Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business

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Creating exceptional value for customers should be the core of your sales, marketing, and growth strategy.

Word of mouth is the most powerful factor in buying decisions today. Whether it’s consumer or business to business, buyers want to know what your existing and past customers think of you. Increasingly, this word of mouth is taking place on the internet, whether on review sites, in chat groups, or on social media.

What others say about you is infinitely more influential than anything you say about yourself. That’s why the value and experience that you create for customers should be the absolute focus of your sales, marketing, and growth strategy. That’s how you become a customer magnet and attract new business to you.

Here are 5 keys to becoming a customer magnet:

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About the Author

Joe CallowayJoe Calloway is Executive in Residence at Belmont University’s Center for Entrepreneurship, and is the author of Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business.

2016: One Thing to Remember

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It’s here. The future. What will you do?

When I present to leaders the findings from our recent Future of Work Study, one slide draws the biggest Ahas.

Your Comfort ZoneThe next five years will be among the most disruptive in business, if not human, history. Everything you know, feel, and do will be Uber’d — you will experience massive disruptions that seem to come out of nowhere – disruptions that can uproot your entire businesses or industry before you’ve finished your morning cup of coffee.

To tackle those disruptions, most every major decision you’ll need to make during 2016 will be outside your comfort zone.

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About the Author

Bill JensenBill Jensen is CEO of the Jensen Group, a New Jersey-based change consulting firm, focused on the future of work. As Mr. Simplicity, Bill makes it easier for people to do great work. His eighth book, Future Strong, is on sale now. Follow him on Twitter @simpletonbill.

Finding A Prospect vs. Creating A Prospect

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You place a call to get through to the decision maker.
You call to find someone who needs your product or service.
You try to get an appointment.
You analyze names to prospect based on demographics, company size, job title.

You’re Playing A Numbers Game

You’re trying to find those 10 leads out of 100 that will even consider a conversation in which you can possibly place your solution – and then you’ll close 5 of them if you’re lucky. But a prospect is someone who WILL buy, not someone who SHOULD buy. Unless a buyer is

  • sitting and waiting for your call,
  • seeking an external provider AND need one at that exact moment,
  • already convinced that none of their vendors or colleagues can manage the problem for them,

they will ignore or reject your outreach. You’re seeking a prospect who needs YOUR solution NOW. But what if they are buyers? What if you merely need to help them take the right steps that enable them to buy?

When you’re just calling to ‘get your foot in the door’ or get someone to talk so you can ‘ask a few questions’, or just to ‘educate’ or make an appointment, the only people who will respond are those already seeking a different solution than the one they’ve got in place now – the low hanging fruit. And off you go, merrily trying to convince, manipulate, or influence, finding the best way to get your solution sold. Yet by the time they’ve taken your call, you’re already in a competitive situation.

Those Who Won’t Speak To You Need You

But what about all of the others – the 90%+ who won’t speak to you? Do they not need your solution? Of course they do. But your approach precludes them buying anything. Those who are not speaking with you

  1. don’t want an appointment, or see the need for an appointment, or see the need to do anything different (regardless of whether they have a need or not);
  2. may have a recognized need but are getting push back from other stakeholders and don’t know how to manage whatever issues would face change once a different solution is brought in;
  3. may have a need but have not yet decided to use an external resource rather than a known vendor;
  4. have buying patterns different from your selling patterns and don’t like your approach even though they like/need your solution.

By focusing on finding a prospect who will hear you discuss your solution, willing to spend time to see you, or is willing to offer you data about their status quo, you are eliminating over 90% of those folks who could buy from you (regardless of whether you are selling a service or a product). And keeping yourself in a competitive situation.

People buy something when they cannot resolve a business problem AND they have gotten appropriate buy-in from those folks and departments who will be involved with a new solution (stakeholders – usually unknown to sellers) AND whose buying patterns match a seller’s selling patterns (Remember telemarketing? Their solutions were fine – it was their selling patterns that were problematic.).

People do not buy because you’ve got a great solution or a shining personality. The last thing buyers need is a new solution. They merely want a well-functioning system (culture, company, group). Buyers must have answers to these questions before they can consider bringing in a new solution (regardless of their need, the efficacy of your solution, or your delightful approach):

  • How will folks know that bringing in something new could add to what they are already doing and offer minimal disruption?
  • How can buyers be assured that a new solution will work with their current solution in a way that will cause minimal change management issues?
  • What sort of change issues would come up when your solution is implemented, and how does that effect the group, the company, the stability of the company policies and relationships?
  • How do buyers go about ensuring that everyone who must be on the Buying Decision Team (everyone – even those not obvious) is on board and able to add their 2cents to the discussion?

Needs Aren’t Defined Until All Stakeholders Define Them

Buyers must know the answers to these questions. Their decision to purchase goes well beyond what you might consider a ‘need:’ They need to manage these Pre-Sales problems with you or without you, and the sales model – a solution placement model – does not offer the real consulting expertise that addresses this. And the time it takes them to accomplish this is the length of the sales cycle.

When you first speak with a receptionist or a manager, they have no idea what the full extent of, or how to manage, these internal change and buy-in issues. Nor can they understand the parameters of their need: a the need can’t be defined until all relevant stakeholders define it.

To get in earlier, to become a real Trusted Advisor, to help buyers facilitate all of their necessary Pre Sales buy-in/change management issues and help them down the path that leads to purchasing your solution, add a new job to your sales activity: help buyers recognize and manage all of the internal issues they must address. Because until or unless they do, they will take no action to do anything different.

