Building A Solid Foundation For Relationships

In the vast landscape of relationships, whether personal or professional, the bedrock of any enduring connection is built on two powerhouse principles: trust and consistency. In this blog post, we're diving into the art of crafting unshakeable foundations with anyone you meet. Buckle up, because it's time to unleash the dynamic duo that transforms fleeting interactions into bonds that withstand the test of time!

Trust

Trust isn't just a virtue; it's the currency that fuels every meaningful relationship. Want to build a foundation that can weather any storm? Start by earning and giving trust. Be honest, be reliable, and above all, be authentic. People can smell a fake from a mile away, so drop the masks and let trust be the anchor that grounds your connection.

Consistency

Consistency isn't about grand gestures; it's about the small acts that add up over time. Whether it's remembering someone's birthday, offering a helping hand, or simply being a reliable presence, these small acts of consistency compound to create a robust foundation that withstands the tests of time.

Trust and consistency thrive in an environment of open communication. Be willing to share your thoughts, feelings, and expectations, and encourage others to do the same. Communication isn't just about words; it's about creating a space where everyone feels heard and understood. Break down the walls, and watch trust blossom.

We're all human, and humans make mistakes. When you inevitably stumble, embrace humility. Admitting your mistakes and taking responsibility shows integrity and builds trust faster than any flawless facade ever could. It's not about being perfect; it's about being real.

Building trust and consistency takes time. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are enduring relationships. Be patient, invest the time, and let the foundation strengthen organically. Rushing the process can lead to cracks, so savor the journey of connection-building.

When it comes to relationships, trust and consistency are your dynamic duo. They are the architects of foundations that withstand the storms that come. Whether you're forging a new connection or reinforcing an existing one, remember that trust is earned, consistency is key, and the journey is as important as the destination. So, go ahead, build those unshakeable connections – because when trust and consistency join forces, you're not just building relationships; you're crafting a legacy.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with the best customers and top employees.    How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  How can we land and keep top talent in our organization with the salary wars.  Kevin teaches your sales and leadership teams how to build the key ingredient to be successful with their relationships and take your goals to the next level with high levels of engagement.

Kevin’s website: www.kevinsidebottom.com

Kevin’s email: kevin@kevinsidebottom.com

The Sales Process Online Membership Site 

The Sales Process Uncovered Book 

Trust Building Games

Building trust in a group setting can be facilitated through engaging and interactive activities. Here are three trust-building games that promote communication, collaboration, and a sense of camaraderie:

Questions for Humans is a game that encourages open and honest communication within the group. Divide participants into pairs or small groups and have them take turns asking thought-provoking questions to each other. These questions can range from personal experiences and aspirations to deeper philosophical inquiries. The key is to create an atmosphere of trust and encourage genuine sharing. As participants open up and listen to one another, trust within the group will naturally strengthen.

Escape rooms provide an exciting and challenging environment for team members to work together towards a common goal. In this immersive game, participants are locked in a room and must solve puzzles, decipher clues, and collaborate within a set time limit to escape. This game requires trust, effective communication, and teamwork to succeed. The shared experience of working towards a shared objective fosters bonding and trust-building among participants.

Operation Adventure is an outdoor team-building game that involves problem-solving and physical challenges. Divide participants into teams and provide them with a series of missions or tasks to complete within a designated area. These missions can include obstacle courses, puzzles, or cooperative activities that require trust and effective communication to accomplish. The shared sense of adventure and overcoming challenges together builds trust and strengthens group dynamics.

Remember, the key to fostering trust through these games is to create a supportive and non-judgmental environment. Encourage active listening, respect for different perspectives, and the celebration of each team member's contributions. By emphasizing collaboration and positive interactions, these games can facilitate trust-building and create a stronger, more cohesive group.

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with the best customers and top employees.    How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  How can we land and keep top talent in our organization with the salary wars.  Kevin teaches your sales and leadership teams how to build the key ingredient to be successful with their relationships and take your goals to the next level with high levels of engagement.

