How does an employee understand each day they arrive at work if they are winning or losing?
How are these employees able to track each day where they are moving towards their annual goals?
Good morning everyone,
How many of you work for an organization that you feel is just looking for someone to be a cog in a machine and not looking for the person to grow into something more?
How many of you feel like you if you speak up you will get yelled at, or worse fired for doing so?
A great deal of large organizations look for employees to fill a spot. I like the cartoon by Andertoons as it speaks to this truth. These same organizations then ask why they are not getting engagement from their employees. The organizations think making the environment fun will fill the engagement issue. Items like free pop, pop corn, bean bag chairs in the conference rooms etc are used in hopes that engagement will spirt up from caffeine and playfulness.
Gallop did a study and in late 2018 and reported that 34% of employees in corporate America are actually engaged. Gallop reported this as a positive because it is one of the highest levels since 2000. I disagree because 34% was a failing grade all throughout my education. Now there are some critics that will state that you’re never going to get everyone engaged and I agree. I do not believe that only having 34% being engaged is a good statistic.
I have spent most of my life in corporate America and understand why this is so low. Far too many organizations just look for someone to plug into a spot and have them do the same thing for the rest of their life. When someone brings a new idea for executing the business, it is often written off by a manger telling them to stick to their job. Keep in mind that manager’s purpose is to manage people and processes to keep moving smoothly. The manager’s duties revolve around making sure their group does not implode. They are too busy fighting fires and worn out keeping the people and processes going. These managers get burned out and become disengaged themselves.
Too many people in the leadership are not engaging the managers or the workers to encourage them to grow themselves. Unless people feel like the organization has their back and is rooting for them to grow, they will not want to spend the rest of their working careers just showing up. Hence the reason the turnover rate at corporation America is increasing. People are jumping from corporation to corporation for high pay and ultimately find themselves in the same predicament after the honeymoon phase of a new job wears off.
When the employee observes disengaged managers, the employee will start losing hope that things will get better and that their impact will mean something. How does this change? It takes one step at a time, prioritizing engaging our teams and ourselves. We need to look at “why” we are in the position we are in. Are we there just for a paycheck and health insurance, or are we there to make an impact? What aspect of this position keeps us coming back through the door?
We need to keep growing ourselves and encouraging those around us to grow. Take our teams out of the working environment on occasion to help them grow. This does not need to be trust falls, but it could be buying their lunches while watching a live stream, find a podcast for the team to listen to together, go to a conference, or read a book as a group and discuss collectively. In order to gain engagement, we need to engage those around us to grow every day. Don’t just bring the bean bags, bring the enthusiasm that people will feed off and show them that it is okay to grow. We need to show to our employees that we have their back and support their growth.
One last thought, we should not worry about pouring into those individuals and seeing them leave. Even though they may move on to bigger things, it will be noticed where all the rock stars are coming from in the organization. People will start recognizing our efforts and others will want to work for us because of the benefit of growth. Encourage, engage, and enable others, don’t just look for a body to fill a seat.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Good morning everyone, I hope you are doing well learning more and more about growing your sales with these blog posts, the sales process uncovered book, and my keynotes / trainings. Today I want to focus on building a strong relationship with customers and not just making a quick sale. Long term success is what we want to play for, not just a cheap sale. This cheap sale is part of why sales professionals get a bad rap.
Building a relationship with a customer is like dating. If we are not interested in the person, or don’t show interest in that person, we are not going to make it far with the relationship. It is up to us as professional sales professionals to grow the relationships in order to grow the business. This does not mean we have to drop sales price, give away tons of free stuff, or take part in unethical activities.
Instead I focus on the acronym HELP.
1st Get into a mindset of helping prospective customers get to a place they need to go instead of making a sale. We want them to know that if there is anything that we can help with whether it is a location, some kind of product or service that they are trying to learn, or even great restaurants in an area. We focus on being helpful no matter where I can.
2nd Engage in the conversations with customers and make sure we are focused on getting to know them and their needs. Make sure that our attention is focused on getting to know them and their needs instead of talking about us and our products. Take notes of what they are saying, putting our phones on silent and in our bags not on the table, and make sure there are no distractions.
3rd Learn about the customer continuously. I use the house analogy that I have written about in my past blogs and my book. Be constantly curious to learn about customers. Without that focus on learning about people, sales professionals will zone out and focus on just making a quick sale. If we are not focused on the customer we will lose that connection. Make sure to always are learn something new about the customer.
Last thing to remember is to put a priority to get to know the customer. Customers demand priority all the time. If the sales professional is not making it a priority to learn and help the customer, the sales process will stop and trust fades. Without trust, there is not going to be a transaction. Make sure we put a priority on the customer and their needs.
There you have it H.E.L.P. Help them, be engaged, learn about them, and place a priority on them.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Good morning everyone,
Wow, this October it has been two years since I started blogging. That is 104 blogs to date. It has been fun to do and in doing so I was able to create the book The Sales Process Uncovered. I hope you have found these blogs to be helpful in your success at sales. Today I want to talk about a sales lesson that I learned early on and was recently brought up to my attention that salespeople still don’t understand. I hope you enjoy it!
How many times have you called and not been able to get ahold of the contact you wanted? You were successful however in getting in touch with the assistant. The assistant’s primary focus is keeping the executive’s schedule and weeding out sales calls. I’ve heard stories from assistants to executives where the sales people were not only rude, but threatening. They chuckled as they tossed the message into the recycle bin if they even wrote it down from the rude salesperson.
The assistants asked, do salespeople really think this is a good strategy to be rude to me? Successful business people treat their assistants like part of their family. These assistants know more about the executive than most of their friends and family do. What would happen if someone threatened your family member? What do you think the executive would do if you threatened their assistant?
There is an old saying “you get more bees with honey”. My mother used to tell me that when I was getting upset about dealing with others. She meant that it does not matter what others do to you, the only thing you can do is focus on how you act. People react to anger with anger, but its hard to argue with a whisper. It’s equally hard for someone to argue with someone being polite and nice to them.
