Pete Caputa got tagged for a new potential meme and then tagged me. I know tag, but what’s a meme and why is it potential? He was asked how he made his first $1,000 and answers the question at PC4MEDIA. Now I’m supposed to tell the story of my first $1,000. Tough question. $1,000 used to be a lot of money, but now I know a lot of people who earn $1,000/day every day. I even know some people who earn $1,000/hour. So, (as they say) $1,000 isn’t what it used to be.

Honestly, I don’t remember my first $1,000, but I do remember an important $1,600 check. Here’s my story. In high school, I was (what is now known as) a geek. Smart, shy, introverted. Played tennis. AP classes. You know the type. I went to WPI after graduation. Somewhere along the way, I learned to pretend that I wasn’t smart, shy, or introverted, got married while I was in school and started selling CUTCO Cutlery part time. In the spring of 1974, after 1 year of marriage and several months selling knives door to door, I got a $1,600 commission check for one month’s work. Now, go back 30+ years. I was sitting in class when I realized that I was gonna make more money selling knives that year than the professor that was teaching that class. Didn’t make sense to me so, I left WPI that day and didn’t go back until years later when I started attending the WPI Venture Forum events. Here’s the rest of the chain. Cutco led me to Dave Kurlan. Dave Kurlan led me to selling the way I do. Selling the way I do, led me to collections and eventually back to Dave and sales development. So although I don’t remember my first $1,000, I do remember a very important, life-altering $1,600.

Now, I’m not gonna tag anybody to tell the story of their first $1,000, but if you have a story, or you’re so inclined, comment to this post or use the link above to send your story by email and I’ll post it for you. Incidentally, if you have a blog and you want to tell your story, post it, send me the link and I’ll point to it.

Seth Godin posted about “Enormity” today. It got me wondering if I should post about Today, Martin Luther King, Jr., his “I Have a Dream Speech”. Then, at dinner tonight we were talking about JFK, MLK, RFK and how tumultuous those times were. What a time to be a teenager.

I am not worthy to comment, but I am thankful that so many great men did so much.

Happy Birthday, Dr. King.

So, avoid it.

Remember that some people believe the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” So, if you find yourself talking with a prospect that’s satisfied with mediocrity and unwilling to change, get away from them before you catch it…before people see you associating with mediocrity and start to think that you’re OK with it. Yesterday, I had a conversation with one such business owner. She saw where my questions were leading her and interrupted with, “I’m just not interested.” My question could have been, “You’re not interested in ending your over-promising?”; “You’re not interested in attracting better talent?”; You’re not interested in rising out of mediocrity?”.

But, she wasn’t and I didn’t care and I bailed out. So she doesn’t get fixed and I will do everything that I can to keep my clients from catching what she’s got by keeping them from doing business with her or letting people that they care about do business with her.

You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. There is no middle.

Update: Yesterday, I was talking with someone that said that he was gonna talk to her to see if she could help him in his business. I suggested two of her competitors that were “world class” providers. I made the introductions this morning.

So, today, the talking heads were talking about Tom Brady’s preparation for this week’s playoff game. The comment that caught my ear was that Tom Brady spent a significant amount of time with his personal mechanics coach during the past week. Wait a minute! Tom Brady? Three time Super Bowl winner? Top of his game? Top of anybody’s game? He has a personal mechanics coach? He’s in the playoffs (again) and working with his coach now?

How can the best get better?

Wait a minute! You’re a professional. You sell. Who is your sales mechanics coach and when was the last time that you worked with him/her? Can you get better or are you better at what you do than Tom Brady is at what he does?

This is my blog. I am the RainMaker Maker. Mark is my son and he is a RainMaker. Which may validate me as the RainMaker Maker. Now if I made the RainMaker, who does the RainMaker Make?……….Kai.

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Can you hear the conversation, son to father? “So thats calculus – lets move on to microeconomics.”

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“Mommy, is that you?”

Today, Dave asked me, “How’s it feel to be a grandfather?” At this point, I don’t know. But, this is what it looks like to be a grandmother (both of them).

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So, Dave, the answer is, “I don’t know yet. I like that Kai seemed to be content when I was holding him. I like that he’s healthy. I like that Mark & Robin are very happy. I like that “Kai” is Hawaiian for ocean. I expect that both Kai and Grandpa will spend much time at the ocean. Oh, did you know that Mark proposed to Robin by the ocean? That they got married by the ocean? They honeymooned by the ocean? and you know about me.”

