How to Use Storyselling to Increase Revenue

Have you ever wanted to persuade someone to accept your point of view, and you found that features and benefits weren't working? Here's the solution: touch their heart with a story.

What Is Storyselling?

Simply defined, storyselling is using stories to sell.

Salespeople are beginning to discover that they can use stories to illustrate ways the buyer will enjoy their product. "Storytelling for sales" was shortened to "storyselling."

Storyselling hasn't been widely accepted. Yet. For many sales reps, storyselling is too "touchy-feely." They prefer the logical presentation of features and benefits, accompanied by price-cutting.

Storysellers are less likely to cut price, because their stories build value in the minds of the buyers.

Why It Matters

Humans buy for emotional reasons first. Then, we rationalize with facts.

Stories can make an emotional connection between the storyteller and the audience (between the seller and the buyer).

Who Can Use Storyselling?

Anyone who wants to persuade another person to accept their point of view can use storytelling. Here are two examples:

1. I used storyselling to convince a judge to give me a $100 discount on a speeding ticket.
2. Any sales rep can use storyselling to build value and shorten the selling process. Features and benefits, by themselves, no longer work.

How Does It Work

Sales stories have a basic structure:

1. Introduce the hero. Help the buyer identify with the hero.
2. Show the hero in a peaceful setting. All is well.
3. A storm arises. The hero is in trouble.
4. The hero gets help (from your product), and saves the day.
5. A celebration is held. The moral of the story is presented.

As you tell your sales story, the fully becomes the hero. They saved the day. Your product is an essential tool to the hero's success.

How to Begin Your Storyselling Journey

Take out a sheet of paper. Write down the moral of your story, the big idea. Beneath the moral, number items 1 through 5.

Then, write a phrase or sentence for each of the five parts of your story's structure.

Finally, write a short story using the structure you defined.

Start Today

Write a handful of short, storyselling stories. You can apply your stories to each step of your selling process, from prospecting emails and phone calls, through after-sale follow-up and referral requests.

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Storyselling is one component of Goss Storyselling Projects. Click Here to order a special white paper that shows you how to create sustainable revenue increases.

Want More Revenue? Be Unique

Whether you are an employee, a job-seeker or a self-employed professional, it's a tough market out there. To be seen by employers and clients, you must rise above the crowd.

To Be Seen, You Must Be Unique

Unique doesn't need to mean that you have mental problems...also sometimes it might help. Unique means that the skills and services you bring to the table are better than the rest of the crowd:

• Better insights
• Better problem-solving skills
• Better leadershp skills
• Better selling skills

When employers and prospective clients see your unique abilities, then you have leverage for higher compensation and greater longevity than the rest of the crowd.

How to Find Your Uniqueness

Learn what makes you unique in the eyes of others:

• Look at your previous performance reviews.
• Examine letters of references you received from customers.
• Interview co-workers to learn how you stand out.
• Interview customers to learn why they bought from you, and why they continue to use your services.

How to Promote Your Uniqueness

The best person to promote your unique capabilities is you. If you don't promote yourself, no one else will. Here are a few methods you can use:

• Customer satisfaction surveys.
• If you are an employee, regular check-in conversations with your employer will help to cement your value in their mind.
• If you are a self-employed professional, schedule regular check-ins with your customers.

In all three examples, you'll be able to identify problems and solve them quickly. You'll also be able to build a list of successes that you can use a weekly check-in or an annual review.

Start Today

Your income and your longevity depend on your employer or customers feeling that you bring more value to the table. Start your check-ins and begin documenting your successes today.

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Why Should Anyone Buy Your Stuff?

Today is a snow day. Schools and offices are closed. Instead of a suit, I'm wearing my "I Survived the Tower of Terror" shirt. That reminded me of a story about price and value...

Your Stuff is Wonderful

Your company sells great products and services. You're so proud of them that you focus your marketing messages on them:

• The history of your company. Perhaps it was started by your great, great grandfather. Perhaps it was started on a napkin in a restaurant.
• Your career history. You've been helping people for a long time.
• The features of your products. You know about the science behind them, so your buyers must want to know about it, too.

All of your marketing and sales messages are true. You're proud of this information, as you should be.

There's only one little problem: the buyer couldn't care less. You haven't given them any information that addresses their needs or solves their problems. You'll close some sales, but you'll lose many others.

A Story About Price Vs Value

We recently made a trip to Disneyland. Our needs were to spend time with our family and enjoy the rides. This would be our first visit to California Adventure. As a former Otis Elevator Company sales rep, I particularly wanted to ride the Otis elevators in the Tower of Terror. It was like a pilgrimage for me. At least I thought so at the time.

