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Visualization Plus Journaling Equals Sales Magic

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By Deb Bixler

We all know about the power of visualization. Combine that with journaling for direct sales success!

I am often asked about how to write a journal.

When we can combine journaling and visualization with a sense of fun, we can create some very powerful possibilities; and you don’t even need a coach to do this!

It’s a coaching technique you can do by yourself.

To illustrate this, I want you to do a little role-playing, a little visualization in your mind’s eye, and then we’ll sort through the ideas behind the activity.

I’ve chosen a situation from a typical direct sales party plan, but you can easily use the same technique, using a networking business opportunity meeting.

How To Write A Journal: Visualize

Just imagine yourself sitting in an invisible corner of a living room watching a party taking place. Visualize what should be happening to achieve success at the party.

As you sit there listening and watching, your mind starts to wander a little bit.

You say to yourself, ‘wouldn’t this be fun if I could just direct this party like it was a play?’

Visualize Direct Sales SuccessYour mind suddenly starts racing as if a light bulb came on, and you start to think back to everything you can remember about dramatic play productions.

Your mind now shifts into overdrive as you think about the different elements of your production. You think about five dramatic elements too fast almost to even write them down, but then you remember that you were going to write down all of your inspired thoughts. You pause just long enough to scrawl down five words that you’ll revisit later.

You’re getting ready to write in your journal the next morning. You remember your scribbled message and pull it out to look at your five terms. If only you could produce this play!

Write a Journal Of Your Thoughts

Write the pictures in your mind in your journal.

  • Scene: Every play has scenery or a situation within which everything occurs. A dark and stormy night produces a much different production than a sunlit meadow. You think about all of the background that makes up a party and then realize if you had the party set in a different scene, the party itself would often be different. A bingo held at a traditional party is much different than one held with multiple hostesses. You also realize that a lunchtime party is much different from an evening one because the scenery is so different. It’s the same basic party, but because the scene changes, the party changes.
  • Act: Every production has different acts. You giggle as you think about the one act play you almost got involved with in high school. Then you start to think about a party as a drama in three acts, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. You keep going as you realize the party guests expect different things to happen at different stages in the party: introductions, product explanations, your recruiting bid, a question-answer time, and finally the order processing. Getting into this whole thing, you start to think about doing different activities during the different acts because they might fit together better with the audience’s expectations.
  • Actors: Drama just wouldn’t be a drama without people playing their parts. When you hold your demonstrations you’re the main character, but you pause to think about the possibilities. Could I make the hostess and the guests the main characters? Maybe if I was more of a director and let them be the actors, they’d enjoy the experience more. Why do I need to prepare all the samples? Let’s let the guests be the characters who make samples.
  • Props. You’ve never seen a play without all that other stuff being present for the actors to use. You smile as you think of a western gunfight happening without any guns. Then you have a serious moment as you think about how your choices of products influence the rest of the party. Maybe you should tell more about what the host offers to help with your dating bids. Those really are very important!
  • Theme: Think about the different types of theatrical productions that you’ve seen over the years. The melodrama (not at my party, you vow); the comedy (they keep coming back because we have fun) the drama (that hostess and her sister really had a terrible fight); stand-up routines (you grimace as you think about how practice might have helped that one).

Thinking about themes, some synonyms come to your mind like the purpose of the party:

  • Was it to sell?
  • Was it to recruit?
  • Was it to just get together and have fun?

Thinking about your theme also leads you to wonder about key motivations.

Why should the hostess have the party? You always hear directors talking about motivation.

How Do You Visualize Your Attitude?

Finally consider attitude:

Did we all really want to be here? What’s our attitude about this play?

You’ve finished writing in your journal and it’s time to start your day.

You think about those five key terms: scene, act, actors, props and theme and realize you’ve found a new way to think about your demonstrations.

How To Write A Journal? Just Visualize Your Business!

How can you see your activities through the camera’s eye? When you start journaling your visualizations you will begin to see results from the efforts!

We’d love to hear about how you can shift the framework for your visualizations. Please share in the comment section below some of your visions of success.

Author’s Bio: is a direct sales educator who teaches proven systems that work in all direct sales companies. Treat your business like a profession and you will get professional results. Learn more home business systems at: http://www.CreateACashFlowShow.com

How to use online reviews to boost your business

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By Diana Gomez

For small businesses, the world of online reviews can be a scary place – and that’s understandable.

I have friends who cringe as they open their company’s Yelp page, afraid of any negativity they’ll have to face regarding their beloved business. However, what you’ll often find is more compliments than you expected, plus you’ll discover ways to make the reviews help and grow your business.

So you see, reviews can be good for you, no matter how bad they are.

feedback notebook

Here’s what you can take from your online reviews: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Reviews can:

Provide Credibility

People trust reviews. In fact, an online, unbiased review is more trustworthy than a personal recommendation. And believe it or not, readers are often more trusting of a place with both negative and positive reviews rather than one-sided views.

Create Awareness

Building customer awareness is a great advantage of online reviews. At no cost, sites like Yelp and Google Places let customers brag about you to the world. It’s also a platform for current customers to engage with one another with suggestions that could lead to more product purchases.

Give Free Feedback

Occasionally, you’ll have to face the fact that no one, even your business, is perfect. It may be your favorite employee who has caused a customer to take to Yelp and unleash a tirade about their bad experience. But look at it this way: rather than having secret shoppers rate their experience to you, you’ve got regular people doing this – for free. Say two customers in a day complained about a restaurant hostess and her bad attitude. You can make that right. Same goes for any complaint.

Benefit Buying Choices

Knowing what is really working for your business can help navigate you in the market. A negative comment can help tell you what people don’t love as much, just as a positive review can tell you what people want more of.

Improve SEO

If content is king in today’s online world, then reviews should be welcomed by businesses. Google does take reviews into account when ranking, so whether they’re positive or negative, they’re doing you good in the search engines’ eyes. Merely showing that people are actively engaging in your business is proof enough that you’re relevant, and this can only help your ranking.

What should you do if the reviews are negative?

Take care of business – and fast.

Immediately address it online. Ignoring customers’ comments makes it look like you just don’t care. And letting the situation sit and simmer doesn’t help matters either. Address it as quickly as possible for the best possible outcome, and show that you and your company are considerate and well-mannered. Showing that you’re classy will raise people’s opinion of you, which can only be good for the business in the end.

Apologize.

Apologize for their bad experience, and assure them that you’re addressing it appropriately. If it’s super negative with a ton of details, try sending a private message as well. This adds an extra personal touch. Request that they try your product or services again, and once they do, ask if they’ll remove or update the review to reflect their latest, and hopefully positive, experience. If the situation can’t be resolved, be sure to publicly comment on all the steps you followed to address the issue and ensure it won’t happen again.

Fix it.

Don’t just say you’ll remedy it – do it! It’s one thing to get a couple of bad comments on one employee in one day (bad day?), but if a mountain of negativity piles up regarding one person or one particular product, you’ve got some work to do. A large amount of customers can’t be wrong. In this situation, you can actually thank the complainer for helping you maintain a business that satisfies.

Solicit good reviews.

Though a negative review can be beneficial, it can do much harm if it’s your only review. That’s why you have to do your part in gathering good ones by asking your best customers to review you. And yes, that one negative comment will then look far more credible than a business with nothing but rave reviews.

What if the reviews are positive?

Say thanks.

Of course positive reviews can help you out tremendously. Thank the person who’s taken the time to compliment you. Then use their comments to your advantage. Reviews can confirm what you’re doing right and help you look at say, menu items that no one seems to mention at all.

What negative review, in-house or online, helped your business recently? Please share your experiences in the comments!

Author’s Bio: Diana Gomez is the Marketing Coordinator at Lyoness America, where she is instrumental in the implementation of content marketing strategies for USA and Canada. Lyoness is an international shopping community and loyalty rewards program, where businesses and consumers benefit with free membership and money back with every purchase.

Does Your Business Make Subtle Promises You Can’t Keep?

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Making Promises Without Thinking

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Back when every client was a “new” client, I occasionally got caught up in the spirit of doing what I loved with people I like. In quest to give them an outstanding experience, I’d make a promise without thinking about it and fall down when I tried to keep it. Eventually, I learned to think through what I say I can do.

Most of what I’ve learned, I’ve learned by doing something wrong.
I don’t recommend that tactic. Falling down hurts. Falling down on the job often injures customer relationships.
Still doing things wrong it’s a powerful way to learn.

I got a reminder of that this week, when I received an email from a hotel confirming my online reservation.

Be Sure You Can Keep ehe Promises You Make

A fundamental key to credibility and influence is keeping promises. None of us wants to make promises we can’t keep. Broken promises lead to disappointment and disappointment leads to loss of trust. It might be easy enough to catch ourselves when we offer what we can’t deliver. But sometimes we make subtle promises we can’t keep without knowing it. Or can we.

Does your business make promises you can’t keep?
Think not?
I’m willing to bet this company thinks not too.

The promise was simple.
It’s described in this email.

I got this email yesterday from a hotel where I’ll be staying soon. Because I’m waiting to tell them in person when I stay at the hotel, I’ve removed the identifiers from the email. That’s only fair.

Elizabeth Strauss
We look forward to serving you during your upcoming stay at the XXXX Hotel. If we can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to reply to this e-mail or contact us at 416-XXX-XXXX.

Sincerely,
The XXXX Hotel Team
416-XXX-XXXX

As it turned out, I had a simple 5-word question regarding the hotel.
I replied to the email with my question. Minutes later I received an email that said

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

The email made an offer, a promise of service, that I didn’t expect.
I spent time writing an email back.
When I did, they couldn’t deliver on the promise.
I was disappointed.

I know how technology works.
I know that sometimes this happens to everyone.
Perhaps that’s what happened here.

Another story that happened the next day.

I was in a nice department store. It was also a first contact with the business. The sales associate was firmly focused on helping me find boots to fit my hard-fit-feet.

When I got to some that seemed to fit (if the boots stretched just a little), I asked if they had this boot a 1/2 larger, so that I could check that fit against the ones I had on.
She said, “No, I could order them. Wait a minute …” She left for a moment. Then she returned to say that she’d the manager for permission to have a stock person check the ladder-high shelves of unopened shipments to find the boots in my size.

In a great example of service, the manager came over and said we would have to wait for a stock associate to come over from another department. He said, “Can we get you some water and perhaps buy you lunch? This might take some time.”

I asked ‘Are you sure that my size will be in those boxes?”

He said, “Yes, the associate checked the store inventory.” Then in a moment of clarity. He said, “Let me be sure of that.” He approached the associate and after their conversation, the associate returned to say that they didn’t have my size.

Broken promise averted. My time wasn’t spent.

The offer to check the stock WAY up was a subtle promise that I didn’t expect.
The manager investigated before he made a promise.
The undeliverable promise wasn’t made.
I was delighted that they’d tried on my behalf.

Does Your Business Make subtle Promises You Can’t Keep?

Great and growing businesses want to do well for customers. They know that customers are what keep them great and growing. But the first incident has left me wondering if that business lives up to their aspiration of service while the second lets me know that when they say something they mean it.

I was disappointed with the first.
I was delighted with the second.

That’s the ROI of being thoughtful about the promises we make.

How do you make sure your business isn’t making subtle promises you can’t keep?

Keep every subtle promise you make this week.
Keeping promises is irresistible.

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

The Difference Between Wrong and Different

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Learning, Innovation, Collaboration

They Weren’t Wrong

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When I first became an editorial manager, it took me a while to realize that if I asked 25 people to revise a paragraph I would get back 25 versions, each version uniquely worded by the unique editor who did the work. I even did a test.

Not one of the edited paragraphs were exactly as I would’ve done it.

They weren’t wrong. They were different.

Difference Between Wrong and Different

Ask 4 people how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and you might be surprised to find that three of them make a pbj quite differently from the way you do. It’s true. People have at least four ways to make something as simple as that.

Even more interesting is that most people have never considered another way to do it.
And when you suggest a different way, you might hear, “That’s just wrong!”
But every way works. Every way brings about a positive outcome — something great to eat.

For the record, I like my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches grilled.

Rules of how we learned tend to tell us that another way — an other way — is wrong.

Check the etymology, wrong comes from words that mean …
“not right, bad, immoral, unjust”
“crooked, twisted, ”
“that which is improper or unjust.”

The sandwich making method that’s not mine results in the desired outcome without being bad, immoral, unjust. It’s not really crooked or twisted in the true sense of the words. So, other methods aren’t really wrong — they are just different from how I do it.

What about the Rules?

I suppose you could argue that a sandwich “rules” dictate bread and filling.
I have trouble with dictates and the dictators who dictate them.
It’s easy to close our minds and our thinking by sticking too tightly to traditional rules.

Every creative person, every jazz musician understands the value of tradition, but also understands when to stretch to innovate or invent something new.

Then would an ice-cream sandwich — cookies with ice-cream between — be wrong?

I don’t mind if you say it is.
But I won’t agree with that premise.
To me, it’s just different.

Wrong needs more than different to be wrong.
Different isn’t wrong.
It’s just not the same.

Learning, Innovation, Collaboration Thrive on Different

In fact, different is where learning, innovation and collaboration begin. Learning, innovation, and collaboration, thrive on different. They wither when held to the binary judgment of right or wrong. When we begin to see different as neither good or bad, we can get to seeing new ideas, trying new ways of doing what we’ve always done, finding new ways that old things fit together to make new things.

What makes us valuable is our differences — the different ways we think and do things. Celebrate, welcome, and explore the differences we bring to the table. Bring your differences gently and with respect, but please bring your differences. We need them.

Different can be irresistible in the way it pushes us to rethink, rebuild, and grow.
Without different, an ice cream sandwich would never have happened.

We’re all the same in the fact that we’re all different. Don’t hide your difference. Different is not the same as wrong. Different is a value of it’s own. Find the thoughts behind different and get the learning, innovation, and collaboration going. Make a sandwich in a new way.

What’s the most innovative sandwich you’ve ever made?

Be different. Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

DO it Scared

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by Patty Azzarello

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Recently, I keep finding reasons to think about being scared. Or more specifically, getting reminded that being scared is OK.

Successful people spend as much (or more) time being scared as they do feeling confident and comfortable.

The difference is that they do it anyway.

My worst moment…

Here is the story of what might be the worst moment in my career.

I was in my early 20’s and I was a sales engineer. My job was to demonstrate technical products during the sales process.

It was my first week on the job after being trained on one of the two products in our product line. The sales force was not supposed to schedule demos for me for the second (more sophisticated and specialized…”scarier”) product until I had a chance to get the training. So much for “supposed to”…

I found myself in a room of customers who demanded that I do a demo of the product I didn’t know. I told them that I could show them the product, but I wasn’t prepared to do a full demo. So I launched the product and they started firing questions at me. I must have said, “I don’t know, I’ll have to find out and get back to you” at least 30 times. It was humiliating.

Talk about uncomfortable. I don’t think I knew the answer to a single one of their questions. I didn’t even understand the questions. It was painful. I was used to being seen as smart and competent and prepared. I was SO embarrassed. Then it came…

One of the customers said to the sales person in a frustrated, angry tone. ” Why did you bring HER? She doesn’t know anything!”

You know what happened?

I didn’t die.

Yes, it was very painful, and beyond uncomfortable, but it didn’t kill me.
What it did do, was give me a list of 30 important questions customers have about this product.

The next day I sat down with the product manager and asked him to explain to me what those 30 questions meant, and how to demonstrate them in the product.

Within a week I was the second most competent (and in demand) sales engineer to demonstrate that product. By contrast, there were other sales engineers at the company who stayed scared to demo that product, so they never even tried. Their careers did not advance.

Scared is OK

That one experience allowed me to be scared for the rest of my career, but to also know it’s OK. I was genuinely scared every time I got a promotion. I was scared many times in big presentations, meetings or negotiations.

That man’s voice was in my head saying, why did you bring HER. She doesn’t know anything.

