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DEVELOP TRUST WITH YOUR PROSPECTS |
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A Champion Salesperson in the 21st century will
need to make a paradigm shift beyond 'old school' selling
philosophies. One of the things that 'old school' selling
teaches is a salesperson should be liked or approved. To be
successful in the 21st century, the Champion Salesperson has to go
beyond being liked or approved to being trusted. Prospects buy
based on their perception of how well the benefits of a product or
service satisfies their needs and wants. In order to get an
understanding of the prospects needs and wants, you have to
develop trust. Therefore, one of the keys to closing more sales is
to develop trust with your prospects.
First, you have to know the difference between
needs and wants. While much debate has occurred on this subject,
the difference is: needs are fact-based and wants are
emotion-based. Needs are organizationally based, wants are
personally based. A prospect is less likely to tell you their
wants, because these are personal, until there is a high level of
trust. When you understand both needs and wants you are better
positioned to close a sale. As the old saying goes: "When you
see things through Jim Jones' eyes, you'll know what Jim Jones
buys."
You demonstrate your desire to understand a
prospect's needs and wants by asking questions. Some salespeople
want to dominate the conversation to demonstrate their knowledge
of their product or service thinking this will impress the
prospect to buy from them. However, statistics show that this
turns buyers off. When you ask questions, you give the prospect
the chance to tell you their concerns and goals. Remember, you
can't learn anything when you are talking. Focus on asking the
right questions in the right way. Don't interrupt the prospect
when they are talking. Show that you are listening by making brief
summaries of what is said. When you totally focus on your prospect
and not on yourself, you will be well on your way to developing
trust with your prospects.
─ Author Shari Roth of CAPITAL iDEA
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Dear Toby,
Please accept my sincerest "thanks" for your readership
throughout the year. I am truly privileged to communicate
with you every four weeks and I will continue to do my very
best to bring you the valuable information you need to be
successful in your hiring efforts. If this is your first
issue, then welcome! I appreciate the opportunity to share
best practices in leadership, management, personal and
professional growth, recruiting, retention, and other areas
critical to your success. Again, thanks for your readership.
Enjoy your newsletter!
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Time Management
During the past month I heard a number of
people who have brought up the same issue over and over:
Time management. Questions like:
"How can I be better focused so I can
handle all the things that come my way every day?"
"Is there a better way for me to manage
my time?"
"My company seems to want me to do more
with less! How do I do more with less?"
"It seems impossible to manage home,
kids, work and a life. Can you help?"
Sound familiar?
I call these questions, CHAOS management questions. We only
have so much time. We can't add more, unfortunately. During
the time we have each day, we each have a level of energy
that we can use and allocate to our advantage. If we
understand and utilize the energy we have to achieve what is
important, we can better manage and enjoy the chaos that is
delivered to us each day.
Let me give you an example. If you
have a 75-watt light bulb, are you going to get 150 watts of
light from it? Of course not, the bulb only has 75 watts to
give. If you have a 150-watt light bulb in a lamp, can you
expect it to light all the rooms in a 3 bedroom home? Of
course not, it will do an excellent job in one of the rooms
and you may see the shadows of the light in other rooms, but
some of the rooms will never see that light - nor would we
expect this.
In order to best use our energy, we need
to understand how to keep a consistent energy flow and what
choices we have to keep from draining our energy. Here are
some exercises to assist you in answering these questions.
1. Start with keeping a log of all your
activities, both work and home related, for three days.
2. Review the list identifying what
aspects of this schedule increased, maintained, or drained
your energy.
3. Once you see the patterns, now you can
make the choices. From the patterns that drain your energy,
indicate which of the following choices you COULD make. (No
one is asking you to take action yet.) Here are your
choices:
- Do It! - Take care of yourself. This
action is for things only YOU can do. Often the action of
DOING IT will decrease the stress and increase your
energy.
- Delegate It! - Transfer these tasks to
someone else or outsource it. We often take on things that
should have never ended up ours in the first place. You
may resist letting someone else take over these items, but
get over it! Allowing someone else to clean your house,
attend a meeting, or coordinate a project, are not signs
of weakness but signs of wisdom.
- Dump It! Throw it out. Chuck it! -
Sometimes we keep things on our task list that just need
to be dropped. There are ways to make it less painful but
for now just identify what choices you could have made to
eliminate the chaos on your list.
4. The next day, review your calendar and
your TO DO list before the day begins. Notice any of the
patterns you've identified? Notice any opportunities to take
action? Now is your chance to manage the chaos!
5. Make this a daily part of your schedule
review. You will be amazed at the energy it saves and the
increased ability you have to address the issues that
deserve your attention.
─ Adapted with permission. Author Cheryl
Leitschuh cheryl@career-future.com
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Observe
The Secrets Of Your Best Employees
"Lauren has to get a shot at her next
doctor's visit so you have to take her," my wife said.
Lauren is thirty years younger, two inches shorter, about ten
pounds heavier than my wife, and terrified of shots. So I took
my daughter to the doctor. When the time came for her shot,
she reacted as always. She recoiled, backed into the wall,
turned her face within a moment of crying and said, "Wait,
don't give it to me yet! It's going to hurt!" The nurse
said, "Don't worry. You will feel a little pinch but I will
do it quickly so I won't hurt you so much." My
twelve-year-old daughter turned her head away and down, tensed
up a little, and took her shot with little trepidation.
I never really paid much attention to what the
nurses did or how they gave the shots because I was almost
always preoccupied with chasing, cornering or restraining
Lauren. This time I may not have noticed what the nurse was
doing or how she did it, but I couldn't help but notice the
result. This nurse had somehow established a relationship with
my overly timid daughter that caused most of her fears to
dissolve into quiet cooperation.
Similarly, many managers pay attention to the
result of their employees' efforts while failing to notice
exactly what the employees did to get that result. They don't
really know what makes their best employees the best at what
they do. They only know that great employees reliably turn out
great work. In most cases, not even the performance appraisal
process reveals how they do what they do.
In today's business world the search,
acquisition, and retention of valuable employees is a war for
talent. You can not afford to just pay attention to the end
result without knowing the methods your employees used to get
there. You must invest the time needed to observe the nuances
that make the difference between good and average performance.
A relationship should be established and maintained with each
employee and a line of communication opened to determine not
just their skills, but also their passion. It is in this
passion that you will find the secrets of your best employees.
You see it was not the nurse's skill in giving
a shot that calmed my daughter that day. After all, any nurse
can give a shot. A relationship was established between the
nurse and my daughter. It was an exchange of a passion for
excellence that turned Lauren from scared to okay.
It's not really a secret. All great employees
have passion. Employers just have to find it in them, and then
learn how to find it in others.
─ Reprint permission granted by
Lonnie Harvey, Jr., president of The JESCLON Group, Inc.,
www.jesclongroup.com |
MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES |
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The pessimist sees difficulty in every
opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every
difficulty. - Winston Churchill
A man is not idle because he is
absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is
an invisible labor. -Victor Hugo
With courage you will dare to take
risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom
to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.-
Keshavan Nair
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