If you turn the assistant off and the executive finds out you will likely hear from them, but I am confident that the conversation is not going to go the way that you hope it to go. These executives will protect their assistants. There is never a need to threaten, degrade, or treat the assistant as a roadblock.
Instead focus on being nice and getting to know the assistant. They hold all the knowledge about the executive, so why not focus on building rapport with them before you try to get after the executive. Learn about them and get to know them. Follow the sales process you would with any other prospect to learn about them. They may even tell you how to meet the executive in person on accident? Like when the executive is heading to the gym, or their golf course.
I have watched lawyers use this same process with court representatives instead of going straight to the judge. They use this sales process principal of rapport to gain a relationship with the clerks and everyone else around the judge so they can get cases moved up as well as set up appointments. Judges are just like executives and have a busy schedule. Focusing on building rapport with the clerks will allow the lawyers to get where they need faster.
Remember the assistant can be your best ally, or your worst enemy. Choose to be respectful and nice. It will pay off in the end.
Have a good weekend and happy selling!
P.S. if you do turn the assistant to helping you, you better make sure to drop them a signed card, or even bring them a present when you score your meeting with the executive.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
When I decided to become a professional salesperson, it was based on the sales pitch that if you want to be a better manager, more successful in any career, you need to know sales. I was an engineer at the time and wanted to climb the corporate ladder. I dreamed of leading groups of people and helping the team shatter goals while working together. It was not until I received my certification from John Maxwell to be a speaker, trainer, and coach that I understood that Leadership and Sales were very similar.
Throughout the certification training John Maxwell stated, “Leadership is Influence, nothing more, nothing less.” John states this over an over when he talks on leadership. One gauge that John uses to see if we are good leaders is to see how many people that volunteer look to us for leadership. When we are moving forward for a cause how many people are willing to follow us when we are not paying them.
People being paid by us are doing so because they are receiving payment for their services so just because they follow us, does not mean that they believe in us. If we are not paying these people and they are following us, then we know that they are following because of our leadership. This is done by our influence. The more influence we have, the more people will fight by our side for the cause.
What I learned through sales is that the more influence we have with our customers, the more they look to us for help and want to do business with us. The more we help them get what they want, the more we provide top notch service, and the value that we bring causes us to gain influence. They reach out to us for advice and help. It does not have to be the product that we sell either. I have had customers reaching out to me for advice in marketing, digital cameras, software packages, cars, etc. I was gaining influence with them and they were reaching out to me for help in other areas.
That is when I started really looking at this sales and leadership thing to see if there were common threads. The truth is that sales and leadership are based on influence. Great leaders are those that can sell a vision to their organization so much so that the people will “Charge the pits of Hell with a water pistol” – Dave Ramsey. The most influential people use sales practices to drive forward and get their teams engaged.
Steps in the sales process to get the customer engage translate right into the leaders process to gain influence with those around them. They both find the needs of the organization and people, verify those needs, and present the solution in a way to drive engagement to move forward together. The great thing is that it really is not that complicated. It’s following a process over and over again gaining influence. That is why I love working with leaders and sales professionals to help them move forward and grow. They are so similar that this one process I help with will enable sales professionals and leaders to gain their influence.
If you are someone looking to grow your influence reach out to me today and I would be happy to review where you are at, where you want to go, and how you can get there. It’s not complicated, and you can do it.
Reach out here if you would like to start the discussion.
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
I’ve heard sales people over the years say a sale is only dependent only on the price. The cheapest price will win the sale every time. I have heard others say that people will just want to buy the product and nothing else matters. If you have the better product then you will win the sale.
I actually had both the better product and the cheaper price, but still lost the sale when I was starting out. There was this sales representative from my competitor that had such a great relationship with the customers and the customer’s customers. He got all the deals. He had some much influence that people would almost flock to him like he was a celebrity.
This sales person had an inferior product from benefits and features stand point and had a higher price, but with his impact on people he just won. It blew my mind and I could not wrap my mind around it. I am engineer by nature so I tend to go black and white with details. It did not compute. I researched the competition and knew what I was up against. I had it nailed all of the aspects that people had told me. What I did not have down was the grey area where relationships reside.
I speak to this quite often when teaching sales professionals that there are three things that everyone asks themselves subconsciously as they walk up to you:
Do I like you?
Do I trust you?
How can you help me?
When I finally realized what this variable was that I was getting my butt kicked on. It was the relationships. When I started out in sales I was told to build rapport.
Rapport is defined as “A positive or close relationship between people that often involves mutual trust, understanding and attention. Those that develop rapport often have realized that they have similar interests, knowledge, or behaviors” – businessdictionary.com
Most sales trainings teach you to look around the room with your customer and find a way to connect on similar hobbies, activities, family, etc. This is a good beginning to building a relationship with your customer, but there is a great need to go deeper with the customer. Just merely having similar interests and viewpoints is a good start, but it is a superficial level. If you want to have relationships that a deep and fruitful, you need to go deeper.
Dale Carnegie training taught me how to build get deeper relationships. This is done mainly with a mindset of being truly focused on the customer to know them and help them. Having such a relationship will help you form relationships and build unmatched influence. You end up with a relationship that brings you more opportunities and also have the customer being an advocate with others to bring you more business. The best realtors are a great example of this. They gain new customers by word of mouth from previous customers. Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising. When someone is looking to buy or sell a home, everyone is speaking about the select few realtors that the person needs to work with.
To build deep relationships with customers you need rapport, focus on learning about them, and the trust equation. Use these three things and you will have strong relationships with your customers and have a solid future in sales.
By building deep relationships with customers I was able to land a $20 million per year five-year contract. That is $100 million contract. I was able to obtain information needed to kick off my team and produce a proposal that put my organization in play for a program that we were not thought of as a possibility prior.
