I am making a huge leap of faith here. I am going to assume that you don't want to be viewed as being dull and boring! Or do you think you will be better liked and stand more chance of getting referrals if you are? Was I right? I sincerely hope so.
If people aren't already telling you that you're one of the most interesting and friendly people in the room, then you might want to do something about it.
Back in summer 2009 there was a lot of talk about a Swine Flu epidemic, but why do you suppose are there only epidemics of bad things? Epidemic actually means 'a larger number of cases than expected', so how might you create an epidemic of people who think you're interesting?
Some of the ideas discussed in my 'Pricing By Value' Workshop are definitely applicable here.
To be interesting and memorable you must provide what the other person regards as valuable, for a very reasonable investment on their part, and receive in return something you rate highly profitable. This applies whether you are meeting someone for the first time or re-encountering an old friend.
Taking the second of these ideas first, you may think the reasonable investment will consist of the other person taking the time to listen to you tell your tale - so you'd better not take too long. But this is very 'me-centred' and is time-based, and thus cost-based. How would it be if the other person's 'reasonable investment' was taking the offered (by you) opportunity to tell you about their business? To recruit you into their surrogate sales team and train you? Wouldn't this show you to be 'interested'? Surely this is one of the components of being 'interesting'.
This takes us back to the first idea above. One value outcome for the other person would be to have recruited and trained a new salesperson. Additional value may have been perceived through your probing questioning, where you ensured you fully understood their market and product, which has helped them understand it more too and hence become better able to explain it to others in future. But how might this be profitable for you?
By behaving in this way, which is so unlike the way most people behave, you are seen as being highly memorable by being highly interesting as well as highly interested! But this won't be the end of the encounter. Having derived so much value from you, the other person will feel obliged to reciprocate, and if they don't you may wish to do a little prompting.
Now their 'reasonable investment' is listening to you, so reply in a way that answers some of the questions you have recently asked them. Do resist though, the temptation to do this without a break. Part of the value to the other person is being allowed the opportunity to practise the questioning skills they have just heard you use, knowing how nice is was to be treated in this way.
Their value outcome this time results from their very clear understanding of how you help your customers, who they are, and the good they get out of you doing so. The fact that they can add to their own value to their clients by bringing you in when appropriate is part of this value. And your profit this time is in having another well-trained member of your sales team.
Of course it's possible to swap 'you' and 'other person' in all of this and it reads just as well, and is just as true! Genuinely win-win I'd say.
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get your FREE Sales and Marketing coaching taster call.
Showing posts with label trustworthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trustworthy. Show all posts
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Can Your Team Really Ever Be A Team?
Previously I've used sporting analogies to talk about business folk in general and then Sales people in particular. This time I'm returning to business people generally, though maybe with a slight bias towards Marketing and Sales.
Let me ask you, is a sporting analogy appropriate in every instance? Or is it true that every group of people striving to reach a common goal is a team?
Is the Three Musketeers' cry of, "All for one, and one for all" appropriate all the time?
In your Sales team or your Marketing team, do you view your colleagues as team-mates or competitors? If you get an order, does this mean that one of your colleagues hasn't got it, or have you only deprived a competitor company of the business?
If one of the team achieves what they set out to do, is this seen throughout the organisation as the team achieving what the team set out to do? Or does the reverse apply, where the individual may have reached their goal but the rest of the team are seen not to have reached theirs yet?
Let's look at this from a sporting perspective. If a rugby player scores a try, the team gets the points. If players from the same team score many more tries than the opposition, the team gets lots of points and, in the absence of penalties, the first team win the match. This then is definitely a team sport.
If a racing driver starts from pole position and stays in the lead until the chequered flag, or has passed all the cars that are in front of them by the end of the race, they are the winner, but is it a victory for a team or an individual? Of course it is a victory for a team! All the 'supporting cast' will have had to play their parts to perfection too for their driver to cross the finishing line in first place.
In fact it would be hard, if not impossible, to think of any sport that isn't a team sport, even if there is only one performing athlete in the mix.
Back in business though, things can be subtly different. The skill sets and the rewards structure may be such that one person can meet their target and be rewarded, whilst another doesn't and so doesn't get rewarded. They may well be part of a group who all report to the same person, but compared with our sports example, they don't appear to be a team, however the office jargon may describe them.
So how should we describe that group? A useful alternative in this case is to call them a 'Committee'. A team is where all win or no-one wins; the team's performance matters more than individuals' performances. A committee is where one person can win but others can lose. If you have a committee, the sports analogies actually ring very hollow, especially those about team spirit!
Is your team focused on short-term goals, as with a sports team, with importance and intensity characterising the members' behaviour - a desire to win the current game - or not? Do they give their all for today and let their position in the league table take care of itself? Are the elements of competition and results strong in your 'team'?
Most business scenarios do not have this same degree of short term intensity. Instead they are complex and there are obscure links between cause and effect. Even in competitive industries, many of the people in one organisation never get to meet their competitors, and the evidence of the results of their work is usually not as strong as in a sports team. Many cannot see how their individual efforts contribute to the overall result.
If only the 'team' behaved more like a team, there may be more to be gained from these analogies. A relay squad knows its job it to get the baton to the finishing line, but that only the runner on the anchor leg will actually cross the line with the baton. Good communication, the mutual trust to pass clients from expert to expert as their needs change throughout the sales process, and the knowledge that the only thing that matters is the order, not who gets it, would stand many business teams in a lot stronger position.
We need to use sporting analogies with care here then. Plus, there will be people in your organisation who hate sports, for whom competition is anathema, and indiscriminate sports analogies will alienate those people, not include them.
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get a FREE review of your Sales and Marketing activities.
Let me ask you, is a sporting analogy appropriate in every instance? Or is it true that every group of people striving to reach a common goal is a team?
Is the Three Musketeers' cry of, "All for one, and one for all" appropriate all the time?
In your Sales team or your Marketing team, do you view your colleagues as team-mates or competitors? If you get an order, does this mean that one of your colleagues hasn't got it, or have you only deprived a competitor company of the business?
If one of the team achieves what they set out to do, is this seen throughout the organisation as the team achieving what the team set out to do? Or does the reverse apply, where the individual may have reached their goal but the rest of the team are seen not to have reached theirs yet?
Let's look at this from a sporting perspective. If a rugby player scores a try, the team gets the points. If players from the same team score many more tries than the opposition, the team gets lots of points and, in the absence of penalties, the first team win the match. This then is definitely a team sport.
