The 1% Factor Book

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The 1% Factor

The Art and Science of Business Growth

Copyright Michael Worthington 2009

PO Box 22 Ballajura Western Australia 6000

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Itʼs only 1% to Brilliance"4

Customer who?"11

Something Unique"23

Do you value value?"33

Selling It with Style "51

Selling Styles"56

Theatrical style !56

Consultant Style !63

Representative Style !69

Order Taker Style !73

Leadership that Sells"79

Embedding A Virtual Experience"86

The Story-Selling Method"89

Stop selling and"97

Start telling a ... story "97

The Third Party Story-Selling Method"110

Presentation Story-Selling Method"115

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It’s only 1% to Brilliance

I think everyone has had moments in life he or shecan point to, when something occurred that had a major impact. It’s one of those experiences that when you lookback you can say ‘That had an impact on me, thatchanged my life or that was when I learnt about...’.

I had one of those experiences when I was young

and the reason it occurred was that even as a kid I wasultra competitive. Winning was everything to me.

When I was twenty years old, I and a few friendsarranged to have a game of golf. Now as I said, I am acompetitive person by nature as most business menproudly are, and so, friendly game or not, I was going towin.

I had not played golf since I was a child with Dad, sosome serious practice was called for. At 8.00am on aWednesday morning I set off to the local golf course, tothe driving range, for some much needed practice.

I showed up, all excited, with my clubs in the boot of the car, and visions of playing like ‘The Great White

Shark’. I could see my victory: my ball sailing effortlessly

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through the air, strolling leisurely along with my friends,relaxed, laughing and having a great time - winning!However, like most people who believe they can achieve

an easy win I was blind to the approaching drama.

I lined up on the driving range, carefully pushing mytee in the ground, gently placing my ball on top andselecting my driver. Looking ever so much theprofessional, I lined up and unleashed an awesomeswing. There it went, sailing high down the fairway. Thento my dismay it started bending, swinging off to the right.

That little ball had a mind of its own and it sailed happilyoff into the trees.

Well, that was my first shot, I told myself, couldn’texpect to get it right the first time. So on with the nextball. High, long and off to the right it sailed, into the treesagain.

Now wait, I told myself, I can work this out, I’m astrategist. I can work out a solution. If it is going to theright, I can stand so as to turn my body more to the left,and this way it will straighten it out.

I lined up and unleashed a mighty swing, and off itwent, to the left, racing to the trees on that side.

Frustrated, I grabbed the next ball, jammed it on the

tee and gave it an almighty bash. No sailing right or leftthis time, in fact no sailing at all. I had hit the top of theball and caused it to travel a whole two feet.

Now I was totally frustrated and embarrassed. As Istudied my driver; trying to convince myself and othersthat this was the problem, another golfer approachedme, smiling.

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Oh no, just what I needed, I thought. A happy golfer toshare his advice. I smiled as he approached and wishedhe would go away.

“Hi there” he waved, “how’s it going?”

What was I meant to say, that I was having a terribletime, and wanted to be left to wallow in my own minibreakdown? To be polite I said “Been a while. Justgetting back into the swing of it.”

“Yes,” he said and introduced himself as the club

coach. “You are doing quite well for your first time.”Was he mad? I thought he was being smart so I

spluttered “Quite well? I’m in the trees. I’m in the water. Iwould like to see your version of quite bad!”

He made a simple yet significant comment that hasforever enabled me to succeed. He said, “you know, youare only about one degree off hitting a lovely straight

shot”.

He held up his hand to stop my protests and pointedout that when my club head was contacting the ball itwas only one degree off being straight.

He explained that when I was hitting the ball, I was liftingmy head just a fraction early, causing me to hit on top of

the ball or strike the grass first before hitting it. Helaughed and said, “When people do that we call itgardening.”

He told me that all I needed to do was to stop tryingto drive the ball, stop trying to hit it as hard as I could andinstead focus on just these tiny areas of adjustment. “Youknow,” he said, “if you concentrate on these little things,

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these little changes, that ball believe it or not, will gomuch further.”

Before he left he pointed out to me an obvious yetcommonly ignored reality. “Small things make the biggestdifference. Try it and enjoy the results.”

You know, he was right. He was so right. All golferswill tell you the difference between a lovely stroke and abad one is usually only one degree. Let me tell you now,it is the same in business.

The difference in the behaviour of one companywhich succeeds and another which fails, and thedifference in one salesman who consistently out-performs others is usually the difference of only 1%.

So many of us chase the big fixes and put inmassive amounts of effort when the reality is, thechanges needed are subtle, easy and very quick to

make. The key is picking the right ones! And that is whatthis book is all about – the 1% factors!

For the last two decades I have been studying whatmakes the difference between businesses that thrive andthose that just survive and even fail. I have beenstudying those business owners who put in everythingthey have and only get by, and those business owners

that don’t seem to be putting in any extra effort or doanything special, yet are having the time of their lives.

They are literally living it up! They have the cars,boats, houses, and great holidays whenever they want,wherever they want. They are living their ultimate dreamlife. It’s as if they have the golden touch. To many of us, itseems so unfair.

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Here we are, working just as hard; we are doing allthe right things, reading all the right books, attending allthe right seminars and even giving our staff incentives.

We tell our clients how important they are to us andhow we will look after them better than anyone else. Weeven think we are doing it better than our competitors,yet they seem to just have more ‘luck’ than us!

What I discovered twenty years ago and what I havecontinued to find through owning my own companies andstudying the world’s best business people, is that thedifferences between the average business and thesuccessful one are very little.

The differences are very small, and that is where thefrustration comes in for many. Because the differencesare small we simply miss them. We are told andconvinced that there is some magical big fix, and sodon’t look for the small subtleties.

A small shift in approach and attitude is all it takes toliterally catapult you and your business into a whole

different status.

These differences are as little as 1%.

A 1% change in approach.

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A 1% shift in attitude.

That’s it!

As I said, the reason most people miss this, is becausethey are looking for the big fix, looking for major

differences.

For many businesses, attempting the major overhaulstrategy is what sucks the energies out of companies.

Companies that thrive even in tough times are theones who know it is the little things that make thedifference - that will differentiate them from their competitors. It is the little extras that they do for their customers, that their customers really appreciate andthat keep them coming back. It is these simple 1%Factors that make the massive results and produce therewards which we all want.

I practice these 1% Factors in my own businessesand after proving their success I am now teaching othershow to apply them in their businesses.

There are many complicated courses available. I’vedone enough of them to know. Courses which give youenough material to keep you busy for a year just wadingyour way through them. Then there are the ones whichpromote the simple path to success and then give you300 hours of CDs or DVDs to watch or listen to.

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When I started to write this book I was determined todeliver all the most powerful, relevant and state of the arttechniques and strategies of the most successful

business entrepreneurs in a quick, simple step by stepprogram. With this strategy in mind, I designed the bookso the ideas, concepts and strategies for each businessarea, are contained in their own chapter.

As well as making the concepts easier to digest italso makes them quick and easy to find when you wantto refer back to them in the future. When you are

reviewing a particular strategy in your business and wantto quickly check something, you are not left searching for it. You can go straight to the section you want.

This book is really a business program and areference book. It has been designed for you to take onestep each day (or each week depending on your timeconstraints) and complete the exercises in each chapter.

These exercises have been specially designed to buildon each other.

They are designed to assist you to be able to reallyfocus on what produces your results and then to be ableto apply what you have learnt immediately.

I am literally the 1% guy and this book will teach youthe 1% Factors that make all the difference.

If you want all the freedoms and fulfilment you knowyou deserve, then stick with me, because the results aretruly worth it.

Welcome to the 1% Factors.

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Customer who?

As a business person you want to achieve all your dreams and aspirations. To do this you start with whatwe call your Specific Operating Statement, your SOS.

It is both the science and art of building a rock solidbase from which to propel any business to massivegrowth.

Like all good ideas, it is simple, yet in its simplicity is astrategy that can change your business overnight.

People best understand things through experienceand the development of wisdom. Instead of putting your business through guessing games and complicatedstrategies I would like to introduce you to a Businessmanwho was frustrated by the stagnant growth of hisbusiness and willing to explore the concept of having anSOS.

This Businessman wasn’t totally satisfied and yetnot totally dissatisfied either. He wasn’t desperate, hejust felt his business could be doing better but didn’tknow how to improve it.

He was what I call ‘stuck in no-man’s land’ doing what hebelieved was the best he could.

Here is his story.

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This particular Businessman realised that hisdreams of a fantastic lifestyle that he once had were notbeing fulfilled.

When he first went into business, he had dreams of early Fridays, the ability to ring his office and say “I won’tbe in today; in fact I won’t be in for the rest of the week”!

He dreamed of the corporate golf days he had seenhis boss go to, and the business lunches. Yet none of ithad materialised. Instead he said goodbye to his staff onFridays as they drove off happy and cheerful thatanother week was over, while he stayed behind andfinished the quotes he hadn’t had the time to do duringthe week. It was his staff members who rang in sayingthey wouldn’t be in today and were sharing their storiesof golf with their mates on the weekend - the sameweekend he had spent at the office.

So one day, while sitting at his desk contemplatingthis, he decided to get some outside help to work outwhat, if anything, he was missing.

He grabbed the yellow pages and ‘let his fingers dothe walking’. The first number he called was answeredby a very nice and professional lady who after heexplained his problem, said she would be delighted tohelp. An appointment was made and a couple of days

later a very smartly dressed business lady entered hisoffice.

She listened to his problems.

“I give my sales people all the incentives they needand still some of them do well, others are average andothers,” he said, “are just down-right lazy”.

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He explained how he had gone from a standard fortyhour week to now a seventy or eighty hour week. Yes, hewas earning more money, but was it worth it?

She listened as he told her how his customer’sdemands were pulling him this way and that and how hedesperately needed help.

The lady explained that she had helped manybusinesspeople in the same position. She wouldrecommend the books he needed to read, give himassignments to complete, and would assist him throughthe short twelve month period she insisted it would taketo address the problems discussed and make thechanges needed.

The Businessman thought it all sounded very good,yet had some concerns. Twelve months seemed like along time and if he was paying her the money, why didn’tshe just read the books and tell him what was in them?

It seemed all a bit academic. As he reflected on their conversation together he decided to call her theAcademic Business Coach. He thought if moreknowledge was what he needed, then she was definitelythe one to give it to him.

That afternoon his second consultant arrived. He

was a very jolly, casually dressed man. Silver grey hair;big beaming face; wearing slacks, open necked shirt anda sports jacket. Once again the Businessman explainedhis problems while his guest nodded, smiled, frownedand said occasional ums and ahs.

“I see,” the consultant said at last. “Well, I help manypeople in your position; it usually takes around twelve

months. I have a specific questionnaire with two hundred

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questions for you and your staff to complete so that I cangauge where you and they are at. I have lots of psychology tests for the team and each month we get

together. We can discuss the results and whatever specific subject you want to discuss during that session. Iwill guide you as you discover what works for you”, heconcluded.

The Businessman again was surprised that it wouldtake twelve months, and all those tests. Surely it didn’ttake two hundred questions to figure someone out. He

thought of asking his staff to fill out the forms, but heinstinctively knew that most would moan and complain.Some would probably make paper aeroplanes out of them. No, he knew he couldn’t do that part, his staff would revolt.

Not totally happy, he rang a friend complainingabout how no one seemed to have the answers.

“Why does it take so long? Why doesn’t someonehave a simple answer? It just can’t be this hard. How doyou do it? How come you’ve got so much free time? Whyis it I never see you working the weekends?” he asked. “Isuppose you’re going to tell me it’s because you havegood staff. I mean, mine just don’t seem to want to help”.

He could almost feel his friend smile down the

phone as he replied “I thought you would never ask”.

His friend told him how he had suffered the same plightuntil he was introduced to a Business Strategist.

“Sounds expensive,” the Businessman mumbled tohis friend, “and complicated”.

“Well,” said his friend “it’s up to you, but what do you

have to lose? You asked how I did it; I have given you

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the answer, and his number, now it’s up to you to makethe call.”

Ten minutes after he hung up the Businessmancalled the number he had written down. It’s funny whatwe will do when we want something badly enough.

The man who answered the phone was cheerful andhappy to listen. “Come on over,” he said to theBusinessman “and have a coffee. That way we can talkabout this properly”.

He gave the Businessman the address.The Businessman was quite surprised, as the man

who greeted him had his own business, a buildingcompany of all things.

“I didn’t expect you to be a business owner,” he said.“I thought you would have an office in some fancybuilding”.

The Business Strategist laughed, saying “Oh, no.This is where I practice my craft, where I put my moneywhere my mouth is, so to speak. Come on in and let’shave a coffee”.

“That is different,” thought the Businessman as theysat down. With two hot mugs of coffee in front of them,

he explained his problem.“All very interesting,” said the strategist. “Sounds like

you have not discovered your SOS yet, your SpecificOperating Statement.”

The Businessman tugged the lapels of his jacket,and looked a little confused. The Strategist just smiled.

“Your Specific Operating Statement is everythingyou need so you know what you are about, your team

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knows what you are about, and most importantly your customers know what you are about. Your SpecificOperating Statement is not a single entity. It is made up

of three parts, but for today let’s just concentrate on thefirst part,” he said.

“Wait a minute,” the Businessman said straighteningin his chair. “I haven’t said I will use you yet.”

The Strategist waved that away with his hand,saying “That’s OK. Let’s just look at this principle andthen you can decide.”

It seemed fair, so the Businessman thought why not.

“Let me ask you a question then,” said theStrategist. “Who is your customer? Now before youanswer, I want to point out that your customer is not aGovernment department, it is not the banking industry, or everyone who sells cars, or everyone who has a house.

“These are not customers. These are entities andthey have no power or ability to sign a piece of paper or a contract, or shake your hand to close a sale. We haveto be specific if we want to be clear.”

He paused, then added, “I once had a businessconsultant come to see me, and when I asked him to tellme who his customer was, he said “everyone who

owned a business”. I remember asking him if that meantthat he classified Richard Branson and Bill Gates astypical clients he would approach. He responded byshaking his head. So I asked him if a Dad working out of his back shed making cubby houses would be a typicalclient he would want. Again he shook his head. Can yousee the point I am making? I asked him who his

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customer was and he said anyone who owned abusiness, yet that was just not true.

