Sales Training Globally: Different, but not that much

The last several months have been busy, including several looooooong trips from Little Rock to help train enterprise sales teams in Europe, Asia and North America. Having had the opportunity to interact in person with salespeople and their managers across the globe--and in a compressed time frame--I can share some comparisons and observations:

Two Out of Three Is Bad, Part 2: When the Messengers Are Missing

Mangled Message: Dumb and Dumber?

Our latest Mangled Message for your enjoyment, edification, and comments comes from American Airlines.

American lost track of the luggage of a hearing-impaired couple (James Moehle and Angela Huckaby) who were returning from a vacation in Hawaii. Once the bags were found and delivered to the couple’s Texas home, this note was included. The couple was offended by the “dumb” reference and has let their feelings be known to ABC and other media outlets. 

When the university flunks marketing research

As I prepare for a guest lecture to a group of MBAs I am reminded of a lesson in Marketing Research 101 from Drake University. It wasn’t the kind of case study that Drake University would want to brag about, however. As a reader told me a few years ago when the story broke, “I thought it was something from The Onion. I couldn’t imagine that a university would use ‘D+’ as its marketing message…at least not with a straight face.”

Well, there are some things you just can’t make up. Drake–a very solid institution, by the way–managed to violate some basic tenets of strategy and research and, in the process, tick off much of its faculty, staff members and alumni.

Why it’s Hard to Connect the Conversation

Most organizations aren’t that good at real-time customer conversations. You’ve likely experienced this as a consumer yourself, or you might have seen symptoms of message issues in your organization or in a client's company.. 

It’s difficult to present a coordinated and relevant series of messaging across all channels; a number of psychological and organizational forces get in the way. Here are five that separate organizations from good customer messaging:

Salespeople tend to call on the same people and say the same things. At networking events, teams from the same company will gather by the shrimp cocktail to talk office politics among themselves rather than engage strangers. Yet prospective buyers, members, donors, or voters would actually like to see and hear something they didn’t already know.

Customer Conversation Challenge 4: Culture

Does your company’s culture enable a great customer conversation?

“Culture” can seem like such a big, squishy concept that it’s (1) nearly impossible to define, (2) difficult to connect to daily behaviors, and (3) an imposed force which can’t be changed. My experience is that none of these are necessarily true.

I like the pithy definition of culture from Alan Weiss: “that set of beliefs which governs behavior.” That means culture is something that can indeed be changed, and not just by the founder or CEO. Essentially, if managers or teams can change some pieces of the belief system then the culture will change over time as well.

Two Out of Three is Bad, Part 1: When the Message is Missing

While doing interviews for a new client, I spoke at length with one of the company’s highly decorated, A-player-type sales people. He was no fan of his company’s website. “I steer prospects away from it,“ he admitted. “It has a lot of words but doesn’t say anything.”

I asked him for specifics. He showed me a section that actually read, “our platform facilitates world-class solutions for our customers’ business 

problems.” Yikes—he was right. The company’s self-focused and vacuous message only served to make them sound like everyone else.

While working with many different types of companies, I have discovered that three components—Message, Messengers, and Management—contribute to a company’s success (or failure) in customer conversations. Some organizations are strong in two components but need to address weakness in the third. In a case when the Messengers and Management are in place but the Message itself is weak, the result is commoditization in the eyes of potential buyers.   ...

Mangled Message: It was wrong, but it was great

Well-managed messages help a team, organization, or company stand out—in a good way. Mangled messages have the opposite effect, frequently damaging credibility with key relationships.

Mangled Message: The Word Salad

Have you heard the term “word salad”? It means that the words themselves in a message are recognizable, but the collection of them together makes no sense. In today’s intensely interactive environment, it is easier than ever to have your message called out. A recent LinkedIn post and string of comments illustrated the point.

The company involved (Neopost) says it is “a global leader in postage machines, folder inserters, and a major player in parcel delivery management and electronic document delivery.” Sounds good to me.

In a sponsored LinkedIn post, the company went a little far with its language. The post began with: “You know your company. And we know how to improve customer relationships. That’s why we listen to you and adapt our products and services to meet your needs. Together, we can create meaningful interactions that help you get the best from your business.”

To which a LinkedIn user named Scott Evans commented, “What does that word salad even mean?”

That caused me to laugh out loud. But the company’s reply doubled down on the overly-highbrow language: “Hi Scott. Our new brand positioning reflects our belief that in an era where change is increasingly dependent on technology, people have a key role to play. It's all about helping our customers better connect with their customers…” And it went on.

Scott, the LinkedIn user, then replied with “You don’t ‘create meaningful interactions’ nor do you really have a role to play in ‘improving customer relationships.’ Make great equipment that does what it is supposed to do.”

This being social, the exchange played out in front of millions of LinkedIn users. This being digital, I contacted Scott (who gave me his blessing to share the example with you). He said to me, “I recently sold my business after 21 years in the mailing industry—thus my disregard for the very specific B.S. of the mailing equipment business.”

Neopost did nothing harmful or dangerous. Their offense was merely semantic. However, it’s a funny if painful reminder that the word salad you create can be sent back to the kitchen—with millions watching.

Could Shell (or others) lure you to the expensive middle?

As I was standing at the gas pumps, cringing and preparing to fill the tank again, I noticed this Shell station’s clever use of a psychological shortcut. Do you see it?

You might reasonably assume that the three product options—Regular, V-Power, and Plus—would be arranged according to price with the lowest-priced variety on the left. However, the Shell people placed their highest-priced gas variety right in the middle.

Perhaps they did an online search and found this column which demonstrated how consumers tend to respond to a “center-stage effect.” People tend to disproportionately select product options that are place in the center, even when the number of choices or product features are varied.