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Introducing the WMN MentorMatch Program
We envisioned it. You asked for it. Now it's finally here!
The WMN MentorMatch Program is designed to provide encouragement, advice, information and support to success-minded women interested in growing their businesses or fast tracking their careers. Protégés are matched in one-on-one mentoring relationships with mentors who have 'real world' experience. Both mentors and protégés have access to other group mentoring opportunities throughout the year at no additional cost. WMN provides the training, coaching and support to both protégés and mentors while in the 12-month mentoring relationship.
We are currently accepting applications for both mentors and protégés for the 2009 MentorMatch Program. Participation is limited, so sign up today!
Check out the WMN MentorMatch Website to learn more
Savvy Selling - August 2008
This month we are featuring two articles on selling. The first is Quick Sales Tips--Your Voice Sells by Renee Walkup. The second is 'Sale' is not a 4-letter word by Judith M. Guido. We hope you enjoy both articles.
Quick Sales Tips - Your Voice Sells
By Renee Walkup Speaking = Selling
There I was, driving home from a speaking engagement and waiting for the traffic report when a voice came over the radio. that made me shudder. Remember the Seinfeld episode where Kramer has seizures whenever he heard Mary Hart's voice come on the TV? That's what I was experiencing. And I have had that sick feeling every time I've heard her voice in the past. I quickly switched my radio off and waited the appropriate time before turning it back on.
Now, why is it that a voice makes me cringe? Are there voices that make you want to cover your ears? Well, that is a question that makes us think about how we are speaking. On the telephone, experts estimate that 93% of your tone and inflection reflect the communication. In person, we assume that number is 38%. Our voices are critical to sales success. They are an integral portion of our first impressions with prospects, customers, employees, and higher ups.
Begin to think of your voice as your instrument. An instrument that must be finely tuned, developed, and practiced in order to successfully play the sound that appeals to the customer. Here are seven tips of how to better "tune" up your instrument so that every call is a success:
1. Speak clearly. Avoid dropping the endings off of your words such as "gettin', goin', shoppin', sleepin', etc." Finish the "g's" and you will sound much clearer and professional.
2. Instead of using filler words, such as "uh", "um", or "you know", simply pause in between words or sentences. Gather your thought during the pause and your customer won't be distracted by your inability to quickly find the right word. The pause sends the message that you are thoughtful, which is an advantage.
3. Keep your head up when you talk. If your head is down, looking at a screen, your hands, or the floor, you aren't providing your voice with the best position to project and sound engaging. With your head up, you are stretching out your vocal cords, allowing them to vibrate naturally. This is particularly important if you tend to sound monotone.
4. Smile into your words. When you smile, your vocal cords lift up and you sound friendlier, warmer, and more engaging. Try re-recording your outbound voice mail message by standing up, smiling into the phone, and then listen. You'll know when it sounds right.
5. Maintain vocal variety when you speak. Use inflection to emphasize certain words or phrases, you may want to get louder, softer, inflect an emotion on particular words. Try this exercise: Say the following words out loud and speak them as you would want your customer to experience the emotion: "Delicious", "Great", "Reward", "Smooth", "Fine", "Amazing", "Profit". Hear the difference?
6. Record yourself and listen to how you sound by reading a story or a white paper out loud. After you have taped yourself, listen to what your voice sounds like. You could record your phone calls for a morning, too. See what you think after those are done.
7. BREATHE. If you are breathing correctly, from your diaphragm, you will find you don't run out of breath at the end of sentences. In the meantime, you are expanding your lungs (great for when you go skiing this winter). When you breathe out, your tummy goes in, when you breathe in, your tummy goes out. See if you are doing this correctly, and start practicing when you can concentrate to improve your breathing, breath, and your voice.
Remember, your voice is your instrument. Keep it in tune! Written by Renee Walkup, Sales Growth Consultant, Keynote Speaker, and Author of "Selling to Anyone Over the Phone", www.salespeak.com, 678-587-9911. Printed with permission.
(c)Renee Walkup, All Rights Reserved 'Sale' is not a 4-letter word
By Judith M. Guido When I give talks I jokingly say that landscaping is the oldest profession, and yet there is also a saying that sales is the oldest profession. Regardless of which occupation wins, the two certainly go-in-hand.
Perhaps understanding the true definition of the word "sales" — exchanging one value for another — will help to give it the respect is so rightly deserves. Sales is a critical element that not only fuels your business, but our entire economy. If we think about the value we bring to the customer, and the overall return on investment we generate for them, we can begin to think about sales as a noble profession and of our sales people as business catalysts. One of the telltale signs of a great sales person is a sense of curiosity — an intellectual and unstoppable curiosity for:
- Understanding the customers' needs
- Resolving the customers' problems
- Identifying opportunities that your company can provide better than the competition.
