Many thousands of successful investors have been interviewed over the years in an attempt to gain financial advice and discover their so-called secrets of success. Here are some of their recommendations on how to invest to make more money:

Make More Money by Taking Risks

An important piece of financial advice is if you are not a bit worried about your speculations or your investments, then you are not risking enough. You should have enough money invested so that it is a real concern to you. You are more likely to watch that investment more carefully and eventually make more money.

Conquer Greed

In order to make more money, always take your profit too soon. “Conquer greed,” as Bernard Baruch says. There is a saying in the stock market: “Bulls make money and bears make money, but pigs never do.”

Understand the Uncertainties

Distrust anyone who claims to predict the future and provides you any financial advice through “foresight”, since all financial outcomes are loaded with uncertainty. If you want to learn how to invest successfully, you must understand that this means that every investment is a gamble of some kind. No one can tell you with accuracy what is going to happen in the future with regard to any stock or investment. Everyone is guessing the very best they know how.

Make More Money by Accepting Your Losses

When the ship starts to sink, don’t pray; jump. In other words, accept the small losses cheerfully as a fact of investing life and move on to make more money in the future. At the very best, about 50 percent of investments will go wrong. They will actually decline in value. They will fail to realize your hopes and expectations for them. But you can still learn how to invest successfully if you minimize your losses on the downside so that you can maximize your profits on the upside.

Financial Advice and Luck

Luck is the most powerful single factor in learning to make more money and invest successfully. Because there are no predictable patterns in investing in the stock market, for you to be successful, you need a lot of luck. A good question for you to ask is, “How much of my financial future am I willing to entrust to luck?”

Cut the Emotions Out

Never fall in love with an investment. Never become emotionally involved with anything that you purchase with the intention of making a profit. This rule on how to invest also includes real estate, especially in your home.

Hunch v. Hope

Never confuse a hunch with a hope. Many people hope that a particular stock or investment is a good one that can help them make more money. They then say that they have a very good hunch that it’s going to go up. The best financial advice you can learn, is to consciously separate your hunches from your hopes, and not confuse the two.

Be Confident

Optimism means expecting the best, but confidence comes from knowing how you will handle the worst. To put it another way, confidence springs from the constructive use of pessimism.

Think for Yourself

Disregard the majority of opinion. Think through every decision for yourself. Don’t allow your investment decisions and ability to make more money to be influenced by anyone else. Take the time to think them through personally, and then take full responsibility for each choice you make.

Move Forward

If it doesn’t pay the first time, forget it. If, based on the information you have, you decide to invest in a stock and it doesn’t work out, sell the stock and go on to something else. Keep your ego completely out of the equation when learning how to invest to make more money. A very wealthy man once told me, “Investment opportunities are like buses; there will always be another one along.”

How to Invest Like the Most Successful Investors

The preceding advice is practiced by many of the most successful people who have ever invested in stocks. Remember, the stock market is highly speculative. It is dominated and controlled by people who are making their living by buying and selling stock for others. And these people make mistakes every single day.

There are no foolproof ways to make more money in the stock market. If you are going to learn how to invest in stocks, be careful. Do your homework, gain some financial advice and watch your investments all the time.

Source: Brian Tracy’s Blog

Not unnaturally, the eyes of the world are focused on London this week — or more accurately, London 2012 — and after the most stunning opening ceremony in memory, we are now witnessing the performances of the most elite athletes in virtually every sport under the sun: For them, this is the culmination of at least four year’s devoted application to training, and a commitment to achieving higher, faster, further or longer — their time has come.

Absolute perfection is the only guarantee of success, because as we have already witnessed, hundredths of a second can be the difference between glory and abject failure.

As I have said on numerous occasions, in skills development there are many similarities to sport e.g. does an athletic champion stop training as soon as they win their first medal? No, they begin preparation for their next triumph, knowing only too well that it will take more — more application; more training; more dedication and even more sacrifices to stay ahead of the competition who are themselves striving to be the best.

Far too many companies and far too many frontline salesmen and women reach a peak in their attainment of success and then become complacent, smugly believing that they can’t get any better — it can’t get any better: Meanwhile, their competitors are seeking out the coaches and mentors that will continually give them that extra edge — those few extra one hundredths of a second, to enable them to go higher, faster, further or longer.

These companies and frontline sales professionals fully recognize and understand the correlation between devotion, commitment and success.

News: Two great interviews for you to listen in on if you care to: Over at Top Sales World, Kendra Lee and I discuss “Latest Trends in Prospect Attraction” and over at Top Sales Management, Danita Bye shares some secrets on “Recruitment, How to Get it Right at the Front-End“

We launch the August edition of the Top Sales magazine tomorrow, and it is “an absolute belter” (another quaint English term to describe something that is rather good)

As usual, we have a superb collection of articles from some of the best sales thought-leaders in the business — Keith Rosen, John Doerr, Mike Schultz, Colleen Stanley and Dan Waldschmidt. Oh, and Keith is also in the spotlight this month.

In her regular section, Linda Richardson interviews the “doyenne” of referral selling, Joanne Black, and we also announce the latest “Top Sales Article of the Month” — together with this month’s ten new nominees.

Finally, we give you the opportunity to catch up with all the latest news, interviews and gossip from Top Sales World, Top Sales Awards and Top Sales World.

My recommendation of the day: Many of my friends, readers and colleagues often ask me if I can recommend an excellent company who provide a complete office service — and I can — easyoffices are simply superb. They offer a very wide range of offices in London - and actually, throughout the UK

Source: Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

The value of the Pareto Principle for a manager is that it reminds us to focus on the 20% that matters. Of all the things we do during our day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20% produce 80% of our results, so we should identify and focus on those things. When our ‘time robbers’ begin to sap our time, we need to remind ourselves of the 20% we need to focus on. If something in the schedule has to slip, if something isn’t going to get done, we have to make sure it’s not part of that 20%.

However, there is a management theory that proposes to interpret Pareto’s Principle in such a way as to produce what is called ‘Top Gun Management’

Those advocating this theory suggest that since 20% of our people produce 80% of our results, we should focus our limited time on managing only that 20% – the so-called “superstars”.

In my opinion, the theory is seriously flawed because it overlooks the fact that 80% of our time should be spent doing what is really important, and that includes developing all of our people.

Helping the good to become better is much more important than helping the great become terrific, because in actual fact, those superstars actually require less managing, and flourish by being given space to succeed.

As managers, we should be involved in every stage of sales team development, from recruitment, training, coaching, mentoring, and hopefully succeeding.

Their success or failure is our success or failure — this is our primary responsibility, and is how we should be judged.

I have no time for any company that adopts a “hire and fire” mentality: Not only is it an incredibly irresponsible way of treating other human beings, it is also financially and commercially naïve. It ignores the initial costs involved with locating and recruiting new personnel, as well as the remuneration outlay, with no, or very little return. This strategy becomes a self-perpetuating cycle of failure, and any success relies on luck.

Making the right decisions at the front-end, the recruitment stage, have become critical, but that is only part of it: Having the ability to coach a sales team is now a pre-requisite for any sales leader, and sadly, 80% are not qualified to do so, which is precisely why their average tenure is less than two years.

News: Lots of news this week, including the launch of “Leading from the Front” – a new initiative from JFA – more tomorrow.

Source: Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

Last week we discussed how a BEST BUYER client can be worth 100 times the average client—and cost you a lot less headaches and wallet aches.

Ultimately, you want to reduce the universe of available prospects down to your DREAM 50.

What’s a “DREAM” client? 
Here’s your filter system: Of all the potential client target groups, which is EASY, FAST, and PROFITABLE?

EASY—They are easy to reach, costing you little advertising, marketing, and sales effort.

FAST—When presented with your solution, the value is quickly recognized and they are fast to make a decision and purchase.