“In two questions I had already ruled out vastquantities of business people that he was not able tohelp or that wouldn’t want his help. This is a reallyimportant point,” the Business Strategist stressed. “Wehave to be specific if we want to be clear, and we have tobe clear, because if we are not clear who we want ascustomers, how can we target our marketing towardsthem?”

The Businessman just nodded his head and theBusiness Strategist continued. “A customer is a person,a living, breathing individual, and your first step is toidentify this person in one sentence, so you are crystalclear who he or she is. It is the critical 1% differencebetween a broad sweeping generalisation and an intentlyfocused statement.”

“Defining a customer for your business is thescience - everyone knows it. Now defining your customer in terms of a person, getting your customer’s identity tothis concise level, is the art of this part of the businessprocess. It is this that really makes the difference. Whenit comes to having a powerful brand for your business, asolid marketing plan, and selecting a sales team in which

all the sales people excel, you must be able to stateclearly and concisely who your customer is.”

The Businessman looked a little uncomfortable, alittle unsure of how to answer. He had not beenexpecting such a direct question. He had been preparingto answer questions about himself and his staff.

The Business Strategist lent forward slightly and

smiled. “Let’s look at some examples of those who have

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identified their customer to this specific level,” he said.“Recently I was at the launch of a new restaurant and theproud owner was giving his presentation to a group of

businessmen and future investors. Straight away, rightup front, the proud owner said that his restaurant wasdedicated to serving a specific part of the market - aspecific customer - and that customer was a family:Mum, Dad and the kids.”

The Business Strategist paused. “Can you see howclear he was about who his customer was? It’s not that

he would not serve businessmen or couples out on their first date; he just wouldn’t try to make his restaurant suitthem, because his customer was clear in his mind. Hecould focus his attention on meeting the needs andwants of that customer, instead of trying to pleaseeveryone.

“Imagine,” he added, “DINKS (double income no

kids) walking in and saying “You should get rid of thosebig tables and put more small tables in because that’swhat we like?” Or lawyers from the top end of towncoming in and telling him “You need a more corporateimage?”

“Can you imagine what would happen if he followedtheir suggestions, and tried to please them all? His chefs

would be confused about which dishes to put on themenu, his staff would be confused which style to use togreet and speak to customers, and in short it would bechaos!”

The Businessman was nodding and chuckling tohimself. “I know that feeling, trying to keep all customershappy, trying to be all things to all people.”

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“Exactly,” beamed the Strategist. “Now most peoplewould say that for a restaurant, it is easy to be specificabout which customer they want to serve.

“So let’s look at something totally different. Let’s lookat cars. Let’s look at BMW. BMW is a car manufacturer and just as many people eat at different restaurants for different reasons, many people drive different cars for different reasons. BMW decided it wanted to be in theluxury car market, and to position itself in this market, ithad to pick a customer.

“As you know, there are many types of luxury cars,Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes, Rolls Royce, each targetinga different part of the luxury market. Each of thesecompanies has identified a specific type of customer andhas designed its cars for that customer.

“BMW decided that the customer it would serve andlook after was someone who enjoyed driving. Notsomeone wanting a shopping car for Mum with thesticker ‘Mum’s Taxi’ on the back, nor someone whowanted a people mover. No, BMW’s customer wassomeone ‘who enjoyed driving’.

“One final example,” the Business Strategist said.“Take this business.” He waved his arms around showingthe room they were in.

“Here we specialise in commercial interiors, buildingoffices for people, basically. Now our customer is abusiness person who wants the flexibility to change theoffice design in the future. This is the customer we arededicated to serving.”

Leaning forward again, he looked straight at the

Businessman. “If you want to outperform your

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competitors, if you want to create an environment whichis truly easy for your sales people to sell in, if you want tobuild a company that stands out from the crowd, then

you need to have a unique offer to make.

“The mistake most people make is they try to inventa unique offer, and you can’t do that. You can’t just pickan idea for a unique offer out of the air; it would bepointless, empty and have no significance.

“Before you find your unique offer you must first findyour customer, you must identify who your customer is,and you must be very specific in doing this. You mustthink of your customer as a person, a real person withreal feelings, real wants and desires. Then when youhave this, you can find what it is that your company cando for that customer that is special and unique comparedto everything else your competitors do.”

The Strategist took a breath and said “The questionI want you to write down is - who is my customer?

“Then directly underneath that question I want youto write the answer. In one sentence I want you to writeyour answer, in twenty words or less. You don’t want awhole page describing this person or half a page or evena paragraph, to get this so it is crystal clear for you andyour team. You want this in twenty words or less.”

Ask yourself as you read this, who is your customer?

Do you know?

Can you describe your customer in twenty words or less?

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Do it now. Get your pen and a note book and jot downyour ideas. You will be surprised at what comes to mind.

Here is another example which may be helpful inidentifying your customer.

Let’s look at this book, The 1% Factors’ – The Art and Science of Business Growth. Who is my intendedcustomer?

My intended customer is the owner of a small tomedium-sized business, looking for simple ways to

improve the business. I know that a vast range of peoplewill read this book, - business owners, managers,business coaches - but to write the book first I had toidentify a customer I wanted to help. In this way I couldwrite a book that made sense, had a theme and astructure and didn’t drift and wander all over the place.By being specific on who I was writing the book for, I hada clear focus on how to write the book.

Before you read on, complete the same steps theBusinessman did. Write down ‘who is your customer?’Remember to describe your customer as a real person,an individual with real wants and desires. Take your time;and in twenty words or less define your customer.

Be specific and clearly identify your customer. Combine

the art with the science and get your answer.One final point on ‘who is your customer’. As your

business grows, your business changes, and so will your customers. Defining your customer is not a set andforget operation. You need to review it at least once ayear.

One of the reasons a lot of business people feel

things get out of control, and begin to feel that the longer

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they are in business it is not as easy as before, isbecause of growth. With growth comes change, and withchange comes the necessity to ensure you are focusing

on serving your optimum customer base. As the baseshifts, businesses that try to tailor their business to suitboth the old customer and the new customer find it sucha strain, that their growth stops.

Continuously review and know who your customer isand you will continue to grow.

This is the number one factor in ensuring youremain specific and remain focused and ensure your long term success and happiness.

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Something Unique

Now you have defined your customer, the one youare dedicated to serving, let’s look at what you can offer him or her. What unique offer you can make that will

differentiate you from the crowd?Let’s go back to our Businessman and our story.

On his second visit to the Business Strategist, theBusinessman was excited. He had identified a customer that he was best equipped to serve and one he wantedto serve. Now he wanted to understand the unique offer principle that the Business Strategist had talked about in

their first meeting.

“Welcome back,” the Business Strategist greetedhim. “I take it you have identified a customer you arededicated to serving?” He smiled as the Business Mannodded and showed him what he had written.

“I run a business networking organisation,” heexplained, “and my clients, my customers, are wide andvaried. Yet when I sat down and really thought about it,where I get the best results, is when I get businessowners and key decision makers together. What’s more,”he added, “it is this group I have the most fun with andwhich are the easiest ones to work with.

“The customer I want to serve is a business owner,a CEO and key decision maker who wants to expandbusiness relationships.”

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“That is a specific customer,” said the BusinessStrategist. “From your description I could very easilyidentify who you are talking about. What’s more, if I met

this person I would know straight away this person is apotential customer for you. That is excellent. Now weneed to ask, what can we offer this customer?

“Discovering the art of forming, discovering andpromoting your unique offer, is what we are going to donow. Let me explain some examples of unique offersusing the restaurant, BMW and my company to help

explain what I mean.“Let’s start with the restaurant owner. If you

remember,” he said, “the customer which his restaurantwas dedicating to serving, was a family - Mum, Dad andthe kids. Having decided to serve this customer he hadto come up with a unique offer that would appear to besomething they would attach value to. The unique offer

they came up with was ‘To give a family an affordabledining experience’.

“Identifying your customer is step one of your Specific Operating Statement and your Unique Offer isstep two of your Specific Operating Statement.

“In the restaurant example, understanding thecustomer they were dedicated to serving meant they

were able to identify a unique offer that they felt their customer would value.

“Having identified their customer and the uniqueoffer they wanted to give, they had the first two steps of the restaurant’s Specific Operating Statement. Evenwithout the third component the staff and managementteam had something they could use to develop strategies

in ensuring the restaurant’s success.

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“Measuring their strategies against this SpecificOperating Statement determined that the tables shouldnot be too close together, and it ensured that all the

tables were not set for two. Having a clear SOS, the winemenu was set to meet the customers’ needs and budget.The SOS ensured that there was more space to movebetween tables; for the kids, it ensured free water withtheir meals. It ensured TVs were strategically placedwhere kids could watch their food being cooked. Thebusiness owner and his management team paid

attention to dishes being offered to make sure they couldfit into a family budget.

“You can see from this example that understandingyour customer and having a clear Unique Offer driveyour strategy. This clearly focuses your purpose. Theseare the first two parts of your Specific OperatingStatement from which everything else is built. Thedifferences between what you are doing now and thismethod are not huge, but the results are.

“What about BMW?” the Business Strategistcontinued. “BMW decided that its customer was ‘a personwho enjoys driving’.

“What can a luxury car manufacturer give acustomer who enjoys driving? BMW says it gives its

customers a driving experience! That distinction aboutwho their customer was enabled them to formulate aunique offer they believed the customer would value, anda unique offer they believed they could deliver to thatcustomer.

“This combination for BMW, like the restaurant,drives the total strategy for the company, and the

strategy when it comes to designing its cars. That’s why

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you can hear the engine,” the Strategist said as he tooka sip of his coffee. “It’s why the clutch is firm, the steeringwheel slightly smaller and the suspension set so you can

feel the car around corners. It is why BMW styles thebody work of its cars the way it does, and uses theinstruments and gadgets it does, and lays them out as itdoes.

“Everything BMW does - all its decisions about itscars - are built around its customer and its unique offer togive them ‘a driving experience’.

“Look at the office fit-out business,” he said leaningback. “Hundreds of companies do it, yet the customersfor this business are special, and they are specific. Our customer is a business person who wants the flexibilityto change the office design in the future. So what do weoffer this customer? What unique offer does this fit-outcompany make to its customer? We build real walls you

can move.“This unique offer has very special appeal to our

customers. You can see that by identifying the customer we wanted to serve, we were able to find somethingspecial to offer them. Our customers need their officesfitted out in a professional manner. They need doors,windows, real offices, yet as their businesses change

and staffing levels change their office lay-out needs tochange too. They want the flexibility to change their internal office space to accommodate those changes.

“To handle this they feel the need for flexibility tomove their walls quickly and easily to meet their newrequirements. We designed a commercial wall systemthat would do just that.

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“These customers and what we offer them drive our product design and delivery service, drive our strategies,drive our brand.”

Remember I said that this book is designed for smallto medium sized business owners, looking for simpleways to improve their business. What is my unique offer to you?

My unique offer is to give you a quick, simplesystem to grow your business.

Every business has a certain type of customer itwants, and identifying this customer is very important.Without knowing your customer you can’t make a uniqueoffer. Once you have these two components you havethe blueprint to build your strategy in regard to your product or service.

This allows you to design a clear and concise

strategy. A clear and concise strategy allows you to builda powerful brand for your business. Developing apowerful brand makes it easy for your customers to findyou, ensuring your growth, your success and your happiness.

At our workshops and one-on-one consultations thisis always our starting point. It is the base from which all

else is built. Spending your time extracting this andgetting it right is the most important time you could ever spend.

At the conclusion of this chapter I want you to knowthat every business has a unique offer to make. Yoursmight not be clear to you immediately and that is thechallenge. The challenge is to find your Unique Offer.

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Talk to your managers, talk to your staff. Write everyidea down. Get large sheets of paper, scribble downevery idea you have, don’t discount anything. Keep

digging and digging. Don’t just stop at one or two ideas.

Who is your customer?

What is your unique offer to that customer?

This may not come straight away. It is not a quickexercise. Treat it like a work in progress and don’t be

afraid to modify it throughout this book as your knowledge grows.

As I close this chapter I am reminded of one of thegreat unique offers I have heard, and it was delivered ina TV commercial by the company chairman standing in

his bathroom with a bath towel wrapped around hiswaist.

The chairman’s name was Victor Kiam.

When I think of Victor Kiam, affectionately known as‘the man who bought the company’, I think of a man whoencompassed these principles, of knowing your customer and understanding the importance of having a

highly valued unique offer. From this knowledge hebecame recognised as one of America’s leadingentrepreneurs.

He was born on December 7, 1926 and at thetender age of eight opened a Coca-Cola stand on a sidewalk in New Orleans near his grandfather’s house. Thiswas his first venture into business. He went on to

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become an on-the-road salesman selling cosmetics,outselling all the other salesmen in his company.

In 1955 Victor joined Platex, where he rose throughthe ranks to Executive Vice President of Marketing.Whilst there, Victor launched the ‘Cross Your Heart Bra’.The unique offer he made was that this new bra ‘lifts andseparates like no other bra’. It was an internationalsensation.

In 1979 a shaver company known as Remingtonwas in trouble. The company had made losses of thirtymillion dollars in five years. Victor saw an opportunity.The problem was, Victor did not have the money andthose he went to, thought he was mad for consideringbuying the troubled Remington.

Now Victor, being Victor, put on his thinking cap. Herealised that if he asked for the money they wouldn’t giveit to him, so he had to turn the tables and get them towant to give him the money. Now he was treating thelenders as customers and looking at it from their perspective. Fear of loss was preventing them fromlending the money and it would be the fear of loss of potential profits to their competitors that would makethem lend.

One afternoon after pouring over Remington’s

figures again and being totally convinced this was acompany capable of being turned around and madegreat, he rang a friend at the newspaper. During their discussion Victor mentioned Remington, asking his friendwhat he knew about it.

“Serious trouble. Won’t be around for much longer and they can’t find a buyer,” was how he summarised it.

“Pretty close,” was Victor’s reply, “but not quite accurate.”

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This statement pricked the journalistic instinct in his friendwho, sensing a story, pushed for more. Victor told himthat whilst the company was in trouble, its problems could

be fixed and were going to be fixed.

“What do you mean?” asked his friend. “What doyou know?”

A very coy Victor mentioned how he had seen thefigures, in fact he had had them sitting in front of him for the past week. He now had the journalist’s attention.“What’s more, the company’s sold!”

That last statement rocked the journalist. He hadbeen following Remington’s decline for a while. He knewVictor had looked at the company but to his knowledgeVictor could not get the money. Now his friend was tellinghim he had the company books in front of him, and thecompany was sold. It didn’t take too much to put two andtwo together.

