Why Should They Trust Us?
Today we get into the second question that employees are asking themselves when speaking to to leadership. Do I trust you?
That is a huge question that if answered No, can stop engagement in its tracks. If the employees do not trust the leadership then the organization is just going to be stagnant. Now if you have ever walked by a stagnant pool or water, what did you notice? There was likely a not so pleasant smell and algae growing on the top of the water. Would we want our organizations to become stagnant?
I have spent the majority of my career studying why people buy products and services as well as why people buy into leadership. Being that I was an engineer there had to be an equation to the solution. Magic was also not going to be the answer. What I found is that when people use humor, are upfront, and show empathy towards others. That is when people really start to open up and trust.
I’ve had a manager that had issues gaining trust. This manager would openly tell anyone he first met within the first few minutes about his Christianity, but his actions would contradict what he would say he stands for. He was explosive to be around and would demand you follow his view points. If you challenged his view points, watch out!
This kind of behavior erodes trust the same as lying to others. Trust is crucial for any kind of growth individuals
So how can we grow trust fast? Here are four principals that will help us grow trust with individuals.
1. Social Proof
2. Heart of a teacher
3. Open and honest communication
4. Encourage others to hold the microscope
Social proof is using a mutual connection between the someone else and yourself. So many people like Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, music artists, etc would see huge followings after being on the Oprah show. Once they leveraged that connection, they were considered the go to expert. Now we can’t all get on the Oprah channel, but we can leverage anyone that we know who knows us well that could reach out on our behalf.
Having a heart of a teacher is offering help to the others get to a better place even if it does not benefit ourselves initially. Teaching to give free knowledge for the heart of helping others is something that is lacking in today’s culture. People tend to only want to help if they will receive something in return in that transaction. If we want to gain trust, we have to have a heart of a teacher to help others. Not for what we will gain, but to help. Zig Ziglar stated, that we will get all we want out of life, if we help enough other people get what they want. I love that concept!
Open and honest communication means reaching out when we see something bad coming, but also making sure that others are aware and that we have their back. Making sure that they are communicated to in a personal level is key. Pick up the phone when we can instead of just sending an email. This is something that I still struggle with sometimes when I am busy, but what I have learned is making sure I communicate is key. Keep in mind the written word it taken negative most times when someone reads it. Most of communication is nonverbal, posture, tone of voice, etc. An email does not have the same impact as a verbal, or in person conversation.
The last key thing to do is encouraging others to hold the microscope. No one is perfect so we should stop thinking we are. We should stop judging others by their actions and want ourselves to be judged by our intent. We should give others the opportunity to speak life into areas that we may have blind spots to.
There you have it. Four ways to grow trust fast. SHOE… We need to have our shoes on if we plan to walk the talk :)
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!”
Do You Like Me?
Good morning everyone. Last week we discussed the three questions that employees ask when the meet with us on every interaction. If you missed it click here to catch up.
The first question that we ask ourselves subconsciously when we interact with another person is “Do I like you?” Our brains are trying to figure out if this person standing in front of us is a threat or a potential ally. Should we stay, or run…
Physically our bodies will change posture depending on how this question is answered. Our posture will literally change as much as leaning in to leaning back depending on engagement and trust. This is why sales professionals have been taught to always mirror our customer’s posture during meetings.
Did you know that depending on if you are male or female you tend to want to stand in different postures when interacting? Women prefer to stand at 90 degree angles to men when they are interacting in the personal space. They naturally want to keep a guard up to not feel vulnerable. Men typically like to stand face to face total body facing their counterpart.
Are you starting to see how this might be a problem getting someone to like you if you do something small like use the incorrect stance?
Here is something else that will impact the way someone answers that question. The colors clothing we wear can also impact how we are judged. That’s right the color we wear actually has an impact on how others perceive us. We could start the discussion off on the wrong foot just by color. In Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence” he breaks down the colors and what they mean. It is a must read if you are working to sales! To make it easier for you, I tend to wear light blue and white shirts when I meet someone for the first time because those colors are associated with “Trust.” They are also calming colors. I want the customer calm and feeling like I am a trustworthy advocate for them.
I make sure to wear the right color tones for the meeting that I am about to have. The reason is I need the customer to feel at ease while meeting with me. They will be more relaxed and willing to hear me while we are discussing a topic. I also pay close attention to their posture as what I have learned is that 93% of communication is actually non-verbal.
Here are some other factors that can affect the first impression:
Scents we wear, voice tonality, pace of speech, jewelry, etc.
The old saying we only get one chance to make a first impression still is true today. Making sure we are paying attention to the person in front of us will help us greatly generate trust.
Have a great day! Next week will jump into the second question we need to answer.
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!”
Employee Engagement Do We Really Need It?
Do you have any people that just don’t seem to engage in your mission, vision, or plan? Do they just seem to listen and then go back to what they were already doing?
Ever see people not paying attention during your meetings?
Chances are if you are in a large organization, you have witnessed this engagement issue. Even if you are under 100 employees, you may have noticed this as well.
There are a lot of reasons why people are disengaged and it slows the organization down. People become complacent and then slowly just show up to collect their paycheck. This starts to suck the life out of the organization.
Lack of engagement is a huge problem! So much that organizations spend millions of dollars booking keynote speakers, sending management into trainings, and still do not gain engagement from the employees. It’s a culture problem and the main solution is found by answering three questions:
Do I like you?
Do I trust you?
How can you Help me?
These three questions are asked in our subconscious every time we interact with others. Our bodies are hardwired to want to know if we like, trust, and can be helped by the other person. These questions have been embedded into our survival since the beginning of mankind. We also are programmed to know if we are safe in an environment, or if we need to run (fight or flight response).
In business, if we are not answering these questions for our employees then why should we expect them to engage? The people that report to us want to know that what they are doing has meaning and that they can like, trust, and be helped by us. This is deeper than just a pay check. These people want to know that we will be there to support them. Otherwise, we are just like any other organization they have worked for that has not cared for them with the only differentiating factor is the size of the paycheck. Enter employee turn over!
I have worked in various industries and business environments. The one thing that is common is that leaders can have all this enthusiasm and charisma, but still have engagement issues in their organizations. People just going through the motions and collecting a pay check. No enthusiasm, no going the extra mile for the team, and just showing up for their hours of work and then leave. No cool game area, sleep pods, or other fun things to do will fix this.
If we want to get engagement and people showing up for a cause, going the extra mile, and willing to charge into battle with us, then we need to make sure we are answering the three questions to each and every employee. We need them to like, trust, and know that we can help them. It’s a two-way street as they have to be able to answer those three questions with us as well. That is hopefully why we hired them.
Start by having a conversation with them and asking questions about what they need. They may not be able to correctly articulate everything they need, but at least they know that you care and you want to help. By showing you care and have empathy for your employees, they will start going the extra mile for you. Then as discussions evolve with employees, together there will be more buy in for the mission, vision, and goal of the organization.
People want to know they matter and that their leadership does actually cares about the employees before they will go all in for the mission.
The next few weeks we will break down the three questions and give you tips on how to actively hit the mark on each of them.
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!”
Back To Normal…Back to Staying Fit While Traveling
Now that vaccine numbers are up and the COVID numbers are getting lower in many locations in the US. Business organizations are starting to open up customer visits and traveling to see customers. In person events are even starting up. Things are starting to get back to normal.
With things opening back up, the question is how to we stay fit while traveling. Maybe it’s summer vacation, maybe it’s work travel, maybe it is even trying to shed the COVID 15 lbs.
What fitness programs can we do anywhere at any time?
How do we schedule time for fitness as our schedules get tighter and tighter?
I have spent a great deal of time on the road in my career and I can say that it is extremely hard to stay fit when traveling. I have spent hours trying to plan workouts whether traveling for business or pleasure and was mostly unsuccessful.
Some things I would do was research where I was traveling to in order to find hotels with fitness centers that were not just a treadmill and an exercise bike, map out gyms near hotels, or figure out routes to run. I would get so exhausted from all of the planning that I would usually just give up and find something on tv to watch.
My epiphany happened one day I was watching informercials when I could not sleep from an extensive business trip. One caught my attention mainly because it was stating that fitness could be done in a small amount of space with limited workout equipment. The infomercial was for P90X taught by Tony Horton. This is where my beach body adventure started.
