WHY SELLING IS IMPORTANT IN TOUGH TIMES

The environment in Nigeria is such now that you need to know the right way to sell, if you are going to make any success. Selling is the most important factor to every organisation in growing and without it, a business will simply crumble.

NEW! HOW TO SELL IN TOUGH TIMES

Not many people know this, but I use to work for one of the largest retail banks in London. I actually worked with this bank for 5 years in my early 20’s. I remember when I joined, I was sent away on a residential selling boot camp for a week. I still remember the principles that were shared and they are still relevant today in my business. At one point I worked for one of their top performing branches in London and as a team we out performed our targets.  It wasn’t luck. We were coached. It was strategy of selling.

Afraid Of Selling

Most people admit that they hate selling and hope that prospects will just be interested in their products because it is a good product. This may be true to some extent but unfortunately there is only so much a business can grow if you don’t know how to sell. As a marketing consultant, I always advise my clients to showcase their products in a strategic way but if doesn’t end with a sale, it can end up just being noise.

100% Satisfaction Guaranteed 

High Impact Workshop

On the 21^st October shortly after my birthday week, I shall be hosting another High Impact workshop tagged, “How To Sell in Tough Times’’ where business owners and business managers come off the battlefield and get re-empowered with an action plan to excel in their businesses.  This workshop is highly impactful for such a time as this and will teach you, the business person or sales manager how to break through your comfort zone and propel you to achieve outstanding sales in your chosen sector. 

High Impact Workshops  - Engaging and Practical 

Special Offer

This workshop is offered at a reduced price of N15,000 before October 7th and N20,000 after that date. It comes with an action packed workbook, lunch and certificate of participation.I am dedicated to your success and I want your business to grow and bloom.

Sign up today by downloading the booking form and send it back to me at rita@majesticallyrare.com

http://majesticallyrare.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Booking-Form-for-How-to-sell-in-tough-times.pdf

What has been your experience with selling in this season? Share your experience in the blog box below. If this post has inspired you in anyway or at least helped you to think about selling in a more strategic way then please share this post with others.

Thanks for stopping by

HOW TO INCREASE YOUR LIKEABILITY FACTOR

I don’t know anyone in this world who doesn’t like to be liked. No matter how much we might pretend that we don’t care, I believe that everyone would prefer to be liked than disliked. Most of the time we moan that people don’t like us. The truth is even for those people who say they dislike you, there is probably something that they secretly admire.  This article is for anyone who like me wants to be liked more than despised because quite frankly being liked is good business. People do business with people they like. So here are some points to get us on the road to being liked more.

Be Generally Interested In Other People

People want to know that you care. So if you strike up a conversation and all you do is talk about yourself, it will imply that you are not interested in others. How many times do you call people just to say hello?  We need reach out to people more. Visit, phone or send an email. I actually did this recently. I was thinking about someone the other day and rather than just stop at thinking about her, I actually sent her an inbox to say hello. She was so happy and shocked that I reached out to her. We are lucky with technology especially with facebook which sends you reminders of Birthdays. Rather just type HBD which I think is very impersonal why not write a really nice birthday line or pick up the phone. With clients why not find out more about them in discussions so that when it’s there special day, you can send a birthday or anniversary note. They will really appreciate it. Trust me. 

Smile More

Smiling is good business and I can tell you from personal experience that smiling got my foot in to jobs that seemed unreachable.  It sends a signal to my clients that I am a warm person. Smile at people genuinely and look at them directly.  A lovely smile will warm anybody’s heart. A lot of us have developed the habit of frowning or having a straight face. Maybe we have taken on too much of the world’s problems but a lovely smile is so heart-warming. Make it a habit to smile more. It really does help with making people like you more.

Say My Name

Everyone loves being called by their name. Everyone loves it when you remember them. When you call me by name, you are setting me apart from others. It shows that you care about me and I will like you more.  Try it with your clients and customers and see how easier it is to have a conversation. Never address clients with first names though unless they insist.

Be An Active Listener

I learned this very early in my career that if I am going to get clients and customers to hear what I have to say I need to listen to them and the same should be applied with friends.   Sometimes you meet people that are quite chatty and they have said so much about themselves in the first 10 minutes but they haven’t asked you anything about you. Not listening causes a lot of problems in relationships. I remember attending an interactive marriage course organised by Alpha and each couple took turns in listening by holding a handkerchief. You couldn’t interrupt the other person until they had finished speaking.  It was really useful and interesting to see how difficult it is to listen. A good way to show that you are listening is to give eye contact, nod in agreement or repeat back what the person said to you.

