Sales and Sales Management Blog

January 25, 2011

Is It Really a 2.0 World for Sellers?

Filed under: branding,business,Client Relationships,developing expert reputation,marketing,prospecting,sales,Sales 2.0,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 9:33 am
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The hype is everywhere: if you’re a salesperson or company without a blog, you’re totally out of today’s marketplace and are losing position to the competition hourly because unlike them, you’re not establishing your image as an expert; if you’re not active on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and/or Youtube, you may as well concede that you won’t be in sales 6 months from now; if your focus is anywhere besides online, you completely misunderstand 21st century buyers.

The message from so many is simple: we live in a 2.0 (going on 3.0) world, and anyone who doesn’t recognize that and realign their business to focus on the enormous and exponentially growing online business opportunities is a dinosaur and cannot possibly be successful in the future—and the future is defined as tomorrow, the next day at the latest.

Certainly this is a message that many businesses and salespeople want to hear.  No more having to cold call.  No more having to figure out where to advertise—yellow pages? Magazines? Newspapers?  Nope.  No more having to network through physical groups and events.  Focus on social media and the virtual world and grow your business without having to invest a dime or spend hour after hour prospecting and hearing ‘no’ after ‘no.’  Finally, a free–and rejection free–way to sell and make more than you ever dreamed possible.

What a crock.

It’s also a message that a great many people have a very vested interest in spreading.  Take a look at the incredible number of social media, internet marketing, and online business “gurus” and “coaches” trying to connect with folks on Twitter.  It appears that everyone who’s ever signed up on Twitter and successfully created a tweet considers themselves to be social media experts, ready and willing to charge the next sucker a buck to teach them how to create a tweet also—and promise them instant millions without having to work. 

Then there are the “futurists,” predicting how technology is going to change the world of selling, virtually destroying the sales profession while creating untold opportunities for companies to increase sales and profits.  These are the same futurists who upon the invention of the telephone predicted that salespeople would never again meet face to face with prospects; and who upon the arrival of the fax machine predicted that mail was no longer necessary; who upon being introduced to email declared that surely this time business mail really was dead.  Now, with the gazillions of social media options, they’re proclaiming that this time technology really is going to completely revolutionize the world of selling.

And, of course, there are thousands and thousands of companies joining the chorus of social media and internet hype who must sell their products and services to the businesses and salespeople who want to be in the vanguard of the new sales world order. 

Before I go any further let me say that despite the above, this isn’t a polemic against the internet or social media.  My Sales and Sales Management blog is entering its fifth year of publication; I am active on Twitter and Facebook; I participate on LinkedIn and Focus and many other social media sites.  I believe there is much of value and much to be gained from these technologies and you should be involved with them just as I am—but I don’t believe that they’re decreasing the need for massive traditional offline marketing and sales activities.  If anything, the hype surrounding social media has lured many competitors away from traditional prospecting and marketing, giving those who recognize the current limitations of social media a distinct advantage over those who have bought into social media as the ANSWER.

I’m also not by any means trying to say that all trainers, coaches or advocates of social media are hyperbolic in their views of the role of social media.  There are many great trainers and coaches who understand social media’s place in the marketplace and do a superb job in guiding and directing sellers and business owners in how to use and gain value from them. 

The Reality of the Internet and Social Media

That being said, there’s still far too much unfounded, wishful thinking about the power of social media.  A recent post by Brian Carroll demonstrates the lack of business generated by social media—Brian was quoting Sergio Balegno, Director of Research for MECLABS, the parent company of InTouch of which Brian is President.

MECLABS surveyed 2,300 marketers and discovered that by the end of 2010 only 6% were generating enough business leads to track ROI.  Only 25% of marketers even have clear objectives and practices for engaging social media.

Those surveyed were marketers of good size companies, not small businesses and individual sellers.  Sergio’s conclusions are very different from mine.  His conclusion is that 6% of companies realizing enough sales to track ROI with such a new medium is impressive.  That conclusion is all well and good–for a company that can afford to assign someone to managing an aggressive social media campaign.

My conclusion is that only 6% of sizable companies producing measurable ROI with a marketing department behind their activities indicate that a small business or individual seller is so far behind the 8 ball with social media that investing significant amounts of time trying to create business through it is a monumental mistake.

Further, if only 25% of the marketing departments of companies using social media have developed clear objectives and practices of how to use it, how many small businesses and individual sellers who don’t have the time or research resources of a fully fledged marketing department have developed such?  How many can spend the time and effort needed to develop such a plan and still maintain their sales volume, much less increase it?

In addition, Dave Stein of ES Research Group, Inc, the only independent source of intelligence and advice on sales training approaches, programs and the companies that provide them, forwarded to me the following graph that indicates that there is still a huge segment of society that relies little or not at all on the internet for information and decision making help.

 

Although this chart tracks only three items; how many in each age group go online for any reason; how many in each age group access a government website; and how many in each group access financial information, it does give us some idea of how many use the internet for non-government oriented research and information.

According to the above study 79% of the population above 12 years of age goes online, yet only 38% of the population above 18 uses it for financial research and information, which is one of the top research topics on the internet.  This correlates well with a study by Ruder Finn Internet Index which found that 80% of all internet users go online to socialize but less than half that number uses the internet for shopping and/or research.

If we assume there are about 235 million Americans 18 or older and 79% go online but only 50% of them use the internet for shopping and research, there’s only 93 million adults online shopping and using it for research (39.5% of the total adult population).  That means there are still 142 million Americans (60% of the adult population) not buying online or using the internet for research, i.e., 142 million Americans that you won’t be reaching online no matter what you do.

The question is simple: do you want the opportunity to reach 40% of your market (online), 60% of your market (offline), or 100% of your market (both segments)?  If you concentrate on those who are online, you’ll be eliminating 60% of your potential market (these numbers do not include businesses which would add many more millions to each category).

Now, take 60% of your potential market away and then realize that only 6% of companies with a marketing department that has the resources to aggressively work social media have generated enough business from it to be able to track results.  What are the realistic chances that social media is going to become a significant income stream producer for you or your small business?

I know, I hear the answers now—“I’m not online to sell, I’m looking to develop relationships; sales are secondary and hopefully will come someday.”  Really?  You’re spending two, three, four, five hours a day online to develop relationships with people or companies not to sell–but to maybe sell someday?  What would a sales manager say if when she asked you how you spent your week you said something like, “Well, I spent about 10 hours this week on the phone calling and meeting with prospects and clients, and I spent 20 hours online trying to develop relationships.” 

“I see,” your manager says, “what are your sales projections from spending so much time online?” 

“Oh, you misunderstand,” you answer, “I’m really not trying to sell, I’m developing relationships with lots of folks that maybe in the future might someday be prospects.  See, social media isn’t for selling, it’s for relationship development and to do it right I’ve got to spend a good deal of time interacting with them.”

“I’m sorry,” your manger responds, “I was under the impression your job was to sell.  How did I get such a wrong impression?”

