Want Influence? Understand Their Needs!
Last week we talked about C.I.A. and how using these three letters are essential in growing influence. Today we are going to really grow our influence with those around us. Today we are going to find out the needs.
Whether it is a customer, a team we lead, or the nonprofit we are in charge of. We need to truly understand the needs of those around us. Deeper needs than just food, water, clothing, and a paycheck. People have many different levels of needs. Some of my therapist friends refer to the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs for personal needs. It is a great diagram to understand need levels.
There are also business needs that need be addressed. If we can help people with both of these needs, we are going to be generating high levels of influence. Now that is the influence I love to have. Not for the power aspect, but that I am helping people. That is why I wrote my book and write this blog every week. To help people understand sales and influence so they can be more effective with others around them. I want to help as many people as I can get better and serve those around them by helping them get to where they need to go.
So…how do we begin with that level of influence you are probably asking? We ask deep questions to really understand what people around us need. Most people do not think this deep that is why when we ask them how they are doing most people instantly say “good…” Going deeper with those people we want to address some of the deep-rooted needs they truly have.
For a salesperson they are trying to make sure their product truly answers the needs of the customer. For an employee that we are leading, they may need to feel a sense of belonging and that they are doing something meaningful. Without that impact most employees resort to a paycheck being the only differentiator for work. How is the turn-over in your organization?
We need to take time to understand the needs that our organization addresses to help society, the need our product addresses, the need that our team’s role addresses to help the organization grow stronger. We need to build list of needs that are addressed.
Let’s say we are an IT group, that is tasked with monitoring organization computers against cyber-attacks. The features are the software and team members in our group. The benefits our group provides the organization is protection from attacks and support if someone is cyber attacked.
I remember a phishing scam that had employees giving away their log in credentials and changed the location to where the employee checks were delivered. The IT team quickly closed the loop on this and saved dozens of employees from losing their paycheck in the matter of hours. Do you think that people were grateful for that help?
After we have understood the benefits, then we need to understand the needs that are answered by these benefits. Using the above example, the benefit creates a sense of security and peace of mind for the users of the computers which are powerful. The users of the computers typically do not understand all of the code used to create a virus and how to remedy. Our team is also enabling the rest of the organization to function efficiently and safe. The IT team is like ninjas jumping around saving those they serve.
Cascading what we are doing for others and how we are helping others is very motivating to our teams. We need to take time and think of some of the needs that our teams answer. The larger the need the more we can impact.
Now that we have the needs figured out, we need to structure questions to ask so that we can start finding out if we are answering the needs of those that we lead. If we are asking the individuals their needs and we are answering their needs our influence will skyrocket! Keep in mind that everyone is different, so being intentional and sitting down with individuals to make sure we are understanding their needs and if we are identifying them on a deep level, we will have deep rooted influence.
Have a great week everyone!
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”
Why Leaders Need CIA For Building Influence
When Leaders set out to lead a group of individuals, some fall short. It’s not because these leaders are incompetent. It’s mainly because they don’t understand how to build influence.
John Maxwell who is the leadership guru of the 21st century has a quote that states “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less...” If we want to lead others, we need to know how to build influence. That is where the sales process uncovered comes in. By applying the principals, people are able to grow influence with others.
When we are working with others, we need influence in order to move forward with them. We start by learning about them, their families, their hobbies, etc. This is the same as building rapport in the sales process. Unfortunately, rapport is only the beginning of building influence and not the end all.
Just having rapport gets us in the door to have a conversation, but Influence is a deeper relationship with that individual. Influence is building up relational collateral like a bank account. It takes time to high levels of influence in order to get the person jumping all in with us.
When we start taking a deep interest in other people, we will start gaining influence with them. That person will start to open up in areas that they feel they can share as well as ask for input.
I use the 3 letters when trying to learn more about others to build influence. The letters are C.I.A. No, not the government agency.
C-stands for being curious. Be curious like a child that never stops wanting to know more. Be curious to learn more about our relationships whether they are customers, teammates, family, friends, people we just met, etc. Be curious to learn about them as much as we can. People love to talk about themselves and are craving that connection.
