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Category: Marketing

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Marketing Personal Development

Show Your Human Side in the Content You Share Online

When you show the human side of yourself…

…people feel like there’s an entry point into your world.

One of the most asked questions that I field from clients revolves around what they should post about after they get their hands on a pile of branded lifestyle portraits.

As I explain to those who enroll in my Idea Nugget Incubator Program, although it’s essential to illustrate your expertise, and more specifically, show how that expertise helps solve your client’s specific pain points, you also have one other major objective to consider:

You are in the business of building relationships that eventually mature from a follower who appreciates your work to them hiring you for your specialized help.

Talk Like a Human Being

One of the best ways to do that with an audience that’s never met you in person is to create content that breaks the fourth wall and lets them understand who you are as a human being.

What drives you to be the person you are? What do you stand for? What’s important to you outside of your business? Interesting hobbies? Family – is it important to you?

What about your past? How did it lead you to the path you walk on in your life and business today? Had any major setbacks? Struggles with identity? Discovering your passion to serve?

How about the future? What are your goals? Aspirations? How are you working on achieving those goals now?

These are just some of the questions that you can explore through your social media posts and blog articles.

When you create content that goes deep beneath the surface, especially with stories that share vulnerabilities, you’re painting a much more vivid, broader picture of who you are, who you serve and why you do what you do.

As a result, you’re purposefully curating your online presence in a way that shares both your superhero ability to offer the solutions to your client’s pain points while also being empathetic and relatable to those you serve by showing them that you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.

If you only shared expertise-driven posts, you’re missing a golden opportunity to allow your audience to connect more deeply with you beyond the work, and allow them to feel like they are part of your world – and give them the chance to share everything you do with their community.

And when you’re looking to grow a community of advocates, referral partners, and clients, offering your audience an opportunity to build rapport with you through your human being-driven stories is one sure fire way to fan that flame.

What About the Images to Compliment these Stories?

Identifying, writing and scheduling the stories that share your human being side is step one – a very important step one!

But, the work is not done yet.

To ensure that your story has a legitimate opportunity to be seen by your audience on their news feeds, it’s essential that you compliment the story with image content that visually punctuates the sentiment of that story.

Here are a couple of options to keep in mind as you develop more content around this idea of showing your human being side and providing your audience an entry point into your life.

Old Photos From Your Past

Do you have images from the time period that you’re referencing in these stories? If so, these would be ideal to either scan or take a photo of with your smartphone camera and attach it to the posts.

I have written several articles that relate to my struggle with weight and self-esteem, and, for each of those articles, I’ve included photos of me when I was at the height of my weight post-college.

Although I’d prefer to never look at them again, I understand that the image and the story will speak directly to a lot of my clients who can relate directly to this issue.

In addition, using old photos taken “back in the day,” especially on outdated technology, are eye-catching because they look and feel different than photos taken today.

Remember all those old square photos taken with the sepia tint? They stand out, big time, amongst all the other stuff on a news feed simply because they look different. And no, the Instagram filters CANNOT replicate this look precisely in the same way, 🙂

If you discover old photos that visually punctuate the sentiments of the stories you’re sharing, digitize them and use them to your advantage!

Selfies/Smartphone Photos

Since you don’t have a paparazzi following you around 24/7, you need to take matters into your own camera from time-to-time.

If you’re engaging in a fun hobby or doing something with the family and want to share the moment with those you serve, then grab the phone and snap the shot. Otherwise, you’ll miss out on the opportunity to visually punctuate that story with an image that precisely paints the picture.

You don’t need to have a background in photography to do this, folks.

And don’t worry if the picture is good or bad – just take a couple shots of the moment from different vantage points – wide shot to close up, move from the left side to the right – and when you’re done, take a look at the options and pick the one that looks best to you.

When it’s a selfie or a smartphone shot, no one anticipates that image to aesthetically blow them away – it’s about sharing that moment or insight with those you serve – that’s what counts most in this case.

Branded Lifestyle Portraits

So, what happens when you don’t have an old photo that works or you forgot to take a photo with your smartphone camera?

Well, you could leverage one of your professionally-captured, branded lifestyle portraits to visually punctuate that story, as an alternative.

The key is looking through your image content portfolio and identifying a portrait that compliments and enhances the emotional resonance of the story that you’re sharing.

For example, if you share a story about the death of a parent and how that motivated you to pivot your life in a completely different direction, don’t use an image where you’re wildly laughing.

The emotion of the story and the sentiment of the image are incongruent, and it sends a confusing message to those who read the post.

That seems like common sense, but, you’d be surprised at how many times I’ve come across this incongruence between message and image online.

If your image content portfolio has a variety of images that span the emotional spectrum, you will be in good shape to select an image that makes the most sense for the emotion you’re looking to convey in that piece of content.

So, Should I be an Open Book?

The short answer? Absolutely not.

You are the gatekeeper of everything you share online, so, you decide what’s fair game and what stays close to the vest.

Although I am comfortable sharing many aspects of my life with my audience, I certainly don’t spill the beans on everything. I have a simple rule for myself that I adhere to every time I sit down to write stories that shine a light on an aspect of my personal life:

If I feel this remotely feels like an overshare or is embarrassing to my friends and/or family, I avoid it. If it’s something that I’m comfortable talking about publically and is relatable to my audience, I double-down on it and bring it up when relevant to the lessons I’m imparting on those I serve.

