Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

Ask a colleague to define the customer and they will probably say ‘Someone who buys from us.’

What about internal customers? Colleagues, other departments, branches, suppliers? They are equally as important and deserve to have their problems and complaints taken seriously.

External customers sense if there is a good working atmosphere, a co-ordinated approach to customer service, teamwork, and high morale. It gives them confidence to stay with you.

Passing Blame
Why is it that when customers blame us for something going wrong we are quick to blame others, especially in big organisations?

‘We passed the order to stores weeks ago; I don’t know what they have done with it.’ (You know very well it’s still in your in-tray!)

Customers see through these feeble excuses and are not impressed!

Why do this?
• Stores are always making mistakes; attributing one more to them won’t make any difference
• There’s a particular person in Stores you don’t like
• No one will find out whether they are to blame are not
• They have blamed your department often enough
• They always beat your staff at the annual bowling challenge

Two Way Process
Lack of communication between departments is often cited as the reason for poor working relationships.

“They never tell us anything” is a frequent cry.

Communication is a two way process. The most efficient of systems will not be effective if people don’t read their messages, look at the notice boards, and log on to their computers, check their voice mail or pay attention at meetings.

Getting people to sign memos only provides proof of receipt, not of having read them. They need to want to know what’s going on.

Low morale and a critical and suspicious environment will prompt employees to see customers as a nuisance and not the lifeblood of the business. Every employee needs to appreciate that they contribute to customer satisfaction even if they are working behind the scenes, e.g. maintenance, cleaning, refuse collection, etc. They deserve to be kept informed!

Company Culture
Some departments pride themselves on being the most efficient, the best organised, the most responsive, and expect others to live up their standards and follow their procedures. This can foster resentment and lead to a refusal to co-operate. Frustration and conflict can cause bad feeling and a desire to sabotage. This often happens when an organisation has no clear vision or has not communicated one to the staff. Poor leadership or managers with their own agendas are other contributory factors.

Working in isolation, split site or satellite offices often result in an autonomous management with a workforce who want to do their ‘own thing’.

This has a negative effect on customer satisfaction. Customers become the victims of internal politics.

What’s it got to do with them?

Insecurity
Another cause of internal conflict is insecurity: downsizing, management restructuring, fast-talking business consultants, threat of job loss, short term contracts, all might trigger a loss of pride in the job and a couldn’t care less attitude. Customers become anxious and take their business elsewhere.

Insecurity manifests itself in a number of behaviours:
• Gossip and back-stabbing
• Shifting blame
• Anger, depression
• Increase in absences due to stress
• Constant moaning and whinging
• Negative thinking

In this environment it is likely that customer complaints will increase. It is essential to keep the customer at the centre of everything you do, no matter what is going on behind the scenes. - Without customers you don’t have a job.

Taking Action
Managers need to be very observant. Early identification of problems is the key to a successful solution.

Look out for:
• Deadlines not met
• Increase in illness
• Poor quality work
• Atmospheres
• Arguments

Action:
• Ask questions in a confidential manner
• Reassure, calm fears
• Praise, encourage
• Don’t blame or challenge
• Involve people
• Motivate, reward

Multi-Skilling & Interdepartmental Working
Conflict also arises through ignorance. Giving people the opportunity to learn about the work of others and equipping them with new skills, helps dispel fears, boost confidence, and motivate. It also takes people out of their enclosed worlds of Accounts or the Post room and gives them the bigger picture.

Many complaints arise because staff feel they are expected to do a job without any training. Allowing them to attend courses out of the workplace is very beneficial. It gives them the opportunity to network with others, revitalise their ideas and acquire new skills. Hopefully they’ll come back and think, ‘It’s not such a bad place after all’.

In any business, we are all customers of each other. Unless we get the internal customer service right it won’t extend naturally to external customers.

How can you do this?
• Have a positive attitude to your own work and that of your colleagues
• Help out when necessary

Remember you are all working to a common aim, customer satisfaction.

And Finally: Team Building
It isn’t necessary to take the workforce paint-balling in Sherwood Forest to ‘bond’, build trust or foster better working relationships.

Time away from the desk or shop floor to discuss issues in small groups, social evenings, and interdepartmental activities can be just as effective.

Everyone needs to understand their own worth and value to the company.

