The Ultimate Sales Coach

Pick up the phone

One of my colleagues has been struggling with average income for some time. As an Osteopath, this colleague has serviced literally hundreds of clients. Most days, there are huge gaps in their appointment book despite them being a capable, experienced Osteopath with some star clients.

When starting out, Chiropracters receive much more training about how to build a service business, than Osteopaths. Mainly based on Amercian business-building success models, Chiropracters learn about the lifetime value of a client; how to encourage Standing Order payments for client commitment to health; servicing beyond the session; adding value with merchandise and information; how to have conversations that create and retain clients; how to ask for referrals. Generally, Chiropracters are known to be 'better business people' than Osteopaths. You can understand why! So what is the one quickest solution to fix my colleague's problem?

Be ready to change...

Bob Parson's of GoDaddy.com has a fabulous blog called Hot Points - it's very inspirational about building a business and he's written a superb article called "Never Give Up (But Always Be Ready To Change: Turning $15,000 into $64 million & Kissing $64 million goodbye)" - a fairly compelling title I think you will agree!

Click here to read more

It runs in the family

I am fortunate to come from a family of sales people, with stories abound of failures and success. In many ways, it's in the blood ... or at least on the end of the phone whenever I want some fresh advice and insights. My dad, Bob Miller, is quite a character and well known in the Australian media for his cheeky, outrageous outspoken-ness ... he is rarely politically correct, is renowned for being blunt about facts & results and is motivated to shake up the status quo. His sayings and sales mantras have rung in my mind and form the foundation to my own success habits ...

Way of the Warrior

An old Chinese saying reads, "He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior".

And selling is a key area of business where this saying rings true time and time again. My experience is that only by mastering our own values, beliefs and behaviours can we create the kind of freedom and flow in business we desire.

The powerful (and sometimes painful!) truth is that we are responsible for the results we produce (or do not produce) when selling. Excuses may fly around to displace the responsibility for low sales to other people or things. But let's face it. It's the decisions we make every day that contribute to the outcomes we have been involved in creating. Like it or not.

As sales warriors, we strive to master ourselves through the zen of many experiences including ...

• mindful awareness and learning from every day
• setting clear goals to focus our activities: annual, monthly, weekly, daily
• tranforming fear or uncertainty into confidence
• vigilantly creating our winning mindset
• holding ourselves accountable
• managing time and saying 'no'
• learning passionately about and from our environment
• mastering the art of communication

What would you be willing to change today, to practise the way of the warrior in your selling activities?

Effective business cards

I've often had clients who use 'needing to get the cards and letterhead' as an excuse for not getting started on sales. Business cards can be a powerful part of your identify, more often to verify to yourself, then the world, that you actually are a real Property Investor, Change Catalyst or Chocolate Maker. However, don't let a little thing like lack of business cards get in the way of simply getting out there and having passionate conversations that create sales. What does make an effective business card is ...