I bought the program and I have to say it worked. I was able to get in the better shape than I was in college. The program worked so much that I have done it at least once a year for the past decade. I was able to travel with minimal workout equipment. Usually just fitness bands and running shoes. I could also plan my workouts. I could do plyometric training, kick boxing, and yoga while I was on the road. I was even able to use a small 8’ x 8’ space to workout at home. Beach Body now has streaming service called Beach Body On Demand (BOD)
There are over 40 different workout programs on this system with different coaches. There is a great variety of workout programs on this service so whatever you are feeling like that day you can push play and get to work easily on your schedule. Now here is the cool part about this. You don’t need a gym membership, a bunch of gym equipment at your home, or a great deal of space. You also don’t have to waste time waiting for people to get done sweating over equipment you need to use. It’s efficient and wide open for you to decide what you want to do that day. You can also stream it on your phone from the app, or from a laptop.
They even have nutrition programs that go along with the workout programs. One stop shop to help us stay fit when traveling.
Peloton, Nordic track, and mirror all have similar formats for working out without needing much equipment. Some work out facilities and hotels even have equipment set up to use these programs as well. Getting outside and walking / running is also a great way to see the location, but that will take some planning on how far you want to go for your fitness goals.
No, I am not a beach body coach, I don’t sell the materials, or their magic shake formula (which I don’t use), but I do endorse this format especially if you are a busy individual. It works if you put forth the effort and push play. I have used this workout formula which helps me mitigate stress, process ideas, and clears my head. If it worked for me then it can work for anyone.
Also, when I finish a workout program entirely, I treat myself to something as a way to set a goal to complete a program.
We are getting back into the swing of things as well as the summer travel so it will take some planning and execution if we want to stay fit as we get back to normal. It is achievable, but we need to start now if we want to hit our goals!
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!”
Simple Ways to Keep Learning as a Leader
Today’s blog post is written by Curtis Fisher from www.tradesbright.org.
I hope you enjoy it!
The best leaders are always learning. As Harvard Business Review explains, engaging in lifelong learning is loaded with benefits, personally and professionally. Career-wise, those who continue to learn and grow can ensure ongoing financial success as work becomes more technologically-oriented. On a more personal level, pursuits like reading are wonderful stress-busters, and problem-solving can be extremely fulfilling. Some types of learning, such as playing a musical instrument, can even help to counteract cognitive decline. And living in a manner that is open and curious can be a boon to your social and networking efforts.
Some of the greatest successes of our time — Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Barack Obama — made lifelong learning part of their formula for success. It should also be part of yours. Here are some great resources to get you started!
Enroll in Online Programs
You don’t have to quit your day job to further your education. Look for remote learning opportunities through online courses and programs.
● Sign up for a leadership program from Kevin Sidebottom to learn how to be a conscious and purposeful leader.
● Earn your business degree from an online university that offers flexible courses.
● Take a course through your local small business administration (SBA).
Listen to Podcasts and Audiobooks
Podcasts and audiobooks, like the ones listed below, are great for learning while you’re commuting to work or doing the dishes.
● The TalentGrow Show podcast.
● The Leadership Biz Cafe podcast with Tanveer Naseer.
● Biographies and autobiographies about the most successful business leaders of our time.
● Leadership books recommended by the world’s top entrepreneurs.
Read Online Articles and Guides
You can learn almost anything online. These are some great articles that every leader should read at least once:
● How to avoid micromanaging your employees.
● A distilled list of the top leadership traits of great leaders.
● Understanding the difference between being a boss and being a leader.
● Articles that have inspired other successful leaders.
Become a Teacher
One of the best ways to learn is to teach someone else! Consider mentoring someone, launching a blog, or creating your very own course.
● Become a mentor to a first-time entrepreneur.
● Create a blog or a website where you can share your knowledge.
● Produce informative and engaging YouTube videos.
No matter how long you've been working in your leadership role, you can always benefit by learning something new. Even the most successful leaders can find room for improvement! Keep learning by seeking out articles, podcasts, books, courses, and coaching programs that will help you reach your full potential.
Are you looking for leadership coaching? Kevin Sidebottom can help you acquire the skills you need to thrive as a leader!
By Curtis Fisher
photo by pexels
What Customers Crave
For the past couple of weeks, I have been hoping that you have been able to understand how to generate more sales and influence with your customers.
Today, let’s talk about what customers actually crave from us as we sell to them. What is the customer really asking us each time they interact with us whether face to face meetings, calling customer service, on social media, etc. What is it that the customer is trying to communicate to us?
Customers want to be known and heard. That is right, our customers want to be known by us, called by name, and to know that without a shadow of a doubt that our teams will support their needs! They also want us to know what they mean when they can’t articulate into words. So how do we do this for them?
