When it comes to selling, nothing is more important than the power of certainty. After all, when potential customers or clients are uncertain, they hesitate. They don’t want to move forward, say “yes,” or allow you to close the sale. The more uncertainty you have, the higher the risk for the person making the purchase, and the more likely it is that they will decide to wait. On the other hand, when there is a high level of certainty and the product or service will help the customer accomplish what they want to achieve or give them the result they desire now and in the future, the sale can be made very easily. So in a world of amazing uncertainty, you have to ask yourself, “What am I certain about?” One of the top certainties of today is that the future is all about relationships. Even though we live in a highly technical world, it is still a human world where people buy and sell on logic and emotion, on their view of the future, and on the level of trust they have in the people they’re working with. Therefore, no matter what you’re selling, if you don’t have trust, it will be difficult to rapidly increase sustainable sales. It has been increasingly difficult for order-takers to make a living in today’s networked, mobile, social, and interactive economy. The salespeople who do best are those who act not as order-takers, but as trusted advisors. This is true whether you’re selling flat-panel display televisions at an electronics store, multi-million-dollar ERP systems, or real estate. Becoming the trusted advisor is key.  For example, if you go to a hardware store and ask someone to help you find something, and that salesperson simply points you to the correct aisle, he or she may make the sale, but not a loyal customer. However, when that salesperson takes an interest in what you’re looking for, asks questions about how you plan to use the item, and then helps you find what you are looking for or a better solution, you’re more likely to go back to that hardware store and seek that person out. In fact, you’re no longer just going to the hardware store; you’re going to see your trusted advisor who works at the hardware store. Now the main questions are: “As a salesperson, how do you really reach that trusted advisor status?” And, “Once you attain that status, how do you use certainty to fill your sales pipeline?” Here are three keys to keep in mind. 1. Raise the bar on trust: Many salespeople lower the level of trust they have with customers, not because they aren’t trustworthy people, but because they aren’t thinking about trust before they present their sales pitch. Therefore, when you’re speaking with a prospect or customer, you always want to ask yourself, “Where is the current trust level?” Perhaps there isn’t any. If so, that’s okay. Work at building trust as the conversation and resulting relationship progresses.  For example, instead of saying something negative about a competing product, pull out your smart phone or tablet and show the customer tweeted complaints about the competing product, as well as tweets about your product. This will give the customer social proof that you are telling the truth. Raise the bar on trust whenever possible. Change how you talk about your product or service, how you sell it, or how you demo it so that trust stays where it is or, better yet, goes higher. When you can raise the bar on trust, you’re much closer to that sale because now you’re a trusted advisor. 2. Send customers away: Rather than strive for sales or transactions, strive for relationships that span time, price fluctuations, and the competition. Sometimes that means sending customers to your competitors. Yes, it sounds contrary to the traditional sales building advice, but it’s a sure way to build your trusted advisor status. For example, if a competing product to yours would better suit a customer, tell them about it. Give them the other company’s web site, phone number, or address. Write it down for them. Even though you didn’t make this sale, you just made many future sales because you are now definitely a trusted advisor. In my own 28 years of research and in starting numerous successful companies, I’ve found that the best way to gain trust is to make recommendations in the customer’s best interest, even if that means sending them to a competitor. Why? Because now the customer realizes you truly want to help and that they can trust you for the right answers. Then, when they have another need or challenge (which they most certainly will), they’ll turn to you to help them. When you’re always the first company they contact, you’re bound to get long-term sales. Remember, transactions are here today and gone tomorrow. That’s why your goal is to gain customers who are with you forever. After all, it’s much less expensive to sell to current customers who already trust you than to try to gain a new customer. Invest the time upfront and you’ll have better results in the future. 3. Capitalize on certainties: Once you have people’s trust and understand the power of leveraging relationships, it’s time to ask yourself a key question we touched on earlier: “What am I certain about?” Chances are, you’re certain about a lot of things. For example, you know when major holidays will hit, when seasons will come, and even your industry’s sales cycles. Another example of certainty is that the number of customers using smart phones to help them make purchasing decisions while in a store will increase. And if you’re really building relationships and trust with your customers, you’ll also be certain about their needs, both now and in the future. So it’s time to make a list of certainties and put those certainties to work. Let’s take the sales cycle as an example. Most industries have sales cycles where there’s a certain time that people buy the product or service. Rather than prospect, market, and sell during the sales cycle, if you know it’s coming, why not prospect, market, and sell before the sales cycle starts? Why? Because one of the strategies I teach in my book Flash Foresight is that opposites work better. So rather than compete and sell when everyone else is competing and selling, why not sell when your competitors don’t think the sales cycle has started? Before the sales day begins, always ask yourself: What are the problems that are most likely on my customer’s minds? What are the uncertainties that might keep them from saying yes? Then ask yourself: What am I certain about? The key is to use the things you’re certain about to make saying “yes” easier for your customers. Eliminate the risk of saying yes and put more risk on saying no. If you’re a trusted advisor and you talk to your customers about the certainties you know they’ll be facing, they will listen and buy. We live in a highly competitive and uncertain world. And that can force many salespeople to forget about relationship-building and focus on the current transaction. Yet when you focus on developing personal relationships with customers, becoming a trusted advisor rather than a salesperson, and using the power of certainty to your advantage, you will provide the comfort and clarity for customers to make a buying decision now.

