posterize

How can you stay self-motivated and productive in the midst of turbulent times and a sluggish economy? How do you persevere as a salesperson when times are tough and customers seem to be holding on to every penny in fear of economic uncertainty?

Every challenge, setback and personal difficulty you encounter in life also brings with it the seed of equivalent or greater benefit! The key to overcoming adversity is to avoid the temptation of panic and instead, focus on finding the greater benefit. Adversity will never leave you where it found you; it will either strengthen your character or weaken your resolve.

During the early years of WW II Nazi submarines, operating in wolf packs, roamed the frigid waters of the North Atlantic with impunity sinking an alarming number of British military and merchant ships. Hitler was confident that his U-boats could blockade England and eventually starve the British people into submission.

In the summer of 1940, while the Battle of Britain was being played out over London, the Germans unmercifully sank over 300 British military and merchant ships. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, fearing the negative impact these devastating losses might have on the nation’s morale, ordered the information withheld from the public. In an effort to reduce the appalling number of casualties lost at sea, Churchill instructed the British Royal Navy to begin a study to determine what, if anything, could be done to save more lives during sea rescue.

While interviewing the survivors an interesting discovery was made. To their complete astonishment, the researchers noted that the survival rate for the younger, presumably more physically fit sailors was remarkably lower when compared to their older shipmates. The study concluded that the older sailors had a significantly higher survival rate due to the fact that they had overcome more adversity and therefore, had developed greater confidence in being rescued than the younger, less experienced sailors.

The head of the research project, Kurt Hahn, was so moved by this discovery that he created the Outward Bound program. Hahn designed the Outward Bound program, utilizing a series of progressively rugged challenges, to mentally and physically prepare young British sailors to cope with the adversity of naval combat. Today, the Outward Bound program works with troubled youth to help them develop greater confidence and self-image.

I find it interesting that people faced with similar adversity often experience remarkably different outcomes. Some people become weakened, some become hardened and some become stronger. If you place a carrot, an egg and a coffee bean into a pot of boiling water, each reacts in a completely different manner to their conditions. The carrot goes into the boiling water firm and comes out soft; the egg goes in fragile and comes out hardened; while the coffee bean turns the hot water into coffee by releasing its flavor and aroma!

Selling in these challenging times demands determination and personal fortitude. Having the will to persevere when times are tough is a characteristic commonly found among self-made millionaires. Are you a quitter? The last time you failed, did you stop trying because you failed or did you fail because you stopped trying?

Thomas Edison documented 10,000 failed attempts to develop the electric light bulb. A reporter asked the great inventor how it felt to have failed 10,000 times trying to invent the light bulb. Edison responded, “Young man, I didn’t fail 10,000 times trying to invent the light bulb, I simply documented 10,000 ways that it wouldn’t work.” Imagine how different our world would be today if Edison had been a quitter.

You must expect to encounter detours, roadblocks and potholes of adversity along the road of life. The next time you are faced with adversity, learn from it and know that you are becoming a much stronger person because of it!

John Boe presents a wide variety of motivational and sales-oriented keynotes and seminar programs for sales meetings and conventions. John is a nationally recognized sales trainer and business motivational speaker with an impeccable track record in the meeting industry. To have John speak at your next event, visitwww.johnboe.com or call 937-299-9001. Free Newsletter available on website.

For more sales marketing coverage, see:

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Become a Sales Genius

Don’t Let Fear Get in the Way of Your Goals

Recently, I have been discussing strategies for improving your sales negotiations. There are dozens of strategies, techniques and tactics that can influence your results, but I decided to focus on one aspect of negotiation that many people find challenging to effectively execute: silence.

Many salespeople (myself included) find dead air or silence during a sales conversation a difficult concept to manage. I know that I feel extremely uncomfortable when a period of silence engulfs a sales conversation. However, silence is a very powerful weapon when you are negotiating.

It takes discipline. It requires effort. And it takes concentration. Yet, when used properly, it can help you gain a good deal of leverage in a sales negotiation. Here’s how you can use silence to negotiate a better deal:

Many prospects and customers are also uncomfortable with silence. If you pause for three to five seconds before responding to a comment or statement a person has made, the person will often volunteer additional information that he or she would have otherwise kept to secret.

For example, several years ago my wife was speaking to someone who wanted to use one of my articles in a corporate newsletter. At one point during the telephone conversation, she sensed that he wanted to tell her something so she remained completely quiet. A moment later, he said, “But we only have a budget of $300…is that OK?”

At that time, I often allowed companies to reprint my articles at no charge, but the person my wife was talking to was used to paying for them. Her five seconds of silence helped generate a small sale.

A friend of mine is an account manager for an advertising company. He told me how he had been discussing the terms of an advertising campaign with a new prospect. His prospect asked if he could get a better price on the package. My friend remained silent as he considered his options.

After several seconds of complete silence, his prospect said, “Well, if you can’t do that, it’s OK.” Since that day, my friend always pauses after a demand for a concession has been made. He figures this one technique has saved him thousands of dollars.

When I worked in the restaurant business (my first career), I used to have to interview job applicants. A common tactic was called the “pregnant pause.” After someone had responded to a question, I would smile and look at them expectantly. In most cases, the candidate would volunteer more information, and in some cases, this information influenced my decision about whether to hire that person.

The easiest way to use this tactic in sales negotiation is to remain silent anytime someone asks you for a concession. In many cases, the person will modify or retract his or her demand. It’s not easy to do, but the results are worth it.

Sign up for The Lead and get a new tip in your inbox every day! More tips:

• Why Do Rappers Make More Than Classical Musicians?
• Are You a Sales Fanatic?
• The Psychology of Selling: Using Positive Phrases

Kelley Robertson helps sales professionals master their sales conversations so they can win more business at higher profits. Get a free copy of “100 Ways to Increase Your Sales” and “Sales Blunders That Cost You Money” at http://www.Fearless-Selling.ca.

Okay, so I had some oxycodone — two on a Friday and one the day following. Why? Because I had shingles, that’s why, and the pain level was pretty high. The real story is the diagnosis process. My doc was away with her husband and kids for spring break (this saga started about three weeks ago), and so I went to the urgent care center recommended by my doctor’s office staff.

My complaint had to with what I thought was an injury to my right ribcage. I had been working out on a machine that employed a hydraulic compensator, and it, by malfunction, electronically increased my weight load to about four times the setting. So, a day or so later, when my ribcage began to hurt, I sought help.     

Urgent care took x-rays to rule out any heart or lung problem, given my age, and I was given a diagnosis of strained ligaments and tendons and sent on my merry way. Given the diagnosis, I went to a chiropractor for some relief, and he used some hand kneading and a few machines to provide help. The problem was not resolved and my chest and ribcage hurt more than ever.   

By this time, my family doc was back from spring break. My pain was increasing, and my wife noted that I had a rash around the right side of my chest. A quick trip to the Internet to confer with a New York customer, a chiropractor, suggested shingles.  He got it in one and without looking at my chest or anything — just from the description. I then I went to my family doctor, and it was confirmed. No tendon or ligament problem at all — it was shingles the whole time. Shingles might as well be called Revenge of the Chickenpox, since, when one has chickenpox, usually at a young age, it leaves a little package of fun that opens later in life, much later.          

Since I have a fair complexion, I tend to get rashes from time to time, and I don’t think about them. If the doctor who had examined me at the urgent care outfit had looked at my chest, he probably would have been able to diagnose the condition almost instantly, since the rash was pretty specific and one-sided. If the chiropractor had looked at my chest, he, too, might have been able to diagnose my condition. The thing is that both men spent money on various tests and treatments that had nothing to do with my condition, and the cost (and the two visits to the chiropractor) could have been avoided totally if the urgent care doctor simply had looked at my chest.

I wouldn’t complain about this so much if it hadn’t taken my wife more than two years to get a diagnosis for her rheumatoid arthritis. We went to specialist after specialist, and she came close to death before, finally, someone got it right. Maybe the problem with Medicare isn’t so much the large number of people covered, but the large number of incorrect diagnoses.

Try to find the book “How Doctors Think,” by Jerome Groopman. It’s a wonderful book that spends a lot of time on diagnosis.   He’s a Harvard Medical School professor who also writes for the New Yorker.

There’s a lot of waste in Medicare, and I suspect much of it comes from poor diagnostic ability. In an age of specialization, each doctor seems to try to make the illness of a person fit his or her specialty, at least until a number of expensive tests rule it out. I have not yet seen the amounts paid, but Medicare and my supplement probably paid close to $1,000, needlessly. The money spent on x-rays and chiropractic work was useless and, if my wife hadn’t noticed the rash, might have continued. My wife? Diagnosing her RA cost thousands and thousands of dollars. My guess would be at least $40,000 over two years, maybe more…  

See also: House Kills Medicare Rationing Board

The oxycodone?  I’ve had three tablets in two days, and I suspect I’ll be off — without going to Betty Ford — within the next two days. 

Have a great week and find a good diagnostician. And you might read “How Doctors Think.” It’s a great book.  

For more from Richard Hoe, see:

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Unemployment, Republicans and the Market

You find a qualified prospect for long-term care insurance (LTCI).

Your customer buys coverage, then uses the benefits to pay for nursing home care, assisted living facility care or home care.

Then a tornado, hurricane, or earthquake heads toward your client’s residence.

What then?

One answer is that LTCI agents ought to recommend a professional review of homeowners insurance and personal property-casualty coverage when LTCI clients change living arrangements.

Another answer is that some long-term are (LTC) facilities and home care providers take disaster preparedness more seriously than others

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) highlighted planning gaps in a nursing home disaster preparedness report released this week.

The HHS OIG investigators looked at nursing homes because HHS has the authority to oversee disaster preparedness at nursing homes; state government agencies are responsible for reviewing assisted living facilities’ preparedness plans.

The investigators conducted in-depth reviews of 24 homes that have experienced natural disasters in the past few years. The investigators had enough candidates to choose from that they were able to limit the reviews to nursing homes that still have the same administrators and nursing directors they had at the time of the disasters.

In real disasters, investigators say, the 24 nursing homes reviewed reported having more trouble than they had expected with matters such as rounding up backup staff, providing drinking water, and transporting medical records in an emergency.

The challenges can lead to serious hardship. Analysts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) note in a background paper that people ages 60 and older made up just 15% of the population of New Orleans in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit, but that people in that age group suffered about 70% of the reported mortalities.

“Data from the Louisiana Department of Health show that almost 70 nursing home residents died in their facilities,” the CDC analysts report. “Many were allegedly abandoned by their caretakers. Almost no information is available on what happened to residents of assisted living, board and care homes, and other less-regulated facilities.”

Some disaster-prone states such as California and Florida, keep careful watch on assisted living facilities, but some other states have been less vigilant. The Assisted Living Federation of America, Alexandria, Va., has tried to fill the gaps by publishing a detailed preparedness guide for member facilities.

Meanwhile, here is a glimpse at the kinds of disasters that affected the nursing homes the HHS OIG inspectors reviewed.