My daughter is always on my case about reading. I’m a big non-fiction reader, you name the self-help and how-to books on sales, people, health, exercise, cooking, finance, travel, blogging, mothers, daughters, life cycles, and trends, I’ve read them all. I talk about them, recommend them and remember their titles. That’s because they are easy titles to remember such as the “5 ways to get…” or “the 10 secrets to” or “101 guidelines for” or the “7 habits” or the “4 agreements.” Very easy.

Earlier this month, I traveled through Germany and Spain- I packed my 8 back issues of the New Yorker, a few Money magazine issues, a few blogging books and the Sunday New York Times. By the time I arrived in Chicago, I finished reading everything and wanted something fun to read. I like to read contemporary or creative non-fiction and the only way I will read fiction is if I flip through a few pages and I’m hooked. That happened- I found my fiction novel. I bought it and couldn’t stop reading it through my travels. I read it so fast and took it everywhere with me. When I met up with my friend in Spain, I handed it to her and said she had to read this because it was so good.

So when I proudly announced to my daughter that I finished an entire fiction novel while traveling, she immediately asked what the title was? Oops, I cannot remember, I swear I have completely forgotten the title of this book. I can tell her what it was about, I can email my friend in Spain and ask her the title but I’ve been trying to figure this out for the past week searching through the best seller lists and can’t find the name.

Here is a photo of my lunch in Cordoba, Spain where I ordered a fantastic salad, sausage and I wanted to read my book in the sun. Here it sits on the left- can you make out the title?

I love the Nike, “Just Do It” ads. Talk about meaningful branding, it is so simple to remember and yet it means so much.

There is a fine between being fearful and fearless and we are the only ones who can control this state.  I’m a big Yoga student and my most fearful pose is headstand, otherwise known as Adho Mukha Vriksasana.   I practice it almost everyday and I don’t think I’m making any headway. The problem with the pose is my head. Not that I don’t like it being upside down or banging it against the wall. It’s what goes on inside my head. The self-sabotage and thinking that infects my confidence and allows a wave of fear to suddenly crash over me. My hands start sweating, my heart starts racing, my body gets stiff and I am become paralyzed and can’t get up.

When I’m in class, my Yoga instructor orders up in the pose very quickly. “Don’t stop and think, just do it” he shouts. By the time I walk across the room and face the empty wall where I will jump to, the fear has entered and I’m useless.

In sales, we need to constantly improve and when we feel fear and panic, it keeps us down. How many times has your sales manager asked you to contact your prospect’s boss and you become fearful? What about when you think you are going to lose a deal because something happened at the last minute.

Don’t let fear or panic slow you down. Just do it. Here’s a great Russian Nike YouTube video to watch:

I ran into an old friend yesterday after not seeing him for a few years. The last time we spoke, he screamed and I listened. I was caught in the line of fire between him and someone else. It was unfortunatel.  I was extremely disappointed but given the circumstances, I stayed clear from any future dealings with him. I avoided going to his class and walked the opposite way when I saw him around the neighborhood. The explosive story never ended. I recreated the drama when I told friends and shared my peace with those who would listen.

When I ran into him in the chips aisle at the Andronico’s market, I acted as though nothing happened. In so many words, I chose to forgive him but will never forget what happened a few years ago.  I have this bad habit of acting overly happy, perfect and super together when I don’t feel safe around someone. I guess it’s a defense I still put up to protect myself.

In sales, we risk rejection all the time and the concept of information integration is something we don’t spend enough time on. We forget when we call someone we’ve had numerous conversations with in the past to bring up the detail. We forgive the fact they were super rude to us the last time we spoke and said they didn’t have time to talk. We forget they said they were opening up new offices in the Spring and we forgive the fact that this guy had you running in circles to organize a demo and ended up cancelling a few minutes prior.

I encourage you to bring more of yourselves to the call the same way I should have brought more of myself to my meeting with Mr. Explosive yesterday. Because…… they will never know unless we say something. 

I hate my kitchen and I bitch about it the same way people bitch about their jobs. I know my friends have become so intolerant and ignore my vicious kitchen rants when they come over. Ever since I bought this house 14 years ago, I have dreamt of the perfect kitchen and it has yet to materialize.

There have been countless designers, architects, contractors, electicians, painters and friends who have sat in my kitchen with measuring tapes, sketches, cameras and pencils. We had a designer who sat and observed our cooking and clean-up kitchen efforts so he could draw something accurate. That was about $3K ago and still no kitchen remodel.

