Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

Old Dogs - I may or may not be talking directly to you if you don't consider yourself an 'old dog'.  I am talking to you if you've adopted the perspective of 'I've been doing this a long time' and you no longer feel the need to learn new 'sales tricks'.

Sales Tricks - this really isn't about sales tricks.  It is about learning why what you do works or it is about remembering why what you do works.

Case in point - do this exercise - connect the nine dots using four lines.  Rules - you can't back track on a line, the lines must be straight and you cannot lift your writing implement off of the paper to start a new line.  (Will provide answer below)

Second case in point hits close to home.  My long time friend and once mentor has written a book with one of his heros, Art Linkletter.  It's called How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life.  I just started reading so I'm not sure what to get out of the book yet, but I did read the introductions by Art and Mark. Mark reminded me why I got into this business 16 years ago and why I need to pull my head out of my butt and stop worrying about getting old and tired.  I'm sure that, if you've been in your business long enough, you know what I'm talking about.  If  you've been in business ten years or less, then your day is coming.  

The most important concept in the introduction is this:  Growing older is not the same as getting old.  Simply put:  Make sure you continue to grow as you age. This one concept caused me to pull my head out, kick myself in the butt and ask myself, 'what the hell have you been thinking?'  My last thought when I finished the introduction was, 'Once again thanks, Mark, for having such a great impact on my life.'

You see, I met Mark several years ago in Cincinnati, and for a time of 3 to 4 years, we stayed in touch and I considered him a mentor.  I was with him driving from Louisville to Cincinnati when he discussed the idea of 'Chicken Soup for the Soul'.  He couldn't get Campbell's Soup to play so he did it on his own, and well, you know the rest of the story.

The rest of my story today is this. Take time to learn new stuff or relearn the old stuff.  Bottom line is to keep yearning, learning and you'll keep earning.

Here is the solution to the puzzle that I'm sure you have seen before but have forgotten.

We have a training module called pre-call strategy sessions.  When we initially talk about this process, most participants think that the pre-call strategy session applies to only the final presentation when you are presenting your proposal in hopes of getting the business.  There are a couple of problems with this thinking and I'll get to that in a minute.  I want to talk first about my daughter Alex going off to college this weekend to the University of Dayton.

College planning, like sales planning, is more than just planning for the day of the event when you drop your daughter off to school or for the day when you make your presentation.  In reality, in your professional life as a sales person and as a parent, everything you do should be to prepare you for these moments.  It was at that moment when I hugged her, kissed her and told her I loved her in front of Marianist Hall that I realized I had missed several opportunities to be prepared for that moment and to make sure she was prepared. It was then that I realized that:

• My execution did not reflect what should have been my priority.  In other words, I spent too much time on the road, in the office, working at my computer at home and not enough time with her.
• You spend too much time doing admin 'stuff' instead of developing new relationships
• I took her presence for granted.  I rarely went to her room to talk and visit.  The first morning she was at school and we were home, I walked past her room; the door was open, the bed was made and she was gone.
•  You fail to stay close to your best clients on a proactive, regular and consistent basis. The key word being "proactive" - seeing them when they don't need you or they don't have a problem or providing solutions for their problems that you don't have a product or service for.
• There is more to planning for college than making sure there is money.  I then realized that everything that I said, did or thought - good or bad - was now her foundation as to how she would live her life on her own.  I realized and regretted all at once the times I was short with her, criticized her, didn't take time for her, and gave her an opportunity to witness me being selfish, arrogant, prideful, rude, unforgiving, ungrateful, angry and stupid.  (Certainly, there is another side to that coin, but in these moments we are all worried about what we didn't do or didn't do right)
•  Everything you do with your client, EVERYTHING, regardless if it is a direct contact with them or what they observe you do in other settings, gets recorded and they develop an impression of who you are and how you treat others and probably treat them when they aren't around.
• Eventually things come and they go.  It is the natural progression of raising children.  Either by design or by default, they do go away or we will suffer the stages of loss no matter how well we try and intellectualize the departure.
• You will lose clients.  But you need to let some of them go even when they or you are not ready.  You can't grow and they can't grow if the status quo remains the status quo.

Today is Monday the 24^th of August and she is on her own surrounded by 10,000 of her new best friends and the staff at the University of Dayton that is committed to putting her, my daughter, in a position to become the very best she can be.  With all of my short comings and all the things Linda and I may have failed to do, we did manage to do enough of the right things to put her in that position.  She loves UD. She has already made several friends and she is excited about being on her own and exploring her future.  She will do well.

As I talked to Linda about how I felt about Alex's departure, I told her that I needed to blog about this.  It wasn't the answer she was looking for. But after further discussion this morning, I had a chance to explain myself.  My goal is to help others.  Not just in the arena of sales training, sales management and sales culture development.  No, it's just helping people.  My goal with this post is to help those unsuspecting parents think differently about college planning so that when their day comes, they will have felt that they've planned well beyond the financial requirements, that they have paid the emotional bill for that moment well in advance, and they can look back on their time together and say to themselves "Job well-done."

Go Flyers!

Ten years ago this morning my wife Linda (our coo and cfo) and I took the elevator down to the main lobby of Children's Hospital here in Cincinnati.  The day before on September 8, 1998 our son Anthony had a heart attack (age 12 - Wolf Parkinson's White Syndrome) while on the playground at Sycamore Jr. High School.  His life, our lives and the life or our then little girl Alex, were changed forever. 

Here we are 10 years later and this morning was like that morning. Bright and sunny and full of promise.  I made calls to prospects and scheduled 3 appointments.  Since that time we've seen our business take an expected plunge and surge back to the current status of what I would consider 'extra-ordinary.  Anthony survived and so did we.

We could have not done this without love, faith and caring for each other and without the support of many.  Some of which will read this post and so I thank you and our family thanks you as well.

Occasionally people pop into your life that are priceless.

Norm Barnhardt showed up the very first nite at about 10:00.  He had heard what had happened and he drove straight from Columbus to the hospital.

Linda's sister - Jeni (our cmo) is one such person to whom we owe a great deal.  For 90 days while Anthony was in the hospital Jeni was there. And when she wasn't there she was at home caring for Alex.  Jeni continued to care for our son, our daughter and for Linda and I while we recovered.

A new office manager started the day after Anthony's heart attack. No one was there to greet her or provide her instruction.  We called her, told her what happened and she was on her own.  Without her for over a year I don't know that we would have made it.

Mike Ludy our neighbor told me: 'Tony, don't lose your business.'

Too many people to mention showed up, sent cards, flowers, food and love.  Many of my friends, Whitey, Dave, Bob, Mike, Tim, Mark and so on and so on continued to come by and offer comfort and assistance.  One of Linda's friends came by the hospital and said, 'treat me like furniture, use me when you need to'.  When we were complaining about a doctor not showing up an hour later our friend showed up with doctor in tow.  it's hard to believe that was 10 years ago.

Through all of this we have learned many lessons.  Today I want to share two of them:

1. No excuses - If a 12 year old can survive a heart attack, sustain a severe brain injury and still laugh and think life is wonderful then you can survive anything that a bad economy, a mis-guided manager or tough competition can throw at you.
2. Keep selling - you have to keep going.  This kept the sales engine going that allowed us to keep the business, keep our heads and provide for Anthony all the things he needs to sustain a near normal life.  Keep selling keep going.

Thanks for letting me write this.