Keep a Journal for Success

I'm currently re-reading The Blair Years - extracts from the Alastair Campbell diaries and most noteworthy, beyond the great insight into how a political machine operates, is the great benefits that Alastair Campbell must have gained from the constant retrospect of the emotions he was felling in key situations in his life.

A major key to understanding yourself and why you react in certain situations is understanding the emotions you felt in situations in your past and taking note to either reconstruct those emotions or ensure you do not react in the same way, but working out why you had that reaction in the first place.

Journals are a fantastic way to take note of your emotions and the events that make up your life, giving you a better chance of adjusting your reactions to those that are suited more to your values.

Sales - Relationships

How do you like to be treated when a salespeople comes to see you?
Why this isn't the number one question in sales programs around the country i don't know, how do we expect prospects to return to us on an ongoing basis if we aren't making the necessary effort to communicate with them and the necessary time to create the right relationship, sure we want the prospect to purchase our product, but our focus should be on them to "buy" from us, not on us to"sell" to them.

Why is it important to build relationships with clients? mainly because we must see the client as someone we will be doing business with for years, whether or not that is with the current company your with or not, because you will always want a full rolodex of people to call on at anytime to discuss your product.

Another reason is that how many people does this prospect know, what is this person going to say about you to other businesses people that they know? (trust me they know some), what would they say about you if asked? If by finding more ways to help this person would they be willing to open more doors for? the answer is ultimately yes, so what can you do to build relationships?

• Get to know the person - find out things about there family, there interests, there charities
  
• Call upon that person to ask how they are going without being prompted - why not call and ask if there is anything you may be able to do better? dont wait until there is a problem for them to call
• Ask there advice - people like to be seen as an expert, so let people tell you about how much they know - you may find something out
• Send them things of interest - emails relating to their interests, a card on their birthday etc.

Don't forget the prospect will be in your life for a very long time, so you may as well get used to liking him/her, because if there is a problem its a much easier fix if you are friendly.

Tasks

1. Call everyone on your list & find out how business is going, don't forget check the website to see if there are things going on
2. Make a list of what you know about your clients and find something to send them relating to their interests
3. Ask some advice from your clients about ways to improve your product you should be able to make 5 calls per day