“I know,” you respond, “it’s hard for you to grasp the new sales paradigm.  Things have changed, we now sell by not selling, we engage with people who might want to buy at some point in the future.  With social media I can engage hundreds of these companies.  One day, if I continue to spend half my time engaging this way I’ll be a big producer, I’m sure.  You’ll see.”

“Uh, huh,” your manager stammers.  “How much business have you gotten so far?”

“None, but don’t worry, it’s the wave of the future, everybody says so.”

“So is unemployment,” your manager responds, “it’s the wave of today.”

Sounds silly?  Yes.  Real?  Yep, there are lots of sellers spending huge amounts of time engaging in social media when they should be selling.  But, hey, social media’s easier and safer—and everybody’s doing it.

The Real Role of the Internet and Social Media in Sales and Marketing

What does this mean for sellers and small business owners?  It doesn’t mean ignore social media.  Not by any means.  Social media can play a real role in your marketing—and it will become more important over time; just take a look at the percentage of each age group that is plugged into the internet.  As you would expect, it gets bigger and bigger as the ages get younger, and, of course, those youngsters will become oldsters one day.  Likewise look at their activities.  Those in the 18 to 34 age group aren’t that far behind the older age groups in using the internet for financial research.  As they age, more and more members of this age group will engage the internet for reasons other than socializing.  By the time they reach the 65-73 age group, their financial research numbers could well be almost twice what that current age group’s numbers are.

But that’s a good ways away.

Unless you sell only to internet users—say you’re selling SEO services, website design, and such—your market is more offline than online (even if you only sell to net users you still have to spend a good deal of time selling offline—EBay and Esurance are good examples).

For most of us the internet is a viable marketing tool if used correctly.  (For an interesting current discussion of using blogs to establish credibility and expert status, see Dave Brock’s post and the comments here.)  Unfortunately, it can also be the ruination of us if we allow it to eat up too much of our time hoping for easy, faceless, no rejection sales.  There’s really no magic bullet to get around the fact that selling success has, as Tibor Shanto of Renbor points out, “always come down to planning, discipline and execution.”  Tibor goes on: in B2B sales “most buyers are not plugged in to the [internet] echo chamber to the degree 2.0 gurus would lead you to believe.  Speak to most office supply sales people, speak to buyers in the transport trade, or a vast majority of buyer and sellers, and they are not in the 2.0 lane, some are not in any lane at all.  Even many of the buyers who are ‘tuned in’ find themselves with information overload and contradictory input, as a result studies show that they still turn to direct interaction with trusted sales professionals.”

I think that in today’s world investing a few minutes a day in social media makes perfect sense and is a commitment almost every seller should make; making social media a major time and effort commitment doesn’t. 

Where you invest your time—and how much you spend–is the real question.  Most salespeople need to engage social media as a prospecting and marketing tool. More than that, they need to engage social media as a tool to develop and strengthen relationships with their prospects and clients who are tuned into technology.  Linda Richardson of Richardson, one of the leading sales training companies, put it well:

“Selling is about relationships and competency.  Sales 2.0 does not take the place of relationships, but it does give salespeople and customers a new platform for building relationships and increasing competency.  Sales 2.0 is more than technology. The tools enable collaboration, better preparation, and create a more effective and efficient way to sell. 2.0 is about reaching and connecting with the right people, getting a lot smarter and engaging in more meaningful conversations.   Of course not every company or buyer is leveraging 2.0 but by waiting on the sidelines sales organizations and salespeople are placing themselves at a serious disadvantage and risk.  Sales 2.0 is transforming sales and opening up possibilities never before seen.    It is a fast moving 2.0 Sales World and with the ever increasing number of tools there is a real need to help salespeople learn how to use them to reach their buyers.”

Where are buyers today?  Certainly there’s a large contingent that engage the internet, yet most are there not to buy or to do research or inquire about products, services, needs, or wants, but to connect with their circle of friends—to socialize with their group.

That recognition means we have to consider just how much are we willing to invest in the 2.0 world when we are not going to be able to engage with the majority of our prospects.  Can we connect with prospects?  Can we even make an occasional sale?  Yes.  Is it going to produce the business that could be otherwise produced in strategic offline prospecting and engaging of prospects?  Testimony and research to date seems to indicate the answer is a resounding no, not now.  Are the hoped for relationships that will result in future sales worth spending large numbers of hours on social media sites?  Not if your paycheck relies on sales.  Unfortunately you can’t cash a relationship, no matter the future potential. 

The internet and social media will continue to grow in importance.  You need to have a presence and grow that as the influence of the technology grows.  But if you want to be in business long enough to see significant business come from it, you have to be fully engaged in the business of selling—offline.  That hasn’t changed and it won’t change for many, many years to come.

The Major Role of the internet and Social Media for Most Sellers Today

That doesn’t, however, finish the discussion of the role of the internet and social media for us sellers.  Although the chart Dave sent me points out the limitations of social media and the internet for marketing, Dave emphasized the very real benefit of them for virtually every salesperson to significantly change and improve their prospecting research, for learning and sharpening sales and product knowledge, and for the fast and inexpensive (often free) opportunities for great training and skill development through blogs, article sites, webinars, forums and groups, and the other platforms available on the net.

Webinars offer unbelievable training and learning opportunities and should be a core resource for every company and seller.  You can get guidance and training from some of the best trainers and thinkers in business and sales without having to leave your office; whereas in the past you couldn’t get their training unless you were lucky enough to have your company bring them in or you lived in or were willing to travel to a place where they were presenting a public seminar—if they gave public seminars.  The internet has opened those opportunities to every seller in the world that has a computer and internet connection–and often at no cost.  (Webinars are also one of the best resources for sales and customer service as the uses for selling, customer and internal training, and servicing customer needs is endless.)

LinkedIn groups and sites such as Focus offer sellers the opportunity to ask questions and get answers from some of the top sales minds in the world, as well as from other sellers.  These forums and groups make it possible to get world class answers to virtually any question a seller could possibly have—free of charge.

For most of us the internet has opened tremendous new doors for researching our markets, for identifying quality prospects, for doing competitor research, for obtaining training and developing new skills.  As Linda indicated above, it can help us create a more effective and better way to sell—both online and offline.

The 2.0 world does have a tremendous impact on how we sell.  Its influence will continue to grow.  Right now it can open doors to opportunities in training and research that can change the very basic nature of how we do things.  The only thing it can’t do is help us reach that more than 60% of our market that doesn’t use the internet or social media outside of socializing with their group.  For that—for the lion’s share of our market—we have to hit the street in the same manner we’ve always done.  And that means it really isn’t quite a 2.0 sales world–yet.

November 16, 2010

Do You Measure Up to a Dog?

Filed under: Client Relationships — Paul McCord @ 12:24 pm
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I’ve become a hater.

The other morning I told my wife that I hate her.

This new found hate came on quickly—literally overnight.

