Are you addicted to being right? Being right always feels nice but it could be holding you back from greater success. My wife Robin is right about many things and she is kind enough to let me think some of those things are actually my idea. We’ll explore the issue in greater depth below.

Addicted to Being Right
 
Chances are you don’t like being told what to do. Whether it’s your mother, father, spouse, child or boss, you will resist doing what they tell you to do, even if they are right. Same thing happens when you tell people what to do. The resistance to being told what to do resides at both a conscious and below-conscious level.
 
Help other people be right
 
While we resist ideas from outside ourselves, we readily accept our own rationale. Therefore, instead of wanting to take credit for a great idea or waiting for the opportunity to say, “I told you so,” why not help other people come to the conclusion for themselves?
 
There are three primary ways to help other people think through situations for themselves and come to the best solution. Using these tools will help you become a more influential person both at work and at home.

1. Ask questions – When you use open ended questions like How, What, Tell me about… it forces the other person to think and respond. That thinking process helps the other person take ownership of the idea.
2. Tell stories – When you hear, see or read a story, you actually immerse yourself in the story. The saying “Selling is Storytelling” is quite accurate because as the other person inserts themselves into your story, they begin to own the idea for themselves.
3. Use powerful words – When you ask someone to do something, always give them a reason. By inserting the word ‘because’ and giving a reason, you increase the compliance by up to 50% over not giving them a reason. Eliminate the word ‘but’ from your vocabulary. When you use the word ‘but’ you are telling the other person that what they just said is wrong and what you’re about to say is right. Instead use the word ‘and’ to join your thought to theirs. That way the thought becomes theirs and they will act on it more readily.

When you become more persuasive and influential you can smile to yourself knowing that you had the great idea to begin with and feel good knowing that the other person is more committed to taking the desired action.
 
Reflection Questions
 
Is it overly important for you to be seen as being right? Do other people do what you want willingly or do they passively or actively resist your ideas, requests and initiatives?
 
Action Items 

• Realize that greater success can be achieved when other people think an idea is theirs even if you helped them discover the idea for themselves.
• Become an expert question asker and story teller, knowing that these techniques help other people grasp your ideas with greater ease.
• Give people a reason to do what you suggest and instead of arguing, join your ideas to theirs to give them a sense of ownership.

If you are curious about how to become more persuasive and influential, check out our Persuasive and Influential Leadership course with Dr. Peter DeShane on Feb 10th, 2010.  A live workshop and a self-study program is available.

In the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to work with three companies that are each leaders in their respective industries. In each case, the products and services they offer, the people who work for them and the way they conduct business are all first rate.
 
And yet they all are facing the same challenge: How to communicate the value they provide to the customer so that they are not seen as a commodity and therefore maintain the profit margin they need to grow their businesses.
 
You Can’t Make it Up With Volume
 
Each percentage point of gross profit margin you lose requires a 4% volume growth just to keep profit steady. A five point increase in your profit margin is the equivilent to a 20% increase in sales. A five point increase in your profit margin can equal a 50% boost to your bottom line profit.

Focusing on Features Can Erode the Perception of Value
 
Chances are that your company has a long list of features that you are proud of. They might include innovative design, flexibility, longevity, responsiveness, superior customer service, well trained staff, convenient locations, fast delivery, customer testimonials, etc.
 
Unfortunately, your customer doesn’t always fully grasp the value that these features bring and therefore may not be willing to pay for them.
 
Understanding How the Customer Benefits from the Way You Do Business
 
In one case my client discovered that the quality of their products allowed their customer to sell the product longer before it spoiled. And because the product was fresher, the customer could charge more money to their customer. And the way they delivered the product reduced handling by the customer, saving them labor costs.
 
Another client discovered that most of all, their customers appreciated that they “saved their bacon” when they needed product really quickly.
 
The third client discovered that the quality of the service they provided helped their customer reduce staff turnover and increase employee satisfaction.

Communicate the Value
 
In our Value-Based Selling program we emphasize two specific skill sets:

1. How to develop great questions that reveal to both the sales person and the customer, the total COST of the problem and the potential value of the solving the problem. In effect the customer begins to desire the solution before the sales person begins selling it.
2. How to communicate the value by describing explicitly how doing business with your company will impact their ability to increase profit or sales. The best method to convey this message is using a combination of success stories, fact based analysis and testimonials.

Purchasing agents and buyers typically get far more training in how to commoditize the buying process. In response, your sales people require constant training & development in selling the value your company provides.
 
Reflection Questions
 
How does buying your product or service help your customer make more money? Is your team capable of consistently communicating this value to your customers?

Action Items 

• List all of the elements of your value proposition – the features and benefits of doing business with your company.
• Craft questions that will help your sales people probe for the problems that create customer desire for your solution.
• Create powerful stories, examples, illustrations and testimonials that can be used to convey the value message in the sales process.
• Give your sales people the skills they need. Not just one-time training… ongoing reinforcement.
• Watch your sales, profits and customer retention increase.

I had the pleasure of attending a social event connected to a convention I was attending in Calgary. The organizers had planned an entertainment-packed evening at a “cowboy ranch” with gun slinging cowboys, a comedian, a live auction, and for those who were brave enough, a mechanical bull. All the proceeds were to go to the organization’s foundation.
 
Unfortunately, many members of the audience were happy just to sit and socialize and then get back to the hotel for some rest before the next day’s program. So when the host announced that the first bus had arrived, half the group left, making the auction a dud.
 
The organizers were ticked. They spent all this time and energy to plan a great outing and the attendees had the gall to leave early!
 
They fell into the trap of “blaming the customer” and I hear variations of it in many of the organizations I work with. I’ve done it myself – blame the customer for not buying, blame the participants for a mediocre session (this happens rarely!).
 
Don’t Blame the Customer
 
You have heard the expression, “the customer is always right.” Now we know that the customer isn’t always right, however it could be said that, “the customer is always right in his/her own mind.”
 
This distinction is important because right or wrong, when the customer decides to vote with her feet and money, the impact is felt on your organization. Similarly in a “discussion” with my wife Robin I can choose between being “right” and spending quality time on the couch or allowing her to be “right” which makes for a cosier bed time.
 
No amount of “marketing” can push a bad product or service onto a customer and expect to last in the long term. Many organizations think they know better what the customer wants, when in reality the customer isn’t buying it.
 
Be Thankful for “Challenging” Customers
 
Customers with high expectations help challenge your organization to achieve more.  One group of customer service reps was complaining about how disorganized their customers were. I pointed out that those disorganized customers were placing even greater value on the service provided by their company. If the customers were better organized they would place less value on the service provided and profits would decrease.
 
There will be customers who you are better off without. The ones that cost you more than you make. Before writing them off, consider how to provide the level of service they expect at a profit.
 
Reflection Questions
 
Does your organization blame the customer for it’s challenges? Are you an accomplice to this act? How could your organization be more customer-focused and earn record profits?
 
Action Items

• Listen for signs that your organization is blaming the customer for its woes.
• Ask questions that move your organization forward, “How can we win the business and maintain profitability?”
• Stop complaining about customers and start finding ways to make them happy at a profit.
• Remember that the ultimate antidote to having difficult customers is having no customers at all…

Do your customers keep pressuring you to reduce prices by saying that they are getting more favourable terms from your competitor? It is in the buyer’s best interest to convince you that what you provide is a commodity. That way, they transfer more profit margin from your company to their’s.

Is what you provide really a commodity? Perhaps to some extent, however your company likely offers a bunch of value-added features to your customers, and they are willing to pay for it, but will take it for free if you give it away.

Purchasing agents get considerably more training than sales people. There are more professionally trained buyers than professionally trained sales people. And so the sales people can get slaughtered in negotiations, coughing up concessions and getting little in return.

