Becoming a Black Belt in Business - Salesmanship and the Tenants of Tae Kwon Do

What can a sales person, marketer or business person learn from the martial arts? The answer: A lot! There are five tenants that make up the core of Tae Kwon Do. These tenants are:

-Courtesy
-Integrity
-Perseverance
-Self Control
-Indomitable Spirit

This article is the first in a series of articles that will focus on these tenants and the impact they can have in the business world. As a practitioner, these tenants can do wonders in building self confidence. They also provide a focus for achieving something bigger and better than one's self. Tae Kwon Do teaches self-confidence and focus through these tenants, which are necessities in the world of sales, marketing and business.

Courtesy, as defined by Merriam Webster's online dictionary, is the act of consideration, cooperation and generosity in providing something. What services or products do you provide? When people think of you do they see you as a generous cooperative and considerate person? If they don't or have a negative perception of you, it must be changed immediately. These negative perceptions not only impact you but the organization that you represent. As a sales person, marketer or business owner these negative perceptions whether true or not will have a negative impact on your bottom line and will ultimately make selling that much harder.

People are emotional and attach emotional qualities to real world transactions. Should buying gasoline or gum be an emotional transaction? What about a car or furniture? You might not think so, but it very much is. Whether it's a pushy car sales person or a testy clerk who had a bad day at the gas station, the interaction related to even the simplest purchases can have an emotional affect on the person making the purchase, which can ultimately impact them doing business with you in the future. A business that I frequent regularly, teaches their associates that no matter what at the end of a sale they must say, "We appreciate your business and have a great day". A simple and powerful act of courtesy that does wonders for customer loyalty because it stimulates a positive response which in turn creates a positive perception.

If you don't know how your customers perceive you or your organization you should! A strategy should be implemented to discover the identity associated to you or your organization by your clients. After all, lost clients are much harder to get back once they've moved on to a competitor. One simple way to kick start this process is to send out customer surveys. If needed attach a prize or offer to help the response rate. The survey should ask specific questions about delivery, product satisfaction, the perception of sales and customer service personnel, costs, etc.

Take the time to understand the touch points you have with your customers and the emotional impact those touch points may be having. Understand the emotional dynamics involved in your sales, marketing and business processes to ensure that you're building a solid relationship that will ultimately increase sales and customer loyalty.

Michael Garza, Interactive Sales Specialist
Michael Garza has been successfully providing Interactive Marketing services to companies since 1998. His emphasis has been in Website Design, Web Application Design, Internet Marketing, SEM, SEO and Business Development.

Download a copy of his new eBook: Interactive Sales & Marketing 101- http://issuu.com/cyrulux
Please visit my blog and leave me a comment: http://interactivesalesspecialist.blogspot.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Garza

Video message for you!

Is it time yet? Are you ready for the Economic Turnaround?

Is it time for businesses to start spending money again? This is the question I’m sure that’s on most people’s minds. The reality is that things are moving slow and there is still a lot of skepticism in the air about the forthcoming turnaround. Businesses have cut and cut and are still being asked to do more for customers, employees, investors and owners with less time and less money. So, the answer is, no one knows for sure! However, spending is occurring and there are signs of life.

As we approach the economic turnaround, companies need to reassess their approach to sales and marketing in general. The reality is that the paradigm has shifted in the world of sales and marketing for all companies. There are more cost effective and efficient means of generating revenues in today’s world of the Internet. Remember this, your customers are savvy to the new age of the Internet and know how to do all the research they need on their own to make a purchasing decision. So, if you’re not in front of them whenever and wherever they might be searching then you’ll be missing out on the opportunity to sell to solid prospects.

Now’s the time to try some search engine marketing and search engine optimization techniques. Get out there and do some research! Discover what needs to be done to be successful in the Internet world. Right away you’ll discover that your web presence has to be crafted in a way that makes it easy for people to find you. Your customers will be searching for you through search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing and if you can’t be found in those search engines then that potential customer is gone! In today’s marketplace, most companies can use every solid lead they can get. I recommend that you take a look at your website and analyze your meta-tags and HTML copy. It’s also important to understand the various options for managing website content and make sure you track all your results. If done right, you’ll soon be generating solid leads from your website presence.

There are many ways the Internet can be used to generate, track and manage leads. Now is the time to utilize these tools. The landscape is different and business, sales and marketing managers should be training their personnel on how interactive sales and marketing strategies can be much more effective than the traditional methods of generating revenues.

Michael Garza, Interactive Sales Specialist
Michael Garza has been successfully providing interactive marketing services to companies since 1998. His emphasis has been in Website Design, Web Application Design, Internet Marketing, SEM, SEO and Business Development.

To download a copy of his new eBook, Interactive Sales & Marketing 101 please visit him at http://issuu.com/cyrulux