WEEK THIRTY-THREE Hello and welcome to Week Thirty-Three of The Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan. We hope you're having a great week and are ready for t...
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WEEK THIRTY-THREE Hello and welcome to Week Thirty-Three of The Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan. We hope you're having a great week and are ready for this week's journey. We're focusing on the relationship aspect of selling this week. When we are attempting to generate increase in our business or profession, our mindset is usually one of performing actions that can accumulate sales leads and/or prospects, and therefore many times our results reflect only that--names on a list. Try adjusting that mindset to this: instead of just finding sales leads, let's go out and look to create new relationships/friends. Make it fun and enjoy the process. Look for and focus on the things you like about someone, and overlook the negative. Because let's face it, isn’t this what we want other people to do for us? And even if we meet someone we don't end up doing business with, we have a new friend and have added another source to our personal network. By shifting our paradigm and working to create new relationships, it also becomes easier to position ourselves as an educator/consultant (Jim and Chris cover this more in depth below). Then as an educator or consultant, you focus on listening to others' needs, which in turn helps you maintain a larger perspective of looking out for the interests of that person and not just the dollar value they may represent to you or your organization. In addition, this can also put us in a future position to help or support people through a crisis or struggle in their life. What a great feeling to help someone because we also care about them and want to see them overcome, instead of only making a sale. If we do this, rest assured, the rewards will come. That's all for now--go make a friend this week! Kyle
“Here's the rock, paper, scissors game of selling: Relationship is more powerful than price. Relationship is more powerful than delivery. Relationship is more powerful than quality. Relationship is more powerful than service.” -- Jeffrey Gitomer
Copyright Jim Rohn International 2002-2004
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Copyright Jim Rohn International 2002-2004
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SSEELLLLIIN NG GA AN ND DN NEEG GO OT TIIA AT TIIO ON N SSK KIILLLLSS Jim Rohn's Eighth Pillar of Success: Selling and Negotiation Skills, Part Three - Building Relationships Hi, Jim Rohn here. This is what we are covering on the topic of Sales this month: 1. Attitudes of Successful Salespeople. The profession, setting your goals, attitudes of successful salespeople and getting and staying motivated. This is the basic overview of the profession of selling. Selling is a noble occupation, even though some people think otherwise. In fact, we are all in sales every day. We are selling people all of the time. In addition, our attitude as well as getting and staying motivated are vitally important and will make or break a salesperson. We covered this two weeks ago. 2. Prospecting. Because sales and success is a numbers game, we covered how to look at sales from this perspective last week. We looked at how to get in front of a large number of people to close a higher percentage of sales calls. We also showed you the importance of "Knowing Your Stuff" - what you need to know about you, your prospect and your product. Then, we looked briefly at the importance of understanding how to sell to different personality types. 3. Building relationships that position you as an educator/consultant to your clients. In this week's edition, we will touch on listening skills and making the sale. We will also take a look at the all-important issue of relationships. Relationships are in selling, as in life, the most important factor. We don't sell to companies, we sell to people! People always make the decisions. We will take a look at how to be a great listener and also discuss how to reposition yourself from being known as a salesperson to becoming seen as an educator and consultant who helps people make the best buying decisions. 4. Getting referrals/Negotiation skills. Next week, we will take a look at how to get referrals so your business is ever-expanding. That is the key to a successful sales business -- the ever-expanding network of people to draw sales from. We will also cover the basics of negotiation. This will have an emphasis on how to get both sides into a winning position so they can be happy with the sale. We will give you specific skills to get into win-win negotiations. This week we are covering a few basics on positioning ourselves as an educator/consultant in the sales process, as well as developing our listening skills. Over the years, the sales profession has gotten a bad reputation, particularly in certain industries. And some of it is deserved because of unethical behavior. That being said, many people today want to stay away from "salespeople." They don't want to be "sold." But that doesn't mean they don't want to buy. They want to buy and need to buy. But they expect - and deserve - a different kind of relationship. And when we enter into those Copyright Jim Rohn International 2002-2004
