Taking Pause - Wise Words for Busy Meetings Industry Professionals

This article was written by Betty Healey of RoadSigns.ca, a firm specializing in Conscious Communication and creating healthy, human work environments.  Betty and her partner Jim have worked with our team here at Greenfield Services for nearly 10 years, helping us have a more engaged –and engaging – workplace.  We bring you this article because with the Canadian and US long weekends coming up, we believe we ALL could use a little pause in this meetings industry of ours. Enjoy...
  
We had been on I-81 for less than 30 minutes when I saw the SIGN -

I had the following reaction: Really! 

Sure enough, 5 miles later another SIGN: TEXT/REST STOP.

This is what it takes apparently to encourage drivers not to text and drive at the same time. As I assimilated this information, I looked to my left and sure enough there was a driver passing us and YES, he was texting. I was aghast as I find paying attention to the road and the other drivers enough of a challenge. 

At our first rest stop, I found myself sitting on the toilet listening in on the women on the toilet next to me having a conversation on her cell phone. Honestly, it felt like an invasion of privacy.

As I settled back in the car I remembered the vacations I took, pre 1995, when there was no internet, no cell phones, no access to the world other than what was right in front of you. I also remembered how these vacations rejuvenated me, how I would arrive home to see everything with fresh eyes and a new perspective, and I realized that today's escapes do not offer this same opportunity.

We arrived at our condo to discover that there was no WiFi - OMG. Near panic. No internet and we had chosen not to purchase an international plan for our cell phones. Of course you see the humour and the irony in this. I have attracted what I was wishing for. That said, there is a Starbucks, with WiFi, within walking distance. Whew!

BUT: When did life become so urgent, so immediate, so NOW?

Taking Pause
Vacation is of course simply a reflection of the life you have created, one dependent on being 'linked-in' to your devices, to e-mail,  Face book and Twitter or whatever social media you use. It has become part of a growing addiction, one to which I am not immune. I like my daily dose of connection through Facebook surfing. I have become reliant on it in many ways. AND I also resent the intrusion, the texting while driving, the cell phones everywhere, the need to be attached. I have forgotten how to unwind completely, disconnect, BE quiet, to take pause. I doubt that I am alone.

All of this has left me thinking, not only about vacation, but also how I build in the important 'take pause' time in my life, what I refer to as ME FIRST time.  I am left asking these questions, "Am I so addicted to doing, to being connected, that I have forgotten how to BE? When the NOW pre-occupies me, am I fully present to me?" 

Back to Basics
While I will not be texting while driving, I am not immune to the demands and expectations of today's reality. I am also aware that you and I can make choices to establish boundaries for ourselves and the degree to which we stay connected. A few suggestions:

1.   The 1% Rule
In ME FIRST, we recommend dedicating 1% of your day to YOU. Mathematically this represents 14.4 minutes, 15 minutes to make it easy. 
It is amazing to me the number of people who find this a challenge. Fifteen minutes just for me - what will I do? And therein lies the challenge as this is designed to be "BEING" time, not to be filled with reading, shopping, knitting or any hobby. It is a time designed for reflection, for taking pause. It is a time to simply check in with yourself, to breathe, to meditate, to daydream, to become clear regarding your intentions, to be grateful for your life. It is a time for you to be fully present to YOU.

2.    Big Rocks
This conversation has come up so many times recently, one that begins with, "there is never enough time", or "I am dancing as fast as I can and I still don't get everything done".
Here's the thing, you are not meant to get everything done. You are meant to get the important things done, what I refer to as the big rocks. The rest is filler, stuff that may not even belong to you or stuff that you are simply addicted to doing but when examined has little importance in the greater scheme of things. Use the 1% rule first thing in the morning and become clear on what is important for your day, name your big rocks, and plan your days accordingly.

3.    Time Expands
One thing I know for sure, is that my work, my busyness will expand to fill the time I give it. How many times do I look up to see that the hands of the clock on my desk are reading 6 p.m. and I am still in the middle of whatever. I have also reached the point of ineffectiveness as fatigue influences the quality of my work.
I also know that when I put time limits on projects, I achieve them. Lesson: be clear on your time boundaries and know that you can achieve what you need to within the time you assign the project.

4.    Know what is yours to Own
Be very clear on your YESes, what you agree to take on for others. This has been a fatal flaw for so many of us - we agree to take on issues or projects that do not belong to us. Somehow we believe we can do more efficiently or better. Yes and, they do not belong to us.
Remember, your taking on responsibilities that do not belong to you has results: you become overburdened while the other person does not have to own their responsibilities. It is a disservice to everyone. Not only that, our apparent goodwill holds others back - when they don't learn responsibility you also cheat them of growing confidence and self-esteem.

5.    Understand your Addiction
I am very clear that my 'doing addiction' is highly connected to my sense of self-worth. I suspect I am not alone with this. It may be time for you to understand your addiction as well, whether this is doing, being connected, being responsible, and so on. The unfortunate truth is, none of these doings, which are external to you, will give you the gift of self-esteem or self-worth. Their effect is temporary.

The only person who can give this to YOU is YOU - you are the voice in your head and your heart, self-esteem comes from within. Staying busy is driven by your ego and your fear of simply stopping and listening. It is when you take pause that you have the opportunity to see the greatness of who you are and to begin acknowledging the difference you make to the world around you. It is in the quiet that the truth appears.

Final Word
At the Awakening Festival in April I spoke about 'Cultivating Your Diamond'. The busyness that we have come to expect of ourselves allows no time for this. I encourage you to take pause, to identify time in your life for you and step away from the many distractions that so easily take up your time. You are worth the investment!

And by the way, when you are on vacation, make sure to disconnect! 

What Losing Weight and Sales Have in Common

This post is by guest contributor Art Sobczak. Art is President of Business By Phone Inc. and he helps business-to-business salespeople avoid rejection, prospect painlessly, and sell more by phone. See Art Sobczak’s bio at: http://www.businessbyphone.com/art.htm.

According to a National Institute's of Health study--brace yourself for this one--if you reduce the number of calories you eat, and exercise, you will lose weight.

Really?

No magic pill or potion?

Funny how the basics never go out of style. How they work, time and again: "Keep your eye on the ball," "Listen to your mother," "Eat your vegetables." More of the basics. The fundamentals.

And why are they the fundamentals?

Because fundamentals comprise a proven success recipe that has withstood the test of time.

And the same is true with sales. The longer I do this, the more I realize how uncomplicated sales is. All we're trying to do is help people buy.

People come through my seminars and say, "This really reminded me I need to get back to the basics."

That's right. No need to overengineer it.

But it's not just getting back to the basics, I tell them. It's USING them.

In this post I'll present, in order, a complete mini-course on the fundamental parts of the professional sales and prospecting call, and what I consider the most important points of each.

Pre-Call Planning

Have an objective for every call, defined by, "What do I want them to DO as a result of this call, and what do I want to do?"

Screeners

Treat the screener as you would the customer--this person determines whether or not you'll even have a chance to speak with the buyer. Gather as much information as you can from whomever you are able, prior to speaking with your prospect; busy decision makers get bored when they have to answer your
basic qualifying questions.

Have a reason for needing to speak with the decision maker, and be prepared to sell this to the screener. They're asking, "Does this person have anything of interest, or of value for the boss?" If leaving a message on voice mail, or with a screener, be certain it offers a hint of a benefit that sparks curiosity, but doesn't talk about products/services.

Common Screener Mistakes: Being evasive and condescending with the screener; wasting information opportunities by not asking questions; leaving messages that create resistance--not interest--by talking about what you want to sell, not what they're really interested in.

Opening Statements

The objective of your opening is to pique curiosity and interest so that they will willingly and enthusiastically move to the questioning.
You must answer, "What's in it for me?" for the listener, or they will immediately begin the getting-rid-of-you process.

Common Opening Mistakes: talking about the product or service... what the salesperson wants to do, not what the listener wants; not having prepared openings...winging it.

Questioning

Get information before you give it--how could you make an effective recommendation otherwise? After qualifying them, which preferably is done before speaking with them, the goal is to first identify the need, problem, pain, or the desire to enhance their situation. If it is latent, we must try to help them realize it through questions.

Common Questioning Mistakes: not listening to the answers to questions, therefore not layering more questions to dig deeper to magnify the problem; not learning and understanding the decision-making hierarchy and internal buying process.

Sales Recommendation

You should only talk about your product/service after knowing specifically how it will solve the problem, meet their need, etc. Then you can tailor your remarks specifically and personally for the listener.

Common Mistakes: "Premature Presentation," which is pitching before knowing what they're interested in, talking about points irrelevant to the listener; not seeking, or getting feedback during discussion of benefits.

Closing and Commitment

This is not the major event in a sales call. It's the natural, logical, validation of the professional sales process up to this point. But you still must ask. Commitment must be gained on every contact in order to move the process forward. If there is to be a follow-up contact, and information is to be sent, there must be commitment on behalf of the prospect regarding that material.

Common Mistakes: Asking too early; not asking soon enough (if buying signals have been expressed); not asking at all; agreeing to, or suggesting, a follow-up--and sending information--without having any commitment.

Objections

Objections can be avoided by doing everything else correctly up to this point in the call. When you do hear them, resist the tendency to attack them. You must back up and revisit the questioning stage of the call. The voiced objection is simply a symptom of the real problem.

Common Mistakes: Using slick, prepared, objection rebuttals that only tell people they're wrong and intensify the resistance; giving up before attempting to understand the reason behind the problem.

Wrapping Up and Setting Up the Next Action

At the end of calls reps must summarize agreed-to actions by both parties, and set the agenda for the next call.

There you have it, all the basic parts of the sales call. It's not rocket science. Follow these and you will be successful.

The Destination Doctor is in

This post is by guest contributor and notable travel writer, Allan Lynch
Read more about Allan at http://www.destinationdoctor.ca/

I have been on fam trips on four continents. There are great fam trips, good fam trips and unbelievable fam experiences.

My work, when I return to my office, is to interpret a place for readers who might be interested in bringing their corporate group or incentive program to the destination. It’s surprising how bad most destination Convention & Visitor Bureaus (CVBs) are with follow up. Face-to-face people will tell you, “Call me anytime, I’m happy to help.” I know they mean it. But then they disappear behind an impenetrable technological veil. It’s perverse that we are the most connected society in history, yet have all these impediments to communication. Things like a telephone menu that either doesn’t list the department you’re trying to reach or is only accessible if you know how a surname and how to correctly spell it.

In my work I have learned that accuracy is a loose concept for many destinations and properties. Why can’t a property offer consistent information about their facilities? Many hotels give conflicting information about simple things like room count or restaurant names. A restaurant may have been renamed and both identities are left floating on the information highway. Confusion grows when the website describes it as fine dining, a guidebook says it’s a bistro, a press kit calls it a lounge-restaurant. Have you one eatery or three?

For a piece I was doing for meetings magazine I needed to confirm a couple of details I couldn’t get from the resort’s website. The moment I heard the bright, enthusiastic fresh PR grad voice on the phone I knew I was in trouble. I wasn’t looking for a comp stay, free meal or to sell an ad. I wanted to know her property’s total room count, how many were suites, ballroom capacities and number of break out rooms. The woman I spoke with told me she wasn’t familiar with the magazine and didn’t think they wanted to associated with marginal media and hung up. Where is the harm in saying we have 400 guestrooms and 30,000 sq ft of meeting space?

I did what any self-respecting journalist would do and contacted their biggest competitor. That hang up meant the competition got exclusive mention and because of editorial cycles that first resort was shut out of the magazine for three-to-five years. They were also shut out of any Google searches a planner might do.

For many years I thought it was only media who didn’t get their telephone calls and email returned. I have learned that an astonishing number of meeting planners are also ignored.

As covered in Greenfield's November e-newsletter, the failure to return information requests is so rampant it prompted the Institute for Hospitality Management to conduct a secret-shopper style survey with 167 hotels. Only 15 percent of properties send a tailor-made offer based on client needs. This raises the question are staff working for you or the competition?

So what are three best practices to ensure you’re not working for the competition:

1. Make sure requests are not only directed to the correct people but that they are being received by them. One destination made an incorrect assumption about who was managing their trade website. Because of my questions they found 400 unanswered requests from media, meeting planners, incentive houses, travel agents and tour companies. How much business was lost because of that?
2. Have a policy detailing who handles media requests and ensure that the front desk, receptionist or whoever answers the telephone knows who to forward calls to. Media have deadlines. If the spokesperson isn’t available now, when are they back? And who stands in in their absence? Hotels always have a duty manager on site, so there should be a duty person to handle meeting planner and media requests.
3. Items 1 and 2 are reactive policies. What about a proactive policy? Do you court media coverage? Do you know how to get media and meeting planners interested in your product/service/destination? Do you have a communications plan and a concise message for both traditional and social media? It’s great that you’re using multiple platforms from traditional and social media to face-to-face fams to connect with clients, but you need to have something to say beyond book with us. When someone asks why they should focus on your property don’t tell us it’s how friendly your staff is – smiles are your business. Sell us.

All of us work in a 24/7 world-wide environment. Your competition is no longer the place down the street, it’s every place and property down every street, in every time zone. You cannot afford to miss connecting with anyone who is interested in you on any level. Today’s board meeting could lead to a national conference. Every call, every request is important.