1.1.

Planning and Preparation for a Meeting

The following list suggests the multitude of considerations relevant to meetings.
For a brief, informal meeting, only a handful of these items need to be addressed.
For a meeting with major consequences for your organization, all or most may
need your careful attention.
Be sure you're clear on the stated goal.
Be sure all meeting participants are clear on the stated goal.
Establish a specific standard by which you will measure success
or failure.
Determine what your personal goal is with the group as a whole
and with each particular participant.
Reduce the number of people to only those necessary to
accomplish the goal.
Assess your basic relationship to your meeting partner or
partners: superior, peer or subordinate. Evaluate their likely
personal interests and needs.
Reduce the number of issues and tasks to only those necessary to
accomplish the goal.
Prepare more. Envision the meeting as you would like it to take
place, and determine what must be done in the way of further
specific preparation to make your desired vision a reality.
Establish a meeting environment and theater (including style,
location, room size and seating) consistent with your goal.
Consult with any participants or others whose cooperation is
necessary in order to meet the goal.
Establish a clear and appropriately detailed agenda, and circulate
it and other written materials in advance.
Do your homework, and go at least one step beyond the
expectations of your meeting partners.
Form a tentative judgment on all issues.
Count the votes for issues critical to you.
1

Be aware of the particular customs, rules and etiquette for the

meeting.

Of prime importance for the success of any meeting is the attitude and leadership
of the chairperson. In a meeting, the chairperson is the leader and, as such, has to
perform the same function as the leader of any working group.
For a meeting to be effective, the chairperson has to:

Plan, organise and control the discussion of subjects on the agenda.

Maintain
relationships.

Motivate the individuals by encouraging all to contribute, rewarding their

efforts and supporting them in any difficulties.

the

group

by

encouraging

and

developing

harmonious

Before any meeting, the chairperson should ask and resolve the following
questions:

What is the purpose of the meeting?

Is a meeting appropriate?

How should the meeting be planned?

Who should attend the meeting?

What preparation is required for the meeting?

What is the Purpose of the Meeting?
All meetings must have a purpose or aim and the chairperson must ask
questions, questions as:

What is to be achieved by this meeting?

2

Is advice required on a particular issue?

Has a problem arisen that needs prompt discussion?

Is this a regular meeting to keep members 'in touch'?

Is a Meeting Appropriate?
The chairperson should always consider whether a meeting is necessary or if some
other means of communication is more appropriate,for example memos or emails
targeted to individuals inviting comment. Unnecessary meetings may waste time,
lead to frustration and negativity and may lower motivation to participate in future
meetings.
How Should the Meeting be Planned?
This will very much depend on the type of meeting to be held. There should be
some rationale behind every meeting, no matter how low-level or informal, and
this will largely dictate the content and indicate how planning should proceed.
Who Will Attend the Meeting?
This is often decided by the nature of the meeting itself. In a small organisation, a
meeting could well include all members of staff, whereas a working party or
committee meeting will already have its members pre-determined. In a large
organisation or department, staff attending might well be representing others. It is
important that the full implications of such representation are realised by the
individuals concerned as they are not merely speaking for themselves. Meetings
outside the workplace may include members of the board of directors or other
interested parties.
What Preparations are Needed for the Meeting?
If maximum contribution is to be forthcoming from all participants, the purpose of
the meeting should be recognised by all. The most tangible expression of this is
the agenda which should be circulated beforehand to all those invited to the
meeting. The agenda should:

Give the time and place of the meeting.

List the topics to be covered, indicating who will introduce them.

Have any relevant papers attached.

Give the time the meeting will close.

The Agenda: This is the outline plan for the meeting. In most formal meetings it
is drawn up by the secretary in consultation with the chairperson. The secretary
must circulate the agenda well in advance of the meeting, including any
accompanying papers. The secretary also requests items for inclusion in the
agenda.
Regular meetings often start with the minutes from the last meeting followed
by 'matters arising' which forms a link with what has happened in the previous
meeting. Most meetings conclude with 'any other business' (AOB) which gives
everyone the opportunity for any genuine last minute items to be raised; though
more formal meetings may have AOB items listed on the agenda.
An example of an agenda might be:

Apologies for absence.

Minutes of last meeting.

Matters arising (from minutes of last meeting).

Item 1 -Training & Development.

Item 2 - Report on Funding.

Item 3 - Finance & Equipment.

A.O.B. (Any Other Business).

Time and date of next meeting.

Preparing for a Meeting

4

1. Knowing how to prepare for a meeting is important for all employees and
critical for any manager or leader. Knowing when not to have a meeting is equally
important.
2. Decide the type of meeting you are going to have.
- Informational
- Creative
- Decision
- Motivational
3. Determine the roles and ask those participants to accept them. The roles are the
following:
a. Leader
b. Facilitator
c. Recorder
d. Timer
e. Participants
4. Prepare a notice, this should include the date, time, agenda, and venue of the
meeting. Distribute the notice to the members in good time for the meeting.
5. Attach the minutes of the previous meeting (if there has been one). This gives
members the chance to bring up anything they do not understand or disagree with.
6. Get basic items in place. Set out chairs and tables before the meeting begins.
Provide pens and paper for everyone. Place a pitcher of water in the middle of the
table and put glasses around the table.
7. Call the meeting to order. This means the chairperson asks everyone to stop
talking as the meeting is about to begin. Determine the quarterly goals for the
team. The agenda is a list of the topics you'll address to get to that objective, with a
time limit to keep you on track. For example: "1. Review the status of last quarter's

goals (15 minutes), 2. Round-table suggestions for goals (20 minutes), 3. Pick top
5 goals (10 minutes).
8. Pass around the attendance book or sheet of paper and ask everyone attending to
sign their names at the beginning of the meeting. These names will be entered in
the minutes.
9. Ask the minutes secretary to write down the main points of the meeting for
typing up later.
10. Ask if anyone has any other business, known as AOB, at the end of the formal
meeting. Set a date for the next meeting and formally close the meeting.
The following are the tips to plan and prepare a meeting.
It is usual to appoint a chairperson at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). The
chairperson conducts the meeting, makes sure the agenda is adhered to and
ensures only one person may talk at a time.
If there is no elected chairperson ask if anyone present is willing to take on the
role for the meeting.
For an informal meeting it is still a good idea to send out a notice so that people
know the date and time to attend. At the workplace it may be sufficient to email
members to ask them to attend an informal meeting.
The same applies to the minutes secretary.
These instructions apply to a formal meeting.
An agenda keeps the meeting tight and stops people talking about one particular
subject for too long.
It is important to keep accurate minutes to avoid disputes in the future.
Studies also point out a discouraging trend: Surveyed professionals agree that as
much as 50% of that meeting time is unproductive and that up to 25% of meeting
time is spent discussing irrelevant issues. Typically, they complain that meetings
are too long, are scheduled without adequate time to prepare and end without any
clear result.
Most of us have been to seminars or conferences where we've left feeling insipired
and rejuvenated. But how many of us have ever left everyday meetings feeling the

same way. Rarely, no doubt. The reason is that good seminars and conferences are
organized precisely to engage us. Sadly, most office meetings are not.
Believe it or not, meetings can and should be the most interesting and productive
part of your day. And if you've ever been to a great conference or seminar, you
already have seen some of the basic principles at work. These can be summarized
as:
1. Preparation
2. Facilitation
3. Inspiration
4. Results
Preparation means making sure your meeting has a clear, stated purpose, and an
agenda. Participants are chosen carefully, invited in professional way and given
sufficient prior information. Preparation also means attention to details including:
room bookings, catering, a/v equipment, reminders.
Facilitation means that someone or a team is responsible for guiding the meeting, a
plan for the meeting is reflected in the agenda and the facilitator (or chair) keeps
things on time and on track.
Inspiration is probably the most overlooked aspect of everyday meetings. All the
attention to detail and process can push the opportunity for spontaneity and
enthusiasm aside. Build in activites that engage participants, use strategies to
generate discussion, or visual aids to grab attention.
Results means that every meeting should be directed toward one or more
outcomes. Participants must feel that something has been accomplished, and they
must see all of their meetings as part of the bigger strategy to involve them in the
future of the organization. Achievements at one meeting should be recapped in the
next, and so on.

Planning and Preparing for Faculty Meetings

Mr. Smith was recently appointed as superintendent of his school district. In an
effort to orient himself to the district, he made it a point to have informal
conversations with faculty and with members of the community. Through these
conversations, Mr. Smith found that Mrs. Greene, one of the district's eight
elementary school principals, was consistently described as an outstanding leader.
Curious, he decided to pay her a visit.
As fate would have it, Mr. Smith arrived at Mrs. Greene's school just as she was
about to start her faculty meeting. He decided to wait for her to finish so that they
could have their conversation afterwards. When he took a seat, he was immediately
surprised at the room arrangement: instead of the traditional rows of chairs facing
front, there were tables with four chairs at each. He thought to himself that this was
an invitation to troubleteachers would be just like the kids and talk to each other
the whole time Mrs. Greene was talking. He also noticed there were refreshments
on a table near the side of the room. He wondered if they were celebrating
something special. In the front of the room was a poster titled Faculty Meeting
Ground Rules. These rules seemed like an interesting idea. He wanted to see if the
staff members would follow them throughout the course of the meeting.
A few minutes after students were dismissed, staff members began to arrive at the
meeting. Mr. Smith was struck by how many teachers arrived before the meeting
started with smiles on their faces. After allowing a few minutes for staff to get
refreshments and engage in informal conversation, Mrs. Greene started the meeting
by quickly reviewing the agenda. Next, she asked staff members to engage in what
she called a staff building activity; then to engage in team building activities at
each table; and finally to engage in a combination of small- and large-group
activities related to the use of technology in achieving math and reading goals.
Mr. Smith was struck by the nature of the conversations at the meeting: everyone
appeared to be actively listening and passionately sharing ideas while remaining
focused on the topic under discussion. Mr. Smith had never seen anything like this;
it struck him that the meeting resembled some of the better classroom lessons he'd
observed as a principal.

When the meeting was over, Mr. Smith met with Mrs. Greene. After revealing how
dreadful many of the meetings he'd both led and attended had been, he wanted to
know how she had managed to create such a productive and stimulating
experience. Her answer was so simple that it surprised him. She said that she ran
her faculty meetings like she had run her classrooms: she laid the foundation for
success in the beginning of the year, then planned each meeting as carefully as she
did her lessons as a teacher.

The Foundation for Effective School Faculty Meetings

Either prior to or at the beginning of the school year, you must

Communicate the purpose of faculty meetings.

Collaborate with staff on developing norms for expected behavior.
Create faculty base teams.
Communicating the Purpose of Faculty Meetings
Meetings shouldn't simply serve as forums for transmitting information to staff;
this should be done via memo, weekly bulletin, or e-mail prior to each meeting.
Instead, meetings should fulfill the following three purposes:
1.

To build relationships among staff. Many teachers feel isolated from their
colleagues, which can in turn make them feel alienated from their work.
Building relationships with colleagues is necessary for them to feel engaged.
2.
To focus on professional development. Because faculty meetings are
among the few occasions when the entire staff is together, they provide a
precious opportunity for systematically building the instructional capacity of
teachers.
3.
To solve problems and make decisions. Sometimes, critical decisions
require input from the entire school community. When structured appropriately,
faculty meetings can provide a forum for this input.

You should communicate the above three meeting goals to staff members in a
memo before the school year starts. Here's an example:
To: All school staff
From: Mr. Jennings
Date: 9/01/07
Subject: School faculty meetings
Although they may not have always seemed so in the past, faculty meetings are
valuable opportunities for our professional learning community. These meetings
are among the few times our entire staff is together. In order to make our meeting
time valuable, I have decided to institute the following changes:
1.

All information that can be shared in writing prior to the meeting will be
included in the weekly staff bulletin. Staff members are responsible for reading
this bulletin and seeking clarification when necessary.
2.
Instead of information transmission, our faculty meetings will now
emphasize relationship building, professional development, and problem
solving and decision making.
3.
If we do not have an activity that meets the criteria in #2 above, we will not
have a faculty meeting.
I realize this new format may make some of you uncomfortable. To let go of the
way we always do things and try something new requires us to take a risk. The
long-term benefits of this change will be worth it for us as a staff and our students.
If you have any questions, please stop by and see me.
Collaborating with Staff on Developing Norms for Expected
Behavior
Clearly articulated and agreed-upon norms contribute to an atmosphere of trust,
which is itself essential for successful collaboration. At the first faculty meeting of
the year, you should facilitate the collaborative development of such norms, which
will be based on the values, expectations, and past experiences of staff members.
The following activity can help you to accomplish this task.

10

Step 1. Begin by facilitating a discussion of group norms. Example: We have all

been part of a team. In any team there are certain rules or expectations for how we
will behave. What were some of the rules or expectations on teams on which
you've served? What are some of the behaviors, both positive and negative, that
you have experienced on a team? Record the responses on a T-chart.
Step 2. Discuss the messages that the behaviors listed on the T-chart send to other
team members.
Step 3. Discuss the value of having a set of basic agreements for faculty meetings.
After reviewing a sample of possible agreements, have staff members add more to
the list. Continue adding possible agreements until nobody can think of any more.
Sample agreements could include the following:

We will start and end meetings on time.

We will actively listen to each other's ideas and opinions.
We will make important decisions through consensus.
We will work from a staff-developed agenda that is distributed 24 hours
prior to the staff meeting.

We will remain focused on the topic or task.

Step 4. Have staff members divide a piece of paper into two columns. Inform staff
members that they each have 100 points, which they must divide among all the
agreements listed. (The more points, the more valuable the agreement.) Once staff
members have all completed the task individually, ask them to share their scores in
groups of three or four and complete the activity once more. When everyone is
finished, collect and tally the second set of scores. The top three to five choices
will then constitute the group's agreements for faculty meetings.
It is often necessary to remind staff members of the established agreements, either
verbally at the beginning of a staff meeting or in the form of a poster prominently
displayed in the meeting room.
Creating Faculty Base Teams

11

Base teams are long-term, heterogeneous groups to which staff members are
assigned. The major purposes of these base groups are as follows:

To involve all staff members at the beginning and ending of each meeting
To personalize meetings
To provide a schoolwide focus to meetings
To provide peer support for and celebration of staff efforts
To increase the likelihood that all staff members will actively contribute to
the meeting
Base teams should have between two and five staff members, with four being
optimal because it allows for pair work. You can assign members at random, or
choose to include a mix of grades, subject areas, or experience levels on each team.
Either way, teams should be relatively heterogeneous and represent more than one
grade level or subject area. (To keep things fresh, be sure to disband the teams and
form new ones after every six to ten meetings.) At a minimum, teams will meet at
the beginning of each meeting to celebrate a teaching success from the previous
week, and at the end of each meeting to summarize the proceedings.
Faculty Meeting Roles
Any group will function more effectively if members know each other's
responsibilities. The following are the three most common roles at faculty
meetings:

The facilitator is usually (but not always) the principal. He or she leads the
meeting and promotes the participation of all members through gate keeping and
consensus seeking. (Essential facilitation skills are addressed in Chapter 2.)

The recorder writes down details of the meeting, such as the people present
and the agenda items, along with any relevant information discussed. He or she
should also produce written minutes of the meeting and distribute them to all staff
members within 48 hours.

The timekeeper watches the clock and warns fellow members when the
designated time for each agenda item is over.

12

Whether these roles are permanent or rotate is up to you. Permanent assignments

have the advantage of consistency and of helping staff members develop rolespecific skills over time. Rotating assignments have the advantage of promoting
equal responsibility among all staff members for all roles.
Developing the Meeting Agenda
A meeting agenda provides staff members with a guide to the proceedings and
encourages them to focus on upcoming tasks. Without an agenda, staff members
may have trouble discerning the meeting's purpose.
When teachers help shape the agenda, they gain an increased sense of ownership
for the meeting. Be sure to set a deadline by which teachers must provide topics in
advance. When submitting items, teachers should include their names, the topics
they wish to address, and the resources and approximate amount of time that they
will require.
A quality meeting agenda should include the following:

The overall purpose of the meeting in one or two clearly written sentences
A note on who is required to attend
The projected time span of the meeting
The location of the meeting
Any special resources that participants should bring
Any advance preparation that is required
The names of the recorder and timekeeper for the meeting
Agenda items, preferably including questions to encourage advance
reflection (e.g., How can we cut our proposed budget by 10 percent without
harming our instructional program?), along with the projected time span for
discussing each item.

13

Physical Setting
Participants will contribute more to and get more out of meetings if the physical
setting is comfortable and conducive to achieving the meeting's objectives. Here
are a few guidelines to consider in this respect.

Seating arrangements. These must be matched to the types of activities that

will occur at the meeting:
o
A U-shape or semicircle arrangement is best for groups of 12 to 22
staff members, and is well suited to large-group discussion.
o
A single square or round is best for groups of 8 to 12 staff members,
and is well suited to problem solving.
o
A V-shape arrangement with tables of four to five participants apiece
facing the front of the room is best for groups of 16 to 40. This arrangement
is well suited to small-group work at each table.
o
A traditional arrangement of front-facing rows is appropriate for any
size group, and is particularly well suited to the imparting of information by
the facilitator.
Room temperature. Though often overlooked, setting an appropriate room
temperature is essential for a comfortable meeting environment. Most people find
the optimal temperature to be between 68 and 72 degrees. If weather conditions
permit, you can provide additional air circulation by opening doors and windows.
Lighting. Bright but indirect natural lighting is best; whenever possible keep
blinds open to take advantage of the sun. (Low light makes work hard on the eyes
and the nervous system, and can induce drowsiness.)
Music. People respond well to appropriate music. Not only does it connect
with them emotionally, but it also helps to break their normal thought patterns.
Music within the range of 65 to 80 beats per minute is best for setting a positive
mood. Use familiar tunes and songs in major keys (e.g., Don't Worry, Be Happy
by Bobby McFerrin).
Smell. Aromas can powerfully influence the mood of a meeting: whereas
peppermint, lemon, and cinnamon scents enhance alertness, for instance, lavender,
orange, and rose scents encourage relaxation. If real estate agents are convinced
that the smell of freshly baked bread can sway potential home buyers, then

14

perhaps the smell of freshly baked cookies can positively influence meeting
attendees.

Color. Color affects everyone. Hang colorful visuals and peripherals in the
room to subtly enhance the mood of the room, and encourage the use of colored
markers or pencils for completing activities, as this is likely to energize
participants. Different colors are associated with different emotions:
o
Red evokes anger, intensity, and danger. Use this color to highlight
warnings.
o
Yellow evokes happiness, cheerfulness, and warmth. Use this color
when generating ideas and supporting creativity.
o
Blue evokes reliability, trust, and tranquility. Use this color early and
regularly in meetings to establish and reinforce trust.
o
Green evokes productivity, growth, and forward momentum. Use this
color when striving for compromise or consensus.
o
Orange evokes energy, enthusiasm, and positive thinking. Use this
color to highlight a subject or demonstrate connections between ideas.
o
White evokes honesty and innocence. Use this color when striving for
clarity and order.
o
Black evokes independence, seriousness, and finality. Do not use
black when brainstorming.

Refreshments. Refreshments can provide attendees with a physical and

psychological boost. This is particularly important because most faculty meetings
occur after school, when energy levels are low. Food and drink can also facilitate
community building by encouraging socialization among participants. For
meetings lasting 30 minutes or less, snacks that are high in sugar (fruit, candy) are
acceptable; however, because too much sugar can lead to drowsiness after a while,
meetings lasting longer than 30 minutes should include foods that are high in
protein (lean meat, yogurt) or complex carbohydrates (nuts, whole grain bread).

15

1.2 Pay Attention To Your Audience

Knowing your audience is an important first step in the process of creating
an effective oral presentation or meeting. Where has your audience come from?
Are they participating voluntarily or are they forced to listen to your speech? The
former suggests a homogenous group which will already have an interest in your
topic while the latter probably implies a more heterogeneous group which may be
less appreciative of your material (See Cheryl Hamilton's Essentials of Public
Speaking, page 81 for more details).
How many people will be in the room? What are the seating arrangements in
the room? What are the general expectations of the audience members? These
questions will help you to determine what style of speech will be most appropriate.

Forming a Relationship with the Audience

Right from the start of your public speech, you will be forming a relationship with
your audience. The way you position yourself in the room, the tone of voice you
adopt, and the way that you interact with those in the room will all help to establish
this relationship.
One of the best ways to get to know your audience is to ask them questions.
You can find out what they already know about the the topic that you are about to
16

speak on so that you can tailor your address to their needs. You might also find out
some interesting information about their attitudes to the topic under consideration.
You need to be able to identify with your audience. One of the best
persuasive rhetorical strategies is to make your listeners feel that they are just like
you. Once you've established this rapport, it will be easier for them to identify with
the arguments that you are presenting.

What Does Your Audience Already Know About You?

Reputation plays a major role in the establishment of a relationship with
your audience. If your audience knows you it is already likely to have an opinion
of you. If they have seen you give oral presentations before and they were
impressed, they are likely to have high expectations of you, and your job is slightly
easier. If, however, they have no knowledge of you whatsoever, you will have to
work hard to establish your credentials.
People who have bad reputations in other contexts often have to work
incredibly hard to prove that they should be taken seriously in an oral presentation
context. For example, the class clown who likes to fool around and make glib
comments throughout the semester, will face a tough audience on oral presentation
day.

Keep in mind the following questions about your audience when you are
preparing your oral presentation:
How do you relate to your audience?
Do you have any points in common with your audience?
Do you have any points that are different from your audience?
How do you plan to overcome any points of difference and use the points in
common to your advantage?

17

 Are there any examples that you can use in your oral presentation which will
give your audience a better insight into your position?
Will the audience members be able to identify with these examples?
Does your audience already know something about the things that you are
discussing?
What does your audience need to know about the things that you are
discussing? Why do they need to know these things? Are you presenting
these things in the best possible way to meet your audiences needs?
What is in the topic for your audience? Can you give them a really good
reason for listening to you?
What will the audience be able to do with the information that you give to
them?
Will your audience benefit from the things you have to say?
Why are you telling the audience this information in the first place?
Is your audience already interested in the topic? If so, how can you exploit
this interest? If not, what can you do to give them an avenue into the topic so
that they can be interested in it?
Being a Good Audience Member
When you are listening to one of your peers speak, there are certain social
rules which dictate how you should behave. For instance, it is not polite to sit and
look bored, to doodle on a notepad, to read a magazine, or to brazenly yawn. Think
how distracting this would be if someone was doing it to you while you were
trying to present a speech that you have worked hard to prepare. So what can you
do to help your peers? Here are some tips for being a good audience member.
Communication is about give and take. So dont make your listener take too
much. Below are 2 quick tips to refine your message and please your audience of 1
or 1000.

18

A) ATTENTION SPANS
Attention spans are short these days. Given the internet and our need for
speed, you have 30 seconds to make your point online and about 60 seconds in
person. If you blow it, then youre talking to yourself. But if you get it right, then
they read, listen and respond. Thats what communication is all about, engaging
each other. So, pay attention to what your people need.
Even the boss can stand to shorten the message. The goal isnt to have
bodies in the room, its connection, exchange of information and beautiful ideas.
Being effective is about having the kind of communication that creates
productive change in your teamin your businessin your life.
If you cant say it right, then whats the point of spending all that time.
Keep this in mind, when youre in charge, its not just a wasted hour. Its that hour
times the # of people in the room that you are paying times their rate of pay.
In other words, ineffective communication cost
money in business, and
connection in families.
Honor the modern attention span. Pay attention to your listeners needs and get to
the point quick (it leaves some room for fun). But how?

B) FIRST SPEAK
Before you speak to anyone else, have a nice looong talk withyourself.
Bring a tape recorder (or use the digital recorder on your cell phone) and just start
talking. Dont stop until you make your point. Now, lets run your recorded
communication through the quick check below. Pay attention to how you feel as
you listen.

19

 1Play back
Play it back. Did you get tired of listening to it? Is there a better
way
to say it? Is there a quicker way to say it? Did you feel like
you
were
rambling? Ask yourself the tough questions and give
yourself honest answers.
2Key Points
Now write down your key points. Is it any clearer? Keep
until you find the key words to describe each of your concerns.

working at it

3Say it quick
If you had to communicate in one quick sentence which words would you
choose? When you finish your communication check, your message should
be shorter and sweeter. Something like: I feel like you dont respect me
when you cut me off in public. Or We need more creative ideas for
marketing this book, I am not happy with what we have so far. Most
conversations go past these points, so youll get a chance to add to it.
Your upfront goal is to be clear, quick and engage your listener so that they
want to participate, instead of suffering through while you find your bearings. This
exercise helps you pay attention to your words and eliminate what doesnt work.

The key to effective communication is clarity. Get clear in your own mind
about what you want to say. Turn it over a thousand times if you have to. You only
get a few chances to get your real point across anyway. Without improvement,
eventually business and family will tune you out. So pay attention to what your
listeners need and communicate with clarity.

20

1.3 Stand (or Sit) All

If times a wastin then youd better get to standing. Or should you?
Sit-down meetings that last for over a couple of hours are on their way out, along
with other dying old school workplace practices including the traditional 9-5
workday, leisurely lunches, and engraved watches to commemorate x years of hard
work. For the tech culture world especially, stand-up meetings are becoming all the
more commonplace. The upsides to some of these meetings is fairly worth the
standing while- noticeably shorter amount of time spent with colleagues and with
no tables or chairs that get in the way or encourage drifting off.
On the other hand, the downsides vary for each company but many tend to have
rules set for the meetings. Rachel Emma Silverman from the WSJ writes, Standup meetings are part of a fast-moving tech culture in which sitting has become
synonymous with sloth. The object is to eliminate long-winded confabs where
participants pontificate, play Angry Birds on their cellphones or tune out. How do
we eliminate a long-winded speech from a team member that gets sidetracked and
never makes it back to the original point? Give them a 10 pound medicine ball to
hold. The weight is supposed to be the not so friendly reminder that continue to
talk and the pain of holding the ball will eventually cause you to stop talking.

21

Other eliminations push the envelope a bit further. The same WSJ article goes on
to discuss the Agile approach in software development, a manifesto that calls for
compressing development projects into short pieces as well actively punishes late
employees to team meetings by having them pay a small fine or run around the
office building. For the chatty speaker, a rubber rat is given to hold onto as a
gesture to move on (no specific reason why a rat is seen as an effective tactic is
mentioned). Even when Skyping, employees must stand.
While Im much more intrigued by the idea of a walking meeting that Silverman
suggests as a option to run a better meeting with, the idea of standing does have its
perks. Other times the concept doesnt sit so well with me (you were waiting for
that pun, werent you?) so I looked into what exactly both styles of meetings have
to offer to benefit the company and the team overall.
Time
Clearly standing room only is meant to save time and get everyone back to work
which is ideal especially for those with demanding positions but a short meeting
isnt always the better option. This depends on what your definition of a short
meetup is. For Atomic Object, this means meetings last for five minutes or less.
Within other workspaces, gathering the group together alone would probably take
at least five minutes not to mention moving furniture around so everyone gets a
spot without having to cram together. Why not just email all of the necessary
information over if you only plan to speak for five minutes?
The only time slot I can see this fitting into best is early in the morning when most
of the employees are present or even in a quick after-hours session. While ideal for
the briefest of catch-ups especially within an office where all schedules contrast
with one another, you might find yourself spending more time planning how to
coordinate the meeting than you initially thought you would.
The "stand-up meeting," which is also called the "morning roll-call" takes away all
the chairs and is a significantly shorter meeting aimed at updating everyone on the
ins-and-outs of the company. It's almost like a "status update," Jason Yip says in
his blog post and its just as effective as the longer, boring, groan-inducing
meetings.

22

Rachel Emma Silverman at the WSJ reports:

Stand-up meetings are part of a fast-moving tech culture in which sitting has
become synonymous with sloth. The object is to eliminate long-winded confabs
where participants pontificate, play Angry Birds on their cellphones or tune out.
The meeting typically lasts for five minutes and the "more uncomfortable, really,
the better," so feel free to remove the tables as well.
One company in Florida actually had the speaker hold a 10-pound medicine ball to
refrain them from talking too long, writes Daniel Roth at the LinkedIn blog. In
other words, "go on too long and your arms remind you to shut up."
More than a decade ago, Allen Bluedorn, a professor at the University of Missouri,
conducted a study on stand up meetings and concluded that they were about 34
percent shorter than sit-down meetings, yet produced the same solutions.
In order for stand up meetings to be short and effective, every detail that takes up
extra time should be eliminated. For example, there's no need to waste time on
figuring out who the speaker is, so, instead, make the last person to arrive the
speaker, then continue around the circle.
"It doesn't matter if it is clockwise or counter-clockwise. What does matter is that
the team runs the meeting, not the facilitator or manager," Yin says.

So here I am, at this partners site, working through this session with them and I
noticed two things as we progressed through the day:
1) I was the only one standing during the meeting and
2) They started out fairly close to me and throughout the meeting actually kept
moving backwards in their chairs.
Several explanations exist for my colleagues behavior:
a)

I smell (Unlikely. I was chewing gum! I smell like flowers!)

