Differentiating Your Business For Success

Apropos to the approaching holidays – it’s “Cookie-Cutter” week! I’m sure this obscure holiday was named for the baking activities that often occur at this time of the year, but today we’ll talk a little about veering away from a “Cookie-Cutter” approach to business to help you stand out from the crowd – in a good way – and draw to you, your ideal clients.

There are standards of practice in almost every complementary health care discipline and those should always be adhered to, so in consideration of that; in what ways can you stand out from those offering the same thing as you?  How does someone choose to visit you for their wellness needs vs. Bob down the street?  In what ways do you differentiate yourself and your offering to attract your ideal clients? 

These are important points to consider because when you can articulate and demonstrate what makes you, uniquely you, it becomes easier for the people who most need and value your services to find you.  For those who will refer to you, it helps them to be able to send the right people your way.

You may be demonstrating your uniqueness already in ways you don’t even realize!  Perhaps it’s your breadth of offering.  Maybe it’s your specialization in a specific technique. Is it your monthly draw for a gift basket?  Is it the ambiance you provide in your work space?   You may have your perception of what makes you unique and valuable to your clients, but what do they say?  You can be sure they have a different experience being in your practice than you do. 

So, here’s the thing, if you can articulate to potential clients and those who may refer to you, the things your clients value most about what you offer, you will have a powerful, authentic descriptor for your business that will resonate with your ideal clients.

Put these two or three of these points into a phrase and use it when describing your business to others.  Doing this will attract your ideal clients.  Additionally, referral sources will be able to direct to you those who will most value the services you provide.

6 Steps To Write A Compelling Vision Statement

It’s not just important to have a vision of where your business is going – it’s critical.  If you can’t “see” where you’re headed, then how will you know if you get there?  Those who are in alignment with the concept of attracting what they want in their lives, know it all starts with a vision of what they desire.

Oddly enough, many health and wellness practitioners are attracted to this thinking, but resist taking the steps to do this with their business.  There is a feeling of wanting things to develop organically and by getting into the details and specifics; this will somehow “jinx” the result, so it’s avoided.  Others think that if they “dream” too big, they will just be disappointed, so it’s better to just be happy with what they have or with whatever comes vs. setting their hopes on a vision that seems too far out of reach.

Both of these are faulty thinking.  They keep you from moving forward, growing and creating the level of achievement you deserve and desire. 

Lacking a clear, compelling vision for your business is like getting on a plane, not knowing the destination, flying with your eyes closed and after 36 hours in the air, ending up pretty much right were you started. With the addition of feeling exhausted and jet-lagged!

If you’re looking to grow your business and create the practice you’ve been dreaming of, it all starts with a clear, compelling vision.

Here are 6 steps to creating it:

1. Dream Big – Write freely without judgment, questioning or being “realistic”; your highest vision of what your business and life could be.  Write it in the present tense as if it’s already here.
2. Make it a Stretch – Your vision should paint a picture of what you can achieve beyond where you currently are. 
3. Tie it to the Bigger Picture – Answer the questions, “What will it bring me to achieve this?”  For example: Will it bring you freedom to spend more time with loved ones, or inner peace and harmony? Understand what’s at the root of your desire to achieve this vision.
4. Be Accountable – Share your vision with someone else.  Write it down and post it where you will see it every day. Our motivation is heightened when we declare it out loud to ourselves and to others, and it resonates more strongly with the universe.
5. Take action Every Day – Do one thing every day that moves you towards your goal.
6. Remain Flexible – Be drawn to the vision, not attached to it.  This is about the journey, not the destination.

A clear, compelling vision draws you toward it.  It’s doesn’t strangle or intimidate you.  Like a flower reaches towards the sun; your vision propels you forward, grows you and encourages you to expand to your greatest potential.

Tips for Coping with Difficult Clients

Difficult customers are the worst deal with, aren’t they?  I can’t write about this topic without sharing with you one of my worst client interactions experienced over my 15 years of corporate sales.

