HELP

Help, I need somebody. Help, not just anybody. Help you know I need someone. Help.

These famous words are from a great Beatles song and they make a powerful point.

One of the best ways to get a relationship started is to to ask for help.

Asking for help is a sign of strength.

When you ask for help you are asking someone to get involved in your success.

There are many appropriate opportunities to ask for help if you are doing so with a sincere desire to get the help. You can expect people to help you but you cannot expect others to do the work. There is a considerable difference in getting the help you want and the help you need. Your focus should be on getting the help you need and not the help you may want. The difference is in the doing. Getting the right help means you are going to do something with the assistance and make positive progress. The assistance you receive will often be as passionate as the sincerity of the request. People can tell if you really want the help by the way you ask. If someone senses you are deeply committed to applying their suggestions, they are more likely to give you their undivided attention and help you. However if they sense you are not fully committed, they will most likely consider any help they may give you as a colossal waste of time.

One way you can use this in a selling situation is to ask a client if they can help you in determining if your product or service could be of any help in solving their "yet-to-be-determined" problem. Because you have pre-qualified the prospect, when you ask if they can help you make that determination, you are indirectly asking for them to admit their problem that you can offer a better solution to. This technique, if done sincerely, can be disarming and non-threatening and will prove to be one of the most effective discussion-starters in your arsenal. Here is how you ask: " I am trying to determine if my product or service could possibly help you as it has helped many of my current clients. Would you be king enough to help me by answering a few questions? If we determine that I cannot help, I will not waste any more of your time" Then you begin asking the questions and listen to the answers. Asking for help works because most people are inclined to help. When someone ask for your help, help them.

Change

The only constant in life is change. Change is dynamic, it is happening every second of every day. You can make decisions to make a change, or someone will make those decisions for you and the changes they make will directly or indirectly have an effect on you. Consider this; when your competition changes their behavior or their offering, you must take note and take action. Because if you don't strategically respond internally or externally, the results of their changes are going to have an impact on you. For example: If the competition reduces prices, the price reduction may encourage your clients to more seriously consider their offer. Your response to this change might be to discuss with your clients the value they are receiving by doing business with you. You must respond to the changes your competition is making as soon as you are aware of them.

Change may manifest in your job description. Businesses often make changes to become more efficient or productive. Should this happens to you, embrace it and make the best of the situation. You may also consider offering an alternative. Your suggestions may not change the decision, but your superiors will know that you are strategically thinking and are willing to make the changes necessary, because you are actively involved.

Change does not need to be dramatic but it does need to be proactively made. When you continuously evaluate the results of the actions you take, you are well on your way to effecting positive change by deliberately deciding to do something different, when necessary. Don't get caught in the never-ending cycle of doing something different just because you can. Do something different because it makes calculated sense. And be ready to make modifications to your changing behavior as you learn what works best. Things are going to change and how you respond to that change is going to make a difference.

They need to know that you know

I now what I know and I know that I know.

Client's and prospects need to know, that you know, and that you are willing to learn what you do not know. You must be willing. Nothing is as important in positioning your offering as knowing as much as possible about your prospects and clients and about their industry and how your product or service can specifically solve a problem. Getting to know is a pretty uncomplicated exercise, at least in the beginning. One of the most efficient means of "knowing" is to do the research, before the first call. There are many research-resources readily available. These resources consist, in part, of:

1. Your company's historical activity research

a. What, if any, is the account history including financial records

b. Products or services used

c. Key people involved

d. How long have they been a client or if not, how long ago were they a client

2. Internet

a. Are they on the web and if so how current, up-to-date and relevant is the information

b. Search competitive businesses to get an idea how populated the field is

c. Search for industry information / how the industry is doing, what is new, etc.

3. Your products and services

a. How relevant is your offering

b. Do their competitors use you and if so how (make sure you do not violate trust by disclosing what the competitor is specifically doing)

c. Why should they use you and why not

When you know and a client or prospect know, that you know, you are in an excellent position to move forward toward a successful relationship. More sophisticated clients expect you to know so I recommend you know as much as possible for every client and prospect. They deserve it and you will enjoy the exercise.

