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Then make sure you use bullet points. Keep them short. People don’t have time. They’re too busy fingering their Blackberries, doing what I call “Blackberry masturbation.”  You want to be short and sweet to the people. Why do I call it the Blackberry masturbation? You might ask. It’s because lots of people are busy with their hands under the table fingering their Blackberries. But we don’t really know what they’re really doing. Back to the point.  Bullet points. You want people to read your email, make it short. Secondly, bold your keywords. People have stopped reading every word and their skimming and scanning and bouncing all over the place. So bold the keywords so that people can go bounce, bounce, bounce, and get the main idea. Keep it short. People don’t want to hear long paragraphs anymore. I have friends that send me long paragraphs and they keep getting back from me the hint that I’d like them to get to the point. Anyway, keep it short. And here is the best tip, start your email by saying why it might interest them. People want to know what is in it for them because it solves a problem.

Does it help them do things better? Give them the benefit statement first and keep it short. For more tips on communication, check out www.ShellesTopTips.com  If you are interested in booking me (Shelle Rose Charvet) for a presentation, keynote or workshop contact me at [email protected].

If you’re a salesperson, this is your challenge, since many people are suffering from what I call Mental Hibernation. It is as if they are frozen in fear, waiting for the winter to end. But the winter is not going to end. This is a new reality. And if your clients and your potential clients are stuck in this paralysis, you need to push back and reframe. The crisis is always on now. And as Paul Romer, the Stanford Economist said, “a crisis is too good an opportunity to waste”.

In these times you need to reframe your clients. This is absolutely key now. If they say: “we’ll wait and see”, you need to say: “you wait, you’ll be too late.” If they say: “we can’t do anything”, you need to say: “you snooze, you lose.” If people are not using this time to rethink their businesses or rethink how they’re going to do their work, they are missing a huge opportunity and may end up being left behind.

Here is an example from Japan. One of the participants from my sales and marketing program in June 2011 in Tokyo said: I work in the tsunami area and my job is to sell new houses. How can I sell new houses in this environment? People are just overwhelmed with what has happened to them. I replied: “That’s right, you can no longer sell new houses, you are in a different business now. You need to be helping people rebuild their lives. What else can you offer them to help them rebuild their lives? Can you help by asking the home building suppliers what can they offer to help the victims of the tsunami? What can they give them for free? Can you talk to the companies that have building equipment and get them get bulldozers in to help clear the land? Many people wait for the government to do these kinds of things and we all know in the new reality, you have to do what you can to take care of yourself.

As a salesperson, you need to be helping your people in the new reality think about the issues of top importance to them. So what you can offer your clients that they absolutely need now? What is important to them about what it is you do? If you are a nutritionist, now people really need to take care of themselves because all kinds of pollutants have entered the environment wherever you are.

How can you help people take better care of themselves, whatever it is that you offer? If you are a coach, you can position this important role by talking about how to help clients manage their own lives to not be victim in the new reality. So as a salesperson, think about what you can offer people, that they really need now. Don’t let your potential customers sit and stew or leave them in mental hibernation and paralysis and fear. Now is the time for you to come forward and help people get on with their lives.

This is the new reality.

Check out  www.ShellesTopTips.com  If you want some tips on communicating and solving some of the problems.

If you are interested in booking me (Shelle Rose Charvet) for a presentation, keynote or workshop contact me at [email protected].  Please visit my speaking page too.

If you’ve had a chance to look at my book, The Customer is Bothering Me, you’ll get this all laid out for you, but there’s four key steps.

1)     Treat the Emotion First
Most people cannot do these two things at the same time; they can’t be upset and be logical. If you’ve got a customer that’s upset and you try immediately to solve their problem, they probably won’t co-operate because they’re busy being upset and they need you to understand that. So treat the emotion first.

The key is to meet your customer where he or she is. My strategy may seem a little silly because most people are taught to stay calm. But if you think about it, when you are upset about something and the person you are speaking to stays calm, and doesn’t acknowledge either verbally or in their tone of voice that you are upset, it can feel like they are not really hearing you.

Instead, I suggest that when your customer becomes upset about something and they raise their tone that you raise your tone to almost the same level, but you say something helpful and we call that getting upset on behalf of your customer.

This is not the same as yelling at your customer. Step number one is to get upset on behalf of your customer, show them that you are surprised and upset with them. If you don’t sound like you’re surprised when they are upset, your customer may believe that this problem is normal, you don’t care, this happens all the time and your whole company doesn’t care about what happens. Remember, everything you do determines what your customer believes about your whole company. So for step one, treat the emotion first.

Click here to find out more about how to match your customer’s tone, and what kinds of things you can say that will be helpful.

2)    Clarify What the Customer Actually Wants and Take Action

Whether or not you agree that it’s a problem, if the customer thinks it is a problem, we need to sort out what it is they need.  You can suggest two options here that will solve their problem. In my book, The Customer is Bothering Me, there is more information on exactly the wording to use with upset customers.

It is important to make a suggestion at this point, as if you ask the customer “How would you like me to fix this?”, they may become angry again since they will be expecting you to be the expert and to know what to do to fix the issue. So step two, clarify what the customer wants and take action.

3)    Make Amends

Many people don’t think about this, but if your customer is upset, to him or her it is as if they have been hurt. So our third step is to make it up to them. It is not enough simply to say, “Well I’m sorry”. Remember when you were a child and your parents told you to say you’re sorry, your siblings knew you weren’t really sorry. Your upset customers know you are not really sorry either. So what can you do to make amends? Does your company have a policy so that the person actually dealing with the upset customers can make amends right on the stop without having to ask for permission?  So step three, make amends.

4)     Nourish the Relationship for the Future
Make sure that you communicate to your customer so that whenever they contact your company again for any reason, that you have set them up for a positive experience. You can do that by saying, “Listen, any one of my colleagues will help you find what you want and if there are ever any issues, we’ll do whatever it takes do to solve it.  We are your personal fix-it people”.  Make sure they can see a picture in their mind’s eye of how it will be next time, (such as “fix-it people”) That’s how to nourish the relationship for next time.

If you want more information on strategies for dealing with customers and creating a great customer experience, check out my book, The Customer is Bothering Me, available as an EBook or available in paperback form.

Hope you enjoyed this. Let me know if you got any great ideas from Shelle’s Top Tips.

Shelle

There are 3 steps

• Entice
• Engage
• Offer

Learn how to deliver the perfect presentation»

At the end of your presentation entice them with something that they want from you.  If your slides had your key messages on them and were fantastic, offer to send them your slides.  Get them to give you their cards with their email addresses and send them your slides.  You can offer them an extra report or extra information that they might be interested in but entice them with something that they want at the end of your presentation.

Then they email you or they give you their card and you send their email and you say “Thank you very much for being interested in these slides.  I’d like to ask you what did you like about the presentation?”  Because now we are on step two; engage them.  “What did you like about the presentation?  How did it help you in your present situation?”  This will enable you to get great feedback as well as possible testimonials because once they have sent you their feedback on your presentation you can ask them if you can quote them and use them as a reference for your presentation and you can also then engage them in a dialogue that says “Well do you need any other help?   What are you trying to implement?  And then that’s that third step;  offer to give them more help.  Offer to call them up and talk about how to implement these ideas that you presented on and to see if they need any other help from you.

This is one way that you can really use your sales presentations.  You know sometimes sales presentations aren’t even officially called sales presentations.    Sometimes you’re doing a free presentation to a group of people because you have been invited to do so but of course you want to use this to help promote your services and by giving people things of value before they have even paid for anything and letting them know there is more through this whole process of enticing, engaging and offering, you can get more business and at least you are going to get an opportunity to talk to clients and potential clients.

Now, one last tip.  Remember in this process to qualify them.  Are these the people who really need your products and services?  Do they have the money?  Are they the decision-makers and is this the right time?

So there’s some tips for how to end a sales presentation.

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For more of Shelle’s Top Tips go to www.ShellesTopTips.com or have a look at them on iTunes.

Please leave me a message and let me know if you liked it and what you liked about it.

I was with a person in her early 20’s and I heard her repeat several times in the conversation: “That’s how I am.” Or: “I always have this problem.” Or: I can’t do that.” Or: “I don’t do that.”

“What a shame!” I thought. She has limited her life in so many ways, simply by making up her mind about what is possible and not possible for her. It’s like walking down a corridor and deliberately closing many of the doors, locking them and throwing away the key.

I say deliberately because it is a choice, but I am aware that she, and probably most of us, don’t realize that we ourselves are making these decisions at the time – often we perceive them as facts, not opinions.

The Scientific American Brain and Mind (2015 March/April), cites a large body of research that came to the following conclusions:

•  Students who believe intelligence is “malleable” do better in university than those who do not.
• Partners who are convinced personality is malleable do more to resolve conflicts by looking for mutually-beneficial solutions.
• People who see “adversaries” as flexible, view them more positively.
• Minority students who decide that people’s biases can change over time may be more motivated and resilient even during negative events.
• People who are more flexible negotiators do better than their peers.

So what do you do when you notice that you or someone else have closed a bunch of doors?

First – get permission. There is little point talking to a closed door.
“Could I give you a slightly different perspective on that?” may open the door a crack.

Check again to pry it open a little wider: “I had an idea about this and I’d like to find out what you think.”

If the person expresses or shows some curiosity, now they are peeking out to see what else might be out there. Good start!

Second: State your door opening idea as a possibility or a suggestion and then give the benefit of the suggestion and the problem it solves.

Example:

“I was just thinking what if you broke down this desire into some steps and put them in your calendar as “to do’s” each week (suggestion)? Then it would be clearer, what you needed to do and you could follow your plan (benefit). That way you wouldn’t be stuck in the same place any longer. (problem solved – moving away from the problem).”

Lastly, after they have thought about it or discussed it, help them take a first step through the door. “If X were possible, I’m wondering what the first step might be.”

Example: “If you were to think about making this desire happen, what might be the first step?”

To really help someone open and pass through a door that they had closed, it is important to end on a concrete step, a procedure.

If you end a conversation on all the options, they may still be stuck, because they first have to choose which option to take.

The next time I catch myself deciding something is too difficult, not within my capabilities or not likely to happen, I will:

1. Ask myself if I would like to consider another possibility (permission).
2. Ask if it were possible/desirable, what would be the point (benefit) and what issue would it solve for me (problem solved and moved away from)
3. What would be the first step?

Please try this out and let me know what you think!

The Trouble with Creative Thinkers!

Have you ever noticed that some people do what is expected while others seem compelled to bend all the rules? And this is true, not only for people, but for whole cultures as well. What does the following riddle tell you about Canadian culture?

Joke Alert!
How do you get 25 Canadians to get out of a swimming pool?
Ask them to get out of the pool!

Yes, Canadians tend to do what they have been asked to do.
What makes some people want to go around standard practice to find creative solutions, while others would feel sick if they did? Creative Thinkers operate in a mode where their brains function differently than the majority of the population. When someone tells them what to do or how to do it, they immediately think of other options.

So what’s the problem?

Let’s say you wanted someone to complete a task such as phoning a client. Creative Thinkers will consider it and then come up with alternative suggestions such as emailing the client, getting more information, identifying why it’s not a good idea to call right now or leaving to make a sandwich.

I know someone who has such an extreme example of this pattern that whatever is asked of them, this person almost always does something else. (Don’t worry it’s not you!)

Creative Thinkers have huge potential for finding ways around problems and yet can have great difficulty completing projects. They keep finding other perspectives rather than finishing what they start. This means that they move sideways, rather than ahead with an activity.

They can also have trouble taking decisions or making a  commitment because they like having more options and don’t want to choose just one.

In my book Words That Change Minds, this pattern is called Options because these Creative Thinkers are motivated by having many options and choices.

How to get Creative Thinkers to commit and follow through

We have discovered that if you give a Creative Thinker more than two options or choices, this will trigger them to start creating even more possibilities, rather than following through on the desired goal. Imagine you are coaching or helping someone who has this pattern and you ask if they would prefer option A or B or C. Huge mistake!

To get committment and follow-through you would be better off to mention ONLY 2 CHOICES and focus on taking the person through a decision-making process. Here’s a coaching example:

Shelle: “So Emilio, having discussed the situation it appears that you could choose to deal with the present urgent tasks right away or you could step back and plan your time based on your overall priorities. The issue becomes how to decide, doesn’t it?”

Emilio: “Yes…. what are the ways to decide?” (“the ways” is Options language – implies he is filtering for lots of choices. Notice that at this point this way of thinking doesn’t actually help him through the process of deciding)

Shelle: “First, given your goals, which of these options (“options” matches his Options pattern) meets the goals the best? Second, are there any disadvantages to going with that option that you will need to take into account. Lastly you can make the decision and get started right away.” (the underlined words are Procedures words because they imply a beginning, middle and end. This will help Emilio focus on moving through a process to achieve an end goal, rather than just developing alternatives.)

Emilio: “Planning my time based on my overall priorities is clearly the better alternative….. unless……. yes it is the best.” (“unless” is that Creative Thinker – Options pattern jumping in) “The only disadvantage is that I need to find a way to get those urgent tasks taken care of …… but I can plan for that.”

Shelle: “So you’ve decided?”

Emilio: “Yes, first I’ll plan and schedule my priorities and then find a way to fit those urgent things in. Then I’ll get to work.”

When Emilio begins to use “first”and “then”, it means that he has embarked on a procedure to be completed rather than continuing to generate alternatives.

Selling to a Creative Thinker

If you are selling products or services, your Creative Thinker – Options prospects may have a hard time making up their mind. You can get them started on a process that includes both options and a motivating last step.

“First we can discuss what you are looking for, then we can view some alternatives and then you can choose the one that suits you best.”

The key to persuading the Creative Thinkers you work and live with is to make sure they have a couple of alternatives to choose from and a process for making and implementing a decision.

Find out about all the types – See Shelle’s Understanding & Triggering Motivation CD Program

See other thought-provoking articles by Shelle »

Have you seen Shelle’s CD’s and downloads on influencing and persuasion?

If you have any questions please contact us at [email protected]