5 New Year's revenue resolutions
Cook
Most businesses want to grow revenue this year. If yours is one of them, here are five New Year's resolutions that can help you reach that goal. (These are predominantly for business-to-business organizations. In business-to-consumer organizations, customer interactions are different, the marketing is different, and the volume of customers is usually much larger.) With this in mind, consider these individual and organizational resolutions while we are still early in the New Year.
1. Collaborate, don't sell.
Two or more parties collaborate for the benefit of each of them. The goals don't have to be the same, but benefits need to be there for both. The most common example is when a customer gets a benefit from a solution the supplier provides.
The customer arrives at his decision on his own, not through persuasion or challenge. Good interaction skills, including exceptional listening and exploratory, non-threatening questions help customers reach moments of discovery, not moments of agreement, or worse — concession.
This working with someone toward mutual benefit is much more conducive to success than trying to sell something to someone. Selling connotes convincing, persuading or challenging someone to come to your way of thinking. No one likes to be sold to; as soon as we perceive someone is selling, we immediately build defenses.
2. Know your products and services cold.
This is a resolution for both individuals and the organization. As an individual responsible for generating revenue, it's mandatory that you know everything about what you do. No compromise on this. As an organization, it's mandatory that the company culture be oriented toward outstanding customer service. You can't deliver premier service and optimized collaboration if your primary client-facing personnel do not fully understand what you offer.
3. Realize that the ages-old marketing and sales partnership is ending.
The new partnership is marketing and relationships. Marketing generates awareness about the company, your products and your services. Marketing informs, educates and guides customers, building comprehension and understanding. Relationships underlie collaboration and orders, while emotions drive decisions. The No.-1 emotion in a customer's decision-making process is trust. If a customer trusts you, they will collaborate with you, and have faith in what you say. The only way to build trust is to build a relationship; otherwise, you have only transactions.
4. Elevate the lens of relationships.
Like every other year, 2014 will be one of ups and downs. When things are not where you want them to be, look through the lens of relationships to find solutions. Instead of trying to fix products, services, pricing and myriad other things, focus on relationships. Identify if the relationships are strong; if they're not, strengthen them. Strong relationships can overcome a lot of minor faults. However, being perfect in all things cannot overcome a lack of strong relationships, and you can still lose the deal.
4A. Strengthen your relationship-building and collaboration skills.
If you believe collaboration and relationships are critical to success, then enhance your ability to do both. This means understanding the dynamics at play when collaborating or building relationships, such as trust, authenticity, vulnerability and generosity. Understanding the variables that impact trust is also important. Those variables include the customer's perception of risk, the quality of your communications, and the level of your expertise (Remember to know everything about what you offer).
Relationship building and collaboration skills include your interaction skills such as listening modes, types of questions, aligning intent and effect, and curtailing discount and revenge. It also includes building an interaction climate that enhances support and ultimately collaboration while downplaying such negative factors as competition and power.
5. Focus, Focus, Focus!
For many B2B companies, particularly those in professional and business services, having a great revenue year does not necessarily mean getting lots of new customers. In many cases, it means existing customers buying more. You don't need to reach everyone. Focus on your existing customers and on prospects that fit your profile. Let marketing build broad awareness and comprehension, and let relationships and collaboration build conviction and orders.
Ken Cook is the co-founder of How to Who Inc. You can learn more at and reach him through www.howtowho.com.
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