How's Your Journey?

The Journey - Mary Oliver


One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

This poem has a fantastic message for us all - it sums up to me how many of the clients I speak to seem to be feeling - especially currently in these testing times. They feel that not only is there more out there to be experienced but also that they have more inside to give to their own journey. Yet those "voices around you kept shouting their bad advice" - the challenge is to stay true to yourself and those feelings that you hold dear about what you can achieve in life. It can be daunting even overwhelming to go against the forces wanting you to stay where you are.

The challenge is to ensure you are still on the journey you want to be taking not the one that is being designed by others. Be true to yourself and it will be easier to be true to others.

Have a great weekend.
Craig

Happy New Year

That time of year is here again - the new school year has either started or will do very soon . Those who chose to do so will be getting themselves ready for university or other higher education. It is a tense time and has followed a summer of tension for those awaiting public exam results. Anxious teenagers (and parents!) across the country have awaited their fate all sealed in an envelope!

It's very hard as parents to be totally laid back about exams and the whole education arena for that matter - especially if you have a child who seems incredibly laid back in their aproach to their studies! - and we constantly ponder about whether we are doing enough to encourage without over burdening our offspring.

However it is apparently true that Hermann & Pauline Einstein worried constantly about their shy, school hating son who disliked sport, had poor language skills and only played with jigsaws. As we all now know, despite that inauspicious start Albert Einstein went on to become the greatest physicist the world has ever known, devising the theory of relativity and the only equation most of us can ever quote - e=mc² which led to the atom bomb.

So as the new academic year gets off to a start I wish for you and your families success and happiness and leave you with a few quotes about education, exams and life....

"Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."
excerpt from the diary of Anne Frank

You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back.
-- William D. Tammeus

“I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.”
Woody Allen quotes (American Actor, Author, Screenwriter and Film Director, b.1935)

"I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me . . they're cramming for their final exam.”
George Carlin quotes (American comedian)

It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.
-- Joyce Maynard

The Hebrew word for parents is horim, and it comes from the same root as moreh, teacher. The parent is, and remains, the first and most important teacher that the child will have.
-- Rabbi Kassel Abelson

"History, although sometimes made up of the few acts of the great, is more often shaped by the many acts of the small."
Mark Twain

I've always wanted to be somebody, but now I see I should have been more specific.
Lily Tomlin

and finally...

"Education is what remains when one has forgotten everything he learned in school." Albert Einstein

Warmest wishes
Craig

Focus

Two steps forward, one step back - It's a frustrating way to make progress but it's a wonderful way to dance! In today's climate it can seem as though we are making painfully slow progress, but the upside of a downturn (?!) is that it gives you a wonderful opportunity to really focus on your business, review your sales skills, read a sales book - I recommend some on my website which I feel are fantastic success tools - go back to basics and look at the building blocks of your business. These are things which in boom business periods you most likely never take the opportunity to do - make that time now! Its a fantastic way of re-focussing on the market you are in and also of taking the emphasis away from the economic statistics which back up the credit crunch's existence - believe me when I say too much attention on them will not help you at all. All the while you have a living breathing company - keep giving it life and passion - not more licence to wither away.


Spend time with your clients and give fantastic service - go the extra mile for them, leverage every opportunity and follow up every lead - when the recovery begins you will be ahead of the competition and you will reap the rewards of having a well-toned and well managed company.

Enjoy the dance
Craig

The Subtle Science Of Persuasion

No matter what field of expertise you are in, I have no doubt the need to persuade other people features somewhere in your role. I thought, therefore that you might be interested in the theory of an article I recently read.

Persuasion itself is not as hard as it may seem according to American Psychologist Dr Robert Cialdini – it is a matter of pulling the appropriate trigger. The example he cites is the notices we have all seen in hotel bathrooms to reuse towels to protect the environment – our concerns about global warming are apparently enough to make us reuse towels at least once during our stay. But is this the limit of the effectiveness of the signs – could more people be persuaded to reuse their towels and more often – by use of a different message? An experiment was set up by American academics to assess this. They compared the results of the first notice against those of a different notice which stated that most guests in the hotel recycled their towels. The academics were amazed to see a leap of 26% in the numbers of guests reusing their towels. The experiment was taken one stage further by displaying a sign that said that most of the guests who stayed in that room recycled their towels and reuse rose by 33% compared to the first message.
This experiment demonstrates a theory called “social proof” – where we use other people’s behaviour as a guide to our own. Other persuasive strategies that Cialdini refers to are reciprocation – the powerful obligation we feel to return favours, authority – our willingness to defer to experts, consistency - the need to keep our actions in line with our values, scarcity – the less available a resource – the more we want it – hence the power of the advertising slogan “Buy now while stocks last”! Finally, liking – the more we like people the more we want to say yes to them.

Given that the business workplace could be considered as a place where we would want to persuade others to our way of thinking, the power to persuade is clearly a key skill. The power of these principles that Cialdini refers to is that they trigger deep-seated psychological mechanisms, which we follow to prevent us getting into danger. Social proofing is one of the most basic – if you were a fish it would better to follow the rest of your shoal to avoid ending up as another creature’s lunch!

These techniques are simple yet powerful – but don’t use unscrupulously as when they are employed as weapons any short term gains are most likely to be followed by short term losses.

Tennis

I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed my fix of Wimbledon this year! Although our home players didn't get through to the final stages - the matches this weekend have been fantastic - today's men's competition was edge of the seat stuff and the ladies final (or the Williams' show!) was, as always, entertaining.



For me though, it was brilliant that players like Chris Eaton, up and coming men's player, came seemingly out of the blue to give an incredible performance and of course Laura Robson won the Girls' Singles title final at just 14. A quick glimpse through the Sunday paper headlines - shows that it seems she grabbed more space than the Williams' girls match! If either are our next hope for a champion let's hope the media get behind them and stay there - not only do they have to work their way to the top and compete with the best but they have to win the hearts of the journalists as well -we have a knack of supporting our sports stars when things are going well but also of retracting that support when they hit a rough patch. In sport, as in business, there are peaks and troughs of performance and it's in the tougher times that we really need to feel people are behind us.

I for one, look forward with more than hopeful anticipation for future grand-slams.

Have a great week!

Get A Mentor!

There are times in all of our lives when it is good to have the benefit of someone else's opinion - I talk a lot in my seminars about hanging around with the right people and working with mentors is a fantastic way of doing this.

A recent article in The Sunday Times highlighted the importance of having a mentor. Bob Garvey, a professor in mentoring and coaching at Sheffield Hallam University, has demonstrated in his programmes that not only could having a mentor help with a specific goal but could also provide much wider benefits for the entrepreneurs involved. These benefits include a transfer of new skills and knowledge, the creation of better networking opportunities, improved products and in some instances the opportunity of going into busines with their mentor.

Achieving goals is one, but not the main benefit however as the mentored executives also reported improvements in problem solving abilities, better interaction with others, and enhanced ability to cope with challenges. The executives reported a better undertanding of how people think, they appreciated the benefit of new insights into their own activities and they were put in situations where they had to think through their actions more thoroughly.

Choosing the right mentor is important too - don't choose for similarity but for difference - we all spend a lot of time with people in our own industry which is valuable for industry specific knowledge. However, when looking for someone who can expand your business horizons - look further afield - someone from a different profession will have experienced people differently and have varied insights into running a business this will provide more scope for decision making - having that alternative angle on a situation could give that breakthrough you are looking for in a particular situation.

Graeme Shankland from Bank of Scotland's Corporate has the following advice for people looking for mentor:

• Search widely and beyond your industry
• Look for experienced, successful people with a few grey hairs
• Be open and honest
• Be prepared to have your assumptions challenged
• Don't be afraid to find new mentors and use more than one at the same time

I personally work with a number of people who I respect and trust who are there for me to bounce ideas off. These people make me look at situations and decisions differently, so they do not provide the answers but by listening and asking questions they provide a better focus from which I gain insight.

Warmest regards
Craig

Riding The Credit Crunch Storm

A lot of media coverage is given currently to the credit crunch and the impact on businesses. This can have an adverse effect on everyone’s morale in the company which then gives business owners and team leaders an additional issue to focus on – staff motivation. While I am not suggesting for one moment that the credit crunch is fictitious I do wonder if we can talk ourselves into the doldrums emotionally.
I was heartened therefore to read a new report which suggests that most UK firms have not been affected by the global credit crunch, proving how resilient they are to economic storms. The British Chambers of Commerce said a survey of 250 businesses showed that almost two out of three did not intend to change their expansion plans and had not seen any new problems with raising funds despite recent events.David Frost, director general of the BCC, told the group's national conference in Liverpool earlier in the week: "Our members are the backbone of the British economy and they are in the frontline of these intense global challenges. What has impressed me over recent months has been their amazing resilience. If you lived your life in London you would often be left with the impression that the economy was about to fall off a cliff. From my visits around the country I can assure you it is not. When I speak to them, be it in Aberdeen, Birmingham,......St Helens or Rotherham, they not only inspire me with their success, but they tell me that whilst business is challenging they are doing well. They are succeeding in tough export markets….. yes London is the centre of global financial services, but this should not detract from the contribution to this country of the millions of small businesses not engaged in financial services, but contributing to the wealth of this country, be it in manufacturing or support services."
Keep going with that opinion – don’t stop your marketing efforts or focusing your mind on the future, when the crunch stops biting you’ll forge forward with more strength and determination – and what’s more a motivated staff force.
Warmest regards
Craig

Craig Goldblatt – UK Sales & Motivational speaker – find out what he can do for your organisation – www.craiggoldblatt.com 07966 424895

Don't Just Set Goals - Visualise Them!