As long as you set healthy boundaries, you’ll provide yourself with a framework when figuring out how far you want to go with sharing your life with your audience.

When you set the intention to connect on a deeper level with those you serve, it helps them see you in a different light.

While they already know that you can help them get past what’s holding them back from the rest of your content, stories that share your human being side allows them to see that you’re real, that you’ve been where they are, and that you care.

If you want to build trust with your audience, lead with heart – they’ll thank you for it by signing up for your services down the line, 🙂

John DeMato is an NYC branded lifestyle portrait photographer and content creation expert who serves speakers, authors, coaches and high-level entrepreneurs across the country. His 50+ page e-book, S.H.A.R.E. M.A.G.I.C.A.L. I.D.E.A.S., lays out the how what and why behind creating a memorable and referable online presence – sign up to get your FREE copy today.

Categories
Best Practices Investing Marketing Negotiations Sales

The Five Kinds of Differentiation

Sales professionals know to find and leverage differentiation.  The problem: far too few know that not all differentiation is equal.  Yep, differentiation is differentiated

Remember, differentiation only becomes value once a customer understands it and connects to a customer-desired outcome. It only turns into differentiated value — that moves a buying decision – when that value is offered by only one seller…when it’s different.

A key point that many sales and marketing professionals often miss is that non-differentiating information drowns out your unique aspects. If you squirt a little valued differentiation within a geyser of “same as everyone else” features and benefits, you’re asking your customer to play “Where’s Waldo” with your value.  What do you expect them to do with that…buy?

Perhaps most importantly, my clients learn that a single product advantage often drives value in multiple value “landing points” throughout an organization. For example, several departments (not just the one with a budget to buy) care that your product lasts longer, and for different reasons. Unfortunately, most sellers work to leverage only the most conventional and expected of these “landing points” in their selling strategies, and never discuss or leverage the other value points.

A quote from my upcoming book:

If you differentiate using the same properties as your competitors, you aren’t differentiating as much as you think. 

If you differentiate only in ways your competitors have countered before, you aren’t doing much better…

Companies – and sales professionals – fight commoditization with differentiation.  They often lose sight of the fact that some differentiation is more effective with a customer than others.

Five Layers of Differentiation: 

The graphic above represents different ways that organizations differentiate their value. I refer to them as layers. Let’s go through them from left to right.  As you read these, give yourself a good hard look in the mirror.  Do you recognize and use all of these layers?  Purposefully?

Table Stakes Differentiation

Confirming the basic function of your product or service often a part of selling; for example, in RFI/Q/P responses.  There are personas (Buying Influences) who need to verify that your offer “checks the boxes”.  Such requirements are only “differentiation” insofar as they prevent you from being excluded; hence the term “table stakes”.  They have little role in a final buying decision, because they don’t differentiate you in the final decision.

To keep from having all other buying personas “geysered” in decision-clouding sameness, partition your sales approach whenever you can.  Enter sales conversations and demonstrations with table-stakes personas separately if possible – including offering to take those specific questions offline.  Best practice:  get these out of the way early, so that you can report to other personas that your offer meets basic requirements.  “Yada yada” these differentiators as much as you can, then move quickly to decision-moving value.

“3 Sellers, 3 companies, Same Product”: False Differentiation

This kind of differentiation is like being a hipster: you’re different…just like everyone else.

I often hear customers (and insightful sales leaders) complain that the main competitors all claim the same advantage.  A customer once told me  “I have three different reps’ business cards on my desk, but they all sell the exact same product”. Brochures and websites are often big culprits: “decades of experience” and being “an award-winning leader in this market”, aren’t differentiation when multiple companies can claim the same basic thing.

A leading provider of sales training to Realtors tells students to claim some version of “leading producer” or “most experienced” at the same point in every client’s script.  I once got 39 calls from 39 different people who were all the best realtor in Arizona…in less than three hours.  By all being some version of “the best”, none of them differentiated themselves.

Sellers lulled into using False Differentiation messages harm their chance in two ways:

  • False differentiation communicates a dangerous message to a prospect. Best case, it’s “I’m proving to you that I don’t offer any real advantages. Feel free to grind me down on price.  We both know that’s my only hope.”
  • At best, false differentiation crowds any true differentiation out, forcing the customer to pick your genuine value out of a pile of sameness. You’re making them play “Where’s Waldo” with your value. That’s making them work too hard to buy from you.

False differentiation actually harms your chances…it has a negative value in your selling process. Stop. It.

Fist fighting In a Phone Booth: Conventional Differentiation

The middle layer represents selling to obvious/conventional advantages.

  • The obvious advantage: customers easily absorb conventional pitches because they’re well-trained in them. You don’t have to work very hard to get even a newbie purchasing agent to comprehend them.
  • The pitfall: Your competitors are usually expert in countering conventional differentiation. When all competitors use a predictable approach, selling has the feel of fist fighting in a phone booth. Nobody can land a solid punch, and buyers start using price to decide.