Last Thursday evening Debbie insisted I watch a movie with her.  “It’s supposed to be really, really good,” she said.  “It’s about a dog and his owner.”

I’ve really mellowed in my old age and have become quite sentimental, and since I love dogs, I figured a couple of warm and fuzzy hours would be time well spent.

It was horrible. 

I ended up not sleeping that night thinking about that dog, Hachi.  I’ve thought about him ever since.  Haunted by sadness and humbled by a depth of love, loyalty and commitment I honestly cannot image.

We in sales talk a lot about being loyal to our customers, about putting our customer first, about being committed to excellence, about sacrificing our wants and needs to our client’s.

The story of a dog demonstrates how little we really know about loyalty, commitment, and sacrifice.

Let me briefly relate the story (if you get a chance and don’t mind being overwhelmed with sadness, you can find the movie, Hachi, on the Hallmark channel.  I’m sure it will be on again sometime this month).

The producers have changed the location and time of the events although it is based on a true story.  The events actually took place in Japan in the 1920’s.  The move moves the location to the US and the timing to present day (I assume they felt it would sell better this way).

A college professor acquires the dog as a puppy and raises him.  They become extremely close.  The professor has to take a subway train to campus everyday and walks from his home to the train station.  The dog walks with him to the station and then returns home.  In the afternoon, the dog goes back to the station and sits on a concrete wall each afternoon waiting for his master to return.  They then walk home together.

This routine goes on for a few years until one day the dog’s master doesn’t return.  He never returns as he dies of a heart attack while at work.

That night the dog waits until long into the night for his master to return.  The next day Hachi returns and takes his usual place and waits.  He returns to his spot and waits from early morning until late at night every single day for over 10 years.  For over 3,650 days he never misses a single day.

Ever hopeful that today will be the day, he sits through scorching heat, freezing snow and sleet, drenching rain.  Nothing can keep him from being there when his master returns.  He knows his master would not abandon him.  He knows his master will return and he’ll be there, waiting faithfully when he disembarks the train.

Today there is a statue on the spot where he sat faithfully waiting for over 10 years, erected in his honor by the men and women who witnessed his incredible devotion and loyalty during his vigil (that statue was melted during World War II, but  a second statue was created after the war and is still standing today), and each year, to this day, a ceremony is performed at the location to honor the dog. 

Although both a terribly sad and inspiring story, ultimately the question is what can we learn from this magnificent dog?

Loyalty has a price.  We talk a lot about being loyal to our customers, to our company, to our profession; yet when things get a little dicey, when loyalty is no longer easy, we bail.  Our loyalty tends to be fair-weather.  We may be willing to sit through one snow storm; we might even be willing to go through a hot summer also, but 10 years of sweltering heat and bone chilling cold?  Nope, it costs too much.

There’s dignity in sacrifice.  Hachi earned the love and respect of those who knew him not because of his success, but because of his willingness to sacrifice for what he believed in.  He literally sacrificed his life to be faithful to his master.

Sometimes we win even when we lose.  Hachi’s hope was never fulfilled.  His tremendous loyalty and faith were never rewarded.  His master never came back.  Hachi died as he lived, faithfully waiting for his master’s return.    Even so he won the respect and honor of millions.  That, of course, was no consolation for him.  He never knew the impact he had on the humans around him.  He wouldn’t have cared anyway.  What was important to him was his commitment to his master.  He wasn’t seeking honors or rewards, just the love of his master.  Yet by putting his master first, he earned honors beyond what most of us will ever earn—there are

How do you measure up to a dog?  When you speak of being loyal, of being committed, to sacrificing for your client, are you really?

Maybe we don’t have to go to the lengths that Hachi did, but so often what we claim to be loyalty, commitment, and sacrifice are nothing more than words we use to sell our services and make us feel good. 

Yep, I told Debbie I hate her for making me watch a movie about a dog that makes it perfectly clear, I don’t measure up.

I think most of us have a lot to learn from a dog.

October 1, 2010

For the Serial Prospecticider, Social Media is Now the Killing Field

Filed under: business,Client Relationships,Communication,small business — Paul McCord @ 1:07 pm

A little over three years ago I wrote about one of the primary business killing crimes sellers commit–prospecticide, which is the killing of prospects through meaningless and self-centered communications that teach the prospect to ignore the seller because all the seller does is waste the prospect’s time. 

Since that original article identifying prospecticide as a real and widespread crime, little has been done to eradicate it or to reform the criminals committing it.  Salespeople and business owners are still flooding their prospects with communications designed to benefit the seller, not the prospect.  Prospects are still learning not to open the useless emails, to ignore the tweets, and trash the snail mail letters without opening them.

But increasingly the postal service is no longer the primary instrument of destruction as social media such as blogs, Twitter, and Facebook kill much quicker and with far less effort—and without incurring a cost to boot.

In the past the primary communications were letters that featured a “special” or a discussion of some new product or service that was of absolutely no interest to the prospect or client.  Other hot topics were some award the company had just won or a self-serving discussion of the money the company just gave to a deserving charity or some green initiative.  Whatever the primary content of the communication, it had one of two messages—either, we want your money, or see how great we are, aren’t you honored to do business with us?

Those messages had nothing to do with the prospect’s needs or wants.  They often didn’t even acknowledge the prospect or client was a unique human being–other than maybe the auto filled name in the greeting.  It was 100% seller centered and thus, had little to no interest for the prospect or client receiving it.

Certainly, those communications still exist.  The postal service still delivers pieces of poisoned mail to millions of dead and dying prospects and clients every day.

However, social media has become the primary killing field.  We can kill so much faster and with far deadlier content.

No longer do we have to bore prospects with a write up about how great we are because we just donated to a charity.  Not at all.  Now we can really show them how self-centered we are by tweeting that we’re sitting in the Starbucks at the corner of 2nd and A Street.  It was bad enough when we went out of our way to make sure our prospects knew we’re great citizens and deserved their business because we donated to charity.  Now we can really show our ego by believing that we’re so important that they actually care when we take a coffee break.

But our coffee break isn’t the only thing we can use to kill our prospects and clients.  I’ve seen sellers post Facebook posts about trying to overcome the hangover from last night’s drunk; a conversation they just had with a jerk customer where they told the customer just where to get off; and even one where the seller was bragging about how he sabotaged a competitor’s demonstration to a prospect.

Yes, these are all errors that few of us would commit.  But the tenor of the posts is pretty common—very personal posts that reveal a lack of discretion.  The posts are too personal or reveal a lack of integrity or responsibility.  This isn’t to say one can’t be personal.  I know sellers who tweet and post on Facebook their political and religious beliefs or about their family.  I see nothing wrong with that as long as it isn’t a personal attack and the postings are occasional. 

Blogs in many cases have taken the place of the snail mail letter—where the discount specials, the articles about the latest award or charitable donation are touted, or where the newest product or service is presented.  There is nothing wrong or inappropriate with the occasional blog or letter that discusses new products or services; informs about the most recent award or donation; or toots you or your company’s horn, as long as these are the exception rather than the rule.  If all your blog does is brag or present your products and services, I have no reason to read it—unless I happen to have an immediate need for a particular product or service you’re promoting.