There’s no question we need to set goals. However, here’s something that’s much more important than goal setting - visualising that goal - imagining yourself with that lifestyle, job, holiday, house etc.
I often ask audiences ‘Who loves cars?’ Loads of people in the audience put up their hands and say ‘I love cars’, so I say ‘What car do you love? Tell us the car that’s the ultimate.’ And people say maybe ‘Porsche’ so we’d put Porsche in the middle of a goals diagram. I ask them what colour they want ‘black’ and I say ‘What interior?’ and so I get them to visualise the goal. So we’ve got ‘black Porsche 911’ with a black interior. And I say ‘Would you like that car?’ and they say ‘Yeah.’So I say ‘Okay, here’s the trick: In an hours’ time, we’re going to give you the car. And you’ve earned it. What four emotions are you going to feel as soon as you have this car?’So people say to me ‘I’m going to have fun. So as soon as I get the Porsche, I’m going to feel fun in my heart. I’m going to feel excited.’ They may say ‘Once I get my dream car, I’m going to get excited’ and then people say ‘I’m going to feel powerful’. And if there’s a girl in the audience, often she will say ‘I’m going to feel sexy’.Okay so they have these four emotions - now I want to ask you a question, providing you love cars and you have your car and you’re driving down the road, what are the emotions you’re going to feel? Excited, powerful, sexy, fun - there’s your goal. But here’s the catch (isn't there always one?!) - in the next hour every human being on earth disappears. There are no gorgeous guys, no gorgeous girls, no mates, no friends, no family – we’ve all disappeared, gone to live in a bubble above the earth.The only thing that’s left on earth now is you, the car, and a load of petrol. So you can drive as long as you want, as far as you want, as fast as you like. And yet there’s no one to share it with. If you had nobody to share your goal with, would you feel excited? No. So the excitement’s gone. With nobody to share it with, would you feel powerful? Even though you’ve got a Porsche, would you feel powerful after two days, would you feel powerful with no one to share it with? No. Would you feel sexy? With nobody else to look at you – nobody to share it with, nobody to feel with – sexy’s gone. Would you feel fun? No fun without anybody else.So under those conditions, I asked audiences ‘Do you want the car?’ and they said ‘No, of course not.’So the difficulty is unless you understand exactly what you want, unless you know why you’re setting the goals, you’re not going to feel anything when you achieve it. When you set goals, understand something much more important than the goal setting itself is ‘Why do I want it?’You want motivation in your life. It comes from feelings. The easiest way to succeed in life is have a deep reason why you want it. Work out the feelings, not just the goals.

Have a great day!

Warmest wishes

Craig

Craig Goldblatt works with thousands of top executives each year to advise how best to get the most out of their lives and their teams, if you would like him to work with your organisation, email him at craig@craiggoldblatt.com

Influencing People!

I have recently been re-reading one of my favourite books 'How to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie. This has by chance coincided with a couple of incidents that I personally have experienced of unbelievably bad customer service. The specifics of these events will remain in the vault of my mind labelled "Did they really say that?"! as on the whole I believe that these things should not be dwelled upon for any longer than is necessary but I feel I should reflect on it long enough to illustrate something that Dale Carnegie talks about early in his book. For any of you who have read this book that has well and truly stood the test of time you will be aware of three of the main tenets which are fundamental throughout. They are:

• Never criticize, condemn or complain.
  Criticism makes others defensive and resentful.
  Positive Reinforcement works better.


• Make the other person feel important.
  People yearn to feel important and appreciated.
  Praise others’ strengths and they’ll strive to reinforce your opinion.


• Frame requests in terms of what others find motivating.
  Ask yourself: “Why would someone want to do what I'm asking?”

It is perhaps prophetic that I should have read the book just prior to these 2 incidents as I was very aware of Carnegie's message as the situations unfolded. Life throws odd things at us from time to time and how we deal with these things effects how we grow and in some way how far we go in life. Getting angry is destructive to all involved - it humiliates the shop assistant or whoever we feel it is that has done us wrong and ultimately it takes power away from us. I don't advocate at all that shoddy customer service in any guise should be shrugged off as not important but just think that as Dale Carnegie says: "When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity."

So when next time you don't quite get the deal in customer service that you hoped for remember another DC quote:

"Any fool can criticise, condemn and complain - and most do. But it takes great character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving."

Warmest regards

Craig

craig@craiggoldblatt.com

The difference between an average performer and a top performer

So what’s the difference between an average performer and a top performer? A top performer understands conditioning. The difference between an average performer and a top performer is that a top performer doesn’t wait for somebody else to tell them its okay to feel good. Let me ask you a question: did you brush your teeth this morning? Of course you did. Before you play sport, do you warm up? Course you do. In the business world, I’m wondering how many people condition themselves properly. Let me give you a different analogy: You go to watch your favourite football team, premiership football team. Those boys are on £120,000 a week so say it’s Arsenal. You support Arsenal and Man United show up on the pitch; do you think that Arsenal will need to warm up? Physically, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically? Of course they would because they want to make the best out of the game.So how do you condition yourself before you step onto your field? How do you get ready for your day? We understand conditioning in the hygiene world; we’ve been washing and brushing our teeth since we were two years old. We understand it in sport world, do we understand in business? You see invariably I speak to so many people and I find that they walk into the seminar or conference room and they’re hunched. Or they walk into the office and I say ‘How you doing?’ and they say ‘Not bad.’ By the way, when you take ‘not bad’ not what have you got bad. That’s how they start their day. And then they go and sit in a seat and somebody’s sold them Viagra through the night, they’ve got 70 emails, they start their day by going ‘delete, delete, delete, delete’. That’s how they kick off their day.Make sure that before you make that phone call, you breathe. You send oxygen to your head, you feel, you listen, you paint, you run, do exercise, get rid of the stress. Feel. Feel it in your heart before you make the call. Make sure every call – every call – counts. Make sure you’re not the one that’s conditioned when the big opportunity arises. Step up. Condition yourself like an athlete and you’ll perform like one.

