So what is “The Strangest Secret”? – Five simple things that you can work on to become as successful as you want:

1. We become what we think.
2. Limitations are self-imposed.
3. Have courage.
4. Save money.
5. Take action.

So, I’m taking a dash of courage and a whole lot of action and starting my own Strategic IT Consulting company (called Quantim Consulting). It’s time for me to put what I already know into practice and see what I can do (and learn) for myself.

I’m sure I will keep blogging in some form, but it will likely focus on Strategic IT Consulting for awhile. But you never know, I might find the time to come back here every now and then and share some of my learning’s.

Remember: “Life is an exciting adventure – enjoy the journey” (Earl Nightingale). I wish you every success and a prosperous New Year.

Craig Hansom. 3 January 2010.

1. Be friendly and build rapport. People buy from people they like.
2. Be open and honest – people appreciate the truth. Don’t promise on something you can’t deliver.
3. Generate confidence and trust.
4. Research your customer and think about their issues and needs.
5. Ask great questions. Have a reason to follow up.
6. Listen – the customer is telling you what they need.
7. Make sure you deliver what they want (stay across delivery issues and address them early).
8. Get a system (and CRM) that works for you and use it. Things like number of calls/day, follow up, etc.
9. Be enthusiast and believe in what you are selling. Have passion for your company and product.
10. Ultimately it’s about the customer, not you. Focus on helping them and everything else falls into place.

A big one for me recently was number nine. I generally have passion and enthusiasm for everything I do, but I didn’t believe in the company I was working for – so I left. I can thank Jeffrey Gitomer for helping me make that decision.

What are the rules that you live by? They might be slightly different, but it’s worth thinking about them – as Earl Nightingale once said “we become what we think”. Good luck.

Craig Hansom. 18 December 2009.

Many organisations will tell you that this doesn’t describe them, but I see it time and time again.

This scenario normally occurs because sales quotas and the remuneration of the Salesperson are not linked to job profitability – make that connection and it can help remove the impossible project scenario. Add KPI’s around long-term customer orders and that can help remove the problem with meeting customer’s expectations.

The best solution is to make the Sales team work closely with the Delivery team. I’ve seen organisations where there is a definite adversarial relationship between the Sales and Delivery teams. This is usually because of the “win it and throw it over the fence” mentality of some Salespeople. There needs to be a culture and processes to support the teams working together. Having a Delivery Manager who works well with both teams will help immensely. Having Salespeople act as Account Managers who have to be part of delivery reviews with the customer can also help them take ownership of the promise and the solution.

A common solution is to use pre-sales resources – nominated delivery people who are used by the Sales team to scope and write proposals. The problem is that the pre-sales resource usually drifts into being a part of the sales team, losing their connection (and skills) with Delivery. This can lead to future problems filling this role as other s see what eventually happened to that Pre-sales person. A nice balance is to include different resources over time to help Delivery understand the sales process and gain some ownership of what is being sold.

If you’re selling commodities, you will want to make the Sales team aware of production and delivery processes and issues. One easy connection is to make them follow up with customers to ensure they were happy with the delivered products. Delivery or production staff can be included in customer site visits to experience how customers use and order the organisations products.

If you are selling services or solutions that normally involve some form of project to produce the solution then involving the intended Project Manager and Senior Designer in the bid and scoping process will help get the ownership for when you win the work. One common problem with solution selling is under-scoping the effort required to deliver the project, especially if the scoping is left to the Salesperson. Include the Project Manager and Senior Designer (with a reasonable peer review process) and the scoping is likely to be a whole lot better.

Despite all your best efforts, there can still be a disconnect between customer requirements, the scoped project and the submitted bid. It makes sense to start any project with a “Project Initiation Document” (from PRINCE2) to ensure that everyone is still on the same page when the project commences – better that then finding out at the end of the project!

The bottom line is that Salespeople need to be mindful of delivery issues and work with the delivery team to make sure that what they are selling leads to the long-term profitability of the organisation. Having delivery resources working their butts off all the time or losing customers by setting false expectations is not in anyone’s interest.

Do you use a different mechanism to help your Sales and Delivery teams work well together?

Craig Hansom. 3 November 2009.

My observations are supported by an article in BusinessWeek that stated China’s ability to produce technology products were surpassing other traditional producers at a cheaper price. China is now “fabricating 12-inch silicon wafers that experts say is just two generations behind Intel Corp”. Harvard University economist Richard B. Freeman is quoted as saying “What is stunning about China is that for the first time we have a huge, poor country that can compete both with very low wages and in high tech”. China is quickly becoming a knowledge economy that may soon surpass the rest of the world.

References

Pete Engardio and Dexter Roberts, “The China Price”, BusinessWeek, 6 December 2004, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_49/b3911401.htm

Craig Hansom. 25 October 2009.

• “Throw out the old business plan”. The author qualifies that “many of the plan’s core elements will remain relevant…[but] certain issues need to be continually tracked and refined to reflect changes in the market and economic conditions”; and
• “Get your systems and processes right”. This is “not just to cut costs, but to position companies to be able to hit the ground running when the economy comes good”.

The article highlights that “success in the upturn, whenever it comes, will require planning and, in some cases, fundamental change”. It is this planning that businesses need to get right. To make any significant change, businesses should look to remove or mitigate the risks as much as possible. Using a sound process to develop the plan and to make the planned changes (especially managing the risk throughout the change) is imperative to ensuring you are making the right changes for the future success of the business.

The current environment provides a good opportunity to review a company’s systems and processes. D’Angelo Fisher states that “few, if any, businesses can expect to carry on ‘business as usual’” in the new economic environment. Using external expertise can help extract maximum benefit from the business’ processes – a fresh pair of eyes and someone who is not “the owner” of a process can challenge the value of those business systems. A proven way of doing these system reviews is to use a process known as ‘Outside In’ or ‘Customer Expectation Management’ (see Steve Towers reference below).

The article also highlights that “reviews of systems and processes should occur as a regular part of doing business, not just when times are slower”. This is important to remain competitive and continually improve the way the business performs. Treating the Business Plan and the strategy it contains as a living entity is also a good way to ensure the tactics you employ remain relevant to the ever changing business and economic environment.

All signs are showing that the recovery is now upon us (or soon will be) – how quickly individual companies recover and take advantage of the opportunities will depend on their business plan, systems and processes.

References

Leo D’Angelo Fisher, “Road to Recovery”, BRW Magazine, 10 September 2009, http://brw.com.au/viewer.aspx?EDP://20090910000031535225

Steve Towers, “Don’t give customers what they think they want”, http://www.towersassociates.com/Towers_Associates_Customer_Expectation.html

Craig Hansom. 16 September 2009.

First up was Ari Galper, who is the creator of “Unlock the Game” (see http://www.unlockthegame.com/). Ari guided us through his truth-based sales approach, which is based on using “new mindset + trust based language” to take the pressure out of the selling experience (for everyone concerned). It wasn’t rocket science, but he did demonstrate that the language you use can make all the difference to developing sound relationships and trust.

Amy Smith, Managing Director of Jenny Craig (see http://www.jennycraig.com.au/), took us through two sessions and is a very entertaining and inspirational speaker. Amy started by talking about what makes a customer loyal and why a loyal customer is so much better than one that is just satisfied. She covered a lot of ideas, with some great anecdotal stories along the way, spanning topics like: customers buy an experience; and focusing on the process (focus on the seeds you plant and nourish now to harvest later). One of my favourite takeaway’s from Amy was that “motivation is being emotionally driven to take action”.

The summit was hosted by James Lush (see http://www.lushtv.net/), who is a very professional MC and someone I have a lot of respect for. James’ style made everything flow smoothly and he is great at getting question time going with some well directed observations.

So, did the seminar meet my goals (that I talked about in my previous post)? In a word, yes. I got some good ideas that I intend to apply, starting tomorrow. Unfortunate those ideas didn’t come from Jeffrey and I didn’t get to shake his hand or get his business card – that will have to wait for another time. I did of course shake Ari’s and Amy’s hands and hope to get to meet both of them again in the future. I also got to meet and talk with some great peers, who shared their enthusiasm and thoughts as we considered better ways of doing business together.

Craig Hansom. 8 September 2009.

I booked my ticket the moment I found out about it and just told my manager I was going. I’m excited! But what do I expect to get out of the seminar? My goal for any seminar is to take away at least one new idea that I can implement to improve myself or my company. For this seminar, I expect to walk away with a list of ideas and insights. If I can learn to apply just a fifth of what Jeffrey teaches and absorb just a fraction of his positive attitude, I just know I’m going to be a better Salesman for it.

Jeffrey’s style is very different (for instance, he doesn’t take questions) and in his own words, “you already know what to do you’re just not doing it” (see reference below). Maybe I do, but there’s nothing wrong with getting reminded about the key elements from the man himself.

I do have one other personal goal for the seminar: I want to shake Jeffrey’s hand and get one of his famous business cards – I’ll let you know how I go.

If you want to know more about the seminar or get a feel for Jeffrey’s style, visit http://www.australianmastersgroup.com.au/amss09/ – I hope you can make it.

Reference: “You Know What To Do”, Jeffrey Gitomer, Sales Rant, 16 December 2006, iTunes Store.

Craig Hansom. 6 August 2009.

Marketing is trying to get your potential Customers to think about your products or services when they need it. At the point in time when a customer needs something that you can help them with, you want them to know about you, how you can help them and for their trust to be strong enough that they will call on you or your product for help. Think of big brand advertising like Coca-Cola (refreshment) and Michelin (safety) – these companies and their marketing focuses on Customer needs and events.

Instead of focusing on all the great features of YOUR product, your marketing should focus on the Customer’s problem or need and that EVENT in their life where your product can help them.

Each and every meeting or call gives you a change to discover needs or potential future needs of your Customer for your services. Try thinking about the event when they might need your help – this will help you work out how to target that event so that when the time comes, you have already sown the seed for the customer to think of you or your product. These meetings also give your Customer an opportunity to develop an appreciation and trust of how you can help them. Make the most of their time and remember, it’s all about helping the Customer.

Reference: “Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation”, Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor, and Scott D. Anthony, March 10, 2003, http://hbswk.hbs.edu/cgi-bin/print?id=3374.

Craig Hansom. 21 July 2009.

There’s a view that unless you were aware of a Request for Tender before it was issued, then you are wasting your time. This is true most of the time, but there are exceptions – maybe you have such a good reputation that you automatically get GOOD access to opportunities for new customers or repeat business. There is a message here though – you are not touching your customers enough, otherwise you would have known about the tender before it came out.

But there are many different kinds of proposals. In order of effort:

• Verbal proposals – this is where you close the deal in a meeting (I love these).
• Simple email proposals – these should really only be confirming a solution and a price for something that you “almost” closed in a meeting.
• Proposal letters – these are only a little bit more effort than a simple email, but look more professional and give you a chance to differentiate your solution and demonstrate the benefit to the customer. Again, it should be for something where you are pretty certain you are going to win.
• Informal proposals – these are a great way to explore a solution and suggest options. They should be conversational and ask for feedback. Again, make it a look professional (use a letter or “report” style).
• Formal proposals – these are normally reserved for competitive situations, so you better make sure it’s good. Use all your intelligence to make sure you tell the customer what they want to hear. You need to write using “issue – response – benefits – proof”. Differentiate yourself.

I would highly recommend against simply flicking a customer a product brochure or resume and price unless you are simply formalising what you have already won. It doesn’t really give you a chance to differentiate your solution or demonstrate the benefit to the customer. I got burned by this a few years ago. A customer rang me while I was on holidays and I rushed back to submit a resume and price in time for their deadline. We lost the job because the resume didn’t highlight a particular experience that the customer was looking for. If I’d just taken a bit more time to add a covering letter that highlighted my understanding of the requirement and how our resource matched that need, then I may well have won the work.

So, how do you write proposals? Is there room for improvement? I bet there is –see if you can take a more effective approach with your very next opportunity. It’s all about winning -after all, you have the best solution to your customer’s problem, you just need to prove it. So make the best use of your time and win the bid before you write the proposal.

Craig Hansom. 16 June 2009.

“WHAT?” I hear you say, “that doesn’t make sense. Why would you cold-call someone you already know?”.

I was speaking to a customer recently who was telling me how they were being called by a very large, multi-national supplier. They were asking questions like “what products do you use?” and “how big is your organisation?”. The problem was that this large, multi-national company was already a supplier to this customer. It left the customer feeling confused and abused – Why were they asking questions they should already know the answers to? Where was the usual contact person?

Why would you do this to a customer? It seems like a case of one part of the organisation not talking to the other – maybe a remote marketing department not talking to the local office? This is lunacy. The large multi-national supplier would almost definitely have a CRM system. It begs the question: are they not using it or did someone just decide to do their own thing?

In a world where customers are looking for better engagement and a more holistic approach to service delivery, you can’t afford to waste their time and risk alienating them by doing something so stupid. What are the lessons?

• Use your CRM and the data in it.
• Have a single point of contact or at least co-ordinate your customer contact.
• Make sure all your “customer facing” staff know the rules of engagement.

Enough said.

Craig Hansom. 6 June 2009.