The Power of Habits training is based on the New York bestselling author, Charles Duhigg’s book of the same name, “The Power of Habits”. During the Covid lockdown I completed the Power of Habits training course and learned how habits work and how to unlock the power to change them. The training taught me the skills to identify and create the habits needed for success within your organisation. The course focused on the science of habit formation and helped us to learn how to recognise when they need to change, what behaviours they ought to change, and how to make the desired behaviours stick. It sounds simple but in practise it’s much more difficult, for example,
a) Identify the habits,
b) Use skill instead of will, to replace limiting habits with effective ones, and
c) Create new routines that produce desired outcomes.
Self reflection
According to Indeed business leadership refers to how individuals make decisions, set goals, and provide direction in a professional environment. Business leadership can take many different forms, but usually involves a CEO or higher-level employees guiding and inspiring the rest of the team. I have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the core elements of business leadership and I think the essential business management skills should include:
Critical and strategic thinking
Communication
Problem-solving
Organisation
Presenting
Reporting
Leadership
Project management
Tell the truth
c/o Apple TV
Many of you have heard about the Apple TV series, “Ted Lasso”, perhaps you have seen it. It’s about an American football coach Ted Lasso who is hired by a wealthy divorcée to coach the English football (soccer)team AFC Richmond. Here’s 10 leadership lessons from Ted Lasso:
1. Believe in believe
2. Live in the moment
3. Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing
4. All people are different people
5. Optimism is a superpower
6. Be kind
7. Tell the truth
8. Happiness is a choice
9. Forgive first
10. See the good in others
Many of you may also have heard the English phrase, “Many a true word is spoken in jest.” Watching “Ted Lasso” may not make you a better sales leader. What’s wrong with sales leadership today and how I can fix it? Contact me via e-mail if you are interested in hearing more.
Focal point
I am focused on working with entrepreneurs, leaders, and team's - helping them to focus on their company’s performance and culture by integrating commercial excellence into the heart of their business. So that they can become more strategic, productive, agile, and commercially successful. In most areas of life, I think it’s more hard work and dedication than natural ability and talent that leads to excellence and great success. You begin your journey to excellence by asking the question: “What additional skills, knowledge and information will I need to lead my field in the months and years ahead?”
What one skill if you developed and did it in an excellent fashion would have the greatest positive impact on your career? The answer to this question is essential if you are to achieve excellence in your field. When you find out the answer, then focus all of your energy on improving performance in this one particular area. In my experience, if your principles are right and aligned with your purpose, and your leadership has a clear vision, focus and authenticity then your business will be in profit in so many ways.
“Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.”
Improve your outcomes
Some people are good at negotiating for their own interest and some people are not. Which one of these two types of people do you want to be? One of your main jobs in life, one that will lead to increased levels of self confidence is to become more effective in influencing others by learning great negotiation skills and choosing good questions to ask. I think the best negotiators all have basically the same characteristics and qualities, they are pleasant people, they are warm, friendly, and humble. You have an automatic tendency to trust someone with great negotiation skills and feel what they are asking for is in the best interests of both parties.
Skilled negotiators are usually quite concerned about finding a solution or an agreement that is satisfactory for both parties. They look for “win-win” situations, where both parties are happy with the results of the negotiation. It’s imperative that you choose good questions to ask and try to understand what both parties are trying to achieve from the negotiation. I think that finding good questions to ask about a customer’s needs is the only way you will be able to find out what exactly is important to them in a negotiation. And it is important to show the customer other benefits they are receiving.
Good negotiators are patient, and they concentrate first on getting agreements on all the parts of the contract that the two parties have in common, before they go on seeking for amicable ways to settle the other issues. Good negotiators also take their time to prepare good questions to ask to get clarity and understand each point as they go along to ensure that there are no confusions later in the negotiations. Remember, price is not always the most important thing in negotiations. Contact me via e-mail for negotiation training and workshops.
To listen is to pay attention to
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?
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.
You can figure it out by yourself
I won the birthday lottery and have great parents who encouraged me to follow my dreams and do something of use. I think skills are far more important than talent, because we are all born with talent. Here are nine qualities I admire more than skills:
Compassion
Sympathy
Empathy
Kindness
Gratitude
Humility
Patience
Self awareness
Sincerity
Contact me via e-mail as I will not tell you what to do, I will just guide and help you figure out how to best use the resources that are available.
That's not my problem
As sales persons our job is to get the deal and when I say deal, I mean reduce costs, increase revenue or add commercial value. What I have learned over the years is that people mostly care about themselves. I’m quite meticulous around preparation and tend to go into sales meetings with right team and technical knowledge, as I don’t want to be the guy who turns up and is the idiot in the room. The penny dropped for me about sales training in 2010 after I stopped working for Aquascutum. I realised that sales is a performance and to perform well you have to practice, you have to analyse what you do - both the good and the bad - and you have to perform on the day and that takes a lot of effort and thinking and preparation. And this is the fundamental thing I take with me in everything - “Practice makes perfect”.
When you first get into sales you are taught about how to do the pitch (think about yourself), how great the product is and all that good stuff. It doesn’t really wash because everybody cares about themselves the most. The key to interpersonal skills is to try to be interested in the person that you are dealing with, and if you can build upon that and be authentically interested in the industry and domain that you are working in and this will ensure that you always will have great questions to ask. Buyers who are commercially astute and intelligent are formidable opponents when going into discussions or negotiations with them. Contact me via e-mail for your sales training and workshops.
The competency model for salespersons
Do you want to have a career in sales? I think a modern salesperson requires these below 9 attributes and 8 skills if they want to be seen as competent sales professional.
The nine attributes are as follows:
1. Self-discipline
2. Optimism (attitude)
3. Caring (other-orientation)
4. Competitiveness
5. Resourcefulness
6. Initiative
7. Persistence
8. Communication, and
9. Accountability.
The skills are as follows:
a) Closing
b) Prospecting
c) Storytelling
d) Diagnosing
e) Negotiating
f) Business acumen
g) Change management, and
h) Leadership.
While possessing these skills doesn’t guarantee success, they are critical for carrying out the daily duties of a sales professional. Are you interested in reviewing some of the competencies that are most beneficial your sales team? Contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting or workshop.