The count-down has begun. On Thursday the 30th of Sep at 18.00 GMT+1 at Klosterøya in Skien you can sign up to attend what I believe will be the most exciting 45 min training session you've ever experienced + get a signed copy of the 3E book. If you'd like to participate online, this too is possible.
"The 3 Energies Behind Sales Success" has the following message on the back of its cover:
|
Success a Bi-product of ExcellenceIn one form or another we all want something in life. That something or someone is how we tend to define success. However, success or what we get is only a bi-product of excellence. In other words, whenever we succeed it was because we reached an excellent or superior position in relation to what we want. Something happened that attracted the desired outcome, and that something is excellence. Therefore, what we really want is excellence; a state of mind or condition that naturally turns every surrounding force or person into an ally. Excellence on Three LevelsThe essence of excellence is effective communication on three levels. These three levels or energies dramatically affects your influence. We can influence people and circumstances, but it is by how we change ourselves that our capacity to influence increases. This will help you become a better spouse, father, mother, friend and neighbor. In short, 3E will not only enhance your sales talent, but also make you a better leader. |
|||||||||||
Sign up now! |
Did you ever work on something you knew deep inside was a waste of time? Or maybe it seemed important there and then, but long term it proved to have little impact? Sure you have. I certainly have. It happens to all of us, and to a degree it's good we've been there to know what it feels like. It's not a good feeling, is it?!
Let's pinpoint something that's definitely not good. For analytical purposes, let's simplify our working hours and divide everything we do into three categories - in general:
- Low impact - casual work effort (80%)
- High impact - planned structural labor (20%)
- Dramatic impact - great discomfort and pain (0%)
|
Let's define the two first categories to begin with, and then look at the last one that's suffering.
|
|||
80/20 Is an Excuse and Self Fulfilling Prophesy
Most of today's workforce spend 80% of their average time in low impact activity and 20% in high impact activity (yes, you've probably heard it before - 80% bring in 20% of the results and vice versa). However, these first two categories are dominant because it's what is expected of us, and sadly enough it's what we expect of each other, in total. That's why it's a well known pattern, but our own fault. Sad thing!
Of course, sometimes we do not work at all, but are on the phone with friends and family or are taking care of private matters. In this simplified analysis we class them as interruptions and we've left them out of the picture completely, as these activities are necessary to provide balance to our lives.
Taking Intelligent Action
We can, however, live and work more intelligently by taking a few simple steps. You see, if we want to move away from brainless living to take intelligent action, it will take a little more than just planning.
Moving beyond planning is done by taking regular time-outs to creatively think through our main objectives from a birds eye perspective, both individually and as a team. We do this by asking the basic WHAT, WHO and HOW questions to discover the stuff that will have dramatic impact on your business. These questions are so basic, they will bring you to the heart of the matter. Inevitably, you'll find that the suggested activities will mostly bring you "great discomfort and pain". In other words, you'll only do them if you are truly passionate about what it is you do. But, here's the magic: If you start doing them they will inspire Passion and more Intuition - a continuation of the process.
Surprisingly enough, if we listen to our intuition and act upon it, most of us know exactly what needs to be done, especially if you foster an atmosphere of openness and sharing. Silence and pausing is OK. But not only OK, reflection is extremely valuable. People need time to think and contemplate. Also, the more we act on intuition the stronger its guidance will become.
In Practical Terms
What really will make a difference is raising the bar by engaging everyone in a regular ongoing dialog to create a consensus aiming for a higher standard. For instance you might say; "Let's work smarter, and if smarter, maybe a little less..." Ask: "What will it take to make a dramatic difference, rather than a big difference, for which we're aiming right now?"
And where do you find the time to take such a time-out? By stealing from low impact activities. Typically I counsel our clients to get together during a Friday lunch or late Friday afternoon. That's where you'll usually find low impact activities, and a time-out like this usually is considered as fitting anyway. As a contrast, I would not typically engage in this type of dialog on a Monday morning. You probably see why..?
Thus, the real work is: 1) putting ideas down into writing and as measurable activities that will hold us accountable for results next time we meet and report, and 2) helping each other actually doing it - before we get "that other stuff" done which is less important, and really doesn't matter that much.
