Tag Archive for: Bill Caskey

Should The ‘Butler’ Way Be ‘Your’ Way?

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Forgive me for indulging you in the conversation of basketball. But I think if you’ll read this closely, there may be a message for you.

Butler University is in the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tourney. And the beauty is they are also the host team (it’s played this year in Butler’s hometown of Indianapolis).

But the reason this is important to you is the light I want to shine on what’s called The Butler Way. And make the case that the Butler Way should be Your Way.

Teamwork. Preparation. Fun.

The statistic that you should care about is 10 of the 12 players on the team are homegrown…right in Butler’s home state of Indiana. They don’t need massive travel budgets…they aren’t looking for the most sought after kids. They look for kids with talent, integrity and a predisposition to team work. If they’re a little shorter, OK. If they play below the rim instead of above the rim, that’s OK too. Because the Butler Way isn’t about getting the best players. It’s about having the best team. A huge difference.

There’s a Lesson Here For Salespeople and Business Leaders

Get the fundamentals right. Get the thinking right. Get your mind right.

If you get those right, you don’t have the be the sharpest knife in the drawer. You don’t have to have the quickest wit in the room. You don’t have to say ‘everything right’ to close the sale or acquire a piece of business. You don’t have to wear the latest fashion so you impress your prospect…in fact you don’t even have to impress your prospect. And you definitely don’t have to have the best price—because it ain’t about price.

Butler Coach Brad Stevens

Because the Butler Way is not about impressing anyone. It’s about playing within yourself–playing your game, not the other guy’s game. Having a ball doing it. Never getting rattled. Being really, really smart on the floor. And it’s about  a player being OK with scoring 24 points one game and 4 the next…and not getting bent out of shape about it.

I don’t know whether Butler has a chance to win it all. I do know this: that the tide is changing in our world. It’s not about being the biggest and overpowering today (politicos will recognize this as “too big to fail”).

You don’t have to have the biggest marketing budget–or the biggest booth at the tradeshow to win business. In fact, I would suggest that you have an advantage if you AREN’T big. (I’m quite sure that schools like Butler use their size as a recruiting advantage.) Those are NOT the fundamentals of business.

Here are Six Fundamentals to get you started–and these should be Your Way:

  • Listen to your prospect. They’ll tell you what they really want and what’s important to them. In other words, stop talking and pitching.
  • Do what’s right in the process. If there is a wrinkle in your product or service, bring it up upfront. Don’t hide it hoping your customer never sees it. It’s not good for your Karma.
  • Be of “integrity.” Meaning, if you’re thinking it on the inside, then say it on the outside. When you begin holding things back, you lose.
  • Be who you are. Know what you’re really good at and don’t try to ‘make things fit’ just to make a buck. It always seems like a good idea at the time, but seldom is. I can’t tell you how many clients are looking to cut clients because the fit just isn’t right–and some of that business in unprofitable.
  • Care. Doesn’t sound like a Harvard Business School strategy does it? But it will make massively more successful than some academic marketing concept.
  • Finally, have some fun. How many times have you been called on by someone who just doesn’t seem like they’re having much fun? I have, often. Take a lesson from Butler, and have some fun. Laugh a little. Celebrate. Don’t get rattled. And do the fundamentals right—let the outcome take care of itself.

Does Your Customer See Your Value As a 3? Or a 10?

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Just completed training for a company where most of their customers see them as 3’s rather than 10’s. Allow me to explain.

In the graphic, you’ll see two boxes…a 3 box and a 10 box on the outside. This is an illustration I drew today in a training for a company who often gets defaulted into a commodity. In other words, when it comes to “proprietary value” their customers see them as a 3 on the proverbial 1-10 scale.

In other words, what you really are is a 10–but your prospects and customers fail to see you there. You do “big box” work but they see you as a “small box” supplier. So what will you do about it?

One method is to educate your customer so they know “how to see you.” If they’ve become accustomed to you showing up when there’s a bid–or begging for business–or just answering calls, then it’s no wonder they see you as a 3.

As I told me client today, if you get the call when your customer is thinking about expansion or strategic planning or the highest level of value, then you are close to a 10.

But if you’re one of five bidders, then you have no relationship…and you’re likely a 3–or lower.

Recommendation

Make a list of the things that you do that most customers fail to see. Don’t overlook the little things…like one of the account execs today schedules quarterly meetings with their clients to make sure the client is getting the most out of the equipment they buy. That’s huge. Do they know that? Do you send a report of your findings up to the C-suite?

What are the other things that you do for your 10 clients? Now, go to the 3’s and educate them a little. Tell them how others use you–how they get the most value out of you.

And remember, if you’re thought of as a 3, it’s your fault, not theirs.

I Hope You Aren’t KEEPING Buyers From Buying – Like One BMW Dealership

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My wife really needs a new car. She just went back to work full time for her (telecom) company and she needs a new ride.

Since I have a BMW, I suggested she go and drive the X3 (small SUV).

We walked into the BMW dealership and asked if we could test drive one. We were told that our name in the database was assigned to a sales person who was busy with a prospect at the moment so we wouldn’t be able to drive one.

WHAT??!!!

“You  mean if I had $40,000 cash and wanted to buy that car, I couldn’t because “my salesperson” was busy?”

“That’s right, sir.” (And here I thought the auto market was struggling. Guess not). So we gave her our number and told her to have “our salesperson” call us. He never did.

So here’s my question to you: Do you practice “sales prevention” anywhere in your company? I know your answer will be a quick “NO!” But think about it for a moment. I’m sure the BMW dealer would answer “No”, too. But he actually does prevent sales…by his systems (or lack of).

Think about the following ‘points on the path to a sale:’

  • When the prospect first calls in to talk to someone….how does that sound? Does the prospect get “engaged” or just passed through? Does your voice mail system work to ‘help the caller?’
  • When you go out to the first call–do you send an agenda in advance? Do you have an agenda with you? Do you follow up with notes after the call? (I find most sellers fail miserably at these.)
  • When you come back to the office, so you take a few minutes to take notes so you don’t forget to follow up, or the important points?
  • When you go back out to meet with that person, do you lead with an ‘historical review’ of what you covered the first meeting–and any open items? Or do you just start in and hope you’re in the same place?
  • Are you constantly educating the customer as to where they are in your sales / their purchase cycle? Or, do you just assume he’ll follow you blindly?
  • And, when I go to your company website, does it help me sort out what I’m looking for…or give me mountains of links?

So, before you answer NO to my question above…answer those. I hope you’re practicing “Sales Facilitation” rather than “Sales Prevention.”

By the way, we ended up at the VW dealership, test drove a Tiguan (Oh, how I hate their model names) and she loved it. No X3 in her future.

When A Sales Person Gets Nervous, Bad Things Happen

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Had a frantic call from a client who had proposed a solution to one of her prospects. Earlier this week, she got an email from the prospect who “sounded like he was having second thoughts about the deal” she had proposed.

Luckily, she called me before she called him.

What I found was someone who was ATTACHED to a “Yes.” Not a good place to be.

We worked through the process and what had happened. His email sounded not like someone who was backing out–but as someone who was confused and overwhelmed.

My Recommendation

Call him and have an informal conversation with him—without trying to convince him — or defend your solution. Just talk.

Say, “Herbie, I received your email. Am happy to talk through some of your points. It sounds like I haven’t explained things very well to you. Is this a good time to talk?”

Very simple. Elegant. No pressure. No attachment. I’m all for being aware of yellow flags–and listening to what’s NOT being said as well as what’s being said– and addressing them, but sometimes you just need to relax.

Blog Authors

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We love to hear from our readers. If you’d like to contact our authors privately to suggest story ideas or critique their writing, here is their information:

Bill Caskey: mailto:bcaskey@caskeytraining.com

Bill is a sales development leader and experimenter. His ideas about selling are convictions about life, money and meaning. He has coached sales professionals and executives for over 20 years. And his philosophies and strategies have fueled explosive growth in sales and profits for clients.  Click here to learn more about Bill Caskey.

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Caskey Video Blog: The Fundamental Shift

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In our last newsletter, we hinted that soon we have our newsletters enabled with multimedia. Well we are at Caskey, as an Easter treat for our loyal readers are giving you a preview of our video-blog. What is a video blog, well like a blog a video blog is a individual discussing a certain subject, usually in form of a brief essay. A video blog is like that but instead of using either text or html we are using web video to discuss a certain topic.

The subject of our first video blog, is a brief introduction to the concept of “THE FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT” , a term we use extensively in our sales training. This short video is presented by Bill Caskey. We hope you enjoy it.

 

  Click here to download FlashPlayer

  This video blog is best seen on a broadband connection

THE TRUTH SETS YOU FREE

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I got a call from one of my professional services clients, who said an 18-year client said he needed to check other vendors–said the price was getting too high.

Wow! Not an easy call to get–and he asked me what I would do. Here it goes:

Acknowledge the truth. You can’t MAKE HIM NOT CHECK them out, can you? Of course not. So go have a meeting and say this:  “Mr. Client, I want to acknowledge your thoughts about looking elsewhere. That may be a good idea. After 18 years of a relationship, sometimes people grow weary — the relationship goes stale — nothing new — just the same old service. So I would encourage you to look elsewhere. It will be healthy.”

Then, follow that up with: “But I do have one question. Is it really the money (which he told him it was) or is it something different–like service or value or something we missed?” Then, I would suggest a brainstorming session with their senior managers to see how, or if, there is a way to reduce the fees. There may not be. But you at least have to be open to it.

Maybe they’re right. Maybe your fees have crept up too quickly. Maybe they aren’t getting as much value. But you can’t know that until you have an “exploratory meeting” at their site. You cannot be defensive at this meeting. It is a meeting based on finding the truth.

Go into it with high intent–really wanting to help the customer solve the problem. NOT trying to ‘keep the business.’ By surrendering you get stronger.