Salespeople who speak KLINGON

The Salesman Talks Klingon to a Customer!

So there I was browsing in the computer shop. Looking at all of the interesting toys and gizmo’s on display. I saw a laptop exactly the same as mine. Same spec, everything. Well, apart from one crucial thing: it was £80 less than I paid the other week.

As I was silently congratulating myself on my immaculately timed purchase (!) I became aware of a man and a boy looking at a desktop PC next to me. The man was middle aged and scratching the side of his face as he stared at the PC with what I describe as a ‘rabbit caught in the car headlights’ look.

The boy said, “Dad, we really need something that’s fast!”

I watched the man as he rubbed his cheek.

‘Don’t scratch your chin, pal’ I thought, ‘That’s a sure-fire invitation. It's a buying signal. It tells the salesperson you want information.’
He rubbed his chin. From nowhere the salesman appeared. He pointed at the PC the man and boy had been looking at.

“Great choice. E6990 Intel core QX6700 processor; 90GB DDR2 memory; External DL DVD RW-CD-RW and DVD-ROM/CD-RW drives; 800GB SATA 150 hard drive. It’s hard core!”

“Oh, right” the Dad said, nodding his head.

I was impressed. He was giving a very good impersonation of someone who had understood what he had been told. In fact he hadn’t a clue what he had been told. He could have been given the location of the Holy Grail and he was none the wiser. It sounded to me like the salesman was speaking in Klingon.

The salesman stood looking at the Dad as he weighed up the situation. After a few seconds the Dad said, “Thank you, we’ll have a look around.” And walked to the door dragging the kid behind him. I watched him walk out the shop. I turned and looked at the salesman and he was looking puzzled. He was wondering what was wrong with the guy.

I could have told him, but think about this...
Always communicate with people in the same way THEY speak and think, and not the way YOU speak and think.

This is crucial and never more so than when selling over the phone.

1. Listen very carefully to words and phrases they use to describe situations, needs, desires and problems. Write down the relevant ones.

2. Question to get explanations on ones that you don’t fully understand, or maybe even seem foreign to you. For example, “When you say you want something that’s fast, what exactly are we talking about? What will you be using it for?”

3. Use their language when presenting your sales message recommendations. Sell them on the results, using the language they understand. “...and with this machine your son’s games will run twice as fast as on that old machine you said you have now. Plus, you won’t have to sit and wait for it to grind through those spreadsheets you mention you run...”

Don’t sell the means; people buy the end!!!

If you are going to go fishing, bait your hook with something the fish likes and not YOUR favourite food.

Don't 'assume' your client is as clued up as you...think about it...it's your job to know what it does, it's their job to use it.

Pace yourself and mirror the customer.

And remember this:

"The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven’t thought of yet."

Overview of HPT-Transformation Training

The HPT Standard Training is a form of participatory theatre.  It is like a drama with one major overriding difference: Although a catharsis is one of the aims, it ALSO aims to bring the STAR of the drama, each participant to an experience of themselves which is the transformation itself.

To get the most out of HPT I recommend that you don’t try to figure it out.  If you don’t make an effort to understand it…you will probably understand it.  The ULTIMATE way to understand it is to experience it so this is merely an overview without the benefit of reality.

The reality is total immersion.  Four 10 hour days.  40 Hours of transformation technology, and usually more.  The training has been known to go on until 1am.

The setting of the training is arduous and the content is irreverent and intrusive.  You cannot get sympathy from this environment.

Within this setting a number of things take place but let’s look at three of them:

First: There are presentations that are given by the trainer. Either myself or one of my trainers will run the program. We provide information and philosophical analysis, distinctions and definitions, we monitor and give evidence of the differing levels of experience.

Second: The sharing of information and experiences and the questions from the participants.  They are encouraged but not required to share their experiences, what’s happening to them, their problems.

Third: there are the processes, the exercises that may be done in an altered state that stems from what’s called an Autogenic Relaxation Method. The exercises take place in the room as a group or individually or in pairs. They are done sitting down, standing up or lying on the floor.  Eyes closed, eyes open.

The exercises and activities are designed to bring out the various levels of unconscious into the light.

People have peak experiences during the training.  The aim is not to make that happen for its OWN sake, but to transform the trainee’s ability to experience.

We give a contextual shift: from deficiency orientation to sufficiency orientation.  From a context of where things in your life are arranged in such a way to make you satisfied to an experience of being satisfied RIGHT NOW and organising things in your life around that.

The training promises an encounter with the self.  The person you were destined to be.  The REAL you.  You need to connect to the real you, the real you that all this useless ‘stuff’ is hiding.  We strip you back to nothing, so that the person you really are can see and recognise the person you were meant to be.

The only true way to create something is to create it from NOTHING!  If you try to create something from something, you are just CHANGING or ALTERING something.  In order to create something you first have to be able to create NOTHING.

HPT is a self-confrontation experience.  This confrontation is not with one’s self, but the truth about one’s self.  It includes elements of Zen, Buddhism, Taoism, philosophy, Cybernetics, Psychology, NLP and NeuroScience.

We conduct a context where a siege is mounted on the mind.  This is to identify and examine the presuppositions of the trainees positionality and break up the existing wiring of the mind.

The essence of HPT is that it produces and IS what you get.  People dis-identify from their minds, bodies, emotions and problems, which is the story of their lives.  The training room is a safe environment so that you can step back and look at yourself instead of being forced to be yourself or defend yourself.

Every time your mind attempts to justify a concept you have about who you are or the truth about who you are, HPT will puncture it.  When this happens often enough, you start to be in silence.  It is then that you experience the truth.  That truth is: You Are.

While each of us knows that, the training allows people to know it experientially with their whole and entire being.  We bring suppressed emotions to the surface so they can be experienced.

The training gives people the opportunity to be with all of the things which you have kept hidden or under the surface.  As one by one those hidden things come up, they appear to be an enormous burden on physical, mental and emotional systems.   Underneath the things people don’t allow themselves to experience is the experience of their own truth.

The Value of knowledge is determined by the way in which it is known.  This means, it’s not only WHAT you know, but HOW you know it, that determines how you USE what you know. 

We are stuck in our system of beliefs.  Our lives are based on the idea that what we believe is actually so.  In reality, what we believe is based on a system of agreements which just symbolise what is so.  Our language or system of knowing is not experiential.  They just symbolise our experience.  Language just conveys something ABOUT experience.

HPT introduces Real Knowing through a form of direct exposure.  It’s called abstract learning.

