Here’s the answer to your problem…!

It’s an easy trap to fall into…you’re good at what you do, you know your product / service inside and out and you genuinely want to help your prospective customer (and make a sale).  So once you get a quick overview of their situation, you start your sales pitch.

The problem is when you jump right into selling mode, you aren’t listening anymore…and you’re not even helping.  Even if you think you really understand the problem, you haven’t made the connection with the other person that you’ll have to have if you want to close the sale…and without that connection…and without really understanding the real issue, you’re not going to close a sale.

Start with listening

Listening gets a lot of lip service…you won’t find very many people arguing that it’s important to listen, but the reality is that very few people actually do it consistently.  Next time you’re in a larger group setting, pay attention to those not talking.  Are they focused and attentively listening…or does it look more like they’re waiting for their chance to jump into the conversation?

Here are a few things you’ll get if you spend more time listening up front:

• A connection with the other person who will appreciate you took the time to listen
• Context around not just what the problem is, but what the impact is
• The urgency of the problem (and how quickly they need a solution)
• The prospective customer’s financial situation…can they afford a solution
• An idea of how they’ve tried to solve the problem prior to this

Listening not only makes you smarter…but it creates and builds the relationship.

Now start helping

By listening first you’re now in a real position to help someone…in fact if you want to close a sale, the next step is to genuinely help the person you were listening to.

The good news is that you’re in a powerful position – you understand your industry, your solution and now you understand their problem and situation.  You are in a great place to help them…and it has nothing to do with spouting the benefits of your product.  Now is the time to really dig in and talk to them as if they were a friend or family member.  How can you really help them?

I’m not suggesting that you have to give away the farm, but making sales in today’s environment is all about solving problems first.  There’s a great article in Forbes recently: To Increase Revenue Stop Selling that really gets to the heart of this – here’s a quote that struck me:

If you want to create revenue, increase customer satisfaction, and drive brand equity, stop selling and start adding value.

In a nutshell, your job as a salesperson (or business owner) is to solve problems.  If you can do that and establish a positive rapport…people will buy from you.  As simple as that.

Try This:

Next time you’re meeting with a prospective client, put your sales pitch away and listen, really listen to what they’re struggling with and then do your best to help them…without pushing them for a sale.  It may take a bit of getting used to, but you will make serious progress and close more deals than you’ve been doing before!

What are your thoughts on consultative selling?  Have you had a great (or awful) experience with someone selling to you?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

“Hire Quality People”

It was on a piece of paper, given to me by a dealer mentor when I bought my dealership in 1997. A handwritten recipe with 5 areas I should master to have a successful business. In fact, the entire hand written document only contained about 200 words. There was no fluff, just to the point directives, that if followed, would yield a healthy prosperous business. At the top of the list he had written: People, “Hire quality people”.

From a recent poll in the Kansas City Business Journal:

69% of metro area businesses hired someone in the first quarter of this year!

I was reminded of that 15 year old note this past week as we were visiting with the owner of a young growing business. He was telling us how he simply hires the best of the best in what they do. He sees the value in paying for quality and knows the output is going to be relative to the quality of the employee. The other interesting component we heard is how he is defining a culture and when he hires employees that match the company culture the chances of a successful hire increase exponentially.

I thought back to some of the early hires I made and how those decisions positioned us for growth when the opportunities presented themselves in the following years. If you have employees you need to make every effort to get the right people on your team; quality people. Competition is tough and there is no reason to think it will not keep getting tougher.  But if you Hire Quality People you have a great chance to win!

Below are the words typed verbatim from the handwritten note in 1997:

1. Hire Quality People

A) Positions Company Better for Growth

B) Positions Company Better in case of employee loss

C) Customers – See Visually & Experience quality people, thus the dealer can keep customers

D) Gets things done correctly.

What is a Quality person? A quality person does not necessary know everything when you hire them, but they are trainable. They work well in their environment. They understand the whole is better than the individual. They are assertive. They are trustworthy and committed.  They share the company core values.  They ‘get it’.  They want to be there and they are capable of doing the work in the right way.

What is amazing to me is that considering how much has changed in the way we do business in the last 15 years, just how accurate the advice still is. The clear message still resonates even today…Hire Quality People!

We love to hear your thoughts, what are you doing to Hire Quality People?  (Or do you need to get rid of some less than quality people to make room first?)

Chris Steinlage   Kansas City Business Coach

Photo by Phillie Casablanca

Are you keeping up?  Are you consistently learning new things and being exposed to new ideas?  If not – then your long term business success is definitely at risk!

The world, especially the business world, continues to change at a pace that accelerates every single day.  Think about all the stuff that’s now critical to business success that wasn’t even around 5 or 10 years ago:

• Social Media, Search Engine Optimization and online marketing in general
• Cloud based stuff – sharing documents, collaborating, easy access anywhere
• Mobile – location, coupons, social, smart phones in every hand
• Content and educational based marketing vs. interruption marketing
• New apps and platforms for operations, productivity, communication…

This list could go on for a while – the point is there’s a lot of changes that you need to keep up with if you want to win…or actually if you just want to keep playing!

