Fripp THE Executive Speech Coach

“Is It Sales?” Fripp Associate’s Lead Generation Expert Tom Redmond

 “Is It Sales?”

By Fripp Associate’s Lead Generation Expert Tom Redmond

"Every process is either a competitive advantage or an economic drain." Tom Redmond

“Every sales conversation is a missed or captured opportunity. Which will your next one be?”

Patricia Fripp

In the early career of one sales professional who attended our Fripp Associates’ Lead Generation Training, he was criticized for not generating enough sales activity. He thought about how to correct this and created a small sign that read, “Is It Sales?” The sign was framed and placed on his desk so there was no chance of missing it. The intent of this reminder was to force a decision. If what was being worked on right now was related to sales, it was okay to continue to work on it. If it was not related to sales, the activity would be put aside and replaced with a sales-related activity, such as calling on a prospect!

It’s funny how this same sign has made its way to our office – several are hanging on the walls where we cannot miss seeing them.

In your judgment, is what you are working on right now related to sales? If yes, carry on. If not, find a sales-related activity. What about your activities of yesterday afternoon? Last week? Your plan for next week? Put the non-sales related items aside.

In our Fripp Associates’ Lead Generation Training work across North America, we find sales professionals, regardless of industry, are pressured for sales results while simultaneously being pressured to complete non-sales activities. No surprise here.

For those hard-working sales managers reading this, part of your job is to protect your sales team from the company they work for! How about fewer meetings, less reports, and more sales guidance and coaching?

If you do not have a choice to stop working on the non-sales related activity, go to Plan B: manage your calendar. Block time for your critical sales-related/prospecting activities for the next two or even three weeks. Make an appointment with yourself for these activities and keep your appointment. Protect this time as if it was an appointment with your best client or prospect.

Finally, the energizer for your activities is your goals. Start from the possible and gradually move to the impossible. For example, can you ask for three referrals today? How about this week? How about this month? What is possible? Write down the goals, block the time, and continue to ask yourself: “Is It Sales?”

Fripp Associate Tom Redmond helps our clients improve their sales process. Patricia Fripp and her expert Fripp Sales Presentation coaches help them perfect their sales conversations and presentations. www.frippassociates.com, (415) 753-6556, pfripp@ix.netcom.com

 

Rethinking: 10 Strategies for a Challenging Era, Advice from Jim Cathcart

My pal Jim Cathcart is one of my associates in Speakers Roundtable give us great advice for challenging times. Speakers Roundtable is a group of 20 of the best, in-demand professional speakers, executive speech coaches, and trainers: http://www.speakersroundtable.com

Rethinking: 10 Strategies for a Challenging Era
By Jim Cathcart, CSP, CPAE

In October of 2008 our markets and institutions experienced a permanent shift. That's twice now since the Millennium that the game has changed. On September 11, 2001 I was shocked into the awareness that not only had we experienced a tragedy of epic proportions, we had also experienced a permanent shift in our daily life and business patterns. Never again could we trust at the level we had trusted before. That was true for our military and domestic defenses and now we find it true for our economy.

Now is a time for us to rethink virtually everything.

We have entered a challenging era, one in which previous assumptions about what was safe and what would work are no longer reliable. We must increase our scrutiny of our businesses and our lives before some government agency does it for/to us.

Here are 10 areas worth re-examining:

The value we deliver to our customers. What do they really get by doing business with us? Is the cost worth the outlay or can we make it more valuable to them without unduly increasing our cost of delivery? How can we increase their satisfaction right now? I call this "Up-Serving", looking for ways to be of more service without more cost.

The customers and markets we are pursuing. Is there another group or subgroup that could benefit from and afford our offerings? Are we seeking the optimum consumers of our services? Can we offer more or different products/services to our existing customers? Should we be pursuing customers who were never on our radar before?

The safety of working here. Is this a place where workers can relax in the assurance that we are looking out for them as well as our owners? Do we seek ways to show our people how much we value them? Do they truly know that they are appreciated? Do we listen to them, really? Do we protect them?

The margin of profit from each of our endeavors. Are we truly spending $100 time on $100 activities or do we often expend prime time on low payoffs? Let's become more efficient and more effective simultaneously.

The attitude we show day to day. People who work with us and buy from us are acutely aware of our own fear or confidence. We need to be intentionally and consciously building optimism and inspiring innovation. The only posture to operate in during challenges is Proactive & Positive. We need to be watching for ideas and opportunities on every front, especially from our own workforce.

Sales efforts from every level. Nobody is exempt from sales efforts unless they plan to leave the organization. At times like this we need every clerk, assistant, technician, accountant, machine operator, driver, courier and cook to be "Thinking Sales." How and where can we see an opportunity to help someone else at a profit? All of us circulate in the world and become de facto ambassadors for the company. That means we are walking sales reps even though we may never make a sales presentation, nor ask anyone to buy. Let's train everyone to recognize sales opportunities and show them how to pass along the leads for our best responses. Incentives will help too.

Our own work patterns. What worked last year may not work next year. We may have to begin doing some things we thought we had outgrown. It may be that we will need to re-ignite some old practices in order to generate new business. What time each day does your truly productive work begin? What do you regularly spend time on that has a low payoff value? Where is the highest and best use of your time? In what ways are we "spoiled"? Have you grown accustomed to certain luxuries or freedoms on the job that no longer make sense? What items that were once goals & dreams have you lately come to consider as entitlements? Lean and mean is the need right now. Roll up your sleeves more often and do what must be done.

Our primary relationships. Everything we do is done through others on some level. When we change the nature or mix of whom we spend our time with, we also change our results. Give some strong consideration to who you'd benefit from associating with and who might be holding you back. Cut back on the limiting relationships and increase the high payoff ones. (See my other posts about Relationship Intelligence).

Our expenditures. This is where most organizations begin their reactions to challenges. But most organizations don't do very well. Those who thrive in tough times are the ones who realize that nobody ever saved their way to more income. You don't increase sales by cutting expenses, you do it by increasing the payoff from each expenditure. Look for ways to increase high payoff expenses and eliminate low payoff expenses. Ask what items and efforts could be re-purposed toward sales.

The biggest challenge in meeting tough times is MINDSET.

As FDR said, "the greatest thing we have to fear is fear itself." Mindset is the beginning point for all behavior. We must cultivate an abundance mentality: there is opportunity out there and we will find it. We don't have to fear our competition, we simply need to value and serve our customers. We needn't worry about customer's being loyal to us, we will begin by being more loyal to them.

Check out Jim's information-rich website. You will be glad you did! http://www.cathcart.com

Ian Griffin, Speechwriter & Ghostwriter, Joins Fripp & Associates

(San Francisco, CA) –Ian Griffin has joined FRIPP & ASSOCIATES as a consultant. Ian brings his expertise in speechwriting, ghostwriting and content development to Patricia Fripp’s team of world-class business communications consultants.

Ian is an experienced speechwriter and ghostwriter with ten years experience in Silicon Valley technology companies. His clients include Scott McNealy and Jonathan Schwartz, the past and current CEOs at Sun Microsystems. He has also written speeches for EVPs and SVPs at Hewlett-Packard in the areas of Software and Services; Human Resources; Global Operations and R&D. Other clients include senior leaders in Venture Capital, Insurance and Philanthropy.

Ian’s clients have delivered speeches at conferences and meetings in the United States and Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Australia and Singapore. He has written keynote speeches for senior executives and developed scripts for corporate videos, panel discussions and media interviews. He has ghostwritten books, magazines and articles in technical trade publications. Ian also specializes in high-level strategic overviews and vision pitches for companies.