If a racing driver starts from pole position and stays in the lead until the chequered flag, or has passed all the cars that are in front of them by the end of the race, they are the winner, but is it a victory for a team or an individual? Of course it is a victory for a team! All the 'supporting cast' will have had to play their parts to perfection too for their driver to cross the finishing line in first place.
In fact it would be hard, if not impossible, to think of any sport that isn't a team sport, even if there is only one performing athlete in the mix.
Back in business though, things can be subtly different. The skill sets and the rewards structure may be such that one person can meet their target and be rewarded, whilst another doesn't and so doesn't get rewarded. They may well be part of a group who all report to the same person, but compared with our sports example, they don't appear to be a team, however the office jargon may describe them.
So how should we describe that group? A useful alternative in this case is to call them a 'Committee'. A team is where all win or no-one wins; the team's performance matters more than individuals' performances. A committee is where one person can win but others can lose. If you have a committee, the sports analogies actually ring very hollow, especially those about team spirit!
Is your team focused on short-term goals, as with a sports team, with importance and intensity characterising the members' behaviour - a desire to win the current game - or not? Do they give their all for today and let their position in the league table take care of itself? Are the elements of competition and results strong in your 'team'?
Most business scenarios do not have this same degree of short term intensity. Instead they are complex and there are obscure links between cause and effect. Even in competitive industries, many of the people in one organisation never get to meet their competitors, and the evidence of the results of their work is usually not as strong as in a sports team. Many cannot see how their individual efforts contribute to the overall result.
If only the 'team' behaved more like a team, there may be more to be gained from these analogies. A relay squad knows its job it to get the baton to the finishing line, but that only the runner on the anchor leg will actually cross the line with the baton. Good communication, the mutual trust to pass clients from expert to expert as their needs change throughout the sales process, and the knowledge that the only thing that matters is the order, not who gets it, would stand many business teams in a lot stronger position.
We need to use sporting analogies with care here then. Plus, there will be people in your organisation who hate sports, for whom competition is anathema, and indiscriminate sports analogies will alienate those people, not include them.
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get a FREE review of your Sales and Marketing activities.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Succeeding In Spite of Yourself
What does it mean to shoot yourself in the foot? Is it that you're not just aiming too low, you're aiming so dangerously low that your foot is in the sights as you pull the trigger? Or is it what the military call a 'negligent discharge'? Have you accidentally pulled the trigger while your gun is still in its holster, muzzle downwards?
Whichever you prefer, the common thread is carelessly, stupidly, naïvely doing something that causes you pain and delay, and does you more harm than good.
I have come across many examples of businesses shooting themselves in the foot, so I thought I'd list some pitfalls for you to recognise and avoid. You can imagine a (falsely) reasoned argument in favour of each of these. I believe the counter argument carries far more weight in each case.
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get your FREE Sales and Marketing coaching taster call.
Whichever you prefer, the common thread is carelessly, stupidly, naïvely doing something that causes you pain and delay, and does you more harm than good.
I have come across many examples of businesses shooting themselves in the foot, so I thought I'd list some pitfalls for you to recognise and avoid. You can imagine a (falsely) reasoned argument in favour of each of these. I believe the counter argument carries far more weight in each case.
- Selling to the wrong people
Don't push your business on everyone you meet! Know how to identify your ideal customer. It's a waste of time trying to sell to people who simply don't need what you're offering. - Selling the wrong product
Don't assume all your ideal customers want what you are selling! Even if you believe they need it, they have to want it before you can sell it to them. It's a waste of time trying to sell to people who don't even need what you're offering. - Forgetting your Unique Selling Point(s) - USP(s)
You must offer more than just items of value to the ideal customers. You must give them good reasons to buy from you rather than your competitors. You must consistently tell them why you and your products are uniquely placed to help them. - Failing to focus on value creation
Customers only want to buy from you because the value they get from the purchase far outweighs the value of the money they have to part with to do so. If you don't create value for them, in their minds, they will see no need to purchase. - Haphazard Marketing
You need a Marketing strategy that covers all areas of the customers' long-term relationships with your business - From them first finding out you exist, to them telling all their friends how good you are! - Ignoring the only three ways to grow a business
Getting more people, to spend more, more often - These three 'mores' are the only three ways to grow a business. You must balance your efforts to increase each factor according to your market and the needs of your business. - Ignoring repeat business
The third 'more'! - You need to keep your customers aware of your existence, and have the 'more' there for them to buy - Ignoring Up-Selling
The second 'more'! - You need to offer products or services that are complementary to the things the customers initially wanted to buy - Only advertising when you need Customers
The first 'more'! - This is the one people usually focus on to the exclusion of the others. "We need more sales so how can we find more new customers?" Advertising isn't the only form of promotion, and promotion should be an on-going activity. - Not tracking results
Not even the 'experts' can accurately predict what will work for you and what won't. You have to test and measure each Marketing activity. You have to know what produced what. Then, if it doesn't work, drop it. But if it does work, do more of it! - Not following things through
If you're like most, you'll have many, many things you'd like to try. Don't waste time and money starting something that you can't follow through. - Running an advert only once
If you fix your 'haphazard Marketing', you'll be aware that people need to be given several opportunities to fully absorb your messages. If your promotional activity doesn't produce results first time, it's probably never been given the chance! - Copying the Competition
Do what you need to do because you know that you need to do it. Believe me, all your competitors could easily be making the same foolish mistake! Quite possibly because they all followed blindly! - Trying to save where it counts
Don't try to save money in places where it shows. When it comes to what your customers can see, you should spend whatever it takes to get everything looking right. - Spending too much money, unwisely
Your business should put cash into your pocket, so before you invest money into it, be clear on how you're going to pull that cash back out again - Spending too little money
Equally, don't be miserly and don't let frugality get in the way of efficiency. Take advantage of skilled outsiders who can do certain tasks more efficiently than you can. - Going against your intuition
While you might think that logic is the language of business, that's far from the truth. If you base all your business deals on hard logic and ignore your intuition, you'll get hurt! - Being too formal
Business is built on relationships and human beings don't want to build relationships with faceless corporations. They only want relationships with other human beings, so build rapport and relax formality as appropriate. - Failing to optimize
You can't simply focus on creating value, and imagine the rest will take care of itself. As a business owner, you need to find a way to deliver your value in a cost effective way. - Not collecting your money on time
Collecting money from people can be hard, so collect a substantial portion of the money first before you provide anything. When it comes to debt-collecting, if you act like you don't need the money, you'll never get paid!
