Many years ago when I was conducting some training sessions for a group of beauty consultants, I kept on reminding them about the need to have 3Ps if they want to succeed in making big sales for the brand and more importantly earning more money for themselves (Big sales = big commissions!)
The 3Ps basically revolve around just one word – PASSION!
1st P – Passion for yourself!
This is the most fundamental attribute that anyone must have. You need to have this; otherwise everything else becomes a wasted effort. However, I admit this is not something that comes naturally for many people, especially those that consider themselves as pessimists.
So how do you develop or instill passion in yourself? I guess this is easier said than done but no doubt, once attempted, it’s achievable.
Here’s a quick guide that might be useful…
Self-motivation:
Not an easy task especially if you are experiencing some of those ‘down’ moments. But what’s been helpful for many and from my personal experience is VISUALISATION. I’ve been using the vision board as a tool to train/coach people on one aspect of visualisation. Most recently, I had a hand in it myself as I was going through the process of re-evaluating my goals. The purpose is to visualise what makes you happy and motivated. In this process, you basically pick up things that inspire you and will put a smile on your face whether it’s an event, an idea, or a perception. The conclusion – this is a powerful exercise for everyone and it helps to bring up your level of motivation to the next notch.
‘Let It Go!’
I can’t help to sing to the tune of the soundtrack song of the movie ‘Frozen’ by Demi Lovato as I’m typing this!!
Well, the guide here essentially takes you through the realisation to simply HAVE FUN! It’s really about doing or making something and enjoying it. For instance, if one of the things that you discover during your visualisation exercise is that nature inspires you, then go make that inspiration come true by doing as many things as you like wrapped around the theme of nature – take photographs, going organic with your food or clothing choices, etc. Enjoy those moments of indulgence, as they are the ones that will give you the ‘perk-me-ups’.
2nd P – Passion for people!
Well, I would always say that if you are in the business where you have to deal and interact with people, you must be able to have this embedded in you!!
So how does this work?
Bearing in mind that the 1st P is the foundation of the 3Ps as it brings out the self awareness in you; the next level to go to is to extend it out to the people around you…be it your family members, friends, colleagues and of course your customers!
Some of the essentials to take note of:
Empathy
You have got to have this in any type of human interaction! If you can put yourself in the shoes of those you are interacting with, the experience becomes more engaging and positive. As parents or educators, we’ve often been told to put ourselves in our child’s shoes so that we can communicate and understand his/her perspective better. Likewise, you would do the same with customers. So when you are facing with that difficult or upset customer – stop, reflect and ask yourself “How would I feel if it was me?”
Enthusiasm
This is a must-have! No doubt if you have passion in yourself, the enthusiasm in you would inevitably exude when you are communicating with others. Enthusiasm can be detected easily – through your tone and pitch of your voice and your body language like the sparkle in your eyes. So, the next time you are having that important conversation with someone, take a step back for a moment and notice your level of enthusiasm. As long as you do not sound like a robot…you should be fine!
Listening
This skill is an art really. As the saying goes, “it’s not what you say, it’s about what you hear”. The most important thing here is to be able to engage in ACTIVE LISTENING. This requires you to give feedback or paraphrase what the other party has said to you to show that you have understood his/her message. Simply put, you display your passion towards your interaction with that person through active listening which would typically result in an engaging conversation. If you want to develop that passion for people, you definitely want to be engaging!
3rd P – Passion for products/services
Whichever line of business you are in, as long as it’s about promoting products and/or services, you have got to find ways to have the passion in you to want to ‘sell’ or ‘make’ them. Imagine if that passion were lacking here, you would very likely be sounding robotic and behaving in a very mechanical way.
In my 10 years or so of training beauty consultants to sell beauty products, this was something that I strongly advocate and to a certain extent insisted that they have, i.e. the ‘love’ for the products. I played it safe by not assuming that all girls like beauty knick-knacks. Some might prefer clothing, or shoes, or even have a very strong liking towards cars! Hence, if their passion were tilted more towards any of those other than beauty, then my personal opinion would be that they would be better off selling those products.
How do you know that you have this?
Enthusiasm
When you have a strong passion about something, it is only natural that you would be able to articulate about it with much enthusiasm. Take for example a football fan. You would know that the person is a fanatic when he’s able to tell you which team is at which level of the table, or which player was bought in or bought out. Similarly, if you are able to demonstrate that passion for the products or services you are promoting, your customers are able to detect that enthusiasm. Often, you can detect this passion through the sparkle in the eyes.
Conviction
When you have that enthusiasm in you talking about the products/services, chances are you will be able to convince your customers about those products/services. And the more convinced they are, the higher your chances of closing the sale too.
Personal Experience
Oh, of course if you could relate your own personal experience with the products/services, it makes the whole process of having that ‘sales pitch’ much easier. It is very important that you display sincerity when you are sharing though. And here’s a gentle reminder – if you are just relating something that is not quite true, i.e. you don’t actually use the products/services, this will falter through as you go deeper into the conversation, especially if the other party starts probing with more challenging questions. So that’s why it’s a bonus if from the onset, you are already passionate about that product/service you are selling.
As I’m slowly building this new venture of mine, I’m also now at the stage of reviewing and checking in on my 3Ps. I’m happy to share that to date, I am still able to put a check in all 3 boxes and am working to bring the level of each P to a higher one on that scale of 1 to 10.
Have you got your 3Ps that you need for success? What does it take for you to ensure that you have these attributes in you?
Feel free to share you thoughts and experiences…
[image: shannonstahl/flickr; dawildcherry/flickr]
One learning outcome from this is definitely about managing one’s expectations.
Uniq Matters 
