Paul Lanigan

Email aLERT

I was a fly on the wall during a conversation between a Senior VP (Sales) and two recently hired sales reps. The two reps were relatimg to the VP some support changes they felt would make their role more productive.

The Sales VP listened and then agreed with them, suggesting that the reps continue with their initiative. Taken a little aback at the support they had received from a manager 5 levels up in the organisation, one of the reps (wisely) checked his understanding and asked...."so you're ok if we send an email about <topic> and refer to our conversation with you?"

The response the rep received to this request was, in my experience, not typical of what you hear in large multi national organisations. It was succinct and unequivical.....

"you can send any email as long as it is ........

• Legal

• Ethical

• Respectful

• Truthful

Great advice for all corporate communication.

$6 Billion Waste?

A response to David stein's question

'How do you fix sales ineffectiveness'

“The root causes of sales ineffectiveness are clear." according to Dave Stein on his popular blog. "There is plenty of sound advice about how to fix the problem. There are companies you can read about and observe, that have achieved sales excellence.”

Ok Dave, go on.

The 100 year old art of Sales Training is backed by an astonishing 30,000 books available on 'How to Sell' through amazon.com alone, though there's only a third that number on 'Sales Techniques'. 

Old yet proven tools are rejected as 'old school' by many of these books, yet no definitive, industry standard exists as would in another profession, be it "Gray's Anatomy" for doctors or "Salvato's Environmental Engineering" for sanitation engineers.

Fair point Dave.

He cites the number of blogs, training companies, webinars, eBooks, articles and white papers available - many offering solid advice. He lists an eye-popping array of highly respected surveys and research, still with no leading light regarded as the benchmark.

He puts it all in financial context by pointing out that US corporations spent about $6 billion on sales performance improvement in 2008 yet sales productivity, prior to the recession, was down. 

Hey, that doesn't look good! 

But hang on a minute. How much of that literature, blogature, and coursework is about sales theory and how much is about the essential element common to all transactions - the human being? 

Download $6 Billion Waste

Be careful how you describe what you do

Is is possible that the simplicity or complexity of how a task is described or information is presented and internalised affects how you feel about the task itself?

Two psychologists at the university of Michigan dcided to investigate this idea in their lab.

The two psychologists wanted to see if they could motivate students to exercise regularly. So, they devised two sets of instructions. One set of instructions were printed in plain Arial font. The same instructions were also printed using a less familiar and harder to read font (Brush).

After the students had read their respective instructions, the scientists ashed them some questions about the exercise regime; how long they thought it would take, whether it would be boring, drag on, etc. The students were also asked if the exercise regime would be made part of their day.

The results were stark. The students who read the instructions in Arial font were much more positive towards the idea of exercising, believing the regime would take less time, and that it would feel more fluid and easy. More importantly, they were willing to make exercise a fixture in their day.

It appears that the students brains transferred the ease with which they were able to digest the instructions to their attitude towards exercise. Those who had to grind through the Brush font were much more negative to the idea of heading to the gym. The reading alone tired them out.

The lesson I take out of this is that if our commuincation with prospects (our websites, brochures, emails, presentations, conversations, etc.) isn't simple, uncluttered and clear, then their attitude towards doing business with us will be much impaired.

You never see Obama use Powerpoint

I had lunch today with a friend who works as an Account Director for a large Software business. She bemoaned the (over)reliance of some people on powerpoint when making presentations.

"You never see Obama, Mandela or Churchill using powerpoint"

I though it was a brilliant observation. Think about the great communicators you know and ask yourself, how often you see them rely on powerpoint!

Drawing to a close

As someone who has always believed that I have no talent for drawing, I was blown away after reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. Below is a typical 'before and after' example of what other people who, unlike me, decided to let go of their self limiting beliefs and develop their innate talent.

However, what struck me most was Ms Edwards comment that most people view drawing as a talent that you are born with. But this is because, she adds, most people don't understand the components - the learnable components of drawing. This is the bit that grabbed me most...... the components of drawing skills are not drawing skills at all - they're 'seeing' skills. They are the ability to perceive edges, spaces, relationships, light and shadows. 

Drawing requires us to learn each component skill and then combine them into one process. Some people pick up these skills in the natural course of their lives, where as others have to work to learn them and put them together. But as you can see from the illustration above - anyone can do it.

Top sales professionals know that selling is far more about 'seeing' the components of the prospects situation than it is about 'drawing' solutions on the prospect's canvas.

Where the drawing artist 'see's edges, spaces, relationships, light and shadows, the sales professional works with different components, such as body language, voice tone, emotion and logic. Instead of a brush, the sales artist uses his/her own set of tools such as posture, questioning, argument and intonation to create the masterpiece that we call 'THE SALE'