Business and Money Tips

Surveys after surveys showed that more than half of people at work are unhappy.  Just look at the many gloomy faces on the morning MRTs and it's obvious what I'm talking about.  Many people work just for money, and some work to support their mortgage, families and the ever rising expenses.  To me, people are unhappy due to 3 mis-understandings: 1.  Conditional Happiness   "I'll be happy if I get promoted or I get the job at Google".  In this thinking, the grass is always greener on the other side. People will, instead of making the best of what they have in their current career and enjoying every moment of it, is looking for the next happiness.  Because of this, they are distracted from the present and thus cannot do their best.  Without doing the best, how can they produce good work and have a rewarding job?   We know that such pursuit is futile because the perfect job does not exist.  Even if it does exist, it cannot last....

A movie's success depended upon the setting, the mood, the script, the skills of the director, and the overall talent of the cast. Same for a company. 1. Setting. Setting here refers to the v ision, mission and goals of the business. If your business has no goals and vision, the setting will be one of ad hoc. It also includes the structure, rules and boundaries. 2. Mood , which is simply morale and the connection feeling in the company. If people feel connected, their morale will be high, and motivation is not an issue. 3. Script . This is your company's plans and operations manual on how people perform their roles. It also includes the day-to-day operational conversation script , how people speak in a consistent and professional way. 4. Skills of Director . This is the skillfulness of the leaders . Skillfulness is more than having skills, it is doing things mindfully and with conviction . Of course the more trained the leaders are, the more skillfull they can do the...

* The real reason why people don't buy so much of Samsung's new Galaxy phones at here * Following my article on Limitless Selling (you can read it at here ), many people asked if there are further simple ways that they can apply this amazing concept in their daily sales activities.  The following are the further 11 ways: Triple or Quadruple whatever quota or sales volume you have now Ask your Vendor to give you a huge bulk discount Up Sell, Cross Sell, Add on Sell and Bundle Sell on top of whatever you're selling Give your customers a very attractive package sale, like the one we have (51% discount for 10 courses, details are at here ) Go for a high value item where the selling price is much higher than what you have Hire a Super Salesperson and offer him a ridiculous high commission (like 50%) Go overseas where they recognize and appreciate your value more than Singapore  Combine forces with your competitors and go for a really big project  Organize a Ware...

Many people, including those that are in high management positions, do not have the right understanding of leadership .  If I were to ask them what's the most important key to their organization or department's success, they will say, 'Having Strong Leader'.   Yet we know that having strong leaders is never enough . This is especially so when the followers are weak.  Furthermore, no matter how strong the leader is, one day he will need to retire or pass on as no one is impermanent.  In fact, having strong leaders may be a hindrance to the organization success, especially when the leader is so strong that the entire team of followers become blind followers 'Yes Men'.  When the strong leader is no longer around, the organization will falter because they are too reliant on their strong leader.  Just look at the failures of many family businesses when their strong leaders passed on and you'll know what I am talking about. What's crucial to the organ...

I'm sure you have realized that this is getting more common nowadays: we are being subjected to wild swings instead of gradual swings.  In business , companies like to ignore customers' feedback and insist on pushing their new products to the market and forcing their customers to upgrade.  You see this in PC, mobile phones and TVs.  As the new product did not take into account customers' feedback, they will invariably fail.  The companies have no choice but to re-introduce back the old product.  A good example is mobile giant Samsung, who has taken out the micro SD card in its phones in 2015 only to be put back in 2016 Salespeople too like to subject their customers to wild swings.  When business is good, salespeople have no time to service customers and customers are forced to fend on their own.  When times are bad, salespeople have all the time and they visit their customers everyday and over-service them, until the customers cried out 'Buay ...

Note: The next Selling Sans to the Arabs is on 23 Feb 2018 Friday 9 am to 12.30 pm, details at here . Imagine me at the North Pole to perform the world's most difficult task: Sell Ice to the Eskimos.  The Eskimos have too much ice, why would they want to buy ice from a guy from Equator Singapore? But I know that I can easily sell ice to the Eskimos because I am not selling anything. I am just creating the conditions and leading the buyers to buy . Selling is not about convincing buyers to buy but let the buyers be convinced by themselves.  This is in line with Sun Tzu Art of War: Win Without Fighting. Hardly anyone is ready to buy what you want to sell  Often you have to sell when people don't see the need at all.  When WeChat was launched in Jan 2011, no one can imagine that people want to use WeChat when Whatsapp was so popular and successful as a messaging app. But today WeChat has become an indispensable tool for payments, marketing, search, messaging a...

Unknown to many, it is not the market, nor is it the competition, or the marketing budget that is limiting your sales.  It is also not your boss, your manager, your supplier, your support departments and even the finance department that is putting a lid on your sales.  Of course it is never the market or the government that is putting any strains on your sales. The only thing that limits your sales is your own thinking .  Many salespeople I come across are doing limited sales instead of limitless sales.  The 7 most common situations are: 1.   Sales Targets.   Going after sales targets that were themselves limited to growth from previous year's performance. In other words, your sales targets are determined by what you achieved last year.  If last year was a bumper year, no problem. Otherwise, your sales targets are too low.  2. Fixed routine.   Like morning reply e-mails, after that have internal meetings at 10 am followed by order ful...

