Team Trust Building Games

Team trust building is crucial to an organization.  Without trust we don’t move forward.  High trust organizations thrive while low trust organizations flounder.  When trust is high in an organization speed goes up and costs go down.  That means more profits!

Trust is key if we are going to survive in the economic climate that we are in.  We need to have trust with our teams so we don’t have to keep following up to see if tasks got completed on time.  Too many organizations waste resources because they do not have high levels of trust.

Team building is one of those topics that leaders in their organizations always ask for ideas.  Some ask for the large expenses because they have decent budgets while others look for more economical solutions.  This week’s post will help with some ideas that will be lower investments for team building.

These ideas are under $50 per person on the investment side.

Questions for humans

This is a card deck that gets people sharing about their thoughts of a topic.  Ramsey solutions has come out with this and they are not just for adults but for families as well.  It’s a great resource because when we listen to how others answer some of these questions, we start to get a perspective and insight into who they are.  Remember if we don’t know someone, we don’t typically trust them.  We need to get to know people before we can trust them.  When we are sitting down for lunch together, or the first few minutes of a weekly team meeting open up the deck and ask a question or two for everyone to answer.  We will laugh and get to know each other which leads to building levels of trust.

Escape rooms

I love escape rooms not only are they challenging for puzzles, but by doing them we typically have others helping us.  Someone has a different perspective to the clue and helps solve the puzzle typically.  This results in us being able to communicate to solve things together which communication is key for trust.  They are also fun because as we solve things together, we build confidence in each other.  Bonds start to form and trust increases.

The third option is laser tag.  Yes, I said laser tag.  There is a place in Brandon Florida called CQ tactical.  It’s laser tag, but with a twist.  Two teams enter, one team wins.  The teams are set up on missions like protecting a diplomat while the other team is looking to capture the diplomat.  There is another where there is a bomb that has to be deactivated while you are being shot at by the other team.  So many kinds of scenarios, but what happens is people have to work together, strategize together, and execute the plan to complete the missions.  It is a lot of fun and laughs, with people building trust together to accomplish missions together.  Just watch out for those girl scout troops, they are ruthless and sharp shooters!

Get out of the office and do some of these to build trust and communication with your team and you will see the benefits of a high trust environment.

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

How To Sell More!

How can I sell more?  How can I make more sales?  How can I hit my goals?

These are questions that sales professionals often ask me.  They are looking for a quick answer, pitch, or some kind of leverage to get their customers to buy more of their products / services.

Unfortunately, that is the incorrect lens to look through.  Simply wondering how I can sell more of my product / service is not the question we should be asking.  That makes the sales professional do and say things that are not true, and will likely come back to bite them in the long run.

Sales professionals have gotten a bad rap because of this lens they view selling through.  Why do people associate Used Car Salesmen as evil?  I’m sure not all of them are evil. Some may be, but the majority are just there trying to make an honest living. 

Ever walked into a clothing store and someone ask you what brings you in today?  Likely your response like most customers is something like, “Umm, just looking.”  That is because we have put sales professionals in a category low trust and to be avoided if possible.

When I talk with organizations and sales professionals, I tell them if they want to grow their numbers, they need to build influence.  That is right influence.  Influence is the ability to have an effect on others and their decisions.  This means that if we want to have influence there has to be trust involved. 

If customers trust that we are there to help them with their situation, issues, and ramifications, then they will be open to our help.  If not, they will just say, “just looking” and move on.  We need to build that trust so that we can have influence with our customers if we want them to buy more of our products / services.

True if we only want a one-time sale we can lie and not worry about building influence, but unfortunately each person that we are selling to has influence over 100-150 other individuals.  That means we are jeopardizing a lot more when we just focus on a one-time sale.

If we focus on building trust and influence with our customers, serving them well, then we will have the opportunity at more sales with others in their influence.  If we focus on serving customers to solve their situations, issues, and ramifications with a great experience, then they will tell others that they need to deal with us. That is like having our own salesforce that we don’t even have to pay.  Who wouldn’t want that?

Here is the interesting thing.  I have served customers well with a great experience and they did not buy my product / service.  Because I served them so well, I have had others that I have never met reach out to me and bought from me because they were referred by the person that I didn’t make the sale to.  I have also had that same person reach out later to buy something else in the future. 

To succeed in sales, we need to really focus on serving the customers to the best of our ability.  If we serve them well even if we do not make the sale this time, they will remember what we did for them and how we served them.  They may come back at a later date, or tell others that they need to deal with us. 

Remember Sales is a marathon, not a sprint!

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

The Benefit Of Having Mentors

Why do we need mentors?  Why are they called mentors?  How do you become a mentor?

Why is it that we think we can just do life on our own and that we have all the answers?  Why do we time and time again struggle with the same issues and not reach out for help?

I spent the majority of my life doing things on my own and finding the correct answer to my situation with tons of research and exploration.  Hours and hours were spent to solve the issue I was facing.  By doing this I ended up wasting a great deal of time and effort with little progress.

That is when I finally relented and started asking for help.  That is when mentors stepped in to help me avoid many pitfalls, increase my speed and efficiency, and grow my success faster.  I have had mentors in business, finance, faith, and in relationships. All key to my success today.

Mentors are people that have experience in the area that we are trying to walk through and have the scars from the battles we will face.  They have experienced a majority of the similar trials that we will see on our journey.  They have likely fallen into some of the traps that we will encounter.

Mentors are people with a servant heart that want to help the next generation succeed.  These individuals do not do it for the notoriety either.  They are just wanting to help others succeed. 

Mentors have helped me greatly when I sat with them to share my situation, issues, and ramifications.  They will usually share a story about how they were in that similar situation and what they did as well as the results.  Some happy ending stories, some not so happy ending stories. 

When I was going through my dad’s final year of life, I met with a mentor regularly to talk about what I was going through and the stresses involved.  This mentor was able to help me with coping, the grieving curve, and understand all that I was going to be losing as this chapter closed in my life.  This was a tough time and I am glad I had a mentor in my life to help me see through it while managing every day stressors..

I have also been mentoring a young man who is at the stage of his life where he is trying to figure out his career path.  He is an intern at a very well-known local organization and trying to figure out what doors to walk through.  The discussions we have had and stories I have shared have helped him rethink his possibilities. 

He has a bright future and I look forward to seeing where he goes professionally as well as relationally.  The hope is that he avoids some of the pitfalls that I have experienced in my life with the stories and insight that I have shared. 

Mentors are great resources to help us with questions we have about what we are going through.  They are people that want to help poor in and serve us with their knowledge.  Finding a mentor for a particular area of life that we need help is going to benefit us more than we can ever imagine.  Seek out a mentor today if you are struggling with a decision, or offer to be a mentor.  You will feel a sense of purpose when you lend a hand, or a story to help someone else avoid the pitfalls of life.

One of my favorite quotes: “Do or do not. There is no try…” - Yoda

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

Does Free Shipping Increase Sales?

If I include free shipping, will it automatically increase my sales?  Does free shipping make people buy more?

These are a couple questions that I have been asked about the free shipping topic.  Unfortunately, the answer is, it depends…  With Amazon selling so many things people have been accustomed to being able to get free shipping on a great deal of their orders at a lower dollar amount.  Amazon does a fantastic job of customer service with free shipping, easy returns, and ease of shopping. 

Just adding free shipping on a product that we offer does not mean that will automatically generate more sales.  We need to look at our products that we are offering and understand the current customer buying habits first.  How often do we receive returning customer purchases for the same product.  Who is buying our product.  Why are they buying the product again and again. 

Before we just pull the trigger of offering free shipping, we should understand what our business is doing and understand our customers.  This will help us understand if free shipping is worth it.  Simply adding free shipping is not going to be the end all save all either.

We may need to know how to get customers to buy add on products so that we can generate more sales as well.  This means that we will need to set the dollar amount high enough to get add on sales.  If we simply add free shipping for one product we will lose the opportunity to sell more accessory products to our customers that they may be missing out on.

We likely have a great product line that the customers have not tapped into yet so we need to find ways to get them to buy more or our offerings.  Typically add on products that are smaller in purchase price have higher profit margins as well.  How can we entice others to buy these add on products. 

Amazon in their app makes it so easy to get to the dollar amount by getting customers to order multiple things.  They also offer prime service subscriptions so that people can get their orders faster, but the customers pay for this.  Amazon also makes it easy to return products which is why people keep coming back.

It revolves around customer service.  How we serve the customer affects our sales more than free shipping could ever do.  If we want to generate more sales, the customer experience with us has to be high.  The customer has to know that we are there to help them be the hero of their own story.  If we do that then we will win more sales. 

Free shipping alone will not drive more sales unless we are doing other things to enable the customer to win when they do business with us. 

How can we serve them better should be the filter we use to drive more sales.

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

Communication is Key for Success

It’s not what you’ve said, but how you’ve said it.”  How about, “All you needed to do was communicate and we could have avoided this issue in the first place?”

No one is perfect with their communication, but we have to be good at communication when we are in a sales position or in a leadership position.  Communication is a key ingredient in a successful business.  It is actually the most important quality as a leader as well.

We may be the most brilliant leader, but if we can not communicate with those we lead, then we are not going to be able to go anywhere with anyone. 

Leaders need to focus on building up their communication skills if they want to go far.  There are many different ways we can grow our communication. 

The first way we can become a better communicator is to check our posture.  That is right, the majority of communication is nonverbal.  That means what we say and how we say it are affected by our facial expressions and posture.  If we are walking around like EOR (from whiney the pooh) and are trying to present good news, how does that land? 

When we communicate to communicate a point, we can use stories.  That’s right, stories are what we humans gravitate to when we are learn lessons.  Stories allow the listeners to become a part of the story and learn the lesson that is being communicated with us.  We love stories to learn lessons.  We love to hear a good story and when we add the point to it, we grasp it better.

 Another way we can become better communicators is to not use $100 words.  That’s right too many people like to seem more intelligent by using large words that others may not understand in order to seem smarter.  This is actually counterintuitive.  The best leaders are able to take complex topics and communicate them in a way that a middle school child could understand them.  Being able to break complex topics down into easy to understand language is essential.

There are many ways to improve our communication.  We can record ourselves when we are practicing our speech, we can go to toastmasters to learn how to tell stories better, and we can go to acting / improv classes to learn how to present better.  Using a little humor is like giving a little sugar to let the medicine go down smoother. 

We need to become great communicators if we are going to lead organizations into the future.  Without it we will lose engagement, influence, and profits.

For this year I would highly recommend making it a goal to get better at communicating if you want to excel in your career.  It will pay off greatly when you reach the next level in your career and your future self will thank you.

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page“

Let's Not Make Excuses For Poor Performance Shall We

If so and so would have done this, or that then I would have we would have won.  I could have done this if it weren’t for somone else… 

I had a conversation with my son while teaching him to drive a car right after I screamed stop.  We were in the left turn lane and he had an obstructed view.  I could see that a car was coming and if we had turned in front of the car I would likely not be here typing today. 

The car was traveling over 50 mph.  His response was that he could not see around the car in the opposite turn lane.  I informed him that if he had turned in front of that vehicle that vehicle would have likely would not have had time to react resulting in that person being injured and the result of the crash meaning that my son would not have a father. 

We pulled over and had the discussion and a few tears were shed about the incident.  It shook me and caused me to not trust his ability to drive for some time.  I was more on edge when riding in the vehicle with him.  Scrutinizing every mistake and pointing them out.  This lowered the trust level with him and delayed his ability to obtain a license.

Now this was an extreme situation compared to most of our lives.

We all have done this from time to time.  We learned this as children.  When we did not do something that we were supposed to do, we made an excuse for why we were not able to do it.  Sometimes the reasons that seemed logical in our minds made our parents laugh at our response that really did not make much sense. 

We make excuses for underperforming at our jobs, fitness goals, financial goals, etc.  We are constantly making up excuses for our underperformance.  Unfortunately, when we do this, we actually give away our power. 

That’s right when we make excuses, we actually give power over to something or someone else.  We actually give our power to achieve away when we do this.  That means that we can not actually look at ourselves in the mirror and say that we are in control of our lives. 

We also affect our relationships with others when we give excuses for poor performance.  We tell others that they can not trust us to perform and that we will need to be watched more closely when given a task.  This puts more work and effort on their plates slowing them down on what they need to do.

Trust is the currency that relationships and businesses function on.  Without trust we will affect the organization’s profitability.  When trust is high, speed goes up and costs go down in the organization.  When trust is low, speed is slow resulting in more effort and higher expenses for similar tasks. 

This also affects stress on the organization’s most important resource.  The people that work for the organization are it’s most important resource.  Without high levels of trust then we will falter and lose money. 

We need to stop making excuses for poor performance if we want to increase trust and profitability. Today make the agreement with yourself to stop making excuses for poor performance and own your setbacks. 

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

Why Selfishness Affects Trust And Profits

When I teach organizations the trust equation and how to build influence, I run through the variables that affect trust. Why some people seem to be able to gain trust and influence better than others.  It consistently comes back to one main variable in building trust.

it does not matter how competent, how reliable, or how vulnerable we are with others.  If we are only out for our own gain, willing to step on others for our accolades, then we are going nowhere.  That is right selfishness affects trust.

Selfishness is in the denominator of the trust equation and just like any fraction, the denominator has the most leverage.  Now every individual is selfish to a point.  It’s in our fight or flight mechanism that keeps us safe.  We want to make sure our needs are met and that we are safe.  Sometimes we take it a bit too far.

We all want to succeed at what we are doing and become successful in our careers, relationships, etc.  We want that nice house, nice car, top of the line phone.  No one wants to fail at their endeavors.  Unfortunately, that fear of failure takes over and we start focusing how we can step on others to get to that next level then we are going to sacrifice trust.

If we are willing to sacrifice others for our gain then we are not going to be able to build trust with others.  They will be able to see our intentions.  We can hide our intentions for a short amount of time, but ultimately our selfishness will be like a light shining bright in the night sky.

When we act in selfish ways, people learn that they can not trust us to do what is right, just what is right for ourselves. Selfishness is a filter of how we see the world and how we function in it.  We see our view of the as a means to an end for our own success.

Selfishness does not value others.  It only values our gain.  When others realize this, they understand that they need to interact in a way that protects them.  Which means now they start acting in selfish ways as well.  That means that others are affected and now trust really starts to erode in our organizations. 

When we have low levels of trust, speed goes down, extra meetings happen, extra tracking files are needed, constant reporting, etc.  Costs increase, from all of this excess tracking, resulting in lower profit margins. 

When we have lower profit margins, organizations will then have to start cutting costs everywhere they can.  That means layoffs, using lower quality materials in our of our products / services, making our offerings worth less.  This then starts the downward spiral of lower revenues and accelerates the speed of bankruptcy.

We need to avoid this pattern if we want to stay in business for the long haul and we need to stop being selfish.  We need to serve those around us and as a result we will be able to generate trust which will reverse this spiral and keep us profitable. 

When speed goes up, costs go down.  That means more profits.  That all is affected by the trust and selfishness levels we have at our organizations.

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

Want Customer Loyalty? Then Change Your Focus

Just about every major retailer has a loyalty program.  Offers are given with point systems in hopes of retaining customers.  These are all great things, but there is one area that businesses are falling short when they try to build customer loyalty.

All of us are familiar with Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A who both host lines for the drive through wrapping around parking lots and disrupting street traffic flow.  What we need to do is think about ways to serve customers so well and consistently that they want to keep coming back.

Both Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A do one thing really, really well.  It’s customer service.  That’s right, they are always going above and beyond the call to serve the customer. This is resulting in customer loyalty, a Fanocrocy, and great business success even during pandemics.  People will literally wait in 20 min lines for a cup of coffee, or a chicken sandwich (with waffle fries of course.) 

Chick-Fil-A also has one thing they do every time they serve us when we say thank you.  They respond immediately with “it’s my pleasure.”  They literally ingrain each employee to be customer service focused.  It does not matter which location we to go, we still get great consistent service.

When an organization focuses only on profits and not on serving the customers it never ends well.  Doing the right thing consistently over time creates brand loyalty.  Making sure we have set up a customer experience mindset, we will see customers return again and again.  Even if we sell and inferior product / service, by serving the customer we will see returning customers.

Too many organizations focus on short term profits.  One main driver for this is publicly traded companies focusing on making their stock holders more money as their main goals.  All organizational goals serve this one main goal.  How do we make shareholders more money?  Unfortunately, these large organizations forget about the investments needed to keep the customers happy who are actually paying the bills.  Investments to maintain quality, delivery, and customer focused service.

Organizations should consistently do the right thing for the customers to generate loyal “Fans.”  When “Fans” pledge their loyalty to us, they tell others how awesome our organization is  They share stories of how we have helped them and rave about our service.  We have sales people selling for us that are not on our payroll.  Wouldn’t you like that?

Do not take the customer’s payment and walk away from the transaction waiting to see if the customer will buy from us again before we give extra effort.   Give the extra effort up front and every time we engage people and we will be rewarded! Consistency over time equals more profits and more customer loyalty.

I am also not sponsored by either organization discussed in this blog, but if they want to give me free food, I fat Kevin would be glad to accept it :)

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

Relationships who needs them...?”

Good morning everyone,

As we venture deeper into the 21st century, and AI is now becoming a crucial part of our businesses.  People wonder if we really need to have relationships with customers anymore.  Do they care about who they buy from?  Do customers just think of our businesses as commodities? Why do we need to have focus on relationships?

Each person that we come in contact with has influence over 100 to 150 other people.  That’s right when we have conversations, meetings, etc. we are affecting how we are talked about to other people.  If we have a bad interaction with a customer, guess what can happen?  They can tell everyone they know in a quick post on social media, tweets, live videos, etc.

We have to be at the top of our game when we engage people each and every day because their friends and family that they interact with will also know how we treated them.  People no longer step in to help stop fights, they instead pull out their phones and hit record.  I guess it’s easier…?

Having relationships with others is how we get things done.  We have influence with those people and that influence carries over to all the people they too influence.  If we have bad experiences with a sales professional, we will let everyone know.  If we have a great experience, what do we do?  We rave about the experience and why others need to do it to.

Putting on our sales hat when we engage others is how we start to set the stage in the correct order.  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 us.

Grow that relationship!

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

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 go hand in hand.

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 to go, 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, software packages, cars, digital cameras, 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!

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

Why Leaders 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.  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 it out. 

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 quickly learned that there was a key ingredient to being a successful sales professional.  Once I figured out that ingredient, customers started opening up to me and sales increased.  I was awarded the prize of top salesman for the United States and had taken the territory to where it had never been before.

I literally had customers asking me about what software would work best for their business and other things that had nothing to do with what I sold.  They trusted me and were asking for my insight on various things that they were struggling with in their businesses. That key ingredient is Influence. In sales the more influence you have the more you sell.  The same is said for leaders.

 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 with others.

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 high levels of 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.  Building influence using the sales process, leaders gain more engagement from those around them.  Utilizing the sales process to sell our vision and our mission will grant us more influence and greater buy in from those around us.

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 our influence determines how much we can say and do with each individual.

The more influence you have the farther our organizations can go.

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

What Does Winning Look Like?

How does an employee understand each day they arrive at work if they are winning or losing?

How are these employees able to track each day where they are towards their goals?

Below are a few examples of annual goals that organizations published for individual sales professionals.

Achieve sales revenue of $44.0 million collectively as an organization

Achieve net new business of $50 million for 2023 for business unit

Manage travel and expense to AOP

Too many large organizations cast out annual goals for employees that are very difficult to understand.  Some goals are collective goals that is very difficult for an individual to know if he/she is winning.  Others are downright confusing.  Where does the individual review what the score is collectively?  How would you know where to look to see how you are doing in the above examples?

Instead of this vague approach to goal setting why not keep it simple?   

Organizations like that of Ramsey Solutions in Franklin, TN use  Key Results Area or KRA’s for short show what “winning” looks like to the individual and their position.  These KRA’s are reviewed with the employee and the manager to make sure that the employee truly understands what winning looks like.  The individual employee can take this KRA sheet and review it each day, week, or month to know where they are standing in achieving a high-performance level.

These KRA’s really make it easy for both the employee and the manager to point to any specific areas where the employee is killing it and where attention might be needed to help the employee obtain success.  When employees obtain vague goals, it is hard for them to understand if they are actually winning.  This is an ingredient in a disengaged work environment.  Or for those on the latest vocabulary, “Quiet Quitting” 

People want to know if they are winning or losing at work so they can excel.  No one shows up to work and actively wants to do a bad job.  They want to feel like they matter and that they are doing something to make impact.  Take that away and hope goes along with it slowly killing the spirit and making people do the grind Monday through Friday in hopes that they have a fun weekend.

Our top performers want to know quite often how well they are doing.  Sales professionals especially want to know if they are winning or losing.  It’s healthy to want to know how we are doing so we can improve.  Why not give them something that they can use to gauge against and know often how they are doing.

Dave Ramsey is mostly known for Financial Peace University for helping people get their finances straight, but for business owners they have created Entreleadership which started as a book and now has its own podcast as well as coaching and summits.  They do a fantastic job at creating an environment for their teams and customers to thrive in any environment.  If you are looking for something to learn more about leadership in business or finances, these two are the top places I recommend people going. 

Disclaimer:  I make no money from referring my readers to Dave Ramsey items.  This is just knowledge that I am passing along that has helped me.

The examples on Dave Ramsey’s site allow you to see examples of these KRA’s when you head into goal setting with your teams.  I hope it helps your teams really make greater strides and achieve better results.

“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

The Question Our Employees Are Asking

Last week we talked about coaching others, this week we will have the discussion that those around us are asking.

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 also starts setting in.  When Fear takes hold, trust and relationships do not flourish, they unfortunately 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 mentorship?  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 on average about $4000 per employee.   Not to mention the training them on the software and teams that they will need to engage with often.  It is also a good to note that it takes about three to six months for the employee to get comfortable in their new role.  This means they are slower at the start in their position which also costs money to the organization.  Why not work to make sure our reports know that we have their back, how to communicate with us, and build trust.

The answer is setting up guard rails with our 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 leaders.  Having that trust and communication will allow the employees to excel and thrive in our organizations.

“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

How Is Your Coaching?

To carry on the discussion from last week about leadership and engagement, lets continue by talking about how as a leader we need the correct coaching with our teams.  Spoiler alert” it’s not by yelling.”

How are you at coaching your team and your family? 

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

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 people” and do not learn to not think for themselves.  Instead, these individuals 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 underaged 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. 

“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

Why Quiet Quitting and Quiet Firing Are Not New

Quiet Quitting is this new phrase for those employees that are trying to do the bare minimum to not get fired from their work and still collect their pay check.  This can be claimed because people want to have a better work/life balance, quality of life improvement, or just pure mailing it in.

Quiet Firing on the other hand is where management does not want to have the tough discussions with employees about their lack of achievement.  They keep cancelling meetings, not opening time up for one-on-one meetings, not responding to emails.    The manager just makes themselves unavailable to the employees.

So why is this not new.   It’s the same thing we have been talking about with those engagement surveys.  That is right disengagement is the same thing as quiet quitting and quiet firing.  Employees that are disengaged from their work will not be efficient and will not move the organization forward.  Goals will be missed, profits will go down, costs will go up, and the mood from the team also suffers.

What we need to be focused on is not allowing quiet quitting and quiet firing to happen.  We need to be intentional with our employees and managers.  We have to take it upon ourselves to focus our efforts to stay engaged, or we need to find something else. 

There is no quality of life improvement from being disengaged in an area of our lives.   There is no improvement in relationships when we are not engaged.  It is like a pool of water with no movement.  Scum starts forming, and starts to smell bad. 

We need to get our pride put aside and focus on doing our best even if those around us are not putting forth their best.  People will take notice from us going the extra mile and challenge the status quo.  They will start seeing the movement and want to also put forth the extra effort as well. 

We need to make sure that our culture is one of growth and improvement.  One that people will not give up and quit anything.  We need to address issues if there are issues and find ways to give it one more shot.  We need to put forth that effort so we can leave it all out on the field instead of have regrets. 

It is on leadership to set the tone, but here is the thing.  John Maxwell wrote a book called 360 degree leader.  That means that leadership is not just from a title.  Leadership belongs to the individual not the title.  We have to put forth the effort and be the example.  It will become contagious after we build the momentum to go the extra mile.

We can influence the rest of the organization by the way we show up and how we are engaged.  We can either show up and put our best foot forward and be a shining light, or we can be disengaged and pull the organization down. 

It is up to us to be engaged or not engaged.  No new words, no new language, just get engaged and be the change.

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

The Time Is Now To Dig Deep

Welcome to 2023!!

The new year and we are all waking up on the first weekend since the New Years rang in.  We have had one week of back to the grind.  One week of running around getting back into the grove of things.  A week of driving through “winter weather”

This is the time that we get challenged by life against the goals that we recently planned for the new year.  The question is are we going to be able to make it through the remaining 51 weeks of this year.  When the going gets tough and we are hit in the face with adversity.  Where do we look for strength to grind through this?

We need to look at that Purpose Statement like we talked in the last week of December.  That is what has to keep us focused to keep taking one more step.  We need that courage to push farther by looking at that statement of success for our lives.  We need to take a breath and then get back to work for that vision of success with that statement.

How do the goals line up with that purpose statement?  Are they strong enough to handle the punches we take from the daily grind.  Do they have the timing set up so we can gauge success with them?  Do we use the SMART goals?

Are the goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound?  Our goals need to have these five measurables answered.  This way we can see how we are doing as we move throughout the year.  Without them being specific and being too broad we will not be able to understand if we are going the right way.  If they are not measurable and achievable then we will not be able to know where we stand.  For instance, if I say I want to make $20,000 per keynote as a goal I will likely not achieve that.

That goal does not have anything other than a value.  A better goal would be I would like to make $20,000 in the month of February by booking X number of keynotes.  Now that is a smart goal.  That is a goal that I can look at to see where I stand and any time.  That is a goal that is going to keep me on track. 

If I want to construct a new training for my membership page, I can set goals for having the program broken down by a certain time, number of videos recorded and edited by a certain date.  Now I have a direction and a SMART goal set up so I can look at the calendar and then look at my goals to kit that key objective.

What is it that you struggle with goal setting?What keeps you from achieving your goals?What is holding you back from being a success?Reach out or leave a comment below and I would be glad to help you with goal planning.

“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

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