Think Positive Here Or Go Somewhere Else (Dallas, TX)

November 30, 2008 · Filed Under Random Thoughts, Sales Training · Comment 

What you think about determines everything else. Your attitude, and your outcome.

If that’s true, then all you have to do is determine what you want the outcome to be. Determine what it would take to acquire your goal then start thinking about that and don’t stop until you get it.

Odd that some people are not at all sure there’s a God but the same folks are quite positive there’s a devil. Or that the good things in life will never happen to them but fully expect life’s miseries to fall squarely on their heads. You’d think that they’d figure out that they do indeed get what they expect just about 100% of the time, and since they’re gonna get buggered again just about any minute now, why not try the positive thinking route and see what happens? Got nothing to lose. But they rarely do. The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know, right? Or the angels you don’t know, in this case.

Matt McGee has another really good post over at his site on this topic, and says,

It cracked me up tonight when I got a Google News alert that told me about a Small Business Survival Expo in Tampa next month. Do you really want to attend a Small Business Survival Expo? Not me. I much prefer something like a Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference.

One sounds like a gloomy gathering of weak businesses on the way down; the other sounds like a bright get-together of strong companies on the way up.

You put the top 100 sales reps in America in the same room and not one of them, not one, will be the doom-and-gloom type with a woe-is-me attitude. Put the worst 100 sales reps you can find together and just the opposite will be true. There’s absolutely nothing different about the first group over the second except the way they have chosen to think. Thinking in a manner in which you expect good things to happen involves taking action steps which are made possible by the very thought processes themselves. Losers will say that the top 100 were born with special talents or possess some special skill that’s only taught to high-ranking Republican children. Horse-pucky.

The only difference is the way they think, the actions they take, and the results they expect. You absolutely get what you think about and expect. So what do you want?

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Maximizing Personal Productivity (Dallas, TX)

November 27, 2008 · Filed Under Random Thoughts, Sales Training · Comment 

I’ve always been one to crawl out of bed about 6:30-7AM if I could get away with it. Even thought the best part of the day was the later evening hours when things calmed down and I could get a few things done. There have been spurts of time where sheer excitement or enthusiasm altered my sleep patterns and work schedule but I got back to the norm as quickly as I could fearing I was missing some of those prime evening hours.

Lately, though, I’ve been wide awake in the middle of the night thinking about what I was going to do when I could finally get out of bed at an hour that was considered proper. Well, forget that. I’m out of bed at 4AM now and at the office at 5AM. You know what? It’s quiet. No phone calls, no employees, no questions for the third time, nothing. Just me, my notes, voice recorder, a yellow pad, red pen, a diet coke, and about two hours of uninterrupted, highly focused, full blood-sugared opportunity.

I get more done in those two hours than I will accomplish in the next six almost every time. My productivity has soared. Now instead of trying to tackle the stack of non-revenue producing things that accumulate during the day, in the late afternoon, I do them between 5-7AM.  I take about an hour to do those tasks then spend an hour working on my lists and lining up my day and compiling various notes for the other employees. Those same tasks would take 3-4 times as long in the afternoon because of interruptions and my natural inability to focus during that part of the day, not to mention the phone calls and employee interruptions.

Yes, I could use a nap about 2PM but any afternoon slow-down is more than offset by the hyper-productivity I’m accomplishing in the mornings. Anyway, I ran across an article by Dustin Wax on the LifeHacks website that dealt with this very topic and I thought I’d pass it along to you, the small business owner, in an obvious effort to offer up some thoughts on increasing your own personal productivity.

In the article, Dustin says…

What a shame it would be to spend your most creative moments inventorying the supply cabinet! Instead, inventory your various tasks and sort them into those that require your most creative self and those you could manage while unconscious. Then schedule those tasks according to the best time of day for you. Work on that marketing presentation during your peak creative time and do your expense reports when your creative self takes its afternoon siesta.

By the way, there are only 3 other cars on the road at 4:30AM, it’s more peaceful, and you don’t have that feeling like you’re behind all day like you sometimes do when you get to work only 15 minutes before the troops start to arrive.

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Sales Training 101: What NOT To Do (Dallas, TX)

October 2, 2008 · Filed Under Sales Training · Comment 

Here’s a little something someone grabbed off of LinkedIn and sent to me. Not sure who wrote it, hence the lack of credit but it’s worth a look so here it is. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies, yes?

I have a funny true story that I believe is what makes every one hate us sales people. Managers that require this type of closing from their sales people have no business being managers. They obviously don’t no how to hire and train people well enough to properly sell the product.

I went into a Jaguar dealership to buy a car. (I know, “car sales” here we go. Sorry car sales professionals, again, these are the managers that hurt your industry, and make it hard for you people that are doing it right.)

Being a very seasoned salesman and sales manager, I thought I would make it easy on this kid. I said “Here is the deal. I want this Jaguar, at this price, with this down, and this per month. My hot buttons are: I would like to not have you go back and forth to your boss trying to up sell me. Don’t ask for the keys to my trade-in so you can hold me hostage until you are certain you can’t sell me. And, don’t do a if I do… will you buy today close on me, because you don’t have to. I’ll tell you right now that if you give me my terms on the car I want, I WILL BUY TODAY!”

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