I did it too. I drove by big houses and would wonder who lived there. What did they do for a living? How did they make their money? Someday, I would tell myself, I would live in a house like that. Every weekend I would do it.
I read books about successful people. In fact, I read every book or magazine I could get my hands on. I would tell myself 1 good idea would pay for the book and could make the difference between me making it or not.
I worked jobs I didn’t like. I worked jobs I loved, but had no chance of being a career. I worked jobs that barely paid the rent. I had so many jobs my parents wondered if I would be stable. Most of them aren’t on my resume anymore because I was there so short a time or they were so stupid I was embarrassed. You don’t want to write about selling powdered milk or selling franchises for TV repair shops. In every job, I would justify it in my mind whether I loved it or hated it that I was getting paid to learn and every experience would be of value when I figured out what I wanted to do when I grew up.
If I ever grew up, I hoped to run my own business some day. It’s exactly what I told myself every day. In reality, I had as much doubt as confidence. I was just hoping the confidence would win over the doubt and it would all work out for the best.
I remember being 24 years old, living in Dallas in a 3-bedroom apartment with 5 other friends. This wasn’t a really nice place we all kicked in to move up for. This place has since been torn down. Probably condemned. I didn’t have my own bedroom. I slept on the couch or floor depending on what time I got home. I had no closet. Instead I had a pile that everyone knew was mine. My car had the usual hole in the floorboard, a ’77 FIAT X19 that burned a quart of oil that I couldn’t afford every week.
To make matters worse, because I was living on happy hour food, and the 2 beers cover charge, I was gaining weight like a pig. My confidence wasn’t at an all time high. I was having fun. Don’t get me wrong. I truly was having a blast. Great friends, great city, great energy, pretty girls. Ok, the pretty girls had no interest in my fat and growing ass at the time, but that’s another story….
I was motivated to do something I loved. I just wasn’t sure what it was. I made a list of all the different jobs I would love to do. (I still have it.) The problem was that I wasn’t qualified for any of them. But I needed to pay the bills.
I finally got a job working as a bartender at a club. A start, but it wasn’t a career. I had to keep on looking during the day.
About a week later I answered a want ad out of the newspaper for someone to sell PC Software at the first software retail store in Dallas. The ad was actually placed by an employment agency. The fee was to be paid by the company, so I gave it a shot.
I put on my interview face, and of course my interview suit, which just happened to be one of my 2 polyester suits that I had bought for the grand total of 99 dollars. Thank god for 2-fer, 2-fer, 2-fer madness at the local mens clothing store. Grey Pinstripe. Blue Pinstripe. Didn’t matter if it rained, those drops just rolled down the back of those suits. I could crumple them. They bounced right back. Polyester, the miracle fabric.
I wish I could say the blue suit and my interview skills impressed the employment agency enough to set up the interview with the software store. In reality, not many had applied for the job and the agency wanted the fee so they would have sent anyone over to interview. I didn’t care.
I pulled out the grey for my interview at Your Business Software. I was fired up. It was my shot to get into the computer business, one of the industries I had put on my list!
I remember the interview well. Michael Humecki the Prez, and Doug (don’t remember his last name), his partner double-teamed me. Michael did most of the talking to start. He asked me if I had used PC software before. My total PC experience at the time was on the long forgotten TI/99A that had cost me 79 dollars. I used it to try to teach myself Basic while recovering from hangovers and sleeping on the floor while my roommates were at work. They weren’t impressed.
I was trying to pull out every interview trick I knew. I went through the spiel about how I was a good salesperson, you know the part of the interview where you are basically begging for a job, using code phrases like “I care about the customer”, “I promise to work really, really hard” and “I will do whatever it takes to be successful”. Unfortunately, I was getting that “well if no one else applies for the job, maybe” look from Michael.
Finally, Doug spoke up. He asked me. “What do you do if a customer has a question about a software package and you don’t know the answer?” All of the possible answers raced through my mind. I had to ask myself if this was the “honesty test question” you know where they want to see if you will admit to things you don’t know. Is this some trick technology question and there is an answer everyone but me knows? After who knows how long, I blurted out that “I would look it up in the manual and find the answer for them.” Ding, ding, ding…Doug just loved this answer.
Michael wasn’t as convinced, but he then asked me the question I was dying to hear: “Would you not go back to the employment agency at all, so when we hire you we don’t have to pay the fee?” I was in.
What does all this mean? Nothing yet. It was just fun to tell. You have to wait till part 2, if you care, and if there is a part two. Right now, it’s much more important that I go play with my daughter.
Source: Mark Cuban
Touch 12
“Touch 12” was a concept I was introduced to by my mentor at Transwestern Commercial Services this summer, Randy Garrett. Touch 12 is based on a study that indicated that the average customer bought only after being “touched” a total of 12 times.
A “touch” is any form of contact with a prospect. So, a personal visit, voicemail, e-mail, tweet, snail mail, brochure, marketing piece, etc. all are classified as a touch.
These Touch 12 programs succeed with 3 basic criteria: useful information, consistency, and timeliness. It’s important to note that whatever you use as the subject of the interaction must be of interest to your audience (article pertaining to their industry, thought provoking blog, construction updates on major highways located near them, anything… get creative!). Consistency is key in a successful Touch 12 program since it helps maintain TMA, top of mind awareness, with that customer. Lastly, timeliness is a major factor. You can’t just call someone 12 times in one week and expect them to buy. Spread your communicative efforts over the course of months, maybe a year, to achieve top success.
Think about ways to use a Touch 12 where you are right now. A consistent approach like this would be great throughout the interview process.
Author: Will May
A “touch” is any form of contact with a prospect. So, a personal visit, voicemail, e-mail, tweet, snail mail, brochure, marketing piece, etc. all are classified as a touch.
These Touch 12 programs succeed with 3 basic criteria: useful information, consistency, and timeliness. It’s important to note that whatever you use as the subject of the interaction must be of interest to your audience (article pertaining to their industry, thought provoking blog, construction updates on major highways located near them, anything… get creative!). Consistency is key in a successful Touch 12 program since it helps maintain TMA, top of mind awareness, with that customer. Lastly, timeliness is a major factor. You can’t just call someone 12 times in one week and expect them to buy. Spread your communicative efforts over the course of months, maybe a year, to achieve top success.
Think about ways to use a Touch 12 where you are right now. A consistent approach like this would be great throughout the interview process.
Author: Will May
Good To Great
Start with 1,435 good companies. Examine their performance over 40 years. Find the 11 companies that became great. Now here's how you can do it too. Lessons on eggs, flywheels, hedgehogs, buses, and other essentials of business that can help you transform your company.
I want to give you a lobotomy about change. I want you to forget everything you’ve ever learned about what it takes to create great results. I want you to realize that nearly all operating prescriptions for creating large-scale corporate change are nothing but myths.
The Myth of the Change Program: This approach comes with the launch event, the tag line, and the cascading activities.
The Myth of the Burning Platform: This one says that change starts only when there’s a crisis that persuades “unmotivated” employees to accept the need for change.
The Myth of Stock Options: Stock options, high salaries, and bonuses are incentives that grease the wheels of change.
The Myth of Fear-Driven Change: The fear of being left behind, the fear of watching others win, the fear of presiding over monumental failure—all are drivers of change, we’re told.
The Myth of Acquisitions: You can buy your way to growth, so it figures that you can buy your way to greatness.
The Myth of Technology-Driven Change: The breakthrough that you’re looking for can be achieved by using technology to leapfrog the competition.
The Myth of Revolution: Big change has to be wrenching, extreme, painful—one big, discontinuous, shattering break.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Totally wrong.
I want to give you a lobotomy about change. I want you to forget everything you’ve ever learned about what it takes to create great results. I want you to realize that nearly all operating prescriptions for creating large-scale corporate change are nothing but myths.
The Myth of the Change Program: This approach comes with the launch event, the tag line, and the cascading activities.
The Myth of the Burning Platform: This one says that change starts only when there’s a crisis that persuades “unmotivated” employees to accept the need for change.
The Myth of Stock Options: Stock options, high salaries, and bonuses are incentives that grease the wheels of change.
The Myth of Fear-Driven Change: The fear of being left behind, the fear of watching others win, the fear of presiding over monumental failure—all are drivers of change, we’re told.
The Myth of Acquisitions: You can buy your way to growth, so it figures that you can buy your way to greatness.
The Myth of Technology-Driven Change: The breakthrough that you’re looking for can be achieved by using technology to leapfrog the competition.
The Myth of Revolution: Big change has to be wrenching, extreme, painful—one big, discontinuous, shattering break.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Totally wrong.
Network Effect
The classic example is the telephone. The more people own telephones, the more valuable the telephone is to each owner. This creates a positive externality because a user may purchase a telephone without intending to create value for other users, but does so in any case. Online social networks work in the same way, with sites like Twitter and Facebook being more useful the more users join.
The expression "network effect" is applied most commonly to positive network externalities as in the case of the telephone. Negative network externalities can also occur, where more users make a product less valuable, but are more commonly referred to as "congestion" (as in traffic congestion or network congestion).
Over time, positive network effects can create a bandwagon effect as the network becomes more valuable and more people join, in a positive feedback loop.
Source: Wikipedia
Personal Branding
There’s an old axiom in sales, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” But in today’s market, knowing someone is rarely enough to make the sale. So the axiom has shifted to be, “it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you!”
So, to be known by your customers is a key driver of success. This familiarity is best achieved through personal branding. Personal branding is a #gamechanger in our business climate since customers buy the salesperson first, and then the p/s (product or service). So what is personal branding?
Personal branding = process of how we market ourselves to others. Dan Schwabel who spearheads a PB blog says that your self-impression = how people perceive you. This is what PB can do for you:
- Create demand for your p/s indirectly (remember pull marketing from last week.. bingo)
- Establish yourself as an expert in your field
- Be seen and known as a though leader
- Separate yourself from the nameless masses through innovation
All sound good? Good. So how do we build / develop / promote our PB?
- Do everything with a creative flair. Memorability is a vital link to building brand awareness.
- Be willing to give of yourself first. Do this by becoming a resource. To be a resource you must be an expert, so study up (Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hour rule!).
- Basics: develop an online presence, create consistency, Google alerts, blog, join associations.
There was a sales person one time who routinely called on a co-worker of mine, and on their first conversation he asked for my co-worker’s shoe size. Weird, right? Then he said something to the extent of “I’m always going to remember you wear a size 11 shoe.” So the salesperson inputted that size 11 into his CRM database, and each time he calls he mentions the size 11 feet. Now he’s forever known as the “shoe guy.”
Now, is my co-worker every going to buy? Depends on a lot of factors. But, is he ever going to forget who this guy is? Not a chance.
Take some time to develop and promote your brand! You can figure out something better than remembering a prospect’s shoe size, right?
Source: Will May
So, to be known by your customers is a key driver of success. This familiarity is best achieved through personal branding. Personal branding is a #gamechanger in our business climate since customers buy the salesperson first, and then the p/s (product or service). So what is personal branding?
Personal branding = process of how we market ourselves to others. Dan Schwabel who spearheads a PB blog says that your self-impression = how people perceive you. This is what PB can do for you:
- Create demand for your p/s indirectly (remember pull marketing from last week.. bingo)
- Establish yourself as an expert in your field
- Be seen and known as a though leader
- Separate yourself from the nameless masses through innovation
All sound good? Good. So how do we build / develop / promote our PB?
- Do everything with a creative flair. Memorability is a vital link to building brand awareness.
- Be willing to give of yourself first. Do this by becoming a resource. To be a resource you must be an expert, so study up (Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hour rule!).
- Basics: develop an online presence, create consistency, Google alerts, blog, join associations.
There was a sales person one time who routinely called on a co-worker of mine, and on their first conversation he asked for my co-worker’s shoe size. Weird, right? Then he said something to the extent of “I’m always going to remember you wear a size 11 shoe.” So the salesperson inputted that size 11 into his CRM database, and each time he calls he mentions the size 11 feet. Now he’s forever known as the “shoe guy.”
Now, is my co-worker every going to buy? Depends on a lot of factors. But, is he ever going to forget who this guy is? Not a chance.
Take some time to develop and promote your brand! You can figure out something better than remembering a prospect’s shoe size, right?
Source: Will May
Strenths
Tom Rath, author of Strengths Finder 2.0 and creator of that test we took, has an interesting take on strengths and weaknesses. He starts off the book with a great quote: “At its fundamentally flawed core, the aim of almost any learning program is to help us become who we are not.”
Isn’t that an interesting concept? If you think about it, the things we consistently do (school, athletic practice, etc.) are rarely to maximize our strengths but rather minimize our weaknesses. So here’s the million dollar takeaway from Stregnths Finder 2.0 – routinely look for ways to accentuate your strengths. Besides, if you strive to manage what you’re weak at, all you will achieve is mediocrity.
As we approach our professional lives, look for ways to sharpen your strengths even more so to potentially move into that “outlier” category that Gladwell talks about by making the most productive use of your time.
If you’re looking for a list of the strengths, take a look at this article: http://rap.ucar.edu/~dumont/talent/strengths.pdf
Source: Will May
Isn’t that an interesting concept? If you think about it, the things we consistently do (school, athletic practice, etc.) are rarely to maximize our strengths but rather minimize our weaknesses. So here’s the million dollar takeaway from Stregnths Finder 2.0 – routinely look for ways to accentuate your strengths. Besides, if you strive to manage what you’re weak at, all you will achieve is mediocrity.
As we approach our professional lives, look for ways to sharpen your strengths even more so to potentially move into that “outlier” category that Gladwell talks about by making the most productive use of your time.
If you’re looking for a list of the strengths, take a look at this article: http://rap.ucar.edu/~dumont/talent/strengths.pdf
Source: Will May
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