Expert or not

Are you an expert in your field? Do you want or need to be an expert in your field? These are two of the questions many business owners and sales people ask themselves consistently. There is a fine line between being an expert and having expert knowledge. Some people will tell you to be an expert. However, I believe being an expert limits your scope while having expert knowledge allows you to share what you know. I have believed the motto, “brains on tap not on top” . You cannot achieve expert status in everything you do so it is better to focus your “expertness” on one or two categories and obtain knowledge to share from other experts to share with your prospects, customers and clients. When you do this you free up time to focus on what is important to everyone involved and clients will appreciate you for being concise.

What happens when a client asks you a question that is out of your area of expertise? Do you freeze? Do you stutter? Do you make stuff up? I hope you do none of the above. The best answer if you don’t have an answer is, “That’s a great question let get the correct answer for you” . Most people appreciate your honesty and truthfully don’t want you to know everything. They just want the correct answer to their situation and as long as you provide it to them they really don’t care if you knew it or obtain it from somewhere else. As a matter of fact most clients feel more comfortable with people who don’t know everything and utilize a team approach of experts. So obtaining expert knowledge is the ability to use others knowledge to further your own expert knowledge which you in turn then share with prospects to increase your sales and business. In conclusion, be the person with “brains on tap not on top” , to solve your client’s questions not the expert with a limited scope of knowledge.

Gratitude

Gratitude is the art of showing appreciation to others. In business gratitude goes a long way in making your clients feel appreciated. There is an old quote, “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.” – Theodore Roosevelt. How do you show your appreciation to your clients? Most sales people don’t understand how to show gratitude and make their clients feel appreciated. Gratitude is a simple process. It is sending a thank you card for meeting with you, it is a happy birthday call to a client, and it is sending a Happy Thanksgiving card or a Happy New Year’s card. Anytime you put the client’s interest first you are practicing gratitude.

Gratitude must be sincere or your clients will know it. A client wants to know that you care showing gratitude makes them understand that. So, make sure you are showing your clients your gratitude because gratitude leads to referrals and referrals lead to increased sales. "Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy." Fred De Witt Van Amburgh. So as you can see the more gratitude you show the greater the potential reward for you and your business.

Getting Your Point Across

When you are speaking with staff, a potential client or a good client what you say at the beginning and the end of your conversation will be remembered longer than almost any other part of your conversation. This is why it is important to have a formula for when speaking with people whether it is a large group or a one on one. Remember to tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them and then tell them what you told them. Always finish your conversation with a summary repeating the main points of your conversation. Not everyone closes a conversation with powerful, stirring words that live on in memory so make your points are clear and concise so they are understood. Do not be shy, have a plan before you start that covers the topics you want to cover and stay focused on those topics. Speakers have a tendency to get off topic or distracted and then do not get their point across. Getting your point across helps you make more sales or acquire more business.

Another way to get your point across is to use story telling. Story telling can be very powerful because it intertwines your idea inside of a story your audience can relate to. It is important again to stay on point so that the story illustrate your key ideas and clearly links to the key message that you are making with your conversation. Don’t leave it to your audience to figure out for themselves, make sure you get your point across. So as you can see when you get your point across you will define where you stand and how the client benefits and in the end isn’t that the whole point of having a conversation in the first place.

Motivation

What is your motivation? Motivating yourself and/or your staff is the most important part of your day. When we self-motivate we get our minds straight and prepare ourselves for the day ahead. There are many ways to motivate yourself and others such as incantations, positive affirmations and exercise. When you have positive motivations you tend to accomplish more, your day goes better you make more sales. Start your day with comments like, “I will or I am”. Staying motivated is a lot easier when you stay positive.

I learned very early on money should not be your motivation for your success. Money should be a byproduct of being motivated and having success. One of the reasons most small business owners and sales people don’t succeed is they start their business thinking about how much money they are going to make instead of focusing on how they want their business to grow. Their motivation to succeed goes away when they aren’t earning the money they thought they would. When you stay motivated you will watch your business grow and sales increase

Perseverance

Perseverance goes a long way in determining a person’s success. Dale Carnegie said, “Burning enthusiasm, multiplied with patience and perseverance, always brings success.” How do you persevere? Do you give up easily? If you are then you are giving up just before you are ready to achieve that unbelievable success you have been trying to reach for oh so long. It is said that most people quit right before they achieve success, basically those people stopped persevering.

Perseverance isn’t being annoying or over selling. Perseverance isn’t forcing people’s hands. Perseverance is making that last call, perseverance is following up on the client you haven’t been able to close just yet and perseverance is not quitting until you succeed. When you persevere good things happen. When you make that extra call even if it doesn’t lead to a sale with that customer somehow you receive a call from someone you have been working on for a long time. When you persevere, life gets better, sales come easier and your business grows so persevere and never give up. A good salesman or business owner understands the best way to create success is to keep moving forward and never stop persevering.

Think

Did you ever notice when we make time to think creativity blossoms. Sales ideas come out of nowhere when we make time to think. When you want to create a new business, or a product, or you’re trying to determine how to increase your sales and revenue, it is important to find a quiet space or time frame for focused thought. In today’s world of high tech and always being connected it can be hard to find that elusive quiet or down time to think.

Here are some ideas of how creative thinkers find time to think of new ideas:

Turn off your devices and eat a meal by yourself. Your mind will then be free to unload any stress, relax and incorporate new ideas. Play a game and let your mind wander. Games such as Sudoku, other word games or even card games get the creative side of your brain moving. Create short breaks into your daily routine. I call them mental health breaks and they can be as little as one hour or can be a whole day. Find that place of solitude where the daily grind strips away. If you are a work out person go early when it is empty and combine your workout with music and watch the creativity flow. Make time for yourself by taking a vacation or at least a long weekend.

Why is it essential to create time to think? Thinking is what our brain does all day in our subconscious. The ideas are already there however we must create the downtime for the ideas to come to our conscious mind. When we allow the time to think and our ideas start flooding our thoughts we become innovative and we see our sales increase.

Connect

How well do you connect to others? In life and in business the key to successful relationships is connecting with others. There are many ways to connect with people and it is how you utilize those connections which will determine your success.

When connecting with others are you the type that is looking for something out of the relationship or are you listening and seeing what you can do to help that individual? The most important connection we make is the personal connection. This is the connection that carries the most weight and it allows the person we are connecting with to know us, to understand us and to feel comfortable with us. When you connect on this level people trust you. You become “their guy”. The greatest compliment you can ever receive is when someone says “I’ve got a guy” and they mean you! When you are “the guy” people refer you and with that referral they are transferring their trust in you. These are the greatest referrals and show that you have connected.

Have you become the bridge that allows others to connect through you? When you are “the guy” people will call you for referrals and ask if you know “a guy” . When you achieve this status your business is ready to explode. Connecting in these ways creates the trust you need to succeed. Make sure you are making all these connections and watch your business soar!!

Successful Saturdays

So in yesterday’s post I spoke of taking a day off as a reward for doing well. Today I want to tell you why it is imperative to your business to work Saturdays. The world has changed and more and more people work different shifts and different hours however the majority of people are still home on Saturdays and therefore it is still the best day to make prospecting calls, set appointments and to close business.

Successful Saturdays, as I call them, are built on working a few intense hours and staying focused on your plan for that time period. It doesn’t have to be a full day just make sure you treat the amount of time as if it was a full day. Successful Saturdays are not for follow up or service work although you should always complete service work if it is asked of you. Four to five hours on a Saturday is equal to eight hours during the week because of the availability of your potential prospects, customers and clients. So take Friday off if you earn it but work Saturday to increase your sales production!!!

Friday = Happy Day!!

Everyone loves Friday!! It’s the last day of the work week for most and it generally means two days off to relax and have fun. For business owners and sales people there are no set days off. You wake up every day with the thought I need to make a sale or bunch of sales. This might mean working Saturday or even Sunday. Business owners and sales people don’t have a specific happy day, however, you need to.

The best sales people work hard and play hard and they understand the need for time off. Everyone needs a release and you do too. Set goals which cover all aspects of your business such as prospecting, appointments and sales. When you obtain your goal give yourself a day off and when I say “take a day off”, that means turn your phone off also, the calls can wait. By giving yourself a day off, one you earned, you will feel energized, relieved and less stressed. A day off that you earn for yourself is a mental health day, it allows you to relax, take a deep breath and not feel like you missed anything. It allows you to return to the daily grind with a refreshed attitude.

I make sure I hit my goals every week and take Friday’s off. What is going to be your day off?

Relationship building

Success in business and in life means different things to different people. However, one fact is universal, if you want true success you must be able to build truly magnificent relationships. The only way to create real success is to treat everyone you meet with kindness, respect and the way you would want to be treated. Don’t get me wrong you can have monetary success without treating others with kindness and respect however you will never achieve the long term success you are looking for.

