Forever Workshop Email Campaigns
Forge My Own Selling Methods
Craft My Own Management Theory
Build My Own Business Philosophy
Unlock the Philosopher Within
PRO TIPS from Survey Gizmo
Tags (Categories?):
Mindset (Why?)
Strategy (What?)
Technique (How?)
Execution (Awayre: Brings all three together)
These emails ideally should be about execution. Like in the sales emails. They brings all the tree aspects together in a concentrated shot that the find valuable but will most likely unable execute on their own! So perceived value without helping them.
TOPIC: Making Prospects Comfortable
SUBJECT: Your prospects don’t want to talk about the pictures on their walls.
How do you make sure that your prospects are comfortable when in a conversation with you?
Traditional salespeople are trained to find a common ground with their prospects by commenting on the pictures on their walls or the objects in their offices.
Do you do this? If you do, it’s going to be hard to stand out from all the other salespeople who have come before you in your prospects’ office.
Believe it or not, your prospects have been to the same sales training you have gone to and recognize - subconsciously, if not consciously - the behaviors of a “salesperson.” If they perceive you as a “salesperson,” they subconsciously raise their guard to protect themselves from you.
"These behaviors are a dead giveaway that you are there to sell, not to have a mutually beneficial business conversation."
Your prospects know that all salespeople are trained to dress well, have firm handshakes and gaze deep into their eyes, and comment on the pictures on their wall. These behaviors, to them, are a dead giveaway that you are there to sell, not to have a mutually beneficial business conversation.
Instead, try as much as you can to make the sales event a simple conversation without doing anything that a trained salesperson will do.
Email 1 (Topic: Making Employees Comfortable; Being Approachable and Accessible)
How do your employees see you?
Do they see you as a boss or a mentor? Someone who supervises their work or someone who empowers them to do their best? Someone who micromanages them or someone who gives them what they need and then set them free?
When they see you as the first of these two choices, they will give away some of their responsibility for their work to you, the manager. They will be afraid to make mistakes and do their own thinking. They will give up some of their power to what they perceive as force outside of themselves.
How do you know how they perceive you? One of the ways is to simply ask them.
Either in your next one-on-one meeting or in a group wmeeting with them, ask them, “How do you see me?” You may even ask
Give them a 3x5 card. Write down the following words. And asek them to circle one.
It will make for a pretty good discussion!
+++
An important part of crafting your own management theory is making choices. You choose one set of values over others. You choose one set of behaviors over others. You choose one set of strategies, techniques, and habits over others. These choices can be made incrementally and gradually over time. In fact that may be the best way of making such choices.
An important part of crafting your management philosophy is the idea of making choices. A bedrock of making choices is the values that are important to you. One of the things I do in these emails is to offer you some choices of values that may be important to you. Once you have an idea of your which values are more important to you and which ones are less important, you can then build your management theory to be true to those values.
On example of such values is how how you want to be seen by others. You want to be seen by your employees in a certain way, of course, but also by your higher ups, your collegaues in your company and your customers, vendors, and advisors.
Do you want to be seen as fair or unfair, kind or hard-charging, etc.
If you have watched the CBS show NCIS you will certainly remember Gibbs. He is seen a certain way by his bosses, his team reports, and those that he works with as colleagues. You may argue that this perception of his in the eyes of others did not happen by accident. There is a certain set of values and behaviors that he lives by. This creates an impression of him in the mind of others.
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Execution (Brings all three - technique, strategy, and mindset - in a place of execution).
The role of a manager.
Are You A Part Time Manager?
Is Managing a “Real” Job?
Boss-Employee Dynamic.
Your Employees
DRAFT
What is Your Boss/Employee Dynamic with Your Employees or the members of your team?
Are you seen as a boss or a supervisor or a coach and a mentor?
Are you feared, revered, admired, respected, loved?
The flip side of this issues is how you see your employees.
Do you see them as workers, subordinates, mentees, apprentices, trainees, or minions?
This dynamic will drive your effectiveness as a supervisor and your ability to drive effortless high-performance from your team.
Email 1 (Topic: Making Your Direct Reports Comfortable; Being Approachable and Accessible to Your Executive Team)
What is Executive Presence? Are you approachable or unapproachable? Are you aloof or friendly? Are you accessible or inaccessible? What do people bring you - problems, solutions, strategies, etc. - when they come to you. Do they feel emotionally safe, Do they feel intellectually inspired or cerebrally inspired? Do they feel empowered or helpless? Do they feel negative or positive. Do they feel understood or misunderstood?
