Click Here To Watch The Video ON "Humility"!

Hey, folks.  Jim Jacobus here with R4Rsalesblog and Ratedr4results.com.  I want to do a real short, quick video blog today on a word that I think we should consider if we want to be the best of the best when it comes to sales.  That word is humility.

You may not equate that word, humility, with the best of the best, but in the last week or so I’ve had that word come at me two or three times and look at it from the standpoint of what does it mean in respect to becoming a great salesperson.  I think it means three things we should consider!

First thing …  I think it means that we’re teachable, that we realize that as good as we may be—even if we’re the best of the best—there’s still something to learn.  If we’re just getting started, there’s a lot to learn.  The best of the best are people who are willing to be teachable, who are willing to learn and to be a customer or a student of growth and continue to get better.  I know the best of the best salespeople are always learning, always growing, always getting better.  Average and below average are the ones who already know everything and don’t want to learn anything that’s new.  So being humble or having a sense of humility about ourselves means that we’re teachable.

The second thing that I think it does is it gives us the ability to be gracious toward those that are coming up the ladder, if you will.  Let’s say you’re the best of the best.  If you are, you realize how hard it was to get there, and when we see somebody who is struggling we are going to encourage them because we know how hard it was.  It doesn’t mean we don’t challenge them.  It doesn’t mean we don’t hold them accountable or anything like that, but we do so from a point of being gracious about it, knowing how hard it was for us to get there!

The third thing …  I think it causes us to want to teach others. We want to share with other people, from a spirit of humility that which everybody else shared that got us to the top of the ladder.  So being humble doesn’t mean that we’re weak or “casper milk toast” or anything like that.

Bottom line … being humble should have us reflect on how important it is to be teachable and continue to learn, to be gracious toward others who may be struggling to learn.  Then the last thing is be willing to teach others knowing that we wouldn’t be where we are if somebody hadn’t taught us.

“Humility”! Who thought a word like that would make us better sales people?

We have known from the start that this day would come sooner or later! To say the least, my emotions are mixed. On the one hand I am somewhat sad because I have loved working with my son Jason in our business and personally I hate to see him go! As a business man I don’t like losing him because he is a rare talent and you can never have too much of that around!

As a father … I am ecstatic! Jason is going to work as an outside sales rep for Buckley Oil Company in Dallas, Texas! Buckley Oil Company is a refinery direct distributor of sovlents, chemicals and lubricants  servicing the Gulf Coast Region of the United States. Industries Jason will be serving include Paint & Coatings, Adhesives, Printing, Automotive, Oil Field, and Manufacturing. Buckley has been in business since 1922 and their leadership team is a strong group of experienced professionals with the highest of standards when it comes to character, integrity and ethics! It is the kind of organization every dad hopes his son will have the privilege to work for one day! If you get a moment drop him a line and send him a word of encouragement at jason@r4ronline.com! I know he will appreciate it! Jim “Old Dog” Jacobus

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What Will Be the Biggest Talent Management Challenge of 2010?

Click Here To Watch Jim’s Video Answer

Or

Read the Transcript Below!

What’s the Biggest Talent Management Challenge In 2010?

Hey folks, Jim Jacobus here with Champion Education Resources in Houston, Texas.  I was just on the TTI Value Added LinkedIn group and I was reading some of the questions there and particularly liked the question that Ashley Bowers asked about what’s going to be the biggest talent management challenge in 2010?  And I thought I would respond to it by shooting a quick little video here.

There are a lot of great responses on there and I couldn’t agree more with people that retention’s going to be a big issue when everything in the job market starts loosening up.  People who’ve stayed put because they had a job are going to start moving around.  I also agree with the viewpoint that it’s going to be a challenge for companies to rebuild trust with employees.  Training, I think, is going to be huge! Now is the time for companies to be training in order to take advantage when things do crank back up … to have their people with momentum prepared for the turnaround which I believe is coming this year.

But, I would like to flip the coin a little bit. Maybe somebody else has said it, but my personal point of view is I’m always looking at what opportunity is this going to provide for us. I think it does provide a lot of opportunity on the retention side, but here’s what I think about and here’s what our clients are talking about … that once everything does start breaking loose and everybody starts leaving, well, they’re going to go somewhere. Right?  They’re going to wind up on the doorstep of my clients and your clients who are going to try to determine who to hire when all of these people start moving around.

One of my clients asked me the other day how am I going to know who the rats are?  There are going to be a lot of bad employees leaving too, taking advantage of this opportunity with a lot of sour grapes! There will be a bunch of rats out there that are going to be leaving their current employer and trying to find a better place, a new place to be a bad employee.

And how do you know the difference between the rats and the eagles? So, bottom line, I think our ability to help clients predict performance, assess folks, do comparative analysis, benchmarking, I think that’s going to be needed more than anything and more than ever before right! With all the people changing seats, it’s going to be important for our clients out there to know who are the good guys and who are not.

We’re already working with clients to determine what the answers to that question. I think that’s going to be the biggest talent management challenge that we face or that our clients are going to face coming up this year! We want to position ourselves to help them be prepared for that so that they can make the right decision on all the people that are moving around and coming their way in order to hire the eagles, instead of ending up with a bunch of rats.

You guys have a great day.  If you have any questions or if I can help you, don’t hesitate to contact me.  You’ll see all our information down there on the blog.  Hope you’re having a great day and we’ll see you at the TTI Winner’s Conference here in just a couple days.  Take care, folks.

Transcription by www.idictate.com

Well … there’s the million question for you! Every sales manager, business owner, VP of sales and high performing sales rep I have ever known has asked that question at some time or other. What is the key? Can I hire for it? Can I teach it? Could I learn it and become a better sales rep than I am today?

For the better part of my sales and sales management career I have wondered what the answer to that question is. The last 15 years or so we have been in the business of benchmarking top sales performers, assessing candidates and doing comparative analysis to help clients select, develop and retain top sales talent. Identifying “what it takes” has been developed into a science anyone can employ to know exactly what it takes. Without all of the boring research mumbo jumbo it comes down to measurement of what we call “core skills & core competencies”. Something the candidate or sales rep has as a part of who they are at the core of their being.

There are, at the end of all of the number crunching research 5 core skills that stand out, in sales, from the 23 that we measure. We call those the Big Five! They are; personal accountability, resiliency, self management, interpersonal skills and continuous learning. So, we have the question “what is the #1 key” narrowed down to 5 core skills. Now the task is to determine which one is most important!

The answer is (drum roll please!) … continuous learning. Defined as a “personal, internal drive to grow” this core skill, when mastered, can lead us to master all of the other Big Five core skills and any other skill needed to be successful!

The reality of that truth was never more evident to me than it was this past week during a series of events, not related to sales, that had me scratching my head and really feeling bad for some folks I don’t even know. As many of you know, we just started a personal venture with “The Man Up Challenge 2010″. It is simply a series of weekly videos followed by a simple action step designed to challenge us all to become better men, husbands, fathers and etc. (If you want to learn more or even join us go to www.manup2010.com )

The response I received when I posed the info about the challenge on a message board I participate in was appalling and encouraging both at the same time! 1/2 of the guys were as good as they were ever going to get, knew everything  and had zero desire to learn anything from anyone else. And the other 1/2 couldn’t sign up fast enough because they were wide open to learn anything they could to become a better man!

My experience is the same when I speak or train sales people and sales managers! 1/2 couldn’t care less and the other 1/2 are fully engaged! I will pose a question to you. Which 1/2 do you think are consistently performing below average and which group consistently leads the pack? Perhaps a more important question is … which group are you in?

Here’s the good news! If you are one of the continuous learners we are going to have a ton of cool stuff for you in 2010 to plug into and we will recommend a lot of other places to learn as well … like the www.manup2010.com Challenge and others not so gender specific (sorry ladies, not meaning to slight anyone)! If you aren’t a particularly enthusiastic learner then it is one of the easiest core skills to develop. Just make a commitment to subscribe to a blog, take out a magazine subscription, read or listen to a book a month or even enroll in a training program somewhere. Make a commitment to yourself and take action to master the core skill of continuous in 2010!

Man Up!

The “Urban Dictionary” defines the term “Man Up” as … To be an adult male in the truest sense of his manhood.

The question then becomes what is an “adult male in the truest sense of manhood”? That will be our pursuit in The “Man Up” Challenge 2010. To seek what it means to become adult men with all of the qualities of true manhood!

Our First Challenge … Click Here To Read More & Join the challenge!

Hey folks! We just wrapped up our 2009 “Gladiator U” webinar series with our 4 Questions event and it was awesome! If you want to watch, listen to our download the recording just click on the image below. The short version goes like this!

To have a killer year in 2010 ask yourself, personally and professionally, individually and collectively (family or business) these 4 important questions …

#1 – What did we do this year that worked? How can we do more of it?

#2 – What did we do that didn’t work or deliver a solid ROI for our time and/or money? How do we get rid of it?

#3 – What do we want to try that is new?

#4 – What do I want to do that is big?

Again … to check out the recording just click on the image below! Let us know what you think …

4 Questions We Should Ask Ourselves Today To
Make 2010 A Killer Year!

We have had a great time this year bringing you our “Gladiator U” webinars! We are already working on ways to tweak our existing process to make next year’s series even more valuable and fun for you, our subscribers.

We are going to wrap up this year with a dynamite webinar to share with everyone our year end process for making the next year, 2010 in this case, a killer year. I can assure you the 4 questions we ask ourselves every year at this time will become your  standard year end questions, personally and professionally, as well!

Join us for this outstanding Webinar on Tuesday December 22. You can Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/415942451

Date: Tuesday, December 22, 2009, Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CST, After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Can’t Make The Webinar? Don’t Worry! Register anyway and we will send you a link to listen to and/or download the entire webinar so you won’t miss out on this important event!

If I have heard it once I have heard it a thousand times! “There is no business to be had during the holidays so I am going to shut it down and get some rest in December. Have you ever said something like that? Have you ever just felt that way?

