Showing posts with label Facilitating meetings Presentation skills training Public speaking Sales presentations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facilitating meetings Presentation skills training Public speaking Sales presentations. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Sales Skills - Do You Have What It Takes To Sell
If every sales professional understood the Principle of the Iceberg there would undoubtedly be less stress, less frustration, less inconsistency, and less dissatisfaction – more motivation, more trust, more money, and more fulfillment. Guaranteed!
In fact, regardless of how long you’ve been in the business, understanding and applying the Principle of the Iceberg in your sales career is fundamental to increasing both your finances and fulfillment.
The Principle of the Iceberg
It’s vital if you’re aspiration is greater than merely making a living – if you’re goal is living your best life. If you’re willing to re-calibrate your thinking and your approach to success according to this Law, you’ll find that your client relationships will stabilize, your earnings will surge, and your free time will swell, all to levels you never thought possible.
Living the Principle of the Iceberg begins by securing your truest measure of success. That’s because in the sales business, motives mean everything.
Motives dictate your mood, mentality, and moves while serving a client. And motives will make or break you when it comes to establishing loyal, lucrative relationships.
The Principle of the Iceberg says that the truest measure of your success is invisible to a client. That’s because the majority of real success occurs on the inside of a salesperson, not on the outside.
Your fulfillment – not your finances – should dictate true success. Starting out to make money is the biggest mistake you can make. And if you’re in the sales business for that reason alone, you’re headed for a lot of heartache. Let me explain.
Think of yourself as an iceberg floating in a body of water. Imagine that the part of the iceberg beneath the surface of the water represents what’s on your inside: your values, your deepest desires, your mission, and your purpose in life; and the part of the iceberg above the surface of the water represents what’s on your outside: your career, your titles, your finances, and your possessions.
Now, if you’ve ever read anything about icebergs, you know that very little of the mass of an iceberg shows above the surface. In fact, experts estimate that on average only 10% of the entire mass of an iceberg appears above the surface. What that means is that 90% of the mass is beneath the surface, invisible to those above the water. Simply put, what you see above the surface is not an accurate representation of an iceberg at all. It’s just the tip. And the same is true of sales success. What’s appears on the outside doesn’t accurately represent whether your successful.
What Lies Beneath
Imagine what would happen if we could saw off the entire foundation of an iceberg beneath the surface. Without it’s foundation below the water, what would happen? If it were a substantial iceberg, it would begin to sink until there was enough of it submerged to regain its balance. It would probably remain standing, but the proverbial tip of the iceberg would be much smaller than it once was (90% smaller to be precise). And the iceberg would certainly become much less stable, and much easier for the changing tide to displace.
If it were a small, thin iceberg that had its underwater base removed, the tip above the surface would most likely fall over. And, without a solid foundation, the iceberg would become slave to the ever-changing ebb and flow of the tide. In fact, without a foundation, a small iceberg may cease to be an iceberg altogether.
In similar fashion, without a solid foundation beneath the surface of your sales career, your outward success as a salesperson will never be stable or consistent. Furthermore, you’ll always have difficulty establishing trust with your clients because you’re not trustworthy. You see, most people can discern the difference between a salesperson who’s out to make a dollar and one who’s out to make a difference. And the longer you continue building your sales career without a proper foundation, the greater the likelihood that your career will come toppling down.
Let’s face it: Many people get into the selling business in the first place because they want the outward success: the big money, the nicer car, the bigger house. That’s how most sales positions are marketed aren’t they? Come work for us and we’ll make you rich is the common recruiting pitch. A nice base salary with great earning potential. You could make a killing! I’m sure you’ve heard that message before.
Superficial Success
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that more money and nicer things are wrong for a sales professional to desire. Who doesn’t want those things? As a matter of fact, material increase is a fair reward for being good at what you do. But when you try to build a successful sales business solely on the basis of attaining such above the surface things, your career is likely to share a fate similar to that of the sawed off iceberg. It will bob up and down, teeter, and eventually sink or tip over.
For more than 15 years EffectiveCommunication.com.au has interviewed, trained, and coached sales professionals, and the one factor we have found that prohibits them from succeeding more than any other single factor is this: lack of purpose!
Most haven’t answered the “Why” question for their careers. In other words, the majority of unsatisfied salespeople become that way because their jobs aren’t aligned with a greater sense of purpose. And it shows: in their methods of doing business, in their relationships with clients, and on their faces.
Your Deeper Purpose
The problem is that they’re trying to build their career from the outside in. They’re looking for inner satisfaction from the outward things. But that’s backwards. And while the desire for money and material things (or anything else inferior to purpose) can keep anyone motivated early on, when the time between sales starts to grow, it’s rarely enough to keep one afloat.
Let’s be honest. Salespeople are notoriously 'gung ho' out of the starting gate. We’re self-starters, highly motivated, and highly ambitious. But if time wears on and sales grow harder to come by, it becomes increasingly difficult to remain hopeful and excited about what we’re doing. And eventually, moving on to something new begins to sound much more appealing than sticking it out.
If you’ve been there, or close to it, there’s a way to make sure you don’t go there again. It’s called “pull-power,” and it’s the key to following the Principle of the Iceberg.
If you’ve never taken time to determine deeper purpose beneath your career then your road to following the Principle of the Iceberg must start there, beneath the surface, on the inside, before you will ever be truly satisfied and successful on the outside. But once you identify your higher purpose with regard to success and sales career, and begin to align that purpose with your activities and goals, you create what’s called pull-power, which is the greatest motivating force for the work you perform.
Pull-Power vs. Will-Power
Pull-power is the antithesis of will-power, which is merely self-generated energy that produces short-term accomplishment but rarely sustains long-term achievement. To exploit pull-power in your career you must know why you do what you do.
