Sales | Foghound

Knowing when to quit

February 7, 2013 By Lois Kelly Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago I was leading an American Marketing Association workshop about how to gain approval and adoption of new ideas. We covered the first four items on the following list through a series exercises and then I asked everyone which of #5 – 10 they most wanted to spend time on.

1. What’s at stake?

2. Make the status quo unappealing

3. Use the SCARF model

4. Uncover the hidden motives

5. It’s an experiment

6. What’s the real issue?

7. Move away from drama

8. Befriend the Bureaucratic Black Belts

9. Stay under the radar

10. Know when to quit

People loved #10. I have to confess I was surprised and perhaps not prepared enough. How do you know when it’s time to let an idea go? Or stop trying to get a project funded? Or get people interested in adopting a new way? Or even leave a job?

Here’s what I suggested:

Rate importance: Ask your boss or client how important a particular project is to them on a scale of 1 – 10. If it’s below six, it’s just not that important. At this point you’ll probably have a hard time getting it to 9 or 10. If they say 7 or 8, ask them what it what would make it a 9 or 10. Then listen very carefully.
Just ask: “We’ve been talking about this idea for a while, but it doesn’t seem to be moving ahead. I think it helps us (insert important organizational goal). What do you think is holding it back? What advice can you give me?”
Is the energy waning? Do fewer people show up for meetings about the idea? Is the idea put early on the agenda (probably still interested) or last (if we don’t get to it, no big deal.)? Is it even on management meeting agendas?
Not performance objective worthy: If you set your annual performance objectives and your boss doesn’t view your big idea as an important for your objectives, he or she doesn’t think the idea is important.
How much are your colleagues willing to help? If your work friends just aren’t into helping you with the idea, it may signal that they don’t see the value of it. Another sign that it may be time to quit the idea.
Are you becoming not yourself? If you’re starting to be angry, judgmental or righteous, this might be a sign that it’s time to let go.

Yogi Berra allegedly once said, “If the people don’t want to come, there’s nothing we can do to stop them.”

Sometimes the time isn’t right for an idea. We rebel thinkers work ahead of most people, and it takes a while for them to catch up with our ideas. Sometimes you just need to wait a while and reintroduce the idea.

Sometimes you may need to more clearly communicate the value and relevance of the idea. It’s easy after a while to get so down into the weeds of how a project or idea will work that people have forgotten why it’s such a good idea in the first place. (Go to #1 on the list: show them what’s at stake, what the idea makes possible and how that’s so much better than what exists today.)

Don’t beat yourself up or take on all that failure language or people will begin to see you as a problem person vs. the creative person who knows how to come up with great ideas.

Even if this was the greatest idea you think you’ve ever developed, know that there will be more great ideas. Creativity doesn’t stop.

Unless, of course, you spend all your energy hanging on too long to an idea no one cares about.

When your horse dies, get off.

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Sales Tagged With: change, creativity, Innovation, organizational change, when to kill an idea

New study: Corporate reputation more important than ever

January 18, 2012 By Lois Kelly Leave a Comment

If people don’t like your company, they’re not going to buy from you.

In a new study by my old employer, Weber Shandwick, 69% of participants aid they frequently or regularly discuss how they fell about a product they bought. 70% said they avoid buying a product if they don’t like the company that makes it. And, no surprise, 88% said that word of mouth is still most influences their opinion of a company.

More can be found here on the Forbes blog.

My take from the study: marketing (brand) and corporate communications (reputation) need to be one, or at least work a whole lot more closely than these organizations do in most large companies.

Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing trends, Public Relations, Research, Sales, Word of mouth Tagged With: Corporate reputation, word of mouth marketing

Things I've been noticing

May 27, 2010 By Lois Kelly Leave a Comment

Every quarter, or change of season, I reflect on things I’ve been noticing and ponder what they may mean. Here are some slow trends and emerging patterns I’ve been noticing, and my thoughts on what they might mean.

2500 people sign up for a “spirituality-based” marketing teleseminar at 8 p.m. on a Wed. night

Here’s more evidence that people are hungry for meaning and purpose in their professions and business. I saw that more than 2,500 people dialed in for a conference call about how to run a spirituality-driven business. Nothing about religion. But doing work that feeds your soul. Holy cow. This trend should send a signal to leaders in business: is it high time to step back and refresh and reframe your organization’s purpose so people see that it matters? And what they do matters to this purpose? I saw a recent study that showed a significant disconnect between executives saying that their company’s purpose was clear and employees saying that they had no idea of the company’s purpose.

