Fruits of Success

Thursday, 31 July 2014

Seize the Selling day Thursday - Carpe Diem Day July 31st.

“......be wise, be truthful, strain the wine, and scale back your long hopes to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have {already} fled:seize the day, trusting as little as possible to the future.”

end of Odes 1.11 Horace (translation)

(B x A) +C2 + N

F + Pr

Cardiff University's Centre for Lifelong Learning’s psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall, has come up with a new planning day, called Carpe Diem Thursday.

He argues July 31^st July is a better day to make resolutions than dreary dark and cold January 1^st.

We are 60% through the year and the weather is fine. It is a better environment for the mind.

It is a fun and creative approach which I thought might appeal to many in selling in a slacker period of business or approaching the summer holiday season.

HOW Dr. Arnall’s FORMULA WORKS:

Boldness: Have confidence and trust in yourself to recover if a decision doesn't go according to plan.

Authenticity: Be true to yourself and don't worry about what other people think.

Clarity and commitment: Have a clear goal and seeing how to get there

Now: Don't get stuck in the past or be distracted by the future, as decisions are only ever made in the now.

N.B. The positive factors have to be strong enough to outweigh the negative factors of Fear and Regret.

Dr Arnall suggests "The idea behind this day is don't get to 80 or 90 and wish you'd not had a go at something. Go with your instinct, your heart and make a small change, something you can control now."

For a moment consider what is involved in resolutions or objectives for sales professionals.

What will you continue to do ?

What will you do more of ?

What habits will you try to do less of ( or better still) drop for the rest of 2014 ?

The real challenge of making resolutions

- “When all is said and done, more is said than done.”

To keep focused and to contribute to your future success, answer the following questions of your selling resolutions for the rest of 2014.

You make like to use some of these questions to create a fresh checklist for any sales idea/resolution you wish to make happen in the last 1/3^rd of 2014 !

1. What is my objective?

2. How important is it to me?

3. What results do I expect?

4. What will help me achieve this?

5. Which decision maker / manager do I need to involve to achieve my objective?

6. What will I need in order to convince them and gain their support?

7. Who else do I need to involve [team and individuals] ?

8. What do I need in terms of resources [ people , time, money, training, equipment]?

9. Will I need delegated authority ?

10. What are the actions required?

11. What are the milestones ( dates and times?

12. How and when will I measure my progress?

13. Who will I involve in reviewing my progress?

14. What could prevent me from achieving my objective?

15. What is my next step?

Now make it happen!

Good Luck and Good Selling for the rest of 2014 and beyond.

Sunday, 27 July 2014

The Selling Hand Brand - High fives, Fist Bumps in Sports and Leadership #Glasgow2014

Notice the 'grasp of finger tips' style of handshake
Cook Islands Bowlers celebrating their victory in lawn bowls
Front page photograph of Times 26/7/14

In Glasgow they are currently holding the 2014 Commonwealth Games often called the 'Friendly Games'.

It's a chance to see great sport and observe non verbal communication traditions and cultures from around the world.

How handshakes are employed is an area of interest for those in selling.

Take a look at the handshakes of the bowlers from the Cook Islands. ( see right)

Another sport on show is boxing. Apart from the courage ,skill and athleticism that such a sport requires, the boxing match begins when the pugilists come to the middle of the ring and bump fists as a greeting before the bout starts.

Apparently this gesture goes back to the 19^th Century. I guess if you are wearing boxing gloves, it is awkward to shake hands. Fist bumps seemed a more practical alternative.

Similarly in cricket today the batsman often celebrate a good stroke or innings by a glove bump.

Handshakes are used to demonstrate politicians are 'in touch' with their electorate.

London Times Saturday 26th July 2014 p.15

On a visit to a barbecue restaurant in Austin Texas recently the President of the USA Barack Obama joked with an employee and then touched fists , which got his supporters raving again about how this was a different sort of president, unburdened by the formality of his predecessors.

The President of the European Commission , Jean-Claude Juncker attempted a high five when he met UK Prime Minister Cameron recently

Some consider the fist bump as a mark of equality as opposed to a handshake that they regard in some ways a kind of trial of strength.

Body language specialist Harry Witchel says “ In California in the 1970s, it was youth-culturish. It expresses connection and informality. You might bump fists first to express warmth, breaking that barrier of contact without getting too close. A hug would be warm, but maybe not appropriate.”

The University of Chicago’s David McNeil says the fist bump gesture came from African-American street culture.

“It could be a modification of the open hand slap. There has always been an informal gesture culture. Professor Neil considers such gestures as more about ‘pop culture’ arbitrariness.

“They are brands rather than authentic gestures. I don’t think they have lasting power, unlike the notorious middle finger , which has been used as an insult since the Romans.”

As Leaders we need to develop the 'common touch' in order to sell their message whether in selling or in politics. We meet people from many different walks of life and cultures. But the risk of damaging your image has also to be taken into account. Such informality as a fist bump could be construed as a lack of decorum and dignity.

As we enjoy the festival of sport and culture of Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games keep a look out for the different handshakes and body language. It's fascinating.

Wednesday, 9 July 2014

80% of Company leaders and managers sales unaware –what’s your company’s competitive?

This is a good question to ask anybody in a business

“What did you sell today?”

It is not just a question of front line sales, nor just about closing an order. It may be simply asking –“What was your contribution to progressing the company’s sales process today?”

Whoever you are in the organisation- how well or how badly you do your job will directly or indirectly affect the business otherwise what’s the point of your role?!

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) know that when a company has effective management, the organisation’s performance can be boosted by as much as 23%.

However only half of the people they surveyed say their managers are effective. Clearly this is an issue for our country’s management and leadership.

In the recession much of the focus for many firms has been survival.

One for the chief actions to achieve this has been cost saving.

As we come out of recession many businesses are feeling the under-investment of their talent during the downturn which has led to a skills deficit. Yet the solution to the problem is not going to be as simple and going out and hiring talent.

The war for talent has returned. No longer can companies rely on rewarding high performers or tempting people to join with the promise of long-term financial incentives.

The right people are not always available and competition for the best hires is very competitive. Again businesses will have to turn their mind to invest in the skills of their existing staff.

What would be the differentiator of your company
that you would put on your placard ?

So far as selling is concerned not only sales skills need developing but sales mindsets throughout the organisation.

I guess many of us were surprised to see in October 2013 senior executives from the Power Companies discomfort and lack of fluency on justifying their prices at the hearings at Parliament’s Energy and Climate Committee. This is part of a day to day job their field sales and desk based sales people have to do. Skill set link -Handling Objections Effectively Handling Price and other common Objections

Let’s start at the top!

Is the board sales-savvy?
Do they know their role in sales growth?

On 8^th July 2014 The Evening Standard’s Niki Chesworth trailed some survey results due to be published in a book “The Success Formulae- The CEO’s Road map to Value delivery. " The data suggests a lack of sales nous within the boardroom

· 8 out of 10 directors did not know why certain colleagues sat on the board.
· More disturbingly, 8 in 10 could not agree – or did not even know – the competitive advantage of the firm on whose board they sat. Skills set link : Differentiated Value Proposition
· 33% are often caught in continuous and damaging in-fighting- a “ disharmony that often means the business suffers”
· 66% find it hard to talk about uncomfortable issues even if they seriously impact on the business.
· Only one in five newly appointed managers has received any management training.

Monday, 7 July 2014

The Big Sell Le Tour de France La grande vente - La Caravane

Liberté egalité velocité

Le Tour de France 2014 Stage 3
Everyone wants to catch the riders as they pass. Put this photo into painting mode care of Nikon

Selling of Silks and spices and other exotic luxuries years ago depended on supplies from organised caravans, which go back to the 2nd millennium BCE.

The domestication of camels allowed Arabian nomads to control the long distance trade in spices and silk from the Far East to the Arabian Peninsula.

The word Caravan is still used today in the world largest sporting event Le Tour de France Cycle race.

Today Monday 7 July, Stage 3 will take riders of Le Tour de France 2014 from Cambridge to Essex with a finish on The Mall in Londres.

The Grand Départ began in Yorkshire last Saturday. The beautiful Yorkshire countryside made for a wonderful couple of days.

With a worldwide television audience of 3.5billion people watching the Tour de France over 188 countries around the world broadcast the Tour de France .

121 different television channels across the world show the race every year.

Yorkshire Building Society use the tour de France 2014 Caravan
to give exposure to their new logo and signage and re-brand.
http://www.ybs.co.uk/index.html

Good for local business:

1,200 hotel rooms are reserved each night for the teams, staff, press and tour personnel along the route.

The Tour de France attracts 12 million spectators along the route in a typical year's race

It's estimated Le tour in 2007 brought £88m to the south-east economy generating £35m worth of media coverage for the area.

Nuffield Health linked promotion of their brand with a competition for those wearing their promotional T shirt winning prizes. Getting people to be seen on the local CCTV . Plus a particlualry cuddly bear .

http://www.nuffieldhealth.com/

Interview with Nuffield Healthcare at
Trafalgar Square at Le tour de France 2014
The V.I.B. Bear was very popular with
the crowds both young and adult

Skoda one of the tour sponsors

The actual race is just a small part of the show.

Starting some two hours before the race, the "Caravan" is a cavalcade of floats, decorated cars and other vehicles moves along the route, throwing out goodies and free samples to the spectators; it is a massive advertising stunt.

The Caravan gets the attention of the crowds and keeps
the excitement going at Stage 3 at the I km to go mark
for 2014 Tour de France in London

The advertising caravan, made up of the Tour's official sponsors, and is followed by a long line of official cars, technical vehicles, media and motorbikes, lights flashing, horns sounding, all warming up the spectators for the actual event itself.

Clever play on the strap line of previous
Renault ads of some years ago and current British cycling star.

Then, at last, the riders will come by - and are gone again as quickly as they appeared, pounding up the Mall at speeds that can reach 50 mph or more

There will be many French ex pats who now work in London, who will appreciate a little bit of 'home' coming to the city via this caravan.

Thursday, 26 June 2014

6 key challenges of @MarketingLive2014 from digital silos to holistic approach

Selfy at Marketing Week Live 2014 or should that be SELL- fy?

Marketing used to be uncomplicated.

Then digital entered the fray and caused havoc for a while.

Now there is a return with no artificial distinction between off-line and on-line we are back to a holistic approach.

This year’s shows reflects some of the change in thinking about marketing over the last five years.

There has been a return to the view of marketing being a generalist discipline rather a set of silo specialities .

There are some subtle changes in vocabulary “ Suppliers” formally known as seller are described as 'partners', Selling ' Ideas' as ‘options’ and so on

FOCUS on MARKETING INTEGRATION

The keys are integration and return to a conventional (sales) process approach based on the challenges of

1. Understanding ( Planning, Research and Objective setting)

2. Engaging (Purposeful listening and questioning conversations with prospects,

3. Converting Identified prospects to active prospects via on line, offline, mobile and hybrid models

4. Experiencing Face to Face (Selling in all its forms to you and me)

The focus this year is on smarter strategy and tactics in today’s marketing era.

Even the 'S' word - selling is back

Selling Intangibles is on the list of 6 key challenges for Marketers at marketing Live 2014

Which of the following do you consider to be your biggest challenge at the moment ?:

o Equipping your business with a future proof marketing team and leveraging internal and external relationships

o Selling your brand and business rather than just selling your product

o Using measurement and analysis to effectively close the campaign cycle

o Developing an agile marketing strategy to protect your business from potential variables

o Integrating and automating your campaigns for a multichannel world

o Selecting and getting the maximum ROI from your suppliers

Well, dear readers I'm off to Olympia to have a look round and will report on what is on offer.

In the meanwhile Good Selling.

Thursday, 19 June 2014

Determination and Persistence in Selling - Virgin Trains

It was some two years ago when Virgin Trains challenged the decision of the Department for Transport on their awarding the North West Train Franchise to First Group.

At the time .......

the Dft said

"… the winning bidder (First Group) was decided by a fair and established process and no reason has been advanced to convince DfT not to sign the agreement."

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: "We are in receipt of a letter from Virgin Trains which is a precursor to legal action. We are reviewing the correspondence."

" The Department is confident in the process it undertook and the decision made in awarding the West Coast franchise.” ( 13 year franchise)"

Tim O’Toole of First Group said “"Our winning bid is a deliverable proposition that is compelling for all who want to see a greater use of our rail networks”

Sir Richard Branson noting that Virgin Group had spent £14m on its latest bid, said that

'based on the current flawed system, it is extremely unlikely that we would bid again for a franchise. The process is too costly and uncertain.'

Well, Virgin courageously made a legal challenge.

That deal collapsed because a “swamped” Department for Transport got its figures wrong and didn't follow the rules. The government eventually scrapped the award claiming there were "significant technical flaws" in the bidding process because of mistakes by DfT staff. Three civil servants were suspended.

The timetable for handing out other deals looked like it might overrun the government and they can't afford another mess. So DfT are using short-term deals and extensions to stagger the whole process out.

Patrick McCall, Virgin Trains' executive co-chairman, said: "We're delighted to have reached a deal after some tough negotiations with the DfT. It puts the problems of 2012 firmly behind us and shows the clear benefits of a well-run franchise system.”

The deal announced today is part of a much bigger process to avoid a repeat of the West Coast franchise catastrophe in 2012.

The story is a remarkable example of PERSISTENCE a lesson for all in selling.

PERSISTENCE

Nothing in the world can take the place of PERSISTENCE- Talent will notNothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent- Education will notThe world is full of educated derelicts- Genius will notUnrewarded genius is almost a proverb Persistence and determination alone are all powerful !

Wednesday, 18 June 2014

The right Chemistry in selling - Neurochemical perspective

Do your selling conversations stimulate the right chemistry ?

Have you noticed that negative feedback and negative conversations fester in our minds so much longer than positive ones?

I wonder if like me you have ever wondered why that is ?

Maybe you have received criticism from your boss,had a disagreement with a work colleague or an argument with a friend – the hurt from any of these can make you overlook many days' worth of praise or harmony.

Similarly if a client or manager has called criticised you, accused you of carelessness, or expressed a disappointment in you, you’re likely to remember and internalise it. The negative lingers longer.

It’s somehow easier to forget, or discount, all the times when people have said you’re talented or conscientious or that you make them proud.

'You win more with honey than vinegar'
and oxytocin than cortisol it seems !

According to work by Judith E. Glaser and Richard D. Glaser reported in Harvard Business Review Blog, neuro-chemistry plays a large role in this phenomenon.

When we face criticism, rejection or fear, when we feel marginalised or minimised, our bodies produce higher levels of cortisol, a hormone that shuts down the thinking centre of our brains and activates conflict aversion and protection behaviours.

We become more reactive and sensitive. We often perceive even greater judgement and negativity than actually exists. Apparently these effects can last for 26 hours or more, imprinting the interaction on our memories and magnifying the impact it has on our future behaviour.

Cortisol functions like a slow release pill – the more we ponder on our fear, the longer the impact.

Positive comments and conversations produce a chemical reaction too. They spur the production of oxytocin, a feel-good hormone that elevates our ability to communicate, collaborate and trust others by activating networks in our prefrontal cortex.

But oxytocin metabolises more quickly than cortisol, so its effects are less dramatic and long-lasting.

I contacted Judith Glaser to ask whether such research could be applied to the buyer seller interaction. She explained to me that

“Yes - we spent the first 20 years of our business career examining the buyer seller relationship and found patterns of interaction that were closing down and others that were opening up the relationship.”

“I wrote about them in the Introduction of my book - Conversational Intelligence *…. and the work with them was the catalyst for the work I do today. “

This “chemistry of conversations” is why it’s so critical for all of us –suppliers and clients – to be more mindful about our interactions.

Behaviours that increase cortisol levels reduce what Richard Glaser calls “Conversational Intelligence” or “C-IQ,” or a person’s ability to connect and think innovatively, empathetically, creatively and strategically with others. Behaviours that spark oxytocin, by contrast, raise C-IQ.

As sales professionals I guess we need to be specialists in raising C-IQ.

Although the Glasers' recent research focused on management subordinate interactions the concept of Conversational Intelligence resonates well for certain supplier / client interactions in selling and negotiation.

The CreatingWE Institute, partnered with Ryan Smith, CEO of Qualtrics, an online survey software company, analysed the frequency of negative (cortisol-producing) versus positive (oxytocin-producing) interactions in today’s workplaces. They asked managers how often they engaged in several behaviours — some positive, and others negative — on a scale of 0 through 5, in which 0 was “never” and 5 was “always.”

Source :Creating WE Institute Qualtrics HBR.ORG May 2014

Richard Glaser reports "The good news is that managers appear to be using positive, oxytocin and C-IQ elevating behaviours more often than negative behaviours. Survey respondents said that they exhibited all five positive behaviours, such as “showing concern for others” more frequently than all five negative ones, such as “pretending to be listening.”

However, most respondents – approximately 85% — also admitted to “sometimes” acting in ways that could derail not only specific interactions but also future relationships.

And, unfortunately, when leaders exhibit both types of behaviours it creates dissonance or uncertainty in followers’ brains, spurring cortisol production and reducing CI-Q.

Richard Glaser does not suggest that you can’t ever demand results or deliver difficult feedback. But it’s important to do so in a manner that is perceived as inclusive and supportive, thereby limiting cortisol production and hopefully stimulating oxytocin instead.

We should be mindful of the behaviours that open us up, and those that close us down, in our selling relationships. Knowing that there are chemical effects at work reinforces good conversational practise.

It seems wise to "harness the chemistry of conversations" stimulating more Oxytoxin than cortisol producing behaviours.

Or to use an old proverb you win more with honey than vinegar

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