The 80-Hour Week

The Six Highest-Rated Tools, Tips and Tricks (part five)

Here is another of the ideas participants find most helpful in my Schulich School of Executive Education course Advanced Account Management and High-Yield Selling.

The Chunk Outline
How to decide what to say in any situation even with 5 minutes or less to prepare

You’ve all been there. The Big Client calls and wants an update right now, or you’re in a meeting and the accountant needs a status report you hadn’t counted on giving.

How do you pull your thoughts together so you sound polished, even though you are frantically rummaging through the drawers of your mind searching for the missing sock of last month’s numbers?

Our experience is that sounding prepared has less to do with content than it does with how your comments are structured.

In fact, when we test this in seminars with small business leaders, they always rate well-structured presentations, even those with weaker content, as more satisfying than those where the presenter rambles around tossing out stray facts as they occur to him.

Here’s the process.

Let’s assume you are in a meeting and someone asks you to expound on a topic you know reasonably well, but have not prepared. Ask for a minute to gather your thoughts (really! Junior people are afraid to appear unprepared. Senior people know they are, and take the time to get it right.)

1. You need an agenda of no more than 3 points. Always advance-organize      listeners with an agenda, even if you are only speaking for 5 minutes.      Never have an agenda with more than 3 items. We like the “What, So What,      Now What” approach. It sounds like this:

“I’ll cover where we are today, the implications and then the action plan”

“I’ll answer your question by reminding you of the situation and how we see its impact, and then I’ll share where we’re going with it.”

“Well we all know what’s going on, so let me quickly summarize our understanding and what we’ve learned, before I go over the action plan.”

You could use another organizing principle if it works better for you of course: national situation, local situation, next steps; past, present, where we go from here; what A said, what B said, what C said…in any case, the trick is to make the audience feel comfortable that you have a handle on the content so they can relax and listen.

2. For each agenda point, touch on no more than 3 to 5 key facts in the same      order as the agenda. Do not give in to the desire to teach everyone the      minutiae of the situation. They are not interested, and it will take too      long.
3. Summarize each agenda point. Say, “So, the key messages are …” in the same order      as the agenda.
4. Close by clearly recommending a course of action, and indicating what you      are prepared to do to make it successful. Say, “As a result, I am      recommending…and I am prepared to…if you will…”

The Chunk Outline Summarized

                                     

Chunk   1	Chunk   2	Chunk   3
Agenda 1   “What”	Agenda 2   “So What?”	Agenda 3   “Now What?”
Current Situation   Where we are now   Problem	Implications   Where we want to be   Alternatives	Indicated Action   How to get there   Solution
Body 1	Body 2	Body 3
3 – 5 points to   match the agenda	3 – 5 points to   match the agenda	3 – 5 points to   match the agenda
Summary
“So, the key   messages are …” in the order of the agenda.
Recommendation
“As a result, I am   recommending…and I am prepared to…if you will…”

 

Next time I’ll close this system with How Executives Make Decisions, the 6 heuristics senior managers use to decide what to do under pressure.

 

 

This made me just **@#$%! nuts

Oh okay, I've calmed down now.
I'm reading Stephen Fry's Paperweight ((Arrow, 470pp)- it's a collection of newspaper and magazine columns he wrote early in his career. This one is particularly apt for me this week:it's called Sock Fury, (he's lost one sock and then spill coffee all over the kitchen floor and it makes him ballistic) and in it he says,

What is so infuriating is the fact that I am incensed by two such nugatory, not to say trivial, hiccoughs in the life of one who generally speaking doesn't have much to kvetch about...If I tremble with rage at a mislaid gentleman's half-hose...what have I left in the emotion-back for genocidal injustice or universal peace?

