The Experience of Gratitude and The Richest Person In The World – A Zen Parable of The Magnificent Strawberry
Nov 30, 2009 American Entitlement, Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Coaching, accountability
D.T. Suzuki (Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, October 18, 1870 – July 12, 1966) was a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin (and Far Eastern philosophy in general) to the West.
There is a Zen story he tells that captures the attitude of mindfulness with respect to living in the present and living in a state of gratitude.
There are several versions of this story. Here’s my version, edited in the way I like to tell it:
An honor student, frustrated with his life and with school, worried about what tomorrow may bring, approached his teacher asking for some guidance.
“The story goes,” says the teacher in response to his students request for help, “That a Buddhist Monk was walking through the mountains one day. Then, out of nowhere, a tiger appears, chasing the monk towards the edge of a cliff. The monk, in his quest to escape the tiger, runs to the edge of the cliff and climbs over the side, where he sees five other tigers 15 feet below him, waiting to eat him.
So the monk is just hanging there, holding on to a vine on the side of the cliff, waiting there for the little chance he has to escape or for his imminent demise. Then, as the monk hangs there, exploring his options, he turns to the left and sees a strawberry.
He smiles, “Wow what a magnificent strawberry!” he says to himself. So, he picks it and he eats it.
The student waited for his teacher to continue but it was clear that the teacher was done with the story. “That’s it? That is it the story? The monk is about to be eaten by tigers so he reaches out to pick and eat a strawberry?” the student exclaimed.
“What’s the point?” he added.
The teacher replied, “The lesson is to know and embrace the experience of being alive. You must be alive every second you are alive.”
The student responded, “But teacher, everyone is alive when they are alive.”
“No,” said the teacher. “It’s the experience of being alive in each moment, in each experience, good and bad. We must be alive every second we are alive and not simply exist and live out our days.”
The student, confused, questioned his teacher, asking, “But everyone alive is alive, aren’t they?” he insisted.
“No. Look at you now,” explained the teacher. “You are running around being chased by tigers, consumed with your thoughts of how it could be better, how you could be better if only things were different. Yet, you have shared with me over the past year several difficult situations, in addition to the circumstances that I have observed, how you were about to be eaten by tigers and how you have been saved in each situation. You can’t be alive if you are living in fear and if you’re living in fear you can’t see and experience life; the magnificence of your life that is right in front of you in each moment.”
The teacher asked, “Are you running around, grinning over the feeling of being the luckiest, most fortunate and appreciative person in the world because of what IS present in your life today, or are you consumed with fear, what you DON’T have in your life or what may possibly happen some time in the future?”
The student thought for a moment, looked up at his teacher, smiled, and continued on with his day……
So, what magnificent strawberries do you have in your life? Stop, look around. There they are. Right in front of you. Your health, your family, your children, your job, a hobby, a sport, your natural gifts or talents, even the people in your life. Pick one today. Relish every bite.
After all, what’s the purpose of eating a strawberry? To get to the end or to savor and enjoy every delicious bite?
During this holiday season, I hope you can experience the sense of gratitude for what is around you and a deeper appreciation for is in your life today. Balance being in the present moment today while managing your goals and dreams, without living in them, which then takes you into the future. Live every day with a sense of gratitude, and you’ll be the richest person in the world.
Wishing you and your family a healthy, appreciative and enjoyable holiday season.
Tags: accountability, appreciation, Executive Coaching, gratitude, life coaching, Sales Coaching, success
What Did You Learn Today? To Accelerate Growth, Embrace Learning as a Lifestyle
Nov 24, 2009 Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Coaching, accountability
Many of us consider learning the act of acquiring new information. The fact is, learning happens every moment of our lives. It isn’t just about assimilating knowledge but recognizing the lesson in every experience, even the value in every message that each person shares with us, growing from it and moving onto a more productive path.
While we draw into our life that which we need to learn, we often resist the lessons in front of us, since we may associate “learning the lesson” either as a result of doing something wrong (often from our childhood, for example, “If you touch a hot stove you’ll get burned”) or a task we have to finish. (“Do your homework or you’ll be punished.”)