PROFITABLE—Once converted, their lifetime value is richly profitable because of their transaction size, upsell purchases, frequency of repeat purchases, and referrals.

With this new narrowed focus, here is a 5-Step Action Plan for targeting your DREAM 50 clients.

1. List Your 50
Use the filter above.

2. Lay in Their Bed
What are they laying awake at night thinking about? What problems, worries, fears, or challenges are they facing? What are their goals? What are they looking for? What do they need? (Not what YOU think they need, but what THEY think they need.)

Remember, this sales adage is wrong: Find a need and fill it. 
No. If a client doesn’t perceive they have a need, they don’t.

That’s why you have to lay in their bed and find out what need THEY perceive to have. Then you can help fill it.

3. Customize Your Solution
Write out exactly what your customized solution is to their unique pains, problems, hopes, and desires—those things that matter most to them (not just you) so when you finally do get in front of them, or on the phone or in the elevator, you can immediately tickle their fancy.

4. Find a Bridge I don’t make cold calls. And you shouldn’t either. Cold calls are for rookies.

Rather than just being just some Joe or Jane Shmoe contacting your DREAM 50 cold and out of the blue, find a relationship bridge between you and your DREAM 50 client. Get referred in from a credible and trusted source.

For instance, I am contacted a dozen times a week asking me to endorse someone’s book. If I don’t know the person or their work personally, I cannot even respond. Last week Harvey Mackay called me asking me to review someone’s book and, if I found suitable, to give it an endorsement. I did and I did. And it was the only one. The rest might have been worthy, but the rest were not referred into me by an already trusted source. Make sense?

Brainstorm WHO knows the person or company you want to do business with. If you don’t know anyone right now (be sure to check your LinkedIn connections) then find out who their vendors are (CPA, attorney, other clients, etc.). Find someone to get you personally introduced.

5. Deliver Your “WOW” Solution  
Don’t just settle for one bridge or one path to your Dream 50. Review the Shock and Awe Strategy here.

Get aggressive, and don’t be afraid to lose one-out-of-five.

Imagine if you only captured 10 of those 50 DREAM clients. What would that do to your business and your life? Hey, even only 5! That is why this is an enormously valuable strategy. Go through the exercise today. Get your team involved. This could be game-changing for everyone involved.

You can download the DREAM 50 Strategy document here

Taken from strategies taught in Darren’s HIGH-PERFORMANCE FORUM. More information can be found here. Apply here.

What’s your strategy for uniquely prospecting your BEST BUYER clients? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Source: Darren Hardy, Publisher of SUCCESS Magazine

In sales, the most important factor to effective communication is for you to improve your listening skills. You must learn to start asking questions and listen attentively, without interruptions. As a rule, you pay attention to people you most value.  When you pay close attention to another person when he or she is speaking, you signal to that person that you very much value him or her and the content of their comments. This is very flattering to another person and it causes them to respond warmly to your attentiveness.

Lack of Effective Communication Skills

The major reason that most people have poor listening skills is that they are busy preparing a reply while the other person is still speaking. In fact, they are not even listening closely to what the other person is saying. They are thinking of other things and formulating their comments to be ready as soon as the other person takes a breath.

But this isn’t for you. Effective communication and listening skills requires that you face the other person directly, lean slightly forward, and hang onto every word. Improve your listening skills by listening as though there were nothing else in the world more fascinating to you than what the other person is saying. The very best conversationalists seem to have developed the knack of making the person that they are listening to feel as if he or she were the only person in the world. Good conversationalists with effective communication skills can do this in the middle of a crowded room.

Dale Carnegie once wrote that, “Rapt attention is the highest form of flattery.”  If you want to flatter a person and cause him or her to think highly of you, just pay close, undivided attention to every single word he or she says, as though he or she were about to give you the winning lottery number and would only repeat it once.  You will be amazed at how much more conversant a person becomes and how much happier they are with you when you show them that you have effective communication and listening skills.

Active Listening Skills

In addition to listening without interrupting, you should also nod, smile and agree with what the person is saying. Be active rather than passive. Indicate that you are totally engaged in the conversation. Make eye contact as the other person talks. Relax your body and if you are standing, allow your weight to roll forward onto the balls of your feet. Only you will know that you have done this, but the overall impression you will give the speaker is that your whole energy is now forward and focused on what he or she is saying.

How do you get this opportunity to listen so well?  Simple!  Start asking questions that are good and pointed, and keep asking questions one after the other.

Asking Questions

In effective communication, there are three powerful questions you can use to control any conversation, to open up the other person, and to get the other person talking extensively about himself or herself.

The first question, when you meet a new person is, “What sort of work do you do?” By asking questions that are easy, general, and that do not demand information on the person’s current job or position, it gives the individual the choice of answering you briefly or in depth.

Your second question, to follow the first is, “How did you get into that line of work anyway?” Start asking questions as though you are absolutely fascinated by the choices that he or she made to get into that particular field. Most people feel that their personal career paths are among the most fascinating stories ever told on earth. When you start asking questions about how they got into their current line of work, they will usually be very pleased to tell you about the various twists and turns of their life and career and the factors that lead ultimately to them doing the job they are doing at the current time.

The third question you can ask, when the other person hesitates to check to see if you are really interested or if you are just making conversation, is, “And then what did you do?” This third question can be used to keep almost any conversation going indefinitely. You can ask, “How did you happen to move to this city?” or “How did you happen to go to work for that company?” or “How did you happen to choose this sport or activity?” People will be more than willing to answer these questions for you and when they slow down, for any reason, you smile pleasantly and ask, “And then what did you do?” You will be amazed at the responses.

I hope you enjoyed this article on effective communication and listening skills. By asking questions to your customers, you’ll improve your relationship with them and learn to close more sales. Please comment and share with your friends!

Source: Brian Tracy’s Blog

It is true that during the earliest part of my sales career, I was fortunate enough to work for companies who took sales team development very seriously. They understood that if I was going to develop into the valuable asset they expected me to become, they would need to invest in me, and polish me, rather like a diamond producer cultivates their gem.

It will therefore not surprise you to learn that one of the first guiding principles I was taught was the absolute necessity to always work to “win-win” principles, not only within the sometimes hostile negotiating environment, but also in any commercial interaction that I may be involved with.

That first principle has stayed with me throughout my career, and I have even adopted it into my whole life - not just my commercial practices — I also taught my children to truly understand its value at a very early age!

But in order to fully comprehend the significance of “win-win” we must also appreciate why “lose-win” and “win-lose” are rarely - if ever - acceptable outcomes. Here is my interpretation.

“Lose-win” means we have accepted terms or reached an agreement that has insufficient value for us; it has produced an inappropriate level of profit, and it may have no strategic value — that is to say, there is no long-term value either. No matter how much ground bait you throw in, it is not going create a proper return on your investment.

With “win-lose” we appear to gain a financial advantage at the expense of the buyer. This approach may be acceptable in some commodity sales environments, where you are totally driven by top-line revenue, and the opportunity for repeat business is negligible, but even then, most companies are waking up to the value of repeat business — even your local restaurant.

You see, your customer will find out that they have paid over the odds, or they have been treated unfairly, and they will vote with their feet, and may never return.

That leaves us with just one final possible outcome, “lose-lose“

I suspect that as many as 80% of frontline sales professionals will shudder at the thought of “lose-lose” No deal, no commission, angry boss for losing the order. This is a very short-sighted and commercially naive viewpoint.

The scenario often plays out something like this: We work conscientiously throughout the sales/buying cycle; we understand the rules; we are totally aware of the steps our prospective buyer intends to take, and we accept them. Then at the death, the rules are changed. Typically price becomes a far more critical issue, and we discover that we are being rapidly pushed towards a “lose-win” outcome.

