Waste your time making sales calls

There are some 'gig's in business that are more appealing than others. Small business owners 'love' networking, love sending emails and are becoming more in love with Social Media applications as the modern entrepreneur evolves to meet the demands of the modern marketing mix. Other activities, like making sales calls, go straight to the bottom of the pile for a variety of reasons.

A fruit cake is not a fruit cake without fruit as we know. For centuries, people have been following proven recipes that have yielded 'results' and enabled people at the dinner table to enjoy what was cooked up for them. More recently, some have chosen to ignore or change the formula of the recipe and something close gets produced.

I'd bet a fair amount of money that a lot of businesses out there would jump at the chance of doing business with a large company, one with turnover in the millions, one with 'large contracts' on offer, one that has sales in its culture and uses the telephone to generate relationships with its clients. So how do you 'get into these businesses?' Answer - use the telephone.

The trick to making good sales calls requires the following:

1 - Do your research. Find out a bout the clients business and get 5 core pieces of information about the business so if asked 'what do you know about us?' you can answer positively.

2 - Have an objective. Your objective is solely to get an appointment at this stage, not to make a sale.

3 - Create a solid business purpose statement. People buy emotions - concentrate on building a powerful opening statement that demonstrates the clear business benefits of your product or service.

4 - What questions might get asked and how will you handle them? If you were the person on the other end of the line, what might you ask about you and how would you handle that question?

5 - Appreciate that not all people will be free to talk when you call. Not everyone will want to speak with you and some will want to rearrange. Don't take lack of availability personally.

6 -Be resilient.


One of the common fears of making calls is fear of rejection. To put this in perspective, have you ever called a travel agent to hook a holiday and they didn't have what you ere looking for? What did you do? Just stop looking for a holiday? No! You called another, and another - until you got what you wanted.

Sales calls is no different

It's called the marketing mix for a reason and that reason is because it contains ALL the ingredients you need to market your business. Play with the above recipe and bake a decent cake. But don't expect it to contain any fruit if you didn't put any in the bowl in the first place!

Getting prepared for sales meetings

Going to a sales meeting can be a daunting experience, especially if you are either new to sales, have not had and 'training' or just don't 'find it easy' when you come into sales presentation situations.

Naturally, we want to put on a performance. We want to convince the client or prospect that we are 'suitable' to take the order and deliver in alignment with their expecations of us a provider of products or services.

Below are '5 essential tips' that will assist you in 'getting prepared' and should you want to choose to take on board the information you'll see a significant improvement in 'confidence' and results.

Tip 1 - Do your homework
Before the meeting, research the client. WHO are they, WHAT do they specialise in, WHERE are they based/operate, WHEN did they start in business, WHY they do what they do or the 'solution' they provide to clients.

This research is essential. Why? In case you are asked, "What do you know about us?"
Do you think a person who knew would have an advantage over someone who doesn't?

Tip 2 - Plan for possibilities!
I'm sure you've been to numerous meetings and had 'questions' fired at you about you and your service. How did you answer them last time? What response did you get? Could you have changed the way you said something that would have meant different outcome?

Think about what might happen, what might be said, plan for it and you can be sure to handle it appropriately when it comes up next time round!

Tip 3 - Frame the meeting
Framing refers to setting the scene. Agree a course of events for the meeting, understand what the expectations are of those attending. Getting 'shared agreement' on the format and structure of the meeting means that everyone knows what's happening and where the meeting is going.

Tip 4 - Understand the difference between 'features, advantages and benefits'
Too often, sales people sell 'features' and we don't buy features. People buy emotional benefits, that is, 'what I get once I have bought and benefitted from having your product or service'.

Think about your clients, what they 'get/experience' after they have had what you offer. This will define what you 'really do' for them.

Tip 5 - Install confidence in your client.
Language is so powerful. Use it to install 'states and emotions' in your prospects!

"I want you to feel confident that we are able to deliver this solution in the time frame you want"

How do you want the prospect to feel about you, your service or product? Tell them!!


Happy sales presenting!

Nick

Emotional Value

I go networking and www.4networking.biz is one of the places I play! This video was shot for the benefit of 4Ners and those who go networking and have to do a short presentation or 'pitch'.

Too many times, many networkers concentrate on communicating the 'features' of their service. This short video tip concentrates on explaining how you, the sales person, networker or business owner, can learn how to communicate the 'emotional value' associated with your proposition.

Enjoy!

Nick

60 Second Presentation for Business Networkers - revisited!

Networkers, here you go!

1. Your name and business name
Tell us who you are and what you do.

2. Define your business purpose
Let the audience know 'what happens once your clients have benefitted from your service' - not the features of your service (accountant, book keeing, spreadsheet analysis etc) more 'we help businesses survive by making sure our customers have POMind and sucurity that their finances meet the requirements of the business'

3. How do you deliver your purpose?
We do that by providing book keeping, etc etc (services offered)

4. Get the audience agreeing with you
"When it comes to choosing an accountant you want a person who gives you sound advice, has your business interests high on their agenda and treats you as their number one client. (I challenge anyone not to agree with this)

.....and that is quite important when choosing this type of service isn't it.....