Chris Wilkinson.                             

Certified Business Behaviour & Attitudes Analyst.               

Business Coach.

Tel: (905) 275-2907 (Mississauga).

E-mail: buspilot@bell.net

How “intelligent” are the managers that you hire?

Emotional Intelligence AND THE INNOVATIVE WORKPLACE......

For a workplace to be innovative, there needs to be a supported, open exchange of ideas among employees at all levels. Talent needs to be inspired and supported so they can develop new solutions to existing problems through ideas for process and product innovation, and a manager who has developed his or her own self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation and empathy will be best suited to encourage and support innovative teams. In other words, emotional intelligence (or EQ) plays an integral role in the innovative workplace.

Let’s say one of the employees I manage comes to me with a new idea on how we can overcome a challenge that’s been keeping us from achieving one of our goals. What she doesn’t know is that just prior to her popping into my office and asking if she can tell me about her idea, I was on a phone call that has affected me, altering my usual state, and I’m going to have a difficult time giving her the attention needed to support her and foster a workplace of innovation. Whether or not I possess high or low EQ will have a lasting effect on my team and our workplace.

Manager with Low Emotional Intelligence...

If I had low Emotional Intelligence, I might tell my employee, “Sure, come in” and let her talk about her idea. I might listen to her, give some quick feedback, but then never follow up and do anything with her idea. Whatever I experienced prior to our quick meeting has distracted me from the rest of my work, and I’m not able to give the proper attention to an innovative approach to our business. Just as soon as my employee leaves, I’ve forgotten about the interaction. What I’ll do is teach my employee not to waste her time focusing on new ideas to solve company challenges because if she brings those ideas to me, I won’t do anything with them. Co-workers who heard her idea might ask about it, and then they learn their voice won’t be valued either.

Manager with High Emotional Intelligence.,...

If I had high  Emotional Intelligence I’d still be affected by that phone call. Having high Emotional Intelligence doesn’t make me impervious to emotional chaos, but it does mean I possess self-awareness and can recognize that I’m not in the best state to receive creative, innovative ideas from my staff. With high Emotional Intelligence I might tell my employee, “Now’s not really a good time, but I’m extremely interested in hearing your idea … let’s look at our calendars and block out some time to talk.” After making arrangements to regroup the following day, she leaves my office understanding that maybe I’m not having a great day, but that I value her opinion and her time enough to make concrete plans on revisiting her idea.

What if that one employee’s idea sparked a bigger conversation about a growth-hindering issue for the company? What if by taking the time to encourage collaborative thinking among all staff we developed a culture of innovation that moved us closer and closer to achieving our strategic goals? Now, what if managers’ lack of emotional intelligence not only prevented this from happening, but also sent it spiraling downward, furthering a culture of disengagement that resulted in the loss of high potential employees and missed opportunities? With over 70% of the top issues in the workplace tied to leadership, it’s no surprise that organizations are looking for the cutting edge science of Emotional Intelligence assessment as part of their due dilligence PRIOR to making their hire decision.

To learn more about emotional intelligence assessments call: Chris Wilkinson, Business Pilot @ (905) 275-2907.

Chris Wilkinson.

Certified Business Behaviour & Attitudes Analyst.

Business Coach.

Tel: (905) 275-2907 (Mississauga).

