How To Build Trust With Your Employees

Are you new to an organization and need to get your team to follow you?  Have you recently been promoted and your current reports were recently your peers?  Do you have friends that now report to you?

When we take over a new role and have people reporting to us, we can’t simply believe they should follow us because of our position.  Far too often people in positions fall back on this stance, I’m in the leadership position so everyone on the team must respect and follow my lead.  Expecting people to follow us because of a title is not true leadership.  If we want people to follow us we need to reframe our minds to be one of a servant leader.

That sounds very contradictory doesn’t it.  A leader that serves.  Shouldn’t it be the other way around?  Our culture would want us to think that way, but the best way to lead is to focus on others.  We need to serve them well as their leader. 

To serve the team we first need to make sure that we are building trust with the team.  In order to move forward with others then they first have to know, like, and trust us.  If they don’t like and trust us, then we will have a slow lonely walk.  In business today it is fast paced that if we do not have trust then we are going to be passed by the competition.

How do we build trust fast is what I am often asked when talking to leadership teams.  We need to first put value on each person.  Not for them as employees, but as individuals.  Each person is unique and has unique gifts to help the team.  We need to understand this and learn about our team members, not just to leverage their gifts, but to make them are known and valued. Just think of a team in surgery, each of them has specific gifts that will help them save a life. We need to focus on finding out each individuals gifts and show them they are valued.

By focusing on individuals, we start to learn about them just like a sales person should be learning about the customer.  If we treat each individual as a customer, we start reframing our minds to thinking about how we can serve them well.  We immediately kick into building rapport and trust.  That’s what good sales professionals do best.  They build relationships.  At the core of any relationship is trust. 

You may be asking yourself, what if I’m not a sales person.  How do I do this?  Spoiler alert, we are all sales people.  Whether we have been on an interview, first date (interview), volunteering, parent, etc we are selling ourselves to others as a great option.  We are all selling something whether it is ourselves, or ideas, or our passion to help people be their best selves. 

Sales really is not that hard.  I was an introverted engineer when I started in sales.  It does not get much more difficult than that.  I like my alone time and I am a 1’s and 0’s black and white kind of person.  I still have thrived in sales because I focus on helping people get to a better place.  If we are in a leadership position, we can thrive as by putting on our sales hat and building trust with those that report to us.   Next week I’ll walk through the first buying decision in sales and how leaders can adapt that to building trust and relationships with those that report to them.

For now, sit back and think of a few relationships that could be improved by thinking like a sales person.  Not to sell them something, but how you can serve them and help them get to a better place.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Why Some Leaders Are able to Gain Influence and Trust, While Others Don’t

Good morning everyone,

I hope you are doing well and have been learning through my blogs and youtube videos to gain influence with your team members and customers.  Today I’d like to talk about why some leaders are great at building trust and influence with people while others just don’t.

Ever have a manager that made you feel like you could do anything and you would fight for them to your last breath?  Chances are that you would not go that extreme, but you stayed at your current job because they were a great leader.

The majority of managers are focused on keeping people and process moving steady and having the least amount of push back for the organization.  They want to stick around for a pay raise, or a position raise inside the organization.  These same managers push for their team members to keep moving along and getting their jobs done while hoping to not have to keep replacing people which slows everything down.

Very few leaders take it upon themselves to truly work on building influence with their team members and focus on helping their team members be successful.  When we as leaders turn the focus off ourselves and what we need to how we can help our team succeed, that is when amazing things start to happen.  Buy in goes up, people stay around longer, they even work harder, engagement increases, etc.

Culture, engagement, influence, and a whole bunch of high energy words are thrown around as focus points, but here is the simple thing that leaders need to do to achieve great results with their teams.  Leaders need to answer three questions on a daily basis to their teams.

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How Can you help me?

These three questions are what the team members are asking each and every time they interact with each other.  If trust is low, and the members believe they are just a number instead of a team member that is when people start lacking energy at work and looking for other avenues of employment.  Leaders need to really understand this.  If they want to retain employees, and have a culture of growth, the focus needs to be how leaders can help the team grow.

For those that say, what if I invest time, energy, and money which results in the future, the employee leaving…What if we don’t and they stay with lack luster effort?   

When trust is high speed goes up and costs go down.  That means that profits go up.

If Leaders are focusing on answer the three questions every time they show up with their team members, they will gain influence, gain engagement, and create a great culture.  In this great environment people will know that they are valued and will go the extra mile day in and day out to make sure the mission is a success. 

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Why Customer Service Reps Dislike Their Sales Reps…

Good morning everyone,

Have you ever experienced tension between customer service and the sales team?  Has there been passive aggressive exchanges between the two groups in your organization?

Ever have a customer service representative blindsided by a customer agreement?

Today I want to dive into an area of opportunity to help serve your customer as well as your organization.  In many organizations there are sales people and then there are account managers/ customer service representatives. 

Two separate people supporting groups for the customer and if communication is not great, two separate messages being communicated to the customer.  This drives customer satisfaction down as well as cross functional teams to argue and point fingers when issues arise.  Anyone that has been in sales for a while will be able to relate to this tension.

After a sale the sales person rides off into the sunset never to be heard from again which I have preached about in the past as being the ultimate sin in sales!  That’s right about 99% of sales professionals fall into this trap.  This hurts the relationship with the customer, effects return customers, and puts the customer service representative in a bad position when the customer asks for their deal that the sales professional made with them.

 Ever have this situation happen to your customer service team?  The sales person negotiates something different from the standard terms and conditions leaving the customer and customer service representative in a sparing contest to see who will give in.  The customer continues to get irritated stating, “ This is not what I agreed to!”  I’m sure some other adjectives are also used.  The customer service representative is also irritated and the customer experience has just blown up.  It does not even matter if the sales person resolves this issue, the customer already has an opinion of how this organization will support them in the future. 

Remember the organization is the second buying decision, even before the product is sold so we need to make sure we are all working together to make the customer experience exceptional. 

I worked for an organization where the sales people were all over the place with making side deals outside of the normal parameters.  The customer service representatives were processing orders without this knowledge and issues started popping up.  Customer relationships were paying the penalty.  Business was starting to erode and the owner of the organization was getting calls from large customers venting their frustration.  This was a bad situation.

To remedy this, the sales people were brought in for a sit down to understand how to get sales done following the standard program.  There needed to be conformity because there is something else that happens because our customers talk.  They will brag about the deal they received only to make the other customers resent the sales person for not giving them the same deal.  Profits were eroding and things were just not flowing in the organization.

