20 Sunday Questions

1 What you have learned the last week? - If you have a problem with the answer to this question, it is time for a change. Your age does not matter, you have to learn something new every week. 

2 What is your greatest achievement in the past week? - Thinking about your achievements - a good reason to feel a sense of confidence and satisfaction. It is also an effective way to track your progress. 

3 What was the most memorable thing that happened to you last week and why? - So you will be able to discover new interests, goals and preferences, as well as diversify you pastime. 

4 What is the goal №1 that you need to accomplish coming week? - Everything else is secondary, and should be treated that way. However do not forget about all the secondary objectives. 

5 What can you do right now so your next week will be less stressful? - Check reminder in your calendar: go for groceries, do laundry, put petrol to the car. So you can organize yourself. 

6 What is that something you've struggled in the past can affect the upcoming week? - The idea is to learn from the experience of this struggle and better prepare yourself for such situations in the future. 

7 What have you wasted your time on last week? - Try to avoid this in the future. Limit yourself to what distracts you from your goals. 

8 Are you taking something "heavy" from your part week? - Whether it is physical or psychological disorder, it should be eliminated. Remove from your head and life space all unnecessary things creating disorder.

9 What things do you avoid but you need to do? - Draw a table, where next to each of your tasks will indicate the time you want to spend on it. Monday morning start with fulfilling those tasks that take 2 minutes or less. 

10 What opportunities are on the surface? - If they are still available and you want to get them, make a plan how to do it next week. 

11 Is there anyone who you want to talk to and haven't found time last week? - Regular communication can resolve the conflict before it comes to its culmination. Maintain relationships with the people around you. 

12 Is there anyone who you need to say "Thank you"? - Every week take time to thank the people who helped you. Your gesture will not remain unnoticed. 

13 Is there anyone you want to help? - The best way to get what you want is to help others get what they want. People remember the good, and when you need help, they are happy to provide it. 

14 What are your top 3 goals for the next 3 years? - You will never succeed in life if you do not set realistic goals for yourself. 

15 Which of your recent actions have got you closer to your goal? - If you can not remember one, it's time to change something. 

16 What is your next step to achieve your main goal? - Knowledge of each step is the key to achieving it. 

17 What is that are you looking forward to in the coming week? - The answer can be you motivation. If you can not answer this question, find yourself what you need to wait. Keep on being motivated. 

18 What are your fears? - Consciously refer to your fears each week and slowly work on getting rid of them. 

19 What are you most thankful for? - This is a good way to look at things in perspective, and not to lose anything from your sight. 

20 If next week was the last in your life, how would you spend it? - Life is short. Spend more time with loved ones longer.

To have this Sunday Workbook, please, go HERE.

7 Ways to Miss a Sale

1 Premature reaction to customer complaints 

Despite the fact that it is possible and it is necessary to anticipate possible criticism of consumers towards goods or services and to prepare for it, there is nothing worse than to come up with a problem connected to your product/service and try to respond to it to your customer who hast't said it aloud yet.

Trying to explain something in advance, you are automatically in a defensive position and look unsure of the true values that are selling. 

How to avoid this situation: When dealing with a potential customer, never start the phrase with the words: "You may be wondering ..." or "You may ask yourself ..." 

2 Give the initiative to customer to lead conversation 

How often promotional mailing end with offers to potential clients to call or contact the addressee in another way in the case of "if you're interested," or "to find out more." And how often the authors of these mailings are complaining that they do not receive any response. 

No wonder: they are asking the client to do their work for them. 

How to avoid this situation: Keep the ball in your territory. Instead of above mentioned proposals write something like: "I'll call you next week to discuss the possibilities of our future cooperation." 

3 Sale of characteristics instead of the real effect of customer problem being solved 

Unbelievable but true: some marketers really believe that consumers buy a product because it has some desired functionality. So they continually list those same functions with the hope that at least one of them will awake interest in a potential customer. 

In fact, customers are primarily interested in the impact that the purchase will have on their lives or businesses. 

How to avoid this situation: Find out why your target customer wants to buy your product and not someone else's. And sell it using the characteristics of your product as possible arguments to ensure this result. 

