Why We Need To Get Buying Decision 1 For Building Influence

Last week we talked about why leaders need to know sales.  The answer is to understand how to build influence with those around them.  This morning I want to focus more on building that foundation in building influence.  We are now in the office looking around seeing how we can learn more about our relationships and find ways we can relate to each of them.  Does this sound familiar?  This is rapport in the sales process.  It is also the building block for influence.  Unfortunately, rapport is only the beginning of building influence and not the end all. 

Most people believe that you just need to build rapport with the individual so that you can influence them.  Rapport is building up some relational collateral with the individual so that you can step in a little more and grow the relationship.  It takes time to build good rapport and relational collateral in order to get the person to start working with you more.

When you start taking a deep interest in other people, you will gain influence with them.  You’ll take interest in their hobbies and things that make them come alive.  That person will start to open up in areas that they feel they can share as well as ask for input. 

I use the 3 letters when trying to learn more about others to build influence.  The letters are C.I.A.  No, not the government agency. 

C-stands for being curious.  Be curious like a child that never stops wanting to know more.  Be curious to learn more about your relationships whether they are customers, teammates, family, friends, people you just met, etc.  Be curious to learn about them as much as you can.  People love to talk about themselves and are craving that connection.

I-stands for being intentional.  Be intentional about your relationships.  While you are asking questions do not stare at a phone while the other person responds.  Look them in the eyes and pay attention to what they are saying and how they are saying it.  You’ll learn a lot about a person when you pay attention to their posture, their tones, their words.  Even when someone is saying they are fine… if their tone sounds like they are about to scream, they are not fine.  Pay attention and see if there is a way you can help.

A-stands for asking questions.  Ask a great deal of questions.  This being paired up with curiosity and being intentional helps you really learn about the relationships.  What is really going on with your teammates, your customers, your family members?  Similar to the sales process where you do a needs analysis in my book “The Sales Process Uncovered”, you will ask questions to see if there is a way you can help the person get to where they want to go.  People of great influence are not those that take from people, but are people that give as much as they can without expecting anything in return.  That can be time, money, clothing, etc.  Dale Carnegie, Mother Teresa, Jesus Christ are all people of great influence.  These people started most of their conversations with questions.  These individuals wanted to learn about the situation and where they could help.  They stepped in.

For today, focus on using C.I.A. when you interact with people you come in contact with.  Not for the sole purpose of gaining influence.  You will as a bi-product, but because you want to really interact with people on a deeper level.

Have a great week everyone! 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Why Leaders Need To Know Sales

When I first started in sales it was on the premise that if I wanted to be a great manager, business owner, lawyer, president, I needed to know sales.  That is what a successful business owner told me after I had told him that I wanted to be a manager when I grew up.  He was a great leader and still has people working for him that were with him since he opened his company in the mid 1980’s.  I was not sure why I needed to know sales to be a good manager to be honest, but I knew I would figure out why. 

At first, I was hesitant to change careers.  Six months of hesitation and discussions to be exact.  I did not want to be a salesperson because all life had taught me was that they were evil.  All I had ever been told was bad and experiences were also proof to that same point. 

When I did decide to try this sales thing out, I figured that sales would be easy.  The first year of sales was a rude awakening.  It literally looked like a heartbeat of someone that just took their last breath.  I thought the ruling of do not resuscitate was going to be handed down meaning I was going to have to find another job.  I was fortunate to have a chance to keep going and learning from the successful business owner in what he called “hands on training.” 

Hands on training meant that I was to help him with projects after hours, gain training from peers, and hours of trainings to perfect my craft.  I did weekend deliveries, helped him with personal projects, etc.  Basically, anything he needed extra help with I was the man to help.  This was valuable time with the big guy himself teaching me all he knew about sales business.  It was training that really helped me gain traction in sales.

I excelled from then on to become a great sales leader in my industry and even relocated to another part of the United States to help grow a new territory.  We did very well there with great purpose.  Customers started opening up fast to me and sales were increasing as the years went by.  I was awarded the prize of top salesman for the United States and had taken the territory to where it had never been.

I literally had customers asking me about which digital cameras they should purchase, what software would work best on their computers, and other things that had nothing to do with what I sold.  Some of the responses when I asked why they were asking me about the topics was, well I trust you and you were an electrical engineer.  You should know all about this stuff, right?  I thought to myself, if they had seen my exam grades in college, they might rethink asking me for electronics. 

