Road Improvements  

What If You Didn't Know?
By Mark Matteson

One of my favorite stories is about the architect who finally got his first big job. He decided to have a giant party to celebrate and went to a neighborhood bar to make arrangements. He noticed a Newspaper headline that read, “Hard Times Coming!” He changed his mind. No party. “Haven’t you heard?” he told the owner, “hard times coming.” He called his wife, “You know that dress you ordered for the party, cancel it. Hard times coming.” The wife called the dressmaker and cancelled the new dress. Hard times coming. The dressmaker called the new building where she was going to open her new space. Cancel the space. Hard times coming. The developer called the architect. Tenants are bailing out. I can’t hire you after all. Hard times coming. The architect went back to the same bar to drown his sorrows. He spotted the paper across the room. The headline looked five times larger now. He got up for a closer look. The paper lay wrinkled in a corner. It had been used to wrap glasses and dishes. Upon closer inspection, the paper was 20 years old!

Fear is a self-fulfilling emotion. Are you buying into today’s headlines? Election years are always strange. People pull back out of doubt. Fear of the unknown. But what if you didn’t know things are slowing down? In 1990 I accepted my first full time sales job. No one told me we were in a recession and that was a good thing. I just didn’t know. I found a mentor and asked him to lunch. He gave me great advice. “If your boss says see five people a week, go see ten!” So I did. I was 150% of Sales Plan my first year, cold calling in a territory no one wanted. You see, the truth was there was no business in that territory. Two years later it was the number one territory in the company. I just didn’t know.

Here are Seven Ideas to increase business in slow times, to get your juices flowing. They work. My best clients do them. I do them. What if you tried a few? What if you printed this e-zine out, or forwarded it to your team and discussed it, even highlighted the ones you are willing to try, I wonder what would happen?

1. Stop reading the front page of the paper, ALL papers. Start your day by reading inspirational books instead. Start with “Acres of Diamonds” by Russell Conwell. Its 60 pages. Go www.excutivebooks.com and order copies for your sales team. Charlie Jones has recorded it onto audio. Take a break for 30 days from the “Bad News.” You will feel fantastic. Ideas will flow. Your attitude will change.

2. Tom Watson Sr. told his sales team in during the great depression, “Double Your Failure Rate.” If you are in Sales, double your activity. Go to my web site and download the Sales Call Calculator. Plug in the numbers. Then determine how many more calls per day you will need if you “Double Your Activity!” Think like a farmer in the spring. This time a year, he doesn’t take time off to go golfing. He plows the fields 16 hours a day and plants the seeds. He wouldn’t dream of doing anything else for 30 days. Why not you?

3. Increase your Training Budget, NOT cut it or eliminate it as some companies are doing currently. Because you have faith in the future, your clients, employees, vendors will see that and business will come to you. When your competitors are pulling back, waiting, cutting costs, you invest this time to sharpen your skills: PC Skills, Public Speaking Skills, Customer Service Skills, Sales Skills, Language Skills, It will improve your attitude and you will meet people of like mind that will share great ideas with you. Attend seminars, Start a Book of the Month Club, Begin building your corporate library of CD’s, DVD’s and Books. Find a Mentor; Hire a Speaker or Consultant to come into your company.

4. Be a Contrarian. Go the other direction than the herd. Stretch your comfort zones and try something new. Do the opposite. If you are a construction company, perhaps now is the time to start that service company. If you are a service company, perhaps now is the time to expand your product offerings.

5. Sit down with your suppliers and distributors and brainstorm ways to improve. Ask them what the best companies in your industry are doing you are not. Listen to them. Work with them. They want to talk.

6. Take some time off and conduct a personal retreat with your team to brainstorm or by yourself to THINK. Bill Gates did this for years at Microsoft. A cabin in the woods with some canned foods, a journal and reflect, plan, RE-create. If you are not able to swing that right now, follow some additional advice Tom Watson, THINK! Every day for 30-60 minutes, pour yourself a cup of coffee, go off by yourself, sit down with a pen and paper and think about:

a) What are ways to increase your service to your clients?
b) What can you offer you have never offered before?
c) What does the marketplace need that none of your competitors are meeting? Perhaps a new service, an extra-mile offering?
d) How can you improve process? What if you brainstormed with your team about how to improve cash-flow? Receivables? Fulfillment? Sales? Lower marketing costs and increase guerilla marketing strategies (i.e., Cut your Yellow Page Ad Revenue in half and move some of those resources to Craigslist, Cold Call Door Hangers, Truck parked on lots with your Logo) The list might just surprise you.

7. Dig your well before you are thirsty. Survey your existing clients, distributors and/or employees. I recently did this for a consulting client and the answers were so valuable to his team. It will lead to more business. He will keep more of the business he has. He is sending thank you notes and a gift card to those that participated. So why not survey your existing clients? Ask them some basic questions:

a) What do you like most about doing business with us?
b) If we could we improve just one thing, what that one thing be and why?
c) Why do you do business with us?

Do you think “Hard Times Are Coming?” If you do, they will. If you don’t and they won’t. We become what we think about. What if you didn’t know?

Food for Thought

• You are responsible for your life. You can’t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction... Life is really about moving on.
  Oprah Winfrey
   

• There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
  Edith Wharton
   

• How do you know it’s bad?
  Mark Matteson
   

• They who want milk should not sit in the middle of a field and wait for the cow to back up to them.
  Lillian Katz
   

• The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.
  George Bernard Shaw
   

• Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of men of old; seek what they sought.
  Matsuo Basho
   

• I am a great believer in luck. I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
  Stephen Leacock
   

• Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain.
  Charlie Chaplin
   

• The heights by great men (and women) reach and kept,
  Were not attained by sudden flight,
  But they, while their companions slept,
  Were toiling upward in the night.
  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Are you interested in hiring Mark Matteson for an Association or Company Keynote Speech, In-House Seminar or Consulting/Coaching? Send an email to mark@mattesonavenue.com or call 425.745.2911.
 

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  Positive People Profile

I met Tommy Croker at a seminar I was conducting in Virginia. He is soft spoken, humble and instantly likeable. His good nature is disarming. He is a Vice President. His company, Arlington Heating and Air, in Arlington, VA recently received a prestigious award. They were awarded the Luxaire National Dealer of the Year.

His grandfather Woolye Croker started the “Coal Fed” Heating Only Company in 1944 in the basement of their home. In 1969, they began offering Air Conditioning service and installation. In 2007, the company did $5 million with 35 employees. They have four installation crews, eight service techs with a focus on Custom Homes. They enjoy the repeatable revenue of 4000 service agreements.

I asked him why he felt they were so successful and had such a stellar reputation in their area. Tommy replied, The same thing my grandfather taught my dad, it’s a people business. We have a family atmosphere. The foundation of the business came from my grandfather’s words:

1. Honesty (is the best policy) with the customer and employees.
2. Listen to the customer and offer the best solution.
3. Offer what you think will work to solve their problem.

He went on to say, We hire people with the same values. It’s the law of attraction. We work hard to keep good people. We receive a lot of referrals both internally and externally, friends of friends. Our GM, Kim El-Bisi really connects with people. He is technically savvy. As important as that is, it’s his people skills. He is very diplomatic, tactful. We treat our employees well. We have giant family gatherings, holiday parties with spouses, casino night, with entertainment for the kids. Prizes and recognition is a vital part of our culture. We employ the following:

• Compliments via email, face-to-face, letters, telephone

• Bonuses based on Gross Profit

• We are “Good Finders” with a simple Pat-on-Back (Mark Twain once said, ‘I can live a full month on a good compliment’)

• Hand written Thank You Notes

You see, it’s about the people. They care. They take care their employees, at all levels.

When I asked Jeff Riley, Thos. Somerville’s Sales and Product Manager, and the Distributor that works so closely with Tommy what his secret, you know, the causes of their success? He smiled and said, It’s simple really. Tom and Linda listen to others. They listen to their vendors, distributors, employees. Then they go the extra-mile in all they do for others. It’s simple.

Simple, yes. Easy, no. Woolye Croker would be proud. I wonder if “Coal Fed” would lower my heating bills next year....hmmmm.

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  One For The Road

This month it's a Book, Movie and website.

While on a personal retreat at our condo in Lake Chelan, WA, I found myself snowed in. Earlier in the day, I grabbed a video at the Safeway while doing my grocery shopping. As the snow began to fall at sunset, I plugged in the DVD and enjoyed a delightful little fable based on the best selling book. I read the book over ten years ago. The movie was well cast, an independent little film that will make you think and call your kids in to watch.

Book - Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

This book has become one of the most beloved spiritual sagas of our time. Shared among friends and families, this million copy word of mouth bestseller has inspired men and women of all ages in more than twenty languages worldwide. Despite his success, college student and world-champion athlete Dan Millman, is haunted by a feeling that something is missing from his life. Awakened one night by dark dreams, he wanders into an all night gas station, meets an old man named Socrates, and his world is changed forever. Guided by this eccentric old warrior, drawn to an elusive young woman named Joy, Dan begins a spiritual odyssey into realms of light and shadow, romance and mystery, toward a final confrontation that will deliver or destroy him. This classic tale, told with heart and humor, speaks to the peaceful warrior in each of us. Countless readers have been moved to laughter and tears, even moments of illumination, as they rediscover life’s larger meaning and purpose. Journey with Dan on the peaceful warrior’s path to unreasonable happiness and find out for yourself why this book changes lives.

 

Movie - Way of the Peaceful Warrior

The Web Site and Watch Dan on the trampoline!

 

 

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  Watch "The Road" Buddy!

Matteson Avenue has an archive of all the ezines of past.

Launch new goals this year

Laugh more this year.

Check out my movie list to make you Laugh, Cry and Think

Learn more this year by reading a book a month on the Reading List

Leave a legacy this year - Freedom From Fear Forever has a great message!

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