high-ticket closing

How To Deal With Angry Customers With These Simple Tips

June 28, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

If you’ve never been an angry customer, then the person next to you has. That means one out of two people – 56 percent – has gotten angry about a product or service… and if your business is the one they’re upset about, you could lose much more than a customer.

As a business owner, the big question on your mind is probably, “What makes a customer angry, and how can I deal with them to fix the problem?” You can have policies and procedures for handling angry customers, but that’s just a temporary fix. You want more than that.

It’s like trapping a hungry lion in a cage and throwing meat at it every time it roars. No. What I’m going to show you winds back the clock… before the customer walks into your store, or before you get on the phone with them. We’re going back to when your lion was a purring cub. Let’s prevent the problem before it begins.

First, we’ll take a deep dive into your customer’s mind to get a better understanding of how they think, what they want, and what they desire. Now is that a little bit intrusive? Maybe. But when you offer the service they are looking for, they will thank you for it.

The Psychology Of An Angry Customer

What Makes People Say, GRRRR!

Let’s start with the surprising facts about anger and what it means for your as a business owner with an angry customer on the phone or in your store.

First, anger is not destructive. It’s actually healthy. Researchers now say it helps optimism, brainstorming, and problem solving. It’s the opposite of fear and anxiety. What does that mean? It means anger stops us from running from our fear, and gets the other person to do what we want.

Psychologists now believe anger is rewarding. You might be thinking, that doesn’t make sense!

But researchers found “levels of the stress hormone cortisol drop, suggesting that anger helps people calm down and get ready to address a problem—not run from it.”

What does that mean for you as a business owner? Bear with me while we take a detour into some science. In plain English, new research is saying that anger triggers the part of the brain that’s associated with positive, pleasurable behaviors.

The Benefit of Anger

Researchers found “Brain imaging and electrical studies of the brain consistently show that the left frontal lobe is crucial to establishing approach behaviors that push us to pursue desired goals and rewards in rational, logical, systematic, and ordered ways, and that activation of the right frontal cortex is tied to the more negative, withdrawal motivational system, marked by inhibition, timidity, and avoidance of punishment and threat.

“Brain scans show that anger significantly activates the left anterior cortex, associated with positive approach behaviors.”

So, “If the angry person is successful, it not only produces benefits (“I win!”), but also pleasure—enough to reinforce deploying anger this way repeatedly.” They’re feeling up for the challenge and they don’t want anyone to put them down or make them feel bad when they’re in this “angry” state.

Now, their feeling of “I win!” happiness isn’t your feeling of happiness. You have a customer who is asking for a refund/ deciding not to buy from you/ threatening to go to your competitor.

Let’s hit the PAUSE button on your angry customer for a moment. You understand what gives them the courage to be angry. Next, let’s look at what you can do to resolve the situation, and what you can say to win them over before the situation escalates.

One strategy is to understand the type of customer you are dealing with.

Affluent, Difficult, Price based, and Sophisticated Customers

4 Types Of Customers And How To Handle Them

Imagine this scenario. A customer comes into your store, raging about how terrible your service is, and how the discount you gave wasn’t as low as the price your competitor offers. Then they say the dreaded words. I want a refund.

Could you have prevented this moment from happening? You could.

Let’s go back to the day you opened up your store and announced to the world that you’re ready for your first customer. What type of ideal customer would you like to attract?

There are four types of customers that you could attract to your business.

Priced based customers

This type of customer is attracted to deals and discounts. They love to chase a good bargain. If you tell them to buy now, and they’ll get three bonuses for an added value of $300, they’ll buy even if they don’t need to because they get $300 in bonuses.

Now, if you started your relationship with this customer by saying you can give them the discount they want, you’ll get a price-based customer.

You’ve said the word that attracts them like honey. They’ll become an angry customer if the discount they got wasn’t low enough or if they feel they didn’t get a great bargain.

Starting your relationship with your customer by showing them the value you provide and not giving them a discount can prevent this situation.

Difficult customers

Difficult customers enjoy giving you a hard time no matter what you do. They love to pick a fight with you. They will be the angry customer that won’t be satisfied with your product or service no matter how perfect it is. Avoid doing business with this type of customer.

Sophisticated customers

When a sophisticated customer walks into your store, they’ve already decided what they want to buy. They’ve done their research on your company and your product or service by searching the internet and talking to people they know.

