Achieving Customer Commitment

Most salespeople have had this experience: you convinced a customer that your solution would logically exceed their expectations, but that individual was still not motivated to make a decision! Especially in today's uncertain market, many companies are delaying their purchase decisions even further. You can help your customer move forward with the decision. Use a Value Summary to summarize the value of your solution, create a sense of urgency, and overcome customer procrastination. How do you create a Value Summary?

Building a Value Summary
Remind yourself of what your buyers want (primary interest) and why they want it (dominant buying motive), then do these three things:

1. Remind your buyers that they are currently missing out on the benefit your solution can provide and get their agreement. Describe how your solution appeals to their dominant buying motive.
2. Remind your buyers that your solution will satisfy that need.
3. Paint a "word picture" of your buyers using your solution, enjoying it, and benefiting from it.
   

Guidelines for Value Summaries

1. Be clear and concise
2. Describe in the present tense
3. Link your solution directly to the buyer's dominant buying motive
4. Be believable and realistic
5. Show examples of the buyer benefiting from your solution
6. Appeal to the buyer's senses - sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell

Asking for Commitment
After you have presented your Value Summary, be ready to ask for a commitment - the "close." Consider the following methods:

Direction Question: Often the best way to gain a buyer's commitment is to ask for it. Ask a direct question that calls for a decision.

• "Are you ready to go ahead with this decision?"

Alternate Choice Method: Ask the buyer to select one of two options.

• "Would you like the K80 with the standard stock, or would you prefer to choose from our specialty line?"

Minor Point Method: Ask the buyer to make a minor decision that indicates that the larger buying decision has already been made.

• "In whose name should this title be drawn?"
  

Next Step Method: Assume that the buyer has already committed and look ahead to the next step.

• "When would you like for me to schedule the installation?"
  

Opportunity Method: Present the buyer with a brief window of opportunity when options are available. This can be an effective method to use with a buyer who is ready to buy, but who is procrastinating the final decision.

• "You know that our prices increase on September 1st. I know that you'd want to take advantage of these lower prices now, right?"

Weighing Method: If the buyer still has second thoughts about making the purchase, show him or her how the return on investment outweighs the cost.

• "Let's do what many people do when making a major decision. Let's weigh the ideas causing you to hesitate and the value you'll realize from going ahead."

Effective Change Engagement

Engaging workplace change can be an unpredictable experience because processes and people evolve in diverse ways as they undergo change. No two individuals will respond in exactly the same way to workplace changes. In the same way, identical changes implemented in multiple areas of an organization can produce distinctly different outcomes.

Here are 7 steps to help you to take a structured approach to organizational change and still maintain flexibility.

Step 1 - Motivation for Change. Change begins at the point where the organization finds a motivation for change. Sometimes external issues drive the change like reorganizations, management changes, relocations, or acquisitions/mergers. Other times, internal forces such as upgraded technology, expansions and growth, or continuous improvement drive the change.

Step 2 - Analyze the Situation. As the organization becomes progressively more motivated to change, leadership undertakes a thorough analysis of the risks and opportunities associated with the proposed change.

• What are the potential gains in undertaking the change?
• What are the costs?
• What are the risks of making the change?
• What are the risks of not making the change?

Step 3 - Plan the Direction. Once an organization determines that opportunities outweigh the risks of making the change, it develops a plan for change implementation. Many organizational change initiatives fail because of lack of careful, thorough planning. In this step, the stage is set for the ultimate success or failure of the change. Key elements of the plan must include:

• Planning for the impact of the change on individuals who will be most affected.
• Planning for the impact of the change on the systems within the organization that will be most affected.
• A step-by-step plan for integrating the change into the organization.
• A review plan to measure the success of the proposed change.
  

Step 4 - Implement the Change. Depending on the type and scope of the change, implementation within the organization may be gradual or abrupt. Changes such as layoffs or acquisitions often are implemented with little prior warning; while staffing, reorganization, or technology changes may be phased in over a period of time. The team's most critical role in this step of the change process is to maintain open, honest lines of communication with each other. We need to ensure that we communicate the following:

• Define individual responsibilities.
• Announce and launch the change.
• Adhere to timetables.
• Promote the anticipated benefits of the change.

Step 5 - Review the Direction. Once the change has been implemented in the organization, you should monitor the outcomes of the new structure and system. As team members in a changing work environment, you can't assume that the change will evolve exactly as planned or that every individual affected by the change will react as anticipated. Your role is to observe review checkpoints that will reveal whether the change is working as anticipated and is producing the desired results.

• Establish ways of measuring results.
• Communicate criteria for successful change outcomes.
• Coordinate the gathering and measuring of change effects.
• Inform key team members consistently during the review process.
  

Step 6 - Adopt. When you have reviewed the change implementation and found it to be succeeding as planned, the organization adopts the change and it becomes part of the new organizational norm. The review process is not terminated, but it transitions to the ongoing monitoring of the changed systems and relationships within the organization.

• How well is the change meeting planned outcomes?
• How well have you adjusted to the new status quo?
• What aspects of the change have not met expectations?
• What is your role in making those aspects more successful?
  

Step 7 - Adjust. If the review process concluded that the change is not working as planned, you should adjust the change implementation. Assuming that the organization executed the change analysis and plan accurately, you should be able to adjust the implementation of the organizational change to achieve your desired results.