Enjoy!
Warmest regards
Craig

Let Craig help your organisation get the most out of every day - craig@craiggoldblatt.com

Attitude vs Skills

What attitudes and skills do we need over the next twelve months to be enormously successful? I ask this to many, many audiences and people come up with attitudes like energy, passion, hunger and they need determination. So they need all these different attitudes to succeed and then I say to them ‘What are the skills that they need?’ and they say the need to negotiate better, listening skills, communication etc. So providing you want to push forward, you need to find out what you need first off that’s going to make you more successful. Here’s the thing, interestingly enough. Let me ask you another question: At what stage when you were one-year old did your parents turn around to you and say ‘Give it up kid, you’re never going to be a walker’? They never said that to us. Even though they knew that one day we were going to walk, they kept encouraging us. What’s my point? My point is how energetic is a two-year old? How much passion, how much hunger, how much belief, how much determination does a two-year old have? Masses. And then we get to three, four, five-years old and people start saying ‘You know what, lower your standards. You know what, you’re not hard enough to play football with us, you’re not clever enough to work with us.’ People lower their standards.Here’s the thing; I believe we can learn skills. Here’s where most businesses spends loads of their money, loads of their time. We can’t change somebody’s attitude but we can remember one. So let me ask you this final question today: When has it been in your life when you felt magnificent? Before you start work and every morning of your life, remember the times when you’ve had the most courage, you’ve had the most passion. Remember being a child. Remember the times when you had humility, focus, strength, belief, determination, persistence. When were the times when you felt like a child?Anchor that in your subconscious before you start work, before you set your desk, feel in your heart where you really belong. Just before you start work, flow the emotions into your heart. Feel great before you sit down and make that phone call and don’t make that phone call until you know that your attitude is right.

Have a great day!

Warmest regards

Craig

Craig Goldblatt is one of the UK's top human potential speakers, contact him to find out how he can help your organisation.

craig@craiggoldblatt.com

www.craiggoldblatt.com

Being Comfortable In Business Sucks!

How do we get the best out of learning?

In order to change and develop and therefore grow we need to get uncomfortable enough to facilitate that process.

Whilst being comfortable is important for us to be relaxed enough to contemplate change, if we are totally comfortable with all areas of our lives - why would you to change in the first place?!

So make the decision about which areas you would like to make a difference in/to and accept that the feeling of discomfort you get when you think about it is the positive force you need - the catalyst - to making the shift. This will help you make that decisive move to challenge yourself - challenge enables us to get energy and a belief in our own abilities. Think of the child who sees others riding a bike without stabilisers - they feel uncomfortable and take that decision that they want to develop that skill and they focus on it like mad until one day they wobble off down the road unaided and as they cycle more they get stronger and better until riding a bike is second nature. When they get off their bike having riden it for the first time they invariably run and jump and depending on the child engage in any number of seemingly life threatening activities! The energy their body has been fuelled by comes directly from accomplishing their goal - they did it by the power of focus and a sentiment that going out on the road with stabilisers on their bike made then feel uncomfortable - they made the shift.

Have you noticed that using the child analogy again - once a child can ride a bike they don't settle with that they set their sights on another accomplishment - somthing else that challenges their feeling of comfort. Don't let that go away just because you are no longer at primary school! Keep striving and challenging yourself and your business and enjoy the fulfilment it brings!

Be Successful in whatever you set out to do!

Warmest regards

Craig

Craig Goldblatt is a successful UK speaker - to discuss how he can help your organisation contact him at craig@craiggoldblatt.com

http://www.craiggoldblatt.com/

Peer Group Technology

A grandiose name for a simple but crucial fact "who we spend our time with is who we become."!

My quote of the week this week was from French literary critic Charles Augustin Sainte-Beauve - "Tell me who admires you and loves you, and I will tell you who you are" .

This is so true imagine this - there are eight 16 year olds in a gang and unfortunately those 16 year olds are taking drugs. So the group is joined by a 9th teenager and begins to spend time in that environment, how long is it before that ninth teenager starts to take drugs. You got it, almost instantaneously straight away. This ninth 16 year old hangs around with the eight 16 year old drug takers all of a sudden the ninth 16 year old starts to take drugs. Or there are eight 16 year olds in a gang playing football all the time and a ninth 16 year old begins to watch them play the game. How long is it before the ninth teenager wants to start playing football? Almost straightaway

In other words who we spend our life with is who we will end up being. Let me say that again “who we spend our life with is who we will end up being”. This was told to us many times by our parents “Hang around with the right crowd”, “Why don’t you date this girl she is lovely”, “Don’t date that date this girl”, “Are you sure they’re right for you right now?” ”What kind of people are going to this party?”, we were asked this questions over and over again. Our parents kept saying to us “Hang around with the right people”. You know, even though at the time we were not listening to this wonderful advice we know that if we want to be successful in life now that we are adults we need to hang around with the right people.

When you play tennis with somebody who is a better tennis player than you what happens to your tennis? Of course it improves.

When you play tennis with somebody who is worse than you at tennis what happens? Your tennis gets worse.

In life we need 3 sources of support:

A mentor ~ a wise teacher who delivers the knowledge we need to succeed in life so a traditional mentor would be the Dalai Lama. Somebody who has seen all done it all, a mentor who can just tell us the way the world is.

A coach ~ a tough individual who can question us so when we take decisions we take the decisions that are going to help us to be successful. It is like a mirror that enables us to know what we are doing in our life, let me give you an example, although David Beckham undoubtedly understands how to kick a football he still has a coach questioning him, making sure that he does it better and better each time.

A master mind group ~ a group of people who will support you in your pursuit of excellence. The group should meet regularly and collectively take their lives to a different level. You can have so many different mastermind groups in your life and you probably already do! You draw support from so many different mechanisms - your parents, your brother, your sister, your friends, your teachers. These are people that have uniquely inspired you through your life. Harness this support and use it to good effect, be clear in your own mind where you want to go and listen to the positive feedback from those who know and understand you well.

So remember - in order for you to succeed in achieving your goals, dreams, your aspirations you need support and you need to hang around with successful people!

Have a fantastic day!

Craig
Craig Goldblatt is a successful UK speaker - to discuss how he can help your organisation contact him at craig@craiggoldblatt.com

http://www.craiggoldblatt.com/

Do things that make you happy!!!

Let’s get grateful for where we are in our lives.

As soon as you wake up in the morning put on your iPod or walkman choose you favourite music and take a walk. While on this walk get really grateful for everything every wonderful thing that you have in your life. Think of your family, think of your friends, think of your health, think of your opportunities, notice the trees, the fresh air, the children playing, the sun rising, the birds singing in the trees, the look of the season, the sound of the milkman, the scent of the cut grass, feel your heart beating and your legs moving - what a miracle your body is! What a miracle your body is to keep moving without you even noticing. Take a deep breath and realise the freedom and the choices you have in your life then start to tell yourself everything that you love, everything that you love about you, everything you love about your life I mean it. Say it with a passion, say it with belief.

What do the army do when they go for a run when its dark and its wet and they have done six miles they've still got 11 miles to go what does the sergeant say to them that they need to do? That’s right they start to sing, they start to chant, they start to chant positive giving cantations over and over again. What do we do when with our friends - we start to sing. What do we do when we are feeling great? We start to sing. Why do the army sing over and over again? It’s because the army have to do the stuff that works to save lives, and you know what if positive singing is good enough for the army then it should be good enough for me. It should be good enough for us. See your brain does not know the difference between what it vividly imagines, and what is reality.

Your brain does not know the difference between what it vividly imagines and what is reality, in other words first thing in the morning tell your brain what it wants to hear and it will start to believe it. Tell your brain what it wants to hear and your brain will start to believe it.

Let me share an example of this with you.

Do you remember Pythagoras theorem from school, no neither do I. Now here is another question, do you remember Jingle Bells? Sing Jingle Bells yeah of course you can sing jingle bells, which came first in your life Pythagoras or Jingle Bells? Well of course it was Jingle Bells, and how long we are going to remember that nursery rhyme for? Why do we remember Jingle Bells over Pythagoras? Simple we sung Jingle Bells over and over and over again and we enjoyed the process so you remembered it and you felt great about it, and one needs to guess that Pythagoras did not have the same effect when you first learnt it then Jingle Bells did.

How would you feel you walked along the road for the next 24 hours and you called yourself a loser? Over and over and over again you called a loser you complained about the weather? You get too many emails, your football is awful, they could do better, that you could do better that it is raining that’s not fair and why did they do that me and why did they do that them. That your team in work are incompetent, that everybody is an idiot, what chances do you have of success when we tell ourselves that we are losing the game of life. How many of us tell our brains the right stuff everyday so we get really grateful for our lives. Let’s start knowing that we are truly blessed, because when we are grateful we are RICH.

To find out more about Craig's work visit his website - http://www.craiggoldblatt.com/ or email him with your questions about your own team/organisation. - craig@craiggoldblatt.com

See The Opportunity

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity and an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” – Sir Winston Churchill.

One thing I have realised while working with the amazing people I have been lucky to spend my time with is that so many people have fantastic beliefs and aspirations yet they are put off from pursuing these beliefs by others. Remember this - every time your heart tells you something feels right, there will be someone that tells you that you should not do it. They will find a way for you to stay where you are in life, they will feed you with all sorts of reasons as why you shouldn’t have this or shouldn’t do this or why you must not follow your dreams or you must not seek opportunities that you know that you deserve. Reasons such as you are too busy or it is too hard to do it or it won’t work or it won’t work for you or success is meant for other people or you don’t have the skills or to make the opportunity into reality your are not fast enough or strong enough etc etc!
They do anything to takeaway your energy so that they do not have to feel inferior to you. When you realise your potential the world is full of people who are comfortable with seeing other people feel pain to make their small lives look and feel better.
When we hang around with small minded negative thinkers, they tend to squash our ability to see opportunities. In short hang around with successful people.
Essentially there are two elements that makeup a human being, that is our genetics and our environment. How we create our environment has a massive impact on whether we can see opportunities, and if we act on them.
To see opportunities we need to look after our feelings our values, we need to live our values and our thoughts, our beliefs to really be aware of the outside world. This is why the East have been concentrating on meditation mind and body focus. That is why they find enlightenment for thousands of years. In the East they understand that both of our values and beliefs in our internal world drive the behaviours in our outside world. Almost everything that we create in our outside world, our office, our friends, our home, our sport, almost everything that we create in our outside world starts with a thought or a feeling in our inside world.
Think about it.
Who chooses your friends? You do, based on a feeling internally when you first meet your friends.
Who chooses your partner? You, based on a feeling internally when you first meet your partner.
Who chooses what you eat? You, based on a feeling internally when you sample the food.
Who chooses your hobbies, interests, sports? You, based on a belief internally guided by what you think you can achieve or master.
Here are some essential tools to make sure that you look after yourself, so you are strong enough to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell opportunities in your external world. Here is how to look after yourself internally so your external world flourishes.
1 Eat well.
2 Read a lot, read a lot of books.
3 Spend time with the right people.
4 Take regular exercise.
5 Take some risks and analyse every outcome you possibly can.
6 Take time on your own to reflect and be at peace with your self.
7 Laugh a great deal.
8 Hug as much as possible, give as much love as possible.
9 Play hard, play as much as possible in your life.
10 Get grateful for what we already have in our lives.
11 Set great goals.
12 Speak positively about your life, your plans, your dreams and your friends.
“Remember a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity and an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” – Sir Winston Churchill

To find out more about Craig Goldblatt's work or to book him to work with your organisation - contact him at craig@craiggoldblatt.com

Or have a look at Craig's website www.craiggoldblatt.com

Sales Success - The final stages!

Hi - welcome back!

So now you are in front of the client and your presentation is about to begin - below are a few points to bear in mind:

• When using a laptop or projector, use a pen to draw attention to specific areas of the screen
• Avoid death by Powerpoint. The customer's attention should focus on what you have to offer, not the visual aids you have at your disposal.
• Where appropriate send the presentation disc to the host's IT department to check its operation in advance - and take 2 spares on the day.
• Make the presentation personalised to the client and adapt it to their needs. A generic pitch delivered to anyone who will listen is uninspiring! This also gives you prime opportunity to demonstrate the information you found out in the planning and preparation stage.
• Use one good story during your presentation - it will act as a memory hook for the client and he may tell others about you.

And now onto completion -

• Before concluding - establish the next step. Don't end a meeting with the customer saying they will contact you at a time not determined in the meeting.
• Establish that the customer is satisfied that your product meets his requirements. If not, seek to resolve the issue.
• Aim to leave price discussion to the end of the negotiation - and be confident about the price you give.
• Use a contract to close the sale and be confident in your handling of the contract.
• After the sale offer any related products or services which provide value to the customer.

I sincerely hope that following the stages of the sale and being aware of the ways of improving the results at each stage has been useful and that you are already planning your next bigs deals!
I'd love to hear from you about your own experiences with sales - do drop me an email to craig@craiggoldblatt. Have a phenomenal weekend in the meantime!
Warmest regards
Craig

Craig Goldblatt is a renowned speaker on the UK and European circuits and works with thousands of top executives each year to improve the performance of their organisations. He talks on not just sales but also harnessing human potential to get great results in a company. He is passionate about his subject matter and his energy is infectious as he involves everyone in his presentation. Take a look at Craig's website to get a taster of the work he does! www.craig@craiggoldblatt.com

Creating Sales Success - Meeting a Prospective Client

"If you are not fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm" .



So the saying goes! It is most definitely true to say that you only get one chance to make a first impression, but you have prepared well, done your research about the prospective client and laid a professional framework, all ready for the actual meeting. So here now is some advice I have always taken into account when you are in front of the client.

• Be on time and stick to the time agreed for the meeting.


• Environment matters! If you are meeting out of the office, you may wish to reserve a room - you will find it more difficult to sell standing up in a busy reception area.


• Dress well.


• Where practical sit next to the client rather than across a barrier such as desk


• Begin by confirming the agenda and check to see if the client wants to add anything.


