We went to see a well-known singer-songwriter perform in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He’s recorded dozens of songs. He has many New England fans. He’s played this particular venue more than a dozen times. And, although he’s been around a long time, this was my first time seeing him perform.

The room is … “intimate” would be the right show business term. It seats about 100 people at small tables. Every seat is a great seat. Tables at the back are only 40 feet from the stage.

We were sitting along the wall, stage right, maybe 15 feet from the man on stage and about six feet from one of the venue’s speaker cabinets. When he told stories, GREAT stories, between songs, I understood him perfectly. When he sang, I could distinguish less than a third of the words. Occasionally, none at all.

While I could see he was singing, his voice might as well have been a kazoo played by another musician on stage. And, when he sang words rapidly, he sang with an almost-closed mouth. I wasn’t expecting Broadway-style show-me-your-tonsils technique. On the other hand, it was like lip reading a vibrating fence rail.

The fans who showed up already familiar with his songs could “hear” the words in their heads or sing along because they already knew the words. They loved the show!! For someone hearing his songs for the first time…. a loss.

“Well, then, you should have listened to his recordings before you went to the show!”

Yah, could ‘a done. Probably shoulda done. But, whether we’re presenting or performing, many people are hearing us for the first time. Don’t cha think it would be our job to slow down, check our volumes, and a-r-t-i-c-u-l-a-t-e well enough to ensure that they could fully grasp what we’re saying or singing…the first time?

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.

The post Mush Mouth appeared first on Clarity Advantage.

The post Food for…Sales Thought 081726 appeared first on Clarity Advantage.

We had a BIG summer here in Boston. You may have heard. After we hosted some of the World Cup festivities, we cheered for the arrival of the Tall Ships, ranging in length from 35 feet (the Lewis H. Story, representing 350 years of Massachusetts shipbuilding history) to 379 feet (the Peruvian naval ship BAP Uniòn). They’re magnificent—and complicated ships to sail.

I had the opportunity to speak with an executive officer on one of the larger ships, a naval vessel. I asked about her ship (“How do you keep all the lines straight, there are so many of them on a ship your size?”), her 23-year Navy career, crew training, and crew recruitment. The last point was particularly interesting.

“From where do you recruit your sailors?”

“Typically as they come out of boot camp. They are young, strong, and relatively inexpensive.”

“How do you screen them?”

“Interesting question. We might interview 200 or 250 sailors in a given day to make the first cut. Then we do a second or third round of interviews to narrow the field further. And we have some other things we do.”

“What’s one of the most important questions you ask?”

“We ask, ‘Are you afraid of heights?‘”

“That’s a GREAT question to ask somebody who’s going to climb rigging on your ship.”

“Yes, that’s right. And that’s not the most important question.”

“What’s the most important question?”

“We ask them, ‘How do you know?’ A lot of sailors will say they are comfortable with heights. When we ask them, ‘How do you know?‘, they’ll say ‘Oh, I’m very comfortable flying in a plane‘ or ‘I’m comfortable going up a ladder to clear house gutters.’”

She smiled. “There’s a big difference between climbing 10 feet to a roof and climbing 150 feet to a wet spar on the mast of a pitching ship, particularly when you look down.”

And I thought, “That is an excellent question.”

We hear declarations all the time. “Business is good.” “The employees are happy.” “The new system is working.” “I’m ready.” “The client trusts us.”

Maybe.

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.

The post Tall Ships (Issue 1228) appeared first on Clarity Advantage.

My dentist recommended I engage her for significant oral infrastructure upgrade. After mulling over her recommendation, I took a friend’s advice and booked an appointment with another dentist, someone with a few more years’ experience than mine. After we said our “hellos”, she confirmed, “You’re here for a second opinion.”

“Yes, I am,” I replied, “thank you.”

“Tell me what’s been happening,” she said. I shared the history. She turned to her computer screen and reviewed my X-rays.

“OK, let me have a look,” she said moving to my side.

After she completed her exam she said, “I think you’re getting good advice from your dentist. If you were my patient, I’d recommend the same strategy.”

I sighed and grunted softly.

“You’re not happy with this,” she said.

“Right, not happy. I understand why we’re here, I understand the recommendation, and I wish it were another way. I don’t really want this procedure. I don’t, don’t, don’t….”

We looked at each other in silence for a moment.

“I understand,” she said, and….”

And I thought, “this is the moment at which this deeply experienced dentist she tells me why I should have this procedure – the unpleasant things that will happen if I don’t do it, how great things will be after I do it, the benefits of doing it sooner rather than later, how competent my dentist is, the success rates with the procedure, the shorter-than-it-used-to-be recovery time from the procedure…”

But, instead, she asked me a question: “What’s been your experience with things like this?”

I had to think about that for a moment…

… because there had been a time…

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.

The post She Asked Me to Think (Issue 1227) appeared first on Clarity Advantage.

Chocolate or vanilla? Regular or decaf? Red or white? People have strong feelings about gustatory preferences. For example, I know someone who insists that “chocolate is the only ice cream flavor worth the time” and someone else who’s a committed Coke Zero drinker: Coke is the brand, Zero is the beverage, and, if there’s no Coke Zero, Diet Coke is only just slightly better than tap water.

Speaking of Coke Zero…

Three weeks ago on a Tuesday, I was enjoying a meander down Main Street in Chatham, Massachusetts. I reached a corner and, as I looked right to confirm a safe crossing, I spotted a Coca Cola semi-trailer truck in the driveway to my right – a stacked-high rolling warehouse of Coke products – and a giant of a man unloading cases of Coke to deliver to nearby restaurants.

“Hey”, I called out as I approached.

“Hey”, he replied, looking up from his work.

“I’m curious,” I responded. “I’ve just come back from a few days in France and I noticed that not a single shop or restaurant we visited sold Diet Coke. It was all Coke Zero. What do you see here? What do people in this area prefer?”

“It’s a great question and… it depends,” he replied. “On Cape Cod, it’s Diet Coke. It’s almost flying off the shelves from here to Provincetown (up the forearm of the Cape). Off Cape, 30 miles from here up toward Boston, it’s Coke Zero, Coke Zero, Coke Zero. Very few places sell Diet Coke. It depends on the area.”

Indeed. Turns out that his observations line up. Coke Zero outperforms Diet Coke in major metropolitan areas and with younger populations who prefer the flavor profile of Coke Zero: It mimics regular Coca Cola.

Less populated areas seem to be fiercely loyal to Diet Coke where it is often the only sugar-free option available. Diet Coke demand is driven heavily by Gen X and Baby Boomer consumers who grew up with that flavor.

Just goes to show: Before deciding what to sell or how, ya gotta know your ZIP to target your Zero.

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.

The post Target Zero (Issue 1225) appeared first on Clarity Advantage.

I like to walk. Walking is for me both cardiac exercise and moving meditation – I think about very little while I’m moving. I generally prefer “urban” walking to the woods – I enjoy thought-free gazing at buildings and people, waving to some of each as the spirit moves me.

Last week, however, while enjoying a few days on Cape Cod, I decided early on a Thursday morning to walk on the tree-lined Cape rail trail. It was a great morning for a walk – temperature in the low 70s, modest humidity, and a light ocean breeze. I picked up the rail trail where it crosses Main Street in Orleans, Massachusetts and turned right to head north toward Eastham.

I generally walk at about a twitch over 3 miles an hour. One reason for this is I just like to move. The other is I’m seeking to raise my heart rate to over 100 beats per minute. Steady-state moderate cardiac exercise. Often when I walk, I establish a rhythm by playing music on my phone or singing to myself or aloud. John Philip Sousa marches are a favorite. On this particular morning, John Phillip must have been sleeping late because I wasn’t hearing any music in my head as I walked and playing music “out loud” (I eschew ear buds) from the phone might disturb other walkers, Cape birds, sleeping clams, hung-over oysters, whatever – not the best.

As I moved along the trail I noticed two things. First, people walking in pairs or small groups seemed to set and maintain a constant pace; they fell into a rhythm and kept that pace going together. Second, walking alone and without music, I felt myself slowing down from time to time. What to do?

I remembered the metronome app on my phone. Good for music practice. Why not use it for the walk?

I set it for 125 beats per minute – a little faster than typical Sousa, brisk enough for the heart – and off we went for another 45 minutes.

Psychologist James Clear popularized the idea that we do not rise to the level of our goals; we fall to the level of our systems – the routine practices that keep us on track.

So, while the joyless metronomic “click, click, click, click, click” was less inspiring than marching to Sousa, the feedback loop was short and direct. When my pace slowed even a hair, I could tell within two steps and restore my pace.

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.

The post Metronomes (Issue 1224) appeared first on Clarity Advantage.

At 7:00 last Thursday morning, I was stopped at an intersection a few blocks from my Cambridge home, waiting to turn right. Looking left, I noticed a white shuttle bus approaching. We see them all the time around here, most connected to the nearby university. As the shuttle bus passed directly in front of me, I saw not the crest and slogan of the local university but the oversized image of a light brown chocolate chip cookie with one big bite missing and the words, “Your warm cookie is waiting.”

My mouth watered immediately. For a moment I could almost smell warm butter and melted chocolate.

I knew instantly that it was a Doubletree Hotel bus. I flashed back to nights arriving late on inbound travel, devouring warm Doubletree cookies as I walked from registration desk to elevator. (Why wait? They were warm!)

I turned right, behind the van, wondering… Which others of my travel hotels have a single phrase or image that would instantly say “this is who we are”?

For Westin, the Heavenly Bed…the best bed other than my own. For Embassy Suites, the free evening reception and made-to-order omelet. For the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, the distinctive red turret that evokes images of Gilded Age luxury.

None of these are advertisements anymore. They’re memories…mental shortcuts to the organizations and the experiences they promise. To earn my attention, they don’t have to be first or the best. They have to be memorable.

So… What’s your warm cookie?

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.

The post What’s Your Cookie? (Issue 1223) appeared first on Clarity Advantage.

Late afternoon sun through the meeting room ceiling to floor windows afforded a full view of the Boston skyline and the Charles River. Several of us were adjusting chairs and distributing the pre-meeting materials; I introduced myself to the person closest to me. As we worked our way back and forth across the rows of seating, I learned that she had trained as a flutist, that she had auditioned for and played in several different symphony orchestras, that she can play almost any wind instrument, and that she owns a cello that she doesn’t play well (not good with stringed instruments).

Recalling that symphony orchestras have been very slow to include women, I asked her about her experiences with auditions.

“…even ‘though the auditions are ‘blind’, we’d wear long pants and men’s shoes – women’s shoes sound different on the floor – so that the judges couldn’t tell we were women…”.

I asked her about practicing for auditions or performances. She replied with a question.

“Some players learn pieces so they can play them well. Others learn pieces so they never make a mistake. Which do you think is the amateur and which the professional?”

“The professional,” I responded, “is the one who learns a piece to play it well. The amateur learns it not to make mistakes because they’re afraid of making mistakes.”

“Nope, it’s the other way. In top orchestras, there’s no tolerance for mistakes. So, professionals practice so they can play without mistakes. Not in rehearsals. Not in performance. Never. Because, if they make mistakes, they can be dismissed… just like that,” she said snapping her fingers. “Just like that.”

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.

The post Tolerance for Errors (Issue 1222) appeared first on Clarity Advantage.

“If you don’t have expertise, I don’t need you.”   A banker friend shared this with me after his conversation with the CEO of a $15 million company, one of the bank’s clients. They  were talking about why the CEO would agree to meet with some vendors and not others. “If you don’t have expertise, I don’t need you,” he responded.

I was prompted to think of this again while chatting with American friends who now live in France. We were discussing food (of course) and our friends described the experience of going to their village butcher shop.

“Our butcher is respected like a chef. He expects to guide our menu planning.  So, we don’t go in and tell him how many kilograms of whatever meat we need or look for pre-cut options. That’s the American model.  In France, he’ll ask us,  ‘How many people are you serving and how are you going to prepare the meat?’ And then, he will  select, weigh, and prepare the  cut specifically for us. It’s a conversation. We create the meal together.”

Reflecting deep cultural differences between American and French views of food, food preparation, and dining, the village butcher is expected to know cuts, sourcing, cooking methods, seasonality, and preparation of meat.  There’s a sense that the butcher knows far more than we do about meat.

So, when our clients or prospects or referral sources think of us, what expertise would lead them to the same conclusion – “This person knows far more than I do about ___” –  and to think of us as guides with whom they could co-create solutions through conversation.

Just for grins, because I work in the banking industry, I fed ChatGPT information about a hypothetical small business – financial information, operational information, back-office transaction information, etc. – and asked it, “What are the most important banking services we should be using and why?”  The four-page response pointed to a half-dozen specific recommendations, reasons why those recommendations are important, issues to consider, and questions to ask a bank representative. Brilliant!

So… in this case, if you were the business owner,  what would you do next? Would you follow the American model (tell a banker how many pounds of which products you want) or the French (look for someone who could co-create solutions with you).

And, if you chose the French model: What expertise would a banker (or any of us, in our respective fields) have to have in order to be considered a “co-creator” beyond a ChatGPT solution?

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.

The post Butchering the Opportunity (Issue 1221) appeared first on Clarity Advantage.

The meeting had not started well.

“Sir, I’m sorry. This isn’t a valid social security card.”

I was standing at a counter, applying for a RealID drivers license. I had all of the required documents. I was excited to finish the process.

“What do you mean? This is my social security card. I’ve had it for decades. It’s signed. It’s beautiful. What do you mean, ‘it’s not valid’?”

“I mean I can’t accept it as identification for RealID”.

“Can you explain that to me, please?”

She showed me. New cards are printed on different paper. They have Corinthian columns, one on either side of the card and a banner than says “Social Security” across the top.

“We need the one with the columns. You’ll have to apply for a new one.”

Sigh………..Seriously?…..Ok, Fine….. FINE.

And then…

“Do you have your birth certificate…… OK, thanks….. I’m sorry, sir. This isn’t a birth certificate.”

“WHAT?”

I looked down at the document.

“Before she died, my mother sent me an envelope on which she wrote, ‘Don’t lose this, this is your birth certificate.’ And this is it. It’s beautiful. It’s been in her envelope since the day I received it. I’ve never needed to use it. And now I need to use it and you’re telling me it’s not a birth certificate?”

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir.  I’m afraid so.”

“Are you kidding?”

“No, sir. What you have here is called a birth registration. It was issued by the hospital in which you were born. You’ll need to apply to the state in which you were born to get a birth certificate.”

I felt like a balloon gone flat. Obviously, my mother hadn’t known the difference. She took what the hospital gave her and I had remembered and relied for decades on my mother‘s handwritten note on the envelope, confidently knowing that, should I need it, I had a birth certificate in the safe deposit box.

Sometimes, you don’t know until someone asks.

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.

The post Instrumentum Irritum (Issue 1220) appeared first on Clarity Advantage.