Archive for General
Recognize and Embrace Your Passion
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I have had many conversations with people who dream out loud what they really want to do with their life. In nearly every conversation they have something they are passionate about and rather skilled at. Their challenge is in pursuing it and believing they can do it.
Often they begin defining their passion in terms of a job description and struggle to figure out how they can monetize it. That thought process usually creates barriers, not opportunity. I advise them to go through a more strategic and creative thought process that allows them discover the options for turning their passion into a business, a hobby, a cause, or a service.
Instead of dealing with traditional roadblock thinking about your passion, I encourage the following thought process:
- Clarify your true passion.
- Define and articulate how others would benefit from this skill and energy.
- List options and opportunities as to how you might provide this to the world.
- Initially avoid the traditional thoughts about whether this would make money, require money, or fit into something easily described to others.
- Look at the options and decide which one best defines their interest and devise a plan for turning it into something.
- Then define how passionate you are about this opportunity by taking action and “owning it” or do nothing.
This approach takes people out of the “I have a dream, but don’t know whether it would work” mindset and facilitates a “what’s possible” interaction. For an example of this kind of thinking, read the article, “Don’t Miss That Aha Moment.”
When It Comes to Greed – Perception is Reality
Posted by: | CommentsWhat exactly is greed anyway?
Who gets to decide what amount of profit is greed?
Yesterday’s blog elicited some interesting commentary. The ones that captured my attention the most were the above questions. I decided to take a stab at continuing the dialogue on greed.
First, greed is subject to interpretation. Usually the person behaving in a greedy way never sees it that way or, has decided that they have earned some type of privilege that allows this behavior. Those that recognize or experience greed are usually the people effected by its behavior. For example, the banks that benefited from the various bailouts keep a tight reign on new loans, and declares record profits and bonuses appear greedy to the outside business world. Banks and those in high finance defend these behaviors as not totally accurate. To the rest, it sure looked like greedy behavior. Perception is reality.
Second, greed is an action that hurts or adversely affects other people. Profit taking or protecting behaviors that mollifies one party at the calamatous detriment to another party is greedy. Partners that stick it to their partners, employees who embezzle from the company, executives who have two sets of business and expenditure rules are all greedy behaviors. Either everyone benefits, plays by the same rules, or is minimally impacted or it is greedy. Perception is reality.
Finally, greed is narcissistic. As greed is subject to interpretation, greed can also be justified. Layoffs can be and often are a downside result of a declining business. However, massive layoffs to simply and swiftly manage to the balance sheet is greedy. There are always creative ways to manage, contain, and control costs; however, in the recent wave of layoffs the behaviors reflected one philosophy, react to a problem with a quick solution to protect the financial health of the firm without looking at the long-term impact to the business or the short-term affect on its people. These layoffs were simply the most expeditious action. The people benefiting from this behavior was the ownership class at the expense of the retained employees and at the pain of those who were tossed aside. Remember, perception is reality.
I don’t know if I have the answer as to what amount of profit taking is not greedy. However, I do know that when profit taking is short-sighted, selfish, inconsistent, causes pain to others, and is not holistic in its process, it is greed. When the participating community (workers, owners, suppliers, customers) do not benefit from their relationship with the organization and there is adverse cost associated with that relationship based on profit taking decisions, the related behavior is greedy. In the end, perception is reality.
NOTE: If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the white paper on this subject, “The Sustainable Business Model™”, please contact me: dave@salescooke.com. I will be happy to forward you the information.
Taking Greed Out of the Business Equation
Posted by: | Comments“As trainers and coaches we do bear some responsibility to help build a better future, one less dominated by greed. The world is driven by financial greed and economic dogma – one controls the earth’s resources and the others are its apologists.” ~ Dr. Henry Mintzberg
The necessary shifts in our business mindset are clear, yet complicated. How do we grow our business, make a significant profit for our shareholders while engaging, developing, and inspiring our team to do great things? There is a predisposed conflict inherent in businesses between the investment in it and the siphoning profits out of it; thus, ensuring and maximizing shareholder value while building a sustainable and thriving enterprise.
The power of Dr. Mintzberg’s words resonates: greed does not drive great business, it thwarts it. As an advisor and strategist to business executives, my obligation is to help them develop a sustainable business that maximizes value for all those engaged in the business. These participants include shareholders, employees, suppliers, and customers. The community of any business is greater and more powerful in its totality, than simply catering to the whims and desires of its shareholders. Businesses have an obligation to the community of all its participants to leverage their collective needs, desires, talents, skills, energy, and contribution to build a larger, more cohesive and stable business model.
