Blogger Lela Davidson shared an excerpt from an article written by Michael Shrage a researcher who questions how far a company should go to improve its workforce.  He questions if companies should encourage their employees to pop a pill, get the surgery, get the technology, or whatever is needed to increase their productivity.

At first it may sound shocking to think a company would push their employees so hard to perform that they would seek controversial ways to increase their productivity.  Yet, when you think about it a little longer…

photo credit: Mutasim Billah Pritam [EWU]

Aren’t we an instant society always seeking the instant fix?  Doesn’t every overweight person want to pop a pill and wake up thin in the morning?

Aren’t you looking for the magic bullet that opens doors, secures appointments, and closes business?

Aren’t you willing to risk your hard earned money, even your health, if there is an option out there that produces the results you want?

Unfortunately, the answer is “yes” for a huge portion of our population.

The sad truth is pills, surgeries, tricks and techniques, instant fixes address the symptoms not the problems.

I personally know someone who underwent bariatic surgery, and lost over 150 pounds… But then after having lost all that weight… gradually over a span of about 3 years she began to rapidly gain back all the weight she’d worked so hard to lose and more…

The surgery fixed her physical ability to eat, at least temporarily… it did not fix the reason she ate in excess… So, she regained the weight… her health was worse than when she started… and now she faced serious life threatening consequences.  Her stomach could literally explode dumping the toxic contents of her stomach and intestines into her body cavity causing an infection that would kill her.

While this is an extreme and graphic example the same thing happens whenever we try to reach out for an instant fix.  Instant fixes can only address the symptoms not the root cause.  What happens is the instant fix covers up and masks the real problem.  The problem doesn’t go away it either shows up in a different way or it returns with a vengeance.

Adapt or Die

Oh, I know that sounds so dramatic and frightful.  But it’s true.  You have to adapt what you’re doing, saying, and offering to fit the market today or you won’t be around to worry about it tomorrow.

You can’t waste your time or resources on band-aids when you need a real plan to increase sales and increase the number of people you have to sell your stuff to.

No Magic Pills Just Magic Processes

You need a process you can repeat over and over again to adapt what you’re doing, and how you’re doing it, to fit the current market.  It doesn’t matter how great your marketing and sales efforts are working today things will change… and you will have to adapt once again.  However, it won’t be had to make those adaptations when you can follow a process to increase sales.

“The only way on earth to influence the other fellow is to talk about what he wants and show him how to get it” - Dale Carnegie

Zig Ziglar and Mary Kay Ashe would have said, “The only way to get what you want is to help enough other people get what they want”.

You’ve probably heard both of those quotes on more than one occasion.  So why aren’t you taking that advice and running with it?

Well, if you’re like most people you just don’t “get it”.  You’re thinking if you want to sell you have to tell other people about your stuff.  And that’s true.  However, it’s the way you approach it that makes the difference.

You see you can either open the door and open the connection by starting with what you have to offer.  Or you can start with what the other person is already looking for.  One way get’s you invited in the other gets the door shut in your face.  But you already knew that didn’t you…

You’re good and darned tired of doors slamming in your face and phones slammed in your ear.  So rather than starting the conversation about what you have to offer change it to what the other person is looking for.

I know most of you are afraid you’ll get it wrong.

You’re afraid if you don’t say the very thing they’re looking for the door will slam shut.  So you can’t help yourself.  You speak in terms of generalities because you don’t want to exclude anyone.  But generalities:

• are meaningless
• lack emotion
• are boring

So you aren’t any better off than you were when you opened the conversation talking about your stuff.  However, you’re missing an important link here in your understanding.

We could make Dale Carnegie’s quote a little easier to understand if we would alter it to read, “get him to talk about what he wants”.  Yes, that’s the big secret.  If you want to sell you have to get the other guy to do most of the talking - not you.

Do you know why introverts are more likely to be top sellers than their fast talking extrovert peers?  Because they know when to shut up and how to listen.  So let’s see how you make that work.

First, we’ve got to get the other guy to talk about what he wants.  How do you find out the things you want to know?  I’ll be you ask a question, don’t you?  If you opened with a question wouldn’t it be easier to find out what the other person is looking for?

So let’s say he tells you he’s looking for a way to get his sales people to get off their butts and get out there and sell something (yipes, this guy must be talking to your sales manager).  Wouldn’t you want to know what he’s looked into in the past to get his salespeople selling?

What if you asked?

You might wonder if he’d already tried some of those things.  You might wonder what he liked most about the things he tried and what he liked least.

Now if this guy is actually going to spend his money, getting sales has to be more important than the cost of buying the solution.  So… why not ask?

Now anytime I’ve spent money I always wanted to know what I was going to get from my investment.  So how will this guy know if his sales were better after the solution than before?

So maybe your sales success depends more on the questions you ask than what you say?

So maybe if you listened to what this guy says and helped him come to his own conclusions… when you did speak you could hit on the things that he’s already told you he’d base his buying decision on?

Click on the Gold Card to Discover the Step-by-step Solution to Increase Sales

photo credit: ol slambert

Here’s an interview I had with Lee Salz where I share sales success secrets.  Listen in to this interview and be ready to take notes because you’re going to hear immediately actionable ways to increase your sales.

There’s no reason your sales can’t take off like a fourth of July rocket and this no cost nothing to register for audio will provide several tools to make this happen for you.

Sales Success Secrets revealed join now.

photo credit: David the Pimp Daddy

In a recent conversation with Clayton Shold I discuss ways to leverage objections to make more sales.

I talk about what to do and what not to do to turn turn those objections into “yeses” and increase your sales.

To listen in to our conversation on how to leverage objections and increase sales click on this link.

There’s no cost to listen and nothing to register for just grab a cup of coffee, a notepad, and pencil and get ready to take notes that you can put to use today.

How to Leverage Objections and Increase Sales 

The Top Sales Experts have worked together to write this sales e-book for our readers. I know you’ll get a lot of value from the information shared in this book by the top sales gurus. And best of all it’s our gift to you. You certainly can’t beat that. So click on the image and get your free book now.

If you prefer click on this link Top Sales Experts Summer E-Book