The First Question to Ask

Good morning everyone.  Last week we discussed the three questions that customers ask when the meet with us on every interaction.  If you missed it go back and read it as it will help you with this week’s post. it only takes three minutes to read.

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 like…

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 your customer’s posture.

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 color you wear on your clothing can also impact how you 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 you wear, voice tonality, pace of speech, jewelry, etc. 

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

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Three Questions To Help Us With Others

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 someone.  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).  Think about that when you are in the grocery line and someone coughs…

In business, if we are not answering these questions for our customers then we are not helping our customers.  It’s about answering these questions that gets us into meetings to discuss larger topics that the customer needs answers to.  They need us to help them get to a better place.  If they didn’t need us then we would not be in the conversation. 

The great thing that we have going for us if they are interacting with us, then they are actively searching for solutions. Even if they don’t currently know it yet!  That is right sometimes the customer does not know what they need before they meet with us.  We need to study them and their needs so that we can support them with the best option available to them.

Have you ever been talking to someone about a topic and a great idea pops into your head?  Most of the time though we forget about these ideas 15 minutes after we have thought about them.  The same thing happens with our customers when we are talking with them.  When they do this, we need to take notes and keep asking deeper questions.  At the end of our time, we need to summarize the major topics and see which ones the customer really wants to dive deeper into for the next conversation?

Now for an exercise.  I want you to sit back and think of an interaction with a recent customer that did not buy from you and ask the three questions from the customer’s point of view: Do I like you?, Do I trust you?, and how can you help me? During that interaction, where could you have done something more that would have likely resulted in an opportunity? What might you have missed answering for the customer out of the three questions?  Chances are we get comfortable with customers and our sales process and we forget the most crucial buying decision “us” that the customer has to decide on.

In the coming weeks we will dive deeper into each of the three questions, but for this week I want you to ask those three questions at each interaction.  You don’t have to be selling them something either.  It could be a family member, neighbor, coworker, mail carrier, etc.  Focus on answering each of those three questions to the best of your ability, even if you are talking to them while in quarantine via phone call, or web meetings.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Why We Need Relationships In Business

Good morning everyone,

I remember a story of a successful business owner that had sold his company and stayed on to support the transition.  This owner had a pretty large company that was sold to an organization with a Chief Operating Officer that hated salespeople.  This COO also believed anything done by salespeople could automatically be done through a business transaction from an internal call center.

This same CFO also discussed that business school professors from some of the elite universities even teach that relationship building outside of the professional transaction are not a good idea.  People that are scholars in theory, but unfortunately not life application.

Golf outings were not allowed, customers meals were frowned upon, and basically anything that was not transactional was outlawed.  I have also worked for companies that the focus was purely transactional and there was no focus on growing customer relationships, unless they had a purchase order attached.  Now I am not saying you have to validate a golf outing with this blog, but the fact that relationship building is important. 

If you are not meeting with customers regularly to learn about their needs, then how are you going to build influence?  Sales is influence and the more influence you have the more sales you make.  A lack of influence will quickly turn you and your 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.  I have also 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 your customers on a personal level and understanding their aspirations is a huge benefit.  People want to know that they matter to you.  Building that relationship is extremely important. 

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 your business to grow with your customers.   The transactions do happen, but after work on the personal side.  People will not buy from you if they do not know, like, and trust you. 

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?  Statistics have shown that when there is a relationship in place between organizations a great deal of growth has happened as well.

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

Remember the first buying decision a potential customer makes is the Salesperson.  Grow that relationship!

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Please Don’t Use The Elevator Pitches!

Have you ever been subject to an elevator pitch?  You know where the person says all these great things that they do and how you need to do business with them.  Some time ago elevator pitches came into existence because business people needed to be able to tell someone what they did in the time it took to reach your destination on the elevator.  Quick and be effective were the requirements of an elevator pitch. 

When I think about an elevator pitch, I see a picture of the old sales guy wearing a three-piece suit and playing with his pocket watch.  For those of you younger readers, a pocket watch is not your phone that is in your pocket. 

I remember when I first got into sales this was the language you needed to use when someone asked what you did.  People came up with all sorts of weird pitches.  After a few years came the unique selling proposition that you needed to craft so when you talked to customers you could use this to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Now there is a new approach that is called positioning statement.  I have used this approach when speaking to organizations for speaking and it goes like this:

“I work with organizations just like yours who want to increase sales and influence, so that they can improve profits and elevate their people.” 

This positioning statement is to position yourself as an authority and how you actually benefit people at a 10,000 ft view of what you do.  This positioning statement is to also pull the prospective customer into asking more questions to learn a little more.  This is a way to start the conversation to learn about the customer which is a better way to approach selling.  I mean how do you know what to sell someone if you don’t know what they need?

This Positioning statement flows well with my company which  “Sales and Leadership Enterprises.”  I emphasize the fact that I help people walk through the sales process and how salespeople can intentionally understand where they are at in the process.  Using the same process helps leaders gain influence with employees and customers. 

Today we no longer use the elevator pitch, and as we move into the positioning statement where we want to be in our customer’s minds.  We want them thinking about how they need more help and how we can help them through conversation.   We are not making quick closes, but we are having the conversation to help our customers move forward to a better place.

What is your positioning statement? 

Leave a comment below and tell me what your positioning statement is.  I like learning about my readers and how I can help them achieve more.  I will give a free signed copy of my book to the winner the best positioning statement!

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

How Do We Figure Out The Correct Leadership Program

How do organizations make the decision on what is the correct leadership program they need?  How do they implement fast and impactful curriculums with all the options in the marketplace?

