Three Steps to A More Successful Sales ProcessThere is a saying that gets circulated often…“Who calls anymore?”

The days of the cold sales call and door-to-door salesmen are long gone.

In fact, our prospects don’t even want to talk to someone until they are very close, if not completely, ready to make a purchase.

The sales process must evolve accordingly, of course. Now we create content to get found online and to inform that buyer. We insert ourselves into their purchase path with the answers to their questions. Your content moves that prospect through the sales funnel to a warm lead and then to qualified lead, and eventually to a buying customer.

Knowing this, the sales team is now dealing with a customer at the bottom of the sales funnel. Your content has qualified them to the point of the traditional "sales call." Now, they must be prepared for a very informed customer on the cusp of purchase, and be able to make the most of that final contact to be able to close the deal.

Three Steps to A More Successful Sales Process

Lynette Ryals provides some tips to do that in her recent article for Making the Most of Your Sales Call, in the Harvard Business Review. While she calls it out for B2B specifically, these tips apply to any business sector:

Our prospects are now more informed than ever before. They are armed with your information, as well as your competitors. The most important thing is to respect that knowledge and respect their time.

Provide content that gets them to the point where they want to buy from you. By the time they’ve reached your sales team, they are a qualified lead, and just need that final hand hold over the finish line to happiness ever after.

What do you think? Have you seen the shift in your industry?


Reframe Problems for a Positive OutcomeGolf can be a frustrating game. It’s been said, no matter how good you are, you can have great days and horrible days. When you start playing horribly, it seems to aggravate itself because the frustration increases and the level of play continues to degrade in a vicious cycle.

Sounds a lot like a bad day that starts with a missed train or traffic jam and just gets worse as the day progresses.

Both examples are part of a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you think you are playing horribly, you will continue to play horribly. If you are having a bad morning, you will continue to have a bad day.

People react to problems and unplanned mini-crises differently. Pessimistic thinkers see it as a problem while positive thinkers see it as a challenge.

Entrepreneurs and leaders encounter challenges on a daily basis, some larger than others.

Reframing the problem means you look at it from a different perspective to solve it.

Irwin Carasso, in an interview for Russell Bishop’s book Workarounds That Work: How to Conquer anything That Stands in Your Way At Work, said

“The very nature of labeling something as a problem automatically sets it up as a block to going forward... I always chose to look at problems more like puzzles and had fun finding a more creative way to deal with them.”

How to Reframe Problems for a Positive Outcome

It’s just like that bad golf game, or that bad morning when you got stuck in traffic. View it as an isolated incident, an obstacle which can be overcome with some creative problem-solving moving forward.

As an example, Carasso, the founder of an organic grocery store, discovered that his store was throwing away a lot of meat, poultry and produce, wasting thousands of dollars per week.

Rather than see this as a problem, he looked at is as a puzzle to solve. He decided to start a soup bar to use this meat and produce that was less than perfect and it was a huge hit, fulfilling a need of his customers, generating much more revenue, and reducing waste

Rebeca Hwang discusses reframing in her thought-provoking piece seeking happiness as an entrepreneur. Her advice to alter your outlook: Consider yourself inherently lucky.

A study was conducted between those who consider themselves lucky and those who don’t. It’s interesting to note that those who consider themselves lucky have the ability to focus on an issue without shutting down their peripheral vision and taking in other factors and concepts.

In other words, those who feel unlucky, or who have a more pessimistic outlook, tend to shut down and focus solely on the “problem” at hand. They miss out on opportunities to creatively piece the situation together to a positive outcome.

Leaders are leaders for a reason, climbers are climbers for a reason. Everyone chooses their own challenges and victories. Along the way, there may be self-doubt, second-guessing, and questioning but we do it for a reason; to succeed, and to achieve happiness.

Have you had the experience of reframing a problem? 


