Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com March 7, 2016 • Hartford Business Journal 21 BIZ BOOKS Strategies to break through B2B sales walls "D ealstorming — The Secret Weapon That Can Solve Your Toughest Sales Strategies" by Tim Sanders (Portfolio/Penguin, $28). Today's world of B2B sales has many mov- ing parts because a sales team must deal with the varying perspectives of contacts, influ- encers and stakeholders who provide input on the buying decision. The buying process moves up, down and later- ally in an organization. To effectively deal with buying teams, you need to develop selling teams capable of addressing the sale from multiple viewpoints. Sanders relates the four C's of sales (contact, con- ceive, convince, contract) in the context of a team-selling effort. Here's a snapshot of each: Contact: When identify- ing contacts, look well beyond the initial touchstone; check the prospect's website for others who may have a stake in the buy. Use LinkedIn and Google search to find information. Use your internal staff, too, because they may know someone who knows someone — particu- larly if they're active in professional asso- ciations. Connect as many networking dots as you can. Conceive: Use networking within the prospect's industry to find information about its business (e.g. history, competitive position, strategy, etc.) to identify the potential pain points, which your potential solution could address. With this information, coupled with a thorough knowl- edge of your product/potential solution (including custom- ization) engage the prospect contacts to delve deeper to confirm what your homework uncovered. If the prospect has already embarked on a solution-find- ing mission, you'll have to find where it's at in the pro- cess, and the research it has done. Use this information to hone your pitch — including pick-and- choose features and benefits, which create pricing flexibility. Convince: Showing the prospect that your solution reduces costs, increases effi- ciency, etc., may not be enough; with multi- ple perspectives in play, there will always be questions about probability and uncertainty — especially because any solution requires the prospect to change its processes. Selling change can also be difficult because its implementation costs are difficult to assess. Pointing out the costs of delaying a decision (i.e. the prospect continues experiencing pain points that hold it back) usually resonates with those involved in the buy decision. Contract: Negotiating terms involves the ability to "fit" the way both you and the prospect do business. There will be sticking points; someone has to bend. Be aware of the "must haves" and "like-to-haves" of both sides when negotiating. The longer it takes to reach agreement, the greater likelihood the buyer will sec- ond-guess its ability to work with you. • • • "Leadership and the Art of Struggle: by Steven Snyder (Berrett-Koehler Pub- lishers, $19.95). Shakespeare's Henry IV: "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." The test of true leaders comes when things are not going well. Snyder's reveal: When dif- ficult decisions must be made, leaders don't want to openly discuss their struggles with problems and solutions. Why? Leaders harbor the belief that acknowledging their strug- gles will make them appear weak — precisely the last thing followers want to see. Snyder sees dealing with struggle as a building block of leadership because change, and its implementation, triggers trail-break- ing decisions. As different replaces existing, change leads to tension and an out-of-balance condition — internally and within the ranks. Dealing with challenge and adversity requires adaptive energy — the force that aligns actions with a leader's inner values and principles and the external criteria necessary for success. It also shows leaders they are not alone. Those with adaptive energy seek, listen to and assess feedback and incorporate new perspectives and learning into their decision-making process. Knowing people have their back, a leader can turn inter- nal struggle into creativity and goal-oriented pursuits. "The greatest adversary of adaptive energy is fear." In some cases it's ego-driven; in others it's the what-if fear of failure. n Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer. Jim Pawlak TALKING POINTS Make your employees your brand champions By Andrea Obston E mployees are your brand ambassadors. They are its communicators, defenders and protectors. They give life to your brand. And, like ambassadors to foreign lands, they have the power to bring your mes- sage to the locals. When your marketing efforts include employ- ees as a critical part of the mix, they understand their role in the process. And they feel empow- ered to live your brand in every customer interaction. When you empow- er your employees to hand-carry your brand to the world — through their social media posts, contact with customers and interactions with the community — they give your marketing more traction than any other vehicle. According to the Edelman's Annual Trust- barometer Study, the everyday employee is a two times more trusted source of brand infor- mation than a company's CEO. The people who walk through your front door every day need to live and breathe your brand in everything they do at work. Employ- ees who feel a sense of pride in their compa- nies are more likely to share those feelings through their own social media channels, work harder for customers and better lever- age marketing campaigns. In his book "Delivering Happiness," Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh explains that the best way to protect a brand is to make sure it's an integral part of the employee culture. If living your brand comes naturally to your employees they will represent your brand authentically wher- ever they come in contact with your customers — on a sales call, during a face-to-face retail transaction, on the web or in an email. That means that every customer interaction must be consistent with the brand you've crafted through your website, your PR and your online and traditional advertising. Ignoring this will inevitably turn those employees into "your most likely brand assas- sins." That's a great line I had to use from Mark W. McClennan, senior vice president of MSL- GROUP. He adds that, "100 years of trust can be broken by an intern or an hourly employee." Zappos gets this. Despite that most of their transactions are online, their employees are the primary focus of their marketing plans. Zappos employees live their company's brand. Businesses that want to create their own corps of brand ambassadors need to start by creating an authentic brand; one that honest- ly reflects the values of the company and the products it brings to the marketplace. Here are a couple of ways to do that: Educate your ambassadors. It's impor- tant that every employee be on the same page when it comes to your brand. Make sure they understand your brand's goals and strategies. Consider your employees as one of your most important target audiences. Rolling out a new product? Employees should see it first. When- ever Disney World opens a new park, employees see it before it's open to the public. Celebrate your employees' role as "keep- ers of the flame." Emphasize the importance of each individual's role in safeguarding the brand. Let them know that they are the keys in what you are trying to accomplish. Help them understand how they add value to the company and why they are a critical part of its success. Make employees your brand champions on social media. Employees who are inspired by their work and active on social media can help a brand build an emotional connection with cus- tomers. Build your own social media army by giving employees the encouragement and infor- mation they need to post about company devel- opments through their personal social media activities. With their help and enthusiasm your brand can potentially reach thousands of indi- viduals without spending a dime. Adobe created an online brand ambassador program in 2014. Their corporate reputation team brought togeth- er 21 employees from seven different locations and asked them to help tell the company's story. The group is routinely pre-briefed on Adobe announcements before they become public and are given the chance to be the first to share this information through their own social media. Reward enthusiastic brand ambassa- dors. Employees who take up the charge to carry the brand forward deserve recognition. Acknowledge their efforts. It could be some- thing as basic as a congratulatory email or handwritten note, or a unique item that can be displayed in their offices. I once worked for an ad agency that gave out hockey sticks for employees that went above and beyond. Every employee who earned a stick proudly hung them on their office walls. n Andrea Obston is president of Andrea Obston Marketing Communications in Bloomfield. Andrea Obston ▶ ▶ The longer it takes to reach agreement, the greater likelihood the buyer will second-guess its ability to work with you.

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