How to Deliver Effective Virtual Training over Zoom
How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19 Blog |June 12, 2023 How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19 How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19 How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19 How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19 Looking back in these past 9 months, we have delivered more virtual programs, online coaching, and virtual engagements than in our 20 years of business existence. What’s more interesting is that our customers who have been skeptical in the past about the effectiveness of running programs online are such strong supporters now of this now widely accepted way to engaging and up-skilling people. I would say the industry has been propelled another 5 years into the future in terms of digital learning acceptance. Having gone through so many hours online (My Zoom report says I have been clocking an average of 8,000 minutes a month, I would like to share several must-do tips to run live online programs/meetings successfully as a host or lead facilitator.) Since there are so many things we can talk about, in this post, we will focus on 3 powerful tips on logistical matters prep, lighting, music, etc Here’s part 1 of How to Deliver Virtual Training/Meetings Effectively over Zoom (3 for 3 series: 3 Powerful Tips in 3 mins): 1. Lighting You’ll want to have three lights, preferably identical. Place one light directly in front of you, one at around 45-degrees to the left and one 45-degrees to the right. While yellow lights (3,000 Kelvin or 3K soft) gives a warm feel, LED white lights (5,000 – 6,000 Kelvin or 5K-6K daylight) is better overall for producing video-friendly color temperature. Make sure the lighting is placed from the top rather than direct, to reduce shadows. Also, put the lights behind the cameras to reduce having too much light into the camera lens. 2. Playing Quality Music on Zoom Take note that Zoom has very powerful features to help deliver quality voice or music over the Internet. In order to have the best sound quality when playing music or video over zoom, especially if you are inputting a separate source via your phone or any sound card, there are few key things to keep in mind. When choosing the share screen option, make sure to check/tick the share computer soundbox on the bottom left-hand corner of the pop-up screen. In your audio settings, select the advanced option and choose “Show in-meeting option to “Enable Original Sound” from Microphone (with all 3 sub-options chosen under when sound is enabled, selected). You will then see the enable original sound button in the top left-hand corner of your main meeting window. You want to choose to Turn on Original Sound when playing music and choose to Turn off Original Sound (which is the default setting when you start a meeting) when using voice or speaking (this is because, for best quality when speaking, Zoom offers background noise suppression and also echo cancellation features) And if you want to further control the quality of sound and you want to have the most natural sound going over zoom, then in the normal audio settings, under the “suppress background noise” option, you can further turn off auto adjust and play with the low, medium or high settings. 3. Use two Zoom accounts So that you can view what your audience is seeing and it helps you to know what’s going on without having to ask our participants eg. Can you see my shared screen? This gives you the ability to quickly fix things as a host and keeps you looking professional! If you log in via their separate account with your tablet, you can use this as your tactile whiteboard and have more accurate handwriting (use ppt, word, note-taking app like penultimate, etc). This allows you to quickly switch screens with your slides or other app windows that you are sharing with your host account. Of course, you can also use your main host account and connect a separate drawing tablet (eg. Wacom, Gaomon, Huion, XP, etc) and use it to annotate on your shared ppt or whiteboard too! But I find using the logging in separately with an iPad and Apple Pencil enables me to write most legibly and the written notes are stored ready to be reused again for a recap or sending as a post-session resource for my participants. I hope that what I have shared will help trainers and facilitators deliver more effective and engaging Virtual engagements. Be Alive with Your Passion!