When selling a product / service the customer service teams as well as sales teams need to have an understanding of the program and where there are opportunities to make small changes if needed.  Sales people and customer service representatives need to be on the same page so there is one message communicated to the customers at all times.  This helps when some of those slick customers try to get “a better deal.” 

Communication is key!  If sales professionals are not communicating terms of the deals and with the customer service representatives then there will be opportunities for misses with the customer.  The sales professionals also need to address as much of the terms of the agreement in writing so there are no issues for others to action against.  It is up to sales professionals to support their teams and not just hoping others will just figure it out. 

Both teams are extremely busy!  One idea that I have shared is to use a sharepoint directory so that our customer service and sales teams can reference the signed agreements so that way they can check what was agreed to.  Having this one location is crucial to the success of the organization!  This way we can serve the customer effectively, maintain relationships, and keep profits up!  Everyone needs to be on the same page when communicating with the customer.  Otherwise, the customer experience and profits suffer.

Have a great day everyone and happy selling!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

The Customer Bought, Now What Do We Do?”

We’ve done it! 

We have made it to the fifth and final buying decision for the customer which is “Buy”

The customer has now purchased our product / service and we celebrate! Unfortunately, this is where 99% of sales people fail in the sales process. 

That’s right, they fail!  I am not saying that it is not okay to celebrate the win and I encourage the celebration, but when the sales person stops the sales process after receiving the order, the customer is left to fend for themselves.  This is wrong and we have not served the customer if we do this!  If we leave the customer and don’t make them successful with their purchase then the customer soon will develop buyer’s remorse, not hitting the desired outcome from the purchase, and possibly thinking they were just sold something instead of purchasing a solution.  The customer then associates us with the slimy salesperson that does not care about them.

Far too many sales people take the signed order and ride off into the sunset never to be heard from again.  It’s a huge opportunity that unfortunately most sales people miss out on!

That’s right, when the customer agrees to buy, this is the time that sales professionals need to roll up their sleeves and move forward with the customer.  The more this is done, the more the customer will brag to their friends, family members, social media, etc. about how awesome we served them and that everyone they know needs speak with us.  Who wouldn’t want a salesforce of individuals selling of us without having to pay them?  

I love having people that have taken my trainings tell others that they need to work with me because I know that what I am doing is working!

First and foremost, when the customer agrees to purchase, they will second guess themselves (buyer’s remorse) about the purchase.  That’s right, they are not sure what they did was the right decision.  This typically happens for purchases over $50.  No, we are not talking about a pack of gum.  The real-estate market has done a fantastic job overcoming this issue of “buyer’s remorse.”  As soon as the customer agrees to purchase a property, they immediately begin moving the customer into the next steps. 

When we confirm that the customer has made the right decision, they feel justified and will be set at ease.  Getting the customer moving forward after this decision to buy and onto the next steps such as delivery date, onsite training, etc., the customer is reaffirmed and feels like they have made the best decision possible.  They have a game plan for the next steps.  The customer will be fired up and ready to begin moving forward with our help!  They appreciate this, because most sales people do not do this!  This simple step!  Now we have a few other things we need to do as well.

The last step in the sales process is crucial.  Again 99% of sales professionals do not do this.  This is the most crucial step in gaining influence with customers.  It’s the next 90 days after the sale that really makes the customer’s purchase a success, or a failure.  That’s right, after the installation and quick run through, the customer is going to have issues.  The faster we communicate how to resolve those issues the better the customer will feel.  That is why organizations have had support lines waiting for customer to call, but the sales professional has an opportunity to take this one step further.

This is the sales process step in trainings that most organizations ask a great deal of questions on how they can get better.  This is where I gain my consulting business and coaching for.  Helping them gain the tools so they can make the customer successful 90 days after the sale.  We figure out how to make the customer successful and the organizations see higher levels of business gains.

What do we have ready for your customers so that they can consistently win with our product / service?  That is the question that we need to answer and if we do this well, we will be rewarded with greater levels of influence.  With more influence comes greater growth in sales and increased revenue.  At a certain point we become such an influencer that people stop focusing on price.  Wouldn’t that be amazing to take the pricing discussion off the table?

We are in the service business no matter what we sell.  Serve the customer well and reap the rewards.  Underserve, and stay a commodity in the customer’s eyes.

It’s okay to have a little celebration, but then get to work rolling up your sleeves and help serve the customer!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

The Scariest Part Of The Sales Process

Welcome back everyone,

We have been walking through the buying decisions that customers must make before they will buy a product / service from us sales professionals.  If you haven’t read the past few blog posts, I encourage you to go back and read them as they will help you understand how we got here.  For today, let’s jump into this fun topic! 

When I first got into sales, I actually hated this buying decision.  I was so nervous that I kept selling the product as long as I could and would talk myself out of a sale in most cases.  The reason was that I feared rejection.  Just like asking that girl out in high school, I was nervous to ask for the order from the customer. 

Back in high school I was literally under five-foot-tall, weight around 100 pounds and let’s be honest the wind may have been able to knock me down if it blew over 10 mph.  Asking for a date seemed like a monumental task when I had to look up to just about everyone.  Luckily, I grew taller and so did my confidence.

No one really enjoys rejection and I was no different when it came to sales.  I did not want to find out if I had not done a good job at understanding the customer’s needs and addressing those needs.  I did not want to hear “NO” just like a child hates the word no.  I did not want the customer rejecting my request to move forward with the purchase.

Here is what I have learned through many years of selling.  We as professional sales people need to hear the word no.  That’s right, if we have not answered the customer’s needs, we should hear “NO”.  We do not need the customer buying the product only to hate the purchase and then remember us as the ones that sold them that product / service.  We need them to be glad they purchased the product / service and that it helped them.  Otherwise, we are just another sales person that made a quick buck that did not help the customer.  Serving the customer well leads to much more sales success in the long run.

Now, why is it okay to hear the word no?  Once we hear the word no, we can go back to the uncovering needs and verification of needs steps to make sure we completely understand the customer.  Which is what the customer truly wants.  The customer wants to be known and understood.  They want to know that this solution in front of them will actually help them move forward. 

As professional salespeople, we need to make sure we have courage to ask for the order.  We need to find out if we are on the right track or if we missed something.  This is our opportunity to come back and help the customer better if we missed something.  It’s our sign to make sure we are moving in the right direction.

You never know, the customer may actually say “Yes” and award us the business if we have followed the process correctly.  That is when the real work starts! 

