sales

I’ve just returned from speaking at several conferences in Iran, a country where all my presentations were simulcast in Farsi as I only speak English and Afrikaans. What made the experience really compelling though was the realization that despite the possible difficulties presented by verbal exchanges, body language is universal. I made great connections both from the stage and from interactions with all the delegates after my presentations.

So here are some Top Tips to maintain a friendly demeanor in order to build relationships.

AIDA is the original sales training acronym, from the late 1950's, when selling was first treated as a professional discipline, and sales training began. AIDA is even more relevant today. If you remember just one sales or selling model, remember AIDA. Often called the 'Hierarchy of Effects', AIDA describes the basic process by which people become motivated to act on external stimulus, including the way that successful selling happens and sales are made.

As a Management Consultant and behaviourist, I was asked to write an article for Property Professional Magazine. This is why selling property is no longer about selling property!

Being a property professional is, believe it or not, not about selling property. Well it is if you have a short term approach to what it is that you do. I f you have a longer term view (generally referred to as a career view) then you view what you do somewhat differently. You are not in the property business; you are in the people business!!

Isn’t technology wonderful? I can sit in my office all day (when I’m not speaking to an audience) and communicate to my heart’s content with the entire world via my blog, e-mail, twitter and Skype. My wife doesn’t understand this – she doesn’t understand that I would rather do it this way than use the more traditional method of picking up the phone and calling someone.

Of course I have a valid reason – I spend most of my time in front of audiences where I can’t answer the phone so I want to make people used to communicating with me in other ways. But what’s your excuse?

Having recently facilitated the toughest meeting of my 15 year consulting career, I did some serious reflection on the whole meeting culture and the reasons we spend so much time in them. Heck, some of the companies I've worked with book meetings to discuss the next meeting!

One of the great South African Olympic achievementsat the Athens Games in '04, swimming gold medals aside, was the Silver medal in the men’s 800m by South Africa’s Mbulaeni Mulaudzi. This result is made remarkable by Mulaudzi’s early season and pre-Olympic form – or total lack thereof. In his last race in the “Golden League” prior to the ‘Games, he came stone last! What did he, and other performers do in order to get out of the “slump”.