Silence

There is no better way to sell something than for the customer sell it to himself.  But this will never happen if the seller never shuts up.  Like stand-up comics, salespeople shouldn't ever be afraid of a little silence.

Just a thought.

The juggle

If you're a client of mine then you're the most important thing in my world.  Every last one of you.

A key reason for going with a smaller supplier is that the service should always be better.  It is beholden upon me to be more attentive, more flexible and, well, friendlier than larger competitors.  This is especially true with face-to-face meetings early on in the relationship.

Right now I have two potential new clients (one in the UK, the other in Europe) who have both requested high-level, multiperson meetings before December.  Ignoring those dates where I have other commitments I'm only left with 17 days between now and November 30.

There is an art to drafting the email that implies: -

(a) My diary is entirely at your disposal so take as long you need... 

But also: -

(b) Not really, so hurry up

My solution was to choose the client that I think is more likely to move quicker (based on the size of the meeting more than anything else).  I emailed only her offering the choice of all 17 days.  Happily I got a rapid response so could then immediately give the other client any of the other 16.

Reading back on this it seems like common sense but years ago I learnt the lesson the hard way when (my only) two potential clients insisted on a meeting on the same day.  That cost me 50% of my customer base.

Relief

As I mentioned in a recent post, I've just come off a very busy period with lots of travel.  I've been really looking forward to getting some time to myself to recharge, to think about the bigger picture and so on.

But...

I am at heart a freelancer.  This means I am continually plagued by the thought that the last job I did is the last one I'll ever do and the ever-darker forebodings of the financial press haven't helped my mood in the slightest.  So to say I was relieved when an email hit my BlackBerry last night confirming a large, interesting project that will run until mid-January is an understatement of the first order.

Being self-employed means continual, low-level anxiety about where the next job is coming from.  Even if it's entirely subliminal I suppose that buried somewhere in my fee structure is the cost of that anxiety.

What are you?

There's no doubt now that times are going to get a lot tougher over the coming few years and finding a place in the new world order will be no easy thing.  For example, how many of my clients will be arguing hard for an 'external consultants budget' next year?

I'm thinking that some rebranding might be a place to start; am I better off describing myself as: -

Global Marketing Consultant

or: -

a freelance sales trainer?

Whatever it is, I am acutely aware that my biggest competitor is now the guy inside the client organisation desperate to make himself indispensable in the shadow of another restructuring.

Failure is an orphan

On Facebook today and this advert came up on a side panel.

I know nothing at all about the Alchemy Network group and I'm sure that in amongst the 5 amazing, information packed days are some really valuable insights.   My issue is with Selling Point 2: -

You will receive 12 months network support at NO cost  

Whatever this is, it won't be as good as it sounds.  I know that a lot of people like the idea of self-employment but because going out on your own is a daunting prospect they'd welcome some help along the way.  We all need friends, right?

The truth is that if my business is failing then I can't see your 'network support' providing any meaningful help.  It doesn't sound like you'll find me solid clients or arrange a competitive loan in a cashflow crisis or help with filing the tax return.  And if I'm flourishing then you'll want me for marketing purposes more than I'll need you.

They say that 'success has a hundred fathers but failure is an orphan'.  Why should I pay you to share (only) in my upside?

Second acts

I have always been plagued by F. Scott Fitzgerald's observation that: -

'There are no second acts in American lives'

To me it sets out a particular challenge: how can you be successful at first one thing and then another in a single lifetime?

I'm talking about bona fide success here; not the mid-ranking executive who also sails competitively on the weekends or the lawyers who drop out and open that nice little B&B on the coast; not the sideline interest or the retreat from the world.  I'm talking about building some remarkable career then stopping.  Starting over from scratch and becoming remarkable again in some new way.

My travel schedule has settled down for the moment so I have two full weeks at home.  The plan is to spend the time fleshing out some 'Next Act' ideas; another book and a different type of performance project.

If not now then when?

Presentation as ordeal

This week I was at a sales meeting and shared the stage with the client's new marketing director.  It was a fractious affair, due mostly to the fact that Marketing had seen fit to change the overall strategy without sufficient consultation with Sales (according to Sales at least).  The day morphed into one of those classic Sales versus Marketing scraps where every possible cliche was trotted out: -

• The 'ivory tower' or 'the trenches'
• Next month's budget or long-term success
• Day-to-day thinking or over-the-horizon vision
• The need for a cohesive positioning or doing whatever it takes to get the sale

I'd had peripheral involvement in the decision to change the strategy and believed that the underlying logic was sound.  Still, the sales team was unconvinced.

The Marketing Director had confided in me beforehand that for him sessions like this one were about survival and nothing else, so when he stood up to speak the smell of fear was palpable.  He spoke quickly and made no eye-contact with any of the fourteen or so sales managers in the room.   Upon finishing he made to leave without Q&A but the sales guys were having none of it.  Someone raised a hand, asked a reasonable question and that was that.  Hunting as a pack the audience brutalised him for the next 45 minutes.

Did he survive?  Sort of.

But what's the point?  This guy has a strategy that I know he believes in and yet when placed in a room of the very people he depends on to enact that strategy his only thought is 'survival'.  I suppose he left with his reputation intact (if diminished) but he hadn't done a thing to persuade his colleagues to do something he knows they must be doing to ensure everyone's long-term success.

I suppose that the 'survival' analogy comes from media politics.  You agree to an interview with a Barbara Walters or a Jeremy Paxman because 'you should', it's how the game is played and so on.  Yet once in the chair all you think about is getting out alive.

I can't speak for politicians but I know too many marketers who've watched too much West Wing and so see sales conferences in the same way.  A chance to speak to the sales guys en masse is a 100% good thing.  If you're not attempting to use  the forum to excite and persuade and motivate then why are you even in your job?

Of course, as an 'external' my world is starker: if all I do is survive a session then I ain't going to be invited back.

Off to Korea

I leave for Korea this afternoon.  I'll get to Seoul on Tuesday night and begin work on Wednesday morning.  All my documents are translated, printed and waiting at the hotel.  The interpreter has been briefed and I'll meet her upon arrival.  The pre-work is done and delivery awaits.

I hope that I've accounted for the differences so I can focus on enjoying the similarities.

Train-the-Trainer 2

Train-the-Trainer projects are an inevitable part of my world because my clients are mostly large enough to have their own training departments.  This is an obvious point of tension and begs the question: what is the ideal relationship between the company-employed trainer and the external consultant?

As the external supplier, it is all too tempting to position myself as the genuine expert, an original thinker with a breadth of experience that affords insight to which a workaday wage-slave isn't privy.  And in the past I've made the mistake of behaving as I was the 'A' team (if only because that's how the senior client team described me) and paid the price.

This is what I've learned: -

The internal training department will always be cheaper than me, more in tune with company politics than me and will be around to promote or destroy my project long after I've been paid.  If I care about the long-term health of my brand then I need these people far more than they need me.

It never hurts to tell them as much.  There will be enough whisperings in their collective ear saying that my presence is an indictment on their ability without me adding to any sense insecurity.  Wherever possible Train-the-Trainer programmes should be positioned as meetings of equals rather than 'watch and learn' sessions.

Establishing a partnership of sorts with internal trainers is not always easy or even possible.  But a good start to is park your ego at the door.