“I Want to be Sold”—Sell It to Me Well

Let me share with you an interesting fact: People like to be sold to. Before you give me a look of disbelief, let me add in the disclaimer, “Everyone likes to be sold well”.
Today's clients, just about had it with salespeople. The last thing they want to do is to deal with salespeople.

Before you tug out the tie around your neck, let me reiterate, “Client’s do not want to deal with salespeople, they want to deal with experts.” They want to work with someone who will be their expert, advisor and provide resource. They want someone who can save them time and make their life easier; because if there's one thing not a single one of your clients wants to do: they DO NOT want to be an expert on what it is that you do. That is the reason why you are hired to do the job.

Companies are finding it harder and harder to raise prices. More and more salespeople find themselves trying to compete on price. We have all learnt in our Marketing 101, companies either adopt a pricing or differentiation strategy. Yet, in today's competitive marketplace, what does differentiation mean to a salesperson? The best way to get off that “price- slashing” territory, is simply to create and deliver so much extra value to your clients, that you become indispensable to them, regardless of price.If you look forward to setting yourself up as an indispensable one- stop portal and expert, here are the two things you have to get cracking.

1. One- stop portal: Be the point person for your client
Rather than asking your clients to navigate their way through the customer service jungle or bureaucratic maze, you should be the only person a client should ever have to speak to. Put yourself in your client’s shoes and think through why will they ever engage your service or use your product? Usually, it is the benefit of convenience. Customers do not want to handle their problems alone. They do not want to speak to different people each time and repeat their story all over again. Be that one- stop portal for your client. Make sure your client calls you, tell you the problem, you get it solved and update him. Can someone put a price tag on this convenience? How much do you think it is worth? Answer: Priceless.2. Expert: Adapt your product or service to the client’s business.

A salesperson sells "stuffs" and “functions”. An expert has the knowledge of his product or service at his fingertip, while going a notch higher by selling “solutions” and “value”. Learn the client’s business well, run through your client’s processes and figure their purpose in using you. Too few salespersons go the extra mile to truly understand their client's needs. What is the result? They end up selling a product that is a force fit with the customer and that probably ends up as a once- off sale. Yet, a true salesman knows the lifeline of sales lies in referrals and repeat customers. Be a value- enhancing expert who adapts the content of your product or service, to your client’s business.

The next time you sell something, make sure the client has no choice but to keep coming back for more. Do you think it is harder to find someone who sells "stuff," or someone who will consistently fill your needs? Remember, your end- goal is not a transaction. Your end goal is to develop a long- term relationship with your client. Make sure you aid you clients' businesses to grow. The more profitable they are, the more money they have to buy your product or services! Imagine how much your clients will adore you if their businesses grow because of your advice and input.

Overcoming the Stumbling Blocks of Success

‘I knew I had to succeed, because I ran out of things that didn’t work’. - Thomas Edison

Most people would like more out of life than they already have. Some of them can even define it. They have it all penned out on paper. Yet, most of them will never achieve it, and it's because they’re so easily stopped. We all know who invented the electrical lamp. Yet, how many of us remember the morale of the story behind one of the world’s greatest invention?
Thomas Edison, who decided to invent the electrical lamp, had an idea and he believed he could do it. He knew that every failure was bringing him closer to success. When something didn’t work he tried a different approach.

During an interview on the secret behind his success, he answered, “I knew I had to succeed, because I ran out of things that didn’t work. And when a journalist asked him what it was like to fail so many times, he answered ‘I didn’t fail the first 9,999 experiments. Inventing the electrical lamp was a process of 10,000 steps, I just had to take each one of them.’ Practical dreamers never quit. Tenacity is embedded in them.

Now take a moment to think of all the things you’ve ever wanted to accomplish in your life, and then think why you didn't accomplish them. You would probably say you didn’t try hard enough or you never planned it out properly. But perhaps, it is because you were stopped by these stumbling blocks. Blocks, that deterred you, from being successful.

1. Limiting Belief
This is a huge obstacle to success. Other people are always so ready, willing and able to tell us "It can’t be done," and stop us from doing all the things we want to do in our lives and careers. There are many people who want to stop you, drag you down, so that you don’t become more successful than they are. They feel it’s easier to keep you down with them, than to get up off their rear ends and join you in achieving success. The next time one of these "Other people," tells you it can’t be done, say to them, "You’re right, you can’t do it, but I can."
On the other hand, not all these people are with ill- intent. In fact some may be your loved ones who genuinely care for you. They probably think they’re acting in your best interest, but they’re not. In fact, all too often, we have the over protective parents who refuse to let their kids try new things, which in the end stifle their independence as they grow older.

2. Fear
Fear of failure is the single, biggest obstacle to our success. Fear is a double- edged sword. A certain amount of fear can create a positive motivator in us. Yet, if unbridled, it paralyzes us. Most people don’t succeed because they are too afraid to fail. They are so afraid to fail, they don’t even try. This of course creates a vicious cycle since the only time we really fail is when we stop trying! Imagine a salesperson who keeps getting rejected on the phone when he does his cold calls? Selling is, like it or not, often about rejection, handling rejection and rebounding again! Selling is character building. It teaches one to overcome his or her fear and try again, before fear overwhelms the person. It is only when we paralyze in fear, that we STOP, and end up taking away any opportunity we ever had to be great.

3. Bad Habits
We all know the adage, “Old habits die hard”. Well, you can imagine how tough it is to start a good habit as well. Just like how we learn our ABC’s or nursery rhyme, the key to nurturing a good habit is: repeat, repeat repeat. Truly, repetition is the key to any good or bad habit.
Bad habits constantly stop us. One of the worst habits of a salesperson is the habit of procrastination. Sure, there are days where we feel a little lazier than normal. Habits, unlike addictions like drinking, drugs, gambling, have to be stopped cold turkey, while habits can only be changed gradually. After all, you didn’t acquire that bad habit overnight. What makes you think you can change it overnight?

Bad habits must be changed a little bit at a time. Mark out one day a week that you won’t procrastinate; make one more sales call a week than you normally would, wake up five minutes earlier every day. Do it for a month, then next month do a little more. Well, you don’t necessarily need to try to break out of your comfort zone immediately, just expand it.

There are no overnight successes. Success is a long journey over a road that has many roadblocks, such as limiting beliefs, fear and bad habits. It’s the people that go over around and through those stumbling blocks who become successful.

A Written Goal Must Have Time Frames

We all need goals and know how important it is to be specific about those goals. HOwever, leveraging on this, we need a solid time-frame in order to gauge our progress along the road of life.

Do you know it is nearly impossible to achieve a goal without a time frame or deadline?

Time frames give you a frame of reference. They also allow you to know when you can stop? And, after all, if you don't know when you can stop, what's the motivation to start? Having a time frame makes it easier to formulate a plan for achieving the goal. For example, if my goal is to lose 20 pounds in 10 months, I can draw up a plan that has me losing 2 pounds a month or one pound every 2 weeks. If I leave it open ended, how soon will I get frustrated with the lack of results, because I have no way of measuring them, and just give up?Most people doom themselves to failure before they even start. They say things like, "Some day I'm going to quit this job and get a better one;" "I'm going to start my own business sometime in the next few years;" "Some day I'm going to lose this extra twenty pounds;" Whenever you hear somebody use one of the above phrases, rest assured none of those things will ever happen.

Let's examine one of the vague words people use to help sabotage themselves: let's look at the word "sometime."Sometime is an interesting word because it could mean anytime, but the way we use it, it usually means never. Have you ever asked one of your children to do something around the house and they reply, "Sure mom (dad), I'll get around to it sometime." What does their reply tell you? That it's probably never going to get done.What if you called me on the phone to set up a sales appointment with me and said, "Warren can I come over and see you sometime?" And I said, "Sure," then hung up. When would you come by? I'd say you better come over right away, because other than right now you'll never know when I'm going to be there.Has this ever happened to you: you're walking down the street and you run into someone you haven't seen in a while, and couldn't care less if you ever saw him or her again. You find yourself saying, "Hey, haven't seen you in ages. You look great! We should get together sometime. Give me a call sometime. Better yet, give me your number and I'll call you sometime." Why do you say that? Because you don't ever want to see that person again.As you see, we use the word "sometime," when we don't want to do something.

So, what are we saying when we take the word "sometime" and tack it onto the end of our goals and plans? Unfortunately, we're saying it's never going to happen.

When you write down your goal, please remember to write down the year or date you intend to achieve it by, because a goal is a dream with a deadline.

Writing Down Your Goals: Let Me Show You Why ... You Need One

The Three Components of an Effective Written Plan

Number One: Express Your Plan in Continuous Action

When developing a specific, written, action plan for your goals it is imperative that the plan be expressed in continuous action. This means that you know what you have to do every day, week, month or year in order to achieve your goals.The most successful salespeople understand this and that's how they go about planning each year and insuring their continued success.The successful salesperson decides before the year starts how much money they want to make in the upcoming year.

They do it not by pulling it out of a hat, but by deciding on how they want their life to look in that upcoming year and beyond, and what kind of lifestyle they want to live. This tells them how much money they need to make to support that lifestyle.

Let's say, hypothetically, the goal for the next year is $100,000 in commissions. The successful salesperson now devises a plan by first expressing it in continuous action. Being successful, this salesperson keeps records and knows how much the average sale puts in his or her pocket.If the average sales yields $1,000 in commissions that now means our salesperson would have to close 100 sales a year or, in continuous action, 2 per week (did you ever notice it's a lot easier to close 2 sales a week, than 100 in a year). Now the goal is no longer $100,000, it's just 2 sales per week.But it's not always within a salesperson's complete control to close a sale. Some people do say "no." Some people say "I have to think about it." But not everyone says that. Since top producers keep good records, this one knows that one of every 3 face to face sales presentations ends up a sale. So now you don't have to make $100,000. You don't even have to close 100 sales in a year or 2 a week. You just have to make 6 face to face sales presentations a week.

Taking this even further we find that his or her cancellation rate on appointments is 25%. Meaning this salesperson doesn't even have to see anyone, they just need to set up 8 appointments a week.But knowing that one of every 5 people you speak to gives you an appointment and every 3 dials of the phone puts you in touch with the person you're looking to reach now breaks it down even further. Now we know that if this salesperson dials the phone 120 times per week (or 24 per day) on average it will yield: 40 phone conversations; 8 appointments; 6 presentations and 2 sales for $1,000 commission each. This tells us that every day that salesperson goes to work and generates 24 prospecting telephone calls he or she is getting that much closer to their goal.

Now how motivated do you think that person is to make the calls? That's continuous action.

Are You an Enterprising Woman?

By Candace Bahr, CEA, CDFA

Do you dream of having your own business? More and more women each year discover the excitement of being self-employed.

If it sounds good to you, the prospects have never been better or the resources greater to help you get started. Enterprising women across America are building businesses that in 2005 employed 18.2 million people and generated $2.32 trillion in sales.

The first important step for a would-be entrepreneur is honest self-assessment:
Do you have the right stuff to be happy working for yourself?
Are you comfortable with risk, competition, and decision-making? Can you manage your time and money effectively? Can you solve problems, set goals, and hold yourself accountable for success and failure?

If you say “YES!” read on.

What makes a successful business idea? Experts agree that it starts with something you like to do and are good at. Success follows those who really enjoy what they are doing. A great example is popular TV chef Rachel Ray who in the past few years has achieved fame and fortune doing what she loves—cooking, traveling and sharing her ideas in books, a new magazine, and her own TV talk show. She always looks like she’s having fun!

Be sure your business idea calls forth your best talents. Your work should require you to use these things: the skills people compliment you or praise you about; the activities you like so well you would still do them even if you won the lottery; the ideas you have for making the world a better place; and the life experience, education, and training you have.

Once an enterprising woman has found a service or product to be the heart of her business, she can make use of the many resources available for help in getting started. These include the nonprofit SCORE counseling organization at www.score.org and the federal government’s Small Business Administration at http://women-21.gov. There’s plenty of peer support, too. The number of self-employed women grew 77 percent from 1983 to 2005—to a total of 4.7 million.
Today’s women have greater opportunities than ever before to find fulfillment and express themselves through their work. It’s also a chance to extend prosperity to others. According to the Department of Labor, "Women entrepreneurs are creating jobs, hope and opportunities in every community in America."

Navigating through the Storms

A Downturn is a Terrible Opportunity To Waste

Think a recession is a bad time to start a company or selling will be tough?

Sure, it will be, however there is always business to be done. It is a fact that people have made fortunes during the depression! Imagine if the founders of these major corporations had thought the same. There would not have been household names like Proctor & Gamble, IBM and Fedex to name a few. Though bracing for a rough year ahead in 2009, General Electric and General Motors are nonetheless, century- old brandnames! There are plenty of other things you can and should be doing during a downturn to make the best out it.

In 2008, we saw Lehman Brothers, a 158 year-old investment bank, go belly up in a matter of days. American International Group (AIG), the world’s largest insurance company, was tethering on the brink of bankruptcy. Like it or not, the global landscape has changed. Through it all, one of the things I've noticed about change is, whether you embrace it or run from it; go with it, lead into it, or get dragged into it kicking and screaming, it's going to happen anyhow, with you or without you. You see, what I've found out is: Change is the only constant. No matter how you react to it, and whether you like it or not, it doesn't matter: it's going to happen with you or without you.

Adaptability, in our new environment, is your key to success. To succeed in our ever- changing environment, you not only have to anticipate change, plan for change, but also plan for milking the most out of it. Have you start making plans in this changing environment where companies fold-up even faster than you can say its name? Do you have your personal plan for how you will succeed in this changing landscape and what you want to get out of it? Does your company have a plan for any changing environment and they know what they want to get out of it?

The other lesson I learned about change is: Leading through change. Don't be afraid to be the first one through. Too many people are only too happy to let others take them through change, or life, for that matter. But when you give up control like that, it's going to be hard to reap the benefits.

So plan for change with an eye towards what you want out of it and lead through change. Don't be afraid to meet it head on. Because whether you like it or not; whether you embrace it or run from it; whether you lead into it, get pushed, pulled or dragged into it kicking and screaming, it doesn't matter. It's going to happen anyhow; with you or without you. Nothing stays the same, change is the only constant.