As adults, this feeling fostered in our youth perpetuates, often blinding us to the valuable lessons and experiences that show up simply because we’ve been taught to resist them rather than embrace them.
When you are faced with a challenge or an upset, do you tackle it head on or have tendency to avoid them hoping they’ll ‘fix themselves’ or go away? When you’re handling a problem, do you address it in a way that permanently eliminates it or does it reappear? If you find similar challenges reappearing in your life, it’s a strong sign that you didn’t get the lesson the first time around or you missed out on a subtle, new opportunity to learn and grow or act upon a solution presented to you by someone who could have contributed to you.
Here are two universal laws worth adopting. The first one is, “We attract what we need to learn.” And in conjunction with this universal law, is another which makes this first one so challenging, and that is, “We resist what we need to learn the most.”
Consider every person you interact with in your life has some gift or knowledge worthy of sharing. Become more sensitive to the value in the message, without discounting the messenger. Allow each situation or challenge, even every person you come in contact with, to leave you with something valuable that can contribute to you in some way.
Here are just a few questions you can ask yourself to become more connected to the value in every experience. “What is the value I am leaving this conversation with?” “What can I learn from this?” “What am I resisting here?” “Why is this causing a reaction in me?” “What about this (situation, person) is making me feel uncomfortable?” What’s the A.F.G.O. here?” (A.F.G.O. = Another Fabulous Growth Opportunity!)
Although you need the right answers to keep up, to get ahead you need to ask yourself the right questions. Therefore, focus more on the question than on the answer. The question is the answer.
Anyone can have a great day. But lets face it, we don’t get tested on our good days. We get tested on our “bad days” or our tougher days. These are the days when the true essence of our character, convictions, beliefs and abilities are being challenged and have the opportunity to shine; our defining moment. These are the days when we can show the world what we’re made of. So, what are you going to do on a bad day? Embrace the test and make it a great day.
So, what can you learn today?
Tags: accountability, attitude, career coaching, Executive Coaching, life coaching, Sales Coaching
VIDEO: If Time Is Money, Then Your Routine Is Priceless. Are You Treating Them The Same?
Nov 23, 2009 Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Time Management Tips, Videos, accountability, training for managers
Do you manage your time as diligently as you manage your money? Do you have a consistent, weekly routine that you follow from the time you wake up in the morning up until the time you end your day, [whether that’s when you end your work day or go to sleep] that contains the specific, measurable activities and tasks you engage in that move you closer to your goals, while keeping your life in a happy balance?
If you’re in the majority of people I ask this question to, you’ll probably answer with a “No.” (I’m not surprised. After all, it was my clients who inspired me to write a book on time management in the first place.)
Here we are, on the surface believing that time is money, yet when it comes down to it, we’re not managing our time and ourselves the way we manage our money. We don’t give our time the same respect, diligence and planning it deserves the way we do money.
Watch this three minute video I did with homebusinessbrains.com and develop a deeper appreciation for the value of developing a highly structured routine. It’s time to upgrade your relationship with time. Click on the ‘read more’ link below to watch the video.
Tags: accountability, crm, diary, routine, schedule, self management, time, time management
VIDEO: The Initial Objective of A Cold Call – Find The Fit Early Or Waste Precious Selling Time
Nov 20, 2009 Sales Coaching, Sales Training, Videos, cold calling, sales tips, tele-sales, telesales
Think about the intention or the end result of your prospecting efforts. Rather than focusing all of your energy on making the sale, first determine if there’s a good fit between you, your prospect, and what you are selling.
Instead of feeling that the intention of prospecting is to get a sale, provide a demonstration, submit a proposal, or schedule an appointment, the initial intention of prospecting is to determine if there’s a fit worth pursuing.
While this may sound a bit strange, closing the sale and earning the business of a prospect is not your initial goal. Instead, your primary objective is to determine whether you and your prospect are a good fit.
Here’s a video I did on cold calling that I recently produced with a great new company I’d like to introduce to you that’s offering some free and valuable advice to home businesses and career minded professionals. That company is Home Business Brains. Click on the “read more” link below for the video.
Tags: cold call, cold calling, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, telesales
When Cold Calling, How Do I Determine How Much Qualifying Is Enough?
Nov 16, 2009 Cold Calling Tips, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, coaching salespeople, cold calling, telesales
I received the following question from a salesperson the other day who was struggling when it came to qualifying his prospects during a cold call. He was looking for an effective way to best qualify his prospects and how to avoid wasting time when meeting with the wrong ones. What follows is his initial inquiry and my response, which I felt important enough to share with you, as many salespeople seem to be struggling with this very issue today.
That is, “When cold calling, exactly how much initial qualification is enough before determining the next step in my selling process? Do I do all of my qualification up front on the phone before scheduling a face to face meeting or do I wait until I meet with the prospect and then conduct a more robust needs analysis? How do I make this determination?”
Here’s the email I received:
“Hello Mr. Rosen,
I am a salesperson selling health insurance who is currently working on my sales system. My target market is owners of small businesses. I call them and set appointments from telemarketing leads. I have a script in which I use to set the appointment and qualify them, before meeting them face-to-face. I’d be curious to know what strategy you feel is best regarding my two approaches below.
First Approach: Do minimal questioning and qualification and just set the appointment. Then at the appointment, conduct a fact finder to find out their situation and what they like or don’t about their current health insurance plan. Then, set another appointment and come back with a proposal and recommendations. I will pre-close them on the first visit.
Or is this a better this way?
Second Approach: Call and qualify them and ask them all the questions over the phone to find out their current situation on this initial phone call. Then, I will bring the proposal to the first face to face appointment, recap what we discussed over the phone, explain the plan and try and make the sale. Pretty much try and make the sale on the first face to face visit.”
Here was my response:
The answer is – BOTH. There’s always a minimal amount of non negotiable qualification that must be done before meeting with a prospect. Then, when determining how much deeper you can go in your qualification, depending upon the situation it could go either way, so let the customer decide.
The IDEAL scenario is the second one you mapped out. And it’s all in the spirit of saving you your precious and limited time following up and meeting with people who you shouldn’t be meeting with in the first place. The cost of meeting with unqualified people is compounded exponentially because you’re not only meeting with the wrong prospects but you’re now losing time that you could have invested meeting with the right ones – the ones that your competition is meeting with.
Of course, there are those situations where the prospect simply doesn’t have the time nor desire to answer all of your questions during an initial phone call and at that point, it’s going to be a judgment call on your part. So, to minimize the risk of meeting with the wrong prospects and maximize your time when meeting with the qualified ones, what I would recommend is making a list of the non-negotiable qualifying questions that must always be asked, regardless of the situation, so that you get a baseline understanding whether or not this person is even a candidate for your product or service.
Here’s a great way to handle how much qualifying you can do over the phone and how to do it in a way that would encourage the prospect to spend more time with you during this initial telephone conversation.
Simply put, let the prospect decide. After all, people want to save as much time as possible and would appreciate any opportunity to be more efficient when it comes to leveraging their time. That said, the next time you speak with a prospect over the phone, use the following approach during your initial needs analysis/qualification process.
After asking them a couple of preliminary, non negotiable questions, deliver the following message.
“Mr./Mrs. Prospect, I know you’re busy and I want to respect your time. That said, I want to share two options with you that would save you some time when deciding what solution is best for you and whether or not there’s even a fit here. We could schedule a time where I can visit with you to learn more about your business and your objectives and then at that time, schedule another meeting where we could discuss my proposed solution, or, to speed up this process and avoid scheduling another meeting, we can continue our conversation now on the phone so that at the end of this conversation, you would have a very good sense as to whether or not I can deliver more value than your current solution is providing you and if it even makes sense for us to meet face to face in the first place. Which option would work better for you at this time?”
When you give people a choice and share with them the benefit of investing a little more time with you on the phone, you’ll find that your prospects are much more willing to do so. And if you’re saying that your prospects are, “too busy to spend more time with me” or “this won’t work in my industry,” I would challenge you to re-think whether or not this is truly your prospect’s objection or a costly assumption that you’ve created in your own mind. If this new marketplace has changed the way we sell and engage with our prospects, then the old rules of how we qualify and set appointments with our prospects much be challenged as well.
This win – win saves both you and the prospect time, while ensuring that you’re meeting with more of the right prospects.
Tags: cold calling, discovery, needsd analysis, prospecting, qualifying, sales, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, selling
Landslide Video: Respect Sales! A Day On The Links With a Prospect
Nov 12, 2009 Clients are fun. Case Studies in Sales and Leaders..., Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Training, Selling Advice, Videos
Landslide.com recently recorded a video for a series with the theme: “Respect sales.” The idea is to show how sometimes people think salespeople have it easy – they get to travel, play golf, go on dinner outings etc. but the reality is far different.
So, what actually happens when a salesperson takes a prospect out on the golf course? Any good salesperson knows that deals just don’t fall out of the sky. Follow Landslide’s sales guy as he puts up with his difficult prospect and tries to close the deal. Click play on the video below.
If the video does not load, here is a link to the video.
Tags: funny, prospecting, sales, Sales Training, selling, video
Special Event: Free Webcast With Zig Ziglar Next Week – Embrace The Struggle
Nov 12, 2009 Live Events, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Videos, webinar
I want to pass along to you an invitation from Zig Ziglar which my friend, Tom Ziglar just informed me about that I’m excited to share with you. Next week, you can participate in a very special live webcast that Zig Ziglar is hosting on November 17, absolutely free.
It sounds like the last few weeks for the Ziglar family have been incredible. Zig just turned 83, will be celebrating his 63rd wedding anniversary later this month and Zig’s new book, Embrace The Struggle, was just released.
With so many people facing their own struggles today, including Zig’s own struggle after a recent accident, you can’t help but find hope and encouragement when you see how Zig himself is embracing his struggle.
If you haven’t already seen it, The Ziglar family has created a very powerful movie, “Embrace The Struggle,” that tells in two minutes the Embrace The Struggle message. When the movie is finished, it will end on a registration page for the free webcast.
You can watch the movie here if you have not seen it yet.
Or, you can go directly to the registration page here.
I know that Zig Ziglar has made an impact in my life and in the lives of thousands of others.
I’m certain that anyone in the midst of a struggle who participates in this webcast will find something that will help them embrace their struggle.
Join the Ziglar family for a special evening with Zig Ziglar, Tom Ziglar and Julie Ziglar Norman, as they discuss how Zig has embraced his struggle from a brain injury and the resulting short-term memory loss. Your life will be impacted as you see this family rise above their circumstances – and thrive!
Below are the details of the webcast:
Title: Embrace the Struggle
Speakers: Zig Ziglar, Tom Ziglar and Julie Ziglar Norman
Date: November 17th
Time: 7:00-8:15 pm CST
To Register:
You can watch the movie here.
Or, you can go directly to the registration page here.
Tags: life coaching, life training, Sales Training, Zig Ziglar, Ziglar
To Tweet or Not To Tweet? If That’s The Question, The Answer is – Know Your Objectives
Nov 10, 2009 American Entitlement, Business Coaching, Business Tools, Communication, Marketing, sales tools
Follow me on Twitter here.
“Should I be tweeting, Keith?” This question comes up more and more when speaking with clients. Since there are several factors to consider when answering this, my response to this question are additional exploratory questions that guide a conversation to help individuals and companies determine whether it makes sense for them to become part of the Twitter universe or, twitterverse, which according to the urban dictionary is defined as, “The cyberspace area of twitter. This naturally extends beyond twitter.com to anywhere you can twitter, which includes cell phones.” (Yes, be prepared for more jargon and a new language.) Here are a handful of those questions:
1.“What do you already know about Twitter?”
2.“Is this something you’re setting up as a personal account or for your business?” (What are you using it for? Staying in touch, for fun, to achieve a certain goal or objective, to make money, etc.”)
3.“Tell me why you feel you want to/need to be tweeting?”
4.“What are your goals and expectations?”
5.“How much time do you have to devote to this?”
6.“If this is for your business, who will be doing the tweeting?”
7.“What message are you looking to deliver?” (Around your personal brand, corporate branding, certain theme or platform, marketing messages, notifications, events, special offers, attracting prospects, nothing specific, etc.)
