The Sales Executive Council did a study of the purchase of 20000 different products. They asked the buyers about the criteria that most influenced their buying decision. Here are the results? 19% - the company’s reputation, brand and website 19% - the product itself and the company’s ability to deliver 9% - the value to price ratio, analysis if the item was worth the money 53% - the sales experience

When they looked more deeply into what was meant by the sales experience, here’s what they found:

• They received a valuable perspective on the overall market.
• They received help in navigating the options to find ‘what’s right for me?’
• They received ongoing advice and consultation.
• They received help in avoiding potential land minds, avoiding bad competitors, help in being a better  buyer
• They received education on new issues, outcomes, and relevant legislation

In other words the most highly valued sales experience is an education experience that comes out of caring that the client/customer has the information needed not only to make a buying decision but to understand all the issues surrounding the use of the product/service. In order to understand what you explain, it becomes necessary that sales and marketing concepts like marketing attribution become lucid to you first. It comes out of the respect you have for the client that he can understand and make his own decision. It comes from the trust that’s built because she feels you have her best interest in mind. It comes from him trusting you as an expert because you really know your stuff.

Here are some questions to ask yourself about the sales experience you and your employees provide?

• Do you care that your clients and customers get the most current up-to-date information
• Do you have infrastructure in your organization to make sure this happens?
• Do you help the client and actually become his buying assistant who works in his favor? or do you try to convince him that your product or service is the best choice before you even find out what might be best for him?
• Do you ever ask your clients if they feel that way, too?
• Do you look at the sale as being over (and move onto the next one) as soon as the product/service has been delivered and the invoice paid? Or do you look at a client as an ongoing client who you continue to educate and care about?
• What do your actions say? (It’s not what you declare, it’s what you do that counts?)
• When you discover an industry land mine, do you alert all your clients or just the ones most active right now?
• Are you considered an expert in your field? By whom? Are you published? Do you seek PR opportunities? Do you present seminars or keynotes? Are you asked to appear on panels? Why would prospects consider you an expert? How do you let them know that you are doing ‘expert’ activities or are receiving ‘expert’ accolades?

Customers can tell if you care more about them than you do about yourself. You send a different vibe. You talk a different way. You go out of your way to go past your comfort zone. You don’t just satisfy them, you delight them. And whatever you do is done with a positive, humble and caring attitude. You empathize with where they are right now, the anxiety of the decision making process, experiencing the pain of the problem with them. I hope these questions remind you of how you like to be treated when you make a purchase. Think back to your best buying experiences. Think, what do you still remember? It jumps out because it was so vivid at the time that it’s still vivid to you today. Create that and more for your clients with lots of personal connection and you won’t go wrong. Remember 53% of people purchase because they were treated with care and respect in an ongoing relationship and education process. Only 9% purchased because of price. (This should give you a clue about your pricing strategy as well.)

Please tell us about a really good customer service experience you either gave or received. Let’s get some ideas flowing about what constitutes ‘delighting the customer/client.’  I look forward to reading your comments below.

I just attended the ‘Best Places to Work” lunch sponsored by Crains. Fifty businesses were selected out of the hundreds of thousands of businesses in New York Cityafter a vote on the Labor Law Compliance Center website. These companies were voted in by their own employees who filled out assessments about why they love working there.

Nationally only about 41% of employees are engaged; but in these companies the percentage is more like 98%. We know the value chain: employee engagement drives customer loyalty which drives cash flow and profitability. These companies embody that.

During the panel discussion four executives answered questions about how they create a great environment for their staff. Here are some suggestions that you can use:

• • Hire for a career, not just a job, and continually invest in the person’s development. Train them in managing a field service company to improve productivity.

 

• • Train employees to be better listeners and presenters, learn how to manage your staff and give them training in interpersonal communication

 

• • Always express appreciation. You can never thank people too much. Send out an email to the entire company recognizing someone for his/her contribution

 

• • Give people stretch assignments, something beyond their day-to-day duties, perhaps a special project or in a different area, so they can prove themselves, grow and show what they are capable of

 

• • Practice inclusion, make perks available to everyone at all levels, have company wide events and happy hours regularly

 

• • Have a dream day. Shut down the company one day a year and ask everyone how things can be improved. In the morning discuss internal improvements, in the afternoon – external. Then rank the ideas and select a couple to be implemented and funded.

 

• • Be flexible. Allow people to work remotely – there’s no need to lose a good employee just because a family situation makes the individual relocate. Allow employees time off during the day to go to children’s events. A non-standard workday requires trust. The companies found it works well.

 

• • Put all your effort behind recruiting and hiring the right talent with the right attitude, hire for attitude rather than skill

 

• • Offer a sabbatical after 10 years of employment, 12 weeks of paid time off to travel, get refreshed, be creative, explore something new. It brings new ideas and experiences back to the company and it retains talent.

 

• • Use outside coaches to develop employees’ potential and bring big picture thinking into the company

 

• • Consider employees more important than clients. Clients who are disrespectful to employees are dismissed

 

• Use internal assessments regularly to measure employees’ happiness

What can you expect with this level of engagement? 

• • In the face of Sandy, employees at one company were so dedicated that 80% of them showed up to work – some traveling for 4 hours just to get in.

 

• • Staff at another company setup a private Facebook group so they could communicate to see how they could help each other and to keep projects moving forward.

 

• Another executive said his company has become a  self correcting environment where peers help non-performers perform better.

At the lunch the fifty companies heard for the first time how they were ranked. Peppercomm Inc. came in first. I had a chance to speak briefly to the senior director at Peppercomm who is in charge of culture. Yes, a person just in charge of culture development. This company takes culture very seriously. And it’s paid off. They have 3 branches in New York, San Francisco and London plus they are the #1 best place to work in NYC. Think how that honor will attract quality talent worldwide.

#2 is Square Space, a technology company, that has grown tremendously over the last two years. To grow 150% they must be doing something right. This recognition will aid in future growth as well. I had the honor of sitting with their executives at the lunch and celebrating with them when they heard their ranking.

These companies know that employee engagement has an impact on all aspects of business, creating sustained profitable companies. Their leaders put an emphasis on proactively growing a culture that fosters a win-win-win for employees, clients and the business itself.

You can learn more about how this works by getting our free report “7 Ways to Boost Profits by Boosting Employee Performance, the Fable”. Just email Jeri at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to get your complimentary copy.

Have you developed any great strategies to engage employees at your company? If so, please share them here. We’d love to hear from you.

This is my new tagline. In my last blog post (Knowing Your Value Proposition) I told you about using a virtual private server hosting and start of my rebranding process (asking clients questions about the value I deliver and the impact of that value.) As I go through my rebranding processI’ll be blogging about what I’m learning and taking you on the journey with me. Hopefully you’ll learn from my mistakes.web

Some of it isn’t easy. Sometimes it feels like for every three steps forward, I take two steps back. But change never feels good. If it feels good, then it’s inside your comfort zone and it’s not real change. Most change involves some anxiety over new things to get used to, new habit formation and new neural pathways in the brain being generated. So there is bound to be distress until the new becomes routine.

So here I am with a new tag line born out of client feedback. But I still need a logo. So I thought I’d try out an online source of logo development. It’s easy to get started with one these online services, you can get sample designs from multiple designers. Plus you can give each one comments so they can refine their designs until you get to a place where one is just right.  Then the contest ends and the finalist gives you what he’s designed and he gets his fee which is being held for him by the website host.

You get to run surveys so your friends and colleagues can help you choose the best logo design. So I went along with the process. Little by little I narrowed the submitted logos to a couple designs, got feedback from colleagues. Then a marketing friend showed me how commonplace the logos were and in one case it was an exact reproduction of a copyrighted logo. So I decided not to use an online service for my new logo. I wanted something more unique and I didn’t want a future copyright infringement issue. A few wasted weeks down the drain.

But I did learn something much more fundamental. I had been using the name DrivingIR as my business name for the last six years. In the survey process people revealed that they still weren’t sure what the IR stood for. It really means ‘Improved Results’, but many thought it stood for ‘Investor Relations’ or ‘Investment Results’. Some people on Facebook even thought I might be running a driving school. Talk about confusion in the marketplace!! So I decided to get crystal clear about my name and about what I offer to the marketplace and worked with someone to come up with a marketing positioning statement.

So here’s what I developed. The name I’m going by from now on is Driving Improved Results. It’s a mouthful but it eliminates confusion. It’s bittersweet since I’m giving up 6 years of branding my company as Driving IR. But so be it. I’m moving forward.

Here’s the rest of my positioning statement that is now a filter for everything I write, speak about, and offer to clients.

Driving Improved Results is the professional development coaching and management consulting organization that, through strategic team building, executive leadership and increased clarity, delivers not only greater revenues but greater employee engagement and client satisfaction.

Driving Improved Results generates accelerated business growth by creating a sales-driven corporate culture:

• where the company staff is laser focused on revenue generation and each employee understands his or her role

• where the leadership and infrastructure support front line staff in this endeavor

• where the entire company is engaged and motivated by a strong company vision.

Driving Improved Results is led by Jeri Quinn.

• Jeri takes a comprehensive understanding of business and combines it with professional development skills honed in 18 years managing her own IT company.

• With training as a therapist and teacher, she has the ability to engage employees in ways that allow their best selves to emerge.

• Her clients rave about the positive changes she has brought to their businesses.

That explanation is summed up in my company name and tagline.  (Engaging Your Front Line to Boost Your Bottom Line). It’s all aligned and reflecting the same message. Hurrah! So far so good!

It is absolutely imperative that you be clear about the message you are delivering to the marketplace. If there is no clarity, the resulting confusion will lead to no business.

My next steps (and my next blog post) – getting a local designer to work on my logo and website.

Do you have a story of how you’ve cleared up marketplace confusion or upgraded your brand? Please share it below.

“Thank you for a job well done!” (internal voice: No big deal)

“Great results” (internal voice: You should have seen all the things that went wrong)

“You can do that better than anyone else I know” (internal voice: I don’t believe that for a minute. You’re just humoring me.)

Internal filters. We all have them. When we were young and impressionable (meaning before age 5)we believed everything we were told. Those experiences of being validated, praised, empowered, laughed at, humiliated, injured (both physically or emotionally), incapable of doing things ourselves, powerlessness, unworthiness left us with a frame of reference which shaped everything that came after it. With repetition our self concept took form around what we were told about ourselves and how others reacted to us. The filter we developed allows us to see things very selectively. It filters out those items that don’t reinforce the self concept formed during those early years. Now as adults we can be told how great we are and we dismiss it with: ‘If she only knew,”  “But look at all the things I do wrong.”  “I’m an imposter. Someday someone will find out I’ve always been faking it.”

The head that thinks up all these things is not a very nice place to live. It’s painful, emotional, fearful, inhospitable, dark, and depressing. Because we want to avoid this pain we plan escape routes. Some escape through alcohol and drugs. Some get addicted to shopping or sex or gambling or hoarding. Some get addicted to work, hence the term ‘workaholics.’  Others escape into movies, TV, music, sports, racing cars or boats and the list goes on. It’s not that we don’t enjoy these activities. But sometimes we do them in excess and we stop enjoying them. Yet we choose to continue doing them because they create so much brain activity that it shuts out the little voice that says, “I’m not good enough.”

But when we stop the escape activity, the voice comes back saying, ”Be careful, you might piss somebody off and they’ll reject you just like before when your mom abandoned you. (She probably lost you for 5 minutes in a store when you were 4 years old. But you got so scared that your brain tucked away that strong emotion and currently brings it into your awareness when something risky comes up.)

Are you bold?

• Do you speak up at meetings?
• Do you voice your ideas?
• Can you comfortably call somebody you don’t know?
• Will you walk right up to a stranger and introduce yourself at a networking event?
• Will you try a new procedure at work?
• Do you ask your boss for a raise?
• Do you speak up when a peer or a client wants to dominate you?
• Do you set realistic boundaries around your time?
• Do you take care of yourself without guilt?

Are you fearful that you might fail and people might consider you a doofus? Or a weirdo?

• Are you fearful that you may no longer belong and be valued in the group?
• Are you afraid that you’ll go unnoticed and be looked over like the cellophane man in ‘Chicago’?
• Are you afraid that you’re not good enough?

When you’re an infant, you are dependent on everybody doing everything for you. So if they leave you, you die. Our brains are built to be fearful so that we carry on the species and don’t take risks that could jeopardize our very existence.  But you’re not an infant any more. You can survive independently of others. Their opinions don’t have to be the basis of your self-concept.

So now that you’re an adult, how do you change this thinking? It’s not doing more things that please other people. That doesn’t change the game. The paradigm shift comes when you realize you can build your own self concept independently of the meaning you associated as a child. You made it up then from signals in the environment. You can make it up now from whatever you choose. So it comes down to giving up the old and building something new. Building a new more improved, more-realistic-for-an-adult-world self concept isn’t even that hard. You can create it any way you want, positive, powerful, loving, fearless, honest, responsible, gracious, or any other way you choose. You can strengthen like a muscle.

