Life is contradicting

One of my recent participants in an advanced sales training class observed that gurus often contradict each other.

I totally agreed.

For those who have attended a lot of training, have you noticed there were a lot of contradictions in the teaching among trainers and speakers?

On one hand you are asked to focus single-mindedly on your goal. On the other hand you are told to feel what the universe (or your creator) has arranged for you and evolve with it.

There are many wealth creation seminars that are available around the world today. Some will tell you to focus, concentrate and be really serious about money, others will tell you money is only a by-product of you living your passion and beliefs, never focus on it. Instead focus on developing your passion.

Some companies survive better than others because they are able to learn and change faster and better than their competitors. Some survive because they preserve what is fundamental and important to them.

Some career counselors advise you to discover your passion and go for what brings you joy in life, others said you must discover what you are best at doing - that is the path of least resistance.

Some theories of leadership said you must lead with love, others asked you to govern with rules.

Even when you were young, your parents taught you to be honest. You later learn that if you are truthful to the bad guys, you will get into trouble.

I guess you know where I am driving at.

Sometimes, if you are already confused, training will make you even more so.

If you asked me, both are correct.

Life is about balancing. It is not one or the other. It is one AND the other.

An intelligent mind is one that can hold 2 opposing ideas at the same time and yet function properly. This was what one of my favorite authors - Jim Collins - said. (I suspect he learn it elsewhere too)



I have to be cruel, in order to be kind
- William Shakespeare

YOU CAN CREATE WEALTH

Just want to share another article that I wrote 2 months ago ... has been published in more than 20 sites ....


YOU CAN CREATE WEALTH

Yes, I’m talking about YOU – you can create wealth.

In the first place, it would be useful to understand the definition of wealth.

To the bankers and accountants, wealth simply means money in the bank, properties or shares investments.

I would like to give you a different perspective.

Donald Trump, who was in millions of debt, flipped his position over night.

Mother Theresa, who walked the streets of Calcutta with zero dollars in her pocket, can call for millions in donations.

So what exactly is wealth?

Wealth is a form of energy - energy you emit if you have the right thinking and association with the right people.

Let me explain further.

Right thinking means having the right mindset. It starts from believing in yourself and your idea.

Remember the saying “you reap what you sow”. What you sow in your mind, you reap in your life. Your outer world is a mere reflection of your inner world. The reason is simple: You take action based on you what believe; you get the results based on what you act on.

Knowing this simple logic of belief, action and result, it is apparent that our belief system plays a vital role in our success – whatever success means to you. If you believe that you can be successful, if you believe you can be rich, than you will take action to work towards your goals. Though the result is not guaranteed, your effort will improve your chances of getting it.

The reverse is also possible. You believe you cannot be rich for whatever reason (maybe you did not have a great education). Hence you will not work on your goals and because of the lack of effort, the likelihood is that you will not get what you wish for.

Therefore, the first step to wealth creation is having the right beliefs, or changing your beliefs if your existing beliefs are not serving you. Although most people easily understand this, it is perhaps the toughest step in practice. A belief system takes years, if not decades to build up. It takes great determination to change what has been ingrained in our minds, and more often than not, many will not persist, especially if they do not see immediate results.

Right thinking also means having the right attitude, including being grateful for what you receive in life. Start by having gratitude for little things, such as having the food on your table.

Life is kind. The more grateful you are, the more you will receive.

Association with the right people means making a decision to be in a community of people with positive mental attitude. These are like-minded people; they are ready to support you in your quest for bigger things in life.

The right people will also inspire you, both with their results and lifestyles.

They inspire you because you see that your limit is not your limit. From what they have achieved, you realise there is so much more you can do. You realise that you can get what you deserve if you don’t compromise but instead set high standards for yourself.

You will also learn their habits – habits for success. You begin to develop routines that bring you closer to what you want.

Being in a circle of successful people means you can model after them. Some of them may even become your mentors or coaches. Success leaves clues. You can observe carefully what brings them success, and duplicate their formulas into your life. In other words, you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. You can learn from their mistakes as well. Anyway, life is too short for you to make all the mistakes by yourself!