Well exactly.
Last week as I was running to get the dog to the kennel and myself on the highway for a 2 hour drive to a client event, I popped into one of our local bakeries for some bread. Since I've been away more than I've been home this month, it was going to serve as breakfast and lunch. "This is today's bread, right?" I asked. "Yes, sure, absolutely," said the over-jolly guy behind the counter.
Well it wasn't. And it cost $3.50. And I was pissed and got a headache and a stiff neck and made up all kinds of exotic tortures to demonstrate the folly of lying to customers.
So, I get to the hotel. I won't tell you the name (call it the Comfort Inn) - cheap and cheerful just like my client. I turn on the TV.
To find a 24-hour free porn channel, right after the decorating network.
Now there's something about a very sharp close up of someone's naughty bits that's off-putting if you don't expect it, even if it's something we're all familiar with. Granted, there was no bestiality, and everyone was slim and very, very clean, but still...I'm cancelling all my future reservations with this hotel chain, writing to the President of the company and telling everyone I can think of about this non-advertised special.
Well, yeah, I watched it. A bit. But I didn't inhale.

Duct Tape Marketing Coaching Excellence Series starts Oct. 24th with Guy Kawaski

Mark your calendars today for an exciting series of live interviews with some of today's brightest stars in the world of business, marketing, publishing and innovation.

Each month I and my fellow coaches in the international Duct Tape Marketing network will bring you access to a celebrity guest interviewed live on line by small business marketing expert John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing.First on the list is Guy Kawaski.

Managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur magazine. Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start. Truemors wil be on the agenda 
October 25th, 2007 1 pm Eastern

Every small business owner will find inspiration, ideas, challenges and a new sense of purpose from listening to these amazingly successful business leaders.

These sessions are free to attend, but space is limited so enroll here now.

Future series participants include:

• John Battelle Nov. 15. Author of The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture and founder of Federated Media.
• Michael Gerber Dec. 7. Author of The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About
• Dr Ivan Misner, founder of BNI
• David Allen, author of Getting Things Done
• Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week
• Seth Godin, author of The Dip

To enroll in the series, enter your name and email here. You will automatically receive reminders and updates prior to each new session.

I wish I could write copy as well as Bill, the painter

I was on the phone with a Duct Tape Marketing client one day last month, while Bill, the guy who is painting my new house, was working in the hall outside my office.
"Hey Liz," he said as he was ripping off the last of the bubble-gum pink wallpaper border off the wall at the top of the stairs, "you're in business. You should come to my BNI group."
Well, I already knew about BNI, so at 6:30 on the next Wednesday morning Bill picked me up and was my host for the meeting. Turns out that pretty much everyone who works on my house is a member!
I'll talk about that some more in a later post, because you haven't seen anything till you've seen the Power Group these guys have put into action.
Anyway, back to Bill. Next meeting, it was his turn to do a longer presentation about his business. He was nervous, and he's not Mr. Slick marketer, but his presentation was riveting. Here's what he said:

Hi, I'm Bill. Well, hey, you guys already know that. Right now, I'm workin' on a big job. 600 windows, real little ones. So I've got to scrape 600 windows. Then fill all the missing or crappy grout. Then sand 600 windows. Then put base coat on 600 windows. Then paint 'em. How many? Right. 600. When I go home at night I'm grouchy and I hurt. My back is killin' me. But hey - I'm the one that's hurting, right?
Point is, I'm Bill Clark from Top to Bottom Painting. You need me, 'cause I take the pain out of painting.

Man, we could SEE the pain in that job - and we got the point. Don't do it yourself!
Anybody who knows about selling, presenting, or marketing will tell you the same thing: if you want people to know, like and trust you, start with a story.

What I have learned from the guys who fixed up my house

I've taken a huge step in my already-crowded life and moved to a small town in an area of Southern Ontario I don't know very well. Now instead of a 1930-'s era flat in the centre of a big city, I live in a house built around 1880, with a wrap-around porch, gingerbread trim and a garden. Nothing too grand, and for sure not the biggest house on the street, but charming and just the right size for me and the dog.

My office is on the second floor, and as I write this I have a view of the maple tree in my front yard, a gorgeous pinky-red that glows brilliantly on this rather gray day.

(The rain is preventing me from finishing painting the garage, but that's a whole other story.)

