Ideas for profitable
communication
by Baruch ter Wal
Time to nod
August 23rd, 2011
Here’s a new metric to assess your sales material.
Every good sales guy knows that if he can get the prospect nodding, the deal is just about done. That’s why good salesmen nod so much when they’re talking to you – it’s infectious.
Your sales material should also be moving you closer to a deal. Question: How much reading does it take before a prospective customer (or partner, or investor) is nodding? I call this ‘time to nod’, or TTN (because all metrics must be abbreviated). If your TTN is more than 10 seconds, you’re in trouble.
There are lots of ways to get a nod. It doesn’t have to be a communication of your complete value proposition. Empathetic statements work well. “Most business owners find moving poor staff on to be a huge challenge.” You can do old-school questions: “Does the time required to resolve bugs in this environment exceed three days?” A great diagram that sums up the customer’s current situation is another good technique.
What you’re doing is demonstrating your familiarity with their situation, and also your expertise.
Get them nodding with points like these, and you make it easier to get a nod when you show them how your service takes the pain away.
You knew all of this already, right? Even so, go look at your website and brochures and measure your TTN. Then start editing.
The, ahem, 3 secrets to successful business-to-business communication :-)
January 21st, 2010
Self knowledge; customer insight; design thinking.
- Self knowledge. This is about truth. What does your business truly do better than anyone else? (BTW: that means now, not what you will be the best at, or hope to be the best at.) Narrow the scope until you find it. Ideally it will be something you are also passionate about.
- Customer insight. Who are the people and organisations most in need of the thing you’re best at? What do they currently believe about their needs? What do they currently believe about your ability to meet their needs? (Hint: it won’t be the same as what you believe).
- Design thinking. On a blank piece of paper, paint the world’s most compelling and truthful picture outlining why those customers (with those beliefs) need what you have to offer.
If you’re 100% committed to these three steps, I will always be happy to talk to you with the meter off. Not before 10am though.
Make it stick
November 25th, 2009
Last night, Bart Simpson came to me in a dream. He said I needed to jump across a small chasm.
(“Small chasm” might be an oxymoron, but it was a dream, OK?) It was only 2 metres wide, but it was really, really deep. Parts of me shrunk with fear as I looked down. I could make it across. But the fear of slipping and falling kept me from attempting the jump.
I think that’s how we are with a lot of things in business. Once we’ve made the leap (invested in a new hire, switched to new systems, ditching a shrinking market) we kick ourselves for not doing it sooner.
What I actually want to talk about, though, is Chip and Dan Heath’s book, “Made to Stick”. It’s fabulous. They’ve got a great framework, under the acronym SUCCESs, for making messages memorable and impactful. We know most of it, but once again it’s about the discipline of applying what we know.
- The first S stands for Simple (a core idea: making the obvious leap can still be scary).
- The U is for Unexpected (Bart Simpson is an unusual way to start a blog post).
- The first C is for Concrete (2 metres wide, parts of me shrank).
- The E is for Emotional (fear).
- The last S is for Stories (Last night…).
The second C is for Credible. Maybe I’ll replace Bart Simpson with Yoda…
I’ve got you pegged
November 9th, 2009
I know that if you talk fast, dress in a business-like manner, and quickly get to the point that you hate people who sit on the fence and will judge me by my track record.
Here’s the full table, simplified and adapted from conversations with the experts at RogenSi.
If you weren’t aware of models like this, now you are. There are many more. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm
If you’ve known about these tools for some time, ask yourself: “How often do I apply them in my interactions with clients and prospects?”
Most sales people revert to their own style. Analytical thinkers will provide lots of detail and focus on process – even if they are boring their Expressive client to death.
Just as common are so-called “experts” who will tell you to lose the detail and cut down the word count in all situations. If your audience in an Analytical one (like a majority of lawyers, systems analysts and financial controllers) you’ve just sunk your battleship.
Another interesting trick is to talk to all the styles at once on the same piece of paper. I’ll leave that for another post.