When you have both the right thinking and association, you have what it takes. You will begin to see results. As you advance, it becomes easier because success breeds success. At this point, the law of attraction comes into play. You become a magnet, not only to money, but also to other successful people and good things in life.

Yes, you or anyone can create wealth, BUT, only if you have both of these – the right thinking and association with the right people. Start by making the decision to take that path... and you will be surprised what you will attract into your life. It’s your life – LIVE IT TO THE FULLEST!

5 Business Rules I live by....

... and I encourage all my students and seminar participants to do the same.

1) Build relationships ... and this takes time. Do not sacrifice long-term relationships for short-term profit.

2) Show sincere appreciation to every business opportunity you receive - no matter how small it is. Never forget to say "Thank You".

3) Communicate with your partners, suppliers, customers and friends as often as possible. If they are talking to you, they can't be talking to your competition.

4) Don't over complicate things. All things in life can be condensed into simple principles and all problems can be solved using commonsense. Business is the same.

5) Manage conflicts within your team and within yourself well. Never let clients be the sacrifice of such conflicts.

(Myself developed none of these wisdoms. Most of them were from the books that I have read ... as the saying goes: Who you are and what you will become is dependent on the books you read and the people you mix with.)

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

How are Customer Service and Selling related?

As an experience sales trainer, I include an element customer service training in my materials. Often, people asked me why must a sales professional learn customer service.

I shall use a quote from Masushita to answer this question.

“After sales service is more important than assistance before sales. It is through such service that one gets permanent customers” - Konosuke Matsushita

It is obvious that as a sales profession, while knowledge in customer service is not really necessary during the sales process, it is crucial after the sales.

Satisfied customers become loyal customers and give you referrals. That gives you new prospects.

Satisfied customers are also your testimonials. They are your "sales team" that goes around to promote your product or service. This also solves the biggest problem to most sales professionals - prospecting - finding your potential clients.

Last but not least, relationship takes time to build. Customer service helps to strengthen relationship.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

Change is Nature

Wow! I have not updated my blog for almost 2 months already. How time flies! No excuses!

This month, I had the privilege to learn from Philip Kotler when he visited Singapore. Before I met him, I was wandering what a 75 years old professor, whose books are used by many universities around the world, will address in his classes.

Not surprising, he devoted a fairly large amount of time to discuss marketing through New Media, such as blog and U tube. Like what the title of one his books say: "Marketing Moves".

I respect him for his great insights and more importantly his willingness to keep up with times, despite his success.



Change is Nature. Marketing must change to keep up with time.

Changes can be due to many reasons ... globalisation, emergence of new technology or government policy change.

As a result, taste change, new fashion evolves and new products are developed. If you can catch the trend, you will get a chance to sit on the nose of a rocket. A fine example will be

http://www.bohemiancloset.com

Western clothes with flavors of the East. Something truly unique.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

Announcement! Do you know of any Sales Champion?

At Asia Sales Academy, we want to recognise the best people in our field who have contributed and make a difference to the lives of others.

Thus if you know of any great sales professionals ... insurance, real estates, MLM, automotives, or corporate (B2B), let us know. Tell us about his or her achievements. We appreciate them for their exemplary performance.

You can let us know via the comment page, or leave us a note at the web site address after my name. Help a friend who has been outstanding!

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

How to Recruit and Retain talents?

Recent meetings with a number of CEOs surface a challenge that all of them are having ... identifying, recruiting and retaining the best people.

Here is what I teach participants in leadership and management seminars. Sales managers (or managers to be) find this process to be very useful and effective.


How to Identify?

Before that, perhaps it is wise to think about what do we want to find out about the potential candidate.

3 things:

1) Character (driven? motivated? focus?)
2) Personality (outgoing or introvert? emotional or logical? team player?)
3) Ability (skills, qualification and experience)

In most cases, the 3rd objective can easily be met by upfront filtering - informing the candidates what is required for the position and going through the resume. During the interview, it will be the job of the interviewer to determine the 1st two.

How do we go about doing that? 3 ways too ...

1) Powerful questions such as the following can reveal a great deal ...
# why do you want leave your last job?
# what do you value most in life?
# what do you like best about ... ?

2) Profiling tools (such as DiSC, MBTI) give you insights into the inner working of the person. Sometimes, even in areas that the person is not aware of. The profiling exercise can be done on the same or different day as the interview.

3) Situational tests
These tests bring out the most instinctive response of the participants. You can tell what kind of person they are from the way they respond. Situational tests do not have to be complicated and elaborated. They can come in the form of simple games and questionnaires as well.


How to Recruit?

During this process, you are offering the position to your best candidate. So you are selling. You should go back to the fundamentals of selling - finding out the need and wants and offering something that meet them.

Unfortunately, most people do not know what they want!

For example, sales manager often ask new sales profession how much do they want to earn every month?

Say, if the reply is $10k, than the manager will help to calculate how many sales is required to make that amount of commission. The manager can also estimate how much work is required to produce these sales, assuming a standard ratio for every close within a certain number of qualified prospects.

So now, the new staff knows exactly how much work is necessary to achieve his dream. Will he or she be committed enough to do it? Yes, but in most cases, no.

Why? Well, when the actual work started, often people find it too hard, tough or even time consuming! They then "downgrade" their dream.

Or the other possibility is that their priorities may change ... they may now become less ambitious and focus on their families. Or it could the other way round, they become more ambitious and now both the job and company are too "small" for them.

This is where your profiling tools can help too. You can tell the need of a person from his or her personality type.

Together with questioning skills, you will be able to discover what each candidate wants.


How to Retain?

In the 1st place, ask why would anyone leave a team?

Well, the answer will be: their expectations are not met, and there is little (or no) hope of meeting their expectations in the future.

So, the next logical step will be: Find out what are their expectations - which you already did in step 2.

However, nothing stays constant for more than a hundred days. What you should do is continuously communicate. Create a constant feedback loop through meetings, lunches, tea breaks and gatherings so that you can monitor when their expectations changes.

Communication also builds trust.

Like all relations - the element of trust is a critical success factor. The employee must trust that they are in good hands and their expectations will continued to be met.

The main thing about trust is that the staff must find the superior dependable and reliable. This stage can only be attained after a period of working together. To achieve this, you will have to go back to basic - your consistency in words, actions and thoughts.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

With increasing consumers' expectation, how do you manage to ensure customers' satisfaction?

Today’s consumers are different from those 15 years ago ......

More than a decade ago, someone who wants to buy a television genuinely wants a television. Today, they expect it to be network enable, compatible with most PCs, digital cameras and view cams and at the same time user friendly.

Some time ago petrol stations were for people who needed petrol. Today, people not only refill their tank, shop for groceries and fill up their stomach all at the same time, they do their banking too.

Consumers these days expect one-stop shop. They expect you to have the solution to all their problems.


As a trainer who has helped countless sales professionals and business owners, what do I advise my students to do?

3 areas you can work on...

1) Use technology

This is perhaps the most obvious way to increase your ability to meet expectation ... Technology allow you to
# be contactable 24 by 7, which means you can resolve your clients' issue promptly and quickly
# track which stage of the sales cycle your client is in, which means better follow up
# track buying histories of similar clients. This gives you the ability to recommend new purchases intelligently. For example, if you observe that a specified group of your corporate clients tend to go for a particular range of product, you may want to investigate why and recommend the same range to other clients of similar background too.
# remember birthdays, name of spouse and other details, therefore able to provide more personalise service
# communicate with all your clients simultaneously through customised messages
# interact with multiple clients at the same time

Unless you tell me you have an elephant memory + a super processor between your ears, I will strongly encourage you not to leave things to chances. Embrace technology. It will definitely help.

2) Work on branding and image

A good brand image has too many advantages ... I shall highlight 2.
* branding brings the right perceived value ... or sometimes higher perceived value. People like to be associated with a good name. Very often, your branding determines how much your customers enjoy your products or services. This is because, simply by thinking that the product or service is great, the customers will start to feel that the same way too!
* Brand brings about brand extension. If people think what you are currently providing is great, than probably any recommendation from you is also good, at least in terms of quality. This is because you already established the trust with your customers. It will be easy for you to "extend" this trust to other products or services.

To many people, branding is something abstract and should only be done by MNCs with huge budget.

This is nothing further from the truth. Branding means consistency in your values and action. Branding means communicating this message to all our clients and suppliers. There is no rocket science.

3) Manage expectation
Managing people is basically about managing expectation. Customers complain because their expectations are not met. Maybe the service is not as fast as they expect, or the product did not last as long as they expect, or the staff are not as helpful as they should be ... In any case, we have not live up to their expectations.

Every one of us knows the fundamental principle of "under promise, over deliver". However, not many of us apply it.

One successful application of this is Disney Land. The same practice is also followed by many other theme parks around the world.
If you have been visited any of the Disney Land around the world, you will notice that many a times, when queuing for a ride, there will be a sign board telling you the estimate waiting time (e.g. 1 hour). The actual time is always shorter (say 45 mins). Customers are delighted at the end of 45 mins when they are served. Can you imagine, feeling delighted after waiting for 45 mins!!!

So you can see, it's all a mind game.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

What should you do if your Industry is getting too Crowded?

A little incident 2 weeks ago ...

As part of good customer service (well, I teach that in class and of course I practice that too!), I visit all my major clients regularly to gather feedback about my sales training. During one recent visit, I asked them if they need help in any other areas of their business or if they need recommendations of trainers in other fields. Their answer surprised me!

Basically, the message was right now they have a list of trainers that have written to them, offering them training, consultancy and coaching. They really do not need any "extra" help at this moment, but they will always keep me in mind as the "guru" who can connect them to other areas.

It appears that the training industry is getting really crowded. This will be a real concern to many trainers who can't market or sell themselves well.

Unfortunately, with globalization, increase competition is something we cannot avoid in almost every sector of the economy.

What are my suggestions whenever my students share that they are feeling the heat of competition in their business?

I have got 3 ideas ...

1) Differentiate
2) Differentiate
3) Differentiate!

Differentiation does not necessary comes from the uniqueness of your product, although having a unique product will definitely make you stand out from your competition. Differentiation also does not mean you must have the best quality, although that helps too. It can be from a softer aspect of business ... and not in anyway related to the product, such as....

1) Customer service.
There is no such thing as a perfect product. Most products are stronger in one way, but weaker in another. Thus, many a time, there is no perfect fit. However, good service can make up for what is short - especially after sale service.

2) Follow-up.
Increase competition brings about increased marketing effort (and budget too). Consumers are continuously bombarded with more advertisement and sales pitch, thus becoming skeptical. This may also lengthen the selling cycle. Good follow-up means calling your prospect to not only ask for a buying decision, but also feedback when they don't buy. It also means keeping in touch with your prospect even if they do not buy anything from you at all. Remember, like what my great mentor told me: things change every 100 days. If they don't buy now, one day they will.

3) Personal care - love your client.
Feel privilege that they have given you the opportunity to serve them. Take care of them, not because of what their organization bought from you, but because you treat them as friends. You want the best for them. They will remember you since most people cannot remember when was the last time someone really cares about them.

4) Other personality traits and values of the sales profession serving the client.
If you are sincere, hardworking, and happy, your client will remember you. This is due to the simple fact that most people are not. Hence, all these traditional values still matter after all!

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

Is Price an issue with your Prospect?

Had an interesting sales training a few hours ago.

A participant in my class insisted that price is the main issue in his industry and country (in this case, Singapore). In other word, he believes that everyone is competing on price and consumer is mainly looking at price.

He is entitled to his opinion, of course.

I always advise my students that price is never an issue in the selling process, unless you are selling a product or service that is not differentiable. It is the sales people that make an issue out of price.

2 challenges will arise if you think and believe that price is the main concern when you are selling.

1) You will not look for ways to differentiate yourself, since price is already the main subject.
2) You will not ask for more compensation if you are running your own business. You are afraid that you will lose on price.

I believe that it possible to differentiate ourselves, at least in most cases.

Some of you may remember in the 1970s in Singapore, bread were generally bread. Everyone seems to be eating the same kind of bread. While some bakery attempt to put their brand name on the packaging, non were able to stand out from the crowd.

Then, in the late 70s, a company called Gardenia was started. The rest was history.

While I do not know the founders of this great company, I believe they never tell themselves that consumers were buying based on price and the only way to get them to buy (or buy more) is to reduce price.


A friend of mine owns a car rental company. Her cars are mostly quite unique and her target customers are wedding couples.

Recently she approached some bridal shops to explore possible collaboration. In one shop, the owner told her that her cars were great! Many of his customers will love to rent them. Ironically in another shop within the same street, the owner told her that no one would like such cars.

She asked me why 2 companies in the same industry in the same location could have a totally different view on the business. My answer was simple: It all boils down to belief system.


Whether you believe that price is or is not an issue in your industry, you are right.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

What do you do when someone say you never reply a message?

Selling today is very different from 20 years ago.

An elderly participant in my sales training class once told me this: when he got his 1st job in 1981, after graduating from university, he had no email, no mobile phone, no voice mail, no fax machine on his working table. Now that he looked back, he wondered what he had been whole daylong!

Nowadays is different. I got friends who accused me of “typing” too slowly on my mobile. So they called me before I finish replying their sms.

Sign ...

Technology has truly changed the world and our way of life.

The typical sales professional today can be reached anywhere, anytime.

The typical sales professional today receive no less than 100 emails and sms every 24 hours.

So it is not uncommon for sales professionals to “lose” a couple of messages from time to time.

Question is what do you do when this happen to you?

My recommendations:

1)Do not argue with the sender about whether the message has been sent.
2)Apologise immediately
3)Retrieve the message if you can find it. If not request for a resend immediately.
4)ACT on in now! You are already late.

Last but not least, to get the best out of time, all messages should be replied, deleted or filed (saved) immediately.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

How do you know you are learning?

There are more than enough writings around the world that discuss the importance of learning.

Learning is often the key to winning in today’s world. Our competitive edge is for us to learn faster and better than our competition.

You also need to learn to keep up with times. Change is the only constant and what use to be the way of doing things in your job will no longer be applicable tomorrow. You need to learn new skills and technologies.

Or you may need to learn to embark on an alternative career. Unlike the good old days, things are faster and business cycles are getting shorter. In the event that your industry or sector is not growing, you will have to change, before someone decides that you need to change.

The Singapore government is pouring millions (or maybe more?) to promote this concept call the “life long learning”. As Confucius said “learn as long as you live”.

Of course, the catch is: how do you know you are learning?

This is what I normally teach participants in my sales training.

“You know you are learning when you can do something that you previously can’t.”

As simple as it may sound, it has deeper implications.

1) It puts the focus on “doing”. In other word, while new knowledge is meaningful and important, it is not enough. You must translate this knowledge into practice.

As you already know, knowing and doing are entirely different. Most of us know that we need to floss our teeth everyday. In reality, sometimes even dentist don’t do it everyday.

It takes discipline – a tremendous amount of it.

What if you pick up some new knowledge, but couldn’t make the transition into practice?

Well, perhaps you have not fully internalize the knowledge. In this case, repetition is crucial. That is also why I always encourage my participants to make time to come back for refresher course.

2) This definition of learning focus on result. It isn’t just doing. It means achieving certain success that you have not done before.

Thus, like what we teach our participants, learning a closing technique and able to do it in the classroom setting is not sufficient. You must be able to get the desire result from a real prospect through the use of this technique.

So let me ask you again: Are you learning everyday?

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

The Difference that make a Difference

Other than conducting sales training, one of those things I love to do is platform selling, or more commonly know as stage selling.

As at today, I have done almost 200 sessions in many cities in South East Asia for many different products and programs.

This is one form of speaking which most professional speakers find it extremely pressurizing. This is because, within a short span of 2 to 3 hours, you have to teach, entertain and promote, all at the same time. You are doing this to a audience, which means you sell to many simultaneously and there is no chance to build individual rapport.

Selling to a large group of totally unrelated people also means that you must have the ability to build trust quickly and command the respect of the crowd.

However, the secret to successful platform selling - an important lesson I learnt after doing so many sessions - is really ............ sincerity.

I could still vividly recall my 1st preview years ago. I was nervous. I fumbled; I tripped over my own words. However, the audience received my message. They bought what I was selling.

Great learning lesson.

Until today, I still tell my students:

Never forget how you closed that 1st sale. Remember how you were afraid. Remember how you leave your house worrying about your presentation.

It's ok.

It was your heart that closes the sale, not your skills.

teck beng

I am getting lazier these days, how about you?

I have not been writing very much for the past few days. Getting really lazy.

Like what one of my mentor said: Anything that is easy to do is also easy not to do.

Unfortunately for many self-employed – which include many sales professionals - discipline is one issue that is stopping them from getting what they want in life.

While training is important, if the participant do not have the discipline to follow through what was taught in class, don’t expect to see result.

My advice to all participants who comes to my sales training is this: Discipline is not just about doing the necessary or right stuff, it’s about knowing what you want. If you stay focus with the end in mind, it is easier (I say easier, not easy) to commit to the little things everyday that creates a huge difference later.



Exercising 3 times a week will give you a healthier body. Likewise, communicating with your clients regularly will bring you more repeat businesses and referrals.

I advocate a number of mechanisms to help to enforce this, including keeping in touch with my participants after the training.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

Can you make yourself fall in Love with Selling?

A Singaporean who came into my sales training recently asked this questions: I don’t really like selling, is there anyway to make me like selling? I am asking this because I know selling is the number 1 skill needed to start any business.

“This is a difficult question”, I told him. It’s like telling me “I don’t love her, can you make me love her?”

There are many possibilities why someone do not like selling. I shall discuss 3.


(1) You are not getting the result you desire or deserve.

Even within this reason, there are many explanations …

The most common is you do not have the skills to succeed in this profession. While motivation and passion are important (assuming you already have them), you need the necessary skill sets before you can get into action.

On the other hand, you may have some of these skills, but lack practice.

Other possibilities includes:
- you do not have a system for success. I discussed this on my posting on 26 Feb 2007.
- you have everything you need, but lacks the discipline to take consistent action,

I will cover these 2 points in the free eCourse on www.AsiaSalesAcadmey.com which I plan to launch within the next 30 days. In the mean time, leave me a note if you need anything.


(2) You are NOT completely sold yourself.

I want to share an analogy that came from my mentor, Tom “Big Al” Schreiter in his book “Super Prospecting” …

If you are like most people, you love to eat.

What if on a Sat night you visited a fine dining restaurant for a buffet dinner. You discovered there are over 200 different dishes and 50 different types of desserts. What’s more interesting was you paid only $9.90, including tax and service charge, and your partner get to dine for free.

On Monday morning, when you get back to the office what you be telling your colleagues? The $9.90 for 2 eat-all-you-want buffer dinner of course!

Compare that to many people in the selling profession.

We procrastinate picking up the phone. We are afraid when we meet our customers. We are worried about telling our relatives what we do for a living? We don’t wish to tell them we are in the profession of selling because we don’t want them to think we want to make money out of them.

Reluctance in selling comes from not being completely sold yourself. If you are not excited and convinced about your product, than you might be selling a wrong product. Look for something else to sell.


(3) You do not understand the real meaning of selling.

Why would anyone buy from you in the first place?

Because you (or your product or service) help them to save money, time or effort. At least they think or perceive so. Otherwise, they would not part with their hard-earn money to exchange for what you are selling.

In other word, when you sell, you are helping your clients. You are providing the solution to their current problem. While many of us are not entirely comfortable about making money from sales, I can confidently say that everyone that I have met till today is willing to help and make a contribution to another person life.

Selling is helping people. It is understanding and BELIEVING this principle that often differentiate great sales from average sales people.



Having said all these, no one can make you love something that you have no feelings over. It’s a chemistry that no one can explain.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

Do you love Cactus?

I love cactus, and I think everyone in business and in the selling professional must keep cactus at home.

Cacti are natural survivals. They can go on for days and weeks and months without water. That’s why they flourish so well in places like desert, where most other living things find it hard to survive.

Cacti have roots that reach further and deeper into the ground, compare to many other plants. Similarly, selling require you to cast a wider net, to really reach out before you have a good catch.

Cacti are the best savers – they save and conserve precious water carefully for “non raining” days. They are always prepared when crisis strike.

