KeFactors Friday: Ah, rejection, my old friend, we meet again….

I’ve learned to embrace rejection with the Nietszche quote, “What doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger.”

• Rejection makes you strong, like bull. I had a friend who opted to go into a months-long retreat—“I haven’t properly grieved for my job”—the one she lost due to massive layoffs. Months of chest-beating and depression followed….I’m sorry, but….Come on! Unless you probe rejection for those hidden insights, you’re just letting it kick you while you’re down.
• Remember: rejection won’t kill you. It can make you feel like warmed-over duck poo for the rest of the day, but that’s just a few hours. What’s left is the information. Think of hidden insight as buried treasure, ready for you to pull it out of the ground.

Was your price too high? What, then, was the client really looking for?

You were asked to bid, but never really hit it off with the client panel—why?

You worked for years with this client and now they’re opting for another vendor, one of your rivals—what’s changed? How well did you observe those changes coming?

• Like anger, rejection has an immediate, clarifying effect. If human communications is an imperfect process, it’s partially because human beings dislike being direct or blunt about their choices. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings….I felt it best to let her down easy….I decided my point could be better made by saying nothing at all….All good intentions, often resulting in a muddled lot of wasted time.

Rejection is final and decisive, so it leaves you with clear-cut facts and circumstances.

If you get rejected, the situation compels you to rethink, to reconsider your priorities.

How important was this to me, really?

Never mind what I said…what did my actions say about my intentions?

Did my priorities mesh well with the customer’s?

What can I do differently or better, going forward?

• Rejection reminds you to keep abundant options. The fewer options you have, the more it hurts when one of them rejects you. If your job hunt list only has five prospects, of course it’ll rankle if four of them turn you down. But if your list has 50, then it’s easier to keep going to the rest if the first four are rejections.

• Rejections run in proportion with risk and effort: the more you attempt, the more you risk, the more rejections you’ll encounter. If you venture nothing for the next 20 years, you’ll be assured of zero rejections—but is that any way to live? The only way to live fully, to live an expansive life, is to encounter rejection and know how to read it, deal with it, and put it in its place.

Rejection always hurts—don’t plan to make it your new best friend—but over time, it can be like that abrasive, plain-spoken, but well-meaning aunt or uncle who barrels into your kitchen when you’re nursing a pounding head, and says, “OK, look, I must speak up: here’s why it went south.”

You hate them for speaking up but you always learn from what they’ve said. And after a while you don’t dread it when rejection comes through your door.

The Big One: Offer a Solution

To sell a big deal, you need to find a match between the customer’s problems and your company’s products and services. Generally, bigger problems are solved with a bundled offering providing an end-to-end solution.

Selling an established solution is easier than selling a brand new concept. Prior sales offer proof of your expertise, making it easier to open doors and start conversations with potential customers.

More on "The Big One" next Monday.

The Big One

An opportunity for a big deal is lurking in your account base, and while finding it may not be easy, it could be very lucrative when you focus on these areas.

Know exactly what you sell.
Big deals are built by bundling products and services into a single high-value solution. To identify winning combinations, hone your expertise on all the products and services your company offers. Sell on your strengths. Understand your weaknesses and be prepared to answer related objections.

Know why customers buy.
Both Starbucks and McDonald's sell coffee. Beyond price considerations, there are many reasons why some buyers prefer Starbucks while others prefer McDonald's. McDonald's has more lunch choices on its fast food menu and caters to kids. Starbucks, with its upscale coffee shop vibe, is more likely to be the destination of choice for business people meeting for coffee.

You know why you prefer Starbucks or McDonald's. To sell big deals you need to know why customers prefer you.

Identify your customer’s big problems.
Big deals come about because smart salespeople eliminate big problems related to:
• Inefficient processes.
• Low productivity.
• Excessive costs.
• Missed opportunities for higher revenues or increased profit.

More on "The Big One" Wednesday.

