How to Train Cats & Salespeople

By John Boe

Which do you think would be harder to train, a cat or a salesperson? Seriously, which one would you pick? While it's true that cats have a well-deserved reputation for being independent, demanding and virtually impossible to train, the same can be said for many salespeople. Surprisingly, the same training and reward techniques required to get Fluffy to jump through a hoop can also be utilized to motivate your sales team to achieve peak-performance!

One evening while channel surfing, I came across a fascinating animal act that grabbed my attention. The act featured a cat trainer with a half dozen cats of varying size, shape, and color. Unlike a circus lion tamer who attempts to intimidate with a chair and whip, this man simply used a combination of treats and verbal praise to motivate his cats to perform difficult tricks. Using only soothing voice tones and a pocket full of cat treats, he would calmly command each cat to do its own specific trick. Amazingly, he got one cat to walk on his front paws, one balanced on a ball, while yet another pushed a toy baby stroller across the stage.

After the performance, the cat trainer was interviewed and asked how he was able to get his cats to willingly obey his commands. His response surprised me with its simple wisdom. He said that he didn't train the cats at all; he simply figured out what each cat liked to do best and then encouraged that behavior!

"People need to realize that a cat's indifference doesn't mean they can't learn cool tricks," says celebrity animal trainer Joel Silverman. "It simply means you haven't convinced them yet that doing so is in their best interest. A dog naturally wants to please you and will work for you, but a cat needs a paycheck to be motivated."

Five Tips to Help You Train Cats & Salespeople

1. Temperament testing is a must! Before you invest your time and energy into training make sure you check for temperament suitability. Temperament testing allows you to identify those who by nature lack the discipline, desire or self-motivation to consistently achieve peak performance. Sales managers who lack the benefit of temperament understanding are inclined to place too much emphasis on their gut-level feeling during the hiring process. If you hire someone that is not suited for the position, you will experience low morale, high turnover, and find yourself constantly in the training mode. On the other hand, when you recruit the right person you will find that they are self- motivated and eager to train.
   
   
2. Look for "hot buttons." Traditionally, sales managers have relied primarily on commission to motivate their sales force. Unfortunately, a compensation structure based solely on commission does not address individual motivational factors and therefore, money alone will not motivate your sales force. A successful incentive program is a mixture of awards, recognition, and peer pressure. There is tremendous power behind a timely word of praise or a handwritten note acknowledging achievement. While money is certainly an important ingredient in any incentive program, it should by no means be the only tool in a manager's motivational toolbox. If money by itself were a sufficient motivation, commission-based salespeople would simply sell more without additional enticement.
   
   
3. Make the training fun and positive. All cats and most salespeople have pretty short attention spans and low boredom thresholds. Keep lessons short, interesting, and always try to end on a positive note.
   
   
4. You must be patient when training cats or salespeople. It's important to respect individual abilities and preferences. Make allowances for personality, and don't get frustrated if the training schedule doesn't go exactly as expected. Remember that people have off days and on days just like cats. ''When I'm really pushing and the going gets tough," says Silverman, "sometimes the cat just sits down and says, 'I give up.' Even the brightest cats, if they feel you're pushing them too hard, will, in effect, say, 'Screw you, buddy, I'm going to go over there, sit down, and stare into space.'''
   
   
5. Make sure to take time for rest and relaxation. All work and no play will make the cat, the salesperson, and the trainer grumpy. Whether it is playing with a ball of yarn or enjoying a round of golf, taking time out to play is critically important. By successfully balancing play and work, you will return recharged, refreshed, and ready to accomplish more. By incorporating these five powerful tips into your training program, you will develop an award-winning sales team and achieve unbelievable results!

John Boe presents a wide variety of motivational and sales-oriented keynotes and seminar programs for sales meetings and conventions. John is a nationally recognized sales trainer and business motivational speaker with an impeccable track record in the meeting industry. To have John speak at your next event, visit www.johnboe.com or call 877 725-3750.

Published Networking Today April 2008

Profile: Searching for Sitters Simplified

By Susan Regier

Searching for the perfect childcare provider has been simplified with the recent launch of the London Caregivers Referral Network’s online database. Within days, more than 100 homecare providers in and around London registered at www.londoncaregivers.com. Now parents can easily find an ideal match to meet their family’s needs through this unique Web site catering to the London community.

