Conversations About Conversations

In this episode of Conversations About Conversations, I discuss the power of getting your client or prospect to opt into where a conversation is headed. By using questions skillfully and having a dependable process, you can be more efficient with your time. You share ownership of the conversation when you give him several opportunities to make small decisions—ultimately leading to a big decision....

In this episode of Conversations About Conversations, I am joined by Jakub Kubrak. Kubrak is a retired a professional hockey player currently working in financial services sales. He's not your typical hockey player—he still has ALL his natural teeth. We discussed the similarities between playing sports and engaging in business conversations. We also identified one of the biggest problems facing sa...

In this episode of Conversations About Conversations, I discuss four problems with outbound voicemail greetings. I feign outrage just a bit, but in the spirit of everything counts, I feel there are fundamental flaws in the vast majority of recorded voicemail greetings AND I say that makes a difference. What do people think when they hear your voicemail greeting? How does your voicemail greeting in...

In this episode of Conversations About Conversations, I discuss what's possible for you inside of a successful mentor/mentee relationship. I go through some of the problems you'll need to overcome, the mindsets you'll need to change and skills you'll need to develop in order to thrive as a mentee and win championships. ..... >>>WATCH: Conversations The Course Preview: https://conversations.biz/pre...

The problem was I was afraid to hear "no" because I didn't have a plan or strategy for what to do with it. So, I almost always instinctually and habitually sought out "yes." Reading Never Split the Difference By Chris Voss, gave me many new insights as to how I can improve my performance in my conversations. One example is how to use "no" as a tool to guide my conversations and move them forward....

HOW A FAILURE LED TO MY 4PS FOR CONVERSATIONS On this episode of Conversations About Conversations, I discuss a conversation that served as an inflection point for me. It led me down the path of developing four core elements for success in managing my business relationships one conversation at a time. Henry Ford said, "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently....

I HAD IT HARDER THAN YOU DO On this episode of Conversations About Conversations, I discuss the reflective instinct to ONE UP my mentee with: "You think you have it hard—I had it harder than you do." The problem is when we don't exercise SELF-CONTROL (or thoughtfulness) in our conversations, they create results that we never would have consciously chosen. After reflecting on the conversation: a. I...

CONVERSATIONS ABOUT CONVERSATIONS WITH SHAWN WEIDMANN My friend and colleague, Shawn Weidmann, and I discuss why he HATED me when we first worked together and the PROBLEMS he thinks my book, ideas and course can help people with. I hope you enjoy listening to this extended 38-minute interview as much as we enjoyed doing it. ….. >>>WATCH: Conversations The Course Preview: https://conversations.biz/...

ARE MENTORS AND COACHES A PART OF YOUR WORLD? Mentoring and coaching are such are part of my world that I forget how rare it is for most people to have mentors and coaches. I've mentored 17 people over the past 12 years which has been an extraordinary privilege and honor. I've benefited tremendously from having two significant mentors: one in my 20s and one in my 30s. Moreover, every Monday and Fr...

ANNOUNCING THE LAUNCH OF CONVERSATIONS THE COURSE A video preview can be found at https://conversations.biz/preview. For more information, CONTACT: ivan@conversations.biz ….. >>>READ: Conversations: How to Manage Your Business Relationships One Conversation at a Time — Available on Amazon http://a.co/d/7Ruhapu >>>WATCH Conversations About Conversations on YouTube: http://bit.ly/YouTubeConversation...

DEALING WITH UPSET You fear losing your clients because they're upset with you. Thankfully, you don't get a lot of practice dealing with upset clients, but because you don't get a lot of practice, you don't get a lot of opportunity to develop competence at it. One of the more challenging aspects of dealing with clients who are upset is that their upset triggers your fight-flight-freeze response an...

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS IN SAND OR CONCRETE The problem is you say yes too quickly. Or, said another way, you have trouble saying no. You over promise without thinking things through thereby causing unnecessary stress and worry for you and sometimes your entire team. It doesn't have to be this way IF you know when to set expectations in sand and when to put them in concrete. Find out how and when on...

ARE YOU PLAYING CHECKERS OR CHESS? I used to play checkers in my conversations. I thought I knew what I was doing, but I was totally linear in my approach. I was good, but because I was winging it, I didn't realize I was holding myself back from achieving better results. I was fairly inflexible and the results of my conversations showed I lacked foresight. I didn't have a comprehensive CONVERSATIO...

