Persuasion

World’s Best Work Quotes – Part 1

March 26, 2010

work I’m beginning a multi-part list of the World’s Best Quotes. We’ll kick things off with the nine I’ve selected below, in no particular order. As usual, you can comment or email me your suggestions and feedback. Here’s to you having a productive weekend!

Here’s the links to the other posts in the World’s Best Work Quotes 3-part series:

Part 2 Part 3

Success is a ladder you cannot climb with your hands in your pockets.
American Proverb
If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it.
James A Garfield
Folks who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do.
Elbert Hubbard
Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.
Leonardo Da Vinci
I CAN is 100 times more important than IQ
Anonymous
Character is what emerges from all the little things you were too busy to do yesterday, but did anyway.
Mignon McLaughlin
Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun.
Christina Rosetti
Love conquers all, but if love doesn't do it, try hard work
Anonymous
The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.
Anonymous

Help, I Can’t Say That Name!

January 11, 2010

What’s in a name?

Have you ever come across a name that looked impossible to pronounce. In life, learning how to say someone's name correctly is incredibly important.

It’s been said that a person’s name is the sweetest sound to them. You might have noticed that over that last few years, telemarketers have been trying to use your name more. You’ve probably spoken to a call centre representative, who says, OK, Mr. Smith, I’m going to change your service Mr. Smith. Now Mr. Smith, I want to thank you for calling, Mr. Smith and hope you have a great day…Mr. Smith.

It’s true that using someone’s name can be beneficial, but there is a limit. When a name is used too often, it turns into an abuse of the ‘privilege’ of using the name.

Improve your pronunciation

My last name is Achtzener (think Ox-ner). It’s tough for most people to pronounce. I often get call centre reps saying something like, “OK, Mr…..ah, uh, ah…Mr. ah….. I then step in and give the the correct pronunciation. Then, less than one minute later, they butcher my name again, and then again later on. I personally don’t mind if someone tries to say my name and is a little off, but when they ask for the pronunciation and they say something completely different, it makes you wonder.

I’ve learned from experience, that saying a name once or twice during a conversation can add weight, but you need to be close when you say the name. Otherwise, you might want to avoid using it.

3 strategies to help your pronunciation

Ask the person, “How do you pronounce that?” This is easy. When you hear pronunciation, do your best to write it out in a way that sounds right to you (you don’t need to memorize the phonetic alphabet). Save your cheat sheet somewhere where you can find it if you will be talking to this person in the future.
Ask a friend or co-worker. You probably know a lot of people who speak other languages, or are from other parts of the world. Ask them for their help.
Look on the web. There are sites out there [Edit: The site I referenced is no longer around] . You can listen to people from all over the world pronouncing various first and last names. If you have no clue on pronunciation, it will at least lead you in the right direction. The downside to these sites is that they can have tons of ads and might only have the very popular names. Also, since they usually don’t have pronunciation keys, you will have to listen closely, and try your best to mimic what you hear.

Even if you screw up once or twice, keep developing your ability to pronounce names correctly. It’s another of those little things you can do to make yourself great.

5 Rules to Great Prospecting

October 22, 2009

Person at desk Let's face it, prospecting is a chore for 80%-90% of salespeople and business owners. It can be tough to get started, tough to keep going, and tough to stay positive. In fact, most people would rather not do it if possible. Some day's it's just hard to sit down and make phone calls. I understand completely. Unfortunately, in most industries, you need to keep bringing in new clients.

I don’t think it will come as any surprise to you that it’s the people who spend the most time marketing and building their business who are usually the most successful. Here are 5 rules to help you get more out of the time you invest in prospecting.

5 Prospecting Rules

1. The best time of the day is right now

Successful people make a habit of doing the most important tasks first. Building your business should always be near the top of your list. If you’re thinking about calling some prospects, don’t wait. Do it immediately, not matter what time it is.

Otherwise, you’ll tell yourself, “I’ll make the calls at 2 pm.” That never happens. You’ll get busy and never get around to making calls. Something always come up. Besides, most decision makers are easier to get hold of early in the morning. If you spend time prospecting in the morning, you’ll have the rest of the day to do whatever you want.

2. Give yourself two options. Prospect, or sit in silence

Prospect for your allotted time and don't do anything else. Turn off all distractions. No cell phone, no email, no hiding by the water cooler. If you're doing something else during your prospecting time, you’re avoiding a major priority.

3. Get more referrals

Are you serving your current customers well? If so, then they should be happy to refer you to their friends. Calls where someone has introduced you or already set up the meeting, a.k.a lukewarm calls, are much easier to make and more productive too. If you’re not doing it already, you should be asking all of your customers to refer others your way. Just make sure you’re actually doing a good job serving your customer. I've had plenty of salespeople give me terrible service and then try to ask for a referral.

4. Give people an out

A way to avoid the “rejected” feeling is to give your prospect an out. That way, if they say, "No," it was one of the options you provided. You can say, "Why don't we get together to talk about it, or is that something you’re not interested in right now?" Yes, I know if gives people an easier way to say no, but that way you're not driving all over town going to unproductive meetings. Let's face it. If the only way to sell your product is to trick people into buying, you should probably find a new product.

5. Get Motivated

I like the idea of reading or listening to something motivational before starting. The downside to this approach is that I’ve seen people spend hours searching for a perfect motivational idea instead of working. Remember that avoidance is NOT productive.

OK, here we go. Pull out the phone. 1, 2, 3….GO!

Good Opening Line for Phone Calls

October 18, 2009

Opening Lines for Phone Calls If you need to call someone you recently met or someone who you might have done business with a long time ago, give them the details of your meeting in the first sentence. Say, "Hi, it's Kevin Achtzener. We met two months ago at the networking session downtown." That will be enough to trigger most peoples memories and get your call off to a good start. If they remembered you, this extra line won't bother them.

If the person hesitates a little, you can add one more sentence about what you talked about to help them out a little more. You might say, "We talked about proofreaders and I have another question about that." This second line then leads into a quick small talk phase, before you get down to the purpose of your call.

Avoid saying, "Do you remember me?" or "Do you remember what we talked about." Quizzing the other person's memory is a negative communication behaviour. Testing their recall ability puts them on the spot and they'll feel bad for forgetting. Making someone feel bad is BAD for business.

I know this might seem basic, but it always amazes me how many people fail to provide basic phone details when making calls. It's the small things, done well, that make you successful.

Selling To Couples

May 11, 2009

Who's doing the talking?

How to sell to couples When dealing with a couple, you'll often find that one person takes the lead and answers most or all of the questions. It's usually the husband, but might change depending on what the couple is buying and and their individual personality types.

Focus on the person doing the least amount of talking

Here’s something to try next time you're communicating with a couple. Focus on the person who is doing the least amount of talking. Make an effort to speak to both people, unless the quiet person is incredibly disinterested. The quiet person is probably listening to everything and taking it all in. Not everyone is this world is chatty, so you might have to work a little harder when communicating with them.

Here are a few reason’s why the spouse may be silent:

They don’t care about what you’re selling
They feel they’ll ask a stupid question
They’re used to having their spouse doing all the talking
They're shy
They don’t like you

The in-the-car conversation

What often happens is that the couple will say they need to talk it over. As soon as they leave the building and are in their car driving away, the silent partner starts giving their opinion. If they were afraid to ask questions, they may have left without letting you clarify something.

Of course, there will be times when you try to engage the quiet partner, and they still stay silent. No problem. At least you tried.

Please Use Other Door – Effective Communication Skills

April 29, 2009

Example of good communication

I recently saw a man fixing a door. That’s nothing unusual, but what struck me were the words written on the back of his shirt. It was a simple four-word phrase, but it spoke volumes. His shirt said, “please use other door.” The request was made even clearer by big arrows on the shirt pointing left and right.

What a great idea. I’ve got to say that this is pure genius. Have you ever noticed that whenever someone’s working on a door, there’s always one person who tries to squeeze past, instead of walking 20 feet to another entrance. I know I’ve squeezed past my fair share of people, and I was actually considering doing it that day.

Remembering basic communication skills

By putting a note on his back, the worker forced people to walk around. When you think about it, you wouldn’t want to squeeze by him and have others think….”Can’t he read. It says use other door.”

In our society, written communication has a lot of power. It’s amazing how accommodating people are if you just ask. The next time you want people around you to do something, even something simple that you think should be common knowledge, make sure you ask. Better yet, make a sign and put it in writing.

How To Ace The First Minute of A Sales Call

January 31, 2009

office

Spend 60 seconds looking around

You've probably heard people say that you should always listen first and then speak. That's great advice, but did you know that you should also be just as observant of visual cues before you open your mouth?

All it takes is 60 seconds or less to get an idea of how an office is run and to start thinking of ways to better communicate with your customer.

I bet you already look around new offices when you walk into them, but I want to challenge yourself to start looking for more clues. What is the client interested in? How do they do their job? How can you use this information to communicate with them in a more effective manner.

Employees and bookshelves

Here's what you do. Look around the office when you get there. Are people laughing and having a good time or do they all have their heads down, working away? That will tell you how relaxed the work atmosphere is.

Look for common ground and approach the situation from there. Check out the managers book shelf…from the books you see, you can tell a lot about how they approach management and communication.

Which books are dog-eared, and full of sticky notes?

Which books have never been opened?

Are there any family photos?

Gadgets? (iPod, BlackBerry)

Sports Equipment?

Connecting with your customer

Find something you think your customer is proud of and use that information to make the initial connection.

Chances are good that you'll be tuned out unless you can find something in common. Perhaps you went to the same university. Maybe you've travelled to some of the same places. You might both speak Spanish. The key is to find something and go with it.

If the customer wants to talk, you've just made a friend. If they don't want to talk, they'll probably still think you're a smart person, because you're like them.

People like people who are like them

New people you meet will have made a judgement about you in less than 5 seconds. You have a limited amount of time to make your impression. Use it wisely.

Everyone likes people who are like them. Find the common link with your customer and you'll have started your meeting off right.

Do You Hang Up The Phone Wrong?

December 9, 2008

Do you hang up the phone wrong? This tip is more for work but is adaptable in any situation.

What's the right way?

Always let the customer hang up first. Whether you called them or they called you.

If you're like me, you're busy all the time and are on the phone for most of the day. It can be easy to pick up bad habits when you work with the phone so much.

Being in a rush and hanging up a split second after the conversation ends tells the client that you're too busy for them. It comes across as as rude and unprofessional. It can also make a loud annoying noise (if you slam the handset).

Your client may remember something just as you are hanging up. This is uncommon, but does happen every so often. They may call back and let you know or they might decide not to bother and let a potential customer service issue go unresolved.

The worst button on your phone

Using the release button can be worse. I used to have my finger hovering over the release button and hit it as soon as I was done communicating. It seemed fine until someone did it to me and cut me off. Now I keep my finger well back.

Both Company’s Logo on Proposal Covers

December 8, 2008

The next time you're preparing a proposal at work, put both your company's logo and the logo of the company you're trying to impress on the cover of the report.

It gives the impression that the two companies are working together already. I've had some people make a comment and laugh, but it gets them thinking about the partnership.

Give it a try.

If You Want Something, Ask For It

December 4, 2008

Successful people ask questions

Everyone needs to develop the ability to ask for thing they want without being pushy. It's called assertiveness and it can be learned like any other skill. Most successful people have gotten where they are, because they're not afraid to ask for things that other people would be to scared to ask for.

Sales skill everyone can use

If you ask any good salesperson, they will tell you that the number one factor in closing deals is asking for the sale. There are a lot of other important factors, but the whole point is the sale.

This technique is important in regular conversations as well. If you don't ask, you don't get. If you don't ask for a raise, you won't get one. If you don't ask for a better deal at the store, you'll keep paying too much.

My Magic Line

ask for the sale I started a painting company. It was really tough getting out and looking for work at first, but I remember one sales call I made that taught me a lesson for life.

I was doing the estimate for a ladies house and since it was going to be a big job, I took my time to make sure every part of the estimate was perfect. When I went in to present my offer to the lady I thought I was ready.

When the time came for me to close the sale, nervousness flooded my body. By the time the words came out, it was rushed and made no sense.

She asked me to repeat myself and I then took my time and said it slowly and clearly on the second try. I said, “So did you want to go ahead with the job?”

She did. It felt fantastic. After that, I used the same phrase with other clients and it worked. I think the line fit nicely with my personality.

Asking questions is a learned skill

It sounds funny now, but that magic line paid for my University degree. I was definitely not a natural at asking for the business, but like any other skill, it is learnable by anyone.