Business and Money Tips

As an employee, it is your wish to earn more but work less this year. Otherwise, how are you going to improve your quality of life and work life balance?  Unknown to many people, it is possible to work less (really work less hours) but earn more (from promotion, bonus and incentives).  The following are the 5 most common ways that we teach to our clients: Higher Skills - either move up to management level or become even more specialized and be an expert in your work.  Higher skills also mean skills that are of higher demand , like leadership, sales and communication skills.  Studies in Australia show that if you attend at least 2 courses in a month (totalling 8 hours), your chance of getting a promotion in this year increases by 43%.  One of the fastest and free ways to acquire skills is to sign up for corporate training.  Your company will be happy to pay for them because they can get $15,000 cash under the PIC Bonus scheme.  Be More Skilful , which means to be very mindful

In this age of high land cost and high staff cost, how can companies increase their sales at the least cost?  Are there proven ways that you too can win new customers effortlessly ?  By 'effortlessly', we don't mean without effort but things that you do with your heart that it seems like effortless , like when we update our status on facebook, watch videos on youtube and play games on iPad Air. There are 7 Ways that companies can win new customers effortlessly: Referrals , because what customers say are more believable than what salespeople say .  Referrals have 7 types: word of mouth referral, testimonials referral, word of social media referral, word of print referral, referral by action, referral by suppliers and referral by enemies.  Phone-Mail-Phone Marketing .  Yes, the Personal Data Protection Act, which takes effect on 1 Jan 2014, does not include marketing to companies.  That means that you can still market to companies via the phone but cannot do that to c

Everyone wants to get more business, but with the economy still slow now, what can you do to pull ahead? If you try to pull business away from your competitors, you have to be prepared for a price war.  Another way is to poach the top salesperson or sales manager from your competitors with high salary.  This is fast and furious, but it too starts a talent war. How about going all out with aggressive marketing to get new prospects?  This again puts you head on with your peers, who can always retaliate easily with even more marketing budget.  The issue is how long you can last.   If the above does not work, what can you do?  We believe that the solution lies in Successful Selling Strategies. This means that you must do things strategically and systematically.  There are total 7 Successful Selling Strategies: Service to Others as the Highest Strategy .  This is because people don't buy goods and services but good feelings and solutions to their problems.  Instead of Fightin

As we know, one of the most important job of a salesperson is to bring in new business, that is new customers.  Since the market is fixed (there are hardly any new customers newly set-up), new business often means getting business from other competitors .  How to break into existing vendor relationships?  How to make people switch their existing vendor to you? Never ask the stupid question of "What do you like about your existing vendor?"  This is because such a question is simply opening the door for your prospect to start valuing his current vendor and undermine your efforts to break into this prospect.  Instead, ask questions that focus your prospect uses in selecting a vendor .  This is really 'Customer Focused Selling' as we are focusing on solving problems for the prospect. There are 6 Questions that a Salesperson Can Ask to Get People to Change Their Existing Vendor: Would you share with me the ideal qualities you look for in a vendor? How does your id

By now the whole world realizes that Apple's iPad Air has broken another new record for tablet sales.  Many people wondered what makes Apple successful while others like Samsung and LG are still fighting hard? According to my teacher Andy Ferrari Norman, there are 5 Selling Rules to follow: Non-self. Yes, selling is about not focusing on yourself but on your customers .  You need to find out what customers want and give it to them.  Selling is not about the seller's ego but making customers heros.  Apple has obviously focused on the user's experience and not the brand awareness.  The App Store it created is second to none.    Impermanence : selling is about creating new things every now and then and making things non permanent .  That's why Apple has product upgrades every 12 months or so. Interconnectedness :  As everything changes, everything in this world is connected.  Apple pays attention to the connectivity of things : its apps work with its hardware and

One of the most confused communication in the business world, be it in sales or advertisements, is the concept of benefits.  Often people mistake features as benefits, and many also mistake advantages as benefits. As we know, a feature is a characteristic of what you do. Like your company has 5-day week and 14-days annual leave.  This is obviously a feature and not a benefit.  A feature can be considered as an advantage if such a feature is not common.  But in today's world, 5-day week and 14-days annual leave are too common to be considered an advantage. What about benefits?  They are not general things but things that mean something to people .  That is, p eople do really benefit from them .  So using the above example, if a person wants a career that offers fast promotion or good incentives, 5-day week and 14-days annual leave will not mean anything to him and are thus not considered benefits to him. In short, benefits are special to the person.  So a same thing may be a

By the way, we are all in sales, regardless of whether we do selling as a career or not. For sales is not just about selling products and services but more of selling ideas.  For example, if you need your colleague to help you out in your work, you need to sell him the idea that helping you is good for him.  If you can convince him, you have made the sale. The most and often overlooked secret in sales is to be in front of a qualified prospect when he is ready to buy, not when you need to make a sale. You see when you are desperate to make the sale, you will be selfish and only look at your own interest. You will ignore or downplay the prospect's interest.  And your prospect will notice this, and he will not buy from you because he sees that you are just a sale pusher, not a problem solver. A salesperson can only succeed if he is seen as a problem solver.  For all prospects have 3 problems, money, happiness and time.  Everyone in this world wants more money, more happiness a

Ambitious people tend to give people the impression that they are too focused on their own success and will manipulate others to achieve their own goals.  Many such people, including some poor salespeople, tend to look upon every transaction as an opportunity to make a sale and get out. On the other hand, Empathy people are those that have a long term perspective. They always think of others before thinking of themselves. They do not think of closing the sale as much as they think of opening long-term customer relationships. A good salesperson balances between ambition and empathy.  Because he knows that if he is too ambitious, he will frighten away customers; if he is too empathetic, he will not be assertive enough to ask for the sale. There are 5 ways that good salespeople balances between ambition and empathy: Ask Questions and Never Make Any Assumptions .  When you ask questions and listen to the answer, you put yourself into the other person's shoes.  One can never

In our management and sales courses, we use this famous 4-Step RAST Model to teach our trainees in problem solving. I shall use the case of Getting Your Team to Achieve Their Goals as an example: Step 1: Recognize the Problem Recognize that there is a problem, and don't be egoistic or pretend that there is no problem.  The problem here is that our team is not achieving the goals, and we must not accept this as norma l but recognize this as a problem. Step 2: Actual Reasons for the Problem We need to find out the Actual reasons for the problem, and not be blinded by some non reasons like opinions and 'everyone is doing this' type of excuse.  We must be thoroughly objective in finding out the actual reasons, and not be swayed by some subjective hearsay.  In this case study, we find out that the actual reason for the team not achieving their goals is a lack of competency and confidence. Step 3: Solutions for the Problem With the actual reasons out, we can pinp

Every salesperson (including those not selling but are in management) wants to know the fastest and easiest way to make the sale. One day I asked an audience of insurance salespeople, "How many of you would like it if I gave you a list of people who wanted to buy insurance now? Everyone raised their hand. Hint: There is no such list. The one-word meaning of sales is "WORK". The 2-word meaning of sales is "WORK HARD".  How Do I Make a Cold Call? There answer is, "Don't". Don't make a cold call. Make a warm call. Warm up the cold call and you'll get your results improved by 27%. Guaranteed. Instead of calling people and look for "Mr Andy", tell the other side that "I've been asked to give Andy a call". If they asked you "What's it regarding?" You don't answer it. You just say, "I don't know. I have been asked to give Mr Andy a call. Is he in?" Using this script wi

Yes, business as usual is dead long ago, which I'm sure you're aware of this long ago. 'As usual' means companies, employers and the government are in full control. Today we know the person using his mobile phone, phablet, tablet and laptop can exert so much control that no one can ever imagine. If you're still doing business the same old way as before, you're heading for trouble. Here are 5 things that you must know and do: 1.   What People Say About You = Your Reputation A company's branding is no longer built on massive advertising that builds up its name. Instead, a company's branding is built on what people say about you on social media like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Just look at the massive unhappiness about the non-issuance of TV license to Hong Kong TV and you'll know what I'm talking about. The Hong Kong Government is now facing a confidence shake-out that it lacks transparency, meritocracy and disclosure. If you were a M

Yes, it has been getting more competitive today to sell. In the process of Pitching, i.e. multi-stage selling, every detail must be well executed if you want to clinch that coveted deal that everyone is eyeing for.  The stages involved in the sales pitch starts with a meeting, followed by a formal, stand-up presentation. Even if the prospect decides in your favour, you need to follow-up till the end, as anything can change until you sign the deal.  It should be noted that pitching is process that is cumulative, this means that each stage must be completed to the satisfaction of the other other or you will be wasting your time and effort . To pitch successfully, you need to press the prospect's hot button.  Hot button is not to be confused with Benefits or Emotions, nor is it about Fear and Force. In sales, a Hot button is a Trigger that once activated, the person will NOT go back to the original state of mind . This means that when you press the hot button, a sale will re

Customers are demanding lower prices. Factories are moving overseas. How can salespeople survive?  These are tough times for salespeople. Customers are demanding more services and lower prices.  Many are purchasing directly through the internet and from manufacturers. Salespeople find themselves caught in the middle - doing more for customers, making less money and wondering about their paycheck. The solution is simple.  Salespeople Must Add Value. How?  Salespeople add value in many ways - before, during and after the sale.    These services include product availability, problem solving and technical support, just to name a few. But customers often do not realize how these services translate into dollars-and-cents value. Why? Because salespeople are generally not trained in how to calculate this value for customers. Beyond product training   Customers are interested in more than product features and benefits. They want to know how these benefits translate into   dollars-and-cents

Another brief but value-packed e-book by Andy Ferrari Norman 1.      Sales is not a function, a goal or a number but an outcome, the outcome is customer satisfaction.  Regardless of how solid your product or service is, nothing happens without a sale.  If you did not make the sale, there is no customer satisfaction but instead lots of frustration for salespeople! 2.      Today customers are all suffering from Frazzled Customer Syndrome (FCS): a state of extreme exhaustion , that’s why they are not returning your call and give you the cold shoulder.  They are extremely checked out because of heavy workload, too many choices, rapidly changing market and past bad experience with salespeople.  How can we blame them for this? 3.      The result: customers keep you at a distance, brush you off, dismiss you entirely and stick with the status quo, no matter how undesirable the status quo is. Once you can empathize how customers feel, you can help them to improve and get out of this

Selling is base on nothing but needs and wants. A need is something that is basic and cannot be done without with, i.e. a necessity. A want is a preference , something that can be done without with but because it is preferred, it is considered important and often become a necessity, i.e. a want becomes a need. Like smartphones, it is not a need but a preference, but who can live without a smartphone nowadays?  If you sell base on both needs and wants, you have a customer. If not, you have a prospect. There are prospects in prospects. Using SNAP Selling, you can sell anything to anybody with the following 4 steps: 1. Situation . Find out what is the situation of the prospect now, what are his concerns, problems and issues that need to be addressed now. Like my prospect now has high staff turnover that is bothering him. 2. Need . From the situation, you uncover his need. So my guess that my prospect needs to learn how to hire the right people and retain hired

To sell is human and everyone is a salesperson, because selling is about not selling but moving people. Most people are in non-sales selling, that is, they are not defined as salesperson but their job involves communicating, influencing and persuading people. We call these Moving People. Moving People is not about getting your way with others but helping others to get their way. And when others get their way, you'll get your way too. Moving people is not about how much conviction you have but about conveying your conviction to people. Moving people depends more on the creative, heuristic, problem-finding skills than the reductive, algorithmic, problem-solving skills. From Caveat Emptor to Caveat Venditor. We've moved from a world of cavet emptor (buyer beware) to caveat venditor (vendor beware). This is because of the information age we're living right now, buyers have more information than vendors and thus buyers will mislead vendors more often than the other