Stupid Twitter (and Social Media) Tricks

Many of you know I'm very enthusiastic about Twitter. I believe it has potential to be a very powerful tool for business professionals. Right now, we are just scratching the surface of potential applications.

I'm seeing people use it in very clever ways for competitive and market insight. I read stories of amazing customer service (though one wonders why people had to resort to Twitter to get action and why the normal channels of customer service do not work). Through Twitter, I've met people I would never have had the opportunity to reach before. Our twitter relationships have expanded and we have great telephone conversations, and yes---even drive new business.

While the business I've developed is not yet large, it has covered the investment I have made in tweeting. And this does not even begin to count the value of the new relationships I am developing.

However, any easy tool like Twitter, with virtually no barriers to entry from a cost point of view, stimulates some of the most bizarre behaviors and results.

The thing that has set me off now is this whole debate on Followers and Following. I just was followed by someone. I went to this individual's profile: This person is following 1473 and being followed by 1213. This individual has the grand total of 1 tweet.

Are people following this person because of the tremendous content they are providing? Is this person being followed by the quality of the pithy comments and observations? Is the person being followed by interest in the profile provided?

Undoubtedly, not, it is the Twitter practice of "auto-follow." So what result does this produce --- this individual can brag about their 1000 + followers (Maybe I'm displaying a little bit of follower envy---for months I have been organically building my following of 492 as of this writing.) But is this an audience the person really wants to reach, will relationships be initiated and built? Will business result?

What about the followers, what do they get out of it? Are they now the proud recipients of the electronic analog of : Dear Occupant??? I always try to focus my followership to people who provide interesting commentary that I can use (either professionally or personally). I have this strange quirk, I don't like junk mail, spam, or wasting my time --- maybe I'm different from the rest of the community.

One of the problems with Twitter and many of the other Social Media communications vehicles is the relatively low cost of entry (discounting the person's time), creates a vast wasteland of meaningless, self promotional drivel. The problem is, it makes it difficult for all of us to find meaningful content. We waste more time, leverage more tools (this is great for tools developers, tools filtering through the junk). It makes it harder for me to use these channels--both for marketing and for insight.

I'm not sure there is any resolution to this. But I certainly understand when I talk to business clients and they have trouble seeing the value of many of these new channels. I understand their reluctance to invest in it, because at the same time, they have to invest in navigating through the mountains of crap.

Anyway, I'm done with whining. For a more substantive set of tips on the use of Twitter (whine free), visit my friend Niall Devitt's blog. He has done a couple of thoughtful commentaries on his use of Twitter.

First, Let Your Customer Finish Their Sentence, Then Ask Three Questions

Yesterday, I had a discussion with "Mark." Mark is one of the best sales/business development professionals I have ever met. In the market segments in which he sells, he is truly an expert. He's spent many years in understanding the industry, the players, the key issues facing everyone in the value delivery chain. Customers seek and respect Mark's opinion. He's helped customers achieve great things with his company's solutions.

Coupled with that, Mark has a very high level of enthusiasm and energy---it's infectious. Meeting with Mark, or seeing customers with him is always interesting. It's often hard to keep up with the ideas.

Imagine my surprise when Mark asked me for some advice today. While he is the highest performer in his company, he was having some challenges with closing deals. He said he was getting sales to a certain point and then they seem to stall. We were talking about what was going wrong.

Fortunately, I had been on some calls with Mark. I've seen how he interacted with customers. I've also seen Mark in conversations with his peers in his company and we had had many conversations between ourselves.

Mark has a problem---it's a problem I've seen many bright, high energy, and high performing sales professionals have. I noticed that Mark rarely lets anyone complete their thoughts. Mark's mind is racing ahead of the conversation. Before the customer has had a chance to state their issues, Mark knows the answer and is presenting a solution. He's eager to solve the issue, his enthusiasm and energy causes him to interrupt and to start presenting a solution.

Since Mark is truly an expert in the industry, more often than not, he is focusing on the right issue and presenting a powerful solution. However, this creates a real problem -- one the Mark is totally unconscious about.

The customer never gets to tell their story, the customer never really feels that she is being heard. Mark has not given them the chance to explain their issues.

The problem gets worse. A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting with Mark and one of his customers. A few sentences into the discussion, Mark could read where things were going and jumped in to talk about the issues, their impact on the customer and their customers and potential solutions to resolve the issues. He wasn't pitching, but speaking from his expertise and experience --- an in many senses was very credible.

The problem, however, was that wasn't the issue that was bothering the customer. By interrupting the customer, Mark had cut off the chance to hear the real issues that were bothering the customer and address those. While Mark eventually discovered this and corrected it, it took some time. Fortunately the customer was generous and forgiving, giving Mark the opportunity to explore the real issues.

I see the same scenario too many times, with some of the best, most knowledgeable and experienced sales people.

Going back to Mark's and my discussion. He asked me what to do. I started to tell him, then he jumped in......

After I stopped the discussion, I said: "Mark, here is your new mantra: 'Let the customer complete their sentence or thought. Never, never, under any circumstances interrupt her. Then, before you respond to the customer, ask her three questions. If you do this, you will see profound changes in your effectiveness.'"

Mark paused and thought about it. He made a few comments, stopped himself and said he was being defensive. We started discussing it. Somethings we concluded:

• Everyone wants to be heard--they want the chance to express their views and know
  they are being listened to. They want the chance to tell their story---and they
  need to tell their story to someone who is listening.


• As smart as we are, until we have heard the customer's view, until it comes from their mouths, we are just assuming---and we know what assumptions make us.
  If we give the customer a chance to complete their thoughts, we will learn something new.


• If we ask the customer three questions before responding, the quality of both our listening and our knowledge increases exponentially. We can then respond more
  appropriately and have an engaged customer.
  

I could tell Mark took it to heart. He wrote it down on the front cover of his notebook. He wanted to see it before each call with a customer.

Before we concluded, Mark asked me, "What are the three questions I should ask?" I have a specific answer for this, but I'd like your ideas and views---so please comment.

For any of you who are very curious---email me, I'll give you the three key questions you might ask in these situations. Just send a request to me at dabrock@excellenc.com.

I Just Don't Have Time To Coach! A Crisis In People Development.

