13.7K
Downloads
253
Episodes
Better communication skills will advance your career and business. Are you ready to enhance your understanding and results from better communication? Listen to learn how to deliver Your Intended Message. Are you willing to cross-examine communication from various perspectives? Would you like to deliver your intended message more effectively? Listen to Your Intended Message to gain a powerful advantage in your ability to convey your message to your audience, team, clients or marketplace. Learn from the mistakes and success of communication experts from around the world from different scenarios. Imagine what that means to you when you improve the success of your next conversation, presentation or message.
Episodes
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Workplace marketing, when everyone is marketing the organization
Nurture the power of the people to spread your message
Episode 163 (Laura is based in Tampa, Florida)
In this conversation with Laura Templeton we explore:
- How to transform all employees into company marketers
- How to tap into the power of workplace referrals
- How to build stronger and stable teams with referrals
- Common values, common goals, common connections
- Talking about your customers and client testimonials
- Spreading the company stories on social media
- How to connect your passion at work and a play
About our guest, Laura Templeton:
Laura educates audiences about client attraction a d brand communication. She is the author of the bestselling book, 30 Second Success: Ditch the pitch and start connecting.
Learn more about the website:
-----
Excerpts from this conversation with Laura Templeton
Well, the first thing is, is if you have a referral program, review it to see how many people are actually using it. If they are great, if they're not ask your employees, if they know about it, when if they do, why they're not using it, your employees are going to tell you why.
Okay, the other pieces is educating your organization, educating our everybody, you know, just give them tips, here's something that we're looking for, let them know, here's your, your ideal client, we need more clients like this.
And then the third piece here testimonials, share the testimonials that your clients are getting in your organization. Hey guys, you You're doing a great job we just heard from you know, this client and this is what they had to say about our organization.
You did this! Do you give your employees the credit when those testimonials come in, because everybody has a part in making those testimonials happen?
Right. So when you start to share your your testimonials, you understand how your referral program is working, and then educating your everybody in your organization on how to use the referral program. It's going to change things for your company and your culture as a whole.
-----
Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
What are the telltale signs of your company culture?
How you contribute to the culture
Episode 162 (Michael is based in Oakville, Ontario)
In this conversation with Michael Grochmal we explore:
- What is company culture?
- How is culture set?
- Who influences the culture?
- What messages does culture send to the world about your organization?
- How to shape culture on purpose
- How to notice and identify current culture
- How culture influences relationships with your clients
- What are the various aspects of culture?
- How are emotions and personal energy affected
- How to align activities with the culture
- What is a Culture book and what might it include?
About our guest, Michael Grochmal:
Michael is Director of Culture for CEO Global Network. He's been a member for 14 years.
Before selling the company. he was President of AtlasCare for 12 years.
Learn more about CEO Global Network
-----
Excerpts from this conversation with Michael Grochmal
And that's the other part. I think when it comes to culture, it's about getting agreement. And so anyone thinking facilitator training would say, Do we all agree hands up, we're going to start this meeting on time.
And everyone puts their hands up, look around the room, we've all agreed to this. And so we're now all in a position to hold each other accountable to this idea. It's not about shoving though it down people's throats.
And we live in a world I think today where people want to know the why.
Twenty-five years ago, you could just say do it. And they said, Okay, I'm following orders. I'm a good soldier.
And I would say that people are struggling to some degree with younger generation.
And a lot of times, we don't have a good why. So we say just do it. And the answer is they won't. They actually want to know why. But if you give them the why they will work every bit as part and smarter than previous generations.
This kind of a while you're doing it. And so if you don't know why you can't tell them why and you can't tell them why that's not what you're gonna get. And so I really do believe that everything has to be purposeful as to why you're doing it.
But if it is, the right people will say, Well, that makes sense. That's what we're gonna get dressed up, or that's why we're going to start on time, or that's why we're going to end on time, because they buy into the why, but they don't buy into the why.
I don't know how to put controls in place that would just make people do stuff. And I think we actually have a lot of time and effort is spent trying to but it's really a false thought fallacy that you know, you have to win people's hearts and minds. And the way to do that is to explain why you're doing things.
-----
Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday Jun 29, 2023
Thursday Jun 29, 2023
Are you ready to stand out from the competition?
What can you do to be more attractive to your customers?
Episode 161 (Zac is based in Salt Lake City)
In this conversation with Zac Garside we explore:
- Why you should call your competition
- How does your automation help the customer?
- Why compete on price when there are better ways to compete
- Three steps to appear different to your customers
- What is the role of customer service?
- Treat your customer service the way you want them to treat your customers
- How can you use those customer service call-recordings
- How are you attempting to intimidate your customers?
