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

What’ New with us:   

October looks great! Would like the weather to stay sunny and warm, but this is where all the positive thinking and wishing meet reality, it’s Fall and it’s going to get cloudy and cooler. The leaves look great though and no snow yet!  

Every 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 December. 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.  

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

Harlan will be doing a FM Chamber Café noon program on Turning Negatives into Positives on November 2, 05. Check out the FM Chamber web site at www.fmchamber.com for more info.   

A public Sales Program will be starting in Fargo , ND with January dates of the 23^rd-24th, Monday/Tuesday. This program is two (2) intense days with 16 hours of follow-up programs, or a total of 32 hours of training, coaching and application. Check out the Zig Ziglar Selling 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 “Selling” on the left column of this newsletter.  

Don’t forget to check out our web site! We have been adding things on a regular basis. www.hgoergerassoc.com  or www.itstartswithyou.org  

We have several Corporate Programs scheduled for this Winter and Spring. If your company would like to see more performance we may very well be able to help you out. Contact me at Harlan@itstartswithyou.net  

Selling Skills for the Month:  

In the past two letters we have discussed the art of “getting in”. How can we approach potential and even existing customers to get a positive response?  

The “Value and problem statements” are one tool and adding “showmanship” can also help. This time I want to work with a simple tool right out of our “Reverse Engineering” and “Mastering of Questions” sections.  

In our “Reverse Engineering” we focus on the results of our product instead of the product. In “Mastering of Questions” our focus is on the broader view of the customer and their situation. If we take both of these ideas and approach our customer with a very simple, yet broad based question focused on their issues, what might be our results?  

Let’s suppose we are in the wholesale business and provide products for resale to retailers. We might use a question such as:  

“Mr. Store owner, what would an additional $5,000 in revenue a month from 5 foot of floor space do for you?” 

An office equipment person might say:  

“How would reducing 10% of your office overhead and reducing your labor costs impact your company?” 

An advertising person might say: 

“How would getting your own brand name recognized in the market place change your business?” 

Now note we have not mentioned our product or talked about ourselves or our company. What we have done is get the customer talking about how something would make a difference for them! What is the chance the customer would reject these ideas? They certainly readily reject our product when we approach with it, don’t they?  

Create several broad based, issue oriented questions you could use to approach your customers with. Ask the question and then listen for key issues that can take you and your customer through the sales process.  

I recently had a young wholesale salesman that couldn’t seem to get the time of day with several customers. When he approached the same customers in this fashion he got from 20 minutes to an hour with those same people!  

Try it! You’ll like it!  

Management Skills for the Month:  

As I look at the coaching and accountability issues we have discussed the past couple of months, the idea of conflict being used as a catalyst for stronger relationships comes to mind.  

I was recently talking about conflict in relationships with an experience sales and management individual. It was interesting to note how he talked about some of his mentors over his career and how those relationships started.  

One in particular relationship started out as adversaries. They disagreed on everything and had some interesting names for each other. Several of these names were provided quite publicly between them.  

As they progressed, both were observant and intelligent enough to realize they each had their strong points and that their objectives were very much the same. They began to consult with each other on issues within the company and were able to be very direct with each other. This resulted in some good give and take that came up with solutions that worked.  

These two now talk on a weekly basis about issues, provide their views, give their honest opinion and don’t take it personally if they disagree. The result is a strong relationship based on respect for each other that came out of the initial conflict.  

Be it in management, sales, marriage or other relationships. Most will be stronger when we are willing to deal with conflict directly and positively. If we have the emotional intelligence to see past the emotions to the real issues and strengths the other party has, a much more productive relationship can emerge.  

Next time you see a potential conflict coming and are tending to flinch, stop and consider how this might be turned into something that can build the parties involved. Be willing to act as the catalyst to make this into a win-win for both of you and build a stronger relationship from it. Now that is true Leadership! 

Food for the Attitude:  

As we keep probing this concept of “Self-perception” and how “fear” can have a very negative effect on that “Self-perception”, we ask where this fear comes from.  

Some of the obvious sources of fear are past negative experiences. If someone was involved in a serious auto accident at a young age, they may have a great fear of driving or of having another accident. If as a young child you were always told to be quiet and not ask questions, you may have a fear of being forward or asking questions of those around you. If you experience a great deal of ridicule or put downs you may fear what others think. 

One of the issues in dealing with fears is being able to truly define what the fear is. If we tend to fear conflict, what is it exactly that causes that fear? Is it rejection, fear of failure, what others might think, I don’t have the skills, I can’t control my emotions and on and on with what it might be. How do you deal with something that you can’t define?  

What if we took the time to really ask ourselves what it is that we fear in conflict? What if we started writing down how we feel, what images come to our mind and what memories pop up? Could this help us to define the fear more clearly? If we had the fear clearly defined, could we then start creating a plan on how to overcome this fear? Why not give it a try?  If you were to do this it would place you in a very small and unique group of very confident and successful people.  

Interesting Info for You:  

 “Some of us will do out jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing – the results.” 

                                    Vince Lombardi 

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

Harlan Goerger