RIP means ‘Rest in Peace’ or does it?

An architect friend of mine recently said to me “it’s all about RIP”.

“Come on Dave don’t go negative on me”.  I said!

“No you’ve got me wrong” he replied, “what I mean is that it’s all about”:

·         ‘Relevance

·         Information

·          Presentation’.

What we were wrestling with was how we could present their firm in such a way that it differentiates them from all their competitors.

 Dave had recently attended a seminar where the presenter had shown a clip from YouTube that showed a street busker playing a violin at the entrance to a railway station. After one hour of playing his violin to passersby he earned £37.40.

In actual fact, the ‘busker’ was a world class violinist that played concerts all over the world and was paid on average £40,000 a night!

So why the difference?

Well the passengers at the railway station could not see the ‘Relevance’ of the  buskers playing to their journey ,did not have any ‘Information’ regarding this guys prowess as a classical violinist or was not ‘Presented’ to them properly i.e. no stage, lighting or backing orchestra!

So what!

Well this story really helped us to clarify our thinking. We now had a datum or reference point to debate around/refer to.

It was certainly more meaningful and powerful than my Strategy Development Check List.

Try it.

If you need any help you know a man who can.

Keep records of your time and sales results.

I have just finished a very disappointing meeting with a planning consultant.

We met to produce a plan that would generate leads for his practice.

Prior to the meeting I asked him to review his records. I was hoping the information he held would help us to appreciate what had and had not worked for them in the past.

Sadly he reported that no real records had been made, so we really didn’t know what had worked for him.

So no information, no lessons learnt and no real feel for what to do next.

Eventually we manage to create an approximation of what had actually happened over the past 12-18 months.

Surprisingly, he had been very proactive in terms of prospecting, but had wasted endless amounts of time and money trying to develop relationships with people that had no ability or intention to place work with him.

So we created a simple score card.

Out of a total score of 10, anything that scored 4 or less we would decline, 5 to 7 we would ask a lot of questions prior to committing to invest our time, 8-10 we would respond fully.

So keeping records really does help you to understand what does and does not work for you.

If you haven’t got a simple system for keeping adequate records you know a man who does!

What you need is a ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’

Have you ever had a discussion with a potential client who won’t accept any of your contentions about what’s going on in the market and what might help, and all he does is talk about how difficult things are and that his firm is used and abused by bigger businesses further up the supply chain?

Well I managed to put up with such an experience for about 45 minutes.

For about the twentieth time he used the word ‘sharks’.

All I could visualise was this guy and all his colleagues being attacked and eaten by sharks, and that reminded me of the ‘Blue Ocean Concept’.

Being eaten by business ‘sharks’ together with all the other unattractive things associated with competition represents a Red Ocean i.e. everyone is killing each other to get the business. Whereas a Blue Ocean represents a business environment where completion has been minimised.

Easy to say but very difficult to do.

Examples of firms and their unique products and services are all around us i.e. Apple iPad, Emirates, and Toyota etc

But how does a scaffolding company avoid competition?

Well tune in next week for the next episode!

If you need to know sooner, then you know the right man to contact..............Terry O’Mahony

IS SOMEONE MEASURING YOU UP?

You never know when someone is taking your measure.

I have just had a meeting cancelled at the very last minute. Bugger!

As we all know it's especially gauling when we have prepared thoroughly, have put people off from making an appointments with us and when you have gone out of your way to be at the meeting point on time. Bugger.

Well what’s this got to do with contacts, prospects or clients taking our measure.

Because, that’s what this prospect is doing, I think. He’s checking me out to establish how keen I am to get his business, whether he can rely on me regardless of setbacks, if I am willing or capable of sticking to the task once commissioned or am I merely a patient person!

It can feel uncomfortable, problematic or even threatening when you realise people are taking our measure or checking us out.

If we are able, committed and professional we have nothing to fear

So OK our meeting didn’t take place, nothing has moved forward and I have wasted a fair amount of time on the matter.

But I know my prospect needs help, he’s under pressure to get things moving to bring in new concepts, initiatives and he’s being pulled from pillar to post.

So he needs me.

So OK I’ll ring him next week as requested.

Maybe that will give me an opportunity to take his measure!

If you need to know more, let me know.

DO THIS AND WIN!

I was at one of my favourite ‘Construction Forums’ earlier this week.

I was asked, by a very young ‘rooky’ salesman who worked for a company that specialises in the manufacture and installation of historic stone masonry, “what are the three most important things in salesmanship?

Well I said “ on the assumption your firms marketing strategy is creating an appropriate platform for the various service offerings, makes your offer stand out from the competition and provides  you with relevant sales leads”, these are my top three:

1. plan your work and work your plan
2. see as many ( qualified ) prospects as possible
3. find out what the prospects problems are i.e. what is his ‘PAIN’

Once having realised he was desperately serious I engaged my brain and thought of a few more relevant issues:

• ask questions and listen intently
• make notes/keep records
• manage and guard your time
• do everything in priority order
• qualify (no pain-no interest)
• help prospects to appreciate what their real problems are, help them to determine their options and provide information to support their contentions.
• never let your firm let a client or prospect down
• don’t forget your contacts, prospects and clients forget you-and never forget them

After about two hours, he seemed impressed, so was I, I think I actually told him more than I knew!

Unfortunately, I forgot his name and forgot to get his contact details.

So if you have any problems associated with the above you know a man who can help!

Key Sales Issue: Find ways to see enough people!

How does seeing people lead to orders?

Because people make decisions!

However, within government and big business (where very complex/mission critical or public interest issues are involved) their systems and procurement processes tend to determine who gets what contracts; but in all other smaller organisations decisions are made by people.

So if you never get to meet the people i.e. decision makers, how can you influence them to your advantage?

So you need to be on the look out to be meeting and seeing as many of the ‘right’ people, as possible. I tend to view it in context of an escalator; the moment you stop putting parcels on the bottom tread (i.e. meeting people) nothing comes off the top tread.

So you need to see the people.

But that’s easier to say than do I hear you say.

No, not really. Business is always where you are. Opportunity is where you are at any given moment.  If you don’t believe me just look around you now and really look hard for the basis of an opportunity! Perato says you have an 80% chance of doing so.

So  all you need to do is find out where your ‘type’ of business opportunity pipeline is and insert yourself in it, i.e. if you’re a chartered structural engineer you need to associate with property owners, tenants, architects and project managers.etc

They are in the pipeline, so are you and by association you can deal yourself into the action.

And remember once you have met, traded stories and contact details, don’t forget them and don’t let them forget you!

I do everything in importance of order!

Well don’t you?

After all its just common sense isn’t it?

Well not always!

I have lost track of the number of times I have found myself doing things out of priority or sequence because I didn’t:

• realise I was doing so
• want to do it at that moment in time
• know how to, etc

Well I learned a long time ago that there are never enough hours in a day. I can never do or achieve every thing I want to do in my day, but I know that I definitely need to attempt to do the most important things first.

But what is important?

Obviously something is either important or not important.

But is it also urgent or not?

Well thanks to Stephen Covey of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People fame, we can simply determine an items priority:

	URGENT	NOT URGENT
IMPORTANT	Return a call from an important client	Finish reading my latest business book, magazine or article
NOT IMPORTANT	Catch the last post so a document gets to its destination in time but its content is of little value or significance	Get my car cleaned so I feel better

As a rule I start every day by compiling my ‘to do’ list.

I put each item in the most appropriate box. I am then in a position to more easily assign a priority to every item. The sequence I follow is to visit each box in the following sequence:

• Important/Urgent
• Important/Not Urgent
• Urgent/Not Important
• Not Important/Not Urgent ones.

By so doing every item is given a priority.

All that’s now required is to follow it faithfully and complete every item or task!

But come on we live in the real world I hear you say. Every item is never done.

That’s right; circumstances will change throughout the day. But you start off knowing your priorities, you amend them as necessary and reprioritise.

  

I have done this for years and it works for me.

Do you think it would help you?

 If you need help let me know.