We need to be intentional to reach out to them to figure out what they need. It’s that simple. Get out of our comfort zones, stop trying to guess, and actually ask the customers what are their struggles. What issues do they currently have so we can go to work to resolve those issues. All of the great customer focused organizations like Amazon, Apple, Google, Zappos, etc are customer focused organizations.
In the book Invent and Wander, all of the Amazon shareholder letters are shared from inception up to now as to what Amazon is focused on. The root of all decisions is how can me make doing business with Amazon better for the customer. Decisions revolve around that one main core value.
Customers were even asked what other products / services they would buy besides books when Amazon started in 1997. That question led to expanding offerings from books to windshield wipers, to today where you literally are now able to purchase groceries in certain areas. Asking the customers for their input is powerful and a large task at the same time.
I would also ask customers that we are currently doing business with to understand what issues they have with dealing with us. When we see common themes we can know where to spend our time to focus on improvements that will actually move the needle. When customers notice improvements, their confidence does increase.
We also need to make sure that when the customer is buying from us that we make it as easy as possible to deal with us. That is key because they are already having resistance to parting from their hard-earned money. They are investing in making their lives better. We need to help them with that decision and make sure when the customer invests with us customers are taken care of.
Not do we need to make sure our products / services meets the customer’s needs, we also need to make sure the customer experience is exceptional. Too many organizations make it so hard to do business with in an effort to make sure the organization is showing profits to its shareholders. Now I’m not saying we need to make sure we are giving everything away. What I am in fact saying is that we need to make sure our focus is on how to enrich our customer’s transactions, experience, and life with our product / service so that they don’t hesitate to purchase from us again.
Only then will we be able to look back with exceptional growth in our markets.
Check out my online training The Sales Process Uncovered for help with growing your sales.
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!”
Short Term Profits, or Raving Fans, Which Do You Prefer
Good morning everyone.
Last week we spoke about customer loyalty. Today let’s talk about how to generate “Raving Fans” which is what we all want. Have you ever been to a concert standing next to thousands of other people singing the same lyrics as you as the band performs on stage? Have you ever been to a sporting event where you and the people around you are cheering for your team and sharing memories of how WE beat the rivals? How about a restaurant experience that you couldn’t help but tell others that they need to go to? Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had that kind of following for our businesses?
In today’s world it is easier to get a company launched and with social media it is even faster to come to market with new products. Business owners are trying to find the quick ways to generate profits and return customers.
Here’s the secret sauce for doing this. It takes time! Sad, but true it takes time to generate loyal customers and raving fans. As a business owner we need to define what we want. Do we want short-term profits or long-term success?
When customers buy a product / service from most organizations that is the end of the transaction. Unfortunately, the 90 days after a purchase are the most crucial for the customer. They need our help to be successful with this new investment. If we simply take the payment and say, “Good Luck!” we’ll be looking at lower sales in the future. Without repeat customers and customers reaching out to others on our behalfs, we will have to keep pushing hard with effort to grow sales. We need to serve our customers well, or suffer the consequences of burn out and becoming a commodity.
The 90 days after a purchase are crucial to make sure the customer is using the product or service to its full potential. Think about some of the products / services we have bought only for them to be collecting dust because we did not know how to use them properly. We fell that infomercial we watched late at night lied to us.
Today with social media being easily accessed a small business owner can reach all customers with emails, videos, and webinars at the click of a button and with low cost. Why not make sure the customer has all the tools to help them be successful with our products? What about group events when we travel to a city to invite those customers out to network and offer support?
No magic, just simply focusing on the customer to make sure they are successful. They are investing their hard, earned money with us so we need to treat them like they are making an investment in us. Customers are taking a risk on our products / service so let’s help them be successful. Constantly reaching out with successful tips and trick and not just selling the customer something else is how we serve them well!
I have read a great book called “Fanology” by the David and Reiko Scott. They have great insight on how organizations have generated awesome fan bases that sustain long-term success. One part of the book that really stopped me and made me think was this quote:
“The relationships we build with our customers are more important than the products and services we sell to them.”
If we want to generate more “FANS” for our products / services we need to focus on how we can make them successful with our products / services that we offer. If we are not focused on serving the customer and building relationships with them, then our products / services become a commodity. The only differentiating factor in a commodity is price. It’s also not sustainable for long term growth for your organization because each day there are similar products coming to market for a cheaper price.
