But outside of learning from Gladwell’s content, what can we learn from his success at selling ideas? How can we become better storysellers?

Gladwell has a knack for turning complicated (and often arcane) scientific ideas into digestible, tasty nuggets of knowledge. His readers don’t just passively sit and listen, they’re inspired to take action. To change their behavior. To transform their organizations. To tell others what they learned.

So what does Gladwell DO that makes him so effective?

I saw Gladwell speak about his new book, David and Goliath, a few weeks ago, and here are three tips I picked up. Some new ones, some oldies but goodies:

1) KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid
When sharing ideas we have a tendency to slip into jargon. To talk in ways that only insiders can understand. We know so much about the idea that we assume others do as well. So we go into all the nuances and complexity. Without realizing that we’re losing our audience along the way. It’s called thecurse of knowledge.

Gladwell spares us the unnecessary details. He keeps it simple. He knows most of his readers aren’t experts on cognitive psychology, network sociology, or the science of dyslexia. So he avoids the minutiae. He boils down complicated concepts into the key details and shares only those. Not the whole forest, just the most important trees.

If your audience remembered only one thing you told them, what should it be? How can you strip out unnecessary details and keep it simple?

2) Stories Beat Information Every Time
Information is great. Facts can be useful, enlightening, and help us make better decisions. But they can also be overwhelming, boring, and hard to remember.

Rather than just providing information, Gladwell tells stories. Tales of hipsters in the East Village or a girls’ basketball team that seemed woefully outmatched. These stories surprise and engage the audience and they help the listener mentally simulate what is happening.

But when carefully designed, stories also serve a larger purpose. They illustrate the main point of an argument in a way information alone can’t. They’re like vessels or carriers.

The most effective stories are Trojan Horses. Sure, there is an engaging narrative, but information comes along for the ride. It’s proof by (compelling) example.

What’s your Trojan Horse Story? What’s the enthralling narrative that will carry your message along inside?

3) A Good Tease Holds Attention
Most plays have three acts. The first act introduces things, the second act develops them, and the third resolves them. Movies, while not as explicit, usually follow a similar pattern. Sure everything could get resolved faster, but a good first act sets the scene in a way that draws us in. Just like a good mystery.

Gladwell’s talks (and books) often have the same structure. He starts with a question in the form of a story, but doesn’t resolve that story right away. Instead, he launches into a second and even a third story before wrapping up the first one. But the listener stays tuned along the way because they want to know how the first story ends. By opening what researchers call acuriosity gap, or hole in the listener’s knowledge, Gladwell encourages them to pay attention to the rest.

How can you open up a curiosity gap? Point out a hole in your listener’s knowledge that will make them want to lean in closer to learn more?

Whether you agree with his ideas or not, Gladwell is a great storyteller. One of the best there is. But he’s also a great storyseller. A master at selling ideas that drive others to action.

Whether you’re selling a product, an idea, or just yourself, we can all benefit from being better storysellers.

Many top sales executives believe that few of their salespeople sell well on value.  Does this surprise you?  
 
It doesn’t surprise me because I see firsthand that many salespeople we work with find it very difficult to effectively utilize value selling with their customers. In particular, they have difficulty quantifying and communicating the value in both tangible and intangible terms.
 
If you feel that you (or your sales team) can improve selling on value, then  let’s first highlight two key premises that will make it easier for you to sell value.
 
Premise #1:  You already use value selling in your personal life when you make buying decisions.  There are numerous examples but let’s use two examples that we can all relate to.
 
Imagine the last time that you bought a car.  What factors were important to you in making the decision?  If it was miles per gallon so that you could reduce your costs of fuel, you could easily calculate how much money you would save on fuel expenditures compared to your current car.  If it was to reduce the cost of service/maintenance, perhaps you selected an auto dealer that provided free service for the first three years. Again, you could calculate how much money that would save you.  Or, perhaps you upgraded to a safer vehicle that you could use with your insurance company to justify a lower annual insurance premium.  
 
As a second example, imagine that you’ve recently decided to buy a tablet rather than a new laptop computer.  What convinced you to do so?   Was it the lighter weight (which is a big benefit for someone like me who flies a lot)?  Was is the fact that your tablet allowed you to use one device in place of two or more other devices, such as negating the need for an e-book and a laptop?  Was it the Startup speed?  Clarity of the screen?  Ease of use?  I’m sure that you can think of other advantages of a tablet.
 
Notice in the above two examples that you could often quantify the savings/gains in actual dollars or improved speed (time savings).  Let’s call these factors “tangible value.”  This tangible value was used by you-as-customer to select your preferred car or preferred tablet.  
And, in cases where you couldn’t necessarily quantify the value, the other benefits of the product were quite compelling.  Lighter. Safer. Easier to use.  Let’s call these factors the “intangible value.”
 