Kevin’s website: www.kevinsidebottom.com

Kevin’s email: kevin@kevinsidebottom.com

The Sales Process Online Membership Site 

https://www.kevinsidebottom.com/pricing-page

The Sales Process Uncovered Book 

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8XUM4QL2RC6M&keywords=the+sales+process+uncovered&qid=1673274567&sprefix=the+sales+process+uncovered%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1

How To Build Customer Relationships

In today's competitive business landscape, building and nurturing strong customer relationships is more important than ever. While closing a sale may bring immediate gratification, establishing a long-term connection with customers requires a strategic approach and a genuine commitment to their success. To build lasting customer relationships, it is essential to focus on supporting customers, understanding their business, and aligning with their goals. In this blog post, we will explore these key principles and provide actionable insights for cultivating enduring customer relationships.

First we should state that building trust with customers is not a sprint, it is in fact a marathon.  We need to continually focus on supporting our customers in all aspects of our organization.  It encompasses creating a positive experience throughout the customer journey. Show genuine care and attention, promptly responding to queries and concerns. Be proactive in anticipating their needs and offer personalized assistance. By providing exceptional support, you build trust and foster loyalty, setting the foundation for a long-term relationship.

To truly connect with your customers, it is crucial to understand their business and their particular industry. We need to invest time in research, gather insights, and gain a deep understanding of the customer’s pain points, challenges, and opportunities. By acquiring this knowledge, you can position yourself as a strategic partner, offering tailored solutions that address their specific needs. Aligning your products or services with their goals demonstrates your commitment to their success.

Every customer has unique goals and objectives as well. Take the time to engage in meaningful conversations to understand their vision and aspirations. By actively listening and asking thoughtful questions, you can uncover valuable insights that will enable you to provide solutions aligned with their goals. Tailor your offerings to help them achieve their desired outcomes, and continuously reassess their evolving needs to stay ahead of the curve.

Clear and effective communication is the cornerstone of any successful relationship. Regularly update customers on relevant industry trends, product updates, and opportunities for growth. Be proactive in addressing any concerns or challenges they may encounter. Foster an open and transparent line of communication, encouraging feedback and actively seeking ways to improve your offerings. By being attentive and responsive, you demonstrate that their opinions matter, building trust and loyalty.

Building enduring customer relationships requires consistency in both actions and values. Be reliable in delivering on promises, meeting deadlines, and maintaining high-quality standards. Consistency creates a sense of dependability and reliability, fostering a strong foundation for trust which is something I have written about in the trust equation. By consistently providing exceptional experiences, you differentiate yourself from competitors and become the go-to partner for your customers' needs.

In the fast-paced business world, it is important to recognize that building customer relationships is a marathon, not a sprint. By focusing on supporting customers, understanding their business, and aligning with their goals, you can create long-lasting connections that go beyond individual transactions. Remember, nurturing customer relationships requires ongoing effort, active listening, and consistent communication. By becoming a trusted partner, you will foster loyalty, increase customer satisfaction, and position your business for long-term success.

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with the best customers and top employees.    How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  How can we land and keep top talent in our organization with the salary wars.  Kevin teaches your sales and leadership teams how to build the key ingredient to be successful with their relationships and take your goals to the next level with high levels of engagement.

Kevin’s website: www.kevinsidebottom.com

Kevin’s email: kevin@kevinsidebottom.com

The Sales Process Online Membership Site 

https://www.kevinsidebottom.com/pricing-page

The Sales Process Uncovered Book 

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8XUM4QL2RC6M&keywords=the+sales+process+uncovered&qid=1673274567&sprefix=the+sales+process+uncovered%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1

Why You Need To Build Relationships With Your Peers Or Teammates

In today's interconnected and fast-paced work environments, building strong relationships with your peers or teammates is a critical factor for personal and professional success. These relationships serve as a valuable board of advisors, facilitating idea-sharing, enhancing project speed, and ultimately contributing to your overall effectiveness and success. In this blog post, we will explore the importance of building relationships with your peers or teammates, focusing on how they can become your trusted advisors, accelerate project timelines, and elevate your influence within the organization.