And yet, the kitchen is so symbolic of a healthy home. It is the soul of the house, it has substance and everything revolves around it. Well that’s not the case in my kitchen.

A few months ago on a very cold and wet January afternoon, I met Bruce, a contractor who had been referred by a friend.  He came by and checked out my kitchen. “Looks easy” he said with the confidence and authority of a true kitchen doctor. I watched him measure, observed his attention to detail, listened to his strategy and believed I had found the one. I started realizing my kitchen problem was more about who I wanted in my house for 2 months working away than anything else.

I thanked Bruce and asked him to send me a quote asap. On his way out, he slid down my front entrance steps and slipped a disk and hurt his back. Oh, poor Bruce, now he is out of work due to multiple injuries and will be gone the rest of the year.  

I feel like a spoiled child……. but where’s my kitchen remodel? What do I do now? How do I pick this back up?  Meanwhile, I’ve become the client from hell to deal with. When I’ve tried calling around to find someone else, it must be my tone that completely scares people away.   I don’t have a solution and believe I am cursed as my negativity is creating havoc.

My daughter is serious about her jeans- designer jeans that is. We visited my good friend Audrey and stayed in her house a few years ago. My daughter still remembers the time we got ready to go out to dinner and she stumbled into Audrey’s closet and became hypnotized by her demin collection.

“Mom, did you see Audrey’s closet?” She said out of breath.

“They are just jeans, Briana.” I replied.

“Mom, you don’t understand what was in there. It was a shrine of amazing jeans and not just one but multiple pairs of jeans. She had True Religion, Rock & Republic, Citizens, Antik Jeans, J Brand, Paige Premium, Lucky, Marc Jacobs.”

Maybe it’s because in the old days when I worked in the fashion industry, I worked for a jean manufacturer called Union Bay Sportswear. It was such a fun time in my career and selling demin was a great way to make a living. This little company grew over night and got their name of the map for their incredible denim.

Each season, my department store and speciality store buyers came to preview the new season’s line. Each season the designers would prep the sales reps with their latest strategies and techniques on denim treatments. The wash was different one season where they loaded jeans and washed them in with heavy rocks. The treatment was unique because they loaded jeans on the back of a truck and drove it around with the denim hanging off the back so it would have instant worn quality. The color always changed.

As you know, demin weighs a ton. When I went on the road to sell my denim, loading 50 pairs of denim would be too much, so instead of lugging my heavy line of jeans to show buyers, I just carried the pockets and thousands of dollars were spent based on pocket treatment.

We are all have a denim attachment. Some keep their jeans from high school and some wear the same jeans over and over again. Our denims define us and tell everyone more about who we are.

I like to bring small groups together from similar skill sets and meet in an informal sales training roundtable. It is for a shorter period of time and it dives into one specific skill.   Recently, I met with a few reps for the sole purpose on focusing on net new business.  I asked each of them to bring one target account they wanted to penetrate this quarter. Before talking about skills, I wanted to examine their choices and what accounts they wanted to target.

This was a great exercise because it taught me so much about each individual, what they strive for, how they prepare, what they believe they deserve and how many of them settle for less. Here’s what they brought to the table and why:

 1. One rep brought a very large high profile strategic account which was entrenched with the competition for some time. She wanted to get more visibility within the company and knew that going after such a high profile account would score her more points.

2. One rep brought a prospect he worked on for months but just lost the opportunity a few weeks ago. He believed this prospect owed him something since he had invested so much time on this account.

3. One rep brought a webinar lead who signed up but never attended. He figured they had expressed some initial interest and this was a warm lead.

4. One rep wanted to go after their installed base and up-sell them into a new solution. They were a good solid customer and the chances of getting more business was high.  

5. One rep wanted to chase a prospect who had a good relationship with this rep but had put off buying for many months. This rep believed he was getting much closer and predicted the deal to close in the coming quarter.

It’s so interesting what we reach for when we prospect. The time of the month plays into this =  If it’s the beginning of the month, we may go after something more strategic or at the end of the month or quarter, we become more desparate and look for low-hanging fruit to just bring something in.

In general, I find that salespeople deserve more and tend to settle for less. Here are some ways I believe they settle:

1. They are very quick to offer discounts without investing time in selling the value.

2. They become impatient and settle for a smaller sale versus a bigger sale.

3. They invest too much time talking with the wrong people or the No-Po’s.

4. They have unrealistic and unatainable goals and sabotage themselves into being disappointed.

5. They settle because they are tired, lazy, desparate, panicked, insecure, apathetic.