Tip #533 - Three Secrets to Achieving Success in Sales

Is there a secret to success? Yes, according to a recent Inc. article which explores the findings of several studies revealing how to achieve more success in life. While the principles could be applied to any aspect of a person’s life, this post focuses on how to achieve more success in sales.

1.     Keep Your Eyes on the Prize—Consistency is Critical
Delayed gratification isn’t something with which most Americans are familiar, however those who succeed pursue it vehemently. Successful sales people understand that sales isn’t a ‘one and done’ thing. It’s a process made up of equally important steps—a puzzle comprised of rapport, relationships, knowledge transfer, strategic planning and heaps of patience. Some sales cycles take years; some months or mere minutes. Acting consistently, maintaining confidence and being persistent in following a proven sales process are all seeds to growing sales.
Writer James Clear wrote “Top performers in every field—field, musicians, CEOs, artists–they are all more consistent than their peers,” he writes. “They show up and deliver day after day while everyone else gets bogged down with the urgencies of daily life and fights a constant battle between procrastination and motivation.” Everyone encounters obstacles; the successful people overcome them no matter what.

2.     Take Your Social Skills to New Levels
Most sales professionals are friendly, charismatic and pleasant to be around. Those characteristics will not suffice in creating sales success. In fact, according to research conducted by economist Catherine Weinberger, those who excel in business have both high cognitive ability and social skills, something that wasn’t true for previous generations. By linking data of adolescent skills’ assessment in 1972 and 1992 with adult outcomes, she found that having both skills did not correlate with success in 1980, however today the combination does. “The people who are both smart and socially adept earn more in today’s work force than similarly endowed workers in 1980,” she stated.
It is, therefore, more important than ever to turn networking skills up a notch. Jump out of your comfort zone and learn some new social skills. Tried and true ways of establishing trust, building rapport and creating lifetime customers are revealed in the Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage course. Consider enrolling in the course if you truly wish to propel your success.

3.     Understand that Confidence and Competence Are Equally Important.
Many sales professionals know their products inside and out. They can explain the manufacturing and quality assurance processes, and the return policies. They rattle off every single fact about a service—yet they are unable to reach their sales quotas.
Often times, sales professionals lack confidence which results in inaction. As Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, authors of The Confidence Code explain, “Taking action bolsters one’s belief in one’s ability to succeed, so confidence accumulates–through hard work, through success, and even through failure.”
In the Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage course, sales representatives learn all of the tools required to take action, and do so confidently. All critical inputs to the sales equation, from building rapport to uncovering hidden buying objections are taught so graduates can succeed in sales.

Tip #532- Unleash the Power of Persuasive Presentation

Effective presentation skills are critical for knowledge transfer, lecturing, sales, teaching, training and even personal activities such as serving on the board of a homeowner’s association. The power of a presentation is the key differentiator between success and failure when persuading colleagues, inspiring a team and/or presenting an idea to stakeholders.
If you’re unsure of your presentation skill level, ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I excited and confident when speaking to large audiences?
2. When presenting, does my audience’s verbal and non-verbal communication affirm that they understand what I am communicating?
3. I am a master of my material, but have I mastered all aspects of delivering powerful presentations?
4. Do I feel comfortable with all forms of presentations—oral, multimedia, PowerPoint, etc.?

If you answered ‘yes’ to all four questions, move on to more compelling content. If not, fear not—the Dale Carnegie High Impact Presentations course will transform you so that you can easily answer YES. This course has been proven to send professionals’ presentation skills soaring whether presenting to a small team or a large group.
Recipe for Success
The Dale Carnegie High Impact Presentations course is an intensive two-day seminar in which professionals learn tools that are immediately applied and reinforced over a series of eight class presentations. Students’ presentations are videotaped so that a personal coach can immediately review and evaluate participants’ performance. Critical communication skills, consistent coaching and the vulnerability of fellow students are key components to success.
Proven Four-Step Process
The High Impact Presentations course is comprised of four key steps:

1. Plan- Students describe their audience and ascertain the purpose of their talks based on the outcome sought with each audience.
2. Prepare- Participants learn how to establish a positive mind-set; generate an attention-getting opening; illustrate key points with evidence and visuals; and create a compelling closing.
3. Practice- Professionals build their self-confidence and effectiveness by practicing and reviewing their visuals for optimization.
4. Present- Students apply all of the skills learned in order to deliver powerful presentations—from the first impression to the Question and Answer session

Lead vs. Lecture
Anyone can read notes on PowerPoint slides in front of large groups, however most audiences do not have the attention span to digest information provided in a boring, monotonous tone. Powerful presentations engage rather than simply educate audiences. Graduates of the Dale Carnegie High Impact Presentations course project a positive image; are more relaxed and natural when delivering presentations; and inspire their audiences.
Polished to Persuasive
Many presenters know their material inside and out. Their appearance may be spot-on—professionally dressed and personally groomed. While these ingredients are important to the overall delivery of a presentation, the level of persuasion is much more critical than how polished the speaker may appear. Graduates use supporting facts and examples with clarity and force to persuade their audience with supporting facts and examples.
If you’re ready to unleash the power of your persuasive presentation skills, enroll in an upcoming Dale Carnegie High Impact Presentations course today!

For more information, visit our website!

Tip #531 Communication—Empower Employees in Three Steps

If life is a song, the lyrics are communication. Here are three steps to significantly improve workplace communication and ultimately empower employees.

1.     Ensure Internal Information Is Accessible and Inspirational
Despite today’s technologically utopian environment, information is often times poorly organized and/or unavailable to employees. This can be particularly frustrating for newer employees. If your organization’s onboarding process does not include how to access information, add it. If there is no onboarding process, an employee’s direct manager or colleague must review this information with the new employee.

Albert Einstein once said, “If I can’t picture it, I can’t understand it.” Make information accessible via an intranet or even simply hung on a bulletin board in a common area—as long as employees know where to find the information, workflow and knowledge transfer will improve. Use communication vehicles such as a social media page or newsletter to inspire as well as to educate. Post inspiring quotes; recent success stories; customer testimonials; photos and brief bio’s of the employee of the month—anything that will inspire camaraderie and productivity, and ultimately help keep communication flowing.

2.     Retreat and Recharge
Coordinating a retreat in which there is no work-related activity is an ideal way to establish camaraderie, encourage communication and improve teamwork. It’s unnecessary for bulky budgets—any activity from an obstacle course at a beach to an indoor tug-o-war will work wonders. Instead of focusing on work, employees focus on each other. After retreats, personal relationships are usually created or strengthened, and working relationships improve commensurately.
Too much work to complete or too many new findings to learn within an industry? Consider attending a professional conference. Team-building exercises that focus on learning can be just as fruitful as those that focus on non-work related activities. This is particularly important for reaching shy personality types. Team building activities, albeit a conference, are particularly effective with introverts because they are easily engaged. Bottom line—the more employees connect outside of the workplace, the more their overall communication will improve.

3.     Obtain an Open-Door Policy
Often times, communication is blocked because employees feel uncomfortable and apprehensive about discussing tough topics with management. Every single hand that touches your organization is important—from the mailroom to the boardroom. It is important to know when and where protocol is not being followed, and better yet, which improvements can be made.
Instituting an open-door policy empowers employees to speak openly and honestly. By making management approachable, employees feel that their opinions and observations matter, so they are more apt to communicate. Open-door policies result in greater contributions to the organization because employees believe that they are valued and respected. Dale Carnegie’s Human Relations principle #2 is ‘Give honest, sincere appreciation.’ Make sure to thank the employee for their courage and open communication.

Although taking these steps may be time-consuming, the future dividends are well worth the effort. Enroll in the Dale Carnegie Course for Effective Communications and Human Relations, and watch your verbal and non-verbal communication skills soar!

For more information, visit our website!

Tip #530 - Overcoming Worry of Olympic Proportions- An Olympian's Story

A recent Fortune article highlights one Olympian's ability to turn stress into strength-and ultimate success. Emily Hughes was able to overcome obstacles of stress by following principles that exemplify  Dale Carnegie's formula for overcoming worry which is:

1. Live in "day-tight compartments." 

Growing up, Emily's dad always emphasized that she was a "student-athlete" and that "student" came first. This meant that despite having to train five hours per day, she never took any breaks from studying. By living in "day-tight compartments," she was able to maintain a serious focus on training for the Olympics while pursuing academic excellence including Emily's insistence on taking an advanced honors chemistry course.

Later in life, when Emily was interviewing for a role at Google Fiber, she completed six hours of back-to-back interviews on site at Google with confidence and ease. Instead of spending time worrying about how she would perform, she focused on doing well in each interview and succeeded by being selected as the best candidate.

2. How to face trouble:

• Ask yourself, “What is the worst that can possibly happen?”  In 2001, at just 12 years old, Emily competed in the U.S. Figure Skating Championship, but failed to make the 2006 U.S. team. She could have easily given up hope, but rose to the challenge in 2006 after Michelle Kwan’s groin injury created the opportunity for Emily to compete. Had she worried and thought, “I didn’t make the initial team; there is no way I’ll place well,” she would have lost the opportunity to compete in the 2006 Olympics. Instead, she pondered, “What is the worst that could possibly happen?” and overcame worry.
• Prepare to accept the worse.- As a professional skater, Emily not only anticipated constant correction, but mentally prepared for it. She stated, “With skating, constantly being corrected and told how to do something differently has helped me take constructive feedback better.”
• Try to improve on the worst.- Emily recognized that it was normal to make mistakes and critical to learn from them. She said, “In skating, every day, you fall and you have to get up. And falling is a pretty obvious failure. I’ve definitely learned from everything I’ve failed at.” Emily forced herself to consider the bigger picture with every setback. When she failed to qualify for the 2010 Olympics after taking a semester off from Harvard, she resumed her focus on academic achievement and found time to participate in organizations such as Harvard’s “Women in Business” club.