A great deal of organizations look for implementation of new educational training for those they want to groom in their succession plans.  No off the shelf program seems to be the perfect fit for these organizations.  Yes ,it’s easy to implement something off the shelf, but why do something that is generic compared to what we want our organization to focus on?

I have been asked this question a few times in recently and the first thing I ask is what does your organization think is most important, besides profits…. Sometimes I get a pretty decent answer, but most times I get a blank stare which quickly refers to the mission or vision statements.

Core values, mission statements, and vision statements, are all good starting points.  The culture that the organization has is the main light for what the organization stands for.  What is the culture of our organization is what leaders need to look at.  What is the culture of  the organization is the heartbeat.    

We also need to know what goals the organization has for the next 1,3,10 years.  Where are we and where are we going is another core to what the leadership needs to focus the messaging of their leadership training on. 

The leadership needs to also look at the team members they want to groom to see where they need improvement on. 

We need to think of leadership like a toolbox.  We need to have tools for everyday use which off the shelf programs offer, but we also need specialty tools for those more complex jobs.  A screwdriver will not work on a plumbing fix, and a wrench will likely not work on an electrical issue. 

The same thought for our leadership programs is where we need to look in and see what our future leaders are going to need to take the organization farther than what we can.  If we want to grow the organization what we know and what our future leaders know is crucial. 

We need to look at ourselves and then grow ourselves.  Bringing in multiple consultants to help with the specific tools that are needed will help the organization gain traction faster.  Specialists are paid more in the medical field because they are higher trained in the specific area.  The same can be said for leadership consultants. 

This will take some time so don’t think that implementation will happen overnight.  The leadership team will need to meet a few times to make this decision.  It’s an important decision as we want the organization to grow and flourish in the future.  Take time and plan accordingly with the leadership team before starting the search for the right program. 

If we do this correctly, then we can look forward to long life for our organization even when we are relaxing in retirement rooting from the sidelines.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Light It Up!

Have you ever thought you can’t make a difference?  The subject matter you are facing is just too big for you to make a dent?  Your light is not bright enough to cast out the darkness ahead?

I was at CMA fest with my wife and friends this past summer in Nashville, TN.  I’m not a huge country music person after say the early 2000’s.  I mainly listen to other types of music.  At the event I was not as knowledgeable of some songs as the rest of the group.  I also didn’t know all of the musicians.  

During one of the sets Luke Bryan was singing and asking people to pull out their phones and “light it up.”  One by one we saw phones lighting up the stadium so much that when they turned the stadium lights it was like nothing had changed. Yes, there were over 60,000 people in attendance to do this. 

These little cell phone lights work good for close up needs for an individual, but for one phone to try to cast out the darkness in a stadium it would be difficult.  To do it together though, the darkness was cast right out.  It was interesting to see thousands of lights making this place light up.

We need others to walk with us on our mission which means we need to reach out to them for help.  This world of social media and movies make it seem like we need to be a lone wolf.  If you know anything about wolves they only survive in their packs.  On their own they die off quickly.

Just like wolves and cell phone lights we need others to come along side us to move forward.  We need to be able to ask for help, use our leadership skills to gain engagement, and be vulnerable.  That’s right we need to be vulnerable and ask for help.  One of the key ingredients of influence is vulnerability.  Yes, just like cooking, if we miss an ingredient the meal does not tast good and is tossed out.  

It is scary, but we have to take the risk to let others see who we are and they will more than likely offer a hand to help. We need to be comfortable in the uncomfortable in order to move forward with others.  Yes it’s messy sometimes, and there are different points of view that we need to work through on different topics.  We need to push through the hard stuff to get to the place we want to go.

There is the quote that says, if we want to go fast go by ourselves, but if we want to go far, we need to go with others.  

Just like scaling mount Everest, we need to have a group of people to reach the summit.  Most of those that have tried to do it by themselves have failed, or paid the ultimate price.  

Work with others and be vulnerable to be able to move forward is key.  

If we do then we can light up the world!

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Not Customer Service, But Customer Experience

Have you ever had to wait an extremely long time for your food at a restaurant when you were starving?  Asking the wait staff for an update on the food seemed to bother them from their already busy agenda.  Meanwhile we believe that death is at our door. 

Upon asking the wait staff for an update, they seem not to care sometimes.  Sometimes we might get a part of the order taken off our bill.  Maybe the manager has to get involved to resolve the issue.  Tips are dwindled and the likelihood of returning to the establishment decreases by the second.

I was in Franklin Tennessee which is about 30 minutes south of Nashville this past summer.  It’s a great city where a lot of country singers live and other wealthy individuals.  It is a great little downtown filled with restaurants and shops.  There is one establishment that people rave about so the group of us decided to stop in.

We weren’t starving, but we decided to venture in and check it out.  I won’t give the name away, but they have these things called BONUTS that are delicious.  We ordered a set to go as well as some sweet tea.  You can’t go south without having sweet tea! 

After we ordered the person taking the order advised us to wait at a table in the middle of the room.  After about 15 minutes the waitress came by with a plate with BONUTS on them and we were confused because we asked for “to go”.  She dropped these off and then said she would get us some to go.

Another 15 minutes went by and nothing.  Now we had already paid so we were getting ready to just stand up and leave.  Figuring we had gotten what we paid for so no really harm done just some time spent waiting. 

We had asked someone working there to see if the order was coming soon and they went to check.  When they came back, they gave us a refund, gave us the to go order, and then another order because we sat for so long.   They also refused repeatedly to take the money back.  I mean we got what we paid for, but they were insistent that we be refunded. 

The running total now is three orders of BONUTS and a full refund because they were sorry for the wait.  I mean that is over and above customer service.  Not just here is your order, but here is your money back as well and oh let’s give you another order.  That is exceptional service and that is what drives customer loyalty.

When we go back to the Nashville area again, where do you think we will be going.  When I hear friends and family are traveling there, what do you think I will tell them when I mention places to stop?

When we are serving customers, we need to think about the customer experience.  Not that others should perform the job that are supposed to, but if we come in contact with the customer and they express a need we need to serve them well also.  We need to make sure we do our best to give the customer a great experience. 

If we do serve the customer well and provide an exceptional experience then they will be like sales people for us.  Just like I am writing about my story to share with all of you.  Our customers will share with all of their friends and family about the exceptional experience. 

Keep that in mind when serving customers and how we approach them.  We need to give them an exceptional experience if we want to drive customer loyalty.  Not just a punch card, but experience is what generates customer loyalty.

Now the flip side to that is if we underserve and provide a poor customer experience, what do you think they will say about our organization. 

We reap what we sow.  Plant seeds of exceptional experience and we will reap a great harvest in the future.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Are You Using A Compass?

Naval Captains, and old explorers used these interesting yet simple tools called compasses to help navigate how to get where they wanted to go.  Yes, they used other tools, but this one tool helped them stay on track for their headings.   Even in storms they used these compasses to stay the course.

Today we use directions and a voice in our navigations tools to tell us turn by turn which way to go.  The early days had us sometimes driving on unpaved roads and some stories of people driving right into water because they believed the navigation units solely. 

In our everyday lives we need to use a tool that helps us stay on track.  There are many names for the tool like mission statement, vision statement, goals, etc.  I like to call it my compass.  I have a compass that I have created to help me use what I know about myself and how I am wired to make planning for the year have the best chance of success with my goals.

Yes, it is something from church, but it’s a took the DISC assessment, a gifts assessment, and our passions to help us make a purpose statement.  We need to live on purpose otherwise will just be drifting along with no direction.  Those that are intentional and lean into their compass do move forward with great speed and intentionality. 

By having a compass (purpose statement) we can eliminate detours that take away the most precious commodity we have available…TIME.  Yes, time is something that we are not able to add, multiple, but only subtract and sometimes divide.  We lose a lot of time and energy if we are doing tasks that don’t align with what fuels us forward.

Ever get to the end of day 30 and you are still worn out, tired, and with an empty tank?  Sure, we did something, but did that something actually get us closer to where we want to go?  Did it give us more tools to help us move faster in the future?

I have been in seasons where I was serving on countless non-profit activities, serving the community as a volunteer fire fighter, playing in adult flag football leagues, etc.  These all seemed fun, but did they help me get to my end goal?  I still support in some ways and have an active community, but I have chosen to put my energy in learning how to communicate better and help others through this blog, my Youtube channel, and my trainings to help businesses and leaders succeed. 

I have been intentional over the past decade to make sure my family will be taken care of, preparing for my later years, and how to help impact others for the better.  I have said no to good things in order to say yes to great things.  It has and is still a charted course I am on, but I know the path I need to take to get there.  Without my compass this would not be possible.

Having a compass to guide our path to the future selves we want to have, we need to be intentional and know what it is that we want to achieve.  It can be monetary, but it can also be relationally.  We should have a compass and a clear vision of where we want to go, before we just start moving because we only have a short period of time to get there before the sands of time run out for each one of us.

What does your compass look like?

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Just One More...

Have you ever wanted to just give up?  This fight is just too much and why am I still doing this?  It’s just too much effort and it shouldn’t be this hard?  Do you still get up and give it one more shot anyways?

We all get knocked down many times in our lives with different set-backs.  Set-backs are not failure.  I don’t like the word failing unless I have totally given up.  Set-backs are just what they sound.  In football set-backs are like getting hit behind the line of scrimmage by another person that loses you a yard or so.  Basically, losing momentum for a short period of time.

As long as we keep getting back up and trying one more time we are not failing.  I have had many set-backs in my life, whether they be relationships, business, financial, health, etc.  One thing that I can pride myself on is that I got back up and gave it just one more shot. 

Yes, we should not just keep running into a brick wall in hopes it will break down finally by some miracle.  There are times when we have to walk away, but those come after we have set our limit of how much we are willing to try.  I have even given one more try even after that limit as well.  I guess I am just stubborn.

I like to make sure that I have exhausted every opportunity before I walk away from something.  Yes, it may have given me more pain, but in most instances, it has been that “one more try” that has elevated me past the issue and I have moved forward. 

Too much of our culture is set up that if there is any kind of resistance then we should try something else, or move away. We have a Failure Culture in this world that says if something is hard, then we should move to something easier so that we can have that sought after “good life.”

I have met many successful individuals and one thing that they all have in common is that they have gotten back up with that “one more try “mentality.  They face challenges, get knocked down, and get back up.  Some may take a little longer than others, but they still get back up. 

We must keep grinding especially if it is that dream that we have had since we were younger.  Our mission that we set out on, the path we were born for.  We need to keep getting back up and driving forward.  Just one more step, one more pushup, one more phone call, will get us closer to the that goal. 

Having that “one more try” mentality will allow up to build up our resilience muscle so we are stronger.  We need this if we are going to grow any kind of life change, business, or movement.  So get back up and give it one more try because you can do it!

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

How To Build Rapport

Having rapport with others is crucial if we are going to move forward together.  We need engagement and that begins with rapport.  If we don’t have any kind of relational collateral, then we will not be able to ask people to walk with us on a adventure.

First and foremost, we need to remember that when we are hosting meetings, we are asking others to give up one of their most precious commodities.  Something they can not add, multiple, but only subtract.  It’s their time.  Time is the most precious of commodities to individuals and organizations.

We need to make sure that we are focused on others if we are going to build engagement.  To do that we need to build relationships with them.  The hot word on this topic currently is Rapport.  If you have heard me speak at any event / training you know that I believe rapport is something we should start with, but we need to go deeper with others.

That is why I do the house exercise in my trainings to help individuals take the focus off ourselves and onto the others they are engaging with. 

Now it is hard to build rapport with people at first because most people are guarded.  We need to make extra efforts to build that exchange.  We can do a few things prior to meeting with the individuals.

Social Investigating – we can look up their social profiles to learn a little bit about them prior to meeting with these individuals the next time.  What are their hobbies, what does their family situation look like, what are their interests, etc.  Do they post about certain topics that resonate with us?  Where can we find common ground?

CRM – keep a customer relationship management tool in use when learning about people.  The more we learn the more we can relate.  If they say something in a meeting, or talk about their weekend experience in passing, write it down.  We can’t remember everything especially as we get older, but we can review our crm profile prior to meeting with the individual again.

Social Proof – This phenomenon is really effective in growing trust fast.  Basically, it is having someone that we know and have a good relationship with that knows the person that we are trying to gain trust and influence with introduce us.  The mutual person is actually allowing us to have levels of trust immediately with the new person.  Some call it the Oprah Effect that when someone was on Oprah’s show they immediately were known as someone of trust and an authority in their field.  It was overnight that these people had authority. 

These are a few ideas, but the main topic is taking the focus off ourselves and our needs and turn the focus on others.  When we do that, we will grow levels of trust and engagement with others.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

How To Build Rapport In Online Meetings

How many times have you been on a meeting that people seemed to be bothered to be in?  How many times did people drive a lack of engagement and have to be asked multiple times to respond?  This is a topic that effects most people working in this world utilizing online meetings more than ever before.

Last week I talked about The Ringleman Effect of larger meetings and why it drove lack of engagement.  I ended that topic with the need to build rapport during meetings with others.   

This week we will focus on ways to gain rapport with others so that way we can gain more engagement during online meetings.

First and foremost, we need to remember that when we are hosting meetings, we are asking others to give up one of their most precious commodities.  Something they can not add, multiple, but only subtract.  It’s their time.  Time is the most precious of commodities to individuals and organizations.

We need to make sure that we are focused on others if we are going to build engagement.  To do that we need to build relationships with them.  The hot word on this topic currently is Rapport.  If you have heard me speak at any event / training you know that I believe rapport is something we should start with, but we need to go deeper with others.

That is why I do the house exercise in my trainings to help individuals take the focus off ourselves and onto the others they are engaging with. 

We can start with rapport building, but the focus is to really care about others so much so that we want to learn about them and help them.  When we do this, we will build trust and engagement.

For online meetings a good resource is “Virtual Selling” chapter 4.  I am always looking to grow my capacity and I do that even by investing in reading material from other professionals.  We are all in this together.  This book that I am reading has a great deal of ideas on how to grow rapport during online meetings. 

This book goes into the differences between 2D virtual meetings and face to face meetings.  Where we can usually have casual discussion before and after a meeting naturally in real world meetings, but on virtural meetings typically the start right into the meat of the meeting.  There is little if not zero time to have casual discussions.

It’s harder in the virtual meeting to build rapport, but there are some ways that we can do this if we pay attention to details and focus on those in the meeting.  Having smaller meeting sizes will also help us with this.  This book gives 20 questions to ask during the meeting with others to learn and grow rapport.

They also have a few rules like authenticity, similarity, and shared experiences which is similar to what we would do when meeting in person.  One thing they suggest is to ask someone to stay after for a few minutes so we can dive deeper into a comment that person made during the meeting.  Not earth shattering epiphany, but one that will gain small deposits of rapport over time.  We will also know if we have some relational collateral with them if they accept, or decline. 

Learning how to run virtual meetings and building trust and influence is going to be crucial as we go forward with this ever-changing environment.  More and more people are choosing to work remote which makes it harder to build rapport.  We can’t take them out for coffee, or a meal as often.  We can set up a quick call to share coffee online, but I would be hesitant to eat food online in front of them.  It will save them if we spit our food when we talk I guess… 

Focus on learning about people and expanding our knowledge how to build trust and influence will go a long way in growing our sales capacity in the next decade as technology makes it harder for us to meet in person.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

The Ringleman Effect And How It Affects Engagement During Meetings

Ever wonder why some meetings it seems like everyone is engaged, but others people seem to be staring off at other screens.  Some people are busy working on other things and now really paying attention to what the team is discussing?  We are not talking about the mute button issues here either.

There is an effect that occurs especially in large meetings known as the Ringleman Effect.   The Ringleman Effect is basically summed up that as when group size increases, engagement decreases.  That’s right, when the size of the meeting grows then engagement actually decreases.  This is why we have people asking to please repeat the question quite often. 

During large meetings people tend to start working on other tasks “multi-tasking” which is actually ineffective.  Science has shown that we are unable to focus on more than one task at a time with effectiveness.  Think about how many crashes occur while someone is reading a text or email on their phone these days while driving. 

The size of the meeting will dictate the expectation that the attendees will have.  Most won’t realize it until they are in the meeting and see the list of attendees growing.  When I speak about trust there are certain levels of trust that are given in one-on-one interactions compared to larger groups.  So as the meetings get larger trust actually goes down.  Trust effects engagement levels.

If we want to have higher levels of engagement in our meetings we need to start looking at who really needs to be in the meetings for the specific topic.  We need to focus on who really needs to be in the meeting and not just dropping a calendar on every person’s schedule just to get the masses.  I know some people in larger organizations will say that they need to get managers involved as well to move things along.  Do we need them on the initial call to understand the situation though?

People also get irritated when a meeting is set up when they already have one or two meetings scheduled during that time.  They feel like others don’t respect them enough to look at their calendars before setting up a meeting.  That means that trust goes down.

What can we do to drive higher levels of engagement during meetings?

We can look at the topic at hand and only invite those that need to be invited to the meeting as one option.  Do we need to have the finance team, engineering team, and management when there is a small quality issue with the manufacturing plant forgetting to paint the product, or packaging the product improperly?

We can set up a couple of meetings to focus on specific topics.  Yes, it will take more time for us, but in order to get more traction, we need to move forward faster.  We can also only have the specific team members needed for each topic to talk so there aren’t others sitting online wasting their time as well as not paying attention.

We can set shorter meetings and keep them specific in topic so we are only running 15 to 30 minute meetings instead of trying to block out the entire hour which people are less likely to give up.  The smaller window of time will be a smaller investment to the attendees which will garnish more engagement.

We can also focus on building rapport with others.  If there is extra time, then we can catch up with team members even virtually.  We can see how they are doing, catch up on topics they may mention that they spoke in passing during the meeting.  Show others we care will go a long way in gaining engagement during our meetings. 

Focus on the other people we are asking to spend the time with us and how we can better use their time and we will have more effective meetings with more engagement.

Have a great week!

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Why We Need Rest

Do you ever get back from a vacation and think that you need a vacation from your vacation?  Are you able to unplug when you are away from the office on vacation?  Do you feel truly rested after the weekend?  How often when you are supposed to rest are you checking emails for work behind your family’s back?  Like you have some secret mistress known as a J.O.B.

I have been spending the time to relax on my Sundays over the past year.  I take time to rest because I keep a pretty rigorous schedule.  I’m up between 5 and 6 am to get started on my day by prepping with reading, my devotions, and my goals.  This is all before I hop in the shower to get ready to work.  

I work hard and workout hard.  This means when it is time to rest, I need to rest.  Now I don’t have an oxygen chamber, freezing chamber, or any of that scientific stuff.  I take power naps, read, hang out with friends and family, take walks, relax on the boat, etc.   I need to unplug so that I can refresh my mind.  

When our mind is constantly going and firing on all cylinders it gets fatigued.  Our brain needs rest to repair and form new synapsis.  Which is why when we are rested we typically come up with the greatest break throughs for problems that we are trying to solve.   Our creativity goes up, our brain does not feel foggy, our decision making is more clear, etc.  Forbes did an article that is helpful with understanding why we need rest with some action steps we can take to accomplish rest.  

I know there are some of you reading that think that sleep is for the weak and the dead.  That is something my mother still says to this day.  The toughest people I have ever met are Navy Seals.  There we twenty years older than me and could outperform me.  These people actually go through something called Hell Week and they are up with no sleep for days.  Not hours, days.  They hallucinate, they have depleted testosterone levels, they have trouble making decisions, etc.  

A gentleman names Kirk Parsley was an active seal and studied health and he actually teaches high performing people on the effects of sleep.  I have put a link here for a quick video of him talking about sleep.  He briefly talks about how these high performers had testosterone levels of young girls because of the deprivation and constant fatigue from lack of rest.

If Seals and athletes need to make sure that they take time to rest, the rest of us humans should take notice.  We need to make sure we are having self care.  I know for some people may think they are stronger than the rest and can go without rest, but it is true.  We need to unplug and rest if we are going to continue to function at high levels.  

If we do not take time to rest then we will not function and it can impact our health with different diseases.  Not just being grouchy, but actual diseases that can kill us.  Do yourself a favor and take time to unplug to rest and recover so that you can get back into the fight rested with more capacity.  

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Fit people Are Very Productive

I have met with a great deal of very successful people in my life.  Those that are success business professionals, owners, pastors, non-profit leaders, and heads of their family.  One thing that is common with all of these successful people is that they take time to invest in their fitness lifestyle.

By being disciplined with fitness and taking care of their bodies, people are fueling themselves.  I know this sounds counter intuitive as working out and fitness is expelling energy, but things happen when we work out.  Our brains release chemicals that help our moods, mental capacity, and reduces the effects of stress. A study out of BYU helps us understand the benefits of fitness.

I have been working out disciplined for well over a decade.  Now I don’t have the 6 or 8 pack abs that trainers show off on their Instagram, but I do have a greater mobility and strength than I did when I was younger.  I am in better shape now than I was in high school and college.  I have been disciplined on my working out and stretching.  

What has happened is that I have been able to be more focused on other things, have more endurance when tough times happen, be more resilient, manage stress better, and by more disciplined in other areas of my life as a by-product.  

One of my mentors when I was getting into sales who was a successful business man and ex-navy seal always made time for fitness.  He worked about 90 hours a week on his business, but still found time to fitness.  He had hobbies, but was very disciplined on his fitness.  As a result, he was able to make clearer decisions and take risks that he was able to analyze better with more focus.  

In downtimes of our economy, he was able to take advantage and grow his business.  He was disciplined in the fitness area that also allowed him to make more mental decisions without the doubt that comes along with the stress.  

We need to make sure that we are disciplined in our fitness if we want to excel in our lives.  Without being disciplined in this area, we will have a harder time being disciplined in other areas of our life.  I know that some people will say that they just don’t have time to set aside for fitness, but if we read that article referenced at the beginning of this post, you’ll see that we don’t have time not do focus on fitness.  One quote that I am always reminded is the one below from Tony Horton, “The joy of discipline, or the pain of regret, which will it be today?”

Focus on fitness and let that bleed over into other areas of our lives and we will see ourselves improve, have better stress management, longevity, and have great levels of mental capacity.  

Keep in mind that fitness does not mean running a marathon, or doing an ironman, it is getting physically moving and strengthening in small increments over time.  It’s not great leaps, but small steps over and over that will achieve the greatest results.  

Maybe its taking a walk outside, or picking a fitness program that has been put on the back burner, or maybe it’s just paying with kids more so you can get started.  Either way start today and finish stronger! 

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Be The Bridge

Have you ever wondered how some people just seem to build influence with others so quickly?  That they just seem to gain engagement without much effort?  

Today let’s talk about one of the concepts that I teach in my Unmatched Influence training, and is also part of my online Trustworthy training below.  It’s called being the bridge. 

This concept was something I stumbled onto when I was new to a particular sales territory that I moved into for one of the organizations that I worked for in my career.  I was not the only part of the organization that was new to this territory.  The entire organization was new.  

We had no previous relationships in this territory so we were starting from scratch.  We were hustling to get the business growing and fast.  This part of the United States was also considered a good ole boy network.  If you were an outsider, good luck…

I started building relationships with customers and prospects as fast as I could.  I was working extra hours and getting to know the territory and who were the top prospects.  While doing so I was building my CRM (Customer Relationship Management) database as I went.  I was asking all sorts of questions.

There was a lot of caffeine and memorization as well.  Back when my memory was great…

One day I was calling on a customer that was asking me about a software they were looking at using for their business.  I knew nothing of the software and was curious as to why I was being asked.  It was because I was an electrical engineer by training.  Like just being an electrical engineer made me understand all types of software.  

Granted I could probably debug some software issues and fix windows issues, but know all software was not something that I could sign up for.  What I did know is that another customer about three hours north of this customer actually used this software.  

I reached out to this other customer and asked if they wouldn’t mind answering some questions for another customer not in their territory.  The answer was yes and they had a call which resulted in the customer asking the question to avoid some pitfalls that the other customer had.  They switch over to the new software was a success.

What I didn’t expect is that the customer that I helped get in touch with this other customer was grateful and started confiding in me more and more.  Asking me questions about more business solutions and ideas and telling others that I was the go to person for help.

This began a snowball effect which resulted in me getting more phone calls from potential customers than me having to chase them down.  I was building influence faster and faster.  Now the initial help that I offered by connecting the two customers did not result in sales that day, but it did build a relationship and influence in the entire territory fast.  

I call this “Being the Bridge.”  By connecting others that are able to help each other I am also granted influence and credibility as well.  By being the bridge, I was able to gain much faster influence in my territory that I actually was being asked to stop in to help.  It also netted me a great deal of business.  I was growing my territory at a fast pace, I won the award for top sales person for the United States, and grossed more income all by serving the customers by bridging them together.

To build influence, we need to serve those around us whether they be customers, or team members.  We need to use the open hand and not the closed fist when interacting with them.  If we do so, we will be successful in building unmatched influence that will allow us to go further faster with others.

I hope this helps you on your journey to building influence.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

What Are The Ramifications?

Ramifications are all around us.  From the decisions we make, to decisions that others make that affect us.  These ramifications come about from all sorts of different directions.  It’s like pushing a domino and watching them race forward knocking down the next and the next.  We have ramifications for our decisions that we make and we need to help others navigate their ramifications for their situation and issues as well.

Today I want to focus on the ramifications of our customers and team members decisions on how they respond to their situation and issues.  The past weeks we talked about issues and how to help understand the customer and team member’s current issues they are facing from the situation they are in.  

We need to also understand what the ramifications are if the issues and situation are not resolved to the outcome they want.  This may mean that they end up buying a competitor’s product / service, or joining another organization to where we have to find a new person that fits our culture, has the tools we need to perform the task we need them to perform, etc.

It benefits us to make sure we are reaching out to help our customers and team members that are facing a situation and issues to avoid the ramifications that hurt our bottom line.  Not so that we are just focused on our bottom line, but that of serving.  By doing this we can actually build trust and engagement with customers and team members.

A great deal of sales professionals and leadership people think that it’s just a numbers game and to a small point that is true, but for the majority by showing up and showing we care we can maintain long lasting relationships and avoid the waste of money on onboarding new customers and new employees.  We need to put a value on others in order to build lasting relationships and trust.  Otherwise we risk spending more money to onboard.

Every customer and new employee has a cost involved with getting them set up and up to speed with our systems and processes.  We lose time and money when we have to consistently perform this loop.  Now we can’t eliminate every instance of this, but we can minimize this by focusing on serving our customers and employees.

Asking questions to understand the situation, the issues, and the ramifications will help us to understand our customers and employees.  When we truly understand these three areas, we can then help find solutions for them that likely will minimize cost impacts to our organization.  

When we are successful in helping them, trust goes up which means speed goes up and costs go down.  

This means more PROFITS!!!  

Who doesn’t like more profits?  We also gain more engagement from this process of understanding others as well which means that we will be able to make it through the hard times together.  

We need to take the focus off ourselves and serve those around us if we are going to gain traction.

For more information on building trust and understanding people check on the links below for my online trainings that you can do at your own pace.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

What's The Issue?

Have you ever tried to jump a hurdle in track?  Ever done a tough mudder, or savage race that has mud and obstacles scattered all throughout the course?  These are the issues that we are facing in those two situations that are keeping us from the finish line.

A couple weeks back we talked about the situation that people are in.  That is their current state that the customer, or employee is in.  If not rectified can cause them to find a solution that may not be the best solution for them.  

Today we are going to talk about the issues.  Each person has a situation, issues, and ramifications.  The issue are the items that are affecting the situation that the customer, or employee is currently in.  What is stopping them from moving forward to the place they want to get to.  The issues are the obstacles, or the hurdles they currently see before themselves.

We as sales professionals and leaders need to understand the situation and issues of those we come in contact with.  Otherwise, we will not be able to help them get to that finish line.  If we don’t help them, they will search out the solution they think is best and likely won’t stick with us.

It is our duty to understand what the issues are for those that we come in contact with so that we can help them.  It affects our bottom line.  If we think we can just replace a customer, or team member we can, but there will be a loss of time and money involved with this decision.  This is an area that most businesses have had to focus on as they are hemorrhaging money affecting their profits.

Engagement is low when we treat customers and team members as just another cog in our machine.  We need to place value on them and focus on understanding their issues to keep them engaged.  By engaging them and showing these individuals that we care, they will open up to us.

How do we do this?  We ask questions.  Lots of good questions to understand what is going on and what are their perceived issues.  Kind of like a therapist ask questions to understand the surface level issues and then quantifying questions to go deeper to find the real issues.  If you have never been to a therapist, I recommend doing an initial session, but know that something will come up that you did not see coming 

What kind of questions should we be asking?  Sales people have been taught for years to ask only open-ended questions which are questions that cannot be answered with a yes / no answer.  I use open and closed ended questions because conversations flow with both better.  If we ask too many open-ended questions people get defensive.  Maybe that is why people cringe when they think about sitting with a therapist.

We need to uncover the issues that people are facing if we will ever be able to think about helping them.  If we just assume we know the answer then we risk making an ass our of u and me.  Yes, that was a little profanity and I apologize, but it is literally how assume is spelled 

Focus on understanding our customer and team members and we will begin to help them in the future.  

Next week we will discuss the third part of how we can help and it will help you to focus better on figuring out the correct solution.

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Do You Know The Situation?

Ever wonder why some people just don’t follow our direction?  Ever hate having to interact with some people because you just know they are going to sabotage your plans?

In sales and in leadership, we have to deal with a lot of people.  Some might cringe at that and want to just order people to do something, but unfortunately when people are involved it is messy.  We can’t just simply demand things.

People have many things they are juggling on their day to day plates and we need to understand why they may be acting a certain way if we are going to be able to work with them.  I’m not talking about gossip stuff, but finding out what is going on.  Peel the onion to get to the less superficial level.  In cooking we learn that the deeper layers of an onion are the sweeter and most flavorful layers.  The same thing happens for learning more about people.  

If we simply put a label on someone because they are acting a certain way without know the facts behind the situation, how can we be justified in that?  We need to do better!

I have had a manager that has checked in with me periodically when they found out about a situation I was going through.  This meant the world to me as I was in the struggle of emotions, mental fatigue, and stress.  It affected my work, my attitude, and my success.  It actually kept me working for the organization instead of leaving because someone showed they cared.  This is how our employees and customers feel as well.

I have had many customers that were struggling through situations that I have been able to lend an ear to, a helping hand to, and simply showing that someone cared.  This helped them see that they were not alone in the situation and that others would lend a hand.  Even if it is just an ear to let someone vent.  People are meant to be around others.  We need others to know that they matter.

Ramsey Solutions in Tennessee mandates that managers know what is going on with their subordinates so that they can help, rally the team around the individual, and to mitigate pitfalls.  They know if a family member is going through a severe illness, if a baby is on the way, or some other major event.  This way they show that the team member is valued and cared for.  Showing people we care is vital for trust and influence.  It’s called empathy which unfortunately is in short supply lately.

Understanding the situation is crucial to helping solidify any issues that are popping up and so that we can move forward together.  If we don’t, we lose time on an already limited clock that is ticking down.  Gain more engagement and influence by understanding the situation that others are in and learn more about them so that they know they matter.  

Wouldn’t you rather associate with an organization that you feel values you?  Why not be that person that reaches out to customers and team members to let them know they matter as well.

Have a good week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

The Power Of Your Clothing and Scents On Others

Have you heard the saying, “ You only get one chance to make a first impression?”   It is actually very difficult to change this impression as well.  

Did you know that the color clothing you wear can affect this impression?  Did you know that scents can actually trigger anxieties in people?  There are several factors in building trust, but these two are the most subtle that people miss all the time.

I have been in sales for what is closing in on two decades at this point and it is interesting how much I have learned throughout this career. I didn’t intend on this becoming my career either, but was one of exploration as my career aspirations was to manage people.  Yes, I wanted to be a manager and an advisor informed me that I needed to learn sales if I was going to lead others.

That is what kicked off my career in sales and I am glad I did venture into this sector of business.  Many believe we need to be a certain kind of personality, good looking, have a strong sense of humor, etc, yet time and time again I have proved that to be incorrect.  Yes, we need to have interpersonal skills and yes, we need to be able to laugh with others, but we need to do so much more and it does not mean we have to fit into one mold.

Since beginning in sales I have learned that there are some factors that impact likability and trust.  The two I’d like to talk about today are clothing colors and scents.  These don’t seem like they are impactful, but check out this data.  

The Harvard Gazette posted an article in 2020 about how scents are associated with memories.  Click here for the article.  Basically, smell is the only sense in our body that does not have a filter to the brain.  When we smell cut grass, we typically think of warm summer days.  Unfortunately, some people like me are highly allergic to cut grass and the chemical released by the grass clippings.  I go into sneezing fits and want to gouge my eyes out when I am around cut grass.

Others have scents that take them back to bad memories that when smelled make their body’s fight or flight mechanism jump into action.  That means anxiety goes up.  Now if we are the ones wearing that scent, then the people start associating the anxiety with us.  They will associate us with danger and that first impression goes right out the window. Keep that in mind when you are spraying on your favorite cologne or perfume in the morning.  We still need to smell clean though!

Colors are also associated with trust and likeability as well.  Robert Caldini wrote a great book called Influence that depicts what each color does, why certain organizations used colors for their logos, etc.  For help today know that light blues and whites promote trust and dark red power ties promote authority.  Black typically means we are hiding something.  Keep that in mind when trying to gain trust and likability.  If we need to build trust and influence, we should be wearing light blues and whites when engaging others.

We do not need to be wearing power ties to show we are assertive and have authority.  That does not lower anxieties.  Power ties drives anxieties up.  When leading people and trying to sell to customers we need the anxiety levels lowered. The lower the anxiety levels, the higher the likability and trust levels.  

If we can not get past those two questions:  Do I like You? and Do I Trust You? We will never obtain buy in for our cause, customers for our products, or an engaged staff for our cause.  We need to take the focus off our wants and needs and focus on how we can connect with others.  

I hope that helps!  Have a great week and good luck shopping!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

How To Answer Your Customer’s Three Questions

Last week we talked about the three questions that our customers ask at every interaction.  If you have not done so, feel free to go back and read that post.  It should only take about 3 minutes.  A quick read.

Today we are going to answer how we the professional sales person will answer these questions.  We do this by uncovering needs.  Yep, we are going to ask them questions.  There has been a great deal of study on what questions to ask and old sales techniques always told us to ask open ended questions that are not answered with simple answers like “yes”, or “no”.  What I have found is that there is no correlation to success with asking all open-ended questions as opposed to closed ended questions.  Obviously if we ask all closed ended questions, we will lose interest from the customer and they will move along.  

I choose to use a mixture of open-ended questions and close ended questions.  I let the conversation flow well and make the customer feel relaxed.  Keep in mind when we are asking questions, the customer is likely to have their guard up.  Making the customer feel more relaxed is key at the beginning of the sales process.  Making sure where we meet, colors we wear, and scents we spray on is also important.  For today, we will focus on the questions.

In the Uncover Needs of the sales process we are looking to draw out information from the customer so that we can sell them the best solution.  We need to find out their needs.  Needs are grouped into three areas and I use the acronym SIR:

1.     Situational 

2.     Issues

3.     Ramifications

Situational needs are questions we use to draw out where the customer is.  This is where they are at in the buying process, where they want to get to in the future, who is the decision maker, what is their process for making a decision, what is driving their need for looking at options, etc.  These are very probing questions and customers are usually not wanting to discuss for hours on end.  The more questions we ask that are situational the more risk we have of the customer becoming anxious.  We will want to limit the amount of situational questions that we ask so make sure we are asking the best ones.  

The larger the transaction there are likely more than one decision maker.  I have had to address large teams of decision makers for deals in the multi-million range.  When I was selling outdoor power equipment to landscapers it was usually one or two people.  Keep that in perspective when you are in the situational questions to understand if you are speaking to the correct decision makers.

Issues are the needs we really need to focus on.  They are the limiting factors for organizations that want to move forward, or the reasons why organizations may fail.  These are highly motivating needs that we need to address with our product or service.  Pain is a large driver in making changes so find out what pain they are experiencing and why.  We also need to understand why these issues are causing them limits or pain.  Asking what success would look like to the customer here would help them think in depth and confide in us a little more.  They may also bring in the people that are actually experiencing the pain to help describe to us the issue not just the symptom of the issue. The key is to find the issues that we can resolve with our product or service.  

Ramifications are also highly motivating needs that we need to know.  If the customer is unsuccessful in finding an option to mitigate the issue they have, what does that look like?  Does the organization have to close its doors, does it lose a large contract, or is it smaller to where the customer can not find a special gift for someone special?  Husbands do not buy your significant other a treadmill.  That is not a special gift.  

When the stakes are high people are very motivated to find a solution and are more open to options.  Make sure when asking ramification questions that we are building up the problem in the customer’s mind to drive a sense of urgency so they open up, bring in others that can help provide information, and help us find more information to drive the best solution.  The more we elevate the issue the better influence we can have on helping our customers.  Understanding the ramifications well will strengthen our sales presentation later and can move the customer to action.  

Be careful not to jump into your presentation just yet.  If we do not uncover all of the needs prior to presenting they we will miss the target and then we risk devaluing our solution.  When I do half and full day trainings on the sales process I walk teams through the entire process including developing the questions that will derive larger impact with their customers.  We really need to  invest time to develop great questions for the sales teams to make greater impact which results in  becoming the brand of choice.

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training