Build Customers’ Trust by Listening and Learning

By Sam Allman | evancarmichael.com

Picture courtesy of OnePage CRM

Customers trust humble (“teachable”) salespeople. Customers don’t shop price with salespeople they trust. Salespeople build trust by listening and sincerely wanting to learn about the customer.

Recently, sales managers at a life insurance company puzzled over a drop in sales at about 18 months into the career of many new sales agents. The managers speculated that these agents were burning out. Or, maybe they had exhausted their list of friends to solicit. The company investigated.

They found their speculations were wrong. The real cause was the agents’ declining interest in learning all they could about their customer. When new, these agents were truly teachable. They listened to their customers’ stories to uncover the whole situation. They listened until they could recommend the insurance products best suited to each client. On average, they devoted more than an hour listening to each customer.

However, after working about 15 - 18 months, most agents had figured out that nearly all customers fit into a limited number of categories. The agents found they could ask a few key questions and, within 15 minutes, fit the customer into one of those categories. They were nearly always right.

But, then, their “closing percentages” dropped. The problem? The minute they pegged the client, they stopped asking questions and listening, and started recommending products.

What were they doing wrong?

They were not projecting their need-to-know – their desire to fully understand the customer’s particular situation and desires. The number one characteristic of peak performing salespeople is empathy. Why? When one feels understood, they are more open to influence. These customers sensed that the agents were not interested in their needs, so they declined to buy and sales declined.

How many sales might you have lost in just the last two weeks for that same reason? Do you have favorite products that you like to push? The risk you take when you don’t listen and sincerely want to learn is that the customer will think you are more interested in the sale than in what they really need.

Learning to ask questions, like you are really interested in learning about your customer may be the most important selling skill you’ll ever master. It may be the most under-used skill in the salesperson’s toolbox. As you read the following list of “probing benefits”, consider all the things that good questions will do.

1. Probing prevents you from talking too much. Probing forces you to swivel the spotlight from you to the customer, especially at the opening.

2. Probing intensifies your concern for this customer, and her feelings for you. By setting aside your agenda, and working to understand the customer’s agenda first, you invest in the customer. As you invest, your caring grows naturally. The customer then feels validated. So, she naturally reciprocates with trust for you.

3. Probing elicits the customer’s needs and wants. Effective probing questions elicit the customer’s left-brain needs and right-brain wants. Knowing them, you can personalize your response.

4. Probing keeps the customer focused on you, on your products and services. As long as the customer is answering your questions, she is listening to you. Listening requires the customer to focus and understand the benefits. By contrast, when you lecture, she may tune out. She may become confused. A confused mind can’t decide.

5. Probing clarifies in the customer’s mind what is right for her and how much she wants a particular product. Your probes tell her needs, wants, and possible solutions – all in her own mind. More powerfully, as you have probed with empathy, she has retained control about the buy-in. She draws her own conclusions. Being hers, they are good. As a result, she wants to buy from you . . . naturally.

It takes a master salesperson to know when to cease asking questions and to begin presenting. If you have doubts about your ability to know when to cease your learning, I guarantee you probably need to ask more questions.

To build trust faster, try shedding any shreds of knowing-it-all. Intensify your teachableness. See if customers don’t trust you more and then buy more.

Richard Branson on Intrapreneurs

BY Richard Branson | Entrepreneur.com

The business icon talks about empowering employees to break the rules. 

I am incredibly lucky to be able to live in the British Virgin Islands, one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. My family's home is on Necker Island, which is both our home and a luxury resort. Here, I'm much more likely to do my thinking in an office hammock rather than an office chair.

Seeing guests exploring the beach reminded me that one of the first charming things visitors to the BVIs see are signs in the airport arrivals area that designate the immigration channels. Unlike the rest of the English-speaking world, here the signs read "Belongers" and "Non-Belongers," rather than "Residents" and "Nonresidents."

Since I became a resident, I've come to find the term "belonger" amazingly powerful. When a nation embraces its own as "belonging here" as opposed to just living there, it breeds a different form of loyalty. It reminds us that this is where we belong, and so our efforts are not just on our own behalf, but also to benefit the community.

This made me think about how such little, seemingly semantic, details apply in the business world: What if companies had belongers rather than employees? Does what we call each other make a difference in other contexts?

Many millions of people proudly claim the title "entrepreneur." On the other hand, a title that hasn't gotten nearly the amount of attention it deserves is entrepreneur's little brother, "intrapreneur": "an employee who is given freedom and financial support to create new products, services and systems, who does not have to follow the company's usual routines or protocols." While it's true that every company needs an entrepreneur to get it under way, healthy growth requires a smattering of intrapreneurs who drive new projects and explore new and unexpected directions for business development.

