Thursday, August 3, 2017
Monday, October 17, 2016
The Best Vacations for Couples in the USA
No matter what you and your significant other think is the perfect vacation, the immense variety of the United States offers a spot for you to relax, recharge and enjoy each other's company. There's no one "best" vacation to fit all preferences, but whether you want to lie on a beach, cuddle in a mountain cabin, enjoy the great outdoors or stroll through a city to a gourmet restaurant, the two of you can make memories to last a lifetime by exploring all that America has to offer.
6 Days In A Luxury Cabo Resort With Unlimited Meals & Drinks For $349 Per Couple
bookvip.com/Cabo+ResortsNortheast
Millions of tourists visit New York City every year, with good reason: gourmet restaurants, world-class hotels, museums, clubs, shopping and iconic sites to visit. Hold hands with your partner on the top of the Empire State Building, stroll through Central Park or take the ferry to Staten Island for a view of the Statue of Liberty. The CBS Local website recommends The Chatwal (thechatwalny.com) and NYC.com lists the Bryant Park Hotel (bryantparkhotel.com) among the many romantic hotels available in the city. The Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania combine natural beauty with resorts designed for romantic getaways, including the Cove Haven Resorts (covepoconoresorts.com/rooms), where you can find heart-shaped whirlpool tubs for two, as well as dancing, golf, hiking and horseback riding. Another traditional couples destination is Niagara Falls; gamble the night away or indulge yourselves with the couple's massages and facials in the spa at the Seneca Niagara Resort and Casino (senecaniagaracasino.com); for a cozy bed-and-breakfast experience, stay just 500 feet from the falls at the historic Red Coach Inn (redcoach.com), with champagne and red roses included in one of the special romance packages. Take a fall foliage tour or a winter skiing trip in New England, snuggling before the lobby fire at the North Conway Grand Hotel (northconwaygrand.com) in North Conway, New Hampshire. Nearby you can shop at outlet stores or from spring to fall, take a ride on the Conway Scenic Railroad (conwayscenic.com/) through the White Mountains.
Southeast
If a romantic getaway means strolling on a beach with palm trees waving in the warm breezes, the Florida Keys offer all that and more. For the ultimate in secluded luxury, visit the resort at Little Palm Island (littlepalmisland.com), where you can dine privately on the beach and return to find your bungalow prepared with candlelight, rose petals, champagne and strawberries. Take a horse-drawn carriage ride through the cobblestone streets of historic Charleston, South Carolina. Look out over the harbor while staying at the HarbourView Inn (harbourviewcharleston.com), one of Conde Nast's Gold List Award hotels; book a room with a working fireplace and venture forth to visit nearby antique shops. A romance package welcomes you with a dozen roses and offers turn-down service with rose petals and sparkling wine, as well as continental breakfast delivered to your room.
Midwest and Central States
Slow down the pace and focus on each other during a six- to 14-day Mississippi River cruise. The American Queen (americanqueensteamboatcompany.com) travels from Minneapolis to New Orleans, visiting such ports as St. Louis and Hannibal, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; and Vicksburg, Mississippi. The steamboat features Victorian decor; relax in your stateroom and on your private balcony, or enjoy nightly dancing, music, gourmet dining, lectures from an historian, shore excursions or spa treatments. Get away from it all in Tennessee and enjoy stunning views of the Smoky Mountains while staying in a luxurious log cabin (resortsandlodges.com) with a fireplace, hot tub and rocking chairs on the porch. In the Pigeon Forge and Gaitlinburg area, you'll be near the Dollywood theme park and plenty of dinner theater and music shows, as well as such outdoor attractions as hiking, ziplining and white-water rafting.
Mountain States
High in the Rocky Mountains, Aspen, Colorado, offers winter sports such as skiing, snowmobiling and snowboarding, as well as cool, comfortable summer weather and an upscale, artsy town. The Sky Hotel (theskyhotel.com) features king suites with gas fireplaces and jetted tubs; guests can use the 24-hour fitness center or book a spa treatment and then head for the evening wine hour and Chef Shawn Lawrence's take on local ingredients for dinner at the 39 Degrees Lounge. The Resort at Paws Up (pawsup.com) in Greenough, Montana, is a luxury resort on a working cattle ranch. The two of you can stay at a private home or in a camping tent -- with an en-suite bathroom and a camping butler. Take a private horseback or a horse-drawn wagon ride, indulge in a couple's massage or enjoy fire and fondue for two, as well as wine tastings and chef's demonstrations.
Southwest
The desert southwest offers stunning sunsets to wind down your day; consider one of Concierge.com's World's Sexiest Resorts, the Hotel Valley Ho (hotelvalleyho1-px.trvlclick.com) in Scottsdale, Arizona, with its midcentury decor. Soak in a tub for two, schedule a spa treatment, reserve a private poolside cabana and have chocolate-dipped strawberries or handcrafted truffles delivered to your room. Hawaii abounds in lush resorts where couples can relax; Travel and Leisure's website lists the Four Seasons Resort Lanai at Manele Bay (fourseasons.com/manelebay) as one of the United States' 10 Most Romantic Hotels. Take surfing or hula lessons, play golf or tennis, scuba dive or snorkel, renew your vows or create your own signature perfume before retreating to your private terrace for a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean.
Northwest
Napa Valley in northern California is one of the most popular romantic destinations in the United States, with rolling hills of lush vineyards. Take a wine tour, see the countryside by bicycle or horseback, or ride in a hot-air balloon for an unforgettable experience. The Knot website notes that the best weather is from August to November. Stay at the luxurious Auberge de Soleil (aubergedusoleil.com), as famous for its restaurant, overseen by Chef Robert Curry, as for the French-inspired inn. A completely different experience awaits lovers in Alaska, where the "New York Times" notes that you can enjoy the luxury of solitude by renting one of the state parks' public-use cabins (http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/cabins). Some cabins are on lakes or saltwater beaches -- go fishing for the ultimate in fresh dinner -- and most are accessible only by plane, boat or hiking trail. You'll be roughing it while taking in majestic scenery, such as glaciers and waterfalls, as well as possibly sighting bear, seals, bald eagles and other wildlife. This far away from it all, you may be able to hear nothing but each other's heartbeats.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
THE RITZ-CARLTON RESIDENCES, WAIKIKI BEACH
The endless Pacific stretches before you, a vibrant Waikiki surrounds you, legendary service awaits you—this is The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Waikiki Beach. Stylishly appointed and luxuriously expansive, every residence gives you an exceptional view of Waikiki that, once experienced, you will return to again and again.
A New Horizon in Waikiki Luxury
The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Waikiki Beach represent a new horizon of Hawaiian luxury. By bringing together the exclusive experiences of a stylish residential resort with the craft of inspired hospitality, The Residences connects you to a luxuriously elevated experience of Waikiki.
Stylishly Appointed and Expansive Residences
The resort features 307 fully serviced and stylishly appointed studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom residences along with penthouses, all of which are ocean facing, providing you with an unparalleled view of the Pacific Ocean.
Distinctive Services and Unrivaled Amenities
Discover a vast array of distinctive experiences and amenities at the resort, along with legendary Ritz-Carlton service. Whether you prefer a private cabana at the infinity pool or a world-class treatment at the resort spa, an unforgettable journey awaits you.
Extraordinary Culinary Journeys
The resort features a fine selection of dining experiences that offer an adventure for the senses. Innovative and varied, dining at the resort transforms meals into an memorable epicurean experience.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Discover Jamaican Culture - FEEL THE RHYTHM
FEEL THE RHYTHM
LEARN HOW WE TRADITIONALLY EXPRESS OURSELVES IN MUSIC
In Jamaica, there’s always a reason to dance. Whether you’re celebrating, or just walking down the street, you’ll find us Jamaicans swaying to the beat. Find out where our moves come from.
In Jamaica, dancing is part of our daily lives. We dance everywhere and for all occasions - for worship, cultural celebrations, formal events, social gatherings and to tell stories. When there’s music, our hips start to sway, hands clap and the whole family from young to old, move to the island beat.
If you treat yourself to an evening in a local club or HQ, you’ll discover many new dance moves. You can bet that every time you visit Jamaica, there will be a new style to try.
The Edna Manley School of Dance, the National Dance Theatre Company and other well-known groups keep Jamaica’s dance tradition alive with regular shows. Often the themes of their performances explore the works of Jamaican composers and artistes. They have received both local and international acclaim, exposing our dance forms to our people and the world.
For us, dancing is about expression and we recommend that you try a few moves whilst on holiday. To live is to dance, so enjoy!
http://www.visitjamaica.com/feel-the-vibe/culture/dance
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
THE KAHALA HOTEL & RESORT
Grand Island Style
Graciously designed for the luxurious jetsetter, each of the 338 rooms and suites overlooking the majestic Pacific Ocean and Ko‘olau Mountain Range is elegantly appointed to reflect a grand island lifestyle. For the ultimate Kahala experience, the four expansive suites of The Kahala Signature Suite Collection await.
Imaginative Island Cuisine
Classic, yet uniquely contemporary, The Kahala Hotel & Resort’s five award-winning restaurants offer exceptional dining experiences with masterful and innovative cuisine, using Hawai‘i’s bounty from land and sea, paired with global influences.
Transformative and Blissful Escape
Embark on an unparalleled journey. The Kahala’s award-winning spa offers bespoke treatments that incorporate elements of native Hawaiian healing methods, delivering a transformation of the mind, body and soul.
Unprecedented Experiences for Timeless MemoriesWhether you’re seeking a romantic oceanfront dinner à deux under the stars, an educational session with our Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, or undisturbed yoga meditation while floating in the Pacific Ocean, a vast array of distinctive experiences await you at The Kahala.
How to Be More Organized, Productive and Effective
Organizing Your Life So You Can Live It
Are you busy? Or are you productive? Do you have too much to do and not enough time? Do you feel stressed out because you have put in a long day. And still haven’t completed the important things? Are you running your business? Or is it running you?
The comment is heard frequently, “I don’t have time to organize.” We save paperwork because there are some great ideas we might need one of these days. But we never get to it, and the piles of paper continue to grow. We shuffle, search through and stress over it, yet we don’t take time to stop and establish a system that works. Getting organized is vital because it cuts through confusion, promotes productivity and enhances effectiveness.
The truth is, it takes a lot less time and effort to be organized than it does to be disorganized. Disorganization takes more time than you can imagine and places huge obstacles in the path of getting things done. By becoming more organized you can complete more work in less time and with less effort.
The only prerequisite to getting organized is the desire and willingness to change. Instead of saying, “I don’t have time to organize,” start thinking just the opposite: “I will organize to have time.” Changing your thinking is the first step to getting organized. In fact, if you organize your thinking, becoming organized will follow naturally.
How Do I Start to Get Organized?
More productive and effective time on the job sounds great, but is your real problem simple disorganization? Perhaps you’re not sure where to begin. Or maybe you are feeling overwhelmed. Here are a few guides to get you started:
- Visualize. In an environment plagued by chaos and haphazard schedules, you can feel to frazzled and unfocused to set and reach goals. If your head is filled with clutter, you can’t organize your thoughts. Imagine, for a moment, how wonderful life is going to be when your environment is clutter-free and organized. Focus on the desired outcome, not the effort.
- Get Started. What’s bothering you the most? This is usually the best place to begin. If you hate that pile of papers or mail in your inbox, start there. If you’re getting stressed that you can’t fit another item in your desk, then you’ve found the perfect starting point. The important thing is that you just start somewhere. Organize your environment by removing the small irritants that hinder your achievement. Rather than thinking about the huge project ahead, break that project down to little bite-sized, manageable pieces. Get it started. Take the first step, and you will likely continue it to completion.
- Write It Down. Now it’s time to go beyond wishing and dreaming. For a few days write down each thing you do and how much time you spend on it. Once you’ve identified your main time wasters, create an ideal schedule. Assign time slots to tasks you do every day. You’ll be less likely to let one job expand at the expense of others. Writing things down helps you to more easily remember all that you accomplish.
- Do Daily Planning. It is said that people do not plan to fail, but a lot of people fail to plan. Take the time each night to manage one of your most precious resources: the next twenty-four hours. Write out a To Do list for the following day. Without a plan for the day you can easily get distracted, spending your time serving the loudest voice rather than attending to the most important things that will enhance your productivity. A schedule doesn’t close you in a box. When you plan well it allows you to prioritize with balance, be ready for the unexpected and choose what is most important to produce the results you want.
- Avoid Distractions. Work on only one item at a time. Remove all other projects from your desk to avoid distractions. Time is lost sorting through other items while you‘re working on one.
- Clear the Clutter. We all need to cut back, cut out and cut down. The vast majority of us simply have too much stuff. When you bring something new into the office try to eliminate something else. Give away old computers, furniture and equipment to the young businesses in your area, your local schools or not-for-profit organization. Donating will discourage hoarding and provide you with the satisfaction of knowing you have helped others.
- Reward Yourself. Make something you want or love to do dependent on the completion of a certain task. If you promise yourself that you will not watch your favorite television show tonight unless you work for 15 minutes on organizing your products, you’re sure to get hat small task finished. No cheating allowed. A little extra motivation is often enormous help!
- Maintain Balance. Your life consists of Seven Vital Areas: Health, Family, Financial, Intellectual, Social, Professional and Spiritual. You spend different amounts of time in each area every day. But if you are spending a sufficient quantity and quality of time in each area, then your life will be more balanced. Ignore one or more of these areas, and you will get out of balance. Fail to spend time on your health, and you may develop an illness later on. Ignore your family, and it may cost you a lot of time to repair relationships in the future.
If you can recapture a wasted hour here and there and redirect it to a more productive use, you can make great increases in your daily productivity.
Without organizational skills you waste time. With limited time you find it difficult to get organized. This is a viscous circle that robs talented people of the life they want. People who are organized are getting the best out of life. They are getting things done. They’re achieving their goals. They’re finding the time they need to do the things they love and to spend time with the people they care about. As you put these organizational tips into practice you will become more productive and effective in all you do.
The Top Ten Time Wasters
- Shifting priorities.
- Telephone interruptions.
- Lack of direction/ objectives.
- Attempting too much.
- Drop-in visitors.
- Ineffective delegation.
- Cluttered desk/ losing things.
- Procrastination/ lack of self-discipline.
- Inability to say “no”.
- Meetings.
Next Stop Vegas!!!
Next Stop Vegas!!!!
Best Day Trips from Las Vegas
Helicopter to the Grand Canyon (or just to Red Rock)
Hike the Valley of Fire
Kayak Hoover Dam
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Six steps to defining your target market
Whether you sell washing lines or wiper blades, you need to understand your customer if you want to maximise your sales. Who are you selling to? Why should they buy your product? What do they stand to gain? Grant Leboff, principal of Sticky Marketing Club explains how you can identify your target customer
1. Understand the problems that you solve
The starting point in defining the target market for your proposition is to understand the problems that you solve. Once you have a good idea what these are, you can start to work out who is most likely to suffer from these problems.
2. Paint a picture of the customer
Start to list all the different types of customers that suffer from the problems you solve. Once done, you can start to build up a picture of these customers. Group them by location - for example, high net worth individuals tend to live in certain postcodes. Group them by market sector - are they manufacturers, recruitment agents, and so on.
Ask yourself other types of relevant questions about these people. Are they married? Are they male or female? Do they play golf? Define them in as many relevant ways as possible.
3. Who will gain from the value in your offer?
Ask yourself:
- To whom will these problems be most troublesome?
- Who will have the most to lose by not dealing with these issues?
If you can demonstrate that the cost of NOT sorting out the problems is GREATER than the cost of dealing with them, then your case becomes compelling.
Remember to take into account aspects like emotional upheaval, stress and the risk to reputation when implementing your solution, as well as a bottom line cost. It is all these factors that make up the value in your offering.
4. Think about your market
Today we live in the world of niche. For example, we are no longer prisoners of television schedules. We can watch what we want at our convenience from almost anywhere in the world; meaning every person can enjoy a unique viewing experience.