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get your FREE Sales and Marketing coaching taster call.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Recruit And Train Your Sales Team
One of your reasons for attending a Networking meeting should be to recruit and train members of your surrogate sales team. You are lucky if you can sell to someone in the room; you need to have them and their address books selling for you. Pretty obviously they'll have no idea how to do this and no motivation to try, until you have told them.
Coupled with another of your reasons for attending - the ability to meet and get to know strangers - this means that 'recruitment' will be on your agenda. Please be careful! Don't try to rush into 'induction training' too early, and don't neglect further training for existing team members. People who already know you, what you do and who you do it for, can be re-invigorated by some pertinent Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Assuming you've broken the ice, established some rapport and are starting to enjoy each other's company, there is some pretty fundamental stuff you need to communicate, and then be sure has been received, understood and stored.
You can also use these same 'headings' when someone is recruiting and training you into their surrogate sales team. If you don't understand these things about them and their business, you won't be an effective member of their team, so don't be afraid of letting them know you haven't quite got the full picture. They will thank you for letting them help you be a better ambassador for their organisation, and they might just get better at explaining themselves in the future. You will need to know:
Neither of you is trying to get the other to sell their product or service for them! What what both of you want the other to do is gain permission to broker an introduction, and then do so.
The sales training you do with your team on these occasions can be similar to training a 'regular', employed sales team.
Again the best could get even better. Modelling the best is just a starting point, a benchmark, a springboard, so accept ideas from anywhere.
Just as with a 'regular' team, you need to encourage communication within the team and with 'management'. Encourage discussion of difficulties and have systems in place for team members to debate specific issues amongst themselves as well as with you.
As well as understanding prospects' problems and circumstances, all the team must be able to access the information which allows them to understand your problems and your circumstances. By this I mean that they need to know the questions you (management) will ask as part of monitoring their performance, so they will have asked their own questions of the prospect and have answers ready for you. They will be able to monitor their own performance against these well-publicised and understood rules too. Bi-directional feedback will be of great help in resolving any bottlenecks.
For your surrogate team, out there prospecting on your behalf, processes and later developments of them will only work if the team 'buy into' them. Your surrogate team need to feel listened to, the processes need to make sense, and they need to be extremely simple to follow.
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get a FREE review of your Sales and Marketing activities.
Coupled with another of your reasons for attending - the ability to meet and get to know strangers - this means that 'recruitment' will be on your agenda. Please be careful! Don't try to rush into 'induction training' too early, and don't neglect further training for existing team members. People who already know you, what you do and who you do it for, can be re-invigorated by some pertinent Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Assuming you've broken the ice, established some rapport and are starting to enjoy each other's company, there is some pretty fundamental stuff you need to communicate, and then be sure has been received, understood and stored.
You can also use these same 'headings' when someone is recruiting and training you into their surrogate sales team. If you don't understand these things about them and their business, you won't be an effective member of their team, so don't be afraid of letting them know you haven't quite got the full picture. They will thank you for letting them help you be a better ambassador for their organisation, and they might just get better at explaining themselves in the future. You will need to know:
- How to identify their Ideal Customers, using only public domain information - e.g. 10 to 40 person accountancy practices within 30 miles of Cambridge
- What 'symptoms' to look out for when you encounter one - e.g. Suffering from cash-flow problems
- How to check these really are symptoms of a 'disease' they can cure - e.g. They can only fix some of these personally: Low sales? Unprofitable sales? Excessive debtor days? High overheads? Inefficient staff and/or procedures?
- How to explain how wonderful life would be without these symptoms
- How to indirectly establish enough credibility for them, to allow contact
Neither of you is trying to get the other to sell their product or service for them! What what both of you want the other to do is gain permission to broker an introduction, and then do so.
The sales training you do with your team on these occasions can be similar to training a 'regular', employed sales team.
- Some members of the team will be performing better than others, so study and analyse what they do, and share the ideas with the rest of the team
- Make study and analysis a continual activity, not a one-off fait accompli
- Best practice has to constantly evolve - something new might make the best even better
- Best practice may need to adapt rapidly to sudden changes in the market
- Don't neglect the 'tried and tested' techniques that new recruits can adopt, without fear of your (management's) disapproval
- Ask the entire team for ideas - "What's working for you right now?"
Again the best could get even better. Modelling the best is just a starting point, a benchmark, a springboard, so accept ideas from anywhere.
Just as with a 'regular' team, you need to encourage communication within the team and with 'management'. Encourage discussion of difficulties and have systems in place for team members to debate specific issues amongst themselves as well as with you.
As well as understanding prospects' problems and circumstances, all the team must be able to access the information which allows them to understand your problems and your circumstances. By this I mean that they need to know the questions you (management) will ask as part of monitoring their performance, so they will have asked their own questions of the prospect and have answers ready for you. They will be able to monitor their own performance against these well-publicised and understood rules too. Bi-directional feedback will be of great help in resolving any bottlenecks.
For your surrogate team, out there prospecting on your behalf, processes and later developments of them will only work if the team 'buy into' them. Your surrogate team need to feel listened to, the processes need to make sense, and they need to be extremely simple to follow.
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get a FREE review of your Sales and Marketing activities.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
You Can't Do Everything For Everybody
One of the crucial rules of marketing is that you're almost certain to fail if your strategy is to take a small slice of a large cake. The idea sounds so plausible, doesn't it! We must be able to take 1% and make a decent living for ourselves, mustn't we! The trouble is it just doesn't work like that.
You might still fail, but you'll have a greater likelihood of success if you change your plans and aim to take a dominant slice of a different cake.
Imagine you've decided to take 1% of the illegal drugs supply into London. Do you think you'll survive - and I mean that quite literally - your first day? Will you even still be alive to enjoy your first coffee break?
You need a different strategy. Either you and 10,000 heavily armed friends can go for 99% of London, or you aim to be the exclusive supplier to one addict. Either way you have to plan to dominate.
You have to focus on a specific, under-served market niche if you want to be really successful. Find a niche and carve out a reputation for yourself as the expert in that field. A common mistake is to develop the niche product before establishing whether the niche market exists, and whether it's buying.
