The question “How do I get customers to choose me over the competition” is an age-old question. From the time of Cleopatra to the present business owners and sales people all wonder the same thing. Why is it that some people never have a lack of customers and others seem to struggle for every single one? Is there a magic spell or ritual that they use to “bewitch” customers? Were they just born with a special talent, or maybe they are just lucky.

Well, the answer is yes to all of the above. But it’s not what you think . . . There are a set of skills and actions you can take to become “one of those people.” Some people were lucky to learn them early on in life, while others weren’t exposed to them until later. The bottom line is by learning these skills and actions everyone can be one of the “lucky” ones and have customers come to them in droves.

The most important piece to the puzzle is you. Are you trustworthy? Are you credible? Do you live up to your word? People choose to work with people they trust. People who make them feel secure. People they know they can count on if something goes wrong. You may look great on paper, have all the experience and credentials, but if your customer doesn’t get a warm fuzzy feeling from you, he or she will go elsewhere. Remember, people claim they make decisions based on logic, when in reality they make decisions based on emotion and then justify them with logic.

How much time to you spend developing who you are as a person? Have you taken a good look at your level of self-confidence? Do you believe in yourself? Do you follow through on what you say? You can snow people for awhile, but deep down their gut will tell them you’re a fake. Take time to work on developing yourself. Find out who you really are and who and where you want to be.

So many people are operating on autopilot. They are doing what they think they should be doing or what someone else told them to do. Unfortunately, many times it is not what they truly want to do. The saddest part is that they are miserable and they have no idea why. Take the time to get to know your true self and them progress from there. Once you are true to yourself and you are doing what you like, your customers will have a higher comfort level with you and your business.

Make each and every customer feel special. Remember little things about them and take care of them. The more you engage with your customer and become a trusted resource the less likely they are to go elsewhere. Just remember, you’re not trying to become their best friend, just a very trusted resource.

This is much easier now with CRM programs and computer sales records. You can keep track of things you learn about your customer on the computer so you don’t have to keep everything in your head. For example, a Happy Birthday message is almost always welcomed by customers, even if you haven’t done business with them for awhile. This will keep you on the top of their mind when a need for your products or services comes up again.

Finally, stay relevant. Make sure your knowledge and skills are current with the market. Invest in extra training or read trade magazines or books. Schedule a few minutes every day to increase your knowledge base, it can be as little as 15 minutes. Just do it! This is another attribute that your customer will appreciate and will put you ahead of the competition.

Communication is an integral part of everyone’s daily activities. Whether you are talking with co-workers, your family members, or by phone or e-mail, effective communication benefits everyone. The problem is, we are usually in such a hurry we don’t think about how what we are saying is being interpreted by the recipient. In fact, there may be times when what we intend is not what the person receiving the message hears. This is even more prevalent with e-mail.

Here are some areas to consider as you evaluate your communication style.

1. Be respectful to everyone: The best way to stop the communication flow is to be disrespectful to the person you are talking to. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect, whether it is your boss, your kids, co-workers, the cleaning crew, etc. No one is better than anyone else – treat everyone as you would like to be treated. There is a side benefit here as well; you never know when you might need help, and you will be much more likely to receive it from people you were nice to in the past.
2. Listen: You have something you want to say and you know you are right. That may be, but you will destroy any chance you have for the other party to accept your viewpoint if you are rude and talk over them. You will gain much more cooperation from people if you listen to them and let them participate during your conversation.
3. Don’t be condescending: You may have a larger vocabulary than the person you are talking to or you may be an expert in a field, but you will gain no ground by talking over the person you are communicating with to make yourself feel more important. Again, the goal of communicating is to successfully convey your thoughts and ideas, that is pretty tough if the person you are talking to has no idea what you are talking about. It’s even worse if you are doing it just to make them feel stupid.
4. Make sure everyone is clear: At the end of the conversion do a quick recap to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding what was decided. If this is a work environment, you may want to summarize the conversation in a memo or e-mail afterwards and send it to all participants. That way no one can argue later that they didn’t understand. Be sure to keep all e-mails or memos you send out for your own records.
5. Be approachable: You may be the boss or the parent, but that doesn’t mean you have to be unapproachable. There may be times when one of your employees or children needs to initiate a conversation. Don’t make it a scary or stressful situation because they will be less likely to be forthcoming with information you need to know.

