Watching New Moon & Reading Lists

I tell you what I have had an enjoyable weekend with my family and here it is Sunday afternoon and my wife and I are planning a trip to the movie theater to watch New Moon. The idea of the post is not to talk about the movie but I must admit I’m looking forward to it as I enjoyed the first movie Twilight.

Anyway I have compiled a list of books that I want to read and I’m hoping to actually start on this list soon. Too often I start a book and become easily bored or something occupies my time. I am making a concentrated effort in starting and finishing my reading list. God I feel like I’m back in elementary school all over again with the accelerated reading program.

So I have Zig Ziglar on my list to Dave Ramsey to even Stephen King. I have so much desires or infatuations with various hobbies but I have never truly committed time to learning and becoming an expert at each level. One is car repair. Though I am decent with normal maintenance I want to have the ability to be an expert in the area. Without knowledge or skill I cannot accomplish this.

With Dave Ramsey, in case you do not know he is a financial guru, I have set down and restructured my family budget. I want to become debt free and I have been aware of his ideas, teachings and beliefs for some time but again I have never followed through. I’m hoping that by making this post public maybe I will actually start and finish my reading projects.

**If you have any reading suggestions feel free to add them in the comment section**

Can’t Lie, Cheat Or Steal Your Way To The Top

Amazing how things can turn in an instance.  My previous post was more of a grumble I had with employees outside my department talking trash against me.  Well I was reviewing potential leads today trying to see what I could potentially help wrap up for individuals on my team when I noticed something unusual.

One of the accounts I had been working with my new people on had a status change from active to pending payment arrangement.  I quickly had my curiosity spike and I had to read the notations on the account to see which one of my team members closed the deal but forgot to record the number in our monthly figures.  What did I see?  Well one of the individuals mentioned briefly in the post from yesterday had worked the account without authorization. 

Yes the person ended up closing the deal but from the looks of the matter Mickey Mouse would have been able to have done the same.  The moral of the story is not that someone else closed one of my team’s accounts but how they did so.  Proper account work led to a call in on the account and the individual was ready to make the deal.  Instead of the call being transferred to my group the other associate thought otherwise and proceeded with the talk off.  Oddly enough the associate’s manager verified the payment information and would have known at that time the account was not in their file.

I was told yesterday that a few other employees on other teams felt I did not have their best interest at heart.  I have never purposely sharked an account that I did not deserve to get.  Here though shows they acted in a dishonest manner.  I’m thinking that maybe the conversation shouldn’t have been for me but for the other employee’s manager instead.  Attitude reflects leadership and what are they being shown?  Lie, cheat, steal to hit numbers?  Not my team fore they will achieve greatness by being moral, legal and ethically correct.

Success Breeds Success…and Jealous People

Success breeds success. Anyone who has been involved in any kind of competitive event in their life whether it is sports, school, life, etc. has heard this quote before. There are positive effects of success and then sometimes there are negative effects. Within the past few weeks my employees have been approached by others throughout our department wanting to know the secrets to our success and how they can make the switch between teams.

Well my team was strategically placed to me with deciding factors of what personalities are going to work best with my mentality. After careful deliberation I selected the individuals that I wanted and left off those who I did not want. To my surprise my wish list came true and my thought process was right on the money. The result comes down to my team producing and hitting their targeted numbers. Not because I am the reason but because the personality traits match up and makes for a better fit within my team.

I would venture to say that my employees comprise a true team as they work hand-in-hand as opposed of being a group of individuals thrown together. They are young associates to the business, they are learning together and this has helped their bond. When I received word of these other employees wanting to jump on board the success bandwagon I knew my immediate response would be to nix the idea while it was in the infant stages.

Wow I did not expect the backlash from those denied. This afternoon I found myself sitting in the semi-hot seat hearing of the accusations made by the very people who wanted to join my team whose feelings were hurt when they were denied. I was informed that these individuals felt I was unapproachable or did not have their best interests in mind when it came to closing the deal. I could not help but laugh maniacally when I heard this gibberish.

The names mentioned one after one were the very same people that I had closed deals for this month. That’s right, this month. For one person mentioned on this list, I have personally closed over $100,000 for them and they had the gall to fathom the idea I did not have their best interest in mind. Keep in mind these are not my employees but other people within my office that happen to be on the same contract. I have helped them earn a bonus by closing the deals that neither they nor their manager could do. To say the least I feel much better venting and I tell you I’m going to keep on being me. As my team keeps moving up the production rank these pikers, these people who are bottom feeders, they will keep getting passed over at month’s end because of one thing. Success breeds success. Don’t hate because you ain’t. Enough said.

Shifting Gears Mid Month

In my area of the industry I’m looking at the spectrum and truly I have 5 business days to make an impact or my month will be shut down with the numbers I have now. These numbers are the result of my team and the number driving we have done thus far. Thankfully at this point we have eclipsed our monthly budget. As mentioned in a previous post I have been displaying my month-to-date numbers throughout the entire building and apparently someone hates this.

I typically post my numbers in various areas accessible to my employees in about 7-10 locations and by 2 hours in yesterday the only numbers still hanging up were those posted in our direct area. I’m not so much worried that the numbers were taken down and I’m kind of excited that someone would go to that much trouble to actually take the numbers down. I’m willing to bet it’s a person that is a bottom feeder. If it is one of the people within my team then I definitely have a piker on my hands.

I was approached a couple of days ago and the focus is shifting slightly on an upfront cash received as opposed to the long haul. I’m still sifting ideas out and the new found information would have been nice to have known, oh I don’t know, say the first of November instead of the 17th. A compromising position to be put in but I believe in my ability to chase and hit the number.

The Art of Discipline

“Discipline yourself so others won’t have to.“

This should be one of the golden rules in any business.  We’ve all heard the old adage “When the cat’s away the mice will play” and unfortunately the majority of employees do not know how to function when management is gone.  It seems that employees become struck with the “I don’t care” attitude and hardly anything good comes out of this approach.

Early in my career I suffered a slight degree of this mentality until I realized I wanted to become a leader.  This happened to occur at the same time I understood that I was far from being organized and I needed more structure in my professional life.  It wasn’t until I was preparing for a vacation that I noticed I was able to get more accomplished in four hours than what I had previously accomplished in the last 2 weeks.  What was my secret?

I had a written list of what I needed to get done, what I wanted to get done and what could wait until the last minute.  Slowly but surely tasks were getting completed at the light of speed and my satisfaction of crossing items off the list increased my motivation.  At that time period I understood what I needed to do in my professional life.

From that day forward many moons ago I started my daily tasks list and I can attest I feel more accomplished at days’ end when I review my work effort.  The mentality changed from “oh the boss is away” to what can I get done with the distraction free atmosphere while upper management was gone.   To say the least my production increased and I was able to provide proper self discipline to my schedule.  Instead of having to be told what to do next I knew what to do and I acted.  To put it mildly I became proactive instead of reactive and my sales career was never the same.

Reaping The Seed We Sow

“Everything in Your Future will be CREATED by Something in your Present.”

How true this statement is. The sad reality is too many people tend not to think about life in this manner especially in the world of sales. What happens to me tomorrow is a direct result of what I did today. I am reminded of procrastinators and their inability to get the job done as effectively as could be if they would have managed their time better, trained harder, etc.

What kind of sales figures could you reach if you changed that one aspect in your life? For me I look back at my sales career from my infant stages to present day and I am truly amazed at the success I had early on. If I had known then what I know now there would have been nothing to stop me back then. Getting hit with reality like getting hit with a blow to the gut I suddenly realize that I cannot go back but I can go forward.

The steps we take today will allow for us to maintain the journey of tomorrow. One thing that I was told early on that I will never forget is that successful people have two things in common. They do whatever it takes. Every time. How true it is. Too often though people chalk up another person’s success as being lucky, getting the right breaks, etc. and hardly at any time do these outsiders think or realize that success is typically earned.

Who Says November Is Slow?

Today I turned another year older and hopefully wisdom will come with the new number. The great thing about my company is the appreciation shown for the employees as I enjoyed a paid day off and I know I enjoyed it as did my wife and girls. Time away from the office is good and an issue that I have dealt with especially in the past is my inability to separate myself from the workplace.

My mind is always thinking about work, what I can do differently to improve production, what I can do to be the effective leader, did I say what I can do to improve production? Ah, the world of sales is a production based environment and I know all to well the “what have you done for me lately” mentality. Too often people want to get hung up on what they did yesterday, last week, last month or sadly enough last year.

I take pride in my ability to increase the numbers and I am excited that during what is typically the slower season due to the holidays, etc., my team is on pace to break office records. At this point in time they have produced more in 9 days than what they have ever done in an entire month. I want to give a shout out to them because without them I wouldn’t be writing this tonight.

Even though I was out of the office today word trickled down to me that one of my associates hit his monthly budget by completing a $20,000 transaction and without hesitating after getting the message I knew my next actions. That’s right I simply picked up the phone, dialed his work number and had a brief conversation congratulating him and telling him how proud I am of him. That right there is something that I feel is wrong with many businesses instead of catching you doing something right too many companies want to nail you doing something wrong. I’ve talked about training before and I believe in corrective action but why put so much focus on the negativity and not changing the mentality of the employees to do more things right?