So what content doesn’t commit prospecticide?  That which brings value to your prospect—articles written by you or others that discuss issues of concern to your prospect, whatever those issues might be; interviews with leaders in the prospect’s field; reviews of books that would be of interest to your prospect.  Whatever brings value—real value—to your prospect.  Whatever informs, educates, presents potential solutions or expands an interest of your prospect or client. 

Quality prospect communication has always been prospect focused.  With the increased frequency of contact that social media provides, it is more important than ever that your content be geared toward meeting the wants and needs of your prospects because if they don’t, if they’re just self-centered promotional items, you’ll kill your prospects faster than ever before.

July 19, 2010

Guest Article: “Stop Being Stupid! The Customer Isn’t Always Right,” by David A Brock

Filed under: Client Relationships,small business — Paul McCord @ 3:44 pm

Stop Being Stupid! The Customer Isn’t Always Right
by David Brock

This morning, I was intrigued by a question on LinkedIn.  A person felt offended, a salesperson had criticized this individual’s company.  The individual was very upset, complaining to the sales person’s management, and posing the question on LinkedIn asking whether anyone else had experienced sales people being impolite and criticizing the customer to the customer and how to handle it.

I don’t know about this specific situation and whether the sales person was offensive or presenting a different point of view to the customer.  It did remind me of an experience a number of years ago.  I was with IBM, an executive for a business unit.  I’d been asked by a sales team to participate in a customer executive briefing.  This had been a particularly difficult situation, the team felt we were about to lose and, apparently, felt “let’s turn Dave loose on them, it couldn’t get worse.

I was doing a presentation about the IBM solution and the results it would present to the customer.  There were about 15 customers in the room, but one individual was being particularly annoying, asking all sorts of strange questions.  At one point, I snapped and said, “Stop being Stupid!”  The room went silent.  The faces of the IBMers lined up in the back of the room turned whiter than their shirts.  I suddenly realized what I had said and wondered, how would I get out of this?  Fortunately, the “offending” customer had the strength of character to ask, “Why do you think I am being stupid?”  He bailed me out and asked the most important question he could have asked, more importantly listened.

The conversation changed.  We had been very concerned about some of the things the customer was trying to do with the system they were buying.  We saw problems in what they were doing, but also some opportunities, if they changed a few things, to achieve far better results.  The team had never been able to catch the customers’ attentions and discuss the possibility of solving not only what they thought their problem was, but to capture other opportunities that would produce results they never anticipated.  Through the courage and good grace of the customer, we were able to shift the conversation and focus the discussion on improving their business, not just satisfying their requirements.

My reaction was rather immature, particularly for a senior executive, and would have failed if it had not been for this one customer having the character and courage to consider a different point of view (he later became a nice friend).  I wouldn’t recommend others do this, but I do think there is an important point to be made, the customer isn’t always right!   Often they are prisoner’s of their own experience and can’t see things differently.  Often, they don’t know what they don’t know and need to be informed and educated.  Often they are so focused on ”a tree,” completely missing the other trees or the fact they are in a forest.

As sales people, we have a tremendous opportunity.  Because we work with many customers solving similar problems, we have the opportunity to look at our customer’s businesses differently.  We have the opportunity to help the customer do things differently or to achieve goals they had never conceived, or thought was too difficult.  The sales person who understands the customer, their customers, their competition, and their markets, can provide insight the customer may not see for themselves—transforming the relationship and creating value the customer never anticipated.

Too many sales people don’t take this opportunity to help their customers.  They play it safe, responding only to the customer requirements, not suggesting ways they can improve things.  Alternatively, they know their product and can respond to customer questions about the product, but are clueless about the customer’s business and have no insight about the possibilities or opportunities to improve their businesses.

I talk to sales people daily.  They want to understand how to differentiate themselves, how to create great opportunities within their customers, how to grow their relationship and business with a customer.  Often, these sales people say, “If only the customer would look at things a little differently, we could do so much more for them.”

Sale professionals have a real opportunity to help their customers.  If we believe the customer is always right, and we don’t, politely, challenge them to think about new possibilities, we lose a tremendous opportunity to make a difference for the customer.  If we see changes that could be made and don’t find a way to present them to the customer, we are doing them a disservice.

In my experience with this customer, the conversation that morning changed.  We were able to focus them on solving the problem in a way that produced profound changes.  At lunch, sheepishly, I approached the customer I had called stupid to apologize.  He laughed and was gracious in accepting my apology.  He said something that has remained with me since then, “The only reason I let you get away with it, is that somehow I got that you really cared.  I sensed that we may have been blind and weren’t listening.  I knew your reaction was unnatural, so I decided that we might change the way we looked at things.” 

Caring about your customer’s business and their success is critical.  Sometimes you need to challenge them and help them see it.  Don’t be foolish like I was, but remember the customer may not be right and have the courage to, politely, present an alternative.  Playing it safe isn’t necessarily right.

Dave Brock is President of Partners In EXCELLENCE, a consulting and services company that clients sharpen their strategies and execution in the areas of business strategy, sales strategy and performance, sales channels, marketing, strategic partnering/alliances, product strategy and introduction, globalization, leadership and change management.  Dave’s experience includes more than 20 years in sales, marketing and general management positions with IBM, Tektronix, and Keithley Instruments. As a line executive, he has had responsibility for developing high performance organizations. These organizations attained leadership positions in their industries.  Visit Dave’s website.

April 19, 2010

Guest Article: “The Power of Partnering,” by Kelley Robertson

Filed under: Client Relationships,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 8:27 am
Tags: , ,

The Power of Partnering
by Kelley Robertson

“Get the sale at any cost.”
“Make more calls.”
“Tell them what they want to hear.”

Sales professionals in virtually every industry are under tremendous pressure to close sales. It is not uncommon for them to hear comments similar to ones above from their sales manager, supervisor, or boss. But this approach does not create trust with customers and does not encourage repeat business or a lasting relationship.

A more effective approach is to develop a partnering relationship with your clients. This means working with them to help them achieve their goals and objectives. Simple in theory, this strategy requires a completely different approach. Here’s what I mean.

In the majority of sales meetings, the sales person looks for ways to position his or her product/service so that the prospect will buy it. However, a partnering approach means putting your goals and objective aside. It means focusing 100% of your attention on your customer. It requires a self-less mindset because there are situations when the best solution is not yours. In fact, it may mean telling your customer to contact a competitor. I experienced this just a few days before writing this article. A subscriber to my ezine contacted me about delivering a particular service. Although I may have been able to help her, I knew someone who could better meet her requirements. It was mentally difficult, but I made the decision to refer her to my competition.

Partnering also means that you provide exceptional follow-up to ensure that your customer is completely satisfied with their purchase. This does not mean you make just the obligatory follow-up call. It means you explore their actual use of your product and/or service and help them maximize its full potential.