Virgin could never have grown into the group of more than 200 companies it is now, were it not for a steady stream of intrapreneurs who looked for and developed opportunities, often leading efforts that went against the grain.

One example that springs to mind was at Virgin Atlantic, about 10 years ago. None of the big expensive seat design firms seemed able to solve the design problems posed by our specifications for our Upper Class cabin, but a young designer, Joe Ferry, volunteered (insistently) to give the project a go.

We set him loose, and the herringbone-configured private sleeper suites that resulted from his "outside the box" creativity put us years ahead of the pack and made for millions of very happy horizontal fliers.

How to unleash the power of intrapreneurs like Joe? The key is to enable them to pursue their vision. But people don't always think of leaders within a company – the managers, executives, and the chief executive officer – as people who enable others. As I learned back when I was starting up Student magazine, "The chief executive officer of a major corporation might only make a couple of decisions a year, but those decisions can affect the lives of millions." What a terrible way to run a company!

So, since this seems to be true throughout the business world, clearly it's time for a major shake-up in the nomenclature of business. What if CEO stood for "chief enabling officer"? What if that CEO's primary role were to nurture a breed of intrapreneurs who would grow into tomorrow's entrepreneurs?

We inadvertently developed this role at Virgin by virtue of the fact that when we've chosen to jump into a business about which we have little or no real knowledge, we've had to enable a few carefully selected people who do know which end is up.

When Virgin moved into the mobile phone industry we had no experience, so we looked for our rivals' best managers, hired them away, took off their ties and gave them the freedom to set up their own ventures within the Virgin Group. Tom Alexander in the U.K., Dan Schulman in the U.S. and Andrew Black in Canada have all done this with great success, aggressively taking Virgin companies in new and unexpected directions.

Perhaps the greatest thing about this form of enabled intrapreneurship is that often everyone becomes so immersed in what they're doing that they feel like they own their companies. They don't feel like employees working for someone else, they feel much more like ... well, I think the only word to describe it is "belongers."

Mauritian Public Key Infrastructure Ecosystem Launched

By Government Information Service | Prime Minister’s Office 
 

June 22, 2012: The Mauritian Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Ecosystem, which aims at creating the right environment to engage e-Commerce and e-Business in a secure and trusted environment, was launched at the Hennessy Park Hotel, in Ebène Cyber-city.

 

On that occasion, the first certification authority to operate in Mauritius, eMudhra Consumer Services Ltd, received its recognition certificate, and the Information and Communications Technologies Authority (ICTA), which is also the Controller of Certification Authorities (CCA), launched an Information Guide on the Mauritian PKI Ecosystem.

PKI is a cyber security infrastructure put in place to prove the identities of people, websites, computer programmes and applications on the Internet as well to secure online transactions through the use of Digital Certificates.  The Information Guide gives an insight about the PKI to the public in general and contains salient features of the legislations related to the PKI.

In his opening address, the Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Mr Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum, said that the development taking place today is a stepping stone in making e-Government applications more interactive on a secured environment.  He announced the launching of a paperless Government project using the PKI.  This, said the Minister, will then spill over to other applications that are currently running under the Government Online Centre.  He also encouraged Ministries, departments, public bodies as well as private institutions to make use of the facilities developed around the conducive environment created for the development of the Mauritian PKI.

For his part, the High Commissioner of India to Mauritius, Mr. T.P. Seetharam, congratulated all parties concerned for the implementation of the PKI following the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding with the CCA of India three years back.  India stays committed to be a productive partner with Mauritius in various fields and continue to work together to the mutual advantage of both countries, he added.

About PKI

Mauritius has its own PKI since 6 December 2010.  In a PKI, a CA issues Digital Certificates to end users.  A Digital Certificate on the Internet is similar to an ID card in the real world. The CA verifies the identity of the end user and publishes certificates on an on-line repository where people can verify each other’s certificate. The CCA as the apex trust agency for the Mauritian PKI, in turn, must approve the methods used by the CA to verify the identity of a subscriber before granting or renewing a subscription for a certificate.

In May 2012, the technical infrastructure required for the issuance of the digital Licence/Recognition/Approval was installed at the premises of the ICTA.  In the same month, the CCA of Mauritius issued a recognition certificate to the first foreign CA who can now start its operation in Mauritius.

It is recalled that to enable a secure electronic transactions operating environment, the Electronic Transactions Act was amended and the Electronic Transactions (Certification Authorities) Regulations 2010 came into effect on 1 December 2010 providing for the licensing framework as well as the regulation of Certification Authorities (CA) activities in Mauritius.

Learn to Leverage Social Media to Enhance Your Career (Podcast)

By Jennifer Curry | From CFA Institute

 

Miriam Salpeter, author of Social Networking for Career Success, explains the importance of social media as a channel to enhance your professional reputation and to become known as a thought leader in your field. She offers practical advice and instruction on how to leverage specific functionality that can help you brand and differentiate yourself.

Listen to the podcast HERE. 

 

This presentation was recorded at the 65th CFA Institute Annual Conference. 
 
About the Speaker

Miriam Salpeter is owner and founder of Keppie Careers, a coaching and consulting firm helping job seekers and entrepreneurs leverage social media and other tools to achieve their goals. She has appeared on CNN, and major media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and others have quoted her advice. 

In addition to her own blog, Miriam writes for U.S. News & World Report’s On Careers column and for Salary.com. Her book, Social Networking for Career Success, is available via Amazon or your favorite bookseller. In fall, 2012, her second book, 100 Conversations for Career Success (co-authored with Laura Labovich) will be on store shelves. 

CNN named Miriam to their list of “top 10 job tweeters you should be following.” Monster.com included her in their “11 for 2011 — Career Experts Who Can Help Your Job Search” and respected online resource, Quintessential Careers, called her a “Top 15 Career Mastermind.”

In addition to coaching job seekers and small business owners, Miriam is an in-demand writer and speaker regarding job search and social media, and she transforms resumes and creates online social media profiles (websites) for clients.

A vice president for a Wall Street firm prior to earning a master’s degree from Columbia University, Miriam headed the Career Action Center at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University before launching her own business. She has been empowering job seekers and small business owners for over 14 years.

Miriam coaches job seekers and entrepreneurs about using best practices to land great opportunities by offering clarity, confidence and know-how. Clients can save time, money and sanity by working with her. She believes everyone controls his or her own future and her job is to provide the road map to success.

3 Tips for Overcoming Your First Failure

BY Martin Zwilling | FROM Young Entrepreneur 

People who are afraid of failing shouldn't become entrepreneurs. 

The reason? In a certain sense, entrepreneurship is all about pushing your limits and taking risks. So a degree of failure should be expected -- and, in my opinion, worn like a badge of honor. It would stand for bravery -- or at least mark the psychological feat of overcoming your fears.

It would also send the message that even though you've failed, you've likely learned a valuable lesson. According to investors I know, young entrepreneurs who have failed at least once are more likely to get funding from them, compared to entrepreneurs with a perfect track record. Investors know that founders often learn more from a failure than they do from a success, so don’t be so quick to delete a failure from your bio.

I'm not, however, suggesting that you fail on purpose. I'm also not suggesting that amassing multiple failures is a good idea either. But if it happens, a failure shouldn't be shunned. You should embrace it, grow from it and use the experience to move to the next idea.

Here are three tips on how to turn failure into an advantage:

1. Accept responsibility, don't spread the blame. It’s easy to blame partners, investors, customers and the economy. But if you blame someone else, you'll never learn from your mistakes. Remember, you volunteered to be an entrepreneur, not a victim.


2. Capitalize on the good amid the bad. In every bad deal, there are always some good people. Many entrepreneurs have taken on one of these as a new partner, and gone on to make millions of dollars. The good investors will fund you again, and the good customers will gladly accept your next offering.
   
3. Study and profit from your mistakes. Mistakes can offer priceless lessons, so learn from them, rather than run from them. Making mistakes and becoming smarter is the job of an entrepreneur, while not making mistakes is the job of an employee.

Failure is not usually a single event, but a collection of mistakes and circumstances that add up to test the patience of founders. Failure, combined with a strong sense of business ethics, can motivate and produce innovation, while failure due to a lack of ethics can lead to desperation. Certain types of failures -- like failures of integrity and ethics -- are harder to recover from.

In the end, resilience and agility are really the only sustainable edge in business. So when you experience your first failure, just give up your ego, let it go and get back to work smarter on your next success.

This story originally appeared on Young Entrepreneur

Motivating Employees to Work As Hard As You

Getting a startup off the ground is just the beginning. Growing a business is the next step. In Season 2 of Project Grow, Entrepreneur Magazine talk to entrepreneurs at New York's In Good Company coworking space as they meet the challenges.

As a startup entrepreneur, I'm In The Kitchen's Amy Yazdian felt she had little leverage to demand perfection from her staff. For new business owners, it can be tough to motivate workers when you can't offer big-time salaries or other corporate perks. Hear how Yazdian learned to get employees fired up, plus expert tips.

The 2011 State of the Union Address