Now that’s how you impress an audience
Week in, week out I attend presentations, conferences, seminars and media releases to get the low down on what’s happening in the financial services industry. Trust me when I tell you the experience becomes pedestrian at times. One can only soak up so man
Practice management company Masthead, with the kind assistance of Liberty, invited Richard – “yes I am that awesome” – Mulholland to present at their 2010 Professional Development Day, held on 2 September in Johannesburg. He enthralled the audience with his energetic performance which included a scattering of expletives and a 30 metre dash. Yes, he actually sprinted across the stage to emphasise one of his points. I’ll concede this was the first time I heard the words “dude” and “pimp” and the phrase “lesbian stripper” at a gathering of financial professionals. But it was fun, and the audience lapped it up.
Ask the right questions
The trick with a daring presentation is to make sure you still get your message across. Did Mulholland succeed? His brief was to instil The Value of Relationships concept in the audience. It was something he achieved through a wonderful tapestry of anecdotes based on personal and borrowed experiences. I won’t easily forget his story about buying a Lexus – staying in the Four Seasons hotel in Doha – or the borrowed story of a pizza man and banker. And since I can repeat most of his stories, I’m sure his lessons will stick too.
The first lesson was to ask the right questions. It’s a valuable skill to possess, because solving a complex problem or overcoming a difficult obstacle often hinges on correctly defining it. By reframing a difficult task you magnify your chances of resolving it successfully. Imagine for a moment I ask you to design a car that can fly! It’s a difficult task and many would dismiss it as impossible. But those with perseverance would probably start sketching motor vehicles with rockets, helicopter blades and wings attached. Would the solution you come up with be optimal? Mulholland reckons the outcome has been impacted by the problem phrasing. “The hardest part of the equation is flying – we solved flying a hundred years ago – so the real question should be – how do we make an aeroplane drive!”
Service please South Africa
Two weeks ago I used my Stokes’ Stage column to rant about the shocking service I received from a mixed bag of small businesses including my accountant, my dentist, a travel insurance company, a private security firm and estate agents in general. I guess the difference between my column and the Mulholland’s presentation is he focused on service beyond the ordinary. To illustrate the concept he related an interesting story from the Joe Callaway book, Becoming a Category of One!
Callaway – who travels the globe frequently – had been absent from his home town for a couple of weeks. A couple of evenings after arriving back he got a call from Luigi, the owner of his local pizzeria, who wanted to know where he’d been. Come by this evening, urged Luigi, eat some pizza – I’ll make sure it’s the best you’ve ever tasted! In a tough meeting with his banker a couple of days later he observed: “I just realised that my pizza guy cares more about my $10/week than you care about my business!” The banker was confused and wanted to know how anyone could compare the service from a pizza store to the service at a bank. “When it comes to service I will always compare you to the single best service I get anywhere,” Callaway said. Mulholland believes the message to financial services intermediaries is clear: “If you only rely on the product you sell then there’s no difference between you and your competitor – because you’re fundamentally selling the same or similar product!”
How to make a difference
What should you do to make sure you get the edge in today’s competitive selling environment? The key is to know what your client wants. “When you understand your client’s expectations you have a far better idea of what they want and a better possibility to sell something to them,” said Mulholland. He used his experiences on various trips to the Four Seasons Hotel in Doha to provide one of the best descriptions of “service” we’ve ever heard: Great service is defined not by how well you do your job – because you’re still just doing it – but rather by how well you do ‘NOT MY JOB’. Your clients and potential clients will remember you for the proverbial, “going the extra mile!”
“If I buy an insurance product, and I make a claim on it, and it gets paid out on time, and everything is handled perfectly, I’m never going to tell anyone about it,” said Mulholland, “because that’s what I pay for.” His three-point plan to assist financial services professionals to lift their game from the ordinary to the extraordinary is to manage expectations, have a great trick and do the ‘NOT MY JOB’ exceptionally.
Editor’s thoughts: Mulholland’s presentation proves you can entertain and educate at the same time. His talk set a benchmark that every professional financial services intermediary should aspire to – to go beyond the daily grind and make sure every client and potential client enjoys the best service anywhere! What’s the most memorable presentation you’ve attended? Add your comment below, or send it to gareth@fanews.co.za
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