Category: Career

Improving your sales skills can be one of the most effective ways to improve your overall set of practical abilities. It is regarded by many as one of the most important skillsets they wish to improve upon due to its versatility and usefulness in various professions. 

Selling is not only an act of just getting someone to buy from you. It is about moving somebody to action. That is part and parcel of your professional life, and most of our daily interactions involve some form of selling.

If you are currently struggling with sales or just someone who would like to improve their sales skills in general, follow these proven strategies to get better at the art of selling.

Why Do Sales Skills Matter?

Contrary to popular belief, developing your sales skills does not require you to be a door-to-door salesperson or customer service professional as they are relevant for a wide array of people and professions. At their heart, sales skills involve convincing people of your opinions, which is a valuable set of abilities that you will want in nearly any occupation. 

So, regardless of whether you work as a salesperson or not, you will want to have an effective set of convincing abilities you can leverage for communicating effectively with the people around you. 

Sales skills can be relevant for professions as diverse as teaching and sports coaching since these professions also involve convincing the people around you of your opinions. Hence, developing your sales skills is highly desirable no matter your occupation.

There are many different ways to improve your sales skills, and within the context of this article, we have highlighted five of the most effective ways you can do so below. 

Improve Your Confidence 

Often, the biggest problem that people have concerning their sales skills is a fundamental lack of self-confidence. Lacking self-confidence can be ruinous to your sales career and other aspects of your life since if you can not speak assertively, you will not be able to convince others of your opinion. So, trying to build your confidence is a great way to start improving your sales skills.

One of the best ways to enhance your confidence would be to improve how you speak to people, ignore any feelings of fear or self-doubt that you may possess, and learn to become a more effective speaker. That is crucial, as being a confident communicator is a vital aspect of effective sales skills. After all, it is only when you believe in yourself that other people will also begin to do so. 

Test New Strategies

The art of sales, and persuasive communication in general, is one in which you must constantly be trying to improve your strategies. The best way to discover what strategies are most effective for you is by trying out new strategies all the time to find out what works. 

Keep experimenting until you find the right mix of tactics that allow you to convince customers in the most effective manner possible. That is a vital step since it will enable you to improve your abilities holistically through trial and experimentation. Also, be sure to document how successful you are with various strategies and approaches. 

Learn From Mistakes

Through the process of experimenting with different strategies, you will inevitably make many mistakes that will result in the loss of potential customers. One of the most important things that you need to do, therefore, is to learn from your mistakes so you may improve your overall performance as a salesperson. You can achieve this by looking at what strategies and approaches have generated the least promising results and figure out why that is the case. 

This step is especially vital since if you do not learn from your mistakes, you will not be able to rectify them, and therefore you will end up repeating them again and again. Avoid committing the same mistakes repeatedly, and concentrate on those areas where you need to make the most progress and invest your effort there. 

Gain Expert Guidance 

Often, even after you have done everything on your end, you may find that the results are somewhat disappointing, and you can not figure out why you are not experiencing the improvement in the sales skills you desired. Perhaps you would also like to receive holistic formal training in sales skills if you feel like you do not know where to start. 

If this is a problem that you face, one of the best solutions you can opt for would be to consider receiving some expert guidance in the form of a mentor, or perhaps an online sales course could be the answer to that problem. Opting for either choice will benefit you by providing you with an expert’s opinion that can more precisely determine what you are doing wrong, which can drastically improve your sales performance.

Record and Reflect

One of the most crucial steps to developing any skill is constantly recording and reflecting upon your progress. This principle applies well to improving your sales skills. The reason for this being that when you can record your progress, including the number of successful sales that you can make with different strategies, you will have a much better idea of what works and what does not. 

Through this process, you will be able to understand what you are doing wrong and where you are hitting the mark. That is also crucial for allowing you to reflect critically on the overall level of skills you have. You should, therefore, regularly and methodically reflect upon your progress with a critical eye aimed towards improvement.

