At the most basic level, sales is just a conversation. But to close on a sales opportunity, it has to be an effective conversation. The foundation for providing any service or product is to have a strong basis from which to build an effective conversation that can address the customer’s needs.

What are the key factors that can make or break a successful sales presentation? The first key is knowledge. A strong knowledge base provides a means of accelerating the sales process. Having the ability to provide the appropriate information in the most efficient manner eliminates or reduces the time needed to complete the sales process.

Know Your Product
You must be the expert on the product or service that you sell. At the least, know the sources of expertise and build a relationship with them so you can get information in a timely manner. Product knowledge is where features and benefits come into play. The ability to address the strengths and weaknesses of your products enables you to move through a conversation to the sales opportunity.

Know Your Company and Theirs
Have a working understanding of your company. Where it has been? Where it is going? What is its focus and core competencies? Make an impression and know what your customer is doing. This knowledge highlights the best approach for a sales presentation and helps determine what to present first. If you can identify potential needs based on the customer’s business model and current circumstances, you can bring forward a more focused approach for sales.

Know Your Customer
Find out more about whom you will be addressing and as much about their current projects and circumstances as possible. By having a sense of what they are striving to accomplish, you can present your products and services in a way that will seem more relevant.

Know Your Competition
More often than not, customers are looking at multiple solutions. Ultimately they will have to choose what they perceive to be the best solution to address their needs. Help them with this chore by being the one to distinguish what you provide from the other products or services on the market. Go through the decision point-by-point. By helping a customer work through the decision, you also give them the ammunition they need to justify their decision to themselves, or their managers.

Knowledge can be a Weakness
Sales professionals must have knowledge to succeed, but an over-reliance on your own knowledge often proves to be a weakness. No matter how much of an industry expert you become, your customer always knows more about his own business and circumstances. Nobody likes a know-it-all anyway.

Listen Don’t Speak
In the sales conversation, the most powerful tool is being able to listen more than you speak. The ultimate best source of information is the customer. By asking probing questions and listening to the answers, you achieve two objectives. The first is to determine the customer's need, which leads to how you can help. The second is to enable the customer to discover for himself that you are presenting the appropriate solution.

Questions Not Answers
Questions bring people together, and answers take them apart. In the sales process, well-intended questions can be effective in forwarding conversations. For example, you might want to ask a customer to give you a more in-depth view of his industry. Even better, ask a customer to tell you what their customers want. This enables you to support the customer's ultimate goals.

Uncover the Problem, Don't Cover It
Customers are often bombarded with a sales approach that says “what you have is wrong,” followed by “what you really need, I have.” Then the salesman launches into a long, generic presentation. Get potential customers to talk about their company problems in detail. Use questions and examples to enable the customer to discover how to accomplish their objectives with your products and services. They will fight for that solution if they can claim credit for it.

WE often wonder why people don’t change. It is frustrating for teachers, counsellors, parents and all those who work in the helping profession to see that a person persists in behaviour that is self-destructive.One would think that hangovers, damaged relationships and memory blackouts would be enough to convince a person to stop drinking. Or one would think that low academic achievement and low self-esteem would dissuade a student from playing truant and not hand in assignments.

On the other hand, a fascinating question is, why do people change?

Some people with alcohol or gambling problems escape them and go on to lead reasonably normal lives, often without assis­tance from coun­sellors, health profes­sionals or help groups. In many problem areas, positive change can occur without formal treatment.

Sometimes people who want to change may be faced with conflicting thoughts like “I want to, and I don’t want to”.

This phenomenon of ambivalence is often prominent in psychological difficulties. For example, a person who is socially isolated and depressed may express ambivalence like, “I want to go out and be with people and make friends, but I feel so unat­trac­tive and discriminated against”.

When faced with ambi­valence and conflict, it is suggested that the person concerned seek help. It is possible that brief inter­vention speeds up or facilitates change.

One or two sessions of counselling often yield greater change in beha­viour than no counselling at all. The counsellor can help the person create a decisional balance between the benefits and costs of change.

For example, a habitual drinker who wishes to quit and needs help may be asked to create a decisional balance sheet to weigh out the benefits and costs of drinking as well as the benefits and costs of abstaining from alcohol.

By writing this down, the person can clearly see the costs and benefits of his current habit and that of the desired new habit.

Change is likely to occur when the person concerned sees a reason for change. Motivation is fundamental to change. Another reason for change is the faith and hope that counselling can help to bring about changes that are desired. It is this faith and hope that encourage people to seek counselling services.

An interesting area in the change process is the counsellor’s effects. Cer­tain counsellors’ charac­teristics are associated with successful counselling outcomes. Counsellors need to create a therapeutic atmosphere and build a therapeutic alliance with the client from the start of consultation.

Counsellors’ use of attending skills like reflec­tive listening can help the counsellor to under­stand the client’s feelings and perspectives without judging or blaming.

In fact this crucial attitude of unconditional positive regard for the client could increase the level of motivation for the client’s positive change.

In helping people to move from destructive habits to a desired positive habit, counsellors can focus on helping clients overcome reluctance or ambivalence through interpersonal communication rather than a specific therapy.

Ambivalence is a normal part of human nature and as such the counsellor will need to help the client resolve the ambivalence by thinking and considering the costs and benefits of making the change as mentioned earlier on. This kind of approach promotes the use of self-motivating talk to address the costs and benefits or the advantages and disadvantages of making change versus not changing.

Although humanistic theories assume that people want to change, the coun­sellor will need to assess and increase the client’s motivation, which is essen­tial for effective coun­selling outcome. A major part of this assess­ment involves determining where the client is in terms of his or her readiness for change.

In any change process, there are typically six stages (David and Diane M Sue, 2008). The first stage is pre-contemplation where the individual has yet to consider any changes.

The second stage is the contemplative stage where the individual is beginning to consider that he/she has a problem or that he/she would like to make a change in life.

The third stage is the preparation or determi­nation stage where the individual has made a decision to make a change and begins to prepare for action.

The fourth stage is the action stage, where the individual begins to make changes in his/her life or to modify a problematic behaviour.

The fifth stage is mainte­nance, where there is evi­dence of sustained change as the individual works to consolidate the changes made during the action stage.

Finally, it is the termi­nation stage where the individual has successfully maintained the change and has exited the cycle of change — this is the goal of all change efforts.

It is important to under­stand the stages of change because these will guide the counsellor regarding which issues to address with the client and help determine the most effec­tive intervention strate­gies.

Many individuals have several slips along the way as they move forward through the change stages. To help clients move through these stages, coun­sellors need to focus on the contemplation and preparation stages.

It is important to allow clients to consider these basic questions: “How much of a problem does drinking pose for me?” “In what ways is my drinking affecting my life?”

These questions help the client consider both the positive and negative aspects of his drinking habit. Then the next question will be: “What are the benefits and costs of changing my drinking habit?” “Will I be able to make the change?” “How would that change affect my life?” This is where the client creates a decisional balance as mentioned earlier in his/her attempt to make a desired change.

In helping people make a desired change, it is important to consider if the individual is ready, willing and able to make the change. The counsellor’s understanding of the stages of change and working through ambivalence with the client as well as the counsellor’s unconditional positive regard and empathy are necessary towards bringing about desired change.

Cindy Biding is a senior counsellor with the Students Operations Department at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus. She can be contacted at cbiding@swinburne.edu.my.

by Cindy Biding
March 17, 2010, Wednesday

Germany lose to Serbia.  Favourite Germany is not sharpening

“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have laboured hard for.” — Socrates

A few years ago, while at Lawas in Sarawak, I was told this story of a very strong and skilled Kayan woodcutter who asked for a job with a timber merchant.

He got the job with a good salary and decent work conditions. And so, the woodcutter was determined to do his best for the boss. His boss gave him an axe and on his first day, the woodcutter cut down 15 trees. The boss was pleased and said: “Well done, good work!”

Highly motivated, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but could only fell 13 trees. The third day, he tried even harder, but only 11 trees were chopped down.

Day after day, he tried harder but he cut down fewer trees. “I must be losing my strength,” the Kayan woodcutter thought. He apologised to the boss, claiming he could not understand why.
Great leaders like (from left) Steve Jobs, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela have a continuous appetite for learning and growth.

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked. “Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been too busy cutting down trees,” said the woodcutter.

He sharpened his axe and immediately was back to 15 trees a day. Since then, he begins the day by sharpening his axe.

Most leaders are too busy doing and trying to achieve, that they never take time to learn and grow. Most of us don’t have the time or patience to update skills, knowledge, and beliefs about an industry, or to take time to think and reflect. Many assume that learning ends at school and so sharpening our axe is not a priority.

So, what exactly is sharpening the axe? Dr Steven Covey, who popularised the term, believes it means “increasing your personal production capacity by daily self care and self-maintenance.”

Most people fail to understand what it means and mistake it for taking a break or vacation. If you’re overworking yourself and your productivity drops off, take a break.

However, that isn’t sharpening the axe; that’s putting the axe down. When you put down a dull blade and rest, the blade will still be dull when you pick it up.

The woodcutter does need downtime to rest, but it is not “sharpening the axe.” The woodcutter only becomes more productive by sharpening his blade, analysing new woodcutting techniques, exercising to become stronger, and learning from other woodcutters.

Sharpening the axe is an activity. You too can sharpen the axe of your life. Here are 10 ways:

● Read a book every day;

● Get out of your comfort zone by changing jobs. A new job forces you to learn;

● Have a deep conversation with someone you find interesting. Sharpen your axe through that interaction;

● Pick up a new hobby. Stretch yourself physically, mentally or emotionally;

● Study something new;

● Overcome a specific fear you have or quit a bad habit;

● Have a daily exercise routine or take part in some competition;

● Identify your blind spots. Understand, acknowledge, and address it;

● Ask for feedback and get a mentor; and

● Learn from people who inspire you. Subscribe to YouTube/leaderonomicsmedia and watch interviews of great leaders.

You have to do it as often as possible. But if you’re so focused on your task at hand with no time for discussion, introspection, or study, you’re not really moving forward. Just as a car needs to be refuelled to keep going, we too need refuelling through learning.

The Management Mythbuster author David Axson believes most organisations still rely on outdated management strategies. Unless we are sharpening our axe daily by observing the changing world and changing ourselves accordingly, we risk becoming irrelevant.

Andrew Grove reinvented Intel and oversaw a 4,500 times increase in market capitalisation by his daily habitual “axe-sharpening” ritual of understanding global changes and taking advantage of these to ensure Intel remained relevant.

Employees at Japanese organisations like Toyota believe it’s a crisis if they do not create improvement each day. The “Kaizen mindset” means that every day, whether you’re a line worker or executive, you find ways to learn something new and apply it to what you’re doing. This forces employees to be alert, mindful and constantly improving.

Great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Steve Jobs have a continuous appetite for learning and growth. They always listen and watch in the hope of learning new ideas and discovering new truths and realities.

Many of us do just the opposite. By staying in the same job for many years, although we become experts and our roles become easy, our learning flattens.

We don’t like changing jobs as there is pain and struggle in taking on new roles. But the more we struggle, the more we learn.

When a new boss with new expectations takes over, we sometimes find ourselves struggling even though we have been in the same role for years. We try harder but still fail to impress. Why does this happen?

Much like the woodcutter, trying harder will not yield results. This is because we did not upgrade ourselves nor grow in the “easy” years. Our years of experience count for nothing as we did not keep up with the world around us and were ignorant and mindless of things that were evolving daily around us.

Two weeks ago, I interviewed Harvard Prof Ellen Langer, who reminded me of our natural inclination to be mindless. Mindlessness is our human tendency to operate on autopilot, whether by stereotyping, performing mechanically or simply not paying attention.

We are all victims of being mindless at times. By sharpening our axe, we move from a mindless state to a mindful state; from “blindly going with the flow” to thinking and “breaking boundaries.”

Why then do so many people fail to sharpen their axe? Well, axe sharpening isn’t as fun as whacking away at the tree. And it is painful and tedious work.

Religious leader David O. McKay once said: “The greatest battles of life are fought out daily in the silent chambers of the soul.”

Sharpening the axe is a daily inner battle. Research reveals that self-educated presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln sharpened their axe daily by cultivating the discipline of reading.

In a number of Asian organisations, when there is a crisis or financial situation, the first thing that gets slashed is training programmes for employees. Yet, in a crisis, there is a greater need for employees to have sharpened axes to deal with issues.

Crises often helps companies to become great because they finally take time to sharpen their axe by re-looking at their current strategies and reinventing their industries, sometimes through painful reforms.

Before the 1998 Asian financial crisis, the Korean auto industry were jaguh kampung and known for low-quality cars with strong domestic car sales.

The crisis forced them to take a step back, sharpen their axe, become mindful to the world and move to sell the majority of their cars outside South Korea.

Of course, too much or aimless axe sharpening can become another form of procrastination. Many like to attend training courses and classes but end up never using the axe. After sharpening the axe, use it or all is in vain.

How are your various blades doing? Your skills, your knowledge, your mind, your physical body, your relationships, your motivation, your commitment to succeed, your capacity for growth, your emotions – are all of them still sharp? If not, which ones are dull, and what can you do to sharpen them?

Lincoln once said: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening my axe.” What are you doing to sharpen your axe? Take a step back this weekend and start sharpening your axe.

By Roshan Thiran
Saturday May 15, 2010
■ Roshan Thiran is CEO of Leaderonomics, a social enterprise passionate about transforming the nation through leadership development. Sign your kids up for the leadership camps in June at www.diodecamp.com, or call 016 6559017. You can also listen to Leaderonomics leaders every Monday at 11am on BFM89.9 or download podcasts at www.leaderonomics.com.