Have the courage to ask for the order and wait for the reply from the customer.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

The One Decision Sales People Get Wrong

Ever have a customer answer your sales proposal with the following statement, “ That is great, but how does that help me?”  I have had this experience and had to use those same words with some sale people when they tried to sell me something.

This part of the sales process is where most sales professionals believe they need zero help.  Unfortunately, most sales professionals need a great deal of help with this part of the sales process.  To show this I ask people to sell me their product / service.  This is where the attendees have a reflection moment.

Most attendees start with firing features and benefits in rapid fire, their elevator pitch, or how their product is so revolutionary like they are in one of those late-night infomercials.  Unfortunately, this is an incorrect process in selling your product / service.  The reason I know this is because I started out selling my products this way which drove my lack of sales.  The customer does not care about how many features and benefits we have to offer.

What the customer does care about is how this product / service will meet “their needs”.  That’s right! How does what we offer help them?  That is the question our customers are asking.  Each customer is different and has different needs which means we need to be smart about how we approach this part of the sales process.  We can not simply rain features and benefits all over them.  We need to answer their needs.

To effectively answer the customer’s needs, the salesperson needs to do the work in the first buying decision by asking great questions to uncover the customer’s needs.  By asking questions we are able to actually understand the customer, what they are looking to achieve, and why they are looking to achieve it with this purchase.  If we assume that we know exactly what the customer needs we typically miss the mark in sales.  

You’re probably asking yourself how do I avoid this mistake?  The answer is simple.  By making sure that the question I am asking aligns with my features and benefits.  That’s right I use the features and benefits of my product / service to roadmap questions for the customer.  If the customer is saying yes to those questions, then we know that we are on the right track to help the customer.  Simple right!

One more point here and this is a big point!

If the answer is no to most of my questions about my product / service.  I quickly understand that what the customer is looking for is not what I offer and I point them in the right direction to meet their needs.  That is right, if my product / service will not help the customer I am going to do everything in my power to help them find what they need.  Most sales people are shaking their heads in disbelief, but they are wrong.  See I am playing the long game with selling that builds influence.  Influence that will come back to me ten fold later on.

If my current product / service does not help the customer and I help them find something that does, I have just solidified my value and gained tremendous influence with the customer. Even if they do not buy this product / service today, they will tell their friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, etc. about the service that I have provided and how I helped them.  They will tell those people that they need to come talk to me.  It has helped me time and time again with references and grow my sales in the long run.

Yes, this is an internal decision to focus on helping more than just selling our products / service.  I chose this early in my career which helped me gain more sales than I could have ever thought possible.  Customers have come to me years later telling me that someone referred them to me because I was the best and helped in such a way that they needed to see me first.

Isn’t that where we want to be?  To be the person everyone wants to come to for a solution to meet their needs?

If you need support on making sure you are hitting the mark on this part of the sales process, or any others feel free to click here to see my online membership that gives you lifetime access.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Do I Trust You?

Good morning everyone,

Last week we talked about how we need to let the customer feel comfortable and relaxed when they meet with us.  What colors to wear options and why were provided, how to approach them, tones of speech, etc. to help us make the customer feel comfortable and so that they could be relaxed which will allow them the opportunity to like us.

This week I want to work on the other two questions that the customer has which are Do I trust you?, and How can you help me?  These two questions are very important with sales of $50 or more.  People need to know like and trust us before they will do business with us.

If in the first buying decision that the customer has, “The Salesperson” the customer does not trust us and we can’t show them how we can help the customer, then they will simply go to another source and purchase.   Our product / service has now become a commodity.   It does not matter if we have the best product on the face of the earth.  The question is how do we build trust and how the customer knows that we are there to help them.

In my training on The Sales Process Uncovered, I walk sales people through the house analogy that I use to learn about the customer.  We want to learn about the customer, their family, their passions, issues they are needing help with, and the consequences of not fixing those issues.  We need to know their S.I.R. before we can identify a solution.

Asking questions is the way to get to know if what we have to sell will actually help the customer.  Not just simple questions like, would the customer like a certain color of the product, but why are they looking to achieve with this purchase.  What did they like about the last product they used, what do they wish they had on the previous product that they are replacing today?  What does a win look like for the customer with this purchase? 

Is the customer looking to gain a certain sense of prestige, needing a vehicle that basically drives itself so they can get more work done on their commute, or do they have a child that has a condition that makes the need for them to have a certain easy entry vehicle?  Ask deeper questions to understand the why behind the customer’s decision.  Until we do this, we are unable to help the customer.

People crave to be understood and known. Customers also want to know that we are with them to make them a hero in their story.  Customers need to be the hero in their story and know that they have the solution that will solve their issues.  That is why they talk to sales professionals.  They are looking for guidance to find a solution.

Think back to the last time you had an amazing buying experience.  What were some of the key elements of that sale that you had to tell your friends about because it just made you feel like you were set up for success with that purchase?  How did the sales person make you feel?  What did that salesperson do that stood out to you?  What extra step did they do that no one else has ever done when you were making a purchase?

Next, think of a bad buying experience?  What were some of the reasons why the sales person lost the sale?  What could they have done better?  What made you run away as fast as you could to get away from that sales person?

Now look at some of the wins and losses we have had in sales.  This will take some time, but it will help us in the long run.  Playing through the situations in our head will help us reevaluate what we did well and what we can improve on.  We want to focus on opportunities for improvement to allow the customer to have a fantastic customer experience.  Experiences that customers can’t help but brag to everyone about how we helped them.  Do this enough times and we will not have to work as hard in sales and will become a success.

If we do not get the first buying correctly and constantly improve, then we will be mediocre in sales.  No one really wants to be mediocre.  We want to keep growing and getting better because without success we start losing hope and looking for other careers.  This is a slippery slope as with all new ventures, failures come quickly and often.  This is why people that consistently start over when a challenge happens never really excel.  Those that stay true to the process of growth and refining are the ones that truly hit high levels of success.

Today focus on making sure that the question asked to customers are ones that will hit the mark.  If you need help with drafting questions reach out.  I am here to help you!

Have a great week everyone. 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

They Won't Buy From You If They Don't Like You

Good morning everyone,

Last week we talked about how sales people tend to get introductions out of the way quickly and then jump straight into selling.  These same sales people have not proven themselves reliable, or trustworthy to the customer, but yet these sales people believe that the customer should trust and investment with them.  Sales people assume the customer likes, trusts, and believes that the sales person can help the customer.  How do we perform typically when we assume in situations?  When we assume we get the situation wrong. 

The first buying decision is the longest and hardest to complete.  Mainly because there is so much decision making that happens in this buying decision before anything can move forward for the customer.  The customer has to know, like, and trust us before they will ever buy from us.  Do you think that right after someone gets your name and starts selling that they really care about you or your needs?

We as sales professionals need to make sure we are answering these three questions for the customer within the first 60 seconds of the interaction:

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you help me?

If we jump straight into selling mode after we get their name the customer will be quickly be turned off.  Ever wonder why when asked what brings you in to this store today the customer says something like this, “Just looking.”  It’s because the customer has been trained to think that sales people are all the same and all the sales person cares about is selling their product or service.

Let’s change that perception.

Let’s start by using a plan on how we will approach the customer in a way that builds likeability and trust right out of the get go.  Let’s start with making sure when we approach the customer we are not circling like hungry vultures.   Let’s let the customer come into our facilities and let them get comfortable by smiling and saying “Hi, welcome.  We are here to help you when you are ready.” 

Smiling, wearing the right colors that psychologically reflect trust, honesty and lowers anxiety.  Not power ties, not blacks, not dark greys, but light blues whites, and some greens to ease the customer into lowering their defenses. We also need to listen to how we talk.  That’s right speech patterns that don’t align will also increase anxieties.  I found this out when I started selling in the southern United States.  I needed to change my speech patterns a bit instead of a fast-paced midwestern speech pattern. I also needed to say soda instead of pop J

Science has shown that depending on the environment (noise levels, smells, colors, lighting, etc) the customer can actually become engaged, or withdrawn.  Next time you walk into a department store check out the different areas of the store and notice the lighting, colors, music playing, and scents pumped into each area.  This helps to ease the customer’s anxiety lower.  Ever wonder why Costco offers free samples?  Because the longer a customer is in the store the higher the probability they will buy more.

The next time we show up to work we need to be putting our best foot forward to make the customer relaxed.  Will we be paying attention to the customer and welcoming them, or will we be going in for the kill to make a sale?  Make sure to be attentive to the customer and allow them to like us.

Answering Do I trust you and How can you help me? for the customer is essential in the first buying decision. We need to build that trust as well as show the customer that we will work to help them meet their needs.  There is a great deal in these two questions so we will have to save that for next week as to how we will do this, but for today think about asking questions to the customer. 

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Stop Jumping Into Your Sales Pitch

Ever attempted to buy a car, furniture, or some large electronic device and the sales person asked how you are doing and immediately dives into trying to sell you something?   At this point you have likely decided it is time to plan your escape.  Hopefully not with the sales person holding on to your leg saying, “Please Stay!!!”

Far too often sales people jump right into the deep end of the pool and start trying to sell to customers before they understand the customer.  How do they even know the situation before they make that leap? Most often times sales people are spitting out all sorts of features and benefits of the product / service they offer in hopes something will make customers say yes and close a sale.  What most sales people forget is that customers buy to satisfy needs, not features and benefits.  It’s a simple concept, but hard to put into practice unfortunately.

When I train sales professionals, I have to make sure that I highlight this fact each time I start the training.  We as sales professionals need to stop launching right into a sales pitch early on in the sales process.   The customer is actually put off by this practice of selling.   I know some sales people at this point think that sales is just a numbers game so keep it up and a sale will happen. 

Most customers will wait for the presentation to end patiently and then thank the sales person for their time before making a way to the exit as fast as possible.  People want to feel heard and understood.  Too many times sales people leap into action and sell something because they are looking for that next kill.  Most sales people think of sales just like hunting for something. 

I started selling like this, but quickly learned that sales is actually like farming.  When we hunt we can eat for a day if we end up achieving our goals.  When we farm and plant the seeds, take care of the soil, we will harvest a feast for a long period of time.  We start small and grow our influence with the customer over time. 

By changing out mindset and focusing on how to serve the customer well we will gain more influence and generate more sales.  We need the customer to buy off on us before they will ever think about buying our product or service.  That’s right people will not buy from us if they don’t know, like, and trust us. Here’s another fact, the larger the sale, the longer it takes to understand the customer’s needs.  That means the sales process will take longer.

I have structured multi-million, multi-year contracts and every one of these deals took years to come together.  Not one of these customers has ever stopped on my doorstep and said please help me, I need you to sell me your product without growing the influence with them first.  I had to grow influence before they would look at me as an option to help them with their larger investments.  They gave me opportunities for smaller deals and then as they grew to trust me and trust that I understood them well enough they gave me larger opportunities. 

Apple has done a great job of getting people to line up for their new products, but back when they started, hardly anyone wanted their products.  It took years of the correct leadership, marketing, and growing influence to get to where they are today.

Each day there are new strategies on how to sell to a new sophisticated type of customer, but most of these new sales strategies are trying to do the same exercise of growing influence with the customer.  Shortcuts may work for the short term, but long term they fizzle out and influence erodes.  I have used the same process for almost two decades to sell to different industries, and in different parts of the world.  It’s a simple process and it helps the sales professionals walk through the customer’s five buying decisions that they must answer before they will purchase our products or services. 

We have to meet the customer’s needs and then we will be rewarded with their business and grow influence with them for future sales. 

If you’d like to take the opportunity to learn this easy to utilize process to increase your sales click here.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Want Influence? Focus On Rapport

Have you ever wondered why people just ignore your request? 

Ever have someone work for you that consistently looks and acts disengaged until you pressure them for your request again? 

Would you like to have people that are engaged?  I think most of us would say yes to that right?

When I teach people about building greater levels of engagement and influence with those around them, I have to remind most of the people that it all starts with us.  That is right if we don’t focus on building rapport then we shouldn’t expect others to step up?  See people want to feel valued and by us investing into them, they will feel valued.

Whether we are coaching, are a boss, sitting with a client, interviewing, or anytime we encounter another person, we need to be able to build rapport quickly. People form their first impressions of others in less than 60 seconds. Two questions “Do I like you? and Do I trust you?” are answered in that 60 seconds.  If we want influence, then we need to be able to answer those two questions quickly.  That is why we need to have rapport.

People also associate with others that they know, like, and trust.  I have even heard of people being hired because they were more relatable even though they were not the most qualified.  Isn’t that interesting.  Rapport building is an essential skill to have if we are going to interact with other people.  Especially if we want to grow influence with those people.

So how do we build rapport?

Here are four ways that I build rapport with others:

Be Helpful

Be willing to help others with whatever I am capable to help with.  Go the extra mile to help others even when we think we have done enough.  One step further...  It could be jumping in to help unload something that the person we are meeting with is trying to unload from a truck without trying to get something from them in return.  It could also be helping sweep up a mess that has happened for the customer while they are trying to fill an order, or sending follow up note to the person that the task was completed for them by our organization.  Being genuine and helpful will go a long way at building rapport with people.  Not trying to leverage the interaction with others.