The Board of Advisors: Bouncing Ideas and Gaining Insights: When you foster relationships with your peers or teammates, you create a network of trusted advisors. These individuals can provide diverse perspectives, industry insights, and valuable feedback. Utilize this board of advisors to bounce ideas off them, seek their input, and gain fresh perspectives on your projects or challenges. Engaging in open discussions and collaborative brainstorming sessions allows you to leverage the collective intelligence and experience of your peers, leading to more innovative and refined solutions. This active exchange of ideas not only strengthens your projects but also fosters a culture of continuous learning and growth within the team.

Accelerating Project Speed through Collaboration: Building relationships with your peers or teammates is crucial for achieving efficient project execution. When you establish a strong rapport with your colleagues, it becomes easier to communicate, delegate tasks, and align on project objectives. Collaboration becomes seamless, reducing unnecessary delays and streamlining workflow. By leveraging the collective strengths and expertise of your teammates, you can identify potential roadblocks earlier, proactively find solutions, and expedite project timelines. Strong relationships promote effective teamwork, ensuring that projects progress smoothly and are completed more swiftly.

The Influence Advantage for Success: Developing influential relationships within your team or organization is a catalyst for personal and professional success. When you cultivate positive connections and earn the respect of your peers, you naturally gain influence and the ability to lead. Influential individuals can drive decision-making, garner support for initiatives, and inspire others to perform at their best. By building strong relationships, you enhance your credibility and trustworthiness, which enables you to navigate organizational dynamics effectively and rally support for your ideas. The influence you wield within your team contributes to your overall success, propelling you towards achieving your goals.

Building meaningful relationships with your peers or teammates is a cornerstone of success in the modern workplace. Cultivating these connections allows you to tap into a valuable board of advisors, where ideas can be shared, refined, and elevated. Collaborating effectively with your colleagues accelerates project speed, ensuring timely completion and superior results. Furthermore, strong relationships grant you the advantage of influence, enabling you to make an impact within your team or organization. Embrace the power of building relationships, and unlock the vast potential for personal and professional growth, enhanced project speed, and overall success. Remember, the strength of your network can shape the trajectory of your career, so invest time and effort in nurturing these valuable relationships.

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with the best customers and top employees.    How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  How can we land and keep top talent in our organization with the salary wars.  Kevin teaches your sales and leadership teams how to build the key ingredient to be successful with their relationships and take your goals to the next level with high levels of engagement.

Kevin’s website: www.kevinsidebottom.com

Kevin’s email: kevin@kevinsidebottom.com

The Sales Process Online Membership Site 

https://www.kevinsidebottom.com/pricing-page

The Sales Process Uncovered Book 

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8XUM4QL2RC6M&keywords=the+sales+process+uncovered&qid=1673274567&sprefix=the+sales+process+uncovered%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1

Seven Tips For Business Networking For New Entrepreneurs

As a new entrepreneur, building a strong network is essential to help your business grow and achieve its goals. However, networking can be intimidating, especially when you're starting out. Here are some tips to help you network effectively:

1.     Attend industry events: Look for events related to your industry and attend them. These events provide an excellent opportunity to meet other professionals and exchange ideas. They can also help you stay updated on new trends and developments in your field.

2.     Come prepared: Before attending a networking event, prepare yourself. Get your energy levels up especially if you are an introvert.  Be ready to engage in conversations and follow up with people afterward.  A great tool that you can use for capturing leads is mobile card.  I gave up handing out business cards and worrying if they would end up in bathroom stalls or trash cans…. Make sure you are not being superficial and speed dating when meeting new prospects.

3.     Join networking groups: Joining networking groups is a great way to meet new people and build relationships. These groups can provide opportunities to connect with other like-minded entrepreneurs and professionals in your industry.  The University of Toledo has the Family Business Center which is a great resource for business leaders.  I am sure other Universities have this as well near you.

4.     Build authentic relationships: Focus on building genuine relationships. Take the time to get to know people on a personal level, find common interests, and build trust. This approach will make people more likely to want to do business with you in the future.

5.     Follow up: After meeting someone at a networking event, make sure to follow up with them. Send them an email or connect with them on social media. Take the time to personalize your message and show that you are genuinely interested in building a relationship.  A great resource I talked about earlier is Mobilo.

6.     Give before you receive: Networking is not just about what you can get from others. Look for opportunities to serve others in your network. This could be as simple as sharing information or resources, making introductions, or providing support.

7.     Be consistent: Building relationships takes time and effort, so be patient and persistent. Attend events regularly, follow up with people, and stay engaged.

Networking is an essential aspect of building a successful business. By attending events, joining networking groups, building authentic relationships, following up, giving before receiving, and being consistent, you can build a strong network that will help your business grow and achieve its objectives.

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with the best customers and top employees.    How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  How can we land and keep top talent in our organization with the salary wars.  Kevin teaches your sales and leadership teams how to build the key ingredient to be successful with their relationships and take your goals to the next level with high levels of engagement.

Kevin’s website: www.kevinsidebottom.com

Kevin’s email: kevin@kevinsidebottom.com

The Sales Process Online Membership Site 

https://www.kevinsidebottom.com/pricing-page

The Sales Process Uncovered Book 

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8XUM4QL2RC6M&keywords=the+sales+process+uncovered&qid=1673274567&sprefix=the+sales+process+uncovered%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1

Are you Building Trust During This Season?

Christmas is here!  This is the time of year where we are giving presents away to others and enjoying quality time with family and friends.  Ever stop to think why we find more joy at this time of year than any other?

In the book Well Being from Gallop who do studies on people for just about everything, they write about how spending and focusing on others actually makes our mood better.  That’s why we need to really think about our intentions when we are interacting with others. 

If we are in a bad mood, are we just trying to bring others down, or are we trying to help them?  Are we trying to build better relationships, or just help ourselves get to a better place?  What is the motivator here?  Are we being selfish, or are we being giving?

Ever wonder why some people just don’t trust us?  No matter what we do, it just seems like they will not accept us as being honest and worthy of trust?

There are so many areas that can derail trust, but today I want to focus on one huge variable in building trust that most people have a blind spot to. 

The main variable in trust that derails most people is Selfishness.  That’s right, the level of selfishness that is in us determines how much others will trust us.  If our actions in working with people is only to accomplish what we want to achieve and not caring about others then we will not get gain trust.  Selfishness is the largest factor of trust.

We all have difficult people in our lives.  We are all selfish to a degree.   Just look at a toddler and how they play with others with the same toys.  They don’t share.  They want all the toys.   We have our wants and dreams and we want to achieve them and that is okay.  The issue is when we want others to help us achieve those wants and dreams and not care about helping them as well.  We forget that others need help as well when we are in that selfish frame of mind.

Zig Ziglar has a quote that states, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”  Simply said, stop thinking about ourselves first and start looking to others on how we can help.  Whether that is communicating effectively, lending a hand, or just listening to someone else we need to be focused on helping others.  It’s just like farming.  Planting one seed doesn’t net a huge crop, but planting millions of seeds, the harvest is plentiful.

That’s right if we truly want to others to trust us enough to help us, then we have to change our focus from one of receiving, to one of giving.  We also need to do this for the right reasons. 

We can be the most competent, consistent, vulnerable, people out there, but if we are only out for our own gain, well it will be an uphill battle to build trust.  We must check out selfishness.

This Christmas when we are engaging others and attending Christmas parties stop and think about why we are engaging others.  Look at our moods when we are exchanging gifts.  Are we happier when we give or when we receive?  Chances are when we watch other’s eyes light up with joy when they open that thoughtful gift we searched for we have that extra kick of energy and a larger smile.