Premise #2:  Now, apply what you already know about value selling but express it from your customer’s perspective.  When your customers make buying decisions based on value, they are doing exactly the same thing that you do when you make buying decisions as a customer.  They are assessing both the tangible and intangible value that your product/service will provide to them.  
 
So, do exactly the same thing when you prepare your value proposition to a customer. Quantify the cost savings or time/productivity gains that your customer will experience by using your product or service.  Highlight the two or three strongest benefits for the customer.
 
Average sellers don’t do this.  Instead, they take a product-centered approach and fail to communicate clearly to a customer the tangible and intangible value that a customer will receive by using their product. Don’t make this mistake.  

In our business we work with salespeople and sales managers of all levels. Recently, I’ve had an opportunity to work with a lot of new sales hires. What I like best about working with new sales hires is that it is inspirational to see their strong desire and enthusiasm to learn new skills that will make them succeed. They know that they have to learn as much as possible, through training and hands=on experience in order to become top performing salespeople. 
 
It is also interesting to note that across the board, no matter what the industry, it seems that new salespeople struggle with some of the same challenges, as noted below in three questions we repeatedly hear from new salespeople:
·         What is the most important piece of advice you have for a new salesperson? 
·         What is the most important skill I need to develop as a new salesperson?  
·         What is the most difficult challenge I will face as a new salesperson?  
What is the most important piece of advice you have for a new salesperson?
 
Above all, remember to stay customer focused.  Many salespeople focus too much on talking about their own company and products rather than learning about the customer’s business and needs.  Imagine instead if you used your sales calls to gather information such as: What is most important to this particular customer?  What does the customer value the most in a supplier? What challenges does the customer face in their business?
 
Many mistakes made by average sellers can be avoided if you focus on the customer and how your product/service can benefit the customer’s organization.

Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink, covers a wide range of topics dealing with the power (and occasional ineffectiveness) of non-cognitive information processing by the human brain. (Or, if you prefer Gladwell’s term, “rapid cognition.”) Intuition, he says, and practiced expert judgment often lead to better conclusions than conscious and detailed analysis.
One of the more interesting phenomena described by Gladwell is “priming”, in which subtle suggestions to the subconscious mind can influence subsequent behavior. The book describes an experiment in which some subjects read a list of words that included some words related to old age and infirmity (think “gray”, “wrinkled”, “Florida”, for example); these subjects were found to walk more slowly to the building’s elevator after the apparent conclusion of the experiment than a control group who did not read the age-related terms.
This is a rather startling, even freakish, result when one considers the subtlety of the cues that ended up changing the behavior of the subjects. They weren’t placed in a nursing home for a day, or shown a lengthy video of elderly people, or asked to imagine what being old might feel like. They simply read a list of apparently neutral words, with a few age -related terms interspersed in a non-obvious way. It’s likely the slowdown effect wasn’t long lasting, but the fact that it occurred at all is interesting. It certainly suggests that “positive thinking”, visualization techniques, and other systems designed to put the user in a particular frame of mind may have some basis in neuroscience.
The marketing implications of priming aren’t clear, but one can speculate that one application might be to prime the viewer of an ad or sales pitch in such a way as to make him most receptive to the message. Of course, this is what most advertising and sales techniques attempt to do, i.e., enhance the beliefs or mood of the target so that the ultimate sales pitch is most effective. Encyclopedia salespeople have known this for years (though they seem to be a dying breed in these days of Google and Wikipedia). Nobody answers the door thinking, “I could really use an expensive encyclopedia right now,” but after an hour of reality distortion by a skilled salesperson many end up buying one. I’m not suggesting that getting consumers to buy something they don’t need is a desirable or ethical marketing practice, but it’s clear that a well-structured sales pitch can have a major influence on behavior.
Priming, though, is different than presenting the target with information, appealing to their needs (real and perceived), and offering tangible and intangible benefits. Priming is subtle and unconscious, and isn’t likely to convince anyone to spend a thousand dollars on a set of reference books. Rather, it might act like the seasoning in a casserole by making the marketing message a bit more palatable.
Imagine an advertisement for a pain reliever. This commercial shows older people experiencing arthritic symptoms, having difficulty with activities requiring manual dexterity, etc. At the conscious level, this ad will be most effective when viewed by people experiencing the exact symptoms described; indeed, advertisers try to target examples that resonate with the maximum number of viewers. One can also speculate, though, that there’s also a priming effect happening. As all viewers watch the images of struggling elderly actors, they will identify in some tiny way with what’s on the screen. To the extent that the message resonates with these viewers (e.g., showing images of youthful vigor returning after using the drug), the company may be effectively reaching a broader market than elderly people with arthritis.
Ads attempting to prime the viewer can be more subtle. Background activity or images may be as effective as what’s happening in the foreground or voiceover. Of course, savvy advertisers have always used subtle cues to enhance their overt message, but understanding priming may help them structure these cues. And, as much as I hate the typical close to a research paper (“more research is needed…”), using priming to enhance marketing is definitely one area where we need more data.

