Suck It In And Pump It Out – Manage your Energy When Speaking
Last night I went to a public talk after work to hear a very interesting speaker talk on the importance of sunlight on health and well being. The speaker new his stuff, had an interesting voice and a good message. The only problem was that he had some irritating mannerisms which detracted from his talk.…
Read MoreA Power Question All Sales People Must Learn
Selling doesn’t need to be complicated, indeed the simpler you make it the more successful you’ll be. Often people ask me how to handle objections and how to close the sale. Now there are thousands of books out there with 10001 sales closing and objection handling techniques but my favourite is really simple. Use the…
Read MoreAssertive Rights – The Key to Developing Assertive Behaviour
Today I was reading an article about human rights abuses and it reminded me that these things also apply much closer to home too. When a person behaves assertively they are affirming that they have rights and so do those they are dealing with. Contrast this with the two alternative behavioural styles. When people behave…
Read MoreFoot in Mouth Syndrome – My Recent Presentation Blunder
It happens to the best of us. We know what we mean to say but somehow the words that come out of our mouth aren’t what we really wanted to say. Here’s one of mine which I thought might raise a smile. I was giving a workshop on renewal rituals, tips and tricks for coping…
Read MoreUse Rapport Skills To Win Better Deals
Rapport is the master skill of all communicators, and when you apply it to any type of negotiation the results can be magical. I define rapport as the art of cooperative communication, the mutual feeling of trust, respect and comfort that underpins all successful negotiations. As an NLP practitioner and experienced negotiator, I know first…
Read MoreFor Persuasive Presentations Dont Forget WIIFM
A few years ago I was in the pharmaceutical industry and every year we would have a pensions presentation during our National Sales Conference. These were the dullest, boring presentations imaginable and, given the age demographic of the audience, see as largely irrelevant by most people. One year however things changes. The presenter came on…
Read MoreDon’t Sell, Help Your Customers To Buy
Whenever I run a sales training workshop I ask the participants to raise their hands if they like to be sold to. Few if any hands stir. Then I ask them to raise their hands, if they like to buy things. Immediately I am greeted with a sea of hands. We can all learn from…
Read MoreDon’t confuse Assertiveness with Agression
One of the challenges around assertiveness is that people seem to be unsure what it really is. It often appears that we live in a world of extremes; good and evil, left wing/right wing politics etc. Under this model then, if you are not being passive or non-assertive you must be being aggressive. We all…
Read MorePowerPoint Tip – A Picture Paints A Thousand Words
I recently attended an excellent presentation by Anthony Willoughby. He helps senior business people develop their strategic plans in a novel way using the same techniques that Masai Warriors communicate their territory to their tribe. I’m not going to talk about his approach however, I want to focus on his presentation. What was refreshing was…
Read MoreNegotiation Tip – Chunk Up!
A couple of posts ago I introduced the concept of “Win-Win” outcomes or “Happy-Happy” negotiations as I prefer to think of them. One of the biggest challenges with this idea is that it often seems like an impossible dream when the two parties negotiating appear to have fixed positions which are mutually exclusive. Great negotiators…
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