London Caregivers connect parents and providers through an extensive interactive database. Parents can streamline their search to focus only on caregivers matching their personal criteria, with consideration to location, age, language preference, full time or part time, shift work or weekend care, and environmental concerns regarding smoking and pets. Police checks and First Aid/CPR training are also specified.

“We’re here to help busy working families who do not have the time or experience to find a home daycare provider or nanny on their own,” said Sabina Manji, owner of the London Caregivers Referral Network and publisher of The Mom & Caregiver Magazine. “The perfect caregiver may be just around the corner, but parents usually don’t realize it."

Home daycare providers register online for free and are categorized by location and services provided. A dynamic mapping process divides the city by postal codes while outlining street boundaries to expedite the process. A trial search gives parents the number of available matches within those boundaries. They can then opt to pay a minimal fee of $40.00, which gives them full details of the providers plus unlimited searches for ninety days. It is then up to the parents to follow through with their due diligence – they must meet the homecare providers and check references.

On average, childcare needs change every six to nine months as people move or their situations change. “The demand for an up-to-date resource is huge,” said Manji. “Parents have been thrilled with how easy it is to narrow their search and find the perfect connection.”

Since 1997, London Caregivers Referral Network has been helping local parents in their quest to find the perfect caregiver for their children, whether it’s home daycare providers, interviewing and hiring nannies, or locating temporary or last minute childcare. The innovative childcare registry has been profiled in Canadian Living and on CBC Marketplace.


Susan Regier is the publisher of www.NetworkingToday.ca, London’s online business resource, and head writer of Vantage One Writing, a professional writing service for businesses. 519.471.8726 Email: susan@vantageone.ca Web site: www.vantageone.ca

Published March 2008 Networking Today

Expert Envy

By Susan Friedmann

Experts have become omnipresent. They're everywhere: on your favorite television show, on drive time radio programming, on blogs and Internet discussion forums, between the pages of nationally popular magazines, and your local newspaper. You can't throw a dart it seems, without having it hit an Expert on the way to the dartboard.

Why is this happening? What has motivated all of these people – financial planners and attorneys, floral designers and wedding planners, massage therapists and ear, nose and throat specialists – to take on the Expert mantle?

One reason:

Being the Expert is one of the most efficient, effective ways to ensure your professional and financial success.

This trend is consumer driven. According to Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, consumers increasingly demand that services and products be targeted directly to them. There's a cycle of specialization at work, resulting in a public that wants experts for everything.

There are many reasons for this, most of which can be traced directly to media and communication outlets. The Internet is perhaps the most pervasive proponent of specialization. In Anderson's The Long Tail, he says that "In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare." You can see this in action at mega-sites like Amazon.com that go out of their way to offer personalized “want lists,” “recommended titles,” and specialized deals based on previous purchases.

At the same time, there has been an explosion of cable and satellite television networks, each targeted to an increasingly narrow demographic. Where once there was a Home and Garden channel, there are now Fine Living, Do It Yourself, and Home Discovery networks, with rumors of more “shelter” channels on the horizon. The trend is more pronounced in print media. “One size fits all” magazines such as Reader's Digest are still on the newsstand, but they're being crowded out by specialty titles like Quick Quilts, The Italian Greyhound Magazine, and SciFi – a title devoted to those who watch shows on the popular Sci Fi Channel. Satellite radio shows are a new trend, with offerings for fans of Howard Stern and Oprah Winfrey.

The public, fed a steady diet of Experts via the media, demands Experts for their own lives. After all, they've been told consistently that this is how things are supposed to work. At the same time, the public has demonstrated a willingness to pay a premium for expertise. Well-known Experts, no matter what field they're in, command top dollar for their products and services. There are home decorating experts who make more money than the average neuro-surgeon, simply by capitalizing on their Expert status.

How do they do it?

Why does one financial planner labor in obscurity while another pontificates for Barrons? How do TV news producers know which attorney to call for insightful legal commentary when the events of the day merit it? What determines who shows up as a guest blogger or speaker at industry conventions?

While it's obvious to see the benefits inherent in being the Expert, it's not always clear how one comes to be recognized as the Expert. This can lead to a condition known as Expert Envy, especially when you know that you're as skilled, as talented, and as dynamic as the person staring at you from the TV screen.

Why are they in this position, enjoying the heightened visibility, greater profitability, and enhanced reputation, when you're not?

