Boer, Bore, Boar, Boor, Bored, Board, Bawd, Baud

Of all the sins a writer or speaker can commit, which is the worst?  Is it resolutely steering well clear of the subject indicated by the title or headline?  Is it being patronising, insulting, embarrassing, obscene, racist, or in some other way not politically correct? Is it communicating entirely in jargon, which might just as well be an obscure central Gondwanaland dialect for all you can understand?

Whilst I dislike to a greater or lesser degree being on the receiving end of any of these, I believe the biggest sin is that of being downright BORING!

Some research in the UK a few years ago showed that Engineering students had a higher boredom threshold than Psychology students.  Of course that wasn't the published conclusion, seeing that the research was carried out in the Psychology department of a leading British University!  What was claimed was that Psychology students "had a more highly developed social awareness"!  A highly measurable quantity, undoubtedly!

The actual 'yardstick' used in this research was to secretly observe the students and count how many times each one yawned!  People have earned PhDs for this sort of stuff, you know!

Maybe there's room to create a new international unit, the 'Winch', as a measure of boredom, equivalent to one unprovoked yawn per minute.  I say unprovoked because we all know yawning is highly contagious.

Do let me know your thoughts.

So, given that you might well end up writing for or speaking to, people who are more psychologist than engineer, how can you avoid being BORING?

Maybe you can adopt the principles I used when writing this piece.

• Know/consider your audience/readers.  The top tip is to make sure it comes across that you, the writer/speaker, care about the subject.  Think about what the subject really means to you.  If the answer is nothing, you may want to question whether or not to write the article or give the speech.



• The second tip is to ensure that you are writing or speaking this in the certain knowledge that the audience cares about the subject.  This is a simple extension of knowing your audience but knowing extends much further than simply knowing in which section of Yellow Pages they can be found!



• Ask the audience/readers a question, read them a quote, or tell them a story - whichever it is, be pertinent.  Engaging your audience in some way helps them to feel involved, which is a good way of minimising their boredom.  If you are giving a speech, it is a good relaxation technique for you.  After all, once you have handled the random answers they may give to your question, you can steer the talk back to where you want to be, confident that you now have a 'downhill ride' to the end.  And if it's not really the occasion for audience participation, even a rhetorical question can get them thinking, and so being less bored.



• Be creative - combine different media, or mix and match long paragraphs, short paragraphs, prose, speech, and bullet points - but don't get 'typeface diarrhoea'!  Change for change's sake is distracting and thus boring, but monotony is also boring!  Literally the word means single-tone, but common usage has invested it with far more of the 'boring' than its origin would suggest.



• Use 'white space' - pause, literally or metaphorically to let your words sink in.  You need to breathe as you speak, but people also need to 'breathe' as they read and listen.  Give them time for the mental 'action replay', so they can understand and follow you more readily.



• Think of the 'big picture' - You will be aiming to get the audience or readership to 'do' something, so make sure you lead up to it.  A 'lead in' without a 'call to action' is just as bad as the unexpected surprise of a call to action without a lead in.  In neither case will any action get taken!



• Use humour if it (the situation) is appropriate and if it (the humour) is appropriate.  Humour can be a valuable aid in making a strong point but don't 'recycle' the humour.  Tell your own stories from your own experience - They're harder to steal for a start! - Write and speak from the heart, and if the real you is humorous, this will come through.  No stand-up comic would ever say, "I've got this really great joke", so why should you.



• If you're actually giving a speech, be confident - Most young children are confident public speakers but then later something goes wrong!  One way back for adults is to practise.  Confidence comes from practise, not further study.



• Above all, be yourself!

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Recognising Buying Signals

In our society we're not very good at saying either, "Great!  I'd really like to buy this from you, NOW, PLEEEEEASE!" or, "It's probably OK but not for me!  I don't want it, I don't need it, I doubt if I ever will, and if I did I wouldn't buy it from you, certainly not on those terms!"

Unless of course, you're an Auctioneer, when people will either scratch their nose, pull their ear, wink, nod, wave their hand or a piece of paper, shout, even wave a numbered ping-pong bat at you.  Or else they'll keep still and quiet and do and say nothing.

You have to be 'tuned in', alert and looking out for the 'Buying Signals' that people use instead.  It is hugely important to spot and react appropriately to buying signals.  In fact it can be positively harmful to your business if you don't.

You should respond to a Buying Signal by making suggestions!  If the signal took the form of a question, answer it briefly, but move straight away into making suggestions.

These signals can be misinterpreted so you have to be careful.  The prospect may just be seeking clarification, but at least they are still 'playing ball' with you.  And you have to be aware of what it is they're signalling they're ready to buy!

You need to react immediately to Buying Signals.  These signals can and do go away as quickly as they appear.  If you don't change tack and respond to buying signals by making suggestions, and instead keep 'presenting', it's very likely that you'll talk yourself out of an order that was there for the taking.  Any information you give to a prospect after they've decided to buy from you begins to give them reasons to change their minds.

Then there are the 'Not-Buying Signals'.  You need to be even more alert for these as you don't want to waste your time chasing 'browsers'; you want to be chasing 'buyers' instead!  As you seek appointments or follow up enquiries, you need to sort out the buyers from the browsers, and then lavish your attention on the buyers.  You need easy wins, not hard fought victories (rare piece of military analogy!).

Let the very way in which you prospect help you weed out the non-buyers.  People look in trade directories because they need a tradesman, not to while away a rainy afternoon!  People who buy from suppliers of complementary services to your own need you to add value to their original purchase.  If you have a website and use pay-per-click advertising, choose keywords that are buying queries, not browsing queries!

Types of Buying Signal
Buying Signals can be verbal or non-verbal; they can be questions or they can be statements.  They might even be playing, "If .... then ...." with you.  The verbal signals fall into several categories.  In many cases they can be worded either way.  The most commonly met are the first two, but they are all important signals to be looked out for.

• Repeating a question that has already been fully answered, and generally acknowledging that it has been - "How much did you say it costs?" - Be aware that if it's said in shocked surprise and incredulity, it's a cue for more probing!


• Picturing themselves working with you - "I could see you on a Thursday" - "How often would we need to meet face to face?" - "We'll need to involve Janet"


• Asking for a sample that's not necessarily free - "Can I try it for a month and see if it works?" - "I'll need to see it in action"


• Making positive noises - "That sound really good" - "Who could say no to that?"


• Asking 'chicken' questions - "What will happen if it doesn't produce results?"


• Any statement or question about money - We don't need examples here.  Even if they say it's overpriced, to have got to the top of their priority stack, these comments or questions say they want to buy.


• Asking questions about details - "Which of my people will be directly involved?" - "What exactly will you be doing?"


• Any statement or question about timing - "When can we start?" - "It'll have to be next week" - "Can't we do it in four weeks instead of five?" - "I'm tied up until Thursday" - If this type of signal arrives as a question, you can legitimately avoid answering it by asking back, "When would be best for you?"


• Asking for your professional guidance or opinion - "What do you think would be best?" - "What would you do if you were me?"


• Asking a colleague who's in the room - "What do you think?" - They've decided but they just want confirmation that they're not being daft.


• Mentioning a negative experience with a previous supplier - "Everyone I've tried has been useless!" - These types of comment are actually cues for more probing


• Asking for references or for a personal contact with a satisfied client - Again no examples needed.  It's effectively a no-brainer!  Again they just want confirmation that they're not being daft.


• This leads us on to no-brainers of the 'sledgehammer' variety! - "What happens first/next?" - "Where do I sign?" - "We've looked at other suppliers and we like you best" - "Here's our Purchase Order" - Or they may start to negotiate - "Would you accept £4,000?"

Then there are the non-verbal signals

• Spending time concentrating on just one of your products


• Asking/looking for help


• Touching their wallet or its contents, or their chequebook - Literally or metaphorically


• Changes of body state - Relaxing, moving stance, gestures, skin tone, style of speech


• Getting out their pen - Literally or metaphorically

Types of Not-Buying Signal - Maybe it's time to move on

• Unwillingness to trade commitments - At least unwilling to make their own in return for yours


• Your calls, messages and e-mails go unanswered


• "I really like your suggestion but I need to ........ before we can go ahead"


• Avoiding eye contact when you meet


• "We'd really like you to help us but we just need a bit more time/have some other priorities to deal with first"


• 'Playing' with your product, or looking at many without ever concentrating on one


• Physically moving around a lot, quickly

So what should you do here?  There could be legitimate reasons outside your control, but largely there won't be.  We Brits are just hesitant about coming out with the truth!

You should confirm your interpretation - Ask further probing questions.  You can even ask, "Did we do something wrong?"  This can even be your voicemail, SMS or e-mail when earlier messages have gone unanswered.

Then either leave well alone or make some more enlightened suggestions.

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Why All Medallists Have Coaches

Like competing at sport, setting up and running your own business can be a great, but rewarding challenge.  But, when it comes to your business results, will you be glad just to have been selected to represent your country, or glad to have made it to the Olympic final, or is a medal the least you will be satisfied with?

If you were an athlete and not a business owner, how would you try to ensure that you at least won a medal?

It doesn't take much research to discover that all the great athletes were helped to achieve what they did by their coaches.  In fact Sir Steve, Sir Matthew, Dame Kelly, Dame Tanni, Sir Chris and the others simply couldn't have done it without their coaches.

Could the same be possible in business?  You bet it could!

Even the non-athletes among us know, I am sure, that sportsmen and women need to train for their event.  They need to incorporate a mixture of strength, fitness and stamina work, as well as skill, into their training regime.  How would they get on if they did this all themselves; unaided, unobserved and with no feedback?

I suspect that actually, at the highest level, they would make a pretty good fist of it for a few days, even weeks.  I am certain that self-motivation is no problem whatsoever for these elite stars.  Along the way they will have learned what mixture of exercises make up a top-class training programme, so they can plan their forthcoming schedule without assistance.  They will know what 'doing it right' feels like and be able to sense when they are starting to fall short of their best.  They will undoubtedly have the ability to 'shout at themselves' and not need the coach's voice in their ears.  But would they ever dream of dispensing with all coaching?  Would they ever!

Is the same true in business?  Do the Bannatynes, the Bransons, the Roddicks and the Sugars know how to plan and run a business, and make it hugely successful, without any outside help.  Of course they do, or did in the case of the late Dame Anita.  Does this mean business and sport are different?

In spite of this evidence, I actually believe they aren't that different.  I have talked about top class athletes and top flight entrepreneurs, but how did they get to the top in the first place?

If your school days were anything like mine, whatever your sporting achievements, until you were maybe ten years old you were unlikely to have had much input from a teacher, except to explain the rules of the game.  You probably didn't train either; you just 'played'.

But from then on, it is highly likely that someone was advising you on how you might do better.  And maybe around this time your world polarised into those who enjoyed and were good at sport, and those who'd rather do any anything else but games and PE.  The good got better and progressed through club and county level to become the international representatives we discussed earlier.

I think this model is exactly duplicated in business, in the early stages of this part of a business owner's career.  To start with some people just play at it, copying what the others do and discovering whether it really is as enjoyable as they thought it might be.  But then what?

Can the ones who find excitement and enjoyment in running their own business get better and bigger on their own?  My own research amongst Business Advisers is that the ones who make the biggest strides forward are the ones who have taken the decision to employ the services of a professional business coach.

Returning finally to the elite sporting personalities we looked at earlier, I said they could not have achieved what they did without the help of their coaches.  What I am equally sure is that the coaches could not have gone out there and won Olympic medals themselves, at least not at the time they were coaching their protégés to do so, even if they had been top performers themselves in the past.

So don't necessarily expect your business coach to be a better entrepreneur than you are trying to be.  It may just be that their skill is in helping others to succeed.  This skill might just be knowing all of the questions, and not necessarily knowing all of the answers.  Just like the sports coach, all they can really do is help their clients help themselves, and at this they are supremely skilful.

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The Most Important Thing To Get Right

I am sometimes asked what is the one most important thing to get right in Sales and Marketing.  Is it my logo, my website, my brochure?  Is it my database, my networking, my web presence?  Is it my negotiation skills, my contact management system, my objection handling?

In my experience, the one thing that stands out above all others - and this view is being continually reinforced - the one thing upon which all the others are built, is this:

You absolutely must be able to articulate clearly and succinctly what you do, who you do it for, and the good they get from it.

This is sometimes called an Elevator Pitch, and is often done poorly.  But really it is easy to do it well.

Other people must be able to recognise one of your ideal customers, either someone they know or maybe even themselves.  If you can't or don't provide them with a definition against which to make this judgement, how can you ever expect them to find anyone for you?  And you must be as specific as you can.  How can we pick just one or two if you say you do anything for anybody and you're diversifying?

You need to define your ideal customer in terms that require little or no initial interaction.  What I mean is, if you say your ideal customers are 'worried about their cash flow', I doubt anyone would discover this without talking to them.  Whilst this knowledge is important, and I will return to the thought in a moment, you need to communicate 'search criteria' that rely on information in the public domain.  So, working with 'accountancy practices of up to thirty partners', would fit the bill nicely.

Not all of your ideal customers will need your products or services every day of every year so, having identified examples of your ideal customer, these 'prospect seekers' need to be able to then recognise which have the sort of problem that you are an expert at fixing.  However, as in medicine, we often only see the symptoms and have to explore to identify the underlying disease.

You need to provide your prospectors with examples of the sorts of symptoms which, amongst your ideal customers, often point to problems you can fix.  At this stage they can start to suggest that they know someone who could relieve these symptoms by fixing the problem that's causing them.

Because you have given them examples, the prospectors are able to suggest that no longer suffering the pain that the problem is causing would be of considerable value.

Then, when they say to a contact of theirs, "You really need to talk to my friend John or Jenny about this; I'll get them to call you," you know you will be getting a high quality referral.

Knowing your ideal customers, the problems they are likely to be having, the pains they will suffering because of these problems, the comfort and value that will result from no longer having to endure these pains, and why yours is the best method (in the circumstances) for addressing the problem, you can start to construct your Elevator Pitch.

I should add here that this information is not only vital for preparing your response to "What do you do?"  It is the basis of all of your branding messages, however they are communicated.

I believe you actually need several elevator pitches: 60 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 breath, 1 word or phrase - all have their place.  And for the longer ones you may well need different versions depending on whether you are training your surrogate sales team - networking - or actually talking to a prospect - selling - yourself.

Practically you'll have to start long, then distil and refine.  You just won't get it right starting short and trying to expand.  You'll need to test and measure to see if your messages are coming across, and being received and understood.

One possible template for a longer elevator pitch is:

I work with (ideal customers) who (widely held problem) which means that (widely suffered pain).  I help them (pain relief) so that they (life without pain).

An alternative opening might be:

You know how (ideal customers) are always (widely held problem) which means that ......

Both are much better than:

I'm a (what it says on your business card)

Good luck!


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