A client of mine was experiencing less than favorable results after implementing a new program into their business. We scheduled a follow-up meeting with the management team, because as the vendor, I knew that the answers lay in the execution of the program. During the meeting we explored several ways to improve their results and one of the solutions required me to provide additional follow-up. Although I could have charged this client for my time, I knew that it made good business sense to absorb the cost of this follow-up because my primary objective was to help my client achieve the best results possible. Subsequent meetings indicated that this investment was worth it as my client began discussing how we could take this initiative to the next level.

The challenge with this concept is that most sales people want some form of instant gratification. But this approach does not offer a direct or immediate payoff for the sales person. However, from a business perspective, it makes good sense.

It is also important to note that you don’t necessarily have to give away this additional service. A few sales trainers I know (including myself) incorporate telephone coaching into their proposals. They charge for this service but they position it as a way for the company to improve their results. They demonstrate how this additional investment will drive more dollars to their clients’ bottom line. Ultimately, your goal should be helping your customers and clients improve their business results. Here are a few points to consider.

1. Focus on their goals and objective instead of your personal agenda (closing the sale). If necessary, recommend another supplier or vendor who offers the exact product/service your client needs.

2. Follow-up. Contact your customer and talk to them after they have made their purchase. Ask them if they are getting the desired results. If they aren’t, look for ways to help them maximize their results. Offer additional support. Give them extra resources. Help them get the best results possible.

3. Incorporate a systemized process into your sales pitch or proposals. People will pay for extras providing they see that value that is brought to their organization.

4. Send information to your customers on a regular basis without being asked. I like to send articles that are relevant to my clients on a regular basis. This demonstrates that I am looking out for their interests, rather than my own. I prefer to send articles written by other people, not just the ones I write.

Zig Ziglar once stated, “You can get anything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.” When you help your customers achieve their goals and objectives you become more than a supplier or vendor. You become a preferred partner. And this will prevent your competition from overtaking you in the marketplace.

Create a checklist of the additional services you can offer to your clients to help them achieve their goals. Helping your customers reach their objectives will help you increase your profits.

One word of caution…this is a process, not a quick fix. This strategy does take time to generate a return.

However, it is well worth the investment.

Kelley Robertson, President of the Robertson Training Group, is a professional speaker and trainer on sales, negotiating, and employee motivation. He is also the author of “Stop, Ask & Listen – Proven Sales Techniques to Turn Browsers into Buyers.” For information on his programs, visit his website

April 1, 2010

Guest Article: “How to Deliver a Difficult Message,” by Marcus A Smith

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication — Paul McCord @ 8:34 am
Tags: , ,

How to Deliver a Difficult Message
by Marcus A Smith

Delivering difficult messages is a part of life.  For simplicity’s sake difficult will be defined as anything that will create animosity within your audience.  Gut wrenching situations such as engineering a layoff, breaking up a relationship, or denying service to a customer come to mind.  These situations are uncomfortable for all parties involved.

When forced to prepare a difficult message focus on the following things:

  1. Remove Personal Feelings – This is a counter intuitive yet imperative step.  Bad news is best delivered in the absence of emotion.  Emotions always make a situation murky.  If you can not remove your emotions then pass the task to someone who can.
  2. Prepare for Backlash -  There is one certain thing about delivering bad news.  Everyone’s response is DIFFERENT.  That can not be emphasized enough.  Do not make the mistake of assuming that your listener will go on his/her merry way without causing a commotion, asking pointed questions, or otherwise making the situation uncomfortable for you.
  3. Be Very Specific – If you intend to chastise someone or deliver bad news then your ducks need to be in order.  Think about it for a second.  Have you ever received general negative feedback from a boss or relative with no specifics?  If you have then you know how frustrating of a circus this is.  You end up jockeying for position and leaving the situation annoyed and confused.
  4. Stand Firm – Last but not least.  You must stand firm in your message.  Most people’s response to negative feedback (yours truly included) is to defend themselves.  It is truly amazing what a person can remember and conceive when defense mode kicks in.  Be prepared for this and stand firm on the facts.

Hopefully, your use of this article will be scarce.  We all prefer to deliver well received, positive, happy messages.  The ebb and flow of life will often dictate otherwise.  When this occurs heed the advice in this article and come out of the situation relatively unscathed.

Marcus A Smith is a professional speaker and speaking coach.  Visit his website

February 10, 2010

Guest Article: “Ten Myths About Selling Intangible Services,” by Charles H. Green

Filed under: career development,Client Relationships,sales — Paul McCord @ 10:16 am
Tags: , ,

Ten Myths About Selling Intangible Services    
by Charles H. Green    

The biggest difference between selling “things” and intangible services is the pivotal role of trust. Trust is even more critical to selling intangible services[1] than it is to selling things. Sellers of intangible services intuitively know this, but think that “selling” is destructive of trust. Many intangible services providers feel that selling is even unprofessional and unethical. Their professional lives are therefore fraught with contradiction. Not to mention they sell poorly!

All this angst and low performance comes about because intangible service providers believe a few myths. These myths comp partly from the world of selling “things,” and partly from projecting ideas about technical expertise onto clients. The myths seriously get in the way of developing business. Even more importantly, they keep providers from fully serving their clients—despite their best intentions.

Myth 1. It’s About Winning

Thinking in terms of “winning” leads insidiously to thinking in terms of winners and losers. Few providers consciously want to “beat” their clients—but they end up behaving that way! They talk about “share of wallet,” about bargaining or negotiating with their clients, about “controlling the agenda,” and about “managing expectations.” Each of these frames of reference sound innocent enough, but they rapidly degrade into a competitive perspective.

The world of selling things is full of zero-sum metaphors. Flight magazine ads say you’ll lose the sale to someone who can negotiate better. In technology businesses you’ll hear that only the paranoid survive. GE’s strategy was to be number 1 or number 2 in every business. The message in all these zero-sum pieces of wisdom is you’ve got to beat out someone else in order to win, and winning is everything. That works for selling things. But when it comes to selling intangible services, those insights pale before one other:

Do the Right Thing for the Client

Choose your mantra and repeat frequently:

•    “The only win worth winning is win-win”

•    “The only way I win is if my client wins”

•    “Winning a win-lose proposition is losing”

•    “I will always and only do well by doing good”

•    “If I focus on helping my client, it will always eventually pay off for us both.”

Myth 2. Selling is Unprofessional.

Take this three-part self-test. First–if you saw, with crystal clarity, an opportunity outside your own area of expertise for a client to significantly improve her business—would you consider it a professional obligation to point it out to her?

Second: suppose that the opportunity you see so clearly isn’t immediately obvious to your client. Do you have a professional obligation to spend a little time working out the best way to communicate your insight, so your client can also see the opportunity?

Finally: suppose that the crystal-clear opportunity also happens to be within your area of expertise? Do you have a professional obligation to spend a little time working out the best way to communicate that value?

If you answered ‘yes’ to all three questions, then ask yourself one last question–what exactly is the difference between selling and what you just described? If you are honest with yourself and your client about the value of what you have to offer, then it is the essence of professionalism to aggressively and pointedly help the client see that value as well as you are privileged to see it.

There is of course one critical caveat in all the above. You do have to be right about the technical issue. Selling based on trust doesn’t mean you can avoid expertise; in fact, it means you have to assume it.

Myth 3. Clients Know What They Want.

They don’t. Particularly when they insist they do.

If clients knew what they wanted, they could (and they sometimes do) draft their own wills, design their own information systems, manage their own financial portfolios. But the daily stock in trade of an intangible services provider generally looks like a black art to the client. We all know the basics about cars and hamburgers, but not about probate or XTML or media buys.

Remember, clients are also victims of sales myths. They are afraid of being conned by salesmen, so they respond by tightly bounding the problem statement, to prevent being taken advantage of. The most fearful clients end up using RFP processes. Only the most self-confident clients admit that they themselves don’t fully understand the problem–which is precisely why they seek out experts. A well-defined problem makes the answer look easy. The real expertise and art lie in defining the problem.

Myth 4. Clients Mainly Want Experience and Credibility.

Most providers think that clients are focused on experience and credibility. No surprise there—most clients would say the same thing. But dig a little deeper.

Of course, clients use experience as a qualifier—to see who makes the short list to be invited in. They also use it as a justification to anyone who might question their choice. Clients also want to impress the provider with some level of knowledge, partly to guard against being taken advantage of. But those are all ways of narrowing the field or preventing harm. They don’t positively help assess trust.

Remember–clients don’t want to be experts in the provider’s field. If they did, they’d have gotten their own degree or certification. They also know they will need that expertise again in the future. What they would really love to have, if only they could be so fortunate, is confidence in an expert on whom they could then rely repeatedly. Clients don’t seek to trust their own expertise—they seek experts they can trust.

Most providers try to create trust by talking about their experience and credentials. Clients therefore assume that these are the important criteria to talk about. So most client/provider sales dialogues end up being a lot about experience and credibility. The implicit message is—”you can trust me because I’m telling you I did well by someone else who you don’t know, but who I’ll tell you about.” Which is why most buyers throw up their hands and focus on features and price.

The alternative is to establish real trust. Real trust gets established by working on this client’s issue, not the last client’s issue. Real trust comes from being demonstrated, not just talked about. Clients aren’t really interested in what you did for your last client; they want to know what you can do for them.

Clients’ main vehicle for assessing trust is your ability to address the issue facing them, head-on, with all its emotional complexities. The great news here is—you sell by doing. This is a samples business. You don’t sell intangibles by talking about them, but by demonstrating just what it feels like to work together.

The beauty of that is—it’s what you already do for a living anyway.

Myth 5. Just Do Good Work, the Business Will Come.

Providers wish that they could be judged on their merits, on the basis of the good work that they do. Hence one of the most pernicious myths about selling; the idea that “the best way to sell is just to do good work.”

This is not all wrong—certainly good work has a significant effect on a client’s predilection to buy more. And occasionally clients do in ask you to start work on the next project. But usually you have to take some action.

In the world of selling “things,” the admonition is usually “you’ve got to ask for the business.” But it’s different with intangible services. For intangible services, just “asking for the business” rarely works, particularly if your only qualification is good—even great—work on the last project. Great work on the last project just says you’re best qualified to do the next project. The real issue to be addressed is—just what is the next project?

If the client doesn’t see—viscerally, tangibly, emotionally—what the next project is, you can “ask for the business” all you want, but the client won’t see any business to be given. You won’t look like a hustler; but you will look out of touch with reality.

To sell the next project, you have to help the client see:

1.    that his or her business can be improved

2.    how it can be improved

3.    how you would go about improving it. Which you do by doing.

And as we saw while exploding Myth 2—that’s just part of your job as a professional. Focus not on your service offerings, but on what the client needs. Figure out how to deliver those needs. Start working.

Myth 6. Our Integrity is Constantly at Stake.

Stop making life so hard. Clients rarely challenge our integrity; we do that to ourselves by seeing things in terms of ego conflicts. There’s no need to engage on that level, and it usually just leads to conflict.

Do you find yourself muttering, “My client is a jerk?” Does your firm have a favorite story about the sale you walked away from rather than compromise your integrity? Are you constantly feeling pricing pressure or “scope creep” from your clients?

If so, you are caught up in a variation of Myth 1—the idea that our clients’ interests are at odds with our own. If there is an ego struggle with our client, then our client may or may not be in the wrong—but we definitely are. All those thoughts are simply variations of a failure to find common ground, a shared perspective. And if there is no common ground, there is no basis for win-win.

Differences of opinion are a fact of life. If we approach them calmly, we always have two choices—we can keep trying to find a common ground, or we can walk away. Sometimes it is right to walk away. But when that walk is colored with emotion, angst and a sense of moral righteousness, it’s rarely about integrity. It simply means we have let our ego get engaged. And ego engagement is self-focus, not client-focus. Give it up.

Myth 7. Being Right is Critical.

Most intangible services providers think and behave as if having the right answer is the critical element to the sale. It isn’t. Having the right answer is not even a necessary condition for getting a sale; it is far from being a sufficient condition.

How many times have you known with great certainty that your proposed solution to a client was the best one—highest value, least expensive, easiest to implement, best in the long term, and so on—and yet had the client reject it? It is tempting to impugn the client’s intelligence when this happens; but it simply indicates that you did not earn the right to offer a solution.

This doesn’t mean you can stop working at being right, or that it’s easy. You can’t, and it’s not. Intangible services are complex, requiring great study and continued diligence to stay on top of. Unfortunately, if you work hard and stay on top of things, all you have earned is the right to earn the right to be trusted. Your hard work won’t sell itself, nor even differentiate you from the many others who have worked equally hard and are (nearly) as expert as you.

Myth 8. Client Focus is a Matter of Process Design.

A fast food chain, an automobile company or a computer manufacturer may be able to engineer customer focus into its business processes. But for a provider of intangible services, customer focus is a self-willed psychological act. It is inescapably personal, human and individual.

It is tempting, particularly for large intangible services organizations like banks or accounting firms to borrow a page from the sellers of “things.” They can design processes to systematically track leads through stages in a funnel process, or bring CRM systems to bear. In the world of intangible services, these processes end up being places of refuge for people who are nervous about client contact. They end up filling out forms rather than meeting with clients. And since intangible services selling is so personal, that ends up being destructive rather than helping matters.

Clients buy on trust. A client knows in his or her tummy whether or not you are paying attention, whether or not you care about them, and whether or not you are truly listening to what they say. You can’t fake client focus. It’s personal. No CRM system in the world can overcome it.

Myth 9. It’s About Me.

It’s not. It’s about the client. Always.

