YOUR FOUNDATION FOR SUCCESS

Relationship Selling is the core of all modern selling strategies. Your ability to develop and maintain long-term customer relationships is the foundation for your success as a salesperson and your success in business. Relationship selling requires a clear understanding of the dynamics of the selling process as your customer experiences them.

PROPOSE A BUSINESS MARRIAGE

For your customer, a buying decision usually means a decision to enter into a long-term relationship with you and your company. It is very much like a "business marriage." Before the customer decides to buy, he can take you or leave you. He doesn't need you or your company. He has a variety of options and choices open to him, including not buying anything at all. But when your customer makes a decision to buy from you and gives you money for the product or service you are selling, he becomes dependent on you. And since he has probably had bad buying experiences in the past, he is very uneasy and uncertain about getting into this kind of dependency relationship.

FULFILL YOUR PROMISES

What if you let the customer down? What if your product does not work as you promised? What if you don't service it and support it as you promised? What if it breaks down and he can't get it replaced? What if the product or service is completely inappropriate for his needs? These are real dilemmas that go through the mind of every customer when it comes time to make the critical buying decision.

FOCUS ON THE RELATIONSHIP

Because of the complexity of most products and services today, especially high-tech products, the relationship is actually more important than the product. The customer doesn't know the ingredients or components of your product, or how your company functions, or how he will be treated after he has given you his money, but he can make an assessment about you and about the relationship that has developed between the two of you over the course of the selling process. So in reality, the customer's decision is based on the fact that he has come to trust you and believe in what you say.

BUILD A SOLID TRUST BOND

In many cases, the quality of your relationship with the customer is the competitive advantage that enables you to edge out others who may have similar products and services. The quality of the trust bond that exists between you and your customers can be so strong that no other competitor can get between you.

KEEP YOUR CUSTOMER FOR LIFE

The single biggest mistake that causes salespeople to lose customers is taking those customers for granted. This is a form of "customer entropy." It is when the salesperson relaxes his efforts and begins to ignore the customer. Almost 70 percent of customers who walked away from their existing suppliers later replied that they made the change primarily because of a lack of attention from the company.
Once you have invested the time and made the efforts necessary to build a high-quality, trust-based relationship with your customer, you must maintain that relationship for the life of your business. You must never take it for granted.

ACTION EXERCISES

First, focus on building a high quality relationship with each customer by treating your customer so well that he comes back, buys again and refers you to his friends.

Second, pay attention to your existing customers. Tell them you appreciate them. Look for ways to thank them and encourage them to come back and do business with you again.

To receive more information about Brian Tracy and his books, audios and seminars including the Psychology of Achievement, The Psychology of Selling and the Success Mastery Academy go to www.YourSuccessStore.com and save 20-40% or call 877-929-0439.

There really is "healthy fear." For example, it's very healthy to fear drinking before you drive. However, fear should not be allowed to run rampant through our lives so that it becomes such a devastating factor that it produces failure.

The problem is not getting rid of fear, but using it properly. Dr. Judge M. Lyle said, "Someone has said that the basis of action should be love and not fear. Theoretically that is true, but in practice it does not work out that way. There are legitimate fears. Fear of ignorance causes you to seek an education and fear of poverty makes you work. Fear of disease motivates you to practice healthy and sanitary living. Fear of losing your job will inspire you to show up on time and do the best you know how to do. Fear of failing a class will drive a student to spend extra time in the books. Fear of losing our family inspires us to be faithful to them, work hard for them, and show them love on a daily basis."

From time to time I use the acrostic "F - E - A - R" for "False Evidence Appearing Real." However, if the evidence is real, we should certainly have some healthy fear. There's real fear in walking across a busy street without using the crosswalk. There's legitimate fear in driving your car at excessive speeds under any conditions, but particularly where the visibility is poor or the streets are slippery.

We must learn to distinguish those helpful fears from the harmful ones. When you can do that, fear is a friend. Until you learn to do it, however, fear can be an enemy. Think about this; learn what you should, approach the rest with confidence, and I'll SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

To receive more information about Zig Ziglar and/or to purchase his best-selling CDs and books, including How to Stay Motivated 3 Vol. Program, Secrets to Closing the Sale, Courtship After Marriage and Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World, go to http://ultg.jimrohn.com or call 800-929-0434.

One of the most important things we can do for our businesses, schools, and organizations is to have vision. Vision being a clear picture of a desired end result that you are aiming for.

However, sometimes, no matter how big our vision was originally, we find ourselves focusing in on the daily events that require our attention but have nothing or little to do with our ultimate vision.

Occasionally, we think to ourselves, "Hey, I'm not really getting any closer to my vision. I'm spinning my wheels here." This is when it is time to re-develop your vision!

Here are some helpful hints in doing just that.

Re-evaluate your original vision. Maybe what you used to think wasn't realistic according to your strengths, your abilities, or your circumstances. Maybe it is time to change or modify the vision to make it attainable.

Assess your strengths. To achieve your vision, you and your staff will have to operate out of your strengths. If you are having a hard time moving toward your current vision, perhaps it is because the vision requires extended application of strengths that you and/or your organization don't have. Either you need to hire into those strengths, develop those strengths, or re-develop the vision.

Ask yourself where your passions lie. If we are to attain great things, they must be aligned with those things that burn deep within us. Do you still have a passion for your vision? Does your staff have a passion for your vision? If not, you need to develop the passion, or find the vision that you can pour your passion into. Never underestimate the power of passion and excitement in moving you toward (or keeping you from) your vision.

Ask yourself what it is that you value. What is important to you? How will fulfilling my current vision, fulfill my desire to do something important and worthwhile for myself, my family, my employees, and my community?

Break the vision down into easy to achieve steps. This helps us see that the vision is attainable. It lets us know the end result, but focus intently into achieving the next goal. This, step-by-step, moves us toward the vision.

Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of Made for Success, a company helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams. To learn more about Chris Widener's products and save 40% or to have Chris speak at your next event, go to http://chriswidener.jimrohn.com or call 800-929-0434!

"Do not dwell upon the sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no energy and mind left for living rightly today, and do not think that the sins of yesterday can prevent you from living purely today." - As A Man Thinketh

It's been said that the majority of conversations by men over 40 are about the past. Sometimes it's about the "good old days" and sometimes it's about the deals gone bad, the "if I only had" stories, the missed opportunities, etc.

Letting our "sins and mistakes of yesterday" dominate our thinking today robs us of our present joy and our future happiness. It causes us to miss the real opportunity of TODAY!

John Maxwell, in his outstanding best seller, Failing Forward, gives some great practical advice: "To move forward today, you must learn to say goodbye to yesterday's hurts, tragedies and baggage. You can't build a monument to past problems and fail forward."

Take time right now to list the negative events from your past that may still be holding you hostage. For each item you list, go through the following exercise:

Acknowledge the pain.
Grieve the loss.
Forgive the person.
Forgive yourself.
Determine to release the event and move on.

Your best days are definitely ahead of you if you treat your "mistakes" as necessary lessons to be learned. If you understand that each lesson brings with it a certain amount of wisdom, you can understand how truly enhanced your life is becoming. Many people can't achieve the success of their dreams because they won't leave their past behind. They won't tear down the monuments they've built to their old hurts and problems.

One of the best teachings I've ever heard on this was from a motivational speaker whose name has escaped me, but whose message didn't: "In life there are no mistakes, only lessons."

And that's worth thinking about.

Vic Johnson

Vic Johnson is a St. Augustine, Florida-based Internet Infopreneur, author, speaker and founder of a host of personal development websites. To find out how to receive Vic's newest release, Day by Day with James Allen, as part of the Vic Johnson and Bob Proctor's Born Rich Tele-Seminar, visit http://bobb.jimrohn.com or call 800-929-0434!