But that lesson allowed me to realize:

1. That you can be scared, screw up, even fail, and you will survive.
2. That failure-learning cycle is far more valuable than the safe, not-doing-it approach, where you learn and accomplish nothing.
3. Over time it get’s easier. If you force yourself to act when you are scared, every time it gets easier to act when you are scared.

In brief — do it scared.

Scared and Successful

Ultimately, I was able to be scared, and still perform really well most of the time. My way of working would be to push forward, be scared, and do it anyway.

I still cringe sometimes. I am not perfect. I forget things, and get thrown off sometimes. But now when that happens I always think about what I learn from the minor embarrassment and feedback. It makes me better next time, and forever after. I would not improve without some amount of trial and failure.

If you never put yourself out there, you never get the feedback, practice, insight, and ideas to tune what you are doing to be more successful. You just stay stuck.

And it’s also important to realize that if you mess up a few times in dozens or hundreds of outings, it has no impact whatsoever on peoples’ impression of you. Those moments just fade away as you replace them with the improved, excellent ones.

Fear and Competence

People who are not held back by fear have broken the link between fear and competence.

What I mean by this is that some people when they feel scared, have a tendency to think that is a sign that they are not worthy. They think…

If I am scared and I feel vulnerable, that must mean by definition that I am not good enough to be in this situation.

This is not how successful people think. Successful people break the link and say something instead like…

I feel scared and vulnerable, so it’s going to be harder than I expected to put myself out there. Damn, I guess I have to do it anyway.

It breaks my heart when I see gifted people hold themselves back because they are too nervous to step forward.

One woman in particular I am thinking of did some breakthrough medical research, but was not comfortable being the one to present it. Guess what happened.
The presenter claimed the credit and she got pushed aside. What should have been a breakthrough moment in her career turned into a setback.

The invisible risk

Staying in the background because it is more comfortable, does nothing. It adds no value, you don’t learn, and you fade into the background. In terms of being vulnerable, in reality you are much more vulnerable if you are invisible, than if you are out there.

Being out there and being imperfect, trying to move things forward, and committing to contribute is actually a much less risky way to behave in your career.

Leaders Step Forward

It’s not about being flashy or having a big personality. Leaders drive outcomes and then they communicate about them. Even the most humble, introspective, introverted leaders put themselves out there when they need to. And it is very powerful.

The power comes from showing that you are taking ownership for the outcome of the communication, not from the song and dance. Leaders step forward and show others that they care.

I saw a TED talk by Dr. Brene Brown about Vulnerability and Shame. I’ve included a link below, it’s really worth watching, but I wanted to point out a couple of things that really struck me on this topic of fear and success.

1. Everyone feels vulnerabilty and shame

Everyone. Not just some people. Not just most people. Everyone. If you are human you feel shame (unless you are a psychopath).
So there you have it. Vulnerable or Pshcyopath.

I found that very comforting. To think because I feel scared, I am not good enough, makes no sense – because everyone is in the same boat. Another reason to do it anyway.

2. There is no Creativity or Innovation without fear

There is no success without failure. Great ideas and big successes come from people who are willing try, fail, and keep going. Good ideas stem from bad ideas. Failure is necessary to progress.

Do it scared, and you might get someplace.

The words she uses, which I really like are “Daring Greatly”.

Here is the link to Dr. Brene Brown’s talk “Listening to Shame”.

Her research and her talk are about much more than these two points. It’s worth the time…

What about you?

When have you been scared or failed, built success out of it. Please leave your story in the comment box below.

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Patty Azzarello is an executive, author, speaker and CEO-advisor. She works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. Patty has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello. Also, check out her new book Rise…

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Add more value in your business

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by Patty Azzarello

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Add more value

This is an important topic for all of us, whether you are an employee in a company or have your own business.

The bottom line here is that you can’t wait to be told what adds value, and you can’t count on doing your work the same way to add enough value over time.

You need to figure this out.

You need to educate yourself about what the business values, and then tune your work specifically to deliver more value.

