Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Finding Your Best Self
Many of the people who read SUCCESS have achieved great things in their professional lives. They often find, however, that great success in one area of their lives has nothing to do with whether they are controlling their weight. Struggles with weight often don’t discriminate. The reality is that 95 to 97 percent of all people have some weight they want to lose.
Why is weight loss so difficult for people— especially those who have experienced sweet success in other parts of their lives? Let me shed some light.
There’s more to it than food. People who set out to lose weight want to make it all about food—what they should and shouldn’t be eating. Some add exercise into the mix and ask, how much do I exercise? While those are all parts of a good program, the irony is that, in the end, people who are successful at overcoming issues with weight tackle something else much greater. It’s more about how they view themselves and their lives than about what they should and shouldn’t eat.
Most people know what they should and shouldn’t be eating, and they know to be active. It’s not magic.
The magic: Treat weight loss like you treat your business. High achievers understand hard work can result in professional success. But so many people don’t want to follow that same rule to lose weight. They want to jump on the next miracle bandwagon. When it comes to our health, we’re used to taking a pill and having our symptoms go away. I think that’s part of the problem. We’re always looking for the miracle.
The magic of weight-loss success comes with realizing some simple truths:
Give up on the shortcuts. Successful weight loss takes work, discipline and, more than anything, knowing exactly what you want. In your career, you’ve probably envisioned where you see yourself in two years, in five years. Have you applied that same formula to the weightloss process? You know what it takes to strive for business and career success. Focus the same way on losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight.
"Weight is a symptom of what you must identify and overcome."
The reality is that there is no shortcut to weight loss. You have to put in the work. That work first involves exercise. So many people decide to lose weight fast by giving up lots of foods. They want it to be about food because it’s easier to take something away than it is to incorporate something new. Especially in today’s society, people don’t want to get on the treadmill. In the last 30 years, exercise has diminished. We don’t move. New neighborhoods don’t have sidewalks. Physical education is no longer mandatory in schools. Thanks to technology, we don’t have to get out of our chairs.
Some would disagree, but taking that first step and starting to exercise is easy. You only have to make the time for exercise and do it. The amount of exercise you do should be based on a question successful businesspeople ask: What is it you want to accomplish? If you want to be the CEO of a corporation, you’re probably going to have to put in more time. Using that analogy for exercise, the more exercise you do, the higher a level you will reach in weight loss and muscle tone.
Never do anything that’s temporary. When you make a change in your life, let yourself know that you’re making a lifetime commitment to giving up some things and adding others. When it comes to exercise, for example, you don’t incorporate it into your lifestyle only until you lose weight but, rather, for the rest of your life.
Understand why you struggle with weight. When people struggle with their weight, it’s usually not because they hate exercise or love certain foods. Most people have an emotional component that’s tied to why they don’t exercise and why they’re comforted by food. Understanding the emotional component is extremely important in successful weight loss. What are your triggers? Are you unhappy in your career? Your relationship? Friendships? Why does food satisfy something other than physical hunger?
The two most common, socially acceptable coping mechanisms in life are overworking and overeating. Society accepts these overindulgences we use for comfort. Since we are so prone to using these coping mechanisms, it becomes important to find other healthier outlets.
Balance is key. The most successful people find balance in life. Focusing too much on weight loss can impede your success. Never say, “I’ll be happy when I reach this weight.” There are only two outcomes to that thinking: Either you don’t reach the weight goal or you find out that weight wasn’t the source of your unhappiness. Weight is a symptom of what you must identify and overcome.
Don’t make it about numbers. I don’t see the magic in striving to reach weight-loss numbers. Your ideal weight is individual. I’ve found that most people are pretty realistic about what they’d like to weigh based on what makes them feel and look good. And that doesn’t mean model-thin.
Take the first step today. Change your thinking. Remember: There are no gimmicks. Weight loss requires long-term thinking. You have to exercise and gradually modify the way you eat over time. Crash diets, where you narrow food choices to the point that it’s uninteresting to eat, will cause you to rebel and fall back into old eating habits. Try this approach: Toss this out, throw this in as a replacement, gradually make some changes and eliminate those foods that get you in trouble.
Bob Greene is an exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer specializing in fitness, metabolism and weight loss. He is a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and is best-selling author of The Best Life Diet Daily Journal, Bob Greene’s Total Body Makeover and Get with the Program!
