Mark Jeffries - Communications Consultant, Presentation Coach and Keynote Speaker

Are you a ‘Time Stealer’ or a ‘Time Giver’?

If someone you speak to you this week says to you, “Anyway, great talking to you….” or “Better go now…”, you are a time stealer! You outstayed your welcome and they had to free themselves!

Give it, don’t take it!

Whenever you have control, always release people first. Everyone loves getting some bonus time – a few minutes that they weren’t expecting. Say what you have to say and then graciously release them. It adds to your influence and it helps you sell without selling!

Now – after reading such a short blog….you have more time than you thought!

You’re welcome!

Would appreciate your input…
 

When I used to work with politicians in the UK (two of whom are now in the current Cabinet!!) we concentrated on message and presentation. Specifically, I would spend time looking at how they might be perceived by the electorate.

One of the most important elements was that their speeches had to include an element of “I feel your pain”, “I know what it’s like to be you”, “I’ve been there, I’ve done it”.

Now this is politics and – no surprises – we are seeing the exact same approach in Politicians today. Obama appeals to his base with comments like “The Millionaires and Billionaires should pay their fair share.”

His audience nods and says, ‘That’s what we were thinking’.

Romney talks about his business experience appealing to his base with discussion on the importance of business and its ability to create jobs.

His audience nods and says, ‘That’s what we were thinking’.

This basic approach to campaigning is the A of my L-WAR. (Listen, Watch, Anticipate, React). It is the anticipate phase. These candidates are guessing what the voters want next and they are saying it first.

This is what the Candidates want.......but what do the voters want?

The Anticipate phase is about putting yourself in your target’s shoes – seeing the world from their point of view and then articulating it in such a way that the recipient of your message can see that you truly understand them.

In business, of course, we are not trying to win an election. However we are trying to win deals, new jobs, pay-rises and contracts.

Being able to show that you genuinely understand the world of your client, your colleague or your boss puts you in a very favorable light. It creates the impression that you are already a trusted partner. You are clearly connected enough to to be that key adviser – someone with whom work will be smooth and successful.

So, this week, pay special attention to what you ‘guess’ are the future needs of your target. You know their world, you understand their issues, you have listened and watched – so now look ahead and solve their challenges … before they even know they have them!!

Listen, Watch, ANTICIPATE…then React!

These don’t come around too often, but I thought the new year should start with something a little different!!

Not so much a blog, more…a message.

To my wonderful clients, friends and audiences around the world – here’s wishing you a happy new year.

As much as the Media try to make us believe we are perpetually on an economic precipice, your hard work, cool ideas, innovate concepts and desire for success will drive us all upwards across the next twelve months and beyond. Success is something to aspire to, to be proud of and to happily share – that has always been our way and it always will.

Major changes are coming but, as you know, they always are!

So, have fun, stay in touch and keep growing your Business Influence!

A Few weeks ago I was hosting a very cool event on “Smarter Commerce”. I spent a few minutes taking the audience through some key innovations and tools around the miracle that is Twitter. This is what was revealed!!

Whether you are trying to land a new client, aiming for a promotion or hoping to get a new job you need to always be fully across making yourself as buyable as possible.

Your products and services are clearly crucial – but as we all know – people buy people.

So, what makes someone buy you? Typically, it’s a whole host of factors, from how much they want to be associated with your personal brand and image to how valuable you may be to them from a business or personal perspective to how much they perceive that you may be wanted by others (known as The Jealousy Effect).

How can we let our targets know that there are others who want us? How can we create the impressions that if they don’t move soon, they may well miss out?

This is where we can learn something from Apple!

With the launch of the new iPhone, we all know that soon, TV & Newspapers will be showing us photos and video of long lines outside Apple Stores, other shots of people holding their new toy up in the air while high-fiving friends – celebrating having purchased a product.

Apple generates an instant need, a ripple of breathless anticipation and excitement and several gigabytes of The Jealousy Effect. They do this by telling great stories – through marketing – and creating a sense of limited supply and ensuing urgency.

Seeing regular people loving the product is something we inherently trust. It’s not advertising – it’s “the truth” and we, as consumers, always buy the truth!

This comprehensive approach to launching a product ensures a perception of great value and a need, through Social proof, to be part of this social and technological experience.

Very impressive!

Now it’s your turn…

DIY Apple Sales & Marketing

We can each run our own individualized, personal Apple Marketing Machine by following the same rules. Next time you are in front of a client, a new employer, your boss or even a potential love interest (!!) – very subtly weave in some of these key ideas into your conversation…

There’s NOT a lot of YOU to go around – others want you and are about to buy!
(Effect: If supply is limited, perceived value goes up!)

Your approach to business is innovative, you have new ideas and you bring BENEFIT & VALUE to anyone who chooses to buy you. (BTW, Anytime you earn any money, someone, somewhere made the decision to BUY you and your time!!).
(Effect: People want to hear those ideas, they like that you recognize their need for innovation and inspiration – now you are even more desirable!)

Tell the story of how, working with you has resulted in enviable successes for other companies and organizations in the past.
(Effect: This approach creates The Jealousy Effect by passing the positive testimonial away from you and onto someone else. People may choose to believe you advertising yourself, but they are far more likely to buy “the truth” of someone else’s recommendation – even if you are the one to say it!!)

Nothing in life is guaranteed except death, taxes and people getting excited about a new iPhone – so, pick elements of the Apple approach that work for you and build even more of your own success!

PS. Anyone want an old iPhone??

It seems that everyone wants out of the PC business (I’m looking at you HP) – but WAIT I say stay in! However in this instance I am not actually talking about Personal computers – but Perception Control.

Perception Control is the ability to have some level of influence over how people see you fitting into their lives, their plans and their business.

How are you perceived? What do people say about you (after you leave the room)? How good are you at influencing a situation and having people come round to your way of thinking?

This all depends on PC – in other words whether you are in control of the way you are perceived or not.

How others do it!
There aren’t many lessons we can learn from politicians, but one is worth adopting – Tell them what they want to hear.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, politicians seem to be everywhere. When the mood takes us, we’ll even listen to what they have to say – Obama, Sarkozy, Merkel, Cameron…. They are all in the same business. They want you to buy their ideas – and to vote for them. When they make a speech, they want you to conclude: “I agree/ that’s exactly what I have been thinking/finally – someone who understands me/you seem like a good guy….”.

We like to have our views re-affirmed – we like see that we are not alone with our ideas and opinions.

In the US Republican Primaries, when Rick Perry or Mitt Romney say “There’s a problem with Washington”, many potential voters will sit there quietly nodding and saying to themselves “Hey, that’s what I’ve been thinking”. An excellent start. (Small issue here, President Obama is now saying the same thing – nullifying the approach. Your move Republicans!)

When a politician turns an “undecided’ into a supporter, they have struck electoral gold – they have successfully controlled perception and won a vote!

Back in the real world – there is something for us to takeaway from this little performance

If your comment today is tailored directly to the person listening, they will perceive you in a more positive light. If you say what they were already thinking – they instantly perceive you as ‘on their wavelength’. You get their vote and suddenly things are good….you have a new job, a new client, a happy boss…..

Your mission, therefore, is (using the LWAR – Listen, Watch, Anticipate & React) to fully understand the person directly in front of you. Once you know what it is they genuinely want to hear from you, try to gently guide the conversation so that you get opportunities to demonstrate that you know what they need.

The end result – they will perceive you as an ideal person to do business with. They will perceive you as a great connection, someone they could get along with, do a deal with, employ or retain.

So, if you have a new client to win over or a promotion to go for or even that cool job interview – your objective is to confidently know what that person wants, what would solve their problems, what would make them successful. Then simply match your comments to what you believe they want to hear.

This is just one of your keys to PC – Perception Control. People may do it in seconds or minutes, but they are continually judging you. Make sure they see how cool you really are and why YOU deserve their vote!

Why do we trust certain people. Why do we vote for certain politicians. Why do we buy from certain companies?

Whether you realize it or not, it may be because those people and organizations use the 3 C’s of Communication. So what exactly are they and how can we use them in business to position ourselves as great bosses, business partners and team leaders?

The 3 Cs of effective communication are:

Clarity
Consistency
Confidence

Clarity
When your message is clear, unambiguous and straight-forward – people like it!! They know where they are, they trust what you say and they understand what to do! However, in business, we all know people whose comments can be misunderstood or misconstrued or maybe even misleading! Then it gets worse… you have the group I call “The Translators”. They try to speak on behalf of the team-leader. They reveal that even though he just SAID this, he actually MEANS that! result? Chaos!!

So – conduct a self-diagnostic. Were you clear? It may have been clear to you in your brilliant mind…but was it clear to everyone else?

Consistency
They say that young kids or even new puppies react best to a message which is consistent. Actually, we all do! Statements, direction and instruction which seem to fit the normal patterns of behavior – within the boundaries of people’s expectations are respected, believed and followed.

If, however, you unexpectedly change direction, screech round a u turn or take a whole new approach, there is suddenly surprise and a touch of confusion.

“Wait, what?…but I thought…” becomes the phrase of the day.

It gets worse if you offer no clear explanation behind the change in direction and worse still if you deny what you said last time – that way lies mutiny!! If inconsistency is the tone of your approach to leadership people quickly learn not to trust you and your judgement calls.

Here’s your next self-diagnostic… If you know you have changed direction, be honest about it. Where appropriate, offer your reasoning and maintain an open stream of communication winning people over to the new plan.

Confidence
Did they believe you? Did u believe yourself? People read confidence like a bear can read fear or a dog can smell chicken! It’s like when you get in a cab in a foreign city and you ask for “West Street” and the driver let’s out this long confused “errrr…” while randomly trying to activate his SatNav. You just lose all confidence in his directional aptitude and you start wondering what would happen if you actually opened the door, at speed, and rolled onto the street.

Displayed confidence in communication is essential. It is a key signal that your team will read and react well to.

The self-Diagnostic – Be sure, certain and happy with your decisions before you announce them to the team. Try to pre-guess the cynical or negative ‘pushbacks’ and be ready for them. Demonstrate confidence and win true ‘buy-in’ to your plans.

While challenges in the business world are clearly very different to the political world – one thing is certain – using the 3 Cs of communication with your clients and teams will always help you steer your way to a far more successful outcome.

This week there were some very impressive numbers that came out of IBM’s service side. It clearly shows, as with much of the vibrant IT sector, that while businesses are not spending wildly, they are investing in themselves. It’s a perfect illustration of a selective recovery nursing our economy back to health.

So, what can we, as individuals, learn from this smart approach?

Now is the time to invest in yourself.

Businesses understand that with an economy in a fragile recovery, it is impossible to ruthlessly raise prices and to aggressively grab market share. Instead, it would appear that the game is to add value, offer the customer more and constantly justify their existence.

From an individual perspective, we need to take note. Taking a leaf out of the book of ‘big business’ for our own use as individuals is worth a go.

What are you worth?
Never forget that people buy people — and every time that you explain the benefit of your offering, the value of your products or the brilliance of your service — people are really choosing whether they buy YOU or not.

Personal PR
Despite the arrival of Google+, this Twitter thing is clearly here to stay — and yet so MANY people have yet to dive in. If you tweet only once a year or have never yet issued your thoughts to the Twittersphere — start now. Be outspoken, attach photos, give people a little insight into who you are, curate cool articles from blogs or websites — create your online brand. If you need a rude awakening, check out your Klout score (an algorithm-driven score based on the influence you have on the world) at www.klout.com

Lucky clothes
Whether we admit it or we don’t, we all have lucky clothes. Maybe it’s a suit, shirt, even some underwear… When we are wearing that specific item we feel more powerful. We imagine that, somehow, by wearing something we have anointed as very lucky we now possess a strength, a power that we can use to get ahead.

What really is happening is that we know we look good in this particular item of clothing. When we look good, whether we realize it or not, we exude a certain confidence that people want to buy. This works and is a great investment in our overall efforts to continue selling ourselves. (moral: Spend money on clothes, make yourself look good!)

We are all in sales
If people buy people, then, by default, we are all in sales! When I make this point at the conferences and conventions where I am lucky enough to speak, I can often sense the initial disbelief in the large audiences (especially the lawyers, CPAs and IT professionals). But, and you know this, it’s a fact of life.

With everything we say and every step we take, people choose whether to buy us, our ideas and our suggestions… or not.

Spending time truly understanding if you are selling yourself to your best ability or you are perhaps falling short, is a very strong way to Invest in yourself.

Would you buy you?

If you were sitting in an audience watching YOU would you be interested?

If you were watching television and YOU came on, would you stay on the channel?

During this lovely summer, as temperatures soar and we spend time by the water and in the sunshine, take a few minutes to consider how you have invested in yourself — your clothes, your tone, your brand, your knowledge, your stories… your buy-ability!

There is no greater way to invest in yourself than to stop focusing on what you want to sell and really concentrate on what you know your customers, your colleagues and your bosses want to buy.