” Whenever people exchange ideas with the intention of changing relationships, whenever they confer for agreement, they are negotiating.” Gerald Nierenberg, author of Fundamentals of Negotiating
What do you think of or visualize when you hear that organizations, two CEO’s or a husband and wife are negotiating such and such…? Most research says that most of us think of a formal process of trying to win an argument, win the contract, or play the game of “tough guys don’t back down” and use an aggressive approach to get our way. Most of us experience these interactions as hostile, conflict riddled, or end in I win-you lose game. Continue reading ‘Negotiators–Creating Win-Win Agreements’
“Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”–Ralph Waldo Emerson
”Effective leadership begins with presence and self-awareness. Knowing your impact on others, what motivates you (purpose), understanding and playing to your natural strengths and accepting weaknesses are critical keys for successfully communicating and connecting with others. Brain researchers and psychologists tell us that self-awareness is not an inborn trait but a complex capacity people develop through life experiences. It requires reflection, intuition and an ability to accept and process feedback from others. It requires openness, an ability to deal with ambiguity and acceptance of and caring for others.” MWH
Alignment Principle
It is natural to feel apprehension when speaking in front of a group, particularly a group of peers. A certain level of anxiety is actually necessary for you to perform your best. The key is to use this anxiety to your advantage, harnessing it to make you dynamic and animated. The physical symptoms of anxiety are very similar to that of excitement. If you can train yourself to interpret your symptoms as excitement, instead of nerves, you are well on your way to using the anxiety to your advantage. So, how do you do this? Continue reading ‘Challenge your Stuckness and Fears–Tips for Personal Change’
” Most people would rush ahead and implement a solution before they know what the problem is and a plan for solving it.” Mark W.Hardwick, Ph.D. Quality Selling through Quality Proposals, 1991, Minehan Quality Press. p 23.
Many business development and sales initiatives fail because the client’s needs and expectations were not met during the sales process. I call these events–sales pinches. Some of the pinches include: lack of information gathering and poor call preparation, poor analysis of the client’s problem, lack of information before writing a proposal, presenting solutions before listening and understanding, and presenting solutions from your point of view rather than the buyers.
Sales proposals can not be a cookie-cutter approach but needs to be experienced by the buyer as a sincere and customized approach to information gathering and problem solving. The solution we offer must be seen as a “valued proposition”. Here are a few of the missed steps and pinches that are inherent in a sales process: sales associates as pressing for a sale–often called the hard sell that is experience as insensitive to customer needs. Such an ego-centric process usually involves boiler-plate proposals and misaligned sales presentations. These efforts primarily focus on the sales professional’s and the selling organization’s goals of what the buyer needs, while the customer-centered process presents information, solutions and proposals that understand and are empathic to the buyer’s goals and expectations. When a sales step such as a presentation and proposal doesn’t close the “Needs and Expectations Gap” – the alignment between the buyer’s expectations and the seller’s sales approach – the potential client has little reason for listening and buying your pitch. We can’t be successful if this happens to often in our selling efforts.
Writing a Customer-Centered Proposal Facilitates the Sales Process
A customer-centered sales process provides the sales professional an opportunity to help the buyer understand clearly the solution proposed and benefits of buying from you. The writing process itself adds clarity to the sale. It helps the sales professional through the sales process because it:
- Prompts, and in some cases even forces, the sales professional to gather sufficient and accurate information about the buyer’s current situation and organization; through this process, the sales professional builds a rapport with the buyer and identifies and comprehends buyer expectations, needs, wants and problems
- Requires and accurate description of the product or service being sold and defines its specific financial and non-financial benefits for the buyer; here the integrated presentation and proposal can eliminate reasons not to buy and meet buyer needs or offer solutions to difficult problems.
- Includes a complete explanation of how the product or service will be installed, produced, implemented , delivered or introduced for the buyer; here the sales professional can use the presentation and proposal to answer the buyer’s questions and show value of the seller’s solutions.
- Describes the business aspects of the deal, the buyers of the deal, the buyer’s expectations relative to such things as the seller’s staffing levels, roles, responsibilities, timeframes, fees/prices, and in-voicing schedules.
- A customer-centered communication process meets and often exceeds the buyer’s expectations.
Writing activities are integrated with selling activities. Activities in which the buyer partners with the sales professional by providing information, confirming needs and objectives, and evaluating proposed solutions and strategies.
How Important Are Proposals?
An increasing number of buyers are becoming more sophisticated and want to see specific, concrete proof points supporting the claims made by marketing literature and sales presentations.
For these buyers, there is simply too much at stake to take a risk on anything less than the best possible solution. In spite of these buyer attitude changes, many salespeople and organizations continue to discount the importance of integrating sales proposals and presentations. They view proposals as minor
Obstacle compared to building relationships and face to face communications. The truth is that an integrated communication strategy will include an excellent presentation and proposal. Creating this integration is not any easy process. In reality, aligning sales activities is extremely difficult process which includes strategic thinking, asking good questions and understanding client’s goals.
A proposal is critical to the success of the sales professional and the organization. It represents the culmination of all selling activities—rapport-building, sales calls, demonstrations, negotiations, and presentations. A sales process generates revenues to cover the cost of sales, creates a profit, and continues the existence of the organization.
Furthermore, the content and quality of a sales proposal is equally important because it:
- Stays in front of a buyer long after the sales professional is gone
- Sells in the absence of the sales professional
- Communicates all aspects of the sale
- Gives the internal contact a document to sell within the client’s organization
- Reaches the final decision-maker, even when the sales professional cannot
Every step of the sales process directly reflects the sales professional’s and the selling organization’s abilities and the concern for delivering excellence. In today’s competitive world, can anyone afford to jeopardize even one sale with poor communication processes; such as an excellent proposal and presentations.
Process with Structure: The Strategic and Winning Sales Proposal
Everybody, it seems, is selling a twelve-step program guaranteed to help us become successful in some aspect of our lives. The problem is that most of us rarely get past step number five. The good news for those of us in sales is we don’t have to go past that fifth step to craft a winning sales proposal. Many proposals drift from point to point, and yet might never hit upon the issues that drive a potential customer to a buying decision. With a well-organized and strategic proposal, broken down to five proven sections, you can go from offering cookie-cutter solutions to providing customer-driven solutions that significantly enhance your chances of closing big deals.
These five sections in a strategic sales proposal are interrelated and customer-focused. They categorize information and provide a logical sequence of information and ideas.
In summary, the structure for a strategic and winning proposal contains five main sections:
1. Background Information
This section identifies the buyer’s current situation-related strategy and improvement opportunity—the buyer’s unresolved problem or wanted opportunity. This section must reflect your empathy for the buyer’s situation and pain. It must demonstrate a thorough understanding of the buyer’s business, particularly the function or functions associated with the improvement opportunity. More importantly, the section must document the findings of the buyer-seller improvement opportunity or pain removal analyses. It must include the buyer’s key performance indicators; such as– current revenues, cost, and productivity levels as they relate to your proposed product or service solution.
2. Proposed Solution
This section presents the buyer-specific product or service application—how you can add value by helping the buyer achieve the improvement opportunity. This section must provide the buying decision makers with a clear understanding of your proposed solution and describe how it will help achieve the profit improvement opportunities identified in the Background Information section. It must also demonstrate your ability to define a realistic application for their proposed products or services to fit in the buyer’s business. Further, this section must present the decision makers with compelling reasons to make a change.
3. Implementation Management
Section Three discusses your company’s methods for implementing the proposed product or service. This section should describe your standard implementation methods or project management practices. It should define the steps, phases, and activities that your company normally follows when implementing the proposed product or delivering the proposed services. This section also should include estimated project or engagement resource requirements and timeframes. It provides an ideal opportunity for you to overlay the buyer’s unique implementation requirements with their standard business methods or quality assurance issues. The result is a custom project plan that indicates you have thought through the how, who, and when.
4. Why Us?–Seller Profile
This section discusses your company’s qualifications and business practices. Of the five proposal sections, this section contains the most standard wording. However, it does not mean the section represents boilerplate; rather, it means that its contents will require the fewest changes for use with different accounts. Much of the information contained in this section requires considerable thought and effort to develop. However, once developed, you will find that you can easily tailor this section to fit each unique sales situation.
5. Business Issues
This section groups all business-related items for ease of review and reference of prices, expenses, and in-voicing schedule. One of this section’s primary goals is to avoid buyer surprises after the sale. Therefore, you should clearly document all the business issues regarding the proposed solution.
Finally, while it may take twelve steps to quit drinking or lose 150 pounds, you can significantly enhance your sales proposals in only five concrete and responsive sections. When you put those five sections together, you have the opportunity to open eyes and move your prospect into seeing the value your team brings to the problem or opportunity and move this sales campaign into the win column.
” Life is not constructed like a building–it is like an ocean. We don’t create it we immerse ourself in it to discover and experience it.” Dr.Mark
Every thought you have,
Every feeling you feel,
Every action you take is an experience—
Some experience are short-lived–powerful and long-lasting.
Others are long and never impactful,
Experiences are not good or bad–they just are.
Impact remains to be defined by us.
Others are part of everyday routines or special activities.
The key ones focus on survival, safety, suffering and fun.
Some are long and routine,
Some boring and depressing,
Some are painful and unforgiving.
And some are uplifting and fun.
Sometime experiences seem interconnected and other times random.
Maybe that is what meaning in life is –just a bundle of moment to moment experiences.
Filtered by thought, reflection, emotions and impulsivity.
Meaning provided by our own idiosyncratic perceptions–accept them and life is renewed every second.
Challenge and fight them –you join “the figure it” out crowd.
Search, searching and searching for unreachable answers–
You cross the threshold when acceptance and ambiguity drives your search.
Life can not be choreographed as a dance… and yet embracing faith, luck or chance may ease the pain and be your guide for living a changeable and fresh experience…
” It is to late in the day for the House of Reps to buckle-in on the Public Option or the Senate to kick the can down the road for the States to decide on Health Care Reform. The “Blue Dog” Democrats and the party of “NO” Republicans are winning by stalling and not caring. I don’t understand their lack of moral conscientious. How can you not care about 144 people/day dying or 44,000/year dying who don’t have health care insurance. Watering down the Public Option is putting the Health Care Reform at risk because if it doesn’t work the President will be scapegoat as the one who failed. These devious plans to defeat Health Care Reform need to be challenged by the Obama team. The Obama team seem to want any bill so they can say they did something. What do I want to see? Continue reading ‘Health Care Reform “People before Profits”–President Obama’s Time is NOW!’
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/618
If you have not discovered the TED talks you are missing one of the best forums for ideas in business and life now available. I am including this video from Daniel Pink’s speech at TED because in thirty years of consulting, it is the best explanation of what works in motivating others. I am always asked by seminar participants–How do you motivate others? My answer has always been less than adequate. You can’t motivate individuals for the long-term. As a manager you can only create the right positive conditions and climate so people can use their strengths to do their best work. Enjoy the clip and share what are the best motivators you have found that work. Motivation and excellence is in our hands as leader-managers so chose the right methods or lose great talent.
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“no matter how difficult the path may be, choosing to give up, before one has had the chance to fly, only holds the human spirit back…Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” Victor Frankl
Critical Questions for Living a Life of Constructive Optimism and Meaning. Continue reading ‘New Constructive Optimism and Meaning–The Frankl Effect’
Socrates once said, “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.” Have you ever experienced the Socratic way of teaching–asking participatative questions to challenge learners to think and discover the answers? This method gets people more involved in learning through critical thinking and makes the learning more relevant to their lives. Socratic questioning illuminates the importance of questioning in learning. Socrates stated that questioning was the only defensible form of teaching. It illuminates the difference between systematic and fragmented thinking. It teaches us to dig beneath the surface of our ideas and not just memorize stuff for regurgitation on an exam. It teaches us the value of developing questioning minds to cultivate deep learning. The art of Socratic questioning is intimately connected with learning because the art of questioning is important to the excellence of thought. What the word “Socratic” adds to the art of questioning is depth and interest in assessing the truth or information about others and the situations they are confronting. Other people are afraid that by asking questions they will look weak, ignorant, or unsure. They like to give the impression that they are decisive and in command of the relevant issues. They fear that asking questions might introduce uncertainty or show them as uninformed or incompetent. They like being perceived as the expert. In fact, asking questions is a sign of strength and intelligence – not a sign of weakness or uncertainty. Great leaders constantly ask questions from many different people and are well aware that they do not have all the answers. Some people are in such a hurry to get things done that they do not stop to ask questions because it might slow them down. They risk rushing headlong into the wrong actions. Continue reading ‘Critical Conversation Tool: Socratic Questioning’
“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”
Eric Hoffer
Let’s start with, Dr. David K. Reynolds, past Director of the To Do Institute for Constructive Living, in Los Angeles. Dr. Reynolds has written many books such as, Playing Ball on Running Water, where he explores Morita ideas on living with attention and awareness to what is controllable and what is not in living a constructive, productive and fulfilling life. The CL process and principles are a blending and adaption of Eastern lifeways in Japan of Shoma Morita (Morita Therapy) and Ishin Yoshimoto ( Naikin) to Western culture. The principles of Constructive living provide the opportunity to bring control and meaning to your life through a practical and realistic life of service. The CL method is a step-by-step process for changing thinking, understanding attitudes, beliefs, feelings and behavior, that is, how a person thinks and feels about, understands, acts and relates with themselves and others. Every day all of us have problems and opportunities to deal with and try to resolve. The CL model is a way of understanding and approaching your problems and feelings in an enlightened and organized way so you can cope and handle them with more effectiveness and efficiency. Here are the essential components of the model:
1. Be clear on your purpose.
2. Accept and understand your feelings and emotion.
3. Do what you need to do!!!! (sounds a bit like the Nike ads)
The process of CL highlights ways to approach and handle problems and feelings in life. CL provides the opportunity to find methods for making better decisions and choices. CL teaches you new skills and provides powerful tools to show you how to clarify your thinking and how to act when what you are doing is not satisfying or effective for you and is causing functional life issues and negatively impacting your energy, sense of meaning and relationships with others.
In CL the individual is responsible for their choices and own behavior. Excuses, projection, denial, and blaming are confronted in a caring, yet forceful way. We do this by telling and accepting the truth in the “here and now”. Remember there are things we can control in life and things that are beyond our control. Figuring out the differences is one of the challanages of CL. The environment around us, peer pressure or situations at school, work, or home are only part of the reasons we act the way we do. Yet each person creates their own unique life by how they think and choose to behave.
If you are a committed and a determined “seeker”, the quality of your life has nothing to do with excuses, unresolved conflicts, or distant negative experiences. It has everything to do with the HERE AND NOW–YOU. YOUR ESSENCE AND PASSION FOR LIVING A MEANINGFUL, CONTROLLABLE and CONSTRUCTIVE LIFE. It has to do with your thinking, choices, behavior, and impact–The pressing question: What is controllable and uncontrollable in your life?
Reflection Activity: Pick one action that needs doing on a regular basis: (running or walking, eating healthy foods, self-improvement through meditation, doing the monthly bills, calling three potential clients, writing a blog, walking the dog,etc.) Chose a set time of the day and do the activity at the same time each day for one week. Record the day, time, activity and your reflections in your daily journal.
Reflection quote: “Focus on living well regardless of how you are feeling at the moment.” Dr. David K. Reynolds
“Words are like heavy burdens for some. Like rocks or weights on your back. If birds talked they might not fly.”
President Obama is carrying a heavy burden in trying to live up to his lofty words–Change You can believe in, Yes, we can etc and now the Nobel Peace Prize adds to the expectations. An example of “high expectations” is Health Care Reform. His promise during the campaign season on Universal Health has morphed many times during the last nine months. At first, the talk was about the need and right of all Americans to Health Care through an ambitious and long over due single payer system like “Medicare for All”. The “Single-payer” idea was thrown under the bus before it was even given a chance, then a public option to provide competition for insurance companies is being attacked by opponents as a government takeover and a Co-Op Health System was too hard to figure out. So, the latest compromise being discussed is to just let the States choose whether to adopt a public option or not. What a mess is created when there is little leadership shown on driving a simple, clear, and consistent message. As we all know words are cheap, but action and follow-through are hard because it requires courage, risk, and an understandable message delivered over and over again.
Obama and his team seem to be ready to settle for any bill so they can justify the time and political capital spent on this intractable problem. Maybe they need to reflect on this powerful message from Eric Hoffer, long time change philosopher and longshoremen. Hoffer said: “In human affairs every solution only sharpens the problem, to show us more clearly what we are up against, there are no FINAL SOLUTIONS.”
President Obama the time for leadership is now. Leaders Serve Period, so no more waiting for others to carry the burden of action. You and your team must step-up, people are dying everyday. The following speech by Alan Grayson, House Rep from Florida, demonstrates the assertive and “profiles in courage” we need. Please Mr. President show this to your team and stop fiddling around.
Power of Empathy
“The job of leadership today is not just to make money. It’s to make meaning.” John Hagel, Management Consultant
Judgment implies evaluation and a lack of trust. Trusting yourself and others is the foundation of empathy. ” Carl Rogers
Empathy defined–It is the unconditional understanding of others feelings, experience and ideas without judgment. Empathy does not mean agreement with the other persons point of view or feeling. To show empathy you must be able to put yourself in the other persons shoes and understand their experience without judgment. Continue reading ‘The Power of Empathy–People before Profits’
“The average doctor listens for 18 seconds before interrupting the patient.”
How disrespectful and arrongant is this kind of behavior? What are the implications for doctor-patient interactions? How can we help doctors improve their communication skills? Continue reading ‘Reality Check #1: Do Doctors Listen to Patients?’
“The ability to express an idea is well nigh as important as the idea itself.” Bernard Baruch
A sticky message is one that’s understood by the audience or receiver, remembered, and that changes something (opinions, behaviors, values). Presentations can be either formal (keynote) or informal (Grand Rounds). As a doctor, when presenting or teaching, you’re on the front lines of conveying information and knowledge. Every single time you deliver a roundtable, lunch and learn, and a dinner meeting, you’ve got to get up in front of colleagues and make ideas stick. The question you need to ask yourself–Is what do you want them to take or learn from the speech? And let’s face it, this is no easy mission. Few doctors look forward to another dinner meeting unless the wine is good and the food is first rate, they anticipate and are ready for the latest info on a new wonder drug for solving or abating the impact of a disease on their patients.
1. Make the message tangible and relevant. Stories and examples are the critical foundation for sticky presentations. Stories provide a realistic context and hook for the audience
If you use only one tip, this is the one. The #1 mistake we’ve observed in presentations—and there is no close second—is that the message is too abstract. The presenter offers concepts and conclusions but not evidence. He talks at a high level about the big picture, but gives no concrete details that might make the big picture understandable and plausible. He may sprinkle in a few stories or examples, but they are treated like garnish. Most people communicate with, say, 3 parts exposition to 1 part example. That’s exactly backwards. In a compelling presentation, examples aren’t garnish, they’re the entrée.
A presentation is a sequence of concrete examples and stories that snap together to form a compelling argument. For instance, think of the examples that Al Gore used in his movie An Inconvenient Truth: The before and after photos of Mt. Kilimanjaro, showing the vanishing snow caps. The simulated satellite images of Manhattan flooded by rising sea levels. In Michael Moore’s Sicko, he doesn’t make conceptual points about the health care system—he makes his case through the stories of individuals, like the carpenter who accidentally cut off 2 fingers, and then had to choose which finger to reattach since he couldn’t afford to do both!
2. Execute the 3 C’s–Make the presentation Clear, Concise and Compelling
We know many of you have to present data in your presentations. But because data is pretty abstract, you should resist your temptation to lead with the data or to let the data stand alone. Which is more compelling? Saying that there are “900,000 poor adults with declining eyesight in Mumbai, and we need your help to start solving the problem.” Or telling the story above about the 35-year-old weaver, and then saying, “Our research suggests that there are 900,000 stories like this, in Mumbai alone, and we need your help to start solving the problem.” Data are just summaries of thousands of stories—tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful.
3. Get to the Point: Grab and Keep the Audience Attention
The first mission of a presentation is to grab attention. And the second requirement is to keep that attention. That’s why it’s upsetting to see a speaker violate the Primacy Rule which is remembering that you have about 60 seconds to make a strong first impression. Don’t miss the opportunity by stumbling out of the blocks with a laborious overview of what’s going to be covered and who you are. This problem is understandable. After all, we’ve all been coached to “Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em, then tell ‘em, then tell ‘em what you told ‘em.”
Within the 60 seconds of opening focus the audience’s attention on the challenge, opportunity or issue to be discussed. Eliminate irrelvant jokes and a slow start. Presenters like actors in the theater must be ready the moment you take the stage.
4. Let your main points shine in the spotlight–focus on the critical 2-3 things you want them to take away.
If you say 9-10 things, you say nothing. You probably lose you audience around # five. Remember the Magic #7 Rule concerning memory. People can only retain 5-9 chunks of information at one session. Stop flooding them with information and numbers. Stick to your MAIN POINT.. Are you giving the spotlight to your most important points? Here are two quick tests: What percentage of your speaking time is going to those points? And what percentage of your slides are dedicated to them? If you’re not spending at least half of your time and your visuals on the core of your message, you’re probably trying to accomplish too much.
5. Open and Authentic Communication
One of the main reasons why people do not take the time to provide feedback is that they do not believe any action will result from the communication. Let audience members know that you have listened and that you will respond. Don’t just give lip service to support and continuous improvement.
6. Listen, Ask and Problem Solve. Don’t Tell and Sell
Hook them before trying to land them in the boat. Curosity and interest must come before data and content. Before your audience will value the information you’re giving, they’ve got to want it. Demand has to come before supply. Most presenters take the audience’s desire to listen and care for granted, but that’s a big mistake. Great presentations are mysteries, not encyclopedia entries. Sticky message must be surprising,, raise curiousity and Cool.
Example of Sticky Presentations: JFK Man on Moon, FDR Only thing to “Fear is Fear itself,” Death Panels etc. How about this one for the Dems: Why Health Care Reform–People first–Profits second 450% increase in insurance companies profits last 10 years. Enough said (Show visual chart of insurance profits and average company profits accross industries.) Tellstories of people dying ( 22/day 140 /week 460/month and 44,000/year. Highlight a few with real people telling their stories about their pain and non-responsiveness of insurance companies. Telling powerful stories is the best way to convey a sticky message that the audience understand it, we remember it, and we can retell it later. If people believe a message is credible and true, it might change attitudes or behavior permanently.
Reflecting on the uncivil discourse taking place in poltics today I wrote the following poem this morning:
The Cry for Acceptance
I’m a Person, don’t drive me away.
I’m a person, take, like me the way I am.
I’m a person, value my worth.
I’m a person, don’t drive me away.
I’m a person, don’t get too close.
I’m a person, let me remain withing my walls.
I’m person, don’t drive me away.
I’m a person, respect my differences
I’m a person, don’t make my mistakes awful.
I’am a person, don’t drive me away
I’m person, please understand me.
I’m a person, you are a person, go away closer.
I’m person, let me be …
