Category Archives: Irreverence

Saying it straight – takes courage

Your incredible week!

 

Your incredible week!What if this is the week that changes everything? A magical event happens that gets the ball rolling faster than you could have ever imagined? Why not?

What if all you had to do was take 10 minutes RIGHT NOW and write out the 3 Most Important things that you can do TODAY that move you towards your dreams? TIP: Baby steps are typically the most effective.

(Where is all this energy and enthusiasm and clarity coming from? I have been working the Leonie Dawson 2013 Create Your Incredible Year workbook and planner and I LOVE it! http://leoniedawson.com/shop/k)

Careful. The 10 minutes you are going to take to do this DOES require thinking.  And listening… to your heart, and your intuition.

Have you got your 3 most important things? GREAT! Get the calendar. When are you going to do them?

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

NOW! Pump up the music and rock your day out! (I mean it. Having music playing alters the way your brain thinks and works! I use Pandora in my office and pick a “station” that gives me crazy good vibes.)

Lather, rinse, repeat – for all FIVE days! Just see what starts to unfold!

Love your life UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

 

 

The quote to sum it all up for the week…

OK, you are just going to L-O-V-E this. For Christmas, my darling bought me a daily calendar entitled…WILD WORDS FROM WILD WOMEN.

I am going to take many of my quotes from this woo-to-the-hoo calendar. Don’t miss a Friday!

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

This is our quote for the week (about RELYING ON ME … and … FINDING OUR VOICE)

“Bigger than life is not difficult for me. I am bigger than life.”
~Rita Moreno, West Side Story star

Love your life UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

Pick your boss, NOT your job

Wanna be wildly successful? (pretty sure the answer here is “yes”)

I have a secret for you.

Pick your boss.Pick your boss

When I was seventeen, I got my first job in sales. I sold shoes for a national chain (NO, Do NOT stop reading – selling shoes can be a proud profession!)

I lucked into a position, frankly.

I just wanted a job. What I got was a mentor. My manager was amazing! He was a wizard! He was completely invested in my success. He taught me how to make buying a pair of shoes an EVENT for the customer. It was wonderful training and I thrived.

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

I was made the Assistant Manager of the entire store as a seventeen-year-old student. I out-sold everyone ‘cuz of him.

Enter CARS

Then, right out of college, I got a job with a major car company as a Manufacturers Rep.

By sheer LUCK, I was assigned to a very special dealership in California. The family who owned this dealership was WILDLY successful and a pillar of their community.

(Aw, geez, I lost you on car sales, didn’t I? Come back. It’s worth it.)

This family was AMAZING. They took me under their wing and taught me how to sell a car so that people feel like coming back, year after year after year.

I became #1 of nearly 200 reps because of them.

AND THEN THE LIGHT BULB TURNED ON

I had been lucky. I had great bosses and great influences. They PROPELLED me.

For my next jobs, I took what I had learned (from my sheer luck) and started interviewing BOSSES, rather than interviewing for jobs.

I wanted someone who would SHOOT me to the NEXT LEVEL

So, I started interviewing with two things in mind.

FIRST, do I like the company I am working for? Do I value their values?

SECOND, is the person I will be working for interested in my success?

These were critical questions

What I found was that I could get paid a WHOLE LOT OF MONEY for working  with slimy companies and nasty managers.

BUT What I “picked” instead, was working for great companies with ambitious leaders who valued my growth and valued the work we did. The money came in time.

And it has worked! 

Year over year, I am number ONE in sales – no matter where I work.

I am satisfied. I am happy. I am a leader. I am confident.

MORAL OF THE STORY

Today I was on a call with Jack Canfield. He said that when he was first getting started, at VERY low pay, he worked for W. Clement Stone (a Big Deal in that time). Jack credits his roots of success from the things he learned from this very powerful man. He didn’t even mention the nature of the work he was doing, just the man he was working for.

Forget the money, forget the hours, forget the benefits…PICK A GREAT MENTOR.

AND YOU WILL GO FAR! 

Love your career UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

Into every great life – a little vacation must fall

Thank you, all, for making 2012 the most incredible year yet.

Most of all, I am grateful for the people that took time to meet me, speak with me, and educate me. There are SO many – and my life is enriched beyond measure.

I am now going OFF THE GRID until January 2.

Enjoy your holidays. Get some love in, maybe some rest. BE with your loved ones. Play board games. Refresh. Read a book that has actual pages. Touch your life.

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

Back to the magic of technology in 2013.

Love your life UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

Wearing my watch upside-down…an inspiration!

Wearing my watch upside-down
Wearing my watch upside-down

I put on my watch today. Upside down. By accident.

Then I thought, Hmmmmm…what if I wear my watch upside down ALL YEAR LONG to remind me that my work, even my life, is NOT ABOUT ME? It’s about OTHERS getting the information they need and want.

What if I approached all of 2013 about what I can do to make OTHERS lives ROCK? 

I think I’ll give it a shot. I will let my watch face YOU so that YOU can see the time.

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

What a great reminder.

Love your TICK TOCK UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

My Incredible Theme for 2013

Incredible 2013

An Incredible 2013

The amazing Rochelle Moulton (www.consultingchick.com) turned me on to a SUPER-fun planning workbook and calendar for 2013. I have already gotten started and I am loving it. You can view it at: http://bit.ly/Leonie2013.

The most powerful question yet

As I work through my plan, Leonie has asked me to pick one word that will be the theme for 2013.

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

I have been chewing and chewing on this one. If there were one word that would focus me on my next steps, what would it be.

On my walk in the woods with my puppies today, I thought….”I’ve got it! The word is DISCIPLINE! THAT is what I am going to need to take my business to the next level. I will need new habits, new ways of doing things, new structures in place to suppport all the goodness!”

My next thought was:

“UGH! Discipline!”

This theme was NOT going to do the trick. It would not take me through the planning workbook, nevermind all of 2013. Still, there was something in there. Something I KNOW would make the difference.

And then it came to me like a Lightbulb coming on!

If I were bringing discipline to all my new habits and practices and ways of doing business and relationships, I would be displaying…

HONOR

Honor for my loved ones.

Honor for my clients.

Honor for my puppies.

Honor for my commitments.

Honor for my financial health.

Honor for the privilege it is to be alive.

Honor for my body.

Honor for YOU!

I have discovered MY theme. What is yours?

I invite you – as you create your Incredible 2013. What will your theme be? What word will you use to focus you on what is next and most delightfully important.

Love your 2013 UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

Should We Re-audition? The Prom Date Dilemma

The Prom Dilemma
The Prom Dilemma

Three years ago, I lost a GIANT deal to a competitor. It was a bummer.

One year later, they came back-a-callin’. I was elated. I won the business this time.

My company went to work. Hard work. As soon as this lovely GIANT client signed on, one of their top executives decided they wish they’d stayed with the old supplier (not us).  This executive has never seen our stuff (or the other supplier’s either).

We have done an AWESOME job for this client in the last year-and-a-half. We have exceeded ALL of their very aggressive goals. We have bent over backwards for them. We have even lost money on them, to make sure they are happy and to prove that we are the AWESOME-est!

Now, this GIANT company is going into a re-evaluation process and want us to participate in a long drawn out Re-Audition. Against the old competitor.

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

Sound like your prom nightmare?

Hottest boy in school is deciding between you and the other girl to ask to prom. He asks the other girl, but they start fighting and generally not getting along. So, they break up and he comes calling on YOU!

You are elated. You won! You do everything for this guy that you can imagine to make him delighted with his pick. But, the old girlfriend is still hanging around and you can’t seem to shake her.

So, a week before the prom, he decides to pit the two of you against each other in a contest to see who is the best bet.

You REALLY like this guy. What do you do?

Do you play?

I’m thinking NO!

Look, this company knows what we do, how we do it, and that we are AWESOME. We have auditioned already.

It’s time to say “Good-BYE to you!”

HONOR your employees, their Hard Work, and your Product

Don’t keep fighting and fighting. Let your COMPETITION try to make them happy.

Prom dilemma solved!

Go with the guy who gets it! Hard to do? Sure. Do it anyway.

Love your value UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

That’s Not Like YOU!

 

People value that I am consistent. My company values that I have consistently been the top sales performer since I’ve been on board (over nine years).

My customers value that I behave consistently with them. I am always on time and I get back to them with meaningful information when they have questions.

So, my consistency is a GOOD thing.

