1. Immediate Relatives and Friends – A young sales person will usually get the immediate family members to be his first customer.  This will follow by his relatives then friends, and then uh-oh… he is out of networks… Personally, I wouldn’t recommend selling to your relatives unless it is a really fantastic product that really benefits your relatives.  Picture this; if the product (1) wasn’t what your relative wanted in the first place or (2) does not prove it is beneficial or worth to your relative, you will be labelled for life for selling crappy products to them.  That will leave you with two choice, either stand up to the possible mockery in future or be absent from family gatherings.  But of course, not all failure stories end up that way.  However, if what you sold was genuinely good for them, then that is a plus point and they will propagate the benefits to their friends becoming your strong first line network!
2. Reconnect with long lost friends – Take time to look through the list of old friends.  Those during your college days, your previous company or friends from the old neighbourhood.  Browse through social network sites that you have accounts in and see if your friends are there.  You will be surprise at how your friends have grown and changed over time.  That point aside, do some catching up through online chats or an email.  Be genuinely interested in the events of life that they have gone through and not blast your latest offers immediately.  It is easier to link up with old friends as there are common topics to talk about.  This reconnection can reveal a network of different expertise or help that you need (but do not know where to find).
3. Get to know more friends at work – Have conversation with colleagues of a different team.  Arrange lunches with colleagues from those teams.  Not only you break the boring routine of having lunch with the same group of colleagues, you get to know what you do not (or may not know) that is happening (rumours) in the company, open new problem solving ideas and build links (and trust) to with another department!  Birds of the same feather fly in a flock.  It holds certain truth in this phrase.  You will have the same mentality (group culture) if you persist to stick with the same group of friends.  By interacting more with peers of different teams, you build a supportive network and trust and will be useful when an inter-team effort is required!
4. Build relationship by extending your current ones – Lastly, from your existing relatives, friends and colleagues, always take the opportunity to find out more about friends of friends, friends of relatives, friends of colleagues, etc… you know what I mean.  Get to know your friends and his friends.  Take the opportunity to build a relationship with this possible new friend.  Ask to be included in their next friends meet up sessions or even propose to link up with this new friend yourself!  This will help you expand your existing network to a bigger one!

These are just ways to build a strong network to support your goals.  Remember, network is your net worth!  So how do you build your strong network?

1. Be open about yourself – The first thing that you should ever do when you want people to talk is to be open about yourself.  Being open about yourself allows people to be comfortable with you.  How?  You give them trust by sharing information about yourself first.  In this way, people respond with theirs.  If you do not start somewhere, then it will be difficult to maintain the conversation for long.
2. Avoid talking too much of yourself – Being open is the first step that you should take too build trust in a conversation.  However, avoid the loophole of talking too much of yourself.  This becomes self-centeredness and attempting to put the focal point of discussion around you.  A right touch (amount) of self information that portrait openness is good.  Too much of it will irritate and bored your partner.  They will only view you as being self-indulging and living in your own world.
3. Be genuine curious and interested about your other partner but – Be genuine interested in finding out more about your partner.  By being curious about your partner, you tend to come out with questions that can relate to your partner.  When your partner finds that you are really interested in them (and after building trust between you and him), he will more likely share more information with you.
4. Give the right balance amount of attention to everyone in a conversation –In a group conversation, usually, there will be one or two “alphas” that lead the conversation.  And usually you are one of them as you are taking the lead to get people talking.  Be it any conversation; give rights to everybody for them to voice their opinion.  If they lack the initiative to speak, ask for their opinion or consensus instead.  Example, “Mary, do you agree with the Joe’s comment about banker’s salary?”  In this way, the introvert Mary will not feel left out in the conversation and you assisted to be brought into the conversation.
5. Bring similarities of topic in a conversation – Another tip in group conversation where there are individuals that lack initiative in voicing their opinion; Assist to bridge similar experiences of different individuals together.  Example, “Joe loves rock climbing.  He does that every weekend!  Hey, Mary, you are a rock climber too right?”  In this way, you bring two experiences (topic) together and a common topic both Joe and Mary can follow through.

Use these conversational tips to get people talking!  Are there other tips that you used to get people talking in a conversation or to break the silence?

1. Communicate effectively – Be clear and concise of the things you are communicating.  This way you avoid misalignment and misinterpretation of goals and objectives
2. Be approachable – Allow your customer to approach you.  Your customers want to be involved and be updated of the progress of their deals.  What they do not want is his sales person is unapproachable and not revealing anything after the sales deal is done. J
3. Get them involved – Get your customers involved in the things that you do.  Keep them in the loop.  They want to know what they are getting along the way and not just the end product.
4. Build a seasoned team – Your customer wants to be confident in your team.  To do that, you will need to have a strong experienced team that delivers consistent results.  Their confidence may be slightly shaken if they see your team comprising of young inexperienced staff.
5. Anticipate their needs and wants – Be always ready of their new needs and wants.  Your customers will be delighted to know that you are always looking out in their interest.
6. Ensure good work – Nobody wants to accept a crap piece of work.  Deliver something worthwhile that both you and your customer can agreed that it is good work!
7. Keep your promises – Whatever promises you made to the customer should be honoured.  What customers are looking up in you is your integrity.  Once you broken the promises made over and over again.  They loose confidence in you and will be considering another company to address their needs in future.
8. Exceed expectations – Deliver more than what you had initially promised to your customer.  They will be delighted and will be keener to further any new businesses with you.  Not exceeding expectations will put you like any other competitor in the market.  Eventually, your customer will look for better alternatives in future if you are not able to win their heart!
9. Meet their goals – Last but not least, deliver what they want and meet their goals!

1. Forgetting to follow-up – You forgotten to follow-up with the recipient after he requested for you to follow-up either through the email again or through a phone call. Honestly, you will not look good if you are doing this all the time.  Your recipient will feel that you are always not contactable, irresponsible or not interested in attending to their emails (which usually they feel this way).  Remember to follow-up promptly.  Set a flag to follow-up if you cannot do it on the spot.  At least, it’s now in your to-do-list.
2. Sending to the wrong person – Ensure that you are sending to the right person.  Email programs are often too smart and recognize the wrong similar name in the staff directory.  Review your list of recipients before you send out to avoid confusion in them.
3. Sending mass emails – Ensure that you are not sending email to the entire organisation.  Similar to sending the wrong person, you create confusion to the entire organisation.  You are also become the “careless clown” for sending emails to recipients not intended to receive it.  And hopefully it is nothing sensitive and personal that can put you in a really embarrassing situation.
4. Forgetting the attachment – A common mistake made by most of us.  We completed the content of the email and send it out.  Later to realize that you have forgotten to attaché the document relevant to the email.  Either you follow-up with an additional email apologizing about the blunder and include the attachments or you wait for your recipient to write back asking about the missing attachments.  Therefore, review your emails before you send!
5. Not leaving contact information when you asked your recipients to contact you – Your recipient will be feeling, “DUH!” You forgotten to include your contact information such as phone number for them to get back to you after requesting them to get back to you over the phone.  One small careless mistake illustrates your carelessness in emailing and rushing to send the email out.
6. Clicking “Send” too fast – Another common mistake made by many of us.  Often we rush in our content of the email and attempt to send it in the shortest time we can.  In this way, you may fail to review your email and commit the above mentioned mistakes such as sending to the wrong person and forgetting to attach the relevant documents to the email.  Slow down cow-boy!  Review your email before you move your mouse over to the “Send” button!

1. Improve your vocabulary – The problem most of us face is our limited vocabulary of words.  We do not understand the words used when they are used in the communication.  We may even misinterpret its meaning to something we think it should be.  This is problematic!  When we misinterpret words, we risk the chance of misinterpreting the objective of what the other party wants to achieve!  To avoid such problem, the only way is to improve our vocabulary.  By improving our vocabulary, we know more words; our arsenal of words that can be used in communication also increases.  It becomes easier to communicate as we are flexible in our available of words to use.  We can use different words to convey the same meaning to another party when they have difficulty understanding it.  On another view point, the arsenal of words allows you to better understand messages convey to you too!
2. Ask when in doubt – Do not feel embarrassed to ask what a word means even if you’re in the middle of a conversation.  Obviously, it would be pretty difficult to complete the building the list of words in our arsenal.  Clarify with that person on the meaning of the word.  Loosen up on the egoism.  Break free from fear of being mock at.  You benefit more than you know you can loose more by clarifying the meaning of the words.
3. Speak more – You become more effective by practising what you learn.  This greatly applies to communication.  The more you speak and use the new learned words (and phrases), the more proficient and confident you are in using them.  You will be also more comfortable when someone communicates to you using the same word and phrases.
4. Listen more – Same with taking time to speak more.  You get more confident in the new words.  You learn how the new words are being used in different context.  Through listening more, you become more aware of its proper usage and also wrong usage of the words.

To sum up, it is critical to improve communication skills by increasing our vocabulary.  An improved vocabulary allows you to understand and convey message better to another party.  However, building a complete set of vocabulary may take ages to do so.  Therefore, learn from different available channels as much as you can.  Such as clarifying when you are in doubt in the middle of the conversation, taking chance to speak more and listen more.  All these, will help you beef up your communication skills and avoid any misinterpretation.

We do not want to spend our time wasted recovering from minor illness.  Nor do we want to spending additional time struggling with minor cold and flu.  Therefore, it is essential for us to watch out for changes to our body conditions.  It is always wise to listen to our body, know our limits and get ample amount of rest when we start to feel our body “falling apart”.  Besides taking ourselves at work, we need to maintain a healthy body outside of work as well.  Our productive depends on our health!  Find out more with our additional tips to keep you healthy in and out of work!

1. Sleep well – Do not deprive yourself from the well-deserved sleep.  Sleep ample amount of time.  That is about 6 to 7 hours a day.  Sleep more when you feel that you are extra tired.  Sleep an average of 6 hours for your body to recover itself from a day’s work.  Chances that if you deprive yourself from sleep, you get tired the next day and your body will work harder than normal to keep you going.  And in this way, the more likely you will break down easily if you keep having such a sleep deprived lifestyle.  Every once in a week, let your body sleep more than it should if you have been sleep deprived for the week.  Let the body have a chance to fully recover through these additional hours of rest.
2. Clear the mind before you sleep – Most often, even when we lay ourselves on the bed, our mind will still be thinking of the day’s events, happenings and making plans for tomorrow or the week.  Through this you get insomnia by allowing yourself the thoughts running about in your head.  Clear those thoughts.  It’s time to let the mind rest.  Give your body the well deserved rest and forget about the work.  You need this for you to have a quality and undisturbed sleep.  This is very much needed for your body to recover to prepare itself for the following’s day challenges!
3. Keep caffeine intake low – Caffeine has no nutrition benefits except to keep you alert, awake and addicted.  Keep your caffeine low so that you won’t run into addiction of it.  Caffeine can be found in various forms such as your Espresso, coke, sweets, drugs, etc.  Caffeine overdoses can lead to nervousness, irritability, anxiety, tremulousness, muscle twitching, insomnia, headaches, respiratory alkalosis and heart palpitations.  Therefore, before you think of getting another Espresso over the coffee brewing machine, think again if you want to risk your health.
4. Drink lots of water – We mean plain water. No coffee.  No coke. No soda.  No sweetened drinks.  Water helps to detoxify your body and most of our body consist of water which essentially means, we need water to for our body to function properly.  When you consume less water than normal, you run the chance of getting ill as your body is not replenishing the required fluid for the body to function well.  Therefore, take time to have a glass of water.  Make a form of logical break which you can walk to the dispenser machine to have a drink.  You get additional reward for stretching and walking to the dispenser machine too!
5. Quit smoking – If you smoke, take the opportunity to quit now.  Other than the long-terms effect of smoking (wrinkles, yellow teeth, cancer), smoking increases the heartbeat and can create feelings of anxiety in teens and young adults.  Get a healthier body by quitting smoking now!  You do want to feel anxious all the time at work!

1. Enter the business cards into your main contact list – It’s important to have knowledge of who you met.  You never know when you need their help.  However, the task of consolidating your business card is so boring at times however, it has definitely value.  Therefore, use the free time you have on the plane and write down your business card contact information into your main contact list.
2. Fill out the expense reports – Write down all your expenses.  Keep your receipts in a folder that you will easily access it when you are making your company claims.
3. Do some planning – Now may be the right time for you to be alone to think about things.  It may not be easy to get the alone time when you are back in office and home.  So now is the chance and spend some giving some deep thoughts about growing your business or if you are employed, you think about your career progression.
4. Sort your text messages – You can remove unwanted text messages from your phone.  Save those important ones into archive.  This way your phone has the storage space and is ready for more new incoming messages!
5. Compose some emails – If you get delayed or waiting for the transit flight, and you have the luxury of wireless network in the airport, compose some emails that will be used for a later stage.  Create your business email templates if you have the time too.
6. Watch some videos – You’ve got to chill out a little.  Relax and watch a stored video.  But remember to have sufficient power to last you through all the videos you have.  If you have run out of power, get a book instead!
7. Read some books – Grab one book before you embark on the plane.  Reading is a good way to kill time.  At the same time, you gain valuable knowledge.  Therefore, spare some time to drop by the newsstand or bookstore at the airport and grab a book that can last you through the entire flight!

What are the things that you do to keep you busy?  We can use your tips too to keep ourselves occupied throughout the journey (except sleeping)