It's not mere chance. It's not good fortune, a lucky roll of the dice, or being born into a family of media moguls – although all of those help! Experts aren't born...they're made.

Curing Expert Envy

The first step in eliminating expert envy is realizing that Experts are made. Logically, the next step is the realization that if the Experts you see surrounding you were created, then you can go through the same creative process: You can Be the Expert. In my book, Riches in Niches: Making it BIG in a Small Market (Career Press, May 2007), I discuss how you can achieve Expert status by becoming a Nichepreneuer™.

A Nichepreneuer uses his or her professional skills and experiences, coupled with personal passions, to serve a narrowly defined target market. Shrewd use of promotional tools, from media management to industry networking, help position the Nichepreneuer as an Expert – with all the benefits that entails. Voila! No longer are you envying that television pundit or industry guru – for you will be that person yourself.


Susan A. Friedmann,CSP, is The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, author: “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies,” working with companies to improve their meeting and event success through coaching, consulting and training. For a free copy of “10 Common Mistakes Exhibitors Make,” email: article4@thetradeshowcoach.com; Web site: http://www.thetradeshowcoach.com/

Published March 2008 Networking Today

Increase Customer Loyalty by Focusing on Service

By Barbara Bartlein

If you’re looking for great customer service, you may want to take a trip south to Georgia. Last July, Governor Sonny Perdue announced the state’s new Customer Service Improvement Initiative in which all state agencies have united in an effort to make Georgia the best-managed and most friendly state in the country. “We have a unique relationship with the citizens we serve,” said Governor Perdue. “As the true shareholders, the citizens are the real owners of this state. We all report to them. Citizens want their interactions with the state to be Fast, Friendly and Easy.”

The governor established four customer service standards:

• GREET your customers promptly and courteously.
• LISTEN and verify your understanding of the customer’s nee
• HELP customers with your answers and actions.
• HONOR your commitments in a timely manner.

Five key customer attributes were also identified: courtesy, helpfulness, accessibility, responsiveness, and knowledge. All state agencies were challenged to create and implement customer service programs to accomplish these goals.

Subsequently, Chancellor Erroll B. Davis, Jr., asked the 38,000 faculty and staff employed by Georgia’s 35 public colleges and universities to provide faster, friendlier, and more efficient service to the University System of Georgia customer, including more than 253,500 students.

“The campus-based customer service improvement plans that were launched in August began to create a culture that places more emphasis on customer service,” Chancellor Davis stated. “In line with the Governor’s goal of achieving the best-managed state government, we intend to provide a model of service unparalleled in public higher education.”

All the college campuses established customer service initiatives. They conducted additional training on the appropriate use of phone procedures and utilized “secret shoppers” to evaluate the service. They assessed the ease of college processes such as enrollment, registration, financial aid, and other offices that provide frontline service to college students. Many of the colleges and universities developed centralized enrollment and registration processes to make it easy to be a student. Facilities are also redesigning Web sites to make them user friendly and easy to navigate.

An employee recognition program for exceptional service was also established at the colleges. Referred to as the S.T.A.R. program, it recognizes those employees who demonstrate the four values of great customer service: Service, Teamwork, Attitude, and Responsibility. Regular reports, feedback, and meetings take place to reinforce the focus on great customer service at all locations.

Take a lesson from Georgia and establish a focus on exceptional customer service for your business to increase customer loyalty. Here are the components of a great customer service initiative:

• Promote communication. Every employee must understand that service to both internal and external customers is their key responsibility. Customers are not an interruption or a bother; they are who pay the pay-cheque. As a business, make sure you’re having regular communications with your customers by providing newsletters, follow up calls, holiday greeting cards, and email specials.
  
  
• Build employee loyalty. Loyalty builds from the top down. If you are loyal to your employees, they have a positive attitude about the job. Make sure that they are engaged and energetic. I have never seen great customer service from disgruntled employees.
  
  
• Provide training and education. This should include an understanding of the company values and the specific ways in which you want employees to interact with customers. Training in phone etiquette, how to respond to angry customers, and the importance of follow up are critical. Training must be on-going with at least yearly reminders to maintain quality service.
  
  
• Emphasize people over technology. The harder it is for a customer to speak to a human being, the less likely that you will see that customer again. People are worn out with telephone cues, overseas customer service staff, and long hold times. The money “saved” by not having an easily accessible customer service representative may actually represent a fortune of lost customers.
  

• Be flexible. Solve your customers’ complaints or problems quickly and efficiently. Excuses about policy, procedures, or computer glitches will lose more customers than closing the store. Resolve the problem on the first contact.
  

• Offer customer incentives. Give them a reason to want to come back. These can be reward cards, free gifts, discounts on special services, or birthday sales. I routinely offer a “warm weather discount” to anyone who books my services in a warm place.
  

• Know your customer’s names. I use to stop at the same deli almost three times a week for lunch. Each time the owner would ask my first name to call out when the sandwich was ready. After six months he was still asking my name, so I quit going. I have other people learn my name when I don’t even give them money. Impress your customers by learning their names and something about them.
  

Barbara Bartlein is The People Pro and President of Great Lakes Consulting Group. She offers keynotes, seminars and consulting to help you build your business and balance your life. She can be reached at 888-747-9953, by email at: barb@thepeoplepro.com or visit her Web site at www.ThePeoplePro.com

Published March 2008 Networking Today

Sales Training: Stop Traditional Based Selling & Focus on Consultative Selling Now

By Will Brooks

Today, the sales role has more in common with a fighter pilot’s job than anything else. It is defined by periods of patient waiting punctuated by moments of unimaginable excitement. The secret is to keep a constant flow of fresh leads without losing track of any of your current prospects and customers.

Your Prospects Want a Quick Follow-up

A technology research firm known as KnowledgeStorm recently produced a report in which they revealed that a prospect’s receptivity to salespeople declines drastically as time passes. Their data shows that 88% of prospects were happy to hear from salespeople when their Internet inquiry was responded to the same day. That means that salespeople who want positive reactions from prospects should respond to all inquiries the same day they receive them.

Despite a quick response, you should still expect a decision slow down.

While doing research for Cahners, Susan Mulcahy discovered that the typical B2B sale exceeding $35,000 now requires 5.12 sales calls to finalize, up 20% since 1989. Additional research in 2005 showed that there are 3.5 more people involved in a B2B buying decision than there were in 2001. Knowing that the average sales cycle for a high-dollar B2B sale lasts between 6 and 36 months, salespeople must be sure to be very responsive while at the same time very, very patient.

In other words, you must reply to prospects as quickly as possible, but they will not necessarily respond in kind. These forces have continued to push the need for a transition from a traditional selling mentality to a consultative one.

How to Shift from Traditional to Consultative Selling

21st Century Selling requires a unique mixture of skills. On one hand, a salesperson must exhibit a relative sense of urgency while, on the other hand, display a certain degree of patience. Immediate follow-up and a need to addressing your prospect’s specific needs should be combined with a willingness to move at a speed your prospect is comfortable with.

The most blatant example of a traditional selling mentality belongs to the much clichéd “used-car (now called pre-owned) salesman.” However, less extreme examples of the negative traits of traditional selling are exhibited in other ways, as well.

Sales people, who engage in excessive small talk, demean their competition or simply “pitch” their offering with scores of features-per-minute all exhibit traditional traits that will drive today’s highly-demanding prospects away.


The traditional sales role should be eliminated. Today’s sales professionals must become trusted advisors filling a consultant’s role regardless of their product or service. They can no longer “pitch” their product. Instead, they must:

• Ask questions.
• Listen to answers.
• Provide sound recommendations and advice.

Sometimes, that may mean facing the difficult reality that their solution isn’t the right one for every person who is in front of them. They may also have to determine whether the prospect is the right one, long-term, for their organization.

Consultative Selling Requires Sales Professionals to Focus Every Ounce of Attention on the Needs and Wants Their Customers

Today, in order to advise a prospect appropriately about the implementation or use of your products or services, you must provide objective information about how to make a buying decision for the product or service. And it must appropriately meet the prospect’s needs and wants.

Only after identifying the prospect’s needs and wants can a consultative salesperson discuss the product or service and its application to the client.

How to Implement Change

Training a traditionally-minded sales team how to be consultative is no easy task. Part of the problem rests squarely on the shoulders of the sales management team. According to a survey released in Sales and Marketing Management Magazine and conducted by Equation Research, 65% of sales managers say they focus on building volume rather than finding more profitable customers. 63% say they neglected personal skills development. Both of those statistics reveal startling tendencies toward traditional sales techniques rather than consultative sales strategies.

In order to see maximum return on your bottom line, adequate sales training, evaluation, and compensation must also accompany structural changes to your sales force. In other words, a unilateral decision to transition from traditional to consultative selling will fail.

Remember, training is only one component of a successful transition. The most positive effect will come when training is coupled with follow-up and reinforcement components that extend beyond the classroom and into the field. Too often, sales-driven organizations believe that an annual sales conference and (supposedly) weekly sales meetings will be sufficient to upgrade the knowledge and skills of salespeople. While those are important pieces they do not, by themselves, complete the puzzle.

Will Brooks helps clients make the most intelligent investments in sales and sales management hiring, training and coaching. Now, you can gain more insight into contemporary selling strategies that helped 99% of The Brooks Group’s training participants see increased sales volume. Download Will’s free special report, 21 Biggest Myths In Sales at http://www.BrooksGroup.com/SalesMyths & discover how professional selling has changed and what you need to do!

Published March 2008 Networking Today

The 10 Biggest Lies that Stop People from Getting What They Want

By Cynthia Kersey

They say that "everybody's a critic," and that never seems truer than when you're pursuing a dream. There will always be well-meaning people who want to "protect" you from your "unrealistic fantasies." Critics tried to discourage the people profiled in Unstoppable. Everyone ignored the negative input and achieved their goals. Follow their lead and you, too, will be UNSTOPPABLE!

1. The timing is all wrong. In 1987, prior to accepting Paramount's offer to host a late-night talk show, Arsenio Hall was told by everyone: "It's too hard to crack into the late-night ratings. Television isn't ready for a black talk show host. This is America, and you can forget it.
2. "Why don't you get a real job? Not understanding his desire to become Mr. Universe, Arnold Schwarzenegger's family pleaded with him, saying: "How long will you go on training all day in a gymnasium and living in a dream world?"
3. It'll never work, you'll lose everything. Weeks before she opened her first store, cosmetic tycoon Mary Kay Ash's attorney said: "Liquidate the business right now and recoup whatever cash you can. If you don't, you'll end up penniless."
   
4. Don't rock the boat. In response to Muriel Siebertís application to be the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, officials responded: "The language on the floor is too rough and there's no ladies' room." She bought a seat anyway and remained the only woman there for nine years.
5. It's never been done before. Upon applying for a job after graduation from Columbia University, announcers for NBC Radio responded to Sally Jessy Raphael: "You have the perfect voice for broadcasting, but you should get a job as a secretary. We're not using women."
   
6. You don't have enough talent. Responding to his desire to become a recording artist, Ray Charles' teachers said: "You can't play the piano, and God knows you can't sing. You'd better learn how to weave chairs so you can support yourself."
7. Don't even try, you'll just be disappointed. When auditioning for a part in a high school musical, a teacher rejected Diana Ross saying: "You have a nice voice, but it's nothing special."
   
8. You don't fit the mold OR you're not the right "type." Trying to convince her she didn't have the right look, fashion photographer Richard Avedon told Cher: "You will never make the cover of Vogue because you don't have blond hair or blue eyes." When she did make the cover, Vogue sold more copies than it had ever sold before.
9. Don't give up your day job. Commenting on the first manuscript of an unpublished author, a New York publisher told James Michener: "You're a good editor with a promising future in the business. Why would you want to throw it all away to try to be a writer? I read your book. Frankly, it's not really that good." Michener's first book, Tales of the South Pacific, later won a Pulitzer Prize and was adapted for stage and screen as South Pacific.
10. There's no market for it. When hearing his plans to launch Perrier in the United States, several consulting firms advised Gustave Leven: "You're foolish to try to sell sparkling water in the land of Coca-Cola drinkers."
    

The only opinion about your dream that really counts is yours. The negative comments of others merely reflect their limitations – not yours.

There is nothing unrealistic about a dream that aligns with your purpose, ignites your passion, and inspires you to plan and persevere until you attain it. On the contrary, it's unrealistic to expect a person with such drive and commitment not to succeed.

Choose to be unstoppable!

Best-selling author and renowned speaker Cynthia Kersey tells us: "The greatest natural resource in the world is not in the earth's waters or minerals, nor in the forests or grasslands. It is the spirit that resides in every unstoppable person. And the spirit of the individual benefits us all." Discover this natural resource and how to make it work for you in achieving unstoppable life and business success in just 30 days! Go to: http://www.yoursuccessstore.com/unstoppable or call 877-929-0439.

Published March 2008 Networking Today