Smile and Move: a reminder to happily serve (an excerpt)

By Sam Parker

I want to be needed. You want to be needed.

We all want to matter to the world.

And the way we matter is through our service to others… by giving more.

If we want to matter and to be happy, if we want more freedom, more flexibility, more responsibility or more money, we need to give more to those we’re supposed to be serving.

We need to get over ourselves.

We need to smile & move.

To smile is to…

· Be awake, attentive, and engaged with others.

· It’s being thankful for our opportunities, for our people, and for the occasional chance we have to be in the path to serve.

· It’s being approachable and accessible to our customers, our subordinates, and our leaders.

· It’s complaining less because we all have work to accomplish.

· It’s smiling, really.

To move is to…

· Start our days early and go long more than once in a blue moon.

· It’s exceeding expectations for others and dismissing mediocrity in our work.

· It’s having a sense of urgency with our efforts, predicting and pre-sweating the details for others.

· It’s being resourceful and resilient when we fall short, making it all about results – exceptional results.

The truth is… You’re at my service and I’m at yours.

To enjoy more, we need to give more.

Sam Parker is cofounder of Give More Media, publishers of JustSell.com, author of the best book 212 the extra degree™, and coauthor of SALESTOUGH™ blogs at justparker.com. He speaks to groups occasionally, has a degree in marketing from James Madison University (1987), loves grilling a good steak and making handmade pizzas, writes run-on sentences every once in a while and makes every attempt daily to smile & move.

Many blogs enjoy posting the uplifting Smile & Move video (3 minutes) www.SmileAndMove.com/Video. It’s hosted on YouTube so it’s easy to imbed.

The Money Question

Economic Perspective in Perspective

I love working with talented sales professionals. One of my favorite training exercises is to work around the room and ask this simple question: How much is “a lot of money” to you?

Talk about fun! (If you’re a sales trainer you really have to try this one.) Although I have conducted this group training exercise countless times, I am always amazed by the scope of the responses. Invariably, the figures offered by a group in response to this “money question” tend to range all over the place—from fairly frugal (I couldn’t resist) amounts to darn right large impressive sums.

In fact, one small group of about a dozen salespeople from Greensboro, North Carolina, actually responded from a low of five dollars to a high of fifty-million dollars! No kidding. It was pretty remarkable. I remember thinking to myself (during an apparent flashback moment to the days of 50’s sitcom speak), “Gee-wiz! Could the disparity in these answers be any greater?”

“So what’s the point of the exercise” you ask? Well, here you go. The money question clarifies the importance of understanding your prospect’s economic perspective.

“Economic perspective” defined

Each of us has our own individual concept of what “a lot of money” means to us—a financial viewpoint framed by our unique past and current relationship with money.

For example, if you’re currently pulling down a double six-figure plus income, enjoy tooling around the neighborhood in your paid-in-full red Lexus convertible, live in a multi-million dollar equity-stuffed estate home—and your broker successfully convinced you to move your retirement money into safe haven investments just before the stock market went ka-boom… then you are most likely to answer the money question closer to the fifty-million dollar mark. Make sense?

On the other hand, if you recently experienced the misfortune of standing in line outside the unemployment office, only to enjoy an unobstructed view of your newly repossessed PT Cruiser being towed down the street right in front of you… it may be safe to suggest that five dollars may feel like a small fortune to you in that moment.

Fortunately, the financial experiences of most prospects probably are not quite as extreme as these two examples. But, with that said, it is extremely important to understand and respond in terms of your customer’s economic perspective (not yours) any time the subject of money comes up in the sales process.

Moving right along

When a prospect says something like “I don’t have a lot of money to spend right now”, for one, the statement in context may more closely translate into “I only have a few hundred dollars in my back account right now”. For another prospect, say a bit more “well-heeled” (sort of a throwback expression there, too), the same exact statement delivered in an equally impassioned way, may mean that they are trying to get along with only a few thousand dollars of currently disposable income. A rather big and important distinction, don’t you think?

