Ask the most successful people in sales, leadership, parenting and life how they got there and they will tell you that all the knowledge and skill they need lives in the minds and bodies of others. All they did was seek it out. And that is the consistent quality of top performers. They look at every conversation as a way to become smarter and more skilled. Whether they use that knowledge to sell more, lead more or serve more, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that they realize that do not have all the answers.

These same people take pleasure in passing that knowledge on. Because they know by giving, they will, in fact, get more than they gave…either now or later. So this week:

• Seek out the three most successful people you know, or would like to know, and ask for help.
• Then prepare a list of three specific and well though out questions.
• Listen and learn.
• Act on that knowledge and record it
• Then share it with others who could also use it

By making this a habit, your value to everybody around you will increase. And in the process, you will build a network of mentors and friends that will do everything they can to make sure you get to the TOP…quickly.

Half the time people think they are talking business, they are wasting time.
-Edgar Watson Howe

Think of the number of meetings you attend each week. What percentage would you say are a waste of time? If you are like many, that percentage is high. Because too many meetings take too long, get too little done and often only add to the confusion that existed before the meeting. Studies show that one key reason meetings are unproductive is because too much time is spent going over the same topics discussed in previous meetings.

So this week, follow these tips to a successful meeting (or sales call).

•    Have a clear objective. A good objective is what you want the people in that room to do as a result of you being there. In other words, it’s not about what you do, it’s about what THEY do as a result of you being in that meeting.

•    Simplify- Quit “re-visiting” old issues. Then pick no more than three action items that must take place as a result of the meeting. If you walk away with fifty things that need to be done, not all will get done. And the stuff you do get to will not be done as well as it should.

•    Shorten- Cut the time you set aside for meetings in half. The urgency to get things done will force you to trim the BS and help you accomplish more.

In short, be PRECISE. Which means exact, sharply defined or stated. And by following the lessons above, you will find you are about to get twice as much done in half the time.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
-Albert Einstein

“I’ve been in this business for over 25 years. I have run out of things to learn,” was one of the saddest comments I have ever heard from one of my recent seminar attendees. Stop learning? Don’t we need to learn from our customers so we can effectively serve them? Don’t we need to learn what our competition is doing? Don’t we need to learn how our peers and employees feel about working with us? Don’t we need to learn how much we DON’T know? Once you lose your hunger to learn, you lose the ability to positively affect everybody around you. And who would choose that? And it’s not enough to be open to learning; you have to aggressively seek opportunities to learn.

For example, this week try these three questions with your current customers…and family members:

•    What am I doing I should keep doing?
•    What am I doing I should stop doing?
•    What aren’t I doing that I should begin doing?

Because customers, peers, employees and family members won’t often seek you out to tell you how you can be more valuable to them, you have to ask. And when you ask, you show a willingness to learn. And once you create a habit of LEARNING, you will create a habit that creates some of the world’s top performers.

The way to succeed is to double your error rate.
- Thomas J. Watson (1874-1956)
Former IBM Chairman and Master Salesman

Have you made any big errors lately? If so, congratulations….you’re human! And chances are you are not a wimp, afraid to make a wrong decision that just might not work out perfectly. You see, the people in our world that become famous in anything are not those who do things perfectly, but those who do things well after screwing up a bunch of times. The difference between the top performers and the average, however, is that the average are often frozen by fear of not doing something perfectly. So they don’t try it, don’t make the big decision, don’t ask for the sale, don’t take that business risk, or don’t reach out to that long lost friend. Because the fear of “what if” and the paralysis that it brings can bring about a harmful stagnation in our lives. Life is about movement, either up and down, and if you aren’t moving down from making errors or moving up from learning from them, than you aren’t moving at all. And if you’re not moving, the world is just passing you by. So this week, think of that big decision that is scaring the heck out of you and go for it. It might not work out perfectly, but even that less than perfect decision will be better than no decision at all.

Amazing what kid’s know about life and business, isn’t it? Just yesterday, as I walked in my kitchen I noticed a multi-colored, laminated list hanging on the refrigerator. This is what it said:

This season I pledge to:

•    Fast from revenge and feast on forgiving people
•    Fast from bragging and feast on having good sportsmanship
•    Fast from complaining and feast on being thankful
•    Fast from fighting and feast on compromising
•    Fast from being lazy and feast on getting active
•    Fast from lying and feast on telling the truth
•    Fast from judging people and feast on looking for good in others
•    Fast from excluding and feast on letting everyone play
•    Fast from selfishness and feast on giving to others
•    Fast from not following directions and feast on listening

The above was a list developed by the kids in my son Jake’s 4th grade class. Each child was to develop their own Fast and Feast list and this was his. As I read the list I was amazed at how simple yet profound it was.  I liked it so much, I developed one for myself and encourage you to try the same. So this week, grab some crayons, a fancy piece of construction paper (okay, a pad and pen will do) and take 10 minutes to write down the things you need to FAST from and FEAST on. Then keep them in front of you for 20 days. By doing so you can create habits that will have you FEASTING on more positive relationships, more productivity, and I bet a lot more sales.

This week, Brian interviewed author Ed Tate on his weekly radio show. Ed shares tips on how you can become a master networker and FEAST on more relationships than ever.   Go to www.preciseselling.com/Radioaccess.htm to listen to the interview. To find out more about Brian’s sales and leadership programs, visit him at www.preciseselling.com or email Brian at bsullivan@preciseselling.com.

Staying Young in Business

Recently during one of my seminars I had a rookie salesperson tell me that he was told by his manager and some of his company’s tenured employees that it was going to take him a while before he “truly understands the business.” But what those seasoned folks don’t understand is that because he was told it was going to take a while, guess what…it IS going to take a while. That well-intentioned advice, in fact, only encouraged him to take his time getting to the TOP. But here was my advice to him. Respectfully smile, listen and learn from as many seasoned business professionals as possible, but don’t EVER let them dictate how long it takes you to reach your potential. Only YOU have control over that decision.

For example, this week I had a fella named Cameron Johnson on my weekly business radio show. Cameron is a millionaire, just published his second book on entrepreneurialship (You Call the Shots), created and sold more than a dozen internet businesses and was recently a business guest on CNBC, Fox News and more. Oh, and did I mention that Cameron just turned 23 years old! So what’s the point? Well if you ask Cameron, he will tell you he has no more skill and knowledge than anybody. But what Cameron does have, like many successful young business people, is tone deafness to those who tell them that the path to business success is going to take “lots of time in the trenches.”

While the lessons learned from time in the business are invaluable, there are some things that the rookie employee can do to speed up the clock:

• Seek out knowledge from tenured employees and learn from THEIR experiences
• Add only 15 minutes to each work day
• Take that 75 extra minutes each week to learn something new by reading a book, a journal or internet newsletter
• Stay tuned to the latest technology in business that can make you more efficient
• Don’t let your mind grow old

Oh, and don’t think you need to be 23 to have the heart and desire of a rookie. Because as Douglas MacArthur puts it, it will be your faith, self-confidence and hope that will act as your “fountain of youth.” And armed with that, you may find yourself at the TOP more quickly than you ever imagined.

To listen to Brian’s radio interview with former teen
self-made millionaire Cameron Johnson,
go to www.preciseselling.com/Radio.htm.
It will either motivate you…or make you sick to your stomach!