How to handle objections training call. Common Resistances You May Have Right Now.  Resistance #1: "I'm not sure if this will be much different than other events I've atteded in the past… "  Blair's Response: You've probably attended other events that got you pumped up for several days or weeks, only to have the training slip away. The NLP advanced training techniques I use practically guarantee the lessons stick with you.

This is a taste of what you will experience at the 2 Day Event of Authentic Sales & Leadership, November 2007 

This past Monday the world lost a great entrepreneur and an even more incredible human being. Dame Anita Roddick founder of the Body Shop was a shining example of not only what makes an incredible entrepreneur and sales person, but also a tremendous humanitarian.

She was Social Entrepreneur before the concept was even in vogue. Dame Anita was a crusader who understood that the combination of passion, persuasion, and persistance created an incredible force for change.

Anita remained forever the outspoken activist, and a really smart one at that. She created incredible products and sold the world on "Human Rights", "Fair Trade", "All Natural", and "Cruelty Free". These were concepts relegated to the halls of college campuses and fringe activist groups when she started her first Body Shop in Brighton, England in 1976. Today, they are standard branding on thousands of products from manufacturers around the world.

"It is no exaggeration to say that she changed the world of business with her campaigns for social and environmental responsibility."
Adrian Bellamy - Chairman, The Body Shop 

Dame Anita Roddick left a big hole in the world with her passing, resting a tremendous mantle of responsible business and social leadership onto all of us. Truthfully, it has always been there, she just did an excellent job of making us aware of it, and holding the world accountable (starting with herself) to do something about the problems. As entrepreneurs, sales professionals, consumers, and human beings we are presented with a great opportunity; Anita has given us proof that one person CAN change the world. She understood that Sales = Life and Life = Sales, and the world is better off because of her incredible ability to sell, and her undying commitment to doing business with a conscience.

It is my ardent commitment that when looking back 20+ years from now SalesPartners and SalesDogs will cause a similar impact around the world. Dame Anita you will be missed, and the world has lost a great champion for freedom, entrepreneurialism, and human rights.

I just finished the seventh day of training HSBC Private Bank's staff of 1500 folks in Hong Kong and Singapore.  Over the course of the trainings, one thing proved incredibly obvious.  As I put them through games and exercises to experience the importance of team, focus and leadership it was apparent that those who moved quickly were attracted to others who were also quick.  Those who moved slowly attracted others like them as well. 

Even when they were forced to switch teams, energetic and fast moving players would walk right past slow, bewildered folks to get to others that matched their pace and style.  It was nearly unconsious.  Within a few minutes the room had polarized itself.  The rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. 

Its called the law of attraction, made popular by The Secret, but in a way that is more insidious. 

You do not even know why you are attracting who you attract.  Even though you may want to hang with successful folks, your actions automatically relegate you to ranks that you may not desire.  All the positive thoughts in the world are useless unless you act in a way to create the attraction that you want. 

If you are cheap in your own life, you will attract others like you who object to price and are cheap with you. 

If you are slow and indecisive, you will commiserate with others who upset you because they are mirroring you!!    The good and bad news is that it doesn't take long to find those who match you. They were an awesome group.  They got the lessons, corrected quick and those who refused, to correct were left in the dust.  I love teaching this stuff.   —–Blair

In a recent article for Inc. Magazine titled "The Five Fundamentals of Business Survival" my friend Doug Ducey the CEO of Cold Stone Creamery explained one of the clearest examples of how LVMS (Little Voice Mastery Systems) and the ability to SELL can either make or break a great team. When times are good and all of your strategies are working, it is deceptively easy to buy into the delusion that it is always going to stay that way. The simple fact of the matter is, if you are going to be in business… expect to face adversity. The question is, will you and your team be ready for it when it arrives? 

The ability to sell in a crisis situation is one of the most critical leadership skills of all. When the heat and emotions go up the intelligence almost always goes down, and bad things generally happen. There's an old expression, "Don't wait till you're thirsty to dig a well." In the world of business the failure to prepare your team to "stand in the heat" has killed more giants than I can recall. Great leaders and great teams perform best under pressure. When the going get's tough (and I guarantee at some point it will), will you have a team that unifies, focuses, and delivers a victory… or one that turns on itself, team members bail out, and blame shift while the ship sinks around them?

As a leader, your ability to keep the little voice in your head under control and constantly sell the team on keeping the code, sticking to your values, and sticking with the plan is critical. In my Rich Dad Advisor book, the ABCs of Building a Business Team that Wins I teach the fundamentals of building the kind of team that Doug discusses in his article.

If you're really serious about creating a world class championship business team you should consider the Code of Honor program and bringing your team out to the Authentic Sales and Ledership event in November.

Live Public Sales Training & Leadership Events

Authentic Sales Event:  Discovero how you can earn more income and build more capital quicker, easier and with less effort!  Join leaders just like you in this revolutionary seminar as you learn from the world's Top Sales & Business Expert for 2 full days.

SalesDogs Books

SalesDogs: You don't have to be an attack dog to be successful in sales.

Sales Dogs Training Kits and Audio Tape Packs

Little Voice Management Systems: How to instantly re-program your brain to get the results you want, dance your way to riches and enjoy all the fame and happiness your heart could ever desire! Revealed! The #1 critical obstacle that's been impeding your ability to succeed for years! Do you know what it is?

Code of Honor: How to set up a code of conduct that guarantees peak performance….especially under pressure.  A step by step blueprint to building a championship team in any business, family or organization.  SalesDogs secrets to motovating any sales team and how to attract the best talent to your team.

SalesDogs Training School: The 1st program for new salespeople.  How to overcome every new salesperson's and network marketer's nemesis and turn on sky-rocketing sales.

How to Lead, Teach & Inspire: The Ultimate "Depth Builder" in any business is your ability to Teach others how to succeed

Powerful Sales Presentations:  Discover your personal blueprint for delivering a sales presentation that generates immediate income.  Have the confidence to sell, present and motovate in any setting. Public speaking.

High Impact Training & Amazing Presentations: with Blair Singer and Sarah Singer-Nourie.  How to be a $10,000+ a day trainer/presenter with the hottest accelerated learning technology available today.

Automatic Lead Generator System:  How to end cold prospecting and dominate your target market with Blair Singer and Alexi Neocleous. Amazing lead generation and customer acquisition strategies inside.

Job Training - When to use a soft close

A soft close is used when the person has already made the decision but has not officially said yes.  Their language is affirmative. They are talking about installation or application already.  They are looking at calendars, etc.  Simply make the arrangements to begin or deliver and nail down a timeline.  “I’ll take this over to the counter and wrap it up for you while you look through those belts you liked.”  “I will take your purchase order to our finance department when I leave and our customer service manager will call you this afternoon.  Who should they ask for?” 

Job Training - When to use the power close

In SalesDogs Training a close is simply the act of  “making arrangements” to deliver. Its not an arm wrestling contest.  It is asking good questions and assisting others in taking action on their challenges or desires.   In my mind a power close is simply being firm about demanding a response to move forward.  It is direct.  “You do want to have your child sign up for the program don’t you?  Excellent.  Let’s enroll him in the Thursday morning program…..okay”  It’s when you make the decision for the prospect.

Use it when you are faced with a person who has a difficult time making any kind of decision.  Take the work out of their hands and decide for them.  “Based upon what you have told me, this is the program that will give you what you want…..Let’s get started, shall we?”

Use it when a person is faced with too many choices.  Too many choices usually results in no decision.  “Look…… all things being equal with everything you are looking at, the only thing that is really going to be the difference is the relationship with your provider, right?  And I think you can agree that we have been relentless in our support and diligence with you up to now. Correct?  Then let’s bring the training team in on Monday….how does that sound?”

Use it also when it is clear they are going down a destructive path.  Stop them, be direct and tell them the truth.  “I am sorry to be blunt, but what you are looking to do, based upon my experience is going to be a big mistake.  My solution may not be the best, but going the other way is clearly going to damage your position.  We really need to get in here and do the analysis quickly to show you what I am talking about.  Can we do it this afternoon?”

When time is truly of the essence (not as a ploy), when the result desired is immediate and urgent……drive a power close and let them know you are doing it and why.  Ask directly and shut up………..no matter if the pause seems like hours.  Purposely ask clear closing questions followed by lots of pregnant pauses until they respond.  If you are clear, you will instill confidence in them with you.  People want to be in relationship with others who are confident and clear…..not arrogant.

Finally, if you have someone who is still stalling, ask them if they want you to close them hard.  “Look….we have been around the block on this one…Do you want me to close you hard and drive you to a decision?  Will that work?  Because I will if you want me to…that’s how clear we are about your solution and how much it will do for you!!”

Blair

Turning a cold call into a warm call

There are some people who love to make cold calls.  But not a lot.  Yet there are even fewer who know how to take a cold call and turn it into a warm call either before you call or immediately upon calling.  Researching the industry, business, or even person that you are going to call on, puts you in a position to know the person or business in advance.  You know a bit about their history, their problems and their challenges through a bit of market research.  Therefore when you call on them, you can introduce yourself from their side of the fence.  “I know that customer service in the retail banking business is challenging and am familiar with several strategies that have worked with banks like yours to increase customer retention and use of services.  Is that something you would be interested in?” 

• Know the name and position of the person you are calling on
• Know about trends in their industry
• Get familiar with their ads or their competitors ads in the market
• Once there…..go immediately and deeply into their world.  Ask questions about them, their challenges, their goals……do not sell yet!!!!! Just ask.  It will get warm quickly.
• Preempt your cold calls with a letter, email telling them you will be calling on them. 
• Make them part of your newsletter.
• Conduct free seminars, tele-seminars in your territory where you invite prospects in mass and then call on folks who attend.    

Create high frequency with them before you even call on them.  Then you have a relationship before you speak to them live.

Most important however, to turn a cold call into a warm one, is to eliminate the thought of being a pest from your own mind.  Obtain the mindset that you are on a mission to serve…not interrupt.  Second, drive the fear and lack of confidence out of your brain by drilling your little voice with a barrage of objections using the SalesDogs objection handling kit.   Do it until you are dying to go live.  You will then approach new prospects from a perspective of confidence, mission and assumptiveness.  You will not be calling on cold prospects, you will serving fellow business colleagues. 

Sales manager who doesn’t know how to manage or motivate a sales team

A sales manager who doesn’t know how to manage or motivate, is dead weight and treasoness to an organization.   They are a blood clot in the artery of income to a business.  They either have to be trained, or if they do not want to be or are incapable of being trained,…… they need to be removed.  Otherwise you will lose income and your sales force.  Just because they know how to sell, does not mean they know how to manage.  As a matter of fact many who are good at one are not that good at the other.   It’s two different skills.  A sales manager must learn how to listen, acknowledge, kick in the butt, hold others accountable to numbers and to a Code of Honor of behavior, teach, rally, find the strengths and weaknesses in others, hire good energy and talent, cheer, scold and psychoanalyze their team.  They have to be respected, sometimes feared and even loved. In short they have to lead.  Leadership is an advanced form of sales. These are all skills that can be learned and practiced, but it first starts with the recognition that you need to learn them and then a desire to pursue that education.  To ever achieve massive wealth, you must learn to lead others in the realm of sales…otherwise your income remains reflection of your own limitations of time, energy, talent and skill.  There are two areas to quick-start yourself to becoming a great business owner, sales manager or leader of any team, they are: mastering “little voice management” techniques in yourself and others, and implementing and enforcing a Code of Honor that turns ordinary people into a championship team.

Selling with attitude (what kind of attitude does to require to be successful)

At SalesDogs, we have a motto.  When two people come together in a selling situation, person with the highest energy generally wins.  Since sales is an emotional contact sport, you have to be able to wrestle your energy and attitude from the depths sometimes on a second’s notice.  There are scores of “little voice mastery” tools to do this, but to succeed, you have to develop an attitude that:

• Rebounds quickly and that can resurrect your mood level quickly
• Takes every win (big and small), magnifies and globalizes it to the point you momentarily become a  ‘legend in your own mind’ J
• Takes every setback and internalizes the lesson but depersonalizes the cause
• Is relentless about winning
• Is assumptive…that is….you assume in the moment that every deal and program that you pursue is going to work and that every person, prospect or acquaintance  that you work with is going to say yes to you (even though you know they won’t) 
• Is Eternally optimistic

Blair