High self-esteem = reduction in conflict = better customer relations = more profitable business.

Today’s News: Over at Salesopedia the topic is “Sales Talk Tips” featuring fellow Top Sales Expert Colleen Francis - Colleen says “Top sales performers pay attention to the dialogue they have with their prospects. She provides tips on how to “share the love” in conversation by using softening statements, deploying echo techniques, creating space, and being honest but not brutal. Find out why you want to remove the word “I” from your conversation.” You can listen in here

 Tomorrow:On The Jf Guest Author Spot one of the most recent recruits to the Top sales Experts team, Linda Richardson of Richardson Training is my guest.

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The JF Guest Author Spot

Dave Stein

I’ve observed that there is a significant gap between sellers who are technology “have’s” and those who are technology “have-not’s.”  In a general sense, that gap is defined by generation.  In other words, younger people are generally more comfortable with technology and tend to use it to help them in their jobs.  People who are older, although they may use email and Google as well, generally tend not to leverage technology to its fullest.  By the way, those who are in the position of hiring sales people must include “technologically savvy” as a required skill/competency—the same goes for hiring sales managers as well.
 
But there is a much bigger challenge to address.
 
All the technology in the world isn’t going to help people who don’t have the requisite skills and, more importantly, the inherent traits, to be consistently effective sellers.  ESR has found that 25-33% (depending on the industry) of B2B sales people aren’t qualified for the jobs they hold and neither training nor coaching will improve their performance.  This is a big, big problem.  It is one of the root causes of the troubling statistics that CSO Insights and Sales Benchmark Index put forward in their research with respect to quota attainment and attrition rates.
 
Let me elaborate on the subject of personal traits.  Depending on their specific job, we know that varying proportions of these among other traits are required for a sales person to be successful:  courage, tenacity, intelligence, problem solving, integrity (inwardly- and outwardly-directed), self-motivation/drive, optimism, and competitiveness.
 
Do you see where I’m headed with this?
 
Not only does a seller have to be technologically comfortable (if not savvy) to leverage these exciting new tools and capabilities—they must have the right DNA (traits) to be a consistently effective seller, as well. Sales 2.0 is worthless to someone without those traits.
 
Here’s the warning
 
Let us not get so enamored with the promise of an anywhere-access, collaborative, content-rich, best-practices, wiki-enabled, personalized iWorld that we elevate the vision of S2.0 to the lofty position we did with CRM—that of a universal elixir.  CRM didn’t deliver on the promise mainly because no one thought about what’s in it for the sales person.
 
Sales 2.0 does hold great promise for those companies, such as Intel, that understand the importance of the 3P model—people, process and product—and have the right infrastructure in place to support a new generation of technology-enabled selling.
 
But for those companies that don’t, so far as improvements in sales effectiveness is concerned, Sales 2.0 has all the business value of a kid’s video game.

Dave Stein is the founder and CEO of ES Research, an organization that provides on-line, membership-based analyses of, and recommendations about, the sales training and sales performance and consulting marketplace and the companies that serve it.

Today’s News: Here’s a message from my good friend Paul McCord:

Can’t Get Through to the Decision Maker? Can’t Get Your Voice Mail Messages Returned?

Don’t despair-

You can get through IF you know how to turn business-to-business cold calls into referred calls.

Join me this Wednesday, May 14 at 2PM Central Time (8pm GMT) for a One-Hour Teleseminar
   And Learn:
• How to Get Past the Gatekeeper Without Resorting to Unethical Manipulation
• How to Make Prospects Want to Talk to You
• How to Get Almost Every Voice Mail Message Returned
• How to Cut Your Cold Calling Time in Half or More and Book 2 to 3 Times the Number of Appointments
• How to Qualify the Prospect BEFORE You Make the Call
• How to KNOW Your Prospect’s Issues BEFORE You Make the Call
• How to Know Your Prospect’s Hot Buttons BEFORE You Make the Call

You don’t have to beat the phones for hours HOPING to get appointments.

Learn the Secrets of making calls without making cold calls–even without making warm calls.

Instead learn how to get referred to virtually every decision maker you want to contact.