Because You Are Special

Everyone is special. We are all, in one way or anther, unique in our character, personality, desires and ambitions. Therefore it is illogical to conclude that you or anyone else is not really special. I say this because it is absolutely the truth and because I have run across people who think less of themselves than they should. These individuals may feel they are not special largely because someone has given them reason to believe they are of less value than others. This is unfortunate but does happen all of the time. People who make a habit of putting others down, most often themselves are lacking in self confidence or self appreciation. They don't know how to feel good about themselves so they feel that taking others down, will somehow serve their self-indulgent and self-defeating purposes. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A feeling of high-self-worth and a feeling of "I am special" comes from within. Don't let anyone treat you as if you are less special or less important or less valuable that anyone else. And don't let the circumstances you are faced with overwhelm you to the point that you feel you, with your special attributes, cannot overcome and move forward.

Feeling special requires you to understand that you and you alone make the decision to feel good about yourself. You are special, act like it!

Learning

Will you do it wrong until you get it right? What we have to learn we learn by doing. What we have to learn to do well we learn by doing over and over again. What we have to learn to be great at, we learn by not quitting and doing it over and over and over until we get it right and we own it. Doing anything without working knowledge can be disconcerting and have a tendency to discourage you from continuing. All of the training in the world cannot compare to the actual doing, because in the doing we get the experience and the experience teaches us how to do better. Practice and coaching are both very important and will save you from committing some fundamental mistakes but they cannot take the place of actual doing.

Consider the paratrooper. Paratroopers are trained for hours upon hours about what to do and when to do it before they make their first jump. But nothing teaches them more about their commitment than standing at the door of an airplane 3,000 feet in the air and stepping out into nothingness. If they are unprepared the results are fairly predictable. But even if they are fully prepared, the act of jumping out is a belief in the plan and the execution.

You should absolutely take the steps you have planned and be ready to make necessary changes if what you are doing is not achieving the desired results. Don' t jump too quickly by making changes before the plan has the opportunity to succeed, but if after a while if you are not learning by doing, perhaps it is time to change. What you must learn you must learn by doing. Will you do it wrong until you get it right?

Planning & Execution

The planning is critical to the process and the process is critical to the execution and the execution is critical to the desired result! There is sometimes a tendency to think of planning as some abstract exercise, that is, until the execution begins to take effect. You must plan, but you should not devote so much time to planning that you become distracted and fail to execute. The plan must lead to a process and that is when we begin to learn the merits of our plan and how much we should modify it to accomplish our objectives. Planning is best done when you are not consumed with the daily requirements of your job. Take the time to make the time to establish a plan. Before planning I suggest that you gather as much information as possible and determine how to get the right people involved. Once you have established your objective you need to develop a plan of action and then you must execute. Circumstances beyond your control are a dynamic reality. Therefore your plan and execution steps are very likely to change. However the objective may not. You will simply change the paths you're taking to achieve your goals. There is very little in business that will take the place of planned-positive action. But, make sure you can tell the difference between action and activity. Hamsters are actively busy spinning the wheel but they are not getting anywhere.

What you have to say

There is a great line in one of Neil Simon's plays. One of the characters is discussing the merits of what another of the characters is saying. His line regarding the verbose tendency is: "He doesn't have much to say, it is just that you have to listen to so much to figure that out." One of my friends from early in my career was explaining the specifics of a screenplay when he told me that every line in a movie is designed to be a part of the overall story. Noting is left to chance, every word has a designed meaning as it relates to the intention of the writer.

We should all be more selective when we are talking to prospects or clients about our product or service. Make every statement count because time, especially time that they are really focusing, is precious and limited. Business is full of distractions and even though you may feel you have the undivided attention of the person you are talking to, it is very likely that they are processing other information based on the need to make things happen or solve a particular problem. People are busy and while you may feel that what you have to say is really important, they may not and their opinion is all that matters. You need to continually sharpen your conversation skills so that you are listening intently and then responding appropriately by saying as much as possible in the fewest possible words. The value of repetition cannot be ignored when you are attempting to make an mission-critical statement, but make sure to do so in a manner that is not condescending or insulting. Saying the same mission-critical things in a number of different ways is smart but can be distracting if you are not doing so at an appropriate time in a strategic manner.

Do not assume that people really care what you have to say unless it is relevant to helping them solve their problems or grow their business. Stay focused and on point!