A great sales person also has the desire to see your company's processes and products applied successfully to the customer's needs. He or she wants the customer to understand the advantages and value you bring to the job, and can clearly articulate and communicate that advantage, in various forms. A professional sales person has the intelligence and commitment to understand and apply both unique and standard solutions to completely satisfy the customer's goals. What makes salespeople good The desire to exceed expectations when possible (with the understanding that a salesperson is only as good as his or her last sale or service call) is critical to success. Good salespeople also understand that every market offers fierce competition. How you stack up (your strengths and weaknesses) also is important — they want to work for a winner. They understand that sales goes well beyond making sales calls and taking orders, and that having a process for staying in front of customers will make it very difficult for the competition to squeeze in. That's a must-have sales ability. Great salespeople also have the capability and commitment to follow-through on actions and troubleshoot situations to achieve a goal. This is a great formula for on-going customer relations. Take a good look at your salespeople and see if they have what it takes. Not only are they your business catalyst, they are the lifeblood of your company. Judy Guido is principal of Guido & Associates, a learning organization that has been helping green companies grow their people and profits for over 17 years. If you have any questions call her at 818-800-0135, write her at judy@guidoassoc.com or visit the Web site at www.guidoassoc.com.
Writing Winning Proposals that Lead to Profits - July 2008
Barbara Giamanco
If you think of the proposal writing process as intimidating, daunting and time consuming, I want you to know that you are not alone. Daunting though it might be, you’ve got to learn to do it well, because writing proposals for almost every profession a key to securing business.
There are lots of reasons that we might be called upon to write a proposal. Perhaps you are a business owner or a sales person who needs to sell a product or service. You might work inside a corporation and need to create a proposal for a new business idea. Or you might need to request grant funding to support your non-profit organization. Regardless of the why, how you craft your proposal will make the difference between winning and losing your chance to get what you want.
For our purposes, I’m going to focus my suggestions based on the idea that your proposal is being written to “sell” something versus creating a proposal request for grant funding or a business loan. While many of the same tips apply, what I’m sharing with you here are the top ways to craft proposals that capture attention and close the sale.
1. Focus on the Customer
It sounds obvious enough, but it is a point that is often over looked. Many people begin their proposals focused on telling the customer what they have to sell, who they are, and why the customer should buy from them. At this point in the process, the customer doesn’t care. Instead, they want to know “what’s in it for them” and that’s where your focus needs to be.
You will kick off your proposal with an Executive Summary – no more than 2 pages in length – that focuses on what you have learned about the business opportunity. This is your chance to demonstrate to the customer that you were listening and fully understand their business need. Taking the opposite approach means you risk having your proposal quickly knocked out of the running. Remember, that the order of the information you include in your proposal is just as important as the actual details you include.
2. Use a Consultative Approach
A compelling proposal results when you approach the process like a consultant. This means you want to ask really great questions to help you learn as much as you can about each business opportunity, challenges and pain the customer may be experiencing, financial impact if they do nothing, their buying expectations, and objectives. Avoid the temptation to use a "boilerplate" proposal. Although the core elements of your proposals will typically remain the same, you want to be sure you take the time to customize each proposal based on the unique situation. Don’t forget to take great notes, because you’ll be using your “discovery” information to summarize what you know in your Executive Summary.
3. Define the Solution
“The amateur salesman sells products; the professional sells solutions to needs and problems.” Stephen R. Covey
This is where you have the opportunity to demonstrate to your customer how your product or service will solve their business need. You want to be approaching this from a solution perspective, which means you need to think about the value, the benefits and the results they receive when they hire you. This is much different than talking about the “features” of what you offer. Your goal is to create trust that you can deliver what you say you can. And you want to assure the customer that they are making an informed buying decision. One of THE best ways to do that is by crafting a solution oriented message that clearly shows them how what you offer delivers a measurable return on their investment. This is especially important when selling services that lack the tangibility of hard goods like a new computer system.
Remember to keep technical information and jargon to a minimum. Your buyer will make their decision based on the relevant business information that you provide to them, so your proposal should not overwhelm them with a lot of techno speak. The buyer wants to know how the technology will improve his business performance not why your new widget will make his computers run faster.
4. Describe the Implementation
Next you want to talk about “how” the process will work. In my proposals, this is where I define the project scope, objectives and deliverables. You need to include specific information about the methodology, schedule, specific deliverables, the associated tasks, any resources required on the part of the customer or staff required to implement the solution. This reduces the buyer’s risk – always a good thing! Make sure you tell them exactly what you propose to do, how you will do it and when you will get it done.
5. Tell Your Company Story
Your buyer needs to be assured that your organization can deliver on the contract. Including a company profile that defines who you are and how you differentiate your company from the competition is a must. You will also want to include an additional section about your management team. Even if you are a one person company, write a management bio that talks about who you are, your business experience (past & present), how you work with companies, partial list of your clients, references if required, your education, associations you’re affiliated with, and any community activities you are involved in. The key to writing this bio is to include information that is relevant to the proposal and supports WHY they should buy from you. Finally, don’t forget to create a proposal template that you use consistently every time. To save yourself time, include standard information that you want included in every proposal. For example, your company logo, business address, company profile and management information, etc. Your proposal strategy is a core component of winning business, so take the time and learn how to do it well! Talent Builders CEO and Chief Talent Officer Barbara Giamanco capped a corporate sales career at Microsoft, where she led and trained sales teams and coached executives, before establishing Talent Builders, Inc. in 2002. She has more than 25 years of experience in selling to enterprise, mid-market and retail accounts and knows what it’s like to walk in the shoes of the sales person. During her career, her accounts have included American Express, Motorola, Best Buy, Circuit City, Anheuser-Busch, Target, Honeywell and the State of Arizona. Barbara is also the co-founder of the Women’s Mentor Network.
For more information on our products and services call 404-459-4030 or visit: www.talentbuildersinc.com
Feel Stuck? Hire a Coach - June 2008
By Barbara Giamanco
Harvard Business Review reported in November 2004 that annual spending on executive coaching in the United States was estimated at $1 billion. Since that time, the business of coaching has steadily gained in popularity and with any field that grows rapidly there are questions. Some of the more common questions are:
• What exactly does a coach do?
• What are the benefits of hiring a coach?
• What qualifies someone as a coach? How do I choose the right person?
• Is there a difference between coaching and consulting?
• How is coaching different from counseling?
• How long will it take before I see results? Although this is certainly not an exhaustive list, here you will find our answers to these common coaching questions. What exactly does a coach do?
The broad use of the term “coaching,” can be very confusing to both coaches and to the general public. As a starting point, know that there are two major branches of Professional Coaching: Personal Coaching and Business Coaching with a number of niches in each category. The type of client served and the problems encountered help to distinguish the two categories. Personal coaching AKA life coaching is also known by names such as success coaching, vision coaching, dream coaching, life success coaching, personal development coaching and career coaching. Personal coaching focuses on helping individuals accomplish their dreams and grow personally. Business coaching is most commonly known as executive coaching, corporate coaching, management coaching, small business coaching, sales coaching, and leadership coaching, to mention a few. The focus here is on professional development, leadership skills, company profitability, management training, team building, organizational development, or change management. The International Coach Federation (ICF) – the closest thing to an industry standards body – defines coaching this way. “Professional Coaching is a professional partnership between a qualified coach and an individual or team that supports the achievement of extraordinary results, based on goals set by the individual or team. Through the process of coaching, individuals focus on the skills and actions needed to successfully produce their personally relevant results”. The goal of any coach worth their salt is to act as a catalyst to help clients achieve their goals. Coaches may use assessments, as well as listening skills and powerful questions, to help their clients tap their potential. Coaching is a fluid and individualized process that deals with the goals and issues facing the client at any given point in time. Think of the process as “dancing in the moment”, a phrase coined by the founders of the Coaches Training Institute (CTI). Whether a coach is working with a client on personal or business issues, their job is to keep the clients overarching agenda as the central focus, recognizing that real-life situations impact what the client is facing. It is a flexible process of non-judgmental listening, inquiry, feedback and support, which allows the client to grow, learn and achieve results more quickly. What are the benefits of hiring a coach?
Fresh perspectives on challenges and opportunities, enhanced thinking and decision making skills, increased productivity and interpersonal skills are all benefits that you’ll receive from coaching. In addition, the coaching relationship provides the needed accountability to help you achieve your goals. A study released by Manchester, Inc. quantifies the business impact of external executive coaching. The study, which included 100 executives, showed that their employers realized improvements in productivity, quality, organizational strength, customer service, and shareholder value. There were fewer customer complaints, and these organizations were more likely to retain executives who had been coached. In addition, a company's investment in providing coaching to its executives realized an average return on investment (ROI) of almost six times the cost of the coaching. The recently released 2008 Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey confirms earlier studies on the value of coaching in the business arena. Their report shows that an increasing number of companies are seeing value in hiring coaches, especially for their executives. Early on, many of these efforts were directed at “fixing” a problem or helping an executive to save their career. These days there’s more of a focus on providing proactive support to develop a leaders skills and many companies are including coaching as a component of programs designed to build leadership bench strength. What are some typical reasons someone might work with a coach?
