NZ Sales Manager - Issue 91

FEBRUARY | ISSUE 91

Business Writing: Overlook This At Your Peril!

Assumptions: Why Being Right is Wrong Coaching is not a 'Tick-box' Exercise NZ’S E-MAG FOR SALES LEADERS | WWW.NZSALESMANAGER.CO.NZ

From the Editor S

teven Covey describes communication as the ‘most important skill in life’ in his classic ‘7 habits of highly effective people’. He describes how we are taught how to read, write and speak, but rarely are we taught how to listen. In this issue we follow a theme on communication. Ambrose Blowfield describes the importance of good business writing, and gives three excellent tips on how you can improve your written communication today. Jill Konrath’s ‘story’ highlights the importance of preparation to be able to have good relevant

conversations, and Sharon Drew Morgan presents some fascinating facts about listening, and describes how our listening can lead to assumptions that can damage the relationship and maybe kill the sale. Enjoy the read and good luck with fine tuning your communication!

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ISSN 2230-4762 EDITOR Paul Newsom GROUP EDITOR Richard Liew

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contents

FEBRUARY THIS MONTH'S MUST READ...............................................................................................................6 BUSINESS WRITING: OVERLOOK THIS AT YOUR PERIL!

LOST ART OF THE QUICK START.....................................................................................12 ASSUMPTIONS: WHY BEING RIGHT IS WRONG........................................................................18

TWO MINUTE TOP-UP.......................................................................................................................20 COACHING IS NOT A 'TICK-BOX' EXERCISE

QUICK FIX..........................................................................................................................................22 It’s not what you sell, it’s how you sell

BOOK REVIEW...................................................................................................................................24 Your Best Year Yet: The 10 Questions that Will Change Your Life For Ever by Jinny Ditzler

THE CLOSE........................................................................................................................................26

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MUSTREAD

Business Writing: Overlook This At Your Peril!

Words by Ambrose Blowfield

I

t’s amazing how much time, effort and training is put into traditional selling. We often find that businesses that are ahead of their industry average are those that dedicate serious time to selling and to improving the skill set of their sales teams. The key question isn’t so much ‘do they develop their sales teams?’ it’s more the question of ‘in what way do they develop their sales teams?’

Most businesses focus on what they deem to be the most important areas of their business. If they are technically driven, they focus on R&D and product development. If they are sales driven they focus on their sales team. In a country like New Zealand, face-to-face selling is where many companies believe the client is won or lost, so businesses often focus on developing persuasive selling skills to be able to close the sale more effectively.

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They even focus on their sales pipeline management and so address the need to develop the telephone selling skills needed to secure those all-important client meetings. However there is one area where rarely any focus or investment is placed by businesses and sales managers alike, despite it being more commonly used than face-to-face and telephone as a form of business communication.

That area is business writing. Business writing not only covers things like emails, proposals and tenders to clients, it even covers internal emails to colleagues, without whom there would unlikely be any customers long-term.

Now I can accept that many of you didn’t love learning English literature and English language at school. To tell you the truth, I didn’t love those subjects either. Little did we know at the time that when your teachers said “You’ll always need both English and maths, they were right! In fact, we have found in working with thousands of businesses that it doesn’t take much to dramatically improve a business’ writing.

Offline and online teams don’t always talk cohesively, nor do marketing and sales teams.

The marketing team can put out one brand message and then the sales team can then use a very different structure, tone and set of standards. In the eyes of the customer this is no different to over-selling a product’s capabilities to then have the product not live up to expectations! www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz |

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What clients crave these days is consistency. Businesses risk a ‘disconnect’ in the eyes of the information recipient if there are mixed messages. You may have a salesman that is excellent in face-to-face selling, they may even be one of the best in the country, but then when it comes to formalising the client agreement, they can barely form a coherent sentence.

Training exists, but commonly many businesses never invest in how their sales staff write to their clients or to other staff members, to clear these discrepancies in the eyes of their customer and look a lot more professional. Just as common, few businesses invest in training their customer support team or admin team where many individuals interact directly with potential customers and existing customers on an ongoing basis. To test this, get everyone in your office or business to write an email or letter all fundamentally saying the same thing.

It could be an email confirming a business appointment with a client, or an email thanking sometime for the meeting you just had, even an internal email asking security to have a car removed that’s blocking the loading bay. As you’ll see, everyone has their own tone and writing style. This should be allowed, but people should also understand when there is a time and a place in a business relationship for formality and consistency, and there is a time when the tone can be a little more relaxed.