In their book "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing", Al Ries and Jack Trout list as their first two laws:
To find your own niche ideas, start by getting into the habit of writing down your ideas as you have them. Don't try to filter anything out at this stage. So, where to look for ideas?
Expanding on this last point, if you can marry two diverse ideas, 2 plus 2 can often equal 5! For example:
You can take an existing product and try to think of ridiculous ways to make it work. Trevor Bayliss combined the electronics of a radio receiver with the mechanism from a wind-up clock to create the clockwork radio.
You can make unlikely pairings of businesses or people and create the most superb results; an idea particularly used in music:- Stéphane Grapelli and Yehudi Menuhin, Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé, Luciano Pavarotti and U2. Or in business, the car maker Mercedes Benz and watchmaker Swatch combined to create the Smartcar
You can take two everyday products and create a third which has a whole new market:- A trolley and a dustbin make a wheelie bin; a copier and a telephone make a fax machine.
It isn't always easy to create a new category. In the field of human endeavour, we're all different, so you'd think that would be simple, but after a while it starts to get ridiculous. I can't imagine the Guiness Book of Records having a category for the first left-handed pilot with red hair to fly solo across the Atlantic!
The irony is that when someone else finds a new niche, we all say, "Why didn't I think of that?"
Discover how to get your FREE review of your Sales and Marketing activities.
You might still fail, but you'll have a greater likelihood of success if you change your plans and aim to take a dominant slice of a different cake.
Imagine you've decided to take 1% of the illegal drugs supply into London. Do you think you'll survive - and I mean that quite literally - your first day? Will you even still be alive to enjoy your first coffee break?
You need a different strategy. Either you and 10,000 heavily armed friends can go for 99% of London, or you aim to be the exclusive supplier to one addict. Either way you have to plan to dominate.
You have to focus on a specific, under-served market niche if you want to be really successful. Find a niche and carve out a reputation for yourself as the expert in that field. A common mistake is to develop the niche product before establishing whether the niche market exists, and whether it's buying.
In their book "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing", Al Ries and Jack Trout list as their first two laws:
- It's better to be first than it is to be better
- If you can't be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in
To find your own niche ideas, start by getting into the habit of writing down your ideas as you have them. Don't try to filter anything out at this stage. So, where to look for ideas?
- Solve an existing problem
- Use freely available, public domain information
- Ask your current customers and website visitors
- Combine products into new packages
- Sell 'own label' products
- Improve an existing product
- Adapt an existing product for a different market
- Exploit today's "must have"
- Look at your own hobbies and interests
- Combine ideas and improve on them
Expanding on this last point, if you can marry two diverse ideas, 2 plus 2 can often equal 5! For example:
- Gutenberg combined a coin stamp with a wine press and invented printing with moveable type
- Long ago, someone combined two soft metals, iron and tin, and produced a strong alloy, bronze
- A French chemist launched a hair colouring product but soon branched out into cleansing and beauty products. The modern name of his company is L'Oréal.
You can take an existing product and try to think of ridiculous ways to make it work. Trevor Bayliss combined the electronics of a radio receiver with the mechanism from a wind-up clock to create the clockwork radio.
You can make unlikely pairings of businesses or people and create the most superb results; an idea particularly used in music:- Stéphane Grapelli and Yehudi Menuhin, Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé, Luciano Pavarotti and U2. Or in business, the car maker Mercedes Benz and watchmaker Swatch combined to create the Smartcar
You can take two everyday products and create a third which has a whole new market:- A trolley and a dustbin make a wheelie bin; a copier and a telephone make a fax machine.
It isn't always easy to create a new category. In the field of human endeavour, we're all different, so you'd think that would be simple, but after a while it starts to get ridiculous. I can't imagine the Guiness Book of Records having a category for the first left-handed pilot with red hair to fly solo across the Atlantic!
The irony is that when someone else finds a new niche, we all say, "Why didn't I think of that?"
Discover how to get your FREE review of your Sales and Marketing activities.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Destroying Your Reputation And Your Relationships
There are many ways to build a better reputation and great relationships. It's probably true that it takes less time to destroy them than it took to build them, and it may well take even longer to re-build them. We tend to notice these 'many ways' most readily when they go wrong in a big way, but often we are doing ourselves and our chances no good at all in small ways yet we don't realise we're doing it!
Communication
In our conversations and written communications we might be guilty of being patronising by asking lightweight, rhetorical questions at which the other person takes offence. Even something as simple as, "Would you like to save time and money?" could be seen as patronising.
Then, our more heavyweight questions might be seen as too aggressive. For example, "Are you sure you're getting it right every time?"
Many people dislike undue familiarity too soon in a relationship. Using people's Christian names without even unspoken permission can set them against you, and they almost certainly won't tell you directly why they've now gone cold towards you.
Another gaffe to avoid is the use of highly dated clichés. It just shows you've only learned what you know from a textbook, and you couldn't be bothered to buy an up to date one either! This applies both to 'Sales speak' and to 'Adviser- or Sales Manager speak'. Who wants to read, let alone hear, "And that's not all. Just wait and see what else our product can do for you" or "Remember, people buy from people". The thoughts may be correct but please, craft your own version of the message.
It is easily possible to get somebody's back up by being assumptively critical, so don't. "You too can have an apartment in Monte Carlo like mine," isn't the best thing to say. And putting people into categories when it's obvious you've had no prior contact doesn't do you any good at all, even if it's based on public domain information. "As someone with two outstanding County Court Judgements against you ..."
Reliability
As well as in conversation and communication, another sure way to damage your reputation is by being seen to fail to deliver on promises you have made. I have already explained elsewhere that the making and keeping of promises is an essential part of building people's trust in you. If you behave like that before they're paying you, how much better will you be once they start? And conversely, if you keep breaking promises before they start paying you, how likely is it you'll change your behaviour once they start?
The problem is that the apparent breaking of a promise can often be the result of the two parties having a different interpretation of what the promise actually was!
At its crudest, there are three elements to a promise. For the sort of small promises I advocate you make and keep - actually I recommend you 'trade' them - continually, much of this doesn't require to be written, but it's still a good idea to make sure it is understood in the same way by both of you.
A promise generally consists of three elements, and it's essential to agree on these at the outset.
I believe deliverables are easy, but then my degree is in Engineering! In that world there are some simple rules:
Going back to Henry Ford's quotation, don't ask for a faster horse if what you want is to be able to get 300 miles from Chicago to Detroit in just one day!
However, if you want to win the Derby, then ask for a faster horse!
Another thing that needs to be agreed up-front is how both parties will agree that the deliverables have been delivered - the Acceptance Criteria. As I said, with very simple promises it's so easy it doesn't need writing down. "I'll call you tomorrow at 10:30," contains the design specification, the acceptance criteria, the payment and the timescale. But with more complex promises, failing to agree on the acceptance criteria at the outset leaves you open to a game of, "Oh yes I did - Oh no you didn't."
Agreeing the payment seems to be fairly simple once the deliverables and acceptance criteria have been agreed. But, if you get into a negotiation, take a little care. You may have to adjust the 'package' in order to reach a mutually acceptable 'price', so don't forget to feed back these adjustments into the specification and acceptance criteria.
So far, so good, but when we get to agreeing timescales, especially short timescales on more complex promises, things can get heated and emotional, if allowed to. Only one person can control your use of your time, and that's YOU! And it follows that you cannot control other people's use of their time.
They must do it for themselves.
On a complex promise, you need to get 'buy-in' from the rest of the team when it comes to timescales, and this must be done in an atmosphere where everybody feels free to say, "I just can't do all that you are asking within the time you are suggesting."
Have a great reputation and satisfying relationships.
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get your FREE coaching taster call.
Communication
In our conversations and written communications we might be guilty of being patronising by asking lightweight, rhetorical questions at which the other person takes offence. Even something as simple as, "Would you like to save time and money?" could be seen as patronising.
Then, our more heavyweight questions might be seen as too aggressive. For example, "Are you sure you're getting it right every time?"
Many people dislike undue familiarity too soon in a relationship. Using people's Christian names without even unspoken permission can set them against you, and they almost certainly won't tell you directly why they've now gone cold towards you.
Another gaffe to avoid is the use of highly dated clichés. It just shows you've only learned what you know from a textbook, and you couldn't be bothered to buy an up to date one either! This applies both to 'Sales speak' and to 'Adviser- or Sales Manager speak'. Who wants to read, let alone hear, "And that's not all. Just wait and see what else our product can do for you" or "Remember, people buy from people". The thoughts may be correct but please, craft your own version of the message.
It is easily possible to get somebody's back up by being assumptively critical, so don't. "You too can have an apartment in Monte Carlo like mine," isn't the best thing to say. And putting people into categories when it's obvious you've had no prior contact doesn't do you any good at all, even if it's based on public domain information. "As someone with two outstanding County Court Judgements against you ..."
Reliability
As well as in conversation and communication, another sure way to damage your reputation is by being seen to fail to deliver on promises you have made. I have already explained elsewhere that the making and keeping of promises is an essential part of building people's trust in you. If you behave like that before they're paying you, how much better will you be once they start? And conversely, if you keep breaking promises before they start paying you, how likely is it you'll change your behaviour once they start?
The problem is that the apparent breaking of a promise can often be the result of the two parties having a different interpretation of what the promise actually was!
At its crudest, there are three elements to a promise. For the sort of small promises I advocate you make and keep - actually I recommend you 'trade' them - continually, much of this doesn't require to be written, but it's still a good idea to make sure it is understood in the same way by both of you.
A promise generally consists of three elements, and it's essential to agree on these at the outset.
- Deliverables
- Payment
- Timescale
I believe deliverables are easy, but then my degree is in Engineering! In that world there are some simple rules:
- If you want it, ask for it
- If it isn't in the design specification, don't be surprised if it isn't delivered
- The specification should be a list of 'questions' not 'answers' - You're paying for the 'answers'!
- If the form of the 'answer' is that important to you, it should form part of the 'question'
Going back to Henry Ford's quotation, don't ask for a faster horse if what you want is to be able to get 300 miles from Chicago to Detroit in just one day!
However, if you want to win the Derby, then ask for a faster horse!
Another thing that needs to be agreed up-front is how both parties will agree that the deliverables have been delivered - the Acceptance Criteria. As I said, with very simple promises it's so easy it doesn't need writing down. "I'll call you tomorrow at 10:30," contains the design specification, the acceptance criteria, the payment and the timescale. But with more complex promises, failing to agree on the acceptance criteria at the outset leaves you open to a game of, "Oh yes I did - Oh no you didn't."
Agreeing the payment seems to be fairly simple once the deliverables and acceptance criteria have been agreed. But, if you get into a negotiation, take a little care. You may have to adjust the 'package' in order to reach a mutually acceptable 'price', so don't forget to feed back these adjustments into the specification and acceptance criteria.
So far, so good, but when we get to agreeing timescales, especially short timescales on more complex promises, things can get heated and emotional, if allowed to. Only one person can control your use of your time, and that's YOU! And it follows that you cannot control other people's use of their time.
They must do it for themselves.
On a complex promise, you need to get 'buy-in' from the rest of the team when it comes to timescales, and this must be done in an atmosphere where everybody feels free to say, "I just can't do all that you are asking within the time you are suggesting."
Have a great reputation and satisfying relationships.
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get your FREE coaching taster call.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Whatever Happened To Joined Up Thinking - Part 2
The title implies that joined up thinking used to be widespread but recently we've lost the skill. Not necessarily true; maybe we never had it! But even ancient Greek generals debated the unpredictably far reaching effects of ripples on a lake when you lobbed in a stone.
People who can foresee the unintended ought to get a more than fair hearing, but often the opposite is the case. They get labelled as negative, or resistant to change, or not being team players.
Even the most reasoned arguments don't guarantee that the foresight will be listened to, let alone accepted. By 2001 scientists at the University of New Orleans were already publishing papers on the risks of having built a city near the sea, protected by levees that cause the ground behind them to sink below sea-level, as it was no longer being topped up by soil deposits from the tidal waters.
In the 1930s, sociologist Robert K Merton listed five causes of 'unanticipated consequences'. The first two were Ignorance and Error, but the fifth is the one I find most fascinating. The fifth cause is the Self-Defeating Prophecy, in other words the fear of a foreseen consequence drives people to find solutions before the problems happen. The prediction then becomes false because it itself changes history. Think of warnings of the future depth of horse manure on the streets of London, made in the 19th century!
Incidentally, it was only sometime later that Merton turned his original phrase on its head and coined the more well-known expression, the Self-Fulfilling Prophesy.
Whilst unintended consequences can hinder progress for the common good, I believe the real criticism should be levelled at the scale of the 'unintentionality', which is sometimes vast.