8.“What results are you expecting?”
9.“How many followers do you want?”
10. “Who do you want to follow you?” (“How many people, what audience, why do you want them following you,” and so on.)
11. “How will this complement your current marketing campaign and align with your social media strategy and objectives?”
Once we siphon through the answers to these questions, we can then start mapping out whether or not it makes sense for them to invest their time tweeting and a strategy to go about doing so that would achieve their objectives.
I know it’s easy to get caught up in trying to get as many people as possible following you on Twitter, and social media is all the rage. (Just Google “social media” and you’ll get 203,000,000 results. Probably even more since this blog went live.) For some people, Twitter has become a downright obsession, an ego stroke, a validation, a need to be needed, a way to feel ‘connected.’ (I’ll have to address what ‘connected’ means in another blog.)
Sure, there are those people out there that have earned the bragging rights to say they have tens of thousands of people following them on twitter, but I can tell you this with great certainty, if you’re looking at it from the perspective of what the financial benefit or monetary impact could be and how much personal income has been generated, I wouldn’t run out to swap your W2 statement with most of them. That being said, there’s always the few exceptions.
Like any new strategy you’re considering adopting, if you’re looking at Twitter as part of your overall marketing campaign in order to leverage it as a social media communications tool, there needs to be a healthy balance between the quality of your efforts and the quantity of them. There’s no, “one solution.” What’s needed is a holistic and well balanced approach to utilizing a variety of marketing vehicles that would reinforce your brand, provide further exposure and put you in touch with your target audience which, collectively, would achieve your marketing objectives.
Just think of selling; if you look at selling as a numbers game rather than a science or strategic benchmarking process, you’re in big trouble. After all, you can have thousands of prospects in your pipeline but what are those prospects worth if they’re not a fit for your product or service? The costs are significant: time and money wasted on engaging with the wrong people multiplied exponentially by the time you are not spending targeting, calling on and following up with the right prospects.
Depending upon your goals and the responses to the questions I posed earlier in this blog, Twitter may certainly prove to be one very important spoke on your marketing wheel that’s worth leveraging (it’s been worthwhile for me), that complements the other marketing platforms you utilize.
To reinforce this point, here’s a short movie aligning the values of legendary Zig Ziglar and his son, Tom Ziglar with Twitter. In this movie, you’ll find some great, classic quotes from Zig Ziglar, as well as a handful of guidelines from Tom on how to leverage and maximize Twitter to your advantage.
And yes, I do tweet as part of my overall social media strategy. So, feel free to follow me on Twitter here.
Enjoy the new Ziglar Twitter Movie. Click here to watch.
Tags: cold calling, Marketing, prospecting, selling, tweet, tweeting, twitter
Today’s Sales Champions Deserve Recognition. Nominate Your Top Salesperson Today and Win!
Nov 10, 2009 Live Events, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, Surveys and Polls, sales tips
For more details or to nominate one visit this page: Here’s The Link
Do you know a true sales star? One who closes more deals and brings in business for your company or a company you know?
It’s time to pay tribute to those sales professionals out there who are the ones that are driving the success within today’s companies. AllBusiness.com wants to honor the top-performing salespeople who are working hard to make a difference in this competitive market. Tell us about the salesperson in your network or company who you feel deserves the limelight.
Nominate Your Top Sales Star!
We’ve put together a panel of sales coaches and experts who will select one salesperson each month from among the nominees and I’m personally excited about being a member of this panel. We need your nomination.
That person nominated will be profiled in a feature article for AllBusiness.com and our sister site, Hoover’s, and will receive free membership in a sales networking and coaching program. Every nominee will receive a FREE six month VIP Membership over at Top Sales Experts.
One annual winner will get a package of sales training and coaching programs, membership in Top Sales Experts, and additional tools and resources to continue developing their expertise and talent.
Lets honor the top-performing salespeople who deliver results in today’s competitive market. They deserve it and you can help make that happen.
For more details or to nominate one visit this page: Here’s the link.
Also note, there is no deadline for entries each month; all nominations received are carried forward.
Tags: best salesperson, compete, sales contest, sales nominations
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