We bought the admission tickets on the Disneyland web site: over $100 per person each day for a park-hopper pass to go between Disneyland and California Adventure. We bought two 2-day tickets. No one had to "sell" us. The tickets met our needs at a price we were willing to pay. We already placed a high value on the visit. I entered my credit card number on the web page below the smiling faces of Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbell.

On Day 2, we visited the Tower of Terror. My wife tried to talk me out of it, but she was a good sport when I got into the line. I sat between my son and my son-in-law (my other son). They said I screamed like a little girl on the elevator's second, faster-than-the speed-of-gravity plunge. I've ridden on top of high-speed elevators in office buildings, but this was much more intense.

Afterwards, in the hotel gift shop, my wife purchased me a T-shirt that said, "I Survived the Tower of Terror." The shirt cost over $20. I can get a Jockey T-shirt at JC Penney for only $6.95. We gladly paid the difference because it was a souvenir, a remembrance, something I can wear on a snow day.

It's About Value, Not Stuff

We bought tickets, food and souvenirs at Disneyland because of the emotional value and entertainment we received. We'll happily do it again next year.

Let's apply the same principle to your stuff. Why should anyone buy it? Because of the value they receive when they use it. It's their money, their definition of value, and their decision to buy.

Three Steps to Selling Value

1. Ask questions to learn what the buyer needs, what the buyer values.
2. Describe the outcome of using your product, in terms of how it exceeds the buyers needs. Ask questions and make observations to help them realize the high personal value your product delivers. At this point, perceived value will be greater than your price.
3. Ask them to commit.

Conclusion

Why should anyone buy your stuff? Because you offer greater value by addressing their needs, not your product's features.

Now get out there and sell more of your stuff at higher margins.

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For a free white paper on revenue growth you can sustain, Click Here.

To Increase Sales and Margins, Be a Coach

Clients Listen to Their Coaches

In the profession of coaching, the coach enriches the client by helping them solve their problem. The coach cannot give the solution. The coach has three tools:

• Asking questions
• Offering feedback
• Making observations

The coach helps the client arrive at their own solution. Because the client developed their own solution, they will make it work. After all, they thought of it.

Don't Sell - Coach

What if you thought of yourself as the buyer's success coach? The buyer has goals they want to achieve. They have unmet needs. They will consider your products and services as tools to meet their needs.

If you spend the sales call bragging about your products and services, the buyer will perceive you as a peddler, beneath their status.

If you spend the sales call asking questions about the buyer's goals and needs, offering feedback and making observations, the buyer will perceive you as a fellow professional. You'll be equals.

Better Results

The more you help, the sooner the buyer will perceive you as a Trusted Advisor. The buyer welcomes you into their "inner circle."

Trusted advisors sell more, at higher margins. Because the buyer places a high value on the trusted advisor's advice, the buyer automatically places a high value on the trusted advisor's products and services. You help them, and they help you.

Your Opportunity

Enter your next call from a position of strength. Don't sell your products. Instead, coach the buyer with questions, feedback and observations. Become their trusted advisor, and watch your sales and referrals grow.

By Mike Goss, Certified Coach

For Greater Revenue, Be a Servant Leader

"Increase revenue."

Whether we are a business executive, a sales rep or a sales manager, increasing revenue is our common goal.

Sales reps deliver our revenue. Even if they are self-directed, their performance is still affected by the way they are managed or led. Here's a working definition of management and leadership:

• A sales manager determines quotas and keeps score.
• A sales leader goes beyond scorekeeping. A sales leader offers a grand vision, one that can only be achieved by the team working together.
• A servant leader goes all the way, by focusing on the success of each teammate. To a servant leader, it's personal.

How Servant Leadership Produces Better Results

It was 1968. I was an Air Force electronics technician, stationed in northern Thailand. I maintained the inertial navigation computer system on the F-4. One day, we were assigned a new boss. His name was Sergeant Hooper. He had just cross-trained into our career field. He was green. He knew nothing about our equipment or our repair methods, yet he was our new boss.

At first, we resented Sgt. Hooper. He didn't know the difference between a gyroscopic platform and a light bulb. He tried to make friends, but we made it difficult.

Servant Leadership Changes Everything

Sgt. Hooper changed our minds. He did it with his actions more than his words. He gave us a goal: our shop was going to have the greatest navigation accuracy for our computers, worldwide. We said to ourselves, "Yeah, sure. We're in the freaking jungle, competing with better-equipped shops in larger air bases around the world."

