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

We Need A Break!

This weekend is a reminder of my father who recently passed away in April.   This would be his birthday week as well.  As I reflect on this I am reminded about a few things about him.

He was a father, fire fighter, electrician, beer truck driver, and the list goes on and on.  It was hard to keep up with him most days even when he was retired.  He was a worker which resonates with our last name.  See back in old country as I am told our name comes from where you were on the mountain.  Being we were not Topbottom means we were workers.  We were not royalty, we did the hard work and thrived in it.

He worked three jobs at once when I was a child and was both my father and mother for quite a bit of my life.  He made it to all but one of my highschool competitions, in which he consistently beat himself up about missing. I reminded him that it was okay, but he kept to the tasks.  He was always working to finish the next task.

He was a remarkable man, but one thing he didn’t do much was take a break to go have fun that often.  He was all about finishing the tasks and moving on to the next task.  This is a trait that I have adopted for most of my life, but with the help of my caring wife, we have grown my ability to take time and slow down. She was very influential on buying a boat and taking trips which is good for me to slow down.  Who doesn’t want a wife that would encourage us to buy a boat?

We need to work hard and get things done, but it is good to take time to relax and go to a lake for a weekend, take a trip to the ice cream shop, and spend quality time with the kids.  We need this to refuel our tanks.  We can’t keep running on empty all the time or we will get burned out.

We need to have these breaks especially with the stress levels we have been under from the pandemic.  We are meant to get out and have community.  We also need to have fun and enjoy our lives.  

Too many people keep putting off fun until later.  Telling themselves that when they retire, they will finally relax and take time to enjoy life.  The issue is a good deal of these retirees end up sick, or die soon after they retire.  Maybe it’s because they are bored to death, or something else, but I believe we should be working even after we retire from our day jobs.  

We are meant to work and to have community.  So why not focus on taking time to rest and enjoy quality time with friends and family going on small adventures periodically instead of waiting until retirement?  All work and no play drains us mentally and physically.  

Stop putting off tomorrow for tomorrow may never come.  This does not mean that we need to just have fun and live under YOLO (You Only Live Once).  We need to enjoy ourselves and fill those tanks that will get emptied during those not so fun times.  Especially when those times that drain us seem to last for longer periods than the great times.  Take the small wins and savor them so they can fuel you during the next grind.

What is something you have been putting off for tomorrow to refuel yourself? 

“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

What Are They Expecting?”

If you have followed my blog posts for any length of time when we talk about what the Customer wants.  You should know that the customer wants to have these three questions answered. 

Do I like you?  

Do I trust you?    

How can you help me?

These three questions may seem simple and redundant, but if the customer does not know, like, and trust us, then we will not be doing business with them.  Customers want to know that they will be served and helped to a better future.  This is not just some thoughtless process they go.  It is crucial for survival.

These three questions have been with us as part of our fight or flight mechanism to keep us alive.  It has served us well and is a continued mechanism that has helped us as we evolve into better cultures.  Having this mechanism work for us helps us stave off making poor decisions on products and services that may not meet our needs.  It also keeps us away from those not so helpful individuals that just care about making money no matter the cost.  

Customers are not just people who buy products and services either.  They are the people we lead, work with, and interact with in social settings.  If we use this filter in our view of others, we see that everyone is a customer and we are sales people.  Even leaders are sales people.

We need to treat those that we interact with as customers of our own personal brand if we are going to be successful.  Whether it is a sports team, political, non-profit, or a for profit organization we all need to serve each other and let others know that we can be liked, trusted, and help others.

If we focus on those three questions, we will be able to grow influence which is key in leadership and sales.  Without influence we go nowhere together. 

Our customers need us to help them solve their issues and move forward.  They key is identifying that issue and how to implement the correct solution to help our customers.  If we don’t then we risk being thought of as a commodity and low trust levels.  That is why so many people do not trust governments anymore as politicians have forgotten who the customer is.

We need to serve our customers well and provide them answers to those three questions if we are going to move forward no matter what profession, position, or status we hold.  Everyone needs to serve each other and then we can grow more trust with easier transactions.  

Just remember the last time you had an amazing experience at a restaurant.  What did you do?  You likely told others why they needed to go visit the location.  Just think what would happen if we served each other so well that they told others they needed to work with us.

“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 Your Team Needs Investment

Have you ever wondered why your team just seems to be stagnant?  As the years go on the growth of the organization seems to hit a ceiling?  No matter how you as the leader push, the sales and growth just seem to flat line?

When I first started in sales, I was thrust into learning by so many different programs to get me up to speed with the rest of the sales team.  We had annual trainings that we took part in as a group every year.  Most of the sales team would groan about the annual sales meeting that took them out of their market from seeing their customers.

It was odd because the owner of the organization would basically have the sales trainer from outside the organization come in and train us with basically the same message the owner constantly presented us with.

It was odd that someone would do this, but as I learned when sales people hear the same thing over time it becomes real.  I’ve since learned that with all areas of our life that the more we hear the same message, the more it becomes truth.  Having an individual come in from outside the organization annually that aligns with the organization’s goals will help solidify with this. 

We would spend a couple days in sales training and at the end of the training from the individual outside of the organization, we would then be held back for a debrief.  Now the organizational leader was ex-military, but it is the same thing as watching the game film from professional sports teams.  The team discussing what they learned and what they can add to their tool box for becoming better is very useful.  

