For their never-ending endeavours to obtain or retain wealth, countries desperately need companies, because they—unlike most human beings—have the means of production, and human beings, because they—unlike all companies—have the means of reproduction.
Millions of business people are each constantly forced to choose between their desire to not be a bad person and their desire to be a good business person, that is to say, to make as much money as they possibly can by maximizing their revenue while minimizing the cost of producing whatever it is that they sell.
Feedback doesn’t tell you about yourself. It tells you about the person giving the feedback. In other words, if someone says your work is gorgeous, that just tells you about *their* taste. If you put out a new product and it doesn’t sell at all, that tells you something about what your audience does and doesn’t want. When we look at praise and criticism as information about the people giving it, we tend to get really curious about the feedback, rather than dejected or defensive.
When your pipeline is full – with business coming out of your ears – the notion of people asking for a discount will sound hilarious, because you’ll already be at capacity
We all need salespeople who help people with the same enthusiasm shown by a small child describing the best Christmas present EVER
Get up in the morning on a mission to save prospective clients from the shabby, ill-fitting, overpriced and worthless alternatives that those charlatans - who are your competition - are trying to get away with flogging them.
The salesperson you’d ideally like to be and the salesperson you’d like to encounter as a customer should roughly be the same, shouldn’t they?
Salespeople who think that it’s all about price aren’t required: If it can be sold on the internet at the lowest price, you can take the huge cost of a sales team out of the equation.
We all need salespeople who understand the problem and can deliver a solution that works brilliantly for both sides.
We all need salespeople who deliver value that wasn’t there before they arrived.
I can’t and won’t promise you magic sales fairy dust or the Jedi Mind Trick for salespeople – they simply don’t exist.
Remember: when you walk into a DIY store to buy a drill, you don’t want the drill. Your end goal is to make a hole and, in order to achieve this, you have to buy the drill.
Your target market are more bothered about whether what you sell will get them promoted, sacked, recognised, accepted, praised or laid.
Don’t tell me you’re passionate about your job – show me that you’re passionate about helping people like me.
If what you sell doesn’t help me then why are you knocking on my door?
We all need salespeople with humility, honesty, integrity, empathy and an old-fashioned work ethic that ensures the job gets done.
Ignore the people who say that the sales industry needs to become professionalised: it already has.
For all salespeople - Driving around and talking to people for a living, with no recognisable return for the time or money spent by your employer - is a job description that belongs in the past.
If you sound like a contestant from The Apprentice or if the customer believes that they are being sold AT, you have already failed.
You truly help people with the things that you sell. Once you are aware of that vital piece of information every demonstration, every presentation, every transaction will be delivered with a light shining from your heart. From your heart will shine a beacon that tells all prospects you can truly help and that that is your sole purpose for being there.
Don't burn your bridges until you build better ones.
Early in 1967 Highsmith's agent told her why her books did not sell in paperback in America. It was, said Patricia Schartle Myrer, because they were 'too subtle', combined with the fact that none of her characters were likeable. 'Perhaps it is because I don't like anyone,' Highsmith replied. 'My last books may be about animals'.
One thing you'll learn when you're in the business of selling utter shite to the Great British Public is that there's really no bottom to where they'll go. Shit food, shit TV, shit bands, shit films, shit houses. There is absolutely no fucking bottom with this stuff. The shittier you can make it - a bad photocopy of a bad photocopy of what was a shit idea in the first place - the more they'll eat it up with a big fucking spoon, from dawn till dusk, from now until the end of time. It's too good.
There is need to focus on selling an emotional experience instead of a mere product or service - the impression you make on others must be lasting and permanent. These experiences have to be positive and worth remembering. This will increase the chances of repeat business and referrals, guaranteeing customer loyalty. And that is what sustains businesses, brands and careers for generations! The principle remains the same for comedians, actors, footballers, musicians, sales executives or any other area of specialty.
Your life is connected to other key support structures that you must never neglect, including family, fans, supporters, affiliations, professional associations, religious membership and others. Your membership to such groupings must add value to others whilst you equally get the benefit they are supposed to provide their members.
No matter how great you are at what you do, as long as you remain known only within your own family circles, then you and your talent will die in obscurity and irrelevance. Position yourself to influence the masses by having a media, marketing and communication strategy.
Tactical use of the media can be equated to power behind your skill or special ability. It is in the power of the media to help market your brand. You just need to look at Hollywood, European football, Bollywood, Nollywood, Global fashion & modeling, showbiz and even humanitarian efforts, to appreciate that the making and destroying of stars, initiatives and legends is to a greater extent influenced by the role played by the media.
The key questions and challenges that we must all continue to pose and remind this key sector (the media) should be, 'Do you realize the power you have, to build and to destroy; to promote success or failure; to bring life or death to a cause or talent; to give a platform or take it away?
If the African stars do not rise, are not known, remain obscure, their stories are not told – who and where is the African story teller? Your challenge if you are in the media is to continually ask if you are doing enough, using the appropriate strategies and at the right platforms. Let’s create and promote international and global stars with the talent and skills in our people, no one will do it for us.
Work is simply, “force x distance” or the product of a force applied to an object and the displacement of the object in the direction of the applied force…holding an object in the air does not involve any work, no matter how painful your hand will be after a few minutes… reflect on your daily activities and the results from them. Are you really working or just increasing your potential without progress or desired results? Your work must produce some movement, progress and change, by effectively using all your energies whether intellectual or physical.
Listen to people from your heart, as if your life depended on it, and you will find that in turn people will listen to you with all of theirs.
The choices you make from this day forward will lead you, step by step, to the future you deserve.
Spend your time designing the greatest reputation a man could possess.
What you deserve will be down to you, and you alone.
Destiny and fate are of one’s own making, and riches and happiness are rarely found at the end of an easily-traversed path.
Make sure everyone, who works with you or for you, feels the need to tell others about the incredible experience.
Adopt the positive in everything you do, for there will always be positivity there to find, if that is what you seek.
That which is currently beyond your capabilities now, does not have to be so forever
My intention was, only, ever to help you see the light shining brightly in front, and inside, of you.
Tell your good news as an evangelist would. Do so with a passion driven by a need to help and solve problems that some people didn’t even know they had.
Embrace the fundamentals like the closest of friends, for they will be the foundation of your future success.
Whilst people have answered questions, I have only heard my own voice thinking of the next question.
I was so sure that I knew what they needed and what I wanted to sell them that I never stopped long enough to find out what it was they wanted to buy.
In this world of half-jobs and liars, I will prevail.
I have discovered fallen trees across my path and have possessed neither the strength to move them nor the patience or tenacity to find an alternative way round. I have simply returned to where I came from, and told myself there had been no other choice.
Finding happiness by delivering it.
Everything would have been for nothing just because I simply didn’t listen.
I should become happier at what I do and leave others happier than before they’d met me.
Speaking from the heart is simple. Listening wholeheartedly, however, is much, much more difficult and most rare.
You must have realised by now that when one really cares, really tries to help, the other party recognises the fact and, therefore, easily sees the logic in working together for the greater good, for the mutual benefit of both.
You’ve got to be driven to become successful.
What is the true cost of a purchasing decision that goes wrong?
In the past, I have all too often listened without hearing, asking questions when I had no intention of hearing the answer or understand my customer’s requirements.
Like an ant, I will find my way round any obstacle. Like a child, I will persevere with pinpoint focus.
I will not let those, who cannot recognise how I can be of service, dissuade me from showing them how I can help.
I will look the part. I will act the part. I will deliver that which I have promised to deliver.
Like the evangelist, I will shine with the light I have been shown, recognise that I have the ultimate solution for all my prospects, nurture that feeling deep within, and repeat the words to myself every day, until there is no doubt in my mind that keeping such good news hidden would be the very worst type of sin.
I will design myself a reputation, in which prospects can place their trust, and customers return to and recommend.
I will design my reputation and my resolve shall be absolute. I shall not give in when I know I can help.
It saddens me to note that there will always be con artists and charlatans in the world. Men who aim to fool the public by clothing themselves in the robes of experts.
Listening is a discipline. It’s all about being present at that moment in time.
I want you to start realising how far away you are from being able to listen professionally.
You listen like an amateur and fool yourself into believing it is enough when it is not.
Sceptics are persuaded by a good reputation, for it is an unspoken statement of proof.
Reputation is the panacea for those who lack confidence in their own decisions.
How we feel about those we give our business to is of vital importance.
Who would be willing to put up with less than the desired result, if they could afford to have it done properly?
The confidence felt, when dealing with genuine reputation, often outweighs the simplicity of price.
In the past, I have bargained myself away, believing that price was more important than cost, quality, reliability, or reputation. In the past, I was clearly wrong.
I need a first-class reputation
In this world there are those who enjoy giving people balloons and there are those who take great pleasure in popping them. And I wish to be remembered as being firmly in the first party.
Most men have professions, yet few act like professionals.
If you woke before dawn one morning with the formula for a vaccine, which would cure the most ghastly disease currently known to man, releasing millions from an agonising death, would you roll over and resume sleeping until daylight?
There can be no success in sales without tenacity.
Seeking those elusive individuals is like mining for rare gems. It will take hard work, patience, and a persistent attitude. To find that rich seam of colourful stones, you will have to chip through dirt and rock. You will have to learn how to hold rubble in your hands and see the fortune inside.
It is your duty to save these prospects from that disappointment. Every potential customer, who misses out on what you have to offer, due to your lack of zeal or passion, every prospect who ends up with an excuse of an alternative from your lacklustre competition, should rest heavy on your conscience.
Mark my words. Perception is reality and how someone perceives you is their reality.
Let your customers and prospects recommend you to each other and let you competition wish they were you. That is our mission.
Sometimes, if you get too close to a subject you can miss what’s most important.
You look green, immature. A young boy playing at business, dressing up in the manner in which he believes an actual grown-up would. Your viewpoint of business attire is one of wide-eyed wonder from the nursery door.
Perception number one, how you want people to think about you when you arrive and perception number two, how you want them to talk about you once you have left.
In short, the difference between you and your doctor is that he has a well-designed reputation and you do not.
If your doctor told you that you needed immediate surgery could you perform it yourself?
Trust me. In a very short time, you will become sought out by those in your network. Initially for your sound advice, but soon after as a provider of service. Few people seek advice about a subject that doesn’t require a solution.
Each step of your current journey will take you to new and interesting worlds of opportunity and as every intrepid explorer knows, when one visits strange new lands one must be aware of their customs.
You will never change a prospective customer’s mind, my boy. There is a chance that he might make a new decision if enough reliable evidence comes his way, but to do that he has to want to listen - to hear it - and that requires trust and respect.
Young man, your problem and the reason so many like you fail, is simply because you allow yourself to give up far too early.
Fascinatingly resilient the tenacity of a child. Not yet conditioned by society to give up when instructed to do so.
We must design how we wish to be perceived, and then we must work even harder to continuously recreate and re-evaluate that perception.
Where he comes from, the education he has received, his family history, his wealth, they matter not a jot, but the perception he conveys - that my, boy, is the key. If they believe he belongs - that he is part of the room - then he does, he is. And whichever room he is about to step into, then that is who he must become.
If you honestly know how you help people, then you should become passionate about sharing it, spread the good news, give everyone a chance to share in the solutions that you can provide.
From today onward, you will learn how to become evangelical about the many ways you help people.
His belief is so passionate that it fills him with the burning desire to share his fabulous news with anyone who will listen. He is concerned that it is us that might be missing out, not him. His faith in a single road to salvation and paradise is so intense, that it would be ungodly not to share the good news with all those who are not aware.
This is how you must be. You must become as evangelical about your promised outcome as he is about his. You must believe that you, and you alone, have the solution to your prospects problems. Even if they do not recognise those problems themselves.
Think upon the numbers I have been sharing with you. Of your competitors, five out of ten will do little more than take their customer's money immorally. A further three out of ten will leave them dissatisfied.
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You should feel so driven to help the world that it would weigh you down if a single person received anything but the best.
A gentleman of ambition is aware of the people he wishes to be associated with both socially and commercially. He knows that moving through different levels of society is akin to stepping through different rooms in an enormous house, each door leading to a grander environment than the last. He may, of course, settle for the comfort of any room he reaches. Alternatively, he may continue through successive doors to surround himself with even greater fineries and riches.
And so it must be with the energy you muster for your own work. Get out there and convert the unconverted. Save them all from the charlatans and the nearly-men.
Understand why you are different and how you help, recognise your target market, and give them something they might not even realise they are missing.
It has nothing to do with the time being right or wrong. Storms just happen.
The only time you have is the where and when of right now. There will always be good times, bad times, hard times, and complete disasters. However, there is no other option but to be where you are, when you are. That is a universal truth for everyone. The important thing is how you respond, what you decide to do, and when you decide to do it.
You can’t plough a field by turning it over in your mind. Either you get out there and plough it or it doesn’t get done.
Plans are easy to make, dreams are easy to dream. But putting your back into it? A little bit of hard graft and discipline? That is just too scary and far too much effort for the masses
Ready? No one is ever ready, my boy. But some do what they plan to do and some never will. The difference between the two is that the first group understand that they need to start somewhere, so they do so. Straight away
And by making that plan you have differentiated yourself from more than ninety percent of the population. You are one of the few, who has a clear direction, a decisive plan of action.
Sometime in the future, when business slumps and there appears to be no solution in sight, you will hear others moaning about and blaming the things that are completely out of their control, wasting hour after hour on elements, which cannot be changed. Meanwhile, you, my boy, you will be focusing your efforts on the only thing that matters. The response which ensures you reach your destination.
You see continuous movement is the important thing here. Those who remain in one position and then lie to themselves about their progress are the ones in real trouble.
You may have an overall target to achieve with each prospect, but if you are going to have an ideal outcome for each call, should you not also have a tolerable outcome to fall back on? Something you are willing to put up with if things don't go completely to plan, but something that still moves things forward ever so slightly?
Currently, you are approaching each opportunity with a single possible outcome and when that doesn't happen you fool yourself that there was nothing more that you could have done.
The future is a fabulous place to bury your success.
Don't allow your imagination to colour events as lesser men would, and see movement in motionless things.
All these ships are currently safe at anchor but that is not what they were designed for is it? Your job is not to remain anchored and safe. Your job is to move closer to your destination at every attempt.
When things get tough, remember this mariner’s star. Bring to mind that everything external is designed as a challenge. A test sent to ensure you are actually worthy of acquiring your goal and reward. Recognise them as such and you will always find a way to go through, go round, or ignore them as required.
Until you take the first step forward, failure remains reassuringly impossible.
No one can mock your meagre achievements or inability to accomplish the simplest of tasks, if they remain figments of your imagination. You can revel, again and again, in the glory of a fairy tale doomed never to appear in reality.
As soon as I can find the courage to put my plans to action, I will turn from being a “maybe man” into someone whose future success lies completely in his own hands.
Falling has become far more terrifying to me than rising.
Dreaming and becoming are completely separate parts of the process. However, they are both as important as each other. Never discount how powerful your dreams are. If you cannot visualise what it is you wish to become, then the brain doesn’t have the first clue how to get you there.
The vast majority of the populace would never think of setting themselves any deadlines for the achievement of their dreams. They may have a vague notion they will get older and that one day they will probably die, but it all seems a long way away, and tomorrow will bring its own share of problems and pressing issues to fill their time.
Simeon had to agree that his future plans, although quite grand, were like pictures painted in fog. Nothing he could put his finger on. No dream ever remained unchanged long enough to take on any weight or substance, just a notion of something better waiting for him somewhere in the future.
Success does not judge one man for being worthy above another. Success doesn’t choose you because of your family name or existing wealth.Success is taken by the man, who has made himself ready for its arrival. And although I am not there yet, I have come to this place to become such a man.
I now know that success can not choose me. It is waiting on a path that I must walk. In truth, it waits there for everyone.Many do not know where the path begins. Some search for a shortcut to the end. But the majority of the world does not even realise there is a path there at all.I have been shown the start of that path and I am ready.
Well, at the risk of sounding a bit harsh…I think we can safely say that your recent successes could have just as easily been achieved by a mute monkey in a tiny business suit, holding up a written explanation of whatever it was the monkey was attempting to sell
It has been my experience that around half of those offering a product or service, in every line of business, are quite utterly useless. Some of them actually bordering on criminal. The remainder are split between two camps, the acceptable and the exceptional. Unfortunately for the average man on the street, it is incredibly difficult to recognise which is which
Obvious? Possibly. Sometimes, common sense is only obvious once you have been shown it to be so. Only after a shortcut has been revealed is it an obvious time saver. Before that, it had remained completely unknown to everyone but the enlightened. You can’t know what you don’t know and, therefore, never seek anyone’s tutorage of the subject
Think about it: if someone had found a way to manipulate human choice and free will – if someone actually had that kind of power – wouldn’t it be a tad surprising if they then decided to share their secret with the masses in a book for $20? Not to mention how it would be just very slightly unethical.
Why do customers (and that includes you and me) find it so difficult to recall more than a couple of occasions when they felt that they were treated exceptionally by the salespeople who dealt with them?
I now know that success can not choose me. It is waiting on a path that I must walk. In truth, it waits there for everyone. Many do not know where the path begins. Some search for a shortcut to the end. But the majority of the world does not even realise there is a path there at all.
No longer will I measure myself against competitors, who don’t even know that a race is being run. From now on, I will measure myself against the man in front of me. I will measure myself against a new personal best, achieving my next ambitious goal.
Sales is a constant state of information gathering and analysis. There are numerous factors that will affect your sale – from market position, to manufacturing capacity, to a seemingly harmless tidbit of information received over lunch. The more quality information you have, the better your analysis, and the better your sales results will be.
And that was when it really came home to me what I was about to do. I was going to rob a bank, committing the additional crime of arson in the process, and if I got caught I'd go to prison.Well, I thought, go on selling second-hand jalopies for another forty years and maybe somebody'll give you a testimonial and a forty-dollar watch.
The problem: If you've an antique for sale, then, sad to relate, the world isn't your oyster. It's not that easy. Even if somebody gives you the National Gallery, your options are still very, very limited. Okay, you can sell the Old Masters, set up a trust, buy your favorite brewery. But that's strictly it. You're limited by honesty on one hand and law - that hobble of sanity - on the other.
you truly help people with the things that you sell. Once you are aware of that vital piece of information every demonstration, every presentation, everytransaction will be delivered with a light shining from your heart. From your heart will shine a beacon that tells all prospects you can truly help and that that is your sole purpose for being there
Do billboard salesmen record their sales on charts? If so, who's at the top of the billboard charts for billboard sales?
If you have half a nothing - sell it for a double something, resell half at double-price, and buy another something and a half - how much nothing will you have two days from then? Like three. Because three is the short version of π, and π is involved in virtually anything, in some form, if you believe what the internet tells you.
As long as you’re trying to be someone else, or putting on some act or behavior someone else taught you, you have no possibility of truly reaching people. The most valuable thing you have to give people is yourself. No matter what you think you’re selling, what you’re really offering is you.” (p.92)