Business and Money Tips

In this age of high land cost and high staff cost, how can companies increase their sales at the least cost?  Are there proven ways that you too can win new customers effortlessly ?  By 'effortlessly', we don't mean without effort but things that you do with your heart that it seems like effortless , like when we update our status on facebook, watch videos on youtube and play games on iPad Air. There are 7 Ways that companies can win new customers effortlessly: Referrals , because what customers say are more believable than what salespeople say .  Referrals have 7 types: word of mouth referral, testimonials referral, word of social media referral, word of print referral, referral by action, referral by suppliers and referral by enemies.  Phone-Mail-Phone Marketing .  Yes, the Personal Data Protection Act, which takes effect on 1 Jan 2014, does not include marketing to companies.  That means that you can still market to companies via the phone but cannot do that to c

As we know, human beings are capable of doing anything and if we don't set rules, there will be chaos at the workplace. Just look at the number of politics fighting in the office and you'll know what I am talking about. In our trainings , we teach 5 Precepts to follow . By the way, there are no penalty for not obeying the precepts, but if you follow them, you will be protected from harm at work.   Value Work , that is, treat your work seriously and don't do anything that will jeopardize your career, like taking things home from the office Respect the Happiness of Others, which includes not to create unhappiness among colleagues like spreading rumours Respect for Personal Freedom, that is, the right of a person to say 'No'.  Many a times this precept is ignored and we see supervisors forcing employees to do overtime. On the other hand, we also see employees asking from their employer for the sky and cannot take 'no' as the answer Refraining from F

Sun Tzu 孙子 (or Sūn Zǐ in pinyin) was a 500 BCE  Chinese general , military strategist , and author of The Art of War 孙子兵法, an immensely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy. Many great leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan studied his work and became legendary leaders. Many corporate leaders paid thousands of dollars to attend courses to learn Sun Zi's secrets. We at Asia Trainers believe that you too can learn this master's secret with just two hundred dollars. This is because we take the key essence and compile them into a 4-hour course that will leave you with just enough materials to lead your team to greater heights. Since October 2010, we have trained over 373 leaders coming from countries including Hong Kong, Japan, Myanmar and even China. The next run of Leadership with Sun Zi is on 26 Sep 2014 Friday. Limited seats are available, click here or call Niza at 6225-1784 to register. The most valuable lesson out of his 13 chapter of 5

If you were like most people who always say, "I'll do charity when I have money", or "I'll take care of my house once I got a big one", then you are having this syndrome called Perfection. Yes, perfection is an ideal but if you were to base your life on perfection, you'll never do it.  Like Confucius who lived in China 2,600 years ago, Confucius continued to teach even when his own country (Lu) was against him.  He was chased out of his own country and left wandering in 16 countries for 19 years but he never give up. Today, Confucius' teachings has become the national culture of many countries like the 2 Koreas, Taiwan and many Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia and North America. Because Confucius understood this important principle: there is never a perfect time to do anything .  As long as that thing you do is of importance to you and the society, now is the time to do it.   If you fear that you may do wrong, you can always correct it.   The

As a boss or entrepreneur, you could be your company's best salesperson as no one understand better than you what you are selling.  That was what the CEO of Apple, Steve Sculley, thought in 1983 when he promoted the Macintosh computer.  But we know that the Macintosh failed miserably, and by 1997, Microsoft and IBM-compatible computers took over 98% of the market share. It seems that the best salesperson can never be from your company or your industry. Unbelievable but true!  That's right, the best salesperson is actually your customer .  When Steve Jobs re-joined Apple as its interim CEO in 1998, he realized this and focused the entire company's operations to nothing but the customer. Not just focus on the customer, but focus on the customer's experience .  Once he does that, Apple's products, from the Macintosh to Macbooks to i-Pod and later i-Phone and i-Pad, sell like hot cakes.  By 2011, Apple has become the world's most valuable company and remain roug

As we know, the job of a manager is to get the highest performance from its available people.  Bosses often expect managers to be coaching and guiding their team, and turn people with negative mindset into positive mindst.  In our courses , we teach the 8 Ways to Turn People from Negative into Positive Mindset as follows: Give Incentives, especially monetary incentives , for display of positive attitude.  This always work, even if the amount is small, because people appreciate such tokens Train them, coach them and educate them. If you cannot do this on your own, it makes sense to send them for external training Give them 2 choices , and let them know of the consequences of their choices.  People often prefer the positive attitude choice as they shun the negative consequences Peer pressure always work, for no one wants to be the odd one out.  Like in wedding dinners, peer pressure will turn non-drinkers into drinkers Assume that they are positive, and empower them to put the

It may be obvious to many people now that the Singapore government applied the Sun Tzu Art of War in dealing with the Little India Riot. Sun Tzu considered war as a necessary evil that must be avoided whenever possible. The war should be fought swiftly to avoid economic losses.  This was what the Special Force has done: they avoided direct confrontation war with the rioters and instead formed a wall to prevent them from running away. By 11.30 pm, just 2 hours after the riot broke out, the police has fully controlled the area and began arresting the rioters. The most famous verses from the 5,000 words book is this in chapter 3: 知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆。 So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself. This can be shortened to: 知己知彼，百戰不殆。If you

Everyone is striving for success.  Many are looking for The Secret, some are searching for the right connections and many are continuously learning from the those who have made it. My teacher Andy Ferrari Norman once told me that you must follow the right leader if you want to be successful.  For a leader will point to you the direction to success and you can also avoid many mistakes and reduce your chance of failure. What if there is no right leader leading you?  Or you have a bad leader that you just cannot follow? As a Coach, I believe that everyone is powerful.  Everyone is a leader for leadership is not a position or seniority thing.  Leadership is influence, nothing more nothing less.  Since everyone is already a leader, everyone can lead himself to success.  In fact that leading yourself to success is easier than following a leader for you are in full control of the situation. There are 5 ways that you can lead yourself to success: 1.      Realize that S

You see this all the time: the salesperson does his job well in the sales presentation.  The prospect too showed much interest in what he has.   Everything seems to be smooth, until the prospect said "No" and the salesperson simply freeze.  This is the Frozen moment . Fret not, because an objection is not the end of the world.  Unknown to many, a sales objection is simply an indication that the prospect has interest in what you have. Otherwise, why would he want to object you?  It is also a sales negotiation process, and you need to win it over with tact. The way to handle the sales objection is to take it easy, using our EASE method: E mpathy, A sk Questions to clarify, Serve the S olution and E xcite them of the rewards of going forward. Empathize with their objection and never argue with them . Empathize means that you feel what they are feeling now.  If they say it is expensive, you can say, "I understand how you feel, most people felt the same way too, un

Following my blog on Add Value, Not Add Work , 2 friends messaged me at facebook asking me to elaborate how we can add value to customers even if they don't buy.  Well, we know that if people that don't buy today they may buy tomorrow, and our job in business is to create happy relationships with people.   Business will come if you can add value.  Just look at how Facebook, Twitter and Youtube created value for over 2.5 billion people and you'll know what I mean. The following are the Top 6 Ways You Can Add Value to Customers Even When They Don't Buy: Show them the Pros and Cons of Your Company's Products and Services.  Most salespeople shy away from showing people their weaknesses for fear that customers will not buy if they know that. The reverse is true: c ustomers will trust a vendor more if they were to tell first-hand (without being asked) their weaknesses .  With trust, business will come. Show them How to Save Money .  Always start with the most val

Everyone wants a Fast way to solve problems in this world, like the Little India Riot on 8 December 2013. But first we must distinguish between a problem and an issue.   A problem is one that will cause serious problems, e.g. intoxication will cause accidents.  An issue is one that may cause problem, but that problem is not serious, the most irritation or unhappiness.  Like not enough pay is an issue, but will not cause accidents (if accidents happen due to low pay, it is likely to be sabotage, which is more serious than a problem). F: Face the Problem .  Do not run away from it, never Blame, give Excuses or Deny that the problem exist. A: Attributing Factor for the problem.  This is the main cause of problems and not issues.  Like the Singapore's Little India Riot problem that happened along Race Course Road on Sunday 8th December 2013 is attributed to intoxication, not unhappiness. It happened that the victim was behaving improperly (he took off his pants) in the bus and

We all met such a person before: one who never fails to catch up the latest fad in management and sales and knows more than trainers.  But when you ask him which knowledge he has applied in his daily work, he will remark, "Not yet". We call such a person an Intelligent Fool.  Many a times such a person will go to great lengths to prove that he is right and you are wrong.  He is highly intelligent as a book smart. On the other hand, there is the Practical Wizard : one who is very down to earth and applies knowledge on a daily basis.   It's obvious who gains the most: the Practical Wizard will gain the most while the Intelligent Fool is still occupied with proving that he is right!  There are 5 Ways to apply knowledge into work: Apply Immediately .  Strike while the iron is hot and apply the concepts immediately. In all our training we create a '30-Day Action Plan' where we give out prizes to those that complete the best Action Plan.  Teach others .  When

