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Month: December 2021

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Best Practices Marketing Personal Development Sales

Trusted Advisors or Structured Sales: Pick One

Two B2B sales models have emerged over the last decade or so, without most of us knowing it.  In 2022, that divergence will become clearer. Both have their place, and each can be mis-applied.

One is “Divide and Optimize”, ably described in best-selling Predictable Revenue. Here, your selling process — emphasis on “selling”– is divided into subprocesses/components, and specialized job roles are optimized for efficiency and effectiveness.

  • Sales development & business development reps secure appointments for demo specialists/account executives, who close, relaying to customer success or account manager/farmers.
  • This model increasingly has a seller-centric feel, and various manipulations, especially discounting, get used – often in vain — to shorten sales cycles.

Second is a “Trusted Expert” model, emphasizing “buying process”. Goal: deeply understand each customer’s world & situation, then co-create desirable outcomes.  Specialist roles are used extensively, but in service of enhancing the customer journey, not selling process efficiency.

  • Business acumen is key. Sellers must follow up compelling datapoints with insightful business discussions.
  • Content is customer focused, and outcome-heavy. “Discovery” and “mutual fit” are emphasized over “qualification”. Demonstrations are shorter, focused on areas of customer-confirmed interest.

Buyer Research Points to Which Model Fits…and When

Research shows that buyers are increasingly willing to engage salespeople earlier  — sometimes much earlier — in their buying journey when the decision is:

  • New to me or my organization, particularly when the solution is innovative,
  • Risky to me or my organization. For instance: implementation, vendor, change management, executive visibility, strategic and other risks.

The vertical axis in the diagram represents increasing “willingness to engage” as you go up. “Willing to” is key.  Sellers still need to rise to the occasion. Customers don’t suffer fools or time wasters.

When to Choose the Divide and Optimize Model –and When Not To.

Lower down, customers feel self-sufficient.  They may have recently bought this type of product or service, and have well-developed buying criteria.  SDRs and BDRs are well-suited to uncover a customer’s known pain & gain points, and quickly move the sale to demos & evaluating [repetitive/consistent] decision criteria.  Conversely, few SDR/BDR organizations are able to cause a “trigger event” – that is, create dissatisfaction with the status quo.  Fewer still can conduct meaningful business conversations.

The obvious conclusion: the more confident a customer is in their decision-making, the better Divide and Optimize fits the situation.

Contacting high-willingness buyers with low-acumen SDRs?  You risk allowing a more trusted  competitor to guide those prospects through their journey.  Do you really want to re-engage near the end and compete based on the other guy’s features and your price?

When to Implement the Trusted Advisor Model

When the customer is under-experienced, and/or risk averse, the trusted expert model becomes the best fit.  Sellers with business acumen, who build value — who are the value — earn “valued consultant” status. Ideally, buyers and sellers co-create a shared future; they act like they’re already doing business together.

Success in the trusted expert model requires that sellers establish credibility from the first contact (today’s typical SDR or BDR can’t deliver the expertise a customer would welcome).  With credibility established, they are given liberty to help expand customer’s perception of outcomes or modify buying criteria.

Important: sometimes, an “low-willingness” prospect can change perceptions when a credible, collaborative, trusted expert opens their eyes to new possibilities. This textbook application of “challenging/perspective/insight selling” thrives with seller credibility; but without credibility, it backfires into “the annoying know-it-all sale”.  There’s an art to building enough credibility with these prospects that you have “permission to enlighten”.

Choose the Best Match For Your Customer, Not on “Availability of Automation Tools”.

The Divide and Optimize model is about selling process efficiency, and a majority of current Martech solutions (8000+ and counting) serve well here.  Many tools optimize your sellers quantity of:

  • Questions asked,
  • Seconds of listening vs. seconds of talking,
  • ..and streamline quantity of calls, texts, tweets, posts, video messages, emails spewed…

However, little current sales automation measures quality of:

  • Business insights offered (although big data is starting to be applied here)
  • Credibility built,
  • Questions to expand the customer’s concept of their problems or future
  • Number of additional “natural ally” buying influencers are added to the decision team
  • Business outcomes identified and quantified
  • Personal outcomes identified.