Developing sales skills is highly desirable for any individual, whether they happen to be a salesperson or not. Many people do not know how exactly they should approach developing their sales skills. Some of the best ways to start would be to enhance their confidence level, test new sales strategies and approaches, learn from their mistakes, and if necessary, gain expert guidance in the form of online sales training.

Studying online is a fantastic choice for so many reasons. Deciding to do so can open up a whole new world of opportunities for you and can advance your career in exciting ways. If you have made the decision to study online, then it is natural that you will want to make the most of this time.

Finding ways to become the very best online learner that you can be is essential to your success as you embark upon this new challenge. The following advice can help you to become a great online learner. This advice will also help you to get the most from your chosen course and to keep your stress levels down as you move ahead with your studies.

Choosing an Online Course

Before you set out on becoming a great online learner, you will want to sign up for an online course. This is an action that more and more people are taking in order to embark upon degree-level education, but it can also involve non-degree related learning.

For those looking to explore online bachelor’s degrees or online master’s degrees, Wilfred Laurier University is a reputable educational institution to choose. To ensure that you have the most success learning with them, they have even provided their top advice on how to succeed with online learning. It is important to select a course provider who has a strong reputation for quality of learning and one that has a proven track record of positive student outcomes and solid student support.

There are several important points to investigate during this decision process, such as reading reviews from previous students, exploring the course material and modules, and understanding the assessment procedures for each course. Seeing the kind of support they can offer to you is incredibly important.

Do not rush the process of choosing the best course for you, and try to get as much information and guidance as possible. Each potential institution will have an admissions department who is there to answer any questions that you may have.

What Makes a Successful Online Learner?

People who are successful at studying online share a number of common qualities.

These people are generally:

• Highly motivated
• Able to manage their time effectively
• Able to avoid distractions
• Good at self-discipline
• Able to communicate effectively
• Able to express themselves well

If you do not currently feel that you possess all of these skills or even a few of them, then do not be too concerned. These are certain qualities that you can develop over time by consciously working to do so.

Read on to learn more how you can best embrace these skills and truly develop them for yourself.

Motivation

Being able to motivate yourself is an action that you will have to master in order to succeed in most areas of your life. If you do not have the desire to get stuck in and work towards your goals, then you are going to find it quite hard to succeed at them.

You may have to really push yourself at first in order to become seriously motivated, but this is something that will get easier with time. Try to remind yourself of your goals and your reasons for wanting to reach them. Have a clear idea of what you want your life to look like and explain to yourself regularly how reaching these goals is going to help with this. Doing so will be an effective way to motivate yourself to keep going.

Time Management

Time management skills are absolutely essential for every successful student. This is true whether you are studying for an in-person course or for an online course. When you are studying online, you will have much more need to develop this skill as your study time will not be as structured as it would be in the classroom.

Time management extends far beyond simply getting to your lessons on time. It involves giving an adequate amount of time and attention to your independent study and truly using this time effectively.

You can work to develop your time management skills by setting yourself deadlines each day and striving to complete certain tasks within the allocated period.

Distractions

Distractions can be much more commonplace when you are studying online from home. It can be much easier to justify taking a break when you are not in a classroom environment, and this can be quite detrimental to your concentration and productivity.

If you find that you are prone to becoming distracted, then you must work to overcome this issue.

Creating a specific study area for yourself in the home that is free from distractions is a great first step. If you share your home with other people, make sure that everyone else respects your space and your boundaries. Make it clear that you are studying and that you do not wish to be disturbed or distracted.

Self-Discipline

Being able to be strict with yourself is a skill that can take some time to master. This is a quality that you must really work to develop, much in the same way as learning to overcome distractions.

By setting small goals for yourself that you can work realistically work towards, you can begin to teach yourself about self-discipline. These goals can then become larger, and you will notice that your ability to stay on task develops as you move forwards.

Effective Communication and Expression

When you are an online learner, you will be communicating with your teachers and your fellow students in multiple ways. As well as talking to each other through video calls, you will also likely be sending a lot of written text communication, such as through instant messages and emails.

