I remember the sunrise over the Mediterranean on our last day in Israel. From the balcony of our hotel the contrast of brilliant colors was amazing.

I captured this moment on my iPhone and it will always remind me of a precious family vacation. This concept of moments got me to reflect on the last year both personally and professionally. I asked myself, “what goes into creating a special moment for another?”. This post is about moments and why creating them is critical and powerful in business and life. Over the past few weeks I’ve been reflecting on personal and professional moments that have had an impact on me and others, and I was moved to share these thoughts with you. I hope these thoughts compel you to create moments for others.

Let’s start with a few concepts in business and then I’ll share a few of my own family stories. Some of this motivation came from books and podcasts, but the truth is that I’ve been reflecting on 2017 which was a very special year. I came across Chip and Dan Heath’s new book called The Power of Moments, and in less than a week I heard a podcast featuring Joey Coleman who discussed moments. Moments are fleeting, but they provide opportunities to create a special situation for another person. They happen all too often without people putting much time and energy into them, and it got me thinking. It’s actually really easy to create special moments for others.

In the work environment we have tremendous opportunities to create moments for people. The first day for a new hire or the first experience after a client purchases your product. These narrow windows of time have the potential to create a positive, indelible and emotional impact on another. Creating a welcoming environment for a new employee is a great way to get that person engaged by ensuring a level of comfort in a stressful situation. What does it take to create this moment? First, have the basics set up for the employee before they arrive for day one, and have their area set up if they are working in an office setting. Take time to send out a welcome email to the team and new employee with some insights as to the type of work that the new employee is taking on and remind team members to stop by and say hello. Take an additional step and schedule 1-1 meetings for the new employee to meet key functional team members and those people who will work closely with the new employee throughout the organization. Make that first week a memorable experience for the new employee. Create that moment.

Another chance to create a moment is right after a client has purchased your solution. It’s important to celebrate your success. The sale is your moment and you’ve earned it so go out and enjoy it, and ring that bell! Take it one step further and remember that the person who bought your product now has to use it. Help to create a positive experience for your champion. The first 90 days after any purchase is the critical time to create a positive experience. From the minute the new clients get access to your product or service, you want those initial moments to be flawless.

Here are some things to consider in getting it right. Send a welcome letter with links to training materials that help the client get a fast start. Ensure that the client knows that support is close at hand and get them comfortable with their account team. Tie things together with a simple use case for the client to make the first experience of your product a good one. What else can help you stand out? Try a hand written note sent to the client to thank them for support, and if your budget allows, a small token of appreciation like a $5 gift card. I’ve often used coffee gift cards and include a message like “once you’ve had a few chances to use the service, let me buy you coffee so you can share your experience with me.” That extra touch helps to create the moment for your client. You’ll feel pretty good too.

Here’s a final thought related to business and then I’ll share some personal moments. I’ve been inviting clients to my annual kick-off meetings to speak about the state of the profession, and it’s always well received by our business because people love to hear from experts. That said, getting an expert to take time out of their busy schedule is a huge commitment, especially for someone who has daily billing pressure like many of my attorney clients. When I make the invitation to a client, I want them to have a memorable experience with us and it’s equally important to make it valuable for my team. We have a narrow window to create a moment. Here are some of the tips and tricks to make a client visit special. Take time to think through your reasons for inviting a client to participate, and be vividly clear about the reason for the invitation and what you hope to cover and convey during the event. Spend time researching the person and their interests in order to help others get to know your VIP before the event, and make sure you give your team a bio and other personal facts so that your team can engage the VIP at the event. Make your VIP feel special. To add a nice touch, send your VIP a small gift to help them remember their visit with you. We held an event in New Orleans a while back and we sent our panelists coffee and beignets from the world famous Café Du Monde. It was a small token of our appreciation so that they’d remember their time with us.

As a professional you have the power to create these moments that leave a lasting impression for your business partners, and it’s no different in your personal life. Taking the time to create special moments for your loved ones is simple, reflecting on them is precious. The past year was incredibly challenging and rewarding. My family had a number of experiences that created priceless moments that we’ll always remember when we look back. Here are three special and eternal moments worth sharing.

Dinner at Barclay Prime: His first year in high school was a wakeup call. Max decided to take a full load of honors courses for his first year at PWHS, and he put a ton of time into homework and studying to ensure that he put himself in the best position to get all “A’s”. It was a taxing year with schoolwork and a number of extracurricular activities, but Max is a goal oriented kid and doesn’t need outside motivation to stay focused. He wanted all A’s and he knew he could do it so I decided to hang an extra incentive out there for him. If you know Max, you know how much he loves a good steak. So I made the offer: get straight A’s and get your first Kobe steak. At the end of the year when the grades came in, Max comes into my office and says “Kobe steak here I come.” On the afternoon of our dinner you could see the look on his face. He was beaming with excitement knowing that his hard work was about to be rewarded. Dinner at Barclay Prime is always an experience starting with the service, and then followed with amazing popovers, choice of knife, and the best steak in Philly. Max ordered the 10oz Wagyu, and when it landed on the table he was ecstatic with a grin from ear to ear.

 

The video (Max Wagyu) of him taking that first bite was a moment that we will always remember. He worked so hard, and the moment was amazing for him and for the rest of us as we watched him enjoy the experience. Sharing the Wagyu was definitely a different story.

 

 

Eagles Game in Seattle: In case you didn’t know, Ashton bleeds green as a Philadelphia Eagles fan. He loves the Birds and all things NFL, and you might even think that his world revolves around pro football. It just so happened that Ashton’s 13^th birthday in 2017 coincided with the Eagle’s game in Seattle and I wanted to create a special surprise for him. I started my research, and then said to Bonnie that I was going to surprise him with a trip to Seattle to see the game as a birthday present. It was an opportunity to create a moment for America’s #1 football fan. I booked the hotel and flights, and popped the surprise on him in early July. He was beyond excited and you could see the look of awe on his face when he heard the news. A game in Philly would have been great, but traveling to Seattle with his dad to see the birds play at CenturyLink was a memory for life.

Fast forward to a few days ahead of the trip, and some other amazing things were lining up to make this an unbelievable trip…the Birds were 10-1 going into the game and we were all thinking about a deep run into the playoffs. On top of that, a close friend scored us pre-game field passes to watch the Eagles practice up close. Every part of the trip was special, and watching Ashton enjoy this special trip will last forever.

Bar Mitzvah on Masada: This third moment happened early on the morning of December 27^th on top of Masada as Ashton and Hayden became bar mitzvahs. There were so many amazing stories to share about our 2 week family trip to Israel. We were headed there for Ashton’s bar mitzvah, and over the course of 14 days we took in the historic sites of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Tiberias. We we experienced floating in the Dead Sea, making bread with Bedouins, making chocolate on a kibbutz, and living the experience of the underground bullet factory.  

The country is rich in history and religious artifacts, making all of these moments special, but the bar mitzvah ceremony in the synagogue atop Masada created the most poignant moment. Ashton and Hayden had studied their parts and they read beautifully from the prayer books and torah. As the boys led the service I took a moment to look at the family sitting together in this 2000 year old chapel and I caught a glimpse of tears in the eyes of my father in law. He was overcome with emotion living the moment of the special occasion. They were tears of joy for sure, but also of something more powerful about life and mortality. When Bonnie saw this she couldn’t hold back, and for me, this moment shines the light on how strong the bond of family is. Bonnie has an amazing connection to her father and she got caught up in the emotion, but what’s truly amazing is that the twelve of us were there together living out a moment that will forever remind us of the power of family.

Moments are powerful and fleeting, and they have the opportunity to create meaningful experiences for those around you. Taking time to create them and reflect upon them is essential to a life worth living.

And remember to have some fun along the way.

I took some time to review www.insidesales.com to share with my readers. It’s got great content for sales professionals. In addition to the review, let me share some additional favorites below.

