Tag Archives: sales excellence

Business Development & A.I.

NYC Executive Coaching avatarPosted on by

From my associate Grant Tate.

Understanding your clients/customers is the foundation of business development. Successful business development and sales depend on deeply understanding potential clients’ needs, preferences, and expectations. Integrating Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) can significantly enhance your ability to create precise and comprehensive client profiles, streamline sales strategies, and proactively address client requirements.

I agree. Deeply understanding are the key words. Years ago, one of my colleagues suggested that one should not “over research” a client because too much information would lead to confirmation bias, thus limiting your ability to ask open questions. Well, that’s one point of view. But going in naked without preparation was not my style. And, after all, wouldn’t a prospective client expect you to have done your homework?

‍That homework in the past included viewing the prospect’s website, public documents, investment reports, lists of products and services, news sources, LinkedIn profiles, and other sources. The process might have taken days to collect the information, copy it, and create a folder or binder.

‍Working with my trusty A.I. partner, that multi-hour process can now be accomplished in less than an hour.

‍Using ChatGPT, I set up a project that captures my uploads and facilitates multiple chats. Within this project, we will build a model of the prospective company.

‍We start a conversation. Not a “magical prompt.” A conversation.

‍Let’s start with the company’s website. Most of my clients are private companies with moderately-sized websites. We ask A.I. to download, extract, and analyze the website, describing the contents in detail. If my prospect is a division of the company, we could focus only on that portion of the site.

‍At this stage, A.I. and I discuss the market, the products and services, the company leaders, etc. That opens the door to ask A.I. to search its sources for more information about these topics, for instance, significant announcements, competitors, market outlook, significant issues, etc. From that, we can delineate significant challenges the business faces and its prospects for the future.

At this point, I usually ask for a preliminary SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).

‍If I am scheduled for a meeting with the CEO, for instance, A.I. can develop a detailed profile of that person, using LinkedIn and other sources. A.I. can prepare an outline of the interview session, including questions, cautions, primary focus of the meeting.

‍We may have identified other documents from past work—our own work products, processes, or techniques. I can add these to the A.I. project to help AI further prepare its answers.

‍Now, suppose new information has arrived—an email from the prospective client that lists some objectives of our upcoming meeting and a paragraph of her main concerns about the company. We upload that document to the A.I. project along with any other information we gathered. From this and the analysis so far, in conjunction with A.I., we can derive goals for a possible project for the client.

‍As you can see, the sophistication of the “model” is growing as we add additional data. Also, my questions and interactions are helping A.I. learn about my views and objectives about the project.

‍Now we can ask A.I. to develop a detailed program description for the client’s program with a detailed step-by-step process, and a timeline for implementation. If you have added your schedule of service or product fees to the A.I. project space, then you can proceed to ask A.I. for a complete proposal package.

‍At its core, business development is about relationships. People want to work with businesses that understand them and bring real value to the table. A.I. doesn’t replace that human connection—it strengthens it by giving you the insights and tools to show up prepared, engaged, and ready to help. And in today’s competitive world, that’s what really makes the difference.

‍At the beginning, I mentioned this was a conversation. Treating your interaction with A.I. as a conversation will expand your thinking and yield amazing results. Give it a try.

In the Beginning There Was Sales

NYC Executive Coaching avatarPosted on by

From my associate, Grant Tate.

At age sixteen, I worked in a furniture store. Our small town had two such stores, but Waugh Furniture had the legacy, having been around for fifty years. The other guys were fly-by-night, you know the type who sell seemingly big discounts, but the so-called sales price is still the normal mark-up.

Mornings started with the grand sweep-up. Our crew of five employees swept the cavernous showrooms from edge to edge, working around the displays of North Carolina-built furniture. Yes, we had a clunky vacuum cleaner, but good brooms were the tools of the day.

‍One day, Goree Waugh, the owner, after observing my work for a week, said, “Grant, you’re the worst sweeper I’ve ever seen. How would you like to become our bookkeeper?”

‍”Sure,” I said. “What does a bookkeeper do?”

That set me off on a whole new work path, entering transactions by hand in a huge journal book, checking records at the end of the month, preparing reports on the state of the business. Yes, I still had to do some sweeping in the morning, but most of my day was spent at the desk. However, helping customers was still the largest part of the job.

Goree and I had desks on a mezzanine overlooking the sofas, chairs, and other displays in the main room of the store. The customer’s entrance, the front door, was in plain view forty feet in front of us.

‍Goree looked at every situation as a learning and teaching opportunity.

When a customer entered the front door, he said to me, “Grant, who is that?”

I answered, “That’s Mrs. Jones.”

‍”When was she last here?”

‍”About a month ago, I think.”

“Did she buy anything?”

“Yes, she bought a chair for her living room.”

‍”What might she want today?

‍”I don’t know, but I’ll find out,” I replied.

‍I’d go down the five steps to meet Mrs. Jones halfway on the floor and greet her with a smile.

“Good morning Mrs. Jones. How are you today?”

“Fine, how are you, Grant?”

“Doing well. How is that chair working out for you?”

‍Goree taught me that the business was all about the customers. Yes, it was great to keep a clean and orderly store, but caring about the customers’ lives was foremost. He said, “It’s nice to ask the right questions to find out about the customers, but you have to actually care about them. Don’t fake it. Become curious, think about their lives, and the questions come easy.”

‍Caring about the human beings who are our customers is indeed the foundation of good sales. In these days of mechanistic and mass sales techniques, the human element is more critical than ever. Even if you have the most sophisticated, AI-driven customer interface, considering the customer’s needs and feelings should be at the top of the design objectives. If you are in a business where interpersonal relations drive sales, your emotional connection with prospects will drive your success.

So cue up your curiosity. Let customers know you really care about them. And enjoy your accomplishments.

Thinking back about my experiences, I’m amazed that Goree Waugh would trust a sixteen-year-old kid to sell to customers, keep books, and handle other big responsibilities. He was a master coach and mentor whose lessons formed my foundations.

Unraveling Value-Added vs. Adding-Value Selling

NYC Executive Coaching avatarPosted on by

Today, the competitive marketplace compels businesses to seek strategies that distinguish their offerings and captivate customers. Two frequently discussed yet often confused concepts in this realm are “value-added selling” and “adding-value selling.” Although their names sound similar, these strategies diverge in core philosophies and applications. This article aims to eliminate the confusion, highlighting each strategy’s distinctiveness and crucial roles in business strategy.

Value-Added Selling: Enhancing the Proposition

Value-added selling revolves around making your product or service more appealing to customers and clients by enhancing it with additional features or services. This approach does not necessarily change the core offering but adds elements that exceed basic functions or expectations.

For example, offering free installation for a home appliance or a complimentary one-year maintenance package with a vehicle purchase represents value-added selling. This strategy attempts to justify a higher price point or differentiate the offering from competitors by trying to increase its overall perceived value.

The premise is that customers are willing to pay more for the added benefits, conveniences, or enhancements that accompany your product or service. Value-added selling focuses on your products’ or services’ augmented features as the primary value driver.

Adding-Value Selling: The Consultative Approach

Conversely, adding-value selling prioritizes the customer-business relationship over your product or service. This approach adopts a consultative approach. You, the seller, become a trusted resource, investing the time to understand your prospects’ and customers’ needs, challenges, and objectives before designing and offering your best tailor-made solutions. This strategy might involve customizing services, providing expert advice, or offering solutions that save customers time, reduce their hard and soft costs, or enhance their operation’s efficiency.

The focus of adding-value selling is not on altering the product or service but on improving the customer’s experience and the outcomes they achieve from the purchase. It emphasizes the importance of building a relationship and delivering a tailored solution (or solutions) that better address your customer’s needs, wants, desires, and pain points.

The Confusion: A Matter of Perspective

As the ultimate aims of enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty overlap, it creates the need to clarify the difference between value-added and adding-value selling. The distinction lies in their focus: product versus customer. Value-added selling boosts the product’s appeal with additional features or services, whereas adding-value selling enriches the customer’s buying experience and outcome through personalized service and solutions.

Understanding this distinction is vital for businesses, as it can impact their sales strategy, customer engagement, and competitive advantage in the market. Recognizing the difference allows firms of all sizes to more accurately align their sales approach with their overall business strategy and customer expectations.

Conclusion

Grasping the nuances between value-added selling and adding-value selling is crucial for businesses aiming to enhance customer experiences. While both strategies seek to elevate customer satisfaction, they significantly differ in application and outcome. By distinguishing between product vs. customer relationship enhancement, businesses can more effectively navigate the competitive landscape, fostering loyalty and driving growth.