Right FIT Sales Newsletter 180 – Margin of error, Logic and emotion, Icebreakers
GREG’S RIGHT FIT NEWSLETTER #180
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Quick notes to help you get more sales and marketing done in less time. . . next week.
In this issue:
– Techniques for FIT
– Being Human
– Random Stuff
Techniques for FIT
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- Early next week, when you’re in a meeting, break out the pen and paper and write down what you’re hearing. The physical act of writing activates something in our brains that aids in processing and memorizing information. It will help you later. Swear.
- Ever wonder about how to find FIT in a day? Trick question, there aren’t any shortcuts. It’s a process, not an event.
- Don’t worry about the perfect sales process or the exact rightlanguage. Do worry about the gap between what you know about how your prospects buy, and what you want to know about how they buy. Narrowing that gap is the key to finding a sales process that FITs.
- Safely assume your prospect organization’s decision process is separate from the content you ask them to make a decision on. If there are process differences within the organization it’s an indication they don’t have a set process, so focus on each step, the decision made in each step, and the person making that decision.
Being Human – Balancing logic and emotion
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“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” – Shakespeare, Macbeth
Macbeth’s quote comes to mind as I walk out of a client meeting. I don’t want to be too harsh on myself but as I grade my performance while walking to the truck, I don’t have much to be happy with. The presentation was very entertaining, felt great, but in the end I was unable to bring an intellectual rigor to the event and I know what that means – no chance at business. Before you think I’m trying to throw a pity party for myself, I need to tell you that I’m ok with it. Really.
When I’m with a new client, my job is to be warm and engaging enough to allow for a free flow of conversation, but that needs to be balanced with the ability to build a strong business case for the proposed solution. This client threw around big dollar amounts, but whenever I tried to drill into the numbers further, they backed off. It the sign of a trust issue, and my default response to building trust is to rely on emotional connections. It’s effective, but like Macbeth said, in the end it signifies nothing.
Your job in business development is to balance emotion and logic to help your client make a good decision. I’ll be back in this client’s office soon and we’ll try again. I’ll be trying to demonstrate I’m competent, I’m reliable, and since we’re still light on relationship I’ll do as much as I can to show that I’m in this for them and won’t propose a solution that doesn’t exactly meet their needs. Two parts logic, one part emotion until we can build a business case.
Sounds simple, but it’s not easy.
Random Stuff
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It’s not my bag, baby
I know a few things about myself and one is that group icebreaker activities cause my cynicism meter to spike. I have to catch my breath and try to stay in the moment because if I don’t, all I think about is sabotaging the exercise and that doesn’t help anyone. Heck, I used to run a training center so I know how important these exercises are but I still cringe when I see them on the schedule.
When I walk into the room and see the chairs arranged in a circle, my eyeballs want to roll straight to the back of my head but I stop myself. I asked for this. I want to learn more about learning to speed up knowledge transfer with clients. I compose myself, pick a chair, and prepare to jump in with both feet. The challenge is the question for the group is something I need to write out on paper and rehearse before delivering. It’s a version of the child’s game “2 truths and a lie” but we’re not telling stories this time, we’re giving personality traits. Like “my friends would say I’m [truth], and [lie], and [truth].”
The thing is, I’m a terrible liar. Especially in the heat of the moment. As they work around the circle, 80% of the people are really good at this. I’m wrong about almost all of them. When it comes to my turn, I panic. I start with the lie (which is only kind of a lie but who will know, right?) and before I get out one of my two truths, two people point at me saying, “Lie!”
I hate icebreakers.
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