Day 1 - Well there were some outstanding presentations at
the NSAA pre-conference "Sales Symposium" We heard from three great
speakers, and one ok speaker.
First up was Anthony Morris from South Africa. A fast paced presentation
that looked essentially at ways to get noticed, to build prospects and
thence to build business. He cited some research that show that 85% of
people still prefer to receive training face to face. Nice message to an
audience of speakers. 75% of people prefer to receive financial information
face to face.
He said that the old way of doing business was transactional, and that
the new way was relational - no real surprise there. His overriding message
though was to be unique. Don't copy what someone else is doing. Do your own
thing. Standout.
In a high tech world - high touch wins.
The second speaker was Michael Scott Karpovich. I have a problem with
people who use their middle names or who have hyphenated surnames - why
bother. Can't you be significant enough with one name???
His presentation started badly - but got better. Tried to do the high
responsiveness type message, from an unready audience. If you want me to
sing out a lot - you better give me reason. I won't just do it!
His main story was that he had brain damage as a child, gets headaches
every day of his life and is dyslexic. This makes him a leader...
His thesis was that it's not what you have that makes you a leader - it's
what you don't have that does. His main illustration was the Wizard of Oz -
Dorothy wanted to go home, the straw man wanted a brain, the tin man wanted
a heart and the lion lacked courage - this is what made them do what they
did - not the things they had - but what they didn't. Yeah, yeah...
What redeemed him in my eyes was that he told the "My Father never would
say he loved me" story - but that he reframed or re-purposed the line from
his dad (in response to his asking "Dad, do you love me?", his Dad would say
"That's bullshit") to mean "Yes son, I love you"
This is a powerful message to all - if your dad didn't say "I love you"
congratulations, if you were abused as a child - congratulations, if you're
dumb - congratulations, if your fat - congratulations: this is what will
make you a leader...
I think he overused the brain damage line - he wasn't.
The we got a favorite of mine - who I've never heard give a full speech
before - Martin Grunstein. He was wonderful. Fast. Furious. Taking no
prisoners. Interestingly he [and the following speaker] both were introduced
[read: said] they were NOT motivational speakers, as though that would be a
disgrace...
Martin promotes the Idiot Theory of Life. That is we are all born idiots,
which we discover at puberty. We then spend our whole life trying to hide
the fact that we are idiots. We marry the one we can fool the most, and give
business to those who don't think we are idiots, or who don't let on that we
know, and hold business back from those who think we are idiots. We will
spend more to not be an idiot. Sometimes many thousands of dollars.
Essentially we must preserve ego at all costs. This is the number one
rule of effective customer service. He will never set foot in the Hilton
Hotel in Melbourne ever again because a "technician" pointed out to him, in
front of his wife, that the reason the VCR didn't work was because it wasn't
plugged in.
He also said that today's core product is not tomorrows core product, but
that today's value add service will be tomorrows: Value Added Service is the
product.
Final speaker was Kit Grant from Canada. Outstanding too - but
differently. Kit pointed out that 78% of people are followers, 5% are
leaders and 17% do nothing. Try to be in the 5%, or learn while you are in
the 78%.
He said that if you get bad service, it's because that's the way the
management of the enterprise trains their staff. It flows down. What's the
point in asking to see the manager. He'll be a better ":bad service person"
than the one who served you.
Hire people, not skilled people. Skills can be taught. Attitude is much
harder to impart.
He said three people must win from any transaction [listed in order of
importance]
- the customer service provider [staff member]
- the Customer
- the Organisation
Are our staff in service or servitude? Good Question!
6:56:52 PM 
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