And there’s more – business owners typically start out as experts in their industry…and they know a lot less about all of the other aspects of their business.  If you want to win, you need to be learning best practices and ideas when it comes to marketing, sales, leadership, operations, finance, human resources and strategy on top of your product, service and industry knowledge.

The reality is that the most successful people (and business owners) are going to be the ones who keep learning throughout their life.

“Learning is not compulsory…neither is survival.”  Dr. W. Edwards Deming

If you’re not learning, you are being left behind.  End of story.  (Here’s a scary statistic – 42% of college graduates never read another book after college…that’s the road to obsolescence).

The good news is there are more options than ever to help you get into a habit of learning – here are just a few ideas that might help you get started.

Bite Sized Chunks of Knowledge

One great way to learn is to find a few blogs or other online article sources that cater to topics you need to stretch in.

As an example, if you want to learn more about online marketing, social media and content marketing, I would start with Copyblogger, Hubspot and Social Media Examiner with a side of Seth Godin for good measure.

Of course you could visit those sites on a regular basis, but a better way to make sure you kept up with the learning would be to subscribe to an RSS feed, which means you can get updates sent to you either by email or to a Reader that  you might use.

You could (and should) also sign up for Smartbrief where you can pick the daily email updates you’d like to get based on industry and focus – basically it’s a curated best of the web based on your interests.  Great articles from top sources like Harvard Business Review, American Express Open Forums, Inc., Fast Company, etc.

Finally you could also check out an aggregator like Alltop or Popurls which starts with what’s popular / hot now across a variety of topics, but can also be customized to your preferences.

Fill your drive time with great ideas

Maybe you’re not as much of a reader…or you spend a lot of time in the car (where you shouldn’t be reading…at least not if you’re driving).  You’re in luck -  there are some great choices for absorbing your knowledge through your ears.

I’d start with Audible – home to all sorts of audio books.  Audio books tend to be more expensive than the paper or eBook variations, but with Audible you can sign up for a monthly membership that cuts your cost down to no more than $14.95 per book (and often less).  You will also need an MP3 player (i.e. iPod, iPad or lots of inexpensive players out there as well).

The narrators for the books can vary wildly – some are great, while others can be pretty annoying.  Make sure you sample before you commit to hours of listening to the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.  For many business books, the author is the narrator, which can make it more interesting and personal.  I especially enjoyed The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk (lots of extras from the author) and Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh.

If you want your listening in more bite sized chunks, then you should check out Podcasting, kind of an audio version of blogging and the podcasts are typically free (although you will still need an MP3 player).  It can be challenging to find stuff you want to listen to at first, which is why this LifeHacker article on Finding Great Podcasts is a good place to start.

Go Old  School…and read a book!

You probably don’t have time to read or maybe you haven’t picked up a book since college, but there are tremendous rewards to finding a great book that can unlock a new way of thinking for you…and business books are not all dry and boring (sure some of the are, but a lot aren’t).

Want to get inspired and figure out how to start working fewer hours in your business?  Check out The 4 Hour Workweek.  (Note – a lot of what he says is over the top and not practical, but it will make you think and you will come away inspired with new ideas for your business).

Want to pick up a bunch of great, tangible ideas to help you sell more?  Then check out The Ultimate Sales Machine – it’s especially good for Business to Business sales.

The point is there are a ton of great books out there – if you’re not sure where to start, I would check out 1-800-CEO-Read to see what’s popular and what’s new.  I also think this list of the “99 Best Business Books” from Josh Kaufman is strong.

What would it take to get you to start actively learning?  Is it currently a priority for you?  What’s really holding you back if you’re not doing this today?  This is critical to your success…are you up to it?  What’s your opinion (share your thoughts in the comments below).

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

Even extremely successful business owners have issues they don’t want to deal with – they think  “I’ll do it tomorrow”, and tomorrow is the day that never comes.  Some things just fall into that category of ‘I need to put this off’.

Do you ever find yourself sliding important issues you really don’t want to deal with further down your priority list?  You’d rather work on something less painful, less stressful, and less exhausting than dealing with the “that issue” right now.

For business owners this can be a dangerous trap to get caught in. Yes, it can be easy to justify doing other tasks you’re accomplishing in lieu of “that issue”. There are always plenty of other things to do and if you’re even halfway creative, you can put something you don’t want to do off indefinitely.  This trap can happen even if you’ve got a team working for you – maybe it’s the kind of thing you can’t delegate or maybe you just recognize that if you don’t want to do it, then it’s not really fair to pass the buck.

At one point in my career, the inevitable employee termination was “that issue” for me. When all other options were exhausted and additional training and coaching was not going to change the unavoidable outcome…I knew I had to fire someone. But even after all of that, I found reasons to delay, to make other tasks more important.  Of course bad news doesn’t get better with time, so eventually experience taught me that pulling the trigger was not something I could put off until tomorrow.  It wasn’t helping anyone to delay (including the employee) by finding excuses not to address it.

What are you putting off until ‘tomorrow’?

Businesses are different, businesses are the same.

Think about this…

Have you ever noticed most business books and business articles resonate with the majority of business owner regardless of the industry? You read the book and it’s like the author must have secretly visited your business! The reason is that, although every business may have challenges that are unique, there are a number of cross industry issues that nearly every for-profit business deals with, yours included.

Many of the best sellers are simply a rehash of the same topics in a different wrapper. The reason the books continue to sell is because the issues are real and if you don’t pay attention to them your business may not survive. The authors know it and their audience knows it. Despite the importance and understanding…ironically, businesses continue to find ways to keep these kinds of topics in limbo; Just put it off until tomorrow!

If this scenario sounds familiar, maybe it is time to identify what’s been getting put off your plate and act on it. Move it to the top of your priority list. You owe it to your business, your customers, and your employees. You and your business will be healthier for it.

Easier said than done right?

Looking for help?

One of the best ways to step up and address the hard issues is to get some support.  If you would like to do this with other business owners – business peers who share common issues, then you should check out the Aspire Business Growth Program.  Get into an environment with other successful business owners and lead your company through those recurring topics you keep reading about. But this time, instead of just learning, you will also write your own chapter of successfully implementing a solution! Move “that issue” from tomorrow to today. You can do it! We guarantee you’ll be glad you did.

What are the things in your business you find yourself putting off until tomorrow?  Share  your thoughts in the comments below.

Chris Steinlage Kansas City Business Coach

How important is likeability to your business success?  It’s been said before (by me and many others) that all things being equal, people prefer to do business with someone they know, LIKE and trust.  Certainly from a sales perspective it’s important to be likeable, but it also plays into lots of other components of your business as well.

Do other business owners like you?

Entrepreneurs are generally pretty independent…it’s kind of a requirement if you want to succeed at building your own business.  However independent doesn’t mean that you don’t connect and engage in positive ways with your peers – other business owners.  In fact, these days it’s impossible to succeed (in the long run) if you don’t have a strong network of other businesses who like you.

Collaboration – Smart business owners don’t try to be all things to all people…and they need partners they can trust to help them with stuff that’s not a strength but still needed by customers.

Support – Along the same lines, smart business owners find ways to outsource many of the non-core aspects of their business.  That could include accounting, marketing, web development and design, product creation…maybe even sales or customer support.

Referrals – Finally most successful businesses generate a lot of referrals from other businesses who see the value in the great work that you do.

But here’s the catch – no one is going to want to collaborate with you, give you their best support (go above and beyond) or send you any referrals if they don’t like you!

Do your employees like you?

In this economy it’s tough to find a job, so people are hanging on to jobs…even when they hate them. (Up to 84% of employees are looking to leave?)  You don’t have to be best friends with your employees (in fact that can bring other challenges)…however it’s guaranteed they are not going to do their best work if they don’t like you.  They won’t go the extra mile…and even worse (and more likely) they will subtly undermine whatever you’re trying to do.

Small business success is driven by great employees.  You can’t succeed without their support.

Do your customers like you?

Yes people tend to buy from someone they know, like and trust, but there are many times when they’ll buy from someone who they don’t like for a variety of reasons (more convenient, cheaper, limited options).

But here’s the thing – if your customers don’t like you, they aren’t going to tell anyone else about you (unless it’s a negative)…and they are going to run away from you as soon as they see a viable alternative.

What’s it take to be likeable?

The good news is that likeability can be cultivated – it doesn’t require certain genetics, anyone can become more likeable with some effort and awareness.  In fact it starts with awareness – how do you treat others?  How do they react to you?  Are you aware of things that you consistently say or do that rock the boat with others?  Do you legitimately care and want to be liked?  (If the answer is ‘no’ to this one, then you may have some problems with long term success…!).

In terms of efforts and where to focus – start by focusing on having a positive attitude.  It’s difficult to not like someone who is smiling and looking at the bright side of things.  From there, the other key thing to focus on is how you can help other people.  Odds are that’s a big part of what your business is about, so make that a more prominent part of what you do and how you do it – it’s difficult not to like someone who is legitimately trying to help you.

Guy Kawasaki recently wrote a compelling book called Enchantment (review of Enchantment here) and one of the keys to creating an enchanting business is being likeable.  To that end, he created an infographic with a bunch of specific ideas on How to Increase Your Likeability.

Are you (and your business) likeable?  Is it important to you?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – please share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach