholder value, contain or reduce costs. That is, it is “blue sky” thinking looking out into the future to see how technology will help the company become more competitive or impact its markets.

Phase 2: Mentor

Enrolling a mentor(evangelist) to the idea to validate it. The executive team will take the breakthrough ideas or big bets and give them to someone in senior management to act as a mentor for the ideas. These ideas are not for public consumption and the mentor should only work with his close team and trusted advisors to ratify the thinking. The mentor will be scoping and testing the ideas, reading thought leadership articles,

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The announcement of a new initiative is an announcement of impending change downloading whitepapers and looking for feasibility, credibility, and political acceptability as much as he can without drawing undue attention. If the decisions are not accepted then the ideas get buried forever. Mentor is the point of engagement for Value Created selling and the point at which The Challenger salesperson seeks to influence through insight.

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Phase 3: Position

The public decision to make resources and budget available to invest further in the idea. Buy-in is the big challenge because it involves managing politics. But why do politics play such a major part in this phase? The answer is simple. The announcement of a new initiative is an announcement of impending change. And change will always produce an upsurge of emotions, both positive and negative. The mentor will need to find a sponsor, because to move forward into the next phase will require resources (money, people, time) to assess the value of the initiative. The sponsor will be the person or body of people with enough political muscle to get the resources.

Phase 4: Assessment

use the output from the Assessment phase to build a business and investment Case, possibly including solutions. Then, the Case can have a budget actually assigned to it and will be made public. If the organization requires that all external purchases are done via competitive tender, then this is when those tender documents are created and distributed.

Phase 6: Transaction

The confirmation of the project to all internal and external stakeholders and to the suppliers. Procurement will raise a purchase order and negotiate contracts for the solution put forward in the Case. Depending on the solution, market and company approach procurement may need to drive a formal procurement with competitive tendering, beauty parades, and all the fun and games that this entails.

Conclusion

The assessment of the good and the bad in the idea. The Assessment phase plays a very important part in the post-Enron corporate world where legislation now ensures company officers are held accountable for their decisions. Particularly ones involving investment and strategic direction, which has made the Assessment phase a big hurdle. But the Assessment phase is not about cost justification, it is an evaluation of everything, both quantitative and qualitative. And some executives would see this as personal insurance, keeping them out of prison.

Phase 5: Case The creation of a quantified business case and assignment of resources/budget to it. The mentor will

If you have not influenced the buying process prior to Case and you are selling complex B2B technology, then the chances are that someone else has. The fact that the transaction is about to happen and you receive an invitation to respond typically means that someone else has been influencing the buying cycle and the customer is ready to make the buy. Because the buyer needs three bids, the usual suspects are rounded up with whispers of promise from the buyer are suppliers are enticed into providing a quotation. Your quotation serves as a benchmark against which the chosen vendor will be asked to compete on price. Unless you are selling commodities, say no to RFP's. by Mark Gibson 30 years in sales, sales management, business development, marketing, consulting and sales training in the technology business in Australia, EMEA and 12 years in Silicon Valley. Creating clarity in communicating value for Inbound Lead Generation and at moments of truth in front of customers.

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Selling on the Edge

How to Stop Being a Creepy, Annoying Sales Networker by Dan Waldschmidt Give it a rest. You don’t need to be prospecting all the time. It’s just flat out annoying. And creepy.

Stop it. Conventional sales wisdom has been telling us to prospect a little each day. Maybe it’s two hours each morning or a few minutes each afternoon – a little bit of Twitter, some LinkedIn group messaging, some Facebook photo swapping, and a little Quora question-and-answering. You are “out there” dropping virtual business cards and using any leverage you can master to get your message “heard”. It sounds good. It really does. There’s a big problem though…

It’s just not special. What you are doing doesn’t seem to matter. And so unfortunately that’s how you begin to act. You let other activities creep into your “allotted prospecting time”. But since it’s on your calendar you still count the activity as “finished”. You did nothing. —> You got nothing. —> And you keep doing it day after day like it’s working.

Always be dropping links to how amazing you are

It just doesn’t work. It seems logical that we should start prospecting a little each day. Always be dropping links to how amazing you are and why your products are so gorgeously amazing. And besides that being misguided activity in general. And creepy. It’s just NOT an efficient (or effective) use of your time. “Every day prospecting” generally leads to a lot of “half ass” activity.

That’s the ongoing pattern.

It’s a downward spiral of selfishly confused agitation. And here’s how you fix it all. You stop the daily churn. You chill out. You do a burst of prospecting at a time. You bury yourself undistracted in the task and power drive lists, connections, and potential relationships.

Here’s what will happen: You’ll find yourself making massive momentum in a short period of time and that leads to excitement and a brighter look at your future. It’s like a whole world of new options opens up to you. And frankly it has. You made it happen with focused bursts of time and attention.

It works. Try it next time you want to scare up more business. You’ll also find fewer friends avoiding you.

Dan Waldschmidt is an international business strategist, speaker, author, and extreme athlete. His consulting firm solves complex marketing and business strategy problems for savvy companies all over the world. Dow Jones calls his Edgy Conversations blog one of the top sales sites on the internet. He’s been profiled in Business Week, INC Magazine, BBC, Fox News, The Today Show, and Business Insider, has been the featured guest on dozens of radio programs, and has published hundreds of articles on progressive business strategy. He is author of the soon to be released Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Can Achieve Outrageous Success.

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March 2013

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

How does one sell to big companies?

Generally, selling to big companies is like selling to smaller companies. There's one big difference. It's often harder to get into big companies. Prospects are better able to "hide" behind administrative assistants and technology (voicemail) to dodge prospective salespeople. This means you have to take your "A game" to each part of the sales process. Be prepared and know the value of what you offer. First, do your best to get someone to refer you to the prospect. Next, if that's not possible, be very clear about why this prospect should take the time to meet with you. If you contact a prospect on the phone you have to immediately create interest in listening to you and engaging in a business conversation. You must concisely explain what you do and establish your credibility. Have a question ready that will drive a business conversation about your prospect's unique business situation that can be improved by your products or services. As the conversation continues, your objective will be helping the prospect see there's a reason to meet with you. Remember, your objective is to get the appointment so don't start selling anything other than getting the meeting. When you think of a big company like a small company, you can better target a division or smaller entity and start your sales process and be successful.

Are there times or types of sales where referral prospecting is not worth it?

Yes there are. Are you surprised I said that? There are times when businesspeople think they're giving you a referral and it's not. That's when the referral isn't the value you think it is. What do I mean? Say a customer or salesman tells you, "You should call John Doe. He would be a great prospect for you." You hear, "Great. I have a referral!" No, you don't. What you have is a name of someone. That's it. Here's what a great referral sounds like. "You should call John at Company X YZ. He would be a great prospect for you because he told me he is looking for (what you sell.) I know he has an issue that your products can solve. Here's his number, but I'm going to call him first to let you know that I told you to call him. I'll tell him that he should speak with you because you can solve (his problem).” Now do you see why some referral prospecting isn't worth it? Now you also know how to ask for and give great referrals!

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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Sean McPheat's Money Magnets

Top Tips for Getting a Warm Response from a Cold Call by Sean McPheat Every month, best-selling author and leading sales authority Sean McPheat will be sharing his top tips with you to help you improve your selling skills and close more business. In this edition, Sean gives you his ten top tips for successful cold calling – telling you exactly what to do and – more importantly – what not to do!

Don’t Smile & Dial

The old smile and dial technique does not work on modern day buyers. Just because you are excited about the call doesn’t mean that the prospect will be, so your over-the-top isn’t likely to go down very well. People are far too busy and have other, more important, things to do than take your sales call so that fake, overenthusiastic tone at the start of the call acts like a warning signal to your potential customer and lets them know that you are trying to interrupt their day to sell them something. You need to be professional and pleasant, but not overenthusiastic because people will spot that you are a sales person and rush you off the phone before you even get a chance to talk to them.

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Reflect Their Speed of Speech & Tone

When your prospect first picks up the phone, listen to their mood, tone and overall attitude when they answer your call – there are 2 reasons for this. First of all, if the prospect is snappy, rushed and in a bad mood then they are not going to want to speak to you and you are just going to annoy them by ploughing straight into your sales presentation when they’ve clearly got other things on their mind. You should explain that you can hear that they are very busy and will call them back another time. Secondly, you should be reflecting back a similar pace of speech and tone as your prospect, as this will help to put them at ease and make you seem more familiar to them than you actually are. Don’t copy your prospect but try to speak at a similar pace to them and in a similar tone.

Make Good First Impression

You have all but a few seconds when your prospect first answers the call to dispel any hostility or negativity that the prospect may have about receiving cold calls. If you start straight in to your well-rehearsed sales presentation from the second the prospect says “Hello”, you are likely to get cut off by the prospect

March 2013

You have all but a few seconds when your prospect first answers the call to dispel any hostility or negativity saying “We’re not interested” before you’ve even told them what it is you do! Instead, start the call naturally, as you would if you we’re phoning a friend or a colleague. Instead of saying, “Can you put me through to Steve Smith please?” try saying “Hi, yes, err, is Steve in please?” and wait to be asked for a last name and what the call is regarding. You are much more likely to get through to the person in question if you don’t sound like a well-rehearsed cold caller.

Speak Naturally

Although you might have a cold calling script in front of you, don’t read it word for word. Cold callers constantly make the mistake of sound too rehearsed and not speaking the way they would unless they were on a cold call. You need to remember to make mistakes, pause whilst you think about what you’re going to do, say “ahh” and “umm” when you’re asked a question – these are all normal things that people do when they are having a conversation and your prospect will be able to tell that you are a cold caller if you do not make the simple mistakes and stumbles when you speak. Don’t edit yourself and speak naturally. Managing Director of MTD Sales Training, Sean

McPheat is

regarded as a thought leader on modern day selling. Sean has been featured on CNN, ITV, BBC, SKY, Forbes, Arena Magazine and has over 250 other media

Want To Improve Your Sales Skills For Free? Download MTD Sales Training’s 6 FREE Sales Training Audios & Improve Your Sales Effectiveness Today!

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MTD Sales Training offer one of the most comprehensive and effective sales training systems available. Our sales training team is constantly evolving to incorporate market trends and new developments to help sales people all over the UK become the best they can. If you are looking for a firm that can help your sales team do better, then we are confident that we can meet all your requirements. Visit www.mtdsalestraining.com for more information, or call us on 0800 849 6732 for a no obligation consultation.

credits to his name.

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Why Every Professional Needs to Master Presentation Skills 34 |

March 2013

Why don’t many professionals get the respect they deserve? Think about it carefully. Whose responsibility is it to recognize your value as a professional – no matter what industry you’re in? It’s yours. This requires the ability to sell. Now, ask yourself this question: “Am I in sales?” All hands should be raised. Although there are times you must share specific information – i.e. perhaps a sales presentation or policy update – your overall responsibility is to sell … your ideas, your concepts and your value.

hat does it take for any professional to successfully communicate his or her message? It doesn’t matter whether you are giving information to a client – or to a larger audience of shareholders – good presentation skills are vital to your success.

Test Your Presentation Skills There are many myths and realities about presenting like a pro. Take our 15-question True or False quiz below, and read more about the areas you need to improve upon to build your speaking prowess. True or False Quiz: 1) Knowing your subject well – being a content expert – is the same as being an effective speaker. 2) The purpose of most presentations is to inform. 3) All audiences are the same. 4) The time of day you are speaking should not affect how you put together your presentation. 5) Incorporating many facts and figures will be riveting to your audience. 6) People are more influenced by logic than they are by emotions. 7) Once you’ve finished your PowerPoint slides, you are done creating the presentation.

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8) “I’m pleased to be with you here to discuss….” and, “Today, I’m here to talk about …” are both effective speech openings. 9) You need to memorize your presentation to deliver it well. 10) Having butterflies in your stomach, or feeling nervous before you present, means you are doomed to fail. 11) Lack of passion can kill good content. 12) Using acronyms and jargon will make you look smart. 13) If your content is good, your visual impact won’t matter. 14) Complimenting an audience member’s question is a good move. 15) “More people have talked their way up the ladder of success than have gotten there any other way.”

Now, let’s look at the answers:

Knowing your subject wellbeing a content expert – is the same as being an effective speaker. FALSE – Although knowing your subject is critical, it doesn’t ensure your ability to speak about it in a way that resonates with the audience.

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You can probably think of a few of your teachers or professors who truly were subject matter experts – but either bored you to death, or were totally confusing. To speak well, you need to plan, prepare and practice.

The purpose of most presentations is to inform.

FALSE – Whether you realized it or not, the primary purpose of most presentations is to persuade – selling your ideas, concepts or get buy-in for a proposal. Even if you are giving informative presentations, you want the audience to accept the information and your credibility as valid. As presenters, we always need to keep our purpose in mind. What do you want your audience members to know, feel or do when they leave your presentation? Without this clarity, typically nothing happens. With a specific end result in mind, you will be more able to outline and develop your presentation more easily. Being clear about the purpose of your presentation will help you prepare the right information to get your message across and keep you focused. Remember, whether you are there to inform or persuade, you still need to be motivating.

All audiences are the same.

FALSE – Not all audiences are the same, and knowing details about these individuals is critical. The message you deliver is not always the one that is received. This can happen for many reasons, including not understanding your audience members and their demographics, and their preferred method of communication. When you give a presentation, you have to be conveying some value to audience members, remembering to answer their unspoken WIIFM question: “What’s in It for Me?” But, as a presenter, what can YOU get from the audience? The answer is plenty. Presenting information is not a one-way interaction. It doesn't matter what you are trying to sell or what information

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you are relating. Whether it's widgets or watermelons, annual company performance data or a new HR initiative, we all face the same challenge – connecting with our audience/customers and getting our message across. Even seasoned professional speakers sometimes forget to do all their homework and wind up looking foolish or losing a sale. There have been numerous examples of speeches given with information that was either too far above or too far below the knowledge level of the audience. You want to ask yourself: Who is in the audience? Are they colleagues, senior management, or clients? Why are they there? What are their demographics (age, gender, nationality, etc.). What is their attitude toward your objective? Who are the decision makers and who are the influencers? What knowledge do they have and do they need? The “right” information to the wrong audience limits your chance of achieving your objectives. Where and when can you learn about your audience? Before the presentation, you can talk to others that have spoken to the group, and ask the right questions of the person who invited you to present – or, better yet, chat with some of the attendees. This type of advance preparation helps you customize the material and organize content. Arrive early at the presentation; observe and talk to people. This is a good opportunity to make last minute changes. Never forget what Yogi Berra said: “It ain’t over till it’s over.” In other words, if your presentation isn’t going well, change course. Doing a proper audience analysis and coming with the attitude of “serving” your listeners, will enhance your chance for success.

The time of day you are speaking should not affect how you put together your presentation. FALSE – Knowing the logistics of your meeting in advance can save you a lot of grief later. Time of day matters. After all, if it’s right after lunch, do you want the lights out and slides on? No way! The amount of time for the presentation is also important. If you are given 30 minutes, don’t cram in 40 minutes of information, and talk fast. If there is going

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The “right” information to the wrong audience limits your chance of achieving your objectives to be questions and interaction, cut the “lecture” part of your presentation. The other logistics to consider are: Are you part of a team or panel of speakers? What will the other speakers be discussing? How large is the audience? What visual equipment is available? The answers to these questions are crucial factors in helping you tailor your presentation If you will be using visual aids, be certain you have the proper equipment including replacement bulbs, extra extension cords or anything else that might botch your presentation if missing.

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Be sure to arrive early to get comfortable with the room setup, and your equipment.

Incorporating only facts and figures will be riveting to your audience. FALSE – While this may be true, depending on the statistics and information being shared, presentations are more than just facts and figures. What makes a presentation more memorable? Analogies and metaphors, stories, humor, examples, audience-involvement techniques, case studies, and visual aids to support the facts and figures. While preparing, ask yourself, “What is the point I want to make? Now, what can I add that makes the point stick?”

People are more influenced by logic than they are by emotions.

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Ask yourself, “What is the point I want to make? Now, what can I add that makes the point stick?” FALSE – Hitting the emotional buttons will create more impact and action than logic or pure data. Aristotle, the father of all public speaking, said that all speaking is persuasive. In order to do that, you need to impact people in three different ways (he called these modes of proof). Logos – translated into “logic,” is first. The goal is to hit the head – make people think. You do that by organizing your ideas in a logical framework, and by giving information that is more logical. Facts and figures can fit into this category.

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If your goal is to inform, logos is the primary mode of proof. However, if your goal is to influence thinking, or get action, you need to add the Pathos. This includes the emotional material that hits the heart and gut. Stories and examples are a great way to include emotion. The information you incorporate into your presentation needs to include logos and pathos. Aristotle also talked about Ethos: credibility. Your credibility and reputation will be critical in influencing others. If we like and trust you, we will be more open to your ideas. If we don’t, your chances of success are limited. Bottom line – things haven’t changed much since Aristotle’s time. The best presentations you have heard are the ones that include both logic and pathos, and are delivered by a person you respect (ethos).

Once you’ve finished your PowerPoint slides, you are done creating the presentation.

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FALSE – While PowerPoint & other visual aids can be used in a presentation, they are not the basis for your speech, and speakers shouldn’t be too dependent on them.

“I’m pleased to be with you here to discuss….” and “Today, I’m here to talk about …” are both effective speech openings.

Understand that PowerPoint slides are not the presentation (or shouldn’t be!). They should be an aid to the presentation. After all, if everything is on a slide – why not just hand it out, and answer questions? If too much is on a slide, people will be reading, not listening. Write your presentation, and see where a visual will add value. Here are some overall pointers to remember when it comes to effective use of visual aids: Make sure everything is spelled correctly. Check the room setup and equipment availability before preparing your visual aids. If possible, practice using the visuals on site. Arrive early on the day of your presentation, to have adequate time to set up your equipment and ensure it works. If renting or borrowing equipment, ensures that you are familiar with it before your presentation. Make sure your power pack is fully charged, or new batteries have been installed on your laptop. Bring duplicate copies of slides on a memory stick or CD. If possible, use a remote control with a “blanking button” that allows you to blank the screen (same function as the “B” key on the keyboard), making the visual disappear. Keep the screen to the speaker’s left. Since we read from left to right, it makes it easier for the audience members to see. Be prepared to speak without visual aids, just in case! It’s important to remember that visual aids should not be your notes or relate every idea that you are talking about. Instead the visual aid is best used when it relates key points or concepts to remember. Short statements or sentences – and, better yet, graphics – that help audience members remember and act upon your message are especially good to use. Ultimately, the best thing to do is use a combination of the low-tech and high-tech visual aid options – allowing you to connect better with audience members and keep their attention riveted on you.

FALSE – Both are bad examples of introductions.