23

b)

They were intimidated by my menacing 53 stature

c)

There is an epidemic of sitting sickness going around the office

d)
They dont usually stand up during meetings and didnt understand what was
going on.
So which was it? (My money is on d)
To stand or not to stand?
There are plenty of reasons why people dont like standing during meetings. These
reasons range from being nervous presenters to being disengaged, but Id like to
give you five reasons to get on up* during your meetings and interact with other
people, technology and content:
1.
People will know what youre talking about! You know that scene where
youre pointing at something from your seat and everyone is looking in a
completely different region of the screen? Stop the confusion! Stand up and
annotate!
2.
Higher number of steps on your Fitbit and it really just makes you feel less
tired and stops you from shopping online or otherwise distracting yourself during
the meeting.
3.
Write group notes instead of individual notes less work for people and
greater clarity on roles, responsibilities and action items when you have a single
source to collectively reference from a meeting.
4.
A visual is worth 1000 words were all adults here, no need to be
embarrassed about our artistic skills. Its about creating charts, sketches, lines and
shapes that communicate visually to your peers instead of them having to
remember everything you say.
5.
Add value to your meetings when youre standing, youre more engaged,
and higher engagement means youre more likely to have good ideas and add more
value to the meeting

24

This Weeks Insight: No one likes sitting through an endless meeting, and one
psychology study suggests how to cut them shorter: Stand up!
Sit-down meetings are, on average, 34 percent longer than stand-up ones,
according to a 1999 paper published by University of Missouri researchers in the
Journal of Applied Psychology. And those longer sit-down meetings dont
necessarily produce better-quality decisions, either, as anyone who has ever been
trapped in one can confirm.
The Evidence: Researchers split 555 undergrads into 111 groups of 5, and tasked
them with a classic problem-solving survey used in psychology experiments: the
Lost on the Moon exercise, which asks participants to imagine that theyve
crash-landed on the moon, and must rank the 15 most-important objects that will
get them back to safety. About half of the teams of five assembled in a room with a
table and chairs; the others met in a room with no furniture, and were instructed to
remain standing the whole time. (Researchers were stationed near each of the
rooms, inconspicuously timing the groups.)
Afterward, the researchers compared the way the groups ranked the items
importance with expert rankings, and, to their surprise, the sitting and standing
groups rankings were nearly identical. Theyd hypothesized the opposite that
the standing group would be less comfortable, and so theyd be more likely to rush
through the exercise, potentially resulting in errors. One reason this may be the
case: By standing, youve naturally taken on a power pose, one of the postures
that researchers like Harvards Amy Cuddy have found may help our brains
function under stress.
Why It Matters: Who wouldnt want to make meetings shorter, especially if the
quality of ideas generated wouldn't suffer? Besides, as most of us are now well
aware, sitting is the new smoking; too much time on our butts has been linked to an
increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic health conditions.
Were already sitting, on average, for 9.3 hours every day; lets take back some of
that time where we can.

25

1.4 KEEP THE DISCUSSION RELEVANT

1. Definition Discussion
The discussion is how to exchange opinions between two or more people to
obtain agreement or a joint decision.
2. Implementation of Discussion
a. Discussion Chairman / Moderator duty:
1. Delivering the issues to be discussed
2. Delivering the order of discussion
3. Maintain order discussion
4. Provide opportunities for all speakers untukberpartisipasi
5. Set the discussion
6. Make a summary and conclusions discussion
7. Announcing the results of the discussion
8. Close the discussion
b. Secretary in charge:
1. Record ns yaama participants occurred during the discussion
2. Take note of the special things that happened during the discussion
3. Make notes and temporary kesipulan
4. Make a complete discussion of the report after the discussion ends
c. Resource persons in charge:
1. Menyipkan and outlines the material or material to be discussed

26

2. Deliver materials have been prepared to participants

3. Responding to the responses of the participants in the subject matter
of
discussion
d. Participants Discussion on duty:
1. Prepare materials related to the issues discussed
2. Participate in talks with a spirit of cooperation
3. Responsible for the results of the discussion

3. Steps Discussion
a. Discuss the background and problem discussion
b. Discuss the causes of problems and troubleshooting purposes expected
c. Discuss possible solutions
d. Concludes the discussion
e. Implementing decisions discussion
4. Benefits Disusi
a. Discussion is one of the most effective means of solving
b. Being accustomed to be active in influencing and influenced
c. Can share experiences, observing each other, sizing each other up, each
taking lessons with other participants
5. Rules Discussion
a. Asking questions
1. The question submitted to the background obscurity
2. The questions should be relevant to the issues under discussion
3. The question should not repeat the question the other participants
4. Question submitted by the smooth and clear
5. Questions submitted after the welcome by the moderator
b. Expression
1. Opinion delivered clearly and not long-lete
2. The opinion was delivered after the welcome moderator

6. Type Discussion
a. Panel Discussion
27

b.

c.

d.

e.

f.

g.

The panel discussion was followed by a discussion moderated two to

four speakers, and followed by many participants.
The speaker is a person who served as panelists presenting the material
or matter of discussion.
The participants are only entitled to listen, if given the chance, they can
ask questions or respond to the author's opinion.
The objective panel discussion is to provide understanding to the listener
about a problem.
Seminar
The seminar is a regular meeting held by a person who is carrying out
his duties. The material presented presenters discussed from various
aspects and perspectives.
The seminar aims to find a way or a way of solving the problem.
Workshop (Workshop)
Workshop (Workshop) is a special meeting attended by a group of
people whose jobs are similar.
Purpose of the workshop to evaluate the project work has been carried
out and exchange experiences to improve the quality of work in order to
more effectively and efficiently.
Meeting
Meeting is a gathering of representatives echelon of an agency to discuss
relating to the duties or functions of the agency. Issues discussed were
the work program to be implemented.
Symposium
The symposium was followed by a general discussion moderator, several
speakers, and many participants. Sometimes also an observer.
The symposium began with a speech by the speaker and followed by a
question and answer.
The symposium aims to equip participants with a number of materials,
insight or knowledge.
Conference
Conference is a discussion organized by an agency or organization that
discuss actual problems.
The Conference aims to discuss the policies have been carried out
previously as the evaluation process.
Congress / Conference

28

Congress or conference is a meeting of representatives of organizations

(polities, social, profession) to discuss and take decisions together facing
a problem related to the organization. This event is held regularly by a
large organization that has many branches in different regions.
h. Briefing
Briefing Meetings have been held to provide deployment (instructions,
explanations) brief before the implementation of activities.
7. Prepare a report Discussion
End of discussion activity is the preparation of a report by notulois assisted
by other firefighters. There are various models of reporting the discussion.
Some of them are as follows:
a. Model I
1. The topic or issue being discussed
2. The purpose of the discussion
3. Implementing and discussants
a. Sources, which convey the thoughts, speakers or keynote address which
present a paper, or penelis
b. Moderator, who led the discussion
c. The author, who recorded the questions, opinions, and comments relating
to the issues discussed
d. Participant
4. The material in the form of discussion papers and discussion
5. The place, time, and organizers
That the report contains a discussion that these things can be presented
clearly, the full report was presented with a systematic discussion below.
1. Introduction
a. Background
b. Objective discussion
c. The topic or issue discussion
d. The place, time, and participants
2. The results of the discussion
a. The main points of discussion grain material; the main points of the paper
presented by the speakers and comparison (if any), if the discussion in the
form of seminars, symposia; basic thoughts of panelists and participants'
responses (when discussions are held in the form of a panel discussion);
29

thoughts of participants potion opinion (if the discussion held in the form of
opinion potion discussion / brainstorming)
b. The questions and responses submitted by participants (ploor).
3. Conclusion
This conclusion section can contain the following:
a. Conclusion The results were processed discussion of the main ideas in
the paper, both presented by the speakers as well as a comparison, the
responses of the participants (if the discussion in the form of seminars,
symposia, workshops); panelists basic thoughts and responses of the
participants (if the discussion in the form of a panel discussion); thoughts
of participants potion opinion (if discussion potion shaped opinion)
b. Problems still remain and have not been thoroughly discussed (if any).
c. Further suggestions are based on the discussion.
4. Appendix
This annex contains things that are attached to support the contents of
the report. Attachments can contain the following:
a. Papers
b. Discussion
c. Committee discussion
d. List of participants

b. Model II
For enrichment, attention models meeting notes below.
1. Title
2. Introduction
a. Meeting Objectives
b. Meeting Themes
c. Day / date and place of the meeting
3. Implementing rapot
a. Speaker
b. Reporter
c. Moderator
d. Participant

30

4.
5.
6.
a.
b.
c.

The results of the meeting

Conclusion
Annexes
Papers
The composition of the committee
List of attendees

c. Model III
REPORT DISCUSSION
Theme: ................................................ ....
Day / Date: ..................................................................................... .
Title / papers: .............................................. ...................................
Moderator: ................................................ ......................................
SUMMARY RESULTS DISCUSSION
...........................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................
Knowing, ........................., ........................
Chairman

Reporter

Keep students engaged and actively learning with focused, relevant

discussion
Second only to lecture as the most widely used instructional strategy, there's
no better method than classroom discussion to actively engage students with course
material. Most faculty are not aware that there is an extensive body of research on
the topic from which instructors can learn to facilitate exceptional classroom
31

discussion. Discussion in the College Classroom is a practical guide which utilizes

that research, frames it sociologically, and offers advice, along with a wide variety
of strategies, to help you spark a relevant conversation and steer it toward specific
learning goals.
Applicable across a spectrum of academic disciplines both online and on
campus, these ideas will help you overcome the practical challenges and norms
that can undermine discussion, and foster a new atmosphere of collaborative
learning and critical thinking. Higher education faculty are increasingly expected
to be more intentional and reflective in their pedagogical practice, and this guide
shows you how to meet those expectations, improve student outcomes, and tackle
the perennial problem of lagging engagement.
Thoroughly grounded in the scholarship of teaching and learning, this book
gives you concrete guidance on integrating discussion into your courses. You'll
learn to:

Overcome the challenges that inhibit effective discussion

Develop classroom norms that facilitate discussion
Keep discussion focused, relevant, and productive
Maximize the utility of online student discussions

The kind of discussion that improves learning rarely arises spontaneously.

Like any pedagogical technique, careful planning and smart strategy are the keys to
keeping students focused, engaged, and invested in the conversation. Discussion in
the College Classroom helps you keep the discussion applicable to the material at
hand while serving learning goals.
Methods of discussion or deliberation is a group activity in solving problems
to draw conclusions. Application of the method of discussion for Islamic religious
education in order to achieve its objectives, teachers need to prepare the following
provisions: Teachers should really be able to provide a clear discussion of the task
means not vague about how and goals to be achieved. Teachers should really can
be sufficient organizer so that chaos does not occur. Group discussion should be
not too big, so not too crowded and noisy. Leaders should be submitted to their
own to select it. Try to keep each student turn to speak. Try to keep each student
learn to be patient to listen to and understand other people's opinions. Try not to
32

cause a sense kelompokisme. Try to prepare and equip all data sources are
required, both of which are available at the school and who are out of school. Also,
keep the topic or problem that will be made in the discussion points can be taken
from textbooks pupils, from newspapers, from everyday events around the school
and community activities that are the center of attention of locals.
By using this discussion children can develop tolerance, demikrastis, critical
thinking, systematic in solving a problem. But in Islamic religious education
discussion method is widely in use in the field of shari'ah and morals, are matters
of faith (aqidah) less in accordance with this method.
Discussion Methods In Learning
Discussion Learning Methods
Illustration Discussions Learning Discussion in the learning method is a way
of presentation / delivery of lessons where the teacher provides opportunities for
students / groups of students who hold a scientific discussion to brainstorm, make a
conclusion or making a variety of alternative solutions to a problem.
Discussion forum can be attended by all students in the classroom, can also
be formed small groups. Noteworthy bleary-eyed students should actively
participate in any discussion forum. More and more students involved and donate
pikirannnya, the more they can learn. It should also be noted the role of the teacher.
If the interference and play commands of teachers, students undoubtedly will not
be able to learn a lot.
Forms Discussion
Discussion in the learning method has several forms, namely:
1. The social problems of meeting
In the form of this discussion, the students talked to solve social
problems in the classroom or in the school with the expectation that every
student will feel compelled to learn and behave in accordance with the
applicable rules.
2. The open-endet meeting

33

The students talked about what issues. relate to their daily lives, their life
at school, with everything that is happening in the environment around
them.
3. The educational-diagnosis meeting
4. The students talked about in class with a view to correcting each other
their understanding of the subjects who had received so that each of the
members gain a better understanding.
Step-by-Step Discussion
Discussion in the learning method has the following steps:
Teachers raised the issue that will be discussed and provide
necessary guidance on ways to solve them.
With the leadership of teachers, students formed a discussion
group, choose the discussion leader (chairman, secretary / recorder,
reporter, and so on (if necessary), adjust the seat, room facilities
and so forth.
The students discuss in their group while teachers around from one
group to another group to maintain and provide encouragement
and support fully so that each member of the group to participate
actively facilitate discussion shooting went smoothly.
Then each discussion group reported the results of their discussion.
The results of the discussion were reported taken by all students
(especially for other groups). Teachers gave reviews and explains
the stages of these reports.
The students record the results of these discussions, and the
teachers collect the discussion of each group, after the students
noted for class files.
Role of Teachers Within leads Discussion
In the process of discussion, the role of the teacher is very important to ensure the
discussions went well. Here is the role of the teacher in the method of discussion:
1. Guides
Teachers provide general guidance in discussions to achieve progress in the
discussion .. Master formulate the discussion in case of a deviation from the
34

problem. If teachers experienced in discussions happening clogged answer,

then take the road to the student teacher so that the discussion went
smoothly
2. Trafficker
The teacher asks all the questions on a regular basis for all members of the
discussion, the teacher can keep all members take turns to speak are usually
held order-order or guaranteed, teachers maintain that the discussion should
not solely controlled by the students who love to talk, teacher to pupil the
quiet and shy teachers have to push so that he dared to his opinion.
3. Diding deterrent
Teacher or discussion leader should reflect all of the questions posed to all
the followers of the discussion. He did not have to answer the questions that
should be given to him. He can only answer questions that can not be
answered by the followers of the discussion. It is intended that all followers
can
answer
discussion.
Benefits
Method
Discussion
Discussion group / class can provide a valuable contribution to student
learning, among others:
Help students to arrive at a better decision than he decide for
themselves, because there are a variety of other participants contribute
thoughts presented from different points of view. 2
They do not get stuck with the way his own mind that sometimes
wrong.
All learning activities will gain mutual support of the whole group /
class to obtain better learning outcomes.
Help close or strengthen relationships between classroom activities
with the level of attention and the degree of the class members.
If done carefully, the discussion is how to learn a fun and stimulating
experience, as it can constitute a waiver of ideas and depth, insight
about something.
Advantages And Cons Methods Discussion According Subroto (2002: 185)
there are some advantages and disadvantages of the method of discussion are
as follows:
A. Advantages of the method of discussion
Discussion methods involve students directly in the learning process.

35

 Each student can test their knowledge and mastery of the lesson
materials respectively.
Discussion method can cultivate and develop a way of thinking and
scientific attitude.
By filing and maintaining his opinions in discussion is expected that
students will be able to gain the trust will (ability) yourself.
Discussion method can support efforts to develop a democratic social
attitudes
and
attitudes
of
the
students.
B. The disadvantage in the discussion
A discussion can not be predicted in advance because the results
depend on how the student leadership and participation of its
members.
A discussion requires certain skills that have not been previously
studied.
The discussion can be controlled (dominated) by some students who
stand out.
Not all can be used as the principal topic of discussion, but the only
things that are problematic that can be discussed.
Depth discussion takes that much. Students should not feel chased by
time.
Feeling limited in time lead to superficiality in the discussion so that
the results are not useful.
If the atmosphere is warm and student discussions have dared to
express their thoughts then it is usually difficult to limit the subject
matter.
Often occur in children less daring discussion express their opinions.
The number of students in a class that is too large will affect every
student to express his opinion

36

1.5 Be A Story Letter

For Beginners: The dilemma between 'to be considered' and 'smart ass'
For a beginner, public speaking is a serious struggle. If you are a beginner
and speaking in public for the first time (seminars, conferences, etc.), you may
need to prepare a special strategy. Among Asians, to be young and clever that
sometimes considered threatened. Many people are not easy to accept gracefully
when there is someone who is much younger than they are standing in front of and
speak, let alone patronize. Not only in Asia, it is also happening in other parts of
the world. Meanwhile, the young must have had a target to be 'considered' and
calculated so tempted to perform excellent and spill all abilities. On the other hand,
this could be an attempt to make him look 'smart ass' and becoming increasingly
threatening. Viewers may be increasingly dislike, the more intimidated. This wellintentioned style may actually backfire if not applied with baik.Ketika speaking in
OSLO in 2008, I explained my ideas in front of the gods in the continental shelf. I
realized that I was not nothing compared to them, but I also want to use that
moment to show themselves. So I start my presentation by saying "I feel very
honored to exist in this forum, meet with people whose names I used to read in
journals and books. You all are the gods in this field and I have learned a lot to you
all. Therefore I will not pretend to be an expert, let alone patronize. I beg leave to
present the results of my study of journals and books you've written. I will convey
my understanding of this exciting field. "As he spoke thus, I also mention some
famous names, nodding or smiling appointed.
When asked to speak at the UGM FISIPOL accompanying Prof. Hasjim
Djalal with Moderator Prof. Ichlasul Amal, I spent the first 5 minutes to flatter the
greatness of the two figures. Not made-up, but it was. I even invited the audience

37

to clap for two figures who I respect and admire it. Thus, the seniors usually feel
more comfortable.

Accompanied by stories
We also often speak in front of teachers and lecturers us. We recommend
taking the time to greet them at the start of the presentation and say how much we
learn from them. That they are a teacher and you're trying to either continue the
good things that they have pioneered. Teachers keep teachers. For example, by
saying, "many years ago, in an event like this I would sit in the back there, stunned
to witness the mastery Mr. X who now sit in front of me. It was an honor never
gain knowledge of him and now can try to continue his ideals to share this
knowledge. Actually I nervous Pak, but hopefully I do not disappoint my father as
a teacher. "It can be said, half jokingly that the seriousness and cozy atmosphere
created by both. Importantly, do not focus on glorifying others and put themselves
in the position of the low and ignorant. The important thing after the praise of
others is to show that you have been trying hard and will perform as good as
mungkin.Cerita is so powerful medium for spreading ideas in a way that is easily
understood and enjoyable. Note Obama when expressed ideas about health care.
He always started with the story of a young mother whose life is difficult in a small
town in America. He sometimes told me about an email he received from a student
who could not continue their education. The story that makes people easily moved
and can finally understand how important it is for American health care. Anies
Baswedan too. In presenting the idea of the magnitude of the Indonesian teaching,
presenting Badwater fluently through simple stories that inspire. The original story
that touches the daily life is far more effective than the well-established theory
with scientific reworded as written in the book-buku.Jika your neighbor something
scientific presentation, can tell you about a case that you encounter. Experience in
the lab, the experience in the implementation of a model, penangani patient
experience and so could be an interesting story that makes the audience understand
more easily. In addition to easy to understand, the story could also make viewers
be sure that you not only understand the theory but also practitioners grounded.
When talking about the border, for example, I told him about my experience

38

berkunjug to various countries and meet interesting phenomenon about the border.
Want to become a good public speaker, collect good stories from now.
Most presenters only use a single procedure is to explain / give a definition
of these points. Though there are various ways to deliver your message to the
audience, for example by using stories, games or video according to your message.
The best way to convey the message is to use the story. Why? Because the
story is able to touch the emotions of the audience, this is a difficult thing to do by
the data, statistics and graphs (except graph showing the increase in your salary).
By telling you can also convey a message without sounding patronizing. Therefore,
use stories in your presentation.
Stories in presentations bring to life abstract data. Far from diluting your
message, stories can underscore and strengthen your points. Storytelling is a
technique that enables your listeners to better hear, understand, and remember what
you say. To pull it off, you don't need a degree in drama. All you need is knowhow.
Sweet reason has its place. Still, a common trap that presenters fall into is a
disproportionate reliance on facts, data, raw information without emotional appeal.
Put up the graphs, the pie charts, the numbers that support the logic of your
argument, but will logic alone move people to action? Emotion can ignite your
audience not just to listen but to act on your ideas. Often your task as a presenter is
not to intellectualize emotion, but to emotionalize intellect.
With well-planned stories, you can break down barriers and get closer to the
emotional drivers of your audience. Studies repeatedly show that when you reach
people on an emotional level, they hear, understand, and remember more of what
you have to say.
Just as good communicators are made, not born, good storytellers can master
the art. Here are a few pointers to get you started.
Plain. Keep it simple. Don't dive into complicated epics. Pare down to the
essentials. Use eye focus, pauses, a strong voice, appropriate body language, and
facial expressions to convey feeling.

39

Light. Make sure your story is appropriate to your audience. Use good
judgment. Don't dwell on grisly details, depressing diatribes, and the like. The
story you weave should connect to your content and overall purpose.
Obvious. Be clear and focused. At the end of the story, your listeners
shouldn't wonder why you told the story or how it links to the issue at hand.
Tight. Keep it short. Rehearse the story so you can tell it easily and at a
comfortable pace in just a few minutes. You may want to tape yourself telling it so
you can edit dull areas and punch up your delivery wherever necessary.
Remember, storytelling is just good, basic communication at work. What's
"new" about it is that there are steps to follow to make you effective. These steps
let you study and practice the process so that you can incorporate it seamlessly into
your "best, natural style."
We are being told to be storytellers. In fact, storytelling is everywhere.
Storytelling has evolved into a model for how a brand relates with its potential
consumers, even business consumers. There is even a theory to storytelling.
But, when we sit in the trenches with a mound of data and are asked to be
storytellers, we may shutter. Sometimes it feels like we are just being told dont
bore me. How do I become a storyteller and not just a mere presenter?

First you need to recognize that there are different stort types mysteries,
sagas, romances, etc. Heroes overcome and triumph, sometimes by guile,
sometimes by strength. And then again, sometimes a story isnt so much about a
hero as it is about a group that comes together and forges a new identity
sometimes a family, sometimes a nation.
There may be different types of stories, but they all have beginnings,
middles, and ends. A presentation often feels like a collection of discrete
arguments, each slide meant to prove a point. But a story is like a river, connected
at all times through themes, through characters to both the beginning and the
end. Storytelling is about discovery; storytelling is immersive.

40

For those of you who were not raised as storytellers, here are a few specific
tips:
a. Remember, whatever you say connects what came before with what
comes next. Telling stories is all about transitions. In telling a story you
are not making an argument; you are taking the audience on a journey of
discovery.
b. Stories have a focus, a main character with whom the audience can relate.
So, give your data a character that moves from the beginning to the final
insight. The audience should always be aware of this character and her
place in the story. Sometimes, this means personifying the consumer, the
brand, the positioning, or whatever. And, it can mean personifying the
audience, casting them in the role of a hero on the quest of insight.
c. Leave room for surprises; no story is exciting without it. An insight is
simply a finding made new and exciting by a sense of discovery and
surprise.
d. The corollary of surprise is anticipation. Tell your story as if there is
always something better, more interesting and valuable around the corner.
When you reach the end, would you rather your audience feel they
have been presented with a logical conclusion or experienced the
explosion of a new insight?
e. When I talk to consumers, I encourage them to find metaphors within
themselves. Metaphors give voice to truths and bring richness to the
experience. Moreover, a great metaphor is memorable.
We can all become better storytellers by being attuned to our culture.
Stories are the ways we all tell the truths about ourselves without realizing it. And,
just as in society, stories are what connect the reality of consumers to the needs of
marketers.
http://crresearch.com/2012/03/19/be-a-storyteller-not-a-data-presenter/

1.6 Keep it Short and Sweet

Short & sweet is the way to go
Does your business send out newsletters or create blog posts? If so, then you likely
know that niggling feeling that tells you more is better. Its not true though. While
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more is certainly better in some cases, when it comes to words its not. In fact, the
shorter you make each post, the better. People just dont have the time to read
through lengthy posts these days. Heres how to create quality content without
being too wordy:
1.Focus on one topic: This is a difficult task for most small business owners.
Besides the fact that were inclined to think that more is better, theres just so much
we want to say to our customers. Save it for the next post, trust me. Your
newsletter should cover one topic and one topic only, whether youre asking
subscribers to attend an event, like your Facebook page or to make a purchase, you
should only send one request.
2.Put your call of action in the second paragraph. Most business owners forget to
put a call to action in there at all. Make it the goal of each post what do you want
them to do after reading it? Click the like button? Register for an event? Purchase a
product? Always make sure you have a clear call to action and that its somewhere
near the top of your newsletter or post.
3.Keep it short like, under 5 paragraphs short. Theres no need to write a novel
here. The best posts are about 4 paragraphs in length. Break the text up visually by
using bullet points and lists. Most people are lazy readers and prefer to scan for
information, rather than read text in its entirety.
4.Use a casual, conversational tone. Speak to your readers the same way you
would speak to one of your friends casually, and easily but not too casually.
You dont want to offend.
Keeping your posts short and sweet will ensure that your readers read right through
to the end and know exactly what you want them to do. Trust me, people will
appreciate the time youve saved them and may even reward you by doing exactly
what you ask them to do.
In our daily communications, we strive to be creative and grammatically correct
when we write. However, we need to be clear and concise in the world of
messaging. Digital signage messaging should be just that a message not a
lengthy narrative that packs too many words onto a small screen. Your audience is

42

on the go and needs to receive only the most important information in a compact
format.
Keep in mind that the fewer words you use in your messages, the more impact they
will have. You can increase font size instead of relying on your audience to read
long sentences or paragraphs of information to glean meaning and relevance.
Delivery of messaging to smartphones, tablets and desktop messenger platforms
require brevity. Also, concise messaging allows you to rotate messages more
frequently, exposing your audience to more communications in less time.
Never bury the lead. Make sure that you present the most important facts first. As
you see in our example, using a brief title is a great way to grab attention and
create interest.
Drop unnecessary words. Eliminate unimportant phrases and prepositions as weve
done here. (For a handy list of English prepositions, click here.)
Be specific. Make sure places, dates and times are complete and exact. Weve
changed conference room to Conference Room A and have expanded the date
wording.
Present all the facts. Although were tightening up the text, we dont want to leave
any important details out of the message. In our example, weve added the
scheduled end time to the meeting.
Remember: The better your messages are received the more your audience will
rely on and look for them on a regular basis.
Keep your message concise:

This extremely important aspect to effective communication is often

abbreviated as K.I.S.S. (or, Keep it Simple, Stupid.) While this is not the most
effective way to communicate this valuable lesson, it is an in-your-face reminder
that keeping your message short and simple can be the difference between a bright,
engaging communication and one which is overpowering and over-burdensome.

43

When you are speaking in front of a group, good rule of thumb is to never
go on past 20 minutes. Often, this is the optimum amount of time that your
audience is going to give you their undivided attention before they begin to tune
you out. Now this is not a set figure, and if your message is not captivating,
entertaining and interactive you are probably going to have even less time before
you lose your audience.
Additionally, if you are using a powerpoint presentation or other visual aid,
make sure not to overpower them with unnecessary explanations and text. A good
rule is to keep your slides to 10-20 words per slide, with approximately 10-20
slides per presentation.
"Oops," said the text message to Ian Thorpe after he was disqualified for a false
start. Thorpe later commented that "oops" said it all.
Australians love to talk sport. If you counted all the words used on the topic of
sport on one nominated day then put a tax on it, you'd raise enough to cancel the
foreign debt of a small African country.
But of all the talk in the fallout from Thorpe's fall-in, I liked "oops" best. Simply
for its pithiness, unbeatable.
Pithiness has been defined as "terseness and economy in language use achieved by
expressing a great deal in just a few words". The fact that this definition itself is
quite unpithy seems to have escaped the notice of the team of lexicographers
assigned to "p" words. I would have thought it would be nice to define "pithy"
pithily, if only for the quiet satisfaction of a smug moment as you enjoy its pointed
reflexivity - the way one can with "spellczech" (sic) and "tyop" (sic).

What's missing from this dictionary definition is pithy's positive connotation. The
fact is, we like the pithy and dislike the longwinded. Perhaps we prefer to associate
with slim-of-body and lithe-of-limb. Beats longwinded, weighed down by layers of
verbal excess.