One of the first things I did when I moved here was to meet a  bunch of wonderful tradespeople. Many of you will not have had that experience - I sure have had less positive experiences in the past! You know, marketing and small business often gets awfully complicated, and I've appreciated the whack on the side of the head these guys have given me.

My really estate agent, Laura, introduced me to Mike, my home inspector. Mike introduced me to Bill the painter, Sheldon the HVAC guy, Mike (2) the handyman, Mike (3) the electrician and Doug the floor guy. The girls in the next chairs at the hairdresser recommended a vet, who introduced me to Angela the dog boarding person. Bill the painter invited me to the local BNI group where I met Ken the art director who is currently working on a project with me. Tina who works with Mike (3) found me Norm the plumber.

That's a fair amount of business  with a cost of sales of zero. and it all happened in under a month.

The work these guys have done is miraculous. They showed up when they said they would, did excellent work, shared the learning they had gained in over 20 years on the job, told me when I didn't need to bother doing something so I could save a little money.

Here's what I learned:

• A core value of small business owners in this town is counting on each other for referrals. Over and over, people have told me "we want to support each other."
• They are motivated to do good work:  their friends will know if they don't, and they don't let their friends down.
• Making referrals and then hearing how well the deal went is fun!
• They don't need to prove how good they are.  They don't sell.  They  don't seem hungry.  They talk about the job and what you, the customer, needs, not about themselves.
• They have all the work they want.

The secret weapon to create meaningful and relevant client relationships

The Six Highest-Rated Tools, Tips and Tricks (part four)

We’ve been sharing the ideas participants find most helpful in my Schulich School of Executive Education course Advanced Account Management and High-Yield Selling.

Here is another winner: Curiosity

Successful business owners are addicted to two really powerful hallucinogens: their own stuff, and being right. I've said it before - I've been addicted to both in the past, so I know what I’m talking about.

Here’s how it works: we spend hours working up a sales proposal, bolstered by our own expertise, facts, research and opinions from other smart people.

Maybe we spend more hours writing a document or the ubiquitous Death by PowerPoint presentation, with graphs, and exhibits. Perhaps two or three other people in our organization look at our work, give us their received wisdom, and we rewrite it maybe two-three times, more if it’s for a big contract.

Then we present it.

So let’s suppose someone in the audience at your presentation disagrees with you. Do we engage in a thoughtful exchange of views? Heck no! We argue the point with the customer, in effect telling him or her how wrong they are, and how right we are, because we have so much invested in our proposal we can’t give up being right.

When was the last time you spent a lot of money with someone who told you how wrong you were about your own business?

I’m with an old boss of mine who said, “Let’s be wrong all the way to the bank.”

Give up being right, and start focusing on winning the order. Here’s how: be curious! Don’t tell, ask. People do business with people they know, like and trust – and who better than someone who’s so interested in your point of view he or she gets you talking about it?

Here are some questions people have found provocative, enlightening, and winning:

Open-ended probes that earn you the right to probe further

General Probes:

· Run me through your thinking on this

· How did we get to these assumptions?

· Tell me more about how you (moved from these facts to your conclusions)

· When you said... did you mean...?

Issue Probes:

· What's the most significant issue you currently face?

· What would you like to accomplish with this (program, idea, information)?

· To what extent is (growth, budget, deadlines, staffing) important?

· What other challenges do you foresee?

Implication Probes

· How do you calculate (how much money being late is costing you)?

· How does (system downtime) affect (your customers)?

· What would happen if (worst case scenario)?

Closed ended probes that demonstrate your competence

Asking intelligent and relevant questions tells clients you offer a higher level of competence, credibility and value. Prove you are an expert the customer can trust by asking technically demanding questions

· If you compare the top 20% of your revenue and profit to the bottom 20%:

o What accounts for the top 20%? Your bottom 20%?

o How do your distribution and associated costs compare?

o How does the buyer for the top 20% differ from the buyer from the bottom 20%?

· Describe your cost structure for each segment

You’ve find good reading on this subject in Secrets of Question Based Selling by Thomas A. Freese.