Increase Sales Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Be the Red Jacket’

The current wildfires in Colorado within the USA are devastating everything from forests to wildlife to homes.  These uncontrolled acts of nature reminded me how uncontrolled business growth is very similar to a wildfire for these two reasons.

First, wildfires by their very essence are random.  This randomness reduces the ability to fight, control and monitor these acts of nature. Uncontrolled business growth is also difficult to work through especially if the organization is a small business and lacks the strategy,  structure, processes, incentives and people to deal with this challenge as detailed in the 5 Star Model for organizational development.

Second, because of the randomness, resources must be redirected from other critical projects.  For a business to operate a peak efficiency and effectiveness, requires proper allocation of all resources.  Unplanned growth reduces the overall operational effectiveness.

Uncontrolled by its very nature suggests the inability to manage it. When organizations face this type of business growth, this suggests that proper planning was not in place for this anticipated growth or there was a significant event beyond the forecasts within the existing strategic action plan that triggered the growth.  For example, production of the IPhones or IPads are two recent examples.

The ability to increase sales and reduce costs thereby growing the company is a good thing. However, when the growth is unplanned and affects the capacity of the business to carry out its day to day functions, this is a potential recipe for disaster. The end result may look more like the torched, blacken  ground after a wildfire instead of a thriving green forest.

To avoid this disaster requires the following:

• Vision – Where do you see your business in 3 to 5 years?
• Values – What business ethics will be demonstrated through everyone’s behaviors?
• Mission – What do we want to achieve by the end of the current financial year?
• Key Performance Indicators – What daily metrics will we use to ensure we are aware of current business activities?
• Critical Success Factors – What is necessary and sufficient to achieve our current mission
• Strategic plan – How do we coordinate the efforts between marketing, sales, customers, growth & innovation, leadership & management and financials?
• WAY SMART Goals – What specific long term, short term, tangible and intangible objectives do we need to achieve?
• Schedule – How often will we review this action plan?
• Course Corrections – How will we determine when we may need to change the plan?
• Research – What do our customers think of us?  What is happening within the marketplace?
• Assessments – How do we know we have the right people in the place? How do we know that everyone is rowing in the right direction?
• Alignment – How can we ensure that everything is working together like the gears of a clock for optimum performance?
• Communication – How do we share this information with all stakeholders?

By being proactive instead of reactive (fighting wildfires), any business can not only survive, but thrive. The challenge is investing the time to think strategically and then putting together a written plan of action with a commitment to work from that plan if you truly want to be the Red Jacket in a sea of gray suits.

To increase sales suggests you may need to stay ahead of the flow. To take this action may require you to invest some time to learning about where the flow is going.

Pew Research recently released in June of 2010 some interesting information about what Americans now view as a necessity or a luxury.  For example, 42% of Americans now view the television as a necessity.

Telephone landlines have also suffered since only 74% of American households have landlines and this is down from 97% in 2001. With cell phones and other types of mobile devices being so prevalent, some colleges and universities are removing landlines as well.

Savvy small business owners and sales professionals need to be aware of the trends in the marketplace. Then they must invest the time to think about how these trends may affect their potential customers (a.k.a. prospects) and their ability to increase sales. Ignoring the changing marketplace along with marketing  demographics and psychographics is a recipe for business disaster.

However the Internet allows for any enterprising small business owner, sales professional or even marketing consultant to continually monitor the flow through email notifications.  Several of my favorites include:

• Center for Media Post
• Google Alerts based on specific key words
• Smart Briefs

By becoming proactive and investing the time, avoiding business disaster is a little easier especially when you learn how to stay ahead of the flow.  This type of behavior will help you Be the Red jacket in the sea of gray suits.

Harris Poll just released a new survey about what U.S. adults want.  The results were interesting.

• 43% want to be rich
• 21% want to be thinner
• 14% want to be smarter
• 12% want to be younger

So if the majority of those polled want to be rich, then what is keeping them from achieving that goal? Maybe they are confusing wishing with wanting by hoping for a magic Genie to appear and rub the golden lamp?

Possibly by looking at sales research, this may help explain this gap between wishing and doing.

• 50% of all sales leads are left withering on the vine
• 90% of all sales are made after the third contact
• 20% of all sales people make four or more contacts

The answer appears to lie within each individual. Possibly why some fail to achieve what they want be it to be rich or to increase sales, may have to do with not learning some basic concepts to actually having some basic tools. For example how many people have a:

• Written action plan?
• Proven goal achievement process?
• Doable goal worksheet?
• Process or formula for sustainable results?
• System to keep the negative talk or self doubts at bay?
• Knowledge of their talents?

Being able to be rich or increase sales can happen provided you make it happen. When individuals take personal responsibility and accountability for their actions, then results will begin to be realized.

P.S. In my book, Be the Red jacket in the sea of gray suits, the Keys to Unlocking Sales Success, these issues of having a plan to understanding one’s talents are discussed along with providing additional resources.

Gary S. Hart in a recent post on his blog Sales DuJour discussed the lever that remove price from negotiations. In this posting, he shared an old story that my father told  me many years ago and one I had actually forgotten.

In price negotiations, sometimes it helps to understand that you can increase value by adding or removing some aspect and this may even include cash discounts or payment options. All of this actions do not affect the proposed price to be paid by the potential customer. (Sales Coaching Training Tip:  Read the Blue Ocean Strategy to understand the impact of adding, subtracting, increasing or decreasing.

However, given some information found in the Harvard Business Journal’s July 2010 issue, there appears something on the horizon that will compete with price and may even exceed price as an objection. That pending obstacle is time. (Read more in this past increase sales blog posting.

What this article suggests is customers (think qualified prospects) want two things within their buying experience:

1. The basics done well
2. The experience to be effortless

Time is behind these two desires because people do not have time for return trips to the vendor and they do not have additional time to waste in making their purchases. Today’s world is crazy busy and how well you address this factor will help you in your sales or selling  negotiations.

Time has always been present. Buyers want solutions and want those solutions to be time driven because they must focus on other priorities. There will always be those who want to negotiate price, but for many who are time constrained, how will your solutions work with those time constraints just may earn you the sale. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Learn how time now affects the sales process in Jill Konrath’s book – Snap Selling.

The investment (your price to your qualified prospect) will be important. Yet do not forget that time may be as John Miller suggests in his book, QBQ, the question (objection) behind the question (objection). By being aware of this potential obstacle allows you to be ahead of the flow to increase sales as well as to be the Red jacket in the sea of gray suits (all those other sales people).

Execution of the typical strategic business plan fails for a variety of reasons.  The two main reasons, from my experience, are:

1. Lack or poor of understanding what strategy is
2. Lack of simplicity when it comes to actually taking action

After reading an informative article on the Ten Tips to a Winning Business Plan, I realized once again these two factors are usually ignored in writing any business plan.

Strategy is defined differently by many people. However, in researching the origins of this word several years ago I learned it was from  the Greek word “stratçgos” and came from two different words.

What this word meant was for a General to defeat his enemies. In today’s context, it means for an organization to out think their competition allowing them to go just beyond surviving to truly thriving.

A well written strategic action plan requires an investment of time to conduct the necessary research specific to:

• Target audience specific to demographics and most importantly psychographics
• Market trends from local to national to international
• Thorough organizational analysis meaning how well can the firm handle the sales process from the beginning stages of marketing to the final stage of delivery and support of the products or services
• Employee capabilities
• Management capabilities
• Future growth and innovation
• Financial resources both current and future

Failure number two of simplicity is evidence by the sheer volume of pages found in many strategic business plans.  Yes research does require compilation and synthesis and this may be included as back up documentation within the Appendix, however it does not need to be part of the published document.

What is needed is just a one page business action plan from which to keep track of current primary goals.  This one page plan can be supported by auxiliary or supplemental one page goal driven plans.

Also there needs to be a goal achievement process reinforced with a goal setting worksheet or tool to keep everyone communicating, pardon the pun, on the same page. For without this small, but necessary tool, execution will probably fail.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Very few people ever learn how to consistently set and achieve their goals. This is proven by all the failed New Year Resolutions.

Having a written plan is always a good thing, but having one that is easily understood, that secures buy in from others through its simplicity and is goal driven is much better.  By taking this action, you can indeed be the Red Jacket in a sea of Gray Suits.

Another cold calling marketing message (sales letter) crossed cyberspace from a social media site.  This one at least used my name which one would think is obvious. However this cold calling message still left me with a these 3 chills.

Cold Calling Chill #1 – Failure to do research about your target market and qualifying your prospect or potential customer.  From the content of this marketing message, I can honestly say the author failed to do research about me and what I do.  She was soliciting me as a potential customer to her sales training. If she had invested a few moments, just Google my name, she would have learned her business and my business ADVANCED SYSTEMS generally provide similar services. Her website which I quickly checked out suggests her sales training practice is not geared toward other sales training or sales training coaching businesses.  Sales Coaching Tip:  Return to your strategic action plan and specifically to your marketing action plan.  Work from that written plan or make any course corrections if necessary.

Cold Calling Chill #2 – Only asking closed ended questions with a presumption that Yes means I am interested. Since she failed to do her homework, even though I answered yes to her questions, I still was not interested in connecting with her.  The use of only closed ended questions is probably not the best cold calling sales letter strategy.  These type of questions fail to excite the emotional receptors.  In many cases after asking close ended questions, the internal response by the prospect is Okay, So what?  Unless you have a compelling take action and becoming a fan or following someone on Twitter or Facebook is not compelling nor very powerful,  all your marketing message will do is to chill (turn off) the prospect.

Cold Calling Chill #3 – Providing no value in her marketing message.  Asking close ended questions as well as open ended ones are a great way to attract attention. However, they must have value to the intended recipient or your target market. When there is no value, the potentially qualified prospect or customer will not take action.

If you are using social media to connect with prospects or potential customers, then remember the AIDA model for effective marketing. This simple model has been around for a long time and is an easy way to avoid some of these cold calling chills.

• A - Attract attention and that should be positive attention because you want people to engage with you through some emotion
• I – Incite interest through connecting with those emotional receptors those being the senses of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting and feeling
• D - Develop desire by building upon those previous emotional connections because people make buying decisions first on emotion and then justified with logic
• A – Call to ACTION is required and that call must be both powerful and compelling

Social media is both a marketing platform and a message delivery vehicle. Sometimes this dual role confuses people and thus their attracting attention messages through cold calling invites (think sales letters) may chill their intended prospects.  By not making these three cold calling chill mistakes and applying the AIDA model, you can be the Red jacket, have success not to mention save yourself a lot of time because social media is truly not free.

With the expansion of the green movement, the 3 Rs of Reuse, Recycle and Reduce have become well known in the business world.  Yet, a recent marketing website that I happened upon suggested the 3Rs are happening within marketing and specifically branding. This site, 101 cliches, has identified the top 101 common graphics and accompanying text (including cliches) for those branding messages.

Cliches and analogies are the backbone of any branding efforts. Marketing firms charge big bucks to help struggling small business owners and entrepreneurs demonstrate their uniqueness through their creative efforts.  Businesses are then able to stand out or be the Red Jacket as I often call it.

However after revisiting this site, 101 Cliches, the author suggests that the 3Rs are far more prevalent than many realized in many of the so called branding and marketing campaigns. And that is not good for small businesses because they are becoming the gray suits and not the Red Jacket.

For example, the reuse of cliches and accompanying graphics are easily seen.  When these specific creative ideas catch on, then they become recycled, the second R.  Finally, through the reuse and recycling, the marketing firm or creative agency can reduce their costs and enhance their bottom line.The end result is the customer or client loses both a unique, creative,  branding message and the dollars invested.

Creativity is, I believe, a talent intelligence and can be developed by anyone. Unfortunately, some people due to negative conditioning believe that they can never be creative and thus resign themselves to the creative energy or not so creative energy of others. Additionally, small business owners believe in these marketing experts and resign themselves to listening to this sometimes very expensive advice because after all these folks know what they are doing.

When I wrote my book (be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales Success), the title (an analogy) is what drove the graphic. I then sent a rough and primitive sketch including colors to my marketing firm, Figment Creative Group and said “Make it pretty.” The individual responsible was able to in two efforts match his creative experience to my vision.

Creativity starts with words that convey your vision for your business or even yourself.  If you are having trouble, then possibly you may need to invest some additional time writing out (brainstorming) your vision using descriptive words. Sales Coaching Tip:  This is why having a vision statement within your strategic action plan is so critical.

Years ago when I started my business, I did have a challenge in designing the corporate logo for ADVANCED SYSTEMS.  Finally with the help of a graphic designer from Resource Associates Corporation, I was able to secure a unique logo.

The logo uses the letters of my company and the graphic in the middle represents a person in motion because what I do is to help people or organizations through change. Again,  I had a vision and the graphic person truly listened to the words within that vision.

If you are considering a marketing or branding campaign, just make sure you are receiving truly innovative results and not the tired and possibly false 3Rs of Reuse, Recycle and Reduce from creative efforts.

P.S. If a marketing firm engages in the 3Rs, what does that say about their values or business ethics?

The goal to increase sales is always present.  A recent article over at Salesopedia by Jim Meisenheimer Unconscious Selling Competence discussed the works of A. Maslow and his Learning Quadrant. My research suggested this was constructed by Thomas Gordon and was called Gordon’s Learning Ladder.

Regardless of the author (but I now need to engage in some additional research), the premise is that people walk through 4 stages of learning:

1. Unconscious incompetence – I do not know what I do not know
2. Conscious incompetence – I now know what I do not know
3. Conscious competence – I now know what I know
4. Unconscious competence – I now know what I know without thinking

To increase sales, the goal is to be unconsciously competent.  For this to happen goes beyond your own professional develo9pment and is truly about your business ethics.

People buy from people they know and trust. This suggests you must be authentic in all of your actions regardless if the other person is a possible customer.

When you have a clear articulated personal core values statement and you have invested the time to describe the behaviors associated with those values, then these behaviors should over time become part of your subconscious personality. When you met people, you do not think about being sincere, trustworthy, helpful, etc.  These values immediately are displayed.

Most people have met those sales professionals who will do anything, say anything to “close the deal.”  Also, we have probably encountered those salespersons who say all the right things, yet down deep inside of us we “sense” something is amiss.  Both of these types of selling professionals are probably operating under the fourth quadrant of being Unconsciously Competent however what is missing is positive business ethics.

Of course since both ethical and not so ethical people can be unconsciously competent when it comes to selling and achieving the goal to increase sales, this requires more diligence on the part of the buyer. And does suggest listening to that inner intuitive sense which some suggest is a talent intelligence for additional guidance.

Business ethics are not something one wears one day and discards the next. These behaviors are part of who you are each day.  Consistent demonstration of these unconscious competence behaviors will increase sales, improve your own credibility within the marketplace, allow you to be the Red Jacket and if you have a conscious provide you sleep filled nights.

If you could invest only 5-10 minutes a week to increase sales and your influence would you be willing to take that action?  Most people would say of course they would. And now maybe you are thinking what is the hitch? What are you trying to sell me?

First, I am not selling any product or service that will require you digging into your pocketbook or using your credit card. What I am suggesting is for you to revisit your values statement and think about how by walking your talk you can become invaluable as Jill Konrath shares in her book SNAP Selling.

All you must do is to write one favorable recommendation each week on LinkedIn.  Of course these must be authentic referrals and not just “quid pro quo” or “I wash your back you wash mine.”

For example, you know another business professional who goes out of his or her way for his or her customers.  You have interacted with him or her on a professional level and you even may be a customer.  What would it take, 5-10 minutes to write 50 words sharing your experiences with others.

Usually, you will receive an immediate acknowledgment from the person thanking you. Then somewhere down the calendar, this person may return the favor. However, your original purpose being the authentic and leader  you are is not to seek one in return, but to approach this from a giver’s gain philosophy as expressed by Dr. Ivan Misner.

As people visit the person you recommended they can read your referral. If they are potential centers of influence or even better yet potential customers, you have taken the first step in the sales process and that is attracting attention.  Then they may wish to be connected with you and that action transitions into the second step of building the relationship.  As Rome was not built over night neither are relationships or the demonstration of strong business ethics.

Since we live unfortunately in a society where negativity appears to be ever present, then why not make someone’s day and share a few kind and authentic words?  Who knows you may reap far more such as increase sales than you could have ever realized?

P.S. Does it not make more sense to be the Red jacket because you have demonstrated high business ethics than to be hanging with all those other gray suits?

Recently I came upon a story  (source unknown) about flaws (negative) and being believable.  Back in the mid 1980’s, an experiment was conducted by researchers at Cleveland State University with this startling discovery that flaws made a person more believable. What these researchers did was to create two made up job candidates by the names of David and John. Both resumes and reference letters were 100% identical except in one letter this statement was “Sometimes, John can be difficult to get along with.” The researchers showed the resumes and letters to numerous personnel directors.  The candidate who was overwhelmingly preferred was John because the criticism made the praise more believable.

In the sales process, being believable is quite important because people buy from people they know and trust. No one is perfect. Having flaws and being able to admit to those flaws reinforces that you are human.

How and when these flaws materialize is different for all salespersons.

One thing is that having flaws is different than being constantly engaged in negative behavior. Unfortunately sometimes people become confused between these two concepts.

No one likes and more important believe sales people who are consistently knocking the competition or always complaining about how bad business is or fellow employees. These negative behavior comments reflect a deep well of negative emotions.  And frankly who wants to be around someone like that?

Yet when a salesperson admits a mistake or even tells a potential client that he or she is not the best fit for the client only makes the person more believable and credible.  This is someone who others can relate to and probably want to know even better. To be the Red Jacket requires you to be different. And being honest by admitting your flaws may just help you to increase sales.