Who is someone that you could build more trust with by changing the view from what can I get to how can I give this Christmas?  It will help you build trust in the long term.

Merry Christmas!

“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 This Questions Is Crucial With Others

Isn’t this a question we all ask?  How can you help me? 

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

Our customers want to know how they will get to a better place by doing business with us as well.  Just like us, they want to know how their lives will improve.  It’s up to us to answer that question each and every time we interact with them.  If we chose not to, then we will find ourselves receiving price down requests instead of how can we help them innovate.  No one wants to continually fight cost down requests.  We want to have people coming to us for help and providing solid solutions for them.

The question we should be asking ourselves is what do we have in our capabilities to make the customer’s life better?  How by doing business with us will we help them.  This is a crucial change in our focus.  Instead of focusing on how we can benefit, we need to shift that focus onto how we can help the customer.  What is it that we, and our organization can do to help the customer get to a better place. 

Do we have a software package that will allow for the customer to spend less time counting inventory with real time updates?  Do we have interactive videos that will help the customer walk through and diagnose malfunctions with their equipment?  How about an app that tells the customer when their robot they are using is not functioning as efficient and needs a service call before it breaks?  

One thing that I have strived to do is add value in each interaction.  It doesn’t have to be monetary all the time.  It can be helping the customer with software that we are fluent in that they may be having issues with, ideas and local hot spots for a vacation location that the customer wants to travel to that we have also visited, life hacks, deals, helping them find toilet paper when the country is freaking out during a pandemic, connecting them with someone we know that can help them, etc.

The key is to take the focus off of wondering how we can capitalize from the exchange and how we can add value to the customer.  I love the quote from Zig Zigler that says, “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough people get what they want.”  Read that one more time and marinate on that for a few minutes…

It doesn’t mean we just give away all of our profit if we are selling something, but it does say constantly add value with those we come in contact with and focus on how we can help them.  Not for how we will benefit, but how that person will get to a better place.  It is harder to accept something with a closed fist, but with an open hand more can be added.

I know we are all in stressful times right now with what is going on in the world, but we will get through this and we will become stronger because of it.  Innovation is happening each day and we will be ready for the next challenge.  If we open up our hands today and help those around us especially in this time of need, we will get to a better place ourselves.   

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 Question To Ask For Trust With Others

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

That is a huge question that if answered No, can stop you from selling anything to that customer.  If they do not trust you then you are stuck and you can’t get past the first of five buying decisions. 

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

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

This kind of behavior erodes trust the same as lying to others.  Trust is crucial for any kind of growth between sales organizations and their customers. 

So how can we grow trust fast?

1.     Social Proof

2.     Heart of a teacher

3.     Open and honest communication

4.     Encourage customers to show you opportunities for improvement

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

Having a heart of a teacher is offering help to the customer get them to a better place even if it does not benefit you. Teaching the customer to give them free knowledge for the heart of helping them is something that is lacking in today’s culture.  People tend to only want to help if they will receive something in return.  What I can tell you is that if you want to gain trust, you have to have a heart of a teacher to help the customer.

Open and honest communication means reaching out when you see something bad coming, but also making sure that the customer is not unsure about anything related to your products.  Making sure that they are communicated to in a personal level is key.  Pick up the phone when you can instead of just sending an email.  This is something that I still struggle with sometimes when I am busy, but what I have learned is making sure I talk to the customer is key.  Keep in mind the written word it taken negative most times when someone reads it.  Most of communication is nonverbal, posture, tone of voice, etc.  An email does not help with communication.

The last key thing to do is encouraging the customers to show you opportunities for improvement.  Allowing the customer to feel like they are a part of the product design in the future makes them feel like they are a part of something more than just themselves.  We all strive to feel like we are included in decisions, so encouraging them will allow for this to open up.

There you have it. Four ways to grow trust fast.  Just put on your SHOE to walk with the customer… You need to have your shoes on if you plan to walk the talk.