You may not know that we are actually non-existent.  We don't exist at all. There is actually no 'self'. According to scientists, a human being is merely a bundle of ever changing sensations .  The combination of the 5 senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste) and mind (your idea or thinking that I am here) are what make up the 'self'.  If we were to take away these 6 things, there is no 'self' existing. Even the solid universe is actually no solid but actually a flux of energy.  The modern physicist sees the whole universe as a process of transformation of various forces which include the processes that constitute a human being. So from a scientific angle, we actually don't exist.  What exists is just perception of the 5 senses and the mind. Once you begin to understand this, you'll realize how silly you have been.  All through our lives, we feel bad, low or disappointed whenever someone attacks our 'self'.  We often fight with

The desire to be happy is what drives us to whatever we do.  In fact, humans spend so much time in their waking moments everyday to be happy that makes us forget what are the things that make us happy.  For example, many people equate money to be happiness, when in fact money only makes us comfortable and not happy .  From coaching and training over 81,131 people in 12 countries since 1996, the following are the 5 conditions that make us happy: 1.  Hope for a better tomorrow Despite the generally accepted notion that the fulfilment of a wish brings happiness, I believe that a person who has hope can taste happiness before that hope becomes a reality.  For better or worse, the human being is always discontent with present reality.  It's okay to be discontented as long as you direct that discontentment into new hopes on a higher plane.  For example, if I am not happy with my Samsung Galaxy S4, I can direct my efforts to earning more money so that I can buy the new S5 when it co

Everyone wants to get more business, but with the economy still slow now, what can you do to pull ahead? If you try to pull business away from your competitors, you have to be prepared for a price war.  Another way is to poach the top salesperson or sales manager from your competitors with high salary.  This is fast and furious, but it too starts a talent war. How about going all out with aggressive marketing to get new prospects?  This again puts you head on with your peers, who can always retaliate easily with even more marketing budget.  The issue is how long you can last.   If the above does not work, what can you do?  We believe that the solution lies in Successful Selling Strategies. This means that you must do things strategically and systematically.  There are total 7 Successful Selling Strategies: Service to Others as the Highest Strategy .  This is because people don't buy goods and services but good feelings and solutions to their problems.  Instead of Fightin

As a salesperson, you must behave like a consultant so that your prospect will see value in you.  Otherwise, you are seen as a peddler who just want to make the sale.  We all know about sales conversions: how to convert a prospect in to a client and convert a client into a life-long customer. However, there are 3 other Conversions a salesperson must make: 1.  They Must Convert Their Selling Price into an Investment  Price is a cost.  As such, it has a negative value that people will try to pay as little as possible to obtain.  On the other hand, an investment connotes a return.   People are willing to put in money into investment as they know there is a 'Return on Investment' or ROI. How to Convert your price into an Investment?  You must always show what they can get from using your product or service.  As long as that return over the investment gives a double digit return , it is considered a good investment. 2. They Must Convert their Product/Service into the Dol

As we know, one of the most important job of a salesperson is to bring in new business, that is new customers.  Since the market is fixed (there are hardly any new customers newly set-up), new business often means getting business from other competitors .  How to break into existing vendor relationships?  How to make people switch their existing vendor to you? Never ask the stupid question of "What do you like about your existing vendor?"  This is because such a question is simply opening the door for your prospect to start valuing his current vendor and undermine your efforts to break into this prospect.  Instead, ask questions that focus your prospect uses in selecting a vendor .  This is really 'Customer Focused Selling' as we are focusing on solving problems for the prospect. There are 6 Questions that a Salesperson Can Ask to Get People to Change Their Existing Vendor: Would you share with me the ideal qualities you look for in a vendor? How does your id

Often when we start out in our profession, we do it out of love for the profession, our passion and our interest.  In the beginning our intentions are good.  We do good jobs and soon more jobs and money come.  Then slowly we become consumed with pursuing success in our work. We crave for more power, money, name, ranking, profits and fame.  These slowly replace our focus on the profession.  Love becomes a distant dream. This is how we slowly become lost in our pursuit of bottom line.  The fact is that humans are never satisfied with anything, and the bottom line that we pursue is often at the expense of someone else . Look at the phenomena high profits luxury product companies made and you'll realize that they exploit cheap labour in poor countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia.  Banks incurred huge fines by governments and have to compensate billions to customers for failed investments.  In short, the pursuit of bottom line has made us become bad.  What is so-called happin