How to Get Prospects To Use You Instead of Their Existing Supplier

How often does this happen? You make a call to a new prospect to introduce them to the idea of using your products and services and they tell you that they already have a supplier with whom they are happy,thank you. Not you, I am sure, but poor salespeople would say, "Oh, that's okay good-bye." They would lose the opportunity of ever doing business with this person simply because they had never worked out what to say, when this objection comes up.

The objection probably comes up frequently too. What if you had the perfect answer to this objection? Then every time it came up, you would have an answer to keep the prospect interested?

I suggest you don't immediately start data dumping all over the customer about how much better your product or service . The best tactic is to show understanding and get the customer talking by asking questions.

Let's explore some different ways of dealing with this:-

Start every answer to an objection with empathy to build rapport.

"That's fine Mr/Mrs ______ I understand that you would most likely have a supplier already." (note you use empathy to build rapport.)

Then continue with the option of your choice below:-

Option 1.

"May I ask who you are using?"

"What is it you particularly like about your existing supplier? (wait for answer)

What else would you like them to do for you to make them absolutely perfect? (wait for answer)

So, if we could do or give you (what they like about their current supplier) and (the thing that would make them perfect), you might want to talk to us further do you think? What time would suit you to get together next week, Monday or Tuesday?"

Option 2.

"What would happen if your current supplier, all of a sudden, could not fulfill your requirements? (or ran out of stock?)" (Depending on their answer, you would continue with:-)

"Howabout we send you our contact details and information about our services so we can be your standby if such a scenario occurs?

Option 3.

"How long have you been using your existing supplier?" (wait for answer and repeat what they say)

"Sometimes it is good to check whether you are paying the right price for services when you have been using the same supplier for a while. Howabout I give you a quote for using our services so you can make sure you are getting the most value for your money? Please note when comparing prices that our products/services also include ........." (add your value here - it may put doubt in their mind.)

Option 4.

"What would have to happen for you to consider changing your supplier?"

Option 5.

"That's great that you are happy with your supplier. When you changed to your current supplier, you must have changed for a specific reason. Do you remember what that was? When you next get around to contemplating a change, what would you want your next supplier to do?" (It may give you a chance to offer what they want.)

Option 6.

"I realise you may not be interested in our services right now but I would love to send you some information about our products/services so you will be well informed for the future."

Option 7.

"I realise you are happy with your existing supplier, so I am not asking you to give us all of your business. I would like you to consider giving us 1% of your business initially, so you have the opportunity to compare our services with theirs and see the difference. How does that sound?

Option 8.

If none of these work for you try this:

"So what do I/we have to do to be able to do business with you?"

It is recommended you put your favourite option on a wall in front of your phone so you will never choke on this objection again!

Stop selling and start providing solutions for free.

In all my 30 years of selling and managing sales teams, I have always advised my staff that once they meet a client, do not sell but start showing an interest in their problems and provide the solutions for free.  Sales will come much easier after that.

The reason is very simple.  Once you start to sell, they will not buy for any one of the four reasons :

1. Your price is too high
2. We do not have the budget.
3. We already have another supplier, and the worse is,
4. I do not like your company (for some rhyme or reasons).

SO Stop selling!

The other reasons are as follows.

Let's start with a controversial statement and one that flags the need for sales forces to recognise they have to adapt to stay relevant in today’s market reality.

To raise your professional sales capability, stop selling!  There is a strong reason to “stop selling”.

Buyers are better trained and better equipped nowadays, and they do not want to be sold to. They do not need or want a sales pitch.

Hence, sales teams have to play “catch up” on acquiring new skills and adapting to the new reality.

Research from Chief Sales Officer Insights indicates that the number of sales forces hitting their goals and targets hovers around the 50% mark, so there is a strong message to sales people: Adapt or become irrelevant.

In Jim Collin’s book Good to Great, he writes: “Get the right people on the bus, in the right seats, and get the wrong people off the bus.” He makes a valid point.

Further comprehensive and validated data is available from the Objective Management Group, the pioneers of sales specific assessments.

Founder and chief executive officer Dave Kurlan says: ‘‘We started designing and developing sales specific assessments in the late 1980s.

“Tools available then were limited to, or based on, personality or behavioural tools that had been adapted to sales, which is pretty much the case today.”

Kurlan adds: “Over those 20-plus years, we have evaluated more than 500,000 sales staff, over 50,000 sales managers and more than 8,800 sales forces across a diverse range of industries around the world.”

