Business and Money Tips

As we know, management is an art and not a science, and the best managers do not manage at all, for they make people better than themselves .   I follow the 8-Path Wisdom in Management as follows, using how to ensure people hit their targets as a case study:  Right Understanding Do we have the right understanding on the reasons for people not hitting their targets?  Is it due to lack of skills, motivation or attitude? Right Intent Is hitting targets our intention?  Or making people perform at the highest level possible our intent? Right Action What is the Right Action to Take if Lack of Skills is the reason for people not performing at the right level?  Let's say it is weekly training, plus monthly new challenges.  Right Effort What is the most positive action, every day, in both ourselves and our team?  How can we engage our people so that their  efforts becomes more effective? ...

One: Make Sure You Add Value To know whether you add value in doing anything, ask yourself this question: is there a difference had I not done this ?  Not only must there be a difference, you must also do things differently. Like Apple's iPhone in 2007: not only do they make handphones, they also started a trend of no-keyboard. Two: Communicate Down and Up, Inside and Out Of course the most important communication is with yourself: what you say to yourself when you are all by yourself.  They call this self-talk, which is  thinking hard within yourself.    Of course you don't really need to verbalize and let people hear what you are saying to yourself! Three: Know How to Deliver Results This means you must have competency and commitment, for you need both to deliver, not just talk Four: Conduct Yourself and Your Business with Integrity To me integrity is defined as n ot taking anything that you are not given , including time, information, emotion...

* This article is taken from Scott Dinsmore, who has given permission to reproduce here. I am sure we've all surely heard of the 80/20 Principle, or Pareto's Law as it's more formally known. It goes like this: 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. 5 ways to apply the 80/20 Principle to enhance your life: 1. Do the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results Track all the time you spend on projects each hour of each day for a week. How many of these things were necessary? How many got you closer to your goals? How many were a waste of time? How many could someone else have done?  Pick the 20% of your tasks that yield 80% of the results and outsource or simply discontinue the rest. Wondering what to do with your remaining time? Enjoy life. 2. Locate the 20% of your customers who drive 80% of your profits and fire the rest. Yes, fire them. The goal is not to work your life away. It is to make a good living to enjoy your life. If you must work mor...

As we know, the job of a salesperson is not to sell but to create value for his customers. For only when he creates value for his customers that he will get real business for now and future . There are 4 Ways that a salesperson can create value for his customers: 1.  Let Customer See Problem that is Not Obvious Like they still use Windows XP, which will be phased out by Microsoft in 4 months time, after which there will be virus attacks that will not be protected by Microsoft updates. 2. Let Customer See an Opportunity that is Not Obvious Like it's not obvious that able to save 12% of their staff cost and increase 31% of their productivity if the customer can use the latest tools and techniques. Better still, the salesperson can provide training at no cost 3. Let Customer Be the First to Enjoy the Benefits  When you sell, you must sell on an exclusive basis, meaning other companies in the same industry of your customer will not get to enjoy the benefits of your...

‘THE 22 IMMUTABLE LAWS OF MARKETING’ book written by Al Ries and Jack Trout is a wonderful book. I just re-read it (after 10 years) and find that if you just use 3 ideas, your business will explode.  1.      Law of Leadership – it’s better to be the first than it is to be better.  People tend to stick with what they’ve got and reluctant to change. Eg iPhone or Android phone.  2.      Law of Category – if you can’t be first in a category set up a new category you can be first in.   Prospects are defensive when it comes to brands – but they have open minds when it comes to categories because everyone is interested in what’s new and not what’s better. 3.      Law of Mind – it’s better to be the first in the mind than to be the first in the marketplace .  Being first in the marketplace is important only to the extend that it allows you to get in the mind first.  Once a mind is...

You know, people only take salespeople seriously when they think that the salesperson can really make a difference to their lives. Many salespeople are trained on how to ask questions to get the sale, but few are trained on how to ask 'Tough' questions that get you the sale immediately. In our sales training (eg Selling Ice to the Eskimos or Winning Sales Strategies ), we often teach the following 3-stage questions: 1st stage: make a factual statement that can’t be refuted E.g. “Most sales staffs rarely meet the sales targets set for them by their company”; E.g. “Most businesses tend to do well in the initial years and falter as the years go by” 2nd stage: make a personal observation that reflects your experience and creates instant credibility E.g. “My experience has shown me that when there is a lack of training there is often poor staff attitude and an absence of goal-setting and goal-achievement goals. Interestingly the sales staffs tend to blame their inability to sel...

UNCOPYRIGHT NOTICE:   This e-article by Scott Dinsmore is Uncopyrighted. Feel free to share it, copy it,  or post it on your blog, like I what I do now at www.AndyNgTrainer.blogspot.sg or at here. Words are incredibly powerful. There are some that empower us to do our very  best and others that can leave us feeling helpless.  Through my own and others' experiences I have found one to be more dangerous  than any other.  On that when used once in a while can give you relief, but when used frequently  can leave you with the deepest feeling of despair.  This most dangerous word is: Later. The scary thing is that 'Later' seems so harmless at first. There are all kinds of  justifications to put things off until tomorrow. A lot of them can feel pretty valid.   And even worse, we seem to use this word most for the things that are of greatest importance to us.  Like exercise and learning.  I'm talking about the big goals and...

