Disruptive technologies create some of the biggest opportunities for marketers,                                      

Running a company website is now taken as read, but more recently we have been hit with YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc to add to the armoury of communication tools. Large companies with deep pockets may be able to call upon the skills of in-house digital whizz kids, but even the smallest of businesses can make effective use of digital media. All you need is a little know-how, planning and if necessary, outside help.

Generating new business both from current clients and new prospects continues to be critical where budgets are still tight and spending decisions slow. A new business campaign in the business-to-business world might, in the past, have focused around the brand, print and direct mail with telephone follow up and face-to-face sales. Today there is more to consider.

The key elements of a campaign will not disappear – there must still be a compelling reason for customers to buy from you and it is critical to identify who needs your product or service, but digital media can be a great help in driving forward the marketing and sales process.

The written message will build trust in the brand, company and the individuals who work there. Setting up LinkedIn or Facebook profiles will further help to develop the relationship with prospects and provide a showcase for the company’s expertise and knowledge. This doesn’t take long and a social media presence will also improve search engine rankings.

And who to target? List brokers abound but B-to-B lists with substantial numbers of email addresses are harder to come by, although there are some out there, so it’s worth carrying out some research. Hot prospects will respond through one means or another, but what about the prospects who didn’t? A follow up email after a printed mailshot will prove cost effective and can develop the company story further. Awareness built up from the initial printed mailshot should pay dividends in open and click-through rates. Telesales staff can also prioritise those contacts who clicked through to the website from the e-mailing.

Traditional processes kick in with sales staff converting good leads into customers and relationships continue to be maintained, as they always were, with regular phone calls, meetings, seminars and training if relevant. These activities can be supplemented with email newsletters, white papers, blogs, webinars and chat forums.

If you aren’t currently employing or investigating at least some digital marketing communication techniques, 2010 is the year to dip your toe in the water. Start small and build on success as you feel more comfortable with the opportunities available.

Phil Callan

01225 462624

phil@callan.org www.callan.org

Filed under: Uncategorized by Jim McLaughlin
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We’ve all said it – “If only people came to me with solutions not problems!” Yet when something goes wrong, sometimes it’s just human nature to focus on the negative.

So how can you do better thinking about problems, and encourage others to do the same? The Solution Focused Approach may be just the answer you need.

Think for a moment about when you last had really tricky problem that just wouldn’t go away. What did you do? Did you talk it over with someone, or do a list of it pros and cons about it, or mull it over alone, or something else? Did you get anywhere? If you did, I’m guessing that you adopted a particular mindset – either deliberately or unconsciously – and you thought ahead to your goal or desired outcome. And if you didn’t get anywhere, I’m guessing that you just thought about the problem, over and over. And maybe came back to square one again.

Phlosophers and psychologists have long said that when we look at only the problem, we see only the problem. It sounds obvious, yet a shift in thinking is often all it takes to see something other than the problem.

This is how the Solution Focused approach (SF) came about. Originally pioneered in the 80s by family therapist Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, they found that helping clients to shift from thinking about the problem to what the client’s life could be like without it, clients made better progress. They didn’t need to go into the problem in detail, they just helped clients to focus on what the “preferred outcome” looked like. They didn’t ignore problems entirely or rush to solutions, but with skilful questioning, they avoided getting bogged down in the problem.

In short, SF brings attention to:

• the positive rather than the negative
• the present and the future rather than the past
• the solution rather than the problem

SF has since been adapted for use across many fields of industry and education. It can be used in executive and team coaching, group facilitation, organisation development, stakeholder management, change management, project management .. the list is endless.

Whether you want to make conversations with a usually negative person more productive, re-energise your team meetings, generate better appraisal discussions, or conduct great negotiations, you’ll find it useful. It’s fundamentally a questioning and conversational tool although you may find it equally helpful in your private thinking time. SF is built on a series of core principles:

• Be respectfully curious – ask meaningful questions but don’t interrogate
• Look to the “preferred” future not the past
• Look for resources rather than deficits – what are the person’s (or organisation’s) strengths?Look to the “preferred” future not the past
• Build on success – once you know what works, do more of it
• Stop doing something if it’s not working, do something different!
• There will nearly always be times when the problem is not happening – what’s different then?
• Find out what is already contributing to the preferred future that can be built upon
• Accept that people are the experts in all aspects of their own lives
• Believe that small steps can genuinely make a big difference
• Have genuine expectations of good outcomes

Like most coaching models, SF has numerous “tools” you can use; their effectiveness depends on the timing, tone and context, and all can be mastered with practise. Here are some of the most effective ones:
Best Hopes / Outcome

This establishes a goal, ensures that people set their own agenda, and generates a sense of optimism.

