We all know charisma when we see it. The energy. The magnetism. The star quality.
It seems so natural that our intuition might tell us that charismatic people are simply born that way, but psychologists tell us that this is absolutely not the case.
Charisma is primarily a learned characteristic. Read More
Every once in a while, something special happens on the sports scene that really captures our imaginations and lights up our emotions.
For many of us, we experienced one such moment this weekend when Tiger Woods won the Masters.
First of all, for anyone who has experienced nerve pain in the back and legs, you know that it can paralyze you and completely ruin your life.
Tiger could not get out of bed without help in the morning, and he pretty much had to lay on a couch all day and not move as he experienced the worst of his back issues. After several surgeries and relapses, he finally found a doctor who was able to fuse vertebrae and remove the pain, but that was just the beginning of his comeback.
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We are involved in many relationships in our lives . . . spouses, co-workers, friends. And within the scope of these relationships, the power ebbs and flows depending upon the dynamics therein.
But there is one relationship in which the person with the power is naturally defined. That is, the buyer/seller relationship.
In this case, and we all get to take this position from time to time, the buyer is naturally, or at least should be, in the more powerful position. Read More
Here is a Shmooze idea for you just in time for spring.
I know a salesman who, every spring, sends his clients a small tree to plant in their yards. He also sends along a note that goes something like this.
“Spring is a time of renewal, a time of hope and a time for fresh thoughts about our lives, our families and our environment. Please gather your family together this weekend to plant this small tree as a contribution to our world, and as a symbol of our friendship, which I also hope will grow and prosper.” Read More
Has this ever happened to you?
You close a great sale, only to get bogged down in delivering your product and service to finish the deal by issues on the buyer’s side . . . ultimately making you look bad in the process.
Here is how to avoid that scenario. Read More
The underlying, core foundation of Mr. Shmooze is that the ability of one person to make another person feel better is at the center of all successful communications.
From Ronald Reagan, Oprah, Tom Hanks to the world’s greatest salespeople in any profession, making the person you are talking to feel better is fundamental.
Remember, we are not advocating substituting intellectual competency with the art of elevating feelings, but the point we always make is that great salespeople are masters at both the intellectual and the emotional sides of the selling equation. Read More
Has this ever happened to you?
You have been cultivating a relationship for months. You finally get a chance to move in for a close and bingo . . . the buyer says YES!
Done deal, right? Wrong. Read More
We have talked a lot about the fact that buying is an emotional decision.
While people will analyze the intellectual exchange of ideas with one side of their brain, they ultimately turn to the emotional side to pull the trigger.
That is why it is not enough for our customers to merely want our product . . . they need to desire it . . . to literally lust for it.
So, how on earth do we create that kind of emotion in a B2B environment? Read More
There is a natural pattern that often occurs after a sale. Everyone is euphoric at the close, there is often a lot of communication for 30 days or so setting things up, then . . . silence.
Now, while there is no way to maintain the peak level of intensity that went into the final days of the transaction, buyers usually suffer a bit of a letdown or “buyer’s remorse” when the relationship downshifts a bit.
This can be a vulnerable time when they may tend to tell others that “the salesperson was my best friend until he closed the deal.” Read More
A big part of our research and subsequent workshops revolves around the premise that people can be incented to make choices and change behavior by the emotional payoff of the decision.
As salespeople, a big part of our job is to establish that payoff, in the form of differentiating our products/services, ourselves and the overall experience people have when they engage with us.
Put another way, people will alter their behavior if they anticipate that they will feel good by doing so, and the management of our customers’ feelings is an art that the greatest salespeople I know have mastered.
Please take a moment to view the short video below. You may have seen it before, but this time, I want you to look at it from a sales perspective . . . Read More
January, February and even March are great selling months. Everybody is charging out of the gate with new goals and new budgets, gyms are full and people are fired up.
As salespeople, we need to be sure we ride the wave of that new momentum while it lasts.
One thing I like to do in January and February is review my past client list, that is, people I may not have spoken to for a while, and re-initiate contact.
Often we have disconnected due to things like budget cuts or spending freezes which may now be out of the way, at least temporarily. Read More
We have four “neighborhood” restaurants nearby that historically have had good food and are convenient to get to.
So it is interesting that we have now had three bad meals in a row at three of them accompanied by a drop in service and even some cleanliness. Not coincidentally, the crowds are thinning so they are in a classic death spiral.
Needless to say they are off our list, and usually when you see this kind of drop off in quality, you see the restaurant close soon thereafter, so we will see.
Meanwhile the fourth restaurant is maintaining its quality of food and service and is more robust than ever.
We have all experienced this and it is a good lesson relative to our own businesses. Read More
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