The first ’sale’ to make in the sales process is to sell the prospective client on the sales process … that is, to gain their commitment to the stages in your process. This provides comfort to the prospective client and it automatically sets up more than one meeting, giving the BD operative the opportunity to build greater rapport and to be able to follow up after providing the proposal. Without this permission up front, following up a presentation or proposal can seem like the firm is trying too hard (e.g. ‘pushy’) to win their business, whereas if the expectation is set up right up front, it’s more comfortable and works better for both parties.

This type of explanation also comforts the prospective client because they then know that the purpose of the first meeting is not to ’sell’ them, but rather to listen to them, to start analyzing their situation and to walk away with a clear brief upon which a realistic proposal can be built. This ’sales process design’ is equally important as ’sales skills training’; combined, these produce far better results.

This is great ‘food for thought’. Michael and I shared a chair lift at heavenly with a gentleman who was 82 and had started skiing when he moved to the states in 1993 – this means he was 65 when he started. After skiing just 2 seasons he decided to buy a house in tahoe and winter there just to ski – it’s amazing that some people use being ‘too old’ as an excuse… i think being ‘old’ is just a state of mind…

We’re never too old to learn and it’s never too late to start (anything)!

Several months later the error was discovered. They decided to test the kids again without telling anyone. The result astounded the school administrators. The IQ of the “real” bright kids had gone down significantly. They had been treated as being “mentally limited, uncooperative and difficult to teach” by the teachers. The teacher’s paradigms in other words had become a self fulfilling prophecy.

On the other hand, the scores of the supposedly “dumb” group had gone up. They were treated as being bright, energetic, optimistic and excited which resulted in “high individual expectations and worth for those kids.” What’s interesting is that the teachers of the “dumb” group said that they were challenged in the first few weeks of teaching but they knew they were “bright” so they changed their teaching methods with outstanding results.

Great video…and, I’d point out…a Texan!

We all need to hear that what we are doing is valued by those we choose to serve.

See you in Atlanta!

Ron

Dr. Bob Rotella is a sports psychologist with a special interest in golf. In his book Your 15th Club he discusses the relationship between your conscious mind, subconscious mind, and the creation of your self image.

To explain the relationship Dr Rotella uses the example of learning to drive a manual car. It is the conscious mind that learns the physical activity required to move through the gears smoothly. Eventually you learn how to control the car well enough so that control of the gears is an activity controlled by the subconscious mind. You can drive from A to B without even thinking about the gear changes.

The reason you can drive the car without thinking about the gear changes is as a result of your self image as a driver. Self image lives in the subconscious.

According to Dr. Rotella we all have the power to train our self imagine so that our subconscious mind helps us to become what we think about ourselves.

Ric, you pose the question how much of our own under-performance can be attributed to our failure to believe in ourselves and our colleagues. Having read Your 15th Club I am of the view that a great deal of our under-performance is attributed to our failure to believe in ourselves.

I have read the book twice now. The first read was an attempt to improve my golf, and it actually has had a positive impact there already. It then occurred to me that the concepts discussed have relevance to my work, so I took off my golf hat and put on the eye shade and read it again.