“Are you telling me you just bought Remington?” heasked in half disbelief. “How did you get the money?Jeez Victor, who else knows?”

“No one,” was Victor’s reply. “And you can’t quoteme, you understand. It’s delicate.”

“No problem, but you don’t mind me writing it for the

morning’s paper, do you?”

“Go ahead. I wanted you to be the first to know,”smiled Victor down the line.

The story ran the next day and so did Victor’sphone. Finance companies from around the country rangto see if they could get in on the deal. In 1979 Victor

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Kiam bought the Remington shaver company fromSperry Corporation.

Just before I continue with this story I would like topoint out how Victor used his ability to identify and relateto customers to get the money he needed.

By understanding his customer (the lenders) he wasable to motivate them. Victor knew they had a fear of losing their money because they were unsure if he couldpull off a turn-around. This same fear of loss applied if these same financiers thought they may miss out on adeal, so miss out on profits and have their competitorswin.

Victor, upon taking over, implemented his changesimmediately, firing 70 executives in a single day. Heclosed the overseas factories, concentrating on hisAmerican one. He stripped all the chrome and glitz of theshavers and brought it back to one economical model.Then Victor went onto TV to tell the world whyRemington should be their shaver of choice, and he did itin a commercial that showed his complete understandingof his customer and the unique offer he knew they wouldappreciate.

Victor identified his customer as a man who wantedthe quality of shave he could get with a razor with the

convenience of an electric shaver, and with that he wenton TV dressed in his bath towel, so he looked like hiscustomer, and he made two statements.

First he made such a bold announcement that it gothis customers’ attention. He said “my wife bought me anelectric razor and I was so impressed I bought thecompany ” then he made his unique offer to his customer,

‘shaves as close as a blade or your money back’.

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Victor Kiam wrote himself into the history books withthat commercial and took his company to one milliondollars in profit in his first year at the helm.

He demonstrated the importance of knowing your customer and being able to make a unique offer theywould value. You too have something unique and of value to offer to your customer, you just have to find it.

Throughout this book keep digging and your uniqueoffer will appear, and when you find it you will know it!

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Do you value value?

At 8.30am a female hotel guest was standingoutside in New York, a crisp morning with snowflakesfluttering gently down, covering everything with a soft

white icing. Now to many guests it was a sight theyenjoyed. It was not the case for this guest. Her handswere buried in thick sheepskin gloves, and she wasdoing the best to stamp her feet to fend off the cold -which was proving difficult in high heels - and her agitation was plain to see.

Jane, a young 18 year old staff member on her

second day of work, glanced outside as she passedthrough the foyer. Jane noticed the lady’s obviousdistress and seeing the doorman was busy with severalother guests, pushed her way through the revolvingdoors. Shivering against the cold she asked what waswrong and if she could help.

The lady, who was very distressed, told her how the

car she had booked - booked through the hotel, no less -had not turned up. “If a cab does not turn up soon I willmiss my flight and my mother’s 80th birthday.”

Jane said she would go and tell the manager immediately to see how they could help. Hurriedly Janepushed her way back through the revolving doors, backinto the hotel foyer, took the lift upstairs to the manager’s

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office, and knocked, only to receive no answer. Shepushed his door open to find the office empty.

It was then Jane realised that in her haste she hadforgotten that he would not be in that morning. Sheremembered hearing him tell other staff members that hehad meetings booked for that day.

Now she was stuck with a lady stranded outside, nomanager to consult, what to do?

Hanging on a hook in the manager’s office were the

keys to the hotel limo. Jane, who drove a small four door car, knew she had to help the lady. This was one of thevalues that they had drummed into her during training.So taking a deep breath she grabbed the keys, and tookthe lift to the basement to where the company’s long,black, shiny, stretched limo was parked in its own specialparking bay.

Jane got in, and nervously squealed out of theunderground parking area. She pulled up in front of thehotel and the lady who was still standing there. Quicklyshe put the lady’s bags in the trunk, and drove the ladyto the airport in time to catch her flight.

She then drove the limo back and parked it into itsspecial parking bay, put the keys back on the hook and

went back to work.When she saw her boss later that day, she told him

what had happened and how she had handled it. Apartfrom checking the limo for scratches, what do you thinkhe did?

What would most people do?

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This hotel manager congratulated her and put $100in her pay. He gave her two tickets to the theatre and toldher the hotel limo would pick her up.

Can you imagine what that did for that young girl’sself esteem?

Can you image what that did to her attitude - notonly to her boss, but to the hotel as a whole?

Do you think after this that she would go out of her way to help guests at that hotel?

What would the other employees think? How do youthink it affected their attitude to working for that particular hotel? What do you think the ripple effect of themanager’s response would be?

The manager did say that while it was not the idealsolution, at least she had made a decision. Jane madewhat was in her opinion a decision for the good of the

hotel and its reputation. If people do not make decisions,do not take action, how can they look for opportunitiesfor growth?

And what of the young girl? What of Jane? Whatgave her the strength to act so bravely? It was becauseof her empowerment through values - values her manager had stressed as being critical to the hotel’s

success. Values when taught properly; and owned byyour staff, are the most powerful ways to direct andmanage behaviour.

To the hotel manager this culture of doing whatever it takes to keep the hotel’s customers delighted and havecustomers raving about their service, was one that hewanted. He credited her ability to make decisions in the

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best interests of the hotel to the fact that Jane hadbought into the hotel’s value system.

Furthermore this manager had given a card to her on her first day at work, one he gave every member of staff. Every member of his staff carries this samebusiness card upon which is printed we are all ladies and gentlemen, serving ladies and gentlemen. This manager explained that he, his staff and every customer wereequal. Today the guests are your customers he wouldsay, and tomorrow if you visit their business you would

be theirs. Treat them and do for them what you wouldappreciate and want done for you.

Welcome to the value of values.

Values are your internal power house.

Values have power to grow and protect your business.

Why?

Because values tap into the emotional power withinothers in your business and values have the power to tapinto the emotional power of others outside your business.

All successes, like all great structures are built onsolid foundations. The very best business men andwomen know this fact and instil values in the core of their business, your SOS. Your Specific Operating Statement

is this core.

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We have discussed the value of understanding your customer and your unique offer. Now we will discover thevalues that top business people believe in. Specialvalues; shared by everyone in a business, is another of the 1% factors that make all the difference. They are thethird part of the three part SOS the Strategic OperatingStatement.

Values cause people to become emotional aboutwhat they are doing; it creates an avenue for them tobecome part of the solution in growing your business.When they talk about the business they start to feel‘that’s me’, ‘this is mine’, and when that happens theyautomatically contribute. The secret to values isprecision!

You memorise them; you get them down and makesure everyone has the same meaning for your valuesfirmly cemented in their minds.

Values, when combined with step one: your customer and step two: your unique offer, forms thebedrock that top business people use to get outstandingresults.

Having a strong set of values gives a foundation to

your business, a foundation on which to build a greatbusiness. I just can’t stress this point enough, it is soimportant.

Values contribute in two ways. Firstly, they makesure everyone is playing on the same team. Secondly,values, when understood by everyone in the business,provide you with the ultimate control mechanism.

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Let me elaborate. Most control mechanisms work onfear – ‘don’t do this’, ‘don’t do that or else’. What theyshould be focusing on are ways to improve the business,

looking for opportunities to exploit emerging trends,encouraging their people to contribute. In this way it’s notjust you trying to make the business go places. You haveyour whole team pushing it along. It is like the old saying,many hands make light work .

If you run your business by fear of punishment,people learn very quickly that to step out of line, results

in something unpleasant. They play it safe, and for abusiness, playing it safe means your competitors will eatyou for breakfast.

In business, playing it safe is very dangerous. Youstop looking for opportunities and lose your advantage inthe market. Your team members don’t stretchthemselves; they just do what is needed to be done to

get by. Your business stops growing, and a business thatis not growing is dying. It is as simple as that.

It is these businesses that play it safe, and inoculatetheir staff to play it safe, who can’t understand why theyare not achieving what they want. So they spend afortune on outside consultants to tell them what theyshould be doing. Running a business is a science and an

art and part of that art is getting your people tocontribute. Getting your team to willingly contribute, nowthat is an art.

It is the art of implementing great values.

When people buy into and believe in your set of values, their behaviour becomes predictable. It becomespredicable in the fact that their actions are done in the

best interests of the business. They are all not only able

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to make great decisions, but they want to make greatdecisions, and they do make great decisions that arebeneficial to the business.

When your team starts playing the game of businessyour business becomes dynamic, vibrant, andsuccessful.

To help your people; as well as yourself, to makegreat decisions, you use your SOS as a simple formulafor them to follow - for them to use as a way of measuring their actions. For each decision they onlyneed to ask “How will this decision help our customer?Will it promote our unique offer to our customer? Anddoes it meet our values?”

Your challenge - and believe me when I say it will bea challenge - will be to assess all the ideas and gentlyuse the ones you can, and to be very gentle in puttingaside the ones you can’t.

When people are trying their best and contributingwhat they believe to be valuable ideas and then youdon’t use them, they can begin to feel devalued. So tact,diplomacy and skill are required to ensure they don’t feelthis way. Otherwise all your hard work of encouragingthem will be undone.

When it is done right however, I have seenbusinesses transform by using this formula. It is thatpowerful. This is what is meant by the saying ‘work on your business, not in it’.

To help explain this in more detail, let’s look at mybusiness values. The core values for QuicklockPartitions. The core values I have had for all my

businesses. They are:

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1.We are all ladies and gentlemen serving ladiesand gentlemen

2.Treat suppliers like customers

3.Create an environment for creativity

I only have three values. No use writing War and Peace, no use writing long lists that make you feel good.You need something concise, easy for others to

remember and relate to, and something that drives your business. Remember this is not about making you looksmart by how many fancy ideas you can come up with.This is about results and driving your business forward.

Now let’s look at my values in more detail. They allseem very nice, but let’s examine them together. By theway, your values may be different from mine and that’s

fine. By examining mine and understanding my logicbehind them, it should help you understand how your business can use values to control everyone’s behaviour and keep your business growing and being successful.

My first value is the one I learnt from the HotelManager. This value made staff equal to all other members of staff including management, and made all of

the hotel’s staff equal to the hotel’s customers. Itremoved the subservient feelings and replaced them withempowering and positive ones.

When people feel equal to everyone else, and thesame as everyone else, they tend more naturally to treatothers as they like to be treated. They have a naturaltendency to want to help, to try and solve a problem, to

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try and do the right thing. This all contributes toproductivity, customer service and morale.

We are all ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.

I call it giving my staff ‘the keys to the limo’!

My second value is to treat suppliers like customers.

Why?

It creates loyalty and forms strength for the business

that can be called upon in times of need. Whensomething is urgent or when a favour is needed peoplewho feel they have been respected by others are keener to help.

Some suppliers, like some customers, are not theones you want. With customers you don’t want, you don’tserve them, and it is the same with suppliers. If you can’t

work with them, don’t use them.In the building business, suppliers range from

delivery drivers, to contractors and material suppliers. Myattitude is to treat them almost like business partners andI encourage my staff to treat them the same way. Your business reputation as someone who is good to workwith, to work for, and to do business with, gets

enhanced. The benefits may not be upfront and easy tomeasure like sales. However everything you do inbusiness affects your business. By having positiverelationships with suppliers, it does have a positive effecton your business, and whilst these effects may feelintangible they are there. Sometimes however theseeffects or benefits are very measurable.

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I remember a time early on in the creation of Quicklock, having no work, no job to do and no quotes.Things were looking grim. We were a new, unknown

company with a new unknown product and like manybusinesses before us, we were struggling.

I remember the Wednesday morning, sitting in mysmall cold office, clutching a hot cup of coffee wonderingif this time all my principles on business success wereeventually going to fail me. I was feeling it. I was feelingthat sinking feeling. I don’t know if it was a cold day, but it

was cold in my fifty square meter factory.I watched the mice scurry around seeking food as I

talked on the phone to our electrical contractor, who toldme of the time he struggled in his business. Here I wasdying and he tells me how he had been through thesame. I remember shaking my head as I hung up thephone. Maybe I just wanted sympathy and was

disappointed I didn’t get it. Next I called our painter,whose cheerfulness depressed me even more. Iexplained how we had no work for them as we had noneourselves.

I told our timber supply rep the same. I made a freshcoffee and decided it was time to think, and think fast, or this business would be gone by the end of the month. It

was grim and I am sure a few of you have experiencedthe same or known others who have. It’s not nice, yet Ikept telling myself I was the Business Strategist, I haddone everything I knew that was needed to guaranteesuccess, it was just a matter of time.

I have a saying in business: ‘it is not a matter of timing but rather a matter of time in’. In other words in

business it is a matter of giving your strategies time to

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start taking effect to deliver the results you know theyshould. Many people, when their strategies don’t giveinstant results, give them up, change path or simply quit,

when in reality all they had to do was wait a little bitlonger.

I knew this law of ‘time in’ and was confident that Iwas not far off starting to see the effects of my work, soinstead of quitting when things didn’t happen quicklyenough, I waited.

At 10 o’clock on that Wednesday morning - Iremember it well - the phone rang with an enquiry. A newclient in an urgent hurry for an office! I was excited!Suddenly I was full of life. I booked to see him within thehour. Within five minutes the phone rang again, another enquiry, and again another enquiry, six enquiries, sixquotes and by the end of Thursday six sales.

Incredible!

What was more incredible than just getting all thesesales was that every one of them came as a result of our suppliers ringing around to their contacts and getting usthat work.

In a world where you are always trying to cultivatenew business, never underestimate the power of your

suppliers. It’s not what you know but who you know, andmore importantly how you treat who you know!

Spokespeople for your business are very valuable.The more people who are singing your praises, thebetter it is for your business. Our growth continuesbecause as well as our marketing campaign we have allour suppliers recommending us.

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I have heard the sales gurus say “look to your existing customer base for sales when things are tough.”That is a great thing to remember but don’t forget your

silent sales force.

An amazing 20% of our new business comes fromrecommendations from our suppliers, a fact we are veryproud of. Treat your suppliers like customers and theywill get you customers. That’s my value and one that haspaid dividends time and time again.

The last of my values is create an environment for creativity.

It is a critical value for a business that wants to bearound for a long time, for nothing lasts forever. If abusiness does not look for ways to improve, ways togrow, ways to better serve customers, then its time willbe short lived.

I would like to share with you a story of one of thefirst sales jobs I had.

