Get them while they’re hot. One more catch phrase that unimaginative marketers use to try to separate you from your money. You’ve heard them all: “you owe it to youself”‘, “live a little”, “this offer won’t last”, “you have to act fast”, blah, blah, blah. Nonsense. Don’t fall for hype or you’ll end up overpaying. Take your time, buy on sale and don’t feed a bubble.
Much has been written about the value of persistence in sales. It has even been said that you need to contact a prospect seven times before you make a sale. Like the “one page résumé”, the rule of seven has taken hold as one of the most entrenched ideas in business.
After more than 20 years in the business world, I’ve come to realize that these notions are just myths. I’ve never seen a qualified job applicant get rejected up front because his or her resume is two pages long. Similarly, I think that if you need to go back for a seventh time to a prospect that has already said no the previous six, there is something seriously wrong with you or your product, or you’re just not pitching the right prospect.
I felt a sense of comforting validation yesterday when I read a great post by Mark Cuban, where he talks about the problem with not taking no for an answer, and not recognizing when it might be better to just move on (if you haven’t read it yet I highly recommend it: here’s the link).
Which brings me to my second point: just as important as recognizing when to move on is to know when your prospect is saying no. Most of the time, you won’t be rejected flat out but will instead be given the run around (“no”s are often cleverly disguised as “maybe”s).
This fact was pointed out very effectively by a keynote speaker I had the chance to listen to last week during a sales convention in Brazil. To make his point, he first asked the audience if we knew what the opposite of love was. Predictably, everybody answered: hate. He then proceeded to explain that the opposite of love was not hate but indiference.
To prove his point, he keenly observed that when a customer takes the time to argue with you or makes the effort of telling you exactly what’s wrong with your product or service, what it really means is that he cares.
On the other hand, when the customer or prospect doesn’t tell you anything, or worse still, comes up with any of these:
you know you’re in trouble…
If you find yourself in this predicament, do what Mark Cuban says: find out what the real objections are, address them, and go back one more time. If the prospect still says no it’s time to move on.
Photo Credits: gphemsley
Photo Credits: luca.sartoni
If you want an example of clear, effective communication, look no further than Nokia CEO’s recent open letter to employees. Nokia, the embattled mobile phone maker, has recently been losing market share to rivals like Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platforms. This dire state of affairs prompted Stephen Elop, the man at the helm of Nokia since last September, to give his troops a wake up call.
His memo is already a classic, providing a framework for anybody who needs to convey a message of change or sell others on a new vision.
That framework can be divided in three parts:
Elop is able to capture his audience’s attention by using the most effective technique of them all: to tell a story. In this case his story is a metaphor, which makes it even more effective. To describe his company’s plight, he tells us about an oil rig worker who is forced to jump from a burning oil platform to the sea in order to save his life.
Metaphorically speaking, the guy is, of course, Nokia, the flames the competitors, and the dark, cold waters of the North Sea the new, uncharted direction in which he intends to lead his company.
I’m reproducing that passage of the letter here. Notice how vivid and real the story feels. It’s almost as if we were seeing what’s happening with our own eyes:
There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform’s edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.
He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times – his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a “burning platform” caused a radical change in his behaviour.
As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a “burning platform,” and he needed to make a choice.
A few paragraphs later, once he’s got his audience’s attention, Elop diagnoses and explains in no uncertain terms what he believes is the problem:
The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.
Finally, he explains what he intends to do about it:
We are working on a path forward — a path to rebuild our market leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future.
It doesn’t matter that he didn’t outline all the details of his turnaround strategy right there: the memo, which was sent February 9th, explains that the strategy would be unveiled two days later, thus building excitement and anticipation, and making his message even more effective (if you want to learn what the turnaround strategy was, click here).
I highly recommend to read the full letter, and to study it carefully. It is a great business lesson as well as a brilliant example of how to communicate effectively.
Summarizing:
Photo Credits: Wsobchak
During my daily 45-minute commute to and from work, I normally use the down time to listen to business-related CD books. I am currently listening to Warren Buffet Speaks, an entertaining collection of notes and quotes from the world’s greatest investor, and the following passage (paraphrasing) really struck a chord:
Every other year, Buffett and some old friends go to Pebble Beach to play golf. In the 1980s, Jack Byrne, who had taken over GEICO, proposed a side bet among the players. If someone put up $10, then made a hole-in-one during that weekend, Byrne would pay that person $10,000. Everyone else put up the $10. Buffett thought it over for a few seconds and decided he wouldn’t fork over the $10. The odds were just not good enough and he didn’t want to make a foolish investment.
Now, most people would put up the $10 bucks just for fun, and not make a big deal if they lost them. On the other hand Buffett, a multi-billionaire, understands the value of discipline and consistency: making that seemingly innocuous bet would have flown in the face of his convictions and believes.
