Jeff Garrison

Great Business Software is F.I.R.M. (Part 3 of 4)

Great Business Software is Reportable!

Where is the information?  That is the question.  There is a continuum of information availability and integrity.  On one end of the spectrum, there is no systematic collection of information in a company and decisions are made based upon the most recent anecdotal information. 

Picture the farming community at the county level.  The county represents the company.  All the farmers are trying to produce corn in that county, but nobody keeps any record of yields from year to year.  The farmers just say things like, "planting early seemed to work good for my neighbor last year so I am going to try it this year."

In the middle of the continuum is where information is kept in silos.  

Like in many companies, eeach farmer is collecting information about how to improve their yield and storing it in their individual "silo."  They may share their findings with the rest of the community, but informally.  Furthermore, even though they have a shared vernacular, there may be subtle differences in how they perceive and process information which impacts the integrity of their findings relative to their neighbor.

At the other end of this continuum, you will find companies that have a systematic way of conducting their business and the collection of real time information is simply part of the process. 

This is like modern farming where information such as soil samples and data from yield monitors are coordinated based upon GPS coordinates and fed into a giant database.  Farmers can use the collected information from many fields to plan a strategy for the coming season.

A F.I.R.M. business system allows for data to be systematically collected with integrity as a part of the every day business process.  It is organized in such a way that information is easily extracted into a format that provides a good look at what is happening. 

Management can spot and react to negative trends early and they can spot and leverage positive tends to get ahead of the competition.

Photo on flickr by takomabibelot

Good Communication Feels Uncomfortable

When I was in law school at Drake University, we learned as students that if you walked out of a final exam thinking you nailed every answer, then you probably in fact failed to recognize key issues that needed to be addressed.  On the other hand, if you walked out of the exam appreciating the complexity of the issues with which you just dealt, then you probably did pretty well.

Good communication with clients should be like a tough exam.  It should feel a bit uncomfortable.

When discussing client issues, needs, resources, and decision making criteria in complex sales, if conversations are going too smoothly a warning buzzer should be going off in the consultant's head.  This warning buzzer is a sign that the consultant is not getting below the surface issue. 

The consultant should be able to notice the slow formation of questions in their own head and carefully choose their words. It should be noticeable that the client is taking time to think about their responses as well.

What happens if the consultant is not getting below the surface with clients?  They won't get many sales that they should have gotten and they won't know why.  These consultants say things like, "That client was just kicking tires.  I proposed a solution to their problems at a good price and they passed."

The fact is, the consultant did not really understand how to meet all of their needs because they accepted simple answers to complex questions. 

The consultant wouldn't get uncomfortable with his or her communication.

Photo on flickr by raymond zoller

Influence without Context is Neither Good or Evil

Influence, depending on your experience, can be considered a good or a bad thing.  It really depends on the context.  Those of us who are in sales are professional influences and should, like most professionals, have a set of behavioral standards.  Here are some suggestions. 

1. First and foremost, do no harm.  Don't use your skills to influence someone to do something that you don't believe to be in their best interest.
2. Always put the intersts of your customer ahead of your own.  Closing a sale should be a win for all parties.

3. Know the situation.  In other words, know your products and/or services and know the exact needs of your clients.  Influencing your customer to buy the wrong solution (or a solution they can't afford) because you did not fully understand something is like a doctor prescribing medicine without taking a full medical history.

Waht would you add to this list?  Let me know.

Photo on flickr by givepeaceachance

Near Instant Relationships Through Social Media

Blog, blog, blog ... was blah, blah, blah to to me.  As you can see from the tag line above, I am all about the relationship, the handshake, looking people in the eye, etc.  The internet is a great tool for gathering news, information, or even for the purchase of commodities like books.  But developing relationships?

This was my thinking until I met Mike Sansone of Converstations who ultimately became my Social Media Consultant.  He explained to me that people can learn about each other via social media before they meet in person and it speeds up the development of the real relationship.  It might also be what causes people to reach out to you in the first place. 

I was skeptical, but curious and hopeful enough to commit myself to his teaching.

Over the last three months, I have "connected" with dozens of people on LinkedIn and have subsequently met with many of them.and their connections.  Awesome!

This week, we launched this blog.  If you are reading this, you are learning who I am, what I do, and how I think.  Isn't that cool.

I am also on Twitter.  I don't get it yet, but I will blog about it later.

Check out this real example.

This morning, I was at Panera and Zane Safrit, former CEO of Conference Calls Unlimited, business radio show host, and business blogger walked in.  Mike Sansone introduced him to me.  Well, I told him that I had seen reference to his radio show in a blog and I started downloading the pod casts.  He has also "commented" on one of my blog posts featuring White Rabbit Group.  I know who he is and what he does and that a lot of people "follow" him on the internet.

He had instant credibility with me because of what? ... Social Media!

Now, I have gone from blah, blah, blah, ... to Blog! Blog! Blog!

Photo on Flickr by lepiaf.geo

Client Control?

In the sales and recruiting context, you hear a lot of talk about client control or candidate control.  Early in my sales career I would buy into the illusion that there was such a thing.  Can one really ask the right question or make the right statement to significantly impact the outcome or timing of a client's decision?  It may seem like it sometimes, but the reality is they were going to make the same decision regardless.

However, there are questions you can ask that will increase closing ratio and sales.

Specifically, ask questions ...

• to cclearly identify, prioritize, quantify, and qualify the client's issues early
• to understand a range of what they are willing to spend on this issue
• to understand their time frame
• to understand their decision making process

Doing this will achieve at least three things for you.  First, you will be able to exactly tailor a solution to propose rather than assuming or guessing what is right for the client.  Second, you will learn earlier in the sales process whether or not you even have a solution to propose to the client.  Finally, you will uncover earlier who is serious and who is kicking tires.

These things will get you focused on serious buyers for whom you have a solution that fits.

You will increase your closing ration on proposals that you make which will increase overall sales.  These skills are not easily developed, but worth the deliberate practice.

Photo on flickr.com by Son of Groucho

25 Connections

In the life cycle of a business, there are the occasional business development plateaus.  The first is when the entrepreneur who started his or her own business runs out of friends and past business acquaintances with whom to do business.  There is no more low hanging fruit and they must find a way to connect with their target market in a broader way.  The challenge is that at this stage, businesses are often not able to afford a full time marketing and/or sales professional.

A second plateau occurs when a business has reached more broadly their identified target market.  One of the ways to get past this plateau is to connect with businesses and markets that are not obvious and who might also have creative ways to utilize the product or service.  The challenge here is that the business owner and his or her management team are so focused on taking care of their business, that they would not know where to start.

25 Connections is the Answer!

25 Connections is a highly networked business development firm that matches the right resource at the right timeto help a business increase sales and accelerate growth.  Adam Steen, founder of 25 Connections, is a very creative thinker and has the ability to identify growth opportunities several moves ahead of the traditional sales channels to create a pathway for sustainable revenue.

Adam is a person that I make it a point to meet with regularly for creative ideas and to have my own thinking challenged when my focus gets too narrow.  In addition to being an innovative business thinker, Adam is an interesting person to visit with.  He is a former professional baseball player and is generally an adventurous sort.

If your at or approaching a business plateau, I recommend that you visit with Adam Steen.

Creating a Sense of Urgency?

If you are selling with integrity, there is no such thing as "creating" a sense of urgency.  This is just another way of telling a prosect what you think they need and then using all of your persuasive skills to convince them that you are right.

This is manipulation!  For example, telling a real estate client buyer that you expect to get an offer on a property they are looking at or that the car someone wants is the last one on the lot.  (Of course, if these things are true, it is not manipulation.)

Especailly in the b2b market, you are more likely to create a sense resentment rather than a sense of urgency.  Forget about the sale and forget about getting referrals.

The real sales professional takes the time to "uncover the need for urgency." 

Uncovering the need for urgency means helping your prospect...

1. Define their issues
2. Determine the cost of doing nothing
3. Determine the cost of solving those issues
4. Determine the long term gains

If the cost of doing nothing outweighs the cost of the solution or if the long term gains outweigh the cost of the solution (or both), then the urgnecy will be there.

Think back to your past successes.  Don't you find that most of your sales success has occured when the solution seems to have sold itself?

Photo on flickr by emilyr85.

NIGO

"Not In Good Order," or NIGO, is a term often used to describe incomplete or poorly done paperwork and applications received in an office for processing from customers or sales people in the field. 

What are the costs associated with NIGO?  They are whatever it the costs to get things which are "not in good order" into "good order?"  Administrative labor, greater long distance phone bills,slower turnover and lost opportunities (time kills sales) are examples of these costs.

One overlooked cost, and perhaps the greatest, is the opportunity cost.  When problems are created by things that are NIGO, who solves them?  Often, your "go to" people must get involved.  These are your most productive and creative people. 

When they are fixing problems, they are distracted from taking care of those things that are "in good order" and, from a sales perspective, represent good business.  In other words, they are distracted from doing what they were hired to do! 

After all, how many job descriptions state that the employee will spend 25% of their time fixing problems that shouldn't happen in the first place?

How do you fix NIGO?  With Interwoven!  Interwoven systems are systems that simply don't allow NIGO. 

Read about Interwoven and answer the questions, "How does NIGO impact my company and what would we gain from Interwoven?"

Photo on Flickr by Jeffrey Beall.

Passion at Work

I was inspired by Mike Sansone of Converstations and his blog post today titled Where's the Passion?  I spent nearly a decade as a recruiter during which time I conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews with candidates.

The most important question I would ask was ...

"If there were a hall of fame for (insert profession here), give me some specific examples of what you have done in your career that would get you into that hall of fame."

Most people would have very mundane answers.  Often they would just give me some general statements about how good they were at their job.  But about 1 in 5 would have an extraordinary answer that demonstrated their passion for one or more aspects of their job.

At this point, my job became much easier.  If the interviewee's passion was congruent with the specific objectives of my client, then we had a probable fit for all parties.

I taught my staff and counseled my clients to interview for passion becasue of the extremely high correspondance between passion for the elements of a profession and the quality of work that is done.

As a final note, the most passionate candidates often did not fit the initial picture that the client had in mind of the ideal candidates.  A resume rarely reveals the character trait of passion.

Photo on Flickr by Mr. Phelps.

Great Business Software is F.I.R.M. (Part 2 of 4)

Great business software is Interwoven!

There are several signs of a system and software that are not interwoven. 

• Silos of spreadsheets kept on individual PCs
• Procedures and processes differ from one location to another
• Different ways of handling things from one person to another even in the same location
• The ability for employees to determine when, how, and if information is going to be recorded in the comapny system
• Information used by management may be inconsistently defined and collected and is not up to date

Imagine a recent conversation I had with a company that is a wholesaler for several different manufacturers of competing financial products.  They receive thousands of applications every year, many of which cannot be processed because they are incomplete or not filled out correctly.  The problem is that every person gets to decide how they are going to do it.  The cost to the wholesaler is huge in that they must spend a lot of time seeing that these applications get fixed and completed.

Ask yourself, what processes in my company are dysfuntional like this?  What are the hard costs, soft costs, and opportunity costs?

Interwoven ... a better way!

An Interwoven system is like a Navajo blanket.  The thread and the artists unique vision combine to make a beutiful fabric.  They cannot be seperated.  Nor can great business software design be separated from the unique vision and processes of the company.  They are interdependent of each other.

Interwoven business systems and software look like the this.

• Everybody loves the system becuase doing their job would seem very difficult without it
• The software mirrors the process exactly.  There is no process "outside" the software. 
• All the input is consistently defined as to who, what, when, where, and how it is done.  The integrity of the input is extremely high.

The obvious benefit to Interwoven business systems and software is the integrity it brings.  All the i's are dotted and t's are crossed (except for the occasional, pre-defined exceptions).  This will go a long way towards eliminating errors of many kinds that cost money and damage the reputation of the company.  Not to mention that customers will recognize that "your people really know what they are doing."

There are at least two major benefits that are not so obvious--Proliferation and Unleashing Talent.

These two advantages will be addressed in Part 4 of this blog post. 

Photo on Flickr by mj_picks.