Photo by Grant MacDonald via Flickr

A successful sale – for everything but the simplest transactions – is a series of steps…and in order to reach a win-win conclusion you have to make it through all of the steps. But sometimes the most challenging part of the selling discussion is being able to link those steps together and keep everyone on the same page.

Luckily there’s an easy answer to hold everything together – the best way to maintain control of your sales process is to use an idea that Larry Lewis from Client Builder Sales and Marketing calls an Advance Agreement.

When it’s done properly, an Advance Agreement will guarantee you won’t have the potential buyer deciding to ‘Think it over’…or to have a perfectly good meeting end as a waste of time because the discussion got off track. It’s an invaluable concept and it’s pretty simple to start using consistently.

What’s an Advance Agreement?

An Advance Agreement is pretty much just what it sounds like – it’s the idea that before you have a sales discussion…or before you move on to the next step of your selling process, you reach an agreement with your prospective buyer on what’s going to happen in the meeting. At a high level, here’s what’s covered in an Advance Agreement – these are points that you BOTH need to agree on:

• Decide the time, place and duration for the meeting
• Agree that you’re going to respect each other’s time and limit interruptions
• Agree on an agenda (high level, it doesn’t need to be point by point)
• Agree on possible outcomes and potential next steps
• Agree that if the overall relationship isn’t going to be a fit, that you’ll make that clear right away (again avoiding wasting the other person’s time).

It sounds really simple – and it is…however it doesn’t happen very often and using it properly and consistently can have a huge positive impact on your sales. The reason this is so impactful is that it’s an engaging way to make sure you’re both focused on the same outcome. It removes doubts, it makes the whole process transparent and creates an environment where it’s easy to have a meaningful discussion.

Pretty powerful – right?

Sample Advance Agreement

The details of any given advance agreement are going to be driven based on your particular situation – do you typically close a sale in the first meeting? If so, then your agreement would focus on getting enough information on both sides to be able to make that decision…and setting the expectation that there will be a decision at the end (and you both agree to that). If your process requires multiple meetings, then agreement just focuses on what’s needed in order to move (or not) to the next step.

Here’s what a generic Advance Agreement might sound like as you start an initial meeting with a potential client:

Tom – thanks for taking the time to meet with me.  When we set up this meeting we agreed to get together for an hour – does that still work for you?  (Make sure you’re on the same page)

I also wanted to make sure this was a productive use of time for both of us – I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a meeting where you were constantly interrupted by calls or people coming in.  Is there any way we can make sure that doesn’t happen here?

(Getting clear on expectations and behaviors)

As we talked about over the phone, I don’t know if I can help you or not without knowing more about what you’re up against, so I’d like to spend a lot of our time really digging into the challenges you’re facing.  I also suspect you’d like to know a bit about what we do and how we do it – so I’d be glad to cover that with you.

Is there anything else you’d like to talk about today?

(Establishing a clear agenda that works for both of us)

Based on our discussion, it should be fairly clear by the end of the hour whether or not it makes sense to keep moving this discussion forward or not. Can we agree that if there isn’t a good fit (for either of us) that we’ll be up front and candid about that? (Keep us from wasting time)

On the other hand, if it does look like there’s potential here, the next obvious step would be to setup a follow up meeting and talk about your budget and how  you all make decisions – are you comfortable with that outcome…assuming that it looks like there might be a fit?

Imagine having the above discussion, in a very comfortable open way with a potential client. You’ve established respect and everyone is on the same page and knows what to expect from the meeting.

Have you ever used anything like an advance agreement in your sales process? Better question – do you use it consistently? I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business CoachSimilar Posts:

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There are two walls colliding in the information world.    Today the amount of information coming is faster than ever and our thirst for it seems unquenchable.    On the flip-side this has greatly reduced the amount of time we allow ourselves to focus on a single piece of information, before we move on to the next.   I was reminded again this past week, if you don’t grab your viewer attention in the first few seconds, they are gone.

Are you still there?

So if we screwed up that first paragraph, you probably aren’t reading this sentence!

If we still have you, the biggest obstacle is already passed.   Now we must keep you engaged so you hear what we have to say.   For you to want to listen, something about the message needs to pique your interest and intrigue you.   And lastly, if we have created an effective message, you have learned something that could potentially benefit you or someone you know.   When this happens, you remember it and are more likely to tell others about it.

Will you remember?

Often explaining how we work as business coaches is difficult to do in a short period of time. Making it memorable is even more challenging.  Of course, we’re not alone – there are many industries that face this same challenge.   So this week, we are highlighting one of our most powerful products and have tried to explain and educate through a powtoon’s animated video.

If you can’t see the embedded video – you can click through to YouTube here: http://youtu.be/CefPMY89iTE

We would love to hear your thoughts and give it a “Thumbs up” or “Like” if you think it is effective.   As always we appreciate any comments.

Photo by Keoni Cabral via Flickr

Chris Steinlage, Kansas City Business CoachSimilar Posts:

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photo by ClintJCL via Flickr

Did you know that one of the best ways to communicate your value is based on your common complaints?