Action items to justify value:

1. List all the features and benefits your company offers, that provide some value to your customer. These may include convenient location, no charge freight, expedited shipping, smaller order minimums, onsite merchandisers, consignment stock, informative sales people, helpful customer service, accurate billing and credits, flexible payment terms, industry leading products, in store point of sale displays, large selection, etc.
2. Determine which customers value these features and benefits the most. If your customer doesn’t value something you offer, you have a choice: Find customers who do value it; or stop offering it and reduce cost.
3. Communicate the Value: Sales people need to be able to articulate the value proposition to the customer and ask great questions that build the desire of the customer to want those value elements.

What if your competitor gives it away for free? If your competitor gives it away, chances are they are making it up with margin or volume or have found a way to offer the benefit without incurring cost. Or they may have given it away because everyone else was. That doesn’t mean that you have to.

It’s official, the recession is over! Or is it? While politicians and economists debate when the recession officially ends, those of us in sales still face the daunting task of hitting year end targets with less than 11 weeks to go before we close the books on 2009.

What can you are your team do to impact the balance of the year and build a strong momentum heading into 2010?

1. Target your top ten accounts and look at how you can help them buy more from you. Your best customers are your best source of sales growth. Get creative with your ideas. Chances are your customer also wants to boost sales so you are really working towards the same goal. “How can we both work together to increase your sales and what you buy from us?”
2. Take advantage of the fact that your competitors are scrambling. Let’s face it competitors don’t act rationally. In fact many times they mess up the marketplace for the rest of us. The good news is that your competitors’ shortcomings are your opportunity to take business away from them. Target accounts that you know your competitors are likely screwing up. These days companies don’t have the time and money to mess around. They need a supplier who has their best interest at heart. Be that kind of supplier and take business away from your competitor.
3. Maintain a positive attitude. Some companies seem to have “customer prevention strategies”. Pay attention to how people answer the phone, how they deal with customer requests, questions and concerns. Are you treating your customers like they are important or a nuisance? If you treat them like they are a nuisance, the good news is that you will have less of them to complain about. Confront employees who share misery instead of happiness and tell them their job depends on being positive. Keep a positive, achievement oriented tone in all communications.

This kind of practical, real world advice is what you will enjoy during our upcoming e-Learn series Sales Strategies for a Challenging Marketplace. In three, action packed 45 minute sessions you and your team will get the information you need to make more sales happen now and boost your numbers heading into 2010.

There has never been a more crucial time to sharpen your sales skills and these sessions give you a cost-effective and time-sensitive way to achieve results.

Download the PDF registration form and register today. Or call Ana Sierra at COPA or email her at asierra@copa.ca

A new business season is upon us and with it comes some old challenges and some new ones. Here are three action steps to achieve a strong finish in 2009 and set your organization up for a great year in 2010.

1. Get a Recovery and Growth Mindset

Now is the time for you and your team to shift thinking from defense to offense. As the recession begins to fade there are tremendous opportunities to grow your business. The challenge is to recognize the opportunities and then take action to exploit the potential.

2. Upgrade Your Mental Software

When was the last time you invested in growing the knowledge, skills and capabilities of yourself and the team around you? Is your team trying to achieve success in 2010 with a 2004 mindset? If your organization isn’t changing as rapidly as the environment around it then you might want to upgrade capabilities with training, coaching or consulting aimed at the areas of greatest need.

3. Lead

The root cause of both success and failure is leadership. If your team isn’t up to the challenge it may be them or it may be the leader. Develop a clear idea in your mind on what you want to achieve and then ask the team how they can make it happen. Challenge is a top motivator so get your team reenergized by focusing on a big goal that they can sink their teeth into.

If we can help your organization reenergize and refocus, please connect with us for a complimentary consultation.

Have you experienced the situation where you think you have been clear in communicating what you want and need, only to be disappointed and frustrated when others do not buy in enthusiastically? Even the most thought-out, logical arguments might create unexpected resistance. 

