Are we this predictable?
Just watched this video after seeing it on Todd Defren’s blog PR-Squared. http://www.pr-squared.com/
After I stopped laughing out loud through the entire two minutes I came to realize two critical points:
Is your marketing/sales-pitch/value proposition/web site/whatever interesting or unique in any way?
Is your marketing/sales-pitch/value proposition/web site/whatever so predictable that it can be made fun of like this take on the ‘news’?
Actually for many of us being interesting or relevant enough to be made fun of would be a victory over the stale, boring, and irrelevant stuff we mostly produce and lack interest we create.
If you are in sales and are stuck with a marketing group that bores your future customers to death making them someone else’s future customers then I challenge you to find a way to be memorable, interesting, and relevant.
Todd Hockenberry
Top Line Results - Orlando, FL
www.top-line-results.com
todd@top-line-results.com
Ever Think About Why You Ask Questions?
Here is my answer:
Yes and no. I don't think I ever ask the same questions the exact same way, but I do ask the same types of questions.
And one very important point, I try to elicit emotion from the customer as a result of my questions. Where is the pain, fear, hope, love - the goal being a solution from my company that addresses the emotional issue? Sometimes the result is that I cannot help them, something I am always on the lookout for. I try very hard not to oversell.
For example here are few areas I always try to uncover more detail about along with some sample questions:
1. If they are talking to me something is not right so....what is it and how did they get here. I am asking questions to find the gaps in expectations and reality so I can insert my services/proposal as the bridge. Up front I am not trying to get to root causes so much as to just identify the problem in a way that allows me to show them that I can get to the root causes - if they hire me.
2. What is working to gain them clients - this is a broad area but I focus them down on what specific efforts they are making that are working.
3. What is not working to gain them clients - where have they failed?
4. One of my favorites is "what happens if you do nothing/or don't hire me"? I want to understand the options they are considering so I can position my services as the best one/best ROI/highest probability of success etc...
5. I try to find out the personal stake my client has individually in the success or failure of the company and of the project. What are their personal drivers?
I have heard in my short time as a consultant:
"I want to retire and need someone in place to handle this.”
“I want a promotion and can't get it without growing the business.”
“I want to quit my job and start a new company and need a sales and distribution partner.”
“I want to grow my business and beat competitor x because I really hate them personally (not in these words but that is what he meant).”
“I need to grow my business because my family members are my biggest investors and I cannot let them down.”
In each case I am helping these people hit the goals stated in the proposal along with these unwritten emotional ones.
See this link for a post from consulting guru Alan Weiss about questions. I love that guy - I think his list is well organized, though I would ask some of the questions in a different way, he outlines nicely the questions you should be asking to get the info you need for most any proposal.
http://www.contrarianconsulting.com/101-questions-for-any-sales-situation/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+contrarianconsulting/alansblog+(Contrarian+Consulting)&utm_content=Google+Reader
Todd Hockenberry
Top Line Results - Orlando, FL
www.top-line-results.com
todd@top-line-results.com
Always Be Willing to Walk Away
I just finished Negotiation Boot Camp by Ed Brodow and the author claims the above cliché as his “law of negotiation” and names it as such. He calls it Brodow’s Law.
My point here is not to argue the merits of whether this is his law or someone else’s or no one’s – my fascination with his Law lies in the fact that he is repeating what everyone has already heard and knows to be true. Throw in some real world examples and some lists of tactics, and the result is a decent book on basic negotiation skills.
What do you know that you are not sharing? Do you have something you are good at or that works well for you? Who can you share it with?
What about your customers? What can you help them with?
Are you a good prospector for new leads? Share your secrets with you customers – they need more leads too!
Are you good at follow up? Share your time management tips and organizational tools with clients in a newsletter article.
Everyone that I know that reads this blog (thank you very much by the way) has a tremendous amount to offer – I challenge each of you to think differently about how you offer it.
You never know, maybe there is a Law waiting to be named after you.
Todd Hockenberry
Top Line Results - Orlando, FL
What matters to you?
Thankful
Here is a list of some of the things I am thankful for in relation to marketing, sales, customers, and being an entrepreneur — in addition to these things I am obviously supremely thankful for family, friends, faith and good fortune:
1. Partners who are a joy to work with, even though we get frustrated at times, and with whom I share the loftiest and best long term goals.