How will you Get That New Team Members Off to a Great Start!

I was doing an induction for a new client the other day and need a hit of inspiration i hunted around and found this it was on a  Mindtools website, it is very helpful.

Hiring a new member of your team can be time-consuming and costly – so you want them to settle in and Start working productively as soon as possible. After all, if you had spent time sourcing and choosing an expensive new piece of machinery, you wouldn’t just leave it in its box when it was delivered, and hope it would just Start being productive! The solution is a well-thought out induction process that helps ensure that new hires feel comfortable in their new job and Start working effectively as soon as possible.

Traditionally, employee induction was looked at as the time needed to fill out personnel records, show new employees the washrooms, introduce them to a few coworkers, and wish them well. If they met with anyone other than an HR representative, they were doing well.

That doesn’t work anymore. New team members expect, and deserve, more!

Common Complaints…

The most frequent complaints new people have about their induction experiences are that they are overwhelmed, are bored, or are left to sink or swim on their own. The result is often a confused new employee who takes a long time to become productive, or becomes frustrated and quickly leaves the organization.

An effective, carefully-planned orientation or on-boarding program will not only teach technical skills, but it will educate new team members about corporate values, the company’s history, and provide valuable information about “who is who” in the organization. Organizations that have good induction programs get new people up to speed faster, have better alignment between what new people do and what the organization needs them to do, have happier employees, and have lower staff turnover rates.

When you know the “why” of employee induction, it is much easier to design an effective program that will welcome new employees with sincerity. When you take the time and make the effort to deliver an effective induction you also convey the message that you are committed to employee development and to providing the training and resources needed to do a great job from the Day 1. Here are some “hows” for doing just that.

Tips for New Employee Induction

Planning

Consider key orientation planning questions before implementing or revamping a current program. Important questions to ask are:

• What does the new employee need to know about this work environment to feel comfortable and confident?
• What impression do you want new employees to have on their first day?
• What policies and procedures should new employees learn about on the first day or the first month? This vital information must be included in the orientation process.
• How can new employees be introduced to their coworkers without feeling overwhelmed and intimidated?
• What special things (desk, work area, equipment, special instructions) can you provide to make new employees feel comfortable, welcome, and secure?
• How can you ensure that the new employee’s supervisor is available to assist him or her on the first day; and provides enough time and attention to let him or her know that he or she is valued an important addition to the work team?

Ask for feedback from recent hires. Find out how they perceived the orientation process and make changes based on those recommendations.

Tip:
Once you have a list of areas to cover, divide them up according to when they should be covered in the induction process: before the new hire Starts, on Day 1, in Week 1, or in the first month.

One of the most important things that you may need to do before Day 1 is to get the new hire to complete a Training Needs Analysis document. This allows you to arrange training in advance and book it into the new person’s schedule when they Start. Doing this will reduce their anxiety about unfamiliar systems (usually IT, but also procedures and licenses to use certain equipment). And by being able to schedule training earlier, you’ll have them up to speed and productive sooner.

Tip:
One of the main points of an effective induction program is to give the new member of your team a great first impression of your company. This begins as soon as the offer letter of employment is sent. Make sure your letter sets out the expectations of the job and provides an open avenue of communication before the employee’s first day.

Execution

Once you have a good idea of the purpose of your program and what you want to cover, then you begin the design process. Here are some ideas for orientation:

Before they Start

• Make sure the new employee’s work area is ready and comfortable.
• Make sure key co-workers know the employee is Starting and encourage them to come to say “hello” before orientation begins.
• Name cards on top of your computer monitors can help new people learn names in their own time. They are particularly useful if you all sit in an open plan office. Make one for the new Starter too!
• Assign a mentor or partner to show the new person around and make introductions. A mentor need not deliver all – or even any – of the training, but will be there to guide the new Starter to training sessions.

On Day 1

• Cover off all the essentials: forms, computer access, ID cards, parking, office supplies, etc. Don’t do this all at once, though. Intersperse these housekeeping activities with other parts of the induction process that require greater levels of concentration.
• Start with the basics. Don’t overwhelm the employee and don’t cram everything they need to know into a one-hour session. People become productive sooner if they are firmly grounded in the basic knowledge they need to understand their job. Focus on the why, when, where, and how of the position before handing them any assignments or project.
• Provide an orientation packet that includes samples of forms as well as the job description.
• Give the new Starter a checklist of what they should have been told or shown by the end of Day 1, the end of Week 1 and by the end of their first month, and who is responsible for covering this with them (HR, supervisor or mentor). This will help reduce their anxiety about “unknown unknowns”.
• If you have a digital camera available, take photos of each team member, and other people too, and make up a sheet matching names to photos to give to new Starters on their first day. Take a photo of the new Starter on their first day, so you can update the sheet for the next person.
• Provide a list of FAQs with a contact person/department, and phone number or extension. This should always include the number of the IT helpdesk!
• Plan to take the new employee to lunch (or join him or her for lunch), and ask the supervisor and available coworkers to join you. There is nothing more uncomfortable than facing a lunchroom of strangers or slinking out for a solitary lunch on your first day.

