Strategy #1: Provide formal and comprehensive product knowledge training and tools for your associates.

Strategy #2: Help associates understand that recommending an appropriate additional product or service to an existing customer is not “pushy,” but actually an act of caring for the customer.

Strategy #3: Help associates understand their unique Behavior/Communication Styles and Needs and the Styles and Needs of others.

Strategy #4: Teach associates to ask open-ended questions.

Strategy #5: Remind associates to listen twice as much as they talk, and that customers don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.

Strategy #6: Provide ongoing recognition, coaching, accountability, and rewards for cross-selling business products and services.

For more details, on each of the Strategies, please refer to the article below.

SIX STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE SALES & PROFITS

When the Radio Shack associate asks if you’d like batteries with your new MP3 player, or a McDonald’s associate asks if you’d like fries or a beverage with your burger, or a bank associate suggests a debit card to go with your checking account, they are all providing a service to the customer. Help your associate understand the technique we’ll call “cross-selling” and you’ll increase sales as well as your associates’ success and motivation. Here are the strategies to get you there.

STRATEGY #1

Provide formal and comprehensive product knowledge training and tools for your associates.

Often when I ask workshop participants how they learned about their business’s products, the answer is: “Oh, I learned ‘on the job’ from listening and asking people I work with.” Even when I mystery shop a business that provides formal product knowledge training, the answers to basic questions about fees, for example, vary significantly. And, few associates know if or why their business’s products and services are better than the competition.

Provide associates with either free access or an in-depth, interactive demonstration of products and services that you offer. Once associates feel comfortable using a product or service, they are more likely to promote it.

Be sure associates know who the best prospects are for specific products or services and specifically how the customer’s lives will be simpler, easier, better, etc.by having the product or service. For example, a good prospect for a Home Equity Loan is a couple living in their own home who have a child or children going to college and don’t know how they’re going to pay for tuition. One benefit to the couple is that the loan payments are tax-deductible, unlike other non-mortgage loans, which means that they can save on taxes and have money to pay the college tuition.

An effective way to communicate the key information about a specific product or service to associates is to create a marketing tool called a Product Profile. Each Product Profile would include a description of the features and benefits of the product, paint a picture of the customer(s) who would benefit most from this product, provide cues to trigger a customer’s need for the product, and include a logical transition sentence to get the customer’s interest. For instance, the classic cross-selling example for a teller selling Travelers’ Checks is to ask, “Have you considered a safe deposit box to protect your valuables while you’re away?”

STRATEGY #2

Help associates understand that recommending an appropriate additional product or service to an existing customer is not “pushy,” but actually an act of caring for the customer.

When I run sales training sessions for non-sales personnel at a CPA firm, bank, or non-profit, the participants are initially resistant because someone sent them to the training, and they view selling as being “pushy.” To reduce their resistance and gain their acceptance, I begin by writing the word SALES on the board. Then, I say, “Even though this workshop is called, “Improving Your Cross-Selling Results,” we aren’t going to talk about sales.” Next, I cross out the word SALES with a big red “X.” Then, I write the word SERVE beneath it and say, “Instead, we’re going to focus on how you can SERVE your customers by helping them.”

If your hairdresser or barber recommends a product to make your hair look better, do you immediately get suspicious and think he or she is just trying to make money? Or, do you feel cared about? Most participants answer that they feel cared about and served. This is the message that associates need to hear to stop feeling like stereotypical used car salesmen. The goal is to convince associates that it’s a DIS-SERVICE not to tell customers about a product or service that can save them time, money, or make their lives easier.

STRATEGY #3

Help associates understand their unique Behavior/Communication Styles and Needs and the Styles and Needs of others.

Each of us is a distinct blend of four (4) Communication/Behavior Styles and corresponding needs. The four Behavior/Communication Styles are: Controller/ Driver, Analyzer, Promoter, and Supporter. 80% of our behavior is motivated by our needs, and each style is motivated by different needs. Controller/Drivers need results. Analyzers need to be right. Promoters need recognition, and Supporters need rapport.

A Controller/Driver, for example, is frequently the owner of a business who wants to make efficient use of time and dispense with chit chat. Analyzers are frequently engineers, accountants, or scientist who need guarantees that nothing can go wrong. They require lots of facts, data, and statistics. The other two styles, Promoters and Supporters, have totally different needs. Promoters need praise and acknowledgement for their good ideas. Supporters need to be liked and feel that you really care about them.

Most of the non-sales associates I meet are Supporters, which makes them very good at listening and caring. These folks just need to understand that not everybody cares about building rapport and that what seems like rude behavior from others is often just a style difference.

STRATEGY #4

Teach associates to ask open-ended questions.

Several years ago, I did mystery shopping for two large community banks in different parts of the state. Both banks had excellent marketing materials and had trained their associates to make eye contact, smile, shake hands, use the customer’s name, and make the customer feel welcome. Both banks had done extensive product knowledge training. I pretended to be moving to the area, and said I was looking for a bank with a checking account that was like the one I had where I now lived. Not one of the Branch Managers or Customer Service Representatives asked me questions about my needs or what I liked about what I had now. Instead, they did what I call a “product dump,” which means they verbally listed or pointed to a brochure and read all the details to me of each checking account. In addition, not one asked me to take a Next Step after it was clear that what they had to offer met my needs. Maybe they were afraid of looking “pushy.” I would have been delighted if someone had said, “Let’s get you started…All you need is a $10 deposit to open the account.”

It’s critical to teach associates to ask open-ended questions that start with Who, What, Where, When, and How before they launch into the fine print in the contract. An open-ended question is one that can’t be answered with just a “yes” or “no.” “What type of balances do you typically keep in your checking account?” is an open-ended question and an excellent way to discover which account might make the most sense for a prospect of a bank. “How difficult is it for you to get to the bank to make deposits and to get cash?” is another good question to uncover a cross-selling opportunity for direct deposit, a debit card, telephone banking, a companion savings account, Internet banking, a line of credit, and/or Bank by Mail.

STRATEGY #5

Remind associates to listen twice as much as they talk, and that customers don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.

“Listening, when well done, feels like love.” This quote by Dr. David Augsberger, a psychotherapist, points out that being genuinely listened to and heard are rare gifts that we can give another person. Most of our listening is a waiting to respond, rather than hearing. When I ask workshop participants the most valuable lesson they’ve learned in the sales training, it’s almost always “The importance of listening twice as much as talking…”

STRATEGY #6

Provide ongoing recognition, coaching, accountability, and rewards for cross-selling business products and services.

“The things that get rewarded are the things that get repeated.” Most of the workshop participants in my classes (at public seminars or on-site custom classes) report that there is no real consequence if they don’t cross-sell and there’s no reward/recognition if they do. Very few receive any reinforcement or support once the classroom training is done. Unless the business provides support, accountability, or consequences; it’s human nature (and easier) to keep doing what we’ve been doing.

To create additional enthusiasm, I suggest a simple, 1-page sales newsletter that shares success stories so that the associates can learn how and what others have done that worked. When soliciting these stories from associates, it’s important to convince them that reporting their successes is not bragging, but really sharing. Their success can instruct and enrich the success of their fellow associates.

I also suggest “atta boy/girl” calls and hand-written personal notes praising a job well done to associates from management-level personnel. Rewards can be as simple as movie passes, car wash coupons, and Dunkin Donuts gift cards.

Ideas for post-classroom trainee support include: 15 minute, bi-monthly, 1:1 telephone sales coaching calls with a sales trainer; a monthly conference call with the workshop participants and the trainer; and/or a 1:1 coaching visit from an internal or external sales coach. In addition, tracking, reinforcing, and rewarding performance are essential for sustained results. Ken Blanchard, the co-author of acclaimed One Minute Manger, likens lack of feedback to bowling wearing a blindfold. We all need to know how we’re doing, and most of us appreciate acknowledgement, as well as constructive feedback on how to improve.

CONCLUSION

It takes 21 to 45 days to change behavior. It also takes knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do it), and desire (want to do it). Skill and knowledge can be trained; desire must be coached. So, if you want cross-selling to improve in your business, develop a plan to implement the six strategies and watch your bottom line grow.

You’re a business owner with employees. How often have you said to yourself, “Why can’t they act like me?” or “If I could just get new employees, everything would be better.”

You’re not alone. No matter how much you increase benefits and salaries, employees still don’t seem to be as motivated as owners.

There are ways to change this, and many of the ideas are cost-free. Just like dieting – simple, but not easy – motivating employees means investing time and energy into improving employee communication. Sincerely listening, caring about the person as an individual, investing time in meaningful two-way communication, and treating the other person as a valuable asset will get you amazing results.

If, however, this sounds as painful to you as dental surgery, stop reading now. Nothing changes if nothing changes!

On the other hand, let’s assume you’re willing to invest the time and energy into building win-win relationships with your employees. You’ll be delighted by the miraculous transformation in many workers. And an added bonus is that some of your employees will gladly take on more responsibility.

If you see this as a quick fix, don’t bother to begin the process. Starting and stopping actually makes things worse. Commitment to new, trust-building behavior is the key to success. Assuming you are committed, a highly effective five-step strategy is outlined below:

1. Conduct confidential interviews with each employee to ask them questions such as:

• If you were the owner, what changes would you implement?
• What obstacles/challenges prevent you from doing your job?
• What training or tools do you need to be more valuable to the company?
• What are your hopes, dreams, and fears regarding working here?

Employees are more likely to open up to someone they trust. So you’ll likely need an impartial insider or an objective third party to get the most honest answers.

Good ideas abound. For example, you might discover that employees need a class in blueprint reading or would benefit from a visit with the salesperson to see how the customer uses your product. If you don’t ask, you won’t know how to help your people help you succeed.

2. Ask each employee to take a communication/behavior style self-test to find out what needs motivate their behavior. The test results quickly identify strengths and weaknesses each employee brings to the job.

If, for example, you have a supporter/amiable type doing the chief financial officer’s job, that might not be a good match. Ideally, you’d want an analyzer in this position. If your sales manager is a strong controller or driver, he might alienate your sales people, who are more likely to be promoter/expressive types. This information can help you coach employees to improve performance.

3. Interview all employees to find out their top three motivators. Nationwide, the nine most common motivators are: interesting work; full appreciation for work done; feeling “in on things”; job security; good wages; promotions and growth opportunities; good working conditions; personal loyalty to workers; and tactful disciplining and sympathetic help with current problems.

Typically, owners and managers think that money is the primary motivator. It’s not. Assuming that wages are fair, employees will only grumble about the wages if their other needs are not being met. If they don’t think you care about them, they can’t trust you to be honest with them, or you aren’t willing to listen to their ideas, they’ll complain about most anything.

4. Conduct a company-wide meeting/workshop to share the findings, teach employees how to use the communication/behavior styles information to improve relationships with each other, and announce action steps that address their most logical recommendations. A meeting like this provides an opportunity to communicate with each other and shows employees that “We heard you, you’re important, and we value your opinion.”

5. Create a vision for the company that can be communicated easily and clearly to all of your stakeholders — employees, suppliers, customers, and others who have a vested interest in your company’s success. If you want everyone inside the company “rowing in the same direction,” they all need to know where you’re headed and to see the value of going there.

There are many other cost-free ideas to motivate your employees. As I said earlier, like dieting, they’re simple but not easy. They all take time, energy, and a commitment to consistent win-win behavior. Companies that make the commitment find that morale increases, turnover declines, and customer satisfaction improves – as do profits.

by Susan Bellows

Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. Mass High Tech 1999

A Little Psychology Can Go a Long Way.

Psychologists tell us that there are five major buying motives: pain/problem, fear, present pleasure, future pleasure, and interest. The most common reason why people buy is pain . . . something is wrong in their businesses or personal lives that they want fixed and they are prepared to pay to fix it.

The best sales professionals never sell anything . . . they offer solutions. They uncover pain and make it go away. People make decisions intellectually but BUY emotionally. For example, the $33 billion diet industry thrives because women buy weight loss programs on the emotional belief that they need to be a different dress size.

So how do we find pain? We learn to ask gentle, probing questions. Instead of asking, “How can I help you?” you could ask a more concrete question, such as “If you could wave a magic wand, what would _____ be like?” Allowing them to describe their ideal situation helps you identify pain, problems and possible remedies and opportunities.

Once you have built rapport with the prospect, try asking carefully worded, sensitively posed questions to help get to your prospect’s pain. Prospects will not just tell you their real problems up front; they’ll give you an intellectual “smoke screen.” For example, a customer in a store, when approached by a sales associate, may deflect sales pressure with a casual, “No thanks, I’m just browsing.” This is a common smoke screen — one we all have instinctively used even though few of us have time to browse causally through stores . . . usually we have made a conscious decision to visit that store in search of a particular item.

Even though discussing pain and problems may be uncomfortable, asking probing questions can help you uncover your prospect’s pain and helps them come to the conclusion that you can help.

In the ideal world, we seek prospects who have pain, who can pay to get rid of it and who can make the buying decision. When you find these people, be sure:

• The problem must be one you can fix. Your prospect must acknowledge that it is his/her problem.
• Your prospect must be willing to do something to fix the problem.
• Your prospect must be committed to fixing the problem.

Remember, people buy for THEIR reasons, not yours. When you become skillful at asking questions and uncovering pain, you’ll see business skyrocket.

by Susan Bellows

Sales Boosters Every Business Can Afford

Marketing is (pick the best one that applies):

• Going to the grocery store to buy food and cleaning supplies
• A salesperson who calls you during dinner to sell you encyclopedias or the Los Angeles Times
• Creating, promoting, and delivering customer-satisfying products (or services) at a profit.

Correct answer: Marketing is the creation, promotion, and delivery of customer-satisfying products or services at a profit.

Customer-satisfying means that your product or service satisfies a need. And, to stay in business, your product or service pricing must be profitable. Otherwise your business becomes just an expensive way to create a tax loss. Promoting your product or service can be done cost-effectively. The Six Secrets of Shoestring Marketing are aimed at keeping your marketing expenses low and your income high.

1. Determine what makes you, your product, or your service unique and let everyone know about it. Toot your own horn — nobody else will do it for you. Some examples of capitalizing on your uniqueness are:

• An auto repair shop that gives free rides to customers dropping off their cars for service.
• An office supply business owner who charges 25% less than the standard catalog prices and delivers free of charge.
• A $2,000 workshop that offers a 100% money-back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied within the first 30 days following the workshop.

2. Know the “pain” that motivates your customers and use their words when you talk about your product or service. In order to get people to spend money for your product or service, you need to let them know “what’s in it for them” (WIFM) or what problem (“pain”) your product or service will satisfy. Examples of “pain” are shoplifting if you’re a retail store owner, insomnia for a stressed executive, and employee turnover for a production line manager. Most people do not like to spend money, but they do want to solve their problems. So give them a reason to buy by reminding them how and why you, your product or your service can alleviate their “pain.”

3. Pay attention to your image. Anything that is seen or heard by a customer or potential customer should represent you and your business in a way you’ll be proud of. This includes signage, neighborhood, cleanliness, clutter, smell, lighting, price tags and décor, as well as your sales reps’ grooming and professional brochures.

Also, a smile from you or your employees is an image-enhancer and is so important to a customer. A smile makes the customer feel glad they came to see you. So, smile, make eye contact, and use the person’s name whenever possible to make your customers feel special.

Be sure your business card represents you in a flattering, positive way. For example, a graphic artist with unattractive, crumpled, dirty business cards does not convey a positive image,

4. Network like crazy! According to a Success! magazine article, The Art of Networking, “Networking is the art of making and using contacts. It is the single-minded pursuit of useful contacts at every convention, seminar or neighborhood barbecue.”

Jay Levinson in Guerilla Marketing Attack suggests passing out coupons for two free dinners to owners of every beauty salon in the neighborhood to attract business to a new restaurant. Why? Because if the food is good and if the beauticians like the eatery’s ambience, their word of mouth recommendations will outweigh any amount of advertising.

Finally, always carry your business cards and give them out whenever possible. You never know where or when the opportunity for networking might strike. Make sure that your uniqueness shows on your business cards – it helps people remember what makes you special.

5. Be of great service — genuinely, not just a moneygrubber who doesn’t care about his/her customers. According to Guerilla Marketing Attack, consumers consider service or lack of it to be one of the four important influences in selecting a business from which to buy. It doesn’t necessarily cost any more to provide exceptional service, but it may take extra time, time well spent to build customer loyalty.

6. Make it easy for people to find you and to remember you. Pick a name for your business that is recalled easily and/or tells what you do. For example, Same Day Lawn Mower Fix-It Service is memorable and descriptive. Those involving your own name may seem less exciting, but are remembered even more easily.

Be sure that you are listed in the white and yellow pages in the phone book. Use a map or landmark-oriented directions (such as “across from the bus station”) on your brochures, in yellow page ads, and on coupons, if your office is in a hard-to-find location.

There are many more secrets that are equally inexpensive and cost-effective. Most of them are common-sense ideas. All of them reinforce the fact that shoestring marketing can be fun, inexpensive, creative and extremely profitable.

by Susan Bellows

There was a famous experiment at Emory University a few years ago. An audience of first-graders, fourth-graders, and adults was asked to count the number of passes made during a college basketball game. In the middle of the game a woman in a white dress carrying a parasol strolled across the court. The adults were so busy counting that not one of them noticed the woman. But 75% of the first-graders did.

As we become adults our focus becomes not only sharper, but narrower, and sometimes we have to play tricks on the mind to get it to open up and do what we want. The “Mind-Map” is a simple idea that gets the mind out of its normal, linear set, using the kind of visual association we use when reading a map rather than what we use when reading a book. Mind-Mapping is a simple idea that works.

Begin by taking a sheet of paper and placing the subject at hand in a circle in the middle. Whenever something comes to mind relating to the subject, draw a line like the spoke of a wheel out from the subject. If that gives you a related idea, branch off the spoke as in the example below. For an entirely new association, begin a new spoke.

Mind-Mapping is both a useful exercise to develop your intuitive, imaginative capacity, and a way to harness that capacity and begin to discipline it just enough to produce useful results.

It is often best to begin by asking a question such as, “How Can I Increase My Business?” Mind-mapping can help you articulate what you want from life and business in just 10 minutes. Mind-Mapping isn’t a gimmick, it’s a way to get a new perspective on your own ideas. The more you use it the more useful it becomes and the more quickly ideas and obvious decisions seem to “float to the surface.” Pick a subject and try it. You’ll like it!

by Susan Bellows

Total Quality Management (TQM) is one of those phrases business people have been hearing about lately, but may not know what it means. The following is a summary of frequently-asked questions about TQM.

Q. I keep hearing about TQM. What is it?

A. TQM — Total Quality Management — is a different way of doing business that focuses on continuous improvement of everything, by everyone, all of the time. Remember when “Made in Japan” meant junk and “Made in America” set the standard for quality? Japan turned around its quality through TQM. But TQM isn’t a band-aid, quick-fix “program.” It took Japan years to transform its way of doing business and make continuous improvement a way of life.

Q. How would an organization implement Total Quality Management?

A. TQM isn’t a program, a technique, or a fad. Fundamentally, it represents a cultural change process that starts at the top. It involves a major commitment from senior management to:

• Assess the organization’s culture and be willing to make changes, if necessary.
• Use tools to measure, identify, and prevent problems.
• Train and empower all employees.
• Build relationships with employees, suppliers, and customers based on trust and teamwork.

This is an ongoing, dynamic process that takes time, patience, and a very strong desire to improve virtually everything at every level. But, the benefits are well worth the effort.

Q. What are the benefits of TQM?

A. The General Accounting Office (GAO), in its study of companies operating in a TQM environment, found that typical benefits included:

• improved productivity
• reduced costs
• improved moral
• reduced turnover
• enhanced customer satisfaction
• increased customer retention
• improved profits

. . . all because the organization is focusing its efforts on doing the right thing right . . . the first time.

Q. Isn’t TQM just for large manufacturing firms? What about TQM in a small or medium-sized service organization?

A. TQM can benefit any size organization and any industry. Interestingly, it’s actually easier for a smaller organization to initiate and sustain TQM because there is less bureaucracy. Consequently, there are fewer layers of resistance. Plus, decisions from the top often flow more smoothly and quickly in a smaller organization. In addition, smaller organizations are typically closer to and in a better position to listen to their customers.

Q. What else do I need to know?

A. Traditionally, American businesses have sought quick, “band-aid” approaches to their problems. In the long run, these quick-fix approaches have been less effective and more expensive than TQM. TQM focuses on steady, continuous, lasting improvement. So, if you’re serious about the long-term health of your organization, you owe it to yourself to learn more about TQM.

Q. Anything else?

A. Time and time again the TQM continuous improvement process has been proven to provide quicker, less expensive, and more effective solution to problems than more people, more equipment, or more money could buy.

by Susan Bellows

“You teach best what you need to learn the most.” That’s an old saw that holds true, for this home-office time management consultant and author at least. Here it is Sunday, a day that I’ve scheduled as work-free, and I’m writing this article. You see, I know what to do. It’s just a question of practicing what I preach.

I’m not that different from a lot of small-business people. They, too, need to make some decisions if they really want to keep their business and personal lives separate, but under the same roof.

To keep work and play in correct proportions, you need to:

• decide you’re willing to change your behavior to achieve a more balanced life;
• take a time management course or read a book like “First Things First” by Stephen Covey; and
• use a time-management planning system on a daily basis.

Each of these is critical to your success in having a balanced life.

Now, it’s time to get down to work.

Plan and prioritize what you do

No matter how rich, smart, or clever you are, time can’t be managed — we all get the same 24 hours each day. We can, however, manage projects and activities. And we can assign priorities to each project and activity. Planning is the key to leveraging time and energy. Planning gives us perspective and provides a road map for what’s ahead. Sunday night and nightly before leaving the office are especially good times for planning. Whatever time you pick, be consistent. Make planning an “A” priority.

Do what you plan

Select one thing to do each day and do it — no matter what. Don’t say that you’ll do something that you aren’t totally committed to doing. Find an “accountability partner,’ a coach, or a support group to help you stay on track. The likelihood of keeping our word to ourselves is fairly low. My name for this is the “Sleaze Factor,” which can be counteracted by establishing an agreement for accountability with another person or group.

Utilize “book-ending”

When faced with commitments that take you out of your comfort zone, or when you find yourself procrastinating, simply call someone you respect (perhaps your accountability partner) before you begin the task.

Once the task is done, call that person back to say that you have accomplished the goal. This simple technique, called “book-ending,” makes difficult situations easier, counters the Sleaze Factor, and builds self-esteem.

Use rewards to motivate yourself

Reward yourself for doing what you commit to do. Examples of rewards include going away for a weekend, playing golf on a Friday, or buying that new software that you want.

Part of rewarding yourself is to “feed your soul,” so it might include listening to music, spending time outdoors, or watching a video with your child. Rewards can be as simple as affixing gold stars to a list of To Do’s that you’ve completed. The key is just to acknowledge yourself for sticking to your new behavior.

Commit to a schedule

Set boundaries for yourself by committing to a specific schedule. Decide the number of hours, times of day, and days of the week that you will work. For example, you may decide to stop work each day no later than 9:00 p.m. and to take Sundays off.

Whatever schedule you decide on, stick to it. A schedule is a major part of creating a framework, and a framework gives you freedom. Try it for one week and see how you feel.

Recreation for re-creation

Think about it. Recreation does help re-create us. Even though work is fun, it’s critical to find enjoyable activities that are not work-related. Flying a kite, for example, gets us outside, is playful, and may even result in some new insight about business.

Getting away from work, even if it’s to take a 20-minute nap or meditate, recharges our batteries for the next round of work. When our lives are out of balance, it affects our attitude, judgement, energy, and how others treat to us. To help justify taking time off, remember that “it’s for the good of the business.”

How to begin?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. But it takes just 21 to 45 days of doing the new behavior consistently to change a habit or to develop a new habit.

In order to achieve balance and avoid burnout, we need to commit to new behavior and do it day after day after day. The sanity of developing behavior that promotes a balanced life stops the insanity of doing the same self-defeating thing over and over.

So, what do you say when someone asks “what do you do for a living?” Do you shoot from the hip and say whatever comes to mind at that moment? Rather than hemming and hawing, or going into tedious details from the time you start speaking, you need to think like an advertising executive and come prepared with a 30-second commercial for yourself.

A well-crafted commercial is a powerful tool that allows you to market yourself quickly, easily, painlessly and effectively. Before you can start crafting a commercial, you need to have a clear understanding of what makes you, your product, or your service unique. You also need to know what motivates your customers and prospects – what ‘pain’ does your product or service alleviate? Shoplifters may be an example of pain for a retail store owner, insomnia for a stressed executive, and employee turnover for a production line manager. Remember, most people don’t like to spend money, but they do want to solve their problems. So, give them a reason to buy by reminding them how and why your product or your service can alleviate their pain.

With a firm understanding of what makes your business unique and what pain you take away, you are ready to follow six proven secrets for developing and perfecting your 30 Second Commercial.

Secret 1: Paint a memorable picture with words, visuals, or demonstrations to create “top o the mind” awareness.

If you see a black, coneshaped hat, what do you think of? That is top of the mind awareness. Your commercial needs to remind your audience of you — not a product or service that others offer – but you, specifically, and what you can do for them.

Most people are visual learners. They remember what they see. But most of the time you’ll run into someone in the elevator, or at a networking event or another place where a visual display will be impossible. This is why your commercial needs to ‘paint a picture’ with words — something that people will be able to visualize and remember. A good technique in developing a memorable word picture is to draw a blank television or computer screen. Then imagine that everyone you talk to is that blank screen, and it’s your job to fill it in.
Memorable word pictures for 30 Second Commercials include the following items:

• Your name and title
• The solution (service) you provide
• An example
• A credibility statement
• A stamp of approval

Secret 2: Include your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) so that you can answer the unspoken questions

‘What’s in it for me’ and ‘So what?’ People are inherently self-centered and self-absorbed. We want to know, on some level, ‘What’s in it for me?’ Even the most charitable act generally has a ‘What’s in it for me?’ component. With all the information that we take in on a daily basis, we’re constantly scanning conversation, waiting to hear something that might be of help or interest to us.

Commercials are a perfect example of this. How many times have you been only half-watching TV, when suddenly you perk up at the mention of something that you’re interested in? The same concept holds true for 30-second commercials. You might hear someone say they are a time management consultant, but you probably think ‘So what?’ until you hear the answer to the questions ‘What’s in it for me?’ Your unique selling proposition is what gets you past the ‘So what?’ of prospective client

Secret 3: Incorporate customer language (‘verbatims’) in your commercial.

You should have different 30-second commercials for different audiences because your commercial will be more effective if it is targeted to a specific audience. You’ll want to ‘talk the talk’ of that audience.

The easiest way to build your dictionary of customer language is to take special care to notice customer-specific words and phrases when you talk to clients or prospects. Take notes if possible. Your customers will tell you what’s important to them in their own language, and you can begin incorporating that language into your 30-second commercials.

A good way get started on this is to call your existing clients and ask them what benefit they get out of your services. Now you have language from actual customers that you can start using, and you’ll start to see themes in what they say. However, avoid using jargon and acronyms since they often alienate more people than they impress.

Secret 4 – Practice, vary and test your commercial

There is no way to stress this enough: practice, vary, and test your 30-second Commercial.

Practice out loud, incorporating purposeful pauses. You don’t want to sound as if you’ve memorized a string of words and are reciting them. You want your commercial to sound conversational, as if you are talking off the top of your head. The best way to accomplish this is to practice, practice, practice. You want the words to flow.

Vary your commercial so that you have appropriate commercials for different audiences. First develop your general commercial. Once you have a solid description of what you do, you can develop key messages for each audience, incorporating the appropriate customer language in each commercial.

Test your commercial on anyone who’ll sit still long enough for you say it. This means your spouse, your child, your sibling, your friends and colleagues.

Secret 5: Ask prospects what their major challenges are before answering what you do.

Let them see that you care about them. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Psychologists tell us that there are five major reasons people buy: pain/problem, fear, present pleasure, future pleasure, and interest. The most common reason people buy is pain – something is wrong in their businesses or personal lives that they want fixed and they are prepared to pay to fix it.

The best sales professionals never sell anything. They offer solutions. They uncover pain and make it go away. People make decisions intellectually, but buy emotionally. For example, the $33 billion diet industry thrives because women buy weight-loss programs on the emotional belief that they need to be a different dress size.

So how do we find pain? We learn to ask gentle, probing questions. Instead of asking, “How can I help you?” you could ask a more concrete question, such as ‘If you could wave a magic wand, what would _____ be like?’ Allowing them to describe their ideal situation helps you identify pain, problems and possible remedies and opportunities. Once you have built rapport with the prospect, try asking carefully worded, sensitively posed questions to help get to your prospect’s pain. Prospects will not just tell you their real problems up front; they’ll give you an intellectual ‘smoke screen.’ For example, a customer in a store, when approached by a sales associate, may deflect sales pressure with a casual, ‘No thanks, I’m just browsing.’ This is a common smoke screen – one we all have instinctively used even though few of us have time to browse causally through stores — usually we have made a conscious decision to visit that store in search of a particular item.

Even though discussing pain and problems may be uncomfortable, asking probing questions can help you uncover your prospect’s pain and helps them come to the conclusion that you can help. When you find people who have pain, can pay to get rid
of pain and who can make the buying decision, then be sure of the following:

• The problem is one that you can fix.
• Your prospect acknowledges his/her problem.
• Your prospect is willing to do something to fix the problem.
• Your prospect is committed to fixing the problem.

Remember, people buy for their reasons, not yours. When you become skillful at asking questions and uncovering pain, you’ll see business skyrocket.

Secret 6: Listen 70% of the time.

By listening you will know your prospect’s pain and be able to introduce yourself through your targeted 30-Second Commercial as the person who can end the pain. ❖

Published by BusinessWest
Written by Susan Bellows

A Case Study

I just read what a client, a company General Manager, has said about you. Why is he so happy with what you’ve done for him?

Oh, that’s Larry Goldberg from Rock 102 in Springfield, MA. What he liked about us was our no-fuss, no- muss, get-to-the-point, get-the-job-done attitude. In this case, the task was to help them come up with a company vision, a purpose, some goals, and some guiding principles so that everyone at the radio station would have something to shoot for over the next few years.

How did you work with them?

When I work with company staff, we all become part of the team, and I coordinate the team, using some brainpower to get the best out of everyone. We began with three half-day sessions — one day off-site at a hotel. We talked about their core values, the values that the company stood for. They had a lot of new people on the management team, and I wound up asking them what values they thought were important. I handed them a list of popular core business values and asked them to select the top three that applied to them. We came up with a long list and kept asking ourselves if it applied to the station.

What do you mean by “core values”?

A core value is non-perishable, no matter how your business changes. Core values might be integrity, honesty, impeccability, things like that.

How can you decide?

We had to really narrow it down to some core values they could live with. Everyone in the room had to agree. Then we worked on the guiding principles and philosophy that the company agreed on concerning the way they would treat each other, their customers, their listeners. These values extended to how they would treat their advertisers and the listening community. Guiding principles endure in a company no matter what a company is doing. Rock 102 is a rock music station right now. But let’s say at some point they were taken over by someone else, or the radio industry experienced a spate of mergers, etc. What then?

I’m imagining a fairly short list of core values. You said that when you solicited responses from everyone you came up with a long list…

That’s because everyone had different things they stood for. But a core value had to be something that was universal for the station. That was the hard part to agree on. For example, one person wanted the focus for the company to be “entertaining people.” That isn’t all they do. So in the end “entertaining” became a value way down the list, not at the core. Being solution-oriented, creative and fun, those values topped the list. For another client, a major value was being heart-centered. Every company is different. One guy kept asking me, “What’s going to make these words different from anybody else who has these same words written down?” When I interviewed him later, he said, “Though the words are the same, what they stand for is an internal thing for our company and for us. They mean something for us because we picked them.”

Who in the company participates in this process?

Typically, in larger companies, it’s the management team. In this case, the radio station has only 20 employees, so we had the general manager, three people from sales, two radio announcers, the person who writes the commercials, the head of marketing, another person who does events, the person in charge of scheduling, and a person in charge of finance and accounting. It wasn’t all managers.

Were the people involved initially enthusiastic about the program?

No. I think that the employees were surprised that the general manager, a “Controller/Driver” type, stood back and let this be a team effort. I interviewed them all beforehand by sending them a survey asking them what we would have to do to be a success and what their major concerns were about this whole process. So I had a lot of initial feedback on where the problems were going to be coming from, where the sources of skepticism and cynicism would be.

What types of companies approach you? Who are your clients?

The companies I tend to work with are service-focused and customer-focused, which means that they see that the customer is the most important part of the equation. They want very happy customers, and that’s part of why I’m there. My job is to make companies better so that customers will continue to be pleased. This is how good companies stay on top and how growing companies achieve their goals. I often deal with owner-managed companies or family-owned businesses. With the exception of banks, most clients have 50 or fewer employees. It’s still manageable, we can still get everyone together in one room. I prefer dealing with the owner, the person who makes the decisions and controls the budget. They’re usually companies that want to grow, that want to continue to be successful. I also work with educational institutions, for marketing advice or training. If I look back on my whole history, there is a common thread of companies seeking to preserve something valuable: rights, knowledge, or simply to restore their core values.

What sorts of problems bring clients running to you?

It’s usually things like complaints to the board of directors about customer service that reach the president, or employee problems where the owner spends more time managing employee battles than doing his job. Some companies want to do more with teams.

How do you get started?

I try to help people understand that we all have different styles and different needs. If we understand how we’re different from other people and the way we need to behave in order to get the best out of another person, then people start to feel better about each other. That’s usually the beginning. Then they like having me around, they trust me. I am a “trust catalyst” — someone who can be a link between management and the employees — or I serve as the link between the president and the management team. I often find the president has not been using the people who work for him as a team, and he’s had to do everything by himself. It’s typically a marketing challenge, morale challenge, customer-service challenge that gets me in the door. And frequently, they’ve heard me speaking somewhere.

Do your companies experience sustainable change, or is this a week of pep-talk followed by back to the “same-old, same-old”?

There’s a book called “You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar.” The idea of riding a bike has to do more with being out on the sidewalk, getting on a bike and falling over. It takes time. Any kind of change requires ongoing reinforcement. You have to have the skill, desire and knowledge to create a new habit. What I’ve come to realize is that for any lasting change to happen, I have to be inside the company for up to a year providing ongoing support, because as soon as I leave, a company will go back to doing the things the way they were habitually done. My visits becomes less and less frequent, but they always know that when I show up it’s time to have met the goals that they said they were going to meet. So, we build in accountability, responsibility, action plans, timelines, deadlines that they’re going to meet.

From a business owner’s perspective, what’s the payoff in bottom line terms for this kind of expense?

When I’m with a consultant, I feel like I’m in a New York City taxicab in rush hour with the meter running, and I damned well want to get my money’s worth. That’s the way I go into every situation with a client — they damned well better feel that they got their money’s worth when they are with me. So I don’t do anything that isn’t leveraging every penny that they invested. I’m very fast. One firm that I worked with wrote that my “time management made us pay more attention to our own time management practices.”

I document what I’m doing by category and by week, by hour, and record by quarter hour, so that people know how their money is being spent. And, we can change it. Often I give them an estimate of how long it’s going to take or I give them a project fee and then they can relax, knowing that it’s not going to exceed the quoted price even if it does take me longer. In a case where a client can’t commit, we begin a process on an hourly basis.

What else do you bring to your clients?

One thing I really like about what I do is finding gold and jewels within a company — the ideas and talents of its own staff. I share that information with management. I’m the one who hears that, for example, Tracy in shipping has a background in carpentry. I find out that someone’s got skills that aren’t being utilized because no one knows about them. That suddenly can move the person forward, can make them the natural person to be head of a new department. A year or two later, management will call me up and say, “We have an opening — who did you interview that makes the most sense for this job?” I’m also an advocate for the employees to get more skills so that they can be more valuable to the company.

I assume you have relationships with other business consultants. Who are your associates?

I’m a generalist. There are some things I’m better at than others. But I’m wise enough to know that when a good specialist is available, I bring them in. For example, a business writer for position descriptions or employee manuals, or a mediator for conflict resolution. Typically, my associates are people like me, who have a similar way with people, and who are efficient and affordable. I can simply link you up with that resource, or I can manage that resource for you as part of an integrated package of services.

What is so special about Susan Bellows & Associates, and what’s your particular gift?

I can feel what’s going on and I can see what’s going on. What I hear over and over and again about my services is “She took a tough group of people, and she got them to come together.” I often hear from management how happy people were to engage in a learning process with their co-workers. What I’m doing is eliciting the best out of the people who are in the room. I’m not the star, I’m the catalyst. I’m the facilitator. I listen, and I watch the body language of people so if someone doesn’t agree, I make sure that everyone has their say. I create a forum for each person in the room to be a participant.

One of your programs discusses making your employees feel like owners. Is that part of your personal business philosophy?

Absolutely. If I could be known for anything, it would be the Triple Win System. If companies would treat their employees with dignity and respect, then employees would treat the customers with dignity and respect, the customers would want to continue doing business with the company, and the management/shareholders of the company would profit. Everyone would win in this environment. Smaller, growing companies traditionally operate like this. Then as companies get bigger, that feeling that workers are important goes away.

There’s something called the Brain Line. It’s an imaginary line cutting across a company’s pyramid structure. The people above the line are supposed to think, and the people below the line are supposed to do — the hired hands or the workers. What I try to do, and what I believe is the most important thing that can happen, is to help companies erase the Brain Line as much as possible so they can get the most creativity, productivity, and enthusiasm out of their people. No one gets up in the morning and thinks, “I want to go do a bad job somewhere.”

Let people do their jobs, empower them to be all they can be, help them to grow in the same direction with you by helping them discover where the company is headed. As they say, “It’s common sense; it’s just not commonly practiced.”

In your experience, can companies learn this lesson?

What we found over and over again is that if the owners are level with the employees and treat them fairly, they can gain respect, honesty and compassion. Communicate with them, be fair with them. If you really want a company to be all it can be, you have to remember the “magic words” we learned as children: “please” and “thank you.” Once we get into business we forget to use them.

It comes back to dignity and respect. Employees feel like they can trust you when they can see that you want them to develop their potential, that you’re going to provide opportunities for promotions, salary increases, bonuses, profit sharing. A lot of this can come gradually, but it starts off with keeping your word and having each employee feel like there is someone there to go to bat for them. Trust builds when employees know that management won’t be playing favorites.

Obviously, you enjoy this work and find it satisfying. What is the best thing about your work?

My life purpose is to make a difference in the world, and if I’m not making a difference I don’t want to do it. So, it makes me incredibly happy to see that by being fast, flexible, intuitive, and willing to engage people in discussion, I help people interact with themselves and with each other. If I notice when I’m teaching that the material is over their heads or not appropriate, I’ll jettison whatever I had planned and go to something else. I’m not locked in to some way of doing it. I also solicit feedback from the group. They talk about the issues, and we come up with something that makes sense.

I like being part of the team without having to be part of the team. I get to leave. I don’t have to stay around. It’s being a mentor, one of my favorite things to be. I’m there for the event. I leave. Then I come back in and help people move towards something that they say they want but it’s hard for them to make a priority.

You’re a small consulting outfit. Why do companies put their trust in Susan Bellows & Associates?

I’m referred a lot, so there’s a “trusted other” who refers me. And then I have to prove myself when I go in the door. I build rapport with people quite easily. I can help almost any company if I can understand their business. I have to understand what they do for a living, and I have to trust and respect that. Typically when I go in and talk about what I do, I do a brief presentation where I say, “Whether you hire me or hire somebody else, let’s brainstorm, let’s figure out what you really want to achieve at the end of this thing so that you’ll all be clear.” They get a sense of who I am.

One of the things I find is that companies want someone they can see face to face, so typically I’m no more than about an hour away from a client. I’ve been in situations where I’ve been competing with national companies, bigger companies, and what they’ve liked about us is that we are “local,” that we were available to come in immediately, and that they were going to be dealing with the principal of the business.

Companies see that we have a very unusual range and blend of talents because of our broad industry and consulting experience. The other thing is that we’re very “in-the-trenches” and practical. My work is all practical, easy to implement, and affordable. My fees are reasonable. The things I recommend are not high-falutin’; they are grounded, result-oriented solutions.

Why couldn’t a company create a program for themselves and save some money? Why should they hire you?

Everyone I’ve ever worked with can learn how to do this themselves, and if they didn’t have to run the company they probably could do this themselves. It does require a certain personality style to be able to facilitate discussion without bossing people around too much. I find that owners are busy running their company, and this program is just one more thing they’d have to go out and learn. It’s not an A-level priority for them. Most companies spend their time doing “urgent and important” work, fighting all those day-to-day fires.

Suppose I’m a CEO of a small company, proud of what I’ve created, and I’m suspicious of this training stuff. It seems like a lot of money, I don’t really know whether it’s going to do anything, and my resources are limited. What convinces a manager like me that this is worth it?

There are a number of things I can do that are very low-cost just to get your toes in the water to see whether this is something you’ll want to invest in. I can do a two-hour workshop. I can do 15-minute interviews. I can send a paper inquiry ahead and have your employees take a specialized test of communication/behavior styles, and I can give you a compilation of the results.

I have a 100% money-back guarantee. Whatever we do, in the beginning, if the customer isn’t satisfied, there’s no charge for what we did. I give them a trial run. It’s a no-risk situation.