When we discuss with others on our team that we trust and they give perspectives and items they learned that we may not have caught from the training it is very helpful.  We are typically drinking from a fire hose with information that we cannot capture everything, so discussing with others will help us catch some things we missed.  

By discussing this information, the team will form bonds and will become stronger together.  This is crucial as the team will start calling each other instead of the leadership when the trust levels are high between each other to bounce ideas off of each other before bringing to leadership.  This is crucial because as the team unites in trust, it becomes more efficient and drive faster sales growth.

The last thing we did was do competitive analysis and each person from the group chose one specific area to teach on.  The easiest way for us to learn is to actually teach.  It took time to prepare for this, but was very beneficial for all of us to learn.  

Yes, this took us out of the market for a few days, but it was sharpening out axe to chop down the tree.  If we sharpen ourselves, we will be able to cut mor efficient.  Sales organizations need this investment to become better especially since they are so limited in actually selling these days.  Typically, only 36% of sales time is actually spent in the sales process with customers with all of the other activities that are required.  Sales teams need to be invested in if we expect them to grow sales!  

Do you team this favor and invest.   By doing so, you will benefit greatly!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  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 They Don’t Trust You

Have you ever wondered why someone you have been trying to build trust with just won’t give you trust?  No matter how hard you try, they just won’t do it?

Did you know there are different levels of trust and that trust is a marathon, not a sprint?

If we want to have trust with others, we need to take the focus off of ourselves and focus on others.  We need to answer three questions at every interaction.

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you help me?

Those three questions have a great deal of parts to them, but if we struggle at any one of them, we will not be building trust.  I wouldn’t trust my life to someone who read about packing a parachute online once compared to someone who does it for their business.  It took time for the person to get qualified.  So why do we think that everyone should just trust us?

There have been a great deal of stories about people trusting someone with their finances and it is all gone.  Nest eggs crushed by somone that wanted to use the money for their own lifestyle instead of investing for the client.  Organizations have done this as well.

Ever heard of Enron or Bernie Madoff?  Fraudsters are like social media experts as they can swindle people out of money with all the new trends.  People are even being taken advantage of for Covid with new scams.  It is crazy how good these people are.

Life has taught people to not blindly trust each other.  Experience after experience has taught us that we need to be on guard.  The old way of innocent until proven guilty has been flipped upside down to where we are now guilty until proven innocent.  Even now if we are proven innocent people still think of us as guilty due to all the fake news out there.  

People do need to extend trust, but that is not likely to happen freely right away.  It is like climbing a large staircase.  One step at a time answering the three questions every time we interact with the other individuals.  We need to take the focus off ourselves and we will start building trust to some day have that trust level we desire others to have for us.

Focus on the marathon and not a sprint when building trust and you will build the levels of trust with others, but it takes time.

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  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 Employees Think Management Does

Most employees wonder what their management and leadership teams are doing day to day.  Constant commands of new requests rain down from above constantly.  When employees state that they are too busy the response from management is that they just need to prioritize.  

The funny thing about prioritization is that each day it changes to the new fire that has popped up as being the most prioritized issue.  Employees are just asked to do more without clarity or help in some cases.  This is a huge frustration with employees and typically drives burn out.

Employees want to feel like they matter. When management tells the employee to do a new task that has popped up without support that feeling of frustration sets in.   It can feel like a hamster on a wheel every new day.  When it comes time for the end of year review the main goals that were requested at the beginning of the year have been missed.  The only trigger for a raise, promotion, a future with the organization was missed because of the ever changing priorites.

What can employees do?  Can they fight back?  Should they push back to management?  Will management accept this stance?  What is management doing to help the employees become more successful?

Most employees think of management as people sitting on a couch enjoying their favorite cereal, in their comfy pants. Meanwhile the employee is struggling to keep going.  The employees become resentful that the manager is just barking orders to keep from being on the hotseat like an underperforming NFL coach.

Managers are meant to keep things moving forward by managing people and processes to maintain the flow.  Just like a flowing river, if something gets jammed up then the water becomes stagnant and smells awful.  Managers are there to keep things flowing.  They manage a group of employees typically called the span of command.

Managers are working hard trying to manage priorities of the organization as those issues arise.  They don’t want to keep pushing new orders, but they have to so they can stay in their position and collect their paycheck.  Far too often new managers are not equipped to grow trust and influence with those that they manage driving dissention and hate in their groups.  This then turns into having to fill another spot on their team when employees have had enough and leave.

Gallop did a poll and found that this lack of loyalty to the company can cause turnover, which can cost businesses approximately 1.5 times the annual salary of every person who quits.

What managers need to think of themselves is team leaders.  Leaders help their teams by pouring into them and helping the team grow together.  By investing into the team and helping them get better as well as fighting for their team, the leader will be rewarded with trust and influence.  Leaders don’t just bark orders, they serve the team members.  They serve by going the way and showing the way.  

If you are in a management position, think about how you can serve the team so that they can improve.  By serving you will get higher levels of engagement and success with your employees.  Heck, they may even stay with you instead of chasing a pay raise at another organization.

Employees want to feel like they matter.  If they feel like leadership and management does not care for them, they will ultimately disengage and look for other opportunities.  We have just gone through what people are calling the great resignation.  Leadership and management need to look themselves in the mirror and evaluate how they are leading their teams.  They are costing the organization a great deal of money if they don’t take this hard look in the mirror.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  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 Supply Struggle Is Real

In the past couple of years with a pandemic and supply chain issues, it has become crucial to make sure we still deliver at high levels with low costs.  Organizations have had to pay higher costs to ship goods from overseas, weather has affected larger parts of the country, and there are constant requests from suppliers to increase pricing in the name of higher costs.

