I met Maggie last summer when she visited us at our beach in Maine. Understandably, when she visited, everyone was wearing bathing suits. I saw her at tonight’s event and my greeting was, “Hi, Maggie. You look different with clothes on.” Maggie smiled.

Elaine also remembered Maggie and greeted her with, “Hi, Maggie. You’ve lost weight.” Maggie replied, “I’ve been doing the South Beach diet. Thanks for noticing.” and they had an extended conversation.

The difference between boys and girls.

I just received this email from Dave Kurlan and decided that given the world’s state of affairs, I’d share it immediately.

From Dan Millman’s Newsletter Today

The Paradoxical Commandments

“I wrote these comments back in 1968, when I was nineteen, a college sophomore:

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.

2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.

4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do it anyway.

5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.

7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.

10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

The Paradoxical Commandments are guidelines for finding personal meaning in the face of adversity. The paradox is this: even when things are tough — even when the world is crazy — we can still find personal meaning and deep happiness. We do that by facing the worst in the world with the best in ourselves. We do that by living a paradoxical life.

From the book Do It Anyway by Kent M. Keith (published by New World Library)

Don’t have a blog?

Worried about relevance?

Wanna be anonymous?

This is your chance. Have at it. Speak your mind.

Seen anything sales-ilicious, sale-arious, or sale-ient, lately?

Feel free to sign in as Anonymous, None of your Business, My mother’s child, or any other name that strikes your fancy.

Let’s see it.

I don’t even know if that title makes sense. If you can think of a better one, tell me. I’ll consider it.

I was just reading Jim Burns, “Mindset for an Anemic Business Climate” and thinking about some of my economy stories.

Elaine and I bought both our primary home and our beach house during economic downturns.

I will attend Worcester Business Journal’s Top Growth Companies 2008 to watch one of my clients be recognized as the #1 Top Growth Company. One of my clients is one of 12 salespeople in his office, but sells half of the business.

Lest you think that I’m trying to tell you that success is “Rick dependent”, check out Hubspot and The Bridge Group. A vendor and a ‘quasi-competitor’ that are having their best year ever.

So, what’s the point? Two of them.

First, you are who you associate with. Hang with losers, you’re likely to be a loser. Hang with people that are struggling, suffering and complaining, you’re likely to do the same. I know small business owners that have dropped their chamber memberships, cut costs and are hunkering down getting ready to go out of business if they can’t weather this. Obviously, we at Kurlan are having a great year. So are our friends.

Second, this world moves too fast and won’t ‘buy’ same old. Same old stuff. Same old solutions. Same old approach. Same old attitude. I just heard a news story that started, “General Motors days may be numbered…” That’s a shame, but really…Didn’t they offer us the same old for too long? Don’t you think that they held onto the, “We’re #1. We’re invincible.” too long? Don’t you think that they let their competitors gain market share?

If you’d like to talk to me, feel free.

The Worcester Chamber has another suggestion. Contact them or me for a more information on the program.

This is not a political statement, so please don’t let my politics keep you from seeing the lesson.

I did not vote for Bill Clinton either time, but he was my President as well as he was yours and he did the job as well as he could being the man that he was. Don’t try to read between the lines. There’s nothing there. He was elected according to the rules and regardless of what I think of him as a man or as a President, he was the man that the voters wanted.

He was a hell of a salesman. The words that he chose. His tonality, cadence, volume. His physiology, facial expressions, hand gestures, posture, stance. He was a hell of a salesman.

I did not vote for Barack Obama, but on January 20th, he’ll be my president as much as he’ll be yours. He was duly elected because more of the American voters bought him than bought John McCain (or any of the other candidates for the office). He’ll make decisions over the next four years that would probably keep me up at night if I had to make them, but he’s the President. That’s his job.

Barack was a better salesman than his opponents. Did he spend more money? Did he work smarter? Did he yada yada yada? Fact is….bottom line…..more people bought his story than anyone else’s yesterday.

I did not vote for Sir. I didn’t buy his stuff which is how consumers vote (with dollars). I did not (and won’t) refer him, because I don’t want him anywhere near anyone that I care about and based on many of the comments to my last post, he’s not getting many other votes either. Now, @ Frank and @ Pete, respectfully whether or not I agree with your observations, I had to walk because I couldn’t uncover HIS compelling reasons. If he’s depleting his savings, I’d find that compelling. If he doesn’t it’s not. If he’s about to lose his exclusive rights, I’d find that compelling. If he doesn’t it’s not. If he’s feeling like a failure, I’d find that compelling. If he doesn’t it’s not. He had no compelling reason to buy because if he did, he wouldn’t have said, “I see that you’re trying to trick me.” He would have said, “Holy crap! This guy could help me, but it looks like he’s leaving! Stop!”