If you would like to carry the conversation deeper comment on this blog, reach out via email, or do the old-fashioned thing and give me a call so we can discuss deep relationships in sales.
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
A few years back a friend and myself decided it would be a great idea to do a sprint triathlon. I figured I was in decent shape and could swim well. After all, once you finished the swim all you had to do was hop on a bike for a bit and then run a 5k. I have done 5k runs many times so I was not worried about the run and I bought a road bike so I could ride faster than a mountain bike. I did two swims in the water, road the bike a few times, and I didn’t need to run because, hey I could do it. I figured I had it all planned out to succeed and do well… figured I had it planned out enough…
The day came for the race and my friend and I were in the water ready to go. The starter sounded of the start of the race and we both jumped in with our awesome swim caps. About ten strokes into the swim I was out of gas. I looked up and saw that there were only two rescue boats and a long way to go. At that moment I knew I was in for a long day. I did every stroke I could and did the dead man’s float sometimes. Eventually I made it through the swim, did the bike, and then got into the run. Unfortunately, my legs cramped up and had to walk part of the run right towards the end. It didn’t work out for me and my friend crushed me finishing almost 10 minutes ahead of me.
The next year I trained and planned, and then trained some more. I kept checking my times and the numbers from the year prior. This resulted in me almost catching my friend.
These two items can be applied to sales. If we want to do well in sales, we need to have a plan and we need to work the plan. We can’t just show up and expect to for sales to just happen. We need to map out where we want the conversation to go and what areas will hit the customer’s needs. We need to review our notes about the customer and figure out what solutions we can address for them to meet their needs. One image that still is in the back of my mind when I am visiting with customers and training is that of handing a bill to the customer when I am leaving. Was the time spent with me worth the customer paying me for my time.
Would your customer say absolutely the time spent with you worth $200 for that hour meeting?
What kind of answers did the customer come away with that will equip them to function more profitably?
Is doing business with your organization that beneficial, or should your product be considered just a commodity with the only differentiator being price?
A plan is needed to make the sales call worth both parties investment of time and money. This is a new age and because of technology customers are more informed and need sales professionals to help them create the best path forward. What does your plan look like prior to meeting with your customer? What are your premeeting preparations that you do?
Create the plan, execute the plan, and have a back up plan if something happens that you didn’t expect. Be prepared. And if you do a triathlon, practice swimming, it could be the difference between life and death out there!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
How many of you fear picking up the phone and calling a prospect that you have never talked to before?
How many of you believe that what will happen when you cold call is similar to the picture of this blog post?
A cold call will take most people out of their comfort zone to want to call someone that may scream at them to stop calling. So much so many companies these days have gone to the robo call which is really annoying. I especially like when they start the message with “Don’t hang up…” You are literally telling me to hang up on you by saying that subconsciously. A better opening would be “ Keep listening for some great information…” That would create more tension in me to want to hear more.
Cold calling is almost an art form. To get the person on the line and talk to you takes practice. I still to this day do cold calls to associations and businesses to drive more business. Prospecting is key in growing your business. Cold calling is not just dialing a phone either. You can walk into a business that you have reviewed and think would benefit from your expertise. Just watch for those no trespassing signs.
Cold calling is not fun for me as I am more of an introvert by nature. Pushing myself out of my comfort zone is a must if I want to stay on the hunt for new business. I have gotten voicemails and had to leave a message, people asking me to call them back later, people using a firm tone that they are not interested, and sometimes, sometimes I get great conversations with them and an appointment to visit to discuss more.
That is what the cold call is for. To get the opportunity for the next conversation. You are likely not going to make a sale on this call. Your focus should be to get that opportunity to come in and sit with the person to learn about them and their organization. How you can help them get to a better position. Your product possibly will enable them to take that next step in their growth. Don’t you think that is a good reason to talk to them?
Insurance sales professionals have lists of people they cold call every day. They have studied statics over the years and have a metric that out of ten calls three should result in “Fact Finding Opportunities” and then should result in one sale. That is a 10% success rate for sales. Very few professions have studied the results. I have met quite a few wealthy insurance sales professionals and they all have told me that they do this by making cold calls. If you are going to be successful selling, you need to do cold calls.
Keep in mind though that the person on the other line has three questions that they are asking themselves when you start talking.
1. Do I like this person?
2. Do I trust this person?
3. How can this person help me?
If you’ve read my book, “That Sales Process Uncovered”, been to a training, or been a reader of my blog for a while you should be able to answer these questions for them. Social media such as linkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc have made it even easier to research your prospects prior to the cold call to help you as well.
For now, don’t fear the cold call. Accept it as an opportunity to help potential customers get to a better place. Who knows, you may strike up a great conversation and learn something new about someone that will help you at a later date. Think positive and you don’t have to get off the starting blocks to the finish line in one phone call. This is your opportunity to start helping people.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
I walked into a local package delivery service and the customer service representative was obviously not having a great day. I was talked to as if I had just spilled my sippy cup all over their carpet. I was questioned as if I had put something inside that might explode with a raised eyebrow. Finally, after the interrogation I was politely asked if I wanted to add insurance the package.
I have experienced great service at organizations from IT people and have bought their product by the referral from that IT person. They walked with me through the entire purchase and guided me away from extras that were not needed. They did not leave my side until I was fully satisfied with the product and thanked me. That is right they actually thanked me for spending time with them.
I have been placed on hold and bounced between multiple departments of call centers and treated as if I was a burden on the representative that had to take another call during their shift. All of these contribute to poor customer service with organizations, but have you ever though of yourself as customer service representative for your organization?
It does not matter what the position in the organization is whether it be CEO, a sales person, an engineer, or a janitor. We are a representative of the organization to the outside world. We have the opportunity to build up or tear down the reputation of our organization by how we treat others. We are ambassadors for the organizations we represent. We need to keep that in mind when we are sporting our organization’s name, at events, and even what we post on social media.
