The

Power Of Great Connections by Tim Sanders for Women In The Channel

Introduction: The turnaround in my career came after a realization: The secret to sales is in building strong relationships. I learned this from my mentor, the late Stanley Marcus Jr. To your clients, your value add stems from a formula: Demonstrated contribution, divided by the quality of your relationship with them. If the latter is lacking, the former is hard to prove. Since then, Ive studied this deeply, first at the Yahoo think tank, and for the last six years, at Deeper Media. Relationships are created when transactions take on an emotional quality. Why are relationships important? * Getting Through Broadbents Filter * Selling Solutions > Selling Stuff or Sizzle * The 25/200 Rule of Sales * When Things Go Wrong In Technology: Relationships = Forgiveness What Drives A Relationship? The Norm of Reciprocity the provider/client account. Takeaway Part One: Building Strong Relationships Through Sharing When you share with others, it changes their perspective on you for the better. The trick is to be able to scale this, or share that which grows as you give it away. Intangibles are key! A. Share Knowledge * Knowledge solutions are always welcome, especially during times of change * Deep readers are better customer leaders (book recommendations, reading style) * The Mentorship Cycle B. Share Your Network * Networking VS Prospecting VS Brokering * The Elmer Letterman Story (building a successful Small Biz during the Depression) * Screen others for your ability to connect or help. Employ during the reception! * Weekly goal: introduce 3 people that should meet. C. Share Your Compassion For Customers, eliminate Surprise via excellence in expectations management. Give recognition to people that help you to deliver validation and motivate them to give even more. (interaction exercise). Takeaway Part Two: Driving Your EVP (Emotional Value Proposition) Research from Information Rules: People skills drive more IT success than technology/data! This is because our ability to make emo-connections drives adoption. **For my 2nd book, The Likeability Factor, my team discovered that we all possess three value propositions in business and life: Financial, Emotional and Social. The Likeability Factor = when you can consistently produce positive emotions in others. A. Friendliness Are communicating thoughtfulness in every transaction/interaction? - The primacy of following the customers communications preferences - Email Etiquette (as per your free license to watch the entire program) B. Relevance Are we connecting at the passion2passion level (5 by 5 exercise) C. Listening Skills Reading Faces exercise D. Authenticity Most important driver of trust: Finishes what she starts. We have problems in small-task execution, and in some cases, client-campaign execution. ** Takeaways: Obsess about made-promises via meeting note-taking, post meeting documentation. Keep a painful-to-keep promise to teach yourself the value of setting realistic expectations. Closing story from my childhood, The Miler.