John Seely Brown and John Hagel recently published a Change This Manifesto where they declared: “All too often those who are passionate about their work are frustrated with their employers and bosses. They are not satisfied. Far from it. They want to do more, but they feel held back.” Are you inadvertently holding your people back?

I’ve also talked with several corporate executives who think they should leave big companies and do something else. Maybe. But it might be that they just need to reset the context of their organizations and position to get recharged. We need great leaders and successful companies now more than ever.

World of Warcraft: teaching leadership and collaboration skills

Like many parents of teenagers I get crazy seeing how much time my son spends playing World of Warcraft. But over dinner with a bunch of teenagers, I started to see that this game may actually be a powerful way for people to learn collaboration and leadership skills. My son’s guild leader is a leader. In fact, he recently started footing the bill for Oovoo, a video conferencing and chat program, so that the guild members could work more closely together as a team. I listen in some nights and I hear these kids helping one another, with a shared purpose and genuine collaboration.

I believe that multi-player game applications have tremendous potential in the corporate world. Interestingly, the American Society of Training & Development recently wrote an article about the parallels between games and business team building – solving problems together, being presented with harder and harder challenges, getting recognition, etc. Worried about how to engage GenY, think games.

New questions: why does the world need your business now?

The people who are asking new questions — provocative but simple questions — are changing and realizing their goals faster. Every year when I go to the BIF innovation conference, I am stunned at the powerful questions that these innovators in business, science, education and the arts ask themselves and their organizations.

I was having lunch with author and psychologist Maria Sirois recently and we got to talking about a new non-profit being organized by a major university. “Why does the world need this organization now,” she asked. WOW. What a question. Recently I’ve been helping clients reclaim their purpose and passion by asking them the same question. “Why does the world need your business/product now?” “Why does your corporate especially need your organization now?” This question helps you make meaning — why you’re so relevant, why you matter.

Another question I recently heard that opens up thinking: “Are we giving ourselves titles that demand fearlessness and innovation?” If you had to put your senior vice president of marketing or director of sales title aside, what would call yourself? Mine would probably be chief possibility officer. John Seely Brown, former chief scientist at Xerox and visiting scholar at USC, calls himself “chief of confusion,” helping people to ask new questions.

Not for everyone: consultants rejoining corporations and agencies

Every day I see Tweets and blog posts about consultants leaving to join companies and agencies. It’s not really surprising. Running a consulting business, as I have for 15 years, isn’t for everyone. You have to be focused on helping your clients succeed. Period. It’s not about your big ideas or your “personal brand” (oh, puhleeze), but about passionately wanting to improve clients’ conditions. And, of course, it’s all about execution, hard work, discipline, deepening and developing relationships, and relentless follow through. Consulting is not for everyone. But for those of us who consciously or unconsciously practice servant leadership, it can be incredibly rewarding.

Where are the new ideas? What are we missing?

There’s a deep restlessness in business. People want fresh ideas — new ways to market, better ways to shorten sales cycles, ideas that attract and influence prospects. This restlessness is a good thing as it drives people to innovate. The downside I see is that the relationship between companies and their agencies (advertising, PR, digital) is not what it use to be. The trust and loytalty is tenuous, and the relationships are often short lived because companies say that they’re “just not getting new ideas.”

I’ve counseled many a client recently about NOT firing its agency. Especially for this reason. Instead I believe clients and agencies need to spend the time doing offsite ideation and relationship retreats at least once a year, facilitated by an independent party.

I also believe managers need to do this with their employees to recharge, uncover ideas,reset purpose, and address those burning question: What are we missing? What new ideas could make a difference to what we’re trying to achieve?

Pattern watching as business competence

How to build trend spotting and ideas into your organization? Consider having your team hold a “Things I’m Observing” lunch every quarter. This helps everyone on the team become more observant and bring new ideas into the organization. In addition to sharing ideas, ask people to share their interesting sources — off the beaten track bloggers, communities, foreign films, books, niche publications, unusual friends. Developing a competency to bring emerging trends into the organization and discuss what they might mean is becoming more important than ever for anyone in a leadership, sales or marketing position,

(NOTE: I’ll soon be sharing my plans on a new business that helps clients in many of the ideas discussed above. Leadership, marketing and sales run on purpose and passion, but many companies need help to see possibilities among the relentless day-to-day business demands.