When it comes to written messages and emails, it is easy to be misunderstood due to the absence of tone and body language. Being able to communicate clearly and concisely will be key to always getting your point across and avoiding misunderstandings.

Having the ability to express your thoughts and ideas in a way that is widely understood is a skill that can take time, especially in the online sphere. Although it can take time, this is an important component of your professional and personal development.

Once you have mastered this skill, you will be well on your way to becoming a great online learner!

Succeeding at Online Learning

Working to embrace the aforementioned concepts will give you a serious boost when it comes to your online studies.

Although you may find it difficult to master these skills right away, you can continue to work towards them over time. Nobody will ever expect you to be the perfect student, and this is an unrealistic expectation to put on yourself, but you can strive to hone your skills and be the best you can be.

Do you know how many blogs there are on the internet?

While the exact number is hard to determine, most stats point to about 500 million. That’s an insane number of blogging sites!

With that number firmly lodged in your mind, you need to ask yourself, “How can I succeed when it’s such a crowded space?”

The answer to that, my friend, lies in the power of branding.

Branding has a few different meanings depending on who you ask and in what context. In the world of blogging, think of branding as giving your blog its own personality.

Doing so helps differentiate your blog from the other half a billion other blogs out there.

You’ll also help to increase your online recognition and authority – vital to your continued blogging success.

If you want to level up your blog and stand out from the crowd, check out these five actionable tips below.  

#1 Create a logo

Think of your logo as your blog’s face. It’s unique to you, and just like meeting new people, you want to look your best when meeting face to face.

Usually, it sits at the top of the page. But don’t forget, it’s also used elsewhere as well to help people identify your site.

When people visit your blog for the first time, you want to make a great impression on them. A poorly designed or ugly logo will reflect badly on your blog. If you want to appear professional and trustworthy, you need a great-looking logo.

Can you design the logo yourself? Unless you have years of experience as a graphic designer, it’s best to leave it to the professionals or use a dedicated service, and there are lots of options you can choose from:

Hire a logo designer – you can hire a designer on freelance platforms like fiverr.com or look for an agency to help you create a logo

Start a logo competition – logo design competitions let you submit your design brief to multiple designers simultaneously. At the end of the competition, you can view all their submissions and choose your favorite

Design with a logo maker – logo makers are online logo design platforms many use AI to create logos based on your input. Of all logo design options logo makers are the cheapest option.

#2 Develop your brand image

Ever heard pop stars talk about their brand image?

The music industry is super crowded. Bands and singers who want to get noticed and set themselves apart create a unique look that makes them stand out.

But they also tailor that look so that it appeals to their target audience. Compare Taylor Swift to Metallica. They’re both hugely successful artists. But their branding is at complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

You can apply the same branding principles to your blog through:

• The tone of voice – you may not realize it, but your blog has its own tone of voice. It’s just a reflection of how you write naturally, but it’s unique to you. Pay attention to the kind of tone your blog has. Is it professional, or is it laid back? Use a tone of voice that your audience responds to, and make sure you stick to it.
• Color palette – Don’t use too many colors on our blog site. Instead, create your own brand color palette using 2-3 colors. Make sure it matches your tone of voice and is liked by your audience.
• Font–style – People are reading your blog posts. Have you ever thought about the typography you’re using? Pick a font that matches your voice. Professional news websites use serif fonts like Times New Roman, whereas more casual blogs use sans-serif fonts like Calibri.
• Imagery – If you’re not using images, you will not get the most out of your blog. Images help draw people in and keep them engaged. To help solidify your visual identity, stick to one type of image, whether it’s for your blog posts, your home page, even social media posts.

#3 Be consistent with relevant content

People are creatures of habit. Please don’t make them guess when your latest post will be.

If they like to visit your blog post on Wednesday morning because they’re expecting a new post, don’t let them down! Create a blogging schedule and stick to it.

