In which we are urged to develop a decisive, clear specialty in our markets to draw more referrals.

I went to a family wedding Saturday night.   Second marriages for both bride and groom, each having lost spouses to illness a few years ago, so this was a very special night to celebrate. Yay for them!

After the brief, heart-felt ceremony in the golden-orangey late afternoon sun,   we moved inside for dinner and dancing. … three generations of dancers – the bride and groom, their 20 year old to 40 year old children, and their children, supported by assorted friends of bride and groom.

The DJ did a great job with song selection, appropriate for the average age of people in the room. When he played The Beatles Twist and Shout after we’d been on the dance floor about thirty minutes, my son unkindly observed this song was coming a little earlier in the evening than usual, perhaps acknowledging that many of us would want to be home and in bed by 10:30 pm.

There were younger legs, however.  Two of the grandchildren, ages six and ten, entertained the crowd at several points, he with enthusiastic if occasionally wobbly break dancing, she with an upside down back-bendy crab-like affair. When the music hit a particular rhythm and rumble, out they’d come. The crowd would separate to give them room and cheer them on.  But only for that certain music rhythm and only those moves.  After a while, we learned when to expect them.

In prospecting land, we might call this “establishing an identity” in the market.

One of the critical elements of developing a flow of business from one’s network is to establish an identity with a clear advantage relative to other providers.

For example, “Bob Briggs is the estate planning guy if you own a business.”  Or “See Mary Smith if you want a commercial mortgage on a medical building.”  Or “Pat Andretti is THE person if you want a banker who will take care of your family the old fashioned way.”

So, like my break dancing and back-breaking wedding dancers, it’s good to have a specialty – it attracts attention, recognition, appreciation… and, ultimately, recommendations.

We can ask ourselves now, and again later, and again after that:  In what situations do we want to be the ‘go to people’ for our referral networks? What is our specialty? What do we want to be known for?

In which we are reminded to assess potential conversation partners before we barge in.

Cambridge, Massachusetts. Saturday night. Dinner time.

I descended four flights of stairs in the Eliot Street parking garage, through the sticky sweet cloud of some poor undergraduate’s over-applied cologne, and out the door to John F. Kennedy Street, headed to meet my wife at Yen Ching for a quick bite before the Back Bay Chorale’s performance of Carmina Burana at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater. In other words, a pretty good night ahead.

As I walked, I felt the light sprinkle of rain drops on my face – the promised all-day rain just beginning at dinner time. “Great!,” I delighted, softly,  to myself. “We need the rain.”

I reached the corner of JFK Street and Mount Auburn Street. As I crossed JFK Street, I noticed a college-aged woman in shorts and tee-shirt standing, waiting to cross Mount Auburn.  Her head was tilted slightly back, her face to the sky, eyes half closed, smiling.

“You danced for rain, and now it’s coming,” I said to her, somewhat softly.

She turned to me and smiled. “Yes, I love the rain,” she said. “Didn’t dance and I love the rain.”  She smiled again.

“Taking a break from finals?”  I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Almost finished.”

We crossed the street together and talked about her exams and her academic concentration as we walked for about thirty yards, when she said goodbye and peeled off into a take-out place.  Maybe she was hungry, maybe she’d had enough of me, not sure.  Either way, a delightful, brief conversation.

My son the sports fan once shared with me the secret of a good offensive strategy in football. “Take what the defense is giving you,” he said.  “No defense is perfect.  Where ever they are, there’s somewhere they ain’t”  Or words to that effect.

The same with approaching complete strangers on the street, at conferences, wherever.

To some extent, they all have defenses up, they (none of them) really WANT to talk to people who are selling stuff and at some times  the defenses are stronger than at others.  But wherever they are, there’s somewhere they ain’t, and we can open conversations by taking what their defenses are giving us.

In the case of my brief friend on JFK street, she was giving me “I love the rain” as a way to start conversation.  I can think of a dozen other things I could have said (e.g. “Nice evening,” or “I like your shirt” or “Finished with exams?”)  that might have triggered her defenses and caused her to run, ignore me, or glare at me. So, I took what her defenses were giving me:  her love of rain.

Whoever it is that we want to meet at conferences or Chamber of Commerce meetings, for example, a little study of them before the meeting or during the meeting (i.e. overhearing a conversation they’re having with someone else) will help us understand where they “are” and where they “ain’t.” Look at: What they’re wearing, who they’re hanging out with, what they’re talking about.

Take what their defenses are giving. Start conversation there.

Nick Miller, president of the bank sales consulting and training firm Clarity Advantage, discusses how to have successful conversations with lawyers in the company’s latest sales training video aimed at helping business bankers accelerate their sales results.

