Find a New Box
Need to be motivated? Try this ...
By William Blades, CMC, CPS, William Blades, L.L.C.
July 2000
Do you remember when we were younger, we used to run and jump into the ocean, lake, or pool? And what do we do now? We stick our toes in first to see if the water is comfortable or "safe" enough for us. You can't afford to be neither safe nor comfortable in your profession. That equals the Town of Conclusion — the place where you got tired of thinking.
As individuals in a fast-changing world, we should never fall into the career and corporate killer thinking, "I/we are okay". Buy into the fact that to stay ahead of a competitive market, the change internally must accelerate more so than the external changes every industry faces. The president, the director, the sales manager, the supervisor — all must improve. If they don't, who will?
Soul Searching
It is still a people business. There are five questions I ask about people
that can create some soul searching:
• Is your management team managing, or leading? Most people respond in
quantum leaps to a leader as compared to them just doing what a manager
wants done. Leaders set the tone for greatness from everyone else. A role
model.
A client's employee told me his boss "doesn't have ulcers ... he's a carrier." So goes the boss, so goes the crew.
•
Do you have one salesperson who is in the top 2 percent of all salespeople
in your industry? Are 20 percent of your salespeople in the top 10 percent
in the industry? If not, what help do they need? I have seen salespeople
who were at the bottom go to the top in one to two years. They just need
to be trained and educated in sales greatness. Remember — half the salespeople
you know are below average.
• What did everyone do last week that they had never done before? If someone's
"new thing" bombed, be sure to compliment them for trying, and
encourage them to keep doing new things. Failure must be encouraged because
whenever a person tries new things, they won't always go perfectly. How
was your first French kiss? Your first attempt at parallel parking? Probably
not too wonderful, but you got better at it.
•What new "joy and value" factor did each salesperson incorporate
into a client proposal? If you want your revenues to change, you might
need to change the way you sell. Think creatively. Think like this: "What
am I personally going to do so they need me and want me?" Talk less
and think more — before ever making a visit.
• What service do you offer that blows clients out of their chairs? What
service can you offer that no one else in the industry offers? Then, add
a second service.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
I read recently that the American Management Association asked 500 CEOs,
"What must one do to survive in the 21st century?" The top answer
was "practice creativity and innovation". Encourage everyone
to challenge everything in the way they do things and expect it on a regular
basis. Here are some examples to get the creative juices flowing...
•
When a client is overdue with a payment, add to their statement: "We
have already done more for you than your own mother. We have carried you
for 10 months". Or, "Why do our bills travel through the mail
at twice the speed of your check?"
• When it is appropriate to send flowers, don't do it. Send cactus because
they just don't die. You will be there forever. A gift that "sticks."
I gave a two-inch cactus plant to a businesswoman 21 years ago. It is
now 23 inches high (they grow 1 in./year). She can't forget me.
• I was field training a salesperson and we visited a potential client
from whom he had yet to earn an order. The client said, "John, I
just keep forgetting you." We left.
Standing outside, I asked the salesperson when the client's birthday was. He didn't know (not good), so he went inside and found that the birthday was the next day.
We drove to a nearby mall and there it was: An entrepreneur had a business of taking a person's photo and scanning it on a long woven calendar. I told John to sit down and make a funny face for the photographer. He cowered so I told him I would sit with him. I put my two fingers up, feature-style at the back of his head, and John waved. The next day the calendar was on the client's wall.
He couldn't forget us. John got his first-ever order the next week. When you're out, how far out can you be? Be far out to get way in.
I attended a staff meeting with an aviation client in Albuquerque and I looked outside and saw a 747 that was given to FAA for inspection training. I said to a salesperson, "Go get on the rear wing and get your photo taken." Another person said, "FAA would never let us do that." I said, "Go call them". The salesperson wound up getting his photo on the wing in his business attire for a postcard that said, "When I said anytime and anyplace, I meant it." I also got him to have a photo taken in a Santa Claus suit on the wing for his holiday cards.
The
salesperson went from last place standings to the top. Not only did he
have fun, but the clients loved his creativity and fun.
• Send telegrams to get a client's attention. Old-school thinking? If
three packages from FedEx, UPS, and Western Union landed on your desk,
which one would you open first? That's why you use them.
• Any chief can take an assistant to lunch on National Executive Assis-tants
Day. Taking her/him on the same day everyone else takes their assistant
to lunch is not that special. Do it just because it is the right thing
to do for a valuable person. A day without sunshine is like ... night.
• Instead of saying to a client "let's do lunch, arrange a hot air
balloon ride with breakfast. Get photos taken and put it in a frame for
the client. Beats lunch at a Holiday Inn any day of the week. And get
a "co-pilot" certificate frame also.
• Instead of buying all of your postage stamps from the post office, get
your own stamps made with your photo. I race cars once in a while so my
stamps feature me in a race driving suit. Just a little attention-getter.
• Set up "creativity week". Challenge your sales force to do
ten new things for ten potential clients. Set up incentives for the most
creative ideas such as first, second, and third place, but also award
a bonus to the person that failed, even though the idea was ingenious.
Offer $change for change.
• Have some hard-to-see potential clients? Get an author of a book to
place a personal statement along with the author's autograph. The inscription
could simply read, "To John Smith. Jane asked me to autograph this
book for you. I hope you enjoy it". Many of the potential clients
will call you before you call them.
SLOW ... to change?
Work, work, work — it's what we are taught to do. I enjoy working with
organizations to get them to slow it down so that they can creatively
think about changing the way they do things. Many people don't think,
they just do things out of habit. One client recently had a blank look.
I asked him what he was thinking about. He said, "I just got lost
in thought. It was unfamiliar territory."
We drive to work the same way every day. We make sales calls like we did last year. We manage the same way without excitement. Think "new", think "creativity" every week.
The number one thing we have to offer to our clients and employees is our brain, but we often don't take the quiet time, the thinking time, to get out of the box.
It is an ever-changing world and our internal change better be ahead of the curve and creating the change — or it may become too late to catch up. Eagles soar and the weasels get sucked up into jet engines.
About
the Author
Bill Blades, CMC, CPS, is a professional speaker and consultant specializing
in sales and leadership issues. He is based in Mesa, AZ. He can be reached
at 480-354-7343 or at [email protected].
