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by Rick Baker
On Sep 28, 2010
There is no need to read on if the following apply to you:
- You had to put in a new set of phones and a new set of internet lines to handle your recent avalanche of new Client business.
- When you give instructions to your staff you are always surprised by how quickly the instructions are understood and followed to the letter.
OK, for those who face challenges like the ones I face…
Chip Heath and Dan Heath provide advice on how to improve the way we communicate our ideas.
For the Heath brothers, communications succeed when they are Sticky.
Sticky messages = messages that are understandable, memorable, and effective in changing thought or behaviour
The Heath brothers provide a summary to help us remember their advice…
The Heath brothers’ Six Principles of Sticky communications: SUCCESs
Simple: Sticky messages contain a core message, which is shared with an audience in a compact package
Unexpected: Sticky messages contain an unexpected element, which surprises the audience, makes them pay attention, holds their attention, and sustains their interest
Concrete: Sticky messages contain concrete details, not abstract concepts. This helps the audience understand and remember the message. And it allows people to bridge the gaps between their thinking.
Credible: Sticky messages cause people to agree and help people believe. Experts provide external credibility. Convincing details help the audience experience internal credibility.
Emotional: Sticky messages make people care. They appeal to us as individuals: they appeal to self-interest and they appeal to sense of identity.
Story: Sticky messages contain stories, which tell people how to act and give people the energy to act. Sticky messages inspire.
Whether we are leading, managing, supervising, marketing, selling, or working to persuade co-workers we can use the Sticky SUCCESs Checklist to test and improve our communications. [ Sticky SUCCESs Checklist]
Footnote:
- We should use the Heath brothers’ Sticky SUCCESs Checklist as a filter when we consider marketing of Value Propositions [VALPRO] and Differential Advantages [DA]…i.e., this checklist is a very helpful guide to better TARMARVALPRODA communications.
by Rick Baker
On Sep 23, 2010
Recently, at a sales-training session, one fellow said people should spend more time thinking before they act. Another fellow said he was too busy and did not have any extra time.
I bet most of us have been in these sorts of conversations.
Most of us are well aware of the stresses of fire-fighting throughout the work day. Sometimes it seems we fight fires all day, everyday. And, we interact with people who are also fighting fires….we see them fixing drive-thru errors, replacing damaged goods, fixing poor paint jobs, and repairing blown tires…
Most of us also understand we could do better if we spent more time thinking before speaking and taking action. If we could measure twice then we could cut once. And, we could keep our feet out of our mouths. We could get it right the first time. We could have fewer problems. We know we could be more efficient, make fewer errors, speak more clearly, and reduce our stress levels…
We could define the time we spend on Problems as Ptime.
Ptime takes up a big part of our lives.
Ptime will continue to be a big part of our lives.
So, it makes sense to step back every once in a while and decide how we want to use our Ptime.
We can use our Ptime2 ways:
- We can use our Ptime to fight fires. We can use our Ptime to work on Problems that to some degree catch us by surprise when they ignite around us.
- We can use our Ptime to think about Problems that may visit us some day and determine solutions to those Problems well in advance.
Most of us must accept we can not totally remove #1. All of us must fight Problem fires.
When it comes to #2, we have a choice. We can choose the amount of time we spend thinking about Problems before they visit us. We can consider different ways of solving those problems. And, we can be prepared to act quickly and effectively if/when those Problems visit us.
And, that’s about Ptime well spent.
Footnotes
- We have a philosophy called P=2S+O …for every Problem we should find at least 2 Solutions and we will, from time to time, find Opportunities linked to Problems.
- As we use our Ptime wisely we should keep our minds open for Opportunities.
by Rick Baker
On Sep 21, 2010
The Art of Questioning #2 is about sales people using questions to uncover Client needs.
This blog is inspired by Neil Rackham, the author of SPIN Selling.
For the sales process, Rackham defines the purpose of questions: to uncover Clients’ implied needs and to develop them into specific needs.
Rackham talks about 2 types of questions:
- Uncovering Questions which ask buyers about their problems or implied needs
- Developing Questions which took those implied needs and, somehow, developed them into explicit needs
Rackham toured with sales people from multi-national companies and he found:
Uncovering Questions were more strongly linked to success in smaller sales
There are several types of Uncovering Questions, the main categories being:
- Situation Questions: designed to find facts about the Client’s existing situation
- the more Situation Questions the higher the likelihood of a failed sales call
- Situation Questions are overused by inexperienced sales people
- Problem Questions: designed to learn about Clients’ problems, difficulties, or dissatisfactions
- Problem Questions happen more when sales calls are successful
- Experienced sales people ask more Problem Questions
Developing Questions were more important and more strongly linked to success than Uncovering Questions
When it comes to sales people presenting questions to Probable Clients, here's a sample of our recommendations:
- Consider each of your Target Markets and its Value Proposition
- Consider the Ideal Client Profile for each Target Market
- Design Questions to help discover whether or not the Probable Client fits the Ideal Client Profile:
- Spend a lot of time planning these Designed Questions
- Design supplementary questions, at least 2 layers of them
- Be consistent when you ask the questions
- Observe the results and score 'success' or 'failure'
- Where your Client relationships are very strong...ask for Clients’ help as you hone and improve your questions and your delivery of your questions
by Rick Baker
On Sep 15, 2010
According to Huthwaite research, you can improve your sales performance or the performance of your sales team if you:
- Choose Behaviour: Identify specific actions you believe might tie in with sales success.
