Arthur Brown

Yesterday was a very emotional day as we said goodbye to our very good friend Arthur Brown. Arthur is a 6 year old cat that has been with us from a kitten but after a few trips to the vet to question why he had started to spray everywhere when he has been nuetered and why he had suffered serious hairloss (he was a grand cat with lots of fur and an extremely fluffy tail), he was going bald quite quickly and his tail looked like a rats tail.

My parents have been to visit for the weekend (we went to see Blood Brothers in Liverpool which was immense but that's another story) and when they left they took Arthur with them... Stan and I both had a cry but we all agreed that it would be best for him. The reason behind this move was because in our house we have ten cats. All loved equally and very much part of our family. They all have their own places where they go to be alone but most of the time they spend cleaning each other or snuggling up on my feet, crammed on the one arm-chair that is never used by anything other than a cat (so it is officially there chair), or on our bed. They are all healthy and well fed, they chatter with us and follows us around. If we are in the garden having a barbecue they are dotted around the garden so like to be where we are. Arthur however sprayed constantly because he could no longer find his identity, he felt he had to mark his territory and the hair loss was as a result of his constant grooming. He was grooming himself bald.

I spoke with my Mum last night and he was on her knee snuggled up purring as she stroked him. He slept in Rhiannes bed with her last night and was purring when he went to sleep and when she woke up this morning he was in exactly the same position (still purring). He's had something to eat and is starting to explore (slowly), he has sprayed once and marked his territory and hasn't done it since so all is good for Arthur.

The moral of this story is that sometimes you have to make a sacrifice, change your mindset, adjust things and look for solutions that may not always sit comfortably in order to achieve your desired result. My desired result was to have a happy pussycat so I changed things.

Sharing | LinkedIn

Sharing | LinkedIn

David Taylor, a St Helens businessman is doing the BUPA 10k run on the 16th of May for the 'After Adoption' charity. Knowing David I have tremendous respect for this man and his heart despite surgery is made of solid gold. Lets see some serious support from as many as possible please.

Many thanks.

Rachel

EADIM - Book your place

EADIM - Book your place

OMG!!! I can't beleive this guy is back in the UK... I had feedback last year that he was really obnoctious and had a few rude words but they implimented some of his techniques when they got back to their offices and saw a massive change straight away... I'm booking now!

Nuggets

Dave, todays homework for you once you've finished the audio I gave you...

DISCUSSION:
Most salespeople see their sales world divided into two equal parts, "those I've sold who are now customers, a small number," and "those I haven't sold, a huge number." As a result, more energy and time is devoted to searching for the "those I haven't sold" to find a few to push over to the "those I have sold" side. It should be the exact opposite.

Spend 80% of your time with existing customers, and, as a result, when you ask for referrals, you will already have pre-qualified referrals to call on. Now spend the remaining 20% of your time with the prospects. Always ask these prospects for a referral. While most often you won't get one, about a quarter of the time you will.

How would you rather spend your time? Talking with prospects who also do business with your customer or talking with prospects who don't have the slightest idea who you are?

APPROACH:
Here are three behaviors that if committed to, will yield success:

1. The Introduction Letter: Call a customer who has bought more than once
from you. Ask him why and write down his response. Pretend you are that
customer. Write an introduction letter that will be sent, by him, to his five closest
business contacts. The letter says, in no more than three paragraphs, why he
does business with you, how he puts your product to use, and how to get in touch
with you. Now get his permission to send it and a list of whom to send it to. You
follow up with your own note.

2. The Introduction Phone Call: This could be the follow up to the letter or where you
start. Same pattern but this time with a customer who is considered a regular. He
calls his business contact, indicates that you are in the room and would his
contact like to talk with you for a minute or two. You get on the phone and close for
an appointment, nothing else.

3. The "You Didn't Sell Me, But..." Call: Always ask for a referral. You have nothing to
lose by doing this. "I appreciate the fact that we'll never do any business; if you
were me, whom would you call on?"

THOUGHT:
Referrals are easier to get than gold nuggets. Gold nuggets have to be searched for; referrals are free for the asking.

I proved this today didn't I Dave... You know it makes sense lol

Workshop; Marketing: What, How & When | Koogar : Digital Marketing (Internet Specialist)

Workshop; Marketing: What, How & When | Koogar : Digital Marketing (Internet Specialist)

I spoke to a small business this morning, the lady was lovely and openly admitted that marketing, sales etc was not her strong point. Her service was one that is clearly in demand out there as I know others that are doing it (maybe taking it a little bit more seriously) and earning a very good living from it. I have looked for a website for this lady that I had the conversation with, she has no internet presence AT ALL, therefore no email address??? I would like to draw her attention to the fact that there are serious businesses out there that take time out of their schedule to support companies like hers to raise awareness and to show companies that don't have a budget to be able to afford people like me how to do what needs doing to bring in new business and raise the profile of what could be a very useful service!

O.K. Rant over lol

http://www.answer.co.uk/?refid=92PNVG41M

http://www.answer.co.uk/?refid=92PNVG41M

I am absolutely raving about this service... I was looking at paying for a phone answering platform (as most businesses do these days). The thing about Approach is that we offer something different to the norm so I didn't want my calls to be answered by a machine whilst we were out of the office. This ticks all of my boxes and is an amazing service. They take the time to get to know what your business about allowing them to seamlessly fit within your operation. My clients know exactly when I will be able to call them back. They know who they have spoken to and what the next step is likely to be. It is all about next steps in my line of work so this does exactly what I want it to do. To top it all off you only pay when the service is used instead of having these horrible standing orders/direct debits set up on an on-going basis, this is completely pay as you go!

Oh and did I mention that it only took me 5 minutes to get it all set up???

Don't Dance!

The STORY:
Tim was convinced that if only he could somehow get in front of more prospects, he'd do a lot better. But it was always tough to get anyone to agree to an appointment. He started collecting all the excuses.

"Not now, the budget's been cut."

"Our senior management has just changed."

"The holidays are coming. Next month."

"We aren't buying now. Later in the year."

"You're the tenth one this week..."

"I'm new in the position."

"I just don't have the time."

"We just bought..."

And Tim's list went on and on. Late one Monday morning, after completing eight cold calls in two hours, Tim decided to try something new. No more getting pushed around. He'd call back the same eight people and try it.

"Hi, this is Tim and if I could have a five-minute appointment, only five minutes, I know you would be interested."

Amazingly enough, Tim was able to make appointments with three of the eight.

Tim went on the three five-minute appointments, spent the five minutes, and at the conclusion, heard the same excuses with which he had become all too familiar.

Well, he thought to himself after leaving the third appointment, at least I'm getting appointments. The more appointments I get, the sooner I'll sell something.

The RESULT:
Begging someone for an appointment, setting yourself up in a situation in which you have to convince someone that you have something to offer, will eventually get you sales. But this is a hard, hard, hard way to make a living. All of the pressure is on you to perform. The prospect gets to sit back and decide if your performance is worth any more time. Would it not be better for you to determine if the prospect is worth your time and effort?

When the prospect invites you in, the responsibility is on him to tell you why. You are in control of the situation.

Which would you prefer, begging or being invited?

DISCUSSION:
Why do salespeople beg? Because in many instances, the prospects will put up with it.

From the salesperson's point of view, the prospect is showing interest. Any attempt by the prospect to leave or terminate the situation is viewed as an objection. And, as we all know, objections have to be overcome.

So here we have a situation in which the prospect is trying to be polite to a beggar, and the beggar is getting, from the prospect's point of view, more and more insistent with the begging. What's a prospect to say? How about, "Send me some literature; I'll look it over." Or, "I don't have any money in the (choose one: budget, wallet, bank account )." The list of brush-offs is extensive and well known.

APPROACH:
Begging is a habit that is reinforced by prospects because prospects have been trained by salespeople who beg for a living.

Instead of Tim saying "...if I could have a five-minute appointment, only five minutes, I know you would be interested," he could have stopped being a beggar and said, "Mr. Smith, after I meet with most CEOs, we jointly decide that my product is not appropriate for their needs. However, 15 percent of CEOs see the value in our service. It may not be relevent to you at this point but it would be nice for us to have a conversation at some point to see".

Tim would get fewer appointments with this approach, but on the other hand, he would waste less time on non-productive appointments and make more sales.

If you really want to stop begging, get a small tape recorder and tape your side of the conversation. Then play it back to someone you trust and tell him to note down all of your begging phrases. Once you have that list, ban those phrases from your vocabulary.

THOUGHT:
Beggars do make some money. Non-beggars make more money. Which would you rather be?

This is what it's all about...

Sat at my desk on Wednesday working through an Excel spreadsheet when an email arrived from Stan (the better half), I was on a roll so thought I'd read it later when I had time but kinda forgot. Had a very productive morning even though I had taken my 10 year old into work with me. We had an early'ish finish (around 2.30pm). I took him to Rockerfellas for a burger in Liverpool centre (if you haven't been and ever get the opportunity you should check it out: amazing food, excellent service and it's all set in a 1950s diner with really cool music). We walked past the Liverpool Empire and I had popped in and bought tickets to go and see Blood Brothers at the end of the month with my Mum, Daughter, Mum-in-law and Sister-in-law so a bit of a special occasion, was really pleased with myself and very satisfied with my day. Dyl and I sat on the train home, he was beaming as he had really enjoyed himself... He had been allowed to listen to his tunes through the headphones on the laptop whilst I worked, he'd been introduced to my new offices and to finish it all off had a full belly with quality burger and delicious ice cream. I checked my email on my phone and found the one that Stan has sent earlier... This email said, "Bear (my nickname), I've booked us into the Mal Maison Manchester (http://www.malmaison-manchester.com) Friday and Saturday night, football's on 12:30 Saturday so I've booked you a pamper day in their spa. We can go out for a few Friday night, you can chill all day Saturday then we can go to the Tiger Lounge and be groovy in the evening"... I was soooooooooooo excited. We stayed at the Mal about a year ago and it was heavenly. We managed to get a suite at a really good rate last time so I wasn't expecting that kind of room again but the break away was something that was certainly well received. Thursday at work seemed to fly by although I didn't get out until late as I had some things to finish off. Have just been reading this book called 'Take Back Your Life' using Microsoft Outlook, it is amazing and has saved me over 9 hours a week just by implimenting the right systems, implimenting these systems unfortunately has been pretty tough lol.

Friday morning, got up and wallpapered my 16 year olds, we kinda had a deal that if she painted the 3 walls, did the glossing and shifted everything out of her room I would paper the remaining wall. She had upheld her side of the bargain so I had to do my bit. Got showered, Stan and I packed then we headed off to Manchester. We checked in and went up to our room and I was blown away. We were in the same suite as previously (the Cinema Suite), I couldn't believe it, two nights away in this amazing suite... I'll leave the finer details there... Lived like a film star for the two nights and three days. Came home, hung the washing out, cleaned up the kitchen, washed some pots, unpacked, fed the cats, cleaned the bathroom, hoovered our bedroom and made the bed with the sheets off of the line (that I had hung out on Friday), did a load of stuff in what felt like record time... my Hollywood lifestyle was well and truly over and the work had begun again but I will finish off with the fact that for me, this is what life is all about. Had the most amazing weekend and am now ready to begin again. I love my husband, I love my kids, I love my work and I love my life... I feel very spoilt and very privelidged.

'Brush Off'

The STORY:

Jackies meeting on Thursday morning was one she had been working on getting for the past four months. This was THE one. After two previous meetings, this was the one where the decision was going to be made.

The last person in the world she expected to hear on the other end of the phone as she answered was George.

"Glad I caught you in," said George.

Jackie had this sinking feeling but maybe, she thought, George is calling with some good news.

"Some bad news, I'm afraid."

"What bad news," asked Jackie thinking that someone else got the deal.

"Don't panic, we didn't go with someone else. This isn't a 'Dear John' phone call."

"What's up?"

"Our computer system blew out last night, and it looks like we lost an entire quarter of financial information."

"It must be panic city there," responded Jackie sympathetically.

"Well, between you and me, no one else knows."

"Oh."

"Came in this morning, went to review my information for the meeting and it was gone. Looked for some more stuff, and it was gone."

"You have backups?" suggested Jackie trying to he helpful.

"Somewhere," said George, sounding very tired and depressed.

"You're between the rock and that place..."

"Absolutely. Look. We ought to cancel the meeting and reschedule." George sounded really depressed now.

"Makes sense," responded Jackie, very disappointed.

"Last time this happened it took close to eight weeks to reconstruct. Let me call you back in about six or seven weeks to bring you up-to-date."

"Makes sense. No problem George, good luck."

"You're a superstar Jackie. Thanks."

The RESULT:
Jackie, being the considerate and empathic salesperson, bailed out and accepted what she heard. As a result, no meeting, and maybe someday in the future something may happen.

DISCUSSION:
Remember when you were in school and forgot to do that assignment? Of course, the assignment was 50% of your grade for the GCSE. What was the pain when you walked into the classroom? You were going to tell the teacher some horror story that made it impossible for you to hand it in. You worked hard on preparing your story.

Anything that could be used as an excuse was considered. The dog ate it. My Mum threw it away when she tidied my room. Anything.

Now with computers everywhere, the excuses are even better. The hard drive on my computer blew up. We lost electricity. My printer died. The file just vanished. My keyboard exploded? The more you wanted to avoid the situation, the bigger the disaster. You might even have been telling the truth.

So what does the teacher do? Listen to the list of calamitites and gives you another day or so.

Now you are the teacher, and the prospect is the student. Nothing has really changed; you're just acting out the same script, different roles. The only real difference is that now you aren't going to the bank.

APPROACH:
Instead of Jackie meekly accepting the disaster excuse, she could have pushed ahead and found out if it was for real or heaven forbid 'the brush-off'.

"That's terrible. What did the board said when they found out? Your banking advisor? IT? Accountant?" Then wait for an answer.

"They don't know yet."

"Your company lost an entire quarter's worth of financial information and you're the only one who knows about it? Aren't you running the risk of going out of business when this gets out?" Push the prospect's pain higher.

If this is a 'brush off', the prospect will be so frantic that his excuse is unravelling, he'll be willing to grab at any life boat. Throw him one.

"Look, maybe this will help. Why don't we meet and at least get our business squared away. That way when it hits the fan, you'll have something positive going for you and we'll be ready to roll."

"That sounds like it makes sense. Good idea. We're still on for Thursday at nine in the morning."

THOUGHT:
Is it really a disaster, or is it a brush off? Only the prospect knows unless you ask.