I was in my teens and one of my first sales jobs wasworking for an office supply company. They suppliedoffice machines all over the state in Western Australia.

It was a large organisation and on my first day I wasjoined by three other sales people in the boardroom of

this company. I don’t know if it was to impress us or terrify us that they chose a group meeting in theboardroom, with the Managing Director. For me it was alittle of both.

The Managing Director had the new recruits lined upto listen to his address. He was a big man, heavy setwith a heavy face. He reminded me of a retired boxer. As

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he sat forward, he leaned his elbows on the boardroomtable causing it to creak under his weight.

He stared at each of us in turn.

“Here,” he said “we work hard. There is no place for slackers, there is no excuse for poor sales here. We arethe market leaders. You are lucky to be working for thebest, so there is no excuse not to sell and I mean selllots.”

He paused as if giving us time to challenge him or

ask a silly question. His posture gave no doubt he wasready to pounce. No one asked or said anything.

Then he delivered his famous words, the ones I willnever forget. He said, “Boys, as long there are receptiondesks and secretaries’ desks, there will always betypewriters sitting on them, and I want you to make surethey are our typewriters.”

I reflect on his words to this day, as long as thereare reception desks and secretaries’ desks there will always be typewriters sitting on them!

I have nicknamed it the ‘typewriter syndrome’.

Looking back I smile, and have taken that lessonwith me throughout my business life.

If there is any value I value most and would encourageyou to adopt, it is this one: create an environment for creativity .

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It doesn’t matter how good your accountant is, or how good your marketing is, if your customer no longer wants your product or service. Then you’re out of

business.

It doesn’t even have to be extreme for you to suffer.I remember consulting with a company in Queenslandwho were struggling. They were having major issues:sales were down, the client base was shrinking and thestaff were getting restless. They knew a sinking shipwhen they saw one and they were making plans to jump.

When I went through what was happening with themI found out that people were still buying what they sold.They were just buying it from other people. Their customers were switching to other suppliers. It turned outthat their competitors could supply a similar product at acheaper price and they were no longer willing to pay thepremium for the service this company offered.

They had failed to see the changing market andwhen they did eventually see it, through the bottom line,it was too late. It took a lot of work to save what we couldand the owner was left with the unenviable task of rebuilding.

I just want to touch on this point a bit more to explainwhy this happens, because we all know it does and

some of us have experienced it firsthand.

Products have what I call a life cycle. When a newproduct is brought to market, it is exciting, dynamic,cutting edge. Customers don’t really understand it. Thereare usually very few people offering the product. Theproduct is sold as is, and it is not customised to meetindividuals’ needs.

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To give an example of this, I was recently talking toa businessman who was in the field of web siteoptimisation. Basically his company specialised in getting

the customer the best rankings on the search enginesites. Now when he first started his company, he onlyhad one competitor in the whole market, so for him it feltas if he had no competition.

In the early days of his business he would sell aclient on the concept and benefits of having a higher ranking on the major search engines. Then he would

apply his standard formula and techniques onto hiscustomers’ web site, show them the results and moveon.

Now there are many people in his market promotingweb site optimisation and to compete he has had tochange his approach. He needs to be more flexible, andspend more time consulting with the client and

demonstrating why his service out- performs the others.He now has brochures, demonstration CD’s, past clienttestimonials. As a result of this change he now has twoother people working with him to help design thesesolutions. There is follow-up and upgrading to be done,so his clients stay ahead of the opposition.

He not only adapted to the new market conditions,

he anticipated them and because one of his core valuesis to look for ways to do it better, even when things aregoing well, he has stayed ahead of the game.

Now in the life cycle of his product it will change intoa readily available software program. Everyone will beable to buy it, or download it from the web, press Run,enter a few details and hey presto - do-it-yourself web

site optimisation. Now the businessman I was talking to

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already recognises this and is already changing hisbusiness model to meet this new challenge.

The world is a rapidly changing place. Nothing lastsforever - even Bill Gates said that. So how will youensure your longevity?

My solution is to create an environment for creativity.It is having the attitude that not all the ideas my peoplebring to me will be brilliant, great or even usable, but byencouraging them to experiment I know the successeswill more than pay for the failures. I reward every idea,good bad or otherwise. That’s how I encourage creativitywithin my team.

So get rid of the suggestion box. If someone has anidea they should be able to bring it straight to you andyou should listen. You should write it down and give itdue consideration.

You can’t force people to be creative - you can onlyencourage it.

As I said, and I’ll repeat it because I feel it is soimportant in relation to this value - when a person bringsme an idea, and has a theory for it, I reward themregardless of whether we use it or not!

Through failure comes success.

Embrace the failures.

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Not because they are failures but because with each oneyou know you are getting closer to a breakthrough.Create an environment to encourage creativity! In this

way you will avoid the ‘typewriter syndrome.’

Your challenge is to find what your values are, what kindof business you would like to own or manage, what you

want your staff to believe in and value, and how your shared values can improve your business.

When forming your values, involve your people.

Involve and you will evolve, into a great business.

A quick note here before I end this chapter and letyou start working on your values for your business. If someone comes to work for us that doesn’t share our values and won’t buy into them, then we must partcompany. No exceptions. The team and the business

cannot and must not be weakened.

That is the value I put on values.

Your assignment, is to write down what your valuesare, and most importantly, why?

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Why do you believe in them? Then lock them in withyour customer and unique offer. This will then give youyour SOS, your Specific Operating Statement.

To be effective you don’t need to hang your SOS ona wall. You need to talk about it constantly with your staff.Use your words in correspondence with customers andsuppliers, and when discussing decisions with staff.Show your people how your decisions align with your SOS and ultimately your customer!

One final thing before I go, and you set to work onyour assignment. Remember my tip - I find that theoptimum number of values is three. Keep it simple andlet the results roll in.

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Selling It with Style

My wife and I were at one of those local shows withour friends John and Karen. You know, all the fairgroundrides, toffee apples and all that stuff. There was a bigpavilion where new products were displayed and sold.New TV aerials, vibrating massage chairs, magic saws

that cut through anything and of course the vegetableslicing machine. It was at this stand, halted by my wifeand Karen, that John and I stood to watch theentertainment.

The salesperson leapt onto the stage, bursting withlife. Tall and slim, dressed in a chef’s outfit, flamboyant,extroverted and excited. He sliced and diced his way

through carrots, potatoes and onions, without crying.

He grabbed a lady from the audience and stood byher, while she used this magic shredder, guaranteed tosave you hundreds, if not thousands of hours in thekitchen.

He lit the place up and when he was done he made

his limited time offer for those first 25 customers, buy one, get one free!

He was the ultimate showman, the super salesman,the rainmaker.

People pushed and shoved thrusting the dollar notes at his assistant, while he beamed andcongratulated those customers on a great buy.

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Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve been to lots of these things and bought my fair share, knowing thatwhen I get it home, whatever it might be, it just won’t

work the way the magician made it work at the show. AndI am sure those that were buying the magic vegetableslicer had probably gone through this experience before.They had other great products stuck in the back of thekitchen drawer or cupboard, not being used. Yet even inspite of past experience, and knowing the magicvegetable slicer probably wouldn’t work as it was

demonstrated, they still bought, my wife included.John stood next to me smiling, saying, “if only we

could clone him I would have ten of him working for me”.

I looked back at the man on stage. He wasenergetic, optimistic, highly self confident and sold hisproduct in an enthusiastic theatrical style. The product hewas offering was certainly unique and novel and his

performance of its capabilities increased that perceiveduniqueness.

His final classic touch was the sense of urgency toclose. Only the first 25 people will get the two-for-oneoffer.

Women discussed going halves in the cost. Theygiggled as they convinced each other that they were

indeed getting a bargain, and that this was an absolutelyfantastic machine. All the while he encouraged them,saying things like “you spend so much time in the kitchenyou deserve this”. “It’s not much to ask to have one”. “Mywife has one; I bought her one as soon as I saw it”.

His style worked for his product, but would it workfor yours?

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I turned to my friend and asked him the same thing.Would you really want all your sales people to be likethat? What would your customers think? Do you think

your customers would buy from him or kick him out thedoor?

Laughing he nodded his head. “You’re right, mycustomers would either be in shock or furious. Either waythey would not buy from him.”

The businesses I consult with, dream of having alltheir sales team exactly like our friend at the show. Thereal question is this - would your customers want him?

In business our customers have expectations and wantsas to how we sell to them.

These are what I call the Optimum Selling Styles.

It separates great salespeople from people who believe itis just a numbers game.

Oh yes, we did end up with a magic vegetable machine.

My wife just couldn’t resist!

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Over the next four chapters I am going to discusswith you the four selling styles and help you pick whichone suits you best.

To have your sales team working at their optimumyou should only use one or possibly two of the sellingstyles.

Using all four will just confuse your customers andresult in average sales performance. It is what separatesgreat sales people from those trying to please everyoneand getting nowhere.

To get the Optimum Selling Style for your business,as I have said, we need to find out what our customerswant and expect.

So how do we address our customers’ expectationsand wants?

We need to look at two areas - relationship, and

experience.

Let’s take relationship first, and dispel a couple of myths.

Firstly the myth that says, ‘to be great in businessyou need great customer relations’. Well, that woulddepend upon your product and/or service.

Let’s look at Mr Super Salesman selling the magicvegetable slicer.

Did he have great customer relations? Is he going toring you in a week’s time and see how it is going? Is heinterested in your family, what you do for a living, howlong you have lived where you live?

I don’t think so.

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The next time you see him will be at the next showand probably with a new product. So your relationshipwith your customer will depend on your product or

service.

The second myth is that you need great productknowledge to be perceived as the industry expert.Product knowledge is really in direct relation to your customer’s experience in using your product.

Let’s look at my construction business. I buy a lot of wood and have a preferred supplier for that.

The company has a representative, Max, who callsin regularly to see me. Now Max is a great guy, friendly,happy, ever helpful. What are my expectations of Max?Do I expect him to know every product in their range? DoI expect Max to know all the prices, sizes and colours?

In short no! What I need, expect and want from Max

is someone who knows how to get that information for me. Someone who, when I have a question, is capable of finding out the answer. The fact that Max calls in regularlymakes him familiar to me, like a friend, someone I feelcomfortable with and someone I feel confident in to findme those answers. Product knowledge is relevant inrelation to my experience in dealing with the product.

So as we look at the four selling styles we are goingto do so by measuring your clients’ expectations in regardto the relationship level they want and expect to havewith you and their experience level in regard to dealingwith your product or service.

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He had me. I have to admit I was curious, butplaying it cautiously, I said “sounds expensive”.

“Michael,” he said, his brow furrowed and lips pulledtight. “I know your business, and my friend, one sale andthis whole complete package of electronic goodies is paidfor. And this absolutely remarkable piece of wizardry willmake so many sales I couldn’t even begin to count them.But less talk - let’s discover the genius in the case.”

John popped the latches and I found myself leaningforward and focusing as he slowly lifted the lid.

Inside was what looked like a built in laptop. Thekeyboard was built into the base of the case whilst thewhole top of the case - the part he had just lifted - wasthe screen.

John hit a key and the screen blinked to life. TheQuicklock Partitions logo flashed onto the screen, and

music started.“Just tap that key there for me, will you?”

I did and the screen went from logo to our TVcommercial, then it went into a slide show of a series of photos I recognised from our web site with the captionsunderneath.

John was grinning. “A picture paints a thousandwords,” he said. “Take this to your clients. Let themwatch the magic happen.” He paused then added, “Asyou can see, I have loaded what I could get, and it onlytook me a few minutes. Of course you could load other videos, photos of jobs, floor plans, messages fromsatisfied clients, just as easily. Imagine a series of quick 5to 10 second messages video-recorded onto your phone

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from clients, and uploaded so they show at the end of thecommercial, WOW, what an impact! And there’s more.

“This is not only the most powerful multimediapackage you can get, it is also a top-of-the-line super computer with all the bells and whistles you wouldexpect. Spreadsheets for instant quoting, wordprocessing that can have your standard terms andconditions pre-loaded, and quote presentation forms pre-loaded. It’s got a built-in fax, phone and printer.

“Imagine showing your client your presentation,calculating the quote there and then, printing out your quote and terms and conditions, and having the clientwowed at your professionalism. I’m telling you Michael,when I saw this I asked myself do I need one? Do I want one? Do my compet i tors have this sort of professionalism? Will it make me stand out from thecrowd?

“I think you know the answer I came up with. Watchthis”, he said as he made a few taps of the keyboard. Ashe did, up came a purchase agreement. “Just press thatkey there for me, will you?” As soon as I did there was awhirr inside the machine and out came a printedpurchase agreement for the machine.

I was spellbound.

“Michael, the choice is yours. They are only $3,900each. Can you use it? Would having it help make thesale? Would making one sale using this, pay for itself?And do you think it would give you an unique advantageover your competitors? I think it’s a slam dunk but it’s upto you.”

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I looked again at the machine that had gone back tomy TV commercial and photo slide combination, and wassold. Within 20 minutes I had bought two of these

marvels. I was excited, happy and couldn’t wait to playwith my new toys. In 20 minutes I had become the proudowner of two Ultimate Sales Briefcases as he calledthem.

How had he done it?

Let’s have a closer look.

John first of all understood that in order for me tobuy his product he did not need to build an in-depthrelationship. He did not have to go into asking about thefamily or know them by name, or worry about where Iwas off to for my holidays, or even worry about meexpecting regular visits from him. To be honest I probablywon’t see John again until he has another excitingproduct to show me. Oh yes, and sell to me.

John understands that in his world where he sellshighly innovative, state of the art products, just knowingwho he is, is enough to get him in the door. His teledex isfull of key decision makers, business owners and highlevel management people capable of making purchasingdecisions. (Sounds as if I just described John’s customer profile).

Secondly he knows that because his products arestate of the art, new and unique, the sale has to be doneone-on-one. It must be a live presentation, one in whichhis customer can participate. He needs him or her to see,feel and experience the product. He needs to get rid of the complexities and concerns about learning how to useit and show how simple it is to use. He basically knows

that when he demonstrates his products, by their very

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nature, his customer will have very little experience withthem and that is where the main concern will be.

To get around this, John gets his customer using theproduct, in a very simple way. He makes it interesting,intriguing, exciting. John makes his presentationtheatrical.

To minimise objections he demonstrates how hisproduct will benefit his customer and gives examples heknows will appeal to them. His theatrical style makes hispresentation, smooth, polished and fairly quick.

Remember our friend selling the Magic VegetableMachine? He demonstrated, explaining the benefits as hewent, making it theatrical so as to excite the customer and make everyone want one. He gave them permissionto buy one by showing and telling them how it wouldbenefit them and using a limited time offer, asked for theorder.

John did exactly the same thing. His limited offer was right up front. Remember he wasn’t meant to haveany yet, he only had a few for a few of his friends.

Very clever, very powerful and very persuasive, andlike the Magic Vegetable machine man, once he had soldme his machine there was very little chance of a repeat

order, so he moved on to his next client. John would notpop back in a week or so to see how it was all going or tosell accessories. He would leave the backup, support andadd on sales to others in the company. Fine detail is nothis strong point. No, John sells, moves on and onlycomes back when he has something new.

That is a Theatrical Style Sales man.

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Are you an innovative, progressive company with newexciting products?

Are your products state of the art, savvy, unique? Is therevery little customisation when you sell them to your customers?

When presenting to your customers, would they usuallybuy off you in the first one or two presentations?

When dealing with your customer would you say there isvery little personal conversation, that instead you mainly

focus on the sale?

If you answered yes, then you need the theatricalstyle to maximise sales and you need a salespersonwhose natural style is to sell this way, on your team.

Theatrical style sales people rely on demonstratingthat they are state of the art and are innovative.

This sales person will aim to make the presentationto high level decision makers, those with the authority tosign the order.

The presentation will usually be one-on-one where itcan show off the product’s abilities and involve thepotential buyer, so he or she gets to feel, see andimagine using it. It is during this process that thesalesperson demonstrates the cost benefit of the productto these high-level decision makers, overcoming their main objection along the way.

As John did with me, these salespeople will ask for the order and always try to put a limited opportunity factor into the offer. Also they rarely follow up to see how the

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customer is doing with their latest acquisition; they leavethat to others in the organisation.

A classic close for these sales people is “If youaren’t happy, simply return it.”

These are some basic rules for you to follow if this isyour optimum style.

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Consultant Style

My first meeting with Steven was on a Mondaymorning in June. He had contacted our office enquiringabout our office fit-out services. His company, an

advertising agency, was experiencing fantastic growthand as a result they were moving to new premises.

The building he had selected was located inOsborne Park in Western Australia and had just been re-modelled. The whole outside of the building had beengiven a new look, and the interior completely stripped outand subdivided into separate tenancies.

It gave the new in-coming tenants a blank canvas towork with, and whilst this created opportunities it alsocreated challenges as too how best use the space theywere now leasing. Many felt that after they moved in, andtook over their new offices they would, in spite of carefulplanning, inevitably find things they needed to change.Steven fell right into this category.

Our first meeting was a preliminary one, where wediscussed his company’s needs and concerns aboutflexibility. We considered how many staff he had, howmany enclosed offices he felt would be required for management, and how best to divide the open spaces for the teams.

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I also gathered information on which departmentsinteracted with which departments, and got a generaloverview of his expectations, wants and needs.

At this first meeting it was also an opportunity toshow Quicklock Partitions’ expertise in the office fit-outarea, and demonstrate our product’s flexibility to changeas his requirements changed.

I also explained how we worked with clients fromconception to execution. In short I showed him how,through our team approach and flexible product, we coulddeliver the design he wanted and complete each stage of the project on time and on budget. The initial meetinglasted approximately one hour.

The second meeting was held at our offices andSteven brought two of his key management team withhim. The meeting allowed us to present a summary of what we had discussed with a detailed proposal coveringspace planning design, offices, workstations, electrics,phones, data, ceilings, air-conditioning, floor coverings,and council approvals - in short it covered everythingneeded for his project.

At that meeting I had my designer, electrician andcolour consultant. It was a team approach, a projectorientated approach, a consultative approach.

Our presentation was one that allowed Steven andhis management team opportunities to give feedback andgive their ideas on lay-out, colours and design features.

At the conclusion of this two hour second meetingagreements were signed, timelines put in place andfurther meetings scheduled to ensure the project

progressed as our new client expected.

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Several meetings followed with different departmentheads, and discussions regarding their needs and wantswere conducted.

This enabled our designers to formulate a designand space plan to accommodate everyone, payingattention to their special needs and requirements. For example which departments needed to be near other departments, where to place meeting rooms andboardrooms, and the size each had to be. With all thisinformation a comprehensive plan was put forward to

Steven and his key managers for final approval.Because of the extensive consultation we were able

to present a plan that not only looked good, it was alogical lay-out that met all their requirements.

This attention to detail, attention to their personalneeds, instilled the confidence in Steven and his keymanagers to give us and this several-hundred-thousand-dollar project the green light. They were sold and after two weeks of consultations the project was a Go!.

Through-out the project I was in constant contactwith Steven, meeting key people in the organisation,smoothing over issues, making adjustments wherenecessary, and in short ensuring the lines of communication were kept open so everyone knew what

was happening.

The project took six weeks from getting the greenlight to its completion.

In July, at the conclusion of the project with a veryhappy client, the keys were handed over. Steven and histeam moved into their new office and we moved on to our

next client.

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One of the first traits you will notice with theconsultant-style selling is the project orientation of thesale and the team approach to ensure all bases are

covered. This team approach brings in technical expertisein areas that the client does not have. These includethings like space planning; colour selection; electricalrequirements, and council approvals.

The second major difference with this sort of sellingis the difference in time it takes the customer to buy, to gofrom prospect to client.

It is also interesting to note that at the completion of the project we moved on to our new client and wouldprobably not speak to this client again on a regular basisunless there was a need for further work.

Do you custom design your products for your clients?

Do your clients rely on your expertise rather than their own?

Do you deliver a team approach to solve your client’schallenges and deliver the results required?

Do your clients put more value on your expertise than on

getting the lowest price?

Do you move on at the completion of your project to your next client?

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If you answer yes then you need a consultant- stylesalesperson on your team - one who is project- orientedand enjoys working in a team environment.

As you can see the Theatrical salesperson and theConsultative one are different animals and whilst bothcan sell they are each more suited to a particular salesenvironment. One is a lone operator and one is muchmore a team-oriented player.

As such each requires a different selling style.

Employing the wrong one for the wrong product willresult in fewer sales, an unhappy salesperson and morethan likely a short term salesperson. They just don’t staywhere they don’t fit.

Understanding the styles and how they fit into your business will save you time and money, and get you moresales.

Consultant-Style Salespeople rely on demonstratinga team approach to solving a client’s problem.

They certainly project an image of being theprofessionals in their industries, by providing clients witheducational information and examples of previousprojects they have completed.

For a Consultant-Style Salesperson the potentialclient is already ready to buy, they have a need for theproduct or service. They are just looking for the bestprovider.

We tackled both the meeting with Steven and thepresentation with an appropriate team approach. I madesure that everyone who I knew would be needed to

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answer the questions that would arise, attended thatmeeting.

Consulting-Style closes usually happen over severalmeetings and can happen in stages as we saw withSteven.

Even after the agreements are signed there is anon-going consulting progress throughout the project. It isthe nature of this style.

Consultants tend to enjoy working in teams and

enjoy project work.At the conclusion of the project Consultative-Style

Salespeople move on to the next big gig. . Maintenanceand on-going relationships are handled by others.

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Representative Style

Max is the ultimate relationship salesman. Max ismy representative from the timber company where myconstruction business buys all of its wood.

I first met Max when I was starting QuicklockPartitions. He was driving by on his way to visit one of hisclients and noticed the sign I had hung on the outsidefence. Curious as to what this new business did hedecided to stop and introduce himself.

He explained that he represented a local timber company. He had seen the sign and was curious. He

asked what I did. As I explained, Max became even moreinterested. He even reminisced about when he hadowned his own cabinet making business.

Max stayed for a good thirty minutes or so and hishumour and warm nature had me feeling as if I wastalking to an old friend, one who was genuinely interestedin what I was trying to achieve.

Max demonstrated another quality that day. Hedemonstrated a genuine desire to help.

A problem with start-up businesses is the lack of track record, when it comes to getting supplies on credit.You simply have no references for companies to checkon, and for them to have some confidence in you toextend credit to you. In short without references most

companies will not let you start up an account with them.

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Max was eager to help to solve this problem. “Let’s fill inthe paperwork. I’ll take it back and have a chat with them.I’ll get it through,” he said. “You don’t worry about it.”

Two days later, as good as his word, Max was backbeaming. “I told you I would get it through. You, my friend,now have a line of credit with us”.

I was impressed. I needed credit with a company soI could grow the business and Max had solved theproblem.

As the business grew and a greater line of creditwas required, Max was there to smooth the way. Hisvisits were regular, with a happy smile, an enquiry as tohow things were going, an encouraging word.

With Max it went beyond business. We talked of holidays, places we had been, our families, hobbies,favourite restaurants, and at Christmas Max came to our

company Christmas function.He had become as much a fr iend as a

representative for the company I bought wood from.

When it comes to things I need, I just have to askMax and he will take care of it. He might not have all theanswers at his finger tips, but he knows how to find themout and that is what I need. My friendship with Max is so

strong that I don’t even consider talking to other woodsuppliers even though there are several that do basicallythe same as Max’s company.

Max sells by building very strong relationships withhis clients. He believes his clients know as much and insome cases more than what he does about what theywant or need. He also believes it can take several visits

before a new customer will give him a go and place their

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first order with him, but when they do, Max has acustomer for life.

Max is the face of his company and he isdetermined to show that they care, and are there for thelong haul.

To Max, personal service is everything. For Max,personal service is his hallmark.

Do you sell regularly to the same clients?

Do your clients know how to assess their needs andbelieve they know how to buy what they want with verylittle outside advice?

Is your product or service very well established, withseveral competitors selling similar products to yours?

Does it take several contacts before a new contact

becomes a customer?

Do you talk about personal things as well as businessmatters when you meet your customers? Are they morelike friends?

Do they value your service more than price?

If you answered yes, then you need a representative

style salesperson.You need someone who likes people. You need

someone who believes people buy what they need. Allyou have to do is be there, build a strong relationship withthem, demonstrate you care and that you are there tohelp, and they will buy from you and return the loyalty.

Personal service and a belief that a company should

be flexible to ensure the customer gets what he or she

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wants. For your company it is very much about trust andfriendship.

For your success it is about relationships and youneed a Relationship Style of Selling.

Re l a t i ons h ip -S t y le Sa l esp eop le re l y ondemonstrating a commitment to their clients. They are bytheir very nature focused on personal service and not oncompany policies. Winning new clients for them is simplya matter of treating prospects as if they are alreadyclients.

Their strength is in their ability to build personalrelationships with their clients.

Unlike the previous two styles, a Relationship-StyleSalesperson does not like losing contact with clients, theybelieve that if they win a client then that client is theirsand no-one else’s. They win and keep clients by regular

contact, and not just contacts to get sales. They visit their clients to build their friendship as well as their sales.

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Order Taker Style

A good Order-Taker can almost blow you away withhis or her ability to crank through high volumes of sales.

Good Order-Taker Salespeople are hard to find. Notmany people have the stamina to spend hours promotingspecials, introducing new products, and checking on thestock levels, of their clients.

Unlike Relationship-Style Salespeople, they usuallywork the phone. They use this to contact high volumes of clients in the shortest possible time.

A few years ago I was consulting to an electricaldistribution company. They sold electrical supplies toelectricians, cabling, lights, light switches, power points,and electrical tools - basically everything an electricianneeds. They were looking at ways to improve their service to their clients and that was why I was there.

On my second day, the Territory Sales Manager

introduced me to one of his salespeople, a guy calledBarry. Barry was their top salesman, yet unlike thecompany’s other salesmen, Barry never left the office. Henever ventured out to meet his clients, and this wascausing his manager some concerns.

The manager was worried that if their competitorsvisited his clients, Barry didn’t have a good enough

relationship with them to stop the competition from

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winning them over. As the manager pointed out to me,Barry had lots of clients and losing them would hurt thecompany deeply. So I was asked to spend some time

with Barry and see if I could mend his ways.

“Hi Paul, how are you? How’s the weather there?Great, fine,” Barry was saying as the manager led me tohis door.

Barry looked up and waved us in as he continuedhis conversation. “The reason for the call is we have anoverstock on the Cat5 cable. You know how it is -someone in stock control hit too many zeros.” He gave asmall chuckle, rattled off some quantities and prices,made a few notes on a piece of paper and wound up theconversation with some pleasantries.

“Hi,” he said, standing to greet us.

“Barry, this is Michael, he’s going to be with us for a

while, looking at our systems, looking for areas we mightbe able to improve. I thought a day with you would bereally good for him to see.”

“No problems,” he said, sitting back down. Heindicated I should take up a chair opposite him and withthat, his manager excused himself, leaving us alone.

“So what do you want to do?” he asked.

“Just watch. That way I’ll get a feel for how you dothings and what works,” I replied.

“Ok, but I warn you, the next two hours I havebooked for phone calling. It will probably be prettyboring.”

I smiled. “If that’s what your plan is, then go for it. I’ll

make sure I don’t interrupt.”

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He gave a shrug and picked up his phone. As hewent to work calling his clients, using his formula of afriendly hello, a couple of courtesy questions, then

straight into the reason for his call, it reminded me of many a conversation I had had with Sarah, my wine salesrep.

“Hi Michael, it’s Sarah,” is how she usually greetsme. After a few preliminaries she shoots off a couple of specials, listens to my response, then makes a couple of offers like mixed dozen, free delivery, easy payment. “I’ll

enclose a fax sheet as well so you can place an order between now and my next call and I’ll throw in a couple of specials for the cab sav I know you like. Cheers, thanks,talk again in a couple of months.”

Five or ten minutes at most and I’ve bought a caseof wine and our conversation is over.

Now I was witnessing the conversation from theother side. Barry was selling to his clients the way Sarahsold to me, but instead of selling wine he was sellingwires, and he was selling lots of the stuff.

By the end of his two hour session, he had ordersfor over $40,000 worth of product. I was impressed.

“Time for lunch. Do you want to come with me?” he

said as he stood and stretched.“Sure,” and I followed him to a local lunch bar.

I used our time away from the office to find out whyhe didn’t visit his clients. For Barry it was simply that hisclients were electricians on building sites. Which site theywould be on varied just about every day, so finding themwould be a logistical nightmare.

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What kind of selling style best suits your customers?

The golden rule is, you can’t sell in all styles. Your customers will simply be confused.