Why is weight loss so difficult for people— especially those who have experienced sweet success in other parts of their lives? Let me shed some light.
There’s more to it than food. People who set out to lose weight want to make it all about food—what they should and shouldn’t be eating. Some add exercise into the mix and ask, how much do I exercise? While those are all parts of a good program, the irony is that, in the end, people who are successful at overcoming issues with weight tackle something else much greater. It’s more about how they view themselves and their lives than about what they should and shouldn’t eat.
Most people know what they should and shouldn’t be eating, and they know to be active. It’s not magic.
The magic: Treat weight loss like you treat your business. High achievers understand hard work can result in professional success. But so many people don’t want to follow that same rule to lose weight. They want to jump on the next miracle bandwagon. When it comes to our health, we’re used to taking a pill and having our symptoms go away. I think that’s part of the problem. We’re always looking for the miracle.
The magic of weight-loss success comes with realizing some simple truths:
Give up on the shortcuts. Successful weight loss takes work, discipline and, more than anything, knowing exactly what you want. In your career, you’ve probably envisioned where you see yourself in two years, in five years. Have you applied that same formula to the weightloss process? You know what it takes to strive for business and career success. Focus the same way on losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight.
"Weight is a symptom of what you must identify and overcome."
The reality is that there is no shortcut to weight loss. You have to put in the work. That work first involves exercise. So many people decide to lose weight fast by giving up lots of foods. They want it to be about food because it’s easier to take something away than it is to incorporate something new. Especially in today’s society, people don’t want to get on the treadmill. In the last 30 years, exercise has diminished. We don’t move. New neighborhoods don’t have sidewalks. Physical education is no longer mandatory in schools. Thanks to technology, we don’t have to get out of our chairs.
Some would disagree, but taking that first step and starting to exercise is easy. You only have to make the time for exercise and do it. The amount of exercise you do should be based on a question successful businesspeople ask: What is it you want to accomplish? If you want to be the CEO of a corporation, you’re probably going to have to put in more time. Using that analogy for exercise, the more exercise you do, the higher a level you will reach in weight loss and muscle tone.
Never do anything that’s temporary. When you make a change in your life, let yourself know that you’re making a lifetime commitment to giving up some things and adding others. When it comes to exercise, for example, you don’t incorporate it into your lifestyle only until you lose weight but, rather, for the rest of your life.
Understand why you struggle with weight. When people struggle with their weight, it’s usually not because they hate exercise or love certain foods. Most people have an emotional component that’s tied to why they don’t exercise and why they’re comforted by food. Understanding the emotional component is extremely important in successful weight loss. What are your triggers? Are you unhappy in your career? Your relationship? Friendships? Why does food satisfy something other than physical hunger?
The two most common, socially acceptable coping mechanisms in life are overworking and overeating. Society accepts these overindulgences we use for comfort. Since we are so prone to using these coping mechanisms, it becomes important to find other healthier outlets.
Balance is key. The most successful people find balance in life. Focusing too much on weight loss can impede your success. Never say, “I’ll be happy when I reach this weight.” There are only two outcomes to that thinking: Either you don’t reach the weight goal or you find out that weight wasn’t the source of your unhappiness. Weight is a symptom of what you must identify and overcome.
Don’t make it about numbers. I don’t see the magic in striving to reach weight-loss numbers. Your ideal weight is individual. I’ve found that most people are pretty realistic about what they’d like to weigh based on what makes them feel and look good. And that doesn’t mean model-thin.
Take the first step today. Change your thinking. Remember: There are no gimmicks. Weight loss requires long-term thinking. You have to exercise and gradually modify the way you eat over time. Crash diets, where you narrow food choices to the point that it’s uninteresting to eat, will cause you to rebel and fall back into old eating habits. Try this approach: Toss this out, throw this in as a replacement, gradually make some changes and eliminate those foods that get you in trouble.
Bob Greene is an exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer specializing in fitness, metabolism and weight loss. He is a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and is best-selling author of The Best Life Diet Daily Journal, Bob Greene’s Total Body Makeover and Get with the Program!
Master the Sales Mindset
Attitude and actions go a long way in today’s selling environment. That’s what the pros will tell you. Salespeople who aren’t constantly honing their knowledge and skills risk becoming relics. And developing relationships, the pros say, counts more than ever in our information-rich, Internet-based world that provides buyers the tools to be smarter than ever.