4 Hypocritical credibility 

Like it or not, but at the very moment when your customer starts thinking you just want to sell him something and nothing else, you enter into an uphill battle for his confidence in your product. The most common variant of this tactic - first of all during the "cold" call to ask "How are you feeling?", "How are you?". People start feeling sick of your call. 

How to avoid this situation: Keep your dignity and professionalism, do not to go beyond the conventional forms of politeness - as long as you do not actually win the credibility of the person, which could take weeks. 

5 Failure to fulfill promise 

The sad truth is for consumers sales are people who are by default, crooks, until proven otherwise. Building relationships with clients to the degree of trust is a long way. 

So, don't count on sympathy until you fulfill everything that agreed with the client on. One failure - and you're out of the game. 

How to avoid the situation: Take one obligation at a time and only those obligations that you are 100% sure. 

6 More chatting than attention to detail 

One of the most common mistakes. When you have something to sell, so easy to fall into a certain agitation and then try to "force the deal" by your own eloquence. Clients actually find this extremely annoying. 

How to avoid this situation: Redefine the sales process in your mind as a passive activity for the most part, which is primarily in listening to the customer's wishes, attention to detail and responding to his words and actions. 

7 Interpretation of "closing the deal" as "the end of the process" 

Maybe it's a consequence of a failure of terminology, but most companies and individual entrepreneurs perceive "closing the deal" as the end of all the actions.

This is just THE beginning. When you close the deal the next step to be is you start to build a relationship that could result in long-term cooperation. 
And it is much easier and more profitable than the conclusion of a deal. 

How to avoid the situation: Always keep in mind the long-term partnership, not a one-time winner. Provide the best customer service to show that the greener grass is on your side.

3 Things to Learn Before Becoming and Entrepreneur

1 time management

People talk about it a lot, but majority of them have no idea or never owned this skill. The essence of time management is to learn not to put off the most important things for later. 

Never deal with a bunch of "urgent" small things that do not work towards achieving your goals. Try to delegate them. If you decide to build your business learn to manage your own time. Do not tighten yourself in an endless abyss of solving problems in the family, with children, and other small household problems. Do business is you started to.

Successful entrepreneurs are able and know how to plan the working day, week and month, know the secrets to setting goals for the day, which they immediately reach. 
Everything you need to know about time management - is that it's just a habit that will save you time and help with business growth. 

Try on a new way of living and thinking, and I'm confident you will enjoy and surely become a successful entrepreneur. 

2 before you start a business stop being suspicious 

They say that vanity - the worst vice. But in business, the worst can be only one - mistrust in yourself, your skills and abilities, being suspicious. Starting entrepreneur thinks he must first explore all because he did not know how to start, keep, grow and do things. 

All this is nonsense! While you sharpen your skills in something and try to learn, then most likely someone will bypass you and your idea compensating the lack knowledge of arrogance and adaptability to circumstances. It makes no sense to re-read a lot of clever books on business doing nothing in practice. Learn in the process! This is the greatest secret that will help you on your way to success, and can not be otherwise. 

3 before you create a business, learn to be indifferent

You won't be able to build a business, if you are constantly "bitten" by your own doubts, and you constantly worry what kind of results you have achieved today. The only way to succeed is to be indifferent. You'll meet obstacles on the path to success, but you should always be the same. And even then, when you will have great sales, you can smile, but with indifference. 

Remember, all your strength in indifference.  Step over and move on!

How to Set Goals. Old Like World Story and Very Useful

How to Set Goals 

STEP 1 

In order to set effective goals, firstly, you need to be clear and clearly understand WHY you set goals. You need to understand what objectives should be to achieve maximum efficiency on the way to your goals. 

Before setting goals you need to understand: 
1 What for do you need to set goals? 
2 What are goals that you set? 

STEP 2 

In the second step, take a piece of paper and a pen. 
Now imagine that from this moment 10 years have passed. Describe in detail how you live, how to spend your time, what you do. The more detailed your description is, the easier it will be in the stage of setting goals. 

There is the first very important condition: 
Write as if all this is happened.

That is, if you write that you want to make $ 10,000 / month, $ 11,000 / month, you'll never get. Assume that you set yourself a maximum upper limit not the one you dream of but the max you think you can reach. 

The second important condition: 
Write a lot and in detail - at least 2 pages of A4 typed or 4 A4 pages of written text. 
This is just my advice on the topic, how to set goals. You are not required to comply with them, but try to fulfill, and suddenly everything will turn out the best way. 

Here is a list of areas to make it easier to create a description for setting goals: 

1 Your job / business 
What are you doing 
How much revenue you have 
What is your level of responsibility 
How many people do you manage 
What prestige you have in your employment 
How many hours a day you work 
How many sources of income  do you have
What are the sources of income 
2 Family 
What lifestyle I provide for my family 
What are my relationships within the family 
Where do we live 
In one house and the apartment we live 
How do we arrange holidays
Where do we arrange holidays
How much time I spend with my family 
What are your cars 
3 Social services 
Do I have friends 
Which social groups I belong to
What are the benefits I bring to society 
How can I positively influence this world 

STEP 3 

Now as you write the text, you can easily identify your goals. 

And you have a clear description of the following things: 
1 House / Apartment 
2 business (s) / work 
3 holiday s
4 cars etc.. 
5 things to do 
6 traveling 
7 family
8 your contribution to the society

STEP 4 

Check whether you have set goal characteristics of effective goals. If yes, proceed to the next step. If not, go back to step 2 and make changes. 

STEP 5 

Now, for each of your goals you need to have the most accurate representation. That is, you have to know specifically what kind of car you want. Not suitable just say Mercedes. It must be said Mercedes-Benz CLK 500 silver. 
Required parameters: 

1) Brand 
2) the model 
3) Color 
4) body type (coupe, sedan, convertible, wagon, pickup, minivan, etc.). 
The point is, that in your mind should be a very clear picture of what you want. It's like the camera, move the maximum sharpness. 

TIP: Find a suitable picture of your target, print it and hang it on the wall. 

STEP 6 

Choose your most important goals. 
Here you have a list of 20 goals. Imagine that you can achieve only one goal from the list. Which would you choose? Circle this goal. Then, choose the next target on the same principle. Have the second priority target, and then the third. These are your 3 most important goals. Focus on their implementation. 

STEP 7 

Every day come back to three goals. Think about them as often as possible, imagine yourself having those things. Live them. Make yourself comfortable with these things. Do this at least 2 times a day.

AND it won't make you waiting! They will come true!

7 Questions Helping with Right Choice

How to make the right choices in work, business and life, which you will never have to regret. Something from a dream world, heh? 

I want to tell you about the amazing and very simple technique with 7 questions that will assess the situation from different points of view, get rid of doubts and bring the ability to make the right choice to a new level. I have read about thing long time ago and found really useful. So sharing valuable stuff :)

WARNING: The answers will not always be like you, but in the end they will help you make the right decision. 

1 What would you chose, if not your fear? 

Unfortunately, too many decisions in our lives are taken for us on behalf of our own fears and stereotypes. Of course, successful businessman approach to the risks means person makes own choice, and also conscious about their fears. If you feel you have fears that create obstacles - write them down. Work through the list of all doubts and fears and carefully with someone who will help you to be objective. Sometimes the choice that we are scared of is the best for us. 

2 What would you chose, if not for money? 

Do you think that many great ideas have not been implemented due to lack of money? Or money missing due to the fact that these ideas were not implemented? Will you refuse your development and moving forward, if you feel that you don't have enough money? May sound unreal and coming from dream world but if you made ​​the right choice - you will always find the money. Remember about crowd-funding. You can also ask for help your relatives, friends, acquaintances, or just give your network to know what you are looking for an investor. And let money, or rather lack of them, never stop you. 

3 What is the best and the worst that could happen? 

As a continuation of the previous two questions - draw on your paper mind map of all the possible consequences of all possible solutions. List the positive, negative, and minor tangible results that will lead to your choice. In most cases, the best solution would be so obvious. 

