Leadership

Fearless, strong, powerful, can dodge bullets and bombs

February 11, 2023 by Blair Singer Book Excerpts

If you are a business owner, parent, coach, or anyone who leads a group to a goal, and you have chosen to lead, I think it’s important to do a gut check. What kind of leader do you want to be? Commonly in business I see two categories, both of which are strong and powerful leaders. Wonder Woman and Princess Leia.

Let’s talk about Wonder Woman she is legendary. She is fearless, strong, powerful, can dodge bullets and bombs. Others look on in wonder as she races across the battlefield, bombs bursting and bullets flying (ever have a day like that?). The troops are inspired by her and may even be motivated to join the charge. She is a performance leader in that her performance inspires others.

Wonder Woman would not get you up Kilimanjaro unless she carried you there (which she could do).

Where in your life are you attempting to be Wonder Woman, Superman, or some equivalent? In other words, where are you trying to lead by being the best and out-performing everyone else? Maybe you’re incredibly accomplished, hitting all your goals, and the others will be inspired by you to be better. Hopefully, they will catch up to you. Rather than truly inspiring, they may put their energy into finding ways they can get it done.

Learn More order your copy of Summit Leadership today

Building or running a business is more than a journey. It’s an adventure. Adventure assumes there is risk in the air. For many business owners, the adventure of building a business is a long one and there are many lessons to be learned over that extended period of time. That takes unwavering commitment, a serious dose of tenacity, and the ability to embrace adventure.

Using the experience of successfully summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro drives years of business building into a 7-day mountain leadership adventure where the pinnacle, as well as the sometimes harsh lessons of the mountain, track exactly with the building of a business. From the moment your spirit is engaged when you commit to the climb until you return home safe and successful, Summit Leadership mirrors the same trail of mission building and ultimate business team victory that entrepreneurs strive for.

The multi-faceted challenge we faced in scaling “Kili” was a microcosm of all that owning and growing a business entails. Those who have experienced the exhilaration and challenges of it have gone on to build amazing businesses and become legendary leaders. With each ascent in altitude with the author, this guidebook explores the critical lessons to lead you and your teams to the summit and beyond. Learn More order your copy of Summit Leadership today

What Kind of Leader Are You?

January 9, 2023 by Blair Singer Book Excerpts

“Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts.
It is about one life influencing another.”
—John C. Maxwell

The Summit Leadership Model works like this. We start at the base of the mountain with our overarching mission—in the simplest of terms, our goal or summit. While we are at the base, we are defining our WHY, getting clear on our values and the values of the team, setting our rules and our code of honor, recruiting the best team members, and above all, training and preparing for the climb.

It is only after all these things are done, that we finally begin our execution, our journey to the summit. Some people like to rush through these steps, taking shortcuts, anxious to reach their goal. Ben and I were a bit like this on our first climb. We didn’t have enough time to adequately prepare for a hike as challenging as Kilimanjaro. And we didn’t make it.

As a leader, it’s your job to make sure that you and your team are fully prepared, motivated, and inspired to reach the summit, whatever that might be. So, I ask, what kind of leader are you?

Most people, when asked what kind of leader they are, immediately consider if they are “good” or “bad” leaders. Those aren’t the two categories that come to mind for me when I think about leaders, however. A good leader can have a bad day, week, or year. A bad leader can have a lucky streak and shine their way to the top… for the moment.

Some folks call themselves leaders if they have profile, persona, charisma, and inspiration, but they have no real team. They have admirers or even worshipers, but not folks who will make sacrifices and accept challenges. You’ll find these leaders in the world of social media and YouTube.

There are others who perhaps have none of the above, but have a loyal, committed following of team members who would go to the ends of the earth to achieve a mission.

This book is about this last group. Why? Because I am not that charismatic and not that smart. But what I observed on Kilimanjaro I can emulate. In looking at my life, any great thing I have ever done or any nasty predicament I got myself out of, was due to the team I had… not just me.

Let’s talk about teams for a moment, because today’s definition of a team may be different than it used to be. A team is a group of people who come together for a common purpose and mission. They play by a common set of rules and procedures to make that mission happen. They may dress a certain way, speak a certain way, and have a core set of values. Some of the team may be on the payroll and some may be volunteers. For example, in my organization some of our best salespeople are our customers who have become part of our team.

Take a Team Diagnostic to Learn

HOW (DYS-)FUNCTIONAL IS YOUR TEAM?

Rate you and your team.

As an entrepreneur, you start by building a community out in the world, to a large extent through social media, by sharing what you’re trying to do, who you are, and why you are doing it. Some of the people in that community will ultimately become your customers. They’ll buy from you. And then a subset of those customers might become a part of your team. And what does that mean?

To read more order a copy of Summit Leadership: Taking Your Team to the Top

Call to Action

January 1, 2022 by Drisana

Have you ever seen Glengarry Glen Ross?

You might remember what the sales manager, played by Alec Baldwin said in the movie:

“ABC – Always Be Closing.”

Business owners usually struggle with closing the deal. When it’s time for this part of the sales cycle, many of them don’t know the best way forward.

If this is the case with you, I’m here to help.

I’d like to talk about a particular mistake that I often come across:

Forgetting to include a call to action.

When you present your offer, how do you finish the presentation?

It doesn’t matter whether you’re presenting live, via chat, or through your website. All sales presentations must end with a clear call to action.

Why?