Bottom line for the seller: Nothing replaces hard work and innovative thinking. “Today’s salespeople better be question-based, value-driven, customer-focused and be able to prove their product rather than try to sell it. Proof comes from testimonials, not sales presentations,” says Jeffrey Gitomer, president of Buy Gitomer and author of The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling.
Top-selling self-improvement author Paul J. Meyer agrees: “You’ll succeed in direct proportion to your willingness to focus and concentrate on your task—that is to make yourself a master in your craft and in your specific field of selling.”
Meyer, who began selling insurance six decades ago and rose to the top of his field in a short time, founded Success Motivation International in 1960. As a trainer, speaker and author, Meyer says contemplative goal-setting is an early preparatory step that sets the stage for success throughout the entire sales process. Having tangible short-term goals that go out six months, as well as longer-range goals that can span up to a lifetime, are well and good. Just as important, he says, is setting intangible goals around your spiritual, mental and emotional aspirations.
We’ve all heard it before: Write down your goals. Meyer goes further to ask if you’ve crystallized your thinking about the goal and have a solid plan and deadline for meeting it. Iron-willed determination, a burning desire and the confidence in your ability to succeed in meeting the goal are also essential. “Ask yourself the results and benefits of your goals and you’ll learn a whole lot about what motivates you,” Meyer says.
Discovering Your Motivation
“You have to be motivated by what you value,” says Jim Cathcart, author of Relationship Selling and The Acorn Principle. Look behind your goals to discover what motivates you. “Motivation is motive with action. Motives are not brought to people; they are discovered within people,” he says.
Cathcart says society often trivializes motivation as an outward activity. “Too many people think of motivation as a superficial energy-generation thing. That’s simply being excited,” he says. “For someone to be motivated by action, they must find meaning in their actions.” Ask yourself if what you’re doing matters and if anyone cares, he says. Cathcart’s process of intelligent motivation is defining what’s important to you, what action is needed and then doing things to generate and sustain that action.
Why People Buy
Buyers must find meaning or relevance in what you’re selling. “People don’t buy because they understand your product; they buy because they feel you understand their need,” Cathcart says. To that end, start with understanding your prospects and customers. “Be better at listening. If you want someone to find you interesting, spend more time being interested in them,” he says. “Give them their answers, but respond after with a question to them.”
Gitomer says, “People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.” Touch the true emotional nerve and you’ll sell. One tactic to uncover what motivates buyers is to examine customer testimonials, which reveal other people’s motives to buy, he says.
“Selling is a business of emotions,” says Tom Hopkins, a sales trainer and author of How to Master the Art of Selling. “People want to believe they make decisions rationally, logically, but in reality they make them emotionally first. Then, they defend those decisions with logic. They rationalize.” This holds true for a piece of manufacturing equipment, life insurance, clothing or dessert at a restaurant, he says.
Hopkins recommends devising both emotional and logical reasons for your clients to own your product or service. In the case of a corporate executive making a decision about building new manufacturing plants, he says, “Emotionally, the executive wants to look good in the eyes of the stockholders or the board. Improving production and economizing for the company are part of their rationalization.”
The Process Rules
Focus on the sales process and not your particular personality, advises master seller and personal-development expert Zig Ziglar. “Your personality will only carry you so far. People are looking for systems or processes. Selling is a process, not an event,” he says. Whether you’re an analytical type like Bill Gates or a gregarious one like Bill Cosby, any personality can sell if you have a process. Ziglar says, “It takes the pressure off the person.”
"Selling is a business of emotions.” —Tom Hopkins"
One simple process Ziglar’s team uses in its corporate sales training programs is T-R-U-S-T, which stands for think, relate, uncover needs, sell solutions and take action. “This is a good set of customer-centered selling skills to have,” says Ziglar, author of Secrets of Closing the Sale, among other best-sellers. When markets ebb and times are tough, it’s imperative to increase training and avoid the inclination to cut back on education. “Salespeople have to be a lot sharper today,” he says. “More than ever, decisions are going to be more critical, and buyers will look at the solution and make their decisions with a more analytical perspective.”
