Yesterday I visited several car showrooms as I am thinking about changing one of the cars. I won’t bore you with the ins and outs of it and it doesn’t matter what makes they were or what companies but they were executive brands / companies and there were 4 of them. It inspired me to have a little rant about a few of things that I wouldn’t do if I sold cars!

If I sold cars I wouldn’t…

• Sit comfortably in the showroom whilst potential customers looked at my cars on the forecourt – no matter how cold it was!
• Chat with my 3 mates in the “sales” office whilst a customer read brochures and opened car doors in the showroom.
• Greet my customer with the words, “So, do you want to buy a car today?”
• Fail to offer a nice coffee from the flash coffee machine because it was 25 minutes until home time.
• Wander off mid “sale” because I cannot think of anything to ask / say.
• Bore my customer to death showing them how to log onto the company website… seriously!
• Send my customer into a trance banging on about engine versions (one showroom), the history of the 4-wheel drive car (another showroom) or just waffle.
• Fail to build rapport in any meaningful manner (all 4 showrooms).
• Fail to ask any pertinent questions (3 showrooms).
• Fail to hear the one critical piece of information (“…bad road so we were thinking 4-wheel drive…”).
• Push something else (how good the 2-wheel drive version is) because I didn’t hear the critical information.
• Not ask / be uninterested in the customers’ circumstances (in one garage the guy looked bored every time I said more than 4 words).
• Fail to take interested customer details (all 4 showrooms).
• Fail to give ANY literature out or anything to take away (all 4 showrooms).
• Not make a sale, build a relationship or have any way of following up (all 4 showrooms).
• Sit around moaning about the state of the market (probably all 4 showrooms).

Related posts:

1. How Not To Sell High Value Products & Services
2. 3 Simple Sales Tips For Sales Success
3. The Power Of Saying, “I Was Just Thinking About You”…

The more amenable you are and the more you help others, the more they will like you. And the more they like you, the more they will buy from you. Right?

Maybe not.

A paper co-authored by a University of Notre Dame professor shows that moderately disagreeable men earn an average of 18 percent, or $9,772, more than the average of moderately agreeable men.

Both groups of men, though, earn more than the average salary for women — regardless of their workplace disposition. And while women are still lagging behind men in pay, disagreeable women earned 5 percent, or $1,828, over their more pleasant peers.

Chicago Sun-Times.

So I guess the nice guy or girl really does finish last.

Maybe.

It’s obviously not that simple but as a motivational speaker I certainly do get to meet a lot of nice people who spend far too much time being nice and far too little being successful because they are too worried about upsetting people and saying “No”. Here are…

5 tips to stay out of the nice guy / gal trap…

1. Know what’s important to you and build your life and business around that.
   Don’t try and be everything to everyone. You’ll fail. When you follow your own path some people will love you, some people will hate you and some people will be indifferent. So what?
2. Set BIG goals that fire you up and get you motivated.
   And then break these down into objectives and actions. Without a plan you’re doomed to fail. You need to know what you should be doing every day to be successful.
3. Work your plan.
   It’s simple and it’s easy and it’s obvious but when people / things / events distract you, you’re going to get pushed off track unless you say “No”. You need to know why you’re saying “No” and what you’re supposed to be doing instead.
4. Stop doing things just to show you’re a “nice” person.
   Make a list of all of the things that you currently do for people just to prove you’re a “nice” person. You know, the things that add no value for your business, no value for your clients, no value for your prospects and no value for you. Make a decision to stop doing them and commit to it.
5. Manage relationships and expectations.
   Work out how you are going to reposition yourself with people and what explanations you are going to give. Think about how you are going to reposition yourself in the future with new clients and staff so that you don’t fall into this trap again.

5.5. Be nice.

Seriously. Be nice. Be nice whilst you’re saying “No”. Be nice whilst you’re not being nice. Be nice whilst you don’t do the things that other nice people do! There’s no need to be rude now is there.

No related posts.

Yesterday I made some changes in the way I run my business. They’re not significant changes in many ways but in others they will make positive differences for my clients, my prospects and my readers. Hopefully, HUGE ones! There will be more tips, more strategies, more inspirational stories and more ways for you to read, listen, watch and get involved and get better results in your sales and in your life.

One of the things I am going to do more of this year is blog posting. I already do quite a lot some might say but it’s something that I enjoy and I know that it is one of the key ways that I add value for my clients and my prospects. As a motivational speaker, I have a lot of conversations on a daily basis to help individuals to improve their motivation, their focus, their sales and their businesses. Few of these ever see the light of day but yesterday I had a casual conversation with Rob Scott of Aaron Wallis and he posted our conversation. I thought I would do likewise.

GAVIN (TWEET): Welcome to 2012! Ignore doom-mongers & naysayers! Have dreams, set goals, take action.. make it a great one! Lots of great stuff coming this year… I have good feelings about 2012! You?!!

ROB: I always have good feelings – not much point in being any other way as there’s not a lot that little old me can do about the world’s finances!

GAVIN: I always have good feelings too however it is nice when they come to light! Personally, I think there is little wrong with the world’s finances that a dose of realism and hard work wouldn’t sort out!!

ROB: The FTSE is up 2% so far today – that’s 40% of the loss in 2011 gained in just one day – will this be in the news tonight? Probably not!

GAVIN: Agreed. We ought to spend more time being more positive and asking…

• What do we do well?
• What do others do well?
• What should we be doing well?
• How can we add massive value?

The whole of the West strikes me as bi-polar…. Manically depressive one day and manically up the next BUT at all times, with little handle on the reality of our situation. We need to make massive changes but we’re either crying and moaning about our lot or being extremely arrogant about being “right”.

Let’s start with positivity and hard work and then look for opportunities to add value… Oh, strange… that’s what I do… and you too!!

(ROB as editor) I just found this so true that I had to publish it – hope you enjoy it too!

So, there we are. Three little words that could change your, our, the whole world’s lot in 2012. But will they? How many people will maintain their positivity in the face of business and economic challenges? How many people will do the work necessary to create the opportunities they crave? And how many people will make and take chances to add huge value for their clients, their communities and their families and friends?

I can’t answer that question but I can tell you I will. You with me?

Related posts:

1. What Are Your Goals And Dreams For 2011
2. Take Stock, Take Charge & Take Action!
3. Why People Don’t Set Goals When They Know That They Should

Can your Dad dance? Most can’t. I’m sure they could once but they can’t now! Music tastes changed, dancing styles changed, your Dad aged and somewhere down the line he lost touch with his ability to dance. For many Dad’s, the answer to the problem is to do their bad dancing more enthusiastically, more energetically and more desperately…

No matter, I don’t suppose that dancing is all that important in the grand scheme of things.

But business is. And life is too. And in business and in life everything changed over the last few years. The economy changed. The rules changed. Business changed. Sales changed. Life changed.

And if you want to be a success, you need to change too. What once worked, won’t work anymore. What once won customers, now doesn’t. What once helped you achieve your goals, now won’t. And doing the same old stuff, faster, more frantically and more often won’t make the wrong dance look sexy. And it won’t make you successful in business and in life either.

But that’s what much of the ruling elite want you to do. More of the same. Keep borrowing. Keep spending. Push for more of the same customers. Sell more of the same old, same old. Keep on plugging away and it will all come right. But it won’t. Because they’re out of ideas. They’re too stuck in their ways. They’re too focused on maintaing the status quo.

I’m not buying bad advice and platitudes and neither should you. It’s not good for your sales, your sanity or your business. And that’s why I am changing the approach, mixing it up, adding even more value for you and sharing with you strategies to help you to be more successful in 2012 and beyond. There will be more of some things, less of others and a whole new series of blogs, videos, tips and strategies to help you to make the right changes in your life and in your business.

Join the RSS, get on my success newsletter and let’s get cracking.

Related posts:

1. Cold Calling Sucks & It’s Only Going To Get Worse…
2. What Would You Achieve If You Knew You Couldn’t Fail?
3. Does Cold Calling Work, 2?

Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Why do some people seem to have all of the time in the world to get things done whilst others constantly seem to be frazzled? How can some people win new clients every month, service existing clients amazingly, manage sales teams, become industry go-to resources, deliver awesome lectures, write books, climb mountains, run marathons, have fabulous social activities? And live the life of their dreams as well?

And yet others struggle to remove themselves from firefighting, admin and dealing with challenges and spend their mornings, noons and evenings glued to their email?

It’s an important question. It might be one of the most important. Ultimately, you will be defined by what you do and by what you achieve not by how busy you are!

Being busy is not the same as being successful. Working hard is not the same as working smart. Putting the hours in is pointless if you’re working on the wrong activities.

When I work with businesses I see busy people, energetic sales teams and frantic business leaders. I see many, many people working hard to “get things done”…

But “getting things done” is sometimes not the same as achieving your objectives!

My lifelong passion is all about understanding what differentiates top performers and then helping others to achieve it too. What makes one person a sales superstar and another a sales wannabe? What empowers one person to be a rock star presenter and another a washout? What is it that enables one leader to lead their team to “victory” whilst another couldn’t lead theirs to the pub?

And one of the key differences is that top performers spend more time working on activities that lead to results.

Simple truth…

If two people of equal ability, passion and knowledge work the same market in the same way but one spends 50% of their time on activities that lead to results and the other only spends 25% then the first one will outperform the second one. Every time.

This is simple and obvious and yet it is not something which drives many peoples’ behaviours. Over time, most people fall into habits…

We do things because “we should”, we do things because “we always have”, we do things because “that’s the way others do it”, we do things because “we were told to”…

But we ought to be doing things because they get us the results that we want.

Here are 3 simple steps to get you more of the results that you want in your sales, in your business and in your life…

Step 1: Take stock.

Ask yourself what results you want and then work out what activities directly lead to those results. Map how you spend your time… How much time do you spend on these results based activities versus how much time do you spend doing other things?

Step 2: Take charge.

Commit time to results based activities. Protect this time. Make it sacrosanct. Do not be distracted. Drop “time-wasting” activities, stop acts of procrastination and learn to say “No” (to yourself and others).

Know that everybody has the same amount of time in a day and how you spend yours is down to you.

 Step 3: Take action.

Make it happen. Change happens in an instant. How you spend your time will determine your results so take action now to get on the road to the results that you want.

And finally, be your own coach, assessing how you do, refining your approach and holding yourself accountable.

And here’s the magical thing. This is a never-ending process because the more successful you are, the more you have to work on this process and the greater the opportunities are to improve.

Let me know how you get on…

Related posts:

1. On Fast Food, Sales Training & Getting The Winning Edge
2. The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 12, The Final
3. What Would You Achieve If You Knew You Couldn’t Fail?