It also does not matter if we are not a paid employee of the organization. When people see us representing an organization, they are making the association no matter our affiliation. People will make their perceptions based on the people they interact with.
I have had people in organizations tell me they don’t care if a customer likes it or not because they don’t have to interact with the customer regularly. It’s frankly, not their job. Unfortunately, what these individuals don’t understand is that the customer is buying products / services that are in turn funding the individual’s paycheck. Make enough customers stop buying from you and then you are looking for other employment.
When the customer has a bad experience now, they are able to send all over the world in a matter of seconds. The customer can influence their friend network faster than ever sharing their story. Organizations do not have the ability to respond to every negative comment on all of the social media platforms. There is just too much area to cover, but we can make sure we do our part and give the customer a great experience each and every time we interact with them.
No one is above customer service. We are all serving customers. Whether we like it or not, our organizations are judged by how we interact with others. Keep that in mind when you are repping a shirt or at an event for your organization. Make the interaction a positive one. Be courteous, helpful, gracious, and humble.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
How did the deal fall apart?
Why did the customer not buy?
What did I do wrong?
Where can I get ice cream close by to stress eat?
These are some of the questions that I have had when I did not make a sale. When I first started out in sales, I did not make a large equipment sale for about 12 months. That is right I could not make a sale to save my life. I answered the customer’s questions, helped them get to where they told me they wanted to go, but when it came time to sign on the dotted line, they pumped the brakes.
I had that happen to me more than once in my first couple of years in sales. I was really rethinking the decision to take on sales from a secure electrical engineering career. Now I look back at it as getting my reps in. Just like a pro golfer hits 5000 golf balls every day to practice, I needed reps in sales to develop my skill. I needed to hear “NO” so many times so I would be immune to it in the future and find my way through the sales process.
Even this past week I was helping someone sell a boat to another individual and forgot that this type of buyer was just looking for something that they could use as a rental and did not care about things that an owner operator type buyer would value. Listening to some of the objections did not click until I sat back and understand the needs from this type of buyer. It was not the right boat for this individual, but an owner operator will love the boat with all of the extras when it is sold in the spring. Being in the Midwest boats typically do not sell for as much money at the end of summer as they do in the spring season.
Had I really stepped back and understood the customer’s needs better before offering up the suggestion of buying the boat, I would have identified that this was not going to work. As a seasoned sales professional I still don’t hit the mark 100% of the time. No one can in reality. Anyone that says they can sell to anyone anytime is lying to you and themselves. There is something that we all miss from time to time. We all have off days. We all make a presentation and mess it up. We all make mistakes and that is okay, but we need to learn from them.
It’s called failing forward fast. That is the term that Navy Seals embrace. It’s okay to have a setback as long as they learn from it and keep moving forward. It is not okay to just sit and mope about the setback. Keep moving forward and keep learning, refining the approach, and getting better. That is what we need to keep doing.
Don’t give up when you have a setback trying to sell whether it is a product / service, idea, business proposal, etc. Learn, refine, and move forward. The next big deal is just around the corner and when you learn from one setback you are equipped to do better on the next time.
Now this was an example for sales, but this can also be easily applied to other areas of our lives. Whether it be leading a team, coaching kids soccer, or with learning a new exercise routine. Don’t give up, learn from the set back and move forward faster, stronger, and equipped. You’ve got this!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
When do I hire something out rather than doing it myself?
Why would I pay someone else to do the work that I know I can do?
Have you ever asked these questions when you had a project that you needed to tackle?
Now that I am hedging closer to that 40 years old mark and I am really having to weigh out how much work I should be doing and how much I should be hiring out. My father taught me quite a bit to be handy around the house. I can change out electrical outlets, switches, lights, ceiling fans, tiling, roofs, plumbing, do spreadsheets, sell, etc.
I can do even more now with all the experiences I have had with homes including flipping one while I did all of the work. Most of the time I would have extra experience as I would have to do it twice do to trying to short cut something. A good rule of thumb in my experience is that a well performed project should not reveal extra screws, bolts, or other retention components when are you finished.
What I have sometimes wondered is if I am at a deficit because I am capable of using my own hands and time to do quite a bit. I struggle with that I can do the project, but is it the most beneficial use of my time. I want to do it to show myself that I can, but is this approach worth it? This has been hard because small projects are very therapeutic for me. I can work on something that is completed in a small amount of time compared to most of my projects that take months upon months to work on. It’s nice to be able to step back and look at something that I have created with my own hands. The issue is that I am doing this at a cost that I have never previously rationalized.
My mentor when I first got into sales taught me that wealthy people put a value on TIME. When working on projects, thinking about investments, they calculate the cost of their time that will be invested in the project. Time is something that we have a limited supply of. When we are born time seems to be ticking away until we finally expire. We can not add hours in the day, multiply our time, we can only invest our time into those areas that we feel most important.
Lately I have had to start hiring out the work on my house so I can keep moving my business and projects forward. I have had to put a value per hour that I would have to pay myself to perform the task. If the quotes from contractors come in lower, or even close to my cost, I typically hire them to perform the work even if I am capable of doing it. Most of the time they can actually do the work faster as well.
I recently had to have two foundation walls on my house dug up, pushed back straight, reinforced, sealed, and then back filled. Now I am fully capable in doing this work, but it would have taken me months to complete. I did not have the time to do this on top of everything I am working on. It took the contractor three weeks to complete and I was able to work on other projects. The cost for them to do all this work and in the time they did it was less than it would have taken me. Sure, I would have been able to use digging equipment which would have been fun, but they did it for cheaper than I could with all of the time that would have been involved from me to do the project.
When preparing for that next project, career change, purchase of a home, or moving dirt think about the cost of your time as a function of the investment. Think about the amount of work and hours that you will need to complete. Then think about how much it would cost for you to do the work compared to hiring it out so you can be freed up to do other things that are more important.
For those of you looking for a new job, this should definitely be part of your decision if you are going to change companies. If the new company that you are interviewing is for instance 15 minutes each way longer of a drive, you need to calculate that into your salary expectations? See 15 minutes each way is 30 minutes a day. Multiplied by five working days a week is 2 ½ hours a week more driving when you could be doing something else. Now assuming you have to only work 48 weeks a year that is 120 hours a hear you will be in the car more than in your current position. Say you make $25/ hour, that is $3000 a year that you are losing to driving. That is also not calculating the operating costs of your vehicle or fuel.
Next time you are figuring out a budget for a project you are about to take part in make sure you are also figuring in how much your time is worth. It may reveal that training someone else may be able to do the smaller items so that you can focus on the higher value items. If you are looking for a new career figure out the time investment and keep the focus on if it will get you closer to where you want to be in the time frame you are working with.
Time is a precious commodity and we need to protect it’s value!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
I don’t have time… I can’t just sit still for that long… How do I do this and not get interrupted?
These are some of the excuses that I have used, and chances are you may have used when it comes to the topic of meditation. Meditation is the act of pivoting away from distracting thoughts and focusing present goals you want to focus on. At this point you are probably rolling your eyes at your screen thinking great, another boring topic, but I think there is value in this in order to make you more efficient.
Meditation has only been apart of my life for the past few months. It was something that I did not want to partake in because I was very busy and did not think I had time for it. I could not focus my mind on one thing. I kept thinking about all of the things that I needed to get done for the day so I would hear the voice in my head rattling off the laundry list of items that I needed to push through today.
I recently spent 13 weeks in a sales training class growing my knowledge on sales performance further. That’s right I am continually learning so that I can be better and bring better content to those of you that I reach with my blogs, speaking programs, or trainings. During this class it was pounded into our heads these three things:
1. When the mind is focused on a task the body will work until that task is completed.
2. When a subconscious thought and a conscious thought are in competition the subconscious thought will dominate.
3. A stronger emotion will subdue a weaker emotion.
The basis for this training was to help sales professionals increase their level of self-esteem and sell better. One way that this was done was through meditation. Meditation is done to focus the mind so that the professional can focus on the things that really matter instead of all of the noise. The things that will bring the most impact for your success. Brendon Burchard has a program as well that is similar to making people more efficient. It’s pretty good and either way you will end up focusing on where you want to go more than just treading water.
The instructor’s day from this course looks like this. Morning, wake up clear mind for 15 minutes, read self-proclaiming scrolls for 15 minutes, review goals for 15 minutes, and then write out action statements for 15 minutes. That is right one hour in the morning. Then at night the same routine. He stated by doing this, it increased productivity as well as esteem allowing the sales person to be more efficient and successful. Two hours a day are spend in focusing in on self to become better.
I have been using meditation to clear my mind since taking this training and have been more focused on tasks that lead me to the goals I set forth this year. I am able to sit and clear my mind of the noise, social media, and emails. My routine takes around 15 minutes of slow breathing and clearing all the garbage out of my brain and then reviewing a sheet from the book “fear is my homeboy” where I then review three action items that I need to do and then write I am statements. Then I write out a stretch goal for myself for the day. Whether it is making 30 calls to prospects, or talking to someone I have never met to just learn about them. Something that will stretch me a little more each day making my comfort zone bubble bigger and bigger. This helps me focus on my day and has allowed me to do more with less and I have had extra time to do other things that I would normally not have time for.
The more I have studied successful entrepreneurs I see that they take time to meditate and focus on what will drive their goals to completion. Some call it meditation, some call it white space, some call it quiet time. It’s all the same thing. It is clearing out everything and quietly relaxing the body to prepare you for your focusing on your goals.
I am usually laying on my couch when I do my meditation and not sitting cross legged. The main reason being that I am not sure I would be able to get back up with my legs crossed over one another. I may need to do more stretching if I want to sit in a specific pose. For now, laying on the couch in quite at 5:00 a.m., or in the office chair works for me. The byproduct has been lower stress levels and increased performance on growing my business as well as myself. Think of it as stretching before you run a race so your muscles are warmed up before they have to perform.
Take time to put into practice of closing your eyes, drowning out the noise, focus your mind, and plan your day before heading out. This will allow you to be more focused on your most important task instead of being knocked around by the day. Try just five minutes each morning and increase as you see fit. Best to try it on a Saturday when you have time to relax as well. Either way, do yourself a favor and focus on you, before the world tries to toss you around like a wave in the wind.
I hope this helps you become more efficient and knock out your goals!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Won’t the customer just buy my great product anyways? Is Customer service really that important?
These are a couple of the many questions I heard about customer service from business owners and entrepreneurs. Many believe in the phrase form the movie “Field of Dreams” that is whispered into the lead character’s ear while deciding if he will build a baseball field in his backyard next to a corn field… “if you build it, they will come.” In reality this does not happen. It takes hustle and making sure your customers have exceptional experiences.
Just because you have the best product on the market does not mean that you will get sales. Customer super service is required. That means making sure the customer is completely happy with their experience and that they are satisfied with their purchase. This means that the customer needs are met and that they are treated like they matter every time with enthusiasm and manners.
Let’s look at a case study with a fast food chain known as Chick-fil-A. Chick -fil-A is a chain that started in the south and is making the rounds across the country (yes Michigan they are starting to come your way). Chick-fil-A makes more per restaurant than McDonalds, Starbucks, and Subway COMBINED. That’s right they are extremely profitable and are only opened six days a week. I have waited in many long lines for this fast food quite a few times. Thank God they have an app now to help you jump the line.
They do nothing revolutionary with the food differently than the competition except dipping the chicken in pickle juice (shhh secret). There is no huge differentiator in their menu as far as fast food goes. Although the handspun shakes are amazing! Mix the shake with a chicken biscuit that has honey on it, and you have a great start to your day.
