Getting Back To Basics

Getting Back To Basics. Published on Saturday, March 18th, 2006

Your in a Sales or Business Slump, your energy is flagging and your feeling down. Get back to basics. We get successful and we start getting fancy creating all manner or new distractions. The basics will get us rolling again.

What are the basics?

1/ Create a strategy. Success requires a plan. Create one. Make it sensible and realistic for you. In other words use your head. Don’t decide to contact 50 people a day when you’ve never before contacted more than 5. Determine how many contacts a day you will need in your business to reach your financial goal

There is a formula for this in any given industry. Find out the formula in your business, then look at it in reverse and ask yourself how you can exponentialize it.

Remember this Poem?..

All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Robert Fulgham

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned..

Share everything. Play fair. Don?t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don?t take things that aren?t yours. Say sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup – they all die. So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world had cookies and milk about 3 o?clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap.

Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

In other words apply several different views including a contrarian viewpoint. I personally must speak with 12 people daily to reach my goal. Doing this effectively will take me to 1 million $ in real estate income yearly.

The key word there was EFFECTIVELY or maybe better STRATEGICALLY. So for me that is to make 5or 6 of them people with whom I have done business with before. Those people like me and trust me. Many of them will send me a referral.

Follow your plan daily. Track it on a daily and weekly basis so you can see if your hitting your results Remember it’s not about them it’s about you. If you aren’t getting your results adjust your communication.

The meaning of the communication is ultimately the result you receive. Think about that for awhile. Customers will not simply find you so stop hoping and wishing.

Determine your market, how to reach it and go. One of the best books I have found on Communicating is “Question Based Selling” by Thomas A. Freese. Available on Amazon. Changes your whole perspective on the sales process and stops you from backing yourself into corners if you follow the advise.

2/ Passion. Success requires passion. If you are constantly making plans and not following through you need to ask yourself ?what on earth am I doing?. If there is no fire in your belly you are in the wrong field.

You?ve got to want to get up in the morning and go. There will always be challenges and setbacks. Without that fire things will constantly fall apart. It’s likely a passionate relationship that survives through all manner of personal problems.( a few do).

If your heart is not in it Give it up and go find something else to do. To be a high achiever you’ve got to have a fire for your work.

3/ Create a Team . It’s lonely running a marathon, take a group of runners with you, plus make sure you have a great group that have your back. Look for the best for your team Only let A players sign on with you.

Yes, fire people when they are not Take a lesson from Mr. Trump. To attract A players you have to be an A player. So let the B’s, C’s and D’s go and focus on yourself. When you are an A you will attract all A’s. This can be a challenging lesson to learn since it can be lonely. Whos an A player?

See Robert Fulgham.”ll I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kingergarten” printed for you below.

Here are the Four Rules for Having a Relationship

A/ Ability to tell the Truth-

if there is conflict in a relationship then someone is not telling the truth. Look at yourself and ask, “What is it in me that is not working with this person”. Why look at yourself? Because the buck stops here. A leader gets to the truth, learn the art of self reflection.

If one of your suppliers, vendors, clients etc. are not returning your call then you are in conflict someone is not telling the truth. Time for a conversation that will open up this space. Check out “Loving What is, Four Questions that can Change Your Life” by Byron Katie, again available at Amazon.

B/ Responsibility

No Victims, No rescuers. In most relationships there are three positions.. Victim, rescuer, persecutor. Most salespeople set up relationships where people allow us to rescue them.

They call saying they are going to be late and we rearrange our whole schedule to rescue them. They are surprised when you turn the tables and state that, this was your scheduled time with them for that day and that you will have to re-book them at another day and time.

The response, “I’ve made my schedule to be there at 2:30 p.m. today. Are you asking me to re-arange my schedule to be there at 4 p.m. instead” (non accusatory tone) wait for response. Then, I’d be happy to do that.

For a moment they don’t like you. You have made them responsible and taken yourself out of the rescuer role.

If your 150% responsible someone else has to be only 50% responsible.

C/ Commitment ” Know the difference between a goal and a commitment”. My goal is to sell your home by the end of the month. My commitment is to offer you the highest caliber of service available in the industry.

Be careful about what you are committing to. If someone asks ” can you guarantee” you can sell my home in 2 weeks.. clarify” my goal is to”.(your industry) “my commitment”.. Don’t commit to what you cannot guarantee. You set unrealistic expectations for yourself and then you are back to rule one, you didn’t tell the truth and now you are in conflict. You are now in the position you are not the “A” player on the team

Don’t ignore language. Language is everything and tells you clearly the other person’s world. Thomas Leonard used to say. “When coaching, Step over nothing”.

D/Appreciation. Kind of speaks for itself. Acknowledge people for telling the truth. To have a quality relationship it is important that people tell the truth, create no victims and no rescuers, keep their commitments and feel appreciated So acknowledge you’re “A” players for doing this. Become an “A ” player.

We don’t change people we change ourselves- then we attract different players.

Everything you want to ask a teacher, ask yourself. If you really want to know the truth, the answer will meet your question. Byron Katie

4/ Hard work. Nothing happens until we roll up our sleeves and start. Only work will make it happen. Work is the basis for results and results count.

Have a great week. Aeriol.