time 4 change - the home of Christina Griffiths

Welcome to Monday Morning: Timing

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time

Saint Francis de Sales

Thought for the week

A sense of timing allows us to understand when to take action and when to back away. Judging when we need to intervene and when to leave well enough alone is a constant challenge. Those who have perfect timing often operate on the level of intuition.

Challenge for the week

What activities this week would benefit from the power of withdrawing and waiting until a better time? What other kinds of activity would benefit from the power of acting now?

Welcome to Monday Morning: Enjoy Your Differences

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge

Dale Carnegie

Thought for the week

Most of us find it very uncomfortable dealing with people who are different from ourselves. Quite often these differences bring difficult conversations and awkward meetings. However, they challenge us to see the world with new eyes, to accept that our view of the world is just one perspective. These differences also allow for very creative solutions.

Challenge for the week

Take this week to notice people who are different from yourself. What do they have to teach you?

Welcome to Monday Morning: Trust

All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust

Bob Burg

Thought for the week

Are you the kind of person that others trust? Do you keep your word? Are you able to act in an appropriate way in most circumstances? Do you keep confidences? Are you personally congruent with your business? When others trust you they are able to give you more. This can be more responsibility, authority, or business!

Challenge for the week

What small changes can you make this week to allow others to trust you more?

Steven Coveys’ Day Planner

When we find ourselves busy but not acheiving our aims a day planner can help us to prioritise our tasks.  Steven Covey’s day planner can help us to do this.  Even if you only do it once, start by listing out your current tasks and you will see where you spend your time and what you are achieving and for who!

I use this day planner a lot myself and recommend it to most of my clients at some point as it really helps when the pressure is building and you need to get a great deal of work done. Continue reading…

Welcome to Monday Morning: Selling

Everyone lives by selling something

Robert Louis Stevenson

Thought for the week

If we think about it, we are all selling something. Teachers are selling us the idea that knowledge is useful. Mothers are selling the notion that getting to bed early is good for you. Employees are selling themselves at interviews and coaches are selling the benefits of making changes. Yet so many of us are very uncomfortable with the notion that we are salespeople.

Challenge for the week

What would happen if you were to embrace the salesperson in you? In what small way can you improve your selling skills this week?

Communicating problems virtually

Wherever we have clients or prospects there are bound to be issues to resolve and problems to solve. Doing this often requires communication between one or more departments, both internal and external to our organisation.

How we communicate an issue or a problem to another will determin the quality of the response we get back. There is a strong relationship between how we communicate an issue to another and the quality of their response to get the issue or problem resolved. Whether we are communicating via a CRM system or via email, clarity in describing what the key issues are, along with the action you want are key.

This document provides quick straightforward guidelines for cleaning up communication and keeping it focused on the task in hand.

Continue reading…

Welcome to Monday Morning: Play

I never practice; I always play

Wanda Landowsk (Harpsichord Master)

Thought for the week

'Practice' does have a sense of work about it. It seems to give the idea that something is being held back for the 'real' performance. On the other hand when we think of the word 'Playing' most of us we have a sense of easiness, freedom and fun!

Challenge for the week

What does play mean for you? Which tasks would benefit from being done from the perspective of play? What 'toys' do you need to do this? How will arrange your space for these tasks?

Building Rapport quick reference

Rapport is a skill that has become essential to the success of your business.  The greater the level of rapport that exists between you and another the greater influence you have on each other.  Rapport allows you to connect with others by making it easy for others to be with you.  By building rapport you build trust and understanding.

This worksheet covers some of the basic ideas behind rapport and is used as a quick reference alongside sessions with my clients.  I hope you find it useful!

Continue reading…

FAB – Features, Advantages & Benefits

As sales people we can find ourselves becoming focused on the detail of what we do or what we offer our prospects or clients.  However, when we are in the buying seat actually we start to think about what the product or service will do for us.    These details are often connected to the function of the product or service and answer the questions around “how does it work”. These are known as features.

What these features do for the client or prospect are known as advantages and benefits are what the client gains from using your product or service. As a sales person our job is to primarily focus on what the product or service will do for our prospect or client rather than get lost in the detail of how it will do it.

• FEATURE: A positive fact that sets your product/service apart from others’.
• ADVANTAGE: A specific example that supports your fact.
• BENEFIT: What your fact or example gains the prospect.

The PDF download below helps you work through some examples and will give you some ideas for developing FAB for your own products.

Continue reading…

Welcome to Monday Morning: Chunking

Question: How do you eat an elephant?

Answer:One bite at a time

Thought for the week

This joke has been around for a while, but still paints a very eloquent picture of how overwhelming a task can feel if we tackle it all in one bite.

Challenge for the week

So this week, perhaps take time to notice the tasks that you are avoiding, or feel that are overwhelming you. Ask yourself can this task be broken down into smaller bite sized bits?