You can win sales in this area, but seldom at satisfactory margins, because “value premiums” of the different offers are small enough to be vulnerable to competitor discounting.

It gets even worse.  In complex selling, sellers often try to find a person or people in the buying organization to provide leverage/insight into the group buying dynamic. These people are called guides, coaches, champions and the like. Question: If your differentiation is merely “in the phone booth”, who at the customer cares enough about small differences to become your guide that they’ll risk their internal credibility on you?  (cue the crickets sound effect here.) Without strong internal advocates, your tough sale gets even tougher.

That’s the trap of the middle layer:  easy to sell, hard to differentiate. Its yellow color denotes the hazards of selling in the phone booth.  This is your basic, least imaginative…yes, mediocre…value proposition. It is one level better than table stakes: the minimum acceptable requirements to play, but at least it fights through the delusion of false differentiation.  You can win deals in this layer, but seldom at impressive margins, or with high customer preference for your offer.

Trusted Advisor: Predictably Finding Unconventional Value

The fourth layer is where greatness starts. Elite selling organizations build the muscles to operate consistently in this differentiation layer.

In this layer, sellers leverage unconventional, yet predictably-found differentiation. Combining general business acumen with an understanding of their offer’s differentiation, sellers find more “landing points” for value. Value networks (an entire chapter in my upcoming book) help sellers predict ways in which their product or service’s unique attributes affect a customer’s business. Some landing points will be conventional and fit in the layer described above. Many, though, address previously undisclosed (at least by your competitors) value. This layer is all about uncovering fresh selling approaches that your sellers can use predictably, with many of your customers. Any tool which makes unconventional value discovery more systematic and predictable will help your sellers improve results.

Because uncovering unconventional value puts a seller’s general business acumen on display, they build credibility as a trusted advisor, someone who can provide insight and perspective into the customer’s broader business issues. This creates a cycle of credibility-building for both the seller and the selling organization.

Differentiators that produce compelling value for the customer invite somebody in the buying ecosystem to become a decision lever. Thus, you can build marketing and predictive sales strategies around them.

Elite Selling:  Personalized and Situation-Specific Value.  

Far right layer refers to differentiation and insight that wins opportunities, but rather than predictable, systematically replicated value propositions like in layer four, sellers uncover and leverage personalized, or situation-specific differentiation.  Often, these differentiators are personal rewards or wins.

An example: A commercial real estate loan was structured to save a business owner almost $80,000 in resolving a particular estate-planning issue. Obviously, this had nothing to do with his business, the property, the underwriting criteria or the structure of the loan, but had a huge personal impact on one (highly important) persona.

Individually, this category of differentiators aren’t anything to build a repeatable business on, but, sellers who know how to consistently uncover and recognize them are able to take advantage and use them to win opportunities. They are just as leverageable as layer four impacts when they are uncovered, but uncovering them takes slightly different skills. These highly individualized value drivers further cement the seller’s credibility as a true partner:  somebody with deep insight into the business as well as the individual interests of those involved in the decision dynamic…and who brings value to the client.

So…How Are You Differentiating?

A Seller’s job is to find value that competitors don’t, and sellers with a keen “nose for value” regularly go into upper layers to bolster the Full Value Picture (read the book), and achieve higher win-win prices with stronger customer preference.

The interplay between these differentiation layers and business acumen. That is sellers who rapidly assess high-probability value hunting spots can efficiently position themselves as trusted advisors and true partners.  Each selling company has its own hi/low/obvious layers, and you and your company need to figure those out (although I’m happy to help you work through it).

Share your thoughts below, and reach out if you would like to discuss if more detail.

To your success!

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

Beware Silly Provocations – How to Hack Crisis Negotiations

“Never fall prey to a silly provocation. It can be the prelude to a contrived crisis.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

She wanted everyone to know that she was upset. Her language was foul, loud, and silly. She presented it as a provocation to induce hot drama. Its delivery occurred in a cool and calculated manner with the intent of inciting a crisis. One might think that occurred during a nasty negotiation – it happened in a small bank branch. And the occurrence was the pronouncements of a customer who at first demeaned a bank teller and then the branch manager.

In a negotiation, there are ways to hack situations such as what occurred with the foul silly-mouth customer. The following are a few of those hacks.

Environment:

The individual in the bank repeatedly complained aloud about the possibility of her ‘personal’ information being overheard by other customers – note that she meant her personal information – she claimed the teller asked for it to determine her identity. To the customer, that was an offense.

Hack: When dealing with people that appear to lack lucidity, assess if their demeanor is an act. Based on your assessment, be logical or illogical with them. Then, note the change in their demeanor. If they begin to use logic to strengthen their position, use logic in addressing them further. If they’re illogical, ask what they would do if they were in your position with the guidelines you’re working with. Either way, they’ll give you the solution to the problem. Thank them for it. And if it’s to your benefit, use it. If it’s not, excuse them or yourself from the surroundings.

Had the customer been in a different environment (e.g. church) and she’d not received the outcome sought, her demeanor more than likely would have been different. Thus, always consider the environment that one is in when they project certain conducts. And question if it would be the same if not in that setting.

