Get what you want

Ivana Taylor explains,

Getting what you want is really just a function of three things:

1.  Being clear about who your audience is and what’s important to them.

2.  Taking the time to analyze the situation, design a solution, and craft a creative and visual presentation of your idea.

3.  Making it easy for your audience to say yes to your idea and take action.

Let’s go through the outline minute by minute.

:30 - 1:00 minute  

What’s happening? This is the first statement of the presentation – but it will probably be the last thing you actually write.  Starting your presentation with an authentic statement about what’s happening will get everyone on the same page.  After you make your “What’s Happening” statement, the little voice inside your audience’s head should say something like “WHAT?  How can you say that?”  Your “What’s Happening” statement should be no more than two or three sentences.

1:00 – 3:00 minute  

How did we get here? In this section of the outline, you get to prove your point.  This is the section where you place all your data, charts, and graphs. Don’t overwhelm your audience with numbers and tables.  Make the title of each graph what you want your audience to be left with. Instead of “2011 Sales By Region” use “Southern Region Exceeds Sales Goals." Your audience will thank you because they won’t have to analyze the data themselves and you can move on with your presentation.

3:00 – 5:00 minutes   

What will we do? At this stage, the little voice inside your audience’s head is begging for solutions.  Now you have them where you want them.  They are eager to hear your ideas.  Don’t let this opportunity go to waste.  Take the time to present your idea in a tangible, visible way.  Use props or demonstrations to engage your audience and get them living into the future of your idea in action.

5:00 – 6:00 minutes   

What’s the payoff? You have a great idea, but why is it good for your audience? That’s what they will want to know and you get to tell them.  Be clear and descriptive about the benefits.  Use lots of adjectives to describe how wonderful the future will be with your solution in place.

6:00 – 7:00 minutes   

How do we get started? By the time you get to this stage of the outline, your audience will be excited and ready to do something.  Tell your audience what you want them to do and make it easy for them to take action right away.  If there is something to be signed, make sure that you have the forms, the pens, and anything else that’s required.

Boy, I feel full.

Tia Ghose explains how images of food effect our perception of how full we are,

The results show that there's more to hunger than the physical stomach rumblings.

"We store memories of what we think we've consumed and that somehow affects and regulates the hunger we've experienced between meals," Brunstrom said.

It also has implications for foods advertised as low-fat, Schoeller said. "If people are expecting that it's not going to be very satisfying and also that it's something they can eat without gaining weight, there is a tendency to eat more of it. And this study suggests that part of that might be related to our perception of how full we are."

Still, it's premature to hook a pump to your soup bowl in hopes of tricking yourself into losing weight, Schoeller said. "You don't know for sure if this translates from a single meal to a chronic effect of 12 weeks of eating smaller meals." That's because physical hunger cues may overpower visual cues once someone has tried to cut calories for a longer period of time, he said.

What is your value statement?

Rafi Mohammed shares his value statement philosophy,

Every company – whether a mom-and-pop or a Boston’s, for example -- should have a value statement that clearly articulates why customers should purchase their product over competitors’ offerings. Be specific in listing reasons: this is not a time to be modest. This statement will boost the confidence of your frontline so they can look customers squarely in the eye and say, “I know that you have options, but here are the reasons why you should buy our product.”

Staff rudeness and the customer experience

Christie Nickelson shares that rudeness between employees on your staff impacts the customer experience.

The studies confirm that witnessing an uncivil argument between two employees leaves a bad taste that goes well beyond the individual incident. Customers tend to generalize their newfound negative opinion to the entire organization, its employees and any future interactions with it. So serve it with a smile, please, for those in front of the counter and behind it.

Living your brand message

Your staff and you are the brand of your business. That recognition carries certain responsibility. You must act in such a way as to do right by your brand. Every action you and your staff engages in reflects rightly or wrongly on your brand whether it relates to the brand directly or not. An employee having a cigarette behind the dumpster or a manager's conduct at another unrelated place of business affects how people view your brand

John Kindle relates several stories about the preparation for a presentation. The message will be meaningless unless you live your message.

Everything you do before you start your speech is part of your show-before-the-show. Robert Orben said that the speech begins in the parking lot. Others have said that the speech begins with you walk out your front door. How do you behave at the airport ticket counter when your flight is delayed? A member of your upcoming audience could be standing behind you while you are being nice or rude to the desk clerk. When we were stuck in San Francisco traffic, Alan Weiss shared with me, “I never honk within ten miles of a client.” Since he doesn’t know for certain where his clients are, he never honks! Always be on your best behavior before a speech. You never know who is watching.

It is certainly not easy to live your brand message every minute, however in this viral video connected world it is the only option.

Food Ambassador in Chief

Why is the New York Times doing a food story about Chicago's mayor? Anyway regardless of your political leanings, "The Mayor" is truly the city biggest cheerleader.

On Tuesday, he joined about 50 chefs from many of the city’s fanciest restaurants at a news conference to promote the third annual Chicago Gourmet event, which will be held Sept. 25 and 26 at Millennium Park, a sort of Taste of Chicago for connoisseurs. Admission to the event, which attracted 3,000 people last year, is $150 a person.

“These chefs, to me, represent the creative class of society,” Mr. Daley said. “We have to realize how important they are to the city.”

The mayor clearly shares the theory, expounded in Richard Florida’s 2002 book “The Rise of the Creative Class,” that cities must attract people whose livelihoods involve imagination and innovation.

The culinary convention, Mr. Daley said, fits well with the city’s strategy of promoting itself as a destination for those seeking fine food and wine.

if you can sing you can sell.

What is the process by which you can communicate effectively on an organic level with customers, employees, friends and family? Roger Dooley shares the result of a study that gives an insight.

Most people do tend to use prosody, particularly when talking to babies and pets who may understand the emotion more than the words. But, we vary in how much we use prosody in normal conversation. The researchers found that the subjects who used prosody most often in everyday speech showed the highest levels of activity in Broca’s area and also scored high on empathy measures.

It’s unlikely most of us would hire a salesperson who spoke in a flat monotone, but this work suggests that an individual with a melodic manner of speaking would likely be better able to identify with customers’ emotions. (Note that what the researchers measured wasn’t musical skill or ability to carry a tune, but rather the melodic inflections used in speech.)

The benefits of a longer lunch

Tony Schwartz advises frazzled executives to take back their lunch hour

I wasn't entirely surprised. The Energy Project, the organization I run, recently conducted a poll on the Huffington Post about people's experience in the workplace. Sixty per cent of 1200 respondents told us they took less than 20 minutes a day for lunch. Twenty per cent took less than 10 minutes. One quarter said they never left their desks at all.

That's consistent with a study by the American Dietetic Association, which found that 75 per cent of office workers eat lunch at their desk at least two to three days a week.

Those poll findings were the inspiration for a movement The Energy Project is about to launch. The concept couldn't be more straightforward. We're calling it Take Back Your Lunch. It begins this Wednesday, between noon and 2 p.m., in locations around the country, and continues every Wednesday this summer. Find out where people will be gathering — or organize a Take Back Your Lunch Meetup in your city or town.

Your are helping your customers boost productivity by entertaining them for lunch a little longer. Your restaurant is helping to make the world a better place.

Rules v Principles

The age old question is should you adhere to Rules or adhere to Principles? The answer of course is total adherence to Principles. Rules are only a methodology to accomplish those Principles. What is the story being told by your Rules and how is that different for the story of your Principles? Now has everyone in your organization an understanding about the strategic clarity of those Principles? If they are not, they will seek cover under the umbrella of Rules to the detriment of your customers.

Principles > Rules.

Gone Silent

Adam Boyden shares steps to recapture those who have silently disappeared,

Find Out Why They Have Gone Silent

There is a reason your customers are no longer interacting with your brand and uncovering the reason why is an important first step. One way to do this is to use online surveys and polls that are specifically crafted for this subsection of your business. Don’t be afraid to ask and be direct. This analysis will only make your business stronger.

Ask them what you could do better, how you could adjust your offerings, how you might better meet their needs, etc. Take the feedback seriously and make adjustments where possible. Then, let them know that their feedback was heard and implemented.

You might be surprised by how much goodwill this generates, and how the goodwill will bring them back.

Connection creates great art.

Jeffrey Tang defines the connection that creates the great art. Does what you do inspire connection?

When Monet brushed color onto canvas, he birthed beautiful paintings into the world. But those paintings didn’t become art until they were put on display, until people looked at them, appreciated them, and in doing so created a connection with them and their painter.

You see, art is about the connection between artist and audience. Whenever you look at a painting or read a book or use a new product, you create that connection – you create art. You participate in the creative process.

Sorry about the wait.

Martin Gaston shares some annoying customer service phrases.

1. Sorry about the wait.

This is a redundant message that customer services operators are forced to say at the start of a conversation when the customer has been hanging on the phone for too long.

The people saying it aren’t sorry. Nor should we expect them to be — they’re just doing their job, after all.

But, when they open their conversation on a such a false note, it’s hard for the customer to take anything else they say as authentic.




Of course the business is really not sorry because the wait means the business is flooded with business. I agree that in all cases it is not genuine.

How does your sale help the customer's desired results

Geoffrey James channels Jeff Gitomer,

• RULE #6:Help the customer build the customer’s own business.
• RULE #7: Think end-of-time friendships not end-of-month totals.
• RULE #8: Define your niche and position yourself as the expert.
• RULE #9: Translate what you offer into the customer’s business results.

Credile Communications

Ivana Taylor previews "The Language of Trust",

The Four Principles of Credible Communication – Here is the magic formula: Be Personal, Be Plainspoken, Be Positive, Be Plausible. Really. That is all there is. These are simple words, we know what they mean and yet we don’t use these strategies nearly enough because if we did – we wouldn’t have a need for this book.

Buying brand awareness

Margaret Heffernan has some pointers if your business needs to get the word out more aggressively.

1. Pay for results, not time. One company I know pays for column inches, another by the number of mentions in online and traditional media. This keeps everyone highly focused.
2. Use a virtual agency. A newer model for PR and advertising is the virtual agency that coordinates a network of gifted freelancers. With no expensive real estate to cover and no deadbeats, they have to keep busy. They can assign specialists to your needs at a lower project cost or retainer.

Fast no is better than a long maybe

Anthony Tjan brings a little sanity to the yes, no , maybe dynamic.

"as always a fast no is better than a long maybe." I have since borrowed that sentence many times over. Too often people are not sure if they want a yes and instead create prolonged discussions because they are either: a) too embarrassed to say no, or b) just want option value.

1. Be clear on the "ask". I have seen people pitch us with brilliant clarity of ideas, but a cloud of ambiguity on what they want from an investment partner in terms of both capabilities and dollars
2. Set a firm deadline and sense of urgency. When meeting any prospective investor, customer, or buyer, set a clear deadline for a decision. In most cases you can get to a definitive yes or no just by being clear about a close date.
3. Agree to and adhere to a post-pitch process. Outline next steps for the follow-up. What additional documents or meetings are required for a decision? When will these occur and will there be sufficient time given the deadline at hand? If nothing is required, agree to the next follow-up date and the form of the follow-up. Make the follow-up timing shorter than your gut tells you: if you think you should follow up in two weeks, say a week. A follow-up in two weeks often means that the person is revisiting the issue in 13 days (the day before follow-up) versus six days for a follow-up in a week.
4. Affirm the silent no and provide an out. Become better at trying to confirm the silent no. Schedules change, people ask for more time, and other priorities take over. Know how to escalate to the no. Prolonged silence or indecision requires a forcing mechanism. Something along the lines of "I want to thank you again for your time considering this and realize that now may not be optimal timing. Can I assume a pass for now?" Human nature is more conditioned to a yes or maybe, rather than a no. Politely providing an out is usually appreciated by the other side, and it is a good way to elicit a definitive decision or gain clarity on the best next step.

Have you hugged your chef this week?

Well you should!

Chicago Chef Week

Fire the idiot!

Experience keeps a tidy school, but fools will learn in no other. Franklin

This gem from the annals of horrible customer retention methods.

Sandra Jones' report

The Dallas-based video rental firm made the new rules "to be consistent with the industry," said company spokeswoman Michelle Metzger. She said the dollar-a-day charge is not a late fee but an "additional daily fee," akin to keeping a rental car for longer than planned.

Coinstar Inc.'s RedBox, a DVD vending machine firm that like Netflix has been cutting into Blockbuster's market share, charges $1 a day for video rentals.

Blockbuster said last week it lost $435 million in the fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 3 as sales at stores open at least a year fell 15 percent. The company closed hundreds of stores in 2009 as it refocused on kiosks and a mail-order rental business.

If you lost $435 million, sticking it to your customers is the wrong business model. Does the concept of charging for what has no incremental value seem like a sustainable model? I do not think so.

Why are they not listening?

Are you communicating to the right Ear? ChangingMinds Blog explains

where loud music makes listening tricky, and tried a series of experiments. When they tried asking for a cigarette in the left ear or the right ear of their subjects, they found that almost twice as many requests to the right ear were successful.

This confirms a tip I've heard before that when doing a presentation you will be more successful if you stand to the left (as you face the audience). Of course then more of what you say will reach the right ear than the left ear.

The explanation is that sound in the right ear goes to the left brain hemisphere, which is used more for verbal communication. The left hemisphere also has been associated with approach behaviour as opposed to the right hemisphere avoidance tendency.

Difficult Conversations

Peter Bergman's post offers three concrete steps to diffuse any awkward conversation;

1. Ask questions. I would ask open ended, exploratory questions. Who, what, when, where, how, why, etc. Questions that would clarify what she was saying and feeling. Questions that would help me unpack the situation from her perspective. I would stay away from leading questions and statements that pretended to be questions but wouldn't fool anyone, like "You don't actually believe that, do you?"
2. Actually listen. I would shut up and hear what she had to say. And I would avoid thinking about anything except what she was saying. I would also try to hear what she wasn't saying but was implying, the desires, fears, and assumptions that were behind what she was saying.
3. Repeat and summarize. I would recap what I heard, trying to use the same words she did. I would also summarize what I heard and check with her to see if I understood her correctly. If she told me I didn't get it, I wouldn't ask her to repeat herself because, well, she would and I'd hear the whole thing over again. What I really wanted to know is what I got wrong. So I'd ask her what I missed. Once she told me, I'd repeat that part again and ask her if I got it right this time.

Most importantly, I wouldn't bother to defend our decision until her anger was diffused. And I picked a sign for myself: once she took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders, I'd make my point.