As sales people we don’t always want to go to customers with price increase after price increase.  It sometimes feels like death by a thousand cuts as one VP states.  Sales people want to sell and then collect a pay check in most cases and hate the constant requests to get price increases.  It is a difficult balance between customer relationship and keeping our organization afloat.

If you are in leadership, or in sales these issues have been hitting all of us quite regularly.  It seems everything is increasing and there is no end in sight.  There are plenty of factors to blame, but pointing the finger never resolves the issue. 

I’ve worked in organizations that do not want to hedge market stability so they set up raw material adjustments.  Now it seems like there is a request for logistics adjustments that will be needed.  A great deal of purchasing and sales teams are wishing things would go back to what they were, but unfortunately the reality is that it will take a market crash to really level set.  Especially with the consumption of raw materials increasing to where even lumber mills can’t keep up with demand.

There will need to be quite a few things that need to change in order for us to make things get to a calm state and fluctuations to calm down.  Better forecasting will be crucial with greater levels of communication from customers and suppliers.  There will need to be a seize to just in time delivery imposed by some industries.  There will also need to be some holding more materials to support the demand right now.

We all need to work together, customer and suppliers creating a better communication system with lower finger pointing if we are to get back to a better quality of life.  Every industry is impacted with these issues so simply jumping to a new organization is not necessarily the resolution.  We need to really work together to find a better way. 

Yes some ideas that we try, will not work.  But that is the great thing about the lightbulb.  It took over a thousand attempts for Thomas Edison to create the lightbulb.  We now have the technology to improve efficiency, but we need to look at how we can work together, team up, and give each other the benefit of the doubt.  No one software package, communication tactic, or demand will cure this.  We have to have empathy for each other and work together to solve the issues.  

Greater levels of communication and transparency will be required to move forward.  Those are crucial in building trust.  Let’s stop the finger pointing and find solutions and we will all get to a better life soon enough.

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  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 Leadership Is Missing These Days

It seems like everyone wants to influence others.  They believe that with influence all their worries will go away whether it be in sales, or getting their plans to move forward.  Having others follow them will make all their worries come to an end.

We have influencers on social media, like Instagram, tik tok, clubhouse, etc.  You name it there are people trying to grow their follower base.  When these influencers meet, they literally discuss how many followers they have.  

The question I have is do followers equate to actual influence.  Would those followers send these influencers tons of money just because?  Would these followers go on mission with these influencers for their cause?  What is the level of influence of these followers really equate to?

Far too often individuals in leadership positions get so engulfed in the power aspect that they are about to obtain that they only think about what others will do for them.  What can others do for me instead of what I can do for those that I am about to lead.  Leadership is not about getting others to do stuff we want, but for us to help move others forward that betters their lives and the organization’s impact.    

What I have found in my career is that no one cares how much we know until they know how much we care about them.  That’s right the focus is not to be shown on us, but on others that we are serving in sales and leadership.  The more we invest in helping them succeed, the more we gain influence.  Not for the sake of building influence, it is a byproduct of the process of serving.

There are three questions that everyone asks on every interaction:

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you help me?

These three questions are how we have survived for thousands of years.  That’s right, it is the process the brain uses to see if we are in danger, or if we are going to be okay.  Whether the fight or flight response should ramp up, or if we are able to relax and enjoy the company.  Ever met someone that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.  Your body was kicking into the fight or flight response. 

These three questions are crucial if we are going to build influence with others.  We need to serve others by answering these three questions.  If we want to lead them in our organization, we must make sure we are answering these questions on every interaction.  If we don’t, we will soon be onboarding someone else and starting the process over again.  This I believe is why there is so much cost in business. If leadership doesn’t take the time to focus on the individuals that report to them, but just the bottom line, then they will ultimately fail.  This is one major factor in why loyalty with an organization has dropped dramatically since the 1990’s.

When organizations forget about the human aspect of the employees and focus solely on the bottom line, cultures fail.   There is an article back in 2005 by the Harvard Business School that calls out why we need to have a human focus on helping those that report to us.  If we don’t then we will need to start the process of recruiting which could in turn cost as much as 2 times the salary for that position to recruit, onboard, and get the new person up to speed with the old person was.  

The numbers are even higher with today’s work environment with the Great Resignation that has just occurred over the past year.  What can we do?  We need to make sure we go back to the basics and focus on those three questions to generate influence and serving our customers and employees if we are going to survive into future decades.

Leadership is not to be served, but to serve.

Have a great week!

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 higher 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 Selfish Are We?

Today let’s talk about the most important variable in building trust with others.

Over the past few weeks, we have been walking through the trust equation explaining three other variables in building trust.  If you have not read them, I highly recommend you go back through and read the past three weeks.  It will likely take less than ten or so minutes, but will help you understand the variables that affect trust.

Today we focus on the denominator of the fraction on building trust and the variable is Selfishness.  We have seen politicians, CEO’s, and sales professionals all brag about how they did something great and how they deserve all the credit.  Unfortunately, anything worth doing takes a great deal of effort and typically takes support of others.  We need to make sure we are not killing trust with selfish gain.

