Saturday, April 21, 2007

Follow Your Mission Statement

Follow the thoughts and ideas of Drew Stevens as he discusses mission statements with Coeli Carr. As seen in SmallBusinessReview.com
http://smallbusinessreview.com/management/follow_your_mission_statement/index.html

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Posted by Drew Stevens at 2:27 PM | | Comments

Monday, March 26, 2007

Goal Setting for Selling Professionals

When I conduct my Career Transitions workshops people always ask me how to get started. These people want to know how to get from despair to beginning fresh. This is the topic for this week, beginning fresh or how to get the answer to “What to I want to be when I grow up?”

Do you know what you are really working for? Do you know why you exist? Why are you in your present position? When you retire, what do you want to reflect on and say I enjoyed doing that?

If these are some of the questions that you are asking, then one other question for you is do you have a life plan? Do you have goals and objectives? Do you have a road map for the rest of your life?

You might believe that you do not have time or goals and objectives are hokey. From my experiences, you must have goals. You simply cannot go through life without knowing where you want to go and how will you get there. As humans we tend to drift through life and take paths of least resistance.

If you are looking for new job, a new business or a new career, then you must have goals. To begin, take a sheet of paper and list all of your professional aspirations. Once you have exhausted the list, place a desire time frame next to each desire. Once complete, take out another sheet of paper. Write down your first desire and the time frame. Then on the next line, write down the tasks that you need to do to complete this desire. Write down the people that you need for support or assistance. Do this for each and every one on your list.
Once you are complete you now have a complete list of goals and the associated objectives.
Each of us should have continuous goals to achieve. The attainment of one goal sets the ground work for the achievement of the next goal. Setting one year, three year, five and ten year goals are helpful. When you set goals for yourself it testifies that you are determined to move forward. When you set goals it states that you are taking responsibility for the successes that you want to achieve.
Below are ten very quick steps to assist you in beginning your goal plan.
1. Look at your DATA
In 1997 William Bridge’s wrote a book entitled You and Company. Within the text he describes a wonderful process entitled D.A.T.A. The acronym denotes Desires, Attitude, Temperament and Assets. DATA requires you to look at items that are your strengths. It enables you to review your professional career, and your education so that you bring your best assets forward.
You also must get introspective too. You need to review your attitude and temperament. These qualities allow you to review your loves, your ability to work with people and your passions. For this to work you must be honest.
2. Develop a Mission Statement
Goal setting without knowing your purpose in life is like shooting at a target in the dark. Knowing your purpose gives you direction. A mission statement is a statement of purpose. You must understand why you exist and what values or visions that you are bringing to your life. In a sense a mission statement is asking; 1)Who are you? 2)Where are you going? and 3)How will you get there?
3. See Your Future
The best way to predict your future is to create it.
When you imagine your future, you begin to look at things differently and begin to rewrite it.
Remember the Christmas story of Scrooge? Do you remember the ghosts of Christmas present and future? When Scrooge gazed into the future he abhorred his destiny. Goals enable you to change yours.
Goals simply stated are dreams with a time frame. So if you want to purchase a new home for your spouse and your children and you want each child to have their own room by next September and you will commit money toward making this happen – now you have a goal. Goals are specific and they are measurable.
4. Goals must be SMART
SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, and Relevant and have a Time Commitment.
SMART follows the following rules/:
 S = Specific in terms of process
 M = Measurable by objective data
 A = Attainable in that they can be achieved
 R = Relevant to your vision
 T = Time specific with a deadline
5. Develop and Action Plan
You will need a plan of action for achieving your goal. To begin you must conduct a self assessment needs analysis about resources, time commitment and mentors for aid. To develop a thorough action plan you must strategize and determine, when you will begin, how you will begin, who will help you and what type of resources you will require.

6. Be Motivated
When conducting motivational sessions I often use the word moxie to assist my clients to get through difficult situations. I believe that you must have moxie to get you through the trials and tribulations of goals.
You will face challenges, you will encounter hurdles, but you must have faith in you, and faith in your Creator to reach your goals.
To give you motivation on goals watches the movie “Rudy.” Moxie and gumption is threaded throughout this classic tale. Rudy Ruddiger’s dream was to play football at the University of Notre Dame. He was focused, he was determined and he played football because he was motivated to reach his destiny. To can too, just stay on the path!
7. Discipline
Everyone needs to have discipline in their lives. Develop an effective time-management system that you will adhere to. Remember to plan you work and work your plan. If you have a difficult time remaining disciplined, then review step six to stay motivated. Look at your future, get passionate and see yourself with you end result.
8. Flexibility
There are times when the best of plans will need to be modified or changed. Do not be afraid to modify your plans or your goals.
9. Rest
In order to reach your destiny you must also enjoy your time. We are on this earth for a short time, enjoy it. Get out and enjoy time with friends, family and peers. Attend social functions and give yourself time to unwind. The more relaxed that you are the more your spirit will soar to new heights.
10. Go for it.
Taking your first steps toward a new beginning creates anxiety. You are changing and no one enjoys this. Change removes us from the status quo and this creates anxiety. Yet you must be so motivated to change so that you can not only enjoy the beginning but also the end result. See yourself reach your dreams. Picture yourself with the new car, the new job, the new girl/guy or your biggest sale. Let your destiny carry you forward to motivate you to begin.

Summary
The journey for your happiness and your future professional success consists of not going to new areas but examining old ones. When you look at the world through a new set of eyes you see things differently.

Stick to your plan and you are destined to achieve your dreams. Yet you must plan work and work your plan. You cannot change without a plan. For me PLAN means Plan to Live And Never be unhappy.

About the Author
Drew Stevens PhD assists organizations sell more in less time through high level sales and customer service information sessions and consulting. Drew is the author of 4 books including Split Second Selling and Split Second Customer Service. Drew Stevens has been interviewed frequently in the media and his clients include American International Group, AT&T, Hilton Hotels, The Federal Reserve Bank and Reliv International, The New York Times, Mercy Health Plans, Quicken Loans, and over 200 leading organizations. For more information please visit www.gettingtothefinishline.com -- or call 877-391-6821.

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Posted by Drew Stevens at 6:41 PM | | Comments

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Aligning the Business Strategy with the Selling Process

Sales forces today are too tactical. In the increasing age and rage of globalization and Internet, competition rises. Assisting to thwart competitive forces, organizations typically hire more talent to sell more products or push one brand over another. Present organizations must sell smarter not harder. Enclosed are three immediate areas of focus.

Tactical Selling Teams
Tactical sales forces do not work in today’s complex and connected world. Sales representatives are myopic to the needs of the organization focusing only on the “product/service” of the day. For many firms such as a GE, Ingersoll Rand, or Textron that might service clients multiple ways clients see multiple representatives. his loses your bargaining power, your client value, and positioning.

Solution = First find the driving forces of your organization. Realign sales representatives so that your core values and related benefits are aligned with client solutions.

Alignment with customer values
Most clients comprehend your company information prior to any sales visit. Prospective clients seek to parallel a selling firm’s values with their own. So if a potential client seeks to gain marketshare using productivity efficiency then your offering must focus on the efficiency.

Solution = Sales representatives need to research client and offer value not price. Sales professionals must acknowledge client industry trends; statistical analysis and benchmarking to better align client issues with your firms core competencies.

Customer to Customer Influences are too strong
Truth be told, on exceptional client experience tells another; one poor experience gains a feature story on the front of “The Wall Street Journal”. One strategic driver for all organizations must be uncompromised client service. Southwest Airlines, McDonald’s and most recently Starbuck’s exist to please the customer. Each firm takes pride in the customer experience.

Solution = Review your customer experience and decipher how your clients mesh with your corporate strategy.

Aligning selling practices with the business strategy is not difficult nor art; it is a requirement for the business. Simply put, the lights are inoperable, computer screens are blank and salaries are unpaid unless something is sold. Strategy deploys resources to meet the vision and values for your organizations.

