Jim Stovall's Winner's Wisdom Blog

Whether you’re a teacher selling your students on the validity of the lesson, a parent selling your kids on doing the right thing, an individual selling a potential employer on your ability to accomplish a job, or anything else we do in our lives, we succeed based on our ability to sell. 

In some circles, selling has gotten a bad name because some individuals abuse the process.  Whether it’s a ballplayer, a minister, an accountant, or a salesperson, don’t judge the validity of the profession based on the poor standards of a few people.  Selling is among the most honorable professions in the world, and it is also among the highest-paid professions. 

The first and most important key to selling is to be sold yourself.  If you believe in a product, service, or idea, selling is simply a matter of sharing a great discovery with a friend or potential friend that you care about.  Selling is never about your need to move a product.  It is always about the other person’s situation and the needs they may have that can be filled by what you are selling. 

Honorable salespeople service the same customers throughout a lifetime.  They can sell the same family a dozen cars, four homes, or countless suits throughout the decades.  Unscrupulous people are always looking for new customers because they shortsightedly took advantage of the customer/salesperson relationship during their initial transaction.  A trusted salesperson becomes like a valuable and well-connected friend.  They would never risk the relationship over one short-term potential profit. 

If you treat your customers like friends and serve them as if they were family, you will find that your customers will serve as your salespeople as they send business your way year after year.  A slick ad or hectic sales pitch can never take the place of a satisfied customer that refers their friends, family, and associates to you.  You never get a second chance to make a good first impression, and a great reputation built over a lifetime can be ruined in a negligent moment.

With recent unemployment figures soaring, people all across the United States are waiting for the job picture to go back to the way it was several years ago.  Unfortunately, this is not going to happen.  It doesn’t mean that there won’t be great opportunities here in the U.S. going forward.  It simply means that many of the jobs that people have lost are not coming back. 

A lot of positions that created middle class incomes for workers in the past left the United States during the economic downturn, and the majority of those jobs won’t return.  Americans need to decide whether they are willing to relearn and retool or be left behind. 

Great positions will continue to be available for people who work hard and stay on the cutting edge of growth and development.  On the other hand, people who think they are going to show up with a mediocre attitude and substandard skill sets expecting to receive a middle class income are sadly mistaken. 

The United States has always been the envy of the world because we created a middle class that had not existed to this extent ever before.  The world has caught up with us, and they are building the proverbial better mouse trap faster and cheaper than we have been doing. 

It’s time for all of us to look at business opportunities, jobs, and careers from a global perspective.  No longer can you just look at the wages that your neighbors might expect or the skill level they have achieved.  Today, we have to be aware of what hungry and energetic people in India, China, and other emerging markets are willing to provide. 

As the middle class gets squeezed, a few of them will find opportunities and heed these words.  These people will create businesses or find jobs that will move them into the upper class.  Unfortunately, many people who previously enjoyed middle class incomes will bury their heads in the sand, assuming that what went down will eventually come back up.  While the jobs and employment opportunities may come back up and even rise to new levels, these jobs are going to be filled by people around the world who are coming to the business landscape from a 21st century outlook. 

The old sayings that you can never go home, and the good old days may not have been so good, are coming true as we look at the way many Americans and some Europeans are going to have to face the shift in career opportunities.

Customers are like teeth.  The only ones you need to maintain are the ones you want to keep.

I hear news stories and ongoing news media coverage about how bad the economy is and how consumers are not spending money.  You wouldn’t know this from going into the average retail establishment today.  The majority of businesses you might enter to purchase a product or service do not provide a level of customer service that you would expect from someone that is not having enough retail revenue.

There is a local establishment near my office where we purchase sandwiches for lunch.  They do not deliver, so we go across the parking lot and pick them up.  They have asked us to fax our orders to them.  This was acceptable, except they explained that they don’t often hear their fax machine receive an incoming order, so they asked if we would call them after we fax in the order.  We set up an account so our staff can simply sign for the lunch when they pick it up.  I mistakenly assumed they would bill me monthly, but when I did not receive a bill for close to a year, I contacted them and had to go through an accounting nightmare simply to pay for all the sandwiches.

One day it occurred to me that I’m working way too hard in a bad economy to spend my money.  If I have to write down the order, fax it in, call and alert them they have an order, and provide them with accounting so I can pay my bill, I’m doing everything but making the sandwich myself.  This situation would be laughable if it wasn’t so commonplace. 

I travel often for speaking engagements and movie or TV business.  A polite and professional flight attendant is rare enough that you really notice it when you get one.  This is unfortunate because, due to rising fuel prices and the economy, the airline industry is struggling.  Most airlines’ flight routes and fares are just about the same from one airline to another.  The real differentiating factor they have to offer would be great service, but this is not the case.

In most customer surveys, good service and a polite, professional staff rank high in the criteria prospects use to make buying decisions.  In most cases, great customer service and polite, professional attitudes don’t cost anything but a little effort and energy.  In fact, it is invigorating and enjoyable to serve others.

If you want to succeed, you’ve got to make it easy for people to do business with you, feel good about spending their money, and want to tell others about their experience.

Persistence and Procrastination
by Jim Stovall
January 26, 2012

Down the street from my office is a very large media complex containing a TV station, several radio stations, and a large conference center.  At one corner of the massive building, there is a large fenced area where several radio and TV broadcast towers soar hundreds of feet into the air.  Thousands of people drive by this complex every day and have seen the towers so many times they don’t even notice them any more. 

Several months ago, a troubled young man—for reasons of his own—decided to scale the fence and begin climbing one of the towers.  By the time anyone noticed this young man perched on a precarious ladder hundreds of feet in the air, it was too late to stop him.  Police, ambulances, and emergency rescue workers were called to the scene and began efforts to persuade the young man to climb down from the tower. 

The young man either ignored them or periodically threatened to jump.  As will happen with any large gathering, the media was soon on the scene.  TV, radio, and newspaper reporters began around the clock reporting of the ongoing activities of the young man who became known as The Tower Guy. 

This went on for days and, somehow, the reporters found things to talk about.  The young man became dehydrated, sunburned, and appeared to be disoriented.  Finally, one heroic rescue worker was able to communicate with the young man and talk him into coming down. 

The final media reports described how persistent The Tower Guy was in remaining on his perch for many days.  It’s important that we don’t confuse persistence with procrastination.  It is easy to think that persistence is doing something repeatedly or constantly while procrastination might be thought of as doing nothing at all.  In reality, too many of us are like The Tower Guy in that we persist in doing nothing of importance which, in reality, is procrastination as it relates to the things in life we know we should be doing. 

Practice does not make perfect, in spite of the old adage.  Practice makes consistent.  Only perfect practice will make something perfect.  Persistence is only a virtue if we are persisting at doing things that matter to us and make the world a better place. 

Most people perform activities today because they performed the same activities yesterday and will do it all over again tomorrow.  Before you do anything as a regimented part of a routine, make sure you know why you are doing it, what it will accomplish, and when you will be done.