Throughout history the currency of many nations and its worth has fluctuated, and at times even become totally worthless. So to put your confidence in a nation’s monetary system alone is to build your foundations on shaky ground. This is where you need to invest in your faith account. And how do you do this? Well, I can only speak from personal experience.
So here are a few tips to enable you to position yourself time and time again for success.
When you purchase a real estate property you purchase it within some physical boundaries that have been laid out by the designers of the plot. And it is with that same clarity that you need to set boundaries for your own life.
In the design of your life it is important to consider those things that you will allow in your life, as well as those things that you will not allow. By ascertaining these things early in your life, confusion will have no hold on the decision making processes that you are faced with on a regular basis.
When in business you too need to determine the boundaries within which you will conduct your business, whether it be the terms and conditions of doing business, the way you collect payments, the way you deliver your product and services, the way you deal with complaints or even the way you conduct customer service.
I had the awesome privilege of listening to the General Manager of Gloria Jean’s Coffee during 5 events that were held at my church recently. One of those times was a private meal with both Peter and Sue Irvine with a number of business and corporate people that I know. From 1 to 342 franchised stores in Australia alone and now the owner of the world rights Peter and his wife Sue had much to teach us…..so here are some of my rough notes that I took at a business breakfast where Peter spoke….
Your business is your calling. God wants us to be blessed so that we can be a blessing.
Read Prov 10:22; Ps 1:3
God has the resources.
Eccl 3:4 what can you do with all the money.
2 Cor 9:10 God wants to increase that seed
Both myself and my sales team have been studying material from a fabulous book called ACTION SELLING by Duane Sparks www.ActionSelling.com
Here is my summary of the book…
SYNOPSIS OF ACTION SELLING
Preface:
You are going to make a lot of money.
A sale is a drama with the action moving toward a predetermined conclusion.
Act 1 The Commitment Objective
A goal that we set for ourselves to gain agreement for the customer that moves the sales process forward.
No commitment objectives, no sales call, – period.
Every sale is a series of steps, a progression of milestones and every mileston demands a commitment objective.
SALES CYCLE
Milestone: Commitment Objective:
1. Phone Call Schedule Needs Analysis
2. Needs Analysis Meeting Set Presentation Meeting with D-makers
3. Meet with D Makers Schedule Proposal Meeting
Present Product
4. Proposal Meeting GAIN SALE
You can shave 25% off your sell cycle time with a commitment objective.
If you skip vital Acts early on in the sales process, you will pay later.
Establishing a Commitment Objective takes place before the curtain rises on the actual drama – before the interaction with the client begins.
Act 2 People Skills
The five Buying Decisions are made in a predetermined order as follows:
Decision 1 Salesperson
Decision 2 Company
Decision 3 Product
Decision 4 Price
Decision 5 Time to Buy
All 5 Buying Decisions take place in a major purchase.
They are made in sequence. Our presentation must match the sequence of the Buyer’s Decision.
To gain a $50K commitment, you need a $50K relationship.
Great listeners ask great questions, take careful notes, and then summarize what they have heard.
Act 3 Ask the Best Questions
1. “Asking the Best Questions” lets you establish that you’re a good listener and that you’re genuinely interested in helping the client find solutions to his needs. In Action Selling’s terms, it helps you sell yourself. That’s the customer’s first buying decision.
2. It allows you to identify and clarify the best targets to aim at when you present your company and product – the needs that let you differentiate yourself from competitors by selling a solution, not a commodity.
3. It enables you to leverage the emotional side of the buying decision by further zeroing in on high-yield needs – the ones that have the greatest personal urgency to the client.
4. It allows you to sell strategically, and to adjust your Commitment Objective so that you can keep the process moving forward with the right people and at the right pace.
Act Dumb/ Dig Deep
Finds emotional needs..
Act 4 Agree on Need
From what you’ve told me you are looking for … (insert needs). Is that correct?
Whoever does the best job of uncovering needs for the strengths of their solution will WIN.
Back-tracking benefit: Uncover a minimum of 3 high-yield needs for your product.
To help – this process identify the feature if product, benefit, need and then note relevant questions and also leverage questions.
Act 5 Sell The Company
Acts 2, 3 and 4 sell the salesperson Act 5 you sell the company.
In Act 5 the salesperson changes roles and does more of the talking.
To sell your company – provide the answers to these questions
1. What does it do?
2. What is it known for?
3. Are we a good match?
Act 6 Sell the Product
Two thirds of the selling decision is found in Act 3
Tie – Back – connect to an agreed upon need
Feature – What is it?
Benefit – What will it do for the customer?
Reaction – How does the customer perceive this as a solution?
Repeat the TBFR process for each need. Save the most important ones for last.
Keep a TFBR – reserve in case you hear a stall when you ask for commitment.
At the end of Act 6 ask
Do you have any questions?
If they say No – head for the price
If they say Yes – head back to Act 3
Use the Word investment not cost.
Investment is more positive.
Act 7 Ask for Commitment
62% of all salespeople don’t close.
3 Reasons why salespeople don’t close
1. No plan
2. No procedure
3. Missed Opportunities
Never try and pressure, manipulate, trap or trick the customer into buying.
To ask for commitment:
1. Summarize – features and quote price
2. Ask – ‘How does that sound?’
3. Positive – Ask ‘Would you like to go ahead with this?’
Negative – Return to Act 3 and ask more questions.
A stall measures that the customer is not quite sold yet but has no specific reason.
With an objection, the customer has a specific reason for not buying yet.
Never challenge a stall.
Handle a stall by:
1. Say: ‘I understand’
2. Review: reinstate features the customer liked
3. Act 6: Add new TFBR
4. Act 7: Ask for commitment
When you ask for commitment the second time and don’t get it, what you will hear is almost certainly an objection.
Action Selling defines an objection as a customer response to an unasked question.
When an objection surfaces return to Act 3.
Handling Objections
1. Act 3 Ask the Best Question – clarify, qualify, identify
2. Act 4 Summarise objection as a need
3. Act 5 Positive Company Statement
4. Act 6 Present solution – TBFR
Act 8 Confirm the Sale
How to fight FUD – fear, uncertainty, doubt.
Do this by assuring, appreciating and scheduling a future event.
By scheduling a future event you have replaced the clients worry over the money they’ve just spent.
Act 9 Replay the Call
A professional salesperson will replay every call.
The best way to replay a call is to go over each Act and determine what worked and what you could have done better.
Great questions shine a light on problems or opportunities which gives you direction for later – the call….
You always learn something by replaying the call.
Over the past six months or so I have been preparing to franchise my Web Design company http://www.oe-design.com . The first step was to hire a business coach. I realised that if I was going to change my business dramatically, I needed to grow internally before I could go where I had never gone before.
It’s one thing to have a vison, but it’s another thing to actually pull it off.
During the past three weeks we have seen significant growth in our business. But that aside, I suddenly realised that it was once again time for me to start growing on the inside again.
One of the ways that I help myself grow is through finding those books that will teach me new principles and new ways.
Rooting through a discount bookstore the other week I stumbled across two books that were made to order for this time in my life.
The first was HAPPY MONDAYS – Putting the Pleasure Back into Work By Richard Reeves. Reeves writes that “a full life means fulfilling work.” And that “happiness.. lies in meaningful work for all of us.” He also notes that “Albert Camus believed that ‘without work, all life goes rotten…and that Kahlil Gibran said work was , “love made visible.”
One of the reasons I read this book was not to make myself happy at work, because I love what I do. But rather that I ensure that I create an environment where my team are correctly positioned to enjoy their work. My role as an employer is matching their strengths to the tasks they undertake and by providing an atmosphere of ownership and contribution, where innovation and creativity is praised and rewarded.
And that brings me to the other book I found - RESULTS FROM THE HEART – How Mini-Company Management Captures Everyone’s Talents and Helps Them Find Meaning and Purpose at Work by Kiyoshi Suzaki.
This book made my heart sing, because it reinforced my whole vision for my present and future businesses. To provide a place where individuals are given the freedom to explore the creativity that is found within each and every one of us.
As Suzaki writes…’every unit or every department is a mini-company, and each task force, committee, or project team is a mini-company as well.’
He adds, ‘In a practical sense, the mini-company is a group of people working together to accomplish a common mission at work. To contribute what they can to satisfy customers, all mini-companies have to prove their reason for existence – for adding value to the end product. Whether we call it a mini-company or not, all units and members of the organization have to work with this guiding principle.’
And as Antoine de Saint -Exupery said, ‘If you want to build a ship, don’t gather your people and ask them to provide wood, prepare tools, assign tasks…Just call them together and raise in their minds the longing for the endless sea.’
And Suzaki concludes that, ‘In a nutshell, this expresses the point of listening to our heart and findng the source of initiative and creative energy within us. Then, we have our brain and other resources available to us that can be put into effective use….It is as if we search for a harmonious solution of our brains and hearts with heart being the ultimate driver.’
So my journey continues as we step by step move towards the process of franchising OE Design – The Web Designers.
Growing and going….stay tuned!!!!
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