Three New Tricks To Boost Sales Performance - From A Sales Trainer's Casebook

Years ago in Australia I worked as a consultant trainer for a great trouble-shooter to sort out the underperforming Australian end of a major consumer electronics marketing operation. I worked with them for three years, twice a year, traveling the country, 4 states, doing their sales training.
The first trip was easy, basic techniques stuff, and it is still being taught today. What should I do second, and third and fourth time around? The things I discovered will probably work for you today.
Trick 1: Get the customer to tell you what he wants from you.
I decided to ask a customer. I rang the best consumer goods retailer in Australia; this guy is a living legend.
"How many sales reps deal with you professionally?"
"None! I've never met one." was the blunt answer.
"Would you invest an hour telling a group of sales reps how they should do business with you?"
"Yes." was his immediate answer and I visited him to set it up.
In due course he arrived and was ushered into my training room. The trainees were impressed and slightly terrified about having to meet, and listen to the great man.
He spent an hour berating them about all the mistakes sales reps make and I'm sure the list has not changed. A small sample:

• Treating him like a consumer..
• Total product feature focus - we've got an x and a y and a z and its great.
• No understanding of the most basic question; "How does this guy make a buck out of selling my product?"
• No interest in my business.
• No idea how I set up a product range, and the position of his brand in my retail strategy.

He spent the second hour telling them how to sell to him. It was the easiest sales training session I ever "ran".
They were a sorry, bedraggled, miserable lot when he finished, so he gave them a consolation prize in the form of the biggest single order that office had ever received. Beer all round that afternoon? You bet.
The strategy was still working two years later. So if you are selling to retailers, try it. It's free, and customers can't resist the chance to tell sales reps what they are getting wrong.
You can do this yourself, and I suggest you should. It's a great way to build customer relationships. I bet you will get an increase in sales. You may need to adapt the approach to your business.
If you are a retailer, why not get a disgruntled customer to come in and tell your people what went wrong, and what the customer really wanted. You may need to give them a gift, but if you consider the extra sales you will make, that's cheap training.
In a hospitality business, you can get the customers on your side by giving them an opportunity to explain to your staff how they feel when they are confronted by a can't do system or attitude.
Trick 2: A day in the field is worth three behind the desk.
The easy way to find out what your sales people really need to learn is to spend a day in the field with them.
When I did it I would make sure that I was introduced as the new boy, new to the business and just learning to find my way around. I would say very little, only hello and goodbye. I would listen and watch and make my mental notes.
The hardest part was to resist taking over and making the sale myself.
When we left for the next call, I would ask the salesperson the "why" questions.

• When she said that, what was she really looking for? What did you say? Why? What happened next?
• Why did he say no?
• This kerb-side conference worked best when I teased out the things that could have been done differently or better.

A day in the field gave me renewed insight into the behaviour of sales people, their doubts, fears and blindness to opportunity and customers' buying signals. I had enough material to work on for two or three days of real training. And my credibility rose because it was all real, their world, and I could do it, not just teach it.
The bonus was that the discipline of listening showed me what the customers really wanted.
Trick 3 Self-image counts
If you work with a sales team for an extended period, you will see that a salesperson's self image is reflected in their personal presentation. As their personal presentation improve so will their results.
I mentored a talented salesman over a period of two years. At the start, he was really rough uncut diamond. Slightly scruffy, shoes not polished, jacket and slacks, tie not well tied and slightly out of date. His speech was sloppy, with excessive use of jargon, and poor question asking skills. He was too matey with some customers, and ill at ease with others. He looked as unprofessional as he behaved. But he could sell.
Gradually I saw his appearance change. He invested in a good suit with ties and shoes to match. He had regular haircuts. He changed his speech dropping the slang words. As the self-image he projected improved, his customers treated him with greater respect. They sought his opinion and responded to his suggestions. His sales improved. He worked hard to understand their business and made suggestions as to how they could range his product to achieve higher profits.
The last time I saw him he looked good, sounded great and was stepping up the sales management ladder really quickly. It was not about sales skills; he had those. It was all about self image and self confidence.
The moral of this story is that anything you can do to build a person's self confidence will pay off in sales.
Here's hoping you find these ideas useful, and can work out a way of putting them into practice in your business.

What's Your Purpose For Blogging???

Ok, so you've now created your blog, you have your new template, time to add some content.
Or IS IT?
Before you think about adding the content, ie; your posting (something you've written), I need  you to understand a few things, your reading this on  Article base or my blog http://freeultimatesupertips.blogspot.com/ However its my original content...
First of all let's examine

• The reason for your blog.
• Your expectations.
• Your audience.

Let's assume just for one minute that's the reason why you're here is not just to learn how to set up a blog but to earn a six figure income or even just a few bucks.
What you need to FULLY understand is your new blog is like a tiny Island in the middle of an enormous ocean
.An Island that no one except you have ever heard of.
In order to get people to visit your tiny Island you need to provide them with first of all the knowledge that it even exists and secondly how to get there.
This is the WHY I ask the reason for your blog.
By now you have probably been pulled into people's adverts, (squeeze pages) high pressure selling techniques, and paid  money to sign up to join all kind of get rich schemes, they offer 100's of dollars worth of Free aids (normally Free e-books) memberships to Guru sites, seminars and loads more.
Start making money in 10 minutes from now….We'd all like to be like them….if only it was that simple, no one would work, everyone would stay at home earning a six figure income.
The people selling these systems are part of huge affiliate marketing groups, you can join for small enough money (at the bottom of their ladder).
They give you all the tools, 100's of tools, they even set up the squeeze pages, the affiliate links the whole lot.
I recently bought a package, (I checked it out for scam probability first), Amazing reports, came up over 2.5million hits in Google search, best thing since sliced bread, the re-invention of the wheel in Internet terms, Guaranteed to make 1000's.
There were so many tools, (e-books) it took me 3 solid days to browse them, not read and take in the information fully.
The package was complete, however still full of further squeeze page ad's trying to part me with more cash. Some even offering a 60 day free trial and only after the trial finished I'd pay, bull, after the 60 days I'd pay 57 dollars a month, but if I took advantage of this one time offer TODAY I'd pay only 27dollars a month, free trial with a catch, eh.
Do YOU want to be like them?
Regarding earnings I'm sure you do….. so do I…..
Let's get to the real point……
They can sell you the package, they can set you up with all the tools, they can give you all the advice you need, but are they going to create the traffic to your ISLAND?
Simply NO NO and NO…..
I doesn't matter what package or get rich quick scheme or money earner you subscribe to, YOU have to develop the traffic.
These people even tell you that you don't need a site or a blog, True, there are many ways you can generate traffic to the squeeze page, they provide with your affiliate link but it all takes time and work, a lot of time and work.
Unless you have an established blog or site getting tons of hits every day it will take you a lot of time and work.
If you were to do just a couple of hours a day like they suggest in their squeeze ad's you'd be 150 years old by the time you see a return.
I have a good friend of mine he was getting over 7000 hits a day on his site and over 1500 followers, he decided to affiliate, drop in a few squeeze pages, its surprising how quick his followers and hits dropped off. It took a long time to re-gain the confidence of his group.
I'm sure all the Guru's who read this, if they even bother, very unlikely, would disagree, but I'd challenge them to start from fresh Today and get traffic to their Island as quick as they expect you to do it.
To start with try and find a URL or domain name that's still available using" make money" in the title.
Yes you can use key words, that helps.
Don't get me wrong, It can be done, It is being done, but it's not as easy as these people make it out to be.
THIS IS THE REASON WHY I ASK YOU TO EXAMINE YOUR MOTIVES FOR BLOGGING…….
I hope I haven't burst your bubble….. there are ways to get people to visit your Island, and I'm going to try and show you the more simple ways but it still involves work.
You don't think this article wrote itself, or do you?
Regarding your expectations, even if you get people to your Island you will need to look after them, after all it was you that invited them, now you need to feed them give them something to drink, maybe then they will want to come back, especially if it's a nice Island with plenty to do and see, people don't want to come to your Island for nothing. So if they find nothing they surely won't stay or it's unlikely they will come back.
Well that's it for today, examine your motives, if it's to make a six figure income then maybe I can't help you, but if you just genuinely want to Blog and maybe gain a few Bucks to help you along the way then maybe you will come back for the next chapter.

Three New Tricks To Boost Sales Performance - From A Sales Trainer's Casebook

That's correct folks.  Your weight is not that important.  Your body fat percentage is.  What is body fat percentage?  This is part of the composition of your body.  Your body is composed of muscle and bones etc which makes up your lean body mass.  Your body then has fat.  The percentage of your total mass which is pure fat is called your body fat percentage.
Most people when they start a fat burning weight loss regime tend to concentrate on a goal weight.  They focus on getting to this weight and don't realise that body composition is much more important.
Your body fat percentage is a much better indicator of your health.  There are different recommendations for body fat percentage levels, but the following come from the American Council on Exercise.

An example of how body fat percentage is a much better indicator of health rather than something like BMI would be "fat skinny" people.
Say I am a woman who weighs 70kg and I am 168cm tall.  My BMI of 24.4 tells me that I am in a normal weight range.  I then go and measure my body fat percentage and the percentage of my body which is pure fat is 33%.  This shows I am actually at risk.  I have too much fat compared with lean mass on my body and so I am actually at risk even though BMI tells me I am normal weight range.
The same can go the other way say I am a male body builder who is 193cm tall and weighs 115kg.  Of course this weight is muscle!  My BMI would tell me that I am obese and yet when I do my body fat percentage testing I have a percentage of 8%.  This actually means I am in the athlete class and not at all obese.
Focusing on body fat percentage rather than total mass is a much better option when setting goals.  It is a much better indication on where you are health wise.  The other reason is that muscle weighs more than fat and so sometimes when you build more lean mass you will see a gain on the scales which is actually good because it means your body fat percentage has dropped and you are healthier and leaner.  Your muscles just weigh more!
An example of how body fat percentage is a much better indicator of health rather than something like BMI would be "fat skinny" people.
Say I am a woman who weighs 70kg and I am 168cm tall.  My BMI of 24.4 tells me that I am in a normal weight range.  I then go and measure my body fat percentage and the percentage of my body which is pure fat is 33%.  This shows I am actually at risk.  I have too much fat compared with lean mass on my body and so I am actually at risk even though BMI tells me I am normal weight range.
The same can go the other way say I am a male body builder who is 193cm tall and weighs 115kg.  Of course this weight is muscle!  My BMI would tell me that I am obese and yet when I do my body fat percentage testing I have a percentage of 8%.  This actually means I am in the athlete class and not at all obese.
Focusing on body fat percentage rather than total mass is a much better option when setting goals.  It is a much better indication on where you are health wise.  The other reason is that muscle weighs more than fat and so sometimes when you build more lean mass you will see a gain on the scales which is actually good because it means your body fat percentage has dropped and you are healthier and leaner.  Your muscles just weigh more.

How to Setup a VPS Proxy

A VPS proxy is the absolute best kind of proxy server that you can ever find. Proxies are a very popular way for people to remain anonymous or hide their IP online and most people get proxies by renting them. Most people rent simply because they don't know how to setup their own proxy. Setting up a proxy can seem a little overwhelming at first, but once you know the steps involved it is actually a very easy process. Why would you want your own vps proxy in the first place? Having your own proxy saves you money and gives you a proxy server that is extremely secure and totally private. Most people use a proxy to protect their identity online and using a VPS as a proxy server is about as secure and safe as you can get. Read on to discover more about turning a VPS into your own private proxy server.

Obviously the first thing you need is a VPS. The best kind of VPS is one that costs less than $10 per month, $5 should be your target, and extra IPs cost around $1 USD per month. When you rent proxies from other people you typically pay $5 per IP per month, so it is vital that you find the cheapest VPS provider you can. The reason for this is because the more IPs you get the more money you save. Besides getting a VPS at a rock bottom price, you also need to make sure your VPS is running Ubuntu and you have full root access to it. Unbuntu is a type of linux operating system and is probably considered the most popular and easiest to use of all the linux based operating systems. Root access is also required as you will need to login to the VPS and type in a bunch of commands to download and install the proxy server software. I wouldn't worry too much about either of these two requirements because most VPS hosts offer all of these features as part of the basic VPS package. The next step is actually installing the proxy software.

There is a wide range of software that you can use to setup a proxy server with, but the one you need is called Squid. Squid won't cost you a dime because it is open source software. This means that it is completely free and you can install it as many times as you want without worrying about paying a single cent. Squid is extremely flexible and very powerful. The hardest part of setting up your VPS proxy is probably making sure you know how to install Squid. It can be a little confusing at first, but once you have done the installation a few times it is actually very easy. All you need to do for this step is basically create the user accounts for your proxy along with their passwords and assign each account an IP. Once you know how to do this you can literally have the software installed and configured in minutes.

How To Overcome Procrastination

Procrastination is unfortunately something that a lot of us suffer from regularly, whether it's just an occasional ‘put off ‘til tomorrow' or a recurrent lack of drive and motivation. Procrastination can often hold us back from what we really want in life, and unfortunately, it's something that can crop up at any time of life, no matter who you are. A lot of people often assume that procrastination is simply being lazy, but this isn't always the case. Often, feelings of tiredness, hopelessness, panic or even depression can cause us to put things off and avoid reality completely.

Procrastination is a trap, and once we've fallen in it can be very difficult to get back out, so why do we do it? Well for many people, procrastination is simply a way of coping with emotions and physical symptoms that often come with depression, often caused by panic. The unfortunate truth is that often, a ‘snowballing' effect can happen, you may be stressed and under pressure at work, then causing you to panic, which may then trigger depression which in turn can make thing very difficult for you to do. However it happened, it's important you get out of it, otherwise you may find that nothing will ever get done because you're too miserable and negative to bring yourself to do it.

There are 5 main ‘style's of procrastination, you may feel that you fall under one mains style, or a mixture.

• Organization and keeping track of things is very difficult
• You fear people disapprove of you, or fear disapproval itself
• Important tasks seem futile, and so overwhelming it feels stupid to even attempt them
• Hostile feelings towards someone, and punishing them by putting things off
• Routines and Schedules cause you to feel rebellious

These styles of procrastination can often also overlap in one of four different themes: Self Doubt, Discomfort Dodging, Guilt Driven and Habitual. Self Doubt is people who feel that there are rigid standards about how certain things need to be done and often fear they will fail, they often second guess themselves and will delay taking action against procrastinating. Discomfort dodging is when a person will avoid activities that will cause them anxiety, discomfort or even distress, however, often by dodging the activity, feelings and tension don't go away, and instead mount due to the avoidance. Guilt driven people often feel extreme guilt when tasks go done, but instead of acting on their guilt and working, they instead procrastinate, avoiding the issue and the guilt completely. And finally, Habitual people are people who have found procrastination to be an automatic response within their lives, they have put things off so often, that they feel it is just a part of them now, and there is nothing they can do to change it.

But there are things you can do to change it, and get out of your procrastination cycle once and for all. The first thing is a simple idea, but it works all the same – make a list! It sounds ridiculous, but it does actually work. Just go to your local stationary store and get yourself a large notebook, and make lists and plans for yourself to stick to, prioritize everything on your list in order of importance, and allocate times for these tasks to be done (1 hour, 2 hours etc). The key to battling procrastination is organization, by allocating specific times; you're ensuring that you have enough time to do everything and get it done! If a task is particularly big, then split it up into manageable time slots, making sure that progress is steady, and you're not giving yourself too much to do.

However, you also need to create some time for yourself, or ‘reward time'. Reward time gives you an incentive to get things done, because you know once it's done you can have a break and reward yourself for your hard work. Procrastination is a tough mountain to climb, but once you reach the top you're free to reap the rewards of an organized, healthy and happy lifestyle, as well as the true relief and satisfaction that comes with having nothing weighing you down!

How To Dance The Tango In Eight Moves

If there's one dance that people consider romantic and sexy, that would be the tango. It comes as no surprise that many people show a lot of interest in learning the famous moves they've seen in movies. Not to mention the sultry dresses women wear! As they swing and move their legs to the beat of the earthy and dramatic music, the swish of the skirt is a mesmerizing site indeed. Unlike the other ballroom dances, the movements involved in tango can either be slow and smooth, or sharp and strong. It is distinct in its own right and is easy on the eyes. A quick leg flip and a head snap usually signals the beginning of the dance.

Tango is a dance made for lovers. While it has the same circular flow as most other styles have, there is a sense of need emanating for both the man and woman. It seems as if they crave for the touch of the other person while their feelings of passion radiate all throughout the dance. And although it looks very complicated, the basic choreography involves alternating movement of the feet. The man starts and the woman mirrors what he does. Some people prefer to learn the tango with the help of the instructor. While studios can be found practically anywhere, you can equip yourself ahead of time by learning the most basic steps:

1. Stand up beside your partner and hold him close.

2. As he moves his right foot back, you step forward using left foot. The foot moves to where the body leans. Keep your heel off the ground while your leg trails smoothly. Avoid bouncing at all costs. Allow your heel to touch the floor only when you take a step back.

3. As he brings his left foot to the side, do the same with your right. This lateral movement begins with the leading foot extending to either direction that is quickly followed by shift in weight. Your feet come together soon after.

4. Switch sides and mirror his movement.

5. As he pivots his right foot to the left, do the same with your left. The leading leg should pull your body weight.

6. Switch sides when he does.

7. Add toe-taps and a variety of other movements only when you've grown comfortable and familiar with the dance.

8. Think like a cat and try to move like one all throughout. And remember, some people believe that it is actually the women who do the first move. However it will be for you, you shouldn't act like a ragged doll being dragged around.

Tango is very much like walking with your partner. The major distinction here is that you face and hold each other close as you traipse your way through the floor. For those who feel the need to challenge themselves, the dance does get complicated. As for those who live in a world of self-reliance, there are those who believe that you can add your own personal movements to the dance. Just know that as an active participant, you must exude passion. After all, what good is the tango without the emotion?