Sgt. Hooper didn't stop by issuing the goals. He began describing them as a vision. It appealed to us. Then, he worked with each of us, individually, to draw out our creativity and problem-solving skills. He showed us how to reach deep into ourselves, to be better at our work.

One night (we worked the graveyard shift), I had one of the computers torn down on my workbench. Parts and wiring diagrams were strewn all over the place. I was having a difficult time troubleshooting a signal flow problem. Sgt. Hooper walked up to me and said, "Goss, what are you doing?" I gave him a smart-alec answer. He wasn't phased. He said, "I know I don't know as much about these computers as you do, but if you walk me through your troubleshooting process, maybe I can help you find the problem."

I stopped and looked at him. I thought, "This guy actually wants to help me." My attitude changed instantly. I brought Sgt. Hooper into the Inner Circle. My teammates came around to see what we were doing. Maybe Sgt. Hooper wasn't so bad, after all.

I traced the signal flow from the wire where it entered the computer, through four circuit boards, to the wire where it exited the computer. In the process, I confirmed that the analog-to-digital signal converter board was defective. Sgt. Hooper did not take credit. Instead, he congratulated me on my discovery.

I needed a new circuit board. It was 3 AM. The base supply warehouse had the board in stock. An aircraft was grounded until we could get the navigation computer back into the plane. I looked around. Sgt. Hooper was gone. I heard tires screeching outside the shop. It seems that Sgt. Hooper had "borrowed" a truck without permission. Ten minutes later, he was back with my circuit board. He helped me install the circuit board and bench-test the computer. I said, "We need a ride out to the flight line." He replied, "No problem. I have a truck."

From that day on, any member of our shop would walk through fire for Sgt. Hooper. And, our shop earned the worldwide record for the accuracy of our navigation computers. We owed our achievement to our servant leader, Sgt. Hooper. God bless you, wherever you are, Hoop.

How About You?

Whether you are a sales rep, a sales leader or a business owner, you can be a servant leader. Strive to be the Sgt. Hooper of your organization.

5 Steps to Overcoming Sales Obstacles

The Problem: Increasing Revenue

You need to achieve your revenue goals. You experience one of these scenarios:

Scenario #1: The Prospects from Fantasyland

Every prospect welcomes you with open arms and a big bag of money. They do cartwheels of joy during your presentation. They never bring up objections. They buy without even being asked.

Scenario #2: The Prospects from Hell

Every prospect has a few surprises for you. Some prospects change their needs in the middle of your presentation. Some prospects aren't qualified to buy, even though they said so in the beginning. Some prospects really appreciate your free consulting, even though they will never buy from you.

Scenario #3: Your Real Prospects

Your pool of prospects has people from Scenario #1 and Scenario #2. They're human, just like you and me. You learn their needs, and you help them the best way you can.

What to Do When You Hit the Wall

In every worthwhile endeavor, something gets in your way. You hit a wall. When you hit that wall, you have a simple choice:

1. Stop. Accept your situation. It's too difficult or risky to try to move forward.
2. Break through the wall, and enjoy the treasures on the other side.

Most people choose Option 1. It's safer and easier.

High performers choose Option 2. It's risky and it's difficult, but it's definitely worth the effort.

5 Steps to Breaking Through Sales Walls

Here's a five-step process you can use to break through the wall that stands between you and your goal:

Step 1: State your goal.

What is it that you're trying to achieve? Describe your goal clearly, using these elements:

• Specific, measurable deliverable.
• Due date.
• Person accountable for achieving the goal.

Step 2: Define your wall.

What is holding you back? Write a one-paragraph description of your wall. Is it tangible, like a brick wall? Or is it intangible, such as an idea or a law. It is interesting to note that 90% of all walls consist of fear.

Now, examine the essence of the wall. What is it made of? How is it constructed? Where are its weak points?

Step 3: Make your plan.

Now that you've defined your goal and discovered the essence of the wall, you can make a plan to break through. Your plan will contain these elements:

• A resource list, including people, materials and tools.
• A list of the steps necessary to break through the wall.
• The due date for completing each step.
• The person responsible for completing each step.

Step 4: Execute your plan.

Coordinate the completion of each step. Monitor your progress with appropriate measuring tools. Hold status meetings to ensure the steps are being completed on time.

Step 5: Celebrate your success.

Close out the project. Hold a "lessons learned" meeting to discuss what worked and what needed attention. Document the "lessons learned" meeting in the archives, for use in the future.

This five-step Breaking Through Walls process works in sales, leadership, traffic court and many other areas.

It's Your Turn

The next time you hit a sales wall, don't give up. Have courage! Apply the five steps of Breaking Through Walls. Claim the prize on the other side. You deserve it.

Mike

P.S.: I wrote "Breaking Through Walls" as a business novel about overcoming life's obstacles. A reader called it a great sales book. For more details, Click Here.

Will you Let the Year Happen, or Make It Happen?

Many people think they really don't have much control over the future.

They're wrong. Here's an example:

Phil Was Letting It Happen

Phil owns an independent book store. After his grand opening event, he settled in. He had a wonderful selection of books on almost any topic. He knew that the minute a customer walked into his store, they would be hooked.

Bill was right. Everyone who came into his store was impressed. They almost always bought a book.

Bill's marketing plan consisted of hope that enough people would hear about his store, walk in, and buy something. In other words, Bill's plan for the year was to let it happen.

By the third month, Bill was running out of cash. Sales weren't as high as he thought they would be. Letting the month happen wasn't looking like such a great idea.

Bill's wife, Judy, spoke up. "Bill, we've made a strategic error. Our Let It Happen plan isn't working. We need a better plan. Let's not just sit around and wait to be reactive. Let's be proactive. Let's Make It Happen.

The Transition

Bill and Judy took these steps immediately:

1. They set the annual sales goals.
2. They wrote a plan to achieve those goals. They included milestone events and activity steps. They made someone responsible delivering each step, on its due date.
3. They executed the written plan, and monitored results to make sure the deliverables showed up on time.

Because they were executing a written plan, Bill and Judy both felt better. The stress was gone.

Because Bill and Judy decided to make it happen, their sales soared to all-time highs.

Sales project management is about making it happen. Here's how:

1. Setting realistic goals.
2. Planning to achieve those goals.
3. Executing your plan and monitoring your progress, to help ensure on-time, within-budget completion.

As you look at the sales year ahead, will you let it happen or will you make it happen? It's up to you. If you haven't done so, start writing your goals now.

How to Succeed Today

How's Your Plan Coming Along?

We are all planners to some degree. Many of us are great planners. We make plans to cover almost everything:

• Product development plans
• Marketing plans
• Sales plans
• Delivery and implementation plans
• Risk management plans
• ...and the list goes on

Danger! Danger!

Many of those plans will be essential to your success. There's only one potential problem: some of us never get around to executing our plans.

Seth Godin says that if all you do is plan, you're hiding. It's time to stop planning and start executing. How valuable is your plan if you never execute it?

How to Balance Planning and Executing

When you allocate twenty percent of your time to planning, and eighty percent of your time to execution, you'll soar past your competitors. I arrived at that ratio by looking at my work week:

• Weekly Plan: If I plan all day Monday (20% of my week), then I should be able to execute Tuesday through Friday (80% of my week). The weekly plan works well for road warriors. They massage their plan and do paperwork at the office one day a week. They spend the rest of the week in the field.
• Daily Plan: If I plan and monitor my activities for 1.5 hours each day (19% of my week), then I should be able to execute for 6.5 hours each day (81% of my week). The daily plan works best for people who work from their office every day. 

Life will interfere with either plan. However, you have a target. Over time, you'll make the hours balance.

Start Now

Decide if the weekly plan or the daily plan works best for you. Write down your weekly schedule. Employ your personal discipline to keep that schedule, and watch your sales soar!

Helen Keller once said, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." There's nothing in between.

Choose to make every day of your life a daring adventure.

I wish you uncommon success.

(P.S.: If this message inspires you, please share it.)

Sell Your Idea, Not Your Product

Even if you have the best product ever made, your sales will be disappointing if all you offer is your product. What's missing is the idea of your product. Sell the idea, not the product.

The Problem I Created

For two decades, I sold and implemented Sage MAS 90 accounting software. I had installations in Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Singapore.

I was impressed with MAS 90. I wanted to tell the world about it. In the early years, my sales conversations were all about the software features. It was fast. Its data entry screens were neatly laid out. Its reports were understandable.  

Big deal. My prospects didn't jump up and cheer just because MAS 90 was easy to navigate.

How I Solved It

I asked for feedback from my customers. They taught me an important lesson. They did not choose me because I sold MAS 90. Each customer chose me because all I talked about was helping them take their business to the next level.

I was selling ideas about taking their business to the next level. That's what they bought from me. My products were merely the incidental tools needed to reach that level.

You Can, Too

Get out a blank sheet of paper. Make two columns. Label the left column "Product." Label the right column "Idea."

In the left column, write down your primary product. It looks great, doesn't it? Now, assume that none of your customers care about that product.

In the right column, write down the way that your product makes your customers better off. What need does it meet. What goals does it help achieve?

Skip a line, and write the idea that you are selling.

Example

Product:  

• Sage MAS 90 accounting software.
• Great data entry screens, menus and reports.
• (I love it. My customers couldn't care less about it.)

How My Product Makes My Customers Better Off:

• Spend less outside bookkeeping dollars, because financial reports are easy to read.
• Spend less on inventory by turning inventory faster, because of easy-to-read inventory status reports.
• My software implementation focuses on your business processes, so you spend less time and money on future support.

The Idea Offered Through My Products and Services:

• A greater return-on-investment, with a faster payback.
• Achieving your business objectives faster and easier.
• Tools to take your business to the next level.
• Tools to achieve your dreams.

A Challenge

There is an idea of customer enrichment behind each of your products. It's up to you to find them. I've offered ideas instead of products to sell software, elevators, computers and consulting engagements. I even offered an idea to a judge, to take $100 off of a speeding ticket.

The next time you speak with a prospect, sell them your idea, not your product, and watch your sales soar!

How Joe Created a Sustainable Sales Machine

You could be the hero of the following story:

The Problem

"How will I ever sustain my sales volume? It's all over the map. It's just weird."

That's the question Joe asks himself all year long. Joe is the regional sales manager for Phillips Software, developer of a prominent line of shop floor control software products. Phillips is headquartered in the capital of weirdness: Portland, Oregon. 

Joe was telling his troubles to another regional sales manager, Mary, over coffee. Mary asked how he planned his sales year. Here's what she learned:

• Joe delivers a pep talk for the year on January 2nd.
• Joe sends sales reps to two trade shows each year.
• There is no sales process. Everyone does their own thing. 
• There is no sales training. After all, everyone already knows how to sell. What more could they possibly learn?

Mary listened politely. She wanted to choke Joe, but she restrained herself. She asked, "Joe, what if there was a way to increase your sales, and sustain your sales year after year? Would you be interested in learning about it?" Joe quickly replied, "Yes, of course I would."

The Solution

Mary said, "I recently attended a course titled, "Sustained Sales Growth." It was about increasing sales throughout the year, and sustaining it year after year. The program has three components. The first one is storytelling."

"Storytelling?" Joe replied. "What can storytelling have to do with sales?"

Mary explained that stories touch our hearts. Since we make decisions emotionally first, and then we rationalize, storytelling turns out to be a powerful emotional tool to close sales.

Next, Mary described the second tool: customized sales training. Immediately, Joe objected. "I've been to more sales training classes than the grains of sand in the ocean. If I see one more list of features and benefits, I'm going to throw up." Mary was ready. "We've been to some of those classes together, remember? I feel the same way about conventional sales training events. But this type of sales training is different. No lists of features and benefits. No endless decks of PowerPoint slides with fifty bullet points per slide. They have been replaced with case studies, video clips and other topics that the audience helped select. The presenter actually crowdsourced some of the training topics. Everyone stayed, and everyone stayed awake."

Joe listened with wide eyes. "I've never heard of such a thing...but it's exactly the type of sales training my team needs. What else is contained in "Sustainable Sales Growth?"

Mary said, "The third part seemed like a mistake the first time I heard it. They applied project management to sales. I thought they were out of their minds, until they showed us how it works."

"They turned the annual sales goal into the deliverable of a project. The deliverable is specific, it's easy to measure, and it has a due date: December 31st. 

"Then, they created the milestone events along the way. Achieving them on time would be critical to achieving the annual sales goal by year-end. Each milestone had a deliverable, a due date and an accountable person."

"Finally, they created the individual activity steps that were needed to achieve each milestone. Each step has its own deliverable, due date and accountable person. Managing the entire project is easy. All you have to do is make sure each step is completed on time."

Joe asked, "How can you be sure it works?" Mary replied that each of the three components has already proven its value for several decades. Sustainable Sales Growth is about connecting the components in a natural manner, to achieve uncommon success.

Joe said, "I'll think about it."

Mary deployed the Sustainable Sales Growth program on the first of the year. Her team's January sales beat Joe's team soundly. Joe signed up for Sustainable Sales Growth in mid-February. His consultant helped him every step of the way. By mid-year, his monthly sales were higher than ever before. His sales reps seemed to be happier, too. 

At the year-end celebration, Mary's team won first prize for sales volume. Joe's won second place. He was down by a month and half's sales volume...the difference in time between Mary's starting date and his. By mid-year, the Sustainable Sales Growth program had been rolled out company-wide. Phillips Software used the program year after year. Sales were higher, year after year.

What About You?

Are you Mary, the early adopter who achieves success earlier, or are you Joe, who adopts later and rushes to come up to speed? 

The choice is yours.

To learn more about our Sustainable Sales Growth machine, Click Here for your copy of our white paper.

The Sales Growth Trifecta

Every sales rep and sales leader looks for an edge, something they can do to sell more than their competitors.

Each of these tools, by themselves, has already been proven to help achieve goals.

1. Effective storytelling
2. Customized sales training
3. Project management

What happens when you combine them to achieve a sales goal? 

Sustainable Sales Growth.

It's the sales growth trifecta. Three time-tested tools, combined in a unique way. I wrote the recipe in a white paper. You can download it here.

I wish you uncommon success.

Mike

How to Sell More with Stories

Why Stories Matter

The best storyteller wins.

We all buy for emotional reasons first. Then, we rationalize. An engaging story makes an emotional connection with buyers. Better stories lead to greater sales.

Example

Mary sells cars. Her monthly sales production was just enough to stay employed. One day she was called aside by Bob, her sales manager. He said, "Mary, I've watched you work. You build rapport with everyone who walks in the door. You learn their needs. Up to that point, everything is great. Then, it falls apart."

"You present the features of the vehicle. The buyers say they'll think about it. They never come back. I've seen some of them the same day, driving a new car they bought from our competitor down the street."

Mary responded with, "Maybe it's the product. Maybe it's the price. There's a remote chance that I'm the problem. I want to make this work. What can I do?"

Bob taught Mary how to use stories to sell. The audience is the hero of the story. The story is about the journey of the hero. Mary's cars were merely the vehicles used by the hero during the journey.

Mary wrote brief stories to use in each step of her selling process:

• Stories to help greeting and need-finding
• Stories to help present the cars
• Stories to help handle objections
• Stories to help close the sale

Results

The day Mary began using stories to sell, she sold more cars. Buyers stopped saying, "I'll think about it." They bought from Mary without further shopping.

Now, the competitor down the street is trying to hire Mary. 

Your Challenge

Enchant more buyers and close more sales by using stories. Make the buyer the hero of your stories. Then, it's easy to make your products incidental but essential to the buyer's success. 

Note: If you like this story, why not comment on it below?

What's Your Story?

In the rivalry leading up to the Seattle Seahawks-San Francisco 49ers NFC championship game, each coach asked the other, "What's your deal?"

In the days of disco, a typical conversation-starter was, "What's your sign?"

Today, your prospective customers ask, "What's your story?" Your answer can help make them customers.

If you can answer these questions, then you can begin to craft your story:

1. What is the name of your business?
2. What is your tagline? What short phrase describes the outcome of using your products and services?
3. When did you start your business? How old is it?
4. Who are the founders of your company?
5. Why did you start your business? Did you satisfy an unmet need in the marketplace? If so, please describe it.
6. Who do you serve? Who is a typical customer?
7. What happens when a customer uses your products or services? How are they affected?
8. What are the unique reasons a customer should choose your company? What is your comparative advantage?
9. What does the future look like?

When you answer these questions, you'll have the core details to write your story.

So, what's your story?

Your Content: Less Is More

Has this ever happened to you?

I just finished removing several thousand words of content on the Goss Consulting website. The lessons I learned may help you. Please read on.

When ten words will do, I write ten thousand words. I don't want you to miss anything. I figure the more information I share with you, the richer you'll be.

My circle of advisors all said the same thing in their own ways: "Are you crazy. Just offer what they're looking for. If they want more, they'll tell you."

Information Overload Hurts

I remember when I worked for Otis Elevator Company in San Francisco. As a management trainee, I was assigned to lead a role-play sales presentation to the physical plant department at Stanford University. The goal: learn how we could re-sell the value of Otis maintenance to win the renewal of Stanford's five-year elevator maintenance contract.

I assembled a team of six people. We made 8-millimeter home movies, showing accidents that might be caused by lack of maintenance from a cut-rate elevator firm. I prepared talking points for role-play representatives of the sales, engineering and service departments. We were ready.

We held the role-play at a restaurant near Fisherman's Wharf. We expected the presentation to last thirty minutes. We had so much content that it lasted over two hours. One "customer" walked out. The others became glassy-eyed. They looked like they were in a coma. 

Back at the office, our presentation team did a post-mortem. Everyone agreed that our content was accurate and comprehensive...a little too comprehensive.

The lesson learned: offer just enough information to address the audience members' concerns, ask for agreement, and end the meeting. We missed that one.

Less Information Causes More Agreement

Fast forward to today. My now-missing and hidden web pages are accurate and comprehensive. But they don't add to your experience, so they've been removed from sight.

What about your content? What content have you removed, so you can communicate better?

Did You Scrum Today?

You have a great plan for the new year. It has the right goals. It has the right milestone events. It even has the individual steps to your achievement. Congratulations.

How Will You Stay on Schedule?

Warning! Warning! Unless you check your progress regularly, you could lose your way. For example, you miss a due date for an individual step, so you decide to make it up tomorrow. Tomorrow arrives with its own surprises. The next thing you know, you have missed the due date for your next milestone event. Now, your entire sales project is in jeopardy.

There's a cure for that.

In the world of project management, a scrum is a daily team check-in meeting, usually the first meeting of the day. It only lasts a few minutes. Everyone usually stands during the scrum. Each person addresses three items:

1. What I accomplished yesterday.
2. What I will accomplish today.
3. Anything that's standing in my way.

The scrum meeting lets everyone know where the team stands. If mid-course corrections are needed, they can be made almost immediately.

Start Now

Whether your team consists of you alone, or five other people, a scrum meeting will make you stronger. Why not have your first scrum right now?

Tiny Steps Cause Big Achievements

Here's the primary reason we don't achieve our goals: we try to bite off too much at once.

When we were children, we tried to eat a large portion of our favorite food in one bite. Our mothers gave us these instructions:

1. Take one small bite.
2. Chew it completely.
3. Swallow it.
4. Repeat, until your plate is empty.

Fast forward to the present. We're adults now, right? We're facing a goal. We find ourselves trying to accomplish the entire goal in one gigantic step. Big surprise: we don't succeed.

The key to achieving a goal is to remember our mothers' advice:

1. Break the goal into a prioritized list of activities. Each activity has a deliverable, a due date and an accountable person.
2. Work only on the next activity.
3. Complete it.
4. Repeat, until your goal has been achieved.

Now, call your mother and tell her she was right after all.

Milestones: Your Secret Weapon to Achieving Big Goals

Setting the Goal Doesn't Guarantee You'll Achieve It

You've created a SMART goal. As you look at it, you recognize it as a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal, a BHAG.

You feel good about your ambition. Then, you begin to worry. It's one thing to say you'll achieve it. It's a different matter to actually get there.

Create Milestones Along the Way

A Milestone Event is a major accomplishment on the road to achieving your goal. If your goal was to build a house by June 1st, these could be milestone events:

• Complete the excavating and grading by January 31
• Complete the foundation by February 15
• Complete the framing by February 28

When you have achieved all of the milestones on the way, you have automatically achieved your goal.

Determine Your Milestones Today

Here is an easy way you can create the milestones that lead to your goal:

1. Write the goal, its deliverable, its due date and it's accountable person.
2. Write up to three milestone events that are critical to achieving your goal.
3. For each milestone, write the deliverable, the due date and the accountable person.
4. If one milestone must be completed before another can begin, adjust your milestone due dates accordingly.

As you can see, achieving one milestone at a time is much easier than trying to achieve the entire goal at once.

Make it easy to achieve big goals. Break them into milestones.

For a Richer Year, Add a BHAG

Mary's Dilemma

Mary has completed her SMART goals for the new year. Each goal has these characteristics:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-Bound

Mary is confident she will achieve her SMART goals. But that's not the end of the story. Mary has a feeling of fear in the pit of her stomach. She feels like she's leaving something important out of her goal-setting.

Mary has one more business goal, one that she didn't commit to writing: publish a book and sell 5,000 copies before the end of the new year. This "other" goal has a much higher risk of failure, so Mary left it out.

BHAG Defined

Mary's "other" goal is known as a BHAG, a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. A BHAG can be good for your soul. Writing it down is an act of courage. Working on it during the year requires strength and ingenuity. Accomplishing a BHAG will make you so happy that you'll do back-flips down the hallway.

How to Create Your BHAG

1. First, complete your annual SMART goals. Consider them your "normal" goals. You're sure you'll achieve them if you stick to your plan.
2. Think beyond your "normal" goals. Imagine a goal that is almost beyond your reach. You know you can achieve that goal, but only with large doses of prayer, heavy lifting and "luck." When you achieve that lofty goal, you can see yourself shouting and doing back-flips down the hall. That is your BHAG.
3. Write down your BHAG. Define it with these characteristics:
   • Deliverable
   • Due date
   • Accountable person

It's best to write only one or two business BHAGs and one or two personal BHAGs. That way, you'll have time to complete your "normal" goals.

Start Today

The sooner you write your BHAG, the more you'll achieve this year. I wish you uncommon success.

How to Make SMART Goals Work for You

Why It Matters

Before SMART goals, traditional goal-setting was a lot lot like wishful thinking. When you apply the five characteristics of SMART goals, you are making goals that you are more likely to achieve.

We accomplish more when we set and achieve goals. Think of SMART goals as a tool of Management by Objectives. 

What Makes a SMART Goal?

Your goal is a SMART goal when it contains these characteristics:

• Specific 
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-Bound

Examples

Sales Goal, the Wrong Way

"We will increase sales significantly in the new year."

• Specific: no, because there isn't a specific goal
• Measurable: no, because there's nothing to measure
• Attainable: no, because "significantly" cannot be attained
• Realistic: no, because "significantly" is subjective, not realistic
• Time-Bound: no, because there is no specific due date; is it a calendar year or a fiscal year?

Sales Goal, the Right Way

"We will achieve $5 million in net sales by December 31, 2014."

• Specific:  we are specifically measuring net sales
• Measurable:  every day, we know our year-to-date sales
• Attainable:  $5 million is a 15% increase from last year's sales
• Realistic: a 15% increase is identical to the previous year's increase
• Time-Bound: it has a due date of December 31st

Make It Personal

It's easy to create SMART goals that will serve you all year long. Start by writing your sales goal in the most general terms possible. Then convert it to a SMART goal:

1. Review the "Specific" portion of your goal. Make sure it specifies net sales. Change the wording as needed.
2. Review the "Measurable" portion of your goal. Make sure you have quantified the specific dollar value of your goal. Change the wording as needed.
3. Review the "Attainable" portion of your goal. Make sure the goal is appropriate and achievable. Change the wording as needed.
4. Review the "Realistic" portion of your goal. Make sure it is results-oriented, serving the organization's needs. Change the wording as needed.
5. Review the "Time-Bound" portion of your goal. Make sure it has a specific due date. Change the wording as needed.

Compare your "un-SMART" sales goal to your completed SMART goal. Look what you've accomplished!

Does your organization have goals for marketing, HR, finance and leadership? Use your new skills to develop SMART goals for each of those business functions.

3 Easy Steps to Setting Your 2014 Goals

The Status Quo

In December and January, most people and organizations set their goals for the new year. Their goals fall into one of two categories:

1. Wish-list goals. ("We wish we could achieve $_______ in revenue.")
2. Percentage-increase goals. ("Our 2014 goals will equal our 2013 results, plus 10 percent.")

In both cases, the goals sound great, but we have no idea how we'll achieve them. We cross our fingers and keep moving. Things will work out. Right?

Why Goal-Setting Matters

Shocking Statistics:

• Only 20% of us bother to write goals.
• Only 30% of us who write goals, achieve those goals. That's only 6% of the population.

The big achievers in life are those who wrote goals and worked to achieve them. Sometimes they succeeded. Sometimes they lost. But they always got better, and they achieved more.

It's easy to write some goals on a piece of paper, just so you can say you wrote them. It's even easier to skip goal-setting altogether. Some business leaders say, "We have great products, and we have great salespeople. We're so good, we don't need goal-setting." These are the same people who think Russian Roulette is a business simulation game. Their businesses tend to be short-lived.

A Better Way

Here are three easy steps you can use for a stronger 2014. You won't find them in a business textbook, but you will find them in real life. 

Get out a pad of paper and a pencil. When you write your answers to these three steps, you'll have a plan you can use to achieve more in 2014. 

Step 1: Review your performance in 2013.

• What were our 2013 goals?
• How well did we achieve them?
• What worked?
• What didn't work?  What needs attention?
• What will we do better in 2014?
• After we apply what we learned, how much more can we accomplish in the new year?

Step 2: Set your 2014 goals.

• List your annual goals for 2014.
  • Deliverable (something you can measure).
  • Due date (12/31/2014 for calendar years).
  • Person accountable for achieving the goals (usually it's you).
• List milestone events that must be achieved during the year, in order to achieve your annual goals.
  • Deliverable
  • Due date
  • Accountable person
• List the steps necessary to achieve each milestone.
  • Deliverable
  • Due date
  • Accountable person

(Note: Your work today on Step 2 is the foundation for SMART goals and BHAG goals, which we'll explore in upcoming blogs.)

Step 3: Set up your monitoring system, to measure your progress throughout the year.

• Decide what must be measured.
• Select the measurement tools (reports, observations, checklists).
• Choose the progress meeting dates.
  • Planned performance to date.
  • Actual performance to date.
  • Mid-course correction steps.

It's Time to Act

The reason for your success in 2014 can be found in your answers to the points above. 2014 has already begun. You don't have a moment to waste.

I wish you uncommon success!