I-stands for being intentional. Be intentional about our relationships. While we are asking questions do not stare at a phone while the other person responds. Look them in the eyes and pay attention to what they are saying and how they are saying it. We’ll learn a lot about a person when we pay attention to their posture, their tones, their words. Even when someone is saying they are fine… if their tone sounds like they are about to scream, they are not fine. Pay attention and see if there is a way we can help.
A-stands for asking questions. Ask a great deal of questions. This being paired up with curiosity and being intentional helps us really learn about the relationships. What is really going on with our teammates, our customers, our family members? Similar to the sales process where we do a needs analysis in my book “The Sales Process Uncovered”, we will ask questions to see if there is a way we can help the person get to where they want to go. People of great influence are not those that take from people, but are people that give as much as they can without expecting anything in return. That can be time, money, clothing, etc. Dale Carnegie, Mother Teresa, Jesus Christ are all people of great influence. These people started most of their conversations with questions. These individuals wanted to learn about the situation and where they could help. They stepped in.
For today, focus on using C.I.A. when you interact with people you come in contact with. Not for the sole purpose of gaining influence, but for connection and stronger relationships.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”
If You Knew When You Would Die, Would Your Dash Change?
Just like the title asks, what would you do if you knew you only had a limited time left to live.
Recently someone very close to me was given a diagnosis with a very limited life expectancy and it started my mind into reflection. What would I do, if I only had a limited time left? Would I just quit doing this or that, create a bucket list, take up a new hobby, etc.?
The truth is all of us have a limited time left here on this planet. A limited number of days to wake up, a limited number of hours to spend with people we enjoy spending time with, and a limited time to live. Time is not something that we can add to or multiply. We can only subtract and divide.
When we a head stone in a cemetery, we can see a name, date born, and a date when someone has moved on. There is this thing in between the dates though. It’s a dash. The dash is their life. The dash is their experiences. The dash is their impact on this world. This dash is significant.
If we are to truly live, we need to make sure we live out the dash. We need to make sure we take time for the fun stuff and not get super stressed about work. Work is what we do, but it does not define us. I do this blog and help people understand the sales process, how it actually helps people build influence, but this is not who I am.
Who I am is a husband, father, son, friend, and someone who steps in to help whenever possible. Too often people think that their work is who they are. How many times when asked the following question, “tell me about yourself”, have we started with our profession to describe ourselves? We focus on this detail more than the other details of our lives.
Are we mainly defining ourselves because that is what society believes, or do we share that detail because that is what we think we should be defined as? Why do we lead with that detail?
Why don’t we lead with who we really are? Do we not really know who we are? Should we ask others to describe us? Typically, when we are at funeral services, we get to hear what others think about the person that has passed on, but I think that is a little too late for a reflection like that.
Shouldn’t we be asking what others see about us sooner? Are we too afraid to ask the question because we are worried about what we might hear? Are we just not thinking about it, because we don’t want to think about that time when we pass on?
When I am laid to rest, I want that dash to represent a person that loved to help, inspire, and enable people to flip the script for their dash. If I can do that I will have succeeded at life.
What would you like your dash to represent?
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”
What’s your Coaching Style?
How are you at coaching your team and your family?
Are you like a coach on the sidelines constantly sending in orders hoping the team will execute?
Business leaders think being a coach means constantly sending in orders like a coach on the sideline. The leader believes they should tell the team what to do and how to do everything and then the team will just execute. The issue is that the employees do not learn to think for themselves. They constantly come to the leader for the answers for everything essentially slowing down the organization.
This style of coaching does not promote effective thought in individuals and does not allow them to grow. If there is no growth then the business, team, family will suffer.
What I learned in 2016 from John Maxwell’s Certification is that coaching is not about telling people what, or how to do everything. Coaching is instead asking questions for the individual to produce their best answer for the given situation. It’s encouraging them to look within for their best answer. Not telling people what and how to do things.
Most of the time in business, we are trying to answer questions and get to solutions fast. Because of the speed at which business is evolving we keep perpetuating the same cycle. When we arrive home at the end of the day, we are still dictating what needs to happen, how it needs to happen, and when it needs to happen to our families if we are not careful. Will that help our families thrive?
