by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage
In which we are reminded that one key to cross selling is understanding clients’ goals and destinations.
“I would like to buy some socks,” my friend said. He was just inside the entrance to a V E R Y nice men’s clothing store, responding to a sales person’s gently formal yet genuinely warm greeting.
“Ah, of course,” responded the sales person, authoritatively. “Socks. Follow me.”
by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage
In which we discover that starting conversations with strangers is easy if we can find common interests.
With the melody, “Rock My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham,” and the rhythmic clapping of a fully aroused, Boston opening night audience still ringing in my ears, I stood at the end of Row Q, waiting my turn to step into the aisle and leave the theater.
In the aisle, waiting his turn to move past me, stood an older man, perhaps in his early ’80s. In his prime, he would have been a little taller than me. Solidly built. I imagine he was probably quite athletic and terribly good looking. Now he was an older man in a wrinkled tan rain coat and blue blazer, his head bowed forward, slightly, almost resting, waiting patiently for a throng of dance patrons to move up the aisle.
“Are you uplifted?” I asked, looking at him.
He turned his face toward me, looking at me silently for a moment, as if gauging the source and the purpose of the question. I smiled at him, gently.
“Yes,” he said, with a thin smile. “I am…. I saw it Tuesday night, I’ve seen it tonight, and I’ll see it Saturday night.”
by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage
In which we are reminded to prepare a plan to finish our sales processes.
“So, are we going ahead, then?”
This question asked of me by Kyle, a bank residential mortgage specialist. I had called him for information about his bank’s lending procedures, closing costs, time frames, etc. etc. etc. and rates. I’d called him, specifically, because (1) I use one product from his bank and (2) their rates are among the best in the market at this point. My other option was to apply for the loan with Bob, a specialist who has assisted me with multiple refinancings during the 30 years I’ve lived in Massachusetts. His rates and terms weren’t quite as good. I’d called Bob first, then Kyle.
“So, are we going ahead, then?” Kyle had heard a pause – the slightest waffle in my voice as he finished sharing his information. I was feeling the impact of some loyalty to Bob. I was thinking, “I want to think about it.”
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 to focus first on relationship and value demonstration, then on the commissionable task.
On a spring afternoon long decades ago, we sat almost knee to knee in a hotel lobby after a sales and marketing conference we’d both attended. She, leaning back, almost lounging, on a hotel lobby couch. I, sitting on the edge of an arm chair, facing her, leaning forward. She reached into her purse, fished around, and pulled out a pencil.
“Sell me this.” Her eyes barely moved.
I looked at the pencil. It was a standard yellow wood #2 pencil that, in her hand, looked as big as a shovel.
“Come on,” she purred, extending her pencil-bearing hand toward me. “Sell me this pencil. It can be anything you want.”
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 follow our “broad” questions with very specific questions that tease out the detailed facts we need to propose value-based solutions.
With apologies to y’all in Texas and other states who haven’t had rain or grass for a couple of years:
I mowed our lawn on Saturday. Beautiful day for mowing, just a little bit of cool fall air with brilliant September sunshine. Thanks to recent rains and the fall dose of lime and fertilizer, our lawn is thickly green, punctuated with early fall leaves.
One small hitch in the giddy-up. The ride-on lawn mower we use for grass and leaves at this time of year features wide front and rear tires that matt down the grass so that the mower blades ride over the matted grass which can get pretty long, even when we’re mowing weekly. So, after we mow, we rake portions of the grass, teasing up the matted down long bits so that we can clip them with hand-clippers or mow them with the standard rotary mower.
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 encouraged to ask others to help us identify and correct old habits that hold us back.
From the “I can’t believe I’m going to tell you this story and you probably won’t either and there won’t be many secrets left after I tell you this one” department: for several decades, I have had a problem eating. Actually, I haven’t had a problem “eating,” as in chewing, swallowing, and enjoying the multiple benefits of a balanced diet. I had a problem getting food into my mouth reliably. (I can see my spouse and children rolling their eyes now.)
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….”
Over the years I’ve asked a lot of people what makes a great salesperson, and the answers are fairly predictable: passion; persistence; personality/likeability; planning; trustworthiness; strong work ethic; drive/initiative; quick learner; goal-oriented; good communications skills; sense of humor; humility; good timing; strong at building relationships; and follow-up (or as I say, the sale begins when the customer says yes).
My own answer is always the same:
by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage
In which we are reminded that the value we create in our sales conversations is proportional to the quality of the questions we ask and whose interests we are attempting to serve by asking them.
This is a story about a sales call. A very experienced, productive (among the top 25% of his sales force) commercial banker took me on a call to one of his customers. Since rates are low and many banks are urgently seeking to lend money, the lender wanted to refinance the company’s building which, today, is financed by another bank. The objective of the call was to gain the company’s agreement to consider a proposal for refinancing the building.
The lender opened the call by indicating he wanted to discuss refinancing the building, then worked through a series of “fact” questions (how much is outstanding on the existing loan, when is the maturity date of the current loan, how big is the balloon payment at the end, what’s your current interest rate, who’s your attorney, when do you want to close), then led the conversation as follows:
by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage
In which we are reminded that we need to market (attract attention) before we can sell.
Last Saturday morning, after early morning dark clouds and rain, I left my office in West Concord village to tackle Saturday morning errands. Turning left from my office drive way, I reached the first intersection, stopped to look both ways for traffic, and noticed…
People on the sidewalks, both sides of the main street, huddled around tables, kibbitzing in clumps, as far as the eye could see. “Huh,” I thought, feeling curious. “I wonder what THAT’S about….”
by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage
In which we are reminded that our clients make decisions to change based on a broader set of factors than cost savings and that, sometimes, cost savings isn’t even first on the list.
I answered the ringing phone at 5:15 pm. Every sales rep’s dream, right? Get to the senior executive after 5:00, when the gatekeeper is gone? The sales rep at the other end of the line, Jamie, sounded a little startled to hear my voice.
Jamie: “Mr. Miller?”
Me: “Yes.”
Jamie: “Um…er… This is Jamie Enders at Vital Communications. I’ve been speaking with your assistant, Carla.”
Me: “Yes, I’m aware of your conversations.”
Jamie: “Oh, good. Well, I’d like to come in to meet with you for 20 minutes to show you how we can save you money on your phone bill.” [This meant: "I haven't been able to convince Carla and I'm hoping I can persuade you."]
by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage
In which we are reminded to sell the strengths we have rather than those we wish for.
On Saturday, I invested a day with my family and a few friends to join fellow citizens for some tornado relief. We drove west to a pretty Massachusetts town, a portion of which hard- hit by the early June tornados. We became “Team 5,” assigned to assist a homeowner clear her property.
If you looked at the overhead map of her street, you would see trees… acres of trees… so thick that no perennial flowers would grow. Her house sits close to the top of a hill on a street that the tornado apparently liked, for it crossed the Connecticut river and, moved straight up her street and over her hill.