The validated data that has emerged should cause concern:

1)        ·85% of sales forces have no formal sales process;

2)        ·32% of sales staff cannot/will not sell;

3)        ·61% of sales staff sell inconsistently;

4)        ·Just 7% of sales staff sell consistently;

5)        ·21% of sales staff cannot be trained;

6)        ·45% of sales managers struggle to manage effectively;

7)        ·Few sales forces have genuine new business sales staff, that is hunters; and

8)        ·There is a mismatch in sales role allocation.

The good news is that the data indicates that the average growth potential of a sales force today is a whopping 85%.

Kurlan says: “Show me any chief executive office or vice-president of sales who would not be happy to have a genuine 20% uplift in revenue, let alone 85%.”

There is an inescapable fact — sales forces are leaving millions of dollars on the table.

Sales forces need to redesign their entire sales approach by moving away from “hard selling”.

They have to diffuse the pressure they create for themselves, thereby taking the pressure off the buyer.

Buyers want to engage in a business conversation, not a sales pitch. That requires a different combination of skills over and above traditional sales skills.

Buyers have a variety of issues, problems, perspectives, styles and personalities.

They are rightly demanding that the salesman has business acumen and is not simply focused on “selling what he has in the bag”.

Skills

The skill set of sales staff will need to look something like this:

1)        ·Business skills/acumen,

2)        ·Communication skills,

3)        ·Listening skills,

4)        ·Empathy skills,

5)        ·Presentation skills,

6)        ·Negotiation skills,

7)        ·Thinking skills, and

8)        ·Decision making skills.

Characteristics

A well-developed sales force will have the following characteristics:

1)          ·Learning and development is seen as an ongoing and frequent investment and not simply ad hoc sales training which does not work;

2)          ·Daily or weekly online and offline coaching, developed by great sales management;

3)          ·Access to learning and development workshops;

4)          ·The right people in the right roles based on an accurate evaluation, not gut instinct;

5)          ·Customised training. The notion that all sales staff need the same training at the same time is frankly naïve, yet it happens frequently today;

6)          ·Only “A” players, whether they are salesmen or sales managers;

7)          ·Accountability, with no excuses; and

8)          ·A compensation/benefits package that reflects and rewards great performance.

Makeover needed

• The sales force recruitment process needs a makeover.
• Wrong sales hires at any level cost money and potentially damage a brand.
• The Objective Management data points to a robust 10-step process for sales personnel recruitment and that includes evaluating/assessing every applicant at the outset, not just those on the shortlist.
• Many sales recruiters are missing both the critical skills and the major weaknesses in candidates that will determine sales success because subjectivity in selection is alive and well.
• Sales managers and recruiters still hire people in their own likeness and, while understandable, the approach is flawed. – Singapore Straits Times/Asia News Network

Seven steps to overcoming sales objections

In essence there are two combat strategies regarding objections.

The first is pre-empting them – in other words, by anticipating and responding to the objection before the prospect has even had a chance to voice it.

The second is by dealing with the objection as it arises. If you are prepared to incorporate both strategies then you’ll encounter fewer objections and be more resourceful when they do arise. It is a seven step process.

Step 1 – Remain Silent

Gives you time to think and sometimes the customer may even answer their own objection for you. Thinking is a good thing where you are adding a little pause into the proceedings, because you are demonstrating that you are taking their objection seriously.

If you jump in too early you may cause a further objection. When you interrupt them, it feels as if you are objecting to their objection. If you refuse to listen you are creating a strong possibility that you will lose rapport. Use active listening methods, nodding and physically showing interest.

Remember, they are trying to tell you something that will help you sell to them, and they will be giving you more information about how to frame and re-position your selling proposition.

Step 2 – Gather Information

As appropriate, ask some questions to fully understand the objection, for example, “Tell me more about…” or “What do you mean?” This shows you are interested in them, and it also gives you more information about their objection.

If you ask a question that begins with “Why?” they will reinforce all the reasons for their objection, making it harder for you to respond to. Therefore, use open questions of any type, except those that start with this.

As you question them, watch carefully for body language that gives you non-verbal feedback about what they are really thinking and feeling. Keep your questions light and relevant, if you respond in a commanding, forthright manner, they’ll feel insignificant and closed to voicing any further objections.

Step 3 – Check Your Understanding

This lets the customer know that you understand their objection and are taking it seriously, for example, “So what you’re saying is…” This also helps to maintain good levels of rapport and conveys that you are seeking to properly understand their situation. This step is important because communication can get distorted and you’ll want to answer their objection rather than install a new one!

Step 4 – Trial Close

This takes ‘checking your understanding’ to the next level because it flushes out any hidden objections, or the real objection behind what may have been a smokescreen. For example, “If I could satisfy you on this point will you order/buy today?” Your sensory acuity at this point should be focused on looking at their non-verbal response. If they say “yes” and their non-verbal communication conveys “no”, you should acknowledge what you’ve noticed. For example, “You don’t look sure, what else is there that we need to cover?”

Step 5 – Handle Objection

Provides the customer with another perspective that could eliminate or neutralise their objection. The best way to become excellent at this is to pre-prepare ideal responses to commonly encountered objections. An important proviso to this suggestion is that it’s critical not to distort what the customer is telling you so that their objection fits into one of your pre-prepared responses as a foundation.

Another great way to improve your competence in this specific area is by reviewing any objections after each meeting to build an objections library. Some of your responses may be more successful than others, which is why it helps to log the responses that worked well. Good product and service knowledge is particularly useful with this step as well as having a good understanding of your competitor offers.

Step 6 – Check Customer Satisfaction

You’ll notice that ‘checking’ is an ongoing theme during a consultative sales process. Used at this point, checking the prospect’s satisfaction both verbally and by assessing their non-verbal behaviour provides you with their feedback that you’ve been successful in handling the objection. For example, “Have I handled this to your satisfaction?” or “Does this make more sense now?”

If their response is a “No” then you’ll want to be flexible in your next response because if what you’ve attempted hasn’t worked, you’ll want to keep changing your response until you find a way that DOES satisfy their objection. With this particular step, your flexibility is a vital part of the process.

Step 7 – Ask for Order/Continue Discussions

This step ensures you move discussions forward, for example, “Are you ready to go ahead now?” or “Shall I go ahead and prepare the paperwork?” If your prospect says “No” then you’ve either not handled their objection to their satisfaction or they have another objection.

It’s also a valid point to remember that resistance from a prospect is usually a sign of insufficient rapport. Therefore, check that you are matching or mirroring the prospect and go back to Step 6. If they are satisfied with your handling of their objection, then ask “So, what’s preventing you from moving forward with this?”

26 Questions that sell

If you spend your sales appointments giving a lecture about your product and how great it is, you’re working way too hard. A much more effective approach is to ask questions that draw your prospect out. When done effectively, you can end up getting your prospects to sell to themselves!
Asking your prospect a series of open-ended questions during your presentation serves three important purposes. First, it helps you to confirm whether or not the prospect is a good fit for your product. Second, it helps you to identify their hot-button benefits, which in turn allows you to fine-tune your pitch. And third, by getting them to talk about various benefits you sneak the information past the prospect’s “salesperson filter.”

Not every question listed here is a perfect fit for every prospect, but these examples will give you a good place to start. Ideally, once you ask a few questions, the prospect will launch into speech and you won’t need to do any prompting at all.

Buying History Questions
By learning more about the prospect’s previous buying experiences, you’ll get a glimpse of how his mind works and what his buying routines are.

• What experiences, good or bad, have you had with this [product type] (e.g. “What experiences, good or bad, have you had with buying cars?”)
• When did you last buy a [product type]?
• What process have you gone through in the past to buy a [product type]?
• Has that process worked well for you? How/how not?
• What have you already tried doing to fix the problem with your current [product type]?
• What have you purchased from us before?
• How did that purchase go?

Purchase-Specific Questions
These questions relate to the specific transaction you’re hoping to initiate.

• What prompted you to meet with me today?
• What qualities do you look for in a [product type]?
• Which quality is most important to you?
• What don’t you like to have in a [product type]?
• What is your timeline for buying a [product type]?
• What is your budget?
• Who else is involved in the purchasing decision?

Rapport-Building Questions
These questions get your prospect talking about himself and help you develop some level of friendliness (and also help you find out the prospect’s likes and dislikes, which can help quite a bit).

• How long have you been with the company? (for B2B sales)
• Where did you buy that beautiful sofa? (B2C)
• How old are your children? How many do you have? (If you see a photo)
• What would you like this [product type] to do for you?

Clarifying Questions
If a prospect gives only a brief response to an important question, try drawing out more information.

• Tell me more about that.
• Can you give me an example?
• Can you be more specific?
• How did that affect you?

Objection-Seeking Questions
Until your prospect voices his objections, you can’t do anything about them. If a prospect hasn’t raised any objections then a little questioning can draw them out.

• What are your thoughts so far?
• Do you have any concerns? What are they?
• What other subjects should we discuss?
• Is there any reason we shouldn’t move forward?

Now, this is what I called 'Salesmanship'.

A young guy from North Dakota moves to Florida and goes to a big "under one roof" department store looking for a job.

The Manager says, "Do you have any sales experience?"

The kid says, "Yeah, I was a vacuum salesman back in North Dakota."

Well, the boss was unsure, but he liked the kid and figured he'd give him a shot, so he gave him the job.  "You start tomorrow.  I'll come down after we close and see how you did."

His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it.  After the store was locked up, the boss came down to the sales floor.  "How many customers bought something from you today?"

The kid frowns and looks at the floor and mutters, "One."

The boss says, "Just one?!!?  Our sales people average sales to 20 to 30 customers a day.  That will have to change, and soon, if you'd like to continue your employment here.  We have very strict standards for our sales force here in Florida.  One sale a day might have been acceptable in North Dakota, but you're not on the farm anymore, son."

The kid took his beating, but continued to look at his shoes, so the boss felt kinda bad for chewing him out on his first day.  He asked (semi-sarcastically), "So, how much was your one sale for?"

The kid looks up at his boss and says, "$101,237.65."

The boss, astonished, says, "$101,237.65?!  What the heck did you sell?"

The kid says, "Well, first, I sold him some new fish hooks.  Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat.  We then went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft.  Then, he said, he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive and sold him that 4 X 4 Expedition."

The boss said, "The guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and a TRUCK!?"

The kid says, "No, the guy came in here to buy tampons for his wife, and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot.  You should go fishing.'"

What is Need-based Selling?

Recently, some of my friends in the sales fraternity have asked me what is need-based selling, as selling is already selling, which is to meet the needs of the customer.  Let me explain.

Many sales organizations have found a needs based selling method to be highly effective in increasing sales and improving customer satisfaction. The sales representatives who employ this approach will usually see improvement in their job performance and in the ease of closing accounts. They are able to distinguish themselves as sales professionals who are valuable consultants for their clients.

Here are the steps to successfully using a needs based selling approach on a sales call:

1. SET THE AGENDA. It is essential that any sales call begin with an agenda. Whether it is an existing client or a potential new one, the sales professional should state an agenda. A good standard opening is, "Mr. customer, what I'd like to do today is to first talk about you - ask a few questions about your business and find out what is happening with you, then tell you about me and what is happening at my company, and then we can determine whether we have a reason to work together. How does that sound?" The key here is to get agreement from the customer to continue the sales call. Once they agree, the next step is the needs analysis or questioning stage.

2. NEEDS ANALYSIS. Asking questions about the client's business should be a conversation where the client gets to talk more than the sales person. Good listening skills are very important in any sales call, but especially in this process where the customer is revealing information about themselves and their business. It is critical that the sales person NOT TRY TO SELL during the needs analysis. Resisting the urge to sell may be difficult for some sales people, but the order that was set at the beginning must be followed, and here we are letting the customer tell us about them. The goal is to uncover problems, concerns,or issues that the customer is having. Again, no selling should occur before the client's needs are uncovered. When needs or concerns are identified, the next step is to qualify or determine how important or critical the issue is to the customer. Ask the customer what it would mean to the business if the situation they identified could be corrected. If they respond with emotion or with great interest in how that could be accomplished, the sales person who can provide a solution will most likely get the sale. If the issue is not that important or if the customer is not seeing the situation as a pressing issue, then it does not qualify as a need and should not be pursued. Once the pressing need or needs are identified, a good question to ask the customer is, "can you and I agree to work together on finding a solution to this (or these) concerns?" The answer to this question will determine the level of buy in and interest from the customer.

3. Summarize. When the customer is finished telling about themselves, there should be one or more needs that have been uncovered. By recapping or summarizing what those needs were, the client will know that they were listened to and will give the sales person more credibility because they heard and understood what was said. Also, by gaining agreement from the client that these needs exist, the sales person can begin to plan a recommendation to answer the needs or solve the problem.

4. Transition. After the needs are revealed and agreed upon by the customer, the sales professional should set the table for the recommendation step. If this will involve a second sales call, set up the next appointment where specific plans to solve the concerns will be revealed and a recommendation made. An easy way to do this is to say, "if I had a way to help your business resolve this issue, would you be interested in hearing about it?" If the client says yes, you are on the way to a sale!

5. Recommendation. Based on the needs that were uncovered, the recommendation can be prepared and delivered. If the customer has agreed that the need is there, and if your product or service will solve the issue, then closing the sale will be much more of a probability.

6 Ways to Take The Chill Out of Cold Calling

As a salesperson, you already understand the cold call is necessary and unavoidable. As long as you need something in business -- more clients, a permit, a loan or a favor, you will have to get to the right person, get their attention and convince them to take action.

When I started my first business, no one knew me. I had some sales experience and almost no cold calling experience, but I did have a lot of guts and an idea I was 100 percent sold on. I made 500 to 750 cold calls a week and followed up in-person with people who had hung up on me just days before. The number of successes were few and far between. I thought -- if I can cold call and not be negatively effected, I could do anything.

I still have to cold call in business today. Here are the six key ways to go about it successfully:

1. Confidence is key. Be sold on what you have to offer so much that it would be unethical not to tell the prospect about it. I'm serious. Think of your product or service as a solution to a problem. "I hope I'm not bothering you" should be changed to "I have something that will help you make (or save) more money and quickly impact your business."

 

 

2. Open with your reason for calling. It's about the customer. “John, this is Grant Cardone, and the reason I am calling you is....” Open with enthusiasm, excited about why you're calling. This helps get their attention without meandering. Be clear and concise.

3. Make a monster-size claim early in the call. "The reason I am calling is to save you money, lower your rate, show you a way to increase sales." If you aren't able to make that big claim with conviction, go back and resell yourself.

4. Anticipate questions, complaints and objections. You must be able to predict every possible response from the person you are calling. Make a list of possible responses, questions, complaints and objections with answers that you can offer quickly.

5. Maintain a great attitude. If they're rude or dismissive, stay positive no matter what. I get cold calls all the time. My receptionist gathers information about callers to determine how best to help them. She's polite and professional. I wasn't available and one caller got frustrated because they wanted to speak with me directly. They didn't get their way and abruptly hung up. If the caller maintained a great attitude he'd probably have a better chance winning over the staff and getting his goal accomplished. Instead, he took a tone with my receptionist and never met his goal.

6. Be polite, professional, positive and persistent (the 4 p's). I once had a guy cold call me every day to get a job. Each time he called, he was polite and professional to my receptionist and managers. He was committed and made it clear in a professional manner that he wouldn't stop calling until he got a meeting with me. By the third week, anyone at my office who answered his call, knew who he was. We even talked about him in meetings and my staff was starting to vouch for him. He used these 4 p's, got to me, got hired and is now my VP of Sales.

Cold calling is one of those things an entrepreneur must learn to master. The sooner you start to cold call as a way to promote your business, the better off you will be. Set your targets incredibly high, ten times higher than you would normally and then get dialing. The more calls you have to make, the quicker you'll deal with rejection. And with all those calls to make, you have no time to dwell.

[Source: Grant Cardone, an international sales motivator]

Nail the first 60 seconds of your presentation

Nail the First 60 Seconds of Your Presentation from Bruce Kasanoff

Achieving goals by Brain Tracy

Brian Tracy, the motivation guru wrote the following about achieving goals.

It's Not Where You Start—It's How You Finish 

When I was eighteen, I left high school without graduating. My first job was as a dishwasher in the back of a small hotel. From there, I moved on to washing cars and then washing floors with a janitorial service. For the next few years, I drifted and worked at various laboring jobs, earning my living by the sweat of my brow. I worked in sawmills and factories. I worked on farms and ranches. I worked in the tall timber with a chain saw and dug wells when the logging season ended. 

I worked as a construction laborer on tall buildings and as a seaman on a Norwegian freighter in the North Atlantic. Often I slept in my car or in cheap rooming houses. When I was twenty-three, I worked as an itinerant farm laborer during the harvest, sleeping on the hay in the farmer's barn and eating with the farmer's family. I was uneducated and unskilled, and at the end of the harvest, I was unemployed once more. 

When I could no longer find a laboring job, I got a job in straight commission sales, cold-calling office-to-office and door-to-door. I would often work all day long to make a single sale so that I could pay for my rooming house and have a place to sleep that night. This was not a great start at life. 

The Day My Life Changed 

Then one day, I took out a piece of paper and wrote down an outrageous goal for myself. It was to earn $1,000 per month in door-to-door and office-to-office selling. I folded up the piece of paper, put it away, and never found it again. 

But thirty days later, my entire life had changed. During that time, I discovered a technique for closing sales that tripled my income from the very first day. Meanwhile, the owner of my company sold out to an entrepreneur who had just moved into town. Exactly thirty days after I had written down my goal, the new owner took me aside and offered me $1,000 per month to head up the sales force and teach the other salespeople what I was doing that enabled me to sell so much more than anyone else. I accepted his offer, and from that day forward, my life was never the same. 

Within eighteen months, I had moved from that job to another and then to another. I went from personal selling to becoming a sales manager with people selling for me. In a new business, I recruited and built a ninety-five-person sales force. I went literally from worrying about my next meal to walking around with a pocket full of $20 bills. 

I began teaching my salespeople how to write out their goals and how to sell more effectively. In almost no time at all, they increased their incomes as much as tenfold. Today, many of them are millionaires and multimillionaires. 

Life Goes Up and Down

I have to admit that since those days in my mid-twenties, my life has not been a smooth series of upward steps. It has included many ups and downs, marked by occasional successes and temporary failures. I have traveled, lived, and worked in more than ninety countries, learning French, German and Spanish along the way and working in twenty-two different fields. 

As the result of inexperience and sometimes sheer stupidity, I have spent or lost everything I made and had to start over again—several times. Whenever this happened, I would begin by sitting down with a piece of paper and laying out a new set of goals for myself. 

After several years of hit-and-miss goal setting and goal achieving, I finally decided to collect everything I had learned into a single system. By assembling these ideas and strategies in one place, I developed a goal-setting methodology and process, with a beginning, middle and end, and began to follow it every day. 

Within one year, my life had changed once more. In January of that year, I was living in a rented apartment with rented furniture. I was $35,000 in debt and driving a used car that wasn't paid for. By December, I was living in my own $100,000 condominium. I owned a new Mercedes, had paid off all my debts, and had $50,000 in the bank. 

Then I really got serious about success. I realized that goal setting was incredibly powerful. I invested hundreds and then thousands of hours reading and researching goal setting and goal achieving, synthesizing the best ideas I could find into a complete process that worked with incredible effectiveness.

Anyone Can Do It

Some years later, I began audiotaping and videotaping my workshops and seminars so that others could use them. We have now trained hundreds of thousands of people in these principles, in multiple languages, all over the world.

What I found was that these ideas work everywhere, for everyone, in virtually every country, no matter what your education, experience or background may be when you begin. 

Best of all, these ideas have made it possible for me and many thousands of others to take complete control over our lives. The regular and systematic practice of goal setting has taken us from poverty to prosperity, from frustration to fulfillment, from underachievement to success and satisfaction. This system will do the same for you.

The 5 Secrets of Networking

As sales persons, we need to network extensively to expand our contact base, but many seem to be doing it the wrong way. I still remember many years back when I was in the banking industry, a colleague of mine one day invited me to join him for a gathering of bankers at the Bankers Club that evening. It was a kind of a cocktail reception and a banker-get to know-banker session. Now I ask myself, the people who would be there would be my competitors in the industry. So why would I partake in such a gathering? What business would I get from them, anyway? Shouldn't I be attending a gathering where my business prospects would be, say, at some trade associations dinner, cocktail or talk? Networking is important but one must be clear of the objective why you were there in the first
place.

The 5 Secrets of Networking from Angel Ramos

Are You Committed?

"Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left? Five, because deciding is different than doing.”

Decisions are worthless … unless you turn them into commitments.

In a business conversation, your counterpart's decision states his intention, but a commitment holds him accountable. Although a commitment does not guarantee delivery, it’s far more reliable than a decision. More importantly, when managed properly, it allows you to handle breakdowns with effectiveness, trust and integrity.

Have you been in meetings where lots of decisions are made but nothing gets done andnobody is held accountable? Unless you finish the meeting with commitments about “who will do what by when,” you’ve just built 90% of a bridge.

Broken commitments damage tasks, relationships, and culture. They bring about inefficiencies, mistrust, and corruption. Coordination suffers, collaboration suffers, and cohesion suffers. You can avoid this suffering – if you finish every conversation with clear commitments.

Ask and You Shall Receive

Commitment conversations begin with a request: “Can you bring the financials to the meeting?” “Please ship the order to my new address.” Things can go off track at this early point, especially if you ask without really asking.

I once coached a production manager who was put on a performance-improvement plan for failing to meet a crucial deadline. Weeks before the date, my client figured he had to add a shift to finish the job on time. He needed approval from his boss for the overtime, but he didn’t want to ask. He had heard the plant manager complain that corporate was breathing down his neck about costs.

He decided to use a soft approach. During a staff meeting he mentioned that his project could really use a second shift. The plant manager acknowledged it was a tough deadline; he said he would see what he could do. The production manager believed he had gotten the much-needed help. He waited for his boss to call him after the meeting to implement the second shift, but to no avail. Disappointed, he assumed that a delay was better than a cost overrun. He finished the job late. Imagine his outrage when he got chewed out!

Like many of us, the production manager tried to ask without asking. His indirect approach avoided a confrontation, but it also prevented a frank discussion of the tradeoff between additional labor costs and the delay. As I described in my previous posts on schizorganizationand discussing the un-discussable, it is impossible to preserve sanity at work without open communication.

The typical way to avoid making a clear request is to make a muddled one. Do you recognize any of these examples?

• It would be great if…
• Someone should…
• Do we all agree to…?
• Can you try to…?
• The boss wants...

To make a clear request you must utter it in the first person, using direct language and addressing it to a specific person. You must specify observable conditions of satisfaction, including time. It helps if you explain your purpose for asking, and, if and when you arrive at an oral contract, always ask the other sign it.

Although there are many ways to ask, the most effective ones follow a common pattern:

1. In order to get A (a want or need),
2. I ask that you deliver B by C.
3. Can you commit to that?

It may sound odd to ask like this; you can adjust your language to suit your culture. For example, the production manager might have addressed the plant manager as follows: “I am running behind schedule. I don’t see how to catch up without some extra help. In order to finish the job I need some overtime. Can you authorize a second shift for the next three weeks?”

Time to Commit

A well-formed request demands a clear response. There are only three possible answers:

1. Yes, I commit.
2. No, I decline.
3. I can’t commit yet because,
   a. I need clarification.
   b. I need to check; I promise to respond by X.
   c. I want to propose an alternative.
   d. I can make it only if I get Y by Z.

Anything else is a weasel promise. Here are some interesting ways by which people often say, “No, I don’t commit.”

• Yes, I’ll try.
• OK, let me see what I can do.
• Seems doable.
• Let me check into it.
• Someone will take care of it.

When you declare, “I commit,” you assume the responsibility to honor your wordunconditionally. You take on an obligation to deliver on your promise; or if you can’t, to do your best to take care of the requestor.

When you declare, “I decline,” you might still try to do what you were asked, but you don’t commit. You do not give the requestor the right to hold you accountable. It is much better to have a clear “no” than to get bogged down in a wishy-washy “I’ll do my best.”

There are many good reasons to decline. You may not have the resources; you may not have the skills; you may have a conflict with a previous commitment; you may anticipate problems; or you may just not want to do it.

When you are not ready to say “yes” or “no” right away, you may:

• Ask for clarification if the request is unclear to you. For example, if I ask you to help me with a project, you might ask, “What kind of help do you need?” or, “When do you need my help?”

• Promise to respond by a certain time if you need to check your resources, obtain commitments from others, or assess whether you can deliver to specifications. For example, if I ask you to prepare a report, you might answer, “Let me check if I have the information available. I’ll get back to you in an hour.”

• Counteroffer with an alternative proposal to satisfy the need behind the request. For example, if I ask you to meet today, you might respond: “I am not available today. Could we meet tomorrow? Or if it’s urgent, we could speak by phone.”

• Commit conditionally if your commitment depends on factors outside of your control. For example, if I ask you deliver a rush order, you can commit to do it only if I authorize overtime.

Clear commitments don’t mean that everything will work out. Life is unpredictable, so even the most impeccable commitments can break down. In my next post, I will explain how you can preserve effectiveness, trust, and integrity even when you can’t fulfill your promise.

Do or do not ... there is no try.” -- Yoda

Contributor:
[ Fred Kofman, PhD. in Economics, is Professor of Leadership and Coaching at the Conscious Business Center of the University Francisco Marroquín anda faculty member of Lean In. He is the author of Conscious Business, How to Build Value Through Values (also available as an audio program]