Sell is just a four-letter word. So is "help".
Most people I have spoken with including sales professionals have a certain aversion to the words sell or sales. "I don't like be considered a salesman," one salesman told me. "How so?" I asked. With a crusted smile he proceeded to tell me that people including customers and potential customers, equate sales people and selling with shadiness, aggressiveness, and dishonesty. Maybe this is why so many people hate to "sell" themselves or their services. Everyone in an organization is a sales person. How many times have you heard, "As an employee you represent the company"? Or, "To acquire top talent we have to sell our company and its people."? But if sales people are one of the highest paid professionals in the world, why do so many people shy away from "selling"? Me thinks the answer lays in one's intentions.
Think and or feel the difference in intentions between "selling" and "helping". The former means to some, convincing a buyer to purchase something. The latter refers to providing assistance; to aid, to guide and support. Helping, in a sales context, provides service to what is needed and or desired. Of course, influencing can create desire.
One of the best "salesman" I knew was a man who sold insurance. Arthur knew how to help and he also provided excellent customer service. His greatest skill was listening and through listening in showed a lot of understanding. Art knew his clients very well and his clients trusted him in return. That trust allowed Art to suggest additional insurance products to his customers. The suggested products were not unreasonable or extravagant. "You never know...You have good coverage now but if want to be on the safe side of safe consider this coverage as well," Is what Art always said when his clients would have considered additional insurance. In helping his clients Art's revenue grew along with his reputation for being a trusted adviser. Art's intentions were to sincerely help his customers feel safe and secure. It also helped that he really cared about his customers as fellow human beings.
About influencing: Influencing and selling are two different things. You can't sell if you don't first create desire. What is desirable to one customer may not be desirable to another. Unless you understand what motivates a customer you won't be able to influence them to trust and purchase your products and services. So, think about making a "helping" call instead of a "sales" call. Consider your intentions before you make that call. Your sales revenue, referrals, and reputation and standing within your industry and community will increase ten-fold.
Art retired a very rich man.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
"Sell" is Just a Four-Letter Word
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Twenty-Two Miles of Resistance
What or why do we get up everyday, bathe, eat breakfast and go to work? What causes us to continually move forward? Is it in our DNA? Or, is it deeper that our genetic makeup?
When asked the above questions others have answered, "What's the alternative?" They got me there. So, I guess that's why I kept putting one foot in front of the other on a recent long and uncomfortable twenty-two mile training run. Even though the views of the newly landscaped Randall's Island are spectacular and the fall bloom of Central Park magnificent, I just couldn't get out of the question, "Why am I doing this?" (Resistance possibly?) Besides the obvious that I committed to run the NYC and Philadelphia marathons with two friends and that I like my runner's waist line, I was focused on the question of who has more courage, the finisher or the quitter: the survivor or the felo-de-se? I think that it takes a lot of courage to get up everyday and continue on in the face of adversity especially, in today's political and economic climates. So too does it take courage to move through debilitating depression and anxiety which, causes some to think and feel that the best option is to stop keeping on.
I do have mild irritation over the industrialized world's mantra of work hard, amass more. The empty and commercial driven "just do it's" and the get aggressive corporate messages. (Try "assertive" instead of aggressive.)
I can't tell you exactly why I keep on keepin' on. One of the reasons is the post run benefits. After an ice bath, stretching and a power plate of pasta, I sit and wait for the wonderful calming endorphins to kick in where I enter into the world of Bliss. These free wheeling, natural chemicals make me feel like I'm floating on a Whitman "greenshine" pool in a rubber raft without a care in the world. And I guess, this is why I do it six days per week. Do I have courage or is it to keep the scary mooglies at bay? I don't know. I do know that there is something that keeps us humans moving forward, striving and driving and whether it's self-preservation or fear of the "alternative" I'm going to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Monday, September 28, 2009
First Day of Work & We've Thrown You a Party
Imagine, it's your first day on the new job. You're not expecting much but are hoping that the new firm gives you a warmer welcome than your last. (The desk they assigned you came complete with a half-filled cup of curdled coffee, a greasy computer keyboard and a chair with a wobbly leg.) You've been down the on-boarding road before, attended the mandatory and boring orientations and each time you've hoped for a sincere appreciation for committing valuable time, energy, and creativity to the "man".
Maybe the "man" should take his cue from an elementary school in Connecticut. On the first day of every school year, this particular school throws a welcoming party for its students. Balloons are released, music is pumped through loud speakers and the teachers meet and greet each and every student. (At one job, I was met with jeers and groans when I offered my hand to my over-stressed new colleagues.) Wouldn't that be something if you were met on your first day at the office with balloons as part of the welcome package?
Employees need, yes need to feel valued and first impressions are lasting impressions. If the attitude at the organization is, "you're lucky to have a job, get to work" think of the quality of work the new hire is going to produce. There are many ways to steal from an organization and resentment creates more theft of productivity and profitability than anything else. Sure, maybe your company gives out pens, coffee cups and memo pads with their logo imprinted but what's behind the toys? What's the intention of the gifts? Do they come with a "we're really glad that you decided to come and be a part of our team"? Or, are they just give-aways
that everyone gets?
There are businesses that get it right. They do on-boarding really well and I certainly want to know if yours is one of those businesses. Unfortunately, they seem to be the exception not the norm. When the economy turns around and the ratio to hire moves above the unemployment rate, workers will expect a little bit more on their first day than an electric pencil sharpener.
Monday, September 21, 2009
No Legs and The Food Stinks
No buttocks, no legs, no problem. Except for the food.
Meet Jose R. who's missing a body from the waist down. I met him last year on Roosevelt Island where I offered him a "push'. On his permanent gurney, (he can't turn over nor sit up.) Jose wheels himself around the island for exercise and a way to break the tedium of hospital life. I ran into Jose today outside a bodega where he was hoping that some kind soul would buy him a turkey sandwich on rye with mustard and lettuce. I asked him if the hospital where he lives feeds him and he said he can't eat "that stuff" anymore. "I'm sick of it. Would you please buy me a sandwich?"
This is the third time we've shared more than salutations and I've never heard Jose complain about anything until now. No legs, no buttocks and all he can find to complain about is institutional food? I don't know but if it were me on that stain soaked gurney I'd have a whole lot more to wail about than beige hospital food. Maybe that's why our paths crossed today. Maybe the Universe or the Grand Station Master heard my pitiful grips and said, 'you think you got problems, check this guy out, again.' It's true, I do need to be reminded from time-to-time. Not often but now and then. We forget sometimes just how good we have it and then a Jose rolls by to snap us out of our mournful abyss.
After I gave him a dollar towards his sandwich, Jose said, "Cheer up, it's a beautiful day."
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Run NYC Marathon Free!
Achilles Track Club is looking for walking guides for the NYC Marathon!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Watch Turns Three Thousand
It's a huge accomplishment for a watch; clocking over three thousand miles in a little over five hundred and thirty hours. Okay, the watch didn't have to do much work, just sit on my wrist as I cranked out the three thousand plus miles. Day-by-day the miles started to add up until Sunday when my Garmin Forerunner's digital face read 3025.78.
When started running (again) April 2007 I had no intentions of ever running seriously. That was until the running bug bite and the results started to show. Just like any new skill there was the normal levels of learning progression except, my body, mind and soul was the instrument for which the new skill inhabited. I took on the new (novice) learning with excitement and progressed rapidly (intermediate) which, last week turned into joy (advanced: experience using the new skill for a prolonged period of time). And I would gladly share this new found "joy" with and new learner.
With any new learning there are different ways that adults learn and subsequently develop. There are too many learning theories to list here. However, the three basics that must be present for all adults to learn are: (1) because it is important to them; (2) it must be practical: and (3) they need to 'try' out the new learning as in experiencing it for themselves and not be lectured too.
Running has enhanced my 'life' in countless ways especially with regards to discipline, creating a plans both short and long term; and being present and in each moment or step of the Journey. I am confident barring being run down by a reckless car driver that I'll be around to see my watch flip over the three thousand, ninety-nine mark to four thousand.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Through the Learning Curve
The break through with learning something new usually comes when you least expect it. After days or weeks or even months of learning a new skill suddenly, you find yourself using the new skill with greater ease. That was my experience this week. I was doing an interval run workout and when I commanded my legs to turn on the speed I couldn't believe what took place. The ease to which my body responded to the requested effort was an incredible sensation. It was as if a turbo engine was turned on and revved. Wow! Now I want to 'learn' more.
