Merry Christmas

Hello everybody,

I just thought we'd take the opportunity to wish you and all your colleagues and family members a very merry Christmas and a fantastic new year.

It is the perfect time to reflect back on year that went by and remember all those people, who made it special. Our world revolves around our friends and family, who have a special importance during the festive season. However, often we forget our co-workers, with whom we spend a large amount of our time. This Christmas, let your co-workers and friends know how special they are to you.

Christmas wishes are the best way to make your co-workers and friends realise how important their support is to you.

May the holiday season open the gate of new opportunity and success for you! Merry Christmas!

All the very best and safe journeys where ever you might find yourself travelling to and we look forward to continuing the success of 2010!

Best Wishes

Dale Carnegie London Team !

You're Fired!

At least one contestant on The Apprentice hears these words each week as over 7 million of us view in to watch the challenges and triumphs they endure.

Last week the teams were split into boys verses girls and were given a list of ten items, a budget and a day to hunt them all down for the best price.

Those of us who love watching human behaviour will have noticed that the boys more or less hit the streets straight away with their Project Managers words of ‘offer them at least 70% less than what they want’ ringing in their ears, whilst the girls sat down with the telephone directories and located the majority of the items before hitting the streets some two hours later.

The outcome was that the boys managed to buy 7/10 items and the girls located and bought all 10. However, even with the hefty fines the boys were given for not getting everything on the list, they still won! Why? Because they negotiated better and some may say harder than the girls!

Negotiation is the most important part of the sales role and can be the hardest, and here are four tips to help you with that process:

There should be three stages of every negotiation.
Learning the other person’s goals and establishing what you want will direct the flow of the discussion. Gather information on the other person and his or her needs by doing your homework. The goal should be to reach a compromise. And both parties should leave the negotiation satisfied.

Work with, not against, others in determining neutrally beneficial solutions.
Try to create a win-win situation. Your customer should feel good about the transaction and you should walk away happy about your sale. Never attempt an offer too quickly; you don’t want to think you could have done better twenty minutes later, nor would you want to leave anything out.

Finalize all agreements.
Don’t depend on working out all the details later. Time pressures cause us to be vulnerable to compromise and human errors as well as the customer backing out later claiming certain points were not discussed. Offer to write up the agreement, if possible. There are always small points that are unclear. When you write the agreement, you define those points.

Follow through.
Do what you said you would do and do it when you said you would do it. Make sure the customer follows through on their end of the agreement.

If you would like further tips then why not come along to our free Sales Advantage session on 6th January. A perfect time to kick start your New Year.

Helen Mills
Financial Controller
http://www.london.dalecarnegie.com/

Attitude

As I sit here in my study the light snow is steadily adding to the 350 cm we have had in the last 48 hours. With daytime temperatures no where near approaching zero I wonder when we will return to some normality.

I could be sitting here raging about the 5 hours delay I had Tuesday evening on a 45 minutes train journey, the postponement of training that is my responsibility with some people travelling the length of the country to attend. Getting frustrated about the new business winning meetings that are scheduled for today and missing my mother's 89th birthday tomorrow will only make me feel worse. Cooperating with the inevitable is essential, not a cop out, its common sense.

Dr Charles R. Swindoll, pastor, writer of over 70 books and regarded as the 25th most influential preacher in the world today, decided that:

“The longer I live, the more I realise the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, or say or do. It is more important than appearance, than giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company.......... a church......... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 per cent what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.”

A vital aspect of Dale Carnegie’s training programmes is that we actively work on shifting attitude to the positive, a can do outlook. Next time you are considering development for yourself or your team make sure you choose the one that has a positive approach to life and not just remedies for taking away the pain.

David Pickering
Sales Consultant and Trainer

www.London.dalecarnegie.com