C-Suite Network™

Menu
Search
Close this search box.

Category: Sales

Categories
Body Language Entrepreneurship Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Operations Sales Skills Women In Business

“Do You Know How To Be A Powerful Negotiator” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

 “Power – something that others grant you, even if you momentarily take it from them.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)

Click here to get the book!

“Do You Know How To Be A Powerful Negotiator”

 

He was pompous, screamed at others while demeaning them, and not well-liked – most of his associates detested him! Some wondered if that was why he’d been stuck in the same management position for over a decade. Plus, he was not a good negotiator – he lacked insight on how to use power. He used bullying tactics with his subordinates (i.e. you’d better do this or else), and veiled threats to delude his peers to get what he wanted. Everyone collectively swore they’d get even with him. And one day they did.

Do you know how to be a powerful negotiator?

 

Sources of Power and How To Use It:

Voice inflection – There’s power, or lack of, in the way you speak. You can make a statement that sounds like a question or a question that sounds like a statement simply by the inflection in your voice. To sound more powerfully, apply a deeper tone to your voice when emphasizing words of greater importance. This is especially true when negotiating. A deeper tone on, that’s my best price, conveys more conviction to your statement.

Positioning – Whether it’s your physical proximity to others or the proximity of your words, what proceeds your words impacts their perception. Therefore, be mindful of when you speak. If you speak after someone has delivered a rousing proposal, your words may be received with less enthusiasm. The same is true of your physical proximity to others. If you’re physically close to someone with power, your words will carry greater weight simply because of that proximity. Others will assume that there’s a sense of power bestowed upon you from the power person in the environment.

When negotiating, consider the order of your offers and their alignment with people of power. You can also make a prior offer appear to be better by downgrading the one that follows it – in that case, your message states that the trajectory of the offers to follow will become progressively worse.

Manipulation – A negotiator can gain momentary power through manipulation (for this purpose, the word manipulation is neutral – it’s not good or bad). One can use it to feed the other negotiator’s desires by embellishing the item he seeks from you. By doing that, you heighten his sense to acquire it.

To embellish an item, highlight how the other negotiator will feel, and/or appear to others once he’s acquired it. Take note of his body language as you make your summation. If he slips into a dream-like state while smiling and becoming dreamy-eyed, he’s also imagining the great sensation he’ll experience once he’s acquired your offer – you got him! Continue down that path and extract whatever he’s willing to forgo to acquire the offer. Be careful not to turn embellishment into a lie. That might come back to haunt you.

Likeability – Never underestimate the hidden value of likeability. It’s a factor that has swayed many negotiators. I’ve seen lower offers accepted because of it. It’s easy to be likable with most people – just be pleasant. Warning – with some bully types, you’ll have to meet power with power. Thus, the likeability factor may be a detriment. Instead, seek to become respected – respect will be the source that cedes greater power to you.

 

You’re always negotiating:

In the situation with the manager, mentioned at the beginning of this article, others did exact their toll on him. It occurred when subordinates and his peers combined forces – they informed senior management that they’d no longer work with him. The manager didn’t realize that he’d been negotiating with those folks during his tenure with the company. He used his power recklessly. And now their power was coming to bear against him – senior management fired him.

I love to observe people with power. To be specific, I note how they use it, to whom they extend it, and how they’re altered by it. It’s said that power doesn’t change you – it amplifies who you really are. To that point, always keep in mind, the way you treat people impacts their perception of you. Thus, if they perceive you as an ogre, they’ll be less inclined to assist you in achieving your goals. Therefore, use the sources of power as partners in your negotiations – they’ll increase the perception of you being a powerful person. That will lead to more powerful negotiation outcomes … 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/

 

#Body #Language #Secrets #Negotiate #Process #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #Negotiator #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #BodyLanguageExpert #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

 

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Management Marketing Personal Development Sales

Five Sales Leader Blinds Spots

We all have blind spots, but not all of us make a point of trying to uncover and cure them.  When the blind spot belongs to a leader, an organization can pay the price.  I see several recurring blinds spots with sales leaders and wanted to share these five.

Not Realizing “After the Sale” is Really “Between Sales”.

This blind spot is driven by silo-limited thinking…or to use management-speak: staying in your swim lane.  Certainly, it’s unproductive to distract sales with all of the issues around service and installation.

That being said, the idea that a customer becomes 100% someone else’s problem when a sale closes is simplistic. It becomes downright dangerous for any industry involving repeat, renewal, cross or up-sales opportunities.  Your mindset in these industries should be one of growing your customer’s business, delivering outcomes so that “after the sale” evolves into a more natural “between sales” cadence.  This starts with making sure that the expected outcomes you discussed to win the sale actually materialize.

The sad thing is that sales groups using any good methodology already gather valuable information on outcomes desired by key personas.  Salespeople gather and use this intelligence to close deals, but don’t turn it over to the people responsible for ensuring those outcomes (installation, implementation, customer success, etc).  When I tell most service organizations this data already resides in their CRM, they are often flabbergasted.