Cacti protect themselves well. Thorns help to block part of the sunlight while keeping hostile animals away. A thin layer of wax on the body further reduce the lost of water. Although the environment is cruel, cacti evolve and triumph! Cacti are strong and persistent!

Cacti provide the food and protection to many species in the deserts, including owls, woodpeckers and human. They give back to nature what god has bestowed on them. Likewise, if you want to be successful, give generously to the less fortunate.



I was catching up with a friend yesterday, and he casually mentioned that the selling professional is very brutal – most sales professionals started with little or no basic salary.

I agreed. However, I will like the add: in this profession, the fittest not only survive, but flourish, if they are willing to learn to be cautus.

I train my students to become cacti. Having said that, as part of the follow up mentoring I plan for them, I encourage them to keep cacti at home so that they are reminded of the lessons they learnt.

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

Are you Afraid of Failure?

Just had a very fruitful weekend with a group of students in Malaysia. Our objective was to improve the business acumen of these students, so as to prepare them for adulthood.

Of course, one of the sessions was about selling. Students are put into a simulated market place, where some will become buyers and others become sellers.

What amazed me was that there was no fear of rejection in almost all the sellers. They literally went from prospect to prospect to attempt to sell. Lost of “face”, ego and failure were never in their dictionaries.

This reminded me of another important lesson I learnt from martial art – emptiness of mind.

An infant crawling on the ground if missed by a speeding car by a nose will feel nothing but continue crawling normally. A grown up on the other hand will be frozen.

In martial art, if you execute a punch with the fear of being hit by your opponent, you can never do it well.

Similarly, if you sell with the fear of getting a rejection, you will probably not be able to close the sale. Chances are your energy is low and your prospect will “feel” it.

Thus, what applies in martial art also applies in selling.

Follow what the famous Aikido saying: “Prepare for everything but expect nothing”!

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

Can't You See my Point?

I was training a group of resellers for a company over the last weekend. During one of the sessions, I instructed everyone to stand up and give a 5-mins presentation of their product to the rest of the class. After that, they took a vote to decide who is the most “convincing and persuasive” presenter.

After the voting was over and the result was announced, a few of the participants shared with me how surprise they were with the outcome. This is because their peers did not support who they thought was the best. In other word, everyone seems to have a different idea of what was the “best”.

Sometimes, I think this is what makes life interesting and confusing.

For example, we may believe that we have presented well, but our prospect may not think so. We may think that we really care for our clients, but our clients cannot “feel” our love. We may be providing the best customer service, but is your best good enough for your customers?

Remember, what your customers, clients and prospects perceive is always the truth. Perception is reality.

It is just not enough that we provide value for our clients. We must also help our clients see that value that we are giving.

How?

Here are a few simple ways that I teach my students in my advanced selling classes:

1) Ensure your entire team understands your unique value proposition for your clients, not just you alone.
2) Ensure this is communicated in all channels of communication, including advertisement, emails, customers’ service officers, front desk receptionist.
3) Keep your communications channels open. Allow feedback to flow back to you in many ways.

The more interactions and contacts you have with your clients, The more opportunities you have to communicate what distinct value you possess.

Till we meet, all the best

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

Do you have a System for Success?

‘Good result comes about with systematic study.’ This is what I remembered my Chemistry teacher telling me some 20 years ago.

I believe that it applies not only in schoolwork, but also in all aspects of life.

Ask any sales champion, he or she will share with you that there is a systematic way of winning the game.

For example, in prospecting, different telephone techniques or scripts can bring different results – depending on the industry that you are working on. If you work on a script that produces a 20% success rate of getting appointments, than you need to work out what is the number you should target to get the income you desire.

You also need a separate system to follow up and keep in touch with the other 80% who did not give you an appointment.

Systems are great. It is a way to scientifically manage your result and move yourself towards success.

There is no ideal system for everyone. What is good for me may not be good for you, depending on your personality and preference. However, from my years of working with top sales professionals to sales directors, from different industries, I found that there are systems that are fairly generic that can apply to the vast majority.

That’s why in our training, participants will learn our system of selling, together with all the necessary tools. At the same time, we train them to customize the system for themselves.