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 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

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

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

Why all successful leaders know sales and how it can help you gain momentum

Have you ever wondered why certain friends, managers, executives just seem to have a certain way about them that people engage and follow them so easily?  Ever wonder if you could have people working with you to that capacity?

Did you know that all the successful leaders know sales?  Now before you stop readying because you got a cold shiver about sales people, let me ask you this.  Have you ever been on a job interview, or a first date?  In each case you were selling yourself as the best option.  See that phrase, “selling yourself”.  That is right you are selling during those two examples and many more scenarios.  We are actually all selling anytime we are interacting with others.  Whether it is our ideas, a product/service, or that your son to not stick his tongue to a frozen metal fence won’t end well.

I know the persona that is out there about sales people.  Unfortunately, a few bad seeds and various movies have bruised the sales persona.  Not all sales people are bad, just look in the mirror after an interview J  We are not inherently bad are we?  Most of the not so successful sales people is just plainly, they just don’t know how to sell well.

I am not what some people would think of as a sales person.  Most people think of sales people as the life of the party, extroverts, and people that like attention.  I am an introvert and hold an engineering degree.  Not what you would think about when you think of sales person right?  I can tell you that I have secured multi-year multimillion contracts in my career and all the way down to thousand dollar deals.  Anyone can sell and everyone sells all the time, including leaders.

Here is how I got into sales which was something that I never thought I would do.  I was sitting on a boat on one of the great lakes when a well-known business owner that wanted to have “the talk with me”.  See I was dating his daughter so he was wanting to know what my intentions were.  The question started with “where do you see yourself in five years.”  I know, not the kind of question you’d think a father would have, but as a business owner and successful person he thought about business al great deal. 

Being fresh out of college and in a job… I thought about it and said, “I want to be a manager.”  I know high aspirations right…  What he said next was definitely not what at the time I wanted to hear.  He told me that I needed to know sales if I wanted to cast my vision and get people to follow my lead.  I didn’t like that idea because I had that same mindset when it came to sales people.

What I learned through the process of learning sales has actually helped me to understand why people can build high levels of momentum in movements.  It’s because they had influence.  A great deal of influence.  In fact, the more they have the more people wanted to follow these individuals. 

What does sales have to do with influence? 

Sales is actually the art of building influence.  Not in a sleezy way, or creating leverage over people either.  Selling is about helping people with their current situation and understanding their issues as well as helping to avoid the ramifications with not making the best decision for them.  That’s right, sales is about helping people get to where they want to go.  Helping them make a difference in their lives and others.  I know at this point you may be thinking that this guy is on something, but hear me out.

People ask three questions at every interaction.

Do I like you?  Do I trust you?  How can you help me?

It has been programmed into our brains since the beginning of time.  Not for selfish reasons, but for survival.  We ask these questions and form answers in the first seven seconds of every interaction.   

If we want to be successful and have momentum with others we should at least learn about sales.  We should understand why certain colors, the environment, and how we interact with others affects trust.  In the sales process uncovered training that I teach it is how we take the focus off ourselves and focus on helping others.  Zig Ziglar once said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” 

That is what sales is meant to do.  Help people find solutions to their issues and avoid the ramification of making the incorrect decision.  That is what a true sales professional is supposed to do.  Help others and not focus on just selling something.

Selling well will start building influence with those that we help.  It has worked for me with over 15 years of sales experience in multiple industries, in different demographics, and different regions. 

If we focus on helping people through the sales process, we will gain influence and momentum with people.  I’m not sure where you are and where you want to go, but if you want to go anywhere with others, you need to learn sales.  There are tons of books, podcasts, and blogs out there.  You don’t need to know everything, but having a basic knowledge will help you grow your influence levels and lead well.

Have a great day and if you need anything feel free to reach out with any questions!

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

You Need The R in Trust

Ever have someone tell you they will do something for you and they don’t follow through?  Ever been that person that says they will be somewhere at a certain time and you forget?  These types of situations actually affect trust.  It’s when we don’t do what we say we are going to do that trust actually decreases.