This is a One-Time Teleseminar. Limited Seating so Register NOW

Only $67.00 for this Bust Out Teleseminar Register HERE

Tomorrow:”Our Internal Customers Are Important Too“ 
 

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Old ways of doing business no longer work: the increasingly intense competitive challenges of the world economy challenge everyone, everywhere, to adapt in order to prosper under new rules. In the old economy, hierarchies pitted labour against management, with workers paid wages depending on their skills, but that is eroding as the rate of change accelerates.

Hierarchies are being replaced by networks; labour and management are uniting into teams; wages are coming in new mixtures of options, incentives and ownership; fixed jobs melt into fluid careers.

As business changes, so do the traits needed to survive, let alone excel. All these transitions put increased value on emotional intelligence. Competitive pressures put a new value on people who are self-motivated, show initiative, have the inner drive for outdoing themselves, and are optimistic enough to take reversals and setbacks in their stride. The ever-pressing need to serve customers and clients well and to work smoothly and creatively with an ever more diverse range of people makes the ability to empathise all the more essential.

At the same time, the meltdown of old hierarchies increases the importance of traditional people skills such as building bonds, influence and collaboration. And that is as true for employers as it is for employees. The task of the leader draws on a wide range of personal skills. Research has shown that emotional competence makes the crucial difference between mediocre leaders and the best. Indeed, emotional competence makes up about two thirds of the ingredients of star performance in general, but for outstanding leaders emotional competencies – as opposed to technical or cognitive cues – make up 80 to 100% of those listed by companies as crucial for success.

Star performers show significantly greater strengths in a range of emotional competencies, such as the skills of persuasion, team leadership, political awareness, self-confidence, and achievement drive.

Empathy, one of the key elements of emotional intelligence, is central to good management; it is difficult to have a positive impact on others without first sensing how they feel and understanding their position.

People who are poor at reading emotional cues and inept at social interactions are very poor at influencing others in the workplace.

Empathy has become more relevant as the whole world of work changes. These are troubled times for workers – it seems that no one is guaranteed a job anywhere any more. The creeping sense that no one’s job is safe, even as the companies they work for are thriving, means the spread of fear, apprehension and confusion. An attitude of self-interest is, understandably, growing more common for employees confronting downsizing and other changes that make them feel their organisation is no longer loyal to them. This sense of betrayal or distrust erodes allegiance and encourages cynicism. And once lost, trust – and the commitment that stems from it – is hard to rebuild.

If employees are not treated fairly and respectfully, no organisation will gain their emotional allegiance. Sensing others’ development needs and bolstering their abilities is emerging as second only to team leadership among superior managers.

For leaders, developing others’ abilities is even more important – indeed, it’s the emotional competence most frequently found among those at the top of the field. This is a person-to-person art, and the effectiveness of counselling hinges on empathy and the ability to focus on our own feelings and share them.

Research suggests the best ‘coaches’ show a genuine personal interest in those they guide, and have empathy for and an understanding of their employees. Trust is crucial – when there is little trust in the coach, advice goes unheeded. This also happens when the coach is impersonal and cold, or the relationship seems too one-sided or self-serving. Coaches who show respect, trustworthiness and empathy are the best.

One way to encourage people to perform better is to let others take the lead in setting their own goals rather than dictating the terms and manner of their development. This communicates the belief that employees have the capacity to be the pilot of their own destiny.

Another technique is to point to the problems without offering a solution: this implies the employees can find the solution themselves. And people hunger for feedback, yet too many managers, supervisors and executives are inept at giving it or are simply disinclined to provide any. Virtually everyone who has a superior is part of at least one vertical ‘couple’ in the workplace; every boss forms such a bond with each subordinate. Such vertical couples are a basic unit of organisational life. Therein lies the blessing or the curse:

This interdependence ties a subordinate and superior together in a way that can become highly charged. If both do well emotionally – if they form a relationship of trust and rapport, understanding and inspired effort – their performance will shine. But if things go emotionally awry, the relationship can become a nightmare and their performance a series of minor and major disasters.

While vertical couples have the entire emotional overlay that power and compliance bring to a relationship, peer couples – our relationships with co-workers – have a parallel emotional component, something akin to the pleasures, jealousies and rivalries of siblings.

If there is anywhere emotional intelligence needs to enter an organisation, it is at this most basic level. Building collaborative and fruitful relationships begins with the couples we are a part of at work. Bringing emotional intelligence to a working relationship can pitch it towards the evolving, creative, mutually engaging end of the continuum; failing to do so heightens the risk of a downward drift towards rigidity, stalemate and failure.