How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19
How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19 Blog |June 12, 2023 How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19 How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19 How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19 How to Add Value to Your Clients During the New Normal After COVID-19 The COVID-19 has brought a new wave of uncertainty, and it has affected every industry. Businesses are struggling to stay connected with their clients, communities, and partners. Many are now looking for ways to keep their clients engaged, informed, and interested during this new normal. This week, I will be sharing tip #2 of a 10 part series on how we can stay on top of our game, add value to our clients, and still win in the New Normal. Sales Tip #2: Show Concern and Empathy “Developing strong relationships with others is not an easy thing, especially when you’re striving to create positive trust levels with your clients. Many things can stand as barriers to building the rapport that we need, to eventually enjoy the successful outcomes that we seek.” Language, culture, or religion can often be those divisive elements to good relationships. But one thing stays constant. Emotions are the same in any context. The feeling of love, anger, despair, or hope means the same for all, regardless of who you are and where you come from. In short, while culture and difference of circumstances stand to “divide” us, emotions “unite” us. If you want to build that depth of rapport with your client and the level of trust that they have in you, showing concern and empathy is a must. Offer to help make things easier for them. Not sure how you can help? Ask them. In an era of digitalization that has accelerated into hyper-speed during this pandemic, making the extra effort to care for your clients is not easy at all. Here are some simple tips on how you can do it, with the acronym of EMPATHY: Express sincere interest to know more Make the effort to understand Put yourself in their shoes Ask them what they are going through and how they feel about it Take time to listen actively (listen and understand) Help them to understand and have clarity of their challenges You can make a difference. Be the problem solver for their challenges. The more you can empathize with your clients, the more authentic the connection with them will be. That leads to rapport, trust, and ultimately influence your sales success. Influence not only wins you more deals. It creates loyal customers and followers. So, let’s make the effort, show concern, empathize with them, and see your influence level deepen another layer over your customers. Be Alive with Your Passion!
How to Stay Connected with Your Customers in the New Normal
How to Stay Connected with Your Customers in the New Normal Blog |June 12, 2023 How to Stay Connected with Your Customers in the New Normal How to Stay Connected with Your Customers in the New Normal How to Stay Connected with Your Customers in the New Normal How to Stay Connected with Your Customers in the New Normal 2020. What a year it has been so far. Lots of businesses, entrepreneurs, and professionals started the year with great expectations and for many of them, even with the potential positive momentum carried forward from the previous year. But little did we know, how far reaching the impact of COVID and the repercussions it created throughout the world. As the world tops 23 millions cases, the end does not seem likely in sight anytime soon. Most are overwhelmed with the challenges of the current times. This in turn has affected people’s investment appetite and the way they make decisions about how they engage with vendors and buy. This week, I will be sharing tip # 1 of a 10 part series on how we can stay on top of our game, add value to our clients, and still win in the New Normal. Sales Tip # 1: Stay Connected with Your Customers “Having great rapport and great relationships with our clients is a huge part of winning deals. The fact of the matter is clients buy from those they trust, respect and feel consistently satisfied with.” However, customers today, want more than that. Studies show that while they want great engagement with vendors or consultants, they want it without the pressure and feeling of privacy invasion or space. In short, they like a balanced engagement. Enough to keep them aligned and in the loop, but not overbearing. Find active and interesting subjects as reasons to stay engaged with your clients. Topics could include : Current non-business topics that might be of interest to the client Current happenings that might affect their business Events, take-overs, potential mergers that might present fresh opportunities Follow up to a previous/existing project Change in the customer’s profile/lifestyle/business that might warrant a need to review things New product/upcoming service Insights about their investment Market trends and news about their community or competitor Your survey insights A success story to share A good way to stay connected is to use a variety of communication tools. Use emails, chat tools, phone calls, social media, etc. Mix it up to keep things fresh. In Marketing, organizations use an omnichannel approach to create awareness, extend the touchpoint, and make their points stick. As sales consultants, we can also leverage on the same principle and maintain a healthy and active relationship with your client. Remember, when you are out of their sight, you are out of their mind. So, stay connected with your clients! Be Alive with your Passion! Subscribe to Ray’s newsletter!
The Greatest Fear of All Part II
The Greatest Fear of All Part II Blog |June 12, 2023 The Greatest Fear of All Part II The Greatest Fear of All Part II The Greatest Fear of All Part II The Greatest Fear of All Part II In my previous blog post, we highlighted the main fear of salespeople–the fear of handling or managing objections. In that post, I touched on how this fear paralyzes a salesperson to perform and give their best pitch. More often than not, we tend to view objections as something daunting. However, I have good news for you! Objections can actually be something to be welcomed rather than resisted. In this post, we will identify the nature of objections and the two “misses” that might be obstructing you from reaching your full sales potential. Let’s go! “First, you must recognize an objection when you hear it.” Most objections fall into one of four categories: Product or Services The individual objects to some aspect of your product or service. Price The individual thinks your price is too high. Postponement The individual wants to avoid an immediate decision. Personal The individual doesn’t like your personal sales style or your company. Hence, our objective is to measure the degree of opposition so that we can best respond to it. Objections come in various forms. For example, objections can come in these three forms: Questions “Don’t tell me it’s a direct selling business again???” Expressed They state it. Unexpressed They don’t even state it at all. eg. not interested without giving a reason, or someone doesn’t return your phone call for a long time eg. after you send them a brochure, letter, etc. Many times we are unaware that we caused the unexpressed objections ourselves. It happens as we fail in some key communication principles, a failure in articulating well enough or because we were not alert to notice the signs of the customers’ earliest objections that we could have handled easily there and then. So whether expressed or not, basically it boils down to a result of two “misses”, which are: Misunderstanding Miscommunication These cause: Dislike in decision making Preference for old habits Reluctance to give up the old for the new Unpleasant past associations with you or your company Resistance to dominance Perceived threat to self-image In the last and final installment of this series, we’ll discuss the Five Myths surrounding objection and debunk it with some practical truths by replacing it with Five Reasons why you should welcome and appreciate objections. I’m excited to help and guide you into freedom from being hounded by unnecessary fears! Be sure to subscribe to updates so that you won’t miss the next article! Subscribe to Ray’s newsletter!
What is True Success?
What is True Success? Blog |May 10, 2020 What is True Success? What is True Success? What is True Success? What is True Success? How you define success is the first step to everlasting Greatness? What comes to your mind, when you think of the word “Success”? Success. It’s such a subjective and elusive word. The definition of success varies from one person to the next. It depends on your experiences, values, and beliefs. So what really defines success? Who would you choose as your mentor or role model? For those in business or corporate, do images of Bills Gates, Steve Jobs, or Warren Buffet come to mind? For those who are keen on sports, do you think of Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, or Usain Bolt? For those who honor humanitarians, do Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr. come to mind? For those who are inspired by motivational icons, do Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, or Zig Ziglar form your mental picture? “If we truly want to live a life of greatness, making the ABCs of Success a habitual lifestyle will help you get there quicker.” “A” stands for: Having the ability to bring change to oneself or others & the circumstances that they may be in. This goes beyond the financial capability and challenges one to look at the level of influence and impact that one has in their daily engagements. “B” means: Believing in the best of others–choosing to see the positive instead of the negative in others. Looking at their strengths instead of their weaknesses. Seeing others from their “good” side, rather than their “bad” side helps us focus on energizing others for growth instead of destruction. “C” equals to focus on: Creating value adds in every situation we that are engaged in or people that we meet. Value add means helping others achieve more than what they had before, knowing more than what they knew before, enriched even more than before. This means you are choosing to be the “cause” of things (the reason for) rather than the effect of things. Make your definition of what true success means to you by: Visualizing what it means to you and how it looks like when you achieve it. Writing a descriptive and illustrated view of “True Success”. This will help you prepare the platform for execution. Stating the opportunities and scenarios that you want to apply the Success ABCs and add value. Unless you are clearly describing the scenarios, the people who will be involved in it, as well the key elements of the applicable situation, you will miss most of the opportunities that come your way; most of them, possibly disguised as “problems” or “none-of-my-business” situations. Remember to record every opportunity that you successfully add value and applied the Success ABCs with. Everything small victory you record will empower you to push further towards your path to everlasting legacy and greatness. Success doesn’t occur overnight. It’s a journey. It takes time, blood, sweat, tears, and effort. It has its ups and downs, but achieving true success is possible. And with that, we’ll arrive at our next month’s topic: Passion. We’ll discuss how things cannot be accomplished without passion, how to harness the fire that comes from passion, and how to maintain it. Now, take action. Make your definition of what true success means to you. Get the clarity on what you want to create for your business, your personal development, and your long term goals. Now, take action. Make your definition of what true success means to you. Get the clarity on what you want to create for your business, your personal development, and your long term goals, Subscribe to Ray’s newsletter!