Archive for Articles by Eric Mulford
Commanding Your Thoughts
Posted by: | Comments“My thoughts were out of control.” “My mind was wandering.” Thoughts out of control…wandering mind…how many times does that happen to you? You begin to think about something and then something else pops into your head. Off you go. Charging after yet another thought…
Selecting Your Thoughts
It is possible to take control of your thoughts and direct them where you want them to go. That will allow you to focus on the task at hand. You’ll accomplish more. You’ll have more time in your day. Does any of that sound appealing to you?
I used to visit the Kansas City Missouri Public Library. It was a marvelous place! In the library you could find a book on all most any thing you could imagine. It is the repository of millions and millions and millions of individual thoughts. Kind of like your mind.
To take advantage of all of the stored knowledge in the library I had to choose a book. I had to select what I was going to think about for the moment. Once I made my selection I had to ignore everything else in the place.
You can do the same thing with you thoughts. Your mind is a giant library. Filled with millions of thoughts and possibilities. To take advantage of that potential you must choose one thing and ignore everything else.
The Bible says: “Whatsoever things are…think on these.” In other words, choose what you will think on.
Don’t be guilty of wandering among the stacks in the great library of your mind without choosing what you will think on. Make a choice each moment of what you will think on. When you do, you’ll take advantage of the all the wisdom available to you.
It is possible to keep your mind from wandering. You can focus your thoughts. What you chose to think about is vital to your success.
Thinking Good Thoughts
“Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life.” -James Allen
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is true in the material world, it is also true in your thought life. “What a man sows…he shall also reap”
Selecting where you’ll direct your thoughts is as important as selecting the right book from the library. For it is impossible to master good things by constantly selecting base things.
You can use a personal affirmation like this; I choose this day to think only on those things that will aid me in my pursuit of success. I will deal with reality, but I refuse to dwell on negativity. I will guard my mind so that I allow only those things that perfect my character to into my thoughts.
It began to rain last night just as I climbed into bed. It has been a while since our last rain. As I laid in bed and listened to the gentle rain I realized something very important about our thought life. It was easy to control my thoughts while I was listening to the rain.
Why do you suppose it is that rain would provide a perfect back drop for good thoughts? I listened carefully. What was different? Did I have less on my mind? Have I been applying this instruction and found it easier to control my thinking? No, while all of that may be true, it was something special about the rain.
What could make the rain quiet my heart so I could think? As I listened I realized that there is something rhythmic about the sound of rain. It is the harmony of nature.
We live in a world of chaos. Our environment is filled with clamor, confusion and conflict. Very little harmony exists. Yet harmony is essential for clear thinking. The rhythm of the rain provided the perfect backdrop for clarity of thought. Nature’s perfect harmony aligned my inner self and calmed me to place where is could think easily and clearly.
Tools For Creating Harmony in Your Thoughts
How can you recreate that? Obviously we can’t wait until it rains to think clearly. It hasn’t rained here for some time so that wouldn’t be helpful. The challenge is, how do we create an environment with the harmony essential for clear thinking?
People and Your Thoughts
Have you ever worked around someone who seemed to bring out the best in you? Of course the opposite is also possible. Some people suck all of the creativity out of you. They criticize, complain and complicate everything. The people in your environment must help you to create harmony so you can think clearly.
You’re responsible for the make up of your environment. Are you spending time with someone who constantly is disrupting your environment? They suck your creativity right out of the room. They’re negative, nagging and neurotic. If that’s who you’re hanging out with, you have to change that. You can’t spend time with someone who is like that and ever expect to achieve success in life.
Music and Your Thoughts
“For many years I have observed that I could write more effectively after having participated in a song service. Prove my statement to your own satisfaction by going to church next Sunday morning and participating in the song service with all the enthusiasm at your command.” -Napoleon Hill
Interesting! Not just listening to good music, music that calms and soothes, but actually participating in the act of singing. Singing along with good music will create an environment of harmony for you. You’ll feel refreshed, revitalized and rejuvenated.
You don’t even have to be able to carry a tune. That has nothing to do with it. It is the act of singing a melody with rhythm that creates internal harmony.
Command your thoughts and change your world. Thinking on one thought at a time. Concentrating your energy to its completion. Success is yours when you control your thoughts.
Buyer Satisfaction – More Than A Sale…
Posted by: | CommentsBuyer Satisfaction Builds Your Business
Achieving buyer satisfaction is an essential part of the sales process. Buyer satisfaction prevents buyer’s remorse, leads to repeat business and results in more referrals. You want to build a prosperous and enduring success? You must understand buyer satisfaction.
There are four levels of buyer satisfaction:
You must meet the consumer’s expectations. Ask yourself how you can do this with your product or service? Understand that it is the product or service that meets a purchaser’s needs not some added value. Nothing that you add to the product or service is going to help you meet expectations. The expectations are on the product – not on your added value. I’m not saying that the extra things aren’t important – they are the subject of the next point. What I am saying is that the product itself comes with certain expectations and those expectations must be met by the product or the potential buyer will look somewhere else. The product itself must produce satisfaction or the rest of the levels will never be achieved. Nothing that you add will make up for a sub par product.
Can you list twenty possible expectations a potential buyer might have before you have your first conversation? Can you show how your product is capable of meeting those expectations without the use of superlatives? Make a list of twenty things that will meet the buyers expectations. Then tomorrow add twenty more to the list…
Once the potential buyer understands your ability to meet his expectations you must prove your ability by exceeding his expectations. Here is where you provide the additional value. You must be constantly asking how you might be able to exceed the potential buyers expectations – by adding what… to the initial purchase product.
Think of twenty ways in which you can exceed your potential buyers expectations. Now think about those things from your new customers perspective and see if you’re on target. If not, go back and think of twenty more. Then tomorrow add twenty more to the list…
Next you must delight the buyer beyond the initial point of purchase. Sometimes referred to as”satisfaction after the sale”. You must understands the difference between satisfaction and delight. Constantly be asking yourself, “how can I delight my customer?” Then develop ways to accomplish delight in his customers.
Can you think of twenty ways to delight your customers? Will you think of twenty more tomorrow? How do you plan to implement those things today? What’s your plan for tomorrow?
Finally you must understand the power of amazement. You know that amazing the potential buyer at every step in the sales process is essential to being the best. Amazement never comes by adding superlatives to your offer. It comes when the potential buyer is adding superlatives to your offer.
Stop right now and think of twenty ways you can amaze your potential buyer from the first contact all the way through the buyer referring you to his friends. Then tomorrow think of twenty more. Schedule how you plan to implement those things.
Understanding buyer satisfaction is the best way to build your business. You’ll produce more, have happier customers, sleep better at night, feel more fulfilled in your work, and get more repeat and referral business. With buyer satisfaction comes the permanent prosperity and enduring success that you desired when you started your business.
Back to Sales Training Articles.
Buyer satisfaction better than gold…
God On Goals
Posted by: | CommentsGoals and the Believer
Goals…I hear about them everyday. I teach on the importance of having goals. I coach others to establish goals. I know all of the little acronyms on establishing goals. I establish and pursue my own goals every day. But there is always this nagging thought in my mind…
“What does God think about my goals?”
I love the Book of James. It is to me the most challenging book in the Bible. There I find these words: “Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” -James 4:13-15
What did God just say about setting goals? Did He say that setting goals could be a bad thing? Is God condemning setting goals for yourself? Surely all of those people encouraging the setting of goals can’t be wrong. Maybe I should find out exactly what God has to say about this vitally important success step?
The key phrase in the above verses is “If the Lord will”. What does that mean? I’m going to be uncomfortable until I know!
“If the Lord will.” We’re talking about the object of God’s delight. I must pass everything that I do under the banner of God’s delight. If my plans and purposes pass the God’s delight test then I am for the moment in God’s will.
All I have is the moment. It is all that I’m promised. That is clearly stated in the passage. I’m to live that moment to its fullest doing the very thing in which God delights. My plans, my aspirations and my goals are all subject to God’s delight.
So how then do I as a believer set goals?
First, you must be confident that the thing you’re pursuing is something in which God will take complete delight. So I ask you, do you understand the role that you play in fulfilling God plan in the world? This is vital. If you’re confused about how your job or business is filling an important role that God has in the world, then you’re going to struggle with this. (fruitoftherighteous.com)
Second, you have to understand that the only time you have is right now. You’re not promised tomorrow. You can plan for tomorrow and you should. Planning for tomorrow is essential for proper execution today. We are told in Scripture that we are to redeem the time. Redeeming time requires making the most of what is available. (How we redeem the time is the subject of another article.) Wasting time is never something in which God will delight.
Finally, subject your plans to God’s delight. You should invite God’s blessings on your plans. Nothing that you do should compromise this one principle. Begin each day asking God to show you the object of His delight. Plan your day, week, month, year and five years asking God to show you how your plans can bring Him delight. You will begin to see things differently.
