You see, we took Selling Power to task over a year ago now in “The Selling Power without the Search Power.” But, imagine our surprise when we saw Jimmy Wales (the founder of Wikipedia) on the cover of Gerhard Gschwandtner’s magazine.

To be clear, we’re not suggesting that we had any impact or input on Gerhard or his top-notch sales publication. No, wish we could say that, but it’s the times that are a changin’ – and it appears that Selling Power is now a changin’ with them.

So, about that Selling Power article, “Wiki World – How Wikipedia Impacts Buying and Selling,” written by Lisa Gschwandtner. What did we like about it?

First of all, it was filled with solid information like:

“75,000 active volunteer contributors around the world are constantly monitoring and updating 1.8 million entries in more than 200 languages, including Chinese, Russian, Bengali, Afrikaans, and Yiddish.”

Second of all, Lisa doesn’t leave out the questionable stuff about Wikipedia – so it’s not just a “puff piece.” She tells you, for instance:

“Anyone with a computer and time on his hands can log on and edit an entry or create a new one from scratch.”

To round it out, Gerhard himself adds a sidebar piece that connects Wikipedia and some of their newest initiatives to the sales process. And, he suggests additional wiki sites and resources like Socialtext, Confluence and MindTouch.

Great information and commentary that pays off the sales pro. Or, as radio talk show Jim Rome would say, “Have a take, and don’t suck.” Lisa and Gerhard get an “A” on that challenge.

But, there’s more to it than that. Just mosey on over to www.sellingpower.com and you’ll see more recognition that the Internet is changing the business of selling. We trust you to do that, but here’s just one example: “What Does Sales 2.0 Mean to You?”

This is a pretty darn good summary of what is called “Web 2.0″ and how it relates to the world of selling. It covers things like Web 2.0 tools, how customer buying patterns are changing, crucial adaptations for management and the networking effect of the Internet.

The article is a summary of Tim Sullivan’s (Sales Performance International) webinar called “Sales 2.0 Meets Solution Selling: Framing a New Architecture for World-Class Selling.”

The part that most caught our attention in the Selling Power summary was point #3 – Knowledge is the New Imperative.

“If a customer thinks they’re educating you, you’re dead.”

That pretty much sums up how we see the change over at Selling Power. They’re beginning to educate their readers, not just in sales skills and strategies, but in the online skills that can support those efforts.

Do they get that Internet search skills are breakaway competitive advantages for sales pros? Are they teaching the time saving and money saving benefits of Internet research? Look, let’s not ask for moon. They are beginning to see that the Internet is changing the world of selling – so let’s praise the improvements, not ask for the everything!

On a personal note, we recently wrote about the Target Corporation’s snub of blogger Amy Jussel. In comparison, Gerhard Gschwandtner (who is a pretty big man on campus in the selling world) has always been accessible, gracious and patient.

Make no mistake – he and his magazine have a take. You don’t run successful publishing empires without having an opinion or two. But, Mr. G is now pointing the online way to his readers, listeners and viewers – while most other selling magazines, newsletters and training organizations remain stuck in the past.

Nice going Gerhard and Lisa – keep up the good work.

Editor’s Note:

You’re invited to attend our ReadyTalk.com sales seminar detailed below. Lisa and Gerhard are invited, too.

On April 23 Sheryl and I will be conducting this Internet search skills webinar for sales professionals:

Information Overload is Killing You: Bullet Proof Your Sales Team with 5 Secret Strategies the other Yahoos Don’t Even Know

Every sales professional knows how essential it is to be prepared, but who has the time?! According to a recent LexisNexis survey information overload is driving workers to the brink – and driving sale professionals to drink! Don’t drown in a sea of information (or alcohol). Instead, join us to:

• Get the skinny on your prospects instantly and with pinpoint precision
• Stay up-to-date without even trying
• Scoop your competition in ways they won’t even see coming
• Find the answers to even your toughest questions

The seminar is hosted by ReadyTalk.com – an amazing way to not only hear our mellifluous voices, but also see our incredibly informative slides. At ReadyTalk, there is no software to download, no complicated log-on process. Simply call in on your phone and log in on your computer, using the same pass code for both.

Details and pass codes coming soon.

Here’s the problem. Certain blogs are offering too much good stuff. One of the main culprits is Derrick Moe over at The Hire Sense. We’ve written about him before – just about a year ago – in “Informed? For Sure.”

Despite his daughter’s best efforts to silence him, Derrick Moe just keeps delivering over and over and over. His topic is sales and (along with Lee Fratzke) his expertise is assessing sales candidates. These guys help companies hire and retain the right people. You know, people who can actually sell.

In their blog, Derrick and Lee scour the web for just about any research study, white paper, new statistic or factoid that relates to the topic of sales. And, they get just about everything. Is selling a part of your business?

Time out to think like Moe

If you have a market niche, do you think your readers would benefit if you kept them on the leading edge of that industry’s developments?

And, my bad. It’s not really true that Derrick Moe is stealing other people’s stuff. He’s just consolidating it; making it easier for his customers to get to the good stuff.

Bloggers even have a name for this kind of beneficial theft. They call it “linking.” It’s a noble blogging profession. But, it’s gotten a bad rap because too many people are teaching that you need links to build your traffic and optimize your site. Blogwash.

In truth, you need the links to help your readers learn more quickly. Links are important because they lead your readers to great information that they can use immediately. Which makes them come back to your site for more. Which increases your traffic. It’s not about the links, it’s about the content.

Just a few days back (well, every day, really, but I have to choose one example, ok?), Derrick posted another useful article. This one was about instant messaging and its increasing importance in the sales world.

Yikes, More Email!

The article was titled “IM is Actually Like Live Email.” Good article. Made my skin crawl, but that’s just me. I don’t want yet another technology that I’ll have to toady up to 24/7.

But, it seems that instant messaging really does have increasing importance in the sales world. And that’s Moe’s niche. Kinda’ like everyone’s niche, wouldn’t you say?

Anyhow, as he always does, he “linked” to a great, mind-challenging article from Manage Smarter, called “Rethinking Instant Messaging” by Marcia Jedd.

Who cares what Moe thinks? Sorry Derrick. Moe gets mileage out of what Jedd thinks. But, Jedd gets attention from Moe’s readers. It’s all kind of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”

It’s called “linking.” It’s what bloggers do when they do it well. And Derrick Moe does it best. Study the guy. Do what he does. You’ll delight your own readers, and live to tell about it.

Click Below to see a short video (then read the rest of the article):

What would you pay if you could spend a lot less time on sales calls? Might you shell out a bit of dough if you had great information at your fingertips?

Cornered at the edge of a high cliff, the Sundance Kid told Butch Cassidy that he didn’t want to jump because, “I can’t swim.” 

Cassidy replied, “Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you.”

That’s exactly how Sheryl and I feel when folks tell us, “I don’t want to pay.” 

We simply reply, “Are you crazy? The search will probably kill you.”

And, it’s true. Consider the Accenture survey from early last year which showed that:

“Middle managers spend more than a quarter of their time searching for information necessary to their jobs, and when they do find it, it is often wrong..”

There are a ton of other studies showing the same thing – most placing the cost of ineffective searches at over $5,000 per employee. Clearly, it’s the searches that are killing you.

Paid databases like ZoomInfo excel at finding the right contact information for just the right corporate executive. They offer several reasonably priced strategies that will have you quickly dialing the right person without the pain.

We’re not selling for ZoomInfo (we take no referral or advertising fees from any of the sites we write about), but it’s worth checking out their advanced selling tools – such as PowerSearch and PowerSell.

Our video at the beginning of this article will give you the best understanding of the kind of power you can get when you pay for a first rate research and sales tool.

Here, we’ll just tell you that you can slice and dice your look-ups by asking only for human resource executives in a 40 mile radius of a particular Cleveland zip code. Or, well, you get the picture – or, should I say, the video.

Watch it – and you won’t have to jump – or swim.

