You are here: Home / Archives for competence

Let’s Get Beyond Godin’s Less Annoying: Let’s Surprise and Delight Again & Slay Some Trolls.

June 1, 2009 By
20060501-100558-starbucks

20060501-100558-starbucksWhat I’m after is an opportunity to amaze at the point of sale. Sonia Simone at Copyblogger hit it out of the park with a recent post on conversion killing.     People don’t have trust.  When they DO buy, that’s another time to make your systems work.  After you have that retail hit of euphoria that people get, what then?   You always feel a little let down.  I have that ‘this is it’ feeling when I buy stuff…especially after skilled internet marketers get me emotionally hooked.

What happens RIGHT after the sale is an opportunity.  Folks like Dave Navarro show some basic competence and good instincts by offering a truly good deal after that.  But, I wanna go beyond.  WHEN people buy…I want them to be amazed.  That instant.  Blown away.

Seth Godin talks about making things less annoying.  I don’t want to stop there.  I want to go far beyond, and overdeliver.  Every purchase–every job gets a package of goddies that you made to be super successful

See, people save their offers for securing the sale.  I want to put all of my ammo into securing lifelong trust.  I want people to feel smart and relieved when they buy from me, so the NEXT time they buy from me, they know that they’re getting a sweet, sweet deal.

I see all of these posts with things that offer $10,916 in FREE bonuses, and I’m insulted and squeemish.  I don’t want to be that guy.  I want to be the guy that does that for my customers.  There are opportunities to do this with everyone.

You could:

  • Give away your back catalog for new customers.
  • Develop a product/service MORE VALUABLE than what you sold, and give it way for free.
  • Deliver it in more & higher formats–if they bought a book, make it in an MP3, if they expect an MP3, make a video.
  • Package OTHER People’s good stuff on the same topic in an-i’ll-share yours-if-you-share mine.

Some of this is being done, but far too little I’d think is being done.  Once you secure a customer, THEN knock their socks off.  Overdeliver by an order of magnatude and then all the work you spent on getting that customer will be rewarded each time you sell something.

If someone has been treated amazingly well, then they’ll be back.  Again, and again.

One of the things that Starbucks used to (and I mean used to) have in its culture…was the ability to surprise and delight.  When you went, you’d get coffee and panache, a smart person would look you in the eye and try to do make your day happy.  Your Third Place, yada yada.   Ya go there now, and you trip over CD racks, and you feel used and monetized.    And, I was in recently and the place had the stench of greasy eggs in it.  I come for coffee.  Live by coffee die by coffee.  I come for coffee and public privacy, and the good pure smell of beans and hot water.

They used to give more for your $2.00 than you’d have a right to expect.  They fell when they wanted you to be monetized.  What if we did it  right–what if we committed to having an astonishingly good experience with FREE bonuses?

How would we work it out so when they bought they didn’t feel simply like you were shoveling out free stuff?

How would we work it so that it DID impress people that are cynical and bitter?

How would we work it so that, say 20-25% of people saw our commitment to being amazing?

How would we work it so that people were not let down after the purchase, but had stuff to do, had marching orders and felt great about what they just bought?

Then we’d be slaying trolls left and right.

Filed Under: Business Building, Start Here Tagged With: , , , ,

Rapport: You Don’t Matter. You Are Here To Add Value

November 30, 2007 By

First the X broker has a post about how to run a mortgage company, then I see a Blown Mortgage post about how mortgage shoppers lie.

I’ll say this: those people that say ethics and integrity don’t enhance your business are wrong.

Those people that say they are at a competitive disadvantage when facing down with the used money shills are wrong.

The people that say that you have to lie to be truly successful are wrong.

It’s easy to say, “oh, poor salesman” the buyer lied. It’s easy to say, “yup, they went with another provider because that provider lied.

But look: when you lose the game it’s because of selling skills. On every single call, I tell people that they have many options for doing this, and it’s all a matter of preference. I gain a commitment to use me, and tell them that I have all the programs. I rarely offer quotes, and I have never worked with a lead. You’re whining because someone offered a program you didn’t.

Make it part of the pitch. Learn that this is what buyers want, and this is what is needed to…win the game. Don’t give your power to the shills and chop shops. Claim it for yourself. Win with a better process, which INCLUDES a sales process that makes people comfortable, AND makes them committed to using you (in part by touching quickly on every product).

Anyone Who Relies On Rapport Alone is Disconnected From Reality.

Write that five times. Sure, people DO buy the product because they like you, but seriously, as Matthew Ferry says: if people could swallow a pill and be done with us, they would. Nobody has recreational conversations with accountants, mortgage brokers, Realtors (oh, God, Realtors!).

That’s why the Xbroker says that sales monkeys are worthless. Because it’s tedious.