We’re Starting to Automate the Trusted Advisor Model:  a Huge Step Forward.

 Some big data tools now quickly synthesize data for trusted advisors, enabling genuine consultants to add value with clients…It’s becoming possible to know more about key parts of your customer’s business than they do.

There are also great value quantification tools, which help solidify value in a customer’s mind, minimizing price objections.

Business acumen (hired or developed) is a priority with trusted advisor organizations. Options used to be full-on MBA educations for sellers (at least one major enterprise software company opts for this) or dissatisfying “how to interpret financial statements”, or “SWOT analysis” tools. Training and tools in between those are becoming available.

 

Let Your Customer’s Situation Choose Your Selling Model.

 

Follow the research: asses at your customer’s typical buying situation. Figure out if buying from you is novel and/or risky for your customer.  Or, make it easy: ask me for my customer willingness assessment tool.

In 2022, if your company sells to high-willingness buyers…or want to…and you currently use a Divide and Optimize approach, you might want to switch models.  Heck, if every competitor in a Trusted Advisor market uses Divide and Optimize, there is a market opportunity for the first mover.  Be aware, though: execution requires investing in your people, their business acumen, and the types of content you generate, not your tech stack.

When you do, you’ll find that improves your pricing integrity – and profits, informs better marketing, and sharpens your product strategy.  I’m happy to help you figure out how to do it in your world, using your language.  You can get started by reading my book. ..or contact me.

To your Success!

Categories
Growth Human Resources Personal Development

Why Training Plays a Critical Role in Hiring and Keeping the Best Employees

Keeping employees from quitting their jobs after only a year or two is becoming a bigger challenge for many businesses across the county. Is it a problem for you?

“The New Reality of Employee Loyalty,” an article that Peter K. Murdock wrote for Forbes, suggests that in order to keep new employees, companies should discuss their career futures with them and have three-year development plans in place. “If you can’t see where your employee will be in three years within your organization, assume they will be working for someone else,” Murdock writes. And he is probably right.

Yet because Tortal Training is a training development company, we know another secret for building employee loyalty . . .

Offer top-notch, comprehensive training for new employees

Why is training a secret for both hiring and keeping new hires? Here are some of the reasons we have seen.

  • Great training convinces new hires that you care about keeping them with you in the years ahead. If you demonstrate your willingness to invest in training employees, they realize that you believe in them and want them to be with you for the long term.
  • Great training sets your company apart from others. When job-hunters are given the choice of working for a company with a comprehensive training program and one that does not, they consistently decide to work for the company that does. It only makes sense.
  • A comprehensive onboarding program that brings in a wide variety of your new hires demonstrates that you are not a company that discriminates on the basis of background, religion, ethnicity, lifestyle or other factors. Your training program can be a vibrant and engaging experience that tells everyone, “This is a company where you belong.”
  • Training that teaches your company history and values increases the perceived worth of working for you. It shows that you are not only training people to perform specific tasks, but to join a company that stands for something. Note that videos that tell the history of your organization and that profile your leaders and customers are a low-cost way to create a compelling, value-added training experience that lays the foundation for employee satisfaction and long-term employment.

Another Way to Use Training to Encourage Retention . . .

As Peter K. Murdoch notes in his Forbes article, it is important to take the extra step of using training as a time to create long-term development plans for every new hire you bring on board. If you offer management training programs for employees, for example, talk about them. If you can identify certain hires for specific promotional tracks, talk about those opportunities during onboarding training. New retail salespeople can enter training programs to become future store managers, for example, and IT technicians can take additional training to join your team of digital marketers.

If you want your new employees to envision a bright future working for you, remember that training is the place to start. To learn more, contact Tortal Training today.