We may get things accomplished, but we need to grow others around us so that they can make decisions and still move forward. If we are not coaching these individuals correctly, we are actually hurting them. I also am learning to not have people do it the way I would do it. I need to let go of control and let them do it their way. By doing so they will grow confidence in themselves and their decisions which will make them more efficient their way.
As coaches, we can not be the sole source of answers. We need to help cultivate a culture in our organizations of aligning with the core mission and vision, and individual solutions that align with that direction. We have to give them trust and let them have some bumps and bruises at the beginning. Yes, it’s slower at first, but speed will pick up speed over time. We need to guide them and coach them before they are free to make those decisions.
We need to continually ask those thought provoking questions to help individuals come up with better decisions. Even if those decisions do not align with what we believe is best at the time, we still need to trust the process to help them grow. Over time we will gain that trust of the individual and their decision-making process. If not, then we will never be free for family, vacations, and our own growth.
Ultimately, we will expire and it is on us to grow those around us. If we expire and we leave those that looked up to us without this essential decision-making process, our legacy will be in jeopardy and they won’t be able to move forward. How do you think that will benefit them?
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”
Do You have My Back?
Chances are if you have direct reports, they are asking this question about you.
Has anyone ever asked you the following question…Do you have my back? Firefighters often have two men working on a hose line in a fire. There are multiple reasons for this like high pressure and volume of water going through the hose that is hard to handle, but more important, if something happens to one of the firefighters the other has the chance to help pull them out of danger. They have each other’s backs!
Chances are if you have direct reports, they are asking this question about you. Maybe not about life and death like fire fighters, but for their job safety. They were trying to figure this out the moment they start working for you.
Your direct reports want to know that when the chips are down that you will have their back as long as they are doing what is right and ethical. Far too often in business, employees feel they have to CYA because they do not trust their management. CYA stands for Cover Your Assets (Assets is sometimes shortened).
I have experienced in the issue of having to CYA myself in communications due to a lack of support from management. It agitated me greatly because I believed I was left to fight for myself. It is a lonely position to be in as a report. Here’s the thing, relationships do not thrive in this kind of environment.
Employees want to know that their management has their back when the chips are down and that they can reach out to their managers when they need help. Far too many managers are so busy themselves they forget to establish ground rules for trust and communication at the beginning of the relationship. There needs to be a set of ground rules of engagement set up from the beginning. Leaving it up to assumption is a recipe for a bad relationship. There are a few managers out there unfortunately that don’t really care about relationships with their reports and should look to either move on from their position or retire.
When trust and communication are not flowing it becomes like a body of water with no movement. It becomes toxic and everything in it dies. When trust and communication are absent anxiety also starts sets in. When Fear takes hold, trust and relationships die.
If reports don’t trust their manager, then where does the employee bounce ideas off of to move forward in the correct direction? Where do they expect to get mentorship? Where do these reports learn the correct way of operating for the organization?
Often employees have enough of this lack of trust and communication and elect to leave the department, or worse the organization. The intrinsic knowledge that the employee has is also following them right out the door. The cycle of interview, inboard, and hope this employee stays starts over.
The cost of onboarding is excessive, so why not work to make sure your reports know that you have their back, how to communicate, and trust.
The answer is setting up guard rails with your direct reports from the beginning to make sure they understand how the trust and communication can work together. Setting these guard rails up will keep everything moving better and work life to improve. Employees need to know that they can trust their managers and management. Having that trust and communication will allow the employees to excel and thrive with you long term. If not then be prepared for stagnation in your organization.
So You Want To Lead...Better Know Sales!
I was not sure why I needed to know sales at the time to be a good manager, but I knew I would figure out why someday.
When I first started in sales it was on the premise that if I wanted to be a great manager, business owner, lawyer, president, I needed to know sales. That is what a successful business owner told me after I had told him that I wanted to be a manager in the next five years. He was a great leader and still has people working for him that were with him since he opened his company in the mid 1980’s. I was not sure why I needed to know sales at the time to be a good manager, but I knew I would figure out why someday.
