Why Goals Need A Purpose Statement

It’s that time of year again.  Time to celebrate those wins that we had for this past year, time to celebrate the new year coming in just a few short hours.  What will the new year hold for us?  What can we do this new year that we have been unsuccessful in the past years?

If we want to achieve a better tomorrow and a better new year, then we need to start with planning for it.  Goals are just dreams if we do not have a plan of action. 

That is what we are going to talk about on this post.  How can we achieve a better tomorrow by starting our plan today.  If you have been on the goal planning trail for years great, what can we do differently to improve our success rates?  If we are new to goal planning, what can we do to start off with better traction?

One thing that I have done in the past few years is making and refining my Purpose Statement.  Now I have spent a great deal of time and effort to learn about myself and how I am wired.  W

hat I have found is that I am gifted in influencing others to move from here to there by motivating and providing a vision of success with my tenacity to keep moving forward when times get tough.  I am best at this when I am speaking to groups of individuals, teams, and organizations helping them create their process for success and staying disciplined. 

When I am speaking to groups, I actually gain energy.  I know that seems weird for an introvert, but watching people see the light bulb of an idea on how to improve makes me light up as well.  I get encouraged when I know that I am helping someone get to a better way. 

By having my purpose statement, I am better able to direct my goals so that I can have that compass that will align my vision with my steps.  This way I can keep moving in the right direction with my goals.  Not just that I have a goal to lose 10 lbs by a certain time, but that I do so in order to engage with more energy to help others understand how to succeed.

That gives my goals more traction when they are aligned on purpose.  A set of goals with a common focus gives them strength and keeps the fire burning even with times get tough and we want to give up.  I am able to get back off my back when knocked down one more time and keep moving forward so that I can keep helping others. 

I encourage you to do some research on yourself to understand how you are wired when making your goals for the next year so that when you are past the first few weeks of the new year and stress sets in you too are able to move forward.

There many ways to learn more about yourself.  There are assessments like The Predictive Index, Gallop Strength Finders, DISC assessment, Spiritual Gifts Assesssments and Growth Track (churches have been putting these on), and many more.  Pick one and see what you can learn about yourself so that way you can start to have better goals that really fuel your WHY.

For now here is to another year of growth and prosperity!  

Happy New Year Everyone!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Are you Building Trust During This Season?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Merry Christmas!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Why This Questions Is Crucial With Others

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

The Question To Ask For Trust With Others

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

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

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

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

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

So how can we grow trust fast?

1.     Social Proof

2.     Heart of a teacher

3.     Open and honest communication

4.     Encourage customers to show you opportunities for improvement

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

The First Question to Ask

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

The first question that we ask ourselves subconsciously when we interact with another person is “Do I like you?”  Our brains are trying to figure out if this person standing in front of us is a threat or a potential ally.  Should we stay, or run like…

Physically our bodies will change posture depending on how this question is answered.  Our posture will literally change as much as leaning in to leaning back depending on engagement and trust.  This is why sales professionals have been taught to always mirror your customer’s posture.

Did you know that depending on if you are male or female you tend to want to stand in different postures when interacting?  Women prefer to stand at 90 degree angles to men when they are interacting in the personal space.  They naturally want to keep a guard up to not feel vulnerable.  Men typically like to stand face to face total body facing their counterpart.

Are you starting to see how this might be a problem getting someone to like you if you do something small like use the incorrect stance?

Here is something else that will impact the way someone answers that question.  The color you wear on your clothing can also impact how you are judged.  That’s right the color we wear actually has an impact on how others perceive us.  We could start the discussion off on the wrong foot just by color.  In Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence” he breaks down the colors and what they mean.  It is a must read if you are working to sales! To make it easier for you, I tend to wear light blue and white shirts when I meet someone for the first time because those colors are associated with “Trust.”  They are also calming colors.  I want the customer calm and feeling like I am a trustworthy advocate for them.

I make sure to wear the right color tones for the meeting that I am about to have.  The reason is I need the customer to feel at ease while meeting with me.  They will be more relaxed and willing to hear me while we are discussing a topic.  I also pay close attention to their posture as what I have learned is that 93%  of communication is actually non-verbal.

Here are some other factors that can affect the first impression:

Scents you wear, voice tonality, pace of speech, jewelry, etc. 

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Three Questions To Help Us With Others

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you Help me?

These three questions are asked in our subconscious every time we interact with someone.  Our bodies are hardwired to want to know if we like, trust, and can be helped by the other person.  These questions have been embedded into our survival since the beginning of mankind.   We also are programmed to know if we are safe in an environment, or if we need to run (fight or flight response).  Think about that when you are in the grocery line and someone coughs…

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Why We Need Relationships In Business

Good morning everyone,

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

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

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

If you are not meeting with customers regularly to learn about their needs, then how are you going to build influence?  Sales is influence and the more influence you have the more sales you make.  A lack of influence will quickly turn you and your product into a commodity!  The only differentiating factor for a commodity is price.  Then starts the race to the bottom where there is no margin and likely no quality.

Some of the most successful business owners that I have had the chance to sit with state that it is imperative to build the relationship with the customer.  I have also been able to visit some of my old customers that I have not called on in years. They will smile, ask me out to dinner, and sit with me for hours to discuss where they are at with their current business situations.  They even have asked for insight on what I might recommend still to this day!  It is a great feeling that I was able to influence individuals enough that they will take time to catch up as well as look for my advice.

These conversations would not have happened had I not worked on the personal side of the business as much as the transactional side.  Knowing your customers on a personal level and understanding their aspirations is a huge benefit.  People want to know that they matter to you.  Building that relationship is extremely important. 

It is almost an art form watching an old sales professional work the personal relationship and send birthday cards for the customer’s family, as well as celebrating wins that the customer has had.  Meetings on the golf course have transacted in large business deals that cannot be instantaneously measured.  Looking back on the sales process and building relationships will allow your business to grow with your customers.   The transactions do happen, but after work on the personal side.  People will not buy from you if they do not know, like, and trust you. 

I encourage you to leverage the personal side of business along with the professional side.  If learning about people was not important than why do Amazon, Facebook, and your smart phones listen in on your conversations as well as track your searches?  Statistics have shown that when there is a relationship in place between organizations a great deal of growth has happened as well.

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

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Why You Need The Three F's

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 week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Please Don’t Use The Elevator Pitches!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is your positioning statement? 

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

How Much Is Your Time Worth?

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 into my 40’s 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 cannot 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 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! 

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

How Do We Figure Out The Correct Leadership Program

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Light It Up!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If we do then we can light up the world!

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Not Customer Service, But Customer Experience

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Are You Using A Compass?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What does your compass look like?

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Just One More...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Business Decisions Through This Filter

When I first entered the sales force, I was instructed to view my territory as if it was my own company and make decisions as such.  This was hard for me as an engineer because I was used to thinking about projects that someone else told me to work on. 

I didn’t have a business degree.  I didn’t have any understanding of how a business functioned outside of my little box of fixing and redesigning things.  This was hard for me to wrap my black and white, ones and zeros mind around.  What was this grey area people talked about?

As you can see thinking about my sales territory as if it was my own company was not an easy task for me.  It took me really making efforts to learn about business and learn from a mentor before I was able to wrap my mind around the concept.  This was not an over-night thing either.

I started reading books, taking trainings, and constantly learning so that I would be able to apply this concept.  That is why I am able to run my own company.  Without that prior training this would not have been possible.

Far too often people get into business by making a product / service and learn from one hardship after another.  Yes, it is okay to learn from mistakes and we typically learn more than when we have successes.  We should start out taking a business class when we start to go out on our own.  Not a full four year degree, but learning about business terms.

Not only will it help us learn more about business, but it will increase our capacity at our current job helping us to understand decisions better.  This makes us more valuable at our current job, and then helps us start out better on our future careers.  It’s like deciding to put on shoes prior running over rocky terrain. 

So how do we wrap our minds around this?  How do we decide our current position in finance, or materials would be our business.  By simply filtering our decisions through  this statement. “If this was my business would I make this decision.” 

Most people function as this is someone else’s pocket the cost is coming out of so they don’t think twice of spending the money.  I remember a conference when the speaker stated that we are to reach into our pockets to give something to charity, then follows up it by having us hand our wallets to the person to our left.  Now we are asked how much we would be willing to give to charity. 

Everyone erupted in laughter because we would empty the other person’s wallet without thinking, but when it was our own wallet… 

If we start filter business decisions through this filter as this is my company before we make the decision, we will make better decisions for the organization.   We will be more connected psychologically to the decision as well. 

Next time you are to make a decision in business, frame it in this mindset and see if your view changes.

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

Profitability vs. Revenue

I pride myself as being a dumb sales guy.  I do that as joking with customers when we have talks to lower the bar so when I over deliver, I look better in their eyes. 

One thing that I had to learn as I played in larger value discussions is understanding that more revenue did not make the organization more profitable.  That’s right, just selling more stuff does not out sell our costs sometimes.  When we are setting up sales prices to drive our revenue, we really need to study the P and L.  That’s profit and loss.

As I have grown my capacity as a sales professional, I have learned that profitability is more important than sales revenue.  If we sell at negative profit margins then we will soon be bankrupt.  Unfortunately, I did not understand this concept when I first got into sales.

I was constantly frustrated when we would have a sales program that would have iteration 4 by the time I booked half of my customers.  I would have to keep changing my prices weekly so some customers would get a price increase, or decrease and there was no way I could control it.

Let me share a word of advice.  If you think customers don’t talk to each other even though they say they are adversaries, you are wrong.  They talk and usually are more friends than we realize. 

What can we do as sales professionals to understand the profit and loss better?  Why not ask questions and continue to learn how the organization functions?  If it is an organization that fosters a culture of growth and service then they will likely see this request as a way to help groom a future executive. 

We need to understand the basics of our profitability if we are going to sit with a customer because they will always ask for a better deal.  We do it whenever we go out and shop, so why wouldn’t our customers ask.  When we understand our profitability then we can truly know why we can or can not drop the price.  We need to understand this if we are going to be successful.

If we go out and sell a bunch of products / services at losses we will soon be “promoted to customer.”  That’s just a nice way of saying fired.  We need to take pride in understanding our profitability if we are going to succeed. 

This does not mean that we need to go to college to get a financial degree to understand terms.  I haven’t done that.  We should learn about those terms and understand a P and L sheet as well as ask questions.  Yes, we have to be vulnerable enough to ask for clarification and understanding.  This is hard for sales people because we want to think we know everything.  The truly smartest people are those that know their limits and are okay with being vulnerable to learn.

Knowing our profitability will allow us to gain more success and a better future.

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

It's Hard To Move Away From The Cheapest Price

Have you ever wanted to win business so bad you felt compelled to drop your sales price?  Was there a customer that seemed so good to be true that you needed to decrease the price to secure this new business?  How about a large organization that would be the largest sales volume for you and your organization that you wanted to win it no matter what.

These are some of the stories I hear all the time and then when the win misses the volumes that were guaranteed the sales team is accused of missing the revenue.  Then the sales team is informed they need to get a price increase not tool long after the business is secured.

I have had to do this a few times in my history in sales.  One occasion was when business was won prior to me coming aboard and it was done so at such low profit that when we looked at the financials we were actually losing money every time we shipped something to the customer.

Guess who got tasked with a 20 percent increase.  Before you think 20 percent is not that much, it was on items that cost over $3000 per item.  That impact would affect the customer my millions each year.  Especially since they had orders already secured by their customers.

Typically, there are increases of a few percentage points, less in double digits, and very little that have a two in front of them.  The customer relationship was stressed and that will likely lead them to find ways to sell product for less money.  That is usually done by resourcing product.

I say this to highlight when we are selling to customers, we need to make sure that we stand behind our value and not just try to sell a product / service.  If we stand behind the value then we can have a conversation up front with the customer to let them know that we can offer a product / service for this investment.  We can stand firm in the value we offer and not have uncomfortable discussions in the future. 

We may lose some opportunities, but we will be known to the marketplace as the higher value option and we will still have customers that want to invest.  This also helps us really find who our ideal customer is.  Do we want someone that will try to decrease our price at every turn in the future and treat us like a commodity, or do we want someone that will want to partner with us and invest in the higher value product / service.

Sales teams sometimes forget that we offer value and we should know that we are not willing to lower our value for a new customer unless we have calls to action in the agreement that if the customer does not hit volumes, then we are able to come back for discussions.  We need to stand by our value we offer.

Without setting value for ourselves, the customer won’t either.  We need to make sure that the relationship is a mutual one and not just a one-way commodity purchased.  When we can achieve these kind of customers that view us as true partners that are not just trying to cut out pricing at every turn, we will be more profitable and have less of these price increase discussions in the future.  Both parties will function well and make profits.

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

How To Build Rapport

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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

How To Build Rapport In Online Meetings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!

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

www.kevinsidebottom.com

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

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

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

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