It’s beyond believing.  It’s beyond thinking.  It’s beyond feeling.  It’s beyond sensing and beyond doing.  It’s akin to one of those moments when it all suddenly becomes clear after you have been working for days on a problem. 

Without the addition of new information or facts, a clarity unfolds, and you see the facts in a new way, which dissolves the problem and reveals the truth. 

Four areas of concern are:

1.      Mind Structure.  This is the structure of our thoughts and a condition of how we work now.  The organizational principle.  Mind structures are not built on beliefs or specific belief systems or attitudes.  Mind Structures GOVERN ALL belief systems attitudes and viewpoints that arise IN the mind state.  All of those things must conform to the mind structure.  They govern what we know that we know and believe what we believe.  During the training the trainees context and organizing structure of the mind state is on show.

2.      Mind Traps. These are resentment, regret, self-righteousness.  Anyone continually tripped by the Mind trap will always be working from within the context of the trap.

3.      Mind Stories.  Each person has stories, experiences, beliefs which determine how their life is lived.

4.      Mind Repression. Unconscious contents that are occasionally conscious.  Individual traumatic occurrences.  A Freudian repression of behaviour from the past.

All four areas may need to be dealt with but it is much more empowering to deal with the first of the four categories than the second or third or fourth.

There is a major flaw in psychotherapy and most of the self help movement.  Napoleon hill, Maxwell Maltz, the majority of the elite ‘gurus’ of personal development, psychoanalysts like Freud  are preoccupied with the third and fourth categories.  Focusing on the past can JAM that person deeper and deeper into the Mind system.

We give analysis, and experience in an experiential environment where the trainees TAKE PART in the exercises and training.  Explanation ALONE gives no power.  Mastery comes from realization of a philosophical context which operates out of the first two categories.  Looking and studying and referencing past experiences as a template for the future does not work.

Past, unempowering, limiting beliefs and memories do not serve you but the majority of people engage again and again with them.

The past is something a lot of people tend to carry around with them.  They reference it, they think about it, they look at it, they let it change their minds, they let it cloud their judgements and even worse, they carry it into their future. 

If you are looking ahead, into the future, you want to fill that big open area with all manner of great, positive, useful stuff but…you have your past in there, taking up a load of room.  We say, ‘drop it’…you don’t need to carry it around with you and you certainly don’t want your past to limit the amount of space you have to fill in the future.

HPT is about experience.  Patterns and problems continue to appear but instead of acting them out, dramatizing them, one begins to experience them and thereby one ‘experiences them out’.

The training itself is, as I said, about total and complete immersion.  Four 10 hour days, minimum. Usually, it’s longer than that.  Time is not the issue.  We aim for 9am to 7pm.  More often than not, the training is 9am to 9pm.

Day one is mainly conceptual and not experiential at all.  It begins at a level where most people operate from, at a level of concepts.  The trainees confront conceptual systems that devastatingly limit and shape them on a daily basis.

Day two consists of the Trainees bringing a statement of an unwanted condition that persists or a problem.  We go over them in detail only to find that the trainees persist in conceptualization.

Their statements are narrative rather than experiential.

We then take them through the truth process. Many of them experience the disappearance of the problems.  Then we take them through the Danger process.  This does two things.  They experience their own position and they experience the fear that drives them to hold on to that problem.

Day three is when we question the very nature of reality.  We help rehabilitate the powers of imagination and the experiential reality of the trainees.

Day four is the discussion day where we discuss The Compartments of the Mind.  This is where we lay siege on the mind.  This powerful lecture like discussion stuns the trainees into a state of horror.  By now they can take a concept and experientialise it.  They hit Rock Bottom.  But it is at that moment they realise that they are NOT their minds or their positions, or their beliefs: and they have falsely identified with them and created ego.  At that point, they blow their mind, they transcend their mind, and the siege has ended.  We give them the opportunity to experience choice and responsibility.

The Understanding of the Self follows.  This is experienced after you have transcended the mind, you experience it directly.

The Self is without position, it is space. Space to move, breath, create without content; it’s the context or matrix – it has no form, no process or content, no position, but it gives rise to them. This is who you really are.  The trainees are now transformed, and the training is ended.

Transformation:

A transformed person is one who tells the truth and who understands that Experience and reality are the only beliefs.

A transformed environment or business is one where the truth can be told.

A Million Dollar/Pound/Euro Lesson!

“Always carry a notebook”:

Aristotle Onassis.

Why? Simple. You try and remember everything you see and hear on a daily basis. There are so many ideas, bits of information, names, words, slogans, websites and people that pass through your mind that you will never remember them. If you see as many people as I do, and speak to as many people as I do, on a daily basis then you would realize that a Journal or notebook is invaluable.


I don't mean a computer or iPad either. I mean a Journal or Notebook that you write in by hand.

This is the single most valuable piece of advice I have ever had.

I carry a black moleskin notebook at all times and I always have a small black moleskin notebook in a jacket pocket. I always carry a pen but if you want to, go into any betting shop or catalogue showroom that has those little pens for customers use, grab a handful and put one in the pocket of every jacket you own.

I then read what I have written at the end of the day or week, or if I am taking a break or being driven somewhere in the car and all the stuff I think I need to keep I transfer into an A4 size Journal.

I have about 20 of those...full.

Not only did Onassis live by this belief but so too does Richard Branson. (Click his name to read his thoughts on notetaking!)  Everywhere he goes he carries a notebook.  It is IMPOSSIBLE to remember EVERYTHING you think and read and hear.

You can watch something, listen to something or experience something but if you WRITE IT DOWN it becomes hardwired into your brain. What's more...you start to understand it a lot better if you write it down.

I went and saw my friend Ross Jeffries one day in London when he was presenting a training program and he wanted to chat over Lunch. I had taken with me, in my bag, one of my journals from four years earlier when he had spoken to a group before and I had been there.

(I make a hell of a lot of notes)

During the afternoon session he started to tell the group of a poem he had written many years ago, a funny one about Speed Seduction and NLP techniques...but he couldn't remember it!

Out came the journal and he was amazed to see it written there from four years ago. Afterwards he told me 'Jeez, that journal is impressive'.

I was impressed he could read my handwriting!!!

The point is this. If you get an idea, write it down. If you hear a remark and think it's interesting, write it down.

Whenever you engage in any form of interaction, if you use persuasion, speed seduction, embedded commands, language patterns, sales pitches...write down everything.

What do I mean?

1. Where you were. If you went to a coffee shop write down 'went to coffee shop'!!!

2. Name of person you spoke to.

3. What you said.

4. responses.

5. Outcome.

Then...yes, you read it back and analyse it.

