One of the capabilities that enable a salesperson to be perceived as being extraordinary is their ability to control that which appears to be uncontrollable. There are many factors within one’s business that are wrought with variability – on time delivery performance, pricing instability, and inconsistency of quality are just a few. The better a salesperson understands his or her market, the better he or she will be able to predict change. Furthermore, a strong understanding of one’s own business will enable an individual to provide estimations as to what those changes will be. For example, if you have a production order that has been delayed due to a breakdown of some production equipment, a customer does not want to hear that you do not know when you will be back up and running and able to deliver their product. Instead, it is critical that you proactively advise the customer of the upcoming delay as soon as possible, provide a conservative estimation as to when you will be able to recover and deliver their product, and promise that you will do everything in your power to drive the material through once your operation is back up and running. Ongoing communication is the key ingredient to maintaining healthy, trustful relationships. The worst thing you can do is avoid confrontation with your customer in hopes that some miracle will come to pass and their material will magically fly through your process. (LAME)
The best hours spent with my customer base tend to be either on the golf course or in a dining room. During these hours, I have the opportunity to retain their undivided attention. When meeting in a customer’s office environment, there are always day to day issues looming just outside our meeting spaces. Of course, there is always the “all-too-busy” target who is unable to forward their phone to their voice mail so they can field the multitude of business saving calls that all happen to come through during the brief one hour that they have allotted to you. By getting them out of the office, you extract them from the day to day and give them the opportunity to look at the bigger picture. As mentioned earlier, it is critical that you get to know your customers and that you track them more vigorously than you would a critical account. That means you should not only know how many kids they have, how many years they have been with their current employer, and what they need in order to consider you to be a more valuable supplier, but you should also know what foods they like to eat, hate to eat, and need to eat. With obesity reaching an all time high, many people are jumping on the diet bandwagon. The Atkins Diet has been a popular favorite, and all of its derivatives (i.e. the South Beach Diet) have also recently gained a great deal of notoriety. It has been said that the key to a person’s heart is through their stomach. I completely agree with that statement (being an epicurean), but I also believe that you need to fill their stomachs with the right foods in order to unlock their minds. That means that if you are dealing with a customer who is cutting our carbohydrates, you want to take them our for steak, seafood, veggies, or the like. You don’t want to take them to a delicatessen where they can only pick a limited number of items from a seemingly expansive menu.
Some people focus heavily on maintaining a healthy body by eating the right foods, never smoking, and exercising. In today’s frantic world, it sometimes seems like it is difficult to find the time and focus that is required to be healthy. However, it is my belief that by maintaining self-control over everything you do, you are able to control the uncontrollable within your life. I know this sounds a bit circular, so allow me to break it down a bit further. Let me start by saying that I am a Gemini, and although I know virtually nothing about the Zodiac, I do know that Gemini’s are characterized by their split personalities. Therefore, true to form, I either tend to be either obsessively dedicated to what I am involved in or else I am the polar opposite, completely lazy and devoid of interest. This not only applies to the way I operate on a daily basis, but also pertains to the way that I diet. When experiencing uncontrollable cravings for food, I always used to rationalize that I was a stress eater. When I perceived that things in my personal or work life were not what they should be, I would eat. As a result, my weight has fluctuated within a 30 pound range over the last five years. What I have finally come to realize is that in actuality I do not eat as a result of stress. Instead, I stress as a result of the lack of control I have over my life, including the way that I eat. There are many activities within your life you are unable to control. Many of us feel we are underpaid, undervalued, or under more pressure than the next person. Although these are things that you can work towards changing, they typically take a long time to effectively adjust. What has become increasingly apparent to me is that when I obsessively control my eating activities, which is one of the most glaring facets within my life that I lose total control over, things tend to work much better in both my work and personal life. I know that the one thing in my life that I have the least control over is eating. When someone asks if I want to hit the local Chinese buffet, it has always been virtually impossible for me to choose the “right’ items off the buffet and to stop at one plate. What can I say, I absolutely love food! When I would hit the top point of my weight scale, I would become disgusted with the way I looked, the way I felt, and the way things were going in my life. I would decide that if I was going to be able to lose weight, that I would need to control every single morsel that went into my mouth. If I ate it, I recorded it. For some unknown reason this anal retentive activity seemed to result in drastic changes in my life. I felt better, I lost 30 pounds over a 5 month span, and things in my life began to turn in the right direction. What I came to believe is that by conquering and controlling my most uncontrollable vice, I gained an enhanced sense of control over my life and was more effective in a broader sense.
I strongly believe that willpower can defeat any vice. I have known a few smokers who have had a pack a day habit that suddenly gave it up when someone close to them was diagnosed with cancer. When something strikes close to home and really registers, it can result in significant modifications to an individual’s perspective and outlook. There is nothing in this world that is unachievable. When an individual is faced with a challenge, it is