Before we dive in, I want to offer a little context.
The Call That Changed My Life
I spent the first 15 years of my career working for an ad agency. We supported enterprise clients, helping them tell their story, connect with customers, and drive growth, and we had an entire team devoted to promotional products.
During our first week back from the holidays in January 2009, I got a phone call that really changed my life.
I was told that the agency was going to lay off an additional 30 percent of its workforce that Friday. I felt sick. This would be our fourth layoff in a little over a year, by far our largest.
We certainly weren’t the only company going through this. But the reason we were having that fourth layoff wasn’t just the recession. Actually, the recession was masking a deeper, fundamental flaw in our business. Our customers had changed so much faster than we had, and our solutions weren’t as relevant and valued anymore.
Digital disruption punched us right in the mouth. The sad thing is, you could see it coming. It was obvious we needed to reinvent our business.
I told John, our CEO, this, and it wasn’t the first time. He told me it wasn’t a discussion. The decision had been made.
So at 7:00 the next morning I called him back and resigned.
The year 2009 was a pretty bad time to quit your job, especially without a Plan B. I wanted to reinvent that business, but there was so much resistance to change. And, in that moment, I believed the better option was to reinvent myself and become one of you . . . an entrepreneur.
This isn’t a hero story. In fact, it remains one of my biggest professional regrets. The truth is, by the time that phone call was made, it was too late. We refused to confront the brutal facts, and to this day, I regret not pushing harder for change. We should have been reinventing our business over the last couple years—you could see the disruption happening!
We certainly weren’t alone—we were in some pretty good company.
What do all of these companies have in common? [visual] They don’t exist. True. And, at one time, they were the dominant player in their category, but they got disrupted.
In some ways, they were all victims of success. Success can breed complacency, and it’s easy to underestimate the speed of change or just get stuck in a certain way of doing things.
And this was the 2008 Great Recession disruption! Nothing compared to the kind of change we are experiencing today. I have some perspective on that from one of the big disruptors. Here’s Jeff Bezos of Amazon. [video]
We are entering a different era. The challenge is that we have to have a foot in two worlds: the drive to execute and win today and the discipline to continue to evolve to win in 2020. That is where I want to take our conversation.
Forrester calls this the “age of the customer.” The balance of power has shifted. It is projected that customer expectations will shift more in the next decade than they have in the last 50 years.
Problem: Customer Transformation
The question becomes, what to do? That is something we’ve studied over the last two years, and we published that original research in our e-book, Adapt & Thrive. I am going to share four ideas that come directly out of the research we have been doing and build some context around them. The goal is to provide some very specific, actionable insights that will help you leverage the change we are navigating as growth opportunities for your business.
Solution: Sales Transformation
Initiate Continuous Reinvention
The first step is to initiate continuous reinvention.
A common thread among the most successful entrepreneurs we write about and spend time with is that they are students. They make the commitment to keep learning and adapting to our constantly changing environment, no matter how much success they have experienced.
A big part of this week was learning. I would also suggest that the most important moment of this conference is what happens next.
A key thought: “Your biggest breakthrough moment is one step outside your comfort zone.” The idea is to get comfortable being uncomfortable; don’t get stuck in the status quo. We lived there way too long at the ad agency, and it’s true for me today. Whenever I hit a plateau, it’s usually because I’ve relaxed on my learning. I use this one question to keep me in the learning lane: Did I get a little bit better today?
What is the number one reason that people get stuck in their comfort zone and don’t capitalize on a defining moment?
Fear. Or, more specifically, fear of failure. Fear of failure is killing innovation.
The key, the antidote, to fear is to take massive action. Be bold and decisive in your direction coming out of this. That is where breakthroughs happen and, more specifically, breakthroughs with your client relationships.
Brand the Client Experience
A big area of opportunity to concentrate action is to brand the client experience.
You have to create and identify processes and standards that you can execute consistently and that resonate with customers and differentiate you from the competition. Look for every opportunity to deliver a little more than the customer expects.
Sales success comes from process discipline.
Customer experience is where business is going to be won or lost between now and 2020. Everyone has the same tools and technology. The customer today is buying you and how you do business. Products and services are getting more commoditized. Increasingly, you are the value!
Remember, you aren’t just competing with the experience in your category or professional services. You are competing with the experience of everything.
Let me give you a couple examples.
The first one has to do with financial services. IPI in Canada, advisors who commit to their sales process and maintain process discipline to grow at four times the rate of those who don’t.
I’ll give you another example of elevating the customer experience. Do you drink coffee? Have you purchased coffee from Starbucks in the last year?
Customers don’t buy coffee on price—they default to price in the absence of value and a quality experience. Starbucks knows this—it competes in the experience economy.
What is your third place? If you haven’t worked through your language around story and value proposition, that is a real opportunity.
A great value proposition must be three things:
- Authentic
- Differentiated
- Compelling
Here are a few insights from one of the best brand experience leaders of our generation. [video] It has a simple premise: Relationships precede financial results. From my perspective and experience, that philosophy is critical to ignite growth. It is in the “human connection” business, and so are you. Can you differentiate and win on human connection? Yes!
The secret to winning here is to deliver a little more than the client expects . . . every single time!
Be remarkable consistently. The new economy definition of remarkable is “worthy of being remarked upon.” You are so good, so memorable that someone cannot wait to tell someone else.
How will I be remembered by the people I worked with?
Our customers have never been more inclined to share. More than 80 percent of satisfied customers are willing to refer after a positive experience, but only 30 percent do.
There are three kinds of customers:
- Satisfied
- Loyal
- Evangelists
It’s important to understand what customers want. There is good research around this.
Sales experience drives loyalty. What do clients want from you?
- Offers unique, valuable market perspective
- Helps me navigate alternatives
- Helps me avoid potential land mines
- Educates me
- Is easy to work with (likable). The best thing to do if you aren’t likable is to get out of financial services!
The era of the customer is also the era of the expert, who is more informed, sophisticated, and expects more from us, which brings us to our next principle.
Prepare to Win
Prepare to win! Begin with the end in mind. It’s preparation that delivers remarkable and turns customers into evangelists.
Most advisors are underprepared. Most sales calls don’t meet expectations.
I want to do a little exercise to illustrate the importance of preparation. I am going to play a sales call I received recently, and we are going to audit it together. [audio] What did he do well? What did he do differently?
Auditing should not stop there. Those questions changed our approach to business development.
Two questions to consider after every call:
- Did I earn a commitment?
- What are the next steps?
Confirm in writing; add value. Identify the next commitment event. Have a timeline.
Master the law of incremental commitment: Have nine to 11 touches before a deal is closed. Andy White quit after one voicemail—which may have been his biggest mistake!
Which also begs the question, is there a better way?
It’s also important to remember that the way we connect and communicate is changing. We are experiencing a shift right now that is being driven by technology.
The communication revolution is creating fantastic opportunities. It’s the ultimate leveling of the playing field. I can compete with anyone on the strength of my ideas and my relationships online. That is new . . . and it’s a game changer.
What happens when my interns, Laura and Miranda, become customers? A phone call makes them mad!
The opportunity is to embrace a digital mind-set.
For some additional perspective, I want to include a thought from two of the best marketing minds of our generation, Seth Godin and Tom Peters. [video] My blog changed my life. I wouldn’t be here without it, but it isn’t about the word blog. It’s about getting found. If you aren’t getting referred and you aren’t getting found, you are relying on traditional, interruption-based sales techniques that simply don’t work in the era of the customer. LinkedIn is no different from a blogging platform today, and there isn’t a week that goes by that we aren’t using that tool to advance relationships.
You have to be constantly experimenting. If you aren’t getting referred and you aren’t getting found, you are becoming irrelevant.
Ric Edelman said, “We are a technology company that delivers financial services.” His company is adding 3,000 accounts a year.
This isn’t about technology . . . it’s about a choice.
Decide how you show up. It’s not about what happens to us; it’s about how we respond. Amateurs react; leaders respond. It is difficult to master.
My morning routine helps me show up ready. The practice changed my life.
Everything you need to accomplish and all you deserve and desire was put inside you. You just have to have the courage to tap into it—and unleash it into the world!
Take Action Now (TAN)
A year from now, where do you want to be? Come up with a TAN Plan—three ideas to implement in the next 30 days.
So, let’s review:
- Initiate continuous reinvention.
- Brand the client experience.
- Prepare to win.
- Take action now.
Ryan Estis is a business performance expert with more than 20 years of experience as a top-performing sales professional and leader. As former chief strategy officer for the McCann Worldgroup advertising agency NAS, he brings a fresh perspective to business events. He focuses on emerging trends influencing corporate culture, communication, sales and brand experience. Estis was recently recognized as one of “the best keynote speakers ever heard” by Meetings & Conventions magazine.
