Archive for Sales and Marketing

Jen Gilbert | November 10, 2011
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Revisiting The Laws of Attraction Part 2

Enjoy the remaining Laws of Attraction and remember to take these laws and embrace them into your life.  My postings today on Twitter seem rather appropriate:

When you make a true decision: You honor it regardless of whether other people support it.

When you make a true decision: You honor it on the days when you feel good and the days when you feel bad.

When you make a true decision: You honor it when no one is looking.

Make the true decision today to revisit all of the laws of attraction on a
regular basis.  You will find that indeed, they are contagious. 

“Most people never run far enough on their first wind
to find out that they got a second.
Give your dreams all you’ve got and you will be amazed
at the energy that comes out of you.” 
William James

 

The Law of Rhythm

The Law of Rhythm is about the natural rhythms that we have and experience in life. The sun rises and the sun sets, there is always a high tide and then a low tide, we get up in the morning and go to sleep in the evening, where there is bad there is also always good. Everything is about some sort of rhythm.

Rhythm actually plays a huge mark into your business, into your marketing and into your sales. The challenge is to understand that rhythm and then get that rhythm to work for us instead of against us. (yet another rhythm!!)

We all have our cycles of ups and downs. I don’t care how successful you are,
there are always your ups in business and your downs in business. When you have a down in your business, your biggest challenge is to understand that period of time and not have this particular cycle envelope you to the point of falling
out of hope for all of your dreams and desires.

You need to understand that because we have natural rhythms in our life, when you are going through a down moment…the rhythm will always be that you will soon start to see the good in your life and in your business. What is necessary to ride a down cycle, is to keep in the cycle until you finally see it start to shift upwards once again. You absolutely cannot quit because when you do the downward cycle has won and you will never see what was waiting for you at the top. Who knows what could have been at the top…possibly your biggest success ever.

Think about some past instances in your business and/or personal life and you will see this law to be true. I know that for me, if I am going through a slump in sales I know that right around the corner I am going to have a huge month. This happens time and time again and as long as you have the faith and you know this to be true, you can weather any storm that might be brought to you.

Think about the economic state that we have right now. It’s not a pretty sight…but it is part of the Natural Law of Rhythm and we know that our economy will become whole again. We cannot give up in this economic state that we are in because if we do, we will never see what prosperity we have waiting for us at the other side of this wave that we are riding. We have seen similar cycles like this happen time and time again.

Life both professionally and personally is all about the ups and downs and now we know that without the bad we cannot have the good…it’s just how we chose to deal with the bad.

The Law of Cause and Effect

The law of cause and effect says that everything happens for a reason. For every effect in your life there is a cause. Thoughts are causes and your conditions are your effect. Your mind and your thoughts are your most powerful tools that you have. It has been said time and time again that a person becomes what they think about most of the time. You are where you are right now, whether it is good or bad, because of your habitual thinking.

Consequently if you change you’re thinking…then you can change your life.

Another version of the law of cause and effect is the law of action and reaction. This law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words; actions have consequences. The good news is that you get to choose and control your actions. But once you have taken an action, remember that many times the consequences are completely out of your control. Once you have said or done something typically you can never take the original action back. This is why successful people tend to be very thoughtful about what they say and what they do and unsuccessful people tend to not be so thoughtful and may be even careless about their actions and behaviors.

Yet another way of talking about the law of cause and effect is the law of sowing and reaping. This law says, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap”. This law says that whatever effort you put in you will get out; whatever you are reaping today is a result of what you have sown in the past.

The laws of cause and effect, action and reaction, sowing and reaping, are universal laws and principles that have existed since the beginning of time. All success and ultimate happiness both professionally and personally comes by incorporating these principles in absolutely everything that you do. When you do, you will achieve success and happiness at levels seldom experienced by the average person. Isn’t that incentive enough to live these universal laws on a daily basis?

The Law of Gender

To understand this law you must understand that there is both a male and female personality in each and every one of us. I am not talking about whether a person is physically a male or female. If a male is a little more “right-brained” he is  coming a bit more from the feminine side (which has absolutely nothing to do  with his sexuality.) As his right-brained personality is encouraged, the  left-side of his brain starts to not be as active as it is not being used. It’s  almost like atrophy to an arm or a leg. When you break your arm and your arm is  in a cast for an extended period of time, its strength is weakened because it  isn’t being used or exercised.

If you have read Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth he talks about not being able to bring forth this feminine side of our personality. He says “The suppression of the feminine principle, especially over the past 2000 years, has enabled the ego,
the conscious mind, to gain absolute supremacy in the collective human psyche.
If the balance between male and female energies had not been destroyed on our
planet, we would have not declared war on nature. We would not be so completely alienated from our being, from God.”

Donald Trump, a very masculine, driven and focused individual is incredibly artistic and has many right brained tendencies in conjunction with this left brained prominence. Look at Emmitt Smith in Dancing With the Stars…an incredibly talented dancer, showing his ability to use his right side of his personality as well as being NFL’s all-time rushing leader and a three time Super Bowl Winner.

In my past sales experiences I was always in a male dominated field. It was because of my ability to bring out both sides of my brain, both the female and male dominated tendencies that I was able to succeed in a very competitive field.

We need to try to balance both or feminine and masculine sides of our personality. If you look at very successful people (Donald Trump and Emmitt Smith are just two examples) you will find that they can move between their feminine and masculine personalities seamlessly. They can relate extremely well to both sexes because the have both a healthy creative side to their personality as well as a very focused and business side to their personality, which is the masculine side. Where we get stuck, I believe, is when we don’t feel that we can show either the feminine or the masculine side to our personality.

Let’s face it, in business we need to have relationships with both males and females. Think of where relationships could truly flourish if we would give both sides of our personality the opportunity to develop to their full potential.

There you have it…the revisiting of the Laws of Attraction.  Embrace them into your daily lifestyle. From there only great things will be yours.

Remember…

This is all just a bit of education that you might not have had yesterday…
The more you have….the better your life will become.

 Make it a terrific day,

Category: Sales and Marketing, Universal Law | Tags: , , , ,
Jen Gilbert | October 12, 2011
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Selling Tips; The Seven Real Secrets to Selling Part Two

Back with the last few selling tip “secrets” to selling.  Remember…there is no real secret…

Take Responsibility of your own actions. It is right out of the Secret, and The Law Of Attraction. Everything that happens in your life is a direct result of your thoughts and actions. If you think negatively about a situation, then negative results will start to pop up in your life. You cannot blame someone else for your thoughts. You have complete and utter control over all of your thoughts.

Take  responsibility for those thoughts. Make your thoughts center only around the positive. Once you start to incorporate only positive thoughts in to your daily
routine, you will be amazed at what you will start to attract into your life.

Don’t blame others for situations that happen to you. Take responsibility for your actions and your decisions. You have no control over anyone else but yourself. You have no control if someone you work with did not complete their portion of project by deadline. You have no control if someone cuts you off at an intersection. But, you DO have control on how you handle those situations. Handle them positively. What will handling them negatively result to you? More negativity?

If you are not taking responsibility for everything that you do, you might ask yourself if there is anything that you fear by taking responsibility. Why would you not be willing to take full responsibility for every aspect of your life? Think about that question for a while if you are blaming other people for situations in your
life.

Successful people take responsibility for EVERYTHING they do and  EVERYTHING that happens to them. Taking responsibility gives you the power for success at any level. 

Take Action. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds
you plant.? Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1895; Essayist, Poet and Novelist. 

Do you think that farmers automatically have a huge and profitable harvest? Do you think that Bill Gates just woke up one morning and was the richest man in the United States? What about Oprah Winfrey? She was not born into money, fame and power…just the opposite as a matter of fact. Why, then, should you expect to be any different?

EVERYONE has to sow seeds. Everyone has to take ACTION. Granted, some of us have a little bit more planting before we can reap the rewards of our efforts, but if you take persistent, consistent, daily ACTION, I promise you, you will reap whatever harvest that you desire.

Life and its incredible rewards are all about the seeds you sow each and every day, the action that you take each and every day. But, the key is to plant your seeds and take your deliberate action..each day. If you are one to plant your seeds and take action only periodically, then don’t expect your harvest to be abundant. You need to plant your seeds and cultivate your seeds consistently, persistently, each and every day; that is if you are looking for a huge and profitable harvest at the end of season.

My challenge to you today is for you to go out and plant your seeds, then cultivate those seeds each and every day. You will be amazed at the harvest that you will eventually reap…

May you reap exactly what you sow.

Be willing to take risks. This is an incredibly crucial to your success. No risk; no reward, as the saying goes. Keep in mind, however, taking risks doesn’t necessarily have to be risky.

Read that statement again, taking risks doesn’t necessarily have to be risky.

Do your due diligence in decisions that you are making. Make sure that you are educated in what you want to do. By doing your due diligence and becoming educated in whatever you are about to embrace, this then gives you the confidence to know that you are making the correct decision for you. You have all of the information in front of you to make the most informed and educated decision that you can.

When most people get stuck and then they play the blame game (Secret number Four) and claim that they have been scammed once again, is when they haven’t done their due diligence. They haven’t done their research for a particular opportunity or situation. If you haven’t been educated, done your research and done your due diligence, why would you expect anything other than a positive outcome? Taking some risk is the necessary for success, but when you have all of the information sitting right in front of you because of your research; the risks
that you do take are not all that risky.

Go, be prepared, take your educated  risks and become incredibly successful.

Stick to It until you succeed. Most people ultimately fail because they quit too soon. Set your goals and commit to taking consistent and persistent action each and every day. If you do this each and every day and not quit when the going gets a bit tough, the end result will be your success.

Post your goals both short term and long term and stay focused on your dreams until they become your reality. Do not let yourself take diversions to your goals and do not quit.

When the temptation is there for you to hang up the towel, ask yourself “What if…” What if you hadn’t quit, would your business be that huge success that you had planned for? What if you hadn’t quit, would I have been able to retire early? What if you hadn’t quit, would you still be at that JOB that you really hate? You never want to live by “What If’s,” so don’t. Stick with it and in the end you will see an amazing rainbow that was build just for you.

So, that is it. The Sales Tips to The Seven Secrets In Selling Strategies as I see them. Pretty simple, don’t you think? So why isn’t everyone incredibly rich and successful? It is positively amazing to me how very few people are willing to go out, put forth the effort required to master these selling tips, and take the action necessary to get from where they are to where they want to be.

Don’t be that person.

Go out and master each one of these selling tip “secrets”. Execute the simple daily self disciplines.  When you do the levels of success to you are unending.

Go and make it a terrific day.

 

Category: Sales and Marketing | Tags: , , ,
Jen Gilbert | October 6, 2011
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Selling Tips; The Seven Real Secrets to Selling

Before I go on to the first Secret..I am going to fill you in on the biggest selling tip secret of all….There are no real secrets to selling!! 

The selling tips that I am about to share with you are just the basic steps that successful, professional salespeople and entrepreneurs have been making their daily MOO (Methods Of Operation) for centuries. The following “secrets” are the attributes of high-achievers.and everyone can embrace them. They aren’t difficult to execute, you simply need to make them a daily practice. Once you do, everything and I mean everything can and will be yours.

Believe That You Can. You Must have the mental attitude for success. You must truly believe that you are as capable for success as the next person. You must have the confidence and the belief that you and your products or services are the very best. If you don’t believe that from the very core of your sole, then it would be my suggestion to find something else to sell. If you don’t believe that your product is the solution to people’s problems, your doubt will come across the instant you start to talk to a prospective customer. There are a few things that might be able to help you:

First, you need to be the master, be the expert of your product. You must learn your product inside and out. When you do, you will have absolutely no fear in talking about your product. Learn your product and how it can benefit your prospect like you know the stats of your favorite baseball team, or the ingredients of your favorite recipe. You should be able to talk about your product/service in your sleep. This is what makes the top sales people the top sales people. They are the experts in their field and prospects see them as such.

Many years back I had my annual review with my sales manager and the VP of Sales. My numbers were good enough to be in the top ten of the company, but what they really loved about my performance was that I was one of the top experts of my product in the company. I knew my products inside out and my customers knew that I did. They viewed me as the expert and that is why they
constantly ordered from me time and time again. The key is knowing and owning
your products.

You must also have confidence in your company. Your company is the organization that should be supporting you in all of your endeavors. Again, if
you don’t have the confidence that your company is standing behind you in all
that you do, that doubt will seep out.

Many times, people want to see the entire package. That you, the product and the company are going to be around to service and support them for a long time. Learn who the top management is in your company. If you have the opportunity, speak with them on occasion.

Learn the financial’s of your company. Learn as many details about your companyas possible. This doesn’t mean that you are going to make it part of your sales
presentation, but knowing this information gives you the confidence in your
company and therefore in yourself. It is all about gaining the confidence in
your products, your company and in yourself.

Does this take time and a bit of effort? Of course it does. Sales, while not difficult, is a discipline and with discipline takes some learning and studying. Do this up front and you will then have the key to unlimited earning potential.

Have the right associations. How successful are the people that you associate with? I am sure you have heard of the old adage: who you hang around is who you likely will become.

Guess what…it’s true! 

Knowing this, why wouldn’t you hang around with people who you aspire to be? Hang out with successful people. Network where their best prospects and customers go. Join the right local associations. Position yourself for success. Most importantly, have at least one mentor. I have several. You don’t have to personally know your mentor although if you can find a mentor locally, all the better!

You can mentor with experts through going to their seminars and following their writings and on line courses. You can mentor with people through various mastermind groups; you can even mentor with people through various chat rooms that are out on the Internet. Regardless, you need to find a mentor that is going to help you through the peaks and valleys that sales can and will bring. Your mentor can be a great sounding board to ideas that you might want to launch. And, your mentor should be someone you aspire to be.

Plan for your day. When you plan for your day…you plan for your success. I cannot stress to you how important it is for you to plan for each and every day. If you don’t, you will get to your office, not really know what you are going to do for the day, make a bunch of busy work for yourself, take no real action in your business and before you know it, it’s time for dinner. I see this scenario happen over and over again.

Get yourself a Palm Pilot (OK…so I date myself!) or something similar. Most systems have a To Do List built into their software. Start there. In one category, write down all of the actions you need to take for your business that day. Write down everything that you can think of. If you need to take an action or follow up with something a week from now, make note of it and mark it for that particular day. Make sure that you write down all of the people you need to call and follow up with. You should make another category for your personal To Do List as well.

In creating these To Do lists, you can then see, each day, exactly the action steps that you need to take on any given day. Again…dating myself, but I still print out my to do lists and take them with me throughout the day, so I know that I am accomplishing everything that I need to do on any given day.

As you finish up one task, then delete it. I love deleting my accomplished items immediately because I feel like have accomplished something, plus I like seeing that my list is getting smaller and smaller. If you are a person that doesn’t know where to start with their list, pick your top 3 items that you put off doing for as long as possible and do them first. When you get those tasks out of the way, the rest of your day goes more smoothly, and you’re not constantly thinking in the back of your mind about the tasks that are probably you’re most important things to do, but for whatever reason, you put them off.

If you have absolute deadlines, you need to make sure that those tasks are accomplished before anything else. Do not be a procrastinator! It only gets you in trouble when you are trying to juggle so many projects at one time. Just take action, complete the task and move on. You will feel so much better about yourself and your ability to get your actions steps done. And because you
are constantly taking action, you are working yourself and your business into
an incredibly successful enterprise.

Some days you may have a few items that you just did not have the time to get to. Don’t get overwhelmed by that. Life happens and there are times when you just don’t get everything you hoped to get accomplished in a given day, completed. Mark them for your To Do list tomorrow and make that task a top
priority.

Finally, as you are cleaning up your desk, ready to stop work for the evening, take a look at what your To Do List is going to look like tomorrow. By doing this it prepares you for how busy your day might be and you can start to think about how you might want to organize your priorities. But more importantly, if you look at your To Do List before you retire for the evening, those thoughts will be with you and you can subconsciously think about the actions that you are going to take for tomorrow. I find this especially useful when I am writing or doing something that I need some inspiration. Many times going to bed with that thought or question on how to do something helps me subconsciously come up with solutions to the questions I might have.

Plan for Success..Go now and set up your plan schedule. It will keep you get and keep organized (another topic for another day!) and you will never again be at a loss for what to do when you begin your day.  

Ok…so I believe that I have given you enough to think about for the time being.  Check back within the next day or so and I will have the rest of the “secret”selling tips for you and remember….

All of this is just a bit of education you might not have
had yesterday…

The more you have the better your life will become.

Go and make it a terrific day!

 

Category: Sales and Marketing | Tags: , , ,
Jen Gilbert | October 5, 2011
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How To Sell and How To Sell Successfully

How to sell and how to sell successfully are two entirely different topics.

I think that sales just might be the most feared of all professions there are. Either you are fearful of the aggressive, overbearing and totally unprofessional sales person or you are fearful to become that sales person…or maybe you fear both!

I have found that for most people, the negative feelings surrounding
how to sell is really about the number one fear there is:  No, not spiders or snakes (although snakes is my # 1 fear!!)

The reason people say they could never learn to sell is not because they are not capable of being a professional sales consultant, it is because they are afraid of the rejection that they perceive sales brings. Most people are afraid of the word No and they are afraid of the thought of Rejection. 

So, let’s talk about the word No and the feeling of rejection, put it into context and move on to learning how to sell and how to sell successfully.  Once I share with you The Seven Secrets to Selling and you truly understand what the word No really means, there will be no stopping you!

Early in my sales career I had a wonderful mentor and one of the first things he did was sit down with me and talk about the words No and Rejection. He knew, like I now know, that this feeling of rejection is the maker and the breaker in ones’ professional sales career. What he taught me never left me and to this day, and because of him,  I never feel rejected in my sales career.

So, what do we do as successful professional sales consultants?  We sell products and services to those people who need and/or want our products and services.  It is really as simple as that. We sell Solutions to people’s perceived Problems. If they don’t have a problem or a need, there really is little reason for our solution, right?

Why do people by Band-Aids? Not because they are so cool to have in the closet. People buy Band-Aids because they need to protect a scratch or a cut. Take the weight loss industry. People buy shakes and pills not necessarily because they taste terrific and that they are overly convenient to have around, but because by using these products, they are hoping to become thin and be able to fit into the a beautiful dress for their 10 year college reunion.

Successful sales people sell Solutions to people Problems. But the challenge to this equation is timing. Not always are we presenting the correct solution to the correct prospect at the correct time. That is when the word NO comes out and the feelings of rejection start to build.

But consider this..No doesn’t mean No forever.

On average..it takes Eight No’s to turn into a yes. When you hear No, what your prospect really means is that No..Not at this time.

It is all about the timing. They may not want your solution to their problem when you are speaking to them. They may not be able to afford your solution to their problem at the time you are speaking with them, they many not think that their problem is big enough at the time of your conversation. There could be a million reasons why your prospect said no, at the time of your conversation, but NONE of the reasons for being told No are personally because of you. They are saying No to the timing, not to you and many times not to your product or service. There is absolutely no reason why you should feel rejected by their inability to say yes at that particular time.

Doesn’t it feel great to realize that the No’s that you have been receiving are Not because of you?

Where so many sales reps fail is when they hear that dreaded word No, they say OK, put their tail behind their legs and walk away, never to be heard from again to that prospective customer. I’m screaming to you; don’t be that sales rep. You will lose out on so much business, and it will possibly be the biggest reason why you will not be the superstar that you have every right to be.

Now, I am not saying to stalk your prospect, to become insulting to them, or to badger them until you finally wear them down.  That is certainly not how to sell
professionally.  You want to gently, subtly, but consistently remind them that you are out there and are ready to serve them whenever they are ready. This can be done through many different kinds of media today; crafting letters, e/mails, faxes, phone calls to name a few. If there is something new about your product that your prospective customer should know, send them an update and then follow up with a friendly phone call.

Other ways to be in front of prospects without giving them the feeling that you are going to pounce on them like a hungry lion is provide them with information that might be useful for them, but is associated with your product. For example, say you are selling a product that helps people with their carpal tunnel syndrome. Your prospect has told you no… (Not right now) You can keep in touch with them by sending them articles from medical trade journals about carpal tunnel syndrome, you can send studies that your company does on your product, and there are reports done by the government that might be an interesting read for your prospect to understand their condition better. You are sending them educational material to help them with their decision when the timing is right for them to finally say Yes .

Can you see the power of what you are doing? You are becoming their friend…their expert to what their problems are. You are becoming their solution, not just your product.  Now that is how to sell and how to sell successfully.

I have had people call me back up to a year later telling me that they are finally ready to buy from me!! The timing is right for them and we move forward effortlessly. They didn’t feel “sold” from me keeping in touch with them; they didn’t feel pressured every time we had a conversation. I just continued to feed them pieces of information on a periodic basis so they wouldn’t forget about me. I continued to give them pertinent and interesting updates on the company, on improvements to my product, and information in general that I thought might help them understand their problem a bit better.

So, now that you better understand the words No and Rejection, and you realize it isn’t You that they are saying no to and it usually isn’t your product, it is because of the timing we can move on to How to Sell Successfully; The Seven Secrets to Successful Selling 

But I will save that for another post…Be on the lookout and remember…

This is just a bit of education that you might not have had yesterday.
The more you have the better your life will become.

Make it a terrific day…

 

 

Category: Sales and Marketing | Tags: ,