That’s exactly why Dr. Peter DeShane and I collaborated to create a brand new 8 CD and one DVD self-study program called Persuasive and Influential Leadership. Based on the successful live workshop, this self-paced program covers the advanced communication skills you need to get others to do what you need to get done, willingly. 

The program is based on the science of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) which studies the link between how you think and how you communicate.
 
Key Benefits 

• Achieve greater results in less time with less resistance.- Help others adapt to change more easily.
• Get ready for promotion because you are able to get things done through others.
• Reduce conflict by positioning your information to be acceptable to everyone.

 

What the Program Covers: 

• The influence of existing habits both for you and the people around you.
• How to build instant rapport with almost anyone, including people who you don’t naturally click with.
• The science of resistance – why people resist even when they acknowledge the need to change. How to position information so that people think of it as their idea and are more committed.
• Why logic often fails to persuade and how to position information in a way that others can accept both logically and emotionally.
• Why people are naturally programmed to resist change because it causes a disruption to habits – and how to get them to buy in more readily.
• Three main ways people process information and how to identify and adapt to their dominant processing style.
• How to adapt to people who speak much faster than you do, or who speak much slower than you do.
• The power of stories – how to craft your key messages into powerful stories that help people relate to your message on a personal level.
• Using email more effectively to build rapport electronically.
• Using specific words that are proven to create greater commitment by others to do what you want.
• How to overcome obstacles that keep people from moving ahead.
• and much more.

Edutainment 

The program is delivered in an entertaining and engaging way. You will enjoy the conversational style that Greg and Peter use. It will be as if they are sitting with you one on one. You will want to listen to the content again and again to master the skills of influence. 

What is Included 

1. Four audio CD’s covering the core course concepts.
2. A comprehensive workbook that reinforces the key course concepts.
3. An application CD on How to Deal with Difficult People
4. An application CD on how technical roles can communicate with non-technical people.
5. An application CD on Sales. How to get customer buy in more quickly and easily.
6. An application CD for Human Resource Professionals to keep the organization moving forward with positive employee relations practices.
7. A one-hour DVD that demonstrates the course material visually so you can grasp and use the program more easily.

 

Four Application CD’s 

Recognizing that different professions and situations can require different approaches we have recorded four application CD’s that take the core program concepts and focus them on these areas: 

1. Dealing With Difficult People – Once you learn why people are difficult you can alter your approach to get them to buy in more easily. Imagine taking a person who always is oppositional and turning them into your biggest supporter! Less resistance means less stress on you plus the ability to get more done.
2. Technical Professions – Information technology, engineers and other technical roles can struggle with communicating complex information to other areas of the organization. In this application CD we present a systematic approach to presenting technical solutions in a framework that others can support with enthusiasm. Greater buy-in will move projects along faster and get necessary support to new projects.
3. Sales – Sales professionals and others who deal with customers as part of their role will benefit from this application CD that specifically addresses how to get customers to buy into your proposal and how to really determine the level of interest your customer has in your solution. Get customer buy in more easily in order to grow sales.
4. HR – HR professionals often face two challenges. First they need to convince other managers to treat employees with respect and secondly they often have to mediate employee requests and concerns while reinforcing company policy. This application CD gives HR professionals the skills they need to get buy-in more quickly and help the organization achieve success.

 

A DVD shows you how: 

A one hour DVD provides a visual demonstration of the key concepts which will help you grasp the information more quickly and easily. The DVD was produced into a one-hour cable television special and has earned top reviews. 

The investment: 

The entire program is US$339.95. FREE SHIPPING  

Guarantee: We are acredited with the Better Business Bureau so you can rest easy that we will fully refund your purchase price if you are unhappy with the program for any reason within six months of purchase. Simply return it to us and your refund will be processed immediately. 

Order the Program today: 

One time payment of US$339.95 plus Goods and Services Tax 5%.

Call us toll free at 1-866-700-9043 or email info@uniquedevelopment.com 

If you missed our live seminar and webinar, now is your opportunity to purchase the recorded version of the one-hour webinar. Watch it personally or get your team together and watch as a group.

