10 Things you need to know about sales

 1.  Know your customer - Experts agree it’s fundamentally important in sales for the salesperson to know their customer. DO your research . Do a DISC profile, based on personality, work out your game planto close the sale! You need to be able to read people 

2.   Don’t sell a Product – sell a solution or a dream. Identify the persons pain and provide a pain killer – not a vitamin! People don’t buy products they buy you, or your company or the Brand which they trust!

3.   Connect with your customer  – show them value, show them that you care. Identify ways that you can connect with them.  Relate to them. Create a relationship. What do you have in common with them

4.   Build trust – lower resistance to increase acceptance – relate to the customer.  Liz Atkinson, founder of marketing company Zest Possibilities, told SmartCompany building trust is important not only between a customer and the salesperson, but trust in the brand. This, she believes, can be achieved through creating a consistent company image.

5.  Look like a winner  “The person I look for is fun, confident and driven with a goal to succeed. I understand this, so we project this type of image across the company in every way possible to sell it! From the music we play, the magazines we have sat in reception to how our administrators meet and greet people, we keep the message consistent. “This allows the company to build a relationship immediately with anyone that comes into contact with us, and this message never changes which keeps trust and builds loyalty,” she says.

6.   Have a plan,  a process and a System – A Roadmap/ A sytems Kit  its“all about systems and strategies”. The process needs to be able to be replicated. Hire for attitude and personality – skill can be trained if you have a great system. “ A good person in a great system makes a person great!” An average person in a great system makes a person good!” Sales processes should be simple and they need the right development and training. The strategy also needs to be measurable… what can be measured can be managed!

7.   Preparation – sharpen the saw!! Know your customer – have a plan of attack, go through scenarios – know your outcome. Do a rifle shot not a machine gun – be targeted not scattered. 

8.   Get your customer to say Yes

9.    Be online – be all over social media – this is where your customers are or will be!

10.   “Leads proposals and sales” If you want to have $1m in sales , have $4m in proposals and $20m in Leads!

7 Traits of Magnetic People

Nathanial BibbyDirector - Bibby Consulting Group ♦ Digital Marketing ♦ Speaker ♦ Social Media Training ♦ LinkedIn Lead Generation

We all know someone magnetic. Someone that people gravitate towards, someone who whenever you spend time with them you leave feeling good. 

Magnetic people often find themselves in leadership roles because people naturally follow them. A small-business manager should often aspire to attain magnetic qualities to attract the attention of colleagues, employees and customers. Magnetism helps draw people to your vision for the company so they will want to invest in its success.

These people are the life of every party. Magnetic people aren’t constantly searching for validation, because they’re confident enough to find it in themselves. There are certain habits they pursue every day to maintain this healthy perspective.

Authenticity

People with magnetic personalities are sincere. They radiate authenticity. So, if you aspire to be magnetic, you have to be real about who you are and what you have to offer. Others will respond positively to your honest demeanor and transparenc

Presence

Presence is the easiest but most misunderstood aspect of being charismatic. How hard is it to be present in an interaction? With our minds wandering about 47% of the time, it turns out, it is quite difficult. 

Simply put, being present means you have dedicated 100% of yourself to the current interaction. When someone is speaking to you, tune your brain into not only what they are saying, but why they are saying it as well.

Listening

Listen attentively to increase your level of magnetism. People are naturally fond of those who take the time to hear their concerns, ambitions and ideas. Look directly at the person talking, repeat back in your head what is said, and do not allow outside events to distract you.

Everyone wants to feel important. The best and easiest way to make people feel important is to legitimately listen to what they have to say, and clarify your understanding of their thoughts. 

This means thoroughly listening to another person’s point of view, instead of planning in your head what you are going to say next. While thinking what you are going to say next, how can you be fully understanding of what another person has to say? When you have an awesome idea, don’t you want people to listen? 

There is nothing more frustrating than when you have the best idea ever, and nobody seems to want to listen to you. When you finally find someone that makes an effort to understand you, don’t you feel a strong appreciation for them? 

Leadership

What makes someone a great leader and a hero to others - servant leadership.

1. They treat everyone with respect
2. They focus on people and skip the small talk
3. They are authentic
4. They are passionate
5. They have integrity
6. They have fun

An example of a servant leader is Dr. Martin Luther King.. Dr. King certainly did not choose the easy road when he assumed a leadership role in the Civil Rights Movement and chose to champion the non-violent approach. 

He knew that approach would be more difficult, but he also knew it would ultimately be more beneficial to those he was trying to serve. Even more servant-like was Dr. King’s well known desire to not be remembered for the prizes and accolades he won in life, but for his role in driving towards social justice. 

In other words, he cared more about how he helped others than about any recognition he could ever receive.

Power

Power is one aspect of charisma that most people find difficult. Power is critical to charisma, simply due to the fact that powerful people attract attention. When you have some kind of desirable knowledge or expertise, people will follow you. 

Studies show that nonverbal communication, also known as body language, makes up around 60% of all interpersonal communication. This implies that your body language is more important than the content that comes out of your mouth. 

In order to convey power, it is important to have dominant body language. Claim territory with your body – take up space by comfortably spreading out your arms and legs. Keep your chin up, sit up straight (yes, Mother) and pull your shoulders down and slightly back. 

One last key to projecting power is to have good vocal tonality. Make sure that your vocal intonation does not rise excessively at the end of your sentences (as it often does when you ask questions) – this indicates weakness, indecisiveness, and neediness. 

A recent study done by Quantified Impressions, an Austin, Texas, communications analytics company, showed that the sound of a speaker’s voice matters twice as much as the content of what they are saying - would you agree?

Warmth

Warmth, unlike presence and power, is the factor that makes you approachable. Warmth is somewhat related to presence, but is more related to providing a feeling of comfort to those you are interacting with. 

To be warm, it helps to treat others as equals, even though you may be much higher on the social ladder. Making people feel important makes them feel good, and if you are able to become a source of these feelings, people will be attracted to you. 

The key to generating massive amounts of charisma is to mix these three qualities in the right proportions. Too much warmth without power can come across as needy. Too much power without presence can come across as arrogant. Too much presence can come across as creepy; you get the picture. 

Humor

As a good friend of mine says (you know who you are), you need to play to your strengths. This characteristic may not be the one for you to focus on, you may be more energetic, or rely more on your intellect but this is one that has formed a big part of who I am.

Regardless, you need to be able to laugh about yourself and situations. Having a good sense of humor is a positive quality that will attract followers. You don't have to be funny or witty, but you should be able to see the humor in life and business.

So, those are my top traits, what are yours? Are you charismatic? How many of the 5 qualities do you have? 

Let us know in the comments below, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

About the Author

Nathanial Bibby is the Managing Director of Bibby Consulting Group who have assisted over 4,000 companies with their lead generation strategies. He is a regular speaker at industry related events and corporate conferences, becoming Australia and South East Asia's leading authority on digital strategy, social media and using LinkedIn for business. 

If you're interested in how Bibby Consulting Group can assist you with your digital strategy, please visit:  www.bibbyconsultinggroup.com.au

If you want to attract great people - start off by being honest. This is the foundation of trust

 

Inspired by the LinkedIn Learning course Creating an Alliance with Employees with linked In Founder Reid Hoffman 

A generation ago, people would work for one company their entire working life. No longer, people switch jobs and functions altogether, and Companies don't usually expect or indeed even want employees to work their entire working lives at their company. 

LinkedIn research found a steep increase in job hopping with each new generation. People who graduated college from 1986 to 1990 averaged 1.6 jobs in their first five years out of school, and just one more job in the following five years. Compare that to people who graduated college between 2006 and 2010, who averaged 2.85 jobs in their first five years out of school.

However at the typical job interview - there is this charade of the Employee saying they want to be there forever and the company saying they want them to be there forever, making these conversations fundamentally dishonest from the start! .

So what should a job interview conversation look like?

What the company should say to the employee is 

"I’m going to invest no longer in your lifetime employment, but in your lifetime employability,” 

And what the employee should say to the company is, 

"look, I know that I may be here for a long time. I may be here for a small number of years. But, either way, I should make my time here transformative to the company, where what I did really matters for how the company evolves.”

Rather ensure  a lifelong relationship between the two. "An alliance" 

“The Alliance is a framework for attracting, retaining and managing incredibly entrepreneurial employees, the kind of people who are gonna drive your business forward and transform it, as they transform their own careers,” Says Reid Hoffman founder of Linked In 

So forget about lifetime employment – the research shows 18-month employment is more like it!

 By both sides refusing to admit what’s really on their mind, it turns their relationship into a transactional one, which often ends within a few  

If the Alliance is adopted, your organization will invariably see an uptick in both employee engagement and quality-of-hire, with employees feeling empowered to have honest conversations with their managers.

What do you think? 

Collaboration and Connecting Links to Success

Great article by Chantal Cleminson 

English Author John Donne said: “No man is an island”, meaning no one is self-sufficient; everyone relies on others.

Most experts agree that collaborating in business produces greater outcomes. The brainpower of intelligent people combined together, has the ability to solve problems and achieve amazing results. It can also be very liberating to be part of a work culture that promotes collaboration.

I first experienced the benefits of collaboration after graduating and working in my first Interior Design job. We were involved in the Corporate Design of a couple of Banks as well as the designs for a large Cinema Group amongst others. As part of the design team, we collaborated with design concepts through to the production of drawings and finally their implementation. Our best results were due to collaboration.

More recently I played a part in a Project relating to a social cause; which required wide scale collaboration. Without this form of collaboration, this project would not have got off the ground or be achieving the results that it is now seeing.

According to Forbes there is nothing more important to leadership and organizational success than collaboration. It exponentially increases the odds of amazing things happening. But it can be tough to achieve. Bringing people together and then igniting and nurturing a collaborative effort is a key test of leadership and workplace culture.

Collaborating and sharing of information creates new ideas, innovation and exciting opportunities for organisations. We have all been part of this in one way or another. Reading an interesting or intriguing article that we just want to share; to watching something inspirational on TED or seeing the collaboration through teamwork in sports. These are the things that inspire us in so many ways. 

But like any relationship, it is important to set limits – to have boundaries. It is not about being best friends. It is where you need to be respectful and honour people’s limits. It is ultimately about good communication and where everyone has the chance to be heard. By focusing on the goals and working together on the solutions - you cannot go wrong.

By being genuine and true to yourself, you allow others to understand who you are and how to collaborate with you, gaining their respect. You will always get caught out if you pretend to know what you don’t. Collaboration is about bringing your best self to the project.

By collaborating with others, spontaneous connections can be formed; resources can be pooled for more effective delivery; and partnerships can be developed. From two people working towards a shared goal to large scale collaboration; where people have ideas and knowledge is shared - this is what makes anything possible.

Collaboration ignites innovation in so many ways: It focuses on creative solutions, ideas for improvement and exciting opportunities. It has the ability to resolve world problems that are too large to solve alone.

So why are people so scared to share knowledge? Is it that they think others will fare better than them by using their ideas; or is it that they may feel inferior to others and do not feel like they are able to contribute anything?

I have noticed that by sharing your knowledge, you actually build credibility; where people begin to trust you and develop a relationship with you. By collaborating and contributing you may feel valued and you may actually learn something from someone else.

Being part of a successful collaboration is exhilarating and exciting. It doesn’t matter how big or how small the collaboration is; it somehow makes you feel part of something bigger than oneself and this touches our souls, connects us to others and instils career satisfaction.

Technology enables collaboration to happen on a global scale. It is a game changer as it enables one to collaborate on a large scale platform; whereby it creates social learning, networking and development and cultivates creativity and innovation.

As Bob Mudge (President of Consumer and Mass at Verizon) puts it: “Collaboration is no longer just a strategy: it is the key to long-term business success and competitiveness. Businesses that realize this sooner rather than later will be the ones who win the game and succeed in the new global economy.”

What are your thoughts about collaboration linking to success?