Money Talks - AC/DC

Up for grabs, up for a price

It's a phrase I often use, as well as 'If people buy you, they'll buy the product', especially when I'm speaking to Sales Teams. Having been in Sales for most of my professional life, (as even now I'm my own company salesman) I've had numerous roles where the level of sales and my level of success was due more to my attitude, than to what it was I was endeavouring to sell.

Belief

Sure, during my many jobs in Sales, I worked for some companies where the product wasn't 100% and it was frustrating when things went wrong and customers lost faith and orders vaporised. You'd think that would be really annoying but I remember in one role the product was amazing and only really profitable work was undertaken, but I found it very dull and possibly I enjoyed the harder sell. 

Reward/Ceiling

I'm not sure how much the money mattered if I'm being honest. Okay, there was always a salary to be negotiated and a car with a fin on the back to be decided on within my hierarchy of colleagues, but commission was never a real driver for me and there was always a ceiling on effort to create and effort to maintain a healthy return. I could never comprehend why at one company (where I started from scratch) had a £1M of 'New-to-the-business-sales-target' for my first year of employment, yet after that it went to maintaining that business with a 10% growth for year two. Six months in and £1M under my belt, I'll admit I took my foot off the gas and before the 12 months were up I'd left for something where my creativity and networking delivered the satisfaction I needed from my work.

Tools

Well if you haven’t got the tools for the job, then it's never going to happen. Being stuck at a desk in a noisy environment is never going to deliver. Alternatively having all the tools but not the time to use them is also incredibly frustrating. Even now, when I'm contacted I immediately email or call if there's a number - every time the response is 'my that was quick', and so it should be as in this day and life is so immediate and there's only a matter of moments before the potential lead has moved on or found someone else keener to do the deal.

Knowledge

They say a little knowledge is dangerous and I can remember being a very fresh-faced salesman trying every trick in the book to clinch a deal. My more senior colleagues seemed to breeze their targets and kinda knew whom and when to chase and when to turn down what seemed like a golden opportunity to me as one that was too risky. It's all down to 'Knowledge' - or shall we say 'Experience'. Sadly something that can't be bought - yet 'taught' to a degree. It was certainly 'taught' to me, in double quick time, by watching and adopting the ways and attitudes of those around me that were more successful. A hard lesson.

Eating with your Eyes

Well, in sales we judge the people we engage with by how they look. It's kinda sad in a way but however true. The covering up of arm tattoos, say for someone going for an interview with a London Law-Firm, might seriously affect their chances of employment and you'll know if you've ever bought or sold a house, having bright red walls or psychedelic wallpaper often puts people off. Looking the part matters.

Enthusiasm

Something I've never lacked in but have experienced many times over with people I've met that have just lacked sparkle. Sales is very much a dynamic environment where people should feel they can add their personality and style to a degree but where professionalism is maintained and the value of the brand being sold is upheld and guaranteed. I'm not sure that trying to shape people at the dreaded 'Sales Conference' ever works and I only see these as demotivating for those that aren’t achieving. Empowerment comes from being understood, rather than being undermined and undervalued.

Value

'It's never a Sale until the Invoice is paid' and 'The Customer is King' are both phrases that come to mind when I consider my path through the sales journey. Those values are great to uphold but also salespeople feeling 'Valued' is essential to any company wanting to capitalise on their investment. In business I often see an equal three-way spilt in large sales teams of excellent, average and poor performance groups, with time spent praising the best, ignoring the middle and hoping the non-performing people will mainly leave of their own accord before being pushed. Knowing ones value and where you stand is vital to any customer facing individual.

Rejoice

If you are successful in your current role, rejoice - be happy that you are realising your potential. If you're not is it time to make some changes? To you or the people you have surrounded yourself with.

1050 Marathons - 255 Ultramarathons - 9 Guinness World Records - 15 Marathon des Sables

Speak to Me - The Pink Floyd

It’s never the right time is it to say or do something. The right moment never comes along or it does and we miss it as we didn’t realise that it was the perfect moment, we were distracted and missed the opportunity or we thought something bigger and better would come our way.

How many times have you said to yourself, ‘if only’...

I realise that we all see ‘ and risk in different degrees. I define Chance as 50:50 - Red or Black - Zero or One. You know a Sliding Doors kinda thing. Whereas risk is more of a score out of 10. Or an accumulator where a+b+c=d usually standing for disaster.

Now it’s said that ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’, and it’s one of my favourite expressions as once you’ve done something, anything in fact, there’s no taking it back. If you’ve ever experienced sending an email by mistake without deleting the previous venomous emails (I have) you’ll know exactly how hard reverse gear is to find.

And we can plan for ‘Chance’ as the less you take the less mistakes you make. It’s a simple if rather unadventurous approach to life. With some thought though, ‘Chance’ can be more 60:40 in your favour.

Risk is the hard one to gamble on though. Betting odds are said to be pitched at 75% of the stake so no wonder Bookies always win but we should be able to realise when the odds are stacked in our favour and it’s obvious that it’s the right time to go for it.

