Our reader poll today asks: Have you ever had a salesperson ask you to tell them a story so they can get to know you?
Yes, it happens frequently: 20.6%
No, I’ve never been asked to tell a story: 79.4%
Stories tell more than the story. If you’re in sales – and let’s be clear, we’re all in sales since we’re always selling ideas – getting your buyer to tell you a story will give you insight into their challenges, their preferences, and their decision making approach. Asking buyers to tell stories also helps build a relationship and build trust. The more you know about the other person and their experiences, the easier it is to connect with them and understand their perspective. There are a few critical yet simple techniques to get your buyer to tell you stories like asking for specific events or prompting their story by asking about a specific problem. Who knows – the next story you hear might help you close that sale or get your idea approved!
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
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https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2018-08-09 13:08:592018-08-12 10:58:46Have you ever had a salesperson ask you to tell them a story so they can get to know you?
In a connected world, opportunities are more about who you know than what you know. Whether it’s a job, making a sale, or finding your next great new hire, you’d be a fool to miss some great opportunities to build your network.
With the growth of platforms like LinkedIn, it’s easier than ever to connect with folks. Unfortunately, we’re lazy and pretty much suck at it. It’s become too easy to click a “connect” button and try to build your network absent a real connection. Every week I get a bunch of requests to connect. Unfortunately they have zero context. No note. No explanation as to why someone wants to make the connection. That prompts a really fast “ignore” response from me.
But what about connecting outside of social media? It’s a lost art. Our noses are in our phones all the time and we miss opportunities to make great connections all around us. With a little effort, though, you can forge some great connections and build a network of people you actually know personally.
There’s one place I’ve found that’s better than anywhere else to build my network: the airport.
I spend a lot of time in airports. A lot. I recently spent 21 hours on planes to come home from Singapore. And that was just the return trip home. I could treat that as dead time (and many times I do – I watch movies, read books, and sleep). But if I have the energy, I look at it as a chance to build my network.
For example, when I was going from Chicago to Tokyo on the first leg of my trip, I stopped in the United Club to ask where their international business class lounge was. The guy in line in front of me was asking the woman at the counter the same thing. When she told him where it was, I remembered the location. He seemed confused though. I told him to come with me because I knew where it was.
While we walked, we chatted. It turns out he’s an executive at a global corporation. Hmm… most of my clients are global corporations. I asked what he did and what he was working on. He was headed to Africa to work on some major projects. When he asked what I did and I told him I ran a leadership training firm, his comment was “That’s funny… I was just speaking with my HR and L&D team about some leadership training needs we have. I’d love to learn more about your services.”
We had a nice conversation on our way to the lounge. I gave him a brief overview of our firm but then steered the conversation back to getting to know him as a person. There would be plenty of time in the future to send him information about our services. I was much more interested in getting to know him and the work he does. Once at the lounge and after a short discussion about how good the food was, I left him to his work. He went and took a seat in a quieter area but still where I could see him. I hopped on my laptop to do some email. A few minutes later, I received a LinkedIn connection request from my new friend. We looked up, smiled, nodded, and went back to work.
Now, I have no idea if anything will ever come of our chance meeting. But at least there’s a chance something could come of it. All because I decided to have a conversation with a fellow traveler.
Our reader poll today asks: How effective is your organization at implementing good measurement practices?
Very — we’re rigorous about the measurement methods we use: 8.1%
Mostly — sometimes we’re not as effective as we could be: 35.6%
Not very — we’re only disciplined when measuring major metrics: 34.1%
Not at all — we’re terrible in our measurement practices: 22.3%
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. The next time the 56% of you who don’t measure things well are unhappy with how your organization is performing, please remember this poll. You can’t manage, let alone improve, things you don’t measure. Don’t go out and measure indiscriminately though. Clearly define the desired business outcome, identify the best measure of how you’re performing on activities related to that outcome, and stick to a focused set of metrics to track your progress. When you do measure, remember to answer the five key measurement questions:
What’s the measurement’s purpose?
What data source will you use?
How will you calculate the metric?
How frequently will you measure?
Who will review the measure?
If you can answer these questions clearly, you should have a meaningful metric to monitor.
