Meagan Kerlin

Sales are an important part of many different types of businesses. Even if you do not have to sell a specific product, you may have to sell yourself as the right person for a specific job, or you may have to sell your company as the best option for a potential client. It can be hard to learn how to sell well, especially if it makes you feel uncomfortable to put yourself out there, talk about why you are the best and try to convince people to give you their money. It may help to stop focusing so much on making the actual sale and focus on selling yourself as an expert. In fact, you don’t even have to think of yourself as salesperson in order to succeed in sales.

When you aren’t thinking of yourself as salesperson, it gives you room to slow down and actually think about what your customers and potential customers need. Listen to their concerns and try to meet their needs. Remember, you’re the expert, which means you can stop and figure out if your product or service is actually a good fit before you try and close the deal. When you approach a sale with a client-first mentality, you’ll come across as more genuine, honest and personable.

You can also let go of the tendency to be overly bubbly and enthusiastic. As an expert, you already know how good your product or service is. You can explain the benefits of what you’re selling without going overboard on the emotion and fake peppiness. Again, take the time to listen to needs, understand the challenges your clients are facing and talk about specific ways you may be able to help.

One important component to seeming like an expert is to actually be an expert on your product. While there are times you’ll have to “fake ’til you make it,” you should know your product and service inside out. Take the time to do your homework, study options, look over questions a customer may ask and know everything you can about what it is you’re trying to sell.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

It’s not easy to hear the honest truth, especially when it comes from people who work with you or for you. After all, it’s uncomfortable to hear about ways you fell short, failed to listen or made a mistake. This is one of the many reasons why employers are often hesitant to ask for honest feedback from employees. While it may make you squirm, brutally honest feedback can help you significantly. It can help you do better and be better — for yourself, your employees, your coworkers and your business as a whole. Instead of avoiding this type of constructive criticism, change your perspective and start welcoming it.

When you allow your employees to be honest with you, it opens the door for them to communicate things they may have felt uncomfortable telling you before. For example, some of your language may come off as harsh or your emails over the weekend may feel overwhelming. These are minor things, but they can lead to resentment and poor attitudes. It’s better to know the truth about the impact of your actions so that you can adjust accordingly. Seeing you respond to their concerns will build respect and trust between you and the people who work with and for you.

Employees are often hesitant to offer suggestions or express their feelings because they don’t want to jeopardize their employment or come off as disrespectful. It is possible to open the door of honest communication between you and your employees and co-workers so that they can express concerns freely. This means you’ll have to learn not to take certain things personally, which is not always easy to do. It can be difficult to hear negative things about yourself, but honest and respectful feedback can be one of the most powerful tools in your quest for self-improvement and growth as as leader.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Have you ever found yourself staring at your computer in the morning, trying to motivate yourself to get moving with everything you need to do? Have you ever found yourself so sleepy at two o’clock in the afternoon that you’ve drifted off at your desk? Do you struggle with keeping yourself motivated throughout the day, especially once you complete a particularly difficult task? You’re not alone. Most people struggle with wavering or low energy levels throughout the day. While a cup of coffee or a Red Bull can help you perk up, these are just temporary fixes. There are a few simple things you can do to keep your energy levels consistent throughout the day, allowing you to get more done and feel better while doing it all.

The most important and most obvious is to get enough sleep at night, When you are getting the right amount of sleep, you’ll be more energetic, but in addition to sleeping the appropriate amount, you should also avoid the snooze button. It may seem like a good idea to sleep for 5 more minutes, but that’s not really good sleep, and it may actually make you feel more groggy. Practice getting up when your alarm goes off in the morning — it can make a big difference in how you feel throughout the day.

Another little thing that can make a big difference in your energy levels is keeping your nutrition on track. When you eat well, such as having several nutritious meals throughout the day instead of having one or two big meals, it can help you keep your energy levels consistent. It’s also easy to boost your energy levels with sunshine and being outdoors, so if you need a boost, take a quick break to pop outside and take a short walk.

These are all simple and effective ways that you can boost your energy levels without also increasing your caffeine intake. If you find yourself dragging during the day on a consistent basis, you may want to consider implementing a few habits that can help you change your mood and outlook at work.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

The fear of failure is often what motivates people to try harder, work smarter and avoid setbacks whenever possible. It’s okay to not want to fail, but the fear of failure, when allowed to be your sole motivating factor, can actually make it more likely that you will end up failing. In reality, failure, while not a lot of fun to experience, is actually a great way to learn and grow. Maybe it’s time to stop being so afraid of it and allow other things to motivate you to succeed and improve.

When people are afraid of failure, they are less likely to act boldly and take risks — two things that are sometimes important for business owners. Playing it safe and being smart are two different things, and you have to be able to discern when it’s time to take a risk and when it’s time to act cautiously. If you allow fear of failure to control your decisions, you may find yourself stuck in the same old place for years. Even if a risk doesn’t pay off, that’s okay! Failure, setbacks and unexpected outcomes can be the catalyst for new ideas, bold ventures and steps forward that can lead to success and growth for your business.