]]> http://goldencompass.com/blog/the-butch-cassidy-approach-to-sales-calls/feed/ 3 http://goldencompass.com/blog/1-good-lead-generation-reason-why-video-is-the-next-big-thing/ http://goldencompass.com/blog/1-good-lead-generation-reason-why-video-is-the-next-big-thing/#comments Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:36:45 +0000 Michael Benidt http://goldencompass.com/blog/?p=70 It’s becoming more and more difficult to find new customers. The floor of the Google Adwords exchange is filled with hordes of screaming bidders. Email pitches are regularly thrown into your customers’ spam detectors. And, web site optimization seems only to optimize the optimizers’ pocketbook, not yours.

There is a new way to generate leads on the Internet, however – and we stumbled upon it by accident. We’ve been exploring the power of video on the web, and what did we find, but an innovative and sophisticated new lead generation system. Imagine our surprise.

We’ve been doing research on the topic of video because we are convinced that it is the next tidal wave that will sweep over the Internet marketing world – leaving audio, web site optimization, email campaigns and everything else lying in its wake.

The explosion of companies that can help you turn your message into compelling theatre and then help you deliver it to a target audience is stunning. And, the topic of Internet video is everywhere. The sales of IPods are exploding and video sites on the web get attention every day because of, yes, you guessed it – YouTube. Video has arrived – but most businesses, both big and small, have yet to realize its power.

Meet ON24 (www.ON24.com). They understand the power of Internet video, but they also understand the necessity of sales lead generation – a field currently crowded with outmoded strategies.

Try this strategy, instead. ON24 offers a range of webcasting solutions – to reach new customers, keep current customers informed or to motivate employees. But, it is their lead generation approach that caught our attention.

They call it “Rich Media Lead Generation.” You can go to that lead generation page and read about it, but here’s our non-technical explanation of what these guys are up to – and any errors are our fault, not ON24’s. (We’re speakers and trainers, so we’ll make our example fit our industry, but you can do the math to make it fit yours):

Old Way of Generating Leads – Direct Mail

1. Hire someone to design a brochure touting your keynote or workshop
2. Pay printing costs
3. Purchase a mailing list of targeted areas
4. Pay postage costs
5. Hope like heck you get a 1% response rate

New Way of Generating Leads – ON24

1. Prepare a sample video or a promo video of your keynote or workshop
2. Produce and record this sample or promo with ON24
3. Describe your ideal customer to ON24
4. Let ON24 create a recommended media plan
5. Beat all other response rates using rich media aimed at your target market

They throw in a few other technical enhancements for good measure – like archiving, tkaing registrations, reporting and merging with your CRM system. Your video can also be produced for the podcasting on the IPod. And, all of this can be branded to your company, so when the customers view your presentation online they will feel they are visiting your web site, not ON24’s.

Think about it. The two biggest challenges you face are finding the right customers and effectively engaging their interest. What would it mean to your business if just the right target customers could see some of your best and most persuasive efforts?

Now a word about the “Big Dogs.” Big Dogs aren’t huge corporate conglomerates – just super-smart entrepreneurs, nimble business leaders and company executives at the top of their game. Too often these folks have been burned by the bloated claims of web optimizers, click-thru campaigners and email marketers. But there are more effective ways the Internet can be used to boost their already successful businesses. ON24 works with companies big and small, but it is clearly a “Big Dog” resource.

If you would like to view some of ON24’s video work – visit the “Demo Gallery” section of their web site. Be aware, however, that the topics and subjects are often things like “The ROI for Interaction Space in Multidisciplinary Buildings” and “Mobility TV: Simplify the Design, Implementation and Management of Your Wireless Network.” They clearly haven’t read Brian Clark’s advice about how to write compelling headlines on CopyBlogger.com.

And, for criminey sakes, folks, Seth Godin came down from the mountain several years ago with the PDF tablets from God called “Really Bad PowerPoint.”

That should have done it. But, it didn’t – as he himself pointed out this January 29th his blog article of the same name – “Really Bad PowerPoint.”

Audiences throughout the world are being ruthlessly murdered by PowerPoint bullets. Stop the slaughter. Moses has spoken. Companies like ON24, Netbriefings, Mediasite and Premiere Global Services must step forward and download copies of “Really Bad PowerPoint” for every one of their clients. After all, the slaughter that has taken place so far in meeting rooms has been nothing compared to the slaughter that will happen online as these excellent video companies ramp up their capabilities and reduce their pricing.

