SALES

 

CLOSURE (SALES)

Many years working IN and FOR SALES in varied competitive conditions for multiplicity of successful firms are the solid basement from which we continue to COMPETE today projecting towards even more SUCCESSFUL future. Want to partner us for this higher success?:  WE KNOW, YOU GROW 🙂

HOW TO RAISE OUR SALES?

Wild salesperson? Enthusiastic one? Strategist? Begging style? Shark one? Flexible one? Patient one?  Whatever style you feel comfortable with can prove useful if well framed (your reality and needs), and well driven (towards your goals) …always based on them!  (clients’ needs, goals and preferences).

The ancient Art of Sales is about aiming towards Success with common sense (using your best), empathetic spirit (looking for our clients’ satisfaction) and wild competitive will to move forward confidently in unlimited way.  We gladly boost your potential to your highest achievements.  WE TEACH, YOU REACH 🙂

 

CORPORATIVITY (BUSINESS)

Counting on huge Academic background in Universities, Business Schools, and Powerful Firms, we created lot of education stuff in order to evolve Knowledge in the Business world.  On the other hand, we worked hard in real-life practice, inside the Business ‘kitchen’ by bringing support to Managers, Supervisors and highly-skilled Sales strategists.  Count on us!  WE’RE IN→ YOU WIN 🙂

HOW TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS?

In lot of cases, Success has been achieved the scientific way: ‘trial and error’ until verifying the best ways, procedures, and practices.  On one hand it’s an evidence that the more we advance, the better known these positive key factors are …on the other hand, the wild rhythm of change and dramatic evolution of mankind (and the Business world) brings the need of evolving ourselves. Who keep’s still, goes back.

We love science as an unstoppable source of light for success in Business, and in fact we’re deeply linked to it in many ways: functioning of human brain and mind, conscious and subconscious ways of behavior (including how people buys, negotiates, etc.). Seriously engaged in solid ways of backing your growth in ‘Business Planet’:  WE SEED, YOU SUCCEED 🙂

 

CAPACITY (NEGOTIATION)

Capacity of ADAPTATION is, according to Charles Darwin, what makes the human species a superior one on Earth …and following this line (evolving, if you prefer) we discover that FLEXIBILITY, VERSATILITY and OPENNESS come to prove so Beneficial in NegotiationWE PUT THE LIGHT, YOU WIN THE FIGHT 🙂

HOW TO PERSUADE THEM ABOUT ‘THIS’ BRILLIANT DEAL?

Techniques, Tactics, Strategies, Styles of Negotiation are there in the Business universe ready to become Negotiators’ winning factors.  True CAPACITY to link to others’ comes normally first, and depending on HOW we LINK everything else tends to accommodate, including their softer acceptance of our proposals.

We love to work on enhancing people to concrete their true potential, to put in practice the best way their talents and resources and (finally yes) to know and take advantage of myriad of techniques, tactics and etcetera in order to close the most fantastic deals for win-win profit:  WE PROPOSE, YOU CLOSE 🙂

 

 

BUY NOW & HERE!

 

 

 

‘HOW TO DISAPPEAR’ TO GAIN TIME

TIME-MANAGEMENT PRACTICAL TIPS FOR TODAY’S FRANTIC RHYTHMS…

‘I don’t have time’ is an every time (precisely) more frequent expression that clearly describes the way rhythms change together with societies’ lives.

Time-management strategies are, thus, so needed to improve our use of this precious dimension, ‘relative’ according to Einstein and physics, ‘insufficient’ according to our daily experience 😊

Well, time (again) ago a colleague from the Webhelp Group (Patricia Avila) told me how she did to cope with her managerial reality in the company, plenty of urgencies and importancies every day, and with many people needing to understand she needed …time to solve them.

To Be and Not to Be in a place was her secret!  OK, let’s go with a more logical way of explanation:

Even if visible to everybody in the big work-room where she developed her task together with + 100 supervisors and employees, her ‘trick’ consisted in taking one hour a day without attending anybody at all at her desk, using this time for important things as decisions on team’s bonus or employees’ vacations, etc.

It was not easy in the beginning …as the temptation to come to her in the ‘non-accessible hour’ was always there, mainly when some member of her team was under pressure, in an urgency to solve, and looking to her as the ‘oracle’ from where to get an instant solution.

In the end, it worked, fortunately, and she could advice everybody else to do the same.  How does this strategy prove useful?  How to successfully implement it?

1.TELL ABOUT IT IN ADVANCE, AND ‘WHY’/ to explain the rest of our fellows that we’ll take certain amount of time every day (or with a different frequency) because it’s necessary and will prove good to them in the end (Benefits 😊).

2.OFFER AN ALTERNATIVE CONTACT-PERSON/ to design somebody (or some position) that will cover any team need whenever we are in the ‘non-accessible’ time, concentrated in our job.

3.SHOW VISIBLE SIGNS/ some ‘visual code’ easy to interpret, as e.g.: with headsets on, we’re unaccessible (Patricia’s choice), or same with a color flag in our desk, different from the one we show when ‘on’.

4.RESPECT STRUCTURE/ better if we are ‘out’ (unaccessible even if ‘in’) always at the same chosen time + day, in order to generate a solid habit with clarity, easy to remember and respect by the other members of the team, project, etc.

5.NO EXCEPTIONS/ to keep the unaccessibility condition at whatever price (except for fire, explosions or any other serious emergency), even if some daring one in the team makes ‘toc-toc’ at your desk or office during the ‘forbidden’ time.

Nice to give a try, indeed!  Mainly now that, fortunately, many companies are coming back to use their physical offices while the pandemics softens its pressure.

And good to remember other effective time-saving stratagems, too…

PRIORITIZED ‘TO DO’ LIST/ to carefully order (from ‘more urgent/important’ to ‘less urgent/important’) the daily or weekly tasks we have listed at random, as they usually come to our minds in such type of situations.

↑ URGENT-IMPORTANT 4 FIELDS QUADRANT (useful to solve the strategic prioritization from the previous ‘trick’)/ to go on evaluating the ‘urgent’ + ‘important’ condition of every listed action to-do, later on placing up-left the ‘urgent + important’ ones, up-right the ‘urgent + less important’, down-left the ‘non-urgent + important’ and finally (down-right) the ‘non-urgent + less important’ ones.  Then we simply go in a ‘Z’ direction accross the quadrant to cope with the whole of it.

↑ ONE-BY-ONE ‘MORTAL COMBAT’ (idem previous)/ to go on comparing each listed activity with the following one to choose the most relevant and discard the less significant.  Then we do the same between the ‘winner’ and the next one in the list, until clearly having an overall winner (to be done first, of course) and remaining other activities by order of ‘triumph’ 😊

‘OXYGENATED’ DIAGRAM/ to program less available hours and leave part of the day/week time free, ready for the unexpected.  In case of this happening (something suddenly landing without previous advice in our agenda) we’ll have the free part of our schedule ready for it.  In the other case, we can surely use this ‘extra’ time for improving our key activities or advancing some stuff for tomorrow.  6½ programmed hours from 8 could work.  Otherwise, let’s find our best proportion.

SHORT TIME-SLOTS (to do more in less)/ Elon Musk trick to cope with his bestial daily agenda: to assign each task a very small time, in which to solve as quickly as possible all or the most crucial part of it.  Musk slots are 5-minutes ones.  We can surely expand a bit the thing 😊.

DELEGATION/ to trust somebody else that will do this task for us, thus softening our workload (to-do list) and getting our employee (or delegated person) motivated at the same time for our confidence on them.  Double benefit!

AGENDA, e-M@IL, PHONE & SOCIAL-MEDIA MANAGEMENT/ to take clear decisions in all of these fields on how much time we’ll dedicate to them and the best strategies to make them function in the less time-consuming way.  This point deserves a whole new article (or several ones) for sure, so…

Let’s hope this one proves useful and

‘Til the Next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

MENTORING IN BUSINESS

THE ‘LITTLE BROTHER’ OF COACHING & TRAINING IN PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS

Under the umbrella of Inspiring LEADERSHIP, we got TRAINING + MENTORING x COACHING as a solid ‘formula’ to grant Success to our Company, Project, or Team.

We certainly know that TRAINING has to do with KNOWLEDGE: we run into Training Sessions or Programs when lack of knowledge or need of knowledge renewal/update detected in our people.

On the COACHING case, it’s about the crucial side of ATTITUDE+MOTIVATION, and we’ll apply Coaching Sessions or Programs when wrong attitude or low motivation is detected in an employee, a group of them, or the whole team.

I’d suggest anyway to replace this ‘reactive’ pattern by a ‘proactive’ one that will consider always preventive actions in order to avoid/minimize the appearance+impact of the previously described situations.

Done with the ‘bigger brothers’ 😊 …now: what do we know about MENTORING?

In fact, we have to speak about two different forms of it:

MANAGERIAL MENTORING/

An experienced Manager transferring knowledge/best practices to their successor or a ‘mentee’ in need of support for growth/proper performance in new (higher) responsibilities.

EMPLOYEE MENTORING/

A Supervisor, TeamLeader or Senior Employee helping a new employee to strengthen their practical abilities/skills in the execution of daily actions to improve their performance and productivity.

In other words, if Training is about KNOWLEDGE and Coaching about ATTITUDE, Mentoring covers SKILLS.  So, the essencial (Viktor Küppers’) formula should be: KNOWLEDGE + SKILLS x ATTITUDE/MOTIVATION, and we have our people happy, ready for a fantastic performance.

After having detected certain confusion between COACHING and MENTORING, good to remember that MENTORING is about the ACTIONS, while COACHING is about the PERSONS.

Even though, we’ll rapidly see that this clarifying statement is a bit restricted in itself: nowadays, due to the huge complexity around any professional reality, we frequently find combined needs to be covered at the same time.

A MENTOR will be at the same time a Trainer sometimes, and some others a Coach.

Now, HOW TO MENTOR in both cases (Managerial and Employee types)?

Common points:

The MENTOR will share the best of self (skills, knowledge, experience) to help others improve + progress their careers or lives.  Through a structured system of practical support, they’ll provide the MENTEE with keys to detect their problems or identify objectives, and solid examples on different ways to fix ones and reach the others.

As Rosana Rosas states, the MENTOR (with higher experience in a specific field) acts as a guide and role-model for the learner/ MENTEE.

Still in the ‘common’ field, both types of MENTOR will be always, easily accessible + ready to provide the needed/asked help in the frame of the previously agreed process.

Now, the differences:

The MANAGER-MENTOR gives support on practical LEADERSHIP strategies and actions, to a MENTEE that is in or will access a Leadership position, either replacing the Mentor or in a different role.

The EMPLOYEE-MENTOR gives support on practical PERFORMANCE (professional) actions, to a MENTEE that takes responsibilities as part of a Team in which each member has to do specific tasks to reach objectives (both personal and Team ones).

On specific WAYS OF MENTORING SOMEONE, the Manchester Metropolitan University speaks about convenient processes like e.g.:

BEGINNING SESSION:  with mutual intro (Mentee & Mentor), definition of objectives to achieve after a careful ‘scanning’ on the Mentee situation and potential, practical structure of support (time, frequency, place for successive sessions, etc.), action-plan proposal.

FOLLOWING SESSIONS:  discussion on professional and work topics, exploration of possibilities open for the Mentee, support on specific skills, fostering Mentee’s definition of realistic + achievable action-plans in their reality and career, etc.

Always convenient to go on comparing agreed objectives with progressive achievements in order to keep the most accurate track until conclusion (of the Mentoring process), that can happen for varied reasons, like e.g. objectives accomplished, relationship not working, etc.

On the practical side, other contact channels will help besides meeting-sessions, as phone calls, em@iling, etc.

Important: whenever the Mentee self-secure and haven developed necessary skills + capacity to evaluate own advancement, good to discuss the possibility of a ‘break’ that can be partial or definitive until the next need of Mentoring.

TIPS: always care with the person (Mentee) from the beginning and much over the tasks to develop together/  Good to work on their acceptance + motivation to begin the process and each task: this will grant higher collaboration and quicker path/  Convenient to give them clues without solving things for them: so important to boost their capacity to overcome challenges by their own as much as possible/  Open mind alongside the whole process to discover eventual added points to work on, or modifications to apply to the initial plan, due to evidences of these needs of change to favor a better general result for the Mentee.

Hope this helps to know the ‘little brother’ and properly implement it!

Hidden behind daily reality, MENTORING is perhaps the most usual practice (compared to Coaching or Training), sometimes in spontaneous and unnoticed way, so good to put it under the magnifying glass a bit and profit from its evident advantages.