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Once you’ve completed the test, try applying these tips to improve the performance of your businesses writing capabilities: 1. Always remember that emails and texts are a ‘cold’ form of communication. As a medium they do not readily convey any emotion or reaction to what is being said. Remedying this only takes one line: Instead of emailing something like: “John… Please find attached the proposal we discussed…” Try simply adding: “John… Thank you again for the opportunity to work with you on this project… Please find attached the proposal we discussed…”

By simply adding in a warm one liner you turn your cold email into one that is warm, personal and more aligned to the way you treat clients face-to-face and by phone. We have found over the years that very few people do this, so it can become a great point of difference, especially for your sales team.

2. While I appreciate that many programmes like Microsoft Outlook now have clever tools that pick up the word ‘attachment’ in the body of our emails to then remind us to add an attachment if we forgot to, they sadly do not pick up on our occasional stupidity!

3. A simple tip to minimise your email business writing risk is to alter your email rules in Outlook to have your computer ‘hold’ your emails in the outbox folder for say 15 minutes before sending them to the internet. This will often give you more than enough time to go into the outbox folder to retrieve a less than perfect email and make changes before sending it. However: please note that this simple tool is not fool proof: what you are actually doing is telling Outlook to send & receive emails on the hour and every fifteen minutes after that. If you happen to type a poor email, and hit send at 14minutes 57seconds past the hour, you’ll probably miss it.

Regardless of this risk, the many sales reps we have taught this tip to have found it avoids over 95% of those awkward moments! Try it.

In some way, business emails should be short, sharp and to the point so having drafted your emails you should try to cut down the volume of words by say 25% in order to get your point across more clearly without cluttering up your client’s mind with waffle.

4. Finally, there are countless common sense business writing tips that many sales people overlook. Things like the need to reduce the use of industry or product jargon from emails, especially if the email may be forwarded to someone else in the organisation who has fewer technical skills. In some way, business emails should be short, sharp and to the point so having drafted your emails you should try to cut down the volume of words by say 25% in order to get your point across more clearly without cluttering up your client’s mind with waffle.

Trying to use more active language to stimulate action is also useful: saying things like “I recommend” rather than “Allow me to make a recommendation for you…”.

I could comment about the need to watch your ‘tone’ in business writing, but you probably know that already!

If you treat business writing with respect, it can be a phenomenal tool in your sales arsenal.

A business can often put serious time, money and effort into getting customers over the line, a proposal might look good but the main email might be ‘Tom, see attached, see you next week.’ That may be enough to make a client re-think the proposal they’re about to accept. At the very least it may put a small doubt in the back of the client’s mind that may resurface later. Can your business really afford for something as simple as a grammar mistake, or business writing faux pas to lose a client that your face-to-face and telephone skills have worked so hard to get?

Overlook this aspect of your business at your peril people! •

 www.themarketingcompany.co.nz

Ambrose Blowfield is the founder and Expert Facilitator for THE Marketing Company.

For more details on Ambrose, and sales and marketing training please see the website above 010 |

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Lost Art of the Quick Start Words by Jill Konrath

W

ith the year-end push behind him, Matt wasn’t looking forward to rebuilding his pipeline. Yet he knew that his boss would be on him to 'pound the phones' as soon as he got into the office.

More, more. Faster, faster. Close, close. It was an endless cycle that sometimes made him question why he stayed in this profession. At least the traffic was light as he drove into work. Perhaps it was a positive omen, something he desperately needed after that weird dream that had been haunting him for days. He decided to treat himself to a latte at Starbucks before starting his prospecting marathon.

On entering, he saw Danielle, the team’s perennial superstar, tucked away in a corner table. She made selling look easy. And, he realized with a start, she’d been a key player in that dream. Maybe she’d have some insights into its meaning.

After getting his latte, Matt sauntered over. “Happy New Year! Mind if I interrupt?” Danielle looked up and smiled, “I’ve been waiting for you. Have a seat. And, tell me about your dream.”

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“How did you know?” Matt stuttered.

But not even waiting for an answer, he continued, “It was the strangest thing. Our team, all of us, were at a big race track. We were at the starting gate, each of us behind the wheel of these high performance cars. The boss was out in front with the starting gun.