God’s take on goals for the believer is really no different than the rest of the Christian life. He wants us to depend on Him for everything including the opportunity to serve another day. He expects us to make the most of the time we have. He desires that we see everything in the light of His will.
Set goals! Setting goals will change your life. But set those goals in the light of what God has to say about living in this moment. Then live out your goals for the glory of God!
You Can Achieve Enduring Success and Permanent Prosperity Through Coaching
Posted by: | CommentsWhat Exactly is Coaching?
To gain the full benefit from any coaching experience you must understand what coaching is all about. Knowing what to expect and how to expect it to be delivered is simply good stewardship of your resources. Also you’ll be able to maximize the experience of working with a coach if you understand the purpose of coaching.
What Coaching is NOT
Coaching is easily confused with its counterparts consulting, mentoring, or therapy. But, it’s none of those – though coaching incorporates some aspects of each of those modalities.
Coaching is not Consulting. Clients hire consultants when they need to identify problems and formulate solutions to fix them. Clients are aware of the problems and are seeking help in discovering the source and the solutions. Consultants are experts in what needs to be done, and once they come up with a plan for the client, the consultant’s job is usually complete.
Coaches view their clients as being the “experts” in their own lives and businesses, and work along side them to help implement a plan they both create. And that’s why coaches do not tell clients give answers, but instead, facilitate for the client the discovery of their own answers. This infuses power in the relationship in that the client is getting tools to build a permanent prosperity and an enduring success strategy for their own life. People get far more excited about and follow through on ideas they help develop rather than those that are offered to them by someone else. The coach’s expertise is in providing guidance, tools, and methods for clients to improve their own ability to implement solutions, now and in the future.
Consultants identify problems and formulate solutions; coaches provide tools and support to empower clients to develop and implement their own solutions.
Coaching is not Mentoring. A mentor helps guide a client to emulate the mentor’s own success. Mentors are often chosen because they have traveled the same road the client is on. In contrast, coaches empower clients to discover their own paths. A coach’s value isn’t in their technical know-how or specific knowledge about their client’s issues or field of expertise (though they may possess that), but in the ability to help clients draw from their own experience and wisdom so that they can achieve enduring success.
A mentor stands in front of the client and says, “Follow me.”
A coach stands beside the client and asks, “Where shall we go?”
Coaching is not Therapy. Therapists help their clients to become fully functional individuals. Therapists concentrate on “fixing” the past so the present will improve for the client. This may require fixing problems, overcoming issues and challenges from the past, healing, and, sometimes, managing mental illness.
Coaches help clients focus on their plans for the future through a results-oriented process that moves them from functional to optimal performance… and, ultimately, from optimal to OUTSTANDING!
Therapy examines the past to help a client cope with the present;
Coaching builds on the present to create the future.
What Coaching IS
The focus on attaining your unique potential is what sets traditional coaching apart from the problem-solving, expert opinion, and coping strategies of other modalities. Simply, the other helping professions were created to solve problems. In consulting, mentoring, and therapy, the helper is the authority, the path is clear and the client is looking for answers. In coaching, the coach comes along side the client to work to achieve the ultimate goals desired by the client. In this way, coaching assists the client in discovering their path for success.
We said earlier that coaching incorporates the best aspects of consulting, mentoring, and therapy. There are times when coaches act like consultants, suggesting new ideas from their intuition, knowledge, and experience. Like mentors, coaches can certainly provide valuable insight into their client’s experiences or situations. And, like therapists, coaches sometimes “visit” the past to understand the present.
Coaching focuses on partnering with individuals to create the future they envision. It’s about challenging and supporting people to achieve higher levels of performance, while allowing them to bring out the best in themselves and those around them.
What the Power Coach Online Program Does for the Client
Our coaching program takes the client beyond traditional coaching. We achieve the goals of traditional coaching and beyond, completing strategies for enduring success. We incorporate a principle called Power Thinking! into the traditional coaching program. Power Thinking! is a unique “problem solution tool”. The goal of Power Thinking! is to create an invincible mentality into every aspect of the client’s experience. Right thinking leads to invincibility. Power Thinking! is positive thinking on steroids. It provides the client with the tools needed to be invincible so they can think positively.
I’m offering you an opportunity to “test drive” the coaching program for yourself. I am going to give you the first step in the coaching system for free. No charge to you and no long term commitment. You’ll get a chance to see if a coaching relationship with me is in your best interest. When you click on the button below you’ll go the sign up page. There you’ll see that there is no charge. All I ask is that you consider if this is for you at the conclusion of the first series. That’s it!
Coaching can help you achieve permanent prosperity and enduring success this year.
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