None the less, business was increasing at a rapid pace even in a down economy.  We were taking over market share from our competitors.  I won’t give all those secrets away today on how we did this, but I can tell you it was not because we were the cheapest price or by doing anything unethical. 

It was because of Influence.  As influence increases people trust us more and are willing to go deeper in relationships with us.  This can be in business ventures, nonprofits, community support, etc.  The more influence someone has the more they excel in whatever they are doing. 

What I found is that the sales process that I keynote and perform trainings on helps people build amazing amounts of influence fast!  That is right selling correctly helps us build great influence!  Keep in mind that selling is not just a product or service.  It can be selling a vision, idea, or that we are going to lead those that report to us.  By building influence using the sales process leaders gain more engagement from those around them.  Utilizing the sales process to sell your vision and your mission will grant you more influence and greater buy in from those around you.

As you look around your organization look at those relationships of those that go out of their way to help you and those that don’t.  See how much influence you have with these relationships.  Ask yourself, “Why do I have more influence with this person as opposed to another?  What is different with each of these individuals?”  What you’ll learn is that the level of your influence determines how much you can say and do with each individual.

The more influence you have the farther your organization can go.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

The Way To Keep Focus On Your Goals

Good morning everyone,

Back on November 9th when I talked about setting goals, I stated that I would spend December creating my goals for 2020.  An interesting thing happened during that time that I think may benefit you as well. 

I read a book called “Get a Grip” which is a business book for their entrepreneurial operating system.  In the book the leadership rights down the core values, the core focus statement “mission statement” and a great deal of other details.  It’s a great book if you have not gone through a process to create a mission statement for your organization / family yet.

While reading the book and understanding the concepts I thought about how this could work for our Family, my business, and my personal goals.  My wife and I took time between Christmas and New Years to discuss what we would want out family to look like and our core focus.  We decided that using this format to provide purpose and direction for our family would be worth the effort.  We drafted the following below Focus and Values:

Core Focus

To know our worth in God and be a bright light to those around us of hope, help, and encouragement

Core Values

·        Grow Relationship with God and Each Other

·        Financially Smart and Generous Giving

·        Fit and Healthy Choices

·        Helpful and Encouraging Each Other and Celebrate Each Other’s Wins

·        Fail Forward Fast for Constant Growth

·       Great Communication

From there each of us in our family can point our goals towards these Core Values and Focus we have as a family.  When we want to give up on a goal, we will have these values and focus to keep us moving forward to achieving those goals.

See goals independent of each other are usually not as strong and can’t sustain for long periods of time.  The Core Focus and the Core Values are your WHY we are doing what we are setting out to accomplish.  Having a strong WHY will give us that added boost to keep going when the obstacles of the year come flying at us.  Now we have a compass to use when I want to give up on a goal, or when distractions happen.

The other things that are nice from this process is that we have set the sheet up (pictured as the background for this blog post) to be reviewed every quarter.  Each Quarter we can sit down and review the goals to see where we are at achieving the annual goals and the goals we set out to accomplish that quarter.  We can also look at the issues that might come up this quarter, or from the last quarter that may try to limit us from success.

Last year I had 31 independent goals that I set out to achieve.  I achieved about half of them.  This year I have less goals and goals that are derived from the Core Focus and Core Values.  These goals will fit in the following areas:

Fitness, Family, Business, and Growth in myself. 

What are your Core Values and Focus for 2020?   What will you use to keep you motivated when the obstacles of life come hurling at you?

If you would like a free copy of the goals sheet we used post a comment, or email me and I will send a copy out to you.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

How are you Coaching?

How are you at coaching your team and your family? 

Are you like a college football coach constantly sending in directions?

In the picture attached to this blog post I want you to notice the team in blue looking towards their sideline waiting for the coach to send in the call.  Meanwhile the other team has snapped the ball (look at the center #71) effectively putting the team in blue a few crucial seconds behind for the play.  

Business leaders think being a coach means constantly sending in orders like a coach on the sideline of a football game.  They believe they should tell the team what to do and how to do everything and then the team will just execute.  The issue is that these people just become “yes men” and do not learn to not think for themselves.  Instead they constantly come to the coach for the answers for everything and anything essentially slowing the organization down.

