How well do you present yourself and your company to a prospect? Are you too busy bashing your competition to tell your prospect what YOU have to offer? Stop telling your prospects that you’re the best choice and show them you are with an approach that your competition won’t be able to duplicate!
Forget about the competition!
There are two methods of presenting yourself to a prospect:
A. Speak negatively about their current vendor to make your own company look good in comparison.
B. Show off your innovative concepts and solutions to present your company in a new and extraordinary way, without comparing yourself to the competition.
Which option do you think will most likely lead to a sale?
I hope you chose B.
For some reason, many salespeople think that speaking negatively about their competition will make themselves look great in comparison. They see their prospect admitting their dissatisfaction with their current vender and running to you, their new hero, with open arms.
In the real world, this doesn’t happen. Speaking negatively about your prospect’s current supplier will only evoke negative emotions. This will actually distance you from your prospect and the possibility of making a sale.
Consider common questions you may ask your prospect with method A:
-Are you paying too much?
-Are there hidden charges that you didn’t notice?
-Are you getting the type of service that you deserve?
All of these questions will produce negative emotions from your prospect. You will make your prospect feel ignorant and misinformed about a decision they made in the past, and make them feel stupid for doing business with their current supplier. What gives you the right to come into their office and start pushing buttons to make them feel this way?
Show that you are different
Basing your entire sales presentation on your competitor’s shortcomings will not only make your prospect feel bad, it will also make you look bad, because the approach is amateurish and lackadaisical. Customers know that it takes creativity and preparation to make an original and valuable presentation.
If you want your prospect to think you are different from your competition, then you must bring something new to the table. Don’t ask the same questions and use the same comparison technique that other salespeople use. Find out what makes you different and let that be the driving force behind your presentation.
What do you have, other than price and service, to single you out from your competition?
Do you have something that will make them more profitable in their business?
Do you have a unique concept that your future customers would enjoy hearing about?
Of course you do! Now use it!
Once you decide what your creative focal point should be, construct your entire presentation around it. Put those negative comments on the back burner and get excited about your creative approach to the sales presentation! Your enthusiasm and preparation will carry you from the initial phone call all the way to the signing of the contract.
Take it to the top
Choosing a presentation that is different from your competition will give you the distinction you will need to set up an appointment with a prospect at the top of an organization.
With this attention, you will be in a position to speak with someone from the company who is not bound by existing budget restraints and has the power to make the decisions necessary to award you with business.
Without this distinction, you would be stuck speaking with an administrator of the company, who would probably be more concerned with price than fresh business concepts. Their lack of authority and desire to make radical changes will often bring up obstacles that you are most likely used to dealing with. These can include current contracts that have yet to expire, budget restraints, and the lack of gumption to alter the status quo.
Those who actually run companies are interested in new concepts that can make their business more profitable and more productive. Coincidently, these people are the ones with the authority and desire to make changes when they have a compelling reason to do so.
Having a presentation that is positive and focuses on your innovative solutions and ideas will grab the attention of the actual decision maker. By abandoning the old fashioned presentation method of using comparisons, you will mark yourself as a leader in your industry. You will be seen as an expert in your field and will win sales at margins that support the level of service that your customer expects. In this position, you will be practically untouchable by your competition.
Your prospects will see that the creativity and preparation of your presentation reflects your business practices. They will assume that you will be just as unique and thorough in their fulfillment and service after the sale. This will separate you from the competition and facilitate a level of trust and loyalty that can’t easily be matched. Because of your presentation, YOU will get the attention of the decision maker, and YOU will get the sale!
Tom Richard is the author of a weekly ezine on selling skills titled, Sales Muscle. To subscribe to the free ezine send a blank email to subscribe@tomrichard.com
When companies think of employee development, they often search for training programs, educational seminars, coaching or the latest book that might offer ideas on what employees can do to sharpen skills or strengthen expertise. However, none of these programs will be effective if the organization lacks one critical success factor: individual motivation. An individual has to want to develop himself before any employee training and development program can be successful.
Some say they’re “too busy.” Some say they’re “already developed.” Some blame the boss. Some like burying their heads in the sand, afraid of what they might learn about themselves.
What can you do to help your employees achieve best performance?
Here are some tips to help motivate the seemingly unmotivated and increase your organization’s overall performance.
1. Target the highly motivated and strong performers.
All organizations have individuals who are highly motivated. They stand out more easily. They typically like challenges and welcome growth opportunities for themselves. Engage them in activities to help them get even better. The improved performance of the highly motivated will help raise the bar for your entire organization. Those who are less motivated will have to step up the pace.
2. Focus on the future.
Rather than concentrate on performance areas that aren’t working for an individual, talk about possibilities for the future. It’s easier to become energized about new possibilities than dwelling on weaknesses. Determine the positive outcome that will occur if a change/improvement is made. For example, you might say, “We can reach more buyers if you can speak more frequently to groups. What can you do to hone your presentation skills to help secure more business?” Help employees keep their eye on the goal, not their ego.
3. Open dialogue about desire.
Discussions about development should be positive and ongoing — not limited to annual performance reviews. Let the individual lead. Rather than saying, “Here are areas you need to develop,” ask “What would help you build on your strengths or increase your effectiveness?” When a particular approach has been identified, ask for commitment to follow-through. Create a culture where ongoing development is expected, encouraged and rewarded at all levels.
4. Start at the top.
Executives should model the commitment to growth and development that they want to see throughout the organization. After all, many problems disguised as employee development issues actually reflect leadership deficiencies of the firm or organization.
Consider using assessments of some kind to help employees gain a more objective perspective about them. Assessments can be helpful or destructive depending on how they are used.
In the end, it’s all about achieving what both the employees and what the organization wants. Be clear about what’s most important to both.
An employee development and training program is not something to be checked off on a checklist. The strongest organizations make employee development an integral part of their culture and strategies for success. They constantly seek new and innovate ways to engage their people in development opportunities to achieve best results.
Gayle Lantz, is an organizational development consultant and executive coach who works with organizations such as NASA, Southern Company and Compass Bank. She helps employees and organizations leverage their strengths to achieve important results. For more tips on how to make the most of your work, sign up for “WorkMatters Tips” at http://gaylelantz.com/signup/index.htm.
Joining an established team is very difficult. In most cases, team building happens with little intervention - the new team member is be welcomed and given time to bond, however in some cases the new team member will join a team with issues and where, regardless of the effort they make, they are unwelcome.
Consider the following when joining an established team.
Listen more than you talk - It is particularly important when you join a new team. Entering as a know-it-all, set in your ways will not endear you to existing team members. This holds true no matter where you are - from the US, Australia or the UK.
Team building will not be helped if you think you are better than everyone else.
Listen & learn from other team members - what they do, what sort of characters they are. Remember, people resist change, don’t tell them you know how to do things better than they do. Listen, you may even learn a better way.
Avoid sentimentality - keep references to the team you have just worked with to the factual. Your new team will not want to listen to your recollections of what a great group of people you worked with. Occasionally make positive observations about this team, don’t overdoing it.
Give respect to earn respect - even if you are joining the team at a senior level you cannot expect to automatically be given respect. The importance of earning respect rather than demanding it has been well documented already, but if you take time to listen, learn about other team members and understand why they fill the role they do in the team you will learn to respect them.
Don’t be patronising - under any circumstances. Take time to understand how your new team work. You may be surprised to find their way is better!.
Keep your promises, be reliable. - Don’t take responsibility for anything beyond you in the hope it will endear you to the team. Building rapport with other member is hard enough without overloading them with stress as a result.
Be a team player - if you feel insecure or unsure it can be tempting to work alone. Avoid this at all costs. Make sure you stay in the team by asking for help if necessary.
Keep lines of communication open - It is okay to admit you’re new and need support. Often people feel asking for help is a sign of weakness. Actually it can be one of the best ways of team building. You should avoid always approaching one person because they look friendly. Approach the person you consider most difficult first, the experience is often ground breaking.