What Chick-fil-A does different is that they have trained their staff to use “please,” “thank you,” “it was my pleasure,” etc. The restaurant staff makes sure the customer has a great experience every time. They slide an extra couple of sauces over as to say I’ve got your back when you ask for extras and not rolling their eyes. Ever felt like the person behind the counter thought of you as a nuisance instead of revenue that paid their check? Each Chick-fil-A location has the same experience with a warm smile and an extremely helpful staff. This same staff will walk around and pick up your trays if they have extra time during their busy day. They are fantastic when it comes to customer service. They are taking over the fast food industry and are moving up the charts to soon become number 1. Watch out golden arches…
Okay enough about food (one of my love languages). How about Apple, Disney, and Amazon. These organizations have focused on the customer experience so much that people do not hesitate to drop large sums of money doing business with them. People literally line up for hours when a new product drops at Apple. Customers like feeling important and that they do matter when making a purchase.
Below are the stats by generation based on their brand loyalty. As you can see as the generations get younger more brand loyalty is growing. Just for reference Gen Y (Millennials) have more population than the great Baby Boomer generation. Brand loyalty matters and so does customer service.
Baby Boomers – 62%
Gen X – 68%
Gen Y (Millennials)– 78%
(Brand Loyalty stats from Brian Buffini podcast: (that’s right I listen to other sales trainers to make sure what I train is constant and true with them.)
Have you ever had poor customer service and decided not to purchase from the establishment ever again? It did not feel great did it? Do you know anyone that you work with that should not interface with the customer because of their attitude?
How are your customer service representatives doing with your customers? Are they reviewing orders and finding opportunities to upsell the customer more product, help them get free shipping, etc?
If you’re unsure about your customer service team, I am glad to help you. All business benefits by making sure that customer service is generating increased customer service. If not, your business will lose a great deal of opportunities fast! The world has become smaller with the internet and the competition is fierce. I have worked for organizations in the past that did not focus on customer service and soon had to downsize, restructure, or even close without knowing why. It all boils down to customer service. I have won more business because of the customer support I offer each time I interact with the customer.
If you have customer service representatives or sales professionals that are not performing as top performers pick up a copy of my book “The Sales Process Uncovered” and do a book study with them. Better yet, I will come in and train them to overachieve for their customers and enable them to be top performers for you, so you don’t miss any more opportunities.
For a listing of trainings please follow the link: https://www.kevinsidebottom.com/sales-training
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Why is it so hard to stay fit while traveling for work?
Do you run, do cardio? Only stay at locations that have full gyms? Find places near gyms? Do you plan your meals? Do you just give up and hope for the best?
These are questions that I have heard in the past and have run through my head when I started traveling on the road for work.
I have spent a great deal of time on the road in my career and I can say that it is extremely hard to stay fit when traveling. As I get older it is even harder to keep the weight off while traveling. The need to focus on my diet and workouts has been a huge focus for me.
I have tried all different options when it comes to staying fit in my time on the road. I have tried doing cardio while traveling and doing weight training when I would get home from my trips. I have tried to map out hotels that were near gyms as well. I would also try to stay near restaurants that I knew had healthier options. What I can tell you is that it takes work. You have to be committed to staying in shape if you travel, unless you like clothes shopping. I hate going out to find new pants and dress shirts personally. One of my motivations to work out.
I have carried dumbells, workout dvd’s, resistant bands, etc. I also would travel to hotels with a small gyms. I have also rearranged the furniture in my hotel rooms so that I had room for working which I will apologize to anyone that works at a hotel that I have stayed. I would prep workouts and plan meals on my stops between customer meetings. It was exhausting.
What I have found are a few options to help you stay healthier while traveling and keep it easier.
Option 1
Beach Body on demand.
Beach body has produced great workout programs such as P90X, Insanity, 21 Day Fix, etc. Most started on dvd’s which I would buy and carry with me. Now they have online access for $110/year. They have coaches that you can go through to get your subscription. I am not one. I don’t have time to sell that too. You have access to a library of workouts, yoga, cardio, kickboxing, pilates, weight training, body weight exercises, etc. There is just a wealth of programs that you can do from 25 minutes to 60 minutes in length. No gym required membership required.
Option 2
Airport gyms / yoga studios
Airports and hotels located on airports have been advertising lately access to gyms and yoga studios during layovers. If you have a long layover this is an option to get your workout in where you would normally be sitting in a chair waiting and waiting and waiting for the next flight delay. Get your workout on during the layover. DTW has a hotel in the Delta terminal that allows travelers to use during layovers.
Option 3
Bring your running shoes
Take a run or walk around the city that you are in to explore. Too often we are focused on work, work, work and never get to enjoy exploring the location you are in. Each location has tons to offer. I used to run beaches when I was in the gulf coast of Florida. I was able to get cardio in while seeing all the amazing beach houses. I would walk around the downtowns and see where the restaurants were that I needed to visit. I would also ask people for things to do and they were very helpful to find things that most tourists would miss. Asking questions have always helped me find places that trip advisor never shows.
Option 4
Food
There has been an explosion of healthier restaurants as well as regular places showing you the calories on the food. Salads are not always the healthiest option either. Yeah, I said it! Check out some of the restaurants near your hotel prior to your visit if they are not ones you are familiar with. Uber eats is an options if a healthier location is farther than you want to travel. Just use the app. This one is very important! Pack some healthy snacks in your carry on. TSA will even allow food to come through in your carry on. Just not liquids. Swing by the grocery store and pack some healthy snacks in case you are stuck somewhere and can’t get food for hours. This will give you healthier options and not cost you a mortgage payment at the airports.
The last point is to always drink water to stay hydrated while traveling. The more water you drink the better you will feel and it helps you not get as hungry when your stomach is full of water.
I hope that helps any of you that travel a lot for work to stay fit and maybe some ideas on how to make the hotel staff smile when they clean your room from your furniture art.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Good morning everyone,
We have finished up the trust equation so you now have an idea of each variable and how they all work together. Today I’d like to talk about why we need trust.