This style of coaching does not promote effective thought in individuals and does not allow them to break through ceilings.  What I learned in 2016 from John Maxwell about coaching is that coaching is not about telling people what to do.  Coaching is instead asking questions for the individual to produce their best answer for the given situation.  It’s encouraging them to look within for their best answer.  Not telling people what to do, but allowing them to look deep inside to derive their answer.

Most of the time in business we are trying to answer questions and get to solutions fast.  We are looked upon by our peers, or reports to provide the course that is needed so much that we get used to coming up with the answer all of the time.  When we arrive home at the end of the day, we are still dictating what needs to happen, how it needs to happen, and when it needs to happen to our families if we are not careful.  Will that help our families thrive?

We are getting things accomplished, but we need to grow others around us so that they can make decisions so if we were to be “hit by a bus” they could still move forward.  If we are not coaching these individuals correctly, we are actually hurting them.  We are not allowing them to grow their confidence in decision making, and growth from within.

As coaches, we can not be the sole source of answers.  We need to help cultivate within those around us to find those answers if we want to move forward fast together. 

Coaching is also the act of giving more and more trust to those around us as they exhibit those traits we are working to grow in them.  We do not give a ten year-old child keys to a brand new Ferrari and say you’ll figure it out.  We need to guide them and train them before they are free to make those decisions.  We need to continually ask those thought provoking questions to help them come up with better and better decisions.  Even if those decisions do not align with what we believe is best at the time, we still need to trust the process to help them grow. 

Ultimately, we will expire and it is on us to grow those around us. 

I hope this year has been good for you and your organization and that this blog has helped you well this year. 

Next week I am going to take the week off to focus on vacation, time with the family, and goal planning.  I will be back January 4th to provide my Goal Setting Strategy and share with you how this works. 

Looking forward to a great end of 2019 and a great start for 2020.  Have a great Christmas and New Years everyone!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

What Wealthy People Do

What do Wealthy individuals do that people living paycheck to paycheck do not?

I have sat with quite a few millionaires and learned this one cool thing. 99% of wealthy individuals did not inherit their wealth. Yep, that is right, they built it from the ground up.

One of the ways that wealthy individuals do this is by using a Budget. Yep, I used the B-word! I know that your hearts is beating faster and palms are getting sweaty, but keep reading.

The majority of people believe that budgeting as the equivalent of torture device that they don’t have time to mess with. People believe the B-word as a taboo discussion topic when it comes to family resources. I get it. I fought against using budgets until I took a class that helped me understand that if I tell my money what to do, it actually does what I want it to do.

When I learned how freeing budgets can be, I was pissed at myself that I didn’t do this when I graduated college. I would have had so much more money at the end of the pay period and would have been able to invest more money. Had I started earlier on investing into retirement I would have millions more when I retired. Not a million…Millions! Click this link to see how compound interest works.

My wife and I started out our marriage with the monthly budget meeting and the monthly budget has helped our communication greatly as a by-product. Communication is huge in relationships. We go through all of the line items including clothing budgets. What has been nice is that my wife gets a set amount of money that she can use to buy whatever clothes (shoes) she wants whenever she wants. It is freeing. Yes, budgeting can be freeing for you and your loved ones. A total contradiction to what people think about budgets.

She can use her money to buy whatever she wants with it. If she decides to buy a whole bunch of coffee, she is free to do so without me condemning her because it is her money to budget for whatever she wants! Have you ever had a fight over your significant other buying something that you haven’t agreed on? It sucks having those fights and ending up on the couch for the night, or worse the cold shoulder!

Budgeting has been one of the single most effective ways for my wife and I to prepare for emergencies, taking vacations, date nights, etc. This past Spring, we had to pay for the foundation for our house to be fixed which cost tens of thousands of dollars which we were able to pay cash for because we budgeted. It has brought us closer as we talk about our future dreams and budget to make it a reality. That is right budgeting gives you HOPE for a better future.

We give the kids a budget for clothing and after school activities that they can manage how they choose. They just need make sure they can afford it. If they don’t have enough money, then they don’t do the activity. Now the emotion is taken out of the discussion and the focus is on saving up so they can do that activity in the future. My hope is that they will keep budgeting for the rest of their life so they can retire with even more money that my wife and I.

What is keeping you from sitting down and doing a budget?

Do you not have the time?

Does it seem like you don’t know where to start?

What if I told you that if you emailed me, I would send you a FREE excel file that you could budget. It does all of the calculations for you.

Would that be helpful for you?

If you want to become wealthy and have HOPE for your future, email me today and I will send you a copy of the budget file we use so that you can get on the road for a better future.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Do You Have My Back?

Has anyone ever asked you the following question…Do you have my back?

Chances are if you have direct reports, they are asking this question about you.  They were trying to figure this out the moment they start working for you.

Your direct reports want to know that when the chips are down that you will have their back as long as they are doing what is right and ethical.  Far too often in big business employees feel they have to CYA because they do not trust their manager.  CYA stands for Cover Your Assets.  The A is sometimes shortened. 

I have experienced in the issue of having to CYA myself in communications due to a lack of support from managers.  It agitated me greatly because I believed I was left to fight for myself.  It is a lonely position to be in as a report.  Here’s the thing, relationships do not thrive in this kind of environment.

Employees want to know that their managers have their back when the chips are down and that they can reach out to their managers when they need help.  Far too many managers are so busy themselves they forget to establish ground rules for trust and communication at the beginning of the relationship.  There needs to be a set of ground rules of engagement set up from the beginning.  Leaving it up to assumption is a recipe for a bad relationship.   There are a few managers out there unfortunately that don’t really care about relationships with their reports and should look to either move on from their position or retire. 

When trust and communication are not flowing it becomes like a body of water with no movement.  It becomes toxic and everything in it dies.   When trust and communication are absent fear sets in.  When Fear takes hold, trust and relationships do not flourish, they die.

If reports don’t trust their manager, then where does the employee bounce ideas off of to move forward in the correct direction?  Where do they expect to get mentored?  Where do these reports learn the correct way of operating for the organization?

Far too often employees have enough of this lack of trust and communication and elect to leave the department, or worse the organization.  The intrinsic knowledge that the employee has is also following them right out the door.  This then puts the team and management back to start the process over to onboard another employee.  If the cycle keeps occurring the manager will be found out and their management will have to discuss options.  

The cost of onboarding is excessive, so why not work to make sure your reports know that you have their back, how to communicate with you, and build trust.

The answer is setting up guard rails with your direct reports from the beginning to make sure they understand how the trust and communication can work together.  Setting these guard rails up will keep everything moving better and work life to improve.  Employees need to know that they can trust their managers.  Having that trust and communication will allow the employees to excel and thrive with you.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

That Time…I Got Schooled

Have you ever noticed those racks at the checkout line of your local grocery store?  You know the ones stacked full of candy, gum, and chocolate that your kids can’t seem to keep their hands off.  Those small items that don’t cost that much enticing you to just buy them. 

There is a reason why those little goodies are located at the checkout line.  It’s because they work.  See Grocery stores are one of the best volume sales entities.  These little goodies are low priced which typically lowers the resistance you have towards them.  People think, its not that much so why not if it makes my kids stop screaming.  If we are honest the kid in our head also thinks we deserve some as well.  These are great add on sales that give you extra margins.

I remember when I had just made a large sale when I was in Florida and thinking that I was the best salesman in the world…  spoiler alert…I was wrong!  I was at the International Mall in Tampa Florida.  I walked into the Clarks store to buy a brown pair of dress shoes that I had been looking at for a while.  They were my prize for being the best salesman ever… 

I picked out the ones that I wanted and headed to the register with my prize.  That is when I got schooled in the art of upselling!  This nice old lady behind the counter that was ringing up my purchase said, “You know these are a big investment, have you ever thought of getting one of these shoe sponges to clean and condition the leather?”  I asked, “Do I need one?”  she nodded so I added it on for the small price compared to the shoes of a few dollars.  Then she said “you know your wallet is looking a little worn…”  I then a wallet.  Then she told me about their amazing socks and their lifetime warranty.  Before I knew it, this nice old lady was piling up the point of purchase sales like crazy!  When she asked to see my belt, I yelled, “STOP! I’m done, I can’t take any more of this beating. 

I walked out of that store like a dog with my tail between my legs.  This nice old lady took me to the cleaners and upsold all of the point of purchase products.  These extra point of purchase items didn’t cost as much as the main purchase, but their margin is more than the original purchase.  She was like a special-ops of sales people.  She did it so nicely that I didn’t even see it coming! 

That life lesson has stuck with me ever since.  

I have even coached many sales professionals about upselling the point of purchase products after the main sale.  I have even helped hair stylists upsell their point of purchase products.  Those special hair products that are not easily found at regular grocery stores.  These products that they put in the customer’s hair during their hair styling sessions.  It’s an add on sale that the hairstylists were missing out on.  Extra profit that is an easy sell.  Just like the pack of gum at the grocery line.  They are there for a reason!

Point of purchase sales are a way to help the customer and keep them buying more and more from you as long as it is something that will benefit them.  They will grow more trust for you if you are helping them solve problems and allowing them to buy more from you instead of having to search all over town for the same product.  It’s right there! 

Next time you have a customer in front of you and you are selling them an expensive product think of the other items that may benefit them.  Why send the customer elsewhere for products that you can help them with?

Happy selling everyone!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Three F’s You Need to Utilize!

When I am on stage speaking, I bring the audience in to where I began in sales.  I was working for a 6-foot 5-inch ex-Navy Seal.  He was a successful driven business leader.  He was intense and was always moving forward.  He also flipped my thought process upside down.

Growing up in my blue-collar family it was always pressed to do my best and do it perfect.  I am also a “one” on the Enneagram so I naturally trying to make things better and as close to perfect as possible.  I was devastated when I got into college and my best would however only generate B’s and C’s.  Highschool was easy to obtain A’s, but college was a whole different ball game.

I was failing to get A’s and I was pissed off and angry throughout college.  I graduated with an electrical engineering degree and had a great job right out of college, but I always looked back that I was not perfect in college.  It left a feeling that I was not good enough back then.

In reality no one is totally perfect.  We all have flaws.  No one can do everything perfect the first time either.  What we do is Fail Forward Fast.  Fail Forward Fast is a phrase that navy seal operators use quite often in training.

Navy seals as I was taught by my mentor are okay with set-backs.  Fail Forward Fast works like this.  Apply action -> review -> apply action for a constant loop for improvement of whatever the situation is.  Failure is not about making a mistake, failure is giving up. 

It’s okay to have a set back and learn from it so that when you are attacking the same activity the next time you move through it more efficiently.  The cool part is that the action does not have to be a massive game changer.  It is small incremental adjustments as you go through the loop.   

Another benefit from this small action is that doubt is eliminated through action.  Figuring out the next small step will keep doubt from tackling us from behind and stopping us from moving forward in our process.  How awesome is that!  A small step of action puts doubt on its butt and allows us to move forward.

Do you remember riding a bike without training wheels for the first time?  Most of us as children would fall, get back on the bike and moved a little farther, fall again, get back on the bike and moved farther and farther each time until we were riding the bike without assistance from anyone.  It took a progression and learning how to balance while pedaling and occasionally stopping before running into something.  It is rare for someone to just jump on a bike for the first time and get it perfect. 

I love the Fail Forward Fast because when I am working on a project and the “Have to be perfect” phase pops in my head, and I am able to remind myself that it is okay.  Sometimes I also find out that the desired outcome that I had was not the one I needed to be shooting for.  I am able to pivot towards the better desired outcome instead of coming to the end of the experience and learning that I am nowhere near where I truly need to be.

Fail Forward Fast is essential in all growth and I have applied it to my life so that I can keep going when tough times happen.  Sometimes we just need to focus on one small step at a time to keep moving forward instead of looking at the long path that is ahead of us. 

I hope this blog is helpful to you.  If it is, please leave a comment below of how this or another blog post has helped you!

Have a great weekend everyone!  

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Please Don’t Use The Elevator Pitch!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is your positioning statement? 

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

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Setting Better Goals for 2020

What do your goals look like for this year?

How many have you hit in 2019? 

Do you have goals that focus on all aspects of life such as finances, relationships, work goals, fitness, etc?

As we are head into the last part of the year, I bet if I asked most would say we have not hit all of their goals.   Each year people start with new year’s resolutions in hopes to having a better new year.  Most people fail to keep those resolutions past the first 60 days.  Some go a step further than a resolution and set goals, but those goals are abandoned quickly as well.

I was sitting in the audience a couple weeks ago for a message that revolved around setting financial goals.  There was a smaller part of the message that I think went unnoticed by most of the attendees about how to set solid goals.  It was so intriguing that I am putting it into practice for 2020.

Currently I have a list of goals in my workout area so I can look at them every day I am working out.  As you can see in the picture with this blog post I have hit a few and missed on others.  I have quite a few goals for different areas of my life.  Actually I have too many goals that are all independent of themselves for the most part.

This year I will take December to plan my goals again as I have done in the past couple of years, but with this simple new strategy.  Instead of thinking about goals I want to achieve for the next year individually, the focus will be on goals that help me get to the future self.  I will put the focus on where I want to be in five years from now and what goals will help me get there.  Having this frame of mind when creating goals will allow me to look forward into where I want to be in the future instead of just hitting a goal.  The goals will align and contribute to my future self. 

The future vision statement will be my compass pointing to true North.  I will have goals for spending time with the kids and my wife in their interests, but it will be because my goal in the next five years will focus on having a closer family.  When my goals are challenged, I can look at the future self and keep the vision of where I want to go which will fuel me to hit that goal.

Instead of the goals being independent, they will work together to achieve my vision of my future self.  Using this strategy will allow me to pull meaningful goals that have more substance to keep me going when challenged.  I will have goals to grow my business by a certain number of engagements, but that is because my future self will have a certain financial level associated with speaking engagements, trainings, and consulting.

Keeping a vision of our future selves will help us to focus on hitting those goals today so that the vision becomes a reality.  Yes, there are obstacles and roadblocks, but with our vision we can still chart out course to success.

Stay tuned and I will share my goals and how I have set it up with you this December.

Until then enjoy the fall weather!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

What is your Talk Trigger?

Where do you go when you are looking for a product / service that is new to you? 

Where do you get your knowledge from in order to make a decision?

Have you ever used a service / product that one of your friends or family members recommended?

Most of us spend hours searching for what products / services we need on Google, Bing, maybe Yahoo, etc.  We then pull together data on what features and benefits that meet our needs.  The challenging thing to know is where to get the product / service from.  Most will next move directly to price as being the main differentiator when figuring out who to buy from.  This typically ends up with an unsatisfied customer experience.  Remember the old saying, “the cheapest price is not always the best option.” – some very wise and very old person 

There is however a way to mitigate a bad customer experience when buying a product / service.  That is to obtain a recommendation from those we trust.  A recommendation of where to buy the product / service is a very essential part of the buying process and is actually the second of five buying decisions that customers have to make.  I’m not talking about small purchases like socks here.  I’m talking about purchases of $50 or more. 

Think back to the last time you received recommendations.  Did you first start with friends and family members for recommendations, or did you just use the first supplier that showed up on the internet?  Recommendations from friends and family members are valued at 27% more than advertising and online ads when making a larger purchase.

People would rather buy from someone they know, like, and trust rather than a big box store.  This is also why when looking for recommendations people will consult with their friends and family members first before picking a place to buy from.  It’s because the customer trusts their friends and family members more than any other advertising.  Even the top-rated celebrity that people use for product recommendations is only 4% effective.  Sorry Oprah…

If you are a business owner, sales professional, or marketing professional, understand that a customer experience that creates a “talk trigger” is worth more than all the marketing combined.  Focus on providing exceptional service and an experience to your customers and watch your customer base grow.  Repeat customers are where profits are made, not on the one-time sale.  Repeat purchases from the same people lowers cost and helps you with stability.  These repeat customers will also act as your free sales force and they will generage a larger impact when they refer their friends and family to you!  Advertising that you cannot pay for!

Customers want a great experience and it is up to us to provide such an experience that people want to talk about to their friends and family.  It’s not about making that extra percent, its about helping our customers have a better experience so they win when they buy from us. 

Some examples of companies killing it in this arena are Five Guys (so many fries dumped into your bag), WindorONE lumber (call kirk for a shirt), Holiday World (free pop for all guests), Skip’s Kitchen (free lunch if you pick the joker), and New Zealand Airlines (seats that fold up to a couch for long flights).  These examples are what people share when the do business with these organizations.

What are you currently doing to achieve that goal of exceptional customer experience driving repeat sales?  

For more information on talk triggers pick up the book called “Talk Triggers” and start generating yours with your customers!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Why Just Fill A Spot?

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

H.E.L.P.

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Why You Need To Be Nice To the Assistant

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Sales = Influence = Leadership

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

What is Rapport And Why Do I Need It?

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Having a Plan to Succeed in Sales

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

The Dreaded Cold Call

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

How Is Your Customer Service?

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com