In my current Alexander Insights newsletter, I shared a format for making brilliant presentations to executives. In it I pointed out the need to share stories of customers or competitors to best make a point.

Here is a format to add intensity to your story. The format is called SODAR (Situation--Opportunity--Decision--Action--Result). Let me give you an example of what a services exec might say to illustrate a point in a top management meeting:

“Let me share with you a story showing the concern that many of our most important customers are having with the new system. Here was the situation: Billy Brown, a vice president from our largest customer, Big Time, called me personally. He was mad—saying that he was only getting one-half the output that our salespeople told him he would get.

While he unloaded his disappointment, I pulled up his information in the CRM system to get a better understanding. There I saw an opportunity to turn him from a naysayer into a loyal supporter of our organization at minimal cost to us.

Here is the decision I made: After acknowledging how he felt, I told him we would take full responsibility to make sure he gained maximum productivity on his system. I recommended that he apply his consulting credits to have a full assessment done and that I would personally make sure that one of our very best people did it. He agreed instantly and thanked me for taking ownership.

The action I took was to call Tom (head of professional services) immediately and ask for his help. Within three weeks the assessment was completed and the customer implemented our recommendations.

The results were an immediate bump in performance, but more importantly, a ticked-off customer is now a champion of ours. In fact, Billy has agreed to provide us with a testimonial.”

SODAR is a great format to use in storytelling--give it a try.

Tags: differentiation, selling services

In the 10th commandment of selling services, “Continually Learn and Grow,” I talk a lot about management’s responsibility to expand the personal capabilities of their sellers. However, when it comes right down to the nitty gritty, the core essence, the prime directive for learning and growing requires individual ownership. Serious folks wanting to succeed welcome management’s help but don’t assume any assistance. They chart their own course and take full responsibility for success.

“So, Alex, where do I start?” you ask. That’s easy… research I’ve done shows that customers place a very high value on sellers and consultants who understand their business, their market, and their industry. They very much value the attribute of business acumen and will pay more to get it.

So if you want to stand out from your peers, get smart about business. If you take 20 minutes per day, five days per week, to study some aspect of business, you will be an expert in a few months.

Are you serious? If so, drop me a note, and I’ll send you some suggestions on how to get started.

Tags: training, differentiation, selling services, managing technical talent

In the 7th Commandment of Selling Services: Concentrate on the Stars, I make the case for sales management to “re-distribute” its coaching time to focus on “A” players--a strategy that pays off quickly and also is a lot more fun.

However, the premise behind it is that you have several “A” players in place--do you? Or, have you been so focused on filling positions that most of your sales force is composed of “B” players or (gasp) “C” players as well?

My point is that the easiest way to excel in sales management is to have a preponderance of “A” players on your team. So when recruiting, don’t settle for less than hiring stars. Yes, it may take more time. Yes, you may have to battle HR to get star-quality comp plans, but the potential rewards are huge.

Hire stars, learn from your stars, and the rest will take care of itself.

Tags: differentiation, selling services

In this week's Alexander Insights article, the “The Four R’s of Services Account Management,” I talk about the services account manager's (SAMs) expanding role when it comes to getting new business. In my opinion, having SAMs be more active in selling is an absolute necessity. However, not all SAMs like this change in role. When I discuss this new expectation in my workshops, I am often met with rolling eyes and people sitting back in their chair staring at the ceiling. When I ask what the problem is, I'm often told (sometimes defiantly), “If I'd wanted to sell, I'd gone into sales. I like to fix things.”

My feeling is that this reaction originated from some very early bad experience with salespeople who were manipulators from the Dark Side and not true sales professionals. Probably you, and everyone reading this, can remember at least one time in your childhood where you came across a vacuum cleaner salesperson following a script trying to trick your parents into buying something they didn’t want, or a slick-talking house siding seller similar to Danny DeVito in the movie Tin Men*, or maybe some selling shenanigans you observed in your own sales force (heaven forbid!).

In those situations the seller was only interested in making the sale and making personal gain, showing no interest whatsoever in the potential value to the customer. THIS IS NOT PROFESSIONAL SELLING.

