Got Alignment? Broken Promises Won’t Pay the Rent

People build relationships and decide who to buy from based upon trust.  Patricia Aburdene, author of Megatrends 2010 said: “Transcendent values like trust and integrity literally translate into revenue, profits and prosperity.”

If you are searching for a surefire way to anger and alienate your prospects and customers, simply violate their trust and you have just found it!  Think about one of your own recent experiences as a customer where what was delivered to you didn’t live up to what was promised.  How likely you are to do business with that company again? Even worse (for the business), how many people have you spoken to about your negative experience? 

I had a fun and illuminating breakfast meeting about a week ago with Larry Bailin.  Larry is an internet marketing guru, a published author, a sought-after speaker, and (as I concluded during our breakfast) an all-around nice guy.

The initial part of our conversation focused on Larry’s primary business, Single Throw Internet Marketing.  As a speaker and a consultant myself, I have a natural curiosity to learn about businesses, their customers, the people who run them, and the obstacles and opportunities they face.  So in a conversational manner, I was running Larry through a series of questions to help me get a grip on both “the man” and his enterprise.

One of the things Larry shared with me that periodically frustrates him is that some of his clients struggle to implement the internal processes, systems, and behaviors to support their online presence.  As we dug into this issue, it became clear to me that these clients struggled to deliver on the promise of their marketing.  In my own terminology: their internal reality (what they did) wasn’t aligned with their external reality (what they promised) and they weren’t creating trust.

How does your business’ internal reality align with its external reality?  If you’re not sure, I suggest that you take steps to find out, and pronto.  Your prospects and customers will be able to tell you, as will your own staff (believe me, they know).  An organizational assessment tool I use with my clients is a handy way to get at this critical information quickly, economically, and in a manner that preserves the anonymity of individual responses (in other words, you get the truth).

Data in hand – good, bad, and even ugly – you can then more objectively evaluate your internal reality in terms of your organization’s:

• Structure – including roles, responsibilities, and lines of communication
• Processes – both formally defined processes and informal ones
• Rewards & Recognition – both formally and informally, what behaviors are you reinforcing?
• People – do you, your mangement team, and your staff each have the right knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be successful in your role?

In my experience, if you’re not actively working to align the internal and external realities of your business, they are probably moving on their own inertia in a divergent path.  This is exactly the pattern that gives my new friend Larry Bailin heartburn as he helps his clients market more effectively online; it’s also the pattern that can stagnate growth, or even worse, put a business out of business altogether.

The Power of “Value for Value” Relationships

“You don’t get something for nothing
You don’t get freedom for free
You won’t get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dreams might be”
–  Neil Peart, Rush

When I was a child, one of my father’s favorite sayings was “If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.” He said this most typically in reference to a free or heavily discounted offer we received in the mail or read about in a magazine.  The core of his point was that, absent exceptional circumstances (like your Uncle in the shoe business scoring you a free pair of Nikes), it is reasonable to expect to have to exchange something of value in order to receive something else of value.

Although we conveniently seem to forget this once in a while (Gevalia coffee maker anyone?), as buyers it is a point we generally accept as true.  This is the “value for value” exchange.

If we consider sales, we can now clarify the #1 task of a salesperson as building a sense of value for their product or service to the point where the prospect’s perception is that it exceeds their cost.  Note that their cost might not be limited to money, also potentially including things like time, effort, opportunity costs, and other trade-offs associated with the purchase decision.  The bottom line is this: if the prospect’s perception of the product or service’s value exceeds their perception of its cost, in almost all cases the sale will be made.

Salespeople can’t force their prospects to buy, however.  In the absence of authority, the buying / selling process reverts to influence. In fact, sales is the art of influence. That is, getting someone to do what you want them to do (i.e. buy) because they see that they will benefit from making that choice (i.e. receive value).

Influence and sales are really one and the same.

Take a moment and think about who you typically need to influence during your business day. Your list might include your boss, your peers, clients, suppliers, business partners, networking partners, internal departments, prospects, and others.  In those relationships, just like in sales, your ability to get what you want depends upon how good you are at building the perception of value – the value you’re prepared to give in exchange for them doing what you want or need them to do.  Like Neil Peart said, “You don’t get something for nothing.”

It’s helpful to have an open mind as you consider the value you have to give in these situations involving influence.  It’s also helpful to have an understanding of what the other person really wants and needs.  How do you get that?  Ask, and then listen very carefully.

What you’ll probably discover is that different people want and need very different things.  A supplier might want a referral to one of your clients.  Your accounting department might need information about the structure of one of your business partnerships.  A networking partner might appreciate an idea or two about how she can be more effective with her “elevator pitch.”  And your boss might need some feedback about how his latest initiative is being received by the staff.

To better appreciate how this works in the real world, let me share an experience of mine with Steve, who I met through networking.

Steve and I were having a 1-on-1 meeting over lunch as he shared some of his frustrations as a relative newcomer to business networking.  He is a partner in a limousine and car service business and believed that because he didn’t have many referrals to give others, they weren’t willing to give him any in return.  In short, Steve was stuck feeling like he didn’t have much value to give others in exchange for influence over referrals.  Our conversation continued as follows:

Mark: “How many cars to you have in service?”
Steve: “About 40.”
Mark: “Approximately how many passengers ride in your cars during any given week?”
Steve: (after some back-of-the-napkin calculations) “More than 2,000.”
Mark: “How long, on average, is each trip?”
Steve: “At least 20 – 30 minutes, if not more.”
Mark: “And are your passengers pretty successful businesspeople or people who are hovering near the poverty line?”
Steve: (beginning to get my point) “Of course, they’re successful people.”
Mark: “So would it be of value for you to be able to offer your networking partners exposure to your passengers – say by posting a flyer in an acrylic panel on the back of the front seat?”
Steve: “You bet!”

Steve probably has more value to offer than many of the people he networks with combined.  He just didn’t see it.  When he did, it gave him both the confidence and the ammunition to be more aggressive in offering value for value exchanges leading to the relationships and referrals he wants.

What value can you offer to those you want to influence?  Probably, like Steve, much more than you think.  If you take the time to understand those you want to influence along with their specific needs, the alignment with what you have to give will become clear and you’ll have more opportunities for “value for value” exchanges.  You’ll have stronger relationships and more influence as a result.