January 28, 2010, Edition 2
Sell Like an A.C.E. and You’ll be Treated Like a King
By Bryan Flanagan, Sales Ambassador
If you play your cards right, you can have a great day each day of your life!
Let’s take the ace from a deck of playing cards and form an acronym.
A = Attitude
C = Confidence
E = Enthusiasm
Attitude
What separates the successful, high performing individual from the almost-just-on-the-verge-of-success individual? It’s not how they react to the positives in life…it’s how they react to the negatives in life! It’s the lemon-lemonade concept. Just after taking the oath as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan was shot. While in the operating room, he turned to the doctors and said, “I hope you are all Republicans!” To his wife Nancy he said, “Honey, I forgot to duck!” Whether you liked President Reagan or not, I think you’ll agree that’s the type of attitude you can admire.
Confidence
You must have confidence in yourself, your abilities, your company, and your teammates. If you don’t have confidence in these areas, how can your customers have confidence in you or your company? They can’t. Basketball great Larry Bird had confidence. In the 1986 NBA All-Star Game, he was competing in the three-point shooting contest. Prior to going on the court to warm up, he turned to the other seven contestants and asked, “Hey, which of you guys is playing for second place today?” That’s confidence!
Enthusiasm
Nothing great has been accomplished without enthusiasm! That doesn’t mean you have to jump up and down, snort, shout and flail your arms. That’s not enthusiasm…that’s hysteria! Enthusiasm is that extra pep in your step, that pride in your stride. It also means getting excited internally about your family, your friends, your career, your company, your teammates. And enthusiasm puts you into action. It’s like the young couple who was parked at the lake and the young woman said, “It would be great if you put the top of the car down.” Within three minutes the young man had the car top down. Not bad, considering the car was not a convertible! That’s enthusiasm.
Today, maintain a positive ATTITUDE, build your CONFIDENCE, and show your ENTHUSIASM in all that you do.
Bryan Flanagan is the Sales Ambassador for Ziglar. He is the lead sales trainer and coach and author of “Now Go Sell Somebody Something.” Read Bryan’s blog. Follow Bryan on Twitter @bryanflanagan.
Proposal Writing - How to Make Your Proposals Attractive to Your Clients
By Al Borowski
Successful proposal writing requires you to make your proposals attractive as well as informative. Your proposal needs to offer your clients a sample of what their world will look like and feel like when they select you for their project.
You can make your proposals more attractive in at least three ways.
AVOID THE “WAR AND PEACE” PROPOSAL
Don’t force your clients to dread reviewing your proposals because they conjure up images of reading “War and Peace.”
Use the proper mix of graphics, fonts, photos, headers, bullets, and paragraphs that immediately proves to the clients that your proposal will be pleasing to the eye and not a burden on their brain.
FLATTERY WILL GET YOU MORE BUSINESS THAN BRAGGING
Attractive also means the readers will be drawn into your proposal because it addresses their stated wants, needs, desires, goals, budgets and timetables. Flatter your clients by making them the Number One consideration in the proposal, not the great things your products or services have done for others.
Your clients will be attracted to the proposal because it fits their situation, not your capabilities and past successes.
AIM FOR THE HEART AND THE HEAD
Your proposals become more attractive when they appeal to your clients emotionally and logically.
It appeals to their emotions because they appreciate something created to solve their problem, fix their pain, or vault them into a productive, prominent, and profitable position.
It appeals to their logic because they recognize the value your solution delivers to them. Your solution may not be the lowest price, but the value your solution brings far exceeds any cost considerations.
Attract more business; attract more profits; make your proposals attractive to your clients.
Thus, editing and evaluating your proposals should become a critical step in your proposal creation process. For your FREE instant access to an offer to evaluate up to 20 pages of your next non-government proposal, please click here.
Al Borowski, MEd, CSP, PP - speaking and training on, evaluating, and editing proposals that sell.
Lighter Side of Selling
The top toothbrush salesman at the company was asked by his boss how he managed to sell so many brushes. He replied, “It’s easy,” and he pulled out his card table, setting his display of brushes on top. He told his boss, “I lay the brushes out like this, and then I put out some potato chips and dip to draw in the customers.” He laid out his chips and dip. His boss said, “That’s a very innovative approach,” and took one of the chips, dipped it, and stuck it in his mouth. “Yuck, this tastes terrible!” his boss yelled. The salesman replied “IT IS! Want to buy a toothbrush?”
Ziglar Recommends
The One Year Daily Insights with Zig Ziglar
Do you want to make the most of your life? Zig Ziglar, one of today’s most respected motivational speakers and authors, sincerely hopes and believes that you do. Together with Dr. Ike Reighard, Zig has included his favorite Scriptures, an insightful message, thoughtful questions to lead you to a deeper application of the message, and an inspirational quote to motivate you each day of the year.
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This newsletter is published by Ziglar. http://www.ziglar.com
Dear Zig and Team,
“Sell Like an A.C.E.”
Thanks for the insight. I think I have been lacking all three - attitude,confidence,enthusiasm - as my sales have been suffering of late.
I will surely take your advice and apply all three - starting now!
Wish everybody who’s involved in selling would just come to your marvelous site and learn a thing or two about selling like I am doing.
And the Lighter Side of Selling’s “toothbrush salesman” is just something out of this world. Who better than ‘enthusiastic’ salesmen like you and your team can post jokes like that?
Best wishes, always.
Keep up the great posts.
Andrew Molobetsi
South Africa
Great reminder and contribution! I will keep these principles in mind particularly in these hard times!!!
Thank you!
Sergio Chávez
Mexico City, Mexico
zig i really appreciate you for contributing meaningfully to my life.such as “sell as a king through A.C.E” and others motivational news letter.Thank you somuch.
zig i really appreciate you for contributing meaningfully to my life.such as “sell as a king through A.C.E” and others motivational news letter.Thank you somuch.Nigeria city