Anne Miller | Make What You Say... Pay.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Dazzle With Value

He stood there, very nondescript, sandy colored hair, hands in pocket, average looks, average height, somewhat overweight, no one special—and then he began to speak. Steve Stott, Founder of Tampa SEO Training Academy, delivered an amazing presentation to a Microsoft Partners meeting that I attended yesterday. It wasn’t the slides--too wordy. It wasn’t the topic--search engine optimization, very technical. It wasn’t his delivery style—though extremely energetic and engaging. It was the fact that he delivered so much more than we expected both in quantity and quality of information. In a 90 minute presentation, we felt like we had received hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars worth of useful information, delivered in an obviously thoughtful and entertaining way that was genuinely meant to help the audience.

Why is this impressive? We live in an age where many people on both the buy and sell sides are coming from a mental framework of scarcity: Buyers--Get more for less. Sellers--Give as little as possible to get as much as possible. Steve’s presentation reflected a mindset of abundance: Give as much value as possible and do it in a spirit of true desire to help listeners—whether they ultimately buy from you or not.

I encourage you to do the same with your clients. Give more value than they expect and do it with enthusiasm and professionalism. It pays off. Just look at this blog. Hundreds of people, who Steve could never reach on his own, will read this. He is now my number one referral for SEO work. And, if I ever need SEO help, he will be my first call. All that for just 90 minutes of work. And I was just one person in that audience.

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Just as Steve's "performance" carried lessons with it, if you loved watching the Olympics recently, lessons for business from the athletes are captured in this short article that appeared in Ad Age.

Time is limited: Make What You Say Pay

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Character Trumps Algebra

Character Trumps Algebra

My stepdaughter’s schoolmaster has a wonderful philosophy towards kids and education: Character trumps algebra. The underlying principle to his approach to kids applies in business as well. At the end of the day, unless you are offering the cure for cancer, who you are and how you are regarded by others transcends your product or service. People will deal with people they respect, trust, and like. Embedded in your impact on others is how you live your life: your values, your personal philosophy, your principles. What does that mean? Check out this short movie. Which one(s) says/say) it all for you?

Recommendation The Nurture Institute, an organization I have come to know well over the last two years and which I respect enormously, has developed a really unique e-Mail Marketing System, that is worth taking a look at. They have a video that explains the product. Or, feel free to contact Eric directly at 732 636-1001 x27 to find out more.

P.S. These are the same people whose white paper, The Cure for the Common Cold Call,I recommended to you recently.

People’s time is limited: Make What You Say Pay!

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

You Don't Get What You Don't Ask For

How do you respond after a client asks for more services for the same amount of money on your proposal after you changed the proposal once already to accommodate their budget?

1. You deny the client’s request, saying your offer is as it stands.

2. You revise the proposal, taking out other components of the offer to accommodate the client’s new request at the same fee level.

3. You ask for more money to accommodate the new requests.

Any of these could work depending on the situation. However, let me advocate for the third option first. Ask for more money. Remind them of the value of what they’re getting (justifies the investment); the fact that you have already adjusted the proposal to earlier requests (introduces an element of fairness); that making any more changes would compromise the solution and tell them, that for the added services, the incremental cost is worth the investment (helps them justify the higher cost).

And, then, be quiet.

Very often, they will recognize that if they want more, they will have to pay more, and agree. If that does not happen, you can always decide to go with options 1 or 2. But, if you skip option 3 first, you are shooting yourself in the foot:: leaving money on the table that could have been yours.

Time is limited: Make What You Say Pay!

As my 13 year-old would say,OMG! Be dazzled by this video

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Thursday, February 04, 2010

Reminder from Aristotle

I had an uncle who until he died was always telling great jokes, not one-liners, but stories that drew you in to the characters and situations until the story took an unexpected turn into punch lines that would double us over with laughter. Those stories were so much a part of who he was that at his funeral, appropriately, his sons each told one of his stories to honor their father.

My uncle relished telling those stories and, with each one, was always looking to improve his delivery—which leads me to a quote, given to me by a current coaching client: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle. What is one thing you do every day to ensure your continued excellence as a sales person, a manager, a parent, a friend or a spouse?

Must Read

The Cure for the Common Cold Call whitepaper (great title) one of several really useful whitepapers from The Nurture Institute, an excellent source for marketing effectively to your clients. If you don't know them, you should.

Time is limited: Make What You Say, Pay!

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Guilty of "Presentation Babble?"

Here’s a mind-boggling statistic: According to a Global Information Industry study, the average number of words of information that each American consumed per day outside of work in 2008 was 100,000. It doesn’t mean you read all these words, just that they crossed your eyes or ears in a 24 hour period and, no surprise given the internet and mobile communication, that number increases annually.

No wonder it is so difficult to make an impact! I was reminded of this as I coached a really sharp sales rep yesterday for a leading media company. Her visuals were great, her information was compelling, her energy was infectious, but her key points were lost in “presentation babble:” extraneous side comments, sentences that were not really structured to hit home, and segues between points that were choppy or non-existent.

People are only going to listen to what stands out in the flood of information that washes over them daily. That means your words have to catch their attention, relate to them, keep what you are saying interesting, and make it easy to follow. Try video or audio taping your key business conversations: what you say on the telephone to get appointments; what you say when you first meet prospects in their offices; what you say when you meet people in a networking situation; and—absolutely--what you say when you are presenting to win business or gain support for your ideas. Are you part of the information overload problem or does what you say rise above the noise of those 100,000 words and make an impact that gets you what you want?

Time is short: Make What You Say, Pay!

Correction: I had the wrong link for Cliff Atkinson’s new book, The Back Channel. Here is the correct link. www.backchannelbook.com

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