Strategies for Success Newsletter January 2010 Issue 49
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Published by Emily Huling Selling Strategies
Copyright 2010 Emily Huling. All rights reserved.
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To view this newsletter in html format, please click this link:
www.sellingstrategies.com/Newsletters/newsletter_49_1.html
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Happy New Year! Wishing you the best and brightest year ahead!
In this January 2010 issue:
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NOW AVAILABLE! Great Service Sells
CSR Development Program is ready to use in your agency staff meetings!
Great Service Sells – How Great CSRs Turn Service into Sales – book and audio
CDs
Designed for CSR group learning in staff meetings using both the print book and
accompanying audio CDs. Presented in 21, five-minute chapters, the tips,
techniques, real-life stories and personal challenges offer a year’s worth of
training sessions. For a complete list of chapters and facilitation tips, go to
www.sellingstrategies.com. Newsletter readers receive a 20% discount by using
coupon code NEWS11 at checkout.
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1.
Thoughts from the road
The gift of touching others
I rediscovered the small painted stone in my kitchen catch-all drawer. I hadn’t
looked at it in a few years, but it looked as fresh as the day I received it.
It was the summer of 1998. I was
making the three-hour car ride home after a client visit in Raleigh. I was still
single after my marriage had ended the year before so heading home to an empty
house always made me feel adrift.
For some reason, I stopped at a Food Lion grocery store, where I had never
stopped before, to pick up something for dinner. I was standing in the checkout
lane when I felt a tap on the shoulder. An older man in back of me said, “I
believe you dropped this” and placed in my hand a one-inch square pebble. I was
holding an intricately painted stone with a picture of an old-fashioned mast and
sails ship sitting on a turbulent ocean. It was beautiful. “No, it’s not mine,”
I said, and handed it back to him. “Well, it is now. I want you to have it.” I
gave him a questioning look and he told me that his hobby is painting stones and
giving them to others. I smiled and thanked him.
Holding that stone eleven years later, I once again sensed that warm feeling of
having a random act of kindness bestowed on me. It makes me wonder why I ever
hesitate to do something kind. We never know how someone may need that touch and
we may just be the person to help.
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Be generous in kindness and friendship. EH
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2. Thoughts from home
If it’s a secret, please don’t tell me!
“Emily, I’m going to tell you something, but it’s a secret. Be careful not to
tell your mom, your brother, or your cousin. It’s OK to tell John but be sure he
knows it’s a secret, too.”
Whoa! This conversation with my aunt was entering very dangerous territory.
Sharing confidential information puts both the speaker and the receiver in a bad
place. Why? Because the mind hears
the thought and enters it into the brain. Unfortunately, the “don’t tell” isn’t
usually part of the memory. So we have information, but we don’t remember its
status. In addition, once information is retold, it’s too easy to repeat it
again. After it crosses our lips, we have a permanent record in our brain of
having told it. We totally forget that it is a secret. And who really believes
that it’s a secret since it’s been shared?
Thank goodness I was paying close attention to the conversation. I quickly said,
“Aunt Judy, please don’t tell me this if it’s something I’m not supposed to
know.” “Oh,” she said sounding disappointed, “you’re right.”
Moral to the story: Don’t share information that’s not yours to tell.
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The Energizer Minute
This month, tune in to hear New Year, New
Intentions and hear my long-time technique to stay focused on self
improvement. Go to the
www.sellingstrategies.com home
page and click on the Energizer Minute.
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3. Have you read…
It’s always gratifying to read business books that challenge my mind and broaden
my thinking. I have two recommendations that meet that criterion.
How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life)
by Dov Siedman, 2007, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
If you’ve doubted that attitude, behavior, and principles are the foundation for
personal and organizational success, you won’t have any skepticism after reading
this book. Using a diverse spectrum of examples, the author firmly states his
case that the soft skills of trust, integrity, and values trump product, price,
bells and whistles.
Be Unreasonable: The Unconventional Way to Extraordinary Business Results
by Paul Lemberg, 2007, McGraw-Hill.
Backward thinking, inside out strategy, the opposite of truth, know what you
don’t know – these are just a few of the brain challenging phrases that make
this book so much fun. This is not a conventional business read. Paul Leming
forces the reader out of his or her comfort zone which is the only way to
consider new possibilities and new ways to do things.
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Consulting, coaching, and workshops to stay up to date with current business
trends and approaches
In-house workshops for agency sales and service staff. These sessions fast
forward individual skill building resulting in improved customer retention and
new business growth.
For more information,
www.sellingstrategies.com or
emily@sellingstrategies.com or 888-309-8802.
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On the road
Early 2010 business travel is taking to me these places. Please give me a call
if you’d like to connect when I’m in your area.
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Selling Strategies: Strategies for Success Newsletter is published by Emily
Huling Selling Strategies. For further information contact
emily@sellingstrategies.com.
© 2010 Emily Huling. All rights reserved. Feel free to share our newsletter if
copyright and credit are always included.