If You Don’t Train Them (WT421)

If You Don’t Train Them (WT421)

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by Shirley Dalton | 20 Jul, 2018 | Blog, Business

WT 421 If you don't train them

I was sitting in the waiting room. The phone rang. The junior answered. I didn’t hear what the caller asked, but I could guess based on the answer. “It will be $50”. 

My guess was that the caller asked how much the service would be. 

As soon they got the answer they hung up.

If you were the owner or manager of this business, would you be happy if you overheard that conversation? 

I know I wouldn’t be and yet you can’t blame the junior. The junior did what she was asked; she answered the question about cost. 

If you don’t train your people, you can’t be angry when they don’t do things the way you would like them done.

Most customer enquiries in any business, in any industry usually start with a question about cost. Why? Because customers don’t know what else to ask. 

It’s your job to take control of the phone call. 

You could start by asking permission to ask them a few questions. “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions to make sure I understand your situation please?” 

Here are a few examples from different industries that follow once you have been given permission to ask: 

“Is it for your son or daughter?”  

“Is it for a special occasion?” 

“Is this something you need urgently?” 

“Are you looking to buy or rent a property?” 

It’s very important to have a script or cheat sheet so your team can answer customer enquiries in a professional and consistent manner whilst taking control of the call. We call this “Telephone Technique”. 

It’s up to you to develop the script or series of questions. You know the information you need in order to determine if you can help someone. You know why you ask the questions you do. 

If you haven’t done so, please write this down. You don’t have to personally write it down, you can record it and have it transcribed, but someone has to document it. 

You’ll be surprised at how many more sales you’ll make, or time you’ll save by qualifying the right rather than wrong customers, if you’ll just take the time to unpack what you know and train your people.

You might be very surprised (and disappointed) if you were to listen in on your calls and add up the number of potential sales you lose, simply because you don’t have a script and you haven’t trained your team.

You Must Write it Down (WT420)

You Must Write it Down (WT420)

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by Shirley Dalton | 13 Jul, 2018 | Blog, Mindset

WT 420 You have to write it down

 According to Brian Tracy, the best research shows that, less than 3 percent of Americans have written goals, and less than 1 percent review and rewrite their goals on a daily basis. If we use these statistics as a generalisation, it shows that very few people write down their goals. 

Now I am not about to tell you to create sophisticated goals or spreadsheets or budgets; it’s not my thing. What I will say though is you have to write it down. If you want something, you have to write it down somewhere.  Somewhere being the important point. 

One of my fabulous clients shared with me how he had set his intention for a monthly income of a minimum amount of $6,600 AUD. He documented this in an informal agreement with his partner and within a month or so he rang to tell me that he had been offered an opportunity that would pay him a monthly retainer of $5,000 USD. When he did the sums he laughed out loud because the currency exchange was about $6,600 AUD. 

On 12 December 2017, I wrote two cheques to myself and placed them on the bathroom mirror. One cheque was for $10,000 for a VIP consultation in the Bahamas. You know I recently went to the Bahamas. What you may not know is that I won the consultation and so I now have a big pink tick and the word “Done”, written across the cheque.  

During the last couple of days I have been reciting an affirmation that says, “I allow the universe in and my ego out.” I have been very focussed on being open to messages from the universe. I wrote this affirmation once, as it came to me. This morning I picked a card from Deepak Chopra’s Success Cards and it read, “My objective is not to get rid of the ego, simply to be aware of how it leads me and where.” On the front, the abbreviated affirmation read, “I am aware of my ego.” I laughed loudly when I read this.  The universe does indeed have a sense of humour.  

To top it off, we phoned the US tax department today to enquire about the progress of a tax refund we’ve been waiting on for a year. The lady informed us it had been posted on 22nd June and no surprise, there it was at the Post Office today. 

My point. You don’t have to write it a thousand times, although that can help. You don’t have to write it neatly. As long as you know what you want, you must write it down. You can even type it once into your Notes on your phone. There is something magical and tangible about the energy and vibration of writing things down. 

I forget where I learned this, but the energy and vibration increases from thought to spoken word to written word and of course to taking inspired action. 

What is it you want? 

Have you written it down or are you in the bucket with the 97% who have not?

We Do Without Doing (WT419)

We Do Without Doing (WT419)

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by Shirley Dalton | 6 Jul, 2018 | Blog, Mindset

WT 419 We Do without doing

This week’s thought is short and sharp and maybe a little challenging. 

Every now and then I feel the need to consult an oracle and since I am not a member of a particular church, I use various affirmation cards and The Book of Runes.

This week, I selected a rune and read the message. It seemed fairly apt for where I was at, however the last sentence really resonated with me, “We do without doing and everything gets done.”  

I sat on the bed to digest this. 

In my heart, I know this to be true. In my head, I want to control things and know HOW things are going to work out. 

The rune and this week’s message is about faith, hope, intuition and trust. 

So many people I have spoken to this week are in pain. They are desperate to know the outcome. They are in a hurry to get “there” and yet we know that the universe or God always comes through although not always in the way we expect.  

So why do we get so caught up in having to know HOW things are going to happen? 

And whilst we’re on this theme, I’ve been reminded this week to come back to doing the things I love to do.  

According to Katie Ryan, the Divine Detective, there is a difference between what we like to do and what we love to do and she challenged me this week to only do what I love to do and if I couldn’t avoid something I didn’t love, then to find something about it that I did love.

All week I’ve been asking myself, “Do I love it?” 

If the answer is “No”, I allow myself to not do it, (if I don’t have to). If I do have to do it, like reconcile my accounts, I focus on what I do love about doing that; the feeling of having everything balanced and knowing exactly where things are at.

This week, I encourage you to pay attention to what you love doing and focus on that and let the universe or God take care of it for you.

As the message from the rune says, “We do without doing and everything gets done.”

What’s Your Time Integrity? (WT418)

What’s Your Time Integrity? (WT418)

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by Shirley Dalton | 29 Jun, 2018 | Blog, Business

WT 418 What's your time Integrity

Following on from last week where I confessed I had missed an appointment, this week I still want to talk about Time Integrity but in a different way.

When I was younger (about 30 years ago), I used to do psychic readings for people. They would book an hour and 4 hours later, they would be walking backwards up the driveway, trying to get away.

I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to give them everything I could. I did their Astrology and Numerology charts. I gave them a jewellery reading as well as a Tarot reading.

I thought I was providing so much value.

I didn’t realise that I was actually out of integrity with my time.

I had forgotten about this until this week when a colleague of mine asked for feedback on an online training seminar he presented and one person questioned him and reminded him of his lack of integrity around time.

His session was scheduled for 60-90 minutes. He finished after 3 ½ hours.

His response to the feedback was that he wanted to give massive value and share all that he had to give.

“Ouch.” It reminded me of me.

Having time integrity doesn’t only mean we show up on time. It means we stick to the time we have agreed. Your customers and staff have planned their day around the time they expect to be with you.

We are doing a disservice and disrespecting them by going over time, especially without their permission.

It also reduces the motivation for people to want to catch up on training sessions, etc. when they see the time they need to watch is now 3 ½ times longer than expected.

More is not always better. In fact, less is more.

Here’s another example. I was invited to submit an article for an industry magazine. The word limit was 500-700 words. I prepared 1440 words because I was using the content for my TV show. Being over the word count was not helpful. It reminded me of this quote “If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter”, attributed to a number of different sources. The editor was adamant, so I had to invest more time and eventually got it down to 584 words.

The editor forced me to be succinct and to choose every word carefully.

This week your task is to notice your time integrity.

Are you respecting your customers, colleagues, family and yourself or are you rationalising your time indulgence by telling yourself you are adding tremendous value?

What’s Your Time Integrity?

Are You Right or Righteous? (WT417)

Are You Right or Righteous? (WT417)

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by Shirley Dalton | 22 Jun, 2018 | Blog, Business

WT 417 Are you right or righteous

Wow, what a difference a week and a few days can make.

Last week I was on a high, celebrating 8 years of thoughts. 

This week was low as I succumbed to being a victim and was planning on a thought to remind us all to be our word; to apologise when we make mistakes and to consider other people. 

And yesterday that thought changed from being right to righteous as I checked my diary and to my horror realised I had done the exact same thing I was moaning about from others. 

I completely missed an appointment. 

Not just any appointment. It was a Weekly Thoughts coaching gift appointment. (My biggest apologies to Anthony!) 

So this week we take a look at the difference between being right or righteous. 

My Google search on the meaning of “righteous” helped me be able to explain it to you this way. “Righteousness stresses guiltlessness or blamelessness and often suggests the sanctimonious (making a show of being morally superior to other people)” (from Dictionary and Merriam Webster). 

Ouch! 

In my mind I was blameless and morally superior. One of my coaches missed an appointment with me, not once but twice. I would have been ok with it, except that each time I had gotten up especially at 4:30am for the appointment. On the second occasion, the assistant did send me a cancellation notice, however with the time differences (they are on the East Coast of America – 10 hours ahead of me), the message arrived in my inbox at 1:00am. And the worst part for me, there was no apology; no recognition of the inconvenience for me. In my mind I was right and justified. 

The message in that regard is clear. Consider your audience and communicate in a timely way and let people know what’s going on. Apologise when you are in the wrong. Accept that you made a mistake and own it.   

And then when I did the exact same thing, the universe slapped me in the face. OMG! And there it was – I wasn’t being right, I was being righteous, morally justified and without blame. 

How about you? 

Are you right or righteous? 

If you’re right, go ahead and assert yourself and stand up for yourself, however if you think you’re right and without blame and insist on judging others whom you consider to be guilty, you might want to remember this saying I learned as a child, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone”.

Are you right or righteous?

The Universe Likes Speed (WT416)

The Universe Likes Speed (WT416)

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by Shirley Dalton | 15 Jun, 2018 | Blog, Business

WT 416 The Universe likes speed

Woo Hoo! 8 Years!

Today we celebrate 8 years of Weekly Thoughts. 

OMG! No-one is more surprised than me to reach this milestone.

And even more impressive for me is that I haven’t missed one week in all that time.

Wow, that’s commitment for you.

And these thoughts are for you.

I actually enjoy writing them and sharing what I learn along the way.

This week is no exception. Of course there is a message or three.

Dr Joe Vitale said, “The universe likes speed.” He was referring to a training program he created shortly after being featured in “The Secret”. Whilst he was out the back of his home filming his new program, a friend was on the phone leaving a message to see if he would consider creating a program to expand on “The Secret”.

The Universe Likes Speed. That’s message number 1.

Message number 2 – When you want something, you have to go for it.

Message number 3 – When presented with an opportunity you need to recognise it.

Now put those messages together and here’s your opportunity.

To celebrate completing 8 years of thoughts, I am gifting 8 x 1 hour coaching sessions with me (at no cost) to the first 8 people who reply with a resounding “Yes Please”.

If you’d like to invest an hour of your time with me, I promise to provide world class coaching for you on any topic you nominate (as long as it’s legal and moral). It doesn’t matter where you are in the world. This gift is open to you, my treasured Weekly Thoughts subscriber.

If you want it, go for it.

Recognise the opportunity and act with speed.

And just to encourage you, I consistently take my own advice. That’s how I ended up in the Bahamas a few weeks ago, receiving world class consulting for myself. That’s how come I’ve worked with and learned personally from such personal and business development gurus like John Assaraf, Jack Canfield and David Bayer and Sales and Marketing gurus like Wendy Stevens (Guerrilla Marketing), Charlie Fusco, Lisa Sasevich, Mike Koenigs and Personal Growth and Transformation greats like Sandra Bravo, Michael Domeyko Rowland and Alpha Dynamics, to name but a few. 

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to give the gift of what I do best.

Please don’t be shy. Please don’t consider yourself not worthy or not deserving. There are no hidden agendas. This is my way of saying “Thank You to you, my lovely Weekly Thoughts subscriber for your continued support over the past 8 years”.

I look forward to seeing you take action towards manifesting the life you want to live. And if you’re reading this after the event or you didn’t quite get there; don’t worry, the 3 messages for this week are important life lessons and I plan on continuing for at least another 2 years; so plenty more thoughts to come.

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