At first, I was hesitant to change careers. Six months of hesitation and discussions to be exact. I did not want to be a salesperson because all life had taught me was that they were only out for their own gain. I did not want to actively be associated with that stigma?
When I did decide to try this sales thing out, I figured that sales would be easy. The first year of sales was a rude awakening. It literally looked like a heartbeat of someone that just took their last breath. I was fortunate to have a chance to keep going and learning from the successful business owner in what he called “hands on training.”
Hands on training meant that I was to help him with projects after hours, gain training from peers, and hours of trainings to perfect my craft. I did weekend deliveries, helped him with personal projects, etc. Basically, anything he needed extra help with I was there. This was valuable time with him mentoring me all he knew about sales and business.
I excelled from then on to become a great sales leader in my industry and even relocated to another part of the United States to help grow a new territory. We did very well there with great purpose. Customers started opening up fast to me and sales were increasing as the years went by. I was awarded the prize of top salesman for the United States and had taken the territory to where it had never been. I won’t give all those secrets away today on how we did this, but I can tell you it was not because we were the cheapest price or by doing anything unethical.
What I can tell you is that this success was because of Influence. As influence increases people trust us more and are willing to go deeper in relationships with us. These relationships open up the doors to long lasting and deep relationships. The more influence someone has the more they excel in whatever they are doing.
I had customers asking me about other aspects about their business as time went on. They were confiding in me as a trusted asset that could help them break through their ceiling to the next level. It was eye opening that I was able to help them with simple things up to the complex integrations of business solutions.
What I found is that the sales process that I keynote and perform trainings on helps people build amazing amounts of influence fast! That is right, selling correctly helps us build influence! Keep in mind that selling is not just a product or service. It can be selling a vision, mission, or idea that we need others to help us achieve. By building influence using the sales process, leaders gain more engagement their teams.
As you look around your organization look at those relationships of those that go out of their way to help you and those that don’t. See how much influence you have with each of these groupings of people. The more influence you have, the farther you and your organization will go.
Happy selling!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”
What Percentage Is A Good Profit Margin?
The first thing that I ask them is what is the market bearing for a sales price for what they offer. Often, I am left with a blank stare saying our price.
Welcome back
I teach sales teams how to sell their products and services effectively and with a common language, but I am often asked what percentage is a good profit margin to make for my product / service. More importantly they want to know how much they should make with their product and service. Some even believe that their product / service is earth shattering brand new, and nothing like it anywhere on this planet so there is nothing to compare it against.
The first thing that I ask them is what is the market bearing for a sales price for what they offer. Often, I am left with a blank stare saying our price. This is because they really have not studied the market to understand. When we do some investigating, we find out that a market study to see what the competition is offering their eyes open. Old pricing strategies was to add profit to our costs. They called it cost plus for markup.
Different markets bear different profit margins so investigation is necessary. Grocery stores operate at much lower profit margins than say Apple selling an iphone. They have more turns of products such as chips, fruit, milk, etc that they do not need to charge $20 per banana. They also understand their costs well.
By understanding the market, we can now understand this data point. The real estate industry has done a great job understanding this topic and we can learn from them in other markets. They literally show comparable sales in the area “Comps.” It’s a really good gauge at where the market is for a product / service.
Unfortunately, some market pricing is established in markets by trying to simply add profit to costs. This is called a cost plus pricing model and is unfortunately not viable in most markets. We really need to know what our costs, but can not just simply say we deserve x profit.
Now we need to really understand our costs. There are many costs like material, labor costs, but fixed costs like the rent of our buildings, loan payments (if you don’t follow Dave Ramsey’s rules), etc. are also needed to be figured in. Once we understand our true costs, we need to know how much we need to make before we can brake even, and then how we can survive and have a decent living. That’s right we need to understand where we can be so that we can still eat and sleep in doors with possibly a vacation…I mean retreat for future planning ;)
Now here is a warning especially if we are launching a new product / service, or are new to any market. Trying to come in and be the cheapest price is not the answer to have instant success. Most will try to do this and believe that they will be able to increase price over time whether it is scope creek to add profit, or simply raising price over time. What organizations have found is that when they try to raise price for future business, it tends not to work because they have set a precedence with the customer. Focus on starting off right and not being the cheapest price.
Be the best value. This is where there is so much value that the customer has no reason not to do business with us and pay the investment to work with us. That is where top organizations that have high profits, large cash reserves, and can weather any storm are. They are financially set for success and their customers are happy to pay the investment to do business with them.
Use the sales process to understand what value you bring to the customer and you’ll be able to maintain good profits.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”
What To Expect From A Sales Manager
They may challenge our assumptions, but to help us make sure we effectively thinking through the process.
Welcome back,
Today we are going to look at what we should expect from a sales manager. I’m sure anyone in sales has horror stories of bad sales managers. It’s okay if you are currently working for one, you don’t have to raise your hand if they are near J
I am asked what makes a good sales manager, and what should I expect from a sales manager. This blog is not going to say what a typical sales manager is, it is going to discuss what we should be expecting out of sales managers. That’s right when we interview with sales managers, we should be looking for a few things. These will be indicators about what we are about to get ourselves into in hopes of avoiding a bad situation.
I have had a couple Rockstar sales managers, a couple really bad sales managers, but mostly just okay sales managers. I know what to look for in a sales manager that I figured I should share with you so you can avoid some difficult relationships in the future.
I have had two really bad sales managers in the past. The first one should have been fired based off how sexist, manipulative, and degrading he was about others. He took his title to his head. The other was kind, but did not know how anything worked at the company even though he had been there for twenty plus years, and he could not offer help when asked. He was like a cockroach. He knew how to survive in the corporate world, but just didn’t add much value. It was unfortunate that this happens, but I’m sure this manager was not the only one.
With the bad out of the way let’s start with what we should be looking for in great sales managers. When we think of a sales manager, we should be thinking about someone who will invest in us and grow us. We need someone that will be a coach. Not like a coach on a football field that yells in plays and tells us to execute what they say, but someone that will ask us questions to pull out our own unique solutions to the problems at hand.
When I went to get certified by John Maxwell, my eyes were open to this new type of coach. A coach that has passion to grow those under them and help those they manage find their own true answers. Most managers want to manage people and processes to keep things moving smoothly, but a coach will encourage us to try for more than we think possible and to find the best answer within us. They want to invest in us as well.
These types of managers are also very transparent and knowledgeable about the products and processes of the organization. They know how to guide us around the pitfalls and educate us why we don’t want to go down a certain path, but still give us the option to choose our paths. They will ask us questions to make us think about why we are doing something and then ask us to provide why we believe this is the best path to take. They may challenge our assumptions, but to help us make sure we effectively thinking through the process. Not allowing us to just wing it.
Sales managers should also be looking for their replacement. Maybe the sales manager will be promoted someday, change corporations, or maybe they will expire. The sales manager should be functioning just like a leader that is looking to grow others around them so when the sales manager is gone, the organization will still thrive and move forward. They should be focused on leaving the organization better than they found it. Not because they want all of the applause, but because they value other individuals highly.
We need to stop looking at sales managers as people that just merely manage people and processes to keep things moving along, we need to expect more out of them to be coaches and leaders that want to grow people around them. They foster a culture of possibilities and adventure to personal and professional growth for their employees. Isn’t that someone you’d like to work for?
If you have a great manager that you’d like to mention in the comments below, please do so. I am always looking for people to interview and find out what makes them great and what values they focus on. It will also help all of you get better understanding as well.
Have a great week and I will see you next time!
Link to this week’s Youtube video
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”
Why You Need Trust In The Workplace
We need to make sure we are forming a trusting environment because speed and cost are the two variables in business that are affected by trust.
Good morning everyone,
As we enter into fall and are looking at how many work days there are left before the end of the year, I decided to write on this topic so teams can focus on a building better team environment to end the year off right. That’s right we need to have trust in the workplace if we are going to do well.
If we are a manager that does not have trust for our employees then we are going to micro manage them. If we do not trust the employees, we spend much of our time checking and rechecking their work. If we do that, how can we continue to grow ourselves, and still move the group farther? It’s like rowing a boat with our hands instead of an oar.
If we do not trust our colleges enough then we are doing extra work as well to make sure we hit the outcome we desire. That means more stress, longer hours, less efficiency, and drain on our attitudes. Then comes the mixed emotions of stress and disengagement with work and family. When teams are not in a high trust environment, they are not working efficiently. People are not communicating well and issues are sometimes hidden. The only time management sees an issue is when a major event occurs.
If we are in a large organization and the engineering team is not trusted by other teams, then the design will be delayed to launch. If this is a publicly traded entity and launches are delayed guess what happens to the stock price valuation…
We need to make sure we are forming a trusting environment because speed and cost are the two variables in business that are affected by trust. When we are in a high trust environment speed goes up and cost goes down. When that happens, guess what happens to profits…they go UP!
When we are in a high trust environment people will be allowed to move quicker without having to get tons of approvals and tons of double checking. Everything flows faster and work is completed with less bureaucracy. It’s like a river that is allowed to flow, it is clean, but when it is blocked up, everything becomes stagnant and scummy.
We need to make sure that we are working on ways to build trust throughout our organization so that we can work more efficiently. If trust happens and grows, the outcome will be increased profits.
If you’d like to know ways to improve trust check out the link below that will take you to my video that discusses this topic more as well as a few tools that I have created to help build long lasting trust.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”
Want to Build Trust? Start with the letter C
Credibility is typically linked to knowledge. A person goes to school, gets a degree and then they are finally credible on a subject. While that is very true, there are other aspects to Credibility that many do not think about.
Hey everyone,
I have noticed a rise in interest in learning about building trust. Today Trust is in high demand. Employees and management need to establish trust more than ever especially with the working remote situations. In uncertain times, it is trust that is the key ingredient in moving forward and achieving desired goals.
There are many aspects to trust and how to build high levels of trust. Different environments also require different levels of trust. I have been asked many times for a simple roadmap in building trust. That is why I have created the Trust equation. Something simple for people to remember and be able to apply. I have also spoken to Multi-Billion dollar organizations to help teams build trust by using this equation.
Today I want to focus in on one part of that equation because going into the entire equation in one sitting would require a great deal or reading on your part. For today let’s focus in on “Credibility.” Credibility actually has a few components to it and some that most people don’t think about.
Credibility is typically linked to knowledge. A person goes to school, gets a degree and then they are finally credible on a subject. While that is very true, there are other aspects to Credibility that many do not think about. One is effective communication and the other is called “being the bridge.”
I have seen very intelligent individuals lose credibility because they could not effectively communicate with others. That’s right, just because they have a great deal of knowledge, does not automatically grant them credibility. Everyone needs to be able to communicate effectively! There are many courses that help on effective communication topics, but the biggest effect on communication is the ability to break complex topics into understandable language. That means not using really big dictionary words when a simple word can be used. If we can communicate effectively then we can build trust and generate credibility.
Now the other component I mentioned earlier is what I call “being the bridge.” This is something that I learned when I first got into sales. If I was able to connect people needing help in a certain area with those that had the knowledge, I built credibility. That’s right because I was bridging the gap for them, then I am deemed a credible source as well. When we bridge others together, we are associated with one that adds value. Adding value is key in trust building and being a bridge will help us gain influence. This is one of the main ways I have been so successful throughout my career. I have built a great deal of credibility by bridging others together.
Bring knowledgeable, communicating effectively, and being the bridge will allow us to become more credible. Consistently showing up to add value and help others is the way to growing trust with anyone we interact with.
If you would like more information on building trust reach out and set up a call so we can discuss and I can point you in the right direction!
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”
You only get one chance to...
The sales process is the key to mastering the art of first impressions, building rapport, and likeability. Once we master the first buying decision of the sales process, we can build rapport with those around us faster!
Good morning everyone!
I hope you are enjoying your summer with your kids home from school, taking trips, and enjoying some downtime in the sun!
I have been thinking about this topic for a while now and decided that it was time to step up on my soap box. I firmly believe that we all need to know how to sell in order to make great first impressions. Whether we are going for a job interview (selling ourselves), out on a date (selling ourselves), leading an organization (selling vision and ourselves), or selling a product or service which means we need to know how to sell (ourselves), etc.
