by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage

In which we are reminded to engage our clients on what’s top of mind for them right now rather than on what’s top of mind for us.

I live near Boston, Massachusetts.  The Red Sox are finished.  Winter is coming.  Around the Miller household, we are preparing our house and garden for the winter.  Storm windows hung up, hosta cut down, lime and fertilizer spread around. Early days, still, and we’re working our way through the list, week by week, toward the inevitable arrival of sharply colder temperatures and snow.

As a business owner, I’m feeling like I’m in the same position now – another economic winter is coming, and I need to prepare.

The news coming out of the Eurozone ranges from “not encouraging” on a good day to “frightening” on other days.  U.S. and foreign stock market heaves and rolls leave me sea sick as my investment values bounce up and down, almost carelessly. The political and regulatory environment in this country leaves me shaking my head.  Our clients’ outlooks for 2012 range from guarded optimism to bracing for a crash.

by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage

In which we are reminded that, to win in a competitive situation, we need to build our fan base inside our prospects’ organizations well before we make our move to sell.

The Boston Bruins (National Hockey League defending Stanley Cup champions this year) began their training camp last Friday.  The seventh (final) game of their 2011 Stanley Cup series against the Vancouver Canucks was electrifying hockey, whether one was rooting Bruins or Canucks, and Boston’s win at the end was a surprise because… .through the first six games, each team had won on its home ice,  the seventh was game was played in Vancouver, and, in the National Hockey League, home teams win 59% of the time. Home ice advantage.  Fifty-nine percent!

Shocked?  Well hang on. If you’re a National Basketball Association fan, home teams win 62.7% of the time.  Almost TWO THIRDS of the games are won by home teams.  Home court advantage. And it’s about the same in the WNBA as well. Amazing, eh?

by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage

In which we are reminded to clarify terms we don’t understand before presenting ideas.

One person’s golf is another person’s word play – meaning, I love a good pun as much as my golfing friends love a good drive or putt.  I love rough puns a lot more than my friends enjoy hitting balls into the tall grass.

Anyhoo, a couple of weeks ago, during the “warming up” stage of a conference call, a few of us on the line began fooling around with puns and plays on words we remembered hearing from our elementary school children.

One of the group offered:

Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, “Dam!”

The folks on the line guffawed appropriately.

Another offered:

by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage

In which we are reminded to step back and look for the broader picture before we pitch solution for the problem we’ve just heard.

Watching classroom sales training role-plays is a little like watching football teams practice without pads…  Low intensity.  Move through the motions.  Nobody trying too hard to take anyone else out.  Still, an observer can get a general sense of the team.  Essential tendencies shine through.

So, as I was watching and coaching this particular set of “pad-free practice role-plays,” I saw an essential tendency.  As the “sellers” in the role plays heard a bit of information that suggested a potential need for a product, they would say, almost reflexively, “if I could show you a way to…”  or “we have a product that would help you….”