"When you meet someone, write down everything you know about them. That way you know how much time to give them next time."
- Aristotle Onassis
Write down everything. Phone numbers, web addresses, names, tips, ideas, plans, phrases….
I guarantee that if you don’t write it down you will try to remember it later and that’s all you will do, ‘try’.
Believe me, 'try' is a very bad word and you need to eliminate it from your vocabulary.

You won’t remember it if you haven't written it down. If, by some miracle you do manage to remember what you wanted to remember, I also guarantee that something else will drop out of your memory to make way for it.

Want to risk it? No, I didn't think you would!

Here is the latest entry just to prove the point! >>>

Who Will You Meet?

One of the most repeated questions when anyone signs up for the HPT-Transformation seminar is: 'Who will
I meet?'

Everyone wonders who else is going to be there, from what walk of life, from what business, from what location.

I always give the same answer if it is me they are asking.
"You will meet a lot of people, but one person will stand out among all the others. That is the most important person you will meet. Yourself!"

When I say "You will meet yourself" I mean the various versions of yourself.

You will meet your Social Self.
This is the person everyone thinks they are.  It's the self that's familiar, comfortable and automotive.

Next, you will meet the person you're afraid to find out about, the one you are afraid to find out that you are.
That is the terrible person you try to hide with your social self.
You will see exactly what and who is hiding under the mask you label 'Personality'.

Finally, you will meet who you REALLY are!
And you will be amazed to know that until you meet that person, you will have no idea who that is!

Who you believe you are bears no relation to the reality of who you really are.

Who you really are is far more powerful, far more capable, and far more YOU than you have EVER been in your life up to that moment!

Level of Thought

I have no idea if this is a quote from Einstein.

It is attributed to him but there are a lot of books, websites and forums that say it is a quote merely attributed to him. There is no emperical proof that he said it.

Whoever said it was absolutely right though!

A problem is created from a level of thought.  Once we create that problem, or the circumstances that create that problem, we have to change that thought process to fix it.  If we don't, we will be forever bound to the mindset of problem creating and not problem fixing.

We make one major mistake!

We assume that a higher level of thinking is required to solve the issue.  This kind of thinking, as has been demonstrated over the years, is totally wrong!

Sometimes it takes ages, years, for someone to come up with an answer.  That's because of two reasons.
1. They are working along the same guidelines, principles and thought processes that created the problem in the first place, and
2. They are so close and engaged with the problem from a perception of 'solving' that they can see nothing other than the problem.

Amateurs have been known to solve very complex problems that scientists have laboured over for years.

People can get 'caught up' in a problem.  They engage with it, stay with it and eventually see nothing but the problem.

But sometimes, a fresh pair of eyes, like a consultant with no need to conform to red tape, policy, protocols and guidelines can look at something and see exactly what needs to be altered, changed or transformed to make it work.

Examples:

A truck is travelling along a country lane; the driver takes a blind bend and sees a low-level bridge straight in front of him. He hits the brakes, but he’s too late. The truck slides into the bridge and is stuck fast. The driver attempts everything but his truck just wont move. Hours later the Police and Fire brigade are there trying to release the truck. The road is closed off and it’s starting to get dark. The Firemen are just about to start dismantling the bridge when a small child rides past on his pushbike. He looks up at the Police and shouts "Hey, Mister, why don’t you let the tyres down?" 

---------- 

A delegation of Dutch prison officers visit an English prison and are amazed at a very large and expensive looking piece of steel machinery on wheels.  It has claws, a battering ram and large pistons.

“What's that?”  They ask.

The prison governor puffs his chest out and says:

“This is the latest state of the art piece of kit to deal with prisoners barricading themselves in their cell.  It can push the door in and then clamp and lift the door off.  It costs £150,000.  I bet you would like one of these to deal with your prisoners who barricade themselves in!”

“No need,” explains the Dutch official. “All our cell doors open outwards.”

Sometimes the obvious is just TOO obvious to be seen if you focus on the problem rather than the solution. 

Identity

The way a person rationalises in a contextual framework of significance and evaluates previous actions, feelings and thoughts is what provides them with an identity. The alternative is to be able to be aware of the present situation and to recognize they are the cause of experience and to have aliveness. This detachment frees you from what are identifying with. 

To do this you only need to be aware that you are the source of that with which you previously identified. Unfortunately so many people act with an identity that is a monument to their past. The person comes to view themselves and their life as the result of what has happened to them. This "point of view" gives them the illusion that they"know" why events occur and the "whys" almost always are seen as existing outside their control.

The funtion of "being" is based on the reality of the moment of existence.  Being is the awareness, the recognition and the attention to the experience at hand. Furthermore, it is at the cause of experience. It is to "be" something rather than to "have" or "do" something. 

The functions of mind and being are that as one dominates the other recedes, rather like those clocks that have a man and a woman taking turns to come out depending upon the weather. The point of view, once you have established it, tends to perpetuate itself so if a point of view about oneself or others is threatened by new information, the records of the old experience come into play, and determine the current behavior and limit any sense of being.

"It is the dominance of the mind function, the need to protect an identity rooted in past experience, that limits a person's satisfaction and sense of completion. For instance, an individual who views himself as an unhappy person will act to protect this point of view and, in order to be right (another function of the mind), will continue to be unhappy. The person as a mind or identity will justify, explain and find reasons to support his unhappiness. He will even find it righteous to be unhappy, and yet this activity will never bring the sense of satisfaction desired. His action will be grounded in the past, and it will deny him a full participation in the present."

EXAMPLES DETAILING IDENTITY DIFFERENCES

Some of the common attitudes and activities associated with the protection of identity include the need to be right while making others wrong, the need to dominate the situation while reducing the effect of others, the need for self-justification that results in the invalidation of the ideas of others and the sense of self-righteousness that provides an illusion of survival. Self-righteousness, for example, can take various forms, such as the attitudes that "I am poorer than thou," "I'm more stupid than thou," and "I'm more tragic than thou." It generates a kind of reverse superiority.

These are patterns of behavior that most of us demonstrate in our daily lives. They are not necessarily the gross examples that have come to be associated with cases of neurotic or psychotic personalities. The "point of view" is a function that we all possess, and it is that aspect of our lives that limits our ability to be authentic, to create new experiences and to see life as it exists in the present. Patterns of behavior that are expressed in the need for success-or inferiority or superiority-can dominate an individual's life, as in the case of the neurotic, or can be found in the everyday games played by normal individuals. In each situation the persuasiveness of the point of view limits the individual's experience of aliveness and likewise affects the relationships he establishes.