When you know why you are selling, your answer then becomes the force that literally motivates or pulls you along, in good times and bad, when sales are red hot and when they’re ice cold. Pull-power is your inner accountability, your constant heart-wrought reminder of the deeper reason you are a salesperson. The problem is that most salespeople get ahead of themselves. Most spend the better part of their early days trying to figure out the “Hows” of their jobs. How can I sell more? How can I make more money? How will I meet my quota? How can I motivate my team to produce more?
They’re all questions that have their place. But answering them is not the foundation of a successful sales career. It’s not enough to know how to be a good sales professional. That’s just head knowledge. To become a successful, trustworthy salesperson you must first have heart knowledge. You must know why you want to be a salesperson. You must make sure that answer is clearly written on your heart. And guaranteed that once you make this determination, you’ll find that the "Hows" of successful origination become much clearer and easier to apply – in fact, your daily actions simply become the manifestation of what’s on your heart.
That’s how successful selling should be
All the best with your sales!
Posted in
Facilitating meetings Presentation skills training Public speaking Sales presentations,
Presentation,
presentation coaching,
public speaking training
by effectivecommunication.com.au
Sunday, January 31, 2016
LEADERSHIP - DO YOU HAVE THE X FACTOR?
It's no wonder that talent contests like the international TV franchise 'The X Factor' is popular across so many nations and viewed by millions and millions of people.
Why?
Well one key reason is that many viewers like to witness, listen to and watch someone carry and demonstrate the natural gifts plus, learned and practiced skills that give a person the edge, or what commercially minded people call a differentiation!
Trust is a leader's X factor to accomplishing things faster, better and with fewer resources. However, trust must be earned. It cannot be taken for granted. A lot of leaders give lip service to wanting to build a trusting environment, but yet they do very little to actually promote it.
Establishing a culture of trust takes a top down initiative
A necessary element in building trust is open communication. People need their leaders to share the company's priorities and what they need to do. As an employee, they want the opportunity to voice their concerns and get their questions answered. When workers feel they are "in the know," they become more satisfied and productive. They contribute ideas that will lead to things like greater efficiency or cost savings.
Some executives think because they have an annual meeting, they are building a trusting environment. Communication that is effective should happen often, whether it is done formally or informally, face to face or virtually.
The retiring CEO of RW Baird, Paul Purcell, has promoted open communication throughout his 22 year tenure at RW Baird. He makes a point to respond to any email within 24 hours. One of the reasons people see RW Baird as a great place to work is because employees feel they can communicate all the way to the top and be heard.
When and if there is a crisis, some Executives mistakenly believe the best course of action is not to say anything until everything is known or decided. The opposite is true. Communication should be done early and often; otherwise, the rumor mill will take over.
Employees should never hear about their company through the news media. Every employee, whether they are in India, China or Chicago, needs to know what the company's situation is and how to respond when asked.
Real leaders build trust through the way they communicate. They walk the talk and create channels of communication that give employees the opportunity to discuss issues of concern at any time. They are open to feedback and solicit it.
When leaders need to listen, they do so objectively. When they respond, it is in a respectful, non-defensive manner. Trusted leaders demonstrate respect, integrity and compassion in what they say and do. Because of this, their employees are more collaborative and innovative. Their companies are more successful.
All the best with your leadership!
Posted in
Business presentations Presentation skills training Sales presentations,
Facilitating meetings Presentation skills training Public speaking Sales presentations
by effectivecommunication.com.au
COMMUNICATE EMOTION – YOUR FAST LANE TO MOTIVATE BUSINESS ACTION
Can you remember a time when you attended a meeting, only to be lulled into an occasional listening mode because of one dull fact after another?
Just like you, your audience during a presentation will tune out quickly if you don't capture and hold their attention. After all, most business professionals have a lot on their minds.
Presenters who want their ideas remembered must electrify their audience by moving them emotionally throughout their presentation. It is the fast lane to motivation and action. So how do we accomplish this?
1. Verbal Images
Create enough detailed images for your audience to assemble a mental picture of what is being described. For example, if you want to change a policy or procedure, help people to see the dire consequences for not making the change or conversely, the positive responses customers will have to a new process.
Draw word pictures, but remember that the word pictures you have created must be powerful enough for your audience to see the same thing you envision in their mind's eye.
2. Strong Language
Create enough detailed images for your audience to assemble a mental picture of what is being described. For example, if you want to change a policy or procedure, help people to see the dire consequences for not making the change or conversely, the positive responses customers will have to a new process.
Draw word pictures, but remember that the word pictures you have created must be powerful enough for your audience to see the same thing you envision in their mind's eye.
3. Tell Stories Tied to Business Point(s)
People get very involved with stories, particularly personal stories. Sharing your emergency room experience of the ER doctor's inability to access your recent x-rays, would really highlight the need for new technology. Your wild travel story or your child's soccer goal will be remembered long after the fact as long as it is tied to a business point.
Although not personal, client or customer stories or examples are also winning. They explain a lot more than just the numbers. They put a face on the client or customer and motivate people to correct issues affecting people's lives and businesses.
4. Visual Aids & Demonstration
Not to be overlooked are Visual Aids and Demonstrations. Nobody dreams about bullet point lists, but pictures speak louder than words. Easy access to the web means that all of us have the ability to insert powerful images into our presentations.
In terms of demonstrations, imagine the power of holding up a stapler to make a point about the pain associated with testing for diabetes or a large ball of rubber bands to indicate how a client's network is in dire need of an update.
Most people would say they make decisions based on facts, but the reality is emotion is proven to be a stronger and hidden motivator. Vivid images stir the soul to action.
As you plan and review your content for your next meeting or presentation, ask yourself, "Have I moved people emotionally?" “Have I created what I want them to imagine?
All the best with your future business communications!!!
