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She writes, “I want happiness for the rest of my life.”

She’s in grand company. Who doesn’t want happiness? Okay, maybe she’s greedy for wanting it for the rest of her life, but there are far worse things to wish for.

Sorrow, sadness and failure have been on my mind recently…brought about by the people in my life who are suffering. And brought about by my own sadness and sorrow. Sure, I often experience disappointment, failure and my fair share of gloominess. But lest you feel today’s show is a depressing affair (it’s not), I think these things are part of a happy, productive and wise life.

There’s a benefit to difficulty, challenge and obstacles. They help us grow stronger. They build within us greater resolve. So many areas worthy of conversation, but today I simply hope to provoke you to think and consider a few things that may help you push forward toward the life you want most. Even if what you want most is happiness for the rest of your life. 😉

Would you do me a favor and take a few minutes to leave a review over at iTunes? I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for listening,

P.S. As inviting as that photo is, would you really want to spend the rest of your life at that table? Might get boring pretty quick, huh?

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Skype, GoToMeeting, Apple FaceTime…there are so many ways for us to virtually connect with prospects!

Face-to-face selling for many organizations has given way to these methods. It’s convenient. It’s inexpensive. Prospects and salespeople both are actively gravitating to these methods to connect.

Some challenges confront us when we connect virtually. Facial expressions and body language give us cues in face-to-face meetings. In virtual meetings we have to listen for verbal cues. Misunderstanding and miscommunication are quite common even when the technology works as it should.

Recently I’ve encountered sales presentations that broke rules necessary to complete a sale. Our objective should always be to create a happy customer! How can we accomplish that if we can’t provide a degree of happiness during that crucial prospecting phase?

A few days ago I read this article online at Inc. Author Geoffrey James writes about 10 common mistakes he thinks salespeople commit in face-to-face selling. It’s helpful to use his article as a template for discussing the common mistakes made during virtual selling, too.

Some salespeople lack proper communication training. If we’re going to become masterful at selling, we first need to be superior students of selling. The primary component of masterful selling is masterful communication.

Go back and check out these recent video shows on selling:

• Build Rapport Before You Start Selling

• Talk Less, Sell More

• Salesmanship Starts With Finding Out How To Best Serve

• Should You Use Humor In Selling?

Spread the word about the podcast if you know somebody who’d find it helpful.

And lastly, would you take a few minutes to leave me a review over at iTunes. That’ll help others find the podcast.

Thank you for listening,

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download ()

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Download The Audio Or Non-Flash Playback

Her day wasn’t going so well. She was dangling her toes over the ledge, fully prepared to implode – or quit. Frustration boiled over from too many days of chaos. Constant interruptions. Distracted at every turn from doing the work that needed to be done. She’d had enough.

And I asked the question…stopping her dead in her tracks.

He sat across from me lamenting ongoing employee problems. They simply don’t do what he needs. They’re busy solving problems that don’t exist while real problems crop up constantly…without being properly tended to.

And I asked the question…once again, the crickets started chirping.

“How do you want to spend your days?”

We often aim at the outcome we think we’d like, but we don’t often enough consider the daily actions required to achieve that outcome. Thoughtful consideration about how we’d like to spend our time – with an emphasis on our professional/business life – is in order. As with most of life’s important questions, asking is easier than answering.

I want to encourage us to spend time answering the questions. It can help us move forward, even if only by inches. Some days we need to be thankful for inches of progress. But some days, we’ll be able to advance miles. We want opportunities. We want progress. We want improvement. Advancement.

We’re going to fail. Maybe often. So what? Keep swimming. Seth Godin calls it “the dip.”

Everybody experiences a dip. Many of us experience quite a few of them. Keep swimming. Figure out how you want to spend your days.

It only happens when we’re intentional, strategic and methodical. Well, at least part of our time needs to be characterized by those things.

Mentioned in today’s show:

• Jeff Dunham: The Birth of a Dummy (a Biography channel show)

• Jeff Dunham finally got on Comedy Central, but only after he went out on a big limb.

• Net News Wire (a terrific RSS reader that integrates with Google Reader)

Leave me a comment. I’d love to hear what you think.

Connections come from being able to relate, communicate and understand each other. Sometimes it happens effortlessly. Other times we have to really strain to make it happen. Then, there are those occasions where it’s just not going to happen…unless we intervene and do something constructively.

Salespeople have to be willing to go the extra mile for it…or risk losing all hope of creating a customer. Rapport building is a skill. It can be learned. Don’t spend all your time learning about your product or service. Rarely do we decide to do business with people who have the most product knowledge. We do business with people we can relate to well, people who understand us and people we feel we understand. It all leads to like-ability – rapport. You know the definition of rapport, don’t you?

harmonious or sympathetic relation