Don’t argue - just don’t. Bite your lip; your time will come. Arguing when you are the new team member is a no win proposition. If you lose you undermine yourself and if you win you will have destroyed a relationship, hard to rebuild.
In the majority of cases your new team will welcome you and make every effort to help you. They will want it to work as much as you. Listen, understand what you don’t say will be as important as what you do say, be sincere and be yourself.
Team building takes time, team building takes patience, team building will not happen overnight.
James Coakes is Managing Director of Progressive Resources Limited, The Team Building Company. Progressive Resources was established in 1989 and last year organised more than 600 events for a wide range of corporate clients including BP, Sony and Virgin.
What is being professional? Do you think you measure up? What separates a professional from an amateur? In days gone by, the definition was simply this — if one was paid for something regularly, one was professional. Something followed for a hobby, or for fun, and not paid, was considered amateur.
Through the media and at school and college we are all repeatedly encouraged to be professional in our business dealings and working lives. What does one do to actually be
professional? And just as importantly, what does one not do?
The dictionary definition of ‘professional’ is “…engaging in an activity as means of a livelihood. Extremely competent in a job. A person who conducts his business in a field also pursued by amateurs. A person who engages in an activity with great competence.”
But is it just competence enough in isolation? Definitely not. Making yourself approachable and reasonable, and giving respect to other people is important. Ensuring that you present yourself in a businesslike manner, whether in person, on the telephone, or in writing, is essential. Turning up for an important business meeting with your favorite editor in torn jeans and dirty shoes is just sloppy. Being lazy and blaming lack of time or pressure of other commitments is definitely not professional. These constraints should not stop you making sure that you always project a businesslike appearance.
Perhaps the most vital aspect of being a professional is knowing your subject from A to Z. Do your homework and know exactly what you are talking about. Telling people B.S. may come easily to you, but being found out in a half-truth or bluff will lead instantly to a loss of credibility, putting in jeopardy your professional relationships while also compromising your integrity.
Something for everyone to be extremely careful about, not just writers, is not putting anything on paper unless one is completely and utterly comfortable with it. This applies equally to websites and particularly to email. Never send anything in writing when angry. Hold fire on any emails. Type out your frustration in Word, then leave it overnight to simmer. By morning you should have cooled down sufficiently to review your writing in a more rational manner. Sometimes printing out your rantings, then tearing them into a thousand pieces works well.
Another golden rule to being professional is not to commit to writing anything with which you are not totally comfortable. The acid test is to imagine your grandmother reading it. Or imagine it on the front page of a magazine or newspaper. Importantly, being accurate and taking responsibility for your decisions and actions is also the mark of a professional person. In developed countries, a firm grip on punctuality is important in a professional.
Sometimes being professional means knowing who best to delegate tasks to, and then having the courage to stand back. Being magnanimous and giving credit where credit is due is also a major part of being a true professional.
Looking professional is also part of it. To create a truly professional image, ensure you always wear clean and appropriate clothing, paying attention to grooming and personal cleanliness. Being reasonable, and fair, is important, but can be difficult if you are the only one doing it.
Being professional does not mean letting other people take advantage of you. Sometimes you may not be able to say what you would like, and holding your tongue and biting back certain comments may be difficult at times.
To sum up, it would seem that being categorized as professional means showing you have that rarest of commodities, common sense, and then, actually using it. Another major part is being adult, being considerate towards other people, and demonstrating self-control. No-one said it was easy, but it is definitely something worth striving for if you wish to be seen as a true professional, in a sea of amateurs.
By Erica of Textwriters.Net
http://www.textwriters.net
making words work
One morning at the airport, I overheard an employee talking about her new boss. “He’s a nice guy,” she said. “He makes me feel good about working here.”
Like many employees, this young woman is more influenced by her boss’s “soft” skills than his technical skills. His interpersonal skills were what mattered most: including his ability to communicate, motivate and showing genuine concern. These interpersonal traits influence people to decide to quit or stay. When a manager lacks these skills, or actively cultivates their hard-edged opposite, workers who have choices will jump ship or lower their productivity.