As businesses begin to rebuild, recover, and grow in the rebirth of the economy, the key to the pace and effectiveness of that recovery depends on the businesses ability to invest in itself and build a collaborative, innovative community. In this formula, greed or the recovery of lost assets or equity will only interrupt the recovery process. Strategically focusing on the power of the community in the business creates a machine that sustains itself and feeds the needs of all its members appropriately.
If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the white paper on this subject, “The Sustainable Business Model™”, please contact me: dave@salescooke.com.
Note: The featured quote was taken from an article featuring Dr. Minztberg. If you have ever had the opportunity to read his books or articles featuring his thoughts, absorb them. Dr. Mintzberg has the corporate dilemma covered. He is rapidly becoming my inspiration and my guide for all things business.
The Blue-faced Salesperson
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You review your proposal with your customer, go over all the fine details of your wonderful offering, and the customer says, “Looks good. Let me look it over and I will get back to you.” When you hear those magical words, don’t hold your breath. Or, you will end up blue in the face. Do they really get back to you? How many times has your customer actually called you with a response to your proposal?
Avoid being that blue-faced salesperson and start managing your proposal process more effectively. Here are some simple tips to help you avoid this perpetual trap:
- Get out of the proposal business: Effectively qualify your customer in such a way that you both come to an understanding of what they need, why they need it, and how you can help them. Leave behind a simple summary of what your proposal would look like–issues, offering, timing, and loosely estimated costs. Leave that behind for them to ponder. (Pictured is the tool that I use for this.)
- Only write agreements: Everyone desires and requires a formal document as part of the business relationship. Once a client commits that you are the person they will be doing business with, sit down with them and write-up the agreement. Arrange a time to review and sign the formal document and you are on your way. If they cannot commit to making an agreement, they are not yet fully engaged in doing business with you.
- Always know what will happen next: At the end of every meeting, always schedule a follow-up visit. If the customer must take some time to review the proposal (even though I warned you not to submit one), do not leave their office until you have a confirmed follow-up meeting. You need to do this with all your sales calls. Formally established follow-up meetings are the most effective way to professionally manage the sales process.
The most effective way to protect your intellectual property and manage the sales process is to control how you share this information. Your product offering is only valuable if you make it valuable and you establish that your customer values it, too. Waiting for their follow-up to a proposal you gave away without any commitments or obligations is not how you control the process. The result of that process is you find yourself waiting for that follow-up meeting until you are blue in the face. Take control–manage your information and your process more effectively.
The Most Powerful 7%
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According to the experts on communication, words represent only 7% of our total communication. How we express those words, our intonation and inflection and other components make up the other 93%. How many times have we heard, “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.“ For the most part, that is quite true. However, if you really listen to the words people use, the story those words tell are extremely revealing. Words may be only 7% of the communication package; but, they often tell everything about the person you are talking with.
When I am talking with people I listen very carefully to their words. Words indicate emotion. Words reflect energy. Words can demonstrate frustration, doubt, fear, excitement, joy, and purpose. There are positive words and negative words. People believe they can mask or control their story by saying very little about certain things or create a sense of opportunity by saying a great deal about something else. However, in the end when you listen to the word selection, whether it is extensive or brief, the words always tell the real story.
Next time you are having a conversation with someone, take the time to listen to what their words are saying. Communication is made up of a lot of different components, but their words tell you everything. Those words are sending a very powerful message–pay attention to them.
Photo Credit: Darwin Bell
When Prospects Ignore You
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“”What’s your favorite tactic for dealing with silent prospects? Few things are more annoying than dealing with a prospect that simply goes silent. Cold is one thing. Silent is downright rude! What are your tips for enticing silent prospects to get back into communication mode?”
Interesting question. When a prospect goes silent, it is an indicator of one of two things. They have gotten pulled into another project or activity that is preventing them from engaging you; or, they have lost interest and simply have not figured out how to tell you “no.”
When a client goes silent, especially for an extended period of time, I usually give them the opportunity to re-engage. Often I send them a carefully crafted email that, in effect, says “when we last talked we agreed to…I have not been able to move forward without your feedback or input. Please advise how you would like me to proceed from this point.” Their response to my email tells me everything I need to know about this opportunity. Usually, I get an immediate response with some type of explanation, or they continue their “ignore” behavior. Either way I am getting the information I was looking for. An explanation tells me where they are and what their thoughts are at that time. And an ignore also gives me an answer, so I make plans to move on. Note, I still stay in contact with an ignore; but, I recognize that this is likely a “lost” opportunity and I focus my efforts on the active projects I can win, not chasing ones I probably cannot close. Keep your engage inquiry clear, simple, and bit empathetic and you will get an answer. You may not get the answer you like; but, you will get an answer to your question.