With their need for escrow services, cash management and treasury management solutions, and credit and financing, law firms represent a highly lucrative target market for banks.  To help business bankers meet lawyers and have more productive conversations around their financial challenges and needs, bank sales consulting and training firm Clarity Advantage recently released a video entitled Prospecting Strategies: Approaching Lawyers.

In the video, Clarity Advantage President Nick Miller gives business bankers a conversation guide, which includes specific questions for probing into lawyers’ revenue and expense challenges. “Asking questions like ‘Where do you see your best opportunities for new clients and growth?’ and ‘What is your strategy to reduce your costs and expenses?’ help a banker dig into the business issues lawyers face,” says Miller. “When bankers understand the issues, they can recommend the right bank solutions.”

Prospecting Strategies: Approaching Lawyers is one in a series of educational videos produced by Clarity Advantage aimed at helping business bankers increase their sales results. To access the video series, visit Clarity Advantage’s video library.

About Clarity Advantage: Bank sales consulting and training firm Clarity Advantage helps banks clarify, implement, and execute sales strategies to generate more profitable relationships, faster, with small and medium-sized companies, their owners, and employees, working with branch, field sales, and call center sales team members. The company also assists banks to attract and expand relationships with individuals and families. Visitors to Clarity’s website, http://www.clarityadvantage.com, can subscribe to “The Weekly Sales Thought,” a free eNewsletter and podcast focused on business-to-business sales techniques and sales management.

Contact:

Karen Tunks

Clarity Advantage

980-939-2112

karen.tunks@clarityadvantage.com

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In which we are reminded that it’s our job to create reasons to talk and possibilities for action.

More than once past decades, I have asked a motionless teenager: ‘What are you going  to do this afternoon?’

The leaden one replies, ‘I don’t know…………. I can’t think of anything.’

I’ve learned this is an accurate response. A thick fog has descended on the child’s brain, rendering thought impossible. It’s the kid’s job to come up with something.  Only the kid can break out of the fog.

Segue to: A story from a friend.

A banker called one of my friends. ‘John, this is Bill Smith. I’m the branch manager with [large well known bank]. I just wanted to call and introduce myself. We’re building a new branch in your area. I thought if we could talk, I might be able to figure out if there’s anything we could do for you. I look forward to hearing back from you.’

My friend John’s question to me: ‘Why on earth would I call the guy back?’

A great question. Our recommendation to the branch manager: Make an offer! Create some reason for a conversation.

“But,” might sputter said branch manager: “I am a branch manager.  We are going to build a new branch near John’s location.  But my bank doesn’t have any special offer.  There’s no ‘for the next 30 days,’ no special CD rates … We’re just a pretty solid bank with lots of very happy customers and we want John to be one of them.”

It’s the same fog. ‘What are you going to say to your prospects to pique their interest in talking to you this afternoon?’

‘I don’t know….. I can’t think of anything.’

This is the beauty in and the lesson from Professor Harold Hill in Meredith Wilson’s, ‘The Music Man.’

Hill arrives in River City, Iowa, a peddler of band instruments. On his arrival, there is no need for, no interest in, and no hurry to buy band instruments. Everything is fine.

Hill needs a way to start a conversation. He surveys the town. Learning that there’s a pool hall in town (something he didn’t know when he arrived), he reaches out to the fears and doubts of the upstanding River City citizens and CREATES a reason for conversation and action:

“Either you are closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge, or you are unaware of the caliber of disaster brought about by the presence of a pool table in your town. Well, you’ve got trouble, my friends…”

Back to our branch manager. New in town. New branch. No need for, no interest in, and no hurry to talk to a new bank branch. Everything is fine.

It’s the branch manager’s job (and his/her District Manager’s job)  to follow Harold Hill’s example, to survey the situation, to CREATE something, impending trouble or rising opportunity, to begin conversation.

It doesn’t have to be a ‘killer reason’ that prompts a ‘We have to meet right now’ response from prospects. The idea is, simply, to start a conversation.

They could take Professor Hill’s ‘you got trouble’ approach:   “Interest rates are rising, you should act now. Credit is still tight, we’re offering a free cash flow management analysis to identify ways to conserve cash.  Health care costs are rising, we’ve invited an expert speaker to talk about health care cost management.”

Or they could ask a question, something as simple as, ‘We’re  new in town, our branch is new,  we’re getting to know the business people in the community, and we wanted to ask you a question: ‘What do you see as the top three business priorities in town now?’’

Branch manager and town person talk for a few minutes. Branch manager says goodbye. Branch manager calls each person back two weeks later: ‘Thanks for speaking with me two weeks ago, I wondered if you’d like to hear a summary of what I heard?’  ‘You would?  Great, may I come out to visit next week?’

Even if we have exactly the same products as the other banks in town, we have CREATED a new conversation. There’s now a possibility.

In which we are encouraged to pick interim targets to guide our pace through each sales period.

A spirit lifting, cloudless spring Saturday morning in Cambridge, MA. Notwithstanding the 42 degree start, the morning warmed quickly as I made my way to the Cumnock Field sidelines at Harvard University to watch the students we know on the Harvard Men’s Club Soccer team play their counterparts from Boston University.

The game was even until, mid-way through the first half, Harvard’s defense allowed a BU player to slip through the middle, unmarked, and beat Harvard’s goal keeper easily. A little time passed and then (unbelieveably) BU’s goal keeper attempted to clear a routine ball by kicking it (rather than picking it up); he missed, the ball rolled into the net, score tied.

As the game continued,  Harvard’s offense was ineffective and the defense sagged again, allowing BU’s right wing to turn the corner toward goal, shoot, and score from a tight angle.

However, as we reached the last ten minutes of the game, the Harvard men roused themselves, attacking the BU goal ferociously.  Harvard’s ‘never smiles’ center midfielder took a shot in heavy traffic from about 20 yards out. GOOOOOAAAAAL!   Score tied.

Harvard’s attack continued. A free kick from 25 yards clanged off the cross bar.  Harvard pounded the BU offense from all angles, largely keeping the ball in BU’s end of the field for the last seven minutes.  BU’s keeper stopped multiple shots from close range and then… time ran out.

Harvard lost in penalty kicks, 5 – 3.  Bummer.

After asking ourselves, “How could they miss penalty kicks like that at this level?”, the fans then wondered,  “Where was this intensity and offense in the first sixty minutes of this game?”

Good question. Unanswerable.

We know that maintaining peak intensity for entire games or sales years is VERY challenging.  Sales people, like soccer players, tire physically and mentally.

I recall another game in which another team was behind four goals at half time in a tournament game.  The coach gathered his players at half-time and said, “I need one goal every seven minutes, gentlemen.  That’s all you have to do. One goal every seven minutes.”  And, somehow, they did it, almost to the minute, winning 5 – 4.

The coach set the pace for the team.  Seven minutes, one goal. Next seven minutes, another goal.

We have choices about how we manage our practices. We can take the ‘high risk’ pound-‘em-at-the-end approach or we can take the “one goal, seven minutes” approach,  setting interim goals for sales activities and outcomes  that help us maintain a more even level of intensity and offensive production through the game.

Experience suggests that “maintaining the even strain” gets the nod.

In which we are reminded to drip feed our inactive prospects routinely.

Last Saturday was “Opening Day” at our house near Boston  – spring grass and garden opening day, to be specific.  Not as green or grand as Fenway Park Opening Day… and Opening Day, nevertheless. We removed deer netting from rhododendrons, cleared leaves from bushes, raked grass where needed, spread lime and fertilizer, etc. etc. etc.

Within a few weeks,  as daytime temperatures rise, we’ll clear and test the drip irrigation hoses that distribute water on a programmed schedule to the driveway wild flower beds, the major bushes in front of the house, the juniper bushes to the side, and the vegetable garden at the top of the hill.

We found, after our first growing season in the house, that hand watering the junipers and a wide array of wild flowers (they get full afternoon sun and they’re particularly sensitive) was a fool’s errand.  There are so many, we couldn’t take the time for individualized attention to each of them and, we discovered, they didn’t need individual attention, they just needed attention. Thus, the timers and hoses so we could be confident that the wild flowers would be watered and healthy.

Same thing with “wild flowers” we meet at events or meetings.  We capture their names in Outlook or SalesForce or what-have-you.  We triage them, as best we can, into categories, e.g. “referral source,” “immediate prospect,” and “contact.”

We spring into action with the “referral sources” and “immediate prospects.”  Typically, there are a few of them and we can tend to them individually.

The challenge is, what do we do with the several dozen or several hundred “contacts” we meet and accumulate.

And the answer is: Programmed drip irrigation!

At our house, we went simple. We learned  by experience to program  “all flowers, every couple of days” drip irrigation during the hottest part of the summer.

In our sales world,  irrigation programs can be simple (“every ‘contact’ in the data base gets the Quarterly Business Review every three months”) or complex (“surgical practices with less than 7 docs receive  the Business Review quarterly, a health care law update every six months….” etc.) based on the extent to which we segment our contacts (by size, industry, growth rates, etc.), the sophistication of our contact management software,  and our time or the support we get from others to maintain the data base, trigger the communications, and so on.

At minimum, we recommend irrigating every “wild flower” contact  to which we’re not paying individualized attention at least quarterly. They may not need individual attention. They just need attention.

In which we are reminded to play territory management carefully lest we get lost in abundance.

We’d started our Italian Caper in Florence. Easter Sunday. Spectacular. During our four Florence days, we viewed dozens of paintings and statues and fragments in the the Duomo and Duomo museum, The Basilica Santa Croce, The Basilica Santa Maria Novella, The Loge – fabulous statues next to the Palazzo Vecchio, The Accademia – yes, the David statue is still there, with Michelangelo’s “Prisoners” statues, and the Uffizi…

…which, it turns out, began as a statue museum. In fact, after one climbs the four flights of stairs to reach the museum, one is immediately in the midst of a 75 yard long hallway FILLED with ancient statues collected by Lorenzo the Magnificent and later expanded by Cosimo I in the late sixteenth century. VERY exciting… our first moments in one of the greatest museums in Europe … we turned to study the first statue… and then the second… and the third… and the fourth….and the fifth…. so many to see…

On Day 4, we said goodbye Florence, hello, Rome. On Day 5, we went for the early history – the Colosseum and the Roman Forum (the old town center – you know, the Vestal Virgins, the statues, original “try the veal, we’re here ‘till Thursday” Caesar’s Palace, that sort of thing).

And then, Day 6: First stop: The Vatican Museums. Having reserved in advance, we dove through the security machines into the seething humanity in the lobby, procured our tickets, crowd-creeped up stairs through more security, snagged our audio tour gear, walked through the Court Yard of the Pinecone, and turned into the first major gallery, the Braccio Nuovo Gallery, a roughly 100 yard long hallway containing about a thousand…

… statues, including portraits of Emperors and gods. I gulped. A THOUSAND….!

We turned to study the first statue…. and then the second…

… and then I turned to my family and I said words to the effect of, “Are we serious?” after which I mumbled something like, “I’m DONE with statues, I’m DONE with museums, I’m done. I’ve leaving.”

They countered with the Sistine Chapel. I hesitated. They raised with St. Peter’s. They had me. I folded….

Beginning the mile long trek to the Sistine Chapel, I lead-legged up the stairs and turned left to see the…

… STATUES in the Octagonal Courtyard. They nearly had to resuscitate me.

A friend later asked me, “What tips would you have for someone going to Rome?”

“Focus,” I replied. “Focus. Do your homework ahead of time, know specifically what you want to see, develop a detailed itinerary. Stick to the plan. Otherwise you’ll disappear into the land of 1000 statues. It’ll take serious drugs to bring you back.”

Speaking of serious drugs, let this be a lesson to us, sales gods. Not the drugs, the focus.

I went to Italy with a guide book I hadn’t read, a list of museums I wanted to visit each day, some loose Euros, and the addresses of our hotels, which is like going out on a one week sales trip with little more than your flight numbers, your hotel reservations, and a couple of protein bars.

Whether one’s ‘market’ is 150 or 1,000 or 15,000. Read the guide book. Choose the targets. Make a plan. Execute. Repeat.

Nick Miller, president of the bank sales consulting and training firm Clarity Advantage, focuses on how to have successful conversations with dentists in the company’s latest sales training video aimed at helping business bankers accelerate their sales results.

Relationships with dentists can be very profitable for business bankers says Nick Miller, president of the bank sales training and consulting firm Clarity Advantage.  The keys to these relationships, he contends, are (1) connecting with the dentists and (2) facilitating conversations that help their dental practices.  In Clarity Advantage’s new sales training video entitled Prospecting Strategies: Approaching Dentists, Miller reveals conversational techniques business bankers can use to build profitable networks of dental practices and real-world examples bankers can apply immediately to fill their sales pipelines.

“Every community has dentists; bankers who don’t include them in their prospecting efforts are missing out on tremendous revenue opportunities,” explains Miller. “Dental practices generate high-deposit balances, borrow for equipment and cash flow, and process a lot of payments.  The tips in our video will help bankers talk to dentists and identify multiple opportunities for sales.”

One of the tips Miller shares with bankers is to start conversations that focus on the big picture, asking questions like: “How has your practice changed over time?”, “What challenges are you facing now?”, and “What are the current headaches on the financial side?” To hear more, watch the video, Prospecting Strategies: Approaching Dentists.