It’s always, always, always, always, always about COMPELLING REASONS. THEIR compelling reasons. If they don’t have them. If you can’t find them. You’re wasting your time. Leave.

Special note to Rob: The quest for anonymity forces me to leave out details. Similarly, I know stuff about you that others may not. Skeptical isn’t the right word you. I’ve always found you open, maybe questioning, surely not a roll over for every offer that comes along. By the same token, skeptical isn’t the right word for Sir. If you knew what I know, you’d know that Sir believes that he’s much smarter than me (and the rest of the world) and wants me to tell him where to find salespeople that can sell him out of his problem, but he does not want to pay for it.

Honestly, he’s not fun.

Honestly, his money problems force him to buy only that which he can get for free.

Honestly, if I were in a ‘name-calling’ mood, jerk would be mild.

Honestly, we’ve already given Sir more time and attention than prospects have given him lately.

I was introduced to an entrepreneur (let’s call him, “Sir”) about three years ago. He was struggling then. He attended our Executive Luncheon last Wednesday. He and I had a 20 minute conversation during which he showed no compelling need or emotion even though he’s still struggling. The following email exchange ensued. See if you can explain the title of the post.

On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 6:47 AM, Rick Roberge wrote: Sir, Back when you and I met at Starbucks, I was still hoping to spend 100% of my time with individual salespeople that wanted to learn how to sell better and entrepreneurs to help them reach their dream by generating revenue rather than selling their souls to financiers. I do spend a significant amount of time with individual salespeople because their companies pay for them to get help. Entrepreneurs are, for the most part, a waste of time and a source of frustration. I searched my blog for articles about entrepreneurs, and as it turns out, I’ve posted many times. I’ve included a link to the search results if you’re curious, but I want to warn you that you’ll see words like: ego, argumentative, uncooperative, DIY, out of business and death. If you haven’t already deleted this, here’s the link https://therainmakermaker.com/search.aspx?q=entrepreneu&sc=tcon&dt=a&al=. Sir, I just typed more reflecting on our Starbucks meeting and subsequent conversations, but deleted it because there’s really no reason to upset you further. You asked yesterday how you could help me. Honestly, you can’t. We met through an introduction, but the intro came from my client. Client’s can refer. If you made a referral and they asked you, “What has Rick done for you?” What can you say? “Nothing. I don’t need him.” “Nothing. I can’t afford him.” “Nothing. I don’t like him.” I refer my clients and they refer me. I become an integral part of my client’s business. We over-help each other and we deserve it. Thanks for attending the Luncheon.

He replied.

On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 9:33 AM, Sir wrote: Dear Rick, Thanks for your thoughful response and challenge. I read the blog entries you searched for me, and when I reached your comments about pay-time realized that I should respond over the weekend when my customers are not usually available. Sir

On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 11:38 AM, Sir wrote: Dear Rick, I have a couple of minutes free before my next pay-time activity. I just want you to know that I see you are trying to use the “Just Walk Away” sales technique on me. Smart capable highly educated entrepreneurs who can see a market need and create a product to meet it are just not your target market, so there’s no point in trying to guilt them into using your services. I’m sure you have had great success training insurance salespeople and others who sell a product created by someone else, and that you have made enough money from the companies that employ them to afford several homes and great vacations. And that’s fine. Unfortunately, you don’t believe strongly enough in your service to offer a fee structure where you get paid a percentage of the sales of those who have taken your sales training courses, rather than asking to be paid up front without conditions on whether your sales training is effective. Even though we agee to disagree, let’s stay friends. Take care, Sir.

I’ve watched Dave Kurlan speak at Executive Luncheons a few times. The two hour presentation is jam-packed with take-aways for everyone in the room. Every time, he’s pointed out the duties of an effective sales manager and had everyone in the room agree that it was a 60 hour a week job. And he winds up asking the question,  “If you’re a CEO working 60 hours a week, a salesperson with a full quota, an owner with administrative duties, or hold any other position in a company, how can you expect yourself to commit another 60 hours a week to being the sales manager. Most of the room nods in agreement and make a note to find a good, full time sales manager.