Filed Under: Activating change, Innovation, Leadership, Musings, Sales Tagged With: change, client agency partnerships, creativity, Foghound, Innovation, John Seely Brown, Leadership, leadership trends, Lois Kelly, marketing leadership, Marketing trends, World of Warcraft

What's a talkable brand?

October 4, 2009 By Lois Kelly Leave a Comment

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association has put out a request: What makes a brand talkable? Here’s my take.

Filed Under: Communicating, Communities, Conversational Marketing, Language, Marketing trends, Public Relations, Sales, Social media strategy, Word of mouth Tagged With: Conversational Marketing, corporate video, John Chambers, Social media, WOMMA, Word of mouth, word of mouth marketing

Marketing tips for resort retailers

September 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

NewportJPEG

Yesterday was one of those precious few Sept. New England days where the sun is bright and the temperature balmy. So at lunch I skipped out of the office and went to Newport, RI for a walk on the beach and a tour of the shops.

The beach was great and Newport’s downtown was jammed because a huge Bermuda-bound cruise ship was stuck in the harbor, forced to stick around due to impending bad weather. What a boon for retailers, who have had a poor sales season due to the rainy, cool summer. Yet I think some of these retailers may be struggling for other reasons.

Here are some observations and marketing advice for retailers at a resort location like Newport:

Be open: many shops were dark, with ‘closed for Monday and Tuesday’ signs on the doors. When the weather is good and a cruise ship with thousands of people are in town, open the doors and make some money. Cash flow is king. In another six weeks the tourist traffic is going to dry up. Catch up on your rest then.

Be different: so many stores looked the same, carrying similar merchandise, having similar looks and feels. The bland and blander tourist tee shirt storefronts, hippy clothing stores and pizza shops made it easy for me to just skip past them. One store caught my attention because of its name, “Gossip: a boutique to talk about.” Alas, it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Stand outs, however were Tyler Boe, with a unique collection of cashmere-cotton sweaters in unique colors. But Tyler Boe has no web site. I want to give some positive word of mouth marketing but the store makes it hard for me to do so. No Web site is being different, but not a smart marketing strategy.

Be interested: one of the biggest challenges for any retailer is staff. Too many stores had help that looked bored to death, probably lamenting the departure of their hip friends and cool summer people, left to wait on cruise ship patrons whose taste looked more J.C. Penney than J. Crew. Disinterested staff dampens the shopping vibe. Perhaps it’s wiser for owners to work the floor more themselves or pay more to get better help.

Be helpful: conversely the stores with friendly, helpful people were great shopping experiences that earned my word of mouth recommendations. I walked into Sovereign Bank to ask for change so I could feed the parking meter. I fully expected them to say they didn’t do that, as I had already seen signs in stores saying this. Instead, the teller was delightful and gave me my quarters and a few insider tips about what’s going on in Newport. I might even change my bank account if that’s what every Sovereign branch is like. Similarly the owner of RoyalMale on Bannister Wharf and Spring St. was an example of superb customer service, providing suggestions, pulling out sweaters not on the floor that she thought might look good on me. No wonder that the store was doing a brisk business even though the items had a relatively high price point.

Be ready: Running a retail business in a resort is unpredictable, but that’s no reason not to be ready to take advantage of happy surprises, like a cruise ship pumping thousands of people through the town on a typically “off” day. Have a back up plan to get more help into your store when lucky breaks happen. The Rockport shop on Thames street was jammed, but staffed by just one person. What a shame to see people come in and leave empty handed because they couldn’t get help.

Filed Under: Dumb company stories, Musings, Sales, Smart company stories, Word of mouth Tagged With: Newport, resort retailers, retail marketing, RI, Royal Male, shopping experience, Sovereign Bank, Tyler Boe

Tips for succeeding in sales — and dog training

September 15, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

I recently had dinner with Joanne Lekas, a high school friend who was a highly-successful sales executive selling big ticket, high-end enterprise management software to CIOs, CTOs and IT directors of Fortune 500 companies before retiring to start Happy Dog, a Boston-area dog training service.

The wine just about blew out my nose when Joanne told me about this career switch. She hadn’t grown up with animals and had always been comfortable playing with the tough decision makers in board rooms vs. playing with mutts in the backyard.

