THE FOUR STAGES OF THE COMMUNICATIONS CYCLE

Now, the thing you need to know is that each one of these methods—each of these ways of communicating—NEVER goes out of style. Totally the opposite of what the paper gurus say, these methods never stop working. They have always worked and until they stop existing, they will always work.

The secret is to know that they have a cycle. Each one of the four methods of communication has a cycle. They go in… and they go out. Just like clothing fashion. Trends go in and trends go out.  

Everything stays the same. Nothing really ever totally goes out of fashion or out of style: it just cycles.

Well again, the same is true for each of these methods of communications. They cycle. And “communications” as a whole has its own cycle.

In order for you to succeed in any one of these methods of communication, you have to understand what is going on in the cycle. If you understand the criteria that need to be met —the factors that determine success within the cycles—you can make any media work for you.

But you will soon understand that in the end, the most important goal for you will be to become a strong brand. If you don’t, there will almost be no way to survive in business.

When it comes to any one of the methods of communication, there are four stages of its cycle. If you want to be massively successful, if you want to stay ahead of your competition, if you want to maximize your profits and minimize your expenses, then you need to know these four stages well and capitalize on them before anyone else does. I call the four stages of the communications cycle the Four BE’s of communication.  

They stand for:

1. BE there
2. BE there more
3. BE better
4. BE a brand

Stage One: BE there

For the purpose of this illustration, this scenario takes place about 50 or so years ago. Imagine there is a man named BOB who has an idea for a very unique kind of widget for manufacturers of certain items. He has designed a widget which will cut costs, eliminate waste, decrease manufacturing times, increase profits, etc.  

For BOB, this widget is easy and cheap to make, and simple to package and distribute. He is sitting on a veritable gold mine. No one has ever thought of it before now, so needless to say, he will be the only one in the marketplace with such a widget. He has already talked to some manufacturers and they have committed to him for orders.  

So, BOB draws up his business plan, invests his retirement savings and starts his company, which he affectionately calls BOB’S WIDGETS.

After a little bit of trial and error, the widgets are perfected and BOB starts selling. 

He gets a list of manufacturers and builds a presentation based on the benefits of his widget and starts making calls and knocking on doors. At this time, BOB is the only sales guy.  

Well, it works. The manufacturers love the widgets and BOB has no problem selling them. BOB’s widgets are a hit and he has a stellar year.

This success continues for years and years. BOB is making money; his financial dreams have come true; the entrepreneurial risk has paid off… in spades.

In order to continue this fast growing success, BOB feels the need to start playing more of a managerial and leadership role in the company, so he hires a salesperson or two and a sales manager to keep everything running smoothly. Greater success soon follows.

Sounds great! Let’s take a look at BOB’s success. When analyzed, his success in sales can be contributed to several things: a great widget or product design, the right timing, the right price of his product… yes, every one of those factors is a major part of BOB’s success. But the biggest part of his success in sales is that BOB has met the criteria for success in the cycle of sales.  

Stage one: BE THERE. BOB has success in the marketplace and is the leader because he is THERE. In this case, he is not just THERE—at this particular time, he is the ONLY ONE THERE.

There is an old basketball saying that states “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Understand, just being an option or to simply BE THERE is a major factor in SALES success.

So Stage One of success in the SALES cycle is to just BE THERE. Just show up.

The first stage of the cycle is typical of an era of no competition… or at least an era of no real competition.

BOB goes on to enjoy his success as the only one in his market space. That lasts for about 30 years. He has established himself and his widgets are well-known. BOB is respected as an innovator and his company is great to do business with. But, something is about to radically change all of this for BOB.

As we talk about this example, think about if this is not accurate in just about every business you can think of. In some way, they all go through these stages of the communication cycle.

To continue this illustration of the four stages of the communications cycle—in this case the communications method of SALES— let’s take a deeper look into BOB’s organization.

Remember when BOB switched from being the main salesperson in his growing organization during Stage One? Well, let’s say that for years now, BOB’s sales manager is a woman named MARY, and she has been a very valuable asset to BOB’s growing and successful company.

MARY runs and trains the sales force, handles all major account sales, and deals with any major problems or issues which pop up with any of the company’s clients.  

She has a great deal of respect from and status with the salespeople and the clients.  

Over the years she has started to kind of become the face of BOB’s company, really just by default because BOB is now an executive whose daily job is actually running the company.

Well, one day MARY has an “aha” experience. All of a sudden, she somehow gets an entrepreneurial idea. Let’s say she is talking to her friend, her spouse, whomever, and the dialogue goes something like this:

“You know what MARY? You have been working for BOB forever. I mean you are the one who is out there on the front lines everyday making all the money for the company. Geesh! Without you, that company wouldn’t make a penny. And what do you get paid? He sells you for retail and pays you wholesale. I heard BOB bought a new lake house last month. What did you buy? You don’t need him; you could do this all by yourself. You know, you should really go out on your own. I mean, you are the one with all of the contacts… right?”

And some time, sooner or later after this conversation starts, MARY finds herself quitting BOB’S WIDGETS and going into business for herself as BOB’s direct competition.

Tell me this hasn’t happened to you? Or better yet, tell me that you at one time weren’t—metaphorically speaking—a MARY?

MARY immediately starts out by going right to the best customers with whom she has built relationships over the years when she was with BOB’s organization.  

She tells the clients that now that she has left BOB’s place, she can offer them the same widgets, with the same quality, performance and warranty, but for 22% less money.

She is capitalizing on the relationships she built while she was being paid by BOB. It doesn’t seem fair, but it happens. So, as usual, it’s all about the money.

A lot of BOB’s customers bite on MARY’s proposal for “same-quality-less-money widgets” and MARY starts taking away some of BOB’s long-standing, key customers. MARY even manages to persuade one of BOB’s “whales” (big accounts) to come on board with her.  

You might also guess that MARY did promise some special modifications to the specs of the widgets just to suit their needs better, and that helped her position herself as the new widget company in town.  

Can MARY deliver? Who knows. All we know is that after years of being the sales manager for BOB, MARY can sell and train the dickens out of her sales people. Can she actually run the business? Well, that’s yet to be seen.

However, the customers she is pulling away from BOB didn’t stop to think about that before they changed vendors. The promise of same quality at cheaper prices was all they needed to hear to go with MARY’S WIDGETS, especially since they already had a relationship of trust with MARY.

So now, after years alone in his field, BOB is starting to see the beginnings of competition. What’s more, soon it becomes known that these widgets are a great money-making business. Now the “jig is up” and a few more competitors arrive on the scene.

Once a trend of success has been established by the early adopters, soon all of the other “would-be” entrepreneurs come into the business. Everyone wants to get in on the success that they see BOB and MARY enjoying.

Suddenly BOB has several competitors to deal with in his once competition-less, competition-free marketplace.

Now when his sales guy shows up at a prospect’s place of business, MARY (or some other salesperson) has already been there, given a presentation and left a proposal… or sometimes is still waiting in the lobby for their 9:45 appointment.

At this point BOB’s sales guys have to “get in line” just like everyone else and they can’t cover all the territory fast enough. BOB is being beaten to the punch by a bunch of his “Johnny-come-lately” competitors. 

It’s hard to make a sale if the other guys are getting the business before BOB even shows up. BOB desperately needs to find a way to regain his competitive advantage.

BOB makes a decision. He is going to add even more salespeople. Then, at least he can cover more ground and do it faster and more thoroughly. And maybe he can even beat his competition in the “great race for the sale.” 

BOB has just entered into Stage Two of the cycle of SALES: Be There More. In this stage, BOB can at least have (to use a basketball metaphor) “man to man coverage.”

Stage Two: BE There More

Having now entered Stage Two, Be There More, BOB regains his competitive advantage over MARY and the growing pack of other widget sellers.

BOB is still competing on price, but at least now he is getting to the clients with even a chance to sell before they have already given the business to someone else.

At any rate, he is semi-out of the “too little, too late” scenario.

The inherent problem with Stage Two, Be There More, is that BOB’s competitive advantage over MARY and the others will be very short-lived.

The reason for this is because it doesn’t take much for any of BOB’s competitors to duplicate his advantage. All they need is the desire to make more money in business and the money to be able to hire more salespeople. If they recognize that BOB has added more sales staff and now they are the ones getting to the clients after BOB’s guys have already been there, they see that tables have been turned and they better act fast.

You can guess that it isn’t too long before MARY decides to add more salespeople, and soon after that so will every other one of BOB’s competitors.

It is so easy for every one of BOB’s competitors to walk “step-in-step” with him and just mirror what he does since he’s the innovator of the whole widget business in the first place.  

Stage Two, Be There More, does not hold a competitive advantage for BOB for very long at all; maybe a couple of years at the most.

Plus, the marketplace is beginning to get overcrowded with more competitors and increasing numbers of salespeople, and lots of advertising, marketing, etc.

The customers are starting to notice it, too, and now they understand that they have options regarding who they want to do business with for their widgets. They begin to realize that they can keep holding out for better options, more customization, lower prices, etc.

And if one widget maker won’t oblige them, they know that there are bunches more standing in line, begging for their business.

The customers now realize that they have control. Stage Two has run its course and so starts the era of the dreaded “Price Wars.”

So, now BOB’s gold mine that he once shared with no one, has been discovered.  

GOLD RUSH!!!!

No one seems to have a competitive edge any more, least of all BOB.

The clients are in control. And the only thing they want is the proposal which they promptly send to the Acquisitions Department which is run by an accountant who flips past all of the 18 perfectly prepared pages of specs and then goes straight to the last page: price. 

He takes out a yellow highlighter and circles the bottom line number on the lower right hand side of the page and then, while simultaneously reaching for yet another proposal, puts it on the stack of other proposals off to the left of the already paper-crowded desk.

This continues until all of the proposals have been “read.” (Yeah sure they’ve all been read!)

BOB may be getting a chance to sell, but he is seriously getting hammered on price. BOB’s used to selling at a good margin. Now he feels as if he has to give away his product just to keep everything flowing.

Even his once long-standing accounts are telling him that although they like his company, and they really like BOB himself and that they’ve appreciated coming to BOB’s Customer Appreciation Christmas Parties every year for the past 30 years, unfortunately XYZ WIDGET COMPANY is offering the same widget performance as BOB’s, and for 22% less money.

The customers tell BOB that it’s nothing personal; it’s just that they recently got bought by a bigger company and they have no choice because they are getting pressure from “corporate” to cut costs… yada yada yada yada.

He’s heard it all before. BOB is thinking, “Yeah, yeah… I empathize with you. I get it, but we’ve been personally doing business together for over 30 years and you’ve never fed me that line before… you freakin’ jerk!”

BOB is in a legitimate, competitive, business fight for his financial life. And he is not gaining any ground.

He has got to do something to combat the issue of clients being in control as well as dealing with the rampant price competition.

So BOB decides that he has got to start training his salespeople to sell better. His salespeople have got to learn how to overcome price objections better. They have to learn how to close better and faster.

BOB has just now entered into Stage Three of the cycle of SALES: Be Better.

Stage Three: BE Better

BOB knows that the only way to get an edge over MARY and his other competitors is to make his sales force better at sales. Fortunately for him, BOB has a few advantages that MARY and the other fledgling competitors don’t.

BOB is the innovator of this widget, he has been in business longer and he has more money than everyone else.

This means BOB can engage the number one sales trainer in the nation to personally develop a sales training program for his salespeople only.

We call this “CUS-TOM-I-ZA-TION.”

It’s going to cost BOB a $500,000 a year retainer to hire the great ZIG ZIGLAR, without a doubt the greatest sales trainer in history.

[Now understand that this is just an illustration. I happen to love ZIG so I wrote him into this article just to give him my love and respect for starting me out in sales. Here’s to you ZIG!]

MARY and the other competitors can’t afford to follow BOB this time. They can’t afford to hire ZIG ZIGLAR. So as long as ZIG can do his job and BOB’s salespeople can implement what they learn, then BOB is about ready to regain his competitive advantage once more.

Let’s take a look at what ol’ ZIG might be teaching BOB’s salespeople during a typical Monday morning sales meeting:

How about the “3 F’s” of overcoming objections? Feel, Felt and Found.  

How many of you remember this word track? When a customer gives an objection (like price being too high) you say:

“Yes, Mr. Customer. I can appreciate how you FEEL. Many of my other clients have FELT the same way. Let me tell you what they’ve FOUND.”

Then you proceed to give an example of how the concern was overcome and turned into an advantage, and so on, and so forth.

It’s the old “FEEL… FELT… and FOUND” routine.

Well, BOB’s salespeople all click with ZIG and they excel at their new-found knowledge and skills. After coming up with answers to all of the typical objections the salespeople are getting, some word track memorization and some role playing, BOB’s sales guys are ready to be let loose in the field. 

And man do they “go after it.”

The training is working. When BOB’s salespeople show up and get objections about price, delivery times, etc., they simply use the 3 F’s (Feel, Felt and Found) and now, many times they find themselves closing the deal.

The training that ZIG has developed for BOB and his widget salespeople has paid off. After all, better training means more closes, which means more commissions or… more money for everyone.

More money to a salesperson means a new sports car, a pool in the backyard, better and fancier vacations, private school for the kids, investments, college money, diamond earrings you couldn’t afford on your 5th anniversary, and anything else you can think of, that money will buy.

After a few good years, MARY and the other competitors are now taking a back seat to the selling prowess of BOB’s top gun sales instructor: ZIG ZIGLAR.

In short order, BOB has regained his competitive advantage. And because of BOB’s financial situation (he has the money to be able to hire ZIG) this competitive advantage lasts for quite a long time.

Now BOB is back on top, almost feeling like he did at the very beginning of his company’s inception—when there were NO competitors.

Although MARY and the others are still competing with BOB for the sale, after ZIG’S sales trainings, it’s like a 4th grade basketball team playing the Los Angeles Lakers or the Chicago Bulls in their heyday. It’s no contest. BOB’s competition cannot follow him. They lack the financial resources and thus, the availability to hire trainers like ZIG. 

BOB’s superiorly trained delta sales force is too tough for them to overcome, all thanks to ZIG and Stage Three of the communications cycle: BE BETTER.

Remember that this is all taking place long before our current inundation, barrage, overrunning torrent of thousands of so-called “experts” and “best in the world” gurus of anything and everything. You know, these are the guys who somehow have been knighted and bestowed the gift of sainted saleshood by an authority none of us—I guess uninformed or unenlightened business people—have ever heard of.  

But, my friends, that is the beauty of the grand world of the written word. Anyone who publishes a book is an expert and therefore we must all take observance and pay homage. 

So BOB is winning in Stage Three: BE BETTER.

But insidiously… something starts to shift.  

It’s something that BOB doesn’t see coming and surely cannot control.

The marketplace as BOB (and we) know it is about to make a major shift in the way that it sees and does things.

Stage Three, BE BETTER, is about to come to a close…

Which leads us to number 4- Be A Brand..

(An excerpt from “Only The Brands Will Survive”. Download the CEO Society Phone App for more content at www.theceosociety.com)