Grant Stanley Consulting

Selling can be sleazy when it’s manipulative. “Let me convince you to do something so I’ll get what I want.” If you want to grow your business, and feel good about yourself at the same time, it’s necessary to change the way you think about “selling.” Everyone buys things. If you provide a product or service that has real value and helps people solve real problems, there is someone who will want to buy it. That someone is struggling with the problem you’re prepared to solve. They wouldn’t want a solution if solving the problem wasn’t important to them. So if you can help them solve their problem and do a good job of it, you have become their new best friend. They not only will want to buy what you have to sell, they will want to buy from you again and again because now they have begun to trust that you are someone who can help them solve their problems. When you are able to shift your thinking from “I’m selling something” to “I’m serving someone by helping them solve a probl...

You might have noticed a lot of recent complaints about what’s known as “page view journalism.” Thanks to the way online advertising works, many online publishers push out tons of daily content, most of it filler. Or it’s overtly controversial — not on its merits — but for the sake of controversy (and page views). Many attribute this approach to greed. I attribute it to a marginal revenue model. Online advertising has grown by leaps and bounds since its collapse at the dot-com implosion. And yet it’s still not the best way to monetise content and run an online business in 2015. Here’s why: 1. You Need Lots of Traffic. Lots! A general rule of thumb is that you’ll need a million monthly page views before online advertising will begin to pay off. You’ll need more in highly general niches (like celebrity), and less in highly specialised ones where advertisers will pay a premium to reach certain people (like mesothelioma). Regardless, you need a lot of traffic . And...

Customer Service in 2015   As 2014 wound down, I took the time to pause, and look ahead to what top customer service trends will surface in 2015 and beyond. Good service — whether it's to answer a customer's question prior to purchase, or help a customer resolve an issue post-purchase should be pain-free, proactive at a minimum and pre-emptive at best, deeply personalised, and delivered with maximum productivity. Here are 6 top trends - out of a total of 10 - that I am keeping my eye on! Trend 1: Customers Embrace Emerging Channels to Reduce Friction. In a recent survey, we found that web self-service was the most widely used communication channel for customer service, surpassing use of the voice channel for the first time. In 2015, I predict that customers will continue to demand effortless interactions over web and mobile self-service channels. They will also explore new communication channels such as video chat with screen sharing and annotation. Trend ...

The greatest salespeople aren’t always the greatest CRM experts… and it doesn’t always matter. Every sales department has one. And, sadly, new recruits born into a world of web often sneer at them. The experienced sales executive who prefers landlines to telepresence, remembers the birthdays of his clients’ children and writes stuff down on paper. Yes, that guy. The guy who’s kept three £250k accounts loyal for a decade! Salespeople who started work in a different decade aren’t always familiar with CRM technology and, sometimes, it frustrates their (often younger) colleagues charged with getting the most from their IT investment. To the point where our traditionalist hero – let’s call this hero Geoff – ends up excluded from departmental strategy, with the millions of business pounds he brings in, ignored. Can I change your perspective a little? Geoff isn’t anti-CRM. In fact, he’s the most pro-CRM guy you’ll ever meet. (He just doesn’t always do it through software.) ...

What, another clarion call urging executives to fundamentally rethink their business models through digital technology? The business media have had no shortage of these. Many such bulletins focus on radically changing the nature of competition in an industry, as Apple did for music and Uber did for taxis. While there is certainly merit in questioning your business model, revolutionary business model transformation remains elusive despite the buzz. In our survey, a mere 7% of executives said that their company’s digital initiatives were helping them to launch new businesses. And only 15% said digital was helping them to create new business models. Why is that? Business model innovation is hard. But managers make it harder when they think about it only as radical industry reinvention. While revolutionary business model changes can be valuable, you don’t necessarily need to transform your industry. You don’t need to destroy your current business model. There is another way to make ...

A navy pilot completed hundreds of hours of training and then flew dozens of combat missions. He shot down dozens of enemy planes, bombed many targets, and earned a chest full of medals, along with higher ranks. He was quite prooud of his accomplishments. On one mission, a crucial piloting error allowed an enemy missile to disable his jet and he was forced to bail out. His parachute deployed and he landed safely in the ocean. As he floated for two days waiting to be rescued he had plenty of time to think back over his career. When the helicoptor finally picked him up and returned him to his ship, he went directly to the flight equipment room. He asked to speak with all the sailors that worked there. When they were all assembled, he thanked them for packing his parachute. He explained that it took being shot down to make him understand how much he took for granted the labors of others that made his job possible - the mechanics, the flight crew, the cooks, and even the parach...

People, the postage stamp you see on any envelope is given the job of making sure that this important piece of mail was delivered to you. The stamp is pretty small but, in spite of its size, it did the job. Each of you has the responsibility of "delivering the mail" in order that your group becomes a success. Like the postage stamp, it isn't your size that determines how well you do the job, rather, how well you stick to it. We can't all be good at all things. Some are better at physical skills, some at mental tasks. Remember the stamp. It did the job in spite of its size by sticking to the job. Make up your mind that you can do the same thing. Just determine to do your best - and stick to it until the job is done.

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom ruled by a pretty good king. And, through this kingdom, there was a road. And, on this road, there was a big rock right in the middle of the road. One of the king's embassadors returning from a trip complained about how the kingdom was going to pot and rode his horse around the rock. A rich merchant came by and complained about the delay as his driver slowly edged around the rock and hurried on. A countess in her carriage whined that the king should take better care of the road system. Many other people came by and went around the rock throughout the day. Then, a poor peasant came by carrying a large load of vegetables he hoped to sell in the market. When he approached the rock, he set down his burden. He pushed and pulled at the rock until he finally got it moved to the side of the road. Where the rock had been was a leather purse. The peasant opened it and saw many gold coins and a note. The note read, "These coins are ...