1) Climb the rock
– I did get a group together to climb the rock, but unfortunately we were unable to climb it due to excessive winds.
2) Come out with 10 brand new ideas for my company that I CAN IMPLEMENT (in the trenches) in 2013
– This I didn’t achieve. I don’t know if I didn’t try and find the time, or if there just wasn’t room for it in the agenda. This is something I will need to work on this month. I want to reward my customers and my company with new ideas.
3) Begin a “think tank” with just a couple of the most engaged reps
– Lots of sharing ideas but no official think tank. More work to do here.
4) Speak to key leaders about what they think about the “new media marketing”
– Not a priority so I didn’t get it done. I currently have no ideas to take to key leaders either so I am looking forward to coming up with some in 2013
5) Gain sales tips and confidence in winning new business from the reps that have a proven track record in winning business
– This I did achieve and I am walking into territory with some new insight and ideas. I am now more confident in approaching new business acquisitions.
This story shows the true, and amazing power, of the fact that ever single person is or could be extremely influential.
My day’s girlfriend’s brother owns a blueberry farm.
They make the majority of their money in just 2 months of the year and they make the majority of money from tourist picking their own blueberries rather than selling them commercially.
Tourism drives higher margins and delivers better revenue from them than the commercial sector.
This season they have been scaling back their commercial operations due to increase tourism for one reason, an influential blogger.
A Chinese fellow visited their farm and when he went home he posted about it on the Chinese twitter or his blog (we aren’t actually sure where or how he posted it).
Now the farm gets an influx of Chinese tourists driving down from Sydney especially to visit this blueberry farm.
The farm did no advertising campaign, a happy customer advertised for them.
Your next lucky break could come from anyone, so treat everyone like they are extremely influential…because they may be.
My father the journalist used to always say to me “Always treat your copyboys well, because one day they will be your editor.
For the non-journos among us the copyboy is the lowest paying job, the equivalent of the mailman or cleaner, and the editor is your boss.
In the past for a restaurant to be successful all they needed was a great review. If they knew the face of a critic they could make the food extra special and the service extra special for them too.
The 5 star review would be published in the paper and your store would be flooded with new patrons.
But now everyone is a critic. Places like Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, Linked in and yes…blogs…have made everyone a critic.
I will always remember NEVER to use AAA Removals as a friend posted on Facebook and told me about their experience. If someone tells me they are moving out I will recommend “Shire Family Removals” but I will also warn them to steer clear of AAA.
You never know who is influential…or will be.
The keys (I think):
1. Treat everyone with the utmost respect
2. Choose a few who you connect with that are going places and seek to be a part of their inner circle. Do favors, send articles, work together, network.
You never know who will be your boss so make sure you don’t burn bridges. But you also can’t spread yourself too thin, so make some bets on people…you may just win big, and even if you don’t you never lose by serving people.
Tomorrow morning I leave for the red centre of Australia, Uluru, for the national sales and marketing conference for my company.
This is a time when all the reps can get together, share ideas and learn about our plans for the year moving forward.
Here is a small list of what I want to get out of this year’s conference
1) Climb the rock – I can’t see myself going to Uluru without climbing the rock. Maybe I can lead an expedition to the top.
2) Come out with 10 brand new ideas for my company that I CAN IMPLEMENT (in the trenches) in 2013
3) Begin a “think tank” with just a couple of the most engaged reps
4) Speak to key leaders about what they think about the “new media marketing” (web 2.0, Facebook, twitter etc) and how they believe this can be used to drive the company forward in 2013
5) Gain sales tips and confidence in winning new business from the reps that have a proven track record in winning business
My goal have nothing to do with the content that will be delivered at the conference because I have no control over that.
My goals are specifically things I can do to grow over the course of the week.
Over a month ago I had an idea for a skit for our sales and marketing conference.
It is now almost midnight on Saturday and sales and marketing conference is on Monday.
The goal: Make a 1 minute fake ad for a fake “energy drink” with this same name as our software program.
Steps:
#1 – Order a fiverr gig for the narration of the ad (narration already written)
#2 – Film the ad bits that I need to do myself
#3 – Film the other people I want to include in it
#4 – Edit it all together
Then if I want to go overboard
#5 – Get a fake can cover made
#6 – Buy 60 cans of V
#7 – Put covers over the cans
…I think this would be an awesome idea.
