We hope you enjoy this guest blog post written by Michael Boyette, the executive editor of the Rapid Learning Institute Selling Essentials e-learning site and editor of the Top Sales Dog Blog. 

Contact Michael Boyette via email at topsalesdog@rapidlearninginstitute.com or connect via Twitter.

Growing your business is hard enough as it is. So of course the last thing you need is to worry about steady, reliable customers leaving you for no reason.

Here’s the thing; your customer could be sending you a message that could be a precursor to jumping ship. It’s up to you to notice that message and act on it before they’re gone. The good news is there is a way to spot these opportunities before they lead to trouble.

Think of your customers like an iceberg.

At best, about five percent of what they are actually thinking is on display at any given time.

Even the most loyal customers have reasons for keeping you in the dark. Perhaps they’re worried you will take advantage of their business. Maybe they’re also in talks with another salesperson and trying to keep it quiet. So they closely cling to their cards and say what you want to hear. Right until it’s too late for you to do anything about it.

But customers often drop hints that something’s wrong. These seemingly throwaway remarks are similar to icebergs: On the surface, they don’t seem like much to worry about. But, in reality, trouble lies just below the surface.

In business, there is no such thing as an offhand remark. Any comment that relates to the existing relationship, the customer’s operations, or your products and services requires your immediate, undivided attention.

Even more troubling, “conversational icebergs” often are buried in seemingly positive comments. Maybe your buyer is trying to avoid confrontation or soften the insult, so they bury the criticism alongside some good words. For sales professionals, it can be easy to listen to the flattering remark and miss the actual meaning.

Conversational icebergs generally come in the form of statements like these:

• “Your software is really powerful. I wish the user interface was a little easier to understand, but overall it was good.”

• “The new equipment works fine. It’s just that some of my people are really low-tech. We’ll have to spend a lot of time training them.”

• “Though your prices are a little high, I told my supervisor we appreciate your great service.”

• “I’m going to get your invoice paid as soon as possible. Accounting just needs to see an itemized list of your charges.”

Each of these statements has concerns embedded within them, which could easily be overlooked. But when you do spot them, it’s time to drop everything and mend the underlying difficulty. Some examples:

• “You said the user interface could be easier. What kinds of problems are you encountering?”

• “You said some of your people will need training? Is that something we need to address?

• “Help me understand why your boss thought our prices are too high.”

• “I’ll be happy to provide Accounting with that itemized backup. But they never asked for it before. What’s up?”

Of course, sometimes you’ll need to go looking for conversational icebergs. How can you do that? By sending out signals, or pings, and listening to the response.

Pings are proactive: They come from you – not your customer.

You send them out and listen for a response. Here are some examples:

• “We just sent you our first invoice – I just want to confirm it included all the information your accounting department needed.”

• “In the past, we have allowed three business days to ensure prompt delivery times. Is this still sufficient to meet your demands?”

• “I understand YOU recognize our value proposition, but is your boss on the same page with this? Should we explain it to him in further detail?”

Of course, you should not dwell on the downfalls or ping your buyers too often. You also don’t want to solicit vague questions such as “Are we doing well?” But asking specific questions designed to ensure customers are receiving what they want or anticipate can help you avoid disaster.

What started in the late 90’s as “Casual Friday’s” is now standard dress code all week long for many working professionals. Just as fashion shifts to be more relaxed, so have email communications. Have you noticed? Messaging has become much less stilted, more familiar and conversational. We call it business casual email.

Case in point is an email I received from the President, Barack, with a one-word subject line: “Hey”.  The brief message was an appeal for an end of year online donation. I was a prime target because I supported Barack back in 2008 with a micro-donation. Yes, I know Barack didn’t actually write that email. Still, the extreme casualness of it intrigued me. I asked others what they thought. As it turns out, most actually like the colloquial approach because it grabbed their attention.

It inspired me to run an experiment. I signed up to receive email from the Republican primary candidates. I figured this would be a fun way to collect a group of emails to examine.

As the campaign emails arrived, I filed them into a folder and am only just now looking at them as a group to write this post. I only received emails from Mitt and Rick; I didn’t receive emails from Newt and Ron and I’m still not sure why.

Anyway, scan the email subject lines below and take note of the following:

• simple language
• one to three words max
• mostly lowercase
• written as you might to a friend
• insider references

The email subject lines all strike a very casual tone. However, the message style varies by person. Summed up:

• Barack’s two messages are succinct, text-only, including one or two hyperlinks. One greeting is “Friend” and the other is personalized with my name. Signoffs are simple: “To 2012” and “Thank you”.
• Mitt’s two messages are also brief and both include links to video.  They open with “Friend,” and close expressing thanks.
• Rick’s nine messages are published in patriotic image-laden red-white-and-blue html formats (with the exception of one text-only message). None contain a salutation; otherwise, they resemble letters, complete with his scanned signature in closing.

Stripping away politics, what can we learn to apply to our own communications with prospects and customers?

• Know your target audience
  Wildly different interpretations of business casual attire create wrinkles in corporate dress codes. The same is true for business casual email. Rick’s formal letter message body was likely carefully crafted to resonate with his base. Beware: coming across as too familiar could be as off-putting as wearing flip-flops in some workplaces.
  When in doubt, err on the conservative side of business casual.
• Be personal
  All of the subject lines in my sampling looked like they came from a friend. Subject lines that read more like titles are out of fashion.
  Next time you send a prospecting email, try adopting a more casual, friendly tone.
• Spark curiosity
  “Wheaties”. That subject line is both thought provoking and timely for Rick’s constituents who recognize its reference to a positive comment made by a CNN consultant after a debate.
  Be relevant by relating your email messages to current events in your prospects’ and customers’ worlds.
• Connect emotionally
  Video is a very effective way to connect emotionally, as Mitt’s communications team knows. Video need not be over-produced. In fact, we are huge proponents of more ad hoc and authentic business casual video—a term first coined by Cliff (Pollan), VisibleGains CEO and written about by David (Meerman Scott) in the latest edition of his book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR. 
  Follow up your next meeting with an impromptu video message and include meeting notes and other supporting documentation. It’s easy. Got an iphone? Download our free app from the itunes store.

Take note of the business casual emails landing in your Inbox. Experiment with your tone, word choice and video to connect more personally with prospects and customers.

Need a lift? Then please read this New York Times opinion piece:  It’s not about sales strategy—it’s about an amazing antipoverty organization called LIFT.  (With lessons for every salesperson, I promise!) 

LIFT got a terrific “lift” when David Bornstein of the Opinionator column of the New York Times highlighted this tremendous nonprofit in its “Fixes” column.

“One of the most innovative organizations working to re-imagine poverty alleviation. It was founded by college students in 1998, and most of the work is still conducted by student volunteers…If the American Dream is to be resuscitated for many of nation’s poor, there is a great deal that we can learn from them.”

It’s a great read in-and-of-itself. I hope you support LIFT. Spread the word. Donate. Encourage someone to volunteer there. And, feel a tiny bit more hopeful about our world.

Also, in my view, LIFT’s philosophy has some interesting relevance to the challenges that face salespeople trying to navigate the slippery slope of prospect engagement. I by no means equate the two in terms of moral virtue. But, all of us in our work and personal lives benefit when our communication and relationship skills are honed to better empower ourselves and others.

Much is written in sales about how to empower the prospect to feel confident about making a “change”. The importance of the relationship between Salesperson and Prospect has received much attention. Frequently suggested “tips” include:

• Be supportive
• Be empathic
• Build trust
• Make it personal
• Listen
• Do not judge
• Identify goals, aspirations and fears

Here’s what columnist Bornstein had to say about LIFT’s tools of success. Notice that all of the tips listed above are strategically embedded in LIFT’s blueprint:

 LIFT’s approach is grounded in the principle that change happens through relationships.“The sheer act of two people coming together, sharing their strengths in a trusting relationship, is the most important first step in creating transformation,” explains Kirsten Lodal, LIFT’s chief executive and co-founder. “It’s the portal from which people are able to access opportunity in all its many dimensions.”

“When we start dealing with poverty,” notes Lodal, “we turn off our brains about what has worked over time for the middle and upper classes in America.” It’s not just benefits and material resources—but plans, relationships, beliefs and aspirations—the kinds of things LIFT helps its clients to think about for themselves every day.

If this sounds soft, it isn’t. LIFT has spent more than a decade systematizing what amounts to a social technology. It has developed a set of working principles for working with clients. Among them are: be humble, transparent, and friendly; focus on strengths; and beware of your own biases. The advocates all use technology (like the digital natives they are) to track every meeting, as well as clients’ progress on their goals.

The take-away for me is that helping people change—whether it’s overcoming homelessness or investing in a new technology for your business—requires what Bornstein describes as an “integrated process of human development.” In other words: “a sale is more than just a sale.” For change to happen, people need:

• tools to overcome pessimistic feelings and barriers to entry;
• the drive to aspire for better things;
• cheerleaders to support them, to feel that they are not alone; and
• they need you to take the time to get close and personal with them.

What type of communication “lifts” you or your prospect to feel empowered to forge ahead?

Full Disclosure: my daughter has worked for over five years at LIFT, four years as a student volunteer while at Tufts University, and for the past year and a half as a site coordinator for LIFT in Washington, D.C.

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to Visibleains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

One of the hardest things for sales people to do when prospecting is to communicate the benefits of their solution to the right stakeholder—especially knowing they’ll likely be communicating first through a gatekeeper.

According to research conducted by The Bridge Group, Inc., on average it takes 9.3 touches to get the first meeting.   And, you need that first meeting to start the sales conversation, right?

Not necessarily.  TimeTrade didn’t.

They were able to send a single email with content so compelling it was digested and shared with 10 others before the first meeting—which, by the way, TimeTrade successfully secured within 10 days of sending the email.

Situation
TimeTrade President and CEO Gary Ambrosino craved a new way to open doors.  He was excited about the idea of including video in email to personally connect with prospects’ pain points and highlight bottom-line impacts of using TimeTrade’s online scheduling system.  In the short time it takes to view a video, Gary was confident he could present TimeTrade’s value proposition and actually use its scheduling product in the associated call to action to motivate prospects to book a first meeting at the very moment they were jazzed about the offering.

Solution
TimeTrade used VisibleGains applications and best practices to create a single communication including:

• A personal video introduction with an animated overview; and
• A set of actions the prospect could choose to do such as:
• watching a product demonstration,
• learning more from information presented on the TimeTrade website and
• booking a meeting.

Results

• One email sent to one person who shared it with 10 different people generated 14 views

• 10 Days later, TimeTrade had a booked meeting

• 90 Days later, TimeTrade had a signed deal

“With a single link, our sales rep in the prospecting process was able to reach and touch 10 people, leading to closed business.”
- Gary Ambrosino, President and CEO, TimeTrade 

Conclusion
Getting a first meeting is a key milestone in the selling process, often requiring Herculean effort and tons of guesswork by salespeople about the right time to follow-up.  The initial back and forth exchange between a sales person and prospect kicks off a salesperson’s direct involvement in the prospect’s buying process.

Salespeople open doors and earn the right to subsequent interactions when they demonstrate a persistent understanding of their prospect’s pain points.  Sending compelling content and following up when a prospect is engaged with it (thanks to the alerts sent by VisibleGains in this example when email is opened and content is read) helps salespeople get the first meeting, advance the sale and close the deal.

Are you taking full advantage of the opportunity to start sales conversations in email?

TimeTrade is the world leader in online appointment scheduling systems used by businesses to create new customers, accelerate the sales and service process and make it easy and fast to respond to customers—24/7. TimeTrade’s scheduling software solutions are built on the flexible TimeTrade Appointment Cloud SaaS platform that has the power to scale up to meet the real-time scheduling demands of the largest deployments.

This is a follow-up to my blog post, Do Not Create Resistant Donkeys! in which I introduced WEAC and STRONG sales tactics (mnemonics coined by me). WEAC tactics can turn your Prospect into a “donkey”, resistant to change, while STRONG tactics help unleash your Prospect’s inner racehorse, galloping across the sales finish line. This is a follow-up to a webinar we delivered.

In a series of blog posts, I explore how salespeople can employ STRONG tactics to put the Prospect in charge of change and feel empowered or strong. In my previous post,   No judgment-allow all issues to be on the table, I focused on the N in STRONG sales tactics.

Next (and last!) stop is G:

• S: SUPPORT the change process through reflections

• T: TRUST your prospect’s perspective of the change balance sheet

• R: RESPECT how difficult the change process is

• O: OFFER ENCOURAGEMENT for taking action

• N: NO JUDGING—you may be surprised what you learn 

• G: GUIDE, but do not drive the process

Why?

You’ve heard the expression: “You can lead a horse (or donkey?!) to water, but you can’t make it drink.” Well, people, like horses, will only do what they have a mind to do. To make change happen, it’s critical your Prospect hear her or himself arguing for change by articulating the desire, reasons, and need for things to be different, as well as the belief it can be done (“I can do it! Yes, I can!”) A guiding approach will empower your Prospect to fully engage and be much less likely to provoke that dreaded “resistant donkey”!

How?

• Be curious. You can best guide if you are truly open to learning from your Prospect.
• Follow the 20/80 rule:  talk 20% of the time and listen the other 80%.
• Engage in a dialogue, not a monologue.
• Be careful not to come across as manipulative. Your agenda needs to be about helping your Prospect make the best decision-not about closing the sale at all costs.
• Heed our marketing intern’s advice in her terrific post: base your sales “story” on your Prospect’s specific needs—not your “bells and whistles”—or risk “the sound of crickets on the other end of the phone.”
• Reflect back your Prospect’s own words whenever possible. Sales writer Art Sobczak explains: “If you ask about a difficulty or challenge they have, and then address that in your recommendation using their exact language, they won’t object to their own words.”

TIPS

• Do not be afraid to share your ideas with your Prospect. Your perspectives are a critical part of the conversation, as long as they are presented with respect and curiosity and after—NOT BEFORE—you have  listened to your Prospect.
• Remember to listen for the “confidence” message too. If your Prospect has concerns about her or his or ability to make change happen, then take the time to offer encouragement. I address this issue in detail in my earlier blog in this series.

Listen to yourself:  Who is arguing for change? You or your Prospect?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

Image source: National Archives of Australia

This blog is inspired by David Meerman Scott’s recent post where he adeptly writes about lessons learned from political stories and applies them to marketing strategy.  And learning from DMS, I  reprint his disclaimer:

“This is a marketing blog, not a political blog. I am not talking up the merits of any candidates but rather using their marketing as examples for all to learn from.” 

So with that said….

It’s the political season and everyone is talking about which presidential candidate connects best with the voter. Genuine? Trustworthy? Feels my pain? Has a viable plan to meet my needs, hopes and dreams?

Spend an hour or two reading B2B tweets about effective sales communication and you’re likely to hear the same chatter about sales “to-dos”:

• Engage in a dialogue not a monologue.
• Really Listen
• Be Curious
• Build Trust

All of these admonitions could come from a campaign manager or sales manager. Hence, the lessons from one can be easily applied to the other—Campaigner can learn from Salesperson and Salesperson from Campaigner.

The predictably intense focus on every word, facial expression, question, or answer muttered by Candidates during primary season, coupled with 24/7 polling, yields data galore on every perception, impression, and reaction of the Voter. Consequently we can all learn from politics about “closing the sale”.

Enter the satirical New Yorker piece on what a “President Romney” might sound like given his penchant for what the New York Times and Boston Globe referred to as Romney’s “guessing” game.

In December 2011, the New York Times reported:

For a candidate who is exceedingly risk-averse, Mr. Romney has developed an unlikely penchant for trying to puzzle out everything from voters’ personal relationships to their ancestral homelands.

“Sisters?” he asked. (Nope, stepmother and stepdaughter.) “Your husband?” he wondered. (No, just a friend from the neighborhood.) “Mother and daughter?” he guessed. (Cousins, actually.)

The results can be awkward. “Daughter?” he asked a woman sitting with a man and two younger girls at the diner in Tilton, N.H., on Friday morning. Her face turned a shade of red. “Wife.”

And the creative license taken from the New Yorker in response to the Times’ report:

Chancellor Merkel looked somewhat taken aback at being mistaken for Sarkozy’s aunt. When she’d regained her composure, she said to President Romney, “I know you will have much to add on the question of the debt crisis in the euro zone, Mr. President.”

President Romney looked at the German Chancellor carefully, up and down. “I’d say you’d go about one-forty, give or take five pounds,” he said. “Am I in the ballpark?”

So what can be learned from all of this? All of the candidates have positive and negative relational qualities and moments.

This same New York Times article gives Romney some positive spin:

Mr. Romney has plenty of moments when he wins positive reactions and seems to make a genuine link, undercutting his caricature as robotic. And he is hardly giving up on mastering the art of the soft sell: he personally insisted on spending more hours talking to voters this election and fewer sequestered in his Boston headquarters.

The point I want to make here is that this guessing game is not something to be taken lightly! On the positive side, candidate Romney in this spoof took on a curious stance towards his “Prospect”. And he was engaging in a dialogue not a monologue. But was he really listening? And what about trust?

What’s wrong with guessing you might be musing? The problem is that guessing can make the receiver feel embarrassed and offended. It is hard enough to pull off when there is a high level of comfort and familiarity between two individuals.

There has been a lot written in sales blogs about the importance of taking the time to build trust and about the necessity for matching the type of communication to your Prospect with the stage or level of “intimacy” of the relationship. My colleague Bill Carney recently addressed  this critical issue in a lighthearted way, focusing on email communications. Give it a read—in addition to a good laugh—you’ll learn a lot about this “matching” issue, which will help you to avoid some of Romney’s missteps.

Making the sale—in the marketplace or in politics—needs to be done in a thoughtful, callibrated step-by-step way:

• Allowing lots of opportunities to understand the concerns and hopes of your “Prospect”; and
• Listening instead of assuming and having your conversation content and style attuned to the level of intimacy you have at any given time with your Prospect.

Yes, being curious is an important quality in building the relationship BUT curiosity is not a green light for guessing. There may be a time to play the “guessing game” with your Prospect, but the price of entry to the competition must be earned.

What sales lessons have you learned from observing the 2012 Candidates?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

This is a follow-up to my blog post, Do Not Create Resistant Donkeys! in which I introduced WEAC and STRONG sales tactics (mnemonics coined by me). WEAC tactics can turn your Prospect into a “donkey”, resistant to change, while STRONG tactics help unleash your Prospect’s inner racehorse, galloping across the sales finish line. This is a follow-up to a webinar we delivered.

In a series of blog posts, I explore how salespeople can employ STRONG tactics to put the Prospect in charge of change and feel empowered or strong. In my previous post, Offer encouragement for change if the Prospect decides to take action, I focused on the O in STRONG sales tactics.

Next stop is N:

• S: SUPPORT the change process through reflections

• T: TRUST your prospect’s perspective of the change balance sheet

• R: RESPECT how difficult the change process is

• O: OFFER ENCOURAGEMENT for taking action

• N: NO JUDGING—you may be surprised what you learn 

• G: GUIDE, but do not drive the process

Why?

The change process can be a vulnerable experience for a Prospect. He or she may be vigilant of being judged negatively—as not being smart, brave, experienced, or capable enough to manage the change process. The DANGER is that your Prospect may avoid change entirely in order to avoid feeling this way. Furthermore, if your prospect feels judged, he or she will not honestly share information and feelings with you—further derailing the process.

How?

1. Avoid “hot words”.Salesperson#1: “Wow, that is a horrible problem! If you don’t know who’s reading your emails, how do you know whom to call first? You must waste a lot of time!”

   vs.

   Salesperson#2: “When you don’t know who’s reading your emails, how do you organize your day each morning and decide whom to call first?”

   There is quite a bit of judgment in #1 such as the use of the “hot” words “horrible” and “waste”. When a Prospect feels judged, he or she may get stirred up and decide to go into shutdown mode. He or she may feel annoyed or embarrassed at being judged or just overwhelmed and hopeless by the gravity of the problem. Once this happens, your Prospect’s main goal is to stop feeling bad—as opposed to being motivated to make a change.

   There is curiosity and a supportive stance in #2. The Prospect is more likely to relax and focus on the problem at hand instead of needing to cope (via shutdown mode) with all kinds of negative emotions. Furthermore, he or she is more likely to take the time to explore the problem further and will thereby have more “emotional bandwidth” to be able to listen to possible solutions.

2. Avoid sarcasm
3. Use validating language such as:  “I get that.” “That makes sense.” “Sure.” “Yep.”
4. If you find yourself getting frustrated with your Prospect, STOP and ask yourself, “Am I judging my Prospect?” (“They are never going to change! They just don’t get it!”) If the answer is “yes”, then a great way to shift your attitude is to adopt a CURIOUS stance. “I would like to understand more about this concern that you have. When did it begin? Can you say more about this?”
5. Avoid leading questions in which there is clearly a preferred or desirable answer. Such a question implies that not making a change is an undesirable option-hence the Prospect feels judged unless he or she responds affirmatively to your question.INSTEAD OF: “Wouldn’t it be better if you just took the plunge and made a change now?”TRY: “I have had clients with similar concerns. Would you like to hear about how they dealt with such concerns and how they are feeling now?”

Tips:

• Do not be afraid of “negative” talk.  If your Prospect is concerned that “it might not be the right time”, go ahead and reflect that back. You may be surprised. When presented in a nonjudgmental way, it may actually mobilize your Prospect toward a deeper consideration of both sides and ultimately mobilize him or her toward change.
• Listen to yourself: Are you truly open to hearing everything on your Prospect’s mind?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

This is the next in a series of blog posts in which I explore how salespeople can employ S.T.R.O.N.G. sales tactics to put the Prospect in charge of change to feel empowered or strong.

I first introduced WEAC and STRONG sales tactics (mnemonics coined by me) in a post: Do Not Create Resistant Donkeys! which was a follow-up to a webinar we delivered. WEAC tactics can turn your Prospect into a “donkey”, resistant to change, while STRONG tactics help unleash your Prospect’s inner racehorse, galloping across the sales finish line.

In my last post,  R: RESPECT how difficult the change process is, I focused on the R in STRONG sales tactics. Next stop is O:

• S: SUPPORT the change process through reflections

• T: TRUST your prospect’s perspective of the change balance sheet

• R: RESPECT how difficult the change process is

• O: OFFER ENCOURAGEMENT for taking action

• N: NO JUDGING—you may be surprised what you learn 

• G: GUIDE, but do not drive the process

Why?

Taking action requires a tremendous amount of energy and focus, as well as confidence. Encouragement is critical to keeping all of your Prospect’s “engines” firing.

How?

• Encourage your Prospect to keep a “list of benefits” relevant to the planned change on his or her desktop.
• Share customer success stories to show ways to proceed based on the successful experiences of others.
• Boost your Prospect’s self-confidence in the ability to create successful change by eliciting examples of successes your Prospect has already achieved. Also, remind your Prospect of his or her company’s ability to support a change.

“Tell me about a time that you were able to get your manager to facilitate a change?”

“When was the last time that your manager agreed with your identification of a problem needing attention?”

“In your view, what positive changes have taken place in your department recently?”

• Be confident about your Prospect’s ability to make change—your positive outlook can be contagious!

Tips:

• While it is important to inquire as to benefits and liabilities of change in earlier stages of the commitment, it is much more important in the “taking action” stage to focus on BENEFITS.

• Position your customer success stories on the PROCESS of change, not just on the outcome. Prospects are often unsure about their ability to do what it takes to make the change happen. Hearing about others’ similar concerns and courses of action will help boost confidence.

Listen to yourself: are you building up your Prospect’s confidence for taking action?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

This is another follow-up to my blog post, Do Not Create Resistant Donkeys! in which I introduced WEAC and STRONG sales tactics (mnemonics coined by me). WEAC tactics can turn your Prospect into a “donkey”, resistant to change, while STRONG tactics help unleash your Prospect’s inner racehorse, galloping across the sales finish line. We first introduced these concepts in the  webinar we delivered.

In a series of blog posts, I explore how salespeople can employ STRONG tactics to put the Prospect in charge of change and feel empowered or strong. Two previous posts focused on S: Support the change process through reflections and T: Trust your Prospect’s perspective of the change balance sheet.

Next stop is R:

• S: SUPPORT the change process through reflections

• T: TRUST your prospect’s perspective of the change balance sheet

• R: RESPECT how difficult the change process is

• O: OFFER ENCOURAGEMENT for taking action

• N: NO JUDGING—you may be surprised what you learn 

• G: GUIDE, but do not drive the process

Why?

Prospects often feel ambivalent about change. Don’t worry: this state need not lead to paralysis. Discomfort about change is a very normal and common experience. Offering your Prospect the permission to experience and explore the discomfort is the BEST way to avoid the resistant donkey.

How?

• Be authentic. No phony “I get it” comments.
• If you do not understand your Prospect’s perspective, try asking:  “Can you say more about that?  I really want to understand where you are coming from.”
• Be empathic:
  • Once you have a clear idea of a concern, let your Prospect know you can really see it from her or his point of view.
  • Try saying, “ Oh, I see.  That makes sense.  I get how that concern feels to you.”
• Don’t be afraid to hear about fears and other emotions.  Your Prospect can only habituate to uncomfortable emotions if he or she is listened to and validated.
• If you sound nervous, your Prospect will stop sharing and focus on making you feel better.
• Remember, you don’t need to take the fears away.  Your Prospect does not expect or want you to do that.  Listening patiently will be greatly appreciated AND will help facilitate a smoother change process.
• Be patient:  Taking the time early on to understand the “change” balance sheet will pay off later.
  • Do not cut off your Prospect, even if the communication seems repetitive.
  • If you are on a time schedule, your Prospect will stop sharing and focus on making you feel better.

Tips:

• Don’t just focus on the negatives of the status quo.  Understand the positives. If it were easy to change, your Prospect would have already done it.
• Listen to yourself. Do you sound confortable with your Prospect’s concerns and emotions?
• Believe in the process. Don’t bother if you are just “going through the motions”. The best way to help your Prospect is to be fully respectful of the challenging nature of the change process.

It’s normal for people to feel uncomfortable about change—demonstrate your respect for these feelings.

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

Photo Credit: nycstreets Flickr stream

An email at the top of the funnel is a compressed version of a face-to-face chat that you wish you could have. To be effective, you need to combine:

1. A pleasant hello (Subject Line)
2. One simple concept that someone wants to understand (Body)
3. A non-threatening way for someone to learn more (Additional Content via link or attachment)

Just like in the real-world, there are subtleties in the approach and execution of each of these that can lead to great success or complete failure.

SUBJECT LINES

Creating email subject lines can be intimidating. However, it need not be if you follow four guiding principles:

#1: Start your conversation in the subject line.
#2: Be personal.
#3: Offer something of value.
#4: Make the reader curious to learn more.

See our full blog post on subject lines.

EMAIL BODIES

Most email bodies at the top of the funnel fail because they include too much marketing gobbledygook and they assume that your prospect cares about you or your offering. They don’t. They simply care about meeting their own goals and learning more about their areas of interest. Here are the key things you should do here:

#1: Pick one concept to share
#2: Convey it simply and clearly
#3: Plant a seed with a 1 sentence value proposition
#4: Be brutal when editing (based on an honest assessment from an external source)

Of the above items, the most important is the last one. Listen to someone you trust answer the question “How would you react to this?” or use one of the tools from a market-leader, like:

• David Meerman Scott’s Gobbledygook Grader – http://gobbledygook.grader.com/
• Jill Konrath’s Value Proposition Generator – http://snapselling.com/resources/

ADDITIONAL CONTENT

When it comes to additional content, it’s hard to predict what the prospect really wants and how much time they really want to invest. The best approach is to combine:

• One short and focused item that you link to or attach that is an extension of the concept from the email body
• Within that one shared item (not in your email), you can also provide a few other links to other items that might pique their interest.

Think of it like the tasty morsel you are offered while wandering in the food court—you want them to take a bite and then take a look at other things that might be of interest. Patience here is critical—push too hard and they are gone.

Emails are more engaging when your message succinctly offers value, is conversational in tone and piques their interest with additional supporting content references.