FOCIS® Contest Winners: A Train Wreck, A White Board, and a Fantastic Proclamation

Wherein our intrepid winners tell their sometimes harrowing, but never boring, stories of FOCIS® adventure in consultative selling.

We’re pleased to announce the winners of the 3rd Annual FOCIS Contest. Each spring we invite FOCIS® graduates to submit stories about their best use of FOCIS® in the previous year, in this case 2008. FOCIS® is our popular consultative selling skills course, which improves business development skills and builds a corporate sales process.

First Place: A 30 Percent Increase in Closed Sales . . . and More

Our $500 first prize goes to Steve Beck, a partner in CODA, an architecture and construction company. Steve received the top award because he and his team successfully used FOCIS® in several imaginative ways to grow their firm.

Dramatic Increases.  Most important is that by using their FOCIS® training they increased their conversion rate on new construction projects and real estate deals to 40 percent from the company’s typical 10 percent, all in a down market.

Even before completing the training, Steve and his partners saw results. “We noticed a dramatic increase in the depth of conversations we were able to generate,” he explained. “A few prospective clients even proclaimed, ‘We are ready to begin right now,’ This was fantastic.”

Beyond increasing sales, however, FOCIS® training proved valuable in other ways.

“We saw how we could implement FOCIS® in developing networking relationships and building relationships with clients, subcontractors, and investors. We even incorporated it into college architecture classes we teach,” Steve said. “FOCIS® helps us manage business relationships at a higher level, and we have restructured our lecture styles, contract proposals, and prospecting conversations.

“The FOCIS® techniques have dramatically altered our business model,” Steve said, “and contributed a tremendous amount to our success.”

Second Place: A Photo Finish Halfway Around the World

This year saw a tie for second place between two attorneys, Alan Kaplan and Ed Underhill. Both partners at the international law firm of Masuda, Funai, Eifert & Mitchell, Ltd, they won for separate, specific uses of their FOCIS® training to communicate successfully under especially difficult circumstances. (We’ll explain the prize money later.)

Avoiding an E-Mail Catastrophe . Ed Underhill was convinced that a large Japanese manufacturing company would soon be sued in the United States. Since he had a client meeting in Japan already scheduled, he decided to leverage his time by calling on the manufacturer as a prospect and applying FOCIS® discovery techniques. Ed had one contact at the company who arranged a meeting and agreed to translate. Ed knew he was unlikely to obtain an engagement at this meeting. So he decided to prepare visuals to support major points and, as FOCIS® training suggests, to arm any internal advocates he might develop. Visuals help internal advocates remember and communicate important points to decision-makers.

But when he arrived, Ed learned that his contact was not available and neither was a translator. Instead of trying to reschedule, Ed went forward as planned, in part because he was confident that the FOCIS® process would support him.

In the meeting, he attempted to use discovery to communicate the serious challenges and implications such a lawsuit would present. Ed wanted the company to see why important documents needed to be retained and why e-mail discussions about case-related issues should be restricted immediately. E-mails, even deleted ones, can be accessed and used in court.

When it was clear his prospects did not understand the potentially catastrophic implications of e-mail, Ed pulled out one of his most dramatic visuals: the photo of the train wreck that accompanies this article. The Japanese executives laughed and nodded. They now understood about the e-mails.

Two months later, the company was in fact sued and quickly engaged Ed to represent it in the U.S.

Protecting IP, Providing Value.  Alan Kaplan found himself in a similar situation with another Japanese prospect, the corporation’s human resources manager, who planned to interview Alan about his firm’s capabilities. By asking general challenge questions about “concerns” and “worries” related to employees, however, Alan hoped to guide the discussion away from his firm and into FOCIS®.

But “it was clear that he wanted me to give him answers,” Alan recalled. “Instead, I stood up at the white board and outlined the legal issues he had to worry about.”

In other words, Alan turned to his inventory of specific challenges and used the FOCIS® presentation format as a constant visual cue and reminder for the HR manager. The HR manager knew enough English to respond to the written challenges but not enough to articulate them himself. During the give-and-take, implications gradually emerged.

In the end, the meeting, which was to be an interview of Alan, went longer than scheduled and resulted in an unplanned second “interview” with the HR manager’s superiors. Alan had used FOCIS® to interview the HR manager and to gain a second meeting.

OK. But What About the FOCIS® Prize Money?  Sorry, we almost forgot. After some negotiation, Ed and Alan reached a reasonably amicable agreement to share the $300 second prize and $200 third prize equally. Nothing in writing, of course!

If you want to know how FOCIS® can make you and your team winners in selling, just contact us via the phone number or e-mail address listed below.

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