It's a familiar complaint. We're all time poor, as a result of cutbacks, expansion in spans of control, expansion of job responsibilities, and the list never ends. Every year I talk to 100's of sales managers and executives. They know they need to spend more time coaching and developing their people, but they just can't find the time to do it.

This problem is more serious than many might think. Two years ago, we conducted a survey of sales managers. In one question, we asked them how frequently they had coaching/mentoring meetings with their people. For companies having revenue of $100 million or more, we found 5% of managers had weekly coaching/mentoring sessions with their people, 27% had monthly meetings, 38% had quarterly coaching/mentoring meetings, and the remainder were either annual meetings or not done with any regularity. Smaller companies were slightly better with 46% of the managers having weekly or monthly meetings.

Coaching is one of the most critical activities a manager can undertake in improving the performance of their people and producing real results. Unfortunately, I think people have a misunderstanding of what coaching is, when, and how to do it. People tend to think of a formal "coaching," meeting, often confusing coaching with performance reviews. While the outcome of coaching and performance reviews is similar, coaching needs to be conducted differently and more frequently than performance reviews.

What Is Coaching:

Coaching usually focuses on the development of specific skills or behaviors. Making sales calls that have higher impact. Developing and implementing territory plans that maximize growth within the territory. Developing deal strategies that have higher probabilities of winning. Working more effectively with team members. Managing time more effectively.

When Do You Coach:

Coaching needs to be integrated with the manager's daily process and routine. It doesn't need to be a separate session, but part of the daily conversations managers have with their people. For example, after every customer call, managers should take the time to debrief the people on the call, looking for opportunities to improve both the overall sales strategy and the results their people produce with calls. In doing account reviews, opportunity reviews, pipeline reviews, manager should look for the opportunity to coach. An account review is the perfect time to develop a person's skills in developing and executing their account plan---not a separate meeting a month later when everyone has forgotten what went on.

"Strike while the iron is hot!" This works perfectly for coaching---managers have the greatest impact in developing their people when there is an immediacy to observing both good and bad practice and discussing it with people. The more time that lapses, the less the impact.

Incorporating coaching into your daily interaction with sales people, the whole process becomes less cumbersome for both the manager and the people she is coaching. It becomes a natural part of the way people work together.

How Do You Coach:

Much of our business culture seems oriented around "telling." We tend to tell people what they did right, we tell them what they did wrong, we tell them what they should do differently.

"Telling" is very ineffective for coaching. We want our people to be thoughtful about what they do, we want them to own the responsibility for their performance and development. We can't achieve this by telling, we can only do this by engaging our people in a conversation or dialogue about their performance in a certain area. The only way we engage our people in this discovery process is by asking questions. Effective coaching is about asking and engaging the person in thinking about what they do and how to improve.

Coaching is critical to maximizing the performance of everyone on your team. It is critical in developing people to reach their full potential. Coaching is easy when you incorporate it into your daily interactions with your people, engaging them in thoughtful discussions.

How We Express Ourselves, Our Words Count!

Any of you who have followed me know that one of my soapboxes is raising the level of professionalism with sales people. Too often, it seems we take one step forward and too giant steps backwards.

I hate to criticize other bloggers, but I just saw something at BNET that has caused me to comment. The title is "Five Ways To Lure Recession Battered Customers." The article has some good concepts, but I do get concerned about some of the words used both in the title and in the article. This article is a great example of what all of us sometimes do, probably unintentionally, sometimes to attract readers. I fall victim to this myself---but then I remember what my father says: Don't do as I do, do as I say.

If we want customers to stop thinking of sales people as manipulative, we have to eliminate the use of manipulative words on our communications. My first reaction to the concept of "luring customers" is one of manipulation. The picture of luring, hooking and reeling in a customer is not a great image. The only thing left is gutting and filleting them---I would imagine sales is not into catch and release. I'm certain that is not what the author intended, but the words used and the way customers were described as being lured and reeled in don't convey what trusted advisors are trying to achieve with their customers. These words, when read by sales people, reinforce bad practice by sales professionals and lack of trust by customers.

Our words are important--both when we communicate with our customers and when we communicate in our community. If we want to establish trust, value, and confidence, we have to use words that reinforce that. We have to eliminate words that reinforce manipulation, trickery, deception and all the bad attributes we are accused of (justly or unjustly).

Words, as are actions, are important. We need to be careful with how we use them.

Leadership and Narcissism

Narcissistic Leaders, we've seen too many of them. In good times, their visions can be compelling. They can be charismatic, inspiring followers. Those positive characteristics are overshadowed by their terrible weaknesses---and these challenging times are likely to accentuate these weaknesses.

Ben Dattner, of Dattner Consulting, has an outstanding summary of characteristics of narcissistic managers. These include:

1. Grandiose sense of self importance, tend to exaggerate achievements and talents, expect to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements.
2. Preoccupied with fantasize of unlimited success, power, brilliance.
3. Believes he/she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by or associate with other special or high status people.
4. Requires excessive admiration.
5. Has a sense of entitlement or unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations.
6. Is inter-personally exploitative, takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends.
7. Lacks empathy, is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings or needs of others.
8. If often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him/her.
9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.

We know how to recognize them---they focus only on themselves. Their primary goals are what makes them look good, what gets them ahead, and how they can use others to get them what they want.

Narcissistic managers can't be wrong. It may be difficult for them to be accountable, errors are usually someone else's fault. They become blind to the real issues around them. They don't listen well, so they may not understand what's going on in the organization. This can cause the manager and the organization to be dysfunctional or desperately out of touch.

Because they exaggerate their own importance, downplaying the contribution of others, they need to be at the center of things, seeking constant attention and positive reinforcement of others. They may be threatened with any disagreement or when they perceive they are being kept out of things or not getting the credit.

When things go wrong, they tend to go into denial or to start rationalizing. They tend to over-react to criticism, becoming angry and lashing out. At worst they can act without integrity and compromise ethics--they tend to believe they are above the rules.

Their lack of empathy and extreme Independence make it difficult for them to mentor or be mentored. As Michael Macoby in his classic HBR Article: Narcissistic Leaders, The Incredible Pros, The Inevitable Cons, says, if they provide mentoring at all, they tend to instruct rather than coach.

