“Proper grammar is power.”

-Dianna Booher
Author of Rules of Business Grammar
101 Fast and Easy Ways to Correct the Most Common Errors

R U Amazed at the affect email and texting has had on the way we use grammer and how we spell in our electronic communication. It ain’t right that you and me have been slackin’ off with our spellin’ and such in emails.

In fact, sentences with spelling and grammar errors like the one you just read are littering emails that we send everyday. For many, the speed of an email has become more important than the content and the grammatical correctness. So what’s the big deal with a few misspelled words and an occasional misuse of the English language, you ask?

Truth is, your prospects and peers will judge your ability to serve them by the words you use. Which means every email you send that looks like the neighbor’s first grade kid wrote it tells the recipient that accuracy is not important to you. It also says that you DON’T pay attention to detail. Now let me ask you something. Are accuracy and attention to detail important qualities in a salesperson, an operations manager, or a sales leader? Of course they are! So understand that every email you send is like a brochure that represents your ability to perform. So here are some email tips that will help you show others that you are PRECISE:

• Use Spell Check with every email
o It takes 20 seconds and will save you from looking unprofessional.

• Read your email back to yourself before pressing the send button.
o More than half the time you will make a correction.

• Make your point once, and be DONE with it.
o Use as few words as possible to convey your message. Not only will this minimize your chances of making a grammatical error, but will also help your message “stick.” (works with voicemail as well)

• Take 15 seconds to think about the OBJECTIVE of the email before you write it.
o Email should be a tool for ACTION. After the recipient reads your email, what do you want them to do? If the email isn’t getting them to do something, perhaps it isn’t necessary to send it.

So this week, let’s get back to English (and Action) class. And while it might not be necessary to start diagramming sentences, it could be time to be more PRECISE with one of our greatest sales and service weapons…our written word.

To listen to Brian discuss communicating with power with author Dianna Booher (www.booher.com) on his weekly radio show, go to www.preciseselling.com/Radio.htm. As president of PRECISE Selling, Brian Sullivan helps improve sales, customer service, negotiations, leadership, and presentation skills through seminars and internet training programs. He is also the author of the book, 20 Days to the Top-How the PRECISE Selling Formula Will Make You Your Company’s Top Sales Performer in 20 Days or Less. To learn more, go to www.preciseselling.com.

Amazing what kid’s know about life and business, isn’t it? Just yesterday, as I walked in my kitchen I noticed a multi-colored, laminated list hanging on the refrigerator. This is what it said:

This season I pledge to:

•    Fast from revenge and feast on forgiving people
•    Fast from bragging and feast on having good sportsmanship
•    Fast from complaining and feast on being thankful
•    Fast from fighting and feast on compromising
•    Fast from being lazy and feast on getting active
•    Fast from lying and feast on telling the truth
•    Fast from judging people and feast on looking for good in others
•    Fast from excluding and feast on letting everyone play
•    Fast from selfishness and feast on giving to others
•    Fast from not following directions and feast on listening

The above was a list developed by the kids in my son Jake’s 4th grade class. Each child was to develop their own Fast and Feast list and this was his. As I read the list I was amazed at how simple yet profound it was.  I liked it so much, I developed one for myself and encourage you to try the same. So this week, grab some crayons, a fancy piece of construction paper (okay, a pad and pen will do) and take 10 minutes to write down the things you need to FAST from and FEAST on. Then keep them in front of you for 20 days. By doing so you can create habits that will have you FEASTING on more positive relationships, more productivity, and I bet a lot more sales.

This week, Brian interviewed author Ed Tate on his weekly radio show. Ed shares tips on how you can become a master networker and FEAST on more relationships than ever.   Go to www.preciseselling.com/Radioaccess.htm to listen to the interview. To find out more about Brian’s sales and leadership programs, visit him at www.preciseselling.com or email Brian at bsullivan@preciseselling.com.

If I can just remain ‘flat’ this year, I will be happy,” were the words recently spoken to me by a fellow salesperson. By this he meant he would deem it a successful year if he only equals 2008 sales. But there is a problem with that philosophy. If you plateau or consider “flat” sales a success, you are NOT remaining flat…because others are in attack mode and growing their business. And for them to grow their business, they either need to sell more to current customers or ATTACK yours. Now is business a little more difficult to find this year? Maybe, but who cares? Because the only think YOU have total control over is what YOU do. But one thing is sure. Expect flat sales and you will GET flat sales. Believe this will be your toughest year. and it WILL be your toughest year. But here’s the good news. 2009 can be the year that FORCED you to become the best professional you have ever been. And because you decided not to sit back but instead to attack, it will be this year that you will look back on as the one that FORCED you to become more knowledgeable, more innovative, a better communicator, a more effective negotiator, and flat out BETTER at what you do.

So this week, decide how many new clients you want to have on the books by the end of the first quarter. Then decide how many formal presentations it will take to capture that number. Next, decide how many cold prospecting calls you need to make to get those formal presentations. Then get to work! Attack and then attack some more. And when the battle of a slow economy is over, you will look back on this time as the period in your career when you became a true professional.

As president of PRECISE Selling, Brian Sullivan helps improve sales, customer service, negotiations, leadership, and presentation skills through seminars and Internet training programs. He also hosts “Entrepreneurial Moments,” a radio show on business and personal development. For more on his speaking, consulting or book, visit: www.PreciseSelling.com or email: bsullivan@preciseselling.com.

Trust me, I am not what you would call “fashion forward,” however, I love this quote. Coco (that’s different) reminds us of a super lesson. Whether you are a salesperson, regional sales manager, or the head of a hospital department, you can’t do the things that everybody else does if you are to become irreplaceable. This week, challenge yourself to come up with a new, irreplaceable, different and creative idea that gets the attention of the people you either serve or workwith. And how will you know that you are being different? You will feel a sick pit in your stomach that is telling you that you must be “nuts.” That, by the way, is a gift from above reminding you that you are still alive! So this week, LIVE a little!

Promise only what you can deliver.
Then deliver more than you promise.
~Author Unknown

October 1, 2008

Do you know anybody who makes a habit of breaking promises? And as you think about that person right now, what does your face look like? I bet you squinted your eyes, tightened your upper lip and felt a moderate surge of frustration. But don’t let it get you. In fact, feel that pain in your gut and make a promise right now to never make anybody feel like you do right now. Because if you go to the “promise breaking dark side,” you will have given up perhaps the greatest gift given to you…the ability to use words to consistently and positively influence others.

But living with integrity not only delivers what some might consider “touchy/feely” benefits. It also yields top individual and team performance which usually translates into more sales, more profits and more success. In his book, The Integrity Dividend, Leading by the Power of Your Word, author Tony Simons did a study of 76 Holiday Inn Hotels. The study showed that the average employee’s perception of how much the employee ‘s manager kept promises and lived by stated values, drove hotel profitability more strongly than employee trust, sense of fairness, commitment, or satisfaction. In short, keeping promises results in higher profits. And in the case of individual Holiday Inns, that meant an additional $250,000 annually!

So this week, whether you lead internal or external customers, keep your promises. Your customers and associates will trust you more. And when they trust you more they will become more emotionally attached to you and your company. And that attachment will translate into a very profitable Integrity Dividend” for years to come.

To learn more about The Integrity Dividend, listen to Brian interview author Dr. Tony Simons on his weekly radio program by going to www.preciseselling.com/Radioaccess.htm. As President of Kansas City-based PRECISE Selling, Brian delivers seminars, podcasts and internet training programs on sales, customer service, leadership and presentation skills to companies of all sizes. To find out more, visit him at www.preciseselling.com or email Brian at bsullivan@preciseselling.com.

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.”
-Albert Einstein

If you are to influence others, the only way to have a lasting impact is by demonstrating through your own actions that you believe what you are communicating. If you sell Ford Cars for living, don’t drive a BMW. If you don’t like to be gossiped about, don’t gossip about others. And if don’t like being talked to like a four-year old child, don’t do it to your peers or subordinates at work. Why? Because if people sense that your words don’t match up with your actions, your words no longer have the power to influence. And once you lose the power to influence, you lose the power to positively impact your industry, company, family, church, division, department and more.

So this week, take 15 minutes to think of three people that you would like to influence.

Those three can include:

-A Family member or friend
-A Peer or associate at work
-Somebody with whom you have a rocky relationship

Then think specifically about how you would like to see them positively change. Then go make and demonstrate that change first in yourself. And while making that change, tell nobody what you are doing. Just sit back and watch as your example creates more movement in others than ever before.

President of Kansas City-based PRECISE Selling, Brian delivers seminars and internet training programs on sales, customer service, leadership and presentation skills to companies of all sizes.  To find out more, visit him at www.preciseselling.com or email Brian at bsullivan@preciseselling.com.