• Be thorough in confirming the client's needs and keep these at the forefront of your mind.


• Allow the customer to sell his product before you begin selling yours.


• Enquire about competition and current suppliers.


• Be crisp and clear in your presentation - use your voice for impact and effect - altering the pace of speech for example


• Be excited about your product!


• Never assume the customer knows anything about your product - check their understanding regularly.


• Body language is so important and is key to a successful conclusion. You cannot sell with your hands behind your back.


• Eye contact is vital. Talk to your customer - not at them.

Tomorrow we will look at content of your presentation and completion of the sale!

Have a truly successful day!

Warmest regards

Craig

If you would like to talk to Craig about his work or book him to work with your organisation plesae email him at craig@craiggoldblatt.com. There is a lot more information on Craig's website www.craiggoldblatt.com

The Initial Approach to New Clients

Over the course of this week we have been breaking down the stages of obtaining new clients. Today I would like to share with you my advice on approaching a prospective client for the first time, bear these points in mind when planning your sales strategy.

• Cold calling is far more effective if run alongside a successful marketing campaign.
• Focus on creating AIDA - Awareness that you exist in the market place, Interest in your product, Desire to do business with you, Action to place the order.
• Phone the customer to introduce yourself, and offer to sent further information.
• Always make sure it s convenient for the customer to talk
• Keep phone calls simple and to the point, free of waffle and thank the customer for taking your call.
• After an introductory phone call, write a letter that explains who you are and what you do.
• Follow up with a phone call and an offer to mail a product brochure.
• Having created Awareness and Interest, phone for an appointment
• Send appointment details to the customer ahead of time, along with your agenda. the ground will have been well prepared for your face-to-face visit.
• Never ignore a secretary or PA - they have influence.

You are now ready to meet your new prospect, the sale is in sight! Check tomorrow's blog for my tips on how to make that meeting a huge success!

Warmest Regards

Craig

Craig Goldblatt is a hugely successful speaker on the UK and European circuit. He inspires and motivates people with his energy and passion for his subject matter. To talk to him about how he can help your organisation achieve greater success contact him on craig@craiggoldblatt.com

If you would like to purchase the complete set of Craig's Sales tips in a handy sized booklet - please either email Craig or visit his website http://www.craiggoldblatt.com/

Planning and preparing for success with new clients

Today I am going to give you some tips about planning and preparing to see a potential, or existing, client. This is the crucial stage for proving your professionalism and if done correctly will set you apart from the competition.

• Aim to read or listen to 30 minutes of motivational literature every day
• Ensure customers can contact you and purchase product through your website
• Set personal and business short, medium and long term goals
• Establish sales targets - daily, weekly, monthly and annual.
• Plot your sales versus targets on a chart to provide motivation to esceed targets
• Always focus on the benefits you offer clients
• Build an appointment sheet to track progress and use a simple call cycle to make sure you call your customers when promised
• Maintain an organised client database
• Ensure that the order processing procedure is simple.
• Set an allocated time to make phone calls
• Ensure that your working environment is tidyand set up for efficient working
• Start each day with 5 minutes of planning to get the optimum from your time and to save you hours
• Plan appointments geographically
• Identify the decision maker as early on as possible
• Know your customer - look at their website and have a look at a recent set of accounts
• Establish a goal for every visit even if you are just dropping in on an existing customer
• After every call write down one thing you did and one thing that you did not do so well. This will help to develop your technique.

Tomorrow we will look at lead generation and making that initial approach to a prospective client.

If you would like to see the booklet which includes all my great sales tips, please visit my website http://www.craiggoldblatt.com/ and click on the product section.

If you would like further details about my work and how I could really help the bottom line of your organisation please email me at craig@craiggoldblatt.com

Warmest regards

Craig

Success with New Clients

We all need it, we all try many different ways to achieve it and at more than one stage in all of our business lives we have lamented not having better success rates! I am of course talking about New Business! Why should a potential client pick you and your company to work with them as opposed to someone else? Sure we all think we have unique selling points, better software, a better price, a more enticing deal and so on, but in truth, no one has to buy from us. For a start not all buyers are rational in their purchasing patterns - we all buy whether for business or in our personal lives on occasions, against our usual behaviour. So how can we differentiate ourselves from our competitors and win that business? In my view it is always worth remembering that it's you they buy - once people have bought you they will nearly always buy the product. so, how can you make the most of that fact?

Over the course of this week I am going to talk you through my 75 great sales tips starting today with PR and Credibility.

• Use PR to establish your credibility and seek to be recognised as an expert in your field


• Write columns in local trade magazines and newspapers


• Phone local radio stations and arrange to do talk shows in your field


• Take any opportunity to be interviewed by a journalist


• If you are accredited to any organisations that are well regarded in your field or if you have won any external awards within your sector, or if you have appeared in print or interviews, let prospective customers know!


• Ask satisfied customers to express their satisfaction in letters, which should be carried in a testimonial folder.


• Build brand awareness from the beginning. Ensure that there is consistency through all your material, from your brochure to business cards.