Remember, we are all trying to work together to come to understandings, which means our communication skills are very important. Take the time to assess your current communication skills and their affects on the people you interact with. It may be time for a little tweaking!

Phone prospecting is often a “scary” thing for people who are in positions where this is part of their job or if they have their own home-based business and this is critical to their success. There are several very important things to take into consideration when you on talking to prospects on the phone.

First of all (and this is VERY important) you must be in the right mindset whether you are talking to leads you have purchased, if you are calling a client base or if you are making cold calls.

Go through the reasons in your mind why you are calling this prospect and what result you want from the call. It’s a good idea to make a list of pros and cons of the type of people you want in your organization or as a client. Take a piece of paper, put a line down the center and write the pros on one side and the cons on the other. Read this list often – it will become an automatic sorting tool for you, and you will not waste your time on people who do not fit your criteria. For example, a “pro” would be someone who has energy and drive. A “con” would be someone who has low energy or is unsure of what they want. Believe it or not, this is an excellent way to attract the people you want.

Always have a pleasant and upbeat voice when you talk to prospects. Be excited about your reason for calling. If you don’t feel particularly excited at the time, think about what made you excited when you first heard about the business you are in and what it was that made you decide to join the organization. Was it the product? Was it the income opportunity? Was it the strength of the organization? Was it the quality of the people there?

A smile on your face comes through the phone. When your prospect answers the phone, always greet them by their first name ? “Hi Bob” ? then introduce yourself and tell them where you’re from ? “This is Mary from DeMoines, Iowa,” or from your company name.

After you have introduced yourself to a prospect, don’t immediately go into your presentation. Ask them questions about themselves, what they are looking for, etc. That’s also a good sorting tool. Maybe when you learn more about them, you’ll decide they don’t fit your criteria. Believe me, you will never sell anything to anyone by blasting your opportunity without taking the time to show your prospects you are interested in them. And you should be ? they will either be someone in your organization or a client, so you need to know if they are someone you want to do business with. You’re in the driver’s seat here.

Work on your presentation posture. If you have a script you are working from, know it so well it rolls off your tongue. Then, use it only for reference, because you want to sound natural and not scripted. You don’t become a phone pro overnight ? you must work on your delivery until it “works” for you. It’s a good idea to get a recording device where you can record your presentation, listen to it and critique yourself. Or if you have someone you trust who will be honest with you, present your dialogue to them and have them critique you.

Your phone posture is critical, especially if you are talking to professionals. They want to work with someone who they feel is professional as well. In fact, this is critical regardless who you are talking to ? people respond to strength, and if you don’t develop this in your presentation, you will lose a lot of potential sales. Is this easy to develop? For some people it is, but for most everyone, you acquire this through practice, practice, practice. Don’t become discouraged; just know that when you acquire this, the world is your oyster.

As they say, the fortune is in the follow up! Always follow up with a prospect when you say you are going to. This makes you look professional. Life happens, so don’t be discouraged if they are not available at that time. Give them at least three opportunities to be available for a follow up. And, if you feel they are a particularly good candidate for your organization, give them a couple more calls. Schedule your follow-up calls in your calendar, either virtual or on paper.

When someone has missed an appointment with you, call them (or leave a voice mail) and let them know they missed the appointment, that you realize life happens, but you allotted this time for them, and you are willing to reschedule at another time. If you leave a voice message, ask them to get back with you so you can set up another appointment for them. Remember, they were interested enough to set up the first appointment. If you don’t hear from them, call them and set up the next appointment. A good way to avoid this situation is to tell them at the time you set up the appointment that you would appreciate the courtesy of a call or email if they are unable to make it.

It has happened to all of us whether in an e-mail, a presentation to a group, or in a formal proposal. We go through everything with what we think is a fine-toothed comb to catch all the errors. Yet, as soon as it leaves our control, a mistake is blatantly apparent. How could this happen? We were so careful!

Here are some tips you can use to proof your material. These tips are very easy to incorporate into your daily writing process.

If you are composing or typing on a computer, the best way to catch errors is to actually print out your document and proof it on paper. By viewing the text in a different medium, it is easier for your eye to spot the mistakes if there are any. When you are used to seeing something in a certain way, your mind tends to “make up” for any errors, which is why you miss them as you proof.

It is very important to be able to focus entirely on what you are doing. Make sure you have eliminated as many distractions as possible. Make your environment comfortable . . . for example, good lighting and a comfortable temperature. Also, find a time when you are physically and mentally alert and in the best condition to focus. If you are a morning person, do your proofing in the morning, etc.

Don?t forget that proofing can be tiring, so it is important to periodically take breaks . . . maybe do some physical exercise and rest your eyes. It is also a good idea to give your eyes mini breaks from the paper or computer screen by looking away into the distance from time to time. If you get to a point where you just can’t keep your mind focused any longer, take a longer break. A change of scenery or some fresh air may be what you need to refocus your mind.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can do an adequate job of proofing your document by only going through it once. It is best to go through it several times, and you can even focus on something different each time. For example, the first time you can look for misspelled or incorrect words. The second time through could be for grammatical errors or composition, etc.

Reading the article out loud is a good way to catch mistakes as well as run-on sentences or awkward paragraph structure. Even better, read it aloud to someone else, especially someone who is not familiar with the subject. That way they can let you know if you have identified and defined any specific terms and concepts well enough. If you have the time, walk away for a few days. It is amazing what a little time away from the project does for your mind and your ability to identify problem areas.

Finally, don’t rely on your spell checker. You can use it to aid in identifying blatantly misspelled words, but it will not tell if your misspelling happens to be another word. Other techniques include reading the paragraphs out of order or reading the sentences backwards.

No matter how hard we try, there will be times when errors slip past us, but by using the techniques above, those times will be few and far between.

To your success,

Swanie Brandt

Do you realize that we engage in some form or negotiation every day of our lives? Surprised? Think about it! Did you have to convince your kids to do their home work last night and get ready for school this morning? Did you discuss with your spouse who was going to make dinner tonight? Did you set completion goals for a new project at work? Did you talk with a disgruntled customer or employee today? How did it go? Did you achieve the results you desired?

These are all examples where a learned process of positive negotiation would be helpful. I was surprised the first time this was pointed out to me. I always thought of negotiation as a formal affair between high-powered professionals beating each other up to get what they wanted. That is a misconception held by many people. Every aspect of your life can be simplified just by understanding and implementing the essential elements of negotiation.

Here you will learn some of the essential negotiation elements to use when you are faced with situations that could become difficult if they’re not handled correctly.

1. Communicate Clearly

This is the most important element on the list. Your communication is the primary tool you have to express your thoughts, opinions and desires. If you don’t communicate effectively you will lose a critical advantage in your negotiations.

Also remember that speech is not the only form of communication. Your actions and body language, although silent, speak volumes. Make sure you are aware of how you are perceived by someone watching you. Your silent communications may be sending out a message entirely different from your intentions. A good way to identify this is to video tape yourself while speaking or during a meeting. You can also watch yourself in a mirror as you practice discussing the issues at hand.

2. Know your goals

Just like any project you start, it is important to know what your intended outcome or goals are at the end. Take some time before negotiating and decide what you want to achieve at the end of the negotiation. Additionally, think about what you are willing to give up to reach those goals. It is important to know your bottom line before the negotiation begins.

As you are making these decisions, remember your goals must be realistic. Stand in the other party’s shoes and think about whether your goals or requirements are something you could live with. If not, you must reassess your goals to be in line with what is realistic for you to achieve any success in your negotiation.

3. Treat everyone involved with respect.

Being the bully during a negotiation will not gain you any points. As soon as you start attacking the other parties, their defenses will go up and your chances of successful communication have been dashed. Instead, treat everyone involved with respect when addressing them, listen to what they are saying and take their situation into consideration.

Now, that doesn’t mean you should cave when someone doesn’t agree with you. It simply means that the goal is for everyone involved to act in a civilized and productive manner. Stand your ground, but do so without antagonizing the other parties involved.

Now that you have read these rules, take some time to consider your past negotiations. Have you been breaking any of these rules? How can you make changes to your current negotiation style to improve your results?

To your success,

Swanie Brandt