Sales and Sales Management Blog

February 1, 2012

Killer Communication Strategy

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 4:18 pm
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So many prospects and clients to kill, so little time.  But don’t worry; salespeople all over the world are doing their damnedest to kill as many prospects and clients as possible every day.  Their weapon of choice?  Communication—or more specifically,  communication fraud.

I suspect you are like me, getting dozens of emails, phone calls, snail mail letters, and even face-to-face meetings with sellers who seem to have only one goal—waste as much of my time as possible.  They email and call wanting to know if I’m doing OK, or if I need anything, or if they can show me a new product or service without having the slightest idea if I could actually use it.  Some call to simply let me know they’re still around and want my business.

Many of these intrepid sellers have bombarded me with so much time wasting junk communication that they’ve taught me to completely ignore them.  When I see an email or letter from them or if I get a voice mail message from them I know that I need pay absolutely no attention to them.  Their time wasting communications have completely killed me off as a prospect—and, worse, I’ve even had some sellers kill me off as a client because of their insistence on trying to waste my time.

Sellers work hard to find and connect with quality prospects and then to win them as clients.  Why in the world would they want to then commit prospect and client genocide?

Obviously, their intent isn’t to become mass murderers, but that is the final result of many sellers’ communications.  Their killer communication strategy is to unintentionally kill off massive numbers of their prospects and clients by teaching them to ignore any of their communications. 

So many sellers think of communication as nothing that important.  Their object is to keep their name in front of the prospect or client and to that end they feel a need to contact the prospect or client even when they have nothing of import to communicate.  Actually and more correctly, they feel the need to draw attention to themselves even when they have nothing of value to communicate.  And even more correctly, they are just too damn lazy to find something of value to deliver to the prospect or client. 

In other words, their killer communication strategy is tell their prospects and clients in no uncertain terms that they just aren’t important enough for the seller to invest the time and energy necessary to add value for them.

Now that’s a killer communication strategy.

There is a very simple communication rule that I teach my clients:  every communication you have with a prospect or client is teaching them to either pay attention to you because you bring value to them or to ignore you because all you do is waste their time.  In other words, every communication you have with a prospect or client is teaching them that it’s worth taking your phone calls and reading your emails because they know you’re not going to waste their time–or you’re teaching them to avoid you because you have nothing of value for them. 

The next time you pick up the phone or write an email or want to schedule an appointment, ask yourself one simple question: “am I adding value to them or to just me?”  If your honest answer is that you’re only adding value for yourself, don’t make the call, don’t send the letter, don’t send the email until you have taken the time to make sure you’re adding as much or more value to them as you are for yourself.

January 30, 2012

Guest Article: Are You Client Focused or a Client Vulture?, by Charles H. Green

Filed under: Client Relationships,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 12:55 pm
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Much has been written about client focus. We hear about sophisticated clients who will leave if we don’t focus on their needs. We hear about the virtues of client loyalty, and the virtues of measurements like client profitability. The key to competitive success is to do a better job serving clients than the next guy. And so on.

But there’s a dark side to that theme. The reason to be so client-focused is almost always phrased in terms of the benefits to the seller. And that changes everything.

Client focus, as it is too often practiced in business today, is the focus of a vulture. It is all about the benefit to the firm—not to the client. When client benefits are discussed, they are as discussed as a means to the seller’s ends. Yes, we want to serve clients better—but for our sake, not theirs.

Should we be surprised, then, when clients become cynical, send out RFPs, and refer us to third-party buying agents? In our rush to dissect the client brain, we have forgotten that motives matter.

I’m not talking about ethics—I’m talking about the simple facts of trust. We trust those we believe to have our interests at heart, and we distrust those we believe to have their interests at heart. But we particularly distrust those who pretend to be the former, while behaving like the latter.

Sometimes it’s hard to see trust faults in our own business. By way of metaphor, consider an industry recently hard-hit by trust issues—pharmaceuticals. One of the drug manufacturers’ wounds is self-inflicted—the failed relationship between physicians and reps.

Doctors long relied on reps to keep them up to date on new drugs—an important and valuable advisory role. In recent years, the drug companies tried to increase reps’ sales effectiveness. They increased the number of reps per doctor, focusing on hiring young and attractive people. They introduced complex measurement systems to evaluate rep performance, and purchased sophisticated statistical data to calibrate the impact of rep visits on physician prescriptive behavior.

Sensible steps all, it would seem: but they’ve produced negative results.

  • Less than one rep visit in 10 now results in a conversation with a physician, and lasts on average only 90 seconds;
  • Personal relationships have been reduced and curtailed; reps are valued only for the samples they leave, turning them into pill-pushers;
  • The doctors have little respect for the reps, which in turn is debilitating for the reps.

How did this happen? Each change in the system was motivated largely, if not entirely, by a desire to increase physician prescription-writing of drugs produced by the pharmaceutical company. That motivation was very clear to the doctors—and they saw no benefit evident to them. Like most clients, the doctors reacted negatively. A past trusted relationship was degraded because the seller was motivated only by the seller’s needs.

