Business Posture - Do you have any?

By Rashid Kotwal

I was talking with a client a couple of months ago, and she told me that two words I'd said changed the way she did business.

Intrigued, I naturally asked what they were.

"Business Posture" - two words that made her over $4000 in one sitting. Not a bad result for an off the cuff remark on my part.

So what is posture, and how can it affect the way you live and conduct your business?

Posture is defined as "a pose, a body position, an attitude of mind, an official stand or position". Posture is all about stating who you are and what you stand for. It is not about arrogance, it is more about a way of being. You embody posture.

So how do you know if you have posture? A couple of examples might help.

This client was asked to do a "friend" a favour.

The friend then started to demand more and more from her and did not value the service being offered (which was free). The whole scenario degenerated to the point that a friendship was lost.

In effect, my client had no business posture. She did not stand up for who she was or what she could deliver. She let the "friend" walk all over her - demanding more and more and not appreciating the value she delivered.

After our conversation, she had an enquiry from another client. She gave them a price for the service, told them what she was prepared to do, what she expected from them and they accepted, they paid up front and the service was delivered.

According to her, the difference was in her business posture.

In the first case she allowed herself to be walked all over. The service was free so there was no appreciation of the value she provided. Have you ever been in this position?

In case two, she was very specific as to who she was as a person and professional, what she was about, what she would deliver and what her advice was worth. There was no arrogance about this - just posture.

Not surprisingly, the result was very different.

While writing this, I was reminded about a story told to me by a client. It concerns a certain gentleman who became a life insurance salesman in the 1970's. Now I don't know if you know anything about life insurance sales, but suffice to say that you earn money purely on commission. Therefore, no sale, no money.

This gentleman (let's call him Albert) decided to crack the medical doctor market. Doctors were/are notoriously difficult to deal with when it comes to appointments, and they often displayed a level of arrogance when it came to people trying to sell them something.

So what did Albert do?

He displayed business posture in a very direct way.

Albert would call up a doctor and try to make an appointment. If the doctor did agree to meet, Albert would tell him that the earliest he could meet would be in two weeks time as he (Albert) was extremely busy. Bear in mind that at this point Albert had NO APPOINTMENTS in his diary. He wanted to look busy and adopted an attitude of posture. Did this take faith on his part - you bet.

Did this pay off? Absolutely!!!

Once Albert built up a clientele, doctors realised that Albert was busy and would call and literally beg for an appointment when they needed help. Albert always kept his posture - he would never just make an appointment for the next day, telling the doctor concerned that there could be a two to three week wait.

On occasion he would call the doctor back in a week and give him an earlier appointment which the doctor NEVER cancelled.

This is business posture, and yes, it does take a lot of faith, especially when you're about the starve!

(My thanks to Brian Becker for this story - and if you need life insurance in Australia - give him a call on (02) 9651 7400 and tell him I sent you.)

So how can you translate this into your own lives?

Posture is about taking a stand. It is an attitude and belief that "this is who you are" and "this is what you stand for". People with posture have an inner strength that may not be immediately obvious. It is like being a willow tree - you yield with the wind, but you can survive a hurricane without breaking.

Ask yourself how different your life could be if you adopted this way of being in all aspects of your life. What would your relationships, work and home life be like? How would you live, how would people respond to you?

Remember, posture is akin to quiet dignity. It is not about being passive and accepting anything that comes your way. With posture, you do take a stand, albeit a quiet, determined one.

Rashid Kotwal - Revealed Resources
Building foundations for your business.

Web: http://www.revealedresources.com
E-mail: mailto:rashid.kotwal@revealedresources.com

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