Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.

"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail." Thoreau, Henry David

I wonder how many people have ever heard this. How many have wished it, even without knowing it. The ideal of simplifying our lives seems a dream in today's age. With life, kids, spouses, work, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, email, texting, Facebook, various other social medias and technological "advances" that are supposed to make our lives easier, multiple accounts for this that and the other....

"See the ball, hit the ball." Pete Rose

Some people have a knack, a way with words, the ability to boil an act or process down to it's simplest terms. And to make people understand.

"I would have written that shorter, but I didn't have the time." Mark Twain

The simplest form of expression is a smile. The simplest delivery of your message will put the smile on your customer's face. No need to make any conversation complex or confusing, no advantage in being long winded. Deliver the important message and sit back and wait for the response. Watch the smiles.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Anticipation...and VISUALIZATION

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." - Rogers Hornsby

How do you spend your time? Daydreaming? Thinking about what you will do better the next time, picture your next call, your next weeks worth of work?

Visualization. Rehearsing situations mentally. Imagery. Mental preparation. Prepare yourself with mental exercises for all possible challenges to be faced. Your inner eye to see the future, prepare for the upcoming events, rehearse your actions. Your ability to internally role play through hundreds of conversational tangents, and how you will address each.

Athletes do it. Salespeople do it. For presentations. For difficult calls. For day to day routines, for setting yourself up for success. Imagine your perfect response, your most likely avenue for your desired outcome. Over and over again, the images of your activities played in your mind, repeated to hone the skills you wish to have.

Set a routine, daily, to prepare yourself for what you will be doing and visualize your success. The words you will use. the clothes you will wear. Every detail imagine it to be exactly how you want it to be. Prepare yourself for the different reactions, the different questions, the comments you may or may not hear. If you have heard them all once in your mind, you will not be shocked when they come but instead you will be prepared.

Mental. Visualize. Imagine. Rehearse. Prepare. Repeat.

Friday, November 9, 2012

What do you bring to your game?

"The difference between those who win and those who lose is mental. It is the effort winners give, and their mental alertness, that keeps them from making mental mistakes....Dedication and concentration are the deciding factors between who wins and who loses." - Tom Seaver, HOF pitcher.

Are you consistently dedicated? Do you maintain concentration, or does it wane, riding up and down on the day? Are you mentally alert on every call, every contact, every activity?

There is a difference in those who succeed and those who don't. What are you doing? What are you bringing to the call? Half the attention you should? Every single contact you make deserves the respect of your full attention. If you cannot or will not, your results will reflect the level of effort you put forth.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Reaction is not a response

"How can I hit and think at the same time?" Yogi Berra

True right? Not enough time for both. The hours of practice and your natural abilities come together to instinctually respond to the little white ball coming in at you at sometimes triple digit speeds.

When a customer or prospect makes some outlandish statement or asks a difficult question, we have more time to answer than a baseball player reacting to a 100 mph fastball.

Still, your preparation, training, product knowledge, practice and experience all come together instinctively to respond. This response is your wisdom, your value, your reason for being. This is why you have this job, why you are the one to communicate with clients and prospects. The ability to be witty, think quickly, answer honestly, project confidence and integrity, this is why you are successful. You do no react, you do not answer off the cuff, you do not fly by the seat of your pants but you use all your skills to proeject the response needed.