The successful business owner and salesperson achieves the success they are looking for by following these rules:

Take the blame.

Be the proactive person, don’t say it wasn’t my fault. Accept the blame even if it wasn’t your fault and resolve it. When you resolve other people’s issues it helps to reinforce your relationship.

Listen for the need, understand the need and then present the solution.

This sounds so simple, yet most business owners and sales people miss this because they miss the clues. Sometimes your client is looking for guidance, direction or just an honest opinion and we are so in tuned with dispensing product or sales that we miss what they are looking for and what they really want is your advice. Giving the advice might not get you the business you want today but will build the relationship you need to get that sale at some point. Remember the relationship creates the sale.

Be the leader.

People who build great relationships don't just think about other people they lead them to where they need to be not where they want to be. We have all heard, “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink”, but that’s not true if you build the relationship. When you lead the relationship people trust you and will drink if you lead them there.

Take responsibility for your actions.

Apologize when you make a mistake. Have you ever made a mistake, realized it and thought, “Its ok I don’t think anyone else noticed”? More people noticed but didn’t call you out on it and in truth they were looking to see how you handled it. Maybe that’s why they didn’t come back to you for business or maybe they lost a little respect for you. When you make a mistake most people will forgive you if you own up to it right away. You’re human own up to your errors and become that trusted advisor everyone is looking for. This is one of the absolute keys to building outstanding relationships.
Create mutually beneficial relationships.

There is no bigger turnoff than one sided relationships. If you show you only care about what you receive without giving something of HUGE value in return you are not creating a relationship that will last. The individual who builds great relationships doesn't think about what they want they think about what they can do for others. They understand that giving is the best way to create an outstanding relationship and a long lasting connection. When you approach relationship building as if it's all about the other person and not about you then you will create the outstanding relationships that will broaden your business.

Clarity

Are you clear when dealing with your staff and clients? When you have a clear transparent message it is obvious to everyone that you have their best interest at heart. Clarity in your daily dealings with your staff is a must because your staff is your first client. When you treat your staff as your first client then they understand how to treat your clients as you would. Clarity creates a vision and sets you apart from others.

Have you ever heard of an elevator speech? An elevator speech is what you would say to someone in 30 seconds or less about what you do. It can be considered a "commercial" for your business and the reason it is called an elevator speech because it should last as long as it takes people to ride from the top to the bottom of a building in an elevator. If you aren’t clear and concise you will never be able to get your “commercial” across to others.

Everyone would like to increase their sales and clarity of plan, clarity of what you expect from others and clarity of what you will do for others will help you increase your sales. When you or your staff are meeting with clients stick to the benefits of the products you offer. Make sure your points are clear and concise and you will see a greater percentage of customers agree to do business with you.

Poise

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel no matter what you do you are losing it? You are so rattled you are not even sure you will be able to get through the day. Every prospecting call is going wrong, every customer contact doesn’t turn out how you want it to and every client is demanding more service than you can possibly give that day.

So what gets you through the day? Poise is what allows you to succeed. Successful business owners and salespeople use poise to make sure they get through the day and transition to a better day the next day. Poise is being confident and having composure. Poise is being able to keep your head while everyone else around you is losing theirs. Sometimes our clients and or staff tend to lose their poise first it is our responsibility to keep our poise and keep the situation from getting out of control. It might be telling someone you won’t speak with them until they are a little or even a lot calmer. If you keep your poise your clients will recognize it and you will in turn have a better relationship with them.

Poise also shows a calmness surrounding you. People like people who are cool, calm and collected, just don’t be too cool that annoys some people. Have you ever been on a boat and marveled at how calm the seas were? Didn’t it make you feel incredibly calm and serene? When you can acquire those traits your clients and staff will see you that way. When everyone around you sees that you don’t lose your poise when something goes wrong they will follow your lead. If you can succeed at staying poised you will see an increase in your business, in your sales and in your life in general.

Trust

For a moment imagine your best client. All the years you’ve spent nurturing the relationship which has led to the formation of trust between you and your client. In the beginning there was no trust just a prospect who was willing to listen to you. Maybe they liked your personality because it matched with theirs, maybe they liked your persistency or maybe they just couldn’t find anyone else to sit with. As the years went on that first appointment turned into early morning calls with questions about college planning or late night calls whether they had enough insurance. Whether you have been in sales for one year or many years these calls are what help build trust between you and your client. Trust is built over time, sometimes many years and sometimes very quickly. If you are to build trust you must understand the client’s needs. You must listen and learn what makes them excited, what it is that makes them get up in the morning and live.

