“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”

~ Jim Rohn

Your Choices Today Will Shape Your Tomorrow… (as mine will)

You know those ‘Choose Your Own Adventure” games and books, where the choice you make at any stage affects the options available?

It’s kind of fun to make wacky choices when you’re playing at it and see what happens when you make choices that are obviously poor or risky, BUT what if you were doing that in real life?

Unfortunately, I meet people all the time who are making decisions that will handicap them for years to come.

Choices like…

  • Spending every evening in front of the TV watching programs they don’t really care about when they could be nurturing relationships, reading, or learning new skills;
  • Getting caught up in social media feuds and frenzies;
  • Staying in bed when they know they need to get up and move more;
  • Eating sugary food and empty calories rather than giving their mind and body the fuel it needs;
  • Alcohol, drugs, caffeine, and other ‘harmless’ tools that provide short-term satisfaction and help them cope with life;
  • Deciding that if they can’t ‘work’ they can just lounge;
  • Spending time with people who they know are a ‘bad influence’ on their mood or habits just because;
  • Immersing themselves in negativity;
  • The list could go on…

None of us are perfect, I’m certainly not. Like everyone else, I make bad choices about my eating, thinking, time-usage, relationships, entertainment, movement (or lack thereof). However, I’m aware of them and I really try not to use the justification that “everyone else is doing it.”

Do You REALLY Want to Be Average?

I KNOW that the choices I make today will shape the person I am and the life I will live tomorrow… And that makes me think.

You see, I don’t want to be ‘average’. I want to be much better than that! Zig Ziglar used to say that “the majority is always wrong” and this reality was one of the reasons why democracy in the ancient world was never just a question of letting the majority of the population decide: there were definite standards you needed to meet if you wanted a voice in shaping policy.

I really prefer looking at it as a decision not to settle for the ordinary, but to reach for a quality of life and impact that is extraordinary and unusual.

What Do Your Choices Say About Your Future?

What that means is that day by day and hour by hour you need to make choices that are different from the choices other people are making. For starters, you’ll make choices about:

  • What to consume (mentally as well as physically);
  • How to treat your body (food & movement);
  • How to treat and respond to others;
  • What to believe;
  • How and with whom to work;

Your choices won’t always be the same as mine. But that’s the point. Anything you are doing, saying, or thinking because ‘everyone does it’ is probably putting you on the path towards average.

The choices you make TODAY for whatever reason will quickly turn into HABITS that will shape your behaviour (and your response to stress) for years to come.

No-one knows exactly what our society and economy will look like this time next year and neither you nor I can control that.

What we can control is our own response to the situation and the choices we make about things within our power. Things like our mental food, our use of time, our nutrition, and our exercise plans.

What Are You Going to Do with This?

It doesn’t cost anything to change the choices you make about things you can control. However, choosing not to change could cost you everything you’ve worked for.

I look around and I see people whose families, businesses, and lifestyles have taken a huge hit over the last few weeks, but who have chosen to find alternative paths forward. Many of them already had dreams in their minds and hearts and have taken this as the impetus for doubling down on their focus and action.

Others have looked at the situation and said, “I don’t know what to do, but I need to change… And they’ve invested in programs or coaching to help them move forward strategically and make wise choices.” It’s always exciting to see people become aware of their need for change and then ask for help along the way.

Here are a few questions you need to ask yourself:

  • Am I going to be a victim of my circumstances or a shaper of my opportunities?
  • Do I need to take decisive action on items that I already know?
  • Do I need help deciding where I’m going and how to get there?
  • Will a recorded program suit my goals, budget, and level of knowledge best?
  • Do I need the support of a group and structured teaching to set foundations in place so that I can move forward with confidence?
  • Do I need tailored one-to-one guidance from an experienced coach in one or more specific areas of my business?

There are no right answers to these questions… But answering them honestly will help you determine what you need to succeed.

Confident Conversion: 90 days to More Cash, More Clients, More Impact

My new program “Confident Conversion: 90 days to More Cash, More Clients, More Impact” is designed for business owners who already have a functioning business and want to increase their reach and impact as well as their income and profitability.

If you know that you need some more tools to help you deliver your services more profitably and close sales with confidence then GO HERE for more information.

“If you can’t communicate effectively, then it’s almost impossible to lead your team well. Often the key to better results lies in better communication.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta ~

What Is A Leader’s Role in a Sales Team?

One of my favourite clients invited me to do some additional work with their sales team to increase their resilience and provide them with additional tools during these challenging and uncertain times. This was a clear demonstration of leadership and concern for their employees in the midst of their own challenges and also an acknowledgement of the importance of communicating this concern in many ways.

As business owners and team leaders our primary concern is naturally about the impact of this uncertainty on our own business and metrics. However, a true leader knows two really important things about their people:

  1. We’re all human. That means that what is going on in one area of our life impacts other areas. Financial stress, disruption to routines, reduced or heightened social interactions, health concerns… They all affect your team members’ performance, so whatever you can do to help people manage these situations and develop resilience matters.
  2. Different people react to different stimuli. This is a variation documented in the book, The Five Love Languages which talks about how we all have preferred methods of receiving and communicating affection. Different members of your team will respond to different efforts to encourage and communicate. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

As a leader, you need to reach out to your team and motivate them in ways that they value… And you need to equip your team members to reach out to clients in different ways, too. If you don’t do this, then you can expect to see your indifference reflected in your performance metrics.

Effective Leaders Create High Performing Teams

There are star performers in every industry and every business. They are the people who rise to the top and stand out no matter what is going on around them. Leading star performers can be challenging but in tough times these people continue to perform and contribute so they don’t showcase the calibre of their leaders.

The biggest test of an effective leader is their ability to create high performing teams. It’s extraordinary to watch a leader take an under-performing team and mould them into high performers and this kind of leadership is one of the biggest assets a business can have. From my observation, these transformational leaders have three core qualities:

  • Vision
  • Flexible Communication
  • Analytical Ability (for both people and situations)

Today, I want to zero-in on the second one: flexible communication skills.

Empowered Multi-Level Communication

We all tend to unconsciously model what we see around us. Sometimes we reject an example so emphatically that we move in the opposite direction, but that isn’t the usual procedure.

What I’ve noticed in several organisations recently is the correlation between the way the leadership team is communicating with their teams and each other and the marketplace performance of the teams. Many of these are sales teams, a few are in the executive suite or HR but the common denominator is communication skills.

One company attracts a specific personality-type of results-driven salespeople. In the current uncertain economy their sales results dropped drastically and morale plummeted at the same time. The situation was so bad that the management realised the only things that were stopping the team from resigning en masse were the unemployment figures so they invited me to sit on some sales calls.

I was fairly sure of what I was about to discover after talking to the directors but, knowing the dangers of assumption, I worked hard to keep an open mind while I observed a sales team meeting and some calls. It was no surprise to discover that the team members reflected management’s obsession with results and made no effort to discover what was going on for the clients. The team was using the same opening and pitch that had been wildly successful a few months earlier and had no clue why it no longer worked. It was a direct reflection of their leadership team’s style.

Flexibility and Growth

Initially, the leaders blamed the sales team, the sales team blamed the clients, the clients blamed coronavirus, the government, and the economy.

Great! No one wins when you are just looking around and for someone to blame.

I actually had to demo a successful pitch to get the team to pay attention to. By listening to the client’s verbal cues and watching his demeanour I turned a rejection into a substantial contract (supported by the sales reps product knowledge). That gained their attention and opened the door for some in-house training. Within days, sales results were improving and morale rose, too in response to the communication techniques and cues they learned.

What impressed me most was the openness of the leadership team to recognise the role they had played in setting up failure and their desire to learn and change too. That openness was immediately reflected in their team.

Secrets Great Communicators Know

Not everyone is a born communicator, but there’s nothing stopping you from becoming one! Often the key to multiplying your Communication Effectiveness Score is hidden under years of unconscious habit.

A H.O.W.T.O. Session uncovers the key, identifies your unconscious communication blockages, and frees you to become the leader you were born to be. Book your session soon!  

Book Your H.O.W.T.O. Session

“In a rapidly changing market, it’s important to monitor your sales strategy and offerings so that you connect with buyers without setting dangerous precedents for later interactions.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta ~

5 Strategies to Keep Your Sales Team on Track

Adapting to new market conditions is a fundamental principle of successful entrepreneurship and the very fact of a changing market creates opportunities for growth and transition. It also creates significant challenges for existing businesses especially large corporations which are often slow to adapt.

This is where entrepreneurs and small businesses have amazing advantages. They can often move into a large and profitable gap as it opens and not only create ‘survival’ products and packages but actually set the ground for market leadership.

First, however, you need to provide your sales team with the mindset and tools to cope with the changing conditions and the (frequently brutal) rejection that accompanies it.

Here are 5 strategies that you need:

#1 Leadership & Morale

I’ve been talking to a lot of sales managers and hearing the same story: my team are shattered, they’re getting rejected at every turn and there are 3 main narratives at play:

  • We need it and we understand how it will provide an advantage, but we’re conserving cash and not investing in anything right now;
  • We need it to survive but we can’t afford/won’t pay for your solution and we want the premium product at bargain-basement prices and we’re betting that you want the sale and will do anything to get it;
  • We’re lucky to still be operating, go away and leave me alone.

None of these responses encourage your salespeople to genuinely try to sell your product… And it’s easy to see why!

Here’s what leaders can do:

  1. Work on your own mindset and share struggles and victories with your team (they know you’re not invulnerable, let them see it);
  2. Make sales calls yourself and share your results (when they see you taking action and copping flack it helps them);
  3. Have strategy meetings to share problems, solutions, and insights (several heads really are better than one);
  4. Demonstrate that you are actively looking for solutions from both product and sales perspectives;
  5. Offer hope… Spring always follows winter.

#2 Client Needs Assessment

If your sales team is already using authentic sales methods based on uncovering needs, then this is an easy place to start. Shift their sales targets from dollars to information is empowering. As you know, the assumption is the mother of misunderstanding, so your goal is to find out what clients really want, need, and are willing to pay for right now.

#3 Adapting Your Offer

Surprisingly, when you start by uncovering needs as in the above strategy, you often find that the decision-maker who was adamantly rejecting any purchase at the start of your conversation is now ready to sign a contract. It was never about the inability to purchase, it was about trust, certainty, and a glut of sales calls.

However, there are also people out there who don’t want your usual product, but who will tell you about their very specific needs. That’s the information you’ll take back to your sales team and leaders to work on because the thing you never want to do is to cut the price of your premium product to meet short term goals.

All that does is devalue your premium product and make it unprofitable and unsustainable.

#4 Providing New Sales Tools & Strategies

Once you have an alternate offer, your goal is to help the sales team sell that offer effectively. Some of your team members will have been extremely successful at selling your premium offers, but now you are asking them to sell life rafts instead so it’s important to give them the mindset, questions, tools, and other resources they need to do a great job under these new conditions.

Most sales teams have one member who already has a great track record selling lower-end offerings and this is their turn to shine and help other members adjust their strategy and learn the requisites tactics. When the leadership sets an example, others follow.

#5 Accountability and Resilience

Let your team know that you understand the challenges they are facing and that you are working hard to help them succeed. At the same time, they still need to be held accountable for their activity.

Most of your team wants to keep growing, working, earning, and taking responsibility for their career and this probably won’t be the only time they face an uncertain economy and you have the opportunity to help them develop resilience and unshakeable confidence.

Confident Conversion 90 days to More Clients, More Cash, and More Impact

In this 90-day program we cover essential strategies to increase your sales performance addressing mindset along with sales strategy and tactics. In addition to a public version that we run 2-3 times a year, we also offer an in-house version that is tailored to your specific team needs.

 

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

~ Joseph P. Kennedy

Resilience and Flexibility

Sometimes when you look around it seems as though everyone is suffering and the business world around the globe is just going to shut its doors and shrivel up, but that is just one segment. Behind the scenes there is a lot of business going on even though some industries have been beaten to their knees.

I don’t want to minimize the challenges that come with a seismic shift like the one we’re facing just now, but I do want to encourage you… It’s not the whole reality. Many companies are doing extremely well and their products are sold out at full price!

Here’s why that’s good news for you even if your business is closed or struggling for survival: the businesses are looking for suppliers and their employees are continuing to purchase goods and services to keep pumping money into the economy.

I get it!

That doesn’t seem like great comfort. BUT… it does challenge you to find ways to get yourself and your business back on your feet so that you can demonstrate your resilience and flexibility.

The Person / System with the Most Flexibility Wins…

That’s a core Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) principle that every business should take to heart. A few months ago winning business was easy. Everyone was feeling confident, cashed-up, and ready to spend. Suddenly, it seems as though many people are feeling insecure, cash-poor, and holding back on all expenses.

Whether you’re a winner or a loser in the present economy, I want to remind you that your flexibility at this moment is always the basis for your future success.

I strongly believe that what we’re seeing is like the rocking of one of those Russian nesting dolls with rounded bases: when you give it a push, it rocks wildly and seems as though it will topple over, then it slowly returns to stasis. Going into lockdown has created that wild rocking motion, but things are returning to a new normal… even some hospitality-based businesses are seeing an uptick in opportunities. The key is your mindset and your willing to flex and respond to both the stop signals and the go signals.

That flexibility is at the heart of developing resilience and laying the groundwork for your future success.

What’s the Point?

I was talking to a friend who is struggling with depression in the face of all the challenges that have just hit… Not chronic depression, just a heavy pall over her spirit that doesn’t go away and the sense that there’s no point even getting out of bed since there’s nowhere to go and work to do.

I’ve been there myself and I know how hard it is to stay positive in the midst of that dark spiral.

BUT… I also know that you can choose what to focus on. It seems unnatural, and it’s not necessarily easy to tear your thoughts towards something positive which is why I love the way NLP teaches us to control our state. I shared how to do that with my friend, and also challenged her with some basic actions to take each day (starting with setting her alarm and getting up to exercise when it goes off). Yesterday, she called me to say that it’s helped… She even set herself some additional goals to reach and set up a chart to check them off each day.

Measurement is Your Friend

You can’t celebrate wins if you don’t measure anything. That’s what my friend discovered.

By setting goals and also creating a system of measuring them she gave herself grounds to celebrate… And that created a positive spiral of action and reaction.

What about you?

What are you measuring?  Are you celebrating your achievements (large and small)? Or do you let them slide past?

This is a critical encouragement when things are tough. It’s equally important when everything is going well because it builds that habit of assessing your own performance so that you can both celebrate and challenge yourself because this is the habit that contributes to both resilience and flexibility.

Confident Closing Virtual Sales Masterclass

One of the areas we look at in the Confident Closing Virtual Sales Masterclass is this aspect of mindset and building habits that engender resilience and help you respond to unwanted situations flexibly and advantage of opportunities that exist, rather than wishing things were different.

Click the button below to learn more and purchase lifetime access along with some amazing bonuses:

Confident Closing Virtual Sales Masterclass

“Assumptions are dangerous things to make, and like all dangerous things to make — bombs, for instance, or strawberry shortcake — if you make even the tiniest mistake you can find yourself in terrible trouble.”

~ Lemony Snicket

What Dangerous Assumptions are You Making?

You probably know that not everyone shares your way of looking at situations and events, but have you ever thought just how often your assumptions lead you completely off-track?

Assumptions are risky in every aspect of our lives especially in the context of sales and business.

In my book, Confident Closing: Sales secrets that grew a business by 400% in six months and how they can work for you! I tell the story of a friend who came to visit me from Portugal and how my assumptions about what she would love to do nearly ruined her holiday before we addressed them.

In sales and business people often make some of the following deadly assumptions:

  • What the client actually wants;
  • How much the other person is willing to invest;
  • Whether they have already done substantial research and how much they know about the subject/issue;

Each of these cover a broad sweep of items that have implications for your sales process and more.

How Assumptions Affect Your Outcomes

Recently I was talking with a woman who was offering a program which was very appealing. I had followed a very effective process and jumped through all the pre-qualification hoops, so I was fairly well informed about her product and had just 3 specific questions I wanted answered directly before I said ‘yes’ to the offer.

I anticipated that we would discuss these during the sales call as promised and was rather shocked when we spend most of the call going over the information that I had previously absorbed and she didn’t start asking any questions that didn’t relate to whether I understood her proposition until the time was almost gone. In the end, I bought the program, not because the sales process was so effective… It definitely wasn’t… But because I already trusted this woman and knew the value she offered.

In this case, her assumption that I hadn’t properly understood the proposal or followed the pre-qualification process felt dismissive. Her inability to manage the time we had meant that she didn’t have time to answer my objections, and she (rightly, in my case) assumed that I respected and trusted her enough to make the commitment on the basis of what I had heard already. She took an awful lot for granted… And in a tight economy filled with uncertainty one thing is certain: you cannot afford to take the interest and trust of customers and prospects for granted.

Listen Carefully, So You Can Clarify Your Own Assumptions

I see sales people and business owners all the time who are so concerned that they won’t say the right thing, that they miss all the cues.

They assume that people aren’t biting on the bait they’re putting out there because they’re not getting the words right.  In a lot of cases they’re so caught up on what they’re going to say next or what they’re going to do next that they don’t actually hear the buying signs from the clients… And they definitely don’t hear the real questions that are being asked.

Most people actually tell you what they need if you’re listening carefully enough.  Sometimes I do role-plays with my clients where I actually get them to sell to me and it’s really interesting watching them make assumptions about what my needs should be rather than spending time asking probing questions and discovering what I really am concerned about.

No matter how well prepared you are with material that will interest your client in what you, the best thing you can do when you go into a sales meeting is to ask some questions and then shut up and listen to their answers. Then you listen some more – and if you open your mouth at all, it’s to ask questions about the things they are saying.

If you follow that advice, you will learn what you need to know to close the sale.  You would really be astounded to learn how many sales are lost just because we make assumptions about what the other person is looking for.

One of the most powerful tools of NLP is learning to ask questions and read the other person – not to manipulate them, but to hear what their problems and concerns really are.  The techniques I learned have closed more sales, and resolved more communication issues than I can count and this is especially important in a fragile economy where your prospects are bombarded with opportunities to spend.

What Are You Going to Do About It?

The Confident Closing Virtual Sales Masterclass will help you ask better questions, listen more effectively, and prepare you to develop a tight sales process that sees and seizes opportunities as they arise even in a tight economy.

Click the button below to learn more. You can attend live free of charge or purchase lifetime access along with some amazing bonuses:

Confident Closing Virtual Sales Masterclass

“We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.”

~ Jim Rohn

It’s Time for a Reality Check

I was talking to a client yesterday who booked an extra session to get some advice. He started with, “My business is booming. Right now I am experiencing my best month yet and, as you know, I’ve been on an exponential growth curve for the past 6 months, but every time I turn on the news my stomach tightens and I feel a crippling sense of panic about the future and I’m tempted to shut everything down.”

Let’s look at what is going on here…

  • Clients are seeking him out and paying him well;
  • His business growth is accelerating because the service he provides is something others need to operate in this climate;
  • When he focuses on that he feels good, makes plans, and takes action;
  • He turns on the news and his gut reaction is to shut everything down, lay off his staff, and hunker down.

Chris is not alone in this response to crisis and it’s not good for him, his family, his employees, or the future of our country/world!

Maybe you’re not looking at the same situation as Chris, so let’s take a moment to look at Alan. Alan has his own catering and events business, a young family, and he doesn’t (yet) qualify for any of the government support. His wife has just been laid off.

He doesn’t know exactly what he’s going to do yet, but he knows that he and his wife will figure it out.

Yes, he’s prepared for some hard times.

He knows that he’ll have to put his plans on hold and he doesn’t know what he’ll do about paying his mortgage because he doesn’t know how he’s going to make any money.

He has faced his situation, crunched the numbers, and he doesn’t see a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

BUT…

Alan has made a choice, as he put it to me…

“We’re all in the same boat and the same storm. Panic won’t get us to shore and I can’t depend on anyone else if I don’t sit down and row as hard as I can. The solution starts with me: how I invest my time and fuel my energy is crucial.”

7 Ideas to Fuel Yourself so that you can Serve Others

If you saturate yourself with the news (much of which is highly speculative) you will be infected by despair, even if you aren’t infected with coronavirus. By all means stay informed, but be disciplined about it. Follow the directives from the government about social isolation etc. But balance any time you spend on that on things that are encouraging and productive… And that includes keeping track of your idle thoughts.

Do evil, despairing, thoughts keep the world in turmoil as some philosophers have speculated through the ages?

I’m not sure about the big picture, but I do know that as an individual, “Energy flows where attention goes.” So, if I focus on negative thoughts and emotions they can easily capture my imagination, sap my energy, and leave my exhausted and useless. That’s not who I want to be!

So here’s a practical strategy that will fuel your energy, and help you to encourage others:

  1. Limit your exposure to news and negativity to 15 mins per day. It doesn’t take any longer to stay informed.
  2. Make sure that you spend at least 4 times that amount of time (1 hour+) consuming something positive: read books, work through some of your online courses, engage in professional development. This is INPUT time to balance out that 15 minutes of news.
  3. Create something or do something you enjoy. Indulge your artistic bent and write, paint, sew, knit, garden etc. Play games with those in your household, build a new course for your business… Or a website or…
  4. Nourish your body with good food, appropriate exercise, fresh air and sunshine.
  5. Make time for meditation, prayer, and other forms of spiritual growth.
  6. Avoid bingeing on junk food for your mind or body.
  7. Reach out to others to encourage and serve them. Everyone is in the same boat. A quick phone call to ask how they’re doing… Just keep it positive.

How Does your Response to Chaos and Crisis Affect Your Business and You?

Here’s the thing…

How you respond to this crisis will set a precedent for how you respond to future crises. For the past few years’ things have been pretty cruisy for most of us – despite personal tragedies and challenges and concerns about climate change and social issues, we have been mostly “in control”.

It’s natural to panic when change first disrupts your life. What you do next is what matters.

The individuals and businesses who come out the other end of this best aren’t necessarily those who kept their doors open and their habits unchanged. They’re the ones who said, “I will choose to control the only 2 things that are truly mine to control: my mind and the decision about what to do with what I have today and use them to serve those around me and to grow.”

What Are You Going to Do About It?

Alan (who I talked about above) decided that he would need to expand his sales skills and get ready to pivot. He saw my Confident Closing Virtual Sales Masterclass offer and signed up for the free live option. I know that he’ll be on the calls live every day because he’s committed to emerging from this challenge stronger and better than ever before.

What about you?

Register today for the Confident Closing Virtual Sales Masterclass so that you are prepared to take advantage of opportunities as they arise and to keep honing your skills and working on your mind-set in the midst of uncertainty.

Click the button below to learn more. You can attend live free of charge or purchase lifetime access along with some amazing bonuses:

Confident Closing Virtual Sales Masterclass

 “I know you lawyers can, with ease,

Twist words and meanings as you please;

That language by your skill made pliant,

Will bend to favour ev’ry client.”

~ Fables 1738

Yes, the Language You Use Does Matter!

As I write this, the response to the coronavirus pandemic 2020 is ratcheting up daily. If you turn on the news or you aren’t careful with your Facebook feed you’ll find that you are inundated with fearful, panic-stricken language and unless you are ultra-careful, awake, and resilient your emotions and mindset will be sucked into the vortex.

Most people don’t even think about the words they hear or the ones they use, but they most certainly feel the impact of those words in their minds, hearts, and bodies. It’s one of the reasons why Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is such a powerful transformative force:

Students become aware of the language they use and the way they talk to themselves as well as others. Words and language are, by nature, pliant. You can use them to foster hope, creativity and positive momentum or you can use them to burden others with fear, panic, and inadequacy.

Would You Be Embarrassed if You Saw a Transcript of Your Unconscious Self-Speaking?

Most people have a constant inner dialogue with themselves, but few people are aware of what they are saying. During times of stress and change the volume of that inner dialogue rises a couple of notches which makes it easier to ‘overhear’ what you’re saying to yourself.

Try it. Take a moment to listen to your conversation with yourself.

Now, let me ask you…

  • Are those words going to help you progress… or will they encourage you to sit on the sidelines?
  • Will they help you engage with the world… or check out from your mission, your business, and your goals?
  • Do they encourage your passive despair… or to take personal responsibility for growth and action?

You’re an Empowered Human Being… You Are Responsible for Your Programming!

Whatever you heard yourself saying…

And whatever people around you say…

You get to choose who you listen to!

At the start of this article, I talked about how NLP makes you aware of the language you use. Once you are aware of something, you have the ability to make choices and to change.

If you immerse yourself in pessimism, fear-mongering, and panic (even when there is justification) you can’t help being infected by it. They used to say that a child needed to hear five positive comments for every negative one. Too much criticism meant that they simply couldn’t act on the advice they heard. The same is true for all of us: firstly, we need to be aware of the negativity (accurate or otherwise), secondly, we need to dilute it with positivity.

By all means say abreast of the current situation, but for every 5 minutes of news, spend 25 minutes learning something new, reading a positive book, watching a positive or funny movie, really listening to uplifting music!

N.B. You may get a shock if you actually listening closely to the words of your favourite songs. A lot of them are full of despair, loss, and anxiety that contribute to your negative emotions.

Do You Want to Make the Most of this Time?

One of my most popular live workshops has always been “Confident Closing”. During the workshop we don’t simply address techniques for closing sales, we also discover the relationship between sales and influence, the importance of sales skills for non-‘salespeople’ (i.e. everyone!), how to develop a confident mindset and much more.

Since I’ve had to cancel the upcoming live event, I’m turning it into a Virtual Event – 5 daily sessions of teaching and interaction, with daily Q&A, assignments and more. It will start Monday March 30th at 12:00 AEST. There will be a fresh session each day and also access to recordings.

Don’t press pause on your life just because you need to practice ‘social distancing’… Make this a time of professional and personal growth. Click here for more details https://lifepuzzle.com.au/confident-closing-virtual/

“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

“Energy flows where attention goes. If you focus on your problems they will grow and absorb more and more energy. Is that really what you want?”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

Are You Growing Your Problems or Shrinking them?

There’s a lot of anxiety around the world and the business community at present. I work with executives, business owners, and sales professionals and in my general sessions I’m noticing increasing preoccupation even amongst star performers about their targets, obstacles to achievement, and potential failure.

Here’s what else I’m noticing… The more people focus on these things, the more they become self-fulfilling prophecies!

We’re not talking about non-starters here, we’re talking about people who are achieving above average results, but who are buried under a mound of anxiety…

  • What about my future health, cancer, etc?
  • What about my income, employment, promotion?
  • What about my next performance review?
    What about the broader economy?
  • What about… etc.

Some of these people have already seen their results and performance decline… But what is really fascinating and encouraging is watching the impact that this simple transformation can make on outcomes.

In my sales trainings I talk a lot about the importance of mindset and how you can derail a sale unconsciously because sometimes your unconscious mind is talking so loudly that prospects don’t hear the words you speak. Actually, this isn’t just a problem for business and sales conversations it’s also an issue for your personal relationships, health, wealth and happiness.

What if Your Problems Vanished… Without Your Attention?

This mindset / focus issue doesn’t just apply to sales. Your unconscious mind affects your results in every aspect of your life because what you pay attention to receives energy and grows. It’s not even just personal… If the world is preaching doom and gloom and that’s what most people are listening to then that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and it will affect anyone who isn’t consciously programming their mind towards solutions.

In Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) we acknowledge the power of our unconscious mind to shape our happiness, prosperity, relationships, and income and we then harness its power to contribute to the outcomes and solutions we want, rather than creating problems to struggle against. What this means is that what we say to ourselves about the world, others, and our self shapes our experiences and perceptions.

Simply put: Change your thoughts. Change your world!

Nurturing Growth & Abundance

If you look honestly at your thoughts, what do you see?

Are you focused on growth, abundance, and solutions… Or do you focus on your hurt, misery, and failure (real or imagined)? If you pour your energy, focus, and attention into the things you don’t want, they are the things that will grow.

I’m not suggesting that you ignore your problems and simply hope they’ll go away. I’m asking you to identify them and then focus on solutions and constructive thinking patterns that help you build positive habits and support those habits with right thinking. Many clients come to me with years of baggage cluttering their unconscious mind. In just one session (if they also follow my suggestions for follow through) they notice that circumstances and people change around them as well as within them.

How to Fire Your Itty-Bitty-Shitty Committee

Some of you have heard me talk about my passion for inter-generational mental health and how the itty-bitty-shitty committee in your unconscious mind is at the root of many problems… And how firing that can bring healing. I take that seriously because I’ve seen what happens when you try to ignore it.

The fastest way to fire your itty-bitty-shitty committee is to work with a coach who can help you deal with the root problems. That’s what a H.O.W.T.O. Session is designed to help you accomplish. Ongoing accountability and coaching sessions while you establish new thinking patterns can also be helpful. If you’re already certified in NLP and Time Line Therapy® you probably learned many of the techniques that will support you in this journey.

A H.O.W.T.O. Session helps you discover how you’re exacerbating your problems, and what you can do instead that will increase your health, wealth, and happiness.

 

 

 

“Most of the time, the solution to sluggish sales isn’t more time, it’s more productive time so you start with analysis and move onto strategy and action.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

What’s Working in Your Sales and Marketing?

As a sales trainer and coach I spend a lot of time working with individuals, teams, and groups and the same questions come up quite regularly even from high performing business owners, sales professionals, and others.

As you know if you’ve been following me for any period of time, I’m not a fan of pushy sales techniques or forcing people to buy things they don’t need just so that you can meet your sales targets. My strategy is to help you get in front of people who do need what you are offering and showing them why it’s a good decision to buy… Or not to buy after all, if that’s what you see.

The problem is that if you can’t answer the question, “What’s working in your sales and marketing?” then you don’t know where to start.

How Do You Know That?

If you didn’t answer the question above with some cold, hard numbers about your sales then you don’t have the information you need to make strategic sales and marketing decisions.

Let’s take an example from one of my clients for last year:

  • 23 appointments, 17 clients and $294,600 from referrals
  • 31 appointments, 8 clients and $187,000 from networking
  • 11 appointments, 5 clients and $201,000 from public speaking
  • 28 appointments, 3 clients and $93,000 from book and course sales
  • 40 appointments, 7 clients and $59,000 from articles, social media, and podcasts
  • … etc.

Most of the time, when you run the numbers, you’ll discover that you’re getting about 80% of your sales from 20% of your activity… But often it’s not the 20% you were expecting.

The client I referenced above had assumed that articles, social media, and podcasts were a great investment of time because they created a lot of activity, but when we ran these numbers he realised that it wasn’t delivering the results he had expected.

What Are You Focusing On?

The reality is that we’re all busy people, faced with competing demands on our time and energy. Since I don’t know anyone who has managed to add more than 24 hours to their day, we need to look at how to use what we have more effectively because there’s only so many hours of sleep and recreation you can cut back on.

The fastest and easiest way to get more done in less time is to focus on two things:

  • Determine which activities deliver the greatest return on time and energy invested and do more of those; and
  • Decide what you can do to streamline qualification processes so you can get more sales from less time and energy intense processes.

What Will You Change Now?

My client from the example identified several ways to leverage his time and energy including:

  • Identifying low-profit buyers and funneling them into a more automated qualifying process;
  • Refining his elevator pitch so that he elicited greater interest from qualified buyers;
  • Improving his sales conversation skills and rapport-building so that his appointment close rate for qualified prospects was over 86%;
  • Developing his prospect qualification process so that he rarely met with prospects who couldn’t or wouldn’t buy;
  • Refining his “New Client Welcome Kit” so that he spent less time answering generic questions.

Some of these initiatives are still in the making, but overall his profits increased dramatically and he was able to spend more time with his family and training his staff.

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