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The expressions we use add a touch of sparkle to everyday existence. I use them liberally and recommend you do as well. There’s nothing quite like a slightly eccentric turn of phrase to make a girl (or guy) seem funnier, smarter, and more approachable.

Even if you haven’t seen the legendary video, hearing someone say “Confound it, this entire project has been like herding cats” calls up a delicious image of cats running everywhere—hissing, spitting, scratching, and refusing to be corralled. Applied to the work world, the expression suggests rampant disorganization, poor communication, egos unchained, and milestones blasted to smithereens.

When you think about it, expressions create neat little videos all ready to run whenever you close your eyes and say the words. Picture, for example, “as independent as a hog on ice.” According to Evan Morris, The Word Detective, this lovely phrase expresses the hog’s predicament perfectly. “While he’s technically free, his trotters can get no traction on the ice…and he’s more than likely to end up splayed helplessly on his belly, easily recaptured and returned to his pen.” What a picture.

One last example before I let you go: “Couldn’t find their butt with two hands and a flashlight.” Now, I’m aware there’s a cruder version out there, but this one suffices. I don’t know about you, but I see a confederacy of bumblers, who don’t necessarily realize that they’re clueless.

So, expressions are wonderful because they add some fun to language, and they’re marvels of efficiency. The words serve the visuals, and the visuals return the favor.

Susan Richey-Schmitz — 123rf.com

 

Thanks to Shareef Mahdavi of SM2 Strategic, I’ve just learned about Pecha Kucha (pronounced “pe-chach-ka”), a wonderful new presentation technique born in Japan.

Derived from the Japanese phrase for “chit chat,” Pecha Kucha limits a presentation to 20 slides x 20 seconds of talk per slide. That’s 6 minutes and 40 seconds maximum, folks. And by the way, the slides advance automatically, leaving the verbose scrambling to keep up.

Limiting the amount of time presenters can ramble on forces them to focus on the essentials of their message. Parenthetically, how many copywriters out there have created or edited those 50-slide monsters that are guaranteed soporifics? (“It needs to be that long so we can really tell our story.” Yeah, right.) Technology companies in my part of the world seem sadly enamored of them.

Shareef, by the way, walks the talk. You may not be particularly interested in hearing about cataract surgery and laser, but he demonstrates the power of Pecha Kucha by actually making the topic compelling for lay people. If I were a cataract surgeon, I’d be signing up for a laser unit right now.

Take a little creativity break and learn more about Pecha Kucha.  I can promise you’ll be glad you did.

Bad news. I’m betting you’ve had to deliver it or receive it, either on the job or in your personal life. Perhaps you’ve taken some time to reflect on its nature and how delivery might have been handled better.

Management guru Patty Azzarello, in a blog post “How NOT to market bad news” believes that companies really mess up when they pretend that bad news is actually good. She mentions going to Starbucks two days after her birthday and expecting her free birthday coffee treat to be honored. When that’s not the case, she turns to Twitter and receives a cheery, but non-satisfying response about how birthday rewards expire the day after her birthday so “we that we can truly celebrate with you on your big day.” That, she notes, “is a great example of a marketing person trying to turn bad news for the customer into happy sounding news instead of serving the customer.”

Now, when I read this, I sort of shrugged my shoulders. Really, what’s the tragedy about one coffee less in life? But her next example made me sit up and take notice. Suppose I had persuaded my boss to buy an expensive product that was unexpectedly discontinued after my company had geared up to use it and devoted support resources to it. That’s a heck of a lot less trivial. And this is where the seller needs to do two things. First, tell the truth and then help the customer.

Tell the truth

Lay it on the line. Tell your customer—and it may help to view her as your best friend during this interchange—that your company has made the decision to discontinue the product, that you know it leaves her and her employer in a difficult position, that you wanted to tell her personally, and that you want to help.

Help the customer

How? In this instance, you visit the customer’s site and help her deliver the news to colleagues. You demonstrate that they’ll be better off with the new product and that you and your company will help them through the transition. Doing this helps your customer maintain her credibility, and, equally important—at least to me—helps your company maintain its honor.