When he pulled the trigger, we all took off – at full speed. I was out of the gate before any of you. Then, just as I was rounding the first curve, a big sign popped up and said: Haste makes waste. I thought it was strange. Then seconds later, another sign appeared: Slow is the new fast. I ignored it and kept on going.

Even more rapidly, a third sign appeared: Slow down. Danger ahead. This time I braked slightly. Almost instantly, Tom, Andy and Ali passed me. I sped up again, only to have another sign show up: Caution. Speed kills. I cooled it right then and there.

Everyone else on the team passed me by. Except you. You pulled up alongside me and we drove side-by-side for the rest of the race. The strange thing is, we won.”

Danielle was smiling, “Cool dream. Mine – which happened six years ago – was very different. You need to realize that you’ve been selected to learn the Lost Art of the Quick Start.”

“What in the world are you talking about?” asked Matt.

"It sounds like punishment.

Or something really remedial. Do people think I'm that much of a loser?"

“Not at all,” said Danielle. “It’s really quite an honor. And, clearly I’ve been selected to pass it on to you. The secrets I’ll be sharing will give you a jumpstart on meeting your quota. And, they’ll keep you at the top of the leader board for as long as you practice them."

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“That’s what bad sales is all about.

To get off to a quick start, you need focus.

You need to analyse which companies are most likely to do business with you.

You need to assess which trigger events speed up sales cycles. You need to review your current client base to determine other ways you can help them.”

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“Let’s start at the beginning. You’ve already been exposed to LESSON #1: SLOW IS THE NEW FAST.” “That’s what those signs were about,” Matt said excitedly. “But what’s wrong with getting out of the gate quickly?”

“Tons of things,” said Danielle. “You call on the wrong companies and contact the wrong people. You say or write the wrong things in your messaging. You get deleted or brushed off almost immediately. Then you repeat the same cycle over and over again.

That’s insanity. You’re wasting your own time. You’re wasting opportunities. And, you’re damaging your credibility.

“Okay. You’ve got my attention now. That sounds just like me,” said Matt. “But isn’t that what sales is all about?”

Danielle answered, “That’s what bad sales is all about. To get off to a quick start, you need focus. You need to analyse which companies are most likely to do business with you. You need to assess which trigger events speed up sales cycles. You need to review your current client base to determine other ways you can help them.”

“You do all that?” asked Matt.“What do you think I’m doing here this morning?” she replied. “It’s how I start every year.”

“Phew. I’m all set to go pound the phones and you’re here thinking,” he said. “Very interesting. What else do I need to learn?”

LESSON #2: STRIVE FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT. Make sure that every single interaction with your prospects and clients yields the best possible outcome,” she answered.

“That’s exactly what I’m hoping for – all the time,” said Matt. “Hope is not enough. It’s preparation that matters. The more you can do ahead of time, the faster your sales process goes. Let me tell you what I do before each meeting. I look people up on LinkedIn, Twitter and other industry groups. I find out what they say about themselves.

I look for commonalities, starting points. I research their company (and sometimes their industry) to find out anything I can about their challenges, goals, issues, objectives and more,” she said.

“You do all that? Every time?”

Matt asked in disbelief.

“Absolutely,” she said. “Then I take time to craft a custom message, think of relevant stories to share and write down questions to ask. Every time. I refuse to waste an opportunity. That’s what maximum impact is all about.

And that’s why I close deals faster too.” Matt was getting excited.

Although he’d never done a lot of what she was describing, he knew we was capable of it. “What else am I missing?” he asked.

“I’ve discovered that if I focus on helping my prospects and clients achieve their objectives, everything else falls in place.”

LESSON #3: DON’T SELL. HELP, Danielle replied. “It’s actually my favourite. I’ve discovered that if I focus on helping my prospects and clients achieve their objectives, everything else falls in place. I also help them put together a business case for change and guide them through the decision making process. In the end, we all win.”

“But when do you sell? You know, give ‘em your pitch.”

“I don’t,” she answered. “We just talk about things. Good relevant conversations about what matters to them. By doing that, I get their business. It’s almost like magic.”

“Seriously,” Matt interrupted. “By doing these things, you actually get off to a quick start? It’s not what the boss is telling us!”