Recognize anyone? We've seen too many of them making headlines in recent months. We see them in our organizations, at all levels. All of us have egos--even some level of narcissism, but the narcissistic manager can be challenging to work with.

Macoby offers some suggestions:

1. Always empathize with the narcissistic manager's feelings, but don't expect anything in return.
2. Be careful if asked for your honest evaluation. They want information that will help solve problems with their image. They will resent anything that threatens their inflated self image and are likely to retaliate.
3. Give them ideas, but let them take credit for them. If you think your manager is wrong, show an approach that is in the manager's best interest and how they will benefit.
4. Use your time management skills, your manager may give you more than you can execute. Forget those that don't makes sense, he probably will.
5. Narcissistic leaders will call you when they need you, anytime day or night. Make yourself available, be sure to fit their schedule.
6. If your narcissistic manager becomes too difficult to deal with, be prepared to look for another job.

All leaders have egos--some very large. But extremely narcissism and true leadership do not go together.

Blogger Of The Week - Dave Brock, Conversation Starter

Thank you to the folks at Social Media Today. I've been selected as Blogger Of The Week. They are tremendously generous---both in selecting of me and the flattering profile. They are a great team to work with.

Here's the link: Blogger Of The Week - Dave Brock, Conversation Starter.

The Secrets To Losing Customers!

Yesterday and today, I've had to restructure a lot of what I had planned to accomplish. Our email server and our websites are hosted by Earthlink--everything went down yesterday. Late yesterday, email came back up--but we got bits and pieces of queued up emails delivered over several hours. Our websites are still down and we had planned to launch some major new things through the website at this time---clearly all of that is on hold, because we can't start pointing customers and prospects to a website that is not operational.

I hate to use this blog site as a bully pulpit to express my dissatisfaction with specific suppliers, but given my experience and Earthlink's handling of this situation over the past 36 hours--also given the idle time they have handed me, I have decided to use them as a case study for terrible customer service and sure fire examples of how to lose customers.

Many of us have become dependent on the tools and services provided by organizations like Earthlink. Disruptions in service cause disruptions in our business, consequently we tend to be hyper sensitive to service disruptions and outages.

Most of Earthlink appeared to be down yesterday. Thank goodness for Twitter, posts by other people in the same situation let me know that it wasn't my problem, but a major Earthlink outage. Apparently Earthlink did not think it worthwhile to find alternative ways to let customers know about an outage. For instance, I could get to the Earthlink sign in screen, but I couldn't get further. It would have saved me time and frustration if they had posted something on the opening page, outlining the problem. While frustrated, at least I would have known and they could have set a level of expectation: Lesson 1: When you have problems, let your customers at least know something is happening so you can set their expectation. Try to reach out to them proactively to alert them rather than catching them by surprise.

When Earthlink came back up, I immediately went to support and to Network Status. You can see it here. Basically, this has remained unchanged for the last 18 hours. When you look at the "Issues in Some Areas," they show very limited outages and never show the problems I and the rest of the world have experienced. When I went into Get Live Help, then I discovered virtually everything was down and they were working to address it. Lesson 2: When you have a problem, own up to it, don't hide it, you'll be found out.

This morning, email seemed back to normal but our websites were still down. I contact customer service, and the initial response was, "everything is working, it must be something with your site, let me look into it." Upon looking into it, the response was: "we are still having troubles with our website servers, so many organization's web sites are not working, we are working as hard as possible to correct the problem." Lesson 3: When you have a problem, don't lie to your customers about it, they will catch you in it, it makes them more upset.

When I asked them, "I've had to waste a lot of time signing into support, to find out this news, you could have saved me a lot of time and frustration by posting this at Network Status." The response was, "we will update network status." 4 hours after that call, the same static screen appears, there has been no update. Lesson 4: Read Lesson 3, also, when you make a commitment, be sure to fulfill it.

As I mentioned, I keep going back into the system to see if something has changed. I have learned that Network Status is a static screen that does not change and really does not show the real situation with the network---I guess it's there because you are supposed to have one of these screens when you are an ISP, I was under the mistaken impression that it was supposed to be operational. As you might guess, contacting customer support caused me to go through the same loop again.

So I'm stuck, all I can get is a response, "we are working on it." I've searched Earthlink's site, I've gone to their corporate site, there is no status update, no explanation of the outages they have experienced. I have not received an email explaining what happened or what is happening--though I do get their newsletter informing me how I can buy more stuff from them. Lesson 5: When you have had a problem and you have fixed it, get to the customers impacted, say you are sorry, and explain what happened and what you are doing to minimize recurrence.

While this may be counter intuitive, often, I have found companies that manage problems and communications with customers proactively, actually emerge with stronger relationships with customers. Most customers know problems happen. What customers want is to be informed and to see the problems resolved. Customers aren't interested in excuses and react negatively to attempts to hide the problem. Lesson 6: While you want to minimize problems for your customers, properly managing the problems, keeping your customers well informed can enhance your relationship with the customers.

I don't want to be unreasonable. Problems happen, while I might be upset, at if I am at least informed, kept up to date, and not lied to, I might be more sympathetic and patiently impatient. Cancellation of our accounts won't even be a rounding error to Earthlink, they will never notice we are gone. We are a very small customer.

So I've finished my venting, our web sites are still down. Have to look at revamping more of my day. I still have no idea when the problem will be fixed. I just went into network status and it still shows there are no problems.

Social Media/Sales 2.0 --- Are The Right People Listening?

I've been involved in a few debates over the past few months that seem to be "Old School Sales" versus "New School Sales." They are odd debates.

The debates are carried out in the "blogosphere," which, I think, is one of the newer school vehicles. They seem to be carried out by individuals that are actively engaged in using or experimenting with the new tools. Everyone trying to learn about how to leverage these tools to displace old tools or complement them (I won't get into that debate right now).

The odd thing is these discussions/arguments are among people who have already "drunk the Kool Aid," and are asking for second helpings.

The more odd thing is the people that should be really hearing/listening to these debates will never hear them, because they aren't here.

Many of my customers are still learning how to spell www (OK, I'm exaggerating a little). When I talk to them, very few are reading blogs. Very few are leveraging tools like LinkedIn--except when they lose their jobs then try to expand their networks, not really leveraging LinkedIn for what it can do. They are not driving business strategies that embrace and exploit the power of these tools.

Those are the people we need to be talking to, and we need to reach them where they are at --- and it's not here.

We can't afford to ignore them, they represent the bulk of the business community.

So these debates in the "blogosphere" about who gets it and who doesn't always strike me as odd. Clearly, we all get it, but may have differing positions. Wouldn't we all be better served by spending our time trying to figure out how to reach out to the people who aren't here and get them here and engaged?

Thoughts, ideas?

Is Everyone In The Same Boat, Rowing In The Same Direction?

So we've completed all the layoff's, we've re adjusted our strategies to recognize the new realities of the global economy, and we are rushing forward at 200 mph to drive business. All of a sudden, confusion, crises, and miscommunication dominates our waking moments. Who does what, to whom? What are our priorities? What about the things that Jill used to do, but she's gone? I thought this was my job, but now you're telling me something different? You're asking me to do the work of all the people you just laid off---I can't cope!

Too often, we are seeing this with our clients and other organizations struggling to adapt with the rapid changes and adaptations the new economy creates. Executives are moving fast, sometimes too fast, and the organizations are left behind. Most often, we see reductions and layoffs, but no change in priorities and workloads. Too few, already overburdened people are forced to pick up the workloads of those that are left. Or, executives have shifted the priorities and strategies, but these changes have been accompanies with clear expectations of what it means to each person in the organization and their job responsibilities.

The outcome:

• Changes that were hoped for are not implemented.
• People are more confused, more overworked, and demoralized.
• Customers are confused, they don't know who to work with, what to do.
• Things that were supposed to speed things up, making the organization more efficient are actually bogging things down.
• Organizations are not producing the results management expected, so now
  management starts looking at further reductions---the death spiral continues.
  

Organizations are going through massive changes. Leaders need to help their people understand those changes and their role in executing the changes. Leaders must assure everyone is in the same boat, rowing in the same direction, and that everyone is in stroke! Organizational Effectiveness in executing the changes should be the focus of management.

In implementing these shifts, leaders should:

• Stop and make sure they and everyone in the organization knows, understands, and has internalized the changes and their roles in implementing them.
• Clearly identify those things that were important and used to be done
  that now must be stopped. What you stop at this time is more important than what you continue doing.
• Explicitly redefine roles and responsibilities of everyone on board. They simply can't pick up the workloads of others. The organization's priorities have changed, make sure everyone knows their role in implementing the changes.
• Redefinition of the roles and responsibilities helps to keep important things from falling through the cracks. It eliminates the issue "I thought that was Bob's job." It eliminated wasteful redundant efforts---two people doing the same thing.
• Communicate your new strategies, priorities, roles and responsibilities to your customers. Make sure any changes you implement make it easier for your customers to buy from you, to get their questions answered, and to get service from you.
• Identify and establish new metrics that support the changes in strategy, priorities, and roles. The old metrics are probably no longer appropriate. After all, they were based on a completely different set of organizational assumptions.
• Monitor--but don't micromanage, but be aware people may still be confused, feel overwhelmed, or haven't internalized the changes. The moment you see problems cropping up, jump on them, clarifying priorities, strategies and the new roles.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate---to your people, your customers, and suppliers. Make certain they aren't confused, make sure they are aligned.

Alignment is critical to every organization. When making changes that many organizations are doing, making sure everyone in the organization, your customers and suppliers are in the same boat, going in the same direction ---- aligned----is critical to success. One of the best tools we have seen to help organizations do this quickly and effectively is the Organizational Effectiveness Profile (OEP).

Organizations are going through massive changes. Speed is critical, but only if everyone is aligned, focused and working together as effectively as possible. Make sure you take the time to get everyone in the boat!

Do Great Sales People Make Good Sales Managers?

There was an interesting thought posed in LinkedIn today: “Good sales people make good sales managers.” It went on to ask the characteristics of good sales managers. The question struck a chord, a dissonant one, provoking me to respond. I’m sure I have missed a lot of characteristics of great sales managers, and would ask for your addition, deletions, edits. Here’s my response and the list I started with:

Great sales people are sometimes the worst sales managers. Likewise, some mediocre sales people end up being stellar sales managers.

There is a long list of leadership skills/traits that are important for managers. I will stay away from repeating these.

Some specific areas that I think are often overlooked for sales managers:

1. Very process oriented. Today's sales manager cannot be involved in every deal, issue or transaction. They have to have a strong process in place, make certain their people understand and are executing the process. The sales manager has to continually monitor the process, taking deep dives in problem areas to help their people address them.

2. Disciplined and performance oriented. Closely tied to the previous point, the sales manager must have a strong focus on performance and performance improvement. This requires having the right metrics in place, making sure people understand what they are accountable for, giving them the opportunity to perform, being there to coach them when they have problems, and being prepared to take the appropriate actions if performance problems are not resolved.

3. Loyalty to the organization and their people. The sales manager is often caught between a rock and a hard place---the objectives of the organization sometimes come into conflict with what is best for the team. Effective sales managers are actively involved in setting organizational strategies and priorities (at least in terms of sales) and engage the sales people in executing them--though they may resist---which requires strong engagement and coaching. At the same time, sometimes the "organization" is insensitive to the sales people. The sales manager needs to defend the sales people to the organization, making sure they are heard.

3. Strong business orientation and focus. Make the right business decisions—both for the customer, for the sales organization, and for the business. Understanding how businesses work and what drives them.

4. Incessantly customer focused. If I have to say more, then we really don’t understand the point of professional selling.

5. Incessantly curious---driven to learn and improve. Incessantly curious about solving customer problems. Incessantly curious about the art and science of professional selling—driven to improve the performance of each individual in the organization, the organization as a whole, his own personal performance, and the business. This means they probably spend much more time asking questions and listening then they do talking.

6. Appropriately compassionate. Understand what drives people—customers, sales people, support people, others in the organization. Able to understand their points of view and what drives them. Able to communicate and work with them in a matter that demonstrates respect and trust. At the same time, able to make tough decisions—but with compassion based on the impact on individuals.

7. Able to sublimate their egos. Sales management is about leadership, growing and developing people, growing and developing the organization, growing and developing the business. It is not about how great you are and your past victories. It requires admitting you are wrong when you are. It requires being able to change your point of view.

8. Problem solvers. Driven by solving problems, finding ways to overcome obstacles, not being wed to the past. Creative and innovative in adapting new approaches to address issues and improve the business.

9. High energy. Constantly moving forward, setting strong examples for everyone around. Note, I am not saying high activity, high meeting orientation. High energy is different than meaningless activities.

10. Value, principle driven. Without a strong value system, a manager has no context in which to make decisions and drive the organization. Without sticking to the values and principles, the organization will wander and not produce results.

11. Thoughtful, reflective, good sense of humor. Self explanatory.

12. Able to leap tall buildings without tripping. Sales managers don’t need to have a big “S” on their chests, but they need to inspire and motivate others.

I’m sure I’ve missed some and could go into much more detail on each item. But I look for all of these in hiring great sales managers!

What would you add? Are there any you would eliminate?

Stop Pitching, Start Listening To Your Customers

Last week, I wrote a post "Stop Assuming Your Know Your Customers, Start Listening To Them! The post stimulated a lot of comments on the different sites it was posted on. Thanks to each of you who took the time to offer your great ideas!

In that post, I ranted about the focus sales and marketing professionals seem to have on "Pitching," arguing we need to stop pitching and start engaging our customers in conversations.

I'm back on my soapbox, I read a post from someone I hold in high regard, but he set me off. The post was entitled, "How Persuasive Is Your Pitch." We all fall victim to it, we spend too much time focusing on the pitch and not having an effective conversation to engage our customers in solving their problems.

I did a quick, very unscientific experiment. I googled "sales pitch" and got 1,900,000 hits. I then tried various queries on listening to customers ("sales listening, effective listening for sales, etc.) I finally settled on the query "effective listening" only because it showed the highest numeric result. I didn't limit it to sales. I got 202,000 hits --- a little more than 10% of the hits on talking.

I think the results are an interesting reflection of the behavior I see too often in business, particularly with sales and marketing. We all spend too much time talking and too little time listening. Asking good questions and actively listening is the first critical step in engaging customers in meaningful conversations.

We cannot demonstrate or produce value for customers until we engage them in meaningful conversations about their business --- and meaningful conversations--not pitches---about the value of our solutions to their businesses.

To the sales/marketing consultants and guru's, I appreciate the need for helping people improve the effectiveness of their presentation skills or their pitches, but let's start building the skills and capabilities of professionals in listening and engaging customers in powerful --- even "fierce" conversations.

To sales and marketing executives, make sure your people are spending at least as much time in listening and having meaningful conversations with customers. Measure them on their questions/comments(talking) ratio. Get it to at least one, strive to get it to be greater than 1.

Sales and marketing professionals, raise the value you bring to your customers, improve the results you produce by pitching less, questioning and listening more.

How do you make certain you are engaging your customers in a conversation? Let's share experience and tips so we can all improve.

Moving From Customer Acquisiton To Customer Engagement

For some strange reason, in the past few days, at least four different executives have called me to speak about changes they see with their customers markets and organizations. The conversations all began at different points, for differing reasons, but seemed to be converging on a central issue: The need for organizations, marketing, and sales to focus on Customer Engagement as critical to success and growth in the future.

I have to admit, I am still sorting out some of the issues and what they mean, but some of the things we see are:

1. Traditional means of acquiring customers is not working. Yesterday, I had a spirited discussion with a colleague in France around the topic: Cold Calling is Dead, How Do We Leverage Social Media for marketing! Sales people, don't cheer to quickly, I don't think cold calling is dead, but I do believe the nature of cold calling needs to change. As an example, every day, I have conversations with new people-prospects-potential clients. These are, for all intents, cold calls, but the nature of how we chose to engage in a conversation has changed. In our discussion, we talked about how our own work was changing and the role of new social networking tools was changing the types of conversations, who we engaged, and the means by which we carried on those conversations.

Yesterday, I participated in a review of one of my client's demand generation programs. They have well defined and refined programs, well targeted lists, and a reasonable value proposition. Years ago, their programs would have been considered by many to represent best practices. Now, while the programs are producing results, they are far less than two years ago.

2. This morning the EVP of Sales for a major technology company called me to shoot the breeze about what's happening in the markets. His view was the differentiator for many organizations was going to be customer acquisition. As he looked at his company, his competitors, his customers and the markets they participate in, he viewed that most of the companies were at parity in terms of costs, pricing, product offerings, quality, and other factors. He believed the critical success factor for his company would be the ability to acquire and support customers in a way that differed from any one else.

We started talking about what that meant---I saw were moving beyond the traditional view of customer acquisition to a different way of engaging customers and potential customers in conversations about their business.

3. No sooner had I hung up the phone, then another call from the VP of Strategic Accounts for another company called me. I felt like deja vu all over again! But the conversation also had a different twist. He was having a heated discussion with the CEO of his company that just because they had Salesforce working well for their company, they couldn't stop their marketing activities. He was trying to convince the CEO (who was trying to cut people and money), that this tool was just a tool, but could not displace many of the programs they had for generating business. As we got into the discussion, it became clear that his CEO, was starting to read too many blogs, getting too many tweets, and had gotten a big dose of social media over the holidays and saw that as the salvation for business generation.

For some strange reason, I could go on with the stories, all they do is reinforce the fact that profound changes are afoot.

To some degree, I think the silver lining to the economic and financial challenges we all face is that thinking about how we do business is no longer a nice thing to do, it may mean survival. The current crises gives those of us who take the opportunity, the chance to profoundly change the way we build relationships with our customers, retain them and acquire them. I think those organizations that choose to engage customers in a different way will emerge the winners.

I'm still sorting a lot of this stuff out. I don't know the answers, but have some suspicions about the changes.

1. I think the old ways are far from being dead. Cold calling is not dead, prospecting, advertising (traditional), trade shows, direct marketing, telemarketing, websites, SEO, "adwords." and all the stuff we have grown up with and which consume much of our customer acquisition and retention time, money, and energy is here to stay----but needs to be evolved and modified.

2. I'm still trying to figure out things like LinkedIn and Facebook and how they contribute to business development--at more than a personal level, but in helping enterprises do business differently. I'm convinced there is a role for these (other than advertising), but I (and others) are still learning. I'm starting to see some of my clients engage their customers and partners in very interesting ways, using of all things, You Tube. Their customers and partners are taking matters into their own hands and promoting my client's products in very interesting ways. Fortunately, my client was smart enough to encourage it rather than try to stop it.

3. Likewise, I know that blogging has a role, but at an enterprise level, a lot of challenges remain. I recent newspaper article discussed the challenges of corporate blogs and their believability. I'm also sure that things like Twitter have a role to play (I'm almost embarrassed to say I just signed up yesterday and have yet to send my first tweet --- I think that's what they're called).

In the coming years, rather than displacing anything, I think we will see creative intermingling of these tools and approaches, creating a richer dialog and experience with current and potential customers.

In the end, all of these things are just tools. It's important that we not lose sight of what we are really talking about. Business growth, marketing, and selling in the coming years will require us to engage our customers differently.

I think we will start having conversations not presentations. I think customer acquisition will become less about marketing and selling, and more about collaboration and partnering.

I think the number, depth, and richness of the conversations will increase profoundly---the tools and technologies enable this---they also enable all this to happen in real time.

I think organizations, buyers and sellers, will be more selective about the number and quality of the relationships they establish. After all, this takes time, energy, commitment, and has a cost. No one can afford to have deep relationships with everyone.

I think fluid networks of "just in time" collaborations will become important to building business. If each organization can only afford to develop and nurture a limited number of deep relationships, a way to grow and expand is to begin to network those relationships in real time, when they produce value.

While things change, some stay the same. Relationships are important, the virtual world will complement, but not displace deep human relationship--face to face or voice to voice. The traditional tools we have used will still have a place, but have to be positioned with all the other tools to create richer customer experiences.

Sales will have to change. For the first, consultative or solution selling must become the fabric of the sales process, not just buzz words. Sales professionals will have to leverage and use the new tools to enrich their relationships with customers and influencers in the markets. They will have to move from pitching to listening to engaging the customer in a conversation.

Maybe I'm wordsmithing, but I think we are talking about something different than customer retention or acquisition. Those sound too one way or push oriented to me. I'm also not talking about the pull orientation in some of the new social media (or traditional consumer advertising).

Somehow the concept of Customer Engagement seems to be the closest to embracing all of what needs to be done to survive, grow and thrive.

Does this make sense or am I just playing with words?

Stop Assuming You Know Your Customers, Start Listening To Them!

Thanks to one of Fred Wilson's recent posts, I discovered Whitney Hess, a user experience designer in New York. She was quoted: "In order to survive, companies have to stop assuming they know their customers and start listening to them." Simple and profound.

I spend a lot of my time with business, marketing, and sales executives. Many espouse being customer focused. Many are making good strides, but in my experience we have a long way to go.

Whitney's comment got me thinking. Why is it so difficult to listen to our customers? Why is it so difficult to engage our customers in a different conversation?

These are not new concepts, but why is it so difficult to execute?

I'm not sure I have a lot of insight into these issues, but I have some ideas --- by the way, I'd welcome yours.

1. We have met the enemy and it is us! Most of the organizations I work with are filled with brilliant, creative people. People who have accomplished a lot and produces results. Sometimes, however, this creates an arrogance that we know more and better than anyone else. We stop listening and start telling. The challenge comes when they --- the customer --- stop listening to what we are telling them, Usually they stop listening because we really don't understand them and are not producing value.

2. We've stopped seeing the forest because we are focusing on the tree! (Not the trees, but THE tree.) People develop a selective listening. We've succeeded in becoming focused and goal directed, but that may leave us blind to what is really being said. We focus on The tree, Our tree, and ignore the neighboring trees and forest. Except those may be more important to the customer or create new opportunities for us.

I'll linger on this point a little. One of my clients has very good product managers. They come from the industry---many are former customers. They engage customers in deep conversations about technologies and their needs. The problem is, they are engaging in talking to a specific group of customers---specialized technicians. These technicians important in providing infrastructure to support the business but they aren't driving the business. They only respond to the needs of the business users. My client would do well to expand their view to include the business users, understanding their needs and drivers, along with those of the technical users. They will discover new opportunities---new trees.

3. Our mother's taught us not to talk to strangers! Good advice when we were kids, but now it is too limiting. If we only talk to our friends, if we only do assessments of our own industry, if we only track and respond to competitors, we narrow, blind and inbred. We don't get to see and experience new things. Our strategies become incremental, not game changers. We continue to exchange places with our competitors for superiority, yet each evolve slowly and are probably not seeing and creating breakthrough opportunities for our customers and ourselves.

I spend much of my time working with top executives in high technology B2B organizations. At the same time, I also do work in certain niches of the fashion/lifestyle industries. I am always struck by the innovation, creativity, and some of the business models I see in the fashion/lifestyle sector --- mostly because some of them have so much potential when applied to high tech B2B! I don't have to be smart, insightful or innovative, I just have to learn how to adapt these creative ideas to a different set of circumstances and industry.

4. We've lost the art of having conversations. We focus on the pitch ---- What's your elevator pitch? Let's go pitch the customer! Even in this day of Zen Presentations, we focus on the pitch, on presenting, on talking, on winning a one sided argument.

Where do we talk about listening? How do we develop the ability to have a good "elevator listen?"

Actually, it goes beyond listening --- it's establishing a conversation or a dialog. It's about engaging the people we are with. It's about learning something new, realizing we might have to change our position. It's about challenging our own and other's ideas and positions. It's about having a healthy debate and maybe some conflict --- all oriented around creating better solution -- for our customers, for our businesses.

I could go on, but will stop here. I owe a big thanks to Whitney for her insightful comment: "In order to survive, companies have to stop assuming they know their customers and start listening to them."

I'd love to get your ideas --- perhaps we can start a conversation!