It requires marketing skill to disguise bad news as good news. Whether something is as trivial as seeing a  pound bag of coffee become 13 oz. over the years (with no reduction in price) or as important as losing a critical product or service without a transition plan, bad news is bad news. Be clear about it. Don’t sugar coat, and don’t expect that an effort to do so will not damage a customer relationship. Put your energy into making things as right as you can, not on polishing your prose.

svershinsky — 123rf.com

 

Like last week’s post, this is about sales skills, though you can also think of them as life skills. There are seven of them, according to Dan Ross, a former Salesforce VP. He refers to them as the sales skills that can’t be taught.

Mr. Ross starts by saying that some of the best closers he ever hired more than compensated for their lack of sales experience with “core qualities.”

Curiosity

Products and markets, says Mr. Ross, change so fast that it’s impossible to keep sales training current. So it’s up to a sales rep to figure out a customer’s problem and present a solution that works. Being curious is really the only way to do this.

Integrity

Mr. Ross wants salespeople who get the job done but also do right by the customer. I’ll never forget the time I hedged on a product’s capabilities to make a sale. The customer’s anger and my sense of sleaze have stayed with me forever and informed my business dealings going forward.

Drive

Referring to Salesforce, Mr. Ross says, “Salespeople who demonstrate the drive to challenge themselves to do more and help us improve faster will be the ones who will get … opportunities.”

Problem-Solving

Like curiosity, problem-solving is indispensable in sales. Rather than feeling frustrated when they encounter a problem for which there is no mapped-out solution, salespeople with a predisposition to solve problems will find or create an answer. The key is to see energy, not frustration, in a problem.

Resilience

Rejection—especially if you were positive the customer was ready to sign on the dotted line—is part of sales (and life). The most successful, creative people are those who pick themselves up, learn from the situation, and go on.

Self-Awareness

That’s genuine awareness, not self-absorption. Self-awareness allows salespeople to figure out where they need to improve and get help, rather than abandoning “their best habits the first time they have a bad month or quarter and not realize what they actually should be working on.”

Emotional Awareness

This quality refers to being able to read people when you’re on the phone and can’t see facial expression or body language. I think tone of voice, volume, cadence, and other aspects of verbal expression are incredibly revealing, particularly when you sense dissonance (or consonance) between language and tone.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, these are more than sales skills. They are life skills, but I’m not so sure they can’t be taught (though I can understand that the effort probably takes too much time in a fast-moving sales organization). Don’t we all remember a mentor—whether a good friend, grandmother, business colleague, or even our boss—who penetrated the fog surrounding us and got us on track?

Antonio Gravante — 123rf.com

 

Yes, there are sales skills you can learn. (Just as there are sales skills that can’t be taught—but that’s the topic of another post.)

Today’s post focuses on what you can do to make your sales efforts more effective, with a tip of the hat to Dan Ross, former SVP at Salesforce, for his article “The 7 Sales Skills that CAN Be Taught.”

Those of us who have never sold before may consider the sales process mysterious and ultimately  unknowable, practiced by those who know tricks of persuasion the rest of us don’t. Selling, though, is not really esoteric, but like so many things in life, success requires self-discipline and the ability to apply what we’re taught.

Mr. Ross breaks down the teachable sales skills into seven elements, summarized heres:

Filling the pipeline

Here, you evaluate an existing pipeline for cross-sell and upsell opportunities. If your mom ever bought Avon or Mary Kay, I’ll bet the sales person was a master of both. I mean, how can you buy moisturizer when you also really, really need cleanser and toner? You can also go back to what Mr. Ross refers to as “dead opportunities,” because there’s a good chance they can be resuscitated.

Managing your time

Calendar time to get organized. At Salesforce, reps are trained to spend 15 minutes at the end of the day planning what they will do tomorrow. If you’re a mother, I bet you’ve got this one down. Reps also learn to schedule time to work current accounts. After all, repeat sales aren’t guaranteed, and the competition is probably calling on your accounts too. And, then there’s self-development. If you don’t calendar it, it may not happen.

Developing business acumen

As Mr. Ross says, “I love when sales professionals have the business acumen needed to understand all lines of business within their customer’s organization, understand the biggest challenges and priorities, and speak executive language.” (I believe storytelling builds business acumen.)

Developing sales acumen

Sales is a multistep process, and you must master each part. The scenario of the cub salesperson stepping into a big account and selling a big deal in minutes is Hollywood. I add that I dreamed of that as a  young, dumb sales rep, because—despite teaching us that sales is a process—the higher-ups were always pressing for fast results.

Winning big deals

Mr. Ross reminds us that “Larger, more complex sales cycles require additional sales skills that go beyond general sales acumen.” Amen to that. Probably explains why organizations have pre-sales people, sales engineers, etc. With more people involved it the process, it’s likely that you won’t overlook important influencers, relationships, or organizational politics that can trip you up.

Knowing your product

When I worked at Dictaphone, product knowledge reigned supreme. Why? Our products were relatively small and lightweight, “relative” being the operative term here. We were expected to check a machine out of inventory and demonstrate it to the customer. We learned a specific protocol, but it was critical to be prepared for any questions the prospect threw at us. Mr. Ross says, “If you do not understand the value of each of your products, it is very difficult to sell the value of the product and you will definitely miss out on opportunities within your territory.”

Forecasting  intelligently

This is all about looking at your pipeline and determining if you’re on track to make quota. Mr. Ross uses the expression “goals,” but I think “quota” is the better term. Quota is an inexorable force there’s no escaping. He believes, and I agree, that forecasting helps you prioritize, know when to ask for help, and when to walk away from a deal.

This article, which will take you five minutes or less to read, is all about sales. But because I believe we’re all selling in one way or another, I think it applies to real life. And on that note, I leave you with his real-life focused quote: “The best sales professionals know when to walk away from a deal.” Substitute relationship, potential high-ticket purchase, and you’ll know what I mean.

Antonio Guillem — 123rf.com

FAQs. Are they an afterthought? Or a vehicle for selling your product or service? If you’re not using FAQs to engage your prospects, you’re missing out on a valuable sales opportunity.

Direct marketing guru Ivan Levison thinks that “… all too often, they’re an afterthought, a throwaway.” I agree. As a copywriter, I’ve been asked to make FAQs sound less cumbersome, which is quite different from transforming them into a sales tool.

Think about the times you’ve visited a website and wanted to get a picture of the product you were interested in. Didn’t you look for the FAQs, perhaps before the solution description? Mr. Levinson notes, “… copy research proves that FAQs get high readership … Prospects go to FAQ pages because they know they’ll get to-the-point information … “

Here are ways to jazz up your FAQs, so they don’t sound like Legal Drafting 101. Thanks to Mr. Levison for these suggestions:

Use a title

 That is, don’t just use the header “Frequently Asked Questions” and let it go at that. Mr. Levison suggests adding a subhead to warm things up a bit. For example—and these are my words—how about something like “Here’s what you need to know” or “Why you’ll save money and make your life easier with Product X.”

Be friendly

Or as Mr. Levison would put it, “Use a conversational tone.” He suggests creating a question that the way a prospect would phrase it. For example, “I’m concerned about the way supply costs are escalating. How can your product help me keep them under control?

Use FAQs to deal with doubts

 If you know your prospects’ concerns—and you should—here’s the right place to address them. As Mr. Levison points out, you’ve already covered features and benefits elsewhere, so don’t waste your prospects’ time by reiterating them in the FAQs. Mr. Levison might not agree, but I think FAQs are where you can reinforce your credibility and integrity by also talking about why your product or service might not be the best choice for a customer with specific needs.

Don’t go on and on

 Or as Mr. Levison says, “Use the right number of FAQs.”

The right number of FAQs will likely vary from one product or service to the next. Mr. Levison thinks that five or six is about right if you’re limiting FAQs to one page. And, of course, you can add questions with links to unique pages. That’s a great idea for handling an extensive library.

Promote your guarantee

 If you offer a solid guarantee, definitely mention it in the FAQs.

Now here’s a confession: Before reading this excellent post by Mr. Levison, I tended to treat FAQs as sort of a pro forma. Now, I regard them as an important sales tool, a great way to get in a pitch that sounds (and should be) credible and reassuring.

Adzicnatasa — 123rf.com

People’s fear of change can make it difficult, if not impossible, to persuade them to your point of view and move them to take action. Business, education, and real estate writer Stephanie Vozza (@StephanieVozza), the author of “How To Get People To Agree With You,”  believes that adopting a hard sell approach to overcome fear of change and new ideas doesn’t work very well. Instead, she offers six tips, based on the ideas of respected writers in the field of human behavior, to get people to say yes.

Herewith:

1. Be clear. To be clear, you need to know what you want. So write that down and what you’re willing to compromise on. If you don’t, it will be a lot harder to be persuasive when dialogue heats up.
2. You’re really interested in getting your ideas across. But you need to ask questions and really listen to the answers. One expert says that people tend to own a problem when—by answering your questions—they can articulate it. And if they feel your interest, their resistance goes down.
3. Create a foundation for agreement. Do that by creating or removing social tension. Create social tension by giving a gift others feel they must reciprocate. One example I can think of is charitable solicitations accompanied by money attached to the response form. Remove social tension by stating a position that allows your target to strategically retreat. An example is the Patagonia “Don’t buy this jacket” ad campaign, which essentially tells consumers that the company is not trying to hustle them.
4. Be inclusive. When you use words like “we,” you establish that you and your prospects are “in it together,” which makes it more likely that they will agree with you. I add that you should not only sound sincere, you should actually be sincere.
5. Timing is everything. People will be more inclined to agree if they’re relaxed and not on the defensive. If those you wish to persuade are stressed—up against a deadline or passed over for a promotion, for example—they will probably back away from youe.
6. Be open-minded. The more rigid you appear, the less likely people will be to engage with you. That means your success in persuading them goes way down. If you’re perceived as being open to different ideas, then the greater the possibility your persuadees will come around to your way of thinking. Of course, you also need to acknowledge that others may have better ideas than yours.

In my opinion, this article is about selling. We all need to develop the skills that will allow us to sell our ideas to others, whether we sell for a living or are simply functioning in the normal, everyday commerce of life.

iqoncept — 123rf.com

 

Is your workspace cluttered, do you maintain a tidy work environment, or do you fall somewhere in between?

In a recent article, Professor Libby Sander of Australia’s Bond University (@BondUniversity) says, “The physical environment of the workplace has a significant effect on the way that we work. When our space is a mess, so are we.”

A mess, eh? That’s quite an indictment. Yet, based on research, it doesn’t seem to be going overboard to say that “our physical environments significantly affect our cognition, emotions, and behavior, affecting our decision-making and relationships with others. “

A few examples of the negative effects of untidiness

Clutter can increase our stress and anxiety levels. (Workplace stress in the U.S. costs around $190 billion  per year, a horrifying sum.) It can make it harder for us to focus. It can affect our food choices—junk food, anyone?­ It can interfere with our sleep.

Clutter, with its constant visual presence, depletes our cognitive resources. Our brain, it turns out, likes order. Professor Sander points to a Princeton University Neuroscience Institute study that revealed  when participants cleared out clutter in their work environment, they focused and processed information better and ended up being more productive.

A study found that people surrounded by untidiness at home feel overwhelmed and tend to procrastinate. They develop negative coping mechanisms such as TV watching and (as mentioned earlier) snacking on empty calories. Professor Sander guesses that this behavior generalizes to the work environment, resulting in employees who delay making decisions and may spend less time working.

Perhaps as important as any of these other factors is how clutter affects our relationships. In one study, messy participants were seen by others as “less conscientious, more neurotic, and less agreeable.” Ouch. Clearly, those perceptions affect how others behave toward them and may affect the course of their careers.

So what is to be done?