Click here to preview the program video and purchase it now.

This presentation covers the following information designed to help you boost your sales in a difficult economic environment:

A number of clients have said that their number one concern right now is how to increase sales revenue. Sales professionals are definitiely pounding the pavement in search of business, however is it as effective as it should be? Now is a great time to refocus sales efforts to increase sales in the short term and be well positioned for economic recovery.

To address this need, we have scheduled a live half-day workshop for London, Ontario, Canada on June 23rd from 7:30 AM to 11:30 AM and for Windsor, Ontario, Canada for June 24th from 7:30 AM to 11:30 AM.

If you are not located in either of these two cities, or perhaps just want to hear a condensed version of the program, we have scheduled a one-hour webinar for June 23rd at 2:30 PM Eastern Time. You participate using your computer and telephone.

Key content to be addressed in the seminar and webinar:

• Increasing your company’s share of wallet (the percentage of what the customer spends on what you could sell them)
• Utilizing inside sales to contact prospects and customers and qualify accounts for a sales visit.
• Upselling and cross selling strategies – how to increase the dollars per sale.
• Negotiating tactics to deal with customers who ask for concessions and price reductions.
• How to take advantage of competitor weakness to take away accounts and how to defend your accounts from being attacked by competitors.
• Positioning your company’s products and services to address the biggest problems faced by your customers today.

Who should attend:

• Business owners
• Senior level managers
• Sales managers
• Sales professionals

To get more information and to register:

http://www.uniquedevelopment.com/grow-sales-in-a-recession.htm

Or call us toll free: 1-866-700-9043

Is your company experiencing revenue decreases because of the current business environment? You’re in good company and so we’ll look at some straighforward strategies for leaders to improve sales in the short run and set up opportunities for the long term.

What business owners, general managers and sales managers are noticing is a dramatic shift in their sales funnel. If you are unfamiliar with the term sales funnel, picture a funnel; wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. In good times, your sales funnel looks like a champagne flute – opportunities at the top drop to the bottom and become sales. In tough times your sales funnel tends to look like a martini glass – wide at the top and skinny at the bottom. You need more opportunities at the top to get the same amount of sales out the bottom.

Implications of a Martini-Glass Sales Funnel

1. Prospecting and Account Targeting: Your sales group will need to expend more effort into new business development and identifying opportunities. This can be a shock to a sales group that was used to taking orders in good times. The ratio between opportunities and sales is called the conversion ratio. In good times you either had a higher conversion ratio or the sheer number of opportunities allowed you to grow sales. Consider a session for your sales team on how to prospect for business and target high probability prospects.
2. Time and Territory Management: It is shocking how inefficient external sales professionals can be. If you took the total time available (working hours) and examined how much time is actually spent communicating with customers and advancing the sale, you might discover that efficiency is as low as 2% to perhaps 30% if you are lucky. A session on how to manage territories and opportunities can pay dividends. An alternative is to implement or expand the role of inside sales. An inside sales team can make more frequent contact with a larger group of customers, allowing your company to profitably service smaller sales. When inside sales identifies a large opportunity it can be handed over to an external sales rep.
3. Negotiation and Closing Skills: Because customers are in a stronger bargaining position, your sales team will need to sharpen their negotiating skills to hammer out a deal and get a go ahead from the customer. Without tenacity and good negotiation skills, the time it takes to close a sale will extend and the margin will disappear with concessions demanded by the customer. Conside a workshop to emphasize how to negotiate a sale and then get a commitment from the customer.

We can help leaders take the necessary actions to improve sales and margins. Give us a call or send an email to discuss the possibilties. If travel budgets are tight, consider a webinar instead of a live meeting. Join us for our NEW Seminar or Webinar “Leadership Strategies to Grow Sales in a Recession” – Click Here

No matter what format of training makes sense for your company, require each person to make at least one concrete commitment on what they will do to improve sales. Then track the success and celebrate, ideally on a weekly basis.