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Posts Tagged ‘Be the Red Jacket’

A goal is measurable end result. Pretty simple. Within that goal could be specific objectives or action steps that support one’s work life balance.

The challenge is achieving that measurable end result while not throwing the other goals off the cliff and upsetting the work life balance.

Louie Armstrong is quoted as a “goal is a dream with an ending.”  Dreams do not have tangible endings until some action is taken.  The move the Bucket List is a great illustration of turning dreams into goals and enjoying the measurable results.

Years ago I was exposed to the concept of the Life Wheel.  In doing my own research for my book, Be the Red Jacket, I discovered that Buddha was one of the first who wrote and discussed this concept of work life balance. His Life Wheel had six (6) areas.

Additionally, I recognized that many people had not invested the time to truly understand their purpose in life. One of the better books to explain purpose is The On Purpose Person by Kevin McCarthy.

Through my own experiences and observing the experiences of others, I also determined that within the Life Wheel there existed a counter balance effect. When one was ill physically, then one’s mental acuity suffered or too much focus on family may create a pull on social relationships.  Goals then became the counter balance weights to ensure overall balance.

Having a work life balance is essential in that being off balance creates poor results and in many cases unintended and costly results. Of course, this does require an investment of time along with the understanding how to set and achieve the desired end and measurable results 0r goals.

What is so ironic is people will invest more time on the everyday grocery list than putting together an action plan for the rest of their lives.

Goal for some appears to be a 4 letter dirty word along with plan and “DoIt.” Yet how often have we heard “failure to plan is planning to fail?”

I am reading the book Critical Thinking (Kindle edition) and the authors make some great points about the lack of critical thinking.  This inability to critically think has created reactive, short term, non-sustainable results or the quick fix mentality syndrome that appears to be so prevalent in our culture and  the cultures of other countries.Written goals when constructed within an action plan counter that quick fix mentality and subsequent quick fix behaviors not to mention quick fix results.

Consistently setting and achieving goals reflects a disciplined mind set and equally important the ability to critically think.

If you truly want those future, desired measurable results whatever they might be, then invest the time to write down your goals, unite them so that you can achieve work life balance.  For you believe a written grocery list has value, doesn’t your future even have more value?

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“To give or not to give” may become as famous as Shakespeare’s “To be or not to be that is the question” quotation. For crazy busy small business owners to sales professionals to even C Suite executives who truly want to consistently demonstrate high business ethics, yet find themselves at the crossroads of “Giving” and “Being Used” to give or not to give is a daily dilemma.

After just completing my second read of the Go Giver, conducting a small experiment using LinkedIn recommendations and investing in some time to consistently reflect at the conclusion of each day as recommended by Harry Kraemer in his book From Values to Action,  I find myself personally struggling with this issue, to give or not to give, now more so than ever before. Let me explain.

First, almost 6 years ago I abandoned my rather scattered marketing plan called Pray and Spray and adopted an education based marketing approach focusing strongly on article marketing.  Adoption of an education based marketing approach is fundamentally about giving your knowledge or expertise to others.

Then I restructured my small business coaching schedule and fees to reflect current market trends of less time and budget constraints.

Finally through my book, Be the Red jacket, I established this sales blog to reflect how to increase sales along with always wearing a red Jacket at business to business networking events or speaking engagements.

Through this process there have been many “giving conversations” to “giving actions” without any expectations to receive something back. Incredible relationships have been developed and strengthened.  And yes, in some cases, this has lead to increase sales.

My personal challenge and probably one face by others is when to stop giving.  Human nature being what human nature is there are people who take advantage of those who give. With the economy for many in the doldrums, this desire to receive, to be the “to give” recipient appears to be more prominent than even before.  When we add into this mix, any religious convictions, this personal challenge can become quite enormous.

For example, several years ago after listening to a local social media expert in the Chicago area give an excellent presentation, I connected with him on LinkedIn and then wrote a recommendation because he deserved it.  When we first  met, I gave him my book, Be the Red jacket. I did asked him when he had time to read it and if  he found it of value, to write a positive recommendation over at Amazon.  We have connected several times since then and he still hasn’t found the time to read the book, but he has found the time to regularly ask me to promote his event here or there or even himself. Hmm

Locally, another social media expert was attempting to get known and I connected her with numerous people some of which actually hired her. She still has made ongoing requests to help her without any return giving of her own.  The biggest challenge is her lack of follow through and that affects my local credibility.  I no longer made recommendations specific to this person and now make recommendations to another local social media expert who is more responsive.

I remember another colleague who asked for a LinkedIn recommendation to complete his profile as three recommendations are required. Within several hours I honored his request. However he did not say thank you.

Then there are your business colleagues, business to business networking connections who will pick your brain over lunch, coffee or even a telephone conversation.  In most cases, they appear to be grateful of the giving. Over in a LinkedIn discussion group, the topic of free (giving) was intensely discussed with a variety of opinions.

To gather greater clarity around this to give or not to give, I conducted my own experiment using LinkedIn and actually determining the authenticity of colleagues’ business ethics. I gave  seven (7) LinkedIn recommendations to people who share the foll0wing criteria:

1. Known them for over two years
2. Interacted with them at least once a month
3. All personally expressed to me they had high business ethics
4. None had recommended me (to avoid quid pro quo)

All seven accepted the LinkedIn recommendations within 48 hours. One person sent an email and called me within 24 hours after receiving the LinkedIn recommendation and another emailed me within 96 hours. The other five even after several weeks have passed failed to acknowledge the LinkedIn recommendations.  Hmmm

High business ethics in my opinion suggest or even require a “giving mindset” as my giving colleague Dan Waldschmidt discusses in his EDGY conversations.  Dan is one of those folks who regularly gives. In our conversations he indicated this lack of a giving mindset is just as prevalent in larger organizations as it appears to be in small businesses.He further believes it is an obstacle to individual success, business success or organizational success call it what you will.

Maybe everyone is to be busy. Yet I am reminded of the giving attitude of one of my coaches and colleagues, David Herdlinger. When my book was first published, I sent out copies to friends and colleagues. David called me upon receiving the book, wrote a great review over at Amazon.com, all without being asked.

Now David is a very busy person with an extremely active and dynamic executive coaching practice along with being involved in a coaching academy. So my little brain goes if David can find the time to be giving, why is it so hard for others who tell me they have high business ethics and are “giving” individual?  Hmmm

After rereading the words I have shared with you, I am no closer to reconciling this personal dilemma to give or not to give.  My sense is I will continue to give while staying away from those business people and other individuals who consistently do not give and expect to be the recipients of a “giving mindset.”

Please feel free to share your thoughts below. Do you feel that you have been continually used?  Do you feel business referrals or recommendations appear to be a one way street?  What have been your experiences?

Marketing is connected at the hip to a company’s brand value. This realization became ever more crystal clear after I read this posting on CBS Money Watch of 10 Companies with Insanely Bad Marketing. Note:  CBS News recently acquired the former website of BNet.  The  actual posting on bad marketing was Okay, but one comment specifically revealed how connected marketing is to a company’s brand and brand value.

Credit www.sxc.hu

One of the commentators raised the point that initially the CBS takeover (merger and acquisition) of BNet was no big deal. But now, there has been a change in perspective regarding the brand and the writer talked about the “demise of journalism” and “we’re moving closer to the day that journalism and entertainment are indistinguishable.”

I had to agree with him or her because I too very rarely read much from this former BNet site.

Seth Godin, author of many great books, probably has the best definition of brand that I have found.  He defined brand as a noun meaning:

“set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.”

After reading Godin’s definition of the word brand, I crafted my own regarding the word “branding:”

“Verb: Are the authentic actions to connect to those expectations”

Marketing then demonstrates those “authentic actions. In my book, Be the Red Jacket, as well as many other articles I have written about the two-fold purpose of marketing.

1. Attract attention
2. Build a relationship

However after reading this very critically thought out response to the CBS posting on “10 Companies with Insanely Bad Marketing,” I realized there exists two additional and very subtle purposes or shadows behind the initial purposes of marketing those being:

1. Introduce the brand
2. Maintain brand value awareness

When CBS acquired BNet, the brand already existed that being articles and information about various aspects of business written by some noted business experts without the entertainment factor.  All CBS had to do was to maintain the brand value.  However, it made an executive decision to change the brand (the expectations) and probably accepted a lost of a few readers. Yet, the loss to brand value I believe has been far greater when looking at the absence of comments.

In a  merger and acquisition this abandonment of the brand is all too common and why most M&A fail. Companies are purchased because they are profitable. Then decisions are made to “bring the newly acquired company into the fold.” However, the brand value of this acquired company is probably subtly different than the brand value of the acquiring business.  Customers recognizing their expectations that were previously met, are no longer being met leave the now “merged business” taking their dollars with them. Many research reports estimate the M&A failure rate to range from 70-90%.

The lesson learned here might be “be careful,” “step lightly” when  looking to change your marketing because it may affect your brand.  If your brand has already created expectations by your customers or clients, your new marketing should reinforce those expectations if you truly wish to increase sales (the end result of effective marketing).

Sales calls introductions, cold calls or first time sales calls are the first or last opportunity for sales success.  Beyond the cold calls or  “robo calls” where some fast talking prerecorded salesperson promising you to increase sales just by writing down a web address at least four times, there are those follow-up sales calls  introductions or cold calls from webinars to business to business networking events.

Interruption marketing is alive.

In spite of all the sales training and sales coaching is still very poorly executed.

www.funnysalescartoons.com

Yesterday, I had a follow-up sales call from a free webinar I had attended the previous week. This sales call was not pretty.

And what was sad was this company does sales training and sales coaching.  Guess they should have started with their call center.

Me: “Good afternoon, this is Leanne, how may I help you?”

Caller: Pause, some stuttering, “I’m looking to speak with Leanne. Is that you?”

Me: “Yes, this is she speaking.”

Within the first five seconds, the salesperson has made three critical mistakes and sent the rest of the phone call down the path of follow-up failure instead of sales success.

Mistake #1 – Did not listen. Not listening goes against sales buying rule #1, people buy from people they know and trust.

Mistake #2 – Did not immediately identify himself and his company. The caller ID showed a phone number, a city but not a business. He did identify himself, first name only and his company in the next 5 seconds. However, by not listening to my initial response, the distrust was already in place.

Mistake #3 – Did not ask if this was a good time to talk.

The call continued.

Caller:  “You attended a webinar last week put on (company’s name) and I was curious was to what you thought.” He made a few more insignificant or small talk remarks around this webinar.

Mistake #4 – Failed to make the call personal. The company could have sent me an evaluation form if that is all they wanted to know. His sales script is causing my eyebrows to raise; the distrust continues to build; and sales objections now start to mount. However I continue to role play to expand this learning experience.

Me: “I’m sorry, I don’t wish to appear rude, but I am confused as to why you are calling me. Possibly in the future, you may wish to consider doing some research before calling as I am already a client from purchasing a past paid webinar?”

Caller:  “We had over 350 people on that webinar and cannot research everyone.”

Mistake #5 – Making an excuse for poor performance.  I truly do not care how many people you had on the webinar.  Your call at this point in time is interrupting and potentially insulting as you did not know I already was a client.  I felt he was looking at his sales script and there were no options for this type of exchange.

Caller: “Let me start over.” He actually said this two times as I have edited this conversation for sake of brevity.

Mistake #6 – Not having a clear message.  Fumbling sales calls introductions is not how to build relationships and increase sales. Again, my sense is his sales script had not planned for this type of encounter. The distrust and sales objections continue to grow as well as some negative emotions.

What I realized there are probably many people who go along with these types of sales calls introductions and ignore all these follow-up sales call mistakes. I used to be one of them. Now I am still respectful, but curious as to what happens when the follow-up sales call does not go according to the planned sales script. Beyond being a learning experience, I admit I find some fun and humor in these exchanges.

The next significant remark was:

Caller:  “Do you consider yourself to be an expert?”

Me: “No, as I am always looking to improve.”

Caller:  We at this firm are experts on (insert service).

Mistake #7:  Never challenge the potential customer on the follow-up sales call. Even though I have written a nationally published book on sales success (Be the Red Jacket), have over 3,000 articles on the web including EzineArticles, Evan Carmichael and Sales Gravy, have been considered by several people to be one of the best small business writers in the country, I still do not consider myself as an expert.  I do believe I have some expertise in several subjects. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Leave your ego at the door.

As to this firm’s expertise, yes the CEO who I personally know has expertise and may consider himself an expert. However, I believe for the service being marketed, my efforts to date are far more successful than most small business owners or sales professionals. Additionally as I shared with the caller, the webinar I attended was basic information and I truly did not learn anything new.  The purpose I attended this free seminar was to ensure that I was not missing something in my marketing and selling efforts.

The call politely and quickly ended. My sense was the caller was relieved and probably thought of me as the cold call, follow-up sales call from you know where. He also may have had the thought that I was a witch with a “B.”  I truly do not believe he thought the problem was him, his sales script as much of the conversation was quite defensive or maybe structured under the premise of ABC – always be closing.  Of course I could be wrong and it would not be the first time.

After the call ended, I reflected and even posted to my Facebook page. Also, I did wonder for a few moments if he would share his experience with his manager or even the CEO. Well, time will tell.

People wonder where I find the material for this blog and the numerous other articles.  All one has to do is to listen and observe. Life has an incredible way of providing far more information than any of us could ever possibly share. My challenge from all these observations is to determine what is most relevant for the readers of this blog be them professional sales people, small business owners or even C-Suite executives.

Please feel free to comment if you have had a similar experience. What actions did you take? I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Content marketing begins with relevant value which emanates from strategic planning as demonstrated through market research.  Potential customers, prospects, centers of influence or strategic partners are seeking new information.  Your goal is to become one of the top resources in this quest for this endless flow of information. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  To engage in content marketing without having a strategic plan has you in the role of Captain Wing It where you spray your efforts all over the place and then pray something will stick.

Of course there is a problem with all you can eat information, there is just too much of it. This is why relevant value is so critical.

Value as Marc Miller writes in his book A Seat at the Table truly comes from the client or prospect’s viewpoint.  In other words, people buy on value unique to them. This is my sales buying rule #3.

Yes, there may be some generic value in specific industries or specific roles, however each organization has a culture of decision making based upon certain usually unknown values. The challenge for those in sales is not to have their perception of value supersede the potential customer’s reality of value.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Miller’s book is probably one of the best books on how to increase sales in today’s market place as well as to how to understand value.

Relevancy specific to value is what is most critical at this point in time and works with the two sales buying criteria of commitment and urgency. For example, if the organization  is looking at compliance costs even though they also believe in building customer loyalty, what is more important to them right now?  For whatever is more relevant will also be where there is greater urgency and a greater commitment to take action.

Writing numerous postings on this sales blog as well as a weekly column for the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana, regular contributor for NBiz Magazine based out of Houston, Texas, not to mention thousands of other articles, I am continually reviewing what the readers are seeking based upon metrics such as reads, retweets, etc. Even though I sincerely believe in strategic planning, leadership, business ethics and consistent goal setting, those articles do not receive as much attention as ones on:

7 Top Tips to Car Salesmen’s or Car Saleswomen’s Success – 52,583 reads published April 25, 2007

7 Tips to Real Estate Agent’s Success – 41,978 reads published May 16, 2006

What is Passion? – 17,630 reads published May 29, 2005

Content Marketing a Competitive B2B Advantage – 307 tweets since January 8, 2012

Uniting See Level with Sea Level to Reinforce an Engaged Workforce of Thinkers and Doers – 31% click through rate since August 1, 2011

Can Your Business Ethics Stand the Newest Wave of Bombardment, Social Media? – 7 reposts through EzineArticles since August 17, 2010

The challenge even though relevant value may work in tandem with two of the 5 sales buying criteria, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee a sale.  Returning to the example of the first two articles about car sales people and real estate, many of these  sales people do not have the allocated dollars to hire a sales coach. However the article still gives provides the opportunity to attract more attention and build more relationships.  Yes I have earned dollars through these articles. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Determine your niche in content marketing.