Zig Ziglar says, “If people like you, they will listen to you, if people trust you, they will do business with you.” So if you want to build long-standing relationships then take the time to cultivate the trust between you and your client. At the same time you better be creating that trust between the important people in your client’s life. The biggest mistake most salespeople and business owners make is they only build the trust between the client and themselves. What about the spouse, or the client’s children? Would you have earned enough trust with the spouse or children to continue that business relationship if something should happen to your client? The key to earning trust with a client is to building the trust throughout their family. When you have earned that trust keep building on it. Trust will not only earn business from your client it will also lead you to new business through referrals. People who trust you refer you to others. So learn to establish trust become your clients trusted advisor and watch your business grow!

Ownership

What is ownership? Ownership can be loosely defined as owning something such as a property, whether it is intellectual, land or a building. However, in the business world and sales don’t you own your time, effort and thoughts? It is important to understand the difference. As a salesperson we must learn to own our time. In other words, we must own the idea of taking the time to complete our daily requirements to succeed. Without owning our time we tend to fail at our daily prospecting or our daily appointments. So as you can see owning our time creates the vision necessary to complete your day.

Another area of ownership that most business owners and salespeople fail at is effort. When we own our effort we never short change ourselves or our businesses. You must own your effort. An example might be when you are working you are working you aren’t playing video games, checking emails or taking longer than necessary lunches. Effort is focused on what you plan on accomplishing for the day. It may be seven new leads per day or x amount of closes per day. That is your ownership of effort.

Lastly, we must own our thoughts. As Mahatma Ghandi said, “Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.” To truly succeed in business as an owner or salesperson you must wake up every day owning your thoughts. Your thoughts allow you to succeed or fail depending on how you own them. If you wake up and allow negative thoughts to enter into your mind then you have failed at owning your thoughts. Think of your thoughts in such a way that only positive ideas and thoughts enter your mind when you complete this you will see how ownership of all things will help you to succeed.

Focus

Have you ever had a week where you didn’t close enough sales? You made all the correct prospecting calls. You had enough appointments and the appointments even went well but just didn’t end up in sales.

Did you consider that you might not have been as focused as you normally are? Focus is the difference between top producers and the mediocre producer. That additional focus the top producer has usually relates to the extra sales the mediocre producer does not. Sometimes even the top producer can lose his focus and therefore not have his or her best week.

So the question is, “How do I maintain that top focus?” Here is a list of ideas top producers practice:

1. First in last out - Top producers are usually the first in the office and the last to leave. They tend to make that one last call the mediocre producer doesn’t.

2. Make to do lists everyday – Top producers understand to stay focused you need to know what you are focused on.

3. Service issues first - Top producers don’t waste sales or prospecting time doing service issues. They get in early and take care of the service issues first so they can prospect and make sales.

4. Never stop prospecting – Top producers prospect even when they aren’t prospecting. They might mentally size someone up for future business.

5. Be organized – Top producers are focused because they are better organized than everyone else.

6. Close, Close, Close - Top producers ask for the business more, plain and simple.

4 great opening lines when prospecting

Great opening line for life insurance:
“Mr. Prospect, if it is this challenging for you to deal with these issues, with all the understanding and talent you have, what would it be like for your family if you weren’t able to help them? What if you weren’t able to come home tonight because of a fatal car accident?"
This is another great opening line for life insurance:
“How long can your wife and children afford to go without a paycheck?”
This one is great for business owners:
“Out of inquisitiveness, do you have an exit plan for your business? Someday, due to death, a disability or because you want to retire, you will exit your business. Do you have a plan to take your money out of the business on an advantageous basis?”
This one is very good for disability insurance:
Your Q.: Would $200 a month for your expenses make a big difference in your lifestyle?” Prospects answer: “No.” Your Q: “Would it make a big difference in your lifestyle if you didn’t have $5,000 a month for your expenses?” Prospects answer: “Absolutely — that would be a disaster!” Your reply: “Well, if you were to give me $200 per month, (which would pay the disability premium), I’ll make sure you and your family would receive $5,000 per month if you’re sick or hurt and can’t work. Does that sound like a fair deal?”

