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Conscious Capitalism is Not Conscious
Mar 2, 2010 Random Thoughts View Comments
I have a deep belief that each of us has a responsibility to do their part to help the world be a better place. Me? I bring consciousness to business through a values-based decision facilitation model, aiming to make the practice of sales be ethical and servant-leader based. Each of us has our own offering.
From 1990 – 1995 I keynoted at Wisdom at Work conferences, dedicated to bringing ethical values into the workplace. In those days, we were focused on how people could serve each other, make the workplace a respectful place for people to grow, and treat our employees as if they were our customers. We discussed ’spirit’ at work, responsible leadership, compensation issues, and how to create leaders.
Over the past 20 years, the workplace has become the hub of new thinking – where ideas germinate, where leadership and ideas create global initiatives, manage diversity, and change technology to make the world’s intelligence accessed by all. The environment has been a pressing issue as the workplace has been a polluter in many ways. Read More..
Make the Phone your Best Friend
Mar 1, 2010 Sales Related View Comments
Do you believe that to close a sale you must ‘get in front of prospects?’ Why? Really. Have you ever asked yourself why? Do you tell yourself that you MUST have that eye contact? That ‘face-to-face’ juice? Do you tell yourself that if you’re not in the field, you’re not selling?
In 1937, Dale Carnegie advocated it. What else are you using from a 1937 playbook?
Untold billions of dollars have been misspent following this industry-wide belief: planes, hotels, time. And? The industry still has a 7% average close rate.
Here is a rule: Don’t use your body as a prospecting tool.
Here is a secret: your sterling personality, your great outfit, your Rolex watch and Prada shoes don’t close an account. Nor does your great insight or knowledge of the buyer, their need, your industry, or your solution. Nor does that great rapport you create over lunch. Otherwise, you would be closing a lot more sales. Amazing how much push-back I get from an industry with such a low success rate. Read More..
Drive Business to your Site – Then Convert the Leads
Feb 26, 2010 Sales Related View Comments
You do all the right things: you drive business to your site; you capture data and follow visitors around your site via a digital footprint; you know who has been looking at your site and what their interest are; you have folks who attend your webinars and buy your white papers.
We have fabulous technology these days. Almost anyone, regadless of the size of their company, can get their name and business proposition out there for the world to see.
But are you closing the commensurate amount of business? If not, why not? Are you not managing your leads properly? Converting properly? I regularly hear complaints from marketing folks that they bring in the leads but the sales folks aren’t converting them. Read More..
Josh Can Help. Truly.
Feb 25, 2010 Favorite URLs View Comments
I recently ran across a blog that inspired me on many fronts. First, it’s beautiful: crisp, clear, elegant, simple, well-written. Next, it’s filled with important, useful, data. No rambling, nothing sloppy. It’s all good stuff.
Josh is a tech guy. He designs web sites for people (and obviously, if his own blog and website are any indication) does a fine job. That’s what he does for a living. But as a blogger, he offers us all the newest in technology. He tells us what works, how it works, and how to use it. He tells us what doesn’t work and why.
I don’t know about you. But I can’t keep up with technology. I read all this stuff, and keep sending it to my own web guy wondering if we’re ‘doing it’ or ‘needing it’ and I have no idea what to do with it all. But Josh tells me!
Josh ‘loves the web’. He understands SEO and web design; he understands how to create visuals that do what they are supposed to do; he can design a layout for a book in a simple elegant way.
If you want to say it on the web, contact Josh. And not only is he smart, he’s a really nice guy. I am so happy to recommend him.
Visionary or crackpot, change agent or disruptor. What’s the difference?
Feb 23, 2010 Random Thoughts View Comments
I’m co-authoring an article for a prestigeous magazine with a colleague who has followed my work for years. Now that he’s retired, he’s happy to buck the system and introduce my material, which flies in the face of the commonly accepted precepts of his field of change management, systems, and OD.
This man has watched while his field has reviled me, ignored me, and found me crazy. He was even in a group that denied me acceptance because they didn’t like the way I dressed (too sophisticated). True story: that’s what they said. My friend was quite embarrassed at the time, but was unable to sway the ‘judges.’
As we start our new collaboration, the big question is: “What has stopped me from publishing in this magazine before now?” We both knew the answer: My work has not been acceptable because it goes against the field’s beliefs. Is it now time? We don’t know the answer. But if we’re going to try, we know we have to walk a line between making it palatable for the masses while not discarding my innovative precepts. Read More..
Get onto the Buying Decision Team on the First Call
Feb 22, 2010 Sales Related View Comments
When I tell sales folks their sales cycle is double what it should be, they assume I’m lying. But I’m not. I’m just using a different model than sales to being my client contact: Given that the typical sales model builds in time delays and leaves the seller out of the behind-the-scenes discussions going on, there is no way to get onto the Buying Decision Team on the first call.
My clients consistently close sales in a minimum of half the time it used to take them. Why? Because Buying Facilitation® gets them onto the Buying Decision Team on the first call, and they immediately being helping navigate the buyers through their often unknowable internal decision issues.
It’s not rocket science: the sales model pushes against the status quo, causing the status quo to defend itself. Sales treats a buyer’s alleged need, or ’problem,’ as if it were an isolated event; it has no capability to support buyers as they discover and manage the off-line change management issues they must address internally and privately prior to making a purchase. Indeed, the buyer’s internal system fights any chaos that would take place if the new solution entered too soon, and thereby rejects outside influence.
Think about coming home with a brand new luxury car before discussing the purchase with your wife or managing the budget or garage space: just because the family might need a car, until or unless all of the internal factors are managed, no change can take place without chaos. Read More..
