The Salesby5 Blog

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!

Are you spending the majority of your day on activities where you are the strongest, where time flies and where you have the most success, but also enjoyment?
To our knowledge, this is not taught in college.  There are all kinds of sales people; the ones who naturally sell what they love, the ones that love the challenge of a cold call, the ones that prefer warm leads and others who love to take care of relationships once they have gained the customers. Where do you fall in this spectrum of sales? And where is your team/group? It is extremely important to have people sell the way they love.  Be sure to leverage your sales team with their strengths to gain the most from them.

photo by – sheriffmitchell

We were recently given a nice compliment from our awesome web guy, Drew.  He said “you all are exceptional at letting me be exceptional.”  After a bit more discussion, Drew further defined it by explaining that often times clients get in their own way and decide to run projects rather than providing a vision and letting the expert, Drew in this case, do the right thing. 

When we over-direct, we tell our vendors that we can do things better than them.  In doing this, we do everyone a disservice.  We turn these people into waiters (taking an order for the hamburger) instead of recognizing their strengths and letting them give us more than we could ask.  Try this today, instead of telling your highly talented people what to do today, rely on their strengths and let them surprise you with something amazing.

When you start asking, instead of telling, great things can happen for both involved. We practice this and the benefits are amazing!

 Me, taking the “strengths thing” too literally.

Nan here… My fiancée is a spectacular photographer.  She is passionate about it, reads about it, and has unlimited energy to learn more.  We are active at our church (her pictures there too).  And, of course, she is the photographer for the church.  Recently she was asked to take care of the children one weekend a month.  As much as she likes children, she was dreading taking on this task.  Even worse, she was dreading saying “no.”

Why does this matter?  It is important to remember that no matter what team you’re on, you need to pay attention to your strengths.  One of the three myths is that a team member does whatever it takes to help a team.  The truth is, a team member is most effective when they offer up their strengths.  This is where you’re team gets the most out of you and you remain the most fulfilled.  Next time you are asked to take on a task that isn’t the right fit, try offering up your strengths instead.  You may end up better off.

It’s a staggering statistic: less than 2 out of 10 U.S. workers are happy with their jobs. Best selling author and friend of SalesBy5, Marcus Buckingham has an amazing program to reach new levels of success and happiness! This Friday, April 18th, Marcus will be on Oprah, showing you his findings from working with 30 working women.

If you own a company, are employed, or a stay-at-home parent, this is high value and not a fad. SalesBy5 has been a Strengths-based company for the last 16 months. The change, the feel and the brand is better, stronger and more contagious because of it. Set your DVR to record Oprah on Friday the 18th for a show and see our website where our head strengths coach, Nan Palmero, coaches companies and organizations to dramatically change their work environment for the better, by using strengths. 

If you or your team can relate with the title of this post, you’re probably not playing to your strengths and maximizing your potential.  Call us, we can help!

Marcus Buckingham is scheduled to be on Oprah soon talking about strengths.  If you have the opportunity, check it out, as he works with 29 women to help them maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

Marcus will also be in San Antonio during Envision ’08, April 23-25, speaking on strengths. 

Knowing your strengths is valuable at any age, whether your 15 or 55, because it helps you recognize where your natural talents intersect with your knowledge and skills.  The best person to recognize these strengths is you.  Salesby5 has been fortunate to work with The Marcus Buckingham Company and is one of the few companies that has the priviledge of teaching strengths as well as benefiting from its practices.  Check out some testimonials from our client, Tesoro, on how we were able to introduce strengths to their interns (scroll down on the videos toward the bottom).

Are you one of the 2 out of 10 that plays to their strengths on a daily basis?

Good Friday I was asked if I had to work today by several people. I said "no, I do not get to work today. I got to work yesterday."

Today I get to go to work again. It’ll be great. I choose to make it great! Do you get to go to work?

If you get to go, why do you feel that way?  Are you playing to your strengths?  Do you love being around the people you work with?  Pay attention to this feeling, focus on it and make work great!

If you are selling because you love what you sell then you are fortunate.  This is the way it should be!  If you are selling because you make tons of money, but hate your work, what does this say about you?  If you say you don’t sell, you are wrong!

A true story from Nan:  I was a pretty good student.  I typically made A’s and B’s throughout school.  In 5th grade, I came home with my report card having the B’s outnumbering the A’s.  My dad took this as a sign that I was not focusing on the proper things (school work), so after being scolded, quickly took me to K-Mart.  All my hair gel and shirts were taken away and were replaced by plain pocket t-shirts – for an entire 6 week period, at that time an eternity!  This was my punishment, humorous today, but painfully brutal during the hyper image conscious period of elementary school.  Fast forward to November 2006 when I heard Marcus Buckingham speak in Houston.  He talked about how the large majority of parents would focus on an F rather than an A.  No surprise, it mentally took me back to 5th grade.

When you hear the word "strengths" do you think of "what you’re good at" and "weakness" being "what you’re bad at"? How many times has someone told you something was a strength of yours but it made you feel bored or tired after you had done it?  You knew you were excellent at that particular activity, say public speaking, but after you did it, you felt small and drained?  These definitions aren’t wrong, they’re just incomplete. 

What if you thought of a "strength" as something that were good at AND that fulfilled you when you did it?  How cool would it be to work on those projects that you have a natural talent for and that got you fired up to study, read and talk about?  Only 17% of the population claims that they do, in fact, play to their strengths.  On the other hand, what if you recognized a "weakness" as something that you may or may not be good at, but that truly left you weak, tired or annoyed?  What if you and your team developed a way to minimize the time you played to your weaknesses?  How much more productive would you be?  How differently would you treat your co-workers? family? friends?

The definition of a "strength" is an activity that makes you feel strong and a "weakness" being an activity that makes you feel weak.  How would you change your day if I told you and showed you how to use your "strengths"?  Check out some testimonials from interns and employees at Tesoro Corporation who did just that!

Here are some great resources to get you started on your Strengths path today:

Sales by 5 Strengths Coaching

Go Put Your Strengths to Work – Marcus Buckingham