Welcome to the LDL Blog

‘A premium return to the customer is all the justification you need to require a premium investment’ says Mack Hanan in Key Account Selling.

Inspirational leaders are able to energise those around them irrespective of their job title. Here are 16 immediately actionable ways to help you get the very best from your team.

Consider this dialog: John’s lawnmower packs up one Sunday afternoon, so he goes around to his neighbour to ask if he can borrow his.

Whether you manage 2 or 200 people, you lead first by example. Realise that if you lead others, it’s show time all the time. Everything you do and say contributes to how others will act.

One of the most enduring images of the 2012 Olympics has to be that of the ecstatic face of Mo Farah as he crossed the finish line to win his second gold medal of the competition and so secure the 5000m and 10,000m double. A feat only achieved by 5 people in the history of the Olympic Games.

‘People buy people first and whatever else second’ is one of the timeless skills of selling. We rarely run a sales training session without including it. However many sellers fail to appreciate just how far reaching the skill can be.

Leaders think progress. Believe in progress. Push for progress. Everything around us is growing. We can’t stand still, we can either move forwards with it or drop back. It is impossible to be in business today, use yesterday’s skills and expect to be in front tomorrow.

It is always advantageous to view the sales process through the buyer’s eyes.

Once the buyer decides they have a requirement, which they want to fix, they then move to the evaluation of options stage – put simply – they have decided they are going to buy but they have NOT yet decided who from.

You may have the best skills and processes in the world but if the attitude is missing your team will not reach peak performance. Leadership, at its heart, is about leading attitudes. And remember, anyone who is responsible for the performance of others is a leader.

Gravity-2

Here is Part II of the Laws of Success. Straightforward but unbreakable principles, which have helped thousands of people in every walk of life, to achieve their potential.

No matter where you are on the planet, the law of gravity applies — it’s in you, it’s around you, it’s part of you. It’s a law of nature — a physical law, and it cannot be broken.

The more people from both supplier and customer who are involved in building the relationship, the stronger it becomes. It’s a team effort.

Most people in this country go to bed hungry, not for food, but for praise. Recognition is one of the most underused motivational tools so voice your appreciation of good work and give positive feedback wherever possible.

Positioning means how you are perceived by your market place. Your most valuable asset is your reputation: it acts as a magnet for new business leads. Customers will choose you because of your reputation – that’s the real value of fame.

Barack Obama speaking at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service said “And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example, he makes me want to be a better man”. What a fantastic example of Mandela’s ability to inspire.

Do you perform better with encouragement? So do your people.

Genuine appreciation from you, the manager can taste better than anything – even a pay rise! If you make people feel special you will end up with a special team.

Today everyone sells; not just outside the organisation but within it as well. The ability to persuade and influence is part of everyone’s job. Whether you are selling, negotiating, marketing, advertising, coaching, leading, managing or speaking in public, you are persuading others to accept your ideas. Selling is the preeminent skill.

Inevitably you will find it necessary to have a tough conversation with one of your reports at some stage. Either because their performance has slipped for some reason or their attitude is not as positive as you expect.

Here’s an exercise you can use to come up with useful probing questions. Think of one of your current customers and brainstorm the potential problems/issues they might have (and the opportunities they would like to realise). Choose areas you know your product or service can help solve. Make a list of them.

I remember how hard it was to make those initial calls early in my career. I used to sit there staring at the phone. I’d pick it up and think, ‘No way, I can’t call. He won’t want to speak to me. I’ll feel an idiot.’ So I’d put the phone down again.

Successful Key Account Managers know the importance of building a wide network of contacts within their accounts. Part 1 looked at the financial buyer who will sign off the funding for the purchase, let’s now look at some of the other key players:

To succeed in key account management we must make lots of contacts and talk to lots of people within the account. One of the ways customers reduce risk is to ensure that as many of their people as possible are in favour of the decision.

Sometimes a buyer will deliberately deadlock in order to lower your aspirations. She will take you to the edge of the cliff and see how tough you talk then.

Let people sense your strong will to succeed. You communicate with your words, your appearance, your manners, but especially with your sense of purpose. Certainty is more persuasive than charm. In business as in sport, the person who wins is usually the one who wants it the most.

Love them or lose them. As the economy brightens engagement is hugely important. You need to make sure each of your people think ‘this is the best place for me to be’.

The only certainty about change is that it will never be this slow in the future. Everyone has resistance to change, but research shows those with high performance potential have lower resistance.

In a leadership role, and anyone who is responsible for the performance of others is a leader, you are always setting an example whether consciously or not. If you’re hacked off who is going to pick it up? Everyone.

The more you listen, the more you are fascinated by what people have to say, the more they will like you, trust you and want to do business with you.

This sounds obvious, but it is much deeper than it appears. When we are dealing directly with buyers, we have to learn how to sell ourselves effectively. Giving your customer the impression you really want their business can be very persuasive.

Something that never ceases to amaze me is the effort that many organisations direct towards getting new business while overlooking their existing client base. That’s crazy – it’s like filling a bucket that has a hole in it.