To determine relevant value begins by listening to what your customers are saying; by listening to what others are saying; by listening to what is happening within your market place, your community and even the world. Also engaging in keyword research supports relevant value in content marketing.  Keyword research can be your secret weapon to Be the Red Jacket, to stand out in the crowd with your blog postings to articles to even keynote speeches.

In today’s very crowded market place, does demand that you do stand out if you wish to increase sales. Content marketing based upon relevant value just may help you stand out a little quicker, may increase sales and may expand your market influence.

With the economy in the doldrums, there are many small business owners to C Suite executive engaged in business model innovation by re-purposing or restructuring their current business models by adding value to justify their costs or fees so that they can increase sales.  And these folks should be applauded because staying in the status quo when it is not working truly is not a good business strategy or best business practice.

Credit www.sxc.hu

These past two years I have engaged in business model  innovation within my small business coaching practice specific to re-purposing and restructuring the solutions (services) I provide for clients. Through this reflective strategic thinking process I created a 30 day coaching engagement that was 50% to 40% less than many other sales training organizations including those with far more national presence. Over the course of two years, I have refined it and now have a fairly solid process that delivers ongoing value and truly sets me apart from others.  Sales Coaching Tip:  Strive to Be the Red Jacket in a sea of gray suits.

One well known and established national USA sales training organization requests a 12 month commitment and a $1,000 monthly investment. Now for many small business owners even those with profits near $120,000, this represent a 10% hit to the overall income.  Yes even if it is a tax write off, redirecting $1,000 a month for 12 months can cripple monthly cash flow. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  An investment in your business or even yourself should not be detrimental to your cash flow.

Innovation is looking at the same landscape but seeing something new. 

Innovation is not necessarily inventing something different, but by re-purposing one way of doing something to another way can provide new opportunities and more importantly create value. Marcel Proust said it best even though he was not directly referring to innovation:

“The true voyage of discovery is not seeking new landscapes, but seeing with new eyes.”

Re-purposing and restructuring began by listening to what my clients shared with me as well as ongoing research within the professional service industry of consulting and coaching.  This did require continual reference to my business strategic plan along with ongoing updates.  Two of the key obstacles for my clients as well as potential clients who wanted small business to sales coaching was time and uncertainty.

Even though time is a constant, people are overwhelmed with to do lists to more plates than a waiter or waitress can juggle. Then there is this looming clouds associated with all of the economic uncertainty.

• Will this law pass?
• Will home sales pick up?
• Will business overcome the latest government compliance mandate?
• Will I be able to afford to keep the current benefits and salaries for my employees?
• Will this country or that one go to war?
• Will I have enough money to cover this commitment?

By seeing the same landscape with new eyes, lenses or filters call it what you may, I was able to increase sales the last two years by 50% while also improving profits because I reduced direct and indirect costs.

Re-purposing or restructuring does require small business owners,  professional salespersons or even C Suite executives to schedule time to:

1. Revisit the strategic business plan
2. Research current market place and past customers’ buying patterns
3. Reflect upon this information until clarity is achieved and value solidified

A business may restructure its fees or costs up or down depending upon the information gathered from incorporation of these 3 Rs.  For me, the engagements have been shorter, yet the clients are far more satisfied with the results.  And in business it is the results that matter.

Once again in the quest of how to increase sales, I received another marketing effort that was not about me as the potential customer or client, but was rather all about “we” or “I” as the seller.  Maybe it is me, but such a message is a strong emotional turn-off. Sales Coaching Tip:  Sales Buying Rule #2 – People buy first on emotion; justified by logic.

Here is the message as part of a LinkedIn request to connect:

Hello Leanne,

We (insert company), specialize (insert products or services) etc. If people are looking for your products over the Internet, we can help increase your sales.

Please let me know if we can help you with our Services.

Best regards,
(LI member’s name)

Beyond indicating we were friends as I did not know this person as they say from Adam, the message starts out all about their company.  Sales Coaching Tip:  LinkedIn allows members to research each company and telling me what “we” do is a waste of time and somewhat insulting as to my intelligence.

This message reminds me of what I wrote in Be the Red jacket about the 3Ps of price, product or proposal being spewed in the first few moments of any introduction.  Total turn off.

Additionally, I begin to think am I going to get more of these type of messages by connecting with this person who I truly do not know? Sales Coaching Tip:  Sales Buying #1 Rule – People buy from people they know and trust.

When marketing, selling or sales messages (call them what you will), begin with “we” or “I,” this indicates these individuals are not interested in their potential customers.  Another valid reason for not beginning any marketing message this way is the seller immediately is constructing sales objections.  Not smart in any language.

To be successful in sales requires leaving your ego at the door and truly being authentic and caring about your potential customer, center of influence or strategic partner. Using the words “We” or “I” during the first contact is not how to increase sales and will leave you pocket poor.

Sales Cartoon

Credit www.funnysalescartoons.com

Sales Quotation

“Without passion in business, you are one step away from being legally dead.”

Gus Olympidis President & CEO of Family Express

Content marketing is not just about writing articles or blog posts nor it is just sharing links or quotes, but now has evolved to being a content curator who is truly a relationship connector. These individuals by their actions add value by:

• Connecting to their target audience
• Building relationships and influence within their communities
• Supporting their efforts to stand out in the crowd, to Be the Red jacket

So just what is a content curator? As in any term, there are many definitions.

A curator is defined according to Webster as someone who as the care and superintendence of something.  This word comes from the word curate which in Latin means care or in French cure of souls.

Content means to contain or hold in. In today’s business world, content is about containing or holding in information that may be of value to the intended recipient be it an ideal customer or a larger target market.

So a content curator is some who cares about the content being distributed.  This individual just doesn’t post anything to earn a few more social media followers be them on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.  But rather he or she is generally looking to add value because he or she cares. From this perspective, they are able to increase sales.

A question to consider:

Is what you are sharing truly nourishing the souls

of your intended audience?

My sense is there is a strong connection between one’s soul (not necessarily in the religious sense) and what one values.

In other words, a content curator is truly a relationship builder and connector. By the sharing of resources, a content curator continues to bring value to those within his or her business orbit or sphere of influence.  This individual is not engaged in self promotion by read this blog (which is a sales letter in disguise) or get hundreds of dollars of free stuff (provided you buy one item at $49.95) or attend this free conference in which I will hard sell you why you need to hire me.

When I wrote Be the Red Jacket, the goal was to truly support those engaged in selling.  Today’s marketplace is very crowded. To get notice, requires standing out away from all those other gray suits, to truly Be the Red Jacket.

Becoming a content curator may be a viable marketing strategy to attract attention, to build relationships, to increase sales, to be the Red Jacket.  Of course, this may require some additional research as to what your target audience or ideal customer is seeking. Yet, if you wish to take your small business to that next level, understanding content marketing and more importantly the role of being a content curator may be how you increase sales.

After speaking to a group of small business owners yesterday at the Hammond Innovation Center about entrepreneurs and emotional intelligence, I recognized how many individual fail to embrace emotional intelligent selling within their businesses as the answer to increase sales. Also I witnessed once again the ongoing confusion between marketing, selling and the overall sales process. Sales Training Coaching:  Effective marketing is critical to your business and to ignore it will only keep you pocket poor.

Credit www.sxc.hu

Zig Ziglar stated that “sales is the transference of feelings (I really love this simple definition), then it seems quite logical to be searching for how I can employ emotional intelligent selling into my daily sales behaviors. However a quick search using Google Adwords tool revealed that no one searched for this phrase “emotional intelligent selling.”

Confusion Continues

In marketing the term value based marketing is risen to the forefront of many discussions and has only increased the confusion.  This term is related to value based selling and values based leadership. Emotional intelligence is very much present when value or values are discussed.

With the explosion of social media, emotional intelligence is very much evident and in some cases the lack thereof. The challenge is to understand the value, the inherent worth of your solution, through the eyes (beliefs) of your potential customers (prospects) and customers. This value may or may not be your core values as discussed in many articles specific to value based marketing.  What you believe the value to be may not be the value as perceived by the customer. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Marketing is all about attracting attention and building a relationship.  To do this well means you are engaged in emotional intelligent selling because you are selling you as a real, caring person.

Selling as well is far more about the capacity for emotional intelligence than specific sales skills. However reading the majority of articles by sales experts, sales consultants or sales trainers, the emphasis is on technical selling skills such as negotiation, asking questions and ignores or maybe presumes that emotional intelligence is present.

Since there is still confusion about the overall sales process as I note in my book, Be the Red Jacket, no wonder emotional intelligence is not appreciated for its role in marketing and selling.

What I am now observing is continued confusion when emotional intelligence is discussed specific to marketing, selling, the sales process and how to increase sales.  Daniel Goleman defined emotional intelligence through the work of Howard Gardner and his own research. Now translating that definition to the business world and especially for those engaged as professional salespeople is probably the source for the confusion.

Simply speaking, the demonstration of emotional intelligence within emotional intelligent selling is all about caring first about others. This does not mean you forget your core purpose for being in business to make money. What is means in my opinion is first you must care about others. Actively listen to what they are saying, observe their body language and determine how you can support and even reassure them.

I recently interviewed Daniel Waldschmidt for a forthcoming article on leadership and business to be published in a Houston/Dallas/San Antonio business journal, NBiz. He shared how one of his VP expressed frustration at a weekly meeting. Instead of going full steam ahead with the busy, chock full agenda, Dan stopped the meeting to determine how he could support this VP.  This was a demonstration of applying emotional intelligence. Dan was applying emotional intelligence selling to one of his internal customers, his employee.

Yesterday, I received a potential sales lead from a sign up for a free sales skill assessment.  He shared that his number one sales challenge was “no sales model to sustain the growth.” Sales Training Coaching Tip:  If you ask a question in your sign up forms, then invest a few minutes to answer each person personally otherwise do not ask any question.

In answering his sales challenge, I wrote:

During the holiday season, many small business owners, salespersons to even C Suite executives attend one holiday business networking event or Christmas party after another. There is a lot of talking going on as well as some listening. This is truly a great opportunity to master the art of active listening without the “I need to increase sales agenda.”

Being able to sit down with a stranger or someone you casually know presents an incredible opportunity to learn about this individual from a selfless perspective.  What you may learn may surprise you.  He or she may actually share a want or a need that you can fulfill.  This fulfillment may range from making a connection with one of your contacts to having a sit down meeting. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Remember to send a handwritten note to acknowledge your meeting.

Active listening, as I wrote in Be the Red Jacket, “is a learned and developed self leadership skill set.”  By using the CLEAR acronym further enhances communication.

• “Clarity: You must listen for clarity so that you can separate the tangibles from the intangibles and the knowns from the unknowns.
• Legitimize: You must listen to legitimize the real issues. Many times perceived problems are really symptoms in disguise.
• Emotion: You must listen for emotions. Here is where the verbal words and the non-verbal gestures along with th syntax (speed, pitch, volume and emphasis) are very important
• Agreement: You7 must listen for agreement to find common ground which you can build ongoing trust
• Retention: You must listen for retention because the information you are receiving is critical…. Active listening is all about truly hearing and them remembering what the other person just said.” (page 60 from Be the Red Jacket)

There will be plenty of time to increase sales. If you are scrambling during the last two weeks of the year, this suggests some poor sales and business planning and even procrastination to do what you needed to do those past 50 weeks.

Active listening is truly about caring.  Since sales is the transference of feelings (Zig Ziglar), during this time of year show you care and you just may Be the Red Jacket in the sea of gray suits (all those other salespersons with the agenda to increase sales).

P.S. If you need some support setting sales goals in 2012, you may find this webinar of interest.