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The goal of an introduction is to set a tone, get the audience ready and interested in the presentation, and for the speaker to create a rapport. By the time the introduction is over (approximately 10 to 15% of the total presentation time), the audience members will have decided whether they want to sit through the talk, and if there is anything in it for them. It’s amazing how often the audience members use their personal “remote” and push the “mute” button, tuning you out. To avoid this happening, use this formula for introductions: Grabber/Attention Statement: Immediately start with a story, statistic, example, a real or rhetorical question. Something that breaks their attention and pulls them in. Even at a routine weekly meeting, you could say, “Remember at last week’s meeting, we …” After the initial opening, be sure to give the “WIIFT?” – What’s In It For Them. After all, they are saying “WIIFM?” – What’s In It For Me? Don’t assume that everyone will identify the value – it’s your job as the speaker to give the audience members a reason to listen. Next, introduce yourself – if necessary. If everyone knows you or you have an introducer, there is no need. Of course, if you are being introduced, write your own introduction, and give it (in advance) to the introducer. If the audience knows you, but doesn’t know your qualifications to speak about this topic – include that aspect to enhance your credibility. Finally, you can go over the agenda, ground rules, and let people know when they can ask questions. By the time the introduction is done, the audience members will know what to expect, who you are, and the value to them. The problem with the introductions in question # 8 is that they are created around the speaker, rather than the audience. “I am pleased …” who cares?!? “I am here today to talk about …” generally, they already know, and besides, it is boring. Since the audience members remember what they hear first and last, spend time crafting your introduction. Of course, write the body of the speech

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first. Then, step back, and ask yourself, “Who cares?” “What is the hook?” Spend as much time preparing the conclusion. Audience members remember what they hear first and last (primary – recency). The conclusion includes a review of the key points, and then a memorable close (“Thank you” isn’t memorable!). A story, a quote, challenge for the future, call to action, or referring to your opening, are all good ways to end. Even if the news you are giving is bad, you must end with hope.

You need to memorize your presentation to deliver it well.

FALSE – It is fine to memorize the framework and flow, but few people can memorize a script and then sound spontaneous. The best way to ensure effective delivery of your presentation is to create a user-friendly final draft, and then practice using it. Peter Drucker said, “Spontaneity is an infinite number of rehearsed possibilities.” Of course, each practice session can be different, which ultimately makes you more flexible and spontaneous. There is nothing wrong with using notes, as long as you aren’t reading them. As Winston Churchill said when he was asked why he carried notes but seldom used them,

I carry fire insurance, but I don’t expect my house to burn down.

Use bulleted points instead of sentences. Make the type easy to read (use felt-tip pen or minimum 18-point type, boldface, if typed), only use the top 2/3 of the page to avoid looking down, use highlight pens to indicate the must/should/could know information. Professionals in all fields practice. If you want to be comfortable, flexible, and audience-centered, it will take practice.

Having butterflies in your stomach, or feeling nervous before you present, means you are doomed to fail.

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FALSE – Consider stage fright just a negative term for excitement. No sports coach tells his or her team to be calm. Channel the adrenaline you may feel before a presentation into enthusiasm. You can control the physical symptoms of stage fright by breathing from the diaphragm, using positive visualization and self talk, by being prepared and practiced. What if you’re fairly confident with your content, but still dread the upcoming presentation? First, you need to rest assured that you are NOT alone. You are one of the millions of people who are frightened to speak in public. Whether it is your first presentation, or number 1,000, almost everyone suffers from some level of stage fright or performance anxiety. Although studies have shown that the fear of speaking in public ranks ahead of death, flying, heights, and snakes, this fear can be controlled. It’s a form of energy that can be channeled to your benefit. But, first you must identify these feelings. There are five common fears that many speakers have: Fear of your mind going blank. We have all seen this happen to others, and you need to learn what to do if it happens to you: Pause, look at your notes or outline and try to pick up again where you left off, or move on to your next thought. Do your preparation, and practice.

Fear of showing various physical signs of stage fright, including nervousness, trembling, the shakes and turning red. Practice helps. Using gestures gets rid of trapped energy. Use humor to relax. Do your preparation, and practice. Someone challenges you and you don’t know 3 the answer. It’s OK to not know an answer to a question. Just remember: NEVER lie. Be honest, and tell the person you will get back to him or her as soon as possible with an answer, and then follow up as promised. Anticipate the questions, so you are prepared. Do your preparation, and practice. The audience members think you don’t know 4 enough about the subject. If you have backed up your material with facts and figures, and anecdotes to illustrate your points, this shouldn’t be a problem. Do your preparation, and practice.

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A bad presentation will ruin your reputation. Rarely. We all have bad days and make mistakes. Most often what you believe to be a major faux pas or a poorly received speech wasn’t as awful as you think. A sincere presenter doing his or her best, who is obviously well prepared, will not be judged harshly. Again, do your preparation, and practice. One effective way to control stage fright is by using visualization. In the visualization process, you picture yourself in front of an audience. You are composed, confident and in control. By picturing yourself in a successful situation, you are able to give yourself the confidence you need to achieve your goal.

There are four basic techniques to follow, which will make controlling stage fright and performance-related fears easier. Arrive early. This will give you a chance to relax, do some stretching and breathing exercises, survey your surroundings, make a trip to the restroom, organize your thoughts, and check the facilities – as well

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Disarming verbal attacks will reflect on your credibility with audience members as any equipment you may be using – and, most importantly, talk to the audience members as they enter the room. The speaker who rushes in at the last minute does himself or herself a disservice. Eat lightly. Avoid heavy meals. This also means no alcohol, milk products, or carbonated drinks. Bananas are a good choice; they are light and filling. It is also important to avoid taking decongestants or other medications that might make you drowsy. Use humor to help release endorphins. Laughter is a great tension reliever. You can also use interactive techniques. When you begin your presentation, plan to ask audience members a question and get them to

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raise their hands. This will take some of the focus off of you and put it onto them. Other ways to help you relax before your presentation include trying simple stretching and breathing exercises, and visualizing success. These techniques, along with proper preparation and practice, will alleviate most stage fright symptoms. The most important thing is to remember it’s not about you. Focus on connecting the audience with the material. You are the medium to get that across.

Lack of passion can kill good content.

TRUE – When you deliver content with passion, it’s amazing how well you will do. Enthusiasm can be contagious. If your voice is expressive and your gestures animated, you will appear to be confident and passionate. How can you get a crowd of hungry or tired audience members interested in your presentation? How can you stand apart and be remembered out of a series of speakers? How can your presentation close a sale or convince someone to take action? If you have ever listened to people speaking in a monotone, you know how difficult it is to pay attention. Vary your pitch, volume and rate. Emphasize the key ideas and use pauses for punctuation. It is also important to speak clearly and enunciate. If you rush your delivery or speak softly, the audience will have to work too hard to pay attention. Vary your tone and speed, and tailor your delivery rate to accommodate any regional differences. Speak with passion – it sells ideas.

Using acronyms and jargon will make you look smart.

FALSE – Jargon or acronyms may just confuse your audience members; or, worse yet, make them feel stupid if they don’t understand the terminology. Do you finish a presentation only to find quizzical looks on audience members’ faces? Or, worse yet, yawns of boredom while you speak?

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Perhaps you have fallen victim to poor verbal judgment, including overuse of jargon and buzzwords. The goal is to use clear, simple language. The audience shouldn’t have to spend time translating the words or lingo you use. Remember, we also live in a multicultural society where English may not be everyone’s primary language. When preparing your presentations, keep this in mind.

If your content is good, your visual impact won’t matter.

FALSE. The visual component can be so distracting, that it is hard for the audience to focus on the content. A few points to keep in mind: Some presentations are so critical to the life and well-being of the audience members, that the visual impact won’t matter. That, however, is rare. For the most part, we get distracted easily, and if we see a poorly groomed speaker, or someone who has no eye contact or a grimace, it is hard to focus on the actual message. The adage that, “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression is true” – especially when it comes to effective speaking. The first thing your audience members see is your appearance. Before you get a chance to say a word, some of them will already have judged you based solely on how you look. If you are presenting at a business meeting, proper business dress is called for. If you have been invited to speak at an “off-campus” event, check with the event organizer. You can never be faulted for looking “too professional,” even if the audience is dressed down. Be certain that your outfit and accessories don’t detract from your presentation. Avoid anything that makes noise or looks flashy, like jangling bracelets or earrings. Both men and women should check that their clothing fits well, and that they can move comfortably in it. Your body language will also send the audience a message. Don’t cross your arms or fidget. Use gestures to emphasize points, but be careful not to flail your arms around. The most effective stance is a forward lean, not swaying back and forth or bouncing on your feet. Effective speakers make regular eye contact with audience members, holding the connection to

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complete an idea. This helps draw listeners into your speech. Nodding to emphasize a point also helps make a connection with the audience. If you nod occasionally, audience members will, too – creating a bond. Don’t forget that your slides also can be distracting. A misspelled word and difficult-to-see information make it very hard to focus on the message.

Complimenting an audience member’s question is a good move.

FALSE – Avoid praising one questioner, as you set yourself up for audience member resentment if you don’t keep complimenting others. If you compliment all questioners, it sounds perfunctory. Be gracious to all questions (even if it is hard). The end of your presentation does not necessarily come when you finish speaking. After your summation, you still have another opportunity to face your audience, during the question-and-answer period. The question-and-answer session will also have an impact on your audience, so do not try to escape this crucial time by sitting down or leaving the podium. This is an opportunity for you to further clarify your ideas. You don’t want to give the audience the impression that you are relieved that your presentation is over and all you want to do is leave. As a presenter, you may find yourself facing a hostile questioner. Your skill at disarming verbal attacks will reflect on your credibility with audience members, and the impression they have of both you and your presentation. The following approach works well to diffuse the hostile questioner: Let the person say whatever he or she wants to say. You listen while the individual vents. Paraphrase what the person just said, and how he or she feels about it, without being condescending. Ask probing questions to try to find out what the real issues are. Say one of the following statements: “I know what your issues are, now let me respond.” “Let’s problem solve together to work this out.” “Let’s look into this after the presentation has concluded.” By using this approach, you have indicated that you value the thoughts and feelings of the questioner. The audience will respect you, and you will diffuse the hostility at the same time.