Well actually not YOUR common complaints, but the common complaints of your best / most likely customers.  One of the key tenets of great marketing is that you are always answering your prospective customer’s question of What’s In It For Me? (WIIFM)  And the best way to get their attention is to speak their language – in other words, start with their biggest problems, their common complaints.  Until  you can clearly get their attention with their own problems, you’re going to have a hard time getting them to listen to  you at all.

However, when you use their own common complaints, you’ve got a great trigger for all sorts of conversations – starting with networking and marketing and all the way into the sales process.  If you’ve found the right problems, your best prospective customers will say something like “Wow – I’ve got that exact issue…tell me more about how you help with that!”.

What are my customer’s Common Complaints?

Unfortunately your customer’s top complaints aren’t always obvious – there’s generally not a published list and they’re not very likely to just tell you, so you’re going to need to do some homework and figure it out for yourself.  The good news is there are several places to start your research:

Your Existing Customers – the best place to start is to think about your existing customers.  Imagine your best customer…before they met you…hanging out at a bar or coffee shop after a long day talking to one of their peers.  Imagine them sharing their biggest frustrations – “I wish I could find a way to ______” or “I am really frustrated by ______ – how do you handle that?“.   The stuff in the blanks are your common complaints.

What problems have you solved for your best customers?  Why did they go with you rather than a competitor? Is your relationship strong enough to sit down and ask them?

Industry Changes – Another possible source for common complaints are changes happening in your industry.  Take healthcare benefits as an example right now – you would be hard pressed to find a business owner who’s not concerned about the rising cost of healthcare and confused about where the industry is going.  Do you have something along those lines in your industry?  Do you solve problems that fall into those industry changing discussions?

Do you have major competitors in your industry who have rolled out some new ideas?  What are they addressing?  Is it the kind of thing your best customer prospects might be worried about?

Your Existing Marketing – Finally, look at your own marketing materials.  At some point in time, you pulled together a brochure or had the marketing guy write up your website and filled it full with all of the great features and benefits that you provide.  To find the problems, imagine pulling those features and benefits away from your clients – what would they complain about?  What problems do your features and benefits solve?

However you do it, finding your customer’s common complaints likely won’t take to long – the hardest part is to put yourself into their shoes and to simplify things down to how they see the world.

Some quick examples of common complaints:

A CPA’s Clients - We are paying too much in taxes and not keeping enough of our money in the business.

An Online Marketing Company’s Clients - We have to be able to generate more leads from our website, but I don’t even know where to start.

A Business Coach’s Clients – As the business owner, I’m working really long hours and I never seem to get ahead…and I can’t find good help!

A Personal Trainer’s Clients – I know I’m supposed to exercise and eat right, but I don’t actually know what that means or how to get started.

Finding the most effective complaint for a situation is usually a matter of trial and error – and often depends on the setting and who, exactly, you’re talking to.  However you don’t have to have the BEST issue, you just need one that is generally going to apply to who ever you’re talking to.

Your NEW complaint based 30 second commercial

Now that you’ve done the hard work and developed 2 or 3 really compelling issues that your best customers are struggling with, you need to start using those to engage your prospects.  One way to do this is to use them in your introductory pitch – you know…how you answer the question “So what do you do?”.  Here’s a quick suggested format you can use:

I work with ________(person in the company – CEO, CFO, etc.) in the ________ industry who are frustrated by the fact that (Common Complaint #1) and (Common Complaint #2).  You’ve probably already figured out the solutions to those problems a long time ago, haven’t you?

It can take some practice to sound natural, but If you’ve found the right issues, there’s a great chance that the person you’re talking to will respond with something like “Actually we struggle with that.”  Leaving  you with the opportunity to ask your new prospective client to tell you more…and jumping right into a sales discussion.

Do you know your best ‘common complaints’?  Do you use them when you introduce yourself at networking events or to potential customers?  We’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business CoachSimilar Posts:

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If you talk to most business owners about growth in the next year they will tell you they’re expecting 10%, maybe 20% growth over last year.  And for a business that’s been around for a while, that’s a pretty reasonable target to shoot for.

The problem with a 10% target in terms of business strategy is that it doesn’t really stretch you.  More than likely you could handle 10% growth without any significant issues.  Maybe you’ve got extra capacity, maybe you and your team will work just a bit harder.

It’s unlikely that incremental growth like that is really going to require a serious look at how you do things. But plan that kind of growth over a few years and at some point you will be stretched…and at that point because you are at capacity it becomes a lot harder to make changes.

You might hear yourself saying things like:  “We’re so busy, I don’t have time to figure out how to do this a better way.”  or “I can’t afford to put in a new system, process, whatever now – it would be too much impact to our current customers.”.

In fact, by just having reasonable growth over time, you can paint yourself into a corner that’s hard to get out of.  The end result is often working a lot harder, dropping the ball more often and not getting much additional profit despite having a lot more customers.

What if you were going to grow 10X?

