Practical Eloquence Blog |

Max Cred Factor #8: Outside-In Thinking

By Jack Malcolm / 3.13.2014 / 1 Comment

Although this is the ninth article of the max cred series, it probably should have been first. This one is less about technique than most of the others and more about a general approach to being credible in the estimation of others.

Motives are a huge factor in credibility. There are degrees of self-interest that can affect how much credibility others give you or your message.

When you advise the other person to do something that will help them and clearly cost you, you have maximum credibility. If you tell they don’t need the more expensive option, or even on occasion that your competitor’s offer is better for them, it’s about as credible as you can get.
Next is being disinterested. You advise the other person to do something that is good for them, but their decision carries no advantage or cost to you.
When you stand to gain from their agreement, but it’s transparent. This is the most common case in a sales situation, where both parties know there’s a win-win.
When you will gain from their agreement but you keep your ulterior motives from the other party.

Most cases in selling will fall into the third category. There is nothing wrong with having your own motives in a persuasion attempt; it’s a fact of life and it’s the foundation of our capitalist system. Most people know that when you’re trying to sell them something, there’s something in it for you if they agree. But even so, there are ways to handle the situation more or less effectively and professionally.

The most important point is to preserve your own personal integrity and professional behavior. Keep your focus on the client’s best interests and everything else is trivial.

If you lose the occasional sale by following this rule, remember Mark Twain’s advice: “Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” Besides, the occasional sale you will lose will be more than compensated for by the long term trusting relationships you will build.

But even if you sincerely put the other person’s best interests first, your credibility still rests on perception, and it’s possible to send messages that may be misinterpreted. You can send the wrong message by making the conversation mostly about yourself, your company or your solution. You can send the wrong message by “solving” the client’s problem immediately without spending some time probing the causes or exploring various alternatives. You can send the wrong message by leading with the “gold-plated” solution that is more than they need.

In any persuasion conversation, it’s wise to heed the words of Charlie Greene: “Don’t think less of yourself, but think about yourself less”, which I believe neatly sums up my own idea of outside-in thinking.

So remember, to preserve your personal credibility, always do the right thing, but also do it in the right way.

Sales

Selling is Everyone’s Job – A Force Multiplier for Your Sales Team

By Jack Malcolm / 3.12.2014 / No Comment

What the well-dressed salesperson is wearing nowadays

I had the privilege of addressing a group of construction managers from one of my clients last Saturday morning about sales.

Yes, you read that right. The (mostly) men in my audience manage construction projects for their clients, and their employer wanted them to be aware of selling opportunities that they might come across in their daily dealings with clients. They are the “boots on the ground” who are on the client site every single day; they see and hear everything that goes on. All of them on occasion stumble across sales opportunities for their firm, but too many of them pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and continue on as if nothing has happened.

David Maister uses three terms that I find particularly apt in this situation: grinders, minders and finders. Grinders are the folks who go about their daily work, and do it well. They know their first and most important obligation is to do what they’re paid for and deliver the expected value. Finders are the people in the organization whose main work is to go out and find new business; they’re the designated hunters. Minders are grinders too, but they also go further—they take time to network, develop contacts, and build long term relationships.

Minders can be a huge asset for any organization, because they have continuous access to clients; they have established credibility, and they have deep knowledge and insight into their needs. They can become aware of opportunities very early in the client’s buying cycle, which can be a tremendous advantage if they pass on the right information to the finder. They are the scouts who can make heroes of the finders.

Many minders come by it naturally—they like dealing with people and build relationships through just being themselves. But a lot of grinders are technicians, engineers, or professionals, who tend to be a bit more introverted and less likely to even pay attention. They may need a little boost.

Turning grinders into minders is first about attitude. They need to have the attitude that:

Business development is in their own interest. It allows them to do the grinder work they love, and it avoids the disruption of moving to a different client or even city when current work dries up.
Selling is not a “bad” thing. As long as they are sincerely helping clients solve problems or take advantage of opportunities, they do their clients a favor when they bring them new ideas.
If they don’t take personal responsibility for it, it may never get done.

Second, it’s about education. You don’t need to give them sales training or try to turn them into finders, but you need to help them know how to spot and deal with opportunities. How much do they know about your firm’s total offerings? Once they know that, can you give them some specific keywords, scenarios or symptoms that they might notice which would indicate an additional need? If they do, do they know whom to notify to follow up on the opportunity?

Presentations

Serve the Lazy Lobster

By Jack Malcolm / 3.11.2014 / No Comment

No disassembly required

I had dinner the other night with some friends at a seafood restaurant. Their special for the night was the “Lazy Lobster”. I asked about the name, and they told me it was the meat from a one-pound lobster, cleaned and put into a dish so that the diner would not have to go through the trouble of picking out the meat themselves. The special was so popular that there was only one left, which my friend ordered.

He got an excellent dish; I got an excellent metaphor.

When you present to busy executives for a decision, you should serve them the lazy lobster. Too many presentations are put together like a whole lobster, where the recipient has to go through the trouble of picking the meat out themselves.

You serve the “lazy lobster” by separating out the meat is in your presentation from the shell of unnecessary detail, and then serving it to them in an appealing and easily digestible format.

You should do the thinking so that they don’t have to. I’m not implying that decision makers are lazy or stupid, but they are faced with tons of information and decision points every day, so they will appreciate the clarity provided by someone who has made it easy for them. It’s not “dumbing down”; it’s adding value by figuring out precisely what they need to know and why it’s important to them, and then laying it out in an orderly and logical manner.

Your audience is like any parent who reads these dreaded words on Christmas Eve: “some assembly required”. They will be grateful for anyone who does the work for them.

Sales

Escape from the Commodity Trap

By Jack Malcolm / 3.10.2014 / No Comment

This could hurt

Selling what others widely perceive as a commodity can be tough enough, but imagine trying to do that when broader trends combine to drive down demand for your product. That’s the challenge that faced Mohawk Fine Paper, a company profiled in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. Their response to the challenge provides some excellent general lessons for salespeople.

Mohawk used to have a profitable business selling paper to companies for their annual reports, but the business began to shrink in the late 90s when firms began putting their filings on line, and then really plummeted in 2007 when the NYSE no longer required companies to send paper copies to shareholders. The company gradually scaled back operations from seven days to four at its main plant.

Their response was to literally bet the company on a strategy aimed at moving up the price/value pyramid, as they began selling high quality stock to small batch digital printers such as Shutterfly. Their debt swelled from $8m to $103m as they made the necessary investments to make the shift—before being certain their strategy would work.

The bottom line is that they did succeed, and today 40% of their business comes from this profitable sector. Mohawk is just one example of others in the US paper industry in general, which has seen its share prices outpace the S&P 500 by five times since 2009.

What lessons can sales professionals take from the story?

If it’s going to happen, it’s up to you. Someone unfamiliar with the details of the story could easily conclude that Mohawk got lucky—they merely stepped off one sinking ship onto another that was passing in the form of new demand. But that’s not how it happened at all. The demand was not there until Mohawk approached Shutterfly with samples of photo cards printed on special paper and got them excited about the quality.

But it takes knowledge about your customer. Approaching their customer is a new idea was an excellent example of seller-led insight and consultative selling, but even more instructive is how Mohawk was able to get to that point. They thought it was a good idea, but in order to test it they actually bought a small online company for $2 million just to better understand and test their own insights about their customers’ industry. So, by the time they brought the idea to their customer, they had huge credibility. Today they have a research lab dedicated to learning more about their customers’ needs: “the company hopes to show designers, ad executives and printing companies new ways to pair digital printing with high-end paper.”

It’s risky. Not everything Mohawk tried worked out; they tried to appeal to environmentalists by selling chlorine-free paper, but no one bought it. And they had to take on massive debt to make the investments to play in a new space. Any time you read an article like this, it’s important to keep in mind that if the company had failed, we would probably not be reading about them today. But sometimes the biggest risk is not doing anything.

Obviously, one company and even an entire industry don’t prove anything, but if you are facing your own commodity trap, I leave you with this one question: what risks have you taken to learn something new and valuable that you can teach your customers?