Today, let’s talk about the second variable in the trust equation, Reliability.  How reliable are you?  When you say you’ll do something will you do it?  Will you do it to the best of your ability?  Do you forget to do it?  Will you do the right thing when no one is looking?   Do you think it is that big of a deal to be reliable?

It's a BIG DEAL!!!  Trust is won or lost by our actions, not just our words. 

I remember when I was younger, my father telling me to always do what you say you are going to do.  Do not waiver.  He also stated to do the right thing if everyone is watching and when no one is watching.  Don’t tell me, show me is the slogan I have heard all my life from my father.

I remember when I first met my wife’s parents.  We were up at their cottage grilling steaks and I was assisting my future father-in-law.  I told him that I usually every spring season the grill grates after the first steaks have been cooked by applying foil to the top of the grates and turning the heat up high while I ate and then it would bake in all the flavor.

What I didn’t know is that his grill grates on his expensive grill were actually anodized aluminum and not steel… 

Did you know when you crank up the heat and use foil that reflects the heat back into the grates that are anodized aluminum, they actually can’t take that much heat and melt and then break in half?  Yep, it was an awesome first time meeting them let me tell you… 

I told him that I would replace them even though my future father-in-law said don’t worry about it.  The next day I was on the phone with the grill manufacturer ordering the new grates.  I was originally going to order just two, but they informed me that they had two different sizes in that grill…. so, I ordered a complete set.  Did you know that anodized aluminum grates cost more than any grill I have ever bought?  Yep that’s right almost $300 for grates.

That weekend was the most expensive steak dinner I have ever had, but by doing the right thing and doing what I said I was going to do our relationship has grown and he has put a great deal of trust in me.  He knows that if I say I will do something that I will get it done. 

When we interact with our teams, customers, family, or friends we need to make it a constant effort to be reliable.  Without being reliable it is almost impossible to have a trusting relationship.  Especially when we are first getting to know others.

Here are a few things I do to make sure I follow through:

List it and do it – As you can see from the picture of this blog, I love to utilize post-it notes for my action items.  I will literally list out something I need to do and stick it to my wallet when I leave so I do not forget what I set out to do.  Some people use an app, but I am low tech.  A side note is that when people cross things off list they feel good and empowered.  If you are someone that keeps forgetting to do things, then maybe making a list and keeping it with you as a reminder might be a good tool.

Action It – I am bombarded with requests regularly and if I set something to the side I tend to forget about it, so I make sure I do it right away if I can.  CEO’s have utilized this method of acting right away of forgetting it.  Emails are a way they sort through action items to either take action right away, or throw it in the recycle bin.

Delegate it – If you are unable to do something and someone else is better equipped to handle the item then delegate it.  John Maxwell has endorsed this idea of delegate to elevate.  My wife and I set up weekly meetings to look at things that need to be done and delegate things that each other can do.  It allows us to work more efficiently, communicate effectively, and flow in our strengths.

L.A.D. are three helpful options that I we can all utilize to make sure we are reliable.

Is there a time that pops in the back of your mind where someone else has fallen short being reliable?  How did it make you feel?  Did you lose a little trust in that person? 

I know I will fall short sometimes, but I make it my best effort to do what I say I am going to do and if I am going to come in short, I communicate the situation and try to better the situation to the best of my ability.  We need trust in order to keep moving forward with others.  We need to focus on how we can make sure we are doing what we say we will do and apologize to anyone that we may have fallen short with. 

Being reliable is essential in building trust.

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

Making Great First Impressions

Hello Everyone!

Ever wonder why some people just seem to be able to make great impressions on others while others don’t?  Ever struggle to make a great first impression yourself?

I have been thinking about this topic for a while now and decided that it was time to step up on my soap box.  I firmly believe that we all need to know how to sell in order to make great first impressions.  Whether we are going for a job interview (selling ourselves), out on a date (selling ourselves), leading an organization (selling vision and ourselves), or selling a product or service which means we need to know how to sell (ourselves), etc. 