In every interaction that we have with others there is a level of trust associated with it. We trust medical professionals to prescribe the correct medication or surgery, the financial advisor to set up our retirement for success, our coworkers to help complete the job that we have. We trust our loved ones will be there for us to help us when we need them. We trust that our electronics will work when we need them to. Trust is all around us.
In sales rapport is built on trust. If the sales professional has no trust with the customer, then the sales professional will not be selling much of anything. Here is the funny thing…everyone is selling something so trust is needed for everyone. Whether you are selling a product or service, trying to get your team motivated, trying to convince others to go to that restaurant that you love, or convincing your spouse to clean the basement. You are selling an idea, position, preference, etc. In order to do that you need rapport and trust in order to influence others.
I remember when I was in training to be a volunteer fire fighter while living in Florida. While in a training the training Lieutenant shared a story about when he and a new probie (new recruit) were moving inside of a structure fire with the hose line. They were moving into position when the floor gave when under the Lieutenant’s weight (think linebacker in professional football) and he was trapped from the waist down in the floor. The fire flashed over causing a big flame and the probie jumped out the window. Literally trust went out the window… The lieutenant was able to eventually break free and made it out safely following the hose line. They unfortunately had to watch the residence burn completely to the ground.
In fire situations they require two people to navigate together so if one gets injured the other will be there to rescue. What would you feel if you were that Lieutenant and your teammate jumped out the window? Do you think you would trust them as much in the future to stick by your side?
Chances are that majority of your relationships do not require the amount of trust like that of the situation above, but you still have situations that you may have affected someone else. How do you think that customer, patient, or family member feels? I know I have spent a great deal of time over the past year realizing where I fall short on trust and relationships. I have been working to build up and make better on those relationships. I make more phone calls to catch up, I send notes of appreciation, I make time to visit more often. I also review the trust equation to gauge how I am doing with my variables.
The question is what are you going to do about improving trust? Is there someone that we have let down that we need to rebuild trust with? Did we not give our best effort for a project that effected the organization in a negative way? How about did we let down a family member on a commitment that we said we would follow through on? Take time to review any areas you may need to work on trust and apply the equation to improve the outcome.
We all need trust and we all need relationships to survive. Let’s make it a point to grow both and leave things better than we have them.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Good morning,
We have come to the most important variable when discussing trust. It’s in the denominator of the equation as well. This means that the larger this value the more it pulls down the other variables in the numerator.
To reflect we have the addition of credibility, reliability, and vulnerability as variables to building trust. Below them in the denominator is Selfishness. You can be very creditable, reliable, and vulnerable, but if you are only doing this to help yourself “WIN” you 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 a long-term play. 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 it.
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 is just not an option anymore.
I recently came to this realization with someone that I have bent over backwards to help on quite a few occasions. Each time has resulted in being walked over and taken advantage of. 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 the person wanted without a care for doing the right thing for everyone.
Without getting into much detail about the situation, I was protecting something of value that would have gotten damaged to the point of costing thousands of dollars to repair as well as fixing some other components on that piece of equipment that were already broken. The person was supposed to assist as well as bring some items to me (#reliability) and did not bother to follow through. It was the last straw for me wanting to help this individual anymore and it’s unfortunate because this person wanted to be selfish and unreliable. I have since had to make the decision to not help this person in the future. It is not something that I am happy about, but I have had to make that decision.
By being selfish we can quickly turn relationships sour. In sales or leadership if this happens, we really start losing our influence and in sales and Leadership influence is the key ingredient to success. Without trust there is no influence. You may think that if you have leverage over someone you can have influence them, but I challenge that thought because once that leverage is gone there is no more influence. Ever here about Julius Cesar? His good friend stabbed him in the back. Now typically an actual stabbing does not happen in business, but there have been stories in business where boards have thrown the CEO out of the organization overnight. When you do not have trust people will be less willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and promote you 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 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 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 influence.
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 you have been one sided on? Have you 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.
So here it is the full Trust Equation.
Next week we will tie all of this back up to create a great level of trust with everyone we come in contact with.
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Good morning everyone,
I hope you all had a great week this past week and enjoyed some sunshine with friends and family.
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 emotion at all. Well we did show anger and sarcasm. That was about it. Vulnerability was something I have and am working 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 them 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 a bad situation. 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 you 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 not 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 business, 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. 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. I have to used this quite often as it is a reflex for me with my wife. 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 you can do today to be more vulnerable with those around you?
Next week we will talk about the last part of the trust equation that is the most important variable. For now here is where we are so far for the equation.
Have a great week everyone and a save Holiday weekend!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Good morning everyone,
I hope you are all experiencing the warm weather finally! It has been a cool start to summer here in the mid-west, but has really cranked up the heat in the past week.
Last week we started unpacking how to build trust and we focused on building credibility. You can get credibility from education, life experience, and from pointing people in the right direction to help them.
Today, lets talk about the second variable in building trust. It’s 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 not that big of a deal?
It's a BIG DEAL!!! here on earth if you are being reliable or not. Trust is won or lost on your actions.
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 heard all my life.
That has always stuck with me.
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 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 the heat and use foil that reflects the heat back into the grates when they are aluminum that they actually make the grates melt and break in half? Yep, it was an awesome experience for me to figure that out. I told him that I would replace them even though he said don’t worry about it. The next day I was on the phone with the grill manufacturer ordering the new grates. I was originaly 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? Next day air shipping was also an extra cost.
That weekend was the most expensive steak dinner I have ever bought, 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. He still likes to bring it up every once in a while just like any father-in-law would to his son-in-law, but I know he is bringing it up because I stood firm to my word.
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 any kind of trust.
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. If you do not commit to being reliable the amount of favor is limited by those you come in contact with. We need trust in order to keep moving forward with others. Focus on how you can make sure you are doing what you say you will do and apologize to anyone that you may have fallen short with.