If you try to push features and benefits on them, or use aggressive sales tactics, they’ll get upset and refuse to buy. Don’t be pushy. Answer any questions they may have and tell them about flaws they should know about, such as your product will not work with certain software.

Affluent customers

For these customers, money is no object. They buy for emotional reasons, such as how the product makes them feel. If a $300 umbrella makes them happy, they will buy it. They want the best, and they want what’s convenient. Hermes is all about creating an emotional shopping experience for the affluent.

Convenience is important to them, so inconvenience is what will upset or anger these types of buyers. Don’t sell them by asking them to wait while you find the best deals or ask them to fight rush hour traffic to do a clothes fitting. Time is valuable to them.

Avoid these situations by pre-selecting items for the customer before they arrive at the store, or better yet, select what the customer prefers and deliver it to their residence to save them time.

Those are some tips on how to deal with the four types of customers. Understanding what attracts them to buy can prevent some ugly situations.

Here’s a summary of some telltale signs that you could have a future customer or client that will bring you trouble. Avoid these situations and you’ll reduce your chances of facing an angry customer.

Warning Signs of a Customer or Client From Hell

No respect for your time. They are unreasonably late for meetings, or give you only 5 minutes of their time for an important meeting. They call you when they want to and expect an answer right away.
Lack of respect for your expertise. They are always checking up on your work or they are control freaks telling you how to do your job. They are always disappointed when you send your work to them and they want you to change things because they are never satisfied. But they can never give you constructive feedback.
Don’t want to sign a contract or nitpick every line in the contract. They spend a lot of time focusing on what’s not important and they just want to fight and argue with you all the time.
Desire cheapest provider of services. Before talking about what you do, they are already asking for a discount or a deal. As a client, they want extra work without extra compensation. If you don’t give a discount, they threaten to walk away.
Unrealistic expectations about deadlines and want things to be done in a rush. Something that takes months for a result they want done in one month. That sets you up for failure.

Watch this video about clients from hell.

Now remember the customer’s anger that you put on PAUSE? Anger is what allows a customer to challenge you to get their needs answered. You might have prevented that angry moment by identifying the type of customer they are and understanding their needs. You might have avoided working with a customer from hell.

But despite your best efforts to find ideal customers, you still find yourself dealing with an angry customer and no time machine could have prevented this moment. What do you do?

Dealing With Customer Anger

In a perfect world, all interactions with customers would be flawless but that’s not always possible. Hundreds of things could go wrong on any given day. Your website could go down unexpectedly and customers cannot finish an online payment.

Your customer could be having a problem with your product. It’s not working the way they thought it should, or they are not getting the results they want.

Maybe the customer complained to support but the response time is longer than they expected or they have preconceived expectations about the level of support they expect.

Their anger may have nothing to do with you… they’re having personal or professional problems, such as a divorce or job loss and an issue with your product used up the last of their remaining patience.

What’s important to remember is that most customers – around 75 percent – just want an apology – but most fail to get one. Companies fear lawsuits if their customer service admits liability. For example, if a customer service agent says, “We meant to fix that” if there was a safety issue.

Making a customer angry can be very costly when you look at these customer service statistics.

Consumers tell twice as many people about poor experiences than positive ones. (White House Office of Consumer Affairs)
Resolve a complaint in the customer’s favor and they will do business with you again 70% of the time. (Lee Resources)
A typical business hears from 4% of its dissatisfied customers, with 96% not voicing out their complaints, and 91% never coming back. (“Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner)

Source

What To Say To An Angry Customer

“Hi Scott, this is Steve,” said the voice from the other end of the phone.

“Steve Jobs?” asked the customer.

“Yeah,” Jobs said. “I just wanted to apologize for your incredibly long wait. It’s really nobody’s fault. It’s just one of those things.”

Not every unhappy customer will get a call from the CEO of a company. But there are strategies you can use to calm the anger of a customer who is calling customer service.

Be a good listener. Avoid saying “I understand.” You may think it makes you sound empathetic but it will frustrate them. Listen when they explain the problem and take notes during the phone call.

If you repeat back what they say in their own words, they will feel like you’ve heard them because you’re speaking in their language. Check that you understand what is going on. Don’t promise a solution, but listen and ask questions about what they need.

Customer: “I’m frustrated because we have a limited budget and you’re unwilling to offer us a discount.”

