In case you have been living under a rock for the last 10 years ‘The Sims’ is a computer game based around regular people doing regular things – it’s like a dolls house filled to the brim with some of the best artificial intelligence ever created.

In order to be successful at The Sims you need to be able to manage relationships. In this game your success in your career is directly correlated with 3 things.

• Your health/Wellbeing – Are you going to work tired from staying up all night? Are you hungry from not eating? – This will affect your success.
• Skill set – Do you have the right skills for the job? If you take the career path of being a Chef, a requirement for the job may be that you need 6 culinary points. If you only have four points, your Sim had better get cooking!
• Relationships – Finally and most importantly are relationships. Whilst skill set is specific to your career, your social currency will directly impact your ability to get a promotion – to hit the next level you may need 2 or 3 additional friends.

If being successful means maintaining relationships, and you want to be the CEO, you have a lot of relationships to maintain! It is important to note at this stage that Sims don’t differentiate between personal and professional relationships. However, as posted in The Theory of Relationship Management they still need to keep a hold on all of them.

So how does a Sim maintain a relationship? Ultimately they keep in touch with their friends. If they have similar interests, they can get deep in conversation and become close friends. If they don’t have much in common they’ll usually just shoot the breeze about the weather etc.. A Sim needs to call their friends on the phone consistently and chat away to keep things strong – they will throw parties or functions to get them all together and then party their way to a better relationship (kind of like a corporate lunch/dinner).

And at the end of the day if they neglect their friends… just like regular life, they lose them and their likelihood of a promotion becomes more difficult.

So how do you manage a relationship?

As a sales person, so much comes back to ‘how much I can sell,’ however I believe that this statement is redundant and belongs somewhere back in the 1940’s. The question today should be ‘how many relationships can I maintain?’

First off let’s define relationships – there are two kinds; personal and professional. Personal relationships are your family and friends. Professional relationships are those related to your career or investments, i.e. clients, staff, managers, suppliers etc.

The truth is, a person can only manage so many relationships before they start letting people down. Whether they are personal or professional is inconsequential. Someone who is a workaholic and works very hard to manage all of their internal and external business relationships will often let their personal relationships down by constantly canceling at the last minute or not answering messages. Similarly, those who place a higher value their personal relationships, will often have difficulty growing and maintaining their professional relationships, which may hinder their professional advancement.

Technology has certainly made it simpler to communicate with your contacts; however it has also created greater transparency and higher expectations for immediate responses. There are very few excuses you can use for not returning a phone call, or if a facebook post remains unanswered. With this in mind it is important to understand that the amount of relationships that you can manage will directly correlate with your success as a business person – that’s networking.

Over the coming weeks I will be discussing ways to better manage these relationships, and the great success that they can bring.

I received this quote through one of my social network feeds a couple of days ago and loved it so much that I wanted to share.

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation”. – Pearl S. Buck

The success that Generation Y may often achieve, hand-in-hand with the heat that they often receive, can be summed in the above quote. Adidas said it in 2008, ‘Impossible is nothing.’

How often has someone over 30 said to someone under 30, “You can’t do that, it’s not the way it’s done! Steps need to be taken… Processes need to be followed… blah blah blah.” In the words of my generation, ‘whatever.’

To me, this quote is a mantra that everyone could benefit from following, regardless of generation. If you consider all things to be possible, you’ll act accordingly; confidently. Confidence and determination are the keys to success.

Next time you are approached by a person with an idea, don’t think about what’s wrong with it, think about what’s right with it – don’t be so hasty to filter it through your tried and tested value system. Consider that today’s buzz words are creativity and innovation and consider its application.

Likewise, if you are approaching someone with an idea, don’t let a ‘No’ stop you from doing it. Do it anyway! If it works, great! If it doesn’t, then it was a good learning curve and maybe you could revisit the idea in the future. Don’t be discouraged. It took Thomas Edison 1000 attempts to get the light bulb right. He had confidence and determination, and he succeeded.

Embrace your inner Gen Y next time someone approaches you with an idea – the power to say yes or no is life changing to people around you.

When someone calls you and they sound distant, as if they are reading from a screen, how do you react? No doubt, during the sales process, you’ve been courteous, useful, fun and energetic. It’s during the follow up call, more than ever, that you need to stay that way.

Now that you understand the benefits of the follow up and know how to effectively prepare your content, it’s time to deliver it.

The following points will greatly assist you in delivering a strong follow up:

Be energetic and enthusiastic – Have you ever noticed how when you greet someone they return the greeting in the same way. For example, when you say, ‘Hi, how are you today?’ the response is likely to be said in a similar ‘proper’ manner, “Good thank you, how are you?’ – ‘Very well thanks…’ Certain character types will like this, but if you want to be remembered, a greeting more in line with an energetic ‘Hey! How are you?’ will commonly be met with a similar energetic response. Remember that most people want to be happy, and “Positivity breeds Positivity.”
Be remembered for your energy, not forgotten for your professionalism!

Be confident. Be prepared. – Don’t call someone stumbling over your words. Prepare. Know your content and deliver it with conviction. As soon as someone conducts a follow up on me and stumbles over their words I immediately assume that they are just going through the motions as if someone else has told them to, and that they lack care.

Be diplomatic – If your clients are looking at going down a competitor’s path, keep your cool – the worst thing a sales person can do is get defensive about the prospects decision. For example:
“Are you crazy!?!?” “Have you listened to nothing that I have said???” – Losing your cool is like committing sales suicide.
“Oh, Ok, I see how that works, cool… Ours is similar in that respect but is a bit better rounded in the….” – If you argue with the client over why yours is better you will find them step into the shoes of your competitor and sell themselves on their solution.

Be concise – Rule Number One, they are not wasting your time, you are wasting theirs! It is impossible for a client to waste a salespersons time. With this in mind, don’t beat around the bush unless you have a relationship that allows it. Respect your clients time and they should respect your words.

Provide value – Can you offer the client any new valuable information? Has anything changed since your last interaction? Has the model been updated? Is a new promotion running? Did you learn a new feature?

These are a few useful tips that should assist you with conducting your follow ups. As always please post a comment if you have any tips on follow ups. Otherwise if you think that someone else might find it useless please forward it on.