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Here are some rules to guide you through the process of a successful Q & A: Early in your presentation (part of the preview), tell audience members when you will take questions. Before answering, listen carefully and paraphrase the question before you respond. You can also include the question as part of your response. Look at the questioner in the beginning, and look at the entire audience when answering. Keep all answers as brief as possible. Tell those with questions that aren’t relevant to the entire group that you will respond to them either at the end of the session, later in writing, or by telephone. If it is the decision maker that asks the questions, answer! Don’t let a stage hog take control. Don’t tell a lie. If you don’t know the answer to a question, say so and offer to get the information for the questioner. End the question-and-answer period with a strong closing remark.

“More people have talked their way up the ladder of success than have gotten there any other way.” TRUE – The ability to speak – to one or many – is a critical success factor. And, it is one that can be learned. So, how did you score on this quiz? Don’t worry; your presentations skills can be improved. Take the time to ask for feedback, be videotaped, and seek training or coaching opportunities. by Brody

BRODY Professional Development has been delivering training and coaching to new hires, key opinion leaders, managers, and emerging leaders since 1983, with the primary focus of sharpening communication skills to boost business performance. BRODY offers training programs, executive coaching and conference speaking services (keynotes and workshops) in four key areas: Presentation Power, Business Communications, Leadership Presence & Sales Impact. Learn more at www.brodypro.com

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Presentation 2.0

The ABC of Preparation by Phil Waknell for SOLD Magazine

Over the last few months, we’ve covered the power of storytelling and the importance of strong visual aids for your sales presentations. Before we get onto the third main art of presenting – the oratory skills to make you a persuasive presenter – it’s time for a few words about preparation. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” So said Benjamin Franklin, and these oft-paraphrased words are extremely relevant when it comes to a presentation or a sales meeting. I always recommend the following simple ABC method to ensure you begin your preparation properly.

A: Audience Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it ‘to whom it may concern.’ – Ken Haemer, Presentation Research Manager, AT&T The first step is to understand clearly with whom you will be meeting, or to whom you will be presenting. If you prepare a presentation for your business customer, but her finance director shows up, likely your presentation won’t satisfy them both. If you just deliver your standard sales pitch, they will know it is your standard pitch, and that you didn’t take the time to tailor it to them. Remember that your audience is the magic ingredient of any presentation. It has to be mostly about them, and only partly about you – and the part about you is only to show how you can resolve their problems, needs or desires.

B: Burning Need It isn't that they can't see the solution. It's that they can't see the problem. – G.K. Chesterton Before you can hope to interest your customers in your solution, you first have to interest yourself in their problem, their burning need. What keeps them awake at night? What do they really need to fix? Perhaps they have a need they don’t yet know about. This is the best kind of need for a salesperson, because it means they haven’t yet discussed it with another vendor. Your presentation should be constructed to focus on their burning need, to show that you understand what their problem is and how it came about – and

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only then to show that you’ve solved that problem for other customers, and can solve it for them. When they can clearly see the problem, and they know you understand it too, then they’ll be eager to listen to your solution.

C: Context If content is king, context is God. – Gary Vaynerchuk If you misunderstand the context, you may as well not even turn up. This means the customer’s business context, the personal context of each person in the room, and your own context too. Have they launched an RFP? Are they speaking with other vendors? Do they already have a contract in place? How are their current supplier relationships? Are they at the start or end of their fiscal year? Are they looking to spend in this year to minimize tax liabilities, or defer spending to next year so they can meet earnings goals? If you don’t know the answers to these and other questions, you’re not well-prepared. What’s their individual context? Does the buyer have targets to reduce the number of suppliers? Does the finance director have cost-savings targets? What’s his hurdle rate? Does the negotiator need to sign a deal before leaving on vacation? And of course, you need to know your own context: sales targets, deadlines, special offer periods, product availability… Making a success of any sales meeting starts with strong preparation. Get that right, and you’ll be on a strong foundation. Understand your audience, their burning need, and the context – it’s as easy as ABC. 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.

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Visually Speaking

How to Make Graphs Persuasive and “Active” by Peter Temple One of the most challenging visuals in any persuasive presentation is a graph. I’ve seen many linear graphs “miss the mark” and not transmit the main point effectively. In a financial presentation, that can be deadly! I’ve helped design presentations for a number of initial public offerings. In these cases, you have only one chance to tell your story and it has to be absolutely clear, positive, and highly persuasive. There’s a lot of money on the line. In every case, we meticulously review each graph to remove any clutter, choose each word carefully, and skew the chart to show the data as effectively as possible. You can apply these important communication guidelines to your graphs to make sure they’re not misunderstood, but rather are as powerful as they can be. Here are the key goals you should have when you design any graph:

Each graph should make one point only. That point must be obvious without any explanation from you.

Each element on the screen should be absolutely critical to you making your point. Otherwise, get rid of it.

This gives the audience an idea of what they’re looking at, but tells them nothing about the message you’re trying to convey. What about monthly sales? Are they increasing, decreasing, or flat? A closer look shows me that sales are increasing over 12 months. That’s the point you should be making. It should be reflected in the title. So, let’s change the title to “Gross Sales Increasing,” or “Increasing Gross Sales.”

The message is more important than aesthetics. Don’t let the art department obfuscate the message with shading, 3D, or flashy, distracting backgrounds. Graphs should visually transmit their main message without any help from you, the presenter. The key is to make the message obvious. I like to call it “active.” Make your graphs active; make them tell their own story. Let’s look at an example. There are two parts to active graphs. The first is the title. My starting title here is “Gross Monthly Sales.”

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When I refer to a title bar as “active,” I mean that the text helps to advance your position, rather than just stating what the subject matter is. The simple addition of a verb makes the title active – it conveys action; it tells me what’s happening. OK then, the title’s much stronger. But the visual is weak. That’s the second part of the challenge – the message of the graph itself. Here are the steps I’d take to clean it up:

Get rid of all the clutter. 3D looks pretty, but most of the time gets in the way of the message. The rule is that if it isn’t critical or doesn’t add to the message, get rid of it.

Redundant text takes attention away from the key message. The subtitle, “Monthly Sales of All Product Lines,” should simply be “All Product Lines.” In the same manner, review all the text on your graph and get rid of anything that clutters it up. Less is more.

I see so many graphs with value labels on the columns when they’re just not needed. What it does is focus the mind on individual monthly performance. That’s not my intent here. I want to convey how we did over the entire year. So, let’s lose the column values. Keep only one – the one that makes a bold statement as to where we are now (44.2).

Take a critical look at the range. The original range goes from $0 to $50. However, the rise in sales doesn’t look as dramatic as I’d like it to. Tightening the range will focus attention on the most important aspect of the message – the increase. I’ve made the new range 15 to 45 and put the dollar sign at the top of the axis. Much cleaner and clearer!

The message is more important than aesthetics It also lets you focus in on the benefit to them. Rather than having to explain the graph, you can talk about how these number affect the viability of the company, your position as it relates to the industry as a whole, etc. The key is “Don’t make your audience think to much!” This is all about communication, so your job should be to communicate your main point as clearly as possible. Increasing clarity and reducing distractions is what it’s all about. So next time you have a message to convey by using a graph, be really clear on what the point is and then peel back the clutter to ensure your message is as clear as it can be. You’ll be way more persuasive and successful. It will also make your job as a presenter so much easier!

Peter Temple has been a writer/ producer/director in the corporate

Finally, let’s put the icing on the cake. Add a big, yellow arrow sloping up to show the trend.

world for over 35 years. He has designed and written countless presentations and speeches and now helps executives, managers, and salespeople

Now the graph tells its own story. Your job as a presenter is to relate the message to the audience. This lets you concentrate solely on the audience and their needs, rather than having to explain the message.

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use technology effectively in presentations. For more articles and video about using speeches and presentations effectively, go to: www.presentationsforbusiness.com

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Pitch Perfekt Presentation

Fearless Speaking? How to Cooperate with Your Public Speaking Anxiety by Michelle Mazur How did you feel right before your last high-stakes presentation? Sweaty palms? Tremble in your voice? Knees knocking? Butterflies in your stomach? A stampede of horses in your intestinal track, perhaps? Whatever your physical symptoms of anxiety before you speak, you’ve probably wondered why you can’t conquer your fear of public speaking? After all, there are 30+ million Google search results promising to help you overcome, conquer and cure your fear of public speaking. Why can’t you just get over it? Here’s the truth: You will NEVER conquer your fear of public speaking. You can learn how to deal with the anxiety, but as Mark Twain said “There are two types of speakers: 1) the nervous and 2) the liars.” Why can’t you completely overcome your public speaking anxiety and fearless sell and pitch?