44

So, if a piece of language was tersely economical but the meaning was essentially
negative, such as the notorious "whatever", I wouldn't call it "pithy". I'd call it
rude.
One aspect of pithy's appeal is its brevity. This is the age of information overload,
where the news is the sum total of so many discrete soundbites. Fast, furious and
finished. We read the reviews, not the books, skim the headlines, not the article,
view lifestyle programs rather than having a lifestyle. Not surprising that shortand-sweet appeals more than long-and-tedious.
As a culture, we award the brownie points unashamedly. Consider the cluster of
words congregating around "concise" in the thesaurus such as "crisp", "succinct",
"to the point" . Then consider the antonyms - "wordy", "garrulous", "pretentious".
Putting it pithily, less is more.
But it's not merely brevity that accounts for pithy's appeal. Built into the pithy
remark is a wealth of assumed knowledge that the speaker willingly shares with the
listener. Packed tight into Thorpe's "oops" was compassion ("I feel for you"),
commiseration ("I'm sorry this happened to you"), alleviation ("It could happen to
anyone"). In addition, a gentle admonishment ("Thorpie, it's only a race, nobody
died"). If you doubt this, consider how inappropriate "oops" would be after a fatal
highway head-on collision.
I recall a "pithy" instance that was attributed to Harry F. Wolcott, a qualitative
researcher who probably got sick of having to justify his position - words provide
meaningful data. When asked what you can learn from one case study, he replied,
"All you can."
A while back, in a post where I discussed the agile methodology (It pays to be
agile) I quoted one of George Orwells rules, If it is possible to cut a word out,
always cut it out. and then proceeded to show how even this rule was too verbose.

Georgy Boy had more than this one rule in his arsenal and a whole treatise ) that
discusses them.

45

Way back when I started this blog, I enumerated my ten commandments so lets
see how what I think is the right way for technical writers to write stands up
against the great Orwellian writing rules.
George rule number one: Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech
which you are used to seeing in print.
My rule number 9: Dont use buzzwords. Our reasoning behind what are similar
rules are different, but the fact remains to quote from the Orwell treatise:
Common phrases have become so comfortable that they create no emotional
response. And in technical writing terms this means that the buzzword detracts
from what you want to say, adding nothing of value.
George rule number two: Never use a long word where a short one will do.
My rule number 4: Keep it simple, keep it short. Many of my posts have
advocated minimalistic documentation say what needs to be said as succinctly as
possible. The less the merrier.
George rule number three: If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible
degree (Ezra Pound). Accordingly, any words that dont contribute meaning to a
passage dilute its power. Less is always better. Always.
My rule number 4: See above.
George rule number four: Never use the passive where you can use the active.
My rules: More a technical writing rule than one of my ten. Actually, I disagree
with this rule for technical writing as well. I prefer to be active when referring to
the user and passive when referring to the software. Thus, click xyz to do
something. And then on a new line, again to differentiate what the user actively
does to the response by the system: The something happens (now is not the place
to discuss the age-old discussion about the merits of displayed versus appears,
etc.).
George rule number five: Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon
word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

46

My rule number 9: Buzzwords rear their ugly heads again.

George rule number six (out of five): Break any of these rules sooner than saying
anything outright barbarous. This bonus rule is a catch-all. Above all, be sure to
use common sense.
My rule number 11: Break any of these rules whenever necessary.
My other rules are aimed at technical writers and not nobel laureates. But I am sure
Mr. Orwell would agree that keeping the reader in mind, keeping the material
focused, and checking what you write are also valid rules.
And since I am making these rules I dont mind be a few days later than I said Id
be. Rules are, after all, made to be broken.

K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid; Keep It Short and Simple)

"KISS (also called the KISS principle or KISS system") usually stands for
Keep It Simple, Stupid. Like the harmless kiss, the KISS principleused in the
military, business and governmentholds that the simple method is the most
preferred. The Navy instituted a Project KISS in 1960.
The first KISS citation, however, appears in print in a 1958 North Carolina
newspaper and does not appear to be related to the military. A later KISS version
is Keep it Short and Simple.
Wikipedia: KISS principle
The KISS principle: KISS is a modern acronym for the empirical principle Keep
it Short and Simple, or the more recent and disparaging Keep it Simple, Stupid.
KISS states that design simplicity should be a key goal and that unnecessary
complexity should be avoided.
Related concepts
The principle most likely finds its origins in similar concepts, such as Occams
razor, and Albert Einsteins maxim that everything should be made as simple as
possible, but no simpler. Leonardo Da Vincis Simplicity is the ultimate

47

sophistication, or Antoine de Saint Exuprys It seems that perfection is reached

not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus Cars, urged his designers to Simplify, and
add lightness.
Rube Goldberg machines illustrate the sorts of problems that may arise with nonKISS, overly-complex solutions.
Instruction creep and function creep are examples of failure to follow the KISS
principle in software development. This is known as Creeping Featurism.
Keep it short and sweet, an advice to copy editors, is not normally abbreviated.
Historical Dictionary of American Slang
KISS interj. Orig. Mil. keep it simple, stupid! Joc.
1971 Rowe Five Years to Freedom 120 [ref. to 1963]: The old KISS formula,
Keep it simple, stupid, served as my guide as I built the biography.
1975 Univ. Tenn. student: KISSKeep It Simple, Stupid! I learned that in the
army [a 1970].
1977 Langone Life at Bottom 203: Used to have what we call the KISS System.
Which means, Keep It Simple, Stupid.
1980 Time (May 12) 33: The complex mission violated an old Army rule we
called KISS, meaning Keep it simple, stupid.
23 July 1958, Robesonian (Lumberton, NC), pg. 4, col. 1:
K-I-S-S
(Rocky Mount Telegram)
Signs with the single word, KISS, are being tacked up on walls in offices and
other places of business, it was explained here last week by James Webb of
Greensboro.
A variation of the sign, THINK, popularized some years ago, the new placard
takes on tantalizing undertones in the techniques of hidden persuasion.
48

What could the word KISS mean? Secretaries asked one another over their
morning cokes and coffee. Office boys made wisecracks. SUpervisors and
executives of junior and senior grades, including vice-presidents, were puzzled by
the banner with the strange device, reminiscent of the boy who bore the sign
Excelsior.
The mystery continued until one day, said Mr. Webb, the public relations director
of the firm decided to find out once and for all what the word meant. he asked the
boss point blank, What do the four lettersm K-I-S-S mean?
Keep It Simple, Stupid, replied the boy.
22 October 1959, New York (NY) Times, pg. 42:
HYPNOSIS SHOWN
TO DOCTORS HERE
Techniques Called Useful in
Mitigating PainRole of
patient Is Underscored
By MORRIS KAPLAN
These techniques need not involve elaborate showmanshipthe silk hat, the
cutaway coathe said. I use the KISS techniquethat is, Keep it Simple,
Stupid.
4 December 1960, Chicago (IL) Daily Tribune, Washington Scrapbook by Walter
Trohan, pg. 43:
Rear Adm. Paul D. Stroop, chief of the Navys Weapons Bureau, has instituted
Project KISS to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of the military
gadgets his organization produces.
KISS stands for Keep it simple, stupid.
13 February 1961, Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), pg. 19, col. 1:

49

The Navy has come up with a new code word for red tape papers. Nowadays, a
naval office worker may receive a document with the word KISS on it.
IT DOESNT mean what you think it meansit means, in Navy parlance, Keep
It Simple, Stupid!
8 November 1964, Washington (DC) Post, This Morning With Shirley Povich,
pg. C3:
When Ara Parseghian was coaching at Northwestern he mystified his assistants by
writing his coaching philosophy on the blackboard in four letters, KISS. Then he
explained its meaning: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
9 February 1972, Fresno (CA) Bee, pg. B1, col. 4:
Mrs. Ruth Brent of Downey offers a kiss for almost everyone who needs one
bachelors, busy housewives, career women, senior citizens, boaters, travelers.
KISS is what she calls her newly published book, Keep It Short and Simple,
which she discussed at the luncheon meeting yesterday of the Womens Auxiliary
to the Fresno County Medical Society at the Airport Marina.

1.7 Choose The Right Seat

You might not find this in a business book. Or discussed at a lecture. Nor at work.
50

Yet, when entering a boardroom for an important meeting, the question of where to
sit is not necessarily a trivial one. Look, I do not wish to exaggerate. Many factors
(content, preparation, appearance, language, posture etc etc) are often more
important. However, choosing the right seat in a room also matters.
Surprisingly, I have an opinion on the matter, and I share my experience, well
also to learn about different views.
Obviously, the position to choose varies depending on personal objectives:
If you aim for rapid disappearance or are worried of evacuation procedures, I
recommend a seat near the door.
Looking for distraction: sit opposite the window.
Not on a diet? Sit next to the cabinet with food, if available and discreetly
reachable.
However, this post is dedicated to those who want to have influence during a
meeting, exert authority even if initially they might not have the formal power.
Like I have been in that position many times if you are a consultant, or a
newcomer to a company.
Lets mark the setting first, I imagine a standard room shaped like the picture
below.

51

So there is a door, a series of seats parallel to each other, and the head of the
table with a screen or a monitor on the other hand.
Western and Asian sitting positions around the table
Convention is of course that the most senior person in the meeting will sit at
the head of the table. An exception would be in Asia where more often than not the
most senior person will sit in the middle of one of the horizontal rows, most likely
in the one closer to the door. I illustrate below with the blue dot identifying the spot
of the likely leader.

I presume, for the purposes of this post, that one can arrive early enough to choose
a spot. If you arrive late you can only sit where there is a free spot and already
giving away a possible advantage. So I recommend to arrive on time.
I tend to arrive early, and first of all look at the room and its setting. I walk around
a bit, I try and sense the feng shui around me, then I just breath the room in. I
identify where the most powerful person is likely to sit and then I let my instinct
choose. I make sure that my gut and my head agree. Maybe I even sit on the spot I
like to see how it feels. I think that taking the time to let our superconscious decide
is the best thing to do. But, more often than not, I follow the pattern that I explain
below. Please note these observations are more valid in a western setting, as I
have more experience there and also because otherwise I spend too much time
drawing tables in PowerPoint.
Understanding the power seat
Below, I mark in yellow what I call the power seat which is especially important
in a new meeting, when few people already know you and you wish to make an
impression.

52

Why is that seat important? In my view, it is because it allow for something I call:
the transfer of power, that is, a way to acquire and maintain attention from other
participants. I should also say that typically, I am very quiet at the start of the
meeting. I may introduce myself softly and briefly if asked, but I really try to be
subdued, not attract any attention. In the first few minutes of a meeting, my
purpose is to have people forget that I am there.
However, after a while, I speak. My first statement is typically short, but
pronounced loud. It is about something I am confident about (a fact I know, an
opinion I can defend) and ideally it is also new or controversial to the audience.
An example could be: It is nice to hear the company is growing. However, our
research clearly shows we are losing market share. Isnt That what we should
worry about?; or I find it interesting what Jane (a junior member of the meeting)
was saying especially if this Jane did make a good comment that no one listened
to; or finally as an example I would make up a metaphor: Isnt it time this team
ventures into the blue, clear and open waters of international expansion?
This type of strong statement, when accompanied by a right seating position, can
be powerful. They change entirely the dynamics of the room. All of the sudden,
from a hidden, non threatening position, it is possible to gain the upper end in the
energy flow of the room. I illustrate below:

53

The power shifts. People on the same side have to move to actually see me better
(and they become more alert by the simple act of moving). There is a peer
relationship established with formal power in the room (blue dot) as well as a
convergent deference from others in the room.
A couple of other remarks. If I already know the boss well (or if I am the boss), a
slightly different position, then I would sit next to the CEO. See below.

54

With regards to Asia, I put less thought on, but for the sake of completeness in that
case I would sit as per one of the yellow dots below, maybe the one to the right.

I am not sure these ideas would work for everyone. Some of my colleagues past
and present saw me adopting these techniques and in case they read this blog
they might add their comments on the effectiveness of my theory. To other readers,
I can only suggest to try, it might be fun!

55

Selling Succesfully
2.1

Be Client Centred
4 Great Veterinary Selling Tips Focusing on Client-Centred Value

Vet selling and tips to improve this ability is turning into a hot topic at the
moment. I recently posted how fear of price is the #1 reason why vets struggle to
sell veterinary services . This post will focus on the concept of client-centred
value.
Firstly, what is client-centred value? Client centred value simply means
talking about the veterinary service or treatment plan with your client from their
perspective. There are four elements to delivering client centred value that will
help you with vet selling.

Vet Selling Tip 1: Understand the client and what matters to them
You will be more successful at selling your professional recommendations to
your clients if you first take a few moments at the beginning of the consultation to:

Build rapport: ask them questions about themselves and their pets to break
the ice and show that you care. Spend a moment greeting the pet. Open ended
questions are best as they let the client speak freely.
Consider are they a fast or slow person? Im not talking about intelligence here.
The speed is referring to how they prefer to communicate. If they respond with
fast short sentences, this suggests they prefer fast. If they take their time, consider
their words, answer in long detailed sentences, they prefer slow paced.
Consider are they a task-focused or people-focused person? Task-focused
people will move from rapport building to the veterinary problem at hand very
quickly. If they are people-focused they will care about how things affect other
people, their feelings and their pets experiences.
56

The key to all of this consideration is to then deliver your service in a way that
suits this particular client. Speak faster with more facts with a fast and task
oriented person. For a people-oriented and slow person, talk slower be empathetic
and show you care.

Vet Selling Tip 2: Show them the problem

This is a step so often overlooked simply because we take for granted that as
vets, we know whats going on. But do your clients? The more they can
appreciate the significance and severity of the problem, the more likely the client
will be motivated to follow your treatment recommendation. There are many
different ways you can show the problem to your client and they could include:

Vet Selling Tip 3: Tell them both the benefits and the negative consequences if
they dont proceed.
Its always great to present a number of benefits the clients will receive
along with perhaps one negative consequence if they dont proceed. The key to
remember here is to speak in terms of benefits to the clients, not veterinary medical
benefits. Also, remember to speak using simple language and not veterinary
jargon. Ill illustrate this using a dental treatment as an example.

The benefits to performing a dental treatment could include: your pet will
have fresher breath which will mean more kisses and cuddles; your pet will be able
to eat any food without experiencing pain. Negative consequences of not
proceeding with treatment could include worsening dental disease to the point of a
tooth-root infection or bacteria circulating in the blood stream affecting other
organs.

57

Vet Selling Tip 4: Tell them all that you do for their pet
Again, this tip is often overlooked in favour of printing out a detailed
technical estimate and running through this with the client. The problems with
this approach are:

You are focused on veterinary jargon and not the elements of the procedure
that the owner cares about
Since the estimate is focused on money, money is all the client will focus on
So whats a better approach? Firstly, describe the procedure as though you
were telling a bed-time story. Include only the details that add value to the client.
Such things typically include:

who will be with the pet

what sort of procedures will happen when the pet is awake versus asleep
what medications are administered to calm the pet
what sort of bedding and handling with the pet experience
when should they hear from someone at the clinic
what sort of monitoring equipment will keep their pet safe in your hands

After you tell them the complete story of what you will be doing with their pet,
offer a simple price range, full stop. No plus this and optional that. If you believe
extras are necessary, put these into the story and include them in the price range.

Client-Centered Selling
Take advantage of this special opportunity to learn how your sales team can
achieve total market domination from the man Selling Power magazine called a
"sales superstar."

58

Doug Dayton left a successful sales career with IBM in 1982 to become
Microsofts 169th employee.

In this revolutionary presentation, Doug Dayton, the best selling author of

Total Market Domination and Selling Microsoft, describes how he helped
transform Microsoft's OEM sales organization into one of the most successful and
effective in business using a powerful, unique sales system known as ClientCentered Selling.

Your group will learn how it can use these same tools to exceed your sales
objectives:
Develop a clear, concise, compelling marketing story.
Sell "downhill" by mapping elements of your marketing story to individual
customers needs and concerns.
Master the five secrets of closing major accounts.
Use new technologies to leverage your selling efforts.

Extraordinary Client-Centred Selling

Duration2 day
It is during challenging times that sales professionals require new ideas,
reinvigorated approaches and quicker results. This programme is designed to
uniquely achieve this for you and your business.

59

Skills Practice throughout and Personalised Action Plans to ensure learning

is transferred back to the workplace with immediate effect.

Course Objectives

When you complete this programme:

New clients will say "This is what I want!"

Existing clients will be keen to demonstrate their loyalty to you and your
organisation
Sales flow more freely, especially in challenging times!
You will be consciously more competent
You will close sales more readily now!
Clients will listen and act upon your suggestions
You will have improved selling skills and stronger, longer-term client
relationships and critically you will have the core skillset to deliver
consistent levels of results, whilst your competition are left treading water

Course Agenda

1. Introduction to Customer-Driven Selling

2. The Essentials of Communication and an introduction to NLP in the selling
world
3. Your Communication Filter Profile what it means to your approach with
clients and how to flex your style for maximum results
4. Your Sales Process a structure for consistent success to include
appointment making and getting in front of decision makers
5. Critical questioning skills to identify your clients Map of the World using
innovative tried and tested 4C approach

60

6. Identifying client buying signals and tailoring our message and our Unique
Selling Points so we stand out from the crowd
7. Answering Questions and Doubts
8. Closing the deal confidently, cementing the sale and getting the Yes
Knowledge Level
New to sales professionals, existing sales professionals who require a fresh
approach to the role, existing sales professionals requiring international industry
standard sales training.

2.2

Show Your Client Whats In It For Them

Meeting with a client for the first time can be overwhelming, but like
anything in our careers, it is very exciting. You will find out that in order to
shine you need to take some advance steps for a successful first client
meeting. You have to organize and undertake possibly one of the most
important tasks in gaining the clients trust and achieving a successful
business relationship.
Here are some tips I developed earlier in my career to help you have a
successful first client meeting. View these nuggets as a series of processes to
integrate with each other, forming a whole. Always start your meeting on

61

time. Again, this goes hand in hand with showing your preparedness and
professionalism. Its not only your time being invested here, the client also
set apart a specific time in their busy agenda to meet with you. However, we
all know that emergencies happen. It is very important that you are punctual
with your clients and your work, for the reason that when emergencies do
happen, people will tend to forgive your need to postpone a meeting or a
deadline. Use ten to fifteen minutes before the meeting to go over your
notes and research. And before you meet the client make sure you spell out
their name correctly and know how to pronounce their name. Lastly, always
offer water, coffee, or soft drinks to the client before you start the
meeting.Managing the clients expectations is critical. First, you can manage
potential outlooks if you prepare and study the possible outcomes of the
issues at hand. Keep in mind, however, that you are not bulletproof and
certain things might be completely out of your control; you need to identify
those too. When you prepare for your meeting, review all main subjects to
be discussed with the client. Identify those areas where potential risks or
troubles might arise.Second, set appropriate boundaries of what your client
should expect from your services. Your preparation before the meeting
allows you to offer a rough estimate of what it might cost the client to
engage your services.When you manage the clients expectations there is a
greater likelihood that when things dont come out completely in his or her
favor, the client will not be surprised. This will preserve and strengthen the
bond of confidence between you and the client.
The first meeting with a new client is a lot like a first date. It's a
chance to put your best foot forward and lay the foundation for a successful
long-term working relationship. Then again, a first client meeting is also like
a job interview. You want to ooze professionalism, inspire confidence and
thoroughly convince the client that your potential client's money is in good
hands.
We've assembled five essential tips for making an excellent first
impression at a client meeting. We'll start off with something you can do
days before the meeting begins.While it's important to update your portfolio,
iron your dress slacks and practice your best "firm but friendly" handshake,
remember that a successful client meeting is all about listening. Get a head
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start by "listening" to what the client has to say on his or her Web site and in
the press. Keep reading for more research and planning tips.
When you're a start-up with few employees and few customers, it's
easy to stay on top of what customers want and what they're getting. But as
you add more customers and employees, you add links to the customer
service chain. That creates the potential for growth and the potential for poor
service along the way. That's why creating a customer service policy and
adhering to it is so important. Here are some steps you can take to ensure
that your clients receive excellent service every step of the way.
1. Put your customer service policy in writing. These principles should come
from you, but every employee should know what the rules are and be ready
to live up to them. This doesn't have to be elaborate. Something as simple as
"the customer is always right" can lay the necessary groundwork, although
you may want to get more detailed by saying, for instance, "any employee is
empowered to grant a 10 percent discount to any dissatisfied customer at any
time."
2. Establish support systems that give employees clear instructions for
gaining and maintaining service superiority. These systems will help you
outservice any competitor by giving more to customers and anticipating
problems before they arise.
3. Develop a measurement of superb customer service. Don't forget to
reward employees who practice it consistently.
4. Be certain that your passion for customer service runs rampant
throughout your company. Employees should see how good service relates
to your profits and to their futures with the company.
5. Be genuinely committed to providing more customer service excellence
than anyone else in your industry. This commitment must be so powerful
that every one of your customers can sense it.

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6. Share information with people on the front lines. Meet with your
employees regularly to talk about improving service. Solicit ideas from
employees-they are the ones who are dealing with customers most often.
7. Act on the knowledge that what customers value most are attention,
dependability, promptness and competence. They love being treated as
individuals and being referred to by name.
Phrases That'll Make Your Client Happy
Principles of customer service are all very well, but you need to put those
principles into action with everything you do and say. There are certain "magic
words" customers want to hear from you and your staff. Make sure all your
employees understand the importance of these key phrases:
"How can I help?" Customers want the opportunity to explain in detail
what they want and need. Too often, business owners feel the desire or the
obligation to guess what customers need rather than carefully listening first.
By asking how you can help, you begin the dialogue on a positive note (you
are "helping," not "selling"). And by using an open-ended question, you
invite discussion.
"I can solve that problem." Most customers, especially business-tobusiness customers, are looking to buy solutions. They appreciate direct
answers in a language they can understand.
"I don't know, but I'll find out." When confronted with a truly difficult
question that requires research on your part, admit that you don't know the
answer. Few things ruin your credibility faster than trying to answer a
question when you are unsure of all the facts. Savvy buyers may test you
with a question they know you can't answer and then just sit quietly while
you struggle to fake an intelligent reply. An honest answer enhances your
integrity.
"I will take responsibility." Tell your customer you realize it's your
responsibility to ensure a satisfactory outcome to the transaction. Assure the
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customer you know what he or she expects and will deliver the product or
service at the agreed-upon price. There will be no unexpected changes or
expenses required to solve the problem.
"I will keep you updated." Even if your business is a cash-and-carry
operation, it probably requires scheduling and coordinating numerous
events. Assure your customers they will be advised of the status of these
events. The longer your lead time, the more important this is. The vendors
customers trust the most are those that keep them apprised of the situation,
whether the news is good or bad.
"I will deliver on time." A due date that has been agreed upon is a promise
that must be kept. "Close" doesn't count.
"Monday means Monday." The first week in July means the first week in
July, even though it contains a national holiday. Your clients are waiting to
hear you say "I deliver on time." The supplier who consistently does so is a
rarity and will be remembered.
"It'll be just what you ordered." It will not be "similar to," and it will not
be "better than" what was ordered. It will be exactly what was ordered. Even
if you believe a substitute would be in the client's best interests, that's a topic
for discussion, not something you decide on your own. Your customer may
not know (or be at liberty to explain) all the ramifications of the purchase.
"The job will be complete." Assure the customer there will be no waiting
for a final piece or a last document. Never say you are finished "except
for...."
"I appreciate your business." This means more than a simple "Thanks for
the order." Genuine appreciation involves follow-up calls, offering to answer
questions, making sure everything is performing satisfactorily, and
ascertaining that the original problem has been solved.
Neglecting any of these steps conveys the impression that you were interested in
the person only until the sale was made. This leaves the buyer feeling deceived and
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used, and creates ill will and negative advertising for your company. Sincerely
proving you care about your customers leads to recommendations and repeat sales.

Never Let Your Client Forget You

One important tool for generating repeat business is following up. Effective
follow-up begins immediately after the sale when you call the customer to say
"thank you" and find out if he or she is pleased with your product or service.
Beyond this, there are several effective ways to follow up that ensure your business
is always in the customer's mind.
Let customers know what you are doing for them. This can be in the form
of a newsletter mailed to existing customers, or it can be more informal,
such as a phone call. Whatever method you use, the key is to dramatically
point out to customers the excellent service you are giving them. If you
never mention all the things you are doing for them, customers may not
notice. You aren't being cocky when you talk to customers about all the work
you have done to please them. Just make a phone call and let them know
they don't have to worry because you handled the paperwork, called the
attorney or double-checked on the shipment-one less thing they have to do.
Write old customers personal, handwritten notes frequently. "I was just
sitting at my desk and your name popped into my head. Are you still having
a great time flying all over the country? Let me know if you need another set
of luggage. I can stop by with our latest models any time." Or if you run into
an old customer at an event, follow up with a note: "It was great seeing you
at the CDC Christmas party. I'll call you early in the New Year to schedule a
lunch."
Keep it personal. Voice mail and e-mail make it easy to communicate, but
the personal touch is often lost. If you're having trouble getting through to
someone whose problem requires that personal touch, leave a voice-mail
message that you want to talk to the person directly or will stop by his or her
office at a designated time.
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 Remember special occasions. Send regular customers birthday cards,

anniversary cards, holiday cards...you name it. Gifts are excellent follow-up
tools, too. You don't have to spend a fortune to show you care; use your
creativity to come up with interesting gift ideas that tie into your business,
the customer's business or his or her recent purchase.
Pass on information. If you read an article, see a new book, or hear about
an organization a customer might be interested in, drop a note or make a
quick call to let them know.
Consider follow-up calls as business development calls. When you talk to
or visit old clients or customers, you'll often find they have referrals to give
you, which can lead to new business.
With all your existing customers can do for you, there's simply no reason not
to stay in regular contact with them. Use your imagination, and you'll think
of plenty of other ideas that can help you develop a lasting relationship. The
due diligence step goes hand-in-hand with your meeting preparation. In this
regard, there are two types of due diligence you must conduct. First, study
the client. Specifically, find out who the client is. Depending on the case or
issue at hand, you might want to know about what type of business they
operate or own, how long the client has been CEO of company X, etc.
Chances are that he or she is not a new client to the firm and you will have
an endless source of knowledge and insights from attorneys that have dealt
with the client before.
Secondly, conduct research regarding the main issues and questions the
client has. Normally, before meeting face-to-face with them youve had
some type of communication with the client, either by email or telephone.
In this first communication, take notes and highlight the key points of the
conversation. Analyze each point critically with your lawyer hat on and put
yourself in the clients shoes; come up with questions they might have
overlooked and be prepared to talk generally about the legal issues they are
facing.

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Unfortunately, your office is a trap with all types of distractions. When you
meet with the client for the first time (or any time) you need to be engaged
and focused. If you have the meeting in your office you will hear or see
emails pop up on your screen, your phone might ring one or several times,
people will sneak their heads in to tell you that you have another meeting in
fifteen minutes. You dont want that and the client will get the impression
he or she is not your top priority.
Meeting in a conference room or in a room where your daily gadgets are left
behind shows the level of commitment you have. The client will feel that
their business is in good hands and that they have your undivided attention.
This not only shows your professionalism but your courtesy towards the
client.
So book your conference room and on your way to your meeting, make sure
you leave your cell phone behind or at least put it on silent (not on vibrate)
mode. You dont want to be caught glancing at your texts, emails, or having
your client ask if you need to take that call.
Dealing With Unsatisfied Client
Studies show that the vast majority of unsatisfied customers will never come
right out and tell you they're unsatisfied. They simply leave quietly, later
telling everyone they know not to do business with you. So when a customer
complains, don't think of it as a nuisance-think of it as a golden opportunity
to change that customer's mind and retain his or her business.
Even the best product or service receives complaints now and then. Here's
how to handle them for positive results:
Let customers vent their feelings. Encourage them to get their frustrations
out in the open.
Never argue with a customer.

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 Never tell a customer "You do not have a problem." Those are fighting
words.
Share your point of view as politely as you can.
Take responsibility for the problem. Don't make excuses. If an employee was
sick or a supplier let you down, that's not the customer's concern.
Immediately take action to remedy the situation. Promising a solution and
then delaying it only makes matters worse.
Empower your front-line employees to be flexible in resolving complaints.
Give employees some leeway in deciding when to bend the rules. If you
don't feel comfortable doing this, make sure they have you or another
manager handle the situation.
Through the course of the meeting it is very likely that youll identify other
issues and discover other documents in the clients possession that you
need. Make a list of these documents and hand it to the client. Give a rough
deadline for when you need these documents.
After your meeting, write an email or letter to the client summarizing the
key subjects touched upon in the meeting. Within a week or so of your letter,
follow up with the client regarding any other information you have gathered
and remind them of the documents they need to send you if you have not
received them or if deadlines are approaching.It is essential you keep the
client up-to-date regarding any progress or issues you find along the way.
Once the meeting is winding down, go over any final subjects and ask the
client if they have any questions or doubts. This will assure the client you
have their best interest at heart.
In addition, thank the client for taking the time to meet you and reassure
them you will be in touch if any issues or alternatives come up; encourage
two way communication.

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Accompany the client to the reception area and shake their hand one more
time. Leave them with the feeling that their case is in the right hands.

2.3 Win The Others Success

A. Why Helping Others Succeed Can Be Your Greatest Success
This is foreign thinking to a culture that often sees the world as one giant
competition. In their mind, there is a set number of winners and losers.
And if somebody else wins, thats one less opportunity for me. But I
have come to realize the mindset of competition is based on a faulty
premise. It assumes there is a finite sized pie that one more success in
anothers life equals one less success in mine. But quite frankly, this
thinking is incorrect.
There is wonderful freedom and grace in realizing the size of the pie is
not finite that in reality, the pie keeps growing. Anothers success does
not mean I have less opportunity. In fact, anothers success can actually
be my success if I had opportunity to enable, encourage, and promote
them along the way!
Consider how helping another achieve success (however you/they decide
to define it) results in significant benefits in a number of directions:
o The receiver has reached a far greater potential than they could
have on their own.
o The world has been bettered and has been given a life-giving
model to emulate.
o The giver is remembered fondly and is often publicly (and
privately) thanked for their contribution.
o A stranger is likely to be the recipient of the original receiver
paying it forward.
o And the cycle begins again.
Now, just to be clear, I am starting with an assumption that our greatest
joys in life are rarely found in the relentless pursuit of selfish ambition
that selfish desires always leave us lacking and searching for more.
Some may think that line of thinking is too unrealistic, far-fetched, or

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old-fashioned. They believe that in a dog-eat-dog-world if Im not

looking out for #1, nobody is. But that line of thinking is short-sighted.
Inherently, we know we have been designed to live for something greater
than ourselves. Our contribution to this world has to be measured by
something more meaningful than the size of our house or the
neighborhood where it is located. And our lives are going to find lasting
significance in how we choose to live them and how we enable others
to live theirs.
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/helping-others-succeed/

B. No Win, No Fee
If you've been injured, a solicitor may be prepared to pursue your claim
on a "no-win-no-fee" basis. This means that the solicitor (or their law
firm) will take the risk that your claim fails. Ordinarily, though, the
solicitor will want a "success fee" to compensate them for taking the risk
of failure.
Conditional Fee Agreements
If you decide to instruct a solicitor on a "no-win-no-fee" basis, you will
actually enter what's known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (or
"CFA"), which sets out the details of the arrangement.
A CFA is a formal, legally binding agreement between you and your
solicitor, and it must be in writing.
There are some restrictions on the terms of a CFA, including limits on
the amount a solicitor can charge you as a success fee.
Note CFAs changed in April 2013 under the Legal Aid, Sentencing
and Punishment of Offenders Act.
Since April 2013, your solicitor is permitted to set the success fee as a
percentage of the damages you recover on your claim. Successful
claimants may see up to 25% of the damages awarded to them set aside
for the solicitor's success fee.
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Significantly, solicitors are not permitted to use CFAs in matrimonial,

child custody or other family law cases, and are not allowed to use them
in criminal cases.
What happens if my claim fails?
If your claim fails, then generally you will not have to pay your solicitor
anything at all (unless you have agreed to pay court costs, expert's fees
and similar expenses that the solicitor advanced in connection with the
case).
It is, however, important to remember that if your claim fails in court,
you will almost certainly be liable to pay the other party's costs.
Ordinarily, your solicitor will assist you in taking out insurance against
this risk, but you will probably have to pay the insurance company
yourself.

What happens if I win?

If you win, you will pay your solicitor their normal fees, their
disbursements (which are out-of-pocket costs, such as filing fees and
expert's fees that they have advanced in connection with your case) and
the success fee.
Ordinarily, the court will order your opponent pay all of these fees
(except the success fee) and reimburse you for any premium you paid to
insure against the risk that you would lose your case. But this does not
happen in every case, so you may have to pay your own costs.
Remember too that "winning" a case is not always as straightforward as
it may seem. Sometimes, it is possible to win a case overall, but to lose
important intermediate proceedings. In these circumstances, you may be
liable to pay some of the costs your opponent has incurred in connection
with the intermediate proceedings that you lost.
Another way that "winning" may be affected is if your opponent made a
pre-judgment settlement offer (known as a "Part 36 Offer"), which you
rejected. If you reject a Part 36 Offer and receive judgment for an

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amount less than that offered, you will be liable for some or all of the
costs incurred by your opponent after he/she made the offer. The
principle is that you have to pay for your opponent's "wasted costs" in
forcing further (and ultimately unnecessary) litigation.
If you reject a Part 36 Offer against your solicitor's advice and receive
judgment for an amount less than that offered, you will also have to pay
all of your own solicitor's fees, including the success fee.

What happens if my claim settles before going to court?

The vast majority of personal injury claims are settled before trial. But a
settlement will not relieve you of your obligation to pay your solicitor
their fees, disbursements and success fee. Generally, fees are discussed
during negotiations leading up to the settlement. So, typically, the
settlement will require your opponent to pay some or all of your costs,
usually directly to your solicitor.
What if I want to change solicitors before my case is finished?
If you decide to end the CFA before your case is concluded, then your
solicitor will require you to pay all of their fees and disbursements up to
the date you ended the agreement. You will also continue to be liable to
pay them the success fee if you win the case using a different solicitor.
In practice, if you want to change solicitors part way through your case,
you will need to negotiate some resolution with your first solicitor.
If your solicitor decides to end the CFA, then the amount you are
required to pay them depends on their reason for ending the CFA.
If the solicitor ends the CFA because they have concluded that you are
unlikely to win, then you pay only their disbursements, but no fee.
If the solicitor ends the CFA because you have not cooperated with them,
you have not met your responsibilities under the CFA, or because you
have rejected a settlement offer that they recommended you accept, they
can require you to pay all of their fees and disbursements up to the date
the CFA ends, plus the success fee if you eventually win the case.

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Other points to consider

As mentioned above, even if you are pursuing your claim under a 'nowin-no-fee' arrangement with your solicitor, you are nevertheless
exposed to the risk that if you lose you will be liable to pay your
opponent's costs. Ordinarily, your solicitor can arrange for what is
known as "after the fact" or "ATE" insurance to cover this risk. The
insurer may even be prepared to lend you money to pay the premium,
but you need to bear in mind that if you lose you will be liable to pay the
premium or repay the loan.
When your case goes to court (even at the initial stages of court
proceedings) your solicitor will need to instruct a barrister to handle the
court papers and appearances. Frequently, barristers who do personal
injury work will also do so on a "no-win-no-fee" basis. Your solicitor
should be able to assist you in putting together a "no-win-no-fee"
package that includes their fees, the barrister's fees, and the success fee
for each of them.
Getting help
If you're working with a solicitor, they should be able to provide you
with a complete explanation of how a "no-win-no-fee" arrangement will
work. And the Law Society has produced a client's guide to success fees,
which your solicitor should be able to give you.
You can find "no-win-no-fee" solicitors in your area by searching our
solicitor directory - just use the form on the right-hand side of this page.
http://www.findlaw.co.uk/law/accidents_and_injuries/personal_injury/50
0062.html

C. 10 Ways To Help Others That Will Lead You To Success

Helping others should be a natural extension of every business leaders
responsibilities. Unfortunately, it doesnt come as easy as you would
think. As leaders, we often get too caught up in operations or our own
problems to give people the help they need. However, in the last year,

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Ive realized that most of my best clients, partners and relationships have
come from me helping someone. Here are 10 thoughts that can remind
you to help others.
1. Sharing knowledge
One of the easiest ways to help others is to simply share your
knowledge. You dont have to be in front of a classroom to teach.
Every day there is an opportunity to educate someone about your
area of expertise. The key is to keep educating yourself so you can
stay ahead of the curve.
2. Finding out whats valuable to them
The number one rule of helping people should be to find out
whats actually valuable to someone. You may spend time and
effort helping someone with something that they didnt even want
help with. Make an effort to ask them where they need help, and
keep that in mind when you see an opportunity.
3. Sharing your resources
Think about the resources youve invested in and be mindful of
whether they can help someone else. Maybe a developer on your
team has some extra time and one of your contacts needed some
help on a quick job. Or, maybe you have Cardinals season tickets
and theres a game that you wont be able to attend. Keep those
under- or unused resources in the back of your mind and try to
connect them to people who can use them.
4. Making them aware of an opportunity
Its important to keep an eye out for opportunities. It could be
good press, a potential partner, or a general business opportunity.
Once you see an opportunity, think about who could benefit from
knowing about it. One of the ways I like to help my employees is
to help their friends, relatives or significant others if theyre
looking for a job. A lot of times I can use my business connections
to find a potential good fit.
5. Giving them transparent feedback
Transparent feedback can be tough because some people dont
take constructive criticism well. There is a difference between
telling someone that they suck and giving them good examples of
how they can improve. Some people wont take it well but, in the
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6.

7.

8.

9.

long run, you will help the people that you want to work with and
improve the efficiency and success of your company as well.
Being a brand advocate
I was at a conference the other day and an American Airlines
employee was going on and on about how she loved her Modify
watch. She truly wanted to help the company because she loved
the product and wanted to see them succeed. Think about the
products and services that you love, and dont be shy about letting
people know about them.
Giving introductions
Theres a lot of big talk out there. Someone knows somebody who
is a great contact or client, but they never actually make the
introduction. Rather than making and breaking promises, make an
effort to actually send out several intros each week. However,
dont let your credibility take a hit: make sure the people youre
advocating are legit.
Volunteering your time
Time is valuable and most people understand that. When you take
time out of your day to help a friend, they remember it. I try and
do a guest webinar every couple of weeks for contacts so they
know Im willing to take time out of my day to share my
experience with the community. Even if its not something as
public as a webinar or podcast, set aside some time to help a
contact. It could be as simple as helping them move to a new
home.
Recognizing them
There are a variety of ways to give someone recognition. You can
include them in an article that youve written or mention them in a
speech or presentation. An easy way to recognize someone is to
nominate them for an award. There are countless awards out there
that could really help out your network. It will mean a lot to the
nominee that you thought of them and wanted to recognize them.
On a smaller scale, you can have internal recognition within your
company. We have an award called the belt that looks like a
WWF belt. Each week the current winner chooses the next winner.

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Its an easy way to make an employee feel good about the solid
work theyve done for your company.
10.Giving gifts
Gifts can be tricky because you dont want to buy peoples
favor. You want to get them a gift that makes sense and will help
them. When Hurricane Sandy hit, we sent care packages with
items that survivors could use as they recovered from the
devastation. People tend to remember who helped them when they
were in need, so its important to make an extra effort during these
times.
Helping others isnt always easy. It can sometimes derail your schedule
and cost you time, money and other resources. It can even be interpreted
the wrong way. However, keep these tips in mind for some easy ways to
show your connections that they truly matter to you.

2.4

Communicate Credibility

Credibility. How do you get it? More importantly, how do you keep it? Gaining
credibility takes years to achieve, and maintaining it is a lifetime goal for any
leader. One wrong move can erase in an instant many years of hard work.
Communicating with credibility is an art form, one which you can master by using
a few simple guidelines.
Align your verbal and nonverbal language. Credibility is enhanced through
consistent verbal and nonverbal language. The key word here is consistent.
Executives who overlook nonverbal language, or body language, are dismissing
one of communications most powerful tools. When your verbal and nonverbal
language is out of alignment, you send out a mixed message. The result? The
person receiving that message is confused, wondering what to believe -- your
verbal or nonverbal. Nonverbal communication has many functions, but the two
highlighted here are the functions of reinforcing or contradicting your verbal
message. When nonverbal reinforces the verbal message, you maintain your
credibility. When the nonverbal contradicts, or is inconsistent, with the verbal
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message, you run the risk of sending mixed messages, and losing credibility. For
instance, the leader who says, "I am in full support of these salary negotiations" but
looks away or down, sends out a conflicting nonverbal message that says, "Im not
really in full support of this." When the verbal and nonverbal messages are
conflicting, the nonverbal message will always win, because it is perceived to be
more believable. That is why its called the "silent language." Remember, the
foundation of your credibility is your believability. Be consistent in your verbal
and nonverbal language, and you will never have to worry about sending mixed
messages which may jeopardize your credibility.
Lead by Listening. Ask executives across the country what they look for in their
top management teams, and most will say, "Good listeners." The good news about
listening is that it is a learned behavior, which means, even if you are a poor
listener today, you can train yourself to be a better listener tomorrow. How well do
you listen to your key clients and customers? Your employees? Your stockholders?
Your key advisors? The good listener does not merely hear what is being said but
rather observes and uses all the senses to reflect on the whole picture. Why should
listening matter to you as a leader? In todays competitive marketplace, silent
observation is one of the most influential tools you can develop to gain a keen
sense of awareness and keep you at the front of your game.
Make realistic promises and keep them. Credibility can fizzle if you dont keep
your word, whether you have communicated it in writing or verbally. Your
credibility slips when you dont live up to the standards you have set for yourself
or others have set for you. If promises are made and repeatedly broken, you begin
to lose your credibility. Whether it is a key client , a constituent or your staff who
you make promises to, you will spiral downward ever so quickly if you dont
deliver on your promises. If you have a bad habit of committing more than you can
deliver, take this advice: Think before you speak, and realistically promise only
what you know you can deliver.
Speak from the heart. Some of the most powerful presenters are people who
speak from the heart. When a message is communicated from the heart, it is more
believable. An audience can quickly tell the difference between a speaker who is
genuine and one who is artificial. Some professionals have their presentations so

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over-rehearsed that they are often interpreted by the audience as phony or

insincere. Dont just talk the talk. Walk the talk.
Be yourself. This is an easy one. Many people who fall into the credibility gap do
so because they misrepresent themselves as someone else. We all know individuals
who have inflated their professional accomplishments to appear more attractive for
a leadership position. They soon discover once they are in the position, they dont
have the level of expertise others expected of them (and everyone around them
knows it!). People can see through individuals who try to position themselves as
someone they are not. While there are people who spend time joining the right
clubs, travelling in the right circles, and attending high profile events, the in crowd
knows the difference between a wannabe leader and the real thing.
I recently reviewed an advance copy of an acceptance speech for the recipient of a
prestigious community award. I immediately recommended that he delete several
canned jokes from his speech. His assistant assured me that the corny joke-telling
was part of her bosss delivery style. I advised against it because it jeopardized the
mans integrity. This executive had more than 50 years of outstanding leadership in
his professional and voluneer roles, so he did not need a joke about a farmers
daughter or a frog to connect with his audience. Surely, he had more meaningful
personal stories to tell. On the night of his presentation, I was pleased when he
deleted the jokes in exchange for a more believable humorous personal story. It
worked, because he did not rely on someone elses stale joke to artificially spice up
his speech. The audience responded very favorably to his story, because he was
being himself.
Be an expert. You are at the top because you know your business, and you have an
uncanny ability to lead others. Yet, there are leaders who lack credibility because
they only have a superficial knowledge base with no depth. The more you know,
the more believable you are. But it doesnt stop there. The credible leader is one
who is willing to share that acquired knowledge with others and encourage open
communication and idea sharing. Its not just how much you know that positions
you as a credible leader, but how willing you are to share that knowledge with
others.

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Last year, I attended a professional development program which was presented by

a high-ranking female executive with a national company. While she delivered a
great multi-media presentation and was an articulate speaker, she fell apart during
the question-answer period. Of the five questions asked of her, she could answer
only one, and deferred the other four to her technical support staff operating the
computer in the back of the room. She immediately lost credibility with the
audience. The energy level in the room plummeted. If she knew her business and
had done a better job of preparing for the question-answer period, she would have
retained credibility with the audience.
Be honest. We need to look no further than the political arena to select our best
examples of how to lose credibility by covering up. What do you think of when
you hear the words, "I am not a crook" and "I did not have sex with that woman."
Do you think of honesty? Hardly. Presidents Nixon and Clinton could have saved
face if they had been honest in their statements from the beginning. If they had
admitted wrongdoing, the public would have been more forgiving. Instead, their
statements came back to haunt them. The old saying, "What goes around comes
around" demonstrates this to be true. Leaders are the first to be scrutinized during
tenuous times, because they are in control, whether they represent government,
corporate America or a non-profit organization. Too many leaders think they are
invincible. When you accept a leadership position, you also accept full
responsibility for your words and actions. Be honest from the beginning, and your
credibility will remain intact.
Be proactive. Its never too late to do a credibility check. To stay on track, ask
yourself questions, like, "What could potentially jeopardize my credibility?" "What
steps can I take to improve my credibility?" "What can I do each day to ensure that
my credibility is maintained?" The more aware you, the better equipped you are be
to keep your credibility elevated.
There is no asset more valuable or powerful than your personal credibility, because
it goes to the very core of who you are as a person and a leader. You are
responsible for building and maintaining it...for life.

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By: Michael Lovas & Pam Holloway

Most people think Communication occurs when information is sent, like in a
verbal statement or letter. Thats wrong. Thats called a one-way transmission.
Communication happens when the other person receives the information. Why is
that important to you?
In the traditional business communication model, you lose
control of your message as soon as it is sent. Our contention is that, in the
traditional model, you never had control of it in the first place because you didnt
have accurate information about your target market.
Without accurate information, the target isvery likely to misunderstand your
intended message. What if that message is the essence of your business identity,
your offer, your plea for donations?
Having guided many people through exercises to help them improve the accuracy
of their intended messages, Pam and I know (all too well) that human
communication is a sloppy and inexact activity. Thats OK if your message
includes grunts and deals with food or warmth. But, when the message is more
sophisticated, such as your marketing and selling message, its nearly always offtarget.
Corporations spend $millions on their branding. Many of those dollars go toward
assuring that the message is targeted. Still, any word or phrase that could be
misunderstood definitely will be. Anything that is ambiguous or vague will give
the wrong message. Any image, logo or photo that could possibly be
misinterpreted will be. Additionally, any one-way, out-bound message that fails to
include the perceptions of the intended audience will most likely suffer from
grossinaccuracies in reception.
At a fundamental level verbal messages convey meanings the speaker has
encoded into the words of an utterance, but a listener who has understood the
utterance has gone beyond the literal meaning of the words and grasped the
particular sense in which the speaker intended them to be understood. In order to
do so, communicators must make their co-participants' perspectives part of the
process of formulating and interpreting messages. Thus any communicative
exchange is implicitly a joint or collective activity in which meaning emerges from
the participants' collaborative efforts.
In other words, the people who receive the message are the ones who determine its
meaning and value not the sender. So, you have to collect the targets
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perceptions prior to releasing your out-bound message.

What about you? Now, if what I just said is true, who do your customers think
you are? More important, who do your prospects think you are? What value do
they think you represent to them? For many businesses, all the target market has to
go by are the inaccurate messages you give them. If your marketing message is
anything like most, what youre saying is NOT what people are receiving.
Huh? Yes, unless you capture the perceptions of your target market before talking,
writing or designing, your message is most likely off-target. Huh? Look at it this
way: because very few professionals and businesses understand this process, it is
highly probable that every person they deal with has the wrong perception of who
they are, what they do, and the value they represent.
Theres no way this short paper could be a comprehensive class in how to fix that
situation. However, if youll follow these simple steps, your outbound messages
will at least be more accurate. If youd like personal help with your marketing,
please let us know. Pam and I provide a service called Marketing Therapy.
Through it, we nip, tuck, tweak and perfect your messages so they are
psychologically on-target and relevant to your target market.
In the meantime, here are six things you can do to become more aware of how you
are perceived by your stakeholders, and correct that perception.
1. Find out how others see you
See yourself as others see you. Get a second, third and fourth outside perspective.
Interview the people who work in your company. Do it privately and get them to
describe how they see the firm and how they think outsiders looking in see it.
Dont stop with your employees, ask your customers. Ask your suppliers. Ask
anyone would either is or could become a stakeholder. Pay attention. Listen to
whats going on around you. Listen not only to those from whom you ask for
feedback but to those you didnt.
Try to gather intel on what your competitors are saying aboutyou. How about
potential employees? Off the record, why do you want to work here? What do we
represent to you? Talk to former employees and former suppliers. What are
they saying about you?
Finally create a matrix of all the comments. Look for any common themes in the
feedback. Identify the areas that you can address immediately.
2. Get to Know Your Target Market

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This is where most marketing slams into a brick wall. Very few firms can
describe their target market in realistic terms. Age, zip code, household inco me,
purchase history those things tell you something about your target market, but
not very much. They describe details of a mass market, but mass marketing has
been ineffective for more than ten years for all but the largest of megacorporations. So, who is your target market? And, how do you describe them?
Lets throw the book out the window and look at target markets in a completely
different way. What would you love to know about a potential customer hidden out
there? Mainly, how they use your type of product. That tells you what they value
about your product. If you know that, you can create compelling, personal and
relevant marketing. And, that includes sales presentations, webinars, seminars and
keynotes.
So, how do you discover that information? Research, analysis and projection.
Research the social media sites that are related to your product. Read the
comments pro and con about how people perceive it. What do they like and
dislike?
What else do they want. We live in an incredible world where you can learn those
things with relative ease. But, even more astounding, you can actually
communicate with them directly and get even more information.
All of the little bits of intel that you collect combine to give you a terrific picture of
what to offer, how to offer it, and who will be attracted to it.
3. Speak the Language of Your Target Market
Once you get to know your target audience, in terms of what they want and how
they use your product, your next step is to learn to speak their language. Those
are the two most difficult objectives in modern business.
Speaking the language means using specific words, phrases, structures, concepts,
colors, images and designs that appeal to the mental filters of your target market.
Those elements deliver your message. It means giving the right people a message
that they want to see one they might even be looking for. But, you have to know
what they want before you create the messages.
Consider what we just said. Traditionally, a firm creates a marketing piece to
promote a product and then sends it out. Thats a one-way transmission. That type
of marketing is still being done, but it is becoming less and less effective. The
smart marketer looks at the landscape and figures out what potential buyers want
that is relevant to his product. Then, he builds the marketing around those findings.
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In a real way, your target market actually directs what you say in your marketing,
so its a two-way conversation, rather than a one-way transmission.
NOTE:
These next three items deal with a different aspect of communication credibility.
They are activities you can engage in that will communicate your credibility
through behaviors. Remember, behavior is just another way we communicate.
4. Choose your associations wisely
One of the main mental filtering mechanisms we all unconsciously use is
association, or generalization. This ishow we know how to open just about every
door on the planet, and why we get confused by push-button car ignitions.
What? No key? In that same way, we associate (or generalize) an individual with
the people (both professionally and personally) he/she associates with. And, we
associate a company with firms in the same industry, and with the other companies
it does business with.
In other words, you are the sum of your relationships. Every relationship or
association either positively enhances your credibility and reputation, or it detracts
from it. This dynamic is always moving in one direction or the other. It does not
remain static and it does not hover in the middle. But, the good news is, you can
take control of it.
Make a list of all your business relationships. Analyze each in terms of whether it
adds value or detracts value fromyour reputation. If the other firm is soiled,
distance yourself or sever the link.
Otherwise, you risk looking like you support a firm or person with questionable
qualities. Develop a profile of a person that represents the polar opposite of you.
List that hypothetical persons characteristics. Then, list the characteristics and
determine where you score on them.
Finally, ask yourself these questions:
Does this relationship work for me?
Are there common values or a shared purpose?
Is this relationship important to my long-term goals?
Is this the kind of company or individual I want to be associated with?
Does this association add credibility or detract from it?
5. Tell the Truth
When you make a mistake, fess up. Admit it. Customers are far more likely to
forgive a mistake than they are a cover-up or a withholding of information. Many
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people find this extremely difficult to do. Thats because they attach emotion to the
information. Instead, consider that the information is just that data. And, data has
no connection to emotion. Think of the data as though its just numbers.
Dont hide your services inside or behind marketing-eeze or legal-eeze. Describe
distinctly and coherently who you are and what you do. The more open and honest
you are about what you can (and cannot) or will (or wont) do,
the more your customers and prospects will respond.
6. Walk the Talk
Theres a story among the consulting ranks of a renowned time management
consultant who responded to questions abouthis program by saying I havent had
time to look at it.
It appears that it is not only time management consultants who are afflicted with
this. Financial consultants with bad personal investment track records, Insurance
guys who dont use their own products, marriage counselors who have never been
married or who have multiple divorces, and so on.
If you are concerned about your integrity and credibility (and you better be), never,
under any circumstances try to sell something that youre not. Inevitably someone
will call you on it. Strive to be congruent in everything you do.
As coaches, were often contacted by new sales people. They usually have
concerns about their level of expertise and ask us how to deal with that. How can
I convince someone that Im an expert when Im not? Our answer is always,
Dont. Dont pretend youre something youre not. So, what are you? Then,
together we figure out what it is that the person actually does well.
It could initiate the relationship, establish a network of other experts, approach
service with the big-picture perspective, possess great capacity to deal with details.
The key to being congruent with who you are is to understand who you are and
what natural strengths and talents you have.
In Conclusion...
Why is credibility important here? Simply because it represents movement in a
positive direction. It distinguishes you from everyone who does not understand
how to use Communication Psychology to craft and deliver relevant, accurate
messages to their specific target market segments. Until you can clearly identify
each element in the communication chain, you will experience pops and sputters as
the intended message misfires with the intended target audience. When you want
help with this process, just give us a call.
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By Daniel W. Jacob
Everyone agrees that credibility is a scarce and valuable commodity.
But in selling, credibility is indispensable.
You either have it, you get it, or you dont make the sale.
But where do you find it when it seems like you have to have it before you can get
it? You cant force anyone to think you are credible. It cant be bought and for that
matter, it cant be sold. Its invisible, intangible, and seemingly unattainable if
youre not born with it.
Still, it is perceivable to everyone when you do have it. Your credibility seems to
have permeated your entire being. Its perceptible yet untouchable, abstract but
obvious, visible and invisible at the same time. As is said of some of the more
salacious elements in society, you know it when you see it.
Okay, if its so important, where can I get some of this stuff?
Heres the answer.
The key to credibility is trustworthiness, and this made up of a combination of
personal integrity, honesty and your reputation.
If you fail to get people to trust you before you do anything else, you might as well
pack it up. Nothing else you do will work without it.
One of the easiest ways of establishing trust with the customer is something that
you were born with. Be yourself. Customers are not stupid. They know when
theyre only getting a sales pitch. And they can sense when youre not being
yourself and not being honest.
You cant rush this point. Establishing the bond of trust with the customer takes as
long as it takes. Occasionally it can happen right off the bat, sometimes not. Never
push it. Be yourself with yourself and the client, it will show.
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Sometimes, they want to test you out and see if you actually do deliver what you
promise. Theyll give you a small order and see how you do. If youre on time and
provide what you promised, confidence and trust will increase and credibility
builds. It is then easier to leverage this into a bigger order next time.
Once you do hold the position in their mind as being reliable and trustworthy,
guard it with your life. It is much easier to gain the position in the first place than it
is to regain it once lost.
Remember that the most important step to close in the selling process happens
before the order is placed. Get them to like you and trust you. Only then will you
become seen as credible and worthy of trust.
But wait, thats not all.
Here is something you may not have suspected.
There is only one reliable way to get them to like you and trust you: You must like
and trust yourself first.
And the only way to really trust yourself is to be honest with yourself.
When you do, you become credible to yourself. Then youll find that people
magically also see you as trustworthy and credible. Its the easiest and most
effective way to get the job done.
If you start by being honest with yourself, trusting yourself comes easy and the rest
falls in place

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by Vault Careers
Credibility counts, especially at the office. This extends not solely to your job
performance, but also the message you communicate, what you talk about, and
how you talk.
According to communication expert Dianna Booher, words have to match actions,
so if you say youre going to do something, you should do it. In addition to
meeting your deadlines and hitting all your goals, its vital to establish trust in your
communications both verbal and written, including social otherwise youll run
the risk of lowering your hallway credibility. Once youve lost it, its all but
impossible to win back, she says. Think of the saying actions speak louder than
words. However, if your actions match those words, it gives your communication
that much more power.
Booher is the author of Communicate With Confidence. The bestselling classic
aimed at improving readers communication skills has been recently revised and
expanded by McGraw-Hill. There are over 1,200 tips for increasing
communication skills in her book. Booher promises that just following some the
rules mentioned in her book will help readers, of any skill level, establish hallway
credibility in no time. Here are five quick tips to get you started:
Show Concern. People will care about you and more importantly trust you, when
you care about them. People want to know that they have a sympathetic ear in
you. Even companies need to show concern over individuals before rectifying
situations.
Admit What You Dont Know. When people smell blood, they start to dig. Its
human instinct to push when they feel they are being bluffed. Admitting ignorance
is a simple principle, easy to remember, easy to accomplish, but a difficult pill to
swallow. Nothing makes people believe what you do know like admitting what
you dont.
Keep Confidences. When people know you share personal, confidential matters
about others with them, they fear youll do the same to them. Breaking
confidences speaks volumes about your character. Those who observe your ability
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to keep your promises and your confidences will begin to trust you with their real
feelings.
Avoid Exaggeration. Did you wait on the phone for five seconds, or five minutes?
Did the supplier raise the rates by 2% or 10%? Did the scores dip to 30 or down to
10? Exaggeration makes for great humor, but it is a credibility killer.
Accept Responsibility. If you were involved in the decisions, actions, and results,
or had some control over a situation that didnt end the way others wanted it to,
own up to it. Shirkers suffer credibility gaps.

