Designing Your 2013

2013? Excited? Daunted?

Well it's time to take responsibility for shaping a 2013 that would suit YOU down to the ground.

Yes it's the 'G' Word! Goals. What do you want from 2013? When it comes to December 2013 and you're reflecting back on the year, what must have happened for you to say: "Wow, it's been a fantastic year"?

Enjoy the process below. Find yourself a quiet and inspiring place and get to work! Whether your aims are financial, personal, social or business, write them down. Get in touch if you want help with your goal setting...we're here to help.

Goal Setting for 2013 
Well-defined goals are vital in all elements of business and sales success. The following process is one I use in business and personally. Work through the questions and remember that your initial response is normally the most useful.

State in the positive (i.e. what you want, not what you don't want)

What specifically do I want in 2013?

The evidence

What would be my evidence that I have achieved my goal?

How would I know if I were getting my goal?

What would I be doing to get it?

What would I be seeing/hearing/feeling?

What would be a demonstration of it?

The specifics

Where do I want this goal?

Where do I not want this goal?

When do I want this goal?

When do I not want this goal?

With whom do I want this goal?

With whom do I not want this goal?

The actions

What resources can I activate to get this goal?

What resources can I acquire to get this goal?

What can I do?

What can I continue doing?

The future

What will happen if I get this goal?

How will getting this goal affect other aspects of my life?

How does getting this goal benefit me?

What might I lose if it happens?

These questions will really help you define your goals and give you the motivation and a framework to achieve them.

Good luck with your 2013 goal setting!

Bear in mind research on goal setting which concludes that your goal setting will be more effective if you;

1) Take action immediately and often to achieve them (obvious but...)

2) Tell a supportive friend/colleague/mentor what those goals are

3) Regularly update this person on the progress to achieving your goals

Wishing you a happy, healthy and very successful 2013.

Let me know how you get on.

Until next time 

Leigh

PS: Download my complimentary report "The 9 Biggest Sales Mistakes" here

results@sales-consultancy.com

www.sales-consultancy.com

020 7903 5426

MODELLING SALES SUCCESS

According to Statistic Brain.com, The iPhone 5 quickly broke all first day sales records- the Number of iPhone 5 pre-orders in the first 24 hours was an astounding 2,000,000!

Looking back a few weeks later it’s clear that the team at Apple followed a tried and tested sales strategy – they modelled previous winning sales strategies and selling skills to get their team to a place they haven’t been!

By the way, did you think the leaders at Apple are overly concerned about the state of the world economy when they launch new products? I doubt it. They just go out with the words ‘increasing sales’ in mind and develop a set of products that people want that badly they find the money!

Be inspired to want a piece of the action! You can get there as well, by modelling sales success.

Modelling Sales Success is an absolute must for you to incorporate. If you can elicit the strategy of the most successful member in your team... you can replicate it in the others. If you don’t have a team and it’s down to you to sell, whose detailed sales strategy could you elicit? Who do you know that has a selling record that you want?

You may already have a rough idea of their sales tactics. You need to go beyond what you initially see and draw out the detailed inner workings of the individual to really understand strategy. How do they think during the sales process? What do they tell themselves? What do they do first? What do they do next? What don’t they do? If it’s one of your team members, great. If it’s someone outside of your company then get in touch and offer them a lunch in return for you picking their brains on their detailed selling strategy. My experience tells me they will be pleased to hear from you and be only too willing to share their experiences.

It’s time to focus on how YOU can develop yourself and your team by modelling fantastic sales success. Then one day it will be your statistics that others are inspired by!

Until next time...

Leigh Ashton

PS: Download my complimentary report "The 9 Biggest Sales Mistakes" here

results@sales-consultancy.com

www.sales-consultancy.com

020 7903 5426

Big Picture v Detail: The cost of not knowing your customers’ preferences

Have you ever asked a client a question that can be answered in a sentence or two and they’re still talking 10 minutes later?

Or maybe asked for more detail on a sales issue and been given a one line answer?

Are you the person that is only interested in the big picture (big chunks) and give very brief responses regardless of the question... or do you give a very detailed response (small chunks) when a brief outline is all that’s needed?

Have you ever noticed that some people in your team or company complain that they weren’t given enough information about what’s going on - and yet others felt that they got too much information to digest, and they were at the same meeting!

Some people only want a brief outline of the situation; others want to know every detail. Which one are you? Which one are your top customers – and prospects?

This can be a major source of frustration when the two extremes meet. The person with the ‘big chunk’ preference goes into shutdown when given too much information and the one with the ‘small chunk’ preference is dissatisfied with the level of detail they receive!

So what do you do?

NOTICE!!

It’s easy to ascertain which preference is at play when you talk to ANYONE.

Then it’s down to you!

When you are communicating with your clients and prospects you absolutely must match their level of detail in order to stay in rapport. Too many details will confuse and irritate a big chunk person and too much vagueness will upset the small chunk person. Give them a level of detail they need and check for understanding.

And - you need to communicate to people around you the level of detail YOU want so that they can deliver. Don’t expect people to know what you need!

If you can identify and respond to whether someone likes to communicate in ‘small chunk’ or ‘big chunk’ language you’ll generate far better customer relationships, sales management within your team and general sales success when it comes to increasing sales!

And you might just get on much better with your family this Christmas! 

Until next time...

Leigh Ashton

PS: Download my complimentary report "The 9 Biggest Sales Mistakes" here

results@sales-consultancy.com

www.sales-consultancy.com

020 7903 5426

Selling Skills: Communication is Key

Having excellent communication skills is vital if you are going to achieve sales success

When you communicate with others you are creating an experience for the other person. Everything you say has an impact... even the smallest things. What’s interesting is that every word you use will have unique interpretation for the person you are communicating with.

When working with groups I often ask people the first thought that pops into their head when I say the word ‘success.’ Interestingly, no two people have ever come back with exactly the same response. Some say ‘promotion’, some say ‘sitting on a beach’, some say ‘loving family’, some say ‘money’. And even if people say they thought of money... when questioned, one may have seen a big house, the other the actual word came to mind or ,maybe a £ or $ image.

So imagine a string of words in a sentence and a string of sentences in a conversation and you begin to realise how easy it is to create confusion or misunderstanding.

We are all unique and different in our personalities and traits, so the way in which we communicate with others or are communicated to by others will make more of an effect then we may realise.

So whatever your objective is when you communicate with prospective clients (and colleagues too!) it will impact on your expectation and if that’s low or non- existent you may find yourself creating the very lack of great results that you crave.

So expect positive outcomes through your communication and you’re more likely to get them!

Until next time...

Leigh Ashton

PS: Download my complimentary report "The 9 Biggest Sales Mistakes" here

results@sales-consultancy.com

www.sales-consultancy.com 

020 7903 5426

What do you REALLY believe?

 

Your beliefs are at the core of who you are.

Beliefs guide your decisions and behaviour in all areas of your life. They determine what you think is or is not possible. More often than not they prove to be self-fulfilling prophecies.

Henry Ford once said, "Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're probably right".

Some of our beliefs are not our own, but rather blindly taken on from others. Once a belief is formed, we work overtime to prove it right, even if the belief is something negative like “Nobody likes me” or “I’ve never been very good at that”.

Do we have to let our beliefs govern us, even if they are harmful to others and ourselves? Can we consciously make changes to what we believe?

In the first half of the 20th century the world believed that it was impossible to run a mile under four minutes. When, on May 6th 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3.59 minutes, everyone was in awe.

Yet within a year many other runners ran the mile under four minutes. It was as if a spell had been broken.

Some beliefs can be helpful and empowering. Studies show that people who believe they are healthy live 7 years longer than those who think they are unhealthy, regardless of their actual health condition at the time of the survey.

Some beliefs can be unhelpful and disempowering. It is said that we cannot achieve our goals or that we are not worthy of other people’s acceptance.

Those kinds of beliefs are called ‘Limiting Beliefs’. They typically sound like “I am ugly”, “I will never be successful”, “I can’t work with those kind of people”, etc.

Limiting Beliefs fall into three categories:

Hopelessness: My goal cannot be achieved under any circumstances. 

Helplessness: My goal can be achieved, but I lack the ability to achieve it. 

Worthlessness: I don’t deserve to achieve this goal, because of something I am/am not or have/have not done.

Limiting beliefs can be a result of significant experiences in our lives, usually when we’re much younger.

Consider the story about the man who, as a nine-year-old, killed his friend’s three-year-old brother, while playing cricket. He was focusing so hard on the ball that he did not notice the young boy running behind him. As a result he formed the belief “If I go after my goal, I end up hurting others.” This belief made it very difficult for him to succeed in his adult life.

When attempting to overcome limiting beliefs the first step is to become aware of them. This can be challenging, since our limiting beliefs are often unconscious. Becoming aware of unconscious limiting beliefs can sometimes be all that is needed. At other times we may need to question our beliefs or act as if something else were true.

So what do you believe about you?

Find out more at the upcoming webinar “The Five Golden Rules for Personal Success” on June 13^th. To register or find out more click here.

Leigh Ashton

results@sales-consultancy.com

www.sales-consultancy.com