My blog

Turn any energy into positive energy Take any energy that comes your way and turn it into positive energy.

When you get a cancellation, be it an appointment or a sale, take that energy and use it to your advantage. I mastered this art and use sales rejection and prospecting rejection to my advantage. It is like fuel to me. If someone is treating me unkind, it fuels my enthusiasm and persistence to a level that make me almost hyper. I become so inspired and excited. I become so motivated when I experience a tough day.

I am the kind of guy when I get an uphill, I smile because I know there is a downhill coming.

Say: ''This person will NOT determine my future.'' Then take positive action.

Focus on what made you successful in the first place. Stick to the basics. Do more of these actions.

Embrace massive positive action. Become unstoppable. Become unreasonable. What I mean is become obsessed with taking massive positive action. Become unreasonable in taking massive positive action.

Go make a success.

Regards GF

Never stop when on a roll When you stop in the middle of a project you loose momentum. Once you stopped, it is also very hard to begin again. Inertia or the fear to begin again is also a factor once you stopped.

It takes a lot of energy to get yourself going initially but it takes even more energy to start after you stopped. If you have the habit to stop ever so often in the middle of a project, you loose momentum and energy, energy that could have taken your performance to the next level. If you have an infinite supply of energy, by all means stop if you like but if you are like me, stopping let me loose track, focus and even motivation.

I often fell into this trap of the mind, taking a break at a time when I shouldn't have, resulting in me spinning my wheels to get myself going again, sometimes in vain. Other times I manage to get the wheels turning again and momentum kicks in and of we go.

I often wonder what the results would have been if I did not stop or slip up?

We mortals need to make the most of our energy and loosing energy and momentum is not to our benefit.

Stopping after you have been on a roll is detrimental to your performance, consistency and result averages.

It is better to be on a roll and stay on a roll.

Rest when you must but don't make rest a goal. Rest long enough to gather strength and then continue as if you did not stop.

Never stop when on a roll

Regards GF

How to handle cancellations on demo appointments In sales we often get that demo appointments habitually cancel on us. There is a way to minimise this:

If prospects cancel habitually, let say twice, I will do 3 followups, then marked them as a loss. Yes people are too nice to say no, if they do it more than twice, put them in a followup file for 6 months.

The way you ask for an appointment is also very important. Don't be pushy or too eager to schedule an appointment. Be enthusiastic but not desperate or pushy. Here are some lines I use:

1. “I am fully scheduled with demos but how does 3pm sound?” or “I have to do 6 demos a day can I see you at 3 pm?” or ''I have three scheduled demos but need one for 3 pm or how will 11am be for you?''

This create the sense that your time is of value. In my industry we also use: ''we get points for every demo''.

1. Also if you push too hard for the appointment and don't give them a chance to say no, you set yourself up for cancellation.

2. You must feel in your gut that they are committed to see you, if you are not sure, keep them as a back-up, then get another solid appointment.

The way you can ''feel'' if they are not commited is when they say: ''OK we will see'' or ''come around then'' or ''confirm with me 30 minutes prior'' or ''just come by anytime'', all these are cancellations in progress situations. Not always but too often to bargain on them.

Sometimes we are so happy to hear them say yes to an appointment we don't ''hear'' them say they really don't want to see us.

I rather have one solid appointment than two shaky ones.

An appointment is only an appointment if you have a confirmed time, date, name, address and the prospect is the decision maker who is willing to see you at an agreed time.

Regards GF

''Your problem is you think you have time''

Those were the words my brother told his son who was failing at maths. Long story short, he got his act together and today he is a maths lecturer with distinction. The longer version of the story tells about sacrifice, early mornings and late evenings of brutal studing. He emerged himself with resolve in maths and fell in love with the subject.

What does it have to do with sales? Everything. This story is for me the essence of success, no matter what field your in.

1.Make up your mind that: You don't have enough time left to just take it easy.

2.Make a plan.

3.Follow-through on your plan with positive action.

4.Persist until you succeed.

5.Don't listen to nay sayers. Surround yourself with people that support you.

Regards GF

Passing the baton of knowledge

I am super excited today and wanted to share it with someone. My one son who is still at school will start working in a sales position with me on his holidays.

I am 24 years in direct sales and marketing and have been an authorised distributor for only two companies for all these years.

I shared some financial numbers with both my sons (both seniors in high school) and one of them is super excited. We had two consecutive best years in business by the grace of God. We already made our year's turnover target by the end of October this year and we already beat last year which was our best year in five years!

I told my sons I will give them an opportunity to get involved in the business and make some serious money. It's not about the money but for me it is what they will learn and who they will become. What I want to teach them is what I learned in 24 years in sales and marketing.

The following few years will hopefully be a foundation for them, learning about discipline and work ethics. Learning about marketing and sales directly in the field.

I think it is a huge advantage for them for their future, no matter what direction they may go in. What they will hopefully learn will help them in any area of their lives and careers.

For me it's a huge privilege to teach my sons. Obviously I am not going to force anyone of them to get involved in the business, I am just super excited to share my knowledge with them.

I pray they will follow-through with positive action and become the great men I know they can be.

Regards GF

Do what made you successful in the first place.

Success has a recipe and it is repeatable. If you do what other successful people did before you and you do more of it you will be successful.

Failure also has a recipe and it is also repeatable. If you do what failures did before you and you do more of it you will fail too.

Natural laws are neutral, they don't care who you are. It does not matter if you believe in the law of gravity, it will affect you.

The same apply to all other natural laws, I include the law of sowing and reaping. Some call it the law of cause and effect.

What you plant will grow. The conditions must of course be favourable and you must take care of the seed/plant. But as a general rule we know seed will grow if planted.

You cannot expect a harvest were you did not sow.

Get more seed. I call it positive action. If you need more sales, get more prospects. If you need more prospects, do more calls/canvassing/followups/door to door/....(insert the action word you favour).

Keep things simple. Simplicity is a major key to effectiveness.

One product. One sales presentation, sales- or prospecting pitch, if perfected can take you all the way to the bank.

In both my sales companies where I have been an authorised distributor for the last 24 years, I only sold one specific product. Our current company offer many products, I focus on one.

When we complicate things we set yourselves up for confusion, stress and failure.

If we simplify our actions to be successful to 3 things, we stand a better change to become the best in that field.

No one is excellent at doing everything, so to have a list of 20 things you need to do perfect before you can succeed is setting you up for failure.

What most likely will happen is you will become excellent at admin, customer care or business management. These are important but one should ask the question:

What are heart and soul of my business?

What are the 3 things I can do and only I can do, that will make my business successful?

Write these 3 things down and start to do them excellently.

Put 97% of your energy in those actions. Leave 3% to manage the rest. Appoint people to help you with the rest (17) of the 20 things your business need.

In my business the 3 most important things are

Prospecting (lead generation) Scheduling appointments for presentations (calling prospects and door to door) Sales I know people in my industry who chose to give responsibility of one or more of these key actions away to an outside source, a ''quick hire'' person or even someone internally. In all cases their businesses suffered as a result.

The fact is no one will ever care as much as you do about your business.

Will you give the key of the vault/safe to just anyone? Why would you then give the 3 keys that can make or break your business away ever?

Happy selling

GF

How to get someone to do something.

The only way to get anybody to do anything is to make them ''want'' to do it.

This is the art of selling: To get someone to do something and making them feel it is their decision and in their benefit.

People will always support what they help create.

This applies to motivating yourself. If you can get yourself to ''want'' to work harder you are halfway there.

Motivation is one thing. Desire is another. If you can stir up the passions, be it in yourself, co-workers, employees, prospects or customers, you are very close to success.

Logic tells, emotions sells.

Without desire or ''want'' there can be no moving forward. If you force someone to do something this is where things backfire sometimes.

A person will always defend his or her decisions and actions if he or she was acting out of free will. If someone thought it was a great idea themselves you are halfway there.

The art of selling is then to make someone ''want'' something but then to make them feel it was their decision. Always let it be about them. Their benefit, their win. We all love to win and hate to loose. Think investment. Think benefit. Think building value and trust.

People love to buy something but hate being sold something.

Regards

GF

What will you do to be successful?

Most people say they will do ''anything'' to be successful. That is until ''anything'' stands in front of them. Then most people will not do ''anything''. As a matter of fact people are very choosy when it comes to work. ''I can never do that.'' is a common phrase. What they meant to say is:'' I will not do that.'' or ''That work is beneath me''.

All work is honourable. Unless it involves hurting someone that is innocent.

We have not suffered enough. When things go really bad we will do anything to survive. When things are bad but we are still OK we tend to be more choosy of what we are willing to do and there is nothing wrong with that, it is each person's right.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Each of us decide what we we are willing to do.

Desire for success can motivate you to go the extra mile, to do what others refuse to do, this means to be hungry for success. Be hungry for success.

Do what others refuse to do. Go the extra mile. Work when others refuse to work, this is a major key to success.

Regards

GF

Don't assume anything

Apart from assume the sale in the closing: Don't assume the prospect cannot afford to buy. Don't assume they are too old, too young, too money tight, too stingy, too rich, too unfriendly, too friendly, too sick, too healthy, too anything.

If you have been a long time in sales you start to realise: The person you thought is a sure sale seldom buys and the person you thought is a no sale often buys easy.

The saying goes: Don't assume because if split the word you make an ass out of me and u.

In everyday life I often assumed the wrong thing. The fact is you cannot know what people really think. In one on one presentations I had some prospects listen me out attentively, giving all the right buying signals, saying the right things and when I left without the sale they would bad mouth me and or the product with a loyal customer. The loyal customer would then defend my integrity and the product, put the guy in place and often tell me about it.

Then I also got the prospects who give me the world of scepticism to the point that I rather leave. And some of them turns out into the most happy customers, never to give me trouble ever. Of course it's about overcoming objections. It is about identifying the problems they have. Of course it's about presenting the solution and for filling the need.

The point is yes use assume the sale in the closing. But you need to build the desire to buy before that can happen. Build trust and value right through the presentation and even years after the sale.

So don't assume anything...keep an open mind. Keep enthusiasm and momentum.

I assume you read up to here. Just kidding.

Happy selling

GF

Reclaim it all...The thief was identified

Reclaim your youth. Reclaim your health. Reclaim your dignity. Reclaim your confidence. Reclaim your belief. Reclaim your faith.

Reclaim you prosperity. Reclaim your integrity. Reclaim your self worth. Reclaim your self-esteem. Reclaim your character. Reclaim your potential.

The thief was identified. I saw him in the mirror.