Customer Success Manager: “So, what I’m hearing is that our pricing is a barrier for your business. Your budget is tight, and I’m not offering a discount that meets your needs. Is that correct?”

Ask Questions

Ask open ended questions. Open ended questions give you more information than closed questions. Closed questions ask for yes/no answers. For example, “Have you called customer service about this before?” is a close ended question.

Customer service: “How can I help you feel comfortable enough to move forward?”

Get as much information as possible. Don’t assume what the customer should already know, such as reading a policy. Ask the customer to tell you about what happened in their own words and don’t interrupt them when they speak. If they say something important, take notes so you don’t forget when it’s your chance to speak again.

Customer service: “Can you give me a brief summary of the issue you’re having?”

Take ownership of the situation and explain what you will do to resolve the customer’s issue.

Customer service: “I’ll send those notes in a follow-up email along with my contact information. Let me know if I missed anything, and please don’t hesitate to contact me directly with any other issues.”

Another option is to give the customer some choices and ask which one they prefer.

Customer service: “I have a few ways we can make this better for you. Let’s go through some options together, and you can tell me what you think.”

Set the Tone

Remember. You set the tone for the interaction, so no matter how angry the customer becomes, don’t take the situation personally. The closers on my sales team are taught to stay unattached to the sales call because the prospect or customer is the one with the problem and it’s our goal to solve their problem as best we can.

Maybe the customer is having a bad day and they become angry. My closers stay calm and in control and will call out the prospect on their attitude. Depending on the rapport they have with the prospect, and the personality of the prospect, they may even ask, “Are you always this rude?”

The expected answer is “No.” We hope that our prospect is normally a calm and peaceful person and they were just having an explosive moment. If the prospect is a Difficult Customer looking for a verbal battle, we don’t want to do business with them anyway.

But if they say, “No, I’m not usually this angry, but…” Ask questions, and find out what’s really going on. Did you hit a sensitive spot when you were asking questions to get to the bottom of what was making them angry?

When you have an angry customer, stay calm and in control. Ask questions to get information and find out what’s really going on. If they are angry, look for the real cause. Maybe they are upset that the product is not working. But the real reason they are angry is they’ve bought a product like this before, and it didn’t work either.

When you find the source of the problem, suggest a solution and follow up with the customer.

Summary

An angry customer can damage your business. People will avoid businesses with negative reviews, and customers with a negative experience aren’t likely to return.

Understanding the type of customer you want to attract for your business is one way to avoid angry customers. For example, don’t offer discounts if you want to work with clients that pay premium prices. Look for warning signs that a customer will be a difficult customer.

The way you deal with an angry customer will affect the outcome. Listen to what your customer says is the problem and ask open-ended questions. Watch the tone you use and offer a solution and follow up with the solution.

Want to get your hands on a closing script that will get you more sales and close more deals? Find out why old sales techniques aren’t working and new techniques that are giving businesses the competitive advantage.

What You Must Know About The Consulting Business – Successful Coaching & Consulting Secrets

April 30, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

How do you stand out in a crowd of thousands? With over 50,000 coaches worldwide and 17,000 in the USA, how do you increase your share of the industry pie when it comes to getting clients?

There’s a secret to going from zero to $100,000 to making a million dollars a year, and these powerful strategies are what I’m going to show you to be successful in the coaching and consulting business.

Watch this video about successful coaching and consulting secrets.

Relationships, Not Transactions

What you must know about a consulting business is you’re not just selling a service, you’re selling a relationship. The relationship between you and the client, and how you make them feel is equally important.

People buy because of what you sell but they stay with you because of who you are. So what you are doing to nurture and strengthen the relationship is what will distinguish you from all the other coaches and consultants out there.

It’s not just transactional, meaning you get paid for doing some work. If you’re a transactional consultant and coach you’ll have a tough time trying to make a good amount of money in this business because a lot of people make transactions.

You want to have what I call a transformational relationship with the client. That means you’re not being seen as a commodity where the client leaves the money and you do the work.

You want the work you do to have a big enough impact that it enhances the life or the business in some meaningful way.

So how can you decide if what you’re providing is a transactional or transformational relationship? For example, you have a business where you help people set up their automated webinars in their webinar funnels. How do you know if the relationship is transactional or transformational?

You can’t communicate this difference. You can’t ask your client which one they feel they’ve just experienced. A relationship is what you make them feel. There’s no need to tell them you’re going to change their life. You just do it, and it’s transformational.

It’s possible that the client will feel good even if the relationship is purely transactional. Let’s say you do a good job and they pay you because they’re satisfied with the service. It’s a pretty good relationship although it’s transactional. So makes a relationship transformational?

Transforming A Man Using A Suit

It starts from day one, with how you view what you do. Let’s take a look at a custom suit business.

When the customer comes into your store to get a suit custom made, you take measurements, choose the fabric, and make a suit. Hopefully the suit fits. This is a very transactional way of viewing the process.

Or you could do the same amount of work and get a different result.

A man comes in with low self-confidence and low self-esteem and you can tell he’s never ever looked good in a suit. You measure him, understand his personality, find out what he does and the person he is inside, and bring it out of him through your suit.

You choose the right shade of colours that match his skin tone to give him confidence and change how he sees himself. Then he goes out there and meets the ideal person to marry because he’s finally got the confidence to get a date.

Maybe we will help him get promoted in his company because his confidence changes his performance. Your suit changes that man’s life in many ways. It’s the same suit as the one you just measured and made, but this time, you changed someone’s life.

You don’t want to just make a suit and take the money.

Now when a client comes in, you could do the work or with this mindset you could offer much more. You’re also going to get a very different type of client. It’s all about how you project yourself: as a commodity, or as someone who can change a life.

Changing Your Vibe

Let’s go back to setting up a webinar. Setting it up for your client is transactional. But say that you don’t just set up a webinar. By making it automated, you are saving the client time. By saving time and helping the client to make more money, you will also give him more time to spend with family because of what you did with technology.

With that kind of vibe, you’ve changed that person’s life.

It’s the same if you’re a realtor. You could sell a client a client a two bedroom condo near parks and a school and hand over the keys to the new owner. Or you can sell a home, a place where the new owner can watch their kids grow up. It’s a different kind of responsibility to your client.

It’s got nothing to do with transitioning what you do from just getting paid to making a transformation. But it’s got everything to do with your mindset and how you view your craft and what you do.

Painting The Picture

You could be an artist. You can say you like to paint buildings, or trees and flowers using oils on canvas. Or you can say that you’re trying to communicate a story and evoke feelings through your art so that every time someone admires your painting, they feel nostalgic, heartbroken, or empowered. That’s a different level of artist.

So as a transformational coach or consultant, your client knows that you care about them more than the product or service you are selling. You’re interested in a lifelong relationship.

As a consultant or coach, you want to impart knowledge to your client so you get the results the client is looking for. However, you want to have the attitude that you care but you aren’t attached. You don’t want to take it personally.

You care about your client’s progress and you do your best to help them but at the same time you’re not attached to the outcome. There are many factors that contribute to their success or failure, and you cannot control that.

Many people can learn from the same mentor and yet each person will have different results. Everyone progresses at different speeds and different levels even if they are learning the same lessons from the same person.

At the end of the day, take a close look at how you view what you do. How do you feel about what you do? Are you bored of making one suit after the other because if it doesn’t make a difference if they buy from you or online? Do you see an endless parade of people walking through the house you’re showing for your client?

That view is transactional, like 99 percent of other businesses out there. When you have a different mindset, your client will sense the difference. As a service-based business, you want a long-term relationship.

As a lawyer, for example, you’re not just offering trademarking services and filling out a bunch of paperwork. You’re protecting the client’s brand. As a realtor, you’re not just helping a client buy a house, you’re helping them find a future for their family.

Final Thoughts On Secrets For Successful Coaching and Consulting

It’s easy to charge money for a product or service. That’s what most people do – offer transactional relationships. The way to make a high income from coaching and consulting is to build relationships and offer transformations.

Your client won’t have a transformation if you measure him and then bill him for the custom suit you just made. But if you take the time to make a suit that changes his confidence and changes his life, then you’ve opened the door to a lifelong relationship. You didn’t just create a suit, you created a feeling.

Start by changing your mindset. Show that you care about your client more than the product or service you are selling. When you can offer a transformation, the ripple effect will go beyond your service – it will impact your client’s personal and professional life.

What transformation do you offer clients? Comment below.

How To Find Your Signature Speaking Style

April 24, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

“All public speaking is, is speaking to one person at a time in front of many people.”