Now here’s the rub. (Sorry, that one’s really old school.) Unless you happen to be intimately knowledgeable about the details of your prospect’s financial situation before you begin working with them (i.e., you remember reviewing their tax return before being fired from your former position as an IRS agent, or you successfully hacked into their computer last night and stole their identity... that sort of thing), the minute they mutter one of those ambiguous statements about money, you’re probably going to default to using your own personal economic perspective to decipher what you think they are saying—and that could cost you a sale. (Especially true, should you be the salesperson who provided the five dollar answer in the Greensboro session…)

The money question training exercise demonstrates the importance of understanding economic perspective as it directly relates to closing sales. When the subject of money comes up, make sure that you’re clear about what the prospect is actually saying, before you launch into some ill-conceived objection-handling mode, before you drop down to presenting a less expensive item, and before you decide to call it a night and beat a path home in your PT Cruiser.

Disclaimer: The selection of automobile brands or models used within this article was completely random and included for rhetorical purposes only. Thereby, no implied endorsement for any vehicle is made by the author… well, maybe with the exception of the Lexus convertible.

On choosing happiness. What's your choice?

By Jeffrey H. Gitomer 

After is a self-defeating word. It robs you of the present, and resigns you to wait without taking any action. 

You convince yourself that life will be better after something: After you get a new job, after you get a better job, after you get more money, after you get out of debt, after the economy rebounds, after your stocks go back up, after you get that big order. 

You convince yourself that life will be better after an event: After you get married, after you have a baby, after you get a new house, after you take a vacation, after you come back from vacation, after summer is over, or some other action-procrastinating “after”. 

Are you frustrated that the kids aren't old enough, and believe you'll be more content after they’re in high school or out of high school? Are you frustrated that you have teenagers to deal with? You will certainly be happy after they’re out of that stage. Certainly you’ll be happier after they’re in college, or is it out of college? 

You tell yourself that your life will be more complete when your spouse gets his or her act together, when you get a nicer car, a new house, a raise in pay, a new boss, or worse, after you retire. 

The truth is, the fact is, the reality is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. 

If not now, when? After the economy gets better? 

You may not be able to wait that long. 

Your life will always be filled with challenges, barriers, and disappointments. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Alfred Souza said, “For a long, long time it had seemed to me that I was about to begin real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” 

There is no way to happiness. 

Happiness is the way. 

There is no after to happiness. 

Happiness is now. 

Here’s the answer: It’s inside your head FIRST and everyplace else second. Happiness is a treasure. Your (missed) opportunity is to treasure every moment that you have. 

Stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until you have kids, until after you quit smoking, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get your new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until the first or the fifteenth, until your song comes on, until you've had a drink, until you've sobered up, until you win the lottery, or until the cows come home to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy. 

And treasure the happiness of now more because you share it with someone special enough to invest your time in... 

Happiness is: 

Not a sale or a commission. 

Not an economy or a budget. 

Not a yes or a no. 

Not a game winning hit or a last second touchdown. 

Happiness is a way of life that is inside you at all times. It helps you get over the tough times, and helps you celebrate the special times. 

Seems pretty simple to define on paper, but real difficult to manifest when the chips are down. My experience has taught me the difference between resign and resolve. You can resign yourself to what is, and hope or wait for a better day. Or you can resolve that you are a positive person who finds the good, the positive, the happiness, the smile, and especially the opportunity in everything. 

Happiness is now, not a goal or a destination. 

It’s not an after, it’s a before. 

And it’s up to you. All you have to do is: decide. 

If you want a few more ideas about internal, personal happiness, go to www.gitomer.com, register if you are a first time visitor, and enter the word HAPPY in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Little Red Book of Selling and eight other business books on sales, customer loyalty, and personal development. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on sales, customer loyalty, and personal development at www.trainone.com. Jeffrey conducts more than 100 personalized, customized seminars and keynotes a year. To find out more, visit www.gitomer.com. Jeffrey can be reached at 704.333.1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com