Isn’t it true that we take for granted those who do the most for us? I think many times our client relationships are like our love life. We commit energy, time and thoughtfulness during the dating phase, and when we hook them and “marry” them, we feel as though we can make less of an effort.

When was the last time you thanked your customers? Are you in the habit of sending a thank you note when you win a new account, or when an existing client has awarded you a new project?  If you aren’t, it is an important habit to adopt – a thank you note is the least you can do to let them know that they are appreciated.

If you’d like to go a step further, start a file in your computer. Keep a list of websites and shops who will deliver gifts. When you want to send a token of appreciation, you won’t have to spend countless hours online trying to come up with something clever or meaningful. I keep a file of companies who ship wine, cigars, cookies, cakes or gift baskets including:

• www.redenvelope.com
• www.nonniestraditionals.com
• www.levenger.com
• www.deananddeluca.com
• www.lobstergram.com
• www.tiffany.com

And, when someone sends me a unique gift, I make sure to add the website or shop to my list.

If you want to move to the head of the class, send a thank you note to the company who allowed you into their bid process, but awarded the business to someone else. This is a courtesy and also leaves the door open for future opportunities.

Thank you isn’t just a topic for Miss Manners. If you are in any type of client-facing role, it should be a part of your ongoing relationship with your clients.

Who can you thank today?

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We’ve taken quite a trip around your brain. Here’s what I’m hoping you garnered from the last several blogs

• We all have a ‘Whole Brain’, but have definite preferences and differences in how we see the world and ‘hear’ information.
• The power in knowing your preferences and those of your client is that you can flex into your client’s preferred quadrants and have a better chance of being heard.

But, this begs the question, “What if I don’t know the preference of my client?” or “What if I’m presenting to a varied group?” To solve for this we provide information from all four quadrants. Here’s one way that this might look in presentation:

1. Give the big picture view of why this proposal is important to the client (Yellow)
2. Provide step by step information as to how you’ll deliver your solution (Green)
3. Talk about who will be on your team to support the client (Red)
4. Give the metrics for how you’ll determine the ROI on your solution (Blue)

At the end of the day, if we are serious about connecting with our clients and deepening current client relationships, we need to go a step deeper than our standard sales process. We must find a way to speak in a language that our client will hear.

On October 20th I posted a link to an AMA article called Making the Speech of Your Life. The author spoke about  Ethos, Logos and Pathos. Ethos, the creation of trust – Logos , making your appeal with facts and numbers and Pathos, your emotional appeal. While this is a great beginning to a Whole Brain approach, it is missing some elements.

Ethos – Trust means something different to each preference. A Blue thinker for example, will trust you because it makes sense (logical), while a Green thinker will trust you because it feels safe to do so. Are you creating a Whole Brain reason for your audience to trust you?

Logos – Making your appeal with facts and figures is an outstanding way to reach the Blue quadrant thinkers in your audience.

Pathos – Making an emotional appeal will definitely get a response from the Red quadrant thinkers in your audience.

But, this strategy doesn’t address the Green quadrant. And a Green quadrant thinker wants to know HOW you are going do what you propose.

A Whole Brain approach always has a better chance of speaking to your audience. By speaking to preferences you’ll be connecting specifically with your client which will deepen your relationship with them and create more opportunities for you. We’ve recently helped increase validated opportunities by 23% at their largest tradeshow with this very approach.

I’d love to hear how it works for you.

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Whole Brain™ thinking is owned by Herrmann International

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The Blue quadrant is where critical thinking and analysis happens. People with a preference for the Blue quadrant have a tendency to be great with numbers, or taking things apart and putting them back together.

The gifts of the Blue quadrant can be:

• Analyzing data
• Solving tough problems
• Determining the ROI

Challenges of the Blue quadrant can be:

• Analysis paralysis
• Being perceived as “all data”
• Unsoftened directness

If your client has a preference for the Blue quadrant you might notice that:

• They ask for a lot of numbers and spreadsheets
• They only make a move when it ‘makes sense’
• They have no interest in a personal relationship

How to adjust for the Blue preference:

1. Come to the meeting prepared with facts and data to support your claims.
2. Get to the point.
3. Use testimonials that show ROI.

I’ve shared with you a very big picture view of Whole Brain™ thinking and how it may be applied to your clients to determine the filters through which they see the world. I’d love to know how you’ve applied this model to your current sales process.

Next, we’ll look at what to do if you are presenting to a group, or you don’t know the preference of a person you are working with.

Next week – A Whole Brain thinking wrap up

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Whole Brain™ thinking is owned by Herrmann International

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I think of people with a Green preference as the ‘doers’ of the world. They see the world through the details. The gifts of the Green preference can include:

• An attention to detail
• The ability to get things done
• The ability to establish order

Challenges of the Green preference may include:

• Being so focused on getting something done that they lose sight of the big picture
• Getting too mired in detail
• Risk aversion

The Green quadrant is someone you want on your side when you want to get things accomplished. A Green quadrant thinker will have a step-by-step plan for getting you there.

If your client has a preference for the Green quadrant you may notice:

• They are tough to move from the status quo
• They ask for very detailed proposals
• They are on time with things and like you to be

How do you adjust for the Green quadrant?

1. Save your ‘new’, ‘innovative’ and ‘fun’ ideas for your Yellow quadrant clients unless you can make it very SAFE for a Green thinker to make a risky move like this.
2. Provide as much detail as you can about process.
3. Never meet them late or unprepared.

It is interesting to note that most of us have preferences in more than one quadrant. You may find that you or your client are more right-brained (Yellow/Red) or left-brained (Green/Blue), or more Cognitive (Blue/Yellow) or Limbic (Green/Red) in preference. Have you already been looking for clues from your clients as to their preferences and how you may ‘flex out’ into their communication styles?

Next week – The Blue quadrant

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Whole Brain™ thinking is owned by Herrmann International

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The Red quadrant of the brain is the interpersonal quadrant.

Gifts of the Red quadrant include:

• Teaching
• Listening and talking
• Empathy

Challenges with the Red quadrant include:

• Too much talking
• Taking things personally
• Getting emotional

The Red quadrant sees the world from the perspective of people and relationships. They are often great at expressing ideas and telling stories in a way that creates an emotional connection for the listener.

If your client has a preference for the Red quadrant you might notice:

• That knowing you before doing business with you is important
• They talk about personal things before getting down to business
• They are concerned about how the team will react to your ideas

How do you adjust for the Red quadrant?

1. Deliberately spend time on nurturing the relationship.
2. Give them time to talk. Don’t interrupt.
3. Focus your testimonials on how much your solution impacts people.

You might have noticed as we’ve discussed the Yellow and Red quadrants, that these preferences can fit into any number of personalities and be both introverted and extroverted. It is important to remember that these quadrant describe overarching preferences for how you see the world rather than being personality predictors.

Next week – The Green quadrant

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Whole Brain™ thinking is owned by Herrmann International

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In the last post, I explained to you the different quadrants of the brain and how we tend to see the world from our preferred quadrant (s). You’ll see as we explore the four quadrants of the brain that I use the terms ‘preference’ and ‘filters’ – this is intentional. I speak to preferences because we all have a Whole Brain and abilities in all four quadrants. Much like we have a left or right handed preference we have natural preferences for certain quadrants of our brain. And, like you can write with your non-dominant hand (although uncomfortably) you can ‘flex’ out into non-dominant quadrants of your brain. So, Whole Brain thinking has nothing to do with your abilities and everything to do with your preferences.

Let’s look at the Yellow quadrant. The Yellow quadrant of your brain is where big-picture thinking happens.

The gifts of the Yellow quadrant can include:

• The ability to see connections between things that seem disparate
• “Visioning” and strategy
• Creative thinking
• Holistic thinking

Challenges with the Yellow quadrant can include:

• A tendency to begin things, but not finish
• A lack of attention to detail
• An aversion to accepted rules

People who see the world through the filter of the Yellow quadrant are often the creative force behind a project – they love brainstorming and coming up with new ideas and innovations. They have the ability to see the big picture and are comfortable taking risks. A Yellow thinker may also grasp concepts very quickly. If this is your client you may notice that they:

• Write and think in bullet points
• Ask you to ‘get to the end game’
• Often focus on what your business solution will solve, rather than what it will cost

How can you adjust for this preference?

1. Don’t mire them down in details. They will tune you out quickly.
2. Chunk your ideas into bullet points for them.
3. Know how your solution will solve a future problem for their organization.
4. Show them how you are more innovative than your competition.

The power in understanding Whole Brain thinking is first, self-awareness – for example, are you seeing the world through a Yellow filter? And, secondly, learning to quickly identify the filters through which your clients see the world and adjusting your communication so they will ‘hear’ you.

Next week – The Red quadrant.

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*Whole Brain™ thinking is owned by Herrmann International

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Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing with you the different perspectives through which we filter information. Today, I’d like to lay down the overall concept for you.

Whole Brain Thinking is a term that was coined by Ned Herrmann in the 1970′s. Herrmann was the Director of Management Training for General Electric and he was interested in determining why there was such a diversity of reactions and assimilation of his materials by attendees in his programs.

The early 70′s was a busy time for scientists who were studying the brain – it is when the understanding of Left Brain/Right Brain Thinking came into play. What scientists, like Herrmann realized ultimately, was that in addition to left and right hemispheres of the brain, we use the cognitive (reasoning) part of our brain and the limbic (sensing) part of our brain. And, much like we have preferences toward left or right-handedness, we have preferences toward quadrants of our brain. In other words, although we have a ‘Whole Brain’, we tend to ‘see’ the world from certain filters (quadrants) rather than from a Whole Brain perspective. After doing the due diligence to scientifically validate the theory, a model was created that is still used today.

The four quadrants of the Whole Brain model

What does this mean to a salesperson? It means that if you take the sales process that you are currently using and overlay the customers ‘preferences or filters’, you can customize any message so that your customer is more likely to hear you.