- How to cultivate more constructive feedback for your CS reps
- How to get your people to care
- Why customer service starts with the leader
About our guest, Zac Garside:
Zac became the CEO of Power Selling Pros at age 27 simply by asking the Founder to make him CEO.
Zac speaks to business owners all over the US teaching them how to grow their business with the power of customer service.
You can get your copy of his newsletter, The Storytelling Habit at this website. Tell him you heard him on Your Intended Message to receive a discount code for his courses or coaching programs.
-----
Excerpts from this conversation with Zac Garside
If you call a Delta customer service representative to get help. After the call ends, it will ask you one question. And I love this question.
Because this is helping them I think the question is, on a scale of one to five. If you owned a business, how likely are you to hire the person you just talked to?
Oh, wow, would it be five for yes and one for no? Amazing question. Big and now they're taking that feedback, which is so much better than on a scale of one to 10. How are you how well how good was our service? Right?
How likely are you to hire the person who just helped you? And you take that feedback back to your team? That's motivating because that is a direct reflection of the type of service you provided.
Last time I called delta. I couldn't book a flight online for some reason wasn't working. So I called them this representative was so positive so kind and she found that I had like $700 worth of EA credits in my account that I didn't even know were there.
She finds it, she, she applies it for me. She said something was broken and went and brought somebody else to get involved. I just, I felt like she really cares. He or she, she like actually means what she's saying to me, which is very, very different from most companies.
Because even if you have the right words, and you technically say the right things, if I don't feel like you care, you mean it, it actually can work against you. It's like the slick used car salesman who says the right things, but you just don't feel right about it, you know, versus a more a more clumsy salesperson who kind of tripped over their words, the pitch isn't perfect.
But you feel like they mean it, you feel like they really, really care. And so you're inclined to look at beyond the mistakes and do business with them.
-----
Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday Jun 22, 2023
Thursday Jun 22, 2023
Build irresistible first time offers to accelerate high ticket sales
How to attract the right customer while repelling the wrong customer
Episode 160 (Craig is based in Austin, Texas)
In this conversation with Craig Acosta we explore:
- Why a first time offer helps you address fears and risks of buying
- When to use a first time offer
- How to price your first time offer relative to your main offering
- What's the ideal price range for B to B selling?
- What to address with the first time offer
- How many deliverables to include
- How to structure the offer to leverage cognitive bias
- The danger of a free offer or freebies
- How to justify the temporary low price offer
- Why you must clearly describe your ideal client
- The three necessary components
- Why you need to know the live time value of your customer
About our guest Craig Andrews:
Craig has driven over weight for half a billion dollars in revenue.
He helps business build irresistible first time offers that accelerate high ticket sales. His wife had the chance to pull the plug and did not. That's why he's still here.
Learn more and connect at
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-andrews/
https://www.facebook.com/allies4me
Free Offer:
1. Get the guide to build your First Time Offer
2. Take the 23-day self-paced course to develop your First Time Offer
https://allies4me.com/yourintendedmessage
-----
Excerpts from this conversation with Craig Andrews
There are three components that determine that. The first is what you're offering has to be high value. And I've actually had prospects coming through that when they hear us asking the questions we're asking, they realize, oh, these guys aren't some Mickey Mouse firm.
These guys are serious players that know what they're doing. And they actually say partway before we even got to the offer, say, I don't think we're in the same price range. anyone said anything about price, they just took that from they realize what we did, they realize the value of it, and they knew it was not cheap.
So that's the first thing is whatever you're selling has to be high value. And they have to know it's high value.
The second thing is you have to set expectations on what the market value is, if they don't already know that. And so that's why I say if you come back in two or three weeks, this is what this price will be.
So we're telling them, this is the value of what we're doing. So that's also setting expectations that's putting them in the ballpark of what we would normally charge for our work.
And then the third thing that I mentioned a couple minutes ago, is a plausible reason for why it's heavily discounted this time. And the plausible reason can depend upon different things I would not recommend you ever use all because we're not hitting their sales numbers this month, we're offering a special that's please don't do that. No, no, no, that lead makes you look too cheap and desperate.
-----
Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday Jun 15, 2023
Thursday Jun 15, 2023
What if your social media marketing isn't working?
How can you get valid leads with social media?
Episode 159 ( Hannah is based in Raleigh, NC)
In this conversation with Hannah Acosta we explore:
- Should you publish content on social media
- What are the different type of contacts on social media?
- How can you create evangelists to spread your message?
- Why Social media isn't enough to create evangelists
- How to better engage your clients, fans and prospects?
- Which social media should you use?
- How to reach out and monitor the social media conversations
- What else might you include in your content to interest your customers?
- Who might you partner with when posting on social media?
- What mistakes are made in social media posting?
- How might you appeal to human feelings?
- How to educate your customers without making them feel stupid
- How to excite your customers to promote your message on social media
About our guest Hannah Acosta:
Hannah has launched over 5,000 social campaigns. She has helped generate over 25,000 leads for her clients.
She is the leader of the Social Media Department at Ugly Mug Marketing.
Learn more at
https://www.uglymugmarketing.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahacosta/
https://www.instagram.com/uglymugmarketing/
-----
So the natural progression is this idea of moving people, from stranger to friend to customer and ultimately to an evangelist.
An evangelist is somebody who is going to rant and rave about your product or service or about your podcast. And they're going to go and tell all of their friends and family about how they they need to experience your product or service. Right.
And that's ultimately our goal as business owners as entrepreneurs. We want to create evangelists for our business, I hear time and time again, from our clients that referrals are their best clients, right?
If they get a referral, it's so much easier to sell to someone when they've been recommended. Or they talked with a friend or family member or another business owner colleague about why your product or service is the best for them. And so when we approach social media, it's about maintaining the relationship with our existing customers, to get them to feel like we really care about them outside of just that exchange of money, right?
A lot of people think that that journey ends once someone becomes a paying customer. But that's really just the beginning of it because we want to try and get that referral. We want to get them to rant and rave so that they become an evangelist, because that takes a step out of the progression for us.
Once someone becomes an evangelist. They're much more likely to recommend our product or service to their friends and family. So we have to do less work in that stranger area.
-----
Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
Beware of the Weed Words that Choke your intended message.
Avoid the phrase "YOU GUYS"
Episode 158
You guys
When you’re talking to me, please don’t address me as you guys. Even if I’m part of a group, I don’t want to be addressed as you guys because
That’s gang talk, low class, disrespectful.
-----
Connect with George
www.SpeechCoachforExecutives.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgetorokpresentations/
Thursday Jun 08, 2023
Thursday Jun 08, 2023
Get to the point! Do you know what your point is?
How to make your point
Episode 157 (Joel is based in New Jersey)
In this conversation with Joel Schwartzberg we explore:
- What is a valid point?
- The structure and litmus test of a point
- How to tie sub-points to the big mission
- How many points are too many?
- How to create a meeting agenda based on points
- What the magic words to clarify your point?
- The importance of an action step
- The role of inspiration in your point
About our guest, Joel Schwartzberg:
He was the national champion in public speaking on the collegiate level. He's a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, Inc.com and Toastmaster magazine.
He is the author of Get to the Point, Sharpen your Message and make your Words Matter. His clients include State Farm Insurance, Comedy Central, and Brennan Centre for justice.
Learn about his books and services at
-----
Excerpt from this conversation with Joel Schwartzberg:
So the funny thing about points is, we assume we know what one is because we use that language all the time.
Get to the point, what's your point? Did you make your point, and it's presumed that it's something like an idea or a topic may be even a theme.
But the truth of the matter, and what's most instructive and helpful for us is if we reimagined this word point, as something very specific, it's not a topic, it's not a theme.
In essence, it's an argument or a proposition, you're basically making a case for something that if you nail it, your audience will think a new, or they'll take an action step that you want them to take.
And that only happens when you make this proposition, this argument to them a case and you can tell it's a point because you can prove it with data with storytelling with reasonability, with all of Aristotle's tools, going way back when, but just as an example, because that's a description, and I like to really drill down.
Let's talk about podcasting. So if I said to you, George, or you said to me, I want to talk today about podcasting. That's your topic.
But what have you told me about podcasting? Is it on the rise? Or is it becoming antiquated? Is podcasting a good thing or a bad thing? Have there been evolutions in podcasting? Is there a good way to podcast a bad way to podcast? I have no idea the point you're trying to make if you use the word podcasting, and even if you said the importance of podcasting, or the evolution of podcasting?
Are those things good or bad? Is it going up or down? This is why it's so important to distinguish between a theme and a topic or a point.
-----
Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
How to be more persuasive with emotional triggers
Discover the word tricks to magically be more convincing
Episode 156 (James is based in L.A, California)
In this conversation with James I. bond we explore:
- Why logic often fails to convince
- How to sell using emotional word triggers
- How to make ideas sticky
- How to get people to make decisions faster
- The power of poetry, analogy, alliteration, humor
- 14 techniques to tap into brain glue
- How you can brainstorm for brain glue ideas
About our guest, James I Bond:
James Bond is one of America's leading behavioral management and marketing specialists. He is author of the bestselling book, BRAIN GLUE - How Selling Becomes Much Easier by Making Your Ideas "Sticky"
Learn more about his book at www.BrainGlue.com
-----
Your message is not just words. It's not just numbers. It's passionate emotion. When you can transfer that emotion to the other person, they're more likely to buy from you.
-----
Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday May 30, 2023
Tuesday May 30, 2023
The Weed Words are words you need to avoid when you speak, because they choke your intended message.
Unless you’ve living under a rock
Sweet words of praise – right? Just the opposite.
When you hear this phrase how do you feel?
Respected or insulted?
Why would a speaker use this phrase?
Is this speaker trying to build rapport by suggesting that you are living under a rock?
Is the speaker under the rock with you or standing on top of the rock and grinding down on you?
Is the speaker suggesting that you are equal to them or beneath them?
Perhaps the speaker is proud of something they know that you don’t.
Ha, ha, I know more than you. You’re ignorant and I’m not because I don’t live under the rock like you.
When you hear that phrase, how do you feel?
The speaker suggested that you’ve been living under a rock? What does that say about how the speaker sees you? Is this a sign of respect?
Why would they even suggest such an insulting scenario?
When you hear this phrase what do you see?
What lives under a rock?
Slugs.
Did the speaker just call you a slug?
Why does the speaker see you as a disgusting creature living under a rock.
Would you ever say that to a person that you care about or want to develop a trusting relationship with?
You must be a slimy ignorant creature and I’m here to enlighten you because I am the anointed one.
You’ve been hiding under a rock like a slug and I’m here to enlighten you with my wisdom.
Now bow down to my greatness – you slug.
Should I respond with thanks for calling me a slug you arrogant jerk, now just watch me slime you.
Or should I throw the rock at the speaker?
Beware of the Weed Words
Your host is George Torok
George is a specialist in executive communication skills. That includes conversation and presentation. He’s fascinated by way we communicate and influence behaviors. He delivers training and coaching programs to help leaders and promising professionals deliver the intended message for greater success.
Connect with George
www.SpeechCoachforExecutives.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgetorokpresentations/
https://www.youtube.com/user/presentationskills
https://www.instagram.com/georgetorok/
Thursday May 25, 2023
Thursday May 25, 2023
You can always sell more if you want to
How has selling evolved and how must you adapt?
Episode 154 (Jim is based in Dallas, Texas)
In this conversation with Jim Pancero:
- How the sales person has lost their power
- The loss of trust in sales
- Where is the sales person in the process of researching a purchase?
- How can the sales rep save the customer from misinformation?
- How are you conveying your distinct difference and advantage?
- What is the evolution of selling and what's next?
About our guest, Jim Pancero:
Jim Pancero is a sales and sales leadership speaker, trainer and consultant with over 40 years of experience in sales.
Connect with or follow Jim on Linkedin to see his weekly short sales tips videos.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimpancero/
Check out the sales online training at
https://www.advancedsalesuniversity.com/
-----
In this podcast episode, sales and sales leadership expert Jim Pancero discusses the challenges of modern sales and how they have evolved over time. He notes that buyers are more skeptical of experts and sales reps are being brought in later in the buying process.
Jim emphasizes the importance of balancing technical product skills, selling skills, and business and financial skills in order to gain a competitive advantage in sales. He also discusses the changing role of salespeople and sales managers and the critical turning point in the sales process.
Jim offers valuable advice for sales managers and emphasizes the need for sales organizations to adapt to changing customer expectations and market conditions.
-----
Excerpts from this conversation with Jim Pancero
We better make damn sure we get their attention when we do perform. And the other point is just supporting a customer, giving 'em great service isn't good enough anymore. It's losing to the eyes of the customer. It's like, so what else have you done for me?
I have a salesperson say, boy, my customer's loyal. Why he is still loyal. They say, well, when they order something, we get 'em the right thing. We get it to 'em on time. We answer their questions when they call and we know what we're talking about. .
And I started laughing and saying, isn't that kind of minimum requirements to the job? That's your competitive advantage. That's what you're bragging about is you, you took care of 'em.
So what, what else have you done? And so it's looking at this that's reactive selling is just not effective today like it used to be.
It used to be if you took care of a customer, you service them. They kept around long term. Now they're saying, what else have you done for me lately?
And then the final point is we need to make sure that we keep reminding our customers that if we do have differences, we remind them of them.
I believe the toughest single question in selling is when a buyer sits there and says, okay to a sales rep says, okay, look, you're the third vendor I've talked to this week about this stuff.
Why based on all the competitive options available to me, do I wanna buy from you? And look at how people don't have their, their answers organized, they give generic responses. Uh, and they, they, they're not reminding the customer. The customer assumes everybody's equal.
-----
Read the rest of this entry »