Isn't it - this is a technique that promotes a 'yes response' from a person. It called a tag question. Use them sparingly.

5. Get your testimonial in there.....
Some of our customers say that we are "x, y, z"
This is your opportunity to 'say what you want' about your business becuase it came from one of your customers. Truth prevails here.

6. Call to Action
Close by letting the audience know how to access you.

Happy networking!

How to get your prospects to say 'YES'

As a business owner or ‘communicator’ you’re in the business of getting results and when you start to think about business situations you come into, contexts in which you communicate and the differing outcomes that can possibly occur you’ll soon realise that your thought processing and communication is geared towards an outcome that is generated by yourself or ’shared’ with another and your key objective is to ‘get agreement.’
There are numerous ways of ‘enhancing’ your personal communication to get agreement and before I share those with you there’s one thing I have to be clear about.

In any communication transaction there is an ‘intention’ and consideration has to be given to whether or not you consider your intention in ‘persuading another’ to be self fulfilment or shared winnings. Only you will know that but you know as well as I do that relationship building is built on shared outcomes that benefit all parties concerned.

Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move on.

Getting agreement is about getting people saying ‘yes’ and there are a number of ways to steer someone towards a ‘yes’ through language.

Know your outcome and ‘pre-frame’ your communication

Set the scene by outlining your ‘objectives’ and create an environment where you and the other person involved in the transaction are in agreement on what is to be achieved. YES number one.

‘Pace’ the listener using pacing statements

Pacing ‘current experience’ is very powerful. It is used to ‘get people in on the deal’ and engaged with you. Notice the following text and how you cannot disagree with it.

“You are reading this material, looking at the text on the page, considering how these tools might assist you….”

Subconsciously, as the reader you have ‘accepted’ or ‘YES’d’ three times by reading the above text. Agree?

Asking the right questions to get the right answers

People buy on ‘emotion’ and in the sales or relationship building process the ‘hot buttons’ of the prospect are to be identified and utilised to create the condition for the sale. By asking the following set of questions you can effectively create the right conditions by allowing the listener to highlight their situation and thought processing in relation to the context:

What is your priority? – Allows the listener to highlight their criteria

Why is that important? – Justifies their criteria

What would it mean for you if you had that? – Personalises the justification

What would the consequences be of not having that? – Creates the criteria to be avoided

How would that be a problem for you (not having that)? – Justifies the avoidance criteria

Once you have this set of information you now understand what the person wants, doesn’t want and what it means ‘globally’ (impact on the bigger picture) and ‘personally’ to the listener. Repeat back to the listener and confirm what they want or don’t want and how it impacts them to get them in agreement with you.

Use of suggestion to create ‘options’ – don’t ‘force’ communication

Suggestion statements are used to enable the listener to have an option yet the message contained within the sentence is clear. By giving people an option you don’t come across as pushy but ’suggestive’ giving the listener the option to make the right decision for themselves. Consider the following sentences:

“Commit to working with my company today” – forced

“Are you able to commit to working with my company today” – option given – “Are you able”

“Could you commit to working with my company today” – option given “Could you”

Embedded commands

As with the above sentences you can see that the message or ‘command’ contained within the text is ‘commit to working with my company today’. Let’s combine pacing statements with a command:

“We’ve discussed your situation, I’ve highlighted what we offer as a business, and how we can assist you in achieving your objectives, and as you think about what you might achieve by working with me, how our commitment to each other can move you and the business forward and by knowing now, that we have assisted companies in a similar situation to yours grow substantially by these services, I’d like to make it easy for you to be able to commit to working with my company, because commitment is what you want from a service provider like ours, isn’t it.”

Tag questions

Tag questions refer to questions ‘tagged’ onto sentences that create agreement. It’s quite interesting knowing that it is possible to create agreement using such tools like the one’s above isn’t it? And you can see that by using these patterns you can become more effective in your communication can’t you? So you will go on and use them, won’t you?

So. You’ve been introduced to some new skills, you’ve absorbed the information in the best way for you and thought many things about how and where these tools could be used. I’d like you to consider how easy it is to realise how these tools, if ‘over used’ and without ‘rapport’ and what are known as ‘calibration’ skills. I’d like to suggest that you learn further into how it is a combination of these tools that creates the conditions for successful use of these tools.

Bearing in mind a persons confidence levelsAs with all ‘things’ in life, especially honing your language skills, its about putting in practice, time and commitment. Practice saying your sentences with different voice tonality and speed and with ‘pauses’. Commit to utilising some of the patterns daily and you’ll soon see and increase in your personal performance, won’t you…..

Don't tell me what to do with my Social Media!

It's an absolute 'bunfight' out there in Social Media world right now.....

There seems to be a majority who understand the concept of it yet the 'contexts' that create the 'purpose' for usage seem to be the missing key to the door.

The majority know what to 'do with it' and those that are 'doing it', are not all doing it 'the same'. This is leading to conflicting messages as to 'what to do with it' and this causes uncertainty within communities who are looking to use it to develop a brand on either a business or personal level.

What first needs to be asked is 'what is twitter, LinkedIn et al?'

These amazing tools are so multifaceted that it is becoming a challenge on how best to use them to get your chosen result. We're dealing with a revolution that is in its infancy and defining the boundaries or 'contexts' in which this platform works are yet to be formed, tested and available to users.

What do I mean by the above? The functionality of the platforms, as either direct communication or one way broadcasting capability means that whatever your 'intention' for platform use (chat, advertising, one way dialogue, information sharing etc) then there is 'space' for that approach. Yes! That approach will attract a particular audience and it will be an audience that has, of its own accord, decided to be there, automated or otherwise.

Let's look at LinkedIn as an example. It's a message broadcasting tool, information sharing tool, phone book, prospect list, labour pool, supplier list and depending on how a person decides to use the tools defines the 'intention' behind tool usage. That same situation applies to businesses and how they use the tools to get what they want.

So. SM gurus, trainers and wannabes - stop telling me what I should do with my 'social media' because you may be unsure what my 'intention' is on the platforms, whether I am happy with my results and at the end of the day there is enough 'space' to do what I want with it!

Fish don't bite if there's no bait....

As a business owner, senior leader, sales person, account handler, relationship builder.....OK, 'everyone in business' - you've got to 'sell yourself' using communication.

It's unavoidable. It's necessary. It's challenging, yet it is achieveable. And guess what? The only person that can achieve your outcomes for you, is you.

I speak to a lot of relationship builders about their experience of not being able to 'go up and start conversations easily' and sales people who are so focused on getting 'what they want to say' out of their mouths in business winning scenarios that they forget to listen effectively. At the same time, Directors who are so focused on their own thoughts that they forget how they 'come across' to their peers and managers with busy work loads that in some cases, aren't as attentive as they could be to the real needs of their teams.

With many different types of employee, prospects and customers out there how important is it to have the ability to interact effectively, with all your focus on the person(s) you are interacting with, to ensure that your message is issued and received as it was intended to be. As we go about our business lives with heavy workloads, sometimes with stress and other challenging items around with us, not always do we pay attention to our own personal communication patterns and we often find blame in other things when we don't get what we want. Everyone knows that we 'get out' what we 'put in' and communication is no different!

See if you can do this as easy as is possible.

Now. If you were to think about the last meeting you were in, the last networking group you attended and ask yourself this simple question:

"When I think back to that time, if I were meeting me, shaking hands with me, looking at me, listening to what I normally talk about/like in this situation, and taking into account the outcome at the time, what words would I use to describe me?"


What words have you come up with?

Now. Think about 3 things you did well in that situation.

Then, think about 3 areas in which you can improve upon.

Question: How will you go about getting those things so you can be even better next time?

Finding the difference that makes the difference between your personal performance in communication settings will allow you to ensure that your results will change. But only if you act upon what you find out...

Changing the way you communicate and being able to analyse your performance in communication situations is a key skill. Developing yourself in this area means you become more 'attractive' to all those hungry fish out there.

So. Waders on, line cast and await your first bite....

Transforming your thoughts into Visual Action

Transforming the ideas and thoughts of yourself or others into an action plan so you can see exactly what it is you must do to get where you want to be, can be a chellenge for some.

Even writing notes, writing down goals, sometimes doesn't work. Reason? In my opinion, 'getting specific' in terms of identifying exactly what needs to be done to achieve, 'clustering of key tasks' that form a general action point and many other key techniques that really quantify thoughts into action plans and into preferred outcomes are generally missing. In addition, if a manager, consultant or business owner hasn't got or doesn't fully understand the process for 'chunking down' into communication or 'quantifying' the detail of a persons communication, then how do thoughts of the individual, the team or the client get put into action to get them where they need to be - performing to the highest standard possible?

One such tool available to do this has been developed and the process is referred to as 'Logo Visual Thinking'. It is a tool that takes a persons communication in either a 1-2-1 or group format at collates their language into transforms it into VISUAL tangible statements. These statements are then transported into a VISUAL sequence that defines the start and end point for the plan that needs to be taken to achieve the plan.

I watched Peter Cruikshanks, an Accredited Trainer of Logo Visual Thinking (LVT), demonstrate the tool at a seminar he ran. I thought (transforming thoughts into action now!...) to myself, "that's a pretty cool management tool" and could see the benefits for managers, business owners and consultants assisting business owners in developing actionable plans. After the event I approached Peter and mentioned to him where I felt 'even more value' could be added to the LVT tool in terms of the language the group used during the session, what exactly they meant when they said it, how a practitioner of the LVT tool could use rapport and language skills to heighten the experience for those using LVT with their clients. Peter and I agreed to discuss, using LVT......

After a few short, sharp meetings in the Village Hotel at Tingley, we extensively used LVT processes and techniques to formulate the plan to deliver a seminar that combines the benefits of LVT in business and NLP language tools so a whole host of business owners, managers and consultants can engage with the tool and its benefits, learn how to use it and really turn those amazing thoughts and ideas that we all have into visual action. (I knew it could be done!)

From personal experience, LVT was very easy to use, highly functional and really helped in 'seeing what needed to be done' and when it needed to be done by in a highly VISUAL way.

For more information on the seminar click here

Be careful what you read about body language

I'm a recent convert to Tweetdeck (www.tweetdeck.com) and was encouraged by Social Networking authority 'Mr Jurassic' - Chris Norton of Dead Dinosaur - http://www.deaddinosaur.co.uk/ - to install and manage my 'tweets' more successfully. I've done this and think the application is great - searching for key words and having access to more resources than I care to wish for. Cheers Chris, much appreciated.

It's been very, very interesting reading some of the articles flying around on 'body language' and how your physiology - stance, gestures and movements - are viewed/interpreted by the receiver of your communication. But what is highly innacurate are the generalisations made by some trainers about what they term 'closed styles' including 'aggressive, defensive, nervous and bored'. (See full article here)

I'm going to look at a few points made by the author of the post and make my own comments next to them to justify why they are potentially innacurate and over-generalised.

Closed aggressive body language
Hands on Hips - Might be a comfort thing/preference for that person
Legs too wide - Compared to what and how wide is too wide?
Eyeballing / Staring out - The persons 'attention direction'* is clearly focussed on the other person

Closed defensive
Crossed arms/legs - could be cold in the room
Poor eye contact - The persons 'attention direction'* could be 'scattered'

Closed nervous
Dry throat - might have a cold/throat issue you are unaware of!

Closed bored
Yawning - could be a parent with a 'new born' who is very tired - doesn't mean they are bored!!


It goes to show that the text books and authors of such material, need to account for 'the context' and the individual 'programmes' we run as human beings in communication contexts. These 'meta-programmes' refer to our personal 'strategies' we deploy in situations like face-2-face communication. Examples being how we are motivated, convinced, take action to name a few.

*Attention Direction refers to the amount of 'attention' a person gives during communication. A person may focus wholly on the other, on themselves or to and fro (scattered). On that basis its innacurate to say a person is 'eye balling' in an aggressive way if their AD programme is 'others' focussed. On the other hand, to say someone is defensive when they may have a scattered or 'self' AD programme is again, innacurate.

So. The message here is very clear. Classifying a person as open or closed, aggressive or defensive by their body language can be dangerous. What has to be taken into account is the context and their personality, not just thier physiology!

Marking out in time

Sports personality of the year brings back fond memories of child hood for me. It appears to mark out a certain point in time in the year that Christmas is upon us and all the things that happened earlier in the year are now behind us, or to the side, or somewhere else......

If you were to think about where you are now and were to point in the direction of the future, where would it be?
Go on, point to it.

After you've done that, point to where the past is.

Some people have what's called their 'time line' running through loads of different directions, up and down, left to right, diagonal, infront only, the list goes on.

When you are out communciating with someone next and they are using their hands to communicate, look at how they mark out items and timeframes in 'spaces' or locations. What direction are the movements in, what does that say about where they mark out their timings? For example someone might say, "last week I went to..." whilst pointing back over their shoulder. Alternatively, someone might say, "I was looking at buying this car" and all of a sudden their attention is away from you and they are looking into thin air......seeing the car again in whatever direction they are looking.

Why do we need to know this? When you are communicating back to them, maybe re-communicating certain things they have mentioned, you can refer to those areas by subtly pointing to them to acknowledge their existence. Afterall, from the other persons perspective, that is really where they are!

Communicate to them on their level and you'll get results.

What would it be like......?

When presenting your solution to your audience either formally or informally, face to face, over the telephone, or any other communication context, to get people to resonate with what it is you are offering requires you to allow them to consider "What would it be like if I had it?"

It makes sense doesn't it? Putting a person in that mental space that allows them to fully associate with what it is that is on offer, mentally experiencing being in a situation with the product/service or noticing what its like, receiving the benefit associated with it - that's what makes a sale.


When you're next in a sales context, make an (un)conscious effort to ask one or more of the following question(s):


What would it be like to have increased productivity?
What would it mean for you to.........
How would having a 'x' impact the business?
What would it be like to see an improvement/saving in 'x'?


Only by doing this can a prospect identify the necessary questions that he/she needs to ask to make the right decision for them. Only after going through the process (that takes a split second) of making the mental images, maybe hearing the sounds that occur as they are in that situation with you offering, and feeling the feelings associated with having the product/service in place. Only then can the right questions be raised.

Associate your prospects with your offering and you're doing them a favour by allowing them to raise the right questions that create a sale.

Is persuading someone bad?

Turning you business presentation into persuasion is the key to making a sale and both presenting and persuading are two completely different animals.

As a developer of business relationships the need for decent persuasion skills is high on your agenda surely, as it is not possible, when you are pitching to a prospect, to create the conditions necessary to create the sale without persuading someone, by using language, to allow them to access the mental space and processing required for them to make the right decision for them in that situation.

Persuasion is sometimes associated with bad connotation and mixed emotions spring to mind when thinking about a time when you may have been 'done over' or at the very least, you can imagine what that feels like. Having been in that situation, I know that one word or phrase to describe the situation is 'duped' yet looking back, I realise that the situation contained elements outside of my control and those that if I had been 'more aware' then the situation could have had a different outcome. Putting that to one side, how do you feel that last time you asked a person to 'stick the kettle on' or instruct a child to complete a task? Not so long ago for some I'm sure and I bet you felt 'at ease' in doing that didn't you?

Ever since we were young we've programmed ourselves to know how to operate to get what we want and we continue to do so for the rest of our lives. Think about this for a moment. To obtain an outcome, whatever you choose, you have to go through a sequence of events that act as check points so you know when you can comfortably move forward to the next stage in the attainment of that outcome. Some sequences are short, "Get a beer in would you?" and others longer like 'the sales process'.

The sales process requires persuading in a few key areas. Firstly, persuading the customer to listen to you. That comes through the development of rapport. Then, creating a frame for the prospect to explore all possible avenues in relation to your offer and creating the conditions, by handling any questions asked or statements made with an answer that satisfies the intention behind the listener. Finally, presenting your information to the prospect in alignment with the information you have extracted from your prospect ensures that you 'hit their values'. Values are what's important for the customer and have you demonstrated with conviction that your services/products meet their requirements and values?

When you think about it like that, persuading someone to tell you what's important to them so you can be sure that your service or product is right for them is nothing but a good thing. Surely the person would be happy in the fact that you fully understand their needs and are able to meet them? Surely they'd then go and talk about you and your business?

Presenting is 'telling'. Persuasion is convincing. So persuasion doesn't seem that bad at all now does it?

5 x Key Questions that create the conditions to sell/refer

They're so simple so let's not mess about - here they are!

1> What is your business priority right now?

2> Why did you choose that one?

3> Is that important to you? Why in your case?

4> What would happen if you didn't have that?

5> How much of a problem would that be?


Go ahead and play with these questions and see what responses you get.

More top tips and questions in later posts.....


These 5 questions are courtesy of a CD I was given created by Alan Pease, Australian Body Language Expert

Language patterning

As a business owner or 'communicator' you're in the business of getting results and when you start to think about business situations you come into, contexts in which you communicate and the differing outcomes that can possibly occur you'll soon realise that your thought processing and communication is geared towards an outcome that is generated by yourself or 'shared' with another and your key objective is to 'get agreement.'

There are numerous ways of 'enhancing' your personal communication to get agreement and before I share those with you there's one thing I have to be clear about. In any communication transaction there is an 'intention' and consideration has to be given to whether or not you consider your intention in 'persuading another' to be self fulfillment or shared winnings. Only you will know that but you know as well as I do that relationship building is built on shared outcomes that benefit all parties concerned. Now we've got that out of the way, let's move on.

Getting agreement is about getting people saying 'yes' and there are a number of ways to steer someone towards a 'yes' through language.

Know your outcome and 'pre-frame' your communication

Set the scene by outlining you 'objectives' and create an environment where you and the other person involved in the transaction are in agreeance on what is to be achieved. YES number 1.

'Pace' the listener using pacing statements

Pacing 'current experience' is very powerful. It is used to 'get people in on the deal' and engaged with you. Notice the following text and how you cannot disagree with it. "You are reading this material, looking at the text on the page, considering how these tools might assist you...." Subconsciously, as the reader you have 'accepted' or 'YES'd' three times by reading the above text. Agree?

Asking the right questions to get the right answers

People buy on 'emotion' and in the sales or relationship building process the 'hot buttons' of the prospect are to be identified and utilised to create the condition for the sale. By asking the following set of questions you can effectively create the right conditions by allowing the listener to highlight their situation and thought processing in relation to the context:

What is your priority? - Allows the listener to highlight their criteria

Why is that important? - Justifies their criteria

What would it mean for you if you had that? - Personalises the justification

What would the consequences be of not having that? - Creates the criteria to be avoided

How would that be a problem for you (not having that)? - Justifies the avoidance criteria

Once you have this set of information you now understand what the person wants, doesn't want and what it means 'globally' (impact on the bigger picture) and 'personally' to the listener. Repeat back to the listener and confirm what they want or don't want and how it impacts them to get them in agreement with you.

Use of suggestion to create 'options' - don't 'force' communication

Suggestion statements are used to enable the listener to have an option yet the message contained within the sentence is clear. By giving people an option you don't come across as pushy but 'suggestive' giving the listener the option to make the right decision for themselves. Consider the following sentences.

"Commit to working with my company today" - forced

"Are you able to commit to working with my company today" - option given - "Are you able"

"Could you commit to working with my company today" - option given "Could you"

Embedded commands

As with the above sentences you can see that the message or 'command' contained within the text is 'commit to working with my company today'. Let's combine pacing statements with a command:

"We've discussed your situation, I've highlighted what we offer as a business, and how we can assist you in achieving your objectives, and as you think about what you might achieve by working with me, how our commitment to each other can move you and the business forward and by knowing now, that we have assisted companies in a similar situation to yours grow substantially by these services, I'd like to make it easy for you to be able to commit to working with my company"

Tag questions

Tag questions refer to questions 'tagged' onto sentences that create agreement. It's quite interesting knowing that it is possible to create agreement using such tools like the one's above isn't it? And you can see that by using these patterns you can become more effective in your communication can't you? So you will go on and use them won't you?

As with all 'things' in life, especially honing your language skills, its about putting in practice, time and commitment. Practice saying your sentences with different voice tonality and a speed and 'pauses'. Commit to utilising some of the patterns daily and you'll soon see and increase in your personal performance, won't you?

Successful Teleselling

About an hour ago, I read an article on Linkedin relating to telesales and how important this skill is in the development of business relationships. I could not agree any more with the author when it comes to appreciating the value attached to picking up the phone and making direct contact with your target market but when push comes to shove, why is it that telesales is the 'thorn in the side' for most people involved in selling?

Rejection

The honest answer from most would be 'fear of rejection' and it's not uncommon for people to shudder at the thought of making these types of calls. But what if this 'activity' was renamed to 'profile raising' or 'helping people' or 'business to business communicating' for example? What if the 'sales' part was removed from the original labelling and changed to something else? What impact would that have for you as a business developer?

Pointers

Furthermore, what would it be like if you 'managed your expectations' in relation to telesales? What is going to happen realistically and how can you prepare yourself better for this communication task? Here are some pointers to assist:

1. Understand the purpose of your proposition. With only seconds to create impact it is essential that you are able to quickly and easily highlight the benefit, secondary gain or value attached to your offering and create a powerful 'business purpose statement'. Focus on the headache you remove or benefits you bring and create a sentence that highlights just those things. Rehearse this statement until you are comfortable with it rolling off your tongue.

2. Know your customer's business. Visit the website, learn 5 key things about the company in case you are asked 'What do you know about us?' A friend of mine is Head of Procurement for a large corporate and she said that the difference that makes the difference with sales calls is the caller 'understanding the business' and tailoring their communication towards that.

3. Explain to the prospect that you'd like to 'show' them how your business works and create a timescale for how long this will take. "It will take only 10 minutes of your time to show you how this can work for your business." The word 'show' presupposes that an explanation cannot be given over the telephone and it is necessary to meet face to face.

4. Demonstrate that you are taking a risk! You'd like to meet the prospect so explain to them that if after you have presented the solution and if at that point there is no mutual ground then they are entitled to end the meeting.

5. Create a form that charts possible outcomes attached to this activity and list your results. Knowing what could occur makes accepting possible occurences easy.

You might get through to the contact or you may not.
You may get a chance to pitch, or not.
You might pitch and get interest, or not.
You might pitch and get a meeting, or not.
You might get to pitch and the client have a valid reason for not wanting your offer.
You might get to pitch and the client not be ready for your offer.
You may be requested to call again later/remain in contact.

6. Commit to a number! Whether its 45 minutes or 45 calls - make a numeric commitment!

Special advice!

Most importantly remember these two 'special' pieces of advice. Firstly, you cannot fail at this activity, you only receive feedback. When you get your result, think about what happened, how you got your outcome and what you could have done differently.

Secondly, think about what you might ask 'you' if you were receiving a call from you and your business. How would you handle those questions? Again, identify and rehearse until you are comfortable with the elegance of your response.

Still not keen? Ever phoned a travel agent or booked a taxi? Ever called a restaurant to reserve a table? Ever called someone you don't know..........

Telesales or 'communicating on the phone' is a learned skill and can be developed. Don't let your learned reluctance get in the way of developing you and your business!

Enhancing your communication skills

You already know that the 'L' in NLP refers to 'linguistic' and speaking to you as a business trainer with a specialism in communications training, many people who hear that they can be trained in 'communication enhancement' often wonder exactly what that means?

As if you didn't know already, language is an extremely powerful tool in business and understanding now that there are techniques, structures and patterns contained within it, that when used in a certain way, do enable a person who chooses to use language in this way to 'steer' a persons thought processing towards the desired outcome for that conversation.

Breaking down language to understand its effects

For most, these patterns are used daily, but without any understanding of, or appreciation of what and how they are doing and how they get their results. Others get by in business by using their own unique style, jargon and patterning and sometimes they attain the desired result, sometimes they don't. So, what would it be like if you could break down language, understand the 'effects' it has on a person and then be able to choose to use particular patterns in the contexts in which you want a particular result such as presenting and sales or management of employees? I'm sure you'd agree that on one hand that might appear 'advantageous' and you might even ask what are these 'patterns' and structures?

Contained within the Milton Model (Bandler and Grinder) are a number of language patterns that primarily contain what are referred to as 'deletions, distortions and generalisations'. Bandler and Grinder created the Milton Model as a result of 'modelling' the language used by Milton Erickson, a clinical hypnotherapist who got results with clients that leading psychiatrists of the era had, for whatever reason, not achieved the desired outcomes for their patients. His methods of working with his clients utilised language to 'connect with a persons unconscious mind' enabling the unconscious mind of the client to access, process and accept the information given to them in such a way that 'change' occured in the person at a 'deep level'. As a result, unconscious changes in their behaviour meant that they overcame personal issues as they created new choices for themselves that they would not have been able to access if not for Ericksons method of communicating. But what does this mean in business terms?

Sender - Message - Recipient

There is no doubt that 'communication' contains the following elements, 'sender, message and recipient.' Whilst in conversation with another, you'll have noticed from previous experience that your conversations are 'engaging' or otherwise and your ability to hold a conversation with another to create the level of interest, desire and action associated with your preferred outcome requires the use of language. The conditions for creating an environment whereby the receiver of the communication is allowed to connect with you and synchronise themselves to what it is you are saying can be created using language, the term used to describe this is 'pacing' and the term used to describe how you move someone towards your train of thought is 'leading.' By pacing, you create language patterns that a person a person only agrees with.

E.g, As you are reading this blog, taking in the information in a way that is best for you, making mental notes of the information, storing that information in your mind.....

Creating agreement frames

The above example contains language that cannot be disagreed with. Everything in the sentence is actually going on and your 'current experience' was being paced, by using language.

Leading is the next stage in the process to direct the persons attention towards what it is you are looking to communicate/discuss/achieve.

E.g, As you are reading this blog, taking in the information in a way that is best for you, making mental notes of the information, storing that information in your mind....."you might want to consider how an improvement in your own communication skills would benefit you and your business"

Now we are veering towards the desired outcome of the conversation - how 'enhancing your communication skills would benefit you in business.'

It's just another way of communicating, that's all!

Don't get me wrong, people do get by making statements and requests by getting straight to the point. Sometimes this is 'accepted' by the receiver, sometimes it isn't. By pacing and leading people in conversations one can ensure that they have the persons full attention, commitment and agreement to communicate before the 'steer' or leading moves them towards the real message contained within the communication.

Having read this information and now thinking about how you communicate and the results you get, start to wonder about how some subtle changes in how you approach your communication could improve your relationship management, sales and presenting skills and how that may enable you to achieve bigger and better results.

Rapport building

Building and managing relationships is key to business success and there are additional soft skills that a person can accrue to enhance their relationship building skills further.

Your contacts, employees, suppliers and anyone else who you are in contact with all have unique characteristics, qualities and behaviours that once recognised by you, can be utilised to cement and strengthen 'bonds' further. By paying attention to a persons methods and ways of communicating - what they are saying and how they are saying it - provides 'knowledge' to you in terms of their personal communication 'style' and how they prefer to be communicated to.

Observing these 'patterns' allows you the opportunity to operate on their wavelength. Rapport building is a skill and it happens naturally. You will have been in situations where you are with a friend, acquaintance or colleague and for whatever reason you have that feeling of 'connection' with them. You get them and they get you and your deisred outcome is achieved. You were 'talking the same language', maybe 'matching and mirroring' eachothers physiology, gestures, voice tone - maybe without realising it! On the other hand you may also have been with people where all you wanted to do was end the conversation and move on, for whatever reason. No connection, no commonality, no shared objectives. What would have happened in this circumstance if you were to have matched and mirrored their style?

Most people have heard of mirroring and matching. It can be effective and the advice here is to go out and experiment with it. Watch out for the subtle movements, gestures that a person makes when you communicate with them and match their patterns.

See what results you get, what level of connection you feel and if you achieve your outcome.

Play time.

Do you need to toughen up your soft skills?

In the current business climate where numerous transactions of various forms take place every day of the week it could be a fair bet to state that 'business won' is determined by some key factors.


As an Executive or Owner your key objective is be to be 'out there building relationships' to get the business to grow. Your role in making that happen is to communicate your business message and listen to others and understand needs. How you do that will determine the success of the relationships you form at whatever level and will create profit or losses. To some people you may be accepted, to others you may form stronger bonds and knowing that people buy people, your ability to adapt to the differing types, characteristics and styles is paramount to 'your name being in the frame' when the time is right.

Think about it. Your 'presentation of yourself' i.e what you wear, your level of confidence, or any other 'state or feelings' you experience at the thought of having to go up to people and start conversations, make big telephone calls, approach difficult tasks and your 'behaviour' whilst you do that along with the words, sentences and value you attach to the style of your delivery, is the recipe for success and the business executive and owner of this era can survive the storm by following a few simple guidlelines that for some might constitute a personal development plan. However, most, I'm sure, will view this as an opportunity to think about how improvements, large and small, can enhance their skills dramatically to create more business for you.

Some people find things that you find challenging easy

Your softer skills, that is your behavioural patterns, your personal presentation skills and your style are so important when you think about it. How you 'deliver' is down to you and growing in these areas should be high on anybodys list of requirements. The way you think about business, the challenges it throws, the parts of it you 'like' and 'dislike' are all deemed that way because you have given those tasks those 'labels.' For example, there are people out there who find it easy making cold calls and others who have no problems attached with just going up to a group and requesting to 'join in'. The way you approach these tasks with the sometimes 'half heartedness' or even 'fear' means that their success is diminished and business opportunities lost because of how you feel about them. However, things can change.

Those feelings you experience when you think about a challenging area of your business are as a result of what goes on in your visual field i.e what you see or sense as you manouvre around the world of business. That in turn goes through a number of processes that creates a feeling that you may refer to as 'productive or counter productive'. That feeling then determines if you get your outcome in that task or not and in the style or manner you would want to. Either way, it contributes to the outcome.

Some personal development techniques that are in use by companies large and small today enable those who choose to get involved, with an opportunity to experience how to play with their sensory based channels. By restructuring the elements of the sensory channels changes how you think and feel about your challenges so a person can move on and experience 'preferred feelings' associated with a once challenging task. You can now approach people easily with a different level of confidence that enables you to join in, make those calls and present easily with the style which is appropriate for you. This is soft skills development.

Think of a dog, then a solicitor

And language is also a very important factor to take into consideration. The language you omit provides the listener with an experience of what it is you do based on how they compute that information given to them. As you speak to another that person reference checks the words you issue against their own 'internal dictionary' that is linked to the sounds, images and feelings that they, associate with those words. For example. if I say to you 'think of a dog' a particular style/type will come into your visual field. It may be a dog that carries some sort of experience or emotional attachement with it and those feelings may come to the fore as you think about that dog. What happens when you say 'solicitor' or 'printer'. What happens then? Do you view a solicitor you know or does it draw up other types of experiences and feelings associated with past experiences? Different people experience different sensations internally when they experience the words you use and 'how' you say them.

To illustrate the point, think about how scalable language can be. Are you effective at what you do, very effective or exceptionally effective? Do you provide services, good services or fantastic services? Are you feeling OK about the future, confident about the future or not looking forward to it at all?

Calibration - that's what you need.

We all have a preferred way of communicating and the ability to 'calibrate' to another persons way of accepting communication on their 'wavelength' is a key skill in communication. These skills are available to be learned, just like anything else like sales, accounts packages and SEO, and are absolutely paramount to the success of you and your business.

So. Sharpening your soft skills should be a part of any business persons list of needs. Having the right behavioural characteristics for the task in hand so you feel tuned to do it mode,' coupled with the communication skills to paint the right pictures means you'll soon be on your way to achieveing your goals and objectives.

Brrrrrrr - Cold Calling

In this era of business development where 'business networking' appears, for most, to be the 'preferred' medium for creating business relationships it seems that the 'good ol' telephone' has been pushed even further to the back of the desk, gathering dust, hiding away......

But why is this? Especially in SME/Micro business territory where the thought of 'telemarketing' or 'cold calling' is somewhat 'frowned upon'.

A couple of thoughts

Firstly, some business owners assume that making telephone calls is purely 'selling' and that is the first mistake. Yes, you must have a purpose when commiting to this activity, an objective for the call, have prepared for outcomes that might occur, but what realistically are you looking to achieve on that first call? Do you really think your are going to make a sale?

So the question is, if you're not their to make a sale, what could you be there for? What is your objective?

Could it be notifying businesses that you exist?
Informing people and businesses of your product or service?
Helping other people by explaining who you are and how you help businesses like theirs?
Profile raising?
To ask to meet the person involved? (notice we've not sold anything yet)

Not so cold now?

Think about business networking. You go to an event, talk to people who may or may not form part of your target audience and you may get 1 or 2 people who you agree to meet up with you outside of the networking group parameters. You may have been lucky enough to speak to 8-10 people that morning in 2 hours and from that gained 2 meetings. Those meetings are probably to 'network further' rather than 'sell' right?

Don't get me wrong, I think networking is a huge part of any businesses revenue development activity but let's get one thing straight. Networking does not put you in IMMEDIATE contact with your target audience. There is a reliance on your networking peers to 'talk about you' and prompt a referral of some description which may come a little way down the line. Your message, due to 'chinese whispers syndrome' could become a little diluted and the nature of this approach, being reactive, means that you never really are 'in control' of your activity.

Straight to the heart of your chosen audience

Telecommunicating takes you straight to the heart of your audience and bypasses any reliance on another person to create a need for you. It is the most proactive way of getting your message across to businesses and as the message comes directly from you that means that your message should be clear as a bell, not second hand, not 'diluted'. In addition, how many calls could you make in 2 hours? 10, 15, 20, 30?

When you think about it, telecommunicating is direct awareness raising of your business to your chosen market and with that in mind, how can you not choose to look at picking up the phone and making calls? At the very least, you know that your business name is being heard in the right neck of the woods.

So what's stopping you?

It's all in the eyes

Eye patterning and representational systems is a core NLP pattern that derives from the original work of John Grinder and Richard Bandler in the 1970's.


Eye movements

As we go about communicating in our day to day lives, speaking with people, asking them questions and attaining responses, you may notice that the movement of a persons eyes in that 'communication loop' differs depending on the type of question you ask that person.

For most people, (there are exceptions to the rule such as left handers) the way that they process information can be seen via the movements of their eyes. Let me give you an example.

Ask yourself the following questions :

"What colour was the front door of your house as a child?"
"What colour will the next coat you buy be?"

Where did your eyes move as you processed that information?


For most, their eyes will have pointed up and left (for Q1) and up and right (for Q2). Why? In Grinder and Bandlers work they noted that eye movements can depict what 'sort' of information a person is processing - Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic. In the above example we took two questions of a visual nature and you will have responded to those questions by looking up and left or right to access the colours/pictures to answer the questions.


What's the point?

Why is this important? If a person during communication is considerate of what representational system the other person is using they can match that system with their language. Let's use the visual system as an example.

Person 1 - "That looks good to me" (The word looks is a visual 'predicate')
Person 2 - "Yes it does, I see what you're saying by that" (The word see denotes visual 'predicate')


By matching the system in use, the persons communicating are operating on a shared system which solidifies the communication loop between those persons further towards a strong bond of rapport and if you can increase rapport, you build stronger relationships that get better results.