Focus on making the customer successful and building a relationship with them. Wouldn’t it be awesome serving and connecting with customers so well that they become fans and sell our products / services for us? Who wouldn’t want that a sales force that we don’t have to pay because they are so passionate about our product / service?
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!”
Customer Loyalty, We Want It Right?
Good morning everyone,
Everywhere you look you see articles on how to build customer loyalty. Just about every major retailer has a loyalty program. Offers are given with point systems in hopes of retaining customers. These are all great things, but there is one area that businesses are falling short.
What about the new customer that does not know our brand and has no idea how awesome we are? What are we doing today to keep them for a lifetime? These individuals want to believe that if they join our “club” we are going to take care of them, but they have been taken advantage of so many times they may be a little skeptical.
All of us can be Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A in the future with lines for the drive through wrapping around parking lots and disrupting street traffic flow. What we need to do is think about ways to serve customers so well that they want to keep coming back.
Both Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A do one thing really, really well. It’s customer service. That’s right they are always going above and beyond the call to serve the customer. This is resulting in customer loyalty, a Fanocrocy, and great business success even during pandemics. People will literally wait in 20 min lines for a cup of coffee, and chicken sandwiches.
Chick-Fil-A also has one thing they do every time they serve us when we say thank you. They respond immediately with “it’s my pleasure.” They literally ingrain each employee to be customer service focused. It does not matter which location we to go, we still get great consistent service.
When an organization focuses only on profits and not on serving the customers it never ends well. Doing the right thing consistently over time creates loyalty. Making sure we have set up a solid customer service focus no matter how long the customers have been doing with us is key to achieving customer loyalty.
Focusing only on maintaining the customers we currently have loyalty with will erode as they expire. Yes, I have checked the data everyone expires! If we only focus on those that have bought several products from us to generate loyalty at the risk of making things right for a new customer, we will LOSE!!!
Too many organizations focus on short term profits. One main driver for this is publicly traded companies focusing on making their stock holders more money as their main goals. All organizational goals serve this one main goal. How do we make shareholders more money?
Organizations should also not focus on helping only those that have pledged loyalty to their brand, but consistently doing the right thing to generate future loyal “Fans.” When “Fans” pledge their loyalty to us, they tell others how awesome our organization are. They share stories of how we have helped them and rave about our service. We have sales people selling for us that are not on our payroll. Wouldn’t you like that?
Do not take the customer’s payment and walk away from the transaction waiting to see if the customer will buy from us again before we give extra effort. Give the extra effort up front and every time we engage people and we will be rewarded!
Check back in next week and I’ll help you with a few ideas on how to grow more loyal customers and some ideas of how to gain more fans that will sell your brand.
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!”
Why You Need To Focus On Relationships With Customers
Good morning everyone,
I remember a story of a successful business owner that had sold his company and stayed on to support the transition. The new organization had a Chief Financial Officer making the decisions. This CFO also did not like sales people and had a belief that every sale could be done automatically. No need for outside sales people. Salespeople were just an expense to the organization.
If we are not meeting with customers regularly to learn about their needs, then how are we going to build influence? Sales is influence and the more influence we have the more sales opportunities we have as a result. A lack of influence will quickly turn us and our product into a commodity! The only differentiating factor for a commodity is price. Then starts the race to the bottom where there is no margin and likely no quality.
Some of the most successful business owners that I have had the chance to sit with state that it is imperative to build the relationship with the customer. The larger the relationship, the more influence we are granted and as a result the move opportunities we have with the customer. We need to have relationships before we are ever going to be able to sell something to someone. That is of course unless we are the cheapest price which typically means less value proposition.
I have been able to visit some of my old customers that I have not called on in years. They will smile, ask me out to dinner, and sit with me for hours to discuss where they are at with their current business situations. They even have asked for insight on what I might recommend still to this day! It is a great feeling that I was able to influence individuals enough that they will take time to catch up as well as look for my advice.
These conversations would not have happened had I not worked on the personal side of the business as much as the transactional side. Knowing our customers on a personal level and understanding their aspirations is a huge benefit. People want to know that they matter. Building that relationship is extremely important in helping them achieve their goals.
It is almost an art form watching an old sales professional work the personal relationship and send birthday cards for the customer’s family, as well as celebrating wins that the customer has had.
