Found 0 posts
It’s summer now – and you can probably look outside right now and see nature at its fullest. What was just some buds a few short months ago, are now plants in their complete brilliance.
In our last two blogs we’ve been focused on growth: both for people starting a new career and for those looking to expand on their current role in the workplace. If you’ve been following along, you may be wondering what the final form of this growth looks like.
Those eager to advance their career will no doubt be called upon to be a leader. This is the end result of growth – when a person takes what they’ve learned from their journey and builds on it by empowering those around them.
So how do we grow into leadership? Let’s explore.
Be Humble
It all starts with humility. If you have the experience necessary to start taking the lead at work, it can be difficult to remain modest about all you have accomplished. Yes, it is important to take pride in the road that got you to where you are today, but it’s important to keep yourself grounded.
Remember, you’re just getting started – and there is so much more you have left to achieve!
Humility won’t just allow your team to relate to you better (and make you an easier person to be around), it will help you remain open to the innovative ideas and perspectives that every single person has to offer (more on that later).
Staying modest will also help you avoid complacency. There is always room for your own improvement and there is always something new to learn. In living this out, you will be setting an excellent example of constant growth that your team can be inspired by.
Take Accountability
Being a leader means that if a member of your team has a problem, you have one, too. The buck stops with you – and you have to take responsibility for the success or failure of your department.
This is one of the more difficult lessons to learn as a leader – as there are factors that will be outside of your control. But instead of pointing fingers when something goes pear shaped, taking accountability for what has happened will have a great impact on your ability to lead. When your team sees that you have their back, they will grow more motivated to move forward with better diligence.
This accountability ties into our next tip for growing your leadership skills: start using the word “we.”
Use The Word “We”
We is a powerful word. Imagine someone who has just completed a successful project. Their colleagues have had some input into the process, but it’s them who has put in the heavy lifting.
When presenting the results, they can either say “look what I’ve accomplished,” or “look what we’ve accomplished.” See the difference? If you were sitting in on the presentation, which line would make you more inclined to do further work with and for that person?
Leaders invite everyone into the process and are the first to give credit (even when they are shining a light on small-yet-impactful contributions). If you want to start being viewed as a leader in your workplace and beyond, start paying attention to and being quick to praise.
That starts when you adopt the word “we” into your vocabulary. Individuals speak for themselves, whereas leaders speak for their teams.
Teach Others
No matter what setting you find them in, leaders are teachers and coaches. They have risen to a high standard in their field – and are now tasked with fostering the same growth in the team around them.
Growth is not a zero-sum game. Be generous with what you know. Someone who rises to the top then pulls the ladder up behind them is no leader. Instead, think of where you started, what you had to learn, and the challenges you used to face, and think of ways that you can create the best environment for your team to thrive.
This environment is created with mentorship, knowledge, and
The best leader is one who doesn’t hide behind their own glory, but instead knows that the greatest honor is watching their team win. With the right mentorship, someone can even exceed the accomplishments of their teacher. This – for a leader – is something to be proud of and celebrate.
Keep Growing
There’s a old joke that goes something like this:
Two people go duck hunting. They bring along the second person’s hunting dog.
As the afternoon goes on, the first person says to the second:
“I don’t get it. Your dog used to be the best hunting dog there ever was. You could shoot a duck and he’d have it back to you before you could even blink. Today, he’s just sat around and barked. What happened?”
The second hunter replies:
“I changed his name to manager.”
Just because you’ve become a leader, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have room to still be growing. As you challenge your team to work hard, expand their horizons, and continue learning, you should be sure to be setting an example and putting what you preach into practice.
As spring ends and summer begins — you can probably look outside and see the leaves growing back onto the trees. Just as nature changes with the seasons, our career and professional journey can transform, too – if you allow it to happen!
If you’re looking for a change in your career, either from unhappiness with your current job or a longing for something more fulfilling, now is a great time to do it. Just take some inspiration from the budding plants and follow this advice.
Plant Yourself in The Right Environment
A plant could thrive in one environment and die in another. Each one is unique and needs a different type of soil, amount of rain, and sunlight to grow tall and strong.
People are much like plants in this regard. If you’re unhappy with your current job, it’s likely because it’s not the right environment for you.
This can trip people up: it can be easy to think that it’s your fault that you aren’t growing where you are. You may see others finding great success – and wonder what’s wrong with you.
Before you dive into growing into a new career, it’s helpful to do some introspection and get to the heart of your wants and needs when it comes to work. Assessments, such as the Myers-Briggs Indicator or the 16 Personalities test, can be a useful and fun way to accomplish this.
These tests aren’t flawless – nor can any assessment perfectly capture the unique individual that is you – but they can provide new revelations about what will be the best environment for your success.
Are you extroverted? Time to find a job that involves working with new and interesting people on the daily. Do you have an analytical mind? Maybe a job that involves studying fascinating and impactful data is the right fit for you.
With these new insights into yourself, you’ll be able to find both a job and an employer that provides you with the best environment to grow. Remember, with the right soil and amount of sunlight, every plant can succeed!
Nurture Growth by Asking Questions
If a plant needs sunlight and water to grow – what are the nutrients we need to thrive in a new career. The answer is information!
Ask questions. This is one of the biggest pieces of advice we offer to new Cydcor employees (it applies to just about everything in life, too).
Coming into a new career can make you feel like you don’t know enough. Everyone else around has worked their way into being an expert on their job and how systems function at the specific company. Starting out, it can be tempting to avoid asking questions, so that you don’t stand out too much as “the new guy.”
But you can’t grow until you say “I don’t know.” Get curious – about just about everything. For those looking to create healthy work relationships with their new colleges, asking questions has a great impact.
People love to talk about themselves and what they do. When you ask questions, most people don’t think wow – how do they not know this? Instead, they’re likely thinking wow – this person is interested in me and what I do!
To go one step further, don’t just ask how to do things – ask why they’re done this way. This will teach you about the shared values and logic of the new company you’re working for and will help you problem solve in the future when you are given work that nobody else has figured out yet.
Learn To Appreciate Rain
Spring is a time for beautiful flowers and baby birds to emerge, yes, but this time of year also sees its fair share of thunderstorms.
If you’re diving into a new career, failure is unavoidable. Trying anything for the first time is challenging – this is perfectly normal and ok!
To grow, you need to have gratitude for every hiccup, mistake, or misunderstanding that you may run into. You’re learning and each failure comes with takeaways that you can use for the rest of your life.
We’re sure budding flowers don’t always find the rain comfortable, but it’s what helps them grow the most.
Continue to ask questions and seek valuable feedback (even criticism) from your peers and supervisors alike. Most employers aren’t looking for someone who’s perfect, they’re looking for people who are coachable.
When you trip up, remember that showers make way for flowers.
Keep Growing!
This advice is all useful for those growing into a new career – but they can apply to anyone! A tree can only grow so tall and certain flowers only last a season – but when it comes to your career, there are absolutely no limits to growth.
We wish you success, learning, and joy in your career journey – wherever it takes you!
People helping people – that’s essential to our culture as a business. But what happens when people help people help other people? Here are the results of our latest Philanthropy Challenge and powerful takeaways that will help you use collaboration to create positive change.
At Cydcor, one of the most cherished partnerships we have is with Liberty Children’s Home – an orphanage in the Central American country of Belize. Known as a sanctuary, Liberty provides love, safety, and growth to over forty children, many of whom have been previously abused, abandoned, and neglected.
To heighten our efforts to support this charity organization, we organized a Philanthropy Challenge. Kicking off at NatCon 2022, this initiative ran from September 12th, 2022 to April 30th, 2023. Independently owned and operated companies, or ICLs, from across our network, were invited to participate.
All in all, the wide array of teams involved were able to raise over $70,000! Our team is currently working with the people at Liberty to determine how the funds can best be used to support the children.
From our network of independent companies, 32 teams took on the Philanthropy Challenge. These teams came from locations across the country – and allowed this initiative to have a presence in a variety of different communities.
If we were to go into this effort alone, we would have been limited by the reach and perspective of Cydcor. Inviting these independent teams to join us gave us new angles to consider how to maximize our efforts. This made us all the more powerful, overnight.
If you’re trying to leave a positive impact on the world, this is the first thing to consider. Who are the people that can bring another element to your initiative? What are the communities that are eager and ready to help out (if only someone would reach out to get them involved).
It’s corny to say, but we really are stronger together!
Everyone has different talents. The Philanthropy Challenge wouldn’t have had the same impact if we didn’t get every brain in the game. We leaned on the creativity of organizers to design pins, t-shirts, organize opportunity drawings with donated prizes, and even put together a paddle raise at our last event. These creative talents aligned in collaboration with the interpersonal skills of the people who conducted outreach and raised the funds.
Whatever your talents are, there are opportunities to serve your community and beyond. The secret is to align with a diverse network of people to form a dovetail of skill sets that create the most change possible.
Healthy competition, or social motivation, has been shown in research to improve attention on sustained physical effort. Inside all of us there’s a competitor (though some people take this to a whole other level). When collaborating on a charity effort, some friendly competition is a great way to keep everyone motivated and push beyond what was once thought possible.
Cydcor, in alliance with a network of ICLs, has long enjoyed a good-old-fashioned competition. Creating metrics for success, curating an exciting collection of donated prizes, and sprinkling in a healthy dose of fun is one of our team’s favorite things to do.
For this Philanthropy Challenge, the big prize is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which also allows for the winners to continue to experience the joy of serving others. The top three winners will soon join Vera Quinn, our CEO, on her next trip to Belize. While there, they have the opportunity to volunteer at Liberty and meet the children the Challenge was created to serve.
Because collaboration is always the key to success, these winners will be inviting two team members to join them on this incredible journey of servant leadership.
Making it a competition created an atmosphere of growth. The success of one person would inspire another to push the envelope even further – and so on. This created a ripple effect of social motivation, making the astounding result of over $70,000 going to Liberty possible.
At Cydcor, we don’t believe in finish lines. So long as there are people on earth, there will be people in need of help. One day, we’ll be gone, and the next generation will be called on to provide support, service, and love to those in need.
With collaboration, we ensure that there will always be people ready, eager, and empowered to help people, because we create a movement that’s bigger than just us.
The success of the Philanthropy Challenge doesn’t just lie in Cydcor’s efforts, but also in those of the ICLs and the communities that they live and work in.
We’re committed to planning out even more ways to continue our support of Liberty Children’s Home, in addition to many more future initiatives that create positive impact in our community and beyond.
Collaboration will continue to be our greatest tool in accomplishing all this!
To learn more about the incredible work happening at Liberty Children’s Home, visit their website.
At Cydcor, we believe in constant growth – and we hope you do, too! In our last blog, we explored how to grow into a new career. Now, we’re going to focus on what to do when you’re established in your career and want to continue improving.
It’s not all about fancy job titles and bigger paychecks (though we’d be lying if we didn’t say these are great perks to growth). Building on what you’re already accomplishing in the workplace will increase your impact, open up new opportunities, and lead to a more fulfilling life.
Let’s keep growing!
First things first: growth comes to those who can manage it. Improving your position at work means taking on new (and larger) responsibilities. If you aren’t handling your current tasks with excellence – are you really able to take on more?
You can dream of that raise or promotion, but if there are areas to improve in your current role, your current role won’t be improving either.
If you can handle the little things, you will prove trustworthy for bigger responsibilities. So take pride in your current role – because it can build into something awesome!
Before you move to grow in your career, take stock. How could you improve what you're already doing? In order to move up, you’ll need to step out of your comfort zone, encounter challenges, and put in some hard work. This can start today – so get to it!
As we discussed in our last blog, most people are thrilled to share what they know with others. If you're aiming to grow in your career – the best thing to do is pick the brains of those who are accomplishing what you seek to achieve.
Start forging relationships with people at various levels of your company. It doesn’t just have to be the CEO, even the person who’s only slightly ahead of you in the process of growth has something to teach you.
Use this insight to start creating a plan for yourself. Looking at the top brass of your company, what do you think that your final goal can be? Learning from your coworker that just got a promotion, what are the steps you can start making today to get there?
Taking the experience of others and complementing it with your unique goals for life, you can come up with a vision for how you see your career going.
Having a clear vision is powerful in its own right, but everything is stronger together. The next question to ask: how can you align your vision with that of your company and your coworkers (who have their own dreams, too)?
Collaboration is one of humanity’s greatest tools, so think on the many ways your growth can impact and accelerate the improvement of your surrounding environment. With aligned goals, you will become someone that your work family can depend on. When you invest in the visions of others, they’ll be inspired to respond in kind.
Growth is not a zero-sum game. This is the philosophy that has helped Cydcor grow into what it is today – and it will help your career journey, too!
As we’ve previously mentioned, improving your position at work means taking on more responsibilities. Many of us fall into the trap of sitting around and waiting for that to happen. The people who grow the quickest are those who proactively seek out opportunities to expand their role.
Saying things like “that’s not my responsibility” or “that’s not in my job description” won’t lead to growth. To move forward in your career, you have to be looking for ways to constantly be expanding your job description – not allowing your current role to box you in.