No matter what we are doing, we are selling ourselves as the best option for those around us.  We share stories, build friendships, engage with coworkers etc. all of the time.  Some people do this really well and some unfortunately do not.  This is not simply determined if you are an introvert, or an extrovert to determine if you will do this well.  What I am saying is that some just don’t sell themselves well enough.

There are three questions everyone asks at every interaction and they are as follows:

Do I like you? 

Do I trust you? 

How can you help me?

In seven seconds, a perception is formed about the other person based off these three questions.  Now there are so many aspects to how one can affect those three questions, that it is key that we know how to sell and why these three questions are affected.  Learning the sales process if even just for only buying decision 1, we are definitely on solid footing to move forward with other people.

How we are dressed, what environment we are in, our posture, our speech patterns, and many more aspects affect how people form their decisions about us.  Have you ever heard the phrase. “we only get one chance to make a first impression?”   This is because once someone makes that impression about us, it is extremely hard to change.    

The sales process is the key to mastering the art of first impressions, building rapport, and likeability.  Once we master the first buying decision of the sales process, we can build rapport with those around us faster!  This will enable us to make great first impressions, obtain engagement from those around us, and create stronger relationships.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to sell and build relationships to make our lives better?

If you’d like to learn the sales process and how to gain influence, I have launched my online courses.  It will enable you to master sales, implement the simple to use process, and become a top performer as well as how to build great levels of trust quickly.

Below are the two links to my online trainings to help you build rapport and influence with others. Both can be completed at your own pace and in the comfort of wherever you have a an internet connection.

The Sales Process Uncovered

Trustworthy

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

How to build trust with employees continued. ..

Last week we talked about why leaders need to focus on building trust with their employees if they want to move forward, have engagement, and a good culture. 

If you did not have a chance, go back and read last week’s blog on why we as leaders need to make sure we build relationships with our employees if we want to move forward faster with them. 

On to why we need to think like sales professionals if we want to gain influence with our employees. Sales professionals are trained to gain influence and how to build relational collateral with people.  I like to think of influence and relational collateral as a bank account.  Consistent deposits over time gains great levels of influence.  Constant withdrawls without deposits results in a bad relationship.

People will not buy from people they do not know, like, and trust.  If we want employees to buy in to what we are wanting to do, then we need to make sure we are focused on them.

You may be wondering how we focus in correctly.  It’s actually pretty simple and starts with three questions that the employee is asking about their leaders.

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you help me?

These three questions seem very selfish right?  We all go into this thought process every time we meet another individual.  It is hardwired into our brains for survival.  When mankind was hunting and farming with their community they needed to know if they could also trust those around them.  No one really wanted to get eaten by a saber toothed tiger right? 

As a leader we need to be outward focused so we need to narrow in on these three questions and how we can answer them well for each and every employee that reports to us.  If we can’t answer any of these questions, then we will not gain influence and engagement from our employees. 

The next question you are probably are asking as you read this is how do we answer these three questions?  We need to sit down and ask questions of the employees.  That’s right, we need to be asking questions to understand our employees.  People want to be understood and known.  How do leaders do that?  They ask questions. 

Three main types of questions:  Situational, Issues, and Ramifications kind of questions.

We need to understand where our employees are at, what issues they are facing, and what are the ramifications if those issues are not resolved.  That is why when meeting with employees we should be using the same CRM that we use for our customers.  We should be constantly learning about our employees.  Not to leverage them, but to know them and their situation.  By knowing where they are and what they are struggling with we will be able to help with solutions.  By doing this we build influence and engagement as a biproduct. 

If we do not and simply focus on getting a job done, we will see turn over, lack of engagement, and slow downs in work which end up driving higher costs eroding our profits.  It is to our benefit if we take time to understand our employees and learn about them to help them.  If we do so, we will be rewarded with what Dave Ramsey says, “They will charge the pits of hell with a water pistol for us,” if we show employees we care about them.

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