So, what made me post about this?

Mark and Robin went to a wedding this weekend and Kai and Zane stayed with us this weekend. Zane eats everything. Kai eats nothing. Zane crawls faster than I can walk. Kai runs in the other direction. We went to the park. The farm. The store (while they were napping). Elaine and I went to church separately. Dinner dishes didn’t get done until after baths, stories, and bed. Noon Friday to Noon Sunday. We were grandparents. Nothing else. I didn’t email. I didn’t talk on the phone. I didn’t read the overview in my briefcase. I didn’t blog. I didn’t call my mother. Neither Elaine nor I did anything but be the best grandparents that we could be.

And we were awesome!

    

But it made us appreciate what Robin’s life is like. Her ‘job’ is Kai and Zane. She doesn’t do a lot of what she used to do and the lesson for this post is that if your sales manager isn’t willing to do the job and forget everything else, they won’t do nearly as well at their job as Robin does at hers.

Have you noticed that people with big egos are much too busy to read your blog? much less comment on it or link to yours? Have you noticed that people with big egos might not return your call in what you believe is a timely manner? Have you noticed that people with big egos don’t really care about what you think? It’s pretty easy to recognize when someone has an ego because people with egos often make the people around them feel uncomfortable. Boy does it bug me when someone is more concerned with their ego than mine.

OK. So, why today are we onto egos? Pete Caputa started it.

Lest you think that I’m being falsely humble, I’m pretty awesome. Just ask my mother. I’m not awesome in the same way as published authors, super-smart, super successful entrepreneurs, or CEO-types and I, for sure, don’t have what these guys have.

But….you can take it to the bank….I have an ego.

That being said, when I’m selling, I need to put my ego aside. When a prospect says, “All salespeople lie.” I can’t feel it, I have to ask, “About everything?” When a prospect doesn’t make the decision as promised, I can’t read them the riot act, I have to ask, “(this is really secret stuff)”.

The point is that whoever is controlling their ego is probably also controlling the relationship.

Have you ever noticed that some people with titles can’t manage? True story.

I recently watched a manager sit through a presentation with his people. After the presentation, the manager quickly summarized his thoughts on the presentation for his subordinates, then said, “Well, I have a call.” and left. Never once asking if any of his crew had any thoughts. Why? Probably because his opinions are the only ones that mattered (to him).

When you’re managing, grow your subordinates’ egos if you want to grow their opinion of you.

Last week, Frank Belzer appeared on Region on the Move to be interviewed by Cindy Skowyra regarding his upcoming seminar at the Expo. It was a great interview during which Frank made several points, one of which was that, today, you can focus on cutting costs or growing sales. Cutting costs will not help you grow sales and may hurt. Growing sales may eliminate the need to cut costs.

Ask around. You’ll find local companies that doubled their sales from 2006 to 2007 and doubled them again 2007 to 2008. By cutting costs? or selling more? Think about it.

How much do you have to cut costs to earn over $100,000?

How much more would you have to sell to do the same?

Which question is easier to answer?

Today, one of my fan’s got yelled at. A business owner that he knows has plenty of leads, but can’t them convert to customers. This was actually the second time that this owner raised the issue. The first time, my fan said, “Call Rick”. The guy didn’t like the fact that I said that he would have to change. This time, my fan said, “I already told you to call Rick.” That’s when the guy read my fan the riot act. I wonder if he’s thinking about cutting his ‘marketing’ budget so he can invest in learning why he can’t sell?

So, I read Frank’s post the day that he wrote it. I found it thoughtful, on point and knew that I’d comment eventually. Different people know different things. I got some great off-line comments about my post on scientific equations. It got me thinking about all the things that small business people need to know.

How many business owners LOVE algebra? Remember this? If a = 2b, and b = 2c, what is the equation that shows the relationship between a and c? When has not knowing algebra ever hurt your business?

How about economics? Remember Supply and Demand? Where is equilibrium for you?

How about the Price Elasticity of your Demand? Do you know what will happen if you raise or lower your price?

Do you know what the primary colors are? The secondary colors?

I’m sure that those CEO’s that Frank wrote about had “people” that knew algebra, understood economics, and knew the color wheel. I’m sure that they also had financial people, sales people, marketing people, yada, yada, yada. But were they listening to them? When they realized that their “people” weren’t getting it done, did they look elsewhere for answers?

Can you sell? Do you know why or why not? Do you have a fiddle?