Business and Money Tips

The man who changed China forever and make it strong and rich again must be the late Deng Xiao Ping.  His most famous quote was, "I don't care if it is a white cat or black cat, as long as the cat catches mice, it is a good cat".   How do you apply this master principle to your business, career and life? It doesn't matter if you work in a big company or small company, most importantly it must be a good company FOR YOU Whatever business you are in, whatever structure it is in, be it direct selling, chain selling, no selling, internet selling, hard selling or soft selling, it must be a REAL PROFITABLE BUSINESS WITH REAL SUSTAINABLE GROWTH Whether you are managing people or being managed by people, you have to MANAGE YOUR CAREER WELL Whichever candidate you select, at the end of the day, you have to ensure that this is the RIGHT CANDIDATE FOR YOU. Whether you read this post, forward this post or re-post this post, you have to APPLY IT.   By Andy Ng of Asia T

Sun Tzu's Art of War is now considered a sales bible for people that want to succeed in business.  There are 7 little secrets of Sun Tzu:  Strong System Led by Strong Leaders .  A strong system led by poor leaders will make a system poor. It is not the product that sells but the company's system and leadership that sell.  Xiaomi has no better products than Sony, LG and Motorol.  Yet Xiao Mi is the world's number 3 mobile phone maker. All because of its strong leader Lei Jun.  Over Train . A team is only as good as its training. Sun Tzu knows that you can train a person for 10 years to fight a 1 day war. Yet it is the little skill that makes the difference. All these come from intense and over training.  Go High. Reach customers at the highest level possible. Sometimes the highest level is the secretary. One in a Million. Pitch your product at a level that no other competitor can fight, like having a unique feature (eg Samsung flexible Yoom phone) Passio

Ask anyone why they queued up for 10 hours under the hot sun just to catch a 10 seconds glimpse of the late Lee Kuan Yew when his body lied in state at Parliament House 2 weeks ago, they will say, "Because we like him" Ask your staff why they are so hard working posting pictures on Facebook when they don't get paid for that, they will say, "Because people click 'like'" Ask employees why they stay in the company for so long despite better opportunities elsewhere, they will say, "Because we like the environment here". Indeed the most important element in people management and leadership is 'Like" and not "Pay". When people like you, they will do whatever you say, even though what you said may not be what they like. When they like you, there is question of loyalty: because they will stick with you forever. When they like you, pay is less important. Because the managers not just pay people money but p

Successful managers use a very effective management tactic that wins people over easily. This tactic is actually a process that  manages people without managing people .   This is because a good manager never managers anyone, he simply  creates the conditions for people to manage themselves.    Transformational Leadership (TL)  is the latest buzzword in management.   This is how works: You find out what are the goals of people You share with them the goals of your organization You link how achieving the organization's goals will achieve their individual's goals You show them the step-by-step pathways to achieving the 2 goals, plus you offer assistance and coaching.   You see, when you do the above, you are not telling people that they must achieve your organization's goals.  You're  helping your people to achieve their own goals.   Asking questions helps you to find out what are their real needs.  You will be seen as a  caring manager .  But you cannot

Most managers are promoted based on their technical expertise.  For example, if you are a good engineer, you will be promoted to an Engineering Manager. After being promoted, managers are expected to perform their managerial and leadership roles well, on top of also performing their technical roles well. And when managers have problems, they often consult their bosses.  Unfortunately their bosses too have no formal training on management and leadership.  Even if they have a MBA, it is the day-to-day people management issues that make bosses headache. For example, many companies until now still cannot cope with the tightening of foreign labour .  Unable to find locals to take up jobs, they choose the obvious route: cut down business.  That's why you see Robinsons shrinking and many restaurant groups reducing their outlets.  Other than people issues, managers are always in a conundrum: how to balance the competing different interests of t

Find their hot buttons, press their hot buttons, we have heard these thoughts before; but what do they mean? Is it to say that as a salesperson you should try to discover their primary areas of interest? How do these hot buttons help you close sales?  What is a Hot Button? Hot button is not to be confused with Benefits or Emotions, nor is it about Fear and Force. In sales, a Hot button is a Trigger that once activated, the person will not go back to the original state of mind. This means that when you press the hot button, a sale will result. You do not need to close the sale as the sale is already yours. Note that different people have different hot buttons, and they too differ at different time. Also note that You as a Salesperson is also a hot button , the same goes for your company marketing, branding and positioning.  As I learnt from Barry Feig: author of best-selling book Hot Button Marketing, there are at least 14 hot buttons: #1: Hot Button, The desire for control

Sales trainers like to teach people the concept of overcoming objections.  To me, objections are a waste of time. When salespeople start overcoming objections, they are placing themselves in conflict with their customers when they should be establishing collaborative relationships instead.  Often overcoming objections set the stage for polite disagreements and respectful differences of opinion, forcing salespeople to defend their solutions.  At worst, it turns the sales process into a battle in which the salesperson goes into a battle an attack mode to 'win' the sale.  In fact, words like 'persist', 'convince', 'persuade' all imply such aggressive behaviour.   We all know that you could win an argument and lose the sale.   It doesn't have to be this way.  Salespeople can choose another approach: prevent objections instead of overcoming objections.  How to prevent objections?   Attract Customers to Buy from You.  When you attract people, peo

The past one week of mourning for Singapore's founding father and first prime minster Lee Kuan Yew teach us one thing: never order people to do anything. Get them to volunteer instead.  To manage the big crowds of people queueing to pay their last respect to Mr Lee when his body was lying in state at the Parliament House from Wednesday to Saturday (25 to 27 March 2015), the government did not: Issue orders to the SAF soldiers to work overtime  Ask the private sector to donate food, drinks and umbrellas to the people in queue Get any ministers to speak to ask people to come out and help Ask people to queue up orderly for 10 hours Issue any rule on how to behave while in queue (like what clothes to wear, not to take pictures or videos etc) Instead what we saw were: Non-stop queues of people forming 24 hours since Wednesday 25 March 2015 until Saturday 28 March 2015 Many thousands in queue for more than 10 hours just to pay less than 10 seconds of respect No one comp