The web is fantastic at delivering personalised products and services, cutting out many of the distribution challenges that previously existed.
It is these factors that mean it is a more effective strategy to be a big fish in a small pond rather than the other way round. It will be easier to build your reputation and gain referrals. You will also find you get more from your marketing endeavors.
Therefore, with the previous knowledge gained, start to segment your market. Do you want to work:
- with particular types of people - high net worth individuals, men, women, golfers, and so on?
- in certain geographical locations - Peterborough, The North West, and so on?
- around tight market sectors - manufacturers or accountants, and so on?
5. Look internally at your company
One way of deciding on the right markets to pursue is to think about your company and your business.
- Do you have particular areas of expertise?
For example, have you a lot of experience in particular markets, such as working with lawyers?
- Do you have unique knowledge of a specific geographical area?
- Are you better at getting on with certain types of people?
All these factors could help you establish a particularly attractive offering.
Take an accountant working alone in Manchester, for example. For a start, working all over the country is probably not practical. They may therefore decide to only work with clients in the North West.
It may be that before going alone they worked in-house for a couple of different entrepreneurial businesses. Therefore, the accountant may decide to make their marketplace 'Entrepreneurs in the North West'.
Suddenly, if you are an entrepreneur in the North West, this is an accountant probably worth knowing. By solely working in this area they are more likely to introduce you to the right people and have more market knowledge of schemes and funding available to entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile, by concentrating in this marketplace, the accountant knows which websites to look at and belong to, which publications to read and possibly write for, and which networks to attend. Within this market it will be quite easy for the accountant to become known. Without limiting their market it would almost be impossible to know where to start.
6. What else is available?
Once you have decided the answers to some of these questions you must look at the market to see what else is available. The question you must have an answer to is:
- Why am I uniquely placed to solve the problem?
It may be that for some marketplaces there is no answer. However, in certain sectors or geographical locations there may be a compelling response to that question.
If you are unable to answer the question, you either have the wrong target market or the wrong offering. In this case, more work will need to be done before you start targeting your potential customers.
Identify Your Ideal Client - Don't Sell Yourself Short
ICA = Ideal Client Avatar
People often times get fixated on what services they are going to offer or what product they are going to sell. They focus so much on what they are selling that they forget WHO they are selling them to.
YOU CAN'T JUST SELL TO EVERYONE!!! If you're selling to everybody and talking to everybody "You're really Talking To NOBODY" You have to be specific as to who you are reaching out to and know who your services are for.
It's important to know your ICA if you are selling to everyone, and you have this wide net, you are going to get what you get. You have to look at is as fishing you are literally going to get everything that comes in your net some of which is Absolutely No Good. It may not be someone who is actually not interested or wanting your services. The best way to weed these people out is by being selective. In order to be selective you have to know who your ICA's are to begin with. The best way to determine who you ICA's are is it you want to work with:
- Be SUPER specific "Break It Down As Much As Possible"
- Look at the social economic status
- Look for people who can AFFORD what you have
- Who want's to work with you
- Create a journal from your ICA perceptive (Break it down and be so specific that there's no one else
you're talking to) Narrow It Down to A Specific Group of People.
- Don't try to sell a BMW to someone who only makes $20,000 per year "THEY CAN'T AFFORD IT" there's nothing you can do to make them afford it.
Once you set the bar you will continue to get those type of clients, Don't sell yourself or your business short. You have to either change what you are offering or change who you are talking to.
People often times get fixated on what services they are going to offer or what product they are going to sell. They focus so much on what they are selling that they forget WHO they are selling them to.
YOU CAN'T JUST SELL TO EVERYONE!!! If you're selling to everybody and talking to everybody "You're really Talking To NOBODY" You have to be specific as to who you are reaching out to and know who your services are for.
It's important to know your ICA if you are selling to everyone, and you have this wide net, you are going to get what you get. You have to look at is as fishing you are literally going to get everything that comes in your net some of which is Absolutely No Good. It may not be someone who is actually not interested or wanting your services. The best way to weed these people out is by being selective. In order to be selective you have to know who your ICA's are to begin with. The best way to determine who you ICA's are is it you want to work with:
- Be SUPER specific "Break It Down As Much As Possible"
- Look at the social economic status
- Look for people who can AFFORD what you have
- Who want's to work with you
- Create a journal from your ICA perceptive (Break it down and be so specific that there's no one else
you're talking to) Narrow It Down to A Specific Group of People.
- Don't try to sell a BMW to someone who only makes $20,000 per year "THEY CAN'T AFFORD IT" there's nothing you can do to make them afford it.
Once you set the bar you will continue to get those type of clients, Don't sell yourself or your business short. You have to either change what you are offering or change who you are talking to.
People often times get fixated on what services they are going to offer or what product they are going to sell. They focus so much on what they are selling that they forget WHO they are selling them to.
YOU CAN'T JUST SELL TO EVERYONE!!! If you're selling to everybody and talking to everybody "You're really Talking To NOBODY" You have to be specific as to who you are reaching out to and know who your services are for.
It's important to know your ICA if you are selling to everyone, and you have this wide net, you are going to get what you get. You have to look at is as fishing you are literally going to get everything that comes in your net some of which is Absolutely No Good. It may not be someone who is actually not interested or wanting your services. The best way to weed these people out is by being selective. In order to be selective you have to know who your ICA's are to begin with. The best way to determine who you ICA's are is it you want to work with:
- Be SUPER specific "Break It Down As Much As Possible"
- Look at the social economic status
- Look for people who can AFFORD what you have
- Who want's to work with you
- Create a journal from your ICA perceptive (Break it down and be so specific that there's no one else
you're talking to) Narrow It Down to A Specific Group of People.
- Don't try to sell a BMW to someone who only makes $20,000 per year "THEY CAN'T AFFORD IT" there's nothing you can do to make them afford it.
Once you set the bar you will continue to get those type of clients, Don't sell yourself or your business short. You have to either change what you are offering or change who you are talking to.
YOU CAN'T JUST SELL TO EVERYONE!!! If you're selling to everybody and talking to everybody "You're really Talking To NOBODY" You have to be specific as to who you are reaching out to and know who your services are for.
It's important to know your ICA if you are selling to everyone, and you have this wide net, you are going to get what you get. You have to look at is as fishing you are literally going to get everything that comes in your net some of which is Absolutely No Good. It may not be someone who is actually not interested or wanting your services. The best way to weed these people out is by being selective. In order to be selective you have to know who your ICA's are to begin with. The best way to determine who you ICA's are is it you want to work with:
- Be SUPER specific "Break It Down As Much As Possible"
- Look at the social economic status
- Look for people who can AFFORD what you have
- Who want's to work with you
- Create a journal from your ICA perceptive (Break it down and be so specific that there's no one else
you're talking to) Narrow It Down to A Specific Group of People.
- Don't try to sell a BMW to someone who only makes $20,000 per year "THEY CAN'T AFFORD IT" there's nothing you can do to make them afford it.
Once you set the bar you will continue to get those type of clients, Don't sell yourself or your business short. You have to either change what you are offering or change who you are talking to.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Mind Body & Soul Tours Travel - Coming Soon Spring 2016
Sight2See Travel & Associates is a subdivision of Success Unlimited Solutions. We realize that your total well being plays a major role in how successful you are as a person and in business. Taking time to take care of yourself without distractions helps you spend quality time to think about the direction of your future, the direction of your business or career. More importantly it gives you time to relax so that you can bring the Better Your to the table.
Follow Sight2See Travel as we provide you with an opportunity to get away and relax. "The Great Escape" http://www.sight2seetravel.paycation.com
On an island so simply beautiful the French and British fought over it for over 150 years, lies this unforgettably romantic, Luxury Included® hideaway. Set on its own spectacular peninsula, it offers unique suites-in-the-round, 24-hour room service, breathtaking vistas, access to the services and amenities of other nearby Sandals Resorts, a modern tennis pavilion, alluring bars, several sparkling pools, a full-service Red Lane® Spa and a variety of dining options serving delicious gourmet cuisines.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Using Words to Become a Great Listener
Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing
Being a great listener is not just about sitting back politely, providing appropriately timed head nods of encouragement, and taking in what another in a conversation is saying. If you can’t engage the person you are in a conversation with, then more often than not, you are not going to have to listen for very long, especially if you are just meeting this person.
By watching some of our connector clients at Red Zone Marketing in action, I’ve observed that being a great listener comes down to getting the other person talking.
How do I do that?
Ask great questions. If you ask quality questions it keeps a conversation rolling, even with someone you have just met, allowing you to learn more valuable information about that person, which, in turn, brings greater value to you for listening.
Asking questions that engage show that you have a sincere curiosity and desire to get to know the other person. If you are just going through the motions of generic question asking, the sincerity is lost, and the answers you receive will most likely be just as generic. If you are going to bother being a listener, why not make sure you have great things to listen to! In the end, you become more memorable because you cared enough to ask and then listen!
To start becoming a great listener, come up with a list of questions to ask of another businessperson that you don’t know. Here are a few that will drive your conversation away from the trite generic answers your conversationalist has stored away to use when meeting new people:
-How did you get into this business?
-What’s something you’ve done that has really changed your career?
-What has your greatest success story been this year?
-What’s your biggest challenge?
-What’s a good client for you?
-Have you read any good books lately?
-Where did you grow up? Do you still have family there?
-Do you have kids? How many, how old, what are they involved in, etc
-Did you hear that… (something from the Wall Street Journal, local newspaper, news website, or Industry publication that day)
These questions not only give you more rewarding information to listen to, they also allow you to discover connections between you and the other person. Connections are what form relationships. Just by listening you can find these connections. Finding out that the two of you grew up a town away from each other, started out working at the same company, or share a similar Ideal Client are all great things to find out.
Being a great listener with great questions allows you to find the connections with others and then use that info to build on that relationship. You will come to find that many great listeners are also great at forming and maintaining key relationships in business.
What are some questions you like to engage people with when first starting up a conversation?
Being a great listener is not just about sitting back politely, providing appropriately timed head nods of encouragement, and taking in what another in a conversation is saying. If you can’t engage the person you are in a conversation with, then more often than not, you are not going to have to listen for very long, especially if you are just meeting this person.
By watching some of our connector clients at Red Zone Marketing in action, I’ve observed that being a great listener comes down to getting the other person talking.
How do I do that?
Ask great questions. If you ask quality questions it keeps a conversation rolling, even with someone you have just met, allowing you to learn more valuable information about that person, which, in turn, brings greater value to you for listening.
Asking questions that engage show that you have a sincere curiosity and desire to get to know the other person. If you are just going through the motions of generic question asking, the sincerity is lost, and the answers you receive will most likely be just as generic. If you are going to bother being a listener, why not make sure you have great things to listen to! In the end, you become more memorable because you cared enough to ask and then listen!