To be totally transparent … I have! It has been a while, certainly before I owned my own business, but I have thought and acted on the idea that nothing significant happens during the holidays. The reality was, and is, that a lot of significant business happens during the holidays … the client’s and my own! My attitude about the holidays and checking out, so to speak, during December cost me because I wasn’t available for my clients nor was I doing what needed to be done to maximize the following year so I could get a running start on Q1 of the following year!

With that in mind, here are 5 things every sales rep and sales manager can do to make December every bit as productive, if not more so, than the other 11 months out of the year! Check them out, let us know what you think and please … feel free to share with us what you do to make this time of year productive for you!

5 Things To Do To Make This A Killer Month!

#5 … Let’s get rid of the idea that nothing happens this time of the year because that is a myth! There are tons of clients and customers out there who have deadlines at the end of the year that mean business for us all. Budgets have to be spent or they will be lost. Deadlines for decisions have to be made because they want them made “by the end of the year”. Decision makers have a reluctance to carry decisions over the holidays to have to deal with them in the next calendar year! We have to act and ask if our clients are faced with any of these challenges, or others, that arise at the end of the year and how can we be of service! Bottom line … don’t check out. Be available!

#4 … Have your own “Year End Clearance” sale! Find a handful of products and/or services you can put “on sale” for the end of the year and let your customers know about it! You can clear out some inventory (good for year-end inventory tax purposes), generate some revenue but better yet, you have an opportunity to communicate with clients to find out what their plans are for Q1 of 2010 and for the year ahead!

#3 … Make it a point during the end of the year to “Just Say Thanks” to your customers, internal and external, in a way that makes them feel genuinely appreciated for their business and confirms that they made a good decision to do business with you and your company! To be effective they need to be unique, appropriate and authentic. They also need to be efficient to send and cost-effective as well. If you don’t have a method for letting your customers know how much you appreciate them and their business check out our “Just Say Thanks” website for some awesome ideas!

#2 … Do something to invest in your own growth and get primed to hit January 1st at full speed ahead! Read a new book, take a sales course, subscribe and listen to a new podcast series, subscribe to a reputable blog that provides you with awesome info you can use to grow your business, join a health club before all of the parties and meals get here not after, learn that product you haven’t exactly figured out yet that your boss wants you to sell! Invest in YOU during the holidays and enjoy the ROI during 2010!

#1 … This may be the best thing you do all year to guarantee your success in 2010. My wife and I do this every year around this time and it pays extraordinarily dividends in the year to come. Here’s the process …

• Set aside some time to think and talk about the year that has passed and the year to come. Get away if you can for a couple of days. However you need to do it just do it!
• You will want to ask the following questions about yourselves individually, if married about yourselves as a couple and if you have a family about yourselves as a family. Where appropriate ask these questions from a personal point of view and from a professional or business point of view.
• First question – what worked this year? What did I/we do well? What brought me/us the best value or bang for the buck or the time invested? What have I/we become passionate about? How can I/we do more of that this year?
• Second question – what didn’t work this year? What was a waste of time or didn’t deliver the ROI to justify the time or money spent on it. How do we get that wasted time or money out of our lives? What have I lost my passion for? The “don’t do anymore” list may be the most valuable list we make. It clears out the time, money and energy needed to capitalize on the high ROI stuff!
• What do I/we want to try new in the year to come? What do I/we want or need to learn to do or do better? What new skill sets do I need to add to become more effective professionally and/or personally? What have I developed a passion for that I need to pursue?
• What elephants do I want to hunt? This needs to be something big! Some call it a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” or a B-HAG! Taking down elephants changes our perspective on what we are capable of accomplishing and stretches us to learn and grow in new ways!
• Take the time to discuss the questions above as they relate to you, your business, your relationships. Write them all down and keep them in front of you day in and day out. I will bet you find it is one of the best things you have ever done to kick start the year ahead!

Like I said … I have wasted the holidays in the past but not any more! This time of the year and these processes have provided our business and our personal lives with a competitive edge over those who “check out” during this time of the year. We encourage you to make the most of this holiday season by doing the same or even better?

Take a few moments to let us know what you think or to share with our readers what you do to make this time of year productive for you in the comments section below!

Happy Holidays!

Ho Ho Ho!

Wish I had written this but I didn’t. Love the point he made! Are you humping anyone’s leg? Check it out!

Chris Brogan

Dear people trying to sell me on something new: stop humping my leg. You know what I mean. You’ve seen dogs do this, right? That’s what it feels like when you jump on me breathlessly to share your new product or service when you don’t really much know whether I’m the right guy for your services.

I was recently leg-humped at Web 2.0 Expo, by someone I like, and who I think is smart and has a lot of good potential. The thing is, I politely declined a demo, and he persisted. Immediately, I shifted to my back foot. I felt defensive. I rolled up my interest and tucked it away.

This is a relationship. Everything is a relationship. Even if it’s on the transactional side of the spectrum, it’s a relationship. Think of it that way. Think of the protocols of getting into the better parts of a relationship. Julien and I wrote Trust Agents as part of the antidote to doing this the wrong way.

Check out Chris’ blog at http://www.chrisbrogan.com/