The Selling Professional — 2010 Version
Posted by: | CommentsMy most recent post, “Persuasive Selling is Dead” generated an unusually high number of positive comments. There is obviously an ongoing struggle here. Most people agree with the premise of the effective sales professional, yet too few are able to successfully apply these highly productive skills.
“Why do so many sales professionals continue to engage in unproductive, annoying tactics and behaviors?”
The answer lies squarely on the business owner for not really understanding what constitutes effective selling behaviors, not hiring the best sales types, and for not providing a foundational learning environment for the effective development of the salespeople on their team. There have also been significant shifts in the market that creates a greater productivity gap between what was tolerated in sales and what is expected from sales professionals today. The opportunity for change and improvement in the development of the selling professional of 2010 lies in the following critical activities:
- Analyze the performance of all of your salespeople. Define what you expect of your sales professional. If they have the skills, the results, and the commitment to be the professional you expect keep and develop them–eliminate those who are not.
- Developing the sales professional to the skills of good selling behaviors. Don’t confuse sales development activities with product training, they are not the same. And sales development is fundamentally the more difficult of the two.
- Sales development is not “hit and miss”. Effective sales development requires a specific program of principles, skills and behaviors centered on daily activity and a focused, consistent effort. Effective sales development is not simply a class or a course, it is an ongoing and sustained program.
- Sales development takes time and commitment and experience. Effective sales development requires the experience and guidance of a mentor or expert who is able and committed to provide continuous tutelage. Doctors and lawyers spend years training and practicing for their careers. To become a sales professional also takes years of consistent education and effort.
- Successful sales development requires an ongoing financial and resource investment. If you don’t make the investment in developing your salespeople, who will? People don’t learn sales in school, it is an education you must provide. If you will make the investment in your salespeople, you will absolutely receive the reward.
(Note: The foundation for these suggestions were contributed by Timothy B. Huffaker, President, The Business Performance Group in his previously recognized article “Are Your Sales People Professionals?“)
Persuasive Selling is Dead
Posted by: | Comments“...the future of salesmanship and innovation alike will increasingly depend on giving people easier ways of selling themselves on whatever it is you’re selling. It’s not enough to be persuasive; you’ve got to make it easier for people to persuade themselves.” ~ Michael Schrage
This quote was taken from today’s edition of BNET Insight. The author, Sean Silverthorne, captured the essence of today’s successful selling model. The key behaviors in your model is to find ways that enable the customer to identify for themselves what they need. Sometimes they don’t know how to articulate it, sometimes they don’t know how to describe it, and sometimes they don’t even know they want or need it. It is your job to facilitate that process, first.
“To effectively sell in this new environment you must know how your customers want to be communicated with and how to utilize effective conversational skills to help them discover and articulate what they want and need.” ~ SalesCooke
I would call this resource selling. Pursuasive selling is dead. Understanding how to be a valued and trusted resource is the sales model people are embracing. Next time you want to go in and pitch your product be mindful of how your customer wants to be communicated with: they are not interested in what you are selling and they want to discover or articulate what they need. Let them talk, share and communicate. It will be much more productive for both you and your customer.
Overcoming Stubbornness
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One of the prevalent themes in recent blog posts has been “overcoming objections.” Traditional sales training focuses all too much time and energy on overcoming objections. What they need to be focusing on is overcoming stubbornness. If you find yourself constantly overcoming objections it is likely you have either pitched something your customer does not want or need, or you failed to connect your value to their drivers, or you did not hear “no”, or you are simply not communicating effectively. Regardless, those situations are avoidable provided you weren’t so interested in selling something, first. In this economy, all the sales training in the world is not going to help you convince a customer to buy something they do not want, need, or value. And the operate phrase here is what they want, need or value.
What you want is not important. What the customer needs is. In order to be effective at getting at what they want or need requires understanding your customer’s issues and perspectives. I came across a great blog by sales productivity insider Nancy Bleeke that puts the customer vs. salesperson perspective into a great light. Simply by focusing on what we think we see and hear only from our viewpoint, we are only looking at half the equation. The customer also has a perspective. How well do you know or care about their perspective or what they see and think? How empathetic or sensitive are you to their issues, needs, and challenges? If you are having trouble closing deals and are constantly having to overcoming objections, chances are quite high you have not really invested in learning, understanding, and internalizing what the customer’s perspective is. Quit trying to make deals. Focus on solving problems–your customer’s problems, not your sales problems.
Photo credit RadRobot