If you’re too afraid to fail, you may also miss opportunities that will allow your business to earn more money. New products, services, operational organization, employees, systems and investments may all seem like a risk in the beginning, but what if it’s actually the start of something amazing? This is not to say you should not do your research and try to be smart — it simply means that you shouldn’t be afraid to take calculated risks from time to time. Could you fail? Sure. But what’s the worst that can happen? You can learn from it, tweak your strategy and try again with the same thing or something new.

The most successful individuals in business have failed again and again. What sets them apart is their willingness to learn from it and keep going. Fear of failure can make it more likely you fail as a result of inaction, indecisiveness and lack of growth. Let go of this particular fear, and you may find that nothing is holding you back once you do this.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

You’ve probably been in a conversation with someone who was not really listening to you at all. Instead of listening to what you had to say, this person was obviously only biding his or her time until being able to speak again — perhaps even interrupting you from time to time. You know how unpleasant and annoying these conversations can be and how they make you feel, and you understand why it’s important not to make others feel the same way. Good listening skills are important for several reasons in many areas of your life, but they are critical for your career as well.

No matter what type of career you choose, you will have to listen to others, answer questions and communicate clearly. The foundation for any type of positive and quality communication is active listening. This means not just listening to what another person is saying but to actually try and hear him or her. Truly consider the individual’s needs and what he or she is asking of you and trying to tell you. In order to do this, you will have to engage with the other person, not just wait until he or she stops talking so you can speak again.

Make it a point not to interrupt people talking to you. When you have someone speaking, look that person in the eye and make sure he or she knows you are focused on what is being said. This will garner respect from others and make them feel important, and both of these things are critical aspects of succeeding in your professional career. When you listen well, you can answer well. Active listening allows you to truly understand the best way to answer, minimizing the chance of miscommunication and misunderstanding. How you listen can have a significant impact on how people perceive you and what they will think when it’s your time to talk. It could be an invaluable idea to consider whether you have good listening skills and how you can improve.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Do you have a goal for your business? Do you have a long-held dream for your company that you hope to accomplish someday? If so, you’ve probably given it a lot of thought. In fact, you’ve probably thought about it, overanalyzed it and then thought about it some more. However, there’s a big difference between thinking about something and setting goals to accomplish it.

Taking a thought and turning it into a goal makes it more real because now you’re setting a timeline and creating an action plan for something that’s been floating around in your head for a long time. In fact, if you want to up the ante for yourself, talk to someone you trust about your goal and ask him or her to hold you to it. This is a great way to add motivation and hold yourself accountable.

As you start formulating specific goals, start weeding out negative thoughts. Setting goals with the thought of failure looming over your head won’t start you off on the right foot. Is failure possible? Sure. But should that possibility influence how you set goals for yourself? Probably not. Take on a mentality of problem-solving instead of negativity.

When you’re working to take your thoughts and dreams and make them a reality, go ahead and get comfortable with the thought of hard work. It’s simply an inevitable part of achieving any type of success. When you’re setting goals, don’t shy away from challenging yourself. Anything worthwhile requires a little sweat equity and a willingness to keep going when things get difficult.

Finally, be kind to yourself. It’s not likely that you’ll accomplish every single goal you set — and that’s okay! Celebrate every success, and be comfortable with the possibility of not getting everything you hope you will. These are great opportunities for growth and ingenuity, and you can always adjust and make changes when setting goals for the next thing you want to accomplish.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

As an entrepreneur, you put a lot of time, energy and effort into running your small business. You probably also remember quite well how difficult those first few months and years were just getting the company off the ground and taking only a few small steps forward at a time. When your company is still young or you believe you have several good years of entrepreneurship left in you, what will happen to your company after you step away is probably not on the forefront of your mind. Whether it’s through your passing or your retirement, something will happen to the business you worked so hard to build — and you have the right and ability to decide what will happen next through succession planning.

Succession planning for small business is often overlooked, but it’s extremely important. It’s more than just including a few lines in your estate plan. It involves creating a plan that will allow you to decide who will run your business next or what steps will be needed in the event of a sale of the company. As the owner, you can decide what will happen and how it will happen, down to even the small details. This is also important if you plan on selling at some point in the future. Your planning and future perspective when creating plans for your business can make it seem more appealing to potential buyers.

Whether you want to retire to a beach someday or hope that your son or daughter will follow in your footsteps down the road, you can start today by planning your business succession strategy. In the day-to-day operations of your business, it’s easy to overlook this important step, but you would be wise to put some protections and contingency plans in place for your own peace of mind, as well as for your successors and beneficiaries.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC