How to Keep Your Email Out of the Junk Yard

Posted on by Scott

spam-964521_640Since January 1st, I have received more than 3,400 emails that have been classified as “junk.” That means every day, my email account automatically detects and quarantines somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 undesirable messages. And that doesn’t count the SPAM that slips by the filter or is caught by my ISP before it ever gets to my account.

The first iterations of what we call email looked very different. Back in the mid 1960’s an MIT program called MAILBOX allowed electronic messages to be placed on a single computer for the next user to find and read. As technology progressed, point to point connections (like the U.S. Department of Defense’s ARPANET) allowed two machines to communicate back and forth. It took the advent of computer networks before our modern concept of email to arrive.

Today, email is the default method of communication for organizations around the world. Just last month, 430 billion emails were sent world-wide. According to SenderBase, an email monitoring service, 86% of was junk. That’s 369 billion emails – an average of 13 billion per day – that we didn’t ask for and that hold no value for us as the recipient.

Of course, not all junk email can be classified as SPAM. There are plenty of legitimate emails from people we know that we mentally classify as junk. My inbox sees a constant flow of messages from people vying for my attention. Some of them have valuable things to say, others are a waste of time. The sheer volume of email is difficult to manage. I’m constantly working to prioritize what comes my way, sifting through the flood of information to find those bits that best deserve my attention.

As a sender of email, I’m fully aware that my audience fights this same battle. Whether I’m communicating to customers or coworkers, my message enters the same boxing ring as the others. I can’t take for granted that the emails I send will even be opened. Ultimately my goal is for them to be read and responded to as opposed to deleted and forgotten. To win this war of the Inbox, I need a strategy.

  • I need to send selectively. Email is scarily easy to use. That means we use it a lot. The volume is the first hurdle to overcome. So I try to be selective when using email as a communication medium. Here are a few cases when I feel email is the wrong answer:
    • When your entire message would fit in the subject line.
    • When your topic involves confidential or sensitive information.
    • When a phone call will do.
  • I need to pick the right audience. It’s tempting to include the world in your email message, but unless what you have to communicate has broad appeal, it pays to limit the number of names in the To: or Cc: section. If the message is directed toward me, my name should be on the To: line. If it’s important that I be informed, maybe I belong on the Cc: line. Other than that, I don’t need to be involved.
    • Don’t select Reply All unless everyone needs to see you response.
    • Don’t include someone as a Cc: as a form of name dropping or intimidation.
    • Don’t use the Bcc: field. Just don’t.
  • I need to use a good subject line. Once you’ve decided an email is appropriate, and identified the correct audience, the next battle you have to win is for attention. Your subject line is like the title of a magazine article or a newspaper headline. It should give me a sense of what the content involves and pique my interest so that I choose to read more.
    • Save funny or mysterious subject lines for non-work topics.
    • Communicate the purpose of the email clearly.
    • Make it easy to scan; stick to no more than 10 words.
  • I need to make the content worthy of the reader’s time. The last thing I want is for a reader to feel like I have wasted their time. What I send needs to be relevant, helpful, and/or necessary. If people view my communication as amateurish or unnecessary, then I lose credibility. I don’t want to do that.
    • Keep it short – shorter emails are read sooner and the information is retained longer.
    • Use the spelling and grammar check options. Please.
    • Periodically check for feedback to make sure your emails are having the desired impact.
  • I need to include a clear call to action. I often read emails and find myself wondering “What is it they want me to do?” Your email should communicate how the reader is supposed to react to the information. If you want the reader to take some particular action, tell them what it is.
    • List specific calls to action in the first paragraph.
    • Provide a time frame for response and/or next steps.
    • Allow adequate time for response – your readers already have jobs to do.

When texting came on the scene, many took it as a sign that email was on the way out. Something tells me we’ll be managing our inboxes for a while longer. Make sure your emails get read – design them to be appropriate, informative, and welcomed. SPAM belongs in a can.

Strike a Pose: The Power of Posture

Posted on by Scott

wonder-woman-1016324_640Freeze. Don’t move.

Now, make a mental note of your posture at this very moment. How are your arms and legs positioned? What’s the state of your body? What about your head? Now, what’s your state of mind? Are you feeling powerful, or powerless? Are you energetic, or lethargic? Do you feel ready to take on the world, or would you prefer to just crawl back into bed?

Studies have long shown a significant connection between our posture and our mental state. How we hold ourselves physically influences the way we think and, by extension, how we act. We can literally change our mood and influence our future behavior simply by adopting the right type of posture.

I recently came across an experiment in which researchers identified actual changes in body chemistry caused by posture. A group of people were asked to participate in what they thought was a study of ergonomics. Half of them were asked to adopt “closed postures” for a period of two minutes. The other half were asked to assume “open postures.”

Closed postures are those in which the body is made small. Arms and legs are drawn in close to the body. Shoulders are hunched and the head is dropped. From the outside, these postures communicate a feeling of insecurity and weakness. People with closed body language are perceived as being less capable in their jobs and less likely to be in a position to help others.

Open postures, on the other hand, are those in which the body takes up more space. The elbows are held further from the body and feet are spread apart. The chest is expanded and the head is held high. From the outside, these postures communicate confidence and strength. People with open body language are perceived as being at the top of their game and more successful.

Have you ever seen Superman? To hide his identity, he pretends to be Clark Kent. This mild-mannered alter ego is shy, insecure, and hardly a hero. His walks with his head down and his shoulders rounded over. To those he meets, Clark is a nice guy, but hardly someone you can count on in a pinch. But the transformation from Clark to Superman is significant. His head rises and his chest swells. His shoulders pull back and you feel the hero’s strength and confidence radiate outward.

Christopher Reeve played Superman in a series of movies starting in 1978 and he perfectly captured the difference between the wimp and the hero. In fact, there’s a scene where Clark goes to see Lois Lane, the object of his affection who’s smitten by Superman. Clark decides to reveal his true identity to Lois. Simply by altering his posture, Reeve morphs before our eyes into Superman. No cape or tights – just a shift in body language.

Think about the way you perceive other people you encounter at the mall or the airport. As you pass by strangers at the grocery store, what does their body language communicate? Without knowing them, or even speaking to them, don’t you get a sense of who they are? We form first impressions of others in seconds, using only the visual clues presented by their body language. Now take a look at your own posture. What signals are you sending out? When people look at you from a distance, what do they see?

What’s interesting is that the impact of body language isn’t just seen on the outside. In the posture experiment I read about, participants had their saliva tested both before and after they assumed their assigned postures. By testing the saliva, researchers were able to determine the levels of testosterone (a hormone associated with power) and cortisol (a stress-inducing hormone) being produced by the body. I bet you can guess the outcome.

People adopting the closed posture poses for only two minutes showed a marked decrease in the amount of testosterone and an increase in the amount of cortisol. They literally became less powerful and more stressed. Those who sat or stood in power poses (the ones with open body language) had the opposite reaction. Their testosterone production increased and their cortisol levels dropped – after only two minutes.

How do you want others to feel about you? How do you want feel about yourself? If the answer is “more powerful,” “less stressed,” and “more capable,” then you might want to think about your posture. How you think impacts how you act, but the opposite is also apparently true. It’s time to act the way you want to feel and the way you want to be perceived. It’s time to be the hero. Adopt the right posture, and make it so.

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The Ultimate Sales Model

Posted on by Scott

plan-1725510_640There’s a popular story in retail circles about a man in Anchorage Alaska who visited his local Nordstrom department store to return a set of tires. After explain to the manager that he wasn’t satisfied with the purchase, he received a full refund – despite that fact that Nordstrom doesn’t sell tires. This customer had actually purchased his tires from a company that had sat on the very same piece of land at some point in the past.

While stories like this one have become widely-recounted examples of Nordstrom’s legendary service, they hardly seem to represent a profitable business model. The idea is to make money, not to give it away. You can’t grow a company by offering full refunds, especially for products you don’t even sell.

Or can you?

There are two primary models for driving business today. The first involves product innovation. In this model, a company is always working to reinvent their product lineup. By offering a steady stream of new products, as well as improvements and additional features to existing ones, they seek to stay ahead of the competition. They seek to position themselves as pioneers in their industry and attract customers looking for the latest and greatest.

Of course, this model has drawbacks. It’s difficult to stay on the top. As soon as a revolutionary new product is introduced, competitors work to offer up their own version of it. What was touted as yesterday’s must-have innovation, is today’s commodity. Those playing catch up benefit from the costly trial and error of the trend setter. Their products are usually cheaper and often better since the heavy lifting has been handled by someone else. So, innovators must always be innovating to stay on top.

The second prevailing model involves price discounts. In this model, a company drives efficiency and expense management in pursuit of low prices. They compete by always offering the best prices, either through every day positioning or the advertisement of frequent sales. They see volume as the path to prosperity. They seek to position themselves as the best value and attract customers looking for the cheapest way out.

This model also has drawbacks. There’s always someone else willing to cut their prices to compete. Engaging in the price war means you must find some way to keep going lower, despite pressure to maintain a reasonable margin. This means that corners get cut – cheaper materials, cheaper labor, fewer features, and lower quality all become legitimate paths to improving the bottom line. And while you attract a lot of customers with low prices, those customers are inherently disloyal. Having been caught via the lure of a bargain, they become trained to shop based on price at the expense of value.

Both models are costly. It takes a lot of effort to make them work, and both create a customer base ready to jump ship at a moment’s notice. Such is the case when short-term revenue outweighs long-term growth. But there is another business model that can be used. It’s hard to find, but it’s the one growth strategy that makes the most sense. It’s the one used by companies like Nordstrom and Disney World and Chic-fil-A.

It’s the service-first model.

Companies that adopt the service-first model aren’t interested in being the lowest cost provider. In fact, they typically command premium pricing. You pay more for their products than you would elsewhere. And service-first organizations aren’t typically the innovators – at least not in a “we have the latest gadget” kind of way. You’ll often find them in commodity-based industries. Nordstrom sells clothes and cosmetics, just like any number of other department stores. Chic-fil-A sells fast food, just like thousands of other restaurant chains. Disney World is a theme park, and the competition is fierce.

Service-first organizations see their mission as providing an unmatched experience. It’s the experience that keeps customers coming back despite competitors that might be shinier or cheaper. It’s the experience that customers pay for; and they gladly pay a premium for it. Nordstrom clothes are not cheap. They don’t offer coupons and they rarely run sales. When they do, it’s as a thank you to those loyal customers who’ve shopped with them in spite of seemingly overwhelming reasons to take their business elsewhere.

Interestingly, a service-first model is the one most companies claim. The problem is, you can’t do it all. You choose, knowingly or unconsciously, a philosophy that dictates the course your business will take. One track always takes precedence over the others. And it always shows. Regardless of what you advertise, the people who matter most (your customers and employees) will figure out where your heart is. Make a list of companies you feel are truly service-first. I’ll bet the list is short.

I find the great irony of business is that those who deliver the best service experience don’t talk about it much, while those who actually chase another business model are the ones who most fervently claim to be service-oriented. They’re all bark, little bite. This list is quite a bit longer, isn’t it?

So, do you compete on product? Do you scratch and claw your way to the next short-lived product innovation?

Do you compete on price? Do you slash and burn the infrastructure to drive prices as low as they can go?

Or do you compete on service? Do you simply offer an experience that exceeds that of the competition – one so valuable people gladly pay premium prices to be your customer?

What business model makes the most sense to you? Choose wisely.

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Selling: It’s a Matter of Trust

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sleazyThe concept of selling has been around a long time. Even before the first coins were minted around 600-700 BC, selling was a common practice. The bartering of goods and services in exchange for other items of value required people to convince each other that any given item was more valuable than something similar offered by someone else. The exchange of items of value is, in essence, selling.

It wasn’t until 1886 that the idea of sales as a profession came about. John H. Patterson, the president of NCR would identify the top person in prospect companies, sell them a cash register, and then incent them to share the word with other business owners. This marked the first time that people were paid for selling something they didn’t themselves create. It didn’t take long for the practice to spread.

In 1916, the first World Salesmanship Congress was held in Detroit Michigan. President Woodrow Wilson spoke and led credence to the idea of salespeople being important professionals. The theme of the congress was “trust-based” selling, an indication that nefarious practitioners had already begun to infiltrate the profession.

Ultimately, trust is at the heart of any sales proposition. Whether bartering or exchanging products and services for currency, both parties involved have to trust the other. In today’s sales environment, the burden of trust rests most heavily on the shoulders of the salesperson. They must appear trustworthy is the customer is to believe that what they are receiving is of sufficient value to justify what they are asked to pay. You might get away with violating a customer’s trust once or twice, but that’s it. Broken trust leads to broken relationships, and sales is all about relationships.

It’s the concept of trust that allows us to function as well as we do. Researchers have identified three functions that trust performs in society and interpersonal relationships:

Trust makes social interactions predictable. When you first meet someone new, you don’t know how they are going to act. But after a very brief interaction, you begin to pick up on patterns in their behavior. It’s these patterns that determine how you anticipate their future actions. Having observed the behavioral patterns of individuals over time, you can predict how a potential interaction will unfold. We start to “trust” that people will act a certain way.

Trust creates a sense of community. We tend to associate with people who behave in ways we prefer. It’s our trust in the future actions of others that leads us to form social groups. Your circle of friends exists because you’ve come to trust this group of people will act in ways you find agreeable. We move toward people we trust and away from those we do not.

Trust helps people work together. As communities develop, you trust that any given member of that group will act within the accepted boundaries of behavior. This means we don’t really have to know a specific individual in order to develop a level of trust with them. By affiliating with a particular community, we assume an individual believes in the same things as the group. We expect their behavior to follow the predictable mold that drew us to the group in the first place.

Think about the individuals and groups you associate with. How has trust influenced the makeup of your circle? What behaviors drew you to these groups? What behaviors would betray that trust and drive you away?

As salespeople, we have chosen to align ourselves with individuals and communities that communicate particular levels of trust. You reputation depends on, and impacts, the perceived level of trust customers have in your coworkers, your organization, and even others in your same profession working elsewhere. Each of us has a responsibility to validate, and strengthen, the trust placed in us. It is trust that leads customers to willingly engage with us, join our community by purchasing our products, and continue working with others in our organization.

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Why is “Sales” Such a Dirty Word?

Posted on by Scott

good-1123013_640Black or white. Good or evil. Republican or democrat. Positive or negative. We’ve gotten pretty good at drawing lines in the sand, haven’t we? As a society, and a species, we love to categorize and label people, things, and activities. We somehow feel more comfortable having declared our alliance with a particular side and then view the world in terms of absolutes. You’re either on one side or the other. We have a hard time making sense of any gray area, so we stop acknowledging that it even exists.

That’s often the way people view the ideas of sales and service. Sales is bad. Service is good. If you’re a salesperson, you automatically inherit the most negative connotations the word can conjure up. You can’t possibly provide good service, because your job is to separate me from my money, right? How can anyone who chooses to be a salesperson also profess to be a service provider? It’s hypocrisy.

I get it. There’s a lot of unethical behavior out there that, to some extent, justifies the categorization of sales as bad. Deceptive advertising, hidden costs, bait-and-switch tactics, and even outright lies – they’re all out there. Every person reading this has no doubt been burned at some point by an unscrupulous salesperson looking to line their own pockets by playing on our innocence.

And so we’ve come to believe in the evilness of sales so strongly that many advocate eliminating the word from their corporate vocabulary. Instead of salespeople, we have consultants and advisors – as if changing the word does anything to mask the intent behind the behavior. They cringe when someone identifies sales for what it is and then try to explain how what they’re doing away as something different – something less offensive.

I think it’s time we put an end to this practice. I say we take back the word “sales” and acknowledge it for the noble profession that it is. How dare we allow the bottom-feeders out there to pollute the collective consciousness of our customers? How dare we hide behind some politically-correct term that attempts to soften an activity that has no shame?

Sales is a good thing. Without it, we wouldn’t know what new products are being introduced to the market. We wouldn’t hear about additional features and benefits that can enhance our lives. Without the proactive actions of caring salespeople, we’d be lost – searching for answers to problems we don’t even know we have.

Like most things though, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about selling. The stories we tend to hear about – the ones that form our negative opinions about salespeople – are the ones that go bad. They’re the ones that leave us feeling uncomfortable with the process and the result. They’re the ones that cause us to avoid salespeople like the plague. Remember, we move toward those things that cause us pleasure and away from those that cause us pain. If all we experience or hear about are painful sales encounters, it’s no wonder we avoid them.

My wife just bought a new car. For most people, the prospect of interacting with a car salesman is pretty low on the “things I want to do today” list. But let me tell you about John. He does his job well. He asked Susan the right questions. He picked up on subtle cues and clues that indicated her preferences. He provided information that helped place each car she looked at in the proper context relative to the others on the lot, and those offered by his competitors. There were no vague answers, no off-the-cuff promises, and no high-pressure pitches. He simply sought to understand the customer’s needs and then pointed her to a product that would meet them.

The process of buying my wife’s new car didn’t feel sleazy. It didn’t feel like we were getting cheated or misled. It felt right. When my wife told the manager how impressed she was with John, he nodded his head in understanding. It turns out John has won many awards for sales excellence over his 20 year career with the dealership, and has a large list of repeat customers. I can see why. His approach to selling makes for a pleasurable experience – people are naturally drawn back to that. John is a salesman, and proud of it.

The world needs more people like John. We need men and women who actively seek to understand what the person in front of them needs and then share how their product can meet those needs. We need salespeople. Look around at your coworkers. They could be those kind of people. You could be one too. Let’s do it together.

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How To Recover From a Setback

Posted on by Scott

captain-america-861757_640Whenever superheroes and supervillains clash, there will inevitably be a high degree of collateral damage. Vehicles, buildings, even entire cities are destroyed when good and evil collide. But after the battle is over, who picks up the pieces? Who cleans up the rubble, replaces lost inventory, and compensates the victims after the dust has settled?

According to Marvel Comics, that would be Damage Control. Housed out of New York City’s Flatiron building, Damage Control was initially funded by a couple of billionaires before going public. This pseudo construction company exists to quickly get things back to normal (or as close to it as possible) following the epic showdowns that happen with regularity in a world inhabited by super-humans. Since its introduction in 1989, Damage Control has quietly come to the rescue in a number of movies, comics, and television series.

If only real-world businesses had Damage Control as back-up.

Who cleans up the mess when things go bad for your business? When good intentions have unintended consequences, who bails you out? When your best laid plans don’t pan out and you find yourself behind the growth curve, who rights the ship and gets it back on course?

As leaders, we can’t be content with developing an initial strategy and pressing the start button. Once the ship has set sail, we’re on it too. The captain has to be ready to step in when things go south in order to overcome setbacks. It’s up to us to provide the damage control. That’s because leaders – good leaders – are there for the good as well as the bad. Leaders are always leading.[Tweet “Leaders are there for the good as well as the bad. Leaders are always leading.”]

Consider the following steps to help your team get back on track following a setback.

  1. Keep your eye on the horizon. Last week I wrote about anticipating setbacks. Good leaders keep their eyes trained forward so they can see both opportunities and problems before it’s too late to act on them. When your focus shifts elsewhere for too long, say to celebrate past accomplishments or worry about some minute detail, issues can creep up on you. Pay attention to trends so you can anticipate what lies ahead.
  2. Act quickly to adjust course. Once an issue has been identified, you have to move swiftly in order to mitigate the damage. Some managers take their time analyzing the data before choosing a course of action. Some decide to wait, ignoring the problem in the hopes it will go away on its own. Neither is a good response. Waiting only allows the problem to grow and delays your ability to regain forward momentum. Develop a strategy and act on it.
  3. Use the experience to get better. Is there a way to prevent the same issue from popping up next year? Are there steps that could be taken sooner to speed up the recovery process in the future? Are there tweaks to the existing plan that need to be made that will help the business grow more efficiently? Once the problem is addressed, take a little time to incorporate what you’ve learned from the experience. That way the business will be stronger for having encountered this rough patch.

Hopefully you’ll never have to clean up after a super throw-down disrupts your business plan. Odds are, though, not everything will always go as planned. Instead of calling for Damage Control, commit to your own damage control strategy. That’s one way to make sure you and your team are the real heroes.

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Anticipation vs. Expectation

Posted on by Scott

psychics-1026092_640It was mid-October when I received the call. On the other end of the line was a manager whose tone told me he was not happy. “Something is wrong with my scorecard,” he said. “You need to get it fixed right away.”

Like many organizations, our company utilized a monthly performance scorecard to track a variety of sales and service metrics at a variety of levels. My team assisted managers with developing strategies for growing their business. We provided training, created job aids, and reported on the progress made toward goals. The scorecard document was our baby.

I opened the file in question and listened as the irate manager pointed out the cause of his frustration. All year long, his scorecard had reflected stellar performance. Sure, they were down a little month over month, but still well above goal. Things had been going so well that he’d stopped worrying about even looking at the report. Why waste the time when you’re ahead? But that morning, a member of his staff had taken a look at the document and noticed that the team’s performance had suddenly dropped. In fact, they were suddenly below goal and in danger of missing out on year-end performance bonuses. Since every month up to this point had been above goal, something had to be wrong with the report.

As you can see from this sample graph, the team in question had indeed been above goal for each month through August. What they didn’t account for, however, was the downward trend in performance. Focused exclusively on the current month’s production, they’d failed to anticipate the disaster looming in the fall. This was no reporting error, it was an error in judgment.

Top performers aren’t content with being ahead of goal. They are fueled by a need to stay there. This drives them to look ahead. They scan the horizon for future opportunities and potential setbacks. They definitely celebrate specific achievements, but they know they can’t assume today’s win guarantees tomorrow’s victory. Had this manager been paying attention, he would have noticed the slow decline in sales volume and been able to anticipate the eventual drop below goal. More importantly, he would have been able to do something about it.

Anticipating setbacks isn’t the same as expecting them. Victors anticipate bums in the road and create a plan to overcome them. Victims expect obstacles and adopt them as excuses. The difference is a simple matter of perspective and mindset.[Tweet “Anticipating setbacks isn’t the same as expecting them.”]

Once this manager understood what was happening with his scorecard, we turned our energy toward developing a plan to overcome the setback. We identified some underlying causes for the decline in sales and wrote up a strategy for his team to implement over the remaining two and a half months. Armed with the right information, and a game plan, he was ready to execute.

So, how does your performance look at this point in the year? We’re half-way through 2016 – are you on track, or do you need to play catch-up?

Don’t let the dog days of summer find you napping. Even if last month’s numbers were stellar, take a look ahead. See if there’s something lying just around the corner that maybe you haven’t been anticipating. Take advantage of this opportunity to shore up your plans for the next six months, and commit to finishing strong. Anticipate the worst, expect the best.

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3 Steps to Take After Receiving a Referral

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digits-705666_640I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

A teller with a leading community bank (a former employer of mine) had sent me an email, saying she wanted to speak with me for a few minutes. She was looking for referral advice. Naturally, I expected her to ask for tips on making referrals. Perhaps she wanted help on identifying referral opportunities. Maybe she wanted some assistance in identifying the appropriate time to bring up the concept of a new product or service with her customer or acquaintance. Or maybe, I thought, she’s struggling to find the right words to use and wants to bounce some ideas back and forth. I certainly was not prepared for her actual request.

“Scott,” she said, “making referrals is hard. I’m shy and it takes a lot for me to speak up and suggest my customer consider an additional product.” I agreed. After all, making referrals is a leap of faith. You’re opening yourself up to potential rejection. Customers might not welcome the intrusion and, depending on how the conversation transpires, mistake the referral for a high-pressure sales pitch.

She continued, “I do it anyway, though. We all do. We love our customers and know a big part of our job is finding other ways the bank can help them.” I was pleasantly surprised at her level of commitment and encouraged her to keep at it. “So, what part of the referral process can I help you with?” It was her answer to this question that threw me for a loop.

“We’ve been sending a lot of referrals to the lender at our branch,” she said, “but he never follows up. I just spoke with a lady I referred to him last week. When I asked how their conversation went, she told me she’d never received a call from him. She wound up going to another bank for the loan that I suggested she look into. One of my coworkers told me that she has the same problem and has actually started sending her customers to a lender at another branch who always follows up. I hate to do this, but I also hate looking bad when my own go-to person doesn’t seem to appreciate the referral. What should I do?”

Referrals represent the holy grail of marketing. What better way to generate new business than to have other people selling for you? How better to qualify prospects than to have partners making one-on-one recommendations to people they’ve identified as great candidates for your product? And how much easier can it be to overcome the credibility barrier when the recommendation comes from someone the prospect already has a relationship with and trusts?[Tweet “Referred customers carry a lifetime value 16% higher than the norm.”]

Referrals are timely, targeted, and carry no upfront costs. Furthermore, referral leads convert at a rate 30% higher than those obtained through any other type of marketing. Add to that the fact that referred customers carry a lifetime value 16% higher than the norm and it’s easy to see why smart business owners attempt to leverage this strategy as much as possible. But sadly, 48% of referred leads never make it to the next step of the sales cycle.

Referral marketing only works when referrals are acted on. Without follow up, referrals don’t turn into sales. They turn into poor service experiences, disappointed customers, frustrated referral partners, and missed opportunities.

When you find yourself the fortunate recipient of a referred lead, take these steps right away.

  1. Act on the lead. 50% of buyers choose the vendor that responds first. The sooner you follow up on a referral, the more likely you are to actually get business from it. You need to act while the prospect is thinking about taking the next step, and the propensity to buy is highest right after a quality referral is made.
  2. Deliver exceptional service. Referral leads should be treated delicately. The expectation of performance is high – after all, you did come with a personal recommendation – so make sure to shine. Even if the sale doesn’t close, your interaction with the lead impacts your reputation as well that of the referring party and the organization. The way you follow up on any given referral can influence how many more come your way.[Tweet “The way you follow up on any given referral can influence how many more come your way.”]
  3. Follow up with the referrer. Thank them for sending someone your way, even if things didn’t work out. Let them know how the conversation went and, if necessary, provide any tips for better qualifying prospects in the future. The more you develop this partnership, the more likely you are to see additional referrals come your way.

Of course, if you’re not interested in referral business, simply ignore these steps. In fact, ignore any referrals altogether, just like this banker did. Feel free to thumb your nose at a strategy virtually guaranteed to provide a steady stream of qualified business to your doorstep. Just don’t be surprised when all that business winds up being referred somewhere else.

