When Time Is of the Essence!

What a difference in service standards when you leave mainland Greece and come to the islands. We are in Santorini and this island is geared for tourists and the service standards have risen 1000%. They know they have 5 months to make their money ch has to last the year. They actually smile! They attempt to help you and do whatever is necessary to get the sale. Sometimes to the point where they get pushy!

The best service I had received was in a jewellery store called PONIROS (meaning sly), he was able to get me into the store try on the piece I had admired, gave me the credibility of the designer through magazine articles and how their business was the place to purchase. He made sure that I had all the features and benifits covered before he even mentioned the price, he wanted me to fully understand the value.
He knew I would not make a decision immediately so he even suggested he would give me information on the island and where to eat when I came back to purchase. (Very sleek). Every time I went past he would greet me remembering my name. Santorini is small so it was hard to avoid his store. Even though I will not be purchasing that piece of jewellery. I admired his salesmanship and I'm sure it will be a good summer for this business.
When time is of the essence these people need to work hard for their money!!!!

Service Is a Dirty Word

We have now been in Athens for the past week. We have found that there is no such word as service in this country. The service mantra is "Like it or leave it". We have been in stores, travelled on their bus line 'KTEL', and visited tourist destinations. If it is a simple transaction they are nice enough, however, do not ask questions or deviate in any way.
The worst interaction we have had was at Delphi wanting to catch bus back to Athens and needed to be on the 1.30pm as the next one was at 4pm. We had a plan, buy bus ticket, eat food quickly starving by this time and it would take 3 hours to get back to Athens. The KTEL man was not there OMG!
He finally arrives, proceeds to answer his phone call and ignore us as if we didn't exist. He has lovely chat with friend still ignoring us, 5 minutes later whilst still chatting to his friend he processes the tickets. We give him 200 euros, the tickets cost 54 euros, he screams at us, it is getting later and he does not accept cards, we are in a small town. What do we do? Panic. We go across road to the Periptero (Little shop on street), my husband is sent to bank, it is now 1.25, no husband ,no food and bus coming soon. The KTEL man comes out screaming at me "where are you to pay for tickets!!!?". By this time hungry, children bored, still no husband and peeved, my reply from across the street was "you are a backwards country and will always be a backwards country!!!!". Finally husband comes back with money, buys tickets and leaves. We got on and the bus was full! after our long wait husband had to stand for 2 hrs and me for 1 hr.

Great Service comes from within

On my flight from Melbourne to Dubai via Singapore,I was dissapointed with the average service we had received. I started to think.What makes the experience great?
There were smiles. They were helpful, when asked. What makes the differnce? It's when the person cares and wants to make a differnce to the person they are servicing.
It's like they were shells but there was nothing inside!
They mostly knew what they had to do, they needed to smile and be nice. But did it come from within?
Food for thought!
When either serving or being served look out for the rapport building. Did the service come with warmth, care? If these signs are there,m then you will notice a difference!

1 HOUR PER DAY

I read something today that was interesting and I wanted to share. If you read 1 hour per day studying and making permanent notes. This is 250 hours per year and 1250 hours over 5 years, this would make you an expert in your field. What a great habit to start. So just think if we had some other great habits how would they pay off? Could you show up early for work instead of sleeping late?, Could you be exercising each morning to get a fit mind and body, learning about the product you sell, Role play with your fellow team-members? Learning information that you may need in the future?
The more knowledge we have the more empowered we feel, the more empowered we feel the more success we will achieve. Go that extra mile. I challenge you to take one hour per day and read a topic that is either relevant to current career or something you would like to be doing in the future.
Happy reading!!!

Fear Is A Dirty Word

Having fear distracts us from achieving our greatest achievements because we play it safe.
Our 3 fears are not being loved, not being good enough or not belonging.
I know you are wondering, How does this relate to sales?
We won't Greet and Approach customers because he have a fear of not being loved and being rejected.
We will avoid asking the closing question for fear of not being good enough believing they will not buy from you.
We won't step up in the store when there is an opportunity to shine because of the fear of not belonging.
If any of these resonated with you, take a different road and act.
Have the certainty to make a choice.
Find the courage to Greet/Approach every customer who enters your store.
Know you have the passion and knowledge in your product and you have answered all their objections to ask the closing question confidently.
Have all the certainty that you have all the resources within to step up.

Are you living below the line or above the line?

We all have choices as to how we will live our lives.
This is based on the quality of questions we ask ourselves. Don't wish to have no problems at all in life, be content to have high quality problems.
When we have the problem(opportunity) rephrase the question in a positive manner for e.g.
positive: What could I have done differently with that customer to have bought this jacket?
negative: Why am I such a loser I can"t sell anything today?
Which questioning do you think is more empowering? If you said positive you are on the right track.
When we think under the line we blame others, justify, have hissy fits and give up. Above the line thinking allows us to come up with solutions.
Where do you want to live?

What is success?

Why do some sales people succeed and others just coast along in life.
The difference with successful salespeople is they take a
different action and feed their minds with information that helps them improve their strategies
and inspiration. The tools gained are used ongoing.
They are around people with similar values who are successful and have quality conversations that are positive and help one another to reach goals.
Most importantly they have the right mindset. They may have challenges but they know
there are learning's to be had.
Emotional mastery is the key knowing when and how to act. Turning negative self talk
into positive.
As we learn we grow immerse yourself in the learning's and you will see the great results you too
can achieve.