Upping Your Game and Your Solution
Especially in difficult market conditions, Cathcart agrees about the importance of training. Learn a new skill or more about the customer or your marketplace. Infuse value in your prospect or customer check-ins by finding innovative things to do that serve your customer. “You have to give meaning. Otherwise, it’s a greed call,” Cathcart says. Also, increase outreach. “Innovate while sticking to your disciplines, whether that’s increasing the number of sales calls or keeping good records,” he says. Increasing sales outreach may mean sending out 5,000 pieces of mail, not 1,000, or making 100 calls a month instead of 50.
Seek greater volume from current customers, recommends Gitomer. “It may be at the same location, a different branch or even a different division, but sales are out there and the easiest path is through people you’re already doing business with,” he says. Make improvements to your product or service. “Serve your customers beyond their expectations with faster deliveries, error-free order processing or ease of doing business with you,” Gitomer says.
Learning where and how your customers are hurting and helping them is how sales are captured in a down market or any market, Gitomer says. “Now is the time to keep your customers loyal by providing extra service, not cutting back. Now is the time to invest in attitude training for everyone in your company, so they can have hope and a better outlook than portrayed in the media,” he says.
"You have to be motivated by what you value.” —Jim Cathcart"
In stepping up your own game, get specifi c about how you open each phone call, your choice of words and even how you title your e-mails, Cathcart says. “Don’t waste time with the old warm-ups,” he says. Ultimately, you may discover a new way to communicate your vision of how your product or service makes life better for people. “Whether you are selling health care or ice cream, the purpose of business is to make life better both for the customer and the company,” Cathcart says.
Don Hutson, co-author of the One Minute Entrepreneur and a sales growth specialist, recommends identifying and tracking marketplace trends by closely listening to your prospects and clients. “Lead with your ears. You can project trends into the future to identify windows of opportunity, changes in consumer sentiment and ideas for fine-tuning how you go to market,” Hutson says. That information is used to constantly improve solutions.
Initiating Relationships by Word-of-Mouth
In boom markets, there’s plenty of low-hanging fruit. When times are challenging, sales professionals have to strive to become better tree climbers, says Terri Sjodin, founder of Sjodin Communications and author of New Sales Speak: The 9 Biggest Sales Presentation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. For starters, that may entail doing more homework before you execute your first call to a prospect.
Initiating new relationships is at the heart of what the salesperson does, Sjodin says. “It’s important that we begin establishing new conversations with people who may not be interested at first,” she says. “It’s our responsibility to introduce them to who we are, what we do and explain to them what’s in it for them if they listen to us and ultimately how they will benefit.”
In addition to referrals, Sjodin says seeking introductions is another way to cultivate new relationships. She points out the difference between a referral and an introduction, noting referrals are testimonials that come from having worked with someone in a professional capacity. “Referrals come with the weight and strength of someone who has worked with you,” Sjodin says. “Introductions can be from a friend, colleague or associate. The person may not have worked with you but they can testify to your capabilities, kindness or professionalism.”
Use introductions and referrals gracefully, asking for them at appropriate times in a simple manner, Sjodin advises. “There’s a lightness about it. You don’t want to push too hard,” she says. “We’re not entitled to a person’s time. We need to be invited and earn the right to be heard.” The era of winning sales through hard, aggressive tactics is over. “If you are very consistent in your sales processes and request graceful introductions, you don’t have to be a hard sell in order to be a consistent sales professional,” Sjodin says.
Pumping the Pipeline
Prospecting is hard work and rife with rejection, Hutson says. To increase outreach, he cites the 3-2-1 Plan used by a colleague: Every day, without fail, call three past clients to touch base, share new ideas and solutions and update your contact information on them. Next, find two new prospects in any manner that works for you. Finally, learn one new thing about selling every day.
One strategy for keeping your pipeline full is to analyze who your true gatekeepers or centers of influence are, Hutson says. “We need to stay in touch with those who can influence our business and expand our vision for more quality contacts,” he says. “At any given time you have people in six categories: suspects, prospects, customers, clients, advocates and confi dantes.” Pick the 20 percent on your list who represent the best opportunities for business in the near term, then work to move them up to the next category. Hutson calls this the rungs of the Loyalty Ladder and says it’s a useful tool for organizing your database and seeking new and additional business.
So the process goes, onward and up the sales ladder to success. Selling is indeed an invaluable skill, art, science and a fluid process. “You have no alternative except to sell because we move commerce,” Sjodin says. “Nothing happens until somebody sells somebody.”