Tomorrow is Sunday and I have church at 9:30am and friends coming over for lunch. Lets see if I can pull it all off.
I consume a lot of information. Information that makes me improve, become better and think outside the box.
Only recently have I begin sharing with my network. Sending article links and short messages to those I am connected to.
This is not spamming or artificially trying to create a “networking effect” so I in some way benefit. This is because I love these people and truly believe these ideas could help them.
I am hoping that as I continue to do this in 2013 I will get emails and messages back with relevant links that people found especially for me.
I have already achieve this sort of sharing in my sales team at work, but not with external articles. I started communicating my experiences and what was working for me and after a while the team returned in kind.
The emails we send back and forth are awesome! I love the sharing of ideas because everyone wins!
Late 2012 I created the goal for myself to achieve “rep of the year”.
This prestigious goes to the sales rep who finishes in the top 10% of sales to target and who is seen to be the greatest contributor to the company as a whole.
However, upon reflection I have decided to change this goal.
Henry Ford is known for a number of things. One thing he is known for is the fact that he was always surrounded by people smarter than him. He was not intimidated by these people but saw it as the best way to learn and grow.
There is another rep in my team, Shaun, who I believe has the potential to be “rep of the year”. He is gutsy and diligent and works on the right things.
Even though he started after me I believe I have a lot I can learn from him. He has the potential to be phenomenal in 2013.
My new goal is to help make Shaun “rep of the year” for 2013. I still plan to finish in the top 10%, but I get more pleasure out of seeing others succeed and the company succeed that this would be a huge career success for me.
I am looking forward to partnering up with Shaun in 2013 and being “peer mentors” to each other.
All for one and one for all.
One thing I realized from our trip away to Ballina this week was how little we actually needed to be happy and content.
I only wore one third of the clothes I took away, and we only took away 2 toys for the kids (out of hundreds they have at home).
When we got home one of the first things I noticed was the amount of cleaning we had to do, cleaning clothes and dishes, and the amount of picking up we had to do now that the kids had access to 100 toys again.
This made me think that maybe, just maybe, all the “stuff” we have and are accumulating is actually creating more work for us and having a detrimental impact on our lives.
Time to sell some things and de-clutter. The only question is…what am I happy to let for of?
Recently I have been listening to a lot of Seth Godin audiobooks whilst driving. They are packed with gold!
Today I was listening to Meatball Sundae, which discusses the way marketing has been turned on its head and how to thrive in the new world of marketing.
Traditional Bell Curve
The traditional bell curve looks just like the shape of a bell. Small at the start, peaking in the middle and then dropping down to become small again at the end. In the past only a few people would purchase the cheap (and crap) and a few people would pay for the best. Most people were in the middle paying average prices for average things (think Jeans West and Target)
The New Inverted Bell Curve
With the changes in the web the bell curve is now inverted with most people either buying the most expensive and the best or the cheapest.
If I want a new phone charger for my car I can get one for $1 posted…I wouldn’t pay an average price ($10-$20) we I can get almost the same quality for cheap.
If I don’t care about the brand then I am going to go for the cheapest.
Take the other side of the spectrum. A lot of people will pay in excess of $400 for a pair of Ksubi jeans. The style and brand of the jeans demand a premium and people are willing to pay for it.
What This Means For Me
For me it proves what I knew all along, no one wants average. People either want the best or the cheapest.
In sales this means I either need to be the cheapest (and let’s face it someone is always cheaper) or I need to find a way to be the best. I want to set the bar so high that other companies will fail to reach it.
If I drop my brand new iPhone in the toilet and then drive over it I can take it to the apple store and get a brand new only for a couple of hundred dollars. This is excellent service and it will take Samsung a long time to win my business back.
I am still not 100% sure how I can provide something so excellent that people would be happy to pay a premium, but I intend to spend this year figuring it out.
Maybe I could provide phenomenal service, or find a way to get pharmacies their products faster than ever before. Maybe I can find a way to become so integral in their business and leave such an aftertaste of satisfaction that they wouldn’t want to risk going elsewhere.
I don’t have all the answers, and in the regulated industry of pharmaceuticals it won’t be easy to find a clear way to win. But I believe it is something the market is lacking, and something I would love to provide to them.
On October 30th 2009 I wrote a post titled “Why I will be financially free in 5 years“.