The example of a person who develops an attitude of inferiority based on early experiences will serve to illustrate the mind's dedication to its own survival as well as demonstrate the resulting pattern of personal relationships. If early experiences have diminished a person's feelings about himself, he will tend to act out these feelings in subsequent behavior. Reinforcement may come from old interpretations of new interactions and he may come to expect or create further personal devaluation. Over time this pattern, this point of view, becomes more thoroughly substantiated and the individual assumes the identity of inferiority. The individual also develops reasons to explain his feelings and behavior and these help to defend him against any threat from situations that do not support his concept of personal inferiority. Within this context the mind is dominant and behavior is automatic no matter how well explained.

For the identity of inferiority to remain whole and right the activities of those who attempt to help will be perceived as wrong, just as those who attempt to criticize will be wrong. The helper will fail in his attempt to change the individual; the critic will receive blame as the source of negative feelings. The person with inferior feelings ultimately considers himself right because "It's the way things are," and "I can't help it." Each attitude is controlled or dominated by the condition of inferiority; a condition based on a point of view developed in the past and defended to protect a sense of identity.

While this is an exaggerated example, it expresses the model for everyday situations in many of our lives. It demonstrates the purpose and methods involved in the way we deal with disagreeable situations, differences of opinion, upsets with others, disappointments and unfulfilled expectations and the infinite variety of circumstances perceived as threats to our personal identity. This identity is at odds with a clear perception of the present, with an acknowledgment of responsibility and a personal sense of aliveness and satisfaction.

Reflection on Transformation

Image by Angela Goodeve
www.coachingwithang.com

After a few weeks of travelling and presenting Transformation seminars in Jersey and in London I am glad to
be able to say, I am home for a week.

I came home from the London seminar just in time to take part in a Google Hangout with +Connie Avila-Von Leitner for her #GlobalTransformationShow.  It was a pleasure and an honour to speak with her about Transformation.
The result can be seen on my website here: mooreconsortium.com/mediapage or on Connies site at ConnieImage or on YouTube.
Connie is a very intelligent and knowledgeable lady and it was great to hangout with her and talk about a subject that is core to both of our businesses.

The Jersey seminar was a blast, as you can read from my previous post.  This was a seminar for personal Transformation and used the pure HPT-Transformation program.

The London Seminar was "Transforming Bosses into Leaders".
An unusual concept as most people only tend to consider someone else as a boss or a leader but here, we presented a program to people, managers and directors who are already in a position of 'authority' but want to run their company from a position of Leader rather than Boss.

It is clear to see that the distinction between Boss and Leader is evident in our society and the benefits of being a Leader rather than a Boss are important, not only to the people being led but the person leading.

The qualities are quite different, and the abilities are different, but dealing with the mindset is another thing entirely and it was a very valuable seminar for all concerned, especially US as we learn just as much as the people we teach.

The Consortium will be rolling out the new 'Transforming Bosses into Leaders' program soon and further information will be available on the website.

Thank You Jersey!!

We have had so much fun this last couple of days running the HPT-Transformation program in Jersey.

We had 280 people in the Fort Regent complex on the cliff above St Helier. That's it, the white spaceship on top of the hill in the pic.  http://www.jerseyconferencing.com/fortregent.html

I have held 11 firewalks for various charities at Fort Regent and it was a real pleasure to be able to premier the basic HPT program here at this wonderful Venue.

For many, the journey from being trapped, blinkered, and stuck to total transformation into a free, focused, vibrant, confident and realised being was difficult and some serious work took place to strip people back to nothing, but we did it.

I would like to thank my two facilitators Carl and Karen for ensuring that everyone ‘got it’. I am proud of you both, you are true 'Belongers'.

An 8:30am start and an 11:30pm finish seem like long days but, as I said in the training, “it’s important, it’s the future…your Future!”

Some of the biggest takeaways this week were:

1. Don’t focus on your past, you don’t live there anymore.
2. I don’t profess to have all the answers, I just know what works.
3. This is the crack in the wall through which you will see the world.
4. Here is where it is, now is where it is, you are what it is.
5. Remove the pressure you didn’t know you had.
6. The past has nothing to do with who you are and how you act in the present.
7. People don’t get stuck in what happened to them, they get stuck in the significance of that event.
8. It’s not about what you know or what you don’t know. It’s about what you don’t know about what you don’t know.
9. There are certain things you can only know by creating them yourself.
10. Instead of looking around for a leader, we should look for the leader within ourselves.
11. Irrespective of conditions or outside influence, transformation can happen at any time. People have the ability to Transform.
12. It’s not what you think that changes your life; it is the space in which that thinking takes place.
13. Common Sense isn’t all that common.
14. You have to live your life in a ‘you AND me’ world and not a ‘you OR me’ world.
15. The majority of people are motivated by the avoidance of what they don’t want rather than the attainment of what they do want.
16. If you create a context of wellbeing in your life, the circumstances in your life will reflect that.
17. You are living in the past at today’s prices.

Thank you again to Fort Regent, The Pomme D’or Hotel, The L’Horizon Hotel, the Old Court House, and everyone that has made this three day event the success it was.

Thank you to every one of the people that attended and took part in the Training.  

I know you will now soar.

What you don't know is, I learned so much from all of you...Thank you

Dave Moore

Contextual Framing

CONTEXT

Definition: the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood.

One of the factors of the HPT-Transformation training is the directness.

The confrontational manner in which the training is presented shocks some people at the very start. After a while they take the loud, direct, powerful and confrontational manner of the training to be the norm.  They don't get 'used' to it...they simply accept it as 'that's how it is'. 

I have always believed that the training has to be that way.  It has always had that element of confrontation, wherever and to whoever I have presented it. A Seminar room with paying attendees or within a maximum security prison, the format is ALWAYS the same, because it works.

It is a wake up call and there must be a shock to the system to jolt the recipient of the training into change, reaction, self questioning and accountability.  The context of the training program, indeed the context of the training environment we create (in essence, the space for HPT to be completely effective) is a strict regime.

This in itself is unusual as it puts a group of people into an environment where the contextual frame and content is far removed from what they are used to on a quotidian basis.

Today, in St Helier in Jersey, the training session for a taster of HPT-Transformation took place.  One of the things that struck me was the contextual frame from which the training took place in comparison to the contextual frame the attendees were used to.  It became apparent to me and my two colleagues that context is a major factor in growth, experience and usuality.

Most people work from within a contextual framework. Unfortunately, this frame is too limiting for them on a long term basis.  Like a comfort zone, unless it is stretched and widened, no growth can take place or be achieved.

Life begins where your comfort zone ends!

When some people see an accident on the motorway where people die horribly and one can see the blood and mangled car and, in some cases the people, some people will faint.  Unfortunately, human nature means that people in other cars will slow down to have a look at the accident because they don't want to miss any experience.  In truth, they are just nosey.  They feel entitled to see.  The excitement takes over but then another feeling kicks in for many of them, they feel faint, nauseous and they pass out.

Anyone watching surgery for the first time will likely as not faint.  Anyone watching any medical procedure, from an autopsy to a minor operation, will feel, or may indeed, faint.

The reason is because the scene they are witnessing sits outside of the contextual framework they live in.

A surgeon, a traffic cop, a paramedic...they see this every single day, so it is WITHIN their quotidian Contextual Framework.

The HPT Training is not unusual to us because it sits within our contextual frame.  Some of the questions, presentations, directness, and even the training process itself is so far outside the context of the people taking the training it allows us to cut through the barriers, obstructions and masks that people wear on a daily basis.

We speak to the real person.  Not who they are at the time, or who they think they are.  We talk to who they REALLY are, behind all the masks and stuff that hides that.

Our authenticity is our contextual framework.  We sit outside their context and then we enter their framework and THIS allows us to strip them Back to Nothing, speak to the real them, and help them Transform.

"This is all about becoming the person you were DESTINED to be!   You need to release the REAL you!  That's right! The REAL you, the one that you were, the one that all this useless 'stuff' is hiding.......We need to strip you back. Back to NOTHING...so that the person you were meant to be recognizes the person you really are, and takes you into a future of endless possibility!" ~ Dave Moore

Don’t Try – Just Do it!

Yoda said,
“Try not. Do or do not. There is no try”.



(Well it was Frank Oz actually but I didn't want to ruin the moment!)

If I tell you, “I tried to open the door”, you know I didn’t open it. If someone tells you they will “try to be there” you can guarantee that they will not be there.

Try is another word for fail, unless you play rugby of course.

Don’t even think about trying to do something, do it and be determined that you will ‘do it’. If not, you will merely try.

Here are a couple of things to forget.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again”.
Why bother? If you don’t succeed, make sure you do it next time. Or hide all evidence you attempted it.

And:

“The whole world loves a tryer”.
Of course they do. People love tryers because they never really achieve anything and it makes them feel better to have someone less successful than them around.

You must be a do’er and not a try’er.

Achieve things and be a success.
If you are not, don’t try to be. Just Be a success! 

Be the person you were DESTINED to be!

Business Unusual

If you are going to do Business, you really need to do Business Unusual.

Not just today, but everyday, and not just for the people or companies that you think would appreciate it or 'get it'.

Doing things differently from others is the only way you can guarantee that you will 'stand out', which is really what 'OutStanding' is all about.

In this day and age, being different is the key factor.  It is the factor that sets you apart from your competition.

I enjoy getting away into the country, to get away from the hectic pace of London and airports and meetings and training and phone calls and more meetings...etc (yawn) to just chill out, so my place in the Ashdown Forest (Winnie the Pooh country!) is my retreat.  With a mountain of paperwork and a large pot of coffee I work my way through a weekend.  Occasionally I do nothing but read books or the newspapers.  Tom and his wife May keep an eye on the property when no one is there.  Tom spends most of his time walking around the grounds and the forest with a 12 bore shotgun looking for anything he can shoot for May to cook for dinner.  Having seen him miss quite a few I think it is one of the reasons I rarely go out walking in the forest when down there!

A few weeks ago I made a decision that shocked everyone...I was going out on the Saturday afternoon.

I walked through the forest and said hello to a few people walking their dogs, navigated a few herds of sheep who stand next to the narrow roads and act like live speed cameras, making drivers slow down in case they suicidally jump in front of the cars, and the steady stream of horse riders who were travelling in groups through the forest.

Eventually, after 45 minutes, I reached the main entrance to the forest and the main road that leads into Tunbridge Wells.  There is a village called Crowborough nearby which I lived in for 2 years and when I walked through it, I was amazed to find it now had 12 hairdressers/ barbers.  TWELVE!

Who in the planning office thought THAT was a good idea.   Each one I walked past had 1 or 2 people inside either having their hair cut or waiting.  I was looking for one particular hardressers.  Not the cheapest, not the most expensive...but the best.

I found it on the road leading off of the high street.

'Diamond Geezers' is the barbers.  As I walked in I saw three men cutting hair and 8 people waiting.

The owner, one of the men cutting hair, is Josh and he made me feel welcome, told me to help myself to the coffee machine, read a newspaper or watch TV.  I would be waiting 15min.

30min later, having got my hair trimmed, I paid him £15, which was a lot less than the £55 in London, and left knowing I would be back.....

I walked back past the other hairdressers, most of them empty, some charging £22 per haircut, with no facilities, no welcome, no atmosphere, no laughter, no banter, no enjoyment....and no idea where they were going wrong.  Their opening times were 9 to 5.30 Monday to Saturday, closed Wednesday afternoon.

Diamond Geezers is open from 730 am (for people on their way to work) and closes at 7pm at night (for people on their way home from work). They are open every day and are busy all day.  They open for four hours on Sunday for people who cant make it during the week.

They do Business Unusual....they do everything that the others don't do.

The Belongers!

How interesting it is to see that in some areas of this vast world, areas known as British Overseas Territories STILL have the right to classify people as 'Belonger' and 'Non Belonger' as you can read here: BELONGER STATUS.

I remember Richard Branson saying that he had fallen in love with the signage that the British Virgin Islands arrivals building has in the immigration hall saying ' Belongers' and 'NonBelongers' in place of 'Resident' and NonResident'.   I have fallen for that sign too.

I really fell for the term when I arrived at the Airport in Provodenciales in Turks and Caicos and saw for real the same signs in the arrivals hall.
I totally wanted to be a BELONGER!

How extraordinarily Powerful is the word 'Belonger'?

Nothing says more about how a country feels about you than when it tells you it thinks you belong there.

Perhaps we should use the term more often?

I have started to use the word for people who work for me at the Moore Consortium.  I think a lot of Communities should use the term BELONGERS for their members too.

What if your company had Belongers rather than Employees?  Would your 'belongers' feel more involved, included, appreciated?

When your people 'belong' where they are, it breeds a whole new form of loyalty.  They believe that they make a difference, not only to the company but to everyone around them.

What a great difference it makes when a nation decides that it's people BELONG HERE there rather than just 'living' or 'existing' here.