Short answer, “I’m happy and ready.” Incidentally, if you like pictures, there’s more at www.rickroberge.com.

I have a client who struggles. Not because he doesn’t know how, but because he doesn’t believe he can.

We spent several hours during the last two weeks of 2006 planning 2007. We determined where we were, where we wanted to get and developed the plan to get there. He bought into every step of the process when we were done, but he still had to execute. You need to know that his goals are aggressive, but attainable.

(Day 1/Tuesday) – Accomplished his “calls” goal. During debrief at the end of the day, we determined a couple of minor mistakes in an otherwise great performance except that he not only never asked for a referral, but he never thought to ask.

(Day 2/Wednesday) – Accomplished half of his “calls” goal. During debrief, we learned that he did very well. Still never asked for a referral, but realized at one point that he was supposed to be asking. (Baby steps.)

(Day 3/Today) – He called me on the way to his office and left a message saying that he hoped that my day wasn’t as bad as his. His day’s not very good.  He has a stuffy nose/cough. He’s gonna take some ibuprofen and try to get back in the game. I figured this would be a wasted day.

A few hours later, he left me a voicemail asking whether it counts if he gets a referral without asking. He added that these crazy customers are not only calling back and leaving a good time to call, but they also need work done at sisters house. (We were working on leaving voicemail messages that work.) He added that he doesn’t understand some people. Tonight he sends me his results.

He set up three cooperative partnerships where everybody can feed work to the other.

He gave a referral to one of his resources.

He had a short conversation with someone that wanted to play games. Realized it. Called the game and ended the conversation.

He developed SOB on a 5 year contract that’s up for renewal and he’s being asked to bid on.

These in addition to the jobs he got from the customer that called back and the sister.

He overcame his nose/cough issue, got results, and had the presence to insert some humor into his report to me.

Last January, he was probably wondering if he should think about some goals for 2006. This January, he made more calls in three days than he did in the last quarter of 2006. Last January he may have had a stuffy nose and cough all month. This year it didn’t matter. He’s taken control of his head. He’s taken control of his business. He’s taken control of his life. Did he do it alone? Of course not! But it doesn’t matter. He did it!

Congratulations and Happy New Year!

Who’s next?

How many people are there in the world that do what you do? How do most of them go about their business? Does your competition run the same ads as you in the same places? Do they have the same telephone script that you use? Does it start the same way as yours? “Hello, my name is (your name). I’m calling from (your company). We do yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. Do you give samples, demos, needs analyses, presentations, close, handle objections?

How do prospects pick you? Price? Looks? Persistence? Luck? Smile?

I am not a marketing guru. Lots of people think Seth Godin is. But from my sales perspective, I recognize that some “marketing” tools can make you different. A few examples:

How many of your competitors have a newsletter? Here’s a couple PawSpot or WhizSpark.

How many of your competitors have a blog? Centrend or Mark Paskell.

How about podcasts? Course Pilot or zBiz.TV.

If you want to be just like all your competitors, then this post was probably a waste of your time, but if you do want to be different, if you do want to stand out do it. Talk to someone who can help. If you don’t know who can help, use the link at the top of the page and send me an email. We’ll figure it out and I’ll make an introduction.

Incidentally, if you want to “sell” different, I’m gonna introduce you to me!

I, like you, take a fair number of incoming sales calls. I don’t have (nor want) a gatekeeper to screen them away. If it’s a recording, I put the call on hold and forget about it. If it’s someone reading a script poorly from a company that I don’t care about, I’ll do the same or just hang up. Occasionally, it’s a real sales call from a real person and although they may have a script or an outline, they are trying to engage me in the conversation. I’ll often play along to see what happens.

Last week I took a call from a person that I’ve “seen around”. Carries himself well. He’s the principal. Friendly. Gives no appearance of being incapable, professionally. I like him, and if somebody asked me about him, I’d say something like, “Seems like a good guy, but I’ve never heard him talk about the stuff that he does and I don’t know anyone who uses him”. Truthful, but not exactly an endorsement.