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10 Tips for Better Referrals

Posted on by Scott

human-763156_640re-fer-ral (noun) an act of referring someone or something for consultation, review, or further action.

Growing a business is hard. Unless what you have to offer is cutting-edge, standing out from the crowd can be a grind. And let’s face it, most of us aren’t selling something truly innovative. We sell commodities, a product or service that’s readily available from another provider. For us, finding a way to differentiate yourself from the competition can prove difficult.

There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that word-of-mouth advertising is one of the most effective methods of generating new business. It’s certainly the most economical. If generating referrals isn’t a significant part of your marketing strategy, then you’re missing out.

In my experience, people think of referrals in two ways. With the first, employees interacting with existing employees make note of an additional product or service the customer isn’t taking advantage of and suggests they take action to fill the gap. In the second, customers and business partners are encouraged to proactively approach members of their network on behalf of the organization, recounting their positive experience and suggesting their contact give them a try.

Both referral scenarios can add significantly to your pipeline, but in my experience, few people are comfortable with the referral process. They hesitate to make referrals and, when they open their mouths to speak, the words don’t come easy.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Making referrals, like any other business activity, is a learned skill. All it takes is the right attitude, the right approach, and practice. Here are 10 tips to help you become a master at referrals. Let’s start with ideas for referring additional products to an existing customer.

1. Think of referrals as a service rather than a chore. Your customer or contact is missing out on a valuable product or service. You have knowledge that could help them solve a problem. Why are you holding back? Referring someone to a product, service, or colleague that could benefit them is not just good business, it’s a part of providing good service. What better way to take care of those who already trust you enough to business with you than to share information that could prove valuable to them?[Tweet “Making referrals is not just good business, it’s good service.”]

2. Study up on the subject of your referral. People often hesitate to make referrals because they aren’t confident in their own knowledge of the product or service in question. If you find yourself unsure of whether or not you are competent to speak to the quality of a product your own firm provides, don’t make the referral. Educate yourself first, make sure you know enough to speak intelligently before opening your mouth.

3. Refer to the expert. By definition, a referral is made by someone who cannot complete the sale themselves. If I can complete the sale, then my conversation with a prospect is a sales call, not a referral. Referring is the act of suggesting a connection between two other people, meaning you are not required to answer every single question the customer might have. That’s the expert’s job. While it’s important to know something about the product or service that sparked the referral idea, what you are really referring is someone else’s expertise. Don’t refer to people you don’t know. Make sure you can vouch for the expertise and character of the person you’re looking to send your contact to.

4. Refer selectively. Not every customer you come in contact with is a candidate for a referral discussion. Make sure the customer could actually benefit from the service you’re thinking of recommending. This is made easier if you’ve been listening for cues and looking for clues during your interaction. Don’t machine-gun spray your customer list. You’ll come across as insincere and lose credibility.

5. Speak to what you see. Something caused you to think about making a referral to your customer. Start by mentioning that trigger:

  • “Mr. customer, from what you’re saying, it sounds like you could benefit from …”
  • “According to our records, you’re not currently taking advantage of …”
  • “After our last conversation, I got thinking about your account. I think we may be able to help you even further…”
  • “You know, a lot of my customers have said they really appreciate the way we helped them with…”

6. Speak naturally. When the time is right to make a referral, speak as if you’re talking to a friend. Think about the last time you tried a new restaurant and shared that information with a friend. You didn’t slide into a fake, infomercial type spiel. You spoke on a personal level. You shared your experience and knowledge, then suggested your friend try it out for themselves. That’s what a referral should sound like – one friend trying to help another one out.[Tweet “A referral should sound like one friend trying to help another one out.”]

Now, let’s look at a few tips for encouraging referrals from others.

7. Educate your customers and business partners. You can’t assume that just because people know who you are and what you do that they will be comfortable referring business to you. Make a point to educate those around you. Share bits and pieces of information when appropriate so they feel educated enough to confidently speak to your expertise. Give them a story worth relating to someone else.

8. Make it easy for others to refer business to you. Most people like making referrals. Personally, I get a great sense of satisfaction when I connect two people I know in a way that helps them both out. As your customer, I’d like to refer business to you. The problem is, I don’t know everything about your particular product suite or the myriad of services you offer. However, there is one product I am intimately familiar with – the one you sold me. Make sure every new customer gets a couple of business cards and ask them to pass them on to people who could use the same service they are currently benefiting from.

9. Make referrals yourself. You have to give to receive. If you want business partners to send referrals your way, start by sending a few in their direction. Sending me a referral creates psychological pressure on me to reciprocate. When you help me out, I want (and need) to do something for you in return. Prime the referral machine by making a few deposits of your own. [Tweet “Prime the referral machine by making a few deposits of your own.”]

10. Ask for them. If you want more referrals, ask people for referrals. Business is rarely a case of “if you build it, they will come.” If you want something, you have to ask. “Hey, if you come across someone who could benefit from what I have to offer, do me a favor and hand them my card. I’d appreciate the referral.”

There’s one final tip I’d like to share for those seeking to earn more referral business. Be someone worthy of a referral. Do good work. Produce a superior product. Provide excellent service. Operate with integrity. Seek to be the kind of person others want to be associated with. If you focus on building solid relationships, you’ll have more referrals, and more business, than you can handle.

If you’d like to have a discussion regarding some specific referral strategies for your business, give me a call. If you have strategies that have proven successful for you, please share them on our Facebook page.

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Searching for Clues: Hone Your Powers of Observation

Posted on by Scott

detective-156647_640He can tell where you are from just looking at your shoes. He can guess your occupation after a brief examination of your hands. He can determine your next steps based solely on clues you’ve already left behind.

I’m talking, of course, about Sherlock Holmes. The world’s greatest detective has been solving mysteries since his introduction by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle back in 1887. I’ve personally been a fan since I first read The Hound of the Baskervilles as a kid.

Holmes possesses a number of traits that prove valuable as he works through each investigation. He’s a student of the physical sciences which aids his analyzing evidence from a crime scene. He is also a brilliant strategist, something that allows him to anticipate the motives and likely next moves of his opponent. The skill I most admire, however, is Holmes’ ability to decipher a great deal of information from a handful of seemingly meaningless clues.

Think about the impact this ability would have in the workplace, for instance. Salespeople could uncover unmet needs by simply observing the habits or appearance of their prospects. Service personnel could determine the source of a customer’s unhappiness by reviewing past account usage and analyzing communication patterns. Managers could better equip their teams by acting on clues gathered from mere observation.

Known as abductive reasoning, Holmes’ ability to infer huge amounts of information from tiny bits of data seems like something only a fictional character could be capable of. Recent research, though, would seem to indicate that this “Holmesian deduction” is actually an innate ability that each of us can tap into. The power of focus is formidable, and it’s within our grasp. We’ve just forgotten how to do it.

Holmes himself once told Watson “You see, but you do not observe.” That, I believe, is the problem all too many of us face. Our eyes function properly, but we fail to observe what we’re seeing. That is, we fail to process information in a meaningful way. The vast majority of what we see simply does not register as important. Although seen, it is almost immediately dismissed and, therefore, forgotten.

Another barrier to abductive reasoning is our inability to focus attention on any given task. Our desire to multi-task coupled with increasingly short attention spans has robbed us of our ability to focus. While conducting research for her book Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, author Maria Konnikova attempted to counteract her tendency to shift focus so that she could see as well as observe. The pull of email and social media proved almost too powerful to overcome. She found herself fighting the impulse to look at each email that popped into her inbox.

I know that, even in my own house, achieving a state of Sherlock Holmes-like focus is extremely difficult. My family has a hard time sitting down to watch an episode of television without multi-tasking. My son studies for school while watching. My wife hops up to finish the laundry. I reach for the phone when it signals some type of update.

So how do we regain our super-powers of observation? It takes discipline and time. To become a great detective in our own right, we have to begin by making a concerted effort to block out distractions. It’s hard to focus on any one thing when others are competing for your attention. Konnikova found that she lacked the personal discipline to ignore the lure of online distractions. She actually downloaded an app to her phone that blocks access to certain functions for a predetermined amount of time.

Secondly, it takes practice. Blocking out distractions does nothing to keep the mind form wandering on its own. You have to train yourself to live in the moment – to fully immerse yourself in what’s going on around you. You have to reach a state where your brain actually observes what your eyes see. This doesn’t happen overnight. Like any skill, this level of mindfulness has to be practiced.

There’s another benefit to mastering this skill as well. Konnikova uncovered research that shows multi-tasking is counterproductive and damaging to your psyche. We’re actually more productive and happier in general when we allow ourselves to live in the moment and fully take in what’s happening around us. The constant distractions that we think keep us connected and efficient are actually having the opposite effect.

I’m going to give it a shot. I often feel frustrated at the length of time it takes me to complete certain projects. Something tells me it’s my inability to block out distractions that keeps me from focusing in a way that produces my best work. Stayed tuned for an update on my progress. Or just watch the news. You might see me listed as the man who solves the next big mystery.

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