According to the International Coach Federation, there are many reasons that an individual or team might choose to work with a coach, here are just a few: • Something urgent is at stake – a new business goal, opportunity or challenge
• There is a gap in knowledge, skills, confidence, or resources
• Your career has stalled
• The management style of a member of your team is ineffective and causing employee problems
• A team member is extremely successful, and success has started to become problematic
• You haven’t identified your core strengths and how best to leverage them
• There is a need and a desire to better organized and more self-managing
• Your department or company is experiencing high employee turn-over
The list could go on and on, but these examples give you some idea of reasons why you might decide to engage the services of a coach. What qualifies someone as a coach?
Determining whether or not someone is qualified as a coach is a thorny subject. Anyone can decide to start calling themselves a coach and many do even though they have no relevant experience or training. For those with coaching training, it is further complicated by the fact that there is no conclusive evidence to support that any one approach to coaching is better than another. A quick search of the Internet will result in a listing of hundreds of organizations offering coaching training and certification programs at various price points. So what’s a potential client to do? First, before hiring a coach, do your homework. A good place to begin is by educating yourself about coaching. In practically every major city there is an ICF Chapter you can turn too. In Atlanta, you can visit the Georgia Coach Association to not only learn about coaching, but search the online directory to find a great coach. Visit them at www.gacoaches.com Next, take the time to think about what your objectives are for working with a coach. Are you looking to transition careers, earn that next promotion, thinking about starting a business, having trouble managing your team or do you just feel stuck? Once you’ve thought about why you’d like to work with a coach, interview at least three coaches before you make your decision. Be sure to ask them about their experience, qualifications, skills, and ask for at least two references. Finally, don’t under estimate the importance of feeling a connection between you and the coach. Without it, the coaching relationship is doomed to fail. When considering a coach’s experience, be sure that the experience is relevant to what you need. Seems pretty obvious, but you might be surprised to discover how many people call themselves business coaches; yet, they have little or no business experience at all. Let’s say you want to hire a coach to help you grow your business and increases sales. Wouldn’t you want to know that the person you’re hiring actually has a proven track record of owning and running a success business? I certainly think it’s a good idea! When it comes to evaluating the training of a potential coach, it is important that you look for individuals who’ve been trained in programs accredited by the International Coach Federation. With a mission to preserve the integrity of coaching around the globe, ICF fosters the development of the coaching profession with programs to maintain and upgrade the standards of the profession. They are the defacto standards body for the coaching industry. If you’d like a listing of current organizations approved by ICF, please visit www.coachfederation.com Is there a difference between coaching and consulting?
You bet there is! The primary objective of a consultant is to achieve organizational results through the application of specific expertise. They may or may not also be responsible with transferring knowledge or a skill set to their client, but they are paid to solve problems. A professional coach's primary goal is to tap into the client's own vision, wisdom and directed action in service of the client's self-identified agenda. The coach is not paid to offer solutions. The general assumption is that individuals or teams are capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach supplying supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks. Isn’t coaching just another form of counseling?
Absolutely not! Coaching is a profession that supports personal and professional growth and development based on individual-initiated change in pursuit of specific actionable outcomes. These outcomes are linked to personal or professional success. Coaching is forward moving and future focused. Therapy, on the other hand, deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict either as an individual or as part of a relationship between two or more people. Resolving difficulties arising from the past that hamper someone’s emotional functioning in the present, improving overall psychological functioning, and dealing with present life and work circumstances in more emotionally healthy ways define traditional therapy. Coaching does not focus on healing past emotional wounds that may hinder future success. While feelings and emotions may be a natural outcome of coaching, the primary focus is on creating actionable strategies for achieving specific goals in one's work or personal life. The emphasis in a coaching relationship is on action, accountability and follows through. How long does a coach work with individual or team?
The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on the individuals or team’s needs and preferences. For certain types of focused coaching, 3 to 6 months of coaching may work. For other types of coaching, people may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer period. Factors that may impact the length of time include: the types of goals, the ways individuals or teams like to work, the frequency of coaching meetings, and financial resources available to support coaching. Finally, there is no doubt that coaching can move you forward in service of your personal and professional goals. The key to your success is getting clear about what you want to accomplish, do your homework and choose the coach that’s right for you! *****************************************************************
Talent Builders CEO and Chief Talent Officer Barbara Giamanco capped a corporate sales career at Microsoft, where she led and trained sales teams and coached executives, before establishing Talent Builders, Inc. in 2002. She has more than 25 years of experience in selling to enterprise, mid-market and retail accounts and knows what it’s like to walk in the shoes of the sales person. During her career, her accounts have included American Express, Motorola, Best Buy, Circuit City, Anheuser-Busch, Target, Honeywell and the State of Arizona. Barbara is also the co-founder of the Women’s Mentor Network. For more information on our products and services call Barbara Giamanco, Chief Talent Officer – Talent Builders, Inc. at 404-459-4030 or visit: www.talentbuildersinc.com
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