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Brain Food Fridays Number 56: How Can You Find Time to Read?
Dear Reader,
How Can You Find Time to Read?
A common question people ask me is “How do you find time to read so many books?” And to join my Facebook Group, Reading Rocks: Read a Book, Discover Solutions, Change the World (Join the Group here), I ask people what holds them back from reading more books. And the most common answers are time and focus.
I discovered something quite by accident. While reading the average nonfiction book, I kept on experiencing déjà vu. Haven’t I read this before, haven’t I read this before? And I wondered why the authors repeated information so much. I learned that traditional publishers have word counts. So authors often have to repeat information and add fillers to meet the word count.
Why should you waste your precious time reading the same thing over-and-over again or reading filler words? There’s a better way to read, and it’s called selective and strategic reading. The way to read more books, is to preview them first, then read only the sections that apply to your situation.
Because you’re reading only the essential information in a book, you read more books and you focus on the task at hand. If you’re interested in selective and strategic reading, and you also want to learn the sales process, join the Sales Accelerator: Don’t Read More, Read Differently that launches on February 3rd. If you’d like to learn more about this program, go here.
I’ve started reading the sales books and I’m enjoying the journey. You don’t know what you don’t know. Here are some soundbites from the books I’ve read so far.
- People are not buying a product or service, they’re buying a solution, a change. No problem, no sale.
- To close a sale, the prospect must trust that the product satisfies their needs at a great deal, trust and connect with you as an expert, and trust and connect with your company.
- Ask your customers questions to expand their perception of their problem and the perceived outcome of solving the problem.
- The best time to make a sale is after you’ve made a sale because you’re all pumped.
- You lose the sale because you don’t understand the customer’s problem. Question the customer to gather intelligence.
- You need to learn how to present and ask questions, and practice active listening.
The Invisible Mentor Blog
I profiled Esther Howland this week. She laid the foundation for the greeting cards industry. Esther Howland is the “Mother of American Valentines” and New England’s first career woman. Her father was a successful businessman who owned SA Howland and Son, the largest book and stationery store in Worcester. She apprenticed in her father’s business.
In 1847, she received her first British valentine from a family friend in England. She and her friends admired the beautiful, intricately designed card. But it was Esther Howland who saw the commercial potential of the card.
Esther Howland convinced her father to order paper lace, paper flowers, and any other supplies she thought she would need to make valentine card samples. She got busy creating a dozen valentine designs. Reluctantly, her brother Allen, agreed to take the samples on his sales trip. The young woman thought she would get about $200 worth of orders. She and her father were surprised to learn that she received a staggering $5,000 worth of orders for her cards. Remember, this was in 1847.
Product of the Week
Sales Accelerator: don’t read more, read differently
Until Next Week,
Avil Beckford, Founder, The Invisible Mentor!