Owning what you do.

Again a special thanks to Mike Fafinski President of Syand Corporation (http://www.syand.com/) from Minnesota. We spoke about owning what you do. What does that mean? I think there becomes a time that you finally have seen most issues in the job you do. Sure, you probably haven't seen them all and some of the worst problems hit you on an idle Tuesday.

I don't want to confuse owning your job with comfortable and coasting. I truly believe it takes at least 3 years to become good at any sales position. Owning a position allows you to focus on growing, not just existing. I have a couple of questions that I ask myself all the time

1. What can I do to improve what I do every day?
2. What are others in the industry doing to grow, expand and create new solutions.

What questions do you ask along these lines?

Which do you want $50k or $100k

A special thanks to Mike Fafinski President of Syand Corporation (http://www.syand.com/) from Minnesota. Among other things, Mike reminded me of the old question. Would you rather sell $50k at 20% margin or $100k at 10% margin. Sure, you probably would not turn down either sale. However if I had my choice to choose between the two, I would choose the $50k sale.

1. Less cash flow (Cost of money)
2. Should be easier to sell (No sales are easy)
3. Less to maintain
4. Faster transaction. You can move on to other opportunities quicker.

Tomorrow I will blog about other ideas that Mike and I discussed. Specifically being comfortable in where you are in business.

Praise and Thanks

A little praise and thanks go a long way. Have you taken time out of your day to thank the people around you? It is easy to find flaws. I remember in psychology class that if you smile, people around you smile more often. I think (No fancy statistics) that the same can be with praise!

It can be easy to pick on people. It seems all around you. From CNN to the local news. Spend some time looking at articles and stories. They all seem to looking at the doom and gloom. Not some of the positive messages. Look at the presidential race. Pick a candidate. You probably do not know half of the stances they take, however you do know the mistakes they made. What is more important?

Do me a favor. Take a moment out of your day to make someone's day. Give them a compliment and some praise.

Been reading lately?

I want to do some shameless promotion of a couple of friends books. This is for vendor and IT partners. Both books give insight into the business and what we should be looking to do to move business forward.

First Stuart Crawford's "Do You Have IT" book, available at http://www.doyouhaveit.ca/

Second is the book assembled by Arlin Sorensen and written by many of my peers and friends. http://www.htgmembers.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=2&idproduct=1

Speaking of reading. I have recently seen a couple of shows/articles on how exercising the brain can improve your ability to learn as you get older. I do a lot of reading, at home and at work. I use Ralph Jensen as an example, he is active in everything and in his 80's. He wants to learn about all things. He is one of the most knowledgeable people I know on PCs and the Internet. He is on the board of a bank, is consistently into something new. I hope I keep my wander and want to learn as he has.

In sales and marketing, everything is changing all the time. Reading and flexing your brain muscle is important for you to keep up with the competition. It is easy to be reminded that you have to exercise the body. Exercising the mind is less obvious.

Your going to miss this?

After my last post, this is a bit of the opposite. I find myself rushing. I am not sure for what. It in some way runs my life. Phone calls. If I have what I need done, I am rushing to get off the call. If the event is over, I am ready to get to the next thing. Rush, Rush Rush!

This changes the way I sell! When I should be tuned into clients/employees, I find myself thinking about the next thing. In some way, this is what makes me a get it done guy. I am on task and looking to knock down the next problem.

Someone ask me why I started the blog? In some way, it makes me slow down. Think about my day and take a minute to gather my thoughts. Sure, I did create it for some vendors and peers. I hope others find some value here. If not, I do.

So, in reference to Trace Adkins recent song, I am going to spend this week slowing down, listening closer and not packing the schedule so tight. I don't want to miss this. Well, got to go, I have to rush off to work....OK maybe not.

On Time?

Being on time is a minimum. Recently I have seen people be late (a lot!). From people that are to service you as a customer, to meetings, or event large corporate events. I believe that some think they appear important if they show up a few minutes late. I believe it is an ego thing. People who are late to events are telling you that they are more important than you.

I believe it is rude. Sure, there are circumstances that can cause people to be late. Call ahead, most understand. It even happens that you just didn't plan enough time. People are understanding if you let them know.

Why is this such a big deal?

1. Customer service. If reps cannot be on time before the sale, how do you think service will be after the sale?

2. Being late does not respect people.

3. Time is money. If I have to wait on you, you are costing me money.

Think about the last webinar/conference call you have been on. Most start 5 to 10 min late waiting on people. If they start on time, many times they have to go back and repeat information for 1 person when their may be 20 people on the call.

Recently I had a sales rep call on me. We set an appointment a month ahead of time. When the time came for the meeting, I was the only one there. First all, this rep should have called to confirm the appointment a day or to prior to the appointment. That was not done. So I sat thinking that this appointment had been forgot. I went back to work on other projects. About then in comes the rep for the appointment. No reason for being late, no explanation. Needless to say, we will not be doing business with that company.



This was a bit of a rant. I want to give shouts out to Stuart Crawford, I believe he also spoke of this topic once. Anyway, off to work, I am late...Just kidding.