Without the ability to listen effectively messages are easily misunderstood. Most of us listen to the degree we can understand points of agreement or disagreement, or to prepare what to say in response, rather than to learn. And when we do that, we are not so much hearing other people as we are waiting for our turn to speak. Listening is key to all effective communication. I think that if there is one communication skill you should aim to master, then listening is the one.
From the sales perspective listening is the key to all effective communication as this skill is indispensable when seeking to build mutually beneficial relationships with potential clients.Listening means stepping outside one’s own interests, to actually want to know more, and to care what others’ interests are. To not just hear words, but to pay attention to the underlying needs and frames of reference, because in the end, successful sales numbers are the result of effective information gathering. If a salesperson can guide the conversation toward that prospect’s goals, roadblocks, and ambitions, it becomes much easier to design and deliver a pitch. Are you a good listener?
We all have the power to improve
Pre-pandemic I began a Crucial Conversations course via Vital Smarts, I qualified as a certified Crucial Communications Trainer in February 2020.
What Is a Crucial Conversation?
A crucial conversation is a discussion between two or more people where the stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong. These conversations - when handled poorly or ignored - lead to strained relationships and dismal results. The education taught me skills for creating alignment and agreement by fostering open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics - at all levels of an organisation. We learned how to speak and be heard and how to encourage others to do the same.
What Does Crucial Conversations Training Teach?
Crucial Conversations teaches participants how to:
• Speak persuasively, not abrasively
• Foster teamwork and better decision making
• Build acceptance rather than resistance
• Resolve individual and group disagreements
Who Needs Crucial Conversations Training?
Does your organisation suffer from taboo topics, deference, disagreement, analysis paralysis, information hoarding, office politics or alienation? Is your organization battling declining productivity, safety violations, low morale, reduced quality, poor customer satisfaction or other bottom-line concerns? Then you, your team, or your organisation needs Crucial Conversations Training.
This is not my responsibility
You are never too old to learn
One of the most valuable skills that a person can have, is the ability to sell anything to anyone by using persuasive skills. According to Harvard University, persuasion lies at the heart of our personal and professional lives. Whether the goal is to convince one person in a face-to-face encounter, influence a group in a meeting, sway an entire organisation, or win over the public, the capacity to persuade is pivotal to effective leadership. Being a great salesperson opens many doors of opportunity, especially for entrepreneurs and business owners.
Here are 5 sales tips:
1. Understand your customer’s needs.
2. Research who will buy your products or services.
3. Ask questions.
4. Sell yourself.
5. Don’t just sell, guide the buyer through a process.
I think that in sales and business the future belongs to the people who ask for what they want. Therefore, if you want to change your future act now and contact me via e-mail for sales training and workshops.
Our clients always come first
How you approach life says a lot about who you are. As I get older, I have learned to focus more on experiences that bring meaning and fulfilment to my life. I try to consistently pursue life goals that will make me and my closest relations happy; this is a trait that many individuals search for their entire lives. I think that nothing gives a person inner wholeness and peace like a distinct understanding of where they are going, how they can get there, and a sense of control over their actions. Contact me via e-mail and let me have your thoughts on happiness.
“Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.”
According to the World Happiness Report 2012, “No people can be truly happy if they do not feel that they are choosing the course of their own life.” The report also found that having this freedom of choice is one of the six factors that explain why some people are happier than others. Nordic countries, including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, have appeared on the top 10 of the World Happiness Report since it started publishing its annual rankings in 2012.
Stop and smell the roses
Happiness is an inside job, you really should not assign anyone else that much power over your life. Most people operate on autopilot, doing the same things today that didn’t work yesterday. They rarely stop to measure the impact of their actions on themselves and others, and how those actions affect their total well-being. As you stop to literally smell the roses, you start to realise other areas in your life where you could slow down a little to enjoy the beauty that surrounds you.
Many people wait for something to happen or someone to help them live their best lives. They expect others to make them happy and they think they have lost the ability to improve their lives. I think there are three components of happiness - something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to. Think about it, if we have useful work, sustaining relationships, and the promise of pleasure, it is hard to be unhappy. And I use the term “work” to encompass any activity, paid or unpaid, that gives us a feeling of personal significance. If your daily actions and choices are making you unhappy, contact me via e-mail and let's arrange a meeting.
Generosity is admirable
Business owners and leaders, your greatest asset is not your product or service, it is your people. How are you taking care of your employee's mental health during these stressful times? Investing in coaching for you and your team can save your business! Contact me via e-mail and let's arrange a meeting.
My word is my bond
I think life’s two most important questions are: “Why?” and “Why not?” and the trick is knowing which one to ask. Acquiring some understanding of why we do things is often a prerequisite to change. This is especially true when talking about repetitive patterns of behaviour that do not serve us well. This is what Socrates meant when he said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“I have no control over who people think I am, so I don’t worry about it and definitely do not seek their approval. ”
I learn something new from each client and this allows me to keep learning. Another tip would be to read veraciously, there are so many good books and the internet is full of knowledge, so choose carefully. What has kept me in sales is meeting people who are doing something interesting that I can learn something about.
Sales is the key
I think that there are far too many people who are teaching sales who have never sold anything. I have lived in Copenhagen since 1997, so I have had the opportunity to embrace the Danish culture and values, which I admire and respect. Having a natural cross cultural understanding, combined with strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate with both internal and external stakeholders across the spectrum - from decision makers in the boardroom to factory workers - has been demonstrated throughout my career.
Selling is a wide subject, covering many selling methods, sales theories, models and sales training methods. Would you like to close the gap between global strategies and local execution?
I can guide your sales excellence team by optimising the sales process, developing sales programs, and conducting sales training globally. Remember, life is not designed to give us what we want or what we need, life is designed to give us what we deserve. Who is responsible for developing and implementing sales operating models? Who should I contact in your organisation?
What is holding you back?
Culture and employee engagement are a rising topic in business and when people know that their contribution matters to their company, they are less likely to leave. I think organisations that intentionally create and cultivate a healthy culture are more likely to earn the trust and loyalty of their stakeholders. According to David Sturt there are 6 aspects of a great company culture:
Purpose - connecting employees to your organisation’s reason for being or the difference you make in the world.
Opportunity - providing employees the ability to learn new skills, develop, and contribute.
Success - giving employees the opportunity to innovate, do meaningful work and be on winning teams.
Appreciation - acknowledging and recognising employees’ outstanding work and unique contributions.
Well-being - paying attention to and constantly working to improve employees’ physical, social, emotional, and financial health.
Leadership - connecting employees to purpose, empowering them to do great work, and creating a sense of camaraderie.
You can watch David Sturt’s brilliant “Can talking to strangers boost your creativity?” TED Talk here.
Everyone is looking for answers
Yesterday an accountant asked me a question, “What is marketing for?”
My answer went a little like this: “I think marketing is about making change happen. Marketing works, therefore, as marketing professionals then each and every one of us are responsible for the effects and side effects of what we do.”
Accountant: “Who do want our customers to become?”
Me: “Marketing is the act of going into the world with intention to make a change happen. I use marketing to convert non-customers into customers. Sometimes, I help my customers become the person(s) they seek to be, and I help to create an environment that I think my customers want to see happen. Turning people from this to that!”
Accountant: “What are you going to spend all this time and money trying to do?”
Me: “I seek to help you become somebody who can make the change in the world that you want to be responsible for and be proud of. I seek to make an impact and clarify to the market the direction you are heading, leveraging the activity by using marketing tools to make a change happen.”
You are reading this because you are a passionate and caring human being. Contact me via e-mail and tell me about the change you are trying to make for your organisation.
Conscious crisis
We are prepared by our biology to eat and sleep, mate and nurture, fight or flee, and exhibit all the other built-in survival responses in the human repertoire. Sometimes you must go down before you come up and most of these journeys must be taken alone. And in the dark times, one may have little but trust your own inner process and go on. I think that there is great power in self-reliance! And to me this simply means that you should look at yourself and take responsibility for your actions. I’m the person responsible and I have learned the necessary skills to help people learn their skills via my training and workshops. I have found this simple mindful awareness to be extremely rewarding because I have an empathic concern for others.
“Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
You need to let go
“You need to let go!” It’s easier said than done…
Living under stress weakens your physical health and makes you feel tired. I think that there is a powerful connection between emotional culture and business performance.
“The only thing you can really control is how you react to things out of your control. ”
The magnificent obsession
In general, leaders expect to influence how people think and behave at work, but they feel ill equipped to understand and actively manage how employees feel and express their emotions at work. I love sitting down with experts, people who have dedicated their lives to understanding more about human behaviour and the dynamics of how the mind works. Contact me if you feel stuck and you are trying to figure out your life purpose.
The Holocaust survivor and psychologist Viktor Frankl stated in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning,” that a person can withstand just about anything as long as they have a purpose to strive for. I have found that people who have purpose in their lives, have something to go for. Purpose is the thing that pushes us into the future, some people are always pulled back by their past and some people are always pulled aside by distractions. I think that when you have a list high purposes in your life it will push you towards the future. The clearer the purpose, the stronger the desire to fulfil and achieve your purpose.
The keys to power
There are times when we should be competitive and there are other times when we should share. According to my Oxford English Dictionary, the word, “courage” means the ability to do something dangerous, or to face pain or opposition, without showing fear. I think we need courage to brings us to new places, to new relationships and new results. What is your typical reaction when you are experiencing change?
· Do you get defensive and retreat?
· Do you know what causes either of these reactions?
· Do you engage in self-talk that may impact your courage to embark on change?
· Do you fear losing something by being courageous?
Have you thought about what you could gain by being courageous?
Fear can be toxic
Many business people believe that their success is solely dependent on their product and services. What I have learned through my experience is that what is going on outside of the organisation also matters. I think positive emotions are consistently associated with better performance, quality and customer service, and this is true, irrelevant of the industry or roles within the organisation.
Try adding the following words to your vocabulary:
I can
I will
I know
I believe
I dream
I am confident
All things are possible
Write a gratitude journal
When you find yourself stuck in a constant state of worry, or hyper focused on what is not working around you, try to pause for a second and ask yourself one or two of the following questions:
1. What have I learned recently that has helped me grow?
2. What opportunities do I currently have that I am grateful for?
3. What physical abilities do I have but take for granted?
4. What did I see today or over the last month that was beautiful?
5. Who at work am I happy to see each day and why?
6. Who is a person that I don’t speak to often, but, if I lost them tomorrow, it would be devastating? (Take this as a cue to reach out to them today!)
7. What am I better at today than I was a year ago?
8. What material object do I use every day that I am thankful for having?
9. What has someone done for me recently that I am grateful for?
10. What are the three things I am grateful for right now?
By taking time to write down our answers, we consciously redirect our attention to that which we are grateful for. It’s also a great way to look back and realise what we may have thought of as insignificant was actually the things that brought us joy.
Make promises that you can keep
I think that not promising things you can’t deliver is smart, it makes more sense to be realistic and modest. In my experience, I have found that delivering what you say you are going to deliver impacts your personal credibility. In general, people respect people that do what they say they are going to do, so setting reasonable expectations is a great skill to develop. If you are consistently late on deadlines and not achieving what you have promised, customers will become suspicious. What systems and processes do your organisation have in place to manage expectations?
I think that keeping your word, should be on top of your list! The post pandemic world is really uncertain, so if you can under promise and over deliver, you will not only keep your customers satisfied; you will keep your customers from taking their business elsewhere. One way to know how to overdeliver to your customers and gain valuable insights is to simply ask your customers what they want. Contact me via via e-mail for customer experience training and workshops.
Understand before being understood
You filter everything you hear through your life experiences, your frame of reference. Everyone has different emotional thermostats and perhaps they have been set by how they were raised and developed by the traumas they may or may not have. I’ve learned how to tap dance around all the mental traps that most people who look like me tend to fall for. I have this wonderful ability to get moved by other people, some of whom I have never even met. I guess this is because I just the beauty in things. I have been training for years and years to develop practical empathy as people don’t know what I know and I don’t know what they know. And I am really comfortable with that - it’s all OK.
I don’t think that we change the whole world but if we try understand it, we will at least decode it and figure out a way to make it better for ourselves. If we can ask the below generic questions enough times, then this will help us change our perspectives and help us to evaluate where we stand:
What do you know?
What do you need?
What happened to you that led you to believe that in this moment you are being reasonable?
Keep your eye on the target
The first part of courage is the courage to start with a high possibility that you will face failure and rejection. The second part of courage is persistence - the power to keep going - to keep pushing and driving yourself. Passion and persistence are what matter. Dreams are achievable and you can make your fantasy come true, but there are no shortcuts. Nothing happens without hard work. Courage will you to look at the world in a new way, with both optimism and clarity.
“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”
I think success in life depends on our willingness to never give up, even when the reward is delayed and perseverance is what separates the winners from the losers. Perseverance has other names - persistence, determination, a can-do attitude. Those who persevere understand that luck is something only failures believe in. Well the Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” What do you think?