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2.5 Know Why Clients Say No

Weve all heard it before. The inevitable request from a client to revise a design to
make it more something. The client isnt sure what, exactly, but they know that
whatever theyre looking at on the screen isnt quite "there" yet. Sometimes theyll
even utterly confuse you with a vague or nonsensical request, like "make the black
blacker," or "its just not poppy enough."
These types of inane directives have become so legendary in freelancing culture
that, whenever they get mentioned out of context, any freelancer listening wont be
able to help giving a sympathetic eye roll or shake of the head. There are even
whole blogs and other creative efforts centered around the weird things our clients
sometimes ask of us; Im sure youve heard of at least one.
Had Enough?
As freelancers, we all want to go above and beyond to please our clients and
ensure that we maintain a good relationship with them. We want to remain in good
standing to get referrals and repeat business and bolster our reputations. But
sometimes, some clients really can try the patience of even the most saintly of
designers.
Fortunately, theres a simple solution that many designers often overlook that can
alleviate or even completely remove these little professional hurdles. Its called
saying no.
Were going to go over some of the different situations in which a designer can use
this powerful tool in a respectful and courteous way, while still being firm about
holding onto their sanity.
The Wonders Of No
Its really quite remarkable, the power of this "no" word. I think every designer
should add it to their vocabulary if its not already there. Practice simply saying no
to requests you find strange, incomprehensible, or just plain silly, and see what
happens. You can try it out first on a client who you know has a thick skin.

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Later, you can move on to establishing what you will and wont tolerate from the
very first meeting with any new client. In my experience, a lot of clients are
actually just trying to get a feel for your communication style when they make an
offhand, impossible request. They may be testing you to see how much youll let
them get away with.
Dont Let Your Guard Down
It sounds horrible, but the harsh truth is that many people will be as naughty as you
let them be. They will take the opportunity to con you or treat you badly, to justify
underpaying you or even not paying you at all, if they believe they can.
Not everyone is like this, of course, but you can usually tell pretty quickly whether
someone is looking to scam you out of valuable services. Putting your foot down
by saying no to the first signs of disrespectfulness or lunacy will set a precedent for
the entire length of your interaction with your client. Initial impressions are hard to
change, so its important to make them count.
Dont Just Blurt It Out
First things first: when I say that designers need to start saying no, I dont literally
mean that you should respond to your clients requests with a blunt negative.
Saying no to a paying client requires a bit of finesse to keep the working
relationship in a healthy place. I recommend writing out a few responses that you
can use as reference in a future situation.
Something like "Im sorry, but Im going to need a more specific answer before I
can give you what you want" usually works well, and you dont actually have to
blurt out "noooo!" like a two-year-old, (or Darth Vader). Rehearsing a reasoned,
courteous response to an insane request helps you keep your cool, and it also keeps
you on track to achieving your main goal, which is solving your clients problem.
Not A Therapist
Clients can be a kooky bunch no doubt about it but its not really your job to
tend to them like a personal therapist. You can go ahead and let them be as crazy as
they want to be, as long as theyre clear with you about what they need and how

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you can provide it to them. And as long as they pay you in a reasonable amount of
time, of course.
How Much Rope Should You Give?
Its up to you to decide how far to go with accommodating your client regardless of
whatever unclear request he or she will think up. Sometimes it makes more sense
to simply refuse to go any further on the project until you receive a request you can
work with, since youd only be guessing at what the client wants anyway.
Also, because theres been such a lack of clarity, they may become even more
upset if you do not deliver what they want, whatever that is. Not only will you
have wasted your time, but, depending on your prior negotiation, you might even
have a contract breach on your hands.
Strive To Communicate
Alternatively, you could take more of an "onion peeling" approach, testing and
rephrasing different questions until you and the client both arrive at a
communication pattern that gets each of you the information you require to move
forward.
This method is certainly more time-consuming, and its not unheard of for
designers to add an additional amount to their revision fee (interrogation tax?) if it
starts to take too long to achieve clarity.
Its Not Always the Clients Fault
Thats right, I said it. Sometimes a client gives you a vague answer because you
asked them a vague question. It really helps to learn the proper ways to phrase a
question so that you get the answer youre looking for. Specifically, the thing Ive
found most helpful in achieving clarity is asking the client to give me a clear
example of what they need.
Confined Selections
This can take a few tries, for example, if a client wants a "prettier" typeface for
their website, but cant exactly articulate what they mean by "pretty," you can ask

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them to browse a selection of fonts until they find something that is "pretty"
enough for their taste.
This is an example of what I call controlling fluctuations. I dont know about you,
but I like to have as few surprises or brick walls (as possible) when dealing with
clients. Learning how to ask the right questions is crucial to getting through those
unnecessary barriers so you can deal with the important stuff.
In Conclusion
Designers speak a cryptic language all their own, and sometimes it can be difficult
to bridge the gap between what you mean to say to a client and how the client will
interpret it. As the professional providing the creative service, its your job to make
sure there is clarity all around. Your client is paying you to solve their problem,
and you cant do that unless you first establish exactly what the problem is.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/saying-no-to-clients/
An unfortunate reality of our business is that we dont win all of the projects we
propose on. It may not be fun to dissect your sales process to learn why you lost a
project, but its a great way to sort outand put to good usethe signals youre
receiving from the market.
A client once told me that one consultants reaction to losing a project was to warn
the client that he (the client) was making a big mistake and would regret it. This
approach is not likely to earn much respect from clients. Instead, the goal should
be to convert todays bad news into future wins.
You Cant Win Em All
We liked your proposal, but
When a client call starts like that, youd probably rather endure a two-hour wait at
airport security than listen to the bad news coming. Once you hear, were going
with another consultant, its natural to try and swing the apparent loss to the win
column.

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Through questions and clarifying comments, consultants have been known to

persuade clients to reconsider a decision. If nothing else, most consultants try to
keep the door open for future opportunities by asking if its ok to stay in touch. Its
rare for a client to say no to that request, which is a small victory.
If the decision to use another consultant is final, though, theres still a wealth of
market intelligence buried in that decision thats too valuable to leave unearthed.
To vastly improve your odds of winning in the future, figure out the meaning of the
signal the client is sending you.
Why Guess?
Your first reaction will probably be to assume you know why a project went to
someone else. Maybe you lost because the client hired the CEOs nephew, not
because your proposal was considered inferior. The only way to find out what you
need to know is to ask the client the right questions.
When the client calls with bad news, listen for the reasons why the client chose
another consultant. But also ask if you can schedule a short follow-up meeting to
improve your approach in the future. Most clients recognizeand appreciatethe
effort and energy you put into your proposal and are willing to cooperate.
Give yourself some time to absorb the news, and then draft a handful of questions
that will identify ideas for improvement.
For some projects, clients may have largely decided on their consultant selection
before the sales process gets underway. The favored consultant must only put forth
a good effort to land the project. What can you do when the game is rigged? Move
on.
Whats the Clients Perception?
If a competing consultant doesnt have such an advantage, a project loss is usually
the result of a gap that clients perceive between what they think they need and the
consultants ability to meet that need. Your aim should be to understand the root
cause of that gap and close it next time.
During the sales process, the clients perception of your value, or your ability to
meet the clients need, is driven by two essential factors: an accurate understanding
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of the situation the client is facing, and your proposed project approach. Assuming
you didnt lose the project due to failed chemistry with one or more client decision
makers (a common occurrence, by the way), you can trace many losses to one or
both of these two factors.
Your ability to deliver value, in a manner the client wants, depends on your grasp
of the clients objectives. Even slightly misinterpreting something in the client
environment can leave you with a flawedand losingapproach. Granted, most
consultants do confirm their understanding of a project before devising an
approach. But its easy to get tripped up on scope, timing, or assumptions.
What Did You Miss?
For that reason, begin a client debriefing with a discussion of your assumptions
about the project. Test every facet of what you know, including project objectives,
scope, and executive sponsorship. You may discover weaknesses in your fact
gathering that you can strengthen for future opportunities. Or, you may learn that
you correctly diagnosed the problem, but some element in your proposed project
approach was off.
Move on to a review of that approach, which includes your team, work plan,
project organization, schedule, and tools. If you learn of gaps in your
understanding of the project, the implications will quickly reveal themselves in
your approach. Its easy, for example, to overestimate the time to complete a
project if the definition of the scope isnt quite right.
Its not unusual for a consultant to comprehend a projects objectives but miss the
mark in the approach. Perhaps a team member wasnt a good fit, or the project
organization wasnt acceptable to the client. Its equally possible that your
expectations about the clients desired level of involvement led to an unrealistic
schedule. By engaging the client in a discussion about what you might have
missed, you may invent a new project approach.
What about Price?
For some clients, choosing a consultant is all about price. In some industries, the
low-cost provider is often the winner, even if a better alternative is available. For
other clients who select consultants based on price, it may be because theres no
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other discernible difference between the competitors. Thats a misconception you

can correct.
If a client explains the loss by saying the fee was too high for our budget, it may
not really be a budgetary problem. Instead, the client may believe that the
presumed need-to-fee ratio isnt compelling enough to explore options for boosting
the budget.
Price is an important consideration in every consultant selection process. But a
high-priced competitor can win if the clients perception of value justifies the fee.
Always remember that the clients perception of your value will be based on both
your demonstrated understanding of the project and your intended approach.
Will You Get Straight Answers?
Maybe.
You and the client may both be uncomfortable sitting through a discussion of why
the client chose one consultant over another. Some clients will sidestep the issues
and get the meeting over with as soon as possible; others will go into more depth.
In either case, youre only looking for one or two areas to work on. So its worth
the investment of time, even if some clients are reluctant to talk.
When a client says no, youll probably experience an immediate letdown. After
all, most consultants pursue projects they believe are winnable. When you expend
the time and effort to propose on a project, the last thing you want is for a
competitor to win the work.
But you can turn that around for the future by eliminating guesswork and getting
the story straight from the client, not your imagination. What you imagine is
probably much worse than the truth.
http://mindshareconsulting.com/when-a-client-says-no/
How to say no may well be the second most searched term in the history of the
internet. (Second only to how to flip an omelette. Naturally.) Saying no is darn
tough for many, even under the best of circumstances, and even when youre
declining something no reasonable person would agree to.

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Saying no to a potential client is an especially weird animal because it is often very

difficult for people to imagine anybody turning down paid work. There is a belief
that freelancers, small business owners and service professionals would take
anybodys money, much like a bookstore or a cell phone company. But, of which
you are undoubtedly aware, there are plenty of reasons an ittybiz owner might
want to say no, and it helps to have some language handy.
This one has a few different subtypes with different associated concerns, and well
address each of those separately. The template, however affectionately referred to
as Thanks But No Thanks in our templates file remains the same. We tweak for
details, but the boilerplate is pretty solid.
Regardless of the subtype youre dealing with, the trick to saying no to paid work
is in making sure you communicate three specific things. Your communication
needs to hit three success metrics, or youre cruising for drama later:
1. You want to make sure your reasoning is credible and/or plausible.
2. You
want
to
make
sure
your
wording
is
sympathetic.
3. You want to make sure you dont leave room for interpretation or negotiation.
Lets get started.
How to say no to someone you know and like
This one is probably the hardest for most ittybiz owners, so well tackle it first.
That way, if your laptop blows up three minutes from now, youll have gotten the
trickiest one out of the way. The rest can totally wait until you can get to the public
library. (You will be going to IttyBiz at the public library, wont you? While youre
there, make sure to leave 7 reasons I decided not to become a prostitute up when
you leave the desk, okay?)
Telling someone you know and like that you dont want to work with them is hard
for a few reasons. First, youre worried about offending them. Second, youre
worried about disappointing them. And third, its hard to find the words. It feels
like telling a stranger would be a lot easier. (Sometimes yes and sometimes no, but
thats sure what it feels like when youre in the situation.)

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The first issue is pretty easy to tackle. Unless you have a legitimate disorder that
makes knowing whats offensive difficult and we have several clients with
Aspbergers who do find this very hard indeed being generally non-offensive is
relatively simple. Just dont be an ass. Dont be abrupt. Use enough words. Use
basic human manners. (More in the scripting to follow.)
The second one is more challenging. Sometimes not working with you will be
legitimately disappointing, and how you phrase it wont change that. If you make
gorgeous websites, and Im super excited about you making my gorgeous website,
and it turns out that you dont do websites for people in my line of work? Well, its
going to be disappointing no matter how many sandwich techniques you throw in
there. You cant stop someone from being disappointed.
(Also, some people are more easily disappointed than others. The sanguine will
handle it well, the melancholic will handle it badly, and theres not a whole lot you
can really do to influence either. Bummer.)
Youll also want to consider why you dont want to work with them. If you dont
want to work with them because you think theyre going to be a nightmare to work
with, thats one thing, and finding the right words without lying can take a fine
hand. Find a husband or somebody to talk out potentially plausible reasonings
with, and plug them into the template as if they were your actual reasons.
(To my mind, lying here is perfectly acceptable and has no overwhelming moral
component, but it might have unintended longer term consequences. If I tell a
potential client today that were not accepting new ebook jobs, and next week their
best friend comes in and we take them on, weve got an icky situation on our
hands.)
If you dont want to work with them because you cant do so in good conscience,
thats a little easier. Take your actual reason and put it in the reason field. Ahhhh.
How to say no to someone you know and dont like or dont care about
If you dont like them or dont care about them, all you really need to do is make
sure that you dont say anything that could reasonably lend to them talking smack
about you behind your back. It is tempting to simply ignore the request and hope

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they dont follow up. Yeah. Good luck with that. The more you dont like them, the
more likely they are to follow up. Its like gravity, baby. You cant escape it.
Basically, send them the Thanks But No Thanks email and quietly dislike them on
your own time.
Now, if the reason you dont like them is because theyre an abrasive bully who
isnt likely to take no for an answer, thats a little bit of a different story. Your
initial email is the same dont make assumptions and pre-punish a bully-to-be for
something they havent done yet but youre going to brace for more follow up.
Youre pretty sure theyre going to come in and harangue you, and you have to
accept that going in. But theres no point in giving yourself a heart attack finding
ways to be extra aggressive in your initial email when its not going to make a
blind bit of difference anyway. Cool your jets, Boundary Girl.
People who dont respect boundaries are people who dont respect boundaries, and
theres pretty much nothing you can say in the initial conversation that will
influence that in any way. Say what youre going to say nicely, and prepare to
repeat yourself using fewer words each time.
How to say no to a stranger off the street
This is the easiest, because you dont have to worry about any emotional issue
other than your own internal drama. If you just hate saying no, or if you have a
sinking feeling that youre leaving money on the table, or youre thinking anything
that starts with I should, well, thats a separate issue. You dont just need a
template you need a template and a Xanax.*
The presence of your hanging shingle does not mean you need to take every
possible client, and if youve got stress and drama around that fact, the best advice
I can give you is this theyre not taking this nearly as seriously as you are.
Theyre just shooting out an opening volley, and if you dont want to work with
them, theyre probably going to be fine with that. And if theyre not fine with that?
Well, you dont know them, and youre refusing to work with them, so you dont
really ever have to deal with it. Let them hate you.
This stranger-off-the-street thing happens to us a lot in the wake of the IttyBiz
profile in The $100 Startup. We get some pretty kooky people wandering in,
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certain that we are their only hope for, naturally, world domination. Some of them
were thrilled to work with, some of them we can work with, but many of them we
dont want to or cant.
Sometimes they send desperate emails back saying that theres nobody else they
can call. This is likely true, and for that, they have my compassion. The fact that it
is true, though, does not make it our problem. Were a consulting and training
company, not a halfway house.
*Xanax sold separately, see store for details.
How to say no to someone who came referred
This last one we file under Seems Harder Than It Is.
If somebody comes in referred from someone else whether that someone else is
an acquaintance, a colleague, or a cherished friend it feels like youre not
allowed to say no.
Youre allowed to say no.
You just need to remember that whatever you say will get back to the referring
party. This might happen verbatim they forward the email or it might be a
paraphrase. That paraphrase might be an accurate representation of what you said,
or it might be a gross bastardization that slaughters your professional reputation.
Hmmm. Tricky. Youve got to cover your ass here.
Heres what we do.
We send the Thanks, but no thanks email to the inquiring party. Then we forward
a duplicate to the referring party, but we delete the inquiring partys original email
for privacy. Ill start the forward with a heartfelt thank you for the referral and a
BRIEF explanation of why it didnt work out. Then below that they can see what
we sent to the referral if they want to, or if it becomes a drama later.
Then I send them a present. Usually its a plant.
Thanks But No Thanks, the Template

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So heres what we say. It needs modifying for the specifics of the situation, but its
a good enough start. (Highlights are for things youd need to edit).
Hi [name],
Thank you so much for your email about working with you on X. Were so grateful
[honored, if thats more appropriate] that you thought of us.
Having looked at your situation, it seems like youre looking for something thats
outside the scope of what we do well. [Its okay to take the blame here. Youre
turning them down, remember?] I can see youre looking at a strong social media
focus for your marketing campaign, and thats not really our area of expertise. We
tend to get the best results with strengthening a companys home base, email
marketing, launches, and copywriting. It seems like youre going to be better off
with someone who can make magic in 140 characters, and thats not really where
we shine. I wouldnt be comfortable taking your money and knowing youre not
getting our best work.
Unfortunately, I live under a bit of a rock these days, and I dont have any current
ideas for referrals. [If you have ideas for referrals, this is where to put them. We
usually dont, so we take the hit and honestly tell people that weve got nothing. I
used to say if you need any ideas for referrals, let me know, but then people took
me up on it and I was screwed and stressed. So we dont do that anymore.] You
might want to look at Elance or try a few weird Google searches to see if theres
somebody who can give you specifically what youre looking for.
Dave and I both wish you the very best of luck with your [book / new / upcoming /
launch / charity / who cares, just find a damn adjective] project and we look
forward to hearing a great success story.
The key to effective communication is clarity. Get clear in your own mind about
what you want to say. Turn it over a thousand times if you have to. You only get a
few chances to get your real point across anyway. Without improvement,
eventually business and family will tune you out. So pay attention to what your
listeners need and communicate with clarity.
Any company offering consulting and advising to an outside organization should
be focused on delivering the best possible solutions. To that end, managing client
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expectations presents moments when the consultant should exercise their expertise
to inform the client that what they are asking for is not in their best interest. In
other words, sometimes you just have to say no.
To define the problem a little more clearly, we need to look at why organizations
hire outside consultants in the first place. Naturally, there are many reasons that a
company would need help. Regardless of what those reasons are, they hire a
specific consultant because they believe that organization has the resources and
expertise to accomplish their goals. That belief in the consultants expertise implies
trust: a trust that the consultant can understand the business problems and offer a
solution that accomplishes the companys goals. At appendTo we confirm that trust
up front when we set the expectations for the project (Ill touch more on that in a
bit). If we, as consultants, deliver a solution which does not serve our client to the
best of our ability then we have failed.
Saying no to a client is not easy. There are plenty of pitfalls, not the least of
which is that a client may not want to hear those words. In this article Im going to
talk about how we set up an environment in which saying no is possible, and
how we make sure our clients appreciate it.
Setting Roles and Ownership
One of the first tasks we tackle at appendTo with a new client is identifying the
roles on both sides for that project. This may seem obvious, but it is important to
be sure that not only are the specific people and their titles identified, but also what
role they are performing in this specific project. Who owns the product? Who can
make design decisions? Who makes technical direction choices?
Just as important as identifying the key roles for the client are those for the
consultants. Most of our projects involve multiple people in development, project
management, and administrative roles. Making sure the client knows who is
making decisions on our end and who they should contact for specific concerns is
vital to the projects success. And more importantly for this article, it is vital to
negotiating those aspects of the project that we feel need to be changed. For
example, we want our clients to know who will be suggesting framework changes
(the project technical lead) or a new communication strategy (the engagement
manager).
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It is not our policy to allow anyone on our project team to simply tell the client
no, in fact, saying no always comes with additional options and information
(see Discussing the Options later). On the contrary, there is a dynamic that
emerges between the project lead, engagement manager, development team
members, and the executive team. I discuss this support network in a later section,
but what is most important here is that there are defined roles which relate to
ownership over certain aspects of the project. This does not mean that people act
independently, it means that both the client and the internal team understand who is
ultimately responsible for certain decisions.
Understanding the Business Domain
Before ever saying no we always strive to understand why a particular direction,
decision, or tool is important to the client. Simply stating that a client should use
jQuery without understanding why theyve implemented a native DOM selection
tool could miss the point. Part of a consultants expertise should be the ability to
evaluate an existing implementation and understand why it was implemented in
that manner originally.
This investigation often entails questioning the client on ancient history (relatively)
that few people recall. That in itself can aid in the argument for saying no. If
there isnt a single person that the company that understands why a particular tool
was used, and there is substantial evidence that changing could improve the
technical landscape, then saying no to those tool updates will be much easier.
As an added benefit, having the client aid in this discovery could help them realize
that a new direction is warranted and worth the effort. In many cases this negates
the need to say no at all. Ultimately the choice to go in a new direction will
always be up to the client, but having them steer that conversation can make the
process much less painful to both parties.
Getting Support
With the proper roles identified and ownership (and responsibility) established it is
easy to identify who is going to be making decisions on both sides of the table, and
who would be in the position to make the saying no call. That is, it is clear who
will be the one to make the argument, but that person needs support. And while

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moral support is great, were talking about factual, technical, and administrative
support.
First of all, there needs to be general support from the executive team at an
organization to allow their people to exercise their expertise. The understanding by
project leads and engagement managers that they are empowered to advise clients
not only on what _can_ be done, but also what _should_ be done is imperative. It
opens the thought processes of all team members and allows for the free exchange
of ideas, even those that may stray from the norm. In fact, this sentiment goes
beyond the exectuve team. Project leads should encourage discussion on difficult
topics and welcome new ideas. The larger the support network, the more credence
a new idea will have.
Beyond support of the decision by the team, there must be facts to back up a no.
Simply telling a client you wont do something is grossly insufficient. Present them
with an analysis of the decision. Why is tool X preferred? Is there better
community support? Is it less expensive? Will there be efficiency gains? Take the
time to flesh out the details of the change as well. Will this require additional up
front costs? If so, will they be gained in maintenance? To what degree?
Different people will respond to different data and different arguments, so instead
of focusing on one piece of information that the team feels is important, present the
client with an abundance of data that itself argues the decision. Remember that the
client hired a consultant for their expertise. If that experience and knowledge is
demonstrated well they will respond to it in kind.
Discussing the Options
After getting this far in the article, it is probably evident that we dont just say no
to a client and leave it at that. When a situation arises that requires us to advise a
client against their current course of action, we attempt to understand the problem
from their point of view, gather supporting arguments and data on our end, and
eventually present the client with our position. But our position is rarely static.
When we do suggest a change in direction, we like to present the client with our
arguments and then a limited set of options. One of those options will almost
always be the status quo or the clients already-chosen direction (the one were

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trying to say no to). Presenting their current direction as a choice also involves
identifying the risks involved, including any potential financial implications in
terms of development, support, and maintenance.
In addition to the status quo and the experts recommendation it is important to
identify a third option in most cases. If we take the example of a custom-built
library (the status quo) and the suggestion that it be replaced with an open source
alternative, we may offer the suggestion of refactoring the custom code to be a
plugin/extension/etc to the open source library. This offers the possibility to
continue using the custom code in legacy modules while affording the benefits of
the separately maintained OSS module. Of course, it is still important to identify
the costs and risks of such a move, which will vary greatly from project to project.
Exceeding Expectations
This entire discussion is focused around setting appropriate expectations and then
exceeding them. If a client has the expectation that the consulting firm they hired
will provide expert advice and help guide them to a better solution then hearing
no will not be a shock, it will be welcome. The goal should always be to form a
partnership with the client which benefits both parties. Such a partnership can only
succeed if there is trust, and part of that trust is managing expectations.
This is not the same concept as under-promising and over-delivering. On the
contrary, we promise exactly what we expect to deliver. We deliver on what we
promise, and we manage that expectation appropriately. Our agile process then
allows us to change course if necessary, re-evaluating expectations, and still
delivering above our clients expectations. Saying no is just one of the many
ways that we manage these expectations and ensure that our clients are The
Importance of Saying 'No'
I had my own personal struggles with saying "No" to clients. At first, I just
accepted any request coming from a customer, without question. But that didn't
mean I fulfilled the requests. Because I couldn't bring myself to say "No" to
somebody I perceived to have tremendous power over me, I wound up with too
much to do, and I had to drop a few of the tasks. However, I did this without telling
anybody, because I was too shy to mention it, and I reasoned that nobody would
notice anyway.
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Over time, I got braver, and I started saying "No" to clients. But sometimes that
came across as aggressive. As a result, some customers then were hesitant to ask
me for things, and this hesitation limited the free exchange of ideas. I couldn't tell
what they wanted. Working in the dark caused a whole new set of frustrations. I
would misinterpret requirements, and sometimes I'd fail to understand the business
issues behind customer requests.
I went from one extreme to another, and neither of the two approaches was
satisfying. Through these experiences, and from watching other people, I realized
three things:
It's important to say "No" to clients when you can't do what's being asked, or when
you think you have a better idea.
There are good ways of saying "No," and there are bad ways of saying "No."
You can learn the good ways of saying "No."
The immediate benefit of turning down a request you find inappropriate is that you
don't do work that you think shouldn't be done. In addition to that immediate
benefit, saying "No" to a client has at least four good secondary effects:
It helps you to gain the customer's esteem. Clients respect you more when they see
you aren't a pushover. Whether consciously or unconsciously, they place a higher
value on your opinion and on your work. If saying "No" is difficult, remember that
it's far more important to be respected by the client than to be liked.
By telling the client what you think, you're doing what you're paid to do. Even
when it's uncomfortable for him or her to hear, the customer wants your expert
opinion. Once they get over any initial shock of being turned down, most clients
appreciate the fact that you're applying your professional judgment.
By saying "No," you protect yourself. You can't do everything for everybody, and
you want to be compensated fairly for what you do. Taking on too much work
takes away the time you might apply to more strategic tasks. And remember, you
do have a life outside of the job. Don't fall into the same trap as countless other
people, who have so much trouble turning things down that their jobs wind up
encroaching on their personal lives.

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By saying "No" when you mean it, you maintain personal integrity. It's good to
make a habit of telling people the truth. Sometimes the truth is that you don't
intend to do something, or you think you have a better idea.
Saying 'No' to a Client
I can think of a lot of bad ways of saying "No," but only a few good ways. With a
little practice, anybody can learn how to say "No" effectivelyeven to customers.
Here are six suggestions of ways to say "No" to a client, each tailored to a specific
situation:
When you think what's being asked is immoral or unethical, point this out to the
client, but avoid sounding judgmental. Listen to what the client has to say, and be
open to having your own opinion changed. The customer may have valid
arguments and shed light on things you hadn't noticed. But in the end, don't let
anybody pressure you into doing something that goes against your values.
When what's being asked is not in your contract or agreement with the client, point
out the discrepancywithout suggesting that the customer doesn't understand the
contract terms. Here, too, be prepared to change your opinion. After all, you may
be the one who overlooked something.
When you don't feel you're being paid enough to do what the customer is asking,
point out what you think your market value is, and why. Remember to refer to
objective market figures, such as the average price charged in your region for the
same kind of work. Before you approach the customer, think about things you
might trade in the ensuing negotiation. For example, instead of higher pay, the
client might promise you a substantial volume of work over the next year.
When doing what the customer asks would jeopardize another important task for
the same client, ask the customer to decide which task gets dropped. Offer the
client the opportunity to give his or her opinion first, but also be prepared to
provide your own views about relative priorities. Try to remain objective and state
your opinion in terms of the customer's interests.
When you don't think what the client is asking you to do would be beneficial to the
client, explain why. Because the customer may have an emotional attachment to
what he or she is asking you to do, make sure you have solid arguments backing
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your views. Be prepared to provide an alternative before getting into this

discussion.
When you don't think you're capable of doing what the customer is asking you to
do, be honest. Before you approach the client, think of who else might be capable
of handling this task, or come up with an alternative for it. Keep in mind your own
interestsdon't point your customer to your fiercest competitor.
Remember that when you turn down a request from a customer, you're either
creating a new problem or pointing out one that existed unknown to the customer.

2.6 Fire The Imagination

To imagine something is to form a particular sort of mental representation of that
thing. Imagining is typically distinguished from mental states such as perceiving,
remembering and believing in that imagining Sdoes not require (that the subject
consider) S to be or have been the case, whereas the contrasting states do. It is
distinguished from mental states such as desiring or anticipating in that imagining
S does not require that the subject wish or expect S to be the case, whereas the
contrasting states do. It is also sometimes distinguished from mental states such as
conceiving and supposing, on the grounds that imagining Srequires some sort of
quasi-sensory or positive representation of S, whereas the contrasting states do not.
Contemporary philosophical discussions of the imagination have been primarily
focused on three sets of topics. Work in philosophy of mind and philosophy of
psychology has explored a cluster of issues concerning the phenomenology and
cognitive architecture of imagination, examining the ways that imagination differs
from and resembles other mental states both phenomenologically and functionally,
and investigating the roles that imagination may play in the understanding of self
and others, and in the representation of past, future and counterfactual scenarios.