Today’s News: We are just a week away from the launch of Lee Salz’s new initiative - Business Experts Webinars - and of the first wave, three you should really make a note of, that are being presented by my good friends: - 

Recession-Proof Selling
5/19/08 2:30pm EASTERN TIME
Presented by Joanne Black

Reach the Top Dog: Radical, New, Cold Calling System for Those Who Dare to Succeed
5/20/08 10:00am EASTERN TIME
Presented by Leslie Buterin

How To Out Perform & Outlast The Competition
5/22/08 2:30pm EASTERN TIME
Presented by Cheryl Clausen

You can find details of the full programme by clicking the BEW banner over in the left-hand column.

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, Dave Stein makes his debut with “Caution: Before You Hit The Enter Key for Sales 2.0…”

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Business people in the UK have devalued selling for far too long and some managers have convinced themselves that they would do better if they did not employ salespeople - after all good products sell themselves, don’t they?

As a consequence, until very recently, salespeople have done everything possible to avoid calling themselves “A Salesman or a Saleswoman.” They have developed a series of euphemisms such as: “Sales Engineer,” “Account Executive”, “Technical Sales Consultant” etc. But nowadays we accept that we all sell everyday - doctors, lawyers, estate agents, architects, and politicians.

The fact remains that anyone who is in business has to sell themselves and their products - and the so called “Captains of Industry” - Branson, Roddick, Marshall, Hanson, Gates, Dell and Co. are thought the best salespeople in the world.

It therefore follows that the quality and success of our salespeople will ultimately determine the success of our companies. Certainly the world has become more competitive and in order to survive and stay in business we need to continually expand and develop the skill sets of our sales team.

Sir John Harvey-Jones said “Most companies fail not in their attempts to be innovative or creative. In this country most of them fail because they undervalue the importance of professional selling”

Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with e.g. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within ‘safe’ markets, longer sales cycles, and shorter product life spans.

Every organisation that intends to survive in the re-engineered environment, which arrived with the new millennium, must, in my view, respond to those realities and recognise that there is not one critical sales related challenge, which must be addressed but five and I will discuss these in a follow up post.

In Summary:
Our commercial functions, particularly the sales team, represent our forward line, if they are not scoring regularly we cannot possibly achieve our overall commercial objectives – i.e. nothing happens until somebody sells something and all of that investment in costly accounting software, new office equipment, expensive IT systems etc. will count for nothing.

We can therefore say with complete confidence, that selling really is the key factor in the total marketing process

Today’s News: I had quite a lengthy conversation with Robin Frey Carey of The Customer Collective - have you been over to there yet? - and we were discussing, amongst other things, webinars and tele-seminars. My view is that like all things in life, there are good ones and erm, less than good ones. For example, the Business Experts Webinars initiative is superb and I think Lee has a really big success on his hands - if you want to check the itinerary for May, just click on the box in the left hand column. (Due to the pressure of other commitments, I will not be appearing until September)

Thanks to a superb suggestion from my good friend Keith Rosen last week, we are working on something very unique and I promise to share it with you very shortly.

Talking of upcoming tele-seminars, have you really booked your place for my conversation with the remarkable Kevin Eikenberry yet? Just click on the banner below - please.

Tomorrow: We are putting the final touches to the re-worked Top Sales Experts site and preparing to give Top 10 a makeover - plenty to keep me going. Wherever you are, have a great w/e and enjoy the sunshine

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The JF Guest Author Spot

It all started a few years ago with Web 2.0, and now Sales 2.0 is the hot topic. What does this mean? Essentially, it means a complete transformation is taking place in our sales efforts, processes, tools, customers and markets, which all impact our sales cycle. As the customer’s buying cycle continues to evolve, their research of facts, pricing, and general understanding becomes more sophisticated. This means your selling process must start sooner and therefore, you can anticipate an increase in objections.

Introducing Sales Objections 2.0.

Expect more and more objections to arise in the following 5 categories:

•    Need: We all know multiple initiatives are sitting on everyone’s agenda the remainder of this year and the urgency and need for your solution may easily take a back seat.

