Practical Eloquence Blog |

The Antifragile Speaker

By Jack Malcolm / 11.20.2013 / No Comment

I strongly advocate careful preparation, and having checklists and backups before important presentations. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from over two decades of presenting for a living, it’s that Mr. Murphy always tags along, and often manages to find something to break down or go wrong. Bulbs burn out, computers crash or don’t work with the projector, rooms are locked, demos don’t work. One time just before a big sales presentation in St. Louis, I pressed my white shirt only to leave a huge black mark from the iron.

When it happens during the middle of a presentation or speech, it can be really bad—or it can actually be one of the best things that can happen to you, depending on how you handle it.

I first learned this lesson when I was competing in a regional Toastmasters contest for impromptu speaking. In front of about 200 people, I began quoting the serenity prayer. I got through, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change…” and that’s when I froze.

I totally forgot what to say next.

I stared out at a sea of faces for several seconds, and I guarantee it seemed a lot longer to me than it did to them.

Then I said the only thing that came to mind: “Boy, I really screwed that one up, didn’t I?”

The audience cracked up, I regained my stride, and I finished the presentation. I ended up winning, and one of the judges later told me that my recovery from the breakdown was the main thing that put me over the top.

More recently, last year airline delays caused me to arrive in Bangalore for a one day training session 15 minutes before the scheduled start (instead of 24 hours as I had planned), only to find out that through a misunderstanding, none of the participants had their class materials. Despite that, we were able to quickly improvise a workaround and we began class almost on time. I thought to myself: “Cheer up, things could get worse,” and I was right—they did.

About a half hour into it I got a nosebleed! I was determined not to make it a big deal, so I acknowledged it, grabbed a paper towel, held it against my nose, and kept going, although I did give the class a break earlier than anticipated. I doubt anyone will soon forget that class.

Keep in mind that most people have a fear of speaking in front of groups, so they have a lot of respect for the person on the platform. When they see you have a problem, it’s like their own worst fears are realized, so they watch closely to see how you will resolve it. In effect, it’s like going to a mini horror movie—people don’t mind being scared as long as there is a happy ending.

There are three rules for handling mishaps in front of an audience:

Acknowledge it. The joke’s on you, but you’re letting them in on the joke.
Don’t apologize. They know it’s not your fault. The only exception is when you mistakenly say something the audience considers insulting to them.
Keep cool: Give Mr. Murphy the finger!

There is always a chance that something will go wrong. But you have two weapons against Mr. Murphy: preparation and mindset. Thorough preparation will make you robust, and a mindset that sees each preparation as an opportunity, will make you antifragile.

Productivity - Success

The Nothing Alternative

By Jack Malcolm / 11.19.2013 / 2 Comments

I’m writing this article right now because I’m not allowed to do anything else.

It’s a simple and powerful productivity trick called the Nothing Alternative. You can use it when you:

Have an unpleasant but important task
Are trying to establish a new habit
Are prone to procrastination
Are easily distracted

There are only two rules. First, you have to set aside time in your schedule for the activity. Second, you don’t have to do the activity if you don’t feel like it, but you can’t do anything else during that time.

I learned about the Nothing Alternative from Roy Baumeister, in his book, Willpower. He cites the example of mystery writer Raymond Chandler, who recommended that the aspiring writer had to set aside four hours a day, during which,

“He doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look out the window or stand on his head or writhe on the floor, but he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, write letters, glance at magazines, or write checks.” (p. 254)

The beauty of the Nothing Alternative is that it’s low stress and it’s binary. Since you’re not forced to write (or prospect, or take that online course you’ve been talking about forever, etc.), your brain does not automatically resist. Second, since there’s no gray area, you can’t rationalize your way out of the activity by pretending that just looking at email for a minute or two is OK, or that scanning a couple of blog posts might give you inspiration. (Although refilling the coffee mug is not only acceptable but obligatory.)

When I determined about a month ago to write daily posts and to finally finish my next book, I figured it would take 90 minutes a day, which I’ve scheduled in my calendar from 7:30 to 9:00 every workday morning that I’m not traveling. Although I haven’t writhed on the floor yet, I have looked out the window a few times, or stared blankly at a flashing cursor on a white screen for a while. But the mind needs activity, and even if I can’t think of what to write, a few minutes of boredom is enough to build up pressure that begins to express itself through the keyboard.

In my own case, I find that the Nothing Alternative is useful during the first few minutes until I get cranked up, and then sometimes after about an hour when I start to lose a bit of steam.

The immediate benefit is a dramatic increase in my writing output. But in addition, I find that crank-up time is decreasing and I can go longer without losing focus.

Incidentally, I wrote this post at 38,000 feet early on a Sunday morning, so it works anywhere. Only the view out the window is different.

Sales

If it Was Easy, Anyone Could Do It

By Jack Malcolm / 11.18.2013 / 1 Comment

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sell for a company that was widely recognized as having the best-quality products and the lowest prices?

A common lament among participants in my sales training classes is that their competitors are buying the business by offering lower prices. So when I ask them the question above, most immediately raise their hands.

That’s when I ask my follow-up question:

Why would they need you?

I love working with companies that have higher prices than their competition, for two reasons. The first is the simple fact that they would not need me if they sold on the basis of the lowest price.

If you’re a sales professional, they would not need you either.

I’m not against companies competing on low prices. It’s a perfectly valid business model that has lifted Walmart and Amazon to the top of their respective industries, so it must make sense. But how many true salespeople do either of those companies have?

What makes you valuable as a sales professional is the knowledge of what customers need and the skill to help them discover it. That’s hard work, and that’s where you earn your keep.

Comparing prices is easy; anyone can do it. Price is highly visible; costs are hard to see, and effects are almost invisible at the time the decision is made. Thinking ahead to the consequences of a purchasing decision is hard.

You justify your position as a sales professional by getting the customer to think deeper than price to total costs, and then even deeper to consequences. Your challenge is to help customers discover for themselves why the higher priced decision will result in better outcomes—in fact, often it will mean lower costs in the long run. It’s a challenge because the differences are not immediately obvious, nor is the value of those differences apparent without a lot of joint discovery and insight.

Saving money is easy; making money is hard. You justify your position as a sales professional by working together with the customer to show them how more money invested now will pay off in better outcomes and greater profits down the road.

Add in the fact that thinking is hard work, especially for busy people who have a lot of matters waiting for their decision, and it’s no wonder that buying on price is the default mode for so many buyers. You justify your position as a sales professional by doing the hard thinking to make it easier to make the right decision.

There is a lot of thinking that has to go on by both sides to discover the best long term solution, and if your customers don’t have the time or desire to do the hard stuff, two things may happen. One is that the thinking does not happen, and the easiest decision is made. Both sides leave money on the table. That leaves the only other option: you have to take responsibility for the hard stuff if you want the deal—you have to work hard to make it easy for the customer to make the right decision.

Selling is an honorable profession when practiced right, and professionalism is mainly about two things: client focus and specialized knowledge. As a professional, you have a dual client focus to the needs of your customers and your employers. When the customer insists on a lower price, the threat to your employer is obvious—but the threat to the customer’s interests is sometimes even greater but not obvious at all. You earn your true value as a professional when you do the hard stuff that meets the needs of both parties.

Here’s one final easy-hard comparison to think about: Win-lose outcomes are easy; win-win outcomes are hard. But the good news is that if you do the hard stuff to create win-win outcomes, you will continue to raise your value as a sales professional and that’s a win-win-win outcome!

Sales

Two Prerequisites for an Ideal Sales Conversation

By Jack Malcolm / 11.15.2013 / No Comment

We began this series with a description of what an ideal sales conversation looks and sounds like. Part 2 listed the 7 Barriers to the Ideal Sales Conversation. Today we focus on the prerequisites to reaching that ideal.

First, let’s recap: According to my definition, the ideal sales conversation is a:

genuine and productive dialogue between individuals who share a common purpose

In effect, it’s one in which two (or more) minds think together. That can only happen when both sides trust each other enough to open up, and are willing and able to learn from and to teach the other.

It’s primarily the job of the salesperson to ensure that the conditions are in place for trust to exist. For the first, here’s a quote that anyone in sales will recognize:

They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

But caring is not enough to establish trust; good intentions are useless unless you can deliver. They also have to have confidence in your competence. So, the corollary to this is:

They don’t care how much you care until they know how much you know.

You need both—concern and competence—to achieve an ideal sales conversation. To put both those words into even plainer English, you have to care and to know.

Caring

I can’t say too much about this aspect without climbing up on my soap box and preaching, so let me just put it this way. Sales is a great career for making money, but the paradox is that the real money comes to those who don’t make it their number one concern. The best way to get what you want is to help clients and customers get what they want—and much more importantly—what they need.

You don’t get caring from reading a blog post; you either have it or you don’t, and customers can tell.

The practical reason for caring during the sales conversation is that it will put you in the outside-in frame of mind; it will make you curious and genuinely interested in what they have to say, and customers can tell that, too.

Knowing

Until trust is firmly established, information is like currency; you have to spend some to get some back. That’s how your initial knowledge will make the difference between an interrogation and a willing exchange of information and ideas. Knowledge of that customers want and need comes from business acumen and preparation.

Business acumen is a prerequisite because it’s the best way to open up a productive dialogue. It’s the best way to translate your product knowledge into insights about how to improve your customer’s business operations and then express those improvements in the language of increased revenues, lower costs, greater cash flow, and reduced risks.

Remember, you get sent to who you sound like, and without business acumen, you will be stuck at the influencer level. You can still have great sales dialogues at this level, but they will not be as productive as those with high-level decision makers.

Business acumen has to be supplemented with preparation, because the perception of value is highly personal, and every company and every situation is unique. It’s one thing to know in general that your solution may lower costs and improve cash flow; it’s on a different level entirely to know the specifics about your counterpart’s costs and cash flow.

Your depth of preparation will send a loud and clear message that you take it seriously; it is a clear signal about both your caring and your knowledge.

The best thing about caring and knowing is that they can be mutually reinforcing. The more you know about a customer, the more you care; the more you care, the more you want to know.