2. Customers who tolerate my mistakes because they appreciate the overall value I bring to the relationship.
3. Customers who demand a high level of value and expect results.
4. Customers who appreciate me and what I bring to them and to their business.
5. Future and current customers who ask me the tough questions I need to answer in order to be better at what I do.
6. Future and current customers who share the gory details of their business and themselves because the love and concern they have for their business exceeds their pride or arrogance of self.
7. The internet – instant knowledge, amazing connections, unlimited potential.
8. Florida – a place that seems to welcome business and entrepreneurs – at least I feel that way.
9. My laptop.
10. My new office – finally a place to call my own.
11. This time, right now, right here is the most amazing time to be alive – we have so many opportunities, so much going for us…I am thankful to have the chance to do what I want to do, to give what I want to give, and to share what I want to share.
Todd Hockenberry
Top Line Results - Orlando,FL
todd@top-line-results.com
Herding Cats, Six Year Old Boys, and Customers.
Jackson is my extremely active and excitable six year old son and I have the privilege of coaching his flag football team. During practice lastnight (after which I usually need to go home and have a stiff drink) I realized that these amazing and wonderful boys were a lot like customers in more ways than I could have imagined.
The boys know exactly what they want and do not care what you want. They want immediate rewards through playing and joking with the otherboys. Their reward is instant gratification — right now is what matters. They are not worried about the game Friday night or in improving their skills for some future team they may play on. It’s all about right now.
My agenda is not their agenda. As the coach I take the long view. I want to help them establish discipline, skill development, teamwork, and learning to enjoy the process of working hard and becoming successful.
It is very hard to get the boys to listen. Yelling at them not only does not work but annoys them and causes them to tune me out. It is hard for them to concentrate and to hear what you are saying amid all of the distractions around them.
The boys struggle with seeing the big picture and understanding their place on the field. They are in their own little world until something jolts them into consciousness of the greater game around them.
The boys have a hard time realizing the value coaches bring to the team. Why would they listen to me when they can have fun with their buddies? They also have a hard time seeing how they bring value to the team and how if they all work together they can accomplish a much larger goal.
Eventually these wonderful boys will mature and understand long term thinking, goal oriented action, discipline, teamwork, and self esteem rooted in accomplishment. My job is to help them a little bit along that road while having a lot of fun.
Your customers are proceeding along various paths – are you helping them at each stage and bringing the expertise to move their team forward?
Todd Hockenberry
Top Line Results - Orlando,FL
todd@top-line-results.com
7 Ways to Hear You What Your Customers Are Saying
Everyone wants to grow their top line, right? How many of you are talking to your customers on a regular basis? I mean really talking to them. Here are 7 ways to hear what they are saying.
1. Check out their posts on various social media. Oh, your customers are not participating on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blogs, of any one of the other social media outlets — wrong, they are using it; you are not putting in the effort to find them.
2. Offer a forum for them to talk to you on their terms. See above.
3. Give value through webinars or other online vehicles and ask them for feedback.
4. Call them and ask them about their business and listen– not try to sell them something. Make a plan and have a series of questions ready to ask. Find out how they are changing their buying processes to deal with changes in technology and economic conditions.
5. Read everything online about them. I am shocked at how few companies study their clients in depth and with regularity. Take them for granted at great peril.
6. Bring them into your planning process and let them tell you what they think or you product development or latest service offering BEFORE you try to sell it to them.
7. Show up on their doorstep (or at least meet them at trade shows or industry conferences – this may be the best reason to attend a show) and ask them to tell you how you are doing. I know this is time consuming and expensive but so is new customer acquisition. Don’t ever lose face-to-face touch with your customers.
Todd Hockenberry
Top Line Results - Orlando,FL
todd@top-line-results.com
So You Want To Grow Your Business
Everyone I talk to wants to
grow their business. After all the cost
cutting, and layoffs, and efficiency initiatives people are left with a core
team and not enough sales.
Our business is to help
companies grow top line revenue – hence the name Top Line Results.
Here is a 1st principle or
process step or whatever word you want to call it —— call your prospects back
right now! If you refuse to do this basic thing right why do you think you will ever grow your business.
How many of us call every
single person that called us back before the end of the day?
Do you respond to every
e-mail before the end of the day? At
least with a note saying ‘I received your message and will do whatever by a
certain time?
