Sales Success

Trade Show Exhibits

2011-08-13T15:39:00.008+08:00

'Visual' messages are sent to customers which would 'add points' or 'minus points' to the company each time they walk past an exhibit.

Every business aims to excel and to be successful. In order to be successful at something, I believe in constant good work of delivering your promise (in your product), and the aftersale service. In today's world, we see so many new business such as those in the shopping centres, the boutiques or bakeries and many more. However, not many shops can survive. After a few months, we see some shops in the shopping centres or other commercial places have to close down. Whatever business you are in, there has to be a lot of hardwork and 'homework'.

One of the way to ensure business survival in this world is to make yourself be known. If nobody know of your existence, your products will never have a chance of going to be discharged from your store.

Participating in Trade Show Exhibits have many advantages. Besides exposure of your company to new cohort of customers, you are stirring curiosity and creating new excitements (something unusual from the norm) for your customers.

There are many types of trade show booths which you can think of, creating lots of themes each time you utilize certain ideas or themes for your exhibits. The purpose of holding such a sale booth is definitely to boost your sale. However, the problem of budgeting is not to be missed.

A good impression for the customer is so important. To make a good trade show booth, many factors need to be considered. This includes issues like the position, the types of materials you are going to used and the duration of the trade show.

In order to stand out from other booths, your booth must stand out from the rest -- catch the attention of the customers. If the location of your exhibition booth contains unsightly background, you can consider Pipe and Drape to cover up all these. After you have the background solved, you should think of the flooring too (Look at Trade Show Flooring and Carpet: http://www.camelbackdisplays.com/Page_11x.htm)

In every trade show exhibits, you must not forget a working table (a table for you to do work), like the one above. Depending on the layout of your floorplan or booth, you decide for yourself what sort of table top you are going to use -- size and shape of the table: L-shape, U-shape, rectangle, square or circle. After you have thought of the table shape and size, you would need to select table tops or table covers. There are a variety of table covers -- blank throws, printed throws, contour covers, runners, and even table skirts.

The next step of the set up of the trade show booth may involves all other necessary things like counters, cabinets, and furniture for storing your goods and stuff. However, the last thing which you must not miss out is your advertisement banner, like the Success Resources banner above. The Banner would tell potential customers what your company offers. There are many types of banner stands. Customers are always attracted to things which they never see before. So in choosing banner stands for your booth, be innovative and creative. Remember your purpose of having a booth there is to boost your sale. Have amazing banners, special banners (eg. Digital banner stands, Tension Fabric Banner Stands) , that can "WOW" your customers!

This is just the framework of the trade show. How successful is your sale going to be depends on your 'workforce' next.

Words Are Sales Tools

2009-11-03T11:08:00.003+08:00

Everyday, the sales person need to talk to many people : entertain clients, helping friends, selling their products and so on. All these things takes up so much time for the sales person. Thus the sales person always carries their mobile phone and laptop/notebook with them.

In most sales training programs, much time is spent on effective sales presentations and the use of sales tools. Words are sales tools, too. Words are instruments with which we grasp the thoughts of others and with which we do most of our own thinking. We develop our minds chiefly by reading, listening to, and writing words. A vocabulary is a collection of words.

A large vocabulary is more than knowing the difficult words; it is knowing the easier words more thoroughly and using them with greater precision. It is knowing the right words to use for the various listeners -- to tailor the talk to the level of the person we are dealing with at the moment.

Sales representatives must employ the right words and the appropriate body language to present their products to their markets. Sales training programs should include the importance of vocabulary to selling, but very few do. The key to being a professional salesperson is not to sound like one! Having the latest Bluetooth Headset or iphone dock is not enough. There are important sales words and phrases to avoid at all costs.

To be an effective salesperson, you need to refrain from using certain words or phrases. For example:

Words and phrases to avoid:
Frankly, quite frankly, honestly, and I mean that, are you prepared to order today?, How are you doing today?

Words are really powerful tools if you know how to use them at the right time and place. These few days, I was at the hospital. My husband and my mother-in-law helped me with the housework. Richard wanted to buy a handphone soon. He is so kind to me and we go shopping for handphone accessories such as blackberry case, iphone case and other handphone models that he likes.

The Business of BioFocus International

2008-09-12T11:22:00.000+08:00

Can the POLICE handle EVERYTHING?

BIO FOCUS INTERNATIONAL PTE LTD
biofocus@singnet.com.sg | 220.255.7.143

Bio Focus International has instructed representing lawyer to proceed this case of libellous allegation to the High Court for defamation.

From BioFocus International Experience, 2008/09/11 at 5:10 PM

I have not even started my main topic of discussion, and I was 'perturbed' by BIOFOCUS again...

GO AHEAD BIOFOCUS. I am not afraid of you. I have nothing, and I say the truth. In the court, I will be 'swearing' in front of the BIBLE, "I say the truth, nothing but the truth."

Hey BIOFOCUS, who are the authors of the BIBLE? And who is writing about GOD now and who is SPEAKING THE TRUTH?

Yes, I signed, you can show everything to the court. I have nothing to FEAR. I have only EXPERIENCE to gain if I go HIGH COURT. I have never go high court before. I don't even know where is the high court, and what is the PROCEDURE to fight a CASE.

SEE FOR YOURSELF
I am your customer and this is what I get. How many more women are VICTIMS?

PROGRESS for our nation
WE SHALL SEE how SINGAPORE handle this case. We shall see the STUDENT, the PRODUCT of SINGAPORE's EDUCATION, the prestigious and reputable BEST UNIVERSITY IN THE WORLD, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE, how we KILL the BLACK GOAT in the society. Are we going to cause more harm to the society by letting this type of black goat pollute the BEAUTY INDUSTRY?

WOMEN, and you called yourself women.

NOT FOR MONEY I SEE, I TELL YOU.

What ABOUT MY COMPENSATION?????
Does it mean that only you "BAO WIN", what about COMPENSATION TO ME? ALL THE HURT and all the TIME and ENERGY, SPIRITUAL DAMAGE you DONE TO MY HOME? My husband shouted at my kids, my husband don't trust me, my husband has fear, nobody support me... my children believed me, but not my husband. What sort of COMPENSATION I WILL GET? SINGAPORE GOVERNMENT, THE LAWYERS, I don't study law, but I am a ordinary LAYWOMAN, housewife, and a mother. I AM NOT PLEADING ANYONE. NOPE.

SINGAPORE LAW, WE SHALL SEE
I don't need to plead from anyone, but YOU JUDGE For YOURSELF. IS this is FUTURE SINGAPORE you want to see, MORE Of this kind of 'unscrupulous' people around, handling their way of business????? You child, your wife, your grandmother, might be a future target.

Meaning of WORDS
BIOFOCUS INTERNATIONAL, see the word INTERNATIONAL. Do you think they know the meaning of INTERNATIONAL? Check the web. DO I HAVE TO SAY ALL

MY "TOUR" of Admiralty Road WEST

I never study humanity. I never go Prison before. I never study law, and I can never learn how to play with the 'loop hole', like many lawyers did.

We shall see who want to handle your case.

I may be destitute now, but GOD is my strength, GOD IS my comfort, GOD IS MY SUPPORT AND MY FOUNDATION. MONEY OR LIFE??? GOD DECIDE FOR ME. MY LIFE, GOD's GIFT.

Living With Dignity

Women's Business
Facial Company Sue Customer

…Not DEAD yet… don’t know when is the last day yet:
BioFocus International Experience
Modern Cosmetology
BioFocus International
Pay To Suffer

Facial Company Sue Customer Matter:

Singapore I: The Divine Revelation; Moulding Our Nation
NUS REPUTATION:Singapore II: Answer Will Soon Be Out
Developing Courage
Do You Want To Save Your Mother
Unity Is Strength

Sales Tactics

2008-07-04T22:09:00.000+08:00

Look impressive, all the celebrities.... Excellent Service Award somemore, so all the more I felt more at ease, since it is a matter of MY FACE..... But I was wrong

The moment I stepped into their shop, Biofocus International, I felt very uneasy. It was so smelly, really smelly, I cannot stand it -- the kind of incense which smell like the Chinese Temple. (The Chinese Incense used by Buddhist also got various type, this is the type which I cannot stand, and I felt like going out as soon as I stepped in) But I 'control', since I came so far, and it is free (I thought, and they 'said'). Richard asked me again and again if it was really free! But I was prepared anyway, knowing this kind of people....

The mess on my neck, and the fact that I specially instructed them about my eyes -- "I am wearing contact lenses, please be careful, don't touch my eyes." What you think? The whatever don't know what gel/cream went into my eyes. I knew it, it was my eyes!!! Guess what she said? Never mind, nothing wrong one, and did she know anything about the human eyes? This is so infuriating. What if my eyes could not be opened later on, the contact lens sticked to my eyes and so on? So irresponsible, and she did nothing, but I asked for 'tissue paper' and I knew how to take care of my eyes. If I need to depend on her advice, I would be a dog and they will lead me to my bank, digging all my money out of my bank! And too bad, I don't have so much money to be digged also!

After the facial, my neck and my chest and my face was not totally cleaned! I only came to know about those 'dirt' (the left over mask) while I was lying at Singapore Flyer, when I accidentally touched my neck. I came to know that my face was not clean when I looked into the mirror at the escalator at Central. As for my chest, I felt it. What if I was wearing a high neck clothes on that day? Their service is not superior, given the kind of money I paid for a single session, and given the kind of promise they had given to customer. It is 'cheating' indirectly.

Can you imagine these celebrities which took photographs with them? If they are really so good, why the fatty is still so fat, and why so many celebrities always need to have so much make-up. The 'receptionist', the one who sit in front, the one who want to ask me to sign up even more package before I left, NO NAME TAG, NO INTRODUCTION, don't know what is her name or position, full of make-up on her face, said how good how good is their treatment and how cheap how good is their treatment if I took them all now. Anyway, I am so tired of mentioning their service. Said about lucky dip, but it was all to their own benefits, and none to your benefits, customer's benefits.

Filled up the form, but I was not given any analysis of my skin, never even showed me ANYTHING, what I bought, what I was given, etc etc, nothing. Can you imagine, I was lying down, doing treatment, and How do you expect me to see what you have given me and what you applied on my face? If Clara had not taken a photograph of me, I would not have seen the colour of the mask either.

known for modern cosmetology as seen from their posters, otherwise I won't know. It is all machines at work afterall... and thanks to the high suction/vacuum, I had two red scratches (really a cat) that night I came home. It was painful. I told the woman, Ali, and later she lowered the vacuum, otherwise, my face would have three whiskers or more instead of two!

Overall Experience at BioFocus, my FIRST TIME there:
honesty:1/5
placing the customer first:2/5
products: don't know, no idea, never see, only see display cabinets with so many bottles
skills:1/5
interior decoration: 4.5/5
advertising:5/5
External Impression:4/5

The Law of Concentration

2008-03-04T08:57:00.000+08:00

The Law of Concentration is a natural sublaw of the Laws of Cause and Effect, Control and Belief. Successful people are those who continually think about what they want. Unsuccessful people are those who allow themselves to think about or dwell on the things they do not want. As a result, successful people get more and more of what they want and unsuccessful people get less and less.

The Law of Concentration states that : Whatever you dwell upon grows and expands in your life. This law says that the more you think about something, the more of your mental capacity is assigned to think about that issue. If you think about something often enough, it eventually dominates your thinking and affects your behaviour.

This simply means that the more you concentrate on what you want, the more determined and focused you will become to achieve it. The more you think about them, the faster your goals will appear and expand in the world around you. On the other hand, the more you think about negative things, the more they grow and expand in your life as well.

You must keep your mind on the person you want to become and the kind of sales success you want to achieve. To properly utilize this law, you must think continually about the things you want and the kind of person you will have to be to achieve them.

When selling, the salesperson can help the customers in making choices. Help customers to stay focus. What you think become what the customers see -- that is why we see shopping centres with special promotions and discount or bargain corners. Similarly, in websites, there are popular products, special promotions and clearance products to go. In a store where there are so many products, customers do not know what to buy. Not many customers know what to look for and how to start their shopping. Having special promotion, bargains corner and things like that help to direct the customers. Customers will focus their attention on such promotions. At Doteasy - web hosting, you can see the effect of these. My eyes were captured by the conspicuous coloured boxes and animated promotion banner. I was encouraged to read the details of what they have to offer, after the big words -- "$0" and "$70" attracted me. Shopping for business hosting network was made easier and much more interesting as such.

Sales Events

2008-01-17T09:13:00.000+08:00

Sales Events, business fair or trade shows are important sales tool to build sales. This is the most cost-effective way of marketing. In every business events, the objective is to sell your products. Where investment products are concerned, follow up is a common scenario and the sales people need to obtain as much contacts as possible.

At the exhibition or trade shows, you might have so many other competitors around. How do you make sure that customers will come to your booth or table? When prospects come up to your exhibit booth, what sort of first impression you would want to give them? Have you done all the necessary preparation or homework before you come start work at the booth? If you have not put in any effort in the trade show exhibits, then you might not get the results you want.

First impression counts. Everything the exhibitor does make a difference to the prospects, who can tell the difference between you and your competitors. Sales tools and equipments are very important. The signs, the colour used for trade show furniture such as table covers and floor covering are things that can contribute to attracting your prospects.

A business fair is a high-power sales opportunity. Without a doubt, it is the best selling opportunity, until the next business fair. Take advantage of it. Rehearse your sales scripts. Create the best impression you can for the customers. Invest in good trade show lights, presentation tools, banner displays and tablecloths too. Do not miss out the once-a-year golden opportunity to catch hold of your potential prospects. Camelback Displays offers affordable trade show exhibits and many accessories such as custom printed table covers, Budget Panel Systems, Budget Pop-Ups, Light Boxes and many more. You can add a logo, custom artwork in full color or just a message onto tablecloths too.

Credibility

2007-10-26T12:53:00.000+08:00

Your level of credibility is the foundation upon which your success as a person and as a salesperson are built. Credibility is as necessary to human relationships as oxygen. As a salesperson or a business which want to be successful, credibility is taken into consideration by every person who makes any kind of a decision. In order to be successful, there must be a minimum level of credibility even to get the first base in selling. The level of trust and the quality of the relationship that exists between you, your business and your customer are the critical variables in modern selling. They are the basic requirements without which nothing can take place. They are the absolutely fundamental to building the confidence that allows a customer to become dependent upon you to fulfill your promises.

Everything counts when it comes to the issues of credibility. Everything that you do for the customers, your clients, they can see. Before you enter a shop, you look at all their Signage or sign boards which they had. A presentable and a good Signage will attract customers. At every point of business transactions, customers are rating you and accessing you, thinking of whether to buy from you or to do business with you. In the restaurant, you have menu boards, point-of purchase signs, interior signs, counter cards and so many more. All these are communication to your customers and customers will gauge your credibility. To increase credibility, sales people and businesses should always have good image. To the salespeople, first impression is very important. Their personal appearance too.

Customers are continually looking for ways to either include you or to exclude you. They are looking for reasons to trust you and your offering or to pass it by. Every company has a variety of factors about it that can contribute to the building of trust and credibility. Advertising is a good way to inform the public, your customers about the size and existence of the company. Advertisements in the form of banners or site signs are things that can assure customers about the company's existence.

Everything counts in the world of business. Customers are always comparing and they want to get the best service. Have annual gift, birthday gifts or appreciation gifts given to your clients or customers with digital printing like the picture above. Impress and surprise your clients, prospects or customers with gifts and this is another way you can increase your credibility! FASTSIGNS® sign and graphics centers use innovation and technology to make the sign buying process simple by offering consulting, design, production, file transfer, delivery, installation for a full range of custom sign and graphic products, including high resolution exhibit and display graphics, wide format banners and POP, site signs, window and vehicle graphics, decals and labels, safety and identification signage and floor graphics for interior and exterior use.

Easy Contacts

2007-10-14T17:47:00.000+08:00

It is easy to take a customer for granted and neglect regular contacts as you pursue new business. In most cases, the neglect is unintentional, but the consequences can be dire. This is a chief cause of lost customers.

Maintain customer contact through face-to-face sales calls, telephone calls, short letters, faxes and even emails! Sometimes just a friendly handwritten note or forwarding of some funny jokes will do the trick. In doing these, it helps to 'break the ice' between your clients, prospects and you. It strengthens relationships. Your clients will know that they are not forgotten and that they are 'treasured'.

Not all sales people have a filing system that they used to record their contacts. Not all salespeople used emails marketing either. One advantage of using emails is that it can disseminate information, newsletters and other essential information to clients and prospects in minutes. This greatly save time and is efficient and productive. For easy email marketing and communication with your customers, salespeople should get hold of iContact Email Marketing Software at iContact. iContact is an email marketing and blogging tool that is easy to use. There are over 11,000 customers and 85,000 users and is used by small businesses and Fortune 500 companies like Bank of America, Ford, Nissan, International Paper, and many others. With over 400 professionally-designed templates, anyone can easily track the opens and clickthroughs on your emails, add a sign-up form to your web site, and manage your subcribers!

iContact is changing the way businesses and non-profit organizations communicate online by making it really easy to manage all of your online communications from a single web application. In three easy steps, iContact is an amazingly easy for businesses to create, publish, and track email newsletters, blogs, RSS feeds, surveys, and autoresponders all from the same web application. It is the only email marketing service that combines bloggins, RSS feeds, surveys, and autoresponders. A free trial of iContact is available and pricing plans starts at just $9.95 per month. Need more information about this wonderful software? Watch an overview video at http://icontact.com/www/video/introduction_video.html. iContact makes your communication more effectively with your customers, prospects, and subscribers!

Understand Customers' Needs

2007-10-04T23:15:00.000+08:00

Selling is a process of uncovering and satisfying the customers' needs. What is a need? A need is a customer want or desire that can be satisfied by your product or service. Selling is about establishing needs and the way to do this is by asking questions. To understand customers, most companies and salespeople have survey forms for their customers to fill in. The aim is to understand their customers and to ultimately serve their customers better.

Where surveys are concerned, it takes time and careful consideration to design a useful survey that would yield the right results. There are basically two types of questions: open and closed. An open question is one, which encourages a customer to answer freely. It cannot be answered with only a yes or no and allows the customer to elaborate. Open questions only begin with Who, where, when, how, what, why and which. Closed questions limit the customers' response to either a yes or no or to a choice among alternatives that you supply.

Businesses or salespeople who need have some help in their surveys can now do so easily with the help of online survey software available at Vovici. This is a leverage award-winning online survey software used by over half of Fortune 500 companies. During the 30 day free trial, you can have access to professionally-written survey templates and sample questionnaires. Preview and publish surveys with point-and-click ease! It's not enough to just send a survey. To benefit from the power of feedback, your online survey software solution must be sophisticated enough to deliver actionable insights but simple enough to deploy. Vovici's EFM Feedback is an award-winning survey solution for creating, conducting and analyzing online surveys in a secure, hosted environment. Track survey progress at a glance and many more advantages when you find out more of it at Vovici!

Increase Your Activity

2007-09-27T11:54:00.000+08:00

To succeed in sales, simply talk to lots of people everyday. And here's what's exciting -- there are lots of people!

Practice is just as valuable as a sale. The sale will make you a living; the skill will make you a fortune.

Sales is a person to person business. You cannot send the sales manual out to make the sale. Sales manuals have no legs and no voice.

In the sales profession the real work begins after the sale is made.

Sometimes we do not ask for productivity right away. All we ask for at first is activity. Now, it is pretty easy to check activity. If someone joined the sales organization and he is supposed to make ten calls the first week, it is pretty simple on Friday to say, "John, how many calls did you make?"

John says, "Well..."

You say,"John, 'well...' won't fit in my little box here."

And John starts on a story.

You say,"John, the reason why I made this box so small is so a story won't fit. I just need an activity number from one to ten."

If the results on activity after the first week are not good, that has to be a signal. You might try another week. Ultimately, you have got to be the judge about how far you will go in putting a team together with somebody's lack of precise activity.

An excerpt from "Take charge of Your Life"

Sales people should take lessons from their kids. What does the word "No" mean to a child? Almost nothing!

Even if you are new in sales, you can make up in numbers what you lack in skills.

Deliver Promise Increase Sales

2007-09-21T15:52:00.000+08:00

The world of business is all about sales. I went to make spectacles last Saturday. The optician or salesgirl promised to call me when my spectacles arrived. I was supposed to collect it on last Monday. Today is already Friday and yet she did not give me a single call. This afternoon, I went to Capitol optical shop to collect the spectacles. She never even apologised for not calling me. She even spoiled the spectacles! When she had spoiled the spectacles, she did not say anything anything I noticed it. She asked me to choose another frame at first. I was not sure why she wanted to do that. However, I was not keen to change at all, for I had already waited so long just for a spectacle. In the end, after I had discovered the spectacle was spoilt and the manager said nothing can be done, I was asked to wait for another three days for a replacement of the spectacle. I was so angry for their irresponsibility and poor service to customer. They were a great disappointment to me. I am not going to make any spectacle from them anymore.

This is one way of losing customers. I am not their first time customer. I had made three spectacles from them so far. This time, my son also made spectacles there. However, for paying such a big sum of money for both spectacles and getting such kind of service and poor attitude from the sales people, I am very disappointed. I would rather spend money on a shop that has better service, irregardless of the sum of money.