Next week we will at the final variable to the trust equation numerator and it is a huge variable. I look forward to sharing with you next week!
Below is where we are in the trust equation:
Good morning everyone,
Following up from last week’s blog post on trust I am looking forward to unpacking one of the characteristics of trust. Over the next few weeks I will show you how to build trust in a simple equation that you’ll be able to understand quickly and then focus on building great trust with those you come in contact with.
This week we are going to talk about one of the ingredients of trust and that is credibility. Credibility is important to people because they want to get information to answer their questions on their particular subject. You and I want to gather information that is correct if we are going to succeed. Gaining incorrect information will only set us back in our quest to move forward. Whether it is a software package, power tool, insurance, or any other product or service that will help us. We do not want to pick the wrong one so we research on the internet, watch videos, ask those around us as social beings.
We have to put trust in those that provide the information so that we can make the best decision. Depending on the high cost of the decision we are making we may want a very highly qualified individual to help us gather information, or someone that will be able to point us in the right direction.
How do we find these individuals?
Most people think that they have to be an expert to be credible, but that is just not true. Being a person that will help the person find the answer will also make you credible. That’s right I work hard to help people every day find answers to solve their problems. I am not an expert in everything. I do have a degree in electrical engineering, but that degree will not help me when picking a paint color especially since I am slightly color blind.
Someone that will offer up suggestions based off experience is just as important as an encyclopedia in my opinion. I have seen old mechanics walk up to a vehicle and diagnose the electrical issue in minutes while engineers had spent hours trying to figure it out. The mechanic experienced the issue prior and was able to help. He did sit back and smile a bit while the engineers suffered through.
Don’t think about having to have a degree to just be credible and to build trust. Use your experiences to help offer help as well. Life has taught me many lessons that have helped me point others in a direction to avoid making the same mistake.
I had a discussion with a millennial the other day that was worried about building credibility which is different discussion with baby boomers who seem to have all of the answers. I informed the millennial that building credibility is more of a heart thing than being a book thing. Being willing to research a bit and use your experience will help you gain credibility with others just as much as any degree in most cases. I mean as long as you are not trying to launch a rocket into space with precious cargo. Then I would say a degreed individual might trump that. Just as long as they do their calculations correctly. Remember the mars rover that crashed into the surface because they didn’t convert from metric to English? Even rocket scientists get things wrong on their specialized topics.
Focus on being a credible person by helping people find their answers, or connecting them to people that can help them. Doing this will be the way to build credibility with those you are helping.
For today I’ll give you the first part of the equation.
Next week we will talk about the next part of building trust.
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Good morning everyone,
Have you ever had to work with someone you just didn’t trust?
Would you hop into a car with a 12 year-old behind the wheel that says don’t worry, “I am great on video games?”
Would you do a back flip off of a cliff not knowing how deep the water was if a friend asked you to?
How about having fights with your significant other about small things only to reveal a lack of trust being the root of the conflict?
I have studied the art of building rapport with people for over a decade and trying to understand how to build deep relationships with customers. One of the key ingredients to building rapport with people is TRUST. If we don’t have trust, we will not have much of a relationship. Customers most likely will not give you information which will hinder the selling process and growth. Trust is crucial!
We have to have trust in relationships, the products we use in our daily lives, our organizations we work for, basically we have to put some trust in everything we come in contact with. We trust that the vehicle we drive will not just explode when we turn the key or push the start button. We trust that the engineers and the manufacturing individuals have assembled the vehicle so that it will function properly. People we don’t know and may never meet that assemble a mass of steel barreling down the road have our trust.
Trust is a huge factor in organizational success, teams, and relationships. Without trust we won’t get very far in life. We must focus on building trust with those we come in contact each and every day. I do this when I get up and write my blogs to help each and every one of you get some insight in hopes that you have a better life. I constantly build trust with people I work with, friends, and family each day. Trust is a huge moral obligation to me.
I have had to work at being trustworthy and to show my trustworthiness to those I have come in contact with in all situations. When my previous employer took over sales territory in Florida which it had never had distribution in, we had to work extremely hard to build trust with the new customer base. I took a Dale Carnegie course on effective communication and human relations, learned all I could about the new products as well as the competitive landscape, and did a great deal of leg work to build the trust that we were going to do what we said we were going to do for our new customers. This meant a great deal of studying the competitive landscape while on the road (some years 110 nights a year), going out to sell products for my customers to their customers, train my customer’s sales force, help them with marketing, etc.
There was a great deal of effort on my part to build trust. Some of the things that happened as a result of this hard work were some of my customers asking my opinion on other aspects of their business, products they were looking to purchase, inviting me on fishing / hunting trips to their properties, and phone calls to catch up even though I have not called on them in over eight years. Last week on customer called me to catch up and see what was going on in my life. It was great to hear from him and can you guess what I will be doing the next time I am in the area? You’re right, I will be stopping in to see all the changes they have made since my last time in their location. I am excited when I see my customers winning! It is FUN for me to build trust and relationships with people I come in contact with! You never know what will develop out of those relationships.
This past week I had the opportunity to speak on trust to a great organization that builds axles, drive shafts, gaskets, etc for the automotive industry. Most of the employees are engineers which takes me back to my roots as I started out an engineer myself. See engineers focus on a series of processes and equations to develop great products. We put our trust as consumers that they have done their diligence when we head down the road in a vehicle with their products inside.
In speaking with these individuals, I needed to make it a goal to speak their love language. I broke trust down into an equation. It was better than a bunch of bullet points. These individuals received a great deal of value out of the training and the discussion after was fantastic. My hope is that this equation might help you with being intentional in the future to build trust with those that you surround yourself with and come in contact on a regular basis.
Over the next few weeks I’ll break down the equation and share with you each component of the equation for you to fully understand as we step through.
Have a great weekend and I look forward to helping you build unmatched trust in the weeks to come.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom