Cementing the Sale

By Charine Brown

As a new business owner, I decided to support other new businesses whenever practicable. This has paid dividends in some areas, and caused headaches in others. Recently I felt it necessary to “fire” a supplier.

Before doing so, I decided to explain why I felt this business had not met my expectations. I took the time to write this because all too often in business, as in life, when people vote with their feet we never know why they walked out on us. I hope these points will help other new business owners also.

• When a customer comes back to you with the news that they have found your product or service somewhere else at a lower cost, don’t assume that you are being fired. You are being signaled that you haven't cemented the sale. A customer is "yours" when they are thoroughly committed to your product or service. Until then they are just going along with you until something better appears.
  
  
• Don't forget the paperwork. Ethical considerations aside, once you have a client's signature on paper you both can feel more secure about the terms of your relationship. If he or she is reluctant to sign, this is a tip that you have not yet won the sale and you need to find out why and reinforce the benefits your service will provide. Cement the sale.
  
  
• Ask questions. Never take for granted that your customer wants your product or that you have met your client's needs. You don't want to be blindsided.
  
  
• Keep in touch. I have had the same insurance broker for twenty years. She always returns my calls. When she hasn't been able to meet my needs within a week, she calls and keeps me posted. My impression of her business ethic is positive and professional – all because she keeps in touch.
  
  
• If you must break an appointment, break it before you're due to show up. Things happen. You are more likely to be forgiven if your client knows you value his or her time, too.
  
  
• Identify what the customer doesn't like about your service. You really need to know in order to effectively support your product and complete your sale.
  
  
• Last, don't give up easily. Just because someone is looking at better pricing, doesn't mean the competition has a lock on the deal. Some people buy for price, some for quality, some for location, some just because they were reassured they “wouldn’t regret it.”
  

When you ask questions, keep in touch, identify your customer's needs, and follow through your business will develop momentum and closing sales will become second nature.

Charine Brown has a background in teaching, advertising, sales and marketing. Recently, she turned her lifelong interest in sewing into a full-time business teaching. She instructs group classes through Joyce’s Sewing Shop in London (519)433-5344, and offers private lessons by appointment (519)685-4199, sewingsuccess@rogers.com.

Published in Networking Today, June 2004.

Is Success Hazardous to Your Health?

By Barbara Bartlein

The recent death of James Cantalupo, CEO of Mc Donald’s International, has cast new interest on the health of high level executives, especially those at the very top – the CEO’s. There have been a number of deaths and/or heart attacks of prominent executives in recent years. These include: Roberto Goizueta, chairman of Coca-Cola, Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s, Mike O’Callaghan, Chairman of the Las Vegas Sun, David Barry, CEO of Triangle Pharmaceuticals, and Pierre Bonelli, CEO of Bull. In addition, Michael Eisner, CEO of the Walt Disney CO had emergency heart bypass surgery in 1994.

CEO’s have long been identified as hard-working and driven personality types: Type “A’s” with a constant diet of stress, rich foods, and sedentary lifestyle. Though it may look a life of luxury for those looking in, it is often 80 hour work weeks, exhaustive travel, and demands on free time for charity and community events.

While anecdotal evidence has been around for years that the CEO title may be hazardous to your health, there is new evidence that this may be true. For the past nine months, a CT scanning company in Florida, BodyView, has been offering free CT scans to CEO’s as a marketing tool in hopes that others in the company will also want to pay $2200 for a scan.

According to BodyView, over 155 CEO’s have completed the scan. The findings indicate that 38% had evidence of coronary disease, 10% had serious coronary disease, and 6% needed immediate surgical intervention. This compares to just 6% with severe coronary disease for all men tested in this age group, according to James Stannard, BodyView’s managing director.

Some things you can do to protect you and the organization:

• Skip the fancy meals. Most are fat laden, rich foods in large portions. Instead, consider the advice of Ira Lipman, CEO of security guard company Guardsmark. Lipman, who underwent triple bypass surgery in 1996, faxes his “Culinary Likes and Dislikes” to hotels and conventions. The fax includes a long list of fruits, vegetables, and fish and omits red meat, eggs, and butter.
  
  
• Schedule the yearly physical. The only way to truly know your own physical status is through routine blood work and a cardio work up. Make sure you know your key numbers; i.e., total cholesterol, LDH/HDL, and triglycerides. Monitoring these values will give you a lot of information about your risks. Early intervention through medication and lifestyle changes can prevent problems from ever becoming clinical issues.
  
  
• Lighten up. Experts have long held the belief that Type A personalities had more heart disease and cardiovascular problems. But researches have identified, in recent years, that it is not the hard-driving aspects of personality that cause the problem. All personality types that harbor anger and hostility are more likely to develop heart disease. It is critical that you handle frustration and stress in a positive manner using humor and a healthy perspective. As Charles Bell of McDonald’s was quoted last fall, “I don’t get stressed. I give stress.”
  
  
• Put exercise on the calendar. If you don’t schedule and measure it, it won’t happen. Ira Lipman exercised at least one hour on a treadmill at 3.8 miles per hour a total of 245 days last year. How often did you? Schedule exercise right in your calendar and count miles, calories, or repetitions to make sure you stay on task. One half hour per day is a minimum.
  
  
• Have a succession plan. A sudden loss of a leader can paralyze an organization. Just ask Coca-Cola. They have yet to re-establish their top management team after the death of Chairman and CEO Roberto Goizueta in 1997. While no one likes to think about the possibility, failure to plan can damage a company’s image, performance and morale. Establish the succession team and groom future leaders. Make sure they have the experience needed to handle changes.
  

Remember, there is no point in working your way to the top unless you are around to enjoy the view.

Free e-mail newsletter. Sign up at www.barbbartlein.com

Barbara Bartlein is the PeoplePro™. She helps businesses sell more goods and services by developing people. She can be reached at 888-747-9953, by email at: barb@barbbartlein.com or visit her Web site at www.ThePeoplePro.com.

Published in Networking Today, June 2004.

Why Focus on Nutrition?

By Cindy Knight

Researchers have found that there is a link between diet and learning capabilities, behaviour problems, violence in the schools, children’s self-confidence, obesity, and even bedwetting. It’s shocking that something as simple as changes in a child’s diet can affect all these issues.

Most North American children get more than 25% of their calories from sugar – in soft drinks, desserts, candy, and many prepared and highly processed foods. In fact, the average North American school-aged child consumes a handful of sugar daily.

Sugar is considered a non-food because it creates vitamin and mineral imbalances, which create cravings for more sugar, which further adds to the vitamin and mineral imbalance. It also interferes with insulin production, a precursor to diabetes. It’s a never-ending circle until, or unless, the sugar intake is reduced by modifying the child’s diet to include fresh, natural foods.

But be aware…

The withdrawal symptoms involved in reducing sugar are as strong as those an adult experiences when trying to quit smoking, so your child will not want to stop eating chocolate every day, drinking pop, or sneaking that cookie as an after school snack. As a parent you can make this easier by involving your child in the preparation of healthy snacks, packing his lunch, and making sure your child has healthy foods throughout the day.

What we do today affects our health for many years to come. The health care of the future will focus on prevention…made possible by healthy eating habits.

Cindy Knight, RHN, CR. is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Certified Hand & Foot Reflexologist, Reiki Practitioner, Colour Therapist, and Mannatech Glyconutritional Supplement Distributor. Her company, Feel Better Therapies, provides a relaxing environment where every client can prolong their feeling of well-being. Cindy can be contacted at (519) 319-0096 or by email at cmknight@feelbettertherapies.com.

Published in Networking Today, June 2004.

10 Questions to Help You Grow Your Client Base in 2004

By Andrew Sobel

The first quarter is a good time to reflect on ways to grow your client base during the coming year. Here are 10 questions you should ask yourself as you plan how to make the remainder of this year a success:

1. What compelling ideas can you bring to your clients in 2004?

Clients frequently comment to me about how they can get virtually identical services from any of dozens of different providers, be they lawyers, consultants, bankers, or even corporate salesmen representing a product line – and that what can really distinguish someone is the ability to offer new ideas, new perspectives, or new information that helps them (the client) think differently about his or her issues. Are you content to do exactly the same thing, year after year, for your clients? If so, you may find that the professional-client bonds that tie you together are slowly and imperceptibly loosening. Think about which new – or perhaps reformulated and re-packaged – ideas can help your clients improve their businesses in 2004 AND distinguish you and your firm from the rest of the pack.

2. What "Core" relationships are you going to focus on developing this year?

In any given year, there are a handful of high-potential relationships you should focus on developing with individuals who are currently NOT clients. These "Core" relationships, for most of you, number between 5 and 25, depending on where you are in your career and the exact nature of your services. They should include not just individuals you would like to develop into clients, but also "catalysts," people who can introduce you to potential clients and help make deals happen, and "collaborators," who might be strategic partners to you. Some of these core relationships could be drawn from existing clients (e.g., an executive you need to get to know in order to position the next sale). You will still want to network widely, and keep in touch with a broad group of people (numbering perhaps in the hundreds) through holiday cards, publications, and so on. But for these high-potential Core Relationships, you'll do more. You'll make personal contact with these individuals several times during the year, send an article or book that corresponds to an important interest they may have, invest to learn more about them as individuals, become educated about their business interests and issues, and in general identify ways to add value to them. Make this list – now – and design a program of core relationship-building activities that you can commit to. The dividends will be huge.

3. Do your relationships reduce uncertainty for your clients?

Despite the inexorable commoditization of most services, many clients still gravitate toward professionals/firms with whom they have a trusted, personal relationship. A strong relationship provides many benefits, but one of the most important, for the client, is risk reduction. Do your relationships reduce uncertainty for your clients? In essence, I'm asking "Do you REALLY have a deep, trusted relationship with this client?" Here are some of the "risk-reducing" characteristics you should check for in each of your key relationships:

• There is strong personal and professional trust.
• There is mutual personal knowledge that helps each of you predict how the other will act under different circumstances.
• Your clients recognize what you're really, truly good at.
• Your clients are willing to consider using you/your firm for other types of services based on a belief in the high quality of your judgment and in the certainty that you and your firm will always deliver.
• Your clients recognize that the risk and potential additional cost of using a competitor instead of you is just not worth it!

4. Are you clear about whom you do and do not want as a client?

Knowing which clients are right for you, and having the discipline to turn down those who aren't, can really unlock the growth of your business – especially if you're small. Remember that you become what you sell. When you say, "yes" to a client, your business mix – for better or for worse – inexorably shifts in a particular direction. Be sure it's a consciously engineered direction rather than one you stumble onto.

5. What are you going to do this year to ensure that clients call YOU?

Put another way: What's your personal marketing plan look like for 2004? Notice that I said "personal" not "company." Even for the largest firms that spend heavily on brand advertising, the ultimate foundation of a corporate brand for a services company is the reputation of the individual professionals that it employs. So you need to constantly work on creating reasons for clients to call YOU. Once they do, you'll have plenty of opportunity to represent your organization's full institutional capabilities as opposed to just your own competencies. There are dozens of ways to create this "client pull," and each of you will mix and match them based on what you're good at and are comfortable with. For some (like myself), publishing articles or books will be a key element of personal marketing; for others, the emphasis may be on face-to-face networking at key conferences.

6. Are you prepared to go beyond the letter of your contracts and provide core value, surprise value, and personal value?

Clients can get "deliverables" – core value – from anybody. Are you willing to invest the time to be able to offer surprise value – insights about your client's organization and business that go beyond the specific services you're delivering? Are you getting to know your client well enough as a person so that you understand what he or she may benefit from on a personal level? (One client, for example, may want to learn more about your methodologies; another might be more interested in a valuable, personal introduction you can make for her.) Remember: it's when you consistently provide all three types of value – core, surprise, and personal – that you truly stand out in your clients' eyes.

7. Do you have a mentor, and are you taking opportunities to mentor others?

Those of you who have been fortunate enough to have mentors in your careers know how powerful such influences can be. Sometimes, it doesn't happen naturally that we have a mentor, and in such cases we need to be more assertive about seeking out advice. Some authors suggest creating a personal "board of directors," which may work well for some but for others (including myself) this seems overly formalistic and contrived. On the other hand, whom will YOU be mentoring in the coming year? In a larger organization, that's how you truly build a sustainable business.

8. Which established clients of yours will you ask for a reference or referral this year?

The final and most often unrealized phase of building your "relationship capital" is when your long-standing clients help you to geometrically multiply your influence. The most common and direct way of achieving this is by getting referrals. Asking a client for a referral may seem distasteful or embarrassing to you, but if you've done a great job for someone, why wouldn't she be delighted to refer you to someone else? There's a further benefit: when a client publicly states his opinion about you, it reinforces his belief enormously. Typically, a referee's enthusiasm for you will only grow over time.

9. Can you clearly communicate to clients how you can help them and their businesses GROW?

I'm not an economist, and even if I were I would probably be no better at forecasting the economy than the next man or woman on the street. However, it's clear that we are emerging from several years of preoccupation with cost-cutting to a renewed interest in growth, in the broadest possible terms: revenue growth, profit growth, growth in employee loyalty, growth in ethical behavior, growth in investments, and so on. You need to be able to communicate to your clients how your services fit into a growth agenda.

10. How and when will you bring some silence into your professional and personal life in 2004?

Most of the corporate executives and professionals I work with are overwhelmed with "noise" – constant demands on their time in the form of interminable meetings, a bottomless pit of emails, phones that never stop ringing, and piles of documents to read. Consciously creating more silence in your life can have enormous benefits for you and your clients. Let me give you just two examples:

• The research on creativity shows that our most fertile ideas come during a time of reflection and quiet after intensive work. Ask yourself honestly: Do you wish you had more reflection time to really think about your clients' and your own issues, and come up with innovative solutions and alternative ideas?

• Because most of us have a bit of the "expert for hire" mentality, we generally fill up any empty space in our client conversations with what are no doubt "interesting" opinions, findings, and facts. After all, we've got so many things to tell our clients! Instead, try leaving some space in your discussions – some moments of silence. It's highly unlikely that your clients will think you're stupid or have "run out of things to say." On the contrary: You'll come across as empathetic, reflective, and wise!

Create more silence in your life this year – it will pay dividends in unexpected ways!

Andrew Sobel is the leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client and customer loyalty. He is coauthor of Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Development Breakthrough Relationships (Simon & Schuster). He can be reached at (505) 982-0211 or by e-mail at andrew@andrewsobel.com www.andrewsobel.com Published in Networking Today, June 2004.

Living a Legacy or Living a Résumé

By Janet Christensen

As a Passion Map facilitator, I have the opportunity to work with a variety of people. As I guide each person in the art of discovering, accessing, and bringing to life what he or she loves most, I am inspired by each person's brilliance that is revealed through this experience. I consider myself to be most fortunate to do work that I truly love and be inspired every day.

I recently completed a Passion Map with a young man in his mid-twenties and it is with his permission that I write this article. This rather quiet young man has a good education and is searching for his career niche, which was his motivation for doing a Passion Map. What was obvious throughout our sessions together were his strong values and his commitment to creating the life that he wants to live, rather than following the prescribed path. He wants success on his terms, because he is clear on what success means to him. One of his measurements of success is living a legacy, not living a résumé.

What does this mean: living a legacy, not living a résumé?

It means making choices that are in alignment with your values. It means being clear on who you are and what you stand for. It means doing what is important, because it is important to you. It means creating a life that has value for you and that you will be proud to look back upon. It means having the courage to say “no thank you” to things that, while they may look good on a résumé, are not what you want to be doing, or that do not make good use of your abilities and passions.

At a relatively young age, this individual has figured out what Abraham Lincoln was referring to when he said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.”

Many people continue to live their lives making choices based on what they think is expected of them, or because it will look good on a résumé. We get a myriad of helpful information and advice from well meaning people, not all of which is solicited, and rather than having our choices become clearer, we may become confused. Just who knows best and who do we please? And, what is the ideal life résumé supposed to look like? Meanwhile, we may sacrifice what is truly important to us, missing the opportunity to really shine at something and feel great in the process. When it comes down to it, knowing our values and passions, and having the courage to make choices that are in alignment with them, leads us to live our legacy.

I look forward to witnessing how this young man's life unfolds as he chooses to live his legacy and not just a résumé. I am confident that a wonderful caring leader is emerging, who will not only look back with pride and satisfaction on his life, but he will have made a very positive difference in the lives of many others on his journey.

Janet Christensen’s passion is to empower people to live their full potential. Through her company, Unlimiting Potential, she provides personal coaching, experiential workshops, inspirational speaking, and is a Reiki practitioner. To contact Janet, phone: (519) 434-5397 fax: (519) 434-8344 or email info@janetchristensen.com www.janetchristensen.com Published in Networking Today, June 2004

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Getting Maximum Value from the Six Touch Points of Communications

By Nancy Friedman

Are you aware of all the 6-touch points of communications? The 6 ways you can enhance or foul up a business or a personal relationship? You should be familiar with them all. Let’s go over each point...because throughout the day, both in business and our home life, we all have the ability to "touch" people in a variety of ways. And with each point there are pros and cons.

Here we go.

Touch Point #1: The phone

And not just your business or home phone. Your cell phone, too. Telephone Doctor surveys show that more than 80% of all business transactions involved a phone call at one point. The telephone is what’s known as a “synchronous” method of communication. And what that means is – you’re in sync with the person you’re communicating with. You can have a simultaneous two-way exchange of information. Both parties need to be communicating at the same time for maximum effectiveness.

That doesn't mean you need to agree with the person you’re talking with, but more importantly, you both are able to communicate immediately. The best part of the telephone touch point is the ability to hear the tone of voice being used. That stimulates the listener’s imagination – almost like the radio.

On the phone, we have no sight – just sound. And how we perceive those sounds makes a whole lot of difference. So tone of voice is critical with the first touch point. Two people can say the same thing to one person...and yet the listener can hear it differently from each.

All that being said, the telephone is a very effective and popular method of communication (providing you've reached your called party). Gets answers quickly. Responds rapidly. As you might imagine, this “touch point” is one of my personal favourites. (I don't even want caller ID – it takes all the fun out of a phone call.)

Touch Point #2: Email

Ah yes, the beloved email. Well, that’s "asynchronous." Meaning you communicate one-way information, one direction at a time. And you may not get immediate communication back. With email, you have relinquished interpretation of the tone of voice to the other person. What you write can be "heard" whatever way they want to hear it. This can be dangerous. Remember, email etiquette is new, however, suffice to say when we email something, it needs to be short, sweet, and to the point.

Plus, it needs to be obviously friendly. It’s a delivery method that has the ability to "sit" for hours...sometimes days without an answer.

When to meet rather than use email? A client of ours told us once, "When there are more than 2 emails on the same subject back and forth, it’s time for a face-to-face meeting." That’s easy to say for those of us who work in the same area; however, if your emails are international or even regional, your emails are your critical "touch point." Be careful in your emails. Many hurt feelings have come about due to insensitive writing. That’s a good place to practice all your “please and thank you’s.” Short, terse, one-word answers are perceived as "rude."

Touch Point #3: Voice Mail

Again, this is an "asynchronous" means of communication. You can leave a voice message for someone...and when you get an answer, if ever, is up to him or her...not you. And it’s not instantaneous, as is speaking with someone on the telephone. So here again, your voice mail needs to be special.

As we've said many times, there are 3 types of voice mails. Poor…average…and great. When you leave a voice mail, make it a great one. Remember, you get to use your tone of voice. That’s a real plus. Your listener can hear the laughter, the smile, and the tone. Use it to your advantage.

Touch Point #4: Snail Mail

Things like letters, brochures, or samples. These are some of the original forms of business communication and they continue to be a great method of communication. As is true with emails though, the written word can be miscommunicated easily. So email, voice mail, and snail mail are very similar when communicating. All are "asynchronous." You wait for an answer.

Touch Point #5: The Fax Machine

Remember when that method of communicating came on the scene? Seems we didn’t know how we operated without it. And today, it trails sadly behind the other touch points. Yet, it’s still there and being used. Just not as much or as often. And a reminder again, it is “asynchronous.” One-way information; waiting for an answer.

Touch Point #6: Face-to-Face Communications

Obviously this needs little, if any explanation. When we communicate in a face-to-face situation, we have it all. Sight, sound, tone of voice, facial expressions, body language – the entire package. Just like television. It’s the ultimate "synchronous" touch point.

Maintaining eye contact is key in this special touch point. Those that will not make eye contact while communicating with us are sometimes judged "suspicious." We suspect that they may be hiding something.

Beware, too, in a face-to-face situation that your head doesn't look as though it’s on a spindle. Focus on the person, or people, you’re talking with. They deserve your full attention. And you'll find you soon notice, when someone is talking with you if they’re concentrating on you and the topic...or if his eyes are wondering around looking elsewhere – anyplace but with you.

And yet, with all these touch points and helpful hints, we often still "miscommunicate." In our work place, we most probably use all 6 touch points many times a day. A few simple guidelines can help us focus on which touch point to use when. And how to make them work FOR us and not against us:

• Telephone: If you reach your called party...GREAT. That’s immediate. It’s also good for leaving messages – that don’t need an immediate answer. If you need immediate action, try to reach another person. The telephone is only “synchronous” when you have reached the called party.
  
  
• Voice Mail: That would be “asynchronous.” Leaving messages that will be returned when the called party decides to return it (if ever). Email: Again, one-way communication. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point. Use your manners. Remember, one word answers are perceived as rude.
  
  
• Courier: Still a great way to communicate. But be careful with the written word. Keep in mind how possible miscommunications might occur. More than once, words have come back to haunt the writer.
  
  
• Fax: For those that still use this method of communication, one pagers are appreciated. And again, written words needs to be checked and double-checked to be sure it won’t be misunderstood.
  
  
• Face-to-Face: The ultimate method of communication. Immediate reaction, tone, sight, sound, and body language. Total "SYNCHRONOUS" communication. And that hug or handshake makes it all worthwhile!
  

Nancy Friedman is a KEYNOTE speaker at chamber & association conferences and corporate gatherings. Call (314) 291-1012 for more information or visit the Telephone Doctor Web site at www.TelephoneDocotor.com

Published in Networking Today, June 2004.