To be an organisation that wins more sales you mustfocus on selling in your optimum style - one that suitsyour product and your customers. You will find that younaturally fall into one, or maybe two areas, but three or four simply weakens your focus, your sales team andyour results.

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Leadership that Sells

Albert Einstein said, and I quote, “imagination ismore important than knowledge.” We all know that thereis nothing like a great communicator to fire up our imaginations. Great communicators can be fun, dramatic,even inspiring, and to be a great leader our communication skill is what will enable us to teach,

motivate and inspire people to take the actions we want.When we communicate, it can’t just be all bells and

whistles and motivation, that might pump people up for afew hours a day. If we want our communication to have alasting effect in sales, management or running thecompany, it has to have more.

Our communication has to have a connection with

our customers, as they are our audience. We have toconnect our world, to communicate our take on things,and link to events that actually and emotionally happenedto the person listening.

When we do this they understand where we arecoming from and buy into what we are saying.

Every great leader knows that for their continued

success and to keep improving and climbing the ladder of success, there is a need to constantly encourage thosearound them to learn.

Leaders need to motivate and get others excited.They need to inspire so others are committed to takingaction.

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Leaders don’t become great leaders by themselves;they become great by making those around them great.

When I was in high school I had a history teacher called Mr Duncan Slater. Now Mr Slater was a Scotsmanwith fiery red hair and a huge beer belly. For a fourteenyear old kid he was terrifying.

One day he asked what each of us wanted to be whenwe grew up.

“Aye Miss Jane, what do you want to be?”

“A hairdresser, Sir.”

“Aye, that be a grand job. No reference to me ownhair I hope. I’m mighty proud of me head of hair!”

Kids giggled and more hands went up and kidscalled out everything from policemen to ambulancedrivers. Then Mr Slater looked at me. “Well, Michael lad,

what about you. What you going to be?”Now my Dad at the time owned a few pubs and I

had had drummed into me from an early age that the onlyway to make real money was to be a businessman. Eventhough at the time I had no real idea what businessmenwere, apart from having suits and briefcases, I said “abusinessman, Sir.”

“A businessman,” he boomed in his Scottish accent.“Well, laddie, you can see me after class.”

All through the class I sat there worrying. At the endof class, after all the other kids had filed out, I sat in myseat worried half to death.

Mr Slater pulled up a chair. “So, a businessman is it?” hesaid as he lent forward, elbows out, hands pushing downon his knees. “Umm, well, laddie, I admire your goal, and

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I am going to share a secret that will always enable youto be successful. Would you like that?”

“Ye-es” I stammered, partly out of surprise andpartly out of relief.

In our one-on-one he gave me a lesson on successthat I have never forgotten. It was a lesson straight out of the history books, a lesson that enabled people to wineven when the odds seemed impossible, and the way hedid it was with an analogy. The analogy he used was war - the world war and Hitler.

He explained it this way. “Hitler was smart. Let’s sayhe had an IQ of 400. Now Hitler was also a warmonger so he was looking for a fight. He picked a country closeby and started a war. That country’s leader has an IQ of,say, 200. Who wins?

Hitler!

Simple maths.

Now he picks another country and that leader’s IQ is300. Who wins? Hitler.

Now he picks on France whose leader has an IQ of say,150. Hitler wins, but the French are not about to quiteven in defeat and they get the guys across the channel,

Britain, to come and join in the fight. Now their leader also has an IQ of 150, so now together they have an IQof 300. Hitler still wins.

The French and the Brits don’t know the meaning of quitting so they continue to fight a losing battle. Hitler,filled with self fulfilled glory about his abilities, starts afight against Russia and the Russian leader has an IQ of

150. France, Britain and Russia pool their resources, pool

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their knowledge, pool their IQ and together they nowhave an IQ of 450. Hitler, being a dictator, pools hisknowledge with no one, and so still has an IQ of 400.

What happens?

He starts to lose. Forget weather, weapons, man-power - forget all that. Simple maths tells us he can’t win,with 400 IQ against 450 IQ. The tables start to turn. Andthen the Americans join in and bring to the table another IQ of 150.

By working together, the allies now have an IQ of 600 against Hitler and his IQ of 400, and as they say therest is history.

Great leaders know that to be truly great, tocontinually get their companies to win more and loseless, to continue to grow, they must tap the IQ, thepotential, of those around them.

When I started my building company, it was just me.I started with a 50 square meter factory and just my IQand I built the business to an average dollar sale of around $2,500.

Then I employed an assistant. Now let’s say I havean IQ of 400 (I wish) and as I said I was achieving anaverage dollar sale of $2,500. Now my assistant, let’s say

he had an IQ of 200. What do you think happened to mybusiness by me tapping into his full potential?

It grew. Our average dollar sale went from $2,500 toan amazing $13,000. It was amazing - it really was. Nowa quick note here…I hear many people say, “why can’tthe people who work for me, have my IQ?” “ W h ycan’t they use their initiative like me?”

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“Why can’t they think for themselves without askingme all the time?”

“Where are all those people?”

And the answer is, they are your competitors!

If all your people grew to be like you and achievedyour level, they would leave and go to work for themselves. So thank goodness they aren’t like you, or you wouldn’t have anyone to run the company. This issomething worth remembering when you get frustrated

with your staff.Now back to my company. The sales were

increasing so I employed another person. Let’s say shewas like the first person and had an IQ of 200.Remembering my history teacher’s lesson, I tapped intoher full potential. What do you think happened to mybusiness?

Well, to start with we needed bigger premises so wemoved to a space of 275 square meters. The averagedollar sale grew to $47,000. So I employed another who,lets say, had the same IQ as the first two - an IQ of 200.What happened?

We moved to a space of 1250 square meters andour average dollar sale grew to $93,000.

Then I franchised and started two franchisees. Atthis time we were approached by a building companywhich specialised in high end corporate fit-outs. Its clientwas looking for a screen system - you know thosescreens around desks that you see in the high risebuildings.

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The screens had to have all the usual features of high end screens: the ability to have glass panels, fabricpanels, veneers, white boards incorporated, multi-colours

etc. They also had to have the ability to have all thepower and data for computers and phones run in them.Now there were already screens on the market that didthis but their client was looking for a super slim edgeprofile. The screens themselves were 70mm thick and thealuminium edges around them formed a frame. Theslimmest available at the time was 20mm. Their client

had challenged them to find an even slimmer one.They had tried other companies and everyone had

said that it couldn’t be done. So they had come to us asthe last hope to achieve their dream.

It was a Monday morning and Steve, from thebuilding company concerned, was at our officesexplaining what he wanted.

“OK,” I said, “let us try a few things and I’ll call you ina couple of days.” I gathered the team, provided coffeeand sandwiches for seven people, threw out ideas,scribbled drawings, argued and debated, and on Fridaythe same week I rang him to tell him we had made acouple of models for him and his client to look at. Iarranged to meet him in his offices in South Perth. I was

fairly busy but he wanted to see them as soon aspossible so we fixed the time for 7pm that night.

I rode the lift to the 9th floor with my two modelstucked under my arm. I knocked on his door and walkedinto his office. At the far end of the room were threepeople drinking beer and admiring the view of the river and the city. I put my models on the table while Steve did

the introductions.

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Then I stepped back and displayed what we had made -what my team and I had done. The talking stopped andthe beers were put down and Steve and the three

managers from the company he was doing the fit-out for,stood silently for what to me, seemed like an eternity.Then the smiling started - the pats on the back, thecongratulations, the accolades.

What we had made for them was a screen systemthat did exactly what they wanted with all the featuresthey required and at the same time we had taken their

20mm profile edge, the 20mm frame and reduced it to6mm. They could hardly contain their excitement. Over acouple more beers the deal was done and I had an order for over $300,000. All made possible because I tappedinto the IQs of everyone in the business, and our combined IQ was what enabled us to figure out thesolution.

Great leaders don’t become great by themselves.

They become great by tapping into the greatness of those around them.

Great leaders teach, motivate and inspire people to takeaction.

What great leaders know is that people learn best,are motivated and inspired, when they have anexperience. The experience gives them a memory torefer to and a base from which they automatically act inthe future. It is for this reason that experience is the bestteacher.

Great leadership is all about giving your audience,

your people, your listener, an experience.

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Embedding A Virtual Experience

Great leaders use this knowledge so well that othersaround them say “Wow!" “Look at them go!” “They’regreat people,” “he’s great,” “I want to work for them.” Ohyes, that is exactly what happens. People really want towork for them, want to support them, want to help them

and it’s very real.If you want an example, look at Richard Branson.

Look at how many people want to work for him. They areinspired by him, believe in him and share his vision.

The guy is selling tickets on space flights before heeven has a space ship, a space ship to take you on theride of your life. It’s just a dream, his dream of what’s

possible, yet people have booked their seats. They havebought their tickets. Why? Why?

Is it because he has some magical charisma? Well,he does have charisma but just being a nice guy wouldn’thave got him to sell people space tickets. It wouldn’t havegot him to where he is today.

It takes a bit more than that.

Richard Branson had to ensure that when he sharedhis vision, his goals and his aspirations, that others wouldsee, feel and buy into them. This is the same for anyonewho really wants that success.

If you want to be the best salesperson, the bestmanager, the best business owner, if you want to be the

best leader, then you too need a strategy to transfer your

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Have you ever had one of those dreams where youwoke up sweating, tangled in the bed sheets? Or wokeup almost leaping off the bed because you felt you were

falling? Or were you at the movies and got all choked up,or couldn’t help laughing or jumping out of your skin withfright? While the events weren’t real they felt real and youfelt the emotion and the physical effects. These are allexamples of when you have felt the effects of anembedded virtual experience and you have a memory of them. You can still remember the emotions and the

sensations.

An embedded virtual experience has the power to teachus, motivate us and ignite our imagination, and to achieveanything we have to imagine it first because it is as if wehave experienced it.

As Albert Einstein said “imagination is more importantthan knowledge.”

Our imagination allows us to see a dream, see a

goal, see a future we would want to have for ourselves,and then inspire us to apply our knowledge to achieve it.

So what is the easiest way to use these threecomponents - to embed a virtual memory?

Well, ladies and gentlemen it is time to stop selling andstart telling a story.

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emotional way of delivering information. The draw-backwith emotional delivery is it can be a bit fanciful, a bitwishy-washy and dare I say, a bit lacking in substance.

As you can see both styles have their strengths andtheir weaknesses. The solution then to get the optimumdelivery style is to combine them, use both methods. Getthe best both have to offer and by combining them youcounteract the weaknesses that each style has.

By combining intelligence and emotional deliverystyles, not only do you ensure you deliver great contentto your customer or audience, you engage them in such away that they feel they have actually experienced it andlearnt it for themselves. You have engaged their imagination and given them a virtual experience. This iscomponent one to literally embedding the experience inthe memory. You take your content, your message, andyour call to action, and weave it into a story.

It is this that I call ‘The Story-Selling Method’. Nowfor more information on the actual formula to construct astory-selling method story, please visit my web site.Under ‘Products’ you will find my course titled ‘The Story-Selling Method’. This gives you a step by step system onhow to find, select, construct and use story in anysituation from sales to team meetings to major

presentations and keynote speeches.Now we have component one, which is the delivery

method. We need to incorporate component two:knowledge transfer. This is how we teach something tosomeone who has no reference to what we are talkingabout or no connection to it. Knowledge transfer or perceived connection is the fastest way for a human

being to learn something new.

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is the simplest and quickest way to teach anything toanyone.

Look at Victor Kiam in 1979 with his electric razor.Back then, many men used a blade to shave. Victor hadto explain his electric razor which was somethingunknown to many. So what did he do? He connected it tosomething that they did know; he connected the electricrazor to the razor blade, something people already hadand used.

Victor simply said shaves as close as a blade. Inthat one phrase his audience, his potential customers,now knew how sharp and how good his electric razor was.

He didn’t go into details about micro motors, microfilms, or supersonic vibrating shaving heads. No, hesimply said shaves as close as a blade.

Victor then embedded the experience he wantedinto his customers’ minds by saying my wife bought meone of these electric razors; I was so impressed I bought the company.

In those two statements I was so impressed I bought the company and shaves as close as a blade Victor connected the unknown electric razor to the known blade

razor. He embedded the experience; he achieved hisknowledge transfer. In one year Victor turned thecompany around from 30 million dollar losses to 1 millionin profits.

I want to share with you a time I used this in mypartitioning business. I was talking to Paul, an

accountant, who required a new office fit-out. He was

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standing in my showroom in his pin-striped suit and goldrimmed glasses, weighing up his options of usingplasterboard partitioning or my Quicklock modular

system.

The conversation had gone well, but Paul wasstruggling with the concept of modular walls and their benefit. Even though I had explained the benefit of themovability of the Quicklock system, I could sense thatPaul had not fully grasped how these benefits could applyto him.

So as he was standing there rubbing his chin Idecided to do a little knowledge transfer.

I said “Paul, the main problem with plasterboard or Giprock partitioning is that if you want to move a doorwayor window or change your layout, you can’t. You can’t re-use the stuff. You have to put it in the bin and start again.You just spent 30K on this stuff and now because youwant a change you have to put your thirty grand in thebin. Oh yes, and they’ll charge you $5,000 for theprivilege and you’ll pay another $30,000 out for new stuff.

“That’s crazy. That’s like buying a car and when it’stime for a service, the car yard saying “oh no, sorry, wedon’t service these - you have to buy a new one.” Couldyou imagine that? I mean, would you buy one? Would

you do that? Would you say “oh, OK?”

Paul was just shaking his head. “No way - not achance.”

“Well, people do it with their office walls every day. Ican’t believe it.”

“Neither can I. I can’t see why you would use

plasterboard.”

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Bingo! He got it. He linked the known experience of cars and servicing, to the unknown of not being able toreuse plasterboard and what it meant. He understood the

concept, understood the waste and felt the emotion. Itbecame real; he had something to refer to internally.

From that point on, plasterboard was out of thepicture and we got down to discussing design, coloursand installation times.

By using the technique of perceived connection you cantransfer your knowledge to someone quickly and easilyand achieve the desired result.

When you hear people saying that great leaders cansee from the other person’s point of view, this is whatthey are talking about. You need to take a moment tounderstand where the other person is coming from, tounderstand their frame of reference, so you can use it tocreate a perceived connection to your message.

Now the first two components are very strong, and

by combining them with this final component you willhave even greater strength at your disposal. This is thesecret of every great salesperson, every great manager,every great business owner, every great entrepreneur.You will have the secret of leadership that leads.