Thus, I strongly urge you to look at your income today. If you are not getting what you truly deserve, isn’t it time to develop a system for yourself?

teck beng
www.coachme2sell.com

How is your Emotional Quotient (EQ) affecting your success?

I had an interesting lunch with 2 wonderful ladies in the training industry today. One of them manages an established training institute funded by the Singapore government, while the other is a professional trainer who has done a lot of work in the field of EQ. Both of them are very knowledgeable in their respective area and have positively impacted many people through their work.

While we chat and share our journey of helping people, we noticed how human beings are all the same – adults and children. We all think, act, react and defend in the same way, though some of us behave in a more controlled manner. In any case, we all experience the same emotions every day – happiness, sadness, anger, fear, excitement, anxiety …

What most people did not realize is how these emotions are affecting their work, and ultimately their success. Like what I teach in NLP classes, how you feel about something will trigger how you respond, and how you respond will determine what results you are going to get.

Emotions (feelings) => respond (actions) => results

For example, if you are irritated (emotion/feeling) with someone, you tend to raise your voice (respond/action). As a result, you may end up with a sour relation or an angry customer.

According to Wekipedia, EQ is “an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups”.

Any experience customer service officer will be able to tell you this: The most important thing about managing an angry customer is to 1^st manage yourself.

Unfortunately, most people walk through their days mindlessly, not to say managing their emotions.

The fundamental of all change is awareness - Awareness Before Change (ABC).

In order for us to manage our emotions better, we must 1^st be aware of our feelings. That’s why in class, our participants are taught to slow down and observed themselves before anything else.

Hope this information Help. Do you have any sales techniques to share? Please do not hesitate to leave comments in this Blog

teck beng

www.coachme2sell.com

Is your Income Suffering due to the Festive Seasons?

In 2 days time, in many countries within Asia, we will be celebrating the Lunar New Year. Traditionally, it’s one of the biggest annual celebrations among the Chinese within and outside China.

Sad to say, during these time, many self employed sales professionals lament to me how their income have suffered since the holiday season has began last December Christmas – many deals that were to be closed were postponed, few new deals in the pipeline as most of the prospects were busy celebrating.

Many did not realize that instead of complaining how their finances has dipped, this is a great opportunity to create the foundation for the many good months to come.

This is what I teach at my personal and group sales training – design mainly for real estate agents, insurance advisers and network marketers. However, it applies to corporate sales as well.

1)Festive seasons are good times to catch up with “long lost” clients. Visit them and offer to service and support them again. Ask them for the reason why they no longer do business with you. If it is something you have done wrong, apologize and offer something in return.

2) It’s a season to give. Thanks those who have given you their continuous support. Send a gift to tell them how much you value the relationships. Thank those who have helped your business in any other ways – people who gave referrals, people who gave you a hand when you were most busy.

3) It’s also an occasion to strengthen relationships. Go to your principal (or supplier) to let them know how grateful you are for the opportunity to work with them. Thank them for making all these possible for you.

Remember this, the above recommendations will not bring you immediate results. The results will only come weeks (or sometime even months) later. On the other hand, if you don’t do it, you will never get the results.

At the same time, never forget to give some time to the ones you love.

teck-beng

www.coachme2sell.com

Is Selling a Science or an Art?

Over my past years as a sales trainer and coach, this is one question I often encountered.

Is it a science, with laws and principles?

Or is it simply an art, which involves feelings and emotions?

I think both are correct.

Selling is a science because if you follow certain procedures, you will get the results (although not all the time) . Selling can be called the "science of influencing". For example, if you have done all the steps in a typical sales call correctly, chances are you will get the appointment.

Selling is an art, because in the process of execution, you need to feel yourself and your prospects. You need to feel your own words and action to ensure that they are in congruent and convey care and concern for other party. You need to feel your prospect to know the state of his or her mind. I believe everyone reading this will have the misfortune of meeting a sales person who is insincere, pushy or insensitive.

That's why top sales training focus on both these areas. In the sales training process, you are taught both the steps (science), and how to develop your sensory acuity to feel how your prospect is feeling.

teck-beng
www.coachme2sell.com