Talk About The Other Person’s Interests

People love to talk about themselves and that is the honest truth. Just ask a person about something they are really passionate about it will be difficult to end that conversation. Being interested in others really builds up the likeability factor not just for clients but for friends.   

Make Other People Feel Important

William James said, ‘’The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated’’. A lot of the times friendships break up because one of the other party feels neglected or less important. You often hear complaints like, ‘’She ignores me’’, ‘’ He doesn’t talk to me any more’’ and so on. I have come to realise that no matter how much we may pretend; we all want to feel important. It’s part of our need as humans.  The challenge is always to be genuine and to make the person feel important not because you want to get out anything out of them but simply because they are human.

So there you have it. If you want to develop yourself more in the likeability factor then recommended books are

How To Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

25 Ways To Win With People – John Maxwell

Be a People Person – John Maxwell

Becoming a Person of Influence – Maxwell & Dornan

Thanks for stopping by and please share your thoughts in the comment box. I love receiving feedback. If you found this article useful please share with others.

Happy Weekend.

N/B Most of the photos are from our popular interactive High Impact Business Growth workshops. Watch out for a special edition coming up on 21st October.  Save the date.  For information send to rita@majesticallyrare.com

WHY RAISE CONFIDENT GIRLS??

On the 15^th of September 2016, Raising Confident Girls movement turned 2 years and a series of meet and greets with members both in London and Lagos took place, just so that our members can see real faces of the team other than what we post online. It’s been wonderful meeting members and hearing what the impact the movement has made on them and their daughters. Hooray!!!! 

Origins of the movement started with Girl Tea Parties 

WHY WAS RAISING CONFIDENT GIRLS SET UP?

Many members have asked why the group was set up. It was set up out of a pain of seeing many women and girls struggling with inner confidence and self-esteem issues including myself, and observing the dynamics of how it plays out in my environment called Lagos. But these struggles are everywhere in the world. It's a big deal to strip off that mask and just be yourself. There was a disconnect between displaying confidence i.e being very bold verses really being true to who you really are. 

My experience has taught me that if I am not authentic then I will struggle with self esteem and confidence issues.  I took time to do a lot of research on the topic of confidence and needed a platform to share my findings. In my case, by sharing a lot of information especially on my blogs, newspaper articles and speaking engagements, this indirectly fixed a lot of issues that I was struggling with, thanks be to God. It was a blessing to find other women like Ladi Di, Damie Otiotio  Onasanya, Yinka Enahoro , Ifeoma Okoye Agbasi and Bonita Olugh who are equally as passionate and make up our wonderful Admin Team online with me.

Some of my recommended books for Raising Confident Girls  

ABOUT RAISING CONFIDENT GIRLS

We are a movement that are passionate about Raising Confident Girls. We know that there are several issues with raising girls in the 21st century and our desire is to provide support and solutions to the challenges through events, conferences and also online discussions. 

OUR OBJECTIVES

• We aim to be No 1 place for gaining information about how to Raise Confident Girls

• We cater for any woman who is interested in Raising Confident Girls

• We seek to share information that will be useful for Raising Confident Girls

• We serve as a help group to a mother or a guardian who feels she is struggling in her role to a girl child 

• We provide knowledge and learning which you can apply back to your girls

• We aim to provide tools and resources which women can take notes and apply in the home, school or church group 

• We aim to share success stories and celebrate girls who are confident and doing well in their communities

• Our roots are Christian but we are respectful of other religions

MISSION STATEMENT

• To identity best ways to Raise Confident Girls

VISION STATEMENT

• A world where every girl is confident

WHAT IS NEXT FOR RAISING CONFIDENT GIRLS?

We plan to be deliver speaking engagements in schools, universities and groups that need our expertise and knowledge in this subject matter. We also plan to deliver several ‘’Confident Building Workshops’’ for girls across the world and not just in Nigeria, so help us God.

If you are a lady and would like to be part of our online conversation, please join us at

https://www.facebook.com/groups/raisingconfidentgirls/

Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment and feel free to share with others.

GO PINK ON OCTOBER 5th

I lost my beloved younger brother Chris aka Crissy in 2010 to cancer so I am always on the look out to support cancer awareness initiatives, as early detection saves lives. This year I am supporting GO PINK an initiative run by Professor Ifeoma Okoye.

How can you help the awareness? 

Get ready to wear pink on 5th October, Nationwide GOPINK day, as a way of creating awareness on the need to minimize deaths from cancer due to late detection. It is part of the war against cancer. 

Roll in Leaders, Influencers & Celebrity Friends: 

Send their pictures (Please get their permission) to Go Pink and #gopinkdayng or tell them to: Take a Selfie, hold a placard with support inscription and tag #gopinkdayng. Follow the Pinky Prof and other titans @ GO PINK for more info. 
#gopinkdayng

HOW HIGH IS MY INTEGRITY? (OUCH)

So, I’m sitting here on a rainy day and I’m thinking about the word ‘’integrity’’. Integrity simply means the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.

This word has been on my mind for about a week after a discussion I had with a lady about what I do and who I influence. I realized that as a person who has put herself in the public domain as an influencer for ‘’Raising Confident Girls Initiative’’, it is important more than ever to check myself to make sure I am walking in high integrity.

My Word

The first thing I thought about are my words. Are my words true to who am I? I’ve joined forces with a tribe of ladies to promote Raising Confidence Girls. I use the word confidence probably up to 5 times a day. I talk about confidence. I write about confidence. So that stands to beg the question, RiRi are you walking in confidence? Do I demonstrate confidence? Do I have self -belief? Do I love me? What I am willing to accept and not? I need to check myself constantly to make sure I practice what I preach.

Honesty

Integrity is about being honest especially when no-one is watching. So again I ask myself, I am living my truth? Am I being true to others? Even as an international marketing consultant I often engage with businesses from all over the globe, who need publicity of their products and services . If I don’t believe they have a strong business case, do I decline the job at the risk of losing consultancy fees? I should hope so. I always have to check myself.

Treat Others With Respect

I am very big on respect but in order for me to want respect I have to make sure I am respecting others. This includes their time and space. In addition, I have to make sure that as a person of integrity I treat people fairly irrespective of status. It also important that I respect myself too and not put myself in situations where respect is lacking.

Be Transparent

I would like to think that I am genuine and transparent with people. I know I am not perfect and I thank God that I have family and friends that can keep me in check if I am drifting.  I hope that I will never deceive people but be bold enough to say what I mean openly and honestly, so help me God.

Accept Mistakes

In my opinion, the ego is the because destroyer in life to anyone who ranks integrity as a high value. I am aware that if I allow my ego to get the better of me, it will be my biggest destroyer. So I constantly need to check myself. When I make mistakes I should correct them, apologize quickly and move on. 

Walk My Talk

Finally, I have to constantly be on the look out that I am really walking my talk. Aside from my family, I have made myself accountable to a few close sister friends who can honestly tell me the truth in love.  I thank God for them.

Gosh, this has been a difficult task, writing about integrity.  It’s not an easy journey to be completely real to who you are but it is the only way to be truly authentic and confident.

What about you? How high is your integrity? Stop! It’s not something you need to disclose publicly but it’s always good to check yourself and be true to who you are. Thanks for stopping by and please write a comment and share with others that may benefit.

COPING DURING TOUGH TIMES

I have experienced a series of tough times in my life so I think I’m in a position to share some coping techniques that have helped me. It can be a scary season especially when the burden is financial but one thing I would say is that there is always, always, always light at the end of tunnel as long you are doing your bit. So listed below are things I recommend during Tough Times.  

Choose Carefully Who You Share With

During tough times it’s so easy to have a pity party but not everyone will sympathize with you. Some may even avoid you.  Use wisdom and discernment in sharing your challenges. Not everyone can handle it. Some may think it’s contagious and flee from you. Don’t share with everyone. Be very selective.

Cut Down On Luxuries

The finer things in life need to be cut out in tough seasons. There is absolutely no point in keeping up with the Jones. When we started our businesses, for three years in a row, my family didn’t travel abroad and we just told our children that we just couldn’t afford it. It doesn’t mean you are less of a person. It just means you are cutting your coat according to your pocket. As a pointer because I have been through tough seasons, I am always on the look out for bargains, even when travelling. There are plenty of airlines that offer sales. The key is to book on time. 

Think Creatively

In the one of the toughest financial seasons of my life, I was forced to step out and set up my own business. It turned out to be a blessing. One of the ideas that came up through my tough season was the start  of High Impact Business growth workshops. Friends were shocked at the small fees I was charging when I started but I had a strategy. The workshops have led to further training with corporates and banks. 

Always have a plan and think about what you are ultimately trying to achieve. Think about what you can do in tough times to create value. Brainstorm all your gifts and talents. You will be surprised at the ideas that come up.

Opportunity For Growth

Every tough season, provides an opportunity for growth. It’s an opportunity to think out of the box. It’s an opportunity to think about new ideas.  It’s an opportunity to learn lessons. It’s an opportunity to gain more knowledge by reading when business is slow. During my tough times, I read and grabbed everything I could get my hands on. I also attended several free events.

Be A Giver

The natural thing to do when there is shortage is to stop giving but the natural and spiritual laws still apply during tough seasons. The more you give out, the more you get back. Don’t stop giving. Giving gives you focus to step out of yourself.  It’s not all about oneself. Think of a platform where you can give. You never know where it can lead to. 

Have Long Term Strategy

Its so easy to think short term when things are tough. For example, so many friends wonder why I came back to Lagos and didn’t stay in London through these tough times. It wouldn’t make sense to just pack and go without a plan. I have to keep saying to myself, ''Don’t lose sight of your purpose in an attempt to escape hardship''. Always have a plan.

Exercise

I have found exercise to be very therapeutic especially during tough times. Those prayers walks are powerful. Doing exercise helps one feel good about yourself as well as lose weight. Aside from exercise it's important to lead a healthy lifestyle especially during tough times, so start today.

Guard Your Heart

Finally, in tough times it’s important to guard one’s heart and lean on the Word of God. Has HE not said he will never leave you or forsake you? Has he not said HIS promises are Yes and Amen? Has He not said that HE will not forsake the righteous? Do not lean on your own understanding but meditate on the Word of God. Don’t read or believe everything you read on social media or in the news. Remember it’s not your portion. Protect your heart and read the word of God and believe what HE says. 

If you have any more useful tips about coping through tough times, please share with me in the comment box as it will help others’. If you found this article useful please share with others. You don’t know who might need to read this message today. I'm praying for our nation. 


Thanks for stopping by. 

SUMMER LOVING HAPPENED SO FAST

It’s coming to the end of our summer holiday and I have a few things to say worthy of a blog post. This summer holiday has been one of the best holidays ever, mainly because of great relationships we have nourished over the years. Great Relationships are so important to me and worth investing in.  

The year started with so many great expectations and then suddenly out of nowhere my funky, handsome, friendliest, cool looking dad slipped away and died peacefully in his sleep.  My whole world was turned upside down with the shock, but alas life has to go on slowly but surely. I really needed a break after that experience and I thank God that our summer holiday helped me deal with my grief (although I was too upset to say anything about his birthday which came up recently). 

Fun in the Sun

It was great being surrounded by our family and friends. The British weather didn’t disappoint either and we experienced a mini heat wave on some days. We were fortunate to move around in a powerful automobile and got us to special events in Warwickshire and Norwich which are miles away from London, thanks to a special person (Read more in final paragraph). 

Events Galore

There were events galore this summer. How can we forget Glam ma's special birthday, my nephew’s 1^st birthday bash, wining and dining, anniversaries, BBQ’s, strolls in parks, work outs in parks (wink) school reunions, meet and greets, deep meaningful conversations, family fun games, family reunions, raising confident girls meet and greet etc etc etc. We thank God for these experiences that dont come up often.

 

We missed a few close people on this visit. Even though we didn’t meet we know they were there in spirit and hopefully we will catch up next time.

Special Thanks

Last by not least how can we thank my brother inlaw Obi Okoye who not only hosted us for the whole summer but let us move around in his fast audio. I thank God for people in the world like Obi, he’s a rare breed.

My lessons learned from Summer 2016

• ·        There are great people in this world
• ·        Make time out for people because they are important
• ·        Appreciate the smaller things in life like laughing and sharing
• ·        Thank God always for magical moments
•    Thanks to all who made our summer the best ever, till we meet again. Mwah! 

As I go back to my beloved country Naija, my prayers are that things will get better and that we will not be part of the problem but part of the solution. Amen