What We Miss About Creating Value

I'm often called upon to speak about Value Propositions! Every time, I do some quick research about the topic. It continues to be one of the most popular subjects:

1. Yesterday's Google search on "Value Propositions" yielded 4,140,000 hits, up from 2,900,000 in January.
2. It continues to be a "hot topic" in blogs and in consultant pontification (I guess I need to include myself on this).
3. In our own web marketing (SEO) programs, it is the second highest performer, just behind strategic alliances and partnering.
4. When we talk to our clients' customers, one of the biggest issues they have is they don't understand the value their suppliers bring.
5. In these tough economic times, everyone is searching for value.

I believe one of the reasons this is such a "hot topic" is that most of us are remarkably bad in developing and communicating meaningful value---whether it is to our customers, colleagues, employees, employers, or communities.

There is a lot of good stuff that has been written on the topic of developing and communicating differentiated value. For this post, I won't repeat it. However, there is one area that I never see any mention of:

In every interchange -- particularly those we initiate and whether it is with customers, colleagues, or others, it is critical to think: What value will I create in this interchange?

If we can't define the value we will create, then we are wasting time---we're wasting the time of the people we are meeting with, we are wasting our time.

If we can't define the value we will create, we are best off cancelling the meeting until we can define the value.

Imagine what would happen if each of us started doing this in just our professional lives. Imagine the number of useless meetings that would be cancelled. Imagine the number of thoughtless phone calls or conversations that would be eliminated. Imagine the time that would be freed up to really accomplish things that create value.

Creating value starts with each of us. We can improve our own productivity and effectiveness by making sure in every meeting, phone call, conversation or other interchange we create value for everyone involved.

It isn't tough, creating value is not about solving world hunger. The test of whether you have created value is: Can the person or people you meet with say, at the end of the meeting, "That was a worthwhile investment of my time." If we design all our meetings and conversations to achieve this goal, then we have created real sustainable value.

Does Your Behavior Foster Or Limit Trust?

Trust is at the core of all relationships. It can take years to build trust and only a fraction of a second to destroy it. Maintaining trust in the face of tough business or personal circumstances can be extremely difficult. Too often, as leaders we succumb to behaviors that destroy what we seek to preserve.

The Slow Leadership blog has one of the best articles I have read recently. I won't repeat it here, but I have copied their list of 30 leadership behaviors that create mistrust. Make sure you read their article!

1. As leader, you fail to keep your promises, violate agreements and ignore commitments.
2. You look after yourself first and others only when it is convenient.
3. You micromanage and resist delegating.
4. You demonstrate inconsistency between what you say and how you behave.
5. You fail to share critical information with your team and your colleagues.
6. You choose to not tell the truth.
7. You resort to blaming and scapegoating others rather than own up to your mistakes.
8. You judge and criticize rather than offer constructive feedback.
9. You betray confidences, gossip and talk about others behind their backs.
10. You choose to not allow others to contribute or make decisions.
11. You downplay others’ talents, knowledge and skills.
12. You refuse to support others with their professional development.
13. You resist creating shared values, expectations and intentions in favor of your pursuing own agenda.
14. You refuse to compromise and foster win-lose arguments.
15. You constantly remind everyone of your status and make it clear that you will not be questioned or criticized without inflicting punishment in return.
16. You refuse to be held accountable by your colleagues or subordinates.
17. You resist accepting your vulnerability, hide your weaknesses and won’t admit you find anything a challenge.
18. You practice sarcasm and put-down humor and rationalize off-putting remarks as “good for the group”.
19. You fail to admit you need support and prefer to mess up rather than ask anyone for help.
20. You take others’ suggestions and critiques as personal attacks.
21. You fail to encourage openness in team meetings and allow others to avoid contributing constructively.
22. You refuse to consider the idea of constructive conflict. In fact, you usually avoid conflict at all costs.
23. You consistently hijack team meetings and move them to your personal agenda.
24. You either ignore or fail to follow through on decisions agreed at team meetings.
25. You secretly engage in back-door negotiations with favored team members to create cliques and political alliances.
26. You refuse to give others the benefit of the doubt.
27. You judge people without allowing them to explain their position or actions and won’t reverse incorrect decisions.
28. You refuse to apologize for mistakes or misunderstandings.
29. You use your position to indulge in inappropriate behavior.
30. When things go wrong, your first response always to defend yourself and protect your reputation.

Connecting Versus Relating --- The Disappearance Of Real Relationships

There is a great post in the Slow Leadership blog on "Connecting Versus Relating." It speaks to the breakdown of relationships, transforming them into transactions conducted through impersonal channels like email, messaging, Twitter, Blackberry's and cellphones. I would also add many of the social networking media.

While these "tools" have made all of us much more accessible and available--the emotional connection is lost. Relationships---at least meaningful relationships are built on trust and emotional connections. The new ways we "connect," while convenient, strips away that connection. It seems to me, the more we substitute these convenient ways to stay visible and "connected," the more the true nature of the relationship erodes. Ultimately, we lose the connection, probably without knowing it and we continue the transactions.

These tools also create a shield that enables us to do things that are unthinkable in a real relationship--we can start shading the truth--which gives way to outright lying. We can avoid addressing tough issues head on, or we can do it in terribly insensitive ways. Not having to look someone in the eye, talk to them voice to voice, to understand the reaction limits us terribly.

Research indicates that 70% of communication is non verbal---most of us interpret this as "body language," and other subtle clues we pick up in face to face communications. It would stand to reason the more we come to rely on maintaining relationships through non-direct ways, the more we lose in communications --- and the more we lose in relationships and our ability to trust.

Our worlds, whether business or personal, are increasingly complex. We are all time poor. The new social tools and means of "connecting" add some convenience and speed to communication, these tools are only a complement to building and maintaining meaningful relationships.

We all fall victim to this. It is so easy to send a quick email or SMS. I recently reconnected with a colleague, responding to her invitation over Facebook with an message "glad to reconnect." I got no response and started wondering why aren't we really connecting ---- and the answer is so simple ---- I should pick up the phone.

I am having some "challenges" with a client---who also happens to be a good friend. We seem to be waging electronic war, or at least I seem to be, to resolve a difficult business issue. The other day, he yelled "uncle" electronically ---- I got an email --- "Dave, a phone call would work.... "

We are actually both guilty. We both let the safety of hiding behind email help us avoid a difficult conversation -- but one that will quickly resolve the situation. Doing that has damaged our relationship --- but hopefully not irreparably. I need to give Bill a call!

