A newsletter designed to support our training participants with continuous development ideas and opportunities. 

What’s New with us:   

It’s 2006 and January is gone already!! Time does fly when you’re having fun!  

My January was full and like many of the business people I talk to, getting that last of the past year buttoned up consumed some time.  

But this is time for new goals, new expectations and a new self. What are your new goals for 2006? Do they include development of yourself? Do they include development of your relationships?  

Just perhaps some of the upcoming program opportunities might be the ticket.  

Psychology of Persuasion 

Some programs we have coming up: 

Ever wished you could cause a positive change in someone else? Kelvin Daniels, our sales associate, and myself want to announce the Public Psychology of Persuasion Program to be held in Fargo in Marc of 06. This two (2) day program will deal with communication and persuasion skills that apply to business, sales, politics, family and friends. Anyone in Business, Management, Sales, Parents or Friends can benefit from this skills development program. It is based on Dr. Kevin Hogan’s 20 years of research in communications and persuasion. You’ll understand Outcome Based Thinking, the 10 laws of persuasion, determining values, Meta programs and even some simple yet powerful tools. Here are some comments from the last program:  

“Helps you understand yourself, reinforce your abilities, have control and enjoy your career.” Physician  

 “I think it was a perfect setting because of the personal attention.” Sales 

“Very well put together, leaned a bunch.” Sales 

“The interaction between everyone is great.” Sales 

“Motivating others will be more easily obtained.”   Sales Mgr 

Contact Kelvin at kdaniels@itstartswithyou.net  cell phone 701-793-2003 or Harlan at Harlan@itstartswithyou.net cell phone 701-799-1972.   

Public Sales Program: 

This program will be starting in Fargo , ND with March dates of the 14^th -15th, Tuesday/Wednesday, 06. This program is two (2) intense days with 24 hours of follow-up programs, or a total of 40 hours of training, coaching and application. Check out the Reverse Engineering Sales program for a detail look at this challenging and productive selling approach. We already have good group of companies signed on for this session! Click on “Reverse Engineered Sales” on the left column of this newsletter. Some comments from a recent program.  

“This is a new way of thinking” Director of Marketing 

“Material is sound and the exercises made the material adaptable to us.” VP 

“I thought it was immediately applicable, will generate results & will be used.” Mgr 

“Yes, very different than other programs.” Mgr 

“Yes, it presented a way of thinking that I’d never used.” CRS 

“The reverse engineering grid changed how I see selling.” Sales 

An email from one of our recent participants: I signed two new advertisers to annual contracts last week and have three prospect appointments scheduled for this week. The magic question was, "What is your vision for your business?" Then I tailored my recommendation around their answer.  And the conceptual close was SO AWESOME!!!!! I got chills as I was asking it, in anticipation for their collective,  

undisputable agreement that we should do business!! It was such a rush.  

Thanks for your guidance, Harlan.  Much appreciated....LT  

Web Site:  

Don’t forget to check out our web site! Some colors and layouts have changed and we have some video clips. www.hgoergerassoc.com  or www.itstartswithyou.org  

We have several Corporate Programs scheduled for this First Quarter and Summer. If your company would like to see more performance from your team we can make it happen for you. Contact me at Harlan@itstartswithyou.net  

Selling Skills for the Month:  

Over the years I’ve read a hundred sales books with all kinds of different approaches and ideas. Some were very good and others left questions about their authors understanding of selling.  

When ever I found myself in a slump or things just didn’t seem to work the answer always seem to be in the basics.  A great chef, master carpenter, champion athlete always seem to have a mastery of the basics. So let’s take a look at what this idea of selling really amounts to.  

First: Sales is two people, a customer and salesperson, communicating with each other. The customer is communicating their needs, wants and results required. The sales person is trying to understand these so the issue can be solved by their product or service. Just think of this as two people getting together to help each other improve their situations.  

Second : Customers purchase products and services for the results they provide. This can be a real challenge for sales people that have been indoctrinated that sales are all about their product. This means saving time and money, preventing problems, solving problems or creating opportunities; that’s what the customer is looking for.  Your product or service is simply a way or method to get the results, so salespeople need to communicate these results to customers instead of the product.  

Third: Getting into new accounts, selling new and existing accounts and servicing accounts is all about two people communicating. Getting into a new account is about communicating results that the customer could achieve and communicating it in their language. The selling part is listening, questioning for clarity and communicating the results. Servicing the account is continued communications about the results to date and additional results needed.  

Fourth: If we take the selling process, the objection response process or presentation part of selling and take the words “selling”, “objections” and “presentation” away, guess what we end up with. The “Selling” process becomes a communication process that is used every day. The “objection” response becomes a conflict resolution process and “presentation” becomes story telling.  

Take this idea of communications instead of selling and see what happens to your productivity. Ask yourself what the potential results of your product could be from your customer’s perspective. Now think about how that could best be communicated to your customers.  

We’ll explore each step of the sales process and how communications fits into it in future segments. For now, just think communications.  

Management Skills for the Month:  

Last month we talked about focus coupled with “cultic Intelligence” and how it propelled NASCAR to new performance levels. Just imagine what you might be able to do with your team or department if you could have them focus.  

First let’s understand what “cultic Intelligence” or group thinking is all about. 

These are 5 of the components: 

Specific focus of group – There is always a strong focus on a person, idea or concept. This focus is very vivid and very real to the group. 

Works on dissatisfaction or change – The people want something different, may feel they have been mislead or used, or are always trying to improve on something.   

Fills a sense of belonging – No matter how stoic a person is, they still want to belong even if it is harmful; ie street gangs, drugs.   

Continuous reinforcement of focus – This focus is every where, talked about daily, posted for everyone to see and reinforced by multiple means.  

Disconnect from former groups– This can also mean from former thinking or views. This prevents tainting of the “Focus”.  

So how do you as a leader utilize this idea? Here are a few questions for you to address.  

What business are you really in? How would your team answer this, do they have a common understanding of what the group or organization is all about?  

Why are you in that business? What about it attracts and drives people, why do they show up and perform?  

What is it we actually provide? If this company or organization did not exist how would it affect others? How does this affect your team?  

How do your people fit in? What skills, abilities and attitudes are needed to fit with the above questions? How do you determine which people fit best?  

How do you keep the “focus” in front of the team? What can you do to keep the focus alive on a daily basis? How do you make it part of your people?  

What we are really talking about is the “culture” of your team or organization and how you can alter or direct that culture. Take a look at many of the fads that have come and gone, look at some of the very successful fast growing companies? Do these exhibit the above traits?  

We’ll go further into these ideas in following segments.  

Food for the Attitude:  

As we continue to build our self-perception, self-image and self-confidence, what other tools could we use? How about the one that is already there? What if we tapped into our “passion” to help build our self-perception?  

I just completed several sessions on Vision, Mission , Passion and Goals with several different groups. If you know people who have taped into their passion they appear confident, happy and successful. Finding your passion can be one of the most energizing and motivational things one can do.  

Recently I had the opportunity to hear Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. He talked about finding passion within you and how it can drive you. There was no explanation as to why he had a passion for technology, he just did. The secret was to find that passion and then figure out how to use it.  

A manager in one group indicated a love for restoring old homes and selling them. As we probed why that was a passion we found it was the building and accomplishing of the task, getting all the beauty and possibilities out of the house to see and enjoy. Then there was a large “ah-ha” moment, we discovered the manager was doing just that, but with the people on the team, they were the “houses with potential”.  This manager had tapped into their passion and it showed. Now there was even more purpose in this mangers actions.  

A common question is; “Can I create a passion?” My answer is probably not, I feel we have to find our passion. Let’s take two high school kids on the basketball team. One is very good at the sport and likes to play; the other is not as good but is in love with the game. The first will play more because it is expected of them; the second will play for a life time because they want to. One plays because of expectation, the other because of passion.  

Now the first player may have better performance but may look at the game as work and not really reach the full potential. The other may not reach stardom but will thoroughly enjoy what they are doing and can find ways to be successful with in that arena.  

The key is to ask yourself what really motivates you, what is it you enjoy the most, what keeps you up and excited well into the night. If you can start defining what that is, you’re on your way.  

Once you can define what your passion is, find ways to utilize it in your work and personal life. If you can’t find it in your work, perhaps a change would be good for both you and your employer.  Some of the most successful stories started with someone being fired and forced to find their passion. Once they taped into that passion, the momentum was in motion and the rest is history.  

A comment from Jeff Bezos presentation: “Most people don’t regret what they have done; they regret what they haven’t done.” Finding your passion can eliminate your regrets.  

Interesting Thoughts for You: 

Did you know there are 8,000,000 millionaires in the United States? One in 11 of those millionaires inherited a significant sum, if not all of their money. 91% of all millionaires started with essentially nothing and yet became millionaires. The majority of those did so before they came to "retirement age." There are eight million rags-to-riches stories in the United States. How would you like to be the next one?    Source, Kevin Hogan 

Till next month: You make it a great day as only you can!!! 

Harlan Goerger