The Salesby5 Blog

In the movie City Slickers, a group of friends take a “vacation” at a dude ranch. Curley, played by Jack Palance, is a rough, wise old cowboy who shares the following with Mitch, played by Billy Crystal:

Curley: Do you know what the secret of life is?
Mitch: No, what?
Curley: This. (Holds up his index finger.)
Mitch: Your finger?
Curley: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean [anything].
Mitch: That’s great, but what’s the one thing?
Curley: That’s what you’ve got to figure out!

Lee J. Colan gives some insight to this classic scene, “Leaders have to figure out the One Thing that defines a meaningful purpose for their teams. The One Thing should answer the question Why are we here? You may think that finding that focus isn’t critical; but in fact, it’s essential to your success. The most important thing in business (and life) is deciding what is most important.”

Get your team together and figure out what your One Thing is. Then, that should guide all of your decisions and your actions. Focus your energy on your One Thing. It won’t happen overnight, but like using your Strengths, a steady effort towards this will pay off in the end!

We all know that there are inherent desires and passions within us that gravitate towards different subjects. You’ve known this since you were a kid. What are some of those passions that you have where you have endless levels of energy to read, research and grow? According to Marcus Buckingham, Strengths have SIGNs:

Success – You have been successful in developing this area of your life.
Instinct – There’s a natural desire in your life to do that activity.
Growth – When you do the activity, you get better than the last time.
Needs – You have a desire to do the activity again.

For business leaders, are you letting your teams explore their Strengths? For all team members, are you doing what you can to embrace your Strengths and spend more time each day using them? It may seem far fetched, but the beauty is that everyone has different Strengths that often complement one another. You will be amazed at how much happier you (and your team) will be at the end of the day once you’re actually doing what you love.

*The photo above is of our friend, Stephen Lynch, during the New Zealand Strongest Man Contest – Lifting 410 kgs aka 904 lbs!

We cross paths with many young people that are new college and graduate school graduates who look around and don’t know what to do with their lives.  Their professors have prepared them to expect large salaries, company cars and corporate health plans.  At the same time, these new contributors to the workforce want to do something that is fun and that “doesn’t suck.”   Many ask for our advice.  One suggestion we offer (to those with experience) is to take an inventory of their strengths and weaknesses, as defined by The Marcus Buckingham Company.  A strength is an activity that you are good at AND that fulfills you.  The previous definition of an activity that you are good at isn’t wrong, just incomplete.  On the flip side, a weakness is an activity that leaves you bored, drained or flat out weak – even if you are great at it!  Now that you have a basic understanding, why not help those students in your life?  Pick up a copy of The Truth About You by Marcus Buckingham for them.  It will help them determine what their strengths and weaknesses are, learn how to talk about them and then, how to build their lives around them.   Whose next 40, 50 or 60 years can you shape today?

Yesterday, my new friend Alex (@alx007) gave me (@nanpalmero) a tour of Zappos, the online store that is “Powered by Service.”  The entire tour was remarkable.  We were picked up by the wonderful Roz (@rozzie1) in the Zappos Tahoe. She was an absolute beam of light, so full of joy.  Once we arrived, we were greeted warmly by the front staff, even Tony (@zappos), the CEO was hanging out.  We toured both buildings and in each location we arrived, whether it was marketing, accounting, comfort or any other division, the greetings were always the same.  Everyone stopped what they were doing, smiled, clapped, smacked cowbells, had streamers or some other celebratory device to recognize our entrance.  Even people that we passed in the halls would say “HI!” with a big smile and a genuine caring.  Zack (@star777) who shuttled us all back to CES was a wonderful way to close.  He told us how Las Vegas wasn’t necessarily his first choice of places to live, but working at Zappos was just so wonderful, he couldn’t quite leave the city.

I noticed that my afternoon was skewed after leaving Zappos.  I found myself smiling at the people that I passed in the hall on the way to my room and at folks with whom I made eye contact on the street.  I was amazed by the affect this company had had on me.  Now, consider your company.  How do your clients’ and customers’ days change after they have dealt with you and your team?  Have you made the world a better place?

In case you’re wondering about the (@name) setup, those are the twitter names of the people I mentioned above.

In 2002, when I started SalesBy5, I started with 4 companies as customers and they were all what I call ADD, at least partially. In almost 7 years, I have found that this type of customer is the one that SalesBy5 excels at helping. The highly detailed micro-manager type is not our best customer, as we do well with guiding, creating structure and holding the hands of the ADD entrepreneur or manager.