But Joanne said there are far more similarities than differences between a career in consultative selling and dog training. Here are some of her observations and lessons.

You’ve said that you see similarities between dog training, which I guess is really dog owner training, and sales. What are those similarities?

My sales efforts involved making presentations to large groups of disparate people – educating them before I could ‘sell’ them anything. These presentations involved fielding questions and keeping things on track – just like teaching a puppy class.

My sales efforts also involved a fair amount of consulting – gathering information, asking the right questions, uncovering problems, assessing the priority of these problems and offering up solutions that would be feasible based on the environment and budget. My ‘products’ were actually a combination of hundreds of software applications that could be sold individually or in combination depending on the complexity of the situation.

When a Happy Dog client calls with a serious behavior issue that their dog is having, I have to first gather information, ask the right questions, uncover the real root of the problem, focus on the most serious issues first, and offer up a training and behavior modification program that will work for that owner based on their time, budget and focus (ie, single owner vs. family with 3 kids). In my dog training bag are dozens of training approaches that may be used to address the problem. Sound familiar?

Do you see any similarities between the most difficult sales prospect and the dog owners who have the most problems with their dog?

A difficult sales prospect is one that constantly gives excuses about why something will not work. One that constantly challenges the information I provide. One that can not focus or follow through on their end of the bargain. Or it could be someone who is just overworked and overwhelmed.

A ‘difficult’ dog owner can have these same issues. They may not buy into the positive reinforcement approach to training. They may not be able to manage the situation to prevent the behavior. They just may not have the time or motivation to practice any of the training or techniques that I teach them. Or they may just be too busy with full time jobs and families.

What makes for a great relationship with a customer — and what are the parallels to dog training?

A great relationship with a customer required that I be able to put myself in their place and understand what they really need and how I can help them. It is based on mutual trust (trust that I am really trying to help them vs. just get the sale) and good communication (instead of just agreeing with what I say – they challenge and question it so they can truly understand it and buy into it).

It’s the same with a Happy Dog client. Interestingly, I can put myself in their place because it was not that long ago that I came home suddenly with a new puppy and I had no idea what to do. I can empathize that they are tired and struggling with house training. I can communicate effectively in a way they will understand as to how their puppies really learn so that they can have a foundation for communicating with their puppies that will reward good behavior and not the bad.

Looking back on your successful sales career, and reflecting on success in your new one, what three pieces of advice would you provide to sales reps and dog owners alike?

Take the time to build a good relationship – understand your customer and work to give them what they want in order to get what you want. Take the time to understand how your puppy learns, understand what your puppy loves and ask your puppy for what you want and reward your puppy with what he wants.

Understand your customer – understand their issues, priorities, needs and goals and constantly reassess this. Work towards addressing their needs and goals with this thorough understanding. Understand your dog – his need for care, exercise, attention and training and work to meet these needs.

Follow through – respond to your customer thoroughly and completely. If you say you will follow up, make sure you do. If you say you will get them information about something, make sure you do. With this, you will earn the right to ask things of them. Follow through with your dog. If you ask your dog to Come – make sure they do it – otherwise they will learn they don’t have to listen to you or respect your requests.

To learn more about Happy Dog, email Joanne@happydogtrain.com.

Filed Under: Communicating, Sales Tagged With: Happy Dog, sales communications, sales dogs

The one-line: what marketers can learn from screenwriters

September 12, 2009 By Lois Kelly 1 Comment

The secret to selling a screenplay in Hollywood is writing a great one-line, says screenwriter Blake Snyder, author of Save the Cat: the Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need.

Creating a great one-line is invaluable for marketing anything, whether it’s a company, product, service, book proposal, online community, a vacation spot or professional services.

You see, the one-line tells people what the product/service/screenplay is so they can quickly decide if they’re interested or not. Make it too hard for them to understand the “what it is” and they’ll simply ignore you, no matter how brilliant the product and supporting marketing programs.

Snyder says that a great one-line:

Hooks your interest
Helps you see the whole movie in it
Makes your imagination run wild with where the story is likely to go
Has a built-in sense of who it’s for
Is somewhat unexpected or ironic
Is emotionally intriguing

Aside from the primary benefit of selling your product, creating a great one-line helps you better develop the product or service or book proposal because you’ve focused the concept.

“Concentrate on writing one sentence. One line. Because it you learn how to tell me “What is it” better, faster and with more creativity, you’ll keep me interested. And incidentally, by doing so before you start writing your script, you’ll make the story better too,” advises Snyder.

