For some people, when the words Sales is mentioned,  it strikes fear into them. Mostly, becasue they don’t want to appear too pushy, or be appear to be like a used car saleman of days gone by.

Sales really only means  2 things. If you can remember  this- it is easy.

1) confidence

2) attitude

First it’s your own self confidence that gives the prospect the perception that you know what you are talking  about- that you are the professional, no matter waht business you are in. Let’s say you are a wedding photographer. Who wants a photographer who lacks confidence to take all the magic moments on your wedding day? Rather, a person who shines with confidence in their speech, how they carry themselves and offering product knowledge is much more apt to be in the running to be hired than a quiet little mouse. Shake hands firmly, and look prospects in the eye while asking all the right questions to attract their confidence in you.

Secondly, attitude.  I’m not talking about being cocky or a know it all. I am talking about having an understanding attitude, a curious attitude.  Set your intention for creating a relationship, before ‘getting’ business. People may not remember what you say- but they will remember how you made them feel.

What is the fastest way to have a prospect question your credibility ?  By not using language that is fitting to business.

Case in point: recently I was meeting a new entrepreneur  for the first time, and was discovering what  it is they do. I was hearing  words like; cheap, thing, stuff, guys, and phrases such as; ‘I didn’t bring any cards with me’ ( are you kidding?)  ’you know’, “yah, I drive anywhere”,  ”gotta make a buck”, ” I ‘dunow…maybe” “when I meet people I just give ‘em  some information ( what?)

Gosh, I was stopped in my tracks. Why? because I had little confidence this individual knew how to handle me professionally  if I was to become a customer.

Everyone you speak to needs to hear your own confidence built into the words they  hear.

When is a good time to edit your language? Well, now may be a great time!

Please remove reference to all people as guys; more than half of us are not guys, we are women!

Instead, you can insert words like prospects, clients, customers, colleagues, partners, affiliate.

When referencing your print material for instance, it’s not ’stuff’ , but rather, business brochures, printed information package, reference material, business cards and the like.

When you want to refer to your product, again, lose the temptation to call it ’stuff’. Not too appealing, nor do you do any justice to your product or service. You do want people to purchase it, correct? Then honour yourself by referring in ways like  my/our  product, our promotional item,  line, selection, merchandise, stock, our series, my/our service.

8 Key words and phrases that are sure to engage your prospects:

“I recommend _____”

“your best value is -___”

“may  I suggest__”

“these statistics show ___”

at this low  ( not cheap) price,

our introductory price

absolutely

our guarantee

for a limited time, our service is priced at

“your investment is ”

These are only a few suggestions to help you on your road to words that compel  your prospect into action based on the perception you are the professional who knows your product or service well.

It’s about remaining mindful of the words you chose to share and the relationship you have with words. Step away from slag, it’s not pretty, nor relevant in business. Read books on selling and get comfortable with new phrases in your language . You may not think of yourself as a ’salesperson’ but guess what ? you are! Stepping into the role of entrepreneur is not the same as having a job. You must be the flagship for You!

Cathy recommends  ”The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Sales People“, by Stephan Schiffnam.

DIVE stands for  D-iscover  I-mpact  V-alue  E-magins. Use this simple recipe when speaking to prospects. You are creating a relationship with them in the beginning. By utilizing open ended questions you create good conversation. Engage the W’s ; who, what why where and when. Your conversations will go further with this approach than  ”Can I help you?”  You probably have been asked that killer question when you enter a store by a clerk who has not learned to DIVE yet. What is your most likely response to that question? Mine generally is  ”no thanks, just looking” which ends any further conversation.

Questions need to be powerful, and ones that you sincerley want the answers to.  Avoid questons that have assumptions in them, because that narrows the field. Remember, when you  center your questions on the scope of the problems that you solve, they have impact and at the same time you are giving value. This allows your prospect to e-maigine opening up to doing business with you.

That’s how many rejections Colonel Sanders received before his dream was accepted. The idea he had come up with was a novel one;  pressure cooked chicken. Remarkable. However, he had to face 300 rejections before his dream turned into reality. Now there are over 11,000 KFC restaurants in over 80 countries in the world!

So, have you been facing rejections lately? Look at things this way, if you had applied to UBC and got rejected, nothing bad happened, because prior to the application you weren’t in UBC then either. Stay committed to your cause and your dream.  Mind, however, that you stay away from resentment. There are over 5.5 Billion people on the planet and remember that someone will say yes!   I love this little trick Jack Canfield shares;

SWSWSWSW which he says stands for:

some will, some won’t; – so what? — someone’s waiting!

Take a look at your product or service to see how you are delivering the message. Perhaps the rejections are a blessing. It may cause you to see where you can improve, and the key is to analogize, improve and  keep going forward.

Short term memory is our amazing friend. It is said that we can remember things  best in up to four chucks of information.  Here’s an example of what I mean. Take a phone  number, and break it down. Let’s use 866.700.5555

so you can remember the first part the middle part and the last part and perhaps a name associated with that number. That would be four parts. Do you trust it to stick though?

Best bet?   write it down. We have so much to remember, especially if we are in business, that we better not push the envelope.

Get in the habit of writing down your daily tasks or goals, and have that all recorded in one place. Namely a day timer of your choice. Most of us are visual, so writing things down in a place where we can see them is huge. However you may the ‘techy type’ and recoding your tasks in a Blackberry is fine for you. Not for most of us. We need to see the list, and be able to cross of our completions.

Still not writing down important ideas? Memory research tells us that a new idea only lasts 40 seconds! Imagine. Do you have a new project you are ready to embark on, a website for example?

Valuable TIP:  assemble a simple binder together and give it a name; like

Cathy’s Big Book of Website Ideas

record everything in one place. If you don’t, who will?

Ideas are nothing more than thin air if they get away on you!

how many ways can you make a person feel special?  Being authentic, and going that extra mile to recognize another’s value.

When was the last time you sat down and wrote a card to the support person that just helped you on the customer help line?

I was really impressed with Josh, the other day, that I made a point to take a minute out of my day to write him a thank you card.  All I had to do was look up his name on a staff directory, and let him know how he made my day. Well, today, guess who I received a card back from ??!! yes- Josh.

I can picture this fellow on the phone for 8 hours speaking  to people who pretty much are all calling with a problem. Yikes, that’s a lot to hear all day long. I get that.

I want to help people feel valued. I value Josh – a lot.

A card can do the trick. Need a speedy way to get the job done?

Use what I use-  check out my other website for  information all about this on line system. Cards can be used for many reasons, and one of the most  powerful reasons is to let someone know you appreciate them.

Take advanatage of the free trial card avialable to you when you set up your own mini gift account. Now think of someone you appriciate, and send them a card. You’ll feel good and so will they.

remind  yourself that you get to give, not give to get

If you are a service provider, you may have a hard time knowing just what your time is worth per hour. Occasionally I come across folks who after 7 years in business, still insist on doing  their own books. Yikes! Hire that task out! It is a task, and yes, I know you can do it- but why?

You really must be clear on what your time is worth per hour. You may be surprised to learn you are the highest paid bookkeeper, or file clerk  in town!

What a waste of billable hours. This is critical time when you should  be out marketing.

To find out what you are worth, here is an Hourly Rate Calculator, found on the Freelance Switch Rates site. It’s one of the best calculators out there that I have seen.

… should read- “I can’t afford not to spend money on marketing”

here’s the thing- if you are not a bricks and mortar style business or even if you are, you must take on a serious plan of marketing your business.

If you don’t keep your own pipe full, you’ll be out of business by next Tuesday! Keeping your pipe full simply equates to marketing yourself.

Here are 28 ways that we can market our business:

E-newsletters, articles, speaking engagements, networking, client contact via , phone calls, client appreciation events, find a joint venture partner, cost share ads, unaddressed ad mail,  (get great print material designed and written if you are not good at that), addressed lumpy snail mail, good old fashioned cards, prospecting to a warm market, give aways, contests, ads in your industries trade magazine, other magazines your target market reads, ads in the newspapers you believe your target market reads, send in your own press release, graphics on your vehicle, get interviewed on the radio, run spotlight ads on the radio, be seen on TV, have a fantastic professionally designed website that gives away something of value. Also, get yourself seen (heard) on social media, YouTube, be a guest speaker. Get known as an expert. Gather great success stories of your customers, and post them on your website.

I may have missed something – but I don’t think so—

If after reading that list, and you still say it all sounds expensive and  “I just can’t afford to market my business”  then maybe what you are doing is, well,  an expensive hobby!

Look closely at the suggestions I have made to see what ones you can begin to do that don’t cost a lot. In fact, tell yourself  “you are investing not only money, but time into your business.”  To be inspired about new ways to market, perhaps you could subscribe to several online marketing newsletters, and keep reading Coach’s Corner for easy to do marketing ideas that matters. Have you singed up yet?

www.CoachingWithCathy.com you’ll find the box to subscribe on the home page of my professionally designed website, where I also give away something of value!

Here are 3 quick ways to get your busienss  “out there”

By the way- how does free sound to you?

right- thought so!

1. Press releases- when the editor learns you have a story, or something newsworthy- you get free press.

2. Social Networking- LinkedIn, Digg , Twitter YouTube etc. more for free. If you currently are on LinkedIn, let’s connect!

3. Stand out- become known in your field- write articles and submit them to online article directories. They can be picked up and read by a whole new audience – all for  f.r.e.e.

and for free- you can email me for resources on any of the above- free is good!

cathy@coachingwithcathy.com

Make the phone your friend -

Practice your telephone techniques, because Mom always said “practice makes perfect”!

Ever wonder what you sound like on the phone? I’ll bet you have never thought of that, and yet the phone is one our most powerful tools in business. If you can’t be face to face to someone, then the way we communicate over the phone is the next best thing. Communicating over the telephone has the ability to make a big impact, that is; has the power to make or break your first impression with a prospect. Or worse yet, really put off a customer.

If you could record yourself in a conversation, you may be surprised how many times you hear yourself say things like, uh-huh, but, ya-but, yup, yeah… and so on.  How many times do you start a sentence that you don’t finish, or this one: ask a question, and trail off with the word “or” at the end of it?

How is your pitch as you speak to people – are you clear, are you upbeat? You don’t want to come across as a wet rag,  do you?

7  Tips for the Telly:

1.Be conscious of putting a smile on your face as you answer the phone! Think people can ‘hear that smile’? you bet! Project that smile right to your caller. To remind yourself, do as I have done, and actually draw a happy face and stick it on your phone- cracks me up ever time I answer my phone- and… I’m smiling!

2. Decide to catch yourself saying the um’s and yeah buts, and choose your words well instead.

3. Take a deep breath as you begin to speak  so you can fully finish the sentence properly.

4. Laughter is ok, as well as a great ice breaker- learn to be yourself on the phone

5. Put life into your voice- use energy, have the caller enjoy what and how you respond to them. They will feel heard.

6. No Go on the Mono-tones – did you just come back from a funeral?? Make an effort to use inflection to keep the conversation interesting. Ever have a conversation with a person who sounded dull & dreary – if you are the customer, you almost feel that your call is an interruption and can’t wait for it to end!

7. End your call with a grateful expression – thank your caller very much for calling- make it heartfelt…with a  smile!

The greatest salespeople in the world  have the best techniques on the phone- is it any wonder they succeed?

…now off you go- make your smiley face