Story Telling for Selling

A response to a response

I came across this post recently and found myself immediately putting pen to paper, so to speak. Generally speaking, this is usually a mistake, but I couldn't help myself. Would love to hear your thoughts....

Here's the original post and below it is my reponse.

A reponse to a dangerous post

I’m going to make myself unpopular here, but putting content online, content that tells salespeople what they should be doing at every stage of the deal is not disruptive. It’s merely adding another channel. No different (conceptually) to reading a book or listening to CD’s.

Great training is never about showing people what to do. Great training requires three distinct elements;

1) Credibility – the students must not just believe the trainer, they must believe IN the trainer

2) Inspiration – to paraphrase the great WB Yeats – ‘training’ is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire

3) Discovery – Most people learn best by discovering their own blind-spots. That’s why most sales training fails to deliver – people rarely see what’s in their own blindspot. Most sales reps are legends in their own heads.

This reminds me of what a light aircraft trainer said to me when I enquired about what would be involved in taking flying lessons. He told me that within 4 or 5 lessons I’d be taking off and landing solo. Then he told me that I would need at least another 35 lessons before becoming a pilot. This surprised me (after all I’m taking off and landing after at most 5 lessons).

“Ah” he replied, “as soon as you can demonstrate the basics, we take you to 10,000 feet and cut the engine off, just to test you under pressure”

Sales training that isn’t ‘cutting the engine off’ only enables people to continue deluding themselves that they are better than they really are.

 

Who's for Dinner?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture yourself as a lion ­ strong, fearless, head of the pride, and all the business issues that you face daily as either antelopes or squirrels. Even when a lion is dying of hunger, he won't give chase to any of the many smaller animals as a source of food.

Even though, squirrels are nearby and they would offer a quick & tasty snack. The lion has no interest. Why? Because he knows that if he did make the effort to catch one ­ there is still always an outside chance that he would fail ­and one small squirrel snack simply wouldn't sustain him.

However, no matter how weakened by hunger, should the lion spy an antelope in the distance, the very sight of it will move the lion to action ­ and even though he knows that a failed effort could be the end of him, the lion commits to the hunt. ­

As even if there is a slight chance of success, he¹ll give it his all ­ because a succulent antelope will fill his belly for weeks to come. The greater reward is worth it, and so the lion begins the process of single-minded focused effort that is required to make a successful killing.

A mind focused upon a single antelope is what characterises successful businesspeople. Have you identified your antelope? Or do you chase squirrels everyday wasting energy and effort at the expense of hunting more fulfilling Antelopes?

Link to an Existing Narrative to Tell Your Story

 

Reagan was a master story teller. It's for a good reason he was known as the great communicator. However, his reference to High Noon in the video above wasn't lost on Bill Clinton, another artful communicator.

Peter Guber once studio chief at Columbia Pictures, CEO of Polygram Records and CEO of Sony Entertainment, recalls a pivotal moment in the election of Bill Clinton to the Whitehouse in his excellent book Tell to Win 

In 1992 Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas and Democratic Presidential hopeful. Pounded  by allegations of draft dodging and sexual shenanigans he lost the New Hamshire Primary. Not since 1952 had a candidate won the presidency without first winning New Hampshire and since the golden rule is that money flows where the money goes – this loss put Clinton’s organization in fiscal crises.

One of Clintons chiefs, called Guber the morning after the primary and said that for Clinton to move on to the next key primary state, they needed to raise $90,000 by the end of the day. The amount requested was a red flag to Guber as he reckoned that the campaign needed at least $500,000 to make the finish line. $90,000 smacked of desparation. To add to Grubers discomfort, campaign rules meant that individual donations couldn’t exceed $1,000. This meant that Guber had to put his reputation on the line with 90 close friends and associates, all before the sun set. He needed Clinton to persuade him that he had a real chance.

Clinton called him up and said “Hello Peter, this is Bill”

Then there was a long pause............. Clinton spoke and asked Guber “Have you ever seen the picture High Noon?”