Delivery of promise is just what make customers happy and ensure continual trust from customers. Customers trust the company so they come to you for service or products. If you do not deliver your promise as stated, customers will lose faith with you and you will lose one customer. Losing one customer means more customers to come. One dissatisfied customer like me, is not going to recommend anymore people to the shop or company. A happy customer on the other hand will recommend more friends and they will continue to support the shop or company. If you are a business owner, which would you want? A satisfied customer or a unhappy customer that left your office, your shop and your company?

Most home applicances and home products like television, refrigerator, washing machine, furniture and computers required the products to be deliver to our home. A date and time will be arranged for them to be sent to the customers' home. How many times do you have punctual delivery of goods? Do you feel angry when the company has failed to deliver the goods to you on the day? In companies like that, there are various department at work. Sometimes, late delivery is not because of the office staff, but the delivery personnel, the drivers. For not having a tracking system, drivers are 'free' to roam anywhere they like. Drivers can always have a fake report to their boss about traffic jam and many more excuse when the truth is they are lazing around for longer break time. This happens a lot of them to my brother's staff. My brother has several truck drivers. Many of them always have speed violation, and they cannot deliver their goods on time. They always have a lot of excuses when they make mistakes. There were several times, some loyal staff reported cases of witnessing a few drivers lazing around in the canteen and their home compound. Their lorries were parked at their home for several hours. This is obviously not productive to the company and affected customers are not going to be happy. Many customers called up to complain of late product delivery or absence of goods delivery. This directly affect my brother's company, his reputation and customer's trust on the company. Future sales will drop if this continue.

Companies that have delivery service always have the problem. To ensure a smooth company operation and a peace of mind for the boss, company should use GPS Insight. GPS Insight is a hardware and web software-based vehicle tracking product which is the technical leader in the GPS tracking field. They have the only hardware which is trivial to install (plugs directly into the vehicles diagnostics port). In addition, they have same-day-shipping. They are the only product which gets direct engine diagnostics (fault codes, speed, fuel consumption, odometer readings, idle time, etc.), and our product gives 2 minute updates with VERY high end map options and customizations.

The above is a snapshot of GPS Insight. As you can see, they provide details tracking activity of your vehicles. No matter where your vehicles go, they will be shown clearly on the map. You staff cannot fake report on their fuel consumption. Their speed, their parking time at a specific location, vehicle performance and everything you want to know is clearly reported to you all on the map if you use GPS Insight. What's more, you can choose 2D-Mapping or 3-D Mapping. This is absolutely a necessity for every company who want to see positive growth every year. Not only are you going to have more responsible drivers, you will have more satisfied customers, and eventual growth of sales order and delivery orders. All it takes is a one time effort to purchase the product, and you could have peace of mind with drivers and improve work productivity. GPS Insight costs $1.50-2 per day per vehicle. Do not pay your people when they are not working! You have proof now! Your dishonest drivers cannot lie about their massive fuel consumption now. You save on fuel, routing efficiencies and most importantly customer satisfaction when the goods are delivered as promised. GPS Insight is definitely an absolute necessity of every company who want to deliver promise!

2D-Mapping showing Trip Detail Report and Current Status Report

3-D Mapping Showing Current Status and Landmarks

Qualities of a Good Salesperson

2007-08-16T23:59:00.000+08:00

This is an article I had just written at Helium. Being a salesperson before, and being a customer myself, I had learned what I want and how I want to be treated by salesperson. This is my views:

How to become a good sales person
A salesperson job is to sell. What he sells depend on which company he is working, and this is determined in turn by what his qualification and field of study involved. There are salespeople who sells medicines, cars, insurance, air-conditioners, computers and many others. The word salespeople is a very general term. It can includes the sales executives in a clothing store, and it can also includes sales promoter who sells cosmetics in the shopping centres. Regardless of the title, as long as the person who sells a product or service to the consumers, they are regarded as salesperson.

How to be a good salesperson? In terms of priority, a salesperson is regarded as good if he has all these:

1. Honesty - do not hide any truths that is detrimental to customers and do not lie about products
2. Have Positive Attitude - Willing to work hard & Understand the need to have Good Product Knowledge
3. Respect Customers - Put customers in the first place
4. Professional
5. Proactive

Any salesperson with this qualities have potential to be a good salesperson. Honesty is a basic trait and ingredients essential to anywhere you go. Not only in sales, but in any other business. People want to work with honest people, no tricks and no scams nor frauds.

A salesman with the right mental mindset, can achieve anything he wants. If he has a positive attitude in anything, he is willing to accept any responsibilities given to him. A positive attitude means that the salesperson will not give up easily on his occupation when he meets failure. He is willing to work hard. He knows that to do well in sales, he needs good product knowledge. He need to persevere and have determination in order to succeed. Whether he speaks well or not is not a factor at all, if he is willing to learn. A positive person has no big obstacles in front of him if he wants to learn.

The next thing which a good salesperson should do is to respect his customers, for that is his life blood. Without customers, there is no job for the salesperson. No matter what the customers say, they have their own reasons and their own needs which is different from any other people and you. Do not answer back. Do not laugh at them. Listen to them. If you want to win in any arguments, you can never win your customers. Win your customers, listen and respect and advise, and they will respect you in return and you stand to win more customers when they refer more customers to you. You many not know too much on your products as a new salesperson, but honesty and the right attitude will touch your customers.

If you really want to be a good salesperson, you should know your products very well, so that you can recommend anything to your customers at your finger tips. Being professional requires you to know your products well, at the finger tips and able to explain what the customers cannot understand. You must be able to put yourself in customers shoes, explain everything in layman's terms, in simple language, so that anyone would understand. Being professional also means that you need to observe confidentiality. That is very important. Many sales job like real estate agents and financial planners require clients to disclose their personal information. Put yourself in their shoes. Nobody would like to have their confidential information spread around. Being professional also means you know how to package yourself. You have high self-esteem and you take pride in your job. You sell because your customers have the needs or your customers insist on having it even after you had explained your reasons. Being professional, you are just like a doctor or a teacher. You educate, you analyse or 'diagnose' and next you recommend. The customers have the right to decide and choose.

The job of all salesperson is to close a sale. Any salesperson who cannot sell a single product is definitely not a good salesperson even if you have the rest of the four qualities listed above. A good salesperson must be proactive in order to have sales. To be proactive that means you must take the first step. You are in control of every situation. You are not a follower, but a leader. You lead and you guide. As a proactive salesperson, you have no fear. You cold call, you go canvassing and you talk to strangers. You talk to anyone who are potential prospects and you want them to be your customers in time to come. You follow-up on your business. You talk to them, call them as and when you are free or on special occasion.

Not all salesperson are taught on code of ethics. In my opinion, any salesperson should be honest and always put themselves in the shoes of their customers. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is quoted in the Gospels of Luke 6:31, and also in others. This is the Golden Rule, the ethic of reciprocity, which should be practiced by a sales person. A good sales person should obey this Golden Rule at all times. This is the basic rule to follow as it is the foundation any moral and ethics of the salesperson. With this golden rule couple with the listed five important qualities a good salesperson should have, a salesperson who practiced these will have potential to be good salesperson. If he is persistent in his effort and consistent in his activities, he could be a top salesperson too.

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Telephone: Business Tool

2007-07-12T11:40:00.000+08:00

The telephone is an important business tool. To be successful in sales or any businesses, the use of telephone is a necessary skill to be mastered. The telephone serves the purpose of prospecting, following up, confirming appointments, servicing your customers, asking for referrals and many more. Cold canvassing on the street may be wasting a lot of time and many on transport, but cold calling at your home or office may be efficient and time-saving. For any salesperson who wants to succeed, they have to be committed, persistent and consistent in their cold calls.

Telephone proficiency can make or save you an enormous amount of money. However not many salespeople like to use the telephone. Many salespeople feel uneasy about telephone prospecting. Others have unconscious fears that paralyze them and hold them back. It is very normal for salespeople to face many rejections everyday. The phone calls that they made is one example. Out of the many phone calls that is being made, if they are lucky, they can have an appointment or two.

Mobile phones are very cheap nowadays. It is almost definite that almost all the people walking on the road have a cell phone with them. With more varieties of plans as well as cheaper plans, talking on the mobile phones are no longer as expensive as before too. Many businesspeople and salespeople make use of the mobile phones for prospecting as well as marketing their products to their existing customers.

The New York Times described mobile marketing as "the most powerful advertising medium ever." That's because 94% of all promotional text messages are opened and read compared to just 3% of promotional email messages that get through. Moreover, 84% of Americans have their cell phones on and with them 24/7. Text message short codes will soon become as common in advertisements as 800 numbers became in the early 1990's. Advanced Telecom Services offers a suite of online services called PromoTXT that enable media and advertisers to benefit from a text message campaign. This includes interactive text messaging via an SMS short code and text message alerts sent to your opt-in database. Everyday, I received many short SMS from various shopping centres, telling me about various promotion. I also received messages from the banks, informing us about investment plans. Unlike email, where you need to log on to internet, SMS via the mobile phone is almost reachable to every person nowadays.

Mobile marketing is surely another telephone technique to be learned if you want to increase your sales performance. Using the mobile phone to send out text message promotions can be very efficient. All you have to do is to compose a message and you can send it all your contacts. Sending bulk SMS like that really saves you a lot of time speaking on the telephone. There are still many people who have a handphone but do not know how to send instant messages. It is time these business people or salespeople should learn how to send SMS.

Business Talk

2007-06-09T16:10:00.000+08:00

You can talk about your business and your products whenever you go and whoever you meet. The more you 'spread' about your business, the more chance of your success. The forum is one good example of a good place for you to sow your seeds.

Promoting yourself ought to come before promoting your products or your firm. When you communicate to the general public through advertising, you should be the most dominant image on that ad. Your picture and your phone number need to be there where they cannot be missed. The only way to do more business is to let people know that you are in the business and you are going to be successful.

To succeed in sales, you need to talk. You need to talk about your business, you need to talk about yourself, your company, your products and you need to talk to many people. Sales is a 'talking' business. No talk no business. You need to source for people (prospects, suspects, customer, clients etc) to talk. You have to look for opportunity to talk the right thing, about your business. You need to have small talk to get the interest and trust of your 'prospect' in order to talk more about your business.

A good and cheap way to promote yourself is through Business Forums where you can interact with millions of people worldwide. Business forums providing free tips, advice, and networking to help small businesses and webmasters get the most out of the internet. Advertising for small companies or the new salesman can be difficult as it may cost a lot of money. For people with low promotional budget, forum is a good alternative way to get leads and referrals -- Using the forums as a way to know more people, at the same time, 'promoting' yourself and learning from other people and getting motivation and the latest business news. The forum is also for people who have similar interest to get together to discuss business or any other business difficulties. It is a place where people can discuss about starting new business, how to improve marketing and so on. For example, at Platinax, you can find various topics of interest, such as Business, Marketing, Web Development, Internet, Economics and Finance, and other general topics. The business forum is definitely a place for you to have your business talk! It is a virtual place for you to have your public speaking to millions of people round the world. The business forum is especially helpful and useful for people who have fear of facing huge crowds of audience. Here, you can discuss, speak and talk business whatever your interest, and you have no fear!

As mentioned in the first paragraph, effective way to promote yourself is your photographs and phone number, just like what you have on your business name card. When using the forum, the avatar is your picture. Your website url or website links is equivalent to your phone number. Words are sales tools. Words are instruments with which we grasp the thoughts of others and with which we do most of our own thinking. We develop our minds chiefly by reading, listening and writing words. A vocabulary is a collection of words. Write your thoughts, your business in the forum and share them with the world through your business talks!

Principles of Persuasive Communications

2007-05-25T17:15:00.000+08:00

Communications covers a wide area, but the basic skill involves getting your thoughts or ideas across to another party. Everyone in business today is in effect a salesperson. Whether you're selling yourself to your current boss, potential boss, clients, or customers, the basics of selling remain the same. The best salespeople are those who use persuasive communications to help the buyer discover the connection between their needs and the product the salesperson is offering. Here are four basic principles of persuasive communications.

1. We communicate in many different ways
Do you have a nervous habit that you always carry with you? Do you bite your nails or twist your fingers into knots? We communicate through body language. In addition, what you say, how you say or how you talk is also important. Your tone of voice says a lot about you.

Millions of dollars are spent every year by marketing experts on design and packaging. They know that the way a product is presented has a lot ot do with how it is accepted. The same goes for us. When we sell ourself to people, our physical and verbal impression means a lot to our customers, those people whom we associate with, our friends, our colleagues and business partners.

2. People respond from their point of view, based on past experience
Languages develop differently in different parts of the world because of each culture's unique circumstances. All communications depends on your point of view. Words mean different things to different people.

Effective selling requires effective communication, so be sure that you are communicating in the way you intend. If you describe yourself as a workaholic, for instance, one potential boss may see it as a positive trait, while another may see it as negative. Be sure to express yourself clearly and precisely.

3. People respond according to their needs not yours
This is an essential rule of successful selling. When you go to buy a car, you go because you want to or need a new car -- not because the salesperson wants to sell it to you. If you don't want that car, it's going to be a very difficult sale.

4. The only way to find out where people are coming from and what their needs are is through a planned process of questioning and active listening
Asking the right question will get you the information you need when you need it. People love to answer questions -- they feel compelled to answer them. People automatically pay more attention to a question than they do to a statement. Even the shyest person will respond to a question directed at him; ask the right question and you'll wonder why you ever thought he was shy!

Knowing how to listen will allow you to receive information as it is intended to be communicated. Epictus, the Greek philosopher, once said,"God has wisely given us two ears and one mouth so we may hear twice as much as we speak." The way you communicate says a lot about you; especially when you are in the process of marketing yourself. We communicate in obvious ways and ways that are not so obvious; all of these ways can be studied, practised and mastered.

Search For Contacts

2007-05-20T00:31:00.000+08:00

Getting names, contacts, maintaining relationships are vital to the success of the salesperson. To ensure sales success, the salesperson need to make many cold calls a day so as to get business appointments.

Sales is all about getting contacts and following up. Contacts is very important for salespeople. It is through knowing more people that salespeople can find prospects for their sales. It is every salespeople aim to convert as many suspects on the street to prospects, and from prospects to clients or customers.

There are various ways in which the salespeople can gather contacts -- parties gathering, seminars, phone books, newspapers and many other possible ways. Nowadays with the popularity of internet, more salespeople are making use of the internet. There are various contacts that can be found via the internet websites. Every websites that you visit comes with contact information. These are ways in which many business owners got information. These are contacts which they ultimately use to call up the person, or send emails to them.

As the internet is very diverse, it can be hard to know what are the possible websites in your country. To make things easier, search engines, serving like the role of a street directory, enable online users to search for information of what they need. There is a new search engine on the internet recently. This is masterseek, a global search engine. Masterseek provides
quick and free access to company profiles, contact information, and descriptions of products and services from more than 45 million companies in 75 countries. With so many business companies profiles, you can easily have contacts with these business associates. You can also search in your own country or worldwide and find business partners, sales opportunities and new avenues to expand your business and increase your company’s profitability. Visit Masterseek, enter your company profile and showcase your products and services to the global community.

Online Sales Success

2007-05-19T23:45:00.000+08:00

There are millions of internet surfers at every hour and every minute of the day. Your purpose of online sales is to get these online users to your websites.

Getting customers to websites is the main aim of online businesses. There are many ways to tell the world about your websites. Some of the ways are sending out emails, advertising and make sure your sites are listed in the first few searches of search engines.

Besides sending out emails and search engine optimization, another way to ensure that more prospects or customers come to your websites is to advertise your websites. There are various places on the internet where you can place your advertisement. Besides popular advertiser like Google, one more advertiser you can consider is Bloggerwave, a new type of advertising where you have bloggers to write about your website. Bloggerwave.com is now live and looking for bloggers. At Bloggerwave, bloggers can sign up and start earning money with their blogs too. It is a place both for bloggers and advertisers. So if you want buzz, you want more people to know about your websites, you want more links to your websites, sign up at Bloggerwave, and start advertise your website to increase your chances of sales success!

In addition, take advantage of your good reputation with your satisfied customers. They can bring new customers to your websites. Customers who are enthusiastic about you, your product, and your service will be eager to help you. By providing referral fees are one way to encourage your existing customer to 'work' for you too.

Most important of all, provide a good website which can attract the attention of surfers, your customers. Your websites should be informative and have values to 'shoppers'. Testimonials and references are vital to your sales success.

Symbols Of Success

2007-05-15T15:10:00.000+08:00

There is an old saying,"A man is judged by the company he keeps." So also a person is judged by the car he or she keeps, and this is particularly true for salespeople.

If there is a well-known person in your community who has bought and used your product or service, be sure to point this out when you are talking to a prospect. If the president of a major business or industry, a leading sports or entertainment figure, or anyone else who is respected or looked up to by the customer has purchased what you sell, mentioning this fact builds tremendous credibility for you and your company and can often builds tremendous credibility for you and your company and can often be the final factor that leads to the sale.

Another form of authority that greatly influences buying decisions is contained in the symbols of success and affluence worn or used by the salesperson. A salesperson who drives a beautiful car, who dresses well, and who carries an expensive briefcase and pays with a business credit card exerts a strong influence on the prospect. The success and prosperity exuded by a salesperson extends to the product or service, and the company itself.

You cannot predict when you might have a guest in your car. Keep your car clean by frequent washes. Give your car's interior a daily inspection, making it as thorough and critical as your inspection of your clothing and personal grooming. It will help to maintain that ensemble of professionalism that is so vital to successful selling.

The fact is that people like to do business with other successful people and companies. That is why when salespeople win a sales award, they often announce it proudly on their business cards. Would you like to buy a car or a house from a person just starting out, or from the top salesperson in the industry? Would you like to buy an investment from a person who doesn't look like he can afford lunch, or from a person who looks wealthy and successful? Remember, little things mean a lot, and everything counts!

This is a sponsored post by Creditorweb.com. Creditorweb allows users to compare credit card offers and apply online for a credit card. There is a large selection of business credit card reviews and the "Best Credit Cards" selection tool that makes it easy to narrow your search results for specific criteria.

Satisfied Customers

2007-05-13T18:05:00.000+08:00

Don't belittle the power of satisfied customers. One satisfied customers may bring you another customer and two satisfied customers may bring you more customers and so on. If your service and product is good, your customer will be loyal to you and your company.

Prospects won't buy if they lack confidence in you or your product. How do you establish buyer confidence? The answer is simple -- be enthusiastic, on time, honest, friendly and professional. Turning prospects into your customers is your ultimate aim of salespeople. It is important that any business or salespeople who wants to have sales success to satisfy their customers. Customers are King. Without customers, the salesperson cannot have any sales and the company cannot prosper.

How to make sure that you have satisfied customers? Besides the above mentioned earlier -- be enthusiastic, on time, honest, friendly and professional, aftersale service is very important. Turning your prospects into customers is every salesperson's aim. Getting your customers to come back again and again is your next aim; and getting your customers to refer their friends and families, relatives etc to come to you is yet another aim too. Satisfied customers are good 'advertisement' for the company. Making your customers happy has many benefits. Happy customers will spread 'your goodness' to people they know. They can recommend your service to other people. One of the way to appreciate your customer for supporting you is through giving small gifts. Small gifts with your name and company logo printed on it is a good advertisement when the customers put them at their office, home or office. It create topics of discussion when the customers' friends or families see them. They will talk about you and if they have a need, they can contact you.

Another way to make your customer happy is to show them that you remember them -- keep in touch with them, call them at least twice a year or more, for example, on their birthday and the other one about six months from the birthday. There are still various ways to make your customers happy. For example, when they call you up for help, you have to be sincere in helping them, be prompt and honour what you promise them.

John Pentony, the successful man behind StockGuru.com own his success to many of his satisfied customers too. Read about how he build his current business from a stockbroker many years ago, starting from friends. Stock Guru provides profile coverage of small cap companies supported by breaking news not available in any other one stop location essential for the small cap equity trader.

Website That Sells

2007-05-12T22:10:00.000+08:00

To ensure sales success in this competitive world, you have to reach out to more people and let yourself be known to more people too. One way to do this in addition to your normal advertising is to have a good website. If you are selling insurance, then you must have a good Life Insurance Site.

Having a good website is very important. A good website that provides useful information and useful tips will attract visitors to be back to the website again. Gaining the trust of consumers is very important. Once a consumer knows that they can trust you, they will spread the good news to those people around them -- their friends, families and relatives etc. Your visitors traffic will definitely increased as such. Increasing the numbers of visitors means there is more chance of doing business with these people too.

What is a good website? Let's take a look at Compassquote.com. This post is sponsored by Compassquote.com. Compassquote.com is a good model of what every insurance website should have -- instant online quotes, comprehensive information about insurance and the service provided at the company, companies the insurance company represents and reasons why we can place our trust with them. In addition, the presentation of the website is just perfect, with the right mixture of words, colours and pictures. It does not look dull, but on the contrary, it has a 'easy-to-read' style, the website is simple yet comprehensive, detailed in information. One look at the website, you can tell what sort of services they provide -- in this case, they offer Term Life Insurance, Universal Life Insurance, No Medical Exam Life Insurance, Return of Premium Life Insurance and Short Term Health Insurance. Besides this, a website must always have benefits for the consumers to return back. What is the benefits of this life insurance site? The main thing that attracted me is the instant life quotes!

Not many people like to 'buy' insurance from an agent or adviser. Some people do not like to speak a life insurance adviser. They are people who just love to shop online at their own leisure time and do not like to be 'disturbed'. They are the people who would 'buy' online too. So if you want sales success, you must possess good product knowledge, good service, be ethical and honest, responsible, hardworking and have a good website.

Help For Success

2007-05-11T23:09:00.000+08:00

Want to be successful in your sales? Does your company need a helping hand? Venture Alliance Partners A/S (Venpar) is one of the leading providers of private equity, dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and investors build world-class companies. Venpar is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and investors. They have already managed to show excellent results for their clients, which is not surprisingly the core reason behind their list of partners and strong portfolio. Their continued focus on the venture capital marketplace, strong and trustworthy determination for being an external financial strategist, headhunter, investment banker and corporate therapist for a wide range of different companies in continuous growth, remains key to their success. You are just one click away from the simplicity behind their success! Visit their user-friendly website at www.venpar.com and learn the simplicity of success from them.

Strategic Planning

2007-05-08T15:54:00.000+08:00

The value and power of using the information you have must be strategized. Planning a memorable follow-up program for the client will get the results you want.

A good architect uses tools like CAD to help him to design and plan his work. Like an architect, a salesperson need to plan in order to be successful in their sales too. Essential to effective strategic planning is breaking the entire process down into its constituents parts and then reassembling them into a smooth-running, efficient strategic sales machine. The simplest of strategic planning approaches is the GOSPA model according to Brian Tracy. GOSPA stands for goals, objectives, strategies, plans and activities.

1. Goals and objectives
Setting goals is an important part of strategic planning. It is exactly what is being done at corporate headquarters on national and international levels. It naturally follows mapping and routing.

You set your goals and objectives by determining exactly what you want to accomplish as a result of your sales activities. You set long term, short term and medium term goals, each of which flows into the other. You set goals and objectives for both your personal and business life. You draw up a blueprint so that you know exactly what you are doing, why you are doing it, what you want to accomplish, when you want to accomplish it and what it will look like when you are successful. By putting these ingredients together into a written plan, your success will be virtually assured!

Goals are the specific, long-term, measurable, time-bounded targets that you are aiming to accomplish. A specific level of sales in a specific sales period, such as a year, would represent a goal. Objectives refer to the interim goals that you will have to accomplish in order to achieve your overall goal. For example, in order to accomplish in order to achieve your overall goal. For example, in order to develop a certain level of business, you will have to call on a certain number of new prospects. The number of prospects you will have to call on in a particular sales period represents an objective that must be achieved if your long term goal is to be realized.

2. Strategies and Plans
Your strategy and plans are how you are going to accomplish your objectives and achieve your goals. There are usually a variety of ways to approach any goal or objective, just as there are usually several ways to climb a mountain. The purpose of strategy is to enable you to achieve your goals by getting the highest return on your expenditure of personal time and energy. Once you have determined your strategy, or route to the top, you then lay out your plan, or the steps that you are going to take every day, week and months, to scale the heights.

For example, in personal strategic planning, you would carefully examine your sales cycle, and the buying process. How long does it take for a qualified prospect, on average to make a buying decision, take delivery, and pay for your product? Many companies have long sales cycles that take several months. If an average sales cycle is seven months, for example, the salesperson must have made all his initial contacts by the end of May for all the sales he is going to achieve in that particularly year. Instead of coasting through the first few months of the year, the professional with a clear sales goal must go to work on 2 January and get every single prospect lined up and organized by May if he is going to achieve his quotas for the coming year.

3. Activities
With smaller sales, made to a large number of prospects, the key selling strategy is activity. Your strategic planning would involve organizing your activities so that you see as many prospects as possible every working day. The more people you see, the more sales you make. With a larger sale and longer sales cycle, the key to sales success lies in carefully planning the approach and penetration of the customer account.

Some salespeople may have only ten potential customers in their entire market area. Every potential customer is therefore extremely valuable. The salesperson and the company cannot afford to lose or alienate a single one as the result of a sloppy sales effort. Considerable thought and planning must go into every aspect of the approach, the proposal, the presentation, and the follow-up work that leads to the sale. No detail is unimportant.

Contacts For Sale

2007-03-01T20:17:00.000+08:00

Be ever on the alert for new propsects. Use every possible sales tactic in your continuous search for new business. Advertising, mailings and telephoning are some of the traditional "door openers" to new accounts. Use them. In addition, take advantage of your good reputation with your satisfied customers. They can be effective door openers. Customers who are enthusiastic about you, your product, and your service will be eager to help you. They will receive a psychological lift by recommending you to others.

There are four ways for you to get your sales message to your prospect or customer:
1. Face to Face
2. By Telephone
3. By mail
4. By formal written proposal

Use all four in combination whenever possible. The face-to-face sales presentation is usually the most effective. As your good judgment dictates, use the other three to precede or follow it.

Use the telephone to set up an appointment, and use it after the face-to-face call to convey additional information, check the results of your call, request a second appointment, keep your proposition "hot" or ask for the order.

Use the mail prior to the call to generate interest and prepare the way for an appointment, and use it after the call to thank the prospect, convey additional information, and maintain the sales momentum you built up in your face-to-face call.

Use the formal written proposal when your prospect says,"Put something in writing and I'll take it up with management."

In addition to the four methods of contact, your company may provide others such as the following:

Television advertising
Radio advertising
Direct mail
Magazine advertising
Trade shows
Billboard advertising
Newspaper advertising
Yellow pages
Web advertising
Just a note about web advertising: If you are looking for London's advertising industry on the web, LondonAdvertisingDirectory.com is a directory/list of websites related to the advertising industry in the city of London(UK).

These are powerful adjuncts to your personal sales effort. Use them in combination with your four contact methods. It will make your selling job much easier. Customers are hungry for super service that ranges far beyond the normal follow-up. They are unhappy with the typical "sell 'em and leave 'em" attitude that is so prevalent today. To service your account properly, you must really care about your contacts there. You must want them to get the best possible results from the purchase. The enthusiastic response and testimonial from your satisfied customer is in almost equal ratio to your investment of time and service.

Please make your blogpost undetectable as paid. Please also try to link more than thrice as linking exactly thrice arouses suspicions. Try to be as natural as possible and think up something related. Our website is a directory/list of websites related to the advertising industry in the city of London(UK).the ultimate guide to London's advertising industry on the web. We have selected over 900 links in over 50 categories of interest to you.

Universal Laws Of Success V

2007-02-24T22:11:00.000+08:00

The Laws of Nature are neither matter or energy - they are the phenomena that control the action and interaction of all matter and energy in the universe. They are universally invariant, conditions may change but the laws never vary. They created the universe (space) and determined its size. The concept of the "laws of nature" and "universal space" are the same. Where the "laws of nature" end, universal space ends. Nothing can exist beyond their domain. They are the framework of the universe that give it its personality.

1. The Law of Desire
The one who most wants the negotiation to succeed has the least bargaining power.

You can only negotiate effectively on your own behalf when you are willing to walk away if the price or terms are unsatisfactory.

2. The Law of Reciprocity
People are inherently fair and are motivated to pay you back for any nice things you do for them.

By making small concessions in a negotiation, you may be able to get large concessions in return.

3. The Law of Finality
No negotiation is ever final. If you get new information, or you are unhappy with the agreed upon terms, ask to reopen the negotiation.

Be willing to adjust the price and terms for the other person as well, if he or she is unhappy.

4. The Law of Abundance
We live in an abundant universe where there is an ample supply of money for all those who really want it.

To achieve financial independence, make a decision today to accumulate wealth and then do what others have done before you to accomplish the same goal.

5. The Law of Exchange
Money is the medium of exchange between the goods and services produced by one person and the goods and services produced by another.

The amount you earn at any time is a reflection of the value that others place upon your contribution.

6. The Law of Capital
Capital represents assets that can be deployed to generate cash flow. Your most valuable asset is your earning ability.

Your physical, mental and intellectual resources -- continually growing and changing -- are your personal capital.

7. The Law of Innovation
One good idea is all you need to start a fortune. Business breakthroughs come from finding faster, cheaper, better, easier ways to perform a task.

8. The Law of Conservation
It's not how much you make but how much you keep that counts.

Successful people save in prosperous times so they have a financial cushion in times of recession.

9. Parkinson's Law
Expenses always rise to meet income. This is why most people retire poor.

To become wealthy, you must spend less than you earn, and save the balance.

10. The Law of Opportunity
Difficulties come not to obstruct, but to instruct. Within every setback or obstacle lies seeds of an equal or greater benefit of opportunity.

Turn your stumbling blocks into stepping stones to success.

11. The Law of Courage
The systematic, deliberate development of courage is essential to the achievement of success. Fear is the greatest single obstacle to achievement.

Make a habit of always confronting the things you fear and doing them anyway.

12. The Law of Applied Effort
All great success and achievement is preceded and accompanied by hard, hard work. When in doubt, try harder. And if that doesn't work, try harder still.

And when you work, work all the time you work! Don't waste time.

13. The Law of Giving
The more you give of yourself without expectation of return, the more good that will come back to you, from the most unexpected sources.

You will only be truly happy when you feel that you are making a real difference in the world by serving others in some way.

14. The Law of Affirmation
Fully 95% of your thinking and feelings is determined by the way you talk to yourself. Your inner dialogue is accepted as commands by your subconscious mind.

Talk to yourself positively and constructively all the time, even when you don't feel like it.

15. The Law of Differentiation
Every product or service must be different and better in some unique way to succeed in a competitive marketplace.

Your competitive advantage must be perceivable, promotable and something the market will pay for.

16. The Law of Self-Development
You can learn anything you need to learn to achieve virtually any goal that you can set for yourself. Those who learn, can.

17. The Law of Talents
You contain within yourself a unique combination of talents and abilities which, properly identified and applied, will enable you to achieve virtually any goal you can set for yourself.

What parts of your work do you enjoy the most, and are you the best at? This is your best indicator of your true talents.

18. The Law of Excellence
Success and happiness are only possible when you become absolutely excellent at doing something you enjoy.

The quality of your life will be determined by your commitment to excellence more than by any other factor. ~ Vince Lombardi

Universal Laws Of Success IV

2007-02-23T20:59:00.000+08:00

All men are by nature equal, made, all, of the same earth by the same Creator...Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils,--no, nor the human race, as I believe,--and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day. ~ Plato (427-347 B.C.)

Why do we get what we want sometimes, and other times what we want eludes us? Why are some born rich, others poor? Why do some have great talent while others are limited in ability? What causes the wind to blow, the earth to explode, the sea to churn?
When you live among nature you can see the ebbs and flows that constitute life. The changing of the seasons, the sprouting of seeds into a plant, the rising and setting of the sun. We learn to be in rhythm with creation. Like the cycles and phases of the Earth's moon our lives flow.
Universal energy moves in us, through us, and around us. The energy we breathe is the same energy that makes up Earth and the sun and the universe. The patterns and rhythms imply an intelligence, a Creator, imaging how the energy will flow. We call those patterns Universal Laws.

1. The Law of Identification
Hypersensitivity or taking things personally, is a major source of problems in relationships.

Only by not identifying, by detaching and viewing your relationship with some objectivity, can you enjoy it fully and act effectively within it.

2. The Law of Critical Success Factors
Every business or position has no more than five to seven critical success factors that determine how well it does. Identify the critical things you do that determine your success or failure. Make a plan to get better at each one of them.

3. The Law of The Market & Market Concentration
The true price of anything is what someone is willing to pay for it in an open, competitive market with other alternatives available. The market is always right.

Market success comes from concentrating single-mindedly on those specific customers who can most benefit from the unique competitive advantages of your product or service. Identifying and focusing your efforts on this core group is the key to profitability.

4. The Law of Minimum Effort
You always try to get the things you want with the very least effort possible. All technological advances are ways of getting greater output with less input.

All human beings are therefore basically lazy, seeking the easiest way possible at all times.

5. The Law of Maximization
You always try to get the very most in exchange for your time, money, effort or emotions. When given a choice between more or less for the same contribution, you will always choose more.

People are therefore basically greedy in everything they do. This is neither good nor bad in itself. It just is.

6. The Law of Expediency
You always try to get the things you want as quickly and as easily as possible with minimum regard to secondary consequences.

You tend to follow the path of least resistance in everything you do.

7. The Law of Duality
You always give one of two reasons for doing anything -- the reason that sounds good, or the real reason.

The reason that sounds good is always uplifting and noble. The real reason is because your action is the fastest and easiest way to get the things you want, right now.

8. The Law of Differentiation
Everything product or service must be different and better in some unique way to succeed in a competitive marketplace. Your competitive advantage must be perceivable, promotable and something the market will pay for.

9. The Law of Subjective Value
All value is the eye of the beholder. There is no set value for anything. Something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay.

The person willing to pay ultimately determines the true value of any item.

10. The Law of Timing & Time Preference
Timing is a critical aspect of any negotiation. Whenever you make an offer, give a deadline for acceptance.

On the other hand, if someone tries to give you a deadline to accept a deal, simply say,"If that's all the time I have, then the answer is no."
You always prefer earlier rather than later in the satisfaction of any desire.

You are therefore impatient in virtually every area of your life.

11. The Law of Marginality
The ultimate price of any product or service is determined by what the last customers are willing to pay for the last items available.

Every sale, or mark-down of prices, is an admission that the vendor guessed wrongly when setting the original prices.

12. The Law of Supply and Demand
When the quantity of goods or resources is limited, an increase in the price will lead to a decrease in the demand, and vice versa.

Whatever you reward you get more of, whatever you punish you get less of. Taxes and regulations are punishment for productive activities. Welfare and benefits are rewards for unproductive activities.

13. Cohen's Law
Everything is negotiable. Every price or term, whether buying or selling, is a best-guess by someone as to what the market will bear.

Always ask for a better price.

14. Dawson's Law
You can always get a better deal if you know how to ask for it in the best possible way.

Always ask for more than you want. Never accept the first price quoted. Be patient, and then ask for more.

15. The Law of Specialization
To succeed in business, you must specialize in a particular product or service for a particular customer, and then do what you do in an excellent fashion. A primary reason for a business failure is a loss of focus.

16. The Law of Terms
The terms of payment in a negotiation can be more important than price, or any other factor.

You can usually agree to almost any price if you can get very favourable terms.

17. The Law of Preparation
80% of success in negotiation is determined by the preparation you do, in advance.

Before negotiating, be sure to get the facts, do your homework and check your assumptions.

18. The Law of Reversal
Before negotiating, put yourself in the other person's position and negotiation from the point of view.

When you develop a good feel for the situation of the other person, you can more effectively negotiate the best deal for yourself.

Universal Laws Of Success III

2007-02-22T20:14:00.000+08:00

The Universe Is Governed By Universal Laws

Every good and grand religion has to teach people the law of karma. Otherwise, why do they bother to teach people to do good and be good, if we have no retribution later or any at all, or after-life at all? Why bother to be good, to do good? Because if you are bad, you are kind of naughty and sinful, you still only have this life. So the law of karma and also consequently the law of reincarnation is very, very common.

1. The Law of Excellence
The market only pays excellent rewards for excellent performance, excellent products or excellent service. Identifying and developing your "area of excellence" is the first job of management.

2. The Law of Ability
Luck is what happens when prepareness meets opportunity. The more ability you have and develop in any field, the more likely it is that lucky breaks will occur for you.

3. The Law of Substitution
Your conscious mind can only hold one thought at a time, positive or negative. You can decide to be happy by substituting positive thoughts for negative ones.

Your mind is like a garden. Either weeds or flowers will grow.

4. The Law of Expression
Whatever is expressed, is impressed. Whatever you say to yourself, with emotion, generates thoughts, ideas and behaviours consistent with those words.

Be sure to talk about the things you want, and refuse to talk about the things you don't want.

5. The Law of Reversibility
Your thoughts and feelings determine your actions, and your actions, in turn, determine your thoughts and feelings.

By acting in a positive, pleasant and optimistic way, you become a positive, optimistic and enjoyable person.

6. The Law of Visualization
The world around you is an outpicturing of the world within you. The images you dwell upon affect your thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

Whatever you visualize clearly and emotionally will eventually materialize in your world.

7. The Law of Practice
Whatever you practice over and over becomes a new habit.

You can develop the attitudes, abilities and qualities of happiness and success by repeating them until they are firmly entrenched as part of your personality.

8. The Law of Commitment
The quality of love and the duration of a relationship are in direct proportion to the depth of the commitment by both people to making the relationship successful.

Commit yourself wholeheartedly and unconditionally to the most important people in your life.

9. The Law of Opportunity
Your greatest possibilities will often come from the most common situations around you. Your biggest opportunity probably lies under your own feet, in your current job, industry, education, experience or interests.

10. The Law of Compatibility
You will be happy with another person to the degree to which you both share the same values, attitudes, ambitions and beliefs.

Look for someone who thinks and feels the way you do about the most important issues of life.

11. The Law of Probability
Every event has some probability of occurring. To increase the chances of an event occurring, increase the number of events.

The more times and the more different things you try, the more likely it is that you will succeed.

12. The Law of Attention
You pay attention to that which you most love and value.

Attentive listening to others lets them know that you love them and builds trust, the foundation of a loving relationship.

13. The Law of Clarity
The Clearer you are about what you want, and what you are willing to do to get it, the more likely it is that you will be lucky and get what you want.

Clarity of desired goals is a magnet that draws good luck to you.

14. The Law of Indirect Effort
You will be more successful indirectly in relationships rather than directly. To have a friend, be a friend. To impress others, be impressed by them.

To develop and maintain loving relationships, become a loving person yourself.

15. The Law of Reverse Effort
The harder you try to force a relationship to work, the less successful it will be.

Relationships work best when you simply relax, be yourself and enjoy the moment.

Universal Laws Of Success II

2007-02-21T20:12:00.000+08:00

The Universal Laws are all inter-related and are founded on the understanding that everything in the universe is energy, including us, and that energy moves in a circular fashion. At the microscopic level, we are a whirling mass of electrons and energy atoms spinning rapidly. In fact, everything in the world is comprised of energy and we are intimately connected with this sea of energy, this sea of whirling electrons.

Our thoughts, feelings, words, and actions are all forms of energy. What we think, feel, say, and do in each moment comes back to us to create our realities. Energy moves in a circle, so what goes around comes around. The combined thoughts, feelings, words and actions of everyone on the planet creates our collective consciousness, it creates the world we see before us.

The exciting news is, because our thoughts, feelings, words and actions create the world around us, we have the power to create a world of peace, harmony and abundance. In order to do this, it is essential that we learn to control our thoughts and emotions. Understanding the Universals Laws help us to do this.

1. The Law of Integrative Complexity
The person with the widest variety of knowledge and skill in any area will have the most of luck in that area. Expanded knowledge and skill intensify awareness and expand opportunity.

2. The Law of Optimism
A positive mental attitude is essential for success and happiness in every area of life.

Your attitude is an expression of your values, beliefs and expectations.

3. The Law of Change
Change is inevitable. Because it is driven by expanding knowledge and technology, it is accelerating at a speed never seen before.

Your job is to be a master of change rather than a victim of change.

4. The Law of Control
You feel positive about yourself to the degree to which you feel you are in control of your own life.

Health, happiness and high performance begin with your taking complete control over your thinking, your actions and your circumstances in the world around you.

5. The Law of Responsibility
You are where you are and what you are because of you.

You are fully responsible for everything you are, everything you have and everything you become.

6. The Law of Compensation
The universe is completely balanced and in perfect order. You will always be compensated in full for everything you do.

You will get out what you put in. You can have more because you can contribute more.

7. The Law of Service
Your rewards in life will be in direct proportion to the value of your service to others.

The more you work, study and develop your ability to contribute more to the lives and well-being of others, the better life you will have in all areas.

8. The Law of Applied Effort
All your hopes, dreams, goals and aspirations are amendable to hard work.

The harder you work, the luckier you get. There are no shortcuts.

9. The Law of Preparation
Luck is when opportunity meets preparation. Perfect performance comes from painstaking preparation, often for weeks, months and years in advance.

The most successful people in every area invariably spend far more time in preparation than the least successful.

10. The Law of Forced Efficiency
There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most things.

The more you take on, the more efficient you become. You only learn how much you can actually do by trying to do too much.

11. The Law of Decision
Decisiveness is a vital quality of all successful people.

Every great leap forward in your life comes after you have made a clear decision of some kind.

12. The Law of Creativity
Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

Every advance in your life begins with an idea of some kind, and since your ability to generate new ideas is unlimited, your future can be unlimited as well.

13. The Law of Flexibility
Be clear about your goals; be flexible about the process of achieving them.

Flexibility and adaptability are the core qualities for success in an age of rapid change, competition, and obsolescence.

14. The Law of Persistence
Your ability to persist in the face of adversities, setbacks and disappointments is your measure of your belief in yourself.

Persistence is the iron quality of success; if you persist long enough you must eventually succeed.

15. The Law of Integrity
Happiness and high performance come to you when you choose to live your life consistent with your highest values and your deepest convictions.

Always be true to the very best that is within you.

Universal Laws Of Success I

2007-02-20T17:52:00.000+08:00

The Universal Laws operate at all levels: physical, mental, and spiritual. Universal Laws are fundamental laws of mind and spirit - they are as important to you as the air you breathe.

In law and ethics, Universal Law or Universal Principle refers to concept of legal legitimacy whereby those principles and rules for governing human conduct which are most universal in their acceptablity, their applicability, translation, and philosophical basis, are therefore considered to be most legitimate. Universal Law refers to the based and derived principles within such judgements, as they are cited and therefore become law.

Universal Laws are unbreakable, unchangeable principles of life that operate inevitably, in all phases of our life and existence, for all human beings and all things, everywhere, all the time.

1. The Law of Cause And Effect
Everything happens for a reason. For every cause there is an effect, and for every effect, whether you know it or not, there is a specific cause or causes. There are no accidents.

You can have anything you want in life if you can first decide exactly what it is, and then do the things that others have done to achieve the same result.

2. The Law of Mind
All causation is mental. Your thoughts become your realities. Your thoughts are creative. You become what you think about most of the time.

Think continually about the things you really want, and refuse to think about the things you don't want.

3. The Law of Mental Equivalency
The world around you is the physical equivalent of the world within you. Your main job in life is to create within your own mind the mental equivalent of the life you want to live.

Imagine your ideal life, in every respect. Hold that thought until it materializes around you.

4. The Law of Correspondence
Your outer life is a reflection of your inner life. There is a direct correspondence between the way you think and feel on the inside and the way you act and experience on the outside.

Your relationships, health, wealth and position are mirror images of your inner world.

5. The Law of Belief
Whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality. You do not believe what you see; you see what you have already chosen to believe.

You must identify, then remove the self-limiting beliefs that hold you back.

6. The Law of Values
You always act in a manner consistent with your innermost values and convictions.

What you say and do, the choices you make -- especially under stress -- are an exact expression of what you truly value, regardless of what you say.

7. The Law of Motivation
Everything you do or say is triggered by your inner desires, drives and instincts. These may be conscious or unconscious.

The key to success is to set your own goals and determine your own motivations.

8. The Law of Subconscious Activity
Your subconscious mind makes all your words and actions fit a pattern consistent with your self-concept and your innermost beliefs about yourself.

Your subconscious mind will move you forward or hold you back depending on how you program it.

9. The Law of Expectations
Whatever you expect, with confidence, tends to materialize in the world around you.

You always act in a manner consistent with your expectations, and your expectations influence the attitudes and behaviours of the people around you.

10. The Law of Concentration
Whatever you dwell upon grows and expands in your life.

Whatever you concentrate upon and think about repeatedly increases in your world.

Therefore, you must focus your thinking on the things you really want in your life.

11. The Law of Habit
Fully 95% of everything you do is the result of your habits, either helpful or hurtful.

You can develop habits of success by practicing and repeating success behaviours over and over until they become automatic.

12. The Law of Attraction
You continually attract into your life the people, ideas and circumstances that harmonize with your dominant thoughts, either positive or negative.

You can be, have and do more because you can change your dominant thoughts.

13. The Law of Assumption
Incorrect assumptions lie at the root of every failure. Have the courage to test your assumptions.

The willingness to accept the possibility that you could be wrong will open you to possibilities and luck breaks you might otherwise miss.

14. The Law of Energy
The greater the energy and enthusiasm you have, the more likely it is that you will recognize and respond to luck. Your best ideas and most profound insights come after a period of rest and relaxation.

15. The Law of Self-Development
You can learn anything you need to learn to achieve virtually any goal that you can set for yourself. Those who learn, can.

For anything to function effectively there needs to be some kind of structure. There are laws that govern our universe called Universal Laws. These laws apply to everything, everywhere at all times in our universe. These laws enable our universe to function in an orderly fashion. Without these laws there would be chaos in the universe. By studying, understanding, cooperating, and applying these Universal Laws in our daily lives we can lead the most successful, fulfilling, abundant, joyful, and healthy life possible. Successful people have an intuitive understanding of these Universal Laws applying them consistently in their lives.

The Universal Laws

Successful Women

2007-02-18T21:25:00.000+08:00

Women are expected to assume many roles. Housekeeping is one. Bringing home her wage is now just as important. Gone are the days when the income brought in by the men is sufficient to support the family. And so now women have also taken on the role of working outside the home and becoming breadwinners. Like their husbands, they work full days and are exposed to the same kinds of demands by their bosses. After work the women are expected to drop their 'working' role and to take on another set of responsibilities. Computers and office politics are quickly replaced by the preparation of evening meals, getting the children washed, listening to their countless stories about the day, playing with and reading to hem and putting them to bed.

Those who have children in school would have to check or supervise their school work, and where needed, coach them in their weak subjects. Mothers have to be everything to their children. They nurture, coach, counsel and also discipline their children. Many women are great jugglers, having succeeded in balancing their duties and responsibilities. When such roles are not properly carried out, women suffer from guilt.

Women work in various professions from both the public and private sectors. Some examples are manufacturing, broking and management consultancy. A number of factors contribute to the women's success. Many of the women are hardworkers. They do not mind failing to get recognition; they are too busy doing the things that entitle them to recognition.

Factors Contributing To Women's Success
1. The Women As Workers -- A main contributing factor to their success is the women themselves. These are women who have excellent records and are noted for being peak performers. They are neither afraid of challenges nor of long and hard work. They are committed to their work. What sort of workers are they exactly?

2. Their Love for the work -- They enjoy their work

3. Their Persistence -- They are willing to spend long hours working on the same problem. Their willingness to accept criticism, rejection and obstacles coupled with their ability to overcome them and to press on stand out as remarkable characteristics. This ability to persist stems from a very strong motivation which they possess. Their motivation could be inborn or spurred on by people with whom they come into contact.

4. Their Personality Traits and Abilities -- These women know what they want. They are singleminded, disciplined and dedicated in their pursuits. In order to attain what they want these women are prepared to take risks. We know that risk-taking is an important factor for achieving success. The courage to take risks and to face possible failures are important factors. Another important traits include the ability to organize, make quick decisions, form effective networks, manage time and plan ahead. The ability to withstand loneliness at the top is also important. Lastly, the ability to rise above problems, and not allow frustrations, complaints and failures to upset them.

5. Their Supporters -- The successful career woman is able to succeed because of the support of other women around her. These include her mother or mother-in-law, maid and other care-givers who play a significant role in her life. Without them few women can succeed. In the midst of her supporting crowd, one often finds a supportive husband. Indeed if their husbands were not supportive, these women would not have succeeded.

It has been claimed that a successful woman does not substitute one role for another, but instead takes on additional roles. These multiple roles rather than hinder her from succeeding can in fact work to her advantage. The willingness to make sacrifices in order to cope with multiple roles is a fairly common theme in the teaching of the Christian faith. In the olden days, wives were expected to perform many duties, ranging from caring for the family to working in the fields and to selling handicraft to supplement the family's resource. Similarly, women today are also expected to perform many jobs. These women must learn to delegate their numerous responsibilities -- ranging from housework, childcare to care for aged parents or relatives -- and learn to make effective use of their supports. Besides the ability to delegate demands expected of them, they have to learn to do it without being plagued by feeling of guilt.

Media has often portrayed the stereotypical image of a successful woman as a cold superhuman, a 'one-army general', lacking in both emotions and a sense of humour. On the contrary, these are women who could have owed part of their success to their concern for their subordinates. They pride themselves on the fact that they care for their subordinates and have good human relationship skills. They are willing to share information, listen and base their decisions on consensus. Successful women are goal and task-oriented. They do not waste time dwelling on complaints and issues which they have no control over.

The Bag Lady is a leading online directory & international trading portal for women in business. The site is dedicated to women and contains comprehensive directory - a place where women can find other women in business when they need a service or product, or are seeking to forge new business partnerships. Visit The Bag Lady, read about Women Entrepreneurship, Women & Money, Divorce Support Groups and many more topics -- News Source for Women Entrepreneurs, their newsletter shares helpful news and information with women entrepreneurs around the world designed to keep the business women in touch with key events, relevant research and, most importantly, each other!

Sales Contacts

2007-02-08T14:07:00.000+08:00

Salespeople must develop a game plan and purchase some form of computer software for contacting, following up, and appointing the people you have connected with -- Documenting, tracking, and using your networking contacts for maximum benefit.

Use the mail as a supplement and reinforcement to your face-to-face call. Brief notes or formal business letters mailed between your sales calls can serve as additional sales calls. They can help maintain the momentum you built up during the sales interview. They can further develop your image as a true professional, one who is sincerely interested in the prospect's objective.

Tips on Making Sales Contacts by Mail
Making contacts by mail is one of the methods frequently neglected by salespeople. This method of contact can be placed into three classifications:
1. The formal business letter
2. The informal note
3. Direct-mail advertisement

All three methods are designed to be used by the salesperson in the field to augment the corporation's advertising and direct-mail promotions. All three have their place in the daily activities of the sales representative, and most mailings are designed either to precede or follow the telephone and face-to-face calls.

Messages by mail can do the following:
1. Convey additional information
2. Remind the prospect of commitments made
3. Confirm appointments or agreements
4. Ask for additional information
5. Thank or compliment the buyer
6. Make catalogs and sales brochures stand out from other promotional literature received by the prospect.

Many salespeople avoid using the mail because they believe it requires a formally written business letter -- and they do not have the time or facilities to type it. In some cases, a well-composed, dignified letter is more appropriate and should be used. In most cases, however, a brief, handwritten note will suffice. In fact, the handwritten note provides the opportunity to put some personality in the message and help develop the friendly atmosphere you are trying to achieve.

It is smart to present your name to the buyer as often as possible. This must be done tactfully, without becoming obnoxious, and brief, handwritten notes can accomplish this. Their informality will not offend the buyer, they can accomplish this. Their informality will not offend the buyer, they can be quickly written by the sender and easily read by the receiver, and they get the job done for both parties concerned.

A good example of the effectiveness of this informal note is when the prospect asks you to send sales literature. Some secretaries consider a catalog or brochure junk mail, and place them on the bottom of the boss' mail stack. A handwritten note, however, attached to the same literature, will be placed on the top of the stack for the immediate attention of the prospect. Your personal message has made your catalog stand out and demand favourable attention.

One ounce of material can be sent for the price of one first-class postage stamp. The first-class postage stamp can carry your message from the Atlantic to the Pacific -- or next door to you. In either case, when properly used to reinforce your sales interview, you gain an enormous return on your investment.

Some essential information to make contacts valuable:

Name
Company Name
Title
Company Address
Phone
Fax
Email Address
Company's Website
What the company does
Where you met the contact
Special information about other important players: boss, secretary, partner
Strategy to get what you want
Action sheet (including dates for contact and follow up)

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Keeping contacts, and keeping in contact with your contacts, will build relationships and will help you make more sales more often.

Know Your Competitors

2006-12-29T18:05:00.000+08:00

Regardless of which kind of business you are operating, whether you are selling a visible products or you are providing service to people, you have to always act fast and perform better so as to win your customer. If you do not win your customers, your competitor will help you to serve your customers. You are always surrounded by competitors.

In every business that you do, in order to earn money, you need to sell. You must have something to sell in order to earn money from any business. The products can be visible and in invisible form. Visible products are something that we always buy for our daily uses and necessities like food, cosmetics, clothings and so on. Services is something which we are not willing to pay for because they cannot be seen and it is something which is often overlooked. Yet it is something which is not to be taken for granted. When we buy and sell properties, we need to pay the property agents after every successful sale transaction. Paper work are done and the house belongs to the new buyers. The agents have nothing. But the agents help you in the transaction. You need to pay them for their professional help rendered to you. This is only fair to them. If without them, you properties transactions will not be so smooth!

For visible products, it is easy for customers to see and buy. Customers buy what they need and buy what they like. Businesspeople want to make more money, they need to make their products user friendly, kids safe, unique and durable, they need to make a product which customers feel it is worthwhile to spend their money with. As for invisible 'products' like services and even investment opportunities like insurance policies, investment funds etc, what we get is just a piece of paper to certify how much we have invested and the date of maturity and so on. But what we paid mostly for such cost is a huge sum of money (in return for a piece of paper). So many times, some companies will give away gifts as token of appreciation. Something which the customers feel their money is well spent.

Sometimes we can even learn from our competitors. Analyse and discover why your competitors are doing better than you. Learn from them and make your business perform better than them.

To ensure sales success in this competitive world, not only do we need to have good products, good service but we must also know what our competitors are doing! Knowing what your competitor is doing and the general markets are doing help you to control the price of your products. You do not want to overpriced your products nor do you want to undersell your products. As for services, it has to be something which you have to learn and think about. A sincere smile and a sincere help sometime cannot be replaced by a artificial and all not natural and reluctant kind of 'help' to the customer. The customer can tell if you are sincere and helpful a not. Most important of all, a good rule when handling customer is politeness and be courteous all the time. The customer is always right.

Besides knowing your competitors, getting to know your customers and understand your customers is also equally important.

With the internet getting more and more popular, and many people are shopping online, most shops are offering websites besides operating their real stores. In addition, some people who have no real stores can also have the taste of operating a virtual online store and be their own boss, operating on their virtual stores. No matter which group you belong to, the main purpose of the stores are to earn money. You want shoppers to come to your shops. Shoppers would want to compare between different shops to buy something they like and of cause, with the least amount of money they have to part. However, you as the businesspeople want to make the most money as possible. So knowing the market value of a product is important and being aware of changes in the market is important.

UpdatePatrol is a Windows program that watches websites and blogs for updates. It has many uses, e.g. watching competitors' websites for updates to their price list, products offered, available jobs etc. A small business intelligence tool for small companies, etc.

Getting websites updates from your business competitors not only can allow you to control your own products pricing, it also gives you a general idea of the product market values. In addition, getting updates for blogs has advantages too. Updates for blogs are important as businesspeople want to know what are the current thinking trends of young people and the people in general. By knowing what the people in general likes and dislikes, they can design products and sell products which can cater to the needs of the worldwide people on the net. Only when you can know the people well and you understand them and their needs, can you serve them better.

Security Success

2006-12-15T09:23:00.000+08:00

A shop with a good image is halfway to success. You draw curious customers into you. The use of good quality glass is important to ensure security to your shop. The use of glass not only add beauty to your shop, it also helps you to save electricity. You are cutting down cost when you are allowing natural lights into your shop.

You want to make a sale. You want to make money. However, you must always ensure security. Security is a must everywhere. Whether you are alone or you are working in the office, bank or shop. You want to make money. But there are some people out there who want to steal your money. To ensure your sale success, you must be able to ensure security success as well.

As a salesperson or any normal individual, you do not wear valuables and you must take care not to walk secluded places where you get rob easily. In shops, the shop retailer such as the goldsmith, the money exchanger, the banks, the post offices, all wants successful sale. Nobody want to lose money in business. Nobody wants to lose money or lost their hard earn money. To only way is to take precaution.

Everybody want to look nice. We want beauty. We want our possessions to match our liking and our personality and our status. As a salesperson, we want to look presentable, look nice but at the same time, we must take precaution to prevent a target of theft or the robbers. In the commercial world, shops want to look nice, wants to look larger, and brings more transparency to consumers or customers. Architectural designs of the shops and buildings are important as it is one of the factors that attract customers to you.

In designing commercial spaces, whether it is a bank or offices or shops, people like to use glass. Glass allows transparency. It allows people to look through, concealing the flaws of a small space. In the bank, post offices, or money exchangers where people handle huge amount of money, a glass barrier allows you to see each other clearly and yet there is hardly any physical contact being made possible. This is taking precaution against robbery and theft. A lot of time, we can see the glass barrier in banks, in goldsmith, with a hole at an appropriate place, for communication purpose and for handling documents to each other.

A safe environment for the sales staff is also a safe environment for the customers. Customers will not want to enter a shop which is prone to robberies or theft anytime. Customers want to enter a clean and clear shop. A shop that they can feel safe, there is honesty between the staff, everything is transparent to them.

Having glass doors, glass windows, glass partitions and glass walls also help to save bills for the companies. In businesses, it is very important to cut cost. Using glass not only allows lights to enter the buildings or shops, it allows the occupants to view the external sceneries, giving the occupants a 'feel free' feeling. Nobody like to be enclosed in a 'box', having glass surroundings have the advantage of easing one's mind when you are able to 'look through' what is beyond the barrier. A restaurant which has glass walls, glass windows which give diners a good sea view or 'park view' would definitely draw more customers than one which has poor sceneries.

While glass is so good, a lot of people feel insecure over using glass as we know they are very fragile. However, luckily, nowadays people have become smarter. Knowing the advantages and importance of glasses to the commercial world and the needs of people for glasses, they have always made better things, better higher quality glasses. Pacific BulletProof is an example of a company that provides Bullet Proof Glass and Bulletproof Fiberglass. When you want to build your business, before you have your sale, you must have all the security precaution ready. Invest in your business image -- your office design, your banks interior design or shop design. A good design gives a good image to the customers and ultimately your sale is halfway to success. You need to draw the customers into you first before you have a chance to sell to them.

Final Sprint

2006-12-10T16:38:00.000+08:00

December is the month for everybody. People visit restaurants for fine dining, celebrate the end of the year, celebrate new year approaching, celebrate Christmas, celebrate promotions and so on. Everybody benefit from one another in the month of December.

End of the year is approaching. This is December. It is a month where most people get their bonuses, get their extra pay. It is a month where most people get their appraisals and awaiting for promotion time.

December is a time for relaxation and merry making for many people. However, for salespeople, business people, your opportunity is now. December is a your last time of the year left for you to hit your sales target if you have not perform well in the previous months. December is the only month left for you to close more sales than ever. While people are busy thinking of fun, be the extraordinary ones to work hard now, meet more people, talk more sales and close more sales.

Many people are shopping for Christmas. Many shoppers will be getting Christmas gifts, decorating their home and organizing parties. Shopkeepers, your opportunities are here. Stock up your shops and welcome shoppers. Many shops have salespeople who 'followed' the customers everywhere they go, 'looking' at you all the time. I personally do not like this kind of treatment. There is no freedom. I feel awkward. It's alright to welcome your customers with your greetings, and please let your customers 'freedom' to enjoy what your shops have to provide for them. We, shoppers like to take our time, to look at your display, to think of what we need, and the decision whether a not to purchase any items from you.

As this is a busy time of the year, many people would be doing stock taking, shopping for Christmas or new year, getting ready for new year with new home decorations and new life, many people like to buy new things. Some people dislike the idea of shopping in crowded places. Some people do not like to travel long distances, especially in big countries. This is the best time of the year for online shops to boost their sales. This is the time where people have their extra cash to spend.

Spending money on necessities and luxuries are ways of rewarding yourself after working hard for a year. However, one should not forget to save one's money either. It is important to save your money, invest your money and let your money grow for you. People who are wise know that working for money is hard, they would rather let money work for them. This final month of the year is where the financial salespeople or businesspeople can benefit too -- such people includes Financial planners, financial advisers/agents.

December is really a month for people to spend money and a month for people to make money. Whether you are a online shops or a big shopping mall, whether you are in the financial industry or entertainment industry, December is a fair month for all trades. In terms of education, children need to buy new books, buy new stationeries for the new year. Children need to be enrolled in tuition centers or education centres, to get them be prepared for the new year ahead.

All in all, December is a month for everybody. Ladies buy new clothings, buy new shoes, men buying toiletries, salespeople, managers, CEO, principals, just anybody and everybody, all need to buy new things for the new year. Most people need to buy gifts for the year end gifts. May all the salespeople, whether you are online or on the streets or in the office, be motivated and maintain your stamina, boost for sales for this final month. December is the month for the final sprint.

Focus To Earn

2006-12-09T17:26:00.000+08:00

Even a beggar has the ability to sell. A beggar is selling his sympathy to customers who want to buy them. A beggar is focus to sell his sympathy. He cannot afford to be distracted with beauty. There is no time for him to admire beauty. Every hour is money to him. Staying focus ensure his success and his survival. Knowing the importance of money to him, his needs, he must seek ways to meet more customers.

Every person has the potential to be a great salespeople. The obstacles a lot of people face besides the rejections and handling objections from customers, is the obstacles from themselves. The greatest obstacles is overcoming their beliefs and overcoming their own obstacles in the salespeople mind. Most salespeople fails or they cannot perform their very best because they are too focused on obstacles.

Focus leads you to the direction of the sale. It creates intensity, desire and commitment. Focused energy provides the drive you need to follow through and win in a competitive market (making a sale). Staying focus, knowing your objectives and goals is important in your sales career. Here are something you can help yourself to stay focus:

1. Stop Blaming
Take responsibility for yourself and your actions. Stop blaming circumstances and people for your situation. It's not the rain, car, phone or any product. (Even the worst products which you think of, have its strong points to sell ) It's you. You have a choice in everything you do. Choose a better way. Don't blame the path, change the path. Don't blame the situation, change the situation.

2. Know Your Prospects and Customers
It is just as powerful to prevent problems as it is to handle them. If you can't get the prospect on the phone, it's your fault for not knowing the best time to reach him. Know the right time to call; know when a decision is to be made. Double confirm every commitment. Your relationship with your prospects or customers should get better each day. Sales is a follow-up business.

3. Know Your Goals And Targets
A good salesperson is a disciplined salesperson. He should set his own targets and goals for everyday. Manage your time properly, making a specific number of calls each day, making and confirming your appointments with your customers/prospects each day, and following up and servicing your existing clients are essential everyday. For example, lunch with friend or prospect, not alone. Have a proper records of your sales, your prospects particulars, their profiles and so on. Keeping a proper records take time but it helps you to know your prospects and clients well in the long run.

4. Self-improvement
A salesperson must be a great leader. He is the one in control of the situation at a sale appointment. You must lead the customer to 'buy' from you. Sales tapes, books, seminars are necessary you to increase your knowledge and skills. You can never read enough books or listen to enough tapes. Always take your time to practice your sales script and improve on it. Learn how to handle objections and brush up on the techniques on closing a sale.

5. Persistence
A prospect will respect a tenacious salesperson. If it takes 5 to 10 exposures to make a sale, do you have what it takes to hang in there? Even if it's 'no', at least you know where you stand. Be persistent in whatever things you are doing. Keep asking, and it will be given to you.

6. Be solution oriented
Instead of griping or wallowing in your problems, why not spend the same amount of time working on solutions? Every obstacle presents an opportunity, if you're looking for it. If you're too busy concentrating on the problem, the opportunity will pass you by. Always think of the positive of things. Seek solutions. Seek ways to open a new case, a new sale. Seek ways to talk to new people. Don't dwell on objections and rejections. Learn from them, turn objections/rejections into opportunities.

When people throw stones at you, it is your choice to grab the stones and use it; or to let the stones hit you and injured you. If you choose to grab it, do you wish to make the stone your stepping stone or a stumbling block. Do you wish to grab as many stones as you can and create a garden of stones or a stone fountain or even a stone sculpture? Or do you want to standstill and let the stones hit you? The choice is yours. You are the creator of your life. If you stay focus and know what you want, you are very sure you are focus to earn.

Real Estate Sales

2006-12-06T12:04:00.000+08:00

Every profession has certain tools which, once mastered, will allow you the opportunity to become one of the great ones in that field. For example, a professional fighter is paid for how well he uses his fists; a surgeon, her scalpel; the carpenter, his saws, hammers, and power tools. The people in each of these lines of work must develop their skills through years of study, practice adn experience before they can consider themselves professionals in their fields.

Why are there some people who can 'sell' better than other people? You heard people saying, 'I am just not a natural born salesperson." , "I think I am not born to be a salesperson." and so on. There is no such thing as a born salesperson. No woman in the delivery room will give birth to a salesperson. In order to be a great salesperson, you need to practice and practice the art of selling and equip yourself with your product knowledge (know your real estate laws, buying and selling properties procedures etc)

A real estate salesperson is paid directly proportion to his ability to communicate with and favourably impress people. The lack of this ability will destroy him in his attempts to get people involved in real estate. A professional salesperson is a person who earns more money than the average salesperson. A professional real estate salesperson wants to get rich while helping others get rich.

A successful professional real estate salesperson should be rich in these areas:
1. Emotional Riches
This means coping with life's crises and keeping a balance in life between business and family priorities which will allow the salesperson to strive to be happy most of the time.

No doubt your sales targets are important, but never destroy your emotional pillar of yourself either. Your family is your emotional pillar. It is a very important pillar which support you in times of financial crises, in time of loneliness and so on. So you should spend time with your family.

2. Financial Riches
This is financial wealth, which is the ability to live comfortably through the use of the talents God has given to all people to be productive in this society.

You reap what you sow. When you have done your early 'job' of 'sowing the seeds' and 'watering and caring for them', life would be much better in time to come, where you can some fruits later. The point is, as you sow your seeds, as time pass, you got your fruits, but you still must continue to sow your seeds, to continue the cycle. And don't forget your family!

3. Physical Riches
This means taking care of your body through exercise and proper eating habits, and striving overall to live a long, healthy life.

A good and healthy body allows you to work longer hours, you don't feel tired easily, and you look good! Since spending time with family will strengthen family bonds, why not exercise together as a family? This way, not only do you spend time with the family, you are keeping fit at the same time.

4. Spiritual Riches
This is maintaining a personal relationship with God. You need to know that sales is a profession of service. Knowing your purpose on earth, helping people as they come along, will motivate you to 'sell' better. It keeps your passion growing.

By maintaining a healthy relationship with God, you will gain more self-confidence to help you in your sale. God is your spiritual support. Prayers and thanksgiving helps to make you a happier person who knows how to appreciate and love the things around you. When you loves the things around you, you talk, you want to learn more about them, and when you do so, people will also want to know more about this 'great person'. People will naturally be attracted to you. Be a people magnet. (Your referrals will greatly be increased too)

Selling real estate can be fun and challenging. There is no such thing as NO LUCK in selling real estate. Luck is directly proportional to your work done. The harder you work, the more luck you get. The more luck you get, the more money you get. So to be successful in real estate sales, the key is to practice your way to riches.

Real Estate in Edgewater, 508 E. 3rd. Ave. New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169, call 1-386-428-1212

Get The Appointment

2006-12-05T11:12:00.000+08:00

Some appointments are hard to get. You got to be creative. You got to send gifts to break the ice or you got to know your prospects through a referral.

You have made eighty calls. You have talked to many people. You feel tired, feel demotived by so many objections and rejections. Then finally, you managed to fix an appointment. You feel hopeful. You have a chance to open a sale, and hopefully close a sale.

However, when the time come, the person never turns up. He /She never show up for the appointment. He/She might call up to reshedule the appointment to another later date or just won't receive your call or return your call at all. He/She just won't commit to the appointment. You have wasted your time and trip to the destinated place. You feel disappointed. This is the reality of a salesperson. Why do such a thing happens? All these things happen because the prospects don't understand you yet. You have not build enough rapport with the prospect. The prospect might have an unfavourable impression of you, your company or your products. The prospect did not see any importance of carving out his/her time to meet you!

Here are some tips that could help you to get that appointment:

1. Get Referred

Find someone you know who knows who you want to appoint. Get this person to call the prospect for you if possible (to smooth the way, or find out the real reson he won't see you.)

Get close to the administrative person who knows your prospect best

Find out what your prospect likes and dislikes. His typical schedule -- arrival and departure times. Gather information.

2. Use the fax or email

Send a referral letter/email, a top 10 list, a cartoon, or your schedule for next week with the open times circled. Use the fax or even emails to open the door.

Send a provocative letter without being provoking. Ask questions or make statemtents in the letter that make the prospect think. Don't sell your product; just pique interest and sell an appointment. Enclosed your name card.

3. Arrange to meet the propect at a networking event
Trade association meeting, chamber of commerce event, ball game. Want to know where he'll be? Ask the prospect's administrative person or sales team.

4. Choose Appropriate Time
Cold call at a time when you know(from the administrative person) the prospect will be there. The best time is before the workday begins or after it is over.

5. Send Gifts
Send a bookmark, a small card, a plant, flowers or just any small gifts. You will be amazed how much ice you can melt with a small gift. Flowers can get through a brick wall no matter how thick it is. The right gift basket will bring a remarkable response. Small cards or bookmarks can be sent together with the letter.

Just a note about sending gifts -- whenever I managed to make an appointment with the prospect for the first time, I would send out a thank you card to them, thanking them for their time and commitment taken to meet me and told them how I had enjoyed talking with them. I would enclosed a small card or a bookmark in it. Everything is handwritten, and is written from the bottom of my heart.

Sometimes when you are lucky, and the prospects respected you or they have the needs, they show up for the appoints. During the first appointment, after your introduction and sales presentation, it is often not possible to complete a sale without having another appointment. So it is a good habit to always fix the next appointment during the first appointment. During the next appointment, if you need another appointment, fix the next appointment before you ends the meeting and so on.

Whenever I made a sale, upon completion and delivery of goods (for my case, insurance policies), I always gave my clients a small token of appreciation. The gifts can also act as an advertisement for you when you personalised it with your name and company's name on it.

Remember, you got to spend money to make money.

6. Take a risk; Take a Chance
Use your creativity. Don't be afraid to make a mistake, don't be afraid to fail, don't worry about rejection and don't quit just because some prospects don't meet up with you. Sales is a follow-up business. It takes time to build relationships. It takes time to know a person. It takes time for your prospect to know you and to trust you. Sending small gifts during the prospects' birthday or meeting them on their special day is also another way to 'celebrate' their birthday.

Direct Marketing

2006-12-02T11:56:00.000+08:00

Direct marketing is a sales method by which advertisers approach potential customers directly with products or services. It is a discipline within marketing that involves the planned recording, analysis and tracking of individual customers' (business-to-business or consumer) responses and transactions for the purpose of developing and prolonging mutually profitable customer relationships.

Direct-marketing programs is often designed to produce some form of immediate, measurable response. The goal is to provide the customer information relative to their needs and interests. The most common forms of direct marketing are telephone sales, solicited or unsolicited emails, catalogs, leaflets, brochures and coupons. This is a very efficient form of promoting your products and services with a message or offer especially focused on the target audience. In order to establish this direct contact you will need to have contact details of individuals of your target group.

Since direct marketing connects with their consumers via media such as mail and email, direct marketing differs from regular advertising in that it does not place its messages on a third party medium, or in the public market, such as a billboard or a radio commercial would. Instead, the marketing of the service or commodity is addressed directly to the target customer. Direct marketing is attractive to many marketers, because in many cases its effectiveness can be measured directly.

Direct marketing focuses on building a long lasting relationship with the individual potential customer, where the company collects more and more information about the client and uses this information to make tailor-made offers. The information will also be used to analyse the needs of the target group, test new business ideas, etc. Direct marketing thus combines market research and testing, client relationship management, sales approaches and promotion activities.

Finally, the direct-marketing transaction can take place anwhere. The idea is that customers do not have to make a trip to a retail store for a direct-marketing program to work. Follow-ups can be made by mail, over the telephone, on the Internet or via an express delivery service.

Successful direct marketing not only involves the common use medium of direct mail, it also involves compiling and maintaining a large database of personal information about potential customers and clients. These databases are often sold or shared with other direct marketing companies. ( Red Clay Media is a new jersey based direct marketing company focusing on mortgage leads consumer lists mailing lists and business lists.) To ensure success in direct marketing, staying in contact and follow-up with the potential and existent clients are essential.

Dress For Success

2006-11-29T16:43:00.000+08:00

An image is not a replacement for education, experience or hard work. However, a strong, professional image provides the leverage to showcase abilities in the most beneficial way. ~ Susan Bixler

In today's competitive markets, a salespeople must not only be competent, but appear competent. Marketing and advertising experts know that the packaging and display of a product play a big part in motivating purchases by customers. How executives look and package themeselves influence the corporate entity they represent.

In a similar manner, salespeople or for any business executives, appearance is very important. First impressions are lasting. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Everyday, the salespeople meet new people, they must talk to new people, they have to source for new prospect. The customer's mind is like quick-drying cement. The instant the customer meets you, he or she begins forming an impression that becomes indelibly marked on his or her mind. Once the impression is formed, it is very difficult to change it.

Salespeople need to look like salespeople. You need to look like you are representing your product, your company. In terms of personal appearance, a salespeople must give careful attention to his/her dress, grooming and accessories. Everyday, before salespeople steps out of the house, they should be looking at their best. They should be well-groomed and dressed appropriately, preferablly business wear. If the salespeople are having a road show, then Polo Shirts might be worn.

As salespeople, you ought to show that you are the real leader. You are leading your customers. You are showing them the truths and advantage why they should get your products and service. Customers react differently to salespeople who are well-dressed and look professional, and to those salespeople who comes in causal wear. The former will gain more respect and confidence from the customers. And ultimately it will affect the decision-making process and ultimately affecting the sales.

Studies show that the higher a person's income, the more conservative and low-key you must be when you want to sell something to them. When in doubt, always dress more conservatively rather than less. Wear darker colours and muted tones in shirts and blouses. Be more reserved with accessories. Dress in such a way that you give an overall impression of being stable, solid, dependable. When dealing with lower-income customers, a salesperson is more influential when he wears brighter colours.

Besides clothing, your health is the most important. Your physical fitness is equally important. If you do not appear healthy and presentable, looking like the kind of person that people want to do business iwth , your prospects will not want to buy from you. Looking tired or sick, or poorly turned out, can bring your sales career to a halt. Would you believe a fat salesperson who sells slimming products?

Researchers have found that in today's business world, the hightest earning salespeople, both men and women, dress in such a way that their prospective customerst take them seriously at first glance. They dress in a low-key, conservative manner so that they immediately gain and keep the respect of their prospects. Their appearance is calculated to raise their credibility and increase the level of trust between themselves and their prospects.

Grooming is important, good clothing is a must. Besides clothing, shape up your body, and it will shape up your attitude as well. Look like a professional, like you're taking what you do seriously. Spend money to make money... Invest yourself in some business wear or clothings now.

Customink.com is a custom apparel company servicing schools, small business, sports teams and events.

The Salesperson Job

2006-11-15T10:34:00.000+08:00

Behind every sale is a PERSON.

Selling is the most exciting job in the world. With the right organization, it gives you unlimited income potential, freedom, and a clear means to take control of your career and your life.

The job of a salesperson is to help people make decisions, which are profitable to both customer/prospect and the supplier.

Put like this, personal selling has much in common with advertising, sales promotion and other elements in teh marketing mix. Salespeople, however, have unique advantages over other forms of selling:

Flexiblity: They can tailor their presentations to the individual customer
Impact: Their physical presence enables their personality as well as words to work for them
Communication: A two-way flow takes place

Personal selling is an interactive process. But however successful a salesperson may be when face to face with a buyer, selling is not the whole of the job. Though not a manager in the strict sense, they must manage themselves and their work.

A salesperson must:

Set objectives, not only in terms of sales but also for every aspect of work
Plan to reach those objectives
Organise work to achieve results at an acceptable level of cost
Direct their own efforts, not relying solely on direction from their manager
Control their own performance in line with their plans
Appraise themselves and so make plans to develop and improve their performance

To do this, they must be skilled at taking decisions, thinking for themselves and communicating with others.

Salespeople And Their Use Of Time
A salesperson spends only a small part of the working day actually talking business with customers. A good salesperson will do everything possible to increase teh proportion of time spent selling and trying to reduce the time spent in unproductive areas.

Nowhere is the need to organise time mroe important than managing a sales territory to ensure both efficiency and effectiveness the salesperson needs to consider:

The need to secure committed appointments
The order of which to call on existing and potential accounts
The proportion of time allocated to opening new accounts as opposed to time spent calling on existing customers
Duration of the call related to its sales potential
Frequency of calls
Travelling time
Waiting time

Psychology Of Sales Process

2006-11-14T09:25:00.000+08:00

To do well in sales, we need to understand how a buyer buys. There are four stages of the selling/buying relationship.

Four tasks must be accomplished in sequence:

1. Attention
Gain attention with benefits. Answer the question in the mind of the customer 'What is in it for me?'

This process starts by the salesperson capturing the favourable attention of the buyer. People buy people first and products and services second. It is absolutely critical that at the start of the sale the buyer realises that there is a benefit in seeing the salesperson.

It is one thing to gain a person's attention. It is another to hold it. We must use a well-structured benefit statement that motivates the customer to want to spend time with us. Positive attention can be realised by answering the question in the mind of the buyer 'What's in it for me?" If the customer recognises there is a benefit in having the interview then the correct mindset has been established.

2. Interest
Hold interest with good two-way communication through structured questioning.

The question 'How do you get buyers interested?' There is a simple answer, show a genuine interest in them, by demonstrating you care and you are there to help by consulting with them to find out just how you can help them.

What do prospects want done? What interests, excites and rewards them? We must discover if we are to sell to them. We must take care not to project our own desires and precoccupations to them. Telling is not selling. Empathy will help you avoid this trap.

The lifeblood of selling is two-way communication, it is achieved by asking well-constructed probing questions, the aim of which is to discover the concerns, business problems and potential needs that they may need satisfying.

3. Desire
Create Desire by matching defined needs with targeted feature/benefit statements that demonstrate value.

Desire is a measure of want. To create or define desire we must show with clarity how the benefits of our products or services accurately match the defined needs of the customer.

The better the match in the mind of the customer, the more value the sales proposition delivers. "Matching Builds Desire".

4. Action
Produce a specific response action. Overcome any objections and ask the customer to buy the proposition.

Ideally the sale should be closed in such a way that the customer believes that they have bought, not that they have been sold to! Closing the sale should not be regarded as a high-pressure sales technique, but as a natural conclusion to the selling/buying cycle.

Buy & Sell Gold

2006-11-11T13:25:00.000+08:00

Gold has doubled in value over the past 5 years (though had a dip recently), as the world economy strains under the excessive printing of dollars, and other currencies. The U.S. trade deficit alone is running at $700bn per year.

Gold is the most ductile and malleable element on our planet. A single ounce of gold can be drawn into a wire 35 miles long and gold can be hammered into sheets less than five millionths of an inch thick.

Gold has many uses. Gold when wear as jewellery, can be a status of wealth for some people. Egyptians associated gold with the sun, the giver of life, and reserved its use for pharaohs only. To this day Indian and Chinese brides wear 24-karat gold jewelry on their wedding day to ensure a lifetime of good luck and happiness. Some people mine for gold and some even invest in Gold. Some people collect gold bars, gold nuggets, gold bullions and gold coins. On the internet, some people trade using e-gold.

To earn money and to make more money, a lot of people are buying and selling gold. Now you can even get some revenues by referring people to buy gold! This website, BullionVault.com, will show you everything you can do with gold.

BullionVault.com is the most cost effective, safe and simple way of buying gold, owning, storing and selling gold. BullionVault gold is always held in high-security Brinks vaults. The gold doesn't move making it exceptionally safe, secure, cheap and easy to trade online. All client holdings are reconciled every day and published online using anonymous aliases to prove the gold is owned by who it should be.

In addition, Gold is bought and sold using their live Market Order Board, trading at narrow spreads around real-time world spot gold market prices. You can buy and sell gold at your price, and get a bargain in the process. In just over a year of operation, BullionVault has added more client gold than any other online operation, and is rapidly reaching 2-tonnes in the vaults.

Visit BullionVault.com to find out more. Seeing is believing.

Real Estate Appraisals

2006-11-09T10:41:00.000+08:00

Farmhouse in Provence By Andre Thompson

An appraisal is a thought process leading to an opinion of value. This opinion or estimate is arrived at through a formal process that typically uses the three ''common approaches to value''. They are the Cost Approach - which is what it would cost to replace the improvements, less physical deterioration and other factors, plus the land value. There is the Sales Comparison Approach - which involves making a comparison to other similar, nearby properties which have recently sold. The Sales Comparison Approach is normally the most accurate and best indicator of value for a residential property. The third approach is the Income Approach, which is of most importance in appraising income producing properties - it involves estimating what an investor would pay based on the income produced by the property.

Typically, appraisers are employed by lenders to estimate the value of real estate involved in a loan transaction. Appraisers also provide opinions in litigation cases, tax matters and investment decisions.

An appraiser provides a professional, unbiased opinion of market value, to be used in making real estate decisions. Appraisers present their formal analysis in appraisal reports.

There are many reasons to obtain an appraisal with the most common reason being real estate and mortgage transactions. Other reasons for ordering an appraisal include:

To obtain a loan.

To lower your tax burden.

To establish the replacement cost of insurance.

To contest high property taxes.

To settle an estate.

To provide a negotiating tool when purchasing real estate.

To determine a reasonable price when selling real estate.

To protect your rights in a condemnation case.

Because a government agency such as the IRS requires it.

If you are involved in a lawsuit.

Unquestionably, the professional opinion of the appraiser, backed by extensive training and knowledge, influences the decisions of people who own, manage, sell, purchase, invest in, and lend money on the security of real estate. And because the appraiser is trained to be an impartial third party in the lending process, this professional serves as a vital "check in the system," protecting real estate buyers from overpaying for property as well as lenders from over lending to buyers.

The state requires all real estate appraisers to be, at a minimum, state licensed or state certified and have fulfilled rigorous education and experience requirements and must adhere to strict industry standards and a professional code of ethics as promulgated by the Appraisal Foundation.

Beach House By Daniel Pollera

M B Case Company is located in Clovis, California. Great service and experienced for many years in real estate, their outstanding sales associates are highly famililar with the neighborhoods and communites, market trends and lifestyle options are available.

Established since 1989, and covering Fresno County, this company provide a full service commercial and residential appraisals. Click here now for Real Estate in Clovis

Sales Methodology

2006-10-28T16:59:00.001+08:00

There are only two methods that can successfully produce sales. Selling by manipulating or by motivating the prospect to make a buying decision.

A. Selling By Manipulation
This is used when the potential customer has no real need to buy the product or service. The salesperson needs to manipulate the prospect to a buying decision. The methodology is a system of 'wordtrack', carefully constructed statements that produce limited and predicted responses. If the seller knows the response then another statement can be made that produces another predicted response and so on.

Often regarded as high pressure selling, this methodology lends itself well to products and services that are a 'one off' proposition and no repeat business or a relationship is needed.

B. Selling By Motivation
Selling by Motivation is based on customers having a genuine buying need for a product or service. The salesperson needs to accurately define the needs and prove to the customer that their selling proposition offers a real match to their requirements.

The motivation of the customer starts early in the sale by demonstrating real concern that the seller is there to help the buyer through good consultative practices. Only when a genuine need is established can the selling in the form of 'matching' take place.

Matching builds desire. If the seller can prove that the benefits of their products or services are a good match to the needs of the buyer, then desire will start to build. Desire is a measure of 'want' the more want is established in favour of the proposition, the easier it is to produce 'action' or the close of the sale.

This methodology is designed to form a long-term relationship to allow repeat business to be sold. No buyer likes to be 'sold' to, they do however like to be helped to buy, and this methodology is premised around this principle.

The Attention And Awareness Level
It has been proven by research in both American and Britain that the ability to concentrate fluctuates by as much as 55% during the working day.

Although this research has tended to be directed towards training courses, it is not a large step to extend this philosophy to the person's working day. It would suggest that we are at our most effective in terms of our persuasive ability between 1030 and 1200, and that we have increased, but lower, peaks of effectiveness immediately after lunch and again after a mid afternoon break.

From this research, two things can be drawn:

a. Sales interviews/presentations should be timed, where possible for the peak efficiency periods.

b. Sales people must work harder and put more into our important activities during off peak periods.

Business Wisdom II

2006-07-19T09:06:00.000+08:00

Auctioneer: The man who proclaims with a hammer that he picks pockets with his tongue. Be advised that when negotiating, if you don't do it in writing, you probably won't get it.

1. In business you have to have a place for everything and everthing in its place.

2. A printed speech is like a dried flower: the substance, indeed, is there, but the colour is faded and the perfume gone.

3. A purchased slave has but one master; an ambitious man must be a slave to all who may conduce to his aggrandisement.

4. A young man who graduated yesterday and stopped learning today, will be uneducated tomorrow!

5. A. T. Stewart started life with a dollar and fifty cents. This merchant prince began by calling at the doors of houses in order to sell needles, thread and buttons. He soon found the people did not want that. Then he said wisely,"I'll not sell any more of these goods, but I'll go and ask people what they do want." Thereafter he studied the needs and desires of people, found out just what they most wanted, endeavoured to meet those wants, and became the greatest businessman of his time.

6. Advertisement is 85% confusion and 15% commission.

7. Advertising in the final analysis should be news. If it is not news it is worthless.

8. Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, especially if the goods are worthless.

9. Advertising is the art of making whole lies out of half truths.

10. I have often observed, if one attends only to great things and lets the little things pass, the great things become little; ie. the business shrinks. It is not possible for an executive to hold himself aloof from small details. No business, no matter what its size, can be called safe until it has been forced to learn economy and rigidly to measure values of men and materials.

11. An executive is a man who decides; sometimes he decides wrong, but always he decides.

12. An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.

13. Any proposal that costs less than the customer expects, is greatly appreciated.

14. Anybody can cut prices, but it takes brains to produce a better article and sell at better prices.

15. Are you getting smileage from the smiles in your business?

16. Artificial inflation of stocks must be considered a crime as serious as counter-feiting, which it closely resembles.

17. The owner-manager starts a small business. He causes it to grow by his ability and drive. As it grows, he hires assistants. For a while the business continues to grow. Then it levels off. Try as he will, the owner cannot get it to grow any further, why? He has delayed revising his form of organisation too long.

18. Benjamin Franklin may have discovered electricity but it was the man who invented the meter who made the money.

19. Blood pressure and the price of your stock selections will move, to be precise, in opposite directions.

20. Boldness in business is the first, second and third thing.

21. Business is other people's money.

22. Business is not merely a matter of attending for a few hours, but it is a matter of thinking, dreaming, imagining and working. Industrial enterprise is in the long run not just a source of livelihood to the entrepreneur, but ought to be a way of life for him.

23. The man who does not make a business of his religion has a religious life of no force, and the man who does not make a religion of his business has a business life of no character.

24. Business should be like religion and science; it should know neither love nor hate.

25. Business today consists in persuading crowds.

Business Wisdom I

2006-07-18T08:39:00.000+08:00

Customers:
A little bit of quality, will always make them smile;
A little bit of courtesy, will bring them from a mile;
A little bit of friendliness, will tickle them 'tis plain,
And a little bit of service, will bring them back again.

1. You can take 90% of the decisions on the basis of past experience, only 10% require in-depth analysis.

2. Correct 90% of the errors in typewritten letters; only 10% of such letters need to be retyped.

3. You may never need 90% of the old records. Destroy them regularly.

4. Normally 90% of your customers are reasonable; it is only 10% that create problems.

5. 90% of your work can be done by your subordinates. 10% needs your supervision.

6. 90% of any work is routine; it is the balance 10% that requires original thinking.

7. A book, tight shut, is but a block of paper.

8. A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.

9. A businessman is a hybrid of a dancer and a calculator.

10. A cask of wine works more miracles than a church full of saints.

11. A cluttered desk with lack of precision does not always belong to a clerk; with a manager it is indecision much more than overwork.

12. A committee is a body which takes a week to do what one good man can do in an hour.

13. A compromise is the art of driving a cake in such a way that each one thinks he is getting the biggest piece.

14. A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together decide that nothing can be done.

15. A dinner always lubricates business.

16. A good administrator must make the administration as small and inexpensive as possible.

17. A man of genius has been seldom ruined, but by himself.

18. Business cannot stay at one place. It has to be worse or better.

19. A man that hoards up riches and enjoys them not, is like an ass that carries gold and eats thistle.

20. A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.

21. A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments.

22. A man with a surplus can control circumstances, but a man without a surplus is controlled by them, and often he has no opportunity to exercise judgement.

23. A man's true wealth is the good he does in this world.

24. A merchant's happiness hangs upon chance, winds and waves.

25. A manager develops people through whom he manages. He makes it easy or difficult for them to develop themselves. He directs people or misdirects them. He brings out what is in them or he stiffles them. He strengthens their integrity or he corrupts them. He trains them to stand upright and strong, or he deforms them.

8 Deadly Marketing Mistakes

2006-06-20T08:31:00.000+08:00

Avoid these mistakes to make your business a success.

By Kim T. Gordon

Kim T. Gordon is a national speaker, the author of Growing Your Home-based Business ($12.95) and president of National Marketing Federation Inc., which provides marketing guidance by telephone to small businesses nationwide.

The road to business failure is paved with good intentions. Unfortunately, there's no marketing road map for start-ups, with signs posted along the way that warn "Beware Steep Slope" or "Sales Dip Ahead." But to help you avoid the hazards on the road ahead, here's a quick list of the eight most common marketing mistakes new entrepreneurs make—plus tips for how to steer clear of them.

Mistake #1: Marketing only in the slow times. To grow your business, you need an ongoing, targeted marketing program you can manage year-round along with the day-to-day demands of your new business. One mistake start-up entrepreneurs often make is to put marketing on the back burner and focus exclusively on the few customers they've got--at the expense of marketing activities that continually reach out to new prospects.

Marketing only during the slow times dooms you to living on an economic roller coaster. Since customer attrition is inevitable in any business, without an ongoing marketing program, your clientele will shrink until you're forced to close your doors.

Mistake #2: Failing to focus. Often, start-up marketers fail because they try to tackle too many types of prospects on a limited, start-up budget. Going after everyone who will listen is a shortcut to failure. On the flip side, when you narrowly focus your marketing efforts on a qualified target audience, you'll get spectacular results. Create a profile of your best prospects, and make them the focus of all your marketing efforts.

Mistake #3: Overlooking testing and research. So you think millions of people will want to buy your product or service. What makes you so sure? Before committing lots of cash to launching your new business, do some market research. The Internet is your best source of published information. You can use chat rooms to get instant feedback and input without spending a dime. Or you can test the market using surveys or focus groups among members of your target audience. Testing can keep you from making costly mistakes based on false assumptions about your product, service or customers.

Mistake #4: Relying on just one or two marketing tactics. It's only natural to rely on the marketing tactics you're most comfortable with. If you like meeting and talking to new people, you may focus on networking. If you're shy, on the other hand, you might rely solely on direct mail. Such single-mindedness is a major marketing mistake because it prevents you from exposing a full range of prospects to your message. When planning your marketing program, choose from a variety of tactics that reach prospects no matter what stage of the sales cycle they happen to be in.

Mistake #5: Underspending on marketing. It's just as important to set aside marketing funds as it is to budget for computer equipment and other tools you're going to need to run your business. If you go to a bank for financing, you'll be expected to show the banker your marketing budget—because without marketing, there's very little chance you'll be able to repay your loan. Even if you're funding your company without help from a bank or other lender, you need to follow the same guidelines and set up a marketing budget that's sufficient to meet your annual sales objectives.

Mistake #6: Failing to present a professional image. Your marketing materials sell your company image to the world. To be successful, you need a cohesive family of tools that stand up to those of even your largest competitors. If you hand out shoddy, poorly produced marketing materials to prospects, don't expect to be picked for plum jobs.

Also be aware of how your company "sounds" when prospects call. Using voice mail, recording a professional-sounding message and returning calls within 24 hours go a long way toward creating that professional image.

Mistake #7: Ignoring current customers. As your business grows, you may become so focused on getting new customers that you overlook current customers. That is a major mistake, since it generally costs more to win a new customer than to "resell" to an existing one. Keep a database of customers, and be sure your marketing plan includes tactics aimed at reaching this important group.

Mistake #8: Overlooking what technology can do for you. Contact management software and e-mail marketing are just two options that can streamline your marketing efforts and improve your productivity. Without a good contact management program, business contacts may be lost and call-backs missed. Don't overlook these valuable tools that can help your business grow.

Whatever stage of business you're in, success means continually searching for new and better ways to communicate with both prospects and existing customers.

Developing Your Marketing Strategy

2006-06-20T08:20:00.000+08:00

Don't know where to start? Ask yourself these five questions.

By Sean M. Lyden

Sean Lyden is the CEO of Prestige Positioning (a service of The Professional Writing Firm Inc.), an Atlanta-based firm that "positions" clients as leading experts in their field—through ghost-written articles and books for publication. Clients include Morgan Stanley, IFG Securities, SunTrust Service Corp. and several professional advisory and management consulting firms nationwide.

When it comes to marketing tools, one size does not fit all. What works well for one business may not be a good idea for you. And there's a complex array of factors that impact the success of your marketing campaign, whether it's market timing, the quality of your marketing materials or your market positioning, to name a few.

Therefore, before you spend time and money on any specific tool, make sure you know the answers to the following five questions. Your answers will give you a framework from which you can decide for yourself what tools best fit you and your business.

1. Where do you find your target customers?

With this question, you're trying to determine the best way to disseminate your message. For example:

What trade and/or civic organizations are your customers involved with? These are the organizations you'd want to consider joining and focusing your networking efforts.
What publications do your customers read? Consider taking out a small ad in these or sending a press release announcing your business, new product or new offer.
Are there mailing lists that reach your customers? If so, you might want to purchase or rent a list from a list broker. Or you might be able to build your own list by researching the Web. In either case, you could send out an in-depth sales letter or something as simple as a direct-mail postcard announcing your business.

2. How do you intend to keep in touch with your prospects and customers?

When you've established relationships with prospective customers who express interest in your product or service, the next step is to keep in contact with them. Send them regular e-mails (perhaps monthly) or a direct-mail postcard updating them on things like new offers, new products or services, or your company's progress.

3. How much time can you devote to marketing?

Attending networking events costs very little and yet can be very effective in jumpstarting your business. The downside is that networking requires a lot of time and effort to yield fruit. Are you willing and do you have the time to "press the flesh" at networking events? The same goes with PR. Getting written up in an article may cost you nothing in terms of dollars and generate thousands of dollars worth of publicity, but you must invest a lot of time to make your PR campaign successful. You must decide whether you can devote the time to be successful using these marketing tools.

4. What is your marketing budget?

An advertising campaign may take significantly less time to execute than networking or PR, but you're going to have to pay a whole lot more. The same goes with direct mail, where you have design, printing and distribution costs to consider. So what marketing tools should you use? Your budget just might tell you.

5. What fits your personality?

Some entrepreneurs are very comfortable cold-calling prospects and are very good at it. I'm not one of them. I prefer spending time at networking events to meet new prospects and calling on "warm" leads and "hot" referrals. Or, I study prospects' Web sites and introduce myself via e-mail. These are approaches that best suit my strengths and personality and have worked very well for me. When you use marketing tools that best fit your personality and business, you'll be more likely to succeed in your marketing efforts.

The Law Of Harvest

2006-06-19T08:03:00.000+08:00

Remember the law of the harvest. In order to reap consistent sales, you must regularly sow the right activities to achieve your goals. So think of your marketing as three distinct phases: sowing, cultivating and reaping. This way, when you're reaping a new contract, you're still working other tasks (such as prospecting and follow up calls) today that will lead to a harvest of sales tomorrow, the next day and so forth.

So take a sheet of paper, or simply use a journal or day-timer, and divide it into three equal columns with the headers "Sowing," "Cultivating" and "Reaping." Then plan your day with specific activities listed under each column. What tasks fit which category? Here's a breakdown for you.

SOWING = PROSPECTING
In order to grow your business, you must do things on a daily basis to keep your name in front of customers. In other words, you're trying to sow the seed of your message in the minds of as many qualified prospects as possible. How do you go about achieving this objective? Here are a few avenues to consider:

Attending networking events
Sending out direct mailers
Cold-calling prospective customers
Placing ads in the Yellow Pages, print publications and the broadcast media, or on the Internet
Teaching seminars
Generating media coverage
E-mail prospecting
Asking customers and other contacts for referrals
Organizing charity events

Ask yourself: "What three to five tasks should I do today to put my name in front of more new prospects?" Then make those activities part of your plan for the day.

CULTIVATING = FOLLOWING UP
Once you've established contact with prospects, how do you cultivate the relationship? This is your follow-up phase. These people already know about you. Now you're looking for ways to nudge them closer to buying from you. There are a number of ways to accomplishing this objective, including:

Periodic newsletter
Birthday and anniversary cards
Special announcements letting prospects know about great deals, new products or services, special events and so on
Courtesy follow-up phone calls
Follow-up meetings

The idea here is to plan activities to build as much rapport as possible with your prospects and give them more and more reasons to do business with you—instead of a competitor.

REAPING = CLOSING THE DEAL
This is the fun part! You've done the hard work—now it's time to get paid. When you list your deal-closing activities for each day, you boost your motivation to keep doing the prospecting and follow-up tasks you need to succeed.

So, don't depend on luck to help you build your business. Make things happen! As the late motivational author and speaker Earl Nightingale put it, "Luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity." When you sow the right activities and spend time cultivating relationships with your prospects on a daily basis, you'll reap a continuous harvest of sales and exciting opportunities!

Attitude In the Workplace

2006-05-15T16:05:00.000+08:00

Every workplace is different, and accordingly, each has unique challenges. Simple solutions do not apply to every business, especially if managers and employees are constrained by rigid labor agreements or ill-conceived business models. Nevertheless, the following time-tested principles should serve as a checklist designed to assist leader/managers in the never-ending challenge of maintaining a positive overall attitude in the workplace.

10 Steps for Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Workplace

1. The leader/manager should, first and foremost, demonstrate a commitment to the organization through hard work and responsible behavior.

"Nothing is so infectious as example." La Rochefoucauld

"Example is the school of humankind, and they will learn at no other." Edmund Burke

"Any team can be a miracle team, but you have to go out and work for your miracles." Pat Riley

2. The leader must be competent and worthy of leadership.

"Leadership comes from competence. Leadership is by example, not talk." Bill Walsh

"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, better to bruise than to polish." Anne Bradstreet

"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command." Machiavelli

3. The leader should have a clear vision of the goals of the organization; the leader should clearly communicate those goals to the appropriate parties.

"Nobody wants to follow somebody who doesn’t know where he’s going." Joe Namath

"If you don’t know where you’re going, be careful. You might get there." Yogi Berra

"The true leader inspires in others self-trust, guiding their eyes to the spirit of the goal." Bronson Alcott

4. The leader should translate the organization’s goals into clearly definable work.

"One of the most important factors, not only in military matters but in life as a whole, is the ability to direct one’s whole energies towards the fulfillment of a particular task."
Erwin Rommel

"The best plan is only a plan, that is, good intentions, unless it degenerates into work."
Peter F. Drucker

"Inspiration comes from working every day." Charles Baudelaire

5. The leader should establish clear expectations and provide frequent feedback so that employees will know when they have been successful in their work and when they have failed.

"Drive thy business or thy business will drive thee." Ben Franklin

"Issuing order is worth about 10 percent. The remaining 90 percent consists in assuring proper and vigorous execution of the order." General George S. Patton

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do."
Andrew Carnegie

6. The leader should create an atmosphere of success, one in which employees confidently believe that they can be successful if they apply themselves.

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own." Benjamin Disraeli

"Confidence imparts a wonderful inspiration to its possessor." John Milton

"Act as if it were impossible to fail." Dorthea Brand

7. The leader should reward success and praise behavior that meets or exceeds expectations while dealing forthrightly with behavior that fails to meet expectations.

"The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated." William James

"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish." Sam Walton

"Praise loudly. Criticize softly." Lou Holtz

8. The leader should demonstrate appropriate respect for his or her employees.

"We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them." Elbert Hubbard

"We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life." Edwin Markham

"When you respect the other person, you respect yourself." Clint Eastwood

9. The manager should understand that attitudes are contagious and that a manager’s outlook, either positive or negative, will play a major role in the overall attitude of the workplace.

"The real secret of success is enthusiasm. Yes, more than enthusiasm, I would say excitement. When people get excited, they make a success of their lives." Walter Chrysler

"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed." Audrey Hepburn

"Passion persuades." Anita Roddick

10. The leader must understand that chronically negative individuals will, inevitably, have a profound negative impact on the morale of the workplace.

"Don't bring negatives to my door." Maya Angelou

"The best place for mediocre employees is with the competition." Jay Goltz

"Motivation is simple: You eliminate those who aren’t motivated." Lou Holtz

Closing Questions II

2006-05-14T15:06:00.000+08:00

Useful Closing Questions Insurance Advisers or Financial Planners can use in their sales presentation:

1. Would you mind dying for a moment?
When you are stuck, and when the customer does not want to face it.
Ask this question :

Would you mind dying for a moment? Please explain to me what will happen.

2. Would you mind teaching him your business?
If a client says to you, "I have a friend in the business."

You could reply, " I have another client in the same business as you. Would you mind teaching him your business?" Don't expect me to teach another insurance agent my business. That's not fair.

3. How are you going to transfer your business to your children?
Ask a business owner this question:

How are you going to transfer your business to your children and make it fair to your other children who are not in your business? If you don't make it fair, wil your children still speak to one another after you are gone?

4. Are your children qualified to run your business?
For the business owner:

Mr Business Owner, are your children qualified to run your business after you are gone? Will they do it peacefully or will they disagree and fight?

5. Will your children still speak with one another?
Ask this question to disturb a prospect into action:

After you are gone, Mr Businessman, will your children still speak with one another, or will they fight over your possessions? You can avoid jeolousy and hatred with one stroke of the pen.

6. Do you remember your grandparents or great grandparents?
Ask this question:

Do you remember your grandparents? Do you remember your great grandparents? Imagine if you were receiving a check from your great grandfather's policy each year - you would know who he was. You too can leave a legacy like this. How do you want to be remembered?

7. What must happen to make you feel happy?
Ask this question:

If we were looking back three years from now, back to today: What has to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, to make you feel happy with your progress and achievements?

8. The Diamond Close
After you have made your presentation, after you have shown your client everything there is, when all is said and done, here is the very last thing you say. Then remember to be quiet. Do not speak first. Let the client speak first.

Closing Questions I

2006-05-14T12:52:00.000+08:00

These are useful closing questions insurance advisers or financial planners can use to help them in their sales.

1. Do you wish to have the best possible program?
To the prospect who is not keen on having a medical check-up.

If you go to the doctor and say," I am not going to let you examine me. You have to guess what is wrong with me." That would not work. Well, I too need your cooperation so that I can prepare the best possible program for you, after we have your medical results.

2. Don't you think it would be wise to get a second opinion?
For the customer who says, " I have already received a quote from another agent."

If your doctor said you need surgery, don't you think it would be wise to get a second opinion? I will gladly give you an honest second opinion.

3. Do you wish to purchase a secure future for your family?
Say to a prospect: The future is purchased by the present. You have the power and the ability to purchase a secure future for your family right now. All it will cost is deep discounted dollars, in fact, cents on the dollar in premiums. The secret is leverage.

4. Wouldn't you expect him to pay now?
For the client who says, " I want to shop around with other agents."

Mr Client, in your business, if you had done all the work for a customer, wouldn't you expect him to pay you? Similarly, if I do the same for you, I expect you to be honourable too and place your business with me.

5. Have you done all your estate planning?
For someone who says, "I have done all my estate planning."

Said to him/her,"I want to congratulate you on waht you have done. Before I leave, allow me to ask you one question: What have you done to protect your assets and your estate from the divorce, bankruptcy and creditors of your children or grandchildren? "

6. How would you like to rule from the grave?
For the father who thinks leaving too much money will spoil his children.

He did not want his son to receive all his money - his son would become irresponsible.

Say these to him,"Let's put it in a trust and pay him the interest only on the death benefit."

The father said it was still too much money.

Tell him, " How would you like to rule from the grave? The insurance trust will pay your son only an amount equal to his earnings each year. If he doesn't work he does not get paid."

7. What if you could wave your magic wand?
Ask your prospect this probing closing question: If you could wave a magic wand, what would you do?

8. What would you advice me to do?
Another great closing question: If you were my very best friend, for one minute let's change places... What would you advice me to do?