GAMES HAVE RULES Ultimately, the game of conversation is the game of COLLABORATION and AGREEMENT. You win the game by EXPANDING and DEEPENING your relationships. You keep score by achieving bottom-line business RESULTS (quantitatively measured by sales, client retention, additional business and referrals). But the problem is when people are playing a game without knowing the rules, they can easily...

A TALE OF TWO MENTORS—ONE INTERPERSONAL AND ONE SCIENTIFIC CONSIDER: -How much thought and effort have you given to developing your interpersonal skills? -Have you had the benefit of working with mentors and coaches to help foster your learning? -How much have you invested in training and development in order to obtain the skills you'll need to get you where you want to go? ASK YOURSELF: -Am I jus...

THE RIGHT VOCABULARY TO GET AGREEMENT FOR ACTION There's a point in every conversation when you'll need to ask your clients, prospects or colleagues to agree to the next steps. I was really bad at this part of a conversation because I didn't have the RIGHT WORDS or strategies. As a result, I was often STRESSED about not getting the results I wanted to be getting. I'd spend a lot of time WORRYING....

WHAT TO BRING TO MEETINGS I'm frequently asked, "What should I bring to meetings?" I used to bring a lot of stuff (i.e. brochures, handouts inside of folders and slide decks) to meetings, but now I hardly bring anything. After pondering this for hundreds of meetings, I've come to believe that LESS is MORE. Bringing less has resulted in deeper RELATIONSHIPS, greater client SATISFACTION and increase...

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? Short questions (generally seven words or less) prevent you from turning questions into statements and make it much clearer that you're asking a question and will listen to the response. It's easy to assume you've understood what your client meant, but a short follow-up question offers him a chance to clarify and elaborate. It's a false assumption he truly knew what he me...

LISTEN ON PURPOSE The people you have conversations with place tre­mendous value on being heard. If they don't feel listened to, they're go­ing to be hard pressed to be satisfied with the conversations they have with you. This makes listening fundamentally important. Good listening grows your rela­tionships. Poor listening results in dissatisfaction, mediocre relationships and loss of opportunity....

EXCUSE MY FRENCH Approach each conversation with the idea that YOUR BEHAVIOR in the con­versation will be decisive. Your ability to exercise SELF-CONTROL in conversations will determine how and where your re­lationships go. A single conversation can be productive, fail to go any­where, take a relationship backward or even end a relationship. ASK YOURSELF: -Am I intentional in my use of words and l...

OBJECTIONS ARE NATURAL AND NORMAL If you want your conversations to generate RESULTS, there's a very good chance you will receive objections to your recommendations and proposals. It's natural to WORRY that you'll be STOPPED by objections. But instead of resisting objections, LEARN to welcome them—resisting them won't RESOLVE them. Have a PLAN. Trying to wing it doesn't work. I know because I used...

IT'S LIKE RIDING A BIKE In this episode of Conversations About Conversations, I draw an analogy between the way I ride my bicycle and the way many people handle their conversations. CONSIDER how IMPORTANT your conversations are for your career and SUCCESS in business. Are you training such that you are riding at your maximum POTENTIAL? WATCH the video to learn why the way I ride my bicycle is not...

PLANNING IS A PREREQUISITE FOR CONFIDENCE If you want to have CONFIDENCE in ALL of your conversations than you have to develop more than just basic interpersonal skills. My assertion is you CAN wing it in eight or nine out of ten conversations. So, I'm referring specifically to the one or two out of ten when just improvising will lead to suboptimal RESULTS. In these situations, in order to have co...

HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO RETURN YOUR VOICEMAILS AND THE REAL REASON THEY MIGHT NOT BE RETURNING YOUR CALLS In this BUSY day and age, if you work with people, you're going to be leaving voicemail messages. It's a fact of life. One of the biggest COMPLAINTS I hear from the professionals I coach is that their clients and/or prospects don't return their voicemails. The PROBLEM is that you cannot truly ser...

IMPROVE THE WAY YOU GIVE FEEDBACK TO OTHERS In most cases people are not very open to receiving feedback. And yet most people readily provide it—even without first checking to see if it's desired. Because feedback frequently comes at an unexpected time or from an unexpected place, we're often insulted by it and may instinctively become defensive. It doesn't have to be this way. WATCH the video to...