From the July/August 2010 issue of ISO&Agent magazine.
Guest Column
British wit Oscar Wilde once wrote, "I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself."
Why do people always want to help you by giving you good advice?
When you learn from your peers, you gain the advantage of perspective. Their experiences can help form a better approach for you. Through various trade shows and industry events, I often have the opportunity to talk to my competitors. Rarely do I find them or myself holding back a free flow of ideas.
One reason it makes sense to share what you have learned is it helps make your competitors more credible. Given the choice between a competitor that makes inconceivable promises to my customers that I then have to refute or a competitor that competes with integrity and honesty, I prefer the latter.
For example, a competitor might claim to undercut my prices. If that is the only reason the merchant is buying from me and I cannot offer the lowest price, then I can walk away knowing I did my best. If my price is not good enough for the merchant, so be it. Of course, my goal is to redefine the buying decision so that my prospect sees the value of my offering beyond just the lowest price. If my competitor, though, is untrained or unqualified, I must refute any untruths.
GIVE TO GET
A competitor that makes untrue or exaggerated claims can create confusion among prospects. It is one of the most frustrating experiences. When this happens, I find myself wanting to call the competitor and ask whether he really believes what he is offering is possible. I welcome an experienced competitor more than the one that makes claims that create uncertainty in my prospect. Offering advice with integrity to a competitor will make them more likely to stop telling untruths to their prospects.
The concept called "Givers Gain" was invented by Ivan Misner, founder of Business Network International, an Upland, Calif.-based business-networking organization where business owners meet in local chapters with the intention of providing referrals to each attendee. They refer business to each other to help each other's businesses grow. The idea of Givers Gain is that typically those who give the most referrals also gain the most referrals.
The same is true of information. My greatest asset is my willingness to admit that I do not know it all. My willingness to ask for advice enables me to seek better ways to accomplish my objectives. Because I have a vast network of industry experts who are willing to help me provides me tremendous resources. Over the years, I have always been willing to share my experiences with these same people.
While they may be more knowledgeable than me in a given area or about a given topic (people who know me may not be surprised by that), the fact that they know I would be willing to share my ideas freely with them makes them more likely to reciprocate. My willingness to share what I know helps others feel comfortable sharing what they know.
It is true that those who give advice freely have a tendency to be able to solicit advice from their contacts. I can even do it online on social-networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook that enable me to ask for opinions from friends and peers when I need advice.
Similarly, while attending industry events, I meet and interact with those who have great experience in dealing with some challenge or opportunity to help me be more prepared. The value of the advice is not measured in the outcome of the actions that I take. Many times the value is to give me a new perspective. Simply, the practice of listening to an expert's perspective challenges me to rethink my own conclusions on a topic. I greatly appreciate their willingness to offer their perspective even if in the end I disagree with their conclusions.
IT'S NOT STEALING
Sharing advice and best practices can be exciting and rewarding. Realizing the assistance it can provide others is rewarding. Seeing others succeed has great intrinsic value. Ask any teacher why they teach, and somewhere in the response you will hear that they gain validation when they see their students achieving this success. Conversely, those that seem to feel threatened by their competitors seem to fall behind.
The ISO and agent who thinks all other sales groups will "steal" their ideas may be less willing to share their knowledge. This holds them back. The optimist believes the friendships they have will help lead them to prosperity. A pessimist thinks people are trying to find out what makes them successful and will try to rob them of that success. Having faith in my friends and contacts has helped me.
The vast majority of innovation in our industry developed out of collaboration. The success of any new product or service requires the cooperation of the sales agent, the operations team and every other aspect of an organization. The concept of sharing information to gain information applies within an organization.
By sharing best practices, an organization can reduce the time it takes to implement new programs or products. The definition of good training is finding the best way to accomplish a task and then distributing that knowledge across the organization. This internal collaboration leads to more effective organizations.
External collaboration between competitors is how progress can be made for whole industries. For example, when merchants first began to accept electronic check conversion, many of their primary objections were that it was so new and they had not ever seen anyone else doing this.
When Wal-Mart started handling its checks electronically, it became much easier to show merchants how this was a beneficial program for their stores.
Merchants also look to each other to determine how best to improve their businesses. Sharing ideas helps raise the bar of performance for all involved. Organizations that collaborate by sharing best practices seem to outperform those that do not. Giving and gaining advice not only helps the agent and ISO grow in knowledge or experience, but it also can have an effect on their marketplace.
It is rewarding and beneficial to freely share ideas with your peers, competitors and coworkers. You become more valuable to your organization, to your prospects and, ultimately, may contribute to the overall development of the payments industry.
Matt Clyne is a sales consultant who can be reached at Matt.Clyne@udcc.com.