Pikers Walk At The Bell

I love the movie Boiler Room and I believe that I have watched it five times in the last couple of weeks. To me the movie is motivating especially with Ben Affleck giving his “motivational” speeches. Several reviews of ordinary people seem to think that Affleck’s performance was lacking and unnecessary but in the line of sales we are in. Well Affleck was perfect.

The dialogue in the movie has been recited in my office lately by the other managers and amazing enough the energy throughout the office picks up. Could this be by luck? By mere coincidence? Did the stars and the moon align perfectly? The answer is no and when management is down and droopy then chances are the sales force mentality will be down as well.

If only certain aspects could be displayed in the real world as is done in this movie. Hell I probably would not have had to fire the new trainee two weeks ago for falling asleep. I could have had the hiring manager simply look him in the eyes and ask him if he was a piker. Ask him if he was interesting in saving the manatees, ask him if he wanted to know how much vacation time he would earn in the first year and then let him know that if he wanted vacation time or sleepy time then go teach 3rd grade, public school.

Professional Call Means Professional

I’ve been listening to calls recently of my employees on the phone and I definitely have a much better understanding as to why they have or have not been closing deals.  I believe that training is important no matter what it is that you are doing.  I find it funny how people react to the first time that they hear themselves and how poor they sound on the phone.  I had one person remark to me that he was damn lucky the person bought from him because if he had been listening on the other end of the phone he would have hung up after the first two minutes.

A lot of the success in the sales industry comes from having confidence in one’s ability to succeed.  Too many people have a bad attitude and cannot understand their failure is a direct result on the personal outlook they have of their own self.  When things are going good the thought process is different.  The same is true when things are bad.  The difference comes into either positive thinking or negative thinking. This is no secret.

This weekend I have listened to call after call as employees are rushing through the conversation and over talking.  One person in particular talked so much that I thought he was going to talk the person to death that he was going to keep talking until the person said yes.  Needless to say he did not close the deal and why should he?  He and I have had the same talk over and over about slowing down, not repeating everything the other person has to say.  He sounds more like an echo than he does a sales man.

For those individuals who are having success there is one common denominator I am hearing over and over.  They are figuring out how to talk to people and get them in the “closing” mindset.  Some people never get this figured out but at this point in time I have 63% of my staff either at budget or trending to hit their sales number by the end of the month.  Read that number again, 63%, but I also know that I need the remaining 37% of my staff to get their numbers up. My overall budget is almost in house but for me to obliterate my numbers I need production from my bottom people.

My main focus is to keep the morale of team high, keep my producers producing and raise the level of production of my bottom feeders.  My team is finding that I am more than willing to dive into the trenches with them and through proper teamwork I will have my team over budget and they will be enjoying the money they earned.

No Way To Escape The Truth

Just like anything in life if you want to accomplish a certain feat the best way is to make it known. Make it a part of your reality, make it a priority in your life. This pertains to anything and everything and it does not matter if it’s losing weight, doing better in school or even the world of sales. People who want to lose weight will go to the extreme of posting pictures on or even in refrigerators as motivation. People will write down their goals to help themselves realize what their dreams are.

Driving numbers is no different. My team came in today to find their current month-to-date numbers posted on the main door to our department, in the break areas, on our team board, and the digital time card locations and even in the bathrooms. You might find yourself asking why this was done and it’s rather simple. To be the best you’ve got to engulf yourself in the numbers. Human nature is to avoid discomfort and in sales if your numbers are lagging the easiest thing to do is to not think about it.

How hard is it to avoid thinking about the numbers when everywhere in your office you travel you are reminded of your production? For my top producers they were enthusiastic with seeing the numbers posted. Why? The postings allowed everyone in the entire company to see how good the producers were doing. For the individuals struggling well let’s just say everyone in the entire company had the opportunity to see how bad the bottom feeders were doing.

What I found from the production totals today is an increased incentive by all ranks to improve their month-to-date standings. No one wants to be known as the person who cannot close and everyone wants to be the top dog in the office. Moving forward from this day on I will be posting the numbers throughout every break room, bathroom and department throughout the entire office.

There’s a saying the truth hurts but it only hurts those individuals who try to deny their poor production. Posting the numbers throughout the office gives a different degree of accountability that goes beyond individual or group numbers. Yeah so the groups doing well or is it that 1 or 2 people are having stellar numbers? Either way, perception is reality and it’s amazing how when people are held to a higher accountability they will do one of two things. They will step up and produce or they will rollover and die in the world of sales. I want producers and if a person is not producing I want them to step up or get the heck out of the way. Like it, hate it, it doesn’t matter because it’s another way of driving the numbers.  Who knows, the people not producing might find it non-appealing to take breaks as there will be a constance reminder of their failures.