Sales Process Excellence Podcast Michael Webb

Sometimes there is an easy solution to a problem. But that doesn’t mean we get to it easily, until we ask the right question.

Sellers are focused at the end of the buying process most of the time.  Marketers create most of their content for the beginning. 

What about the prospective customers?  For them, it is a continuous experience.  In this interview, Ardath Albee helps us think about them more clearly.

She specializes in what to many of us is a fuzzy idea – content strategy.  She simplifies it to “creating this storyline or narrative for how you get a buyer from problem to solution. What do they need to know? What expertise can you bring to bear? What are the different decisions they have to make along the customer journey?”  That sounds a lot like sales.

Ardath helps us see:

What a buyer persona is meant to be
The risk in leading the witness
Times when we may be disconnected from what our customer needs
The feedback a prospect is giving us

And more.

Drew Locher brings several different perspectives to helping organizations improve.  He began his career in engineering.  He was introduced to quality management in a management development program which later lead to specializing in organizational behavior. 

Today, he talks with us about several aspects of making and sustaining change in an organization.  The importance of energy and staying focused until new habits are formed.  The role of measurements, standards and understanding of the broader process to have the context for making adjustments.  And, how to shorten learning curves.

Throughout the conversation, we highlight the role of leaders:

To communicate a purpose that is meaningful to people

To insure plans carry forward to help workers sustain their improvements

To follow progress – adding energy to the system and spending time with people

And more.

Most people think they are pretty good at listening.  Hey, we’re in sales (or management), we listen to customers and co-workers all the time.  Oscar Trimboli is sure we can do better.  He thought the way he listened was natural until a simple question shifted the focus of a meeting and his career.

After studying listening and helping many hundreds of people, he shares:

The real job of a listener and a couple of questions to help us be better at it
The 125/900 rule impact on someone saying what they are meaning
A more productive approach for a “Why did you …?” question
And more.

Listen now.

Mentioned in This Episode:   http://www.Oscartrimboli.com/whitepages 
                                               oscartrimboli.com

Respect For People is one of the important themes in working toward Sales Process Excellence.  Often, we think of it in terms of employees, but it also applies to how we approach customers and prospects.  In both cases, it is looking from another person’s perspective.

As a senior leader, you can’t be involved in every sales conversation or help develop every marketing campaign.  In this discussion, Brian Carroll shares a way to listen to how our organization is talking about our customers to see how well we are connecting to what the customer cares about.  He calls it empathetic marketing.

Brian encourages us to think about:

What the customer is really buying
What the decision means to the person making it
How to recognize when we are saying what we want the customer to do rather than what they want
He also shares his experience as a leader introducing his business development team to a different way of thinking about their prospects.  It resulted in a 300% increase in sales accepted leads.  And more.

Listen now.

Today’s guest is Cliff Ransom. Cliff holds a unique position between the investment community, corporate management and the lean community. He has spent years following very successful companies and watching executives and front-line folks work. And, is very open with us about several lessons he has learned.

In our conversation we talk about:

• Examples of the power of lean in very different industries
• The importance of asking questions. And asking questions that don’t lead to a preconceived conclusion.
• Understanding how managers and leaders add value
• Mistakes senior leaders can make, and how to avoid them

Plus, Cliff shares the companies he has designated as super achievers and next generation Danahers and why. And more.

Listen now