Four Rules for Effective DelegationA topic of conversation pretty frequently in my Vistage meetings is delegation. Business leaders of all sized companies ask, "How do I know when it’s time to give up something? How do I know what is the best use of my own time vs. someone else’s? How do I hand over tasks without feeling like it’s not going to get screwed up?"

It’s a conundrum. Most of us would love to delegate a good number of our day-to-day tasks. But it doesn’t always work out so well.

Ted Roden, founder and CEO of Fancy Hands, a personal-assistant service, says it’s partly our fault because we don’t give enough information when delegating.

How to Effectively Delegate

Here some ways he suggests for effective delegation:

And finally, never lose faith. As previously mentioned, delegating is very difficult to do. There is truly an art to it and will take some getting use to. Rough patches are to be expected, so just be sure to keep the lines of communication open and never be afraid to ask for help.

What tips do you have for effective delegation?


 

How To Avoid Your Own PR CrisisWhen we put ourselves out there on the internet, we open ourselves to the negative feedback. This is one of the biggest impediments for leaders getting on social networks; we don’t want to potentially stir the pot.

Well, putting our heads in the sand won’t work because those negative conversations are taking place anyway.

If you’re online for your own personal branding, there are some guidelines you can follow to help stay out of trouble.

How To Avoid Your Own PR Crisis

Sarah Skerik shared some ideas for protecting and avoiding being in your own PR crisis in social media.

Lastly, if you want to really stay away from a PR crisis, avoid the taboo conversations around religion, race, and politics. Just don’t go there.

What would you add?

Thanks to Star Group for the image.

How Auto Industry Leaders Can Turn Mistakes into OpportunitiesMistakes are a part of life, but we can benefit from our mistakes and make the most of them, or we can run from them pretending they never happened.

Forbes published an article on how the smartest people convert mistakes and obstacles into opportunities.

The author, Paul Brown, said, “People who succeed at work and in life treat everything they encounter – even if it is what you and I would call a mistake or a problem – as an opportunity.”

He offered three reasons for thinking this way:

The Good and Bad

You are going to find out eventually what people liked about your idea, and what they didn’t like. It’s better to learn sooner rather than later the good and bad about your product, before you sink any more money and/or resources into the idea.

Feedback

The feedback and market reaction could take you in a different direction or it could serve as a barrier to your competitors. Brown provides the example of an entrepreneur thinking of opening a restaurant, but a survey told him potential customers thought the area was already saturated. However, a few of said they would love a place that had a ready-to-go take out to heat up at home.  Since the entrepreneur was able to get feedback before opening the restaurant, he was able to avoid a mistake.

You Have Evidence

The feedback you receive provides you with evidence to get you ahead of the game. If someone else is thinking about doing something, such as opening a restaurant, you know something they don’t.

Mistakes Turned Into Opportunities

For instance, take a look at Coca-Cola.

Pharmacist John Pemberton was trying to come up with a headache cure and general pain reliever. He began work on beverage combining coca leaves and cola nuts, but when his lab assistant accidentally mixed the concoction with carbonated water; the two men tasted it, liked it, and decided they might make a profit on it. They invented the beverage that became known to the world as Coca-Cola in a backyard kettle. In other words, they turned their mistake into a profitable opportunity.

Another example is when Chrysler rebranded the Sebring as the Chrysler 200.

Chrysler was considered the U.S. automobile company most likely to collapse. They remained silent while Ford and GM tried to restore their images. They knew their ad needed to be different; something special that would make customers believe in Chrysler again and show they had a new and improved product.  They delivered in the 2011 Super Bowl ad. They offered something gritty, dark, and full of attitude. The ad is as much about Detroit as it is about the Chrysler 200. Their “Imported from Detroit” slogan resonated with an American audience who understood the trials of economic hardships. The ad gave people hope and Chrysler made the most of it. Chrysler saw some of its best sales months in 2011 since 2007.

We all make mistakes, but to move forward, we must learn from them. Take a page from the playbooks of Coca-Cola and Chrysler, and turn your mistakes into opportunities.

What’s the worst mistake you’ve made? Did you turn it into an opportunity?

image: plindberg 



How to Be Better at Creative ThinkingWhen do you do your best creative thinking? In the shower? During a run? While walking the dog?

While you’re sitting at your computer responding to emails and staff walking in and out of your office?

Right, odds are, the latter is not the case, which proves the point that getting away from your desk and your office is key to getting creative thinking done.

Interestingly, a study conducted by University of Pittsburgh and UC Santa Barbara called Lost in the Sauce shows that, according to CBS MoneyWatch, alcohol enhances creative thinking.

They divided the group into two, giving one a vodka/cranberry juice cocktail and the other a placebo.

Those with cocktails found solutions to a word puzzle faster while the others were more focused, but didn’t find the solution as easily or quickly.

If someone were able to find the solution to creative thinking and could bottle it up, they’d of course become very wealthy.

The truth of the matter is, it’s not something that can be outlined in six or eight steps. Also, having a drink isn’t an option for many for a variety of reasons.

So What Can hHelp Creative Thinking?

Neuroscientists have been trying to crack this nut for a long time. They now think creative thinking isn’t linear. Great ideas come from observations and knowledge of disconnected things. This might explain why having a cocktail which unleashes inhibitions, allows the mind to connect unrelated things, into great ideas. It might be where the whole idea on a cocktail napkin came from.

Most people sell themselves short thinking they aren’t “creative types.” Don’t listen to that voice in your head. There are few original ideas left, but only good curation of ideas. In other words, look for inspiration in other places and industries. Don’t copy, but take good ideas and see how they can be modified to fit your own needs or business model.

Ideas to Get the Creative Juices Flowing

Try starting your day off (or whatever time of day works best for you) with a cup of coffee and a notebook, in a quiet room and see what happens. It can be pretty magical.

When do you do your best thinking?

Thanks to Amazing Data for the image.



How to Be More Productive from Start-Up CEOsWhen we get distracted our productivity suffers. As business leaders, our email inboxes are overflowing and we sometimes have meetings from the time we start our day, until the time we end the day.

Inc. contributor Jessica Stillman,  came across a discussion on Q&A site Quora which shows how some high-profile start-up founders get a few more things on their to-do list done each day.

According to Stillman they use various tricks and tools to get more work done in less time and have some useful tips any business leader can use.

How to Be More Productive

Co-founder of Facebook and Asana, Dustin Moskovitz, says, “One of my favorite hacks is No Meeting Wednesdays, which we borrowed from Facebook.” Whether you are a manager or at the bottom of the totem pole, it ensures you have some uninterrupted time to work on a project.

Rob Fawson, founder of Staff.com and TimeDoctor.com says his favorite hack is Gmail Labs feature, Auto Advance. It automatically shows the next email when you archive the current email. He says, “This helps you keep to a zero inbox policy and prevents you from reading emails multiple times. It trains you to be much more productive with your emails.”

Founder and CEO of Inu, Gokul Nath Sridhar, suggests you leverage your time on the go. He says not to waste on-desk time.

He suggests:

Paul DeJoe, CEO at Ecquire.com, says he doesn’t have a Facebook account. It sounds simple enough, but it’s not practical for all of us. If you do have a social network profile and aren’t ready to quit it, try to manage your time instead. If you’re at work, don’t log on. Save it for down time.

Other advice included:

Even business leaders have productivity worries, but take these tips and put them to work for you.

How do you stay productive?



Rules To Shape Your StrategyAs business leaders we’re constantly shaping and re-shaping our strategies. We have to pay attention to the developments around the world in order for our companies to succeed because our strategies are intertwined with market forces that affect consumers and demand.

Mark Pollard wrote a theoretical blog post on how to shape strategies. He says, “The great thing about strategy-in-shapes is it makes your thinking look very deliberate, impossibly official, and crazy to mess with.”