Confidence and Leadership

Confidence is the bane of every salesperson and leader. A salesperson must have confidence in their products, they must have confidence in their abilities and they must have confidence in their leaders. A salesperson that has confidence in all of the above will be able to establish credibility with other salespeople, earn the trust of their clients and become a leader. How do you guarantee your salespeople will have the confidence in your ability to lead them to become stellar performers and possibly future leaders?

1. You need to inspire confidence by paying attention to the little things. Leaders recognize team members for making contributions that aren’t part of their job descriptions such as helping someone who is struggling to make their numbers or offering to teach others the skills they use to be a top producer. Leaders recognize people for influencing those around them, who uphold the values and mission of the company and promoting the team vision. They also recognize talent and understand that confidence and loyalty is a two-way street.

2. Confident leaders and salespeople recognize the value of their teams’ ideas. They listen carefully, ”two ears, one mouth” to what their people say, and just as important, make sure they act on what they heard. Are you the type of leader who gives your team the opportunity to weigh in on certain topics but won’t act on their suggestions? A confident salesperson or leader seeks out team member’s opinions. They recognize and appreciate bold ideas and act on them.

3. Do you say thank you to your team members? How do you recognize someone for an exceptional job and show your gratitude for a job well done? Recognition and appreciation inspire loyalty and confidence in your leadership ability. You want your team to have superlative confidence in themselves which will make them feel like the rock stars they are or could be. Selling can be a tremendously difficult job. Provide your team the confidence they need so they can reach their highest levels.

The Perfect Client

CREATING THE PERFECT CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

Here are the five principles of customer loyalty and retention that you need to practice every day:

1. Know and understand the customer.

2. Value and respect the customer and their time.

3. Anticipate the customer’s needs first and foremost.

4. Know your own business and the potential it brings to your customers not to you.

5. Delight the customer, overwhelm them and make them feel like they are your only client.

By Vincent J Ferrara

Lucky

Luck

Good sales people are sometimes called lucky. Their colleagues who aren’t as successful will comment, “He’s just lucky. She is always in the right place or the boss favors him and gives him the best leads.” Guess what, they are right. Luck comes from hard work and perseverance. Luck is making that one extra phone call in the evening that the unlucky salesman doesn’t make. Success comes down to timing and sometimes the best salespeople get lucky. However, it is because they put themselves in the right place at the right time to meet the perfect prospect. You never know when people are ready to buy, or how something you say will create the buying signal they were looking for. However, luck is not a sustainable advantage.

So how do you make your own luck? How do you increase your chance of being in the right place at the right time?

Luck comes from outworking your competition. By being the best at following up on business opportunities and staying in touch with your prospective clients. Prospects become customers, customers become clients, and clients make referrals. If you don’t stay in touch with prospects they never become customers. How long or how many times will you stay in touch with a prospect to turn them into a customer? Luck is following up with that prospect for however long it takes for them to become your customer. In sales and in business, timing and referrals are everything and the salespeople who make that extra call or make that extra visit or follow-up with a prospect are truly the lucky ones!

Respect

How do you earn respect?

Respect can be earned many ways and lost just as quickly. Respect is described as a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements. When you share your abilities with others, when you expand others knowledge by sharing yours you earn others respect. Another way to earn respect is to respect others opinions and feelings. Respect for others allows you to grow as a person which in turn increases the respect you receive. Life is filled with challenges, it is how you respond to these challenges that determine your altitude and attitude and how much respect you earn.

In the world of sales, respect of others will help you increase your sales. By respecting and sharing ideas of your associates, paying attention to your clients wishes and following up whenever necessary you will earn the respect of others. By the way, “whenever necessary” is all the time if you truly want to earn someone’s respect. In the sales world, once you have earned respect it is up to you to retain it. You need to continue to listen and share what you have learned with others and respect will always be yours.

Evolution

Evolution

Have you ever seen someone speak and thought, “Man I would like to be as good as he or she is?” Did you know someone else is looking at you and thinking the same exact thought? It is called evolution and as humans we are constantly evolving. “The journey between who you once were, and who you are now becoming, is where the dance of really takes place!” – Barbara Deangelis. I believe this quote is the true story of evolving. Our entire lives we are evolving and becoming who and what we want to be and although we may never see it we are constantly at different stages of that growth and evolution. As we evolve life changes we become better, more consistent we improve everyday yet we still don’t see it.

Growing and evolving is a key component of every individual who wants to succeed as salesperson or as a business owner. When we stop evolving we stop growing and so will our business and sales. In business it is important to never stop evolving you must adapt to the changes around you and if you continue to adapt your sales, your business and you will continue to grow, evolve and change!