The Sales Engine

e Sales Engine Practical ideas for building a sales-led business

John Rees

©John Rees 2011

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CONTENTS

Who Is e Book For? “How Can I Make My Business A Raging Success?”

Being Sales-led So Why Did Some Ideas Stick?

The Sales Engine Model Cause And Effect

4 5 5 7 7 8

Making Your Bright Idea Really Shine

11

How To Write Great Messages The Four ‘R’s” Essential Qualities Headlines Message Stack Message Stack A-Z

12 12 13 15 16 22

Planning For Success Buzzwords And Jargon Business Fundamentals Assessing Market Potential Go To Market Strategy Working With Partners

25 25 26 27 28 30

Finding Consumers And Selling To em Attracting Consumers

33 34

Push Or Pull?

Using Campaign Plans The 10 Broadcast Channels 1. Website 2. Social Media 3. Repeat Business And Referrals 4. Thought Leadership 4.1. Blogging 5. Advertising 6. Email Marketing 7. The Telephone 8. Direct Mail 9. Exhibitions And Conferences

34 36 37 37 39 42 42 43 46 46 49 50 50

©John Rees 2011

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10. Networking Measuring Success

What Is Selling?

Types Of Selling What Makes A Great Salesperson?

Buying And Selling Processes Synchronising Buying And Sales Processes Navigator Sales Process Navigator Sales Plan Business Reviews Sample Process Successful Sales Conversations How To Handle Objections Asking For The Order

Presenting Your Big Ideas Why Are Some Presentations So Bad? The Secret Of Great Presentations Designing The Experience

Develop Your Business By Listening And Learning The Advantages How To Get Feedback Touch Points And Finally

ŠJohn Rees 2011

50 51

51 52 53 54 56 56 60 63 64 66 68 70

71 72 73 74

81 81 82 84 86

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Who Is e Book For? This is a book about how to improve marketing and sales performance. It is based my experiences in sales and marketing since 1976 and it includes ideas you can use to improve the performance of your business, however big or small.

There have been countless books written on this subject but I wanted to do something different. I wanted to write a no-nonsense and easy to read book based on advice that you can use to make rapid changes in your business.

I didn’t set out to write a book crammed with masses of detail. I wanted to include the essentials that I know work because I have used them myself.

If it gives you ideas you hadn’t thought of then I will have succeeded in some small way and that has to be good. You should find it useful if you fall into any of these categories; A startup with little sales experience.

An established business who wants to do better, launch a new product, enter a new market or hire more salespeople.

Any business experiencing problems such as business is slow, deals that are stalling and the need to develop a pipeline of sales prospects.

A marketing person who needs to produce more compelling content.

A salesperson who wants to improve performance and hit a sales target.

An educator or student who wants to understand some of the harsh facts of life in a competitive business environment.

However you came to read this book I hope you enjoy it and I welcome any feedback or comments you may have.

Good luck!

John Rees Malvern, England, January 2011 email me: john@jerconsulting.co.uk more information: www.jerconsulting.co.uk

©John Rees 2011

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“How Can I Make My Business A Raging Success?”

It’s a great question that many people have asked me and this book describes a model that will help you maximise the probability of success.

You may have a brilliant idea that you want to turn into a thriving business that makes a lot of money.

Or you may focus more on changing the world in some way as people like Steve Jobs, founder of Apple did when he said “I want to put a ding in the universe.”

You could invent something that changes the rules of the game or create something that is truly unique. But even that wouldn’t guarantee success unless someone was prepared to pay you to use it.

YOU MUST BE SALES-LED But this means more than having super-slick advertising or an awesome website.

That helps, but on its own isn’t enough.

It means more than employing sharp dressing, smart talking, deal-making salespeople who can win business.

It actually means more than having a killer product although that is a huge part of it.

But history shows that doesn’t always work because there have been some killer products that were technologically superior but they failed to make the grade.

Many people view sales as a tough game and you need a thick skin to succeed because there is so much rejection. The view is that it is a numbers game and you just have to make more and more calls to get appointments until you find someone you can sell to.

This was a popular approach in the last century but today it just doesn’t work very well. Despite this you still see businesses using this approach. The balance of power has changed though and consumers are more informed about the alternatives they have. The internet has made information so widely available that some buyers are now better informed than the people who are trying to sell to them.

Being Sales-led This means placing the consumer at the centre of everything you do. You must have an offering (1) consumers (2) want to buy. It means giving them the best sales and support experience you can by keeping your sales promises and doing what you say you will do.

The aim is to generate income (3) by outperforming your competitors and focussing on being the best you can.

And this applies to every part of your business. Everyone must focus on delighting the consumer by providing the highest levels of service. Consumers pay salaries and without them you have no job.

(1) Offering means any product, service, idea or business proposition you are selling.

(2) Consumer means customer, client, prospect, partner or anyone you want to influence, reach, target or sell to.

(3) Income means revenue, sales, commissions, cash, credits or any exchange of value you define.

©John Rees 2011

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Every business starts with a bright idea and the goal is to turn that into sales so the business can grow. This image shows a simple view of this, but look at the sequence. This is how the best companies work. They don’t just try to sell what they currently have, although that’s the starting point.

The aim is to develop relationships with consumers and improve the quality of their offering and service based on feedback and experience. It looks easy and it is but most companies don’t do it because whilst the idea is simple, making it work takes real commitment, effort and intelligent management.

BRIGHT IDEA Improve

Build Relationships

Make Sales

Create Messages

CONSUMER

Develop Marketing Strategy

Attract Consumers

My experiences come from 34 years in the software industry. The ideas are relevant to other industries because the principles are the same whatever you sell.

Since 1976, I have sold software and professional services to clients of all sizes across different industries around the world. I have worked at fast growth companies, mentored start-ups and spin-outs and helped established businesses improve their performance. It has been a lot of fun and hard work and during that time I learned a lot. I have sold mainframes and minicomputers, witnessed the explosion of software application packages and the new markets this created. I lived through the frenzy of the dot-com era. The startup I worked for went public and had a market value of $40 billion on sales of $400 million and one share cost $600!

In 1993 the world changed forever as the World-Wide Web entered our lives. Over the next few years as it spread it caused new technologies and businesses to appear from literally nowhere. There were some wild and wacky business ideas that crashed and burned but some live on and they changed the way we communicate and do business forever. Google, Facebook, eBay, Amazon all grew out of this and are now part of our everyday lives. ©John Rees 2011

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So Why Did Some Ideas Stick?

Of course there was ‘cool’ technology that attracted interest and billions of dollars in venture capital funding, but to sustain it required four fundamentals that apply to any business.

An offering that is different.

The right strategies to attract consumers.

A ruthless focus on performance.

Continual improvement to stay ahead of the competition.

Unless your offering is different from what is already available, you will be regarded as just another commodity with no distinctive features. You will compete on price and your business will probably have a lingering death.

Unless you have the right strategies to bring your offering to the attention of consumers, your pipeline will be empty and your business will die pretty fast.

Unless you focus on being the best you can, your competitors will gradually kill you.

And unless everyone in your business has a shared passion for providing the best client experience they can, your business will start to smell before it dies.

Your best chance of avoiding these deaths is by becoming sales-led and you do this by changing the way you do things to concentrate fully on generating sales by satisfying consumer needs.

e Sales Engine Model This book will help you identify the problems you have because it describes a model of what a sales-led business should look like. I call it The Sales Engine and it describes how business processes, strategies and actions should align to identify and sell to consumers in the most effective way. It describes how you sell and it is a mechanism for evaluating where changes can be made to make your business more sales-led and successful.

The Sales Engine is based on my experience and it distills the diagram on page 6 into four parts, Offering, Strategy, Dialogue and Evolution. In the best businesses, these all work in harmony.

Offering What you sell and the messages you use to describe it.

Strategy How you will meet your goals. ©John Rees 2011

Dialogue The way you communicate with consumers to deliver your messages.

Evolution How you learn from experience to improve your business.

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Cause And Effect Most businesses have problems when starting out or trying to go to the next level and these usually revolve around how to create or manage sales growth. And in my career I’ve experienced most of them first-hand. Here is a sample that you may recognise.

“We don’t have enough consumers to sell to.”

“Sales performance is patchy, some good results but we struggle to meet targets.”

“Sales take too long to close.”

“We seem to lose more sales than we win.”

“We lose sales we should be winning.”

These are comments I hear a lot and as they are all related to sales, it seems reasonable to blame your sales team for being a bunch of underachieving time-wasting losers right? Actually, in most cases that’s very wrong!

It’s just that because it’s sales, in most organisations the buck stops with the salesperson or head of sales.

Sometimes they are to blame but in many cases they are not. They are working with what they’ve got and if that’s not good enough they will fail. Let’s look at some of these in more detail to illustrate what I mean.

“We don’t have enough consumers to sell to.”

This could be due to a poorly executed marketing strategy, a website that doesn’t work or messages that don’t attract attention, arouse interest and inspire a consumer to learn more.

Maybe you are trying to sell to the wrong people! Strange as it seems, this does happen. Unless you clearly define your target consumers and you understand why they would be receptive to your messages, you will get patchy results.

Alternatively, you may have an unstructured approach to generating sales leads and only worry about your pipeline when it runs dry.

“Sales take too long to close.” our salespeople could be hopeless in which case fire them and get some new ones. Or if they have the potential, train them.

If you don’t have a sales process and work in a structured way to qualify opportunities, you will end up chasing sales you can’t win. Maybe there is a poor fit between your ideal consumer and the ‘opportunity’ you are trying to convert.

Perhaps you don’t help salespeople review their sales strategies and coach them to win. ©John Rees 2011

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“We seem to lose sales we should be winning.”

Maybe your offering isn’t competitive. There could be others who just blow you away with a stronger, proven value proposition. They just have a better fit for the consumer than you do. And they put their message across in a more clear, concise and compelling way. Perhaps your sales messages are feature rich, benefit light and generally uninspiring; your unique selling proposition isn’t really unique.

I’m sure you get the point that in any of these situations there is an effect (e.g. no sales) but potentially many causes. On its own any one of these issues can be a cause for concern but when combined with others, it can cause your business to fail. In this case the Sales Engine is broken in some way so you need to find out the root cause and fix that rather than focussing on the effect.

A Healthy Sales Engine When it all comes together your Sales Engine fires on all cylinders and you will enjoy the following benefits;

Sharper Focus You know who your buyers are and you understand how you can help them solve their problems.

Strong Brand Awareness You have messages that are clear, concise and compelling and they clearly differentiate you from your competitors.

Vibrant Pipeline of Opportunities There is a steady flow of high quality potential buyers to sell to because your messages are compelling, targeted and they attract interest.

Improved Sales Productivity Because you use an engagement process and improve your sales skills you win business in a more efficient way.

Higher Profitability Improved sales productivity means shorter sales cycles that cost less to run and this cost saving goes to the bottom line.

Repeat Business Satisfied consumers are more likely to become advocates and buy again and refer you to other potential buyers.

Higher Morale Because your business performs more effectively, people spend less time on problems and more on business and personal growth. They enjoy work more and this results in better performance, greater contribution and lower staff attrition.

This is what every business wants to achieve so let’s get started by looking at how the Sales Engine helps you achieve it.

©John Rees 2011

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Offering YOUR BRIGHT IDEA

You Must Describe Your Offering In A Clear, Concise And Compelling Way To Attract Attention, Arouse Interest And Motivate Action That Is What Great Messages Do They Make You Stand Out From The Crowd This Helps Consumers Understand What Is So Special About You The Best Messages Are Crisp This Is Easy To Say And Hard To Achieve But You Can Do It By Following Some Simple Rules Create A Message Stack To Provide The Structure For Great Messages This Is The Critical Element Of Sales Success You Must Get Right

Read On To Find Out More

PART 1 ©John Rees 2011

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Making Your Bright Idea Really Shine An offering is the idea you want consumers to adopt. It could be a product, a service, a concept (Religion) or even a person (Political candidate). And to be successful you must explain it in a way that means something to your audience.

You do this through messages that attract attention, arouse interest and motivate action such as making a purchase or casting a vote.

But how do you do this? Do you need to be a professional copywriter or hire an expert? Obviously this helps, but most business people have a go themselves with sometimes interesting results!

I am going to give you some ideas you can use to dramatically improve the quality of your messages, but before we move on, let’s look at why messages are so critically important.

You start a business because you have an idea you hope will be successful and make money and maybe even change the world in some way. It seems simple, you have a sensational offering but for some reason consumers don’t seem to buy it. Why is that?

Is it because you are a bad salesperson?

Is the price wrong?

Is your ‘unique’ offering not really that unique?

Is it the economy - again!

All the above can be part of the problem but often it’s because you just don’t have a strong enough story to tell. To use the marketing lingo, your messages don’t ‘resonate’ with your target audience! In plain English this means you haven’t done a good enough job of explaining your offering to the people you want to influence. ©John Rees 2011

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In many businesses messages are often not clear or concise enough and they confuse by giving way too much information. They contain jargon, buzz words, passe corporate speak and gobbledygook such as this;

“A unique solution based on groundbreaking design and leading edge technology to offer unparalleled price performance and ROI.” This is not a joke. I have seen statements like this and they are totally meaningless and ineffective. These words have been so over-used that no-one believes them so the net effect is that consumers ignore you. This is why you must concentrate on writing messages that are honest and actually mean something to the consumer!

How To Write Great Messages We are bombarded with messages from many different channels today so there has never been more competition for our attention. This means that your message must be different from the mass of others or else it will be invisible. You may well have a sensational offering that does have distinctive features but unless you describe it in a way that people understand and can believe, you will be ignored.

Consumers today are better educated and generally more informed so they can more easily see through hype or ‘too good to be true’ offers. This means that the best way to connect with them is to create messages that directly relate to their problems, concerns or desires. Get this right and you well are on your way to achieving success.

So how do you craft messages in the first place? Is it just a matter of sitting down with a pen and paper and scribbling ideas? Of course that is part of it but this can also lead to a lot of wasted effort and confusion because writing isn’t as easy as it sounds! Some people are better than others at converting ideas into words that work but I believe that you can improve if you follow a few simple rules.

These are based on my experiences over a long career and they have worked for me, so they can work for you. I have also learned from some great mentors and although I make no guarantees of absolute success, I know that you will considerably improve the quality of what you do if you follow this advice.

e Four ‘R’s” The purpose of any message is to attract attention and whether you are writing a headline or a longer piece, the aim should be the same - attract attention, arouse interest and create a desire to take action. Often called A.I.D.A. it is a technique that has been around for a while, but I have developed a different slant on it.

Reader, Result, Response and Reward are the key words you should use to create messages with the A.I.D.A. factor. Here’s how it works.

Reader Before you start, always define who you are writing for. Is it a Managing Director, a small business owner, a person between the ages of 17-25? Be very clear because you need to consider what they will be interested in. The key is to make sure your message relates to that otherwise they won’t pay attention and you will be ignored.

Your message must also have an angle that makes it worth their while reading. What is new, different or compelling about what you have to say that directly talks to their interests? Some businesses segment their audience and have defined ‘personas’ that they target with specially created messages. ©John Rees 2011

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Result Next define what outcome you want the message to achieve. This could be a request for information, a meeting or a call.

Response This describes how the Result can be achieved by defining the action you want the reader to take but make sure you make it as easy as possible for it to happen. If the response is to fill in a form, make it simple.

Reward Be very clear about what would motivate a response. Define it clearly and test it. The reward must be something that has value for the reader. It could be information (a free report) a place on an executive briefing, a concessionary price or some time-based offer.

So whatever you write whether it’s a headline or a brief piece of copy apply the 4 R’s to give your message context. And if you want to sell your offering the only context that really matters is what consumers think.

Essential Qualities The 4 R’s give your messages context. Now you want to make sure that they have the right qualities to really work by attracting attention and arousing interest.

Some people do this by making incredible claims whilst others try to baffle the consumer with science. I’ve learned through experience that certain messages work because they have certain qualities that I discuss below.

1. Make It Clear, Concise And Compelling This is the most important quality your messages should have. because we all have short attention spans. Get to the point fast. The more concise the message, the easier it will be understood but be careful not to overdo it and reduce your message to a sound bite with little substance.

Avoid padding and only use the minimum number of words to grab attention. Simplicity is the key, so strip the message down to the most critical element but don’t cut words just for the sake of brevity. Only lose words that serve no useful purpose or don’t help understanding. Remember that this takes time and getting the balance right comes with experience and a lot of editing!

2. Use A Consistent Tone Of Voice Communicate in a way your that reader does. Use language they will relate to and understand. Whether you sell professional services to companies or Skateboards to people under under 25, you want to use language they relate to. If you sell in different geographic regions you should also be aware of any cultural issues and craft messages that are acceptable, don’t cause offence and really work well.

Style is also very important because some businesses use pretty stiff, formal language and they talk in the third person, describing their business as though someone else is talking about it. They use ‘they’ and ‘their’ and sentences like ‘Acme Manufacturing was founded in 2001’. ©John Rees 2011

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Ask yourself how this sounds if you are talking to someone who is across a table from you. If this is how you speak and you feel comfortable with it that’s fine - though a bit strange! I personally prefer talking in the ‘First person’ and I use ‘we’ and ‘ours’ and ‘Our company was founded in 2001’ or ‘We started our business in 2001’. Whatever you decide, use it consistently.

3. Solve A Problem Don’t wax lyrical about how great you are or how wonderful your offering is because no-one really cares! People are only interested in what you can do for them. They are not interested in corporate developments, new appointments or other ‘news’ that is meaningless to them. Solve their problems, satisfy their needs and they will be all ears. If you don’t solve a problem or satisfy a need there will be no reason for them to care.

4. Be Different You must tell the consumer why you are different to and better than the alternatives.

Recognise that making a decision to buy can be difficult, especially where there are so many options to choose from. So be crystal clear and truthful about your difference and what it means to them.

5. Use e Right Words Words are the building blocks of messages and some are more powerful and evocative than others. Always try to use words that are simple and convey meaning but are powerful and memorable. Don’t use ‘big’ or complex words just to sound important or smart because this often has the opposite effect!

Minimise the use of adjectives and don’t make outrageous or unbelievable claims you can’t substantiate. When you do make claims, always back them up with proof from client quotes, case studies or other third party endorsement. Avoid cliche’s, jargon and management speak just to appear clever. Words such as “Blue sky thinking’ ‘, “Touching base” , “Unique Solution’ ‘, “Reaching out to You” have been so over used that they are tired, outdated and have little, if any impact. Actually they have a negative impact and I’m sure they irritate many other people as much as they irritate me.

If you work in a highly technical area and simple words just don’t work well enough, you may have to use complex words. But use them in context and not to try to appear more knowledgeable than you are.

‘You’ is also a very important word because people generally like talking about themselves. Resist the temptation to talk about yourself. Focus on the reader and what is important to them.

6.Uniqueness Unique literally means ‘being the only one of its kind’ or ‘unlike anything else’ and can you really say that about your offering? I Goolged ‘Unique’ and had 336 million hits! ‘Unique Products’ had 96 million and ‘Unique software products’ gave me 21.5 million! That’s a lot of uniqueness so whatever you sell, finding a true Unique Selling Point or USP is very difficult.

Some products just don’t have an advantage because they are commodities in a crowded market. So maybe USP is not relevant, instead you have to create a difference and make a competitive promise. This could be a better buying and support experience or a lower level of risk and better cost of ownership. Always emphasise the results you have achieved for clients and include testimonials to support them. ©John Rees 2011

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Headlines Headlines are really important because they attract attention and should motivate people to read your message. They are used in many ways - in brochures, presentations, on your website in articles and newsletters so you need to craft headlines that work. But a headline must be more than a gimmicky or sensationalist phrase and there must be substance behind the initial pull to build interest. But writing a great headline is not easy, especially when you consider how difficult it is to be different.

There are many examples of weak and uninspiring headlines that are ignored and headlines that are sensationalist but sadly not connected to the message.

“Cow found on Mars” You would read this wouldn’t you. Or at least it would attract your attention even though you know it couldn’t be true. So it ‘s a sensationalist headline that attracts attention but has no substance and it soon becomes obvious the reader has been tricked into reading.

The best way to write a powerful headline is to ensure it summarises the core or critical point of the piece. Find that and you have the basis of your headline. For example, “Software overview by Ariq Limited” is hardly going to get people sitting on the edge of their seats is it? “Reduce operating costs by 45% in 12 months” is far more likely to grab attention, especially if your message, collateral or presentation proves you can deliver.

Avoid irrelevant word plays, gimmicks or bad puns but do try to be different. I know we live in a more politically correct world than ever before but this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take risks. If you are the same as everyone else you melt into the background and you will never get noticed. Be bold, be different, offer a fresh perspective and you will attract attention.

Different Types Of Headline People respond to different headlines so you may need to experiment with these to see how well they fit with your business.

Direct Does what it says with minimal word play e.g. “Buy now and save £1,000.”

Indirect Makes the point in a more roundabout way and arouses curiosity that is answered in the body of the message.

News An announcement of a new or improved offering e.g. “Introducing the all new version 2.0.”

How to Offers the promise of solid and valuable information e.g. “How to improve your revenues without increasing your costs.”

©John Rees 2011

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Question Focusses on self interest, curiosity and needs e.g. “How do you improve your sales revenues without spending more money?”

Command Tells your reader what to do e.g. “Improve your performance by calling us today.”

Reason Why Lists the features e.g. ‘Three reasons you should consider us as your partner, Experience, Reliability and Cost.”

Testimonial Third part endorsement e.g. “We tried for years to solve this problem and then John did it for us.”

So now we have talked about some ideas for creating headlines, let’s look at how this all comes together in a structured way in what is called a Message Stack.

Message Stack The best way to create messages that work is to have a structured approach and mine is called Message Stack.

The idea is that you need message consistency from the highest level such as a headline right down to the level of detail in a brochure or user manual.

The aim is to create a story with messages that are clear and concise so they are easily understood. They are also compelling enough to appeal to the reader and motivate action.

With a Message Stack it all comes together nicely from the Vision to the Elevator and Vignette and down to the Depths.

Vision describes the kind of business you are and what your ambitions are.

Elevator tells your story in less than 50 words or 20 seconds.

Vignette tells your story in under 2 minutes.

Depth describes your offering and your business in a lot more detail.

There is also a flow that is consistent and that is why I draw Message Stack as a triangle.

What you say at the apex (Vision) is connected to the base (Depth) so that readers can follow a logical path and understand your messages more easily. They can quickly decide how relevant it is to their needs and then drill into the detail that interests them.

We will talk about Message Stack later on but before we do, let’s look at how you create great messages that feed into the various parts of your Message Stack.

©John Rees 2011

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Vision Your Vision is a picture of what your business will look like in the future. Don’t confuse it with the glib marketing slogans you see. A real Vision should be a key driver at the heart of your business.

It should reflect what you are striving to achieve and be an inspiration for you, your employees, partners and above all, your consumers. Make sure it is realistic and achievable and use it to direct your marketing strategy and business development.

Use it as the headline that drive your message development to create consistent and meaningful communication with your audience. Here’s how to create a Vision;

1. It’s not about You. Don’t focus on what you want to achieve. Some well known companies do this and they talk about stuff like increased shareholder returns, growing market share and being a global leader.

Well, duh, what business with ambition wouldn’t want to do this? The thing is, none of this happens unless you give consumers what they want. The best products and services, great buying experience, value for money, whatever it is, unless you deliver it your business will go nowhere fast. So, make it about your consumers, not about you. Here’s a brilliant Vision "To make people happy" (Disney). And they focus everything on doing just that through their movies, theme parks, DVD’s and other merchandise. By making people happy Disney makes a huge amount of money. In 2009 they generated sales of more than $36 billion with a 10% profit margin. The people they made happy also included their shareholders and employees!

2. Keep it short, simple and memorable.

It doesn’t need to be a work of literary genius that fills several pages. In fact the shorter and sharper it is, the easier it is to understand and remember. If you ask your employees what the vision of the company is, will they know or care or just think it’s just a slogan no-one believes in anyway?

Truly bad " To achieve sustainable growth, we have established a vision with clear goals.

Profit: Maximizing return to shareowners while being mindful of our overall responsibilities.

People: Being a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be.

Portfolio: Bringing to the world a portfolio of beverage brands that anticipate and satisfy peoples; desires and needs.

Partners: Nurturing a winning network of partners and building mutual loyalty.

Planet: Being a responsible global citizen that makes a difference.

Where does the consumer comes in? “Oh yeah .... and we make sugary drinks that people like and they buy them in industrial quantities...” ©John Rees 2011

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Getting better "To be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

"The world’s premier food company consumer nutritious, superior tasting foods to people everywhere. Being the premier food company does not mean being the biggest but it does mean being the best in terms of consumer value, customer service, employee talent, and consistent and predictable growth.”

Simple but perfectly formed "To make people happy"

"To put joy in kids’ hearts and a smile on parents’ faces."

"To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world" * If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Elevator Message When someone asks you what your business does, what do you say? Do you ramble a bit or do you grab their attention with a concise summary that hits the right note?

Most people answer by talking about themselves and attach a label such as ‘I am a …. ‘ This is easy, it requires little thought and most people do it. And because people also like talking about themselves, it appears to be a natural thing to do. But there is a far better approach and it’s called an Elevator Message. If you are in an elevator (or a lift as we Brits call it!) with someone and you have limited time, how do you get your message across in a way that grabs their attention?

You use an Elevator Message because it is designed to get it across in less than 20 seconds. When written, the ideal length is less than 50 words; try it and you will see that even speaking 50 words in 20 seconds is tight so make it as short and crisp as possible.

Make no mistake, this is probably the single most important message you can deliver. It will either encourage the listener to want to know more or they will probably start talking about the weather! So it is definitely worth spending time developing one that perfectly encapsulates what you are about in the most clear, concise and compelling way possible. ©John Rees 2011

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How to Write it The first thing to understand is that it should not be about you, it must be about the benefits you deliver. There are three key areas to concentrate on to ensure your message hits the mark; The problems you solve.

Who you solve problems for.

The benefits you deliver.

Start by just dumping key points on a pad. Be as unstructured as you like and just add anything that relates to each point. Once you’ve got everything, arrange them in a sequence that makes sense and flows well. Write as though you are speaking because that is how you will mostly deliver the message. The process is simple but it takes real effort and a lot of editing to strip away words that do not add value and distill the message to the absolute core.

Always use language your audience will understand and avoid jargon or buzz words that add nothing. This doesn’t make you sound smart but it does turn people off if they don’t have a clue what you are talking about. Most people won’t even bother to ask you to explain what you mean so it’s either ‘that’s nice’ or polite small talk about how much rain we’ve been having recently.

It is important that it feels natural and above all it must be honest and provable. The kiss of death would be for you to use messages that attracted interest but you couldn’t back them up. So resist the temptation to create sensational Elevator Messages just to hook people and then let them down. Your credibility will suffer and your confidence will quickly crumble.

Before you unleash it on the world at large, test it on people you know and trust to give you honest feedback. But don’t take criticism personally or try to incorporate every suggestion or you could end up with something that is too generalised and not sharp enough.

Always use your own judgement on what you feel most comfortable with but remember, you are looking for something that has impact and will create an interest to know more. Once you have a great Elevator Message, it forms the basis or introduction for the next level of detail when someone does say, “Interesting, tell me more”.

Vignette The next step up from the Elevator Message is a short story or scene that provides more detail and it is called a Vignette. Ideally written on one side of an A4 page, it is a crisp summary that can be used in many different ways.

An overview presentation to introduce yourself to someone new.

A brochure or page on your website.

A short website.

A sales letter.

A self-running multi-media presentation.

©John Rees 2011

Page 19

I like this last idea because you can make your own 2 minute movie and put it on your site, upload to the internet to sites like Slideshare or YouTube or give it to someone on a USB drive or DVD. This is a great way to get your message across very fast. Consumers can decide if they are interested and everyone is happy!

Here’s the recipe Write these 4 headings on a sheet or type them into your computer: Problem, Options, Your Offer and Value.

Problem Define the problem to be solved, who it is a problem for and why. Describe it in graphic terms to make sure you demonstrate a clear understanding of the issues and why it is important to address them.

Options Describe how the problem is currently solved and what the shortcomings of these options are. Explain in graphic terms why they are deficient and what this means to your audience.

Your Offer Now you need to describe what you do that is different to and better than the other options. Use compare and contrast language so that the audience can clearly see why your offer is the best one.

Value Quantify the benefits and added value of your offer and why it is better than the others. Talk about tangible benefits that mean something to the audience and always use third party endorsements to prove your claims. Examples of benefits will include the following (always try to use actual numbers based on your experience.)

Faster time to market.

Higher revenues.

Improved efficiencies.

Better consumer satisfaction.

e Detail Now you have 3 great pieces, a Vision that just sums you up perfectly, an Elevator Message that grabs attention and a Vignette that really tells your story in a clear, concise and compelling way. But wait, there’s more!

Now your consumer is really interested in getting into more detail of how this stuff really hangs together and how it works. You need to follow the flow and make the rest of the detail tie back to what you’ve said. You are getting down to the Depths and you need to make sure it looks just as good as what’s above it.

This is where you produce the detailed content about all aspects of your business, your strategy and your offerings that you want to communicate to the outside world.

©John Rees 2011

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This body of content will develop as your business grows and it is used in many ways to engage with your audience through brochures, presentations, case studies, sales proposals and website content. Follow the same flow and use the same style, standards, language and professionalism to round out the overall experience. You are creating a brand.

Standing out from the crowd Consumers identify you by the way you look and they make decisions based on what they feel about you. They get this information from your website, the materials you produce and the messages you communicate. All these things are part of your brand.

Brands used to be something only big companies with huge budgets really had but today anyone can have a brand. In fact, personal branding is all the rage.

Just Google it and you get more than 8 million hits. A lot of people are talking about it because it is a way of standing out and being different.

Branding sounds sophisticated and expensive but it began as a way of telling one person's cattle from another by stamping their rump with a hot iron. Since then it has become part of everyday language and it is associated with logos such as the Nike Swoosh, the Apple logo or Coke.

But a brand is more than just a logo, it is an identity, a way consumers recognise you and the values they associate with you.

So the language you use and the way you communicate are all part of your brand.

The Message Stack develops the words you will use so make sure you use this in the right way. Decide on a format for your published material by using a common set of typefaces (Fonts), colours and images to convey a consistent look that consumers will identify with. If you don’t do this you will have a random collection of documents with different type faces and colour schemes and they end up looking like ransom notes!

There are some excellent books around that give you a good understanding of design. Written by designers ‘for the rest of us’, they will help you rapidly improve. A great example is “The non-Designer’s Design Book” by Robin Williams.

Create a Brand Style Guide that defines your standards and make sure these are used every time you publish something to the outside world. This is really important of you consider how many different ways you use content.

©John Rees 2011

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Message Stack A-Z Message Stack content can be used in all content and messages that you use, for example; Advertising copy

Product demonstration

Articles

Podcast

Brochures

Research report

Blog

Sales engagement process

Case study

Sales proposal

Conference speaking

Sales strategy

Company proďŹ le

Seminar

Direct mail marketing

Search engine optimisation

Event sponsorship

Telemarketing scripting

Exhibition messages

Twitter messages (Tweets)

eMail marketing

Videocast

eBooks

Vignette

Keynote speech

Vision

Marketing strategy

Webcast

Newsletter

Webinar

Networking event

Website content

Presentations

White paper

Product launch

ŠJohn Rees 2011

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IN SUMMARY Whatever your bright idea, describe it in a way that your audience understands.

Messages set you apart from competitors who are trying to take business away from you.

To achieve their purpose messages must be clear, concise and compelling.

Above all they must be honest, free from useless jargon and hype.

Remember to always define your reader and make sure your messages solve their problem.

Write in a consistent way and use a tone of voice that is appropriate. Use a conversational style and write as if you were sitting across a table from someone.

This personalises your message and injects your personality into it. This is good because it sets you apart from many of your competitors who use stilted, stiff and boring corporate speak.

Develop a message stack of content to ensure your messages are consistent. You can then use this content in all communication with the outside world.

A vision is an aspirational statement of what your business aims to become. This is important because it shows you have ambition and a commitment to improve.

An elevator message sums up your value in a few words. It is a powerful tool because when it is written well it develops interest and helps to build rapport.

A vignette is a two minute overview that describes what is special about you. This is good for consumers because they can form an opinion by investing very little time.

Be different and relevant.

ŠJohn Rees 2011

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Strategy PLAN FOR SUCCESS

You Can’t Achieve Consistent Success Unless You Have Five Fundamentals 1/ Markets With Growth Potential 2/ Knowing What Consumers Buy 3/ Competitive Advantage 4/ Great Messages 5/ Excellent Performance Tick These Off And You Are In Great Shape But Don’t Gloss Over Weaknesses Because They Will Cause Problems Later On Create A Plan That Is Simple Yet Effective By Using My 5 Stage Structure Set Stretch Goals But Make Sure They Are Realistic And Achievable Make Your Plan Easy To Understand And It Will Be A Blueprint For Your Success

Read On To Find Out More

PART 2 ©John Rees 2011

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Planning For Success When we talk about strategy it conjures up images of very clever people doing some really serious stuff such as creating grand plans and complex visions that will shape the destiny of a company. That does happen, especially in large companies but in my mind, strategy should be a lot simpler. In fact, I think that the simpler the strategy, the easier it is to achieve, especially if you are a small or medium sized business.

For example, why include pages and pages on your competitors if you work in a crowded market? Unless you are careful you could spend way too much time thinking about them rather than playing your own game. Paralysis by analysis is a very real danger.

My aim is to give you a solid foundation and a good understanding of what you need to do to win business. I am not interested in helping you create a great piece of academic market research that just sits on a desk. I want to get you to start executing as soon as possible because focussed activity is what wins business not exceptionally insightful and beautifully written strategies that few of us have the time or inclination to read.

Buzzwords And Jargon In the dim and distant past, well the 1980’s, Honeywell was a leading computer manufacturer and they published something called a buzzword generator. It was all the rage because it enabled you to produce absolute garbage phrases that sounded Column A Column B Column C brilliant! The basic idea was to pick random words from 3 different columns Integrated management options of words to make a phrase of very Total organisational flexibility convincing gobbledygook.

I’m convinced some of this actually now means something!

For example, “Functional Digital Mobility”. Actually that doesn’t sound so bad does it? I almost know what it means, but what about “Synchronised transitional interface."

You get the picture and the reason for this brief interlude is to talk about definitions because it is important we speak the same language.

Systematised

monitored

capability

Parallel

reciprocal

mobility

Functional

digital

interface

Responsive

logic-based

concept

Optional

transitional

time phase

Synchronised

incremental

projection

Compatible

fih generation

hardware

The consulting industry is full of jargon and buzzwords and different words are often used interchangeably to describe the same thing. So to avoid confusion, let’s agree on some basic definitions.

Vision This is what you plan to achieve or become in the future. We already covered this in the section on offering.

Goal Objective, target, aim or desired outcome. Goals should be realistic and achievable and defined in tangible and measurable terms, for example, achieve revenue growth of 15% or generate income of £3.5 million in a defined market sector. ©John Rees 2011

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Strategy Sometimes called plan, it describes how you are going to achieve your goals. It will define what you are selling, to whom and how you will compete to win business.

This will be covered in a lot more detail in this section.

Action A specific activity that is scheduled and completed to achieve part of the strategy.

Business Fundamentals Before we talk about how to create a strategy, you need to understand that there are fundamental components that any business needs to be viable and unless all are in place your business will probably fail. These all need to be factored in to any strategy you develop as we will see later on.

Opportunity The basic requirement for a good business is a market that has long term growth potential.

Stagnant, saturated or declining markets are not good unless you have a plan to reinvigorate or revolutionise them with a new offering. Think mobile phones and the iPhone!

Knowledge Selling is problem solving. The better you understand the problems and opportunities your consumers face, the more effective you will be at providing solutions.

Competitive Advantage Your offering must solve a problem better than the alternatives - let’s call them ‘Brand X’.

C3 Messages You must describe your Competitive Advantage in Clear, Concise and Compelling terms so that consumers will easily and quickly understand why you are different and better than Brand X.

Excellent Performance Identifying a good opportunity is one thing but converting it into income is another. This is where strategy meets execution so you must be able to identify potential consumers, generate income, develop deep relationships and grow your business. This means generating sales-ready enquiries, using the right sales skills and developing long-term mutually profitable relationships.

Keeping Sales Promises This is what builds loyal consumers and advocates. Deliver what you say you will deliver on time and in budget, at the right quality and with that special attention to detail that makes a difference. Become obsessive about service and it will take your business to new heights. ©John Rees 2011

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Assessing Market Potential Let’s assume you are entering a market for the first time, or want to take a step back and sense check the market you are in but you don’t want to do a full-blown strategy.There is a quicker way of deciding if it is worth the effort and that is by doing a quick Market Opportunity Assessment.

You can use the MOA approach to quickly evaluate an idea based on how much income it will generate. Your aim is to get most of this down on one sheet of paper and you can only do this if you use headlines and big ideas. You can fill in the detail later but if it doesn’t stack up here, it probably won’t fly.

Be brutally honest and you could save a lot of time, effort and money, or you could be onto an absolute winner!

Cut to the chase Forget detailed analyses and market forecasts, start at the beginning by answering a few simple questions; What problem are you solving?

Who is current providing a solution?

Why is there an opportunity for you?

Is there a gap in the market you can exploit?

What can you deliver that is not currently available?

How can you gain competitive advantage?

How much income can you generate from it?

Here is a quick formula; No. of Target Consumers x Average Sales Price + Ongoing Revenues + Other Income What is the time to revenue?

How long it will take you to launch and start to generate sales? Consider the elapsed time and total costs (including development, marketing and promotion) and compare this with the revenue potential to decide if this is worth doing.

Is this a good idea?

Assess the facts in purely business terms. Don’t try to convince yourself or take a blind risk. You could get lucky but maybe it would be better to buy a lottery tickets or gamble on the horses!

If it’s definitely a Go, its time to put a strategy together.

©John Rees 2011

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Go To Market Strategy You need a plan to direct your actions but don’t spend a lot of time developing a long, complex and boring plan no-one understands or ever uses. Develop a plan that is short, concise and focussed on delivering the results you are aiming for.

Based on many years experience trying to implement long, complicated and unachievable plans, often created by people who were not directly responsible for making them happen, I came up with an approach that works well. It’s focussed on generating income by satisfying consumers needs. It assumes the person developing it will have some role in making it happen, because that is the case in most small and medium sized businesses. It should also be the case in larger businesses but maybe that’s part of the reason some Travel, Finance and Telecommunications giants have such poor reputations for customer service.

I am talking from recent experience here!

Section Headings I’ve reduced the process to 5 sections. Your aim is to get all the facts you need whilst also keeping it as simple as possible.

1. Results What you want to achieve.

2. Arena The market segments, industries and geographies you will target

3. Forces The competitive, economic, social or other factors that impact your performance.

4. Consumers The people you want to sell to and what motivates them to buy.

5. Routes The Way you will get your offering to market.

Results Make sure you clearly define what you want to achieve in specific, measurable, realistic, achievable terms that everyone can understand, such as; Increase income by a defined amount or percentage.

Grow the number of new clients by a defined number.

Launch a new or improved offering.

Enter new market sectors or regions.

Open fresh sales channels. ©John Rees 2011

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It is also useful to break goals down into time periods so that progress can be monitored. Whether this is annually, quarterly, monthly or weekly will depend on the kind of business you operate and what you sell.

Arena Be very specific about where you want to do business and define the geographies, industry sectors and types of organisations you sell to. Are you selling to business, the professions, the public sector, government, consumers or everyone?

It is really important to define the Arenas because you must create messages that are targeted in the way most likely to result in success. If you sell in overseas markets you must establish and build a credible local presence to be taken seriously. Your decision is whether it is better to do this direct or through intermediaries such as partners or agents.

In reality you could be selling across multiple arenas and this means you will need variations or multiple versions of your Message Stack.

Forces A force is anything that can influence your success. If it is a positive force (such as legislation that must be complied with) how can you take advantage of it? If it is negative, (such as a competitor who drops their price) how will you work around it?

Examples include political, social, economic, legal, environmental, competitive or technological issues that can affect your demand. Where you sell into overseas markets you must also be aware of any cultural forces or business practices. In the far east, especially Japan and China it is very easy to offend someone by not observing accepted business protocol. If you are not sure, get advice.

Where there are strong incumbent competitors that already dominate, you must define how you will compete with them.

Legislation can be a help if you have an offering that enables consumers comply with it. A tough economy could be a great opportunity especially if your offering enables consumers to save money and improve efficiencies.

Just think about this for a while and make sure you understand how you can use Forces to your advantage.

Consumers People only buy to solve a problem or satisfy a need. By understanding this you can align your messaging and sales approach in the way most likely to result in success. This is called segmentation and it works.

If you sell to business organisations, define the roles you sell to, such as Procurement Manager, Operations Director or Chief Executive. Identify their key issues and define how your offering helps them to address them. If you can’t, you will not succeed; it’s that simple.

Even if you sell a mass-market product you can identify your target consumers.

Mobile phone companies do it, so do car makers and healthcare and beauty products manufacturers. They break their target audience into demographic groupings and develop offerings that satisfy their needs. This is why you get mobile phones for teenagers in wild colours. You get compact cars like the Smart that are perfectly built for zooming around a city and aimed at young urban dwellers.

Jot down a list of your target consumers and compare it to the messages you have today. How well do they tie up? ©John Rees 2011

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Routes The big challenge for most organisations is how to take their offering to market.

Is it best to sell Direct (face to face selling, through a website or by phone) or Indirect (through partners, agents or re-sellers) or a combination of both?

Factors such as lowest cost and greatest coverage will impact your thinking, but the key question is ‘’How can I make it easy for consumers to buy?”

The easier this is, the more income you will generate.

All Systems Go Well, almost. As soon as you are happy with the plan, you can get on with it and start to Broadcast your messages to your target audience. But before we go into that, let’s just finish this section with another topic. Something that is pretty important to most businesses today. Something that, if managed right will give your business a big boost.

Working With Partners Collaboration with other organisations for mutual benefit is a great way of extending your reach and you may form alliances and partnerships as a way of; Extending your reach and access to markets you don’t address directly.

Combining offerings that together provides an unbeatable value proposition for the consumer.

Selling someone else’s offering or they sell yours.

For it to work there must be mutual advantage that motivates and drives you to both work hard to achieve a goal. Both sides need an incentive to put the effort in otherwise nothing happens. It is then a partnership in name only.

Developing a partner strategy is just like a sales campaign and this means qualifying the opportunity before investing time and effort developing the relationship. The best partnerships are also based on mutual trust and respect and a shared desire to perform.

Here are a few examples of how a true partnership should look. How do you compare?

You have a strong joint value proposition for the consumer.

You both know that the relationship will grow your business.

You have joint goals.

There is a joint marketing plan and you work together to achieve it.

You often run joint marketing campaigns to generate sales enquiries.

The relationship is managed at the right level in both organisations.

There is regular contact and review of business opportunities.

Communication is open at the right levels in both organisations.

You both acknowledge the importance and value of the relationship.

You have an honest relationship based on mutual respect and trust. ©John Rees 2011

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IN SUMMARY Every business needs a Go to Market plan to ensure it focusses attention on achieving results.

Check that you have the five fundamentals of success [1] Target markets with growth potential.

[2] A great understanding of what consumers want, need and will buy.

[3] Competitive advantage that helps you to win business.

[4] Messages that are Clear, Concise and Compelling.

[5] Excellent performance to win business and keep your sales promises.

Before you develop a plan, assess market opportunity by defining the revenue you can generate over a period of time.

Create a Go to Market Strategy that is as simple as possible.

Follow the five stage structure [1] Define the Results you want to achieve. Be as specific as you can because you will measure performance against them on a regular basis.

[2] Clarify the Arena you will sell in. This could be a geographic region, a specific industry sector or a specific demographic group.

[3] Consider the Forces that will affect your performance and make sure you can harness them or minimise their negative impact.

[4] Clearly identify the people you will sell to and make sure your messages resonate with them.

[5] Agree the Routes you will use to get your offering to market.

It sounds a bit cheesy but it is so true - if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

ŠJohn Rees 2011

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Dialogue ATTRACT ATTENTION CREATE INTEREST AND SELL

A Dialogue Is A Conversation Between People To Resolve A Problem This Is A Perfect Description Of Professional Selling Dialogue Is The Backbone Of A Salesled Business Because It Helps You Attract Consumers It Defines How You Work With Them To Maximise The Probability Of Success This Section Looks At 3 Areas 1/ How To Create A Supply Of Consumers To Sell To This Is Called Pipeline Development Or Prospecting, I Call IT Broadcasting 2/ How To Use The Navigator Sales Process To Maximise Your Chances Of Winning 3. How To Develop And Use Essential Sales Skills And Presentation Techniques To Be Successful

PART 3 ŠJohn Rees 2011

Read On To Find Out More Page 32

Finding Consumers And Selling To em Every company needs sales revenue to stay in business and the equation is very simple;

no sales = no business So to stay in business and grow, you must generate a supply of good quality people you can sell to. These are called prospects but they don’t just appear out of thin air and many businesses only start looking for prospects when their current supply runs dry.

“The Old Ways Don’t Work Any More” In desperation a business will ‘hit the phones to drum up some interest’. This means cold calling an unsuspecting person in the hope you get lucky.

This used to be the accepted way of building a pipeline but since the internet came of age this has become largely ineffective. There is still a place for the telephone in building a pipeline because it’s quick and relatively cheap, but it must be used appropriately. This means following up a referral or calling someone who has expressed interest or given you permission to contact them.

And to be effective you must know how to use the telephone to communicate effectively. I know everyone knows how to use a telephone, but using it to conduct a meaningful business conversation that creates interest and builds a desire to take action requires real skill.

Calling someone with whom you have no previous connection is cold calling and it doesn’t work for many reasons. The problem is, it makes some people feel they are doing something positive and if they make enough calls, they will find someone who is interested.

Cold calling has a big image problem and it is associated with all that is bad about selling, high pressure, over familiarity, dubious tactics and an impression of desperation.

People just don’t like being interrupted or hassled and that is how cold-calling comes across.

Imagine you are a busy executive with a to-do list as long as your arm and multiple meetings. You are trying to figure out just how you can get all this done when the phone rings and you get a call like this; “Hi, this is William Moss from IBS, we sell call centre software and I’d like to get together with you for 30 minutes to tell you what we could do for you. How about Wednesday morning or Thursday afternoon? Which would be the better time for you?”

This is a typical type of cold call approach and the fact is that cold calling doesn’t work well because most people hate doing it or they do it badly. It can be soul destroying making calls to people who have little or no interest in what you are saying. Some will be polite and others rude so you have to either have thick skin or be pretty stupid to keep doing it!

The success rate is just too low to make it worthwhile and there are other tactics that deliver far better results. So the smart thing to do is to take a more intelligent approach to building a pipeline and this is what Broadcasting is all about. It means creating messages that resonate with an audience and delivering them through channels they will see and respond to. You attract their attention and arouse their interest. They want to know more so they give you permission to contact them - they ‘opt-in’ to your world. ©John Rees 2011

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Attracting Consumers We live in an age of global mass communication where almost two billion people access the internet by computer or more than 500 million mobile devices, according to research firm Internet World Stats. We can now reach more people than ever on the planet without traveling. That’s quite an amazing thought.

Obviously not all of them will be prospects but some of them will. That is why you need to understand who your audience is and how you can best reach them.

Broadcasting means getting your message across to your world in a structured and effective way through different channels in the virtual and real-world. And the best way to be successful is by following an approach that has been proven many times over.

1. DECIDE WHO YOU AUDIENCE IS AND DEVELOP MESSAGES TO ATTRACT THEM. 2. CREATE CAMPAIGNS TO DELIVER THE MESSAGES THROUGH VARIOUS CHANNELS SUCH AS YOUR WEBSITE, IN YOUR BLOG, ON FORUMS AT OTHERS SITES. 3. CONSTANTLY MONITOR AND MEASURE TO SEE HOW EFFECTIVE IT IS AND MAKE CHANGES WHERE THINGS ARE NOT WORKING OR COULD BE IMPROVED.

Push Or Pull?

You can build a pipeline by using different approaches and some will obviously work better than others. The approaches fall into two categories, Direct and Indirect.

Direct is a push approach where you actively communicate to get a response. This includes email, telephone, direct mail, networking, speaking engagements, seminars, exhibitions, conferences and executive briefings.

Indirect is a pull approach where people see your messages and respond when they are interested. This includes visitors to your website, blog, directories and databases, membership organisations, forums, press releases, editorials, advertising, sponsorship, referrals from clients, partners and other influencers. This generally, but not always, delivers a higher quality prospect, mainly because they have self-qualified to some degree. They have seen your messages and they want to know more.

Both approaches have their good and bad points and you have to decide which works and provides the best value for money. Set up a simple system to track where leads come from and then the conversion ratio into sales. You’ll soon get a picture of what channels work well and that is where you need to concentrate your efforts.

©John Rees 2011

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Campaign Planning Building a pipeline takes time and the best approach combines a number of activities that are running concurrently throughout the year. The best way to schedule this is through a plan that contains a number of different campaigns.

Campaign plans have been used to plan battles within wars and activities in general elections. Can you imagine the carnage in a battle if soldiers just did their own thing with no-on in control to co-ordinate actions? Or if politicians just said what they thought rather than following the agreed strategy? It would be fun I know, but the effect on their campaign would be confusion and a lost election.

I have used campaign planning to build sales pipelines for many years and it works.

Forget Being Lucky A campaign plan consists of activities to communicate clear, concise and compelling messages to a defined audience to attract attention, arouse interest and create a desire to do business with you now or in the future. It has 10 sections that you should think about before you start. If you just fire off a batch of emails and hope for the best, you will probably be disappointed.

This is called spamming and it doesn’t work. More on this later.

An intelligent approach always works best and if you can’t spend the time going through this to do it properly, either get someone else to do it for you or don’t bother. You may feel better because you are doing something but it will probably be a waste of time.

You may get lucky a few times, but the aim is to change the way you think about this so you get frequent results. Luck shouldn’t really come into it.

Pick Your Audience Rather than describing your offering in generic terms and hoping it will attract interest, think about who you want to reach.

If you have created a Go to Market strategy you will already have done this work. But let’s just have a quick re-cap on why this is so important.