So now we have two choices. We can agree to the revised terms; drop our pants and cave in just to save the order, and earn a reduced commission — and of course much less profit for our company. Alternatively, we can accept “lose-lose“

There are, you may be surprised to learn, benefits from opting for “lose-lose“

You walk away with dignity. You send out a message that you fully appreciate the value of your products/solutions, your company and yourself. You are letting your prospective purchaser know that your company is also in business to make a profit.

By standing your ground, you will, in all probability, gain an even higher level of respect from the other side — and you will have the opportunity to do business together in the future — no, does not mean never.

News: The only news I can pass on is that London 2012 begins tonight —as if you didn’t know that already – and I’ll be there. Yes I know, I always get the most boring assignments.

Have a great w/e! – JF

Source: Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

There’s No Fear in Sales if You Desire to Achieve http://t.co/rEvfxEjQ # There is NO FEAR in Sales if You Desire to Achieve http://t.co/2P1OmUrc # Do You Have Confident Selling Skills? http://t.co/Sw6JLtfU # 3 Ways to Create a Positive Business Environment http://t.co/MDtqVfD2 # How to Attract Positive Business Partners to Your Team http://t.co/h5sfH9gn # A [...]

Source: Jeb Blount| Sales Gravy Blog

Many years ago at a conference, I tried the following experiment. I asked the crowd, “What one thing will determine our success more than any other?” The audience answered with words like job, money, education, and time. Finally someone said attitude. What I consider the most important area of our lives had come as a [...]

Originally posted at: John Maxwell on Leadership
Copyright 2009-2011. All rights reserved.

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Attitude: the little thing that makes a big difference

Source: John Maxwell on Leadership

It is still the case – sadly - that for every ten thousand blog posts and articles I read about winning new business, I read one about customer retention - why? I am “Perplexed of Paris”

So I want to share a question with you based on some pretty horrendous personal experiences over the past week (and no, I am not going to “name and shame” whilst I await formal apologies and compensation) Why is it that when customers blame us for something going wrong, we are quick to blame others - especially in larger organizations?

Example: “We passed the order to Department X weeks ago; I do not know what they have done with it.” (You know very well it is still in your in-tray!)

Customers see through these feeble excuses and are not impressed – they have heard the same excuse seven hundred and ninety-three times before.

Why do we do things like this?

Here are a few - very - shallow justifications:

• Department X is always making mistakes; attributing one more to them won’t make any difference.

• There is a particular person in Department X you do not like.

• No one will find out whether Department X is to blame or not

• They have blamed your department often enough.

• They always beat your staff at the annual bowling challenge.

Two-Way Process:

Lack of communication between departments is often cited as the reason for poor working relationships. “They never tell us anything” is a frequent cry.

Get real, communication is a two-way process: The most efficient of systems will not be effective if people don’t read their messages, look at the notice boards, log on to their computers, check their voice mail or pay attention at meetings.

Getting people to sign memos provides only proof of receipt, not evidence that they’ve actually read the information – let alone absorbed the concept. They need to want to know what’s going on – and understand why it is important. Like their job might depend on it.

Low morale and a critical and suspicious environment will prompt employees to see customers as a nuisance - so the innocent always get penalized.

Every employee needs to appreciate that they contribute to customer satisfaction, even if they are working behind the scenes, e.g., maintenance, cleaning, refuse collection, etc. They deserve to be kept informed.

Insecurity Creates Conflict:

Another cause of internal conflict is insecurity: downsizing, management restructuring, fast-talking business consultants (not me, I talk quite slowly) threat of job loss, short-term contracts — all might trigger a loss of pride in the job and a “could-not-care-less attitude”

When customers become anxious and take their business elsewhere – FACT.

Insecurity manifests itself in a number of behaviors:

• Gossip and back-stabbing

• Shifting blame

• Increase in absenteeism due to stress

• Constant moaning and whining

• Negative thinking In this environment, it is likely that customer complaints will increase.