Meetings on the golf course have transacted in large business deals that cannot be instantaneously measured. Looking back on the sales process and building relationships will allow our business to grow with our customers. The transactions do happen, but not until we have a level of influence that the customer allows us to show them a better way. People will not buy from us if they do not know, like, and trust us.
I encourage you to leverage the personal side of business along with the professional side. If learning about people was not important than why do Amazon, Facebook, and your smart phones listen in on your conversations as well as track your searches?
Send a card for your customer’s birthdays, kids’ birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc. It is a great feeling to celebrate with customers and form lasting relationships.
Remember the first buying decision a potential customer makes is the Salesperson!
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!”
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!”
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 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!”
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.
What is Rapport and Why Is It Necessary?
I actually had both the better product and the cheaper price, but still lost the sale when I was starting out.
I’ve heard sales people over the years say a sale is only dependent only on the price. The cheapest price will win the sale every time. I have heard others say that people will just want to buy the product and nothing else matters. If you have the better product then you will win the sale.
I actually had both the better product and the cheaper price, but still lost the sale when I was starting out. There was this sales representative from my competitor that had such a great relationship with the customers and the customer’s customers. He got all the deals. He had some much influence that people would almost flock to him like he was a celebrity.
This sales person had an inferior product from benefits and features stand point and had a higher price, but with his impact on people he just won. It blew my mind and I could not wrap my mind around it. I am engineer by nature so I tend to go black and white with details. It did not compute. I researched the competition and knew what I was up against. I had it nailed all of the aspects that people had told me. What I did not have down was the grey area where relationships reside.
I speak to this quite often when teaching sales professionals that there are three things that everyone asks themselves subconsciously as they walk up to you:
Do I like you?
Do I trust you?
How can you help me?
When I finally realized what this variable was that I was getting my butt kicked on. It was the relationships. When I started out in sales I was told to build rapport.
Rapport is defined as “A positive or close relationship between people that often involves mutual trust, understanding and attention. Those that develop rapport often have realized that they have similar interests, knowledge, or behaviors” – businessdictionary.com
Most sales trainings teach you to look around the room with your customer and find a way to connect on similar hobbies, activities, family, etc. This is a good beginning to building a relationship with your customer, but there is a great need to go deeper with the customer. Just merely having similar interests and viewpoints is a good start, but it is a superficial level. If you want to have relationships that a deep and fruitful, you need to go deeper.
Dale Carnegie training taught me how to build get deeper relationships. This is done mainly with a mindset of being truly focused on the customer to know them and help them. Having such a relationship will help you form relationships and build unmatched influence. You end up with a relationship that brings you more opportunities and also have the customer being an advocate with others to bring you more business. The best realtors are a great example of this. They gain new customers by word of mouth from previous customers. Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising. When someone is looking to buy or sell a home, everyone is speaking about the select few realtors that the person needs to work with.
To build deep relationships with customers you need rapport, focus on learning about them, and having trust. Use these three things and you will have strong relationships with your customers and have a solid future in sales.
I have created a quick and easy online training for you called trustworthy to help you build great levels of trust quickly.
By building deep relationships with customers, I was able to land a $20 million per year five-year contract. That is $100 million contract. I was able to obtain information needed to kick off my team and produce a proposal that put my organization in play for a program that we were not thought of as a possibility prior.
If you would like to carry the conversation deeper comment on this blog, reach out via email, or do the old-fashioned thing and give me a call so we can discuss deep relationships in sales.
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
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!”
Do You Trust Me…?
We have to have trust in relationships, the products we use in our daily lives, our organizations we work for, basically we have to put some trust in everything we come in contact with.
Have you ever noticed in just about every action movie there is this one moment where the two last survivors are about to make some kind of daring jump to freedom with the phrase just prior, “Do you trust me?” Just once I would like to see one of them say, “nope I’ll take my chances…” and see how the director makes it work.
Movies play out this request all the time, but in actuality we are asking this question to just about everyone we come in contact with.
Trust is a huge mechanism for us to function with others. We need to trust that they will not hurt us, steal from us, or do anything to affect us negatively in our daily lives. Trust is a big deal! It is part of our survival mechanism, so we need to think about that when we are working with others especially in business.
I have studied the art of building rapport with people for over a decade and trying to understand how to build deep relationships with customers. One of the key ingredients to building rapport with people is trust. If we don’t have trust, we will not be able to function effectively in the sales process. Trust is crucial!