Evan Hackel is CEO of Tortal Training, a leading training development company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tortal uses strategic engagement methodologies and specializes in developing mobile training platforms for organizations with distributed workforces. Evan is also Founder and Principal of Ingage Consulting, a management and leadership consulting firm located in Woburn, Massachusetts. Evan is an expert advisor on the C-Suite Network.

 

 

Categories
Entrepreneurship Personal Development Women In Business

Why Reinvention and Transformation are Key Trends for 2022

Nearly everyone I know has experienced challenges as a result of the pandemic.  However there have also been a number of unanticipated gifts as a result that have been life-changing (I wrote an article about this in Oct 2020).  

One notable example has been the so-called “Great Resignation,” which is an ongoing trend of employees voluntarily choosing to leave their jobs in the pursuit of a more flexible lifestyle and greater meaning in their lives overall.  This phenomenon was fostered as we were all tethered to our homes throughout the pandemic, and many of us realized that we had more time with our families and loved ones – and reduced stress and loss of time as a result of fewer meetings, office politics, and soul-crushing commutes.

We started to realize what really mattered to each of us – and it wasn’t necessarily more material goods, but instead doing things that best used our talents and passions, and that created meaning, legacy and impact in our lives. Many of us realized that through technology we had the means of being able to work from home remotely and do just as good a job as we could have done in the office – if not better without a commute and fewer distractions.  And as importantly, the reasons why many choose to leave companies is because of bad managers that don’t honor, empower and validate them as unique individuals.

As a trusted advisor, this is the work I do with my clients who are often at a “what’s next” crossroads. My goal is to empower them, help them see possibilities they may not see for themselves, and transform the quality and the meaning of their lives so that they do more of what lights them up and fulfills them now — not waiting for someday — vs what others think they should do, and living with constraints imposed on them like shackles.  We weren’t meant to live life that way; that’s simply a recipe for despair.

Imagine instead a life of following your intuition, knowing exactly what you are meant to do in this life, and having the ability to pursue the path that’s calling to you. Imagine having a sense of direction, living life to the fullest, and playing full out on your own terms with a sense of agency and sovereignty.  When people are following their passion, living their gifts and talents, and pursuing what they are called to do, they are happier, more fulfilled and operating at peak capacity, and they create a ripple effect that uplifts others in their circle by extension. So the transformation at hand is a reflection of the insights many of us came to during this period of isolation and remote work, fueled by the pandemic, which has caused us to re-assess all of these things and more.

Here are a few tips to consider as you contemplate transforming aspects of your work and life:

  • Do you enjoy what you do for work? – If not, what can you to do take steps to shift into something that’s a better fit?
  • Do you have a clear vision for what you want your life to look like – your relationships, your work, your lifestyle, and how much you really need to have the life you envision that would bring you the most pleasure?
  • Can you afford to make a change that would bring you greater meaning and fulfillment?  If not, what steps can you take to adjust your lifestyle – from paring back on unnecessary expenses to re-locating to a more affordable location?
  • Do you have a support network that works for you – or are you tolerating relationships that no longer serve you (professionally and/or personally)?   If so, it may be time to take stock, re-assess and make changes that will ultimately create more happiness, peace of mind, and bring you greater fulfillment.
  • Last but not least, what is it that gives your life meaning and fulfillment?  How many of the things that do are in your life right now today, and what can you do to manifest more of the things you envision?  Starting creating and living your legacy today.

Reinventing and transforming your life can be challenging, yet at the same time the rewards are well worth whatever transitions you go through to craft a life that empowers and lights you up on all fronts. That’s something worth paying attention to this year!

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness Leadership

Your Unhealed Betrayal is Impacting Your Health, Work and Relationships

When the person you trusted the most proves untrustworthy, it not only shatters your trust in them, it shatters your trust in yourself as you think: “How did I not know?” “How did I not see?”If you’ve lost trust in the person you trusted the most, and you feel you can’t trust yourself or your judgment, it’s natural to then question your trust in everyone and everything.So think about it. The shattering of trust has such a far-reaching impact going way beyond how it impacts the relationship with the person who hurt you. It has a ripple effect where everyone and everything, including yourself, now comes into question.Before I go even further, the good news is you can heal from all of it and there’s even a proven, research-based way to do just that when you move through the 5 Stages from Betrayal to Breakthrough. First, I wanted you to see how it impacts your health, work and relationships.Your Health

There’s a collection of physical, mental, and emotional symptoms so common to betrayal, it’s known as Post Betrayal Syndrome. 