Today I watched an excellent clip produced by RSAnimate based on a talk by Daniel Pink. It describes some of the essence behind The WHY Questions: How people are driven by autonomy, mastery and purpose, rather than money when the task at hand is complicated, when it requires conceptual and creative thinking.
I recommend watching this 10 minute video. There's not a dull moment - promise!
Networking has taken on a new dimension the past few years. That's why it's time to ask a couple of serious questions. WHY should you nurture and build the people in your network? WHAT is important to the people in your network? WHO is important to you? HOW can you tell whether or not a person in your network is worth your trust and effort?
Only five years ago it was a lot easier to spot a true networker. These days, everybody is somehow into it. With the exploding social media everyone is connecting with friends, family and business associates. This however, does not mean that we're all networking networkers. Far from it!
|
A "networker" is someone who is genuinely interested in building value for the people he or she interacts with. The most basic trait of a skilled networker is someone that completely abdicates self interest by constantly asking: "What can I do for this particular individual - right now".
|
|||||||||||||||
Before Facebook, LinkedIn and all other networking solutions I kept my network of contacts in a spreadsheet with thousands of key people. For obvious reasons I no longer maintain contact information and current status updates manually like this. (And if you do, you're wasting time. Today's paradigm has moved towards "everyone updates their own information".)
WHY
So, why network? There are many reasons. The most obvious one is "because networking is a lifestyle, and it's the right thing to do". Right thing? Yes, people who care will find people who care. People who don't care will soon find themselves alone. To me that sounds like an irrefutable law to prove its validity and eternal principle. But there's another reason why sincere networking is so powerful: "Because it's smart". With a big network, you'll find that almost any task becomes much easier. There's always someone who knows someone that has what you need.
WHAT
The tricky part in networking is what. The reason being, offering people what they need is being flexible to take a time-out and help people as the need arises. That, as you know, is hard, simply because everybody has a hectic schedule. In my experience, the people who want to help are better at this than those who do, but don't want to. "Intent counts more than technique (Quote: Mahan Khalsa)."
Even more important, I'd say, is looking for opportunities. A good networker will respond to needs, reactively. On the other hand, an excellent networker proactively seeks to create opportunities to create value for others. He or she asks effective questions to uncover needs, connects people that overlap in purpose and effort, and maybe above all - follows up to make sure it went well. So many people create value, but when left without follow up, they miss reciprocity, which almost always appears in some form or another when you're seeking to finish what you started.
WHO
Who's important? That's easy. Everyone is. I'm serious! When interacting with humans you simply don't separate between important and unimportant. You may have a pressing need to speak with someone, but that doesn't make that single person more important or noteworthy than anyone else.
I often encounter people who obviously are too much occupied with title, rank and/or position. Over the years I've learned an important lesson. Hear it from me: First of all, people are of equal value and if you don't really believe it, you'll act accordingly and sooner or later it'll catch up with you. Secondly, but that's only nice to remember, you never know who's who in a few years from now. One quick example:
I once spent several hours helping a young man who was working for a small insignificant company. They had no budget and nothing to offer, it seemed. Because I was responsible for our companies' policies and because I did care, he received all the help he needed. One year later he contacted me again, this time as the CTO of a major corporation. As a result of my previous investment in time and effort we now partnered up and did BIG business.
HOW
How do we know if someone is worth our trust and effort? First, like I said, everyone's worth an effort. What about trust? Do you really want to know who you can trust? The answer is obvious. Whoever does and lives by the above mentioned characteristics:
- People who care because they care - without any thought of reward (WHY)
- People who offer to help when it's not convenient (WHAT)
- People who treat all people alike (WHO)
Be a networker, but make sure to rise above the crowd. It used to be like that. It still is!
Clients, just like small children and toddlers, have a crying engine that sometimes needs to run for a while before we reach the heartier matters - the stuff that really makes a difference and that defines customer needs. It's not necessarily logical, but it certainly is psychological.
