Business and Money Tips

As we know, Sun Tzu does not advocate a martinet-style of leadership. Instead, he states that a leader must be strong enough to executive the strategy in the organization. On the other hand, the leader must also be confident and trusting enough to allow his team to carry out the strategy successfully.  It is thus both HARD and SOFT: Hard on the Problem Soft on the People .  There are 5-Ways to Sun Tzu Leadership: Build Your Character, not just Your Image .  To Sun Tzu, a leader must be courageous, sincere and yet humane. But a leader must always  appear to be in control  of the situation, exuding confidence and assurance at all times. This confidence is not a facade, but based on true inside confidence. In short,  if the leader has even one doubt, his followers will have several . Lead with Actions, Not Just Words .  The best way to show your character is not to talk about it, but set the example. Talk is cheap.  You should never say one thing and focus on another

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

Of all the words in the English language, Love is the most mis-understood.  Many mistaken love to be attachment, lust, affection or relationship kind of love. We know that love is more than that. We also know what Love is NOT. Love is not about possession, condition and blind faith .   Many say that love is an inner feeling, and when you express that feeling to the outside world, that feeling is called an emotion. We define love as promoting the welfare of others.  It is to serve others, not ourselves .   It is to use your heart, not just your brain or your body. There are 7 kinds of love that we can use in business and at work: 1.  Showing Kindness, Care and Concern (non material benefits) 2.  Welfare and Material Benefits (e.g. money) 3.  Commitment and Loyalty 4.  Trust and Confidence in People, especially when the going is tough 5.  Empathy (to feel what people are feeling without them telling you) 6.  Friendship and Comradeliness 7.  Non-self, i.e. put ourselves be

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? Right Speech How do we

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, emotions and feelings.

* 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 prod

‘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 made up, it rarely changes.   If you want to make a big impression on another person, you hav

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 life changes we've had on our mind for

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 products, their features and

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