SalesFu

10 Commandments of SalesFu – How to be a #Sales Ninja

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Do you have all the information and knowledge about your product but still can’t close the deal? Do you have a fear of selling because you aren’t sure what to do? Do you not want to be “That Guy” or “That Girl” that’s always trying to sell and is annoying as heck? Are you constantly being told “No”, or worse yet, “Maybe”? If you or anyone you know needs to grow into a better salesperson share, like, re-post or whatever you need to do to get this info into their hands. Kicktras

You MUST learn the 10 Commandments of SalesFu.

You need to be a Sales Ninja in today’s world to not only compete, but to dominate.

I’ll go into detail on each. Here they are-

The Sales Ninja

10 Commandments of SalesFu

  1. Be Agreeable
  2. Power of One   (More, Step, Goal)
  3. P.O.P – Power of Please
  4. Don’t Bite the Hand
  5. Be Honest
  6. Over Communicate
  7. No Excuses
  8. Put it in Writing
  9. Treat Others the Way THEY Want to be Treated.
  10. Ask for the Business

 

#1 Always Agree.  Just do it. Record your conversations and see how often you disagree with a customer. SalesFu is all about taking that negative energy and redirecting to service a positive purpose, like closing the deal. If the customer throws you a verbal right hook, you don’t take a verbal swing back and start an argument. You simply step out of the way or duck, then give a gentle nudge to the customer and use their own momentum to keep them moving in the direction they wanted. Never argue with a customer, in a worse case scenario at least agree to disagree.

#2 Power of One. One More, One Step, One Goal. I’m a huge fan of the Number One. I want to be #1. The Number One also means Unity. It means all forces moving in the same direction. People ask how I’m doing all the time. I always tell them, “I’m doing great! I’m saving the world 1 Sale at a time.” and I believe it. People who are extraordinary did very ordinary things, they just did them more often and in a specific order under circumstances when most people would have quit. Make a phone call isn’t hard or extraordinary, but making that phone call after you’ve already made 199 that day takes commitment. After you throw in the towel, always do one more. Define the small steps you need to take in order to achieve a large goal. Focus on the step needed, but never forget about your long term Goal.

#3 P.O.P. – Power of Please. People a little POP in your Sales. People forget to be polite these days, I’m not sure why. Being polite has never killed a deal for me, but I’ve seen plenty of deals crushed because of someone being rude, or being misinterpreted as being rude. Be Self Aware. We don’t about this a lot in Sales, but being Self Aware of how you are viewed and interpreted is crucial to success. It makes absolutely no difference if you meant to say something in jest, but it was taken as a biting comment. I once saw an Old Girlfriend after about 4 years and it was a very hot day. She was wearing an all black outfit and probably wasn’t keen on being seen trudging on a college campus with a heavy backpack in the hot Hawaiian humidity. I’m not sure why, but I told her she looked hot. I meant it, she looked like she needed a cold glass of water or a dip in the ocean. I don’t think she took it that way. On a side note though because of the power of reciprocity she struggled but eventually said a few nice things about me. I was polite and unintentionally said something nice about her and so she was nice and said some nice things back. This goes for sales too, try to anticipate how the words you are saying will be interpreted and always be polite. People want to buy from people they like.

#4 Don’t Bite the Hand. I hate it when I hears sales people complaining about customers. It’s a sign of personal weakness. It’s a sign that you aren’t a true sales professional and a sign that you want to place blame instead of accepting responsibility. I’ve fired salespeople for speaking poorly of the people that pay the bills. Never ever bite the hand that feeds you. Whether or not a customer buys from you is irrelevant, that person may buy the product or service in the future and it’s entirely your fault that you didn’t get the deal. Getting a Win isn’t that difficult. Even if a customer CAN NOT take advantage of your product or service, you are selling hair cuts and you find out the customer is wearing a wig due to Cancer. Can they buy your product? After that customer leaves your store you can complain about why the hell a bald lady was in a hair salon on a busy Saturday, buy you should look inside and find an answer. Why was that customer in your store? Was she looking for a friend? Can she be a referral source? Was she looking to find partners to help support a program to make new wigs and get donated hair? Was she looking for a job? Was she just missing her hair and wanted to see the different styles? There was still a way to leave on good terms and there was a opportunity there that you missed. Success is your fault.

#5 Be Honest. Don’t over promise and under deliver. Even though that customer got on board with you if it’s a bad experience it will hurt your business in the long run. Be Honest with yourself about your product and your service. You have to believe in whatever you do 100% and you can’t do that unless you are authentic and honest.

#6 Over Communicate. People love status updates in today’s world. We all have short attention spans heck, I have a pizza tracker. It tells me when my pizza is in the oven, when it’s being boxed and when it’s on the car for delivery. Thank you Dominoes. Did I need that info? Nope,  for years I’ve waited patiently for the 35 minutes to pass in order to get my pizza and it’s always gotten there. Update you customers more than you think you need to, it breeds confidence and familiarity. If someone doesn’t want that much communication they can delete the email or send you to voicemail. It’s better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it. Over Communication will save your deals.

#7 No Excuses. When you do something wrong, fess up and make it right. You must take responsibility for every single facet of the experience, nothing is excluded. A 3rd party provider drops the ball and the service is interrupted or late. Is that your fault? What if the 3rd party service was selected by your customer because they had a previous business relationship? Is it still your fault? The short answer is YES. You picked the 3rd party vendor and by affiliating yourself you MUST take responsibility for their actions, get another provider if you need to. Even if the customer chose their own provider, let’s say they wanted their own mechanic to install your product, or you are a mortgage broker and your customer chose their own title agent, it is still your responsibility to make sure that the product is installed or the money is there.

#8 Put it in Writing. My mother once told me to “Trust, but Verify.” and still holds true today. People want to trust what you say, but they get peace of mind when you put it in writing. I also can’t tell you how often something got lost in translation or a trick of the brain and what was agreed to meant something completely different to each party. I once agreed to start a project within 5 days, the customer thought I’d be done in 5 days. Put it in writing and save yourself the trouble. You have testimonials or a great rating in some magazine? Get it in writing and send it to your customer, have it framed and put on the wall. Seeing it in black and white means something completely different than talking about it to most people.

#9 Treat Others the Way THEY Want to be Treated.   I take a lot of heat for this from some sales professionals. I’m a huge advocate of communication and being self aware of how that communication is interpreted. I think that the majority of Sales Skills come from proper communication skills. I’m talking about how your message is perceived. I encourage you to mirror your clients, slow down your pace or change the vocabulary you use to talk about a feature. A business man may want to talk about the ROI of a product while the lay person might just need you to say that the product pays for itself. I want to be guided through the process and I pay extra for convenience, that doesn’t mean that I don’t respect the buyer who does all their own research and wants me to be hands off. I sell and communicate in a way that is comfortable for our buyer, and doesn’t impact the authenticity or the facts about my product or service. It just makes it more palatable.

#10 Ask for the Business.  Come on, you’ve gone through all the trouble already to get someone interested. Too often sales people just keep selling until the customer says something like, “So what do we do next?” until they close. They consider that a buying sign and so they will talk about the contract and then put the contract on the table eventually. That isn’t selling though. That’s like asking a girl out after she says that if you ask her she will say yes. It’s not the same thing. You have to be willing to put the customer in a position to tell you No. You want to get a Yes or a No so you can move on to the next prospect and make a living for yourself. You have invested the energy to learn your craft and get the customer to agree with you and buy into who you are. Use all that sales capital that you’ve been building up, and Ask for the Business in a very direct and clear cut manner. “Listen Friend, we could probably spend a few more hours swapping stories and me telling you how great our product is, but you probably want to find out for yourself and I’d like to have a reason to come out and visit more often. Let’s place an order, (seal the deal, lock in the terms, put down a credit card, sign the contract), so that you can see first hand what I’ve been talking about. Are we in Business?”

 

There you go. Use these to be great. If you or anyone you know needs to grow into a better salesperson share, like, re-post or whatever you need to do to get this info into their hands.  www.salesfumaster.com    @salesfumaster

 

 

 

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week #22 – Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life by Grant Cardone

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This book is Grant Cardone at his best. If you follow Grant in any way shape or form, you probably know a ton about what’s in this book already. The benefit of the book is that it’s all in a condensed format and laid out in an orderly fashion. Grant’s trademark energy and enthusiasm keep the momentum going and there isn’t any down time in the entire book. Buckle up.

SellorBeSold

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week #22 – Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life by Grant Cardone

 

Grant gets the ball rolling by letting us know that this entire book is really just one of the things that Grant is great at, it’s re-purposed, repackaged, updated and improved, but it’s based a lot on his first book- Sell to Survive.  Grant regularly takes his content and figures out a way to double or triple dip on the business opportunity. His videos and webinars can be paid for Live, bought it the entirety after the fact or often included in a package deal with other content. He is indeed always selling, but it’s also how he sells and how he leverages his efforts that are important.

Grant is a PR, Marketing Machine. His work ethic is ridiculous to most and he talks a lot about that in the 10X rule. In Sell or be Sold he casts a wide net by not just appealing to the Sales Industry which I’m sure is a good play for him and also really paints the picture for people in the Sales world to realize that it’s OK, in fact it’s good to be immersed in the constant effort to be better at Sales.

We often talk about “Always Be Closing”, (a phrase made popular by the movie “Glengarry Glen Ross”), but Grant takes pains to make sure that there is a difference between Selling, and Closing. Two different parts of the process but both are vital. Selling is all about building up the momentum, excitement and trust while Closing is about actually signing on the dotted line.

Sales is everywhere. I had to sell the guy next to me on the on ramp today on letting me into the lane. I had to show him my intentions and make it public by turning on my blinker. That didn’t work so after foreshadowing that I wanted into that lane I had to show my determination, my relentless will to get into that lane by just putting the nose of my car into that lane 6 inches in front of his car. He saw that I was determined, he saw that I was committed and that I wasn’t going away. He could have decided that he was more committed to not letting me in. He could have honked his horn and tried to gun his engine and swerved a little to go around me, but he didn’t. He wasn’t sold on my blinker. He wasn’t sold on my speed change to try to give him time to make space for me. He wasn’t sold by how long I hung out it that space. He was only sold when staked my claim on 6 inches of space. It’s always Sales.

Selling is a way of life. It makes the world go around and it’s a vital role in the economy, the ecology and the sociology of the planet. Commerce is good. If commerce isn’t going away, we should all just get better at it.

 

 

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week #21 – The Sales Bible, New Edition: The Ultimate Sales Resource – by Jeffrey Gitomer

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I read the Little Red of Book of Sales, but hadn’t read the book that put Gitomer on the map. The Sales Bible is a TOME of information tSalesBiblehat just doesn’t quit. I did the audio book version, but there were so many lists that now I’ve got to go back to the physical copy and even check out his website and use the various GITBIT’s that he mentions.

 

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week #21 – The Sales Bible, New Edition: The Ultimate Sales Resource – by Jeffrey Gitomer

 

There are sales books and then there are Sales Books. Gitomer wrote the little red book which was just about the first ever sales book that I ever picked up. I’ve been reading his stuff for a long time, but for some reason I never read his first book. By all accounts, it’s a massive amount of information and it’s full of additional info and references updated for today’s world. Gitomer is always straight forward and to the point. I enjoy his bullet points and lists, sales people are often short on attention spans and lists are a great way to get across a lot of info in a short amount of time.

This book almost has too much info in it, we move so quickly from list to list that this is really a book that should be used a reference, and not a book to be read from cover to cover. The volume should definitely sit on every salesperson’s library shelf, it can be perused and looked at for 30 seconds or 30 minutes, it’s all up to you. You don’t always have to agree with Gitomer and whether or not cold calls are dead or a way of life, but you should be thinking about your career and studying the various ways that people have been successful. You can learn from Gitomer, I guarantee it.

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 17 – The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, & Craig Walsh

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I’m a sucker for anything involving the San Francisco 49ers. I have several coffee mugs, too many t-shirts to count, my favorite sweatshirt, old game memorabilia and now I’m adding to the list with a copy of this book. Never before has my personal fandom for the 49ers crossed paths with my professional aspirations, luckily it is a happy collision of worlds.

BillWalsh
52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 17 – The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, & Craig Walsh

 

I grew up a fan of the NFL. I remember watching the games from a very early age, the late 70’s and the early 80’s were full of Cowboys, Raiders and 49ers doing battle weekly on the gridiron. I grew up in the bay area of Northern California and it was a great time to be a 49er fan. We would meet weekly on Sunday for BBQ and NFL. More often than not in those days, the 49ers would come away with a victory. I would see Coach Bill Walsh on TV interacting with Joe Montana and the rest of the team along with the press conferences after the game with his minimal commentary. i was always impressed with his focus and demeanor during the game. He rarely lost his cool in front of the camera, he was a rock solid fixture on the sidelines. When I realized he had a book published on leadership I grabbed at the chance to read it.

The book itself was completed from interviews, various writings and lectures given over  long span of time, but it’s woven together to reflect primarily the time that Bill Walsh was in the NFL. He wasn’t always right, but the book is written with a 20/20 hindsight so Bill gets to correct his mistakes for the readers benefit. Bill gets to tell us the story of how he rose to fame, it’s true that every overnight success had a long road to walk before anyone realized he was even there. This was true for Bill so we got to see the story of how he rose to be the leader of the 49ers against all odds and despite several significant road blocks. Bill had great will power and the ability to carry out his plan before anyone with the ability to stop him realized  that they should or could. Bill was allowed time to bring his vision to fruition, and his leadership was allowed to take hold.

Bill Walsh broke the normal pattern of Iron Fist leaders and Tough Guy approaches to discipline in order to lead with a balance of respect and unwavering commitment to the goals. It’s Bill’s commitment to the end zone that is uncanny, it’s his will power to create his system and to stick with it until the end and the few times he has deviated from his system he’s regretted it. Bill had a great system in mind, it was complex and simple and grand and minute all at the same time. At least half of the books I’ve read this year have a code, a set of rules or guidelines that were adhered to strictly in a quest for success. Bill is no different, his system was well defined, clear and concise. He wrote down everything and followed through to make sure that it was explained and completed to his specifications. Follow Bill’s path, read this book and then write down your goals, but then take it a step further and really go into depth with a plan to achieve them. Once you write down your goals, share them and come up with a plan to implement and execute on them. Success doesn’t come overnight and it doesn’t come easy, it comes with a lot of hard work. The book I read introduced me to a Bill Walsh I didn’t get to see on television, it introduced me to a mad scientist who was full of fear, who had self confidence issues and dealt with constant doubting but who ultimately overcame all of that to lead with passion one of the greatest dynasties in sports history. Take a look and let me know what you think. If you do the right things, day after day, will the score really take care of itself?

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 15 – Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal by Oren Klaff

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Formula’s and systems work. The biggest secret in the world is that they all work, just to varying degrees based on your effort. The simple fact of the matter is that EffoPitchAnythingrt X Skill brings Success. The reason the 10x system works is because most people just apply 10x the effort and by massive repetition also become more efficient and up their skill level. It takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice to become a true master of just about any skill. So if you work harder you’ll reach that milestone faster. The secret to this book however is the simple sales skill hack. Use this method and your SKILL will rise dramatically and quickly.

 

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 15 – Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal by Oren Klaff

 

There are a ton of great sales nuggets in this book, (particularly about sales psychology which is a favorite topic of mine), but the backbone of the book revolves around Oren’s simple 6 step method which he calls STRONG.

Setting the Frame
Telling the Story
Revealing the Intrigue
Offering the Prize
Nailing the Hookpoint
Getting a Decision

He dives into each category with enough detail to convey the meaning with ample example’s and I’m sure he could have written more about each step. It’s the attention to detail that I’ve found is the hallmark of great success in any category. There are levels of detail, and then there LEVELS OF DETAIL and Oren has certainly raised the bar. The interesting thing is that the book is a great balance, it dives in deep but then pulls you back before you get bogged down in the minutia.

If you can imagine yourself using the STRONG system in your own line of work you’ll get the most use out of this book. You’ve got to take this information and apply it right away, even if it’s not quite perfect I’d run with it. I’d take a full blown sincere failure over a halfhearted success story any day of the week. Use this system sincerely and with full commitment and you’ll win the deal more often than not.

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 14 – Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness by Jeffrey Gitomer

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I’m traveling this week, which gives me lots of down time to read and or listen to my Audio Books. Gitomer has long been one of my favorite Sales Inspirations. HLittleRedBooke’s energetic, direct and his tips are quick hitting with meaning. He always leaves you with very specific takeaways and has a great mindset. I don’t think this book reads particularly well cover to cover, but I did it anyway.

 

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 14 – Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness by Jeffrey Gitomer

 

 

First, if you haven’t read Gitomer you need to go check it out right now. Every sales professional on the planet should know Jeffrey Gitomer’s stuff. He puts out an amazing amount of content and I’ve thought about his Certified program which gives guidance on all of it and allows you to teach his material to others. There is a mountain of material to get through.

Somehow each individual piece that Gitomer does seems like it’s in little bite sized pieces. This book doesn’t look intimidating and so it’s easy for someone to pick it up and flip to any particular page and read a cartoon and some bright bold font to pick up a hint. You can actually use that hint that same day, these aren’t complicated work tracks to remember or odd studies on facial expressions to get some insight. Gitomer teaches mindset and closing techniques, and he keeps it simple.

I had probably read 60% of the book via the flip to any page and pull out a tip method, but reading it cover to cover gave me more of a sense for how he teaches and his thought pattern. Sales is all about the inspiration, perspiration and preparation not necessarily in that order and reading the Little Red Book should be in any Sales 101 curriculum. It’s entertaining, helpful and whether you are on day 2 or day 10,002 of your career you can find something helpful in this book.

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 13 – Pitch Perfect – How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time by Bill McGowan

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Funny story, a buddy of mine recommended this book but he actually recommended the wrong book. He meant to recommend Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff, instead I sPitch Perfecttumbled onto this gem. I’m not mad at him, I’ve got 39 more book to go this year and I’m only reporting on the business focused books here. I actually do read more fiction than non and I’m probably averaging 2 books a week this year. I just finished the Novelization of the newest Star Wars movie and I’m on book 10 of the Wheel of Time fantasy series. My friends ask how I find the time to read, but I’m actually shocked at how easy it was to create and maintain the habit of carving out time to read. First I listen to at least half of the books on Audible @ 125% or 150% speed depending on the narration. I find that the faster speed doesn’t degrade the information and in fact I find that I have to pay more attention to the narrator so I retain more of the knowledge. I also learned to speed back in college. I don’t speed read Fiction, I like to slow down and enjoy those books, but i definitely speed read business books, speaking of books, let’s talk about this one.

 

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 13 – How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time by Mike Weinberg by Bill McGowan

 

This isn’t a sales book, it’s a communication book, which if you think about it is pretty much about sales. The author is well established and the entire book seems to be an ad for his consulting services, I’m not actually mad at him about that. I appreciate his balance of knowledge, but not too much that we don’t need some professional assistance. The knowledge given in the book is pretty basic, I think it’s designed to take us from blissful ignorance about our communication styles to a place where we are aware of what we don’t know. It’s like communication 101 for real world applications.

Bill McGowan drops a few names here and there of clients and I’m fairly impressed. The art of communication has changed in the last 2-3 decades but I’m not sure that is because the tried and true methods were false, I think the topics we speak about and the world we live in has changed. I speed read books and want people to talk as fast as my audible account. The mind still picks up on the nuances and gets the gist of what you are saying, if it’s vital information say so.

I had a college professor who had a belt buckle that said “Bull Shit” on it. We asked him why, and he said it’s the key to any great English paper. Start with a ton of Bull Shit and refine it down until you’ve got what you want to say. In today’s world we want you to refine more and more and get to the essence faster. We read faster than we speak so when conducting complicated business transactions we either want to be left alone to read ourselves or we want a customer service agent to summarize everything quickly. I have no idea what the Apple Agreement says. No one does, I bet the guys that wrote it only summarize it as a party trick.  Did you ever try to send out a meaningful message via Twitter? Sometimes it takes me 5 minutes just to get my message down to 140 characters, but I’ve done it every single time. The point is, we could all be more specific in our communication, not just the words we choose, but the way we say it and the message we convey with out bodies.

This is a good book to open your eyes to that world. It’s not going to change your world, but it’ll open your eyes and make you aware.

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 12 – Sales Management. Simplified.: The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team by Mike Weinberg

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Do not go quietly into that good night, do not silently accept anything that isn’t right. SalesManagementI promise that if you do have the items listed in this book, you wouldn’t be worse at your job.

 

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 12 – Sales Management. Simplified.: The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team by Mike Weinberg

 

I’m not sure if Mike Weinberg ever talks about silent acceptance in this book specifically but it is definitely a thread throughout the entire work. All it takes for a good sales team to turn into a disaster is for one good sales manager to silently accept something that shouldn’t be allowed. Most of us know what we should be doing, we just don’t do it all the time, we get by without being consistent or expecting more. If I’m right, you need this book to refresh on what you should be doing, and then take action. If I’m wrong and you have no idea what you are doing, then shame on the person that put you in that position but kudos’ to you for trying to research and find some help, you need this book yesterday.

One thing I really appreciate is Mike’s respect for the bottom line. His takeaways are strong. He gives very specific advice on how to structure sales meetings for teams or 1:1’s for example and I found myself pulling over on the road (I listened to this on Audible.com) and I hit the rewind button and took notes on his specific structure or requirements. I may listen to the book again in the future, there are several chapters that are great reminders for any manager once per year, but I’d recommend buying a hard copy of the book in order to takes notes in the margins. Every chapter has a very specific end game, I wouldn’t be surprised if the author didn’t have twice as much material and really parred down the subject material to the bare necessities. The book feels very refined, not a lot of what I’d consider to be fluff pieces. There were some solid examples and case studies which were entertaining and very illustrative of particular points. There is nothing self serving or distracting from the advice in the book, we know Mike’s a coach but he’s not pitching his service and trying to sell something with his fame. I think he genuinely cares about the condition of industry and the livelihood of every single road warrior, pavement pounder,  door knocker, call center agent and all of their customer’s. All of those Sales Professionals in the industry deserve to have a strong leader, mentor and coach to lead them to success.

If you are a leader, want to become a leader you should take a look at this book. It’s straight forward in it’s content and will give you cause to question where you want to go and make you put together a plan to get there.

 

 

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 11 – Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller – Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century by Napoleon Hill (Author), Arthur R. Pell (Contributor)

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This is the grand-daddy of all the self-help, think positive, motivate and just do it books! It’s hard to imagine that this was originally written in 1937. ThinkandGrowRichI’ve read the updated version for he 21st century so the examples are a little more up to date, but the message is unchanged from almost 80 years ago and still entirely relevant.

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 11 – Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller – Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century by Napoleon Hill (Author), Arthur R. Pell (Contributor)
It’s a testament to the book that as soon as I finished it I had to research Napoleon Hill. As a salesman I appreciate anything that compels me to take action. I searched the website and I actually ordered the $350 complete set of Napoleon Hill’s “Your Right to be Rich” bundle set with 10 CD’s, 4 DVD’s and the hardcover book. Seriously, I just did it!
I’ve read “The Secret”, and I’ve watched Tony Robbins along with about 100 other great motivators on youtube talking about goal setting, leadership and mindset but I’ve never been really ALL-IN on their hype. This is something different. This is well laid out, methodical and less touchy-feely in a way that makes sense. The steps are laid out in logical order, there are specific actions to take and they all have sound reasons for taking them.
I don’t believe that the Law of Attraction, Positive Vibes, Mental Vibrations or Believe it to See it type stuff works via some unseen Jedi Force. I believe that if you feel a certain way your body gives hidden tells via your tone, posture, movements and possibly even smell and that all of those things are picked up on by our subconscious to help impact our first impression or to pick up on a mood. Have you ever just had a feeling about someone or or situation? Good or bad? I don’t believe that we send messages telepathically through the ether to one another, but that doesn’t mean that swagger can’t be weighed, measured and picked up on by others. Napoleon Hill does take some time to talk about the messages that your mind and body send out, and maybe he really believed that he could send ESP messages to other people, maybe he really could. The mind is a crazy and powerful thing.
I do know that his system will work.I do know that he tapped into something and he tried his best to explain it. I do know that my explanation is just as valid as his and that it doesn’t really matter because as long as the end result is the same we’ve both gotten messages out to the world based on confidence and discipline of the mind. You probably aren’t where you want to be in the world right now. Your career, relationships and passions probably aren’t all in harmony with each other working at peak efficiency right now. You probably want to create, grow and bond in ways you don’t know how to accomplish. There are life coach systems out there for everyone and I bet that they all work if you use them in a disciplined style. The problem is that 99% of us give up. Our New Years resolutions end after 5 days and we never finished reading that 1 book we started. We meant to do that thing, or make that call or to get up earlier and start that good habit. Most of us gave up before we even started, we just thought about not giving up and thought about how awesome that would be and how happy it would make us. Then we slept in for 30 more minutes because that extra sleep made us happier via instant gratification. We exerted control and talked back to ourselves. We thought that we could sleep in if we darn well want to… but then we felt bad about it later, but only for a minute, we’ve trained ourselves to skip over that pain. We probably did that 360 days last year so we’ve had a lot of practice.
Do something today that you wont feel bad about later.  It’s not too late.

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 10 – The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP! by Duane Lakin

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The world of NLP is a little hazy. I’ve met people who swear by it, and others who write it off as wishful thinking. I believe that there is somethSellwithNLPing to the NLP method, although I’m not sold on the mass appeal and train-ability of this. It’s a tough topic to teach in a book. Let’s take a quick dive into this.

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week # 10 – The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP! by Duane Lakin

I was looking to read up on NLP in a professional setting. I had been given the recommendation to read “The Game”  by Neil Strauss which is a book about a pickup artist but his pick up scheme is dominated by the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). I can best describe it as part subliminal messaging, part hypnosis and part mentalism. I could see the parallels between really selling yourself in the dating scene to selling yourself and your products/services in a business setting, but I wanted to find a book that really made it simple and had practical demonstrations. I downloaded the audio version of this book after a quick online search of what was available.

I’ve read a lot of self-help and motivational books as well as a lot of sales skills and leadership books, I’m not 100% sure where this book should be categorized. It has some great sales skills advice that can be implemented in person with a lot of practice and some advice about phone sales and scripts. I can see the validity in the sales scripts right away. I’m familiar with word tracks, power words and mirroring your client to make them feel more at ease. NLP can be used to encourage a particular response, in this case a YES response to whatever we are selling.

Some ethics come into play here though, at what point do we cross the line where we are “tricking” a customer into becoming a buyer? Does the NLP speech pattern make someone do what they otherwise wouldn’t want to do? Will there be massive buyer’s remorse a few days after every sale? Is this sales skill, or is this manipulation? I describe Sales as having the ability to persuade and influence a purchase decision, and I think using the right words in conversation has a role to play in that.

I believe that words have power. I believe that a better phone sales script or a better presentation for any pitch will lead to better results. Furthermore, I believe that if you take those same exact words and change your pace and tone to match the situation your conversion numbers will improve dynamically. I believe your body language can influence how likable you are. I also believe that if you are a slime-ball and purposely sell Widgets that are over priced to people that don’t need them you probably shouldn’t learn these skills. I prefer my snail-oil salesmen to rely on old school tactics, but this is America and capitalism requires supply and demand. There are thousands of products available that are destructive to your home, life or the environment and people still buy them.  I’ve seen an Act by Darren Brown, (if you don’t know who this is go do your google search now http://derrenbrown.co.uk/the-core/ ),  and he’s also a mixture of persuasion and influence using some of these appear to be NLP techniques or very similar. He’s upfront about what he’s doing and it still works! He’s entertaining and I’d hate to see him as a salesman. I don’t think that NLP is a bad business practice but it can be used for evil instead of good. Don’t cross that line.

If you research NLP and decide to try some techniques, do it for the right reason. Do it because your client wants to make the right decision but is a little hesitant to do so for fear of making the wrong decision. Use NLP so that you get more thank you cards and verbal gratuities. Use NLP in a scenario where customers are appreciative that you helped them to make a great decision. Tell them what you are doing, tell them that you are going to help them make the right decision. That’s a good thing, Right?