• Encourage senior colleagues or associates to join you on client visits


• Always carry your business cards and distribute them freely.


• Always provide information about your products to colleagues and acquaintances.

Tomorrow we will look at the all important, but often overlooked stage of planning and preparation.

If you would like to buy a copy of my 75 Great Sales Tips please visit the product section of my website http://www.craiggoldblatt.com/

If you would like to book me to work with your organisation email me craig@craiggoldblatt.com

Warmest Regards

Craig

Take the Opportunity

In order for us to seek opportunities in our lives it is important where we are physically however we will never see the wood from the trees if we cannot open our eyes!

Here are some essential tools to make sure you look after yourself so you are strong enough to see, hear, feel, taste and smell opportunities:

Eat well
Read a great deal
Spend time with the right people
Take regular exercise
Take some risks and analyse the outcome
Take time on your own to reflect and be at peace
Laugh a great deal
Hug as much as possible
Love as much as possible
Play as much as possible.
Get grateful for what we already have
Set goals
Speak positively about your life, your plans, your dreams and your friends.
Smile!

I'd love to talk to you about ways of maximising your potential as well as those around you within your organisation. Email me - craig@craiggoldblatt.com

Warmest regards
Craig

Get Sales people selling!!

The retail trade is subject to much media coverage these days - with articles daily about a credit crisis affecting sales and high street outlets losing out to online selling counterparts. Yet are there also other factors at play? A recent report states that fashion retailers are missing out on billions of dollars a year because sales staff are only engaging with 7% of customers who enter the store, yet if they approached four more customers in every 100 and were more aware of the all important buying signals, sales would increase by 7%. Has the focus shifted towards selection of products and merchandising - clearly there is no shortage of choice of products on the High Street and displays are excellent at enticing people into stores - but is this at the detriment of interaction with customers?

In the work I do everyday with clients from all industries, we explore the dynamics between the company and its customers, we identify buying signals and how to respond. Additionally, we look at the person doing the selling - what do they want from their job - what motivates them to reach for greater goals each day? Attitude is a pivotal aspect of all client facing situations and it needs to be a fantastic attitude to ensure initial and repeated sales and brand loyalty.

To find out more about how i can help your organisation, please contact me at craig@craiggoldblatt.com or visit my website www.craiggoldblatt.com.

Warmest regards
Craig

Get Moving!

If there were a poll of the most promised New Year's Resolution getting fit must surely be one of the most popular! After the excesses of the festive break it seems the perfect way to assuage ourselves of the guilt of the pile of empty chocolate boxes and wine bottles we are throwing out.

But exercise should not be a once a year choice to be forgotten by the time January ends - as humans we need to move more than we do - even for those who do a couple of exercise sessions a week - sitting down all day at a desk does nothing for our ability to be focussed on our jobs or motivation to be fantastic! We have the need for exercise, and when this need is not fulfilled, we pay a price. We were not made to be inactive, sitting in front of a computer all day. We were made to run after an antelope for lunch, or run away from a lion so that we don't become lunch. We frustrate a physical need when we don't exercise, and when we frustrate a need - of vitamins, proteins, or exercise - we pay a price for it.

It doesn't have to be arduous or formalised (save that for the trips to the swimming pool, aerobic class, gym session etc), but take the obvious choices - walk around every so often - if you work at home and your kids have a trampoline - use it! If they don't or you haven't got kids - buy a trampette. when you sit back at your desk you will feel better - and you will be more motivated towards your work. How many of us have sat pondering an issue at our desk and frustrated at the lack of inspiration have gone to get a drink or gone to lunch only to find that while we walk along the solution comes to us? Movement gets the blood pumping around the body and therefore more oxygen to the brain - try it - it works!

For more motivational ideas for your organisation - why not book me to deliver a two and a half hour talk - its packed with ideas and is interactive with the audience - they will come out firing to succeed!! Contact me at craig@craiggoldblatt.com
http://www.craiggoldblatt.com/

How to have a Happy New Year

I wholeheartedly believe that we need to focus on what we already have before we set ourselves goals to achieve more. I read an unbelievable statistic recently which said that 50 years ago 50% of British people stated they were happy, today, only one third would describe themselves that way - this despite wealth having tripled in that time frame. We are simply just not happier for our increase in wealth.



In my workshops I talk a lot about focussing on what is good in our lives - getting grateful as I call it . To start each day with a few minutes of reflection on what is good in our lives - our families, friends, good health etc is a truly positive way of motivating ourselves for the day ahead - far better than spending the same few minutes mulling over the dreaded phone calls we have to make that day! We can all think of times when we have had something bad happen - a job loss or illness - and we then become very grateful for what we do have. We need to maintain this gratitude by reflecting on it every day and make this process a way of life.



Tomorrow I will talk more about some of the tools I recommend in my workshops for improving your success at work and in other areas of your life.



If you would like further information about about my workshops please email me at craig@craiggoldblatt.com

For more detail about my work please visit us at: www.craiggoldblatt.com