This is just one of the million dollar speaking tips from ForbesSpeaker Deborah Patel. She’s the secret weapon, coach and mentor behind many of the world’s best-selling authors, experts and leaders of Fortune 500 Companies.

I asked her, “How to develop your signature speaking style so you can connect on a deeper level with your audience?”

The advice she gave provided the tools to become a speaker at the professional level, starting with how to work the room.

Watch this video about Deborah Patel’s Signature Speaking Style Tips.

Having The Personal Touch

She said that great public speaking is having a conversation with one person at a time in front of many people. As you make a connection with one person, you move on to the next person at the next table or the next section.

You make eye contact like you’re touching – making contact – as you work your way across the room.

Stay in one direction, and don’t go back and forth like you’re watching a tennis match. You want to give the impression that you are open and vulnerable, sincere and genuine, and humble. Especially in Asia where being humble is key to gaining trust.

You want to be sincere and have a connection with the audience by being able to feel what their concerns are. If they have a question they need answered, you can sense it.

The last impression you want to give is that you’re speaking to sell them something. Instead, you’re speaking to serve a need, and people will recognize that purpose through your connection with them.

If you have that sense of connection, then with one glance, even to someone at the back of the room, you’ll know that person is with you and following what you’re presenting.

Your true mastery as a public speaker shows when you are speaking in front of thousands and you can be flexible. Flexibility is key when you have audience participation.

Audience Participation

When you have a presentation in front of 5,000 to 10,000 people, you can do your opening and cover your main points and issues with the entire group. Then in the middle of your keynote, you can open it up for questions.

It’s a bit dangerous because you have to really know your content. You don’t know what the audience may ask. But for Deborah, it’s both scary and fun to do something like this, as long as you know your material.

When it comes to presentations, you can use questions as a way to break up the presentation or check in with the audience. For example, at some point in your presentation you can open it up for Q and A.

If you find people aren’t responding, then you ask then to take a moment to get a partner and share their top takeaways from the last 30 minutes.

It may require people to step outside of their comfort zone to have that discussion, depending on how you structure it. You might even have had an activity that requires people to practice a concept from your presentation.

Then you ask the group to share what was discussed in the group or partner activity. It’s a way to engage people and show that you’ve been listening when you ask them if they have questions.

Having a high level of confidence is necessary when you open up your presentation to questions from the audience. It’s also necessary when you are selling to them.

Presentation Confidence and Control

I’ve done platform selling – speaking on the stage to promote a product or service. Your presentation has to be practiced or you’ll lack confidence.

Deborah’s advice for those who sell from the stage is to aim to have more polish. If you’re not confident enough, then your insecurities will show. So when you’re more practiced, then focus on serving the needs of your audience.

I couldn’t agree more. I teach my students in the High-Ticket Closer ™ Certification program to speak with confidence in their voice. If you don’t sound confident in what you’re selling, how can prospects be confident in what they are buying from you?

Someone that Deborah has worked with is T. Harv Eker who is a master of selling from the stage. His style was to push people and irritate them for their own good to get them to buy. He needs that tough attitude to get people to move forward and take the next step.

These qualities are not easy to master overnight. When it comes to speaking and presenting, it takes “many masters to make a masterpiece.” If you’re a lifelong learner, you’ll take pieces from all the greatest presenters that you know, whether it’s T. Harv Eker or Tony Robbins to get the results you need as a speaker.

How To Act Natural In Front Of An Audience

Deborah studies how to be a coach, a facilitator or a trainer for those moments when she’s in front of the room and she needs to put people in a training exercise to master their speaking skills.

She says that what you want to do is reverse engineer everything by starting with the end in mind. You want to ask yourself how you want your audience to feel, what stories you want to tell, and what words to use to get the effect you want.

You’ll also vary the volume of your voice. Lower it, like you do when you’re in a conversation. The lowering of your voice happens naturally when you’re having a conversation or when you’re speaking with your loved ones. You also use that voice when you’re having a good time.

You want to master the volume of your voice and the effect it will have on your audience.

The problem is, when people get on a stage or they get in front of a camera, they stop being natural. Their self-consciousness kicks in. So what Deborah does as a coach is build a tool kit that people can use when they need them.

An example of a tool is when you’re in sales and you have people imagine what it would be like to paint the vision. When you’re creating the vision you need to be seeing the vision of say, financial freedom. Then your emotions create pictures, and your emotions need your voice to create this mood in the audience.

