It’s official. I’m at the halfway point in my career. Over the last 25 years of working with individuals and groups the topic I have focused on the most is leadership. It is my favorite topic of all. Here are five lessons I’ve learned about leadership.

Lesson #1: Leadership is Not a Label
In studying leaders and in working side-by-side with leaders as a management consultant in over 30 industries, I have always searched for what these individuals had in common. First, here is what they did not have in common: height, size, race, gender, sexual orientation, spiritual focus, political preference, or personality type. Leaders come in every size and shape. Some are men and some are women, some are tall and some are short, some are big and some are thin, some are light-skinned and some are dark-skinned, some are straight and some are gay, some are devoutly spiritual and some are atheists, some are conservative and some are liberal, some are quiet and some are loud. I found no title, income level, or authority that ever automatically made a person an effective or an ineffective leader.

Lesson #2: Leadership Means Influencing How Other People Think
After studying leaders for a long period of time, I discovered that leadership really means influencing how other people think in ways that generate better sustainable results both for the organization and the people in it. It is the person’s ability to influence how other people think that determines his or her effectiveness as a leader. (more…)

I don’t know about you, but I’m shocked every time I listen to a voicemail
message left for me by sales reps, prospects and even clients. They are
filled with ‘um’s’ and ‘ah’s’, they ramble on and on, they leave no
compelling reason for me to call back, and they almost always leave their
number so fast that I have to listen to it two, three, sometimes four
times to make it out! It’s no wonder so many voice mail messages get
deleted and never called back!

If ever there was a situation that begged to be scripted, it’s your
voicemail message. Isn’t this the time you want to sound your best, be
perceived as a professional, and prepare the most polished message you
can? Of course it is. Here are seven sample voice mail messages you can
start using today to separate yourself from the other 95% of voice mails
that get ignored, deleted and never returned.

The first two are voicemails for prospects you haven’t spoken with yet,
the next three are for when you’re calling a prospect or client back, and
the last two are for situations when your prospect or client isn’t calling
you back:

Sample Voicemail Message #1:

Note: The best voicemail message you can leave is one with a specific
purpose that addresses the needs of your prospect or client, and offers
them a solution that is worth them taking the time to call you back to
learn more about. Here is the classic template – adjust and adapt it to
fit your product or service. In this and all examples, leave your phone
number SLOWLY:

“Hi __________, this is ___________ with (your company). I’m calling
about your new office that’s opening in Houston next month, and I wanted
to provide you with some ideas that may help with your networking issues.
We work with a lot of companies in the area, and I think you’ll find it
useful if we talk.
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Attitude is an amazing thing. It is like the steering wheel of our lives. We can turn it, therefore controling where we go. Our desination. The title of this article is the first of ten “Commandments of Attitude”. I received this list in a training class about three months ago. It floored me. I had never seen such a concise and comprehensive list about attitude. Here is the list:

1. It is attitude, not aptitude that governs success.

2. The purpose of existence is not to make a living, but to make a life.

3. A negative thought is the first step to failure.

4. You will seldom experience regret for anything you have done. It is what you do not do that will torment you.

5. Complaining is the refuge of those who have no self-reliance.

6. The ultimate cost of something is that amount of life that you will exchange for it.

7. Anything the mind of a man or woman can conceive and believe, he or she can achieve.

8. A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

9. The worst bankruptcy is the person who has lost enthusiasm.

10. Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

This article is the first of 10 that I will write. Each one delving into the statement or commandment.

“It’s attidue, not appitidude that governs succes”. This could not be more true. We all know stories of induviduals that have achieved great things with little or no formal schooling. How did they do it? It was their attitude. They had not doubts in their minds that what there were trying to accomplish, they would accomplish. Knowledge is good, but it can also be a hinderence as well. Sometimes we know so much that we paralize our selves. We live in an information age and more often than naught, we are inandated with information. More than we ever really need. It can immobileize us. Don’t fall victim to this. And don’t get caught up in the trap that “I don’t know enough about this subject to make an impact”. Be passionate about what your are doing. Passion makes up of a lot of knowledge. Passion can overcome the largest obstacles and help you reach the furthest of destinations.
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The current economic environment brings upon us circumstances that are outside of the control of many sales executives. While there still is quite a bit that can be learned from 2008, our first task should be to determine what we can do differently to make a positive impact, despite the economic downturn.

Building, managing and improving our relationships with current customers and prospects is absolutely one area that can be improved to make a positive impact.

Customers are an asset. They have current and future value to our companies and to individuals. Ask yourself; is your customer an appreciating asset or a depreciating one? Now is the perfect time to begin investing in your customer assets ensuring that those relationships are appreciating and ultimately paying you dividends.

Like any asset, if it is to appreciate, it cannot be ignored and must be managed. Your customer relationships are no different. One key objective of sales professionals is to keep their current customers and to find or create opportunities to up sell and resell them your products and services. Key aspects of your customer investments include:
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Recently, an interviewer asked me what my greatest fears were. I said I didn’t have any. He seemed surprised, but this is how I see it: If you label something as a fear, then it creates fear when sometimes it’s not a fear but a concern. For example, I know just as well as everyone else that New York City experienced a major terrorist attack and the thought of that is a concern for all of us, because it affects all of us. It’s happened in many places, so it’s a worldwide concern. But if we let it become a firmly rooted fear, the terrorists will have won.

The same applies to business. Do you fear owning a business? Translate that for yourself as asking: Are you concerned about owning a business yourself ? Why? What specifically are those concerns? It’s much easier to break down a concern than it is a fear. Fear creates a block that will only hinder your creative thinking. Objectivity will remove that block and allow for creative ideas to flow.

An antidote to fear is as simple as problem solving. Whether you have investing, estate planning, or running a business on your mind, or all of those things, they can be broken down into units of thought and dealt with in an orderly manner. It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle — you need to find the right place for each piece of the puzzle until the whole is apparent.
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Successful marketers do not easily get content with the sales and revenue that they are making. No matter how many clients they get to purchase from them, they still strive to discover new techniques that can help them increase their selling success. If you are one of these people, these 4 effective ways are for you:

1. You’ll reap what you sow. If you intend to stay longer in the business, you need to treat each person that you meet with utmost respect — even those prospects who choose not to buy from you. Keep in mind that building a good reputation in the online arena can take months or even several years and it only takes one grouchy customer to ruin it overnight. Make sure that both your prospects and your customers will not have anything but praises for you and your products. By doing so, you can build a great reputation online that can easily help you attract those people who are most likely to buy from you.

2. Invest on your advertising cost. Although there are so many free internet marketing tools that you can use, you will need to spend some money on your advertising cost when selling high ticket products to increase their exposure over the World Wide Web. Advertise them using paid links, banner ads, search engine marketing, and PPC advertising.
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I always tell sales reps that your client or prospect has all the answers as to why they will or why they won’t buy, and that it’s your job to find that information out. You do this by asking the right qualifying questions, by layering those questions, by qualifying any red flags you get and by actually listening to the answers you’re given.

While this may sound basic and simple enough, you’d be amazed by how many sales reps still don’t do this correctly. There are a ton of reasons why, but in order to simplify the entire process, I’m going to give you the one question that will get your prospect to tell you exactly what they are looking for (and what they’re not looking for as well). And here it is:

During the course of your qualifying, simply ask your prospect, “_________, if you could wave a magic wand right now and fix (or get) three things that would help your (sales process, bottom line, productivity - whatever is appropriate for your prospect), what would you wish for?”
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