Blame the cavemen for your fear of public speaking Your fear of public speaking is related directly to our caveman brethren. Humans have developed an internal fight or flight mechanism. In olden times, when Grog, the cave man, stood in an open field there was a good chance that Grog was going to be attacked by a large beastie with huge, gnarly teeth or attacked by less friendly cave dwellers. Grog had a choice – run away or stay and fight. Either choice made his adrenaline rush and propelled him to action. Fast- forward to now, imagine Grog the caveman making a sales presentation, Grog in his 3-piece suit, PowerPoint deck, and big club. He steps onto

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that stage and is either going to flee or attack the audience with his mighty weapon. Grog would not proceed with his 20-slide PowerPoint presentation. Whenever you are forced to stand in a large open space in this case a stage, the front of a room or even a conference room in front of people with big nasty teeth (maybe not the teeth). Evolution taught you to feel like Grog. Adrenaline causes all of those nasty side effects. You can’t run away – you must present anyway. Being fearful of speaking is a normal part of speaking. You’re nervous. I’ve given over 10,000 speeches in my life, and I get nervous. The fact is we are ALL nervous about speaking. It means you are human, imperfect and flawed just like the rest of us. If you didn’t get nervous, frankly it means you don’t care about making that big sale. Now that you understand why the adrenaline rush occurs before every sales presentation, you wonder how you can embrace the anxiety and speak to succeed. There are many ways to deal with this adrenaline rush. Here are few surefire tactics that can help out the nervous speaker.

Know your introduction I ask my clients, when are you most nervous during your presentation? They all have the same answer, the very beginning of my speech. As your speech continues the anxiety begins to subside and you get into your speaking groove. My best tip for cooperating with your public speaking anxiety is to know the introduction of your presentation, so well that you could give it on-demand after several cocktails. Your spouse should be able to point at you and say, “Go” and it flows out of your mouth. Knowing that introduction backwards, forwards and sideways lets you cope with your nerves when you are at the front of the room.

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If you didn’t get nervous, frankly it means you don’t care about making that big sale Added bonus since you know the intro so well, your big presentation will get off to a splendid start and build your confidence as you speak.

The audience is on your side The audience is not to be feared. They are on your side. In fact, the audience is giving you brave, brave girl or boy points just for getting up there and opening your mouth. They want nothing more than for you to be successful.

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Why are they so invested in your success? It is purely selfish I assure you. Have you ever sat through a presentation where the speaker is bombing? The presentation is like the Hindenburg exploding before your very eyes? How did you feel? Awkward? Perhaps like you wanted to run up on that stage and help the speaker out. We don’t like watching people fail. We want people who give presentations to do well and most importantly not waste our time. The audience is on the side of your success. Know that and your nerves will ease.

Move to get into your speaking groove Big presentation ahead – go for a run, head down to the hotel gym, get your downward facing dog on. Exercise helps with the excess of adrenaline. It will calm you down. Plus, exercise keeps your intellect sharp. If you can only go for a short 15-minute walk – do it. You’ll feel calmer afterward.

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Breathe – yeah everyone says this – but you’ve got to breathe Before, during and after a presentation – remember to take deep breaths. In fact, when I walk onto that presentation stage, I like to stop and scan. This gives you two benefits. First, it allows you to get the lay of the land and make eye contact with the audience. Second, it allows you a moment to catch your breath. There is nothing worse than starting a presentation short of breathe. You don’t want to pant out your introduction. Stop, scan, and breathe.

Visualization I know it is woo-woo to say “visualize your success”, and it might not be the right tip for you. It works for some speakers. What works even better is if you can see the room where you are speaking in advance. Imagine how you will feel sitting in that audience as they are introducing your speech. See yourself stepping on the stage. Allow yourself to feel the jitters and the nerves. Now picture yourself knocking your introduction out of the park. Visualize how you are going to say it on that stage, how you will move and gesture.

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Visualization is just as effective as the actual experience. Visualizing tricks your mind into thinking you’ve been here, done that and bought the presentation success t-shirt. Bonus – visualization is also a form of practice. Talk about double dipping – practicing your presentation while dealing with your fear. There is no such thing as fearless selling. The fear of public speaking is something that all speakers must learn to deal with. Embrace, cooperate and cope with your anxiety. You inherited your flight or flight instinct from evolution. Now it is your job to find the best way to deal with the fear and sell anyway. Speech Coach and Presentation Skills Trainer

Dr. Michelle Mazur guides driven-to-succeed business professionals and independent business owners to ignite the smoldering fire within to speak up, speak out and make their impact – one compelling presentation at a time. Clients get noticed, promoted and paid more by overcoming their reluctance and learning to speak with authenticity and confidence, no matter how big or small their audience. To learn her proven approach to get ready for opportunity now – visit www.drmichellemazur.com

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NOW Practices for Professional Selling

Negotiating Is the Game of Life 52 |

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At many points in our lives we will be faced with the need to negotiate for something. Whether it is a promotion, a sales contract, or something else of importance, understanding negotiations helps generate success. Every negotiation occurs for a reason, and if you are not aware of this opportunity, you are missing out on life. Enjoying discussions, resolving conflicts, seeking agreements, moving projects or assignments into action, or simply building a new relationship – that is the game of life.

his is why negotiation skills are an essential requirement for success — regardless of our roles. Knowing more about negotiating doesn’t cost; it pays. That’s the game of life! To clearly understand negotiating today, it’s time to strip away the old techniques and bring in the new ways to negotiate. This is called, Naked Negotiating. Here are three important things you must know about naked negotiating.

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Negotiating is Like Dating. It’s amazing that we spend almost every minute of every day negotiating. Yet, when there is an opportunity to bring the relationship closer by completing a deal of some sort, we are fearful to sit down and work it out. Why do we fear negotiating when we know it takes place all day, every day? Why don’t we embrace every aspect of what would make us more successful? Why do we resist the process of being naked with the relationships we so patiently built? Maybe we think it will hurt our chances of success. The fear of the unknown, of rejection, of losing or offending others is a struggle because we don’t want to fail. The perception of negotiating is that it is a grueling routine. For many of us, one of the things we most dread is the possibility of having to disagree with someone. Well, consider this. Conflicts or disagreements are a “must” to help move decisions forward. According to a twenty-year survey, the Harvard Business Review reported, people who are disagreeable earn more salary than people who are agreeable. The truth is we can't avoid conflicts or disagreements. Rather than being feared or avoided, they should be embraced. Living in fear is an obstruction to getting you what you want. Getting what you want is part of the game of life.

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Instead of putting pressure on yourself by focusing on the fear, embrace the game of life. One way to incorporate this idea is by looking at negotiating as dating. Dating is getting to know each other to determine if the partnership will work or not. It’s about getting to know who the other person is, understanding his background, welcoming his wants, and recognizing his needs. So, allow me to repeat this again, negotiation is like dating, and if you embrace the fact, the fear will subside. It’s that simple! The reality is negotiating is essential to healthy relationships like dating and business deals. Understanding and accepting that negotiating is a good thing will help you keep your life balanced. It makes sense that we can and should want to improve our lives by learning better ways of negotiating. The need to negotiate in dayto-day situations or encounters penetrates our very existence. Merging the wants and

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needs from both parties involved is the best way to a healthy and effective lifestyle. Therefore, you have two choices: negotiate like dating or take the risk of losing.

The Negotiation Process is DEAD! I’m sure you are cringing at this bold statement, but hear me out. When people begin their interactions, they have only one thing in mind, how to get through it to seal the deal. No one really cares about a “process” when it comes to negotiating. What is a negotiation process anyway? Have you won every negotiation because it’s a process? Has the process worked for you whenever you want something? If not, get rid of the term and the idea of negotiating being a process. I don’t see how a process makes a negotiation difference anyway. Besides, there are so many factors involved in negotiating that you can’t say, this is step one, step two, step three and expect each step to work as a process. What if the other party does not agree to follow your process? That will certainly throw you off balance when negotiating. Negotiating cannot be a process because negotiating is a case-by-case situation. Sure, in a perfect world, you will find that the other person wants what you are offering, you give what the other person needs, and everyone lives happily ever after. Unfortunately, life does not always work that way. To play the game of life, which involves many unexpected situations and surprises, it’s important to understand that negotiating is an encounter you can control. Negotiations are forever evolving. There is no standard process that you can count on. What works for one person or situation may not work for another. Negotiating today comes down to acknowledging different needs, goals, experiences, opinions, viewpoints, and perspectives. Then, it’s about treating that particular issue or problem with the right technique, strategy, or idea. Look at each negotiation separately while experiencing the journey.

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All about Preparation! The reason why many negotiations go so wrong is because the participants are not properly prepared. When people prepare for bargaining encounters, they spend hours on the issues at hand and less time on their negotiation strategy. Somewhere between the opening offer and the conclusion of their encounter, most individuals lose the planned strategy and end up just winging it. Because they “wing it,” the expectation of what is going to happen in the negotiation disappears. Taking the time to uncover critical negotiation scenarios – preparation – must take place first. If you need to get better at talking dollar amounts for a job pay raise, then you must practice. It’s the only way to advocate successfully for what you want. Preparation consists of doing the research and homework. This includes identifying the goal of the negotiation, brainstorming multiple solutions, and determining what the main negotiation goal may be for the other person. It’s worth gathering as much knowledge as possible in the preparation stages, and that takes time.

Preparation is of the utmost importance. Without preparing, you will most likely struggle and face some embarrassing consequences, and possibly lose what was so important to you. Don’t be caught naked without spending the time and effort to prepare. Negotiations help shape and create your life. There is no secret or magic to negotiation. Simply pay more attention to the bare-bones facts of naked negotiating by applying the 3 new workable strategies you just learned. By adapting to this mindset, you will become a naked negotiator. If this perspective makes sense to you, take a risk to negotiate – it’s the game of life! by Deborah Gardner Deborah Gardner, CMP, is a globally recognized authority on the specialized in-depth concept of COMPETITION. She works with individuals and companies to help understand while applying the constructive aspects of competition to their lives and businesses. She is able to immediately identify untapped potential by translating her messages in a motivational, healthy, productive and fun (yes, FUN) manner. nocompetitionselling.com

Deborah@DeborahGardner.com www.DeborahGardner.com

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Selling Around Objections Here's one suggestion for dealing with a situation we all face at one time or another – the lack of a feature or capability our prospect says he must have. "I'm sorry, Craig. I need to have Feature X and, well, you just don't seem to have it. It looks as if you can't meet our needs." Have you ever encountered this situation? If so, and if it were true that you didn't have the feature the prospect said he wanted, how did you deal with it? If you're like most salespeople, your response was one of the following:

You got defensive and replied, "Yes, we do" – knowing full well you didn't.

