Doing the Placido Domingo - The things you can't take back : why first impressions count

I played chess with my son tonight. He's just learning so I let him get away with things. He makes a move, I say "really....you sure about that....take a moment...look around ...what might happen?". He stops, he thinks, he sees the potential outcomes and he says "oh I take it back, I take it back". And of course I let him. He rethinks and makes another, better move.

If only life was like that. If we got to see and live out the consequences of our actions but then be able to press the rewind button and "take it back" would we make better decisions? Would our learning be augmented?

Translating this into the world of financial services, our clients experience us making that first move. That move stays with them and it is something that we can't take back.

Sometimes that first move takes placed before we have even met our clients. The first move is they way the receptionist answered the phone when they first made their inquiry.

The first move is the look of our website, the information pack that arrives in the mail, the look of the carpark, the front door, the waiting area, the smile at the front desk, the coffee, the ornaments, the client testimonial book, the photos, the awards, the uniform, the music playing or not, the channel on the TV, the magazines in the stand, the flowers be they artificial or real.

It's the first handshake, the first words we utter.

What PCE are talking about here is because you do not get a second chance at a first impression then preparation matters. When Paul Keating in his address to the Canberra press gallery on 7 December 1990, talked about doing the Placido Domingo, his message was widely misconstrued and misquoted.

In paying tribute to Chris Higgins, Prime Minister Keating spoke about those people who when really serious about what it is that they are doing then they truly are a participant.

And to be a participant you need to master what it is that you do and be a performer. Each first impression is that opportunity to be on stage and shine knowing that because you can't "take it back" that you don't get second chances that you get up on stage prepared, polished, with experience with practice and with belief.

It is PCE's belief that there are unfortunately in this industry and many other service industries a few too many as Mr Keating pointed out "voyeurs".

For financial services this extends from financial planners, insurance agents, BDMs, executives and underwriters.

People who daily go through the motions. Who never replay back the moves, the decisions they have made, the way they have engaged with people and realise that they could have done it better and that yes indeed there is room for growth and improvement.

These people damage relationships irreparably and damage brands and the most important brand they damage is their own.

Go back to that chess board, have a look at the moves you've made. Reset the board. Try again, think ahead, practice, practice excellence, look at things from another's perspective and change those first moves into ones that are lasting positive impressions that build brands, build relationships and in this industry change lives.

Creating creative sales strategies

Fun Fridays! The day when your prep/grade one children get to run a muck dressing up and acting and having free run of the facilties and using every aspect of energy enthusiasm and spirit possible.

The art of learning in this environment delivers an experience that allows self discovery and importantly the ability to look at things from another persons point of view. Play acting or taking a part requiring one to step out of themselves comes easily to these children but eludes us adults restricted by the conventions of our workplace compared to the uninhibited playground of Fun Friday.

So the solution : create the fun Friday environment in your workplace.

First step in this is to recognise the strengths of the individual's in your team and then importantly recognise and document the valid learning experience required by each team member.

The exercises you need to then employ draw on De Bono and Gardener's multiple intelligences. This is where you need help and a professional to execute the programme.

The first step though starts with you and your willingness to take yourself and your team on a journey of discovery and have fun doing so. What you will find is new skills and a new way of looking at things with your clients your staff you and your business the beneficiaries as you further differentiate your client engagement.

Use the Whiteboard - Your Next Sales Presentation

So it's your first meeting with a new client. You need to get to the core of their very being - their dreams, hopes and aspirations and connect with them in a way that is memorable and that resonates with them to such a degree that they think when considering the options and perhaps weighing your services up against a competitors that it is you who understands them better that any prospective or current adviser.

How do you do that?

Is it the quality of the brochures you gave them? The luxuriousness of the couch in the waiting room. The way they were greeted by your front of house staff? The magazines in reception or perhaps it was your pure brilliance in the way you desicribed the multi-layered strategy you would put into place for them?

The reality is that is would and should be expected to be none of the above.

Now don't get us wrong you need a lot of the above to even be considered.

A professional air and the impression that you actually have a business that is successful and can afford a decent coffee machine not to mention decent staff are critical factors.

Your capabilities and a demonstration that you have catered for and helped clients exactly like them are non-negotiables.

The way you demonstrate that is therefore key.

So how do you communicate that to clients have different ways of receiving, perceiving and then relaying information?

By mapping out thought processes and strategy using a combination of words, pictures, and diagrams you are able to cater for different learning styles and create a live visual and text diagram of your prospective (or review) clients world.

Better still once you develop a template for yourself - share it with your clients as the example of what you will work through with them together......that's right....give them the pen and get them involved - drawing and COLLABORATING in your process.

Whose appointment will they remember?....yours or the adviser who asked them questions directly from a fact find document OR the adviser who seemed to have no process at all......not to mention instant coffee?

Creative Sales Engagement Through Disciplined Process

Is it possible to have a disciplined sales methodology and process and at the same time provide an environment of innovation and creativity.

At PCE we think the two go hand in hand.

By providing the boundaries and automation of process staff are empowered by understanding how the core of their required KPI's can be built into daily, weekly and monthly process - some of which can be automated, the balance of which becomes habit.

From there staff, you and your sales professionals, have the freedom, flexibility, well defined boundaries, empowerment and most importantly the time to be innovative.

So how do you create a process that leads to freedom and flexibility?

At PCE we believe it's all about communication and transparency and leadership by example.

A mechanism to communicate with clarity and transparency is a good old fashioned communication board.

Now let's get this straight - having worked in the boiler room environments of high performance and cut throat sales - we are not talking about a leader board that is fear driven.

Rather we are talking about a pulse board. A snapshot of the mood of your office, of the development plans for individuals. Yes it's also about results and activity that people have achieved and have committed to. This is an important component but it is also about what you as a leader of your sales team have delivered in removing hurdles for outperformance and what incremental improvements have been made in the previous week for example.

It's a mechanism for communicating success and for looking at what conversations and techniques the team will try in the next period (say for example over the next fortnight) in their sales conversations.

So very quickly this type of communication becomes not only a performance tracker but a performance monitor and a guide and mechanism to share ideas.

Most importantly having leaped over hurdles it allows for time out for ideas development. By allocating 20% of sales team time for them to innovate - after of course this type of board has been in operation for a period that you are comfortable that the right behaviours have been adopted - you give through a process the right and autonomy to be creative.

Creativity through disciplined process.