‘Til the Next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

‘OVERACHIEVERS’

HANDLING + COMPENSATING THIS INNER BOOSTER IN OUR TEAMS

‘Retain Talent’, ‘Retain Knowledge’, ‘Retain Creativity’ and so on, do we remember?  Well, it’s essential to add: ‘Retain Overachievers and their boosting influence in the overall Results!’

There’s a ‘formula’ that some Leaders already apply: ‘Money, Time, Recognition’ …in this order.  What means:

Whenever an ‘overachiever’ detected, let’s grant them additional money in compensation, as they’re generating much more to our Project throughout their contribution;

In case this is impossible for whatever reason, a ‘conversion’ to time usually works: let’s give them extra free-time (by adding some day to the weekend, expanding the holiday time a bit, or just telling them on Friday to go home some hours in advance 😊

When none of the previous is allowed (let’s imagine hard work time due to market behavior or urgent needs to cover in the moment, etc.) at least let them clearly know that we’re so aware of how much over the expected they’re giving to our Project, and that we’ll compensate the best possible way whenever conditions allow.

Money, Time, Recognition …that’s it!  And even before: to act once the exceptional person detected, to avoid the Leader’s ignorance on the matter producing
despondency or even worse states in these types of employees that prove key to success.

Now let’s begin again: What is an ‘Overachiever’?  Well, usually: an employee that contributes more than expected (as an average) to the Team/Project’s successful Results, in terms of accomplished Goals, improvement to the processes to achieve them, generation of a great work-atmosphere that motivates everybody, etc.

Of course the ‘formula’ is just an example, a ‘classic’ one indeed, that will need always adaption to frame and circumstances in each individual case.

A Salesperson that exceeds a lot the general numbers (and the ‘historic’ ones in their position, e.g.) is a good example, and I know some couple of them.   A Trainer hired to teach that creates a varied program with different career-paths, together with the respective courses or seminars, is another example.  Taken from real life too.   A Manager who’s influence evidently boosts a Team/Project to unknown peaks of success in similar conditions to others having achieved much less, well, is a marvelous example too, even if a special one due to the hierarchical difference respect to the previous two.  All of them deserve attention and proper management!

Broadening or deepening their role-scope will surely help from the ‘Recognition’ side, as well as monetary compensation in accordance will do the material (‘Money’) part.   The ‘Time’ one is always there, and like the temporal dimension itself, it’s ‘relative’ 😊 and adaptable to circumstances.   Sometimes the overachievers Love to Work (‘workaholism’) and the Time they’ll love the most is the work one.

I knew a Manager that was typing in his laptop …during an end-of-the-year celebration of his company, in a disco and surrounded by happy, dancing, drunk and smiling colleagues watching him ‘being that himself’ even there.  From this example, almost every overachiever LOVES what they do (main reason to do it in that outstanding, exceptional way).  This should be enough for many of them!

Even though, both for dignity and business convenience, always good to handle them properly.

Every case will be different, so: good to deeply know them in order to choose the way of compensation that better suits their preferences.  In many cases, the successful management of such situations will contribute to the spontaneous stimulus on the rest of the ‘crew’, in addition.  Good to let these cases push by inertia the overall movement forward in order to grow and achieve the best as a Team/Project too.

‘Til the Next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

LEADERSHIP & TALENT

THE MANAGEMENT & HARNESSING OF THIS BRILLIANT SIDE IN HUMANS

‘Retain Talent’   ‘Retain Knowledge’   ‘Retain Experience’  …in other words, these typical Business ‘mantras’ for Leaders are suggesting: ‘retain your most valuable people’.

Moreover, it goes beyond retention obviously: ‘Motivate + recognize/compensate your Talented, Knowledgeable & Expert company/team-members’ in order to grant permanent growth based on the best pillars of the building.  Who would be kicking Messi off from a football team, to leave there their worst players?  Well, it happens…

THE MEDIOCRE CYCLE

Even despite most basic evidences, many companies and teams work around ‘urgencies’ instead of ‘importancies’, internal promotion systems based on ‘cronyism’ or accommodative obsequies instead of meritocracy, flat philosophy on keeping the ‘cheapest’ work-force to do enough (and looking for quantity) instead of competitive inertia on quality through permanent growth programs led by brilliant strategists (namely Leaders) to boost the potential of brilliant employees (namely most-valuable individuals from the work-force).

I’ve taken to my university class some proven case on the previous ‘misLeadership’ type of examples in order to stimulate the Students’ analytical capabilities besides showing to them a ‘dark side’ of reality in mediocre philosophies …their first reaction was to laugh, convinced of the whole thing being a joke.  As leaders, would they want to get rid of their best employees? Or would they invite the most valuable workers in their companies to leave, for keeping the cheapest (even if ‘just average’) ones on board?

Only a bottom-line strategy/philosophy can show these evident signs of poverty in terms of Business competitiveness at the highest levels.

There’s a saying in Sales/Business that I personally love:

‘Worse than losing is to avoid winning’.   This is exactly what happens when a company or team don’t take advantage of the enormous potential in their people.  They seem to be making evident a sickly indolence regarding the possibility of making the most of their best values ​​to position themselves (as a brand or business entity) at the top.

THE COMPETITIVE WAY

TALENT: when inner philosophy and attached development programs inside a company are devoted to discover, highlight and boost talent inside, a key role is usually played by their HR Department, as good employees are truly ‘resources’ besides (usually) being ‘humans’.

A record-shatteringly solid growth is most possible when based on serious acknowledgement + harnessing of this pillar: Talent.  (Better if Messi in my club/team!)

Once detected, the main talents in our people should be accompanied and properly developed in order to take best possible advantage of them.  At the same time, employees should be granted a path of growth in terms of position and responsibility that will tell them clearly how much their talented contribution counts.

And of course, beyond HR best practices on the matter, the company philosophy itself should be interpreting the ‘talent song’ at every corner day after day.  Leadership (again) firm decision on this will allow the ‘magic flow’ to move the ship forward on waves of successful talent.

KNOWLEDGE: a concept that has named even a (recent) era, in which Einstein or the NASA JPL count as solid sources of such an essential element to succeed in practically whatever we can be involved in, e.g. Business.

Our people’s knowledge (tacit or evident, generic or specific, theoretical or practical, always useful) will provide certainty where in other circumstances doubt would reign, with considerable loss of time + competitive advantage.

Again, in some of the most successful companies is HR in charge of managing the Knowledge flows inside the company, granting recognition to their knowledgeable people + development programs that usually bring more/ more-specifically-applicable knowledge.

Boosting employees’ growth from the knowledge side will always pay good results, and a healthy policy to support such growth from promotions or the assignment of greater responsibilities will be a positive strategic decision in these cases.

EXPERIENCE: what in Nonaka & Takeuchi’s vision means kind of maturity in time throughout waves of transference of knowledge from tacit to explicit states and vice-versa, can also be simply explained as solid practical certainties coming from a growth itinerary that precedes the current state in which the employee knows the ‘what’ and many trustworthy options for the ‘how’, having incorporated by pleasant daily ‘dropping’ the multiple angles that define the company ‘philosophy and culture’.

Expert and experienced, this professional will provide solid support to the overall thing, proving sometimes inspiring to newcomers that (at their turn) will learn ‘how to’ alternatives enhancing their potential too.

The more expert and trustworthy the employee, the best promotion policy to them should exist, just to fairly compensate the added value that comes from their solid action.

…and speaking about ‘added values’, good to:

‘RETAIN CREATIVITY’

The creative potential in our work-force, existing in every single member of the company/team, should be granted permanent opportunity of expression and proper contribution to the overall success.  Creativity is usual fellow of Innovation (in services, in processes, in conflict management, in competitiveness, etc.) so fantastic if clever Leaders consider this ‘added pillar’ for their increasingly-solid building …as it will stand out above the average in ‘creative’ way 😊

Of course the creative ways are sometimes bit risky ones.  In Business, anyway, risk can be the turning point for decisions that will bring the whole company/team to the victory.  It was the ‘wrong’ alternative?  Well, it’s part of the game.

An open ‘atmosphere’ inside the company (motivating ambiance) is always a fertile ground for the growth of creative expressions for success. And good leadership often shows this openness and freedom as one of its distinguishing features.

HEALTHY LEADERSHIP = GENUINE GROWTH = COMPETITIVE ACTION + RESULTS

As my uni Students concluded by the end of the previously mentioned workshop based on reality: they can always be true game-rulers by taking brilliant decisions from the inside that will be reflected through each ‘echo’ outside.  The permanent leit-motive could be:

‘Let’s compete in the market by harnessing the best Talent, Knowledge, Experience and Creativity of all of our people.’

Detection, support + development & recognition will work a lot in favor of this well intentioned idea that (in addition) matches solidly proven advice from the basement in Leaders’ success.

‘Til the Next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

PSYCHO-SALES: THE TRI-UNE APPROACH

THE HIDDEN SIDE OF HUMAN COMPLEXITY BEHIND DECIDING A PURCHASE …OR RUNNING AWAY

We humans seem to be a huge tank of talent, resources, intelligence, emotions… complexity.

As Sales has always been a ‘human’ thing, well, should it help (perhaps) to know more about this complexity in order to sell more after strategic simplification?  Just a concept proposal.

Evident or hidden, many psychological factors influence the Sales reality, both from the Seller and Client sides.  In fact, subliminal ideas count (among many other elements), as the one behind the previous outline, where Seller and Client seem to opposite each other as the phrase places them in apparently different sides.

Everything changes if instead of ‘you and/or me’ we speak about ‘US’.  Partnership instead of competition.  Common goal instead of conflicting interests.  Subliminal invitation to ‘act together’ instead of fighting for supremacy.

TRIUNE APPROACH

An interesting perspective of approach (one from many) could be Paul McLean’s one, through his ‘triune brain’ theory.  In brief, our brain is supposed to work in three different levels/dimensions, namely: reptilian (instincts→survival), mammalian or limbic (emotions→affection, social life), and primate-human (reasoning, analysis, memory, etc.).

Typical REPTILIAN behavior is the well known ‘fight or flight’ way of some animals to deal with danger.  Also the triple option of attacking (snake) – running away (lizard) – hiding inside self (turtle) represents reptilic heredity preserved intact in the most primitive part of our brain, the basal ganglia, so close to the brain stem and its linked automatisms (breath, blood pressure, etc.).  Survival.

MAMMALIAN, herd-friendly architecture of functioning is more related to the main set of human emotions (fear, happiness, anger, surprise, disgust, sadness, etc.) and their influence in our social and affective relationships.  Emotional Intelligence (EQ) decoding of such a key side of our human reality shows its importance regarding self-certainty and confidence, capacity for self-motivation, enthusiastic attitude, resiliency, etc.  An almost complete ring around the little reptilian brain, the LIMBIC one (for ‘limbus’, ring in Latin), contains the cerebral amygdala, true manager of our emotions throughout life.  Association.

PRIMATE-HUMAN characteristics include Self-awareness, use of language, conscious thought, intellectual functions that go from understanding a mathematical formula to musical composition.  The Neocortex is the recipient of the third-brain capacities and (of course) by far the most complex of the system.  Calculation, development of strategies, etc., are typical examples of this so evolved side of the triune reality.  Supremacy.

TRIUNE SALES!

And it turns out that this threateningly complex and particular specimen (the Client) also works like this!  So, how to approach the three sides of them?  Should be as simple as to consider combinable strategies for the reptile+mammalian+human that co-exist in their brain 😊

INSTINCT will make them act as a Survivor.  EMOTION will feed their interaction capacity.  THOUGHT will enable them to understand and behave strategically.

‘Partnership’ instead of competition, we said some lines upwards.  So…

How to tell the Reptile, the Mammalian and the Human that we play in their same Team and want their victory ‘cause it’s also ours?

REPTILIAN (PRIMAL) STRATEGY:  so influenced by factors like ‘first impression’.  How we show ourselves counts.  How we physically approach them too.  Our sight, body-language, use of space when near them, voice-tone, gestures, non-verbality in other words, will tell direct, subliminal messages to their survival system that, at its turn, will be whispering to them ‘attack-run away-hide’ or ‘remain calm, it seems friendly’.  Concepts like ‘proxemics’ (convenient physical distance to them) are equally important, as sometimes a little difference in centimeters can make them feel threatened instead of accompanied.

PALEO-MAMMALIAN STRATEGY:  the crucial management of feelings, emotions and sensations, the most important side of Sales by far!  How do we contribute to the necessary mutual trust and friendly sensation that will open doors for our smart persuasion to show ‘how good our offer is to them’?  To observe their ‘emotional map’ and adapt can be a brilliant option, as well as the permanent highest attention to details that will advice on the most convenient emotional behavior at every moment.  A knowing smile can be as good as a sad empathically-understanding gesture, depending on the circumstances.  Positive speech to make them feel enthusiastic, or shaking words to produce uncertainty and reinforce their need of our solution can also play at our favor from the limbic, emotional side.

RATIONAL (INTELLECTUAL) STRATEGY:  ‘say what YOU want the way THEY like’ involves the need of previous ‘scanning’ on their preferences (communication style, architecture of thought, system of ideas, usual type of behavior, etc.) to furtherly adapt in order to count on their acceptance because of the ‘evident closeness’ that we’ll emit.  Also here, the ‘HOW’ is more relevant than the ‘WHAT’.  After the prospective scanning, the deep analysis comes, and inside our brain-laboratory we take the strategic decisions in order to get their ‘YES’: a quick thinker?→ short, strong exposition of benefits;  a doubtful and insecure dude?→ warm, paternalistic exposition of ‘protective’ certainties;  a typical histrionic winner?→ benefits2 + how they’ll make them become the ‘Nº 1’s forever;  etc.  Usually, their thinking brain should be faced the evidence of this being ‘the’ big deal of their life.  Referents (and ‘recommenders’) will always help, as a proof of others having won thanks to our offer.

So, we tell the REPTILE they’re in control and winning.

To the MAMMALIAN, the confirmation of the previous message through pleasant feelings and sensations that reinforce their happy acceptance.

The PRIMATE-HUMAN will capitulate after the reasoned conviction that this is rationally a ‘bargain’.

Triune success!  Deal.

In other words, good if the Client FEELS (limbic) in CONTROL (primal) and KNOWS (reason) this is their best choice.

‘Til the Next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

TEAM MOTIVATION for LEADERS

WHAT MOTIVATION IS, HOW IT WORKS & WHY ALL LEADERS DREAM OF IT

Briefly: every true Leader seeks motivation for their people.  A motivated Team will get results much quicker & better than a demotivated one (logical thinking b.t.w.) …now, What is Motivation?

Something as important as to deserve long research and legacies from giants like Freud, Piaget, Maslow, Herzberg or McGregor.  It seems they know enough to define the thing!

Well, from all of the possible definitions let’s take one from the book ‘Psicología de la Motivación, Teoría y Práctica Fundamentales’ (M.T. Sanz Aparicio and others, 2017)) that says:

‘MOTIVATION is the inner and dynamic process that refers to the wish of covering a need (thus moving us towards some types of behavior and avoiding others) depending on our motives, expressed at every moment as wishes, pulsions, or needs.’

Clear to me.  Generic way, at least.

One of the clearest things I acknowledged there is We Are Always Motivated for something, and if a Leader perceives ‘lack of motivation’ in somebody, the most probable thing is that this body is motivated for something else instead of what ‘big boss’ wants or considers proper.

Leaders’ Motivation is then a matter of intelligent management of this inner energy that pushes peope to act and get.  Pure strategy after sensitive detection of emotional info in the field.  And clever, purposeful adaption.

From psychology to Business, well, things keep similar: Motivation is always an INNER side that depends on each person’s motives.  So, if we want to work on our people’s motivation, let’s

KNOW THEM FIRST …mainly what they like/love in life (their ‘passion’), what will help a lot in order to Persuade them later on by ‘tuning’ style and message to their preferences.

How many times we counter-act by ego, simple ignorance, or so?  What I mean is: if we want to motivate our people, let’s put initial focus in

NOT TO DEMOTIVATE THEM …what can happen by overwhelming the Team with stupid + complex rules that barely contribute to success, or by unconsciously treating some of them better than others, thus generating bad feelings that can end in a conflicto (e.g.).

Brad Cleveland speaks about some fundamental Motivating factors in the outsourcing industry that could be surely extrapolable to general categories in the professional field, as for instance:

MONEY, MONEY… (Direct Financial), following Maslow’s pyramidal basement on primary needs, our people usually wants to eat, sleep and cover their body, all of what can be ‘translated’ into food, flat, clothes = Money.

INCENTIVES … (Indirect Financial), or the happy moment in which a worker deserves this ‘travel for two’ to Maldives because of overperforming, arriving to 25 years in the company, etc.  Not exactly money in their Bank account?  Well, even if So similar.

WORK ITSELF … still exciting?  A nice daily challenge that keeps them entertained fighting against the shark until beating it?  A fair, ‘democratic’ work-load for everybody, that feels recognized alongside the journey?  Necessary balance between their preparation + talent and the complexity of the task?  Otherwise they can fall into boredom (high preparation, low demand of it) or over-stress (reverse scenario).

GROWTH! …or the true possibility of making career inside our organization thanks to their talent, effort, attitude, contribution, etc.  Together with promotions and improvement opportunities we should grant them the necessary support in order to do it well in the ‘next stage’ (training, mentoring, eventual coaching, etc.).

AFFILIATION, or the pride to belong to our brand, company, organization.  It could also be defined by their reply to the question: ‘What do you like from our team/company as much as to remain here?’.  Company culture and philosophy, together with other human and professional factors are usually involved in this key side.

Finally, and so linked to previous paragraph, every Leader should always remember the magic power of environment for environmental beings as humans are, so: if we want to work in favor of our people’s motivation,

LET’S CREATE (AND THEN MAINTAIN) A FANTASTIC WORK-ATMOSPHERE!

…where THEIR own motivations, brought from the outer space of their respective lives, can land, vibrate, prove contagious and form a magical sensation all around that usually pushes the whole Team towards Success with a big smile in their faces.

‘Till the Next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

WHO AM I?

THE POWER OF REFERENCES & DEMONSTRATION IN PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT

Even if difficult to be 100% sure of anything nowadays (just think of the politicians you voted last time 😊) well, the ones speaking well about your talent and effectiveness will help a lot, your ‘papers’ (certifications, diplomas, etc.) a bit less, and something stands out as the best possible factor to convince employers about the fantastic idea of counting on you for long …what is it?  Well, just read the article!

YOUR PAPERS…

True, in many fields (academic and scientific one, for instance) your Certifications and Diplomas (careers, courses, masters, PhD’s, workshops, etc.) certainly count for obvious reasons: if they base their prestige in delivering such kind of stuff (universities, e.g.), they have to be coherent enough to assign certain value to them.

Every time more, punctual modules (specific courses on determined areas, fields, or focused parts of area/field) fairly count besides the more ‘serious’ diplomas certifying ‘the undersigned’ has graduated in this or that after many years of academic effort.  Of course ‘who’ extends the respective papers will contribute to their value, recognition and influence in the selectors + employers.

I’ve studied like a beast all of my life, enjoying the thing in the meanwhile.  Communication, Psychology, Creativity, Art, Business, Humanities, Philosophy, Neuro-sciences, etc.  Does this make me ‘fit & suitable as the best one’?  Never!  It just means I have gathered some knowledge and the point is how good I’ll be in using this knowledge for success at work.

RECOMMENDATIONS (THIRD-PERSON REFERENTS)…

This begins to mean something really relevant to employers, as it seems to mean we have been good in real-life, so it’s expectable for us to do so again in the new job, responsibilities, etc.   Cate Barker, Growth Director at Go-Daddy, advices to highlight in our web-sites (e.g.) the positive comments from clients and other referents taken from other media/channels.  I kindly suggest to listen her!

Thank God I’ve always had lot of support from many relevant people on this.  I counted on frequent recommendations (both oral and written) telling generically or to somebody in particular that I was ‘good enough’ to deserve such good feedback to share.

From ancient times, the 3rd Party Referent (technical name for many types of recommendation) has played marvels in favor of the recommended ones.  Main difference respect to ‘papers’: practical proof of them having been useful in the battle-field, making theory become successful practice.

Even if, something is always the best + greatest factor in order to persuade employers to trust you through more work to be done:

YOUR BEST REAL-TIME PERFORMANCE…

The true turning-point for the ones in charge of going forward with you, or…

This is Why we should always Do Our Best (Miguel Ruiz first advice from his famous book ‘The 4 Agreements’ e.g.).

Once you leave them stunned through your performance ‘in situ’, they’ll positively know that you are ‘good enough’ without having to believe in others saying this, or (even worst) to guess that the papers you show really mean that you can prove at the respective highs during your development of the assigned work.

Of course, for many, there’s an apparent dyssynchrony here: how to impress them with our work if they’re doubting on hiring us for this work?  Well, you can always offer a ‘free sample’ of your talent, a video or other recorded proofs on how good you did it in the past, etc.

Who said it was easy?  Again, everything depends on how important the thing is to us, thus inviting us to evaluate how much to invest in being trusted by employers to follow up the growing path of our job-careers.

‘Til the Next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

♫ ‘DON’T WORRY ♫ … BE HAPPY!’ ♫

SOME DEEP+EASY SECRETS TO SELL MORE & BETTER

Let’s begin by confirming how LOVELY SALES are, if well played 😊   And to love the Client (precisely) is a nice secret to keep framed in the positive side too.  POSITIVITY, then, as a ‘mantra-concept’ to move constantly forward at every level, from syntax to semantics, from emotion to calculation, all over the process of SERVING the Client in order for them to reach Happiness.

LEVEL ONE: ‘DON’T WORRY

Please ‘don’t don’t!’ or, in other words, avoid negativity as much as you can in your business communication, and if possible in your communication at all.  Why?  It predisposes badly your interlocutor’s perception of the interaction itself, of yourself, or the selling exercise itself.

The unconscious impact of negativity is really huge, and can be a trigger for the ‘NO’ decision.

Syntactic negativity is about the literary side: words we choose, concepts we use, etc.

‘- Don’t worry…’, besides remembering a Bob Marley famous song, is a so frequent expression people uses in the hope of sounding polite:

(Client) ‘- I’m a bit low in cash today, that’s the matter…’

(SalesPerson) ‘- Don’t worry! We accept credit cards too!’

Even if in the most enthusiastic of voice-tones, the SalesPerson reply could be shorter + more effective just by sweeping the ‘Don’t worry’ parto ut:

(SalesPerson) ‘- Credit card is also OK, Sir/Madam!’

In this same syntactic line we find the convenience of replacing negative concepts/words by something more forwardgoing or positive directly:

(Client) ‘- Your delay in sending my stuff is a huge problem for me!’

(SalesPerson)  ‘- We’ll do our best to reduce the delay and solve your problem, Sir’

Even if in the kindest of moods, the SalesPerson reply subliminally recreates the negative feeling already expressed by the Client, instead of reframing by key word/concept substitutions:

(SalesPerson)  ‘- We’re solving the incidence to finish delivery the fastest way, Sir!’

And of course all this ‘positive’ approach will always rely more on non-verbality than literary stuff, being then extremely important the best possible voice-tone, the highest possible sympathy + empathy frame (a smile, a warm vibration telling them we share their wish of solution and, in addition, we’ll provide it as soon and best as possible).

LEVEL TWO:  ♫  ‘BE HAPPY!’ ♫

After ‘avoiding negative’, ‘fostering positive’ comes, and the most positive thing I know in life is Happiness, as I guess Marley also thought 😊

Famous economist and professor Theodore Levitt (Harvard Business School) said about 80 years ago: ‘It’s not about the drill, it’s about the holes’.  After this article’s intro we could well shorten his brilliant thoght by ‘It’s about the holes’ and that’s it.  Even if better to explain the depth and properness of this affirmation:

Are you really thinking of the drill while coming to the shop interested in purchasing it?  I’m rather sure that you want the drill as an inevitable way to produce holes: the ones that’ll support the shelves of your renewed appartment, where you’ll proudly invite familiars and friends to admire its new appearance, beautifully contemporary …and where will the drill be in this happy moment?  Most probably, forgotten in a hidden corner, not to spoil the general esthetics.

Drill = Your Product or Service, dear SalesPerson.

Holes = The Client’s Happiness after having bought them from you.

In other words: your product or service are completely secondary to their Happiness.  There is where we should address our talented effort to persuade our Clients.

Andy Bounds, a true Sales ‘guru’ that I follow, created the famous After-based Selling Method inspired precisely by this evidence.  As well as they don’t care what we say but what they’re left with after we said it, same thing in the bigger frame of the Sale itself: they’ll be left happiness if your product or service fulfills their needs or goes even beyond.  Their happiness (needs and wants are kind of a ‘search for happiness’ in this scheme) is what really matters.

This is a good reason why the old ‘ABC/ Always Be Closing’ way of cheating people is completely outdated: in times of Internet and Social Media, a deceived Client is a walking bomb of hard criticism against you, your brand, your products and services.

Deep Empathy will allow us to detect what their Happiness needs, and our Knowledge on true possibilities of covering this + Talent to Persuade them about the purchase convenience will do the rest.  Afterwards, their discovery of your action being pivotal to their further Happiness will probably invite them to speak marvels of your side instead of insults, what (3rd Party Referent) is fantastic to any SalesPerson.

The Happier they become after the purchase, the more Successful SalesPerson you can consider yourself.

‘Til the Next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

LEADERSHIP IN PANDEMIC TIMES (II: LEADERS‘ VOICE)

HOW TO AVOID SINKING BY QUICKLY TAKING OPPORTUNITY FROM CHALLENGE

After the ‘experts’ one, this is the time for Leaders themselves: what is their vision, perception, opinion and suggestions in order to better succeed in these turbulent times?  Let’s see!

Coming from the previous article, Humanity + Innovation seem to keep on going as a suggested formula to face the pandemic challenge.

HUMANITY: first thing now should be to take care of your Team, according to specialists.  Think of others!

INNOVATION: a new strategic map is taking form under pressure, from which an apparent need of innovative implementations appears as key factor.

Heart and technology?  Motivation and modernization?  A competition between warm support to your people and cold push for higher productivity in optimized ways?

Pilar López Álvarez, President of Microsoft Spain, proposes (during an APD -Asociación para el Progreso de los Directivos- event) to offer more to partners during the crisis: more free lines, and other convenient things for them to better cope with the situation.  At the same time, to take responsible control of the business is key, according to her.

From the Leadership point of view, she suggests a flexible culture (non-presenteeistic) as a factor of adaption with both agility and versatility, always from the deepest company values.

An evolving, ever-chanding (ever-adapting?) path is necessary, also guiding clients and partners to run through the difficulties.

About best ‘Leadership models’ to cope with home-based working reality, her ‘triple advice’ is: to generate energy, to transmit clarity, and to achieve results.

In Microsoft case, they’re organizing wholistic meetings every 15 days, to keep contact and allow the two directions (leaders→employees and vice-versa) to build in real-time a path that begins by prioritization of what can/should be done in the circumstance.

From the most practical point of view, she suggests to take care of liquidity, and to improve the data-bases (to count on a data-strategy allowing the company to be able to give an effective strategic reply to crisis).

Finally, she speaks about the convenience of studying/getting trained in convenient areas like data technology or cyber-security, while (more ‘businessly’, to become needed -by others, as i.e. clients, stakeholders, etc.).

Carlos Barrabés (President of Group Barrabés), at his turn and from same APD event for Directors, begins by considering ‘humanization’ as so necessary to cope with the sudden emphasis of technology everywhere, what brings ‘pure efficiency without mercy’.

On evolution basis, he’s convinced of us humans needing a problem to innovate.  From this viewpoint, current pandemics seems to be a booster for urgent evolving steps.  He perceives two emerging groups from the evidence of need of connection: poor ones (without connection …to school distant classes, to business opportunities, etc.), and ‘over-connected’ ones, in danger of ‘mechanization’ for excess of technological immersion.

People first’ is his current leit-motiv, what in geo-political and economical terms means multilateralism going forward (against the hegemonistic tendencies), with the probable formation of big regions (about 500 million people each) with all they need: talent, face masks, building capacity, etc.

From a practical Leadership viewpoint, he suggests to ‘act short thinking long’, merging in an effective strategy for urgency with vision on projected importances in the emerging future.

At the same time, according to him, will be perceived a shift in business from a ‘mission world’ (to want to be the fastest + most important company) to a ‘vision world’ (with what purpose my company will be important to the world).  From a time-frame, its about a change from the XX century industrial reality (to produce things: cars, fridges, etc.) to the XXI century new reality (besides production, to do something valuable for the world).  From a ‘win-win’ (company-client) to a ‘win-win-win’ (company, client, the world).

Finally, Mr. Barrabés highlights innovation as the + necessary reply to current crisis, with a new efficiency environment (purpose-justified) from technology.

A new reality in which to grow through training and formation, where working from home means to replace priorities, with less facilities and travel, and growing in digitalization.

And following the geo-political thread, it seems that current times are the ones of a confrontational dynamics between two ‘monsters’ (USA and China) locking horns in a wild race towards, once more in mankind history, domination.

The ‘leaders of leaders’ then, emerge as models to be analyzed.  Both Donald Trump and Xi Jinping (in representation of the whole Communist Party) are using current coronavirus time as another field to decide supremacy.

As well as China begun as the ‘guilty’ one, situation later aggravated by its opacity and falsement or concealment of data, etc., their last diplomatic/strategic movements go towards a quick positive ‘image wash’ from the distribution of material and knowledge to numerous countries in support of their fight against the pandemic.

The United States, at their turn, are still running through an endogenous path of reaffirmation of their power, while failing a lot in the management of the huge damage the critical situation is causing to their population (at least to the weakest side of it).  It seems that Trump was properly, seriously adviced in advance about the convenience of designing a coping strategy.

About consequences of current ‘competition mounted on global disgrace’, it seems that economic hard times come to the occidental side of the world (just to mention an involved party), with threats against the typical values like ‘democracy’, ‘liberal commerce’, ‘globalization rules’, etc.

On the other hand, both USA and China are running fast in order to adapt to a new type of military supremacy too: with less nuclear warheads and more technological capacity to disarm the opponent defensive systems.

Either wanting it or not, it seems that the rest of the planet will be affected by this new ‘cold war’ in one way or another.

In domestic terms, the serious need of a human innovation comes as the corollary of best apparent formula to adapt to sudden change and new challenges.

Flexibility, highest real-time attention and quick decision-making from fast adaptive prioritization seem the appropriate frame to guide strategic action forward.

‘Til the next one!

B (Sr)

 

LEADERSHIP IN PANDEMIC TIMES (I: EXPERTS‘ VOICE)

HOW TO ADAPT TO CURRENT (AND FURTHER LINKED) CHALLENGES IN BUSINESS

‘Time of crisis = time of opportunities’ according to great Einstein.  (Also great) Sir Ken Robinson speaks about creativity as a trustworthy ally in order to move forward, accepting inherent risks and need of ‘trial & error’ in the genetic process.

Why do we mention ‘creativity’? Because is the usual predecessor of innovation, a necessary factor itself (according to specialists) in order to cope with the main challenges that today’s economy is beginning to face, under tones of unpredictability in the ‘formula’.

Some others add humanity to the Leadership equation that should be coping (as much as it can be done) with the sudden shock that the current pandemic times have brought to life and business.

HUMANITY + INNOVATION then, could be a nice ‘recipe’ for this people (Leaders) that is responsible of many other people (Employees) in their firms.

Now, WHO are the ‘specialists’?  Let’s go with some summarized advice from well renowned ones:

Jason Wang and David Bray PhD are reasonably optimistic about ‘good leadership in turbulent times and environments’ like the current one, saying that if we act Smart and invest in each other, we may all come out of this situation faster.  ‘Benevolent, Bold and Brave’ (3 Bs) is the type of leader that they visualize as a good one for current situation.

Their practical advice:

Invest in your Team and Customers, precisely now. Fail fast, be agile and flexible. Be helpful, comprehensive and patient with Customer, and activate your Team creativity.

Maximize your 360-Degree Exposure Assessment, even beyond your company: your clients will be probably as affected as you.

Consider your (critical) Liquidity, that will give you flexibility to rapidly respond (now) and recover earlier+better (after).

Reject Fear, remembering instead that calm analysis of opportunity will always provide better decisions and linked profit.

Paul Meskanick highlights the convenience of figuring out a ‘plan forward’, taking advantage of the opportunity from a learning approach, and pulling together with your key people a workable strategy that will provide frame for moving forward, precisely.

More punctually:

Analyze true impact in your organization and discover how prepared you are to ‘do more with less’.

Prioritize your plans/actions, as in turmoil times everything seems extremely important and the situation can quickly turn chaotic.

Oversee all individual projects as a whole, from both projects and intelligence approaches: strategic big picture instead of confusing atomization can prove healthy to your organization.

Davia Termin (for Forbes) points out the following ‘best practices’ in this unexpected emergency:

Face the probabilities and take action to turn them into your favor, thus avoiding the usual ‘short-circuit denial’ that paralizes.

Stay calm and focused, to decide on the best positive actions.

Flexibility and innovation (morph and adapt, like the virus itself) through versatile, out-of-the-box thinking, are key factors.

If you had a generic ‘war-plan’ for crisis times (advisable), tailor it for current situation and consider every possible contingency.

Communicate clearly and kindly, becoming the trusted source of information (for the company) in the crisis.

Think of others! (Be human).

Aaron de Smet and Gemma d’Auria (from prestigious McKinsey & Company) have an organizational approach beginning by advicing leaders to:

Work on behaviors and mindsets adapted to circumstance, instetad of predefined response plans (to avoid overreacting from yesterday’s developments and better looking ahead).

Implement a network of teams for quick reply, empowering others (beyond the closed executive circle) to discover and implement solutions on: work-force protection, supply-chain stabilization, customer engagement and financial stress testing, etc.

After (temporarily) shifting responsibilities from the command-and-control hierarchy to the network of teams, senior executives should also empower others to direct many aspects of the organization’s crisis response. When mistakes come, learn quickly and make corrections.

To make decisions amid uncertainty: pause to assess and anticipate, then act.

Harvard specialists Chris Nichols, Shoma Chatteriee and Chris Trendler, at their turn, clearly show following behaviors as so appropriate for leaders to reasonably successful under current pandemic crisis:

Speed over precision: to quickly process available info, rapidly determine what matters most, and take decisions with conviction.

Adapt boldly: after admitting what you don’t know, seek diverse input and bring in outside expertise if needed.  Strengthen connection to the front line: good to have a picture of what’s happening on the ground.

Reliably deliver: take ownership in the crisis, align team focus, establish new metrics to monitor performance, and create a culture of accountability.

Engage for impact: in times of crisis, the most important job is to take care of your team.  Engage and motivate.  Clearly communicate important new goals and info.

Finally, good to revise together with Nihar Chhaya (also from Forbes) the top Leadership Challenges during this planetary crisis:

To balance being an inspirational and comforting leader with the need of pushing on performance.

To respond to cascade of questions (from managers, front line, etc.) when no clear answers exist.

To maintain visibility + influence with limited interaction opportunities.

To keep building personal brand within the company without looking too self-centered.

To keep people engaged while working remotely.

Wow!  Now we’re talking dear specialists!

From the avalanche of advice + opinion from every corner of the business world, we thought this sample from prestigious entities and persons would pay a good contribution to current leaders in order to better accomodate to this unexpected, sudden crisis.

In my humble opinion, the need of peering (at least) humanitary consideration to typical business one defines quite well the specific characteristic of this ‘strange’ moment we’re living around the world, where economic goes hand by hand with social, sanitary, psychological and so on…

‘Specialists’, the true ones like scientists and experts in biology, medicine, computing, etc., are finally in charge of the main side of the thing, instead of the ‘fake stars’ of whatever that arise through mass media and other easy ways.

A virus has been enough to ‘change the game’ for everybody, including biggest brands and companies that lead the planetary business.  A pendemics came to shake social and economic tissue wherever in order to start again with a good lesson learned: economy and business are at the service of humanity (not vice-versa), and humanity needs to keep alive through respect.

Respect to each other while living the common adventure (life itself), and respect to the planet that has many means of survival in spite of some dangerous species that was lastly abusing it.

Specialists are doing their job.  Leaders should care a lot about theirs, as the direct influence on lot of humans at their charge is evident.  Full Success on this!

We come soon with more on the same subject 😊

‘Til the next one!

B (Sr)

 

SIZE MATTERS!

BUSINESS: HOW BIG IS YOUR MIND?

What we could easily translate into ‘how big is your ambition’?  Everything depends on the size …of our mind 😊

Master Stephen Covey speaks about the ‘self-limiting paradygm’ to explain how frequently we prevent our own selves from achieving more by reaching higher success standards.

Our mind plays their own game in our life, applying automatisms lodged in our subconscious dimension (thus: extremely difficult to detect rationally/consciously) to put framing barriers that shape afterwards our actions, always ‘under’ this hidden conditioning limit.

In a recent article we played with the idea of a domestic meeting with friends to sell plastic cases (let’s say: Tupperware© type) and considering a huge success to sell a complete pack per person …just one?  Self-limiting paradygm.  ‘Sky is the limit’, instead, opens door to the unlimited, and this way we could discover that if only one of our guests works (e.g.) in a chain of restaurants, we can sell there several plastic-cases packs!

Our inner monsters (fear, insecurity, etc.) can play also a dangerous role in leaving uncovered our whole potential: we’ll miss concretion, what goes against the ideallistic ‘formula’ for successful Performance from (another Master) Timothy Gallwey.  Development of our Potential (talent, intelligence, resources…) and reduction of our Interferences (hidden limits, negative beliefs, health problems…).

How big is your mind, Salesperson?   Are you ‘wanting all’ (unlimited) or self-limiting?

The thing goes worse whenever affecting others around, as it happens with Leadership.

How big is your mind, Leader?   Small minds fear from their insecurity and suspicion that they won’t be able to manage ‘all this people and their freedom of growth’, thus prefering the uniforming stick by asking them the ‘what’ + forcing them to a specific ‘how’.

Great minds are always watering people’s seeds, motivating, pushing forward, emitting confidence and becoming a booster for the others’ will of growth and success.  Risks there? Of course!  As it happens always in the winners’ game.

And the led ones, do they really want to succeed?  How big is your mind, employee?

Are you there because you like your job, you perceive its good sides backing your daily growth and contributing to your positive learning experience in the world of Business?  …or you remain there even if hating this reality, because ‘what if I get out and end in the queue of unemployment’?

How big is our mind, dear leaving fellows?

How aware are we about the need of proving ourselves every day to the limit in order to achieve our best possible success?  How conscious we are about the convenience of getting well out of our comfort-zone when wanting the maximum?

What the reply will be the last day whenever we ask ourselves if we ‘really’ lived (ergo: achieving all of what we were capable of)?

Business is Business.  The game depends on us wanting to lose, or to win as much as we can.

‘Til the next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

SYNERGY, THAT CONCEPTUAL ANTONYM OF LIMITING EGOISM                                       

At Harvard, doctors Beth Hennesey and Teresa Ammabile complain a lot about the waste of energy, time and money that means scientific research on Creativity carried out in the same way in more than one place at the same time (being Harvard, precisely, one of the most advanced ones in this subject at the moment).

Is it just my impression, or identical phenomenon happens with the new space race that aims to launch the conquest of Mars, the reconquest of the Moon and many others?

Jeff Bézos (‘Blue Origin’), Elon Musk (‘SpaceX’) and the US government. (NASA) can have a lot of  money, ‘tons’ of it. However, logic indicates anyway that the fact they are traveling separated paths that could have been collaborative ones grants ‘throwing’ a lot of that abundant money.

And I will risk assuming that behind many similar cases at all levels, ‘ego’ is hidden there influencing the respective key decisions.

True, NASA recently called on “whoever joining” its current lines of investment and research. True too, only if they line up behind their ‘logical’ leadership and accepting their criteria + lines of action until the achievement of objectives.  (Impartial comment at all! I’ve trained people having developed at NASA the brightest part of their whole careers, and speaking marvels about this institution)

Historically, there have been gross errors also produced by isolation (one of the usual consequences of the oversized or mismanaged ‘ego’), as was the case with the ‘perception of movement’ by the human being: for decades after the discovery of a French scientist on the third phase (different nerve stimulations of the respective neuronal nodes) as the real cause of this conscious perception, continued to be taught in universities and study centers that the cause was ‘retinal persistence’ (second phase, chemical, differently from the nervous character that defines the neuronal perceptual impulse). Decades of inertia in error!

What about the communicating vessels that should provide real-time strategic information among research and development ‘colleagues’, desirably (in addition) from a differentiated work organization that would have assigned each part of the system a different responsibility in the final joint achievement ?

‘Landing’ in the daily reality of companies, for example, a similar blunder may be undermining the possibilities of successful full realization of a generally huge and valuable potential, which is wasted without remedy in the recesses of unnecessary wild competition among equals that could compete more intelligently by diversifying tasks and dedicating themselves to the one for which they have greater vocation and more talent. Multiple experiences in this regard in my many years of contact with the reality of companies of varied size and importance confirm this sad panorama with unusual frequency.

I love the example of ‘BrainStorming’ (Alex Faickney Osborne, c. 1953), which from the complementarity of processes (divergent first, convergent later) takes advantage of the complementarity of intellectual, creative and logical production of various subjects (Team or Project-mates, perhaps?) in order to find the best possible solution for a given need. Obviously it is about optimizing: achieving the best by spending less … just like in the current space race! (Sorry for the irony 😊)

It is a matter of successful Leadership in most cases: an organizer-motivator (Leader) capable of detecting the different talents, resources, capacities and strengths of the members of their Team, and then organizing them synergistically in evolutionarily-complementary tasks until achieving the biggest goals. Of course, internal ‘healthy’ competition is usually a stimulus that pushes forward! The task of the intelligent leader will be to maintain this competition in the Motivation scale instead of the destructive confrontation between peers.

To know them, scan them, detect their strengths, value them, encourage them to use respective strengths at their peak, designate tasks in which they can do so, recognize their achievements, aim to the next goal of evolution. Easy! (Sorry for the irony 😊)

If it was that easy, everyone would be Jeff Bézos or Elon Musk (hell! One irony within another!). To clarify a bit: both are surely brilliant and exemplary in numerous key points in the world of science and business. Both could be even better, perhaps minimizing ‘ego errors’ and maximizing ‘potential for synergy’ in their own environments and opening up to others with whom they compete healthily, although I ignore if wisely… and I have reasonable doubts about this last point.

Frontline salespeople are also hyper-successful … and yet (or precisely because of that) many times ‘want more’, they know that their potential is always greater than their achievement. Andy Bounds, one of my favorite “gurus” in Sales, always opens his sessions with big sellers emphasizing this, and letting his audience describe this fact clearly by answering two consecutive questions: a) Do you think you are good at your stuff? (all hands raised in the room) … b) Do you think you achieve EVERYTHING you could with your potential, talent, ability, etc.? (many hands go down, and only the proudest or the least reflective are often still-up 🙂

The best synergy is achieved when each member of the Team knows their fellows, has identified own way of improving strengths and overcoming weaknesses, and travels (in addition) complementing own path to the ones of their peers, who obviously have other strengths and weaknesses, so necessarily other development itineraries. ‘All ways lead to Rome’ (Success), of course, from respecting each other’s difference (key factor in the generation of successful SYNERGY!) and taking advantage of all the differences in pursuit of a goal product of the strategic combination of all of them. Rome is there; Success too, waiting for the synergistic walkers.

Happy Success for all Companies sufficiently capable of taking full advantage of their people Potential, bringing it to Concretion 😊

Until next time!

B (Sr)

 

 

HOW TO GROW OUR BUSINESS?                                           

Well, first question should be how NOT to limit them!

SELF-LIMITING PARADYGM

This curious text from Stephen Covey clearly speaks about an example of Self-limitation that affects us humans in every side of our lives, Business included.

First, the example, then, the explanation:

I organize this afternoon a Tupperware meeting at home, and invite five people to it.  I’m convinced of being so clever, ‘cause having invited five good prospects, all of them wealthy enough to pay for my stuff (plastic food containers, mainly), and with certain degree of confidence, even friendship in some case, with myself.  I suppose that the reciprocity effect will push them to buy from me, at least as a proof of kindness 😊

So, an inner voice is telling me: ‘You’ll be a true crack this afternoon if being capable of selling five whole Tupperware sets’.    Noooooo!!!

Previous one has been a typical example of Self-limitation coming from automatisms in our brain (way of functioning of our mind, then) that prefers to simplify situations in order to leave more energy for the unexpected, or some sudden creative need of overcoming a barrier, etc.  This good intention ends lot of times in prejudice to us, instead.

Daniel Kahnemann calls these type of processes ‘heuristics’, and explains them as a kind of ‘invasion’ to our rational, evolved cerebral stage from the previous evolution stages (emotions or instincts, e.g.).

Let’s come back to our example, to see how this works:

Five people→ Five sets  is the quick simplifying automatism (‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’, from Kahnemann, describes the instinctive process we’re speaking about so good and with great detail) that will clearly limit our potential closures this afternoon.

If we ‘think slow’ instead, we’ll prefer to go step-by-step in a ‘scanning’ way in order to frame as accurately as possible our chances of victory today, and Questions (for instance) are always a fantastic scanning tool, so:,

‘- Hi Martha, what would you like to find today here?’   ‘- Oh, perhaps some plastic containers where to keep the food I do sometimes, twice a month, as a hobby mainly…’

‘- And you, John?’   ‘- Well, I’d like to improve the way we keep our production in the chain of restaurants where I work’  (¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)  Bell ringing in our Sales Brain!

Evidently, if I play well my cards this afternoon, John alone can mean several Tupperware sets, as he works in a chain of Restaurants!  If, by the contrary, I remained dreaming of the subconscious message about ‘five sets’ being my maximum possible score, we see how much I could arrive to lose.

Then, in whatever aspect of our Business, let’s remember: ‘Sky is the limit’ 😊

SYSTEMIC CLIENTS’ GENERATION

According to recent research, big majority of new firms falling down quickly are comitting a big ‘sin’: praying for Clients to ring their bell instead of organizing and executing a solid plan to constantly generate these possibilities.  Let’s be clear on this: nobody will come to your living-room begging for your product or service.

If we want Clients, we have to go for them!  So, some advice could be:

Re-visit ‘old’ Clients to renew your offer with added value now, attend social events or forums where to know key people and get interested in them and their potential references, insert good-practical content in your web-site or blog and care about its conversion into sales opportunities, think of some strategically segmented advertising action in social media (e.g.), offer some ‘taste’ of what you offer for free or reduced price to foster their interest by experience, contact your prospects Directly (email, phone, face-to-face), optimize your web for searchers to rank it higher and people to find you earlier, etc.

DISCARDING THE TIME-WASTERS

The serious need of whoever wanting to hire our services, makes us sometimes fall into the trap of the typical time-wasters: people, companies, institutions, that take a lot of our time and energy explaining them benefits, offering alternatives, etc., while showing from the beginning some signs of poor concretion possibilities.  Let’s develop the ‘filtering’ ability to be selective with our searching interactions.  Some from them pay the effort, some others are just making us waste energy+time that we can invest in better things or prospects.

‘ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST’

This 3rd agreement (from ‘The Four Agreements’ book) that master Miguel Ruiz puts on the table coming from his huge wisdom and experience, remembers us about the fantastic power of a well-done job.

Up-selling or Cross-selling will only happen if the ‘just-Selling’ thing works for them and leaves them with ‘will of more’.

So, every opportunity to deliver our product or service to our Clients is an opportunity to leave them ‘wowed’ 😊 …being the consequences a new call from them when needing ourselves, or positive recommendation to their contacts.  Always good news!

And in the meanwhile?  ‘Kick your own ass’ (Jeffrey Gittomer), what means work like a mad to constantly improve yourself and your stuff …competitors are probably doing this Now.

THE COMMUNICATION J😊KER

We influence reality through how we exist, and as we use communication to do so (‘We cannot not-communicate’ – Paul Watzlawick) better if we use it in ‘winner’ way, what means in Business:

Give always the impression of high confidence and empathetic warmth, show your interest in others and their situation + needs, tune ‘positivity’ in your interaction channel (smile, laugh, use positive terminology, etc.), adapt as much as possible to them and their ‘style’ (type of personality, rhythm, mood, main communication characteristics, etc.), listen a lot and use what you perceived to better persuade them.  And a million etceteras! 😊

Who said it was easy?  What it is, indeed, is EFFECTIVE, if the game well played.

SUMMARY:

Open always your mind to the Sky (avoid any type of limitation in your goals).

Generate new Clients consistently, constantly, in strategic way.

Select the prospects into whom to invest your time + energy.

Improve constantly your performance to ‘wow’ them: will be a seed for more future work.

Communicate in positive, warm, confident, inspiring way: leave a mark on them!

‘Til the next one,

B (Sr)

 

 

SALES COACHING …A STEP FORWARD                                           

‘90% of Sales is Emotion’.  Well known saying that expresses how much this side of humans counts when exchanging money for value (products or service) = Sale.

From the strategic architecture that considers Training, Mentoring and Coaching as key elements for Success in Business (Sales included), Coaching seems to carry on the highest responsibility in the final result.  Why?  Simple: it’s about the emotional side.

In fact, Coaching takes care of Attitude and Motivation at work, being both seriously linked to emotional states in the end.

Sales are, at their turn, a human fact happening between humans, what should make Sales people reflect about all the endless list of possibilities that this means.  A human is too much 😊

We manage emotions, so Sales should be ‘emotional’ in the best of ways.

We reason and reflect, so Sales should be ‘rational’ in the best of ways.

We need to be creative for simple survival, so Sales should be ‘creative’ too, in the best of ways.

And so on…

How can a Sales person master all of the many keys from the ‘success keybord’ to play the best song? …the one the Client will be getting in love with?

BEING A SALES COACH…

…means to be ‘the one’ in charge of verifying all of the previous points being understood and applied by the Sales force in our company.

So, how to develop this task in the best of ways?

FIRST, THE PERSON

A Coach, basically:  1) Is at the Worker’s service.  2) Connects deeply and warmly with them.  3) ‘Scans’ them to discover their strengths & weaknesses + to determine a superation goal to achieve.  4) Motivates them permanently.  5) Fosters their professional (and sometimes personal) growth through evolving company and support.   That’s it!

THEN, THE SALE

A Sales Coach, basically:  1) Knows the essence of the managed product or service.  2) Has identified the Sales key sides and points from them.  3) Knows the achievable goals needed (or wanted) by the company or Project.  4) Knows the market and its characteristics + fluctuations.  5) Knows the target (prospects, or potential Clients) and its needs + preferences.  That’s it?

Well, we take for granted that, before this, a Sales Coach knows a lot about Sales 😊  Needs/Benefits dynamic game,  Persuasion + Objections’ Handling + Closing techniques, etc.

NOW, THE STRUCTURE

Finally, a Coaching Program should exist in order to:

a) ‘Pro-Act’: to advance as much strategic preparation as possible in order for the Sales Team/individuals to Succeed (‘Previous Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance’).

b) ‘Act’: to analyze in real-time the Team/individuals’ performance, in order to detect always improvable sides of it. Real-time recognition and praise on good achievements always count!

c) ‘Post-Act’: to apply action-plans from Coaching for Team/Individuals’ improvement, in order to raise their achievements in the future.

The firs point (a) on previous list is usually ignored, or poorly developed/executed by majority of actors in current business.  A true pity.  Preventive Coaching counts a lot in Sales!

Now, even if Coaching is about Persons more than Actions (←normally the Mentoring field), in Sales we can be needing a ‘mix’, so while coaching a Sales person we can be assessing and advicing on key aspects of the involved sales sides (as f.e. greeting, handling gate-keepers, exposition of benefits, creation of rapport, advancement of closure, etc.) at the same time.

For this purpose, a TEMPLATE with LIST of KEY POINTS to follow can prove useful.  A suggested, extremely simplified example could be:

Just in case, this Template will be created by the Sales Coach on the true key points to be evaluated in their people, always depending on the type of activity they’ll play to achieve the specific goals of the Team or Project.

Some recommendable things to put focus on could be:

SALES KNOWLEDGE (RATIONAL SIDE):

ELEMENTS: Product/Service Knowledge, Knowledge of the Client, Rhythm, Synchronization, Communication Skills (i.e. Attentive Listening), etc.

CYCLE: Planning/Preparation, Initial Contact, Needs Analysis, Presentation (of Product/Service), Objections’ Handling, Negotiation, Closing, Consolidation/Follow-up…

CORPORATE: Correct Greeting/Farewell, Firm’s Policies, Use of Set-Phrases, Corporate/Product Training…

SALES SPIRIT (EMOTIONAL SIDE):

CONTROL: First Impression, Sense of Opportunity, Applied Psychology, Persuasion Skills, Questionning! …

CUSTOMIZATION: Tailored (Adapted) Style, Emphasis in Benefits, Empathetic Skills (Rapport), Focus on Specifics (Needs→Problems to Solve)…

‘ART’: Creativity, Emotions Management, Entonation, Subliminal stuff…

ARE YOU A COACHING SALES-MANAGER?

Then we could add some necessary focus on:

Bringing them from ‘average’ to Excellent professionals,

Changing Numbers-reporting into Numbers-improving and boosting their Capacity to Achieve desired Numbers,

Establishing Talent-Development as key side of the thing,

Having clearly in mind the difference between Sales-goals and Business-outcomes,

Changing ‘Telling’ (teaching) by ‘Asking’ (coaching),

Sales Behaviors better than Sales actions,

Changing from Numbers review discussions to Pipeline review discussions,

Inspiring them (example) more than Boosting them (exigence) 😊

‘Til the Next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

HAP·PY TRICK:  HOW TO TELL BAD NEWS TO OUR CLIENT                                            

Is our professional or business life happy?  …until something happening on the other direction, for example: us seriously failing to our so-important Client (ooooops!).

Instead of a nightmare, this can prove a good opportunity to reinforce mutual confidence and strengthen the relationship …despite the disaster 😊

The HAP formula can lead us to solve the situation with certain dignity:

H for HONESTY: be sure of contacting your Client a.s.a.p. after the failure, accidental mistake, or unexpected bad  surprise.  While doing so, be Honest and thell them the bad news.   If you let Them discover the thing, they’ll have the control in the moment of addressing to you (probably through distant or even rough manners).

A for ANALYSIS: together with the news, tell them how you have already worked in the respective Analysis, finding clear explanation for whatever having happened, what will demonstrate that you have the reigns despite the failure.  You’re in control now.

P for PROACTIVITY: as a consequence of the previous, grant them that you have already fixed everything (preventing protocoles, fixing strategies, etc.) in order to avoid this happening again.  Better if this is true 😊

This way, they’ll be first surprised by your call or direct communication (H) of the news, first in bad way (because of bad news), then perhaps in bit better mood, as they see you’re being seriously honest and respectfully keeping them up with the thing.

Then, they’ll probably appreciate your professional capacity to overcome bad situations (A).

Finally, you’ll clearly show the appearance of somebody capable of making strength from weakness (P) what in the end is kind of a beneficial activation of the ‘boomerang’ technique, that takes advantage from an apparent negative fact.

Be sure that their reaction in the short and long term can vary from deception+will of kick you out of their business to (hopefully) deception+this-guy-deserves-renewed-trust 😊

HAPpy Bad News!

B (Sr)

 

 

ABOUT ORGANICITY BUILDING SUCCESS…

 

What can Isaac Newton, or Charles Darwin say about Business?  A lot!!!

In fact, they worked in systems’ dynamics (every firm, as well as their environment, are systems) and organisms (organis-ation, what almost every firm is, justifies etymologically the conceptual link too).

How many times we’ve listened about ‘head’quarters?  There is where the ‘head’ of the organism (organization) is physically based.  We understand usually for ‘head’ the CEO and Managing Board, as they are at the top of the hierarchy (like our head is at the top of the body) and, in addition, they take the control, decide, and keep movement towards the goals to be achieved.  The analogy works perfectly.

And the feet, arms, lungs, etc.?  Well, we could imagine justifiable analogies also for every organic part of the organism and their ‘metabolic’ functions:

Breath could be the dynamism (‘homeostatic mechanism’ in Organicity) of Input (inhalation) – Output (exhalation) that usually brings people, materials, knowledge, etc. inside the firm which, at its turn, sends out renewed/refined knowledge, added value, innovative solutions, etc.

Blood is, evidently, inner Communication, that reaches every member and part of the organization body, bringing ‘life’ to the whole of it through transmission of impulse to go forward.

Arms will be workers in action, and everything else supporting this action (as well as our biological arms are usually in charge of taking huge majority of our actions as existing beings: we use them to eat, to type, to greet, etc.).

The feet are what allow us to firmly stand and walk on the ground: a healthy way to do so in the world of business relies on firms’ capacity to economically base in solid way while contacting environment realistically + dynamically for advancing towards the goal(s) to achieve.

And of course you can play your own imagination game to improve the previous metaphoric approach a lot.  What is evident remains mankind historic way to use subjective centering in order to build perception of reality: we organisms perceive in organic way the rest of the universe, business included.

Going a bit forward with the fantasy, a company counts (like humans) on their rational and emotional sides: strategic planning is, evidently, part of the first one; general attitude + motivation would be, instead, on the side of the latter.

‘The language of Emotions is important for the well-being of the human race’ Darwin said, and all of us know how important is to business organizations to have their people emotionally safe and strong, better if happy and motivated.

As we are normally ‘mind+body’ together (Humanistic Psychology contribution by 1950), to take care of our combined health is a ‘must’.  Giorgio Barbonari speaks about the emotional problems in a firm, highly linked to stress, and their undoubtful effect on general lower performance by: lower production, absenteeism, job instability and dissatisfaction, higher percentage of work accidents, etc.

The effective implementation of internal Coaching can act as healthy antidote against such infections.

On the other hand, the physical coordination able to grant best results (to sprinters, e.g.) can mean into a firm the existence of a synergic connection between members, departments, etc. in order to act fast and properly while addressing towards goal-achievement.

Blood (Communication in our metaphor) reaches every part of the body to grant their health.  Exactly the same in a successful company, where both vertical and horizontal communication are fluid, confident, enough frequent, mature, evolving.

Relationships (a usual sublimation of Communication) are played there in many ways: to subordinates (we call this Leadership), to superiors (Adaptability, should be), and to peers (Team·work), being the sum of them crucial to the final result: the ‘healthier’ (worthy, respectful, effective), the better.

Relationship with the environment is another perspective of approach to living organisms.  In fact, ‘behavior’ is, according to John Watson and his followers, the organisms’ process of adaption to their environments. Literally.

This adaption process integrates companies, firms, organizations systemically inside their respective environments.  Organicity can help understand a bit this symbiotic co-existence:

On one hand we know that every organism tends to evolve (to grow in complexity, in other terms), what can be perfectly applied to business companies in general.

This complexity can be more or less organized, or chaotic, now introducing the need of speaking about Entropy (tendency of every system to reach their most probable state: chaos, disorganization that tends to eliminate the differences that make it identifiable) and Neguentropy (necessary energy required by the organicity principle in order to develop itself, thus overcoming the previously described tendency to chaos).

Isn’t your firm constantly fluctuating between these two states?  Sometimes it seems that a bit of healthy chaos can bring seeds of creativity to spark innovations …or to spoil the organized effectivity of our work!  Other times, opportune structuring actions return things to their known channel, their predictable way of achieving success.

Anyway, if we can Feel and Experience our work, Vibrate with every beating side of it, we’ll easily understand this article’s subject: ALIVE Business will be always more exciting than the binary succession of zeros and ones in an automated existence of moving because ‘we have to’ (like gears, e.g.) …better to insufflate blood and energy to body parts that, differently from gears, can vary their action always looking for the best way of achieving success.

If life is that much based on emotional stuff (Darwin dixit), same thing has to work for firms and organizations in general, where the best emotional state (high motivation, positivity, Self-confidence, evolving attitude, will of growth) in their people will push the whole body forward in the healthiest of ways.  Success will be logically easier then.

‘Til the next one!

B (Sr)

 

 

HOW TO REDUCE THE TALK-TIME IN BUSINESS/ COMMERCIAL INTERACTIONS

If ‘time is money’ in inverse proportion, so the least time the most money 😊 …and in many professional business companies the thing can work this way.

Then, how to reduce the path towards full success through shorter interaction?  Here, some ideas, just in case…

  1. PROACTIVITY: to ADVANCE as much as possible the info about WHAT BENEFIT WE’LL PROVIDE THEM (avoiding anything out of our possibilities→ if they ask for the ‘impossible’, let’s just PERSIST in WHAT WE CAN/WILL DO FOR THEM if they agree).

‘- Thanks for coming/calling! …best way to benefit from today’s fantastic discount!

  1. WE CAN INTERRUPT! The key point is ‘HOW’: always CONFIRMING OUR INTEREST/APPROVAL TO WHAT THEY ARE SAYING (even if irrelevant), and at the same time ADVANCING TOWARDS CONCLUSION by means of an EFFECTIVE QUESTION or useful comment.

(Them)→ BlaBlaBla… Bla…   (Us/Interrupting) ‘- Unbelievable! And you surely can do even better with our half-priced product!  100€ is a ‘gift’ for such a marvel!

  1. ASSUMPTIVE PRINCIPLE: sometimes we can ACT AS IF THEY HAVE SAID ‘YES’ ALREADY regarding our proposal, suggestion, offer, etc. in order to CLOSE EARLIER.

‘- OK Sir, then we’ll let this unbelievable product go with you for today (😊) …d’you prefer it in red or green?

  1. COMPARE! (3rd Party Referent): to COMPARE THE INTERLOCUTOR WITH A PROPER REFERENT (another Client, ourselves, their competitor, ‘everybody in their situation’, ‘the last person I’ve talked to this morning’, etc.) normally EASIES THEIR ACCEPTANCE by following this INFLUENCE.

‘- All Clients are getting mad today with our offer, what explains only last two (products) on the shelf 😊’

  1. REASSURING TONE/MOOD: a CALM, KIND AND SECURE VOICE-TONE (smailing if possible) TRANSMITS CERTAINTY, what usually shortens their affirmative decision by disolving doubts.

As great Marshall McLuhan said many times: the ‘HOW’ is much more relevant than the ‘what’, so …LET’S TRUST OURSELVES A LOT AND PRACTICE THESE TIPS to raise our success!

‘Til the next one,

(Sr)

 

 

POWER·TIP:  THE ‘B’ QUICK TRICK

HOW PERSUASION WORKS WHEN TELLING THEM WHY

‘This is Good for You BECAUSE…’ is the well known ‘mantra’ from best Sales persons, and aims to half of modern persuasion formula: the BENEFITS (with ‘B’, like Because).

By telling them WHY they should say ‘Yes’ to our proposal, suggestion, offer, etc., they’ll need less evaluation time, and if this ‘why’ matches their Needs (as Benefits are usually the solution to Needs), then Bingo! They’ll accept.

We can make this become a reason of ‘style’ in our daily communication, thus achieving much more success from our enhanced persuasion abilities: let’s always say WHY they should say YES!

‘- To invite your best friend this afternoon, would you please put your room in order, Johnny?’ (Mome to her primary school Son)

‘- For finding you in our bases and solving your case quicker, can you please tell me your data?’ (A Customer-Care professional at the phone to the Client)

‘- Would you like to save time+money with this simpler, newer version of the device?’→ ‘with’ means here, obviously, ‘by buying’ (A Sales person to the Prospect)

‘- To raise your Bonus, what if advancing the offer to an initial stage of the interaction with them?’ (A Sales Coach -or Leader- to the Sales Professional)

First the BENEFIT (in green, in the previous examples), then the ACTION (in blue) can work well, even if you can try also the other way around, letting the BENEFIT get emphasis as a conclusion of your statement.  Freedom is free 😊

Let’s give a ‘B’ try!

‘Til the next one,

B (Sr)

 

SALES MANTRA: ‘BE YOURSELF’ 🙂

Is the first advice every Sales ‘guru’ gives when asked by newcomers in this field: ‘- Be Yourself!’  First evident advantage: Self-certainty (better to play your own ‘role’ than to permanently imitate somebody else).

It can happen that we truly admire a colleague and develop inside us the wild will of ‘being like them’.  The consequent advice by the same ‘guru’ would then be:  ‘- Adapt!’ (never ‘copy’).

Adaptation of this characteristic that we like (and want for us) to our own personality pattern and usual ‘way of’.  This way, it’ll be more an improvement of our previous ‘version’ than a fake modification towards something we feel as ‘alien’.

Attached to this key matter, then, an obvious consequence:

THE BEST SALES STYLE IS …YOURS! 🙂

Let’s take into account that a Wharton Institute survey in the British Islands on ‘what kind of Salesperson would you accept or like?’ got as a reply four main points, being one: ‘A genuine, credible Salesperson’ (being themselves in natural way, as they are with their friends and enemies).

Then, after the necessary task of ‘knowing ourselves’ it comes the consequent one of ‘building our style’, based on the previous information.

I confess without any kind of shame that I entered my first serious Sales Team by being the worst one …by far!   They hired me because of my previous experience as educator in universities, high schools, academies and so, what was precisely their normal target (they were selling education services and products on behalf of a Dutch brand).

Thanks to proper Coaching (Sales Coaching is one of our next articles 🙂) the leader of this Team helped me beat own barriers impeding me to concrete my potential (i.e. the terrible inner thought about ‘I’m not a Salesperson, hence the bad results’ or ‘I interrupt and disturb them in their professional lives to get money from them …they’ll hate me!’  Etc.

As a result, after having discussed why this brand was the best one in its kind and how much our stuff could help these professionals grow and succeed much more (true, I never saw things this way ‘til the Coaching experience) I received the best advice:

‘- Instead of fearing or worrying, BE YOURSELF from the beginning, scan them, find the opportunity to prove helpful and, if it’s the case, go like a bull and CONVINCE them.’

And being myself was including to use all of my previous experience, research on subtle ways of persuasion and communication, and everything else that I was hiding behind my inner barriers as a waste of talent, resources, and possibilities.  Afterwards, I gradually begun to raise conversion rates until winning some months the ‘Top Seller’ prize 🙂   …and please remember that I begun by being the last poor one!

I love Coaching since this moment, and I can share what my favorite Selling factors were:

3rd PARTY REFERENT

I duplicated first, then triplicated my Sales by just using this concept strategically.  What is 3rd Party Referent about?

It’s an ‘inspiring model’ for the prospect.  Someone to follow or imitate (subconsciously, almost always) when having to decide what to do with a purchase (i.e.).

Let’s compare these two ways of offering something:

a) ‘- Would you like to try it? It’s really wonderful!’ (average good if well emitted 🙂).

b) ‘- All of your colleagues bought it in grey or black …which color d’you prefer?’ (hehe, now we’re having better possibilities of closure 🙂🙂).

‘All of your colleagues’ is the model we plant as a seed in their mind before telling them about the offer (that the other ones have already accepted).  As the prospect feels linked to the exposed model (colleagues) and, in addition, is distracted with the stimulus of a choice of color, their ‘defensive shield’ normally lowers, and they tend to follow the (model) path.

This principle is rooted in our early childhood, when pushed by Mome in our trolley we tended to fear any human appearance close to ourselves, until she suddenly kissing them with a ‘- Hey, Kathy, nice to see you my dear friend!’  We then sighed with relief by thinking (‘Phew …Friendly’).

‘Mome’ is nowadays (in our adult age) society, colleagues, similar.  If everybody buys this brand of sneakers, it has to be fantastic!  (‘…Friendly’).

Hence, the power of referring.  To invite somebody to act like the mentioned referent(s).

ASSUMPTIVE PRINCIPLE

Last part of the previous example with grey or black stuff.  ‘- Which color d’you prefer?’ is advancing the thing until last, decision-making phase …even if the prospect was not saying ‘yes’ yet!

We assume they did this, and act as if.  This is the true spirit of this trick.  Lot of times the other one feels bit embarrassed to say ‘hey, I didn’t say yes yet’, and they follow your direction 🙂.

Key side of the eventual success here is our attitude.  Highest Self-confidence and natural behavior (accompanied by a winning smile when possible) is normally an unbeatable recipe.

STOP’N GO CONVERSATIONAL HYPNOSIS TECHNIQUE’

Generically explained in the ‘COMMUNI·TIPS’ page of this site, the technique itself is a distortion from the original conversational hypnosis combination of Fascination (to distract them by making their conscious attention concentrate on something –that can be completely irrelevant, like a pendulum in the classic stereotyped image of circus hypnotists) and Suggestion (to insert a subconscious message in the back of their minds by slightly altering –during its emission- our normal patterns, as i.e. tone, speed, etc.).

I saw that in my case the thing functioned much better by altering the order, and begun to use the technique this way, frequently combined with the previous elements (3rd Party Ref. and Assumptive Principle) or others, and always inserting first the suggestion to suddenly then distract them with something punctual, thus leaving the suggestive message ‘bouncing in the back of their minds’ until the end, lot of times pushing them to say ‘yes’ easier  🙂

Example:

‘- What all of your colleagues buying from us now are saying is that this CD format is fantastic to update from internet and storage purposes too, even if I understand you probably prefer the print version, hehe …the ink smell and the paper surface are still strong persuaders.’

In blue: the suggestion (by slightly lowering voice tone and raising speed).

In green: the fascination (with enough emphasis for them to pay whole attention).

Again, the ‘how’ is here so important: natural path, effective rhythm, huge Self-confidence and smile, etc.

3rd Party Ref + Assumptive Ppl + Stop’N Go …only IN MY CASE!

YOURS is what matters for your success, of course, and it’s worth a nice Self-knowing + Reflective time in order to adopt with frequency the techniques that better suit ‘your way’.

Triple F? (Objections’ Handling), SPIN? (Customer Implication), AIDA? (Opportune Moment), 1-2-3? (Closure).  There’s myriad of techniques out there, completely sterile by themselves until you choosing them WITH SENSE and to reach an OBJECTIVE in STRATEGIC way …always ADAPTED to your characteristics and true potential.

…and, of course, the last, ‘fine tuning’ decision will come after having scanned them!  Are they doubtful? …almost decided? …skeptical? …emotional? …calmly analytical? …impulsive? …nervous? …closed?  Like in every communication exercise (and Sales is one of them), ‘the most important thing of all is always→ the other one’.

‘Till the next one!

(Sr)

 

BUSINESS: TEAM·BONDING©

(ADVANCED TEAM·BUILDING FOR EXPERTS)

In Business, like in every other human field, the ‘human factor’ is the key one, obviously. Hence the importance of caring about how humans connect and interact in order to advance together.

TEAM·BUILDING activities(1) usually seek  effective accomplishment of the initial integration phases of a Team or Project, in order to make people come from ‘group of individuals’ to true Team.

Trust, Communication, Accountability, Responsibility, and Vision of the Common Goals are 5 pillars to work (better if in this order) for the emerging Team to grow solidly during the first periods of coexistence.

Anyway, and back to the point, TEAM·BUILDING activities are then for NEWCOMERS normally, and bring support in order to know each other, to begin to establish mechanisms of effective actions in common, etc., what can take time and patience in the very beginning.

As the involved members are yet to be trained and taught in their respective responsibilities, as they’re still ‘landing’ in a new reality, this time can be perfectly assigned.  It’s so much needed, and on the other hand they can’t do anything else until knowing really what their work will be about, what follows after.

We arrived to be involved in 4-Days Team·Building processes, full of dynamic activities and initial reflections on the meaning of working together for better success …and the results were outstanding!  Years of solid coexistence inside the Team with almost no turn-over, together with frequent memories on the initial, funny Team·Building days demonstrated how much this invested time (and money, of course) worked positively for consistent, permanent growth.

Like watering a seed that becomes then a healthy plant, full of fruits.

TEAM·BONDING© is a bit different story:

It’s for EXPERIENCED workers of an ON·GOING Team that can arrive to have worked together for months or years.  (Photo: Guy’s Hospital Rugby Team, 1843, oldest one in this sport)

Why can this be necessary if they know each other and all of the inner mechanisms of success, then?

We created this specific kind of module (and named it this way) some years ago, when having to cope with a ‘veteran’ Team in which frictions and emerging conflicts were threatening their goal-achievement time despite the long coexistence of this people together.

A couple can bring years together and, besides having known each other to the limit in order to define roles, tune specific expectations, etc., normal human frictions came through time also.  It’s expectable.  In the worst cases, before the divorce, some couples give a try with a specialist (normally with psychological background) for support on re-gaining part of the initial spark that brought them together.

Exactly the same with ‘veteran’ Teams.  Throughout time (again: months or years) the coexistence mechanisms take the risk of being influenced by egos, boredom, huge pressure together with consequent stress, envies, frustration, etc.

Perhaps a TEAM·BONDING©  session is needed in order to re-establish synergic mechanisms that will come from the new dynamics of integration of every talent and best will (contributed by each individual) for maximum profit of all of this potential in terms of results.

We created this module (to be clear) as a kind of ‘fire extinguisher’ or last attempt in cases of problem, worrying situation or directly huge crisis.  Different from the virgin, curious and enthusiastic spirit normally floating around a new Team or Project (typical ‘Building scenario).

Re-establishing synergy (‘Bonding) instead of planting the seed to create it (‘Building).

Experienced people instead of newcomers, what means lot of money invested in every minute they’ll be out of their job place for the TEAM·BONDING©  thing, thus:

Now we have to reach our Training + Motivation goals in a rush.  Differently from the newcoming rookies that could dedicate all of the necessary time to Build a Team, the veteran, solid professionals involved in ‘Bonding mean a lot for their company in productivity terms, and so: every minute of their presence in the TEAM·BONDING©  counts.

Normally 2 hours of length can prove useful for the key purposes, even if a bit more can be needed, always depending on the overall situation that required this type of support.

The ‘mechanics’ of a ‘Bonding is in itself so similar to the ‘Building one anyway.  What changes is the ‘script’ (adapted to the different situation, reality, and needs).

The whole thing is about a clear, impact opener with goals exposed, and following dynamic, practical challenges to be solved in organized groups or by the Team together, always profited after through strategic, deep reflection on what was felt, discovered, achieved through each activity, and what from this can be brought or applied in real life, at work.

This kind of intense, short (sometimes ‘shocking’ also) experiences act normally as a trigger that will generate better work ambience and higher effectiveness afterwards.

During this few hours people frequently re-discover Self and the fellows by the way in which everybody gets involved in the different challenges, what is at the same time so valuable information for the leaders also present there (and of course, involved in the same tasks and activities as active members).  Better organization, role-assignment, and enhancement of inner mechanisms can be part of the TEAM·BONDING©  benefits.

From our professional experience since the first created ‘Bonding module, big majority of Teams having done the experience improve a lot later (feedback from Managers and leaders in general), so we seriously advice to think of such an experience when things are changing for bad in a normally successful Team.

We know plenty of ‘groups’ of impressively talented individuals (true geniuses some of them) that fell down anyway, because of struggling in acting together.

Full Success, Good Business and ‘Til the Next One!

B (Sr)

(1) Access here the article ‘TEAM: A MATTER OF SYNERGY/ The Fifth Beatle (COMMUNI·TIPS Page)’

 

 

NEGOTIATION FOR BEGINNERS: FROM THE GROUNDFLOOR

First thing is the own capacity to negotiate, from our personality, mood, communication skills, emotional intelligence, Self-awareness and control, linking abilities, diplomatic flair, quick situational adaption, openness + flexibility, real-time analysis capabilities, technical and professional knowledge on negotiation, etc.

Who said it was easy? 🙂

Yes, how we ARE normally conditions how we lead, sell, NEGOTIATE.

Of course we can count on outstanding acting abilities to hide our true ‘identikit’ from others, at least during a certain time, and of course this can include the ‘poker face’ ability, so well known to keep our ‘ace up on our sleeve’ alive until the key moment.

Even though, better to be truly OPEN and FLEXIBLE with solid STRATEGIC capacity (i.e.) instead of just pretending, what in the end can lead towards wrong outcomes.

Children make it easy 🙂   In fact, one of the most common negotiation techniques (the ‘ASK FOR MORE’ one) comes from them:

‘- Dad, can you bring me to Disneyland Orlando for a week to know Mickey, Donald and friends?’

‘- Impossible, son, you know how economy is going at home, and I have to work every day…’

‘- Oooooh (sigh) …well, at least can we go to the cinema to watch Avatar 3, and then for some ice-creams?’

‘- OK son (relieved), on this you can count for next weekend’

(And what the little one really wanted was Avatar 3 + Ice-creams, despite ‘Dad’ being normally hard to say ‘yes’ 🙂)

Let’s copy them!

If somebody wants a raise in their salary, and they ask for 1% more, after the boss rapid acceptance doubts will come immediately to their head (‘Ooops, too easy, perhaps I’ve had to ask for more’).  Too late.  The following reply could perfectly be:  ‘- Hey, exigent one, stop …you asked, I gave you, now run to do your work’  🙁

Better if things presented differently, as i.e.  ‘Dear boss, every colleague with my talent and productivity is earning doble salary …I’ll be glad if you raise mine 50% given our confident relationship and how much I love this company’

‘- Oh, I was casually wanting to ask you for an important extension of your working time to some weekends, as we need your talent and responsible engagement during these key days for our business’

Oooops!  What’s happening here?  The boss is playing the ‘ADD ELEMENTS’ negotiation technique, so useful in terms of better achieving ‘WIN-WIN’ agreements, as:

If the discussed point is only one, most probable result will be ‘Win-Lose’ (you win, the other one loses), or ‘Lose-Win’ (you lose, the other one wins).  Bad in both cases, as if you win, the loser will hardly come to negotiate again with you (so you’re losing part of the market possibilities, a piece of the cake in other words) and if you are the loser, no need to add anything.

Hence the clear advantage of adding elements to the negotiation table: then, the involved parties can reflect, prioritize, select some elements as ‘most wanted/needed’ and some others as ‘secondary’ ones (thus able to be conceded to the other party if necessary).

A ‘WIN-WIN’ is more probable inside this frame of situation.   Or either both parties can win everything (rarely), what means they partner actions until the end …or one winning means the other one losing, what makes them compete by facing each other in frank duel …ore both parties can partly win by flexible consideration of own priorities and possibilities of agreeing with the counterpart when highest own interests are achieved.

TIME and POWER are typical inhabitants of a Negotiation process.

Linked to time, ‘strategic patience’ by knowing that 80% of important decisions are normally taken in the last 20% of the process time.  The so named ‘Paretto’s rule’ (80/20 facts so common in human life) applied to negotiation timing.

Linked to power, ability to be aware of it, and to use it properly with sense of opportunity: in the professional field, power can come from higher position or experience, higher knowledge on some key matter, stronger character, huge persuasion skills, etc.  Let’s scan ourselves to detect where are our strengths, in order to use them when it comes.

‘Reward and Punishment’ also count as power factors.  I.e. when a government hires a construction company for a public work, can play with extra-incentives if the work is finished before the agreed term, or reductions in the payment that will be proportional to the eventual delay.  Just to combine power and time in the example 🙂

KNOWLEDGE of the other part’s situation, will, goals, interests, position in the market, etc. will prove extremely useful to define our strategy before and throughout the negotiation time.

A usual advice from good ones is ‘to make the other one FEEL THEY WON in the end’ even if is not strictly what happened.  This way they’ll come again in the future to negotiate another time, what means another opportunity of benefiting from good agreements.

And of course we should consider the possibility of being in the ‘weak’ side of a negotiation table, in which case we should aim to ONLY CLOSING IF LIKING THE AGREEMENT.  Forced hand-shakes because of huge pressure (or whatever other reason) can lead to future disappointment, when it’s too late.

Even though, the weaker party is always still a party, and can play a good game if knowing how to use the (inferior) proportion of power at its side, the right way in the right moment.

‘Til the next one!

B (Sr)

 

BUSINESS: STRATEGIC EMPATHY

(THE ADVANTAGE OF KNOWING THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN)

‘The more you know your enemy, the better you can beat them’ (Sun Tzu)

‘The stupid man tells me about his reasons …the wise one convinces me with mine’ (Aristotle)

‘The most important thing in communication is …the other one’ (Me 🙂)

To be really EMPATHETIC (ability to stand in their shoes) is good for the empathetic one first, because of lot of reasons: sooner useful knowledge of the interlocutor (mood, attitude, probable goals and intentions, etc.), understanding of others’ eventual causes for treating us badly (thus avoiding to take this personally, what means to protect our health in the end), etc.

Then, the interlocutor gets also benefitted through this clear, deep understanding of their state, situation and needs, what will bring in consequence a tailored reply, based on these unique, personal circumstances.

EMPATHY is knowledge of the ‘2 SIDES’ situation and PROJECTION towards THE OTHER one.

STRATEGY is about taking decisions planned to achieve GOALs.  WIN-WIN way if empathetically.

HOW TO CLOSE THE BEST AGREEMENTS IN BUSINESS?

We need to KNOW the OTHER ONE’s reality, goals, needs, style, strengths, weaknesses, ALL.  Then we’ll PERSUADE them better from THEIR VISION on the thing (familiar to them) instead of OURS (alien to them, in comparison).

Paul McGee chose a genial metaphor to explain this: the ‘Beach Ball Principle’.  If you like your friend’s beach ball (both of you like it, in fact) but you see from your side the red, blue, and yellow segments of the ball, and to your friend’s side the shown segments are the orange, green, and violet …what a chaos!  Even if sharing same feeling on same object, the two of you perceive different realities, thus probably struggling to understand each other when speaking about the beloved object.

Someone (from you two) should better jump towards the other side to share the interlocutor’s vision, thus easing the task of ‘speaking the same language’ in order to agree.  Of  course this one will lead the thing from this point on thanks to the expanded knowledge on the situation: two sides instead of one.

Joan Garriga said once that ‘Personal growth is less me and more you’, what in the end confirms the advantage of gaining interest on the other one.  We grow, we lead, we WIN.

Sales people adore the mention of prospects’ BENEFITS in buying their product or service.  They clearly know that, again, this is about 2 SIDES of the same coin: on the other side of benefits we find NEEDS, the key to open up ways to convince someone about a brilliant purchase.

Only after having discovered needs we can speak about the benefits as solutions for these needs.

Then, of course, comes the moment to check the Salesperson power of PERSUASION, and here we come again:

Persuasion is supposed to be the sum of BENEFITS plus CREDIBILITY, thus being necessary a projection to the other side for needs’ discovery (to convert them into benefits) besides a genuine way of showing ourselves as TRUSTworthy people deserving credibility.

Trust on this side of the coin, benefits on the other one.  2 SIDES.

Leadership is usually key aspect in Business.  How to lead a negotiation process, if we can?  How to lead a winning team, project or company in order to grow benefits and productivity?

By telling the other one what they WIN if accepting our suggestion, offer, indication, etc.  In other words: jumping to the OTHER SIDE for knowing what they need→ so we know what BENEFITS to highlight.

And so on…

The worst salespersons are the egoistic ones, only centered in themselves and their ‘impressively fantastic’ stuff 🙁

By the contrary, good ones know they have to PERCEIVE (listen, observe, feel, detect) first in order to PERSUADE (convince, advice, reassure, grant) afterwards.  2 successive phases.  2 SIDES.

Once the EMPATHY point is solved, and we have carefully ‘scanned’ the other one (‘sponge-bobbed’ them, as I like to say 🙂), then the STRATEGY will complete the task, and it can vary depending on circumstances:

Aristotelian way (philosophical reasons that aim to their rational side), Garriga way (warmth to stimulate their emotional behavior), or Sun Tzu one (let’s kill them now, tomorrow’s another day 🙂), even if the best option is always every individual’s one.

In the end, business can be as funny as a beach ball game, and in the best of cases even better when we achieve the surprising result of both parties winning.

‘Til the next one!

B (Sr)

 

SALES: THE ANIMAL CONNECTION

Between 5½ and 7 million years of human evolution from our chimpanzee state is a long time, and we Sales people share all of it in common with our prospects!

Words, instead, were invented ‘just’ 50.000 years ago (as kind of a team-building activity), what is telling us something important:

 LESS WORDS, MORE NON-VERBALITY    …to connect with them.

Curious, as the ‘identikit’ of a Sales person seems to be the extremely talkative one that can arrive to overwhelm somebody’s perception systems by throwing words until exhaustion.

FROM OLD, NEW

We are living history of our evolution, with every single part of our body and mind having been shaped throughout ages in order to count nowadays on plenty of key, non-verbal sides as i.e.:

FACE GESTURES AND EXPRESSIONS, SIGHT, BODY-LANGUAGE, VOICE TONE + VOLUME + SPEED, EXTERNAL MOOD, PERCEIVABLE ATTITUDE, EVIDENT EMOTIONS …NON-VERBALITY!

So, we bet on renewing our traditional approach through this huge side of ourselves to achieve the necessary CONNECTION every Sales person looks for in order to partner their prospects until the closure.  In other words: the HOW over the WHAT, that will come later, of course.

PACING & LEADING: THE NEUROLINGÜISTIC WAY

‘Pacing and Leading’, powerful NLP technique, is at its more generic level a matter of being accepted by an interlocutor through ‘emitting in a similar wavelength respect to theirs’ (in other words, approaching them by a similar style of behavior that will make them feel we are ‘one of them’).

Afterwards, and counting already on their acceptance ‘by similitude’, we can begin slightly and slowly to bring them where we want them to be, in Sales agreement terms for example.

SCANNING FIRST, LINKING AFTER

A rapid study of their external mood and non-verbal aspects will allow us to accommodate in consequence, by adapting the LOOK of our SIGHT, the TEMPERATURE of our VOICE, the EXPRESSION of our FACE, the STYLE of our MOVEMENTS and GESTURES, the RHYTHM and PACE of our PITCH, etc.  Always to the level of our possibilities (some of us are far from being Al Pacino 🙂).

It’s about physically ‘telling’ them about our wish of true partnership, what from an ethics point of view will be demonstrated afterwards by searching the best possible solution to their true detected needs.   The ‘WHAT’ (words) are normally Sales people ‘dominion’, so we give for granted this stage is solved once the ‘animal link’ leaves room for BENEFITS and other typical pitch hooks.

Ready to give a try?

‘Til the next one!

B (Sr)

 

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