But, I am looking to see where my consistency might not work in my favor! Perhaps my predictability also has LIMITING ramifications in my life. What barriers DON’T I break because someone might say, “That’s not LIKE you!”?

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

The Plot Turns on a Dime

Know how when someone in the movies breaks through a behavior – they say the thing you’ve been wanting them to say, or they take the new action that turns the plot on a dime?

I’m thinking of things like Rapunzel when she cuts her hair off in Tangled…taking power away from the Wicked Witch.

Or, in the Karate Kid, where Daniel-son fights in spite of a torqued knee.

That’s not like YOU…can set you free! It is exhilirating! The crowd cheers!

What things do you NOT do (or say) that would open up a whole new world…but you do not do (or say them) because That’s Not LIKE You?

Help me out below with some of your own ideas – or some other favorite movie examples!

Love your “Not Like You” UP!

AND, shouts out to Cindi Carlson, Rob Bartlett, and Dan Polley, new “fans”. I am SO glad you are here.

The Irreverent Sales Girl

The Handwritten Thank You Note Strikes Again

The handwritten thank you note strikes again
The Handwritten Thank You Note Strikes Again

I got STRUCK today.

With my own advice.

Remember that fabulous interview we did last week with Bob Burg? The one where HE gave us his precious time and talent – and great advice?

Guess what I got in the mail today! I got a Handwritten Thank You Note from Bob!

Know how I always say that the two most important things to wild success are “Be On Time” and “Send a Handwritten Thank You Note”?

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

Well, I was right.

It was an incredible feeling and made me realize exactly why Bob is such a huge success! Yes, it takes extra time and it takes effort and thought (and a stamp). But it MAKES YOU STAND OUT because almost NO ONE does it!

Love your peeps UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

 

Own Up!

Ever had that one client, that one boss, that one family member that EVERYTHING you do with them doesn’t work? No matter what they need, you screw it up?

I had a presentation with THAT customer today! 

Today I had a presentation in the last stages of a competitive bid for an important contract.

EVERYBODY was on the phone.

The Executives, the decision-makers, the business unit people, the purchasers. EVERYBODY.

This presentation went the way all of my other interactions have gone with this customer. Wild technical difficulties to start. Fumbling my words. Stilted maneuvering through the product I was demonstrating. It’s been like this since the beginning…

A fun history

It’s been a train wreck the whole way through.Own Up to Your Train Wrecks

My first meeting with them I had to cancel because I was driving to see them mid-winter and I couldn’t get out of my neighborhood, the roads were so bad.

In my first presentation with them, they were ALL ice cold. I could not get meaningful eye contact with any of them.

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

Submitting my proposal – well, that went OK.

The technical call with my Senior Vice President of Product Development and their whole team – I was a FULL eleven minutes late to the call (unprecedented).

This last presentation – just BARELY ran at all and BARELY got it done in the time allotted.

OY! 

I was disenheartened after this call. It was my last opportunity to make a good impression. But, here’s the thing. We really do have a GREAT solution for what this customer needs.

What’s a girl to do?

My first inclination was to let it ride

I had done what I had done. It was over. RIGHT?

Then, the scary move

I wrote to the icy-est (is that a word?) business analyst. I wrote (paraphrase):

“Have you ever had that ONE client, that ONE boss, that ONE family member that you could never get it quite right with?

“For some odd reason your company seems to be that for me. I apologize for the technical difficulties I put you through. My presentation was stilted and I hope I didn’t put everyone to sleep. In nine years, I have never had this experience of everything going wrong. I hope that people can let the great products and services shine through, in spite of my bumbling. Is there anything else you need from me?”

I HATED looking this ridiculous, but you know what happened? 

This Icy person sent me a warm email. She said “The technical difficulties didn’t bother any of us – it was a simple thing to manage. I have passed your email to the head of purchasing.”

Two birds with one stone!

Pretty cool! Not only had I been a “human” with the business analyst, but she gave me the opportunity to be a “human” with the purchasing person, too.

We might just win this thing! 

We might not. But at least I can rest knowing that I have put the best possible foot forward for my company with products and services that deserve to win the contract.

MORAL OF THE STORY

Do not be afraid to let people know that YOU know that you could have done better and that you care that you didn’t do your best. People are amazing.

Love your vulnerability UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl