The Monster In Your Head is a refreshing, fun, enlightening blog by Jerry Colonna. Jerry is a life/executive coach. Once a VC., Wall Street guy Jerry’s now turned is efforts towards a new passion. I dig this part of his story. Jerry has remade him self several times and has designed his own life. Isn’t this what we all aspire to.
“. . .we’ve all got monsters in our heads.” Jerry is good at helping us fight them.
Check out his blog. It’s worth the read. Your head will appreciate it.
Apple just launched the IPad. Yup, I’m pretty sure I want one. Why, I don’t know. I have a Kindle. I have an Iphone. I have a Macbook Pro. Technically speaking, I don’t need one. But it does have that cool factor.
One of the things that will definately work against my urge to splurge will be the use of the mobile Safari browser. I use my Iphone just like my laptop. I read blogs. I blog. I tweet, I play on Facebook, and Linkedin. The thing I do most on these sites is share and mobile Safari makes sharing hard because it doesn’t support browser plugins. I can’t save posts for later using Instapaper. I can’t create a bit.ly link. I can’t share to my Tumblr page or clip to Evernote. These are just a few of the things I do directly from my browser. On the IPhone these are all separate apps not integrated with Safari. That’s a problem. Cutting and pasting between apps just sucks.
I want my mobile experience, IPhone or IPad to be just like my laptop experience. I shouldn’t have to adopt slower, more cumbersome ways of getting stuff done to be mobile. The app store is awesome. Now, I’d like to see Apple start extending plugins to their mobile browser. It just plain makes sense.
Innovation in sales was the topic during this weeks Sales Smack event. The question was; “Does sales need innovation?” It was suggested that we have been doing the same old things for the past 50+ years and little has changed.
I look at sales in 3 stages; access, influence and delivery. I think there has been a fair amount of innovation in the first and last stages. With the advent of tools, like social media, CRM, and the productivity gains from the internet, computing etc., there has been tremendous innovation in gaining access to prospects and decision makers as well as improving our delivery capabilities. Where I struggled with innovation in sales was in the meat of sales; the influence.
Influence is where sales happens. The influence stage is where we “influence” the buyers decision. Those who are best at influencing the buyer win.
I didn’t see any innovation in this area. To me, the methods hadn’t changed in a long time. Influence had always been, build the relationship, solve problems, understand the issues etc. To me, it’s always been an information, problem solving game. That is until Sales Smack.
During Sales Smack Jill Konrath and S. Anthony Iannarino threw out a few things that got my attention. Jill said, sales has lacked a culture of “thinking” and organizations who provide training around thinking are seeing results. Anthony suggested it’s no longer OK to “pitch” (which I have always agreed with) but sales people have to be diverse in their expertise. Beyond being sales people they have to be engineers, CEO’s, finance people, marketers etc. To be a great sales person your skills have to be far more expansive than just being a magnanimous, articulate, jovial personality.
I think they are on to something. Sales Smack has altered my opinion a little. Innovation in the influence stage of selling needs to target the behaviors of the sales people. Innovation in the influence stage is going to come from the psychology of buying habits and decision making coupled with training to instill new selling behaviors in sales people.
Critical thinking skills and broad skill enhancements are for sure two ways sales is innovating. Organizations that leverage these innovative approaches in their organization through training will have a competitive advantage.
I struggled to see where sales has been innovating, especially in the influence stage. Sales Smack gave me a smack and it’s a little more clear. Now, I’d like to see more.
Do you see more innovation in sales?
Check out the entire discussion, folks were throwing down some good stuff:
Fred Wilson wrote a great post the other day called, Role Models. In it he talked about the importance of role models for young entrepreneurs who are just starting out. I agree with him. No one makes it alone. Having a mentor can make all the difference.
Mentors are hard to come by. It’s not like they have a Walmart for mentors.
The mentor/mentee relation can take time to develop. Other times it’s a simple introduction. Despite how they are developed they are normally off-line, face to face, personal, relationships. One of the most difficult parts of finding a mentor is access. Successful, accomplished experts are hard to come by.
Fred’s post got me thinking. Social media is providing a new type of mentor, a “social mentor.”
Social media provides the two critical pieces of mentorship; access and information.
Mentorship is about providing guidance, experience, knowledge and support. Social media, through it’s blogs, comments, Tweets, Fan Pages and more allows an informal mentorship to take place. Blogs share experiences and information. The comments allow readers to ask questions. Overtime, the author and regular commentators build a relationship. The author becomes responsive to his or her regular readers and provides provocative, informative, answers to their questions. The same applies to other social media sites. The experts engage with the novices and share their experience and knowledge. Bang! A “social mentor” relationship is created.
I’ve seen examples of this all over the web. The best example I’ve seen is Fred’s blog. Fred writes great informative posts everyday. He receives 100′s of comments on those posts. He has a good following of regular commentators who comment often; asking questions, and engaging with Fred. I can’t prove it, but I’d be willing to bet a number of these people see Fred as an informal mentor.
Social media is changing a lot of things. How we define mentors is one of them.
Nothing will replace the power and benefits of an offline mentor/mentee relationship. But where it used to be all or nothing, social media is creating a very happy and beneficial medium.
I’m beginning to find a number of social mentors. What about you? Who are yours?
Conventional wisdom is just that, conventional. It’s our way of leveraging the tried and true. It’s proven. It’s reliable. It’s expected. Conventional wisdom tells us what has been successful. It protects us from mistakes. It allows people to avoid mistakes others have made in the past. It makes us feel good. It makes us feel safe. Conventional wisdom keeps us from losing.
Conventional wisdom doesn’t help us WIN.
Conventional wisdom is just that, conventional. It’s rooted in the past. It doesn’t accept the new. It ridicules the different or the alternative. Conventional wisdom rejects growth.
What is often forgotten is, conventional wisdom wasn’t always conventional. At one time it was new. It WAS an alternative. It was innovative. It didn’t rely on the past. It wasn’t safe. It didn’t protect us from mistakes. It wasn’t proven. It wasn’t tried and true.
Conventional wisdom is good tool until it becomes a weapon.
When you hear “That’s not how we do things.” “This is how we’ve always done it.” “That won’t work.” “Why would we do that.”; when rules and process are designed to keep the status quo, NOT promote change, conventional wisdom has become a weapon.
Conventional wisdom is good, until it becomes bad. To keep it good, just keep creating new conventional wisdom. Innovation is in the transition and innovation is the weapon you want.
Consultative selling, Spin selling, Selling 2.0, Provocative selling, we’ve heard them all. But, are they innovative? Are they bringing anything new to the table. David Brock at Partners in Excellence Blog has been asking this question a lot. Innovation in Sales; An Oxymoron?
David makes an interesting point:
. . . with all the talk going on, when you peel everything back, have things really changed? Customers still avoid wanting to speak with sales people. We hear too much about sales people pushing products, not understanding customer problems and creating value, and the list goes on. Often, it seems to me, we are having the same conversation repeatedly. Sometimes we change the word or methodology, sometimes we add technology or tools so we can do this stuff at the speed of light, sometimes we disguise it with new buzzwords, but somehow it seems that things aren’t changing.
I think David is on to something. I often wonder the same thing. Is sales changing? Is sales being innovative. Is the profession and how we practice it growing? Has there been any innovation in sales in the past 50 years?
This is the next topic on Sales Smack tomorrow night at 7:00 EST. Jump in with us as we try to break down what is happening in sales and what is really happening to the second oldest profession in the world.
Sales Smack is an open forum where everyone get’s a chance to share their opinion. A live, open, conference call on TalkShoe, where we break down sales topics in an open podcast forum.
Yesterday I was off the grid. I didn’t post to this blog. I didn’t have my Tweet stream up. I didn’t read any blogs. I didn’t visit Facebook, or LinkedIn. I didn’t check in anywhere using Foursquare; that’s probably because I sat at my desk all day. I was off the grid for pretty much the entire day. (OK, I did tweet twice)
Being off the grid was strange. I definitely noticed a difference. My day was less interrupted, more focused, and in many ways more productive.
I usually start my morning reading my RSS reader. I then check my Twitter stream and then do a blog post. Throughout the day I follow my Twitter stream, retweet good sales posts and tweets I like as well as keep up on events of the day. I get much of my news from Twitter. At the end of the day, I check Facebook, add a quote or good story to my Tumblr page and read some more blog links I liked.
Being on the grid, helps me stay connected and keeps me informed. I like the flow of information, the relationships and discoveries being online creates.
Despite how much I enjoy being connected and all the benefits it provides, something strange happened in my one day sabbatical. I was more focused. There were fewer distractions. I didn’t feel the stress to deliver good content. I didn’t feel the pressure to share or to “give”. Being online is as much about sharing and giving as it is about getting. It’s what’s best about being online. However, yesterday, for me, I learned it can create a lot of pressure and distractions.