The hard part of transforming your self-concept is giving up all those old fears, emotions linked to past experiences, buried insecurities that you’ve been living with for so long that you can’t even see them. When you’re a fish swimming in water and all you’ve ever known is water, then you don’t even see or feel the water. How do you become aware of them? You challenge yourself, the fears arise and then you handle them one at a time

I was at an event last night where Lisa Price was the person being interviewed. She is the owner of Carol’s Daughter, a $35 million dollar company that manufactures and distributes skin care products. She started the business in her kitchen. She was asked about what she’s learned about herself over the time she’s been in business. She said she learned ‘Just how tough I really am.’ Her self-concept has evolved to include ‘toughness’ through her choices to stay in business and run it her way.

Choice is the crux of the matter. You can choose the status quo, the self-limitations you developed when raised by others in your home, school and culture. Or you can choose to ask yourself difficult questions on a regular basis.

• If I go with this possible choice, is it an escape?
• Does this option come from an experience in the past that is not true in the present?
• Am I choosing this option out of fear or out of strength?
• Does this build my self-concept or tear it down?
• Does this option stretch me or keep me too comfortable?

Of course, some people choose the status quo, they shrink from the fears rather than handle them. That’s where courage comes in.  Breakdowns and panic points occur. You need to push through them to reach the other side. The choice is always yours to back away from the rough spot or keep moving through to something better just beyond.

The positive way to look at breakdowns is that breakdowns occur right before breakthroughs. So look forward to breakdowns. It means you’re growing and due for a breakthrough. The breakthrough is right around the corner. You’re going through a shift in self-concept. You’re giving up an early childhood perception of yourself and creating a more improved self-concept which will lead to an improved life with improved results both professionally and personally. Little by little you give up the demons and your head becomes a nice place to live.

If you’ve done work on yourself, seen your self-concept become more empowering, positive and generous, then please tell us something about your journey.

Often we don't give ourselves enough credit. When do you let your energy get sabotaged by feelings of not having much to contribute? This video may help.

Leadership. Most people think of leading others when they hear or read the wordbut self-leadership is even more important. How can you effectively lead others (whether on the job or at home) if you are not effectively living your own life? As I work with clients on leadership development, a large part of those efforts is focused on understanding what they are best at and then leveraging those strengths to perform at a higher level by being authentic to themselves. Let’s look at this more closely.

We were each created with unique qualities and abilities. No one else can do what you do, just as you do it. But do you really know your strengths? An honest and comprehensive self-assessment, whether using a formal diagnostic tool or not, is necessary to be more aware of your attitudes, your behaviors, and what makes you “tick”. This awareness will also allow you to better understand how people see you and help you improve your relationships and dealings with others. The saying that “Illumination is 80% of remediation” helps us realize how important this personal “look in the mirror” can be. As you achieve a better understanding of your strengths, it is important to realize that no matter how developed you are in these areas, there is always room for improvement. Further developing your strengths, and using them more often, will make them even more valuable and help you be more successful.

Yet, often, people neglect their strengths and focus more on their weaknesses and skills they don’t have. My friend Jay Niblick, president of Innermetrix, likes to say that “We possess talents, but we manufacture weaknesses.” Similarly, Peter Drucker has challenged us all to “make our weaknesses irrelevant”. The point is that none of us can be great at all things, and to try to be so is frustrating, time-consuming and, at times, self-defeating. Find the personal and professional situations and environments that allow you to use your strengths and accentuate the positive, instead of focusing on your weaknesses and the negative. An expert in the field, Dr. Robert Hartman once said, “Instead of trying to put in what God left out, [work] with what He put in.” In a research poll of millions of workers, only one-third reported that they were engaged in the kind of work they do best. It’s no wonder so many businesses are characterized by apathy and mediocrity instead of passion and excellence.

So, first, identify your strengths and then work to strengthen and make them more valuable. You will achieve better outcomes and experience more enjoyment as a result. Focus on the positive and what you are good at and don’t devote too much of your time and energy shoring up your weaknesses. As Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, an executive coach to Fortune 500 CEOs has said: “There are a lot of things I stink at. I just make sure I don’t have to do them to be successful.”