Professor Sander recommends tidying your workspace regularly and, interestingly, “Avoid letting things get so bad that you start cleaning as a form of procrastination.” A side note: a graduate school colleague once commented that her friends always knew when an important test was coming up: They’d drop by and find her cleaning her oven. Professor Sander also recommends work-sponsored “spring cleaning” days bolstered by pizza and an office-wide clean-desk policy. (Maybe this works in Australia? Not sure I see it working here)

During graduate school, I earned much-needed cash by cleaning houses for a couple of professors. One guy was brilliant, but both his home and his office looked as though a bomb had gone off in them—an analogy with unfortunate connotations these days—and were really challenging to put in order. And this is where Professor Sander throws us a bit of a curve—a study reveals that messiness is linked to creativity—before coming down on the side of the tidy work environment.

Iculig — 123rf.com

Has your perfectionism brought more misery than joy to your life?

Sure, most of us get satisfaction from a job well done. But often the process of delivering that job can make us miserable. In “How to Manage Your Perfectionism,” freelance writer Rebecca Knight quotes coach Matt Plummer, who says, “A lot of perfectionistic tendencies are rooted in fear and insecurity.” We’re perfectionists because we fear that if we’re not, we won’t end up performing well and we’ll damage our reputations. (I recommend reading the article because two case studies at the end present people who have dealt with perfectionism in real life and won.)

In this article, Mr. Plummer and Alice Boyes, author of The Healthy Mind Toolkit and The Anxiety Toolkit talk about understanding and dealing with the consequences of perfectionism and accepting that you will not be able to do everything perfectly.

“See the big picture”

Mr. Plummer and co-author Jo Wilson note that it’s important to consider the opportunity cost and time of perfectionism, asking yourself if you’re making smart use of your time. Focus on what’s important and look to maximizing your impact rather than on polishing every project to a high gloss. Be aware of the law of diminishing returns.

 “Adjust your standards”

Get feedback on your efforts early in your process, and you may well discover that you’re doing fine. Feedback, of course, will help you improve. And Ms. Boyes point out that your work “doesn’t have to be the final word, it just has to contribute something useful.”

“Create a checklist”

Without a checklist, you’ll likely get lost in the weeds. So build a checklist for each task you’re working on. When you check each item on the list off, you’re done, which defeats your tendency to keep at a job long after diminishing returns have kicked in.

 “Break the cycle of rumination”

Do you ruminate? I sure do, and though we used to laugh about it in my family as the fruit of OCD, it’s really not pleasant or productive. Ms. Boyes points out that rumination is anxiety-related and that ruminants are less forgiving of themselves than others. Rumination is a cycle that requires disruption. You can—and should—figure out your triggers, find ways to divert yourself, realize that you probably can’t trust your ruminations, and make a point of thinking of all the tasks you’ve done successfully. The article goes into further detail on each of these techniques, so I recommend checking it out.

“Get perspective”

For heaven’s sake, talk to someone with whom you can be open and comfortable—definitely not the office smarty-pants. Ms. Boyes suggests that you be clear that you want the person you choose to be honest. Promise you’ll think about what they say, even if you’re initially defensive. And then, of course, don’t renege on that commitment.

“Monitor your progress”

Review your progress every week, so that you can learn where your perfectionism has positive and negative impact. Negative impact, for example, is when you avoid doing something or procrastinate because you’re afraid of making mistakes. Mr. Plummer points out that in addressing perfectionism you’re “redirecting your personality,” rather than “changing course.”

Helpful?

I found this article helpful because I tend toward perfectionism. This can hinder a freelance content creator, though I have not generally found that it gets in my way. Where my perfectionism is hardest to overcome is with this blog. It’s not difficult to come up with an editorial calendar filled with valuable topics, but getting the writing done can be a lot harder. What I found helpful in this article is the suggestion to focus on sharing information that make a useful contribution.

We’re all insanely busy. I like to think that I come across great thinking that readers may not have time to ferret out and that I may be able to encourage them to seek out more from a writer whose ideas they like.

Photo credit: Andriy Popov – 123rf.com