To Influence We Need To SEE

Good morning everyone,

How many times have you just believed that the people around us should follow us because we have a title that they report to?  If we are trying to gain influence with direct reports based off organizational title to keep the team following our lead we will fail. 

We all want to have influence over those we connect with whether it is family, work associates, a ministry, etc.  If you’ve been reading the past two blog posts, you’ll be following a core to building influence.  It’s a process to get the focus off of ourselves and on to those we are needing buy-in from.

Let’s review the crucial steps to accomplish influence:

Week 1 C.I.A – stands for being curious, intentional, and asking questions.

Week 2 Developing questions to pull out the needs from those we are building influence with

Week 3 Figure out if we are on the right track.

We want to make sure that what we believe the needs to be are in fact resonating with those around us.  It’s time to step out and test our thought process and start getting into activity to find out.  So how to we figure this out?

Today we are going to SEE if we are on the right track to building influence.

The first step is to Set up a meeting or a time to review with those that we are working on influence with.  Don’t do a drive buy ambush to validate we understand their needs.  Let them know that we value their time and respect.  Look at their calendars and set up a meeting with the purpose in the title or go one step further and walk up to them asking for a good time to meet.  I know some introverts will say, but I don’t like engaging people.  Maybe that is a growth step for them.  I am an introvert by nature, and I speak to groups of people because I took small steps each day to grow. 

Show them respect by being prepared for the meeting.  We can also give them a few details we would like to review so they have time to prepare for the discussion.

Be Engaged.  Turn off emails, close doors, and pay attention. Be engaging with this meeting as best you can.  Ask them questions to pull out their needs as you have drafted from last week’s blog.  Let them do most of the talking like a 70/30 ratio with you mainly asking questions and them answering.  Find out deeper needs than just a paycheck and insurance benefits.  Find their WHY they are continuously showing up.

Encourage them to come to us with questions, help, ideas for their growth, and to keep an open dialogue.  Let them know we truly care by encouraging them.  We don’t need to have parties for them but showing them that we care and encouraging them to take steps for growth and reaching out will help us gain influence.

Now if they have needs that we have not already identified from our prep work, then this is our homework to review and make sure that we can answer those needs.  It is better to know that we are not meeting their needs now so that we can either work on being able to meet those needs, or help those that report to us find somewhere in our organization, or another organization that will allow them to find their place best suited for them.  Keeping someone that limits them is not a long-term play and will slow down progress.  Yes, sometimes we may need to help the reports find a better suit for them and look for someone else.

People are not cogs in a machine, but individuals helping to support a vision we have.  This is a concept that far too many organizations fall into because they are just trying to keep moving and not focusing on their individuals and how to help those individuals. 

Helping those that we are influencing know that we truly care will build a great foundation to help us in the future to move further faster together.

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!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Do What Wealthy People Do

What do Wealthy individuals do?  That is a question the majority of our population have.

I have sat with quite a few millionaires and learned this some interesting things.  First thing I learned is that 99% of wealthy individuals did not inherit their wealth.  Yep, that is right, they built it from the ground up.  Almost all of them did not win the lottery either.  So how did they do it?

The main reason these wealthy individuals did it is by using a Budget.  Yep, I used the B-word! They use budgets financially, with their time, and when they decide to take on a new venture. 

Hardworking individuals believe the B-word as a taboo discussion topic.  I get it!  I fought against using budgets until I took a class that helped me understand that if I tell my money what to do, it actually does what I want it to do. 

When I learned how freeing budgets can be, I was left wondering why I did not do this sooner.  I would have had so much more money at the end of the pay period and would have been able to invest more of my hard, earned money.  Yes, budgeting can be freeing for you and your loved ones.  My wife can use her money to buy whatever she wants with it. 

My wife and I started out our marriage with the monthly budget meeting.  We go through all of the line items including clothing, vacations, gifts, food, electric, etc.  If she decides to buy a whole bunch of coffee, she is free to do so without me condemning her because it is her money to budget for whatever she wants!  Have you ever had a fight over your significant other buying something that you haven’t agreed on? 

The monthly budget has helped our communication greatly as a by-product.  If you are in a relationship then you already know communication is huge in a relationship. 

Budgeting has been one of the single most effective ways for my wife and I to prepare for emergencies, taking vacations, date nights, etc.  We have had times where we had emergencies and by having a budget, we were able to overcome those emergencies quickly.  We also need to buy a new roof for our house that we have been planning for.  Roofs are pretty expensive and we will be able to afford it because we put it in the budget. 

You know what else has been great?  We actually give our kids a budget for clothing and after school activities that they can manage how they choose.  They just need make sure they can afford it.  If they don’t have enough money, then they don’t do the activity.  Now the emotion is taken out of the discussion and the focus is on saving up so they can do that activity in the future.  My hope is that they will keep budgeting for the rest of their life so they can retire with even more money that my wife and I.

Had we started earlier on investing into retirement we would have millions more when we retire.  Not a million…Millions! 

If you want to be successful and have a great retirement, you need to start with a budget.  I do not make any money off of this, but I also highly recommend you take financial peace university from Ramsey Solutions!  It is the class that started me on my financial journey over a decade ago and has helped our family with getting on track for a better future.

What is keeping you from sitting down and doing a budget? 

Do you not have the time? 

Does it seem like you don’t know where to start? 

What if I told you that if you emailed me, I would send you a FREE excel file that you could use for your own budget?   It does all of the calculations for you.  

Would that be helpful? 

If you want to become wealthy and have HOPE for your future, email me today and I will send you a copy of the budget file we use so that you can get on the road for a better future.

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!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com