Do they feel fearful or bold? Do they feel respectful or disrespectful?
And here is a really important questions: Do you want them to respect you or like you?
One of them is better than the other option. Which one is it for you? What can you do to make them feel empowered, cerebrally inspired and emotionally safe in your presence?
One way to do it is by deeply listening and showing them that you understand what they are saying. When they feel understood and emotionally safe with you, they will build a bond with you that will result - over time - into a deepening feeling of trust, respect and loyalty.
Email 1
PRO TIP 1: Making Prospects Comfortable
Believe it or not, your prospects have been to the same sales training you have gone to and recognize - subconsciously, if not consciously - the behaviors of a “salesperson.” If they perceive you as a salesperson, they subconsciously raise their guard to protect themselves from you. They know that all salespeople are trained to dress well, have firm handshakes and gaze deep into their eyes and comment on the pictures on their wall. These behaviors, to them, are a dead giveaway that you are there to sell, not to have a mutually beneficial business conversation. Instead, try as much as you can to make the sales event a simple conversation without doing anything
that a trained salesperson will do.
TOPIC: A friend of a friend loves to hear himself talk.
SUBJECT: Talking and Listening
If someone said, “pushy salesperson,” what comes to mind? Is it the image of a quite, gentle person or a talkative, overbearing person?
There is a saying in old sales school that goes something like “The more you tell, the more sell.”
Traditional salespeople have been taught to be great talkers. In fact, most pushy salespeople are good talkers and believe their prospects love to hear them talk!
Most pushy salespeople are great talkers and believe that their prospects love to hear them talk.
In a buying situation, the one person that the prospect cares about most is herself. If you want to be perceived as a “professional” (and not “pushy”), your entire focus in a selling situation should be on one person and one person only: the prospective buyer.
Here’s a quick tip: Listen twice as much as you talk.
I call it the one-third/two-thirds rule. It translates into talking 33% of the time and listening 67% of the time. That’s 40 minutes of listening and 20 minutes of talking in a one-hour sales meeting.
And a big part of talking is to prove to them that you have been listening and paying attention: by rephrasing, paraphrasing, and sometimes repeating, what they said.
Email 2
Subject: Talking and Listening
There are three modes of listening: 1) Hyperactive Listening, 2) Passive Listening, 3) Active Listening.
Which kind is best?
One way to earn the respect and trust of your employees and direct reports to make them feel that they are understood. Understanding someone’s point of view and where they are in their lives at certain point in time does not necessarily mean that you agree with that certian point of view. It simply means that you “get” where they are coming from, perhaps even feel some of what they are feeling in a certain situations.
If you don’t have the ability to feel what others feel - or don’t want to, you may still have what I can intellectual empathy. Intellectual empathy is the ability to project intellectually what someone might be going through in a certain situation.
A very important part of understanding is listening. Most people are what I like to call hyperactive listeners - they are always waiting for the other person to stop talking so that they can say what they have to say. They may even be rehearsing what they will say when it’s their turn, while entirely missing what the other person is saying. In my 20 years of experience teaching, training, and coaching, I can definitely say that this is an epidemic. We addicted to talking and not listening. This is true for most cultures and most countries.
Passive listening is often practiced by introverted people who appear to be listening but they are not. The won’t say much and let the other people talk - a lot - they will also not be truly listening. They will be just quiet and appear to be taking it all but not really hearing what’s being said. A lot of talative people love to talk to passive listeners thinking that they are being heard and understood, even when they are not. And most tlakitive people just don’t care! They just want to talk.
The third kind of listening is active listening. In active listening, you are taking in what’s being said but are also reflecting back to the other side, and in effect “proving” to them that are being heard and understood.
Strategy
Email 2
An important part of building your own business philosophy is making certain choices. One of the most important choices you would make is how you show up with other people how people perceive you. It may be called executive presence.
Email 2
PRO TIP 2: Talking and Listening
All pushy salespeople are great talkers and believe that their prospects love to hear them talk! The one person that the prospect cares about most is herself. The salesperson’s entire focus should be on one person and one person only: the prospect. Here’s a quick tip: Listen twice as much as you talk. That’s 40 minutes of listening and 20 minutes of talking in a one-hour sales meeting. A big part of 1/3rd of talking is to prove to them that you have been listening and paying attention: by rephrasing, paraphrasing, and sometimes repeating, what they said.
Presenting and Probing
SUBJECT: Presenting and Probing: Prospective Clients Don’t Care About Powerpoints and Product Demos
If you invited your friends over to your home and showed them your entire family movie collection, how often would they want to visit you?
That’s right, not very often. That’s what most salespeople do with their product demos and their Powerpoint presentations. They are always looking for an angle to present their product or service.
"The time for a "show and tell" is not at the beginning or even in the middle. It's at the end, after the prospective client has been given the opportunity to fully explain their problems and concerns."
Sure, they worked hard to put together that product demo or that Powerpoint deck and there certainly is a time and place for a show and tell.
But it’s not at the beginning or even in the middle of the sales cycle. It’s at the end, after the prospect has been given the opportunity to fully explain their situation and share their problems and concerns.
Email 3
SUBJECT: Presenting and Probing: When your employees to come to you with a problem, they are looking for you to solve it.
They are looking for you to get them in a place - psychologically and intellectually (and sometimes physically) - where they can fix it themselves.
When your employee comes to you with a problem, is your first instinct to fix it? Do you solve it for them or do you ask a series of questions where the figure it out for themselves?
Mindset
Email 3
Email 3
PRO TIP 3: Presenting and Probing
If you invited your friends over to your home and showed them your entire family movie collection, how often would they want to visit you? That’s right, not very often. That’s what most salespeople do with their product demos and their Powerpoint presentations. They are always looking for an angle to present their product or service. Sure, they worked hard to put together that product demo or that Powerpoint deck and there certainly is a time and place for a show and tell. But it’s not at the beginning or even in the middle of the sales cycle. It’s at the end, after the prospect has been given the opportunity to fully explain their situation and share their problems and concerns.
TOPIC: Educating and Drawing Out
SUBJECT: Prematurely educating a prospect can come across as criticism.
When a salesperson talks about a feature of his product, who is the focus of the conversation?
It’s the salesperson and his product or service.
A professional always makes the sales call about the prospect - their fears, their aspirations, their problems and their pains - not about himself, his company or his product or service.
"When you educate prospective clients prematurely and unnecessarily, they feel misunderstood, lectured, or criticized."
The products and services are just a way to fix the prospect’s pains and problems.
The salesperson should be spending most of his time listening to and defining the prospect’s problems and pains, not talking about his product’s features and benefits.
When you educate the prospect prematurely and unnecessarily, they feel misunderstood, lectured, or criticized, just like they have felt with so many other salespeople in the past.
Email 4
SUBJECT: EDUCATING AND DRAWING OUT
Premature educating your employees may seem as criticism.
Do you have a “friend” who is always telling you to lose wait, exercise more, eat right, go to the library more often? If you are good friends, for a while, these may seems caring suggestions. But over time, they may become annoying.
We don’t like to be educated when we are specically looking to be educated. I should know! I have been int he education business for over 20 years! Sometimes we don’t like the education even when specifically ask to be educated. I know that too.
Have you ever asked a friend for an advice and he gave it, you hated her for it?
Same things with solving people’s problems when they have not asked them to be solved.
The reason we don’t like to be educated is because - somehwre deep in the recesses of our minds - we see that education as criticism. And not one likes to be criticised.
An employee will put up your criticism for a while because you sign their paychecks. But secretly, they may resent you for it.
Before educating someone, you must learn hoe to get them in the state of mind where they are ready to be educated. One way to do this is by asking their permission.
DO THIS > Here’s a simple trick: Ask for a permission. Next time you catch yourself launching into a spell of education, catch yourself, and ask them: Can I offer you an opinion? Or Can I make a suggestion? Or Can I suggest a solution? And then wait for them to say “yes!”
Try this out and tell me what happened!
Email 4
Email 4
PRO TIP 4: Educating and Drawing Out
When a salesperson talks about a feature of his product, who is the focus of the conversation? It’s the salesperson and his product or service. A professional always makes the sales call about the prospect - their fears, their aspirations, their problems and their pains - not about himself, his company or his product or service. The products and services are just a way to fix the prospect’s pains and problems. The salesperson should be spending most of his time listening to and defining the prospect’s problems and pains, not talking about his product’s features and benefits. When you educate the prospect prematurely and unnecessarily, they feel misunderstood, lectured or criticized, just like they have felt with so many other salespeople in the past.
TOPIC: Asking and Answering Questions
SUBJECT: How many answers will satisfy a question?
How often, when a prospect asks you a question, and when you answer it, they say, “OK, I am satisfied. I have no more questions?”
That’s right, not very often!
In most cases, when people ask a question, there is a question behind that question. They won’t ask the real question off-the-bat. They will test the waters with you before they get to the real issue.
"In most cases, when people ask a question, there is a question behind that question."
A professional has mastered the art and the skill of drawing out the prospect’s real questions and concerns before they talk about providing an answer or a solution. One way to do it is by setting the tone at the start of the meeting by being an adviser who asks questions, listens deeply, and gently probes to get clear about what’s being asked before answering.
The easiest way to do this is to ask a permission to ask questions right at the start of the meeting.
Try this at the beginning of your next meeting with a prospective client. Ask them, “Would it be okay if asked a few questions to get clear on what’s important to you?” Or some version of it that makes you feel comfortable asking.
Then just move right on with the meeting.
Email 5
Email 5
PRO TIP 5: Asking and Answering Questions
How often, when a prospect asks you a question and when you answer it, they say, “OK, I am satisfied. I have no more questions.” That’s right, not very often! In most cases, when people ask a question, there is a question behind that question. They won’t ask the real question off-the-bat. They will test the waters with you before they get to the real issue. A professional has mastered the art and the skill of drawing out the prospect’s real questions and concerns before they talk about providing an answer or a solution.
Email 6
Email 6
Email 6
Email 6
PRO TIP 6: Problems: Solving and Defining
One of the most common mistakes traditional salespeople make is to jump in with half-baked solutions. This happens when the salespeople don’t go behind the prospects’ questions to fully understand what the real problem is. When solutions are presented prematurely, they are often perceived by the prospects as implied criticism which makes them feel uncomfortable. Because they see the salesperson as the cause of that discomfort, the prospect becomes less likely to do business with that salesperson. A professional fully and deeply understands the prospects’ situation and problems before prescribing solution.
Email 7
Email 7
Email 7
Email 7
PRO TIP 7: How I Feel and How They Feel
Something that almost all salespeople are trained to do is to feel very positive about their products and services. Obviously, it’s ok, even beneficial, if a salesperson feels very positive about her product or service. But she does not have to flaunt it or use to try to infect the prospect with that same feeling.This strategy works in some situations, especially if it’s done with a masterful understatement or deep conviction in one’s product or service. But the prospect has also sat across countless salespeople who feel very enthusiastic about their product or service and try to make the prospects feel the same way, even when - especially when - they don’t feel like it. This makes the salesperson appear pushy: She is literally “pushing” the prospect towards a positive state of mind, towards a “close.” Try to remain neutral about your product or service during a sales call and focus on the prospect’s emotion instead.
Email 8
Email 8
Email 8
Email 8
PRO TIP 8: Dealing with Stalls and Objections
A prospect objecting and the salesperson convincing - in any way, shape or form - sets up the salesperson and the prospect in a confrontational dynamic that erodes the trust and the rapport that the prospect may have for the salesperson. Often, such encounters result in the salesperson saying some version of “I will think about it,” which is yet another form of a stall or an objection. A better strategy for the salesperson is to fall back, acknowledge the objection, even appreciate it, and help them deal with it by asking one or more questions. When their feelings and thinking are acknowledged, they feel understood and are more likely to do business with the salesperson.
Email 9
Email 9
Email 9
Email 9
PRO TIP 9: Yes, No and Maybe
Most salespeople are preconditioned to avoid hearing a “no” at any cost because it is hammered into them that a “no” means failure. When prospects feel that they are purposely being guided towards a “yes” they feel suffocated because they are not allowed to truly express what they feel and think. They feel like their feelings are being trampled upon. A professional gives the prospect every chance to feel, think and express the entire spectrum of emotions, feelings and thoughts. When a prospect feels understood by the salesperson, they bond deeply with the prospect, increasing the likelihood that they will do business with that salesperson.
Email 10
Email 10
Email 10
Email 10
PRO TIP 10: Sales Training and Selling Systems
Do you have a step-by-step “system” or “process” for talking to a friend? If you do, I bet you don’t have a lot of friends! Having a step-by-step method to selling often helps, especially in the beginning when the salesperson is learning how to sell. A system also has certain advantages to the salesperson and his company as it helps them keep score and improve their sales performance. But it can also get in the way of forming a trusting relationship with the prospect if the prospect feels that he is being manipulated into doing something that’s not in his best interest. If you do think that it’s useful to have a selling process or a system, make sure you are building your own that fits your personality and your style so that it does not make you feel awkward or unnatural when talking to a prospect. If you are going through some sales training, make sure that you make the teachings a part of your personality that makes it natural for you to do certain behaviors without forcing such behaviors. The best sales conversation is one where the prospect does not feel that she is a buying party in a selling situation and the other person is a salesperson.
Round 2 (Emails 11 to 20)
Email 11
Topic: Making Prospects Comfortable
SUBJECT:
Email 1 (Topic: Making Employees Comfortable; Being Approachable and Accessible)
SUBJECT: Your prospects don’t want to talk about the pictures on their walls.
PRO TIP 1: Making Prospects Comfortable
Believe it or not, your prospects have been to the same sales training you have gone to and recognize - subconsciously, if not consciously - the behaviors of a “salesperson.” If they perceive you as a salesperson, they subconsciously raise their guard to protect themselves from you. They know that all salespeople are trained to dress well, have firm handshakes and gaze deep into their eyes and comment on the pictures on their wall. These behaviors, to them, are a dead giveaway that you are there to sell, not to have a mutually beneficial business conversation. Instead, try as much as you can to make the sales event a simple conversation without doing anything
that a trained salesperson will do.
How do you make sure that your prospects are comfortable when in a conversation with you?
Traditional salespeople are trained to find a common ground with their prospects by commenting on the pictures on their walls or the objects in their offices.
Do you do this? If you do, it’s going to be hard to stand out from all the other salespeople who have come before you in your prospects’ office.
Believe it or not, your prospects have been to the same sales training you have gone to and recognize - subconsciously, if not consciously - the behaviors of a “salesperson.” If they perceive you as a “salesperson,” they subconsciously raise their guard to protect themselves from you.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“These behaviors are a dead giveaway that you are there to sell, not to have a mutually beneficial business conversation.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Your prospects know that all salespeople are trained to dress well, have firm handshakes and gaze deep into their eyes, and comment on the pictures on their wall. These behaviors, to them, are a dead giveaway that you are there to sell, not to have a mutually beneficial business conversation.
Instead, try as much as you can to make the sales event a simple conversation without doing anything that a trained salesperson will do.
Round 2 (Emails 11 to 20)
Email 11
Email 1 (Topic: Making Your Direct Reports Comfortable; Being Approachable and Accessible to Your Executive Team)
Round 2 (Emails 11 to 20)
Email 11
Email 12
Email 12
Email 12
Email 12
Email 13
Email 13
Email 13
Email 13
Email 14
Email 14
Email 14
Email 14
Email 15
Email 15
Email 15
Email 5
Email 16
Email 16
Email 16
Email 16
Email 17
Email 17
Email 17
Email 17
Email 18
Email 18
Email 18
Email 18
Email 19
Email 19
Email 19
Email 19
Email 20
Email 20
Email 20
Email 20
Round 3 (Emails 21 to 30)
Email 21
Topic: Making Prospects Comfortable
Round 3 (Emails 21 to 30)
Email 21
Email 1 (Topic: Making Employees Comfortable; Being Approachable and Accessible)
Topic: Making Your Direct Reports Comfortable; Being Approachable and Accessible to Your Executive Team
SUBJECT: Your prospects don’t want to talk about the pictures on their walls.
How do you make sure that your prospects are comfortable when in a conversation with you?
Traditional salespeople are trained to find a common ground with their prospects by commenting on the pictures on their walls or the objects in their offices.
Do you do this? If you do, it’s going to be hard to stand out from all the other salespeople who have come before you in your prospects’ office.
Believe it or not, your prospects have been to the same sales training you have gone to and recognize - subconsciously, if not consciously - the behaviors of a “salesperson.” If they perceive you as a “salesperson,” they subconsciously raise their guard to protect themselves from you.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“These behaviors are a dead giveaway that you are there to sell, not to have a mutually beneficial business conversation.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Your prospects know that all salespeople are trained to dress well, have firm handshakes and gaze deep into their eyes, and comment on the pictures on their wall. These behaviors, to them, are a dead giveaway that you are there to sell, not to have a mutually beneficial business conversation.
Instead, try as much as you can to make the sales event a simple conversation without doing anything that a trained salesperson will do.
Round 3 (Emails 21 to 30)
Email 21
Email 22
Email 22
Email 22
Email 22
Email 23
Email 23
Email 24
Email 24
Email 23
Email 23
Email 24
Email 24
Email 25
Email 25
Email 25
Email 25
Email 26
Email 26
Email 26
Email 26
Email 27
Email 27
Email 27
Email 27
Email 28
Email 28
Email 28
Email 28
Email 29
Email 29
Email 29
Email 29
Email 30
Email 30
Email 30
Email 30