The Martial Art of Difficult Conversations

I’ve read several books that dealt with making conversations work. Here is a brief article that gives specific advice and a clear example of diffusing a verbal attack. Each of us can use this in our business and family lives, but marketers should consider presenting this to their colleagues in sales and customer service.

The Martial Art of Difficult Conversations by Peter Bregman.

Can you sell what you wouldn’t buy?

You are a savvy shopper, right?. You think before you buy and so does your customer. He’s looking for the same things you are… value, features, performance, benefits. Oh, yeah… and style, color, newness, hipness, whatever.

Take a quick look at your marketing strategy. Look at your products, your message, your results. Would you buy your product from your company? If not, why would anybody else?

Ask your key people how they would answer these questions. Get their honest answers and empower them to suggest necessary changes. Be ready to change your marketing plan as often as you have to so savvy shoppers will buy from you.

Selling isn’t a numbers game.

Sales people have product to move, quotas to meet. They have less time and larger territories than ever before. And to make matters worse, selling cycles are getting longer as decision makers strain to balance the competing needs for value and quality.

Why then do so many sales reps ignore sales leads generated at great expense by advertising, websites, direct mail, email and other promotional efforts?

Simple. It is more productive, more cost-effective for them to work existing leads, recontact existing customers and develop referral business than it is to call on an unqualified lead.

What do sales reps want? [...]

Stop selling, start listening.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that this is a natural law: Everybody wants to buy, nobody wants to be sold. Some of us like to shop, others don’t. But let’s face it, buying stuff feels good. New car, new shirt, tasty Napa cabernet, whatever. I used to coach the president of a moving company whose eyes lit up like Christmas morning when he talked about buying a couple of new trucks.

Maybe it’s just me, but I am annoyed by uninvited sales people (telemarketers, retail clerks, pushy sales reps of all shapes, sizes and descriptions) and the daily onslaught of sales messages (email, banner ads, radio and TV commercials, direct mail, billboards). To me, it’s all spam… unless it talks to me about something I want to buy. Then it’s right place, right time… thanks for making my life much easier! How can you put this “natural law” to work?

Stop selling, start listening. You’ll sell more if you do.

A classy way to say goodbye.

When marketing works perfectly, it is a closed loop. Product Introduction > Sales Process > Customer Service > (loop) When the relationship is humming along, the elements overlap and everybody. Customers are “loyal” and suppliers are fat and happy, but stuff happens. What do you do when a customer leaves?