Business and Money Tips

As we know, nothing happens by itself and everything has a cause and an effect.  This causality is also explained as Dependent Origination, which means that something is always depending on something else, and without the origin of something, something will not happen .   The reason is nothing is absolute or permanent.  Everything is relative and impermanent.  Nothing exists on its own, but arises from something else.  Things continue to exist and transform owing to the coming together and dissolution of factors .  This natural law can be simply stated as:  When A arises, B comes to be.   When A does not arise, B does does not come to be. Similarly, when A ceases to arise, B ceases to come to be. In short,  without A, there is no  B.  With A, there is B.  For example, this blog arises because I attended a talk by Justin Fong in April 2013 and was advised by him to start writing regularly.    As you can see, there is constant dynamism in things .  Understand that there are mul

What would you say when your client asks, "How much do you charge for your service?" This is a money question. Indeed such money question forces you to confront your sense of self-worth . In other words, what's your self-worth? It takes courage to place a fair but generous value on your expertise and the time taken to get that expertise. Definitely not the time it takes to do the work , but the time it takes to be to do the work well .  Just like we don't pay our Dentist by time, we pay him by his ability to do his work well, regardless of the actual time taken. Often in the dentist case, the shorter the time, the better it is and the higher is his fee. Here's what you should answer to this question - "More than what you think!" In our coaching and training business, we always work toward the goal of giving our clients more than their money's wort h. Because we know that when we dedicate ourselves to raising the top (quality) rather than lowering

Since yesterday's blog about Sales Training in Singapore, one person commented that trainees are more important than trainers, and good trainees can make trainers better and they will benefit the most from any training .  Today we talk about how to become a good professional trainee: First, realize that training is a key determinant of your career success.  A good trainee will put to use immediately what he learnt and help his employer earn more money instantly. Second, understand that as a trainee, your job at the training is not to learn as much, but to discover as much as possible about yourself .  We seldom look at ourselves, and most people live their entire lives without knowing themselves.  So go for training with an open mind, take what the trainer said seriously and examine your own strengths and weaknesses honestly in the training. Third, immediately after the training, jot down 3 key points that you want to teach to your colleagues, boss and team members .  The b

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

To survive in today’s markets, you need to follow a new set of rules. Just like you have at some time or other fire your boss, isn’t it time that you fire your customers too? You’ll probably say, “Are you mad? How can I fire my customers, the people that bring me money?" Read on to find out why firing customers can give you 80% more business and 100% more happiness… There are 4 types of customers in this world; I call them A B C D: A – stands for Awesome , the best customers that anyone can find, people that give you high margins, advance payments, regular business and large deals. Everyone’s dream customer. B – stands for Basic – the basic customers that you have to keep you busy with normal profits and cash inflow. Everyone’s daily customers. C – stands for Can’t Deal With – the type of customers that ask for things to be done or delivered yesterday and when you ask for payment, it is always ‘tomorrow or next week’. You make almost zero profit and cashflow on them.

People are more capable than what you think.  Whether you are dealing with your staff, customers, suppliers, contractors or children, you should adopt an open mind and do not limit people's capabilities.  Currently you may see low performance, but understand that such performance is determined by causes and conditions set before.   Once the causes and conditions change, performance will change .  For example, Japan's economy has, since 1992, on a decline phase and till today 2014, it has not recovered to its glory days of 1980s.  This is because of the causes and conditions that Japan has, chief among them is its closed door immigration policy that limits foreign talents.  If Japan were to change its immigration policy and attract talents like Singapore or USA, its economy will surely improve.   If people are indeed more capable than what you think, what causes them to under-perform?  There are 7 key causes and conditions: No Mood.  Yes, people don't feel the push

In our previous blog , we talk about how to use our eyes to close every sale.  Over 84 techniques were shared in our courses   How to Close Every Sale and Sales Power , today we will dwell on one tactic: Using Emptiness . When your prospect gives you an objection and he did so in a negative manner, like being sarcastic or critical, most salespeople will act in one way - react. If you understand the concept of 'no self', you will know that everyone is empty by itself.  Your prospect does not have any self-nature - no nature of his own.  There is no nature coming from his own side, what we see in him are just our perceptions of him.   He is empty, and we must be careful not to take away his emptiness and fill him with our own views of him, which will be negative because he gave us an objection .  'No self' means that whatever you see in him is just coming from you, not him.  He is empty, but that doesn't mean that he does not exist, or for us to pretend that he i

A good manager or leader is one that makes people work hard, not make people's work hard .  Working hard is indeed a virtue, but in today's world of smartphones and smartness, many equate working hard to be not working smart.  This mistaken belief arises because most people treat work as drudgery and an necessary evil.  If you treat work as enjoyment and play, you would work hard because working is playing .  Understand that working hard is actually diligence, but it is not blind diligence, which is simply being a workaholic and work hard until work becomes very hard.  Those who know will tell you that if you really work hard, work is not hard at all but very easy .  Those that find work hard are those that are not working hard enough to find the joy in their work. There are 7 situations that you too can work hard and yet have an joyous time: You work on your Passions , whereby every working minute is actually passionate and full of positive emotions.  Like I do tr

Whether you are in business, employment, student or just a home-maker, you'll probably realize that there is no safety in safe strategies .  In the part, people could just specialize in one skill, work for a good employer for life, save some money, and see their retirement nest egg grows into a level that they can live comfortably for many years.   Today one skill is not sufficient, and your savings may not be enough after paying for your house mortgage, and our Prime Minister said that we have to work till 67.     In business, even if your product is good and well accepted, your company can lose out to competitors very quickly.  Who would have predicted that Nokia, whose market share was 40% in 2009, can only managed 4% market share today?  In employment, many so-called experienced people are now being replaced by younger people whose drive and wide skills base are much sought after.  Those in leadership positions in 'established' organizations too saw their positions

Following my article on 22 April 2014 about the 7 Truths in Management , the part on Delegation attracted the most comments.  In our management training , we often emphasized 7 children: the 7 Tasks that Cannot Be Delegated. They are like your 7 children, if you abandon them, you're abdicating them.  That's sinful!  Giving Authorization.  This is very obvious, you cannot delegate approval and authorization, thus you have to sign documents yourself.   Strategic Planning. You can get consultants to help you, but at the end of the day, you must select what strategy to take.  When it comes to planning, you can delegate the details to your subordinate, but the overall master plan must come from you. Praising People.  You can delegate scolding, but compliments have to be dished out by yourself.  If you are afraid that your hair will stand when you praise someone face to face, you can do it via electronic ways.  But no matter how busy you are, a manager's job is to inspir

Note: Next "Selling the Impossible" training is on 16 March 2018 Friday 2 to 5.30 pm. Details at here Following our article on Selling The Impossible where we listed the 10 situations, there are another 7 situations developed from ideas with our readers as follows: Your top salesperson has now joined your competitor, and he pulled with him all your regular and good clients.  Your prospect has a very small budget, and at this price, you are making a loss. A bad apple has spoilt the reputation of your industry. Although your pricing is not high, your company suffers from poor quality reputation. Your prospect likes what you have, but his boss prefers to deal with another bigger and more established vendor, even though their offer is worse than yours. Your company's management has just restructured and now prefers to work with self-employed resellers instead of salaried salespeople like you.  A new competitor has just emerged out of nowhere, and you are at a

Of all the 5 senses of the human being, speech and words are the most prevalent use. The other 4 senses are sight, touch, smell and taste.   In this modern age, we have very good communication tools, like the internet and satellite.  It takes no time to send out news to the other side of the planet.  Yet it takes lots of time for people to truly understand what is communicated.  In fact communication has become very difficult.  Fathers cannot talk to children, managers cannot talk to their staff and salespeople do not talk to their customers.  In short, communication is blocked.  There is little listening.   Many people do not realize that when we say something poisonous, they are more harmful than giving people poisonous food .  Also, words are more harmful than wars because at least you can prepare and defend in wars but people could spread bad words about you via social media and you could hardly stop it.   In fact words have the power to stay on for years after they are spo

I just came back from an international convention attended by over 1,200 people.  Over a 3-days period, there were many discussions about leadership.  One person said that he was trained in leadership many years ago but now he needs refresher training.  Another said that many people are not trained in leadership and thus they were not as effective as desired. I was glad that nobody said that leadership is about having authority, title or expertise.  At least this organization of 54 years in existence has got the right understanding of leadership.  But I was surprised that nobody defined what exactly is leadership, which is strange because they spent so many hours discussing about leadership.   What's the best and most comprehensive definition of leadership?  It is Adding Value to People's Lives .  In this concept Adding Value includes Serving People .  So Servant Leadership is not one style of leadership, as what some people think, but one aspect of leadership.  Other aspe

We know that nothing ever happens to us is a good thing or bad thing from its own side , because, if it were, then everyone would experience it that way as well.  For example, we may find someone irritating in the workplace, as if his 'irritating-ness' were something inside him that was flowing out and flying across the room to us.  That of course is not true.  That person's irritating-ness was just our perception . In reality there is almost always someone who finds this person to be good and lovable.  In short, people have no quality within themselves.  People are neutral, blank or empty.  What we experience is just our perception. What causes our perception?  It is a combination of factors: our own experience, the environment, our opinion, others' opinion and most importantly, our own state of mind . If we are in a joyful or loving state of mind, we will have positive perceptions.  If we are in an angry or hatred state of mind, we will have negative perception

This is so shockingly simple and yet few use it because we were trained in schools to be one-sided in our social interaction.  My participant at this morning training just sent me an email saying that the training 'was very good and motivating'.  I replied him that I was just responding to the participants who were so hungry and eager to learn and they made me unconsciously and consciously go the extra mile.   Scientists today conclude that your mere act of observing something will influence that thing's behaviour .  So if I look at you with curiosity and enthusiasm, I will make you want to share with me more and motivate me.  On the other hand, if I look at you with prejudiced lens, my negativeness will make you become defensive and hold back giving it all in your performance.  So my friend this is the insanely simple way to getting high performance from your team: Look at them with an open heart .   When your heart is unlocked, your mind will be wide opened and wit