communi Archives | Life Puzzle

“The art of the sale is the art of closing the deal. Everything else is just foreplay.”

~ John Carlton

It All Starts with Your Introduction...

Let’s first assume that you know who you want to talk to and you put yourself in situations where you are actually conversing with these people (that may seem to obvious to mention, but I’ve lost count of the people who are actually saying the ‘right’ things to the ‘wrong’ people and whose sales sky-rocketed when they simply shifted locations).

When you introduce yourself to genuine prospects do they…

Wait patiently for you to finish so they can launch into their own spiel?
Interrupt you before you have a chance to explain things properly?
Get excited and start firing relevant questions at you?
Fall asleep (metaphorically speaking)?

Your introduction matters, because if you don’t attract their interest and fascinate them quickly, you may never get to the point where they are interested in continuing the conversation and allowing you to nurture them.

How Well Do You Know Your Prospect?

Many sales people make the mistake of thinking that their prospects are as fascinated by the product or service they are offering as they are themselves. The real question isn’t why you believe they should buy (or at least show an interest), it’s why they believe they should pursue your offer. An effective introduction plays on your prospects’ inner desires and goals and wakes them up out of their dreamy indifference… But you can’t do that until you know what they really want and need.

Your prospect actually wants to say, “No” as quickly and decisively as they can most of the time, so it’s your job to make that impossible for them to say until they have heard more.

Does that sound like too big a challenge? If you have the right introduction and you’re talking to your ideal prospect, then continuing your conversation until you have the opportunity to make an offer should be a no-brainer.

Do They Care about Your Offer?

Again, if you know your prospect, you can predict what they really want and if your whole conversation has helped you understand them better, you can make an offer that they care about… An offer that gives them hope that you can solve their problems and turn their life around.

Maybe your offer isn’t a direct sale… you may still be in the nurture phase if your product is complex or expensive, but you still need them to be excited about the possibility or else they will turn you down as quickly as they can.

Think about it… Do you wake up each day thinking…

I want another study program to work through?
I would love to talk to someone who has a program to sell for 15-30 minutes during my lunch break?
I desperately need another free report or gizmo?
What can I buy today that I hadn’t previously considered spending money on?
I need to receive more emails because I love it when my inbox is overflowing?

I bet you don’t… And nor do your prospects!

Like most of us, your prospects are thinking…

How can I cut clutter and free up time and space for things that matter?
What unnecessary expenses can I eliminate?
Is this worth my time and effort?

So… Even if you’re not asking for any money (yet), your offer needs to provide a rational and emotional pull that suppresses that strong desire to just say “No!”

Don’t Run Away… Close with Confidence!

I was talking with a business woman a few years ago. To be honest, it had taken me several meetings to figure out that her services could actually help my business grow because her pitch was terrible… But we sat down one day with her proposal, went through it… And then as she got up to leave, she said, “I don’t suppose you’re interested, but if you want to go ahead let me know.”

I just about had to run out of the office after her to get the contract and sign it (and I was happy that I did so). But… that’s no way to close sales unless you’re extremely lucky!

The difference between a struggling sales team (or business) and a wildly successful one that exceeds expectations on every measure is the ability to close with confidence when you know you have an interested prospect who can benefit from your product or service. It’s the simplicity and dignity of being able to say, “You’ve heard what I have and what it does. Would you like to work with me and reap the benefits or not?” Then waiting quietly for a response.

How is Your Elevator Pitch?

Does your Elevator Pitch leave prospects wondering how quickly they can get away from you? Does it make you squirm? …or do you simply make up your introduction on the fly every time you meet someone?

Preparing your path from introduction to a confident close is the theme of my Live One-Day Sales Masterclass. Learn more and sign up HERE.

“We’re either winning or we’re learning = two good outcomes!”

Perfectionism is the Enemy of Success

Do you like it when everything runs smoothly and you can pat yourself on the back and tell yourself what a great job you did and celebrate your achievement?

I do… But that’s rarely how it plays out for me.

Most of the time, I finish a task and think about what I could improve and really dig into the details and beat myself up for every little “umm”, elongated pause, or stumble. On the plus side, that’s because I don’t want anything to get between my message and my hearers because I want to serve my audience, on the minus side, it means that I’m more focused on what I do wrong, than what I’m doing right.

Here’s the problem: that mindset is a recipe for failure and depression, not success and happiness!

I know I’m not alone in this response, it’s at the root of many people’s unwillingness to speak in public, to share their ideas and suggestions, and to take risks. Many of my clients are holding back from pursuing their dreams because they have forgotten that before you can do a thing really well, you need to start by doing it badly.

Let Me Illustrate…

At the end of November, I presented a live webinar: “How to Add 2 Extra Months to Your Year and Overcome the February Cash Crunch”.

I had everything set up and prepared well in advance, but part way through the webinar my internet cut out and I was cut off right in the middle of a sentence about how sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to…

The old Chandell would have got the webinar back online as quickly as possible and continued to present, all the while knowing that it was total disaster and that, like everything else she touched, would turn to ashes…

Today’s Chandell considered that line of thought… but remembered the group of people watching, and the questions and comments that had already come in from viewers. I knew that even if I didn’t get back online my viewers had got a heap of value and I took a moment to celebrate that while I was taking the steps needed to reconnect to the internet and continue.

One of the things that I celebrated was my own growth.

If You Don’t Like Who You Are Today… or Where You Are: Change!

Once upon a time in my life obstacles were just road blocks. They got in the way of what I wanted to accomplish. The frustration and tension had built up so far that I thought about ending my life, because I knew I would never be perfect.

Thankfully, I didn’t take that route. I discovered NLP and other resources that empowered me to celebrate who I was, and change the things that held me back so that I could empower others and facilitate their search for achievement and meaning.

Today I see obstacles as opportunities: opportunities for self-examination, growth, and service. You see, we all have the ability to change.

Who we are…
How we react…
What we do…
What comes next…

They’re all choices we make… choices we can change.

It’s one of the reasons why I enjoy conducting breakthrough sessions with individuals and group business coaching: both of these are paths to transformation of both yourself and your business. For all the talk around empowerment in the media and in education, they really don’t do a great job at modelling a growth mindset… it’s really all about process not achievement and that’s what many of my clients find so refreshing and freeing.

Of course, we use processes but they are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. For example, the reason that the 13-week Profitable Business Accelerator Program is so successful, is that the processes are a means to an end. Some of my clients may already have one or more of the processes in place, but they’re not getting results yet for one of two reasons:

They’re so focused on the process that they forget about the outcome; and
They haven’t yet implemented the process because they are afraid of failure;

Other clients are missing processes, but once the key elements of process + outcome + action are in place, the results are surprisingly quick and dramatic.

What Are YOU Waiting For?

Do you really believe that the person you are today and the business you have is the result you deserve and will have to live with for the rest of your life?

I’d like to respectfully challenge that belief. Now. Today.

No matter how good or bad your circumstances are, there is always more so why not make 2020 the year you stick your neck out and ‘go for gold’?

If you’d like some help on the business side of things, I have a new 13-week Profitable Business Accelerator program starting in February. Discover the details here: https://lifepuzzle.com.au/13-week-profitable-business-accelerator-program/