“In these challenging economic times, executives need – more than ever – to deliver speeches that make an impact. We’re pleased to add Ian’s speechwriting skills to the range of services we offer clients,” says Patricia Fripp.

FRIPP & ASSOCIATES are experts in business communications founded by Patricia Fripp. They offer a variety of business communications, sales, negotiating and business consulting services. Patricia is an award-winning speaker, author, sales trainer and in-demand speech coach. Her speech-coaching clients include corporate leaders, celebrity speakers, well-known sports and media personalities, ministers and sales teams. Meetings and Conventions magazine named her "One of the 10 most electrifying speakers in North America." Steven Covey's Executive Excellence magazine named her "One of the top 50 consultants, trainers, speakers, authors and professors who cover the Seven Dimensions of Excellence." Patricia is the author of two books, Get What You Want! and Make It, So You Don't Have to Fake It!, and coauthor of Speaking Secrets of the Masters and Insights into Excellence.

"Ian is a first-class speechwriter who can turn highly technical material into a terrific talk that's accessible to a wide audience. He's at ease with senior executives and has successfully supported several SVP-level managers. He's also easy to work with and a great team player."
—Jamie Beckett, Managing Editor, HP Labs Web, and Program Manager, HP IdeaLab, Hewlett-Packard

Learn more about Ian Griffin's Speechwriting, Ghostwriting & Executive Communications Programs at: http://www.frippassociates.com

Go Hollywood & Collaborate! Learn from Fripp, Cantu, Garfinkel

Go Hollywood & Collaborate
By Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

In Hollywood, it takes hundreds of talented people in front of and behind the camera, all working together to create a great movie. What works in Tinsel Town can also bring big benefits for speakers.

I often brainstormed with David Garfinkel, copy-writing genius and budding screenwriter, and late, great John Cantu, the San Francisco comedy legend. John could find something funny in anything. Garfinkel has a great mind for inserting a sales message or a dramatic Hollywood scene. My talent is creating a talk out of conversation, adding a great opening line, highlighting the key points, and adding structure to it.

The three of us got together one Boxing Day (that's December 26th, for you non-British.) John was just out of the hospital after serious cancer surgery. We asked him to describe his experiences. He told us about his first symptoms and being sent for a blood test. John, who is over 6 ft, said, “The first thing I noticed was that I was the shortest man in line. I was also the only one not wearing high heels and lipstick.” “That’s because Tuesday is transgender night,” the doctor said.

Two minutes into John’s account, we were laughing so hard that I stopped him. “John, this is going to be your next speech. Let me get the tape recorder and start all over!” As we listened, David Garfinkel kept adding dramatic effects. When John finished, we had the foundation for a speech called “Laughing All the Way to the Hospital.” It was full of human interest, funny and poignant. John Cantu is the “everyman” in movies who takes whatever life hands him with good humor and no complaints.

John told about lying on a gurney, waiting to be wheeled into surgery. “I’m a street-smart blue collar guy,” he said, “and I've never been in a situation I couldn’t talk my way out of or run away from. Then a woman comes up and asks if I’m okay. ‘To be honest, m’am, I'm a lot more apprehensive than I thought I would be.’ She took my hand. ‘Don’t worry. We’re going to take really good care of you.’ Suddenly, I felt better.”

“Whenever you give this speech to health care workers,” I told him, “call it ‘The Touch of Her Hand’!”

In his talk, John created 62 different individual characters, a whole busload of people, a hospital full of medical workers, and an hallucinatory spaceship full of aliens in green hospital scrubs. And his lesson learned: Nothing is so bad that it can’t be funny!

Our collaboration on John’s speech was so exciting that we transcribed the tape and turned the experience into an NSA seminar. We built a set on stage, replicating my living room with hotel furniture. Then we re-enacted the whole thing, freezing the action every now and then so moderator Janelle Barlow could point out what techniques we used in an incredible learning experience.

Another National Speakers Association star, Hope Mihalap, is one of the most brilliant natural humorists I’ve ever met. She’s Greek, married to a Russian, and her audiences adore her down-to-earth, everyday insights. She had been asked if she could tie a sales message into her humorous talk. (Hope is the first to admit she doesn’t have a business bone in her body.)

So I asked her to tell me her hilarious story about buying a girdle. As Hope spoke, I pointed out eleven spots where she could tie in a customized client message. For example, she could repeat the saleswoman’s humiliating comments, and then ask, “What could you say to keep your customers from feeling like I did?” Her audiences would be learning a valuable lesson while laughing. I suggested she collaborate with a sales trainer. He or she could do what I had done through the entire talk. From a sales standpoint, tie in sales and marketing questions and observations that could easily be added to Hope’s talk. Hope in return could write some funny lines for his/her sales presentation. Go Hollywood !

All of us have our unique strengths and shortcomings. When you collaborate with other talented people, you can make your presentations big box-office winners!

Referrals Increase Your Results in 2009 and Beyond

By Fripp Associates' Sales Process Expert Tom Redmond

"Every process is either a competitive advantage or an economic drain."
--Tom Redmond

"Every sales conversation is a missed or captured opportunity. Which will your next one be?"
--Patricia Fripp

In our constant search for the easy way to sell (there is no easy way but we continue to look), one consistent factor is that the most successful sales organizations are aware of their numbers and make course corrections by them. Organizational and individual patterns of success can be duplicated and challenges recognized and overcome.

Do you know your referral ratio?

When it comes to referrals, we advise our clients to think of themselves as a sales manager. That's right; your clients now work for you! How are you managing and leading your clients, prospects, network, etc. in delivering referrals to you?

A recent article in Forbes Small Business (June 2008) highlighted an important metric - Net Promoter Score; "…those so delighted that they praise a product or service to all within earshot." Without going into all the mathematics, this concept measures what proportion of your customers are promoters (for you and your company). Which customers are referral sources?

Here's one fast way of calculating your Net Promoter Score:

Of your current prospects, how many are as a result of a referral? If your referral ratio is below 60%, what can be done to improve it?

Here's what we know:

Referrals are the best way to generate new business and expand your prospecting network. We estimate that hit ratios from referred prospects start at 50% and go up from there.

Set referral goals - how many referrals can be generated for the balance of this year? OK, did you set goals as far out as September? December? Your assignment is to pick a number and write it down.

Target your referral sources - You know that your products and services are terrific. Where is the greatest level of personal trust between you and your client? Which customers are the safest to ask? Think of those clients who have actually experienced and recognized your outstanding service. Who comes to mind? This is where to begin. Start from the possible and move gradually towards the impossible.

Ask - Yes, that's all there is to it, just ask. We recommend that you even set goals with your referral sources. Here's a dialogue example: "I'm building my business and would value your assistance. Is it possible to obtain five referrals/introductions from you over the next ninety days?" Your assignment is to develop and practice your own dialogue.

Be specific as to the types of referrals you are seeking - Targeting specific accounts, individuals, or industry niches will be helpful to your referral source. Ask for and discuss specific strategies for reaching each referral.

Explain the process - how you will communicate, offer outstanding value, and gracefully walk away if you are not the right fit or the best solution.

Upon conclusion of the activity with the referred account, thank your referral source again (and ask for another!)

Insurance Industry studies have shown that over 90% of those asked are happy to refer business. That's the good news. The bad news is that less than 3% are asked for referrals. Sometimes, we simply expect that a satisfied client will naturally offer business contacts - stop that thinking immediately! You need to ask.

We always feel good about ourselves when we refer business contacts to others. Let your clients and referral sources feel good about themselves.

Why not ask for a referral today? How about one by 5pm?

Fripp Associate Tom Redmond helps our clients improve their sales process. Patricia Fripp and her expert Fripp Sales Presentation coaches help them perfect their sales conversations and presentations. www.frippandassociates.com, (415) 753-6556, pfripp@ix.netcom.com

Important Career Questions and What You Can Do about Them

Important Career Questions for 2009

At a time when even exceptional professionals have to set themselves apart from their competition, there is no better time to realize your communication skills are critical to your success.

You are smart enough to know communication effectiveness drives your personal effectiveness. It is mandatory to be competent and confident in knowing what to say, and how to say it. If your audience is one person, a small group in a board room, or a convention audience, your presentation skills add credibility to your reputation.

"Okay," you agree. Where do you get high quality advice for an investment that is not going to break the bank?

Patricia Fripp, an award-winning, Hall of Fame public speaker and executive speech coach (that is me!!!) has joined in collaboration with her friends who are five International Toastmasters World Champions. They have built a coaching community for ambitious presenters who are committed to utilize their high caliber advice. Hundreds of individuals in several countries benefit from World Champions Edge. Every week they receive an audio postcard and every month have the opportunity to have the Champs answer their questions, enjoy a Teleseminar, and receive a CD. All for $29.95 a month.

To guarantee you can benefit from membership, you can enjoy a month of benefits for $1.00. http://www.worldchampionsedge.com/fripp

Membership has benefits! All Edge members enjoy 20% discounts off the Champs learning materials and Coaching Boot Camps, and the yearly Lady and The Champs Speaking Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada February 21-22, 2009. http://www.fripp.com/fasttrack.html

Effective communication techniques can be learned and mastered by nearly anyone. They are not reserved for a chosen few.

You simply need to decide to be one of the few and then take action to change your decision into knowledge and skills. Furthermore, once you reach a higher level of communication effectiveness, you never slide back; you only gain confidence and continue to become even better.

Well...what are you waiting for. You have $1?

Darren LaCroix my Partner in World Champions Edge at APA

Last week I conducted a two day coaching camp with Darren LaCroix who is one of my partners in World Champions Edge. He made a great comment about pausing...

"If you don't reflect...you don't connnect."

Last year he spoke for my good client The American Payroll Association. Here is his opening... you can check it out on YouTube

Why not join us for Lady and The Champs February 21-22, 2009 in Las Vegas?

Bring a friend for $99. http://www.fripp.com/fasttrack.html

Speak up....Patricia Fripp

Fraser Seitel Writes about President Bush's Farewell Speech

Dear Reader,

As an executive speech coach my arena is not the political speech world. When I attend the Ragan Speech Writer's Conference which I will in February...I am in awe of the speech writers who write for history. I enjoy what I learn from them and the Ragan newsletters. http://www.ragan.com Personally, I enjoyed President Bush's speech...and learned from Fraser P. Seitel's comments. It does not matter who you vote for, the office deserves our respect.

Patricia Fripp

Bush’s Farewell Speech: A Sad Ending to a Sad Chapter
By Fraser P. Seitel

George W. Bush’s strengths and limitations as a speaker—and leader—claim the spotlight one last time

Even the most ardent George Bush hater had to feel a wee bit saddened by the president’s brief but fitting farewell address last night.

Here was a man, surrounded by subdued friends and supporters, who had tried his best, as sincerely as he knew how, and as committed to his country as any before him.

But in the end, he failed.

And so, fittingly, Bush’s final speech to the nation was brief, perfunctory in nature, and narrow in focus; one last, wistful attempt to convince a dubious nation that he really wasn’t a bad president.

This speech didn’t accomplish that—although the president finally felt safe enough to raise the one argument that may salvage his legacy.

The setting

At pivotal moments in the Bush presidency, Bush’s advisers had chosen the wrong venues to deliver the wrong speech—the eerie Jackson Square New Orleans resurrection and the disastrous “Mission Accomplished” aircraft carrier being the worst.

This time, the setting—the East Room of the White House—was appropriate but gloomy. The assembled crowd of Cheneys and Doles and wife Laura (but, oddly, no daughters or parents) was respectful but disengaged, even dispirited.

The president, too, seemed to be just “going through the motions”; presenting more a routine, valedictory address than an impassioned defense.

The structure

The speech structure was equally uninspiring—requisite thank yous and best wishes to his successor, platitudes about America (“engage the world with confidence and clear purpose”)— followed by a laundry list of underwhelming “achievements,” e.g., No Child Left Behind, Medicare Prescription Drug benefits, faith-based programs, and the like.

It was minimalist and unmemorable.

Where Ronald Reagan spent the bulk of his farewell address confidently expanding on the real strength of the “Reagan Revolution”—“we, the people”—Bush timidly touched on traditional topics—freedom, liberty, morality—but seemed reluctant to cite examples or illustrations or anything much to prove his merit.

The style

The president has improved as a speechmaker, but he started at a low base.

Last night, his odd smile, unease with the teleprompter, lack of gestures, pedestrian word choice, and monotone delivery were sad reminders that in terms of rhetorically lifting the crowd, this was no Reagan or Clinton or Obama.

Even when he reprised the greatest line of his Presidency, originally delivered in the days after Sept. 11, that “Our nation will never tire, never falter, never fail,” the words seemed flat. By contrast, when Reagan reprised the “shining city on the hill” in his farewell address, it was as fresh and inspiring as the first time you heard it.

The highlight

The one “shining moment” in last night’s address was Bush’s declaration—really for the first time—about the incontestable, singular achievement of his presidency:

For seven years, terrorists have been prevented from attacking the homeland.

Up until last night, Bush hadn’t dared to talk much about this. But with four days left in his presidency, he felt comfortable taking credit for the one distinction for which he should be given full credit and that he hopes will determine his legacy.

The other interesting device was the use of real, live Americans as “props.” Reagan, of course, was so gifted a speaker that he didn’t need gimmicks. Bush, on the other hand, benefited from shifting the focus from himself to others.

Accordingly, last night it helped when he praised the lady in the audience who lost her son on 9/11, the black New Orleans charter school principal, and the Latino former inmate who leads a faith-based program.

But in the end, when the final “hero” Bush cited wasn’t in attendance—“because he will soon deploy to Iraq”—even this device, as well-intentioned and sincere as it may have been, sadly fell short.

Fraser Seitel has been a communications counselor, lecturer, TV commentator and teacher for 30 years, and is a prominent public relations author. He can be reached at yusake@aol.com.

Simply Spectacular Speaking Seminar - February 21 & 22 - Las Vegas, NV

Lady and The Champs Present: The Simply Spectacular Speaking Seminar
Saturday & Sunday, February 21 & 22, 2009, Las Vegas, Nevada

Learn from 4 internationally-acclaimed speakers
Patricia Fripp, National Speakers Associations Hall of Fame winner and in-demand executive speech coach with Toastmasters International Speaking Champions: Craig Valentine - 1999, Ed Tate - 2000, and Darren LaCroix - 2001.

Perfect for Sales Professionals, Business Leaders, Professional Speakers, or Would-Love-to-Be Professional Speakers - click here for more information.

4 Reasons to Tell Stories

As a keynote speaker and executive speech coach  I teach four reasons to switch from lecture mode to storytelling:
 

1) Stories are the best way to create emotional connections;

2) Listeners will not remember your words but only your pictures;

3) The best way to explain a complex concept is through a story; and

4) Not all of your employees are first-language English speakers—with them especially, your stories will be critical to communicating effectively.

As I fly to Vegas for my two-day coaching event with my associate Darren LaCroix we will see how our coaches do!

We want them to say “Patricia Fripp and Darren LaCroix are the dynamic duo of speech coaching!” Our coaching clients and the speakers who invested in “watching” seats last time thought so.  

Check it out: http://www.fripp.com/hearbb.html