Do you go to trade shows
and wait for weeks to call back the people you met at the booth?
If you meet someone new
that could be a good networking contract do you respond with something of value
immediately?
I recently met a potential
networking partner for my business and at the conclusion of our 1st
meeting he left saying that he had to attend another meeting. Yet I received a follow up e-mail that was
both personal and full of additional value within 10 minutes of the end of our
meeting.
On the other end of the
spectrum we are trying to look at a new house and of course called the realtor
for an appointment to visit. She said we
would arrange a meeting for the next day and that she would call with a firm
time. Did she call back with a time?
No. Did she call back saying she
couldn’t get in touch with the owner and would try again tomorrow and that she
was sorry for the delay? No. I ended up
calling her 3 times and leaving a message.
Did she call me back? No.
If you are in the service
business you are in the relationship business.
I can’t wait to start working with the new business partner and can’t
but wonder if this particular realtor and realtors in general should just go
away.
Speaking of calling, does a
real live person answer your phone?
Everyone HATES the automated systems or haven’t you heard because you never asked your customers how they want to communicate with you?
Todd Hockenberry
Top Line Results - Orlando,
FL
todd@top-line-results.com
Your Customers Hate Your Policies
Have you ever flown on Southwest and enjoyed their policy for boarding? Southwest assigns a number to each person boarding A1 through C whatever. They then call passengers by groups A1-A30, A31-A61, B1-B30, and so on. There are no assigned seats so you line up by boarding number and then take whatever seat that you want when you get on the plane.
It never fails that I see people with a higher numbered boarding pass trying to board early and then wander around with a confused look on their faces when the ticket taker tells them to wait for their group to board. Others say that they are with so and so and want to sit next to them so they ask to board with the one with the earlier boarding number.
Personally I do not mind the procedure because I have flown enough that I get priority seating (the only perk on Southwest for flying a lot). Usually I get the exit row so I can use my laptop though I have had people try to save the exit row seats, which is against the policy, forcing me either to take another seat or just take the seat and invoke the ‘no saving seats’ policy. Not a great choice for me as the consumer.
Who is the policy aimed at helping, customers or gate agents? Does this policy maximize revenue for Southwest and if so at what cost? Do they lose customers due to the unique boarding procedure? I have heard businesspeople complain about it.
Challenge any of your customer facing policies and if they maximize your revenue then at least explain in a customer oriented way WHY it is a good policy for them.
Todd Hockenberry
Top Line Results - Orlando,FL
todd@top-line-results.com
The Best Salesman I Ever Knew
My 1st sales mentor, who sadly recently passed away (here’s one for you Dennis) was a salesman through and through. He didn’t need the internet or Powerpoint to make his case to a customer. He created an environment where people trusted him to have their best interests at heart. In the end he acted in such a way that all of his customers knew that he would never let them down or make them look bad for buying from his company.
He understood them first. He delivered value to them way before they ever spent a penny. He knew their company better than they did and the decision makers he knew even better. He knew his market and exactly what it was that they needed at the right time at the right price with the right specifications and presented it in the right way.
As a young sales engineer I accompanied Dennis to a Ford plant for a vendor meeting. The plant manager was a loud obnoxious and quite a profane guy that had 5,000 people working for him and 50,000 parts to put together correctly once a minute for 3 shifts, 5 days a week. I understood why he would use language and intimidation to get what he absolutely had to have out of the key vendors for his cars.
This manager would walk around the plant with about 50 people in tow and would verbally assault anyone that didn’t know their stuff and have the answers exactly when he wanted them when he wanted them. These people would wait nervously for their turn in the box while Dennis and I stood by, quietly smoking cigarettes, on the edge of the group (this was in the late 80’s so smoking was still very much ok in Detroit).
Eventually the plant manager got to us and I waited for the barrage to begin…..what we got from the plant manager was “Hey, Dennis, how you doin’?” and he walked away. Dennis gave me his great smile and I knew that he had figured out what the issues were ahead of time and made sure that the plant manager knew that the solutions were in place and that he had nothing to worry about.
Dennis knew his market, listened to them, delivered the value they wanted, how and when they wanted it, always. There are very few salespeople that can say they can do that.
I miss you Dennis my friend, I have never known a better salesman.
Todd Hockenberry
Top Line Results - Orlando,FL
todd@top-line-results.com
Bio Link
