April 15, 2006
By: Harlan Goerger, National Director of Training
Harlan@itstartswithyou.net

 

A newsletter designed to support our training participants with continuous development ideas and opportunities  

Selling Skills for the Month: 

Getting someone’s positive attention is always a challenge. So what is the “trick” to engaging others?  As I have been studying the concepts of Influence and persuasion over the past few years, it appears as though many of the ideas I used in the past are not as effective and for good reason. They are too cumbersome and usually address the wrong idea or in a way that the customer does not understand.  

This is where the idea of combining the open type question from last month and “reframing” comes in. What is “reframing”? To help you understand the concepts consider the following little story.  

A monk meets his best friend, another monk, in the hall. “You seem a bit down”’ says the first Monk. “Well I asked the Bishop is it was all right to smoke while I prayed”. He said,”Absolutely not!”  “That’s interesting”, says the other monk, “Just the other day I asked the Bishop if it was all right to pray while I smoked”. He said “Absolutely!”  

Let’s take a look at this from the Bishops view and the pictures that probably came to his mind. The monk asked if he could smoke while he prayed, so where do most people usually pray? In Church of course, and you certainly do not want to be smoking in Church! The other monk had asked if it was alright to pray while he smoked. Where are most people smoking these days? Outside and usually not doing a lot at the time, so praying sounds like a good idea.  

This is called “framing” a situation or request. On the outside the two monks asked for the same thing, but in the Bishop’s (customers) mind the picture or context of the two requests were quite different.  

Now consider how you frame your requests, what type of picture or context do they create for your customers? Might they be asking permission to smoke while you pray?  

Here is a way to test and develop some alternate framing. Write out several open type questions you feel would work. Then ask yourself what type of picture this creates in your mind. Does the picture have a negative feel? Does the emphasis of your picture have negative connotations? Is there anything in the picture that is easily rejected?  

We can use the copier example from last month.  

“We sell copiers and office machines of the highest quality with excellent service, when could we meet to determine your needs?” 

I am the customer and my picture sees machines which break down, cost me money, and take up room.  Excellent service, why would I need service if they are such high quality? You want to determine my needs, you mean waste my time!  

Now not every customer may see it this way, but a greater percentage will and you have built a strong barrier before you can even get started. So we want to rethink and reframe our approach to something that they can buy into right away. 

“If you could eliminate both paper and errors in your current procedures, what would change for you?”  

After we frame the question around a result it changes the mental picture greatly. Now the customer sees a clean office and no phone calls about problems as well as how it feels to her to not have to deal with them. Is there really anything to reject? What are the chances of them saying “no” to such an approach? You might even get them asking “How could you do that?” and isn’t that the response you want?  

Take the questions you have written and try several different approaches with them. Take all the product out, how do they sound? Take anything that requires the customer to do something out, does it change the picture? Keep editing until you have a half dozen strong open ended questions that are almost impossible to say “no” to and engages the customer with more than a one word answer.  

Next time we will work with getting from the “engagement” into the heart of the issues.  

For more on building these skills and thinking patterns, check out the Influence and Persuasion Program at the end of the newsletter! 

* DISC Behavior Patterns, ask us about how this can help you sell, manage and engage people.

Questions or comments:
Contact Harlan at Harlan@itstartswithyou.net cell phone 701-799-1972.  

Management Skills for the Month: 

So now you want not only a good team that is compliant, but one that is consitant and long term. How does one go about creating such an atmosphere where people perform and actually stay around?  

Our 3^rd key on Cultic intelligence is: Fills a sense of belonging: people need to belong to something and be part of something, even if it is not good for them.  

When Maslow did his 5 levels of needs and motivation, the need to belong is very strong in all people. A section from John Naisbitt and his book Megatrends, talks about VCR’s and electronic movie viewing at home. Some were saying the movie theaters will be gone in 5 years, but they are still here and growing! How come? People need to belong, they will pay $10 for a movie ticket just to sit by strangers and have a common experience! How much stronger a need can we find in almost everyone!  

Leaderships challenge is to tap into this in some way. Can we full fill this 100% at work? Most likely not, but if we do not address it at all we will pay a price in turn over, moral and productivity.  

So what is one way of creating this “belonging” feeling in your team? Take a look at the business question #3.  

3. What is it we actually provide? What really is the result of our product or service, why do customers use it, how does it affect the stake holders and the community? 

One aspect of belonging is the desire to be part of something that is good, that provides something beyond self. The US has the most and some of the largest charitable groups in the world. Why is that? I feel because it fills a sense of belonging for people. By donating money, time and effort they can connect with someone else even though they may never know their name. They can say, “We did that!”  Can you relate?  

So the question is, does your culture give people something to belong to? Does your team really understand what you actually provide? Can they tell you what kind of impact your company has on the community and peoples lives? Can they connect what they do to that impact?  

When I hear some say, “Yea I work over there, they make this stuff that I have no idea what they do with it.” It tells me a great deal about the culture in that company. Obviously there is no communication about what the companies purpose is, how they impact others, or the value they provide to the community. “It’s a paycheck, because that’s all they tell me.”  

In Jack Stack’s book, The Great Game of Business, he credits the turn around of a dirty, decrepit, broke and demoralized engine rebuilding plant, to people know what everyone else is doing and how it impacts everyone else. Once people understood how their performance affected everyone else they looked at it completely differently. Especially when they understood the impact on their job continuation (plant stays open) and bonus. It’s a good study on communicating within an organization and how “belonging” can turn a bankrupt business around to become a super star.  

Some quick ideas:
If you have customer testimonials, make sure everyone gets to see them.
As part of your meetings, have a section on what the company really does do for the community, not in charitable terms, but in terms of the impact your product/service has.
Have different sections either observe or talk to other sections to let them know and understand what it is they actually do.  

I am sure you can come up with some others!  

Next time #4.  

For more on building these skills and thinking patterns, check out the Influence and Persuasion Program at the end of the newsletter! 

* DISC Behavior Patterns, ask us about how this can help you sell, manage and engage people.

Questions or comments:
Contact Harlan at Harlan@itstartswithyou.net cell phone 701-799-1972.  

Food for the Attitude 

One thing is for sure, if you want to find a self-development guru there are a thousand of them on the internet. I subscribe to several dozen e-Zines as many of these newsletters are called. Now many of them have little value and they get dropped, while others have some great value. Recently one had a review of Tony Robbins, you know the tall guy from Southern California , great smile, walks on hot coals and is worth a kazillion dollars these days.  

There were some great quotes from Tony, so I thought I would share them with you. 

To change your destiny (future) change your values ! So what do you value? If you took a good inventory of your true values, are they in line with your goals? Maybe one or the other needs changing! 

A belief is something you are certain about. The minute you start to question a belief, it is no longer a belief” . In other words, what is it you believe in? How did those beliefs come about? What would change or happen if you altered that belief? Most change starts with altering a current belief or perception.  

Your behaviors are NOT YOU. They are just behaviors . So if you have a given behavior that you want to change, you can go ahead and do it. If we change our behaviors our values and beliefs can also change with it for the better!  

Disappointment with you life means it’s over – Frustration means you’re still working at it .” Frustration is a natural part of growing and developing. If it were easy everyone would be doing it, right? That’s why there are so few at the top, they understood frustration as a good thing.  

Meeting your needs does not mean your meeting your goals . We all have needs to meet and some times these seemingly immediate needs get in the way of our goals. Keep the eye on the goal.  

Your always alone when you dwell on yourself . One of the quickest ways for depressed people to get un-depressed is to go out and do something for someone else, it gets them off of themselves.  

Instead of looking for heroes, be one . Think this one speaks for it’s self.  

There are a lot more, but the bottom line is, IT IS UP TO YOU! No one else can make you who you are, they can only influence you. If they influence you, make sure it’s the right influence.  

For more on building these skills and thinking patterns, check out the Influence and Persuasion Program at the end of the newsletter! 

* DISC Behavior Patterns, ask us about how this can help you sell, manage and engage people.

Questions or comments:
Contact Harlan at Harlan@itstartswithyou.net cell phone 701-799-1972.  

The Influence and Persuasion Program:  

Some of you have attended our Psychology of Persuasion program others have attended our Reverse Engineered Sales or the Zig Ziglar Sales program. These programs are still available to you and your teams.   

What we have done is combined the elements from the Persuasion and Sales programs that are the “meat” of the programs and applicable to all situations in business and personal life.  

After all, isn’t Sales all about Influence? Isn’t Management of people about Compliance? Aren’t personal relationships about Understanding?  

This public program is two initial full days. There will be 3 additional session days, two weeks apart for a total of 5 sessions or 40 hours. This gives you a chance to apply the ideas and get some additional coaching.  After all, developing the ability to apply the ideas is your real objective, isn’t it?  

A few of the concepts included are Outcome based thinking, the 11 Laws of Persuasion, DISC profile, Anticipated Regret, Overcoming Resistance, Mastering 5 Levels of Questioning, Conflict Resolution and Personal Dynamics just as a primer.  

Some comments from our previous programs:  

“Helps you understand yourself, reinforce your abilities, have control and enjoy your career.” Physician  

 “I think it was a perfect setting because of the personal attention.” Sales 

“Very well put together, leaned a bunch.” Sales 

“The interaction between everyone is great.” Sales 

“Motivating others will be more easily obtained.”  Sales Mgr 

“This is a new way of thinking” Director of Marketing 

“Material is sound and the exercises made the material adaptable to us.” VP 

“I thought it was immediately applicable, will generate results & will be used.” Mgr 

“Yes, very different than other programs.” Mgr 

“Yes, it presented a way of thinking that I’d never used.” CRS 

“The reverse engineering grid changed how I see selling.” Sales 

An email from one of our recent participants: I signed two new advertisers to annual contracts last week and have three prospect appointments scheduled for this week. The magic question was, "What is your vision for your business?" Then I tailored my recommendation around their answer.  And the conceptual close was SO AWESOME!!!!! I got chills as I was asking it, in anticipation for their collective, undisputable agreement that we should do business!! It was such a rush. Thanks for your guidance, Harlan.  Much appreciated....Lori Thompson  

Contact Harlan at Harlan@itstartswithyou.net cell phone 701-799-1972.   

Web Site: 

Don’t forget to check out our web site! Some colors and layouts have changed and we have some video clips. www.hgoergerassoc.com   or www.itstartswithyou.org  

We have several Corporate Programs scheduled for this First Quarter and Summer. If your company would like to see more performance from your team we can make it happen for you. Contact me at Harlan@itstartswithyou.net  

Interesting Thoughts for You: 

A quote from Jack Stack, The Great Game of Business:  

The Tenth Higher Law is: Change Begins at the Top, or- as we say in Missouri - _hit Rolls Downhill.  

Till next month: You make it a great day as only you can!!! 

Harlan Goerger