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January 2, 2015 by Brett 2 Comments

Influence through Appreciation

Appreciation and Leadership

One of the quickest ways to connect with someone is to appreciate him.

Appreciate where he is coming from. Sincerely appreciate her perspective. Acknowledge and appreciate his contribution.

From the most sensitive personality to the most high-charging go-getter, sincere appreciation is… appreciated.

By pinpointing where someone has made an impact, that person will be naturally encouraged to continue to make the same impact and perhaps make the impact more deeply.

We’ve all had the experience of being thanked or acknowledged for what we do and, as a result, focus additional effort on doing that thing better or more consistently.

Quality leaders get it. Leaders who consistently and verbally acknowledge solid work and pinpoint someone’s most effective contributions get more of those contributions.

It happens at work, at home, in volunteer settings.

Appreciation and Sales

Are sales and marketing efforts any different? Can we influence people who we hope to serve through our product or service via sincere appreciation (we won’t get into hair-splitting about sincere vs. insincere appreciation – we all know the difference)?

In sales, will my appreciation of a prospect’s contribution result in a greater likelihood of closing a deal?

On the surface, honestly, perhaps not. If we simply tell our potential client that he has done a bang-up job as a leader in his organization, this might smack of flattery at worse or basic rapport-building at best.

But dig into the definition of ‘appreciation’:

Understanding and fully recognizing all the implications or a certain situation.

Here we find something that can be very useful on a sales and marketing level: If we fully understand and appreciate the implications of a potential client’s decision to work with us and buy our product or service vs. using a competitors, then how more complete will our solutions and our sales process be?

When we appreciate our key contact’s internal corporate relationships, the economics of their decisions, and their current vendor relationships, we should do a better job at building out proposals that make change both attractive and easier for our prospect. We’ll also be more thorough in our sales process in order to gain the correct commitments to move the relationship forward.

When we appreciate more deeply our client’s situation, we move from being enamored of our benefits and features to being willing to walk a mile in our prospect’s shoes, to go to bed considering what keeps our prospect up at night.

When we start taking on our prospects’ concerns, we gain insight that goes beyond our own offering.

We can influence through appreciating someone’s contribution. We can bring change by appreciating someone’s circumstances.

[Tweet “We can influence through appreciating someone’s contribution. We can bring change by appreciating someone’s circumstances.”]

Consider how, today, you can acknowledge and appreciate a colleague’s contribution. And consider also how you can acknowledge and appreciate a potential client’s situation.

What can you do to encourage both to make the improvements that you see is possible? 

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Today’s reading of How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie influenced this post.

Filed Under: Leadership Experiments, Marketing Experiments, Mindset Experiments, Sales Experiments Tagged With: appreciation, dale carnegie, how to win friends and influence people, influence, leadership, sales influence

November 11, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

Do Not Pass the Buck

I wanted to tell a story about how I did not pass the buck today. Given the nature of my business, it’s hard to figure out what wise disclosure on a blog might be, so we’ll just say that I passed the test and didn’t pass the buck.

It would have been easy to brush this situation under the rug. And I could have allowed someone else to unknowingly bear the brunt of the blame, but I didn’t.

I’m not saying this to brag and show off about how full of character I am. We all have strengths in our character. We all have weaknesses. Thankfully, at work, I’ve worked hard at being willing to take responsibility when I’ve fouled up. And it’s ever so tempting to pass the buck, to shew the blame on down the line.

There are a billion ways to pass the buck.

  • We can blame colleagues
  • We can blame our busy-ness
  • We can blame clients
  • We can blame the computer system or the ridiculous barrage of emails in my inbox.
  • We can blame the systems or the processes
  • We can always blame management. They’re always fouling up, no?

One thing I’ve had to put my foot down about at work is this: I’d rather be fired after admitting to having made a bad decision or screwed up on a task than develop the reputation for never taking responsibility.

This position on taking responsibility was affirmed today when I listened to Michael Hyatt’s podcast: Why Accountability is Vital for Leaders. I’ve heard the good Mr. Hyatt mention the importance of leaders taking responsibility many times.

Perfection isn’t possible, so why pretend like we never screw up?

If we fess up, then we’re teachable. If we’re teachable and hardworking, then we’ll improve or we’ll figure out we simply need to move on.

Taking responsibility – being accountable – for our performance helps a quality leader or manager uncover our weaknesses (even if we’re our own manager or leader). If we constantly gloss over our screw-ups, then we won’t give opportunity for teachable moments and growth.

Taking responsibility is vital not only to being a leader, but for growing.

I recently lost an opportunity to a competitor. It would have been easy to blame the situation and circumstances, circumstances that were beyond my control. My contact passed the decision regarding my potential proposal to a colleague. The colleague had a friend who offered the same services I do. The colleague’s friend got the business.

I could blame them for not giving me a fair shake, but that wouldn’t teach me a dang thing.

The better approach is to ask the right questions.

  • What could I have done differently?
  • Did I clarify well enough who the decision-makers were?
  • Did I trust my relationship with my main point of contact too much?
  • Did I provide enough value in my initial appointments?

Passing the buck shields us from having to stare at ourselves in the mirror and face our imperfections.

Taking responsibility? That sucks for a few moments, but it creates opportunities for growth and learning.

Where you do you tend to pass the buck? Where do you struggle with taking responsibility?

(Leave a response in the comments)

Until tomorrow…

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Reading and Listening (in addition to the Hyatt podcast mentioned above)

Grow Your Social Media Following with These 10 Different Kinds of Posts – This is Your Life (Podcast) with Michael Hyatt & Michele Cushatt

My Top Ten Favorite Books of All Time – This is Your Life (Podcast) with Michael Hyatt & Michele Cushatt

See You at the Top – Zig Ziglar

Links to Amazon.com are affiliate links. In other words, if you click and buy, then I get a commission. This is very much appreciated if you find any value in this blog. 

 

Filed Under: Leadership Experiments, Mindset Experiments, Sales Experiments Tagged With: leadership, michael hyatt, passing the buck, podcast, taking responsibility, zig ziglar

October 15, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

Ask Good Questions

Ask Good Questions

Become a Leader by Asking Good questions

Few tools are more effective for salespeople than a good set of questions.

In truth, everybody benefits from being inquisitive because everybody loves talking about themselves.

You ask questions and people love you.

You ask questions and you learn what problems need to be solved.

And if you learn to ask good questions, there’s no better networking tool and no better way to grab some mentoring by leaders you respect. Leaders appreciate learners.

Today I listened to Michael Hyatt’s This Is Your Life podcast, “Twenty Questions to Ask Other Leaders.”

Hyatt and his cohost Michele Cushatt talked about the importance of asking good questions, especially when you have the good fortune of being around a leader.

I used the list of 20 questions they offer in their podcast’s show notes for an interview I had with an industry leader today.

I actually think it would be a great exercise to ask yourself these 20 questions. If you’re a blogger, then it would make a great series of posts. If you’re a salesperson, it would make a great way to mine your knowledge of your target niche.

Regardless, develop a solid battery of questions for your normal business situations. How can you dig into others’ knowledge, concerns, wisdom on a regular basis? Could you imagine the potential growth in your career or effectiveness if you learn to ask questions that others aren’t asking?

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Today’s Reading and Listening

Duct Tape Selling by John Jantsch

Episode 8: Twenty Questions to Ask Other Leaders – Michael Hyatt and Michele Cushatt, This is Your Life Podcast

Episode 9: Slay Your Dragons Before Breakfast So They Don’t Eat Your Lunch – Michael Hyatt and Michele Cushatt, This is Your Life Podcast 

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This blog is a response to Dan Miller’s unintentional challenge from his podcast on August 15, 2014: If you read or listen to 30 minutes of quality content a day, you’ll double your income. 

From September 1, 2014 through March 1, 2015, I will be doing the following:

  1. Listening or reading to 30 minutes of success, growth, business, spiritual, or other mindset-shifting, skill-sharpening content.
  2. Selecting one action item from that content (with some leeway to select an action from a previous day’s content).
  3. Doing that one action.
  4. Writing about the action or some other idea from the reading and listening of the day.

 

 

Filed Under: Content Creation Experiments, Leadership Experiments, Sales Experiments Tagged With: asking good questions, duct tape selling, john jantsch, leadership, michael hyatt, michele cushatt, questions, this is your life podcast

Hello!

Brett the sales experimenter and the challenge accepter Brett - Sales and Marketing Experimenter. I'm a reluctant sales professional. I didn't start out my career in sales and marketing, but I've grown to enjoy it. Here I discuss marketing, sales, productivity, and mindset experiments that will hopefully yield greater results and a more deeply satisfying sales career.

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