Relationships and Fake Trust

When client focus becomes a tool for seller profit improvement, clients notice and become cynical. Lately, the language of client focus is adopting the language of relationships, fostering yet another layer of cynicism.

Think of “relationship,” “loyalty,” and “trust.” All once had significant emotional connotations—for “loyalty,” think “semper fi” or “’til death do us part.” For “trust,” think the bonds of a handshake, or of fiduciary responsibilities.

Today, loyalty gets defined behaviorally as repeat purchasing behavior. “Client relationship management” software is sold on the basis of its ability to create client profitability analyses (to the software owner, that is, not to the client).

In the dating world, it’s considered forward to say you want a relationship on the first date—but in business, some firms have gone one better and built “relationship” into a marketing slogan before even meeting the client.

Relationship concepts have been hijacked in service to selfish motives. When a company’s ad copy says, “you care about your children; that’s why we here at XYZ corporation are doing blah blah blah” the company is not only lying, but lying baldly and shamelessly about their motives.
What is at stake here is no less than the meaning of words, and therefore the credibility and trust of the company saying them.

Being Truly Client-Focused

The most difficult act for us as sellers of professional services is to stop viewing everything from our own perspective. And it has to be a personal act—a self-willed, psychological belief or attitude.
The economics of trust-based selling™ rest on a paradox: if we do what is good for the consumer, we will eventually gain more than our proportionate share of business. It may not come from this transaction, in this quarter—or even from this client—but it will come. Nothing motivates repeat business or referrals better than a trust-based relationship with the provider.
If our motives for being trusted are not truly client-focused—then it all falls apart. This is the paradox. Great results come from client focus—but only if you stop doing client focus in order to achieve results for yourself.

In today’s business climate, “best practices” and financial analyses are defined in ever-smaller, ever-shorter, ever-narrower slices. They are often not “best,” but among the most insidious.
These practices are harmful because they blind us to opportunities to serve our clients.

In the perennial Christmas movie Miracle on 34th Street, Macy’s Santa Claus is nearly fired for recommending that a client go to competitor Gimbel’s for a particular product. That is, until Macy’s Chairman realizes the profound increase in client trust produced by Santa’s approach—having faith that doing right by the customer will end up helping Macy’s anyway.
Being truly client-focused means believing in the superiority of client relationship strategies over competitor-focused strategies; the medium- and long-term over successive short-terms; and truth-telling over spinning.

The good news is the field is wide open for firms willing to practice what everyone else only preaches—serving the client, believing that to do so will ultimately return more than the self-serving narrowly calculating strategies of the vulture can ever hope to do.

A truly client-focused relationship strategy built on trust is the best deal going. It is rare; most competitors are afraid to try it. It is powerful; ask any successful salesperson about the power of trust. And it is proven—just look at your own behavior as a buyer in relation to a seller you trust.

Trusting relationships have to start with the selling firm, not the client. Go ahead, take a risk. The ultimate paradox is, taking a risk ends up being the lowest risk. Being trusted is a very low-risk, high-return strategy.

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

January 28, 2011

Trust on Decline Unless You’re Recognized as an Expert Study Finds

Filed under: marketing,Personal Marketing,Persuasion,sales,selling,small business,trust — Paul McCord @ 9:50 am
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Leanne Hoagland-Smith suggested I take a look at a very interesting post by Steve Rubel that draws attention to some recent research his company, Edelman, the largest PR firm in the world, has done in the area of trust.  His findings are most interesting for sellers and small business owners even though his real target is larger corporations engaged in constructing advertising and public relations campaigns.

One of the major findings is that there has been a decline in the number of people who trust in a person “just like myself.”  Rubel goes on to give his analysis: ”I believe the reason for this is that, as more of us join social networks, there’s been devaluation in the entire concept of ‘friendship.’”

Another finding was that trust of credentialed experts increased to 70%.  According to Rubel, “This is a trend that began last year. In addition, for the first time we looked at the credibility of technical specialists inside a company. Trust in this group is off the charts (64%). This hits home the need to identify those with expertise inside a company who can engage across different channels, many of which today are digital – or will be soon.”

Very important for us in sales, the study also found that in developed countries such as the US and the UK people need to hear a message as many as NINE times—and from multiple channels to effect behavior change.  Now this study was looking at media communication, but human nature doesn’t change—if it takes multiple hearings in multiple channels for marketers to change recipient behavior, it’s logical to assume the same is true when dealing directly with prospects and clients (one of the reasons historically we’ve had to we talk to them, give them collateral material, and make formal presentations to them—multiple hearings from multiple channels).  The key here is how many times the recipient had to hear the message before behavior changed.  Nine.  That’s a lot—and most of us probably give up on a prospect long before they’ve heard our message nine times.

You can get a mini-whitepaper of the study here.

August 11, 2010

Guest Article: “If Your Sales Training Department Ran Your Church,” by Charles H. Green

Filed under: Leadership,management,motivation,Sales Management — Paul McCord @ 8:43 am
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While doing a bit of reading, I ran across this older article by my friend Charlie Green that addresses the same subject I wrote about yesterday but more elegantly—and with humor too–than my post.

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If Your Sales Training Department Ran Your Church
by Charles H. Green

What if your sales training department ran your church? (Or synagogue, or mosque; this is meant to be an equal-opportunity religious metaphor).

Suppose you move into a new community, and are looking for a place of worship. The minister (I’m just going to use the one metaphor from now on, please infer your preferred tradition) meets you, and says:

“Welcome. First we’d like you to fill out this spiritual needs-assessment instrument, so we can appropriately benchmark you for your level of sinfulness and spirituality potential.

“Part I evaluates your sinfulness; we prefer the so-called “Ten Commandments” instrument; Part II measures your level of mastery of the behaviors and habits of Highly Spiritual People (HSPs).

“You can fill it out over there in the cubicle; be sure to use only the Number 2 pencils provided.”

You do so. You take it back to the minister.

“Well, let’s see what we’ve got here, let’s pull the quick-scoring answer template. Hmm, only 5 out of 10 on the commandments. Well at least you go the biggies right, didn’t kill anyone lately, am I right, heh heh, sorry my little joke there…”

“You’re also scoring at a “meets expectations” level on your HSP. You probably know the Golden Rule, that sort of thing; but you probably don’t give alms to the poor, right? And tithing, fuggedaboudit! Am I right? Heh heh heh thought so, yup.

“OK, your achievement levels put you into the AIS group; Advanced Intermediate Spirituality. It’ll be a bit of a stretch, but we have some remedial online CBT programs that you can study up on. They meet at 11AM.

You sign up. Your kids are admitted to their own appropriate Sunday school classes. Embarrassingly, at higher levels than you.

You show up Sunday early, to be greeted at the door by a deacon.

“Please fill out this expectations document for today’s service. You can write in your own expectations if you want, but the multiple choice checkboxes are enough for most people.

You go in. You listen to the sermon.

“Today I’ll talk about Daniel and the lions. You will learn the skills and behaviors associated with Advanced Intermediate Spirituality with respect to faith. On leaving, you will be able to recognize faith when you hear it, identify the three main levels of faith, and to be reasonably faithful yourself. And we’ll do some faith role-plays (what we like to call “praying”) to make it realistic. So now let’s get started, shall we?

You sit through the sermon. It concludes with:

“The sermon today has been about Daniel and the lions. You should have learned the skills and behaviors associated with Advanced Intermediate Spirituality with respect to faith. You should now be able to recognize faith when you hear it, identify the three main types of faith, and to be reasonably faithful. And, you’ve experienced the behaviors of faith through role-play (“praying”).

“Please take a moment now to complete your evaluation document that the deacon handed you on the way in.

You read the document. It asks:

“The sermon for today met my expectations” (1 definitely, 2 mostly, 3 sort of, 4 not really, 5 not at all)

“I am now able to recognize basic faith” (1 definitely, 2 mostly, 3 sort of, 4 not really, 5 not at all)

“I now have a moderately high faith level” (1 definitely, 2 mostly, 3 sort of, 4 not really, 5 not at all)

“The minister trained well today” (1 definitely, 2 mostly, 3 sort of, 4 not really, 5 not at all)

You leave the church; the minister greets you on the way out the door. “How’d you like the service?” he asks, sneaking a glance at your evaluation document.

“Well, I’m still not sure I feel like I really have faith,” you say apologetically.

“That’s OK,” says the minister. “Just fake it ‘til you make it. You’ll get the hang of it. Continue to meet your metrics, and everything will work out—just have faith in the process.”

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Hopefully you enjoyed that. In case it’s not clear, I’m trying to suggest that when it comes to certain “soft” subjects, the traditional management-by-numbers and train-by-behaviors can feel inadequate to the task.

How is this relevant? In training, I hope it’s clear. Different techniques suit different subjects.

But I think it speaks to issues of management and leadership too. Do you believe in values, missions and belief systems? If you’re trying to manage a values-based organization, what approaches work?

Managing through behavioral metrics doesn’t quite do the job when it comes to motivating people to higher-order beliefs.

Or, to put it nakedly, if still metaphorically: what’s the ROI on believing in a God? And what’s wrong with that question?

Charles H. Green is founder and CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates LLC; read more about Charlie at http://trustedadvisor.com/cgreen/

November 17, 2009

On My Honor–Randy Pennington’s Great New Book

Filed under: Book Recommendations,business,sales,small business,trust — Paul McCord @ 11:28 am
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Randy Pennington has written one of the best books on personal and business integrity and leadership on the market today: On My Honor, I Will: The Journey to Integrity-Driven Leadership. As you may have guessed by the title, the Boy Scout Oath plays a prominent role in the book as Randy demonstrates has the oath contains all the foundational aspects of true leadership and integrity.  And you thought the Scout Oath was just for teenage boys.

