Program Foundation
Our services are designed to empower sales professionals with the skills and insights they need to succeed. From training to consulting, we offer tailored solutions that drive results.
Pillars
Our services are designed to empower sales professionals with the skills and insights they need to succeed. From training to consulting, we offer tailored solutions that drive results.
Identity
Why does your company exist?
Cognitive
Empathy
Everything starts with EMPATHY
Human
Connection
Why do we “feel good” when we are around certain people and experience something altogether different when we are around others?
Persuasive Human Communication
In the world of selling, how well you communicate your company’s value can be the difference between winning and losing the opportunity.
Identity
What is your unique and differentiated Point of View (POV) on the market you have chosen to serve? What have you figured out that is enabling success where others are failing? These questions are fairly straightforward, and the answers become the anchoring point for GTM strategy, Product strategy and overall Company strategy. Most of the time, however, the answers to these questions are ambiguous at best. If you don’t know who you are, what you believe and where you are going (vision of a better future), you are effectively lost. Generally, we don’t knowingly follow people or organizations that are lost. We follow the people and organizations that know precisely who they are, what they believe and where they are going. We follow them because we are moved by their vision of a better future. Simply put, we join them on the journey because we want to go where they’re going.
Your POV is an articulation of your strategy and should reflect the company’s identity. The POV should express “different”, not “better”. Often, these differences reflect the company’s identity. In other words, these differences are why the company was created because these differences reflect a different POV than the rest of the market. The goal – if the prospective customer buys into your Point of View, you are the only option for them.
The problem – most messaging and positioning is completely ineffective because the company is lacking clarity around their identity. If you don’t have a unique perspective on the market you are serving, if you don’t know your “why”, you will have trouble standing out and separating yourself from the competition. As part of the UTT engagement, we work with our clients in helping them gain clarity around the company’s identity and differentiated POV.
Cognitive Empathy
Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand another person's perspective, thoughts, and feelings through an intellectual process, rather than through an emotional connection. It involves recognizing and comprehending what someone else is experiencing from their point of view. Empathy is at the heart of all human connection. How you convey your understanding of their world, and their challenges is the foundation upon which authentic human connection thrives. Do you get them? Do you really get them? Do you understand, in granular detail, the challenges they face on a daily basis? Do you understand how those challenges impede their ability to survive (keep their job) and thrive (get promoted)? Do you understand the implications (what bad things happen and to whom) of those challenges? To gain the empathy required to connect, salespeople MUST become a student of the market they serve! In fact, salespeople should understand the market they serve and the category of problems they solve better than the people that live it daily.
The problem - knowing that you need to become an expert is very different than becoming one. Simply put - most salespeople never become situationally fluent because they never achieve Cognitive Empathy. How can you improve someone's world if you don't really understand it? You can't.
As part of a UTT engagement, salespeople are taught how to become experts on the market they serve by leveraging UTT's proprietary Cognitive Empathy Map (CEM). The CEM is a persona-based research framework that breaks down a job function by understanding the objectives that need to be accomplished to survive and thrive as well as the challenges that get in the way. It's a framework that helps salespeople truly understand what another person is experiencing. In summary, UTT will give salespeople the tools and frameworks to become an expert in the market they serve.
Human Connection
Authentic human connection is one of the most important and overlooked aspects of communication. It’s almost an after-thought, if it’s a thought at all. We don’t talk about it, we don’t focus on it, we don’t help people get better at it, we just expect it to happen. And most of the time it doesn’t. If we are lucky, we get a transactional acquaintance, a person we “know” as opposed to a meaningful connection with another human being.
There is an adage in the world of selling - “people buy from people they like and trust”. Who are these people? Who are the people that we like and trust? While there are many things that influence human dynamics, we tend to like and trust the people that make us “feel good” when we are around them. This stems from authentic Human Connection. We simply feel connected, aligned and synchronized with that other person. When we feel connection, trust begins to develop. We let down our guard. We become more open and transparent. Conversation flows effortlessly. Things like “Discovery” feel like an exchange of ideas and perspective instead of an interrogation. Simply put - we see the other person as a human being not a transaction or commission check. The interesting thing about Authentic Human Connection - aside from giving meaning and purpose to life, it’s one of the most important things that will determine a person’s success, certainly in sales and arguably, in life!
Human Connection is critically important, but most of the time it doesn’t happen because the profession of sales is operating with a “me focused” agenda and an “always be closing” mindset. Additionally, authentic human connection doesn’t just happen. Some people are intuitively wired for connection, others are not. Regardless, authentic human connection requires being intentionally “all in” with the other person. As part of the UTT engagement, salespeople will learn about the things that foster connection as well as the things that don’t. They will learn how to “tend” to another person’s “story” by leveraging UTT’s unique “Story Tending” approach. Backed by the latest behavioral science research, the UTT framework demystifies Human Connection and unlocks the thing that opens us to meaningful and authentic human connection - our HUMANITY. In a nutshell, we teach salespeople how to become a person that makes others feel seen, heard and valued! We teach them how to become a better person and as a result, a better salesperson. They also become a better friend, colleague, spouse and parent. When it comes to Human Connection - be intentional, be "All In"!
Persuasive Human Communication
If you can't get people excited about your product or service, you lose - it's that simple. Arguably, communicating value in a way that truly resonates is the most important thing a salesperson needs to do to be successful. Unfortunately, most salespeople (80%+) are just not very good at persuasive communication. In fact, most sales presentations end up being a "feature / function" capability dump where the salesperson talks about all of the solution goodness and the associated business case metrics. Aside from being completely ineffective, these presentations are downright boring.
Backed by the latest behavioral research on how humans process information and make decisions, the UTT program will teach salespeople how to persuasively communicate in ways that inspire and influence change. Specifically, salespeople will learn how to present their company's value in a way the human brain was designed to receive and process - emotionally engaging stories.
Stories are a sense making mechanism. The human brain is literally wired to process information in a narrative format. We find it pleasing. We find it entertaining. We find it memorable. It's why we "perk up" when we hear the phrase - "once upon a time...". Facts, figures and assertions are not the mind's natural language, but when we hear a story, our brains relax and become engaged. The problem - knowing you need to tell stories is very different than telling them. As part of the UTT workshop, salespeople will learn how to collect stories by "tending". They will learn how to identify "story worthy" moments and put together stories that take the listeners on an emotional journey. They will learn how to leverage storytelling throughout the entire sales engagement to foster connection, overcome objections and change behavior.
Transform Your Sales Approach Today
We are a GTM (Revenue Enablement) consulting and training firm that helps sales professionals establish meaningful and authentic connections with prospective customers and communicate in ways (Behavioral Science) that inspire and persuade.