To start becoming a great listener, come up with a list of questions to ask of another businessperson that you don’t know. Here are a few that will drive your conversation away from the trite generic answers your conversationalist has stored away to use when meeting new people:
-How did you get into this business?
-What’s something you’ve done that has really changed your career?
-What has your greatest success story been this year?
-What’s your biggest challenge?
-What’s a good client for you?
-Have you read any good books lately?
-Where did you grow up? Do you still have family there?
-Do you have kids? How many, how old, what are they involved in, etc
-Did you hear that… (something from the Wall Street Journal, local newspaper, news website, or Industry publication that day)
These questions not only give you more rewarding information to listen to, they also allow you to discover connections between you and the other person. Connections are what form relationships. Just by listening you can find these connections. Finding out that the two of you grew up a town away from each other, started out working at the same company, or share a similar Ideal Client are all great things to find out.
Being a great listener with great questions allows you to find the connections with others and then use that info to build on that relationship. You will come to find that many great listeners are also great at forming and maintaining key relationships in business.
What are some questions you like to engage people with when first starting up a conversation?
Nine Easily Avoidable Selling Mistakes
Selling isn’t complicated. When quotas get missed, when opportunities are lost, and when careers go sour, most of the time it’s because the sales pro made a tiny mistake. A mistake that could have been easily avoided.
Here’s a list of the nine most common sales mistakes, and EXACTLY how to make sure you don’t make them.
Mistake #1: Failing to Keep Your Pipeline Primed
• Definition: Not having enough prospects (i.e. fully qualified leads) at the beginning of the sales cycle.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: Filling the pipeline often involves cold-calling (i.e. calling people you don’t already know personally) and often plenty of “rejection.”
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: If you don’t have enough prospects at the beginning of your pipeline, you’ll probably not have enough coming out the other end as real live customers.
• The Unintended Consequence: You may end up spending extra time on the accounts that you DO have in the pipeline and put unconscious pressure on those prospects to buy, thereby creating resistance and EVEN FEWER sales.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: You can easily schedule quality time for cold-calling, asking for referrals and other lead generation activities.
• Advanced Technique: Make sure that you make your first time calls on a day and time of day when they’re most likely to result in a qualified lead. For more info on this, see: “What’s the Best Time to Cold Call?“
Mistake #2: Failing to Research the Prospect
• Definition: Going on a cold call or go to a face-to-face without knowing much about the prospective customer.
• Why It’s Easy To Make: Your primary job is to sell, not to dig around and find out things, right?
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: You have a limited amount of time with each prospect. If you spend it finding out things that you could find out elsewhere, that’s less time you have to actually move the sale forward.
• The Unintended Consequence: The prospect will know you’re unprepared and (worse) take it as a sign of disrespect.
• Why It’s Easy To Avoid: You can use the web to discover where your offering fits (business need, organizational structure, etc.) before contacting the prospect.
• Advanced Technique: Purchase a sales intelligence tool like InsideView, which provides a wealth of background information for any prospect.
Mistake #3: Failing to Qualify the Lead
• Definition: Putting a sales lead into your pipeline without being certain that they have a need for your offering or the money to buy it.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: If you get some prospects in the pipeline, your manager will finally get off your back, right? And, who knows, maybe they’ll buy…
• What It’s a Big Mistake: Every second that you spend on a prospect that won’t and can’t buy is time you could be spending on prospects that will and can.
• The Unintended Consequence: You’ll make a few sales… but your numbers at the end of the quarter will look like crap compared to your peers who bothered to qualify their leads.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: Have a list of qualification question and ask them early in the sales cycle.
• Advanced Technique: Try the Sales Machine tool: “The Ultimate Prospect Qualification Tool.“
Mistake #4: Failing to Discover the Buying Process
• Definition: Going through the sales cycle assuming that your sales activities will drive the sale from inception to closing.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: The illusion that you can control the sales through persuasion and manipulation is comforting in an essentially chaotic world.
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: Every firm has its own way to make buying decisions, with its own timetable for making them. When your sales activities get out of sync, you end up working a cross-purposes.
• The Unintended Consequence: Surprises at the end of the sales cycle… like contracts and P.O.s that get signed late, or never get signed at all.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: During your initial conversations, you can work with your customer contact to define the buying process. You then adapt your sales activity to match.
• Advanced Technique: Create a document defining the buying process, and what to do if something goes awry. Refer to it when needed.
Mistake #5: Giving a Generic Sales Pitch
• Definition: Pulling out your slides and going through a list of canned list of features and benefits.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: Marketing gave you this pitch and said it would WOW the customer. And rumor is that it does work sometimes. Or so you’ve heard.
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: Canned presentations are not only boring, they’re vaguely insulting. And they that you’re force-fitting whatever you’ve got to sell into something that the customer should buy, whether or not he really wants or needs it.
• The Unintended Consequence: Best case, this “spray and pray” behavior simple wastes the customer’s time, but the prospect will forgive you and move on and perhaps even buy. Worst case, you can antagonize the prospect to the point where he’s not going to buy from you, period.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: Simple. Just remember that you should never fire up PowerPoint unless you’re presenting to a room full of people… and after you’ve customized the deck to match the prospect’s requirements.
• Advanced Technique: Use MyBrainShark to record your sales pitch and let the prospect view it at his or her convenience… if they’re interested in learning about extra features and functions.
Mistake #6: Trying to Close Too Soon
• Definition: Asking for the business before the prospect is convinced there is a real need or that your firm and offering is right for them.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: You’re already counting your commission in your imagination, so you missread the cues that the prospect is giving.
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: You end up looking hungry and like you’re really only trying to cut a deal - for your own reasons, not because you want to help the customer.
• The Unintended Consequence: The sale will take longer, because you’ll need to step back and work to re-establish trust. And if you flub it again, you can probably kiss the sale goodbye, because the prospect now sees you as a “used car salesman.”
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: You can ask confirming questions. Listen to the customer’s answers carefully. If there’s still resistance, it’s too soon to close.
• Advanced Technique: Focus on the financial benefits of buying and financial disaster of not buying; eventually the close will become a foregone conclusion.
Mistake #7: Waiting Too Long to Close
• Definition: Letting the sales process go on and on, without ever asking for the business.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: You’re afraid of getting a “NO!” and finding out that the customer doesn’t really like you, even though you’ve spent all this time on the account.
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: The time you spend unnecessarily on one prospect is time that you’re not spending developing another. And that’s money out of your pocket.
• The Unintended Consequence: You’ll end up hustling like crazy at the end of the quarter to close… and you probably won’t the close because you missed the window of opportunity.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: You can ask confirming questions. Listen to the customer’s answers. When you’re getting all green lights, ask for the business.
• Advanced Technique: Once you’ve qualified the prospect, assume that the deal will close… when the prospect has qualified YOU!
Mistake #8: Failure to Follow-up
• Definition: You make a commitment to a prospect, but don’t find the time to fulfill it; or you forget to check on a customer after you’ve made the sale.
• Why It’s Easy To Make: Hey, you’re busy, right? You’ve got lots of things that need doing. And there are always other deals in the pipeline, eh?
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: If it’s a prospect, you just proved that you’re unreliable and untrustworthy. If it’s a customer, you just proved that you were really just trying to make a sale and “so long, sucka…”
• The Unintended Consequence: You’re clobbering your reputation and making it impossible to sell to those people. And you can forget about ever getting a referral.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: With a little forethought, you can schedule follow-up activities immediately after the contact. And schedule a series of follow-up phone calls and email to check on each customer’s status. Then do it.
• Advanced Technique: Get a hardcopy day planner, either the Franklin-Covey classic or Tony Robbins’ RPM. (I’ve used both to great advantage during different period of my working life.) Why hardcopy? That way you can still make your calls when your computer is down or the Internet is not available.
Mistake #9: Forgetting to Get a Referral
• Definition: Not getting “warm leads” from your existing customers.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: You were told that the best time to ask for a referral is when you close the deal. That seldom works, so you stopped bothering.
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: Referrals are the easiest leads to qualify and the easiest prospects to convert to customers because you enter the sales cycle without having to work as hard to establish trust.
• The Unintended Consequence: You end up starting from scratch on every sale, which takes time, which means that you’ll ultimately be making fewer sales than if you had some “warmer” prospects entering the pipeline.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: You can make it part of your regular routine. At closing, you can obtain a promise of a referral if, after delivery, the customer is delighted. Then, after delivery, you follow up, and ask for the referral.
• Advanced Technique: Have the (delighted) customer make the first contact with the referral. If possible have the customer set up the meeting between you and the prospect. Or, if you’re really serious… take a Joanne Black seminar!!
Here’s a list of the nine most common sales mistakes, and EXACTLY how to make sure you don’t make them.
Mistake #1: Failing to Keep Your Pipeline Primed
• Definition: Not having enough prospects (i.e. fully qualified leads) at the beginning of the sales cycle.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: Filling the pipeline often involves cold-calling (i.e. calling people you don’t already know personally) and often plenty of “rejection.”
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: If you don’t have enough prospects at the beginning of your pipeline, you’ll probably not have enough coming out the other end as real live customers.
• The Unintended Consequence: You may end up spending extra time on the accounts that you DO have in the pipeline and put unconscious pressure on those prospects to buy, thereby creating resistance and EVEN FEWER sales.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: You can easily schedule quality time for cold-calling, asking for referrals and other lead generation activities.
• Advanced Technique: Make sure that you make your first time calls on a day and time of day when they’re most likely to result in a qualified lead. For more info on this, see: “What’s the Best Time to Cold Call?“
Mistake #2: Failing to Research the Prospect
• Definition: Going on a cold call or go to a face-to-face without knowing much about the prospective customer.
• Why It’s Easy To Make: Your primary job is to sell, not to dig around and find out things, right?
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: You have a limited amount of time with each prospect. If you spend it finding out things that you could find out elsewhere, that’s less time you have to actually move the sale forward.
• The Unintended Consequence: The prospect will know you’re unprepared and (worse) take it as a sign of disrespect.
• Why It’s Easy To Avoid: You can use the web to discover where your offering fits (business need, organizational structure, etc.) before contacting the prospect.
• Advanced Technique: Purchase a sales intelligence tool like InsideView, which provides a wealth of background information for any prospect.
Mistake #3: Failing to Qualify the Lead
• Definition: Putting a sales lead into your pipeline without being certain that they have a need for your offering or the money to buy it.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: If you get some prospects in the pipeline, your manager will finally get off your back, right? And, who knows, maybe they’ll buy…
• What It’s a Big Mistake: Every second that you spend on a prospect that won’t and can’t buy is time you could be spending on prospects that will and can.