For years multi-national companies have been paying tens of thousands of dollars every year to engage the best trainers to train their sales team so that they can out-sell the competition.   Google under 'Sales Training in Singapore' and you'll find dozens of sales courses, with some promising guaranteed improvements in your sales results or your money back.  I Andy Ng have been happily doing sales training as far back as May 2001.  I remembered my first seminar was on Saturday 19th May 2001 at Miramar Hotel on the topic " 5-Ways Leverage to Business Profits ".  Over the years I have trained over 81,131 people in 13 countries.  Among the companies I trained include the top Feng Shui company Wayon Net, top insurer AIA, top Junior College Hwa Chong Institution and top property developer Capitaland.  To-date, I am still learning and trying to crack the secret to sales success.  With inspiration from the movie "Won't Back Down" and sales guru Tom H...

You must have come across this very often: a troubled person (can be your staff or a friend) find that his problem is too big and come to you for advise. When we find that his problem is actually quite trivial, we tell him that other people have bigger problems too and they can solve them without much fuss.  "Think positive, and always look for solutions, and the solutions will be there" is what we often tell him.  Well, thinking positive is good, for it is a starting point.  But merely thinking without the right solution will not get you to anywhere.  You have to provide the solution. To me, this is How I solve problems in the following 4 steps: There is a Problem .  This problem is troubling you now, but you are not the problem .  In other words, we separate the person from the problem .  Like you have incurred parking fines, but you are not the problem, it is the act of parking illegally that is the problem.   Root Cause of Problem . ...

For decades, businesses have been trying to discover the formula for the 'perfect' manager.  There are tons of books, blog posts and editorial articles out there, and even training courses on  how to be a better manager .  While I cannot claim to have unlocked the secret theory of management, discussions with bosses and managers since 1987 revealed the following 5 traits of a 'perfect' manager: 1. Know How to Be Tough Many managers are tough on themselves, tough on their customers and sub-contractors and even tough on their families - but soft on their team members. The reasons could range from difficulty in hiring suitable people due to the tight labour market and the caps on employing foreigners in many industries to poor people management skills.   As a result, managers are afraid of telling their staff what they expect from them, giving negative feedback when required or being tough on poor behaviour or performance. It is no surprise that their subo...

By applying Sun Tzu Art of War's 5 Elements of 道天地将法 , we can improve our negotiation easily in this order as follows: Purpose 道: The purpose of your negotiation is not to get the best deal for yourself, nor is it to squeeze your customer or supplier.  Sun Tzu said the highest ground shall be your purpose, so in business our purpose of negotiating is to have a long term win-win relationship .  Because if we are only interested in one-off deal, we don't need to negotiate, we just adopt a 'take it or leave it' attitude.   Boundaries 天 : Know your boundaries, i.e. your limits, what you can give and what are absolutely non-negotiable, like your integrity.    Details 地 : The devil is in the details, never leave details to another day, for it is only at the negotiation table that you have the opportunity to get what you want, including the details. Always minute down the details for you cannot rely on faint memory.  Lead   将.  Yes, you have to...

Interview any sales experts and they will tell you that although they work hard, their sales are all won effortlessly.  They encounter few objections from their clients, they hardly prospect, and repeat business is as regular as breathing. Although they too have sales targets to hit, they do not need to struggle to achieve them.  Such sales achievers have achieved what we called Mindful Sales . Mindful Sales is simply being mindful of what is the most important thing that matters to the prospect now.  It is not about the past, nor is it about the future.  It is about the present, the WIN - What's Important Now - to the prospect.   To be mindful you need to Take Out the Trash.  The trash is anything in your mind that keeps you away from the only thing that matters - this moment, here and now. When you truly are in the here and now, you will be amazed at what you can do and how well you do it.   The opposite of Effortless Sales is Stressful Sa...

Siddhartha Gautama lived in North-Eastern India 2,500 years ago. After he discovered the Truth (called Dharmma), he taught for 45 years until the age of 80, where he passed on. Today many Western philosophers (like Wayne Dyner, Stephen Covey and Dan Millman) and even NLP Gurus teach many of the concepts found in Gautama's teachings.  To me there are 7 important lessons that we all must know or we shall perish: 1. It's Your Action That Counts   Talk is cheap, and mere talk will not lead you to Greatness.  To be great you must act great. Gautama said, “I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.” 2. Conquer Yourself It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours as it cannot be taken from you.  He who can conquer himself is greater than the mighty.  To conquer yourself you must conquer your mind. You must control yo...

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...

(Read 4 Weeks to a Better Manager at here ) We know that with the Singapore's economy growing at 3% to 4% this year, companies should be enjoying at least 5% to 10% of sales growth.  Yet many businesses that I talked to, including the famous restaurant at Orchard Road that I attended, are seeing stagnant sales.  Some are even experiencing declining sales.  Why? Lack of Labour . Because of the low birth rates from 1990 onwards, there are far fewer job seekers than job providers.  This, coupled with the continued tightening of foreign labour, means that it is the lack of labour, not lack of customers, that is causing sales to stagnant .  Is there a solution? The solution must be a permanent one, that is, it should once and for all solve this labour shortage problem, at least for the next 10 to 20 years. It should also not increase the cost of doing business , yet at the same time does not require government's funding.  What is this perfect solution? ...