I read the one-liners in the N.Y. Times Sunday Book Review every week to practice my one-line writing. This one-line writing is the hardest writing I’ve ever done. I think it’s easier to run a business than write the one-line about the business, easier to write a book than write the one-line about the book. BUT without the one-line answering, “what is it?” developing your services and products and running your marketing will be much, much harder than if you had sat down and written the one-line to begin with.

Give me the same thing only different

The second most important screenwriting lesson that also applies to marketing: tell people what your product/service/book is most like and how it’s different.

In screenwriting, the more you understand the genre of your concept, the more likely you are to sell the script and write a great movie. Ditto for marketing. Help customers understand where you fit into categories that they understand — and then tell them how you’re different.

While creating new business models or wildly innovative products is admirable and noble, most don’t take off because the buyer can’t understand “what it is.” And those that do, have brilliant one-lines, like Salesforce in the early days — software you can rent instead of having to implement.

Another example is Communispace, one of the most successful private online community companies. In the early days of the company, long before terms like social media or Web 2.0 were around, Communispace CEO Diane Hessan explained that their communities were “like focus groups on steroids, only different.” Marketing decision makers got it, and bought. While many other early community pioneers no longer exist. People couldn’t understand the “what it is.”

I’m working on some new concepts and starting with my one-lines. Who knows maybe someday I’ll even be able to pitch a screenplay.

PS — thanks to the wonderful book marketer Nettie Hartsock for turning me on to Save the Cat.

Filed Under: Books, Communicating, Conversational Marketing, Language, Point of View & Messaging, Sales, Word of mouth Tagged With: marketing concepts, Marketing messaging

Context is everything

June 8, 2009 By Lois Kelly Leave a Comment

It’ no surprise that the diverse plays that were awarded Tony awards last night all share one thing: a context that people today can relate to. In accepting the award for best musical revival for “Hair,” Oskar Eustis, the N.Y. Public Theater’s creative director, summed it up:

“If the theater is going to matter, it has to talk about things that matter to the people.”

Whether marketing art or widgets, the need for context and relevancy is huge, but often overlooked. On Friday a firm called me to discuss their marketing needs. As they explained their business, I realized that what they do is in the collaborative innovation and enterprise 2.0 space, concepts they were aware of but hadn’t really given much thought to.

Because the firm isn’t marketing within the context of today’s corporate decision makers, their sales and marketing messages just aren’t resonating. Nor are they in the right marketing conversations that can result in leads, nor are they getting invited into big deals for which they’re qualified.

For people to find your company and consider your services, you need to market within their context. Of course, this isn’t essential, but you’ll spend far more on marketing and sales if you try to create a new category or context of understanding.

Filed Under: Communicating, Conversational Marketing, Point of View & Messaging, Sales Tagged With: conversational markeitng, meaning making, Positioning & Messaging

New research: word-of-mouth effect on sales

May 15, 2009 By Lois Kelly Leave a Comment

A new “buzz action score” from researchers at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management shows that positive and negative online conversations are leading indicators of sales performance.

The research found that a relatively small group of people in online communities can have a substantial influence on purchase decisions, much like in face-to-face word of mouth.

Some implications for marketers:

Tracking online conversations is becoming essential. By understanding the “buzz” — good or bad — you can can act early to either change strategies to improve performance, e.g., pricing, longer warranties, or boost performance, e.g., increase promotional budget for product receiving a high “buzz score.”
Re-evaluate sales forecasting: rather than waiting until retailers report sales figures, you can being to get a sense of how well a product is doing real time by evaluating the buzz.
Ask your brand ambassadors for help, either providing an assessment of the buzz you’re seeing or more actively sharing their views into online conversations. (And if you have no brand ambassador program or community, start now. These folks are invaluable to helping any brand succeed in a world where word-of mouth-is becoming so influential.)

Filed Under: Conversational Marketing, Research, Sales, Word of mouth Tagged With: buzz, online conversations, Word of mouth

Sales 2.0: Rethinking the sales presentation

November 12, 2008 By Lois Kelly 3 Comments

One of the top three pressures on sales organizations, according to a new Aberdeen “Sales 2.0″ study: “the need to compete with increasing customer and prospect knowledge of products and competitive differentiators.” Well, duh, of course. Prospects can do their homework very well today online.

What this means is that companies need to rethink the typical sales presentation and sales training. You can’t walk in and explain who you are, your clients, your product line and your competitors. I sat next to a marketing exec of a big high tech company on a cross-country flight recently and watched him, for six hours, tweak a sales presentation that did exactly this — presenting the basics, most of which prospects could find on their own, in 85 slides. Later in the flight I struck up a casual conversation and he explained that he was going to California to train the sales force on a new sales strategy. Oh woe that that deck was it.

Sales presentaitons today have to provide VALUE to the prospect. Tell me something helpful that I don’t know. What trends do you see? What assumptions are misleading? What’s likely to change in 18 months, but stay the same for the next 24? What’s slightly different about my industry than others?

Almost all products today are viewed as commodities. People buy based on relationships and trust. To earn that trust, provide more valuable insights from the get-go. All those other facts, case studies, awards — put them on your web site and make it easy for prospects to find them.

According to the 210 companies surveyed by Aberdeen in Sept., the top pressures are:

63%: increase top line revenue growth
60%: improve sales productivity
32%: compete with increasing customer/prospect knowledge of products and competitive differentiators
24%: reduce sales cycles
13%: connect a disperse and/or global sales force

Filed Under: Marketing trends, Sales Tagged With: Aberdeen, Sales 2.0, sales presentations

The underbelly of marketing

July 31, 2008 By Lois Kelly 1 Comment

I didn’t know how bad my life – and so much marketing – was until I came up to my remote cabin and started to pick up the phone – to telemarketers. In fact it rings so much that I’m astounded. (We forgot to register the phone line on Do Not Call List.)

I’ve got debt over $6,000 and am paying 29% interest. (No). I – or one of my family members – have diabetes. (No) I could be saving by subscribing to Direct TV (I have no television). My auto warranty has expired. (No again). I could finally qualify for a medical insurance discount program. (I already have insurance). I’m the victim of debt collector predators/ (Yes, if you count your company.)

All these calls tell me that it’s urgent and critical that I talk with them today.

Most of these pre-recorded messages are sent out with voice blaster technology that blasts messages to everyone who hasn’t signed up for Do Not Call. (In fact two of the telemarketers explained this to me.) If you dial 1 to get to a person, most of the people you end up talking to are some of the most unprofessional people I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

What’s most disturbing is that a lot of the good folks in this rural area are elderly or don’t have a lot of education; I fear that these fear-mongering marketers are taking advantage of them. Or maybe everyone can see through these predatory tactics?

Does anyone know whether there’s a central place on the Web to report these companies? Kind of like a global Better Business Bureau that we can contribute to? Seems like using Web 2.0 for better consumer protection is order….

Filed Under: Dumb company stories, Musings, Sales

10 mistakes in writing an RFP executive summary

June 23, 2008 By Lois Kelly 6 Comments

Amid all the cool things in marketing today we often forget how influential a good or bad RFP response can be. I recently had to review 30+ RFPs for a client, and I was asked by another client to teach their sales people to write better RFP executive summaries. Here’s what I learned:

10 most common mistakes

1. About us vs. the prospect: Too often executive summaries are summaries of the selling company’s capabilities. Big mistake number one. Effective executive summaries are about the prospect– not you. How you’re going to solve their problem. Advice on how to burn down their obstacles. How much money they are going to save. New ways for them to be innovative in their industries.

2. Proposal summary vs. a business case: Despite is name an executive summary is not a summary of the proposal, but a succinct demonstration of the understanding of the prospect’s needs and the bottom line outcomes you can deliver against those needs.

3. Opening with blah blah platitudes vs. guts and convictions: Executives read just the first two paragraphs, yet the first two paragraphs of most executive summaries are filled with space-wasting platitudes like: “Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with our proposal in response to your RFP to support XYZ Company’s business needs. We are prepared to put this experience to work for XYZ Corporation with a dedicated support team. ” Blah. Blah Blah. While the RFP writers, usually procurement of purchasing managers, may read the entire document, decision makers generally only pay attention to the first two paragraphs. This means that the critical information should be in those paragraphs, and platitudes should be omitted.
4. Verbal runoff and information overload: One of the most common mistakes is including too much information that is irrelevant to the prospect and/or too much pat, bland information that every vendor cites. A good executive summary should focus only on that information that is relevant to this particular prospect.