My top 3 favorite sales resources:

1. CEB Global
2. Sales Benchmark Index
3. Demand Gen Report

My  top 3 favorite Philly Cheesesteak joints:

1. Dalessandro’s
2. Tony Luke’s
3. Pat’s King of Steaks

Next time you visit Philly look me up and let’s grab a steak san’wich.

I’ve had tomato pie from three different bakeries this past week, and while many of us look at a tomato pie and see crust and red sauce, the fact is, there are differences that make some better than others.  I have a local favorite from Corropolese Bakery close by in Norristown, and you may have a favorite as well. For me it’s the combination of the focaccia like crust and the sweet flavor of the gravy.  It got me thinking about what goes into a quality tomato pie. Pizza lovers around the globe will tell you that the quality of the ingredients is key. You need to start with the right flour to make the dough, and you need great tomatoes for the sauce. You will also be reminded that water, oven heat, air pressure and elevation play a role. After that, it’s critical to follow a process with the core ingredients.

At the end of the day, great inputs and a thoughtful process drive a solid output.  In fact, to be consistent year after year, you just need to continue to follow your process using the right components.

This is no different than selling where you need the right ingredients for a great product.  A finished product, the sale, requires a number of inputs along the continuum. Most people will tell you that it takes hard work and luck, and I have seen a number of different paths to winning in the past 25 years. It requires more than just hard work and luck; it requires a great recipe to follow from the start.

I’ve spent most of my life working in the legal industry with research solutions and data driven technology brought to market by LexisNexis. The legal industry would most certainly have struggled significantly without the data, information and insights that LexisNexis brought to the market more than 40 years ago. Although I chose not to practice law,  my law degree enabled me to transfer skills from practicing law to consulting with attorneys about their legal research needs. When I first started in sales, I leveraged my law school experience to build credibility with lawyers. The world of research was quickly shifting from paper-based research to online databases housed in the cloud. We were changing the legal research paradigm in the mid-90’s.  I had my law degree to rely on, but I needed a sales process to win since my charm and good looks weren’t enough. My territory was geographically diverse, and my market segments were equally as broad.  I needed to prioritize, focus on the right activities, target the right people, and follow through on activities and promises.  My first manager taught me sales discipline.  With her help, I had success and became the Rookie of the Year in 1996 for LexisNexis.

During my first year in sales I built a discipline that has enabled me to have repeatable success in any economic environment. There were no silver spoons in my past so I couldn’t bank my retirement on one year of success at Lexis.  As I started each new year with increased quota and a modified territory, I followed a logical process that helped me achieve success. It’s also important to practice continuous learning and I have been blessed with great sales and business mentors over the past 25 years who have helped me to enhance my discipline, picking up additional best practices along the way.

Over the course of my career, I’ve come to recognize that selling has forever changed in the legal industry, but it’s not unique to legal industry sales. The financial collapse in 2007, and resulting recession combined with the proliferation of information on the web have changed the perception of what buyers “must have”, and how they identify with whom they are going to do business for the “necessities.”  If you want repeatable success to build a career, here are some critical factors for you to build into your process:

KEY INPUTS (INGRIDIENTS FOR SELLING SUCCESS)

1. THE RIGHT ACTIVITIES

Every great professional starts with the end in mind. That end can be as basic as your quota, or much broader as in “how much money do I want to make”, or “where do I go after this role”.  In order to achieve your desired goal you must understand the basic elements that will help you get there. For simplicity let’s look at the idea of achieving quota.  Can you answer these questions?

• How much is an average deal worth?
• How many do I need to hit my target?
• What are the 10, 20, and 50 best organizations to target to make my number?
• What percentage of these targets can I win?
• Is my competition already an incumbent or is there “white space” for me?

Every great recipe includes great product. Once you define your objective you need work the ingredients and the process. As much as the world of inbound marketing has facilitated the creation of the warm lead, remember that complex B2B selling requires considerable effort after leads arrive.  In fact, inbound leads alone will never be enough for you to achieve your ends.  I am often reminding others to take off the entitlement hat, and get focused on additional activities related to lead generation (yes- cold calling is still important).  Here are some additional keys to success around the activities:

• Make the requisite number of calls per day (block your calendar if necessary).
• Schedule the requisite number of First Appointments and Demos.
• Follow up your warm inbound leads immediately .
• Have a plan for calling that incorporates number of attempts, when to leave a voicemail, and how you plan to include email or social media into your follow up.
• Be diligent about follow up through your funnel, and track your success metrics.

Track your success so that you understand how many touches it takes to get a meaningful appointment, as well as how many conversations get you to the opportunity stage.  These are some of the basics to building a repeatable activity process for winning.

2. THE RIGHT MESSAGES

Content marketing teams are driving omni-channel experiences for buyers as information flies over the web, email, social media and traditional analog media. This requires sales and marketing to have consistent messages as it’s a critical step to ensure that you are communicating effectively with your audience. The sheer quantity of information forces you to stand out from the noise to be heard.

Messaging and activity are symbiotic. Here are a few of my winning concepts:

• Sharpen your game and message. When you make contact ensure that you’ve got research to rely on. Don’t make price the differentiator.  Dig deeper and drive value by speaking to the prospect and their industry challenges.
• Don’t be generic. Refine the message to the persona with whom you are working. Understand the stakeholder’s role and speak to their functional needs.
• Pain hurts. Ensure that you drive home the notion that change is easier and more advantageous than doing nothing.  What is your prospect’s current state, and where would they like to go? Help them with the right message.

Note: You’ll have more people to convince along the way, so get the messaging right. Spend time with your marketing and product teams to refine the messaging, and test it. Then refine again if necessary.

3. THE RIGHT PEOPLE

In complex B2B sales, statistics suggest that we encounter more than 5 stakeholders in the decision making process. It’s critical that you identify them as you move through the sales funnel so that you have all of the appropriate buyers in alignment when it comes time to make the decision.  Whether you sell a product or a service there are more people in a buying process today, and convincing larger groups to move is a challenge. Some thoughts:

• Start at the highest level. The chief can push you down to the appropriate people if they see a need.
• If your product scales across an organization’s needs then look for other personas as well, and stay at the high level.
• Leverage your executive team. In many cases your leaders have existing networks to help to open doors. Get your leadership team involved early, and let them know how they can help you along the way.

These are the key ingredients, and you can build a process around these disciplines to achieve success.

Thanks for reading the blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed a few tips for success. In case you are hungry, and ready to try a tomato pie, see below for a home style Italian recipe.

Here is a recipe for homemade Philadelphia Tomato Pie- Italian Style

If you would rather buy a tomato pie, here are 3 of my favorites:

1. Corropolese Red Pie
2. The Sinatra
3. Grandma’s Special (It’s not a tomato pie, but it’s a Fabio special)

I’ve just returned from SuiteWorld 2015, and it reminded me about how much effort goes into making a successful trade-show exhibition.  This user conference was a four day learning event with a lineup of decadent keynotes and savory user sessions, and I was extremely impressed with the smorgasbord of talented speakers.  It was also a 4 day exhibit hall event in Silicon Valley, and for everyone who’s set up and exhibited, you know that 4 days is a massive effort for your planners and staffers. With this in mind, I thought I’d opine on the recipe for success at trade-shows in this post.

1. Engage Your Audience:  SuiteWorld launched the engagement mechanism by creating a weeklong charity challenge for every attendee (over 7,500). The NetSuite organization did this by partnering with Fitbit to create a weeklong wellness challenge. Every attendee was given a Fitbit Flex and a choice to participate on behalf of two well know charities: MANNA or Water for Life.  Each step helped to support your team’s effort at winning. The dashboards were accessible on the Fitbit.com site, and you could see who was winning. This was a spirited way to engage the participants, including the NetSuite employees, and their CEO, Zach Nelson.  Everywhere you turned you overheard discussions about challenge and how many steps people were taking. The conference team started the engagement, and got foot traffic into the exhibit hall where the vendors took over.

2. The “Three-Foot” Rule: My reps know this mandate, and yours should as well. If an attendee comes within 3 feet of you as an exhibitor, please reach out, say hello and invite them into your booth.  Your company has  made a significant investment in time and money to exhibit with the expectation that the staffers will bring back a treasure trove of qualified leads. In fact, we all use the metric “cost per lead” to measure the success of tradeshows among and against various other lead generation efforts. If you are not doing your part then chances are you won’t be back to exhibit in future years. The conference planners generally do their best to get the foot traffic into the exhibit hall, but it’s on you to execute after that. Don’t be shy and don’t be over aggressive, but engage and ask great questions.  Have 5-7 impactful questions at the ready for your team.

Here are some of the better openers that I experienced at SuiteWorld:

• Which team are you on for the Fitbit challenge and how many steps have you taken today?
• How did you enjoy the keynote this morning?
• What technology are you most interested in learning about while you are here?
• When was the last time you had a Rice Krispy Treat for breakfast (no joke, and thanks Dell Boomi for my morning fix).
• Would you like to win a GoPro HERO4 (this can be substituted for any premium give away)

You can substitute your own questions above, and I’d love to hear comments on some of your best openers below. 

3. Make the Booth Experience Memorable and Valuable:  Booth traffic is great, but you have to stand out from the other exhibitors and make great use of time.  Is it your product, your booth, your pitch or your  promos or tchotchkes that supports the traffic in the booth?  Whatever the driver, you need to determine what will make you memorable after the event so that when you reach out to the lead they remember you.  We all know that the exhibit hall is for exhibiting products, and attendees come to learn about your business, but are you a fit for the buyers priorities. Make the story more about solving problems rather than feature function to build enthusiasm and emotional connection.

Also remember that with a large conference you have to move through a lot of people in a narrow window of time.  Once you’ve gotten a visitor you need to do 3 things quickly:  assess the lead quality, get your message across, and schedule the follow up.    Have you ever driven deeply into a lengthy discussion only to find out the person was well outside of your product need or buying persona?  Is that a good use of your time?  Most exhibitors staff shows with a small handful of reps, therefore, you have to remember to qualify early so that you don’t over commit to the wrong conversation.  At a conference of 7,500+ attendees you need to manage the effort well and maximize the output. With the best leads, get a follow up on the calendar. Everyone carries their schedule on their smartphone, so take advantage of the present to get the next meeting scheduled.

4. Yummy Candy and Bright, Shiny Tchotchkes – Over the years I have learned that great candy and great promotional items support booth traffic.  Make sure they are out and obvious so that visitors see what is available as it increases your chance of creating the interaction.  There are always new items coming to market so make sure you keep up with the times, and don’t over invest for the year as items and their perceived value constantly change.  For instance, the power bricks are a hot item right now just as LED flashlights were in 2014.  Don’t overspend on the general items, in fact, I recommend staying under $2 for the general, and perhaps no more than $10 for your select premiums. Let the casual visitors have a general item, but entice the right visitors to work a little harder for the premium items. It’s your decision on how to design the call to action, but ensure the alignment.  And…. don’t let your premiums fall prey to the exhibit hall Tchotchke hunters.

Candy is critical, and don’t forget it.

My recipe for the perfect candy bowl includes massive amounts of good chocolate.  I am from the Philadelphia area, so my preference is Hershey’s, but other regions have high quality chocolate, so find your mix.  I believe a combination of Krackel, Peanut Butter Cups, and Kisses makes for a great candy bowl. Please also remember that unwrapped candy is not an option.

Don’t shortchange your staff or your visitors with bad candy.

What’s your candy bowl favorite?

Bonus Tip:   You don’t have to spend the money on the $900 trade show scanner if you are on a tight budget.  There’s an app for that, in fact, I have been scanning business cards easily with the ScanBizCards App for IOS and Android. It takes a picture, does the OCR conversion, and even allows you to connect it to LinkedIn all in a matter of seconds.

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to comment.