You told the prospect you'd deal with it later, hoping he or she would forget about it.

You told the prospect, or tried to convince him or her, that the feature wasn't important.

Are any of these responses valid? The answer is, "Yes", "No"... and "Maybe!" Now that I have you thoroughly confused, let me explain. First, the straightforward answer – response #1 is always "No". Why? Because it's flat-out lying, and that's something we as sales professionals never do. End of conversation. Next, the not-sostraightforward answers. Whether responses #2 and #3 are good strategies depends on: when in the sales cycle it's brought up by whom it's brought up whether you believe it's a legitimate, important concern of the prospect whether the benefit you believe the prospect desires can be realized with another feature (or features) you offering does have.

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In other words, they are situation-specific. An example should help illustrate this. Let's say you're selling copiers and the prospect says, "I need the machine to be able to make 70 copies per minute." You know your best copier only makes 60 copies per minute. If this is brought up early in the sales cycle – say, in the discovery process – it might be well to use response #2. Often times, as the discussion of needs and wants progresses, and solutions are presented, the importance of the feature the prospect said he "needs" is reduced by the prospect himself. So why risk putting yourself on the defensive early in the game when it may not be necessary? You might also sense that the prospect is "blowing smoke", and that the "need" really isn't set in stone. However, if it's brought up by a decision-maker or strong influencer whom you sense would be put off by what he perceives as a delay tactic, whether you sense that the concern is legitimate or not, you might want to go ahead and address it headon (but follow up by probing on why he needs it). How about response #3? Well, I think we can agree that telling your prospect that a feature he tells you is important is not important is a recipe for disaster. Because by doing so, you're both showing disrespect for his opinion and coming across as arrogant. Neither of these is likely to endear you to the prospect; in fact, it will likely have the opposite effect. But is it OK, is it ethical, to try to get the prospect to reconsider how important the feature is? Absolutely! In fact, that's what the most successful sales people do, and do well. Your job as a professional sales person is to help your prospect make a

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purchase decision that is best for him and best for your company. In our first example, delaying your response to the prospect's objection allowed him to view this one feature in the proper context – as one of many other features he should consider. As a result, he convinced himself that he really didn't need the feature he said he needed, and was thus able to make a more well-informed decision. In many cases, though, the prospect will not come to this realization on his own. Or he may become fixated on the one feature. You help him make the best decision for him (and for your company) by telling him he'd be well-advised to consider features a, b, and c of your offering (which provide the same benefits as feature X, which we lack), as many other customers did. Features a, b, and c, of course, are features/ capabilities that you offer that the competitors doesn't, or in which you are superior. This is known as getting the prospect to "change his base" – his perspective. Once the prospect is shown (as above) how to

view this one feature in the proper context, he'll convince himself (again, as above) that he really didn't need the feature he said he needed. And you're off the hook with that objection.

Your job as a professional sales person is to help your prospect make a purchase decision that is best for him

ACTION ITEM: Examine a deal you're currently working where you face a situation such as this. How can you assist the prospect in "changing his base"? What benefit does the prospect expect to get from the feature you don't offer? What other aspects of your offering could provide the prospect

with those benefits? Once you have the answers to these questions, schedule a meeting with this prospect, review what he likes about your offering, and help him view this one feature in the proper context. You'll be surprised how often prospects who are seriously interested in your solutions will come around and see the light – the light you want them to see. Your light! Good Selling! by Craig James

Sales Solutions Founder and President Craig James has over 12 years' experience in sales and sales management, primarily in technology and software. An accomplished speaker and presenter, Craig is President of his local Toastmasters chapter, teaches at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and has lectured at Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education. He also volunteers as a Discussion Leader with the Workshop In Business Opportunities, a "boot camp" for entrepreneurs whose mission is to enable small business owners and budding entrepreneurs in under-served communities to obtain financial success in starting, operating, and building successful businesses. He's been published and quoted in Business Week, Sales and Marketing Management, and Selling Power, and been interviewed by Sales Rep Radio. Craig earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and his MBA from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. Visit Craig's Website

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The Secret to Dealing with Deadlines: What Negotiators Need to Know

ust how long do you think that your next sales negotiation is going to last? I’ve got news for you – it may not last as long as you may think that it’s going to last. The reason is that either side of the table may use deadlines to help hurry things along. If this happens, will you recognize that it’s happening and, more importantly, will you know what to do when it happens to you?

What’s The Big Deal With Deadlines? Are we all clear here on just exactly what a deadline is? A deadline is a device that can be used by either side in a negotiation to move the discussion along. Basically it’s a way to get to the end of the discussions quicker. Just because one side of the table presents the other side with a deadline does not mean that anything is going to change. Deadlines only work if the other side of the table believes that it’s real. Oh, and sometimes they aren’t – deadlines can be made up just to help the side that’s making it up. As a negotiator you’ve got two skills that you need to develop. The first is that you’ve got to be able to realize when a deadline is being used to motivate you to agree to a deal quicker. The other skill that you are going to need is the ability to deal with deadlines when they are presented to you. The good news is that both of these skills can be learned.

How Buyers Use Deadlines Buyers are generally willing to work with someone who is trying to sell them something for as long as they think that they are going to be able to get a good deal from them. The quicker that they can get to a deal, the faster they can move on to the next deal. Deadlines are a powerful tool for buyers to use to accomplish this. Buyers can use a wide variety of methods to impose deadlines on the other side of the table. One such method is to say that funding for a purchase will be going away quickly and so a deal must be struck soon. Another is to say that an they will be making a purchase, but if a deal can’t be reached quickly then it will have to be made with another firm. Finally, stating that other parties will be involved in approving any deal and that they soon won’t be

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available for some period of time is another timetested method for buyers to impose deadlines.

How Sellers Use Deadlines The other side of the deadline coin has sellers on it who like to impose deadlines almost as much as buyers do. Sellers are often working with multiple buyers at different firms and so they need to determine if a deal is even possible as quickly as possible. Using a deadline can help to get to the end of a negotiation quickly and this will free up time to work with other parties on other deals. Sellers also have a collection of classic deadline techniques that they like to use. These include stating that a price increase is coming soon and the current price may not be available for much longer. Tying the delivery date to the date that an agreement is struck is another way of establishing a deadline. Finally, stating that there is a limited supply of what is being negotiated for can provide the sense of urgency that comes with a deadline.

the deadline. More often than not, you are going to discover that a deadline is not a fixed thing. Instead, a deadline just like everything else in a negotiation is up for debate and can be changed.

What All Of This Means For You Deadlines are a powerful tool that can be used by either side in a negotiation. Instead of allowing the other side to believe that they have unlimited time to complete a negotiation, the use of a deadline causes the discussions to move more quickly with a sense of urgency. Buyers use deadlines to move a deadline forward so that they can either reach a deal with a seller or move on and start negotiations with another seller. Sellers use deadlines in an attempt to close a deal quicker. No matter who is using a deadline, when you are presented with one you need to spend some time questioning if it is a real deadline. Deadlines will always be a part of modern negotiations. Your responsibility as a skilled negotiator is to be able to recognize when a deadline is being used and to then know how best to deal with it. by Dr. Jim Anderson

Buyers can use a wide variety of methods to impose deadlines on the other side of the table

How You Can Defend Against Deadlines Detecting that a deadline is being used against you is the first skill that you need to have as a sales negotiator. The next skill that you need to develop is the ability to defend against a deadline. The first thing that you need to realize when you are presented with a deadline is that it may not be real. A deadline is just another negotiating tactic and you need to view it as being such. Do not allow a deadline to force you into rushing to make decisions that really require more time. Instead, what you need to do is to be skeptical about any deadline that is presented to you. After having been presented with a deadline, your next step has to be to start to test it. Ask questions and dive deeper to find out what the implications of missing the deadline are and why they are tied to

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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 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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Advice from the Master Negotiator Negotiation, Networking and Body Language Tips that Turn You into a Superstar by Greg Williams When it comes to negotiations and networking, some people are more apt at connecting than others. Some say, some people have a natural knack for connecting with others, while others realize there are specific actions that enhance the probability of connecting. To make your attempts at connecting during negotiations and/or networking events more fruitful, observe the seven suggestions below.

Perspective: Write a letter to yourself from the point of view of those with whom you’d like to connect. In the letter, describe the pain and anxiety he’s experiencing, for the purpose of identifying why your customer needs your assistance. Include the emotions he’s feeling in the letter to better understand why he needs your service. This works in a negotiation and networking environment. In a networking environment, you can seek out those that match the need you’ve identified and connect with those individuals. From a negotiation perspective, the better you are at identifying the source of the other person’s desires, the better you’ll be able to address his needs.

There is no failure: Don’t perceive a situation or environment as a failure. Mentally speaking, never consider any experience as a failure. In a negotiation, there will be times when you come out on the short end of the stick, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you failed. Like in networking, if you examine what occurred in the process of you reaching the point in which you find yourself, there are lessons from which you can learn to become better.