Bottom line for the seller: Nothing replaces hard work and innovative thinking. “Today’s salespeople better be question-based, value-driven, customer-focused and be able to prove their product rather than try to sell it. Proof comes from testimonials, not sales presentations,” says Jeffrey Gitomer, president of Buy Gitomer and author of The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling.
Top-selling self-improvement author Paul J. Meyer agrees: “You’ll succeed in direct proportion to your willingness to focus and concentrate on your task—that is to make yourself a master in your craft and in your specific field of selling.”
Meyer, who began selling insurance six decades ago and rose to the top of his field in a short time, founded Success Motivation International in 1960. As a trainer, speaker and author, Meyer says contemplative goal-setting is an early preparatory step that sets the stage for success throughout the entire sales process. Having tangible short-term goals that go out six months, as well as longer-range goals that can span up to a lifetime, are well and good. Just as important, he says, is setting intangible goals around your spiritual, mental and emotional aspirations.
We’ve all heard it before: Write down your goals. Meyer goes further to ask if you’ve crystallized your thinking about the goal and have a solid plan and deadline for meeting it. Iron-willed determination, a burning desire and the confidence in your ability to succeed in meeting the goal are also essential. “Ask yourself the results and benefits of your goals and you’ll learn a whole lot about what motivates you,” Meyer says.
Discovering Your Motivation
“You have to be motivated by what you value,” says Jim Cathcart, author of Relationship Selling and The Acorn Principle. Look behind your goals to discover what motivates you. “Motivation is motive with action. Motives are not brought to people; they are discovered within people,” he says.
Cathcart says society often trivializes motivation as an outward activity. “Too many people think of motivation as a superficial energy-generation thing. That’s simply being excited,” he says. “For someone to be motivated by action, they must find meaning in their actions.” Ask yourself if what you’re doing matters and if anyone cares, he says. Cathcart’s process of intelligent motivation is defining what’s important to you, what action is needed and then doing things to generate and sustain that action.
Why People Buy
Buyers must find meaning or relevance in what you’re selling. “People don’t buy because they understand your product; they buy because they feel you understand their need,” Cathcart says. To that end, start with understanding your prospects and customers. “Be better at listening. If you want someone to find you interesting, spend more time being interested in them,” he says. “Give them their answers, but respond after with a question to them.”
Gitomer says, “People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.” Touch the true emotional nerve and you’ll sell. One tactic to uncover what motivates buyers is to examine customer testimonials, which reveal other people’s motives to buy, he says.
“Selling is a business of emotions,” says Tom Hopkins, a sales trainer and author of How to Master the Art of Selling. “People want to believe they make decisions rationally, logically, but in reality they make them emotionally first. Then, they defend those decisions with logic. They rationalize.” This holds true for a piece of manufacturing equipment, life insurance, clothing or dessert at a restaurant, he says.
Hopkins recommends devising both emotional and logical reasons for your clients to own your product or service. In the case of a corporate executive making a decision about building new manufacturing plants, he says, “Emotionally, the executive wants to look good in the eyes of the stockholders or the board. Improving production and economizing for the company are part of their rationalization.”
The Process Rules
Focus on the sales process and not your particular personality, advises master seller and personal-development expert Zig Ziglar. “Your personality will only carry you so far. People are looking for systems or processes. Selling is a process, not an event,” he says. Whether you’re an analytical type like Bill Gates or a gregarious one like Bill Cosby, any personality can sell if you have a process. Ziglar says, “It takes the pressure off the person.”
"Selling is a business of emotions.” —Tom Hopkins"
One simple process Ziglar’s team uses in its corporate sales training programs is T-R-U-S-T, which stands for think, relate, uncover needs, sell solutions and take action. “This is a good set of customer-centered selling skills to have,” says Ziglar, author of Secrets of Closing the Sale, among other best-sellers. When markets ebb and times are tough, it’s imperative to increase training and avoid the inclination to cut back on education. “Salespeople have to be a lot sharper today,” he says. “More than ever, decisions are going to be more critical, and buyers will look at the solution and make their decisions with a more analytical perspective.”
