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How to Always Be On Time

Robert Chen — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:25:23 +0000

What time are we meeting them? 3:00pm?

Ok, it takes about 40 minutes by train and 10 minutes walking so let's leave by 2:10pm.

Train Announcement: There is a sick passenger on the train. We will be delayed momentarily. Thank you.

Needless to say, we were late for that meeting.

For the longest time, I was known for being late. I knew it was important to be on time but I always felt strange arriving too early. It wasn't fun waiting for other people. Also, I thought important people didn't wait for others, they had people waiting for them. It was this type of unclear thinking that justified my frequent tardiness.

The main reason I was ok with being late was because it never seemed like it was a big deal. I wasn't hurting anyone but myself and I would be the only one missing out when I was late. I was also very good at making up plausible excuses so there weren't any serious consequences. This created a habit of lateness.

Fortunately, 4 years ago I was able to break this habit. I didn't think it was possible but when someone impressed upon me that being late shows that you don't respect your own time and the time of others, it really hit a nerve. I changed my perspective and that allowed me to change my behavior.

I wouldn't be doing the title of this article justice if I ended the post here. So without further ado, the secret of being always on time is ...

... arriving 30 min to an hour early.

That's the technical part.

The hard part is accepting and applying this "secret" in your life. If you've read this far, I am assuming that you are interested in always being on time.

If that is so, read on and do for yourself the exercises that follow.

Before you can be on time all the time, you need to answer these four questions.

What are the benefits of being on time?

What are the benefits of being late?

What are the consequences of being on time?

What are the consequences of being late?

To help you out, here are some sample answers for each of these questions:

Benefits of Being on Time

You don't miss anything important and can remain composed and relaxed knowing that you are on time. You can also save energy from having to make up excuses.

Consequences of Being Late

Your reputation will be synonymous with someone who doesn't respect other people's time and can't meet commitments. Being late shows that you can't manage your time. If it is important, you'll be rushing and end up being flustered and stressed. All of these reasons have serious consequences for your professional career and or your business.

Benefits of Being Late

It is cool to be late. You can get more done by finishing one last thing. In some instances, you can still fall back on being "fashionably late". You don't need to waste time leaving too early.

Consequences of Being on Time

You have to wait if anyone else is late. There is nothing to do if you are too early. You'll be pegged as being too eager.

Once you've answered those questions, to always be on time, you need to:

1. focus on and strengthen the benefits of being on time and the consequences of being late and

2. address and reduce the benefits of being late and the consequences of being on time.

For example: Imagine the business you are not getting every time you show up late or the number of colleagues that have to wait for you before starting the meeting (strengthening consequence of being late). Reduce the anxiety of waiting when you are early by bringing a book or iPad to catch up on some reading (reducing the consequence of being early).

This method has worked wonders for me and I can see the respect people give me when they know that I am always on time.

Remember the only way to always be on time is to almost always be early.

The post How to Always Be On Time appeared first on Embrace Possibility.

How to Sell with Integrity – Lesson 2 – Matchmaker – Assist the Buyer

Robert Chen — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:14:13 +0000

In Lesson 1, we went over the importance of acting as an assistant buyer for your customer. You can help your customers buy only after understanding what they want and their motivations for wanting it. The only way to know what they want is to ask. Your customers will open up if you build rapport, ask the right questions and listen actively.

If this sounds foreign to you, you may want to review Lesson 1 again by clicking here.

Now that you've got some great information about your prospective customer concerning what they want, the next thing you want to do is to make sure you thoroughly understand your products and/or services. You need to know all the features and be able to translate them into benefits because the next step is to ... (drums start rolling)

(drums abruptly stop) ... before I tell you what the next step is, we should really discuss the difference between features and benefits and why you want to sell using benefits. A feature is a characteristic about your product or service. A benefit describes how these characteristics make people's lives better.

Here are two examples:

Product being sold: Car

Feature: 35 mpg/city

Benefit: Save money on gas and save time on refills so you can pay for that vacation you've wanted to take.

Product being sold: Bachelor

Feature: Occupation - Doctor

Benefit: Financial security so you don't have to worry about not having enough money for the rent for as long as you both shall live.

For my own products and services, I use a method from this excellent post on extracting true benefits from features.

Anyway, where were we? Oh yea, the next step after finding out what your customer truly wants is ... (drums roll again and then dramatically stops as you read the answer)

Compare What You are Selling to What Your Customer Wants to Buy

If there is a good match, your work is halfway done. If what you are selling doesn't match the prospect's needs, END the sales process and refer them to someone who has what they're looking for. Remember you are still the assistant buyer. Even if your products and services might not help them, I highly recommend going above and beyond and helping them find a way to meet their needs and wants. The famous author, salesman and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, was on to something when he said "You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want."

I believe that's great advice and try to live by that suggestion but what if I am a bachelor looking to "sell" myself to eligible women? I don't really want to spend my time referring women to other more suitable guys. I don't care if I am a good fit or not.

To avoid this undesirable situation, you have two choices:

Define your ideal customer based on your current features/benefits or create better products or services that cater to the needs of your target customer

To continue with the bachelor analogy, your chances for success increases dramatically if you first decide what type of woman would find the benefits you have to offer attractive. Are you good looking (benefit = beautiful babies or the envy of her friends), make a lot of money (benefit = financial stability) or caring (benefit = being loved and cared for)? Once you know your ideal customer, then you just need to target them and make them see the benefits you have to offer.

If you find that you are not a good match for a certain type of prospect but you still want to target them, develop better products or services with features and benefits that appeal to your target group. For someone having a hard time getting the job they want or a job with a company they want to work for, it may mean taking classes or other jobs to upgrade their skills or networking to make themselves more appealing to the hiring manager.

The goal is to match what the buyer wants to buy with what you have to sell.

Please note that the customer doesn't always know everything about the products or services they come across and unfortunately there are people who exploit this lack of information by exaggerating or misrepresenting the benefits of their products to make the sale. My advice to you is NEVER DO THIS!! Always be honest because the most precious commodity to a salesperson is trust. Once your reputation is tainted as being untrustworthy, it will be much harder to build rapport and get past the first step in Lesson 1, which is to drill deep into what the prospect really wants.

In the next lesson, we're going to discuss how people make the decision to buy and how you can increase your chances of closing the sale.

The post How to Sell with Integrity – Lesson 2 – Matchmaker – Assist the Buyer appeared first on Embrace Possibility.