Guiding entrepreneurs

Sometimes being an entrepreneur can be really lonely. Mentors can help to open hives of thought that an entrepreneur may not have considered. Mentoring is an age-old practice of transferring knowledge and experience through personal relationships. The benefits of having a business mentor is often overlooked by eager entrepreneurs who want that instant gratification. A mentor can help entrepreneurs learn how to navigate many of the challenges typically faced by social entrepreneurs.

Mentors have been present in all walks of life and all disciplines for thousands of years and a good mentor will teach you how to think, not what to think. Contact me via e-mail if you are looking for a business professional with the experience to provide personalised support, sound business advice and encouragement to help you develop your own abilities and insights.

Design your process

As salespersons when we are in front of clients if we don’t have a process, I mean a system of doing things via repetition or preparation, then we will stumble. Remember that your process does not have to be rigid. Have you ever left a meeting and then 10 minutes later you say to yourself, “Why didn’t I say this or that?” This is because when you have had time to relax and you are not under pressure, you can evaluate and reflect on what has been said – and boom, you had a better answer.

 

There is a huge difference between preparation and repair. Sales is a preparation or prevention profession, and for some reason we are all sitting around trying to repair stuff. Preparation takes a little bit of work, work which we don’t know for sure whether it will pay off or not, so we are really on a loose limb. Alternatively, we can put in a little bit of work and prevent falling into the trap. There is no doubt that you are going to succeed because you already have because you are reading this blog. Contact me via e-mail for an appointment when you are ready to design your process.

The customer always has the last word

As a marketer your job is to tell stories that are true and will change people, this all depends on what brand message you are trying to convey, and how you intend to drive revenue. I think the message is: “We are building a brand that stands for something, and when we think about where this brand is going then it’s about building a brand that is going to drive revenue for a long time and is worth something.”

 

If you don’t provide an experience, then you won’t have any customers. The question is whether you will choose to matter because that is the path that you really signed up for and if you do that work, everything else will take care of itself.

Just respond

We often react without thinking as it’s a gut reaction, often based on fear and insecurities, and it’s not the most rational or appropriate way to act. Responding, on the other hand, is taking the situation in, and deciding the best course of action based on values such as reason, compassion, cooperation, etc. I care enough to show up and say, “I notice this, I think it’s this and we should do that.” We have to listen and then respond, not react, just respond.

“Always doing things in a calm and confident way.”
— Burrellism

Big picture before details

In my experience it’s important to make an emotional connection with people and you have to share what you are passionate about. The first question you have to ask yourself when you are creating your brand, product or service is, “What is it that I am truly passionate about?” I think that you have to appeal to the heart before the brain as our brains crave meaning before details. Back in the days when we were running around in the Savannah, if we saw a sabre tooth tiger, we never thought about how many teeth it had. Our first response would be, should I run, or will it eat me? Our brains are hardwired to process information this way and that’s why we need the big picture before the details.

A gift on Monday

The sole purpose of marketing is to make a change, this is a big statement. Marketing is what we do when we want to change culture and behaviour, when we want things to be different. I think marketing is the work of telling a story that’s true to someone specific to help them see the world differently and take a different action, and if this change doesn’t happen then there is no marketing. Marketing is the generous act of leading people to get them to make things better.

To begin the marketing journey we have to be specific and ask ourselves two questions:

  • Who is it for? (Target audience)

  • What are the changes we seek to make? (How would they like to receive this content?)

The right competencies

I recently advised one of my clients that digital marketing is an excellent way to reach a large audience. And I also told them that using Google Ads - especially if they can use specific keywords - will help reach the right people and it’s easy to budget because you only pay for results.

 

What about influencers?
An influencer is someone who has a large following on social media and can influence what people buy or where they go. When a brand partners with an influencer, they usually get free products and services from the brand in return for posting about their experiences favourably. I think that linking up with influencers that align with your brand is a relatively simple way of boosting your social media marketing strategy, and it’s a great way to gain exposure on platforms you may not have a huge following on.

Everyone needs a little help

via Getty Images

Managers need to find ways to empower their teams so that they can work out for themselves the most effective ways of achieving the results expected of them. Managers must increasingly provide individualised support and offer flexibility for each team member. It’s not about splitting the role between “leaders of work” and “leaders of people.” I think that when leaders support managers in the right way, they will have the confidence and experience to support their teams in the right way too, which means everyone benefits.

Productive meetings

One to one meeting’s are an excellent way to develop leadership and improve performance, but are these meetings productive? This is a good question as I have many years’ experiences from consulting and coaching organisations of every size, from start-ups to multi-nationals. I think one should focus on your attitude, efforts, and actions, and I do this by guiding you through a process which will improve communication between you and your team. I look at 3 phases:

1.     What’s the problem and what are the outcomes we can achieve by solving these problems? And this has got nothing to do with the product or service, it’s all about understanding what’s the most important thing for the client.

2.     How are we going to solve the problem and achieve the outcomes we want?

3.     Who are we going to do this with?

Do your best

I think in a remote working environment, autonomy, mastery and purpose helps to replace managerial control with empowered self-control. Nowadays, everyone has the opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills. As a leader, it is your duty to offer your employees the opportunity to master new skills. Overcoming challenges and acquiring mastery is a satisfying part of the human experience, whether it’s related to your work or not. Everyone wants more money; in my experience salary is rarely the main motivator for excellent performance.

What's your superpower?

I think that it’s important to focus the client on the problem you solve, not the price or the features or benefits. Too many salespersons are reactive to what the client wants instead of being proactive and guiding them through this transition that they are going through. Every salesperson has a superpower, mine is my empathic listening ability, the ability to understand things from the buyer’s perspective. How to present things so it’s all about them and not about me or how smart we are, but how I can help them.

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Plan your project

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Whether you are a multinational organisation or a smaller business, the way we are working is changing. As strategy shifts in many industries to being more experiment centric, projects are going to become more and more critical for achieving excellence in execution. Many things in life are projects, therefore, I think project management skills touch every part of our lives and as a result, project managers will need a new approach and mindset. Contact me via e-mail for workshops and roadmaps on how to navigate a successful project and the common pitfalls to avoid.

Mind over matter

We can pinpoint interesting things in our environment by using our reticular activating system (RAS). Our RAS focuses on whatever is occupying our thoughts and sifts through the countless bits of information that bombard us every day until it finds something that fits. Many of us think with a negative mindset that calibrates our RAS to filter the wrong type of information which leads to failure reinforcement. We can recalibrate our RAS by focusing on positive thoughts by actively seeking out the positive elements of a given situation. The RAS can be reprogrammed to see opportunities where it once only saw problems. In addition, you can focus your RAS by setting specific goals, by having short and long-term goals and using affirmative wording will actually make the goals easier to achieve.

Hours worked that require compensation

During the discovery phase, we must agree that it’s a real problem and this problem has an impact on your business, then it is up to me to prove that I have a solution. I really enjoy helping organisations succeed, talking them through what’s holding them back and I like working with organisations that have a small company vibe, where I can naturally set up processes for them. I learned once and for all before the pandemic a real sense of knowing when a deal is worth pursuing. I don’t like “free” education and have no desire to give away my knowledge and experience, as it’s not my job to educate for “free”. Contact me via e-mail if you would like to evaluate what you should be measuring in your organisation.

Consistency is the key

The only way to get someone to do something consistently is when they have a reason to do it. It’s important not to assume that what is important to you is important to your customers. As a salesperson you will have to build an intrinsic desire for your customer to fix the problem that you have identified by reminding them that you are there to help them understand what the process is, so that they don’t fear deciding. “Here’s what’s going to happen, here are some of the pitfalls and I’ll guide you around those. If you just trust the process, you’ll come out on the other side with a successful outcome.” I think it’s a good idea to serve others by asking questions that will assist them in making a wise buying decision.

Ask questions and listen

Listen without an agenda and sincerely focus on how your product or service can best serve your customer’s hopes, dreams, and goals. It’s a good idea to listen with mindfulness and then respond with a question instead of thinking about what you are going to say next while your customer is talking. I think of listening as a meditation, just being present and jotting things down in my notebook. In my experience, it’s a best practice to get as much information as possible before trying to answer, as building win-win relationships means remembering that it is not about what we want but what the other person wants.

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
— Zig Ziglar

Design your process

Your role as a salesperson is to present your product or service in a clear, concise, and truthful manner. When you are already selling into an account, educating them about a new product or service is great idea. When selling to a new account you must establish a business need, otherwise the buyer’s will just be curious and interested in learning about your new product or service. Remember that it’s not a good idea to talk someone into something, listen to what they want as making sales is about asking questions and building a trustworthy win-win relationship.

“A man convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still.”
— Dale Carnegie
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We still have to do it

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It still fascinates me when I see and hear salespersons fall into the pricing trap, and nowadays even more salespersons are falling into the features and functions trap. Sales is a performance-based profession and how well you do it in the eyes of your clients is all what matters, as your clients are the receivers of all your communication – written, oral and visual. It’s all a performance, not just the words, it’s the tonality, inflections, the timing, it’s the whole sequence of things and at this could seem overwhelming at the beginning of the process.
How well do you do it?

How well do you do it?

What impact does having empathy have on sales?
I think that when you have empathy you know what your clients and your team are thinking, and if you know what they are thinking and feeling, you will have better information about what they care about both logically and emotionally. When you know what motivates your clients and team, you will know what to show them and what questions to ask them. To have that type of empathy, you must listen deeply and not think about what you are going to say whilst listening. Stay curious about your clients and what obstacles they are facing, simply ask yourself, “If I was them, what would I care about?” Contact me via e-mail when you are ready for a flexible process for your team. A framework which provides guidelines for where they are and where they want to go.