Here’s a test that can help you identify the biggest constraints in your business…and hopefully do something about them before it becomes a crisis.

Try this – Imagine your current business is suddenly 10 times larger than it is today.  You’re servicing 10 times the number of customers.  You’re bringing in 10 times the amount of revenue.

Where’s the most likely place you’d stumble?  If you’ve got a physical location – could it support 10 times the amount of traffic?  If not, what could it support compared to where you are today?  What’s the breaking point?

You’d likely need to add employees – what’s the first place you’d feel the pain?  Would it be in creating or delivering your product or service?  Would it be in handling customer calls?  Would it be in terms of just being able to invoice and collect on a much larger volume?  Do you need special skills for some aspect of your business?  A typical example is that the business owner often is the only one who has the skills to do certain things.  If you had 10X the volume how would that kind of work get done?

Would you enjoy being 10X larger?  Maybe that takes you from 5 employees to 50 employees and that was never in your plans.  If that’s the case, how much do you want to grow?  What’s your ‘peak’ size that you can imagine?  What are the impacts if you were at that size?

Remember the purpose of your business is only to give you what you want out of life.

By looking through a different kind of lens – magnifying by 10X, it’s often easier to see where the issues are.  It can also be a good indicator of things that probably need to be fixed today but you’ve let them slide because it’s easy enough to handle them with a brute force approach.

Here’s an example – say it currently takes you, the business owner, 6 hours a week to handle all of your invoicing and bookkeeping.  It’s a pain, but a lot of times you can get it done on a weekend or you just power through it. Multiple by 10 and it’s not even imaginable for you to be doing 60 hours a week of back office stuff.

What would it take to get someone in today who could take over that responsibility for you now?

Your current growth target is fine

There’s no need to change your growth target for this year (although if you don’t have one, you should take the time to make one…and / or we should get together for a meeting…!).  However I am suggesting that you carve out a few hours in the next week or two and take yourself through this exercise.

Look at all aspects of your business and use the process to identify the highest priority of things you could work on now…when everything’s not urgent.  The goal is continued, managed growth and by identifying your biggest constraints it will be much easier to make that growth happen.

What do you think?  Is this a test that you’ve tried before?  What’s your gut feel in terms of where your biggest issue would be?  We’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade    Kansas City Business CoachSimilar Posts:

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Forest for the Trees photo by Danielle Zedda via Flickr

With the terrible events of this past week we were all reminded to be more aware of our surroundings.  “Vigilant” is the adjective most often used to describe this level of heightened awareness.    It was a heightened awareness of surroundings that ultimately led to the successful capture of the younger suspected Boston Marathon terrorist.   As citizens, if we go through life with blinders on danger can be right beside us and we may not even see it.  Ironically, this is also true in business.   

Have you ever sat in the front row at a movie theater?  There is a reason they are typically the last seats to fill.  It can vary by theater, but when you’re that close, you struggle to see everything happening on the screen.   From this vantage point, especially in a high action film, your neck and eyes will get a workout trying to follow all the movement in and out of each scene.   Frankly, the movie you’re watching is not the same movie your counterparts are viewing a dozen rows behind you.  You may marvel at the extreme close-up of the lead actor’s nose, but you likely won’t easily see the big picture.

You’re simply too close to the screen.

This is precisely what often happens when business owners spend too much time buried in their business.    The company they so passionately created and built has pulled them in, mounted a set of blinders on their eyes, and literally made it impossible for them to see their business as a whole.   They tend to gravitate towards the areas that are most comfortable for them, and disregard other vital areas affecting the company’s bottom line.   Add the element of stress and they are even more likely to increase the focus on the comfort zones of their business.

If you can’t see the whole screen…

                ….you can’t see your surroundings either.

Recently, during a meeting with a business owner, our conversation uncovered a way to increase the business’s bottom line significantly with a relatively minor change to the current business model.   It turns out the opportunity had been there for at least a year or longer.   The owner knew it was a change that would help the business, but mentally had developed a list of reasons of why it wouldn’t work and had a strong fear of what might happen if the change was implemented.

It was uncomfortable.

So instead of doing anything about it, the business owner essentially moved up to the front row of the theater, put on blinders, and focused on a different part of the screen.  On areas they were more comfortable with.

A better view….

Once we talked through the potential risks of making the change, it was clear what the next step was.  We put together a list, by priority, of what needed to happen and who needed to be contacted in order to initiate this change.   Achieving resolution with each step; meant moving to the next.   Within a couple weeks the change was in motion and it appears the increase to the bottom line will actually be even more rewarding than we had originally estimated.  Without being able to step back and see the whole picture, this change would have never happened.  (Side note – that’s an important benefit of business coaching…being able to see everything and see it with a different perspective).

This week as we continue to remember all those who were affected by the events in Boston and West, TX remember to take your blinders off and be vigilant in not only your surroundings as a citizen, but in the way you approach your business every day.   Sometimes the best way to get a better view is to simply take a few steps back.  God Bless America.

Chris Steinlage Kansas City Business CoachSimilar Posts:

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