People spend so much time, money, effort, and energy going to the most well-meaning doctors, coaches, healers, therapists––to manage a stress-related symptom, illness, condition, or disease. At the root of all that stress is often an unhealed betrayal. Here’s what an unhealed betrayal can look like with regards to your health.

You can have trouble sleeping, you’re exhausted and you could be using sugar or caffeine to help you stay awake. Your immune system is compromised, your adrenals have tanked, you could be having digestive issues, weight changes, brain fog, and more.

Your Work

You want to be a team player, but you’re so afraid. The person you trusted the most proved untrustworthy––how can you trust a boss or coworker? 

Or

You want to ask for that raise or promotion, you deserve it––but your confidence was shattered in that betrayal. Instead, you don’t ask and you’re bitter and resentful, and that’s the energy that you’re bringing into work every day.

Your Relationships

You’re full of heartbreak, sadness, anxiety, and grief because you’ve been blindsided by an experience with betrayal. You have a hard time trusting other people and it’s affecting your day-to-day relationships. You may experience repeat betrayals (a clear sign of an unhealed betrayal). You can also put that big wall up which prevents anyone from getting near you and your heart again. Sure you’re keeping out the bad ones…but you’re keeping out the good ones too.

You can’t undo a betrayal, but you’re in control of how long it affects your relationships, your health, your work, and your life. The gift in betrayal is that it lays the foundation for transformation, that’s IF we’re willing to use the experience as an opportunity to learn and grow. IF you choose to rebuild your life and the aspects of yourself that were hard hit like rejection, abandonment, confidence, worthiness, belonging and trust.

Rebuilding is always a choice. You have the option to rebuild yourself and move on or (if the situation lends itself and if you’re willing), you can rebuild an entirely new relationship with the person who hurt you.

Trauma is the setup for transformation. It can be used as the catalyst and incentive to create a new version of yourself that never would have had the opportunity to show up had the experience not happen. That’s Post Betrayal Transformation and since you’ve been through the worst of it already, you owe it to yourself to do something good with something that caused so much pain.

You’re not alone and you can heal from all of it.

Dr. Debi, Founder and CEO, The PBT (Post Betrayal Transformation) Institute

 

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness

Dear Katherine: I’m Nervous About Being Judged This Holiday Season

Dear Katherine,

 

It’s our first holiday season since joining the Conscious Parenting Revolution, and I’m nervous about how my extended family will react to our new parenting style. 

 

We’ll be spending Christmas with a large group, and I’m concerned that other family members’ tendency toward authoritarian discipline will confuse my children or undo some of the work we’ve done with them. 

 

The holidays are already stressful enough, and I’m just not sure how to navigate this additional challenge.

 

Sincerely,

Feeling Shy 

 

Feeling Shy,

 

You certainly aren’t the first parent to express these concerns to me.

 

It’s easy to feel self-conscious around family during the holidays. Family gatherings can be exciting, over-stimulating—and, yes, stressful—for everyone. Feeling the watchful eyes of parents, in-laws, and extended family is sure to make even the most confident parents nervous.

 

Pexels Nicole Michalou 5765885 Edited Scaled 2

Unfortunately, if a family member is close-minded about conscious parenting, there’s little you can do to change their mind. So it’s in your own best interest to accept that fact ahead of time.

 

But their judgment doesn’t mean you should feel ashamed of your parenting style. In fact, now is a great time to talk to your children about different parenting styles and why you parent them the way you do.

 

This conversation will help ensure that another family member’s disciplinary style doesn’t undo the work you’ve put in to consciously parent your children.