When I created the trust equation it was to make it easy for people to see the basics of building trust.    You can be very creditable, reliable, and vulnerable, but if we are only doing this to help ourselves “WIN” we actually “LOSE.”   We will not be able to gain trust and sustain it if we are only out for our own gain.  If we are selfish and only doing things to be able to leverage in another instance, we will soon erode trust.  People will see it especially if we are doing this over and over again.  True we may be able to hide our selfishness for a little while, but trust is really a long-term plan.  People will figure us out, as selfishness is like a spotlight shining bright into the night sky.  

Selfishness tells people that we do not value them and do not care about them.  Who wants to trust someone like that?  Have you ever been around someone that you tried to give more and more trust and it just seemed to blow up in your face each and every time?  It is really hard to keep wanting to extend them the benefit of doubt.  After a while, trust in that person is just not an option.

By being selfish we can quickly turn relationships sour.  In sales or leadership if this happens, we  start losing our influence, which is the key ingredient to business success.  Without trust there is no influence.  We may think that if we have leverage over others we can influence them, but I challenge that thought because once that leverage is gone there is no more influence.  There have been stories in business where boards have thrown the CEO out of the organization overnight.  Even Steve Jobs was asked to step down at one point at Apple.

I am constantly taking inventory in my life to gauge how selfish I am being.  I’m sure I fail to live up to my standard, but my focus is on not being selfish and trying to help everyone that I can.  I put my expertise out there to help others gain knowledge.  I do not do it so I can say, see what I have done, but to share so that people can avoid mistakes that I have run in to.  My goal is to help others become more efficient and successful especially with areas of sales and influence.  

The key is to really take an inventory of our relationships and see if there are any areas where we are being selfish. Are there some relationships that we have been one sided on?  Have we made any recent mistakes that an apology will help start the road back to building trust?  Selfishness can be fixed when we take an honest look at how we have behaving with others.  

If we want to have a greater trust level, then our selfishness must be put in check.   

Just remember what our math teachers taught us.  It does not matter how large the numerator of a fraction is.  The denominator will affect the outcome greater.   Below is a picture of the complete trust equation for you to have.  Take a screen shot, or make it a graphic for yourself and keep where you can see it often to remind yourself what trust is affected by.

Have a great week!

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 higher 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

A Crucial Contributor To Building Trust

Today we are finishing up the numerator of the trust equation.  For those that don’t remember, the numerator is all of the variables above the dividing line in a fraction.  So far, we have talked about credibility and reliability in building trust.  The third and most important numerator variable is vulnerability.  

I was raised in a single parent family for most of my younger years and being vulnerable was not a soft skill I was taught. I was taught to “man up”, “suck it up”, etc.  We didn’t show emotions that often except for anger and sarcasm.  Vulnerability was something I have and continue to work on to this day.  This was one of the hardest skills for me as a man, but one of the most beneficial skills as a person of influence.  If you can be vulnerable and go deeper with people you will gain more trust and influence with others over time.  

I know what you may be thinking at this moment.  I don’t have time to be vulnerable.  I just need to push through with my team or my customers and get the job done to move on to the next task.  I understand business and getting work done. What I am talking about is building a trust with your team or customers that gives you the benefit of the doubt in bad situations.  The kind of trust that will provide you help when fighting against the competition.  This kind of trust is more than the superficial arm-length kind of relationship.  It brings people in to get to know us on a deeper level.  A level that when the chips are down, they will step in to help without question.

Now let’s talk about what vulnerability is.  Vulnerability is a soft skill that is not typically taught.  Vulnerability is about going deep and opening up ourselves to be potentially judged, let down, hurt emotionally, and disappointed.  It is that uneasy feeling when we are about to disclose something about ourselves to someone because we are risking our comfort level.  Vulnerability is deeper than honesty. 

When being honest, we can speak the truth, but still not show our true self.  People can be rubbed the wrong way with honesty and not trust us.  We can’t gain the connection with others when we are just being honest.  We need to develop our level of vulnerability with those individuals to gain the next level of relationships.  Vulnerability is a scary place for most people because there is that risk of being hurt, but the payoff is definitely greater than the risk.

I have worked with ex-navy seals, business owners, entrepreneurs, engineers, contractors, etc. and those that are most successful are vulnerable to those they need high levels of trust with.  Leaders learn how to be vulnerable.  Leaders strive to grow the relationship with those around them so that when the time comes to dig down the leaders will have the buy in from those around them to work together and accomplish great things.

The reason why I have had such great success in sales is because I am vulnerable with my customers and team members.  I trust them and pushed through my comfort zone to allow others in to see who I am.  By doing so I have gained great relationships and trust with those around me and built strong bonds that helped me when working on new businesses, growing a men’s ministry, my marriage, and some close friends that would drop everything and run to help if I truly needed it.  

This week I want to challenge us to open up when we are trying to bottle up things that we don’t want to let others know about.  It’s okay to take off the mask of perfectness and let others see our true identity.  Let others open up to us while we use active listening and not just give solutions.  I should also say that “suck it up buttercup” would not be the best phrase when someone opens up to us and is vulnerable.  That might get you quickly thrown out of their circle of trust.  My commitment this week is to listen and be more vulnerable to those around me and not jump in to fix it and move on.  What is your next step today to be more vulnerable with those around you?    

Go ahead and post your next step in vulnerability in the comments below.  

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 higher 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

Reliability, The Second Variable In The Trust Equation

Ever think it’s no big deal if I pass up on this one meeting with a customer?  Ever think that it’s just one appointment in my busy schedule that I can just skip?  What about that promise that we broke to our family to do something fun that we are going to have to push back on the calendar yet again?

