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

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.

Sales…Love It, Don’t Leave It

The sales person. Over the years, and many, many bad used car sales pitches, the reputation of the sales profession has gotten a bit…ok…a LOT tainted. And yet, the Chally Group states that 39 percent of B2B buyers select a vendor according to the skills of the sales person rather than price, quality or service features. Wow! My mission has always been, and always will be, to bring respect back to the sales person. I don’t need another motivating factor than this. Read more

Presentations That Fit!

Most of you know my passion for listening and truly understanding a client well before you deliver your presentation.

We’ve just finished a series of coaching points focused on developing a killer presentation based on your value proposition. One of the sure fire ways to dilute a great presentation is to deliver it too soon! Read more

Creating Your Value Proposition: Step 3

It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing!

The jazz great Duke Ellington was right. And it applies to you and your presentation! A presentation has to be entertaining and educating. You need to develop a rhythm and a level of alacrity (cheerful readiness) that’s infectious. Read more

Creating Your Value Proposition: Step 2

If you read my last post, you should now have a list of your company’s attributes. Do you? If not, give that post a read. We’ll wait.

OK, now that you’re back, I want you to start thinking like Steven Spielberg. Once Spielberg finishes filming, it’s off to the edit room to complete the project…you too! Read more

First Step to Creating Your Value Proposition

In my last post, we looked at how important your value proposition is and especially, how it is communicated. Now that you’ve gathered the essential value points from the reconnaissance and questions I recommended, you can begin to develop your value proposition.

This week, I will kick off a three-part series aimed at helping you shape your message so that it is crystallized and becomes the core of how your directs communicate your brand.

Step #1: Think More, Speak Less

No doubt you have endured the sometimes painful process of creating a company “mission statement.” The result can be a considerably long tome that, while capturing ALL that the company stands for, it’s sheer size or unmemorable qualities make it destined for mothballs. However, strategic, long-term thought went into creating that document and I wholeheartedly believe that it could be time well spent.

I recommend taking all of that good work, and serious thought, and boil it down as much as you can to the core elements that really get your team fired up. Think seven minutes. In seven minutes (or less) anyone on your team should be able to so effectively communicate your company’s value proposition that they will not only grab your client’s attention but, will have them asking for more. Now you’re getting somewhere.

Too often, we feel a need to pack so much data, supporting arguments, examples and justification into our value proposition that it begins to sound like a defense case rather than a statement that pridefully says “We are good at what we do and we make a difference doing it.”

Homework: List Your Values

Your homework for Step #1 of this process is to create a list of all your company’s attributes, your core values. Why do you do what you do? Why do your customers hire you? Why do employees work for you, and why do they stay working for you?  Make this list, in no particular order, and have other key stakeholders do the same. We will take a look at that list next week.  Have fun with it and let me know how it goes (or send me your list if you’d like!)

The Importance of Your Value Proposition

I believe it was the late marketer/author Marc Gobe who said it best, “A brand lives in how its communicated.” The converse of that is also true, that brands die because of how they are communicated. And for many, it is a slow death. The cause, old conversations that don’t reflect your company’s value proposition of today.  Read more

The “So Now What?” Moment is Here

Last week, I gave you the stark news that the holidays are over and we arrived at “the morning after.” As a result, and maybe you’ve felt it too, the “So Now What?” moment is here.   Read more