Motivation Shots from The Doc

Tips and Techniques to Apply for Motivated Staff and More Sales
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People Buy From People – 6 tips for success

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on May 11th, 2013 No Comments

1 Don’t rely on logic20130413-092631.jpg

Many people who sell a technical product or service often find this hard to understand. They seem to believe that all the customer is interested in are the facts and figures. Perhaps they are, but what happens if they don’t particularly like the salesperson?

2 People sell to people

Before accepting what you say, people need to buy you first. If you find this hard to accept, think about people who have tried to sell you something. Even a politician or a religious leader on television. If you don’t particularly like the person then you’ll find it so much harder to accept what they’re saying.

3 People like people who are just like themselves

It’s important to build rapport, to establish mutual areas of interest, to show you understand and care about the other person’s needs.

4 People are different

Everyone on earth is different; we are all as different as our fingerprints. You may have similar interests, but aspects of your product or service may not be as important to your customer or client as you believe.

5 Don’t stereotype

Always keep an open mind when dealing with the other person. They may not think or behave as you’d expect.

6 Adapt your behaviour to different people

Learn to mirror the other person’s words, tone of voice and body language. This doesn’t mean mimicking the other person; it’s about communicating with them in their style and language. For example – if your customer spoke quietly and slowly; then it would build rapport if you spoke quietly and slowly. Subconsciously, the customer is getting the message that – you are just like them.

 

Posted in Customer service, Sales

Nice People Don’t Increase Sales

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on May 9th, 2013 No Comments

Who are the most important people to your business? You might say your employees or you might say customers. I Business Greetingbelieve that your employees are, because without them, you won’t have any customers.

So why do so many organizations employ people in customer service jobs who shouldn’t be dealing with customers?

I was running some customer service training events recently for people in a range of businesses. Like all of my events, I encourage interaction with the participants. I encourage them to ask questions, make statements and even disagree with me.

I never pick on individuals but rather address my questions to the whole group.

However, I was surprised at the number of people at these seminars who had such poor communication skills. So many of them were shy, introverted, and couldn’t look me in the eye. Even on a break they were unable to even chat with me.

I really have to ask, ‘Who employed these people in a customer service job? A job that requires people who can communicate with the customer. People who are warm and friendly. Who make the customer feel at ease and want to return to the business, buy more of the product or service and say positive things to other people.

Were these participants nice people? Of course they were. Do I want them to lose their job? Of course I don’t. But if you want more customers and more sales, then employing “nice” people isn’t the way to do it.

Warm and friendly – yes. Good listeners – yes. Assertive – yes. Persuasive – yes.

Find other jobs in your organization for the nice people to do, but don’t put them in front of customers.

 

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Posted in Customer service, Leadership, Motivation, Sales

Feedback: The Good, The Bad, The Delivery

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on May 7th, 2013 No Comments

By Alan Fairweather

How do you feel about feedback? Do you receive it from your manager; do you give feedback to your colleagues or coaching211friends?

We all feel different about feedback, because we are all different. Some people love it, others are okay with it, and others just hate it.

I’m sure that you have colleagues or people on your team who always want to know “how they’re doing”. They come and speak to you and show what they’re doing.  ‘Is this okay, am I doing this right?’ They’re constantly looking for reassurance that they’re doing the right thing.

Then you’ll have others who never come and speak to you at all, and get most uncomfortable whether you’re giving them the good news or the bad.

Feedback is one of the Top 3 factors that motivate people at work. The majority of employees want to know when they’re doing well and when they could be doing better.

There are managers who are happy to receive feedback from their boss and resultantly  are comfortable giving it to others, because they believe everyone feels the same way they do.

And of course, if you look at it the other way round; managers, who are less comfortable receiving feedback, tend to believe that their team feel the same way, and just don’t do it. The other danger is that, many managers don’t receive feedback from their boss and subconsciously feel, ‘Why should I give feedback to my guys when I don’t get it?’

Whether you receive feedback or not; whether you feel uncomfortable giving it or not – you still need to do it for your people. Just be aware that they’re all different individuals and they might react in different ways. Almost everyone wants feedback – how much, is just a matter of degree.

There are two types of feedback and a way of doing it.

 The Good

This is what we call, Confirming Feedback; telling a team member that you support whatever you’ve seen them do or heard them say; it’s a compliment or a thank you. It’s about ‘catching people doing something right.’

Successful managers realise that almost everyone reacts positively to Confirming feedback. They feel better about themselves and they feel motivated to repeat the behavior.

There is a saying that says, ‘You get more of what you reward.’

If you tell someone that you like the way they have completed some aspect of their work, then you’ll find that they continue to do that work in the same way or probably even better.

Confirming feedback is worth a fortune to you in terms of motivating your team and achieving your goals and targets.

The Bad

This is what we call, Productive Feedback on behaviour you’re not happy with. As you spend time with people, you’re going to hear and see things that may not ensure your outcomes.

Ask yourself, ‘Is this something that is going to stop me achieving my outcomes of a happy, motivated and engaged team who achieve their targets?’

If the answer is ‘no’ then you’re going to have to do something about it.

There are various things you can do:

  • You can ignore the behavior you’re not happy about
  • You can reprimand the person
  • You can coach them.

Coaching is not a soft option; it’s about finding out the cause of poor performance or behavior and discussing with the other person about how to put it right. You tell the other person what you’re not happy with, listen to what they have to say and agree a way forward.

The Delivery

Whether you want to reinforce behavior - Confirming Feedback, or change unacceptable behavior – Productive Feedback, there are certain steps you need to follow to make it work.

You need to do it as soon as possible and in private. Tell them how you feel about their behavior  not how the organisation or anyone else feels.

It’s important to focus on one thing at a time and don’t confuse the other person with a whole list of behaviors.

You need to be specific and get input from the other person. And most importantly; don’t leave them low!

If you get all of this right, you’ll have a highly motivated team who, increase customer satisfaction, boost sales and make a positive contribution to your business.

 

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Posted in Leadership, Management, Motivation

Dump Your Negative Self-Belief

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on May 5th, 2013 No Comments

If you have negative beliefs about yourself, here’s a way to change them.YES...we can!

Your subconscious will always attempt to move away from pain and towards pleasure.

So start to associate massive pain to your negative belief.

Think about how it will hold you back and stop you achieving what you’re trying to achieve. Think about how miserable you’ll feel if you don’t even try.

Old people rarely regret what they’ve done in their life but they do regret what they haven’t done.

So think forward to when you’re 75 or 80 years of age and imagine how you’ll feel if you’ve never tried.

Then start to think of the pleasure you’ll receive in fulfilling your beliefs. Think about how good you’ll feel when you achieve what you set out to do.

If when you’re older you look back and think about things you didn’t achieve, at least you’ll be able to say – ‘I tried, I gave it my best shot and I didn’t sit on the sidelines.’

 

Posted in Motivation

Not All customer Service People are in the Office

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on May 3rd, 2013 No Comments

By Alan Fairweather

Who are your most important customer service people?ebbetslunch

Let me explain; a few years ago I was running customer service training workshops for a large telecommunications company in the UK. It had become apparent to certain managers that the people most in contact with their customers were the engineers and technicians. These were the guys who visited the customers in their home or place of business, to install telephones or carry out repairs.

The engineers had the potential to make or break the relationship with the customer depending on how they interacted with them. This was most important with business clients.

Another company I did similar training for, were in the beer business. Every week, their delivery drivers, turned up at a pub, bar or hotel to deliver the beer and other drinks.

Again, the relationship between the delivery people and the customer could have a huge influence on the business. A surly or unhelpful delivery guy could influence the customer to change suppliers. Bar owners are always under pressure from other companies to switch suppliers. On the positive side, good delivery people help cement the relationship between the brewery and the customer.

Everybody in your business is a ‘customer service person’; whether they work in sales, technical services, accounts or delivery services. I’m not saying that you should run customer service training for all of them. (Although that would be a good idea for your business and for people like me).

I’m only suggesting that you be aware that everyone in the business has the ability to make or break it, and remember the saying of Karl Albrecht:

The way you treat your staff is the way they’ll treat your customers.

 

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Posted in Customer service, Leadership, Management, Motivation, Sales

Discover a Key Secret of Management Success

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on May 1st, 2013 No Comments

Do you know what one of the key secrets of success is – what makes people successful in business, sport or any other success!!!aspect of their lives? Let me come back to that in a minute.

I was driving home the other evening and listening to a football phone-in programme on the radio. The main subject of discussion this particular evening was about the lack of success of a new manager at a football club. The team aren’t doing well this season, it’s almost certain they will be relegated and many fans are calling for the manager to be sacked.

There are many examples in sport, particularly football, where managers haven’t had a good start but have gone on to greater things.

I remember that when Sir Alex Ferguson started as manager of the mighty Manchester United, things didn’t go well for him.

So the message is; if you’ve just started as a manager or a team leader or taken on a new management job – hang on in there. Don’t give up, have faith in yourself and you’ll be successful.

You may even have been in a management job for some time and have decided to introduce some new ways of doing things and you don’t immediately find success – don’t give up.

I joined four companies as a manager and it took at least six months for my way of working to have an impact. If you introduce new policies or procedures, it’s unlikely you’ll have success right away, so give it time and don’t let other people pressurize you into giving up.

So the key secret of success I mentioned earlier is – never ever give up. This is what separates the winners from the losers in business, in sport and in life.

If you have a mountain to climb either literally or figuratively and you reach an obstacle – don’t quit! Find another way round; even go back a short distance and come back at the situation from another direction.

Whatever it is you’re trying to do, whatever success you want – never quit!

Make mistakes, fall down, get up, fall down, but get up and try again.

Remember what Winston Churchill once said – ‘Never, Never, Never give up!’

 

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If You Want More Customers, Move Your Ass

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on April 29th, 2013 No Comments

Do you remember the last time you moved house? Well I’ve just been through that experience, and you’ll know how Dog Tired of Phone Callschallenging and stressful that can be.

We needed new suppliers for telephone, electricity, internet and all the other services required to sustain life. And of course, the most important for the kids; cable TV.

The first cable TV company I approached called ‘We want to make it as difficult as possible TV Company’. Okay, so they weren’t called that, but the amount of hassle I had to go through just to get signed up was unbelievable.

Anyway, a few days later two technicians, Dopey and Grumpy, showed up to do the installation. Ten minutes later, they went away again.

The previous owner of our house used this particular cable company and the cables were all still in place. But apparently they were the wrong kind of cables for the service we wanted. So off went Dopey and Grumpy and we never heard from them again. No follow up phone call to say when they were coming back or what they were going to do for us.

So the following day I went to another TV company called ‘Yes we can do it and we want your business TV Company’. And the following day an eager technician arrived dead on time. Within half an hour we were connected, although the technician said it would be twelve hours before the account would be activated.

However, that evening, six hours later, I turned on the TV just to check and ‘voila’ we were now connected in full HDD.

Business is as tough nowadays as it’s always been. And if you want more customers, more sales and more profits, you need to make it as easy and as quick as possible for your customers to buy your product or service.

 

Posted in Customer service, Leadership, Motivation

Money Can’t Buy Me Love

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on April 28th, 2013 No Comments

In 1964 The Beatles sang – “Money Can’t Buy Me Love” and it certainly won’t buy you loyalty or team motivation.Dog with a bone

And yet; when I’m running a Motivational Manager Seminar, some managers come back at me with statements such as:

  • ‘My people are only interested in the money.’
  • ‘That’s why they come to work.’
  • ‘Sales people are motivated by money, that’s why we pay them commission and bonuses.’
  • ‘You try reducing their money and see what happens.’

