2. CREATE SUCCESS MOMENTUM: Celebrate easy wins in a big way to increase success momentum. If someone has been resisting selling, and they make that first phone call or visit, make a big deal about it. Don't just say "Well, finally. Now do that 200 more times this week." No. Instead reinforce the new behaviour by positively associating their effort with encouragement.
3. GROW FROM SUCCESS: Research from Harvard and MIT found that our neurons retain memory and each time we succeed, these neurons refine the requirements to continue that success. It is true momentum at a cellular level. But when we fail, these neurons don't refine anything. That means we don't grow from failure. We grow from success. Failure from our mistakes helps us learn what not to do; what to avoid. Failure from our mistakes gives us the opportunity to adjust our approach and try something different in our pursuit of the pleasure of success.
4. FAIL FORWARD: Neuroscience shows that failure when we have not made any mistakes does not impact learning at all. But when a failure happens, it's important to focus on what we could have done better, and what we can do now to move toward success. If we remain negatively focused on loss, we stress, and our brain releases the stress hormone cortisol. Short bursts are used to create those postcard memory flashes that help us avoid danger, but prolonged stress means prolonged release of cortisol which can damage cells in the hippocampus which results in impaired learning, and thus - because our neurons learn and refine success skills - impairing our ability to succeed.
5. ENCOURAGE: Help your people overcome fear. No-one is going to come to you and tell you that they are afraid. But the truth is, when it comes to moving out of their comfort zone, they are. That's because it's uncomfortable! Discomfort is not as pleasurable as comfort so the brain seeks to avoid it. So how do we overcome fear? We build courage in others through awareness, understanding, coaching and encouragement. Some leaders need to learn how to positively encourage people.
6. COMMUNICATE: Encouragement is the most important form of communication. It helps people grow, have faith in themselves, and believe in their decisions. Sales is about influence and influence is about encouragement; helping people make decisions that will bring them more pleasure and less pain. Learn to improve your communication particularly in the field of encouragement. The best place I know to do this is from professional encouragers. Learn what it takes to be a motivational speaker, even if you're not going to do it for a living right now, even if you're not going to speak before thousands of people, even if you only want to speak to one or two people in a meeting or a performance appraisal, learn to be an authentic, professional, believable and sincere encourager.
7. BE A SPEAKER: It has been said that the quality of our life is determined by the quality of our relationships. The quality of our relationships is determined by the quality of our communications. Our communications are made up of listening, our body language and our ability to speak. To be an active encourager, we need to master these three skills, and your impact will come down to the words that come out of your mouth in the presence of others. Yes, a speech in public, be that to one, two or two thousand people, you need to learn how to speak in public.
Now making a speech in public is often listed as being higher on the list of fears than dying. That's because failing in a public speech is like dying and then having to live with the consequences. These consequences are usually perceived to include loss of face or social status, damaged relationships and social excommunication.
In other words, our failure leads us to think we will not be loved, and live out our lives isolated and lonely. Yet our genetic blueprint relies on us collaborating to survive as a species. That's life and death programming to the core! So we avoid things that cause such isolation at all costs, and in that mindset should we make a half-hearted attempt to do it, we end up doing a bad job because we're resisting the whole way. At some point we have to stop resisting and go with what we know.
8. STOP RESISTING AND TAKE THE LEAP: Imagine resisting parachuting out of a plane. You resist the idea. You resist the training. You resist the flight up. You resist the instruction to jump. Then, on the way down, you resist pulling the ripcord to open your parachute... Now at some point you will need to stop resisting and just do it, and not do it half-heartedly or begrudgingly, but with strength, conviction and commitment. If you don't just do it, you will hit the ground in a way that guarantees permanent death.
The good news is that once your people decide to just do it, they are now participating in sales. This is when they are more open to receive training in sales technique to help them improve their success frequency. Now they can accelerate their constructive learning from any failures, and you can help them celebrate their successes.
Here are your 3 Assignments. Just Do It!:
1. INVEST IN JOINING A NETWORK: Have your key people join a professional speakers association and learn the art of communication from those who do it for a living. As a professional speaker, I'm a member of the Asia Professional Speakers Singapore (APSS). Membership is between $240 and $360 a year. APSS members and guests meet monthly at the Sheraton Towers in Scotts Road where meeting fees are between $20 and $40 per session (go to http://www.asiaspeakers.org/). If you're in Malaysia join MAPS, the Malaysian Association of Professional Speakers (http://www.maps.org.my/). Wherever you are, there will be a professional speaking association nearby. Look for it. Join it. Then participate in it.2. INVEST IN YOUR EDUCATION: Register for a programme focussed on sales leadership. I'd recommend that you register for the PLS Sales Leadership programme run by Walk Your Talk Media as part of their Performance Leadership Series (PLS), because I know the 3 people conducting the training and the content outcomes. I'm a little biased here because I'm one of them, however that means I'm accountable to ensuring that you have every possibility of success! You'll learn how to increase your own personal sales strength as well as those within your organisation or business team and for your investment of $2800 for an accelerated intensive full day of immersion training plus some one-on-one work thereafter, you'll be equipped to generate more than ten times your initial investment. And that's what a true investment is all about! You can register your interest HERE.
3. INVEST IN GROWING YOUR PEOPLE: Bring in a professional to help your people grow. A professional speaker will cost about $3500-$5000 per hour for a one hour keynote. Training sessions with your people will cost about $6500-$10,000 per day. For example if you have 40 of your people in the room for a day with me at $8000, you're giving your people intensive training for just $200 per person that will help them make a significant transformational shift to increase their sales participation and capacity to sell. The great thing about sending your people to a sales programme is that the result easily pays for the programme and more! And with 40 of them doing it daily, the ROI is significant. Drop me an email with your requirements and I'll help you find the right person, whether that is me, or one of the other speakers that we connect with organisations. Email me HERE.
Speak with you soon!
Tim Wade
Speaker: Productivity Psychology & Performance Leadership.
Executive Producer & Chief Editor: Walk Your Talk Media
Call us: (+65) 6220 8682
P.S. I'd appreciate to read your feedback about these Executive Summary emails and to know more about what additional content would serve you. Please send me an email or comment on the blog page. Speak soon. Tim.
Posts
