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The All Whites performance at FIFA has been remarkable; a demonstration of great leadership and excellent team work. With the World Cup they have –  rather suddenly, sprouted in our sporting consciousness and totally captured the nation’s imagination. After being an insignificant seventy eight in the world rankings, who would have expected them to do as well as they did? Here’s a team that did not have the support, backing and resources such as the All Blacks and yet they made every Kiwi feel proud by remaining unbeaten and scoring the goals they did – firstly with Slovakia and then against the World Cup holders, Italy! And we could go on here….

It would have been easy for the team to stay behind the following excuses – that they were not from a big country, that soccer isn’t a major in New Zealand, that they are only “part-timers.” But they didn’t. Under the great leadership and guidance of both Coach Ricki Herbert and Captain Ryan Nelsen, the players were instilled with a sense of discipline, hard work and the belief that they could do anything. They demonstrated that they need not be cowered by multi-million dollar superstars on the world stage. And whatever technical limitations they had, if they worked hard, played with all their conviction and gave it all they had, they could achieve greatness. They took full responsibility and pride and did exactly that!

Ricki Herbert as coach exhibited tremendous leadership courage in picking team members such as Winston Reid and Tommy Smith who were literally unknown to the other members of the team before the actual campaign began; yet they all pulled together. Contrast this with the efforts of France with multi-million dollar resources and players at the peak of their game who regularly played in top competitions around the world. This really reinforced the point that a team of individual champions is never as effective as a champion team.

It’s a testament to the excellent leadership of the All Whites and team culture that whatever individual egos might have been present, the players ably demonstrated that they have to work in with others and it’s not all about them. Within this cultural context, players like Simon Elliot and Mark Paston who had up till now, had fairly average careers, and were able to lift their game to unprecedented levels.

If All Whites had listened to the conventional wisdom from the pundits, it would have been hardly worth their while going out on the field. And yet with determination, a clear game plan that encapsulated their strengths and shrewd on-field management all led to the results we have seen. I am left questioning – how many times in business and even in our personal lives, we over analyze things and don’t give it a lash?

The All Whites “can do” attitude – making the best of resources they had, their engaging performance and inspiring leadership at FIFA reflects much of what goes on in NZ business every day. According to CapabilityNZ SME’s make up 97% of enterprise in NZ, accounting for 40% of the economy’s total output with 30% of all employees.

We have many hard working, committed people and champion teams giving their all to make their business a success for their families and the nation. We hear a lot about charismatic leaders. But there are also many quiet and or behind- the- scene leaders going about achieving positive results. We don’t hear about them in the media but are known by their family, employees and local community. They too can draw a lot from the All Whites example and feel proud of their efforts and results they create daily with their teams to make a difference.

As a business psychologist and executive coach, over the last two decades, Jasbindar has helped countless individuals and teams in organizations become even more effective.  Contact Jasbindar to discuss how she can be of best service to you.

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Keith Ferrazi is an expert on relationship developement, is a world renowned speaker and is the author of two #1 New York Times bestselling books – Never Eat Alone and Who’s Got Your Back.  That being the case it is not surprising that he was asked to deliver the Key Note speech at the BNI National Conference in Pittsburgh USA last month.  Here are some suggestions from Keith as to how to ensure that you never go to a bad networking event again!

When you are trapped at an event where people are milling around, acting formal and sterile and unwilling to open up to genuine relationship building, scrap any negative reaction (”I shoulda stayed home”) and instead anoint yourself as the event’s host, even if only in your own head.

Imagining that it is your role to help other guests break through gives you permission to act a little bit differently – you’re acting in service of the entire event to make sure everyone has a good time.  Assume an aura of relaxed self-assurance while you make sure everyone has a drink and someone to talk to.  Find out what they’re looking to do and who they’re looking to meet and make introductions.  Start conversations.

Even if it is not in your basic DNA to be the life of the party, appointing yourself to the “job” of making sure that the event is a success can be the kick in the pants you need to inject some energy into a failing function. Whether or not you’re able to transform the event, you’ll certainly transform your own experience of it.

How have you transformed a bad networking event?

LINK TO KEITH’s WEBSITE

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This is a 2-3 minute activity that involves those at the meeting.
You will need to read it through beforehand and be prepared. 
What you say out loud to the group is in larger type in bold.

Purpose: To highlight the need for focus to get referrals .
—————————————————————————————————

Begin by asking the members the following question…

Who do you want to meet?

Tell me who it is that you want to meet in business?

Give me one name?

Some of them will give you an answer but it is likely most won’t.

So ask them to do the following….

Please write down the names of three people you want to meet?

Go on, pick up a pen and write down the names of three people who you would like to be your next three customers?

Here you need to ask as many people as you have time for to say out loud the names on their list.

Now, say out loud their names, one member at a time?

Stop after each member and ask….

Does anyone here know these people?

Does anyone here know someone who knows these people?

At the end of this ask the following two questions.

1.    Will all of you who do have names, start asking for them on a rotational basis each week or every second week.
2.    Those of you who do not have any names need to think about how your team will be able to find referrals if you have not told them who to look for.

The Referral Master®

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$289,000.00 raised since 2005

BNI New Zealand and Hospice New Zealand renewed their partnership agreement this week with a signing ceremony between BNI National Director Graham Southwell and Hospice New Zealand Chairman Wilf Marley in Auckland.

Hospice New Zealand also presented BNI with a certificate acknowledging the contribution of the organisation and its members in raising $289,000.00 since 2005 for hospices throughout the country, as well as the sponsorship of 42 BNI Palliative Care Education Scholarships awarded to healthcare workers involved with hospice.

The goals of the national agreement are to raise funds for local hospices through local BNI chapters countrywide, to continue to provide multidisciplinary scholarships for palliative care health workers and to raise awareness at a national level through collaborative and national awareness activities.

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In my last article we finished with a statement from Zig Zigler which stated –

“Every sale has five basic obstacles –
No Need, No Money, No Hurry, No desire, No Trust”

Traditionally trainers spent a lot of time in showing tricky ways to overcome these obstacles/objections. The issue of course is when you are overcoming objections you are essentially arguing with your prospects. We may overcome the objection however the fact of the matter is where objections are present in the sales process the closing ratios go down correspondingly.

Let’s begin by looking at the first of these – “No need”

This is quite a complex issue to address as there are generally 3 levels of buyers you are likely to encounter depending on the price and complexity of your market and their needs will be different at each level.

The first level of buyer is typically at a management level and will be someone like an Office Manager, IT Manager, Engineering Manager, Marketing Manager.

These buyers are only interested in the feature and functionality of your products/services.

Typical things they will be looking for are –

• Support with your solution
• Up to date features
• Delivery schedules
• Improvements in efficiencies
• Demonstrations and evidence of past performance

To sell to these people you need to have a deep understanding of the technical aspects of your products and be able to speak their jargon.

It is at this level that the majority of salespeople make their calls.

The next level of buyer we are likely to encounter are the senior managers like Chief Financial Officers (CFO’s), Chief IT Officers (CIO’s) and General Managers.

These buyers are tasked with increasing revenue or decreasing costs.

For these buyers the language is therefore stated in financial terms such as Return on Investment (ROI), Earning before Insurance and Tax (EBIT) etc.

So if you are selling to these people you need to understand what they value and talk the language of ROI rather than features and benefits.

The third level language is that of the Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) and Managing Directors.

Their chief concern is market share and the growth and maintenance of this.

Therefore your conversations need to focus on ways to maintain or preferably grow their market share.

To summarize –

First level buyers focus on the features and functionality of your products and services
Second level buyers focus on increasing revenue or reducing costs
Third level buyers are only interested in market size and market share

In our selling environment here in NZ many of the buyers we are selling to can be a mixture of all three.

This Weeks Action Step –

1. Develop a “features/benefits” list – remember the litmus test that a benefit needs to pass is “so what?” – what does this benefit really do for the prospect?

2. Develop a return on investment calculation that shows the value of your particular solutions

In my next article we will look at the next obstacle which is “no money”

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group based in Hawkes Bay

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