Be known for something: In order to attract individuals that you wish to influence, you must have something that they perceive as being of value to them. When you’re negotiating, the greater the perceived value of your offering, the greater you will be perceived as being valuable. Thus, even in a networking environment, if you’re known for something, people will migrate to you to get the

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something you have that’s of benefit to them. It’s not, who you know, it’s who knows you and what you’re known for that counts.

Be genuine: Most people can spot a con artist; some may sense that something’s not right and not be able to identify the source of their feeling and instinctively not trust you. At the negotiation table, you can sense their ill perception of your actions. It may be in the form of them backing away from you, covering their mouth or fingering their ear as your speak (sign of disbelief of what you’re saying and/or of what they’re hearing), a crinkling of their nose, or a foot/feet that was aligned with yours being pointed in another direction. When you observe such actions, take note of the fact that you’ve begun to lose the interest of that individual. If the situation is warranted, ask if everything is OK to seek verification of your perception. If need be, inquire as to how you can get back on the right track and display, as perceived by the person with whom you’re speaking, a genuinely interest in providing the insight needed by that person to enhance his environment. When it’s all said and done, don’t come across as being perceived as glib and don’t give the appearance of being devoid of a soul. Be warm, accepting, and human.

Know limits: Some people think they can take on anything and everything and still be able to take on more. Ask me how I know. I use to be that person. When you attempt to be all things to all people, you’ll end up being of no value to anyone. When you’re at the negotiation table or networking, know your limits and don’t oversell yourself. Be specific when talking about what you can deliver and how it fits into the needs and desires of the person with whom you’re speaking. The better you are at identifying the benefits/desires of the other person, the better positioned you’ll be to address your offerings to them.

Be a solution provider: Have you ever observed how people migrate towards a solution to a problem? Be it a negotiation or a

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networking environment, if you’ve identified a problem and you’re able to address it with the appropriate solution, you become “the go to guy”. Thus, if you wish to enhance your perception of being the person with solutions to a situation, project your persona as someone that others can count on to provide a solution to a problem. In so doing make sure you’re providing solutions to those that are in your niche to gain the greatest return on the investment of you being the person that people turn to for their solutions.

Value: Value is perceptional. When you attempt to connect with someone, understand his or her value system. All of us see the world and our environment differently. To better connect with someone, understand what is important to that individual, why it’s important, and what he or she perceives as benefits arriving from the environment in which they’re in. The more capable you are at interpreting that which is important to that individual and delivering aspects that they perceive as adding value to them, the more you’ll be perceived as valuable in that person’s life. Just remember, one size doesn’t fit all. Thus, that which is good for person “A” may be of complete disin-

terest to person “B”. Suffice it to say, when attempting to connect with someone genuinely do so by tailoring your remarks to his or her specific situation, desires, needs, and wants. Given the travails that sometimes occur when connecting with people, when it comes to negotiations and networking, the more you know about what motivates those people, their most pressing problems, and how you might be able to provide solutions to their concerns, the better prepared you’ll be to establish a beneficial relationship for all involved. Once you do such, 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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Increasing Customer-Focus in Voice of the Customer for Business Results

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ustomer-focus in satisfaction/loyalty surveys may be the lynchpin to higher response rates and to linking customer experience management (CEM) to business results as well. "Aren’t surveys already customer-focused?" you may be thinking. Well, whenever you're the recipient of a survey, how often do you feel like the questions are focused on what you care about, versus what the surveying company cares about? And, accordingly, do you feel like the surveying company is really getting the best information from you that they can through their current surveys? For me, the answers to these questions are: not much and no. Let's face it: there's room for improvement in making voice of the customer (VoC) efforts truly customer-focused. The perennial dilemma for survey designers is finding the balance between asking too much or too little, affecting respondent fatigue and response rate levels. But take a look at your call center logs and other customer-initiated feedback. When customers talk about things they're passionate about, there's essentially no such thing as respondent fatigue or asking too much. The real dilemma athand is not so much finding the right survey length, but rather, finding the right customer-focus that opens up customers' passions related to what your products, services, and experiences do for them.

How to Discover Your Customers' Passion Buttons for Your Brand Contrary to popular belief, doing what everyone else is doing might be the exact wrong thing to do, as described in my article: 8 Paths to Value via Benchmarking Studies. Often, the route to differentiation is to take the high road and leapfrog the masses. A smaller yet smarter segment of organizations is discovering their customer' passion buttons by analyzing unstructured data (survey comments, call center logs, social media comments, etc., often with the help of text mining and voice mining tools) and/or visiting customers to observe their experiences. These analyses and visits can

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be quite eye-opening by revealing the larger context of how your product, service and touch-points play into value-add or hassle factors (i.e. customer value quotient) in your customers' ongoing quest to succeed in their life/business. Here are some examples shared in the 3rd Annual ClearAction Business-to-Business Customer Experience Management Best Practices Study: Customer Personas: To better understand customers, what their day looks like, and how they use their purchased solutions, teams from LexisNexis (professional software provider) visited clients in various roles and observed them using their products. Then they aggregated findings from dozens of these "job shadowing" visits to create composite customers for each major role. Called user personas, the output was a series of profiles that included the fictitious customers' pictures, interests, demands, and goals. Personas were posted physically in offices and sent electronically to team members to help everyone understand the big picture and be more sensitive to customer perspectives. "The information was also used to make products more relevant and successful," said Jennifer Maldonado, former Customer Experience Program Manager for one of LexisNexis' U.S. divisions. "Product management and development teams learned to improve and create features tailored to the needs of specific user personas. One example of this was combining two separate screens in an application into one to simplify the user experience for the paralegal role, an idea born from observing actual users in their offices toggle back and forth between two different pages repeatedly throughout the day." Close to the Customer: To help employees relate to B2B customers' day-to-day realities,a division of Sungard (risk management firm) conducts a monthly interview webcast with a

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Doing what everyone else is doing might be the exact wrong thing to do customer, asking 3 questions: "What is the purpose of your company, your group and your role? How do you use our software to meet your business needs? What is a good customer experience for you?" This unfiltered, direct exposure to customers is valuable in understanding how their products and services impact customers' personal quality of life and business objectives. Customer Mirrors: Observation of customers at their work site is a program that Maersk Line (freight provider) calls "Customer Mirrors". While the company had mapped their own internal processes, they know they need to have a clear picture of the processes their customers go through. Employees visit the customer to see how they interact with the company, observing without a specific problem in mind. For the people dealing with the company on a daily basis, what do they actually do? How easy is it for them to find the appropriate person to deal with? What is it like for them to navigate the company’s website and fill in forms? While the focus is on observing, a bit of problemsolving is typical when customers request it. Findings are posted in the offices to provide a Customer Mirror for all employees to look into and learn from. Findings from these valuable in-depth research tools should be used far and wide in your company to inject additional customer-focus into all of your customer feedback efforts as well as day-to-day attitudes, processes, and decision-making company-wide. That's how you’ll begin to reap exponential business results from customer experience

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Well-Established

Just Starting

management. Shift away from company-focused surveys and move toward c u s t o m e rfocused surveys by tailoring them according to your findings from these types of indepth research. Response rates are likely to improve, but even more importantly, the validity and value of the information you collect is likely to increase exponentially.

Applying Customer-Focus from Voice of the Customer One of the keys to success is attaining sufficient budget to manage CEM effectively. And to do that, executives want to see that great things are happening because of your CEM investments. Based on the Temkin Group's voice of the customer maturity stages published in Assessing the Maturity of Voice of the Customer Programs, the 2012 ClearAction CEM study asked B2B companies where they're at in the maturity journey: 1) collecting data, 2) analyzing data, 3) collaborating cross-functionally for continuous improvement, or 4) transforming business-as-usual to truly customer-centric operations. Anecdotal VoC

13%

Formal VoC data collection

26%

VoC data analysis

Action plans by owners of VoC key drivers

30%

Cross-functional collaboration to continuously improve VoC Transform business-as-usual to truly customer-centric operations

On Our Wish List

13%

Not Planned/Don’t Know

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Here's what the masses are doing: A third of participating B2B companies are asking owners of VoC key drivers to create action plans, and one in four firms is collecting anecdotal or formal VoC, but not analyzing or acting upon it. Inject customer-focus in your VoC strategy by striving to manage things the way your customers view your brand: as one cohesive entity, not as a variety of silos, data collectors, and unilateral action plan achievers. A smaller, smarter segment of companies (based on the 2012 ClearAction study) is injecting customer-focus in their VoC strategy: one in eight B2B firms is using cross-functional collaboration to continuously improve VoC, and one in ten firms is striving to transform businessas-usual toward truly customer-centric operation of their company.

Recommendations: Leap-frog the masses and build a roadmap that will accelerate your company's progress on the VoC journey toward transforming business to truly customercentric operations. Design VoC to be useful to as many functional areas and business processes as possible. Design VoC to maintain the customer's viewpoint, priorities, and phrasing. Nurture an insatiable curiosity about customers within your company-wide culture. It's a joy to receive revenue from customers, but it's not always a joy to be a customer. Let's improve customer-focus in what we do and make our customers and our organizations alike more joyful and effective. Doing so will make it easier to link customer experience management to strong business results. by Lynn Hunsaker

Lynn Hunsaker helps companies improve enterprise-wide customer-centricity and profitability through ClearAction customer experience management consulting. She led customer experience initiatives in large companies since 1989, and authored 3 books, including Innovating Superior Customer Experience. See the ClearAction

Execs Still Don’t Get Customer Experience Many executives are interested in improving the customer experience. They want to know how to increase loyalty and revenue and all that good stuff. When Oracle released their White Paper Why Customer ‘Satisfaction’ is No Longer Good Enough, the stats caused quite a stir, and rightfully so. 70% of shoppers have stopped buying goods or services from a company after experiencing poor customer service 64% have made future purchases from a company’s competitors after experiencing poor customer service 82% describe the customer service process as being a lot of effort 92% of customers feel a poor service experience decreases their loyalty

81% of consumers are prepared to pay more for a better customer experience!

