by Admin | Mar 13, 2017 | Business Relationships, Culture, Mindset, Prospecting
Are opportunities plentiful for you with your relationships? Or are you experiencing a ‘drought’? “In like a lamb, out like a lion” is the phrase commonly used to describe March weather and we can certainly identify with that in Kansas. This is a state where you can literally experience all four seasons in one week, from blizzard to spring thunderstorms – we affectionately call this ‘Thundersnow’ (cue AC/DC playing Thunderstruck in the background). I think these crazy weather patterns really provide great insight into the rhythms we adopt in our prospecting effort. We start and are gung ho with tornadic breeze levels of effort, lightning fast execution of basic ideas and then it fades into a gentle breeze that doesn’t even move a leaf along. I had the distinct pleasure of sitting in on a presentation on innovation given by 9 Steps grad Jon McGraw of Vision Pursue and Jose Pires of Black & Veatch Leadership Institute of Business Excellence. During this presentation, Jose spoke about how ideas are everywhere, discipline to execute however, is very rare. I see this so often with professionals I engage with in the community and recognize that the majority of the value I bring as a coach/mentor is to remind them to identify the right level of activity and follow it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. of EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. of EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. Yes I raised my voice. The biggest lesson you learn when embarking on any journey is to stay the course and recognize it is a very long, arduous journey full of fun pit stops and distractions that can divert you from...
by Admin | Apr 19, 2015 | Business Relationships, Mindset
Are there days you ask yourself why you do what you do? I know many of the professionals I coach will stop and ask themselves this question. Often when they are experiencing not so great results from a lot of hard work. We spend 1/3rd of our days at work, sometimes more. And that’s ½ of our waking hours. We enter the workforce when we are 20 (sometimes sooner) and we exit at 70+ (remember the ‘new normal’ with retirement planning and social security- don’t get me started) that’s 50+ years you devote to a professional career. God promises us 3 score and 10 (translates to 70 years in non-Bible math) in our life. So if we are promised a lifespan of 70 years and more than 2/3rds of that is devoted to our profession, shouldn’t it be something worthwhile? I ask you these questions to get you thinking about what you do in sales. I was visiting with a group of sales professionals who thought by expanding their relationship with their clients it would appear as if they were ‘just selling more stuff’. Is that really what you consider a career of sales? People buy solutions from people they know, like and trust. I don’t know about you, but if someone is ‘just selling something’ they don’t fit into the ‘know, like and trust’ category. There are a few really smart people I know that are always seeking innovation. They adopt new habits, buy new technology and hire the best service providers. I call them when I am looking for a solution. I do this because I –...
by Admin | Feb 10, 2014 | Mindset, Networking, Referrals
Someone asked my husband once what I did for a living and he responded with – she drinks a lot of iced tea and hangs out in coffee shops meeting people. Doesn’t that sound like my job isn’t work? I am one of those coaches who believe you must practice what you teach to have credibility with your audience. And also, this stuff really works. This blog is a little about the day in the life of a SalezWORKS coach. We work with a large segment of clients in the financial services arena. One of the foundations of our process is to be able to offer a comprehensive solution to our clients for their growth challenges, which means we spend our time looking for coaches and resources our clients might be in need of on their path to success. We have a financial service advisor we are partnering with who referred us to 2 resources he has worked with successfully. Our blog is the result of those 2 meetings and to share with you characteristics we have found are present in great partners for us. And probably they’ll be present in your great partners. And even more importantly – how do you recognize a partnership that will be a one way street not heading your way… Meeting #1 – Highly successful career exec who has been in a leadership role in a fast growing company about a year. He’s known as a problem solver, innovative thinker and all around good guy. Scene – Coffee shop in the a.m., he arrived 15 minutes early, Joyce and I were right on...
