Business and Money Tips

In the next 30 days, I want you to climb your own mountain (read here ).  In planning for sales for my own and my consulting clients’ businesses, I typically use the “ 5-Way Sales Leverage Chart ”. (The figures here refer to annualized figures, i.e. for one year) Target Market X Marketing Conversion = NO. OF PROSPECTS X Selling Conversion = NO. OF CUSTOMERS X No. of Transactions X Average Dollar Sale Price = SALES So from here that you can see there are only 3 things that you work in your sales planning – Your Prospects, Your Customers and Sales .  Notice that these are all the things above that follow the equal signs in the formula above.  They are all the result of something else in the formula , i.e., a result of something. Thus they cannot be changed.  The things that we want to plan to change are the things that are variable , i.e. things that can be changed.  From the above formula you see that there ...

A training that has high value is one that leaves a deep impact on the trainee long after the training is completed. To have impact the training must hit the trainee right on the head, there must be an instant 'ah ha' exclamation and the feeling must be right.  You cannot fake an impact, but you definitely can tell a fake impact from a real one. Some trainers, in their bid to make an impact, do certain things that have the opposite effect.  Instead of leaving an impact on the trainees, they leave a bad impression on them.  The wrong things that these trainers do include making assumptions, forcing answers for questions and going all out to please them with too many jokes, games and too little content.  In my experience since training over 81,131 people in 14 countries (from 1996), there are 5 steps for the training to have an impact on the trainees: Like .  Trainees must like the trainer, that's why the trainer must greet and smile when they first enco...

One can always learn the 9 hard skills and 4 soft skills in sales in one day or more (read here for more), but how to have sales training that are fun, lively and interactive?  There must be 11 elements: Use of colourful and lively charts or slides with pictures (but not too much to distract) Playing of short funny video clips (from recent movies including "Internship", "Jobs" and "Lucy") Physical exercises like cut wood with a piece of paper Short fun games that ignite laughter (like 'shake hands game' ) Jokes and Humours stories Group discussions and presentations Role Play (lots of laugher with difficult prospect) Live demonstration like call a real prospect on the spot Question and Answer games like 'Yes Question game' and 'Question with Question' Overcoming of sales objections Compete to see who can sell the best to the trainer By Andy Ng of Asia Trainers , see one course Sales Power below: SALES POWER (1-da...

Be Happy at work, not happy after work. If you are not happy at work, why work?  If you are happy to be unhappy at work, you will not work happily.   If work tires you out, you are not happy at work.  Happy people produces higher profits.  More happiness means higher profits.   Being happy at work has little to do with how much you are paid at work, but what attention you pay to at work.  Do you pay attention to the problems or the solutions?  Do you pay attention to working with your colleagues or teamwork with your colleagues? Remember, the law of cause and effect (or Karma) is at work and whatever you focus on grows.  You are the creator of your own happiness at work.  The fastest way to be happy at work is to focus on the positives at work.  Be grateful that you have a job, and your employer does not take 30 days credit to pay you!  Climb your own higher mountain in the next 30 days at here . Now you can be happy...

As we know, a good salesperson does not sell, he merely creates the conditions for customers to buy by themselves.  As what Sun Tzu said in the Art of War, the highest strategy is to win the war without fighting, so in sales the highest strategy is to sell without selling.  There are 5 ways to create the conditions for customers to buy: Sell then Tell .  Before you tell people anything, sell them the idea why they must listen to you.  You can do this with the phrase, "Why I am telling you all these?..." Pull then Push .  You must attract people to what you are selling and if they still don't bulge, you have to push them to make a decision.  Attract people to buy not with what you sell, but with the benefits of what they will gain and the loss they will make if they don't buy .  Pushing is not to push people to buy so that you can close the sale but to push them to achieve what they want to achieve .  People want to achieve different things, b...

Following my previous article on Karma and You, the following are the 7 truths to further our understanding.  One: Karma means act or deed Karma simply  means action or deed and not retribution or effect. The effect of action is called karmic effects or 'vipaka' as in the original Pali language.  Two: The law of karma is the law of cause and effect This law states that an action will always have an effect or we reap what we sow.  Every action that we perform in life, every word we speak, even every thought that we think, has its reaction.   Like now you are thinking of where to go for lunch tomorrow, you will create an action the next day (looking for a restaurant) and this will definitely have an effect.  Three: Karma can be strong, weak or moderate.  A strong karma (action) will produce a strong outcome.  Notice that action includes behaviour, speech and thought, and the strength of these 3 elements will influence the effect of...

As a salesperson, you must behave like a consultant so that your prospect will see value in you.  Otherwise, you are seen as a conman who just want to make the sale.  We all know about sales conversions: how to convert a prospect in to a client and convert a client into a life-long customer. However, there are 3 other Conversions a salesperson must make: 1.  They Must Convert Their Selling Price into an Investment  Price is a cost.  As such, it has a negative value that people will try to pay as little as possible to obtain.  On the other hand, an investment connotes a return.   People are willing to put in money into investment as they know there is a 'Return on Investment' or ROI. How to Convert your price into an Investment?  You must always show what they can get from using your product or service.  As long as that return over the investment gives a  double digit return , it is considered a good investment. 2. They Must Conver...

If you are not hungry for success, you will be too contented to go the extra mile. Without going the extra mile, how can you stand out? Whether one perceives a situation as an opportunity or problem depends on how hungry one is.  When faced with difficulties, do you go all the way or run away? We cannot tell or teach a person to be hungry.  We can only help them to be hungry. Being hungry is a state of mind , it has little to do with one's level of wealth and success.  In fact the rich people are more hungry for success while the poor may see success as too far to be reached in this lifetime.  Therefore we must help the poor to be successful by inspiring and motivating them to be hungry.   Only when you are hungry will you be able to see problems as opportunities , difficulties as challenges , issues as concerns and people as friends .  If you too want go get hungry and not angry, now is the time.  Invest 3.5 hours of your time next week...

There's a Zen story in which a professor visited a Japanese master to inquire about Zen. The master served tea. When the visitor's cup was full, the master kept pouring. Tea spilled out of the cup and over the table. "The cup is full!" said the professor. "No more will go in!" "Like this cup," said the master, "You are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?" If you want to understand and learn, you need to empty your cup.  So how do people empty their cup when they go for training courses?  From experience in conducting in-house trainings for over 440 companies and over 81,131 people in 14 countries since 1996, there are 7 ways to empty your cup:  (click here for list of courses) (For slides, read here ) Learn with an Open Mind . Do not hold any fixed ideas before the course.  Like the parachute, the mind is only useful when it is open.  Opening your mind also mean...

Many people ask why I am so lame in my selling.  I do not promise massive results, neither do I tell people that they will become rich when they do what I say.  Some people like to promise the sky. I prefer to promise the ground but inspire people to reach for the sky.  This is because I believe that a salesperson is not a liar, nor is he a over-promiser.  A salesperson is a service provider , and he only can service people if he can help the get what they have been promised.  So if he promise little, he may lose some sales.  To me that is okay, because maximising sales is not my goal.   Maximising customer satisfaction is my pursuit, and I only can maximize customer satisfaction if I allow my customer opportunities to have surprises on the upside. That's why I under promise. So the next time if you are looking for someone that promise a lot, don't look for me.   I promise little, but I deliver. To me this is everything.  (But I do pr...