No matter what we are doing, we are selling ourselves as the best option for those around us. We share stories, build friendships, engage with coworkers etc. all of the time. Some people do this really well and some unfortunately do not. This is not simply determined if you are an introvert, or an extrovert to determine if you will do this well. What I am saying is that some just don’t sell themselves well enough.
There are three questions everyone asks at every interaction and they are as follows:
Do I like you?
Do I trust you?
How can you help me?
In seven seconds, a decision is made about the other person based off these three questions. Now there are so many aspects to how one can affect those three questions, that it is key that we know how to sell and why these three questions are affected. Learning the sales process if even just for only buying decision 1, we are definitely on solid footing to move forward with other people.
How we are dressed, what the environment we are in, our posture, our speech patterns, and many more aspects affect how people form their decisions about us. Have you ever heard the phrase. “we only get one chance to make a first impression?” This is because once someone makes that impression about us, it is extremely hard to change.
The sales process is the key to mastering the art of first impressions, building rapport, and likeability. Once we master the first buying decision of the sales process, we can build rapport with those around us faster! This will enable us to make great first impressions, obtain engagement from those around us, and create stronger relationships.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to sell and build relationships to make our lives better?
If you’d like to learn the sales process and how to gain influence, I have launched my online course. It will enable you to master sales, implement the simple to use process, and become a top performer!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”
Rapport Is The Building Block For Influence
I was reflecting the other day on building rapport with others which is essential in building influence with others. Building rapport is especially important during this time with the pandemic keeping all of us separated.
Whether we are a coach, meeting with a client, or are taking part in an interview we need to be able to build rapport quickly. We form our first impressions of others in less than 60 seconds. These two questions “Do I like you? and Do I trust you?,” are answered in that 60 seconds. If you want influence, then you need to be able to build rapport.
People also associate with others that they know, like, and trust. I have even heard of people being hired because they were more relatable even though they were not the most qualified. Isn’t that interesting. Rapport building is an essential skill to have if we are going to interact with other people.
So how do we build rapport?
Here are four ways that I build rapport with others:
Be Helpful
Be willing to help them with whatever they need help with. Go the extra mile to help others even when we think we have done enough. One step further... It could be helping a child with an assignment on the football field going through the play with them one on one and then helping them step through the steps in that process. It could be jumping in to help unload something that the person we are meeting with is trying to unload from a truck without trying to get something from them in return. It could also be helping sweep up a mess that has happened for the customer while they are trying to fill an order, or sending follow up note to the person that the task was completed for them by your organization. Being genuine and helpful will go a long way at building rapport with people.
Be Intentional
By being intentional I mean really look to find common ground with those people we are interacting with. This can be researching them on social media such as Linkedin, Facebook, local associations they are affiliated with, google etc. Being intentional to learn about those people and their interests are very impactful. Not just to gain a sale, but to be intentionally curious about them and hear them.
Be Respectful
People want to feel valued and that they are important. Why not make them feel that way? Let them know that we have their back and are willing to do the work with them. Call them sir or ma’am when they are older than us is a good way to show respect. Using their name (sweetest sound to any person is their own name), using our manners, asking them questions. By being respectful we are showing respect and who doesn’t like some R.E.S.P.E.C.T.?
Be Enthusiastic
Show some enthusiasm with the person we are talking to. Use humor, make them feel comfortable, and lower the tension. People that smile and make people laugh are far more enjoyable. These people build rapport more so than someone who walks around like the Winnie the Pooh character Eeyore that moped around and never showed excitement. People like to be around light hearted and fun people. Show some enthusiasm and energy. People gravitate towards others that are full of energy.
There you have it, think of H.I.R.E. when you are looking to build rapport. Focus on others and help them get to where they way to go, be respectful and be enthusiastic in order to build rapport. We want the person to like us so much that they can’t think of anyone else they would rather talk to for our subject matter.
If you are interested in building more influence click the image below and you will be taken to my course. I will guide you in the principals on how to answer the three questions that everyone asks at each interaction.
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”