by Admin | Apr 19, 2015 | Business Relationships, Mindset
Are there days you ask yourself why you do what you do? I know many of the professionals I coach will stop and ask themselves this question. Often when they are experiencing not so great results from a lot of hard work. We spend 1/3rd of our days at work, sometimes more. And that’s ½ of our waking hours. We enter the workforce when we are 20 (sometimes sooner) and we exit at 70+ (remember the ‘new normal’ with retirement planning and social security- don’t get me started) that’s 50+ years you devote to a professional career. God promises us 3 score and 10 (translates to 70 years in non-Bible math) in our life. So if we are promised a lifespan of 70 years and more than 2/3rds of that is devoted to our profession, shouldn’t it be something worthwhile? I ask you these questions to get you thinking about what you do in sales. I was visiting with a group of sales professionals who thought by expanding their relationship with their clients it would appear as if they were ‘just selling more stuff’. Is that really what you consider a career of sales? People buy solutions from people they know, like and trust. I don’t know about you, but if someone is ‘just selling something’ they don’t fit into the ‘know, like and trust’ category. There are a few really smart people I know that are always seeking innovation. They adopt new habits, buy new technology and hire the best service providers. I call them when I am looking for a solution. I do this because I –...
by Admin | Feb 4, 2015 | Business Relationships, Prospecting
In an introductory meeting this morning I had a potential referral partner make a profound statement. He said ‘my number for my clients needs to be 1-800- HELP – ME’. This was shared as he related the position he consistently worked to achieve with his clients. He wanted to be the first call they made when they had an issue and his role was to serve as a gateway to whatever solution his clients needed. He just happened to be a financial advisor. Note he didn’t say he wanted to be the gateway to whatever financial solution his clients had, but any issue they had. What this highly successful professional recognized is that to earn a position of trust with your relationships, you need to invest effort in building emotional capital through serving their needs, beyond his self-interest. What advice do you provide? Are you strictly a subject matter expert about your field? Or are you smart about business and an avenue to resources needed? One of the first areas of self discovery to explore with your clients is how do they view you. This is one of the most important discussions you can have with them. You notice the conversation needs to take place with your clients – this is not an exercise in contemplation of your navel. I don’t care about what youthink your clients think about you, I care about what they actually think. Their perception is your reality. Like it or not. By interviewing your clients you gain insight into your true value proposition and also this gives you the chance to explore all of the issues on the periphery of you...
by Admin | Dec 14, 2014 | Business Relationships, Goal Setting and Achievement, Networking
What an amazing year! And like the one before, it seems to get faster and faster as we get older. One of the greatest benefits of aging is gaining wisdom through life experiences – both your own and others. As we reflect on 2014 and look through our experiences, I encourage you to think of who enriched your life this year. If your schedule is like mine, holiday parties, family activities, gift buying, wrapping up year end, etc all seem to take every spare moment until there is not a single moment to just be. I encourage you to really take a few moments, carve them out, and look back on who really added to 2014. I was reading a great article this weekend in the Huffington Post that talked about the 5 lists to make in reviewing your year. After reviewing their list (and enjoying the post tremendously) I thought I would share with you my own top 5 lists to make. And in the spirit of our tagline – SalezWORKS where relationships meet opportunity, I will talk with you about the top 5 lists of relationships to develop, nurture and grow in 2015. 1. Let’s start with your top new relationships in 2014 – this one is a pretty obvious place to begin. Take a look back at the people who have led you to great new clients, introduced you to new productive referral partnerships, enriched your knowledge base or has just proven to be a fabulous person to know. All of these are critical components belong in your center of influence. If you wish...
by Admin | Aug 5, 2014 | Business Relationships
I remember my dad’s advice at a young age – the best way to ensure mediocrity is to attempt to make everyone happy. It reminds me of a quote from Aristotle, “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” It seems as if you are taught early in your career, the customer is always right is rule #1. And rule # 2 is when the customer is wrong, read rule #1. That is instilled into us early and often in our career and in my humble opinion – it sets us up to be doormats. Miller Heiman talks about how our relationships with clients fit into one of 4 quadrants – win/win, win/lose, lose/win and lose/lose. We know we want to live in the first quadrant, but yet often set ourselves up for one of the others through expectations that are established. We then second guess or undermine our own position, try to anticipate what the other person wants and in general make life much harder than it has to be. Here are a few ideas I myself continue to work towards in win/win relationships. Know when I win. Whenever I am looking at an opportunity, I am thinking about what does a great outcome look like for me. This seems simple but often times we think of a superficial outcome without really looking deeper into the implications. Think of the really really big client that could represent a lot of revenue or income to you personally, but limits your ability to find any other accounts. You may end up losing in the...
by Admin | Jul 7, 2014 | Business Relationships, Networking, Social Media
It all started with the Super Bowl. In our household (males are well represented) the Super Bowl is the evening program that is not to be missed. This year, like many other folks, I found my entertainment in the commercials and conversations on Twitter. I have found Twitter to be a delightful way to keep up with content delivered by thought leaders across many industries and listen in on great conversations. One of the conversations I was enjoying regarding commercials was led by my Linked In hero – JD Gershbein. This blog post features how social media created one of the most exciting events I have been privileged to participate in and has opened the door to a fabulous relationship. There’s a lot to this experience and we will be sharing in several posts over the next few weeks along with lessons we learned along the way. My mentor on social media is my business partner, Joyce Layman. I have listened to many ideas she shares on making the most of Twitter. One of the basic tasks on Twitter that often gets missed is acknowledgement of mentions. It is one of the few platforms that you can stand out amongst a lot of noise and engage directly with some pretty cool people. During the Super Bowl JD shared a great article that I enjoyed enough to retweet to my followers (all 186 of them want to be my friend on Twitter? I need more friends). Of course JD immediately acknowledged my retweet (He is the most gracious gentleman you will ever meet) and I responded with a reply to...
