Stories sell, inspire, motivate and, most importantly, help your customers to undesatnd you and warm to you.

As a result I spend a great deal of my time helping clients to develop and refine stories that prove a point.

Here’s one of my recent favourites which is a simplistic way of explaining the Greek economy:

It is a slow day in a little Greek Village.
The rain is  beating down and the streets are deserted.
Times are tough, everybody is in  debt, and everybody lives on credit.
On this particular day a rich German  tourist is driving through the
village, stops at the local hotel and lays a  E100 note on the desk,
telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the  rooms upstairs in
order to pick one to spend the night.

The owner gives  him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked
upstairs, the hotelier  grabs the E100 note and runs next door to pay
his debt to the  butcher.

The butcher takes the E100 note and runs down the street to repay  his
debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the E100 note and heads  off to pay his bill at
the supplier of feed and fuel.

The guy at the  Farmers’ Co-op takes the E100 note and runs to pay his
drinks bill at the  tavern.

The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute  drinking at
the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to  offer him
“services” on credit.

The hooker then rushes to the hotel and  pays off her room bill to the
hotel owner with the €100 note.

The hotel  proprietor then places the E100 note back on the counter so
the rich  traveller will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveller comes  down the stairs, picks up the E100
note, states that the rooms are not  satisfactory, pockets the money,
and leaves town.

No one produced  anything.
No one earned anything.

However, the whole village is now out  of debt and looking to the
future with a lot more optimism.

And  that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package  works.

We first learned about empathy from Aristotle. He called it pathos, and reasoned that if the audience at first didn’t like you, then they weren’t going to listen to you, let alone do what you want.

Empathy is an emotion that we all probably discovered at or before the age of 6. It is distinct from sympathy, in that you aren’t literally crying another person’s tears, but you are seeing things from their point of view. An early exercise that school kids still do today around empathy is “wheelchair blindfold”.

The one in the wheelchair has the eyes and directs the one pushing the wheel chair who has the legs but can’t see. It’s a perfect blend of empathy, of symbiosis, and is absolutely the key ingredient for a customer service training experience.

Over time our feelings of empathy in a professional sense, may dull. We become busy, we have our own agenda, and when we talk to a customer we can simply “go through the paces”. Or sometimes much worse than this, we can be short, or even rude.

Natural Training has a range of sales training courses available in the UK, London and Europe.

For example, at Natural Training, providing we have a phone and a desk, we always have a job for great sales people.  And where there are great jobs, we need great recruiters, offering us the CVs of great sales people.  We contacted one recruiter recently and to start business all we did was to say “we agree” by return email.  We then chatted for 30 minutes about what we wanted.  They understood us quickly by asking relevant questions, and we were receiving good CVs within two hours.

Another recruiter insisted on us filling out their 4-page briefing form, because it was their preferred way of doing business.   We declined.  As Sharon Drew Morgen said “Why should sellers sell according to their selling patterns when buyers buy according to their buying patterns?”  Our buying pattern to recruit a sales person did not involve sitting down and spending an hour filling out a form.

Amazon understands the principle of heat better than most.  As a consumer, when you are hot and ready to buy, you can do so with One Click Ordering.  One mouse-click and the book is delivered to your door next day.  Hot to buy?  One tiny movement of your forefinger, and it’s yours.  Perfect.

The message here is simple:  Remove barriers.  Give simple steps.  Do the hard work so that all they have to do is scream “YES!”

Clarification

When they are vague or have not given enough information, seek to further understand them by asking for clarification:

• When you mentioned XYZ, how did you mean exactly?
• Could you please tell me more about YY?
• And how did you (or department/team) feel about that?
• And what happened after that?
• What were the implications of XYZ issue on your year?
• WHAT WOULD IT MEAN FOR XYZ ISSUE NOT TO HAPPEN?
• WHAT WOULD IT MEAN IF YOU WERE NOT ABLE TO (SAVE MONEY/TIME/RESOURCE…)?
• Accuracy

You can check that they are giving you a full and accurate account by probing for more detail and checking against other information you have. Sometimes people make genuine errors, which you may want to check.

Is there anything else that I may need to know?
Examples

When they talk about something vaguely, you may ask for specific examples. This is particularly useful in interviews, where what you want to test both their truthfulness and the depth behind what they are claiming.

Sorry, I’m not sure I follow? Could you help by giving an example of when you did XYZ?
Tell me about a time when you __________

This free e-book will help you if:

• You have been close to winning a deal, only to let it slip through your fingers

• You feel that you aren’t generating enough excitement to drive your customers to say “yes”

• You want to secure more deals, more often

It’s about how you, as a sales person, recognise, create and maintain the heat in the sale.

We are all consumers and we know when we are really hot to buy something we simply can’t wait to get our hands on it.  We want it, and we want it now!  This is the atmosphere that you must generate with your clients.  It can be done, and this e-book will tell you how.

In this e-book you will learn 7 key principles to keep your customers hot, long after they might have normally cooled down.  These are some of the great secrets to selling.  You’ll also learn not to be a “Sales Cooler”, draining heat out of the sale and spending valuable time leaving voicemails that go nowhere.

If you can learn these principles and you become a master of your own selling thermostat, then you will thrive in today’s economy.

Download it for free today – and don’t forget to check out our award winning sales training!

This was cutting edge at the time, believe me!

Simply the fact that it was on video was enough to keep everyone’s attention. And there’s rhyming as well!

In fact if we don’t think, as humans, that we’re in the persuasion business, then we need to think again. 

We learned to persuade from an early age, when we realised that by asking nicely we got what we want, and occasionally when we threw a tantrum we still got what we want. 

It’s one of our earliest natural instincts. 

Some of us let it go dormant, and constantly comply to the demands of others, but most of us use those very concepts we learnt early on to help get what we want. 

Therefore we are already in tune with the range of emotions involved in persuasion, from being gentle and talking in benefits, to models of dictatorial and aggression used by world leaders right now.  We know what we like, what others like, and we use this information to our advantage – every day.

But what does persuasion mean to you – in life and at work?  I need to know the parameters of persuasion in your world – your examples, your opinions and your ideas, so that we can build today a Persuasion Toolbox, which will boost our impact to get what we want. 

I regularly run persuasion workshops to help you get the most out of work, and life.  Let me know if I can help out at your company too!

In this blog which is Part II we look at the commercial roadmap that I created with Zoe which helps her to convert more interested people into fee-paying clients:

Step 1:  We created a database of Zoe’s past and present clients.  

Step 2:  From this database we created two lists:  A Premier client list (10 clients Zoe would really love to receive a file from) and a Supplementary List (max 30).  Following the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) the clients on this list were going to see at least 80% of Zoe’s new business prospecting attention with 20% unallocated time for those clients who simply walk through the door.  This is by far an inverse ratio for most lawyers who will spend more like 0-20% of time prospecting for new business.

Step 3:  Seminar

An effective seminar is one that is focused, well promoted and has a keynote speaker sharing valuable insights into the topic.  If they are treated with the sales and marketing respect they deserve, they can be a goldmine.  If not, they can result in no leads and a general sense of frustration.  I gave Zoe the following four pointers about selling at the seminars:

3.1  Market well

Send out a seminar invitation to your database.  In terms of the messaging, spend extra time on outcomes – what will attendees walk away with?  We brainstormed these benefits together.

3.2  Don’t just exchange pleasantries – persuade!

Zoe and I structured a phone call template to each potential seminar attendee.  This was no ordinary call – we made sure potential attendees were given some exciting messaging.  We added exclusivity and some additional qualifying questions.

3.3  Develop a seminar strategy

Once Zoe had a confirmed guest list for her firm’s seminar, I encouraged her to spend some time on a seminar selling strategy, answering questions such as:

• How many prospective clients will you be able to talk to? 
• How many extra staff from your firm will be available?
• What opportunities are there to talk?  E.g. on arrival, first break, close of seminar. 
• How do you plan on entering and leaving conversations?  Getting tied up in conversations is a hard thing to deal with at times! 
• Can you contact prospective clients prior and let them know that you would like a brief meeting at the seminar? 
• Is there a way of harnessing and collecting referrals? (eg prizes, feedback forms, offering to send the PPT deck).

3.4  Plan the conversation

When talking to the client, how would Zoe envisage moving the client to the next logical step in the sales process?  Is Zoe crystal clear on what that step may be?  Is the segue way smooth or awkward?  Does she go through with the plan to go to the next stage, or shy away at the last moment?

Step 4:  Meeting with Senior Partner

Zoe’s next step from the seminar is a lunch meeting with a Senior Partner.  The idea of this meeting is to explore the client’s world and find an angle to potentially gain the first file.  Critically Zoe recognised that in order to be successful the client must be relaxed and the conversation free flowing, so she would choose both the Partner and the venue best suited to the occasion. 

Step 5:  Client site visit

Zoe’s suggested her penultimate step in her sales map is to suggest a site visit so that the Partners can get a sense of culture, meet key stakeholders and make a short credentials presentation.  I agreed that this is a great thing to do, as it shows a genuine commitment from her, the Partner and the firm.  This step might be combined with Step 4.

Step 6:  Handle Objections

Zoe and I talked about her starting to appreciate rather than dread objections.  They can be genuine reasons not to proceed, and therefore roadblocks to the sale, granted.  However they can also be buying signals.  Zoe and I went through a list of objections such as “we are well represented by xyz competitor” and how to handle them.  The key tip I gave Zoe was to change the way the client feels about the objection.  An objection is a valid concern, and if a sale is based on depth of feeling, which it is, then Zoe must learn to change the conversation to a more positive and forward-thinking angle.

Step 7:  Receive a file (close)

Closing the sale in Zoe’s world is definitely not a crude, car-yard “Would you like it in blue or black?” close.  Yet questions still have to be asked.  Zoe and I talked about some of the more acceptable yet effective softer closing questions for Zoe such as:  “Would you consider us for your panel?” and “Would you consider us for a new file, if or when one arises?”

On the right track

Zoe is on the right track.  We have another couple of sessions coming up in the next 60-90 days, because it is one thing planning all of this activity, it’s another thing managing the time to prioritise sales and it’s a third and most remarkable thing to get it all right first time.  She will make mistakes, and she will need to modify aspects of her sales approach.

It all comes down to attitude.  As long as Zoe maintains her motivation to be a Partner she will introduce many new clients to her firm and absolutely achieve her goal.

If you are at a legal or professional services company firm and see some parallels with what you are trying to achieve, then please do call and give me your brief.  We will be able to change mindsets and map out a process that works to receive lots of new business via our sales training.

Zoe is just getting back into the workforce after a sabbatical from having kids, and during the conversation I picked up that she really is super-motivated to succeed.

She has a fierce desire to make up for lost time and really hit the ground running at her mid-size, specialist law firm.  In fact Zoe wants to establish her brand and become a partner at the firm within the next 3 years.  In order to do this she knows she has to master something that tends to be “beneath” most lawyers:  the art of selling.  I say “beneath” because many lawyers don’t see it as part of their job. 

While lawyers might not like it, they really ought to become conversant with selling, mainly because it can be difficult to make Partner level unless they can convert conversations into clients, networks into new business and acquaintances into fee payers.  Or to put it another way, turning their back on sales may be stifling their career.

As I chatted with Zoe I realised a few short selling sessions will do the job.  Zoe has the right attitude – she understands just how important it is to bring new clients on board.  And 80% of selling is attitude:  the most successful sellers like selling.  Moving buyers to say “yes” excites them, makes them money and fast-tracks their careers. 

Even better, Zoe understands sales as a process.  She knows concepts like “advancing the sale”.  This term refers to the seller moving the buyer through to the next stage of the sale.  All of the stages of a sale form a type of roadmap that we refer to as a selling cycle (see graphic).

For example, one of the key ways lawyers sell is at networking events such as seminars.  If this is one stage of the sales cycle, (in our diagram Step 3) then some strategic selling effort is required to move the prospective client from a conversation at a seminar to a credentials lunch with a Senior Partner. 

During our discussion it became apparent that Zoe is tuned into these steps, had already experienced them in part, and could see the roadmap pretty clearly.  The way Zoe sells is subtle and based on developing trustful relationships, which is the finest way to move buyers to action.

The next thing we did was to map out Zoe’s sales cycle, with key selling moments and challenges. 

In part two of this blog, due out next week, I will outline the map I created with Zoe because I think it’s something that you can adopt not only if you’re a lawyer but if you would like any tips on mapping out your sales process – particularly as it relates to seminar selling.

In the meantime if you would like to talk about getting me over to your firm to help out with more commercial awareness among your fee-earners please give me a bell on 020 7613 7830.

• You can read thousands of hints and tips.
• You can come on our BRILLIANT presentation skills training courses.
• And you absolutely should practice as much as possible.

But one thing will make you better and you don’t have to move from your computer:  watch how other people make presentations. 

The best site for lots of live, free presentations I have ever seen is:  http://www.ted.com

Here’s what to do:

Randomly click on different speakers.  Who do you like?  Who don’t you like?  Why and why not?

Let me know – and let’s share a few thoughts!