The final component, the final key that lockseverything together, is getting into the story and playing

the parts. Now I know that for many, this may sound

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strange, but it’s not - you do it every day. You see it everyday.

Think of the average BBQ or party. The drinks areflowing, the laughter’s going, and Uncle George has agroup standing around listening to one of his now famousstories. He’s standing there rocking on his feet, sausagein a bun in one hand and a can of beer in the other hand.Every family has an Uncle George!

You can see him there, with everyone laughing.Uncle George is using all three components of leadershipthat leads unconsciously. He’s arranged his content in alogical order and wrapped it up into a story. He’sconnecting elements in his story to things he knowspeople can relate to, so those listening can relate hisexperience to ones they have had. Uncle George pulls itall together by imitating different characters. We have allseen it, we have all done it, we have all been Uncle

George!We have told a friend a story of something that has

happened to us and imitated other people in our story -the way the teacher spoke to you, the policeman whopulled you over for speeding, the guy with the funnyaccent you met the other day. Uncle George does it, youdo it, everyone does it, everyone imitates others when

telling stories from personal experience.We all watch TV shows, and movies. We love

watching people play roles, watching people imitate other people. We all love this and we know everyone elsedoes. So deliver your story that way. Lead that way.

Playing the parts, imitating the characters, beingUncle George, is the final key, it is the final component.

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Your power to influence other people comes whenyou spark their imagination, when you have your contentand your message logically arranged. When you connect

your content, your message, to their experiences and youstart to play the parts, get into the character and live it;this is when you will have the power to lead.

Ladies and gentlemen, to be a leader who leads, stop

selling and start telling a story because imagination ismore important than knowledge.

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Stop selling andStart telling a ... story

“Imagination is more important than knowledge” said

Albert Einstein, and it is a very appropriate quote for thischapter.

When I was 24 I went to work for a life insurancecompany. It was back in the days when we were lifeinsurance salesmen, not financial planners. You can seeme in my new suit, a cheap one of course, turning up allexcited. I was met by my manager, a guy by the name of

Rob, who turned out not only to be a great guy but also agreat manager.

Over the next week I spent my time learning allabout life insurance policies, term life, whole of life,savings plans, and how their benefits helped people. Ialso learnt how to do an assessment of someone’sfinancial position so as to be able to recommend the right

products. It was fun. The trainers made it fun.

Then I was out on my own. I followed up a few leadsthat had been given to me. I asked for the sales andasked for referrals and slowly but surely, my sales driedup and I ran out of leads.

In one month I went from cloud nine to the pits, and I

don’t mean Brad and Angelina - I mean the coal mine

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variety. It was hell. I was sitting in a small cramped officewith the white pages making cold calls. It was freezing.

The second month rolled in, with no commissioncheques, no prospects. The cheap suit felt cheap. I couldhardly afford the fuel to get to work. I went to see Rob. Ihad to quit and get a real job. Selling was not for me.

I was there telling him that no one wanted to see me, thateveryone already had life insurance. Everyone alreadyhad a life insurance agent, there was no one left to see.Now Rob was a pretty shrewd guy and as he listened tomy problems, he smiled.

Can you believe it? He smiled at me. He held hishand up to stop me from talking anymore. “I don’t thinkyou know what this job is, and I think that’s your problem.”

I thought about it then said “ummm, I'm a life

insurance salesman aren’t I?”“No, you’re not,” he laughed. “That’s the common

mistake lots of people make. You are not a life insuranceagent, you are a dream maker. Your job is to help peoplesee their dreams, make those dreams come to life, makethem as real as possible. Your job is to make thosedreams the most important thing to your prospect and

then make your prospect believe they are achievable andthat you can provide the protection to make sure their dreams come true, no matter what events take place.”

Rob summarised his point. “People want to havegoals, dreams, and aspirations. Sometimes in their everyday life people don’t get the time to really thinkabout their dreams, to really imagine what their goals are,

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to really believe they can achieve what they want. Your job is to show them they can.”

I was stunned. I was a life insurance salesman butmy primary job was not to sell life insurance. It took me afew minutes to digest what he had said. But as I thoughtabout it, as I rolled it around inside my head, the penniesstarted to drop. Rob made me see that as a life insurancesalesman, my job was that of dream maker, then dreamprotector.

That was how I was supposed to earn my money. Irealised that helping people to see their dreams, to wanttheir dreams was my primary goal. Helping them withtheir insurance was my secondary role. First I had to getthem to see their dreams so I had something to offer protection for.

As I sat down with Rob we analysed whichcustomers I would be best selling to. Which customerswould I find it easiest to relate to and that had dreamsworth protecting? We identified young married coupleswith children as ideal customers for me to help.

In life insurance I made young families my targetcustomers. Why? Because I was young, so I could relateto them, and also because they had some very bigdreams. Young couples with children have the most

amazing dreams that they want for each other and their children. I could attach a lot of emotion to the value of insurance when talking to couples with young children.The question was, how?

How could I get them to see their dreams, how couldI get them to make the emotional connection so as theycould see, feel and really want their dreams? The answer

was through stories.

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I was really excited and two weeks later hadletterheads, business cards, and a small office inOsborne Park, Western Australia. I opened my doors on

Monday and on Wednesday I got my first call. A guywanted to see me to discuss his book. Wow! My firstpotential client. I could hear the cash registers ringing,little cash registers with angel wings. This could be thelaunch of Worthington Publishing.

The following Monday morning, in he walked, 5’ 10”,silver grey hair, Pierre Cardin. I’ll call him John Stevens

(name changed to protect the innocent).John told me how he was a motivational speaker, at

conferences and seminars, and did private consultingand so forth.

“I am looking for a publisher who can publish mybooks and other materials at an economical rate,” hesaid, “hence I’m trying to avoid the big publishing houses,and I’m not interested in selling my book in stores. I onlysell my books at my seminars and at my events.”

Then he added “Of course, I realise you are only asmall publishing house so I just need to make sure youare set up to handle the quantities I will need. To give youan idea, I need 10,000 copies of my latest book for myup-coming seminars.”

I could hardly contain my delight. “Of course I canhelp,” I replied.

10,000 books as my first order! Wow! I was on fire,yeah, I had it happening. I saw those cash registers againringing everywhere, all flapping around on their littleangel wings.

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Like the master salesman I was, I quickly won hisconfidence, closed the deal and two weeks later had his10,000 books, packed in their plain white boxes, piled all

around my small office.

I got on the phone. “John? Great news! your books....”

“Michael, before you go on - I have a problem.”

“What problem?”

“I haven’t sold any tickets. My cheques won’t clear.”

I gasped. “You haven’t sold any tickets, and your cheque will bounce?”

John said softly “I’m sorry. It’s a mess. I don’t knowwhat to...”

I cut him off. “Wait a minute, John. Let me.....”

“I have no money,” he interrupted.

“John,” I said. “I have 10,000 books print....”

“I haven’t got the money!” This time he soundeddesperate.

OK, I thought, don’t panic. You need to stay calm.You need to think. “John! John, stay there. I’m coming tosee you.”

I can tell you I went from superman to bust balloonin 0.5 seconds flat.

I had 10,000 books for which I owed the printer $8.00 each and now his deposit cheque was going tobounce. I had a big problem. 10,000 books at $8.00each, you do the maths.

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When I met him, it turned out he hadn’t sold evenone ticket. His marketing efforts had failed. He had nomoney and no ideas. I just wanted to throttle him, but I

couldn’t afford to. Faced with ruin, I couldn’t afford topanic. I had to think hard and fast. I had to dig deep andfind a solution.

To myself I was saying, OK Michael, think, think,what can you do?

What is the problem here, how can you solve it?

Then it hit me. It was simple - just get him anaudience. I mean, that was my plan anyway, to publishbooks and market them. This was no different, just a littlemore urgent.

OK, OK, you need an audience. I was back talkingto myself again. Where can you get an audience? What’sthe biggest market in Australia, biggest market...?

Sydney, that’s it, Sydney. OK, call the convention centrein Darling Harbour.

So next I was on the phone to the events manager at the Darling Harbour Convention centre, enquiringabout booking this guy for a gig.

“Yes,” I said, “I need to book a full day for a salesseminar, “John Stevens’ Super Sales Secrets”.

“ We have a spare day in one month’s time on a Friday,” was the reply.

“You have a spot in one month on a Friday? Great!I’ll take it”.

“Our fee is $15,000.”

“$15,000? No problem, we’ll take it.”

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Now for step two of my plan. I was back on thephone to a fax blasting company I knew in New SouthWales.

“Peter, it’s Michael.”

“Hi Michael, how’s it going?”

“Yeah, not bad. Peter, the reason for my call is, Ineed help.”

“What can I do?”

“I’ve got this guy, John Stevens, one of thosemotivational speakers. And I’ve got him booked at theDarling Harbour Convention Centre.”

“When is he booked?”

“One month’s time.”

“How many people do you need?”

“I need to put 1500 bums on seats.”I heard Peter tapping away on his calculator and

after a few moments was back saying “It will cost $20,000to get that many people using our fax blasting method.”

“Twenty grand!” The figure took me aback.

“Hey, it’s a numbers game,” Peter said matter of

factly.“Yeah, I know it’s a numbers game.” I took a breath.

“OK, let’s do it. 1500 people at $95 each for JohnStevens’ Super Sales Secrets. Oh, and tell them they geta copy of John’s latest bestselling book, Super SalesSecrets of the Super Rich, free.”

The deal was done.

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Now I’ve got an $80,000 bill from the printer, a$15,000 bill from Darling Harbour and on top of that I’vegot a $20,000 commitment to Peter’s fax blasting

company. Just add airfares and accommodation at$7,000 and for the mathematicians reading this I had adebt of $122,000.

Just to put it in perspective, my house at the timewas worth around $108,000, and I had a mortgage on it.If I was going to go down, I was going to go down, asthey say, in style.

One month later I stood at the edge of the stage, off to the wings with John standing beside me. I peeked outaround the curtains and ran my eyes over 1497 people.

Yeah! I did it! I pulled it off. I had 1497 people at $95a head, giving me just over $142,000. Just over a$20,000 profit.

The relief was enormous. I was ecstatic. Bills paid,small profit and I had just found a new calling as anevents promoter.

I looked at John and he was nervous.

“How many people out there?” he mumbled.

“1497. Yeah!” I laughed back.

John was talking to himself nervously. “Oh wow, OK,wow that’s... that’s a lot of people, OK, OK.”

The guy had sweat on his brow. Now I was nervous.

At 9.00am he walked stiffly to centre stage.

“Hel... hello everyone, I’m John Stevens and em...I’d like to welcome you here today, I believe you’ll get a

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free copy of my latest book which I hope you’ll enjoy,and...”

On and on he droned, he was dead, stiff, and rigid,with no emotion. It was as if someone was lowering atombstone over him and he was getting crushed byoppressive weight. At that point I would have liked tolower a tombstone over him myself.

Oh my God, people were shuffling in their seats,looking at their watches, they were not happy.

Paul, the centre manager, was next to me. “He’skilling them,” he said.

“You think!” I replied in an exasperated tone.

“He’s dead,” he said raising his eyebrows.” You’redead, sorry Michael, but that guy... geez I’m telling youMichael, at intermission they are going to run, and theyare going to demand their money back.”

My mind was reeling. Oh no, this couldn’t behappening. Look for the solution Michael, look for thesolution. I don’t want to look for the solution. I wanted tolook for something to kill this idiot with.

I took a breath. Don’t lose it, I need a solution; sowhat do I need, oh I em... I need time, that’s what I need.

I need time to think. OK, OK. Paul, get your staff to giveeveryone coffee at the break.” Then added “Oh, makesure you tell them if they stay till the next intermissionand then leave we will refund their money, no questionsasked.”

What was I doing? How was I going to turn this guyaround? What could I do to free him of his stage fright?

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But for the rest of the day I taught those people mystory-selling method. My method of using stories tocapture people’s imagination, make them believe in

themselves and cause them to go for it. I talked abouthow I used stories to overcome objections, how powerfulstories are, in getting your message across to your team.The last story I told them was how John had run away.They thought that was hilarious! No one asked for moneyback.

The lesson I learnt was this. Stories are the quickest

and most powerful tool you have to win the hearts andminds of others. Stories help people see their dreams.

It is often said in sales that before someone will buyyour idea, product or service they first have to buy you.Stories have a way of engaging people with you on anemotional level, a level that pure logic and content cannotreach.

Stories engage people’s imaginations and dreams.Stories tap into Albert Einstein’s message

‘imagination is more important than knowledge’ and whenit comes to influencing people nothing is more true.

As business people, as leaders, as entrepreneurs itis our job to be persuasive communicators. It is how we

get the job done; it is how we motivate others to get thejob done. It is not enough to just say “come on, followme”; we must convince, influence and persuade othersthat ours is the right path to follow.

The easiest way to do this is to use stories sopeople can see and feel your message and it becomesreal to them.

How about you? Have you ever experienced this?

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Have you ever told someone a story aboutsomething that happened to you, made them laugh, hadthem listen intently, and had them become totally

engrossed in what you are saying?

Have you had the experience that when you havetold someone a story, it reminded the listener of a similar thing that happened to him or her, and the listener got soexcited that he or she was eager to share the story withyou?

Has someone ever been telling you a story, and youfound yourself remembering something similar happeningto you and wanting to share it with the person?

This is the power of a story.

Stories are also a great way to overcome objections.Many sales courses talk about power closes, BenFranklin closes and other such techniques. These

methods apply logic to overcome the client’s objection.In sales, when you go down this path, it can spell

the end of the sale. No one likes to be proven wrong,either in their statements or their thinking, and when youapply logic - your logic - you are competing against their logic. You are trying to convince your client that your logicis right and his is not. It becomes a competition of left

brain versus left brain.When a client brings up an objection, resist the

temptation to go down this path and convince the clientthat his or her thinking is wrong. Instead try one of thestory-selling techniques, a technique that allows the clientto visualise his or her dreams, and see how your productor service can help achieve those dreams.

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The Third Party Story-Selling Method

The third party story-selling method takes the heatout of the situation and draws the client alongside you.

It is a very powerful example of the power of my

story-selling method.This is one situation where I used the method recently.

With my building company we are franchising. Wehave territory franchisees and State Master Franchisees.So in June 2009, almost the end of the financial year here in Australia, I receive a phone call from Peter inSouth Australia, enquiring about becoming a Master

Franchisee in that state.