About the Author

Drew Stevens PhD assists organizations sell more in less time through high level sales and customer service information sessions and consulting. Drew is the author of 4 books including Split Second Selling and Split Second Customer Service. Drew Stevens has been interviewed frequently in the media and his clients include American International Group, AT&T, Hilton Hotels, The Federal Reserve Bank and Reliv International, The New York Times, Mercy Health Plans, Quicken Loans, and over 200 leading organizations. For more information please visit www.gettingtothefinishline.com -- or call 877-391-6821.

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Posted by Drew Stevens at 6:38 PM | | Comments

Friday, March 2, 2007

Surviving the Storm - Regain Clients when Mother Nature Hits

The recent early spring storms find that many entrepreneurs and retail owners are not ready to survive the storm. Early research depicts that many owners fail to store vital data that enables them to return quickly to operations.

There are numerous ideas to clear the clouds and ensure sunshine after the storm. Listed here are several ideas for you to help owners when another storm hits.

Data backups – Owners must conduct a data backs of cash receipts and customer databases daily. This is the only way to remain ahead of the game should a storm shut down operations.
Memory Sticks – Recent technology is wonderful and provides a myriad of devices to store data. Find something convenient but find something. The least expensive and easiest in the event owners need to back up quickly include 4GB SD drives, 120GB portable USB drives and memory sticks.
Paper – In the world of technology, ironically paper still reigns supreme as people are buried with the plethora of electronic information. When possible make prints and place them in a dry, fireproof and secure environment.
Security is key – Making backups requires more than one location for storage. If possible obtain a safe for your location and once per week duplicate a copy of yoru customer and receipt data and place in a bank vault for safety.
Multiplication counts – Based on your day and the volatility of your area, for example southern states where bad weather typically hits, make backups multiple times per day to ensure safety.

Mother Nature is very unpredictable and very volatile. However, nothing is more important than surviving the storm. Attempt these practical and time saving backups and you will seek sunshine in the return of your customers sooner.

About the Expert

Drew Stevens PhD assists organizations sell more in less time through high level sales and customer service consulting and information sessions. Drew is the author of four books including Split Second Selling™, and Split Second Customer Service™. Drew Stevens has been interviewed and quoted frequently in the media and his clients include American International Group, Hilton Hotels, AT&T, The Federal Reserve Bank, Reliv International, The New York Times, Mercy Health Plans Quicken Loans and over 200 other leading organizations. For more information please visit http://www.gettingtothefinishline.com/ or call Drew Stevens at 877-391-6821.

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Posted by Drew Stevens at 12:08 PM | | Comments

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Spring Training for Real Estate Sales Agents

Spring Training for Real Estate Agents
Methods to play in the field of dreams

I know, the economy is down, clients are difficult to deal with and your sales manager is asking – What have you done for me lately? So what is a sales professional to do?

Rather than worry about what is going wrong, work on your strengths and eliminate those limitations. Great sales agents are creative and innovative. Since now is the time to think about spring and most specifically Spring Training, it is a perfect time to do what the ball players do- go back to basics.

Three simple techniques that will improve your sales game include:

Running with Referrals
The greatest gift for any selling representative is a satisfied customer. To get you into the field of play, make a list of your 25 or 30 recent clients. Personally contact them. Make conversation and determine if you can assist in a professional or personal matter. Determine future needs and enact as a consultant, making recommendations. Once you have established good rapport, ask this question, “As I seek to grow my business, I am curious if you would not mind sharing the name of someone that might have a need for the value that I provide.” Do not be surprised when you obtain a sizable list of new referrals from one simple question. Simply put, the best way to grow your business and remain in the field of play is to ask for referrals.

Error Free Sales Presentations
Many sales agents focus on homes that people want. They focus on interior, exterior etc. Save time and aggravation- rather than focus on want, become a contrarian. Cast off the “have not’s”. Remember your last sales appointment? Do you remember riding around and reviewing 16 homes only to determine all the things the buyers did not like? Save time upfront and quickly list all the items that buyers do not like/want. This saves time and money and helps to focus on the home the buyer really desires.

Get in the field of play
Recent studies show that the difference between an Olympic athlete and a weekend warrior are not much. The difference between the two is simply a desire for excellence and an ability to believe in their creativity. And one other difference is the ability to practice and work each day in achieving excellence. To refrain from volatile sales dips, good sales agents must constantly be in the field of play, they must be visible. Athletic selling professionals take extra phone shifts; they network within peer groups and within rotaries and other associations for leads. Perhaps athletic agents write articles in local periodicals or teach classes at universities or community colleges. No matter what the athletic agent is one that rises like a phoenix and does the little extras for visibility, for their clients, and more importantly sales.

Sales success does not require home runs. However, consistently keeping your eyes on the ball, being in the field of play and catching errors are the ways to achieve success. Why not use some of these techniques during spring training to help focus your team and create your field of selling dreams.


Drew Stevens PhD assists organizations sell more in less time through high level sales and customer service consulting and information sessions. Drew is the author of four books including Split Second Selling™, and Split Second Customer Service™. Drew Stevens has been interviewed and quoted frequently in the media and his clients include American International Group, Hilton Hotels, AT&T, The Federal Reserve Bank, Reliv International, The New York Times, Mercy Health Plans Quicken Loans and over 200 other leading organizations. For more information please visit www.gettingtothefinishline.com or call Drew Stevens at 877-391-6821.

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Posted by Drew Stevens at 9:37 PM | | Comments

Friday, February 23, 2007

Split Second Selling Book Review


Split Second Selling
Drew Stevens PhD




Why read another book on selling? Simple. Today’s client is more informed more sophisticated and has more access to information. Selling professionals today need be keener to fulfilling the needs of the client by offering value, and most important trust. More important, the selling process has changed and must now be aligned with the overall business process. Sales forces are much too tactical. In the increasing age and rage of globalization and the internet, competition rises. Assisting to thwart competitive forces, organizations typically hire more talent to sell more products or push one brand over another. Present organizations must sell smarter not harder.

Customers are seeing right through the selling representative and deplore the selling approach. Sales representatives are myopic to the needs of the organization focusing only on the “product/service” of the day. For many firms a client obtains mixed messages and misunderstands the message of your organization. Rather than use your existing lines of business, clients turn to your competitors. This loses your bargaining power, your client value, and positioning. The solution lies in adjusting to your client by offering measurements and value.

Clients need to understand value as it equates to return on investment. As shareholders continually question performance and expenses, calculated returns diminish consternation. Helping clients save time, money, resource focuses on bottom-line performance and instills customer value.

Split Second Selling will show you how to increase your sales and align with customer value. Based on over 26 years of research and experience, Drew Stevens provides a simple and easy to use formula to get you from the starting line to the finish line. Drew has condensed the myriad of selling concepts and ideas into a simple and easy to remember formula known as PRACTICE™.

The PRACTICE formula takes the selling representative from tactician to strategist. Strategy creates value and commissions, tacticians create competition. Athletes practice to strategize their game plan through repetition. The selling profession emulates athletics. Strategies and efficiencies are creating by practicing sales! To get finish line results and higher commissions, you must PRACTICE every day! And similar to the athlete, repetition is the key to individual success.

As Mohammed Ali once said, “It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief.”

The seven steps of PRACTICE are:
Planning – The most vital process for any successful sales professional. Sales professionals must plan each call and be prepared to offer prospective clients all the essential information.

Rapport – Building rapport is one of the largest hurdles for any sales representative. You have to get to know strangers. You must always discover new ways to connect to people and help them resolve their issues.

Attention – Buyers today are distracted by email, voicemail, the internet, remote controls, cell phones, etc. Sales professionals must rise above the din to be heard. And, more importantly, you must keep the buyer’s interest in spite of the multiple distractions that are clamoring for their attention.

Conviction – Each call must be customized with the tools and techniques that can truly reach the buyer. Items such as testimonials, statistical studies, charts, graphs, and schematics are just some of the items you will need.

Trial Close –The only way to determine if you are in line with the prospects’ wants and needs is to ask. Many sales professionals don’t.

Interest – If you want someone to buy something from you, it is necessary that you interest them. This means using tools like rapport-building and fact-finding to determine if there is alignment between the prospect’s interest and the perceived value.

Close – Never forget to ask for what you came to obtain. Closing is one of the most vital steps in the sales process. If you do not close, you do not make any money.

Education/Enthusiasm – Selling is a unique business. Your interest or lack thereof will illustrate itself during every presentation. And your enthusiasm must reign, even though you will get much rejection in the sales game. Sales professionals can learn something with every call or presentation. Always have an open mind and be learning, and you will gain much.

Split Second Selling not only includes selling techniques and procedures but also includes ideas and principles that will help you to add to the quality of your life and your career.

Split Second Selling will illustrate how to:

Identify client needs easier
Become more efficient and productive in the selling process
Enhance customer relations
Understand the role of today’s sales professional
Improve your ability to communicate with others

Pick up this book and begin using it now! Let it illustrate how to create confidence, enthusiasm and passion for selling. Let the book become the catalyst that provides a path to finding the decision maker, the ideology to convince your prospective buyer, the mechanism that defies objection barriers and the structure that clearly sends you straight to the finish line! There exist a host of assets in this book long before you finish reading it. These ideas are meant to provide split second results!

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Posted by Drew Stevens at 10:34 PM | | Comments

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

4 Business Success Factors

Many of my clients are either small to medium business owners (5 to 150 million in annual revenue). My focus in working with them is in the areas of profits and productivity. These hard working ladies and gentlemen have may aspirations- one of these is while creating profits for the company is making a high level six and seven figure income. The question then remains, how?

In my many years of sales and entrepreneurship, I have become knowledgeable in the four vial areas of success. These include sales, marketing, financial and personal processes.

My belief is that in order to run a profitable, successful and lucrative business all four processes must share equal time and attention. Business owners must focus on these four aspects to create success and most importantly must have others in the company understand the importance of these as all become completely entrenched in sharing the mission, vision and pragmatism of the company.

To begin, a sale is perhaps the most crucial element of any firm. Without sales nothing happens, the lights do not illuminate, phones do not chime and computers do not buzz with necessary content to create business inventory. An owner must concentrate all outbound efforts on creating the necessary communication to produce the necessary revenue to operate a profitable firm.

The second critical element is marketing. There tends to be confusion between sales and marketing. With sales owners are aligning products and services with the wants and needs of the prospective buyer. Marketing is the essence of the message and how you communicate your services to indicate to potential buyers that your product exists.

The third critical element is financial. Give anyone money and they can easily spend. Business owners can either be too frugal or spendthrift. Successful people understand the importance of balancing this. Great business owners understand money must be invested in sales and in marketing so that the public is aware of your offerings. Business owners must spend money on advertising and promotions or on lunches and presentations so that potential clients understand how your product or service meets the need. Yet while money is invested in these vital elements money coming in from sales must also be invested and most importantly saved for future use. Business like much in life is cyclical and business owners understand the importance of riding the volatility curves of business cycles, economic turbulence and buying trends.

Our last process element is as important as the other three. The personal process is about you. The personal element means creating balance in your life. You must gain time for family, time for your creator, time for education and civic duties or however you want to spend time on you. The hardest part of ownership is breaking away from the conundrum of business and providing necessary “downtime” for you to rejuvenate and recharge, doing so enables you to remain passionate, remain persistent and remain powerful in staying the course for success. Achievement is not only about how much money you bring to your wallet but the passion and commitment you make to you.

While many owners are seeking a magic bullet or a secret to success it will surprise you to learn that it does not exist. Balance, commitment and consistency are the true keys. Committing to equilibrium in sales, marketing, and financial and personal gain you are guaranteed success in your business and perhaps the millions that keep you awake at night!

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Posted by Drew Stevens at 3:02 PM | | Comments