Professional selling is influencing with integrity, making recommendations that are in the best interest of the customer, actively looking for ways to help the customer do things easier, better, faster, cheaper. Guess what? That is exactly what the professional management consultant does, and the technical support rep, and clerk at the clothing store, and the field service engineer, and the SAM at a key customer’s site. In fact, if a customer-facing person is not actively looking for ways to improve a customer’s situation, he is not acting as a professional.

*Great movie, by the way. I’d suggest you show it to your organization as an example of not what you mean by selling.

Tags: selling services, professional services

"Whistling through the graveyard" ... I love this phrase and wish I could take credit for coining it.* However, I first heard it while interviewing a services executive about how his business operates and the strategic role of services. When I asked him what would happen if there was not dramatic change to his company's business model due to major competitive challenges, his response was, "Well, for the few of us left, it would be like whistling through the graveyard--the business would be dead, and all that would be left are memories of what might have been."

I share this stark but vivid picture with you as a warning signal for all of us who are currently "doing OK," "have things under control," "are meeting our numbers" and so on. If our focus becomes an obsession of doing things better, driving efficiencies, or fine-tuning our plans, we are vulnerable to competitors (both old and new) who don't know the rules of our schoolyard and don't care. If we don't have an eye out, before we know it, the sand might be removed from our box, tag switches to dodge ball, and recess becomes study hall.

Of course, you should strive to streamline your organization, drive efficiencies, and do more with less. But the lesson is that continuous improvement is the opposite of innovation, and innovation is what drives dramatic, positive change and blocks the competitive threats of organizations that want our business.

So don't let your milestones become headstones, dedicate 10 percent of your thinking and your resources to innovation--speculating, scheming, and pondering questions like: "What if we give the product away and really focus on selling services? What would customers do if we send champagne as well as roses after screwing up a project? How about we focus on making our intellectual property our competitive advantage and outsource everything else?"

If you proactively balance your existing model of efficiency with a portion of innovation, you'll not only keep your organization alive, but you’ll be whistling a happy tune.

* I can't remember from whom I heard this. If it was you, please contact me, and I'll give you credit for it in a future article.

Tags: differentiation, selling services, professional services, leadership

“Looking back over my career, I have never made a tough change that I haven’t wished I had made a year or so earlier.” This confession* comes from Andrew Grove, chairman of Intel and a person who has faced a tough problem or two over his career. Just about all of us, when facing tough decisions, can well relate--it is much more inviting to hesitate and procrastinate than make a choice that you just don’t want to deal with.

In retrospect, it is fairly easy (although not always comfortable) to look back upon major decisions and discover that there was plenty of information available early on to justify/confirm/demand the decision. In fact, in almost all cases of importance it is not a lack of cost-benefit justification that slows or stalls big decision making, it is the defenders of the status quo, Fear and Dread.

Here is an example: Think about senior management in a product company (maybe your company) who are faced with overwhelming data supporting the business need to transition from product-centric to services-led. Yet behind these logical facts are lingering feelings of unease that stall moving ahead. Fear is one of those feelings, because the company’s future (and that of the executives) may be at risk if things go wrong. Also, executives may question their ability to lead and their organization’s ability to implement the necessary transition. They probably also feel Dread when anticipating all the hassle (challenging the organizational culture and dealing with individual personalities) involved in bringing about a change of this magnitude. Is it any wonder that more meetings are scheduled and another study is commissioned (good for consultants!)? Often, the logical, required action is delayed for months (or sometimes years). Sadly, what could have been a bold move preempting the competition becomes a desperate reaction to catch up with the field.

A little Fear and Dread are a part of all decisions, but they really become a problem when dealing with those big, complex, gooey issues that have potential for major impact, either good or bad. You may be facing this type of situation right now; so might your prospects as they mull over your professional services proposals.

Here are three things to do to accelerate important decision making:

1. Realize that Fear and Dread will be a part of any major decision, and consider their impact when building your proposals and communications. Be prepared to speak about that which is not often spoken.
2. Face Fear through risk mitigation. Analyze all the potential bad outcomes of the decision and develop actions to eliminate them. Involve key players in the discussion to talk about options to lessen risks. Just stating the issues up front and demonstrating action will greatly lower the underlying fear level.
3. Lessen the hassle factor. Think through all the potential personal negative impacts on the people making the decision. Plan out steps to lessen their hassles and communicate what will be done to make things easier and less personally burdensome. Give examples where these steps have worked.

Tough decisions are, well, tough! Taking too much time to make them just postpones and prolongs the pain. Address Fear and Dread head on to compress the cycle of decision making. In most all cases, fast is better than slow. Have a need for speed.


* Only the Paranoid Survive. Andrew Grove. Doubleday. 1996.

Tags: leadership, differentiation, selling services

I am always fascinated about the possibilities of applying concepts successful in one arena to another: What can research scientists and emergency room physicians learn from each other? Do any best practices from successfully running bowling alleys transfer to selling technical services? I don’t know, but it is interesting to ponder.



Hence, when I learned that Austin, our three-and-a-half-year-old grandson was a “Little Ninja” practicing the ancient art of karate, it made me think along those lines. What might a businessperson learn from Ninjas, those covert agents of feudal Japan that specialized in unorthodox warfare? Are their any attitudes or strategies that were effective for them that would be of value to a business executive or software seller?

I knew from history that the traditional Samurai warriors of feudal Japan had a culture of strict rules about honor, and highly detailed, well-established, not-to-be-varied-from rules of engagement. Although potentially quite powerful, they were very slow to move forward and loathe change. Sounds to me like a lot of big, well-established companies don’t you think? :’>>>?

Much fewer in number than the Samurai, the Ninjas knew they could not win against them head-to-head; it would be a disaster. Therefore, they adopted an entirely different approach. Their strategy was not guided by brute strength and regimentation, but by espionage, surprise, and stealth.

Maybe smaller businesses could apply these Ninja concepts to defeat their much larger, seemingly more powerful rivals? As a good researcher, I thought it best to test this hypothesis with an actual practitioner. So I asked Austin what a good Ninja did. His reply was swift, succinct, and insightful, “Papa, move quick and grab tight.” Yes, that was it, in its elegant simplicity!

Are you the leader of a Ninja organization battling a Samurai business for market share? Don’t play their game--you will lose. Don’t commission another traditional market study or call another planning meeting--move quick and grab tight. Use feints (e.g., press releases, rumors, etc., about aligning with other Samurais to defeat your foes) to confuse your competitors about your true aims and stall their reactions. Launch multiple new offerings in niche markets that you know they do not want to invest in, make bold guarantees that their legal departments will never allow. Think different, act different, have fun. Use surprise and tenacity to differentiate...eventually you will dominate.

Tags: leadership, differentiation, selling services

Would you like to get more from your current resources?



Would you like to get higher billable hours from your technical talent?



Would you like to gain a distinct competitive advantage?

Join us for…

Leading and Managing Technical Talent:

Turning Technical Experts into Trusted Advisors

One-day Workshop

October 25, 2010

San Diego, CA

2010 Service Industry Summit

Technical experts who achieve trusted advisor status with their customers provide your organization with a distinct competitive advantage. Their value to your organization is immense. Yet, on average, only about five percent of technical talent enjoys this special relationship.

This one-day, highly interactive workshop teaches the critical concepts, practices, methods, and tools required to effectively lead and manage your technical talent. Implementing what is taught will help you increase the number of your trusted advisors and improve the competencies of all your people to add more value for your customers and more value to your organization.



There are two ways to attend:

1. Attend the pre-summit workshop for only $799


2. Attend the workshop and the Summit

LEARN MORE

What Makes this Workshop Unique?

Dr. Jim Alexander, the workshop leader, has conducted five studies (including the industry leading Transitioning Technical Experts into Trusted Advisors) to determine the best practices that separate the very best from all the rest. In addition, he as consulted and trained organizations on this topic for over 15 years. Therefore, everything taught is research-based, yet highly practical—and actionable. Participants will leave this hands-on session motivated to use the information and tools learned to immediately improve the performance of their technical talent.

Who Should Attend?

Any executive or manager who has responsibility for technical talent who interact with your customers and all others looking for ways to improve profitable growth.

What You Will Learn

• The benefits gained from increasing your number of trusted advisors.

• Highlights from Alexander’s latest trusted advisor research.

• What trusted advisors do that others don’t do.

• Where your people are on the Technical Talent Continuum.

• How your people stack up today on the Trusted Advisor Assessment.

• The six trust builders.

• The 10 commandments of trust-based consulting.

• The 12 success levers.

• The four trusted advisor capabilities.

• The six business development roles.

• Core relationship skills.

• Why everyone who touches the customer needs to sell.

• Influencing with integrity.

• Influencing the senior executive.

• Creating value.

• Steps to increasing your people’s business acumen.

• Special issues in managing knowledge workers.

• How to assess your technical force.

LEARN MORE

Tags: managing technical talent, professional services, selling services, training

Depending on the maturity of your industry, your competitor’s strategy, and your competitor’s dealings with distribution, services can differentiate you in a really big way. The more complex your products, the more they cost the customer; and the more mission critical they are to your customer’s business, the more the value-packing promise of services. Leading services researchers note from their studies that more and more companies in tough competitive markets are looking at services to yield competitive advantage (Brown, Gustafsson and Witell, 2009). If your competitors don’t have full portfolios of strong service offerings or if they don’t know how to sell them, this is a huge opportunity for you if you embrace the challenge.

Give your customers what they need, want, and will pay for while locking out everyone else.

GIST: Services are the drivers of market dominance.

Tags: differentiation, selling services

Sadly, sometimes products are positioned to the customer with these words coming out of the salesperson’s mouth: “Our products don’t break. You don’t need any additional services,” or “It is so easy to implement our software. Just read the manual and you can do it, no worries.” This is all a bunch of baloney, especially if you are dealing with a fairly complex situation, an important customer process,
and/or the customer has little if any familiarity with the implementation.

Rare is the product that will not need some type of service in its life cycle, whether a tailored implementation, ongoing maintenance, software updates, refurbishing, and on and on. Not positioning this reality of life with the customer upfront is negligent selling.

Services appropriately sold up front greatly improves the probability that:
• The product will work the way it is supposed to work the first time.
• Greater functionality of the product will be utilized.
• Irritated customers ringing the bell of the fire engine, escalating their concerns up your organization ladder, will be greatly minimized.

GIST: Selling services upfront saves your organization, time, hassle, and money over the long term.

Tags: selling services

Here is a bit of blasphemy: Most customers view your products as commodities! Regardless of how truly unique or elegant or innovative your products are from your perspective, in most all buying situations, customers see no meaningful difference in the top two or three products in any category, across all industries, across all geographies.

Yes, I understand this may not be 100% factual, but from the perception of the customer it is true. Hence, the old adage comes into play: Perception is reality. Kind of a sobering thought.

Once customers have determined their short list of the two or three potential products or bundles of products that they will seriously consider buying, they almost always cast their product ballot based on what they believe are the best services that surround the product—services that will best ensure the product works as promised, keeps working, and does so with a minimum of hassle and added expense. It is important to note that, in many cases, they will pay a premium for your offering if they understand the higher value your services bring to them. In essence, they vote with their pocketbook.

Furthermore, if your salespeople were strategic and sold an assessment early in the buying process—before needs were clear and products were specified—the probability of you getting the product business later on is greatly improved, giving you the chance to shape the final recommendations early while building relationships with people key to the final purchase.

Tags: selling services

No, we're not channeling James Brown. In today’s digital age it’s important to give people what they want, when they want it, the way they want it. We get that. Anyone as serious about selling services as we are can’t ignore the important social media, which act as both a dispenser and collector of valuable information. Check us out!

Facebook link is here

Linkedin and Squidoo (perhaps Twitter) will follow shortly! For now, on behalf of everyone at Alexander Consulting, I hope you will actively participate in these exciting new mediums.

Unleash Your Hidden Sales Force
If it takes a year or more to get the product sales force effectively selling services, what can companies do in the meantime to generate results? Most executives can’t wait that long!

Relying entirely on the product sales force to drive services is not a good idea. There are several things one can do to kick-start seriously selling services. My latest book, “Seriously Selling Services,” shows you how to tap into your hidden sales force—what it takes to get your technical talent competent, confident, and committed to seriously selling services.

Pick up a copy of “Seriously Selling Services” to learn how you can unleash your hidden sales force. Available at SeriouslySelling.com or Amazon.com.

Click here to learn more or to purchase. Quantity discounts available.

Tags: professional services, selling services