When you transplant a tree, or something with deep roots, you run the risk of it dying or taking a long time for a full recovery. In a business, it is much the same. Sticking to your strengths, and what you are really here to do, is key. Today, the economy is different that it was 6 months ago.  What can you do to use your core strengths rather than changing your game?

photo by Aaron Escobar

Attending the Gazelles/Fortune Small Business Growth conferences for the past 4 years, I have noticed that the recent MBA’s there are always upset that they hadn’t already learned all of this content during their education.  For example, even Jim Collins’ Good to Great was missing from their required and suggested reading lists.  In working at a local University’s business school, I found that upon my suggestion, they started making that book part of the required reading.  My biggest surprise came last night when a current MBA student told me that his professor had not mentioned blogs or social networking when explaining marketing platforms. This student asked the professor if was aware of these tools, and he said yes. Then, the professor asked the student to please explain them to the class; what they are and how to use them. I am more and more concerned as we interview students with a public relations education, and find that they do not know anything about media relations, or students with marketing degrees that don’t know how to use Google.

The #1 way to increase creativity and learning in the majority of the population is stimulus. (For the top 4% of the highest IQ population, it is meditation).

What are you doing for you and your employees to keep them ahead or at the top?

We offer:

1. Strengths training that teaches dramatic team productivity, on the job happiness, and lower turnover.

2. Full company training on how not to de-motivate at all levels. (You can find this in the research from Jim Collins.)

3. The tools to sell more product or service with less effort by 5pm, daily. (Data and implementation from thousands of research papers with a future focus.)

Today at 5pm, there will be a rehearsal dinner for the wedding of our CIO (Chief inspiration officer) and Co-Author of the SalesBy5 blog, Nan Palmero. He earned his title long ago, long before I met him. His friends will also attest to his incredible ability to help, lead, and inspire. When I met him, he was looking for a new career with 2 requirements; he did not want to be in sales and he did not want to be in accounting. Today, he writes for Blackberrycool.com, Salesby5, his own blog, and is a contributory writer for some of north Americas top growth gurus. Nan sells everyday! He sells our customers on the best technology to help communicate better with customers and employees and he sells our team on working smarter and not harder. There are actually too many things that he sells to mention in this blog. This man is special to us and many others. My point: Sometimes you may think you do not want to do something that is actually a real strength of yours. Pay close attention to what activity you feel strongest doing, and to those that make you feel drained. Nan uses his strengths to help our team and our customers win better and faster than their competition!

Nan, Thank you for being in our lives and congratulations on your new life with Ashley!

What if you told people they were wonderful when they were?  What if you told people they looked great when they did?  What if you helped people where they needed help?  What if you told people that they were not the right people in their organization and why?  We do and it works.

Transparency- it works for windshields because you can see where you are going. Mirrors tell you where you have been and, perhaps, what wrong turn you took.  Quarterly strengths sessions, telling us where we can depend on you the most and where we can depend on you the least, are windshields to a career.

Do you have a GPS for your career, so your team can know where you are and where you want to go?

photo by The Joy of the Mundane

Welcome back for the continuation and ending of Trey’s week at Salesby5.  Here’s how it wrapped up…

So as if this brilliant team of people who came together to complement each other and create an amazingly successful business weren’t enough, Erik also set me up with jobs working for Magi Real Estate, with Louis Pisano and Ryan Harrison (two other brilliant businessmen). Louis showed me the importance of tenant satisfaction and how your attitude can sometimes be the deciding factor on whether your business is profitable or not. He deals primarily with tenant relations and was dazzling with the way he handled his clients. Ryan dealt more with actually finding potential tenants, and is without a doubt a genius among salesmen. He spoke to me with an encouraging and supportive tone and actually offered me an internship for the next summer! Whether that works out or not, I was so pleased that one of the top real estate brokers in San Antonio would consider me for an internship. Observing these great guys and discussing concepts of business with them was an incredible experience in itself. Thanks guys for all of your help, you both were great mentors.

Now for my biggest influence, my uncle Erik Darmstetter, the man that made all of this possible. After living with him and his beautiful family for an entire week and working with him on critiquing my situation in life, he has definitely become a role model for me. I cherish the time I get to spend with him and still wish I had a little pocket bobblehead Erik to carry around for advice, which everyone needs from time to time. Anyone that has met him can understand what I’m talking about. His energy is contagious and he encourages using strengths to guide people through work and life. He seems to have it all, from a successful business to a loving family, and for the simple reason that he loves helping people in need, he decided to share it with me. That is what I determine to be a great man. I try to model some parts of my life from him and give him credit for my newly found ambition for college and success. So thank you, Uncle Erik, Nan, Kya, Q, Ryan, Louis, and the family (Bubba, Devyn and my amazing aunt Ann) for giving me one of the most productive weeks of my life. I hope to someday return the favor.

So what are my plans for the future? I simply want to… “inspire.”