Popularly known today as a 'lack of joined up thinking', the possession of Critical Strategic Foresight is far from universal. As noted in an earlier post, it seems extremely thinly spread amongst politicians of all persuasions! Maybe President Obama can break the mould.
Merton's third cause was 'imperious immediacy of interest', that is to say a vested interest coupled to a short-term action. Here longer-term consequences are often deliberately ignored - totally different to the genuine ignorance of the first cause. As an example, consider the enforced adoption of spreadsheets, where the user has to enter the formulae themselves.
If you are ignorant of the appropriate algorithms and their purpose, the spreadsheet will just help you to arrive at the wrong answer more rapidly. The time spent performing manual additions and long multiplications might well have allowed greater insight into the problem, and so resulted in you arriving at the correct answer.
Many corporations lack the infrastructure to help gather Critical Strategic Foresight, or fail to use their infrastructure correctly. Similarly individuals need the mental 'infrastructure' to consider these, "OK. What if ...?" questions before getting their sleeves rolled up and starting the task.
Critical Strategic Foresight is unlikely to arrive conveniently, just when you're looking for it. Murphy's law says it will be after strategies and tactical plans have been formulated and signed off! Because the pressure is now off, and the understanding is a lot more complete, the mind can wander laterally and those, "Oh my goodness!" moments start to happen.
One answer is to create a list of testing questions by which individuals and organisations can challenge and judge new ideas and the resulting Critical Strategic Foresight. These question may well be of the "If, then how?" variety, or with 'how' replaced by any of the other five ways of starting an open question. Without such an infrastructure, someone who is Critical Strategic Foresight savvy will more likely be seen as a Luddite than as an innovator.
This was noted by Merton as the fourth cause of 'unanticipated consequences', the Basic Values; in other words the very culture within which change is being sought risks stifling that change, or else its implementation will destroy the culture.
So how can Critical Strategic Foresight be cultivated? Both individuals and organisations can adopt creative thinking methods like negative brainstorming and devil's advocacy, based on seeking out counter arguments and not shying away from, "What could go wrong if ...?" questions. Such a culture implies that inconvenient and challenging questions will be welcomed at any time, and will be given fair consideration; an important thought when, as was noted earlier, Critical Strategic Foresight doesn't always arrive just when you ask for it. The understanding needed for Critical Strategic Foresight to flourish can take time and experience.
New strategies and technologies can usually be explained in broad terms when required, but unintended consequences often arise from the detail. Therefore strategies should be defined in detail, prior to their implementation, and the detail not left to be created as the project goes along. Views of consequential outcomes should be sought from those with an in-depth understanding and years of experience - the sort of 'nit-picking Luddites' who actually welcome progress, but not change for change's sake.
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get your FREE review of your Sales and Marketing activities.
People who can foresee the unintended ought to get a more than fair hearing, but often the opposite is the case. They get labelled as negative, or resistant to change, or not being team players.
Even the most reasoned arguments don't guarantee that the foresight will be listened to, let alone accepted. By 2001 scientists at the University of New Orleans were already publishing papers on the risks of having built a city near the sea, protected by levees that cause the ground behind them to sink below sea-level, as it was no longer being topped up by soil deposits from the tidal waters.
In the 1930s, sociologist Robert K Merton listed five causes of 'unanticipated consequences'. The first two were Ignorance and Error, but the fifth is the one I find most fascinating. The fifth cause is the Self-Defeating Prophecy, in other words the fear of a foreseen consequence drives people to find solutions before the problems happen. The prediction then becomes false because it itself changes history. Think of warnings of the future depth of horse manure on the streets of London, made in the 19th century!
Incidentally, it was only sometime later that Merton turned his original phrase on its head and coined the more well-known expression, the Self-Fulfilling Prophesy.
Whilst unintended consequences can hinder progress for the common good, I believe the real criticism should be levelled at the scale of the 'unintentionality', which is sometimes vast.
Popularly known today as a 'lack of joined up thinking', the possession of Critical Strategic Foresight is far from universal. As noted in an earlier post, it seems extremely thinly spread amongst politicians of all persuasions! Maybe President Obama can break the mould.
Merton's third cause was 'imperious immediacy of interest', that is to say a vested interest coupled to a short-term action. Here longer-term consequences are often deliberately ignored - totally different to the genuine ignorance of the first cause. As an example, consider the enforced adoption of spreadsheets, where the user has to enter the formulae themselves.
If you are ignorant of the appropriate algorithms and their purpose, the spreadsheet will just help you to arrive at the wrong answer more rapidly. The time spent performing manual additions and long multiplications might well have allowed greater insight into the problem, and so resulted in you arriving at the correct answer.
Many corporations lack the infrastructure to help gather Critical Strategic Foresight, or fail to use their infrastructure correctly. Similarly individuals need the mental 'infrastructure' to consider these, "OK. What if ...?" questions before getting their sleeves rolled up and starting the task.
Critical Strategic Foresight is unlikely to arrive conveniently, just when you're looking for it. Murphy's law says it will be after strategies and tactical plans have been formulated and signed off! Because the pressure is now off, and the understanding is a lot more complete, the mind can wander laterally and those, "Oh my goodness!" moments start to happen.
One answer is to create a list of testing questions by which individuals and organisations can challenge and judge new ideas and the resulting Critical Strategic Foresight. These question may well be of the "If, then how?" variety, or with 'how' replaced by any of the other five ways of starting an open question. Without such an infrastructure, someone who is Critical Strategic Foresight savvy will more likely be seen as a Luddite than as an innovator.
This was noted by Merton as the fourth cause of 'unanticipated consequences', the Basic Values; in other words the very culture within which change is being sought risks stifling that change, or else its implementation will destroy the culture.
So how can Critical Strategic Foresight be cultivated? Both individuals and organisations can adopt creative thinking methods like negative brainstorming and devil's advocacy, based on seeking out counter arguments and not shying away from, "What could go wrong if ...?" questions. Such a culture implies that inconvenient and challenging questions will be welcomed at any time, and will be given fair consideration; an important thought when, as was noted earlier, Critical Strategic Foresight doesn't always arrive just when you ask for it. The understanding needed for Critical Strategic Foresight to flourish can take time and experience.
New strategies and technologies can usually be explained in broad terms when required, but unintended consequences often arise from the detail. Therefore strategies should be defined in detail, prior to their implementation, and the detail not left to be created as the project goes along. Views of consequential outcomes should be sought from those with an in-depth understanding and years of experience - the sort of 'nit-picking Luddites' who actually welcome progress, but not change for change's sake.
