Posts

Dunking Seems Miles Away

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Well, I’m still at it. If you read this blog regularly, you might recall that I set a crazy goal right after my 59th birthday, back in February, to dunk the basketball by my 60th. I have 6 months left…

Plan-Goal

And it isn’t going well.

What I Forgot…

I guess I neglected to consider that after 40-something you begin to lose your quick-twitch muscles, which is a “must” for explosive jumping. You also lose any kind of glute power and your hamstrings begin to atrophy. All bad trends if vertical leap is the goal.

So, my miscalculation is now apparent.

So what should I do? Quit? Keep going? Change the routine? Set a more realistic goal?

Not sure…but here’s my thinking. I would love your input.

1. This goal is really cool to me. It’s measurable. It’s weird, I can tell when I reveal the goal to people and they say, “Well, there you go,” as if I’m a little child again, I know I’m on to something special. It’s just that they can’t fathom it…or appreciate it. And it’s a huge stretch. All good characteristics for a goal. Read more

Building Your Platform To Make Selling Easy(ier)

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Last week, I got called by a CPA firm who wanted training for their people. This you must know: CPAs are not very good at selling. It’s not that they don’t have the expertise. That’s not it at all.

It’s that selling spooks them. It’s not in their comfort zone.

So, when I get a call from a professional services firm (or any company), I always start with one simple question: Do you have a platform?

Platform

After the weird looks they give me, I go on to educate them to what a “Platform” is.

Platform: definition, A position in the market that you occupy where people look to you for expertise.

Physical Platform

Just as you would speak at a conference from a podium (platform) the same thing applies here. In the physical world, it is you speaking from the stage, on a topic that you have some degree of expertise in, where all eyes are on you.

There, you don’t have to fight for attention. You ARE the show.

In the sales & marketing world, your platform could be a variety of things. LinkedIN is a platform. Any kind of social media could be a platform (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram). Your email list is a platform. A podcast is a platform.

Simply, it is a place where you command attention of the people you’re trying to reach.

Your platform is a positioning tool that raises you above the din of competition and market confusion.

You Have One Right Now, But You May Not Know It Read more

What You Can Learn About Achievement From The Stacey Dash Interview?

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Recently, Stacey Dash (unknown to me until I saw this and researched her) was on Meredith Vieria. Personally, I don’t watch Vieria mainly because of the tact she took in this “interview.” The video is below.  Watch it, then come back and read on.

I love this girl! Unafraid to speak on a hot, controversial issue, and speak her truth.

I hear this all the time: “My territory isn’t large enough.” “My compensation plan isn’t fair enough.” “People don’t answer the phone like they used to.” “Prospects lie.” “I can’t get referrals anymore.” My company doesn’t invest in me.” “My company has no vision.”

All of these statements (and Meredith’s unbelievably arrogant questions) are perfect examples of our buy-in to a victim mentality. And it wears us out. Actually, it renders us unable to adopt a stance of personal empowerment.
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The Problem With Idea Generation – And a Solution

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More ideas are not better. I know there is a saying, “If you want to come up with a great idea, come up with lots of ideas.”

Ideas

But I see Presidents and Salespeople generate idea after idea – and yet have little to show for them. So what happens. Here’s my take.

My sense is that the person that has the idea (the creator) is seldom the person who will implement the idea and bring it to profit. I didn’t say “never,” I said seldom.

So the idea-creator needs to have either a) someone around him/her who can flesh out the idea before investing too much time dreaming about it. Or, b) a system that walks them through the ‘fleshing out’ process. Read more

When You Don’t Feel Like You Matter, Do This

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That’s the number one question we ask ourselves silently, isn’t it? Do I matter? Sometimes we ask it as in ‘Does my life matter?’ More often, its circumstantial. “Do I matter in this particular area of life?”

EVEN-THE-SMALLEST,-WEAKEST,-MOST

I received an email from a blog reader this week that was most touching. Here is an excerpt:

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Bill,

Thanks for all the content publishing you do. It really helps. 

I took a job last year as a sales person for a highly technical service. And I’m lost. I don’t feel like my expertise can measure up to my client’s expertise in what I’m selling. And I don’t think it ever will.  

I’m thinking about changing professions. Either get out of sales. Or get out of this industry. I just don’t feel like I matter much when I’m calling on these high-powered doctors. 

What should I do?

Becca,

San Francisco, CA

=================

It struck a nerve with me. How often have I felt like my work doesn’t matter? Lots. Read more

Goal Setting for Accidental Salespeople

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This is from a Question & Answer call our team recently did in our new program called The Accidental Salesperson. We thought you might like to hear the kinds of questions coming from non-traditional sales teams.

“I seem to set goals, but then do not hold myself accountable for achieving them.”

This has a lot of potential starting points here. Many times, the reason we don’t accomplish the goals we’ve set is not in the how-to. It starts in the, “Why did you put it as a goal?”

So, let’s say you set a goal of generating 10 new clients in 2013. And le’ts also say in past years, you’ve generated only 3 new clients. Then going from three to many more than that in one year is big. I’m wondering, “Well, how did you arrive at that?”

So I think the first question you have to ask on your goals is, “Are they realistic?” We’re not big fans of the whole, “Are they measurable? Are they achievable? Are they realistic?”

Just look in the mirror and ask yourself ,“You know what? I’ve only accomplished this once in the last 10 years, but I’m going forward again times two,” and if you really believe it, then that’s fine.

 The second thing is I think sometimes we don’t flesh out the goal.

A lot of times, companies will come to us and say, “OK, we want to grow our business 25 percent next year.” We say OK or we say, “What’s that based on? What gives you the feeling like that’s achievable and possible?”

“Well, the market is expanding and the economy is getting better and we’ve added a new salesperson and we’ve got a new product…”

OK, fine. Then, sounds like it’s in your comfort zone. It’s not too far out of our comfort zone. The 25 percent is possible. Then the question is, “Well, how?” How are you going to do it?

Brian Tracy mentioned this a lot in his work. Tracy has some good and some not-so-good points. This is one good one. He says the most important part of a goal is how to.

So I have this goal of getting 10 clients. OK. How am I going to do that and what do I need to learn to do that? What new skills do I need to do that?

This is the thing that I would probably ask you: If your goals are right, then the question is the how-to. How, specifically, are you going to accomplish that and what skills do you need to accomplish that?

So it’s the how and the skills. Then there are probably two sides of the same coin. For example, if your goal is to make 10 calls a week to past clients, then again I’m also going under the belief that you’re not in front line sales so you also have other responsibilities.

That’s not all you’re doing. You’re delivering. You’re answering phones. You’re negotiating for companies, whatever role you play. Then sales is probably a secondary role.

“What skills are going to make me better? What skills are going to make me want to pick up that phone?” Because here’s what I know: Fear will stop you. Fear stops all of us from achieving our goals. It’s not so much the goal scares us. It’s the how-to that scares us. Read more

Who Did You Become?

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My sister sent me a motivating article yesterday called Who Did You Become? by Marc Cenedella.

I’m sharing it with you because I feel it will inspire us all to self-reflect on ourselves and where we are today.

Sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and enjoy this blog.

 

Are Your Best Years Behind You or Ahead of You?

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It seems like an obvious question doesn’t it?  If I were to ask a hundred people on the street they would all say their best years are ahead of them.  But would they really feel that way or would that just be the politically correct thing to say?

The best years of your life by Albert EllisI was doing my annual New Year’s cards for my daughters. One daughter is 18 while the other is low 30’s. I believe the future is so bright for that generation that they should feel blessed — they have some many great years in front of them.

I actually believe that although most people do not.

And as I wrote their cards, I wondered aloud whether I felt that way about myself at 55 years old.  Can I honestly look in the mirror and say that my best days are ahead of me when I’ve had 55 years of a great life?

I have some rather long lifelines in my family (my dad lived to be ninety-seven and his mother ninety-five) and when people ask me when I’m going to retire I tell them retirement for me would be certain death.

So, for those of us that are in our 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, how do we ensure that in fact the best days are in front of us?

Here is a list:

  1. Stay current.  As we get older it becomes harder to stay current with the new technology/social media/web world but we must.  I know several people who have not been able to figure it out on their own but they have hired technology coaches.  Great idea. Read more

Goal Setting for 2012. Is A Doubling Of Income Possible?

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Well, you probably read that and say, “I don’t see any way at all I can double my sales next year. Especially in this market.”

In fact, that may be so much of a stretch that you decide NOT to watch the video. And what a mistake that would be.

This Whiteboard Wednesday is designed to “shock you” a little. Maybe you just need a jolt to your system so you can break free with some new thoughts.

Bill Caskey takes you through a Goal Setting exercise that the Caskey team takes their clients through. So, grab pencil and paper and play it out as you watch it unfold in front of you.

After you’re done, we think you’ll see things a little differently. So, you may not get to a doubling (or, you might) but what we’re after is a “change of thought.” And that will guide you to new goals you will accomplish.

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