My “favorite” story is about the time I was visiting a client (Orthopaedic Surgeon) in his office after months of calling to get this precious appointment.  Our company had been trying to get this particular surgeon to work with us for a very long time and I was the “star” that got the appointment – lucky me.  My manager at the time felt this was so important he’d better come along on the visit.  We were escorted into the Dr.’s office and as the door shut behind us – before we’d even sat down – the Dr. looked at his watch and said “You have exactly 5 minutes.”  We had prepared this wonderful, elaborate pitch to tell him all about the attributes of our products and company that in no way shape or form could fit into 5 min.  So we sat, and my manager started talking about all the good things we offered. Literally, in the middle of one of his sentences the Dr. stood up and exclaimed “You’ve burned your time!” The words still ring in my head.

Oh, I have a trunk full of these gems. 

Difficult customers or clients are a part of doing business, and dealing well with the situation when it arises will not only give you peace of mind, but if you deal with the situation professionally it can often turn your most difficult customers into you most loyal!  True.

Step 1: Listen carefully with the intention of understanding from their point of view what has upset them – even if you don’t agree or don’t see it their way. Practice active listening by repeating back to them what you hear them saying, impartially and without judgment.  Listen for the real concern.

Step 2: Ask if there is anything else so that you can be as clear as possible before you respond.  It gives them a chance to let off steam and calm down and gives you a chance to step back and decide on the best response.  Note: If the client is being abusive or you feel threatened, acknowledge it and let them know that your intention is to hear them out and resolve the issue, but you won’t accept their aggressive behavior.  You can choose to contact them later if appropriate.

Step 3: Respond to their concern/complaint.  Let them know that you heard them and that you value their feedback.  Even if you don’t agree with what they’re saying, there is likely something of value to you in the point they’re raising.  Let them know how what they’re telling you is of value to you.  Thank them for taking the time to bring it up.

The biggest no-no is to get into an argument with your clients.  As service providers we count on referrals and we all know that bad press travels fast.  Acting with integrity and professionalism in the face of adversity will leave a better impression that being right and making your client wrong.

Acts of Kindness

It’s World Peace Day today!  Today encourages us to be kind to others and to teach others to be peaceful.

There are many ways to cultivate peace in the world and in our business; through our actions, our thoughts and even our language.  We often think that the only form of violence is through action, but our thoughts and words carry with them a powerful energy that has an impact on the world around us too.

There is a great book by Marshall B. Rosenberg called “Nonviolent Communication, The Language of Life” in which he shares a way of communicating to peacefully resolve personal, professional and political differences. In it he reminds us that we have a choice in every situation, and changing our language to reflect that deepens our compassion for ourselves and others.

So today, what can you do to cultivate peace in your world?  What can you commit to doing differently in your thoughts, words or actions for one day?

Here some ideas for service providers:

• Offer a free snack or drink to all your clients today
• Offer 10% or $10 off their next treatment to all who come in today
• Raise your awareness of your thoughts.  Become aware of thoughts of anger or resentment towards others and practice compassion remembering we’re all on our own journey
• Be mindful of the words we speak to others – are we putting the other person down or “in their place” to make us right?   Practice listening and understanding the other’s point of view even if we don’t agree.
• Meditate.  Be still.
• Have fun!  Do something playful – something that brings you joy!  Have a draw or contest at your office that encourages happiness.
• Donate a portion of your earnings today to a cause close to your heart.

 Be the droplet that starts the ripple in the pond.

 “A smile is the beginning of peace.” – Mother Theresa

How to Listen to a Buyer

Thank you to Sharon Drew Morgan for today’s article.  Sharon is the visionary and thought leader behind Buying Facilitation®, the new sales paradigm that focuses on helping buyers manage their buying decision.  Sharon’s new book, “Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what  you can do about it” will be released Oct. 15, 2009!

Until or unless buyers know how to manage the tangles of people and policies that hold their Identified Problem in place, they will not make a purchase no matter how urgent their need or how appropriate your solution.

Because sales unwittingly focuses on the very last stages of the buyer’s buying decision, sellers are trained to listen carefully for all of the details around ’need.’ Once sellers understand how their solution would fit into the ‘need’ or the ‘pain’, they work hard to advantageously place their product/service information so buyers will know how to buy. Which they do, around 7% of the time.

Of course, the need-based, info gathering questions that sellers ask are eventually a vital part of the sales model. But they don’t help the buyer understand how to address the internal stuff we’re not privy to, and that they need to manage on their own, prior to any sort of solution choice.

Our questions, ultimately, don’t help the buyer make a buying decision. And we’re asking them at the wrong time.