One day off the grid was a relief. It was focused on one thing. I got more done. It was nice.
Despite the relief from my one day sabbatical, I missed being online. I enjoy it.
In the future, I think I will take more days of “the grid”. They are good recharge moments. However, the next one won’t be because of a big project deadline. I’ll do it just because. It sounds nice.
Customer service is an attitude not a check list. Just because we offer to help, say thank you, return the food, provide a refund or fix the problem doesn’t mean we’ve provided customer service.
People want to be acknowledged. People want to be heard. They want to believe you understand them and their situation. Customer services is the connection between you and your customer. It’s the emotional engagement. Check lists can’t create emotion.
Training your employees to say thank you, have a nice day, or how can I help you, isn’t customer service. Creating automatic return policies or having a good refund process isn’t good customer service either.
Taking back a broken toy with a bad attitude only makes the problem worse. Getting a customer who didn’t like their food a different meal with a sarcastic attitude just makes the customer more angry.
The problem is no response will solve the problem without genuine acknowledgment and a positive attitude. The problem created a negative emotional response. To fix you need to create a positive emotional response. A smile, acknowledgment, and a genuine connection to your customers is where your customer service starts.
Customer service is like any type of relationship. People want to be heard, they want to be validated.
To provide good customer service don’t create checklists. Don’t teach your employees what to say. Get them to emotionally connect and that starts with a genuine smile and acknowledgment of their feelings.
Questions matter in sales. Questions give us insight. They lead us to solutions. They give customers confidence of our capabilities. Questions are a valuable tool of sales.
If a Dr. only asks how do you feel and how long have you been feeling that way, she can’t provide the proper diagnosis. A mechanic can’t fix your car with questions like; What’s wrong with the car? How long has it been going on? How loud is the sound? To diagnose a problem requires deep, relevant understanding of the subject. Questions aren’t enough, you have to know WHAT questions to ask.
Sales is like being a Dr. or a Mechanic, it diagnoses problems. Asking a few superfluous, high-level questions isn’t enough. You need to know what you’re looking for.
Questions are a tool in the sales bag. Knowing how to use the tool is critical. It’s not enough to have it in your bag or use it once in awhile. It needs to be used effectively. We need to be experts in using questions.
Wielding the questions tool requires subject matter expertise, an idea of what your looking for, and the flexibility to ask new questions if you can’t find what you looking for. It requires openness to unanticipated answers, and the ability to probe.
Sales is the ability to solve problems. Like a Dr. or a Mechanic, Sales must first know what is wrong. Knowing what’s wrong takes asking the right questions, not just any question.
Customers are too smart to accept a weak diagnosis. They know when someone can solve their problems. Just because we offer a solution doesn’t mean it will fix their problems. We need to know what their real problems are and that comes from asking the right questions.
Ask the RIGHT questions. You’ll get the RIGHT answers. Then, you’ll know the RIGHT solution.
Sales has an interesting legacy culture. It’s a “tough guy” culture. I still see it lingering around.
It works like this. You get your quota and you make it. Period.
The “tough guy” culture doesn’t allow for business discussion on the reality of the quota or how it was derived. It’s not open to industry or environmental impacts. It basically says; if your a real sales guy, if you’re a good sales guy then you’ll make your number and if you can’t, you aren’t and we’ll find someone who is.
The “tough guy” culture celebrates the person who makes their number, regardless of how they make it.
The problem with the “tough guy” culture is important information doesn’t make it back to home base. Customer feedback is buried, for fear of not looking tough. Product enhancements are not shared, because a “tough guy” can sell it anyway. The impact of a competing product is dismissed, because a “tough guy” can sell against his competitors. An unsatisfied customer . . . who cares, I sold them something.
“Tough guy” cultures are aggressive and cut throat. They aren’t a fun place to work. Little emphasis is put on the customer, or the product. It’s all about pushing sales.
It’s an old culture. It seems to be dying, but it’s a slow death. There are fewer companies with a “tough guy” culture today, but many companies are still holding on to parts of it.
The “tough guy” culture creates a big wake. A wake of unsatisfied customers, inconsistent sales, and high sales turnover.
The “tough guy” culture used to work when information was hard to come by. When those who controlled the information had an advantage. In today’s open, social internet world, a “tough guy” wake can kill you.
How much of the “tough guy” culture is in your organization? Get it out.
As my dad used to say; “It’s not about being the toughest, but the smartest”
Build a “smart guy” culture, it’s what today’s information world demands.
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