The road to eroding trust is paved with good intensions.  It is sealed with no follow through.

My father once told me that I should do the right thing no matter if anyone was watching.  At the time as a young adult, I was thinking that what does it matter if no one is watching.  In today’s age with technology, someone is always watching.  Just do a google search on yourself and you’ll find tons of websites with all of your information out there.

If we want to be considered trustworthy, we need to make sure that we are showing up in a consistent manner each and every time.  We need to be Reliable.

That’s right Reliability is key to trust building.  People begin to trust us when we are consistent in how we show up.  That can be personality, work ethic, promises, etc.  The more consistent we are the more reliable we are.

Think of that restaurant that you have visited multiple times because the food was great and the service was fantastic.  We can’t help but tell people they have to go visit that establishment because of the great experience.  That is what others want of us.  They want to know that they can get a consistent experience from us when they interact with us.

Whether it is our boss, our significant other, our kids, etc.  It doesn’t matter who we are interacting with, they want to have consistency with us.  That makes the reliability go up.  If we are consistently showing up with our work, we get to stay employed and more money with raises and promotions.  Children get more freedom when they are reliable.

If we are there for our friends in times of need, they will open up to us more and we have more influence.  If our kids know that we will be there for them they will have more confidence in us as parents.  They will trust us more.  

We need to be constantly showing up in the same reliable manner if we want trust.  Yes there are times that we fall short and have to ask for forgiveness, but if we have been reliable more often than not, we will get the benefit of the doubt. When we can have a minor slip up, but still be considered trustworthy and reliable that is when we know we are doing well.

In sales too often the customer is provided all of these reasons why this interaction will be different from other suppliers.  Delivery will be exceptional and on time, our customer service team will support them and not leave the customer on hold for hours on end, etc.  

Far too often in sales we over commit and under produce.  We have this grand promise that falls short of expectation for the customer.  Guess what happens…Trust goes down and we are put into the commodity bucket on the next time we are thought of as an option for suppling goods and services.  In sales and business, we also need to make sure that we are showing up in a reliable manner if we want to be considered the best option and maintain good profit margins.

When we are considered commodities, the only differentiating factor is price.  We need to make sure that we are providing exceptional service to help the customer along through their lives and support them in a reliable manner.  If we do that trust will go up and we will gain more opportunities in the future.  That is why I try to under commit and over produce for my customers as much as I can. 

If I am not able to guarantee something, then I don’t.  I am not like one of those informercials from the 90’s promising that this product will solve everything from small messes to world hunger.  I make sure that my customers know how, when, and what my product / service will do and make sure that it achieves those goals.  I have built solid levels of trust with customers and friends by being consistent and reliable.

The final thought is yes, we need to commit to something and push hard to make that happen.  Never committing to anything will stop trust in it’s tracks.

Be reliable and you will gain trust with those you interact with.

Have a good week!

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 higher 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

To Build Trust You Need To Have The Letter C

The last couple of weeks I have been helping you with understanding that there are different levels of trust needed for different levels of relationships and the three questions that we need to answer to build trust and influence.  Today I would like help you with a concept that I created for people to visualize an easy way to understand what goes into trust.  I call it the “Trust Equation” and it has helped many people start building trust easily by understanding the components of trust.

There are four main components of the trust equation and I will break down each of them in the next few blogs so that you can better understand each and excel at building higher levels of trust in 2022.   Without trust we can’t make movements, sell, lead, or do anything of substance with others.  We need trust.

Without any more delays let’s get into the first component of trust:

Credibility  

We have have credibility before people will trust us on a specific topic of concern.  This is crucial, but does not mean that we have to go to school to learn about everything and anything.  No one knows everything.  

Credibility is typically linked to knowledge.  A person goes to school, gets a degree and then they are finally credible on a subject.  While that is very true, there are other aspects to Credibility that many do not think about.  One is effective communication and the other I call “being the bridge.” 

I have seen very intelligent individuals lose credibility because they could not effectively communicate their topic.  That’s right, just because they have a great deal of knowledge, does not automatically grant them credibility.  Everyone needs to be able to communicate effectively!  

There are many courses that help on effective communication topics, but the biggest effect on communication is the ability to break complex topics into simple understandable pieces.  That means not using really big dictionary words when a simple word can be used.  If we can communicate effectively then we can build trust and generate credibility.  

Now the other component I mentioned earlier is what I call “being the bridge.”  This is something that I learned when I first got into sales.  If I was able to connect people needing help in a certain area with those that had the knowledge, I actually built credibility.  That’s right because I was bridging the gap for them, then I am deemed a credible source as well.  

When we bridge others together, we are associated with credibility because we are associated as one that adds vallue. Adding value is key in trust building and being a bridge will help us gain influence.  This is one of the main ways I have been so successful throughout my career.  I have built a great deal of credibility by bridging others together.  

Bring knowledgeable, communicating effectively, and being the bridge will allow us to become more credible with others.  Consistently showing up to add value and help others is the way to growing trust with anyone we interact with.  

If you would like more information on building trust reach out and set up a call so we can discuss and I can point you in the right direction!

The next few weeks I will discuss the other variables in the trust equation.  Look forward to helping you gain more trust and influence in the weeks to come!

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 higher profits!”

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

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

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

Trust begins with three questions

If you want trust, you must answer three questions every time you meet with others.  Too often people focus on how others will answer these three questions and not how we need to be answering them.  The three questions are:  

Do I like You?