How Powerful would it be for a company, or a community, to decide that it's employees or members 'Belonged There' rather than just 'worked there', or were just members?

How about getting rid of the name Human Resources or HR Dept?  I hear employees call it Human Remains or Human Reburial Department!  I admit, many years ago during meetings at Cable London/ Telewest (when I had a real job;-)  ) we used to introduce the woman from HR as 'Jan from Human Remains'!  Everyone laughed, including her.

How about...Belongers?

I am a great believer in Transformational Language and Change....and this combines the two.  Change our terminology and our language will transform our people.

U and I

What is The Difference between U and I…?

You may think I am speaking about you, and me...but I mean the two letters U and I.

Those two letters have an even greater effect on you than you think they do.

There is just one letter making the difference between Growth and Limit and it is the letters U and I.

Constructive: having or intended to have a useful or beneficial purpose.

Constrictive: To restrict the scope or freedom of; to hold in or inhibit; limit

Growth comes from helping others. By doing so, we are helped too.

Growth comes from showing others the way. By doing so, we find additional ways.

We Limit our potential by being self-centred, holding back, secretive and not sharing.

When we are Constructive, we are building, we are positive, we are creative.

When we are Constrictive, we are stagnant, we are negative, we are blinkered.

One letter makes all the difference between being Constructive and Constrictive.
Always say ‘U’ and not ‘I’…

Let's take this to the next stage...

Have you felt CONSTRICTED in life, in your job, at any time?

How have you broken free from constraints?

How has being in a constrictive environment affected you?  How did you remain Constructive?

Join Kate Nasser, the People Skills Coach (T) on Twitter, THIS Sunday February 2nd 2014 where we are co-hosting the TWEETCHAT...

'Are You Constructive or Constrictive with Others?'

10am EST 3pm GMT...Got Twitter? Get #PeopleSkills !

Click Here to find out more about Kate Nasser and the #Peopleskills Community

Or click on the People Skills badge on the left panel, or click on Kate Nasser's Name in the recommended websites.

Live How You Want to!!

Here's a quote that I think it sums up one of the main tenets of Human Potential Technology.

"Live your life and forget about your age. That's the difference that makes the difference. A lot of people live their age and forget they have a life!"
David Moore - HPT-Transformation

It was an off the cuff remark at a Seminar in London a while back and when I said it I had to stop and think about it because it came from nowhere.  I said it without thinking, and as I hadn't heard myself say it before I was stunned...Just one of those occasions when, during a seminar, a question is asked and I make some sort of comeback.

But how right is it? 

Have you noticed when you watch a movie from the 60s or 70s how old people look? You think they are 50 but actually they are 35!  All the joy and energy seems to have been sucked out of them and they are older than their years.

They are not living life, they are living their age. 

If you are going to do that why not pick an age that you really enjoyed and stick at it.  OK you may get older on paper but in the mind, where it really counts, you can stay 35 or whatever age is right for you.

Don't succumb to getting old in thought. 
It will not serve you.
Take risks, take chance and seize the moment.

Remember, it is NEVER too late to have a happy childhood! ;-)

That is SO Last Year!

LOST:  

One whole year. Last seen 2 weeks ago.

Contains uncertainty, lazyness
and no achievement.

Could you have placed an ad like that today?

Be ashamed!! Be very ashamed.

If you could place that advert...What are you doing about it?

Plan ahead!
You don't need me to tell you that you are standing on the starting line of a whole new opportunity.

Do you wake up and say 'I can't wait to be mediocre today!'. I could tell you to get a life but why don't you just change the one you have?

Is watching TV tonight going to earn you money? Get you new clients? Expand your business? NO! So...Turn off the tube and get out your Notebook/ Planner!

If you are sitting there thinking 'Wow, a whole year ahead of me'? I guarantee you will soon be saying 'Where the hell did that year go?' And you will say that sooner than you think!  In fact, it will be this time next year, and you will be saying 'I have a whole year ahead of me' again before you know it.

Hold on...ARE you sitting there thinking 'Wow, a whole year ahead of me'?  Have you ever had a deja vu feeling?  Didn't you say that LAST year?

What are you doing today? Watching TV? Reading the paper? Sleeping? Get off your ass and make a 'to do' list and put a deadline in there!

2014 can be the best year ever if you make it so!

Go and do it. I am!

"Those who merely hope that conditions will change, their luck turn, or the person in front of or above them will either retire or die, merely see instead the success of those who grasp the opportunity of the present.  If you waste the valuable time of today, awaiting the promise of tomorrow, you will inevitably, always, be second the the person who, yesterday, prepared for today!" Dave Moore

Should you Reset or Reboot for 2014? NEITHER!!!!

The answer is: UPGRADE!

But first...

Stop!
Don't fall for it.

Don't fall for New Year Resolutions.

Think about it....where are you right now?  I don't mean your location on the grid or where you are in your home or office but where are you in LIFE?

Are you happy in that location or....yeah right ;-)

So you assume that this is the time to change your life, go for what you really want, and get the life you want.

Didn't you say that last year?

And the year before that?

Do I need to write that sentence again?

There is a definition of madness or insanity which is: doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result.

I admit we all do it..
"I am going to:
...drink less,
...exercise more,
...eat healthier,
...watch less TV,
...spend more time with family,
...yadda yadda yadda,
...stop saying yadda yadda yadda..."

After a while....we slip back to our default setting.  We have all the best intentions but its not enough.

It seems to me that the reason we fail so epically sometimes on resolutions is that we are throwing a behaviour or desire into a mix where it cannot survive.  I knew someone who had a very large fishtank.  He ordered salt and gravel from Fiji.  Water solutions from Hawaii.  He ordered fish from all over the world because he liked their color or shape(!) Two guys would come to the office and change the water and treatments on this massive tank and they would be shocked at the mix of fish inside it.  Fish with eels with crabs etc.  He never, ever, thought about whether they were compatible with each other.  He bought a lot of fish.  In the end, he had hardly any, because some ate others, some merely killed others, some just died thru being in the wrong mix.  I am not going to tell you who the guy was!

Resolutions are like that.  We have to change a lot more than just ONE behaviour to make our life better.

If you reset or reboot your life then all you are doing is tidying up and streamlining.  it's good, and it works to some extent but it doesn't bring the big rewards that you deserve.

The only way to truly advance, to move forward and be a person who does stuff that you never did before is to go for the UPGRADE.

If you upgrade you are saying to the world, the universe and everyone in it 'That was me THEN.  This is me NOW.  The New, Enhanced, Future-proof version of me.'