Using Activity Metrics Instead of Predictive Behaviors

Sales leaders know they want their salespeople to be measured on quality, not quantity, but they often struggle with what quality looks like.  One of the traps people fall into is that the wrong activities (quantity measures) are so easy to measure and track, while many of the measures of quality are hard to quantify.  As a famous statistician said, “far better an approximate answer to the right question than a precise answer to the wrong question…”

Measuring meaningful conversations that advance a sale is hard to measure, but it’s what a sales leader is really seeking when they instinctively know they are after quality. Good selling behaviors predict and drive success. Activities, like phone dials, don’t.

There really are ways to measure the quality of selling conversations.  I favor analyzing what the salesperson learned about desired outcomes, new outcomes introduced and value…plus insights into the customer’s buying process.

Not Performing Actual Sales Coaching

Study after study shows that sales managers think that they coach well…while the salespeople they claim to coach don’t think any coaching takes place at all.  That result looks like more of a black hole than a blind spot.

The gold standard of coaching is coaching by questioning. Great coaches guide salespeople to think up selling behaviors through a Socratic (question-asking) approach.  This way, salespeople learn to self-diagnose, internalize, and solve sales problems for themselves over time.

Proper sales coaching like a sales process where the boss/subordinate relationship can get in the way. When it’s easy to direct a subordinate, a questioning approach seems like so much more work.  Additionally, it’s hard for a directive boss to communicate that they have the subordinate’s best interest at heart. This, in turn, makes it hard to influence sellers to expend discretionary effort.

Bottom line, coaching by telling isn’t as effective at changing those great predictive selling behaviors you’re really after.  Remember, telling a salesperson what they should do isn’t coaching any more than telling a customer what they buy is selling.

All Sellers, Not Just Sales

I’ve worked in companies who made sure everyone who touches a customer knows how to have a conversation about customer outcomes and value.  It’s radical, but I know it’s possible because I’ve seen it and led it.  It’s radical in the face of today’s highly structured (and highly turf-conscious) organizations. That’s why I call it “radical value focus”.

This blind spot is so widespread that even sales industry executives try to “widen” our definition of sellers to “everyone who touches revenue” (translation: everyone I can put into a silo led by me). Talk about silo-limited thinking. The standard should be “everyone who touches the customer”, even though this conversation is more difficult.  Even though the CEO needs to get involved in this – a culture change.

Again, I’ve seen it done.  It’s radically value-focused, and it works wonders.

Selling Profitably via Value-Based Pricing

I’ve met sales leaders who measure success by revenue rather than profit.  I’ve worked for them as well.  Unfortunately, I’ve managed too many P&Ls to accept a revenue mindset. In fact, a sales leader who chases profitless revenue will never have a seat at the corporate leadership table…and with good reason.

The purpose of business is to add more value for customers than it costs them to produce.  If sellers can’t capture that value (in the form of price), how can your company afford the costs to produce the value you’re so eager to offer your customers?

Learn how to price to value. When you do, you jointly determine an (almost always higher) win-win, value-based price in conjunction with your customer.  Value only exists in the customer’s mind, so a value-based price should be one that they’ve justified for themselves.

Summary

If these are blind spots for your organization, fill them.  They are intertwined in a radically value-focused culture.

  • Learn how to integrate those value-focused conversations by everyone who touches your customer. Create a more complete value-based picture of outcomes you deliver.
  • Teach value-focused conversations by every seller, not just sales.
  • Turn the teaching into long-term muscle memory through proper coaching.
  • Confirm the value your customer thought they were buying by giving your implementation teams each persona’s value/outcome goals.
  • Price to the value your entire company has learned to consistently deliver to customers.

Does this open any new vistas in your world?  Contact me if you’d like to discuss.  As always, please share and/or comment below.

To your success!

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

“How To Ask Powerful Questions To The Right People” – Negotiation Insight

“To get better answers, ask the right people better questions.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)

Click here to get the book!

“How To Ask Powerful Questions To The Right People”

She looked at him and became emotionally aroused with each passing moment. Finally, she said, “who are the right people that can answer my questions?” The customer service rep that she was speaking to sheepishly said, “mam, I’m not sure – I just started working here last week.”

How many times have you found yourself exasperated over an unresolved situation? Did you take a moment to examine why you were upset? Such situations usually stem from four possibilities:

  1. You have the wrong demeanor
  2. You’re not speaking to the right person
  3. You ask the wrong question
  4. You’re not asking powerful questions

The following will assist you in addressing all four of those factors.

 

Your Demeanor:

No matter with whom you’re speaking, your demeanor will determine how they interact and respond to you. Thus, your demeanor needs to match the situation. If you display one that’s weak, in the face of a strong personality type, she may dismiss you as not being relevant. If you position yourself through your demeanor as someone that’s significantly above the other individual, he may become uncooperative.

To adopt the best demeanor, before making your approach observe the other person’s mannerisms – assess their feelings and the kind of day they may be having. Based on your assessment, if it’s appropriate, look for ways to compliment them. If they’re in ‘rush mode’, be pleasant and get to the point with your questions.

The overarching point is, position yourself right before posing your questions and you will have won half the battle.

 

Speaking To The Wrong Person/People:

It’s ludicrous to think you can get the right solution by talking to the wrong person. So, before seeking assistance, inquire about the person’s ability to grant your request. If he states that he can’t offer a solution, ask who can.

The point is, don’t waste time presenting questions to someone that can’t provide a solution. Doing so will only further exasperate you. It will also cause you to be less tolerant with the person that can provide a solution to your situation.

