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Stop Selling! E-Zine - Issue No. 42 /August 2008

Dear Reader,

Do you like things for free? If you are like most people, you probably get curious when something is offered without any charge.

Is there really something like a 'free lunch'?

What about the impact of going from fee to free on your company's image? There is a famous recent case with one of Hong Kong's newspapers who went into that direction.

William's article below describes another case where a competitor suddenly offered a service for free and shows what's the adequate response.

I trust you'll find it interesting and relevant.

Let’s keep progressing!

Charlie Lang
Executive Coach, Trainer and Founder of Progress-U Ltd.
Author of The Groupness Factor

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Let’s talk about Olympics.

Let’s talk about the two greatest stories in the making before this year’s Olympics. 

There have been so much hype and expectations on Michael Phelps of the United States and Liu Xiang of China.  Both of them are great stars in their own arena.  Both of them were very successful during the last Olympics in Athens four years ago. Since then, both of them have drawn huge attention.. Both are under unbelievable pressure to perform and have been performing well in the preparations for this summer.

However, it does not matter what they have done since; the world would only remember what they would be doing in August 2008.  The world would be watching.

Both of them are expected to do well in Beijing, no matter what. 

In business, we frequently run into situation after situation wherein we just need to perform at that critical moment. We have to get that sales contract. We have to retain our best customer. We have to be there. It seems that there will be no alternatives. It is do or die.

Or is it really that critical? We ask ourselves. Are we going to die if we fail?

Sure, it will be nice to get that sales contract. It will be nice to have that customer on our list.  Nevertheless, life goes on. It is not the end of the day. We are sure that the sun will come up next morning again. 

We start to come up with all kinds of excuses, even before we start preparing for the event. We call this “pressure releasing”. Well, we can always have other contracts, we have other customers, and sometimes it is just our fate to fail. The products are not as good and prices are not as low. We will have our teammate to blame, and we might not be feeling well during that moment, and so on.
 
And you know what? In most cases, we actually FAIL if we have already prepared to do so.

Of course, we will not be successful every time. Nevertheless, if we are not committed to ourselves wholeheartedly, chances are SUCCESS will be not be committed to us.

Reaching the goal then should be the only objective. CONFIDENCE is what we call the element needed bring us there.

Confidence can be described as a state of being certain, that we can be there, or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective to bring us there. Confidence can be described as a subjective, emotional state of mind.  It is also represented statistically as a confidence level within which one may be certain that s/he will be  successful.  Confidence is usually what differentiates us from our competitors. It flows and penetrates.  It brings power, and it brings authority. It shows in our communications with our customers It is our trust in ourselves: our products, our services, and our promise. It inspires our tone, our eyes, our gestures and our body languages.  It affects the way we present.  It affects the way that we shake hands, and it affects the way we do things. 

It is also highly contagious.  It spreads out not just to us but also others as well.  It excites our teammates, and it definitely excites our customers. It also deflates our competitors if they already have doubts in themselves. The bottom line is if we do not believe even in ourselves, imagine why a customer should believe in us.  Confidence is our assurance to meet the goal. The desire to be successful is the driving force.      

We ask ourselves: are we going to win? We tell ourselves: we are going to win.

If we are certain that we going to win, then we will consume all avenues to make this happen even if we are facing road blocks and adversities. 

Confidence will not always bring us there, but lack of confidence will almost ensure that we will not be there.

Now we are going back to that critical moment: is it do or die (well, the sun will come up tomorrow morning anyway)? We have two salespersons to choose from.  Both of them have been doing well. It seems that they are both prepared. They both have the capability of winning. We ask both of them the question: how do you deal with the upcoming situation.

One of them said, “My goal is to win the eight contracts. I am going to break the sales record.”

The other said, “This is just a game. I will try my best.”

The rest is history.

 “Winning is not everything; it is the only thing.” 

Vincent Lombadi, former coach of the National Football League’s Green Packers of the United States

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