If you attempt to run the latest version of MSWord on a previous version of Office you are in for a surprise.  For one thing, the upgraded version cant be run on the old software and secondly, it won't recognise the document.

If you try to play a Blue-Ray DVD on a basic DVD player....no chance.

All of those examples will work the other way around though. Because the operating system or unit is MORE POWERFUL than the old version.  It recognises the old version.  It has been UPGRADED.
The upgraded MSWord system will upgrade the older document so it can be read.
The Blue-Ray DVD will play an older DVD.
You can even put a PlayStation 1 game into a PlayStation 4 console.

Why? Because it is the more powerful version of the old version.

The Upgraded you can still relate and interact with whatever you choose to from your past but to move forward you need to upgrade yourself and step into the future right now.

You must upgrade everything around you, important to you, loved by you, used by you, into the new mindset and decide right now that you are no longer going to be that person who 'settled' and 'accepted' what was handed to you.  You are now going to go out and get what you want, do what you want, be what you want with and for who you want.

Want to start a new business - do it.
Want to add a few zeros to your bank balance - do it.
Want to travel- do it.
Want to be happy- do it.
Want to make 2014 your best year and the start of everything- Do it!!

Don't just do one thing, do a lot.  Do them well.
Grab every opportunity that comes your way.  If opportunity doesn't come your way, go and find it.  Go IT'S way and Surprise it.

You have every single resource you need to achieve what you want inside you.  You have the key.  The key is the desire, the will, to change.  Decide to make that change, that upgrade, and use the skills that you have that have lay dormant inside you, untapped until now.

Life does not get better by chance, luck, resolutions or hope...it gets better by CHANGE.

Make 2014 the year of CHANGE, the year of YOUR change, and I will see YOU at the top!

Personal Leadership Tips

I had a very happy childhood.  My family were very poor, in London's East End in West Ham, but my parents gave me love and I grew up in a loving family.  We had hardly any money, but we were happy.  We weren't dirt poor, but we were dusty ;-)
We had a toilet at the bottom of the garden and a tin bath that hung on the wall outside until it was time to fill it up and put it in front of the fire.

My parents pulled us out of that situation by hard work.

My father worked his way up a corporate ladder through the late 60's right up until he retired in 1990.  He started with Woolworths on the shop floor stacking shelves and gradually got promotion after promotion until he was in charge of south east England.  He made his way through a few supermarkets, like Fine Fare, finally becoming a senior manager for the south east of England for Bejam/ Iceland.

He was always sought out at dinner dances and corporate events by up and coming managers and assistants who would sit and talk to him and listen to his advice.

Sadly, my Father passed away 11 years ago this year on November 3rd.  My Father was a LEADER!

I remember hearing about a school of parenting that was all about 'children being seen and not heard' and parents telling their kids to do something 'because I say so!' 

My parents were not like that.  My friends parents were not like that.

Isn't it amazing how many bosses ARE like that?

Being 'bossy' is not an attribute that I have ever admired.

The term, the Boss, has always conjured up images of a corner office with a secretary sitting outside who you have to either sidetrack, confuse, occupy, kill or marry to get past to the Boss.

I started as a Saturday boy at HMV records. 18 months later I was the youngest store manager at 18 years old.  I continued climbing corporate ladders and one day I was the Sales and Marketing Director in the Cable TV industry for Cable London and I was also the national sales trainer for Telewest.

TIP 1: Get out of your office
When I was given an office on the third floor of a massive building off of Tottenham Court Road in London I knew I had to do something about it.

The LAST thing I wanted to do was fall into the trap of corporate culture and lose sight of what the public needed, and lose the ear of the man and woman in the street, Our customers, and listen to Marketing people instead.  My Father was always out and talking to people, staff, working a room or networking long before it was called networking.  He taught me.

We had a great Marketing team but they had never cold called, sold anything, walked the streets in the snow and rain, knocked on a door and spoken to complete strangers to sell our product.

I was hardly ever in my office. I had a computer, and a phone.

I would walk into one of our offices that were dotted around London and just pitch up there for the day, grab an empty desk and work.

It was a nightmare for my P.A. Alexa, but she was brilliant at knowing what calls to put through and what to divert or take a message for.  She was my right arm and I still keep in touch with her today.

The thing is, if you are not out there, visible, talking to your people, out in the field and leading them you cannot stay in touch with the ever changing realities faced by your business.

I cannot impress upon people the importance of remaining 'In Touch' with the public.

Tip 2: Meetings
Sitting in the boardroom listening to complex and detailed analysis and reports that have been collated by people who get their feedback from the front line is not the same, and cannot ever compare with the experience of being there to see and hear it first hand.

I HATED boardroom meetings. I soon discovered that BOREDroom meetings were what they should be called.  People would get too comfortable in a boardroom.  Those relaxing chairs, the air conditioning...Zzzzzzzzz
Two weeks later I had all the chairs removed from the boardroom and the boardroom table raised by two feet so that you had to stand at it, like standing at a bar.  It was amazing!  The meetings went from one hour minimum to 15 minutes maximum.  Productivity soared and endless banter stopped.

Tip 3: Your people have ideas too.
By listening to people, I got a very good insight into what they thought about the company and what issues they had and in fact, that started me off on one major radical communication shift with the employees.  It was simple and very effective.  Each office had a suggestion box.  I had installed another box.  It was for salespeople to anonymously raise a concern, be it a business process or an issue with the product.  BUT, there was a major difference.  NONE of these concerns would be read unless the person filled out the back of the slip of paper.  They had to come up with a solution too.  One of the best ways to make your people think and grow is to ask them to come up with a solution to the problem they bring you.

Tip 4: Don't be a boss.
I now work mainly from home, or from the hammock in the garden.  I travel around and run presentations and seminars all over Europe.  I don't ask people to do things I wouldn't do myself.  It is rare that I speak to salespeople who have a challenge I haven't overcome or work in an industry that I have not had experience of.

I saw a movie on TV the other day of a battle and the generals were miles behind the front line and sending messages to the troops, sending them into battle.   This is very similar to the way companies are run today.  Bosses sit far removed from the front line and send memos or emails to the troops.

A Leader is a very different animal to a Boss.
A bad Boss is no better than a bad schoolteacher, pouring his opinions into children's heads in a 'my way or no way' style.

Tip 5: Don't hold a meeting if you can GO to the meeting
Whenever I had a meeting with people during my Corporate years I always went to THEIR office rather than invite them to mine.  It wasn't that I was anti-social, far from it.  The reason was simple.  I could never get people to leave my office.  They always wanted to talk about this, about that, all manner of stuff.  I was very busy, and I was sure they should have been too.  I always went to their office and spoke with them.  That way, I could leave at any time I wanted to.  As soon as I had said what I needed to, when a point had been discussed and dealt with, I was off.  Meetings have a tendency to drag on if not controlled.
My mentor, Hal Stamford, told me that he always arrived 5 minutes late for meetings.  If it could start without him, he needn't be there.
_____

I am not an educator.  I am a teacher.
Educators take something simple and make it difficult.  Teachers take anything and make it simple so that EVERYONE understands.  Teachers put stuff on the bottom shelf.

Great Leaders, like Great Teachers, do the opposite to Bosses.  They draw opinions and ideas out of their students or associates.  In doing so, you make people think for themselves and when they see you take their ideas on board they feel included, part of the team, they grow and they feel their opinions count sometimes.

You see, soon, someone will say, 'OK, you're the boss'.

Just reply, 'Hey, we are a team. I may be in a leadership position, but I want you to tell me what YOU would do if you were in my place?'

It makes them feel that they are part of change, part of the company and part of the future.  It makes them feel included.  It makes them feel that their ideas and opinions count.  It makes them feel valued by you. 

And that's what Leadership is all about.

Real Estate or In a Real State?

It must be an English Countryside thing.  London? No.  New York? No.

ONLY in England's sleepy (read dozy) idyllic and picturesque green and pleasant land can salespeople, real estate salespeople in particular, get away with such under performance.

Not much business done here, I bet

I see lots of examples of stupidity....like signs like this on the right...


It isn't difficult to spot these things, they are everywhere...


Even people behaving in a way that makes you want to bang their head against the wall...

Does she think it's an exercise bike?

Like this woman on the left...

"You can't mend Stupid!"


I have to give a special mention to a few people who work in an industry that I have trained salespeople in....an industry that we all have a need for at some point.  Unfortunately, it isn't a great mention but then, it was never going to be, as I am basing my comments on the experiences I have had for the last 2 months in and around Tunbridge Wells in East Sussex, in England.

Estate Agents, Realtors, call them what you want...the ones here are terrible.  I don't know, I cannot tell, if their incompetency is natural, or they have been trained to be mediocre.  Either way, they would be dead in a minute in a busy professional agency in London, New York, Chicago, you name it...

I am in a very fortunate position of being able to buy a property for cash.  I don't say that to impress you, I say it to impress upon you that this is a very serious position for ANY Real Estate agent because I have worked my Ass off for many years to be in this position and I KNOW from my past history that I am the ideal buyer.
 
1. I don't need a mortgage
2. I can move very fast
3. I don't need to sell my current property to purchase another.
4. I am paying CASH.

All four of those statements should, SHOULD, translate immediately in the mind of the Salesperson as 'I am going to get paid VERY quickly!'
You see,  I sold a couple of rental properties I had owned over the years and I am looking at buying a fairly substantial property for CASH.  I am a real estate salespersons dream!

Now I know that all of you real, genuine, fully trained or naturally gifted salespeople reading this will think, 'Cash?  That is KING! Wow, I would jump over anything to get a piece of that action...'
Yep, so would I.
Do you know who isn't?
Yep, you are right.

The Real Estate agents in Sussex.  Sleepy towns, sleepy salespeople.

I saw a house for sale.  I got the details.  I turn up to view.  No estate agent.  No seller at home.  Eventually the estate agent turns up, but without the keys.  He believes they are under a flower pot on the driveway.  He calls the seller who tells him the keys are under a mat in the side entrance lobby.

Before we enter he says with a smile, 'One thing I need to tell you is that the seller isn't including the garage or the lower gardens.  They intend to keep those and apply for planning permission.'

'Are they nuts?' I ask.
'I understand what you mean' he replies.
'Anyone buying this property would naturally want all of it and not just part of it that has been carved out of the original boundaries.  They will not get planning permission because of the close proximity to Ashdown Forest which has a preservation order on it and even if they DID get to the first stage of permissions it would be opposed by everyone around here, not least the new owner of this property who would not want anything built on land at the bottom of their gardens.  Nor would they want a piece of land left to rot or slide into disrepair because the owners can't be bothered any more.  It's all or nothing.'
'I take your points on board' he replied.
'Why isn't that mentioned on the details?' I asked him.
'Why isn't what mentioned?' He asked me, amazed.
'What I just mentioned to YOU!'
'I don't know, I will look into it.'

He told me that he had called the sellers and left a message. a day went by and I called him, only to hear he had not heard back and was waiting.  Waiting?  Do these people WANT to sell?  'Do YOU want to sell this property?' I asked him, 'get on the phone and chase them and get some sort of answer please.'  I am still waiting after three days.

No preparation, no quality information.

These are the same agents who arranged a viewing at a farm last Saturday for me and when I got there I was met by a teenager who works at the weekends and had never been to the property before and knew nothing about it.  A frantic phone call to her office brought someone else who HAD knowledge of the place over in 15min.  Did I need to make that happen?  Was it MY responsibility, as the potential buyer, to make that happen?  NO!  But if I hadn't, it would not have happened.

I have seen an immaculate property with stables and a two floored building in the grounds which would make an ideal office and training centre.  To me the property is ideal.  I made an offer a little under the asking price because there is some work to be done inside the property and I value the place a little less than the asking price. 

No one, I think, should EVER pay ticket price, always haggle.

I spent ages there, looking the place over and made an offer with the stipulations that it was a cash purchase, No chain, I don't need to sell, I want to complete quickly.

Next day I get a call from the agent telling me that another potential buyer has offered the same amount as me but it is dependent upon them securing a mortgage.  I asked why they were telling me because that is a dead offer compared to my cash one.  They then asked me to give them a letter from my bank to confirm I have the funds before they could present it to the seller.

I can't tell you the exact words I used in my reply for obvious reasons but I made it clear that on the many occasions I had bought a house in the past that relied on either mortgage or the sale of an existing property NOBODY asked me to prove I had a mortgage or a buyer.  Why do I need to prove I have the cash?

She couldn't answer that.


Agents in this part of England are so laid back they are horizontal!

They don't chase the seller, they don't call you to let you know what's going on, they give you details about properties but withhold facts that could make it a 'no thanks' before you have viewed.

They commit EVERY SINGLE sales crime there is to commit.  If I was in London, New York or any large city, I would have been dealt with and helped and would have been sitting in a new home by now, or near as damn it.

They have no drive, no nerve, no skills and above all, they give salespeople a bad name!