Prospecting Strategies: Approaching Dentists is one in a series of educational videos produced by Clarity Advantage aimed at helping business bankers increase their sales results. To access the video series, visit Clarity Advantage’s video library.

About Clarity Advantage: Bank sales consulting and training firm Clarity Advantage helps banks clarify, implement, and execute sales strategies to generate more profitable relationships, faster, with small and medium-sized companies, their owners, and employees, working with branch, field sales, and call center sales team members. The company also assists banks to attract and expand relationships with individuals and families. Visitors to Clarity’s website, http://www.clarityadvantage.com, can subscribe to “The Weekly Sales Thought,” a free eNewsletter and podcast focused on business-to-business sales techniques and sales management.

Contact:

Karen Tunks

Clarity Advantage

980-939-2112

karen.tunks@clarityadvantage.com

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In which we are reminded to speak in our clients’ tongues, not our own.

At 7:45 pm on Saturday evening,   I arrived with several hundred others from Munich at  Boston Logan Airport’s Terminal E, the International Terminal (remember that, it’s important). I felt queasy from a recent hour’s turbulence over the Atlantic and worn out after 17 hours of travel.

After a week in Italy and two passages through Munich airport, my mastery of traveler’s Italian and sightseer’s Latin had developed nicely. I’d successfully navigated Italian train stations, airports, subway stations, taxi cabs, museum lines, and buses. (The Latin was useful largely in museums.)

As we arriving travelers surged into the commodious customs hall in the International Terminal (remember that, it’s important) and snaked our way back and forth through the line, a stocky customs officer periodically barked at us, “People, you need only the blue customs form, you don’t need your passports or boarding passes, please put those away.”

After one such bark, I passed a group of about 20 teenagers in the snaking line excitedly exchanging questions and ideas in French, attempting to interpret the customs officer’s counsel.

After another bark, a young couple with two small children and a lot of bags carried on what I presume was the same conversation in German.

After still another bark, a late middle-aged Japanese man got out of line and approached the customs officer waving what looked like every document he’d accumulated in his travel, looking for help, prompting the customs officer to look over his head and repeat his counsel, only louder: “People, you need only the blue customs form, you don’t need your passports or boarding passes, please put those away.”

Once through my own customs interview, I emerged into the vaulted International Terminal (remember that, it’s important) reception and transportation lobby filled with people awaiting others to emerge. I took a long look around at the signs to reorient myself to my home airport.

And then I noticed: “Huh…every sign in this place is in English. Every officer is speaking only English.”  Even the tourist information sign was in English.

I imagined that I were coming to Boston as a tourist and I thought, “If I were standing here, as I am now, coming from Italy speaking little or no English, I would feel lost about what to do or how to navigate from here because… everything is in English.”

In contrast, important signs in the Italian and German airports I’d visited are presented in Italian or German, in English, and, many times, in other languages.

“This isn’t really an ‘INTERNATIONAL Terminal’ at all,” I thought.  “It’s an ENGLISH terminal!”

It had taken a week’s immersion in Italy for me to experience this perspective as an outsider.

As sellers, we can fall into the same trap.  We expect our clients and prospects to talk and understand OUR language (the jargon or language of the company or industry we represent) rather than theirs.  We see and interpret our clients’ and prospects’ challenges and actions through OUR  companies’ cultures and lenses rather than through theirs.

When they don’t understand us, we tend to speak “louder” or “longer,” hoping they will somehow comprehend.

Speaking in our own language and jargon in our sales calls seems as natural to us as speaking English seems to the “People, you only need the blue form…” customs officer even though some of his “clients” literally don’t speak English at all.

How to change our frames of reference?

First: A week in Italy.

Then, how about… spending one day a quarter shadowing one or two of our clients, sitting with their payables and receivables clerks, watching their operations, talking to their sales and finance people?  How about…interviewing client team members on camera (smart phones are wonderful for this) talking about their issues and sharing those videos with sales team members? How about reading their blogs and trade journals routinely to understand where THEIR conversation is focused.

The food and scenery are better in Italy; we learn client language better in our clients’ offices, not our own.

In a recent webinar, we discussed how consistent, methodical spotting and reacting to trigger events can increase your prospecting success.

You can access the recorded version online by clicking here.

In the webinar, Clarity Advantage President Nick Miller shared:

1. Examples of personal, business, and political/industrial/governmental trigger events to watch out for.
2. How to take trigger events and ascertain the impact on a particular prospect, then link the trigger events to how the bank’s services can help.
3. Online resources to help you monitor trigger events efficiently.
4. Conversational approaches that leverage trigger events.

Watch the webinar now to get the details on these key points and start using trigger events to accelerate your sales today.