Just because you work for someone else, doesn’t mean you should not consider yourself 100% responsible for your own business success.

I am always surprised how many people, when asked why they were laid off, say “I don’t know why I was in the 10% laid off.” The same people frequently say things like  “I make my revenue quotas every year” without really knowing how they are viewed versus others at their current employer with the same quota track record or title. It is also typical of those who rely too heavily on relationship-building strategies.

You need to know how to make opportunities for yourself in any situation, independent of, or in spite of, the organization agenda.

Because employers will experience more and more pressure from globalization and innovation in the future, employers will have less and less ability to care for an individual’s destiny. It will be increasingly critical for you to know, defend, and augment your value to the current organization and the larger industry. It is just as important to a happy, currently working employee as to someone unemployed.

So how do you gain traction over your own image?

The key strategy is to gain awareness of your impact on the organization and customers as others measure it. You need to solicit constant feedback from your internal and external customers: What can I do to serve you better? Where do I (and we, the company) impact your business most? What do you value? What would you like me to do less of? Who are the other stakeholders I should get to know better (and serve) better? How do I rank versus your other providers? What are your unmet needs?

You need to be sincere about these questions, and ask them in an “open-ended manner” so that you hear issues other than the ones you expected.

If you have grown up in an engineering-driven or sales-driven environment, you need to become more customer-centric. The customer doesn’t care much about your agenda as provider, and will care less and less in the future as they will have more and more providers and services to choose from. You need to be seen as the preferred provider. Are you?

Career coaching is as relevant to someone happily working as to someone in transition.

Topics: branding + positioning, communications, getting ahead, management skills, networking, selling skills, visibility | No Comments »

A huge percentage of the sales people I know brag about being “a relationship builder.” Simply because so many of you mention it, it is a useless differentiator, but there is a bigger problem with the positioning. A recent study proves that, if relationship building is your primary strategy as a sales person, you are relying on one of the least effective sales strategies for today’s market.

I am not suggesting the remedy is “consultative” or “SPIN Selling” where the rep asks the customer to identify his needs. This new study and resulting strategy comes from the same folks¹ who invented the SPIN Selling concept in the 1970s but they now recommend against a customer driven process. The sales people who are most successful in today’s market are collectively called “Challengers” and are in a position to LEAD the conversation with the client, not react to it.

Here is what we know about the sales process with challenger reps:

Success comes from helping customers think differently and bringing them new ideas. The challenger rep goes way beyond asking customers what their unmet needs are (VOC) or offering services to a customer driven solution that any competitor would have suggested. It is about identifying unarticulated needs no one else can meet. The challenger rep is more expert than the potential customer about how to grow business using the technology or services in discussion but the focus is not on selling the vendor’s product. It is about teaching the client to manage his business better.

Three-quarters of vendors currently attempt to be a solutions provider. The challenger rep can push the customer to a solution the customer had not imagined and can’t implement as well on his own. The solution will be one the competition cannot do as well or imitate for a lower price. The challenger rep is able to support his price and stay in control through the teaching role and strategic insight. This rep can sell his idea to different stakeholders across the client matrix. The soundness of the solution will make sense in spite of the condition of the economy.  (These reps gain share in a bad economy.)

Are you thinking the challenger rep walks on water? It all stems from having the self–awareness to understand why and when the client would buy from you over someone else. You can’t be all things to all people, but you can sell by knowing for which customers your company can be the preferred resource. What customers can you teach something to? Do you know the things each stakeholder at the client cares about? You must discover this before the first conversation, through in-depth market research, as discovery at a field sales call is way too late. You need to have several solutions and pitches to the different stakeholders already thought through at the first sales call and you must lead with a discussion of the client’s problem, not your products. A sales or engineering driven company is at a real disadvantage in this evolved solutions process.

Regardless of your present comfort zone or company commitment to the process, any rep can become more like a challenger rep. The key is to be pro-active and do discovery before approaching the client. Solve the client’s problems, don’t sell features. If you are in an environment of where complex sales are the rule, “Challenger” reps are 2.5 times more likely than the average sales person to be a high performer and 5 times likely than the “Relationship Builder”. The likelihood that a “Relationship Builder” achieves star status is nearly zero. Buy the book The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson.

¹ Sales Exec Council, www.executiveboard.com

Topics: branding + positioning, getting ahead, ideation, innovation, leadership, selling skills, technical skills | 1 Comment »

A big (or small) “network” means little if you have not made a lasting, memorable impression on it. Meeting someone at an event or being connected to him/her in LinkedIn means nothing if that person is not subsequently a strong advocate of your personal and business value.

Business and personal value are measured by the trust and influence others assign to you, not the “power” of your title, degree, or size of your network. Think about this. There are many bosses you don’t respect and don’t listen to because they don’t seem to be open to their environment. Because they think they have all the answers and have stopped learning, you don’t trust their thinking. Influence comes from trust in their judgment and two-way input.

How do you demonstrate and increase your sphere of influence? Talk about the projects and the related employees, co-workers, and customers you have mentored. Be as quick to make a more junior co-worker look better as your boss. Show others how you were successful. Talk about smart articles you read that someone else authored. We need to hear and trust your judgment on issues that are most important to us.

Just being a nice guy is not enough. I won’t invest any of my money in that guy. On the other hand, showing that you helped Joe learn how to afford his first house does have value in establishing your ethics and character even if it didn’t make you money. (And I couldn’t actually have advised Joe how to be credit worthy.)

LinkedIn can be a tool to demonstrate and exercise your influence, but most users have not learned to use it that way. I would argue that you are better off staying out if you don’t use it well.

The most influential networking is more about giving than receiving and more about listening than preaching. A sincere effort to help others will be most memorable to your audience.

Topics: branding + positioning, business skills, communications, getting ahead, leadership, networking, selling skills, visibility | 3 Comments »

At a recent breakfast with other career professionals, we got into a discussion of the characteristics of who is likely to be out the longest when unemployed.

The most common trait: Too little awareness of his/her value to the businesses he/she has come from versus other available resources.

In my practice, these folks fall into two sub-segments:

The Traditionalist:
• Someone who has worked for a single company for 10-20 years and after being laid off, has had no luck getting back in. Doesn’t know why.
• Doesn’t really know to what degree or when he exceeded expectations at the last employer. Not sure how he was ranked versus other employees, except that he was kept on many years and made quotas most of the time. “My boss/company took care of me.” To be fair to this person, education (and religion) in this country breeds workers to let their companies manage their fate.
• Is pretty sure he is out of work because of big business, the Democrats, Republicans, or “poor management.”

The Arrogant:
• This person has progressed through the ranks and has successfully held a number of (3-6) of senior titles such as Director or VP. But now has been out over a year and gets interviews but no offers.
• Since he achieved Director+ level, is pretty sure it can’t be his fault. On the other hand, seems to have forgotten that, at the top of the pyramid, there aren’t enough chairs for everyone to be assured a chair when the music stops. The music has stopped a lot in the last 5 years.
• Talked to one of these the other day. Has achieved CEO and President of several medical device start-ups and companies under $30 million. But in his resume all he says is “I was CEO.” Describes the mergers and acquisitions that occurred while he was at the helm but doesn’t show what mission critical strategies he owns versus other senior staff involved in the same M&A. Makes no effort to show for which future companies and problems he is the best ROI (return on investment.) Doesn’t think he should have to.

By the way, the folks with these problems are more likely to be male (women are usually more self-aware and/or paranoid,) and very likely to be over the age of 50.

So if you suspect you have a bit of these traits, what do you do? Go back to former co-workers and bosses and identify what you did better/differently than other people they have interacted with at the same title and experience level. This is not the time to ask people who will say nice things to you because they don’t want to hurt your feelings. Learn to craft the arguments that will set you above all other pitches for whatever segments you can be the best ROI for. I know how to do that if you don’t.

Be willing to admit that in today’s market we all need to sell ourselves to our workplace, industry, family, and community 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Topics: branding + positioning, communications, getting ahead, leadership, selling skills | 3 Comments »

I really do believe that most LinkedIn profiles (and resumes) send a more negative than positive message about their owner because not enough thought or positioning differentiation has been put into them. Too many profiles make the owner look like a commodity player, or, even if metrics are provided, don’t leave the reader convinced that this executive was the key to why company sales grew 10%. More importantly, 75% of readers of your LinkedIn profile are not looking to hire you but are looking for someone to answer a question or be the source of a referral. To receive those queries and turn them into networking opportunities, you need to demonstrate EQ or social intelligence in your profile and LI activities. So spend a few minutes re-examining your LinkedIn presence and consider these questions:

• What comes to mind when people think about me as a professional brand? What have been my greatest personal successes or epiphanies? How am I different from others with the same title? How am I better? Have I demonstrated it convincingly?
• When a company has never worked with me or my firm previously, what do they want the most assurance about? Do I reflect knowledge of how my customers measure success and excellent customer service?
• What issues in the industry am I very knowledgeable about or do I want to promote? (Green energy, less government regulation…)
• What business issues do I have a personal passion about? (Ethics, empowering others, world peace…)
• Have I demonstrated my willingness to help others whether it makes me money or not?
• Have I said all of this in a way that identifies for which target audience or company I am most valuable or most interested in for the future (which might be different than my last role?)
• Have I provided references from key customers?

You get the idea. To be seen as the preferred resource in LinkedIn, you need to present yourself as a multi-dimensional executive whom not only has credible technical competency, but can and wants to collaborate, facilitate, and empower the world around you.

Topics: branding + positioning, business skills, communications, getting ahead, leadership, selling skills, technical skills, visibility | 3 Comments »