Do more than your job

Your job description is valid for a moment in time — the moment when you start. As soon as you start doing the job, what the job needs to be evolves as the business grows and as the world changes.

If you do your job as written for too long a period of time, you will become out of date. You will begin to lose relevance to the business. You will not be adding enough value.

Don’t wait to be asked or directed

Yes, you need to do your job, but you also to think about how to improve the way your job is done. Don’t give this extra work of figuring out how your job needs to evolve to your to your boss. Sort it out on your own and make a recommendation. (That’s what high performers do).

What adds value?

I have collected some questions that will help you figure out how to tune your job over time to make sure you are adding enough value to the business

1. Who uses my work & what do they need most?

  • Who are the consumers of each piece of work that I do?
  • Do they still use it? Do they still need it?
  • Do they pass it on to others? What do those people need?
  • Can the content I deliver be modified to be more useful or relevant?
  • Can the manner in which I deliver it be improved to be more useful or relevant?

Note: Stop producing work no one cares about.

Check! I know so many organizations that are over-busy producing reports, analysis, or sales and marketing that no one uses. Don’t burn up your time on things that no one cares about. DO actively learn what they find most useful, and tune what you produce to be more valuable.

2. What business outcomes does my work drive?

  • What is the business outcome that happens as a result of my producing this work?
  • How does my work impact profit?
  • Does my work impact quality, innovation, efficiency, competitiveness, cost reduction, process improvement, sales effectiveness…
  • Can I tune my work to create a better or different business outcome?

Note: If you can’t connect your work to a business outcome, you are in danger of not being relevant.

If you are not relevant you are not adding enough value. You need to stay educated on the most important outcomes the business is driving and stay connected with them.

3. What does my work cost?

  • How much does it cost for me to do this work?
  • Can it be done for less?
  • What happens to my work after it’s delivered?
  • What are the downstream costs of the things that I do?
  • Who else does my work cause work or costs for?
  • Is there a way to make my work more efficient for others?

Note: Own improving the outcomes your work causes, not just delivering the work.

Always be finding ways to take cost out. If you produce 50 reports, maybe 20 better reports would do? (Everyone will like 20 reports better than 50!)

If you do things manually or in a chaotic reactive mode, how many people are impacted by this? How can you create a process to streamline the work, make it less complicated, and require fewer touch points, questions, or follow-ups?

4. What has changed?

  • What has changed in the market since I started this job?
  • What has changed in our customers’ business since I started this job?
  • What has changed in our competitors’ business since I started this job?
  • What has changed inside our company since I started this job?
  • Do these changes require a change in the way my job is done?

Note: If you are not evolving your job, you will no longer be qualified when the game changes.

Or you will be doing the wrong job, and your job will get eliminated. Be the one to recommend changing your job to meet the evolving business needs.

5. Growth & Scaling

  • How much has the company grown since I started this job?
  • How much does the company plan to grow in the future?
  • What still works in the way I do my job if the company is much bigger?
  • Which things about how I do my job don’t work if the company is bigger?

Note: When companies get bigger all the jobs change.

You can’t keep using the same way of working. It doesn’t scale. You can be the one to build a new process that will scale, or you can be the one who gets pushed aside by someone with experience at a bigger company.

6. Help others

  • What can I do to communicate better?
  • How can I share more knowledge?
  • How can I teach someone to be more effective?
  • How can I help someone step into a bigger role?
  • How can I help someone believe that something bigger is possible for them.

Note: If you are not helping others, you are not adding enough value.

The other upside is that helping others can put a meaning into an otherwise unfulfilling job. If you are feeling unsatisfied about being in a corporate role that doesn’t make enough difference in the world, help someone. When you help someone else, you change the world for that person.

Don’t wait

I see a lot of people thinking that answering these questions is not part of their job.

You need to decide what needs to get done to drive the future goals and continue to add the most business value.

What do you think?

What have you don’t to add more value in your business? How did you change the way you worked to produce a bigger impact? Please leave your ideas in the comment box below.

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Patty Azzarello is an executive, author, speaker and CEO-advisor. She works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. Patty has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello. Also, check out her new book Rise…

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