You can decide together how to respond to other family members. Perhaps you and your children can plan to regroup at the end of the day to discuss any incidents that occurred.

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As for feeling uncomfortable parenting your child in front of others, I suggest that you avoid having an audience altogether if possible.

 

If your child acts out during your celebration, it’s in everyone’s best interest to talk about what happened in private.

 

Take them to a quiet room or outside (weather permitting) to have your conversation.

You can’t control the actions or opinions of others, but you can prepare yourself and your kids to respond appropriately.

 

No matter what you celebrate, having a lot of family coupled with excitement (and sometimes alcohol) can lead to a lot more drama than you bargained for. If you’re already dreading what the extra time and stress will do to your relationships, let me help you get ahead of it during my Holiday Parenting Hacks Workshop!

 

I know you’re already SO overwhelmed this month so I’ve made it only ONE HOUR a day, December 7-9 12pm PST on Zoom! Access the workshop from anywhere!

In this Holiday Parenting Hacks Workshop you will discover…

  • One simple tool to help you INSTANTLY calm down, even in the middle of the holiday frenzy
  • A technique to steer clear of awkward conversations and blowout fights at the dinner table
  • The best way to manage conflict with your kids AND avoid interference from other family members
  • And SO MUCH MORE!!!

 

I can’t wait to share all of this rich and essential parenting wisdom with you.

 

Love and Blessings,

 

Katherine

Categories
Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“6 Secret Negotiation Tips To Help You Get Better Outcomes” – Negotiation Insight

 

“To reach better outcomes, you must unlock the doors that conceal them.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)     Click here to get the book!

 

“6 Secret Negotiation Tips To Help You Get Better Outcomes”

 

People don’t realize they’re always negotiating.

When people negotiate, they want the best outcome. But some people are unaware of how to achieve that quest. They lack knowledge about secret negotiation tips, negotiation tips that profoundly impact the talks. After incorporating the following six negotiation tips into your negotiation repertoire, you will reach better outcomes.

Click here to discover how to get more from every negotiation you’re in!

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcasts at https://megaphone.link/CSN6318246585  Once there, double click on the one you would like to hear.

 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

 

To receive weekly free 5-minute sneak peeks into the brilliant techniques offered by Greg, click here

https://www.themasternegotiator.com/negotiation-speaker/   and sign up at the bottom of the page

 

 

 

Categories
Culture Growth Health and Wellness

5 Reasons Your Family Needs a Daily Routine

We live in an ever-changing world. Even in our small family units, change is constant: we get new jobs, move to different houses, shift from face-to-face learning to school-from-home, switch babysitters, have another child. Although change is a necessary part of life, it can be a stressful experience for children (and adults too!).

A daily routine helps create a safe and secure environment for your kids. Children thrive on structure, because it helps them anticipate and prepare for what’s going to happen next. A routine can give your kids something to count on in an increasingly unpredictable world—even if it’s just knowing that bathtime happens at 7 pm every night.

The consistency of a routine also helps children build healthy habits. Repetition reinforces habits, and good habits develop your child’s ability to self-regulate in a healthy way. As Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, Charles Duhigg, wrote in his book, The Power of Habit:

…”signing kids up for piano lessons or sports…has nothing to do with creating a good musician or a five-year-old soccer star. When you learn to force yourself to practice for an hour or run fifteen laps, you start building self-regulatory strength. A five-year-old who can follow the ball for ten minutes becomes a sixth grader who can start his homework on time.”

family-soccer-routine

Want to know more about the power of routine? Here are five benefits your child gets from following a daily schedule:

  1. Strong circadian rhythm. Our body clocks are wired to wake up when there’s sunlight and go to sleep when it’s dark. Determine set times for getting up, eating, bathing, studying, playing, and relaxing. Explain to your child that in order to maintain a healthy body, we need to give it the structure that it needs.
  2. Healthy self-direction. It’s important for parents and caregivers to include their children in creating a routine at home. It helps them practice independence and self-direction, as well as allows them to express what’s important to them. Does your child feel like they simply must go on a bike ride everyday? Find a way to pencil that into your schedule.
  3. Quality time with family. Making room for time to eat together, play together, and rest together gives your whole family an opportunity to bond. Having stable and happy family relationships during childhood will help your kids learn to develop and cultivate stable and happy relationships as adults.
  4. The ability to plan ahead. A routine not only allows us to anticipate pleasant future events (i.e. an afternoon swim or weekend movie nights), but it also gives us the discipline to plan ahead. Self-regulation is so important—it develops your child’s ability to submit homework on time in childhood and meet work deadlines in adulthood.
  5. The propensity to cope with stress. Charles Duhigg also says that sooner or later, our habits become auto-pilot responses. We do them without thinking. As kids grow older, it’s crucial that they learn how to cope with stressful situations and difficult transitions. If your child knows that no matter what happens, they have their routine and habits to fall back on—they’ll feel healthy, safe, and secure.
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In a continually changing world, it’s our responsibility as parents and caregivers to provide a stable environment for our children to thrive in. If you need more tips on how to build healthy habits with your kids, you can download my free ebook, 7 Strategies to Keeping Your Relationship with Your Kid From Hitting the Boiling Point.

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

9 Steps to Building Trust in Interpersonal Relationships

Trust is built over time. When we think about building trust, we might think about building trust with our significant other. But how can we also build trust in adult friendships, at the workplace, or with other family members?Trust is the foundation of all relationships – whether that relationship is between family or friends. When both sides of each relationship have trust, people are more open and likely to spend more time with each other.Having trust in someone means you trust that you can go to the other person or you trust that you can rely on them.

A lack of trust might exist because one person isn’t consistent, or someone has hurt the other in the past.

Whether you’re building a new relationship or rebuilding a relationship with broken trust, you can start the process of building trust with these 9 tips:

  1. Keep agreements and promises. When you keep your promises, you show the other person that they can depend on you. This is a key foundation of trust. If an agreement or promise is broken, there should always be an open line of communication explaining why, although, be careful that you’re not making an excuse for breaking trust.
  2. Listen without judgment. Create an environment where the people around you feel heard. Instead of judging someone for what they share with you, try to understand where they’re coming from and what they’re feeling. Find a way to show them you are engaged and present. 
  3. Ask what you can do to support them. When someone shares something difficult that they’re going through, it’s hard for us to know exactly how to support them. Open the line of communication and ask how you can support the people around you.
  4. Give praise when it’s due. Complimenting others is an incredible way to build trust when it’s authentic. Not only does a genuine compliment make the other person feel good, but you’ll also feel good when you see another person smile. When you give genuine praise, you can build trust and appreciation with others. For example:
  • “I appreciate how positive you are.”
  • “Thank you for being so thoughtful.”
  • “That’s such a smart way to look at things.”5. Be consistent. It’s easy to make excuses or reschedule plans for another day. One of the easiest ways to build trust is to be consistent. Show people that you care about them by being someone who they can consistently count on as a person of their word.6. Avoid gossip and negativity. One way to ruin trust is to gossip or talk negatively about others behind their back. People might start to wonder what you will say when their backs are turned. Instead of gossiping about someone, practice being upfront about them instead.

    7. Pay attention to your nonverbal communication. A growing amount of research shows that closed body language, such as crossed arms, can turn people away.

  • Simple body language changes, such as making eye contact or opening your body language, can indicate to people that you’re open, trustworthy, and welcoming.8. Share. Be curious about those around you and be willing to open yourself up as well. Trust will naturally build as people feel like they know you better.9. Be compassionate. Be compassionate about how others may feel. Check-in with how they’re feeling. If you’re rebuilding trust, apologize sincerely and find a way to come to a resolution together.

Getting closer to others helps us feel more connected. Feeling connected to the people around us strengthens our well-being and rewards us with knowing that we can trust someone else. These exercises are a great start to building trust and will help you feel connected and fulfilled with the people around you.

Dr. Debi, Founder, and CEO, The PBT (Post Betrayal Transformation) Institute