• Determine where the outcomes are falling short of your plan.
• Engage key individuals in determining adjustments that need to be made.
• Keep the lines of communication open with everyone involved.
• Make adjustments to the review process and to the change implementation.
  

Business Process Improvement: Project Planning

According to a report from Business Process Trends: The State of Business Process Management 2008, the biggest business drivers causing organizations to focus on business process change are:

1. The need to improve management organization or organizational responsiveness and
2. The need to save money by reducing costs and/or improving productivity.
   

The 2009 market conditions have certainly put even more emphasis on these business drivers, and business process improvement has probably moved up on your organization's priority list. People and organizations today are pressed to examine the business systems in place and answer these questions: Are these the right processes? Do they add value? Could there be a better way of doing things and generating better business results?

The ability to plan projects, both large and small, simple and complicated, is essential in today's business environment. Without the tools to do so, people tend to flounder, "wing it," or wander off course, resulting in delayed success, missed deadlines, or failure. Read on to learn about the steps you can take to plan a successful project.

Step 1: "Should-Be"Clarify the project scope and be sure that the scope is aligned with senior management's initiatives. The "should be" is a picture of what you ultimately want and who and how this result will benefit all involved. Your team and senior management should work together to ensure you agree on objectives. If you have not done a good job of defining scope, it will be nearly impossible to plan the project.

Step 2: "As-Is" This is the reality of the current situation. Where are you today? What factors help and hinder your efforts to carry out the project's scope?

Step 3: Goals Define and set realistic goals to successfully carry out the scope of the project. Without such goals, you and your team will drift. Goals can be immediate, intermediate, and long-range. Achieving day-to-day goals (immediate goals) contributes to the achievement of intermediate and long-range goals. Develop SMART goals:

S Specific processes and resources

M Measurable by objective data

A Attainable

R Relevant to your vision

T Time-specific deadline

Step 4: Action Steps To achieve your goals, you must establish specific priorities so that you can develop specific action steps. To achieve your goals, your action steps should include:

• Job requirements
• Who will do the job
• Methods to be used
• How the different parts tie together and fit into the big picture
• How the results will be communicated (report, PowerPoint, etc.)
  

Step 5: Cost Another aspect to planning is determining the budget for and cost of each action step. Costs include:

• Personnel
• Materials
• Time
• Opportunity cost (what must be given up to pursue a given action)
  

Step 6: Timetables Set and communicate deadlines so there is a clear understanding and so that immediate, intermediate, and long-term targets can be met. When establishing timetables, be realistic. Work backwards to determine when each phase should be completed, and put the schedule in writing to avoid misunderstandings.

Step 7: Implementation An important, yet overlooked, part of implementing a plan is making sure that all involved understand their role in achieving the established goals. Obtain the team's commitment to agreed-upon results. As you monitor the implementation, you may need to modify the scope of the plan and reevaluate your goals.

Step 8: Follow Up/Measurement A critical part of the planning process is to keep accurate records, analyze why deviations have occurred, and take action to correct any challenges. Concentrate on those factors critical to reaching the goal.

Motivation

Leaders respect and value the differences in others. In times of uncertainty, you accept that your available human resources are your only sustainable competitive advantage. When the people you lead don't perform at acceptable levels, you must sometimes exert your influence. Sometimes you don't have authority to make them perform better. In those situations, you must often accept whatever they give you or try to find ways to influence or inspire them to improve their performance. There are five primary reasons people underperform. Understanding the reasons behind nonperformance is the first step to using your abilities to influence others effectively and without resorting to manipulation.

Reason: I don't know what to do...

Solution: Educate — If people don't know what to do, you can get them what they need to get past this obstacle. Show people what they need to do by building a strong foundation for their performance during new employee orientation and the on-boarding process or later during education and development opportunities. Unless people clearly understand what they need to do, they will make mistakes or allocate their time to the tasks inappropriately.

Reason:I don't know how to do it...

Solution: Train — When they don't know how, you can get them the practice and skills they need to begin to perform better. Training is the answer. Take people through the step-by-step process of performing tasks and explain how the correct execution of those steps creates success for them and the organization.

Reason:I don't believe I can...

Solution: Coach — This area reflects your confidence in their ability to perform. It is important to show them that the job can be done and that they can do it. Coaching is not just a matter of cheering your employees on, but of helping them see why they have been selected to perform the task or why they have been appointed to the team. Instill in them a belief in themselves and the confidence to use past successes as a stepping-stone to future opportunities.

Reason:I don't know why...

Solution: Vision — When other people don't see the reason behind your directions, you need to get their support to move forward. This is often a trust issue. A senior leader's vision for the organization is a good start, but employees also need to know how they fit into that vision and why their organizational processes are critical to accomplishing the vision.

Reason:I don't want to...

Solution: Motivate — This is the most challenging reason people underperform — when people know what to do and how to do it, but they are not motivated enough to do it or they feel they have a better way. Sometimes people even try to sabotage the process to slow down changes. In this situation, you must use your influence to get results. Motivation is the key. If people know what to do, how to do it, believe they can do it, and know why they should do it, non-performance must be due to some other barrier that may not be immediately discernable. Look at how the organization is inspiring its employees. Are they being kept busy without knowing how their activities relate to the organization's mission or vision? Inspired employees have the internal desire to achieve the vision.