Be Intentional Curious

By being intentional curious I mean valuing others that you’d like to learn about them.  This can be done by researching others on social media such as Linkedin, Facebook, local associations they are affiliated with, google etc.  Being intentional to learn about those people and their interests are very impactful.  Not just to gain leverage, but to be intentionally curious about them and hear them. 

Be Respectful

People want to feel valued and that they are important.  Why not make them feel that way?  Let them know that we have their back and are willing to do the work with them.  Call them sir or ma’am shows respect.  Using their name (sweetest sound to any person is their own name), using our manners, asking them questions.  By being respectful we are showing respect and who doesn’t like some R.E.S.P.E.C.T.?

Be Enthusiastic

Show some enthusiasm with the person we are talking to.  Use humor, make them feel comfortable, and lower the anxiety.  People that smile and make people laugh are far more enjoyable.  These people build rapport more so than someone who walks around like the Winnie the Pooh character Eeyore that moped around and never showed excitement.  People like to be around light hearted and fun people.  Show some enthusiasm and energy.  People gravitate towards others that are full of energy.

There you have it, think of H.I.R.E. when you are looking to build rapport.  Focus on others and help them get to where they way to go, be respectful and be enthusiastic in order to build rapport.  We want the person to like us so much that they can’t think of anyone else they would rather talk to for our subject matter.

If you are interested in building more influence follow click here to my course and I will guide you in the principals on how to answer the three questions that everyone asks at each interaction. 

Have a great day.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

How Can I Help?

How often do we ask this question? 
How can you help me is typically what we ask.

All of us by nature are born with the innate desire to find out how we can be helped by associating with others. Call it selfishness, survival, whatever you want to call it.  We are born with this desire to find out how we will benefit by the interaction with another. 

Our employees want to know how they will get to a better place by working for us as well.  Just like us, they want to know how their lives will improve.  It’s up to us to answer that question each and every time we interact with them.  If we chose not to, then we will find ourselves losing engagement from our employees.  We want to have people coming to us with ideas on how to improve, with engagement, with excitement to work with us!

The question we should be asking ourselves is what do we have in our capabilities to make the lives better?  How by working with us will their lives be better?  This is a crucial change in our focus.  Instead of focusing on how we can benefit, we need to shift that focus onto how we can help.  What is it that we, and our organization can do to help the employees flourish? 

What do we have in our capabilities to enrich those that work for us and with us to improve their lives.  Do we know what major events are going on in their lives and what capabilities we have to come along side them to help?  We don’t need to get into tons of details, but if we knew someone lost a loved one, could other people in the group rally around to pick up some of the slack that will likely get dropped for a shot period of time?

One thing that I have strived to do is add value in each interaction.  It doesn’t have to be monetary all the time.  It can be helping the employees learn a new skill or software, ideas and local hot spots for a vacation, life hacks, deals, or helping them find toilet paper when the country is freaking out during a pandemic.  Finding out what they need help with and stepping in shows that we value others and they will pick up on that.

The key is to take the focus off of wondering how we can capitalize from the exchange and how we can add value.  I love the quote from Zig Zigler that says, “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough people get what they want.”   It really works and the outcome is far greater than we would have expected.  It is harder to accept something with a closed fist, but with an open hand more can be added.

Helping others when they need help will grow trust and influence to where they will run with us in the heat of battle for the cause.  Engagement will increase and we will see more output with those that we help and value.  Let’s focus on how we can help instead of what we can gain from an interaction.  That will drive better results.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Why Should They Trust Us?

Today we get into the second question that employees are asking themselves when speaking to to leadership.  Do I trust you? 

That is a huge question that if answered No, can stop engagement in its tracks.  If the employees do not trust the leadership then the organization is just going to be stagnant.  Now if you have ever walked by a stagnant pool or water, what did you notice?  There was likely a not so pleasant smell and algae growing on the top of the water.  Would we want our organizations to become stagnant? 

I have spent the majority of my career studying why people buy products and services as well as why people buy into leadership.  Being that I was an engineer there had to be an equation to the solution.  Magic was also not going to be the answer.  What I found is that when people use humor, are upfront, and show empathy towards others.  That is when people really start to open up and trust.

I’ve had a manager that had issues gaining trust.  This manager would openly tell anyone he first met within the first few minutes about his Christianity, but his actions would contradict what he would say he stands for.  He was explosive to be around and would demand you follow his view points.  If you challenged his view points, watch out!

This kind of behavior erodes trust the same as lying to others.  Trust is crucial for any kind of growth individuals 

So how can we grow trust fast?  Here are four principals that will help us grow trust with individuals.

1.     Social Proof

2.     Heart of a teacher

3.     Open and honest communication

4.     Encourage others to hold the microscope

Social proof is using a mutual connection between the someone else and yourself.  So many people like Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, music artists, etc would see huge followings after being on the Oprah show.  Once they leveraged that connection, they were considered the go to expert.  Now we can’t all get on the Oprah channel, but we can leverage anyone that we know who knows us well that could reach out on our behalf. 

Having a heart of a teacher is offering help to the others get to a better place even if it does not benefit ourselves initially.  Teaching to give free knowledge for the heart of helping others is something that is lacking in today’s culture.  People tend to only want to help if they will receive something in return in that transaction.  If we want to gain trust, we have to have a heart of a teacher to help others. Not for what we will gain, but to help.  Zig Ziglar stated, that we will get all we want out of life, if we help enough other people get what they want.  I love that concept!

Open and honest communication means reaching out when we see something bad coming, but also making sure that others are aware and that we have their back.  Making sure that they are communicated to in a personal level is key.  Pick up the phone when we can instead of just sending an email.  This is something that I still struggle with sometimes when I am busy, but what I have learned is making sure I communicate is key.  Keep in mind the written word it taken negative most times when someone reads it.  Most of communication is nonverbal, posture, tone of voice, etc.  An email does not have the same impact as a verbal, or in person conversation.

The last key thing to do is encouraging others to hold the microscope.  No one is perfect so we should stop thinking we are.  We should stop judging others by their actions and want ourselves to be judged by our intent.  We should give others the opportunity to speak life into areas that we may have blind spots to.

There you have it. Four ways to grow trust fast.  SHOE… We need to have our shoes on if we plan to walk the talk :)

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Do You Like Me?

