Lessons

Lesson Info

Core Principle: Time

So karen did talk about a time a little bit didn't she getting the time and the maneuvering room that she needs to be successful and uh that's what this segment about is time and uh I think we have enough time tio cover a few things uh in my experience there's always some driver that comes from the client side that has to do with time and I've always looked upon it as an advantage for me because you know, there may be a show scheduled new model in our direction is set regulations require that we deliver on such and such a date the data set the invitations are in the mail whatever it is there is some looming deadline that gives us some some, uh, power over the situation because the client needs to have something accomplished to meet this date and we of course, and when we're in that situation we have all the time in the world, so we keep that in mind that we don't fall prey to the client's deadline things what we do is get what we need to be successful and uh in the video clips remember...

that tabatha mentioned time when she was helping ben that you know that she was I think what she said was I love and flexible deadlines because she knew that they always work in her favor in effect and alfa has a time has a time issue too we saw we saw better world beginning to kind of scoop around and say, well, wait a minute, here you spent fifty million dollars that's an awfully large amount of money aren't the shareholders kind of wanting a little payback here? You know, what is wall street really think so? Time is a re occurring issue, so the principal toe always remember, is that you have all the time in the world and don't rush the deal, don't rush the deal. No, take your time, we're when we're in the process of trying to close a deal, we are naturally and anxious and eager to get on with it. We want the work, we want to get past this tricky negotiation, but we're naturally nervous that we might not get chosen, which is always possible, of course, and we feel that if we could just close this thing, everything would be all right. I would certainly feel better if it would just hurry up and close, so we generate a lot of internal pressure just to close the deal and the tenth, and what we want to do is protect ourselves from that don't push it, keep asking questions, stay engaged, intellectually engaged, but don't push the time, don't rush the deal, so we need to always remember that creative one of our tendencies is I think I underlined it here. Oh, yes focused on what's next, you know, we're always focused on what's next that's just the nature of being a creative person, we're excited about the assignment that's just about to happen, we're excited to get into and try and figure out how we're gonna make los angeles make seattle feel like la santa. Listen, february is caryn described I loved I loved the visual picture that she described with the rain coming down and the and the twins and their t shirts shivering because it's february and seattle but eager to make it happen and make this magic. But then in the moment, we're like, oh my god, did I bite office a little bit more than I can chew, but she did get the shot, so we need to actively remember that our default as creative is this natural wanting to russian make it happen because of our excitement about the about the opportunity so contracts, not proposals and concise statements, and this is a little bit of about time as well, but it's from a different perspective, this is a little cartoon siri's that I did, and it was inspired by sarah, our student who we interviewed yesterday, and in this situation, sarah mark gets a call and sell sarah saved herself and her client time bye, taking action so this is a made up story about sarah mark I have to send it to her I didn't ask permission didn't ask permission but it's all made up so ah client is looking for a particular skill set and these air to client people in this frame and on the internet they see some insights that fit them perfectly from sarah and it's probably those lovely cherries in the little bit of ice right? And uh and this fellow says I think she can help and and our woman executive says I'll tell bob bob is off you obviously a decision maker in this situation so she goes off to tell bob bob likes the idea and he immediately picks up the phone and tell sara that he'd like to speak with her how soon could she come in? How soon could you come in? And so sarah uh being eager for the work comes in to makes her presentation and she uses one of ted's favorite phrases which is in my experience in my experience in my experience icon's create memories, I create icons they tapped into the same power that logo was used to create lasting memories photographic icons my icons create branded memories they're seared into consciousness and recalled long after their bright poster colors reinforced retention and add to the longevity of the memory they leave a mark and it just happens that my name is sarah mark and bob says we would like a proposal magic words right? We would like a proposal sarah's a happy girl and sarah says, well, a project like this will take approximately three months and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars how does that sound? Bob? He said it sounds good and sarah says I'll send a contract, I'll send a contract so what happened there? Sarah's virtuous cycle worked which was her website demonstrated her skills so it fit perfectly to what bob and his team need needed she showed how she could help she summarized concisely what it was that she does that she so skillful at she turned a request for proposal into a contract and she reinforced her expertise with our behavior throughout she reinforced her behavior throughout and she struck well the iron was hot because in that conference room magic happened in that conference room they went from considering her to seeing that she was the right fit for the perfect fit. And so when she summarized the opportunity which she did from her personal experience in a way that really connected with them, they said this is the right person to do this for us so that she eliminated the competition because of the way she positioned herself I guess would be the advertising term in that with with that client and she avoided the problem of having a proposal going out there and being languishing while they considered in shop for other proposals by moving from their suggestion number, proposal two summarizing what was really required and saying to them, does that sound all right now? Maybe they would have said, you know, we really want to include these things as well, or we need to adjust that then she would have adjusted her description on the spot and said, well, then we would need we really don't need a hundred fifty. We could probably do that for one hundred twenty, or maybe we need two hundred whatever it happens to be her, maybe we need three weeks instead of five or whatever it is, but the the key there is the summary ization of what is really required based on the past experience of creating these kinds of things that she's good at creating. So she knows what it takes to create the kinds of things, and you know what it takes to create the kinds of things that you do. So you actually when it's within this area that you really have expertise in, you're able to summarize it and describe it in a way that's believable clearly in the client's interests, and they can say yes or no, or they can adjust it on the spot, so contracts, not proposals. Well that was the question that a couple of other people brought up which is so what if bob says it's not good because of the price right no my reaction would be well clearly sarah being a professional who has followed your advice did research found out what their range was and offered slightly above their range right so you negotiate slightly at that point she would negotiate she would say well help me understand what your thought was there and then he would elaborate a little bit and uh and we would reach some sort of compromise that made sense for both parties but we would do it that the key is we would do it in the moment because remember we talked yesterday about this beginning moment is when you have the most power and the most magic the longer the relationship goes on the more flaws that we see in each other and you know things kind of generally go downhill yeah britt inside folks I just went through a business class that was geared towards designers and they specifically kind of trained us to send out a proposal first right? Yeah and then wise everybody's agreed you develop a contract out of that but yeah this is yes this really inside while I do this all the time and and I do it myself today and and I never do a proposal and I counsel my clients to do all the time and it's, you know, the more complicated assignments, the more competent if you start getting up into millions, it gets complicated enough that you probably need mohr documentation, but, you know, up to a few hundred thousand dollars, you can actually do this and certainly for five thousand ten thousand twenty thousand, you can easily do this because, you know, from experience what it really takes to do that kind of a job, so contracts not proposals is one of the things I really, really favor, and this ended this this one of the problems with proposals is the fact that it adds all this time and the, you know, and and potentially put you into this situation that karen was describing, which is the bidding what was the phrase the chopping fifth shop? Yeah, put you in this bed shopping things, so you've sent out a proposal, you're potentially in this bid shop, you're being bid shopped and there you are and you're sort of stuck, you know? So this is a way of attempting to get around it now you can't make the client behave in some way, you know this you can control your own behavior, not your client's behavior, but but it's good, yeah, b does brandon in a couple of people were questioning the the reality of being able to complete a one hundred fifty thousand dollar contract in a conversation like he does brennan says I have one contract that was over a hundred k but it took nearly three months to negotiate now it was that not to not to call it but was that because he does brandon was badly negotiating or is that something that is kind of a reality of the larger contract whom or somewhere in the middle who knows who knows? I mean I've done this successfully with several hundred thousand dollars um I've never done it for a million dollars um I've done it for small money of constantly so um and I you know so and if you're negotiating with large bureaucratic style con clients um then it's harder to do this because they are very policy and procedure oriented and if your work is in that area it's harder to do things like this but in the private sector where people are trying to get things done and people are generally in a hurry they kind of appreciate it they appreciate that you're saving time and it and they recognize that you're being able to really capture and understand what the assignment is and describe you know what the delivery bals are and how long it's going to take and how much it's going to cost is a sign of your expertise so it increases their view of you it increases your stature and their respect because you're good at at basically summarizing what's going on and then the other thing I was trying to do there was right a concise statement that described what sarah's special skill wass and that's the other thing I want you to really think about and I would love it it's kind of a complicated thing to do but I love it if all of you online especially could take a take a uh uh a shot at writing a concise statement and I've come up with a little formula for a concise statement here that I'm gonna walk you through so here's what I read off I create icons they tap into the same power that logo's used to create lasting memories photographic icons my icons create branded memories they're seared into consciousness and recalled long after their bright poster colors reinforced retention and add to the longevity of the memory they leave a mark and so now here's my little analysis of it so the first section is gives some urgency so one of the key things about what you do is it's like in the now it makes things happen so I create icons they tap into the same power that locals used to create lasting memories you know it's it's, it's there's some urgency to that it happens right now and there's a little bit of poignancy there because we're talking about lasting memories so there's a little bit of beyond just the urgency and then the second step in my little formula is positive possibilities are a part of this concise statement so my icons create branded memories so that's what they'll do for you that's a positive possibility for you it will create a branded memory for you for your product, for your restaurant or you know, whatever you're trying to do so positive possibilities was the second step and then it's memorable and confident they're seared into consciousness and recalled long after seared into consciousness and recalled long after so I'm like picturing a logo this just like you know who what client wouldn't want that you know and it's fun to create it's we're talking a steam iron with an egg on it you know what I mean that only sarah could d'oh I totally love that image and then the last part of my formula is how you will help why to buy from sarah bright poster colors reinforce retention and add to the longevity of the memory they leave a mark so how you will help? Why to buy and notice there is no smooth dog sales technique and no industry jargon in this statement no smooth dog sales techniques and knows everything by smoothed out oh gosh, we know it when we see it don't way they recall our name too many times um they're too complimentary they smiled too much um too eager makes us feel a little uncomfortable summarizes baby inauthentic inauthentic very good being authentic not riel and what I saw in sarah's work she's very riel her work is very riel it touches you with its real nous so do you think that's a go ahead you want ask so just talking about this kind of a concise statement of your brand your work whatever it happens to be do you recommend that people work on these right these out ahead of time memorize them have them like just again seared into their own consciousness they deliver them very smoothly yes yes yes what is it that special about me? What is it that special about me? Why is it that my work is compelling? Why is it that I love doing it? Where did it come from? Comes from my heart I want to described I want people to understand that I mean jim campesino talked about it's about the imagination you know I want I want people to talk about that how we evoke emotions, how the work that we do makes people feel and elle woods had a great question regarding two time at what time in the pitch would you use a statement like this? Do you wantto open with it? Do you want to close with it uh those sound like good times both okay open and close, okay, open and close when it feels right you know always we're always reading the room we're always reading the other person we try to never do anything that feels artificial or uncomfortable we're always trying to do it in a way that based on our experience and based on what we're how we're reading the situation it seems like the right moment I want to remind you that this work is seared into people's consciousness so this is our uh short video for this one is just a couple of minutes I think respect power point and the c suite does everybody know what the c suite is yes let's clarify that just in case okay uh ceo chief executive officer cfo chief financial officer uh uh c c oh that's what I was chief creative officer still makes me tingle when I say it the c suites those people whose titles begin with a c and who run giant corporations live in the see sweet that's the place where they hang out and so we call it the c suite so respect power point and the c suite and here we have tabitha cindy and tabatha didn't deal with deadlines and power and who could be better equipped and cindy and tabatha to deal with deadlines and power and so again I want to stay you kind of think about it and discuss with this clip means and what happens between the two of them and now I would like us to run that clip thank you so much for sticking with me on this. So of course tabatha so tell me when's rehearsal uh tuesday at ten a m well that only give us monday to make any changes well robert will be traveling on mondays you need to call him like now I can't call him on a sunday we'll respect you more you're just trying to make him look good right? Yeah, it is a once a year event when I do you just want him to look its best so yeah, maybe you're right I I should call thank you. Thanks. Robert cindy will start making those changes right away. Thank you so much. What happened there? Yeah pretty much she she asked you know she like she wanted to make sure I mean she needed help toe to realize that because she has that fear of like I can't ask him like an oscar dummies like sunday yeah. My god it's sunday of course the girls were there yeah, of course, but it's like you know but I think we all have that fear of just asking you know, sometimes you need that little push me like ask and see what happens and uh clearly cindy had been there before and knew that it was perfectly fine to ask and tabatha was a little younger perhaps and a little newer to the game and so she was uncomfortable so cindy's coaching helped her get through that little bit of anxiety that she had and call the guy and the result was not only was his power point appropriately prepared, but a little respect was gained all around from simply asking, um, and this story, which is written is actually much longer than this was a client of mine on the east coast that all their business came from silicon valley, and they routinely would send these young women designers off all the way across the country to do power point shows for these executives. And they would be like, in a horrible conference from furth three days bounding about banging out power points for for these sometimes very, very nice executives who were helpful and kind and thoughtful and understood that these people were far away from home and working really hard for them, and sometimes very arrogant senior people who had no feelings whatsoever for who they were, you know, putting all this work on and, uh, some of the stories, we're just really horrible stories of abuse, basically, of, you know, too many hours, too many cups of coffee, not enough food. Uh, you know, no chance to get outside, you know, barely time to go to the bathroom, you know, so asking for what you need in any circumstance is always the best policy, so respect respect is more important than money respect gives you the opportunity to ask for what you need to be successful for the client and yourself respect notice how karen got respect always and but notice also that it took her a while in her career to get there she wasn't comfortable doing that first you would get all excited about the excitement just like everybody else does and then she would be perhaps overwhelmed and then realized that she had abused herself in effect so she developed techniques to protect herself from that that's what she's done she still has to tendencies but she's just has learned kind of to prepare for it uh asked to cut with so here's a few things to say this you'll be in the kit to make somebody make a note of this that this should be in the in the kid as well how could you use this lesson? Ask to cut costs it's about respect oh this is the respect statement excuse me it's about respect my clients choose to work with me out of respect for my skills, knowledge and achievements for them and others lowering my fees for you would be unfair and disrespectful to them it's about respect my client's choose to work with me out of respect for my skills, knowledge and achievements for them and others lowering my fees for you would be unfair and disrespectful to them I really like that how do you guys feel about that? That statement I mean does that feel like something that you could say to someone or does that feel like something that I don't know you would have a different reaction what you guys think um I think it's about tone you know I mean tone is everything let's be really but um I mean if you say this genuine and confident yourself than yeah absolutely I think there's no problem with that. Yeah. Percent uh like maybe it's just the way I read it like I can see how that can think if you do have the wrong tone if someone would be like like well like a need to back off a bit but like, you know it's all the way that you do percentage and shove it right one client finds out that you're getting paid to be less or they paid way more for you in our product that like took less work you know they could maybe get like a little offended and be kind of hard not to so it's a really it's a it's a believable idea yeah, yeah it's a believable idea and it's a hard one because this is something that a lot of people do struggle with is what are the exact words to use when someone comes to you and says, hey, we need to cut costs and you just you can't or frequent, frankly, you just don't want to write you think that you're worth that much and deserve it, or when the, uh, you know, when they're comparing you to somebody else or when they're comparing you to another client, because we have had questions about how you deal with once you've raised your prices, you know, and a previous client comes to you and says, can you do this for the same amount of any thoughts on alternate for that situation? Yeah, one of the things you can talk about with your client. So you've worked for the client for years and years and years, and you look oh, and and you you probably didn't raise the rates on them when you raise them on other new clients just because you were uncomfortable doing that. But now you've reached a point where for some reason you feel like it's appropriate for you to say to them that you need to charge more. One of the things that you can say is that that I'm I'm now charging five hundred dollars a day more than I used to charge, and one of the reasons for that is that I need to have that kind of money to continue to develop my skills and and pay my staff mohr and upgrade uh the equality of what I'm doing and to continue my own education so I keep being able to increase my skills to do better work for my clients so you can say something like that and it's totally the truth you know um I've I've improved I've gained skills I have more knowledge now and I'm and I'm worth more explanation I think I've I had clients that I've had over years come back to me and you know as any buddy knows more work you get you kind of start raising their prices based on how many people are coming towards you but I've told I've told them I'm like well now I'm charging this much but I never explained in the past and normally we don't talk ever again it's kind of become that situation where it's like they just dropped communication we can just say you just explain let me explain why I'm charging a little bit more now fantastic thank you that was sure people need ideas girl is the one who that's great people need to know we wanted you know we need we'd like to know in advance when things are gonna happen so people need to know now and it's just you you're getting it's being respectful of them that you can explain it you know curios so has ah comment that just came in and he said cutting costs means you get less can you do you have any thoughts on responding with somebody who asked you to cut costs you just respond with okay, here are the things you don't get that uh okay let's talk about cutting deliver bols that's a cutting deliverable thing philosophically I believe that we are experts we have spent our lives developing the skills and insights and training and work experience et cetera to develop this expertise we work hand in hand with our client's scoping out what needs to be done together that's what should happen when you're an expert you're not just supplying something for a fee you're supplying insights and experience and you're combining your experience with that the client together you should scope out the assignment and then you should set a budget on this schedule and the delivery bols that will solve the problem or meet the need that they have that's what you should do as in a team work relationship with the client. So if you simply cut the deliver bols, it reduces your power as an expert because you're simply saying, well, what I said before about what's required to meet this need is really not what's needed that's what it says, so so I really don't believe in cutting deliver bols what I believe is well let's have a conversation about what are we trying to do here? Maybe I misunderstood what we were trying to achieve and just open up the conversation again rather than simply cutting that deliver bols well like that because it comes back around to again trying to understand the client and understand their needs and so going back and say, well, clearly, you know, we must have had a miscommunication so let's, make sure that I understand exactly what or maybe something changed. Things change all the time it's perfectly legit for something to change. So but but just cutting deliverables. The problem is it reduces the power of your expertise shirt the behavior of cutting deliver bols takes away from your power as an expert and that's what that's the important point so you always have. You always have to say what is going on here? What really needs to happen to be successful for the client and any it can end up being thatyou do less things in charge, less money, but let's have a conversation about it. So I was thinking that this was something we could put out two to our internet world on dh see if when we come back with our next segment, if maybe there would be some thoughts on this till us, so tell us about a time you used respect as a way to win, you could see karen's using it all the time she wasn't using the word she wasn't using the a word but she was sure using respect as as a way of getting the attention of the client I don't want to be bid shopped you know in fact I don't jump I don't I don't play in those games that's about respect so tell us about a time you used respect to win and does that mean respect for the client or unions demanded respect you or your skill you required respect for your scales and you and you got it okay your behavior either ads for reduces the power of your expertise so that's where we ended this segment and that's what we're going to go to the next segment your behavior either ads or reduces the power of your expertise my mom always talked to me about my behavior a few ted tips it takes me right back to mom you know I know exactly what you mean so ted tips take the time you need right contracts not proposals concise statements confirm expertise don't rush to close I love it this was a really cool one it was great to have karen here is well to share her expertise and just really get all that information about all these techniques and phrases that you can use really helpful for people said she was she was brilliant wasn't it really, really good? In fact, trixie d says its most valuable to see and hear these different personality types discussing their particular business situations etcetera it's great insight for how they deal with the ongoing process of negotiating and howto work their business successfully