Month: March 2014

3 Timely Strategies to Positive Change

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date March 19, 2014

The time changed for most of the U.S. last weekend. We “fell back.”

How does this change affect you? Pretty much like any change does.

Here are 3 Timely Strategies to Positive Change:

Acknowledge the Change

Like most change, the reversal back to Standard Time came without our permission. Congress extended Daylight Savings Time without so much as a phone call to my office…or yours.

That’s the way change operates. It shows up without so much as a warning for many of us. We find ourselves blindsided by a software change, a systems change, a pricing change, and the list goes on.

Regardless of our lack of involvement or consultation, change is what it is. The faster you acknowledge the change, the more quickly you capitalize on it. To increase your sales with greater productivity requires you to say to yourself and others, “This is the change. It’s here to stay.”

Such change recognition reorganizes your brain for optimal adaptation to the change and learning its consequential behavior as soon as possible.

Avoid Resisting the Change

How often this week will you say something like, “My body is still adjusting to the new time. You know, it’s really x:xx o’clock in the old time”?

Change resistance is predictable. Your brain loves the familiar because mental file folders already exist for sorting and storing information and the accompanying behavior. Your brain resists the unfamiliar due to the requisite creation of new mental file folders and new behaviors.

For example, if your software changes, avoid saying, “I knew what to do in XYZ. I haven’t a clue now.” Instead, program your brain for quickly accepting the change by closely examining the new software, finding functions in the unfamiliar software that are similar to the familiar, make the mental connection, and you have accepted the change.

Avoid resisting the change by building a bridge of similarity between the familiar and unfamiliar.

Accelerate through the Change

You determine how quickly you adjust to the time change this week. Your mental attitude sets the pace.

Here’s the key to accelerating through change: repetition.

When your operational software changes, after you bridge the familiar and unfamiliar, invest time in repeating the functions. Just keep after it.

Persevere. Persist. Perform repetitive tasks.

This week you’ll get up every morning by the alarm clock set to Standard Time rather than switching back to DST. You repeat waking up to the new time daily until it’s no longer unfamiliar, but becomes familiar.

As you do, you similarly accelerate through the change at work, you adapt more quickly and capitalize on the opportunities. Such rapid adaptation means you increase sales with greater productivity which gets you out of the office earlier to do what you love with those you love. You Work Positive!

About the Author

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who helps professionals increase sales with greater productivity and get out of the office earlier. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.

Success Attitude

Making Great Decisions – 3 Simple Steps for Success!

Post author By
Post date March 18, 2014

It was mid-afternoon; I had a lot on my mind.

I suspect it was the usual mix of meetings, project deadlines, kids’ appointments, chores not yet done and the constant everyday clock ticking that told me, ‘get home quick.’

As I rounded the corner, leaving the center of the village, the old woman stepped out onto the road with her arm raised.

She was carrying two heavy-looking bags of groceries. I only glimpsed her face briefly but her whole being looked hot and tired.

She probably needed a ride, help of some sort. She didn’t look desperate, but concerned and in need.

I have a million reasons that make sense of my choice in that moment. Busy, late, people waiting, work to do, stuff calling me away.

None of them matter. None of them make it better.

I drove by.

An instant later I came to my senses and took the next turn that I could in the one-way road system so that I could go pick her up. By the time I got back, she was gone.

I didn’t know her. I had no obligation to do anything really.

But to this day (and it was years ago) I know that in that instant, I made the wrong choice.

Now maybe if she had been there when I got back I would have felt better. It would allow me feel like a good citizen.

Sometimes, we just don’t get second chances.

I learned 3 really important lessons for my business from this story:

1. Be Present

As you get preoccupied by what you haven’t done, what awaits you or why you need to be elsewhere, life and opportunities pass you by. There is no living elsewhere; it’s just here, in this moment, where you are.

We spent most of our lives thinking about the past and anticipating the future. So often we let our past experiences project into the present and future. This may work well for us, if we have lived a joyful, empowered experience in the past. But so often this is not the case.

Our past disappointments and unmet expectations predict a disengaged and regretful future. And for no reason at all. The past IS NOT the present! Be present in the here and NOW. What you create today, in this very moment, is the reality you get to live. As simple as that!

2. Listen to Your Instincts

When you are truly present, your inner knowing will tell you what needs to be done. Usually we can’t hear it because we’re too busy getting worried about what we need to do and the decisions we need to make. Listen carefully, decisions become clear and choices are easy. Just listen!

We spend so much time searching for teachers and guidance. Yet the very best guide is inside of you. You know what you need to do. You have everything you need. Take a few moments to get still, relax and when all is quiet and clear, ask yourself the question that you need answering. Allow the answer to emerge. Trust that answer, it will be perfect.

3. React Immediately

When you hear a clear, decisive voice – just do it. Don’t wait around, don’t postpone or procrastinate, take action. I heard Tony Robbins say once ‘never leave the scene of a decision without taking action that supports that decision’. Immediate action is what makes the difference between possibility and regret.

When you know what you need to do, there is no reason to wait.

Often we get overwhelmed and frozen by the array of choices, challenges and opportunities in business. This is what keeps us stuck and unable to make decisions and choices to move forward.

So next time you see something or someone that moves you – allow yourself be moved and take instinctive, decisive action.

Consciously go through these three steps.

Make it a habit and you’ll see a huge shift in your business.

Work Life

3 Positive Strategies to Finish Your Day Strong

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date March 17, 2014

Most business professionals today that we coach are overwhelmed. They get to the end of the day with an ever expanding to-do list and fall exhausted into the evening commute. They return the next morning after reversing the commute and fall exhausted into their desk chair, thinking, “Here we go again…”

And yet there are those who do more in a day than most do in a month. Who increase their sales with greater productivity and get out of the office earlier. Who make a life and a living.

You wonder, “What is their secret?”

One of their secrets is this: they finish their day strong.

They understand that the concluding actions of yesterday ring loudly as you greet tomorrow-becoming-today.

Want to join them? Here are 3 Positive Strategies to Finish Your Day Strong:

Complete a Task

Daily, you face unanticipated interruptions. You put out unexpected fires.

These chronic productivity hiccups prompt you to experience incompleteness. Some days, you rarely complete a task and that’s an emotional drain.

Find a task, even a small one, to complete before you leave for home. Arrange your desk. File papers or documents. Make tomorrow’s to-do list. Anything.

Completing one task at the end of your day creates a positive sense of satisfaction that greets you the next morning. It’s refreshing to walk in and re-experience yesterday’s success. It launches your confidence for completion in a new day.

Commit to fun with family and friends

You read a lot about work/life balance which looks great from 30,000 feet. Yet from where your feet hit the ground, it’s a tough act to balance.

Commit to fun with your family and friends for this evening as a starter. Define fun with them. Playing “Pretty, Pretty Princess” with your daughter. Tossing football with your son. A romantic meal you cook at home for your Honey. Shooting hoops with the guys. A spa trip with the sisterhood.

Commit to fun. Schedule it. Budget it. Do it.

Increase your productivity with it.

Cut off the TV

If you go to sleep immediately following the evening news or an episode of The Walking Dead, guess what your subconscious works on overnight? Fixing the national deficit. Catching a murderer. Running from zombies.

Instead, cut the TV off at least 10 minutes before you go to sleep. Write in your Work Positive Gratitude Diary and name 3 positive experiences from the day. Give your mind something positive to process. Wake up more refreshed.

Finish your day strong. Do more in an hour than most business professionals do in a month so you can leave the office earlier to do what you love with those you love as you Work Positive in a negative world.

About the Author

Operations

The Psychology of Pricing Products & Services

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date March 13, 2014

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One of the most frequently asked questions I get about marketing revolves around price. Setting prices for products and services takes a combination of science, psychology and intuition. Let’s walk through some of the most effective ways to determine price and create a checklist of what to test to find the best one.

Your Cost Plus Profit

Of course, business 101 tells us to cover our costs and earn a profit (or go out of business fast!). But once the basics have been covered, where do you go from there?

Check the Competition

Are there other products or services like yours? There almost certainly are. Search online and find 10-20 others and jot down their price points. Watch them over the course of 30 days to see if they offer discounts and, if so, how much.

Do you want to position your product/service alongside competitors? If so, matching their prices could be a good strategy. If you want to be seen as the least-expensive option, you’ll try and beat the others’ prices. And, conversely, if you want to position yourself as a luxury/premium option to the rest, you’ll start with a price point higher than the average product/service.

Useless Prices

If you have levels of products/services, there are several interesting pricing tactics you can test. The first is from “Predictably Irrational” author Daniel Ariel. (Awesome book, by the way!) Watch this short video.

Did you understand what he was saying? The “useless” price of $125 for only the print subscription was not really useless. While it was there, people jumped to the higher price point because they clearly saw the value of getting TWO subscriptions (print and web) for the same price as web-only.

Contextual Prices

Ariel offers some other strategies in his book as well.

Let’s say you have three sizes of popcorn at your movie theater (or three subscription models or three sizes of drink at a gas station). You can influence sales to purchase at the middle price point or the higher price point.

If the medium-sized popcorn bucket is the one you want people to choose, space the prices out equally among the three choices. By nature, most customers will select the middle option.

However, if you want people to buy the highest-priced subscription, leave a large gap between the lowest-cost option and the middle-priced option. Then price the other two very close together.

For instance, a small popcorn would be $3.50. A medium-sized bucket of popcorn would be $7.50 and a large would cost $8.00. The mindset here is that “for only 50 cents more” you can get a much larger portion of popcorn. The same is true for fountain drinks at gas stations. Small = $.99. Medium = $1.49. Large = $1.59. Which sells more? Almost always the large for “just 10 cents more.”

The Power of 9

The long-standing research done in 2003 holds firm today: ending prices with a 9 leads to more sales.

You might be tempted to think that lower numbers would lead to even greater sales, but that’s not true.

In this study (and others that followed) prices ending in 9 pulled better than those ending in 5 or 0.

Price Anchoring

Want to sell a $1,000 home entertainment center? Show it to customers AFTER you’ve introduced them to a $5,000 home entertainment center. Anchoring works because most of us have a tendency to compare everything else to the first prices we encounter.

The high $5,000 system makes everything else look like a real bargain. The point here is not to sell the $5,000 system, but to use it as an anchor that allows you to move more $1,000 systems.

Like most other marketing elements, choosing the right price point takes testing. Make some notes about how you could possibly use these strategies with your products/services. Then work your way through the options to see which brings the best results.

I’d love to hear what pricing tactics you use and the results you get.

Sales & Marketing

4 Focal Points For Increasing Your Sales

Post author By
Post date March 12, 2014

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Amongst the struggle of the various voices and opinions offering different advice everywhere you turn, it seems difficult for Sales Professionals to actually pinpoint the areas that can have the biggest impact on their bottom line results.

So, based on 100’s of successful training assignments here’s the 4 key areas that we believe will have the greatest impact on your results and some practical advice to get you started. Focus on developing your skills in these areas and get your sales performance ahead of the curve in no time.

#1 – Be More Persuasive

You will never be a great Salesperson if you don’t learn to persuade. If you’re not actively trying to persuade prospects on every interaction, you’re playing a massive numbers game – waiting for the guy that says ‘I’m glad you called, I want to buy” who just doesn’t exist.

Expect a little resistance now and again and prepare yourself for it rather than giving up the ghost at the very first indication of resistance.

Empathy is key here, so bear that in mind and give yourself a fighting chance by pre-preparing your responses to common objections you can use where appropriate.

Make sure you’re communicating at a sufficiently high level to confidently get through any turbulence you may encounter at the start line.

#2 – Be Easier to Communicate With

The phone is undoubtedly your most effective tool. Being effective with your e-mails however is another area that will impact your results.

An e-mail that is quick and easy to read is quick and easy to respond to so you should be working on the assumption that any more than an intro line, 3 sentences of body text and finishing with a question is too much. If it doesn’t finish with a question, or at the minimum a clearly defined next action, I wouldn’t bother sending it.

You need to make yourself as easy to communicate with as possible.

Define your sole objective for each communication and get used to being direct.

#3 – Qualify Earlier

Think about the reasons you can’t close deals. Cost, Timing and loads of other likely excuses I’m sure will flood to mind. The fact is though you’re probably thinking about it all wrong.

If these specific areas are stopping you closing at the end of the process, you need to address them as early on as you can in order to clear the resistance in your path to the finish line.

This also avoids false hope and spending valuable time on deals that aren’t coming in this month.

#4 – Listen Better

What is interesting is that salespeople seem to show little or no regard for the language that is used by their prospects. They listen to what they say but not how they say it.

How to Listen Better

Make a list of vague words/terms (could, should, maybe, in the future, soon, probably, possibly etc) and next time you have a sales conversation with a new prospect, tally down how many woolly terms they actually use; but do nothing at this stage.

This serves as a massive eye opener. When you start really paying attention, you can pick up on these cues and use them to explore these areas further, develop need and get a better understanding of your prospects position.

You may need some help but if you can work on improving your skills in these key areas, you’ll see results. I guarantee it.