“But it’s true,” said Danielle. “Too many people are focused on the wrong things. Activities. Pitches. Demos. Strutting their stuff. But I understand where you’re coming from. I used to be just like you, a hard-charging salesperson, working my butt off to close deals. Then one day, I thought to myself, There’s got to be a better way. The next day, I had the dream. It’s been six years now and I love my job more than ever. "

“You sold me!” Matt announced loudly. “I’m going to embrace The Lost Art of the Quick Start.

I think I’m going to like sales a whole lot more because of it.”

“You will. And, you’ll be much more successful – more quickly,” said Danielle. “Now, one more thing. See that table over there. I’ve reserved it for you. It’s time to start working on Lesson #1.”

“But I need to get into the office,” said Matt. “The boss is expecting me.”

“Wow,” said Matt. “What’s been the hardest part?”

“Don’t worry,” she answered.

“Unlearning the old ways,” she answered. “At first, it was really hard “I told him we were working together this morning on getting to do things differently. I kept going back to my comfort zone. But you off to a fast start. You’ve got I forced myself to keep on going, experimenting with the new way.

Finally, that became ‘normal’ for me. And, I’m always thinking about another two hours before he’s expecting you.” ● how I can get better.”

 www.jillkonrath.com

Jill Konrath helps salespeople to speed up new customer acquisition and win bigger contracts.

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MIKI SZIKSZAI CEO, SNAPPER

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MC2527A

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Assumptions: Why Being Right is Wrong Words by Sharon Drew Morgen

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hile researching my new book What? I discovered that when listening to others, we naturally assume we understand what’s meant and don’t question our assumption. Yet the filters our brain uses to hear what others mean

to convey preclude accuracy, leading to faulty assumptions.

Essentially, here’s what happens that makes accuracy so difficult:

1. We only retain words we hear for approximately three seconds.

2. On direct listening, our brain automatically and haphazardly deletes portions of what is foreign to our typical thinking.

3. Our brain then takes what’s left over after the initial deletion and seeks an historic match (from a prior conversation our brain deems similar), and deletes whatever is divergent from that match.

4. Our brain then takes the remainder from that deletion and filters it through our beliefs, values, filters, habits and memory.

5. Whatever is left after deletions in steps 2, 3, 4 is what we adamantly assume we have heard. A simple example of this just happened today. I was introduced as ‘Sharon Drew’ to a friend’s friend followed by this dialogue:

V: Hi Sharon.

SDM: Actually, my first name is Sharon Drew.

V: Oh. I don’t know anyone who calls themselves by their first name AND last name.

SDM: Neither do I.

V: But you just told me that’s how you refer to yourself! Because a double first name was foreign to her, she put it in an accustomed category, deleting how she heard the introduction, and then wrongly assumed a typical a first name/last name configuration. She exacerbated the problem by then assuming she was right and I was wrong when I corrected her.

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Assumptions cost us greatly, harming relationships, business success, and health: ASSUMPTIONS RESTRICT AUTHENTIC COMMUNICATION We all do this. Using conventional listening practice, it’s pretty difficult to hear what is meant without making assumptions. As a result, we end up restricting, harming, or diminishing authentic communication, and proceed to self-righteously huff and puff about what we believe is ‘right’, potentially getting the context, the outcome, the description, or the communication, wrong.

Or we assume the speaker meant something they didn’t mean at all. In business it gets costly when we wrongly assume a task we were never asked to perform. I recently got a reproaching note from an annoyed colleague when, among several faulty assumptions he made that were far, far from my intent (and in one case making an assumption about my behaviour that in fact was a direct response to something he did!), I didn’t behave according to his beliefs.

I had asked if he wanted to ‘preview’ my new book before it came out, and he felt my subsequent behaviours insufficient given my request that he ‘review’ the book.

When I pointed out his faulty assumption he got quite bumptious until I sent him back to the original email. It cost us both a possible business collaboration.

• Sellers assume prospects are buyers when they ‘hear’ a ‘need’ that matches their solution and end up wasting a huge amount of time chasing prospects who will never buy.

• Consultants assume they know what a client needs from discussions with a few top decision makers while ignoring some of the important influencers, causing resistance to change.

• Decision scientists assume they gather accurate data from the people that hired them and discount important data held by employees lower down the management chain, inadvertently skewering the results and making implementation difficult.

• Doctors, lawyers and dentists assume foundational, standard certainties that may not be true in any unique patient/client situation and don’t get to the real issues, potentially causing harm • Coaches assume clients mean something they are not really saying or skewering the focus of the conversation, ending up biasing the outcome with inappropriate questions that lead the client away from the real issues that never get resolved.

Using normal listening habits we can’t avoid making assumptions. But we can supersede our brains by taking the Observer/Coach role and listening for the metamessages – patterns, system, structure - of what is said rather than the story line or content (which is what our brains use to acquire the assumptions). ●

 www.sharondrewmorgen.com

haron Drew Morgen is the thought leader and originator of the Buying Facilitation®.

Download her new e-book for free at What? Did you really say what I think I heard? www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz

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TWOMINUTETOPUP

Coaching is not a 'Tick-box' Exercise Words by Derek Good

S

everal people have said to me in the past, “Well, we do coaching regularly but nothing changes”. Most people see the need for coaching so they do it, but for a lot of people the coach isn’t converted. The coach doesn’t have buy-in and at best ‘accepts’ that it needs to be done. The problem isn't with the coachee (the person being coached) – it’s with the coach! These might be harsh words – but they are often true. One of the big traps to fall into is to get into a routine of doing something because it should be done.

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Have a Purpose Have a reason for the coaching session to go ahead. This might need some planning time. Be prepared. The coachee deserves a bit of preparation. Sure, they need to be engaged too – but the onus is on you as the coach to run the session and direct the result. Look to make the change in the individual. Rather than closing the session wondering if anything n a lot of cases, it might as will be different from then on – have the goal that something well never be done for all will be different by the end of the session. Of course, this means the benefit that comes from you need to have some focus on what would be reasonable, it. Coaching is not a register. what needs to change, how can you help the individual see the It’s not a checklist. It's not a benefits of changing and how will you know that they are on board lecture. If our approach is all with it all. Well a lot of that will depend on your preparation or about making sure we coach observation skills and on how you run the session. a certain number of times and cover off the minimum Change your thinking Think about the times you have had a number of points, we may change of mind or found something new and from then on run have done just that – we might have achieved that goal with it. What about a restaurant that you love or a meal that’s (coaching each team member become your favourite? Perhaps it is a new item of clothing, a movie, a book or a holiday destination. All of these things every two weeks say) but would once have been introduced to you at some point. Now our objective to help people improve performance has been before that time, something else was your favourite meal, your favourite movie etc. Now, however, it’s all different because you missed by a mile. So, when we do coach, we need to have have changed you preference. You have had a new experience; you’ve seen something different in it that makes you prefer to a purpose. Ask yourself the do, say, eat or experience that over other options. That’s the question, “What is it I really want to see as a result of this sort of experience we should look to create with our coachees.

Rather than just ticking boxes, work at having effective coaching session?” or “What conversations. What will make a change in this individual? How will tell me this session has can I get them to really think about consequences (good or bad) been worthwhile?” or even “What do I want to see next for for doing something? What impact will their behaviour have on the customer, their job or their colleagues? ● this person?

I

 www.rapidresults.co.nz

Derek Good is a seasoned speaker and facilitator and works with management teams and front line staff. www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz

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QUICKFIX

Your Personal Debrief

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he quality of your sales conversation will determine your success. Very often we miss opportunities because we fail to ask the next question to develop the conversation and dig a little deeper. After your sales call, take a few moments to do a personal debrief on the conversation.

Do this before you make the next call, or when you get back to the car. Reflect on what went well, and what didn’t go so well.

What questions did you ask, and what answers did receive to your questions? Think through how you can improve the outcome and value of the conversation for both you and the customer by identifying the question that you didn’t ask this time. This debrief will prepare you to ask the question next time.●

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Available from Fishpond

By Jinny Ditzler

EVENTSCALENDAR

DATE

NAME

PLACE

COMPANY

4-5 March

Auckland

The Marketing Company

9-10 March

Essential Marketing Boot Camp (Tech & IT) Key Account Management

Auckland

David Forman

16-18 March

Sales Performer

Christchurch

David Forman

17 March

Sales Basics

Auckland

Geewiz

18 March

Intensive Sales Accelerator

Auckland

The Marketing Company

19-20 March

Winning Negotiator

Auckland

David Forman

19 March

Cold Calling and Prospecting

Auckland

Top Achievers

19 March

Negotiation Skills

Wellington

NZIM

24 March

Sales Basics

Whangarei

Geewiz

26 March

Overcoming Objections

Auckland

Top Achievers

27 March

Sales Management

Auckland

Top Achievers

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