1. Create a daily task list – The most effective way of staying focus is creating a daily task and strictly follow it!
2. Set available time slots for interactions (interruptions) – Colleagues have the tendency to drop by for questions.  You may not be ready and this cost you time.  Set time slots for them to approach you.  In this way, you will not be disturbed while working on your most important tasks.
3. Setup filters for your email program – Keep your emails organized in an automatic manner
4. Avoid checking personal email in the morning – Start with your work emails.  Generally, you will be more productive in the morning (not everyone).  Finish your work first before checking your personal email.
5. Set your Instant Messenger status to away – Keep those friends that just want a chat session with you.
6. Fill up a water bottle – That will save the trips to the water dispensing machine.  Also, you need water to stay healthy.
7. Find the best time to do repetitive and boring tasks – Watch out for time that you are most ineffective with in planning tasks.  Use this time to do boring tasks instead.
8. Don’t make long personal calls – Keep personal calls minimum.  Work is work.
9. Clean up your desk – A messy desk will give you distraction.  You will be distracted with the books or pen lying on the table.
10. Get a good chair – Get one that you are comfortable with.  You won’t be struggling with your sitting posture throughout the office hours!
11. Use shortcuts on your computer – Create shortcuts to programs that you frequently use.
12. Close programs you’re not using – It’s like keeping away those things from your working table.  You will get distracted with the lots of opened programs
13. Avoid spending time on social network sites – It’s never productivity to spend time on the social network sites.  They are not very useful when you want to deliver results.  Avoid spending time there.
14. Change your mindset and make work fun – This is the most difficult thing for anyone.  Not everyone can find fun in work!  But if you do, you can get satisfaction and stay focus on what you are doing.

1. The person maybe more capable then what you think – There are times when you take a glance of a person and he will give you that no-confidence look.  The assurance that he is able to give is almost zero.  But amazingly, at times of crisis, or critical situation, he is able to deliver as what you want.  He may not be able to shine in his normal self, but at extreme situations, he outshone everyone in his capabilities.  Now looking back, if you did feel he is incapable, you may feel that you’ve already made a wrong judgement from the start!
2. The person maybe less capable then what you believe he to be – Usually such people are good in delivering quality lip services.  They promise the whole universe for you.  But when it comes down to the crunch, they are unable to deliver what they promised to you.  They dodge questions.  The shift responsibilities.  However, the problem is, you never know if they are capable in the first place.  Unless you are really really good in determining a person’s true character.  What you should do is to give yourself time to observe this person.  Make him win your trust in his capabilities.  Take his words at face value till he can uphold what he is capable of.
3. You never know who you will end up with – By having the wrong impression of a person that he is not capable enough, you are likely going to look down on him or his achievements.  Now, with the world so small and the industry that you are working in small as well, there will be a likely chance that you will meet the same person again (especially in a small country).  Don’t offend the person as his achievements one day may be greater than you.  You might need his help in future too!  Do not be a snob now!  You will regret for doing that in future.  Learn to be modest when you are meeting people.

Our immediate advice to you on judging people is, do not judge people in the first place.  We are no good judge ourselves and it’s best to keep our modest opinion on others to ourselves.  Give some room for doubts.   Learn to observe the person more, find out if he honours what he committed to do.  If a person is always underperforming in your eyes, give some room for doubts.  He may not be what you believe he is to be.  Learn not to jump into conclusion after meeting the person.  Time will truly tell if the person is worth what type of person he is.  Again, the saying goes, “Don’t Judge the Book by its Look!”

1. “Tell Me a Little About Yourself” – Simple yet tough to answer.  How can you sum up your entire life story in just a couple of minutes?   You don’t.  Instead, it’s a request for you to describe what you can offer the company.  Focus on:  (1) your key accomplishments at previous jobs.  (2)  The strengths demonstrated by those accomplishments. (3) How these relate to the job for which you’re applying.  Illustrate how you came to be interested in this particular company and job, and weave examples of past accomplishments throughout to demonstrate why you are the perfect candidate.
2. “Why Did You Leave Your Last Job?” — Did you resign? Get laid off? Get fired? Whatever that happened in the past when you leave your previous employer will have to explain here.  The key point, STAY POSITIVE.  The biggest sign of a troublemaker is when someone trashes his or her former boss or company during an interview. It doesn’t matter if your boss was a jerk or if you hated your co-workers — an interview is not the place to vent past frustrations.   Rather, the best way to answer this question is to stay positive and talk about your desire for growth opportunities. This will paint you as a proactive employee who enjoys responsibility and challenges.  The secret is to stay positive and discuss your desire for growth. Hiring managers love applicants who actively seek responsibility.
3. “What’s Your Biggest Weakness?” – The “weakness” question is popular with interviewers because they’re interested in hearing how you tackle challenges.   The most important thing to remember is that after you name your weakness, you MUST discuss what you have done to overcome it.   Pick a weakness that is real but understandable or relatively harmless. Whatever weakness you pick, be sure that it is work-related
4. “Do You Have Any Questions for Me?” — Yes, you definitely do. You should always try to ask a thoughtful question or two at the end of an interview. It shows that you’ve been listening and that you’ve done your research on the company.   What should you ask? Ask such questions: (1) does this job usually lead to other positions at the company? (2) What kind of positions?   (3) What do you like best about this company? Why? DO NOT ask about salary, vacation days, benefits or anything else that would make it look like you’re more interested in the compensation package than the company. Also, don’t ask too many questions; just a couple will be fine.   And the most important question of all: Don’t forget to ask for the job! “I’m very interested in this job. It’s exactly the kind of job that I’m looking for. What is the next step in the interview process?”