I suggest you head over to www.onmyhonorbook.net to learn about the book and then click on the button that says “Free Gift With Purchase” to find out how to receive additional learning resources at no charge with your purchase of the book. 

Randy has written a great book that should be on every book shelf—and more importantly, in every set of hands with eyes on page.  Read it, turn it into behavior.

July 10, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “What Do Your Communications Say About You?” by Paul McCord

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,marketing,Personal Marketing,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 7:42 am
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What Do Your Communications Say About You?
by Paul McCord

What are you doing with those prospects that are in your database that aren’t ready to purchase yet?  Are you in the process of establishing trust and good will—or are you demonstrating that you aren’t trustworthy or that you really don’t have anything of value to offer?

Or what about your existing clients?  Are you teaching them to pay attention to you because your communications bring value, or are you teaching them to ignore you because you simply waste their time with worthless, self-serving junk?

Whether you’ve considered it or not, everything you send to a prospect communicates your value—or non-value and your trustworthiness.  Everything you send.  No matter how small.

Most salespeople, professionals, and companies will put their long-term prospects into a database and keep in touch with them on a semi-regular basis.  They’ll send a monthly or quarterly newsletter, a “how ya doin, ya ready to buy yet?” email or letter on occasion, and make a phone call once in a blue moon.  Some will inundate the prospect with so much junk mail and junk email that the prospect wonders how to get rid of them.

Either way, the prospect is learning about the salesperson or company.  The question is what are they learning?

Let’s look at the three most common negative messages prospects get from salesperson and company communications:

You Aren’t Reliable:
Reliability is a major trust factor and what you send and when you send materials to your prospects will communicate to some extent whether or not you are reliable.  If you promise to send information, do you send exactly what you promised, when you promised?  If not, why should a prospect trust you?

Do you send a monthly or quarterly newsletter?  Is it on time, every time?  If the date on your newsletter is May and it arrives in June because you were too busy to get it out, what message does that send?  Think people won’t notice?  I received the Jan/Feb newsletter from an interior decorator—in April.  Is that how she handles all of her commitments?

You Don’t Value My Time
Are the items you send of real value to the prospect?  If it isn’t of value, why do you send it?

What people will send is amazing.  I get newsletters with recipes, gardening tips, and other information that might be appropriate for some salespeople, but not from the people who are sending it.  Recipes, gardening tips, household tips, etc. might be appropriate in a REALTOR’S newsletter, but not an accountant’s, or financial planner’s, or insurance agent’s, or from an auto repair shop.  If I get something from an accountant, I expect it to have some relevance to my financial needs.  If I get something from an auto repair shop, I expect it have something to do with automobiles.  I don’t expect an attorney to send me an article on how to give a massage (yep, got one). 

What can you send of value?  There is a ton of stuff.  Articles relating to the area you address; special offers; new services and/or products; major company news; and other pertinent information.  All of these items are likely to be of interest to a majority of your prospects.

The key is not to waste your prospect’s time.  Of course, not everything you send is going to be of interest to every one of your prospects.  But if your information is good, all of your prospects will find value in your communications—just not every prospect for every communication.  I get a number of emails after each edition of my newsletter.  Many praise a particular issue; others are indifferent.  But some of those who were indifferent to one issue may email me an issue or two later raving about the latest issue, while the one who was enthused about the first issue emails me to let me know I missed the mark with them on the last issue.  I, like you, have to aim to bring lots of great material to the table, knowing that each reader is at a different place in their careers.  What appeals to one, may not appeal to another.  However, if I bring enough diversity to the newsletter, I can hit everyone’s needs, just not in every issue.  You must aim for the same goal—bring substance to the table, and overtime, you’ll feed the lot.

Every time you communicate with a prospect or client, even with your mass communications, you are teaching them to pay attention to you because you value their time and give them value—or you are teaching them to ignore you because you are nothing but a time waster.

You Don’t Know Your Business
Sending out-dated or erroneous information also will be noticed by many prospects.  If you fail to review and carefully examine your information to make sure that it is up-to-date and accurate, you run a serious risk of convincing your prospect that you simply don’t know what you’re talking about.

The articles and other materials you send, whether written by you or others, must contain current, accurate and trustworthy information.  Never assume that yours is the only information the prospect is receiving about your subject.  Your object is to inform, not confuse.  Your goal is to impress, not show your ignorance or laziness.  Errors are especially easy to miss when dealing with statistics and factual matters of record.

This isn’t to say that you can’t send items that may challenge conventional wisdom.  You certainly can—and if you can back your information up, these may be your most potent communications.  For instance, I work obviously in the areas of sales and sales management.  Most salespeople and managers know there are a great variety of training methods and theories.  Controversy and going against convention isn’t an issue in this industry.  As a matter of fact, many are well aware that many conventional ways of doing things simply don’t work that well.  Consequently, going against convention and finding better ways is welcomed. 

But in other industries, for example, many sectors of the financial services industry, bucking convention many not only raise many eyebrows, but your very competence may be questioned if your ideas are not well documented by independent sources.  Does this mean that you can’t present non-traditional ideas in these industries?  No.  It simply means that you must go out of your way to document their validity because you know upfront that you’re dealing with a subject where innovation is going to be questioned—not just by peers, but by many prospects also.

In addition to sloppy work, overstatements and exaggerations are another red flag for prospects.  It is perfectly permissible to make strong statements about your products and services as long as you are not the author of those statements and you can identify for your prospects exactly who made the claims about your product or service. 

If you use superlatives about yourself, your product/service, or your company, they cannot be from you and you must fully identify the person who made them—meaning they can be checked out.  If you make the claim yourself, you lose credibility.  If you attribute the superlative to someone who is not fully identified, you lose credibility.  If you use an authority in your particular field and give full identification, you gain credibility.  If you use an everyday customer with full disclosure, you gain credibility.

Examine your prospect communications in light of these three most common mistakes.  Don’t allow yourself to lose credibility while trying to build credibility.  Every communication you have with a prospect or client is just as important as your initial communication with them.  You’ve worked hard to gain their trust and respect.  Don’t blow it by teaching them that you’re nothing but a time waster.

 

Paul McCord, a leading Business Development Strategist and president of McCord Training, works with companies and sales leaders to help them increase sales and profits by finding and connecting with high quality prospects in ways prospects respect and respond to.  An internationally recognized author, speaker, trainer and consultant, Paul’s clients range from giants such as Chase, New York Life, Siemens, and GE, to small and mid-size firms, as well as individual sales leaders.  He is the author of the popular Sales and Sales Management Blog (http://salesandmanagementblog.com). 

July 9, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Trust Two Point Ooh,” by Clayton Shold

Filed under: Client Relationships,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 7:19 am
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Trust Two Point Ooh
by Clayton Shold

“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

If you are old enough to remember the Popeye cartoons you’ll remember this quote. Popeye’s friend Wimpy used it often. You see Wimpy loved to eat hamburgers but was too cheap to pay for them. He was looking for credit, usually from a patron of the diner. If he approached you would you trust him to pay you back on Tuesday – or any day?

I suspect if you knew Wimpy and his reputation you would most certainly decline to buy him a burger.

If you were from the era when this comic strip first ran in the mid 1930’s you probably sealed business deals with a handshake and little if any legal paperwork. Why, because people trusted other people.  Here lies our conundrum, what has changed and why are we less trusting of some people than others?

I believe most people start out trusting other people, taking them at face value … especially when the degree of risk involved is low. Say someone introduces you to an individual and the person tells you what they do for a living. It is probably safe to assume you believe them; you have no reason to doubt their honesty. You are not suspicious of their statement, unless other overriding factors kick in. Did any non-verbal cautions flags go up? Did the person smile funny while telling you their vocation, did they shift uneasily, or did they avoid eye contact? Did your spider senses tingle?

In today’s society we tend to be more skeptical than in Popeye’s day, which is another way of saying we are less trusting. Why is that? Watch young children and you don’t see evidence of this.  Can we surmise then that life experiences cause us over time, to take stalk in other people’s actions which become the basis on which we begin to measure trust?

Trust relationships evolve over time. As people experience other’s actions they begin to build a ‘trust vault’ of memories. The vault continues to accept deposits as long as the person continues to interact in an honest, ethical and open way. Strong relationships rely on familiarity, a sense of fairness, open communication and mutual respect that continue over time.

It is easy to bankrupt the trust vault and it usually happens quickly. Once the vault is empty it is very difficult to rebuild and regain the lost trust. Take marriage where we pledge to “love honour and cherish until death to us part”. The vows exchanged are a commitment of trust between two people. An extramarital affair, once exposed destroys most if not all of the trust accumulated in that relationship.

The past decade provided too many examples of top business leaders who didn’t just erode our trust, they nuked it totally.

Wimpy lived on hamburgers and broken promises, what about those who require high levels of trust to be successful in their chosen vocation. We hold some professions to a higher standard than others with regard to trust. If you are in court, we have an expectation of fairness and trust the judge to be impartial. Think of your financial advisor providing guidance on your money matters, do you trust them to manage and safeguard your savings as if it were their own. Think about your hair stylist (someone Wimpy might have called a barber or hairdresser), you keep going back because of the trust established over repeated visits, confident you will leave happy. Some professions hold themselves accountable to a high level of trust, our armed forces, police and fire personnel trust their peers with their life.

So what changed from Popeye and Wimpy’s day?  Has our competitive spirit of winning at all costs eroded our decency, integrity and sense of fair play? Did it deteriorate because of shareholder’s greed in expecting quarter over quarter growth and profitability? Have we found it easier to initiate litigation with an expectation of a windfall decision that has bred legal beagles in sufficient quantity to sniff every pant leg? Have we become so selfish we will not extend credit to others to allow them to make deposits into our trust vault?

