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Homework from last week's session

Last week, the assignment was to answer:

Where do I fear rejection? What's holding me back? What do I do to retain customers?

So, here are my thoughts:

I fear not being good enough. I fear being too expensive, or not expensive enough. I fear getting accounts and not living up to expectations. Even though I know that I'm competent, there's this little nagging insecure gremlin inside of me that takes over at just the wrong times. Rejection is never fun, and it's easier to live in denial than to go through a sales process and get rejected at the end. I know that it shouldn't matter-graphic design, more than most business even, is relationship driven. You have to "click" with people in order for them to hire you, no matter how good your work is. So I shouldn't fear the rejection, but it's difficult to overcome that. I need to somehow turn my thinking around and realize that without risking rejection, I'll never get any new clients. Nobody wins every project or every account-all I can do is my very best and learn from my mistakes. Easier to say than to do, but definitely a goal worth working towards.

What's holding me back? My own insecurity. How do I get over that? One step at a time I guess.

What do I do to retain customers? Probably not enough. Perhaps I need to start taking clients out for lunch once a year or something. I'll be sending out holiday gifts next week to the clients who have sent me work this year-a box of really good caramels (they're called "cows" even) and a card with "Happy Moo Year" on it. I know crap like that doesn't really keep clients, but it does make a difference in keeping you in their minds.

12/2/04 Thoughts

Well, I didn't get moved in by the 29th, but I'm really close-I think I'll have the office finished and stuff moved by tomorrow COB. Getting organized after that is another story...but things are slow right now so I'll try to devote a little time each day to getting things better organized.

Went to a BMA (Business Marketing Association) meeting last night-wonderful speaker by the name of Laura Stack. She's the author of Leave the Office Earlier. A very interesting book-we received a free copy for attending the dinner meeting. Some pretty interesting views on time and life management-I think I'll definitely do some of the worksheet exercises and see how it goes.

Relationship Sales

This week's group teleconference focused on "Relationship Sales", or developing deeper relationships with current clients, as well as forming true relationships with new ones. Since current clients are not only already a source of cash flow, but are the best source of referrals, it's vitally important to manage that resource. Keeping clients costs less than acquiring new ones.

The sales process model we talked about:

1. Fill the pipeline
2. Follow up
3. Get a presentation/meeting
4. Close the sale

Fear is a common cause of poor sales-fear of rejection, fear of not providing value, etc.

Problems
Lack of follow up-->I need some sort of system to ensure that I follow up after getting someone in the pipeline. (note: I've been testing some contact management software to help with just that-it lets me put an "event" into a timeline, so I can schedule a contact down the road. I'm not thrilled with what I've found, but I might be able to make due with it. The most promising application I've found so far is Organizer from Chronos http://www.chronosnet.com)

Listening-->discover a clients business needs-they may not tell you in so many words. Learn to interperet, learn to read body language.

Right amount of assertiveness-->how much follow up?

Closing the deal-->need to "turn it over". Overcome a client's objections and try to get a "yes" now.

Credibility-->this is what I'm really selling, at least to a new client. People do business with people they like.


Solutions

Active Listening-->tune into the person rather than the words they're using

Take stock-know my value. What are my strenghths? What things work for me?

Learn to negotiate/barter.

Think ahead. Avoid complacency and stay in the sales cycle.

Get to the decision maker-make allies within the client's company and establish repoire.



This week's homework:

Where do I fear rejection? What's holding me back? What do I do to retain customers?

Resources:

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
by Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Winning Through Negotiation (Complete Idiot's Guide to ...)
by John Ilich

The Art of War
by Sun Tzu

Individual Coaching session

Had a great session with Dierdre today-I've been feeling really frustrated and stressed due to money issues. A big part of the problem is that I'm having trouble getting clients to pay on time. She did a great job helping me sort out the stress issues and find out where they're coming from. I'm carrying a tremendous amount of stress right now with business issues, money issues, family issues (providing for my wife and baby) as well as remodeling my house in order to move the office. Getting that done will make a tremendous difference-not only will it get the baby out of our bedroom, but the new office is layed out better and will make getting and staying organized easier. We're working on a system for accounting and workflow that should help as well.

Deirdre's challenge to me for the next two weeks: Live simpler. Let go and get messy. Give myself permission to be irresponsible.

I'll see how I can work that in-I'll mostly be finishing the office-my goal is to be moved in by Monday the 29th.

First Post

This may be a day late and a dollar short. Hopefully not a whole dollar. Maybe only a quarter or so. Anyway, I'm going through this great business/life coaching program and thought that this blog might be a really useful tool to keep things in order and help focus my thoughts and clarify things. I'm starting this over halfway through the program, so I'll be working at catching up as time allows.