As we are going through the details involved inbecoming a Master Franchisee, Peter asked thequestion, the one that would lead to his objection. Heasked me how long I had been in business. How longhad Quicklock Partitions been running? I told him it wasnow almost four years.

A pause. Then he asked his question, his objection.“Do you think four years is long enough to be in businessto start franchising?”

I paused, then said, “That’s amazing, that really is. Iwas just talking to Simon up there in Brisbane. He islooking at becoming a Master Franchisee for Queensland

and he asked the same thing, not three days ago.”

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I paused and half-laughed down the phone. “Hecaught me a little by surprise, I must confess, so I justasked him how much longer he thought I should wait

before I franchised? Do you know what he said?”

Peter said “No, what did he say?”

“Another ten years!”

“Oh, that’s a bit extreme,” Peter said.

“I know. I just said, ring me back in ten years!”

Peter’s response as he laughed was “They’ll all begone by then.”

“I know, I know. We are selling the franchises now,so I guess it is up to individuals to decide if they areready.”

I could almost feel Peter nod down the phone, andafter a couple of cursory remarks we moved on. His

objection had been neutralised in such a way that Peter felt he had solved the issue himself. I painted him apicture of the situation from my perspective, yet by usingthe Story-Selling Method made him feel as if he hadanalysed it himself, and come to the conclusion I wantedhim to come to, on his own.

Let’s examine this one technique and the steps to

making it work.

The first step is to get the person’s full attention.Many times people will throw an objection at you, andthey are so convinced that the objection is legitimate,they half switch off to your response. It is like a defencemechanism. They fire off their objections, then duck for cover, because they don’t want to be proved wrong. You

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Then came the wrap-up where I said that I wasready, and stated that the real question here, waswhether Simon was ready. This simple statement was

non-threatening as it was directed at Simon, not Peter,yet it caused Peter to shift his focus from ‘was I ready?’to, ‘was he ready?’ In his mind he answered this in theaffirmative and we were able to move forward with our discussion.

Stories work even in this simple form because it engagesboth the left and the right side of the brain. It combines aperson’s whole thinking process. It gets that person’simagination working.

By using this technique it gets the person involved ina way which switches him or her from critic to friend.

It’s a little like watching a movie you are reallyenjoying and connecting to certain characters. You can’thelp feeling for them, urging them on, wanting them towin and they aren’t even real!

When forming your own stories think about classicstory / movie structure.

Take a movie for example. As we watch the moviethe director sets the scene for us, and then begins ajourney for us to follow. As we move through the journey,different characters are introduced to give the storydepth. Then problems start to appear and the main

character or characters, encounter these problems or

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challenges which they have to overcome. At theconclusion of the movie we see how our hero overcomesthese challenges. The problems get solved.

You too can use this formula to make your storiestake shape, come to life, and engage your clients. In theworkshops and seminars I run on the story-sellingmethod I teach people how to apply stories to their situation, to deal with their challenges, to be relevant intheir world. I know that when my clients improve their story-selling abilities - their ability to communicate with

others to get the results they want - they become the typeof people others like to have around and that gives themthe power of influence.

Combining stories into your communications,transforms your skill to influence people. It enables you toengage others’ imagination. It enables you to help peoplesee and want their dreams.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge”

- Albert Einstein.

Whenever we find ourselves in a situation where weare making a presentation, whether it is in a salesmeeting, presenting to a client, or giving a talk to a groupof people, stories give us the power to connect with them.If you really want to connect, influence and persuadepeople to take the actions you want then, stories are apowerful tool.

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Presentation Story-Selling Method

A presentation style story is ideal for initial meetingswith clients, a presentation to your team, an address toeveryone at the company conference, or if you have beenasked to give a keynote speech.

Presentation style stories take you away from hidingbehind the lectern with a bunch of notes, to being able tostand out front and own the stage. They release you fromsending everyone off to boredom land with Powerpoint,and they prevent your talk from being just another boringlecture that everyone can’t wait to end.

Presentation style stories are serious business for people who are serious about the power to influenceothers, persuade others, and get others to take theactions they want them to take.

So let’s have a closer look at how a presentationstory is structured. To illustrate this let’s analyse my ‘bookpublishing story’ which forms part of one of my key notespeeches on the qualities of leadership.

The first thing I do is to introduce the story by settingthe scene. In this story I tell my audience to imagine that Iam twenty nine years old and after a successful businessand a not-so-successful business, I have had a greatidea to make money.

They now can picture the younger me with youthfulexcitement, and the mention of a great money making-

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idea is always a great crowd pleaser. People just love tohear the ‘how you tried to get rich’ type of story.

While setting the scene I let the audience know thatit is book publishing that I have decided to do. I havespotted a gap in the market and despite having noexperience or knowledge in the area have taken thecavalier attitude how hard can it be? In part of setting thescene I am also creating drama and raising people’scuriosity, as to how, with no experience, this young me isgoing to pull this off.

Next I start my adventure of being a book publisher and introduce the central character John. Now John is aninteresting character. He is the sales seminar guru andhe needs a vast quantity of books to sell at his seminars.

I describe my youthful excitement at seeing cashregisters ringing all over the place, little cash registerswith little angel wings on them. It uses a story-sellingmethod of painting visual imagery in their minds. It letsthem see my excitement and therefore connect with it. Italso alerts them to the impending danger, the obstacle Iam about to face.

That obstacle is a fairly big one. In my youthfulexcitement I have ended up with ten thousand bookswhich have cost me eight dollars a book, and I have a

client who can’t pay. I also employ an engagementstrategy here to ensure the audience is coming along thejourney with me. I say I have ten thousand books at eightdollars a book and add ‘you do the math’.

The math is very simple yet by not giving the answer and asking them to do it, this engages them.

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Asking your audience simple questions you know theycan work out is a powerful way to keep them involved,making them feel they are living the adventure with you.

Don’t always be in too much of a hurry to give your audience all the answers in your story. Give themsomething to do so they can participate.

So now we have a challenge. The audience has hadto do a little thinking, and again I describe my emotionsand my feelings. Challenges or problems exciteaudiences. Think about it. If you went and saw a movieand there were no challenges or problems for thecharacters to overcome, it would be a pretty boringmovie. Apart from being bored and probably sitting there

wondering when something was going to happen, at theconclusion of the movie you would probably be askingyourself What was all that about? What was the point?

Audiences need to hear, see and feel your challenges and every good story has more than one.Having set the challenge, your audience is now keen toknow how you solved it, or got around it, if you indeed

did.

In my book publishing story I start to dig myself indeeper and deeper in an effort to rescue myself,something many people can relate to on many levels. Itake the audience with me by showing how my moneysituation was worsening by the minute. When I presentthis story I hear comments like “Oh no!”, “Oh you didn’t!”,

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and people groan out loud as they watch me commitfinancial suicide.

Then the rescue. I make them wait until we are inSydney. Again don’t be in too big a hurry to solve your problem. In real life, problems usually don’t get fixedquickly. There is always a time lapse. To give your storythe right feel, remember to convey this time lapse. In thisway it becomes real and authentic to your audience, asthey get to wait with you.

In this story, all the money spent, all the investmentsmade, have paid off. The audience is impressed andrelieved, and the tension that has been built up vanishes.However life is not that simple. As quickly as the tensionevaporates, it is back again in the form of John beingnervous.

Now as a story teller, we need people to hear, seeand feel the drama. We need to build the drama to apeak and a sure way of doing this is to use what I callrapid fire compounding disasters.

It simply means we need to pull out severalcompounding problems in rapid succession withoutspending too much time on them.

While the audience is getting to grips with the first

problem, launch another and another and another. I findthree is a great number here.

As I have taught others how to extract stories fromtheir own lives, they are amazed to realise that they didn’tjust encounter one big problem.

When my students go back and study the situation,they usually find a series of little problems compounding

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on themselves. A series of little challenges led up to thefinal straw that broke the camel’s back.

In the book publishing story I have John nervous atthe side of the stage, then he is nervous on stage, thenoff he comes and he is into the alcohol to calm hisnerves. The audience just gets carried away on this crestof disasters as they watch everything fall apart and thenas the final nail in the coffin, he disappears. John is gone.

Now I could just have said that John was so nervousthat after his first session he simply ran away. Whilst thiswould have created some tension it is nowhere near aseffective as the compounding effect.

Your audience wants to hear the nitty gritty, theywant to watch you squirm, they want to see your anguish- so show them. Tell them the full story. Don’t rush over the good bits, the juicy bits; it’s what they have come for.Showing them your pain and suffering will endear them toyou.

Now you have them watching, waiting, wonderinghow you are going to get out of this seemingly impossiblesituation. And like all good stories, you deliver thedramatic conclusion. It leaves them almost spell bound.You are the hero, and the hero has triumphed over thetoughest adversity. When you have them in this state they

are very receptive to your message.

Your message should flow effortlessly from your story. The point you want to make - and you should useone story to make only one point - should fit naturally withyour story and it should be inspiring.

When I use my book publishing story in my

leadership keynote speech, it makes the strong point that

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great leaders believe in themselves. It is a leader’s job todo this because without self belief they will be like Johnand run away when faced with a challenge.

Then to reinforce the point I ask, “When have youbeen challenged? When in your life have you had to relyon yourself to get the job done? When in your life haveyou had to believe in yourself?”

At these times you were a great leader and toconsistently be a great leader you need to consistentlybelieve in yourself.

When used in my ‘power of stories to influence’keynote speech it makes the strong point of how peopleconnect with you through stories. Notice my line and thelast story I told them was how John had run away. They thought that was hilarious! No one asked for money back .It really closes the deal on how powerful stories are.

Did you notice after that, that I asked you if youremembered a time when you had heard or told a greatstory and it had inspired others to share their stories? Iused this to cement my point that stories connect peopletogether.

Used in my keynote address on embracing change,it repeatedly makes the point that when things don’t go to

plan, or things change unexpectedly, or things don’t gothe way you expect or want them to, then looking for solutions is the solution. If you lose your cool, if you letthings get on top of you then you might as well say, “Igive up”. Yet if you just take a breath, pause and ask“How can I solve this?” then solutions tend to appear. Askand you shall receive. On top of that, even though itmight not feel like it at the time, when looking back you

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may find that because you looked for solutions, thingshave probably turned out for the best.

They have probably turned out better than if theoriginal plan had turned out. Looking back you areprobably glad you didn’t get the promotion, probably gladyou didn’t get that job. Probably glad that you changedyour mind and you went to that party, because that’swhere you met your wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend,or significant other.

Life, if you give it a chance, has a way of workingout for the best.

Then I added the reinforcing close, “How about you?Have you ever had something go wrong and not to plan,and instead of just giving up you thought of another wayand everything turned out well?”

Reinforcing closes cement your message. They seal

the deal. They let your audience connect your messageto their world and that is very powerful.

Stories can carry powerful messages and when thesemessages are delivered through stories with reinforcing

closes, they affect people much more deeply than justgiving them facts and a powerpoint presentation.

You might be reading this and saying to yourself, I don’t have any stories like that . Here is the good news -you do, you just haven’t realised them yet. So let me giveyou a few ideas on how to discover your own stories.

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Then you can use the story-selling method to make themmagical.

One of the first types of stories I teach in my Story-Selling workshops is the credibility story. A credibility storyis a story about someone other than you who hasdemonstrated the characteristic that you want to portrayto make your point. In this book for instance I told thestory of Victor Kiam. Now if I was giving a keynotespeech to a group of business owners about willingnessto take risks as the hallmark of an entrepreneur, Victor’s

story would be great.It tells how Victor started at eight selling Coca-Cola

for a profit, then how he stepped in for his friend andbecame the top sales rep. It goes on to his time at Platexand with the Cross Your Heart bra, and then tells of hishuge risk in buying the struggling Remington Shaver Company. Even the risk of putting himself on worldwide

television in only his bath robe to sell his product showsthe depth of his character. It shows that because Victor was willing to back himself, look for solutions and takerisks, he ended up as one of America’s most successfulentrepreneurs of his time. It gives credibility to your statement that risk taking is a hallmark of a greatentrepreneur.

Now you can link that credibility to yourself. For example, if I was giving my Reward without Risk DoesNot Exist Business Entrepreneur keynote speech, I couldthen follow that with my book publishing story. Peoplewould get the same message and see in me the samequalities that were in Victor. This suggests we are cutfrom the same cloth and therefore adds to my credibilityto speak on the subject.

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So where do we find our stories? We look to our past. We think about past relationships, past jobs, theholiday that didn’t go as planned, or a teacher who taught

us a valuable lesson. When I search my past for stories Ilike to draw a time line of events that have happened tome.

For instance when I think about jobs I have had andones I have lost, I make a note of how old I was, how Ifelt, what the interview was like, whether I liked the job or wondered what I was doing there. I analyse the event for

key messages or lessons I have learnt from theexperience.

Remember your story is a vehicle to transport your message to your audience. Your stories are the vehicle

that lets your audience climb on board your adventureand experience what you experienced.

When the stories are your own, the emotions areyours, your fears, your hopes, your dreams, and your discoveries. Your audience gets to climb into your worldand when they do that - when they see the world through

your eyes - your message becomes crystal clear for allthose listening to understand.

One final point about someone who tells a greatstory - they re-live it. If you have ever watched a master story teller in action you will have noticed that he or sheseems to have gone back in time to when the eventhappened. A great storyteller will go back, pick it up, dust

it off and bring it to life right in front of us as if it was as

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fresh as a newly cut bunch of flowers. We can see, feel,hear and almost smell what it was like.

By re-living the excitement, the pain, the relief, thejoy, the master story teller transports us into the story.The final key to making your stories capture the attentionof your listener, inspire them and motivate them to takethe action you want, is not just to narrate your story as if reading it from a book. You need to re-live it. You need tobe prepared to let your audience see, hear and feel everyemotion that you saw, heard and felt. When you do this

you are a master story teller and as such you havemastered the art of influence.

In a book of this size it is impossible to cover all theaspects of creating a powerful story. However there isplenty here for you to have fun with. Discover your ownstories, craft them and share them with others. For thoseof you more serious about taking your communication

skills to the next level, you can get the Time to stopselling and start telling a story: the story-selling method CD packs from my web site. And for those who are reallyserious you can enrol in my intensive two and a half dayStory-Selling Workshop.

Whatever you do next, thank you for taking the time toread this book and I wish you all the best in your

business future.

www.strategies4business.com

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The 1% Factor Book