•    Relationship: Although customers are more open to change than ever before, they also want to strengthen existing relationships with current vendors and partner with them in new ways. It may be tougher to displace the competition now.

•    Authority: With more decision-makers involved in the process, more No-Po’s pop up each day. These are the people who have no power and no authority to make a purchasing decision.

•    Product/Service: Although customers know more than ever before, they have less patience with anything too complicated and that lacks scalability and integration.

•    Price: Next year is going to be a lean year so prepare for this objection.

How do you rebound? Here are some rebuttal strategies based on the category objection you may receive:

Need Category:

•    Qualify your prospects to uncover the impact of their organization to determine potential for a need

•    Create a strong phone introduction that creates urgency

•    Determine if the prospect really knows what you are calling about

•    Call wide at different levels

Relationship Category:

•    Establish trust and rapport

•    Learn how to sell against your competition

•    Determine if the prospect needs to be sold or educated first

•    Call wide at different levels

Ability Category:

•    Understand the various authority levels and learn the chain of command to include more decision-makers

•    Present your product and align it to their “hot buttons”

•    Early in the sale, set expectations that you plan to align at the highest level

Product/Service Category:

•    Provide opportunities to educate on your product/service

•    Provide a cost-effective solution for easy entry

•    Ask precision questions

•    Neutralize their fears by providing added value for what you can deliver

Price Category:

•    Qualify price versus ownership

•    Determine if this is really a strong prospect who has potential

•    Spend more time creating value and less time talking about budget

•    Call at the highest level and learn the purchasing criteria

Josiane Feigon is a pioneer, maverick and visionary in the Sales 2.0 community. As President and Founder of TeleSmart, Josiane is a 20-year veteran and one of the world’s leading experts on developing sales teams and management talent. She provides consulting, coaching, and training solutions for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies whose global Sales organizations range from 20-800 salespeople. Clients such as Agilent, Apple, Cisco, EMC, Genesys, Harte-Hanks, HP, Mercury, Microsoft, Oracle and Verisign consider her an invaluable part of their sales strategies. Visit her website at www.tele-smart.com

Today’s News: Earlier in the week, I shared with you an upcoming series of webinars by my good friend Joanne Black? OK, you now have the opportunity to listen to Joanne in conversation with Clayton Shold over at Salesopedia - Joanne Black week? Why not? She is a remarkable person, probably the leading authority on referral selling in the world and a very good friend - just get over there 

Tomorrow: With all this bickering between sales and marketing, I make the assertion that “Selling Is The Key Component In The Total Marketing Process”

Have you registered yet?

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Today, something a little highbrow, but stay with it because it’s interesting!

Everyone has a different make-up that influences how they take decisions. Ned Herrmann’s extensive research in this field led to the Herrmann Brain Theory.

There are four parts of the brain. As well as the familiar parts (the cerebral brain) – Left (realistic) and Right (idealistic) – there are also the less familiar (Limbic) parts – Top (thinking) and Bottom (doing) [based on the work of Sperry and McLean].

Components Of The Brain:
* A (upper left) Logical, analytical part
* B (lower left) Form, process, organisational part
* C (lower right) Emotional, feeling part
* D (upper right) Abstract, visioning part

The Herrmann Brain Theory:
The best performing groups have a balance between the four components of the brain, as is the case with the Star Trek officer team:

• Captain Kirk is the visionary leader ‘D’ and provides the spatial thinking
• Mr Spock is logical ‘A’ and puts the ideas into logical order and context
• ‘Bones’ McCoy expresses feelings ‘C’ and provides the emotions
• ‘Scotty’ is the pragmatic engineer ‘B’ and effects the decisions (‘I canna break the laws of physics!’)

The balance between the characters enables viewers, depending on their own character type, to empathise with one of the officers. This part accounts for the TV programme’s success.

It is important, therefore, to understand the type of person you are asking to make a decision. You have to play to his or her style. With groups you have to play to the members. People with similar profiles working together are a dysfunctional group. You will never get the best decisions as members will compete. If, for example, all were ‘Ds’, they would spend their time generating ideas but take no decisions.

Finally - Group Dynamics

Rarely are important or critical decisions taken by one person. Usually several people are involved, whether through a hierarchical process (e.g. Japanese companies) or in a group, team or committee.