- Watch for that Behaviour during Sales Calls: how often does the behaviour happen? Keep track of the statistics.
- Divide Sales Calls into 2 groups: successes and failures. (Obviously, this is subjective, depending on how you define success.) Then, you will have two groups: one with the behaviour and sales success and the other with the behaviour and sales failure.
- Analyse Frequency Differences: if the successes outnumber the failures then the Behaviour likely is a factor of sales success.
In theory, that's a simple way to go about analysing and improving sales process.
In practice it isn't.
For example, Huthwaite uncovered some surprising things:
- Most of the closing techniques taught do not work.
- Closing techniques which work for small accounts will actually lose you business as the sale grows larger.
- Open and closed probing questions may work for small sales but they won't work for bigger sales.
- In major sales, objection-handling skills will contribute little to your sales effectiveness.
- The benefit-from-feature approach to selling can be very successful for small sales but it will fail entirely with larger sales.
At Spirited, we recommend a TARMARVALPRODA process, summarized as follows:
- Identify your company's Target Markets (typically 2 to 4 TARMARs)
- Identify the specific Value Propositions linked to your Target Markets (1 VALPRO for each TARMAR)
- Confirm your company's Unique Selling Proposition, also known as Differential Advantage (DA)...and sometimes called Distinct Advantage
- Set Marketing Programs for each of your Target Markets
- Set Sales Programs for each of your Target Markets (to maximize success these must be perfectly aligned with your Marketing Programs)
- Set roles for and assign your Sales people in a manner that ensures their individual skills align with the requirements of selling to the different Target Markets
- Set SMART sales goals for each sales person
- Establish clear sales process, using multi-media communication [writing, audio-visual, etc]
- Train your sales people regularly: help them understand how sales activity meshes with marketing activity and your company's goals. Repeat your sales training messages using different perspectives and communication media.
- Establish sales-performance reporting process (Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Vital Sign reporting)
- Do that sales-performance reporting in groups and one-on-one: as you do it celebrate lessons learned (whether they were learned through failure or success). Be specific. Don’t accept ambiguity.
- Ensure your sales department has a Can-Do Culture
by Rick Baker
On Aug 26, 2010
Recently, I created a picture to help me explain some of my thoughts about marketing & sales. A copy of The Marketing & Sales Picture is shown below.
In summary, the picture contains 5 pieces:
- Marketing & Sales Entrepreneurship
- Marketing & Sales Management
- Marketing Action
- Sales Action
- A cross-hatched section where Marketing & Sales activity overlap
My intent was to provide a simple [as in Seeking Simple] picture that would serve several purposes.
The key messages behind the picture are:
- We need a Picture to remind us business development work requires:
- Planning
- Integration and Coordination
- Marketing & Sales demand entrepreneurship. I have used the word ‘entrepreneur’ instead of the word ‘leader’ [I learned that from following Michael Gerber, the author of E-Myth, etc]. I define entrepreneurship as: having a vision for change and having the drive to keep pressing ahead with action aimed at that change.
- Marketing & Sales Entrepreneurship leads Marketing & Sales Management. Simply stated, there is a hierarchy and entrepreneurship wins over management.
- Marketing & Sales Management guides and controls Marketing Action and Sales Action.There are 2 major points:
- Marketing Action and Sales Action should not be done in isolation
- Marketing Action and Sales Action overlap
- Action: Action is so critical we should spell it out at least twice.
by Rick Baker
On Aug 10, 2010
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine shared some website thoughts with me.
The thing that really caught my attention was how emphatic he was and how he expressed his views in simple, clear words.
Here is the note I wrote to myself after the discussion.
The 4 things a good website must have:
- Interesting content...encouraging people to read on.
- Fresh content...giving people a reason to return soon.
- User-friendly commerce…making it easy for your clients to do business with you.
- Lots of contact options…making it easy for your clients to connect with you.
My friend shared many more details with me. I will write more details in future blogs. However, for now, Seeking Simple makes sense.
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