Personal Assessment:

In a negotiation, always consider the type of individual you’re dealing with. Evaluate to what degree she’s educated, a bully embarrasses easily, or someone that never adopts shame for an action. That insight will give you a measure of understanding as to what type of personality you’re dealing with. That, in turn, will give you clues to how best to deal with that individual.

Educated – Everything being equal, people with higher levels of education can be dealt with at higher levels of reasoning.

Hack: Thus, if negotiating with someone of this ilk, try using logic to reason with them. They may not succumb to your behests. But you’ll have a greater chance of calming them before they become more irrational acting.

Bully – People with bully tendencies seek attention. They want to be perceived as someone that demands respect – in their mind they’re someone that others should not trifle with. Some negotiators will use bullying as a tactic – they’ll do so to determine how far they can push you.

Hack: If you sense someone’s attempting to use provocation as a bullying tool, stand your ground – act bravely! If you give in, they’ll push you harder and further.

Embarrassment – The person that embarrasses easily is on the opposite coin of the person that never adopts shame for her actions. The shameless person will attempt to project her antics to burrow into your psyche. By doing so, she assumes she’ll enhance the probability that you’ll acquiesce to her demands.

Hack 1: For the shameless person, don’t let her tactics effect you. Suggest aloud that you’re aware of her attempts – do so boldly! Then note to what degree she escalates or de-escalates the situation. If she escalates, she may be testing your resolve to determine its validity. What you do next will impact the rest of your interactions – choose wisely between upping your stance again or deflating it. If she de-escalates, she will have given you control. Make haste with it while softening your behavior as her reward.

Hack 2: For the person that embarrasses easily, temper her antics by raising the stakes – deal with her sternly but in degrees. She doesn’t want others judging her harshly. Thus, she won’t escalate a situation that causes her embarrassment – therein lies her vulnerability. Be cautious about appearing to take advantage of her. Anyone can become irrational when pushed too hard. That’ll make them less predictable, which could make a negotiation more difficult.

Provocations, silly or not, can occur in any negotiation. Controlled provocations are tools that good negotiators employ as a tactic. Having greater insight into hacking their efforts will prevent you from falling into their traps, while agilely avoiding hidden crises … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator

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

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Provocation #Hack #Crisis #negotiator #BodyLanguage #Liar #Beware #Negotiate #Process #Power #Powerful #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions #BodyLanguageSecrets

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Marketing Personal Development

Attract New Clients Through the Words of Your Current Ones

Want to know how to attract new clients into your online ecosystem?

Have conversations with your current ones and share them with the world.

It’s no secret that the key to building and maintaining a sustainable business model rests with your ability to attract and gain consistent attention from those you serve.

That’s why posting informational, entertaining and inspirational image content is essential in helping lay the foundation for building trust with those you serve.

But image content is just the start.

Bearing this in mind, I’ve recently started to incorporate video into my content creation strategy.

Although there are many ways to leverage video – behind-the-scenes footage and direct addressing camera to share an informative message, to name a few – I’ve been focusing solely on one specific, and simple, type of video content:

One-on-one conversations with my clients through video conferencing software such as Zoom or Skype.

(Here’s one way that I’ve been leveraging these conversations.)

No crazy equipment. No need for hours to set up the shots. No high-level producing required.

Just a nice conversation with someone that you’ve helped get over some things that were holding him/her back, 🙂

What Do We Talk About?

The goal is to record a 30-60 minute conversation that lays out the what, why and how behind their decision to hire me for my lifestyle photography and content creation services.  

As for the conversation itself, I’ve created a simple format that I follow for each:

  • Introduce who they are, who they serve, and why they do what they do
  • Ask them why they felt the need to invest in branded lifestyle portraits
  • Was there any objections or apprehension before they decided to work with me
  • We then talk about the experience:
    • Strategy sessions
    • Portrait session
    • Post-portrait session
  • What are the results that they’ve received from working with me – could be tangible and intangible benefits
  • What would they say to someone on the fence about working with me to illustrate the value of the session

Now, these are the basic topics I steer the conversation towards, but I often freestyle follow-up questions based on their answers.

Either way, this is an initial framework for you to figure out the specific questions you’d want them to answer.

The Benefits of Conversations With Your Clients

Although a pretty simple setup, there is work involved when creating these videos, fortunately, the juice is worth the squeeze, 🙂

Here are some of the benefits of recording these conversations with your clients:

Show how you solve your client’s pain points in their own words

Although you’re already sharing this through your written content, and in some cases, your other video content, it’s much more impactful and powerful when it comes out of the mouths of those you serve.

If a potential client listens to the conversation where your client is laying out their why for hiring you, that will resonate much more deeply with them.

Why?

They emotionally connect with your client because their success gives them hope that they, too, can get over the hump with their own issues and challenges.

And, here’s another fun wrinkle:

The more clients with whom you have recorded conversations, the more opportunity you have to relate to a wider group of folks within your specific niche of service since everyone’s reasoning for hiring you has their own unique spin on it.

The moment they connect the dots and discover that you’re a viable option to offer them the specialized help that they need, they immediately lean in more and pay closer attention to the posts that you share and the services that you provide.

Although they may not be ready to invest in your services at that particular moment, the nurturing process has officially begun.