Were any of us, really, surprised as customers? No. We have been there. We know it requires effort to get what we deserve. We have gladly defected to a competitor after our “go-to” brand disappointed us in some major way. Why are the executives surprised? They claim improving the customer experience is a priority, as they’ve been claiming for a few years now.

B2B CEM Benchmarking Study and newsletter.

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These do not sound like parts of a proactive customer experience strategy to me. Even the last recommendation, which highlights “loyalty through excellence”, is saying this will justify the loyalty, not inspire or earn it day after day. Justifying loyalty sounds a lot like aiming for satisfaction. “I guess its ok I pay for this. It’s not as bad as it could be. The way they respond to me as a customer makes me sort of feel heard.”

Customer Experience is More Than Reacting to Customer Issues

Step one, in any customer experience strategy, is to truly understand what your customers are experiencing and WHY Every day I speak to business leaders who still treat the customer experience as a reactive, defensive strategy. Even the Oracle report concludes the following 5 guidelines to “create a compelling customer experience”: Focus on the contact centre – optimize resources for dealing with ‘critical enquiries’ Focus on speed and simplicity – with an emphasis on first contact resolution Monitor and respond to social media complaints – and provide effective resolution Integrate different customer touch points – to deliver a truly consistent CX Justify customer loyalty through excellence – innovate audience interactions

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Step one, in any customer experience strategy, is to truly understand what your customers are experiencing and WHY. Evaluation is a critical step to understanding, appreciating and improving the customer experience. By first understanding, you can then plan a better experience and begin executing it. Instead of waiting for customer complaints, you can proactively create experiences to not only avoid them but create WOW moments instead. Handling customer complaints successfully and without additional effort from the customer seems like table stakes. Responding to customers on social media? Is that still up for debate? It’s time to be honest about customer experience. If your company is not delivering, you probably know it, even if it’s difficult to face the truth. But, trust me here: The truth will set you free. Be bold. Be brave. You can handle the truth. And even if you can’t, your customers are dealing with it daily. Don’t they deserve better? Republished with author's permission from original post by Jeannie Walters by Jeannie Walters

Jeannie Walters is the Chief Customer Experience Investigator™ and founder of 360Connext, a Chicago-based consulting firm specializing in the cornerstones of customer experience: customer engagement, employee engagement and connections like social media. 360Connext serves mid-market companies and larger by helping them evaluate their true customer experience. Learn more: www.360connext.com

March 2013

Create Customer Amazement TM

Before You Can Be Customer Centric, You Must Be Employee Centric by Shep Hyken “Customer centricity” is popular terminology in the customer service arena today, and it refers to a company-wide focus on the customer. Everyone in the company and everything the company does – every business process, every department – has the customer in mind at all times. It is a powerful way for a company to operate successfully. A similar concept would be the “upside down pyramid” organizational chart Jan Carlzon introduced in the 1980s. Carlzon, president of Scandinavian Airlines, put his customer service ideas to work to turn the struggling airline around and inspire other businesses as well. He flipped conventional thinking on its head. Previously, the CEO was always thought of at the top of the business pyramid, and then the organizational flow went down through levels of upper and middle management to front-line employees at the bottom. Carlzon said that those front-line employees, the ones dealing directly with the customer, should be at the top, with all business activity focused on and flowing upward to the customer. It was a brilliant concept – then and now – and is the basis of a customercentric company. Another popular concept in today’s business world – the internal customer – likely had its origins in Carlzon’s teachings as well. He said that those in the company who are not directly serving the customer should be serving someone who is. In other words, employees must support one another internally in order to properly take care of the outside customers. And, I would add that the level of internal customer service must be on par with that of outside customer service. If you want your customers to experience Amazing service that keeps them coming back, the same “customer centric” focus must exist within the

company. So, before your organization can fully realize customer centricity, it must first become “employee centric.” There are many examples of this in the business world. Companies that are rated highest in employee satisfaction for their work environment are at the top of the rankings in customer service as well. And, financial success follows. If we consider the airline industry today, arguably the most profitable would be Southwest Airlines. It’s no accident that Southwest cofounder and former CEO Herb Kelleher firmly believes in the employeecentric concept. He has said that if you take care of employees first, they will take care of the customers (passengers). By doing so, the customers will come back again, and business will grow. Southwest Airlines creates a customer-centric organization, by first focusing on being employee centric. The bottom line – or, flip that and make it the top – is that the customers must be a company’s top priority for it to succeed. But, in order to have a truly customer-centric outlook, the same level of service must start within the organization with a dedication to employees.

If you take care of employees first, they will take care of the customers

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Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees. For information on Shep’s speaking programs, books, and learning programs please contact (314) 692-2200. Web: www.hyken.com – Click here for information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs (www.TheCustomerFocus.com).

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The Coach Approach

Got Lagniappe? by John Brubaker Super Bowl XLVII just witnessed by millions took place in New Orleans, Louisiana. While the game and its pageantry were the main attraction, the experience of New Orleans itself is a close second. Why? Quite simply because lagniappe is part of their culture. The word Lagniappe (pronounced Lan-Yap) is a creole word, that originated in Louisiana which means something extra or a little more. It’s that little something extra someone gives you as their way of saying thank you or expressing appreciation. I can assure you there was a lot of lagniappe going around New Orleans during Super Bowl week; everyone from store owners to street vendors make it a best practice. It isn’t just during Super Bowl week though, “a little more” is the norm in Louisiana and the exception most other places. The baker’s dozen (a form of lagniappe) is a dying breed; gifts included in a purchase tend to be as well. With a contracting economy many have reverted to a scarcity mindset as opposed to over delivering, surprising and delighting customers with “a little more”. They take the stance that they don’t need to do this and it’s just “over-servicing” the customer which cuts into the bottom-line. There is a line where exceptional service and profitability meet but I would argue losing customers because you don’t over-deliver is what cuts into the bottom line. To get ahead in today’s competitive marketplace we must eliminate customer satisfaction from our vocabulary. Just meeting their expectations isn’t expected by the customer anymore, it is demanded. Meeting expectations is ordinary; exceeding expectations in all areas of the experience is extraordinary. It’s not enough to have a good product, you need to have a great product AND a great service experience to gain and retain loyal clients. The country music singer Loretta Lynn is famously quoted as saying: “To make it in this business you either have to be first, best or different.” I would argue that holds true in any business, but the latter is most realistic for people. Since not everyone can be first to market and not everyone can arrive at

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best status, different is the key to success. Since not everyone can arrive at best status, different is the key to success) After all, there’s only one first and only one best at anything. So different is the path and lagniappe can go a long way to differentiating you or your brand. I recently worked with a client in the hospitality industry on improving their process while bringing a little Lagniappe to the customer experience. They wanted the concept of a little more to manifest itself in all areas of the customer experience. The list is too numerous for this article but it included things like giving crayons, coloring books and hand wipes to “guests in training” (kids), adding flowers to the tables of the dining area and giving guests complimentary mints at the end of the meal and chocolates in their rooms. In my mind, this is part of exceeding expectations, the key word being part. For example: if you’ve ever stayed at a Hampton Inn or Doubletree hotel you’ve probably received a warm cookie at check-in. That is their lagniappe; however if after you check in you find your room isn’t spotless or the bed is uncomfortable they’ve negated any equity built. Everything matters and the entire experience must exceed expectations, flawlessly. Comfortable furniture and a clean room are expected (demanded) and the lagniappe is the act of doing the unexpected, a little more. The key is to not deliberately bring attention to this practice; trust me the very act will call attention to itself. Why? Because “a little more” is the exception not the rule. I continue to be amazed by companies who do not make lagniappe a best practice across all levels of the organization. In 2002, I bought a new car and was choosing between Honda and Toyota. When I walked in the local Honda dealership no one greeted me and I had to go find a salesperson. The Honda salesman wanted to sell me a vehicle I already told him I wasn’t interested in, brought me to a cubicle to haggle over price and made me wait while he pulled the “For a price that low, I have to check with my manager” tactic. I was “gone in 60 seconds” as the saying goes. When I went down the street, the general manager at

March 2013

the Toyota dealership held the front door open and greeted me when I walked in. Then as I explained what I was looking for he told me “My goal is to make this the easiest, most pleasant purchasing experience you’ve ever had.” And they did, Starbucks coffee was even delivered to me as I met with my sales person, Albert, in a private office with plush furniture. To top it off at contract time (after I got my price without a hassle) I was offered free tires for the life of my vehicle. Talk about Lagniappe! Since that time, it’s no wonder I’ve bought my last three cars from Albert. More recently, when I told him I wanted to trade my vehicle in, much to my surprise he offered me a loaner vehicle so he could borrow my car for the afternoon before his manager assessed the value of it. When I asked why, he explained that he wanted to wash and wax it during his break so I would get a better trade in price from his manager when he assessed it. Who do you think I recommend people contact when they're in the market for a new car? I didn't just tell them about Albert; I actually kept a stack of his business cards to hand out to friends, clients, and colleagues. Fast

forward several years when the dealership became a client of mine, I made sure to return the gesture and show them lagniappe in my work with them as well. Regardless of your industry, your clients and prospects have a lot of choices. The goodwill and loyalty your organization can create by over delivering creates incredible satisfaction and the kind of word of mouth advertising money can’t buy. Please share any examples of lagniappe you practice or have received.

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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