Qualities of A Great Salespeople

2006-05-12T23:10:00.000+08:00

"One ingredient I've noticed in the personality of almost every successful person I know is the courage to risk failure. To try is definitely to risk failure, but what is your alternative? To do nothing, have nothing, and be nothing. When you do absolutely nothing you've avoided failure, but you also have avoided success." -Zig Ziglar

21 Traits and Characteristics of Great Salespeople

1. They set goals in writing.

2. They have good self-discipline.

3. They are self-motivated.

4. They want to be more knowledgeable.

5. They are self-confident.

6. They like themself.

7. They love people.

8. They want to build relationships.

9. They love challenges.

10. They can accept rejection with a positive attitude.

11. They can handle the details.

12. They are loyal.

13. They are enthusiastic.

14. They are observant.

15. They are good listener.

16. They are perceptive.

17. They are skillful communicator.

18. They want to be financially secure.

19. They are hardworking.

20. They are persistent.

21. They love to win.

Your Path To Success

2006-05-12T10:49:00.000+08:00

The secret of success is constancy of purpose

Success is a different thing to different people. Some people define it as monetary success – other people define it as prominence. Still others define it as having a great family. Whatever success is to you, the methods to reach it are common to all types of success.

First, define your destination: what does success mean to you? Just like every car driving down the highway isn’t going to the same destination (despite what centralized traffic planners seem to think), each person has a differing idea of what destination should constitute “success.”

Second, study your destination: find out all you can about where you want to be. One mistake people usually make when they study this kind of material is they treat it as an exhaustive list – and it’s not. Just like you may visit one sightseeing attraction on your trip, another person will visit a different one – and vice versa. Your guide’s definition of success is likely to be different than yours – and you’re coming from a different place – you’re not him or her. If you’re after financial success, for example, one author might suggest investing in real estate, while another suggests stock market investing, and still another might suggest the commodities market. Just as if you’re planning a vacation, it’s up to you to learn from the things you read, without ever blindly following another person’s path. That said, it’s still important to learn from their experience – or you might overlook turnoffs you should take to reach your destination.

Third, determine your route: decide what goals you want to reach on your path to success. Like driving vacations, most paths to success are pretty long trips – and so it’s important to set intermediate destinations – goals, if you will. The path to success is often long and involved, and intermediate goals help keep the dream alive – and you alive as well.

Fourth, keep progressing: don’t give up until your destination is reached. Like any long trip, the path to success is going to have its collection of challenges, bumps, speed traps, and flat tires. No matter how difficult the path to success may become, you only fail when you give up.

Map out your path to success – and then get started on the trip to your destination!

2006-05-11T10:58:00.000+08:00

Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. It beats money and power and influence

- Henry Chester

Enthusiasm, flaming or not, is one of the keys to achieving success – and liking it in the process – because sustained enthusiasm constitutes the chief ingredient to what we like to call “the spice of life.”

Too many people lose their enthusiasm – some of them even lose their enthusiasm for life. Lose your enthusiasm for your job, and your job becomes meaningless – lose your enthusiasm for life, and your days become meaningless, and your nights suffocating.

So how do you regain your enthusiasm?

Here are some tips:

•Take a break from your normal schedule, and “recast” yourself. When we’re caught up in the day-to-day activities that make up our life, sometimes it’s difficult to get the necessary distance from the things that are pulling our enthusiasm level down. Taking a break can help restore that enthusiasm.

• Rearrange your job, your surroundings, your time schedule. Sleep on the other side of the bed for a change; move your computer monitor to the other side of the desk; take a different route to work. Rearranging isn’t a certain fix – but it’s certainly a good start. Why does rearranging help regain your enthusiasm? It’s simple really – the simple rearrangements force us to look at life in a different way – just because they force us to look in a different direction. Changing your drive to work, for example, forces you to look at new things, which brings to mind new opportunities, new challenges, and new solutions.

• Clarify your goals, your dreams, your desires. Write them down, draw them out, form a plan – and proceed on that plan. Clarification helps in a major way – because often when we lose our flaming enthusiasm, it’s because our life has become too fuzzy – like a camera out of focus, nothing is as clear anymore. Clarification helps tighten up that focus, and focus helps bring out enthusiasm.

• Surround yourself with enthusiastic friends, mentors, family, and teachers. Enthusiasm is almost like a disease – you can easily “catch” it from someone else.

• Evaluate the good things in your life. Make a list of all the “blessings” that come into your life – and how much good they’ve brought your way. You’re going to be surprised at how much you really have going for you.

• Emulate the people around you who are most enthusiastic. Follow the old adage “fake it until you make it.”

• Smile – even if you don’t feel like it. It’s hard to understand why, but smiling seems to make you feel better – and when you feel better, you feel more enthusiastic.

Relight your flaming enthusiasm – and stop that old burnout.

Responsiblities Of A Great Leader

2006-05-10T11:10:00.000+08:00

A leader has to take people from where they are to where they have never been before.

- Henry Kissinger

What does it mean to be a leader? It means more than high salaries, organizational chart madness, or sheer power.

Leadership means responsibility.

Being a leader means the responsibility of service to others – the people who follow you.

Great leaders inherently know this – they understand the benefits of being a leader also bring with them great requirements.

What are those requirements? What should a great leader do?

1. A great leader determines a path to greatness.
It’s not enough to just determine any old path – great leaders only seek paths that will lead to greatness. Why is that? It’s because great leaders know their followers are capable of greatness. They believe the best of their followers. They understand what the organization is capable of achieving. Great leaders know that greatness matters – mere mediocrity is never good enough; even excellence falls short of the mark. Great leaders choose a path that will accomplish something great – and then determine the path to attain greatness.

Why do we need a path to greatness? Greatness, like mountain climbing, is not something most people can do in just one leap! It takes interim steps, a clear path, and a commitment to keep moving until the destination is reached. Great leaders know this – and they keep leading their flock until greatness is achieved.

2. A great leader chooses goals that can be obtained – but with a stretch.
It’s not enough to choose a goal that can be obtained easily – the organization must move toward a goal that, while it can be obtained, must require growth. It’s not enough for an organization to reach easily-obtained goals – to be great, an organization must obtain goals that are reachable, but require that the organization grows, changes, adapts, and becomes dramatically better.

3. A great leader believes in his or her followers.
What’s the point when you have a leader who doesn’t trust the people who follow? Leaders who don’t learn to trust others are useless – they’re one-man bands. And like one-man bands, they are quite the novelty and make a lot of noise, but they never really learn to make exceptional music.

A great leader is more like a conductor of an orchestra, who chooses the best performers, directs them in the way he or she wishes them to perform, and then leads them in the performance.

4. A great leader knows to accept blame and pass along honor.
It’s easy for a manager to accept praise – and it’s easy for him or her to deflect criticism. But a great leader accepts the blame, knowing that it was on his or her watch that the trouble started. A great leader passes along the honor that the organization receives – and passes back upward the names of the people who deserve that acclaim. Too many so-called leaders are like sponges where praise is concerned – they soak it all up for themselves – but when blame comes their way, they’re more like a strainer – they take the blame and spread it across a vast area, keeping none for themselves.

5. A great leader knows that the company’s true assets are the people who work for it.
Look for companies that respect their employees – often they are among the continuing leaders in the world. Real leaders know their employees’ knowledge is the true asset that the company has.

6. A great leader motivates – usually by example.

The best motivation is always example. After all the “rah-rah” parties have gone and the “feel good” functions have ceased, the example of a great leader is always a greater motivation than any other single thing.

7. A great leader leads the way – and asks others to follow.
It should go without saying that a great leader forges ahead, making a path and showing the way – and yet many the would-be leader never really sets forth. It takes guts to strike out on a path, and it takes greater guts to ask people to follow your lead, especially when the path ahead is still dark and uncertain. This is perhaps the great test of a true leader, and the final responsibility. Only the leader show where the group should go, and ultimately, it’s not until that instant when he or she sets off that they know if the group will follow.

But if the person is a true leader, the group will follow. They may be terrified, or they may be mesmerized, but they will follow – and that’s what defines a person as a leader – for a leader is not defined by the distance he or she travels, but whether anyone is following behind.

Meeting Challenges

2006-05-09T11:28:00.000+08:00

Making money represents the same challenge for a business person as breaking records does for an athlete. - Bernard Tapie

Challenges are important – we rarely grow unless we meet the challenges that come our way – and decide, right then and there, that we meet those challenges head on, no matter what good challenges they may be.

Life isn’t easy – or if it is, you’re probably not living it right. Life is meant to be a growing opportunity – and if your life is remaining stagnant, pretty soon you’re going to become like a stagnant pool of water – all covered in slime.

In order to have a growing, expanding, challenging life, we must accept the good challenges that come our way – we must embrace them, no matter how difficult they may seem, or no matter how scared we might be.

We are not meant to go through life quietly. We are meant to go through life with a vigor and enthusiasm that makes a difference – for ourselves and for other people who we meet – and the people who we love, as well.

Sometimes, it’s good to take a few moments, and reevaluate our lives – how we got to where we are, the mistakes we’ve made, the successes we’ve had.

In every man and woman's life there comes a time of ultimate challenge - a time when every resource we have is tested.... Some people use such tests as opportunities to become better people - others allow these experiences of life to destroy them. - Anthony Robbins

The Power Of Focus

2006-05-07T12:43:00.000+08:00

All that you dream of, all that you yearn for and long to be, will be within your reach if you have the power to affirm sufficiently strong, if you can focus your faculties with sufficient intentness on a single purpose.
- O. S. Marden

The best way to illustrate the power of focus is a crowded room.

In this room are 35 people, all talking in their own conversations. One of them is a mother. Suddenly, out of the hubbub around her, the mother hears her child's voice: "Mommy, mommy."

Instantly, her mind focuses on that voice -- does her child need help? Is there something wrong? Is there a problem? Is there something that needs to be dealt with?

All of the other conversations go by the wayside, including the one she's currently having with her husband. All of the other noise suddenly seems silenced as she focuses on the voice of that child.

This is the art of focus -- the ability to "zoom in" on something important, even when it's in a mass of other, sometimes conflicting, information.

When we study about success, we tend to look at other items. We look at networking, task lists, mental attitude, and a host of other things, all of them important. We tend to gloss over -- or even ignore -- this very important ability -- the ability to focus -- focus on what we want, when we want it, and how we're going to get it.

This is the power of goals -- they bring into stark focus our goal, separating it from the mass of other things we may want. Once we can see our goal, we can focus upon it, just as if it were the only item on a blank slate.

But focus is more than simply goal setting. Top executives become that way by having the ability to focus -- sometimes to the exclusion of all else.

For most of us, though, our view of the world stays somewhat fuzzy. Lost in a world full of choices, we never really focus on any one item.

The power of focus cannot be denied. Just as a magnifying glass can focus the rays of the sun on one point, we can focus our lives on one single point. Just as the magnifying glass transfers all the energy onto that point, we can turn our energy towards achieving one outcome -- through the judicious use of proper focus.

When we concentrate our efforts on a goal, a dream or a desire, that we're more likely to gain our dreams than if we never concentrate -- never focus -- on anything besides just the background.

Why is it that the mother can instantly pick her child's voice out of the babble surrounding her? It's because she focuses on what is most important. Years of listening for a cry in the night have trained her to recognize the voice of her child, no matter how crowded or noisy the room might be.

In achieving focus in our lives, we need to attain a similar sense of focus -- concentrating on recognizing those areas that are most important to us. We must learn to train our senses to maintain a focus on those areas that make a difference in our lives, no matter how noisy or distracting the world around us might become.

Power Words

2006-05-06T12:31:00.000+08:00

It’s been proven time and time again that the words and phrases we habitually use in our speech and our thinking influence how we habitually see ourselves, people around us, and the world.

Nowhere is that more true than in our quest for success.

The person who continually uses defeatist words is defeated before he starts. Conversely, the winner who uses power-filled words and phrases is well on her or his way to success.

It may be a worthwhile exercise to take a look at the words that you habitually use to describe yourself, others, your goals, and your quest for success.

Here are some power words that you might consider adopting, along with their less-positive cousins.

Negative	Positive
“I have to”	"I choose to"
“I might”	“I will”
“Maybe”	“Certainly”
“I can’t”	“I can”
“I don’t know”	“I’ll find out”
“I should”	“I must”
“I’ll think about it”	“Let me give it some thought”
“Pigheaded”	“Determined”
“Problem”	“Challenge”

There are, of course, a number of others, but these are some of the most common.

Of this list, I have two favorites: “I choose to,” and “I must.” With these two little alterations, common complaints become powerful self-motivators. Look at some samples:

“I should lose weight” becomes “I must lose weight.”

“I have to get more sleep” becomes “I choose to get more sleep.”

“I should treat my family better” becomes “I must treat my family better.”

“I have to stick to my goals” becomes “I choose to stick to my goals.”

These minor changes to our common phrasing can yield major results.

By changing the common “waffle words” we use, and substituting “power words” in their place, we:

Take on a more positive outlook.

We move from out of control to full of control.

We change the way people perceive us.

We take more responsibility for our actions.

We put ourselves on a more positive path.

We put our flawed past behind us.

Now, this is not a miracle drug – we still need to change our bad behaviors and habits, and substitute good ones in their place – but changing our speech is the first step to changing our behavior.

So how about you? Is your day full of problems or challenges? Are you “pigheaded,” or “determined?” Do you “choose to” accomplish something, or do you “have to” do it?

Try changing your speech patterns for a day or two – you’ll be surprised at the difference that it can make in your outlook.

Trying

2006-05-05T12:20:00.000+08:00

Success is achieved by those who try. Where there is nothing to lose by trying and a great deal to gain if successful, by all means try! - W. Clement Stone

In times of trial, times of challenge, or times of heartache, we can choose two courses of action: progress or regress. In such times, merely staying put is inevitably the wrong action – it is a form of capitulation. We can either choose to grasp the time, make the most of it, and grow through the experience, or we can choose to give up, call it quits, and slowly fade away.

Trying times are what serve to define us – because it’s never easier to see what a person is actually “made of” than when all around him or her is falling apart. Just like the Bible’s Job, some people choose to praise God, while others curse him. Some rise to the occasion, others fall behind. Some grow from the experience, while others give up and crawl into their shell.

When you study companies and people, you invariably find that the greatest among them are the ones that defined their soul – whether it be the soul of a person or a company – in tough times. They reinvented themselves, they found new products, they learned where their problems lay, they fixed the operational problems and troubles, and they got themselves ready for the good times to come.

People were meant to struggle, it seems. In a person who lifts weights, the weight of the barbells makes them become stronger. They grow because they challenge themselves and learn to lift the necessary weight. As a result, their muscles grow stronger, their bodies grow healthier, their outlook improves. Contrast this with the person who gives up after the first bench press. Their muscles, unchallenged, grow weaker. Their self-image gets worse, simply because they gave up. They don’t grow, they don’t become better. They just cease to persist.

So – here’s the key. In good times and bad, always remember the words of the sage: “This too will pass.” Good times will turn to bad times, Bad times will turn to good. Economic downturns will be followed by economic upticks. Booms will turn to bust, and then to boom again. There will be challenging days, and challenging months, and even challenging years. There will be times you love, and times you dislike.

In all these, one thing matters – how well you respond to the times.

As an example, seasoned stock professionals don’t buy when the stock market is close to peak. They buy when everyone else is selling, and the price is lower. They sell their stocks when times look good. They buy their stocks when others think that time is bad.

Excellent companies use downturns to retool, rethink, and retrain. Bad companies choke at the first indication of a downturn – they fire talented people, cut back on their resources, and -- the standard management tool when they can’t think of anything better to do – they “reorganize.”

Excellent people use tough times to learn new things, build a new life, reexamine their priorities, form new friendships, mend old relationships, and build themselves up so they will be ready for the upturn.

One thing more – when times get a little bit tough, it’s always common for the Chicken Littles around us to run around yelling “The sky is falling, the sky is falling.” See these people for what they are and don’t listen to them. The sky may not be falling, but the confusion and panic that these people spread makes it a lot easier – and a lot cheaper -- for the rest of us to excel, acquire, and build for the future.

How To Live Your Day

2006-05-04T12:08:00.000+08:00

Winners are not people without any problems. Winners are people who have learned how to overcome their problems.

- Mike Murdock

Life is complicated, it’s true – but the really important things in life aren’t really that complicated after all.

As we wind down the year, here are seven simple steps that will yield a great payback.

Simple Step 1: Spend an hour a day on making yourself better.
Each day, set aside an hour for “personal development,” above and beyond the normal “exercise time,” “reading the paper” time, or “reading the Internet” time you might spend at present. Dedicate this hour to personal development – becoming a better person, becoming more well-read, becoming more adept at your profession, or becoming a better family member. During this hour, spend time reading, planning, or pondering – don’t let anything else intrude on this time, if you can get away with it.

Simple Step 2: Make yourself a task list – and then keep to it.

Simple Step 3: Order your activities in terms of the biggest paybacks – in other words, spend time on those activities that yield the greatest results. Cut back on activities that yield fewer results or those activities that are pure time-wasters.

Simple Step 4: Pay more attention to your personal communications. Be more clear with what you say to others, and how you say it. If the subject is complicated, make certain your point is getting across – by asking questions to ensure you’ve been understood. Particularly in meetings, summarize what the meeting has decided. This speech works well: “Now, let me see if I’ve got everything. We’ve decided….” and fill in the blanks. This summarizes the material in a non-threatening way, and allows others to help in areas where you may have fallen short.

Simple Step 5: Always have a goal or a destination. Make interim goals to get you to a greater goal. When you determine where you’re going, you’ve got a much greater chance of getting there.

Simple Step 6: Simplify where possible. The more complicated an endeavor becomes, the less chance is that it will ever be implemented.

Simple Step 7: Have fun in what you’re doing. Everyone likes to have fun and they learn a concept faster when it’s linked to a game. The more ponderous the event, the less likely it is to take place; the more fun the event, the more likely it is you’ll gain great success – simply because people will want to do it.

Although not every job or activity is fun, certainly there are challenges in each – and simply meeting that challenge can be rewarding.

Seven simple steps – and yet the potential paybacks of each are immeasurable.

Be A Champion

2006-05-03T11:58:00.000+08:00

All great champions are disciplined in the image they project. They become soldiers, showing tremendous power and presence in battle.

- Jim Loehr

What can we learn from the Olympics that will help our daily lives?

First, we can learn that each of us can demand the best from ourselves. The Olympics is largely an individual sport – even when teams compete, they depend on the excellence of the individual, not a process or a technique.

Demanding the best from ourselves should be a habit with us – and yet there are many who have never pushed themselves, never asked more of themselves, and who have always taken the easy, mediocre road. They are the people who never excel at anything – because they never tried to excel.

Second, we learn that others will care about us when they feel we are trying to excel. The same way we care about those people who are doing the half-pipe on a snowboard, or speed-racing around an arena, others innately recognize when we are trying to achieve excellence – and just like in the Olympics, they respect it.

Third, we learn that when trouble happens – like the female skater who fell – we must get back up, put ourselves back on the path towards success, and put our fall behind us.

When you get right down to it, it really doesn’t matter how often you fall – what matters is how often you get up and keep going.

Fourth, we learn that the more we push the envelope, the more distance we will go. Grade school children now perform acts that were once considered the pinnacle of human performance – all because someone demanded the best, and refused to accept the label of “impossible.” This kind of progress only happens when people demand the best from themselves.

Be a champion – demand the best from yourself.

Accountability

2006-05-02T11:45:00.000+08:00

The battle cry for any business is performance, productivity and accountability.

“You’re being held accountable”.

It’s an important part of making any change – any change in your life, your business, or in the world.

When someone is not held accountable, they are free to do anything they like – despite the consequences. It’s the feeling that makes people drive the speed limit only when a police officer is around – and it’s the problem behind a lot of failure – business failures and personal failures as well.

When you’re not accountable for something, you’re as if you’re effectively driving around with a “don’t blame me” bumper sticker.

What’s the problem with this lack of accountability?

It’s just this – positive results are only likely to happen when someone, somewhere, is accountable for them.

Why is that? It’s because people just don’t care about something unless they are willing to take the credit – or take the blame – for implementing it, following through with it, and putting it into practice.

Let’s face it – many businesses have people who only take accountability for their actions when they are forced to do so. In many businesses, the employees might as well have “Don’t Blame Me” stickers on their backs – that’s the way they act.

How do you get other people – or yourself – to be accountable for what goes on?

1. Explain the importance of the rule/action/need. On the face of it, this might seem to be a bit elementary – one of those “it’ll never work” ideas. But people rarely change their behavior and agree to be held accountable for their actions unless they are shown why it’s important.

Often, people don’t want to be held accountable because they don’t understand the magnitude of what they’re doing. An example: “But officer, it was the middle of the night. Why should I have stopped for that stop sign when I was the only car on the road?” People just don’t feel the responsibility to be held accountable for rules, policies, and procedures that they don’t understand. Helping them to understand the reasons behind the rule increases commitment levels – and helps you to understand if there is any sense behind the rule after all.

2. Gain a commitment from the person (even if you have to look into the mirror). If he or she commits to the change, it’s quite a bit more likely that change will actually come to pass.

3. Reinforce the commitment. Praise people when they are accountable for their actions.

What exactly does it mean to be accountable? It means that you get both the praise and the punishment – and are willing to deal with either. If you do something correct, you gain the praise – if you do something poorly, you take the blame.

