GillesLavoie.com

09/24/2023

Learn to Read Better One Step at a Time ...

09/12/2023

Quote of the Week !

09/08/2023

Education vs learning

“Education is not the learning of facts but training the mind to think.” —Albert Einstein

08/14/2023

Left Handers Day

07/23/2023

Parents Day

01/12/2023

Check this out, I just published a book about a skill that gave me an edge all my life:

Velocity Reading

"When one reads too quickly or too slowly, one hears nothing." Blaise Pascal

¨Velocity Reading¨ is a book on how to read other books.

Read better (And faster).

In the first lesson, you will learn the most critical technique: The Tennis Technique. A method that doesn't require that you skip any text so that you don't miss anything.

For technical, non-fiction books, it is a skill to read a little faster to gather information.

I learned to read faster and better at 14 while attending weekly reading hours at the school library. It has helped me enjoy reading.

Learn to read better (And faster)
10 How to Lessons with exercises.

Get Your Copy Very Fast Through Amazon

Or learn more about the book:

This is no ordinary book. This is a book on how to read other books. There will be no introduction or a lengthy explanation. Instead, we will jump right into what you must do.

11/23/2022

Online Marketing 2023! Black Friday Special!
Eight sessions, starting in January, twice a month.
Take advantage of the Black Friday special! $199 instead of $697
All the details: https://gilleslavoie.com/online-marketing-2023

04/26/2022

How to find a mentor?

Do you find it challenging to find a mentor?

There are no places where great mentors are waiting for you.
But I came across an answer to this question by Tim Ferris.
I find his suggestion most wise.

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Tim Ferris suggests focusing first on becoming an excellent mentoree, asking yourself, ¨ how can I become an ideal mentoree. ¨

This finding will lead us to spend time reading books and watching videos. Then we will have to look for forums and groups to ask and get answers.

According to his suggestion, we only begin to know what we are looking for, the more profound help we need.

¨Until then, you won't have wasted time trying to impress people you think can be mentors to you. But you will have used your precious time to "sharpen your saw."

At this point, when you ask questions of a more experienced expert in your field, that question will be great. It will allow this expert to notice you and find your project interesting. Then asking for mentorship makes more sense.

Working to become the best apprentice possible brings you closer to the right mentor (and you don't know who that might be right now) for the right need, making that relationship more likely.

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After reading Tim Ferris' suggestion and knowing that many of you do coaching, I would like to add the followings.

When you talk to a potential coaching client, do you ask him what he is doing or has done to develop his talents so far? That could tell you a lot about his "coachability." You can anticipate that those who have done little reading, received little coaching in the past, or had no mentor are going to be harder to coach than average. However, that doesn't mean it's not a good idea.

But be aware that it won't be that easy.

04/05/2022

I don't know if I'm going to surprise you, but...

An essential part of my services, which my clients pay me for, is to remind them of what they already know.

I'm still a little uncomfortable with that fact because I feel like I'm charging to tell them what they already know. And I think less and less shy about doing it. (Although, I write it here a little more to convince myself of it).

With time I understood how important it could be. In daily activities, to solve urgent problems, we lose sight of certain decisions. And our actions end up being guided by these problems. Hence the expression, that ¨The tree hides the forest¨. All you can see is the tree...

I will give you an example.

You are developing a service for an opportunity that you have detected. It won't be long before you focus on the service, how it is delivered, presented, the PDFs, web pages, and presentations to sell it, the customer experience. That's fine, but all the attention and issues discussed are on internal pitfalls.

We forgot the customer. Initially, we identified the opportunity from observations of the client. But since we built the solution, we no longer ask anything of it.

We have forgotten that what the customer wants is: to do what he wants, when he wants, in the way that suits him best, at the precise moment when he wants it.

I would even go so far as to say that in some cases, what I describe in the last line becomes the subject of customer complaints internally! Instead of seeing these as opportunities to do better than the competition, we denigrate these customers.

We lost sight of the customer and went back to pushing our product or service, only solving internal problems.

If this description speaks to you … you have taken this turn, like many others. But don't be too hard on yourself for too long. We all get caught in this trap.

If you want to quickly discuss how to correct it in your particular case, it will be a pleasure to discuss it with you.

04/02/2022

How to converse instead of pushing a sale

When the client tells you they're interested in... and you skip the opportunity to ask him immediately what his budget is, you break the contact sequence and develop a relationship of trust. To find out first what is the problem he wants to solve.

A simple example of a homeowner getting ready to renovate her kitchen:

Thinking about revamping our kitchen. But I'm not very good at decorating, and I'm afraid I can't explain to you clearly or choose what I want. ̈

/// It's not yet the time to ask what the budget is, even if it helped you know what latitude you have... So here's a better question:

I understand. It's often the concern at the beginning because you don't do it regularly. Please tell me what you worry about. Why do you think that?

You can establish a report where you can reassure this client and explain how you will help him avoid this issue. Once you have this foundation, it's much easier to say what budget you have in mind so I know what kind of project you could offer. ̈

It is the same approach in any sphere of activity to expand a factory or hire a new Operations Manager. However, your client's intention also includes a concern about making a mistake or not addressing the problems well. Therefore, it's essential to determine the issue before offering an approach and a price...

04/01/2022

Are you already considering abandoning this prospect after one email and one call?

If you look at the attached diagram, research has identified that more and more (B2B) customers are going through such an elaborate process, whether planned or unplanned.

Have you identified all these points of contact, determined the opportunity to respond to them?

It seems to be complicated. But be aware that you don't have to address all these possibilities immediately. Two, once you have managed it, many automations can be introduced into these processes and, in fact, save you much time. Finally, because you can't choose to avoid the buyer's approach, can you?

03/30/2022