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Work in aesthetics has focused on issues related to imaginative engagement with

fictional characters and events, identifying and offering resolutions to a number of
(apparent) paradoxes. And work in modal epistemology has focused on the extent
to which imaginabilityand its cousin conceivabilitycan serve as guides to
possibility.
There is a general consensus among those who work on the topic that the term
imagination is used too broadly to permit simple taxonomy. Indeed, it is common
for overview essays (including this one) to begin with an invocation of P. F.
Strawson's remarks in Imagination and Perception (1970), where he writes:
The uses, and applications, of the terms image, imagine, imagination, and so
forth make up a very diverse and scattered family. Even this image of a family
seems too definite. It would be a matter of more than difficulty to identify and list
the family's members, let alone their relations of parenthood and cousinhood
(Strawson 1970, 31; cf. McGinn 2009, 595).
These taxonomic challenges carry over into attempts at characterization. In the
opening chapter of Mimesis as Make-Believeperhaps the most influential
contemporary book-length treatment of imaginationKendall Walton (1990)
throws up his hands at the prospect of delineating the notion precisely. After
enumerating and distinguishing a number of paradigmatic instances of imagining,
he asks:
What is it to imagine? We have examined a number of dimensions along which
imaginings can vary; shouldn't we now spell out what they have in common?
Yes, if we can. But I can't. (Walton 1990, 19)
The only recent attempt at a somewhat comprehensive inventory of the term's uses
is due to Leslie Stevenson (2003), who enumerates (without claiming
exhaustiveness) twelve of the most influential conceptions of imagination that
can be found in recent discussions in philosophy of mind, aesthetics, ethics,
poetry and religion. These range from the ability to think of something not
presently perceived, but spatio-temporally real to the ability to create works of
art that express something deep about the meaning of life (Stevenson 2003, 238).

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In light of this unwieldiness, recent attempts at taxonomy have tended to eschew

comprehensiveness, focusing instead on identifying and classifying selected
aspects of the phenomenon. Kendall Walton (1990), for instance, distinguishes
between spontaneous and deliberate imagining (acts of imagination that occur with
or without the subject's conscious direction), between occurrent and nonoccurrent
imaginings (acts of imagination that do or do not occupy the subject's explicit
attention), and between social and solitary imaginings (episodes of imagining that
occur with or without the joint participation of several subjects.)
Other taxonomies concentrate on carving out a particular aspect of the topic for
further discussion. Gregory Currie and Ian Ravenscroft (2002) begin their booklength work on imagination by distinguishing amongcreative imagination
(combining ideas in unexpected and unconventional ways); sensory imagination
(perception-like experiences in the absence of appropriate stimuli); and what they
call recreative imagination (an ability to experience or think about the world from a
perspective different from the one that experience presents), focusing the
remainder of their discussion largely on the third (recreative) sense, and setting
aside the first (creative) sense almost entirely. (Cf. also Strawson 1970, 31.)
[Recent work on the creative imagination has taken place largely within the context
of empirical psychology (see Boden 2003; Csikszentmihalyi 1997; Sternberg
1998), though there has been some philosophical attention to the issue in recent
years (see Carruthers 2007; Gaut & Livingston 2003).]
Yet other taxonomies classify varieties of imagination in terms of their structure
and content. Many philosophers distinguish between propositional imagination
(imagining that P) and non-propositional imagination, dividing the latter into
objectual imagining (imagining E) (Yablo 1993) and active imagining (imagining
X-ing) (Walton 1990). (For a related distinction, see the discussion of Thomas
Nagel's (1974) distinction between sympathetic imagining (imagining oneself
undergoing a certain experience) and perceptual imagining (imagining oneself
perceiving a certain event or state of affairs) in section 4.5 below.) These notions
are often spelled out by means of examples.
When a subject imagines propositionally, she represents to herself that something
is the case. So, for example, Juliet might imagine that Romeo is by her side. To

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imagine in this sense is to stand in some mental relation to a particular proposition.

(See propositional attitude reports.)
When a subject imagines objectually, she represents to herself a real or makebelieve entity or situation. So, for example, Prospero might imagine an acorn or a
nymph or the city of Naples or a wedding feast. To imagine in this sense is to stand
in some mental relation to a representation of an (imaginary or real) entity or state
of affairs. (Yablo 1993; see also Martin 2002; Noordhof 2002; O'Shaughnessy
2000.)
When a subject imagines X-ing, she simulatively represents to herself some sort of
activity or experience. So, for example, Ophelia might imagine seeing Hamlet or
getting herself to a nunnery. To imagine in this sense is to stand in a first-personal
mental relation to some (imaginary or real) behavior or perception.
A final way of thinking about imagination treats imagined as a decoupling or
facsimile or counterpart operator (cf. Leslie 1987; Goldman 2000; Budd 1989)
that can, in principle, be attached to any (mental) state. So, for example, one might
speak of imagined perception (or perception-like imagining), imagined belief (or
belief-like imagining), imagined desire (or desire-like imagining), imagined action
(or action-like imagining), and so on. On this sort of account, a taxonomy of
imaginative attitudes would share whatever shape governs experience more
generally.
2.1 Imagination and Mental Imagery
To have a (merely) mental image is to have a perception-like experience triggered
by something other than the appropriate external stimulus; so, for example, one
might have a picture in the mind's eye or a tune running through one's head
(Strawson 1970, 31) in the absence of any corresponding visual or auditory object
or event.
Although it is possible to form mental images in any of the sensory modalities, the
bulk of discussion both in psychological and philosophical contexts has focused on
visual imagery. The most prominent debate in this area concerns the
representational format of visual mental images, and, in particular, the question of
whether visual mental images are picture-like in the sense they can be mentally

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scanned in much the way that we can visually scan objects that we see. The
picture theory holds, roughly, that the mental representations we experience in
cases of visual imagining represent spatial relationships via representational
properties that are themselves inherently spatial (Kosslyn 1980, 1994; Kosslyn et
al. 2006; Shepard and Metzler 1971; Shepard and Cooper 1982). The alternative,
propositional or descriptive theory, holds that visual mental images are nonpictorial, language-like representations of visual scenes (Pylyshyn 1973, 2002,
2003). (For a detailed presentation and discussion of these issues, see the
discussion of the analog-propositional debate in the entry on mental imagery; cf.
also Block ed. 1981; Tye 1991.)
A more general questionwhich has received less attention in philosophical
discussions of the imaginationconcerns the relation between mental imagery (or
sensory imagination) and imagination more generally. While most theorists of the
imagination distinguish between sensory imagination (forming a mental image)
and cognitive imagination (conceptually entertaining a possibility) (cf. McGinn
2009, following McGinn 2004), or between perception-like (sensory) and belieflike (propositional) imaginings (Currie and Ravenscroft 2002), questions such as
whether sensory and propositional imagining are related as perception is to belief
have not been explored in detail. (For some speculative thoughts about the ways in
which sensory and cognitive imagination may be related, see McGinn 2004,
chapters 12 and 13; cf. also Kind 2001; for discussion of potential relations
between perceptual imagination and objectual imagination, see Chalmers 2002,
150151; Yablo 1993.)
A detailed discussion of the topic of mental imagery and its attendant debates can
be found in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on mental imagery.
2.2 Imagination and Belief
As was noted in section 1, imagination, like belief, has a propositional use. When
we say something like: Macbeth believes that there is a dagger before him, we
attribute to the subject (Macbeth) an attitude (belief) towards a proposition (that
there is a dagger before him). In so doing, we areroughlysuggesting that he
regards the proposition in question as true. (See belief.)

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Likewise, when we say something like: Juliet imagines that Romeo is standing
beside her, we again attribute to our subject (Juliet) an attitude (imagination)
towards a proposition (that Romeo is standing beside her). In so doing, we are
roughlysuggesting that she regards the proposition as, say, fictional or makebelieve or pretend. (Cf. Currie 1990; Nichols and Stich 2000; Walton 1990.)
To a reasonable approximation, then, to believe that P is to regard P as literally true
(for complications with this account, see Velleman 2000), whereas to imagine that
P is to regard P as fictional or make-believe or pretend, regardless of whether P
actually obtains. What does this characterization illuminate about the relation
between the two attitudes?
It is widely accepted thatat least in their propositional usageimagination and
belief range over similar, though perhaps not identical, ranges of content. The
caveats arise because if one holds a view of imagination according to which
imagination must be quasi-sensory, then there are (abstract) propositions that can
be believed but not imagined (though they can presumably be conceived.) And if
one holds a certain view of epistemic modality, there are propositionsa posteriori
necessary falsehoodsthat can be imagined but not believed. Setting aside these
exceptions, however, it appears that the in-principle domain over which both belief
and (propositional) imagination range is the same: roughly, the domain of all
understandable propositions.
But whereas what we believe is determined by (what we think) the actual world is
like, what we imagine is (to a large extent), up to us. The reason for this is
straightforward. Since to believe that P is to take P to hold of the actual world, and
since which world is the actual world is (in the relevant sense) not up to us, belief's
task is to conform to some pre-ordained structureits direction of fit is mind-toworld. (For related discussion of direction of fit, see the entry on speech acts.) By
contrast, since to imagine P is to take P to hold of some particular (set of) nonactual world(s), and since which worlds are imagined is (in the relevant sense) up
to us, imagining's task need not be to conform to some pre-ordained structure. (A
possible exception is guided imagination of the sort generated by stories and works
of art; for discussion of these issues, see section 5.1 below.)

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This distinction is sometimes expressed by saying that whereas believing some

content involves taking the content to be true in the actual world, imagining that
content involves taking that content to be true-in-fiction, or make-believe-true, or
pretend-true. (Discussion of the relation between truth simpliciter and truth-infiction goes beyond the scope of this entry. For further discussion of some of these
issues, see theStanford Encyclopedia entries on truth and fictionalism and Zalta
1992.)
On the basis of these sorts of considerations, a number of theorists have proposed
cognitive models on which belief and imagination (or pretense) involve distinct but
structurally-similar psychological mechanisms that act on similar sorts of
representational content. The most prominent of these is Nichols and Stich's (2000,
2003) cognitive theory of pretense, according to which belief and imagination are
psychological attitudes that operate on propositional content stored in different
mental boxesa Belief Box in the case of beliefs, and a Possible World Box
in the case of imaginingseach governed by characteristic set of rules that
regulate its relation to behavior and to other mental states.
For general discussions of the relation between imagination and belief, see Currie
and Ravenscroft 2002; Nichols and Stich 2000; Walton 1990; and Velleman 2000
as well as essays collected in Lopes and Kieren eds. 2003 and Nichols ed. 2006.
2.3 Imagination and Desire
Like belief and imagination, desire has a propositional use. In this sense, we might
say: Hamlet desires that Claudius drink from the poisoned cup. When we say
this, we attribute to our subject (Hamlet) an attitude (desire) towards a proposition
(that Claudius drink from the poisoned cup). In so doing, we areroughly
suggesting that he regards the state of affairs represented by the proposition as one
to be brought about.
Unlike belief, desire does not have a mind-to-world fit. Desire is an attitude that is
conative rather than cognitive: it has a world-to-mind fit. To desire that P is,
roughly, to wish that it were or will be the case that Phold of the actual world.
In light of this, the question arises whetherin addition to there being an
imaginative analogue to beliefthere is also an imaginative analogue to desire. To

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imaginatively desire (i-desire) that P, or to have a desire-like imagining, would be

to wishin an imaginative waythat it were or will be the case that P hold (in
some fictional or make-believe or pretend world.)
The notion of desire-like imagination (Currie 1990, 2002; Velleman 2000) or idesire (Doggett and Egan 2007) has been invoked to explain two phenomena: the
generation of behaviors in imaginary contexts, and the apparent existence of
desires evoked by fictions. According to such accounts, if I'm pretending to be
Cleopatra, it is my desire-like imagining that I be with Antony, in conjunction with
my belief-like imagining that you are Antony, that leads me to take actions such as
embracing you. Relatedly, on such accounts, just as I may imagine that Romeo and
Juliet both die (and thus imagine something about them in a belief-like way), I may
also want them to go on living (and thus imagine something about them in a
desire-like way.)
Objections to such accounts contend that the notion of desire-like imagination (or
i-desire) is unnecessary to explain the phenomena for which it is intended to
account. On such views, rather than desiring-in-imagination that Romeo and Juliet
live, what I desire(-in-actuality) is that in the fiction Romeo and Juliet live.
For further discussion of desire-in-imagination/i-desire, see (defenders) Currie
1990, ch.5; Currie 2002; Currie and Ravenscroft 2002; Doggett and Egan 2007;
Velleman 2000; (dissenters) Carruthers 2003; Nichols and Stich 2000, 2003;
Funkhouser and Spaulding 2009
2.4 Imagination and Supposition
A number of contemporary discussions of the imagination distinguish between
mere supposition on the one hand, and engaged or vivid imagination on the other.
Roughly, mere supposition is what is involved in simple cases of hypothetical
reasoning, whereas vivid imagination is what is involved in aesthetic participation,
engaged pretense, or absorbing games of make-believe.
A related distinction is made by Alvin Goldman (2006) between suppositional
imagination (s-imagination) on the one hand, and enactment imagination (eimagination) on the other. S-imagination involves supposing that particular content
obtains (for example, supposing that I am elated); e-imagination involves

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enacting, or trying to enact, elation itself. (Goldman 2006, 4748, italics

omitted.) (Note that Goldman's notion of s-imagination is to be distinguished from
Peacocke's notion of the same name (see section 5.6 below.))
The distinction between mere supposition and vivid imagination is often invoked
in discussions of imaginative engagement. Richard Moran (1994), for example,
distinguishes between them on the grounds that vivid imagination tends to give rise
to a wide range of further mental states, including affective responses, whereas
mere supposition does not. (See section 5.3 below.) In a related vein, Tamar
Gendler (2000) points out that while attempting to vividly imagine something like
that female infanticide is morally right seems to generate imaginative resistance,
merely supposing it does not. (For a characterization and discussion of imaginative
resistance, see section 5.2 below.) Gregory Currie and Ian Ravenscroft (2002)
contend that this difference arises because supposition involves belief-like
imagining in the absence of desire-like imagining, whereas engaged imagining
involves both, Similarly, Tyler Doggett and Andy Egan (2007) point out that
vividly imagining tends to motivate actions in the context of pretense, while
merely supposing tends not to.
For additional discussion of the relation between supposition and vivid
imagination, see Currie & Ravenscroft 2002, Doggett and Egan 2007, Gendler
2000, Moran 1994, Nichols 2006, Weinberg & Meskin 2006.
2.5 Imagination and Dreaming
Dreaming is often characterized by appeal to the idea of imagination. Kendall
Walton (1990), for example, describes dreams as spontaneous, undeliberate
imaginings, while psychologist David Foulkes characterizes dreaming as the
awareness of being in an imagined world in which things happen (Foulkes 1999,
9).
As John Sutton (2009) notes, the topic of dreaming has been relatively neglected in
recent discussions in the philosophy of mind (for an exception, see Flanagan 2000)
including the literature on imagination. But there has been a recent flurry of
discussion about the question of whether dream contents are (experienced as)
imagined or believed.

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On what might be called the orthodox view of dreaming, if I dream that I'm
falling, while dreaming I have the belief that I'm falling. Perhaps the most famous
adherent to the orthodox view is Descartes, who uses the purported fact that we
often believe what we dream to motivate his skepticism.
More recently, Jonathan Ichikawa (2009) and Ernest Sosa (2005; 2007) have
denied that dreaming involves believing. Rather, they argue, dreaming is a form of
imagining. Ichikawa, expanding on work by Sosa, observes that the dreamanalogues of beliefs do not behave like normal beliefs: dream beliefs are not
related to perceptual experience or to behavior in ways that waking beliefs are; and
dream beliefs are subject to radical shifts in ways that waking beliefs are not.
Thus, they contend, our relation to the contents of our dreams is one of
imagination, not belief. (See also Malcolm 1959; Dennett 1976.) Sosa claims
(2005; 2007) and Ichikawa denies (2008) that this reconstrual fully blunts the force
of the Cartesian dreaming argument.
In support of a version of the orthodox view, Colin McGinn (2004) has argued that,
although dreams do involve mental imagery rather than perceptual experiences,
they may also involve belief. He argues this partly on the grounds that dreams
often involve a deep emotional engagement that is absent from both imagination
and daydreaming, yet characteristic of belief (978). He proposes what he calls the
fictional immersiontheory of dreaming (1034), according to which dreams are
like fictions where we become so deeply engaged that we lose ourselves and
thereby form (admittedly atypical) beliefs. (For related discussion, see 5.3 below.)
For an overview of the range of philosophical issues raised by dreaming
including a number that relate directly to the issue of imaginationsee Sutton
2009, as well as the book-length treatment in Flanagan 2000. For an overview of
recent empirical discussions of dreaming see the anthologies edited by Barrett and
McNamara eds. (2009), Ellman and Antrobus eds. (1991), and Pace-Schott et al
eds. (2003), or the book-length treatments by Domhoff (2003) and Hobson (1988,
2002). For a review of recent empirical work on the nature of daydreaming, see
Klinger 2009.
2.6 Imagination and Pretense

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Questions about the relation between imagination and pretense are to some extent
terminological. Some (following Ryle 1949) speak of imagination and pretense
interchangeably; others take imagination to be more mentalistic and pretense more
behavioral. On the latter reading, most philosophers agree that one could imagine
without pretending, and that one could pretend (that is, act-as-if) without
imagining. (Cf. Ryle 1949; Currie and Ravenscroft 2002.)
In the developmental psychology literature, there is debate over the underlying
capacities that facilitate pretense behavior in children, with three competing
theoretical positions predominating. Metarepresentationalaccounts maintain that
pretense involves representing the contents of the pretend episode as pretense, and
thus holds that those who engage in pretense behavior must possess a concept of
pretense (Leslie 1987, 1994). Behaviorist accounts maintain, to the contrary, that
pretending requires only the ability to behave as if the content of the pretense
were true (Harris 1994, 2000; Perner 1991; Nichols and Stich 2003).Intentionalist
accounts maintain that what underlies the ability to engage in pretense behavior is
the ability to intend to pretend or to act as though the contents of the pretense
episode were true (Searle 1979; Rakoczy, Tomasello and Striano 2004).
3.1 Mirroring and Quarantining
Games of pretense in particular, and imaginative episodes in general, tend to share
a pair of features that have been dubbed mirroring and quarantining. (Gendler
2003; see also Leslie 1987; Perner 1991, Nichols and Stich 2000).
Mirroring is manifest to the extent that features of the imaginary situation that have
not been explicitly stipulated are derivable via features of their real-world
analogues, or, more generally, to the extent that imaginative content is taken to be
governed by the same sorts of restrictions that govern believed content. For
example, in a widely-discussed experiment conducted by Alan Leslie (1994),
children are asked to engage in an imaginary tea party. When an experimenter tips
and spills one of the (empty) teacups, children consider the non-tipped cup to be
full (in the context of the pretense) and the tipped cup to be empty (both within
and outside of the context of the pretense). More generally, it appears that both
games of make-believe and more complicated engagements with fiction, cinema,
and visual art are governed byprinciples of generation, according to which

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particular prompts or props generate or render make-believe particular fictional

truths and that those principles tend to be, for the most part, reality-oriented.
(Walton 1990). (For further discussion, see Currie 2002; Gendler 2003; Harris
2000; Harris and Kavanaugh 1993; Leslie 1994; Lewis 1983b; Nichols and Stich
2000. Related issues are discussed below in section 3.3 below.)
Quarantining, is manifest to the extent that events within the imagined or pretended
episode are taken to have effects only within a relevantly circumscribed domain.
So, for example, the child engaging in the make-believe tea party does not expect
that spilling (imaginary) tea will result in the table really being wet, nor does a
person who imagines winning the lottery expect that when she visits the ATM, her
bank account will contain a million dollars. More generally, quarantining is
manifest to the extent that proto-beliefs and proto-attitudes concerning the
imagined state of affairs are not treated as beliefs and attitudes relevant to guiding
action in the actual world. (The failure to quarantine imaginary attitudes in certain
contexts is often taken to be a mark of mental illness; see section 6.3 below.)
Some (Nichols and Stich 2000, 2003; cf. Leslie 1987) have suggest that mirroring
and quarantining fall out naturally from the architecture of the imagination:
mirroring is a consequence of the ways in which imagination and belief share a
single code and quarantining is a consequence of the way in which imagination
takes place off-line (Nichols 2004; 2006.)
3.2 Disparity and Contagion
Though games of pretense and imaginative episodes are largely governed by
mirroring and quarantining, both may be violated in systematic ways. Mirroring
gives way to disparity as a result of the ways in which (the treatment of) imaginary
content may differ from (that of) believed content. Imagined content may be
incomplete (e.g. there may be no fact of the matter (in the pretense) just how much
tea has spilled on the table) or incoherent (e.g. it might be that the toaster serves (in
the pretense) as a logical-truth inverter). And content that is imagined may give
rise to discrepant responses, most strikingly in cases of discrepant affect (where,
for example, the imminent destruction of all human life is treated as amusing rather
than terrifying; cf. Nichols 2006, also Gendler 2003, 2006; see also section 5.2
below.)

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Quarantining gives way to contagion when imagined content ends up playing a

direct role in actual attitudes and behavior. This is common in cases of affective
transmission, where an emotional response generated by an imagined situation may
constrain subsequent behavior. For example, imagining something fearful (such as
a tiger in the kitchen) may give rise to actual hesitation (such as reluctance to enter
the room; cf. Harris et al 1991.) And it also occurs in cases of cognitive
transmission, where imagined content is thereby primed and rendered more
accessible in ways that go on to shape subsequent perception and experience. For
example, imagining some object (such as a sheep) may make one more likely to
perceive such objects in one's environment (such as mistaking a rock for a ram.)
(For an overview of such cases, cf. Gendler 2003; 2006.)
3.3 Explaining Contagion
A number of philosophers have proposed explanations for how imagining might
give rise to emotional and behavioral responses typically associated with belief,
despite the imaginer's explicit avowal that she does not take the imagined content
to be real.
One recent explanation of this phenomenon makes appeal to what Tamar Gendler
has dubbed alief. (Gendler, 2008a, 2008b; see also Dennett and McKay 2009) To
have an alief isroughlyto have an innate or habitual propensity for a real or
apparent stimulus to automatically activate a particular affective and behavioral
repertoire, where the behavioral propensities to which an alief gives rise may be in
tension with those that arise from one's beliefs. So, for example, while a subject
may believe that drinking out of a sterile bedpan is completely safe, she may
nonetheless show hesitation and disgust at the prospect of doing so because the
bedpan renders occurrent an alief with the content filthy object, disgusting, stay
away. Since aliefs, by their nature, are source-indifferent, imagined content may
give rise to alief-driven reactions. As a result, the notion of alief may explain how
content that we explicitly recognize to be purely imaginary may nonetheless
produce powerful emotional and cognitive responses. (Gendler 2008a, 2008b; see
also section 5.3 below.)
Andy Egan (2001) explains similar phenomena in terms of what he calls
bimagination, a mental state that has some of the distinctive features of belief and

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some of imagination: bimagination is both action-guiding (and hence belief-like)

and inferentially highly circumscribed (and hence imagination-like.) On Egan's
view, this distinctive mental state can be invoked to explain a number of cases that
other philosophers have described as involving imagined content that gives rise to
belief-typical responses (particularly delusions, see section 6.3 below.)
Further discussion of related issues can be found in Perner, Baker, and Hutton
1994; Schwitzgebel 2001; and Zimmerman 2007. Additional discussion of
contagion in the context of fictional emotions can be found in section 5.3 below.
4. Some Roles of Imagination
Much of the contemporary discussion of imagination has centered around
particular roles that imagination is purported to play in various domains of human
understanding and activity. Five of the most widely-discussed are the role of
imagination in the understanding of other minds (Section 4.1), in the cultivation of
moral understanding and sensibility (Section 4.2), in the reconfiguration of
responses (Section 4.3), in planning and counterfactual reasoning (Section 4.4),
and in providing knowledge of possibility (Section 4.5).
4.1 Imagination and Mindreading
Mindreading is the activity of attributing mental states to oneself and to others, and
of predicting and explaining behavior on the basis of those attributions.
Early discussions of mindreading were often framed as debates between the
theory theorywhich holds that the attribution of mental states to others is
guided by the application of some (tacit) folk psychological theoryand the
simulation theorywhich holds that the attribution of mental states is guided by
a process of replicating or emulating the target's (apparent) mental states, perhaps
through mechanisms involving the imagination. (Influential collections of papers
on this debate include Carruthers and Smith, eds. 1996; Davies and Stone, eds.
1995a, 1995b.) In recent years, proponents of both sides have increasingly
converged on common ground, allowing that both theory and simulation play some
role in the attribution of mental states to others (Cf. Carruthers 2003; Goldman
2006; Nichols and Stich 2003; cf. also empirical work adverted to in section 6
below.) Many such hybrid accounts include a role for imagination.

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On theory theory views, mindreading involves the application of some (tacit) folk
psychological theory that allows the subject to make predictions and offer
explanations of the target's beliefs and behaviors. On pure versions of such
accounts, imagination plays no special role in the attribution of mental states to
others. (For an overview of theory theory, cf. the entry on folk psychology as a
theory).
On simulation theory views, mindreading involves simulating the target's mental
states so as to exploit similarities between the subject's and target's processing
capacities. It is this simulation that allows the subject to make predictions and offer
explanations of the target's beliefs and behaviors. (For early papers, see Goldman
1989; Gordon 1986; Heal 1986; for recent dissent, see, e.g., Carruthers 2009;
Gallagher 2007; Saxe 2005, 2009; for an overview of simulation theory, cf. the
entry on folk psychology as mental simulation.)
Traditional versions of simulation theory typically describe simulation using
expressions such as imaginatively putting oneself in the other's place (Gordon
2004). How this metaphor is understood depends on the specific account. (A
collection of papers exploring various versions of simulation theory can be found
in Dokic and Proust, eds. 2002.) On many accounts, the projection is assumed to
involve the subject's imaginatively running mental processes off-line that are
directly analogous to those being run on-line by the target (e.g. Goldman 1989).
Recent empirical work in psychology has explored the accuracy of such
projections (Markman et al eds. 2009, section V; Saxe 2005, 2006, 2009.)
Though classic simulationist accounts have tended to assume that the simulation
process is at least in-principle accessible to consciousness, a number of recent
simulation-style accounts appeal to neuroscientific evidence suggesting that at least
some simulative processes take place completely unconsciously. On such accounts
of mindreading, no special role is played by conscious imagination. (For
discussion, see Goldman 2009; Saxe 2009.)
Many contemporary views of mindreading are hybrid theory views according to
which both theorizing and simulation play a role in the understanding of others'
mental states. Goldman (2006), for example, argues that while mindreading is
primarily the product of simulation, theorizing plays a role in certain cases as well.

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Many recent discussions have endorsed hybrid views of this sort, with more or less
weight given to each of the components in particular cases. (Cf. Carruthers 2003;
Nichols and Stich 2003.)
A number of philosophers have suggested that the mechanisms underlying subjects'
capacity to engage in mindreading are those that enable engagement in pretense
behavior (Currie and Ravenscroft 2002; Goldman 2006; Nichols and Stich 2003;
for an overview of recent discussions, see Carruthers 2009.) According to such
accounts, engaging in pretense involves imaginatively taking up perspectives other
than one's own, and the ability to do so skillfully may rely onand contribute to
one's ability to understand those alternate perspectives. Partly in light of these
considerations, the relative lack of spontaneous pretense in children with autistic
spectrum disorders is taken as evidence for a link between the skills of pretense
and empathy (see section 6.2.)
4.2 Imagination, Fiction and Moral Understanding
Since ancient times, philosophers and others have argued that fiction can play a
role in the moral education of those who imaginatively engage with it through
developing of their abilities to think and act in morally desirable ways. One
suggested mechanism for this process is that fictions allow imaginative
acquaintance with unfamiliar moral perspectives and emotions, and cultivate
existing moral understanding and capabilities by directing the reader's attention in
ways that allow that understanding to be applied. Theories along these lines are
endorsed by Carroll 2002, Currie 1995b, Jacobson 1996, Mullin 2004, Nussbaum
1990, and Robinson 2005, and explored throughout the works of Iris Murdoch
passim.
Martha Nussbaum maintains that one of the central moral skills is the ability to
discern morally salient features of one's situation. This skill, she contends, is one
that must be developed, and one to which the engagement with literature might
effectively contribute by providing close and careful interpretative descriptions
of imagined scenarios that enable emotional involvement untainted by distorting
self-interest (1990, 468). Hakemulder (2000) reviews some empirical
psychological evidence for this hypothesis.

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Mark Johnson (1994, Ch. 8) holds a view on which our moral understanding and
moral development are both fundamentally tied to our imaginative abilities. On his
account, our abilities to imagine morally relevant situations and alternatives aids in
our moral understanding, and our moral education consists at least partly in the
development of abilities to imaginatively apply moral concepts to events in our
everyday lives.
4.3 Imagination and Reshaping Responses
Another purported role for imagination is in reshaping innate or habitual patterns
of response. I might, for example, believe that snakes are harmless, yet nonetheless
find myself unable to tolerate their presence; or I might believe that male and
female students are, on the whole, equally capable academically, yet nonetheless
read the papers of my female students less charitably. Empirical evidence suggests
that engaging in certain types of mental imagery exercises can mitigate these sorts
of unwanted automatic associations, that is, that imagination, properly deployed,
may be a resource for the regulation of behaviors that lie beyond the range of our
immediate rational control. (Historical discussions of this technique can be found
in the entry on Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance theories of emotions and on
17th and 18th century theories of emotions; for an overview of some recent work
in this domain, see Gendler 2008b.)
These issues have been explored extensively in work in sports psychology, where
researchers have demonstrated the efficacy of mental imagery practice in domains
ranging from table tennis and golf to kayaking and dart throwing. (For references
to studies of the efficacy of mental imagery in more than forty sports, see Kosslyn
and Moulton 2009, 38.)
Mental imagery also plays a central role in a number of therapeutic practices,
including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (cf. Beck 1993; Ellis 2001.) For further
discussion, see the Stanford Encyclopedia segment onthe mental imagery revival.
4.4 Imagination and Counterfactual Reasoning
It has been argued that imagination plays a central role in figuring out what would
happenor what would have happenedhad things been different from how they
in fact are or were. Timothy Williamson, for example, suggests that When we

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work out what would have happened if such-and-such had been the case, we
frequently cannot do it without imagining such-and-such to be the case and letting
things run. (Williamson 2005, 19; cf. Williamson 2007). On this sort of account, if
King Lear thinks to himself, If only I hadn't divided my kingdom between Regan
and Goneril, Cordelia would still be alive, it is Lear's imagining a relevant
situation in which he hadn't divided his kingdom between Regan and Goneril that
allows him to move from the antecedent to the consequent of the counterfactual
conditional that he entertains. Clearly, such contemplation gives access to a
suitably circumscribed set of worlds only if the imaginative exercise is somehow
constrained with respect to what is held constant.
The role of imagination in counterfactual thinkingand, in particular, the question
of what tends to be held constant when subjects contemplate counterfactual
scenarioshas been explored in detail in recent empirical psychological work. In
her monograph-length discussion of the role of imagination in counterfactual
reasoning, Ruth Byrne (2005) presents evidence showing that, when people reason
using counterfactuals, what is imagined tends to fall into certain typical categories.
For example, people tend not to imagine worlds with different natural laws, and
they tend to imagine alternatives to more recent as opposed to earlier events,
alternatives to actions as opposed to inactions, and alternatives to events that were
within their control as opposed to events outside of it. (Additional influential work
on this topic can found in Byrne 2005; Johnson-Laird 1983, 2006; Markman et al.
2009, sect. III; Roese and Olson 1995. )
Such issues may bear on other philosophical work that makes appeal to
counterfactual reasoning, for example, theories of causation, counterfactual
conditionals and modality.
4.5 Imagination and Possibility
On one widely-discussed view of the epistemology of modality, conceivability is
taken to be a (prima facie) guide to possibility. (For discussion, see Yablo 1993,).
On the simplest version of this account (which, for reasons discussed below, no
one holds), whatever can be conceived is possible (sometimes called the C-P
thesis) and whatever is possible can be conceived (sometimes called the P-C
thesis).,

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Possibility in this context is generally understood as metaphysical possibility,

where a proposition is metaphysically possible iff it describes some way things
might have been. (Cf. Gendler & Hawthorne 2002; Fine 2002). Conceivability here
is generally taken in a broad sense, where conceiving is something like the
capacity that enables us to represent scenarios to ourselves using words or concepts
or sensory images, scenarios that purport to involve actual or non-actual things in
actual or non-actual configurations (Gendler & Hawthorne 2002, 1; for an
overview of some of the distinctions that this characterization brushes over, see
Yablo 1993).
Given these clarifications, it is clear that the P-C thesis is a non-starter, at least
without heavy idealization: the range of metaphysical possibilities certainly
outruns the range of propositions that we ordinary humans can represent to
ourselves. But versions of the C-P thesis, according to which the fact that we can
represent P to ourselves provides (probabilifying or decisive) evidence in favor of
P's metaphysical possibility, have played a central role in a number of traditional
and contemporary discussions, particularly in the context of mind-body dualism
(for details, see relevant sections in the SEP entries on zombies and dualism.)
Descartes famously offered one such modal argument in the Sixth Meditation
(CSM II, 54), reasoning from the fact that he could clearly and distinctly conceive
of his mind and body as distinct to the real distinctness between them.
Contemporary advocates of related argumentsdetails of which can be found in
relevant sections in the SEP entries on zombies and dualisminclude Saul Kripke
(1972/80), W.D. Hart (1988), and David Chalmers (1996, 2002). One form of such
argument takes as a premise something implying or implied by the following:
Zombie-conceivability: It is conceivable that there could be an exact physical
duplicate of me who lacked consciousness.
And, relying on some suitably strong C-P-style principle, concludes from this that:
Zombie-possibility: It is possible that there could be an exact physical duplicate of
me who lacked consciousness.

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Both defenders and critics of such modal arguments have suggested that appeal to
the notion of imaginingas distinct from mere conceivingmay play a role in
such arguments' soundness.
On the defenders' side, David Chalmers has argued that even those who hold that
there are propositions that are not epistemically accessible on the basis of a
complete qualitative description of the world should still accept that what he calls
ideal primary positive conceivability entails what he calls primary possibility.
Primary (as opposed to secondary) possibility concerns the question of whether
there is some world Wthat makes P true when W is considered as actual. (For a
discussion of the relation between this notion and the notion of metaphysical
possibility, see Chalmers 2002.) Ideal (as opposed to mere prima facie)
conceivability concerns the question of whether P is conceivable on ideal rational
reflection. And positive (as opposed to negative) conceivability concerns the
question of whether P is imaginable: to positively conceive of a situation is to in
some sense imagine a specific configuration of objects and properties (Chalmers
2002). According to Chalmers, then, a certain sort of C-P thesis holds for states of
affairs that are conceivable on reflection in the positive sensethat is, for states of
affairs that are, on reflection, imaginable. (For discussion, see Byrne 2007; Levin
2008; Stoljar 2007; Stalnaker 2002; Yablo 2002.)
On the critical side, Christopher Hill (Hill 1997; Hill & McLaughlin 1999),
following a suggestion of Thomas Nagel (Nagel 1974, footnote 11), has argued that
if we distinguish properly between sympathetic imaginingwherein one imagines
oneself undergoing a certain experienceand perceptual imaginingwherein one
imagines oneself perceiving a certain event or state of affairs, then
Descartes/Kripke/Chalmers-style modal arguments fail. He contends that in the
Zombie argument, the exact physical duplicate is imagined in one way, whereas
the lacking consciousness is imagined in another: the conceiving that goes on
with respect to the relevant physical features involves perceptual imagination,
whereas the conceiving that goes on with respect to the relevant phenomenal
features involves sympathetic imagination. As a result, the relation between the
physical and phenomenal features will appear contingent even if it is necessary,
because of the independence of the disparate types of imagination (Nagel 1974,
footnote 11). So the argument cannot get off the ground. (Chalmers' response can
be found in Chalmers 1999.)
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For a comprehensive discussion of the major philosophical positions concerning

the relations among imagination, conceivability and possibility, see the entry on the
epistemology of modality; for related discussion, see relevant sections in the
entries on zombies and dualism. A detailed introduction to the issues in question
can be found in Gendler & Hawthorne 2002b or Evnine 2008; recent papers on this
topic can be found at PhilPapers Conceivability, Imagination and Possibility . See
especially Byrne 2007 and Stoljar 2007.

2.7 Understand Values

If I was to ask you what are your values, would you know what they are? And
more importantly, would you know how to utilise them?
When it comes to Happiness, understanding your values is a fundamental building
block. Your values influence your behaviours, your choices and your emotions.
Your values influence your habits, your lifestyle and your social experiences. Your
values are your motivators and give you purpose for getting up in the morning.
When asked the above question, most responses I hear are pretty vague, people
have to think them through or people just say things that they think are their values
or that they want their values to be as they are seen as desirable traits to have. But
are the values that you want to have really your values?
Values explained
So what are values? Values are such a broad topic and cant really be summed up
in a single sentence, but put simply, your values represent what is important to you.
As mentioned above, they are the driving force behind why you get up in the
morning, the choices you make and why you behave the way you do. Examples of
values are success, honesty, belonging and health. Some people suggest that other
activities such as reading, swimming or socialising are values, however these
would be symptoms of your values. For example, if you feel reading is a value, it is
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probably more accurate to assume that your actual value is learning, or relaxing or
something of a similar nature. Think about the actual reason as to what it that led
you to read? Similar to swimming, is this truly your value or is it that you value
health, wellbeing or success? Perhaps you socialise while swimming and your true
value is friendship. These are the reasons that made you choose to go swimming.
Understanding exactly what it is that you value is the perfect starting point for
understanding your self and understanding your motivators.

Benefits of understanding your values

If you want to gain tremendous clarity around your life, your decisions, what
matters most to you and ultimately live a happy and successful life, then
understanding your values is fundamental. Ultimately, through understanding your
values you will be able to prioritiseeffectively, make consistent decisions and take
action in a way that leads you to success and happiness in the areas you pursue.
Why does this matter? For three primary reasons:
1) Time is the most limited resource
2) Our decisions are often inconsistent with our goals
3) You want to achieve awesome Happiness
Firstly, time is a limited resource. The fact that youre reading this suggests to me
that you are wanting to maximize your life, an outcome of maximizing your time.
Understanding your values and prioritizing helps you achieve this. Secondly, the
decisions you make are far more consistent when you understand your values.
When you know what is most important to you, you can prioritise and make
consistent decisions to progress you towards your goals. Thirdly, you are on a
journey of Starting the Happiness in your own life and in the lives of others. If you
want to achieve success and happiness, understanding your values is a sure-fire
way of gaining tremendous focus and clarity of your goals, and through clear
prioritization and consistent decisions, you will get there, faster.

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When you are not in harmony with your values

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in
harmony.
-Mahatma Gandhi
There is something I left out of the benefits above, simply because I feel it
deserves a section all to itself. Happiness is and ought to be our ultimate end.
When you make choices that are in line with your values, you experience harmony,
a feeling that leads to satisfaction and happiness. Re-read that quote above by
Mahatma Gandhi, the preeminent leader of India who inspired movements for nonviolence, civil rights and freedom across the world. This quote sums up how the
heart, mind, body and soul work in unison. The heart is what represents your
values, the things that are most important to you. When other parts of our being are
not aligned to our values (eg we make a different choice or we take a different
path) we experience dis-harmony which can lead to feelings of frustration,
confusion, guilt, emptiness or unhappiness.
Lets look at an example. Some readers may value their health. If this is a strong
value for you then how do you feel after going to a birthday afternoon tea and
instead of opting for the healthier options, you realise that you have stuffed
yourself with sweet slices, fluffy cupcakes, sugar-coated lollies and soft-drinks.
Im pretty sure you would be feeling a strong sense of guilt, perhaps angry with
yourself about your choice. You immediately get a sense that something is wrong.
Youre experiencing dis-harmony. This feeling would differ depending on how
strong you value your health.
Taking another example. Lets say you value fairness. How would you feel if you
had one gift to giveaway between two people who needed it most. It would be an
extremely tough choice for you because no matter your decision, one person will
miss out. You will experience feelings of uneasiness as this goes against your
values.
When you experience dis-harmony between your values and your behaviours,
subconciously you will automatically take action to correct the situation and rectify
your feelings. The person who ate themselves silly at the birthday afternoon tea

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might make the decision to hit the gym and sweat even harder during their next
session or set themselves up on a new diet. This will realign their decisions and
actions with their values. The person who gave the gift to one person may go out of
their way to do something for the other person to ensure harmony between their
values and actions.
The more clarity you have of your values the more rapidly you can identify why
you are experiencing dis-harmony and realign yourself to feelings of happiness.
Ultimately, understanding your values helps you make choices to experience
congruency, success and happiness.
Do you ever get the feeling of dis-harmony? Do you recognise this feeling when it
occurs? What do you do that ensures you actions and behaviours are in line with
your values? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Next step
Now that you understand what are values and why they are important, do you
actually know what your values are? In part two you will have the opportunity to
elicit your values and look into how to best utilize them for goal-setting and
decision-making.
Before heading to part 2, I highly recommend you gain access to our free toolkit
which provides you with a range of free, bonus strategies and tools for helping you
live more successful, fulfilled and happy. You can gain instant access by
completing the below.
Eliciting Your Values
Ok, so lets do it! Its time for you to build your values hierarchy. To do this
properly, I suggest allowing yourself enough time where you do not have to be
anywhere in the next couple of hours and also being in a quiet space with no
distractions so you can do some self-reflection. Read over this whole post first so
you understand the process and then when youre ready, find your space and take
action. Some people find it hard to do self-reflection and spend time evaluating
their lives, but if youre here and reading this then I think youre already one-step
ahead of the game and youre taking the right steps! Ill try make it as simple as
possible for you.
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Round 1
1) Get some paper, a pen, put yourself in a comfy place away from distractions and
get ready for step 2
2) In the middle of your sheet of paper, write What is Important To Me In My
Life? and circle it. thats right, were mind-mapping!
3) Answer that question!

Think deep. Think hard. Think of what makes you happy. Think of your life gone
by and the experiences you have had. Think of what motivates you to get out of
bed in the morning. Think of what inspires you. Write write write absolutely
everything that comes to your mind. If youre thinking of long sentences, try
encapsulate them in a single word. For example, if youre thinking that you want to
have a successful career and make it to the top of your Organisation, simply put
success, or career, or successful career.
Remember, these are your values, not what everyone else thinks are your values or
suggestsyour values should be. Make sure what youre writing down makes sense
for you and that you truly feel some passion as you are writing them down. Once
you start coming to a bit of a halt and you feel you have exhausted all the areas that
you feel are important to you, read this comprehensive list of values and see if
there are others that light a spark or jump out at you that you can add to your list.

Round 2
You will now have a comprehensive map of values that are true to you. Perhaps
you wrote 10, perhaps you wrote 20, perhaps you wrote 100! Now is the harder
part. You want to ensure that you elicit the values that are MOST important to you.
Your goal is to now get your comprehensive list of values down to a concise list of
YOUR TOP 10 VALUES.
Read over your map of values that you have created, one by one going through
them. As you read each one, what do you feel or experience? If youre not
experiencing a sense of excitement or passion or you are unsure or a bit hesitant
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when reading over one, then it is probably lesser of a value to you. For those that
you read over and you get a tingling feeling, a buzz, or it makes you feel positive
in some way, then these would be your highest values. Ask yourself is thisTRULY
your value or is it simply a desirable trait? Think through when you have you
displayed these values? Did it motivate you? Did it make you feel happy? Do you
actually live this value? Write your list on the back of your mind map.
Elicit and decide on your Top 10 values of what is most important to you.

Round 3
Now that you have your concise list of values that resemble what is important in
your life, how does this make you feel? When you look at them does it feel right?
Does it inspire and motivate you? Does it resemble you and where you want to go?

Were taking it one-step further. Now that you have your list of values that are
most important to you, you are now going to rank them. You want to understand
what it is that matters MOST to you. Once again, take the time and go through the
exercise of reading over your list and sensing which ones are the ones that give you
the buzz or spark and rank your values 1 through 10. If you are finding it tough to
determine which value is more important to you, try create a scenario or situation
between the two values. For example, if you are struggling to determine which
value is more important between Learning and Fitness, ask yourself the question
on most occasions, what would I rather be doing, reading a book or going to the
gym?.

Complete!
Congratulations! You now have a concisely ranked list of the things that matter
most in your life. How does it make you feel when you read over this list? Does it
feel right and give you a sense of who you are?
Show me your list of values and I can tell you who you are. Brendan Baker

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I dont know if that above sentence has been quoted before or not, but if not, Ill
coin it! As we have explored in Understanding Your Values Part 1, your values
define who are. Lets have a look at the below list of values from someone.
Wealth
Career
Learning
Determination
Fitness
Honesty
Individuality
Fun
Friendships
Family

Just from this list you can get a picture for what this kind of person may be like.
Their strongest motivators are to have a successful career and enhance their wealth
which is where they would spend the majority of their time and energy. When it
comes to going to the gym or going out and socialising, this person still values
these, however if presented with an opportunity of creating wealth or going out
with friends, they may choose the former. This of course isnt to say that on every
single occasion they would choose this, as this is still within the Top 10 most
important areas of life for this person, however if they were to ignore their top
values on more occasions than not, they would experience dis-harmony which we
explored in Part 1.
Lets now take another example. What if we simply flip that list of values on its
head? We would end up with the following order of values.

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Family
Friendships
Fun
Individuality
Honesty
Fitness
Determination
Learning
Career
Wealth

What does this list of values tell you about this person? They still value the same
things however they value these things differently. This person would absolutely
love spending time and having fun with family and friends with open and honest
relationships. They still value having wealth and a successful career, however if
their career would be at the detriment of relationships, what do you think they
would do?
How well are you currently living your values? When you read through them, do
you feel you are satisfying what is most important to you? I suggest you to
compare your values with your Wheel of Life to see if the things that matter most
are currently being satisfied. Understanding your values and combining this with
your Wheel of Life gives you a good picture of what is most important to you and
whether you feel as those these areas are being completely fulfilled.

Understanding Your Values and Taking Action

Now that you have your list of values, representing what is most important to you
in life, lets explore a little deeper into how you can utilise this.
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1) Making decisions
As outlined in Part 1, understanding your values helps you to prioritise your time
as well as make consistent decisions. Now that you know what is most important to
you in your life, you will be more consciously aware of what it is that makes you
happy and where you want to get to. As you are now more consciously aware, your
decisions will be more consistent and in-line with your values. What does this
mean? Ultimately, you will be able to make decisions on a more regular basis that
lead you to being more happy and your consistent decisions will also help you
achieve success in the areas that you pursue, and importantly, get you there faster.

2) Achieving Harmony
We explored in Part 1 the concept of harmony and what happens when your actions
or behaviours are not in harmony with your values. Now that you are more
consciously aware of what is important to you, you can make choices and take
action in a way that is aligned to your values. You will understand more clearly
now when you have feelings of guilt, frustration, anger, disappointment and what
has brought these feelings on. More importantly, you will be more conscious to be
able to bring yourself back into a state of harmony and behave in ways that are
aligned to your values. Achieving harmony is essential for Happiness and reaching
peak performance in life.

3) Planning Your Life

Now that you have a clear understanding of what is most important to you, you can
start to explore ideas of where you want to be heading in life. Your values are your
driving force for what gets you up in the morning. Everyday when you wake up,
you want to be completely motivated and driven and return to your bed at night
knowing that you gave the day 110%, dont you?. Now that your values are clearly
defined, start to think through where you are now and where you want to be and
how consciously making decisions can get you there. This is something that I will
take you through in another post.
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Going through this exercise is often a wake-up call for many. One of the most
common things I hear when people go through this exercise is that they realise that
what they are currently doing is not aligned to their values. For example, a lady
who I recently suggested go through this process came to realise that her strongest
value was the term challenging. This enveloped many things for her, including her
passion for learning, development and giving everything 100%. What she came to
realise was that her day-job was so out of line with what was most important to her
in life she had been in her role for three years and with her company for five
years and she was not being challenged at all. What did she do? She went in the
direction of completely throwing herself in the deep-end, quitting her job and
becoming an entrepreneur in her field of specialty. How has she gone? Absolutely
fantastic! She thrives on the challenge of running her own business. This is what
gets her up in the morning! She can now consciously make decisions that are
aligned to the things that are most important to her.

Re-assessing Your Values

Every now and then its important we stop and reassess our values. Ask yourself
whether they are still your values? This is an important part of the process to
ensure we are continually living with passion and making the decisions needed to
get us to where we want to go. Sometimes a life event forces us to reevaluate our
values, such as the birth of a son or daughter, or a death in the family or a close
friend, or an unexpected event. When these things happen your values may change.
Perhaps that successful career that you were enjoying becomes less important once
you have a child as you value time with your family as a higher priority. Or
perhaps you value friendships more after a close friend passes away. Keep your
values close by so you can continually keep front of mind what is important to you.
Remember, show me your list of values and I can show you who you are. You are
your values.

2.8 Avoid But And Try

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If you care, consumer behavior our society often bid on any products they buy. For
the seller, it is usually difficult to avoid consumers who behave like this.

In fact, often when we become a buyer, we shall do the same. Sometimes more
"cruel".

That's normal, because it is of the "nature to" every buyer will ask the most
appropriate prices with the pocket.

The problem is if you are an entrepreneur, you have to sell a product that is a must,
not an option. It is one of the basic ability to be an entrepreneur you have.

When you want to sell your product, the buyer will try to negotiate (read: bid) with
you. The question is, how to deal with clients who are always willing to bid on the
products you sell?

You or your sales team can practice 9 below sales techniques that can be used
anytime. But remember, the best of you practicing these sales techniques, there is
still unsuccessful.

Not because of the way or his sales technique or bad, but it is so true that
everything possible is not perfect.
1. You have to really master the products that you sell. When you master the
strengths and weaknesses of your product well, then you would be relatively easy
to lead consumers to follow what you want.
2. Dig potential and needs of prospective customers. After that you point that you
offer products that can be an alternative to help meet their needs.
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3. Always use a good speech and polite with a proportional body language. Make
sure you are genuine and sincere to help meet their needs.
4. You must make sure that the products you offer are very important and very
meaningful to the consumer.
5. Be always as a person who can be trusted. You must be committed to the well
and run that commitment as planned.
6. When you meet obstacles or problems in the event already happened
commitment to customer buyer. You must be forthright and accountable for all the
risks that might arise with properly.
7. Always seek the optimum meeting point in every negotiation that you run with
your customers, so that she was satisfied and you also also satisfied.
8. Avoid sold by the mercy of the consumer. You have to drive buyers to the buying
decisions in a rational way, not on the basis of mercy.
9. Always you serve to perfect as possible so that customers will be very dependent
on you. This sales technique should be seproposional possible.
http://www.dokterbisnis.net/2009/11/07/9-poin-teknik-negosiasi-dan-closingdalam-penjualan/
Tips and Techniques Negotiation In Sales
Tips and Techniques Negotiation In Sales
09 February 2010 10 Comments News-Business Info, Tips & Motivation Business
You can not avoid of consumer behavior in our society who often bid on every
product you sell. Same also when you become a buyer, then you will do the same
thing as everyone else who bid on the seller of the products offered. Do not be
surprised, it's humane. Because the law that each buyer will ask price is more
suitable to his pocket.
If you are an entrepreneur, then sell the products that you have is one necessity that
you have the added value of your capital already invested. As a seller you will

139

negotiate with the buyers. How to deal with clients who are always willing to
bargain for your products?

Here are practical tips that you can use every time you make a sale:
1. You have to really master the products you sell. Pros and product kekurangaan it
when you already know well it will allow you lead what will and ability of
consumers to what you want.
2. Dig potential and needs of prospective customers. Kemudiaan you point that you
are offering a product that can be an alternative to help meet their needs.
3. Always use a good speech and polite, body language are proportional, and the
depth of your sincerity to help meet their needs.
4. Make sure that the products you are offering is very important and very
meaningful to the consumer.
5. Be You always people who can be trusted. You must be committed to the well
and run that commitment as planned.
6. When you meet obstacles or problems in the event already happened
commitments with buyers / customers then you should frankly and take
responsibility for any risks that may arise properly.
7. Always seek the optimum meeting point in every negotiation that you run with
your customers, so that he satisfied you also satisfied.
8. Avoid sell based on the mercy of the buyer. Here you have to drive buyers to the
buying decision rasioanal, not on the basis of mercy.
9. Always You serve as perfect as possible so that customers will be very
dependent on you. That this should be done seproposional possible.
Points it would be very beneficial and you will encounter at any time in the sale,
whatever your product.
http://bisnisukm.com/tips-dan-teknik-negoisasi-dalam-penjualan.html

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Word / sentence Ber-Negative Effect on Sales

January 11, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment
[Translate]
________________________________________
Sales is one of the business spirit. To be effective, must be prepared carefully and
calculations. This preparation also includes registering the word / phrase that
adversely in sales, meaning if the word / phrase is uttered it will negatively affect
consumer response. Any word / sentence air-negative effect on sales? Here's his
review:
1. While ...
Said this one other field is not problematic. But in the world of sales, sales people
should avoid this word. For example, a prospective client asks about housing
conditions, whether flooded or not? And, the fact that housing conditions that we
offer is subject to regular flooding and the surrounding area flooded. What should
we answer? It is wrong if we said, "While this is not a flood!" If we answer while,
this means that there is a time later housing likely to flood. In contrast with the
current answer, we say the fact that the housing does not flood when we sell and in
the future we do not know whether to flooding or not.
2. Perhaps ... perhaps ...
The word choice is also often thrown out of the sales force. In fact, the word has
become a favorite word. Whenever getting questions from consumers, the answer
is always possible sales force. The reason, in order that they may be safely said
ambiguous: maybe yes, maybe no. Yet this is something big mistake! I suggest you
avoid possible and replacing words with words that are more positive, for example,
to my knowledge, to my knowledge, and so forth. The answer sounds more
intelligent than words as possible, is not it?
3. Who knows ...
This is one of the phrases (combination of two words or more) were significantly
suppose. World's sales are definite, not imaginary. If we like to suppose, where you

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are not in this area. Some sales people I know used to use this word. For example,
when offering a product, they say, "Who knows next year increases the value of
this product, this is definitely favorable for the father / mother!" This is a lure that
is totally uncertain, only a mere supposition. You should replace the word with a
word that is more valuable and worth believing, like "Based on past experiencethen ..." or "According to our records ...".
Sentence modality that should be avoided is perhaps, just in case, and many more.
All sentences of this modality can be avoided if we often practice and sales
practice as often as possible to interact with consumers.
4. So buy or not?
The sentence is an interrogative sentence which seemed reasonable in sales.
However, in fact, this kind of sentence is a sentence that is misleading and wrong
and will result in disappointment for us. What answer will emerge from these
questions? Only two possibilities: so or not. If they decide to buy, we are very
grateful; if not, we are unfortunate!
Therefore, in order that we get a more definitive answer, give a definite questiondefinite course. Make a question that makes the consumer as if it had bought, for
example by asking, "You buy the red or the blue?" From this question there are two
possible answers: red or blue. But both these answers reflect the consumer's for
sure buy. Such questions are also applicable when going to make an appointment
or a sales presentation. The question is not willing or not, but has ensured a place
and time to meet.
5. Overruns
Be careful using the word "junk" or "salvage". Rationally no one was willing to
buy the rest of the sales. However, we often refer to the existing stock as the stock
of residual or remaining stock when answering customer questions. For example, a
promo has lasted a month ago, then a customer asks whether there is still a promo
products. A salesperson replied, "Oh, there's one more unit of the rest of the promo
yesterday" Time? Who wants the rest of the stuff? Answers should be the "stocks
last".
http://blog.bursamuslim.com/katakalimat-ber-efek-negatif-dalam-penjualan/
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3 Types of Communication Important in Selling

The fact Humans have three types of communication to the brain, and this type of
communication is very important in marketing because when prospects are looking
at offers and promotions hear about your product or service. Why is it important?
Will let me explain.
1. For Type Sight.
Usually people that type of vision, speaking very quickly, while dressed also like to
wear accessories that more than any other type of (arguably quite a lot). Or other
characteristic that is, when the person speaking words like mention that access to
the EYES (vision). For example, "It looks, seems, shape, scenery, color and so on".
If you get a prospect like this, you can submit pictures of your products and
services.
2. For Type feelings.
At this feeling type traits are often shown with mantab tone, full of pauses and all
that can access to the feeling. For example, "The atmosphere is comfortable, the air
is cool, expensive yes, sweet yes" it is the words that are often mentioned by the
type of feeling. And usually the type of feeling, when using the clothes rather not
neat (but this is not all like this). The most important thing is comfort in that
person. If you get a prospect like this, you can create uncomfortable feelings and
talk about access to perasaannnya.
3. For Type of Hearing.
In this type of hearing his usual tone of his voice as he spoke up and down. Or tone
that access to the hearing person. Words often spoken is "Who story, ngomongnya,
he spoke of how, his voice, his song". Unique habit that is often done on the type
of hearing is very often this guy thrusting his ear to the other. If you get a prospect
like this, you can speak directly with him and spoke to a hearing regarding access.
http://laruno.com/sales/3-tipe-komunikasi-penting-dalam-berjualan/

