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January 18, 2017 By Deb Calvert Leave a Comment

The Buyer Experience Determines Your Long-Term Success

It’s a metric that merits more attention. What do your customers and prospects think about their interactions with you and your company? Is the buyer experience one they’d recommend and eagerly repeat?

Unfortunately, in chasing metrics that are focused on sales activities and results, we’re neglecting to measure what matters most. Long term success depends on how buyers feel about working with you. To build for the future, you need to lay a strong foundation with buyers.A positive buyer experience is proven to advance the sale from open to close more often and more quickly.

The Buyer Experience is more than good customer service

Service used to give you a competitive differentiation. But today, in the age of the empowered buyer, service is merely a commodity. Everyone provides equivalent service and, without it, you’re not even in the game.

Now you need to take it to the next level. In order to stay competitive, you have to offer more. Wharton marketing professional Barbara Khan says what you offer beyond service must be based on “recognizing the importance of providing an emotionally positive experience to customers.”Picture3.jpg

This experience must be positive. More noteworthy is that it must include an emotional component. That’s why sellers should focus first on building trust and truly connecting with buyers.

The Buyer Experience can’t be delivered by sales alone

But sellers can’t do it alone. The customer experience, whether B2C or B2B, is “the cumulative impact of multiple touchpoints” over the entire duration of a customer’s interaction with an organization (Martin Zwilling, Forbes, 3/9/14).

It used to work for a single seller to meet with a single buyer in an organization. Not any more. Now, more decision-makers are involved on the buyer side, and that means there is more varied functional expertise required to understand the needs and interests of each decision maker or influencer.

Further, the buyer experience will be unsatisfactory for the decision makers the seller is unable to emotionally connect with (due to barriers when the seller lacks functional-area expertise).

A better solution is to make a shift and involve more people in both the seller and the buyer organizations. This creates stronger bonds and increases the likelihood of a positive experience for the buyer at multiple touchpoints.

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The illustration above represents what this shift would look like. Rather than a fragile “butterfly” relationship where everything hinges on the buyer/seller connection, you’d aim for a stronger “diamond” relationship that connects functional units. The buyer and seller facilitate these relationships and work together to get more needs met in both organizations. It becomes a partnership.

The Buyer Experience is where value is created

When you focus on the experience, you create value for your buyer. Beyond the inherent value of your product and in addition to the added value offered by your company, created value comes from the experience. Only sellers and others who interact directly with buyers can respond instantly and uniquely to make each experience meaningful.

“Value creation is defined by the experience of a specific consumer, at a specific point in time at a specific location, in the context of a specific event… The experience space is conceptually distinct from that of the product space. In the experience space, the individual consumer is central, and an event triggers a co-creation experience… The involvement of the individual influences that experience. The personal meaning derived from the co-creation experience is what determines the value to the individual.”

– MIT Sloan Management Review

Creating value by focusing on the buyer experience is not optional if you want to win the sale and earn customer loyalty. This is one of the reasons why sellers must change their behaviors.

Buyers expect and respond more favorably when sellers behave the way leaders do. Tweet: Buyers expect and respond more favorably when sellers behave the way #leaders do. @PeopleFirstPS https://ctt.ec/f0B1Z+

Traditionally, sellers have not been expected to assemble teams and facilitate collaborative relationships. Sellers haven’t engaged with buyers to co-create something special. Sellers haven’t had to focus on emotional connections that give each buyer something more than the product and its benefits.

The Stop Selling & Start Leading® movement provides insights into precisely what buyers would like their sellers to do. We’re covering it all, step by step, here in the CONNECT2Sell Blog. The research with 530 B2B buyers makes it crystal clear that buyers expect an individualized experience.

Next Steps to Improve the Buyer Experience and to Join the Stop Selling & Start Leading® Movement:

  • Participate in our seller-side research. Tell us your Personal Best story and be entered into a prize drawing. We might feature your story in future publications.
  • Learn more about our research with buyers and the Stop Selling & Start Leading® movement.
  • Book a call to discuss how our speaking, coaching, training and consulting services will improve your sales productivity and effectiveness.

The award-winning CONNECT2Sell Blog is for professional sellers who believe, as we do, that Every Sale Starts with a Connection. Our 2017 emphasis will be on reporting buyer-side research and how sellers can connect with buyers and sell more effectively by adopting the behaviors of leaders. The Stop Selling & Start Leading® movement is all about the future state of sales anStop Selling & Start Leadingd your success as a Sales Professional.

Deb Calvert, “DISCOVER Questions® Get You Connected”author and Top 50 Sales Influencer, is President of People First Productivity Solutions, a UC Berkeley instructor, and a former Sales/Training Director of a Fortune 500 media company. She speaks and writes about the Stop Selling & Start Leading® movement and offers sales training, coaching and consulting as well as leadership development programs. She is certified as an executive and sales coach by the ICF and is a Certified Master of The Leadership Challenge®. Deb has worked in every sector and in 14 countries to build leadership capacity, team effectiveness and sales productivity with a “people first” approach.

Filed Under: CONNECT2SELL Blog

January 16, 2017 By Deb Calvert Leave a Comment

How Boldness Helps Emerging Leaders Leapfrog in Their Careers

As an emerging leader, you’re just beginning to be noticed. People are paying attention, watching and waiting and wondering to see if you have what it takes.

53 - podium.pngThis is not the time to be reticent. It’s time to be bold in your actions, words and choices. Being bold means showing courage and accepting challenges. It doesn’t mean being brash in your demanor or rash in your actions. To continue being noticed in a positive way, you need to be bold and daring in ways that move the team forward.

Emerging Leaders often hold back because they fear failure

Yes, it’s true. You’re in the spotlight now. Your mistakes, just like your successes, will be more evident to more people.

Also true: you will fail. Everyone does. The fastest way to fail at this point, though, is to do nothing. That spotlight is fickle, and it will turn to someone else if you aren’t continuing to try new things and stretch yourself.

The failure itself is not what will prevent you from growing in your career. What matters is how you handle your failure.

Right there, in the spotlight, you need to boldly own your failure. Learn from it. Show change and growth because of it.

Emerging Leaders sometimes take it too far

While some at this career juncture retreat into the shadows and passively wait around for something to happen, others go to the opposite extreme. That’s no good either.

Being aggressive isn’t the same thing as being bold. Aggressiveness is beyond boldness. It’s self-serving, bullying and cowardly.

Emergin Leaders Assertiveness Continuum new 2.png

Using the chart above, you want to aim for the green column. By being assertive, you boldly demonstrate your leadership abilities. Shifting from your independent role where you thrived by being a strong individual contributor, you’ll now need to make choices and take actions that serve the group’s needs.

Emerging leaders who are bold and authentic make the best impression

When you are confident in your ability to recover from a failure and self-assured enough to try new things without being paralyzed by fear, you will not feel a need to be aggressive.

Instead of banking on others’ weaknesses, you’ll be relying on your own strengths. This is an expression of authenticity, an important companion to boldness for emerging leaders.

Next Steps for Emerging Leaders who want to demonstrate their boldness:

1. Join the CONNECT Community to receive exclusive videos, infographics and tools for leaders who want to take it to the next level.
2. Check out this webinar on How to Avoid 3 Common Stumbling Blocks on Your Way to the C-Suite.  It’s free, available live on 1/24/17 and on-demand after that date.
3. Find out if coaching is right for you. This simple self-assessment will help you determine whether or not it makes sense for you to work with an Executive Coach at this point.

Deb Calvert is a certified Executive Coach, Certified Master with The Leadership Challenge® and architect of leadership development programs for nearly 100 organizations. She helps leaders at every level discover and achieve their leadership goals. Deb is the founder of People First Productivity Solutions, building organizational strength by putting people first since 2006.CONNECT 2 Lead graphic smal

Filed Under: CONNECT2LEAD Blog

January 13, 2017 By Deb Calvert Leave a Comment

The Top 10 Effective Teamwork Skills You Can Starting Building Today

Action-oriented leaders work to recruit and develop effective teamwork skills for all members of the team.

effective teamwork skillsBut the leader alone can’t (and shouldn’t!) bear the sole responsibility for development of the team. Instead, every member of the team has a responsibility to take action and work on his or her own individual development in ways that contribute to the team. Take charge of your own contribution and effectiveness. [Read more…]

Filed Under: CONNECT2WIN Blog Tagged With: connect2win, team effectiveness, team work

January 11, 2017 By Deb Calvert Leave a Comment

How to Advance the Sale and Enhance the B2B Sales Experience

The B2B sales experience is disappointing to 81% of executive buyers. B2B Sales ExperienceOnly 19% of executives rate their time spent with sellers as “high value,” according to research from Forrester. That’s alarming. [Read more…]

Filed Under: CONNECT2SELL Blog Tagged With: advance the sale, connect2sell, stop selling & start leading

January 10, 2017 By Deb Calvert Leave a Comment

The Secret Weapon for Aspiring Execs: a Personal Leadership Philosophy

Most leaders don’t have a formal one. Many have never even heard of this before. But a Personal Leadership Philosophy (PLP) can make all the difference between an effective leader and one who isn’t as a confident, grounded and easy to follow.

personal leadership philosophy

For me, having a PLP has made every decision easier and every relationship stronger in business. That includes a very big decision I made 11 years ago. That’s when I decided to go into business for myself instead of taking a job offer that everyone else said was too good to pass up.

It was a great opportunity, double the salary I’d been earning and THE company everyone wanted to work for in 2006. I said “no” to the offer and founded People First Productivity Solutions instead.

The offer, incredible as it was, didn’t fit the commitments I’d made in my personal life. Raising a special needs child, I’d determined that I needed flexibility in my schedule. I had promised myself, in writing, that flexibility — above all else — would determine my next career move.

There was pressure to take that job. I was tempted to reconsider, and I started rationalizing how much that money could help us as a family. But I knew, in my heart of hearts, that it wouldn’t be right to make this move. I was committed to the course I’d set.

What I hadn’t done yet is communicate my values and committed course to others. That’s why they couldn’t understand my decision and challenged me to do something I did not feel good about doing.

Eleven years later, I can say this is the best thing I’ve ever done in my professional life. My son’s needs were met, my company was born and is thriving, and the financial rewards far surpass what I’d been offered. Best of all, I still worked for that company. I became a consultant to them and made more than I would have as their employee.

Having a Personal Leadership Philosophy and staying true to it has served me very well. The same is true for dozens of coaching clients who have developed their own PLP and seen their careers and personal job satisfaction soar as a result.

Would you like to develop your own Personal Leadership Philosophy? Here are 3 ways to get started.

1. Check out this article on Medium that describes the steps and what to do.
2, Go straight to our resource page to see a sample Personal Leadership Philosophy from one of our clients plus additional tools you need to get started.

3. Consider hiring an Executive Coach to help you develop your Personal Leadership Philosophy and boost your leadership effectiveness. This simple self-assessment will help you determine whether or not it makes sense for you to work with an Executive Coach at this point.

CONNECT 2 Lead graphic smalDeb Calvert is a certified Executive Coach, Certified Master with The Leadership Challenge® and architect of leadership development programs for nearly 100 organizations. She helps leaders at every level discover and achieve their leadership goals. Deb is the founder of People First Productivity Solutions, building organizational strength by putting people first since 2006.

Filed Under: CONNECT2LEAD Blog, CONNECT2WIN Blog Tagged With: connect2lead, emerging leaders, leadership development, PLP

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Recent Posts

  • The Buyer Experience Determines Your Long-Term Success
  • How Boldness Helps Emerging Leaders Leapfrog in Their Careers
  • The Top 10 Effective Teamwork Skills You Can Starting Building Today
  • How to Advance the Sale and Enhance the B2B Sales Experience
  • The Secret Weapon for Aspiring Execs: a Personal Leadership Philosophy

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deb.calvert@peoplefirstps.com

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