At 99 degrees water is hot. At 100 degrees Celsius it is boiling. When it boils it produces steam. And with steam it can power a steam train, it can power turbines. One degree make all the difference. And the one extra degree of effort in business and in life…separates the good from the great.
The average margin of victory for the last 25 years in all major golf tournaments combined was less than 3 strokes.
The margin of victory between an Olympic gold medal and no medal is extremely small. In the 2004 men’s 800 metre race the margin of victory was 0.71 seconds.
At the Indy 500 the average margin of victory for the past 10 years has been 1.54 seconds.
On average the winner took home R10,230,000. The second place prize was R4,968,000. A difference of R5,262,000.
It’s your life, you are responsible for your results.
It’s time to…turn up the heat.
To get what we never had, we must do what we’ve never done.
The 100 degree attitude: The only thing that stands between a person and what they want in life is the will to try and the faith to believe it is possible.
You are now aware. You now have a target for everything you do.
The Most Important Sales Skill of All
Here is a four step process to hone your ability to successfully sell anything to anyone.
It doesn't matter how good your product is. It doesn't matter how smart your marketing is. It doesn't matter how personable and knowledgeable you are. If you can't close the deal, your company is a waste of time and energy.
The best way to learn this essential sales skill is understand how the very best salespeople close deals, according to Linda Richardson, founder of the huge sales firm Richardson. Here is a four step process that anyone can follow:
According to Richardson, the "great closers" of the sales world share the three characteristics:
1. They're prompt. When closers get a hot sales lead, they're on it immediately. If they sense the time is right, they close the deal, right then and there.
2. They're persistent. When closers know that they've got something the customer needs, they keep working with that customer until the customer sees the need, too.
3. They're focused. Closers are constantly improving their skills at dialog and questioning and do the extra mental work to build confidence in their own ability.
If you want to be good at closing deals, never pass up an opportunity to cultivate those personal characteristics in yourself.
Closers approach every customer meeting with an objective that is specific, measurable and appropriately aggressive. Examples:
Closers never have vague goals like "get closer to the customer" or "learn about customer needs." In business, vagueness is the enemy of success.
These specific goals help closers visualize the sales process as series of smaller closes that lead towards the final close.
Closers look for feedback from prospective customers about whether it's the right time to close. This allows them to make closing a natural extension of the conversation.
At convenient points during the customer meeting, closers ask questions that reveal the customer's state of mind relative to the progress of the sale. Examples:
Such questions help closers see the "green lights" that will increase the closer's confidence that asking for the next step (or for the business) is the right thing to do.
Note that the questions above are open-ended. Asking yes/no questions like "Does that make sense to you?" or "Do you agree?" just cause customers to nod along, without providing the closer any useful information.
If you follow the previous three rules, there's a good chance that your prospective customer will close for you and saying something like "So, when do we start?"
If this does not happen, however, you do the following:
1. Summarize. Make a concise, powerful summary that reiterates the benefits of your offerings and its appropriateness for the prospect.
2. Make a final check. Example: "I think we've pretty much concluded that our solution will solve your problem and save you money; how does that meet your objective?" The final check gives the customer the opportunity to surface any final objections that might interfere with the close.
3. Ask for the business. If the final check gives a "green light," be direct and ask for the business--confidently and clearly. Example: "Will you give us the go-ahead?"
It's really that simple.
How to Cope with a Sales Slump
Sales slumps are like bad weather; keep your head down and soldier on.
Into the life of every business, a sales slump will eventually fall. Customers cancel orders, opportunities get delayed, prospects turn out to be dead-ends. Worst case, you can have a "perfect storm" where nothing seems to go right.
What to do? Here's an easy five step process to kick yourself back in gear.
The worst thing to do at this point is freak out, which might turn a sales slump into a self-fulfilling prophesy. Statistically even the best firms and the most talented people have weak or bad quarters. Take a deep breath and don't let it get to you.
Some people crumple under pressure. If you've gotten this far with this post, you're not one of them. You've decided to do what it takes to improve the situation, which takes real courage. That alone separates you from the crowd.
Rather than thinking of this slump as a disaster, think of it as a way to hone your emotional resilience. If you continue working and selling and doing the best with what you've got, you're training your brain to be successful even when thing get rough.
Take an objective look at the way you're selling. Have you changed your behavior from when you were more successful? Or has the market changed? If neither is true, you're all set. But if either is true, decide what you'll need to change in order to adapt.
Regardless of whether you've made changes to your sales process, it's time to forget about the slump and focus on the mechanics of selling. Make the calls. Do the follow-ups. Have some faith. Soon the slump will only be a bad memory.
Source: Inc.com, Article by Geoffrey James
Become a Great Negotiator: 5 Steps
The trick to achieving a "win-win" is to collaborate rather than compete.
Although everyone claims to want a "win-win" deal, the sad truth is that most businesspeople are competitive and subconsciously want to "win" by making the other person "lose."
Even when you enter negotiations with the best of intentions, it's fair to assume that, at some level, your counterpart wants to see you "lose" at least something. There's also probably a part of you that probably feels the same way about them.
The trick to moving out of this mentality is to "increase the size of the pie," according to Dr. Michael Leimbach, vice president of global research and development for the sales training firm Wilson Learning Worldwide.
To accomplish this, you treat the negotiation as a way to expand the deal to include items that both parties want but may not have identified or realized when they first entered the negotiation. Here's how:
When Dr. Leimbach explained this concept to me, I believe he was speaking metaphorically, but the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that the physical act of sitting on opposite sides of a table automatically creates competition.
In most business situations, people who are working together--rather than competing--tend to sit next to each other, sharing what they know in order to reach a higher level understanding.
Therefore, it seems intuitive to me that you're more likely to get to a "win-win" if your physical positioning encourages you to work towards that goal.
When you use expressions like "my position is" or "my firm's position is" you are taking ownership of position. This makes the position part of your identity, which in turn makes it difficult to change or abandon that position.
Rather than owning a position, externalize it into a problem that both of you are working to solve. For example: "If we crafted the arrangement like so: [idea], it would work for me. How would that work for you?"
The idea is to turn the negotiation into a problem solving sessions where you help each other figure out how to go forward... rather than butting heads.
Understanding the chain of logic behind a negotiating position allows both parties to figure out alternative (and possibly more elegant) solutions to the core problem that's creating the position.
For example, suppose a customer takes the position "I absolutely must get the lowest price." However, if you dig deeper into the "why" behind that "what," you might discover that the real problem is a lack cash flow in the current budget.
Once you know this, you can work together on ways to minimize the effect of purchasing on immediate cash flow, even if it means a higher price.
Another way to transcend competitive negotiating is to introduce independent facts that define the parameters of the agreement. Such facts might include estimates of market value, industry performance benchmarks, and credible third-party research.
When both parties agree upon such standards, it becomes easier for everybody involved to evaluate a proposal or an idea from a position of common ground, according to Dr. Leimbach.
"For example, if a customer needs to demonstrate to his or her manager that the price for the deal is a good value, then an independent standard such as market value/price can be used to justify or reinforce the customer's choice," he explains.
Enter every negotiation with a backup plan that comes into effect if you and your counterpart can't reach agreement. (Dr. Leimbach calls this a BATNA: "Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement.")
For example, suppose you're working with a potential customer who simply won't (or can't) pay you enough to make the deal profitable for you. In this case, your BATNA might be to maintain contact and continue to investigate opportunities to work together.
Having an acceptable BATNA frees you from the limiting perspective that you MUST close the deal no matter what, thereby freeing you to negotiate without fear of "losing."