It is essential to keep the customer at the center of everything you do, no matter what is going on behind the scenes. Without customers, you do not have a job.

Unless we get internal customer service right, it will not extend naturally to external customers.

Do remember, we are all working for a common aim: customer retention. Do you have any idea how much it really costs to win just one customer? I thought not.

Footnote: “You know what? As a customer, I don’t actually care about any of the above. I want to spend my money with, and give my loyalty to a company that demonstrates they want that custom, not just the first order but in future too. I have more choices than you think – maybe more choices than you do. So get yourself sorted out before it’s too late, and I vote with my feet. These are your issues, not mine – and just for the record, I have plenty of issues of my own to worry about”

Message to company owners, stakeholders, and senior officers everywhere: What is the point of hiring the very best sales and marketing teams you can afford; investing in the most sophisticated CRM and lead generation software; moving into those most impressive new offices etc. … when there is no accepted and approved method of looking after your hard-earned existing customers? Yes, it is a well worn cliche, but your existing client base is indeed your life-blood, they consistently drip new orders into your pipeline if you let them!

Getting that right is the least expensive, and yet the most profitable initiative you could implement.

News: Can I just say thank you to all the people who sent so many wonderful messages of congratulations yesterday: It makes it all worthwhile, and you are incredibly kind and generous.

Source: Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

Image by jonrawlinson (license).

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
Winston Churchill

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
Maria Robinson

One of the most common questions people ask me based on this blog’s name and what I write about is simply how one can become more of an optimist.

So today I would simply like to share three habits that I use just about every day and that help me to stay optimistic in pretty much any situation. Sometimes it may take a while before I find an optimistic thread of thought but these three habits usually help me to find it.

1. Ask yourself questions that let you see the optimistic viewpoint.

When I’m in what seems like a negative situation my most common way of making something better out of that is to ask myself questions that promote optimism and helps me to find solutions.

Questions like:

• What is one thing that is positive or good about this situation?
• What can I learn from this situation?
• What is the opportunity within this situation?

These questions are not something that I can always use right away when I wind up in one of those situations. Sometimes I need some time to process and accept the feelings and thoughts that arise. But after a bit of time, when those thoughts and feelings have mostly passed, I ask myself one or more of these questions.

2. Get optimistic support from the world around you.

One the most important factors for being able to stay optimistic are the influences around you. Optimism is – just like enthusiasm – contagious.
So find ways to create an environment that supports you.

• The people in your life. Try to spend more time with optimistic people and less time with people who seem to always be negative about things. One practical way to gain a more optimistic viewpoint is by just talking to someone close to you about your current issue. Just letting it out and saying it out loud can often help you to hear how exaggerated your thoughts and emotions have become. And by talking about it with someone that is supportive you can get a positive and constructive change in perspective.
• The information you let into your mind. One of the simplest things you can do to create and support your own optimism is simply to regularly read blogs and books and listen to or watch recordings created by optimistic people.

3. Start your day in an optimism creating way.

I have mentioned this many times in the past because the way you start your day often sets the tone for the rest of your day.

A stress-free morning leads to less stressed feelings and thoughts during your day. A work out early in your day leads to more energy throughout the day. And optimism while you are eating your cereal or having your coffee can help you to stay positive and constructive as you go through the ups and downs of your day.

Practical ways to get this good start is to read or watch something optimistic. Or to have an uplifting and/or motivating conversation over breakfast or early in your day.

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The Positivity Blog Courses and Guides:

- Stop feeling lousy about yourself and start living a life of self-happiness where you live up to your potential and dare to follow your dreams – with The Self-Esteem Course.

- Simplify and start living a more focused, peaceful and meaningful life – with the Simplicity Course.

- How get more done, minimize stress and free up more time for yourself starting today – with The Art of Relaxed Productivity.

- How to become a more mindful, motivated, action-taking optimist – with The Power of Positivity.

Copyright 2006-2012 Henrik Edberg.

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Source: The Positivity Blog