Business and Money Tips

Dale Carnegie, the author of 1935's best-selling book "How to Win Friends and Influence People", taught us how to fish. Here's how he is able to fish for minutes and catch big catches.  "When I go fishing, I don't think about what I want. I think about what t hey  want.  I don't bait the hook with chocolates and peanuts, I dangle a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish and say, "Wouldn't you want to have that?"  So taught Dale Carnegie.   That's the approach you can take when fishing for customers.  Get the prospect to say "Yes" immediately by using the Socratic method of keep on asking questions .   Wouldn't you want to achieve more sales than ever with less work?  How about getting your customers to come back to you over and over again?  Can you win the price war without getting into a price war?  Is it possible to do limitless selling, where the only limits to your sales is your ability to serve your customer...

Tom Peters said, "The surplus economy has too many similar companies employing similar people, coming up with similar ideas, and producing similar products and services at similar quality and similar prices".  Just look at the smartphone market now and you'll know what Peters is talking about.  In fact, knowing this will explain why Samsung's Galaxy phones are not selling well this year (more at here ). If that is the case, how do we differentiate successfully?  From Jack Trout's best-selling book " Differentiate or Die ", there are 7 ways to differentiate unsuccessfully: Creative Advertising is never a differentiating idea . This is because customers want information, not news Quality is rarely a differentiating idea .  These days quality is a given, not a difference. Even if your quality is good, how long can you sustain it in the face of onslaught from hungry competitors who come up with better and more advance features?  A good example is S...

A good salesperson is one that can sell in difficult situations, that is, selling when people don't want to buy.  There are 7 situations when people don't want to buy: You are selling something that they already have aplenty - like selling ice to the Eskimos Your customer has just bought the same thing that you're selling Overnight, the number of suppliers increased by 200% while your target market shrinks by 50%.  In other words, there is a massive over supply, much like the PC market here now Your product or service has a bad record - and no matter how attractive you make them, no one wants to buy. This is much like the Windows Surface RT now There is little demand for what you sell now as people can get it for free on the internet - much like DVDs and CDs now Your prospect has been approached by over 10 vendors from your trade in one week - how would you expect him to buy from you? People just don't want to buy because there is no mood - much like Thailand ...

Yes, everyone is a salesperson, because selling is moving people. Most people are in non-sales selling, that is, they are not doing sales as their main job, like an insurance agent. But most people are in jobs that involves communication, influence and persuasion, and these are nothing but sales.  We at Asia Trainers call these sales job as Moving People. Myths and Truths of Moving People: Moving people is not about getting your way with others but about helping others get their way . You too will get your way when you help others get their way.  As what Zig Ziglar said, "You can get anything you want in your life as long as you help enough other people get what they want".  Moving people is not about how much conviction you have, but how much people feel about your conviction.  As what Andy Ferrari Norman said, it is not about convincing people but about conveying your ideas in ways that make people be convinced by themselves. Moving people depends more on th...

Whether you are in sales, management, operations, finance, administration, engineering or IT, you cannot run away from presentation.  A presentation is an opportunity for you to show people what you have so that they will buy you and buy what you sell.  And we are all selling all the time, the biggest sale would be to sell ideas.   A presentation is not a pitch, it is a give and take exchange .  This is an opportunity for you to 'switch heads' or exchange information with your audience, which can range from one person to a thousand.  The goal is for you to fully understand your audience situation so that you can tailor-make a product, service or idea to them. Even if you are not good in presentation, you need to avoid doing the 3 things that make people resent what you present: Irrelevant information Information not customized to the audience Boring presentation.  That's why they call 'bored to death'! On the other hand, there are 7 keys to pres...

Today we look at a very useful concept that experts use to handle sales objections, it is called QUIET : Q: Begin with a Question U: Understand the objection (with more clarifying questions) I : Identify the reason behind the objection E: Empathize with the prospect's objection T: Test the objection. Q: Questions Our 1-day sales training SALES POWER , is taught 7 times a year. Often participants are given a test at the end of the course on how they can handle the top 10 most common objections. One of the most effective is to turn the prospect's statement into a question.  When the prospect says, "Your price is too high", you simply pause, lower your voice, and respond, "You mean the price (pause) is too high for you ?"  You are now asking further questions to clarify the prospect's objection so as to UNDERSTAND and IDENTIFY the reason behind the reason.  Usually the reason is not they cannot afford it, but they cannot see the value in what...

Following my blog on Add Value, Not Add Work , 2 friends messaged me at facebook asking me to elaborate how we can add value to customers even if they don't buy.  Well, we know that if people that don't buy today they may buy tomorrow, and our job in business is to create happy relationships with people.   Business will come if you can add value.  Just look at how Facebook, Twitter and Youtube created value for over 2.5 billion people and you'll know what I mean. The following are the Top 6 Ways You Can Add Value to Customers Even When They Don't Buy: Show them the Pros and Cons of Your Company's Products and Services.  Most salespeople shy away from showing people their weaknesses for fear that customers will not buy if they know that. The reverse is true: c ustomers will trust a vendor more if they were to tell first-hand (without being asked) their weaknesses .  With trust, business will come. Show them How to Save Money .  Always start with the...

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 d...

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 per...

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 mon...

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. ...

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 sa...