2009: A New Start

The year is ending, and most of us start evaluating the positive and negative situations that we lived throughout the year. This was not an easy year, and some of us reviewed and adjusted our expectations. But my idea is different: let’s just adjust the how, not the what and the why. We have a purpose in life, and our passions are still the same. The fact that we encountered some obstacles on the road can be a blessing in disguise. We just have to keep finding the positive in everything.

Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve and a great start! 2009 is THE year!!!

Let’s take a minute to talk about time

One of the most notorious differences in the way that each country has in conducting business relates to time.

For example, American people are very reliable when they arrange a time for a meeting, even in the social aspect, so when somebody in United States arranges to meet you at 11:00 AM, you can be sure that she will be waiting for you at 10:59 AM. They also arrange the length of time that the event will take place, so it is a good habit to always verify how long the person has available to dedicate to the event right at the beginning.

On the other hand, the Latin-American person is not as punctual. It is common that a meeting that was arranged to start at 11:00 AM, for example, actually starts at 11:30AM, and if somebody arrives late nobody feels offended. This habit is particularly observed in social events, where it is considered not only unfashionable to arrive on time, but it could even be impolite since the hosts do not expect anybody on time, and may not be ready.

European people are different. Northern Europeans are very punctual, and also plan and announce the length of time that each event will take. Southern Europeans, especially Spanish people, tend to be a little more relaxed about time, but not to the extreme that is observed in Latin-Americans. However, they will actually feel disrespected if you arrive late to your appointment. The main difference is the time of the day that a work day starts. Even though Italians and Portuguese people start later than Americans, they do not start as late as Spanish people. It is very common to start working around 10:00 AM, have lunch around 1:00 or 2:00 PM, stay 2 or even 3 hours in the restaurant, and leave the office at 8:00 or 9:00 PM, sometimes even close to midnight.

If you plan to do business internationally, you may want to take this cultural aspect into consideration.

The new blog from the WinningStance team…

My name is Mariana Ciaburri and I am very excited to be part of WinningStance’s new communication medium. Our purpose is to provide information, news and practices that will be useful to all our friends and collegues that read this blog.

My main expertise is in the multicultural marketing and account management. I have delivered our workshop series and have trained people in many different languages and countries. This experience taught me a great deal on how to approach clients and staff from different cultures. My idea is to bring some of those experiences into this blog and share them with all of you.

Finally I would like to add that some of you may have different opinions or experiences regarding some of the topics and posts that will be shown here. We invite all of you to leave here your comments, no matter how opposed your opinion is. The idea is: the more debate, the more all of us will learn.

Thank you! Gracias! Grazie! Obrigada!

The 2% Factor and Stand Up Sit Down

I have been supporting, selling and marketing in the capital equipment market for nearly 30 years.  My good friend Bob Riefstahl turned me on to a concept called the 2% factor.  It is really a very simple concept but I believe these are typically the best ones.  If you are in the business of selling, whether it is equipment, software or services this still applies, you will recognize this scenario.  There was some type of pre-selection process, possibly an RFP and the buyer has narrowed down their choice to the three top contenders.  You are one of these contenders!  That’s the good news.  You go through an exhaustive process of presentations, demonstrations, detailed response to the RFP and you finally hear from you client on their decision.  The client calls you in and says, “Ron, you did a great job, your proposal was spot on, your demo was excellent and we really like your team, unfortunately we have decided to go with your competitor but I do want you to know it was a VERY close call!”

These are the words that you dread and the decision was probably very close, based on Bob’s teachings not more or less then 2%!  The fact is that your presentation and demonstration is much like a judged event.  The decision is often subjective.  That’s right I said subjective, now your R&D and product folks are jumping up and down because you have the best product, solution, or service.  Unfortunately today many vendors or suppliers that make the final cut in the decision process are in the running because any of their products will do the job. So how do you differentiate yourself and how do you close the 2% gap?

Here is one example…

Bob told me a story about a large enterprise software deal he was working on when he was selling software.  It was determined that Bob’s technical support specialist (TSS) would give the presentation and Bob would sit in the back of the room to observe, provide support and add any necessary comments.  The technique that Bob and his TSS developed was something he calls “stand up sit down”.  Here’s how it works, the TSS is presenting and Bob wants to interject.  What typically happens, the sales person says excuse me or I have something to add, etc. basically interrupting the presenter.  With “stand up sit down” Bob simply stands up behind his chair and waits, the presenter sees the queue and sits down at a chair strategically located in the conference room.  Bob then begins to speak, when he is done he simply sits down and the presenter takes over again.

I can tell you that the first time I tried this it was amazing.  I was in the back of the room and stood up and waited.  When the presenter stopped and I began to speak EVERYONE in the room turned and gave me their attention.  When I was finished the presenter took over and everything continued smoothly.

Bob’s story has quite an interesting ending.  His client, who did chose Bob’s solution, told Bob that the primary reason for the decision was the unprecedented team work that Bob’s company displayed.  In fact the software solutions were so similar that they had quite a bit of trouble remember who did what.  Pretty interesting and a true story.  If you are interested in finding about more techniques that can help you position you and your company in first place please contact me at rkendig@winningstance.com.

The Changing Print Industry!

I want to spend some time here talking about the industry I grew up in and how it has changed.  Most of my time is spent on the supplier side or the industry.  In other words my clients provide equipment, software and services to printing companies who in turn provide hard copy output and services to their clients.  I have been in this industry just shy of 30 years and have seen several significant changes however the last ten years have changed print, what I believe, forever. 

My latest “hit over the head with a sledge hammer” experience was at a friends baby shower.  Myself and my lovely “better half” sat across from a young lady who introduced herself as a graphic designer.  So of course I chime in commenting that I have spent many years servicing the print industry.  She reply’s, oh well the company I work for only does graphic design for non-printed communications, in fact that is our strategic position.  We do electronic media only.  She talked about designing point-of-purchase (POP) signage for companies like Macy’s that is only electronic.  Now the interesting part of this discussion and the part that concerns me is that her company was never a printing company, never worked with printing companies and started as a graphic design firm for electronic media only. 

Why does this concern me?  Our industry needs to wake up and smell the coffee, now don’t get me wrong there are many progressive Graphic Communications companies who have transitioned a percentage of their business from print media to alternative media.  By the way, that is also kind of funny that we call it alternative media when infact it may be that print is becoming the alternative media.  The fact of the matter is many of the printing companies that are out there today have the skill set and experience to be a great asset to the new media market.  The question is do they think that way and are they really pushing themselves from a marketing and sales standpoint to become a true Graphic Communications firm.

So here is a great example of just what I am talking about….

Welcome to WinningStance’s WinBlog

We have titled this blog WinningStance.  You can read more about WinningStance on the “About” tab up above.  Our focus is professional development skills with a specialty in medical and graphic arts capital equipment.

Many of you in the graphic arts industry, which we will henceforth refer to as graphic communications or GC industry, already know Ron.  For those of you that don’t, he has long history, about 29 years of industry experience. Mariana comes from the high tech and  telecommunications sector.  She is multilingual and supports our international efforts.

This is a B2B oriented blog and discussion points around the GC industry as well as marketing, selling and professional development are areas of interest to us and hopefully those who might read this.  So let’s see what happens…