I wanted to take a moment and look back over the last 3 years and assess what I have achieved and why I won’t be financially free in 2014.
Looking back on this article I can see how naive I was. But looking back I also think that the nativity I had drive me forward to achieve more than I could have otherwise.
In 2009 I wrote down 7 reasons why I would be financially free in 5 years. I want to take these 7 reasons again and elaborate on them with 3 years of hindsight.
1. I think in terms of cashflow not net dollars
This is something that has served me well over the last 3 years…but not something that would make me financially free on its own.
I have learned that cashflow doesn’t just come to you because you want it. It comes to those who earn it and can do something with it.
My cashflow has increased dramatically since 2009, but due to career growth NOT investments. I now earn about 5+ times what I earned personally in 2009 (I was only working 2 days per week then) and I am earning a lot more than my wife and I were earning combined at the time.
Passive income is around $100-$500/month depending on the month. This income is driven by online websites that are 100% passive. I do nothing to keep them afloat. This is no where near the financial freedom I desire, but it is nice to have a little bit of passive income backing us.
Cashflow is still #1 for me and when I invest I will always focus on cashflow. But my passive cashflow is nowhere near high enough to be financially free in 2014.
2. I am always learning
This still holds true, however as a field rep I have traded in the books for audiobooks and I now listen to approximately 1-5 books per week!!!
Books are so cheap and I listen to them on 3X speed that I go through them quick. As I keep adding to my knowledge I also add to my working income.
3. I am not just willing to take risks, I want to take risks to learn
In 2011 I took a huge risk, I took a new job when my old job had a better guaranteed income. This risk paid off as I was soon promoted and my guaranteed income is higher than my original job (and I get commissions).
The last big financial gamble I took was importing USB sticks to sell on eBay. I lost about $1,000 buying duds. Lesson learned…start small and take small risks.
My next investment cost me $155 (income which I earned online an reinvested). The website I bought tanked with the Google Penguin update but I only ended up losing about $100.
I am still willing to take risks and want to take risks, however I take smaller more educated risks. With 2 children and a wife to feed I can’t afford to lose $50,000 on a property investment gone wrong…but a couple of hundred dollars won’t break the bank.
4. Having financial intelligence attracts money and people with money
I still hold this to be true, however, I now believe studying money in books doesn’t automatically equal financial intelligence. It takes real life experience.
With my wage myself an my wife try to act with financial intelligence and this builds our financial base and our reputation.
At work, where I am in business to business sales, I get to speak to people all day long about growing the income of their business. I provide financial intelligence to my customers and I also learn a lot from them too.
I think I have learned more from my customers than I have taught them. But taking ideas from each customer makes me more and more valuable to everyone I serve.
5. I will use leverage
Something I haven’t really done yet. My focus over the last 6 years has been growing my income and maximizing the leverage of my own time.
In 2012 I did try hiring freelance writers for my site CashFlowInvestor.com.au, however I ceased this as it didn’t bring the returns I was looking for, in the time I needed it.
This is something I will look to begin doing in the next few years, leveraging my money to make more money.
I guess I do use the leverage of the Internet and I have multiple sites that provide a small amount of passive income for me.
6. I love the game
I do love the game, but I think I love the game of serving people more than simply just the game of money.
Currently I am playing the game of sales. Trying to find the best ways to serve my customers and deliver beyond their expectations, it isn’t an easy game but it is a fun one.
I love sales and marketing and it is so fun to learn. At the moment I am focusing my efforts on this and trying to push the boundaries of sales and marketing in my current company so we can deliver a better customer experience. It is hard, but I love challenging the status quo and thinking outside the box.
7. I know my ‘why’
The why I wrote 3 years ago wasn’t strong enough.
So I can have as much free time as I want to spend with my family, and so that I can have a platform from which to speak into people’s lives.
I don’t want to not work, I want to be able to work on the things that inspire me. Not working and having nothing but free time would drive me crazy.
3 years ago I felt like money would provide me with a platform, but the more I work and live the less I think that is true. Yes it provides you a platform to certain people, but what if your target market isn’t people wanting to get rich?
My why now more centres around being able to work on things that inspire me and make a positive difference in the world. Luckily I am in a job at the moment where I get to do that without being financially free.
So will I be financially free by October 30th 2014?
The answer is: Almost certainly not.
But will I be better off financially then than I am today? If I have anything to do with it the answer will be most certainly: yes!