Susan wasn’t home so the
call was recorded.

Later, she suggested, “Listen
to this and tell me what you think.”

I said, “It’s obvious that the caller
was using contact management or sales force automation software. She recalled
our visit to the home development she represents and our interest in a
particular model.

She asked if I’ve been
speaking in or out of town recently and how my wife’s new book is coming along
(Susan is published by Simon
& Schuster,
New York. Her web site is www.SusanFletcher.com ).

Up until then it was a great
act. Then her chatty, friendly approach was revealed for what it actually is… a
charade, all form and no substance.”

What turned a potential
partner into a pariah? How did she go from making points to being thrown out of
the league? How did she become the Great Pretender? Where did she go wrong?

Her mistake was talking
about my daughter Kelly as if she knew her and citing her upcoming graduation.
Unfortunately for her, Kelly was getting her PhD.

I told Charlie about my
reaction saying, “One mistake can ruin
all your hard work. That one simple error destroyed all the trust that had
been built up over a handwritten thank you and multiple letters. She had taken
good notes on our preferences and intimations, put them in the software and
then dutifully executed the planned actions. Someone had helped with
well-conceived letters that took advantage of both the information in the
system and the news at the project. But you’re only as good as the information
you use.”

Charlie, who optimizes CRM
systems for a living, put it this way, “You
can’t pretend and get away with it. You can and should record information
about your clients and prospects in a contact management database. You should
use the database to help you remember people and all the various and sundry
things you learn about them. Recording only what you really know is the
best way to assure long term precision.”

I’m telling you, “Record data accurately… for now and when
you need it. She wrongly recorded education data. Instead of not
commenting, she elected to fit an assumption into her telephone script. Any
comment about not being sure and we might have given her the benefit of the
doubt. But feigning knowledge from inaccurate facts cost her us as prospects as
well as the three other couples we might have sent her way.

The beauty of the computer
is that it can help you remember. But it will only remember what you tell it.
Before you act on data, be sure it is accurate. That way leads to satisfaction.”

Charlie is right. Mark my words: “True satisfaction
increases trust, sales and referrals.
Loyal customers will overlook errors on your part. They believe that you will
always act in their best interest. They will give you latitude if they have
been consistently satisfied over time.

Loyal customers and prospects are nobody’s
fools.

 Great Pretenders fool only
themselves.

John, a hypnotherapist, asked me, “Is there some way I can
get more people to come to my free seminar? I’ve had this message out there for
four days and there are only two sign-ups”

Gail chimed in, “Make ‘em pay for it!”

I had to agree. Even a small investment generates more commitment.

 Gail continued, “I could not believe a networking event in a
bar downtown the other night. When I signed up on line there were only a dozen
seats left. Later that day I got an e-mail that said 300 people had registered!
And when I went, it was wall to wall people! And no I don’t think I got any
good leads but if you are looking for some youngsters about to get out of
college…”

“Hold on for second” I said, “Lets find out what John was doing
to get folks to come.”

“I put the notice on the Meet up site and I decided to let
some folks know about it with a personal e-mail,” John responded.

Gail rolled her eyes and said, “You start.”

My advice was this:

“Use every possibility you can think of to reach out to
people such as

• The Meet
  up site
• Your email
  list
• Your
  wife’s e-mail list
• Any
  friend’s email list (if they are willing)
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Facebook
• Linked
  In
• Mention
  it in your blog
• Have friends
  mention it in their blogs

Gail asked the inevitable question for a copywriter, “What
were you saying?”

John sheepishly pulled out a print out of his Meet up message.

She asked, “Why did you start it with 16 questions?”

 “I wanted to cover all the reasons they might come,” he
replied.

 She grabbed him by the ears and looked straight into his
eyes and said, “Focus.

There is one overriding reason that people will come. They need
to believe that you can solve a problem they have. Being specific about one of
these problems you’ve listed here might work but given the fact we have only a
few days we need to shift the message to those few things that everyone can see
in their lives that need fixing.”

“But first,” I said, “we need to straighten out this subject
line. Do you really believe people are going to open a message with the subject:
Life Improvement 101?

What you say and what people hear are two different things
particularly when we’re talking about hopes and dreams. Touch their hearts to
get them to act

 Lose the word ‘Improvement’ Make the subject line Life
Change 101. Improvement is incremental and sounds like a process that will take
a lot of time. Change is what these prospects want. They want to break a habit
or have a breakthrough. They want to believe you can help them do it.”

Gail picked up there and said, “The copy has to be short but
full of promise. Sometimes when I have this kind of requirement I write the
bold leads first. Here is what I’d suggest for this message:

            You can change your life.

The secret is within you.

You know it.

You can get that one thing that is stopping you out of the way

John will help you get to your “ah-ha” moment.  

You’ll go from good to excellent to outstanding

            Learn to be a new you.

That last line is followed by a direct request that they register
today.”

 And they did. In the next four days 18 more people signed
up.

Jim’s “Business Transition
Defogger blogs” give me pause at least once a week.

 Enid’s business card proclaims “Copywriter, rock star,
human” in the title slot and then at the bottom in italics says, “Okay, so I’m
not a rock star, but I once had a Janis Joplin lunchbox.” The sheer moxie of it
blows me away each time I read it!

 Tom Peterson’s, “and free is
a very good price!” was quintessentially Tom.

 Each stands out from the
crowd. Each is successful. Each, in their own way, is a leader and somehow
different from the masses.

 Shell calls it, “Charisma.” That
is unless she thinks it is too brazen. Then she says, “It’s chutzpah.”

In business it comes from
congruity…taking a position and sticking to it.

It is that one thing that
separates you from the pack.

I call it, “Singularity.”

Each of us has some, but
like athletic skill and intelligence and all the other complex characteristics
of being human it’s not evenly distributed. Yet each of us, undeniably, has a
quality, strength or viewpoint that endows us with a oneness. It is what makes
a person unique, a company identifiable and gives products or services an
impetus to succeed.

Can you find your
singularity, build on it and add to your success?

You bet! There are three
easy steps:

1. Become an expert. Devote at least one hour each day for a year to the subject or area of
your choice. Read about it. Do it. Experiment in it. Take a course in it.
Immerse yourself and follow the side paths that open to you. Mastery of nearly
any subject can be yours…if you’ll do the work.

 Also set aside at least 30
minutes each day to consider completely disconnected subjects. How? Pick up a
magazine at the bookstore…one you’ve never read before. Stop into a museum or
library or other public information venue and browse. Surf the net on a subject
chosen by opening the dictionary and selecting a word at random.

Integrate what you’ve seen
and heard into your area of expertise. You’ll find that you’ll now be able to
talk more comfortably with a larger array of people about the subjects that are
of interest to them while more easily connecting your expertise to theirs.
You’ll listen a little more carefully as your connections broaden. That will
add to your allure.

Charisma can be built
through confidence in your self, your expertise, true interest in others and a
desire to really communicate.

2. Risk being different. Some of us already are. Most of us
are shorter, taller, faster, slower, thinner, fatter, balder or hairier or some
other “er”. Rejoice if you have one of those obvious “ers” and can use it to
your benefit. People remember people with any of them.

Some of us aren’t that
lucky. We have to find a way to become memorable. For one salesman I’ve been
told it was literally changing his hat…to a homburg which wasn’t in style at
the time.  Me, well I grew a Vandyke
beard and moustache over thirty years ago and have worn it ever since.

Changes in dress and
appearance are only part of the equation though. People need more than a visual
reference. We judge and are judged on looks, words and deeds.

Your words, as an expert,
must make it easy for people to understand and connect your expertise to their
experience. Don’t fall into the jargon trap. If someone can’t understand what
it is that you or your company do, the fault is yours, not theirs.

You will be remembered for
showing understanding but referred on the basis of what you do. Actions still
speak louder than words. The guys in Schwab tire stores run to get to your car.
Nordstrom clerks send thank you cards.

I still answer the phone, “How
can I help you?…and mean it”

As my former client Bryan would say in his British accent, “Be a
little cheeky.”

People remember audacity. They forget timidity. Build a little
chutzpah into your approach to life.

3. Stick to it. It takes time for people to see the “new you.” It
takes time to convince people that you and your company are really experts.Develop charisma, add a
little chutzpah and stick to it. That’s the way to singularity.

It takes time. But it is
definitely worth it.

Ashley called back.

“We changed our minds. Can
you do it Tuesday?”

It was Friday. I was slated
to speak at a convention half a continent away on Sunday.  I agreed to fly back on Monday and do a
motivational keynote for Ashley’s high technology telecommunications sales
force even though it was on extremely short notice.

His briefing on what he and
the general manager had planned included a copy of the mirror and certificate
that they were awarding to every member of the sales team, a group of
independent contractors.

I was reminded of an ad I’d
prepared and faxed him a copy. We agreed that the ad would serve as the basis
for my talk.

Here, less the close, is the
copy from that ad:

“One skill marks the boundary between success and
failure in the Age of Access.

One ability is the difference between start-ups that
fly and those that die.

One look in the mirror will show you who controls
your fate.

A single glimpse of your true power can make you and
your organization a greater success.

The Power of One is what it takes to build your
business, your career and a life of joy from the ground up.”

Whether you bootstrap it,
find an angel or get plugged into venture capital your success will be governed
by a single restraint.

One.

How good are you at building
business relationships? Can you convince someone to believe in your vision? Can
you persuade them to back you?

Can you win over customers…enough
of them to make a profit?

Profit is what the bottom
line is about.

The top line is about
building your business. It’s about your ability in the clinches. It’s about the
Power of One… the ability to connect with the people that will make you successful.

Businesses are built one
contact at a time. One contact plus another and yet another until you have a
crowd.

“The trick is finding the
right crowd” said Geoff, a physicist friend and founder of one of the most
highly esteemed high-tech start-ups in the Pacific
Northwest. Think about all we’ve been through since we were
working in my garage and you named the company. ”

He had a point. Here’s the
fortune cookie version of what we learned:       

“The
wise man knows his limits…
            A shrewd one his resources…
            But ultimately it’s not who you know that matters…as
much as who you trust.”

Here’s how that played out
for us:

1.      A wise man
knows his limits. You can’t do
everything well. One, yes, even two or three, but not everything. No one can.
And no one expects you to.

It
takes a multitude of talents to build and run a profitable company. Use the
Power of One to be sure that you gather to you all the talent and skills that
your company needs to survive and thrive. Build those relationships. Work at
being sure that all of them see your vision and are actively pursuing it with
you. Ask them to share that vision with the people that are their resources.
Over time you want their network to be intimately connected to yours.

2.      A shrewd
man knows his resources. To succeed,
gather a group of successful resources. Model the behavior of successful
people.

Most
importantly, especially in the early phases, make sure you judge people by what
they do rather than what they say. If you have a good idea all kinds of folks
will want a piece of it. They will tell you virtually anything you want to hear
but when you look at what they’ve accomplished the ledger is blank. Successful
people don’t operate that  way.

Professionals
get that designation by having a talent, developing it and practicing their
skills until they can deliver predictable results. That makes them successful.

Look
for successful people. They move. They act. They get things done. They make a
measurable difference.

3.      It’s not
who you know…it’s who you trust. Ultimately your success will be judged by the
bottom line you deliver to your self, your family, your investors, your
stockholders…all those people who put their faith in you.

That
day I said, “To get to that point you have to reach out; connect and commit to
relationships that can lead to success only if they are based on trust.

You
must make the vision real.
You
have to reach out and find the experts needed.
You
must connect with the backers, the builders and the bankers.
You
have to commit to those relationships.
You
and you alone must get to trust with all of them.
You
must assure that so long as you are part of the company, that trust will
endure.

      At the heart of every
successful business is a single man or woman of integrity.

      One.

      There is nothing more
powerful.”

“…So we sent out this sales letter and nothing, I mean
NOTHING happened,” Michael whined over lunch. Our e-mail experience was the same but it didn’t cost as much!”

We asked him for a copy of the letter. Bill, a direct mail
guru, read it first and handed it to Anna. Anna, our resident copywriter
scanned it and handed it to me. I glanced at it and then set it aside as Bill
began giving Michael tips.

• “You have to go with the percentages,” Bill said. “ Whether it is e-mail or a real letter the odds are
  that out of every 100 business to business sales letters you send out 50 of
  them won’t get through the gatekeeper to the boss and of those, if you don’t
  follow up via phone the day after your letter arrives the chances are that only
  one person out of the hundred may respond. Here’s what you can do to increase
  the odds with a letter:”

• Make sure
  it gets opened. Look professional. Don’t try using pre-packaged “beautiful
  border” letterhead and envelopes. Too many business people have seen it.
  

• Use an
  odd-sized envelope. We’ve found over the years that bigger is better. A 6”
  x 9” envelope gets better response than your regular number 10 envelope. A 9”x
  12” does even better.

• Make it
  look personal. Screeners judge mailings on three criteria: credibility…of
  the offer and the person/company making it, relevance to the boss and the
  company and most importantly, whether or not it’s personal.

Anna jumped in right about there saying, “Don’t forget that
what you say and how you say it is just as important. If you want to get
results you have to think like customers and write in terms that grab ‘em. Try
to:

• Start
  with a hook. Make the reader want to read on by telling them that your
  offer is going to solve a nagging problem. Try to frame your offer in terms of
  what is most important to them. Solve their problem and you’ll get their
  attention.

• Talk
  benefits, not features. Don’t tell people what’s in it. Tell ‘em what’s in
  it for them. Folks buy your product or service based on what it will do for
  them. Everything else is secondary. Word things from their viewpoint, not
  yours. Do not start your letter with “I…” or “We of the (company name)” or
  “Because of (situation)”.

• Write as
  long as is needed. Short letters are not better. I’m sure Bill can tell you
  statistically what the difference is but I’ve found that you should make the
  letter long enough to make your offer in a clear concise manner. If it takes
  multiple pages, okay. Fact is, if the interest is there, it will get read.

There are a couple of tricks that
make it easy for people to keep reading. Separate paragraphs with at least two
lines. Short sentences and paragraphs will pull people through the letter. Use
bullets to give some rhythm and set off important points. Generally small dots
are best but you can use numbers, small graphics or even a logo if you like.

“You’re up,” said Anna, with a chuckle.

“See why I don’t like being in last position with these two
around? I said to Mike. In any case, there are a couple of things that have
worked for me.”

• Have a
  customer send the letter. Don’t get me wrong, you still have to write it
  and mail it and all that but if it looks like it’s coming from an officer of
  one company to one at another it will get opened, through the gatekeeper and
  acted on. One easy way to handle this is to put your offer in the form of the
  second page of a letter and then have the customer do a simple transmittal like
  “ Thought you might be interested in this deal….take a look and call
  (salesman’s name) over at (company name) if you’d like to hear more.”

• Never,
  ever send a letter without a PS. The single most important message in a
  letter belongs there. The hook that Anna spoke of belongs there. The offer that
  gets someone to take action belongs there. The PS is so important because of
  how people read letters. The first thing they look at is the inside address.
  Next they look at the signature to see if they recognize the person or the
  title. And then they look at the PS. If they are going to read your letter they
  will go back to the salutation. But if the PS is sufficient, they will take
  action based on the PS alone.

• Make it
  easy for the reader to take action. One approach that works well with
  senior executives is to allow them to initial on the letter and fax it back to
  you for details or an appointment date.

Let me know if you like sitting in on these conversations.

Jerry Fletcher, Networking Ninja

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