To stay relevant and thrive in today’s market and during your entire career, you have to live a life where you consistently reinvent and recommit yourself.
By reinventing, we are talking about staying at the forefront of your industry and doing what it takes to succeed. Whatever got you to where you are today will not necessarily help you achieve greater success. If your current actions were to yield greater results, you would have already achieved them.
Another point is that leading companies and producers never rest on their laurels. They know that people are always looking to knock them off their perch. This is why anytime they reach new heights or create a new invention, they immediately consider their actions and inventions obsolete and start working on new innovations. This way when competition finally catches up to them, they are always in front looking back and saying “done that, been there—-look up here and catch us if you can”.
My mother, Miriam Menn Karr, survived throughout here entire career as a senior executive of Chase Bank by looking for new ways to stay relevant and invaluable to her company. She did this later on in her career by creating a counter trade group that helped South American countries export their products and services. This innovative idea helped create funds that were used to write-down third world debt held by the bank. Now that is being relevant and valuable.
In order to reinvent oneself, one has to constantly recommit themselves to their mission, goals and passion. Without recommitment, we fall victim to resting on our laurels and taking it easy.
Its time to reinvent and recommit yourself. And keep doing this on a daily basis. It is the price one needs to pay for staying at the top of one’s game.
Yesterday afternoon my heart jumped when my daughter texted me that she was alright and that there were two bomb explosions. Attending a college that is situated right in the middle of the chaos, she was a scant couple of blocks from the horrific scene. Shaken as most of us are, she immediately joined with a hundred other students at a nearby frat house waiting for further instructions.
Those first few precious moments when one is dazed are the key moments in a disaster. As a former EMT, we were trained that the most important skill one can have in a disaster is to not get emotional and maintain calm. Today, many of us are somewhat emotional and now is the time to stay calm and band together..
People who do this type of act not only want to inflict harm on others, but also want to disrupt the lives of many through fear. We cannot let that happen. As hard as it is, we must continue with our lives, attend events and move forward.
This is not to say you won’t feel lonely or fearful. They are ordinary emotions and we should not be afraid to experience them. What me must do is stay in communication with each other and help those who are having trouble dealing with the events. We also must wait for the facts before we respond.
These are similar skill sets that trained negotiators and leaders use on a daily basis. In the midst of disaster such as a huge deal falling apart, crisis in the workplace or a sudden disruption of life as we have seen yesterday, the key to moving forward is to remain calm in the midst of emotional distress.
This is not easy to do when your fear factor is at an all time high. At times like this you just need to believe that it will all work out, calm down, assess facts for what they are and make the appropriate decisions.
The only decision for all of us now is to stay strong and move on living our lives where any other response gives power to those who tried to disrupt our lives.
For more information on how you can help, contact the American Red Cross.
I am embarrassed to say that for the past week I have been trying like crazy to remember how to open my desktop mouse so I can change the batteries. I must have spent a total of one hour working on this task until I went to Staples to have them help me figure it out. After the store manager couldn’t open it either, the tech person looked at the back and said don’t you have to charge this unit? These two copper electrodes tell me this is a charging device. At that moment, my memory came back and I realized that’s it, I need to recharge it. Now how I forgot that this is a recharging unit is a subject for another blog. I call it being overwhelmed with too many things on my mind.
The point of this blog is that by fixating on my perceived solution of changing batteries, which totally was the wrong thing to do, I was not open to seeing the signs that had the answer for me-those two copper electrodes. They did not register because I was not open to this possibility.
When you try to influence someone, are you going into that conversation fixated on how you see the world and your point of view? Or are you open to listening, putting all of your assumptions and experiences aside, to the signs that are around you. The words people use, their actions, how they operate and behave, the things they hold dearly, etc. When you are open to understanding the person, their motives, needs, fears and desires, only then will you have the information you will need on how to present your ideas in a powerful manner.
Don’t do I as did in being fixated on the fact that there is only one way to get new batteries into the unit. There are other ways. Be open to them. When you are, your success will will increase exponentially.
Ever have to write a proposal and get stuck with the enormity of the situation, especially when your head is not into it? Or, do you shy away from prospecting because it simply is not something you cherish to do and therefore you procrastinate to avoid this distasteful activity?
Brian Tracy in his book Eat That Frog talks about the five reasons we avoid doing things:
Too Big
Too Complicated
We Don’t Know How
We Don’t Want To
No Fun
The difference between successful and the not so successful people is not they aren’t prone to acts of procrastination. They just don’t allow themselves to get sucked into it.
If the task is too big, they break it down into manageable pieces so they can handle it better. Too complicated? They apply the KISS Principle—-Keep it Simple and Stupid. Don’t know how to? They learn what they need to know. Don’t Want to? They concentrate on the benefits they will achieve from doing the task. No fun? They simply find ways to enjoy themselves.
Bottom line is we all have choices to make in life. We can avoid the tasks that we are not keen on doing and therefore stop us from achieving the results we want in life. Or we can find ways to make those unseemly but necessary tasks easier to do and tolerate because they are critical to our success.
Procrastination is not an obstacle. It is a choice. How do you wish to proceed?
If you really want to sell more in less time, stop wasting your time on writing proposals that are unqualified and unnecessary.
A proposal should be a summary of the agreed upon issues that need to be resolved with proposed deliverables and investment figures. Understand the key words here are AGREED UPON.
How much time does it take you to write a proposal? I have seen cases where it may take from 15 minutes to as much as a few days depending on how complex the sale is. How many times do you do this in a year? How many of these proposals actually turn into business? In most cases the closing percentage is very low because most proposals are unqualified. Continue Reading Stop Proposing and Start Selling
With Spring finally here, professionals are dusting off their clubs. Did you know, the game of golf provides a lesson on how all of us can become more successful?
In golf, the person with the lowest score wins. While you are competing with others, your performance is all that counts as compared to other sports. In baseball, you are playing against others. Will the defense catch your ball? Will the pitcher strike you out? Will someone hit a home run against you?
In golf, there are no opposing players. Just a little white ball sitting on a tee waiting for you to hit the cover off of it! No opposing players waiting to catch the ball, throw it to you, etc.
This is what success is all about. Too many people worry too much about their competition. Want to increase your success? Stop worrying about the competition. As in golf, they have no impact as to how well you can sell, lead others and follow through on your commitments.
It is all about your skill, determination and attitude.
Discovering Golden Opportunities is all about listening for the hidden messages and signs in life.
Check out the video below and then comment on examples you can provide on how you achieved greater success from finding the hidden messages and signs.
How many golden opportunities are you missing because you do not see the hidden messages and signs? Pay attention and grab that golden opportunity NOW!
The most powerful word you can use to influence others is the word CONTEXT. Context is not the word you should be using, but rather the strategy on how to influence others.
What you have to say is not powerful. The power comes from positioning your ideas and offers in the CONTEXT of what’s important to the listener. This may sound like a minor point to you, but it is the GREATEST DISTINCTION of what separates the most influential people from others.
Here’s an example. Scott Nadell, Director of Sales for Mextrx LLC, a third party biller in New York specializing in workers compensation and no fault receivables, called me up after reading Lead, Sell or Get Out of the Way. He asked me how could he do a better job of opening his client’s minds to listen to what he has to say. He described his clients as being closed minded and downright rude to him.
I asked him how he started off his calls. He said since they only give him a couple of minutes, he goes straight into how he can do their billing better and more efficiently. All of a sudden, the gates come down. Office managers hearing this start thinking about the possibility of having to fire employees because of technology gains. Doctors don’t want to get near this issue either. No one is listening.
I told Scott he needed to develop the relationship first so his clients are not fearful of him and then present his offering in the CONTEXT of the problems they are trying to solve.
He started going in to prospect calls with the mindset of having a conversation. Asking about the challenges they are having in billing, getting them to open up. Then, he presented his offering in the CONTEXT of how he can help them solve those problems without ever talking about laying anyone off. He concentrated on his company’s technology and statistics of improvement gains similar practices have achieved from working with Scott.
All of a sudden, Scott started having better conversation, uncovered new opportunities and closed more deals.
If you are trying to influence anyone in life, customers, family members, friends, students, colleagues, etc.—remember it is not the message that counts. It is the CONTEXT in how you deliver the message that makes all the difference in whether your message lands with impact and is acted on!
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In today's sales world there's no room for followers. But there's plenty of room for leaders. In Lead, Sell, or Get Out of the Way, Ron Karr outlines a repeatable process based on the powerful idea that great sellers lead relationships in the same way that great leaders sell ideas.