Developing A Sixth Sense

When you’re talking in front of people, then you’re reading them. You’re going to feel what they need to hear. That’s the genius of it.

As you speak more and more, you develop this sense of what’s happening in the room. You could be a room of hundreds and you’ll notice that a group at the back, having a roundtable discussion, has a question that you should address.

It’s this sixth sense that you develop when you make a lot of presentations.

It’s a matter of being present with the room. You have to know your material that you’re speaking about, and be comfortable with yourself and speaking in public. Otherwise, you will not achieve this sixth sense level of awareness about your audience.

You will also have to give up on the idea of giving perfect speeches or presentations. You want to be in control and precise about what’s happening but you can’t control everything. There are things you can control, like technology, like the mic, the sound system, and your opening and pacing, but you can’t control everything.

Perfecting Your Signature Speaking Voice

When you’re closing, then depending on what you’re offering, you want to be very careful about the words that you are using to close people.

So if you are not natural at public speaking, then you have to practice it with that intention, that you are honing in very specific speaking skills.

If you want to get better at perfecting your message, then practice the speech of someone you admire. You can also try to copy a motivational speaker. Just choose a speech to copy. For example, practice delivering the last three minutes of Martin Luther King’s speech. Imitate how the other person speaks.

Later on, when you get better at it, then you can start to develop your own style after you’ve learned the basics for good public speaking. So like learning how to sing, copy six different artists that you like and then your own signature style will start to emerge.

Final Words: Finding Your Signature Speaking Style

If you’re not comfortable speaking in front of an audience, then work on developing that talent. Having that magical amount of eye contact, that natural volume in your voice is very important when making a connection with people.

As a lifelong learner, you can start by imitating the speakers who you admire, and then when you improve, start developing your own style.

Know your material well so you can be comfortable giving up some control, for example, when you ask the audience to ask you questions.

When you have enough practice with speaking in front of large groups, you’ll start to develop a sixth sense – you’ll feel what the audience is feeling. All of these are characteristics of a master speaker.

What do you do to connect with an audience when you are speaking? Comment below.

How To Manage People And Be A Better Leader

April 10, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

“People may hear your words but they feel your attitude.” – John C. Maxwell

When it comes to managing people, the most important lesson I’ve learned is that people are not manageable. If you want to be a strong leader, the best way to lead your team is to give them independence.

In other words, instead of “micromanaging people,” where you are managing all the details of each person’s job, you need something more efficient. Micromanaging is exhausting and you will not be able to do that as your company grows and you have more people on your team.

So, instead of micromanaging, create structure and create systems where you are painting a picture, creating that yellow brick road. Show them the path that you want them to walk on. What I’m going to show you are some tips on how to manage people and be a stronger leader.

Watch this video on how to manage people and be a better leader.

Give Team Members Room To Grow

Your job as a leader is to coach people toward success, however they define it. It could be in terms of finance, status, or their role within a company. That if they follow this path, they’re going to get to the goal that they want.

If you hire the right person, very often, they will find the right role for themselves within the company. You shouldn’t set in stone the position that you hired them for. As time goes on, you may discover other talents that they have.

Within my company, you can have someone starting at a very junior position and they could move up to a very high position because depending on their talent and work ethic, they could grow.

For that reason, I don’t pigeonhole my team members. I don’t hire for a very specific role and then tell them that’s all they are going to do for me. People evolve, so they may develop talents over time.

So to me, I am not as interested in hiring someone for a particular skill set. What matters more are three qualities that cannot be taught.

Loyalty Matters More Than Their Resume

I always communicate to all my team members the three qualities that I look for as the CEO. The first is loyalty to the leader, the brand, and the customers.

I don’t care how talented they are, I don’t care how good their resume is, nor do I care how smart they are. If they are not absolutely loyal, that person is not someone you can have long term in your company. They might leave you for your competitors or steal your customers.

The second quality I look for is harmony.

A Players And Team Players, Not Lone Wolves

You want to have harmony on your team, so you want to find people who work well with other team members. You don’t want a lone wolf. The chemistry between your team members is important.

Even if they are talented A Players, if they don’t work well with other people on the team, they’re not going to last. So harmony is very critical.

It doesn’t mean they have to like everybody or hang out at a company barbecue. But during work time, they have to be able to get along with other people to accomplish certain tasks. Harmony is very critical.

Those are the two things I look for in team members: loyalty and harmony. The third and final quality I look for is results.

High Level Results

I want to know if the team member has the capacity and the experience to perform their tasks at a high level. Can they produce results and not just talk about results? And can they produce results on a consistent basis?

Sometimes you hire people and they may be able to perform results at the beginning, but they’re not consistent over time. Or sometimes, you bring them in for a certain job, and you notice that after three years, the job has outgrown that person.

They could produce results before, but they can no longer produce results. Now here’s what happens if a team member has loyalty, harmony, and results, but not necessarily in equal amounts.

The Right Combination Of Qualities

Phenomenal Results

If you have someone that is phenomenal at producing results, but they are not loyal, they don’t work well with other people on your team. What I usually do is I hire them as independent contractors.

They’re very good at accomplishing a certain task or project and that’s it. They’re not going to work within my company and they’ll never rise up to key leadership positions.

Absolute Loyalty

But if someone is very loyal to the organization and they work well with other team members, but they are not results driven, I have a place for them in my company. It doesn’t matter that their results are only okay.

They probably work in customer service, support, or accounting. I can trust them and I need those roles as well.

Career Driven

Now here’s another combination. If someone is not loyal, but they could produce results and they work well with other people, we’ve got a problem. It means they have good people skills, but they’re not loyal to me.

That kind of person I keep at a kind of middle management, director level. They might lead a little team, but I will never promote them to the top because loyalty is a problem.

It could turn out that we work together for six months, up to three years, and then they jump ship to work for somebody else. So I don’t want to promote that person to a leadership position.

Perfect Fit

On the other hand, if someone is loyal, works well with other people, and produces results, and they are lifelong learners, then it doesn’t matter where they came in within the organization. I can promote them to the top.

Given time, they will hold an executive position in my company. Their background and their age don’t matter to me. If they have all these three things, they become one of the key people within my global organization.

When you’re hiring and when you’re managing people, ask yourself these questions. Think about where your people are at. Now, if you have some people that aren’t loyal, don’t work well with other people, and don’t produce results for you, guess what you should do?

Fire them! No point hiring them in the first place either. You don’t want them in your organization. What you want is someone with the right amount of loyalty, harmony, and results.

Key Thoughts On How To Become A Better Leader

Running a business is simple. It’s people that are complicated. They don’t want to be managed, and they don’t stay static. They constantly evolve, so when you hire someone for your team, you want to be flexible because as the person grows, their role in your organization may change.

To decide if someone is a good fit for your company, measure them against three key points. Are they loyal to you and your brand? Is there harmony between them and your other team members? And does that person produce results?

Ideally they have a mix of all three traits, but even if they don’t, if they are loyal, you can find a place for them in your company.

Do you think loyalty, harmony, and results are important to your organization? Comment below.

How To Read People: Mastering the Winning Edge In Negotiations

March 12, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Many people have hurt loved ones and lost business deals because they misunderstood or misread important cues. But what if you could strip away the masks that people wear and decode the real meaning in their words so these situations don’t happen?

If you could strip away the masks, wouldn’t business deals be so much easier to complete? You see, one of the most valuable skills that you can master in life and in business is the ability to read people. It will give you the winning edge in mastering negotiations, in business and in life.

I have the ability to read people because I meet so many people every single day. I’ve met thousands and thousands of people face-to-face.

Today I’m going to teach you some of the fundamentals on how to read people that will help you in business and in all areas of your life.

First, let’s define reading people. It’s by observing people, sometimes from a distance and knowing something about them, such as getting a feeling without them telling you. The way they talk, the way they walk, the way they stand.

It’s important to know these things because if you’re in sales, business, or negotiations, you want to have that upper edge when it comes to negotiating with or influencing them. This also applies to relationships with family. If you can read them, you have an advantage.

Watch this video about how to read people in business and in life.

Clue 1: Reading Their Eye Movement

Let’s begin with the body part that’s a natural truth and lie revealer. When you’re talking with people, look where their eye movement goes. Here’s a very simple example.

If someone is afraid to make direct eye contact with you, and they’re looking down, it’s like they are hiding. They don’t want to make eye contact. They may also be shy or intimidated.

If they’re looking at the top left corner, it means they are trying to remember something. For example, if you ask them, “Who is your best friend from high school?” and they look to their left, you know they are probably telling the truth.

If they’re looking to the top right corner, they are constructing an image. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are lying, it’s more like they’re visualizing something. For visual people, when you’re getting them to picture a concept, structure, or process, you might see them looking to the right.

If they are looking at the bottom left corner, it means they are having an internal dialogue. You could be disagreeing with the person. It could be their beliefs are different than what they’re hearing and they’re conflicted.

So if you give them a piece of advice and they’re looking to the left, chances are they are disagreeing. You’re challenging their beliefs.

If they are looking at the bottom right corner, they are digging into some deep feelings and emotions and trying to create a sensory experience. For example, they could be imagining the wind in their hair as they cruise the highway in their first convertible.

The eyes have an abundance of information about a person, but what if they are too far away for you to see their eyes? Their distance from you gives clues as well.

Eye movement gives you clues about what someone is thinking.

Clue 2: Reading People’s Distance

When you’re communicating with someone and they are far away, it means they aren’t listening and they aren’t interested in what you have to say.

If they’re getting closer and closer as you’re talking to them, it means they are responding positively to what you’re saying to them.

Most of our body language comes from non-verbal gestures such as how close or far you stand from someone. The gestures you are using and whether you wave your hands when you speak all show how expressive you are.

Physical touching also gives important cues. What does it mean if you’re sitting close to your friend and you touch her knee with your hand? What does it mean if you’re sitting close to someone, but that person is your client and you touch her knee?

Our ability to understand non-verbal cues can be the difference between disaster and deep connection. A touch can be offensive if done incorrectly, like a hand on the knee at a business meeting. A touch can be reassuring like a hand on the shoulder after hearing about tragic news. And this awareness doesn’t just apply to one-on-one situations.

More and more business meetings are happening on video screens. You can learn a lot from your observations. If your client is sitting back in his chair and looking at the floor during the meeting, he is sending you a message. You need to change what you’re talking about to get his attention back or lose the deal.

When it comes to communication, 55 percent of what we say is said through our body language. The rest of our communication is through the tone of our voice. Only 7 percent of our message is actually with the words we use.

In fact, if you’re confident in your understanding of body language, you can use it to strike up a wordless dialogue with your clients and build a connection with them.

Clue 3: Reading Someone By Mirroring Them

When you’re talking with someone and you can see they are trying to mirror your body language or copy you, then it means that person is trying to establish some kind of bond with you.

This is something you can do in negotiations. When you’re closing a deal in front of someone and that person sits back and crosses their legs, you can do the exact same thing as well.

It’s like doing a dance. At first, you may be mirroring them, and later you are leading them and they are mirroring you, without even being conscious of it. This is a way to build rapport, but be careful not to do it too obviously.

Clue 4: Reading Arm Movement

Body language will tell you a lot about the other person, but always remember the bigger picture. Let’s go back to the meeting room example. Sometimes, these places have the heat turned down, so people cross their arms to keep warm. In this case, they aren’t reacting to you.

But at other times, if someone has their arms crossed the entire time you’re talking, it means they’re trying to protect themselves. They’re shielding themselves from influence. If they’re more open to what you’re saying by leaning in or putting their hands on their chin, they’re listening to you.

Now, if a person is playing with their hands too much while talking, it actually means, “I like this.” Or when they are thinking, their fingers are tapping. Watch for these gestures. If you’re in the middle of a negotiation, the tapping could mean they are seriously considering your offer.

Clue 5: Reading Leg and Knee Positions

Legs and knees can give you as much information as arms and hands. If someone is nervous, or ADD, or scatterbrained, they’ll bouncing their knee or their leg. Shaking a leg under the table means they are nervous and you have the upper hand.

If you are talking to someone and you can see that they are pointing their knees towards you, they’re interested in what you are saying. That’s great bonding. But if their knees are pointing away from you, that means they want to get out of there. So if their knees and feet are pointing to the exit, it’s time to stop talking.

A person’s body language is like the close-captioning feature on your screen, adding more information to what you’re already hearing. Pay as much attention to a person’s body language as their words if you want to get the entire message.

If you want to bond with someone, do a quick test. If you touch them and they pull back a bit quickly, release, don’t touch. It means it’s no good.

Those are some of the fundamental skills on how to read people. Practice these techniques on your colleagues, friends, business partners, your spouse… and see if they work for you.

Are there other clues you want to know? Comment below.