| |
| 10 Guerilla Small Talk Tactics Salespeople Need To KnowNicki Weiss | | “Every great romance and each big business deal begins with small talk. The key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.” Dr. Bernardo J. Carducci, author of The Pocket Guide to Making Successful Small Talk: How to Talk to Anyone Anytime Anywhere About Anything
I recently read about a study of MBAs 10 years after they graduated. Researchers at Stanford School of Business found that Grade Point averages had no bearing on their success. Surprisingly, a major deciding factor was their ability to converse with others.
The skill of connecting in... Read More >> |
|
|
| 10 Ways How NOT to QuitJim Domanski | | Are you a quitter but just don't know it?
Nobody likes to think of themselves as a quitter but statistics would seem to indicate the many sales reps tend to quit far too soon and far too easily. In his article, "It's always too soon to quit," Lewis R. Timberlake revealed the following
- only 10% of people actually succeed at what they set out to accomplish
- another 10% accept defeat and try to resolve these feelings by turning to various obsession
- finally, 80% of the population simply endures their frustration and blame their lack of success... Read More >> |
|
|
| 10 Tips to Effective & Active Listening SkillsSusie Cortright | | Listening makes our loved ones feel worthy, appreciated, interesting, and respected. Ordinary conversations emerge on a deeper level, as do our relationships. When we listen, we foster the skill in others by acting as a model for positive and effective communication.
In our love relationships, greater communication brings greater intimacy. Parents listening to their kids helps build their self-esteem. In the business world, listening saves time and money by preventing misunderstandings. And we always learn more when we listen than when we talk.
Listening skills fuel our social, emotional and professional success, and studies prove that listening is a skill we... Read More >> |
|
|
|
|
| 10 Ways to Realize Hidden OpportunitiesJeff Beals "Great moments are born from great opportunities," said the late Herb Brooks, one of the world's most famous hockey coaches.
Brooks certainly seized opportunity during his career. He agreed to coach the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that beat the "unbeatable" Soviet Union in Lake Placid, New York during the famous "Miracle on Ice" game on the way to winning the gold medal. It was a modern-day "David vs. Goliath" matchup. Many coaches would refuse such an overwhelmingly difficult job. In fact, several did.
But Brooks saw opportunity in the monumental challenge of leading a bunch of young, amateur, college all-stars against the essentially professional players of the Soviet Union and other European hockey powers.
That opportunity paid off, to say the least.
Whether you're talking about sports, business or any other subject matter, seeking, finding and capitalizing on opportunity are among the most important things a professional must do.
There's one big problem with opportunity, however. It is often hard to find and even harder to harness.
"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations," said Charles Swindoll, an American religious author.
I agree wholeheartedly with Swindoll's characterization. The best opportunities are often hidden. They are often located in places we least expect to find them and are presented by people we least expect to provide them.
That reminds me of the old story that sales managers like to share with their young trainees: "On his way back from a three-day fishing trip, a multi-millionaire visits the showroom of an upscale, luxury car dealer. The salespersons, seeing an unshaven, disheveled, poorly dressed man, essentially ignore him. Offended, the multi-millionaire buys a top-of-the-line model the next day from a direct competitor." There are a lot of ways to tell that classic missed-sales-opportunity story, but they all sound something like that.
If opportunity is so important to our success, and so difficult to find and recognize, we need to focus more of our energy on it. Unless you're naturally good at it, finding and capitalizing on opportunity needs to be a deliberate focus:
Open your eyes and ears - we can no longer afford to be indifferent, or even worse, oblivious to the world around us. Be on the lookout for ideas that could lead to new opportunities. Even more important than eyes and ears, keep your mind open too. Many of us miss opportunities, because they don't fit into our pre-existing paradigms.
Remember that all people count... Read More >> |
|
|
|
|