And, when they are ready, guess who’s on top of mind, 🙂

Share the “Client Experience” Through Your Client’s Eyes

When you’re running a business and looking to invest in help, the bottom line results are what we’re after, but, the processes, experiences and hand-holding that produce these results are just as important.

This is something that you can deep dive into with your clients during the conversation; talk about the onboarding process, frameworks, strategy sessions and self-reflection work that led your client from where they were to where they are now with their businesses and lives.

Not only is this informative for your potential clients watching these videos, but, it’s also a jolt of inspiration to show them that working with you leads to positive change and results that matter to you.

That’s solid social proof right there.

When your clients share their experience working with you, it demystifies and highlights the process for everyone watching, giving them a clearer picture of whether or not you’re the type of person with whom they want to work.

Showcase Your Personality as a Qualifier for Potential Clients

When you share a long-form conversation with a client on video, that offers potential clients an in-depth view of how you communicate with those you serve.

Yes, your audience gets a taste of that through your written posts and articles, but on video, that impact is magnified exponentially.

Unlike a written piece of content, you’re talking with your hands, speaking in your own voice, making jokes and illustrating the unique way in which you create rapport with your clients.

Either your personality tunes people in or they’ll tune out.

Regardless, video leveraged in this way is a wonderful qualifier that will help save you time from having exploratory conversations with people who aren’t a good fit if your personality doesn’t mesh well with theirs.

Learn the Value of Your Services in a Way That You’ve Never Thought of Before

Although you have your own ecosystem with your own lingo that illustrates the various elements of your expertise, your clients aren’t you and they interpret your value through their own lexicon that lives inside their own heads and within their own communities.

Pay close attention to the way that they do so and share it through your own content.

Rather than doing keyword research online in order to create content that will resonate with those you serve, conduct it with those that have already paid you money for your services!

It’s a much faster and way more personalized process when you do it in this one-on-one setting.

Strengthen Your Relationships with Existing Clients

Before I committed to recording these videos, I had a ton of negative mind-chatter surrounding how much of a burden this will be for those I ask.

I mean, who’s going to want to spend an hour BS’ing with their photographer, right?

Not one person has said no thus far, and several, in fact, said it was an honor that I asked.

Well, guess I was wrong on that one, 🙂

These are your people. They are part of your community. They’ve paid for your specialized attention and are a much better person for it. You’re not a burden – you’re a game-changer.

And once you’re talking, the rapport that you had while working together will be reinforced and strengthened throughout this conversation.

If you feel like you’d be imposing on someone to have them take an hour out of their day to talk with you, stop it right now!

Of course, some people’s schedules are tough with which to coordinate, but, keep in mind how valuable this video is in the long-run and keep asking former clients until you get as many yes’s as you wish.

Amazing Content Assets to Leverage Everywhere

If you’re going to put in the work, you better leverage it everywhere in order to truly maximize the effort.

In addition to the client page that I created on my website, I’ve also leveraged these video conversations with my clients in the following ways:

  • Blog
    • The full conversation sent out in a blog article to my email list
    • Soundbites that have been taken from each conversation and sent out to my email list
  • Social Media
    • Posted selected soundbites on all social platforms – IG, FB, LI, Twitter
    • Created content from some of the insights my clients’ shared about the experience
  • Drip campaign
    • Re-worked my “Welcome Aboard” email sequence to incorporate soundbites taken from 5 of the conversations I’ve had in order to nurture new signups into my process through the words of those I serve

Give me another week, I’ll probably come up with a couple more avenues to leverage this content, 🙂

Either way, you can see the value that this type of content offers you.

Empowering your clients to do the heavy lifting for you when it comes to promoting your services is an amazing way to draw attention to the magic that you do.

It’s a wonderful compliment to the work that you’re already doing with your social posts and blog articles.

And, it gives your potential clients hope that they’ve found the person that will help them get past what’s holding them back.

Pretty magical, if you ask me 🙂

John DeMato is an NYC branded lifestyle portrait photographer and content creation expert who serves speakers, authors, coaches and high-level entrepreneurs across the country. His 50+ page e-book, S.H.A.R.E. M.A.G.I.C.A.L. I.D.E.A.S., lays out the how what and why behind creating a memorable and referable online presence – sign up to get your FREE copy today.

Categories
Best Practices Culture Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How Long Will You Carry Your Burdens?

“Burdens will enslave you. Set yourself free by releasing them.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

The rod broke! It was repaired – clothes were placed back on it – it broke again, was repaired again and now it had fallen again. The rod gave way to the burden of the weight it carried.

In life, you too carry burdens. They come in the form of anxiety, stress, disappointment, perceived rejection, lack of perceived success, and what may appear to be mayhem. When encumbered by them, you’re delayed from swifter movement until you’re able to rid yourself of them. Between those points, those burdens weigh you down – they cause you not to be as efficient as you otherwise would be – they wreak havoc in your life, which spills over to those closest to you. They cause your life to be a hell on earth. Stop the madness! Control your burdens.

Extended Time:

Over an extended time, the rod was slowly bending to the will of the weight it bore. The slowly yielding process that sapped the strength of the rod occurred at such a leisurely pace, the naked eye couldn’t recognize what was happening. That’s what occurs to you when you have too much of a burden to carry. The weight of it slowly causes you to denigrate into a state of decline. If recognition occurred sooner, you could address the situation before it sapped you of your vitality.