5. What’s at stake? Many RFPs go nowhere, losing out to inertia or other business priorities. One of the purposes of the executive summary is to convey what’s at stake, and why acting will provide business value beyond simply reduced costs.

6. General to industry vs. personal to prospect: General remarks and capabilities information are boring to reader and make you sound bland. Answer right off, “What’s in it for the prospect company?” and avoid generalities. The prospect only cares about the specific value you’re bringing to his or her organization – not general trends, not about the exhaustive list of your company’s capabilities.

7. Educating vs. selling: The executive summary is not an education document or a relationship development tool; it is a sales closer. “Here’s the problem. Here’s the business value only we can provide.”

8. Bland writing inadvertently conveys lack of real interest: Researchers have proven that decision makers make more judgments about a company based on how it communicates than many of the actual messages. I’ve put several companies’ RFP summaries through the LIWC software analysis and found that the company comes across as detached from the recommendations (not passionate about the ideas) and not as completely honest as the company actually is.

To be viewed as a trusted, innovative, potential partner passionate about helping the prospect succeed, adopt a tone and style that is direct; focused on the most relevant information to the prospect; uses more active verbs, shorter sentences fewer adjectives, more bullets, more descriptive subheads, and a more liberal use of the first person – I, we, us.

9. Too many pages: We all fall into the trap of thinking that a summary needs to be at least two to three pages to really convey our value. Limiting an executive summary to one-page — two at the max — forces you to convey the meat of the matter in a succinct way. When Jack Welch was CEO of GE he required his direct reports to submit one-page management updates every month. That’s right, just one page. Being succinct makes you think and boil it down to what matters.

10. Where can I find more? Use hyperlinks in the executive summary, linking content and recommendations to descriptions in the detailed RFP document. Too often we make it hard for people to jump to what interests them. If people are interested in one of your ideas, make it easy for them to read more about that interest.

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If you want a free tough-love perspective on how your company responds to RFPs, write to Lois at lkelly@foghound.com.

Filed Under: Sales Tagged With: executive summaries, request for proposal, RFIs, RFP

Sales presentations: how to help customers decide

May 5, 2008 By Lois Kelly 1 Comment

[photopress:FranklinCovey.jpg,thumb,pp_image] One of the biggest mistakes in selling is not making easy for a customer to make a decision.

That’s some of the advice from Mahan Khalsa, vp of the Franklin Covey Sales Performance Group, in an interview in this month’s Sales & Marketing Management.

I found two points especially interesting.

1. The sales reps job is no longer getting information — or simply developing relationships; it’s about providing intelligence and insight to the prospect. (I’d add that most of marketing should be focused on this today.)

2. Most sales presentations don’t make it easy for the client to buy. We forget to address: what does the client need to believe, intellectually and emotionally, to comfortably and confidently make the decision?

Khalsa’s advice:

Start with the end in mind. Within the first few slides the client should know what decision you want them to make.
Identify the 3 -5 beliefs that the decision makers need to check off to make the decision, then organize what you say to address those beliefs.
Gain a decision on each belief after address it vs. waiting until the end for Q&A. When the beliefs supporting the decision have been successfully addressed, the final decision is much easier.

Filed Under: Books, Conversational Marketing, Sales Tagged With: FranklinCovey, Mahan Khalsa, sales objections, sales presentations, selling advice

Andersen Windows: No way to market to women

April 22, 2008 By Lois Kelly 6 Comments

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When I called Andersen Windows today to make an appointment to get an estimate for replacement windows the sales representative asked me if my husband would be home for the appointment. “I don’t know. But one of us will juggle our work schedules to be home at that time.”

“So your husband will be there?” she asked, pushing it. “We’ll give you a $100 discount if your husband is there with you.”

What?! I’m so offended by Andersen’s approach. Am I the weak little Missus with no buying and decision power? (On the other hand, it might be that we women ask the good questions and bargain tough — and Andersen’s market research has found that the guys are pushovers.)

Nonetheless, the sales angle has backfired. I’ve shared this story with several people today, and now with you. Word of mouth at work.

I went through crazy hoops buying my first house as a young single woman 26 years ago. ( A network television affiliate even came out to do a spot because I was such a novelty.) House decision sexism was bad then. Today it’s unforgivable — especially as part of the sales process of a well known brand like Andersen.

Filed Under: Dumb company stories, Musings, Sales Tagged With: Andersen Windows, marketing to women, sales sexism, Word of mouth

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