By now we all know that there is a huge area of off-line issues that buyers must manage before they are ready to buy. Not to mention that once they go through this behind-the-scenes process of finding the right folks to put onto the Buying Decision Team, clearing time and initiatives to make room for bringing something new aboard, or resolving old vendor issues,  for example, their needs get redefined one way or another.

So the details we’ll hear about their ’need’ from the buyer at the beginning of the info gathering process is not the same as what we’ll hear later on. No one’s fault – just the fallout of the sales process being focused on the wrong thing at the wrong time.

LISTENING FOR SYSTEMS, NOT INFORMATION OR NEED

There is another form of listening necessary to actually help buyers address their off-line conversations so they can actually have help garnering buy-in to make a purchase. Note that this Buying Facilitation® part of  a seller’s job is NOT SALES, but a different activity that needs to be added to the front end of the sales process as if it were a different language.

It’s a very different listening: You’re listening to serve as a guide and to facilitate the route without traveling it yourself. You are actually leading them through change. They can’t buy anything until they line up these internal issues anyway – it might as well be with you on their Team. Just remember that this guidance is not about their need!

So before listening for the DETAILS of need, sellers must listen for the SYSTEM that buyers live in to help them manage the behind-the-scenes elements that must agree to add a new solution.  I write about this entire process in my new book coming out 15 October, Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it. In this blog I’ll just mention a few elements.

Has your prospect figured out the right members that need to be on the Buying Decision Team? Asking them who will be on the Team is useless: at the beginning of the change process, prospects really don’t know all of the people that must  be involved… and of course, we can’t help them, because we’re not there with them.

Does your prospect know, and know how to manage why, the problem has existed so long? Who/what has kept it in place? What is the work-around that maintains it daily and how will it be addressed if change is occurring?

Since our prospects have to go off-line to manage change before they can buy, we can either wait til after they’ve figured it all out and they come back (as we do now), or learn a new skill set: facilitate buyers through all of the elements they need to address. We will do this as decision facilitators or change managers – NOT sellers. And, because so much of it has little to do with their need or our solution, we really, really have to add a new skill set to the one we’ve been using for so long.

6 Steps to Overcoming Firsts

Being an entrepreneur is just a big, fat pile of “firsts”! Sometimes you think they will never end – especially in the beginning years.  It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed with the unending litany of new and uncomfortable tasks; business plans, sales, accounting, bookkeeping, websites, creating products, packaging services, renting space, social networking…the list goes on and on. 

All we want to do is practice our craft, yet in order to get people into our practice and do just that, we are forced to do all of this other “stuff” to get there.  Hmmm, does it sound like I’m speaking from experience? Let me share with you what I’ve learned about pushing forward when all you want to do is pull back…

 Here are 6 steps you can take today to get you through your “Why the &%$# am I doing this!” moments:

1. Big Picture: Revisit your vision.  Remember why you decided to start your business in the first place, and focus on the results you are working to realize. Look at the big picture.  Also, connect with something bigger than yourself and the knowing that you will be ok.  This too shall pass. (…and it will pass faster after you do it!)
2. Cry it Out: Sometimes you just need to curl up in a ball and cry “Why! Why! Why!”  Then you wipe away your chocolate-tinged tears and get back to work!  It’s your life and it’s your business.  Allow yourself time to express your frustrations in the way that works for you, and then move on.
3. Take a Step Back: Avoid leaping to drastic conclusions like assuming that just because you haven’t had any new clients this month, that your practice will fail.  Challenge any limiting beliefs and do a reality check on what’s really true about this situation and review what makes you so brilliant!
4. Get “Quality” Support: Imagine having someone who can either do the work you hate and are avoiding, or someone who has a formula for doing what you struggle with?  Your struggle is someone else’s talent – find them and ask them to help you. Find someone who specializes in the type of support you are looking for. In today’s entrepreneurial world the resources are abundant – VA’s, coaches, home study programs, books etc.  Plan, interview and do your homework so that you are working with the resource that will serve your needs the best.
5. Get Over It!  Yup, that pretty much sums it up.  Step up to the plate, take responsibility for the choice you made to go into business for yourself.  You are stronger, more talented, gifted and brilliant than you give yourself credit for.  Only by stretching and doing the uncomfortable will you be able to know how strong you really are.  Flex those business muscles!
6. Take Action: It’s imperative to take the steps you need to move forward in creating the business and life you want to have.  YOU WILL NOT GROW YOUR BUSINESS HIDING IN YOUR OFFICE, BEHIND YOUR COMPUTER OR BURRIED IN YOUR 100TH SPIRITUAL GROWTH COURSE!  You know what needs to be done to grow your business – and if you don’t – ask someone who does!  

Remember, when it comes to firsts, after you’ve done it once, you’ve overcome not knowing how to do it, and it’s not a first anymore!  Add one more thing to your list of things you know how to do.

You went into business for yourself to serve the world in a way that only you can.  You have all that it takes to live your dream!

Believing in the Brilliance of Others

The other morning when I let my Portuguese Water Dog Emma out for her morning duties, I noticed a fledgling Robin in our back yard.  This little guy hadn’t mastered flight yet, as a matter of fact, it was probably its first moment out of the nest. 

I watched him all day trying to fly – all on his own.  I thought he had been abandoned by his parents and being the “savior of all things furry, feathery and small” I was ready to make a little nest for him as per the instructions I looked up on the internet. I researched what to feed him, how to feed him and how to care for the little guy until…I don’t know when.  I told my husband Dave about him and he kept telling me to leave him alone that he needed to learn on his own.  I became obsessed with watching his failed attempts and then periods of rest.  To allow him space without fear or interruption, I kept Emma out of the yard and took her for a long walk to give “Peep” – yes, of course I named him (or her) – the space to keep practicing.

A few hours later I saw his mom arrive to feed him while he was on the ground,  I then knew for sure it was all part of flight training.  Later in the afternoon, Peep was still in our yard, on the low rung of our garden fence and since he didn’t seem wary of humans yet, I approached him.  I took oh, about 100 pictures of him and I crept closer and closer until I realized that he didn’t mind me being there.  I got right up to him and he let me rub his little spotted belly.  That was so great! After sharing this amazing news with Dave, he promptly told me that now I will have to look after him since his parents won’t take him back now that he’s been touched by a human.  Back to the internet to verify this fact as the guilt washed over me.  Nope, it’s a myth.  Peep will not be shunned by his family.  Phew.

Around dinner time Peep’s mom and dad came back, fed him some more and then more flight training.  By nightfall he had made it into the tree in our yard and I’m guessing, into his nest to sleep.   The whole day of watching this guy struggle, then succeed made me think how many times in my desire to “help” those I perceive as suffering in some way, that my interventions could actually be hindering them.  Gulp.  

At the same time that Peep was in our yard, I was struggling with a family situation that was pushing all my “savior” buttons and I was contemplating intervening to “help” those involved.  That day with Peep taught me how we can inadvertently cripple those we’re trying to assist simply by our beliefs about what they are capable of.  Peep reminded me of the brilliance within each and every one of us!

How to sell with authenticity and integrity

The cornerstone of the health and wellness service industry is ethical behaviour and integrity.  For small to mid-sized business owners, the business is a direct extension of us, and we want our presence to be in alignment with what we offer and how we offer it.  We want to be authentic; genuine, real and true to our selves, our beliefs and values. 

Hmmm, how much of that sounds like selling?  It’s actually the exact opposite of how most people define selling.  Well, not to me! 

I spent my 15-years of corporate sales work in the healthcare industry being highly successful because I worked in a way that was in alignment with my ethics, was true to who I was, and with honesty and sincerity.  Yes, it is possible for all that stuff to live together in harmony.

The starting point is to know yourself – so that you know when you’re in or out of alignment with who you are.

Here are 5 steps to knowing yourself better:

1. What are your true values?  These are the things that you must have in all work and personal interactions.  (eg: honesty, affection, commitment, independence etc.)  You can find values lists on the internet for ideas
2. What do you stand for?  (What do you and your business represent in the world?)
3. What will you not compromise?
4. What are your top 5 strengths? Things that come with ease, that you look forward to doing, and time passes quickly when you’re doing it.
5. What have others told you you’re good at?

As strange it sounds, sometimes what we know least is our self.  Our society is externally focused and motivated so it’s easy to lose our way.  When we know who we are and what we represent, we now have a touchstone to measure our actions against.  That’s how you sell and operate your business with authenticity and integrity.

Next time we’ll look at:  Using your Emotional Intelligence in selling!

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