Business and Money Tips

At the beginning of every training session I normally ask my students why they are here.  Inevitably I get answers like, "I was told by my boss to attend", "I have to come for training or my boss will not be happy" and "Do I have a choice?  Coming for training is part of work, right?" I would often counter what they said by saying, "That means you are forced by your boss to attend this training, right?"  The whole class would erupt into laughter.  I then thank them for their honesty and show instant appreciation to their boss (who could be inside the class). Indeed the best reason for coming to training is no reason, that is, come because of being forced by bosses.   As we know, training is not playing or social activity, very few people, maybe less than 0.01% of the population, would attend training on their own.  Most people need their bosses to force them to attend training.  The reason is that many employees feel that they know a lo

In case you do not already know, we are all warriors in life, and the biggest war we fight is the war within ourselves.  Psychologists said that we have over 16 million thoughts everyday, and at every moment a few conflicting thoughts are going through in our mind and our thoughts have to fight to see which thought can come out stronger than the rest. In the workplace we are too fighting: fighting for promotion, for business, for attention, and for appreciation.  Learn these 5 lessons today and you'll be a more successful workplace warrior: Low Maintenance First .  Before we can talk about being a high performing employee, we must first be low maintenance.  This means that we do not require much input and help from our bosses and we are independent and reliable .  Like we are being trained, disciplined, healthy (not fall sick often), and most importantly, be easily trainable.  Also do not break down often (i.e. let go your negative emotions in public).  Be Creative . Here c

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 the creativ

In our training and coaching sessions, a question people often ask is: what is the first step to take if you want to improve your performance at work?  My answer is: Realize that Your Boss is Not Crazy. Many people often feel that they are not in control of their destiny at work and believe that it is their bosses that determine everything at work. Even if this is true (of course we don't for a moment believe in this), you can still control your fate at work.  Just start to realize that you are in control and you can do something about it. For example, you can improve your performance by becoming more efficient and more effective.   Efficiency is doing things right while effectiveness is doing the right things . You can put in more hours or even come back on Saturday/Sundays to clear the backlog .  Or you can take up some training to improve your skills, knowledge and attitude .  You can also seek help from your seniors. In fact there are countless of ways that you can d

The 7 Sales Secrets that few teach you:  1.      Sales is not a function, a goal or a number but an outcome, the outcome is customer satisfaction .  Regardless of how solid your product or service is, nothing happens without a sale.  If you did not make the sale, there is no customer satisfaction but instead lots of frustration for salespeople! 2.       Today customers are all suffering from  Frazzled Customer Syndrome (FCS):  a state of  extreme exhaustion , that’s why they are not returning your call and give you the cold shoulder.  They are extremely checked out because of heavy workload, too many choices, rapidly changing market and past bad experience with salespeople.  How can we blame them for this? 3.       The result: customers keep you at a distance, brush you off, dismiss you entirely and stick with the status quo, no matter how undesirable the status quo is. Once you can empathize how customers feel, you can help them to improve and get out of this frazzle trap.

Whether you are in sales, marketing, business development, support or management, you will come across the answer 'No' many times at work. Many people equate 'No' to 'No Opportunity' or 'No Chance', when in fact No can mean over 20 things as follows: Know More .  Here the customer wants to know more, and if you don't tell him, he will say no Still Thinking .  Many people hate to decide immediately as they don't want to be seen as rash Procrastinate . People procrastinate because it gives them a comfy feeling that they're in control, when in fact procrastination simply puts you higher risk as things may change. OK but not Strong enough to say yes.  This is the most common, when you feel that there is still certain things lacking but you just don't know what it is now. Test Your Patience .  Here saying no will test if you're serious to pursue further or just give up Need to Clarify First .  People will ask questions to clari

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 present so th

To sell well in any market, the key is to ask and answer 5 questions well.  The 5 questions lead from one to the other.  Note that in this fast-paced business climate, you must be ready to be wrong and don't defend your answers if you think they're wrong.  Change your answers fast by taking the right action and you'll be on the road to success. The 5 Questions are: What is your Specialisation ?  Type of customer? Product or service?  Geographical area?  For us, we provide effective training on sales and management for companies in Singapore and the region.  Differentiation : How are your products and services different from others?  In what ways they are superior ?  For us, our training programs focus on easy to remember key points and practical issues.  In fact we don't train but coach people in our courses, leading to participants feeling their burden relieved.  Segmentation : What are your very best customers, the ones that appreciate your areas of specialisat

How to increase your income by 1,000%?  By applying the Law of Multiplication, you can increase your productivity, performance and output by 1,000% in the years ahead! Here's the simple formula: increase your productivity by 0.1% each day , 5 days a week, and this will amount to 26% increase if you work 52 weeks a year. Because of the law of compounding and multiplication, your 26% increase yearly will translate into 1,000% increase in less than 10 years.  Unbelievable but true!  The top 7 ways to increase your productivity by 0.1% each day are: Read one hour each day in your field .  I don't care if it is sales, self-improvement, engineering or history.  If you do this consistently, you'd have read 50 books a year or 500 books in 10 years.  You can now read books easily from Google Books at your mobile phone. Review your major goals each morning and rewrite them .  This will program deeper into your subconscious mind, making it a reality for you. Plan each day in a

Yes, certain things are so important but they just don't tell you. Either they assume that you know or they find it hard to say it out.  But we know that misunderstanding is the cause of all work problems and clear communication, even to the extent of over-communication , is the safest policy. So managers and bosses should tell people the most important thing at work: Work Ethics. What is work ethics?  Many people equate it to honesty and integrity, when in reality it is more than that.  In our work with companies training over 81,131 people in 13 countries since 1996, other than integrity and honesty , the following are the 5 Key Elements of Work Ethics: Fairness - put in fair share of work and not take things for granted.  Do not work only when the boss is around, instead play fair by putting in the 8 hours that you're contracted with.  If you take time for facebooking and whatapping with your friends, make sure you pay back the lost time everyday .   Add Value - ever

What I learnt from Stephen Covey's 1991 best-selling book 'First Thing First':  Successful people practise inside first outside second, whereas unsuccessful people always look outside first inside second. When things go wrong, successful people will first examine themselves: they look inside to see what gone wrong.  Next they look outside for leverage: how to get help, and how to learn from others that have done similar things before. In no time they will emerge victorious as their approach will win support from people who too want to help people that help themselves first. Unsuccessful people, on the other hand, look outside first whenever things go wrong.  Instead of examining themselves, they blame others for their plight.  After many rounds of fruitless blames, they then look inside and realize that there is nothing they can do, and they end up looking outside again. This time round there is no more people to blame and they just have to resign to fate! We know t

I always believe that questions are powerful in that they have a direct and dramatic effect on your focus at any moment of time.  If you ask positive questions you'll become creative and positive, if you ask negative questions you'll become handicapped and resigned to fate.  As what Anthony Robbins said, it is the questions (and the hard questions that you fail to ask) that ultimately shape your destiny. Starting from today, you can ask yourself the following 5 power questions: 1.   What is Exciting Now?   So far 2014 has started weak and many people wondered: how long would this downturn last?  Why not ask a more powerful question instead?  By asking yourself what's so exciting, you'll realize that the weak financial markets have created opportunities like: Bargain shares, especially those companies that do well and pay quarterly dividends; Business opportunities, for those people that dare to take the risk and buy on the cheap; More employees available fo

Yes, strike while the iron is hot, continue the momentum you've been building up this year and turn your team into highly motivated warriors to win more for your company.  It is human nature for your people to take care of their own interests, but your job as a manager or leader is to get them put aside their personal goals and achieve your company's goals.  The following 6 steps will convert your team into high power achievers: Unite your team around a Cause (or dao 道) that will give instant meaning to their work.  For our team of trainers, the cause is to change the world, one training at a time. Keep their Bellies Full . Take care of their needs or their selfishness will re-surface and take over your company's goals. Make sure that your pay is competitive and there are incentives for performers to enjoy.  Lead from the Front .  This means not just empathizing them, but Experience what your people are experiencing to sustain their motivation. Be a leader of action

As the Chinese saying goes, 步步高升, or Every Step Go Higher, this is my wish for you in your career or business. We have to climb higher because Sun Tzu said in the 'Art of War' that a higher position gives us better view and safer protection from adversaries. But you need to be careful and not let your fear of heights freezes you, for instead of  步步高升, you'll end up with 步步惊心 (Every step in Fear).  There are 6 Ways that everyone can climb higher this year without fears: Start High .  That's right, start high and not start low.  Go to the highest point in your organization.  The highest point in this world is high moral grounds.  Don't stoop to low tricks, thinking that they are short cuts when in fact they cut short your success. Aim High .  Yes, aim for the stars and not the moon because in case you fall down, you'll land on the moon and not space! One Step at a Time .  Such lasting way leads to sustainable growth, the buzzword for today's corporate ex

A 2007 study by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people showed that 88% of those who set New Year resolutions fail, despite the fact that 52% of the study's participants were confident of success at the beginning.  Woman may be surprised to know that:  Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in goal setting, (a system where small measurable goals are being set; such as, a kg a week, instead of saying "lose weight"),  While women succeeded 10% more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends. Quoting Frank Ra (author of the new year's resolution book "A course in happiness": "Resolutions are more sustainable when  Shared, both in terms of with whom you share the benefits of your resolution, and with whom you share the path of maintaining your resolution.  Peer-support makes a difference in success rate with new year's resolutions".  It is also noted that t