The Hindu Business Line : There are 9 negative words to avoid when selling

CAN you name a field of endeavour where an ambitious person can earn a larger income or pave the way to financial success with greater certainty and without working capital than in any other? Not accounting, or politics. Not law or medicine. "Selling," says Tim Connor in Soft Sell.

Sales is `a great profession,' says Tim because: you can determine what your future income will be and accomplish it; you can combat inflation by working smarter; selling is fun and so it's an enjoyable game when you become proficient; and so forth.

When discussing how to listen, the author cites a study that says we spend about 70 per cent of our waking hours in some form of verbal communication. This, in turn, breaks down into the following: 9 per cent in writing; 16 per cent in reading; and thinking and listening take up 30 and 45 per cent respectively.

There are 10 ways to increase your listening power, including tips such as avoid prejudging the speaker, pay attention, take notes, and so on.

Here are at least nine negative words to avoid (with a better alternative in brackets): deal (opportunity), sell (involve), buy (own), pitch (presentation/ demonstration), cost (total investment), down payment (first/ initial investment), monthly payment (monthly investment), contract (agreement/ paperwork), and sign (authorise/ okay/ endorse).

Time is very critical, because the attention span of most adults is only eight seconds. "Most people think about 50,000 thoughts a day, or about one thought every three seconds or twenty a minute."

Then Tim asks: "Let's say your presentation lasts 30 minutes. How much of what you have covered do you think your prospect heard or remembers?"

What are you thinking right now? About buying the book?

Dealing with the `difficult'

YOUR boss finds pleasure in browbeating and humiliating you. A colleague is trying to sabotage your work. There is somebody in the family who makes you feel worthless. How do you deal with these difficult people? David L. Weiner provides the knowhow in Power Freaks.

What happens to these freaks in the business world? "They will eventually self-destruct, unless they have such enormous talent and intelligence that their character flaws are overlooked and tolerated," says the author.

"The incongruity is that at the beginning of a career, many of the characteristics of an extreme power freak might be perceived by superiors as reflecting the type of aggressiveness and ambition that the company seeks in its young employees."

Power freaks come in all different forms. One such is the perfectionist. Not all perfectionists are to be despised. There is the `healthy' one who believes in the pursuit of excellence; it is the `neurotic or compulsive' one who becomes a problem.

"Neurotic perfectionists are people who strain compulsively and unremittingly toward impossible goals and measure their own worth entirely in terms of productivity and accomplishment."

Let's say you're extremely competent and are recognised as such by others. Would that not protect you from "a status-possessed and delusional superior who doesn't recognise your competence."

The author assures: "The higher the level of your core competency, the better your chances are of dealing and surviving with a power freak boss whose own agenda supersedes that of the company." What is more important than competence is the recognition of it.

"It is axiomatic in the business world that to survive and advance, one's core competency must be consistently widened and improved."

Don't forget to take the power-ranking quiz and compute the power freak factor to see how you measure on the PF scale.

Break out of the box

RETHINK your thinking, stretch your imagination, challenge your assumptions, take risks, manage change, and `break out of the box'. This is what James J. Mapes exhorts in his book Quantum Leap Thinking, subtitled `an owner's guide to the mind'.

The first QLT theorem is this: "If you think the way you have always thought and do what you have always done, you will get the results you have always gotten." That, perhaps, explains why some students keep failing in the exams continually.

What is QLT? "It is a collection of ideas, concepts, distinctions, and skills that, when combined like active chemicals, naturally explode in their own way, catapulting you to a higher level, a level of increased energy, excitement, and options."

What is the reason for most individuals and organisations not creating major changes? According to Mapes, it is due to natural resistance, our personal homeostasis. "The majority of us operate only within the area of tolerable conflict. We break out of the box, move toward the positive, and then, suddenly, snap back to the familiar, even if it's negative." So? "An entirely new structure must be created to achieve quantum leaps."

If these ideas are getting so clear in the head, remember that "understanding your values and creating a personal vision statement are not enough to make the quantum leap." Then? "You have to act."

Here is another QLT theorem: Commitment makes the invisible visible. "Commit comes from the Latin committere, which means `to ignite action, to bring together, join, entrust, and do.' Commitment is the desire and willingness to do whatever it takes to get what you want."

Make that QL, quickly.

Million in a hurry

EITHER you are a millionaire or aren't one. If you aren't a millionaire, you want to become one. Immediately. Millionaire author Mark Fisher knows that's what is in your mind, and so brings The Instant Millionaire, a tale of wisdom and wealth. This is a parable loaded with financial advice.

Chapter one begins thus: "There was once a bright young man who wanted to get rich." In chapter three, there is a question to begin with: "How much money are you willing to pay to get the secrets of wealth?" The young man learns his lessons, from a rich relative, then a gardener, and so forth. One such is this: "If you want to succeed in life, you have to make sure you have no choice in the matter. You have to put your back to the wall. People who vacillate and refuse to take risks because they don't have all the elements in hand never get anywhere."

Unsuccessful people don't know that life gives us exactly what we ask from it. "If your request is vague, whatever you get will be just as muddled. If you ask for the minimum, you'll get the minimum. Even those who want money and lots of it all make the same mistake: they don't establish an exact amount and a deadline by which to make it." Why? "Life wants to know exactly what you expect from it. If you don't ask for anything, you won't get anything."

A book you can ask for, because, if you are going to get a million anyway, a few hundred rupees shouldn't matter.

(Books courtesy: Magna Publishing Co Ltd. www.magnamags.com)

Tailpiece

"There are two ways of reading a book."

"Slow and fast?"

"No, forward or backward."

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

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There are 9 negative words to avoid when selling