People buy to solve a problem and once you understand that, you can better create and align your messaging and sales approach to attract their attention and arouse their interest. This is done through a message stack which is the body of content that defines what you want to say to your target audience. It describes the problems you solve and your value proposition and it enables potential buyers to decide if you have something that interests them. And to attract attention and arouse interest, your messages must be clear, concise and compelling.

©John Rees 2011

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Using Campaign Plans Here’s a format that covers the key points.

1. Aim Define exactly what the campaign will achieve e.g.

7. Collateral What you need to support the campaign e.g.

“Introduce your offer to Finance Directors in the Logistics sector of the U.K. and schedule 10 qualified meetings.”

Website page landing page Brochure Case Study Presentation

2. Timeline The dates the campaign will start and end.

3. Audience Define who you will communicate with e.g. Finance Director and Operations Manager, CEO.

4. Targets The organisations you want to talk to.

5. Message Define the problems you are solving and what is new, different or compelling about your story.

Give clear reasons why should your audience care and create an attention grabbing headline and an elevator message that arouses interest by connecting with issues they will care about.

6. Talking Points Develop detail and further content that builds on the headline and elevator message.

©John Rees 2011

Demonstration

8. Process Define the activities and people responsible for ownership, delivery and follow up.

9. Qualification Define what constitutes a qualified prospect. Is it some or all of the following?

A defined need for what you do?

An active buying process or an intent to initiate one?

Budget or expectation of expenditure at the right level?

A decision will be made within a defined timescale?

10. Budget Identify any investment needed to complete the campaign.

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e 10 Broadcast Channels A channel is a way of communicating and some channels will be more effective for you than others.

The smart thing to do is to use a combination of channels and then measure effectiveness to choose those that work best for you.

There are 10 key channels you should consider.

1.

Website

2.

Social Media

3.

Repeat Business And Referrals

4.

Thought Leadership

5.

Advertising

6.

Email Marketing

7.

The Telephone

8.

Direct Mail

9.

Exhibitions And Conferences

10. Networking Events

1. Website This is number one and it is mandatory if you want to be taken seriously. There is no debate, a great website, with compelling content will pull visitors in, if it is properly targeted. Get this right and you may not need to do too many other things.

It’s Really Very Simple I’m not going into a lot of detail about how to design a website but I am going to give you 5 things your site must have. They are so important I’ve made sure you don’t miss them!

1. GREAT CONTENT THAT IS CLEAR, CONCISE AND COMPELLING. 2. A SIMPLE LAYOUT THAT DOESN’T GET IN THE WAY OF THE CONTENT. NO CLUTTER, IMAGES, AMATEUR VIDEO, OR ANYTHING THAT DOESN’T ADD TO THE USER EXPERIENCE.

3. SUPER CLEAR NAVIGATION MEANS INFORMATION IS REALLY EASY AND FAST TO FIND.

4. NO HASSLE CONTACT AND VISITORS ONLY NEED TO CHECK A FEW BOXES OR ENTER MINIMAL INFORMATION TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU.

5. A GREAT, CLEAN AND DIFFERENT LOOK.

©John Rees 2011

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The web is a visual medium so you need a site that is visually strong. You don’t want a site that looks like everyone else’s but you do want visitors to know how to use it.

If you have the skills to do it in-house that’s great but if you don’t, please don’t just cobble something together that looks home made and amateur. Remember that this is your shop window and if it looks a mess you create a really bad impression.

If you are having it developed, always work with the best designer you can afford and challenge them to produce something you love.

Making content work hard When you write content for the web make it work hard and attract attention. I’m not talking about the style so much because we’ve covered that in previous sections. I’m talking about how you use content on the site to make it accessible to Google and other search engines because the aim is to get noticed.

Google is the dominant search engine and there are many books, blogs and websites on how to improve your ranking. But just to make things interesting, Google keeps tweaking the criteria it uses to rank sites. Whether you like it or not, if you want to rank high, you need to understand some rules. I’m not going to cover them here because one of the best places to learn is at the learning centre at Google.com.

Keywords and phrases You need to pay attention to the keywords and phrases people use when they search for stuff on-line. Look at the most commonly searched terms people use that describe what you do and make sure you use them. You can find this out by using tools like Wordstream and Google Adwords. For example, if “energy efficiency” is a key phrase and this is something you do, a page title that is called “Home” could be called “Energy efficiency ideas from MyCo.” Your content should also mention “energy efficiency” but in the right context.

Don’t jam pages with keywords just to get a higher ranking because it doesn’t work. Google is very sharp on this and will drop you down the search results and in cases of keyword abuse, they will suspend you from results altogether.

Hyperlinks and how to use them When any search engine see words hyperlinked in your body text, they consider these potentially important, so they take notice of them. But most links on a page are boring. They just say things like “click here” and this is a wasted opportunity.

To a human this is probably OK, but to a search engine it is meaningless because it doesn’t understand the context. Think about how you can incorporate keywords or phrases in hyperlinks because this increases their value massively. “Read more about our energy efficiency ideas” is a bit more of a mouth-full but it makes a lot more sense to Google and it will improve your ranking.

©John Rees 2011

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2. Social Media is Is Not Magic It won’t deliver results automatically just by creating a Linkedin, Twitter or Facebook account. It will not bring in a flood of new consumers eager to buy your offering. It just doesn’t work like that.

Of course the Social Media world is full of people who want to sell you the next greatest thing. Those ‘wonder’ eBooks that will revolutionalise your life. The “$3,500 worth of information products for an all-time low of $99. And a 100% money back guarantee.” You know the type of thing. There are hustlers online and offline but if you run a serious business these are not tactics you want to use.

The Social Media tools are new and exciting. They enable us to connect with potentially millions of people. But for them to be of any use, you must have something interesting to say. Something that will attract attention, arouse interest and motivate action. This part is not new. In fact, the rules are exactly the same as in the off-line world. If you are dull and boring off-line, you will be dull and boring online. It’s just that more people will notice this faster than ever before.

Social media is just one channel, albeit an important one and the best results will be achieved when you use it to develop relationships. When you create a website that is content rich and optimised for search engines (Google) you attract visitors. This is the start of the process. Your goal now has to be to develop deep relationships and this is where Social media really comes into its own. Use the various channels to build rapport and become a trusted partner. The channels you use will depend on what you sell and who you consumers are.

In recent years Facebook has become more popular with businesses. CocaCola and Starbucks Coffee, both have more than 15 million ‘fans’ and many other businesses have a growing presence.

Linkedin is more business oriented and it has 80 million users. That’s a pretty big network.

Twitter was originally thought of as a novelty. Another way of sending text-like messages. After all, what can you really say in 140 characters? With more than 100 million users, it is now being used in business as well as in the social context. Rather than cutdown messages, people are tweeting attention grabbing headlines with links to websites, blogs and other destinations. Twitter is rapidly becoming a doorway to a world of online content.

Consumers also chat in many different online forums. Linkedin has groups where people talk about many different things. Companies have forums where consumers can share experiences and complain if things are not as good as they should be. There is a huge thread of conversations going on all the time. You will want to know when you are mentioned and what consumers are saying. You want to interact with them and use their input to develop your business. Or you want to address any problems to make sure they are fixed. This is where new tools for Social CRM and Enterprise Feedback Management come in.

They allow you to monitor and participate in conversations that relate to you. The goal is to protect your image, use feedback to improve what you do and attract more consumers.

This is a virtuous cycle that you should embrace and I will talk about this in Part 4. ©John Rees 2011

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Linkedin LinkedIn is widely regarded as the most important and influential social media site for business professionals, but most people either don’t really understand how it works, or they don’t pay enough attention to using it in the right way. I regard LinkedIn as just another vehicle through which you deliver your message.

Whether you use it to promote your personal brand or your business, the rules are the same. Your goal is to attract attention and arouse interest and all the things I covered in an earlier section on developing messages apply here. It’s just that you need to be very clear about how you are using LinkedIn and the results you want to achieve.

If you don’t have the time to concentrate on LinkedIn, there is a growing number of companies who will do it for you, at a fee. They will build your profile, develop your network and help you make the most of the opportunities that LinkedIn can deliver.

However, if you want to develop LinkedIn yourself, or if you just want to know more, here are a few ideas you can use.

1. Develop Your Profile Make sure your profile is up to date and contains all the relevant information you want displayed and here are some ideas you can use to make a difference right away.

Inject your personality.

Don’t just copy your CV into the profile, introduce yourself as you would to someone you just met.

Write a tagline.

The line of text under your name is the first thing people see in your profile and it should be your elevator message. Distill the essence of who you are and what you do and make it clear, concise and compelling.

Showcase your skills.

The specialties field defines how people find and remember you. This searchable section is where that list of industry buzzwords from your CV belongs. This is also the place to display particular abilities and interests, the personal values you bring to your professional performance, or even a note of humour or passion.

Explain your experience.

Help the reader grasp the key points. Briefly say what your company does and what you did or do for them.

Stand out from the crowd.

Use the additional information section to round out your profile with a few key interests. Add websites that showcase your abilities or passions. Then edit the default "My Website" label to encourage click-throughs (you get Google page rankings for those, raising your visibility). Maybe you belong to a trade association or an interest group; help other members find you by naming those groups.

©John Rees 2011

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Ask and answer questions.

Thoughtful questions and useful answers build your credibility and the best ones give people a reason to look at your profile. Make a point of answering questions in your field to establish your expertise, raise your visibility, and most important, to build social capital with people in your network. You may need answers to a question of your own in the future and people will be happy to reciprocate.

2. Build Your Connections.

Connections are one of the most important aspects of your brand and the company you keep reflects the quality of your brand. As you add connections and recommendations, your profile develops into a peer-reviewed picture of you and your personal brand. Make sure it's in focus, well-composed and easy to find. Edit your public profile's URL to reflect your name or tagline. Then you can put it to work by adding it to your blog, linking to it from your website, and including it in your e-mail signature.

3. Create A Company Profile This is becoming more popular and it does present business opportunities. Make sure all your relevant employees have profiles and encourage them to follow the advice above. The multiplier effect is when LinkedIn really starts to work for you.

4. Groups Groups are a double-edged sword, joining more groups can make you look more important, but at a certain point it becomes unmanageable. Start small and build up based on the value of participation.

Does It Help You Get Business?

Yes it does!

Evidence supports the fact that LinkedIn and other firms of Social Media does generate business directly or by referral or reputation. Every time someone sees your name and your activity on the network it reminds them who you are and what you’re doing. The more they remember you the more likely they are to refer business to you, especially if you have referred business to them.

There are many Social Media monitoring tools such as Google Alerts, Social Mention, Tweetdeck and Radian6, that measure where and when you are mentioned in discussions, tweets, blogs and forums. This is great for identifying how your brand is spreading but don’t get carried away by thinking this means the channels are working.

The only sensible way to judge is to track the source of any enquiries you get so you can see how well that channel is working. If you get nothing back it could be that your offering isn’t targeted at the right people or your message doesn’t work very well.

If you do want to measure effectiveness you must make the effort to look at the data to support any decisions you make.

©John Rees 2011

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3. Repeat Business And Referrals These are the best but often most overlooked and under-utilised source of leads. It never fails to amaze me how many businesses make sales and then ignore the consumer.

This is a criminal offence!

If someone has already bought from you it is easier to sell to them again, especially when you provide a great service and make them happy. Some companies have special programmes with offers designed to reward consumers and incentivise them to buy again or refer other consumers. These are sometimes called ‘loyalty programmes’ and they work well in any business. If you don’t have one, make it a priority to set it up. But remember, underpinning any loyalty programme must be an obsession with providing exceptional service. If you don’t keep your sales promises, trying to buy consumers off with ‘freebies’ just won’t work.

Stay close to your consumers and ask them how you can improve the service you provide. Run consumer satisfaction surveys and use the information to boost your performance, deliver better value for money and in turn grow your business through repeat sales and referrals.

Happy consumers will also agree to publicly endorse your company and this is a very powerful way of increasing confidence in your business and attracting new consumers.

To achieve this takes a lot of work and a commitment to providing exceptional support. Don’t pay lip service to this. If you only go to consumers when you want something your consumers will soon know what kind of business you are.

Institutionalise service and make someone responsible and accountable for consumer satisfaction. Embed it into the fabric of your business because it will have a massive payoff. More on this in Part 4.

4. ought Leadership Experts attract attention because they have something to say that people find interesting.

When you become an authority and you publish your thoughts, people will listen and want to know more. But you must earn the right through the quality of your ideas, so don’t just smarten up some sales messages as a ploy to draw people in because they will quickly see through you. Develop a unique viewpoint or be contrary and take an opposing view to the majority. Here are some ways you can build thought leadership in your business; Write and publish research reports.

Work in partnerships with academic or research organisations.

Speak at conferences.

Author or co-author newsletters, articles, blogs or podcasts.

Write books, case studies and white papers.

This is a big list but establishing a reputation is not a short-term activity so you need to fit it around other things. It may take months or years but it is definitely worth doing.

The most instant thing you can do is to start blogging. It’s easy and if you follow some basic rules it can be very effective. ©John Rees 2011

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4.1. Blogging A blog is your voice to the world. Sounds a bit grand doesn’t it, but it’s true! This is a great way to speak to hundred, thousands, even millions of people world-wide. And if you have something new, different and exciting to say, they will listen. At the time of writing this, the most popular blog on the planet was the Huffingtonpost.com the on-line newspaper blog with over 28 million unique visitors a month! Boingboing.net is a lifestyle blog and it has more than 2 million readers.

For every successful blog there are millions with no readers and the reason revolves around 2 things. First, understanding the mechanics of how to write a blog to make it visible for search engines. This includes knowing where to post it so it gets noticed. Second is how to write it for your audience and not as a self-praise ego trip.

If you use a blog for business (and you should) it must not be full of sales pitches and marketing speak about how great your business is. Think about what you want to say but avoid promoting your company directly. Many companies use their blog to publish press releases and other ‘pat on the back’ stuff but generally consumers don’t care. Apply the ‘so what’ test and you will should see that this is a waste of time. Use your voice to talk about things your readers will be interested in.

And this will help establish you as a thought leader, someone who has a fresh perspective on topics your prospects will be interested in. A successful blog builds your reputation for expertise in an area and this creates trust that you may be worth contacting.

It can also improve your Google ranking by driving curious readers to your site.

The tough part in getting started is deciding what to write about and the golden rule is to stick to what you know. Many blogs just syndicate and link to content from other blogs and whilst some of this is a good idea, too much and you have no originality.

Here are a few ideas to get you started; Read other blogs in your space and think about how you can be different.

Offer your own viewpoint on an industry or business topic you know something about.

Be contrary and disagree with prominent people. Picking a fight or running a crusade is always good fun and it will raise your profile if you do it right.

Tap into something you are passionate about and rant a bit.

Structure of a blog But before you start make sure your blog follows a simple structure as shown here;

a. Audience Define who you are writing for.

What are they likely to be interested in?

What is your unique viewpoint?

Why should they read it? ©John Rees 2011

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b. Headline Like any message this needs to be strong and attention-grabbing. It must make them sit up and take notice.

c. Synopsis Write a brief 50-100 word summary that can be skim-read to grab attention. If you succeed, they will read on. Make sure you use relevant keywords and phrases that people would normally look for.

d. Content Make sure this is crystal clear, concise (less than 700 words) and compelling.

Present it in an authentic way that communicates your passion. Use words and incorporate images, video and sound where it makes sense. Be consistent and have a style that readers will recognise. Short posts that propose a question or draw the reader’s attention to another site are just as engaging. Anything that is of value to the reader is worth posting.

Tone of voice Make your blog personal. Write for an audience of one and use language you would use if you and I were having a conversation over a coffee. Blogs that are written in the third person or use stilted and stiff language don’t read well because they fail to establish a relationship.

Be relaxed and let your own personality shine through. Allow your readers to get to know you - or the ‘you’ that you want to put on display. Be open and encourage comments and questions to get a conversation going.

Guest bloggers Ask a well known personality or someone with a high profile to write a guest blog.

This provides a different perspective for the reader and is great for increasing your visibility. But think before you invite someone to write.

Why would they?

What’s in it for them?

Is there something they feel passionate about or have written about before?

Why do you want their viewpoint?

Why not ask them for an interview?

Go Beyond Text Blogs that contain nothing but line after line of text are more difficult to read and less consistently interesting than those that offer images, interactive elements, the occasional multimedia content and some clever charts and graphs. Even if you're having a tough time with non-text content, think about how you can format the text using block quotes, indentations and bullet points to create a more visually appealing and digestible block of content.

©John Rees 2011

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Post regularly If you commit to publishing a blog you must understand that it is not a one-time event. It requires real effort and commitment to make it work and you must take the time to plan it and write it regularly. Weekly is good.

Develop rapport The most successful blogs are more than a broadcast tool, they are a dialogue between the individuals within your organization and your readers. It is important to listen, as well as speak but most corporate blogs fail to engage, instead they focus on telling readers how great their products and services are. Rarely do they ask for feedback or ask questions. In fact it is not unusual for companies to disable comments for fear of criticism.