I experienced this myself when I went into the military service right after college. My boss was a special persona great boss. An experienced veteran and a former Special Forces medic, he was the type of person who always put the needs of others before his own.
One night I pulled duty that required me to stay up all night on New Year’s Eve. It was a night that seemed it would never end. I was tired and miserable. Saturday morning, when I still had several more hours to go, the phone rang. It was Joe, my boss. He asked if I had plans for lunch and that his wife had made something and wanted to bring it over to me. While I don’t remember what food they brought over, it was a meal I never forgot.
That one small act of kindness showed me he cared. It taught me more about leadership than all the degrees and diplomas hanging on my wall. It confirmed the truth of the old military saying, “If you take care of your troops, your troops will take care of you.” It’s still true today, no matter what kind of business you are in.
The older I get and the more I see reinforces that leadership techniques and fads change with the times, but caring about individuals holds constant. Caring for people can’t be faked or replaced.
On the other hand, no manager should be a pushover. A caring manager must also be respected. He or she must be able to generate results.
Soon after my boss treated me to that special meal, he gave me the worst chewing out I’d ever had. I deserved it and did something to deserve it. It hurt moreand made a deeper impression on mebecause of the respect I had for him. When you respect someone, you always value what he or she has to say.
Businesses that do a good job selecting, training, and developing their managers will enjoy higher productivity and lower turnover. While it’s hard to measure the impact soft skills have on productivity, I strongly believe an employee who feels good about working for a company or a boss will want to contribute much more than the minimum acceptable level.
In the years I led people, I never met an “average” workeronly people I saw the potential to become much better. I think it was General Omar Bradley who said, “There are no such thing as bad soldiers, only bad leaders.” Sure–the workplace has its share of problematic and difficult to manage individuals. There are many bad managers. But what I notice is good managers are able to transform difficult people into better people. Exceptional workers have exceptional managers as their leaders. The only difference between the two groups is the quality of the leader.
I imagine my first boss saw me as an “average” individual with a short attention span, high maintenance, inexperienced, and scattered brained. Fortunately for me, he took the time to train and develop me, even though it often frustrated him. He was a true leader. He understood leadership of people is a transformation process, and with the right tools and a willing attitude, he could make the transformation happen.
Gregory P. Smith
Greg Smith helps organizations accelerate workplace performance. He is a nationally recognized speaker and author. He has written five books including his latest, Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Transforming Your Workforce from High Turnover to High Retention. Greg has been featured on Bloomberg News, PBS television, and in publications including Business Week, USA Today, Kiplinger’s, President and CEO, and the Christian Science Monitor. He is the President of a management-consulting firm, Chart Your Course International, located in Atlanta, Georgia. Phone him at 770-860-9464. More articles available:
http://www.chartcourse.com
Hiring an employee can be a big step for many small business owners. It means the end of doing EVERYTHING yourself and passing off some of the work!
In order to make the experience rewarding for both you and your employees there are a few things that every boss and leader should do…
1) Reward people for a job well done. Its frustrating working for someone who enjoys all the financial rewards of the efforts put forth by the entire team, especially if they don’t recognize what everyone has accomplished and contributed.
It doesn’t take much to acknowledge the effort of your staff. It makes a HUGE difference in the working atmosphere when you take a few moments to acknowledge your team. People like to know that they’ve done a good job.
2) Always provide a balance between positive and negative comments. Your job as a leader is to recognize the talents of those around you and feed them with the motivation and positive energy to take YOUR ideas to entirely new levels. Help them serve you better by building up their confidence… not tearing it down.
3) Step up and accept responsibility for your projects. At the end of the day if things don’t go according to plan, in my opinion, the responsibility falls onto the leader’s shoulders. Stand up and accept the responsibility should anything ever go wrong.
If your staff always bear the burden of projects gone bad, it will drag people down and destroy your working environment. Start contributing to the emotional bank account of those around you.
If you acknowledge the behavior you want to see more of, you’ll start seeing more of it. Be positive and accept some responsibility when things don’t go according to plan.
4) When you have good people it’s your responsibility as a leader to hold on to them. People with talent will take your company to entirely new levels but if they keep leaving, the growth of your company will be stinted.
People with skills know that they have options. Hanging the carrot of a potential big pay day will only work for a certain period of time. After a while it wears off and they start looking elsewhere. The last thing you want is for them to end up with your competition.
So the moral of the story is find good people, train them, treat them well, and your business will take off.
Don’t let your brainchild go to waste! Discover how to start making money with your ideas by grabbing a special report entitled 11 Creative Methods To Make More Money With Your Ideas In Less Time And With Less Effort at your source for creativity
1. Retrain your self-talk, to remove selfish from your vocabulary and replace it with self-care. In order for you to take care of the people you love you need to take care of yourself first. Friends, family, loved ones look to you as a model, make sure to model self-care, taking time to play, relax, and read. This is especially important for parents; this will give your children the confidence to have the same healthy behaviors.
2. Give yourself time for delays and unexpected events. When mapping out your day add an extra hour cushion to your schedule. This extra time will keep you stress free and running on time if some of your appointments are delayed, or if you run into someone you haven’t seen in a while, so you can enjoy a spontaneous conversation without the guilt of running behind schedule.
3. Balance out your commitments. A great way to cut down on a hectic schedule is to balance out all new activities by removing an old activity. Don’t add anything new, work, classes, volunteer activities, etc unless you first remove something from your schedule to balance it out. This will help you to let go of projects and time wasters that no longer serve you.
4. No is not a bad word, in fact, it’s not only a complete sentence it’s a great stress reducing word. There is no need to justify or explain when you say no to someone’s request. Just give them a friendly smile thank them for including you and tell them you can’t do it this time. If you are having trouble getting used to saying no right away, tell the person you need some time to think about it, then call them later and decline to be involved this time.
5. Maximize your commute and errands. If you have errands to run for business or home combine them to one trip. Make doctor’s appointments for yourself or your family members back to back and see if you can get appointments first thing in the morning before the doctor is running behind. Order you business supplies online to save time, most business supply websites can store your most frequently ordered purchases in a file so all you have to do is select the item you want and have it delivered with just one click.
6. Improve your home environment one room at a time. Even if you have the budget for a complete makeover, remodeling and redecorating can be very time consuming and stressful projects. Try working on just one room at a time. Pick a few rooms in your house that you enjoy the most and spend most of your time in when your home. Select your favorite and create an environment that is pleasing to the eye and gives you comfort and positive energy. This will give you a haven in your home and the encouragement to tackle another room when you’re ready.
7. Being spontaneous is a very exhilarating feeling that gives you a real sense of freedom. Make sure to leave time in your life every week to be spontaneous. Cutting things out of your life that are time zappers and stressful will also give you the energy to be spontaneous. Keep at least two weekends a month free from scheduled activities. Then you can decide to take a short trip, have a date with your partner, a special family event, or kick your feet up and do absolutely nothing and feel wonderful about it.
8. Highlight those time wasters. Instead of just making up another long to do list so you can beat your self up about all the things you didn’t and couldn’t possible have accomplished in one day. Make a realistic to do list. Put the things that are most important to YOU on the top, then next to each item list the amount of time you think it will take to get it done. This will help you get your important things done and show you where your time wasters are.
9. Under promise and over deliver. This is very useful in business and in your life. By selecting reasonable deadlines you avoid the stress of crunch time, use your time effectively and you will be able to finish ahead of schedule giving you satisfaction for a job well done and turned in early.
10. Define what life and work without stress would look like to you. Describe what your ideal schedule is, what leisure activities you want to do and who you want to spend time with. By creating a detailed image of what a stress free schedule looks like, you can begin to take the steps necessary to clearing out the stress.
About The Author
©BZ Riger-Hull.www.in-spiros.com For valuable free articles, assessments, & practical success toolsmailto:A1@smartautoresponder.com Certified as a Success Coach, “Four Agreements” Facilitator, & Tele-Course leader We help you communicate powerfully, reduce stress, Strategically Attract success, & increase your financial well-being.
bz@in-spiros.com
