Business and Money Tips

This article was originally published at Inspire Beats. I’ve always been a fan of the Art of War. The Art of War has been around for thousands of years and I’ve applied its strategies to anything that I do in life. This includes marketing, entrepreneurship, sales, and just life in general. The Art of War is broken down into 13 intensive chapters. Even though it might just sound like a simple war strategy book, every single chapter could be applied to closing deals and increasing sales. Let’s take a quick look at each chapter and how it can be applied to a sales team at a rapidly growing startup. Detail assessment and planning The first chapter talks about detail assessment and planning. The chapter explores the five fundamental factors (the Way, seasons, terrain, leadership and management) and seven elements that determine the outcomes of military engagements. By thinking, assessing and comparing these points, a commander can calculate his chances of victory. Whether you ar

Like most people in the corporate and business world, I used to behave in a competitive and driven way. People that know me know that I am one that go all the way to fight to win. Whether it is in business, people management, social or family, I am always goal driven and will go to great lengths to get what I want. Although I am not the extreme 'winner takes it all' and ultra aggressive guy, I am always ready for battles and believe that to win, I must fight hard until I win. But I fail. This method of fight hard to win is not working. Feedback from my working partners reveals that they find it tiring to work with me. My friends confide in me that I am too short-term oriented. Although I may achieve what I want, the achievements often come at the expense of relationships and friendships.  I have few duplication of success and each project is getting more and more difficult. Most importantly, I am not happy inside.  I fail. In 2010, after learning about the Art of War by a

The little known secret from Sun Tzu's Art of War is simply Go High if you want to win big . There are 5 ways that you can go high: Reach customers at the highest level possible. Sometimes the highest level is the secretary. Pitch your product at a level that no other competitor can fight, like having a unique feature (eg Samsung flexible Yoom phone) Go beyond the benefits of your products and focus on your company's passion and strong belief, even if the market is not ready for it; Get the highest level in your company (eg MD) to approach the prospect, and look at the awe in their face! Instead of mentioning your strengths, mention all your weaknesses . Your prospect will be shocked that you're so upfront and he will think that the weaknesses will not pose much problems if you are sincere. Then show your confidence of resolving the weaknesses. By Andy Ng, whose programs Sun Tzu Art of War for Sales was delivered also in Philppines,

Sun Tzu 孙子 (or Sūn Zǐ in pinyin) was a 500 BCE  Chinese general , military strategist , and author of The Art of War 孙子兵法, an immensely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy. Many great leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan studied his work and became legendary leaders. Many corporate leaders paid thousands of dollars to attend courses to learn Sun Zi's secrets. We at Asia Trainers believe that you too can learn this master's secret with just two hundred dollars. This is because we take the key essence and compile them into a 4-hour course that will leave you with just enough materials to lead your team to greater heights. Since October 2010, we have trained over 373 leaders coming from countries including Hong Kong, Japan, Myanmar and even China. The next run of Leadership with Sun Zi is on 26 Sep 2014 Friday. Limited seats are available, click here or call Niza at 6225-1784 to register. The most valuable lesson out of his 13 chapter of 5