3. Remind yourself of the exorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms of your health.

Instead of allowing worry to compromise Emily’s health and usurp her opportunities, she focused on her future. She landed a business analyst role at Google last Nov. and attributes her love of competition and ‘an extraordinary tolerance for risk-taking and failure,’ for getting the job.
The next time you’re faced with worry of Olympic proportions, follow Dale Carnegie’s formula for overcoming worry and you too shall conquer.

For more information, visit our website! 

Tip #529 - Four Steps to Revise and Conquer New Year's Resolutions

Lose weight; spend less money and more time with family; don't text while driving, etc.

More than 40% of Americans make New Year's resolutions, yet only 8% actually achieve them. If you set resolutions and are unsatisfied with your January results, shake it off and read on...

1. Brief is Better - Many people set overzealous goals. For example it is practically impossible to quit smoking, lose 20 pounds, spend more quality time with your family and enroll in an evening graduate school program. Instead, shorten up your list of resolutions. Ask yourself, "Which of these would have the greatest positive impact on me personally and professionally?" Then rank the resolutions and choose the three with the highest payout. By refining your list, you are narrowing your focus, reducing pressure and positioning yourself for optimal performance.
    
2. Reality Check - It is critical that the resolutions you set are actually attainable; otherwise, you are merely setting yourself up for failure. If you have set a resolution to lose 50 pounds for the last few years yet never achieve that goal, consider reducing the number of pounds. A lot of people join a gym in January and diligently work-out, improve their nutrition and make other lifestyle adjustments. Once they skip a few work-outs or indulge in their favorite dessert, they give up-for the entire year. Revising your resolutions based on what is realistic is the only way to realize them.

For more information, visit our website!

Tip #528 - 7 Traits Exhibited by a Team Player

The ability to work effectively in a team is essential to your professional growth. If this is a concern for you, then it's time to examine what type of primary traits you should work on developing in yourself and your employees.

If others see you as a team player, there is a good chance that you will be invited onto more projects. Should this happen, you will get tagged as the "go-to person" and meet key decision-makers within your organization.

Team members work best together when they mesh well-that is, when they respect each other and enjoy each other's company. While not everyone on your team will be friends, respect is mandatory for successful teamwork.

Here are 7 traits effective team players tend to exhibit from your friends at Dale Carnegie Western Connecticut:

1. Take Accountability - Team players accept an appropriate amount of personal responsibility. They will follow through with whatever tasks they accept.

2. Have A Great Attitude Toward Challenges - A friendly, positive attitude is required to work well with others. Team players recognize that they must share responsibility and that they cannot control every aspect of a project.

3. Have Strong Communication & Interpersonal Skills - Teamwork requires clear, effective communication. Team players communicate well with those on and off the team. They also know how to build the right working relationships, providing the maximum number of resources for their team

For more information, visit our website!

Tip #527- Sales Strategies To Win The Battle (and the War)

Any good salesperson knows that winning a sale is not a one hit wonder. There are rounds of conversations, relationship building and negotiation along the way. Sometimes, it can seem almost impossible, if not exhausting, to get the desired end result. 

Sherrie Campbell seems to understand the challenge of securing that next sale, and recently wrote a great article for Entrepreneur.com titled, "7 Psychological Strategies For Mastering Sales Negotiations." While we agree with and support all seven strategies, we want to focus on two today - Campbell's third and sixth strategies.

Campbell's third strategy is to take full advantage of listening. One of Dale Carnegie's main principles is to be a good listener; to encourage others to talk about themselves. Not only does this give your customer a feeling of being heard, it allows you to understand exactly what your customer wants and needs.

By doing this, your customer feels heard, understood and appreciated, and you are able to offer the best options based on their needs. Too many salespeople try to talk themselves into a sales win, when all it would have taken is more listening. The strongest relationships come from genuinely listening and taking an interest in the other person.  The key to listening is to be focused, engaged and sincere - anything less than genuine and authentic will guarantee a loss of the relationship - and the sale.

For more information, visit our website!

Tip #526- 6 Signals of Healthy Leadership

Good leadership is good business. For clients, employees, suppliers, and even competition, solid leadership is good for the entire area as we continue to focus on local and regional economies.

Across Dale Carnegie Training, we spend a good deal of time supporting professional lives and strategizing how leadership is defined and assessing the quality of this critical skill. Here in Western Connecticut, we want both leadership and management to be successful so employees and organizations benefit.

If the leadership is not successful, then the business is challenged in a number of ways. The entire team struggles and profits are lost.

Here are six signals that leadership is healthy and effective:

• Trust and respect: As leadership goes, so does the entire organization. Trust is a key ingredient. A belief in trust is earned and it must grow every single day.

For more information, visit our website!

Tip #525 - Lemons Into Lemonade

Lemons Into Lemonade

December 23, 2014

By Carla Sprague

It’s no secret that life can be challenging. Unexpected events, situations or challenges can arise that seem to put a stop to the ideas, plans or dreams you have, hence the infamous quote, “When life gives you lemons…” But outside forces don’t have to slow you down, let alone stop you. One thing we sometimes forget is that we are not alone in our struggles. We are not the only ones to experience loss, setbacks, failure, and so on. It’s easy to feel alone – to wrongly believe that no one gets us or understands what we are going through. That lie – that belief – is a mindset created to extinguish your passion, dreams and purpose.

I’ve got good news for you – when life gives you lemons, there is an opportunity to learn. The opportunity to learn is to receive insight and understanding on how others were able to rise up from the ashes and burn a brighter flame then ever before.

So what’s the big secret to get up from under that rut? One word: mindset.

After reading Miles Jennings’ article on Entrepreneur.com, we thought you might be able to relate to one (or all!) of the 5 thoughts that crush success. We are certainly not strangers to the challenges of a negative mindset, and it’s important to take a positive approach to these common mindset minefields. In fact, our trainings continue to show that Dale Carnegie was a strong leader on this exact topic when he said, “Happiness doesn’t depend on external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.”

It’s not necessarily our circumstances that must change, but rather our ability to make lemonade out of the lemons. Or, as Jennings so eloquently puts it, “Challenge this thinking by asking, ‘How can I do this better?’”

We want to hear from you – what is the one mindset you struggle with the most, or what tools and experiences have you used to overcome negative thoughts?

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Tip #524 - Networking Etiquette

How many times have you entered a room where you didn’t know anyone and either stood in the corner waiting for someone to approach while you continually check your phone? Or, in your attempts to conquer your fear, you leap right into a conversation with a group of people, nervously chattering and rambling on (and on!) about what you do and how everyone in the group should work with you. Or, maybe you breeze through the room with confidence and interest in others, handing out and receiving business cards with no follow up to ever take place.

It’s no wonder networking has started to take on the artificial feel of fake and shallow. It’s because the majority of people have no idea how to network! They know they “should” network and maybe they even want to and enjoy it, but have no idea how.

As Kevin Daum points out, decades ago there used to be etiquette class for networking. Where is that go?! People simply don’t know how to genuinely connect with one anothers in a way that is professional, courteous and mutually beneficial (unless they have attended Dale Carnegie courses, of course). Daum’s article on etiquette rules is a great resource for getting better results at networking – and leaving a better impression.

All 12 of Daum’s rules are insightful – trust us, these are not the types of rules made to be broken – but we have two personal favorites: Look people in the eye and smile (#10); and, Ask if you don’t know (#11).

Looking someone in the eye can be a challenge, but it shows interest, as well as confidence and focus. Daum admits to struggling with this rule and yet notes, “I find it changes the entire emotional dynamic in a positive way.” Smiling is one of Dale Carnegie’s secrets to success, because it allows you to build rapport, earn trust and enhance relationships – three important aspects of strong business building. Networking is really about creating a connection with another person, think about it: would you approach and build a relationship with someone who never had a smile on their face? It makes someone approachable and even memorable. In a room full of people networking, those are valuable traits to exude.

We like rule #11 for the simple fact that we know you can avoid that awkwardness completely. But, before we go into that, we want to point out that if you do forget a name, we agree with Daum that it is better to ask than forget and appear to be insincere in your networking efforts. Forgetting a name can seem like you don’t care or that you view the other person and unimportant – two ways to guarantee someone having a negative reaction or response to your attempts at connecting. In fact, another Dale Carnegie principle is to “remember that a persona’s name is that that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” If you struggle with this, let us know – we have a course designed just for this concept on how to never forget a name.
Tell us – have you taken a Dale Carnegie course? If so, what are some of the tips and trainings you have learned that have made you a better networker?

Kevin Daum’s 12 Networking Etiquette Rules can be found here: http://www.businessinsider.com/networking-etiquette-rules-you-must-follow-2014-11

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