We are paid handsomely to perform a specific service. We have enough friends, our clients have enough friends. Sure, we want relationships, but we have to achieve basic competence first.

In the time it takes to build rapport, you can be halfway done with the work that you’re doing, and it’s a more authentic experience that customers will like more.

There’s a REASON for the saying: familiarity breeds contempt. If you are preternaturally competent, there is no chance that a shill can get you, over the long haul.

Salespeople Are Morons!

Salespeople, get over yourselves. Especially you mortgage brokers. You don’t matter! You are facilitating the process, and tellin’ em about your cat, your education is no more relevant to their mortgage needs than what you watched on TV last night.

It’s imbecilic and ego centric.

It’s insulting to your customers and dishonors their intentions.

For every second you spend spewing bile about yourself, you’re NOT LISTENING TO YOUR CUSTOMER.

Let’s consider something: Does every 3 toothed hillbilly that applies with you have a lot of common ground? Heck no. Should they be served by you? Heck yes. Do you owe it to them to honor their intentions? Abso-friggin-lutely. You sure as heck do. But do they care about your personal preferences?

In life, you’re truly lucky if your wife gives a shit, why presume that some stranger will.

This does not mean that you don’t seek relationships and real connection.

But it’s in the context of your buyer’s intended purpose.

Rapport comes throughout process as the people realize how good you are at what you do.

Rapport comes by demontrating your intent to serve, and using that as a common ground.

Rapport comes after you help.

So what do I do instead?

I’ll get after the Xbroker’s new business model in a minute. He’s on to something that makes a ton of sense–especially getting rid of the low value salespeople.

  1. Plan- We do the same 7 or 8 things over and over again (in my business: take an ap, prepare a package, present program options, choose a lender, submit a package, meet conditions, and close). Be world class at the tasks that matter, and every nuance to best case scenario.
  2. Rehearse and Practice: Rather than checking bloglines or reader.google.com, why not practice with a buddy taking an application, or look over the loan file that we did. What went right? What went wrong? When you take an application, what do do right? What do you do wrong?
  3. Document: It goes with #1, but write down what you’re going to say, write down the information that the customer needs. Listen to what the cusotmer says, and handle the same ten or so questions to the best of your abilities. Have what you need handy, at your fingertips.
  4. Gain a commitment: If you’re a professional you’re either working with a client, or you’re not. Not a lot of in between there. Even if they say they are shopping, gain a commitment to come back to you BEFORE you quote them.
  5. Explain the process: In my business, the price is an hourly concern. If you get a quote at 10 in the morning, it may be better or worse at 3pm. It’s like asking how much a particular stock is. People can beat me due to timing, and offer a deal I can lock people in at.
  6. Stop caring if they like you. The money talks. They close with you? They like you. Happy customers don’t need intimacy.

More later, this is probably part I and I’ll cut it up and push it out elsewhere.

Filed Under: selling/marketing, Start Here Tagged With: , , , , ,

Jack of All Trades Doesn’t Always Apply: Some People Are Just Smarter.

October 21, 2007 By

(note: I have a ton of stuff to get out there tonight–maybe a ton of it will become a post, maybe not).

Your mind automatically finishes the following sentence: Jack of All Trades….

And we all know that type. The “Experts” on everything, dispensing knowledge without thought, and giving direction of dubious value (but regular frequency). I see people (largely because I sell for a living) bouncing around from job to job or company to company. They’ve done a lot, but never well.

And then there are others–and I’m sure you know them. The Physician that is a world class violinist, the Attorney who knows five languages. Ben Franklin, who charted the gulf stream, assisted in creating the Declaration of Independence. It’s not impropper to be good at different things.

The difference between someone who is good at a lot of different things, and someone who floats like a drifter is competence, ability, and commitment. Mostly, commitment. Some people are just plain “Better” at things. Some people do things right, plainly, and without showing off. I would think that the “Master of None” comes from people that drift, gain a little experience, fail, but are somehow left from the experience as “world class experts.”

…that nobody wants to talk to.

….because their next big thing is just around the bend.

….because the knowledge that they have is blunted by the fact that–at the core of their being–they are not committed, not competent, and they are full of only sound and fury.

If you aren’t committed to winning the game you’re playing, then you give yourself the mental outs, and aimlessness that begets incompetence. If you’re doing something, REALLY DO IT. Be sure to be the best, most, fastest, anything “est”. Subordinate your ego to being effective, and don’t insist on patting yourself on the back for achieving low end mediocrity.

The thing about life is this:

Man, the time is gonna pass anyway. Suck every drop of marrow out of it. See where your limits are. Stretch them.

Filed Under: Start Here Tagged With: , , , , , ,