You can feed your kids and they will go hungary.

You can teach them to fish and they will never go hungary.

(Really that applies to teaching sales...Think about it)

My dad tought me, I now teach my son.(On the right and left)

MJ The ultimate performer.

Thriller, the first album (YES VINAL something my children will probably never understand) I almost wore out. It was music that even my parents could agree on.

Carsen (3) can recognize MJ from voice alone. He is a fan of Beat It (Guitar Hero), Smooth Criminal and more. He has recently been working on the kick spin. Ask him for a demo and he will be glad to show!

MJ would be the first entertainer that captured TV that I can remember. MTV, CNN, and all other news shows simply showed his life, times and music last night. No Iran, cheating congressmen, just a tribute.

If you could describe yourself in one word what would it be?

Jenifer has this calendar(If that is what you would call it) that she has next to our sink that has quotes and such in it that has been there for many years. This is today's question.

I thought about it a bit and decided in what context the question is ask determines the answer.

As a father?
Business Person?
Husband?
Friend?

Not knowing this, I have to go with

Growing. It is easy these days.

No, I am not speaking about the mid section. Sure that is easy too. Rather growing your knowledge base. It is easy because you have so many ways of getting new information. From the laptop I am typing this on, to the smart phone (Yes, I have one now, more on that in the future) to the TV, Radio and more. It is estimated that you can read more information in the NY Times in one week than a person could come across in the 18th century in an entire life time.

So how do you process this? Good thing for me I have always been good at weeding through the junk and picking out the gems. No matter how you get the information, even if it is about Paris Hilton you still have (OK maybe not grown) picked up new information making you more knowledgeable and smart. Everyone knows I need that!

A little add on I saw from Gitomer

Some people are “waiting to see what happens.” Big mistake. There are three kinds of people -- people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who don’t know what’s happening. Which kind are you?

To those sales guys and owners.

Are you where you want to be? Do you have the flexibility, money or prestige you want? If not, why?

Who controls this?
Who pays you?
Who gives you recognition?

You, that is who. The only person standing in your way is...YOU!

Are you doing the activity that makes it happen. Or are you just going through the motions. What have you done to go above and beyond the call to make big things happen. Do you think that big things happen on their own. You have to do something exceptional to get something exceptional.

The test, really look. I mean look at the honest truth. Are you going big? Why not? You like to work your time, be average, maybe a bit above average. I would rather go big, get big and live big.

If you are happy with average, keep doing what you are doing. It will keep you average.

Back to the core.

Recently I have been ask about what to do when your sales are flat or even worse. Really this is when you need to focus the most on the basics.

• Respond to customers immediately (What else you have to do?)
• Look for leads where ever you are.
• Ask for references from past customers and ones that are buying currently.
• Marketing! Mailers, Email, lunch and learns or other.
• Work the office. Ask technicians for leads, people that work in the office, billing.
• Work harder. Longer hours, get in early to get a good start. Many will work less because there is less to do. You need to get on it early and work it late.
• Cold call. Yes it is very hard, few rewards but you have to get the fire started.
• Ask for help. Nothing wrong with that!

End of the story is that if you work the system the rewards will come. I have seen examples time after time of how this works. It can take several months, however the rewards are many.