We have to have trust in relationships, the products we use in our daily lives, our organizations we work for, basically we have to put some trust in everything we come in contact with. We trust that the vehicle we drive will not just explode when we turn the key or push the start button. We trust that the engineers and the manufacturing individuals have assembled the product / service so that it will function properly.
I have had to work at being trustworthy and to show my trustworthiness to those I have come in contact with in all situations. Early in my sales career, I took over sales territory in Florida which our organization had never had distribution in. We had to work extremely hard to build trust with this new customer base.
I took a Dale Carnegie course on human relations, learned all I could about the new products as well as the competitive landscape, and did a great deal of leg work to build the trust that we were going to do what we said we were going to do for our new customers. This meant a great deal of studying the competitive landscape while on the road, going out to sell products for my customers to their customers, train my customer’s sales force, help them with marketing, etc. There was a great deal of effort on my part to build trust.
Amazing things happened as a result. Some of my customers asking my opinion on other aspects of their business, products they were looking to purchase, inviting me on fishing / hunting trips to their properties, etc. Our Sales were taking off as well! I have even received phone calls from past customers to catch up even though I have not called on them in over eight years. I am excited when I see my customers winning!
Trust is a huge factor in organizational success, teams, and relationships. Without trust we won’t get very far in life. We need to put forth great amounts of focus on building trust with those we come in contact each and every day. I do this when I am speaking with organizations on how to help them, writing blogs, and recording videos to help each and every one of you get some insight in hopes that you have more success. Trust is a huge moral obligation to me.
I have had the opportunity to speak on trust to organizations that builds axles, drive shafts, robotic solutions, sell real estate, and financial services. The one common theme that all took away is that if they wanted to move forward faster, they needed to have high levels of trust in their organizations. The world moves fast and with trust we will be able to keep up!
If you would like access to an online training at a fraction of the cost of having me come in to speak to you and your team check out my Trustworthy training that you can take where ever you have an internet connection and at your own pace.
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!”
Having a Plan to Succeed in Sales
Is doing business with your organization that beneficial for the customer? If not, your product / service will be considered just another commodity with the only differentiator being price.
A few years back a friend and myself decided it would be a great idea to do a sprint triathlon. I figured I was in decent shape and could swim well. After all, once you finished the swim all you had to do was hop on a bike for a bit and then run a 5k. I have done 5k runs many times so I was not worried about the run and I bought a road bike so I could ride faster than a mountain bike. I did two swims in the water, road the bike a few times, and I didn’t need to run because, hey I could do it. I figured I had it all planned out to succeed and do well… figured I had it planned out enough…
The day came for the race and my friend and I were in the water ready to go. The starter sounded of the start of the race and we both jumped in with our awesome swim caps. About ten strokes into the swim I was out of energy. I looked up and saw that there were only two rescue boats and a long way to go. At that moment I knew I was in for a long day. I did every stroke I could and did the dead man’s float sometimes. Eventually I made it through the swim, did the bike, and then got into the run. I was so not prepared for that event.
The next year I trained and planned, and then trained some more. The results were very different because of a better training plan and executing that plan.
In sales, if we want to do well, we need to have a plan and work the plan. We can’t just show up and expect to for sales to just happen. We need to map out where we want the conversations to go and what areas will hit the customer’s needs. We need to review our notes about the customer and figure out what solutions we can address for them to help them. One image that still is in the back of my mind when I am visiting with customers and training is that of handing a bill to the customer when I am leaving.
Was the time spent with me worth the customer paying me?
Would your customer say the time spent with you worth $200, $250, or even $500 for that hour meeting?
What kind of solutions did the customer come away with that will equip them to function more profitably?
Is doing business with your organization that beneficial for the customer? If not, your product / service will be considered just another commodity with the only differentiator being price.
A plan is needed to make the sales call worth both parties investment of time and resources. This is a new age and because of technology customers are more informed and need sales professionals to help them create their unique solution.
What does your sales call plan look like?
What are your premeeting preparations?
Are you answering the three questions your customer is asking at each interaction?
Do I like you?
Do I trust you?
How can you help me?
Create the plan, execute the plan, and have a back-up plan if something happens that you didn’t expect. Be prepared. And if you do a triathlon, practice swimming, it could be the difference between life and death out there!
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!”