By the end of Month 1

• Keep it fun: consider incorporating some ice breaker exercises at the Start of the first group meeting after the new hire Starts.
• Give the new person some responsibility for his or her own orientation. Offer opportunities for self-directed learning under appropriate supervision.
• Ensure that the mentor has scheduled ongoing meetings with the new Starter up until the end of their first month to answer questions which they might prefer not to ask their line manager.

An effective induction program – or the lack of one – will make a significant difference in how quickly a new employee becomes productive and feels part of the team. Good orientation takes energy, time and commitment, however it usually pays off for the individual employee, the department, and the organization. Make sure your new employees feel that they are valued and that you want them to come back the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that..

Tip:
The quality of your induction process significantly affects the rate at which your company can grow. If you can quickly train people, and keep hold of them once they’re on board, you can grow your company quickly. If it takes a long time for people to become productive and you’re continually losing key members of your team, you may find your business shrinking instead of growing. What’s more, this will be an incredibly stressful, overworked time for those who are left!

Key Points

Effective induction helps new employees to settle into their new job faster and become productive sooner.

Employees who take on mentoring roles often find this rewarding, but should nevertheless have this work formally recognized in their annual appraisal. After all mentoring takes time that could otherwise be used to complete work.

Develop induction checklists for your department or team, and use these to save time in preparing for the induction of a new Starter, and to ensure that everything is covered. Update these with feedback from new Starters regularly.

Steve

Cold calling is absolutely essential to sales success.  Every sales professional should excel at cold calling and needs to spend as much of time time making cold calls.  Really? There is a huge difference between making a lot of cold calls and doing it well.  Obviously there are sales techniques that can increase your success rate when you make a cold call.You will want to expand your training in all areas of sales prospecting and business development. Just like an athlete you need training, practice, remember that only with perfect practice makes a difference, incorrect practice just makes the mistakes you made last time, permanent. Why do my salespeople not like doing cold calls but still do them?   They know that it is the easy method they have always used to generate new business.  Too many salespeople fall into this group.  They don’t enjoy cold calling but they do it anyway.  You can make cold calling more enjoyable, and successful, by understanding how to go about setting up the cold call to not be a cold call.  When cold calling you need a many and varied arsenal of sales tools, as you dont know what you are about to encounter. Depending on your industry cold calling can be the least effective way to generate new business.  So depending if you sell waste bin contracts door to door cold calls are one of your best tools to get a sale but it would be in your best interests and that of your feet, for you to spend time on other methods of generating new business. Statistics show that a large number of salespeople continue to spend too much time on this low payoff activity. Low success rate = bad cold calls.  Yet a lot of sales managers resort to making the salespeople do this activity and get poor results. Why? Because that is what they where made to do. I am not saying that a sales professional should not spend time prospecting for new business it is just one tool in your sales arsenal.  I believe that other methods besides cold calling are more effective at winning new business.  If you are a salesperson or a sales manager you all need to understand and excel at prospecting, cross selling & business development. You need to be trained and just like and athlete keep up the training.

“KAM” Key Account Management seems to be all the go in sales today. In fact, it is very new, yet there are employees everywhere wearing the title KAM “Key Account Manager” looking after the Key Customers of the company.

Of course you know that key customer management is more than just a name or a way to make a sales person feel special.  It is a change in the companies mindset that requires support from a very high level.

There are many opportunities for mistakes to be made in the key account management process.  Not all companies take the time needed to identify their key customers, assign appropriate personnel and resources, or set attainable goals. We have all heard of the 80/20 rule, right?

Today, I would like to highlight a common mistake many companies make regarding key customer management.  Let me explain it to you by sharing what i have heard from other customers who have used Motto to help them implement KAMP key account management program.

As a sales training company, I’ve asked many clients three interesting questions.

Do your key customers represent a disproportionate share of your profits and growth? The answer is always yes.

Since your key customers represent such a large percentage of profitability and growth, have you assigned your best salespeople to these key accounts? The answer is usually …no.

Has your Key Account Manager had any real sales training? You got it the answer will be …NO

You dont need to assign your best sales person to your Key Accounts but you do need to train the sales sales person.

If you learn nothing else about key account management, let it be this. Talk to Motto about training your sales staff.