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Speaking Effectively
Words are the main tool to speak effectively.
The more vocabulary someone gets easier for him to talk with other people. The
more vocabulary someone more clever he gives an illustration of the goods or
services in question and the more clever anyway he mengekpresikannya opinion.
Accumulate wealth said one thing that needs to be done Sales Executives long
before they decided to jump in career sales jobs. Sales Executives poor words can
not be expected to be able to think quickly and tend mengulangulang same word in
every conversation, with the result that the listener will quickly get bored.
Sales Executives poor perbedaharaan words tend to use common words to describe
the ability of products they offer, for example, with the words "this product is great
... .Or I bear the father's mother will not hurt when buying these products ...."
Sales Executives rich perbedahaaraan words will choose the right words, fun or
dramatic ability to describe their products in front of prospective buyers.
For example, Sales Executives rich sedan perbedaharaan word would describe
permissibility daganganya goods. For example, the following words "if you have
this car, you will not be plagued by a car repair shop, will not spend money to buy
gasoline, and ... ..akan admired the neighbors. ...."
In the above example the sales presentation with the words wealth Sales
Executives concerned have expressed three kinds of advantages offered more cars
hit, that tough (not often go out into the garage for repair), economical (not
wasteful in the use of gasoline), and increase social status of the owner (admired
neighbors). Because he does not describe the wealth of skill that car with common
phrases, such as "this car is great ...." Who can invite comments prospective buyers
(maybe also, half teasing) "then that's what's so great? Wong it looks just the same
as other cars"
Choosing words. The words will be spoken to express an opinion or advice to
potential buyers must be done carefully. Using the wrong word can bring unwanted
results. To give an idea of misuse of words, the following examples are presented
closing words were spoken by a Sales Executives developers (developers) to a
housewife who almost decided to buy the house that was offered to him.
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"Well ma'am, if she so bought this house, the mother has the right to speculate.
Imagine how many times the price of this house ten years to come".
Hearing the words of the cover, face suddenly changed housewife mother. After a
pause he told Sales Executives said. "I'm sorry sir I do not buy that house, my life
has never been speculating ...."
Sales Executives development company that lost the opportunity to sell their
products simply because they do not know exactly what words to say. If he had to
say the word "investment" and not "speculation" in the words of the lid, likely
housewives decide to buy a house before.
In choosing the words spoken Sales Executives required to avoid words that
smelled of "challenges (offensive)" for example, "I'm sure the mother will feel
disappointed if you do not buy this product right now".
Words low price. The word cheap price to outline the benefits of the product as far
as possible be avoided, especially if the purchase motivation dominated product
purchasing decisions classified as emotional motivations such as increased social
status or prestige of having the product. A company that buys luxury furnitures
imported from abroad to decorate his office in order to provide corporate image
belong to the top, do not want to say the furnitures cheap. The same applies to the
use of services of convention halls at five-star hotels for the purposes of a family
wedding party elite, international seminars, birthday parties among the top and so
on.
The words "competitive price" is more acceptable in many circles a lot of buyers in
comparison with the word "cheap price". Lower-priced products that otherwise are
sometimes interpreted as the product of cheap, low quality, not sell or products that
have been diafkir.
Add perbedaharaan said. The more words that are controlled by Sales Executives
more variation can they pronounce sentence. It would lead to a conversation with
him became more lively and fun audience.
Therefore, it is recommended everyone Sales Executives trying to add
perbedaharaan he said. One effort to increase vocabulary is to read newspapers,
magazines and books weighing and popular.
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In today's growing habit of tucking words of foreign languages (especially English)

in the general conversation of the middle class, upper or educated in Indonesia. To
be able to communicate with them in a more familiar, it's good that serve
consumers Sales Executives class and upper middle class people have foreign
language vocabulary is more than enough. With slip-insert words in a foreign
language here and there in every conversation with them wherever they may be,
these consumers will feel recognized position as a middle-class citizens, upper or
educated.
Attempting to be understood. In order to communicate effectively Sales Executives
must try to make words and words they say can easily be understood by the
potential buyers that they visit. Here are some guidelines for others to catch what
was said.
Do not speak quickly
Free opening and closing the mouth according to the words spoken, not
swallowing sounds just as if talking to himself.
Play some kind of lip position (as a singer) in accordance with the expression of
opinion or explanation given or intonation of the spoken word.
Use proper grammar. The use of correct grammar also helps potential buyers easily
understand what is said of the Sales Executives. If in their conversations over the
years Sales Executives ignore the use of correct grammar, bad habits should be
corrected immediately. Should avoid the use of jargonjargon that can only be
understood by a limited circle.
Sales Executives who want to succeed, do not change the words raw own wishes
for example the word "may" was changed to "dapet", the word "give" was changed
to "memberiken".
Shows the attitude of attention. Just as at the time of listening, when they speak,
Sales Executives also need to show the attitude that they pay attention to the other.
This was done partly by the way looked at the person they're talking. If the product
sales presentations made before an audience, for example, a purchasing committee
as often occurs in the Sales Engineers task, they should cast his eyes around from
one member of the committee on other members.
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Build Delicious Sounds Heard

Sound catchy can help create a warm atmosphere of a sales presentation. The
human voice can be said to be good to hear if it meets the following requirements:
Do not pitched too high but also not too low
Not too hard but not too weak
Set appropriate and controlled
Do not monotonous
No sharp
Talks with potential buyers are business talks. Therefore, the tone of voice during
the conversation does not need shrill, jarring or burn like that used the campaigners
or the demonstrators. Nevertheless, the voice that is used must be able to describe
the enthusiasm Sales Executives in explaining the products, their company, selling
prices, discounts, sales service or other terms of sale.
In order to attract the attention of prospective buyers continuously, tone of voice
should be regulated and controlled. Here are some suggestions for home exercise
Sales Executives to improve the use of sound engineering in the sales presentation.
Listening to her own voice through the tape recorder and analyzed. Honestly
assess whether intonation or tone of his voice was pleasant to hear
Ask others to assess their voice quality ratings.
Train is not strained during sales presentations, draw a deep breath before starting
the conversation. When muscles are not tense body and can talk in a relaxed voice
will be normal.
Reading the novel, short story or poem aloud at home.
Say the words in a novel or poem was in a tone that is consistent with the
understanding of the content of the reading material.
Exercise read like this can improve the ability to express an opinion or advice
during the sales presentation with the right tone.
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 Studying books addressing techniques.

2.9 Dont Think Of A Blue Tree

The way that our minds work is that we seem to find it very difficult to not think
about something that we want to avoid. Our mind has to repeatedly bring to mind
the thing that we dont want, and the more that we dont want something, the more
we focus on it.
And this can have some rather unfortunate consequences, because what we focus
on tends to grow in our experience.

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So if we are dieting and tend to crave chocolate, saying to ourselves dont think of
chocolate, I dont want chocolate, just brings chocolate into our mind more and
more, thus increasing the craving.
In the area of relationships, we probably all know of someone who seems to go
from one bad relationship to another, repeating the same mistakes each time. If
someone has had some bad experiences with bullying men, for example, she really
wants to avoid them, and her unconscious mind is primed to keep an eye out for
bullying men. It does keep an eye out, though so bullying men are all she
notices. Her choices are severely limited as a result because all the decent men
dont even register: she doesnt notice them.
She is forced to pick from a bad bunch and the cycle continues.
Our minds are having to deal with millions of pieces of information coming to us
through all our senses every moment, and theres no way that we can possibly pay
attention to them all. There has to be a system in place to filter out and delete most
of that information, allowing us to function as a human being and notice only the
things that are important to us and our survival.
So its as if we have little computer programs, or an app, running in our minds,
deciding for us what we will notice and what will be invisible to us. And although
the subconscious mind is working in what it believes are our best interests,
sometimes it gets things wrong and we can end up with the opposite of what was
intended.
This has been described as the Therapeutic Paradox by Trevor Silvester from
The Quest Institute, founder of Cognitive Hypnotherapist and a good friend of
mine.
So how do we help someone who is trying to avoid the chocolate, or trying to keep
away from bullying men? Well we need to help the unconscious mind to
understand that the way that it has been behaving is no longer useful or
appropriate. It is doing the best it can, but it was mistaken in the meaning or belief
that it attached to a past event, that led it to produce the current behaviour.
So maybe one of the ways in which a loving and doting granny demonstrated her
love for a grandchild was by buying her sweets and the child decided this meant
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that sweets = love, and in stressful situations when the now grown-up child feels
unloved, sweets are the solution. If we can remove the meaning that became
attached to the Grandmothers past behaviour, then the behaviour that resulted will
also be removed.
Sometimes it can almost seem that there are two conflicting parts working inside
a person so, in the case of the woman with the bad relationships, on the one hand
there is a part of her that realises that there are many decent, kind men out there
who she could go out with, and another part of her that is afraid of certain types of
men and wants to avoid them. If we can encourage these parts to acknowledge
each other and work together to achieve her goal of a successful relationship with a
good man, then she can move forward with her life.
Cognitive Hypnotherapy offers people with such problems the opportunity to move
forward in their lives, leaving their problems behind, and it is surprising that even
long-standing behaviours and unhelpful beliefs can be shifted in a short space of
time.

Dont think of a blue tree, language expert will tell networkers

at a networking lunch in Marlborough next week will be told not to talk about a
blue tree prompting them to do just the opposite.
In an interactive introduction to his field, Martin Wyse - an expert of hidden
messages in language - will show networkers at the Wessex Chamber networking
lunch in Marlborough how simple changes to the words we use can effect the
message we are trying to convey.
Tell people not to think of a blue tree and they immediately think of a blue tree,
said Martin, whose business - Another Point of View - is based in Calne.
You can use that in a sales call. You dont want to criticise your competitor - that
would reflect badly on you - so tell the person youre talking to Im not here to
tell you how my product is better than the other guys.

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Understanding the rules of language can also be employed - in speech, and in the
written word - to make recipients think about the positive, rather than the negative.
Its sunny this morning, but it will be raining this afternoon, makes you think
about the rain, said Martin.
Its sunny this morning, even though it will be raining this afternoon, makes you
think about the sun.
Ill be helping people to understand these rules of language, and how they can
apply them in a business context.

The 10 Laws of Sales Success

A recent Gallup poll on the honesty and ethical conduct of business professionals
found that insurance salespeople and car salespeople ranked at the bottom of the
list. Bet you're not surprised to hear this. But did you know that it's not just car
salespeople who have a bad reputation? Bill Brooks of the Brooks Group estimates
that more than 85 percent of customers have a negative view of all salespeople.
But it doesn't have to be that way: You can prove the masses wrong, and learn to
develop the skills that will have people thinking differently about the selling
process. In fact, selling can be one of the most rewarding tasks you'll undertake as
a business owner-but only if you follow these 10 tactics:

Law #1: Keep your mouth shut and your ears open.

This is crucial in the first few minutes of any sales interaction. Remember:
1.

Don't talk about yourself.

2.

Don't talk about your products.

3.

Don't talk about your services.

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4.

And above all, don't recite your sales pitch!

Obviously, you want to introduce yourself. You want to tell your prospect your
name and the purpose of your visit (or phone call), but what you don't want to do is
ramble on about your product or service. After all, at this point, what could you
possibly talk about? You have no idea if what you're offering is of any use to your
prospect.

Law #2: Sell with questions, not answers.

Remember this: Nobody cares how great you are until they understand how great
you think they are.

Forget about trying to "sell" your product or service and focus instead on why your
prospect wants to buy. To do this, you need to get fascinated with your prospect;
you need to ask questions (lots and lots of them) with no hidden agenda or ulterior
motives.
Many years ago, I was selling CDs at a music festival. It didn't take me long to
figure out that it wasn't my job to sell the CDs-it was my job to get the earphones
on every person who walked by my booth!
I noticed right away that whenever people sensed I was attempting to "sell" them a
CD, their walls of defense immediately went up and they did everything in their
power to get as far away from me as they could.
So instead, I made it my job to introduce new music to anyone who wanted to put
on the earphones. Once they heard the music, they either liked it or they didn't. I
didn't do any "selling," and I made more money that week than any other CD
hawkers at the festival.
Back then, I didn't know anything about sales, but I knew enough about human
nature to understand that sales resistance is an oxymoron: The act of selling creates
the resistance! Which leads us to the next principle:
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Law #3: Pretend you're on a first date with your prospect.

Get curious about them. Ask about the products and services they're already using.
Are they happy? Is what they're using now too expensive, not reliable enough, too
slow? Find out what they really want. Remember, you're not conducting an
impersonal survey here, so don't ask questions just for the sake of asking them.
Instead, ask questions that will provide you with information about what your
customers really need.
When you learn what your customers need and you stop trying to convince or
persuade them to do something they may not want to do, you'll find them trusting
you as a valued advisor and wanting to do more business with you as a result.

Law #4: Speak to your prospect just as you speak to your family or friends. There's
never any time that you should switch into "sales mode" with ham-handed
persuasion clich?s and tag lines. Affected speech patterns, exaggerated tones, and
slow, hypnotic sounding "sales inductions" are never acceptable in today's
professional selling environments. Speak normally, (and of course, appropriately)
just as you would when you're around your friends and loved ones.

Law #5: Pay close attention to what your prospect isn't saying.
Is your prospect rushed? Does he or she seem agitated or upset? If so, ask "Is this a
good time to talk? If it's not, perhaps we can meet another day." Most salespeople
are so concerned with what they're going to say next that they forget there's another
human being involved in the conversation.
Law #6: If you're asked a question, answer it briefly and then move on.

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Remember: This isn't about you; it's about whether you're right for them.

Law #7: Only after you've correctly assessed the needs of your prospect do you
mention anything about what you're offering.
I knew a guy who pitched a mannequin (I'm not kidding)! He was so stuck in his
own automated, habitual mode, he never bothered to notice that his prospect wasn't
breathing. Don't get caught in this trap. Know whom you're speaking with before
figuring out what it is you want to say.

Law #8: Refrain from delivering a three-hour product seminar.

Don't ramble on and on about things that have no bearing on anything your
prospect has said. Pick a handful of things you think could help with your
prospect's particular situation, and tell him or her about it. (And if possible,
reiterate the benefits in his own words, not yours.)

Law #9: Ask the prospect if there are any barriers to them taking the next logical
step.
After having gone through the first eight steps, you should have a good
understanding of your prospect's needs in relation to your product or service.
Knowing this, and having established a mutual feeling of trust and rapport, you're
now ready to bridge the gap between your prospect's needs and what it is you're
offering. You're now ready for:

Law #10: Invite your prospect to take some kind of action.

This principle obliterates the need for any "closing techniques" because the ball is
placed on the prospect's court. A sales close keeps the ball in your court and all the
focus on you, the salesperson. But you don't want the focus on you. You don't want
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the prospect to be reminded that he or she is dealing with a "salesperson." You're

not a salesperson, you're a human being offering a particular product or service.
And if you can get your prospect to understand that, you're well on your way to
becoming an outstanding salesperson.

2.10 Handling Complaints Fexibility

A.

Guide to principles of good complaint handling

Firm on principles, flexible on process

Flexibility
Procedures that are responsive to the needs of individuals.
1.

Introduction

Whilst there are some general principles for good complaint handling that should
be applied firmly, there should also be some flexibility in the process of dealing
with complaints. As such, flexibility is a principle in its own right.

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BIOA believes that complaint-handling procedures should be designed to provide a

range of options that can respond to the varied needs of complainants. However, it
is accepted that not all schemes will need or be able to offer all possible options.
At all stages during a schemes complaint-handling process, there should be
enough flexibility to allow each complainant to feel that they are being treated as
an individual and that the complaint will be dealt with on its own merits.
2.

Initial contact and expressing the complaint

Schemes should use a wide range of options for making the general public aware
of their existence (see Chapter 2 Accessibility).
Many potential complainants may not be sure if a scheme can address their
particular problems. They should be able to make initial contact to check this out in
a variety of ways, including telephone, letter, fax, or e-mail.
For most schemes, a complaint can usually be raised by the complainant
personally, or by anyone authorised by them, including a legal representative.
However, in some cases, referral must be
through a Member of Parliament or other authorised representative. Although most
complainants are able to make a complaint by themselves and in their own name,
this must not be a precondition of referral (see Chapter 2 Accessibility).
However complaints are referred, it is essential that the scheme is able to reach a
clear, shared understanding with the complainant of the issues of concern to them.
3.

Options for resolution

Most complaints are referred to a scheme after an in-house complaint-handling

procedure has failed to resolve a dispute. It is important to build into the schemes
process, opportunities for early resolution. This may be an attempt to reach a
settlement by mediation or conciliation before investigation begins, or for
settlement to be achieved at any stage of an investigation and before it is
completed. Complainants come to schemes for a number of reasons and may seek
redress of different kinds. For example, some complainants are seeking an
explanation of what has happened in their case and why, and an acknowledgement

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that they have been badly treated. Others are seeking financial compensation. It is
important that schemes have authority to offer a range of redress options for
seeking resolution of a dispute. These should at least include an apology from the
organisation to the complainant, and remedial action by the organisation and / or
financial redress for the complainant (see Chapter 5 Proportionality).
Of course, resolution of a dispute may involve a combination of any of these
options, together with any other that may be particular to that dispute. In some
cases, a scheme will be unable to assist complainants with redress itself, but it
should do what it can to point complainants in the direction of others who can help
and advise them.
4.

Enforcement of judgements

A schemes investigation may involve complaint handlers speaking to the parties

concerned or, if appropriate and practicable, meeting them so as to allow an
opportunity to be heard. It may also, or alternatively, involve an analysis of written
information presented by each party, and direct contact with the parties may be
limited to seeking clarification. It may require seeking additional information from
relevant third parties. Whatever process is used, sucient investigation must be
conducted to be able to reach a clear and reasoned conclusion about the merits of
the case.
Most schemes will have procedures that deal with complaints according to
timescales on a first-come, first-dealt-with basis. However, schemes should also
have procedures that allow for fast tracking certain cases. It will be up to each
scheme to determine the criteria for fast tracking, but an example might be to deal
with a case before a date set for a court hearing. Additionally, schemes may take
account of the inherent risks posed by particular complaints or circumstances in
deciding how to progress a case. These might include the health of a complainant,
the potential for a disproportionate use of resources (see Chapter 5
Proportionality), or the wider public interest in the case.
5.

Options for investigation

Some schemes can make recommendations that are binding on the organisations
concerned and some cannot.

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Whenever recommendations are made to an organisation, its response should be

recorded and the implementation of any recommendations monitored. The scheme
can then explain what has happened, both to the complainant and, where
appropriate, publicly.
Reference
:
http://www.ombudsmanassociation.org/docs/BIOAGoodComplaintHandling.pdf
B.

The key to complaints handling is a flexibility of approach

The complaints handling process should adapt to the needs of a patient and not the
other way round, although there is no single way to handle a complaint, there are
10 key steps that should always be considered.
1.

Preparation and training

Good communicators usually make good complaints handlers. Most members of

the dental team have no formal training in communication or complaints handling,
so it is worthwhile training them in these skills. Consider your own reaction if you
were a dissatisfied patient asking the practice receptionist for the name of a person
dealing with complaints and the answer comes back: Im not really sure could
you call back tomorrow when the other receptionist is here?.
Would it improve your confidence in the practice and its ability to handle a
complaint? Are you more likely to take the complaint further? It is important to
train all those in the dental team who might be involved with the complaints
handling process. Untrained staff should then be instructed to direct all complaints
speedily to the nearest trained complaints handler.
2.

Identifying complaints

Consider a proactive approach to identifying complaints. The majority of

dissatisfied patients do not complain at all. They simply leave and go elsewhere,
which is not good for business. There are many ways of identifying
dissatisfaction :
a.

Surveys although not all patients will respond.

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b.
Comment or feedback cards usually only completed by patients who are
particularly displeased or delighted with service. It is, of course, helpful to collect
positive feedback as well as negative and neutral feedback.
c.
Train staff to identify the body language associated with dissatisfaction. The
aim is to encourage patients to tell you if they have a problem before they tell
someone else! A review of 100 complaints received by an international indemnity
provider showed that in over 40% of cases the patient referred to a previous
unsatisfactory experience prior to the incident which gave rise to the complaint.
d.
Early identification of the dissatisfied patient stops them accumulating a
store of complaints.
3.

Accepting complaints

The complaints handler needs to co-ordinate the acceptance, investigation and

response to the complaint. They do not necessarily have to provide the detailed
response themselves. However, they should have a responsibility to ensure that an
appropriate team member is always available to respond.
All complaints should be acknowledged quickly, informing the patient when they
might anticipate a formal response. When replying to complaints, avoid overpromising and under-delivering. If, for example, the dentist involved will be away
from the practice for a month, then inform the patient.
4.

Obtaining the views of all the parties involved

It is important for the complaints co-ordinator to identify and contact all the parties
involved. Any attempt to generate an instant response on behalf of another person
who may have left a practice or clinic should be resisted.
a.

Identify all parties involved and seek their views.

b.
Co-ordinate the response so that all the parties know their role in the
complaints process.
A frequent mistake in complaints handling is to provide a detailed response before
investigating and gathering the facts. It's important to remember that any response
to a complaint could become part of the evidence considered at a later hearing. Any

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response made following a full investigation is likely to be more thorough and

accurate and also fairer to all parties involved.
Dont be over-hasty in your response. Get the facts straight and think it through.
5.

Investigating fully

A frequent mistake in complaints handling is to provide a detailed response before

investigating and gathering the facts. It is important to remember that any response
to a complaint could become part of the evidence considered at a later hearing. Any
response made following a full investigation is likely to be more thorough and
accurate and also fairer to all parties involved.
Dont be over-hasty in your response. Get the facts straight and think it through.
6.

Resolving the dissatisfaction

Understandably, many people become defensive when they receive a complaint,

particularly if they regard it as unreasonable, unfair or without foundation.
Defensiveness can be counterproductive to good complaints handling and at worst
it can result in the dentists response sounding more like a counterattack than an
explanation.
When a complaint is received, it is important to consider for a moment the desired
outcome, i.e. do you want to retain the patient, to agree to differ or try to resolve
the patients dissatisfaction? Each choice demands a different response. One
common error that often results in a counterclaim is the aggressive pursuit of a
debt when a patient has complained about the quality of treatment provided.
Try to establish an approach to patient care that encourages feedback about the
patients perception of the service and the quality of care received.
7.

Responding sympathetically

Complaints are best resolved at the lowest possible level. This does not always
imply a formal written response. Many minor complaints can be resolved on a oneto-one basis, following which a short letter can be sent to the patient saying that
you are pleased the complaint is now resolved. This sympathetic contact can make
a significant difference in terms of continuing patient loyalty.

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In the majority of cases, however, a written response is likely to be appropriate.

This may include an explanation, reassurance, an apology, an offer of compromise
or a way forward. It is important to decide in advance exactly what message you
wish to convey in a letter. Not everyone is skilled at letter writing but always
choose your words carefully.
Remember that your response is likely to be looked at by others at some stage and
therefore any temptation to criticise the patient should be resisted. The more
reasonable and professional your written response, the more credit you will be
given at any subsequent hearing of the complaint.
8.

Following-up

The hardest part of complaints handling is risking further contact with the patient
to ensure that the complaint is being satisfactorily resolved. This may not be
appropriate in all cases, but it can be extremely helpful, particularly when you want
to retain the confidence of the patient. There is really no difference between this
and a dentist contacting a patient after a difficult procedure to enquire about their
well-being. Even if the patient is not completely satisfied, it provides a further
opportunity to identify a complaint and deal with dissatisfaction at an early stage.
It also demonstrates care and consideration.
The follow-up is a good opportunity to display your professional concern and to
rebuild a constructive relationship with the patient.
9.

Learning from the problem

All complaints can teach us something. For future risk management it is helpful to
consider :
a.

How the complaint arose.

b.

What steps could have been taken to avoid the complaint in the first place.

c.

If the complaint was handled effectively.

d.

If the practice/patient achieved the desired outcome.

e.
If you need to make any changes to our procedures or protocols for the
future.
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It is important to remember that complaints alert you to areas of service delivery

that, if not addressed, could lead to a more serious complaint in the future.
10.

Communicating

Complaints need to be handled with :

a.

Speed

b.

Fairness to all parties

c.

Transparency

A patient is more likely to accept the eventual outcome if they can see that a
complaint has been taken seriously and has been investigated. This fact needs to be
communicated to the patient.
Research shows that patients expectations in complaints handling are quite low.
Never delay your response to their complaints; any perceived lack of interest or
care is the one thing that can transform a dissatisfied patient into an angry
obsessive, seeking vengeance against the dentist.
Time spent well at the initial stages of handling a complaint can save hours of
stress, inconvenience and expense if the complaint is allowed to escalate or pass
into formal complaints or disciplinary arenas.
People who complain often consider it a rewarding outcome if they feel they have
made a difference that might benefit other patients.
Reference
:
http://www.dentalprotection.org/south-africa/publicationsresources/complaints-handling
C.

Flexibility Complaints

Whether youre on the road to tryouts or just another cheer season, one of the most
important traits of a cheerleader is flexibility. Without flexibility, your stunts,
tumbling, motions, and dance skills will be severely limited. As important as
flexibility is, many dont enjoy the work it takes to get there. Find out solutions to
flexibility complaints and the common stretching mistakes people make.
Lets start with flexibility complaints :
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1.

Time.

a.
Complaint : One of the biggest complaints about flexibility is that it takes
too long to achieve the splits. The unfortunate truth is that, yes, it can take a very
long time to learn the splits (and even longer to hyper-extend).
b.
Solution : Change up your stretches. Dont do the same stretches every time.
Research new ways to stretch your muscles and give your body some variety.
2.

Invisible Improvement.

a.
Complaint : Since the splits and other flexible poses can take a long time to
master, many people get discouraged, thinking that they arent improving. If youre
stretching correctly, you are improvingit just might be hard to tell each week.
b.
Solution : Measure your progress with a ruler or measuring tape. Every
week, measure how many inches your center is above the floor (for side splits) and
even with your feet (for center splits).
3.

The good and the bad side.

a.
Complaint : Its not unusual for someone to master one side splits but have
trouble with the other side. Even if youre doing the same stretches for the same
amount of time on each leg, you may master your right side splits much sooner
than your left. Your muscles on each leg arent identical to one another. In fact,
most people have one leg that is naturally more flexible than the other.
b.
leg.

Solution : The only way to fix this is to spend more time on the less flexible

4.

Center splits are so much harder than side splits (or vice versa).

a.
Complaint : Just like left and right leg flexibility, its typically much harder
to learn the center splits than side splits (or vice versa). This will mainly depend on
your hip and hamstring flexibility. For center splits, your hips need to be flexible;
for side splits, the focus is on the hamstrings.
b.
Solution : Dont rely on the same stretches to achieve your side and center
splits. Youll need to focus on hip stretches and exercises for your center splits and
focus on hamstring exercises for your side splits.
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Reference
:
http://www.cheerleadingblog.com/4-flexibility-complaints-8stretching-mistakes/
D.

Golden Rules of Complaints Handling

Although no one likes receiving a complaint, they present you with an opportunity
to identify and rectify specific problems with your current systems or product.
They can also help you to develop your relationship with your customer by
allowing you to demonstrate that you value their trade by taking their concerns
seriously and dealing with their complaint.
a.

Develop a strategic plan

Have a clear, flexible, welcoming and open policy on complaints.

A complaint is a gift and you should consider yourself lucky that a customer is
prepared to give up valuable time to help you improve your organisation.
b.

Train your staff and management in complaints handling

Give them confidence to tackle the difficult customers and support in their actions.
Excellent complaint handling isn't easy and can sometimes be stressful and feel
unrewarding. Confirm its importance in providing great customer service.
c.

Give complaining enough priority and authority

Staff should be aware that complaints are a top priority item for your operation,
and ANYONE who deals with them must have sufficient authority to resolve them
completely.
d.

Ensure that you can process complaints from all sources

Nowadays there are four main ways to complain - in person, by email/internet, by

telephone or by mail - and your organisation must be able to handle all of these
efficiently.
e.

Set up a process to log and analyse all complaints and share with everyone

One can learn so much about problems with internal processes, training, specific
employees/managers, and product - free.

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How to handle complaints :

There are several key stages when handling a complaint :

Thank the customer for complaining - You should consider yourself lucky
that the customer is prepared to give up their time and money to let you know they
have a problem, instead of just walking away - a complaint is a gift.

Say that you are sorry that the problem has happened - This is NOT an
admission of guilt on your part, it's just good manners.

Put yourself in the place of the customer - This will instantly give you an
advantage, as you not only will have more empathy with the customer, but also you
know your business better than them and so can hopefully see the solution quicker.

Start with the view that the customer has a valid point, not that they are
trying to rip you off - It is true that there are some professional complainers out
there, but they are in the minority, and, if you are a local store, you probably know
them anyway. Accepting that the customer may well have a point, even internally,
may well trigger off ideas for an acceptable resolution.

Get all the facts first - Letting the customer give you all of the information
helps you fully understand the situation AND, if they are emotional, will give them
time to calm down.

Correct the mistake - Don't leap straight to the "free gift" route. While it's
very tempting to give the customer a gift, or vouchers, too often it is done
INSTEAD of solving the problem. This can lead to more complaints about the
same thing in the future because the problem hasn't been hasn't been fixed.

Make sure that your definition of the right fix is the same as the customers.

Learn from every complaint - Do something! Fix the process; train staff in
the issue; eliminate the fault. Wherever possible let the complaining customer
know that they have helped you resolve a problem - they'll feel great and come
back again and again (and will probably tell their friends!).

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Minimise reasons for complaints - Do you have a continuous improvement
culture? Do you check customer (and employee) satisfaction regularly? Do you
check the quality of the goods sold in your organisation?

Always respond - Make sure that EVERYONE who complains on the

telephone, by letter, or by email gets a rapid and appropriate response.

Listen to your staff - They nearly always care about your company and
doing a good job. They are also much closer to the customers than you are. Ask
their views regularly and make changes when they are sensible. Make sure THEIR
complaints are handled too.

Lead by example - It's not that your staff DON'T listen to what you say, it's
that they DO listen, so make sure that you are always setting the right example, and
giving complaints your personal priority. Reward good complaints handling.

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