 

Asking The Wrong Question:

Depending on the circumstances, it may be correct to ask someone if they can assist you or who’s in charge – posing such questions will begin the engaging process. But if you know with whom you should speak to obtain a resolution to your concerns, don’t dilly dally – get to the point.

Asking if someone has the responsibility or authority to assist you indicates that you’re not familiar with the environment. Use more powerful questions such as those that follow to improve your position.

 

Asking Powerful Questions:

The very first question you ask sets the tone for the discussion to follow. And it should be a question that’s posed to the right person – the person that can grant your request. Thus, the question must be dynamic – one that places you in a position of authority and control. And, as an aside, authority doesn’t have to mean that the other person must sing your praises – it means that he cares enough to assist you. To solicit his support, ask such questions as:

  1. How quickly might you resolve this situation (the assumption being he has the authority and he’s going to resolve your problem)?
  2. How much of a rebate/discount might I receive to rectify this situation (this question suggests that you’re seeking restitution)?
  3. When I speak with a ‘higher authority’, how would you like me to represent our interaction (this question can border on intimidation – be cautious about its use – never attempt to intentionally bully or demean someone – that can cause an unforeseen and unimagined backlash)?

 

There’s power in the way you ask questions and to whom you pose them. Thus, if you ask the right questions in the right manner at the right time, you’ll experience the right outcome more frequently … and everything will be right with the world.

 

What does this have to do with negotiations?

 

Questions are the backbone of negotiations. Therefore, by asking the right question in the right situation, you enhance your chances of getting the answers that lead to a better negotiation outcome. Never overlook the power of posing the right questions to the right people. Asking the right questions can be your silent ally.

 

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/

 

 

#Questions #Right #People #Negotiate #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

 

 

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Economics Leadership Marketing Personal Development Sales

Make These Five Preparations Before an Economic Storm

How would you prepare your company if you knew a downturn was coming?  What would you change?  There are a few things you need to think through clearly now; a few preparations you need to make.  You should be doing some of these anyway, regardless of your personal economic forecast, but these “should dos” become “must dos” when the economy slides.

Nobody knows what the future holds, and that includes economists. At some point, though, this historically long economic expansion is going to end. When it does, fortune will favor the prepared.

I don’t blindly follow those who say that a downturn is inevitable simply because the economic expansion has been so long-lasting.  Perhaps I’m still impacted by a company leader saying that in the 1980s, then having that expansion last another two years.  However, there are a few indicators that should give us all pause. One, the shape of the yield curve, has perfect accuracy for the past several recessions.  This may be because this indicator is the aggregated “bet your career and your firm’s money” wager by many of the world’s smartest financial minds, placing much more money than in all of the stock market. Here’s an article that explains it pretty well. I ignored this indicator once and regretted it.

Regardless of your personal forecast, I suggest you go through this pre-storm checklist and give some thought to five issues.

How Will Your People Strategy Change?

Whenever a recession hits, one of the first dilemmas is how/whether to adjust the sales staffing plan. One of the worst burdens of leadership is deciding to downsize. Sadly, your company’s financial condition and financing structure might render this decision easy. Highly leveraged companies and those with short-time-horizon investor populations may not have any option but to lay off and hunker down.

For companies blessed with growth during a downturn — or with patient money backing you — increasing (especially sales) staffing in a downturn takes advantage of competitors’ reduced ability to respond.  While I’ve never been lucky enough to work for a company with the resources to make this happen, the experts tell you to hire…with caution.  There are diamonds in the rough, perhaps stars laid off by financially vulnerable employers, or stars who had better options.  At minimum, I would check the credit ratings of former employers as I prepared to interview a candidate.

Will You Discount? Will it Help?

During a downturn, price pressure will be inevitable. Discounting to win business is a fragile strategy.  Because price declares value, the player who drops price first definitely damages their own reputation (perceived value).  Matching a competitor’s price might bring your value down to their damaged level — unless handled properly.  Maintain a clear view of your value and what it offers to each prospective customer.

Start building value with customers now to minimize how much you’ll need to discount (Helping you do this is what I do).  If you have value, you should be able to maintain some price premium, but as competitors discount, even a solid price premium is applied to a lower base (competitor’s declining price).  By firmly retaining that value premium, you will minimize damage to your offer’s value.

If you can pre-emptively add to your value premium before a competitive price war, you may be able to mitigate some of the damage discounting causes.

Pursuing New Customers

Taking share during a downturn can be challenging.  Most competitors will be fiercely defensive…fighting for survival. How hard do you bang your head against that wall?

Before a downturn, figure out which competitors are already in trouble with their customers.  Your salespeople can sometimes gather this kind of intelligence, but there is an even better source.  Everyone in your company without a sales title who touches customers has a different vantage point based upon trusting relationships – with customer personas who may welcome the chance to resolve a vendor problem.  Train and equip those people to spot competitor vulnerabilities.  While you should always be sharpening this discipline, it becomes much more critical in a down economy.

If your product or service has a potential alternate market, consider exploring one or more of those before a downturn.  Pre-emptively look for opportunities to solve that market’s typical problems in new ways, or to add new value.  A fresh eyes look at your product or service’s possible value propositions and how they could produce novel outcomes for different markets might be in order.

Defending Existing Accounts

As competition escalates, competitors may be coming after your accounts. If you haven’t already, implement an advanced account management program now to pre-empt competitive pressure.  The goal is to make your key accounts more defensible.

The other goal is to grow within your current account base — less challenging than taking share. Account strategy should proactively demonstrate — then grow — your value to customers. Do this, and new opportunities crop up more easily in your existing account base.

The kind of account management program needed is one that focuses on building customer value using a cross-functional team approach.  Once again, your non-sales sellers are key to the success of a cross-functional account management effort. Peer-to-peer executive selling within the value-building charter is another key component.  Contact me if you’d like me to describe such a system in more detail.

Innovation

In a downturn, it’s common to strip R&D to the minimum. With some of the value-focused efforts described above (cross-functional account management and value-focused conversations), you will build a value insights-gathering “engine” enabling you to innovate more inexpensively than you might expect.  I help clients do this all the time, but during a recession, a radical value culture becomes an even bigger competitive advantage.

Another way to achieve some cost-effective innovation is to rethink your capabilities — in terms of what product/service capabilities are used to differentiate you.  These already-developed capabilities are the foundation for new products for existing customers, and are a key element in possible new market expansion efforts; you may see creative new value propositions that your existing technology expertise can capture with relative ease.

Summarizing

If you think a downturn might be coming, get your company’s financial house in order.  The next recession (whenever it does come) doesn’t look like it will be banking-led (the deepest and longest kind of recession), but unconventional economic policies (trade wars, etc.) mean a lot of predictability has been taken out of the economic system.  Agility is always important but will become a watchword during any upcoming cycle.

As you read this article, I hope you see that many of these preparations should be part of your regular management practice.  They become much more critical in a recession, and you’ll be glad you began working on them now.

If I can describe any of these preparations in more detail with you and your team, please reach out.  Otherwise, please like and/or share with your colleagues.

To your success!

 

 

 

 

Categories
Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Mergers & Acquisition Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“Powerful Body Language Secrets That You Need To Know” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

“Every ‘body’ speaks. But not everybody knows what someone’s body is saying – do you?” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)

Click here to get the book!

“Powerful Body Language Secrets That You Need To Know”

He was overly impressed with her and her accomplishments. His embrace was meant to display just that – his swell of pride for her. But during the embrace, he felt her attempt to break free as a hostage might do at the first glimpse of freedom. He wondered what he’d done wrong. Later he commented to her about the embrace – and the perception he had of her breaking free. She smiled and said, at least you were aware of it – most people aren’t. I don’t like being hugged.

How attuned are you to the #body #language #secrets that people emit every day? If you are aware of such signals, what do you observe the most and why?

The following are a few body language insights that will allow you to understand people better and become a better communicator.

Head Cocking:

The gesture becomes displayed when someone shifts their head to the right or left after its been in a straight or opposite position. It’s interesting to note when it occurs because it denotes someone going into an inward evaluation. Thus, the gesture may originate from something you said or thoughts the person is contemplating.

Eyebrows:

One eyebrow cocked – This sign usually indicates inquisitiveness as to the possible believability of what’s said or outright skepticism.

Lowered eyebrows – Guarded, deception, annoyance, are the signs that this gesture indicates.

Raised eyebrows – Taking in more of the environment – can also denote surprise or interest (note the degree that the eyes widen – that’ll give you more information as to the thought of the person displaying the gesture.)

Palm Hand Gestures:

Hand up, palm facing out –The hand up and palm facing outward signals nonverbally to the other person to halt what they’re saying or doing. As the receiver of that action, you can gauge the degree of the intent by the distance the action extends from the other person’s body. As an example, if they commit the action and their hand is close to their body, the signal is not as strong as if they had a full-body extension of their hand – that would be a stronger gesture because they’re indicating a greater distance between themselves and what you’re saying or doing.

Palm up and open – Accepting, mentally open to receiving information – can also be internal mental contemplation. It can also be a sign of consternation – this occurs if hunched shoulders accompany the gesture.

Feet:

As a body language signal, feet convey more information than most people are aware of. Thus, you should always be mindful of what someone’s feet are signaling.

Feet aligned – When your feet are in alignment with the person with whom you’re engaged (i.e. both sets of feet are pointing at each other), both of you are succinctly engaged with one another – you’re in mental alignment.

Foot pointing away – As someone points a foot away from you, they’re shifting their weight because:

  • Something else has attracted their attention.
  • They’ve received enough information from you for the time.
  • Soon, they’re going to exit the conversation and do so in the direction their foot is pointed in.

Take note of when such gestures occur. Doing so will allow you the insight to shift and control the conversation.

Conclusion:

At the beginning of this article, I posed the question of how attuned are you to the body language secrets that people emit every day. As you see, there are many signals that you might observe. And, if you’re aware when such signals occur, you’ll have greater insight into the mindset of the people you interact with. That will allow you to better understand them and communicate more effectively. Plus, it’ll give you an insider’s roadmap into their thought process and where it’s headed. That too will allow you to help them upon their journey or exit because you choose not to accompany them. Either way, you’ll have greater control of the environments you’re in … 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/

 

#Body #Language #Secrets #Negotiate #Process #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #Negotiator #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #BodyLanguageExpert #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

 

 

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Personal Development Sales

Navigating Breakthroughs

These days, it seems like we’re hearing about breakthrough after breakthrough. It’s easy to assume that these are spontaneous bursts of clarity from the most gifted people. Every so often, there’s an unexpected stroke of genius that leaves us with our mouths open. But usually, the real breakthroughs are years in the making, coming as the result of thorough analysis and collaboration. Of course, there will always be the “Why don’t we just…” moments, but the longest-lasting breakthroughs require teamwork and tenacity. Here’s our experience with many breakthroughs that happened in our business.

1. Other Practices in the Industry

We weren’t able to keep our signage on supermarket shelves. Our competition (and the cleaning people!) regularly removed them. Sometimes, we couldn’t even get our marketing materials up on the shelf. Our distributors tossed them in the dumpster. We had spread ourselves so thin that we couldn’t get our limited staff to all of our stores.

We noticed that one soup brand had a medal on each can to show the shoppers its value. Within two years, we worked out every mechanical issue to put our awards on each of our bottles, right on the bottling line. Finally, we had just one piece of marketing material that could not be removed from the shelves! The best way to get out of the box is to go straight up. It’s at that 10,000-foot level that you can see how other businesses tackled similar hurdles to yours!

2. Beginning at the End

Our success made us suffer. We were selling our products so quickly that we ran into a lot of out-of-stock and run-out situations. It was really hurting us. Our products weren’t being reordered quickly enough! And to make it more difficult, we had to go through middlemen to get to our retailers. The one thing we knew about these situations was to compare shipment reports or Depletion Reports. This was tedious and onerous work. By the time we figured out that a store didn’t order this month after ordering last month, we were taken out of that store for lack of sales. You can’t sell if you aren’t reordered, of course.

So we asked ourselves, “What do we really want here?” The answer wound up being, “Early Warning!” and “Specific Addresses.” We had our hearts set on that reorder, even if the distributor’s salesperson didn’t—before the store’s system recorded no sales for 30 days.

In order to do this, we needed to get into the software business and create an application that could use data to provide a list of stores that ordered last month but not this month. This early warning gave us more time to put these stores on the top of our priority list for reorders. It gave our sales reps a better sense of priority as well. But this breakthrough was 3 years in the making!

Because we started with an idea for the results we wanted, we worked backward to discover the breakthrough itself.

3. Know the Need

We encountered a problem—store managers and owners weren’t giving us enough time to present ourselves successfully. Our people ran into buyers who wanted everything concise and fast, yet compelling.

We asked our staff to better describe their frustrations to understand the problem at hand. We figured out that if buyers could simply wait until we assembled a display of our marketing materials and products, they would buy from us 75% of the time. So what could we do to reduce the presentation time?

One of our salespeople had the idea that we could copy the Mary Kay ladies and Fuller Brush man with their portable, briefcase-style displays. We then created what we referred to as a Sell Case. Our sales shot up by 50%. Our rep would just open the case and all the work was done—all the bottles were lined up, and all the marketing materials were all in one place. And just like that, instant presentation!

Instead of putting your people on a “need to know” basis, let them “know the need”. You’ll be much more likely to overcome your challenges!

4. Sleep on It

The brain works on our problems around the clock, even when we’re on vacation or sleeping. We sometimes have a take-charge approach, where we review the problem over and over again. This can actually prevent the issue from being solved.

During one of our big growth spurts, we faced a particularly difficult organizational issue. All businesses face these same problems when shifting gears between dependence upon those few big clients who keep the lights on, to building and expanding across the nation. We were losing many business opportunities because things were falling through the cracks.

Eventually, we said, “OK! I guess we need to take a break!” We went to Kauai on a hiking trip, away from people, business, and phone service. We felt a bit guilty, but we admit it was heavenly. On the way back, we completely reexamined our business and thought about putting our existing people in new roles. The opportunity to take our minds off the problem enabled the answer to present itself. This overhaul brought us to expansion, which led us to become a top national brand!

Your brain is tired. Let it work on the problem while you’re away or asleep. You’ll be shocked at the flashes of insight you may get in the shower the next morning!

5. Keep Going

Sometimes, a breakthrough is the result of years of persistence. You might need to wait until the timing is perfect. Even when you’re prepared with a breakthrough idea, people may not be ready to accept it. In these situations, determination always pays off.

We had an excellent salesman, Jack from Holland, who used to entertain us with his language, context, and accent. He would go see a major buyer every month, and each time he would return empty-handed. We would ask, “How did it go this month with the big buyer?” and he’d just shake his head and persist, “She’s not shopping!” Every single month, that was his answer—“She’s not shopping!”

Fast-forward a year later and Jack skips into our office with a purchase order for 2,000 cases from that same big buyer shouting, “She’s buy-ing!” His persistence led him to success because when the buyer was eventually ready, Jack was there! Through his failed efforts, he had developed a relationship with her over time, so he was at the top of her list when she was ready.

Breakthroughs are never a one-way street. You might have your breakthrough, but you need the market to be ready to acknowledge and accept it.

The Future

Today, crowdsourcing is a pretty incredible way to achieve breakthroughs and solve problems. You can now share your problems with the world to find the best ideas instead of just asking your own staff and associates. This international brainstorm alone can lead to limitless breakthroughs.

First seen as a source for funding, today’s crowdsourcing is a source for everything. But how can you use it for your business? Check out www.crowdsourceweek.com to learn more. This year, they’re focusing on breakthroughs! Who knows? Your next big breakthrough could come from Nepal, Norway, or even Nigeria! There’s only one way to find out.

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Investing Marketing Personal Development Sales

Does Your Customer Know Your Offer is Mission Critical?

If the statement below should resonate with your customer, you probably operate in a mission-critical sales environment.

 


“(What I sell) is Cheap. It’s Trouble that’s Expensive”.

 

The mission critical sale is when your offer can affect your customer’s business or operations in some significant way. Note the emphasis on “should” and “can”; I’ll get to that later on.

Examples might include:

  • Complex/Technical capital equipment
  • Medical tech and new technology
  • Custom & Semi-custom products & services
  • Differentiated components
  • Corporate software, including SaaS/cloud delivered.

The Mission-Critical Sale Moves Beyond Consensus Selling. 

Full disclosure: I’ve been selling and consulting in “the complex sale” (aka consensus selling) for decades. I understand it and am a huge fan.  I’m beyond “drinking the Kool-aid”. I’m marinated in it.

I also know what consensus selling methodologies are and aren’t.

They are for organizing opportunity pursuit strategy when a buying ecosystem — multiple personas – is making a group buying decision. Usually, this ecosystem is made up of personas somebody thinks should be included. Unfortunately, complex selling methodologies often assume that “somebody” defined the group properly.

Complex sales methodologies aren’t for expanding a buying ecosystem strategically (methodologies accommodate expansion just fine, they just don’t teach it). Typically, companies buy in organizational silos, applying a self-imposed set of blinders to their decision. Thus, they buy too narrowly, engaging prospective vendors constrained by their own narrow perspective. It’s not your customers’ fault: they aren’t experts in your offer’s capabilities and don’t understand all of its implications.

When One Silo Has Budget, But Many Silos Benefit

Unfortunately, selling organizations who blindly accept a predefined buying ecosystem almost always overlook potential stakeholders. This is for a variety of reasons, but the result is that sellers miss potential differentiation leaving value unrecognized. Consequently, opportunity strategy under-powered…a potentially mission-critical sale is reduced to a run-of-the-mill complex sale.

  • Imagine this scenario: You’ve gained consensus from your regular personas, to the point of mildly irritating the purchasing agent. Proudly, you know what every persona wants, and each feels your offer fits their needs. It’s smooth sailing until your coach calls: you’re on the outside looking in. Astonishingly, a competitor has penetrated throughout the organization — to departments you didn’t even know cared — and somehow to executives who told you that the personas you were working with were “the right team”. Worse, their proposal was higher priced than yours, but articulated business outcomes just too compelling to ignore. You followed your “consensus selling methodology” perfectly, but the competitor boxed you into a corner that you couldn’t even discount your way out of.

Again, consensus selling methodologies help organize all personas you identify. Unfortunately, they don’t teach anticipating and proactively adding new players to an ecosystem. In contrast to methodology, “buyer enablement”: helps customer organizations make better, more well-informed decisions.

Admittedly, expanding the buying ecosystem increases decision complexity. However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that’s always a bad thing.  Adding the right people means adding allies…packing the court in your favor.

As I said, I’m marinated in complex selling methodology. It does its job (organizing a given group decision dynamic) really well. For the mission-critical sale, though, today’s methodologies need a specific boost: understanding when, where, and how, and why to change the decision dynamic — and to what.

It’s Not Harder or More Complex. It’s Just Value-Focused

In some ways, value-focused selling is easier. For example, coaching simplifies down to one question “what’s the value?” (OK, sometimes asked over and over like a child asking “why?”) . If your sellers can articulate a complete value picture, they’ve probably performed all of the selling methodology steps just fine. Focusing on value yields a deep understanding of the motivations behind the consensus decision.

  • I’ve analyzed and coached perhaps thousands of Miller Heiman Group Blue Sheets. A recurring rep shortcoming is understanding persona-specific Business Results and Personal Wins. Critically, not understanding desired outcomes, and how customers value those outcomes means reps can’t genuinely understand the group decision.
  • Similarly, experienced TAS practitioners echo similar deficiencies in users of that methodology. Typically they uncover missing/incomplete Unique Business Value, Critical Success Factors, Compelling Event, and Economic Value Proposition. Again, these are all failures to understand customer value.

I could repeat for other methodologies, but the trend is clear. Salespeople capture groups, but not the value that drives their decision. Worse, they don’t build complete value high and wide in customer organizations.

What if, instead of switching to a new methodology (when the ones out there are fine for organizing a group buying decision)…what if you could just incorporate the missing value conversations into your existing process? Wouldn’t that be a high-value, low interruption, easy-adoption initiative? In fact, this is the elite selling behavior most mission-critical salesforces are missing.

Separately, for those without a methodology in place, what if you start your team at the core of sales–value–then work outward to managing the customer’s decision dynamic as needed? Remember, customer value is what moves all buying decisions — from transactional to mission-critical. Developing your sellers’ “nose for value” is the pivotal skill in any sales environment.

Not All Mission Critical Sellers Act Like It

Earlier, I promised to come back to the words “can/should” in “your offer can affect your customer’s business…”. Here’s the thing: many organizations who sell potentially mission-critical offers don’t sell like their offer is mission-critical. They don’t make it mission-critical for the customer(a la the seller in the lost deal scenario above). Rather, they go through methodology-mandated motions without connecting solution to value, building value, and extending value organization-wide. This leaves deal-winning value – and pricing power – on the table. I’ve managed too many P&Ls to accept this shortcoming.

One of the reasons I focus on the mission-critical sale is that the ROI on “increasing pricing power” is staggeringly high. Notably, this is because pricing dollars are profit dollars. Gaining pricing power is a conversation that CEOs, CROs and COtBs want to have, and I find those conversations a lot more rewarding (OK, valuable) than ones with sales enablement and L&D professionals comparing complex sales methodologies. One sounds more mission-critical than the other, no?

So, want to talk about it? Contact me.

To your success!

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

“Killer Insights That Will Make You A Better Negotiator” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

Click here to get the book!

“To be a better negotiator, learn how to negotiate better.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert  (Click to Tweet)

“Killer Insights That Will Make You A Better Negotiator”

There are factors that determine the degree of success you’ll have in a #negotiation. Those factors are what will also make you a good #negotiator or one that’s significantly better. The following are a few of those #killer #insights and how to use them to your advantage in a negotiation. Using them will ensure that you have a #better negotiation outcome.

Negotiation Environment:

Where you negotiate can have hidden advantages for the person controlling that environment. But there are also ways to control an environment that you’re not in control of.

  1. Your environment – When you control the environment, you can control the temperature, lighting, and other creature features that would make one more comfortable while negotiating. If the negotiation becomes tense, you can increase or lower the temperature in the environment to coincide with the adjustments you want the other negotiator to make (e.g. he gets heated, you turn the room temperature up or down to make him hotter or colder).
  2. Not your environment – When you don’t have control of the environment, if things become intense, you can offer to change venues. If it’s accepted, you will gain the advantage of not being in the environment that the other negotiator controlled. Plus, he will have allowed you to take the lead simply by his acquiesces.

Negotiation Positioning:

The way you position yourself before a negotiation determines how someone perceives you – it will also play an important role in the way you’re treated. If you position yourself as a tough guy, a tough guy negotiator type may treat you harshly – that’s his form of protecting against you perceiving him as being weak. If you position yourself as being weak, the tough guy may attempt to take advantage of you, while the weak type of negotiator may become emboldened to become more aggressive.

For the best positioning, consider the negotiation style (e.g. hard, soft, meek, bully) that your opponent may use – and assess which negotiation style you should adopt to offset any advantages he might gain from negotiating in that manner.


Negotiation Strategies:

Control – You command a negotiation by the degree of control you exercise. When appropriate, you can give the impression that you’re led by the other negotiator – you might wish to do that to gain insights into where he’ll take you with his control. You might also do it to put him at ease – less powerful negotiators become fearful when they sense they’re up against a more knowledgeable negotiator – letting him lead will allay his fears of being dominated by you.

Offers – Some negotiators will insist on getting a concession for everyone they make. You don’t have to do that. Depending on the negotiator type you’re negotiating with, consider saving the chits you gain from making concessions and using them in a combined force (e.g. I’ve given you this and that and I’ve not asked for anything. Will you please give me this?) – Accumulating concessions in this manner and calling in the chits earned from them can become a very strong persuader for the other negotiator to make concessions. Just be sure not to grant too many of them before making your request. The more concessions you make without getting a return, the more likely it becomes that they will lose their full value.

 

No matter the type of negotiation you’re going to be in or find yourself in, using the above insights will improve your negotiation abilities. And, it will improve your negotiation outcomes. So, always be mindful of how and when you use them … 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 https://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

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

 

 

 

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

“It’s Only A Moment In Time” – Negotiation Insight

“Time, something that you have as much of as you need – for the time that you have.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click To Tweet)

Click here and buy the book!

“It’s Only A Moment In Time”

Are you someone that has challenges with time?

Dammit, was the sound of exasperation that escaped her lips. She was going to be late, again. She wondered why she seemed to always have a challenge with time – she thought, it seems like I’m late for everything! I’ll probably be late for my own funeral. Oh well, I’ll deal with my tardiness later – she said into the air.

Here’s something to think about, everyone has the same amount of time. So, why are some people more successful than others? Answer – it’s the way they use their time. Successful people respect and use their time wisely – their use is to improve themselves and progress their goals. Sure, they take to relax, spend time with friends and loved ones. But, for the most part, they’re very respectful of how they utilize the time that they have.

Consider the following to improve your use of time. Doing so will improve your outlook on life. And, it’ll also allow you to become more productive.

 

Set Goals:

On huge waste of time is starting off to address something and not knowing if that’s the most important activity you should be engaged in. Sometime you may have ‘playtime’ that grips your imagination and steals you to another environment. But for the most part, if you have goals and you’re disciplined, you can’t combat those dastardly creatures. Plus, you’ll feel better knowing that you’re moving towards an end, goal, that will put you a step closer to a higher point of exhilaration.

 

Add Fudge Factor To Estimates:

Years ago, an associate said she always added a ‘fudge factor’ to her estimates when she estimated the time it might take to complete a task. She said, depending on the task she’d add a factor of two or three to her estimate – the range was based on her perception of the task’s difficulty. Thus, if she thought that a 10-minute task was easy to complete, she’d add a factor of two to her estimate – for planning purposes that allowed her 20-minutes to complete it. I asked what she did with extra time when a task didn’t take as long as she’d planned. She said that time was allocated to tasks that were in her ‘waiting to address’ folder – they were important. But not as important as the ones that had a higher priority.

 

Block Time:

To be more efficient with your time, when you’re engaged in an activity that requires concentration, set aside the amount time you want to address that activity and don’t let anything or anyone interrupt you during that time. You’ll save time by not having to restart where you left off from interruptions. That will allow you more time for other activities.

 

Time, it’s a fleeting measurement of movement. And yet, each moment of time is so important. Everyone has the same amount of it. What you do with it will allow you to progress to higher heights in life or not.  If you want to be someone that continuously moves forward, gets ahead in life, use time wisely. Don’t cheat yourself by misusing it. Once you embrace the usage of time in a more efficient manner, you’ll become more efficient … and everything will be right with the world.

 

 

What does this have to do with negotiations?

 

In a negotiation, time can be used as an ally or it can become your foe. It may quickly open a door of opportunity and slam it shut as fast if you’re not mindful of how you’re using it. Therefore, before engaging in a negotiation, plan exactly how you’ll use time. You might consider using it to apply a deadline for the other negotiator to accept an offer or make a concession – or to mark the timeframe as to how long you’ll negotiate.

Regardless of how you use your time when negotiating, measure it wisely as applied to the different stages you’re in versus where you thought you’d be. Doing that will give you a handle on time. Because it’ll keep you from negotiating past a point where doing so is less beneficial to you.

 

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 https://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

 

 

#Negotiate #Power #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions #time

 

 

 

 

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

Dirty and Cruel Negotiator Tricks That Will Blow Your Mind

“Magic tricks can be mind-blowing – until the other negotiator blows your mind by making your favorable outcomes disappear.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Have you been in a negotiation that you thought was over – only to discover that it wasn’t – there was one little thing that needed addressing? It might have been, someone wouldn’t sign off on the deal. Or, maybe it was, ‘the last one was just sold.’ Your reopened negotiation might have taken on any variation of the last two excuses. More than likely, the excuses were contrived, already baked into the negotiation plans of the other negotiator. If you let such tricks bother you, they can blow your mind.

The following is how some negotiators use such tricks and how you can protect yourself against them.

The Cheat: Someone that’s dishonest or someone that uses the deal, no deal strategy

Challenge – Some negotiators are downright scoundrels. Their main strategy is figuring out how they can cheat you. They’ll use such tricks as concluding a deal, waiting until the covenants of the agreement are due, and then back out or request slight concessions. You can sue them for not abiding by the agreement but that means you’ll waste more time dealing with them.

Response – This person can be extremely difficult to deal with – if possible don’t deal with him. As in any negotiation, you should have background information about the other negotiator. Part of that due diligence should be uncovering his negotiation style based on his past negotiations. If he’s used cheating tactics in the past, they should be easy to uncover.

If avoiding him is not possible, observe how he responds throughout the negotiation. Such individuals may be very accommodating when engaging you – they’re setting you up for the cheat to come. Use time as your ally – stretch the negotiation out. At intervals, have deliverables that he must meet before the negotiation can occur. If he welshes at any interval, let that serve as consideration to abandon the negotiation. To better insulate yourself, front-load his deliverables to guard against you investing unnecessary time in the negotiation.

Moving Target:  That’s not what I/you said.

Challenge – The negotiator that employs this tactic can use it in different forms. She can play the confused person, “I don’t know what I was thinking – that’s not what I meant.” Or, she can attempt to paint you as the bumbling idiot – “how in the world could you have inferred that? I would never make such an offer.”

Response – When she uses either form of this tactic, stop her – explore how the point of miscommunication occurred. Then, note to what degree, if at all, it occurs again. If it does, ask her if she’s intentionally miscommunicating with you. If she becomes flustered, so be it. Get the tactic out and in the open. You’ll disarm her use of it by doing so.

Time Delayers: I’m sorry. I’m not ready to continue. Can we postpone until next week/month?

Challenge – Every good negotiator knows, the more time you put into a negotiation, the more energy you’ll spend in seeing it to its conclusion. Therein lies the trap. Because, the more time you spend, the more likely you are to make concessions.

Response – Note the reasoning behind the request to delay the negotiation – seek its validity. You might consider raising the question about your negotiation counterpart seeking other offers, etc. Observe how he responds. The point is, test his request for an extension to assess its validity and to prepare for what may lie ahead. Don’t get sucked into the black hole vortex of time. You may regret it if you do.

Conclusion: Protect yourself.

The above strategies are acceptable forms of negotiating in some environments. Thus, what might be a dirty cruel trick in one arena might be thought of as a normal way of doing business in another. Therefore, be aware of the customary negotiation practices of the environment you’re in. Doing so will allow you to heighten your sense of awareness per that environment … 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 https://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Tricks #Blow #Mind #Negotiate #Process #Power #Powerful #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #Negotiator #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions