Tag: 80/20

7 Biblical Characteristics of Principle-Centered Leaders

The Law of the Farm is the guiding principle of Principle Centered Leaders

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.  2 Corinthians 9:6

  1. They are Constantly Learning. “Principle centered people are constantly educated by their experiences. They read, they seek training, they take classes, they listen to others. They are curious, always asking questions. They continually expand their competence, their ability to do things. They discover that the more they know, the more they don’t know; Most of this learning and growth is self-initiated.” ~Stephen Covey

They live by the Rule-of-Success: Constant Improvement. Be Better today than yesterday. They work at improving at least one dimension of their life every day. Far too many people reach a certain point in their lives where they stop learning and thus stop improving. There are many people who have 20 or 30 years in a certain profession but in terms of expertise really only have one years experience 20 or 30 times. In other words they stopped learning and improving at their profession after the 1st years experience and for the next 20 –30 years just kept repeating that same experience over and over again.

“Intelligent people are always open to new ideas. In fact they look for them. – Proverbs 18:15 NLT

“Formal education will get you a job; self-education will make you rich.” ~ Jim Rohn

  1. They have a Servitude Heart.Every day they look at their life as a “mission” – what can I do to improve the lives of those around me. They understand that in order to get what they want in life, they have to help others get what they want.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility, consider others better than yourself. Each of you should look after not only your own interests but also the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 2:3-5 NIV

  1. They Radiate Positive Energy. They are generally cheerful, pleasant, and happy with their lives; their attitudes are optimistic, positive and upbeat. They look to create rather than tear-down. Their spirit is enthusiastic, hopeful and believing. Their general attitude is “there is a solution to every problem.”

“Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. – Philippians 4:8b NLT

  1. They Believe in Others. “Principle-Centered people don’t overreact to negative behaviors, criticism or human weaknesses.”

Because Principle-centered leaders are also Biblical-centered they understand that every human was created with unique talents. Just as every part of the body has its own unique function, so does the greater body of God’s creation – humans; who each have their own unique skills and talents and when we work Interdependently together we can accomplish SO MUCH more than we can independently or divided.

“God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well.” –Romans 12:6a NLT

  1. They Lead Balanced Lives. “They read voraciously and keep up with current affairs and events. They are active intellectually, having many interests. They read, watch and learn. And have a healthy sense of humor.”

They are self-aware, authentic and self-honest; they have a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. What motivates them and demotivates them so that they can better control their environment and thus results.

They recognize that there are ABSOLUTES and condemn the bad and champion the good.

They know how to make decisions and just as importantly, they know how to live with the decisions they have made.

They are not extremists and do not back themselves into a corner by making everything – all or nothing.

They have no need to manipulate through either intimidation or self-pitying martyrdom.

“There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven:  A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to harvest; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to turn away; a time to search and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to throw away; a time to tear and a time to mend; a time to be quiet and a time to speak up; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV

  1. They are Intrinsically Motivated.Because they are intrinsically motivated their security comes from within instead of from without. Their true security comes from their initiative, resourcefulness, creativity and natural intelligence (from God their Creator).

They take no man as an IDOL – no one is “Bigger-than-Life” thus they resist become any person’s disciple. One of their fixed Principles is Flexibility. They truly lead an abundant life.

Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master – Christ. Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind  that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God. Good work will get you good pay from the master, regardless of whether you are a slave or free. Ephesians 6: 5-8 NLT

  1. They are Synergistic. Because they understand the Natural Laws of God (Principles) they are “change catalysts”; they improve almost every situation they encounter. They are “Diligent” – they work hard AND smart.

They have traversed the “Maturity Continuum” from the lowest level of : Dependency (lowest level of infant, children, adolescent stage)– to – Independency – to – Interdependcy (the Highest level of the truly MATURE) to be able to skip compromise and arrive right at a Synergistic Solution that is stronger and better.

Read All of Ephesians 4 to give you a real sense of Interdependcy but Ephesians 4:4 alone sums it up. “We are all parts of one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future.” TLB

The Law of the Farm is their guiding principle.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.  2 Corinthians 9:6

Two great experts on this are Stephen Covey in Principle Centered Leadership and John MacArthur, “The Book on Leadership”.

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2/3 of Small Business Owners Don’t Know How to Ask the Right Questions and It’s Costing Them Money

Ask the right questions and you’ll get the right answers. 

A recent survey of 2600 small business owners, conducted in January 2017 by “Small Business Trends” revealed that 62% of them believe Facebook advertising is ineffective.

First, we believe the reason for this is the same reason too many small business marketing strategies don’t work – they don’t ask the right questions.

Our Essential Elements discovery process is designed to help you discover the six elements every small business owner needs to know. The very first element is designed to determine who your ideal target audience is.

There are 6 elements to knowing who your Target Audience is.
In some cases, you’ll need to survey or have conversations with existing customers to accurately flesh out your target audience.

One, Demographic Information: Where do your clients come from specifically?

  • Geographic location
  • Income
  • Gender
  • Education
  • Marital status
  • Occupation
  • Religion
  • Age

Two, Psychographics:

  • Spending habits-where do they shop?
  • Hobbies
  • Values
  • Concerns
  • Desires
  • Lifestyles
  • Associations they might be affiliated with

Three, Sources of Information: Where Does Your Target Client [ideal customer] Get His or Her Information?
Who are the thought leaders they follow like authors, bloggers, magazines, websites, podcasters?
What Facebook pages are liked by your Target Audience?
What Facebook groups do your Target Audience belong to?
What are the most popular online discussion forums in your niche?
What are the most popular LinkedIn groups in your niche?

Four, Pain Point or Challenges: What is their major problem they have that you have a solution to?

Five, Objections In Their Purchase Process: What are the reasons your customer might choose NOT to buy from you or your product or service?

Six, What are their goals and values?
Second, they don’t understand the importance of testing.  One of the great advantages to Facebook advertising is how easy, fast and relatively inexpensive it is to test not only the answers to the  6 elements to knowing who your Target Audience but also the message including the attention grabbing headline.

Testing budgets as small as $5 or $10 a day, focusing on different mixes, can tell you what you need to know before you begin to invest larger amounts in your campaign.

Our Essential Elements discovery process helps you discover these six things which are critical regardless of what media or technology you use.

  • Who is your Target Audience. Your ideal customer. The 20% that generate 80% of your revenue, cash flow and ultimately your profits.
  • The Lifetime Value of your customers. You know exactly how much you can spend or ethically reward someone to become your client or remain a loyal fan.
  • Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This is what sets you apart from everyone else.  What makes you, your products or services unique?
  • Risk Free Guarantee. This is what makes it easier for your clients to say YES vs
  • 100% Financial Capacity. This clarifies how much money you are potentially leaving on the table and gives you the insight and courage to move forward.
  • 80/20 Principle. Also originally known as the Pareto Principle.
    The vast minority of your customers, employees, products/services, efforts, time, money, resources are generating the vast majority of your results. This process helps you identify them.

The question is always the answer.

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Knowing Where to Put the ‘X’

Principle: “Knowing where to put the ‘X’ in each part of your life is a critical determinant of everything you accomplish.”

There’s a story about a nuclear power plant had a malfunction that their own engineer’s couldn’t solve.

The plant management finally called in one of the nation’s top consultants on nuclear power plants.

For two days, the consultant walked around the plant, studying hundreds of dials and gauges, taking notes and running calculations.

At the end of the second day, he took a marker out of his pocket, climbed up a ladder, and put a large black “X” on one of the gauges.

“This is your problem,” he explained. “Repair and replace the apparatus connected to this meter, and the problem will be solved.”
He then left.

The plant engineers did as he suggested and sure enough, this fixed the problem.

About a week later, the plant manager received a bill from this consultant for $10,000…for “services rendered”.

The plant manager was surprised at the size of the bill.

After all, he reasoned, the consultant had only spent two days, walked around a little bit, placed a “X” and left. $10,000 seemed like a lot of money for such a simple job.

He wrote back to the consultant, “We have received your bill. Please give us a break down and itemize your charges.

It seems all you did was to write a big ole “X” on a single gauge. Ten thousand dollars seems excessive.”

A few days later, the plant manager received a new invoice from the consultant. It said, “For placing an “X” on gauge: $1.00. For knowing WHERE to put the “X”: $9,999.”

Having a clear and honest understanding of who you are, and what’s important to you is what separates the superior from the average.

It requires Honesty to step back and look at ourselves objectively to see what Current Reality really is in regards to these talents AND then be comfortable enough to be AUTHENTIC in our thoughts, actions and words.

Brian Tracy, in his book – “Focal Point” – says there are Two Steps you need to do to double your income.

First – Identify the things (the 20%) you do that contribute the greatest value to your earning potential.

Apply the 80/20 Rule or Principle – which states 20% of your actions contribute 80% of the value.

Then resolve to spend MORE time on those 20% activities.

Stephen Covey called them “Boulders” or First Things.
It’s learning to do The Hard Things First.

Second– Identify the 80% of your activities, customers, employees, products or services that provide low to no value and resolve to spend less time, effort and resources on them or better yet, eliminate them altogether.

Success is a choice.

There is an Abundance of Opportunities for everyone but only a small percent will ever find them – Why?

Because of CHOICE.

Those who become DOMINATE their market are Proactive.
They take Personal Responsibility.

Accepting Personal Responsibility means you refuse to make excuse or blame others for anything in your life that you’re not happy about.

Accepting Personal Responsibility is the very foundation of high self-esteem, self-respect and personal pride.

When you make excuses, blame others, complain or criticize, you essentially give away all your power to someone or something else.

These are all Principles or Natural Laws of God.

Here is the best definition of a Principle I’ve seen:

Principles are:
UNIVERSAL: They work everywhere.
TIMELESS: They work all the time. Past, Present and Future.
SELF-EVIDENT: You can’t argue against them.

Know what’s important. Know where to place your ‘X’.

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Is Facebook for Me?

If you have a doorknob that customers can turn, Facebook is for you.

If you sell something that is Unique, Facebook is for you.

If you sell to consumers, Facebook is for you.

If you sell a fun experience, Facebook is for you.

A high ticket business, like an auto dealer is probably at the top of the list of businesses that can benefit from Facebook Direct Targeted marketing, but frankly just about any brick & mortar can benefit.

What if you could predict, with uncanny accuracy, who was likely to buy from you and who wasn’t.
Would this be a huge competitive advantage?

What if you had a way to know more about your clients and potential customers than they knew about themselves?

What if you could spend pennies to reach large numbers of people then have the ability to easily sift thru the whole lot and cherry pick the ones most likely to buy from you?

The Facebook marketing application is the ultimate sales tool to accomplish any and all of this, because selling & marketing is all about relationships and Facebook is the ultimate relationship building tool.

We have an Essential Elements Discovery process where we help every business owner figure out their target market before we start helping them with their Marketing, Selling and Business Practices.

One of these Essential Elements is determining who your Target Audience is. Learn more here: 

One of the greatest strengths of Facebook marketing is your ability to target specific consumer groups who are highly engaged. In fact, Facebook is 89% accurate in their targeting capabilities. It’s almost scary how accurate they are.

Determining your Target Audience:
To market and sell your business, product or service properly, the very first thing you must do is get clear on WHO your ideal customer is, where they are hanging out, what their challenges are, etc…Every marketing piece must know what your clients and potential clients “hot buttons” are; what’s important or relevant to them.

People only care what’s important to them, not what’s important to you.

Your customers and prospective customers are always asking, WIIFM? (What’s In It For Me)

Once you find who the target truly is then you can know what their hot buttons are.

Facebook marketing helps hone in on the following:
Demographics like:

  • Geographic location
  • Income
  • Gender
  • Education
  • Language
  • Occupation
  • Religion
  • Age
  • Political affiliations

 

Psychographics like:

  • Spending habits
  • Hobbies
  • Values
  • Concerns
  • Desires
  • Lifestyles
  • Interests, hobbies and activities
  • Type, style model of vehicles owned
  • Who is a likely new or used vehicle buyer within the next 365 days, 6 months or next 90 days.
    Leads, warm leads and HOT leads!
  • What brand they are most interested in
  • Age of vehicle they now own
  • You can hone in on your competitors customers and market area
  • General shopping behaviors (grocery, retail, etc.)
  • Where they get their digital information from
  • Travel habits
  • How recently did they purchase a home
  • Who is likely to move within a certain time period…(you set the time parameters)
  • Who has recently moved
  • Likely to purchase a home with a certain time period
  • Type of charitable interests they have

Just to name a few…

If you are one of the few that actually collects customer data and already has an email marketing strategy, we can supercharge your marketing by downloading your customer’s emails or phone numbers into Facebook and create a custom audience within Facebook for you.

Then, to sweeten the pot even more, we can take this list of your existing customers and create a “look alike” audience of potential clients that have similar likes, interests and behaviors.

This is where knowing your 20% that generate 80% of your revenue and profits (the 6th Element in our Essential Elements Discovery Process) really starts taking your business and personal life to a whole ‘nother level.

The thing about Facebook Direct Marketing is that the possibilities seem endless, and in a way maybe they are, because they are constantly changing and enhancing their marketing tools.

Caveat: Unless you are doing this full-time, the typical business owner wouldn’t and shouldn’t do this on their own.

To further your understanding of this Essential Element, read my blog here: Who should you be selling to?

We help small business owners Work less and Make More money by helping you to:
• Leverage your time
• Increase your cash flow & profits
• Identifying and focusing on the Right clients, employees & products/services

How: By implementing the 80/20 Principles of Marketing, Selling & Business practices, strategies and techniques.
• Essential Elements Discovery Process
• Automated Email marketing
• FB marketing
• FB retargeting
• Video marketing
• 1-on-1 “Do It For Me” coaching, consulting, mentoring

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It is better to talk to 10 people and convince them 100% of the way then to talk to 100 people and only convince them 10% of the way. – Jay Abraham

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6 Ways to Disqualify Tire Kickers

These are based on the Marketing Principle: It is better to talk to 10 people who want what you have to offer than 100 tire kickers.

In marketing, we teach our clients that it is better to Reach 10% of the Market and persuade them 100% of the way than to Reach 100% of the market and persuade them 10% of the way.

When you are in the business of selling, you better be good at figuring out as quickly as you can, these 6 things.

Here are 6 Ways to disqualify the tire kickers.

1. Are they the decision-maker? Do they have the ability to say yes?
Don’t waste your time making a presentation to an audience that can’t make the final decision.

2. Are they a member of your target audience? Every business has customers or clients that can be broken out according to the 80/20 Principle.
20% of your customers are generating 80% of your profits.

By the way, this principle holds true for your employees and your products/services you offer.

If you want to be more effective, you have to separate these and start focusing on the 20%.

Let’s say you have 3,000 active customers.
This Principle or Natural Law will show you that 600 of those are generating 80% of your profits. And ultimately, you will want to know who the 4% are that are generating 64% of your profits.

Helping you discover this 20% is the 6th element of our Essential Elements Discovery process.

See my article on this subject here: “Who should you be selling to?”

3. Do they have the money?
My two main businesses have been the automotive retail industry and real estate.
Two big ticket items. You better be good at qualifying whether your prospect can afford what you have to offer.

In the auto industry, there are “tire kickers” and there are “buyers”.

When you are strictly on commission, you better learn how to quickly and respectfully qualify your audience.

4. Is there a sense of urgency? Do they have an immediate problem that they need a solution to?

Twenty or so years ago I spent a year having Jay Abraham teach me his marketing principles. One of his pieces of advice that really stuck was “It is better to talk to 10 people who want what you have to offer than a 100 tire kickers.”

Jim Rohn had a similar approach when he said “the best advice I can offer is for you to realize that you have permission to ‘talk about what matters’ only to people who care.”

5. Do they want what you have to offer? Does your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) match what they want?
A unique selling proposition (USP) is your unique answer to these questions:
• What does your product or service do that your competitors doesn’t?
• Why should I buy from you instead of anybody else?
• What guarantee can you make that nobody else can make?

These are the things that make it easier for them to say Yes rather than No!

Effective marketing/selling gets people to raise their hand and say “I want what you have to offer.”

It’s the difference between chasing leads versus having them chasing you.

Which one sounds like more fun, easier and more lucrative?

Read my blog on this issue here: USP! What Is Your Unique Selling Proposition? 

6. Do you have a solution for their problem?
Whatever you sell needs to be in harmony with the natural and existing forces in their life right now.

The sooner you learn how to disqualify the 80%, the faster you will dominate your market.

 

Two huge mistakes almost every business makes

1. They don’t capture the contact information on everyone they come in contact with, name, address, phone number, email address are the basics.

But if you want to excel at this, learn as much as possible about them as you can so that in your future communications, you can share things that are of interest to them.

I used to find out all of the demographic and psychographic information I could.

2. Businesses have no consistent marketing strategy for follow-up.

Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up with things that add value to their lives.
That is why, over the course of time, the more you know about who you know, the better and more trusting your relationship with them will be.

Effective marketing/selling is all about creating trusting relationships.

How badly do you want to not only DOMINATE your market within your industry but do it with less time, effort and money invested?

How badly do you want to have more personal time and more consistent cash flow and higher profits?

Remember this: It is better to reach 10% of the market and persuade them 100% of the way than to reach 100% of the market and only persuade them 10% of the way. 

Stated another way: Ten sales are better than 100 “be-backs.”

 

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Who should you be selling to?

As we have previously discussed, marketing and selling are all about creating trusting relationships.

When it comes to building relationships, knowledge is power.

It isn’t just “who you know” that is important, “it’s what you know about who you know.”

To market and sell your business, product or service properly, the very first thing you must do is become clear on who your ideal customer is, where they are hanging out, what their challenges are, etc…

Every marketing piece must have your clients and potential clients “hot buttons” included and always remember…what’s important or relevant to them.
They only care what’s important to them, not what’s important to you.

Remember the acronym: WIIFM (What’s In It For Me).  This is what every prospect and customer is saying to themselves every time you make a presentation.

Once you find who your target audience truly is then you can know what those hot buttons are.

There are 6 elements to knowing who your Target Audience is.
In some cases, you’ll need to survey or have conversations with existing customers to accurately flesh out your target audience.

One: Demographic Information: Where do your clients come from specifically?

  • Geographic location
  • Income
  • Gender
  • Education
  • Marital status
  • Occupation
  • Religion
  • Age

Two: Psychographics:

  • Spending habits
  • Hobbies
  • Values
  • Concerns
  • Desires
  • Lifestyles
  • Associations they might be affiliated with

Three: Sources of Information: Where does your Target Audience [ideal customer] get their information?
Who are the thought leaders they follow like authors, bloggers, magazines, websites, podcasters, etc?
What Facebook pages are like by your Target Audience?
What Facebook groups does your Target Audience belong to?
What are the most popular online discussion forums in your niche?
What are the most popular LinkedIn groups in your niche?

Four: Pain Points or Challenges: What is the major problem they have that you have a solution to?

Five: Objections In Their Purchase Process: What are the reason your customer might choose NOT to buy from you or your product or service?

Six: What are their goals and values?

Here is what you are shooting for with Principle centered marketing, selling and business practices:

  1. No cold calling. Your marketing should be getting people to “raise their hand” and say, “I want what you have to offer.” The prospect that “finds” you is exponentially more likely to purchase from you than the one you have to chase.
  2. Before you even try to market or sell anything, you have to know how much you are willing to spend to get new customers. That can only happen once you know what the Lifetime Value of your customer is. This is one of the elements of our Essential Elements Discovery process.
  3. One of the most effective ways to generate highly qualified leads is to stop selling. Instead, provide information of value to your audience. Show them ways to solve the problems they have.
  4. The most valuable asset you have is a well-maintained and relevant customer data base. Your best customer is your current customer.

 

6 Qualities of a Good Target MARKET:

  1. They have a problem that they need a solution to and, there is a sense of urgency to this problem.
  2. They have money to spend and they are an audience that are known to spend money to have their problems solved.
  3. This audience is big enough to sustain your business.
  4. It is an audience that you actually enjoy working with.
  5. It is an audience where you have valuable experience, expertise, and product and/or service offerings. You can add value.
  6. It is a market that fits your lifestyle.

Who should you be selling to? Only to people who want to what you have to offer.

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The 80/20 Principle

Just like the 80/20 principle itself, I can almost guarantee that a very small portion of your current clients are providing you with the majority of your profits.

Start with Asking Smart Questions and focus on the 80/20 Principle.

Albert Einstein once remarked that if he were about to be killed and had only 1 hour to figure out how to save his life, he would devote the first 55 minutes of that hour searching for the “right question”.

Once he had that question, Einstein said, finding the answer would take only about 5 minutes.

Get help to find the answers to these questions and you will DOMINATE your market:

Who are the 20% of your clients that produce 80% of your revenue?

Do you have a clear understanding of what they “look like”, demographically and psychographically, so that you can target more of the same type of clients?

Think: Birds of a feather flock together.
What are you doing to solicit referrals from this target group?

How do you stay in constant and consistent contact with them?

How often do you communicate with them?

How do you reward them as a way of showing your appreciation?

Have you given them the opportunity to become a PREFERRED client?

What do you do to show you value their patronage?

What is the Lifetime Value of each of these client?

Keep it Simple.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine they lay down for the night and went to sleep.

Some hours later, Holmes woke up and nudged his friend.
“Watson, look up and tell me what you see.”

Watson replied “I see millions and millions of stars.”

“What does that tell you?” asked Sherlock.

Watson pondered for a moment, “Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies with potentially billions of planets.

Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.

Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.

Theologically, I can see that the universe is magnificent and that we are small and insignificant.

Meterologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.
What does it tell you?”

Holmes was silent for a moment then said, “Watson, you idiot.
Someone has stolen our tent.”

When you try to over think something and make it complicated, it almost always fails.

Effective marketing is easy and simple when based on Principles.

Highly effective marketing begins with the right questions and focuses on the 20% that generates 80% of the profits.

 

We educate on and implement the Principles of Marketing
and we want to invest in our relationship with you.

We understand somebody has to make the first move, so we are providing this marketing audio program free of charge to you, not as something with low value, in fact we believe you’ve never heard anything quite like it.

We’re doing this to provide an investment in you and hopefully you will begin to understand some of the things we can help you with in your business growth.

Listen to Our Total Dominance audio program that teaches you a marketing plan that will make you the #1 company in your industry AND Totally Dominate your industry.
1. Learn the 2 Common Mistakes Plaguing Most Businesses Marketing
2. Learn a Simple 5 Step Formula for Every Marketing Piece You Ever Create
3. How to Stay Ahead of Your Competition-No Matter What Industry

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Marketing Principle: Marketing is simply Salesmanship

Marketing is simply salesmanship in advance and salesmanship is all about creating and maintaining principle-centered relationships.

The stronger your relationship is with your clients/patients/customers, the more successful and profitable you are going to be.

Nothing happens until someone sells something.

We are all salespeople – parents, children, pastors, teachers, waitresses, police officers, doctors… makes no difference.
We sell every day; ideas, services, products, ourselves….Everyone has to sell something every day.

We come out of the womb selling. We had to convince our mothers that we were hungry, tired or just wanted attention.

As you were growing up, you had to “sell” your parents to get what you wanted.

You had to sell yourself to your spouse, your boss, your co-workers, your friends, your customers, your students, etc. etc. etc…

Selling is more about Principles than it is about techniques.

Once you understand the Principles, there are a 101 different techniques to selling.
But, one caveat, Never Break the Laws of God or man.

Selling and marketing is all about creating and maintaining principle-centered relationships.
You build and maintain relationships on Trust.

People buy from people they like, and people will like you if they trust you.

I have a simple formula for trust:
Trust = Competence plus Character demonstrated over Time

Competence is talent, ability, skill, and knowledge.
Character is integrity, motive, and intent.

When trust is low, everything slows down in relationships.
Low trust causes suspicion which slows down decisions and communication.
When trust is high, confidence is high, decision-making is fast and communication is effortless.

In other words success is about building sound, trustworthy relationships.

15 Habits to cultivate within yourself and your business that will help you build strong meaningful relations – both personal and business:

1. Be Honest & Authentic. Always be straight with people.

2. Act with Kindness & Courtesy. Be Respectful of everyone; even those who might be “in-your-face” and/or disagree with you. You may have to “fire” a customer one day, but be respectful about it and then move on.

3. Be Transparent – An Educated Customer is the Best Customer. Consistently tell the world what you offer, why you offer it and how it will benefit them.
Tell the complete story about what makes you and your product or service unique. You don’t have to just tell the good, tell some bad as well. Every product or service will not be the right fit for everyone. Admit it right up front. Stating what you can’t do builds trust and alleviates unpleasant problems down the road. I’d rather lose the sale right up front and build a reputation of integrity than lose a client after the sale due to disappointment.

4. Apologize When Wrong. When you screw up, take responsibility, apologize and make some sort of meaningful restitution.

5. Be Loyal – especially to the Absent (never talk badly about anyone behind their back).

6. Deliver Results – One of the best habits you can cultivate in order to accomplish the results your clients/customers/patients expect is to clarify expectations, the next habit.

7. Clarify Expectations – Make sure everyone fully understands, including yourself. Almost all conflicts are a result of violated expectations. Even though most of my business is done with a simple handshake, it is still imperative that the expectations of effort, responsibilities and results are clarified in writing.

8. Be a Student of your Business – Constantly Improve by exposing yourself to new ideas, techniques and people. This allows you to be innovative.

9. Be Honest about Reality. Being self-aware is one of the foundations of ever achieving greatness. You have to know what motivates and de-motivates you. What your strengths and weaknesses are. You must maintain an unwavering faith in your vision or desired end result and that, in the end, you will prevail but at the same time you have to confront and be honest about the facts of current reality.

10. Be Proactive – Take responsibility and hold yourself and others accountable. Learn to “Think Win-Win or No Deal.” Never blame someone else.

11. Listen with the Intent to Understand Rather than Simply to Respond. Ask Smart Questions and listen.

12. Keep your Promises. One of the best ways to accomplish this is under-promise, over-deliver.

13. Extend Trust -Give trust and expect it in return.

14. Actively Seek Complaints – Be open to feedback; That means proactively seek out complaints as an opportunity to build trust.

15. Have an Attitude of Gratitude.

Every TOP salesperson and develops their own style and techniques but they all adhere to the same Principles

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