I believe the pendulum is beginning to swing back. Society is desperate for leaders we believe will do what is right, someone we can count on to fix what is broken, to take us on a path we can be proud to walk, to restore our confidence, to gain our trust.

We can all act as catalysts to accelerate this change. Reconstitute the principle you word is your honour, then ensure your actions support your words. Rejuvenate the notion your handshake is a binding gesture signalling your values, beliefs, and commitment to the other party. Treat others with respect and make regular deposits to their trust vaults.

This is much more than bumming a hamburger, it is about how we live our lives, the relationships we establish and the trust vaults we encourage and protect.

“I yam what I yam and tha’s all what I yam.” – Popeye

Clayton Shold is president and co-founder of Salesopedia. He is a business therapist to small and medium sized organizations in Canada and the US helping them leverage sales and marketing opportunities.

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July 8, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “8 Essential Criteria for Winning a Big Contract from Me,” by Mike Schultz

Filed under: Client Relationships,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 9:12 am
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8 Essential Criteria for Winning a Big Contract from Me
by Mike Schultz

Smoking a cigar in the Adirondack chair as the red sun goes down over the lake on a warm summer evening. Between this and me is a major remodel of the fixer-upper lake house my wife and I just bought.

Since I inherited from my father special skills like hammering a nail into a wall such that I ruin the wall, I realize I’m about to spend a lot of time with architects and contractors. All I’ve heard from friends and colleagues is, “Be careful!”

The cliché digs on architects are that they are artists with no attention to detail and no grounding in reality. The digs on contractors are that they’ll take any opening you give them to cut corners, pad their fees, and drop you and your project at the first sign they have to work more than they thought or something better comes along.

I don’t believe any of it. I can dis doctors (quacks), consultants (here to fire people, read their watch, and tell me what time it is), lawyers (ambulance chasing naysayers), and accountants (boring bean counters).  It’s simply the reality that the great service providers in these (and all other) areas are mixed in with the rest of the average to rotten bunch.

The reality is I want to trust right away, but I’ve been burned in the past. We all have. And I’ve got my future hopes and dreams for my family and me wrapped up in turning this 70s wood-paneled, purple-shag-carpeted, water-damaged dwelling into our home. Thus I’ve got fear, uncertainty, and doubt about my ‘partners’ in this major renovation.

That’s a good dose of emotion, and I’m not a very emotional guy. Even the very special episodes of Blossom didn’t get to me (much). But I bought this house to raise a family and while away the next several decades, and so a lot of feelings are tied up in getting this renovation right.

Now I’ve got to find service providers to help me. For both the architect and the contractor, here are my buying criteria:

Be very good at your craft. Do I need you to be the best? I wouldn’t even know how to define that. I’ll probably look at your past work to get a sense of whether or not you’ve got the chops to do what I need done.

Deal with us fairly. We’ll both make sure the contract is clear and fair so we know our roles and responsibilities, but you can’t contract for every eventuality. I’ll probably get a sense of your client focus by speaking with you and listening for cues, by speaking to your references, and by asking around.

Meet mutually set commitments. Whether it’s in the contract, or whether it’s something we discussed, do what you say you’re going to do.

Understand our needs. I’ll give you overviews, answer your questions, and show you examples, but it’s got to register with you.

Anticipate our needs. Let’s say we lay out a room a particular way. Did we forget something? Let’s say you’re just about to put hammer to nail and you see that we might not have left enough room for the chairs to go back from the table. Call us.

Add to the conversation. Don’t just take our ideas and implement them. Take them and make them better.

Be responsive to us. Don’t return calls or disappear and we’ll have big problems.

Stick to the budget.

What I don’t care about is what your tagline is, whether or not you’re a “different kind of design/build firm,” or that you’ve got a unique methodology for designing and building houses. I don’t care about how good the schools, hospitals, or hotels are that you’ve built.

What can I say, buyers buy parochially, and that includes me. I’m trying to figure out if you’ll be good at serving people like us in a situation like ours. As much as you think the other examples might be good proxies for how much you can help us, they simply won’t be as good for us as ones that look just like us.

If everything comes together as we hope, the remodel and our relationship will go swimmingly. But will it all come together like this? Let’s hope contractors read marketing blogs.

Mike Schultz, President of Wellesley Hills Group, is world-renowned as a consultant and expert in services marketing, branding, and rainmaking. Co-author of the book Professional Services Marketing (Wiley, 2009), Mike is an engaging and thought-provoking speaker, delivering dozens of keynotes each year in-house for clients and at leading industry conferences. Mike is also Publisher of RainToday.com, the world’s foremost publication and membership site for insight, advice, and tools for growing a service business.

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July 7, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “A Matter of Trust,” by Randy Pennington

Filed under: Client Relationships,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 6:28 am
Tags: , , ,

A Matter of Trust
Randy G. Pennington

“Nothing ever happens until someone buys something from someone else.”

I have heard variations on that quote for many years. And it still rings true. Our economy is based on the exchange of value known as sales.

