Accomplishment Coaching

I network a lot. I meet new people all the time. Some are business owners and some aren’t. As I get to know them, I begin to filter out who’s making business work and who’s not.

Now I don’t necessarily mean who has the most money…although that is a way to measure. What I’m pointing to are the people I meet who are consistently asking the question, “How can I help you”?

These gracious professionals are not coming up to me and shoving a business card in my face, asserting statements like “You really need to blah, blah, blah”, or immediately diving into how I can help them. No, these people are investing A LOT of energy in getting to know me and what keeps me up at night.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “I want it said of me by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow”. This is what I see successful entrepreneurs doing. They are completely focused on how they can help me uncover a problem I don’t see today, create a solution to the problem that works for me (and it may not involve what they have to offer), and support me in taking action around that solution.

In effect, they are plucking thistles and planting flowers. Because who will I remember when I need or someone I know needs their product or service? I’ll remember the person who took time to tend to his or her garden of which I am part.

Looking for more great information on tending and nurturing your business garden, check out “What’s Love Got To Do With It“? and Bob Burg’s “Endless Referrals“.

Happy Gardening,
-Coach Preston

I was on the phone yesterday with a gentleman who’s going through a challenging and exciting time in his life – a career transition. He’s not completely sure what he would like to do and he’s clear that he doesn’t want to be doing what he feels he’s consistently done in the past; settle for whatever comes along.

During our conversation and his inquiry, he said, “I need to earn $30,000 per year”. I thought this was an interesting statement. I asked him, “Is that what you need to earn or is that what you want to earn”? He replied, “That’s what I need to earn”. “Okay”, I said. Then I asked him, “Have you ever just declared what you want to earn”? The phone went silent.

It’s an interesting thing…we travel through career transitions, business, clients, relationships and life focusing so much on what we feel we need. As with anything we do, when we focus on something, someone or some situation we take action that’s aligned with that focus. So in the case of my career transition friend, because he’s telling me, friends, family and potential employers that he needs to earn $30,000, he’s taking action that will deliver on that amount of money AT BEST. In other words, his belief and his speaking is limiting his ability to earn more.

Fortunately he hadn’t hung up on me and we began talking again. He asked, “So Preston, if I actually just begin speaking or sharing that I want to earn $65,000, I’ll begin taking the action that aligns itself with that amount of money”? “Yep. It’s really that simple”, I replied.

I asked him to consider that whatever we request from the world, Universe, or our community is exactly what we will get back. This specifically includes us taking the action that aligns itself with producing what we want. A millionaire doesn’t say she needs a part time job because she feels she needs a bit more money. She declares she wants another million and then takes the appropriate action. After another moment of silence he replied, “I want to earn $120,000 per year.”

So here’s the question for you…how come only a few people in this world earn the majority of the money that flows? What is it that has them have so much when others have so little? Could it really be as simple as focusing on what you want rather than what you need?

Please post your thoughts,
-Preston

Just what is a great life? More money, time, possessions, relationships, children, careers, etc? Maybe.

How about just “being” great so that your life follows suit?

Professional coaching might just be access to your great life. If you’ve ever wondered what coaching is, what coaches do, what building a coaching practice entails and how much a coach earns, then now’s the time to get answers to those questions.

Please visit the following websites to learn more about our world-class coaches training program that’s accredited by the International Coach Federation:

1) Events at Break Your Silence
2) Accomplishment Coaching

What are your questions about coaching? Please post any and all questions you have about professional coaching and how you can make your only job to have a great life.

For all you movie buffs out there, Robert Zemekis produced his only “R” rated movie in 1980. It was called “Used Cars” and it starred Kurt Russell, Jack Warden and a bunch of other movie greats. I won’t go into the details, but it’s a classic for anyone rounding that 40 year old mark like I did today.

Although the memorable quotes are innumerable, one sticks out in my mind as a classic example of the interpretation we have about salespeople:

- Barbara Jane Fuchs (Salesperson played by Deborah Harmon): “Come down and see the mile of cars we have on our lot.”
- Rudy (Salesperson played by Kurt Russell): “Did she just say ‘mile of cars’? Yes she did – she said ‘mile of cars’.”
- Big Jim (Mechanic played by Frank McRae): “Most blatant case of false advertising I ever did see.”

How many times have we been on the receiving end of a “less than truthful” statement from a salesperson? Or felt that we’ve been manipulated, cajoled or hood-winked? Unfortunately, it’s likely been the case for all of us at least once in our lives.

Now you’re probably thinking, “Yeah Preston. Let those salespeople have it! They’re a no-good lot of hucksters and liars!” If you ARE thinking this, then you might be in for a surprise. If you’re NOT thinking this, then you’re likely just like me…a salesperson.

So consider this – there is no such thing as a “non-salesperson”. If you are living, breathing and asking for favors, support, assistance, gratitude, credit or recognition, THEN YOU ARE SELLING! We are all salespeople in every moment of every day. We sell ourselves on what we’ll look like in that dress (at least I do). We’ll sell our neighbor on why it’s a good idea put his dog inside after 9pm. We’ll sell our spouse on why it’s such a great time of year to vacation in Florida. Sell, sell, and sell.

Are you completely disempowered yet? If no, great! If yes, then what is the disempowerment? What interpretation of “salesperson” is it that has you stuck?

Ah-ha. That’s the key word – interpretation. It’s our interpretations of salespeople that have us avoid them and even avoid selling altogether. That may be just fine for many people, but “avoiding selling” for those of us in sales can be deadly.

For those of us who sell for a living and struggle from time to time (or frequently) with being a salesperson, consider that we’ve been taught A LOT of sales skills and techniques that are intended for us to be more successful. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. Typically they work REALLY well when they don’t “look” like skills or techniques.

The trick is to use them so they don’t look like “skills or techniques”. The last thing I ever want a prospect to say is, “I know what you’re doing. That’s that ‘overcoming objection’ closing that I just can’t stand!” Ouch, if that doesn’t hurt, I don’t know what does.

So what is there to do about this? Nothing. Consider it’s more about how to “be” about it. Consider the more you “do” the more you’ll look like a salesperson, the more you’ll begin to reject all the great sales skills and techniques you have in your toolbox, and the more you’ll become frustrated with selling in general.

“Being” salesperson is far different from “doing” salesperson. Confused yet? Perhaps some ideas will clear things up.

During the past 15 years, I’ve been a sales manager, sales trainer and salesperson in various industries. After finding my true vocational love, I’m now a salesperson who offers executive and business coaching services. I’ve also been a buyer of products and services. My experience DOES NOT make me an expert and it’s provided some great learning.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

Assimilation is a powerful but missing concept in the world of sales “learning” – I call this an “either/or” context. One common mistake salespeople make is to avoid reading or studying sales books and ideas so as to not “seem so sales-ee”. That’s one way to go. Another is TO READ sales books and ideas and take time to discover how to assimilate some, all or none of the ideas into WHO YOU ARE. Ask questions like, “How would that sound coming out of my mouth? If a close friend of mine said that to me, would I feel threatened or manipulated?” Practice the skills and techniques you learn about in “non-selling” situations: the library, the grocery store, and with your family (if you’re really brave – your mother-in-law too). There are some great ideas to be gotten if we open ourselves up to the concept of assimilation.

Doing vs. being – in a recent blog post, a colleague of mine commented on “being my authentic business self” when in a sales role. In the world of “doing”, we consistently search for the next “best” way to sell, the next “best” book to read, and the next “best” thing to say. What if we were to read sales books, invest in sales training, practice sales techniques in the real world, then throw all of that away and just BE WHO WE NATURALLY ARE? This may be a stretch for some readers, but I recently had a client who went from “selling techniques” and projecting “salesperson” to projecting LOVE and COMPASSION with prospective clients. This client has made more money in the past three months than in the past four years.

Finally, I’ll share two ideas that recently came up in a conversation with a colleague of mine:

1) Consider that “you don’t get clients by going out and looking for them; you get clients by making yourself available to attract them by being in action.” Here’s what I mean – When we go out and look for clients, we often inadvertently fall into the “salesperson” mode (remember our interpretations of THAT word?). If we were to just focus on “being in action” (having conversations, meeting new people, making requests, networking), we would be making ourselves available to the people who want, need and are looking for what we have to offer. They will find us without us ever having to sell.

2) Consider “faith is being willing to move forward without the knowledge or proof that it will work.” Here’s what I mean on this one – Focusing only on sales techniques can put us in a place of trying to “get the knowledge” so as to “create the proof” that our sales actions will produce results. Again, this may have us project “salesperson” to our prospects. Practice “having faith” that who you are, the existing knowledge you have, and the “sales process” you currently use is absolutely PERFECT AND SUFFICIENT to generating more business.

Sales training, techniques and strategies are powerful experiences and tools for any of us to have. Everyday I go out and sell my services, my prospects NEVER think I’m a salesperson and some TOTALLY think I’m a salesperson. My conclusion is this – it’s not the sales training or skills I have that create the impression, it’s WHO I’M BEING in the conversation. When I’m desperate or have a need that I want to get filled, I project salesperson. When I share compassion, love, understanding, possibility and discovery with my prospects, they buy from me and say “You are SO NOT a salesperson”.

Go get some sales training. Go buy some popular sales books. Talk to your friends and family who sell for a living. Collect as much information and learn as many skills as you can. Then come back to who you are, why people are attracted to you in the first place, and acknowledge yourself for being the PERFECT salesperson just as you are.

No “miles of cars” for you – just “miles of being”.

Happy Selling,
- Coach Preston

How many times have you been asked, “What is it that you do”? What do you say? How do you answer that question? It’s such a simple question AND it can open the door to many possibilities – new clients, serving your community, and just being a contribution to another.

Now I’ll turn the question back on myself, “Hey Preston, what is coaching”? Ugh, that’s a great question…and one that doesn’t always have a very specific and clear answer.

Now the thing is there are a great number of fantastic coaches out there who are providing huge value to human beings in the areas of business, sales/marketing, relationships, money, communication and leadership. And, there are plenty more waiting to provide that service but just seem to get stuck in describing what they do and the value they can provide specifically and clearly.

What would be available if coaching was clearly understood? If the differences between coaching, consulting and therapy were accurately described? What if you knew exactly what coaching is and isn’t? What value would that provide you? You might just consider hiring a coach.

So just what is coaching?

Let’s start with the International Coach Federation’s (ICF) definition:

“Professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives.

Coaches are trained to listen, to observe and to customize their approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally creative and resourceful. The coach’s job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has.”

So what do you hear in that definition? Take moment to stop reading this article and consider what you hear inside this definition.

Now let’s make some comparisons to consulting and therapy (the two most commonly confused complimentary professions).

How are coaching and consulting similar?

- There is a situation in which there is a “lack” of some result or accomplishment (i.e. something is missing)

- The intention of both coaching and consulting is to “put in” what’s missing

Now, how do they differ?

- Coaches are experts in the coaching process so as to facilitate the client discovering their own actions and results (i.e. the client is not “broken”, but whole and complete); consultants use “expertise” to diagnose, direct or design solutions for the client (i.e. the client or situation is “broken”)

- Relationship is the foundation of coaching; expertise and industry or situation knowledge is the foundation of consulting

- In coaching, information drawn from the client is used to support the client’s awareness and choice of action; in consulting, information is often used to evaluate performance and to produce reports

- Coaching addresses the “entire spectrum” of a human being; consulting addresses a specific aspect or issue

- Coaching is designed to provide clients with a greater capacity to produce ongoing results and confidence in themselves; consulting is often designed to require reliance on the consultant’s ongoing involvement to produce the same results

How are coaching and therapy similar?

- The client and coach or therapist are not restricted by the type of professional relationship they can create; whatever works for both parties is what will work

- Coaching can be used concurrently with therapy and it is not a substitute for therapy

Now, how do they differ?

- Clients seek coaches because they want to reach a higher level of performance, learning or satisfaction; clients seek out therapists for emotional healing or relief from psychological pain

- A coach relates to a client as a partner or equal; a therapy client relates to the therapist as the expert, authority and healer

- Coaching concentrates primarily on the present and future, and uses the past to clarify where a client it today; therapy focuses on the past and the impact of the past on the client’s present

- Coaching assumes that there will be emotional reaction to life’s events and that clients are capable of handling such; therapy is focused on helping a client manage emotions and psychological pain

- Coaches make requests for clients to promote action toward the client’s desired goals; therapy makes recommendations to fix a client’s problem or understand the client’s past

So now what does that all mean?

Consultants, therapists and coaches are all extremely effective professionals that can help you in a myriad of ways. We all have training, knowledge and expertise in our professions and are all committed to producing results for our clients.

What’s most important and effective for anyone considering hiring a consultant, therapist or coach is to be very clear on what each is and isn’t. For example:

- Hire a consultant if you’re seeking high-level expertise in a very specific situation (i.e. repairing information retrieval and data management with Structured Query Language)

- Hire a therapist if you’re seeking to relieve emotional or psychological pain (i.e. managing a failed relationship, death or violent experience)

- Hire a coach if you’re seeking ongoing, consistent breakthrough results in your professional or personal life (i.e. being more comfortable with selling leading to higher revenues; managing colleagues more effectively leading to projects completing more quickly and with less effort and customers begging to do business with you; taking responsibility for personal relationships leading to more freedom, joy and love)

These are three professionals who can support you in solving problems, breaking through emotional challenges and allow you to be your personal best.

Feel free to contact me with specific questions or situations; I have terrific relationships with consultants and therapists if either are the best fit for you.

Happy Growth and Inspiration,
- Coach Preston