After you read “Really Bad PowerPoint,” get out there and start producing your own videos, whether you do it with ON24 or with one of the other video solutions we’ll be writing about over the next few weeks. Online video for business is here. Don’t delay.

(Please note – we do not take referral fees from ON24, any Internet resource or web site that we featured in our blogs, training materials or workshops)

What if you could take just seconds to research your target company – and get the kind of targeted information you really need?

Let’s face it, most corporate sites are boring and bloated. Beyond that, more and more of them are becoming impossibly complex. And, finally, many of them don’t offer a quick way to search within their site.

Here’s a much faster and more effective way to get what you need in seconds. We’ll use Google, but you could do these same example searches at Yahoo or Live.com.

You will be making an initial sales call to Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management, one of the premier financial advisory firms in the world. You happen to know the web site for the company – but if you didn’t you could quickly locate it at any of the major search engine sites by typing in “Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management.”

Go to www.atlantictrust.com and start looking around for what you need. That’s the problem, isn’t it? Most of the time, you simply don’t have the time to “look around” for the information you need. So, too often, we just don’t do it.

For the benefit of this exercise, however, turn on your stopwatch now and go to the site. We’d like you to time how long it takes you to find someone at Human Resources – because you want to call whoever is in charge of Human Resources. Ready? Go.

If you did that exercise, you may have found the information in a few minutes, perhaps even longer, or you may not have found Human Resources at all. Frustrating, isn’t it?

Here’s the secret. DON’T wander around the web site – instead, search the web site. Atlantic Trust does not have a search tool on their site – but Google (and Yahoo and Live.com) do – for every web site in the world.

For this exercise, go to Google and type in the following:

“human resources” site:www.atlantictrust.com

The first result (and only) result in Google is “Alison “Ali” Dohrman is Director of Human Resources for Atlantic Trust and is responsible for the oversight of all human resources, payroll and office.” If you click on the “Cache” link you will even have your search term, “human resources” highlighted in yellow, making it easy to find your search term as you scroll down the page. Another time savings.

I think you’ll agree that this is the only way to search for the information you need on a company’s web site. You completed your search in seconds – and found exactly what you needed.

Try this approach with a company you’ll be calling on today. Type in what you are looking for and the web site address for the company, like these examples:

“mission statement” site:www.xerox.com
“contact us” site:www.molsoncoors.com
“chief information officer” site:www.qwest.com

It works so well and saves so much time – you might just do it! And so might your sales people.

I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say. You see, one of the drawbacks of the online world is the distinct lack of customer service, especially when you are almost always paying so much less than you pay in the offline world.

When it comes to difficult transactions, I like to have my hand held. I like to assure myself that my online clicks and forms and submissions are correct. I like to have someone walk me through the tough spots – or even do it for me.

Len had helped me register a bunch of web sites. They’re so cheap these days that you may as well buy several of them, while you’re at it. He had understood my hesitancy to process what for me was a big order (maybe six or seven URL’s – big deal, huh?).

Skip forward almost one year. On January 6th (which is a Saturday, by the way) it was time to renew those web sites. Again, I was hesitant, and thought, “I need some hand-holding.” I remembered that I had Len’s contact information, so I said to Sheryl, “He’s probably not there anymore, (studies show that employees stay with their companies about 37 hours on average) but I’m going to send him a note this morning and if he works this coming week, maybe he can help me renew the sites.”

The phone rang 15 minutes later. Here is what Len said, “Mr. Benidt, I would have called you sooner, but I was on break.”

Look, you can register web sites at any number of places online. We originally chose GoDaddy because it was reasonably priced and relatively full-featured. But, we will stay with them forever because of Len’s service.

I have been an Expedia.com customer for years now not because they are so much better than Travelocity.com or Orbitz.com, but because they have a toll-free number where I can talk to a real person who “holds my hand.” In fact, they gave me a VIP toll-free number early on in my dealings with them – and I’ve been using it ever since.

Here’s one more for you. Zoho (www.zoho.com/crm) offers a full-featured CRM manager for free. That’s a “Customer Relation Manager,” not unlike SalesForce.com, for free. Who dreams up these money-making ideas?!

And imagine this. We know a speaker who is converting his CRM database to Zoho.com. He is paying Zoho NOTHING for this remarkable program – and even so, their customer service department is helping him convert his SalesForce.com contacts and his Outlook contacts into their program. Is this a great Internet, or what?

Look-out below, offline companies. We thought that companies like GoDaddy, Zoho and Expedia were changing the face of business by offering low prices, convenience and inventive products and services. Think again. Companies like these are completely re-inventing the customer service experience, too.

1. In terms of company background, provide them little more than a sentence or two and your website in the ad. See what they do with that information as a starting point. Do they attempt to determine your value proposition? Do they understand your product/service offerings? Did they even look at your website? I’m not kidding-some will ignore it.
2. Pay close attention to their market-related questions when interviewing them. Did they research the market and the competition? If so, how thoroughly? It’s one thing to have data; it’s another thing to know how to interpret it.
3. Question them about their process for finding and qualifying a lead. They should mention specific websites and resources they use to gather actionable intelligence on the prospect company. An information-literate salesperson will have favorite sites, subscriptions and/or search engines they use to gather important data.

The key here is to hire salespeople with the ability to use the web effectively in their sales process. In today’s world, this ability is a prerequisite for efficient prospecting. Once the salesperson is onboard, it is imperative that you provide him or her with the tools needed to properly research prospects and customers. As the world becomes more wired, information literacy will become an absolute requirement for any successful sales hire in any industry.

By the way, the above quote came from an article written in 2004. However, it is still listed on “Selling Power’s 10 most Popular Articles.” I guess if you’re popular, you’re really popular for a long time at that magazine.

(Selling Power’s online presence is subscription only so we can’t link you directly to the articles we’re referring to)

This “most popular article” never mentions the words “Internet,” “web” or “digital.” The word “online” is mentioned once, but only to describe someone in an “online media company.” In fact, try to see if you can find any such words in any Selling Power article – good luck.

Now, I’m not picking on Selling Power alone. Pretty much all of the sales training world is missing the power of “information literacy,” which is the ability to effectively target and use the explosion of information now available on the Internet.

Mr. Gschwandtner also says in The Seven Qualities of Top Sales Managers (co-written by Maryann Hammers), “While information suffers from inflation, quality human contact has become a rare commodity.” I don’t know. Does “information suffer from inflation” or does the human contact of the selling process actually benefit from the ability to target and quickly retrieve crucial information?

After all, the Internet is not the cause of too much information, it is the cure for it – but very few people (and sales trainers) are listening to that message.

As the article says, “the best sales-training strategy is to encourage salespeople to spend more time learning about their customers’ situations and then invest more time digging deeper to create better fitting solutions for their customers.” And, what better way to do that than the simple process of setting up Google (or Yahoo or Ask.com) news alerts for key customers, competitors and industry topics? Such alerts can bring you exactly the strategically precise information you need to be better informed about your customers’ situations, your competitor’s moves and your industry’s developments.

And how ‘bout the zillions of other ways to save time, save money and motivate increasingly disaffected employees? Are you teaching the benefits of the online tools that capture hundreds of new contacts with one click of the mouse? Are you arming your sales force with the “cheats” to get around those increasingly exasperating voice mail trees? Does your sales team know how to get passwords for those web sites that ask for yet another time-wasting registration? Can they read the most important parts of a customer’s new book in minutes? Do they know how to collaborate with their other team members and their customers by using the simple and free tools of the “interactive web?”

The ability to target and find just the right information that can help the sales process along is one of the most motivating things a salesperson can learn. It gives them a sense of contribution – something they can point to with pride, “I would have never landed that sale if I hadn’t done a search for…”

Josh Krist from SalesLobby.com interviewed Mr. Gschwandtner and here’s one of his final questions:

Krist: So, how has the magazine changed, content-wise? What do people want to know today that they didn’t 15 years ago?
Gschwandtner: Also what has changed is that sales people need to have a lot more business acumen, the knowledge and understanding of a customer’s business. They need to wear many more hats. They need to wear the hat of a potential investor: Does this company have the capital to go for the next 10 months? They need to understand the diversity of business models; there are so many models out there that they need to know which will succeed. Sales people also need a greater understanding of technology, obviously.

I don’t know. I like this guy. I subscribe to his magazine. But, if Gerhard Gschwandtner really means what he says, then I’d say the magazine needs a healthy infusion of Internet search and information literacy training to create real change in the selling business. That’s the industry that he is so clearly a leader of – and an innovative one at that. Keep innovating, Gerhard.

Now, how fair do we want to be in this article? Well, very fair. It is true that sales trainers are not the only people that seem to be missing out on this gargantuan resource. Our school systems are not preparing students with “information literacy” skills, our corporations are not empowering their employees with online search skills and individuals remain indifferent and overconfident when it comes to the vast resources of the Internet.

But our topic is sales training. So, here is a simple sales training survey that you can conduct on your own. You can make this survey the next time you read a sales newsletter, attend a sales training workshop or visit a sales training web site or blog. Read carefully, take notes carefully and then ask these two questions:

• Did the training take into account that today’s economy is powered by the spectacular sales resources of the Internet?

• Did the sales trainer (or writer) help you understand how the online information explosion can empower your sales process?

Unfortunately, we already know what the results of your survey will be, but, please, take the time to do it for yourself. Did something seem to be missing? Was the subject of the Internet covered at all?

We believe they are missing the greatest sales resource of all time. It’s called “information literacy” and it’s fast becoming the next essential sales skill. In fact, information literacy is already the currency of the new sales economy.

What specifically are the sales skills most trainers are missing? They include the following:

Search Engine Skills – can give you the power to surgically pinpoint customer and competitive information in seconds. They can also let you collaborate anywhere and anytime with your sales team. Are you hearing about them from your sales trainer?

News Retrieval – can allow you to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry, know immediately when something is up with your customers and track your competitors’ every move. Are you hearing about this from your sales trainer?

The Invisible Web – allows you to get to the information that even the best search engines can’t find – as well as the information your competitors can’t find. The invisible web is estimated to be many, many times larger than the “visible web” that Google (and other search engines) can find. Are you hearing about this from your sales trainer?

The Paid Web – is where you’ll find new sales leads. The astonishing fact is that many of these resources are incredibly low cost and high value, even for small businesses. Are you hearing about them from your sales trainer?

The Business Resource Web – is comprised of all the incredible online inventions, tools and services that Internet companies are offering to supplement your sales process. Many of these services are free, or ridiculously inexpensive. Are you hearing about these from your sales trainer?

The “Virtual” Invisible Web – is the time saving and empowering stuff you would never know to ask Google for. These services and products are so inventive that most of us have no idea they even exist. Are you hearing about them from your sales trainer?

The Networking Web – allows you to expand your networking relationships into the world’s largest networking arena – the Internet. You’ll meet decision makers, mentors and potential customers you never dreamed you could have access to. Are you hearing about it from your sales trainer?

The Interactive Web – is the fastest growing and hottest sales empowerment area of the Internet. It includes social networking, customer surveys, blogs and more. These services can explode your selling power. Are you hearing about them from your sales trainer?

That’s a long list, and it may seem overwhelming. But, not only can you learn these skills, the best news is that you don’t have to change your current sales approach at all. In fact, Internet literacy powerfully enhances the effectiveness of what you’re already doing.

That’s why we were intrigued to find a sales seminar that included references to the Internet and online sales awareness. Colleen Stanley is giving an executive briefing, “Getting Face Time with Decision Makers” on November 3rd that gave us hope. She will be covering three main topics and this is one of them:

“The second part looks at the impact of the Internet on professional selling and helps participants understand why old selling techniques don’t work with today’s buyer.”

Well, hallelujah! Sheryl and I almost jumped for joy. It seems that maybe we are not the only sales trainers out there who know that the Internet exists. Colleen Stanley seems to know about it, too.

Here’s what we already know about Colleen. She is the founder and president of SalesLeadership. She is an experienced sales trainer who works with both corporations and smaller companies to build high performance sales. And she is an accomplished NSA speaker who is able to weave facts, specific examples and stories to communicate the importance of today’s most critical selling skills.

We can’t wait to see what the second part of her executive briefing is all about. But, just by giving people a glimpse of the “impact of the Internet on professional selling,” she is already light years ahead of the typical sales trainer. Come if you can, but if you absolutely can’t be there, we’ll be reporting on it in an upcoming article. Stay tuned.

Getting Face Time with Decision Makers
Denver, CO – Friday, November 3, 2006
8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. ($49)
Suite 445D
2420 W. 26th Avenue
Denver, CO 80211

Yes, a little clarification is in order. Stephen R. Covey is the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The 8th Habit and a bunch of other motivational business books and audios. Everyone knows Stephen R. Covey.

The guy everyone doesn’t know is Stephen MR Covey. Now, I want to be completely transparent here and admit that I’ve always had a thing for people with a more than one initial in their name. This past year we met Mark SA Smith at the National Speakers Association, and besides being a great speaker and a very nice guy, I gotta’ tell you, he’s got a very cool name. And what a quick way to get instant differentiation!

But let’s get back to Stephen MR Covey. Yes, he is the son of Stephen R Covey, and, yes, he did work for his dad. Um, a little more than that, I guess. He orchestrated the merger between the Covey Leadership Center and Franklin Quest and then led it to the growth that produced the powerhouse company called Franklin Covey. So, if he was almost anyone else’s son that alone would get our attention. But, he’s Stephen Covey’s son, so we yawn and say, “What else you got?”

Well, it seems this Stephen Covey has a new take on a disappearing business and life skill called “Trust.” He’ll be speaking about what he calls “The Speed of Trust,” this coming Tuesday at the Park Meadows Marriot in Littleton. He’ll be speaking at 8:30 AM – and if you come, you’ll get a copy of his new book called, you guessed it, The Speed of Trust.

So, who is Stephen MR Covey and would it be worth going to hear him speak? As I write this post, the U.S. House of Representatives is being rocked by a scandal characterized by yet another breach of the public trust. The business headlines are also peppered with the latest on corporate betrayals of trust. And, you may well have you’re your own examples where you’ve experienced this absence of trust.

So, what if someone with a fairly good pedigree came along with some new ideas on how to build trust back into our businesses, our society and our world? Might you listen? What if I told you that I’ve read the first 50 pages of that yet unreleased book, and it’s pretty darn good?

Covey illustrated his “speed of trust” in a recent interview. About a year ago, Warren Buffett bought a $23 company called McLane Distribution from Wal-Mart. Both Berkshire Hathaway and Wal-Mart are public companies, but even so, the deal was essentially completed in a two-hour meeting. Covey related that Warren Buffett said, “I trusted Wal-Mart, I trusted the people I worked with. I knew everything would be in exactly the order that they said it would be, and it was.”

What would happen to your world if you worked within that kind of trust? Here’s a personal example from our dealings with the Stephen MR Covey organization. Sheryl and I asked David Kasperson and Suzanne Leonard to let us cover Mr. Covey’s upcoming speech as reporters for this blog. They didn’t know us from Adam, and we were “transparent” about the limited reach of our recently started little blog. They knew they likely had little to gain by granting a press pass to us, but within a few hours we had our invitations to the speech – and a whole new reserve of “trust” to call upon with them. They didn’t ask for any editorial control or any special attention. They just seemed to be living the trust they teach.

And, they are not the only ones. Recently Robin Neal from the American Business Women’s Association and Chris Sherman from the Search Engine Strategies Conference have trusted us with press passes, even though our reporter’s credentials are, well, scant. With people like these, there’s a lot to build on when it comes to trust in our society. Maybe we can even take back the news headlines from those who continue to breach the community trust.

In that same interview we mentioned above, Stephen MR Covey related how he made the decision to work with his father at the Covey Leadership Center instead of pursue his then current real estate career. Stephen R. Covey asked his son, “That’s great if you want to do real estate. Nothing wrong with that. It’s exciting, it’s fun; you’re good at it. But do you want to spend your life building buildings or building souls?”

Sounds like something Stephen Covey would say – no, not that Stephen Covey – the other one.

(Reminder: The event featuring Stephen MR Covey and his book, The Speed of Trust, is on Tuesday, October 10 at 8:30 AM at the Park Meadows Marriot in Littleton. See you there – or if you can’t go – we’ll report it for you right here in 8 days.)