Group dynamics are different from individual dynamics. Members of a group will have group objectives but also their own agenda – their own goals and characteristics.

Each individual’s personal goals …
• Rational
• Political
• Emotional
… must be understood and addressed.

Emotional
“What will I get out of this?”
“What will the impact be on my life?”

Rational
“What does it cost and what is the benefit?”
“Will it work and how long will it take?”

Political
“Will I look good in the organisation if I support this?”
“Will it advance my career?”

Today’s News: You have the opportunity to listen to me in conversation with Kevin Eikenberry on May 20th - registration is free if you click on the banner below - it will be worth it

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, I welcome Josiane Feigon, a very bright cookie and talented writer.

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The JF Guest Author Spot

 Mike Brooks

One day I was having my Volvo serviced and as I waited for it to be brought out, I wandered onto the new car showroom. There on the floor was a Special S60 R - their Rally version and it looked pretty sweet. As I sat in it, someone came up and asked me what I thought and I said, “It’s OK.”

I asked him if he was one of the sales reps, and he said he was new to sales having worked for the Volvo factory for the last 10 years. He then asked me how much I knew about the car. “Not much,” was my answer.

And that’s when he began. Jim seemed to change as he began to tell me what a phenomenal car the R series was. Did I know that the brakes alone were of racing pedigree and the best brakes Volvo ever made? And that they were found only on the Rally model?

Did I know about the torque of the engine and that the Rally had the only hand made engine Volvo ever produced?

On and on he went, covering each part of the car from the racing bucket seats, down to the hand stitched leather. And the price! My God! This was the best value, dollar for dollar, of any car on the market, period, he told me.

And the performance! Would I like to take a test drive? “Heck Yeah!” I heard myself saying.

Well, as I drove the car - and boy was it fun - Jim talked even more about how great this car was. I soon found that I was completely caught up in his enthusiasm, and before I knew it, I was back at the dealership talking prices, payments, and delivery terms!

I ended up getting away with an “I need to think about it,” but I’ve got to tell you, that car, and Jim’s enthusiasm for it, sticks with me today. Had I actually been shopping for a new car, I would have bought it - and been happy I did!

What this reminded me of is how important your belief in your product or service is. Enthusiasm really IS contagious, and many times your customers buy your belief in your product as well as the product itself.

So your assignment this week is to ask yourself, “How can you inject genuine enthusiasm into your presentation?” Ask yourself why you choose to work at your company and what part of your product or service are you particularly proud or excited about?

Once you’ve identified these things, be enthusiastic about them, and let your prospects and customers know why you are there. And why they should be, too.

And before you go into your next presentation, ask yourself, “Would you buy from you today?”
With over 20 years of inside sales closing experience, Mike Brooks has been billed nationwide as Mr. Inside Sales. Once a bottom 80% producer, Mike learned and perfected the skills of Top 20% producers and became the number one sales rep out of 5 Southern California branch offices.

Author of the weekly Ezine, “Inside Sales Secrets of the Top 20%,” Mike’s proven techniques, strategies and skills are used successfully by companies in industries such as securities sales, high-tech sales, pharmaceuticals, equipment leasing and other business to business applications.

Mike combines proven, current tactics and skills with personal experience to provide a motivational and practical presentation.

Look for Mike’s new book The Secrets of the Top 20% to be released later this month. Learn more about Mike here http://www.mrinsidesales.com/

Today’s News: It seems everyone is talking up a recession and having worked through at least three myself and come out the other side stronger, fitter and more successful, I have my own thoughts and ideas - more of that later. In fact selling in a recession is this week’s topic over at Salesopedia and you can catch some excellent articles here

Tomorrow: “The Star Trek Officer Team & The Herrmann Brain Theory“

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When a colleague loaned me Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits Of Highly Successful People” many years ago, it took me about three months to get round to reading it - I now realise that I wasted those three months! In fact, I read it three times in order to ensure that I had fully digested the wisdom.

Whilst I cannot claim to have experienced an epiphany of “Damascus Highway” proportions, it did cause me to make fundamental changes to the way I conducted business. In reality, I was practising much of what Covey suggests, but I was doing so in a fairly unstructured and ill-disciplined way. However, in what I now term my “Post Covey” period, I do ensure that I audit myself regularly and I would urge you to do the same.