How To Sell In 60 Seconds

2006-04-30T22:45:00.000+08:00

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has geniius, power and magic in it. - W.H. Murray

When selling, you have one minute to pique your prospect's interest. Here are some tips to make the most of your time.

by Tony Parinello

Buyers are more educated than ever before. What we sales and marketing types need to focus more on is understanding our prospect's world--and the best way to do just that is to ask intelligent questions. Here's a rundown of the best questions to use and when to use them.

When interacting with a prospect, you must first seek to understand what's going on in the other person's world. Then and only then will your ideas be accepted and understood by the prospect.

The best way to do this is to set strict limits on your own "talk time." Keep it under 60 seconds. Yes, you read right: You must never, ever speak for more than 60 seconds without asking for approval to continue. This approval comes when you ask open-ended "prompting" questions. Generally speaking, these questions:

Cannot be answered with a simple yes or no.
Do not lead, control or try to manipulate the other person.
Enable dialoging.
Begin with the words "when," "what," "how," "why" or "where."
Require thought to be answered.
Encourage the other person to reveal feelings.
Build rapport.

The opposite of an open-ended question is a closed-ended question. Closed-ended questions, unlike the kind we've just examined, put an end to effective dialoging and will not get you any closer to a second appointment. Therefore, you should totally avoid this type of questioning as a means of getting approval to win another 60 seconds.

One example of a closed-ended question might be, "You're interested in attracting new customers, right?" The best place to use the closed-ended question is in a situation where you need to validate or confirm what you think is going on in your prospect's world. Generally speaking, closed-ended questions:

Are useful to give feedback during a dialog.
Can be used to obtain specific information and/or confirm facts.

During a dialogue, if you need to make sure that you've heard the prospect correctly, you can use what's called a clarifying question. These questions, too, can win you a fresh 60 seconds. A good clarifying question might begin with the words, "So, if I understand you correctly, you're saying that...". Warning: you should always preface your clarifying question with a statement such as this and then creatively paraphrase what you think your contact's main point is. It's a really bad idea to parrot back what you've just heard your prospect say. That approach may be perceived as condescending, sarcastic and disrespectful. Generally speaking, clarifying questions:

Secure the other person's approval and prove to a greater degree that you've got a good understanding of what he or she said.
Express in your own words what you just heard.
Clear up differences in the definition of words and phrases being used.
Clarify the meaning of "global" words (like "always" and "never").

Typically, once you clarify with your prospect, you can then use a developmental question to move the dialog in a desired direction to further understand the prospect's purpose and/or result he or she wants to achieve. These questions, too, can win you another 60 seconds of time to talk--once the contact has responded to your question, of course. Generally speaking, developmental questions:

Encourage the other person to elaborate on what he or she just said.
Begin to make it possible for the other person to show his or her true feelings about the topic at hand.
Obtain further definition of what's under discussion.

Optionally, you can also use a directional question to win another 60 seconds. These questions steer the dialog to a certain direction that a developmental question just uncovered. Directional questions are like a roadmap of your conversation and allow the dialog to take another path, one that's beneficial to uncovering the prospect's purpose and needs. Generally speaking, directional questions:

Move the dialog from one logical topic to another.
Invite the other person to participate in an informational exchange.
Can be used to replace a closed-ended question you were tempted to ask.

Important: Don't fall into the trap of using directional questions to control or manipulate the prospect in any way. This will destroy any business rapport you've built and reduce your chances of getting a second appointment.

Another question type you can use to earn another 60 seconds of talk time is called an opinion question. This kind of question is extremely helpful in revealing where a prospect stands on any particular issue, and it can be used to give you more insight into someone's unique needs. Opinion questions are also a nonthreatening way to ensure that the other person is actually engaged in the dialog. As a general rule, opinion questions:

Ask a direct question in a nonconfrontational way.
Get the other person to speak frankly and openly.
Allow the opportunity to share feelings.
Show esteem and respect for the other person.
Help to extend and prolong dialogues.

Finally, you can use a social proof question to justify another 60 seconds of talk time. This is an indirect way of getting the other person to realize that his situation is similar to that of other people you've worked with. As with any other reference to a third party, there is the chance that your contact will respond favorably to what you cite within the question. On the other hand, there is a chance that the social proof you introduce will be looked upon as competitive or irrelevant to what's being discussed. So these questions can be tricky. Generally speaking, social proof questions:

Introduce a third party that is relevant to the discussion.
May increase confidence that you can address the purpose and needs of the other person.
Validate the other person's reasoning.
Can be used to address concerns or problems before they arise.

Intelligent use of each of these question types will encourage your prospect to begin to show his or her true feelings about whatever subject is under discussion. Build business rapport with prospects, and they'll be less likely to tune out while you're delivering your pitch.

Handling Objections

2006-04-29T21:37:00.000+08:00

Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul. - Charles Buxton

Sales presentation is not always going to be plain sailing. You must expect objections. The important thing is to know this and be prepared to deal with them. Welcome them as sign of interest which can be turned to your advantage.

Most of the objections we come across will arise from

1. The Customer having insufficient information.
2. The Customer's particular circumstances.
3. Opinion of friends and relatives.
4. Price and running cost.
5. Colour, size, and style.
6. Procrastination.

Never avoid or argue an objections. To Customers it is a valid point that they raised and they will expect it to be dealt with a courteous and helpful manner. Don't get into argument because that will antagonise your customer and destroy your relationship. Do answer their objections as fully as necessary before continuing your presentation. Expect objections to be raised. If you do them they will not come as a surprise and you will be prepared to handle them. Over come objections using facts and demonstrations.

1. Listen to objections.
2. Repeat the objections.
3. Restate the objections with emphasis.

If you listen carefully to customer's objection you will avoid any misunderstanding, and if you repeat it to the customer it will show you have fully understood what they said. This implies that you are concerned with their problem. When you restate their objection with emphasis this tends to diminish the objection while getting agreement that there is nothing which is worrying them and you can use your knowledge and understanding to overcome the problem.

People object because they are unsure that what you are offering is really going to satisfy their problem. They are objecting because they need more information. So you have to build a trust before you can do anything. So start to build a relationship and break the barriers between you and the customer. Once you do that customer will feel comfortable to do business with you.

There are many kinds of objections

1. I am happier with my current provider.
2. I am not interested.
3. Ring me after few weeks.
4. Send me more information.
5. I don't need it.

The list is endless.

You should write down all the common ones you experience in your every day life. By doing so you will be able to pin point the major objections to your products or services and act on the answers accordingly.

If the Customer says "I will have to think about it"

Say to the Customer
I can appreciate that you would like to think it over, what it says to me is that you are interested. I just want to make sure whether I have explained everything properly. Would you mind telling me which particular aspect you would like to think about.

When a customer objects He or She is really saying I am interested or I need help.

If the Customer says "I can't afford it"

Say to the customer
I do understand what you mean. We can sit together and find a solution that may suit your budget.

If the customer does not want to sit down with you, he is having you on or genuinely not prepared to commit himself due to financial situations. Ask Questions to deal with Objections.

Sales and Closing Techniques

2006-04-28T21:13:00.000+08:00

The power of the waterfall is nothing but a lot of drops working together.

One essential criteria of being a successful salesperson is the ability to be able to close a sale effectively. You don't have to be a salesperson to do this, yet you do need to put at least some of your focus on sales to be successful, whether it is yourself doing the closing or are someone you hire. After you have done the difficult part, which is prospecting, you need to close. This is not really hard but is the singlemost important step. The final close happens when you ask the prospect to make a decision. Selling and marketing are actually 2 separate things completely.

Most people don't realize that closing is essentially a process rather than one particular action at the conclusion of a presentation. During the sales process, you should be moving the prospect towards the close step by step. Every time you get a prospect to advance or to agree to take the next step increment by increment (such as a 3-way call, going to your web site, having lunch with you or trying the products, etc), you move the prospect closer to the close. It is a key factor to understanding the whole process, not just one single aspect of it.

Many people are so fearful of closing that they never "ask for the sale" or the "sign up" when it comes right down to it. People desire to own things -- be it a product/service or business. If you are not closing, youre probably wasting your time as well as your prospects time. It is kind of like a story with no ending. Today, so many sales people "relationship" their prospect way, way too much. Essentially, they are sensitive about being pushy so they never ask for the sale. If you truly believe in the products, the opportunity or the company, then helping your prospect through this entire process should feel natural to you.

So a major problem people often have is that they go on way too long without going to a final close and so they lose the sale.

If you are having a tough time determining if your prospect is ready for the close, one method to find out is to ask a "Test Close" question like: "How are you feeling so far about our opportunity?" or "How are you feeling thus far about the Product?" or simply "I am going to do a general temperature check. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being you are red hot for the opportunity, how would you rate this opportunity?" If your prospect hesitates, then you can easily draw out any concerns by asking him or her, "Are there any other concerns or questions you have that would keep you from signing up as a Rep with us tonight?" or "Are there any concerns you have about starting Rocky on our Product or Service?" If your prospect has a concern, then address it accordingly.

Some people get nervous when their prospects ask questions. While this is natural, instead, you should celebrate the fact that your prospect is interested enough to ask questions. Especially if it is a "technical question" such as "How long have you been in business?" Technical questions let you know your prospect is interested in purchasing products or getting into your business, if your business also recruits. Answer the questions in an honest and straightforward way without being defensive. If you dont have the answer to a question, dont be afraid to let your prospect know that you dont have the answer, but you will get the answer and follow up right away.

Practice these steps and they will come to you without thinking. Once you have mastered these steps, you will then be ready to go to the "final close". Always remeber that you are doing your prospect a favore, that you are essentially educating them. You are really offering them a service, and at some point, now or later, they will be thankful for it. Do not feel that you are being too aggresive by simply asking for the sale, you would be doing them a disservice if you did not ask for it.

Remember, selling should be fun and mutually beneficial. You just have to ask -- the principle reason why customers don't follow through and buy is because they feel they were never asked. In reality, you should always be closing. All and all, there is nothing magical about closing, but it does take practice -- the more you do it, the more comfortable and confident you will become! If you keep practicing, closing will become second nature.

Importance Of Listening

2006-04-27T21:13:00.000+08:00

Most sales people under time pressure tend to "pitch". The trouble is that those that do so are more likely to turn the buyer "off" than "on". Most people are well able to talk themselves into buying from us if we handle it right. How many of us have ever visited a buyer to find "I haven't got much time"? The answer is to allow the buyer to talk, that way the time pressure comes off. In fact we'll find that they'll say things like "Gosh, is that the time?", but after about an hour we'll have found out loads about their business. So how do we make this happen?

The key to this is to be a good listener, and to tease out more information. The more we find out about the buyer's business, the more effectively we can match the needs. And anyway, if we "pitch" it will be perceived as pressure. What do customers talk about? THEMselves, THEIR issues, THEIR needs, THEIR business! Now, it might seem strange to have to say this, but that is exactly why we must resist the temptation to talk about ourselves straight away. This can come later when we match our offering to EXACTLY what the client NEEDS.

So we start off by asking a few questions. To start off with these can be of a general nature to give an overview of the business. We must watch that we don't ask too many of these. The customer gets fed up of answering general questions, and what they can do is expose the fact that we've not done too much research before making the call.

We need to move swiftly to questions that explore the nature of the challenges facing the client. "What would you say are the most important issues facing your department at the moment?" Exploring these could be as simple as "That's very interesting. So what EFFECT does that have on the business?" We have now moved to a set of questions that explore the impact on the business or department.

Finally we can ask questions about the gains that the customer wants from the change. And somewhere in the middle of all this we've got to find out what the customers buying criteria are, and how the buying process works. But that's for another TOP TIP. Ever heard the saying "He/she will make a good salesperson because he/she has got the gift of the gab"? Nothing is further from the truth. Remember: - Two ears, and how many mouths?

The Most Powerful Thing in the world is the Power of Speech.
The spoken word can rule the world.

Choose your words carefully, elegantly and precisely.
Learn how to speak and then specialized in how you say it, and the world will listen to you.

Truths About Selling

2006-04-26T20:19:00.000+08:00

One who lacks courage to start has already failed.
Courage is deep inside you.
You have to find it.
You have to bring it out.
Having courage will give you the intestinal fortitude to fight life's challenges and to win.

In the strictest sense, selling is the process of moving goods and services from the hands of those who produce them into the hands of those who will benefit most from their use. It involves persuasive selling skills on the part of the person doing the talking. It is supported by print, audio and video messages that sell either the particular item or the brand name as bieng somethign the receiver would want to have.

Selling is one of the most important jobs in our society. It's been said that nothing ever happens unless someone sells something to someone else. Products that have been manufactured would sit in warehouses for eternity. People working for the manufacturers would become unemployed. Transportation and freight services would not be needed. Selling is an honorable profession. Salespeople are the forerunners of progress, development and growth throughout the entire economy.

Selling can be either an occupation or a profession depending upon your attitude toward what you do. It can be a low-paid way of carvin gout a living from a paycheck to paycheck, or it can be one of the highest paying professions in our society.

Selling is a special field in that it is open at the bottom. Almost anyone can get into selling at the lower levels, and alomost anyone does. It is easy to get a job selling something, somewhere, on some basis.

In selling, as motivational speaker Zig Ziglar says,"The elevator to the top is out of order." You have to take the stairs. You have to rise on the basis of your own determined effort. There is no substitue for hard work.

Selling is a learned skill acquired by people with the attitude, aptitude, fortitude, desire, and persistence to succeed. One of the biggest fallacies in sales is "You are born to sell" .

Selling is a science. An acquired skill. The salesperson who you thought was born to sell painstakingly developed the traits and characteristics to do so, then went about learning and applying the science of selling.

It is your attitude and your activities that determine whether you make sellilng an occupation or a profession. It is what you do every single day that is the critical determinant of the respect and esteem people have for you as a professional salesperson. It is you who makes your work honorable. It is you personally who decides, every hour of everyday, whether or not to make selling a noble activity that others look up to, admire, and respect. As a wise man once said,"Jobs do not have futures; only people do."

Why Salespeople Fail

2006-04-25T19:51:00.000+08:00

50% of success is believing you can.

You become what you think about.

Why Do Salespeople Fail?

Because they think they will.

There are 40 reasons listed here which explain why salespeople fail.
1. Think it Over's mistakenly accepted as possible "future business"
2. No personal contract - salesperson is unclear what will happen next
3. Objections - can't handle them effectively
4. Poor closing skills - afraid to ask for the order
5. Likes people - may be too empathic and accept prospect put-offs
6. Being assertive - finds it difficult to control the sales interview
7. Goal setting - no measurable goals
8. Ineffective Cold Calls - doesn't make them or ineffective when they do
9. Fear of Rejection - takes it personally and fear affects performance
10. Negative prospects - can't turn them into positive prospects
11. Beaten up and Drilled by secretary - can't get past the gatekeeper
12. Doesn't understand the real reasons why would someone buy
13. What someone would buy - can't diagnose needs or wants
14. No system - wings it
15. No tracking - doesn't monitor behaviour
16. Wasting time - trouble prioritising activity
17. Poor belief system - insecure about role of salesperson
18. Not asking wnough of the right questions/limited information gathering - comfortable making presentations
19. Doesn't understand people - not good at creating bonding & rapport
20. Getting referrals - misses the opportunity to increase business at low cost
21. Sales cycles too long - can't get clients to make a decision
22. Making bids and proposals - without a commitment for a clear future step
23. Weak interviewing skills - asks the wrong questions of prospects
24. Turnover of selling staff - planned and unplanned increases management costs and wastes time
25. Inconsistency - fails to employ a consistent approach to selling situations
26. Lack of direction - lacks a goal programme and a way to track progress
27. Needs approval - because of low self-esteem
28. Prospects lying - accepts what prospects tells them (forgot buyers may lie - do you?)
29. Getting to the decision maker - comfortable dealing at a less threatening level
30. Discussing money - waits for an objection or uncomfortable discussing it
31. Bailing out - takes the road of least resistance on sales interviews
32. Unsolved sales problems - failing to get to the real issues
33. Lack of commitment - coasting along, won't accept responsibility for shortfalls
34. Continues to chase bad prospects - looking busy in favour of selling
35. Uncomfortable calling on top executives
36. Poor sense of "prospect reaction" - not reading the situation accurately
37. Antenna - difficulty recognising real prospects (opportunity) versus a suspect
38. Roller coaster activity - inconsistent performance, up and down all the time
39. Determination - lacks killer instinct to help prospect discover reasons to buy
40. Don't enjoy selling - morale and issue, ego bruised and dented

If I do the things that successful people do, I too will become successful
There is nothing like success.
Learn from successful people, it does rub off on you.

Notes To Insurance agents:
If you want to be a successful agent, sell to rich and successful people.

Sales Success Formula

2006-04-24T19:29:00.000+08:00

If you are dog-tired at night, it might be because you've growled and barked all day long. Give yourself a break. Have a cup of coffee. Relax for half an hour when you get home. Leave that dog behind. Your home will be a more peaceful place.

Three Elements of Success effective for Sales Achievements

1. Attitude Your positive mental attitude is your driving force to success in every endeavor of your life. Positive attitude is not just a thought process; it's a discipline and a commitment. Each day you wake to a rededication to being positive, thinking positive, and speaking positive. It's not something that comes and goes. It's all-consuming. It makes you feel good all the time on the inside, no matter what the circumstance is on the outside. All the time.

2. Humour Humour is not just being funny. It's how you see things. Humour is a pespective for effective living and a successful career in sales. It's your sense of humour and your ability to find and create humour. Making others laugh and feel good in your presence, making others smile. Hearing "I like talking to you. You make me laugh," or "You just made my day." That's what humour does. It makes tohers look forward to talking to you instead of ducking your call. It's medicine, sales medicine!

3. Action Walking your talk. Waking up in the morning to a clearly defined set of goals. Having a daily agenda that you're totally prepared for. Making the last call. Following your own game plan for success. Doing more than anyone else you know. Doing enough to make yourself proud.

The combination of these three elements provides the pathway to success.

Five Types of Customers

2006-04-24T09:06:00.000+08:00

There are a number of ways you can view customers and their personality, including the various preference spectra and their beliefs about people.

Here are a few common personalities:

1. The Child

A few customers are naive, trusting and open, like a young child, and will believe everything that you tell them. They are highly gullible and are food and drink for sales people whose values permit them to take advantage of their naivety.

The Child is playing a parent-child game and is seeking a Nurturing Parent to look after them and tell them what to do, so do just that.

For the more principled sales people, a duty of care is required here, that they will only sell something to this person if the sales person truly believe that it will help them.

Many closing methods will work with the Child, including the Assumptive Close and the Empathy Close.

2. The Judge

The Judge is suspicious of everyone, believing that all people are basically selfish, will never believe what you say. After all, you are trying to sell to them and therefore will deceive them at the drop of a hat. They will judge you by their own values and high standards (although not all Judges follow their own rules).

The judge will tell you what they think and may prefer telling to listening.

The Judge may well have 'read up on the case beforehand' and arrive having already made their decision. They will choose based on what independent facts they can find, for example through magazine reviews (so have such reviews to hand).

The Judge may play the parent-child game, but this time they are the Controlling Parent to the sales person's naughty Adaptive Child. A way of handling the Judge is thus to play the Child and aim to switch them over from Controlling to Nurturing Parent.

A close that can work with the Judge is the Balance-sheet close, the Testimonial Close or if they are playing a strong Parent role, the Puppy Close.

3. The Negotiator

The Negotiator seeks to beat you down, no matter how good the deal. They will keep asking for more until they are certain they will not get more.

A good negotiator will ask lots of questions and listen very carefully before they get anywhere near discussing price. And then they may surprise you by how well they understand you. They may well have studied the subject and even read through this site!

A good negotiator is a joy to behold but may play you like a fish - which is interesting, as that is what you are probably trying to do with them.

This person gets a significant thrill of the chase and may not reach closure if they are just playing a 'Catch me' game, perhaps preferring to travel hopefullly than arrive.

Play the game with the Negotiator, letting them beat you down very slowly to your chosen position. Then make it absolutely clear that you cannot go further and move to the close. A Concession Close can be an effective final step.

4. The Bargain-hunter

This type of customer is driven by value. They may include many aspects of the Negotiator, but they also like to reach closure and may make impulsive decisions.

Handle the Bargain-hunter like the Negotiator, although you may well be able to get away with far fewer concessions. The key is that the Bargain-hunter believes they have received a bargain, so focus on this aspect.

Close with the Bargain-hunter with such as the Quality Close or the Price-promise Close.

5. The Adult

The Adult customer knows just what they want and do not want to play any games. They will not negotiate. They will tell you what they want and expect you to give them your best price straight up.

They may start off appearing to be a Negotiator as they ask detailed questions, but they will not attempt to negotiate. They will listen, ask your price and then decide. If they think you are playing games with them otherwise trying any 'clever stuff' then they will leave and ignore any apologies or pleadings.

Close carefully with the Adult. If they perceive any 'techniques' they will not buy. Treat them politely. Give them concise facts. Answer their questions completely but do not try to add lots of detail that will only irritate them.

It's not what you say; it's how you say it.

The most powerful thing in the world is the power of speech. The spoken word can rule the world.

Choose your words carefully, elegantly and precisely. Learn how to speak and then specialize in how you say it, and the world will listen to you.

Socrates