Did you ever witness a child crying for a long time? And then, when you offer your comfort and help, the child is simply unable to stop crying for quite a while. Even several minutes after the crying has "officially" stopped, the child is still experiencing periodic and uncontrolled sobbing. This phenomenon is what I refer to as "the crying engine".
Crying Remains the Same
What does this have to do with influence and sales?
Grown-ups are experiencing much of the same feelings in many ways. We may not frequently let it all out in as easily a recognizable pattern as public crying, but the process and the pain is exactly the same. Effective sales people allow the client to go through that process - gently - both the growing awareness of pain moving down to the heart as well as the resolving of deep feelings of hurt and disappointment moving up and out. The concluding result is wonderful. The other person experiences great relief, which is a reward in itself, I feel! The bonus is that your odds of making a sale quadruples, if not much more.
Mind you, the old school of "problem and pain questions" is a solid and good one, but supposing that all customers need help like that is of course taking it much too far and will only lead to miscommunication in so many cases. This is one of several good reasons why of all the different sales systems I appreciate the flexible approach of "Helping Clients Succeed" by Franklin Covey so much.
Of all self defeating behaviors, the worst stain must be the illusion of change - the fact that most of us remain in old and ingrown patterns and either don't know it or don't believe we do. Real change is slow, rarely found and a tough, honest and soul searching process when it occurs.
|
Many years ago I studied the work of Robert E. Hardy on Self Defeating Behaviors (SDBs). Simply put, we tend to establish and maintain patterns, even those patterns that are self destructive. To begin with, that particular pattern or behavior served to help or protect us (which is why we established it), but when circumstances change and people mature, and because our approach is not principle based, it now hurts us, bars our way and keeps us from reaching new goals and higher levels of achievement. In other words, we hang on to patterns of behavior even though they don't treat us well. | ||||
Here's the bad news: We're all deeply entrenched in many self defeating behaviors. Most of them are hard to recognize. Many of them are difficult to admit to. Some are obvious and we hate to face them for what they really are. The good news is: We can eliminate SDBs, if we're willing to face them and deal with them.
Can you think of a self defeating behavior you're suffering from? How would you like to get rid of it?
|
Well, there certainly is no quick and easy answer to such a big and important question. However, for the sake of briefly introducing you to what matters most and how you can make it happen for real, here's what you should be looking into:
|
||||||
These three; Passion, Connection and Intuition represent a proven process for change, improvement and greater influence in the lives of the people around us, just to name a few benefits. You want this. You may not know it yet. However, sooner or later you'll find that success in any area inevitably will bring you to visit each of these three areas. Why not apply simple wisdom and humility by learning more, right now?
"If you tell me WHAT to do, I may do it for you. If you help me understand WHY I should do it, I'll want to do it and get it done, much better". The WHY makes all the difference. Why then, if WHY is so important, do leaders tend to forget its importance?
|
Every time I do training, coaching or any kind of work to improve a company's performance I see the same crucial principle at work: Unless individuals see and understand the WHY, no lasting improvement ever takes place. However, when WHY is clear, dramatic change can occur, sometimes even instantly and without resistance.
|
|||||||||||||
| A repeated flaw in leadership is forgetting to focus on individual perspective. When leaders try to make a significant difference, they mostly make their appeal to the masses. Thus, they forget that lasting change of habits and patterns is highly personal. We don't change groups of people as much as we change individual behavior. Help one person see the picture and you're well on your way to actually improve an entire organization. |
|
||||||||||||||
|
I witness both types of leaders every day and it's fairly easy to spot the difference between them. When leaders are personal and stick to individual follow up they are able to move large corporations. When they don't, they fail and fail miserably.
|
||||||||||||||
Make a Big DifferenceSo if you want to make a big difference, at least three energies are indispensable to getting results. Each energy has a principle attached that guides our efforts in becoming a change agent among people: |
|
||||||||||||
(1) Ask WHY / WHAT
Action: Ignite Passion by going one-on-one => inner conviction.
Passion is the energy that makes a person unstoppable. It lights up when WHY and WHAT becomes clear. Ask yourself the simple but tough questions: "Why am I doing what I do?" and "What am I about?"