Let me say now; if you want to become a successful Motivational Manager please accept that for the majority of employees – money is not a motivator!

The psychologist Frederick Herzberg developed his ‘Two Factor’ theory in 1959 and established that money is not a motivator. However, if it’s inadequate, then it can be a de-motivating factor.  In other words, it can adversely affect job performance.

If you were able to increase the salary of your employees by 5000 pounds, dollars or whatever currency you pay them in, then I’m sure they’d be really pleased and motivated to do well – but for how long?

I reckon that within a couple of months that extra 5000 would be accepted as the norm with virtually no effect on motivation. And don’t think it matters if it was 10000 pounds or dollars, after a while it wouldn’t make a difference.

Yes there are people who are motivated purely by money; however, they tend to be in the minority.

The majority of employees are motivated by other factors and these are often more easily delivered than extra money. Many managers are unable to raise the salary paid to their employees as this is usually decided by company policy.

Employees can be motivated by several factors in relation to their work. Here are three things you can do:

  1. Make their job more interesting:
  • Give them more responsibility
  • Give them some of your tasks
  • Ask them to train or mentor another member of your team
  • Ask them to sit in occasionally on management meetings
  • Give them further training
  1. 2.   Give them feedback and appreciation:
  • The occasional gift
  • Time off work
  • Gift vouchers
  • Personal thank you letters
  1. 3.   Make them feel ‘in on things’:
  • Let them attend meetings and conferences if they don’t already
  • Let them run a team meeting
  • Listen to their opinions on how to run the team
  • Listen to their feedback

I feel sure you can add several other things to these lists and put this to the test right away.

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Posted in Leadership, Management, Motivation

Speakers Need to Feel the Fear

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on April 27th, 2013 No Comments

It sometimes surprises people when I tell them I get slightly nervous before a speaking or training event. They seem to 8646613779_8374bb1291_m1think that because I’ve been doing it for years, nervousness would no longer be an issue.

However nervousness is a normal human emotion and as I often say, ‘I’d be nervous if I wasn’t nervous!’

It’s how you handle the nerves that will determine your success as a speaker.

Similarly, many sales people feel nervous or uncomfortable making cold calls, phoning for an appointment or following up an enquiry. Again, this is a normal response and most sales people feel this way.

One of the biggest fears for humans is the fear of rejection and we’ll do almost anything to avoid it. It stops people making speeches, contacting customers, asking for the order, or even asking someone out on a date.

Successful people feel the fear of rejection but they don’t allow it to paralyse them. They take action even although they feel uncomfortable. And of course, the more you do it the less uncomfortable you feel.

In the many challenges you face in life you won’t win them all but you must have the courage to try.

Remember; winners make mistakes but losers never do.

That’s because winners have the courage to try and they know they’ll make mistakes; however that’s how they learn and move forward.

 

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Are You a Lucky Manager?

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on April 25th, 2013 No Comments

‘You’re lucky to have such a great team!’Successful business team

When I was a manager, this is one of the most exasperating, but also satisfying remarks I heard from my boss.

It was exasperating in as much as my fantastic sales team were not successful because of luck. They were successful because I was their manager.

Now excuse me if you think I’m being a bit immodest. But I built this team, I employed some of them. I trained them, and I created the environment where they were self-motivated and engaged.

I did this by giving them positive feedback when I caught them doing something right. And when I caught them doing something not so right, I discussed with them how we could fix it.

I gave them my trust and let them make decisions using the skills knowledge and experience they already had.

Also, I kept them in on things, letting them know what was happening, and the value of their contribution to the organisation’s success.

You don’t just know this stuff; you have to learn it and put it into practise as I had to.

Building a successful team is tough and it doesn’t happen overnight.

It’s nothing to do with luck, just thinking and working smart with your team.

 

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