Independent Insolvency Advisory

In which we consider the advantages of introducing ourselves as our benefit rather than as our job description.

Each time I sat in his office,  his small bronzed desk plaque hissed at me, “Do not confuse effort with results.”  30 inches distant,  securely bolted, passive, dead center, front.   Whatever the topic, the plaque stripped the varnish away. “Let’s look… at what you’ve  d o n e.”
 
Segue to… a business gathering. You’re mingling with others. Someone turns to you and says, “Hello, I’m Fred Smith from Amoximated Company.  What do you do?”  You don’t know Fred, you don’t know what’s important to him or what he’s listening for. How do you respond?
 
With a result.  The desk plaque’s legacy.  You could say:
 
 
 (1) “Hello. Fred, I’m a senior relationship manageer at ABC Company based here in the city. I manage our major account relationships in the consumer packaging industry. I work with a team of people who bring expertise from several important financial and technical disciplines to help our clients manufacture more efficiently.”
 
or..
 
 (2) “Hello, Fred.  I work at ABC Company. I help consumer packaging companies reduce manufacturing costs five to ten percent.
 
 
The first one is an “EFFORT” description — a job title and job description, bland, passive, pablum. The second one is a RESULT – crisp, unapologetic, provocative. If Fred wants more discussion, the starting line is bold and clear.     He’s likely to ask, “How do you do that?”
 
Listen, next time you’re mixing with others. What do you hear? Effort or results?  “I sell office equipment. I’m a corporate banker. I’m an asset manager. I sell ball bearings.  I’m a senior accountant at Knight and Day.”  It’s all “effort” and job description. 
 
To stand out, focus on your results. The benefit statements of you. And, if you can’t prove quantitative results, focus on how you help others achieve them.  For example:  The qualitative result,  “I help business owners operate their companies more efficiently,” is stronger than the job description, “I’m a branch manager” or “I’m a Business Banker.”
 
Do not confuse them with your effort or your job title.  Focus on your results.

by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage

By J. Geoffrey Howard with Ryan Welsh, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP

With summer upon us, many employers are organizing workplace social events where alcohol may be permitted or even provided.  These events can be a great way to boost morale, but they can also expose employers to the following liabilities, unless steps are taken to reduce these risks.

“Social Host” Liability

Much like commercial hosts (bars, pubs etc.), employers owe a duty to their employees and third parties to monitor the consumption of alcohol at events where alcohol is served and must avoid providing alcohol to those who are intoxicated, where there is any risk of subsequent injury.  Otherwise, employers can be held liable for damage to property, injuries to their employees, and injuries to third parties such as passengers in a car or in other cars involved in an accident caused by the intoxicated employee.  The courts tend to hold employers to

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… in which we discuss the benefits of asking broader questions before we qualify someone for our products..It’s a small cafeteria. Solid food to the right. Salad to the left. Cashier at the end.
 
Running to an early morning project team meeting down the hall, two of us swept through, grabbing orange juices, bananas, and blueberry yogurts to sustain us. “Spoons,” my partner said. “Right,” I replied, looking left, right, and down. “Spoons.”
 
None in sight. “This is silly,” I thought, looking at counter tops. “They should be here.” Couldn’t see a one.
 
We found cafeteria staff. She pointed down to the counter that had been directly in front of us. I could see them, now that I’d backed up a few paces. Spoons. Full-sized spoons. BLACK spoons.
 
Well, I hadn’t been looking for full-sized BLACK spoons. I’d been looking for small, flimsy, white plastic spoons. I was right on top of the black spoons and I couldn’t see them while I was looking right at them.
 
We have this experience in sales calls, too. We’re moving so quickly and looking so intently for the specific needs we planned to address (white spoons) that we miss other possible opportunities or needs that we could sell or cross sell (black spoons).
 
One strategy to address this tendency is to start with ‘business’ questions rather than ‘product-qualification questions.’
 
Business questions are broad, survey questions. Product qualification questions tend to be very specific.
 
Suppose we’re selling printers and software. The just-looking-for-white-spoons “product qualification” questions would sound something like, “What kind of computers and software are you using” or “What kind of network are you operating” or “How do you currently print proposals?”
 
If we’re bankers, the product qualification just-looking-for-white-spoons questions could include “what checking accounts do you use” or “how do you use lines of credit to finance seasonal working capital?” or “how do you currently collect and process your accounts receivable?”
 
Broader business questions might include, “How has your business been evolving over the last couple of years” or “What sorts of challenges are you facing in supporting your customers” or “How have the changes in the economy affected your business?”
 
Questions like these broaden our vision a bit. We can, at least, see the black spoons or other spoons, whether or not we choose to pick them up.

by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage

In which we discuss (at some length) the importance of resonating with your prospects pain points when you’re approaching to begin conversation.

This is a story about a prospecting approach – a printing company approaching Clarity.

Imagine you’re me. (And, I’m not responsible for any psychological trauma that comes as a result of your imagining.) You run a consulting and training business, working with clients in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. Frequently, you deliver documents to your clients in multiple locations. For the “we can plan ahead” printing work, you use a printer with whom you’ve worked for a number of years.

For the “it’s midnight and we need it by breakfast time” work, your firm uses a printer whose locations frequently are close to the sites in which your materials are used. While they’re fast and located close to your client sites, they’re significantly more expensive than your regular guy, they foul up orders from time to time, and their web interface is a bit clunky, you think.

So, one morning, there appears the following email in your in-box:

Herbert Printing, Inc.

April 28, 2010

Dear Nick,

I’m writing with the hope of earning your business.

I am the Sales Manager at Herbert Printing and Graphics (check out our web site) and would very much like to speak with you to discuss how our company can save you time and money. We are in our 100th year, and are proud to say that our company continues to grow. We think that’s because we work extremely hard to form personal relationships with all our customers, and because we make it easy for you to order printing when and how you need it.

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