(2) Ask WHO
Action: Make the Connection by executing plans together => shared conviction.
Connection is the energy that bonds us and causes us to succeed together. It brings a spark to every meaningful relationship when it becomes clear WHO matters most to us. Ask yourself the simple but tough questions: "Who is most important to me?" or "Who will give their all to the same mission as I have?".
(3) Ask HOW
Action: Stimulate Intuition by allowing individual freedom => discovered conviction.
Intuition is the energy that brings out the best in us. It shows the way in much the same way as our conscience. Individual answers will come to each of us as we deeply ask ourselves "How should I do this?" or "How can I best apply my talents and my style to solve these challenges?".
The slogan of any sales training should be "More business with better clients". More business is not necessarily good business. You've probably heard it before.
|
When sales people desperately want to succeed they tend to welcome any client into their sales funnel. Consequently, the pipeline is filled with an excess of bad business.
|
||||
When I was a young boy, I asked my father why he kept cutting down the different trees in our garden. In my mind, a big tree was a good tree. My father explained to me how a trimmed tree always lives longer and remains much more productive or fruitful. The same goes for sales and business!
Sales training is about getting back to basic. It's about focus. If training doesn't help you find which clients you want and HOW to do it, then training will only make you more busy doing what doesn't lead to profitable customers. Believe me, more business with poor clients, is not want you want.
To no other person is free enterprise so free as to the individual with sales skills coupled with a network of quality people.
|
There's is nothing like a business professional!
|
||||||
The essence of business development is creating win-win solutions. The only way to visualize and clarify win-win solutions effectively is by sharpening your sales skills. Why? Because sales skills is the WHAT, WHO and HOW to draw mental pictures of value in the mind of another person.
You may have great ideas about value creation (i.e. business), but your business plan comes alive only when you know how to execute it. Execution is helping people believe and work that plan. In other words: Selling!
Life will bring you dark moments. It hurts to go through them, but when you're proactive bright times will dominate your life and can in fact jumpstart your path to success. To a person in sales, with a lot of regular setbacks, this is an important lesson to be learned and can become a lifestyle that will make all the difference.
Yesterday was an awful day for me. Just terrible! In addition, I lost a major contract I expected to close. Everything I had scheduled was headed toward success.
However, not only did I fail miserably, but people and circumstances gave me clear feedback about mistakes I had made. If you're like me; I can live with failure because it's what success is all about, but making mistakes is ten times worse. It's personal and hurts more than failure.
|
So I was feeling low!
|
||
Did you ever find that when you look back on life, memories are mostly the happy ones. For some reason, most people tend to forget the dark moments, but savour the bright one's. In sum, all the happy moments appear to the mind as long and enduring bright times. (That's why we sometimes are inclined to think: "I used to be so happy, but now everything's so hard...")
So what can we learn from our ability to filter out the dark moments? How can this help us improve our lives on a daily basis?
Maintain Energy and Momentum
When you're experiencing a dark moment, accept it. Don't fight it. Strong and bad emotions are necessary opposites in a happy life. Let it pass by not making any serious or rash decisions. Close your mouth if you're tempted to take it out on the people around you. Listen more. Get involved in the lives of others and most importantly, retire early and let the body and mind rest it out.
Remember, late night moments are literally in the dark. If you retire early they will not last long. (During the night, your mind will be searching for answers and often find them, sometimes without you knowing it. Let the mind do the work for you.) In stead of extending the day - and the pain - by burning the midnight oil, rather choose to arise early and spend as much of your waking hours in the (day)light. It's a lifestyle that maintains your energy level and increases your momentum. The people around you will be surprised by your ability to get back up so soon after having taken such a serious beating, believe me!
Inevitably, dark moments will occur, however brief they might be, but bright times and feelings of happiness can and will dominate your life, now, not only in the past, if you want it to.
p.s. I'm well aware of chronic illnesses and serious depression, for which there certainly is no quick fix. What we're talking about here, though, is the tendency of any "healthy" person to sink into depression over matters that will evaporate if only you apply the principles outlined above.
Add comment