More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Mahan Khalsa
Read between
July 6 - August 12, 2019
We learn to communicate the essence of our message from the core of our being. We clear our minds of all distractions, become highly aware and alert, completely present and in the moment. We sharpen our intellect and reason cogently and compellingly.
There are two major keys to winning deals more consistently. First, don’t present until you are ready to present. Second, when you do present, present to enable a decision.
Have everyone and everything necessary for a decision in the same place at the same time. We present, they decide.
Only present to people whose criteria for judging you are known to you.
Present in person, to the right people, for the right amount of time.
Sign in Las Vegas: You must be present to win.
What do we have in person that we lack in writing? Vocal cues: We can hear the tone, emphasis, inflection, and pace of language. (Can you remember a time when you sent an e-mail or a letter that you thought was very funny—it sounded funny when you said it to yourself—but was dead on arrival?) Visual cues: We get powerful nonverbal feedback. Interaction: There is give and take; we can respond to questions, address concerns, and react. Flexibility: If something is not working, we can change; we can react to new developments, challenges, and directions. Rapport: People feel who we are as human
...more
General Rule: Do not present in writing what you could present in person. We desire a meeting where we can present our solution as an interactive oral presentation that allows give and take: “If we did this, would it be a solution that meets your needs? If not, where does it have to change?”
Proposals do not help clients succeed. People do. It is in clients’ best interest to allow sufficient opportunity for solution providers to fully explain their ideas, to ask them good questions, to test assumptions, and to experience what the people are like to work with.
Only if all else fails will we send a formal written proposal in the mail, with no human interaction. This is a major yellow light. Optimal decisions happen person-to-person, not computer-to-computer.
We would be shocked if they did as good a job of resolving doubts, stalls, concerns, or objections, or of pushing against faulty or inaccurate thinking—particularly if they are working with organizational superiors. So why would consultants agree to have someone other than themselves present the solution? Often because clients say that is how they are going to do it, and consultants merely comply.
Time is money. Make sure you get enough of it.
The purpose of a sales presentation is to enable a decision. It is not to inform or educate, though that may be helpful. It is not to entertain, though that may be enjoyable. The purpose is to enable a decision. We present, they decide. ❖ The purpose of a sales presentation is to enable a decision.
“Meeting Plan.” You will encounter the Meeting Plan again in the Initiating section. MEETING PLAN
Start with the End in Mind: what do we want the client to say, do, or decide at the end of our interaction?
What specifically is the client supposed to decide? If the decision to be made is not clear to either the consultants or the clients, how likely is it that a decision will be made?
“Is there sufficient interest that we should keep talking, or is it thanks, but no thanks?”
“Is this a solution that truly meets your needs?”
“Do you feel you have all the information you need to make a well-informed decision?”
“If you want good information on what it takes to get a yes, make no be okay.”
‘Did we get it right? If not, what would have to change?’ We realize that if someone else gets it ‘more right’—if they have an even better solution—then you will pick them. Knowing that, would you be willing to give us candid feedback on whether or not you could say with confidence, that at least one solution got it right?”
If not accomplished before the meeting, gaining agreement to the End in Mind should come at the beginning of the meeting.
Consultants seriously hinder, rather than facilitate, a decision when: • They give the client far more information than what is necessary for the decision; they waste valuable time, potentially confuse the client, and risk introducing doubts, concerns, and objections that otherwise would never appear. • The information comes in one big glut with questions and decisions held to the end; the information is not organized into bite-sized pieces that are easy to digest. • It is not clear what questions in the clients’ mind the information is intended to answer; there are no decisions made at the
...more
“Give only the information necessary for the decision.”
give them several stepping stones placed a reasonable distance apart from one another, which makes traversing the pond easier, more enjoyable—and keeps the client from falling into the pond and drowning in information.
People make decisions based on beliefs. We are more likely to enable the End in Mind if we can explicitly state and resolve the underlying beliefs that support that decision.
Resolving clients’ beliefs is more convincing to them and may be all they need to feel comfortable making a decision.
Typical beliefs about a final presentation for a solution include: • The solution will resolve the client’s problems and produce the client’s desired results. • The solution can be implemented with the available resources. • The solution meets the decision criteria of key stakeholders. • The economics are compelling. • This solution exceeds the alternatives. Typical beliefs about the solution providers are: • They are competent (they have the right expertise). • They are credible (they will do what they say they will do). • They are compatible (we will like working with them).
“Thinking forward to the presentation, what would you like to make sure we cover that will allow you to make a good decision, whether you choose us or someone else?”
“What would you like to see, hear, or experience in the presentation that would allow you to make a good decision, one way or the other?”
We want to check off each key belief as we go, rather than wait until the end. If all of the key beliefs are satisfied, deciding on the End in Mind should be easy.
asking for the decision inappropriately may cause clients to feel we are being manipulative or coercive.
“I know this is your top issue and I don’t want to proceed until you are comfortable that it’s been well addressed. What’s your sense?”
“We are at the point where we should check this one off or know that we can’t. What would you like to do?”
“Before we proceed, let me check in and see how we’re doing. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being that we have addressed this issue to your satisfaction and one being that we’ve completely missed the boat, where are you?”
Red, Yellow, Green: The authors have given clients actual red, yellow, or green cards, to be used both with a sense of fun and a sense of purpose. At key decision points the clients are asked to hold up one of the three.
People ask questions for a reason. Don’t guess about the reason or you may not answer the real question; you may answer the wrong question or introduce even more questions or yellow lights in the client’s mind.
CLIENT: How long does it take to implement a project like this? CONSULTANT: Typically three to six months. Do you have some time pressures or targets we should be aware of?
two prevalent characteristics in consultants who are particularly adept at turning yellow lights to green: they check their ego at the door, and they are willing to be wrong.
If we choose, we can observe the Other’s aggression come spewing out, and, at our will, we can also permit the noise to bounce off the walls like rattling cans.” Checking our ego is a skill we can learn and improve. It requires practice. When it becomes second nature we can choose clarity over commotion in response to client challenges.
It is not the goal to turn every yellow light to green. The goal is to win the business only when there is a good fit between what the client needs and what we do well.
In response to such decision-avoidant requests, the authors suggest the “Never Do Something for Nothing Redirection.” It has two parts: 1. Define success: Find out what is really needed and how it is important. 2. Hypothetically walk into the future, give them success, and ask: “Then what happens?”
highly effective pattern for resolving nonprice yellow lights. ACKNOWLEDGE: Demonstrate vocally and visually that you are slowing down for the yellow light. UNDERSTAND: Ask questions to understand the true nature of the client’s resistance and what the resolution would be. RESOLVE: Work to a mutual resolution of the genuine issues at hand.
Understand the real issue.
Clients tend to be convinced more easily, and with more conviction, if we resolve a yellow light using their criteria rather than our own.
CLIENT: I have the impression that your company focuses exclusively on technology and process and not on our people. CONSULTANT: Wow. That’s hard to hear. I appreciate your willingness to be honest. I definitely hear that focusing on your people is important to you. Rather than listening to me make a bunch of claims, what would have to be in place for you feel confident that your people are getting the focus they need and deserve?
Consciously choose whether to resolve a yellow light as it appears or to collect yellow lights and address them at one time.
Several deals were won when the client’s price was as much as 30 percent higher than the competition’s; other deals were lost when their prices were as much as 30 percent lower than the competition’s. Furthermore, what the salespeople thought were most important to the client—price and relationships—were rated very low by the client.
we retain a passionate focus on helping our clients succeed in a way about which they feel good, we will have a constant supply of credible and compelling third-party stories. 2. In the Qualifying section we stressed the importance of evidence—measures that demonstrate significant improvement of clients’ key performance indicators. Often the results of our products and services are difficult to measure, and it takes creativity and willingness to do so. Evidence is not only a powerful driver of additional business with current clients, it also provides credibility to third-party stories.
...more
Take some of the most difficult and/or frequent objections you encounter and find a metaphor that applies. You can research and select metaphors others have created or develop one of your own. Develop multiple metaphors and see how reactions to them differ. 2. Make storytelling a conscious competence; read some books and/or takes some courses; collect stories; practice your storytelling. 3. Explore experiential metaphors that people can see, do, hear, while you are with them. (For an example of a visual experiential metaphor, go to www.viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/media/ig.html and watch the
...more
