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235 The Magic Of Subtle Marketing For The Professional Services Firm

Entrepreneurship, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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I’m not bashful to ask for the sale, or to encourage people to buy from me if I believe I’ve got just the thing to help them. But I am bashful to be presumptuous and I think you should be, too.

For years I sat at desks where I was responsible for the outcome of the business. The buck stops here and all that. I recall far too many salespeople entering my office to pitch me their products. “This is just what you need,” they’d say. Or words to that affect.

I had never met some of these people. They’d never visited the company I was running. They hadn’t talked with anybody inside the company. But in this first meeting, without asking a single question or doing any research, they knew just what we needed. No, they didn’t. They only knew they needed to sell something.

The professional services firm – whether it’s engineering, architecture, healthcare, legal services, accounting or anything else – is steeped in competence. Professional services firms have an expertise. They’re able to do things the rest of us can’t. So when we need their expertise, there is the tendency for them to think, “Your need for me is so obvious” that they forget the necessity to be more subtle in their marketing and sales approaches.

Subtle Ain’t Easy…For You, But It’s Way Easier For Your Prospects

Subtle doesn’t mean it’s not obvious. Subtle means it’s not in-your-face. It means it takes into consideration the prospect’s point of view. It’s the opposite of the traditional throat close. You know the one. It’s the one where the sales guy grabs you by the throat and urges you to buy. Now!

Subtle marketing for the professional services firm isn’t cheap. At least not in effort and time. But it’s crazy effective in cementing great relationships, in reducing the friction of the buying cycle and a host of other things that will make it worth your while.

Sometimes friction helps us in building our practices and our businesses. Permit me to use myself as an example. If you go to my coaching page you’ll see lots of copy. That copy is designed to address the pain points that I know exist with people who would be part of my target market. There are no buy buttons, but there are some buttons to click so prospects can go to an application. Click on that button and the prospect is taken to a page where they find my Bula Network Strategic Assessment. It’s an application designed to help me better understand the prospect’s problems. But it’s also designed to do something else.

It provides enough friction to serve as a bit of a sifter. People and organizations who are not my ideal client won’t complete that assessment. And that’s great. It saves them time. They see it and think, “No, I don’t want to do this.” Perfectly fine. Guess who I don’t really want to work with? That’s right, people who say, “No, I don’t really want to do this.” My best clients are those with a really high degree of willingness. They really want to make their businesses and organizations better!

It seems counter intuitive, but it works for your prospects. It’s a bit like the dating scene. If a guy is looking for the right girl, then he’s discriminating. Not just any girl will do. So how does he sort through all the potential girls? He has some specific qualities he’s looking for, and others he’s trying to avoid. Your practice is no different. You’re looking for certain clients who have specific needs, wants and desires. You’re likely trying to avoid some clients.

Subtle marketing is designed to let your ideal clients hire you with greater ease while simultaneously trying to politely repel the clients you don’t want (those who cost you money, who are more trouble than they’re worth, etc.).

It’s Not About Kicking Traditional Marketing To The Curb

Too many people seem ready to abandon what’s now called “traditional” marketing. Namely, advertising. Advertising still works. If it’s done properly. The problem with most advertising is there’s no call to action. We’re exposed to it and we don’t know what the advertiser wants from us.

Another problem with advertising is getting it in front of the right people. We TIVO or DVR our television programs so we can fast forward past the commercials. We don’t see the billboards any more because we’re texting or talking on the phone while we drive. Dangerous? You bet, but you see it every time you get in the car. It’s not easy to get your advertising in front of people any more because the sea is filled with more noise than ever! A louder bull horn just won’t work.

Professional services firms have long embraced direct mail advertising. I love direct marketing for many reasons, but mostly because we can make specific offers and target who gets our message. We may not be able to guarantee they open it, or read it, but we can at least be certain we put it in their hands…if only on the way to the trash can. The rest is up to us.

One major problem with the way I see professional services firms do direct mail is they all copy each other. Take the financial planning world. If you are over 55 you’re on the list. These folks love the dine and sell strategy. Invite you to a nice steak house, pitch you hard for an hour and put a hard close on you…in exchange for buying you and your spouse a steak dinner. They’ve been doing it for years because it’s a numbers game that works for them. I don’t hate it because of that. I hate it because it’s “me, too.” I hate it because the steak house is likely to be the reason for the choice. Not the financial planner’s expertise, compassion or like-ability.

Subtle marketing isn’t bait and switch. It’s not hiding the obvious. It’s honest, straight-forward and truthful. It’s designed to serve and help the prospect even if they don’t buy. The aim is to help build a relationship with prospects…your ideal prospects! It’s a slow burn that can result in a big bang of business success.

But You Gotta Put In The Work

You have to know who these people are and how they’re feeling. You can’t sucker punch them with a solution. That’s lazy marketing and it’s why so many professional services firms do it. It’s plug and play. Any moron can do it. No imagination required.

Creativity takes work. Lots of work. Subtle marketing puts in tons of heavy lifting up front knowing that the pay off will be enormous in happier clients, better referrals and higher ticket services. Those rewards demand greater efforts.

Let’s just do what they’re doing.”

That’s the common refrain of most professional services firms because it doesn’t require any work. I’m always somewhat surprised at how firms quickly jump to such activities without any consideration to the outcomes. I’m after results. That’s all I’m after. For me, results mean happy clients. Clients willing to refer me to others. Clients willing to tell others about a positive experience with me. I’m looking for long-term relationships with people who won’t hesitate to call me again. And again. I want to be irreplaceable. Not because I’m the smartest or most expert, but because I’m the most helpful, the most effective. The guy who produces results.

What do you want for your professional services firm?

If you’re like most, you want more clients. And you want to serve your clients better, more effectively. And more efficiently. I’ve not met many who didn’t want to stop going crazy in the process. It’s the 3 things that matter in business building.

Don’t be lazy. Get off your butt. Engage your brain. Make it easy for your prospects by putting in the work they deserve to make doing business with you remarkable.

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Coaching The Disagreeable Employee

Leadership / By Randy Cantrell

Braxton Bragg was an Army guy. Career Army. He was also a Confederate General responsible for the western campaign of the American Civil War. But he was mostly a sour puss who easily blamed others.

Ulysses S. Grant‘s memoirs tell a story about Bragg as a company commander at a frontier post where he also served as quartermaster. Bragg submitted a requisition for supplies for his company, then as quartermaster he declined to fill it. As company commander, he resubmitted the requisition a second time, giving additional reasons for his requirements, but as the quartermaster he denied the request again. Facing a personal impasse, he referred the matter to the post commander, who exclaimed, “My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarreled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarreling with yourself!”

It takes a special kind of disagreeableness to disagree with yourself. Bragg was a world-class disagreeable fellow though.

Even Bragg’s staunchest supporters admonished him for his quick temper, general irritability, and tendency to wound innocent men with barbs thrown during his frequent fits of anger. His reluctance to praise or flatter was exceeded, we are told, only by the tenacity with which, once formed, he clung to an adverse impression of a subordinate. For such officers—and they were many in the Army of the Mississippi—Bragg’s removal or their transfer were the only alternatives to an unbearable existence.

— Peter Cozzens, No Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River

History shows that Jefferson Davis couldn’t get along with him. It seemed nobody could get along with Bragg. He remained in positions of responsibility due to the shallow depth of talent to replace him. After the Civil War he jumped from one endeavor to another. Each one seemed to end with a common refrain. Bragg would get into a disagreement with others and that would end the endeavor.

He dropped dead in Galveston, Texas at the age of 59. I wonder how many people were pleased at the news.

Surliness isn’t the exclusive domain of Generals or big bosses. Their tyranny can be especially disconcerting because of their power. But what about the disagreeable employee? Can anything be done to help them? Should anything – short of termination – be done?

The reason for being disagreeable is moot. Nobody cares. Whatever burr that may have caused Bragg’s saddle soreness was of no concern to anybody. The truth is, the man was a class A felon when it came to being disagreeable. Why is anybody’s guess. His own men tried to kill him. I doubt they sat around the campfire wondering why their leader behaved so poorly. They simply wanted it to stop. Ditto for the disagreeable employee.

I’m not talking about a person who is having a bad day. I’m talking about the chronic disagreeable employee. The employee who will argue about most anything. All the time. I’m talking about the employee who will behave poorly toward their boss and toward the team.

Some disagreeable employees have been that way for as long as anybody can remember. People up and down the organization know them by their earned reputation. Like Bragg they’ve littered the trail of their career with disagreements. Can you help an employee like that? Maybe.

Other employees turn disagreeable. Maybe they were overlooked for a promotion. Maybe they got a promotion. Something happened and now they’re disagreeable, or more disagreeable than ever before. What about them? Can they be helped? Again, maybe.

Battling the disagreeable employee is easy when the employee is a marginal contributor. Most leaders will take swift action to rid themselves of the cantankerous employee who isn’t performing in the top tier. These are rather easy decisions.

But what about the person who is skilled at their work and mostly performing at a high level? These are the employees who vex good leaders. But I’m going to encourage you to not remain vexed for too long because you’ve got to consider the negative impact of the disagreeable employee. So let’s start with why you must avoid giving way to the disagreeable employee.

1. The disagreeable employee will undermine your leadership.

Your ability to properly lead your team hinges on one central behavior, willingness. This is the non-negotiable standard that must be maintained by any organization that expects to foster high performance.

When you suffer the disagreeable employee, you’re telling your team that willingness isn’t mandatory. You demonstrate your own willingness to accept debate, controversy and confrontation on your decisions.

One bad apple and all that. Order, decorum and performance will fail if the disagreeable employee remains…or if they remain disagreeable.

2. The disagreeable employee will wreck the performance of the team.

Every employee needs to feel special in some way. That’s not possible in the presence of the disagreeable employee because they’re always hogging the spotlight. All eyes and ears are on them as people just wait to see how they’ll respond to your latest decision as a leader.

Rarely will the disagreeable employee confess to being a glory hog, but they are the most selfish people on your team. Their opinion and their judgment matter more than anybody else’s. Including yours.

The grind of dealing with the disagreeable employee will take a heavy toll on the rest of the team as they constantly work under duress of their own bad feelings toward their disagreeable teammate. Increasingly, they’ll feel as though they must meet a higher standard. Fairness will be lost, along with morale.

3. The disagreeable employee will eventually cost the leader.

A leader will pay a heavy price for tolerating the disagreeable employee without attempting and succeeding in finding a remedy. It can come at the hands of consistently poor performance, resulting from a leader’s refusal to hold every employee accountable. It can come at the hands of superiors who tire of conflict not being properly handled. It can come at the resignation of valuable employees who simply can no longer tolerate the atmosphere and culture influenced by the disagreeable employee. Lots of things can go wrong when leaders refuse to deal with disagreeable employees.

So what can you do? What should you do?

Circumstances can differ, but these general guidelines should serve to give you some sort of direction.

a. Accept and assume responsibility.

It may seem counter-intuitive for the leader to take on the responsibility for why the disagreeable employee is behaving poorly, but that’s where it must start. The truth is, the leader is tolerating it. Nothing can be improved until the leader refuses to let poor behavior continue.

The parent who allows their teenager to talk back without any consequence has only themselves to blame. So it is with a boss who allows an employee to be chronically disagreeable.

b. What’s done is done, but today it’s a new day.

Just because a leader failed yesterday doesn’t mean she’s going to today. She can’t afford to keep failing so at some point a new day dawns.

Some bosses feel it won’t work if they just show up tomorrow morning behaving differently. Here’s the key to it. If you’re the leader and you want to improve, then make up your mind that you’re going to start handling things better – including how you deal with the disagreeable employee. Stick with it. You’ll go wrong every time if you dive in, begin to deal with things, then slack off and revert back to your old ways. Avoid that.

It’s not only possible, but it’s advisable that you draw a line in the dirt and take your stand sooner than later. Who cares what you tolerated yesterday? Who cares how you handled things yesterday? Today ain’t yesterday. You can stake your claim at any time anywhere. I’m encouraging you to do it today, right where you’re at.

c. Sit down privately with the disagreeable employee to communicate your “new day” accountability.

Apologize to them for failing to hold them accountable for their poor behavior. Reiterate to them the role you play to help them perform at their very best. Explain to them that their ongoing disagreeableness is destroying not only their performance, but it’s also impacting the performance of others.

Tell them plainly, “This must stop.” Provide a couple (no more) of specific examples. Do not let them interrupt. Stay on course because these people are skilled at disagreeing. They will be true to their habit and nature. You can’t be sucked into an argument. This isn’t an argument. It’s a statement of fact based on their poor behavior and you’re the leader responsible to help them fix it by holding them accountable for it from now on.

When you’re finished clearly tell them, “Starting today I’m going to expect you to demonstrate a high level of cooperation. Once I’ve made a decision, I expect the debate to stop. [insert any specific problem behavior they’re guilty of here].”

End this part of the conversation with, “Do you understand?” Don’t accept some rambling defensive arguing. Only a “yes” will do here.

d. Let them out of the corner.

I’m a father of two grown kids. I believe in spanking kids. No, not beating them. Spanking them. It’s not about inflicting physical pain. It’s about inflicting appropriate guilt so they’ll correct their poor behavior.

One big reason I’m opposed – as a parent and grandparent – to “time out” is because it drags out the process and keeps kids in the corner literally. Through the years I’ve found that employees who feel they can’t get out of the doghouse with their boss, or they feel trapped in a corner of disapproval from which there’s no escape…well, they lose heart very quickly.

A spanking demonstrates we’re not going to tolerate the poor behavior. It’s not harsh, but it’s timely. Quick even. Then it’s over.

Corrective discipline has to end. It can’t go on and on else people will fail to recover and respond with appropriate higher performance.

Encourage the disagreeable employee to correct their poor behavior. Let them know you believe in them and in their ability to do better. Assure them you’re going to serve them better by helping them.

e. Start leading and managing better.

Leaders don’t have to announce, “Things are gonna be different from now on.” I’m not a fan of that approach. Better to just start doing what you should. Begin it now and people will notice. You don’t need to write a memo or give a speech.

Be prompt to correct all the poor behaviors. Let your actions speak louder than your words.

Conclusion

There are no guarantees that this, or any other approach, will work with the disagreeable employee. Sometimes you just have to give them repeated opportunities and deal with their response to your correction.

Avoid putting yourself in the position Bragg’s superiors often found themselves. Because they had no suitable replacement, they frequently tolerated his poor behavior. Find options and alternatives to the disagreeable employee in case they decide they’re going to remain unwilling to follow your leadership.

Randy

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234 Cervical Fusion Isn’t Some New Form Of Music

Inside The Yellow Studio, Randy Cantrell / By Randy Cantrell

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234 Cervical Fusion Isn't Some New Form Of Music NOTE: Today’s episode doesn’t sound as great as I’d like, or up to my normal audio standards. I’ll use surgery as my excuse. This horse collar doesn’t help much either.

It sounds musical, but I promise you there’s nothing musical about it. I think the technical term for it is ACDF: Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion.

The incision is in your neck. Yep, they go in from the front to work on your cervical spine. Scary? A little bit. Especially when in pre-op they send in the person who’ll be monitoring your spinal cord during the surgery. She was armed with a bunch of little wires and probes so during the surgery she can keep tabs on your spinal cord. That’s when you know this ain’t no rock ‘n roll show. It’s very serious business.

I was first diagnosed about 10 years ago by the man who gave me scars, Dr. James Vincent Bonnet , MD. Dr. Bonnet had performed surgery on both elbows so when a bit of numbness hit my left little finger, he seems like the guy to go see. I trusted him.

He suspected a bulging disc in my neck and sent me to a neurologist for a nerve conduction study. Off I went and sure enough, the doctor figured out I had what he deemed a “slight” bulging disc, just likely due to wear and tear, and age. The symptoms weren’t severe so I went through some physical therapy and in time the numbness went away.

Fast forward about 7 years or more and Dr. Bonnet passed away. He was a good doctor and I liked him very much. In a way, whatever way a patient can love a doctor, I loved him.

Back in February an old shoulder injury that occurred when I was 24 reared up its ugly head and hit me hard, bit me viciously and flung me around the room one night. Out of the blue. Over 33 years without any incident. No pain. No aches. No nothing. Then all of a sudden, I found myself in the ER (emergency room). Turns out the shoulder had very severe arthritis brought about by the injury years earlier.

As a self-employed person I have health insurance, but I’ve got an insanely high deductible. For those of you who aren’t in America, I can tell you that it doesn’t take long to go through money when you need health care here. Obamacare, in my opinion, is a colossal failure and will do nothing but wreck an already broken system. But that’s another story.

My story involves forking over $10,000 out of my own pocket before insurance kicks in. That prompts me to approach my new shoulder orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Bing Tsay (pronounced Cy). Sing to me, Bing! And he did. He told me he really couldn’t explain the severity of my shoulder pain. Since I had hit my deductible I went in to see him one day and asked, “Is there any reason I shouldn’t just get this taken care of now?” That got me what’s called Open Mumford surgery.

This surgery went well. Dr. Tsay found a shoulder a lot worse than the MRI might indicate. Lots of bone spurs and arthritis. He even fished out a lose bone fragment. Within days I was pretty much experiencing full range of motion and things he told me might take weeks. I’ve almost always done extremely well with surgery (during and after). I don’t even do too badly before either.

At my final visit with the Bing, I bring up this 10 year old neck issue and ask about seeing a colleague, Dr. Timon (pronounced short i, long o – Te-mon’). Dr. Timon did back surgery on my daughter some years ago due to a car wreck she suffered through. She really liked him and he was a colleague of Dr. Tsay. In fact, it was my daughter’s recommendation that even led me to All Star Orthopedic in the first place. That’s Dr. Timon and Dr. Tsay, second and third from the left when you land on their home page. They’re different, but I like them both. Of course, you have to keep in mind that I seem to have a man crush on orthopedic surgeons. I’ve now had four of them in my life and they are all the men who have given me scars. Scars intended to heal me and make me better. Mostly, they’ve succeeded.

So now I’m sitting in front of Dr. Timon. Most doctors try a conservative approach first. In my gut I knew that approach wasn’t likely going to work because I’ve suffered this neck stuff for 10 years plus. No matter, I went with Dr. Timon’s advice. We tried all the conservative things, but nothing touched it. Nothing.

Finally, I had the same talk with him that I had had with Dr. Tsay, “Any reason to not fix this now?” He replied, “No, not really. It’s not going to get better on its own.” That’s when I sat down with the person in their office who schedules surgery. Lest you think that orthopedic surgeons are godlike with no need to get help from the little people, you’d be wrong. There’s a gal in the All Star Ortho office, the scheduler, who does a very good job. You know I’m fanatical about customer (in this case, patient) experience. Her name is LaDonna. She’s crazy good. Office staffs can sometimes become surly and who can blame them. Dealing all day with people who likely don’t feel very well must take a heavy toll on people. I wouldn’t want to do it. I’m a pretty good patient, likely the result of years of experience in dealing with the public and lots of people. The last thing I want to do is cause somebody unnecessary grief. BUT…once in awhile you run into a remarkable person like LaDonna. Somebody who extends themselves to be helpful. Somebody who just performs at a higher rate than most. That’s been LaDonna.

LaDonna helps me through the maze of insurance issues and scheduling conveniences. We finally hit on Monday, August 4th at 8:45AM. Done. Book it.

We arrive at the private hospital in Dallas at 6:30AM. By 7:30AM I’m in pre-op watching a person untangle lots of little wires that will monitor my spinal cord. If memory serves well (and it may not given I was in surgery), by 10AM it was over. Dr. Timon told Rhonda it was worse than the MRI showed. “So he wasn’t being a wimp?” asked Rhonda. “Nope,” replied Dr. Timon.

He removed the damage between C5 and C6 and also between C6 and C7. In place of that damage he inserted some cage with bone taken from my left hip. You can Google it and find some pretty disgusting pictures, video and diagrams. I’d rather not look at those right now! Or post them here.

A plate with 6 holes (for 6 screws; 2 each in C5, C6 and C7) is placed across all three vertebrae. That makes sure it’s stable from here on out. Hopefully.

The pain wasn’t really pain. It was mostly discomfort. And it was mostly all across my shoulders. “Typical and to be expected,” said the nurses. But worse than that, a raging soar throat. Again, to be expected said all the nurses.

No pain meds were necessary. I was up walking the hall within an hour. And I walked. And walked. And walked. And walked some more. All whist eating ice. Lots of ice eating. I eat a lot of ice anyway, but I wasn’t even pacing myself after surgery. I was an ice eating machine. It kept my throat feeling better. Nothing helped my shoulder pain. I chalked up the shoulder pain to muscles straining because of the surgery, incision and all the adjustments a body must make during trauma. Not until Dr. Timon’s PA, Michelle entered did I find out the real reason for all the shoulder pain – being cinched down to the table during surgery so I wouldn’t move. Duh. That made perfect sense and I felt stupid for not thinking that when surgery involves your spinal cord – or proximity to it – you can’t move at all. Michelle, like all the folks I’ve encountered at All Star Ortho, is another remarkable service provider. She came to release me from the hospital. She was also the one who went through the extensive pre-surgery education with me in Dr. Timon’s office some days prior to the surgery.

Today it’s Wednesday. It’s about 8:30Am. My calves are ridiculously sore. Nobody told me, but I can tell it’s from being pinned down to the table. I’m walking like an old man on my heels. Well, I am an old man back on his heels. But Lord willing, I’ll be back on my toes in no time.

I can’t shower for 4 days. I can’t drive for 2 weeks. No aspirin or blood thinning pain killers for 6 months. My next in office visit is August 18th with Dr. Timon. I don’t anticipate any hurdles. I just have to keep fighting the fight. Gotta keep moving and work out the kinks and soreness. Isn’t that what we’ve got to do in life? Keep moving and grinding it out?

Changes I’m Thinking Of Making Around Here

Re-Branding

I’m still working through this. Honestly, I’m not sure what I want to do…except I want the podcast to mirror the work I do. The work I do is pretty diverse. That’s my current dilemma. I do many different things to help executives and businesses excel. It doesn’t all fall under coaching. Nor does it all fall under consulting. It’s almost always a mixture of the two, but sometimes it’s clearly just one or the other. That’s making it hard for me to figure out. Higher Human Performance still is the best depiction of it, but I don’t know if that’s strong enough for marketing purposes.

A weekly podcast. That’s still what I want to produce here. And I’m still pretty stuck on making it a 30 minute (give or take) format. I’d like to release the shows on Tuesdays or Thursdays, but I can’t tell you why really. Well, other than the fact that I find myself downloading mostly on those days. I have no empirical evidence to support Tuesday or Thursday release dates. I should likely do some research. I’m sure Libsyn and others have some data about which days are typically best. I’m open to test it, too.

While I’d love to investigate a partner to banter with, I don’t think I’m going to dive into that murky water. It’s too dangerous. Chemistry is either there or not. And I’ve lived long enough to know rare it is in the real-world to have great chemistry with somebody who gets it, gets you and somebody you get. Insert recording into the process and that can change things, too. I don’t want to risk it. Besides, for over 7 or 8 years I’ve done this stuff all alone so it’d likely be tough to change it now.

As for cover art and logo stuff…well, when you have no show title yet, those things will have to wait. First, I need a great show summary. Something that properly describes the content. Then I need a great title. After that I can worry about cover art.

What I Am Going To Do

I’m going to move Saturday’s Smile and Freeform Friday over to LeaningTowardWisdom.com, my other site and podcast. Those two features just seem more congruent over there. I’m sure people look at those things with bewilderment. And posts just like this one will now appear at LeaningTowardWisdom, not here. For instance, that post about the man who gave me scars would have likely been better at LTW (Leaning Toward Wisdom) than here.

I’m planning to keep things here more professional. The personal stuff will all be over at LTW. I’m not going to remove all the history from BulaNetwork and migrate it to LTW. I’m just drawing a line in the sand today by starting a new habit over at LTW. So starting this Saturday, you’ll have to visit LTW to find Saturday’s Smile. Of course, you can always follow my Pinterest account and see them.

Free Form Friday is a special episode I record on the last Friday of each month. That’s been a feature here at Bula Network, but I’m going to move that to LTW, too.

All those changes are pretty easy to make. Bula Network, LLC is the business name so it makes sense to keep the business stuff here and move the other stuff over to LTW.

So far, that’s it. That’s all I’ve decided. I’d love to hear your thoughts about it. Use that contact page and let me know.

Randy

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August 2, 2014 – Saturday’s Smile

Saturday's Smile / By Randy Cantrell

August 2, 2014 – Saturday’s Smile Read More »

233 6 Steps To Create Delighted Customers By Protecting Them From Themselves (Without Becoming A Dung Slinger)

Entrepreneurship, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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There’s a strong, but perhaps subtle difference between a customer and a client. A customer buys one time. A client is a repeat customer.

Loyalty programs are designed to convert customers into clients. They don’t always work, but we can applaud companies for trying I guess.

Ideally, what we all want are what Ken Blanchard called “raving fans” in 1993. Up to that point, those of us who were fanatical about the customer experience were working hard to get people to talk about us. And as Jeffrey Gitomer has pointed out for years, we rather enjoyed having the power to control what customers said about us: something good, nothing or something bad. Mostly, customers said nothing. Because “average” best described most customers’ experiences…so there wasn’t much to say. It was the two extremes that businesses typically had to manage. The hacked off customer had to be soothed lest we get bad publicity. The delighted customer merely had to be thanked for heaping on us such high praise.

Creating sales funnels wasn’t nearly as fun as creating sales cycles. The funnel meant you had to keep feeding the top of the hopper. I never found that terribly rewarding, even when it was necessary. A cycle on the other hand goes round and round, and when it’s done well, it can become powerful because the centrifugal force can generate not just sales, but clients. That whole step of taking a prospect to a buyer can really be accelerated when somebody has become a raving fan telling somebody else to do business with us (or “you’re crazy”). It’s kind of like getting a free pass in Monopoly where you get to quickly advance ahead. Raving fans help you advance ahead and jump the curve to creating more happy customers.

You can battle the competition til the cows come home…and I’m a big fan of kicking the competition in the teeth. But I don’t want the cows coming to my home. I just want to nail the competition to the wall as fast as I can while I make sure I watch my blindside lest I get knocked out. Like a skilled MMA fighter, you’ve got to know how to attack and how to defend. Sometimes a great counter move can provide a terrific offensive opportunity by properly defending yourself.

But there’s a problem with some customers — maybe MOST customers! There are predators lurking to take your customers. It may be a direct competitor. Somebody who does the same thing you do, or something very close. It may be an indirect competitor. Somebody who is vying for the dollars of your customers robbing them of the chance to hire or buy from you. Those competitors are worth thinking about. They’re also worth strategizing against, but they’re not the predators I’m talking about. Often times, they’re not the number 1 predator you’ve got to worry about.

You have to protect your customers from themselves. I’m going to give you 6 steps to create delighted customers by protecting them from themselves.

1. Know Your Stuff

My sales career begin in the Stone Age when every salesperson was told, “Product knowledge is king.” We mostly believed it until we learned the hard way that it wasn’t true. Some crafty, low-life, lying piece of beetle dung could outsell those of us who really knew our stuff. That caused some to join the ranks of the dung slingers, but those of us who had a conscience couldn’t do that. Instead, we had to learn that it was important to know our stuff. We needed to know more about our products than the customers. How much more depended on the customer. Some were very knowledgeable and that meant we had to step up our game. Most had a much lower, or mere casual knowledge so it was easy to dazzle them.

Knowing your stuff is important for the obvious reasons, but also for the less obvious. Yes, it’s impossible to provide great solutions when you don’t have a high awareness of their differences, benefits, features and downsides. Just as importantly – maybe more so – you need to know your stuff so you can engage customers with confidence, knowing that you can help them. Some people – the best con men – are able to summons up confidence no matter what. They can flip a switch and go into high confidence mode in a flash. The rest of us have to amp up toward it. Being prepared is major ingredient in doing that. And it’s also the right way to do it if you care one whit about your integrity.

2. Be Friendly

Duh. I know, you’d think this would be a given, but there are tons of people who haven’t a clue about how to be friendly. Or they think they’re friendly, even though nobody else thinks so.

There’s a population of sales people, marketing people and others who are so steeped in knowing their stuff, they think that’s the trump card. And perhaps it could be except they’re so pompous nobody can stand being around them. These are the hyper-pros who raise their chin in the air looking down on the rest of us because they know more than we do. And even if they do, they won’t outsell those of us who know how to be friendly.

Friendly begins with a disposition. It’s an inner smile on your face that morphs into a physical smile on your face. It’s that look that says, “I’m glad to see you.” You know the look. It’s the one your dog gives you when you come home.

I don’t know why more salespeople don’t try that. It works.

Your dog isn’t being fake or phony. He’s really, genuinely glad to see you. The key for you is to exhibit that same genuine “glad to see you” attitude toward your customers.

A dog that approaches you with a wagging tail is sure to get your attention in the form of a pat on the head, a pet of the back or the ultimate prize…the belly rub.

By being genuinely friendly, salespeople can not only make the sale, but gain a customer who may become a client. The friendlier you can be the more delighted you can make your customer because part of friendliness is being helpful, genuine and sincere.

In the movie Ruthless People actor Judge Reinhold is a stereo salesman (naturally, all of us old stereo salespeople could relate to his character). In one obscene scene (pardon the language, please), he shows a pimply faced kid a pair of massive loudspeakers. The friendly banter between the salesperson and the kid make the kid instantly like Reinhold’s character. Then the kid’s pregnant wife or girlfriend walks into the sound room, “the big room.” Instantly, Reinhold’s character switches gears and takes the kid to a much smaller, but more affordable option. Why? Because he knew it was the right thing to do. That’s a big part of being friendly. Doing the right thing.

3. Listen Well

I’ve known salespeople who bragged how they knew what they were going to sell somebody before they ever walked in the door, or before they ever called. They wore it like a badge of honor and skill. Yep, those kind of people are still alive and kicking so you have to be on guard. From million dollar technology solutions to professional services to low end consumer goods the world is still full of unscrupulous people who have no idea what your problems are, and frankly, don’t care. They just know what they’ve got to sell you, and they’re going to aim everything they do to funnel you into their pipeline. Don’t be that guy!

Instead, pay close attention to your customer. Listen not just for the words, but for the emotions. You need to hear the fear or excitement. You need to sense the worry and pain.

Call some customer service hotline if you’ve not done that in a long time. It doesn’t matter who it is. How about your cable TV provider? Or your Internet provider? Or your cell service provider? Pick one of those and call them. You have a 100% chance of hearing a scripted agent attempt to triage your problem. You’ve got a 50/50 chance of getting somebody who can actually hear and understand your problem. People aren’t trained to listen. They’re trained to go through a scripted series of questions, quickly figure out if they can help you, then pass you along to somebody else who may be able to manage you better.

Delighted customers are generated when we listen to them and when they know it. Let’s call it empathy because that’s what it is. You can’t just listen with your ears. You’ve got to use your heart, too. It should make sense, too – because your heart is where you feel delighted. So you’re going to have to use your heart to deliver it.

4. Ask Great Questions

The quality of your questions determines the quality of your business. That’s true when you’re crafting a strategy. It’s also true when you’re talking with a customer or a prospect.

Great questions help you distill the real issues the customer is experiencing. People are always talking about finding out where people have pain. Well, sometimes people don’t know that exactly. Right now, my left shoulder blade hurts, but only by going to the doctor repeatedly and having multiple tests run am I able to know the reason for that pain is because my lower neck has a slight bulging disc. The remedy for the pain has nothing to do with working on my shoulder blade. It took more probing to find the real source of my pain.

So it is with your customers. They may not be able to articulate their problem. Or they may have a convoluted issue like I’ve got with my shoulder blade. Questions – great questions – can help you hone in on how to best help serve them.

But great questions also do something just as important. They tell your customer that you care and you’re interested. A guy goes out on a first date with a girl and all he does is talk about himself. The date ends and she goes back to her apartment reporting to her friends that, “He didn’t ask anything about me!” That date may have gone far better if the guy had show genuine interest in her and asked her questions showing her how interested he was in learning about her. Your customers feel the same way.

Jump straight to the solution and you may as well scream, “I don’t really care about you. I just want you to buy from me.” Will that work? Sure, sometimes. But you’ll never delight a customer by doing that. Instead, take the time to craft and ask great questions that will help guide you to become a better solution provider for your customers. Don’t short cut the process.

5. Confidently Provide Solutions

By now you’ve established genuine trust. You’ve got rapport with the customer. They like you. You’ve listened to them and asked great questions. Now you’re ready to present some solutions. Solutions are plural. Don’t go to the solution you intended to sell all along, before you ever got to know them. Now it not the time to mess things up.

Maybe you’ve got multiple solutions based on pricing. The choices could be based on color, features, longevity or anything else. Whatever the difference are, be prepared to point those out. This is where knowing your stuff keeps paying off.

Not long ago I suggested to a neighbor who wanted to record some video presentations with narrations to buy an Audio-Technica ATR2100 or AT2005 microphone. These are roughly $50 USB/XLR microphones that sound terrific, mostly because they’re dynamic and not condenser like all the other USB mics. She saw my studio, but I told her my studio was put together 8 years ago or so. Things have changed drastically. My gear is still among the best hardware out there, but it’s just not necessary…even for me. Now, I’m not selling her anything, but by showing her the differences and telling her what she needed to accomplish her task, I could help her make a smart decision.

6. Protect Customers From Themselves (And Other Predators)

You want to help your customers make a smart choice for themselves. It’s their money. Don’t pigeonhole them into the choice you want. But make sure you work hard to protect them from themselves. That’s where confidence comes in.

A customer talking with a custom cabinet maker about the various kinds of wood. The customer, hoping to save some money, asks about an inferior kind of wood because they’re intent on some specific high-end hardware. The experienced cabinet maker pushes back. He insists they go with higher quality wood because he knows the difference it’ll make in the finished product. He shows them an alternative to the hardware they’ve selected that looks almost identical to the hardware they selected, but it’s significantly less expensive. He shows them the differences, including the warranty (the less expensive hardware has a better warranty). Turns out the more expensive hardware is a brand that advertises extensively in all the major home improvement and style magazines. The less expensive is a generic “knock off” that he likens to generic drugs. He’s used both for years and assures the customer they’ll not be able to tell the difference in the hardware, but they’d most certainly notice the difference in the quality of the wood. Knowing how customers in the past have wrestled with such decisions, the cabinet maker (a well seasoned craftsman) seizes a moment to drive his point home as he protects the customers from their own desire to save money in an area he knows will make them unhappy in the long run. “I won’t do this job for you with that wood because I know you’ll be very unhappy with the result. This is a major investment you’re making and you deserve to have cabinets that you’ll be happy with years from now when you open a door or pull open a drawer.”

His drive wasn’t to over sell the customer on something more expensive. He found a way to keep them close to their budget by giving them a superior quality product. As he explained to them, “I’ve been in business over 20 years. I’m not going to let you make this mistake because you’ll complain to everybody who ever visits your home.” Well, that’s pretty dramatic. But that’s what happens when you’ve got the confidence necessary to save customers from their own bad choices.

“We’re going to get some other bids,” say the prospective cabinet buyers.

“I completely understand,” says the experienced craftsman. “I don’t blame you one bit. But I do want to warn you of a few things you should look for. Lots of people cut corners to reduce costs and drive down prices. I’m all for helping my customers save money, but like I told you about the hardware. You can see for yourself that the less expensive stuff I showed you is every bit as high quality as the name brand. Of course, if saying you have that brand is important – and it is for some people – then I’d tell you to go with the name stuff.”

He goes on to show them some critical things to look for as they continue to shop. By doing that, they’re now fearful of his competition. Will the next guy be as forthcoming as this guy has been? And we’re really going to have to be on our toes and ask lots of questions because this guy taught us an awful lot about cabinets that we didn’t know before.

The old cabinet maker has just put a pretty good hedge around his prospects. He did it by being honest, confident and knowing his stuff. He left their house without an order, but the very next morning the husband called him and said, “Thank you for coming to see us yesterday. My wife and I thought about it and slept on it. We decided there wasn’t any point in talking with somebody else. We don’t want anybody else doing this for us. We’re ready to hire you.”

Another delighted customer protected from themselves and the dung slingers.

Randy

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