13 Steps to greater success
Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at 1:29PM In 1947, Frank Bettger wrote a classic book entitled How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling. He explains how during his first two years in sales, he barely scraped by. He had to take additional jobs to support himself. Then, he learned some tips from sucessful people like Andrew Carnegie and skyrocketed to become the top insurance salesman in America. The stories Bettger shares in his book remind you that 13 steps he borrows and expands from Benjamin Franklin can improve not only how you feel about yourself, but perhaps more importantly, how you come across and also achieve results. Even if you're not a sales professional, Bettger explains how you may apply his timeless principles achieve success in any undertaking.
1. Be Enthusiastic!
Act enthusiastic and you'll become enthusiastic. This is a mindset created by your attitude.Any endeavour or situation may seem to grow undesirable or difficult not because you change your circumstances, but because you permit your circumstances to change you. Take back control!
2. Be Organized
Take time to think and plan your schedule. Where will you go? Who will you meet? What will you say? How long will you have? To be prepared and act effectively (even improvise)'on your feet', or present a new idea to someone you know, you would benefit from organizing your thoughts in advance before you meet. When you respect your time, you'll make better use of other people's time and both of you benefit. You never have a second chance to leave a first impression either.
3. Think like the other person
What do you offer or what could you do to benefit that other person? How can you phrase things in innovative ways to put the person first? Reinforce the desire to learn from him and understand.
4. Ask Questions!
Asking questions is to your advantage. You enable another person feel good about dreams or situations.You may provide an opportunity for someone to reflect on issues that hadn't been considered before. The person may realize you could assist in some personal or professional way. Ask questions to qualify a business prospect, to discover a person's true desires and needs as a friend or confidante. To earn respect, build relations and trust,inquire about the person's priorities, stand back and let him or her talk. Take an interest in discovering their personal interests and motivations. Show the person how you can empower him or her to reach goals.
5. Seek out the key issue
Identify key issues that impact someone's decision-making. As you inquire, learn to seek to learn about the person's primary concerns. Demonstrate how you relate, empathize and or could help. In which ways would this person become more flexible? How might you be able to assist?
6. Listen
Learn to open your ears and read behavior to interpret and intuit feelings of others. Experience offers you opportunities to become a more effective listener. Societies may teach us how to hear, but rarely teach listening. Rather than permit ideas to go in one ear and out the other, tap into all your senses and retain details. Learn to read gestures and voice tones to understand more comprehensive ideas or a person's underlying feelings about an issue.
7. Deserve Confidence
If you say you're good at what you do, draw from the coinciding reputation. If you feel you're competent, refer to testamonials. It's useful to inquire what people have heard about you before you introduce compliments or advantages to what you offer. It's wise to always agree with objections, expand on the proper context and ask the person to whom you're speaking what he or she would've done in your circumstances. Take responsibility. Be accountable and take steps to build on your existing reputation by empowering other people to comment more than you. As you take opportunities to learn, you will earn and reinforce confidence.
8. Know Your area
Regardless of what you think you know, you can always learn. Remain humble. What do you read or investigate? How do you become involved in life and learning? How do you learn about yourself from other people? How do they learn from you? Ask other people how they might advise you.
9. Appreciation & Praise
We impact how things happen,shape quality and reputation. Compliment your competitors and agree with people who compliment the competitors. You can always take time to turn a situation around with a question. Ask people what they see as desireable advantages. Empower them to tell you what they want or hope. Respond in ways that show your best side and benefit others.
10. Smile & Laugh
A smile is powerful. What you say is strenghtened by a sincere smile. This gesture, without comment, captures attention and invites positive feelings. Smiling as you speak doubles your success. When have you laughed? Children laugh on average 100x more than adults per day. Remind yourself that being serious is not as good for your health and learning to be light-hearted.
11. Remember Names & Faces
Many "formulas" exist to help you recall details about people. Mental rhyming, mneumonics can be helpful. Why not explore other strategies, including writing details down? Alan Pease wrote a great book called "Easy Peasy" which covers strategies that help jog and reinforce your memory.
12. Relationships
Devote time and attention to your relationships, and nurture new ones. One of your best sources for new business, information and resources is your current network.You can always benefit in new ways from people you know. They can also benefit from you. What are you doing about it?
13.Action
If you desire to accomplish anything, talking about it isn't enough. You must take steps to plan, talk about it, and actually implement a process to make it happen. As you evolve to become more results-oriented, you realize the importance of getting up and performing tasks to earn results. Nothing comes from nothing.
Reader Comments (5)
Regardless of your focus, the trial and error method can indeed be effective. The key is to define what success means to you and then, structure feasible strategies to make it happen. Refer to people with proven track records. Seek mentoring from people who inspire and guide your progress. I would encourage you to consider your options, share your own stories, and take active steps to realize your own dreams.
By the way, your page's formatting is messed up in Firefox -- it shows your post hugging the footer with a huge white spot at the top.
I do not use Firefox. Internet Explorer (IE) presents my webpages quite clearly. If you can access a PC with IE, you might check it out to see if you discover a difference. I will mention your remark to the site administrator.