High Noon is the classic 1952 Fred Zinneman western staring Gary Cooper as the heroic sheriff Will Kane, who spends most of his time preparing to face off against a notorious gang that’s due to arrive on the noon train. Kane expects the community to back him up in his fight, but only one young boy has the nerve to stand by him as he nervously waits for his moment of truth.

Clinton didn’t need to explain the story to Guber, he just said “Peter, this is High Noon”

Those words transported Guber into the broader narrative of the movie. Here was the hero Clinton facing down the bad guys and he needed Guber at his side.

After Guber and Clinton had hung up, Guber went to meet Sid Ganis, head of marketing at Sony. Over a coffee he told him about the call and asked his advice on how he could persuade 90 people to cough up $1,000 each. “Simple”, said Ganis, call everyone we know and tell them that story…

“You know High Noon the movie they asked each person. Of course they did, this was in Hollywood – “well this is “High Noon” for Bill Clinton We need you and your wife to each give $1,000 and we need it now before the noon whistle blows. In our case High Noon is 4pm.

At 4pm Guber called Clinton’s chief of staff. “It’s High Noon, and you’ve got your money. Now go take on the bad guys and win”

The rest they say is history

 

Our greatest weakness is not what we believe it to be.

Our greatest weakness is our inability/unwillingness to acknowledge our weaknesses. In doing so, we condemn ourselves to a life of lost potential.

Bullseye!

There once was a warrior who prided himself in being the finest archer in the land. 

One day he came to a village and saw a bull’s eye on a tree with an arrow sticking out right from the center.

“Whoever shot that arrow must be a fine marksman” said the warrior to himself.

He hadn’t gone much further when he saw another bull’s eye, and another, and another – and all of them had arrows right in the center of the target.

He found the village elders and said “Whoever that marksman is I must meet him, ask him to meet me today, in one hours time by river."

He waited by the river but the only other person there was a small child playing on the bank. She came over to where he was standing. and asked “Are you waiting for someone sir?”

“Run along little girl, be on your way.” said the warrior. The little girl continued, “ I was told to meet someone here and you look like you are waiting."

The warrior looked at her and said, “It is true I am waiting to meet the great archer who is responsible for shooting all these perfect shots I see all over the village.”

"That would be me.", said the little girl. "I made all those shots.”

The warrior looked down at her and said, “Tell me how exactly you got a perfect shot every time?"

“That’s easy” replied the girl “I just point my bow very straight and let the arrow fly then I draw a bull's eye where it lands."

....and that's how the process of sales forecasting began

Time passes, meaning changes

1990

Marketeer says "hurry, avoid disappointment, places strictly limited"

We think 'I'd better book my place before they're all gone'

 

2011

Marketeer says "hurry, avoid disappointment, places strictly limited"

We think 'they must be struggling to fill places, I'd better hold off and see if anyone else is going first'

The Great Maldini and the lesson of the Wheelbarrow

Upon completing a highly dangerous tightrope walk, in appalling wind and rain, over Snake River in Idaho, 'The Great Maldini' was met by an enthusiastic fan, who urged him to make a return trip, this time pushing a wheelbarrow, which the spectator had thoughtfully brought along.

The Great Maldini was not very keen on the idea, given the terrible conditions, but the supporter pressed him, "You can do it - I know you can," he urged.

"You really believe I can do it?" asked Maldini.

"Yes - definitely - you can do it, I know you can do it" the supporter gushed.

"Okay," said Maldini, "Get in the wheelbarrow..."

Maybe you have your very own enthusiastic supporters? Enthusiastic customers and prospective clients who encourage and cajole you with all the right words, but do not back them up with action

Perhaps you have clients who think nothing of asking you to spend days writing a proposal that they have little intention of reading?

Possibly you have customers who expect you to travel miles to their office and then cancel at the last moment?

Conceivably you have prospects who promise they’ll get back to you and then you never hear from them again?

‘Ah yes’, you say, but that’s what clients do. They’re the rules of the game. The customer is always right. Really? Who wrote the rules? My suspicion is those rules were written by a customer – a rather selfish and inconsiderate one. Who said that we can’t have different rules?

Has your product or service such little value. Have your time, knowledge, experience and insights no worth? If these people see your efforts, your product and your schedule as something so unimportant they can discard you, it means two things: one, they don’t value you and what you have to offer; two, they’ll do it again. 

Ask yourself. When you make a sale, what sort of return on investment does your customer receive? Unless you’re selling snake oil, your customers are getting a return on investment several times what they paid. So what gives them the right to treat you like dirt? Who trains them?

Newsflash! You do!

Every time you agree to write a proposal without a clear commitment as to what happens next, you devalue your expertise and you send a clear message to your prospects that it's ok not to give commitments

Every time you show up on a prospect’s premises without a clear agenda, you are teaching the prospect that your time has little value. Like you had nothing else to do. 

Every time you discount your price you teach the prospect that pressure gets rewarded. If you yielded last time, what’s to say you won’t yield next time?

It’s just as David Sandler says …. “You cannot get mad at a prospect for doing something you didn’t tell him he couldn’t do.”

If you want to be treated like a run-ragged, low margin, subservient vendor, its simple - act like one. Do whatever your prospect tells you to do and never ask for a commitment in return.

If on the other hand you want your prospect to treat you like a valued business partner, the answer is simple - act like one.  Play a little ‘hard-to-get’ and see where it gets you. If your prospects see you as someone who is in demand and who is respected, they will be drawn to you. Again, it’s human nature. People are attracted to people who are popular – they don’t want to be left out.

In a way, any sales negotiation is a bit of a balancing act. Oversell and you put them off, undersell and they miss the benefits. Just remember you’re not on your own, your prospect is balancing too. But remember he mightn’t know so it’s your job to tell your him to ‘get in the wheelbarrow’ – he’s not going to volunteer to get in.

 

Forecast Phobia

Research by Gemma Briggs of the Open University in the UK found that talking on the phone about spiders causes more driving errors among people who are spider-phobic than among people who are not, indicating that the emotional aspects of cell-phone conversations may affect drivers' ability to control their attention. In a study of 23 people operating driving simulators, the spider-phobics had an average of about 6.5 driving errors when conversing about spiders, compared with 4.5 for nonphobics.

The lesson is this for Sales Managers is - don't talk to your salespeople about their forecast while they are driving! 

You could be responsible for a nasty accident!

People buy for their reasons

I was recently talking to the IT Director of a large organisation I happen to know and we got chatting about what he looks for from vendors, etc.

I asked him if he had ever purchased technology that was more expensive and performed less well than its competition. I wasn't too shocked when he confirmed that he had, but I was taken aback when he explained why....

Heis company was wall-to-wall technology from vendor A (a very large well know fortune 100 tech company) and the logical, economic, technical, political best decision would have been to buy a new platform from vendor A but he didn't. Instead he purchased from vendor B (a very large well know fortune 100 rival tech company). Vendor B's solution was also more expensive than vendor A's.

His reason......he wanted to be able to put on his CV that he had implemented a solution from vendor B.

It really is true, people buy for their reasons and price is rarely a key factor.

The Promiscuous Nature of So-Called Partnership

I’ve never been to Ronda (Spain). From what I can see online, it's a stunningly beautiful place. So when I decided I fancied visiting the place, my first task was to find a hotel. Being of a somewhat lazy disposition, I decided to let google do the searching for me.

Low and behold the first site to grab my attention was Trip Advisor, which offered a plethora of hotels I could choose from. The top rated hotel (by feedback) was the Hotel San Gabriel.

I entered the dates that I wanted but was disappointed to get a message telling me that rooms were not available for the dates I have selected. Trip Advisor then offered me rooms in it’s other ‘parter’ hotels in Ronda.

I really like the look of the Hotel San Gabriel, so I decided to try their own site. Guess what? – plenty of room available. It certainly redefined the meaning of the word partnership for me.

Then I began to wonder........in the technology world all the big vendors have their own, often overlapping, network of partners.

Are these real partnerships working for long term mutual gain and support or are they of the promiscuous ‘Trip Advosor’ type.

I’m OK with the latter – just don’t call it partnership.