“What are your best hopes for our meeting today?”

The Preferred Future

Where people can envision a future that’s real for them, they are much more likely to take action, and the more detailed the picture, the more powerful it is. A series of questions can be used to help (as long as each answer is fully listened to before the next one is asked!)

“We’re agreed that going forward we’d all like this team to be working more effectively. “How would we know that was happening?” “What would we be seeing and doing?” “Who else would notice?” “What would they see?” “What else?”

Scaling

One of the most powerful tools in SF, scaling enables the person to articulate how close they are to the preferred future as well as stating the size of the problem as they see it. Often it’s easier to give a number than put our feelings into words. A low number e.g. 4 offers the opportunity to explore what’s happening that’s making it a 4 and not zero, and a high number offers the opportunity to spotlight strengths and resources being utilised.

“So if 10 represents us hitting budget and 0 the opposite, where would you score us currently?”

Resources

Everyone has resources – they just might not know it. It’s a powerful way of acknowledging that people are not helpless and that they are coping. Resources might be skills, past experience, people, or tools – anything that aids.

“You’ve said in the past that you find talking to Simon the CEO a bit daunting. Yet how did you manage to have that tough conversation with him yesterday?”

“What did we do to win this client in the first place, and how might our learning from that contribute in getting this new piece of work?”

The Miracle Question

This helps the person to articulate the preferred future – i.e. what life will be like when the problem has gone.

“Imagine for a moment that the problem disappeared overnight – what would you see / feel / how would you know / that would tell you the problem had gone? “

Exceptions

SF believes that there will always be exceptions when a problem is not occurring, but people often fail to notice because they’re looking for the problem. Once identified, exceptions can be used to do more of whatever it is that makes the difference.

“You said that Jake and Karen always argue when you put them to work together. Can you recall a time when they didn’t argue? ….. What was different?”

Asking “What else? “

The richer the detail, the more powerful the picture and the more resourceful the person will feel.

“If you were better prepared, you’d be feeling a lot more confident about giving the presentation. What else would you be noticing?”

Compliments

Compliments are a key part of SF. Validating what the person is already doing well and acknowledging their efforts encourages them to continue.

“You’ve clearly made considerable efforts to improve the relationship with this demanding customer, yet they’re still complaining. I think that’s required a lot of resilience from you; it can’t have been easy”.

Conclusion

Once people articulate things in positive future focused language, they start to make improvements almost immediately. Whilst learning from mistakes is useful, often knowing what to do next is more helpful than knowing what you did wrong before.

Like athletes visualising themselves first at the finishing post, taking a Solution Focused approach energises, motivates and makes the vision seem attainable. And as Henry Ford is credited with saying, “If you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re probably right!”.

If this approach is new to you and you decide to try it out, I would love to get your feedback.

www.aspey.com

Linda@aspey.com

Filed under: Uncategorized by Jim McLaughlin
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Like many businesses you have probably had an online presence for a few years now  but are  you
getting the most out of your website or is it time for a revisit? A few simple changes could
dramatically improve the traffic to your website – and hence your potential revenue.       

The answer lies in Search Engine Optimisation. Although the technicalities of SEO
are outside the scope of this article, there are a few key ways in which you can
improve the effectiveness of your web content.

Keywords
Most people are aware of the importance of including keywords into web content but too many companies make the mistake of trying to shoehorn as many as they can in here, there and everywhere – which only serves to dilute the overall SEO effectiveness. Ideally there should be one (or two similar) keyword phrases allocated per unique page. These should then be reflected both in the page title and the content.

Content
It may be well-worn but the old adage that “Content is King” still holds today. In order to be recognised by the search engines as an authority for your product/service it is essential that your website contains a large amount of relevant and original content – the more pages the better but quality should not be sacrificed for quantity. It could be that your site just needs ‘padding out’ with a few additional carefully chosen pages (each of which could target a keyword phrase currently not being addressed).

Updates
The simple fact is that search engines don’t like static sites. It is therefore important to keep your content fresh and regularly updated with new content, for example, press releases, news stories or diary dates. The added benefit of this is that you are also giving visitors a reason to return often to your website to check out what’s new.

Solution
One easy way to address all of the above issues is the ‘added value’ benefit of including articles or blogs on your website. These will not only help keep your site dynamic but will also improve its chances of being ranked by Google et al through the ongoing addition of more content.

In short, the success of your website is largely dependent on both the amount and quality of the content, which should be optimised with appropriate keywords where possible. It’s not rocket science – a few small tweaks may be all that is required to ensure your site works hard for you.

By Geraldine Jones
www.everywordcounts.co.uk

Filed under: Marketing by Jim McLaughlin
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In the December Newsletter we looked at the importance of defining objectives and segmenting
the market. In this edition we cover proposition development for the planned campaign and the
issue of ensuring you have relevant collateral that can be sent out to reinforce the callers’ messages and develop the conversation to the next stage.
 

Step 3 

Develop a proposition tailored to the segment you’re targeting – this is NOT your generic corporate proposition

Many campaigns fail because the proposition is based on a bland corporate proposition, like ‘We are a global provider offering an award-winning range of  corporate financial services to a customer base that includes 75% of Fortune 500 companies’.

To achieve the immediate impact required on the phone you need a proposition that demonstrates:

• A clear understanding of the need of the target individual and the pain they may be experiencing
• A clear exposition of the benefits your product/service offers to that individual – not only to their organisation

The proposition needs to be articulated ideally in 2, or at most 3 paragraphs. Remember that the caller has a very limited window of opportunity. Don’t expect them to make the sale at this stage – their role is to initiate a conversation and take it to the next stage.

Step 4

Ensure you have collateral that is relevant available to support the campaign – this MAY NOT be your existing marketing collateral

Once the calling campaign is underway it’s essential to be able to follow up calls with an email, ideally supported by a piece of collateral.

This is similar to the issue outlined above on proposition development. A 10-page corporate brochure typically doesn’t cut the mustard. The ideal document is a single page (maximum 3 pages) that
 
• has a topical hook
• highlights the issue that the target individual faces
• outlines the benefits you can offer them
• includes a call to action 

The piece will be sent to everyone who requests more information and also (subject to the availability of an email address) to those you are unable to reach on the phone).

Next time we’ll look at the value (or otherwise) of starting a campaign with a mailing piece and the importance of ensuring that the caller has relevant experience to enable them to engage the target individuals in meaningful conversation.

Filed under: Marketing, Telemarketing by Jim McLaughlin
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Ever met someone in business who has the ability to light up a room, to command attention, to convey gravitas, and make people want to talk with or listen to them? 
Presence – or charisma – is an intriguing quality that some people seem to have naturally. They tend to be better at influencing, at forming relationships, at being remembered – all critical components of personal and business success.
And yet “presence” can also be learned, with increased awareness and practise. Here are 10 ways to develop your presence.

1. Observe people you think of as having “Presence”. How do they engage with you? What do they say and do?    How do they dress, sit, walk and gesture?

2. Get feedback from people you genuinely trust – ask them about your presence and impact and what you could work on.

3. Take a presentation or media skills course, see an image consultant, join a choir, join Toastmasters or get into Am Dram. Presence starts with inner confidence and all of these will help to build yours.  You’ll get invaluable feedback if you are open to it.

4. Be real with people. Authenticity is key to having presence – being genuinely interested in people and their lives, and being honest about yourself, to an appropriate level.

5. Be mindful of your boundaries. People with presence generally know what behaviour is appropriate and when – such as being emotionally tuned in whilst not becoming overly emotional, or being composed when a crisis is happening, and not treating clients or subordinates as if they were your best mates from down the pub.

6. Develop your meeting leading skills. By developing your group management skills you’ll learn a great deal about presence and impact.

7. Work on your networking. Think of it as developing relationships, not about working a room. The more interactions you have with others, the more you’ll be developing your presence.