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kinds of relationships with people, we will be much more effective at moving our products and services as well as building our sales careers. There are two basic positioning tactics to take. One is to consider and bill yourself as an educator. The other is to consider and bill yourself as a consultant. You see, a sales person is seen by many as one who wants to take another person's money. Educators and consultants are viewed differently. Let's take a look at each and the benefits that come from positioning yourself in these ways. The Educator: What does an educator do? He or she teaches others. They are perceived as helping others learn so they can make their own decisions. Rather than saying, "I sell widgets to people," when describing your work, say, "I educate people on the widget industry and the choices they can make to improve their lives or business." There is a big difference. Who wants to get sold? No one. Who wants to learn? Everyone! Position yourself as an educator. Tell people you are in the education business. The Consultant: What does a consultant do? He or she consults. The perception of a consultant is that they are a third party. The idea here is to position yourself as one who consults with people who would like to know and be educated about their options. You work on behalf of the customer. That is key. You work for the customer as a consultant. You help them see all of their options so they can make an informed decision. Who wants to be sold? No one. Who wants to see all of their options? Everyone! Position yourself as a consultant. Tell people you are in the consulting business. Now let's take a look at listening skills. It is a firm fact that if you will listen, and ask good questions, the customer will tell you what they want. And once they tell you what they want, you can sell them. Imagine that you sell cars and someone comes on the lot and says, "I am looking for a blue, two seat convertible, under $30,000." Would you take them to see the large four door luxury sedans that cost $60,000? Of course not, and yet many salespeople focus on what they want the customer to buy rather than servicing the customer in what the customer wants to buy and getting the commission as well as the longterm relationship. Yes, your job as a salesperson is to first and foremost listen. Here are 14 tips for becoming a better listener. These tips will serve you well in sales and in life: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Keep eye contact with the person speaking. Don't look around. Focus on what they are saying. Allow your brain to process it, so you understand. Avoid emotional responses. Don't get mad or sad at what they say. Don't get distracted. Don't let your mind wander or give your attention elsewhere in the room.
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5. Ask mental questions. Be thinking and interacting with the information you are hearing. 6. Use your body language to show you are listening. Don't slump. Sit straight - just like your mother taught you! 7. Nod your head to show that you understand them. 8. Keep your body open - don't fold your arms. That signals that you are closed off to what they are saying. 9. Lean toward the speaker. This shows engagement. 10. Ask questions to clarify. You want to make sure that what you are hearing is what they are intending to communicate. 11. Don't make assumptions. Hear what they say and take it at face value. 12. Paraphrase what you hear them saying. Say it back to them. 13. Restate the key points or issues. This will make sure you are on the same page. 14. Listen without interrupting. Let them finish. Interrupting says, "What I have to say is more important than what you have to say." Next, Chris is going to talk to you about the importance of relationships and how to develop and maintain better relationships with your clients and customers - or anyone for that matter! Until next week, let's do something remarkable! Jim Rohn
“The only pressure that you use in a professional selling presentation is the presence of the silence after the closing question.” -– Brian Tracy
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Hi there, Chris Widener here. Here is what I have found to be true about sales: It Is Always About Relationships! When I think about sales and think through what it really is, I inevitably end up at the fact that selling is a function of the relationship. In fact, selling is always about relationships. Let's process it back to see what I mean and then take a look at how to build relationships that are conducive to selling. So what is my working definition of sales? Here it is: "The ability to influence others to purchase products or services by helping them change their beliefs, thoughts and actions." That is selling in its simplest form: Influence. Don't make it any more difficult than it has to be by getting too lofty about it. Selling is just the ability to influence others to purchase. Well then, how do we influence? There are basically two ways to influence someone to change their beliefs, thoughts or actions. One is by power or coercion. In other words, you make them do it. This is either the use of actual force (literally making them do it) or perceived force (the idea they have that something bad will happen to them if they don't). I certainly do not recommend power, coercion or force to influence. What is option two? Relationship. When you influence out of relationship, the customer follows voluntarily and when the customer follows voluntarily, it is so much stronger and their patronage lasts much longer! Successful selling is fundamentally about leading and influencing through relationships. The key then, is to find out how to develop the kind of relationships that are conducive to getting people to allow your influence in their lives. Case in point: A few years ago I was asked to speak to the Midwest sales team of one of America's most well-known companies. A few weeks before the event I remembered that my brother-in-law, who works for a major retailer, buys a lot of equipment from the company I was speaking to, so I called him up and asked him how much he spends with them on an annual basis. He said that it varied a little, but in the last three years they had spent - get this - twenty Million dollars. He and his co-worker make all the purchasing decisions and had spent twenty million dollars in three years. So I asked him what it was that made him buy from that company over their competitors. Was it the quality of the product? Was it the service? Was it the price? Do you know what his answer was - the $20,000,000 answer? "We like their sales guy more." I kid you not. That was his answer. That is when I realized it is always about the relationship! Here are the main keys I have found to developing the kinds of relationships that will put you in position to sell more. Now remember, relationship building is by principle and not law so these ebb and flow, but the more you practice them, the more your influence will grow and people will follow your lead. Copyright Jim Rohn International 2002-2004
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Four Keys to Extraordinary Relationships 1. Your own integrity. That's right, it begins with you. I have often said that people will follow you based on two things: Your character and your skills. A person with good character and bad skills is a nice guy, but not a sales leader. A person with good skills and no character is a charlatan. A person with good character and good skills is a sales leader! So what is your character like? How is your integrity? Are you the kind of person that people can trust and believe in? I hope so, because that is paramount in building relationships! When they believe in your integrity, they will be much closer to following you. 2. Time together. Think of your best relationships. They take time, don't they? And what got them there? Time. If you want to lead people effectively and build a relationship with them, then time is something you must spend with them. This will allow them to begin to trust you, understand you, like you and follow you. This can be something simple like a regular cup of coffee, or something longer such as a customer/client trip. Either way, invest time in those you want to develop relationships with. 3. Communication. Here I don't just mean shooting the breeze, although that is good and needed. Eventually though, we have to begin to communicate. You know, to really get through, to get to the meat of the matter. Relationships are built on getting through to one another, speaking clearly and listening intently. 4. Care. The old saying is true that they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Relationships are built on the care we show for one another. Do you show care for the other person or people who you want to purchase from you? If you do, you will see that they will repay you with more devotion to you and your products or services. They want to know that you care about them, and when they do, they will follow. Don't start with a bunch of deep theories about selling or elaborate sales skills. Start with a basic understanding of human nature: People buy from those they have a relationship with. All things being equal, people who have to choose between two people to buy from will choose the one they have a better relationship with. So be that person! Remember, it is always about relationships! Have a great week!
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Review of Brian Tracy - CD Four Incredible information here - be sure to listen to the CD a couple of times and go through the workbook so you can get the info into your head and then transfer it into your actions! •
Making a Commitment to Action
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Increasing Your Ability to Earn
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The 80/20 Rule
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Income and Sales Goals
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Upgrading Your Skills
See you next week, Chris Widener
“Don’t celebrate closing a sale, celebrate opening a relationship.” -– Patricia Fripp
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Q Qu ueessttiioon nss ffoorr R Reefflleeccttiioon n:: Q. Would you consider yourself an educator? Why or why not? In what ways do you educate people?
Q. Would you consider yourself a consultant? Why or why not? In what ways do you consult with people?
Q. How are your listening skills? Which of the tips that Jim mentioned would be best for you to work on this week?
Q. How are your relationships? In what ways could your relationships improve?
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A Accttiioon n SStteep pss T Th hiiss W Weeeekk:: 1. In one of your client interactions this week, position yourself as an educator and work with them from that perspective. Write comments here.
2. In one of your client interactions this week, position yourself as a consultant and work with them from that perspective. Write comments here.
3. Pick three of the listening skills you most need to work on and purposefully put them into practice this week when you interact with others. A. B. C.
4. Make a conscious effort this week to develop your relationships. Pick two or three relationships you need to improve and make an effort to do so. A. B. C.
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A A LLooookk FFoorrw waarrd d:: This week we will be listening to CD 5 of Brian Tracy’s Success Mastery Academy. Preview of Brian Tracy's CD Five •
Your Unique Selling Qualifications
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Three Parts to Selling
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Gaining Commitment and Getting Closure
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Your Best Source of Referrals
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The Business of Business
And More!
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