To be meaningful, any change in life or in business has to be dramatic. Minor change is easy to accomplish but results in only minor differences. To increase the sales in your business by say 150% in three months will take massive changes in both your thinking and the way you do things. In order to HAVE anything in life we all recognise that we have to DO something to achieve it. If you want wealth you must invest. If you want love you must first give it. If you want respect you must earn it. No matter what you want, you need to DO in order to HAVE. But DOing is not the only thing you need to change in order to HAVE. You must BEcome the person who would have the things or persona that you desire. You must develop the identity, beliefs and values that the person who has those things has. We’ve all heard of the Lotto winner who, within three years, lost the several million he won. He didn’t become the “millionaire”. Let’s talk a bit about BEcoming. Everyone has an identity...

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind Andy happiness will follow you As your shadow, unshakable. In this world Hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, Ancient and inexhaustible. The wind cannot overturn a mountain. Temptation cannot touch the man Who is awake, strong and humble, Who masters himself and minds the law. An un-reflecting mind is a poor roof. Passion, like the rain, floods the house. But if the roof is strong, there is shelter. Give up the old ways - Passion, enmity, folly. Know the truth and find peace, Share the way. As shared by AndyTheCoach from reading the teachings of The Buddha some 2,500 years ago.

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...

Over the weekend, I learnt a very powerful lesson from Simon Sinek at TED: the WHY HOW WHAT model of high performance   Most people are very good in explaining WHAT, like a manager telling his team member what are the things to do to get a job done right.   Many managers are even better in detailing the HOW, like all the SOPs and procedures to do the WHAT.   Almost no mangers bother to explain the WHY : the purpose and reason behind the reason for doing the task.  We all know that without a strong WHY, there is little push for a person to do a job well.  That’s why many people produce mediocre work: they just go through the motion and getting all the steps done right but you as a manager know that something is missing .   It’s the little thing that’s missing that is causing performance to be average and not great. That little thing is the WHY.   You sell, Apple's Steve Jobs did not go out to tell people what are its...

I watched Hong Kong's TVB police drama series "Mysteries of Love" and was impressed that the police made use of Physics to solve many perplex serious crimes.  Even if you were not an engineer, chemist or mathematician by training, you know that Physics is actually common sense and you too can apply Physics to everyday life. Like Newton's 3rd law. Every Action of a Force Produces an Equal and Opposite Reaction. Newton said that any force applied to a body produces an equal and opposite reaction force in that body. In other words, for every action there is an reaction . When applied to management, it includes: If I treat people with respect, they will return their respect to me equally; If I mistreat people with disrespect, they too will return their disrespect to me. If I work hard, even though I may not see the results today, there will be a reaction in the marketplace . E.g. a salesperson sent out many empowering e-mails to his...

If you were like most people working for a while, you'll realize that many people see work as one or a combination of the 4 confusions: Work as Drudgery, Work as War, Work as Addiction and Work as Problem.  The earlier you see through these confusions, the happier you will become. Soon work will become no more confusing but with lots of clarity!  The 4 confusions are:   1.   Work as Drudgery     Here we see work as drudgery and only necessary to give us a pay check so that we can have a life.  Job become a tax that we must pay before we can go home. We become deaf and dumb and unable to contribute meaningfully to our employer.  What You Can Do: Recognize that w ork is not the real drudgery but your unwillingness to be interested in your work.   It's time to get passionate about your job!  2. Work as War Here is a lose-win mentality.  Such aggressive approach to work imprisons us in a constant impulse to maintain our poin...

Sounds strange, isn't it? The first step to lead better is to recognize that you're Not a leader.  In fact you are not defined by any title you may have, e.g. Manager, Director, Specialist.  As a Leader, You Are NOT a Leader.  You Lead .  Short and simple.  If you keep thinking that you're a leader, you will miss out the important things in leadership, which is to be  alert to what's happening . You need to  listen well, know how are people feeling, and really get to the bottom of issues .  But you can't do this unless you get rid of the thinking that you are the leader.  You must not have the mistaken belief that you are your job. Because such thinking only clouds your thinking and distracts you from leading.  When you lead, you  let go of any self-ego   that you may have and you can be authentic, knowing who you are and where you are.  It's only when you are where you are that you will become more curious about oth...

It's inevitable that we make mistakes at work and in life. Some are small, like calling the wrong number, while others are big, like allowing fraud to happen or even committing fraud. Of course no one in this world intentionally want to make mistakes, and everyone dislike mistakes. This is because mistakes create confusion and doubts and leave us feeling inadequate and embarrassed. Because of this, we tend to treat mistakes more as enemies than teachers.  We want to annihilate mistakes at all costs.  Since mistakes already made cannot be undone, we often end up covering mistakes, and worst still, justifying mistakes . There was this guy that I know from my training assignments.  He was a Vice President of a large MNC, and he is very skilled at avoiding responsibility and placing blame. For example, if his department is spending over the budget, he would 'calmly' recall that he had make an adjustment to his budget 6 months ago and was 'surprised' that the acc...

When we think of work, we often think of drudgery, frustration and stress.  For too many of us, work is the last place we think of if today is our last day on this earth.  Few people expect work to be happy, full of joy and satisfaction.  In fact many people said that it's because of family and life that they have to work. We spend 2/3 of our lives at work, and all our studies in schools are for preparation of work.  If work is really such a pain, aren't we become 'miserable' beings instead of human beings? Rather than consider work as difficult, can we instead acknowledge work, with all its difficulties, as an invitation to wake up and live our lives honestly and fully? I believe that if we all can awake to the fact that work is actually a means to make us more human , we will consider work as something good to have. There are 5 things that Work is Good for Us: It is the best training ground for life skills.  A person cannot be street-smart until h...