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get your FREE review of your Sales and Marketing activities.
Monday, 7 December 2009
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:
An alternative opening might be:
Both are much better than:
Good luck!
Discover how to get your customers saying "That's a bargain! How soon can you deliver?" whilst you're thinking, "I've rarely done such a profitable deal." Buy my 'Pricing By Value' DVD.
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!
Discover how to get your customers saying "That's a bargain! How soon can you deliver?" whilst you're thinking, "I've rarely done such a profitable deal." Buy my 'Pricing By Value' DVD.
Sunday, 28 June 2009
The Death Of Time-Based Billing
Please consider this.
Far too many businesses operate a policy of 'cost-led pricing', whether this is the cost of materials or the notional cost of their time. This is the accountancy view and is held to be mainstream, and it pervades thinking at all levels of most businesses. The alternative, economists' view of 'price-led costing' is thought to be heresy.
Value-based pricing theories are largely ignored by Business Schools and MBA courses! But the only thing any business can charge for is the derived value as perceived by the customer, so why persist with ego-centric pricing policies?
It is perfectly ethical to charge different customers different prices for different value received.
Customers who are charged according to value received are highly delighted customers. Customers who are quoted and charged a fixed price are highly delighted customers. Customers who are charged according to value are high paying customers! Prospects who are quoted according to value are highly likely to become customers.
But you need to address more than just your pricing. You need to conduct a 'value conversation'; you need to ensure your prospects understand fully what purchasing from you involves; you need to make your proposal around value based pricing; and you need to gain the prospect's agreement to your suggestions. In short, you need to address the entire 'sales conversation', but it all starts with establishing the value to the customer of the results of their purchase. It has absolutely nothing whatever to do with your raw material costs, hours 'worked', overheads, lifestyle ambitions or accounting practices!
Win-win means just that! It means that the customer believes they are getting high value for a very reasonable investment, and the supplier believes they are being well rewarded for whatever they are supplying. If either belief is missing, the result is not win-win.
I presume you would like most of your sales conversations to end with "That's a bargain! How soon can you deliver?" whilst at the same time earning a highly profitable price/fee. Value based pricing or pricing by value, call it what you will, is the technique that will enable you to achieve this sort of win-win outcome.
David
Learn more about these techniques and how to apply them in your business by booking your place on my 'Pricing By Value' Workshop which runs in Cambridge on July 7th
Far too many businesses operate a policy of 'cost-led pricing', whether this is the cost of materials or the notional cost of their time. This is the accountancy view and is held to be mainstream, and it pervades thinking at all levels of most businesses. The alternative, economists' view of 'price-led costing' is thought to be heresy.
Value-based pricing theories are largely ignored by Business Schools and MBA courses! But the only thing any business can charge for is the derived value as perceived by the customer, so why persist with ego-centric pricing policies?
It is perfectly ethical to charge different customers different prices for different value received.
Customers who are charged according to value received are highly delighted customers. Customers who are quoted and charged a fixed price are highly delighted customers. Customers who are charged according to value are high paying customers! Prospects who are quoted according to value are highly likely to become customers.
But you need to address more than just your pricing. You need to conduct a 'value conversation'; you need to ensure your prospects understand fully what purchasing from you involves; you need to make your proposal around value based pricing; and you need to gain the prospect's agreement to your suggestions. In short, you need to address the entire 'sales conversation', but it all starts with establishing the value to the customer of the results of their purchase. It has absolutely nothing whatever to do with your raw material costs, hours 'worked', overheads, lifestyle ambitions or accounting practices!
Win-win means just that! It means that the customer believes they are getting high value for a very reasonable investment, and the supplier believes they are being well rewarded for whatever they are supplying. If either belief is missing, the result is not win-win.
I presume you would like most of your sales conversations to end with "That's a bargain! How soon can you deliver?" whilst at the same time earning a highly profitable price/fee. Value based pricing or pricing by value, call it what you will, is the technique that will enable you to achieve this sort of win-win outcome.
David
Learn more about these techniques and how to apply them in your business by booking your place on my 'Pricing By Value' Workshop which runs in Cambridge on July 7th
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Succeeding In Spite of Yourself
Register for my 'Pricing By Value' Workshop in Cambridge on July 7th - Backed by my Money-Back guarantee
What do I mean by 'succeeding in spite of yourself'? Well, many businesses will say they are getting what they believe to be acceptable results. Of course they would like to do even better but either they are not really sure how to achieve this, or they are unaware that improvement is possible for them, and anyway, we've just said the results are acceptable!
Many businesses I meet are suffering from one or more of these faults:
Firstly, list all your current methods of promotion
Then list all the messages about you, your products and services, your customers, the problems you help solve, the joy this brings to your customers, the ways in which they can let you know they're interested, the incentives and risk reducing things you offer, which you are communicating in all your current promotional activities.
Whilst on the subject of what the customers expect to be able to take for granted, there is a simple test for whether your message is a UPH (Uniquely Placed to Help) or a TFG (Take For Granted). Just turn your message on its head and ask yourself if any of your competitors are likely to compete on this opposite message. If you think your superb service is a UPH, then how many competitors are advertising in the trade press that theirs is appalling?
These few questions on their own are generally enough to tell whether any business owner whom you know could benefit from my help. But for your own organisation, let's go just a little further.
Now, do you know:
If the truth is that, above all other reasons, they buy from you because you're always cheerful and wear red trousers, then for goodness sake why aren't you promoting yourself as the cheerful, red trousers company?
I hope I have given you some food for thought. You absolutely must have solid foundations for your marketing. It might be more exciting to lay bricks, erect timbers and tile the roof, but until a trench has been dug and filled with concrete that has now set hard, there's no point!
Can you clearly articulate who your ideal customers are? Do you know what good they believe they get out of buying your products or services and from having you as their supplier? Can you say why you are a better bet, less of a risk, and more trustworthy than your competitors? And are you letting your market know all of this?
What do I mean by 'succeeding in spite of yourself'? Well, many businesses will say they are getting what they believe to be acceptable results. Of course they would like to do even better but either they are not really sure how to achieve this, or they are unaware that improvement is possible for them, and anyway, we've just said the results are acceptable!