Comfortability:

So why don’t you recognize when a burden is becoming too uncomfortable to endure before it becomes too uncomfortable to endure? The answer is, your psyche tells you that you can bear the discomfort – you can take the pain. It won’t last much longer – be tough! While that can serve as a great source of motivation in the right situation, it’s a double-edged sword. Thus, if not controlled, it can leave you in an uncontrollable state.

Caution:

When you’re besieged by heavy burdens, don’t let them weigh you down – you already know the consequences of that. When you’re beleaguered by thoughts of uncertainty that assail your mind, listen to those signals. They’re warning you that your load is too heavy – it’s akin to your engine light flashing red. At a minimum, recognize and acknowledge that you’re in an area that may be fraught with potential danger.

Action Time:

The rod broke because the heft upon it was too great a load to sustain. Like the rod, your life will also break if you don’t castoff burdens that are too great for you to the harbor.

If you sense too many obstacles are creating too many burdens for you to bear, shed them from your life. Your load will be lighter. You will be able to move more freely as you move towards greater goals that will improve your life. You will have freed yourself to be freer to achieve more and be more of what you were meant to be … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations?

Negotiators bring their burdens into the negotiation. Those burdens cause them to react in different ways depending on the gravity of them. Thus, their burdens impact the negotiation process.

Just like people move quicker away from something that’s too painful and more slower towards pleasure, so will they release a burden when it becomes too cumbersome to bear in a negotiation. What that suggests is, depending on the negotiator type that you’re negotiating with, you can use the weight of a burden or the release of it (pleasure) to motivate him to adopt one position versus another. The one you choose would be dependent on which served you best. And that would be dependent on the situation and the individual.

While burdens can be cumbersome, recognizing the value of using them as a tool during a negotiation can work to your benefit. Thus, if your burden is too heavy during a negotiation, attempt to transfer it to the other negotiator. You’ll get a reaction from him – note it. If he displays discomfort, extend an offer to relieve him of that burden. He’ll be grateful to you for having done so. You will have taken the burden that you gave him back. But you will have also gained a better position in the negotiation for doing so.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator

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

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#burden #Negotiate #Process #Power #Powerful #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

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Best Practices Investing Management Marketing Personal Development Sales

The CEO Blues: “Winning Sales”​ vs. “Winning Profitable Sales”​

The “winning more sales” industry is huge, crowded, and noisy; the “winning more profitable sales” industry is, well…disturbingly quiet. There are a few sales performance companies who put terms like “profitable sales” into their advertising. Unfortunately, precious few know how to turn tagline into the profit line.

To a sales leader, the difference between those two may be a secondary concern.  However, there is nothing a corporate leader cares about more. Corporate leaders:  here are the organizational differences between the two.  Sales Leaders:  I want to prepare you to have this conversation with your CEO.

World Class Sales is a Real Achievement.

Building a winning sales organization isn’t easy. According to CSO Insights, “world class” sales organizations make up only about 5-9% of companies each year. Without diving into research methodology (I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a research wonk), suffice it to say that I think this year’s definition of “world class” is as good as any they’ve ever come up with. This year, the world-class label applies to companies who (I’m paraphrasing below. If you want a copy of the report, contact me):

  • Add value to every customer interaction, every channel.
  • Build persona-specific customer value consistently, through the customer’s journey.
  • Align Cross-functionally (although CSO Insights takes a narrower view than I do of which functions they include ) to deliver a consistent experience.
  • Continuously learn and improve by building a great coaching infrastructure.
  • Enforce rigor around call planning and forecasting.
  • Leverage their sales analytics as a sales improvement tool, not just a sales monitoring tool.
  • Use a purposeful talent strategy.
  • Have built a system of finding, harvesting, and replicating best practices.

Building an organization with all of these characteristics is a challenge. Disappointingly, achieving “world class” might simply be causing the CEOs Blues: winning sales, but not profitable ones. While world class is a huge achievement for many companies, most CEOs want more.

Selling Profitably Isn’t Much Harder. But it’s Very Different.

Selling profitably means selling at a win-win price reflecting customer value. Most sales training companies help sellers build enough value to win a sale, but not to win it at a value-based price. When done correctly, the higher value-based price actually coincides with higher customer preference.

Let’s look at some of the differences between world-class sales, and world-class profitable sales. Comparing/contrasting with the list above:

  • “Adding value during every interaction” goes from “figure perspective out for yourself” or “use the persona-based value propositions we give you” to developing a deep organization-wide understanding of customer value and specific tools for salespeople to build it.
  • The entire customer experience evolves beyond providing persona-specific value messages. Besides messaging, value-enabled sellers gather customer insights and build customer value from first web click-through customer’s end of product life.
  • Cross-functional alignment extends beyond the walls of the sales and marketing silos. In contrast, everyone who touches a customer has a value-building and value-insight-gathering role.
  • Great coaching culture is equally valued. What’s coached, plus who all is coached expands.
  • Customer value shapes call planning and forecasting more directly. Think about it: if you know clearly just how highly a customer values each offer you will make next month, how much more accurate do you think forecasts will be?
  • Sales analytics are even more focused, emphasizing how sellers focus on value.
  • The talent strategy is every bit as important.

A few years ago, a VP of sales with a Fortune 500 company described this as “elite level” selling. I can’t argue and maintain that it’s within the reach of most sellers. As your organization begins building a value culture, it takes on these characteristics.

Pricing is Profit. Value Shapes Pricing.

As your company masters elite selling, you have the tools to price with confidence, with your customer’s blessing.

Ask your CEO if he/she’d like more profitable sales. In preparation, do yourself a favor and do a quick exercise: calculate 1% of your company’s revenue, then add that number to your net income line. Next, calculate that increase in profitability as a percentage. You just calculated what your CEO could report to your company’s owners if your sellers simply added just 1% to your company’s pricing. Phrased differently, this is how profits would increase by discounting just one percent less.  Heck, do the same calculation for a 1/10th of 1% reduction discounting.

When your CEO indicates that it seems worth pursuing further, dig a little deeper. Ask:

  • Does everyone who touches my customers (aka sellers) regularly conduct commercial/value conversations with their customer contacts?
  • Do my sellers know how my customer makes money…and all the ways my offer can help them (hint: most “world class” selling organizations don’t)?
  • Do my sellers know how to measure customer value with a customer?

Contact me with your answers, and let’s see if we can have some fun together building your business…profitably.

To your success!

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Women In Business

How to Stop Crazy Negotiators from Killing Negotiations

“To stop crazy negotiators from acting crazy, preempt them before they do so.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

“That #negotiator was crazy. He made offers and then took them back. Worse, when you mentioned it, he acted like he didn’t know what you were referring to. I thought his antics would kill the #negotiation. How did you learn to deal with such crazy negotiators?” – said a junior member of a negotiation team to his team leader.

Everyone has encountered an experience such as mentioned. You engage in a negotiation assuming the other negotiator will act rationally. And instead, that person risks killing the negotiation because of his craziness. Such antics can leave you wondering if you’re dealing with a sane individual, someone that’s attempting to use ‘crazy’ as a tactic, or someone that’s just full of buffoonery. In either case, the following information will give you a format for dealing with such people.

Form of Communication:

If based on prior behavior, you believe you’ll be negotiating with someone that’s erratic, put as many components of the negotiation in place before sitting at the negotiation table. You want to leave as little to chance as possible. To do that, consider using written communications to outline what will be negotiated and to set the conduct boundaries before agreeing to meet. He may act unreasonably face-to-face. But if you’ve set prior parameters, you can point to them to illustrate when he’s out of bounds.

Team Environments:

When dealing with an opposing team, the dynamics can be a little more daunting. That could be due, in part, to the team’s leader not having the control to manage it or any number of other variables.

Nevertheless, if you sense irrationality due to inner bickering amongst the opposing team, consider a divide and conquer strategy – play the strongest against the weakest and the weakest against the strongest. To do that, lend more credibility to an offer made by a weaker member – they should be speaking with one voice but remember, they’re bickering. You’re endeavoring to get the team to bicker more with one another to sow discontent.

Individuals:

When dealing with an individual, you need to know more about the forces that are motivating his actions. As an example, he may have been told to close a ridiculously difficult deal or lose his position with the organization. He may have inferred that he’d get a long-awaited promotion if the deal is within certain parameters. He may also be the setup for the next phase of the negotiation and not even be aware of that. Thus, he’s told to hammer you hard for a deal, only to have the deal supplanted by his superior who will assume the role of lead negotiator in the next phase. You think you’re dealing with one person that’s acting irrationally when, you’re really dealing with a team that could be playing good cop/bad cop – you just don’t know it. And that’s to your detriment.

To insulate yourself from such tactics:

  1. Inquire about others in his environment that might be interested in the deal.
  2. Have him confirm in writing that he has final approval to agree to a deal (watch his body language when doing this – if he displays any form of hesitancy, he may be sending a signal of discomfort. That could indicate that he’s not the final arbiter.)
  3. Get him to commit in-writing every understanding that you have about a deal. Do this as you move from one phase of the negotiation to the next.

The point is, if he’s acting crazily, you want to identify the reason for such actions and eradicate them before investing a lot of time in the negotiation.

Conclusion:

There are multiple numbers of ways to control a negotiator that appears to be crazy, irrational or one that attempts to bully you during a negotiation. When dealing with such, point out what’s at stake. Get their buy-in for the agreement and state the consequences as being huge and painful if broken. Doing so will lessen the chance that the crazy type of negotiator will get the best of you … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator

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

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Crazy #negotiator #BodyLanguage #Liar #Beware #Negotiate #Process #Power #Powerful #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions #BodyLanguageSecrets

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Entrepreneurship Marketing Operations Personal Development Sales

Reach Out and Touch Something

We learn about products primarily via the visual channel, but this real estate is severely oversaturated.  That’s why smart marketers also look to the other four senses to break through the clutter.

One of the most overlooked is touch:  So-called Haptic senses appear to moderate the relationship between product experience and the confidence we place in our judgments. This confirms the commonsense notion that we’re surer about what we evaluate when we can touch it. Individuals who score high on a “Need for Touch” (NFT) scale are especially sensitive to the haptic dimension.

To read more, please visit my Forbes article.

 

 

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How Does This End?

“Always assess whether you should attempt to influence outcomes. It may be more beneficial not to.” –Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

You should always attempt to accurately assess a situation before attempting to influence it. That assessment will leave clues to how it might end. And, if you don’t like the possible ending, you may be better off not doing anything at all.

The Story:

The leader of team one was engaged in a negotiation against two other teams – they were negotiating the extension of a contract worth $10,000,000. To subvert the efforts of team three, the leader of team one offered a silent payment of $20,000 to the leader of team two if he could get team three to withdraw from the negotiation. After the teams haggled for several weeks, team one won the contract.

With glee in his heart and dollar signs in his eyes, the leader from team one gladly remitted the $20,000 bounty to his team two confederate. When team one’s leader asked the leader of team two how he convinced team three to drop out, he said, “it was easy. There was a clause in the current contract that stated the three teams had to negotiate in good faith for the extension renewal. The fact is, neither team two or three wanted the extended contract.” With that, the guy from team one said, you mean I could have saved my $20,000? The team-two leader said with a smile on his face, “that’s right!”

Survey:

If you knew something would end badly before engaging in it, would you go through with it? When a few hundred people answered that question, some of the answers were surprising. Some of them said they’d embrace the situation because it would prepare them for other activities – thus, they would learn from the bad situation, which would allow them to be better prepared to address a greater situation in the future. One would think that thought process goes against conventional wisdom. But it may not, depending on who you’re dealing with.

Assumptions:

How can you predict how someone will act if you don’t know their source of motivation? It’s a difficult assessment to make. You can’t even assess an accurate probability of how they might act.

When dealing with people, you should always attempt to predict how they might respond based on their interest. Don’t assume they’ll act in a prescribed manner unless you’ve received direct input from them or another reliable source. Even if it comes directly from them, you still must verify what they say through another source. To do less is to set yourself up for possible foolery. Adopt the perspective that people may not act in their best interest if you don’t know what their best interest is.

What does this have to do with negotiations?

Don’t assume you know how people will act or react. When negotiating, understand what the other negotiator wants, why he wants it, and the reasoning behind his desires. To do that, solicit his honest input – tell him, the only way you can give him what he wants is to know exactly what that is.

It’s of equal importance to know what the other negotiator doesn’t want. This, combined with what he wants, will give you a more complete picture of what may drive his actions. With that insight, you’ll have a better idea of how the other negotiator wants the negotiation to end. Then, all you need to do is assist him in walking down that path. At the end of it, there will be a winning combination that’ll make him embrace the outcome of the negotiation. The point is, you will have known the answer ahead of time as to how does this end … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator

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

 To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#end #Negotiate #Process #Power #Powerful #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

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Best Practices Leadership Marketing Personal Development

Writing: It is Not Just for Writers

“I’m not a writer. Why should I have to learn about grammar, spelling, and punctuation? No one expects me to be good at that.”

I’m not talking about great writing skills but about basic competence. Too many people don’t have this.

What if Getting a Job Depended on Your Writing Skills?

Bizzy Coy, in the article, “Why You Can’t Get a Job Without Solid Writing Skills,”  on MediaBistro, writes that 75% of businesses want employees skilled in writing. However, nearly 50% of applicants don’t have those skills.

He lists six areas where good writing skills are essential: video, audio, social media, B2C copywriting, sponsored content, and B2B copywriting.

If you don’t have these skills, you’ve reduced your chances of getting a job. If you do, your employment future looks a lot brighter.

Solopreneurs and Owners of Small Businesses Need These Skills, Too

 You might say, “I have an administrative assistant who takes care of all that.” All of it? Every email you write? Every text or IM?

You say, “No one expects them to be perfect.”

You will find, however, that people do expect them to be readable. All too often, they aren’t.

I am currently collecting the world’s worst emails. If you have a contribution, I’d love to see it. Many of the worst ones, though, are private communications that only the person with whom you’re trying to establish a cooperative agreement or to whom you’re trying to sell a product sees.

For example, you’re trying to win a new client, and a lot of communication takes place via email. Does it matter if you make grammatical and spelling errors?

William Arruda, in the Personal Branding Blog, writes:

“Poor grammar is one of the reasons why customers avoid certain companies. When users visit your website and read poorly constructed sentences, the initial impression is the site and the company behind it are not trustworthy. This is why it is always important that you check and proofread your work before posting or sending messages.

A simple spelling mistake can lose you a customer and that would be your competitor’s gain. Using proper grammar denotes a professional approach to business. By constructing a well-written letter or response to a query, you are giving your customers and suppliers the impression that as business professionals, you are treating all your transactions seriously and you value them highly.”

What he says applies as much to a CEO as it does to a solo-preneur. You wouldn’t show up for a business meeting in an unironed, dusty, shabby suit. What you write should have the same degree of grooming as your personal appearance.

It’s worth taking the time or, if necessary, spending the money to learn the basic rules of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It’s money in the bank.

Just one new customer could make the effort worth it.

Reach Pat Iyer, one of C Suite’s original 100 advisors, through her website at patiyer.com