8. Read books on great leadership, presenting, confidence, communication, influencing etc.

9. Make reflection a habit. Keep a diary of when you felt your presence showed and when it did not – what were your learnings?

10. Work with a leadership coach who can help you by supporting, challenging and inspiring you to be the very best you can be!

Filed under: Personal skills, Selling by Jim McLaughlin
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In sales and marketing, using the humble telephone to reach and sustain contact with senior management has always been a headache. But how much considerationhas been given by senior  management themselves to the potential of the phone to create new opportunitiesand develop existing ones. David Festenstein examines the communication potential of the ubiquitous phone.

It is yet another busy day at the office and your phone rings. Your PA isn’t there so you pick up the phone. This unknown caller is promoting a new concept and normally you would take the first opportunity to end the call. This time, however, you chose to listen. Why? Unlike other calls that get through, this person has taken the time to find out about you and your business. You also find that their communication style is respectful and engaging.
You want to find out more and agree to a meeting. For the caller this is a formidable business outcome, as not only
are you a decision maker but you have access to a valuable network of contacts, which could be of greater value to them with their innovative concept. But to what extent are you using the phone to get the business outcomes you want? Or are you using it as an ad hoc communication device? The fact is that senior managers, as the sought after targets of speculative phone calls, rarely consider how they could put themselves on the ‘other end’ of the phone.

WHAT ARE THE OBVIOUS BENEFITS OF GREATER USE?

Making greater use of the telephone has positive spin-offs:
• Its ease of use creates more opportunities to initiate new high level contacts and develop existing ones
• It saves time and money by reducing the number of face-to-face meetings
• It can achieve outcomes quicker and more easily precisely because it is more business like and less personal than a    face-to-face meeting
• They can reach the person you need to speak to directly and cut through the morass of email traffic that now dominates much of people’s working days.
• In short, it has much of the advantages of email and face-to-face, with fewer of the disadvantages.

 THE EASY FIRST STEPS

 Think about calls that have made an impact on you and why they have been different.
Now think about the person that you want to influence. What is their communication style like? If you break down style into voice tone, speed, energy, volume, as well as their language structure, how will you need to modify your style so it’s like theirs, and so that they will find you engaging and be prepared to really listen? Step into their shoes for a moment, would you be convinced by what you are saying?If you do not already do this, plan and structure your calls so that you can be clear about the outcomes you want. A mind map is a good way to do this as you can see all the possible routes the call can take.

Many senior people dislike the phone as a communication medium. “I much prefer face-to-face,” is the common cry.
They complain that it makes them feel uncomfortable in some way and they use it as little as possible. Consider
how your business day, and that of your organisation, would change if you were to extend the use of the phone.
What freedom and efficiency would it bring?

HOW DO I PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE?

 • Be curious and ask yourself questions about what you really want and can gain from the call
• Always start a conversation about the other person and their business. As the focus is on them, their voice tone
   tends to be more responsive and hence makes us feel more comfortable.
• If it is a new business development call, a referral or even a conversation you can allude to that you have
  had with an executive PA, confirming their role and responsibility, can make you feel more comfortable as you are  not such an ‘outsider’.
• How you feel about making a challenging telephone call will depend on your energy level and how you feel.

You can improve how you feel in several simple ways: 

• taking some form of exercise
• thinking about previous successful calls or events – having certain photographs ready at hand is a good way to do this
• listening to appropriate pieces of music or replaying them in your head
• speaking or writing an email to a friend or colleague

Second, look into how much time and cost can be saved by the implementation of telephone meetings to drive towards basic business outcomes.

 Third, decide how much headway would you make against your competition by making a stronger impact over the phone.

Fourth, if individuals paid particular attention to how they communicate with others over the phone, how could
this potentially improve the success rate of projects overall in the organisation?

This is just the start of learning how to use the phone more effectively and they are all elementary points. Yet
they are often neglected: it’s just a question of putting them into practice and enjoying the benefits they bring.

By David Festenstein

david@teleopen.com

Originally published in Spectra the journal of the MCA • Winter 2004

Filed under: Personal skills, Selling, Telemarketing by Jim McLaughlin
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HAVE you noticed that, time and time again, the issue of getting new work comes up in discussions
amongst independent consultants. Some are lucky to get all their work from referrals, or just contracts that are simply renewed, but relying on these sources alone can make us victims of the feast and famine cycle.