• The Unintended Consequence: You’ll make a few sales… but your numbers at the end of the quarter will look like crap compared to your peers who bothered to qualify their leads.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: Have a list of qualification question and ask them early in the sales cycle.
• Advanced Technique: Try the Sales Machine tool: “The Ultimate Prospect Qualification Tool.“
Mistake #4: Failing to Discover the Buying Process
• Definition: Going through the sales cycle assuming that your sales activities will drive the sale from inception to closing.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: The illusion that you can control the sales through persuasion and manipulation is comforting in an essentially chaotic world.
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: Every firm has its own way to make buying decisions, with its own timetable for making them. When your sales activities get out of sync, you end up working a cross-purposes.
• The Unintended Consequence: Surprises at the end of the sales cycle… like contracts and P.O.s that get signed late, or never get signed at all.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: During your initial conversations, you can work with your customer contact to define the buying process. You then adapt your sales activity to match.
• Advanced Technique: Create a document defining the buying process, and what to do if something goes awry. Refer to it when needed.
Mistake #5: Giving a Generic Sales Pitch
• Definition: Pulling out your slides and going through a list of canned list of features and benefits.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: Marketing gave you this pitch and said it would WOW the customer. And rumor is that it does work sometimes. Or so you’ve heard.
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: Canned presentations are not only boring, they’re vaguely insulting. And they that you’re force-fitting whatever you’ve got to sell into something that the customer should buy, whether or not he really wants or needs it.
• The Unintended Consequence: Best case, this “spray and pray” behavior simple wastes the customer’s time, but the prospect will forgive you and move on and perhaps even buy. Worst case, you can antagonize the prospect to the point where he’s not going to buy from you, period.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: Simple. Just remember that you should never fire up PowerPoint unless you’re presenting to a room full of people… and after you’ve customized the deck to match the prospect’s requirements.
• Advanced Technique: Use MyBrainShark to record your sales pitch and let the prospect view it at his or her convenience… if they’re interested in learning about extra features and functions.
Mistake #6: Trying to Close Too Soon
• Definition: Asking for the business before the prospect is convinced there is a real need or that your firm and offering is right for them.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: You’re already counting your commission in your imagination, so you missread the cues that the prospect is giving.
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: You end up looking hungry and like you’re really only trying to cut a deal - for your own reasons, not because you want to help the customer.
• The Unintended Consequence: The sale will take longer, because you’ll need to step back and work to re-establish trust. And if you flub it again, you can probably kiss the sale goodbye, because the prospect now sees you as a “used car salesman.”
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: You can ask confirming questions. Listen to the customer’s answers carefully. If there’s still resistance, it’s too soon to close.
• Advanced Technique: Focus on the financial benefits of buying and financial disaster of not buying; eventually the close will become a foregone conclusion.
Mistake #7: Waiting Too Long to Close
• Definition: Letting the sales process go on and on, without ever asking for the business.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: You’re afraid of getting a “NO!” and finding out that the customer doesn’t really like you, even though you’ve spent all this time on the account.
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: The time you spend unnecessarily on one prospect is time that you’re not spending developing another. And that’s money out of your pocket.
• The Unintended Consequence: You’ll end up hustling like crazy at the end of the quarter to close… and you probably won’t the close because you missed the window of opportunity.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: You can ask confirming questions. Listen to the customer’s answers. When you’re getting all green lights, ask for the business.
• Advanced Technique: Once you’ve qualified the prospect, assume that the deal will close… when the prospect has qualified YOU!
Mistake #8: Failure to Follow-up
• Definition: You make a commitment to a prospect, but don’t find the time to fulfill it; or you forget to check on a customer after you’ve made the sale.
• Why It’s Easy To Make: Hey, you’re busy, right? You’ve got lots of things that need doing. And there are always other deals in the pipeline, eh?
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: If it’s a prospect, you just proved that you’re unreliable and untrustworthy. If it’s a customer, you just proved that you were really just trying to make a sale and “so long, sucka…”
• The Unintended Consequence: You’re clobbering your reputation and making it impossible to sell to those people. And you can forget about ever getting a referral.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: With a little forethought, you can schedule follow-up activities immediately after the contact. And schedule a series of follow-up phone calls and email to check on each customer’s status. Then do it.
• Advanced Technique: Get a hardcopy day planner, either the Franklin-Covey classic or Tony Robbins’ RPM. (I’ve used both to great advantage during different period of my working life.) Why hardcopy? That way you can still make your calls when your computer is down or the Internet is not available.
Mistake #9: Forgetting to Get a Referral
• Definition: Not getting “warm leads” from your existing customers.
• Why It’s Easy to Make: You were told that the best time to ask for a referral is when you close the deal. That seldom works, so you stopped bothering.
• Why It’s a Big Mistake: Referrals are the easiest leads to qualify and the easiest prospects to convert to customers because you enter the sales cycle without having to work as hard to establish trust.
• The Unintended Consequence: You end up starting from scratch on every sale, which takes time, which means that you’ll ultimately be making fewer sales than if you had some “warmer” prospects entering the pipeline.
• Why It’s Easy to Avoid: You can make it part of your regular routine. At closing, you can obtain a promise of a referral if, after delivery, the customer is delighted. Then, after delivery, you follow up, and ask for the referral.
• Advanced Technique: Have the (delighted) customer make the first contact with the referral. If possible have the customer set up the meeting between you and the prospect. Or, if you’re really serious… take a Joanne Black seminar!!
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