Do I trust You?

How can you help Me?

Those three questions that everyone asks at every interaction are crucial for us to put our best foot forward.  Otherwise, we will not grow trust levels with others and possibly erode trust with others. 

The first question has a lot that goes into it, but the main thing is that if people do not like us then they will not trust us.  There is a radar in our fight or flight system that has likeability as a key indicator.  Ever have that feeling that something was wrong with someone you just met and you needed to leave.  That is the radar trying to keep you alive.

Likeability is crucial.  The colors we wear, the way we make others feel, our pace of speech, and even the scents we wear can affect the likeability factor.   See we don’t know other people’s pasts, experiences, and triggers.  That means that we can subconsciously step onto land mines that we did not know where there.  A land mine is an explosive that is buried under the surface that when stepped on creates a large explosion usually killing the person that stepped on the land mine.

 This does not mean that we just avoid contact with others.  What we need to do is make sure we are consciously approaching those that we come in contact with awareness and humility.  We can’t avoid contact with others, but we can however focus on understanding and help them.

The more we put the focus on learning about others and minimizing ways to trigger others the better we can build relationships with them.  

When I first meet with others, I tend to wear colors like light blue, whites in my shirts.  I don’t wear power ties, dark colors, or a ton of cologne.  I also focus on learning about them by asking a great deal of questions.  Not so I can sell them something, but to learn and help if possible.  I want to help people and by investing in helping others, I have also benefited in my careers and personal life as a by-product.

The first step in taking the focus off ourselves and onto others is start by learning about them.  The best way to do that is build a profile about them.  That means we are focused solely learning about them (not to leverage them, but to help them).  I use a profile sheet when I prep for meeting with individuals and do research on them prior to the meeting if possible.  I have also asked if I could take notes and 9 times out of 10 the people are receptive and actually get more engaged by me attempting to learn about them.  

I have attached a link to the profile sheet I use to learn about others a.  If you’d like a copy just click here and you can have it.  No, I am not trying to track your email through this.  It is free to you.  There are some questions you might have on this sheet so if you haven’t read any of my blog posts about the client profile sheet you can look back at those, or reach out.  I would be glad to help you.

For today, focus on not stepping on land mines and learning about others and you will start building trust with others.  

Have a great week.

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

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 Trust Works

I hope you are doing well this week and ready to move forward with others that you interact with.  In order to do that we need to make sure we are elevating the trust levels with those we interact with.  

In order to do that we really need to understand how to build trust, why others give us some trust levels of trust, and what effects trust over time.  Even though some people say they just give people trust when they meet them, would they trust someone to hold them a high rise building with just a rope?

We give some levels of trust to people, but don’t typically put our lives in their hands right away, unless there is some kind of emergency.  I have made a diagram for trust levels that is in the picture of this post above.  This gives an idea that the closer we are to people the more trust that is needed.  That is why we do not have as many people in intimate relationships with us like our significant other and children.  

We would not tell the world our deepest secrets like we would those in intimate relationships with.  

That means that we have different levels of trust and we have to grow trust with others if we are going to learn more about them.  Not to leverage them with their secrets, but to learn about them.  Sales professionals for years have learned how to build rapport with customers and grow the relationships as well as trust levels.  Sales professionals know that if business transactions are going to occur then there must be high levels of trust established. 

Investments of trust take a lot of work and we need to be ready to do the work to grow trust.  People will only interact with those they know, like, and trust.  So, in order to build trust, we need to answer three questions on every interaction.

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you help me?

In order to build trust levels, we need to focus on these three questions and what I can tell you is the techniques that sales professionals use (not the sleazy ones) will help you understand how to do this effectively.

I would encourage you to pick up a sales book, or take and online training to help yourself learn and equip yourself to succeed in growing trust with others.

If you’d like to use mine that is great, but not a necessity.  My links are below for my book “The Sales Process Uncovered” and the link to my trainings are also below:

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

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!”

Influencer or Influence, What Do You Want?

Have you ever thought about how to build influence in your marketing efforts?  Have you ever thought about using an influencer to endorse your product / service to gain more customers?  

Marketing has made a shift in the past few years relying on those social marketing influencers to endorse their products / services.   Marketers believe that followers of these influencers will buy whatever that influencer has mentioned.  Unfortunately, there is a limit to this theory?

By using an influencer, we are essentially using social proof with customers.  That is the basis of gaining trust from someone else’s endorsement that others trust their recommendations.  It’s literally a exchange of trust.  This will work for commodities, but if you are offering a service, you may find it difficult to capitalize with this type of marketing.  

When it comes to influencers, they hold up products, but to show how a service works it may be difficult and take time for them to really show how it works.  When getting our marketing plans secured, we really need to understand what we are offering before we just throw money at the effort.  If we believe we have a commodity then we have already lost because a commodity is only differentiated by price.  That is why we need to make sure we have figured out how we are different from others in our same product / service demographic.

Successful organizations that have focused their efforts on customer service have secured reoccurring customers.  That’s right the customer experience is more impactful than having a super star wear our products.  We need to focus on building customer service and trust with our current customers and yes this takes time.  We live in an era with two-day shipping, moves on demand, and grocery shopping online world, but the one true way to gain reoccurring customers is to serve them consistently over time.  

Ever try to get a chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A at lunch or dinner?  It’s a chicken sandwich, not a new cure for cancer, but because they have focused on customer service over time, they have passed up the other fast food competition with fewer locations.  That’s right the golden arches which have been a staple were passed by Chick-Fil-A.  Their customer service has accomplished this cult following.

