Ralston Consulting » Sales

The Art of the Start

Gary Ralston — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:32:33 +0000

The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

Sure, that’s a bold tag line, but Guy Kawasaki is the one to pull it off. A brilliant thinker and communicator, old dogs (mice?) in the Apple Computer community know Guy as one of the catalysts behind the success of the Apple Macintosh.

There is SO much good stuff in this book that it is hard to know where to start telling you about it. Starting, Positioning, Pitching, Writing a Business Plan, Boostrapping, Recruiting, Raising Capital, Partnering, Branding, Rainmaking… and being a Mensch! (Yiddish for “ethical, decent and honorable person”.)

Did I also mention that it is short, sweet, funny to read, extremely well presented and memorable?

An example: One of the many valuable distinctions Guy makes is between Mission Statements, Tag Lines and what he calls an “Organizational Mantra“.

Nike has many Tag Lines. Perhaps the most famous is: Just Do It. That’s fine for marketing, but it doesn’t help focus internal business decisions.

Nike has a Mission Statement: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. The statement actually includes the asterisk: “*If you have a body, you’re an athlete”. (from the 2007 Annual Report). This is a high-concept and inclusive statement, and is better, but still awkward for decision-making.

Now according to Guy, Nike’s Mantra is “Authentic Athletic Performance“. In Nike, with it’s culture of innovation, I think this is a phenomenally useful tool. Anyone, from the designer to the marketer to the supply chain manager can ask the question: “Will what I’m doing, right now, deliver increased ‘Authentic Athletic Performance’ for our customers when they use our products?” if the answer is ‘No’, they can immediately ask if they should be doing it. That’s the basis of focus.

My question for you: What’s your mantra? (Write or call, and let’s see if we can help you come up with it!)

If you are in charge of starting and growing something significant, in a business startup, a large corporation, or a Rotary Club, you should be reading this gem, and taking heed of far more of its advice than is normally wise in a business book. This one’s a keeper.

The Importance of Demonstrating Understanding

Gary Ralston — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 23:25:00 +0000

With few exceptions, people want to be understood. They want someone to “get” what they are dealing with, and if possible, in a way that deepens their own understanding and command of their situation, and of their goals.

The same is true for you, the business professional. It is natural to want to establish yourself as credible by first telling people about yourself, your specialty, and your successes.

Unfortunately, deep trust with a colleague or advisor develops in a much different sequence. You cannot lead with what you can offer them. Before others care to listen about you, you must prove you understand their world.

Just passively listening is not enough. How will someone know you understand?

They will know in at least three ways:

1. The quality and relevance of the questions you ask.

2. Your ability to summarize the shape of the situation from the details of the discussion, with no distortion.

3. Your ability to present and test out important implications arising from the discussion – both rational and emotional in nature.

In The Trusted Advisor¹, there is an excellent list of what great listeners don’t do.

They don’t:

1. Interrupt

2. Respond too soon

3. Match the client’s points (”Oh, yes, I had something like that happen to me. It all started…”)

4. Editorialize in midstream (”Well, that option’s a nonstarter”)

5. Jump to conclusions (much less judgments)

6. Ask closed-ended questions for no reason

7. Give you their ideas before hearing yours

8. Judge you

9. Try to solve the problem too quickly

10. Take calls or interruptions in the course of a client meeting (it seems so obvious, but watch how often it happens!)

Finally, to demonstrate understanding, you must be deeply present – “in the moment” with the person across from you. Expert in consulting practice development, Alan Weiss, stresses the importance of being in the moment to the success of the consulting professional in this way:

” You come this way once, I think we can all agree on that much. While you’re here, you might as well be cognizant of the world around you so that you can take best advantage of it. Listen. Look. Interact. Question. Poke. Probe.
Get in the moment.
Or the moment is gone.”²

So when you want to explore a deep and trusting relationship with someone, remember it starts with his or her world. Be present – in the moment and aware. Listen intently. Ask questions that get to the heart of the matter. Summarize and synthesize what you see. Voice the implications that occur to you as you piece together their world. Do this, and perhaps they will become curious about you and your world.

1 Source: pp 104-105, The Trusted Advisor by David H. Maister, Charles H, Green and Robert M. Galford. ISBN: 0743212347

About the Author: Gary Ralston, and his wife, Ann, founded Ralston Consulting Inc. to help clients across the US and Canada accelerate business growth while maintaining personal balance and integrity. Gary can be reached by email: gary@ralstonconsulting.com, website: www.ralstonconsulting.com, or phone, 614-761-1841.

Powered by Qumana

A Valentine’s Day gift to the Entrepreneur in your life!

Ann Ralston — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 01:16:03 +0000

I love Valentines Day! I think it goes back to the little gifts my parents would have at our place at the breakfast table on Valentines morning. Just a little trinket – a charm, a toy… Always special! I’ve found just such a special little gift for you, our clients and colleagues. It’s The Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness, by Jeffrey Gitomer.

This is a sassy, savvy, practical and principle-driven book about sales and sales relationships. I think it is relevant to all who are in business. After all, what is business, but creating a relationship, then providing, a service to another? It’s a sales transaction, regardless if you are a consultant inside an organization, or a dentist, or an entrepreneur.

Who are the best sales people that you know? They are the ones who really hear what you need, and help you find a solution to your issues. More important, they are the ones whom you believe in, whom you trust, and who are passionate about the work they do. Gitomer has created this cheeky little book to help you think about yourself and others in a selling role. His “12.5 principles” address relevant issues for every businessperson.

Principles like:

“It’s all about value, It’s all about relationship, It’s not about price”
“Prepare to Win, or Lose to Someone Who is”
“If you can’t get in front of the real decision maker, you suck!” (I told you it was cheeky!)

While this book is important to anyone in business, if you have a sales team, I think it’s a must-read!

What’s my key learning this morning? ATTITITUDE BABY!!! It’s all about attitude! It’s why I can sell non-profit causes til the cows come home, but haven’t had the confidence to sell us – I forgot to study the results we create for our clients.

Guess what? We do great stuff for our clients. We remind them of their dreams, and help them get there. And when they have lost their personal or business vision for a time, we hold the vision for them – their vision of the company, or life they want to create – until we can transfer it back to them, stronger and clearer than before. We help our clients accelerate business growth while keeping personal balance – and we are good at it!!!

Bottom line – get this for yourself, for Valentines Day.

Enjoy, and great success to you and your company!!!

Ann Ralston

Fighting the Commodity Trap – Value-Based Proposals

Gary Ralston — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:28:00 +0000

Competition is the basis of our economy. It can also be a major force eroding your profits. To avoid being reduced to a commodity where the low bid always wins, the buyer must see a difference between your offering and that of your competitor. That difference must improve the buyer’s situation in a way that is meaningful to them. There is a method for success, however, that simply involves identifying the right players, their motivation, your own strengths and weaknesses and presenting your findings.

Talk to ALL the right people
In a larger sale, there are three groups of buyers you must work with. While the economic buyer can write the check, the technical buyers and end users have the power to veto your bid if they’re not satisfied with it. The most common error is thinking that your strong relationship with the economic buyer will be enough. Your competitors are counting on you to overlook or alienate someone with veto power.

Why and how they buy
Not everyone buys for the same reason. You must discover the objectives, standards of measure, value and current situation from the mindset of each buyer – in their own words, wherever possible.
The objectives identify what must be accomplished and the most important outcome driving the project. Is it net project cost, deadline or long-term maintenance cost? In addition, it is crucial to gain a perspective on the standards of measure – the means by which they will track progress and achievement of the objective. Examples include budget, delays to schedule, materials waste, rework or even flatness of the pour.

Understanding the personal and organizational value of achieving success is the next key component. If the objective is achieved, what profit will the company reap and how will operating costs be affected? How will success impact the buyer’s career? Finally, it is crucial to thoroughly understand the current situation with regard to achieving the objective. What resources do they currently have? What are the top factors putting the project at risk?

What do you bring to the table?
Where most fail in this assessment phase is in adhering to your own marketing copy and sales pitch without candid examination of the facts. The first step in assessment is to review your track record. Review your flagship successes to discover your strengths. Then assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competition and compare them to yours. Look for the differences that can give you the edge. Next, try to shoot down your own marketing claims. Keep only the claims that are backed up by facts. If you are not a strong candidate for this type of job, you might spend your time more profitably by focusing on your strengths.

Present your findings, with options
The final step is preparing a proposal that lays out what you’ve learned, your solution, and the investment required. A logical outline for the proposal starts with the current situation and then identifies the objectives, standards of measure, value, methods and options (to include your solution and unique strengths), joint accountabilities, timing, terms, acceptance and appendix (the perfect place for the detail that must be included in the contract but not material to the buying decision). If you have done your job, the various buyers (economic, technical and end-user) will work through the document, nodding in agreement as they go. Note that the pricing information should be included in the terms, after the reader has witnessed the full picture. At this point, the price should seem reasonable, given the expected return on investment laid out in the document.

Putting it into profitable practice
If taking a value-based approach to proposals appeals to you, and you really do have a unique strength in your marketplace, start small and try the method on a deal where the economic buyer, technical buyer and the end-user are all one person. On the other hand, if you are hard-pressed to find what makes your company unique in your market, and profits are stagnant, it might be time to rejuvenate it with a business strategy and plan to turn your company into the profitable success machine it can be.

Note: This article has also been published in the January, 2005 issue of Concrete Monthly,
and in Tilt-Up TODAY vol. 13 no. 4, 2005 pp 48-49, magazine of the Tilt-Up Concrete Association

About the author: Gary Ralston is a senior partner in Ralston Consulting Inc., where he helps clients across North America accelerate business growth, achieving industry award-winning results. Gary can be reached at 614-761-1841, at gary@ralstonconsulting.com, or on the web at www.ralstonconsulting.com.