Let’s say you got everything right to this point. You’ve researched your audience, found their problems, and shown them what you can do to fix them.

You’re talking about your program and ending it with how much it costs.

What do you expect to happen in this situation?

In most cases, you’ll hear crickets.

If someone decides to buy, it would be because they’re already warmed up enough. However, this wouldn’t be the case for the majority of your prospects.

What they need is a nudge in the right direction.

And your call to action is that nudge.

You must tell people to sign up, contact you, or do whatever else it takes to start working with you.

It makes no sense to invest so much time and effort in sales if you don’t tell people exactly what the next step should be.

If you remember my past messages, you know I mentioned that you need to connect all the dots for the prospect. And a clear call to action is among the most important in this regard.

Make sure that yours is clear and effective enough to motivate people to buy.

Be Awesome,

Blair

If you’d like to master the presenting your call to action which will catapult your business sales, click here>>

Asking the Right Questions

December 25, 2021 by Drisana

Many people don’t know this but selling is more about listening than talking.

Bombarding your prospect with how amazing your offer is won’t turn a “no” into “yes.”

On the other hand, you’ll have a much better shot at it by listening closely.

Like I explained, the way to handle objections is to acknowledge and ask questions. After you’ve confirmed that a prospect dislikes your offer for some reason, the first thing you need to do is to find out why.

If someone tells you that your offer is too expensive, ask why they think so. Do they genuinely not have enough money for it? Or, are they comparing it to something else that seems to offer more value for the price? Maybe it’s neither and the prospect just wants to negotiate a lower price.

In any case, there’s no way to find out what’s wrong unless you ask.

Remember that the answer is “no” by default if you don’t ask.

In my experience, a big reason why people can’t sell is that they don’t ask enough of these questions. And it’s because they freeze as soon as the prospect declines.

You’ll fix this problem by acknowledging the objection and asking questions. It will also make you feel calmer and more rational during a sales meeting or presentation, which is vital to closing the deal.

The more emotional you get, the less intelligent you become.

This is true for just about anything in life, including sales. The prospect will have all the power if you allow emotions to overwhelm you.

To prevent this, ask the right questions and listen closely to the answer. You’re bound to find something that you can use to change a prospect’s mind at some point.

Best of all, this is something that gets better with practice. Even if you have no idea how to handle objections the right way, it shouldn’t take you a lot of time to learn.

Be Awesome,

Blair

If you want know the secrets to asking the right questions, online or offline so they trust, love, and respect you within minutes, I’d like to invite you to click here >>

Assess and Qualify

November 15, 2021 by sycreed

What’s going to make your business more successful right now?

What would put your mind at ease and show you that you can weather this storm?

It’s sales. Right?

I bet you probably don’t care where those sales are coming from or who’s agreeing to work with you. Like most business owners these days, you’d just be happy to be landing new clients.

Except… This wouldn’t be the right approach.

Even today, you don’t want to work with just anyone!

In my last email, I wrote about asking lots of questions. This would allow you to uncover your audience’s deepest problems that you can solve.

But it actually does more than that.

Asking questions allows you to qualify your prospects and cherry-pick those that will be the right fit. You need a system that will make this happen if you want to thrive in the long run.

For instance, I never accept a client unless I’m 100% sure that I can help them. I’d much rather refer them to someone else if I know of a coach that’s more suitable for their situation.

This is why I always do a thorough assessment of all my prospects before I make a final decision. My goal is to see where the client’s at right now and if I can do something to get them the desired outcome.

I come across way too many business owners who try to sell too soon. Don’t make this mistake or it can be costly. More often than not, you’re going to find that working with unfit clients isn’t worth the money.

Here’s what I’m getting at:

Assess a client’s situation and qualify them first before accepting them as your client. Don’t just accept everyone that knocks on your door.

Finding the right match will not only make sales easier, but it will also allow you to do your best work.

Be Awesome,

Blair Singer

Signup for Blair’s Virtual Academy >>

Triple Your Income Without New Leads

October 2, 2021 by sycreed

I’d like to tell you a story about a successful client of mine.

Well, he’s successful now. But, when he first came to me, his business was in shambles!

My client owns a little massage clinic. And he had a pretty good way of generating leads. He’d put coupons for a free massage in the newspaper. And when someone claimed that free massage, he’d convert them into a paying member.

Every week, my client would get around 50 people coming to his clinic. He’d get about 15% of them to join his membership program that sold for $600 per year.

On average, that was $4,200 per week, if you assume seven new members. For the year, it was close to $210,000.

Not too bad…but, not that impressive either.

The problem was, my client was losing his mind over his clinic. Both he and his wife worked for hours on end, every day. His wife was pressuring him because he’d promised that they’d make a lot more money.

All in all, everything was getting to be too much. The reward was way too small to make all that work worthwhile.

That’s why the clinic owner came to me for help. He told me that he needed more leads to grow his clinic.

And right from the jump, he was wrong.

I explained that he didn’t need any more leads. In fact, he couldn’t afford to generate any more!

What he needed to do was to look at his processes and find the holes.

With our help, this is exactly what he did.

After the training, my client started seeing positive changes right away.

Instead of the old $210,000, he now makes almost $600,000. And this happened without a single new lead!

The moral of the story?

What you think is wrong with your business might be far away from the real problem. Hang in there, and I’ll show you what you need to focus on to start selling more.

Be Awesome,

Blair Singer

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