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Communication is critical when developing mutually beneficial and mutually enjoyable relationships. Relationships require trust, and one of the best ways to develop trust is to focus on helping the other person feel heard and understood. Remember this important distinction:
Your beliefs about anything, whether founded in fact or just the figment of your fertile imagination, dictate the quality of the outcomes you are able to enjoy in your life. Almost everyone, who is trapped in a life, which lacks meaning and fulfilment, is causing their own lack of progress, due to unfounded beliefs about themselves and their environment. When you fill your mind with incorrect assumptions and beliefs, you reinforce your fears and insecurities and you deflate or destroy your dreams, effectively sounding the death knell for any success you desire.
Success is a becoming; it is never something you can successfully pursue. Are you satisfied with amount of preparation you are putting in every day, towards becoming the person you need to be, to attract the success you deserve and desire? Are you acquiring the skills, knowledge and resources you will need when that big opportunity crosses your path? We all have lucky breaks cross our paths at some time or other. Super achievers know this and ensure that they use this principal to their advantage. They work every day to improve and become more.
I often hear about people sitting back, waiting for things to get better, asking questions like, “When are things going to get back to normal”? I am afraid to say that this is the new normal. The market has changed forever and the sooner you accept this and get off your butt and begin making the most of all the opportunities all around you. The sooner you will invite unlimited sales success into your experience. Life will always go onr
When helping individuals within corporations to work effectively with their affirmations. I remind them that they might sometimes feel resistance well up inside themselves, when they are affirming any new behaviour. When anyone in your team affirms something, which challenges their comfort zone, they will initially feel resistance. Their little voice will try to keep them trapped in their comfort zone and they will try will to negate the positive change, which they are attempting to introduce.
When you examine your world today you will discover how many times you are involved in some kind of negotiation, where you are selling someone on accepting your idea at work, selling your son on the importance of taking a shower after sports practice, selling the airhostess on changing your seat on the plane, etc. You will be astounded at how much time you actually spend, every day, involved in some kind of negotiation, where you are attempting to persuade someone to see your point of view or where you are attempting to influence someone.
I have spent the past few years, observing how people behave, both when they are at work, where they should be investing their time as productively as possible, earning a living and also whilst they are at home, where they are meant to be relaxing and recharging their batteries. It astounds me to see, that they are never present when they are doing either.r
Do you have a clear picture of what success actually means to you and are you serious and committed about achieving that success? Are you content to continue to just leave it all up to the winds of chance? Or are you committed to build a plan for your future, where you keep a record of your progress, the lessons you learn and you have a system to record any great new ideas you may come up with?
Unless you have been hiding under a rock somewhere, I am certain that you must have heard this old cliché repeated many time over. “It is not your aptitude, but your attitude, which determines your altitude”. As you can see from this cliché above, which is based on more truth than you think, the attitude, you choose to project to the world; will make a huge difference to the way things will turn out in the future.
It is time to Evolve or Dissolver Change is inevitable, before there were only two certainties in life, namely death and taxes. Now the ever changing and evolving world we live in, where the rate of change is accelerating daily, has seen a third certainty appear, namely “CHANGE”. This leaves you with two choices, bury your head in the sand and hope change won’t affect you or open your eyes and discover ways to use change to your advantage, by innovating and discovering new ways of doing things. Innovation is no longer a luxury – It is a Necessityr
Have you explained your value proposition? Any sales professional, who views objections as bad things, is missing the point. Objections are just your customer or prospects way of telling you that they do not completely understand and appreciate the value both you and your product or service offer them. When your customer or prospect raises an objection, it’s always a good sign. They are expressing their conce s and lack of understanding, giving you the opportunity to either allay their fears or better explain your value proposition.
Yes, I know it is not politically correct for you to want to want to be a winner. The truth though, is that inside; we all have a desire to be one. I believe that we are all engineered for accomplishment, designed for success and that we are all endowed with incredible potential to be great. If any of this offends you, read no further, because, this article will challenge you to step outside of your comfort zone and may ask you a few uncomfortable questions about why you have not realised all the possibilities, which are available to you.
There is so much opportunity out there and abundance all around that even if you are only equipped with a pen to sign contracts, you have a heart filled with determination and a commitment to excel; you can invite great financial well-being into your experience. Yes, of course money or the accumulation of wealth is not everything, but the greater your financial standing, the greater the comfort you will enjoy and the better equipped you will be, to offer philanthropic support to the people around you.