The second issue is to do with making our approach less cold and, in doing this, making ourselves feel more comfortable about these initial approaches. In order to make new business contacts, it is important to understand how people engage, or establish rapport, with one another. I often use an analogy of two strangers at a party. Rapport will be established more effectively and rapidly if each stranger takes an interest in the other person, rather than talking about themselves.

I find the same is true in a business context. Companies, or indeed individuals, often make the mistake of delivering a
pitch on their product or service during their initial approach. The net effect is to leave the person on the receiving end of this very cold. Therefore, it makes a considerable difference if time is taken to carry out some research on the company or person you are calling before you pick up the phone. Then, your initial opening line should be about them and their business, and not your service offering. It makes an even bigger difference if, in some way, you can make a connection between their current business climate and some success you have had in a similar environment.

If you run through this process in your mind you will begin to see, hear and get a sense of a much more comfortable approach. The person who is being cold called. is likely to be more responsive because you have clearly taken the time to do your homework. Consequently, you can feel more comfortable. More importantly, having done your background research, you will have a better idea of whether the approach is likely to bring you business.

Need to feel warmer still? Call the PA of the Chairman of the company you want to approach. Find out the name of the Executive Director who is responsible for the part of the business you want to sell into. Then, when you are introducing yourself at the beginning of your call, you can refer to the conversation with their Chairman’s PA. Hierarchy plays a big part in organisations and you will probably find they will at least give you the time of day!

How do you know whether you are doing all this right? Check out your process and delivery using a telephone recorder. You may not be aware that, for every telephone conversation, the impact of the call is based on the delivery being five times as important as the content. So how well are you engaging with your prospects once you get hold of them? Do you need to modify your communication style to get better rapport with people who have very different styles from your own? Do you need to speed up your voice, slow it down, inject more energy, or increase the volume? Try making these adjustments and notice what a considerable difference it can make in building rapport.

So now you have a process to make you feel at least a little better about making those new business contacts. After all, if you follow through my points you have:

•     A valid business reason for contacting your target company
•     A referral or confirmation from the Chairman.s PA that the person you are contacting has overall  responsibility for the area of the business you want to sell into
•     A way of monitoring the success of your calls

With this process, new business development, or cold calling, will be less daunting. After all, you know that your target executive or company should be interested in what you have to offer and, above all, if you do win the business, you can be confident in doing a good job as you have already done your ground work.

By David Festenstein

david@teleopen.com

Filed under: Personal skills, Selling, Telemarketing by Jim McLaughlin
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EFFECT

Do we really know what sort of effect we are having in our sales role? We are talking here about the consequences of our actions. We cannot control everything in a sales situation – the economy, the current financial restrictions placed on a buyer, the past history with your business are all examples of things we cannot influence. We can however control the effect we produce in 2 key areas – the relationships we establish and develop and how we control the results of sales situations that form part of working life in sales.

Relationship effects

Part of building credibility with buyers is through educating and adding value. 92% of all respondees attempt to educate the customer. They do this in a whole host of different ways. Here are the top 10 ways in which, according to this survey, we educate customers:

-       demonstrating value
-       highlighting expertise
-       suggesting new ideas and solutions
-       demonstrations
-       explain technical issues / language
-       seminars/workshops/tasters
-       free services to help processes
-       introducing complementary services / products
-       benchmarking
-       introducing White papers, books, articles, reports

Situation effects

One of our first questions when we work with organisations is what is your sales process? It is amazing how many different answers we can get from individuals working within the same company. Interestingly in our survey 70% follow a distinctive and recognised sales process.

Of course we know the old cliché that salespeople are bad at administration and getting themselves organised. Brilliant salespeople know the value of preparation for all key sales tasks. We asked the question:

What preparation do you do before seeing/calling a new customer?

Here are the top 5 most popular responses:

Research organisation – understand company, background and key situational information, search online – 55% of respondees mentioned this

1. Research organisation – understand company, background and key situational information, search online – 55% of respondees mentioned this
2. Prepare client case studies
3. Plan a series of questions
4. Visualise successful outcome
5. Prepare agenda, objectives and get customer to participate in agreeing these

How does this chime with what you do? What could you do differently?