Good morning everyone.  Last week we discussed the three questions that employees ask when the meet with us on every interaction.  If you missed it click here to catch up.

The first question that we ask ourselves subconsciously when we interact with another person is “Do I like you?”  Our brains are trying to figure out if this person standing in front of us is a threat or a potential ally.  Should we stay, or run…

Physically our bodies will change posture depending on how this question is answered.  Our posture will literally change as much as leaning in to leaning back depending on engagement and trust.  This is why sales professionals have been taught to always mirror our customer’s posture during meetings.

Did you know that depending on if you are male or female you tend to want to stand in different postures when interacting?  Women prefer to stand at 90 degree angles to men when they are interacting in the personal space.  They naturally want to keep a guard up to not feel vulnerable.  Men typically like to stand face to face total body facing their counterpart.

Are you starting to see how this might be a problem getting someone to like you if you do something small like use the incorrect stance?

Here is something else that will impact the way someone answers that question.  The colors clothing we wear can also impact how we are judged.  That’s right the color we wear actually has an impact on how others perceive us.  We could start the discussion off on the wrong foot just by color.  In Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence” he breaks down the colors and what they mean.  It is a must read if you are working to sales! To make it easier for you, I tend to wear light blue and white shirts when I meet someone for the first time because those colors are associated with “Trust.”  They are also calming colors.  I want the customer calm and feeling like I am a trustworthy advocate for them.

I make sure to wear the right color tones for the meeting that I am about to have.  The reason is I need the customer to feel at ease while meeting with me.  They will be more relaxed and willing to hear me while we are discussing a topic.  I also pay close attention to their posture as what I have learned is that 93%  of communication is actually non-verbal.

Here are some other factors that can affect the first impression:

Scents we wear, voice tonality, pace of speech, jewelry, etc. 

The old saying we only get one chance to make a first impression still is true today.  Making sure we are paying attention to the person in front of us will help us greatly generate trust.

Have a great day!  Next week will jump into the second question we need to answer.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Employee Engagement Do We Really Need It?

Do you have any people that just don’t seem to engage in your mission, vision, or plan?  Do they just seem to listen and then go back to what they were already doing?

Ever see people not paying attention during your meetings?

Chances are if you are in a large organization, you have witnessed this engagement issue.  Even if you are under 100 employees, you may have noticed this as well.

There are a lot of reasons why people are disengaged and it slows the organization down.  People become complacent and then slowly just show up to collect their paycheck.  This starts to suck the life out of the organization. 

Lack of engagement is a huge problem!  So much that organizations spend millions of dollars booking keynote speakers, sending management into trainings, and still do not gain engagement from the employees.  It’s a culture problem and the main solution is found by answering three questions:

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you Help me?

These three questions are asked in our subconscious every time we interact with others.  Our bodies are hardwired to want to know if we like, trust, and can be helped by the other person.  These questions have been embedded into our survival since the beginning of mankind.   We also are programmed to know if we are safe in an environment, or if we need to run (fight or flight response). 

In business, if we are not answering these questions for our employees then why should we expect them to engage?  The people that report to us want to know that what they are doing has meaning and that they can like, trust, and be helped by us.  This is deeper than just a pay check.  These people want to know that we will be there to support them.  Otherwise, we are just like any other organization they have worked for that has not cared for them with the only differentiating factor is the size of the paycheck.  Enter employee turn over!

I have worked in various industries and business environments.  The one thing that is common is that leaders can have all this enthusiasm and charisma, but still have engagement issues in their organizations.  People just going through the motions and collecting a pay check. No enthusiasm, no going the extra mile for the team, and just showing up for their hours of work and then leave.  No cool game area, sleep pods, or other fun things to do will fix this.

If we want to get engagement and people showing up for a cause, going the extra mile, and willing to charge into battle with us, then we need to make sure we are answering the three questions to each and every employee.  We need them to like, trust, and know that we can help them.  It’s a two-way street as they have to be able to answer those three questions with us as well.  That is hopefully why we hired them. 

Start by having a conversation with them and asking questions about what they need.  They may not be able to correctly articulate everything they need, but at least they know that you care and you want to help.  By showing you care and have empathy for your employees, they will start going the extra mile for you.  Then as discussions evolve with employees, together there will be more buy in for the mission, vision, and goal of the organization. 

People want to know they matter and that their leadership does actually cares about the employees before they will go all in for the mission. 

The next few weeks we will break down the three questions and give you tips on how to actively hit the mark on each of them.

Have a great weekend! 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Simple Ways to Keep Learning as a Leader

Today’s blog post is written by Curtis Fisher from www.tradesbright.org.

I hope you enjoy it!

The best leaders are always learning. As Harvard Business Review explains, engaging in lifelong learning is loaded with benefits, personally and professionally. Career-wise, those who continue to learn and grow can ensure ongoing financial success as work becomes more technologically-oriented. On a more personal level, pursuits like reading are wonderful stress-busters, and problem-solving can be extremely fulfilling. Some types of learning, such as playing a musical instrument, can even help to counteract cognitive decline. And living in a manner that is open and curious can be a boon to your social and networking efforts.

Some of the greatest successes of our time — Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Barack Obama — made lifelong learning part of their formula for success. It should also be part of yours. Here are some great resources to get you started!

Enroll in Online Programs

You don’t have to quit your day job to further your education. Look for remote learning opportunities through online courses and programs.

●        Sign up for a leadership program from Kevin Sidebottom to learn how to be a conscious and purposeful leader.

●        Earn your business degree from an online university that offers flexible courses.

●        Take a course through your local small business administration (SBA).

Listen to Podcasts and Audiobooks

Podcasts and audiobooks, like the ones listed below, are great for learning while you’re commuting to work or doing the dishes.

●        The TalentGrow Show podcast.

●        The Leadership Biz Cafe podcast with Tanveer Naseer.

●        Biographies and autobiographies about the most successful business leaders of our time.

●        Leadership books recommended by the world’s top entrepreneurs.

Read Online Articles and Guides

You can learn almost anything online. These are some great articles that every leader should read at least once:

●        How to avoid micromanaging your employees.

●        A distilled list of the top leadership traits of great leaders.

●        Understanding the difference between being a boss and being a leader.

●        Articles that have inspired other successful leaders.

Become a Teacher

One of the best ways to learn is to teach someone else! Consider mentoring someone, launching a blog, or creating your very own course.

●        Become a mentor to a first-time entrepreneur.

●        Create a blog or a website where you can share your knowledge.

●        Produce informative and engaging YouTube videos.