We need to focus on the long-term vision of building trust with our customers.  Without trust we will not gain influence with our customers.  We need to have high levels of trust with our customers before they will tell their closets friends and family members to use us.  That is also still the best form of referral.  I am also not talking about bribing the customers with a coupon if they share with others.  

I am talking about natural raving customers that can’t help but tell others to do business with you.We need to serve our customers well consistently if we are going to having reoccurring customers and eventually partners that will only buy from us and all that we sell.  Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to market because our customers are buying everything we sell and partner with us?  

That is why I consistently post blogs every week for over three years and consistently post videos online to help customers gain more knowledge and understanding about sales and influence.  I am here as a guide to help you become successful in your endeavors. 

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 Customer Trust

Have you ever bought something from a salesperson you just didn’t like or trust?  If you did, how did it make you feel afterwards?  When is the last time you made a large purchase from someone you didn’t trust?  Likely never.

Today we are talking about why building trust with the customer is important.

There are three questions that everyone asks themselves about us when they meet with us.  Every time!  These questions are:

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you help me?

See that second question?  Trust is a highly important question that has to be answered by us for the customer.  If we don’t answer that question with our actions and words lining up, then the customer will move on down the road to our competitors that offer similar products / services. 

Trust is extremely important with most of our major decisions.  I define major decisions as decisions that cost over $500, or life changing decisions.  Some use gut feelings, some use research, and some use advisors.  The fact remains that trust is a part of every major decision.  If we do not have trust, we do not act.  This is why most consumers ask friends and family who they should talk to about a product / service.  They are searching for a trusted advisor.

Today it is so easy to find options for a product / service that we need.  Just hop online and do a quick search.  When the customer is coming in to talk to us, they are trusting that we will help them.  We need to make sure that we have that in mind when we serve the customer.  We as sales professionals need to be showing up to serve the customer and being open and honest of where we can and can not help them.  Focusing on how we can better grow the relationship and trust with that individual / organization. 

Customers are not just looking for a transactional experience.  They want to be known and heard.  They want people that will advocate for them to find solutions that will benefit them the best.  Customers want a relationship.  We as humans are born to crave a sense of community and value.  Customers want that as well.  Why do you think there are so many Facebook groups out there today?  People want community.

When people trust us, they share more information with us.  Not their deepest darkest secrets, but they will share more and more as trust is built.  I have had customers tell me about future RFQ’s that I could look forward to and worked with my teams to be more prepared so I was able to achieve success.  That would not have happened had I not built great levels of trust with these customers. 

To build trust I use a simple equation that I call the Trust Equation.  It uses variable such as credibility, reliability, vulnerability, and selfishness and puts them into a simple equation to help us build trust effectively and quickly with customers.  This equation also focuses on a long-term approach to building a great amount of influence with the customers. 

Now, there is a great deal to discuss on trust such as how to build it, the different levels of trust needed depending on proximity to others, and how to keep growing trust.  That is why I created the “Trustworthy” training to help people like yourself understand and build trust quickly. 

If you’d like to check out it click here to be taken to the training.  It’s worth the investment. 

Today, lets make sure we are focused on building trust with our customers. 

Build trust with your customer and you will reap greater rewards! 

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 Trust In The Workplace Is Essential

Ever have a team that did not have trust?  Ever work with others that would step on you just so they could shine brighter and show off their awesomeness?  Ever been sabotaged by another team member to make you look bad?

Unfortunately, sometimes have these situations which makes us question if we in fact actually on a team? 

There are many factors that go into trust in a team.  We have to trust that team members will be able to do their job well, we have to trust they will not sabotage us, we have to trust things will be communicated effectively. 

If we are a manager that does not have trust for our employees then we are going to micro manage them.  If we do not trust the employees, we spend much of our time checking and rechecking their work.  If we do that, how can we continue to grow ourselves, and still move the group forward?  It’s like rowing a boat with our hands instead of an oar.

If we do not trust our colleges enough then we are doing extra work as well to make sure we hit the outcome we desire.  That means more stress, longer hours, less efficiency, and drain on our attitudes.  Then comes the mixed emotions of stress and disengagement with work and family.  When teams are not in a high trust environment, they are not working efficiently.  People are not communicating well and issues are sometimes hidden.  The only time management sees an issue is when a major event occurs.

If we are in a large organization and the engineering team is not trusted by other teams, then the design will be delayed to launch.  If this is a publicly traded entity and launches are delayed guess what happens to the stock price valuation… 

We need to make sure we are forming a trusting environment because speed and cost are the two variables in business that are affected by trust.  When we are in a high trust environment speed goes up and cost goes down.  When that happens, guess what happens to profits…they go UP!

When we are in a high trust environment people will be allowed to move quicker without having to get tons of approvals and tons of double checking.  Everything flows faster and work is completed with less bureaucracy.  It’s like a river that is allowed to flow, it is clean, but when it is blocked up, everything becomes stagnant and scummy.

We need to make sure that we are working on ways to build trust throughout our organization so that we can work more efficiently.  If trust grows, the outcome will be increased profits. 

If you’d like to know ways to improve trust, check out this link that will take you to my training on building trust that will allow you to build trust around you and form great levels of trust with your teams.

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

Avoid This if You Want Trust

Ever been told you are being selfish?  Ever tried to take a toy away from one child to give it to another?  The response is most likely “It’s Mine…”  We are born selfish which is why sometimes it is hard to build trust with others.