E-mail: buspilot@bell.net

Top 10 Ways to Accelerate a Deal to Close
Are any of the opportunities in your pipeline stale? Do you have deals that you thought would close months ago, yet somehow they remain in your pipeline?  Most sales professionals suffer from challenges related to opportunities that never seem to close, or prospects that just don’t seem to take that final step. This challenge causes salespeople and managers to be terminated; it’s so common that many a company has failed because the supposed strong pipeline never materialized into revenue. Good news. It’s time to stop suffering and start closing those deals. You’re about to discover the top 10 ways to accelerate a deal to close. #10: Aggressive sales management.It’s not ideal by any means and that’s why it ranks at the bottom of the list; but many a sales manager will proclaim that deals would never have closed if it weren’t for micro-management. (On a more upbeat note, sales contests and other sales rep incentives fall under this category, too). #9: Customer incentives.This, too, is a bit of a last resort because compressing the sales cycle by way of a fire sale typically only results in reduced profitability, not to mention the accompanying sales rep frustration and customer anguish. #8: Gain a bona fide customer commitment to the timeline.Granted, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and commitments are not always fulfilled. But galvanizing the key decision maker(s) to a timeline really does work wonders. #7: Drive consensus of the management team.Agreement does not always equate to action but having every stakeholder nodding “yes” is an important element if your solution involves a broader decision-making-unit. Solution-selling is complex; this stuff’s chess, not checkers. Not every decision maker has to say “yes,” but just about any one of them can say “no.” Getting everyone on the same page can be time-consuming and costly, but it does lead to agreement and action. #6: Persistent follow-up. Ah, the basics.Professional, value-based follow-up is magical. Out-of-sight is out-of-mind, so stay religious with your real opportunities, and you’ll reap the rewards of focused activity. #5: Align the solution to a strategic objective.Whether it’s at the departmental or corporate level, if your solution helps the company achieve their stated goals, chances are it’s closer to the fast lane. Even better, align it to an objective that is part of the decision maker’s compensation or bonus program.    #4: Expose a personal win (gain) for the key decision maker(s).It’s important to understand the difference between a professional objective (see #5 above) and a personal objective. Uncovering the personal ambitions and desires of the individual(s) is a powerful method to get the customer to take action. #3: Tie your solution to a market opportunity for the customer. This means one of their customer’s requirements, or will enable your customer to provide an increased service level that will yield your customer (incremental) revenue, or shield your customer from losing (decremented) a current revenue stream. #2: Demonstrate a strong return on investment (ROI) supported by customer data.If the decision maker recognizes that the department or company is losing money by not implementing the solution, it begins to become a no-brainer to get moving sooner rather than later. And finally, the number one way to get a deal accelerated to closure (and a big apology if you’re like most folks, and this simply does not apply to your model)… #1: Tie your solution to a pending regulation or other impending event.Granted this doesn’t affect most solutions, but nothing is more motivating for a company than an impending event, such as a new regulatory requirement that forces the company to act by a specific date. Customer IntimacyMany of these recommendations relate to customer intimacy. Bear hug the customer, and they’ll not only tell you what the winning hand needs to be, they’ll tell you when to play which cards. Whether you’re selling a product or a service, the reality is that the customer is not buying a product or a service. The customer is buying a solution to a problem. Zig Ziglar once talked about Home Depot selling one million 1/4“ drill bits per year. Yet, none of the customers actually wanted a 1/4“ drill bit; the customers all wanted 1/4“ holes. The same dynamics applies to your solution.

Chris Wilkinson.                              

Certified Business Behaviour & Attitudes Analyst.               

Business Coach.

Tel: (905) 275-2907 (Mississauga).

The 20/80 rule.

The 20/80 rule. Think about it. See the samples below.....

Is your business operating as efficiently as it could?

The 20/80 rule states that a small number of causes is responsible for a large percentage of the effect, in a ratio of about 20:80. Expressed in a management context, 20% of a person's effort generates 80% of the person's results. The corollary to this is that 20% of one's results absorb 80% of one's resources or efforts. For the effective use of resources, the manager's challenge is to distinguish the right 20% from the trivial many.  Some Examples of the 80-20 Rule: 80% of a manager's interruptions come from the same 20% of the people 80% of a problem can be solved by identifying the correct 20% of the issues 80% of advertising results come from 20% of your campaign. 80% of an equipment budget comes from 20% of the items 80% of an instructor's time is taken up by 20% of the students 80% of benefit comes from the first 20% of effort 80% of customer complains are about the same 20% of your projects, products, services. 80% of network traffic stays within the LAN while 20% needs to cross the backbone. 80% of our personal telephone calls are to 20% of the people in our address book 80% of your shipments utilize 20% of your inventory. 80% of sales time is spent on 20% of the customers, who may not be the profitable 20% 80% of the decisions made in meetings come from 20% of the meeting time 80% of the outfits we wear come from 20% of the clothes in our closets and drawers 80% of the traffic in town travels over 20% of the roads 80% of what we produce is generated during 20% of our working hours 80% of your annual sales come from 20% of your sales force 80% of your future business comes from 20% of your customers 80% of your growth comes from 20% of your products 80% of your innovation comes from 20% of your employees or customers 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers 80% of your staff headaches come from 20% of our employees 80% of your success comes from 20% of your efforts 80% of your website traffic comes from 20% of your pages

Sincerely,

 Chris Wilkinson.

Certified Business Behaviour & Attitudes Analyst.

Business Coach.

Tel: (905) 275-2907 (Mississauga).CANADA

E-mail: buspilot@bell.net