Many businesses I meet are suffering from one or more of these faults:
- They don't focus on any particular type of customer
- They don't know what is likely to be appealing to their customers
- They don't know why their customers buy from them
- Waste money
- Underperform
- Squander their potential
Firstly, list all your current methods of promotion
Then list all the messages about you, your products and services, your customers, the problems you help solve, the joy this brings to your customers, the ways in which they can let you know they're interested, the incentives and risk reducing things you offer, which you are communicating in all your current promotional activities.
- Are these messages consistent across all the material?
- Do they make you stand out from your competitors?
- Or are they things your customers expect to be able to take for granted?
- Do they pass the "So, what" test?
Whilst on the subject of what the customers expect to be able to take for granted, there is a simple test for whether your message is a UPH (Uniquely Placed to Help) or a TFG (Take For Granted). Just turn your message on its head and ask yourself if any of your competitors are likely to compete on this opposite message. If you think your superb service is a UPH, then how many competitors are advertising in the trade press that theirs is appalling?
These few questions on their own are generally enough to tell whether any business owner whom you know could benefit from my help. But for your own organisation, let's go just a little further.
Now, do you know:
- Are you successfully communicating these messages?
- How do you know whether you are or not?
- Why do your customers choose to buy from you?
If the truth is that, above all other reasons, they buy from you because you're always cheerful and wear red trousers, then for goodness sake why aren't you promoting yourself as the cheerful, red trousers company?
I hope I have given you some food for thought. You absolutely must have solid foundations for your marketing. It might be more exciting to lay bricks, erect timbers and tile the roof, but until a trench has been dug and filled with concrete that has now set hard, there's no point!
Can you clearly articulate who your ideal customers are? Do you know what good they believe they get out of buying your products or services and from having you as their supplier? Can you say why you are a better bet, less of a risk, and more trustworthy than your competitors? And are you letting your market know all of this?
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Can You Be Trusted? - Continued
In February I talked about trust taking a long time to build, only if you let it. I’m grateful to Paul Hayward of In Your Dreams Coaching for some further ideas on this subject.
There are actually some people we trust automatically. They don’t need to spend time, even a short time, cultivating and building our trust in them. We see them in an ‘innocent until proven guilty’ sort of way.
So who are these people? Could you become one of them? If so, how?
When you go to a networking meeting you will be getting to know people you’ve never met before, building credibility, rapport and trust between yourselves. You’ll be strengthening your relationships with the people you already know too.
But, even on your first visit to a particular group, or on your first visit to a particular venue, there will be people you knew you could trust, well before you ever started your journey!
Imagine the scenario. You walked in, you introduced yourself to the host, you got yourself a drink and you started chatting to other people. After a while you collected your food and carried on chatting. You may even have replenished your drink and listened to a guest speaker.
Did you establish credibility, rapport and trust with the chef? Did you do the same with the farmer who supplied his eggs and bacon? With the miller and baker who contributed the raw materials for your toast? Or the coffee plantation workers? Or the tea pickers?
Of course you didn’t! You intrinsically trusted them all to deliver products or services that were ‘fit for purpose’.
Maybe you can think of ways in which your business, and your products and services can be seen in the same light.
There are actually some people we trust automatically. They don’t need to spend time, even a short time, cultivating and building our trust in them. We see them in an ‘innocent until proven guilty’ sort of way.
So who are these people? Could you become one of them? If so, how?
When you go to a networking meeting you will be getting to know people you’ve never met before, building credibility, rapport and trust between yourselves. You’ll be strengthening your relationships with the people you already know too.
But, even on your first visit to a particular group, or on your first visit to a particular venue, there will be people you knew you could trust, well before you ever started your journey!
Imagine the scenario. You walked in, you introduced yourself to the host, you got yourself a drink and you started chatting to other people. After a while you collected your food and carried on chatting. You may even have replenished your drink and listened to a guest speaker.
Did you establish credibility, rapport and trust with the chef? Did you do the same with the farmer who supplied his eggs and bacon? With the miller and baker who contributed the raw materials for your toast? Or the coffee plantation workers? Or the tea pickers?
Of course you didn’t! You intrinsically trusted them all to deliver products or services that were ‘fit for purpose’.
Maybe you can think of ways in which your business, and your products and services can be seen in the same light.
Monday, 16 February 2009
Can You Be Trusted?
This time I'm returning again to one of my old themes, "Once the customers get to know us, they love us. The problem is getting more of them to know us."
Wouldn't it be nice if enquiries could arrive so pre-qualified that they already 'know' you well enough to already 'love' you.
Some people believe that trust takes a long time to build, but it only does if you let it! The element of trust with the longest time-frame is that of reliability; the certainty that you will deliver on your promises.
So it is wise to make more than long-term promises. Making shorter-term promises is an essential trust-building strategy. The simplest promises - fulfilled, of course - will build your 'reliability quotient' without question.
How simple? "I'll call you tomorrow" or "I'll put it in tonight's post" will do just nicely. So you should rarely pass over any opportunity to make and keep a promise. At every turn, separate promise from delivery wherever you can and so build people's trust in you.
We are often urged to under-promise and over-deliver, but I suggest you should do so sparingly. Unexpected pleasant surprises are hugely welcome at Christmas and Birthdays, but at other times why not flag up what you are about to do, and then do it!
If you were to gain a reputation for always under-promising and over-delivering, might it be self-defeating as your over-delivery would become the norm. But then again, you could be relied upon to do so!
Wouldn't it be nice if enquiries could arrive so pre-qualified that they already 'know' you well enough to already 'love' you.
Some people believe that trust takes a long time to build, but it only does if you let it! The element of trust with the longest time-frame is that of reliability; the certainty that you will deliver on your promises.
So it is wise to make more than long-term promises. Making shorter-term promises is an essential trust-building strategy. The simplest promises - fulfilled, of course - will build your 'reliability quotient' without question.
How simple? "I'll call you tomorrow" or "I'll put it in tonight's post" will do just nicely. So you should rarely pass over any opportunity to make and keep a promise. At every turn, separate promise from delivery wherever you can and so build people's trust in you.
We are often urged to under-promise and over-deliver, but I suggest you should do so sparingly. Unexpected pleasant surprises are hugely welcome at Christmas and Birthdays, but at other times why not flag up what you are about to do, and then do it!
If you were to gain a reputation for always under-promising and over-delivering, might it be self-defeating as your over-delivery would become the norm. But then again, you could be relied upon to do so!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