Just as past behavior is the best predictor of future performance, the small habits we develop, and how we handle the little things are powerful indicators of how we’ll handle larger, more important situations. For example:
Little habits matter. Pay attention.
Every time we don’t engage because “it’s not our job” we’re dropping the ball. Every time we start a promising project but don’t follow through we’re throwing an incomplete. Every time we decide to play it too safe we’re just throwing the ball sideways without gaining an inch.
Every day we’re confronted with hundreds of situations where we can add value: make somebody else’s life easier, make a process a little better, teach somebody something new, finish a project that will greatly benefit our organization and our customers.
The ball is in our hands and all the eyes are on us: are we going to gain a few yards, or are we going to drop the ball? Are we going to get a first down, or are we going to throw an incomplete? Are we going to go deep for the touchdown or are we going to throw yet another sideways pass? Our call…
A couple of weeks ago I visited the Brazilian city of Manaus and took this picture of the bridge that is being build between the mainland and the small locality of Iranduba.
Most of my Brazilian friends, pointing out that there was nothing on the other side, were quick to dismiss the project as a white elephant dreamed up by corrupt politicians so that they could enrich themselves.
Given the nature of Brazil’s regional politics, there could certainly be an element of truth to that. On the other hand, however, maybe the reason why there is nothing on the other side is that people can’t get there in the first place.
Perhaps, once the bridge is built, Iranduba’s real estate will become more valuable, residential and commercial development will start, and with it many new, profitable businesses.
The bridge is a vivid metaphor of the vision successful entrepreneurs have always shown:
The world of business is full of successful entrepreneurs who were repeatedly told that there was nothing on the other side, but went ahead and built the bridge anyway.
A few years ago, my wife and I visited the Croatian island of Korcula. We arrived on a Sunday night. The plan was to do some sightseeing on Monday, and return to Dubrovnik on Tuesday so we could take the flight back to Miami Wednesday morning. Early on Monday, we walked to the bus station to get our ticket, only to have the attendant tell us: “sorry, it is not possible”. The bus schedule had changed, and instead of the usual daily buses to Dubrovnik, there was only one bus per week, on Sundays.
Our first reaction was to laugh, not at the situation, mind you, but at the expression: “Sorry, it is not possible”. We’d already heard it many times during our trip, after asking questions like: may we have a late check-out? or, may I substitute fries for the salad? As Americans, we don’t like to be told that something is not possible (“Just Do It”, remember?) so we immediately started looking for options:
Then we thought, what about a taxi? Now, you don’t usually take a taxi for a 200 km trip, but when you’re running out of options and you must absolutely, positively find a solution or else… you can get very creative very quickly. We decided to talk to the hostel operator about this option, and fortunately for us, her best friend happened to be a taxi driver. She offered to take us for $200, more or less what she made in a full day’s work.
Granted, $200 was more than the bus would have cost us, but the bus option didn’t exist any more. On the other hand, a hundred bucks per person may sound expensive, but only if you see it as a taxi ride. If you look at it as a half day excursion in a comfortable car, driven by a helpful local who can show you all the small towns along the way, and take you to the best spots to eat and take pictures, it starts sounding like a bargain. By changing our frame of reference from “taxi ride” to “excursion” we were able to find a creative solution to our problem.
Changing our frame of reference is a great way to come up with creative solutions and innovative brand ideas:
Sometimes all it takes to solve a problem or come up with a good idea is to step out of our little mental ghettos and look at things from a different perspective.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaimann/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
A few weeks ago I took my car to the dealer for an oil change and the clerk promised it would be ready in about 1 ½ hours. Once the car was ready, he presented me with a questionnaire which asked, among other things, if the car was delivered within the promised time frame. The answer was yes, or course, but the promised time frame was 1 ½ hours, or about 1 hour more than it should really take. Sandbaggers.
Four years ago, after hurricane Wilma hit South Florida, FPL advised us that full restoration of power could take four weeks. Eighteen days later (ahead of schedule, of course) full power was restored. Sandbaggers.
Perhaps the ultimate sandbaggers are Wall Street guys, who insist they deserve bonuses in spite of piling up billions of dollars in losses (because if it weren’t for them the losses would be much greater, of course). Sandbaggers.
Setting low ball goals breeds a culture of complacency and underachievement. Setting two types of goals, regular (easy) and stretch (hard), is also counterproductive, because it allows us to claim victory even if the stretch goals are not achieved.
Every goal should be a stretch goal. Stretch goals should be hard, but achievable, and should require us to exercise creativity and effort above and beyond the call of duty. If you want to instill a culture of performance, always set stretch, ambitious goals and give people the guidance, tools and support to achieve them.
I don’t watch TV, but I do have the strong habit of watching web videos of great presentations. I can easily become glued to sites like TED the same way TV junkies get hooked to Lost or Dancing With the Stars.
Probably one of the greatest presentations I’ve seen lately is Oprah’s commencement address at Duke University, which took place last May.
After watching it for the first time, I felt compelled to watch it again, this time taking notes. Here are the reasons why I think Oprah’s delivery is so effective:
Seeing Oprah address a large group with confidence may seem natural, since we’ve always known her as a media superstar. However, to get to that level she’s had to work very hard. Confidence is perhaps the most important ingredient of any successful presentation. Knowing your stuff is a good way to start building the confidence you need.
Your presentations shouldn’t be about “you”, they should be about “them”. Just as Oprah takes time to recognize the mothers of the graduating class, take time to acknowledge those who helped you with a project, and thank your audience for giving you their most precious asset: their attention.
While you shouldn’t speak about yourself all the time (it gets boring fast) by all means do sprinkle personal anecdotes here and there to give credibility to what you’re saying. For example, show how you’ve solved a relevant problem in the past. Oprah draws upon a wealth of personal anecdotes to bring her speech to life.
Don’t be afraid to shock people to get your message across. Notice how, when speaking about overcoming obstacles, Oprah tells the story of a young woman who, after falling ill with a rare flesh eating infection, had to have her limbs amputated to save her life. You can bet that at that point Oprah had her audience’s undivided attention.
One good way to make your points effectively is to use images. If you’re talking about the devastation caused by a hurricane, show an aerial view of the disaster area instead of tables and pie charts. Similarly, instead of just displaying a bullet-pointed list telling how great your product is, show a picture of a satisfied customer using your product.
Always explain how your examples are relevant to your audience. Throughout her speech, Oprah clearly makes the connection between the experiences of the people she met on her show, and how the graduates can extrapolate those experiences and apply them to their own professional life.
Just as you need to contact a prospect an average of seven times before you make a sale, repeating your main ideas often increases the probability that your audience will remember them. Notice how Oprah always repeats the following words after she makes a point: “If you [do this] you will be a huge success”.
One of the best parts of the speech comes when Oprah mentions how great it is to live in a big house and fly in a private jet (this at a time when CEOs were being chastised by the media for their propensity to travel in style). Even though afterward she recognizes that there are more important things, she doesn’t portray herself as hollier-than-thou by pretending she doesn’t like the finer things in life.
Similarly, in your presentations, don’t be afraid to expose weaknesses, to say things that may not be very popular, or to acknowledge that you don’t have all the answers. We tend to like and trust more those who sound human than those who sound like a carefully rehearsed sales pitch.
Oprah mentions the importance of following your gut, and gives examples of how sometimes she’s had to go against the recommendations of others. If you’re going to speak in front of a group, make sure that you believe in what you’re about to say.
When all the lights are on you, and you’re all alone holding the mike and the laser pointer, you become the spokesman and the endorser of whatever you’re about to say. Don’t compromise your credibility and integrity by talking about something you don’t believe in.
Notice how Oprah sums up her whole speech in one simple takeaway: “follow your gut”. In this age of “death-by-PowerPoint”, information overload and short attention spans, take this extra step to make sure your main ideas sink in. Your audience will thank you for that.
Aside from these nine observations, we could add one more: practice, practice, practice. The fact that Oprah’s speech flows so naturally is because she is a pro. You can do the same if you remember these tips and consciously start to apply them in your presentations.
In summary, for a great presentation:
If you’ve read up to this point, please take the time to watch the speech or read it here.
Last week American Airlines stopped accepting cash to pay for on board beverages and meals. Good decision. Now, instead of scurrying for change, flight attendants can focus on their core task: keeping passengers safe and comfortable.
Photo Credits: The Consumerist
Many companies complicate their operations by trying to please everybody. Others, engage in activities that are not aligned with their goals and objectives, just because the other guys are doing them. The misguided belief that the customer (any customer) is always right often results in a muddled and unfocused brand, and operational inefficiencies.
Some companies, though, are not afraid of making tough choices, like deciding which customers they want to serve and what activities, processes and products they will focus on. Those who do create strong brands and efficient businesses.
For example, Internet banks are able to offer better rates to people who don’t mind banking online instead of a branch office.
Writers and musicians can increase their revenue by selling their work only on their website, a minor inconvenience that their true fans won’t mind.
An Italian restaurant in my neighborhood serves a killer lasagna only the first Wednesday of the month. They don’t take reservations and the average waiting time is about an hour.
As a company, the trick to “have it your way” and still build a thriving business is to focus on your best customers (in the case of Internet banks, the relatively young and web savvy), find out what is important to them (higher interest rates), and what is not important to them (branch offices).
Some companies have even been able to create entirely new market niches just by observing an existing industry, challenging the validity of some of the standard practices and assumptions, and incorporating elements that nobody else is focusing on.
If you would like to read real case studies of companies that became successful following this approach, I recommend reading Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