OK, so back to the call. He calls and says, “Hi, Rick this is _____.” I reply, “Hey, _____! What’s happening? How was Christmas?” We exchanged a few more pleasantries and _____ said, “Well, Rick, this is my official sales call.” I replied with something like, “Cool.” but I thought, “It’s about time.” We met several months ago. _____ is in a very competitive industry. I have someone that does what he does for me. I have several people in my network that do what he does. (Interestingly, I can only remember one other “sales call” from any of the others.)

So, he told me that he’d like to schedule a meeting where we could talk about where I am, what he does and then he’ll go away to do a proposal for me. I replied that we’re expecting our first grandchild any minute (still waiting as I write), we have new kitchen cabinets being delivered on 1/15 and the plumber’s coming to redo our bathroom before that. I have important business events happening on 1/17, 1/20 and 1/24 that all need preparation, a cruise scheduled for the first week in February and the kitchen will be installed shortly thereafter. The only other things that I kinda expected was a trip to Mexico before we opened up our beach house in early April.

How’s that for a stall? I not only put him off for almost two months, but he understands how busy I am and believes that it would have been impossible for me to meet with him. Now, here’s the truth. I HAVE NO COMPELLING NEED TO MEET WITH HIM! I DON’T KNOW WHAT, IF ANYTHING, HE’S EVER DONE FOR ONE OF HIS CLIENTS THAT I NEED DONE. I DON’T KNOW IF MY GUY HAS UNDERPERFORMED. HE WANTS TO SCHEDULE A MEETING AND HASN’T PUT ANY SPECIFIC ITEM ON THE AGENDA AND WITHOUT AN AGENDA ITEM, WE’LL NEVER MEET. Am I too busy to meet? I suggest that most of _____’s clients are busier than I am, but forget the rest of them. Since I spoke with _____, I’ve developed a stuffy nose. If I still have it on January 2nd, I’m gonna call my doctor and see him ASAP! I will make myself available when he is available. Why? I HAVE A COMPELLING NEED!

_____, I’ll agree that we should meet, but we should probably talk about what we could do for you rather than what you can do for me. Your move.

What is customer loyalty? Is it important? Do you have it? How do you know? What if you don’t? What can you do? Can you do it on purpose? Is it an accident? Is it them or you? What are the benefits? Are there any drawbacks? Do customers want to be loyal or do they resist? Can it be tracked?

What do you think?

UPDATE: Brian Halligan makes a couple of good points on his blog Small Business 2.0. Enjoy!

Huh! OK, here’s the story. I don’t have to be the first to have the newest thing, but if it’s cool, I don’t want to be the last. So, I’ve been watching people use organizers, Palms and Blackberrys for years. Without getting into specifics, I didn’t join them until last Thursday, 12/21. I bought a Motorola Q and Bluetooth headset. My wife used my phone last night without the headset and said, “It feels like you’re talking into a calculator”. That’s one of the reasons that I bought the headset. The other was the convenience of receiving calls while driving. I hope I never become one of those people that wears the headset while walking around so they’re “ready” or worse, one of the rude idiots that wears it while they’re having a face to face conversation in case somebody more important calls. The reason that I bought the Q was to be accessible. Not so much to be able to access, but when someone wants me, I want them to be able to reach me. Cell phone and laptop used to be enough. Like Emeril, I want to step it up a notch.

This isn’t actually a treatise on technology, early adopters, or even customer service, but I needed to share this story to set up a subsequent incident. Naturally, I had to show my new toy around. One of the people that I showed it to told me that he had had the same phone since 1999 and wondered if he should ask his boss for a new phone. Don’t you think that’s weird? Is he wearing the same suit to work that he wore in 1999? Driving the same car? Same eyeglasses? This guy is a well paid, well respected, “leader in his field” professional. Ask his boss? Did he ask his boss when he upgraded his suit, car or glasses? Isn’t your cell phone a “personal” tool to make you more productive? I was blown away. How much more productive could this person be if he invested in himself rather than waiting for his boss?

I think this is mindset. Owner mentality vs. employee mentality. I’ve been offered company cars, salaries, paid vacations. I always opt for mileage reimbursement, commissions, and unlimited time off. I decide what tools I want for work. If my employer wants to contribute, fine, but I make the investment in myself to make myself more productive so I can bring more value to my clients, my employers and hopefully the world. So, I decide which phone I want and I pay for it. I decide what car I want and I pay for it. I decide that I take summers off and I pay for it. And, are you ready? I paid for my own sales training. I own it, so it comes with me wherever I go.

Merry Christmas!