It’s natural enough for a provider to feel the pressure personally. After all, the client very much is evaluating the trustworthiness, the personal characteristics, of the seller. But the client has his own fears; he doesn’t care about yours. Truth be told, he may be more afraid of you than you are of him.

You make it worse, not better, by obsessing about your tie, your PowerPoint slide deck, your rehearsed points, your litany of capabilities. Do not try to look smart. Do not worry about looking dumb, or wise, about solving the problem or controlling the agenda. Do not count the names you drop, the methodologies you explain, or the references you plan to mention. Come prepared to have all these things, but plan to use none of them. It’s not about you. It’s about the client.

What you think adds to your credibility usually either intimidates or bores the client—because it’s about you, not about the client. Limit yourself to 60-second answers, maximum, then turn it back to the client. Anything more is about you, not about the client. And it’s about the client. Always.

Myth 10. The Objective is to Get the Sale.

Revisit the mantras from Myth 1. The point is not to get the sale—the point is to help the client. If you help the client, you’ll probably get the sale. If you don’t get this sale, you’ll probably get the next one. If you don’t get that one, you’ll get another. If you don’t get that one, write it off, and return to step one–help the client. If you consistently do that, word will get around. Because that kind of caring is rare, and highly prized by clients.

Bonus Myth 11. Leads are Scarce.

In the world of selling things, leads are scarce. Airlines, hotels, automobile companies all fight fiercely for share points–with good reason. There are only so many airline flights that will be made; so many hotel rooms that will be booked; and so many automobiles that will be bought.

There are fewer boundaries in the intangible services. Every client is miles from perfection on dozens of dimensions. Each could have better marketing strategies, more customized systems, more effective customer service or fulfillment processes.

In other words, every existing client is brimming with potential leads. Yet many intangibles firms spend huge amounts of resources on leads, making three mistakes:

1.    Focusing too much on new clients they don’t know, instead of on existing clients

2.    Talking with each other about potential client needs rather than with the client

3.    Focusing on service offerings rather than on client needs.

Firms do this for various reasons, but chief among them is that they are focused on themselves, not on the client. They have forgotten the truth that:

If given the choice, buyers of intangible services greatly prefer to buy the things they need from someone they trust.[2]

If you help your client explore solutions—to all their problems, including solutions you yourself can’t provide—you’ll get your share of sales. Does that mean lawyers should point out systems needs? Yes, if they’re real and you can see them. Does that mean you should refer your client to a competitor? Yes, if the competitor can address a particular need better than you can. Stop worrying about yourself; serve the client.

Leads are not scarce–they are a commodity. What is scarce is imagination and generosity. Imagination to see the potential in alternative realities. Generosity to give of our attention to help focus on making our clients’ lives better, believing simply that if we do so, we too will prosper.

Charles H. Green is a speaker and executive educator on trust-based relationships and Trust-based Selling in complex businesses. He is author of Trust-based Selling (McGraw-Hill, 2005), and co-author of The Trusted Advisor (with David Maister and Rob Galford, Free Press, October 2000).  Visit his website

February 2, 2010

Guest Article: “Turn Selling Around,” by Ram Charan

Filed under: Client Relationships,sales,Sales Process,sales psychology,selling — Paul McCord @ 11:07 am
Tags: , ,

Turn Selling Around
by Ram Charan    

The heart of the new approach to selling is an intense focus on the prosperity of your customers. This is a radical departure from what most salespeople and selling organizations do. The entire psychological orientation is shifted 180 degrees. No longer do you measure your own success first. Instead, you measure success by how well your customers are doing with your help. You’re not focused on selling a specific product or service; you’re focused on how your company can help the customer succeed in all the ways that are important to that customer. By tapping the many resources you have at your disposal to help customers meet their business goals and priorities, you are adding value.

This ability to create value for customers will differentiate you in a crowded marketplace, and you will be paid a fair price for it — one that is commensurate with the value customers perceive they are getting and the value you do in fact provide. I call this new approach value creation selling, or VCS.

Value creation selling is sweepingly different from how most companies sell today, in these ways:

First, you as a seller and your organization devote large amounts of quality time and energy — much more than you do today — to learning about your customers’ businesses in great detail. What are your customer’s goals? Which financial measures is he most keen about? How does he create market value and what are the key factors that differentiate his product or service from those of his competitors? Only then do you look for ways to help the customer in the short, medium, and long term. The greatest opportunities lie in the medium and long term, where you and your customer can work together to change the nature of the game in your customer’s industry based on value you can help provide.

Second, you use capabilities and tools that you’ve never used before to understand how your customers do business and how you can help them improve that business. Sales is no longer just for the sales force: you need to muster the help of people in many parts of your company to do that. People from many different departments, including the legal, finance, R&D, marketing and manufacturing, become intimately familiar with your customer. You compile large amounts of information about your customer, both facts and impressions, in useful databases that are shared and used to determine the best approach for helping your customer win.

This will demand that you build new social networks, both within your organization and between your organization and the customer’s shop. Information will have to flow in both directions, and there will be a need for frequent formal and informal interaction among people serving different functions within your company and between your company and the customer’s. For example, your engineering people will need to meet with the people in your customer’s shop who define the specifications of your customer’s products or services.

Third, you’re going to make it your business to know not only your customers but also your customers’ customers. It is no longer enough simply to satisfy your customer’s demands. You also have to know what motivates his customers, what their problems are and attitudes are and what decision-making processes they use. In order to tailor your solutions to your customer’s market, you have to know who his customers are and what they want. To devise unique offerings for your customer, your company must use its capabilities to work backward from the needs of the end consumer to the needs of your customer. This is the customer value chain.

Fourth, you have to recognize that the execution of this new approach will require much longer cycle times to produce an order and generate revenue. It requires patience, consistency, and a determination on your part to build a high degree of trust with your customers. This is imperative because in this new relationship the two-way information exchange is far deeper than what you have relied on in the past. But once it gets going, the cycle time can be very fast, because you will have established trust and credibility.

Finally, top management in your company will have to reengineer its recognition and reward system to make sure that the organization as a whole is fostering the behaviors that will make the new sales approach effective. Hitting quarterly sales targets is not the only basis for rewarding the sales force under this approach. Further, other members of the sales team from various functional areas must be recognized and rewarded proportionately for their contributions. If after receiving sufficient training and support the salespeople or other functional executives don’t adopt the new approach with wholehearted enthusiasm, you will have to replace some people.

Ram Charan is the author or coauthor of many bestselling business books, including What the CEO Wants You to Know and Execution. For more than thirty-five years, he has worked behind the scenes at Fortune 100 companies like GE, Bank of America, DuPont, Thomson financial, Honeywell and Home Depot to help senior executives develop and implement strategic plans. www.ram-charan.com

January 23, 2010

Keep Your Client in the Loop After You Get the Referral

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 10:55 am
Tags: , , , , ,

Congratulations, you’ve just received several referrals from one of your clients.  Great job!  But hold on, you’re work has just started.  No, I’m not talking about contacting and selling the referred prospect, I’m talking about keeping your client in the loop.