KeFactors Friday: The Dignity Domino

Security expert Gavin De Becker first introduced this term in his 1997 book, The Gift of Fear, urging employers to “prop up with courtesy and understanding” that bit of personal dignity in each employee, especially ones facing termination.

Young, broke, and eager to master his writing, John Steinbeck considered his options with a teacher’s advice to live in Europe: “Over there poverty is considered a misfortune. Here in America it’s considered shameful.”

Through no fault of our own, this recession has put a great many of us into a valley of shame—lengthy unemployment, debt, collections, notice of insufficient funds, foreclosure—all the scary harbingers of personal ruin.

As this economy slowly turns around, more and more I get called to speak on matters involving workplace civility and dealing effectively with difficult customers. No surprise. As pressures mount, people are finding it harder to maintain calm, patience, and understanding; they’re knotted up with fear—fear of foreclosure, fear of collections, fear of losing their jobs.

There’s nothing revolutionary about providing superior customer service during a slow economic recovery. It’s simple.

• Protect your customer’s dignity domino.
• Don’t embarrass the customer in front of others.
• No matter how sacred your policies are, don’t embarrass the customer in front of their own children (or employees). Recall the grocery scene from the old movie, “Terms of Endearment,” when a rude checkout clerk yells across the store, “She doesn’t have enough money!” — much to a young mother’s humiliation and to her children’s mortification.
• Emphasize that you’re aiming for a long-term relationship. How would you feel about remaining loyal to someone who throws you overboard at the first sign of trouble?
• Don’t let your competitors beat you to it, in simply being kinder and more understanding to your customers. As a recent car commercial said, “This isn’t over for any of us until it’s over for all of us.” Until it ends, we’ll need to help each other, especially if we want to count on customer loyalties when households start to experience “disposable income.” They may condemn ruined buildings but the human spirit is strong, and people always, always, always remember how they were treated.

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U.S.A.

To a wonderful Independence Day with family, friends and good food!

And a big THANK YOU to all the men and women who have served and continue to serve our country.

KeFactors Friday (Rewind): Adventures in Cold Calling

With the holiday weekend, I figured this Friday we could all use a KeFactors Friday Rewind. For more information on Lucy, visit her website - www.kefactors.com.

I've decided the American workplace is increasingly impenetrable: Lawmakers fret our borders are too porous? Well, they should get corporate policymakers to re-engineer border patrol, because then even American citizens would have trouble gaining re-entry.

Assuming you access an organization that — commendably — doesn't use electronic greetings, what you get is that Darwinian holdout of a dying breed: the human receptionist. And, like the dodo, this animal does not understand it's already in God's waiting room.

Today's adventure went like this:

Me, the cold caller: "Hi, I'd like to speak with John CEO." (Name changed to protect blah blah blah).
Receptionist: "Who?"
Me: "John CEO."
Re: "What department's he in?"
Me: "Erm...he's your CEO."
Re: "Oh. OK. Hold on, let me check. Does he work in this building?"
Me: "If you're the corporate headquarters, I would assume so, yes."
(Muzak version of "I Wanna Know What Love Is")
Re: (returning) "OK, hon, I've done some research and it looks like Mr. CEO does workhere, but he's out right now. Would you like to speak to one of his assistants?"
Me: (unstated: "I'll speak to Donald Trump if you've got him in fishnet tights")..."Sure.Who would I be speaking with?"
Re: "Hold on, let me check."
(Muzak: "Mandy"...life is cruel)
Re: (returning) "OK, hon, I'm switching you to Delphine Admin. She'll help you."
Me: "Thanks."
Re: "You have a nice (yawn) day."
Me: "Thanks."
Next: (voicemail) "Hello. This is Paul Backwater of the Employee Picnics department.I'm sorry I can't take your call right now, but...."
Me: (ringing again) "Ma'am? I was supposed to connect with your CEO's office but got your Picnics department instead. Can we try again for Delphine Admin?"
Re: "Who?!"