Covey is also responsible for the book “Principle Centred Leadership“, and many of his ideas and approaches relate to the management of people.

Covey’s view focuses on interdependence, on what he calls “mature interaction”. When we are truly interdependent, then we have achieved and are practising all seven habits. The habits are in fact steps, leading us from dependent through independence to interdependence and making use of our innate human characteristics - moving us in effect from what Covey terms “private victories to public victories”.

In any situation, our natural human response is to look for similarities to situations we have previously encountered. In doing this, we fail to recognise the situation we are actually in and we fail to recognise opportunities and challenges presented to us. In effect “the way we see the problem is the problem” … which accounts for why we find ourselves repeating patterns of frustration and feeling unable to respond appropriately to situations facing us.

Einstein observed “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Covey develops this theme into what he calls an “inside-out” approach. This means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self - with your principles, your values, your motives and your character.

We each have, and can develop further, various assets. Covey’s view encourages wider recognition of these assets and the maintenance of them. Once we take for granted say effective working relationships, then we cease to actively maintain them. The result could well be a reduction in the effectiveness of the relationship and therefore of a very important asset. The key is balance between the use of any asset and maintenance of it.

You can read my full review here

Today’s News:

My good friend Joanne Black, has just announced some new seminar dates - “Turn more than 50 percent of your contacts into clients, work less, and get more quality clients. Find out to get hot sales leads without cold calling by enrolling in our new three-session No More Cold Calling® Webinar. ”

 You can find the schedule here

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot my guest is “Mr Inside Sales” Mike Brooks.

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“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change” - Charles Darwin

Whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop.

Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.

The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.

The world’s leading organisations continuously seek to improve their performance. There may be unlimited potential for achieving accelerated improvement but if this potential is not being realised, good change agents must line up and mobilise all the forces (or drivers) for improvement.

There are five main drivers for improvement in organisations:

• Strategy

• Lean operations

• Balanced culture

• Customer responsiveness

• Leadership

Strategy sets direction and give focus to improvement. It must however be deployed throughout the organisation to be effective.

Processes need to be mapped and analysed in a methodical way; projects must be managed; problem symptoms traced to root causes; data must be collected before decisions are taken; trends in customer preferences detached and fed back; improvement activity of any kind reported on and coordinated; improvement action measured. Just about everything should be done to a discipline.

A balanced culture means effective, creative management of people. Customers are served by people; processes are managed by people. Only people can deliver quality improvement. For them to work well they must be empowered, given direction, measured, reviewed and success recognised.

Customer responsiveness keeps the organisation focused on customer needs, reactions and changing requirements.

Finally, leadership ensures that everyone is enthused and supported to work on the strategy, improve processes, served customers and active team players.

Today’s News: It is a while since I mentioned my good friend and publisher, Jeb Blount, who has created a superb sales community over at Sales Gravy - if you haven’t discovered SG, do take a look here

Tomorrow: We are continuing our work on three exciting new projects, so the likliehood of some downtime is very slim, but hey-ho, that’s the way of the world right now. You have a great w/e and be sure to make it back next week to join me and my guests. - JF 

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The JF Guest Author Spot

Debbie Fay

Top 10 mistakes presenters make:

10.  Thinking everybody’s a comedian:  If you are funny, good for you!  Everyone loves to laugh, and Lord knows grown-ups don’t laugh nearly as much as we should.  BUT, you don’t have to be funny to be a good presenter.  In fact, the only thing you DO have to be is yourself.  Audiences only listen to people they trust, and the only way to be trusted is to be authentic.  The only way to be authentic is to be YOU.

9.  Being a stranger in a strange land:  Always get to the site of your presentation early; the day before if possible, but at least a half hour before you’re scheduled to appear.  If you’re speaking at a conference, you need to be there even earlier, and be prepared to “go on”.  Often a previous speaker will go short, or worse, not show up.  You need to be there and be ready.  More important, when you arrive early you have the opportunity to familiarize yourself with the room in which you’ll be speaking and you’ll get to meet some of your audience members; a great way to break the ice and increase your comfort level.  Most important, if you’ve had the opportunity to meet a few of your guests, you can mention them or their area of expertise in your speech and exponentially increase audience interest.