We have come to the most important variable when discussing trust.  It’s in the denominator of the trust equation as well.  This means that the larger this variable is, the more it pulls down the other variables in the numerator.  Yes it is math based. 

We can be very creditable, reliable, and vulnerable, but if we are only doing this to help ourselves “WIN” we will actually “LOSE”.  We will not be able to gain trust and sustain it if we are only out for our own gain.  True we may be able to fake our selfishness for a little while to obtain short term gains, but trust is actually more like a marathon.  People will figure it out fast enough as selfishness is like a spotlight shining bright into the night sky.  There is no way to truly cover selfishness.

Selfishness tells people that we do not value them and do not care about them.  Have you ever been around someone that you tried to give more and more trust and it just seemed to blow up in your face each and every time?  It is really hard to keep wanting to extend them the benefit of doubt.  After a while trust is just not an option anymore.

I had to come to this realization with someone that I have bent over backwards to help on quite a few occasions.  Each time resulted in being taken advantage of due to their selfishness.  I am very helpful by nature and want to help people from hitting some of the pitfalls that I have had to endure.  This person was only focused on their wants without a care for anyone else. 

By being selfish we can quickly turn relationships sour.  In sales or leadership if this happens, we really start losing influence.  Influence is the key ingredient to success in sales and leadership.  Without trust there is no influence.  Leverage is a term of is a term often people use as an influencing tool of holding something over someone so that they will do what we want, but once leverage is gone these people will revolt!  When we do not have trust, people will be less willing to give us the benefit of the doubt and promote us to customer.   Even Steve Jobs was asked to step down at one point at Apple.

I am constantly taking inventory in my life to gauge how selfish I am being.  I’m sure I fail to live up to my standard, but my focus is on not being selfish.  Instead, my focus is on trying to help everyone that I can.  I put my expertise out there to help others gain knowledge.  I do not do it so I can say that I have done it, but to share so that people can avoid mistakes that I have run into in the past.  My goal is to help you become more efficient and successful especially with areas of sales and leadership. 

The key is to really take an inventory of our relationships and see if there are any areas where we are being a little selfish.  Are there some relationships that we need to apologize for selfishness?  Have we made any recent mistakes that an apology will help start the road back to building trust?  Selfishness can be fixed when we take an honest look at how we have behaving with others. 

When we lower selfishness relationships and influence seem to increase at a rapid pace.  We need to place value on others and not do anything to just advance ourselves, but humbly help others get to where they need to go.  “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar

So here it is the full Trust Equation.

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

Don’t Fear The V

How hard is it for you to share your true feelings of fear?  Ever informed someone that you were uncomfortable?  Have you ever been told you are too vulnerable? 

My guess is that if you a man in your 40’s and older, that has not been something you have ever heard.  It just was not modeled for the most part by our fathers.  We were taught how to change the car oil, get a job, and fix things.  Vulnerability was not something that most of us were taught.

I was raised in a single parent family for most of my younger years and being vulnerable was not a skill I was taught.  I was taught to “man up”, “suck it up”, etc.  We didn’t show emotion.  Well we did show anger and sarcasm.  That was about it.  Vulnerability was something I work on daily as I enter my fourth decade of life.  This was one of the hardest skills for me as a man, but one of the most beneficial assets as a person of influence. 

You may be thinking, I don’t have time to be vulnerable.  I just need to push through with my team or my customers and get the job done to move on to the next task.  I understand business and getting work done.  What I am talking about is building a trust with our teams or customers gives us the benefit of the doubt in bad situations.  This kind of trust is more than the superficial arm-length kind of relationship.  It brings people in to get to know us on a deeper level.  A level that when the chips are down, they will step in to help without question.

Now let’s talk about what vulnerability is. Vulnerability is opening ourselves to be potentially judged, let down, hurt emotionally, and disappointed.  Vulnerability is sharing details and emotions to show the real us.  It is also an uneasy feeling when we disclose something about ourselves to someone in an effort to build deeper trust levels. 

Vulnerability is deeper than honesty.  When being honest, we can speak the truth, but still not build trust (just ask my wife).  People can be rubbed the wrong way with honesty.  We can not gain the connection with others when we are just honest.  We need to develop our level of vulnerability with other individuals to gain deeper relationships.  Vulnerability is a scary place for most people because there is that risk of being hurt, but the payoff is definitely greater.

I have worked with ex-navy seals, business owners, entrepreneurs, engineers, contractors, etc. The most successful people are vulnerable to those they need high levels of trust with.  Leaders have to be vulnerable with those they lead.  Leaders strive to grow the relationship with those around them so that when the time comes to dig deep, the leaders will have the buy in from those around them, and accomplish great things.

The reason why I have had such great success in sales is because I am vulnerable with my customers and team members.  I trust them and pushed through my comfort zone to allow others in to see who I am.  By doing so I have gained great relationships and trust with those around me.  Together we have accomplished great things like a men’s ministry, winning multi-million multi-year contracts, and solid relationships that have stood the test of time.

This week I want to challenge us to open up instead of trying to conceal things.  It’s okay to show the real us to others.  We can share some of the things we struggle with and ask for help.  Being vulnerable with where we are at will allow us to grow stronger and have others come along side of us to accomplish much more.  My commitment this week is to listen and be more vulnerable to those around me and not jump in to fix it and move on.  What is the next step you can do today to be more vulnerable with those around you? 

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