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2018-05-03 13:26:412018-01-08 09:29:39How effective is your organization at using good measurement practices?
Our reader poll today asks: When you’re not interested in a vendor’s product or service, how do you handle it?
I tell them I’m not interested quickly and directly: 74.0%
I continue conversations until they realize there’s not a fit: 4.1%
I ignore their calls and emails and hope they disappear: 21.9%
Exercise common courtesy. While many of you are up front with a vendor when you’re not interested in their product or service, the 22% of you who aren’t might want to reconsider your behavior. Salespeople and other vendor personnel spend significant amounts of time and energy pursuing sales and partnership leads. When you ignore them and hope they just go away, you’re being disrespectful of their time; and, the silent treatment borders on unprofessional. The vast majority of them would prefer a fast and polite, “I’m not interested,” instead of being ignored and spending more time following up. How would you feel if you were in their shoes and your prospects and partners ignored you? Not so good, I assume. Do the right thing. Be professional. Offer a courteous, “No, thank you,” as soon as you know it’s not a fit. There’s always time for professionalism.
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2018-04-26 13:24:032018-01-08 09:26:21When you’re not interested in a vendor’s product, how do you handle it?
Our reader poll today asks: Which is more important: having a great technology to sell or a great operation that sells it?
It’s all about the tech. It’ll sell itself. :15.5%
Operations and execution is where it’s at.: 84.5%
The tech is the easy part. No matter how great your technology is, if you can’t sell it and execute your business plan, the tech is worthless. Ensure you invest appropriate time and energy in thinking through your operating model and managing execution. It’s much more important to get the basics right: define a strategy, hire the right people, sell like crazy, execute your plan and give up control to let the talented people you hire do their jobs. If you stay too focused on the tech, you’ll find you own 100% of a cool code base or product that no one uses.
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2018-04-05 13:15:302018-01-08 09:17:25Should you focus on great technology or a great operation?
If you want to be a consultant and run your own firm, you need to have a good sense of your revenue model. There are many to choose from. Pick the right one and be very profitable. Pick the wrong one and you’ll be working like a dog for a tiny paycheck.
Your revenue model explains how you make money. You need to determine how to charge for the services you’re offering and what services you’ll charge for.
Consultants use three primary revenue models: fee-for-service, project-based, and per-unit. There’s a big difference between a fee-for-service consulting model, a project-based model, and per-unit pricing models.
Fee-for-Service
Fee-for-service gets you an hourly rate. You charge a specified amount of money for each hour or each day of services rendered. The upside of this model is you get paid for your time so if the project expands, you get paid more money. This is especially attractive in situations where there might be scope creep on your project.
The downside to this model is there’s pretty much a cap on what you can charge per hour. You get no benefit from being more efficient.
If you’re going to work on projects with a poorly-defined scope or if there’s no predictable amount of work you’ll be doing, consider using a fee-for-service model.
Project-Based
For project-based revenue models, there’s a one-time fee for the entire project. The upside of this model is if you’re more efficient, you’re more profitable. The downside is if the scope of that project creeps, your economics on that project could be terrible.
For example, if I have a very clear expectation that a project will take six weeks to complete and will require four days of effort per week, I can take my daily rate and multiply it by 24. I may even build in a 10% hedge to that rate. That would be the project-based cost I would charge the client. If I work efficiently and it only takes me five weeks instead of six, it’s a much more profitable project because I can now use that open sixth week for other client work. If, however, I didn’t estimate well and I let the scope of the project expand to seven weeks, I’m still only getting paid for the six weeks since it was a project-based quote.
Use a project-based pricing approach when you have a very clear sense of project scope and you don’t believe there’s much risk of scope creep.
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2018-03-14 06:41:002018-08-12 12:38:03Want to succeed as a consultant? Pick the right revenue model
Getting your buyers to tell stories can give you insight into how to sell to them more effectively. Here are five ways to get your buyers to tell you their stories.
Your first objective in a sales call shouldn’t be to tell any of your stories. It should be to get the buyer to tell you their stories. If you don’t hear their stories first, how will you know which of your stories to tell?
You wouldn’t trust a doctor who wrote you a prescription without listening to you explain your problem, would you? Of course not. Then why would a buyer accept the recommendation of a salesperson who did the same thing?
And if you’re unsure about what kind of stories you should want to hear from your prospects, here are the three most productive ones you should be asking for:
A personal story – so you can get to know them better
A story about their biggest problem – so you’ll know what kind of help they need
A story about how their favorite supplier became their favorite supplier – so you can become their favorite supplier
Now, getting your buyers to talk is easy. Getting them to tell you stories requires a little more work. And you should want them to actually tell you stories not just talk, and for many of the same reasons why you should be telling stories to them:
It’ll help you relax and listen better
It’ll help you build a better relationship with them
It’ll help you better remember what they say, plus
When the story they tell is about the problem they’re facing, it helps you understand the context so you’ll have a better idea of the opportunity you’re up against.
So, here are five tactics being used by successful salespeople to get their buyers to tell stories:
Shut Up and Listen
That’s probably the most obvious but underutilized tactic to get stories out of buyers. Human beings abhor silence in a conversation like nature abhors a vacuum. We’re desperate to fill the void with something. So, if you can resist the temptation for that something to be your voice, you have a near certain chance of that something being the buyer’s voice.
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2018-03-07 06:43:282018-08-12 12:36:315 Ways to Get Buyers to Tell Stories to Help You Close the Deal
Our reader poll today asks: How would you characterize your approach to growing your business?
– I lean toward “structured” and focus on pragmatic planning and execution: 56% – I lean toward “creative” and always generate new, interesting ideas: 44%
Balancing creativity with structure. It’s a pretty even split between structure and creativity, with the edge falling more toward structure for how to grow your business. Clearly, both sides are important. When you can find the balance between the two, you have the opportunity to build something unique, special, and fundamentally sound. Err too much toward one or the other and you either miss out on new ideas or you let your business stagnate. If you personally fall on one end of the spectrum, consider surrounding yourself with others who skew the other way so you have a good balance between creativity and structure for your organization.
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2018-02-08 13:26:162017-09-03 12:49:46How would you characterize your approach to growing your business?
Our reader poll today asks: Do you believe storytelling is an important skill when it comes to making a sale?
– Absolutely. Great storytellers are much more effective salespeople: 80.3% – Kind of. Storytelling confers a slight advantage in selling: 15.4% – Not really. It doesn’t sway a sales decision much: 2.7% – Not at all. Selling is about product, price and promotion: 1.6%
Tell me a story. Storytelling definitely drives sales. 80% of you found storytelling to be a critical skill for salespeople, and I’d venture to guess not all respondents were sellers but many were buyers. If you think more broadly about “selling” and consider you’re always selling ideas, shouldn’t you become a better storyteller, too? Any recommendation you’re making can benefit from your ability to tell a story. Learn the skill. Build your own inventory of stories to help you be more compelling and influential. You just might close that “sale” you’ve been working on for a long time!
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2018-01-25 13:20:212017-09-03 12:43:03Do you believe storytelling is an important skill when it comes to making a sale?
Vulnerability is often seen as a flaw or sign of weakness. But if you look at vulnerability differently, it can become a powerful part of who you are and how successful you are.
Ladies: Have you ever felt like you have to hide the very quality that makes you a caring, sensitive individual – your vulnerability – in order to succeed?
If so, you are not alone. Even the most powerful women often believe they can’t express certain emotions and aspects of their personality on the job for fear of being perceived as weak, ineffective or wishy-washy.
Not true. As a CEO and a coach of women entrepreneurs, I can firmly attest that the ability to express vulnerability is a key strength for women. In particular, women seeking to build businesses can leverage this gift to win faithful followers, and attract loyal, paying clients.
The world is hungry for more vulnerability, for leaders who’ve stopped claiming to be perfect, who don’t wear a mask and who own up to their own imperfect humanness. When you allow yourself to display your vulnerable side – especially as it relates to the product or service you are offering – people will tune in and pay attention because you’ve been there, too. You know how they feel.
No one wants to talk candidly about their divorce with someone who has never been through a separation. Nor does anyone want to open their heart about their struggle with obesity with someone who has never despaired over trying to shed excess weight. But when you do have this experience, people seeking your advice and help with similar issues will be touched at a visceral level and inclined, naturally, to open up and to trust you. What better starting point is there for connecting with new prospective clients than trust?
Take my friend and client Susan Peirce Thompson, for example. To say that Susan has been on a painful journey with food would be an understatement. Susan was overweight as a teenager and obese in her 20s. In adolescence, she used drugs like crystal meth and crack cocaine to manage her eating and weight. When she hit bottom on drugs at the age of 20 and got clean and sober, her food addiction exploded in full force. She was diagnosed with binge eating disorder at the age of 23 and spent nearly every spare moment bingeing, recovering from bingeing, or throwing her heart into some new attempt to lose weight.
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2018-01-22 07:06:492018-08-07 20:02:44Combine Vulnerability and Credibility for a Powerful Marketing Message
Our reader poll today asks: When setting goals, is the sum of your team’s goals more than your total goal?
– All the time. It helps me hedge on hitting my goal: 39.6% – Sometimes, but only for the most critical goals: 36.9% – Rarely. I only do it in extreme cases: 9.4% – Never. Their goals add up perfectly to my goal: 14.1%
Overallocation can be beneficial. The process of having subordinate goals add up to more than your group goal is called overallocation. Doing so can be beneficial. It stretches your team below you to deliver more while at the same time increasing the likelihood that you hit your team goals. But be careful: Too much overallocation of goals can frustrate your teams and make their goals unattainable. A few basic overallocation principles like using commit and stretch goals, ensuring goals are SMART, and explaining your approach to your team can go a long way toward making this a successful goal-setting strategy.
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2018-01-18 13:36:462017-09-03 12:39:24Is the sum of your team’s goals more than your total goal?
When you set goals, there’s commonly two types: quantitative and qualitative. By setting both types of goals for your organization, you can achieve a balance of results driven by people focusing on the behaviors that matter.
Quantitative Goals and Driver Metrics
When you set quantitative goals, they’re going to focus on things like financial results, operational metrics, customer dynamics, or quality. You can typically track these types of goals pretty easily. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to be thoughtful about these metrics. A focused set of critical driver metrics is more valuable than a broad set of less relevant metrics that your team can’t affect. Let me share an example.
Let’s imagine you have a sales team. The overall goal for the division is to grow revenue. The driver metrics that affect revenue are price and volume. We’re talking about the sales team here. They have no control over product price. If you just give this team a revenue goal for their business unit, it won’t focus their efforts appropriately. It could lead them to argue or complain about pricing policy. That’s just not productive. The business unit also doesn’t control customer service. Using total revenue for this team’s goal isn’t fair because they don’t control all of it.
When you set the sales team’s goal, focus their goals on what they can control. In this case, it’s new sales volume. Think about that sales team going out and trying to get more customers. The driver metrics, for their ability to acquire customers are things like the number of prospects they talk to, the number of sales calls they conduct, and the conversion rate from a prospect to a paying customer. By focusing on these driver metrics for this sales team and focusing it on what they can control, you’re going to get better results.
When you think through your metrics for your business unit, think through the drivers. Consider the team’s ability to control those drivers. And make sure the goals you allocate to them are only focused on that which they can control. If you build your goals this way, you’re going to get a more concrete set of goals that your team feels empowered to actually drive.
Qualitative Goals
In addition to setting quantitative goals, which are pretty easy to set, a lot of times you’ll have to set qualitative goals. You can look at things like major project completion or milestones in completing that project. Milestone goals are relatively easy to measure and focus your team on driving a specific outcome. Just be sure you have counterbalancing goals like quality to prevent the team from cutting corners to hit a time-based milestone goal.
Sometimes, you want to measure things that are difficult to measure. You’ll have to infer from indirect quantitative metrics whether or not you’re making progress on that desired outcome. Things like culture are hard to measure, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to measure it. You can construct a set of indicators that let you know if you’re moving culture in the right direction. You can look at things that’ll tell you if you’re succeeding in reaching that higher-level end goal.