8.  Winging it:  I am always astounded at people who tell me (with pride) that they don’t prepare for their speeches; they prefer to speak “off the cuff”.  Yikes.  This is like walking the trapeze without a net and WORSE showing a complete lack of respect for your audience.  You MUST plan and prepare no matter if you are speaking for 10 minutes or 10 times that.   NO one likes to listen to someone ramble, meander, digress or repeat themselves.  I believe it was Mark Twain who said extemporaneous speaking requires LOTS of preparation.  Just do it.

7.   Going Long:  It is NEVER NEVER a good idea to speak longer than your allotted time.  You should either end a few minutes early or finish right on time.  In fact, if you are one of many speakers, and you’re speaking right before lunch or worse, just before the end of the day, make yourself a hero and go 10 minutes short.  Then make yourself available for questions at lunch, cocktail hour, etc.  Those who want to hear more will seek you out.  Everyone else will LOVE you simply for being sympathetic to their empty stomachs and full minds.

6.  Telling it All:  You’re the expert, and they’ve come to hear you speak.  The common impulse is to tell them everything you know.  WRONG.  The best way to organize your material is around the rule of threes, something I consider magic.  I strongly discourage you from ever trying to put across more than five main points.  Why?  It’s simple. Your audience can’t retain more than five, and if you insist on giving them more, they will 1.) Dump everything you’ve said up to that point and 2.) Become angry. They worked hard to hold on to your first five points and need you to wrap up, not move on to point six, seven, etc.  Be clear, concise, and considerate.  Organize your thoughts in 3 big bundles so that your audience can do the same.

5. Apologizing:  Nothing makes an audience more uncomfortable than hearing a speaker apologize for something a.) They hadn’t even noticed, b.) Had no way of knowing was wrong or missing, and c.) Is distracting them from getting the message.  Remember, the audience doesn’t know the order or number of your slides.  If you find your slides are messed up, or some are missing, keep it to yourself!!  Likewise with anything else that might go wrong that YOU know about but the audience doesn’t – ignorance is bliss.

4. Reading:  You should never ever read a slide, flip chart, overhead, handout etc., unless you’re presenting to kindergarteners or anyone else who doesn’t know how to read.  An audience can read 7-10 times faster than you can speak.  Plus, they CAN READ.  Why should they sit and listen to you read it to them?  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard people complain of having to sit through a presentation where the speaker read slide after text-intensive slide.  “Jeez”, they say,” If I’d known he/she was just going to read the whole thing, they could have emailed me the slides and saved me the time and trouble.”

3.  Creating visuals that aren’t aids:  Speaking of reading slides, you should never show slides, or overheads, or flip charts that are text intensive.  Period.  Your visual aids should always be something that says what you (with words) cannot.  Get it?  We’re talking charts, graphs, pictures, cartoons, music.   Any visual aid you create should act as a synergistic component; it should illuminate in ways that are beyond you and your words.

2. Neglecting to Practice:  There is simply no way around this one.  You MUST practice.  OUT LOUD.  And you must know your introduction and conclusion cold.  The easiest way to let “stage fright” get the better of you is to allow yourself to stand up in front of a group of people without ever having heard the words you’re about to say come out of your mouth.  All of the great speakers practice, and they practice a lot. 

1.  Not getting HELP:  None of us is good at everything.  Ham that I am, I wouldn’t try and do my own taxes EVER.  My wonderful genius accountant does my taxes (and he happens to be a good public speaker too).  If you are struggling with any or all of the BIG TEN, get help!!  You’ll be glad you did, and on your way to being heard.

Debbie Fay is the founder of bespeak presentation solutions, a  presentations coaching company that helps clients build and deliver presentations that get heard and get results.  Debbie has helped hundreds of people of all ages and vocations become confident compelling change-making speakers. 

Go to www.bespeakpresentations.com or email; beheard@bespeakpresentations.com   This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
 

Ed: Debbie has also recently joined the exclusive ranks of the Top Sales Experts team.

Today’s News: Tibor Shanto, another recent recruit to the Top Sales Experts team and a really nice guy is in conversation with another really nice guy, Clayton Shold over at Salesopedia - “How To Shorten Your Sales Cycle” you can listen in here

To those of you celebrating - happy May Day.

Tomorrow: I look at the five main drivers for optimal organisational performance - and there really are only five

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