TRUST

If you think about the psychology behind selling, trustworthiness is of critical importance. Would you buy something of someone who you did not trust? Unlikely. And yet how do you guarantee that a customer / prospect will trust you? This is trickier to define. We would argue that trust comes from 3 core areas:

-       Competency (ability or skill)
-       Integrity (honest, sound, moral)
-       Benevolence (disposition to do good)

These three areas are highlighted in the research.

 Competency

We asked:

What are your key strengths as a sales person?

The 5 top answers were:

1. Listening
2. Building rapport and managing the relationship
3. Presenting & Persuading
4. Questioning
5. Gaining agreement

 Top salespeople recognise the importance of continuous improvement. 63 % choose to improve their skills with regular training, which has this sort of impact:

 -       Better techniques and planning process
 -       Up-to-date with latest thinking and jargon
 -       Improved presentations
 -       More variety of techniques used to suit different customer types/social styles
 -       Reminder of the basics

 Integrity

 All customers are sorting for integrity. Do you demonstrate consistency with your promises, actions and behaviours?

 Interestingly 34% of respondees mentioned honesty and integrity as a core strength

 Benevolence

 So often it is the small things that matter. Tom, my business partner, spent 2 years chasing a client whose first order was for well over £20,000. He did this by constantly being benevolent. For example the client was interested in mentoring and he dropped around a manual on the subject for no charge. We occasionally do taster sessions to allow clients to identify what we can offer. Equally we always provide welcome packs for all new clients. They cost us less than £50 but are the sorts of benevolent actions that will build trust.

 Examples of benevolent actions identified by respondees included:

 -       Passing on a key contact and effecting an introduction
 -       Corporate hospitality
 -       Training internal people
 -       Help with positioning presentations internally
 -       Responding quickly and under promising and over delivering

We hope you have found this article interesting. You can find a fuller summary version of the survey on our website. If you able to review the book on Amazon, once you have bought it, we would be eternally grateful.

As you think about what we have covered in this article, what three actions are you going to take that will take you to the next level?

Jeremy Cassell/Tom Bird

(01903) 813897

jeremy@rtpc.co.uk

tom@rtpc.co.uk

www.brilliant-selling.com

Here are the details for those of you would like to buy a copy now:

Brilliant Selling: What the Best Sales People Know, Do and Say

by Jeremy Cassell & Tom Bird 

Filed under: Professional services, Selling, market research by Jim McLaughlin
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A one night stand requires a very different courtship from a lifelong marriage. The same goes for buying goods and services. A one-off product purchase is a different process from setting up an outsourcing relationship, which is a longer term and more complex relationship.

For a one-off purchase, the buyer will evaluate criteria such as price, features and lead time before making a selection. In outsourcing there is a far more complex list of factors to weigh up before signing a contract.

Price is important but is complex and difficult to pin down – the core service price might be competitive but what happens if the nature of the services required changes or if the volumes you need go up or down. In evaluating the quality of the services on offer, the customer also needs to consider the consequences of failure to meet the promised service level and what service credits might be on offer. There are also less tangible aspects to consider such as how well the cultures of the two companies work together and the level of commitment the provider has to your market in the medium to long term.

All this takes time, but committing the effort to properly evaluate vendors up front will lead to a more robust and sustainable relationship and reduce the likelihood of an early divorce.

By Eleanor Winn eleanorwinn@addisonelliott.co.uk

Eleanor’s profile can be found at

http://www.linkedin.com/in/eleanorwinn

Filed under: Marketing, Professional services by Jim McLaughlin
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Analysts believe that the companies that will benefit in the upswing are the ones who ask the difficult questions and respond appropriately. 
 
How do your customers rate your company and service, your value? What could you be doing to get more business from them? Do they think you care?

In my experience companies that don’t know the answers to these questions can’t develop the most effective strategies for Sales, Marketing and Product Development.
 
Most of the successful companies we work with have mechanisms to measure customer satisfaction, including:
 
• Surveys  both face-to-face and online
• Web tools including chat and email
• Feedback from sales and support staff
• User groups
• Customer forums  

What do you think? Are you targeting customer service where it will have the biggest impact? Or are you still spraying and praying? 

Filed under: Marketing, market research by Jim McLaughlin
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