The concepts he plays with the most are:

Strategy Rule No.1: Gather Information

First, bring together useful information about your brand, business objectives, products, competition, culture, and human behavior. Take a look at analytics, do keyword research and look for patterns, look at consumer reviews, and use qualitative research if available to you.

Strategy Rule No.2: Shape-Sprint

Pollard comes up with a few strategies based on the information he’s gathered. He says, “I tend to dig then sprint and let it all percolate…then repeat.” When putting strategies together he finds it useful to close the door and think, open it to share and debate, then close it to hone in.

Strategy Rule No.3: Rewrite Your Shapes and Collaborate

To shape a strong strategy, embrace strong, visual language. Pollard suggests taking your three favorite strategies and rewriting them 10 times each. Keep making them shorter and stronger, easy to understand. Bring your ideas to your team and collaborate with them. They may be able to offer you even better ideas to help execute your strategy.

Strategy Rule No.4: Get it Straight before Presenting

Pollard suggests taking the one or two strategies your team favors and writing stories around them. He says in the story, take someone on the journey you’ve just been on from the problem, to the twist, to the ‘what if we…?’, to the answer. This can help you put your thoughts together in a more direct way.

Determine the Shape of your Strategy

Set a clear direction for your company whether it’s cutting costs, expanding services, or improving infrastructure. If you have broad priorities, make clear guidelines your employees understand and can act upon.

According to this article on the HBR Blog Network by Donald Sull and Kathleen Eisenhardt, successful companies shape their high-level strategies by relying on simple rules of thumb.

In shaping strategies, Sull and Eisenhardt offer four simple rules to follow:

  1. Align activities with corporate objectives
  2. Adapt to local circumstances
  3. Foster coordination
  4. Make better decisions

Sull poses three questions to break down complex strategies into actionable steps:

  1. What are the key drivers of value creation?
  2. What are the three to five critical challenges if we overcome would ensure economic value?
  3. What are the must-win battles?

Sull says to translate corporate objectives into a few straightforward guidelines that help employees make on-the-spot decisions and adapt to constantly shifting environments, while keeping the big picture in mind. He also says, “For a strategy to influence action it must be remembered. To be remembered it must be understood. To be understood it must be simple.”

What techniques do you use to shape your strategy?



Overcome Fear: How Scared Leaders Still LeadWe all have different thresholds of fear in the business world. For some it could be something as simple as asking others for help. For others it could be launching a new product, starting a new business, or finding the right candidate for an open position.

Whatever the situation, as business leaders we still need to lead our team even when we’re scared. We talked a few months ago about reframing fear to overcome it. However, fear can be paralyzing.

Kevin Eikenberry wrote an interesting blog post providing tips to take to lead when you are scared. He says, as leaders it’s alright to be scared, but we can’t remain scared. We still need to lead no matter what the situation is. We can’t stop and do nothing, we need to take action and keep business running as usual.

Overcome Fear: How Scared Leaders Still Lead

The View is Scary

As a leader you are the one out front looking at the future for not only yourself, but your team and company. It’s important to know sometimes the view will cause fear.

Acknowledge Emotions

Acknowledge the emotions of your team and of yourself. Be open and honest with them about your feelings and recognize they may have negative feelings too.

Plan and Take Action

Regroup and decide on the next step. Focus on what to do and stop making excuses. Also, don’t forget to bring your team with you. Eikenberry says to provide support and encouragement, and remember there is safety in numbers.

Get Feedback and Keep Moving Forward

Momentum and action help alleviate stress and fear. Eikenberry says momentum and action is usually the path to success and progress.

Just because you are a leader doesn’t mean you never get scared. As business leaders, it’s in our nature to overcome most fears, however sometimes we find ourselves in uncharted waters. Try these tips to get through it and continue to lead your team to success.

What other advice would you add?



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