The three secrets to sales success are simple – “PREPARATION, Preparation, preparation”. I believe that the more prepared you are before any sales call, the more likely you will be able to, help your customers and prospects, understand their specific needs, see how your product or service can completely satisfy their requirements, the easier it will be to get them to know, like and trust you and see the value you bring.
Do you believe that leaders like change and followers resist it? This was the misconceptio I used to live under for a number of years. I believed that leaders were out there with a machete, cutting a path through the jungle of life and business, encouraging change, whilst their followers were standing back with folded arms singing “I shall not be moved”. My experience has shown me that both leaders and followers are resistant to change, unless they feel that it is their idea and they had some involvement in creating it. Unlocking Support for Changer
When you focus your energy on what is wrong, asking a poor quality question like “How can I get through my day”, you are learning nothing and are left in a bubble of overwhelm. Learn the art of no longer thinking about how bad things are and instead try to focus on how good they will be, in the future. This is only possible if you have a crystal clear vision for the future, which serves as the prize you can focus on, as you travel along your journey towards the success you desire.
When do you think the right time to do anything is? As they say in the classics the best time to have planted a tree is 20 years ago. Well what do you do, if you did not plant the tree 20 years ago? Then the second best time to plant it would be right now. Procrastination is the thief of success. Are you putting off doing things all the time, hoping that some kind of miracle will happen and the crucial daily activities you need to perform to achieve the success you desire are just going to happen on their own? Labour Under Correct Knowledge
It cannot be disputed that certain people have specific strengths, which will certainly support them to be better at what we would traditionally call sales, than other people.
I know that movies rarely offer the most profound moments, which are life changing or that offer advice to help you improve your life. There is however one movie moment, which stands out for me, from the movie City Slickers, where the character played by Billy Crystal, explains the secret of life to the other cast members. He explains that the secret of life is one thing and when asked what that one thing is, he explains “That’s what you have to figure out”
There is one letter difference between having a mere contact and then converting that contact into a long term sales contRact. That letter is a massive “R”, which stands for “RELATIONSHIP”. If you want to convert the “Right Contacts” you already know and will get to know, into long term sustainable sales contRacts, then you must invest sufficient time towards developing mutually beneficial long term relationships with them. The only way these Relationships can work in the long term, is if they are based on trust and value.
It cannot be disputed that certain people have specific strengths, which will certainly support them to be better at what we would traditionally call sales, than other people. I do however believe that, as we are all in sales, from the moment we utter our first cry, where by crying, we are attempting to influence someone to act in a certain way towards us or to perform a task for us, like change our nappy etc. We all have an innate ability to sell or should I say influence people to do things. We are all born in Salesr
How fast do you believe that you should succeed at anything you try to achieve? Do you believe that, as we live in a world where we have instant coffee, microwaves, instant popco etc. it is therefore obvious that success should now also be instant too? Nothing could be further from the truth and your expectations, that success should be instant, may be the very thing, which is keeping you trapped in average. Success Happens Daily, Never in a Dayr
As a sales professional, you know that all that what really matters in the end are the results you are able to achieve. So if you want to be successful in sales, it is not about how much effort you put in every day or how much activity you perform daily. It is about the results you are able to produce. Of course more daily activity will equal improved results, but can you imagine how you could exponentially improve your sales performance, if you prioritised your activities, ensuring you were using your time as effectively as possible, to only carry out the right sales activities every day.
Energy as defined in Physics is the capacity to perform work. With this awareness, now ask yourself, “How much energy do I have right now”? If you are feeling de-energised or tired, you obviously understand that you will not be able to perform the crucial tasks you need to carry out daily, at the level or intensity, you need to, in order to achieve the results you want. Energy is effectively the fuel in your tank and is the crucial element necessary for you to bring your skill and talent to life.
Do you believe that being ambitious is wrong or do you believe that ambition or your deep rooted desire to be the best possible version of yourself, is your obligation and even your duty? I believe that operating at anything less than your best, is not only going to frustrate you, but is wasteful and robs you of the fulfillment and meaning you so richly deserve. It is time to see that you are magnificent and capable of far more than you believe possible. Finally accept that operating at your optimum level of performance, is both your right and obligation.
Instead of blustering forward and looking for what you need to do, to enjoy the success you desire. Try a different approach this time and look at your vision and instead ask a different question. Ask yourself who you need to become to attract the level of success you desire into your life? Once you make the crucial distinction and realise that you attract success by the person you become, everything will change and success will feel effortless. Identify who you need to be to attract the success you desire and then invest energy and effort into becoming that person.
Open your Mind and Think Bigger Than Yourselfr There is a sort of magic found in setting goals. When you set yourself goals in an ever expanding spiral, starting with goals for yourself, your immediate and extended family, your community, city where you live, province or state, your country where you earn most of your money and finally goals for the planet and beyond. You open your mind and you begin to see massive possibility or hidden potential, which would have remained hidden from you, had you not allowed yourself to think beyond your own limited environment.
Once you are clear on what you want to achieve and why it is important to you, use this information to create a crystal clear vision for the future. Your vision is the picture of possibility, which you write down and use to serve you as your direction indicator into the future. It is the foundation for creating exactly the future you have envisioned and serves as your pointer towards possibility. It gives you direction and purpose and serves as the direction you must travel, to invite meaning and fulfilment into your experience.
When police agents are trained to recognise counterfeit money, they are trained to focus on knowing all the characteristics of the legal currency. They are trained using real money and work with only the legal tender, until they know every counterfeiting measure printed on or in the money. They study the money on both sides, until they know every feature of the money, which makes it legal tender.
Can you Turn “NO-THING” into something worthwhile? All the goods and services, which make our lives better every day, started out as simply a thought or an idea in someone’s imagination. Why do those products or services even exist in the first place? How did a simple thought, an idea, transform into something tangible. What separates those ideas and thoughts that enter our heads and then simply disappear, from those thoughts that are acted upon and turned into something tangible and of value? The Difference is Vision, Belief and Actionr
Tim Ferris wanted to win a national sports title and was prepared to do whatever it took to realise his dream. He started from where he was, well where else is there to start. With belief, commitment and daily dedication, he won the San Shou kickboxing title just six weeks after being introduced to the sport. He worked really hard and gave his all every day, turning belief, commitment and daily effort into results.
Now is the time to create a positive mind-set, where you orient yourself to constantly be on the lookout for fortuitous situations or circumstances. It is extremely difficult to identify opportunities, when you are not looking for them and impossible, if you do not believe in yourself, your abilities and the potential any opportunity offers. Everything starts out as only a Dreamr
Lack of Knowledge is never a reason not to startr I have owned and successfully operated numerous businesses, in many different industries: from engineering, to manufacturing, to transport, to tourism, to the SCUBA diving industry, to consulting, to professional speaking and training, to mention only a few. Each time I entered each of these industries, I had none or very little first-hand knowledge about each one. I had no training or education in any of them prior to my entry into any of them. Get Startedr
It is not too difficult to look around your world and see that people, who give freely, receive copious amounts of whatever they give, back in return. People, who enjoy the most love in their lives, are the people who give their love freely to all the people around them. The people I have observed around me, who have the closest friends, are the most friendly themselves and they are always giving friendship, love and caring to their friends.
As real as FEAR may feel when you are immobilised by the thought of calling on a new prospect, approaching your boss for a raise or asking the girl of your dreams out on a date. There is no real danger to you at all. There is no sabre toothed tiger going to attack you and eat you alive. Make no mistake you are experiencing real feelings of fear, the increased breathing, tightening in your chest and racing heart rate are all your flight or fight responses in action.
When you finally pull the trigger and make the decision to go after one of your goals, no matter what that goal is, you must commit to achieve that goal with everything you have. Half-hearted approaches to anything always result in half heated results. Desmond Disraeli said it so eloquently, when he said “The secret to success is consistency of purpose” The way to achieve greatness and to enjoy fulfilment and meaning is not found sitting in your couch every night.
How prepared do you think you need to be before you call on a prospect? Do you think it is OK to just arrive unprepared and ask them to tell you about their business? There is no easier way to turn a prospect away than arriving unprepared, not knowing anything about them or their business. We live in the age of information, so it is really easy to get buckets of information about your prospects. You need to be prepared for your meeting by first visiting their website printing out a few strategic pages, reading and making a few notes about their business.
Your parents give you your name when you come into the world, but it is up to you what sort of name you present to the people around you throughout the rest of your life. As you know it takes years to build your reputation, but if you allow your guard down, one small discretion can destroy it in seconds. I know you want to realise your full potential and be the best version of you possible. It is far easier to achieve success in any area of your life if you are trusted by the community and your reputation precedes you, than it is if people distrust you and doubt your word.
As you know, nothing happens to you, everything happens, because of you. So if any future dream is to be converted from that electrical charge of possibility, which exists in your brain right now and converted into something, real and tangible, then you must live by the old adage of, “If it is to be, it is up to me”. Accept 100 % responsibility for creating the future of your dreams. You can no longer just take responsibility for all the great things, which happen in your life.
You are all involved in influencing the outcomes you see in your world, whether you believe you are or not. From the moment you wake up every day you are influencing or at least trying to influence the people around you, to conform to meet your needs and expectations. You use many different guiles, to influence people to do things the way you want them done. Whether it be a request from you to your spouse to make you a cup of coffee in the morning, whilst they are busy making one for themselves, or you making a cup of coffee for them, so that they will warm to you in the morning etc.
Have you invested so much into building connection with your customers that they are such raving fans, that they are one of your best-selling tools? Research shows that happy customers will readily refer you to people they know, if they have enjoyed a wonderful sales experience with you. People are very busy with their lives and even if they are really satisfied with their entire sales experience with you, they may only refer you if they are asked a direct question by someone else or if you request them to do so. Word of Mouth Strategyr
My intent with this article is to grab hold of those magnificent people out there and by those magnificent people, I mean you too, and give them a gentle reminder that they are only idling and if they wish to break free from average, they are equipped to do so. What are you waiting for, before you believe in your own power to create exactly the life you desire and then for you to pull the trigger on possibility, where you start to take daily inspired action, to make it possible for you.
I see people all around me every day, who arrive home after yet another really long day at work, exhausted, yet they never seem to get the important things that they need to do done. This leaves them overwhelmed and unable to achieve their goals. Do you know anyone like that, or worse, is that how you feel about the treadmill, which is your own life? Do you feel like you are spinning your wheels every day, working really hard, yet you feel trapped and unable to make any headway towards achieving your goals and dreams. As Benjamin Franklin so aptly said “Don’t confuse motion with action”.
Incredibly the first month of 2013 is already part of your memories and can only now serve you, by offering you a new set of experiences and learning, which will allow you to expand and grow into the type of person you need to be to attract the type of success you desire.
As you know, your thoughts create your state of mind and the attitude you reflect to the world, which either make you feel positive and driven to succeed or they are restrictive and limit your daily efforts. Restrictive thoughts as you know do not only limit your growth and potential, but they also have a major effect on your health too. It is therefore wise to discover as many ways as possible to help you to remain in a positive mental place. One of the best ways I have found, which will allow you to achieve a really positive outlook and mind-set.
If you feel like you have tried really hard in the past to realise your dreams, but you feel like nothing ever seems to go right for you, you are not alone. The majority of people I speak to feel exactly the same way. They feel like they have tried really hard in the past, but nothing ever seems to go right for them. They feel like they just don’t have what it takes to achieve greatness.
I have read many research papers and conducted my own research towards my PHD, on why some people become high achievers and others don’t. My findings have been rather interesting, regardless of personality type, habits, gender, occupation or geographic location, everyone I have researched, who has achieved great things in their lives, had a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve and without exception, they believed that they would succeed in achieving that vision.
No matter how bad the economy may appear to be, or how poor your perception about the world may be, there are always people with a need to buy and others with goods and services to sell to meet those needs. Take a look around the room you are sitting in right now, how many things have you purchased over the past year to meet your various needs, your need for comfort, shelter or sustenance, etc.
Plan for the future you desire in 2013 and beyond, but be certain that you are living in the NOW. If you live in the future you never actually get to live at all. You seem to spend all your time preparing to live. Planning for the future is crucial, but never allow this process to rob you of the happiness, meaning and fulfilment, which is available to you right NOW. All you really have is this moment right now. Are you satisfied with how you are investing or wasting each one? Live in the Now – Plan to Improve your Future
I have read numerous studies on success and the effect that the people you choose to surround yourself with, have on the type and scope of success, you will actually manage to achieve. These studies have explored a number of variables around financial, career, relational and spiritual success. Every single study I have read found that the people you invest most of your time around, have a very definitive effect on all factors relating to most, if not all areas of success.