I’ve developed a model called Buying Facilitation® that works with the sales model to first find the exact right prospects and facilitate their Pre-Sales activities on your first call. Instead of seeking the low-hanging fruit – trying to find prospects at the moment they are ready or think they have defined their need – start off by helping prospects determine what excellence will look like and how to get their entire Buying Decision Team assembled. Remember: they won’t even understand the full extent of their needs until they do. So help them. It’s not about needs. It’s not about your solution. It’s about finding the prospects who WILL buy, rather than those you think SHOULD buy.

About the Author

Sharon Drew Morgen is a visionary, original thinker, and thought leader in change management and decision facilitation. She works as a coach, trainer, speaker, and consultant, and has authored 9 books including the NYTimes Business BestsellerSelling with Integrity. Morgen developed the Buying Facilitation® method (www.sharondrewmorgen.com) in 1985 to facilitate change decisions, notably to help buyers buy and help leaders and coaches affect permanent change. Her newest book What? www.didihearyou.com explains how to close the gap between what’s said and what’s heard. She can be reached at [email protected]

Mike Purcell Joins StrategyDriven Power & Utilities Advisory Services Practice

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StrategyDriven is proud to welcome Mike Purcell as a StrategyDriven Advisory Services Senior Advisor. A highly experienced nuclear power consultant, Mike joins StrategyDriven’s Power & Utilities Advisory Services practice.
 

“We are thrilled to have Mike join our StrategyDriven Advisor Services Team,” said Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Advisory Services Practice Leader. “Increasing demand for clean, affordable electricity combined with an aging infrastructure, retiring workers, growing regulations, rising capital costs, and intensifying budget pressures challenge utility executives and managers now more than ever. We are fortunate to have an industry professional of Mike’s caliber to help our Power & Utility clients meet these challenges. His hands-on knowledge and experience in performance improvement, regulatory inspection readiness, license renewals, and power uprates will be a great asset to our team”

Mike Purcell Joins StrategyDriven Power & Utilities Advisory Services PracticeFor decades, Mike has served in senior leadership roles within the Power & Utilities Industry. His experience includes within the nuclear oversight, quality assurance, engineering, licensing, performance benchmarking and improvement, training, leadership development, and change management functions. Mike also possesses extensive regulatory and licensing experience including inspection readiness activities for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) IP95001, 95002, and 95003 inspections, baseline inspections, license amendments, fire protection program inspections and implementation, license renewals, and extended power uprate activities.

Prior to becoming a management consultant, Mike held numerous influential positions at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), leading nuclear oversight, engineering, and training functions as well as performance improvement initiatives including:

  • Senior Manager, Nuclear Oversight – responsible for performance of the quality control and quality assurance functions and providing oversight of day-to-day plant activities important to nuclear station safety and security
  • Senior Fleet Licensing Manager – led a diverse and geographically distributed team of licensing professionals responsible for all licensing activities associated with TVA’s fleet of six nuclear reactors
  • Senior Manager, Training and Development – successfully integrated the training and development functions across TVA into a single high-performing organization providing pipeline and continuing technical training programs; supervisory, employee, and leadership development; regulatory / compliance training; and organizational effectiveness / culture change programs and initiatives
  • Nuclear Plant Organizational Effectiveness Assessments – participated on teams of highly experienced utility professionals in the performance evaluation of four nuclear plants in the area of organizational effectiveness and safety culture
  • Regulatory Assistance / Recovery Initiatives – Supported multiple Mock NRC Inspection Assessments using NRC Supplemental Inspection Manual Chapters 95001, 95002, and 95003
  • Performance Improvement through Employee Engagement Initiatives – Led employee engagement/process & performance improvement initiatives at the Sequoyah and Watts Bar Nuclear plants in order to identify solutions to close the $30 million gap in operations and maintenance (O&M) costs and increase generation

Mike further shaped the Nuclear Industry’s performance through his involvement with industry groups including:

  • INPO Organizational Effectiveness Industry Peer and New Nuclear Oversight Manager course mentor
  • Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and EUCG Peer Advisor

Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee Technical University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is a licensed as a Professional Engineer by the State of Tennessee.

Click here to read Mike’s complete biography. Mike can be contacted at [email protected].

Free Tech Tools for the Digital Economy

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StrategyDriven Tools for Professionals ArticleWhether you are a veteran of technological sophistication, just beginning one’s career in IT or technical communication, or even a novice player in the digital economy, there are many free technologies that can be used to complement, enhance, and simplify one’s technical tasks, business processes, documentation, as well as enrich and restructure workflows. These free tech tools can be directly applied in a work role or used simply to build one’s creative and technical skills. Furthermore, as technical, analytical, and even customer service work roles become more competitive, the catch-22 for those just entering the workforce is: no one will hire an individual without experience, but one cannot gain experience if no one will hire her or him. While having the right education is an essential asset in today’s cutthroat job market, it can become difficult to obtain a position without experience using various applications and technologies that enhance and amplify one’s resume. However, by just tinkering with some free technologies, one can add to her or his resume new technical skills and experience, and put one just a step above the rest in the competition for a position. More applicably, using these technologies will develop one’s technological skills, methodological knowledge, and subject matter experience, which is an asset to one’s career. Put these four technologies in your tech toolbox.

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About the Author

Jessica Lynn CampbellJessica Lynn Campbell is Marketing Coordinator for EnableSoft, the company that creates Robotic Process Automation technologies. She has a Master’s in English-Technical Communication and a Bachelor’s in Psychology. Jessica is an expert and experienced technical communicator, author, and multi-media manager having been published on multiple media platforms including print and online. She is skilled in APA, MLA, Chicago, and Bluebook citation styles. EnableSoft creates and develops the leading Robotic Process Automation technology, Foxtrot. Having more than 20 years of experience advancing and innovating Foxtrot, over 500 organizations have adopted EnableSoft’s Robotic Process Automation technology in order to increase their efficiency, productivity, profitability, and human-capital. Jessica can be reached at [email protected].