Business and Money Tips

How do you apply Sun Tzu Art of War, a 2,500-years old military classic, into modern day customer service?  Indeed many strategies can be applied, but first we must understand the essence of the Art of War, which is 2 elements: Win to Fight, not Fight to Win Win Without Fighting, not Win With Fighting Sun Tzu (or Sūn Zǐ in pinyin) was a 500 BC Chinese general, military strategist, and author of The Art of War, 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 Tzu secrets.  We believe that you too can learn master Sun Tzu secrets and apply them to your work easily.  This is because we take the essence and compile them into an 8-hour course that will leave you with just enough materials to serve your customers and lead your business to greater heights. Since ...

This is because Apple's salespeople are its customers.  Not only are Apple's salespeople free-of-charge, they are the best salespeople because nobody can resist word-of-mouth referrals. Apple knows how to people climb up the 7-Step Ladder of Loyalty, from Suspects to Prospects, and finally to Raving Fans. They know that the Ultimate in Customer Service is about turning Complaints into Compliments and turning Customers into Raving Fans that Sell for You. So if you have been thinking of how to increase sales at the lowest cost, now is the time. This seminar, taken from our high level consulting, will leave you miles ahead of your competition. Note: This course qualifies for PIC 60% Grant, i.e. your net investment is only 40%. Hurry! Last seats left!  Register now by calling Ida at 6225-1784 or email to andythecoach@gmail.com CUSTOMERS AS RAVING FANS Date: 12 March 2015 Thursday 2 to 5.30 pm Fee: $149 each (special fee, others $198) Venue: The Plaza 02-348, 7500A Bea...

Following our "First Impressions Count" article (at here ), here's the 2nd step: Seeing Eye to Eye: Face-to-Face Contacts (note: GST here means Greet Smile Thank You) As we know, customers come into your business because of your products and services, but they will only come back again when they are treated well .  A business that does not have repeat business is not a business, it is only a promotion.  How to get them to come back again?  The secret lies in your face-to-face contacts: how to make every moment extra-ordinary .  The 4 steps are: 1.  Greeting the Customer A quick smile, an interested look, and a friendly greeting are necessary.   When you greet them, say more than hello . Add something to let them know that you are happy they walked into your premise.  Eg, "Good morning, we're glad to see you".   Next, ask or explain how you can provide help and give your name.  Say "My name is Andy, and I'll be happy to help you in ...

In dealing with difficult people, you wonder if the strategy of service from the heart ever works.   Indeed there are 10 kinds of difficult people and they include: Slumper: Person who doesn't care anything ('bo chap' in Singlish) Dumper: People who offloads tasks and dirty work to you all the time Jumper: One who has no scruples, takes credit for others' work and is a 2-headed snake Grumper: People who complains ALL THE TIME and impossible to please Bumper: People who takes kudos when all goes well but blames mistakes on others Trumper: Always has to have the first and last word and be one step ahead of everyone else Thumper: Bullies and intimidates others and gets his own way by being aggressive Demander: Customer who demands 200% and yesterday's delivery for today's last minute order Smiling Tiger: One who laughs at others and pretends to give you a helping hand, only to stab you from behind Sabo King: ...

I realized from our How to Be a Better Manager  and Sales Power  courses that most people need a shortcut on the 5 most important concepts at work.  They are now summarized as follows: 1.  Customer Service Customer Service is not about niceties or doing everything to please the customer.  It is also not about over-servicing until the business makes a loss.  Services that are way beyond your core business are not considered customer service but  entertainment service .   Successful companies will tell you that customer service is nothing but  s olving customer's problems and make them feel good  with a profit .   It is about  service from the heart and not serve from head to toe.  2.   Teamwork Many people thought that if the staff get along well with little conflicts, teamwork is good.  Some people even think that if they go for offsite teambuilding training, teamwork will be improved automatically. Ther...

To survive in today’s markets, you need to follow a new set of rules. Just like you have at some time or other fire your boss, isn’t it time that you fire your customers too? You’ll probably say, “Are you mad? How can I fire my customers, the people that bring me money?" Read on to find out why firing customers can give you 80% more business and 100% more happiness… There are 4 types of customers in this world; I call them A B C D: A – stands for Awesome , the best customers that anyone can find, people that give you high margins, advance payments, regular business and large deals. Everyone’s dream customer. B – stands for Basic – the basic customers that you have to keep you busy with normal profits and cash inflow. Everyone’s daily customers. C – stands for Can’t Deal With – the type of customers that ask for things to be done or delivered yesterday and when you ask for payment, it is always ‘tomorrow or next week’. You make almost zero profit and cashflow on them....

Through discussions with people in my How to Be a Better Manager courses , I realized that many people, despite working for over 3 decades, have grossly mis-understood the 7 common concepts in management.  As a result of this wrong view, they do things the wrong way and wondered why they have lousy results.  Now you have the chance to know these 7 truths and not be thrown around.  The 7 most common mis-understood concepts are: 1.   Teamwork Many people thought that if the staff get along well with little conflicts, teamwork is good.  Some people even think that if they go for offsite teambuilding training, teamwork will be improved automatically. There are even those who think that as long as there is harmony, teamwork is excellent. Nothing can be further from the truth. Teamwork is defined as nothing but Together Everyone Achieve More, with Achievement as the main criteria .  So if the team get along well but the performance is mediocre, there is si...

I'm sure that if you are in sales, customer service, management and specialists positions, you would have received your fair share of criticisms.  In fact someone told me that if a day passes by without any criticisms, he will feel unease.  Indeed criticisms is a way of life and if you cannot tolerate criticisms your life will be very miserable.  As a trainer coach I have learnt to better handle criticisms in the acronym B ETTER (Bother, Educate, Tell, Touch and Response). Bother Yes, the fact that they criticise shows that they bother about us, that is, they are not ignoring us or just treating us like dust.  When someone bothers with me, the minimum I can do is to bother with them.  Thus I cannot ignore their criticisms, I would take out my smartphone and start keying in what they said.  Such enthusiastic behaviour will definitely catch their attention Educate That criticism is actually an education from them, it is human nature to want to educate...

Whenever I ask business owners the question, 'What is the purpose of a business?' I often get the following response: 'To make a profit!’ That answer pinpoints why so many businesses struggle to survive, let alone grow. That answer is centred on the desires of the business owner, not on the needs and desires of their customers. Imagine walking up to a potential customer and saying, 'Hello. My purpose is to make a nice, big profit from you today!'   That would be what we call a 'repelling' action, not an 'attracting' action.  Here's a much more powerful and profitable definition of the purpose of a business: To attract and serve the needs of as many customers as possible at an acceptable profit. Did you notice where the profit came in? Not at the beginning where most people put it, but at the end. Profit is the 'result' of how well you serve your customers needs. Focus on serving your customers better than your competition --...