4 What previous experience has taught me? 

Any experiences - whether it's positive or negative - give us valuable lessons. Losses in our lives only occur when learnt no lesson from what happened. Take-off - it's the same valuable lesson, as well as fail experience. Remember what happened and think what to do different in same situation? 

5 Is it in my opinion? Shares my point of view? 

Ask yourself: do you really need it, or do you agree that you need it, although you make turn in the direction you don't want to go? After all, one of the main success factors is a sequence, so always keep in mind to question yourself whether a decision you are making is in the scope of your vision? 

6. What do my body and soul tell me? 

Remember your last choice that you regret - is your inner voice or the body did not give you signals that was better not to do so? If you feel physical discomfort when making a decision, or your inner voice quietly talks against your potential choice in life - listen to these signals. They may not coincide with what you are lean at the moment, but the subconscious is much more visible, as this choice will affect you in the future. 

7 How will I watch myself in the mirror tomorrow? 

Finally, about the future. What will you feel the next day after it will take a decision? If you are pride of it and  having a burst of energy and inspiration - you are on the right track. If you notice a shame or regret - do not ignore those feelings. If you are experiencing them now - prepare for the worst. 

For a complete picture, think what you will experience as a result of you choice in a week / month / year. Take your time to think about the right decision.

NON Standard Ways to Find Customers

There are so many ways to attract customers to your business however I have decided to review some not standard. maybe will be useful :)

Companies who are looking for employees, may become you clients 

The use of websites to search for jobs is one of the easiest ways to attract new customers. If the startup is doing the work that many companies are trying to give its own employees, it provides an opportunity to compete for customers with individual employees. Organizations often prefer to outsource work to outside contractors than to research, train and maintain (insurance, taxes, etc.) own employees in the state.

Customers love quality content 

The publication of quality content often helps to attract new customers - most importantly, that it is helpful, rather than providing advertising. The very first entry in the corporate blog. In addition to simple blog postings, it is recommended to create a research and "cases" with the description of already completed projects - the doubting customer can see information about how the company has helped solving problems for people before him, are more likely to take a positive decision on cooperation.

E-Brochure is a good client attraction tool 

A small booklet that describes how the real solutions solving the real problems or just benefit customer, will attract potential customers. Company specializing in marketing, can write stuff about how to reduce the percentage of abandoned baskets, an organization dedicated to design, can tell you about how to implement the introductory tours in mobile applications so as not to lose customers. Such a brochure can be published on the website and provide a link to download after the visitor will leave his contact details.

Search on Twitter 

With the help of Twitter search can be in real-time to find posts from people and companies who are looking for someone who will perform some work for them. Incorporating imagination and made ​​a list of keywords and hashtags, a startup team can find a potential client. With services like Warble this work can be automated.

Services sold as packages

Services that are sold "packages" are more understandable and attractive for customers. Start-ups in the services sector should develop service plans that include a certain set of works for a monthly fee. Such an approach is useful as a client who understands what, when and how much he has to pay, and the company that receives a predictable cash flow.

Partnership

Try to find partners in similar or close to your business areas. This is helpful to do co-promotion for mutual benefits.

10 Common Sales Mistakes

It's no secret that the main goal of any business, regardless of its size and shape, is profit. The profit, in turn, depends on the number of successful transactions that you enter into with your clients, or, more simply, the number of sales. They determine how long your business will exist.

If case you have noticed that the sales went down in your company, try not to start blaming government or economic situation. Have a look at your sales in the lens of common mistakes made by sales departments. 

MISTAKE 1 - NO PLAN

Success in any business is impossible without a clear plan. Imagine that you have set a goal - to learn Russian. Sounds too vague, is not it? Firstly, it is unclear in what time frame you plan to achieve this goal; Secondly, it remains a mystery how you will evaluate your progress. If your goal is too fuzzy, you'll always postpone it for later. 

If your plans will be more concrete (SMART), then it is likely that you do start to put it into reality. "Learn Russian in the next three years, then to go to visit Russia without a guide" - is much better. 

However, your overall plan should also be divided into intermediate steps, so that you know what steps you need to take at the moment. In the case of the Russian language, they should read as follows: "language classes three times a week" or "devote at home every day for half an hour." 

In business, blurred plans generally are not allowed. After all, you are targeting a specific income, expressed in figures and not on abstract income. Therefore, the target profit that you aspire to receive, for example, after 5 years, must be shared on an annual, monthly, weekly and even daily profit. 

Let's say your goal - to earn 5 million dollars for 5 years. Then your interim targets will be as follows: 

Earn 1 million dollars per year; 

Earn 83,333 dollars a month; 

Earn 20,833 dollars a week; 

Earn 2,976 dollars a day. 

Of course, your income will not always coincide with those numbers. The main thing that it was not much different from them down. 

Having before it the specific numbers, you will be able to improve your business processes. For example, if your company's daily profit will be far from the desired value, you will realize that your current sales tactics do not work, and you will begin to look for a new ones to replace current. 

MISTAKE 2 - NO TOOLS

Every businessman must have tools that help him in sales. These primarily include the so-called system of customer relationship management, or CRM-system. They store important information about your current and potential customers, and also help to monitor the different stages of the sales. 

Secondly, it is a good quality website that provides detailed information about your trade offer. It is necessary to pay special attention to the design its landing page. After all, this very page is able to turn your potential customers into actual. 

And finally, you need good professionals in sales. They interact with your customers directly. Their professional and personal qualities build the success of your company. So be very choosy when hiring employees in the sales department. Make sure that they really have the necessary knowledge, skills and experience. 

MISTAKE 3 - NO LISTENING SKILLS

Saying a word is silver, keeping silence is gold. Most of the time, you should listen to your customers and not tell them about the benefits of your products and services. 

What issues concern them the most? What keeps them awake at night? How to change their lives, if they are able to solve their problems? Not knowing the answers to these questions, you will not be able to offer our customers solutions that will benefit their demand. So try to thoroughly examine all of their complaints, requests, problems to be aware of how you can help them. 

MISTAKE 4 - TOO MUCH DETAIL

When you have listened carefully to your clients, and you will have the opportunity to be heard, it is not necessary to go into too much detail of his offer. For example, if you are helping a company to develop its online marketing strategy, it is not necessary to explain to them how AdWords works and how you will do promotion in social networks. 

Customers pay you not for your knowledge, and for the ready-made solutions. It is not necessary to overload their heads unnecessary information. The main question that interests them - how you can solve their problems. If they need more information, they will ask for it. In general, you should not run ahead of train and inform clients about  details that in most cases they are not interested in.

MISTAKE 5 - NEGATIVE ATTITUDE TO CUSTOMER REFUSAL

Entrepreneurs lose a lot of profitable opportunities, perceiving rejection customers as the end of the sales. In other words, they just give up, without attempting to convince potential customers in the benefits of their product/service. 

In fact, customers do not reject your offer. Saying "no," they try to hint that they do not understand your offer and do not know how it can help them. They just have not enough experience to assess its real value. Show and explain the value of your product&service - it is just what they need. 

Imagine that your company is involved in sales of new models of vacuum cleaners with a number of clever features. Customers do not use them yet, so their first reaction is expected as rejection. Surely, they will give many arguments not to buy your product, for example: "It costs too much", "It's too fancy" or "I do not believe in its efficiency." What will be the short-sighted actions of entrepreneurs? That's right, they immediately put these clients aside and will not try to teach them the benefits of being their clients.

Wiser businessmen do otherwise. They will try to convince customers. For example, if a potential buyer confused about the price of the vacuum cleaner, they will say to them: "In fact, the price of our product is fully consistent with its quality and function. Let me explain to you, what are the advantages of our vacuum cleaner. "If the client is confused by the number of functions of the vacuum cleaner, you can give the following answer: "Vacuum Cleaner of our company really has a lot of features that significantly enhance the quality of cleaning. Our experts will help you to understand them. "

In general, use every opportunity to change the negative perception of customers about your product. If the client is deaf to your arguments, and insisting on his own, well, then you are already powerless. The most important thing is that you have attempted to convince a potential buyer. A final decision depends upon himself. 

MISTAKE 6 - NEGATIVE ATTITUDE TOWARDS COMPETITORS

Even if you can not stand your competitors and just want to get on their failure, do not talk about it with your customers. Otherwise, they'll think you're not sure of the quality of your products and services and want to show off by costs of your competitor. 

This does not mean that you should make every effort to praise your competitors. Just try to be diplomatic when you talk about them. For example, you can say: "Yes, this company also provides similar services, but I'm not sure whether it will solve your problem. You should contact them and to clarify all the details." Let the customers decide which company is better. Help with a free trial of your service/product.

MISTAKE 7 - INABILITY TO SEE&USE OPPORTUNITIES

Your meeting with a potential client may have different outcomes. The best can be is you'll be able to convince him of the benefits of your product and immediately have deal done.

However, not everything turns out right the first time. Even if the client is not "pecked" to your offer immediately, you can agree with him on another meeting in the future. 

If, however, you realize that the customer is not interested in your services, you can benefit from this situation. Ask him to recommend your services to their friends and colleagues and ask WHY he is not interested. Thus, you will be able to attract new customers your company and figure out what features are not there that may attract wider range of customers for you. 

As you can see, no hopeless situations. Being a reasonable entrepreneur, you can wrap all the circumstances in your favor. The main thing - to think bigger. 

MISTAKE 8 - NO FOLLOW UP

According to statistics, only 1 out of 10 potential customers buys goods or services of the company immediately after the first meeting or conversation with her representative. In the remaining 90% of potential buyers sales person needs to take further steps, such as re-schedule a meeting or to call them again. Otherwise, you will miss a lot of profitable opportunities. 

If you think that this category of customers is not so important, let us return to the statistics. Imagine that you meet with 10 potential customers every working day. It turns out that you are dealing with 200 new faces every month. Suppose that you make a deal, only 10% of them. Thus, each month is accumulated 180 potential customers that you have not yet managed to persuade to buy. And their annual number will reach 2160 and you still want to give up the opportunity to convince them? 

MISTAKE 9 - DOMINANT WISH TO SELL RATHER THAN HELP

In some situations, the potential client needs goods and services that you can not offer them. It also happens that your prices simply exceeds the capacity of his budget. You understand that the client can not resolve your problem. In this case you do not receive material benefits if assist him. What to do in such situations? To pretend that "none of my business, and I do not know anything?" Or is it to try to help the person, even if it will not make you a dime of profit? 

The second option is much more reasonable. After all, not everything in this world comes down to money. No wonder they say that the earth is round: today one person is in need of your help, but tomorrow he may help you. So if your company is not able to solve the customer's problem, recommend him a company that can help him, even if it is your direct competitor. 

Imagine that you are managing a large network of bookshops. In one day comes to you middle-aged man who wants to buy a rare textbook for his son-student. Unfortunately, in your stores there is no book. If you know exactly it exists in store of your competitor, why not tell that to the buyer? Thus, people will save a lot of time and effort getting rid of pointless searches, and will be very grateful to you.

MISTAKE 10 - CLOSING DEALS TO REGRET ABOUT LATER

Unfortunately, you can't avoid contact with the category of "difficult" clients, which want from you too much. For example, they ask you to do them a great discount or take other actions that are contrary to the standards adopted in your company. 

The only solution in such situations is a polite refusal. Try to explain to these customers that your company have rules no violation accepted. 

In any case, does not compromise its principles, just to make a deal. Such actions can ruin your reputation, and potential customers will no longer trust you. Constantly learn - from others and from their mistakes 

Being a Sales man is an art that needs to be learnt throughout life. It only comes with experience - no academic degrees and titles will not be able to replace it. The experience of other people can keep you to learn from just some mistakes, but not all. After all, the way every entrepreneur is building his business is unique, so it is impossible to foresee all the difficulties that you may encounter. Monitor and fix what you is going wrong on the go. This makes you an entrepreneur!