Was There Life Before 7/24 Connectivity?

Today's New York Times has an interesting essay by Ben Stein entitle, Connected, But Hermetically Sealed. It is nice commentary about how we use technology to seal ourselves off from the real world.

Mobile phones, PDA's Ipod's, all great technologies that contribute to the quality of our lives also serve to diminish the quality of our lives by isolating us.

Imagine, sitting with a group of people, none talking to each other, but all engaged in text messaging as vigorously as possible.

Yesterday, on a bike ride, I passed someone saying "Hello" as I passed. They didn't hear me or respond, because they were listening to their Ipod.

All of us are guilty, I find myself hiding behind my (de)vices. After all, it's so much easier to bury yourself in email, messaging, playing a game, or listening to music than to be engaged. Rather than observing what's going on around us, rather than talking to friends, colleagues, and, god forbid, strangers, we can hide behind the technology. Without these (de)vices, I have to actually pay attention to something or someone else. I have to listen, I have to hear a different point of view, I have to learn.

It strikes me a ironic, these devices intended to enhance communications instead isolate us. We deal with only the familiar and turn a blind eye to the new.

These devices, which can improve our productivity, are actually diminishing the quality of our experience. Instant accessibility supposedly helps us be more reachable for urgent things, enable us to respond faster. When I reflect on the emails, text messages, and phone calls to my mobile, as far back as I can recall, there was nothing that couldn't wait a few hours. In fact there are many things that would have been better off by waiting a few hours.

I have often thought back to pre-historic times---when we didn't have mobile phones, PDA's etc. How did we deal with "urgency?" I have been engaged with top executives in major businesses worldwide. As I reflect back, business and the quality of decisions these executives made did not seem to suffer from delays of a few hours. In some ways, one might argue that many issues which are urgent at one moment, are no longer important 30 minutes later. The built in buffer of waiting a few hours to get back, actually made numerous issues become non issues and disappear.

Many organizations are recognizing these issues. they set limits on sending and receiving emails. They limit use of Blackberry, phones and other (de)vices. We don't need an organization to help us with that, each of us can take action.

1. Set your own time limits to email.
2. Let calls to your mobile phone roll into voicemail---don't interrupt what you are doing to answer it.
3. Let text messages queue up, look at them periodically, but not instantaneously.
4. Take some joy in looking around, watching what is going on around you, engage in the real world.

Eleven Characteristics Of Critical Thinkers

Several days ago, commented on the topic of "Why Managers Don't Think Deeply." Apparently, based on responses I received, there is some interest in this topic. I thought it would be worthwhile to share some characteristics of critical thinkers.

1. Have a passion for clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, consistency, logical-ness, completeness, and fairness.
2. Are sensitive to ways in which critical thinking can be skewed by egocentrism, wishful thinking, biases, and ignorance.
3. Are intellectually honest with themselves, acknowledging their limitations and lack of knowledge.
4. Listen open-mindedly to opposing points of view, welcoming criticisms of beliefs and assumptions.
5. Base their views on facts and evidence rather than on self interest.
6. Are aware of biases and preconceptions that shape they way they perceive the world.
7. Think independently and are not afraid to disagree with the group opinion.
8. Are able to get to the heart of an issue or problem without being distracted by details.
9. Have the courage to consider ideas that may challenge their own position or beliefs.
10. Love truth and are curious about a wide range of issues.
11. Have the intellectual honesty to pursue insights or truths, despite obstacles or difficulties.

(I have adapted these from a lecture given by Zaid Ali Alsagoff of Unitar.)

Colin Powell Lessons On Leadershiip

I just ran across this on Slideshare. It's a bit dated, but still interesting and a good reminder on leadership.

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A presentation given by former Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell regarding leadership and victory in business and life.

SlideShare Link

Why Don't Managers Think Deeply

Today, the Harvard Business Review Working Knowledge Newsletter and Art Petty On Management had complementary articles on Why Don't Managers Think Deeply? It's a fascinating topic that should concern all leaders. Both are worth reading, and, dare I say, thinking about.

I'd like to add some of my own opinions about why manager's don't think deeply:

• People confuse form with substance: Brilliant presentations, PowerPoint's, or "hot programs" may be attractive and create a lot of interest, but many have no depth beyond the bullet point on the chart. People haven't really thought about what the strategy and the most effective means of execution. People don't get into deep discussions about the issues or alternatives.
• Activity trumps results and effectiveness: We. particularly American business professionals, have a bias to activity. We see nothing wrong with Ready, Fire, Aim. The activity is often unfocused, aimless, and ineffective. We are often to busy with our activities to take the time to think.
• Activity can be mistaken for accountability: "Busy people must be doing important things and producing good results." In reality, busy people may be busy people, but "busyness" does not necessarily mean a lot is being accomplished. The greatest sin made in the name of "busyness" is multitasking--we simultaneously sit in a meeting, process our emails, text message on our phones, and think about what we want to do on the weekend. This keeps us from focusing on what we must do.
• Thinking---at least results focused thinking-- forces us to make choices. It forces us to commit to a course of action and to execute it. Many people are afraid to commit to a course of action. It is better to react or do nothing than it is to commit to something and to be held accountable.
• Thinking deeply is messy hard work. It is difficult to reduce it to a bullet point. It is demanding and takes time---but time spent thinking doesn't look like activity. The results aren't pretty and can sometimes be complicated to present and get others to support.
• Thinking deeply requires the ability to integrate and synthesize. Some people just aren't good at this--but it is critical for leaders.
• Thinking deeply isn't rewarded in a lot of organizations. It's hard to measure, consequently hard to reward. Thinking takes away from "busyness." it's easier to measure and reward activities.
• Thinking deeply may be threatening to senior executives. Senior executives who don't take the time or have difficulty thinking deeply about issues will, justifiably, feel threatened by subordinates that take the time to think before acting.

And I could go on, but enough for now. I would be remiss though, if I didn't look at some of the downsides of thinking deeply. I have encountered people in business who are deep thinkers, yet who cannot translate the results of their thinking into meaningful action.

Deep thinking must be accompanied my meaningful---thoughtful action. Without this it is never tested and the results are never produced.