Controlling Toxic Behavior

In this day and age of hundreds of TV channels to watch as well as internet videos, I have found a particular show that I run across every now and then. I must say that this television series really fascinates my wife Julie and I. The show that I am talking about is called the “Dog Whisperer” and it features a gentleman whose name is Cesar Millan führerschein lernen kostenlosen. This man who has a such a “magic touch” with our canine friends came, from humble beginnings growing up in Mexico before he eventually transformed into the mega-star he is today. He counts people like Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith as some of his closest friends.

Each week Cesar faces a seemingly out of control dog whose owners have given up on trying to train their pet and cannot cope any longer with this “toxic” behavior die sims 1 kostenlos herunterladen. These dogs are driving every one crazy, except one person. An that person is Cesar.

Never Uses Force

His techniques to tame these wild and dangerous beasts never include force. Instead, his amazing arsenal utilizes principles such as leadership, positive energy, relationships, self-discipline and change. It is truly amazing to see the difference he makes in the lives of those he touches dateien von filezilla herunterladen. He basically helps these dogs feel like a productive member of their family by giving them responsibilities.

I am drawn in by the calm and poise that Cesar maintains in the face of what seems like insurmountable problems that we have all seen in dogs that appear so mad and angry and that tend to do the wrong thing. His amazing arsenal utilizes things like “Giving the dog a job” or “Walking in front of the dog at all times.” It is truly amazing the difference and the transformation he makes in the lives of those he touches windows 8.1 iso datei herunterladen.

Sales Pros Could “Whisper” Too

As a sales manager or a sales person you could learn from watching Cesar and the way he goes about his job. Every week like you, Cesar helps his people (dog owners) overcome their greatest challenges by helping them and their pets find their true potential. He does this not by force, but instead by helping our canine friends “discover” the right thing to do to become the dog they were always meant to be.

As he says at the beginning of each show, he “rehabilitates dogs” and “trains people”. While his approach is meant exclusively for dogs, I have found a lot of his philosophy applies very well to sales people. You will never succeed by forcing anything but by discovering the right thing to do. Here are some of the principle I have “discovered” in his system that may help you reach your dreams.

1. Be calm, poised and assert positive energy.

Cesar tells his clients to establish a leadership role with their dogs by projecting states of both calmness and assertiveness. As a salesperson, no matter how your customer is behaving, you must remain detached, calm and maintain your poise.

After all you have seen this situation before haven’t you? Why be shocked by what clients are doing to you. Just stay calm and respond assertively and keep your poise. Maintain these states no matter what the situation and problem, customer behaviors “miraculously” evaporate. It’s what we all know to be true: Change yourself and those around you will change too. When you give off a aura confidence and capability, people will tend to go with the flow since you seem so consistent and in control.

2. Live in the state of NOW.

Like dogs, you too can live in the moment. Apparently, dogs don’t care about what happened yesterday. Every day represents a fresh start. Don’t worry things in the past because you cannot control those things any longer. If you keep focusing on bad things that you think are about to happen then you create a self fulfilling prophecy which will indeed make those things come true.

Instead, forget the past, and be like the person who remains focused on getting this job and what it will take to do just that. They key is to listen, and then have a response that makes sense as to why you should do this job. Think in terms of the present and the future and you are well on your way.

3. Practice every day, discipline and passion.

This is Cesar’s secret formula for a balanced, healthy dog. He realized along time ago that a dog without a job is an unhappy one that will act out in terrible and unproductive ways. I would say the same applies to sales people. Remember to never think you are failing. If you lost a job, learn from it and get back home later and practice the technique that will stop the bleeding. Practicing your sales skills, techniques and strategies will release frustration and stress. Have the self-discipline necessary to achieve your greatest potential.

What Is Your Passion To Help Your Team?

Reflect on your passion for doing this work of providing solutions to your customers that are higher quality than your competitor. If you have the passion to think that you are a better choice for your customer then you will hang in there during the toughest objections and get the job when others with less passion would have quit.

Watch the Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic Channel. Watch how the principle of what this show can do for your sales. The one lesson I know you will be amazed at is that even an old dog can learn new tricks.

Don’t Be Stopped By Sales Terrorists

I received a call from a service contracting sales person named Fred about a situation he found himself in that really took his confidence down a notch facebook videos downloaden app iphone. Fred is the top performer at his company and has achieved a 73% closing rate with a 55% gross margin on his jobs. By all measure of success he was a doing a great job herunterladen.

Then he had a call where after presenting his customized solutions, his buyer lit the fuse on a sales-bomb and completely devastated Fred. The buyer listened to Fred’s presentation and during the course of Fred handling objections, the buyer said, “Fred, you sound like a used car salesman.”

Blind Sided By a Sales Terrorist

Now Fred had always focused his sales approach on creating respect, honor and trust and so that statement completely devastated him cortana herunterladen. In fact, not only did he not sell that job but he then went on a streak of 14 sales presentations on a row without selling a job. He called me asking what he could do to turn things around.

Confidence Blown Away

I asked Fred what did he think had changed after that call and he said that he was doing everything the same except he began to back off on asking for the job and handling objections during the course of his calls. When I asked him why, he said, “Joe, I think I just lost my confidence after that call where I was insulted by being called a slimy sales person.”

I asked him how often has someone told him that he acted like a “used car salesman” before. Fred answered, “Hmmmm I can’t recall ever being called that before. That’s what really got me.” I informed Fred that he was the victim of a sales terrorist. These are people that love to make sales people hurt. They think it’s part of negotiation.

Get Back On The Horse After Falling Off

I asked Fred, “Why are you allowing this one person out of the hundreds of calls you have done, to determine the value of you as a sales person?” he said, “Uh, I don’t know. Sounds kinda silly huh?”

Yes it is silly indeed. I got Fred to eventually realize that if he was going to fail that he should go down with all of the bullets out of his gun. To try everything he knew to close the sale if he really believed in his solutions. Over the next few weeks Fred returned to his normal strong closer status and sold 14 of the next 20 calls he did.

Don’t Be a Victim Of Sales Terror

Whenever you get feedback from a customer that is less than flattering, always ask your self if this is a trend that keeps repeating itself or if it is an isolated sales terrorist incident. Why put so much weight on the feedback of only one person?

What I mean is that if you have found a successful way of selling that is working for you where most of your buyers are telling you that you have done a great job, why change your approach based on the opinion of only one or two people?

Don’t Let Terrorists Win

Never let a sales terrorist bring your confidence down. Learn what works for you and keep doing it even if a few customers don’t like it. Celebrate your success and failure evenly and study the trends. After all, results don’t lie.

Look at yourself and the value you create for your customers by the positive results you get for them not only the few times you crash and burn. You’re a sales pro and you know the principles behind what works. Use those principles over and over to achieve the results you want.

Give Hugs Not Handshakes

When Joe and I first discussed the possibility of me writing a “Dear Julie” blog for our Web site, I thought, “What could I possibly have to blog about? Who would want my advice? What if no one sends in any questions for me to answer? Then what, Make up my own?” I spent many hours thinking about what I would say and how I would say it and still felt I had come up with nothing.

The only other time I felt this uncomfortable was one of our very first consulting jobs. Well I should say one we actually got paid for, which was with an East Coast plumbing and HVAC company outside of Boston, MA German laws for free. Joe had already been to the company several times, going on ride-a-longs with their techs and waxing philosophically, as he often does, when he brought me in to talk about some of the other problems going on in the office.

Finding Comfort with Being Uncomfortable

I was excited and nervous at the same time with all sorts of thoughts going through my head. What if I pronounced their name wrong? What if I couldn’t remember it? What if they didn’t like my ideas and asked for their money back? Oh no, was that a run in my nylons k3 cd for free? I knew I should have worn a pant suit. I understand now why Hillary Clinton wears pant suits. She didn’t want to be caught sitting across from some world leader and looking down to find a run in her stockings. How could she concentrate on the conversation at hand? She’d be wondering if the Queen of England was carrying any clear nail polish in her handbag. At least I was smart enough to wear comfortable shoes.

The company had converted an old house into their headquarters. Finding a parking space was a bit nightmarish dumb ways to die kostenlos herunterladen. If you happen to live in the Boston area or have ever visited, you know what I am talking about when I say parking on the street can be vicious.  Aside from all the streets being one-way, it’s as if the original settlers adapted a grid street pattern and then said let’s turn it 45 degrees. They should have a Freedom Trail to a parking spot. Someone could assign drivers a color as soon as they cross over the Charles River. I ended up having to park on the sidewalk. Apparently this was the norm, and all the employees were doing it.

It’s Difficult Trying to Fit In

I entered the building, and the service manager immediately greeted me and took me through an intricate maze of halls and doorways to the owner’s office rust downloaden. I walked up to him, hand extended, ready to give him my firm Mid-western handshake that I had been practising. I thought about how all those business classes would now come in handy. Besides, this was a man-dominated industry, and I didn’t want to come across with some wimpy, limp, kiss-my-hand type of greeting.

I wanted him to know that I was ready to take on any challenge he might throw at me over the course of the next two days. I started to say hello and introduce myself when he threw out his arms with a big smile across his face and said, “I give hugs, not handshakes.”

That Was Awkward

To be honest, I have never really been a touchy-feely kind of person. What can I say, I like my personal space. I have always reserved hugs for family members, like Tana and Pa, my great-grandparents, or their brother Uncle Sam (I forget which side he was on) and my 5-year-old nephew Jacob and 1-year-old niece Emmy.

I could only imagine the look on my face. This was awkward and uncomfortable for me. What should I do now? I could keep moving forward and pretend to trip and fall to the right of him. I could cover my mouth and cough and pretend I have a cold, although it was the middle of July. I took a deep breath and put the smile back on my face and embraced him in one of those uncomfortable embraces. You know the kind where you put your arms around someone while your behind sticks out and you really don’t touch much except for maybe on the arms. That kind of hug. He seemed to accept that, and we then moved on to talk about business.

What Doesn’t Kill Us Makes Us Stronger

I almost forgot about this experience until one day, while trying out a new hair salon, I noticed every customer who walked through the door received a great big welcoming hug from their stylist. I laughed as it reminded me of my first consulting job. I had come a long way from that first initial awkwardness of hugging our clients. As a matter of fact, I hug almost everyone I meet. It’s like the new handshake.

I thought about it some more as I sat there in the chair and recalled all the people I had hugged just in the last week. Some I barely knew. There was, of course, Joe, my husband, and Wyatt, my one-year-old, who gets at least 50 hugs a day and our parents who had just been visiting for a couple of weeks and had left to go back home to Chicago. Then there was my next-door neighbour and her two daughters, who we had only met one other time before. I also hugged my son’s swim teacher who invited us to her two daughters’ birthday party, which they celebrated at the same time. There was our daycare provider and the woman whom I had just hired to clean our home.

Giving Hugs Not Handshakes

I realized that the uneasy feeling I used to get when meeting new people had almost completely gone. I had tried something new, giving it a chance to work, and after all this time, it had become like second nature to me to give hugs instead of handshakes. I actually enjoyed it.

Sitting in the chair watching Lisa in the mirror blow-drying my hair, I realized that you may not like reading about everything I have to say in response to your questions. You may experience that same level of uneasiness I did on my first consulting job. That’s OK. What matters most is that you give it a chance. And I don’t mean just one chance.

It Takes Time to Find Comfort

The uneasiness doesn’t instantly go away. It takes time to find comfort. There will be bumps in the road and many mistakes made as you start to grow. If you really give it a chance to work, that uneasy feeling starts going away, and the confidence starts to set in. Until maybe one day while you are sitting in the beauty salon, and realize that you have conquered that fear and are the master of your career.

I thanked Lisa as she spun me around in my chair and handed me the little mirror. I looked at the back of my hair as she told me about how she layered it here and thinned it out there. I told her I thought it looked great. She removed the cape, and as I got up, I asked her about some products I needed and proceeded to pay at the counter. I then leaned over, told her I would see her next month and, of course, gave her a hug.

Let Me Help

Please email me with any suggestions about articles you would like to see at:

julie@contractorselling.com

I promise to respond to your request as soon as I get it. Who knows? Maybe between the two of us we can find the right answers to make your contracting business a success.