Ask any surfer when their biggest wave was and they might well say it’s yet to come as many people don’t realise they’ve peaked at their particular area of skill. Being able to walk away saying that’s it, that’s the one, that’s the one I’ll remember forever is the $64 million dollar question we’d all like to know the answer to.

It is however, the long game and one we become more and more risk adverse to as we get older and use experience more than gut instinct as our methodology.

The right time becomes ‘never’ as people wait a lifetime for all the planets to line up, all the dominos to be upright and ready for a kinetic knockdown or in sales, the one big deal to go down leading to fame and fortune.

The real time is actually ‘Now’ as there’s nothing to lose as if you never take the plunge it ain’t gonna happen anyway - so why not?

Thing's might not pan out as you’d hoped but at least you’ll know. So if you’ve been procrastinating for years, plucking up the courage to jump, to speak up for yourself ffs do it and do it NOW before it’s too late and you spend a Lifetime regretting you waited a Lifetime...

1,050 Marathons, 255 Ultras, 9 Guinness World Records, 15 Marathon des Sables 

25 Years of Marathon Running & 26 Years Alcohol-Free

‘The Key to Success’ and where to get one?

Well, if only Google could point us in the right direction or Amazon deliver – then we’d all be fulfilled, wouldn’t we? But finding ‘The Key to Success’ just isn’t that simple is it? Every January, people think about the year that’s passed and think about one that lies ahead, often making New Year Resolutions that they hope will shape their future and deliver the right level of desired ‘Life-Success and Fulfilment’.

However, apparently 88% of those who set those New Year’s Resolutions fail. And judging by that statistic your 2020 resolutions are already just a speck in your rear-view mirror and it’s only January 5^th – what on earth happened? Were they even possible? Were they empty promises? Were you new to the concept?

You see, ‘The New Year Resolution’ isn’t a new concept as the Babylonians and Romans made then to used to make similar promises at the start of their New Year and I wonder if they had a better success rate than 12%. Who knows eh? – But I bet they did, don’t you?

So why are we so rubbish at sticking to our New Year Resolutions today? Maybe it’s a lack of:-

Desire

Well if there’s only a 12% pass rate that most people are aware of – why even bother? I mean who is going to gamble against that kind of odds? How many people can actually say they’ve made and kept to their promise of January 1 for a whole year or longer?

Ambition

It’s normally set astronomically high – to an impossible goal. Or one that’s so easy, that it’s not even a challenge. For instance, a non-swimmer pledging to swim the channel against a non-drinker pledging to do ‘Dry January’ is a perfect example of the dichotomy of the Resolution. FYI, Swimming the Channel missed my list this year again and I’m determined to keep it that way beyond 2020.

Determination

And talking of determination – I believe, People give in far too easily. I mean what’s the point if you are going to give up within a few days or even within a few hours of the New Year. Most resolutions are food, smoking or alcohol abstinence based and with a 22% going cold turkey pass rate on smoking alone at any time of the year – it’s not surprising that even January 2nd sees even the most determined on January 1st reach out for a crafty biscuit, beer or cigarette.

Peer Pressure

This is a real bugbear for me as determination isn’t usually projected from those around us – it’s usually the complete opposite. I’ve lost count over my years of sobriety at how many times I’ve been offered ‘just the one, as one won’t hurt’, when it’s been well known that I’ve been upholding a resolution since 1994.

Promise

You see, the promises that are made aren’t strong enough. There’s no retribution or punishment from caving into craving, just a brief feeling of self-failure – without the grief. And the quickly forgotten resolution, remains forgotten until the following January to be remembered and forgotten once again.

So, you ask, what’s the answer? Well the answer to ‘The Key to Success’, is YOU. But then I expect you’d already guessed I’d say that. If you want to get one, well that’s down to how much you want whatever it is you desire or however much you want to change – It’s kinda Easy when it’s put that way. Yes, easy to say but downright impossible if you don’t have all the ingredients of success to hand and have the right recipe. 

An impossible task when the ingredients and the recipe aren’t known.

But it’d not all gloom here. Tom Hanks made it up the beach against all odds in Saving Private Ryan and we have a 12% success rate here, so it’s not impossible to achieve your dreams. You just need to want it more than anything else in the world. A lot more. And as one of the people that can hand on heart, shout out a story of a New Year Resolution Story of Success, then I can only say that it’s my greatest achievement to date in all of my 57 years and it will continue being that way to the grave as I’m never, ever going to break my 26 years (9496 days) today, clean run of alcohol abstinence.

Looking at the New Year with a fresh 2020 vision and with Desire, Ambition and Determination all at record levels, I’m going to continue with my Resolution of 1994 and would love to hear of your plans both for the year ahead and for your continued Resolution Success. 

And if you are planning for some changes to your current behavioural process and need some help in keeping to your new Resolution, then I’m here to help as I’m pretty good at doing that.

Become a 12% Winner this Year!

1,050 Marathons, 255 Ultras, 9 Guinness World Records, 15 Marathon des Sables

25 Years' of Marathon Running & 26 Years' Nicotine and Alcohol-Free