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

What motivate people to buy?  Why is it that some salespeople seem to have no challenge in selling, while others cannot even get people to part with one dollar?   People are motivated by a ' What's In It For Me? " attitude.  If you want your prospects to buy your products or service, you must give them the 'It" or good reason to buy.   We know that people don't buy just for the sake of buying.  People make decisions based on the vested interest of the outcome of the decision.  The challenge of every salesperson is to learn the interest or motive pattern of the prospect - know that motivates them to say yes.  If the salesperson focuses on the motives behind their desire to purchase, and supply an incentive to that motive, he will fulfil their desire and get the sale.  It's that simple.   What then are the underlying motives for people to buy?  There are 11 emotional reasons in order of importance: They are all to feel: Good Powerful Liked Lov

Note: The next Successful Selling Strategies is on 4 July 2014 Friday 9 am to 12.30 pm. Details of course is at here The opposite of Effortless Sales is Stressful Sales.  Author of 'The Power of Now' Eckart Tolle says, " Stress is caused by being 'here' but wanting to be 'there', or being in the present but wanting to be in the future .  It is a split that tears you apart inside.  Indeed many salespeople are doing stressful sales, for when they are in front of a prospect, their mind is never with the prospect.  Instead their minds are thinking about how to close the prospect, how to make him say yes quickly, how to not mention any weakness the product has, and how to make time for the next appointment.  Stressful Salespeople often end up not achieving any sales at all, but they are very busy making proposals.  We called such salespeople Quotespeople.  There are 5 ways you can use WIN - W hat's I mportant N ow - in your sales: Always listen  to

Note: The next 'Selling the Impossible' is on 16 March 2018 Friday 2 to 5.30 pm.   Details at here .  Today's article is about advanced selling strategies - how to Sell the Impossible.  Many people consider the following 10 situations to be selling the impossible: Prospect has just bought from your closest competitor Your product pricing is way too high to be considered Your salespeople has little knowledge to close the sale Prospect has no money to buy Prospect has no time to even look at your offer Prospect has just suffered a financial loss, thus no mood to talk about anything The Government has just introduced additional taxes to discourage your trade Other than pricing, your delivery lead time is too long, specifications are too uncompetitive and your credit terms are totally unattractive The morale of your sales team has just plunged to new lows due to corporate changes A new very aggressive competitor has just entered your market with a 50% price cut

Limitless Selling seminar in April 2014 We all know that questions are among the best tools in your sales presentation. This is because when you ask, they answer, and people will always believe more in what they themselves say than what you say. The professional salesperson knows that to keep the prospect's attention, you must ask more than you tell. Not just any questions, but skillful questioning that draws prospects out and leads them to a buying decision. But here's where the normal salesperson miss out: it's not just about asking questions. There are lots of salespeople out there who have learnt the techniques of asking questions, but they come off as 'canned' and not really sincere because they're not interested in the reply. You ask a question to know a person better because you're really interested, not just to find a hole in their defenses to ram your product through. You ask because so that you can serve them. In short, you ask because you'

Every salesperson (including those not selling but selling ideas like those 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 hands. Truth: There is no such list. The one-word meaning of sales is "WORK". The 2-word meaning of sales is "WORK HARD". The 3-word meaning of sales is "WORK EVEN HARDER". 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.  We teach in our courses the 7 ways to warm up any calls. 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 answ

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 simply no teamwork!  On the oth

Sales Training in Singapore falls under 2 categories: Academic-style long training lasting into weeks and months and Corporate-style training lasting from half-days to 3 days.  Marketing Institute of Singapore (MIS) conducts the most academic-style training, while for Corporate-style short sales training, there are 3 main styles: Motivational style , which models training after NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and Motivational Principles.  You get very charged up after the training;  Guru style , which are usually done by 'ang moh' gurus like Joel Bauer and T Harv Eker, usually from USA.  They typically conduct free 2 to 3 days training (or more correctly previews) to on-sell a week of training costing 5 to 9 thousand dollars; Down-to-Earth Style , which are done by over 20 training providers, ranging from one-man shows to established providers like Asia Trainers, Asia Coaching Training and ActionCOACH.  They mix hard (specific sales strategies) with soft motivational

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 Sales.  Author of 'The Power

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 know to be tough to themselves, tough to their customers and sub-contractors and even tough to their families but soft on their team members. The reason is the lack of people working due to the tight labour market and the ban on foreign workers in many industries.  As a result, managers are too pleasing and let the subordinates climb over their heads.   On the other hand, there are some managers that are too tough that they become abusive, aggressive and hated by people.  Such managers end up with zero staff and hav

Note: The next 'Selling the Impossible' is on 12 March 2015 Thursday 2 to 5.30 pm.   Details at  here .  Yesterday I met a Sales Director from a Fortune 500 company. He commented that many of the so-called sales training in Singapore and Asia are actually motivational and goal setting training disguised as sales training.  They often get people on the high during the course but leave them unsure of what to do after the training.   Most of the sales training do not have adequate sales strategies and techniques.  They often teach things that even 10-year old kids know: ask questions, overcome objections and close the sale.   We at www.asiatrainers.com teach people more than that. We often cover situations that people consider impossible - how to Sell the Impossible.  Many people consider the following 10 situations to be selling the impossible: Prospect has just bought from your closest competitor Your product pricing is way too high to be considered Your salespeople h

Happy Lunar New Year. In our previous blog , we said that you don't need permission to do what is right, like upgrading your skills (courses at here ), In this new year, strive to do well in these 7 things:   No more reactive: be pro-active to ask for the sale, ask for more work, ask for better treatment, ask for upgrading etc  Avert less and Turn all your dislikes into likes .  Get used to things and stop complaining about how you dislike the way things are today compared to yesterday.  No more yesterday, only today and tomorrow matter. Team Achievement, not just Individual Achievement.  Studies show that the more the team achieves, the easier will be the individual's job Take care of people's hearts and people will work hard for you.  Don't use command, control and coercion. Instead inspire, influence and motivate people. Be tough and dare to do things that people dislike . Like follow-up your prospects and do service quality audit. Lea

We know that most customers don't and can't comprehend all the sales information that they hear from us.   In fact most people cannot even remember what they had for lunch yesterday.  Yet I know that as a master salesperson I need to make my customer remember what I present, not just for now but for life.  That's why I do the 3-Prong Approach: Repeat-Touch-Repeat. Repeat: During the sales presentation, we have to repeat what we previously said.  This repeat is like giving people a second helping and people will thank you for that.  It's like what happens when we first hear a new song.  We hear mostly the beat and tune and say, "This is a nice song."  Then, after hearing the same song for a second or third time, we start to pay attention to the lyrics, and start to appreciate that the song is quite meaningful.  Well, it's the same as in sales presentation.   Repetition is the mother of liking. Touch: After we repeat our Presentation, we have to let

You'll be surprised if you have a heart-to-heart talk with the people that you sent for training .  "Tell me what have you learnt."  They will say, "Nothing much, I learnt those strategies that we may have taken for granted and not used much".  Is this their real answer? What do people really learnt from training?  You'll be shocked to discover the truths: there are 5 main things that people learnt but dare not tell you: They learnt about themselves: their weaknesses, strengths and most importantly, their potential.   Like people learnt that they can do magic: cut a piece of wood with paper.  Many people are frightened with this new discovery: they are afraid that now that they know they can do much more, will they be worked to death to implement the strategies learnt? They learnt about the best practises that may not be practised in their organization, like having half-yearly dialogue style performance appraisal.  Some are afraid of telling this to