Sales tips, leadership communication skills insight and more from Steve Giglio, sales training professional for more than 25 years.

Five Steps for Improved Client Communication

When most people think about client communication, they picture a presentation with slides, charts, bullet points, etc. However, most people I consult with rarely given a “formal” presentation. Rather, they are called upon to discuss an issue with a client or internal team. But that shouldn’t mean the communication is less important! It still takes preparation and attention to detail.

Whether you are delivering an internal update or an external new business presentation, these five steps will make your communications succeed:

Start with Your Audience’s Objectives

Too often people begin a presentation with background/history versus what their audience desires. Better to state at the start, “As you’ve said, your primary objective is to…”

Two of the most powerful words in persuading are the words ”you said.” It shows you’ve heard your client and realize the importance of their objective. It even helps when a client objects to your recommendation. Answering them with, “I understand your objection but, you said that ___ was important to you. Has something changed?” Now you’re going to get to the bottom of their objection and have new intel to make a revised recommendation!

Pinpoint the Obstacles

Be clear about the obstacles your clients have faced. State what’s prevented them from achieving their objective. This let’s them know you understand their situation and creates urgency to your recommendations. From there, you can collectively arrive at solutions. But you have to know the problem you are solving first, right?

Present an Agenda

Nothing controls a communication more than a clearly distilled agenda. It shows your homework has been done and your ready to edify people of your diligence. It also let’s you know whether you’ve given yourself enough time to achieve your meeting objective. So often, my clients say they run out of time when presenting their recommendations. I’ve found that poor time management begins when you don’t have an agreed upon agenda. Use one to organize your thoughts and ensure that you have plenty of time to accomplish what you set out to do.

Say “What this means for you…”

Once you’ve completed a point in your agenda, you’ve got to link it to your client’s world using this phrase. They may or may not do it on their own. Take the guess work out of it! Make sure that they can see that what you are recommending solves an issue for them. Make their life easier!

Present a Critical Path Forward

Ever leave a meeting not knowing whether you accomplished your goal or what the next steps are? It’s because you didn’t declare the next steps and get agreement on them from your audience. Always present a critical path forward. It says to your client, “here is the next step I’m putting forth for you to accept.” They may not accept it or, may suggest alternatives. But at least you will know where things stand.

Enjoy succeeding with these points and let me know how they’ve helped in the comments below.  Thank you!

3 Tips for Changing Jobs…On Your Terms

Spring brings about many changes that are apparent all around us. It is a time for the earth to make a fresh start as winter becomes a distant memory. For many, it’s a time for contemplating their career and assessing whether where they are today is where they want to be for the long-term future. Several will decide that a new path is needed. But making a career change can be daunting.

At a certain point in your career, you reach a place of mastery in your field. You can also simultaneously reach a plateau. While you’re eager to remain challenged, the actual work you’re doing, well, it just isn’t doing it for you anymore.

Intuitively your spirit says its time to move on. But to where?

BEFORE you make a break from your organization review these three actions to take:

Define Your Reputation

Think about how you want people to view you as you re-enter the marketplace. What four adjectives should people use to describe you professionally? Bounce them off a few trusted people to see if they really capture your reputation. They might surprise you with attributes you didn’t know you had. Regardless, it is essential that you understand the reputation you want to put forth so that your new employer will see you as such.

Remember What You’ve Enjoyed Doing

Really think about this. No one enjoys EVERY aspect of their job. However, focusing on key elements with which you’ve had success in the past will help ensure that you land a position that will have you jumping out of bed in the morning. Life is too short to do work you don’t enjoy fully so, take this time to remember what you like to do and then find work that allows you to do it.

Make It Real

To back up your reputation, find three experiences from your career that highlight your acumen and expertise. What challenges were there? What did you conceive to solve these challenges and how did each play out? Make sure you complete each experience by saying, “what this required was…” Say this to link your professional skills to the result you catalyzed. Don’t make them connect the dots…do it for them.

Take your time choosing a new position or career path. The work you put into determining what job you really want, and then going out and finding it, will pay off in many ways. Use these tips to help. Give me a call if you need more guidance. And let me know how it goes!

Six Steps for Great Online Meetings

While I always believe that in-person meetings generate better, actionable results, many times the logistics of all attendees being in the same place are too difficult to overcome. At that point, you have to resort to an online meeting. This creates a whole new set of challenges as you try to capture their attention.

Think how often you multi-task when you’re on a conference call. Someone texts you, you answer it. An email comes in, you respond. You remember an upcoming meeting and put it on your calendar. All the while, someone is talking to you!

Grabbing and keeping a client’s attention is mission-critical to succeeding with a demonstration of your product via an online meeting. Outlined below are the six steps to holding their attention and gaining their agreement that your idea is the right one.

Step #1: Know Your Client’s Goals

I know it sounds simple. Too often, though, we’re caught up in our own product and dismiss our client’s core goals that fueled the meeting’s purpose in the first place.

Introduce the demo by stating your client’s goals. Think about what this does. The action illustrates that your client’s desires are more important than your demo. And guess what? THEY ARE! Clients want and need to be affirmed. They need to know you’ve listened to what they’ve said and tailored a demo just for them. With this overture of empathy, you can then state the challenges they’ve shared with you, making your idea their solution.

Step #2: Check-In

Once you’ve stated your client’s core goals, ask him/her to agree with them. Present the challenge they said was preventing them from achieving their goal. Then, check-in with them by getting their agreement on this issue.

“From our previous discussions, it seems that your biggest issues are X, Y and Z. Did I capture that accurately?”

Also check-in a few times throughout the demo by asking your client questions such as “How do you see this aspect of the product helping your business?” That gets them involved in your conversation while also potentially giving you new intel upon which to base your recommendations.

Step #3: Be Concise

It’s easy to go off on a tangent with the product you enjoy speaking about…DON’T. No one enjoys a wind-bag. Keep your comments concise and tailored to your client’s issues.

Step #4: Avoid Qualifying Words

You are asking your client to believe in you and your product. Assuming that YOU believe in you and your product, you must speak strongly and with conviction. Qualifying words and phrases will weaken your position and give them reason to doubt what you are saying. That’s when they’ll start reaching for their phone to check their messages…you’ve lost them!

Some phrases to avoid are:

We feel this is a solution to…
I think the product…
Hopefully this aspect of the product will…
Perhaps our service could…

How would you change those to be stronger, more assertive? That’s a good exercise to do before you conduct the meeting.

Step #5: Know Your Competition

You have to be ready to defend your organization/idea and respond to the inevitable question of product blurring. How well do you know your competition’s offerings? How does what you offer stack up? Where are you vulnerable? Where do you shine? Know the answers to these questions and be ready for challenges related to what else is out there so that you can command the conversation. Don’t open the door for your competition!

Step #6: Declare the Next Step

Yes, I mean declare it. Even if it’s wrong, you’ve stated what you believe to be the next appropriate step. If they have a problem with it, they will present a countered next step. They now understand there is a next step both of you should agree on. And you will leave the meeting knowing what is expected of you. Now all you have to do is deliver!

Online meetings present a lot of challenges, even technical ones. Commandeer the situation by being prepared and moving the conversation along according to what you want to get out of the meeting. Let me know how it goes!

To Get The Job…Get Noticed, Get Passionate

HIRE ME! Unfortunately, that’s the basis of communication for most career searches at any level. Rarely do I see anyone impart an understanding of the position and how the opportunity is important to them. Here are some tips for standing out among the masses and relating to your (future) new boss.

Read more

Dismiss First Impressions

It’s been said that you only have one chance to make a first impression. You can change that for your direct reports! Read more

Your Big Break…Don’t Rush It!

I often have the distinct pleasure and honor to coach/on-board executives beginning new positions, often in a “C Suite” role. It’s an exciting time for them (and for me). They’ve been selected for their knowledge, judgement and ability to lead. The Board or President has a lot invested in making their executive’s assimilation seamless and welcomed.

However, my first bit of coaching to the new exec is…don’t rush it!

Learn the Issues

If you find yourself in this position, take the time to understand the core issues of the organization. Any good executive will begin to grasp the challenges they will be facing by understanding the “keep me up at night” issues of the president/board. I’m confident most people given this opportunity can, and will, understand the issues facing their new organization, demonstrate their 100 day action plan, and present their one-to-three year vision.

Learn Your New Team

My concern is how you introduce your ideas, action plans and values to the team that will report to you. Here’s a hint…they are as important as the person who selected you. Never discount them. Treat them like a client you’re meeting for the very first time. Forget that they are now reporting to you. Desire to understand their world BEFORE you present your world.

Start As An Observer

It is implicit in your appearance that you are the new executive that will lead them, but don’t over sell it. Start as an observer. Don’t speak more than they do for the first few months. Hold as mission critical the understanding of their goals and challenges. Illicit their feedback on issues to have a baseline understanding of your new organization and how you’ll introduce the “sea-changing” directions that got you hired. Set a schedule to meet with them individually to let them know their ongoing input is going to be important to you.

No Sudden Moves

If you are thinking “no-sudden-moves,” you’re right. Your direct reports want to follow you voluntarily, not reaction-ally. An essential goal during your first 100 days is to have people speak well of you, endorse you and appreciate the manner in which you interact with them.

They’ll vote you in quicker than you can!

What’s the biggest challenges you’ve faced when starting a new management position? Let me know below in the comments.

Divorce…Business Style

Too often leaders get blindsided with direct reports who leave abruptly. Yet, upon the exit interview, HR realizes the issues that catalyzed the departure had been brewing for months. It’s a divorce, business style.

For the leader, departures like these are quite painful and force the leader to do a post mortem in haste. What often gets decided was that the exec just couldn’t take the pace or didn’t have what it really takes. In other words, it was their fault and nothing needs to change.

Often this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Pace Your Delegating

Too often leaders who rely on their lieutenants over-use them. They are initially impressed with the preemptive abilities of their direct and assume they can handle double the work from their great performance. While the direct has earned a high degree of confidence, that doesn’t mean he/she can handle an increased workload.

Leaders need to stop right there.

They need to carefully assess their direct’s skills and regularly meet with them to mutually determine this increase in work/responsibilities to insure it’s correctly introduced, welcomed and achievable. This is mission-critical so that the direct embraces the lift in their work without one day coming to work and realizing it’s just become a factory.

It’s Not a Factory

How you avoid the factory-like climate is by regularly meeting with your direct and listening to them. I mean really listening to them. Listen without any predetermined opinion, listen for what’s important to them, listen for their challenges, listen for their dreams.

Until you know their feelings you can’t shape their work into the rewarding career they and you truly want.

The Power of Three

Recently, I have been working with quite a few CEOs, synthesizing important messages and distinctions about their respective organizations. Content is king, of course, but too much of a good thing can dilute a message to the point that is loses all meaning. This is where the power of three comes into play!

Connect with Your Message First

I expect clients to be deeply connected to their message. That’s a good start. If you don’t believe in what you are saying and in the value you are presenting, then you may as well go home. You aren’t going to win any converts today!

But once you craft a message in which you believe strongly, that message can blur and lose its allure from adding too much data. In making your point, more is not better…synthesis is.

Think in Threes

Parcel the message into three overarching points much like chapters in a book. Three key supporting facts will make it easier for your audience to digest what you are saying. It is quite the opposite of the presentations most of us have had to endure when a person presents bullet point after bullet point, never really establishing a main idea and losing the audience in a quagmire of details. Have details ready if asked but, if you are making strong, well-reasoned statements, you will be having a dialogue that is a two-way street, leading to a partner-like relationship rather than a client-vendor one.

“What This Means for You Is…”

Try answering that question the next time you are putting together a presentation or having a client conversation. If you can answer the question with specifics, you are going to be far more likely to capture and keep your client’s attention. And once you have that, you can establish the trust we speak about that is only experienced by advisors who create real value for their clients.

Try it and let me know what you discover. You can leave a comment below and I will respond!

Winning Clients with Empathy

A few days ago, I visited with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. She told me the reason for the longer duration between visits was due to a brain tumor she had recently removed.

Needles to say, I was floored. Though I became quite emotional, I restrained myself in order to begin my natural style of empathetic probing to understand her epic journey and recovery.

Through her recounting of the ordeal, she spoke glowingly of the surgeon she chose for the resection along with the surgeons she didn’t. The surgeons she walked away from made her feel like a number with hardly any understanding of her actual physiology or the procedure they would perform.

The surgeon she hired came to her bedside with iPad photos of her MRI and X-rays and walked her through the exact procedure he would perform. She felt special and, more importantly, she said because of his explanation and humanity, “I wasn’t afraid, I was ready for it.”

Put Your Clients at Ease

At that moment it hit me. Our responsibility as consultants, business leaders and managers is to make clients feel the same way…at ease.

This past week I received a phone call from a potential client who began her conversation with the phrase: ”I’m in a pickle.” I listened for several minutes about her frustration and recommended we meet.

Hear Them Out, Then Recommend

During our meeting, I fully vetted the frustrations she experienced while trying to find a coach for her executive team. I realized throughout her search she had not felt confident in the people she’d interviewed nor confident in their coaching methodology.

I knew I could help and offered to create a program for her team. As our conversation came to a close, she asked me for my fee for this program. I responded by saying unless I meet with each executive and personally interview them, I couldn’t quote a fee. She smiled and said “let’s get started.” I did a bit of a double take and asked how she came to this automatic decision. She said no one else was concerned about her executives enough to want to meet them.

This interaction, along with my friend reminded me of my father’s great bedside manner with a patient. He would draw the entire operation out and explain every inch of the procedure to instill confidence in them.

My wish for you as a leader is you embody the humanity of a surgeon throughout your client interactions. It pays off!

Developing The Diva

By this time of the year, as a leader you, should have a firm grasp on your team’s production and capabilities.

You’ve studied your team and know who your “A” Players, “B” Players and “C” Players are. But then you discover that you have a rogue “A” Player, who is in a “start-of-the-year” slump. What’s your plan for this “Diva?”

A Diva Won’t Ask for Help…Until It’s Too Late

Having a top performer is, of course, a good thing. But having someone who does things their own way, disregarding process and diluting your value proposition for the sale, can eventually cause this superstar to falter.  The person is your most competitive and most independent “A” Player. And they know they are failing recently. Likely, they want, but may not ask for, help.

The issue now is how to get inside their head and establish a path to success WITH them, since they’ve not created it themselves. This is a fundamental challenge of a leader. It forces you to be creative, humble and persistent as a coach. Actually, it’s part of your job as a leader.

Many leaders orphan this Diva believing they’ll figure it out on their own. They won’t.
Unless you rattle their cage in relational way, it will be June and the balance of their year will be just as dormant as the first half you’ve just lived through.

Jump a Level, Change the Climate

Albert Einstein once said; “In order to solve a problem you have to jump a level to solve it”.

In order to reach your Diva you too must jump a level in your approach. I’ve often coached leaders to be persistent yet likable. Your Diva must think they are driving the process…not you.

To succeed at this, you need to change the climate in which you develop your Diva.

Rather than going to their production numbers or pipeline, it’s better to take it slow and begin with forging a climate of curiosity and empathy.

Try asking these questions:

  • How are you feeling about this year given your great success last year?
  • What’s important to you this year?
  • What made last year so successful?
  • What are you proudest of?
  • What areas would you strengthen even more to replicate last year?
  • How should this year run given what you declared you’d produce?
  • What inertia are you encountering now?

These questions put your Diva into the driver’s seat, heck, that’s the only way they’d hear you anyway.

Try it and let me know.