One of the primary reasons clients are hesitant to give referrals is that they are afraid of being embarrassed in front of a friend, relative, acquaintance or co-worker by you not performing as you should.  So, when they do give a referral, they have a vested interest in what’s going on between you and the prospect.  Not in the sense of whether or not the prospect purchases, but in how the prospect perceives you and the value being referred by the client.

When a client gives you a referral, you learn a number of things:

  1. The client will give referrals.  Obviously, you just received one or more.
  2. How well the client understands what you do.  The quality of the referral will let you know how well your client understands what you do and who is a good referral for you.  The better the referral, the more the client understands.  The poorer the referral, the more work you must do to educate them for future referrals (and future sales to them for that matter).
  3. How much they trust you.  Generally, the stronger the trust relationship between the client and the referred prospect, the more the client trusts you. 
  4. They have more referrals to give.  Seldom will a client give you all of the referrals they can make at one time.  If a client gives referrals, you can almost bet they have more to give—if you keep earning them.

How do you get those additional referrals?  Additional referrals are earned, just as the original referrals were earned.  You earn those additional referrals by:

  1. Giving your client the assurance that you’re trustworthy with referrals.  You must show through your actions that their trust in giving you a referral was well placed by making sure that the referred prospect has an exceptional experience with you.
  2. By keeping your client fully informed of everything that is occurring with the referred prospect.
  3. By continuing to deliver superior service to your client.

Does the above mean that you must perform perfectly with the referred prospect?  What if there was an honest mistake or miscommunication?  What if something out of your control happened during the course of the sale?  Will these incidents destroy any possibility of acquiring additional referrals?

No, not at all.

The keys to gaining additional referrals from a client are to treat the referred prospect exactly in the same manner you treated the client and to keep your client informed of what is transpiring between yourself and the referred prospect.

Your client gave you referrals because they understood that giving referrals was in their own best interests and because you earned them through the service, you gave them.  You must now demonstrate that same level of service for the referral they have given you.  They expect—actually demand—you perform at the same level—or higher—for those they refer to as you did for them.  That level of service you gave them was what demonstrated to them that they could trust with a referral.  Anything short of that and they will reevaluate whether you should be trusted with additional referrals.

That having been said, clients understand that mistakes, miscommunications, and problems arise in business.  A single issue during the course of the sale to a referred prospect, even a major issue, will not sever your ability to gain additional referrals from you client if you address and resolve the issue in an exceptional manner.

Clients don’t expect perfection, they expect exceptional service—both for themselves and for those they refer you to.  How well or poorly you handle the issues will be a major factor in determining your future refer-ability.

Keeping your client informed of the progress of the sale with the referred prospect reassures them that you’re doing your job—and that all is well.  It is also your source of informing them if there have been problems and how they were resolved. 

It is critical that you let your client know of issues involved with sales to prospects they have referred you to before the prospect has a chance to relate the incident.  You can relate the circumstances and the resolution in the most favorable light—the prospect may not.  This doesn’t mean that you can lie or gloss over it, just that you can give the background and the full resolution without the emotional involvement the prospect will have.  Of course, if you’ve done an exceptional job of resolving the issue, the tale told by the prospect should also be impressive.  However, you always want problems to be related to your client by you—you don’t want to get a phone call from the client asking what happened.

Keeping your client informed doesn’t mean bombarding them with emails, phone calls, and notes.  A simple “thank you for the referral” card immediately after receiving the referral and the occasional call or email will suffice.  The object is to keep them in the loop and to reassure them that their referral was well made for both you and the prospect.  Even better than the occasional call or email is to explicitly ask the client how and how often they would like to be informed of the progress.

Clients are interested in what’s going on with the referrals they make.  They want to know the prospect is being taken care of in the manner the client expected, and they enjoy knowing that they have provided you with a quality referral.  More importantly, they want to know that they haven’t embarrassed themselves in front of an acquaintance.

Simple actions will earn those additional referrals your clients have—you just have to earn them.

December 5, 2009

Guest Article: “6 Steps to Managing Conflict,” by Grande Lum

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,team development — Paul McCord @ 4:08 pm
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6 Steps to Managing Conflict
By Grande Lum

A critical skill for any person is dealing with conflict in the workplace. Conflict is either there or right around the corner constantly, so being able to deal with it quickly and efficiently can prevent enormous amount of frustration, hostility and paralysis.  Whether one can understand it and use it for positive outcomes will enhance one’s  chance of success and one’s enjoyment of the workplace.  The following is a simple approach to take toward any conflict.

1. Take a Step Back.  Try to understand what’s going on. Be as objective as possible.  Imagine for a moment that you are an “invisible” observer.  In this way you can really analyze what’s going on. Being able to wise, smart choices is dependent upon being able to look at it with as much “level-headedness” as possible.

2. Understand the Other Person’s View.  Managing the dispute or disagreement means to be able to empathize with the other person.  No matter how difficult, doing your best to understand where the other person is coming from and showing the person that you are attempting to understand are both important elements.  While you do not have to agree, you also do not need to spend a lot of disagreeing explicitly disagreeing with them either. 

3. Reflect and Assert Your Own Needs.  It is certainly also crucial that you are aware of your own emotions, and your own wishes as well. It doesn’t help a situation, if you haven’t dealt with your concerns, because you might leave a conflict without feeling good about the resolution. Being able to communicate that in a way the other party can hear it well is key.

4. Find the Light at the End of the Tunnel.  Conflicts are inevitable. They will come out at one time or another.  If people repress the conflicts, it may actual come out in uglier, subtler, indirect ways later.  Really looking to how the conflict can now help is critical in a workplace conflict. By speaking directly on an issue, will it now finally be dealt with? Can an important decision now be made?  Is an apology long overdue?  Whatever the benefits or value happens to be, searching it out will help the process.

5. Share your “stories” with each other.  Provide the space for each person to provide the rationale and reasoning for why the conflict is where it’s at.  Each person should try to learn about what they don’t know from the other person.  The focus should be on listening to the other person’s story and not correcting or blaming.

6. Find a Mutually Agreeable Solution.  If you’ve done the above steps, then it’s time to find a way to resolve the conflict.  Given each person’s story and needs try to find a way that each of the parties can walk away feeling that they have been treated fairly.

Each person will find it easier to do some of the steps than other.  Some it will find it harder to assert their own needs while some will find it harder to understand the other’s perspective.  Balancing these six steps will help you more skillfully manage conflict and allow you and your organization to not just reduce the impact of conflict, but also to use it to create benefit.

Grande  Lum is the founder and Managing Director of Accordence.  He is also Professor and Director of the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, California. Prior to founding Accordence, Mr. Lum was a founding member of ThoughtBridge.  At Accordence, Mr. Lum consults with clients regarding complex transactions, equipping individuals, teams and institutions with negotiation methodologies and skills.  His work includes facilitation, coaching, and advising with clients in the health care, biotech, pharmaceutical, information technology, and financial services industries.

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