Why do Stories Work?

I find myself becoming more and more intrigued by story telling and how to use this ancient art form more effectively in our daily business lives.  We are all story tellers and yet it seems somehow that we overlook this very essential part of who we are when we don our business armour.

The following is part of a recent Harvard Business Review blog published by Nick Morgan.  It interested me and I think that it is worth sharing in order to give it greater traction.

“To influence human decision making, you have to get to the place where decisions are really made — in the unconscious mind, where emotions rule, and data is mostly absent. Yes, even the most savvy executives begin to make choices this way. They get an intent, or a desire, or a want in their unconscious minds, then decide to pursue it and act on that decision. Only after that do they become consciously aware of what they’ve decided and start to justify it with rational argument. In fact, recent research from Carnegie-Mellon University indicates that our unconscious minds actually make better decisions when left alone to deal with complex issues.”

“Data is helpful as supporting material, of course. But, because it spurs thinking in the conscious mind, it must be used with care. Effective persuasion starts not with numbers, but with stories that have emotional power because that’s the best way to tap into unconscious decision making.”

“Good stories — with a few key facts woven in — are what attach emotions to your argument, prompt people into unconscious decision making, and ultimately move them to action.”

 

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/05/decisions-dont-start-with-data/?utm_source=Socialflow&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=Socialflow

 

The Levers to Your Sales Growth Success

Dun & Bradstreet conducted a study that evaluated the factors that contribute to business success. They concluded the following:

– businesses with high sales tend to succeed

– businesses with low sales tend to fail

– all else is commentary    

We can cut our costs, improve our efficiency, consolidate our purchasing power, etc. However, ultimately, our success is going to be measured by how well we sell our goods and services. Hence, our future success lies in how effectively we pull on those levers that influence sales growth.

Sales Growth Success

Brian Tracy is the person who introduced me to the following approach related to sales growth. He describes adherence to the following as The Way to Wealth.

In order to generate increased sales revenue, we need to determine how we can leverage the four inputs that drive sales.

First, we need to find more leads who we will convert into prospects. (This step requires that we know where or how we can find leads.) In turn, we need to convert the resulting prospects into customers.  Both of these steps have a corresponding conversion rate. That is, what percentage of our leads do we turn into prospects and what percentage of prospects become customers?

Can we find more leads and increase our conversion rates?

Once we have customers enjoying our goods or services, we need to know the number of transactions per customer that have occurred during a given period. For the sake of illustration, let’s consider a 12 month period.

How do we increase the number of transactions of each customer?

Finally, our measurements need to capture the average dollar amount per transaction during the 12 months under consideration. Do we have a strategy that we can use to increase this number?

Now, please understand that measuring the above numbers are critical to understanding where we can apply greater leverage to our business. So, if these numbers aren’t part of our current key performance indicators, we need to realize that flying in the dark can be extremely hazardous!

In summary, we know that the levers to our sales success include finding more leads and converting them to more prospects and subsequently converting them to a greater number of customers. What can we do to improve our lead/prospect conversion rates?  Once we have them in the door as customers, what actions can we take to increase the frequency of their purchases and the dollar amount that is spent on each purchase?  This is where we might put on our marketer’s cap to contemplate such things as segmentation and differentiation, as part of our marketing strategy. But, that is for another post.

Now it is time to leverage your sales growth to greater heights!  May the fulcrum be with you!

For some greater detail on the above subject, you might like to listen to a webinar that I recently conducted for SmallBusinessSolvers. It can be watched below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01V2ZSoUxUM

 

 

 

BIZBUZZ: H. Thompson: Who Stole My Customer

This is episode 10 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations in order to challenge business owners to Be Different and to Act Boldly.  The following video highlights several observations from Harvey Thompson’s book Who Stole My Customer that I found interesting.

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to BIZBUZZ.

I’ve chosen to comment on Who Stole My Customer, a book written by Harvey Thompson that deals with the subject of customer touchpoints.

I’d like to highlight three observations from the book that I feel are noteworthy.

Thompson first posits that at every touchpoint intersection, the customer’s processes are interacting with the company’s processes.  His customer touchpoints are:

– they gather information & shop

– they make a purchase

– they receive the purchased item

– they pay for the purchase

– they use the product/service

– they experience post purchase customer service

– they buy again or discontinue the relationship

So, have your internal processes for these touchpoints been designed with your customers in mind?

A logical extension of this first point is that customer touchpoints represent both an opportunity and a risk.  As obvious as this statement is, how well are we seizing the opportunity to make our customers happy, in order to minimize our risk?  [for more on differentiation, read To Be Different or Not (at Your Peril)]

My final observation is Thompson’s definition as to why customers defect.  He claims that first among the major reasons is lack of courtesy.  This is followed by competence.  Does everyone in your organization know what courtesy looks like?

Well, that’s it for Who Stole My Customer.

Thanks for watching.

Your comments are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more BIZBUZZ.

To Be Different or Not (at Your Peril)

It’s easy to talk about being different.

We can all sagely nod our heads and claim that we fully understand the importance of differentiation. We all get the notion that we need to be different in our offering, in some meaningful way, if we are going to successfully attract and retain customers.

The next question is the one that seems to cause us some issue.

Do we actually implement some type of differentiation in our business?

My informal, non-scientific observations suggest that our understanding of differentiation frequently gets parked at the door. We seem to be so immersed in the day-to-day minutiae of running our businesses, that we overlook what it takes to stand out from our competitors. Prospects can buy from us; buy from our competitors or not buy at all. If we don’t focus on maintaining some type of compelling differentiation within our business, why should anyone care?

In Harvey Thompson’s book Who Stole My Customer, he claims that the top two major reasons for losing prospects or customers is lack of courtesy followed by lack of competence. These are both staff related issues. Both speak to skills that can be learned. Both suggest areas where a differentiation strategy could pay significant dividends to the business.  [learn more about Who Stole My Customer in episode 10 of BIZBUZZ]

Phil Kotler (of marketing fame) states that the company that stops getting better gets worse.

Getting better is a conscious decision taken by the business owner. It involves a focus on differentiation.  Better must, by definition, indicate a better experience for our customers.

Are you engaging in a periodic review of your differentiation strategy, in this very crowded space that we occupy?  If you’re not, beware!