Upping Your Game and Your Solution
Especially in difficult market conditions, Cathcart agrees about the importance of training. Learn a new skill or more about the customer or your marketplace. Infuse value in your prospect or customer check-ins by finding innovative things to do that serve your customer. “You have to give meaning. Otherwise, it’s a greed call,” Cathcart says. Also, increase outreach. “Innovate while sticking to your disciplines, whether that’s increasing the number of sales calls or keeping good records,” he says. Increasing sales outreach may mean sending out 5,000 pieces of mail, not 1,000, or making 100 calls a month instead of 50.
Seek greater volume from current customers, recommends Gitomer. “It may be at the same location, a different branch or even a different division, but sales are out there and the easiest path is through people you’re already doing business with,” he says. Make improvements to your product or service. “Serve your customers beyond their expectations with faster deliveries, error-free order processing or ease of doing business with you,” Gitomer says.
Learning where and how your customers are hurting and helping them is how sales are captured in a down market or any market, Gitomer says. “Now is the time to keep your customers loyal by providing extra service, not cutting back. Now is the time to invest in attitude training for everyone in your company, so they can have hope and a better outlook than portrayed in the media,” he says.
"You have to be motivated by what you value.” —Jim Cathcart"
In stepping up your own game, get specifi c about how you open each phone call, your choice of words and even how you title your e-mails, Cathcart says. “Don’t waste time with the old warm-ups,” he says. Ultimately, you may discover a new way to communicate your vision of how your product or service makes life better for people. “Whether you are selling health care or ice cream, the purpose of business is to make life better both for the customer and the company,” Cathcart says.
Don Hutson, co-author of the One Minute Entrepreneur and a sales growth specialist, recommends identifying and tracking marketplace trends by closely listening to your prospects and clients. “Lead with your ears. You can project trends into the future to identify windows of opportunity, changes in consumer sentiment and ideas for fine-tuning how you go to market,” Hutson says. That information is used to constantly improve solutions.
Initiating Relationships by Word-of-Mouth
In boom markets, there’s plenty of low-hanging fruit. When times are challenging, sales professionals have to strive to become better tree climbers, says Terri Sjodin, founder of Sjodin Communications and author of New Sales Speak: The 9 Biggest Sales Presentation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. For starters, that may entail doing more homework before you execute your first call to a prospect.
Initiating new relationships is at the heart of what the salesperson does, Sjodin says. “It’s important that we begin establishing new conversations with people who may not be interested at first,” she says. “It’s our responsibility to introduce them to who we are, what we do and explain to them what’s in it for them if they listen to us and ultimately how they will benefit.”
In addition to referrals, Sjodin says seeking introductions is another way to cultivate new relationships. She points out the difference between a referral and an introduction, noting referrals are testimonials that come from having worked with someone in a professional capacity. “Referrals come with the weight and strength of someone who has worked with you,” Sjodin says. “Introductions can be from a friend, colleague or associate. The person may not have worked with you but they can testify to your capabilities, kindness or professionalism.”
Use introductions and referrals gracefully, asking for them at appropriate times in a simple manner, Sjodin advises. “There’s a lightness about it. You don’t want to push too hard,” she says. “We’re not entitled to a person’s time. We need to be invited and earn the right to be heard.” The era of winning sales through hard, aggressive tactics is over. “If you are very consistent in your sales processes and request graceful introductions, you don’t have to be a hard sell in order to be a consistent sales professional,” Sjodin says.
Pumping the Pipeline
Prospecting is hard work and rife with rejection, Hutson says. To increase outreach, he cites the 3-2-1 Plan used by a colleague: Every day, without fail, call three past clients to touch base, share new ideas and solutions and update your contact information on them. Next, find two new prospects in any manner that works for you. Finally, learn one new thing about selling every day.
One strategy for keeping your pipeline full is to analyze who your true gatekeepers or centers of influence are, Hutson says. “We need to stay in touch with those who can influence our business and expand our vision for more quality contacts,” he says. “At any given time you have people in six categories: suspects, prospects, customers, clients, advocates and confi dantes.” Pick the 20 percent on your list who represent the best opportunities for business in the near term, then work to move them up to the next category. Hutson calls this the rungs of the Loyalty Ladder and says it’s a useful tool for organizing your database and seeking new and additional business.
So the process goes, onward and up the sales ladder to success. Selling is indeed an invaluable skill, art, science and a fluid process. “You have no alternative except to sell because we move commerce,” Sjodin says. “Nothing happens until somebody sells somebody.”
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