No matter how long you've been working in your leadership role, you can always benefit by learning something new. Even the most successful leaders can find room for improvement! Keep learning by seeking out articles, podcasts, books, courses, and coaching programs that will help you reach your full potential.

Are you looking for leadership coaching? Kevin Sidebottom can help you acquire the skills you need to thrive as a leader!

By Curtis Fisher

curtis@tradesbright.org

photo by pexels

What Customers Crave

For the past couple of weeks, I have been hoping that you have been able to understand how to generate more sales and influence with your customers.

Today, let’s talk about what customers actually crave from us as we sell to them.  What is the customer really asking us each time they interact with us whether face to face meetings, calling customer service, on social media, etc.  What is it that the customer is trying to communicate to us? 

Customers want to be known and heard.  That is right, our customers want to be known by us, called by name, and to know that without a shadow of a doubt that our teams will support their needs!  They also want us to know what they mean when they can’t articulate into words.  So how do we do this for them?

We need to be intentional to reach out to them to figure out what they need.  It’s that simple.  Get out of our comfort zones, stop trying to guess, and actually ask the customers what are their struggles.  What issues do they currently have so we can go to work to resolve those issues.  All of the great customer focused organizations like Amazon, Apple, Google, Zappos, etc are customer focused organizations. 

In the book Invent and Wander, all of the Amazon shareholder letters are shared from inception up to now as to what Amazon is focused on.  The root of all decisions is how can me make doing business with Amazon better for the customer.   Decisions revolve around that one main core value.

Customers were even asked what other products / services they would buy besides books when Amazon started in 1997.  That question led to expanding offerings from books to windshield wipers, to today where you literally are now able to purchase groceries in certain areas.  Asking the customers for their input is powerful and a large task at the same time.

I would also ask customers that we are currently doing business with to understand what issues they have with dealing with us.  When we see common themes we can know where to spend our time to focus on improvements that will actually move the needle.  When customers notice improvements, their confidence does increase.

We also need to make sure that when the customer is buying from us that we make it as easy as possible to deal with us.  That is key because they are already having resistance to parting from their hard-earned money.  They are investing in making their lives better.  We need to help them with that decision and make sure when the customer invests with us customers are taken care of.

Not do we need to make sure our products / services meets the customer’s needs, we also need to make sure the customer experience is exceptional.  Too many organizations make it so hard to do business with in an effort to make sure the organization is showing profits to its shareholders.  Now I’m not saying we need to make sure we are giving everything away.  What I am in fact saying is that we need to make sure our focus is on how to enrich our customer’s transactions, experience, and life with our product / service so that they don’t hesitate to purchase from us again.

Only then will we be able to look back with exceptional growth in our markets.

Check out my online training The Sales Process Uncovered for help with growing your sales.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Short Term Profits, or Raving Fans, Which Do You Prefer

Good morning everyone. 

Last week we spoke about customer loyalty.  Today let’s talk about how to generate “Raving Fans” which is what we all want.  Have you ever been to a concert standing next to thousands of other people singing the same lyrics as you as the band performs on stage?  Have you ever been to a sporting event where you and the people around you are cheering for your team and sharing memories of how WE beat the rivals?  How about a restaurant experience that you couldn’t help but tell others that they need to go to?  Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had that kind of following for our businesses? 

In today’s world it is easier to get a company launched and with social media it is even faster to come to market with new products.  Business owners are trying to find the quick ways to generate profits and return customers.

Here’s the secret sauce for doing this.  It takes time!  Sad, but true it takes time to generate loyal customers and raving fans.  As a business owner we need to define what we want.  Do we want short-term profits or long-term success?

When customers buy a product / service from most organizations that is the end of the transaction.  Unfortunately, the 90 days after a purchase are the most crucial for the customer.  They need our help to be successful with this new investment.  If we simply take the payment and say, “Good Luck!”  we’ll be looking at lower sales in the future.  Without repeat customers and customers reaching out to others on our behalfs, we will have to keep pushing hard with effort to grow sales.  We need to serve our customers well, or suffer the consequences of burn out and becoming a commodity. 

The 90 days after a purchase are crucial to make sure the customer is using the product or service to its full potential.  Think about some of the products / services we have bought only for them to be collecting dust because we did not know how to use them properly.  We fell that infomercial we watched late at night lied to us. 

Today with social media being easily accessed a small business owner can reach all customers with emails, videos, and webinars at the click of a button and with low cost.  Why not make sure the customer has all the tools to help them be successful with our products?  What about group events when we travel to a city to invite those customers out to network and offer support?

No magic, just simply focusing on the customer to make sure they are successful.  They are investing their hard, earned money with us so we need to treat them like they are making an investment in us.  Customers are taking a risk on our products / service so let’s help them be successful.  Constantly reaching out with successful tips and trick and not just selling the customer something else is how we serve them well!  

I have read a great book called “Fanology” by the David and Reiko Scott.  They have great insight on how organizations have generated awesome fan bases that sustain long-term success.  One part of the book that really stopped me and made me think was this quote:

“The relationships we build with our customers are more important than the products and services we sell to them.”

If we want to generate more “FANS” for our products / services we need to focus on how we can make them successful with our products / services that we offer.  If we are not focused on serving the customer and building relationships with them, then our products / services become a commodity.  The only differentiating factor in a commodity is price.  It’s also not sustainable for long term growth for your organization because each day there are similar products coming to market for a cheaper price.

Focus on making the customer successful and building a relationship with them.  Wouldn’t it be awesome serving and connecting with customers so well that they become fans and sell our products / services for us?  Who wouldn’t want that a sales force that we don’t have to pay because they are so passionate about our product / service?

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Customer Loyalty, We Want It Right?

Good morning everyone,

Everywhere you look you see articles on how to build customer loyalty.  Just about every major retailer has a loyalty program.  Offers are given with point systems in hopes of retaining customers.  These are all great things, but there is one area that businesses are falling short.

What about the new customer that does not know our brand and has no idea how awesome we are?  What are we doing today to keep them for a lifetime?  These individuals want to believe that if they join our “club” we are going to take care of them, but they have been taken advantage of so many times they may be a little skeptical.

All of us can be Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A in the future with lines for the drive through wrapping around parking lots and disrupting street traffic flow.  What we need to do is think about ways to serve customers so well that they want to keep coming back.

Both Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A do one thing really, really well.  It’s customer service.  That’s right they are always going above and beyond the call to serve the customer. This is resulting in customer loyalty, a Fanocrocy, and great business success even during pandemics.  People will literally wait in 20 min lines for a cup of coffee, and chicken sandwiches. 

Chick-Fil-A also has one thing they do every time they serve us when we say thank you.  They respond immediately with “it’s my pleasure.”  They literally ingrain each employee to be customer service focused.  It does not matter which location we to go, we still get great consistent service.

When an organization focuses only on profits and not on serving the customers it never ends well.  Doing the right thing consistently over time creates loyalty.  Making sure we have set up a solid customer service focus no matter how long the customers have been doing with us is key to achieving customer loyalty.

Focusing only on maintaining the customers we currently have loyalty with will erode as they expire.  Yes, I have checked the data everyone expires!  If we only focus on those that have bought several products from us to generate loyalty at the risk of making things right for a new customer, we will LOSE!!!

Too many organizations focus on short term profits.  One main driver for this is publicly traded companies focusing on making their stock holders more money as their main goals.  All organizational goals serve this one main goal.  How do we make shareholders more money? 

Organizations should also not focus on helping only those that have pledged loyalty to their brand, but consistently doing the right thing to generate future loyal “Fans.”  When “Fans” pledge their loyalty to us, they tell others how awesome our organization are.  They share stories of how we have helped them and rave about our service.  We have sales people selling for us that are not on our payroll.  Wouldn’t you like that?

Do not take the customer’s payment and walk away from the transaction waiting to see if the customer will buy from us again before we give extra effort.   Give the extra effort up front and every time we engage people and we will be rewarded!

Check back in next week and I’ll help you with a few ideas on how to grow more loyal customers and some ideas of how to gain more fans that will sell your brand.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Why You Need To Focus On Relationships With Customers

Good morning everyone,

I remember a story of a successful business owner that had sold his company and stayed on to support the transition.  The new organization had a Chief Financial Officer making the decisions.  This CFO also did not like sales people and had a belief that every sale could be done automatically.  No need for outside sales people.  Salespeople were just an expense to the organization.

If we are not meeting with customers regularly to learn about their needs, then how are we going to build influence?  Sales is influence and the more influence we have the more sales opportunities we have as a result.  A lack of influence will quickly turn us and our product into a commodity!  The only differentiating factor for a commodity is price.  Then starts the race to the bottom where there is no margin and likely no quality.

Some of the most successful business owners that I have had the chance to sit with state that it is imperative to build the relationship with the customer.  The larger the relationship, the more influence we are granted and as a result the move opportunities we have with the customer.  We need to have relationships before we are ever going to be able to sell something to someone.  That is of course unless we are the cheapest price which typically means less value proposition.

I have been able to visit some of my old customers that I have not called on in years.  They will smile, ask me out to dinner, and sit with me for hours to discuss where they are at with their current business situations.  They even have asked for insight on what I might recommend still to this day!  It is a great feeling that I was able to influence individuals enough that they will take time to catch up as well as look for my advice.

These conversations would not have happened had I not worked on the personal side of the business as much as the transactional side.  Knowing our customers on a personal level and understanding their aspirations is a huge benefit.  People want to know that they matter.  Building that relationship is extremely important in helping them achieve their goals. 

It is almost an art form watching an old sales professional work the personal relationship and send birthday cards for the customer’s family, as well as celebrating wins that the customer has had. 

Meetings on the golf course have transacted in large business deals that cannot be instantaneously measured.  Looking back on the sales process and building relationships will allow our business to grow with our customers.   The transactions do happen, but not until we have a level of influence that the customer allows us to show them a better way.  People will not buy from us if they do not know, like, and trust us. 

I encourage you to leverage the personal side of business along with the professional side.  If learning about people was not important than why do Amazon, Facebook, and your smart phones listen in on your conversations as well as track your searches? 

Send a card for your customer’s birthdays, kids’ birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc.  It is a great feeling to celebrate with customers and form lasting relationships. 

Remember the first buying decision a potential customer makes is the Salesperson!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

To Influence We Need To SEE

Good morning everyone,

How many times have you just believed that the people around us should follow us because we have a title that they report to?  If we are trying to gain influence with direct reports based off organizational title to keep the team following our lead we will fail. 

We all want to have influence over those we connect with whether it is family, work associates, a ministry, etc.  If you’ve been reading the past two blog posts, you’ll be following a core to building influence.  It’s a process to get the focus off of ourselves and on to those we are needing buy-in from.

Let’s review the crucial steps to accomplish influence:

Week 1 C.I.A – stands for being curious, intentional, and asking questions.

Week 2 Developing questions to pull out the needs from those we are building influence with

Week 3 Figure out if we are on the right track.

We want to make sure that what we believe the needs to be are in fact resonating with those around us.  It’s time to step out and test our thought process and start getting into activity to find out.  So how to we figure this out?

Today we are going to SEE if we are on the right track to building influence.

The first step is to Set up a meeting or a time to review with those that we are working on influence with.  Don’t do a drive buy ambush to validate we understand their needs.  Let them know that we value their time and respect.  Look at their calendars and set up a meeting with the purpose in the title or go one step further and walk up to them asking for a good time to meet.  I know some introverts will say, but I don’t like engaging people.  Maybe that is a growth step for them.  I am an introvert by nature, and I speak to groups of people because I took small steps each day to grow. 

Show them respect by being prepared for the meeting.  We can also give them a few details we would like to review so they have time to prepare for the discussion.

Be Engaged.  Turn off emails, close doors, and pay attention. Be engaging with this meeting as best you can.  Ask them questions to pull out their needs as you have drafted from last week’s blog.  Let them do most of the talking like a 70/30 ratio with you mainly asking questions and them answering.  Find out deeper needs than just a paycheck and insurance benefits.  Find their WHY they are continuously showing up.

Encourage them to come to us with questions, help, ideas for their growth, and to keep an open dialogue.  Let them know we truly care by encouraging them.  We don’t need to have parties for them but showing them that we care and encouraging them to take steps for growth and reaching out will help us gain influence.

Now if they have needs that we have not already identified from our prep work, then this is our homework to review and make sure that we can answer those needs.  It is better to know that we are not meeting their needs now so that we can either work on being able to meet those needs, or help those that report to us find somewhere in our organization, or another organization that will allow them to find their place best suited for them.  Keeping someone that limits them is not a long-term play and will slow down progress.  Yes, sometimes we may need to help the reports find a better suit for them and look for someone else.

People are not cogs in a machine, but individuals helping to support a vision we have.  This is a concept that far too many organizations fall into because they are just trying to keep moving and not focusing on their individuals and how to help those individuals. 

Helping those that we are influencing know that we truly care will build a great foundation to help us in the future to move further faster together.

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com