Encourage comments and constructive criticism. It is a superb opportunity to get free feedback, something many organisations pay market researchers for.

Promoting your blog Promote your blog on-line and off-line. Tell people about it, have it on your business cards, on your email signature, on your profile page in LinkedIn, facebook, in fact any site or forum you participate in. Use links from your blog to other sites, blogs or resources because this can drive traffic back to you. Also, be aware that quoting other bloggers or online sources (or even discussing their ideas) without linking to them is considered bad etiquette and can earn you scorn that could cost you links from those sources in the future. It's almost always better to be over-generous with links than under-generous.

Build a Brand Possibly one of the most important aspects of all in blogging is brand-building.

And a great brand is something that people want to associate themselves with and a brand that people feel they derive value from being a member.

Measure You must measure how effective your blog is and how much relevant traffic it generates. Use tools such as Google Analytics but don’t get disheartened if things are not happening fast enough. If your content is good enough and you promote it effectively, visitors will come.

©John Rees 2011

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5. Advertising Historically, print, radio, television and cinema were the dominant channels companies used to promote their offerings. It was regarded as a longer-term activity and the results were difficult in not impossible to measure. That has now changed as advertising has moved on-line with Google AdWords and other pay-per-click options.

More money is now spent on-line than in the older channels and advertising is now a very relevant tactic in the lead generation plan. Almost instant feedback now means you can decide how well your advert is working and make adjustments as appropriate.

You can also control exactly how much money you spend and this makes return on investment a lot easier to calculate.

There are two aspects to using on-line advertising effectively. The first is understand the mechanics of how Google Adwords works. This is easy because you can just visit Google (adwords.google.co.uk) and sit through a few videos.

The second is to craft your message so they attract attention and as we have already covered this earlier, you should be in excellent shape to put adverts together than really work.

6. Email Marketing Spamalot eMail has an image problem. When you mention an email marketing programme most people think “Spam”.

It has been used and abused by people who just mass mail anyone in the hope that they get some interest. This ranges from the irritating to the illegal so if you do use email, use it correctly.

This means only sending an email to someone who has given you permission to do so or been referred to you by someone else. Forget all the hot tips and tricks of how to evade spam filters. If you are a serious business and you want to operate in a professional way, ditch any idea of spamming or spam avoidance. The best way to avoid is not to do it.

But building a list of people who have given you permission takes effort because you have to provide content that is valuable enough for people to want to know more. If you don’t do this, maybe you buy a list or collect names and email them. You’re a spammer!

©John Rees 2011

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Here Are e Tell-tale Signs; Send bulk email and use an email programme to do it with.

Begin your emails with, “Dear Friend,” “Dear Customer.”

Buy or rent a list.

Hit your lists harder when times get tough.

Don’t have an unsubscribe link on your email.

Worry about how many opt-outs and bounces you get rather than the value you provide your subscribers.

Have a contact database segmented into “blast,” “email” and “do not email.”

Think search engine optimisation means more traffic, not better results for visitors.

Aren’t sure if your contacts are opted in or what they opted in for.

Use a fishbowl at conferences to collect business cards.

If you spam people you will get nowhere. Actually you may get blacklisted by your ISP or mail service and you will end up wasting a lot of time and effort. Your pipeline will still be empty and you will get more desperate. Vicious circle!

Taking A Short Cut If you can’t be bothered to build an opt-in list or you don’t have the time, you maybe tempted to buy or rent a list.

If you do, be very careful. There is some garbage out there and even the so called ‘opt-in’ lists are pretty worthless. The names on the list may well have ‘opted-in’ to someone else but they are now being sold to you.

They didn’t opt-in to your world. They probably ticked a box somewhere that said “I agree to receive information from you, your partners or other third parties.” We’ve all done it and then when we get emails for some random items we wonder why we got it. Then we almost always hit the unsubscribe button, if we can find it!

Whilst it’s not illegal or unethical to buy or rent an email list, it’s almost certainly a waste of money. You could also get reported for spamming because the people named didn't give you specific permission to email them.

Do It Right So how do you use email correctly? How can it work for you?

As we said earlier, you must create messages that are interesting enough to attract attention and arouse interest. You want people to ask you for more information. You want them to give you permission to talk to them. You want them to “opt-in” to your world by registering for information through your website or by responding to some other activity.

Although this does require effort, when you do it right you will reap the benefits.

Here are a few ideas on how you can build an opt-in list.

©John Rees 2011

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Newsletters Publish an online newsletter every month or use one of the many services that are out there to do it for you. For a small fee, all email responses and a targeted opt-in email list builds automatically. You don’t need to worry about any mechanics, you just create your newsletter and hit “Publish” - it’s as simple as that.

eBook Write an eBook, report or white paper and give it away. This doesn’t need to be a War and Peace type eBook, a special report of 10 pages can create a flood of new emails if the content is valuable. Junk or regurgitated free ebooks or special reports that have already been published by someone else are no good so don’t use them.

Forums Participate in relevant forums and use a signature link and profile for interested readers to follow. If you’re helpful enough and post quality suggestions to posts, people will check your profile to find out more about you. This may go nowhere, but it could uncover a huge opportunity.

Articles You can dramatically increase your visibility when you write articles in your area of expertise and distribute them to editors as free content for their e-mail newsletters or their websites.

You'll find lots of information on how to do this from the most popular article marketing site, eZineArticles.com. When you create a free membership account, they begin sending you instructions and ideas each week.

Easy opt-in Make it easy for visitors to opt-in from every page of your website and avoid long forms because they will deter people from signing up. Always add a link to your email privacy policy because visitors want to be assured their email address will not be abused .

Dear Reader Whenever you do pen an email, even to someone who has opted in, think about these things before you start. Regard these as the 6 golden rules you should never break.

1.

Address it to a named individual not a title.

2.

Create an attention grabbing headline that will motivate the recipient to open it.

3.

Make the message relevant to the recipient and clear, concise and compelling.

4.

Define what action you want the recipient to take.

5.

Provide a link to your site or another source where they can get more information if appropriate.

6.

Tell them how to opt out and have an unsubscribe prominently displayed.

©John Rees 2011

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DIY Or Use A Service?

You can send email from your own internal email system or a better choice maybe to use an email service.

These are specially designed to provide more sophisticated services than you could deliver through your own system. Professionally designed email templates, autoresponders, newsletter generation, analytics and seamless integration with your website make these services great value for money. Because they also comply with best practice email standards they avoid spam. They do this by only allowing you to upload opted-in contacts and also checking your content for to prevent spam-like messages being sent.

The most popular services are iContact, ConstantContact, Benchmark and Vertical Response and all offer an excellent service that is worth looking at.

7. e Telephone Unfortunately telephone marketing has an image problem because it is associated with nuisance calls from companies trying to sell you something you don’t want. But when it is used professionally, it is fast efficient and far more personal and direct than a letter or email. It is good for list building, making invitations to events, following up on email or direct mail and answering requests for information.

There are many great books on how to use the telephone so I am not going into detail here. I will just give you a few basic ideas to make your calls more effective without too much effort.

Before you call Why are you calling?

What’s in it for the person you are calling and why should they listen to what you have to say?

Draft what you want to say and make sure you ask questions to develop the conversation.

Anticipate likely questions and plan your response.

When you call Be professional with a human touch.

Politely introducing yourself, briefly state the purpose of your call and ask if now is a convenient time to talk.

Establish rapport quickly by making it conversational but not too familiar.

Avoid confrontation and if you have interrupted someone, arrange to call back.

Ask questions in a non-threatening way and allow them to talk, even if it is to tell you to go away.

Never pressure someone and always respect their time.

Know when to end the call and be aware if they don’t want to talk much or they seem preoccupied.

Always close on an action, even if it is to take them off your list. ©John Rees 2011

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8. Direct Mail This can be very effective because it’s different. Most companies use email so a personal letter or package can stand out and grab attention. Forget mass-mailing to generic addressees such as “The Managing Director” because these are a complete waste of time. Make sure every piece is personal and addressed to a specific individual.

Once you have sent the item, follow up by phone to confirm it was received and start to develop the conversation.

Always have content that is relevant, interest and attention grabbing with a clear call to action. Help them understand what they need to do next such as wait for your call, send you an email, visit your web site or respond with a reply-paid mail service.

Send pieces in a batch that can be easily followed up and always sign by hand; do not use digitised signatures or have someone sign on your behalf. If time permits, consider hand-writing the envelope and attaching a postage stamp as this can have a higher success rate than obviously automatically produced mail-shots.

9. Exhibitions And Conferences These can be very effective because you can reach a large number of prospects in one place over a relatively short time period. Before you decide to attend make sure the visitors who attend are consumers you want to sell to. Also check visitor numbers to make sure the volume gives you enough opportunity. If then event was run before, how many attended last year and what was the quality? How many of your competitors attended? If none were there why was that? Did they miss it or is the event a waste of time?

Value for money is a big concern with events because they can be very expensive, so look at opportunities to manage costs by sharing a stand with a partner or associate. Put a budget together for the total cost of attending and add in all costs including accommodation, travel, marketing materials stand design and marketing materials.

You want to get the best value for money but you don’t want to look cheap and second rate because this doesn’t project an image that will attract interest. If you are going to be there you must look good.

Once you have the cost nailed, translate this into how much business you need to generate to cover it. You may not do this at the one event but unless you generate leads you can turn into sales, it could be a very expensive leaflet dropping exercise!

Having said that, some companies only ever attend one exhibition a year and because it is THE event to be at for their market, it keeps them busy all year. Be selective and pick the right event and you may have to do little else to generate income.

10. Networking These exist on-line and off-line and they have become more popular in recent years.

Some have a ‘speed-dating’ format where you spend a few minutes with another person to see if you have mutual interests. They can be useful, but you must judge the value for your business and then commit to attend. There are countless books, blogs and websites devoted to this and you can see some links in the suggested reading section.

©John Rees 2011

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Measuring Success It is really important that you measure how well your Broadcast plan is working. Look at each area and improve where you can to get the right mix of volume and high quality leads.

If something is not working, change it. Don’t wait for things to get better, act decisively to get the best return you can for every penny you spend.

Look at the source of every lead and measure the conversion ratio into sales. You can do this on a spreadsheet or in a Customer Relationship Management system and we will talk about this later. But before we move on I want to talk about Blogging because in recent years it has become a far more powerful tool to attract attention. Even some CEO’s of large companies have their own blogs and it not only provides an insight into their thoughts, ideas and comments, it also attracts readers who then go on to become consumers.

What Is Selling?

Selling is simply an exchange of value. Good selling is where both sides feel they have a fair exchange.

You provide an offering and a consumer gives you money. Selling is in fact one of the oldest activities and dates back in history where someone had something someone else wanted and was prepared to exchange something else of similar value. Initially this was another item but as money became more popular as a medium of exchange, that was used instead. And the reason you want something is because it fulfills a need or a desire. This applies to any kind of selling activity whether you work in a corner shop or a large enterprise. But people often don’t think of it in this way. How often have you been in a shop and the assistant asks “Can I help you?” This is not the best opening and we’ll get into that later, but it is a question directed at finding out what you want or need. So because people buy for their own reasons, you must understand those reasons otherwise you just pitch your product and hope it might generate some interest.

“Wanna buy some nice new Dell laptops? Hardly used.. or what about some lovely new website design services, I’ll even throw in a set of brochures, now I can’t be fairer than that can I?” Strange as it sounds, this is the equivalent of what some organisations do by not understanding that selling, especially professional selling, is about understanding consumer problems and solving them. It is not about punting an offer in the hope it will strike a chord with someone. There is nothing worse than a salesperson who is so busy describing how wonderful their offering is that they make no attempt to understand the problem the consumer is trying to solve.

So, instead of focussing on what you do, concentrate on what they do and how you can help them do it better. Only by doing this can you create real value by solving problems to differentiate yourself from competing products (let’s call them ‘Brand X’) in a competitive market. In fact, the way you sell can often be the key difference between winning and losing, especially where you are competing against similar offerings.

And this advice applies no matter what you sell so let’s illustrate this by considering the different types of selling. ©John Rees 2011

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Types Of Selling There are two broad categories of selling: Transactional Selling and Relationship based Selling, sometimes called Complex Sales. They have many similarities and a few key differences but overall the basic principles of being successful are the same.

Transactional Sales These are normally short, sometimes impulse purchases where you go into a shop, pick an item or ask an assistant for help. Then you make a decision and hand over your cash or credit card and walk out with your purchase. If you have done some research beforehand, you may know exactly what you want, so the process is even shorter.

Of course, you can also do this online and that cuts out any personal interaction.

You review the details and make the decision based on what you read. In this case you are in total control although you are influenced by the way the information is written and presented. You make a decision based on what you read and see even if you never actually speak with a human being.

Transactional sales used to apply mainly to retail sales but today you can also buy software, technology, professional services and many others in this way. This can work well where the consumer need and the offering is well defined and very similar or generic.

For example if you know what type of laptop you want, you can buy it online through companies like Toshiba, HP or Dell.

Complex Sales These are sometimes called Enterprise or Business-to-Business (B2B) sales and they have the following distinctive features; Sales cycles are long, sometimes measured in months.

Many people (Stakeholders) are involved in making a decision.

The process has many steps and filters designed to mitigate risk. This typically includes a Request for Proposal (RFP), Invitation to Tender (ITT) or Request for Quotation (RFQ).

The value tends to be high and the purchase is of mission critical importance or has a strategic impact. Examples include Consulting services.

Enterprise-level technology and software.

Banking and corporate financial services.

Construction.

Heavy Machinery and Capital Equipment.

In both situations the best performing companies pay special attention to developing relationships and establishing trust. This applies whether you run a coffee shop or a software company. If you focus on selling what the consumer wants and you provide great service, you will outperform your competitors and build loyalty amongst consumers who express a preference for your offering. It really is that simple!

©John Rees 2011

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What Makes A Great Salesperson?

They are problem solvers par excellence. Bad salespeople describe their product in mind numbing detail and hope for a sale. They regard it as a numbers game so the more people they tell their story to, the better their chance of closing a sale. That is not what I mean by great salesperson. And it doesn’t matter what you are selling either

Business Insight You really understand the business issues and key drivers of consumer buying behaviour. You can imagine being a consumer so you can talk intelligently about the challenges they face and the problems they need to solve. By knowing this you are better able to describe why your offering solves these problems better than Brand X.

Domain Knowledge You really know your offering inside out and you understand how it solves consumer problems. This means you can clearly articulate why it is the best fit and how it solves consumer problems more effectively than Brand X.

Excellent Communication Skills You ask great questions and can clearly describe your distinctive value proposition to consumers. This means that you can communicate to an individual or a group in a clear, concise and compelling way. Your presentations are engaging and you have an ability to establish rapport and build trust.

Strategic inker You see the big picture and regard a sale as the start of a relationship rather than a quick hit. You develop a plan and think of a sale as a series of activities that result in an outcome rather than trying to close a sale after one contact. You know that long term relationships build value and result in repeat business, referrals and consumer loyalty.

Positive Attitude You are confident. Your positive mental attitude means you try to see the upside.

You focus on what you can do rather than what you can’t. Obstacles and problems are challenges to be overcome.

Sound Judgement You have a never-say-die attitude with a burning desire to solve problems.

However, you combine this with intuition and judgement to avoid wasting time chasing opportunities you can’t win or shouldn’t bid for.

Personal Integrity This is your greatest asset and you never lie to win business. You respect other people and this means you dress appropriately, you are polite and always punctual. People like you because you don’t abuse their time or hospitality.

©John Rees 2011

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Buying And Selling Processes Buying is a form of decision making and people buy to satisfy a need or solve a problem. This applies to any purchase.

We saw that the complex sale has more steps than a simple transaction, more people are involved in making a decision and it takes longer to complete. This means that they require more management from the consumer side and from yours. In some respects they are different sides of the same activity so it is important you understand how consumers make decisions so you can work with them in then most effective way. This is why Fact Finding and Qualification is so important.

How Consumers See e World This describes how a business typically makes a purchase. Although it doesn’t happen every time, it is common. Sometimes it is a stripped down process. The statement of requirements is just a few lines of text or a simple specification. The timescale to make a purchase could also be a few days or weeks. For larger, more complex purchases it could be as follows;

Needs Suppliers

Step 1: Confirm needs.

This is commonly done by internal reviews or outside specialists are involved to develop a statement of needs. From this, a formal set of requirements is developed and 2 kinds of document are produced; Pre-qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) or Request for Information (RFI) which is a screening document to develop a short-list of suppliers Invitation to Tender (ITT), Request for Quotation (RFQ) or Request for Proposal (RFP) is a detailed statement of requirements.

Evaluate

Step 2: Identify suppliers.

Negotiate Implement

Next they conduct initial market research to draw up a long list of potential suppliers who seem to have the right skills and track record. These are sent the PQQ or RFI and the short-list is created.

The ITT, RFQ or RFP is sent to the short-list and responses are evaluated.

Step 3: Evaluate options.

As part of the evaluation process each supplier is asked to present their recommendation and provide detailed information through workshops, presentations, demonstrations and reference visits. Based on this a decision is made on preferred and reserve supplier.

Step 4: Negotiate.

Buyers negotiate with one or more preferred suppliers to construct the best agreement. This can be an involved and sometimes protracted step and it will involve reaching agreement on commercial and legal terms of contract.

Step 5: Implement and evaluate success.

Once a contract has been signed the work starts and progress is evaluated to ensure conformance with agreed terms. ©John Rees 2011

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How Salespeople See e World This is how salespeople generally operate and in many cases it does coincide with the way consumers buy.

Step 1: Prospect Find organisations you can sell to who have a defined need and they are ready to buy.

Step 2: Qualify Fact find and qualify by asking questions to confirm if this is an opportunity you should pursue. This is a mutual qualification stage so you give the consumer information on what you could do for them. We will talk about Fact Finding and Qualification later on.

When responding to an enquiry or PQQ/RFI you must at least answer their questions and play by their rules. But you want to get ahead of the competition so you try to expand the brief to play into an area of strength you have. You give them extra information or ideas based on your experience. You ask questions that will cause them to expand their thinking. You start to demonstrate your value as a partner who brings ideas as well as a tangible offering.

Prospect Qualify Propose Close Deliver

This is called changing the basis of decision and it can work very well.

Step 3: Propose You get an ITT/RFQ/RFP and submit a formal proposal. You must demonstrate that you can really deliver on your claims.

Step 4: Sell and close You develop relationships and position yourself as the logical choice because of the way you work, the ideas you bring and the strength of your offering. You will negotiate to achieve the best terms for your company.

Step 5: Deliver and develop A signed contract is really just the first chapter of the story and you want to develop your relationship and continue to do business with the buyer. To do this you must deliver on your promises and ensure a high level of satisfaction. This also leads to references and referrals and these are valuable because they help develop your prospect pipeline.

©John Rees 2011

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Synchronising Buying And Sales Processes It is crucially important that you understand the buying process. In complex sales this is very important because you can waste a lot of time and effort trying to sell to someone who is not ready or able to buy.

This is why working with a defined sales process is such a great idea. By following a proven way of fact finding and qualification you map out how decisions are made, by whom and what criteria they will use.

This is how professional salespeople work. Being professional means assessing each business opportunity against a set of criteria and then working in a structured way to maximise the probability of success. This approach has been used many times and it works.

I have used many different sales processes over the years and whilst some were too simplistic, others were way too complicated. I wanted something in between so I developed my own and it’s called Navigator.

Navigator Sales Process Navigator is a consultative sales process that will fit any sales situation although it is very strong in the complex sales area. It will guide you through four stages that incorporates best practice to ensure you cover all the bases in a sales campaign. It also provides a way of developing more accurate sales forecasts by tying percentage probability to the stage in the sales process. We will come to this later.

But always use your judgement and experience to make it relevant to your situation. Don’t want to make consumers go through every step of every stage if they are already qualified and ready to buy. After all, the aim is to win good business and not complete every step of the sales process!

Stage One - Screen When you make contact or get an enquiry, the first thing you do is to realistically assess the probability of success before you spend time on it. If there is no urgency or there are too many unanswered questions, be wary and get more information.

This is best done by telephone but you could do it in person, for example if you meet someone at an event or exhibition. In either case, don’t make the exchange too formal or intense and don’t run it like an interrogation. Keep it as relaxed and informal as possible and try to establish rapport quickly. Be polite and answer questions clearly and concisely but always make sure you get the information you need to make a go/no go decision.

©John Rees 2011

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Here are some examples of the kind of screening questions you can use.

What is their problem?

What are they looking for?

Do they have an active project?

How are they running it and what stage is it at?

What options are they considering?

When do they want to make a decision?

What is driving this timescale? (You are looking for some urgency here because no urgency generally means no action) Do they have a budget or an expectation of project cost?

Aer the call, ask yourself the following questions; Are they prospects for you?

Do you have a viable solution?

Is this an opportunity worth pursuing?

Stage Two - Plan Get the facts If they pass the screening, you need more detail before you launch into a detailed sales presentation or demonstration. You must understand their needs and how they make decisions and you do this by Fact Finding and Qualification (FFQ). The output of a FFQ checklist provides the information you need to develop a sales plan that maps the agreed steps of working together.

There are different ways of FFQ. Conducting a ‘survey of needs’ or a ‘business analysis’ is a great way of framing this and it works. People generally respect a professional approach like this and it can be a big factor in differentiating you from the competition.

Make sure you have a great understanding of their needs and then develop an evaluation plan or an engagement letter and present it as your recommended approach. Remember though that in many cases you will have to conform to their process and if this is the case make sure you do get the information you need to position your offer in the best way.

The best way to get the information you need is by asking questions and the best way to do this is in a conversation. Make time to get to know them and remember they will also be qualifying you so you must be prepared to exchange information.

Grilling someone to demand information on their budget, timescale and decision making process on an initial call is a bad idea. Exchange pleasantries, establish rapport, tell them a bit about your business and then ask them if they will help you understand more about theirs.

The ability to develop, frame and ask great questions is a key skill and we covered this earlier. ©John Rees 2011

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Checklist Confirm that this is a serious opportunity you can win by answering these questions; What problem are they trying to solve?

How will they make a decision?

Who is involved in making the decision?

When they will make a decision?

Do they have money and how much?

What so you need to do to win?

Some of this you can ask them but some you must decide yourself based on asking different questions or based on your evaluation of the situation.

Questions The information you need depends on what you are selling and to whom. Some of this can be asked directly whilst some needs to be deduced or validated through a third party. This is an example of some key questions and you should develop a personalised checklist that works in your world.

What is their problem?

What relationships do you have?

What is the impact on their business?

Who wants you to win and why?

Who is involved in the evaluation and decision making?

Do they have previous experience of similar projects?

What criteria will they use to make a decision?

Do they have a budget?

When will a decision be made and contract signed?

Who has the most power and Influence?

What is driving the urgency?

Who has the final sign off?

What is the impact if it slips?

What other outside influences are there e.g consultants, partners?

Who are you competing with and what is your advantage?

What do you need to do to win?

Use this information to develop your plan and a sample can be seen at the end of this section.

©John Rees 2011

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Stage ree - Engage I bet you thought you’d never get here, being able to strut your stuff and show just how good you are! Well, now you have enough information to do it right, you can present your offering in the best way. Now you can show just how you can help them solve their problems.

If only it were that simple, unfortunately other people are also trying to sell to them so you must outperform the competition to win. The way you present, demonstrate, submit a proposal, manage a client reference or conference call and respond to requests will determine your success. Your approach to negotiating an agreement is crucial because that’s where it all comes together.

We covered some of the key skills earlier but the important thing to remember is that at each stage you must always review your progress and qualify the opportunity to make sure you are on track.

Things do change as you learn more about each other and a common mistake is to ‘sell to the end’ when in reality, you have little chance of winning. This is why regular sales reviews will give you an objective view of your current position and chances of winning.

In some cases you need to change your strategy, in others you need to cut your loses and qualify out. But if you are in a strong position, you must press home your advantage and conclude the sale as efficiently as possible.

Stage Four - Deliver Once a sale has been won, the goal is to deliver the best post-sales experience and ongoing support you can. Don’t just sell and run, spend time developing the relationship because satisfied clients will happily endorse your company and make referrals. They are also more likely to do business with you again and this is far more profitable than going through new sales cycles.

©John Rees 2011

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Navigator Sales Plan

Profile Organization

Location

Project

Reason

Primary Contact

Timescale

Source

Value

Problem Pain/Opportunity?

Impact ?

ROI?

Urgency?

Compelling Event?

What don’t we know?

People Who is involved?

Previous experience of similar projects?

Who has the most Power and Influence?

Have we met who we need to?

Who has final sign off?

Outside influences technology partners, consultants?

What relationships do we have?

Who wants us to win? Why?

Who do we need to cultivate?

What don’t we know?

©John Rees 2011

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Process Decision Making Criteria?

How - Spec, Fully costed ROI, Workshop, Exec presentation, other?

Political, Social, Economic factors?

Where does funding come from?

How long will this take?

What don’t we know?

Position Competition

Our USP’s?

How are we perceived by Decision Makers Influencers?

Any issues we need to address/ overcome?

Why will we win?

What don’t we know?

©John Rees 2011

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Plan What

ŠJohn Rees 2011

When

Who

Status

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Business Reviews Being able to predict the flow of income in any business is pretty important. It enables you to make decisions on where to concentrate your attention. It means focussing on those sales campaigns where you have the best chance of success. Having said that, you must realise that you can’t control a purchasing decision, because things are always changing and you don’t actually make the decision!

You must focus on what you can control and this means running sales campaigns professionally and working to a defined process.

By doing the right things, qualifying carefully, delivering messages flawlessly and presenting your offering in the best way, you are maximising your chances of success. Once you have done this, it is out of your hands. There may be a variety of reasons why someone who should buy can’t or won’t and they are just too numerous to mention here.

It could be any combination of personal or business reasons that causes a decision to be delayed, reversed or not made.

Prospects also lie and many other things happen. Holding salespeople accountable for circumstances beyond their control is a waste of time.

The reason I say this is because I have seen forecasts used in totally the wrong way. They become an exercise in micromanagement and control that not only demotivates people, it is also pointless. If you hired salespeople, you must trust them to perform and not check everything they do. If they are failing it could be because of an error of judgement on your part, or they are having a tough time or they are not up to the job. There is also a possibility that your offering doesn’t compete or your messages are not sharp enough and this makes the job doubly difficult.

Concentrate on the facts and always approach a review in a professional way to ensure your people are in control of their opportunities and they can tell you what needs to happen to win. Use it to identify bottlenecks and develop a plan to overcome obstacles that may be getting in the way.

A review should be run weekly or monthly (depending on your business) and it should be an opportunity to share experiences and ideas and not a blame session. But if someone has been failing regularly that is different and action needs to be taken.

The best reviews are also brief and if an important opportunity needs a detailed review and planning session, schedule this as a separate activity.

Conduct the meeting in a pleasant tone and use it as an emphasis on the positive and not full of bad news. If there is no good news then your job is to agree an action plan to develop some by concentrating on the positive rather than accentuating the negative.

Always close on a high by summarising the position and task ahead. Provide positive thoughts and motivates and concentrate only on what you need to do to succeed - jettison the rubbish that steals time but doesn’t add any value.

If you are a one person business this is slightly more difficult but not impossible.

Organise someone you know, trust or have a professional relationship with to act as your sounding board and review your performance with you.

©John Rees 2011

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Format Use a spreadsheet or other tool such as a CRM system that shows the forecast in a way that is clear and easy to understand. Strip out any detail that is not relevant and concentrate on the essentials such as which opportunities are moving, which are stagnant and which need to be re-qualified and possibly taken off the forecast.

Use percentages and tie them to the stages of your sales process. This means that instead of using ‘gut feel’ or just blind optimism and hope, you forecast your business against defined thresholds. You can make the percentages whatever you feel most comfortable with but make sure they are realistic and reflect where you are in the process.

The end result will be more realism and accuracy in your forecasting and that must be a good thing!

As the opportunity moves through the sales process, the probability of success also increases. Whilst this does not guarantee total accuracy (no system ever will), it does provide a solid and accountable basis for valuing your sales pipeline.

Over the years running sales teams, I have seen some pretty wild guesstimates of when business was going to close. Often it was based on something someone said or just the intuition of the salesperson. Whilst this can be important and may have an effect, the only sensible way to forecast business is to base it on firm criteria. Never let ‘gut feel’ interfere with your understanding of the buying process.

There is no such thing as a certainty or a ‘done deal’ unless it has actually been done, the contract signed and you’ve been paid. So take a fresh look at how your forecast your business and base it mainly on fact, but temper with judgement.

Sample Process On the next page is a diagram of how this can all come together. It is taken from an actual sales process I helped a client implement and there are a few things worth mentioning.

1.

You will notice that there is a constant focus on fact finding and qualification all the way through the process. This is especially important in complex sales where things change frequently so it is important to monitor progress, validate information and ensure you are doing the right things to move the opportunity forward.

2.

As described above, each stage has a percentage probability attached to it for forecasting purposes. This ensures that you inject some realism into your business reviews and sales forecasts. It removes the guesswork and ‘gut feel’ that often makes for over-optimistic estimates of sales.

3.

There are also key actions at each stage that are typical. This doesn’t mean that you follow them slavishly. This is the ideal scenario but sometimes you have to adapt. If you are working with a client who has a defined buying process you will often have to comply.

You may also decide that because of competitor activity you need to grab attention by leading with a demonstration before you have all the information you would ideally need. This can work well but remember that whatever shortcuts you take, make sure you understand the key pieces of information that you need to win the sale.

©John Rees 2011

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SCREEN

PLAN

ENGAGE

DELIVER

©John Rees 2011

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Successful Sales Conversations Selling is a series of interactions that centres around mutual interest and the key is to encourage information sharing. You do this by establishing a conversation.

Some people believe great salespeople are born; they are blessed with natural talents and the right personality. They are great talkers and they can sell anything. They have the “sales gene!”

Maybe not, because if a conversation is so onesided, it becomes a boring monologue with almost no benefit to either side. You get your message across but unless you engage the consumer and get their view, you have no idea how your message is being received.

At the heart of any good conversation is an ability to give information and ask intelligent and meaningful questions.

This is a mandatory skill any professional salesperson must have.

All other things being equal, people prefer to do business with someone who is interested in them and keen to solve their problems. So the easy way to become a better salesperson is to become interested in solving their problems. Not just trying to sell them them something.

Of course your job is to sell, but you do this by selling what people need. And the way you find this out is by asking questions. The best way I know to do this is by engaging them in conversation.

The best types of conversations are where there is a common interest so you must establish one fast. The least successful or enjoyable conversations are one-sided. I’m sure you have been cornered by someone at a party or event and they prattle on for ages about themselves. What they did on holiday, how wonderful their career is, what great kids they have, the list goes on and you rapidly stop listening and lose the will to live. You look for an exit as fast as possible.

I’m sure you’ve also met someone you liked instantly because they took a genuine interest in you. They smiled, asked about you, told you a bit about them and asked you other questions until you found a point of common interest. After a short time you were like old friends!

Questions Great salespeople ask great questions. Although this is a big subject, I am going to give you a few ideas to work with that will make an immediate impact on your effectiveness.

1. Listen more than you talk Great salespeople listen but poor salespeople talk too much. That’s why we have 2 ears and 1 mouth and we should use them in proportion by listening at least twice as much as we talk.

Remember, the conversation should be about them, not you. This is a critically important skill you must develop. Be self-critical and ask clients, friends, colleagues and family members to give you honest and truthful feedback. If you need to improve dedicate yourself to improving because this will significantly improve your performance. ©John Rees 2011

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2. Plan your questions Always think about the information you need and then write the questions down to make sure you get everything you need. Also plan them so they follow a logical flow. By doing this it sounds more like a conversation and this will encourage people to open up more. Whatever you do, don’t read questions out one after the other from a sheet sounding like an interrogation. This will have the opposite effect and could make people less open.

3. Open and Closed questions There are two types of question, Open and Closed.

Open are expansive and designed to get more information, for example; “What kind of challenges are you facing?”

“What's the most important priority for you and why?”

Closed are confirmation questions that are designed to get a Yes or No response, for example; “Have you set a budget for this project?”

“Are you committed to go ahead?”

Also try to get into the habit of mixing open and closed questions to make the conversation flow more naturally. You will do this if you plan your questions in advance. As you become more proficient you will find that this comes becomes second nature. The more you practice, the better you become.

4. Be prepared to answer questions Remember that the objective is to share information so this shouldn’t be one-way.

Be ready to answer questions and make sure your response is understood. But, don’t let the tables get turned on you and make sure you do get through your list.

5. Be polite Always do what your parents advised and say please and thank you. It costs nothing and it helps built a relationship based on mutual respect. As you can see this is a big topic and everyone can improve just by listening and learning from others. Try this simple exercise.

Next time you are in a business setting take notice of how other people engage with you.

Do they talk about themselves or do they ask you questions?

What kind of questions do they ask?

How well do they listen to your answers and what do they do with the information you gave them?

Do they seem to ignore it or do they use it to ask a follow up question or do they ask a question that seems unrelated?

Make a note of this and then think about some of your recent engagements and compare it with this exercise. Are there any similarities? What can you learn? How will it change the way you approach your next meeting? ©John Rees 2011

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How To Handle Objections Things have gone well so far. You’ve presented your offering and you can almost see the signed order with the cheque attached. Then something truly horrible happens - the consumer says ‘No’.

What have you done wrong? Everything seemed to be going so well, the buying signals were there, lots of agreement, body language was positive but now it looks like it’s all off. Or is it? Does ‘No’ really mean “no, never” or does it mean “not now”?

The way you handle any objection is a matter of attitude. If you typically view it as a problem or something that will stop the sale then you should think again. If you have qualified the consumer well and there is a good fit between their needs and your offering then an objection can mean a number of things.

They don’t believe the claims you are making about your offering.

They think your offering is inferior to Brand X in some way.

They don’t think the price you are asking reflects what it is worth to them.

They don’t fully understand what you are offering them.

They no longer have decision making ability and they want to save face.

Of course there are many reasons consumers raise objections and some are real whilst others are hidden. They may not want to tell you what they are for personal and business reasons, but unless you get to the root of the objection and fully understand it, your progress will grind to a halt. The way you handle an objection is critical. After all, it’s very easy to panic and just dive in and answer the objection or give concessions just to try to close the sale but this is a huge mistake. Instead follow this 5 step process every time and you will get far better results;

©John Rees 2011

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Listen Don’t try to jump in because when you interrupt them, you are seen as objecting to their objection. If you just talk over them when they raise the objection or try to answer what you think they are saying or worse still, argue with them, then your next steps may well be towards the door!

Always listen very carefully to what they are saying to make sure you really understand it. Don’t make any assumptions, be cool, calm and let then talk.

Question To make sure you understand it, ask confirmation questions. Restate their objection and ask them to confirm that is what they really mean. For example; “So Jack, what you are saying is that Brand X is a better option for you because it is 25% cheaper, is that correct?”

ink While you are listening and restating it, you will also have been thinking about how to approach it. But don’t be in a rush. If you can’t handle it convincingly, come back to it later, or do this; “Thanks Jack, so as well as price, are there any other issues that would prevent you from going ahead?”

Answer Answer it directly or agree to get back to them later with an official response. You may want to do this for example if you really do have an issue over price.

Confirm And when you have handled it, check that they understand the point you make ad they accept it. If they do, move towards a close, if they don’t you must go back and handle it again or accept defeat. I’m not saying you should just quit easily but if there are genuine objections you just can’t overcome such as dropping your price to an uneconomic level, you should be prepared to make a final offer and walk.

©John Rees 2011

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Asking For e Order This is what top salesperson get paid for and the top performers love - closing business. And there are many tips, techniques and tricks that people try to use to complete the sale. It is regarded as a tough thing to do because so much hinges on it. But I think about it differently.

You have spent a lot of time and effort building rapport and because you have done a great job, the consumer has trust in you. That doesn’t mean that the sale is easy or that no objections will be raised - believe me, they always will. After all, everyone wants the best deal they can get although some people drive a harder bargain than others.

Closing the sale should be a natural outcome. After all, you understand exactly what they want to achieve and you have demonstrated that you have an excellent fit.

You understand how they make decisions and you have built this into your sales strategy. So if you make closing a big step it will be. Instead, treat it like the next logical step in the process. Don’t make a big deal out of it.

If you qualify constantly, you will pick up any issues and when you get an objection, you handle it as described above. Make it easy for the consumer to go ahead. Remember, any decision to buy is about managing risk - real or perceived so if you have covered all the concerns and helped them minimise risk, you should be ready to book the sale.

©John Rees 2011

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Presenting Your Big Ideas To many people, the thought of standing up in front of others fills them with dread.

It can reduce sane, intelligent people to a sweating, quivering mass. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but a lot of people find it really scary because they are not very good at it.

People talk about the truly great communicators like Martin Luther King, David Lloyd George, Churchill, Kennedy, Tony Blair, even Ronald Reagan, Barrack Obama and Steve Jobs CEO of Apple. These are naturally gifted people, but were they born with an innate skill to communicate or did they learn?

Maybe some have more natural skill than others but most have a ruthless, almost obsessive ability to rehearse. Churchill used to script his speeches and practice in front of a mirror until he was word perfect. The result was an apparent ability to deliver spontaneous and natural speeches without notes.

Jobs is truly obsessive and his legendary push for perfection drives his production team nuts. He will fuss over the most minute details and will work himself hard to make sure that when showtime arrives he is all California cool, relaxed and talking to the audience as though he were having a chat over coffee. See a Jobs Keynote for inspiration and tips on how to do it well.

Not everyone can join this band of iconic communicators but you can significantly improve the quality of your presentations by following some basic steps.

Ready, Fire, Aim Most things need to happen in a designated sequence to make them work well. For a presentation, the first thing you must get right is your preparation because everything else flows from it. When you are asked to present or when you offer to present, always ask these questions; Why are you doing it, what is the purpose?

Who will be there and what do they want to see?

What do I want to show them and why should they care?

How does it impact their world?

Don’t just show up and trot out your standard presentation and hope for the best.

Make sure you know the purpose of the session and then design what works best. Of course you don’t have to design a new presentation every time. You will probably give a similar presentations many times so you can tweak it to fit. But don’t be lazy and just assume everyone will respond to the same story.

Understanding your audience is crucial because there is nothing worse than a mismatch that sends people into a coma. This is a waste of your time and theirs so give it some thought.

Remember the audience. The best presenters always develop their content with the audience in mind. By doing this you can personalise your story so it resonates and gets the right result.

Only when you know the purpose, is it time to develop the content and design the slides. ©John Rees 2011

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Why Are Some Presentations So Bad? To be a great salesperson you must be a great presenter. It’s part of your job specification where it says ‘communication specialist and performer’ because that’s what great salespeople are. So why do some people get it so wrong? This is important to now because if you avoid these traps you will improve instantly!

If you have sat through some stinkers like I have, I’m sure you will recognise these; Long and boring slides with too much content crammed on.

The presenter actually reading the slides.

Poor quality images.

Too much jargon and too many buzzwords, how many “unique, leading edge, paradigm shifting solutions” are really out there?

A droning monologue with absolutely no attempt to engage the audience.

A long session with no breaks.

Sound familiar? There are more, but let’s not dwell on the negative too much instead let’s look at some of the things to be aware of and avoid.

1. Slides are too complicated.

How often have you seen someone baffle an audience with their expert knowledge? They think it shows how smart they are so the audience is bound to be impressed. Wrong! What is does is to demonstrate that you can’t make your point in a simple way. This is the sign of someone who is truly smart, they have an ability to make the complex simple. We’ll talk about this more later on.

2. Not enough time to prepare.

This is the biggie. You are really busy and you just don’t have the time so you’ll just knock up a few slides on the train and then “wing it” and hope for the best. Rather you than me, especially if it is an important presentation. Murphy's law usually applies here and that is, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".

Now that’s pressure you can do without!

3. Technology makes you lazy.

Good old Powerpoint, it just makes it so easy to develop a presentation. All those lovely templates and a really easy way to enter text. You can just enter lines of text as bullets and away you go! The problem is, this creates really bad presentations that look the same as other Powerpoint users. How can an audience get excited by something they have seen many times before?

©John Rees 2011

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e Secret Of Great Presentations Well, it’s not really a secret, just things you need to do in a certain order. There is obviously a limit to what I can add here because whole books have been written on the subject. If you want more information please check the suggested reading list at the end of the book.

What’s Your Big Idea?

What is it that you want to share that will make the audience sit up and take notice? If they remember one thing, what should it be?

This is the hard bit and it requires effort to make it as clear and understandable as possible.

It is complicated further because most of us are conditioned by software. We routinely dive into Powerpoint or Keynote and start using a wizard or theme to build a presentation. So close the computer and work ‘off-line’ using paper, a whiteboard or post-it notes and let your imagination go. This is how great products and software have been designed. Why should a presentation be any different?

Once you have the Big Idea nailed, start to craft the flow of your story around it. But don’t just churn out your ‘standard pitch’ every time. Your competitors will do it, so here’s your chance to be different.

Keep It Simple Simplicity is the essence of clear communication. The simpler something is to grasp the faster the audience understands. But simplicity doesn’t mean ‘dumbing down’ it means distilling and removing unnecessary confusion and padding. Unless you can describe your Big Idea in 60 seconds it is probably too complicated. It is also likely you don’t understand it yourself.

What’s e Story?

What is your presentation about? A great presentation is a story that grabs attention far better than a list of facts and figures. So before you do anything, write a summary of your story and give it a title or headline, a brief overview, a middle bit with some detail and a summary.

And you don’t need Powerpoint for this. Oh no, start with a sheet of old fashioned paper and some pens, pencils or crayons because we are going back in time, we are working in analogue mode. You are going to design the presentation not Microsoft!

The headline is really important and it should say what your presentation is about.

“An overview of CRM software by IBS Inc” is hardly going to get people sitting on the edge of their seats is it?

“Growing your sales by 75% in 12 months” is likely to grab a lot more attention.

©John Rees 2011

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I’m sure you get the picture, so think about the true purpose of the presentation and dump the boring titles. Also make sure the headline really resonates with the audience and the reason they have agreed to sit through it.

When you have the headline you can start to craft the flow of the story and how you want to take your audience on the journey. Remember that you aim is to make it as simple as possible to understand and follow.

e Script Before you decide on things like colour schemes or images, write the script and then look for images to complement it. If you do this, you can split it into slide-size chunks and then add the images to get your point across. You can also use the text as slide notes so you cover all the points you need to. Not only does this mean you will know the content inside out, it means you can ditch all those annoying bullet points and slides full of text that everyone hates!

If you do decide to use Powerpoint or any other tool, you will be using it to automate your story instead of just filling in the blanks. But wait a minute, maybe you don’t even need to use technology. Everyone else seems to these days, so why not try to be a bit different and use a white board, a flip chart or even a series of props? This approach may not work for everything but it is worth thinking about to create a different and memorable experience for your audience.

Designing e Experience This doesn’t only mean deciding on your colour scheme and slide layout because design is not just about style. The main purpose is to provide a better user experience and in a presentation this means making it easier for the audience to understand what you are talking about.

More is less The ability to say more with less content is a skill that separates the great presenter from the bore. It will always take several rounds of editing to eliminate anything that doesn’t add to the message. You must simplify messages to make them clear, concise and compelling. But simplicity doesn’t mean ‘dumbing down’ it means distilling your story to the core and leaving out the clutter and noise. Leonardo Da Vinci said ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. Even Einstein, who was pretty smart, said "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Well, if it’s good enough for those two, it should be good enough for you.

The goal is to make the maximum impact with the minimum content but be careful not to overdo it. You need to find the right balance and this depends on your message, the audience and the purpose of your presentation. A presentation on a complex technical subject will need a fair degree of detail, but never pad just for the sake of it. It always leads to information overload.

©John Rees 2011

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A few words about special effects and transitions

“AVOID USING THEM.” The messages should stand on their own so don’t mess it up by overdoing the transitions, special effects and sound tracks. Only use any of this stuff if it actually adds to the user experience and helps put your message across in a better way.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Sometimes, but only if it makes sense...

Studies have shown that an image can make a bigger and more lasting impact and improve recall than words alone. The more relevant and concrete the image is, the more powerful the effect. But this is where I get nightmares when I see free, cheap or just plain bad cartoon images and clip art. Please, please do not use this stuff if you want to create professional presentations. It is horrible, cheap and nasty. Is that the image you really want to portray?

Make sure that any images you use are high quality and preferably photographs.

There are many places you can buy reasonably priced stock images such as Fotolia.com, iStockphoto.com, Shutterstock.com and many others. If you don’t want to use stock images and you have a good camera, why not take your own?

Try to avoid using images purely as ‘eye candy’ that looks good but has nothing to do with the content on the slide. Select an image that is a strong visual metaphor that will make your point and leave a big impression on the audience. Make it something they will remember.

Ditch the furniture Anything on a slide that doesn’t add value to the message is slide furniture and it should be ditched. The culprits are company logos, copyright notices such as “©my content 2009. All rights reserved” or “Company confidential” and maybe even some slide design that has boxes or abstract shapes that are a total waste of space.

People have difficulty coping with too much information anyway. This stuff just makes things worse. Firstly, it is annoying and secondly it cuts down on the available space you can use for the interesting stuff.

If you are in any doubt, ask yourself why any of this should be on every slide? What does it add? If you really are sharing something that is not in the public domain you should get the audience to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

If you must add your logo and company name just put it on the first and last slide. ©John Rees 2011

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“Bullets can kill.”

Excessive use of them in a presentation will kill any chance you had of being memorable. Your audience will simply descend into coma.

Your presentation should be like a film documentary that tells a story with images and the spoken word. You don’t need masses of text or the dreaded bullet points on every slide.

Make slides as visual as possible and eliminate text unless it is absolutely essential to enhancing understanding. Some people find this hard to do because they need prompts to make sure they cover all the content on the slide.

I think this is an excuse and if you know your subject well enough, you don’t need any signposts or crutches.

Bullets are so over used and bad that as soon as I see a slide with more than 6 on I fear the worse. A fate worse than death, death by PowerPoint*. But you can also be “Killed by KeyNote” (The Apple presentation software).

If you have to use a bullet list (maybe for an agenda) try not to exceed the ‘read limit’ of more than six lines a slide.

I am always amazed when I see slides that have bullets, sub-bullets and sub-subbullets. I start to lose the will to live. If it gets bad, it can be amusing counting the lines of text. The most I have seen in 2010 is 21! Then the presenter said, “You probably can’t read this very well.” Was he kidding? I needed binoculars and I was in the front row. What was he thinking? * "Death by PowerPoint" is a criticism of slide-based presentations referring to a state of boredom and fatigue induced by information overload during presentations such as those created by the Microsoft application Powerpoint.

The phrase was first coined by Angela R. Garber. Further criticisms of the cognitive effects of PowerPoint have been expounded by others, for example, Edward Tufte suggests PowerPoint is a convenient prop for poor speakers. It is also called "PowerPoint Poisoning" a term originated by Scott Adams of Dilbert fame.

Space Designers talk about White, Black or Negative space and it is a technique to isolate and emphasise a word, phrase or image for maximum impact. Not only is it great at drawing attention to something, it also looks elegant, sophisticated and quite cool. Here are a few examples; As well as using space to isolate, you also need to consider the space between related items. Make sure it is obvious what image and text goes together so they are viewed as a group and not random elements on a slide.

And where you do align items, make sure this is consistent. Don’t have right, left and centred alignment mixed up on a slide because this looks messy and it is difficult to follow. ©John Rees 2011

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e Rule of irds The rule of thirds is a technique that photographers use for framing their subjects to make them more interesting. The basic idea is to break a scene into a 3 x 3 block grid and then place the subject at key points of interest. These are shown below because having everything centred is not always the best idea. There is no ‘right place’ so you can experiment and see what looks best.

Different, but consistent Try as hard as you can to avoid using Powerpoint themes, because they channel your thinking. In fact, why not ditch themes altogether and create your own look.

You can create something individual by using a distinctive colour scheme and font that incorporates elements of your brand. This is good because it brings unity, consistency and cohesiveness to your presentation. But avoid a series of identical looking slides because your audience will soon get bored.

A Few Words About Rehearsals.

If the presentation is worth doing, make sure you rehearse until you know it and feel comfortable doing an excellent job.

It doesn’t matter how many times you need to go through it, if you don’t want it to bomb, be prepared. Rehearse with someone who is typical of an audience member and will give you honest feedback. Don’t settle for a second rate performance. Ever.

That’s it. Now it’s showtime!

This is a big topic and I will cover this in more detail in a future book. Here I’m only giving you 5 key points to think about and hopefully it will motivate you to want to learn more. There are plenty of books, websites and blogs out there on this and you can see some of my favourites in the reading list section.

It’s A Performance I’m not talking rock-star antics here or trying to be someone you’re not but the aim is to educate, inform and entertain; even in a business setting. If your business is that boring, even to you, are you in the right business?

There are so many boring, predictable and similar presentations and styles so shake it up a bit. You need to enthuse an audience and get them excited about your message.

I’m not talking Steve Balmer crazy though (you’ve got to see the video clip to believe it) just inject some of your unique personality into things.

Presentation styles are personal but a conversational, friendly and confident approach always works well and when this is combined with a real passion and enthusiasm, the results are consistently good. ©John Rees 2011

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Sorry, what did you say?

Attention spans are funny things. Most people just drift off after a few minutes especially if you bore them. And the more senior someone is, the less likely they are to just sit there and feign interest. Studies have shown that concentration levels really dip after 15-20 minutes and based on my experience, this is far shorter with Chief Executives or Directors. You really need to get to the point fast.

We want more !

No matter how much time you have allocated, always try to finish early and leave the audience wanting more. Don’t try to cram too much in. Take a tip from professional entertainers who have honed their skills and leave the audience screaming for an encore. Now I’m not suggesting you do a song and dance act, but you should aim to make it memorable. Use your imagination and think about what you can do that will make them sit up and take notice. It’s’ unlikely you will get the audience stamping and shouting for more. The encore you want is a further meeting and a sale.

You got Attitude Enthusiasm and a great attitude is infectious. The more you evangelise about your subject the better it comes across. Positive words and confident body language can swing an audience and get them on your side. To keep them there, you need a great story as we discussed earlier.

Your slides don’t make sense Because you have done a great job designing your slides, they just don’t stand on their own. They are heavy on imagery and light of text so without you they don’t really tell the full story. If your slides do stand on their own, why are you presenting them? Why not save everyone’s time and just send a report?

When you are asked for a copy of your slides don’t give them. Instead create a document that describes the key messages in your presentation.

You are the star who makes the message come alive so sharpen up and learn from the best. It will have a massive impact on your confidence and your level of sales success. Go for it!

©John Rees 2011

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IN SUMMARY Building a pipeline of prospects is something you must do on an on-going basis. Forget knee-jerk reactions and cold-calling because it just doesn’t work.

The best way to do this is by developing compelling messages and broadcasting them where consumers will see them.

The old ways of marketing don’t work any more. Instead of telling consumers how wonderful you are, develop a relationship with them.

Engage them in conversations.

Run Campaigns as a way of engaging with your audience.

There are 10 primary channels you can use to communicate. Get the top four right and you may not need to do much more.

The top four - 1. Website 2. Social Media 3. Repeat business and referrals 4. Thought leadership.

Consumers buy to solve a problem. Your job is to find it and satisfy it with your offering.

Great salespeople are great communicators. They ask great questions, they listen to the answers and don’t talk too much.

Successful people work in a structured way. This means they save time and focus on the priorities. They never miss an action or an opportunity.

Navigator is a sales process that works. It is based on more than 30 years sales experience and it is perfectly suited to a complex sale.

A complex sale is where many people are involved in making a decision.

There are many steps, it can take a long time and the value is often high.

Complex sales are common in business to business selling.

Eliminate ‘gut feel’ and always be realistic about your chances of winning business. Tie percentage probability to a stage of the sales process.

Great salespeople have the ability to develop and deliver Clear, Concise and Compelling presentations.

Knowledge + Commitment + Professionalism = Sales Success ©John Rees 2011

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Evolution LISTEN LEARN ACT

Unless You Develop Your Business It Will Stagnate And Probably Die A Great Way To Improve What You Do Is To Get Feedback From Consumers Employees And Stakeholders As Well As Asking Questions Listen To Online Conversations You Will Learn A Lot Use This Information To Develop Better Products And Improve Your Service Create Loyalty And A Strong Brand By Striving For Excellence In All You Do

Read On To Find Out More

PART 4 ŠJohn Rees 2011

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Develop Your Business By Listening And Learning History proves that businesses that stand still, will stagnate and die. The way to avoid this is by innovation. Develop your business based on a combination of experience, original thought and consumer feedback and you will grow and prosper.

Evolution is the process of embracing innovation in thinking, product development and customer service. This marks the winners from the losers.

By listening, learning and adapting to new information you will be able to develop better products and services that enable you to compete more effectively. And this will drive business growth and prosperity.

Ideas are key drivers of Evolution and these can come from your own marketing, sales, product development and customer service people. But you must also include ideas and experiences from consumers and stakeholders. This makes sense because the whole basis of a sales-led business is to create and sell what consumers want, need and will buy.

Don’t pay lip service to this. Make it part of your business fabric and devote time and energy to make it work. When you do adopt a serious approach to Evolution you will enjoy some big advantages.

e Advantages It creates advocates who will they buy from you again and refer you to other consumers.

Being responsive helps to address issues and minimise detractors who criticise you.

It promotes brand loyalty which is a key factor in consumer retention.

You can gain valuable insight and ideas that you would otherwise not be aware of.

It can provide competitive information from a consumer perspective. This is far more powerful than any internal marketing assessments because it relates to actual consumer experience.

©John Rees 2011

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How To Get Feedback Before the internet became so widespread, this was an expensive and timeconsuming task. You would probably work with a market research firm or do some of the work yourself. Gathering the data and interpreting it took a long time with often unpredictable results.

Today the task is a lot easier in some ways and more challenging in others.

It’s easier because there are many software tools that will automate many of the tasks. It is harder because there are far more channels where consumers offer an opinion.

So, the approach you take to get feedback must be as complete as possible. There should be two elements to your approach, Proactive and Reactive.

1. Proactive This is where you actively solicit feedback and there are a few ways you can do this.

Consumer Surveys Ask them what they think by conducting surveys.

The annual satisfaction survey is where you ask questions that will cover range of topics.

Event-based surveys are triggered by specific actions. When they buy, submit a service call or make a complaint, you should always ask them how you did. Were they happy with the outcome, what could you improve and other questions you think are important.

Generating survey today is fairly easy and there are many software tools that are available to help you. Some are free like Survey Monkey and others like VoVici you pay a subscription to use. If you need something more sophisticated with better analytics and the ability to incorporate social media monitoring then Social CRM tools like Jive and Lithium are worth looking at.

Employee feedback It is also important you find out what your employees think, especially those that interact with consumers in a sales and support function. In fact, anyone who comes into contact with consumers will have some experience that maybe valuable. Capture it, analyse and act on it to make improvements.

Stakeholder feedback As well as employees, also ask your partners what they think. If they resell your offering they can provide direct consumer feedback. If they partner with you in some other way ask them how well you serve them and where improvements can be made.

©John Rees 2011

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Consumer Advisory Council Consider setting up a group of consumers who would meet with you at defined intervals to give feedback on where they think you need to improve. This needs some thought though because the group should be representative and balanced.

The last thing you want is for a few big consumers to gang up on you and hijack your business strategy. This can work well if you get the balance right so it is worth looking at.

User Group These exist in many industries and they can be a powerful and effective voice.

They are run by users for the benefit of users and their purpose is normally to share experiences and provide feedback to the company. The best user groups are not pressure groups though, they exist to advise companies on where they would like to see changes, improvements and developments. It is typical for companies to attend user conferences and present new ideas and solicit opinion. Some companies organise annual user conferences and invite users and this also provides a great forum for idea feedback.

2. Reactive

There are millions of online conversations going on all the time and some are about you. This is feedback you don’t control but you can participate and influence it.

Comments are made all over the place, on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Submissions are made on forums, blogs are published and you also get emails that could be filled with praise or complaints.

Your task is to see this and react to it and this is achievable with Social Media Monitoring tools such as Google Alerts, Social Mention and Tweetdeck. They will identify where on the web you are mentioned and you can then decide how you want to handle the comments you see. If there are complaints or inaccuracies you may join in to put your point of view.

If there is a sales opportunity you need to handle it sensitively. Most channels have strict rules against blatant sales promotion so be careful.

The aim is to listen, understand and respond. Avoid jumping straight in though because it can give an impression of ‘snooping’ and listening to conversations you were not specifically invited to. ©John Rees 2011

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Touch Points Incorporating feedback is not just about sales, it covers all aspects of your business. Sales-led organisations work in a coordinated way with all business processes and functions focussed on the consumer.

So let’s look at the different parts of the business and consider how they are either touched by Evolution or affected by it.

Product Development The best companies are always looking for ways to improve what their offerings to make them perform better and attract new consumers. This is achieved by extending functionality and even developing new offerings to expand the portfolio.

But don’t develop ideas in isolation. Incorporate the voice of the consumer into the process and balance and blend this with your own research. This is important because consumers don’t always know what they want.

Of course it depends how you ask questions and then interpret the answers to improve an offering or create a new one. For example, “more convenience” could be translated into smaller, easier to use or disposable.

You will take ideas and decide how viable they are from a marketing, technical and financial perspective. Ideas that have limited appeal or low market potential are not good ideas. This is where a Market Opportunity Assessment (see page 27) can be used to give you a good high level indication of potential.

The way you design, develop and test market the idea is down to you and I’m not an expert in these matters. But remember that design in this context is not art. It’s about delivering a better experience so make sure it appeals to consumers and motivates them to buy. That, after all is all that really matters.

The mark of a successful sales-led business is that they develop ideas that ignite the imagination and become best sellers. Think of the iPod. Sony appeared to have the market for portable music players sewed up. But what they Apple did was to think about how they could give consumers an even better experience.

©John Rees 2011

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They ‘re-invented’ the portable music player. Later they did the same for the mobile phone and created a whole new market sector. They are now doing the same with tablet computing and the iPad. They took the idea of a portable music player and extended the functionality. They added more capacity and the early publicity sold it as as ‘A thousand songs in your pocket’. Later generations extended functionality further with photos, videos, and a whole host of other applications. This thinking has transformed Apple from a niche compute maker into one of the most admired and successful consumer electronics companies ever.

Apple is notorious for keeping developments secret but it does listen to consumers. You can submit requests, post comments and interact with them through various channels. They also ask for your views through surveys and regular updates.

People Without doubt, people are your greatest asset when they perform well. And happy people who are excel at what they do are wonderful ambassadors for your business.

Take care of them and ensure they have the skills and tools they need to succeed.

Monitor their performance and provide training and mentoring to help them to develop and reach their full potential. This applies to everyone but you must pay special attention to those with consumer contact and responsibility.

Marketing, sales and support people in particular must be excellent because they are ambassadors, the public ‘face’ of your business. The way they work and interact with consumers is a critical factor in your success.

Processes Sales Make sure you are easy to do business with.

This means your sales approach is seen as professional and non-threatening or pressured. When consumers enjoy the experience of buying, they will do it again.

And all other things being equal, we prefer doing business with people we actually like.

It also means easy and fast order processes. If you offer online purchasing, make sure you do this with as few clicks as possible. Apple and Amazon in particular have one-click purchasing and it works beautifully.

Marketing Evaluate all the channels you use to broadcast to your audience to see how well are they working. Make improvements and add new ones to improve your effectiveness. For example, a website or blog that has no content update is stale and out of date and doesn’t work well. Email messages that are not constantly refined based on consumer input are also less effective.

©John Rees 2011

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Customer Service This is a crucial process because it should be the focal point of delivering a great experience for consumers. It answers their questions, solves their problems and helps to turn them into advocates. Give them a bad service and they will talk more.

Don’t for example, make consumers have to listen to automated telephone messages with multiple levels of options before they speak to a human being.

Provide short-cuts and make it quick and easy.

Many of us complain about the poor quality of support from many companies such as our ISP, Airline or Utility provider. And more of us than ever now do this online in various forums, blogs and social media channels. Today good news travels fast but bad news travels much faster and with greater ‘venomous velocity’.

This can, in extreme cases kill a business stone dead. There are many websites dedicated to complaints such as http://www.companynamesucks.com. In fact, “Co. Sucks” is now a common search term. Try it and check if your business is mentioned.

Of course some people just love to complain often without justification. But if you are unaware of these comments, ignore them, or try other ‘dubious’ ways’ to change them, you could have a big problem.

Concentrate on making your customer service the best it can be. Ask your consumers or set up an impartial group to test it. Use a customer service specialist to do an audit and come up with specific recommendations on where you need to improve.

And Finally Any investment you make to help your business Evolve is a price well worth paying. Don’t make do with mediocrity. Strive to be the best you can and make sure your Sales Engine is firing on all cylinders.

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR JOURNEY. ©John Rees 2011

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IN SUMMARY Don’t let your business stagnate, you must evolve and adapt to grow your business and prosper.

Be proactive and ask consumers, employees and stakeholders what they think about you because you will learn something.

Monitor other online conversations and react to what is being said but be careful when joining conversations you didn’t initiate.

Evaluate Social Media Monitoring tools and pick the ones that work best for you. Keep it simple and don’t pick complicated tools that are overkill.

Evolve your sales, marketing, customer services and product development based on balanced feedback.

Advocates will help strengthen your reputation.

Don’t try to act on everything. Prioritise ideas and commit to action.

©John Rees 2011

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Suggested Reading List These are a few of the books I have read that I would recommend if you want to delve deeper. I will update the list online though my blog.

1.

Presentation Zen By Garr Reynolds

2.

Presentation Zen Design By Garr Reynolds

3.

The Presentation Secrets Of Steve Jobs By Carmine Gallo

4.

A Whole New Mind By Daniel Pink

5.

Rework By Jason Fried And David Heinemeier Hansson

6.

Inside Steve’s Brain By Leander Kahney

7.

Purple Cow By Seth Godin

8.

Meatball Sundae By Seth Godin

9.

Why Killer Products Don’t Sell By Ian Gotts And Dominic Rowsell

10. Dealing With Darwin By Geoffrey Moore 11. Crossing The Chasm By Geoffrey Moore 12. Design Matters By Robert Brunner And Stewart Emery 13. Our Iceberg Is Melting By John Kotter 14. Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite By Paul Arden 15. Conceptual Selling By Robert Miller And Stephen Heiman 16. The Non-designer’s Design Book By Robin Williams 17. Who Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson 18. Inside The Tornado By Geoffrey Moore 19. Strategic Selling By Robert Miller And Stephen Heiman 20. Tribes By Seth Godin

©John Rees 2011

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About Me I am a business communications specialist and I help businesses create compelling messages and communicate them to consumers in the best way.

During a career that started in 1976, I have worked in the Information Technology sector as a sales executive, manager and mentor, selling to and managing clients from different industry sectors across Europe, India and North America. I have worked with Hewlett Packard, IBM, SAP and Microsoft and many start-ups and fast growth companies such as Manugistics and Commerce One. The best businesses have a holistic approach to marketing and sales and they focus on providing exceptional service to their consumers; they are truly sales-led.

I developed the Sales Engine model to help companies become more sales-led and it has ideas and techniques that have been proven to work.

I have an Honours degree in Economics and Social Psychology from Loughborough University of Technology and I live in Malvern, Worcestershire.

My clients come from many different sectors including web design, software development, knowledge management, optical services, biotechnology instrumentation, micro and nanotechnology, business process management, supply chain management and data integration. The Sales Engine model applies to all of them and they have all contributed in some way to the ideas and content.

Here are some comments and very kind words from people I’ve worked with and learned from; thanks to you all.

“John is probably the most talented marketing professional I have ever worked with; he is highly focused and produces results very quickly. He has an ability to rapidly assess complex details relating to conceptual services and he has been instrumental in producing much simplified marketing messages and sales collateral for EPI. ” Nick Close, Managing Director, EPI International “John has a great insight in building brands and positioning the company in its area of sales. He helped us in the initial phase of building C1 India. It was always a pleasure to work with him.”

Vivek Agarwal, President, Commerce One India "The work John has done has changed the way we operate. He has produced some excellent collateral and we have a great story. From a sales perspective we are better than we have ever been! " Mike Clarke, Managing Director, AuraQ “John and I worked together when he was Sales Director at Commerce One and I was in the same role at SAP. We planned and negotiated together complex deals. I truly enjoyed the experience as we were an effective, naturally aligned winning team. John is a strong sales leader, motivator and strategist with a hands-on approach to business challenges.”

Tibor Beles, Sales Director, SAP ©John Rees 2011

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“John brought real drive and conviction to the team he managed at Manugugistics.

His style was to lead by example from the front and he provided the right balance of coaching and direction to the team. He brought his charisma into all situations and it was a pleasure to work with him.”

Bob Godfrey, Vice President, Sales Operations, Manugistics “Honest, hard working, professional and inspirational. If you've got some hot technology, but are uncertain how to present it your potential customers, then John really helps. He can both help you understand what you've really created, and then build up a persuasive value proposition for your market.”

Tony Eastwood, Chief Technology Officer, ETL Solutions “John is an talented sales leader. He has bags of energy and enthusiasm and drives himself and his team hard to win major sales deals. He is a great motivator and through his drive and passion encourages everyone who works with him to deliver 110%. I really enjoyed working with John and have no hesitation in recommending him.”

Gareth Jones, Vice President, Field Operations EMEA, Commerce One “John is an exceptional and passionate professional, based on years of cultivated domain expertise and sales techniques with a capability that is highly infectious. John sets priorities and goals and has a good combination of strategic thinking and 'get it done' tactical attributes. He is always customer focused to deliver value and results.”

Caroline Sanderson, Director of Strategic Solutions EMEA, Commerce One “John is a rare breed, combining savvy sales capabilities within major accounts with impressive and highly creative marketing expertise. He is a strategic thinker. But unlike many strategists he has the determination and wherewithal to rapidly turn strategy into effective execution that produces real business results. I have worked with John across several sales improvement projects within the software sector and always found him to be motivational and dynamic. He has an uncanny ability to dislodge projects when they become stuck and shorten a client's journey to generating increased levels of new business revenue. Bringing John into project I always know that we have the breadth and depth of expertise to meet or, more often, exceed client's expectations” John Fedden, Managing Director, Sales Factory Limited “John was hired into the Manugistics sales team to deliver focused professional, sales execution. His outstanding first year in CPG sales merited an immediate promotion to sales management and he became a highly respected manager whose team executed and became 'the place to be'. It was a pleasure working alongside him - he is a team player and his approach enabled my marketing and alliances teams to deliver what he needed to be successful. It was a unique time with an amazing team and John was a major contributor to that success. He is also good fun, and as we all worked really hard - that made a difference.”

Rosemary Smart, Business Development Manager, Manugistics

For more information please visit www.jerconsulting.co.uk ©John Rees 2011

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