Look around – everyone could use a hand. Whether it’s being ready to fill in when someone is away or indisposed, or it’s coming up with a solution to a problem that your office has deemed unfixable, there are always ways to proactively grow.
In helping others, you will help yourself. Opportunities are always available – but only to those who are ready and eager to take them on.
The idea of taking the lead can be scary – but you can’t keep growing in your career until you’re ready to lead those who are in your current position. That’s why it’s important to start fostering this skill now.
Leadership skill doesn’t come from a fancy title or a promotion. It comes from humility, a willingness to share what you’ve learned, and from taking accountability for now just your work, but the work of those around you.
For more on this topic, stay tuned for our next blog!
In the meantime, we encourage you to continue seeking growth in your career, finding new ways to build on what you’ve already accomplished. The future will be bright – and it’s you who will be shining!
What do you want the impact of your life to be? We would all like to leave the world a better place – so how can we use our careers to make a positive difference?
This may at first be a difficult question to answer. We can often think of our careers as separate from the legacy we’re leaving behind. But with the right mindset and approach to living out your values, you can find your place on a team that aligns with your mission to better your family, community, and world.
It’s 2023. Our world faces many challenges, from climate change to poverty. With so much work to be done to leave a better world behind, our careers must play a role in how we act out our higher values.
This isn’t just the right thing to do – this will enrich your life and help you reach your goals. When motivated by a mission bigger than yourself, you can experience a life of fulfillment, hold the joy of generosity, and form deeper connections with the community and world that surrounds you.
So, what does a career with positive impact look like? Let’s explore.
Most careers revolve around bringing a product, service, or solution to people who need it. Therein lies the first way that you can build a meaningful career that serves as a net benefit. If you can take pride in what you are offering clients and customers and the business that you work for, you’re on the right track.
For the entrepreneurs reading who either have or are soon to start their own businesses, thinking about what you offer is critical. Remember, sales is about leading people to the things that they need, so the best success comes when your first mission is to enrich the lives of your customer or client base.
As an example, we can develop the best methods for clean energy, but if there’s no business set up around making it available to people, it cannot have any impact. We tend to think that creating positive change is a job best left for charities, missionaries, and the like – but when we look at doing good in this light, we see that every career can have a positive impact.
Whether you’re in sales, marketing, accounting, or anything else, by aligning with brands that are bringing products and services that better the planet, your career can have a positive impact!
Success in your career means that you will find more opportunities to give back. Whatever you do, there are always ways that you can share the wealth of your hard work with others.
This is something that we at Cydcor hold very dear to us. We believe that you can make a career out of caring and we continue to discover philanthropic efforts that allow us to impact both our community and the world at-large.
In a past partnership, we were able to raise nearly $1 million to offer free cleft-lip and cleft palate surgeries to children in underserved regions across the globe. These are life-changing operations, which brought healing to nearly 4,000 smiles.
As of this blog, we are currently working with Liberty Children’s home, a Belize-based orphanage.
In addition, our Neighborhood Leader Program helps the independent sales companies in our network direct their passion and talents towards great causes in their local communities.
Philanthropy offers you many ways to take the gifts that your career has grown and share them with those who need a helping hand. This can help you find fulfillment and leave a meaningful legacy.
We’d do anything for our families. That’s why it’s important to consider the people in your life when creating a career of positive impact.
Building wealth that brings comfort, opportunity, and wellbeing for your spouse, children, and other dependents is likely a major reason why you show up to work. We want to provide for the ones we love. Keeping this at the forefront of your values is a surefire way to unlock motivation on even the most difficult of days.
But it’s not just wealth most people want to give their family and friends. Time is the most valuable thing of all! When building a career of positive change and fulfillment, remember to leave space for you to enjoy quality time with those who matter most.
Once you’ve found a way to offer something better, get involved with philanthropy, and support your family, what’s next? The positive impact your career can have does not stop there!
With a fulfilling and meaningful career established, next comes the beautiful opportunity to pass your knowledge, experience, and wisdom onto others – so that they too can create an impactful legacy through the work that they accomplish.
When you teach others, your positive impact multiplies. Knowing that the people you teach will then build on that knowledge and teach others – well, there’s no better or easier way to change the world than that!
Whether you’re just starting out your career, or are simply looking for something more, take some time to intentionally think about the legacy you can leave behind.
Let’s all commit to careers of positive impact!
First impressions matter.
In sales, a positive first impression can determine whether a customer decides to buy from you or a competitor. A negative one can cost you both money and the opportunity to establish a relationship with a new customer. The key to making a good impression and building rapport in sales is by applying the SEE factors — Smile, Eye Contact, and Enthusiasm. Non-verbal cues through facial expressions and body language can make the difference between success and failure — even before you say a single word.
First impressions are fast, but they last.
Countless studies, surveys, and experts vary in their claims on how long it takes to form an impression of someone — from 27 seconds to seven seconds to even as little as one-tenth of a second. Further research from an international team of psychologists shows that a first impression persists, even if a new experience contradicts it. People view the contradictory experience as a one-off occurrence tied to a specific context — a perception that’s difficult to change. The takeaway is that you won’t have a second chance to make a great first impression, so make every second — or millisecond — count.
Here are five tips for making a good impression and why they’re important:
1. Perfect your handshake.
A handshake is more than an initial greeting. It’s often the first connection with the customer and can set the tone for the rest of the sales conversation or meeting.
A good handshake should be:
2. Smile.
A smile is contagious. It communicates warmth and approachability, instantly putting the other person at ease and in a better mood. A genuine, inviting smile can improve your likeability and get the other person to respond more positively to you. When smiling, make eye contact to transmit openness, trustworthiness, and interest in what they have to say. People love doing business with those they like and trust. It's human nature.
3. Be confident.
Research shows that people who are confident appear more competent, credible, and trustworthy. They exude confidence through their expertise, attitude, presence, and demeanor. So, when meeting people, do your research and be prepared with relevant talking points and smart questions. Be calm and self-assured, not cocky or arrogant. Be articulate and speak deliberately and clearly. Stand in an open, relaxed posture with your chin up, back straight, and arms at your side. Finally, dress to impress because when you look sharp, you feel sharp. Being confident makes people comfortable around you and more receptive to what you have to say.
4. Be thoughtful.
Thoughtfulness is grounded in empathy, so tune into the other person, listen more, and say less. When someone speaks, show genuine interest and understanding by summarizing what you’ve heard and asking follow-up questions. Choose your words carefully and speak with honesty and sincerity. Read the room and modulate your tone and approach appropriately. Thoughtfulness creates an emotional connection that elevates the conversation and builds rapport and trust with the customer.
5. Be energetic.
Positive energy and enthusiasm are infectious. When you’re fired up, it shows you care and passionately believe in your product, service, and company. It engages and motivates the customer and gets them excited too. Just make sure you don’t get carried away. Nothing is more off-putting than over-the-top energy and enthusiasm that feels fake and insincere.
By following these five simple tips, you’re making a good first impression that’s a lasting good impression. You’ll connect with the customer, start building rapport, and improve your odds for success in any sales interaction.
With the right combination of work ethic, people skills, and self-discipline, working on commission is an extremely rewarding way to earn a living and build a successful career. Sales teams that work on a sales compensation plan earn more when the company sells more, making these pay structures a win win for both sales professionals and their employers. There are many types of sales commissions, but taking a job that offers commission either on top of or instead of a base salary can pay off for motivated employees looking to maximize their earning potential.
Let’s take a look at six benefits of commission work.
You control what you earn.
One of the best things about commission based work is that you can make as much money as you want. If you’ve ever had an hourly or salaried position, you know how frustrating it can be to have to wait for a raise in order to see a bigger paycheck. When you earn sales commission, however, you get to determine this yourself. This is especially great when you’ve got your heart set on a big purchase: in addition to saving up over time, you can increase your income and speed up the process.
It’s the best preparation for running your own business.
Have you ever realized that business owners are technically working on 100% commission? If their companies aren’t making money, they aren’t either. There is no better practice for an aspiring entrepreneur than a job that pays commission rather than a fixed salary. Whether working as a sales rep, a real estate agent, or earning another type of commission based pay, working on commission will teach you self-reliance, a no excuses mentality, organization, money management, and resilience -- all of which are essential for survival when you’re running your own show.
You aren’t micromanaged.
Another huge perk of being paid on commission is having a high degree of autonomy, which means that your boss isn’t looking over your shoulder all day. This is great for people who enjoy making their own decisions or who prefer working independently. With most commission jobs, it’s up to you to determine exactly how to structure your day to maximize success.
You can’t become stagnant.
When you’re picking up an automatic weekly paycheck, it’s easy to take your foot off the gas from time to time, especially if you know a co-worker is getting away with doing less work for the same pay. Jobs with a commission structure force you to stay on your toes, which is great for your professional growth. When you’re always on your A-game, career success is inevitable.
Your effort is rewarded.
As much as delayed gratification is crucial for long-term success, we all love a good immediate reward. One of the perks of commission work is the direct relationship between working hard and seeing results. Doing that little bit extra -- visiting that one additional customer, asking that one extra question, putting in that extra hour -- has the potential to pay off, literally. Each individual sale matters, and typically when the employee works harder the employee earns more too.
It’s fun.
There’s something to be said for ‘the thrill of the hunt’. Successful salespeople will even tell you that there’s something addicting about it. Nothing feels better than working hard, earning a sale, and seeing a happy customer. Since no two days are exactly alike, working on commission is always an exciting adventure.
If you’ve never earned sales commission before, the idea might sound intimidating. But, as anyone who has tried it for themselves will tell you, if you possess a student mentality, a strong work ethic, and an internal drive to succeed, you’ll find that the rewards of a sales commission plan are plentiful.
How many famous people can you name who started their careers in sales? Before becoming well-known actors, musicians, comedians, and CEOs, quite a few of today’s celebrity’s early jobs meant going door to door, working in retail, serving in restaurants, and telemarketing. Not only did these soon-to-be celebrities who once had sales jobs eventually hit it big, but their history in sales seems to have taught them some valuable lessons as well. Perhaps there is something to be said for a sales gig as the ultimate crash course in communication!
Check out this list of six celebrities who had sales jobs before they were famous.
Would you believe it if we told you that Johnny Depp was once a telemarketer? It’s true! Using made-up names, Depp phoned people asking if they’d like to buy pens. He only ever made one sale, but he considered the experience to be his first foray into acting.
This now-billionaire founder of the shapewear company Spanx spent nine hours a day for eight years selling fax machines door to door. She credits the experience with developing an immunity to rejection and teaching her that the best way to be persuasive is face to face -- both of which served her well in starting Spanx.
It’s kind of hard to picture this now award-winning rapper working at a chain retailer like the Gap. Indeed, he was a part-time sales assistant there during high school. In retrospect, West believes that this early job working with clothes sparked his inspiration to become a fashion designer many years later.
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s first job as a pre-teen was selling garbage bags door to door. Coveting a pair of sneakers that his father wouldn’t fund, Cuban took matters into his own hands by selling boxes of garbage bags at a profit of three bucks a pop.
This well-known comedian and talk show host used to live quite the different life! After dropping out of college, DeGeneres held a variety of sales positions, which included selling clothing, demonstrating Hoover vacuums in front of customers, serving, and bartending. Perhaps the celebrity’s early jobs in sales contributed to her talent for thinking on her feet and quickly getting people to like her.
Years before adopting this pseudonym, Stefani Germanotta was raking in the tip money as a waitress at a diner – which as most servers will tell you, is essentially commission sales! She made conversation with customers by telling stories and always kept it stylish in high heels. Maybe she translated some of her talent for earning tips into her later penchant for earning lifelong fans.
Like these stories of salespeople turned celebs? Check out this list of CEOs who got started in sales before striking it rich. To find out more about Cydcor, check us out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales and marketing services located in Agoura Hills, California. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company to garnering a reputation for consistently exceeding client expectations and driving outstanding revenue growth, Cydcor has been helping Fortune 500 and emerging companies achieve their customer acquisition, retention, and business goals since 1994. Cydcor takes pride in the unique combination of in-person sales, call center, and digital marketing services we offer to provide our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.
Defining a business and sales strategy comes with an important choice: to withhold information or to be 100% forthright with the truth. And sure, there are plenty of dishonest salespeople out there, but here's the best sales tip you'll ever get: don't be one of them! The most successful and salespeople are those who consistently choose truth over deception. Rather than embellishing during a sales meeting, they prefer to under-promise and over-deliver. Instead of leaving out inconvenient facts, they proactively share any and all relevant details with their customers. Top sales professionals know that honesty in sales is possibly the most effective strategy for long-term success.
The good news for salespeople is that honesty isn’t just the best policy, morally speaking. Truthful communication is also a lucrative sales strategy that will serve you well in your career.
Never underestimate a customer’s ability to sense that something’s not quite right. Sales prospects can detect when you’re embellishing important details about a product or service, glazing over the facts, or telling them what they want to hear. As a result, they are less likely to buy. While an unscrupulous sales strategy might work for you every now and then, in the long run, you’ll lose more sales than you close because people don’t trust you. Focus instead on creating a sales strategy that respects the customer's intelligence. You're likely to generate more successful sales in the short term and build stronger long-term relationships with customers.
Every salesperson knows that it’s easier to deal with an excited customer than a skeptical one. While it might seem simpler to answer questions with short answers or withhold certain information, it’s quite the opposite. Being selective with the truth only invites more questions -- and not the good kind. It’s actually much more efficient, and more likely to increase sales, if you take the time to thoroughly and openly address all of your customer’s concerns to ensure that they feel confident about the decision to buy.
There’s a decent chance that your target customer has already been pitched in the past by another sales rep. In many of those cases, their decision against buying was due to a lack of trust -- not a lack of interest. By being completely straightforward and authentic, you’ll ending up signing up customers who had previously said no, bringing you closer to achieving your sales goals.
Nothing leads to an order cancellation faster than a negative surprise. Thankfully, the secret to a high quality, sticky sale is simple: ensure that your customer has realistic expectations. The strongest salespeople go out of their way to communicate relevant information, ensuring that buyers are fully prepared and informed.
No one wants to talk to a sales robot. Consumers are much more likely to buy from someone they can connect with -- someone who seems genuine and trustworthy. Simply being yourself and leading with honesty, makes it easier to build rapport. And as all strong salespeople know, building a relationship is often the difference between a yes or a no.
We all know that satisfied customers become loyal customers, but did you know that simply being honest also generates leads? After a positive experience, customers are not only more likely to buy from you again in the future, but satisfied existing customers will also send you referrals of their friends, families, and neighbors.
As soon as you realize that you don’t have to rely on white lies, exaggerations, and “tricks of the trade” in order to make a sale, you’ll become a more confident salesperson. Not only will you sleep better at night knowing that you conducted business with integrity, but this boost to your self-esteem will make you a stronger salesperson and a great sales team leader.
Never be afraid that you'll scare off a potential buyer with the truth. Remember: the mark of a strong salesperson is both quantity and quality of sales. Focus on being 100% honest, transparent, and authentic. Not only is this the right thing to do, but this simple sales strategy it can put you on the fast track to achieving your career goals.
You’ve set your SMART goals. You’ve written them down. You’ve discussed them with a mentor. You’ve shared them with friends and family. You’re working hard. You care deeply about your “why” and you’re excited about the future.
...But why aren’t you where you want to be?
Let’s take a look at eleven ways that you might be holding yourself back from achieving your goals.
1. You’re not staying with problems long enough. Giving up too soon is a surefire way to never reach your goals. If you’re throwing in the towel or retreating to your comfort zone every time you start to struggle, you’re hurting your chances of success and missing out on key opportunities to take steps forward toward your goals.
2. You’re only doing the right things SOME of the time. Consistency and self-discipline are the name of the game. You can’t expect to achieve your goals with any efficiency if you haven’t developed the right habits. You might be working really hard in the short term, but if you keep pumping the breaks, you’re only tiring out the engine and slowing yourself down.
3. You’re sweating the small stuff. Every time you lose your attitude, you’re moving in the wrong direction. If you don’t have thick skin, you’ll go down an emotional rabbit hole whenever you face failure or frustration. Doing so only diverts your attention away from what’s most important and drains the precious energy you need to stay motivated and keep pushing.
4. You’re avoiding the stuff you don’t want to do. We all have tasks we’d rather not tackle, conversations we’ve been putting off, and areas of professional development that we’ve been hesitant to address. But oftentimes, the things we’re avoiding are the things we most need to do. If you haven’t hit your goals yet, it might just be because you’re not stepping up. Adopt a sense of urgency by giving yourself smaller time-bound goals that will help you move the needle as you battle your procrastination.
5. You lack self-awareness. If you want to improve in any area of your life, it begins with looking in the mirror. Many people end up stagnant because they blame their lack of progress on outside factors instead of understanding their own role in their successes and failures. Once you see yourself clearly and lose the excuses, you’ll be able to focus on self-improvement and start taking the right steps towards your long term goals.
6. You’re not planning your days and weeks. When you’ve got big goals to hit, every minute counts. By not planning ahead, you are not only wasting time, but you are leaving space for lower priority tasks to crowd out the ones that will make the biggest impact on your advancement. Make time management a priority to make room in your schedule for things like professional learning and development which can help you build skills you'll need to finally achieve your goals.
7. You’ve been too focused on just yourself. It sounds counter-intuitive, but sometimes focusing too much on your own career goals can set you back -- especially if you’re working in a team-oriented environment. You’ll find that if you prioritize helping your team hit their goals, that you will in turn hit your own. By sharing your knowledge and skills with others, you'll reinforce your own strengths while you help others achieve their own personal goals.
8. You’re not receptive to coaching. If your pride is more important than your professional development, your progress will inevitably be slow. If you want to hit your goals sooner than later, it is essential to listen to your mentors and make the changes they recommend.
9. You’re not working hard enough. If your goals are big, then your effort has to be huge. You can’t expect to accomplish anything great if you’re not giving 100% each day. You might already be working really hard, but sometimes that little bit extra is what’s needed to push you over the edge.
10. You’re surrounded by the wrong people. If you find yourself regularly associating with naysayers and Negative Nancys, it’s going to inevitably chip away at your morale. When you’ve got big performance goals to hit, you need every ounce of energy and positivity you can get. People tend to emulate the people they spend the most time with -- so choose to spend time with only those who are helping you achieve your goals and not setting you back.
11. Success takes time. Never underestimate the role that time plays in reaching your goals. You need to patiently, but persistently, persevere and trust that if you do the right things, you’ll get where you want to be.
As frustrating as it may be to not have achieved your goals yet, it’s important to remember that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. Professional development is a lengthy process, but as soon as you recognize the reasons why you haven’t hit your specific goals and start to make the right changes, you’ll be that much closer to the finish line.
Sometimes, becoming a better salesperson simply comes down to thinking like a customer. People like to feel they are being heard and improving your active listening skills can help salespeople quickly build rapport that is critical in gaining the customer’s trust, and ultimately making the sale. Practicing active listening techniques can help you serve the customer better while also increasing your chances of earning their business, because being a good listener helps you gather the information necessary to address their needs and overcome any concerns.
There are several active listening techniques you can use to make sure you’re keeping focus where it belongs: on the customer. But first, ask yourself why active listening skills, which seem so fundamental, are so hard for most people to master.
Talking too much: Talking puts us in the driver’s seat, in control, where most of us prefer to be, but listening lets the other person speaking briefly lead the conversation. That can be scary, but not if you think of it the right way.
Get sharp tip: While listening opens the door to the unknown, it also opens the door to opportunity. The customer might share his or her main objection. Bingo! Now you know what you need to overcome their objections and build trust. Changing the way you think about interpersonal communication is an active listening technique you can practice to improve your sales results.
Thinking ahead: While the customer is talking, it’s tempting to start planning your response. After all, what if he or she finishes speaking, and you’re left struggling to come up with a response. The problem, of course, is that while your full attention is focused on writing the perfect, cucumber-cool reply in your head, you’re missing all the invaluable information and nonverbal cues the customer is sharing.
Get sharp tip: While getting out of your own head can be one of the trickiest active listening skills to master, remember that by the time you get to unveil your perfectly composed response, it might already be out of date. The customer may have already shifted his or her interest to other topics. So instead of tuning out while you think up the ideal answer, pay attention and learn to buy yourself time in other ways. Take a deep breath before you speak or compliment the customer on his or her question. Saying something like, “that’s a really interesting point,” is an active listening technique that can give you back those few seconds you need to pull your thoughts together.
Acting like you’re listening: We have trained through social norms that listening is about nodding, smiling, making eye contact, and showing interest in what the other person is saying. The problem is, sometimes we’re so good at the “show” that when the conversation is over, we realize we haven’t really heard most of what the other person has said.
Get Sharp Tip: An easy way to improve your active listening skills is to repeat back all or part of what the customer says. This might feel silly at first, but it will force you to stop acting like you’re listening and really listen.Practicing this active listening technique can help you listen carefully to absorb more of what the customer is saying, providing you with valuable ammo and key points you can use to solve problems to address their concerns and close the sale.
Improving your listening skills isn’t easy. Getting good at active listening involves breaking deeply ingrained habits, but just like body language or facial expressions, listening can be improved by staying focused and practicing. Try some of the active listening techniques above to keep yourself present and tuned in while interacting with customers. Notice how much more information you’re able to gather about the customer. As active listening begins to pay off in the form of more sales, you may find that it will become easier as well. Eventually, you may start to see active listening as yet another essential tool your sales arsenal, a must-have interpersonal skill that can help catapult you toward your career goals!