Start Again

Ok, so you blew it.  So what.  You’re not dead.

You can’t start over, but you can start again.

If your dream came true, what would happen?

If you had to think about it to answer this question today, I’d suggest you didn’t have much of a dream.

If you had it right away, good for you.  All great people have been great dreamers.

Dreams can’t come true unless you have one first.

Right?

Confidence & sincerity doesn’t mean they’re right

How do we decide who is right and who to follow?  Judging how confident someone is weighs in a lot, and so does their sincerity.  But a person can be highly confident and incredibly sincere and be very wrong.

If a person who was EXPERIENCED at making decisions of the kind presently before them, having made some bad decisions and mostly good ones, and having been responsible for the consequences, and was still confident and sincere – that’s the one I’d follow.

Experienced, confident and sincere.

What’s the next Act?

If your business is in Act One, what’s Act Two?

Think ahead.

Our competition

It’s not what we think.  It’s us, and our ability to get distracted with low value things (that may be comforting).  90% of our results will come from 10% of our activities.  We must focus on what will make the biggest difference That means discipline to ignore enough of the rest to make as much room as we need to stay focused on what’s important.

Start today.  Focus on what’s most important for longer than you were yesterday.

"Resident Sales Pro" (continued)

Who is your Resident Sales Pro?

This is a big question.  If you have a tiny company and can’t afford one, the “Resident Sales Pro” had better be you.  If it’s not you or can’t be you, you better get one.

You’d think that when you pay salespeople straight commission that they will do anything in their power to make sales.  That’s not how it works.  People don’t want to get out of their comfort zone.  They have made up their minds that “this is how I do it because…because…because.”  And more often than not, these belief systems are different for each salesperson on your team.  Somebody’s wrong, and likely they all are with respect to the very best way to sell what you have to offer.

But somebody has got to have it right on your leadership team.  Somebody who doesn’t just think they are right, but can go out and demonstrate with NUMBERS that the method selected IS right.  Somebody who has the power to implement and shape the human resources in the company around the sales system that gets the best results.  Someone who doesn’t have three other jobs.

You can’t leave your future to employees who each do things their own way.  Sure they use their own personality and style, but technique, system and discipline erode unless supported from someone who has a principled, structured process and doesn’t deviate from it.

Who is your “Resident Sales Pro”?

"Resident Sales Pro"

You want your salespeople to be the best and know your business depends on it.  Otherwise the competition will kill you even if your product is better.  You try to hire the best people.  You may be associated with a group or a guru who knows how to sell really well.  But who is on site in your company that can train and hold the sales team to the best known sales practices?  If there is nobody, everyone makes up their own way, or forgets what you trained them on once, so many months or years ago.

Who is your resident sales pro?

Corporate vs. Authentic Marketing

The days of big corporate messaging stirring the souls of your prospects are gone.  These are the days of local, real, cool and “in my niche”.

Out authenticate your competition in your marketing.

Every position needs the right employee in it

If you feel that a certain employee isn’t right for the job you put them in, they aren’t.

Not only are they not doing a great job where you need them to, but because they occupy that position, they are in the way of you finding the right person.

Move them, or let them go to find the right job for them and the right employee for your organization.

Grow into your dreams

Dreams come in a size too big so you can grow into them.  The growth happens not physically, but mentally and spiritually.

Grow.