Are You Satisfied With Your Present Job In Sales?

It is important for you to appreciate that you are not merely involved in sales. Selling is your career. You’re a professional.

There is a vast difference, that you must never lose sight of.

The dictionary describes a professional as someone “engaged in a specific activity as one’s main paid occupation”. It also describes a profession as ” a vocation or calling that involves some branch of advanced learning”.

It is clear that both these definitions are appropriate descriptions of the work in which you are involved and distinguishes you as a professional..

Everyone is involved in selling:

When you come to think about it, everyone is involved in selling in some way or another. Selling is persuasion and negotiation.

Think of a small child and parents in a department store. The child sees a
tempting toy; gains attention by dragging the parents towards the item; then begs the parents to buy the highly desired item.

In return the child promises to reward the parents in a variety of ways.

The promises are tempting: Never to nag again; permanent good behavior; eating vegetables and other appealing forms of behavior.

The child is an excellent natural negotiator and the parents, sold on the idea, agree to keep their side of the bargain!

Or consider the politician, who attempts to persuade constituents to vote for him, promising in return increased benefits. The preacher promises spiritual satisfaction for adherence to a certain moral and ethical code.

Everyone in every calling offers something in return for something else.

There is hardly an aspect of life that does not contain the same elements. The difference between your occupation and that of a doctor, lawyer, dentist, accountant, teacher – to use just a few examples – is the nature of the service being offered.

Never forget you are a professional.

Your occupation is your main source of income. As a professional your occupation required some form of advanced learning. The fact that some professions involve a greater length of time in the learning process is irrelevant.

Like everything in life, your success in your chosen profession depends on your skills.

Of course you already possess certain skills. But like all professionals, you are very much aware how important it is for you to improve your skills.

Selling, as you well know, is a skill. It is a skill that can be improved with training.

The importance of a positive attitude.

Many people involved in sales unfortunately have a negative attitude unworthy of their profession. They feel that in some ways it is not as prestigious as other more glamorous or charismatic professions.

To some extent this has been due to an unfortunate stereotype that has been perpetuated in literature, the cinema and T.V.

The Salesman is often portrayed as an overbearing, or cunning,devious person who will use any means to trick unwary customers to buy a product of dubious quality.

Sometimes the Salesman is depicted as a struggling, loser who drifts from one job to another.

Consider the type of person many people have been conditioned to think of as the “typical” car salesman. This unfortunate stereotype persists.
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Some professional sales people come to accept this completely fallacious, demeaning view of themselves as accurate!

Often there is a tendency to belittle oneself and not attach sufficient importance to the very important role played in our economic system.

As any economist will tell you, nothing could be further from the truth. The salesperson is an absolutely essential cog in the wheel of our democratic, free enterprise system and our capitalist economy.

Without this vital link between the producer and the final customer commerce would grind to a halt.

Compare your career with those of others.

Have you ever stopped to compare your vocation with that of someone involved in what might be considered a more glamorous profession?

A close examination of many occupations will reveal that in many cases the work is tedious, dull, boring and monotonous in the extreme.

I mean no disrespect to the important work carried out by people involved in other professions, but can you imagine yourself having to cope day after day with the physically demanding profession of dentistry for example?

Can you visualize yourself continually examining the teeth of patients, day after day, hour after hour?

I had an interesting experience a short while ago. It re-enforces the idea that not all professions are as attractive and as charismatic as they may seem on the surface.

The son of a friend of mine is an airline pilot with an international airline.

Can you think of an occupation that presents as much glamour and prestige in the eyes of the public?

But in a recent discussion with him I was very surprised indeed to discover that he found his career monotonous and boring. He seriously considered changing his career, even though it would mean a considerable drop in salary.

The rewards of a selling career.

As you will appreciate, everything depends on your attitude to your work. Selling, as a profession can be exciting, stimulating, satisfying and immensely rewarding financially.

Every day presents new challenges. There are no limits to the goals you can set yourself.

You can look forward to each day with eager anticipation. Unlike many other profession it is never boring.

And, as has been pointed out, it is important to continually improve your skills and levels of expertise. The rewards you receive will be commensurate with your effort.

Devote yourself to becoming proficient in every aspect of your profession.
Improve your product knowledge so that you are regarded as an expert in the particular field in which you specialize. There is no end to the possibilities and the challenges.

How To Design Presentation Folders: Four Common Mistakes To Avoid

Presentation folders offer companies a great way to disseminate information to their respective markets while propagating the company’s brand. They help keep marketing materials stay organised and also influence public perceptions about the company. These folders come in many sizes and styles. Standard size is A4, but this may also be made smaller or larger depending on the size of the documents to be placed inside. Pocket designs are also varied; some folders have only one pocket for documents, while others can have separate pockets for CDs and even calling cards. However, even with all these customisation options, many businesses still fail to create attention-grabbing folders. To help companies design a compelling presentation folder, here are the four most common mistakes that they should avoid:

Using folder designs that are too plain or too busy – It’s important for companies to remember that the folder holding their marketing materials can also be used to represent the company. Many people check the content placed on folders before they even proceed to the pamphlets inside; as such, a plain folder is unlikely to entice readers to check its contents because it is not interesting enough. This doesn’t mean, however, that you should fill every inch of the folder’s surface with graphics or text – a busy folder design may repel readers or distract them from understanding the company’s message.

Placing too much text on the folders – Text on the folder should just be enough to persuade readers to check the documents inside – they should not serve as a replacement for the information that the documents hold. More often than not, if you place too much text on the folder, some of the information there will be in conflict with those in the documents, and you may eventually be forced to create a new design altogether just to address the conflict. To be able to reuse your design for many purposes, try to keep text at a minimum.

Using low-quality paper stock – It may seem like such a simple issue, but the type of paper that you use will actually have profound effects on the overall appearance of your folder. High-quality paper stock may absorb ink better and enhance your folder’s overall design. In addition, sturdy materials will also ensure that your folder will be able to withstand stresses from handling.

Choosing the wrong printing service – Many small businesses often choose inexpensive presentation folder printing services to save money. However, do remember that cheap printers are likely to produce sub par results. It’s important to do research on and ask for samples from several printing companies to make sure that you are still getting quality prints while sticking to your budget.

\”How To Use Disinformation To Negotiate Better” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

You set the stage for any negotiation with information. That’s called positioning. The way you present that information, and its content, shape the persona the other negotiator has of your negotiation power, resources, and abilities. #Disinformation plays a vital role in shaping that persona – using it strategically can help you negotiate better.

Disinformation is used in planning wars, corporate espionage, and in the planning stages of negotiations. Think for a moment about the term #FakeNews. What comes to mind? That phrase has become a form of disinformation.

The following is how you can use disinformation to improve your negotiation efforts.

Creating a Disinformation Campaign:

To create disinformation campaigns, start by disseminating information in small cycles first – you want the target to become familiar with it. That’ll make him more susceptible to believing it and the information that follows. Over time, expand it, its believability to the truth, and its cycles. To have the greatest effect on the target, have information disseminated in places that they frequent (e.g. social media post, news outlets, radio, etc.). Doing so will impact their belief as to the validity of the information (i.e. I see/hear it everywhere – so it must be true).

Psychology of Disinformation:

For disinformation to be viable, tie it loosely to the beliefs of your target. People become swayed more easily if they have a preconceived belief about something they accept as already being truthful. So, if you associate your disinformation with their currently held beliefs, they’ll accept your information more readily. The trick is to make your information just within the outer realms of their beliefs. That’s the setup to having them stretch their beliefs as you later present insights further outside of it. Your efforts should become geared to having them expand their beliefs to the point of easily accepting the new insights you present as the truth.

Combating Disinformation:

As you know or may have discovered, disinformation is a powerful mental tool. Thus, while employing it, you must be mindful about its deployment against you.

To improve your plight when disinformation is used against you, ask yourself the following questions.

  1. Consider the originating source of the information. Ask yourself, what belief is this information attempting to form in my mind or in the mind of my supporters?
  2. How was the information delivered? Did it arrive through a source that has proven to be believable in the past? Is that source being manipulated?
  3. What new paradigms is this information attempting to create and who benefits from it?
  4. To what degree are others attempting to alter my perception for the benefit of who they’re serving?
  5. What happens if I ignore the information?

Posing such questions to yourself and your confidants will help you evaluate the information and its potential validity. I’m not suggesting you become paranoid. What I’m suggesting is you not readily accept information at face value as the truth. There are too many ways to get disinformation into today’s environment. Guard the door that keeps it away from you.

Disinformation is used in all realms of negotiation. And, there is a multitude of ways that it’s used. Therefore, the better you become at utilizing it, and knowing how to thwart its use against you, the better you’ll become as a negotiator… and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!