effective communication

Corporate CPR Episode 132: If Your Entire Organization Isn’t Closing, It Might Be Killing Your Company

/ Jana

On today’s episode, we discuss how a lack of closing across your entire organization could be detrimental to your company’s success.

Bob King is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and sales expert, renowned for his exceptional achievements in the industry, including multiple “Sales Star of the Year” honors. With a proven track record across retail, in-home, and B2B sales, Bob consults with sales professionals to infuse One-Call Magic into pitches, revive slumping teams, and transform total strangers into loyal customers—often within the first meeting.

Key Discussion Points:

  • Closing is a Universal Skill: The concept of closing extends beyond sales teams to encompass all aspects of life and business. Whether it’s getting your kids to clean their room or influencing organizational change, everyone needs to master the art of closing. This involves building trust, being persuasive, and understanding that closing is about facilitating a decision that benefits all parties involved.
  • Trust and Genuine Connection are Foundational: To be effective in closing, it’s essential to build trust and establish a genuine connection with the people you’re dealing with. This requires a sincere interest in their needs, challenges, and experiences.
  • Belief in Your Product or Proposal is Crucial: To successfully close a deal or persuade others, you must have unwavering belief in what you’re selling or proposing. This belief should be authentic and rooted in the conviction that what you’re offering is truly the best solution for the other party.
  • Address Objections with Empathy: Rather than ignoring objections or the reluctance to make a decision, engage with them sincerely. Addressing their concerns builds intimacy and trust, which can lead to a successful close.
  • Effective Communication Requires Silence: One of the most crucial moments to be silent is after presenting a price or asking for a deal. Silence allows the other party to process information and respond, which can often result in a positive outcome.
  • Leaders Need to Inspire and Empower: Leaders, like CEOs, often have a strong belief in their company and its value, which makes them effective closers. To extend this ability to their teams, leaders must share their passion and experience in a relatable way, allowing team members to adopt these beliefs as their own.

Top Takeaways for the Audience:

  1. A successful organization relies on its sales team’s ability to close deals, not just generate interest, as skilled closers are essential for converting leads into customers.
  2. Effective leadership involves guiding others to adopt your agenda willingly, similar to closing a sale, by understanding and addressing their needs.
  3. Developing your sales team through training and resources is crucial for improving their ability to close deals, leading to happier customers and business success.

How to Connect with Bob:

Website: https://www.joyofclosing.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-king-7a37951/

Corporate CPR Episode 86: How Organizations Need To Get A Stronger Change Discipline

/ Jana

On today’s episode we are talking about how organizations need to get a stronger change discipline. 

Jennifer Ayres, founder, and CEO of Senscient, is a culture and change expert. She and her senior-level team design and deliver deliberate, calibrated engagements that optimize meaning at work for every individual and ignites peak performance throughout the organization. Jennifer has over 20 years global management consulting experience, much of it focused helping leaders in organizations unlock the magic in their organization. She is results oriented with a proven track record for partnering with leaders to define vision and align cultural behaviors to business outcomes. Jennifer is often engaged to lead complex, challenging organizational transformations in unstructured and emerging situations. She specializes in leadership alignment, executive coaching, organizational development, and change management.

Top 10 Takeaways:

  1. Case studies are essential for understanding the reasons behind failed change initiatives and improving change management practices.
  2. Unsuccessful change initiatives often result from inadequate planning, unclear business outcomes, and poor stakeholder engagement.
  3. Pressure from leaders and urgent business needs can lead to rushed planning and exclusion of key stakeholders.
  4. Properly explaining the “why” of the change during project kickoffs is crucial to avoid confusion, apathy, and disengagement among employees.
  5. To overcome resistance and improve projects, organizations should provide training and awareness for technology-focused teams and promote an IT business partner mindset.
  6. Re-engaging stakeholders and thorough planning can lead to successful change implementations and improved project outcomes.
  7. Transparency and acknowledging challenges are vital for successful engagements.
  8. When facing difficulties, leaders should pause and gather more perspectives from stakeholders to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the project.
  9. Managing naysayers, especially influential individuals, requires empathy, curiosity, and psychological safety to foster trust and open communication.
  10. The psychological impact of change on employees must be considered and nurtured throughout the project to build a positive culture.

Additionally, the conversation provided the following insights on effective communication and the role of change teams and champions:

  1. Effective communication requires considering different channels and subcultures within the organization to reach all stakeholders.
  2. Holistic change management goes beyond just training and communications, involving intentional communities like engagement networks and change agent groups.
  3. Ensure that change teams and champions understand their remit and have visible support from senior leaders to increase their effectiveness.
  4. Regular touchpoints and recognition for their efforts can help engage change teams and champions in the project’s success.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1. If you are a leader responsible for change at your organization, make sure you really focus on the “why.”

2. There is a cost to addressing change, but a bigger cost to not implemented change. 

3. Assume positive intent for people going into these programs. There is a reason they are resisting change. 

How to get in touch with Jennifer:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifercahillayres/

Website: https://senscientglobal.com/

Email: hello@sencientglobal.com

Is This Thing On?

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Have you ever suffered from the case of “I shouldn’t have said that” or “That’s not what I meant?” It’s tough to say the right thing, at the right time, in the right way. We had Rebecca Barth from She Shares Ministries on the show this week talking about how to communicate for maximum impact. And while we talked about the different ways to communicate, from senior leaders to direct reports, I want to expand more on the topic of communicating with our peers.  Continue reading →

How Relationships Change Everything

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“People, process, or place?” That was the question I was asked when identifying the root cause for opportunities within my department. Are they people problems, process problems, or location problems? Every time, I boiled it down to people issues. People are the drivers for success, but they are also the drivers for failure. This week, Deanna Landers was on the show, and we talked about how understanding our personalities and how they relate to others’ can make a big difference when trying to improve a department.  Continue reading →

Take That Back!

/ Jana / 2 Comments

I have to admit, I’m a closet Glee fan. Often, I wish my life was Glee. Oh, to be singing and dancing my way through life! But then a scene with the antagonist, Coach Sylvester, comes on, and I’m thankful that I don’t know a soul like her. But I digress. There is an episode where Coach Sylvester tells a kid to take a tube of toothpaste and squirt it into his hand. After a nice blob has formed she tells him, “Now put it back.” Her point is that once news is out, no matter if it’s true or not, it can’t be erased.  Continue reading →

Finger-Pointing

/ Jana / 5 Comments

Today I sent a project status report. Shortly afterward, I received an e-mail informing me that while I had reported a task as complete, it wasn’t actually complete. The manager wanted to know where I got my information, and I let them know I heard it on the status call. The manager then informed me via an e-mail cc’ing the world (OK not really, but when you are being criticized, it can feel that way) that I should get information from a reliable source, and the manager named a few. It just so happened one of those “reliable sources” was the person who told me the task was complete. Graciously, that person stepped up, responded to the e-mail, and said that she was mistaken and had passed the bad information on to me. The manager then sent me an e-mail berating this “reliable source” for passing on bad information. While the task was not done, it would still be done on time.  Continue reading →