We use this tool in any situation where truly connecting with someone is important. Over the next four or five weeks, I’ll be sharing more information on each of the quadrants and how you can use the information to connect and communicate with your customers.

Stay tuned…

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*Whole Brain Thinking™ is owned by Herrmann International

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Great discovery (excavation) informs every part of the client engagement from the sales approach to the solution to the way it is presented. There are two parts to being a great sales archaeologist. First, you must an idea of what you are excavating for. And, secondly, you have to have a process for how you’ll get that information.

What are you excavating for?

• What are the opportunities or challenges that face the client?
• How are these issues prioritized?
• What has prevented this opportunity or problem from being solved in the past?
• How important is it? In other words, how likely is it that it will get the resources and commitment for a resolution now.
• What are the resources that have been committed to craft a solution?
• Who are all the groups/individuals impacted by these issues who may have a say in the solution?
• What is the decision-making process and who will be involved?
• What are the road blocks to solving this issue?

If I surveyed most sales professionals reading this, I’ll bet that many could give me some version of the list above. When I get into organizations and begin looking at their discovery process, however, I find that those same sales professionals have no real process for excavating that information. They don’t know how to structure the conversation.

What is your discovery process?

• Let the client list for you all of the opportunities or issues they are facing. Resist the urge to interrupt with a solution while they are speaking. Let them get the entire list on the table.
• Ask them to prioritize the issues. Don’t assume that the first issue they mention is the most important to them.
• Begin to excavate through the first issue until you have all of the information you are excavating for.
• Ask the client which issue is the next most important, and repeat the process.
• Summarize at the end of the conversation and ask two very important questions -
1. Did I get that right?
2. Did I leave anything out?

This process gives you a strategy for managing the conversation while also allowing the client ample opportunity to share what is most important to them.

Give it a try. I’d love your feedback on how it is working for  you.

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If we’ve worked together, you’ve heard me say that facts and data will not be what sways a prospect to your product or service. And yet, that is what many salespeople trot out in their presentations – the facts, the stats, the data, a laundry list of why they are better than their competitor. What sways a prospect to buy your product/service is how they FEEL about your data – and that is why great storytelling is a powerful skill in sales.

To Godin’s point, we’ve already ‘written’ our story for most of the decisions that we make. It (the thing my story is about) will make me look better, smarter, thinner, more successful. Your clients have also developed a story for their problem, it’s solution and the right provider of that solution. A great salesperson ensures that the client’s story and his story are in synch. Three things comes in to play here.

First, do enough great discovery to determine what the prospect’s story is currently. (sounds like an opportunity for another blog)

Secondly, chose the right stories to include in your presentation. The right stories will overcome an objection before the prospect voices it, or enables a prospect to see themselves and their organization being successful with you as their provider. An example: years ago I was presenting for a piece of business. In my first meeting to the headquarters I noticed that the company’s mission statement was all over the building and in every cubicle and office.  When I came back to make my final presentation, I began by telling a short story of my company’s mission, how it how it had evolved and how it was the constitution by which our organization lived. At the end of the presentation, the prospect said to me, “You probably don’t know this, but our corporate mission is an integral part of our culture here; and, one of our policies is to try to find partners with similar values.” Of course, I did know and by beginning the presentation with a story of our own corporate values (all true, by the way), I was sharing with them up front how we were philosophically in synch. It helped the prospect to see me as a partner from the very beginning of my presentation.

And finally, ALWAYS rehearse the story as part of your presentation rehearsal. You are rehearsing, right? The story should be an integrated part of the presentation. And, the story is never the point. The story is a vehicle that helps the prospect see your facts and data as a part of their story. It helps them to connect with you and what you offer.

So, what’s your story?

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I’ve come to the conclusion that God might have saved Himself the trouble. We confuse our language very well on our own.

Our love affair with buzzwords, jargon and meaningless language does as much to make it difficult to connect as speaking a foreign language. Add to that the different mental filters through which we see the world and it is amazing that we understand each other at all.

What can you do to make sure that you aren’t speaking babble?

• Be judicious about the use of buzzwords. Your idea of ‘bleeding edge’ and your client’s are likely different.
• Don’t jump on the bandwagon of the most current jargon in an attempt to sound smart, or current, or – I don’t know – what are you trying to sound like? And, for Heaven’s sake, don’t string a slew of jargon together.
• Be thoughtful about the way you are positioning yourself, your company and your services. Present them in a way that helps your prospect/client to see immediately how they can connect you to their needs.
• Make it your uppermost priority to be sure that you and your prospect/client are sharing meaning (rather than words). Use clarifying phrases like ‘What I mean by that is…’ or ‘That means many different things to our clients. Can you share with me a bit more about what you mean when you say…’

At the end of the day, you want to maximize your face time to be sure that you and your client are in alignment and leveraging your best practices to create synergy in a way that will leverage what you both have to bring to the table.

Got it?

“We often mistake fluency for comprehension. Because we can both use particular words fluently, we assume that we both mean the same things by them.” Mahan Khalsa

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