You also need to create relevant content. In other words, content that your audience wants to read and find interesting. If you already know who your audience is, this isn’t a problem.

But if you’re still trying to uncover who exactly is reading your blog, try using some of these methods:

• Google Analytics – By connecting your website to Google Analytics, you can find out demographic information about your audience. Where they’re from, their age group, gender, and more. You can also see how people are arriving at your posts. Are they coming from social media? Search engines? Other blogs that are linking to you?
• Use Comments – Allow readers to leave comments with their thoughts and own opinions. It’s a great way to find out more about your readers and increase your engagement levels.
• Content Discovery Platforms – Content research platforms like Answer The Public you input topics, such as ‘woodworking’ to discover subtopics you can talk about in your blog posts

#4 Build your social presence

Facebook has nearly 3 billion monthly users. So does YouTube. Instagram has over 1 billion, and TikTok is catching up with close to 700 million monthly users.

The point I’m trying to make is that you can gain lots of new audience members by growing your social media presence.

Growing your own community takes time, and it can be pretty tiring. Many social media users expect high levels of engagement. Like constant new posts and increased engagement with the community.

Using social media tools to set up automatic posting and alerts can do wonders for your efforts.

Just don’t fall into the trap of trying to use every social media platform there is. Stick to the ones your audience is using. LinkedIn, for example, is excellent for B2B businesses, whereas Facebook is much more social orientated.

#5 Leverage email marketing

Another channel you can use to level up your branding is email marketing. This doesn’t mean you need to bombard people with sales emails trying to sell them stuff. In fact, that type of email marketing is a sure way to get people to unsubscribe and blacklist you.

Instead, leverage your email marketing to help build your brand by engaging with people. Use it to keep them up to date with your blogging activities, ask for feedback, and send email-only tips and advice not available on your blog site.

Just like your actual blogs, make sure your emails are relevant and sent consistently.

If you have your logo and color pallet set up, incorporate them into your email design to help your branding even more.  

Summary

Turning your average blog into a brand loved by its audience won’t happen overnight. But with the actionable items on this page, you can start the transformation today. Keep working hard, posting consistent and relevant content, learning everything you can about your audience, and developing your blog into a killer brand that stands out from the 500 million over blogging sites!

The University of California (UC) schools are amongst the best public university systems in the country. Several of their elite colleges have the prestige and diversity to rival even the top private universities. Part of the admission process includes writing 4 essays based on 8 prompts called personal insight questions (PIQ), and each response cannot exceed 350 words. If you want to really impress the admissions officers, make sure you avoid these common mistakes when writing your PIQs.

Don’t Use Generalities

When answering the PIQs, it’s important to make them personal. Don’t speak in generalities, as they want to get to know who you are as a person and your skills, accomplishments, and potential to succeed. Make sure to use statements with “I” and “my” while writing. This will help focus your answers on your own experiences and express to the colleges why they should accept you as a student.

Avoid Repetition

Since you’ll be answering 4 PIQs, you need to make sure that the information you provide in each of them is unique. Choose prompts that will allow you to do this, as you don’t want to keep saying the same things about yourself. For example, the PIQs 2021 choices include questions about your greatest talent and your creative endeavors. If you write about how painting is your greatest talent, don’t choose another question where you talk about your experiences as a painter.

Stay Away from Philosophical Contemplation

Having to reflect upon your character and personality, as well as considering your future can lead you to contemplate these things in philosophical terms. However, try not to do this, since they are looking for facts in order to judge your capabilities as a person, rather than your inner thoughts and feelings. Make sure you get to the point of what you’re trying to say in each answer since you have a very limited amount of space to do so.

Don’t Complain About your Hardships

It’s easy to fall into the trap of writing too much about all the difficulties you’ve overcome in your life. You can include these things but focus more on how you’ve grown as a person instead of elaborating on how tough it has been for you. The purpose of college is to learn and build your foundation for the future, so dwelling too much on the hardships of your past can make you seem like someone who would rather complain about a problem than solve them and move forward.

Using Humor is a Bad Idea

Trying to inject some humor into your writing is often a way to express your personality, but it’s best not to do that with the PIQs. Since the questions ask about things like your talents, leadership skills, or community activism, they expect a serious answer. These aren’t the place for funny comments or silly anecdotes. Keep your essays on point and avoid inappropriate uses of humor.

Avoid Creative Writing

There’s no reason to write a poem or speculative tale for the PIQs. You can speak about your talents as a creative writer, but don’t give them any examples of your work. These should be fact-based answers, so anything that doesn’t directly support the message you’re trying to get across doesn’t belong there. You’re not telling a story, you’re informing the admissions offers about why they should choose you for their school.

Never Use Quotations

Since the purpose of the PIQs is to hear about you in your own words, they don’t want to hear anything from another person. Stay away from adding quotations as a way to support your answers. They will take up space that would be better served writing something from your own point of view. If you feel like you absolutely need the schools to be aware of something someone else has said regarding you or your activities, save it for the Common Application and/or Supplemental Essays.

Don’t Pick a Prompt Because it’s Easy

It can be tempting to choose a PIQ that sounds easy to answer, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you go that route. They are looking for information that best describes who you are as a person and what you can do, so it’s a better idea to pick a prompt that will allow you to display your best qualities.

Applying for college and completing all the necessary steps to get in is a lengthy and difficult process. Your future could be riding on whether you get accepted or not. When you’re writing your PIQs to get into a UC school, remember these tips on what mistakes you need to avoid to have the best essays possible.

Interviews are famously unpleasant. When examining what occasions people feel the most anxiety about beforehand, interviews of any kind usually rank pretty high. It doesn’t take a lot of research to figure out why this is; interviews are a singular event that have a lot of pressure surrounding them, it always feels like you have to get them 100% right in one go. While little can be done, outside of thorough practice and research, to prepare yourself any more for an interview than you have already, there are things you can do to quell your nerves beforehand.

Attitude is important; this is true in a great many aspects of life. Unsurprisingly it applies here as well, as having a positive and relaxed attitude when entering an interview will be noticeable to your interviewers and will thus reflect positively on you. Therefore, it makes sense that you would be on the lookout for anything you can to put this change into motion. Thankfully, there are several techniques you can adopt, so you have plenty of options in how you approach this.

Take Your Mind Off of Things

The stress leading up to a big event such as an interview is sometimes exactly what it appears to be and little more – short-term stress. In this case, you might just want something to distract you while you wait, something to stave off the nerves. Old solutions sometimes work the best, and luckily you live in an age where your smartphone is often right by your side. Social media feeds work well here, as do games if you’re looking for a distraction. Outlets such as Spin Casino offer online slots Canada-based, as well as other games that you might find to your liking.

Start by Practicing Some Breathing Techniques

Breathing techniques are a well-known method of reducing stress and inducing long-term relaxation, especially if practiced regularly and integrated into your routine. It doesn’t take much to start either; there are several places online you can look to learn more about breathing techniques, including how you can fit them into any situation and how they benefit you. While you can start doing these regularly to lower your general stress, their ease of use and access means that you’ll be able to utilize breathing techniques in any situation – including while waiting for your interview to begin.

If stress is something you’re struggling with in the long-term and you’re finding that the long-term benefits of breathing techniques sound rather appealing, you might be looking for other solutions of a similar nature. If this is the case, yoga could be something that you’d be interested in taking up. Not only does including this in your daily or weekly routine give you regular exercise, but it’s also something that’s been found to increase your overall sense of calm and relaxation. Combating general anxiety puts you in a good position for whenever you begin to approach stressful situations throughout your life.

The distraction you choose should be based on whatever helps you relax and get into the best mentality possible before the interview.

As we find ourselves adapting to a new normal in the way we live our lives, it’s apparent that even the realm of education is changing in a big way. While online learning has been around for quite a while, ever since the onset of the Coronavirus, it has taken a whole new life altogether. More and more schools, colleges, universities, and higher education are taking their place in the online world as they cater to everyone’s convenience and safety alike. Online courses are a great resource for people to learn about topics they’re interested in without having to pay the outrageous fees of traditional schools. They’re also much more convenient since you don’t even have to leave your home to attend classes. This is why it’s definitely something you should think about looking into as a career shift, regardless of what it is you specialize in. If you’re thinking of making an online course, here are some important details you need to know before you begin.

Your Course Topic Needs to Be Appealing

When you decide on what topic you want your course to be about, pick something that you love and are knowledgeable about. You don’t have to present the information like a college professor, just be thorough and informative.It’s also important to choose an in-demand topic. You could get these from online study platforms that enhances your knowledge and improve your delivery. You can use the shared study materials to customize your own lesson plans and make them more relevant and engaging for your students. If your course is about something too obscure or niche, you will have trouble finding students willing to sign up. Even if it’s a topic you’re passionate about, it might not be the best choice for an online course. Choose a topic that puts a unique spin on a subject that isn’t offered by other instructors.

There are Multiple Delivery Methods

There are two main ways that you can sell your online courses: learning management systems (LMS) or your personal website. An LMS is a software application used to manage and deliver online courses, which makes it easier to create and distribute your content to students. However, using plugins or apps on your website will give you more control over what you put out and how you present it. The folks at https://www.ftknowledge.com/teachable-vs-thinkific/ suggest that you research and compare any online course delivery methods to get a better idea of what they offer and how well their platform will fit your teaching style. If you can’t properly get your point across and inform students about the topic in a way that speaks to your strengths as an instructor, it will be difficult to produce a well-made online course.

You Need to Have Strong Course Goals

You need to create strong goals for your course to let students know what exactly they’ll be working toward. If your course doesn’t have a specific focus for your topic, it may not appeal to other people. Having your course deal with a topic too generally or haphazardly will turn students off, as they won’t have any idea what they will actually be learning. Come up with lesson plans ahead of time so you can be sure your course is always bringing students closer to reaching the goals you’ve set. It’s extremely important that you do your homework in this respect. To be able to set goals that are both appealing and effective, you need to gain a better understanding of the market and demographic that you are catering to. What is the age group you’re targeting? How detailed should your course be? In what faction of their lives will it be effective and helpful? These are just some of the points that you need to take into consideration as you prepare your plan and set the goals for your content.

There are Different Presentation Options

There are numerous ways you could present your course: videos, audio, text, or community activities. Choose the ones that best suit your personality and the content you want to teach. You want the experience to be engaging and informative, while also being easy to digest. If you decide to use audio and video, you’ll need to have microphones and cameras accessible so you can film, record, and edit your course. If you want your course to really look good, you’ll want to buy higher-quality gear and applications. This will give your presentations a professional appearance.

Your Pricing Model May Vary

You should figure out before you begin creating an online course how you want students to access it. Will you offer it for free as a way to lead people to your own products and services, or do you want it to be a revenue stream in and of itself? You will have to design your course differently depending on how you price it, and your marketing strategies will vary as well. You can look at what price other instructors are offering their courses and find ones with similar presentations and goals as your own to get an idea for your own pricing.

There are Two Ways to Offer your Course

There are two methods that you can offer your course: in bulk or in increments. Giving students a chance to see all your content at once can allow them to experience the entire breadth of the topic at their own pace, which many people prefer. However, if you offer it in increments, you will be able to keep students engaged across the period of time you use to present it. But stretching a topic out to artificially lengthen your course can cause you to lose some value, as you may struggle to come up with useful content to teach. Decide which method is best for you before you create your course.

Online courses are a great way to spread your knowledge and make some money at the same time. They can benefit both you and your students alike. When you’re ready to create an online course, remember these important details before you delve in. Always remember that there is a huge pool of people out there that have access to the internet, and are always ready to learn new things. The point is to find your own interests, work on them, and then create something feasible out of it so others can benefit from your knowledge, scope, and point of view as well.