Marketing and innovation share a fundamental connection which is woven into their essence. There are two ways that you can create value in the marketplace, you can either find out what people want and work out a really clever way to make it, or you can work out what you can make and find a really clever way to make people want it. The financial outcomes stemming from either trajectory are remarkably similar, blurring the distinction between the two processes, so it isn’t necessary to introduce a new product to perform research and development (R&D). An additional method of R&D lies in reshaping an existing product or service through diverse strategies like presentation, pricing, positioning, or framing, which may alter its market perception and relevance.
Adopting a new strategy
The changes we see in the global landscape is changing the way our clients do business, causing the reimagination of whole industries, increasing customer expectations and behaviours, and creating a whole lot of uncertainty. What we do in sales is help people and companies change, we change the products and services they use, and we change the way they use these products and services. And when we perform at our very best, we help our clients and the people we serve to transform their businesses and their results. The change process is non-linear because any process that includes human beings, especially in groups is non-linear. This means that the process is very rarely a straight line, and very often a process that doubles back over ground it has already covered - stops, starts again and then picks up in an unexpected place or direction again. Is your sales process is designed and written in a linear form?
No more straight lines
The changes we see in the global landscape is changing the way our clients do business, causing the reimagination of whole industries, increasing customer expectations and behaviours, and creating a whole lot of uncertainty. I think what we do in sales is help people and companies change, we change the products and services they use, we change the way they use these products and services. And when we perform at our very best, we help our clients and the people we serve to transform their businesses and their results. This change process is non-linear because any process that includes human beings, especially in groups is non-linear. This means that the process is very rarely a straight line, and very often a process that doubles back over ground it has already covered - stops, starts again and then picks up in an unexpected place or direction again. Are your sales processes designed and written in a linear form? Contact me via e-mail for an overview of your organisations sales processes.
These are your options
Why would you recommend doing this instead of that?
When we approach this challenge, we should consider the appropriate framework, methodology, and process. People strive to improve and excel in various areas, including sales acumen, however, what truly sets someone apart is their business argument. I think the key differentiator lies in possessing situational knowledge. It may be referred to as situational awareness or experience, but I prefer to call it situational knowledge because it signifies having encountered similar situations and observed different decisions and outcomes. Therefore, your understanding of the context in which the client operates becomes the basis for providing advice.
Identify the decision
A mindset is like a fishing rod, it’s a way to maneuverer our lives to orientate ourselves towards success and good outcomes. The decision making process is making choices by identifying a decision, gathering information, and assessing alternative resolutions. Using a step-by-step decision-making process can help you make more deliberate, thoughtful decisions by organising relevant information and defining alternatives. I think that one of the biggest problems we are having in the world today is that people require simple answers to complicated questions. Therefore, it’s important not to make decisions today that you wouldn’t take again tomorrow.
“An unexamined life is not worth living.”
The keys to the world
Some businesses have low barriers to entry and are easy to enter and scale-up in where it doesn’t require infrastructure investment or decades of building up. Other businesses take much longer to build up, where going from start-up to maturity takes decades. When I have my business consultant hat on, I go into companies and explore their existing culture. My speciality is looking into work-flow systems and processes to see whether companies are optimising their economic potential. In my experience, it doesn’t matter what top line metric an organisation uses; the crucial fact is that they have a system they follow consistency. Contact me via e-mail if you would like some strategic guidance. Please note that there’s no specific thing that I can tell you that will make your customers or employees trust you.
What's your take on it?
Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to have worked with some outstanding people and these opportunities has enabled me to work across businesses and functions, allowing me to understand organisational dynamics through people, process and technology. This has been proven to be invaluable as I engage stakeholders and explore ideas and opportunities in line with business priorities.
“Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.”
I have had the pleasure of working for global companies and have acknowledged that humans and knowledge are the two of the most important resources. There are huge financial incentives that keep the status quo locked in place with the “this is just how it is” attitude. I think that all successful people begin with these two beliefs:
1. The future can be better than the present, and
2. I have the power to make it so.
Do you agree? I have seen great results and productivity improvements in organisations leveraging this framework. Contact me via e-mail and let’s have a conversation.
Turn your wounds into wisdom
The best study of life is how it is, not how we think it should be. I think people will do more to avoid pain than they will ever do to gain pleasure, therefore, salespersons must sell consequences. Buyers will always think about whether you have their best interests in mind, in other words, “Can the buyer trust you?” When most salespersons say something, it tends to be just filtered through their needs and desires when in reality, it should be about the buyers. In my experience most salespersons sell what they love about their products rather than what the buyer would love about their products.
People don’t do things because we tell them to, people do things for reasons. For example, buyers must associate the action of buying with creating tremendous pleasure and the action of not buying with pain. I think that selling is the process of finding the buyers pain, disturbing it, and making them feel the hurt. The salesperson is then responsible for healing the buyer’s pain through different choices, usually through their products or services. Would you like to know how to guide buyers through your sales process? Contact me via e-mail for sales training and workshops.
All sales teams need professional training
Even when you are a subject matter expert, neither the sales or buying process is linear. I saw the light in 2010 when I stopped working for Aquascutum and took a step back and asked myself, “If I was on the other end of that communication, what would I think?” - Would I click on subscribe? Would it annoy me? Does it make any sense at all? And if the answers are “No”, then why am I doing this, why am I saying it, why am I presenting it? It was at this point of self reflection and trying to see things from the other side of the table that I realised that I was a teacher and had the skills to verbalise and guide based on real life experiences and storytelling.
I have the structure, discipline and intelligence to seek out the knowledge required to ask great questions. I have sales experience and a good track record, I also know how to come in and make a good presentation, role play, assess the situation and ask for the sale. As if you don’t know how to overcome objections, sales is going to be extremely challenging. Contact me via e-mail for your sales training and workshops.
Sales is a performance game
In sales, our brain, our memory, our ability to recall our process, where we are in the deal and what we should be doing is pretty important. Whether we are in front of a client, on the telephone with them or giving a presentation, there are so many going through our minds. We have to have acts, systems, processes for remembering the things that matter - to make sure we are hitting the point whilst we are still listening. Not getting lost in the weeds and forgetting the steps they shout be taking to move the deal forward.
How many times after the meeting do we ask, I wish that I had asked that question? This is hard and if we don’t practice it outside of the moments, what ends up happening is that we miss what’s going on. In the game of sales, memory is a critical element of our sales ability - we have to remember facts about our product, company, how we compete but we also have to really remember and think about what the other person is thinking, what they care about. I think this is why sales is a performance profession. Sales is not just knowing what and how and having the facts, it’s how you present them and how you execute your game.
Lock arms with the right people
© McGill Media
After watching the football yesterday evening, I had a long discussion with my friends, Sophia and Oscar about the masculine and feminine roles in society. We concluded that biologically women are nurturers and men are providers, like it or not this is programmed within our DNA. Traditionally, women were seen to be soft and men were perceived to be hard, tough individuals. The big question is why is society communicating to men that they should be more feminine, and at the same time telling women to be more masculine?
Throughout my career I have worked with inter personal communication, whether it be sales, marketing or branding. I love the concept of writing to the voice in your audiences head. Broadly speaking, I learned that relieving pain is what we want and maximising pleasure is what we crave. It’s all material and it makes sense to turn over the worst moments in our lives into great lessons, not only for ourselves, but also for the people we seek to guide along their journey.
The second habit Stephen Covey covers in his wonderful book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is “Begin With the End in Mind.” According to Covey, before you can live a good, meaningful life, you have to know what that looks like. When you know how you want people to talk about us at the end of our life, you can start taking action now to make that scenario a reality later. As I do not chase people anymore, I have learned that I am here and I am happy, and I am not going to run after people to prove that I matter. So, what do I want you to do after reading this, what is my call to action? I think the the end product isn’t as important as the process, contact me in confidentiality via e-mail to arrange a meeting about your processes.
Bad news doesn't get better with age
Whenever any comes to me with a problem I always have an answer for them, I always look for solutions and if I don’t have them personally, then I will leverage my network. Personal ownership is part of my leadership style as I think that it’s all about the team. Nowadays, I have to constantly remind people that you cannot get all the answers from YouTube.
The subjective side is where you involve individual motivation and culture is just as important as having great systems. You can have the greatest systems in the world but if your culture stinks then you won’t have alignment within your organisation. If the culture of helping and supporting each other is not present within your organisation, then there will not be a level of teamwork required to take on the external challenges. Some level of teamwork and personal responsibility is always required when setting the direction of where of you want your organisations to head. Contact me via e-mail for a meeting to discuss an introspection into your “true worth” principles.