Here is my corollary to that truth: No one every buys anything that is important to them or about which they have a choice until they trust you.

Let’s examine the qualifiers in that statement. I once purchased an auto repair from someone I didn’t really trust because I was stranded on the side of the road. It was a one-time situation in a town where I did not live. Likewise, I am sure that I have made a few minor purchases that did not rise to the level of importance that my trust was actively required. The little glow stick that I purchased at a concert comes to mind, but there are very few of those.

So … unless your business is built on one-time sales to customers with no choice or you are selling something that exists below the threshold where trust is even a consideration, the need to build a reputation for trust is critical to your success.

Building Trust One Person At A Time

Carl Sewell owns car dealerships—ten of them in fact. His Lexus and Cadillac dealerships traditionally rank at or near the top for sales and service in North America. Sewell knows a purchase will be made when I walk in the door of his dealership. There is a solid track record on which to rely – nine automobiles purchased and all the service work that goes along with them. I am loyal to Sewell Motors because I trust them. I trust them—and your customers will trust you—because they have mastered the following five principles.

  • Character: Every discussion of trust begins here. Character defines an individual’s approach for dealing with themselves and others. It is the demonstration of the values adopted for basic living. Individuals who embody basic principles such as honesty, trustworthiness, loyalty, justice, patience, and duty find that their ideas and recommendations are readily accepted. The nagging question of motive lingers when character is in question.
  • Competence: How good are you at your job? How much do you know about your product? Can you answer my questions with confidence and authority? Professionals who earn my trust are competent. They recognize their individual strengths and weaknesses and commit to continuous growth in all areas of individual performance. An excellent reputation for honesty will be rendered useless if it is matched with incompetence.
  • Communication: Outstanding presentation skills contribute to effective communication. Unfortunately, too much emphasis has been placed on the importance of the pitch. Communication that builds trust is about listening. The ability to understand others creates a bond that encourages interdependence and enhances commitment. We tend to trust those who appreciate our goals, struggles, joys and situation.
  • Consistency: The sales professional that sold me my first car from Sewell impressed me with his competence and communication. That, combined with the company’s reputation for character, led to the initial buy decision. Purchases two through nine have been made because of consistency. Every person at every level has continued to perform in a manner that re-earns and maintains my trust. Confidence that your performance will be in line with past experience frees others from worry about protecting themselves from an unpredictable response.
  • Courage: Earning and maintaining trust in an increasingly competitive and demanding world requires courage. Challenges must be confronted head-on in a manner that respects diversity; demonstrates professional business practices; and maintains personal integrity. True courage requires commitment and the willingness to accept personal risk. It fosters admiration and sets in motion a series of events that influence long-term success.

A Special Message to Sales Managers

The five factors for building trust were originally developed in a study we conducted in 2004 about what causes mistrust on the job. Our work since that time has reinforced the fact that character, competence, consistency, communication, and courage are considerations in all decisions to trust another person or company or institution. And that leads us to you—the person responsible for creating the environment that promotes trust.

Sewell Motors has built its brand based on integrity in its products, services, and relationships. That commitment is on display every day through the promises made and delivered. It is about performance not marketing. I asked Joe Calloway, author of the book Becoming a Category of One, to explain why building a brand that customers can trust is important. He said, “The experience of doing business is critical as today’s brutally competitive environment meets a soft economy. A unique brand that others can trust is the only way to set you apart from the competition.”

That is where you come in. The same five factors that cause your customers to trust your sales professionals will cause your sales professionals to trust you. Carl Sewell understands that and devotes countless energy and effort toward that end. In return, he gets comments like this one from Linda, one of his sales team: “I owe this company a lot. They stood behind me during my mother’s illness. I have a huge sense of loyalty and desire to help them succeed.”

Does your sales team say that about your company?

Do This Now

  • Be very clear about the values for which you stand. What are the principles that are so important that you would never compromise them … even if it meant losing the sale?
  • Be consistent with the messages you send. Communication is everything and everything communicates when building trust. A great sales pitch that focuses on benefits rather than features is nice. A reputation for listening and caring that is communicated through action over time is the stuff of legends.
  • Get better at your job. Customers have always had a choice. It didn’t matter as much when there were more than enough buyers to go around. Today, you have to be better tomorrow than you are today. Learn more, grow more, and invest more in education.
  • Never sacrifice trust for short-term gain. Consistency and courage build relationships that last a life time. Yes, you have to make your numbers today. There is no “long-term” without delivering results right now. I contend that companies like Sewell Motors are still delivering results today for the precise reason that they are unwilling to sacrifice trust for short-term gain. Customers are smarter and more vocal than ever. They will find out and let others know if you took advantage of them.

Looking ahead from 2009, you can count on the following:

  • The economy will eventually turn around and more people will start buying again. It may not be this year, and it will probably be many months before activity returns to the levels we remember from 2006 and 2007.
  • Customer behavior has been altered for the short-term and perhaps longer. Those who experienced the Great Depression saw their purchasing habits altered for many years and often their entire lives.
  • Trust will be critical for your success today and tomorrow.

The question that remains is what you will do about it. A matter of trust is a matter of survival.

Randy Pennington is author of Results Rule! Build a Culture that Blows the Competition Away. He helps leaders build cultures committed to results, relationships, and accountability. For additional information or to schedule Randy for your organization: contact via telephone at 972.980.9857; e-mail at Mary@penningtongroup.com; or on the Internet at http://www.penningtongroup.com or http://www.resultsrule.com. Your comments are encouraged. Please send your ideas to Randy@penningtongroup.com.

©2009 by Pennington Performance Group; Addison, TX. All rights reserved. This article may be downloaded for personal and professional development. Copies may be shared within an individual organization. All other uses of this material are strictly prohibited without written permission from the author.

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Like What You See Here?

If you like what you see on the Sales and Sales Management Blog, I encourage you to either:

Save it to your RSS Reader

or

Subscribe to my POWER SELLING newsletter where twice each month you’ll get a full length article designed to help you increase your and/or your sales team’s sales.  Just shoot me an email at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with “subscribe” in the subject line and your name and email address in the body and I’ll get you subcribed, and since I hate SPAM as much as you do, I’ll never sell, lease, rent or give your information to anyone—EVER.

May 1, 2009

Is Being Liked by Your Prospects Really Important?

Filed under: Client Relationships,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 9:13 am
Tags: , , ,

“There’s nothing in this world more important in sales than being liked by your prospect.”

“A prospect won’t listen to you unless they like you, so if you can’t get them on your side, you can’t create a sale.”

“If they like you, they may listen to you.  If they’ll listen to you, you may be able to get them to trust you.  If they trust you, they just might buy from you . . . .  Everything positive in the sale starts with them liking you, everything negative starts with them not liking you.”

These three statements about being liked were made by three top sales trainers.  Being liked must be the lynchpin to success in selling, right? 

I’ve attended numerous sales workshops and seminars, listened to a great many CD’s, and read dozens of books that all emphasize the critical nature of being liked by prospects and clients. 

On the positive side it is claimed that being liked:

  • opens doors
  • lowers prospect’s defenses
  • makes them want to say yes to please you
  • allows them to trust you

On the negative side they claim that if you aren’t liked prospects:

  • won’t believe you
  • will be suspect of your intentions
  • won’t give you full cooperation

Sounds like being liked really is the key to sales success.

Except it isn’t.

Certainly, being liked is a great asset and by all means we should do all within reason to be liked by our prospects and clients.

But being liked takes a backseat to being trusted and respected.

I suspect that you, like me, have heard many comments such as: “He drives me crazy and is one of the hardest people I know to get along with, but I wouldn’t trust my money to anyone else,” or, “I have to have my assistant deal with him because I just can’t deal with him.  I’d really love to find someone I can work with, but by gosh when he says something I can take it to the bank, and that’s worth a whole lot more than having to put up with him.”

I’ve seen thousands of situations where the salesperson and client weren’t friendly, much less friends; where the client didn’t like the salesperson but was eager to do business with them because they had earned the prospect’s trust.

We work in a profession that has a reputation for being less than honest—for being downright dishonest.  Many, if not all, of our prospects have had numerous bad experiences with salespeople.  They’ve been lied to, ripped off, and taken advantage of to the point they not only have erected a protective wall between themselves, they’ve also dug a mote and stocked it with crocodiles.  They try to avoid us if at all possible, and when they do have to deal with us, they expect us to lie, cheat, and try to screw them to the wall.

Your prospects have met the eminently likeable rip-off artist, the oh so likeable liar, the loveable conman; and as far as they know, you’re him, and if you are, well, that’s just par for the course when dealing with salespeople.

Prospects aren’t surprised to find likable salespeople whom they don’t trust.  That’s the norm.  They even buy from them because they can’t find someone they do trust.  And if you’re going to buy from someone you don’t trust, why not buy from the one you like?

No, being liked isn’t the key to sales success.

But if your prospects find likeable salespeople all around them that they don’t trust, what would happen if they found a salesperson they did trust?  They’d probably react in the same way as those quoted above—they’d be overjoyed to deal with them even if they didn’t like them.

Trust (real trust, not the shallow trust salespeople try to create by faking interest in the prospect by asking a couple of personal questions to find—or fake—common ground upon which to build likeability) is difficult to build and once built, easy to wreck. 

Although trust is one of the most difficult bridges to build with a client, it is the glue that builds lasting clients. 

Charles H. Green has developed an equation for measuring trust.  In the equation, Trust equals Credibility plus Reliability plus Intimacy divided by Self-orientation.  Although all four factors are important, in a sense the self-orientation is the most important.  The salesperson’s focus, whether on the prospect’s interests or on their own self interest, is the key factor in establishing trust.

By all means strive to be liked, but work to establish trust. 

Trust establishes clients and brings in business, being liked makes it more enjoyable.

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