Howdie All!

Thank you for visiting my blog. Those of you who know me know that I have been into writing (especially that I LOVE talking) for a couple of years. I have completed my first (un-published) novel 18 months ago and have been writing for the Gulf Daily News (GDN) for the past four months or so. But mainly this page was created because there seems to be too many questions that need to be answered. So it's about writing as much as reading. If you find that any of the topics in here hit a button, I would appriciate any comments you might have. Thanks and happy reading!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Selling to Win

I just completed reading a brilliant book on selling by Richard Denny called Selling to Win. It is fascinating in it's simplicity, wisedome and attitude. It supplies some very basic concepts that we all know have worked on us before and would work on everyone we would try to sell to. It is not only a book for salespeople but has many general rules of thumb for interpersonal skills, social skills and keys to success. Here are some terms and quotes I liked from the book. Happy reading!

KISS Keep It Simple, Stupid
LUCK Labour Under Correct Knowledge
Believe in you
Always ask “How can I do it better?”
Catch your peers doing something right
Be Pully not Pushy
Sell benefits and results
WIIFM What’s In It For Me?
Turn a need to a want
Find a unique sales point
Value not price
Avoid 3Cs: Criticizing, condemning, and complaining.
Work smarter, not harder
Talk to the MAN = person with Means/Money Authority and Need
AIDA = Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

"The person who gets ahead is the one who does more than is neccessary and keeps on doing it" Richard Denny

"The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will and I am. Losers on the other hand concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have done or what they don't do" Dennis Waitley

"The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in" Lord Chesterfield

"Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect" Vince Lombardi

"Luck is what happens when preperation meets opportunity" Bits & Pieces

"One of life's little ironies is that when you finally master a tough job, you make it look easy" Richard Denny

"Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterwards." Richard Denny

"There is no substitute for hard work. Don't talk about it, do it." Gerald Ronson

"If you do not think about the future, you cannot have one" John Galsworthy

"Experience informs us that the first offence of weak minds is to recriminate" Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Okay, sure

So I walk into work someday to find that one of the closest people within the organization I currently work for had decided to leave the company and move to Jeddah with her husband. She had worked for the company for five years. She had been a support analyst/ technical consultant for the company for four years. Four years into her job, she had been promoted to a customer manager leaving a vacancy for newly graduated Weam to happily accept!

About a month ago, she had her last day at the company and left to ‘discover herself’ as I kept on telling her, which again, left another vacancy within the company that, surprise, surprise, yes, I applied for.

I was approached by both my current and prospective bosses urging me to apply for the post. The interview came about three weeks later and, to my surprise, it went well. Want proof that it went well? Well:
1. I did not kick myself afterwards for saying anything stupid.
2. I did not see anyone come into the office to be interviewed.

A couple of weeks passed and my fingers started hurting from being crossed all the time. My prospective boss calls me aside and whispers
-“We will have to speak about the job tomorrow”
- Me: gulp “Okay, sure”

So tomorrow comes, and I don’t hear a word, so I go for it. I asked him if he still wanted to meet today
- “yes, 15:00”
- Me: gulp, “Okay, sure”

15:00 dings on the big bad clock in my head and nothing, I walk to his office and he asks for 5 minutes, 2 minutes later my current boss(es) walk into a conference room, close the door and a moment later the three men walk out with very serious yet plastic faces.

Another 10 minutes pass with nothing, my stomach twists and turns and I walk back to the big, scary office, to find my prospective boss sitting on his desk with the phone glued to his ear. He asks me to sit down while he finishes his phone call.

Very painful 6 minutes pass and he finally hangs up, looks me in the eye and say
“Weam, we will need privacy for this, why don’t we go to the conference room next door”
- Me: (Guess what I say, yup, you got it right) “Okay, sure”

The door is closed, he looks extremely serious and concerned and I think to myself “oh, shit, this was a loyalty test and they are now so pissed off at me I am not only not getting the job, I am also getting sacked”. He looks down, shakes his head, gives me the look a father would give to a little boy that just got his football throw a hand painted window and said:
- “I wanted to sit down today because….”
- Me: heart racing, sweating, in the verge of tears
- HUGE Grin “I wanted to have a chat with my future customer manager, if she’ll have me”

And this is when I realized that it is possible to want to hug someone but also kick them in the gut at the exact same time. I GOT THE JOB. To my surprise (and let me tell you, a lot of my colleagues’), I nailed it!

It felt great! Achieving a goal you had not thought possible in your wildest dreams, and to have had all the people that supported me before, during and after it (and I aint gonna let all those ‘who thought you would’ve made it’ emails let me down). Let me tell you, and no matter how beautiful you tell me my hair is (or how thin I look), it can’t beat the compliment I have been paid by being offered to be the youngest ever (in the history of ACI) customer manager.

I start December the 12th, wish me luck!