Cycles

In sales everything can be broken down to cycles - good, bad and ugly. Currently I am in one of the ugly cycles. It seems that lately I have had to deal with a fair amount of customer issues. Usually I would guess one might happen per week, but this week there have been too many (I think that number is around four). Now that may not seem like a lot, but to me it is way too many. I am not sure if it has to deal with the weather (low pressure system going through and it affects a lot of things - my kids got maybe 3 hours of sleep last night) or just it is that time when a lot of our projects are being completed, but it is the cycle. I am usually pretty good at handling this but sometimes a client just hits me wrong and that happened this week. When everything I say or do is wrong in their eyes and I can't figure out what my next step should be. These are the times that I have to force myself to back away for a little bit and regroup. Those are the times you write the email you really want to send them, hold if for 24 hours and then reread and then delete. It may not be overly productive, but it sure feels good to write the words down sometimes.

Image

I went golfing yesterday with a friend and client of mine - Dan Culhane, the executive director of the Ames Chamber and Economic Development. We had a great time and had a great discussion. One of the things we discussed that is getting more important to me is image. It seems that people are becoming unaware of how important image is for them. It may sound shallow, but it is the only thing many people have to go on the first time you meet them. I am not in favor of trying to become something you are not, but one should understand how what they wear, how they cut their hair, their tatoos and everything affects how people see them. Right or wrong it happens. Being in sales I am always very aware of this. Again I don't think it is right to be fake, but a person does need to keep this top of mind while going through life.

The New Me

Well I finally did it. I was tired of hearing about my HTG3 brothern and their new excercise goals, diets and new levels of energy. Today I start the first day of the new me (and I am blogging about it to make sure everyone keeps me going the right direction). I got up at 5:00 am this morning and worked out on my eliptical machine in my basement. Now I am know to overdue things, so I made sure I start slowly (I did 20 minutes) and then did 4 sets of 10 situps. Nothing earth shattering, but baby steps are a good start. I will keep you posted on how things go, but so far I feel great! Why is it that sometimes we need a little kick in the pants from good friends to do things we know we should be doing...

Farmer Communication Skills

I had a great dinner last night with a great friend and mentor, Stuart Crawford, and his family. They are passing through Ames and were able to make time to stop by and break bread (it was the deep dish style bread with cheese, pizza sauce and lots of toppings) and share some time. I really enjoy spending time with friends and family, but sometimes we get into ruts (especially when you have little kids) of not allowing that to happen. While we didn't solve all of the world's problems last night, we had a great time just sitting back and talking. It seems that we get so wrapped up in technology and information that we overlook the enjoyable items from our past. I remember when my parents would invite family and friends over almost on a weekly basis. They would sit around the dinner table and drink coffee and just talk. I was amazed, and still am, on how farmers can sit and talk for hours. Every time I go home I try to learn these "farmer communiciation skills" but really I think it comes down to caring about the other people that you are talking with. Too often we are worried about what we are going to say next that we miss what the other person is saying. While this is a bad habit I suffer from, I am working at over coming it. My oldest son, Noah, when we would talk use to grab my face in his hands and make me look at him. He knew if he didn't have eye contact, sometimes dad wasn't listening (pretty darn smart, not sure where he got that from).

Receiving

Well the shoe is on the other foot. My wife fly out yesterday and will be at meeting until Thursday. I now am a single dad of my youngest two children (Taryn 22 months and Gabe 8 months). I know that she does a lot around the house and I don't always appreciate what she does, but spending time alone being the only adult (read into this person to clean up after eating Cavatini - not the best choice to feed them, play with and give baths to) I really get a respect for what she does when I am away. I know it is hard, but being in her shoes reallys makes it much more understanding. My mother-in-law came over last night to watch the kids today. I have a customer event that will last into the evening and needed someone to help out. It is difficult for me to ask for help, even when there is no other way around getting something done. Thanks to my friend Brad Schow from Compudyne in Diluth for telling me that maybe I need to be ready to receive (this was after we ready the Go-Giver) and that might be holding me back. I had always seen asking for help as a weakness, but now I have to revaluate. Just one more thing to ponder over, but I know Brad is right (he usually is).

Personal Resources and Growth

A good friend of mine started a blog the other day and I find it a great site. Mike Fafinski and I have become good friends via our HTG3 peer group and have found him to be a great resource on sales issues and helping numbers make sense. His blog is at http://michaelfafinski.blogspot.com/, take time to check it out. There are so many great resources that I have, and most of them are from HTG3. When I started in HTG3 I wasn't sure what to expect, but have come away with great resources and awesome friends. I have come to realize that I have limited knowledge (for those of you who know me probably think that I am being liberal with the word limited) but have surrounded myself with great people - from HTS, HTG and other groups I am a member of. I can't emphasis how important it is to get out there and build your network, it will help you to continue to grow professional and personally.

Relationships

What makes you get out of bed in the morning? When I was younger it was money. I could never get enough. Then a few years later (ok maybe more than a few) it was status and power. I liked feeling important. Now I am older (and feeling really old) and am comfortable financially and where I am in life, the thing I love the most is working with people. Not just any people but great people who I consider my friends. The people I work with and my clients are very important to me. I send birthday cards and make note of special events in their lives on my calendar. Now don't think I do this just to build a fake sense of caring, I really do care. I have learned that maybe this makes me naive and sometimes I get taken advantage of, but I don't care. It allows me to get out of bed in the morning and think about all the great things I get to do.

Home with the Family

Back in the office on a Monday after almost being gone a whole week, a little daunting, but it makes one feel missed. Well I need to be careful now what I post, a lot of my HTG3 group members were made aware of this post last week and I have a feeling they will now be watching it.

I got home late Saturday night after a full day of travel, but once I was with my family I felt full of energy. My daughter wouldn't let go of me until I laid her in bed. My son just smiled at me the whole evening and keep giggling and saying "dadda". It's amazing how the little things your kids do can make you melt so easily. These are the reasons I go to work, so I can provide a good life for them. I know sometimes that I get wrapped up on what a "good life" can be, but in the end it means providing for their basic needs and making sure they know they are loved. Sunday was incredible with the whole day being spent just playing. We took a walk after dinner (working on my HTG3 goals already) and spent a good hour at the park. What a beautiful night it was.

I hope that everyone has someone in their lives that can help brighten the day with a smile or just knowing they are there. It does make life enjoyable.

Vancouver

What a beautiful city this is but I am really dragging. Traveling drains me and then going to the west coast, the time change really affects me. The great news is, the HTG3 meeting has been incredible. While the agenda has not been followed the best, go figure, the discussion has been awesome. As a group we are getting to the point where we are getting comfortable to throw the "bull crap flag". The meetings are only as good as you allow them, so the group is making people be real. After you lie to yourself long enough, you begin to believe it. You need someone to make you be honest with yourself or else you might find yourself on the outside looking in. Do you have a group you can be real with? Search people out that can be your mentoring circle.

Airports and Wasted Time

Why do we all feel like we need to travel so much? What sense of worth or sense of importance does it give to us? I am sitting in the Minneapolis airport and have been flying/waiting so far for 4 hours and I am not even half way there yet. I am going to my peer group meeting, HTG3, and meeting with some of best people I know in the industry, but am already tired. I miss my sons and daughter and especially my wife, and yet traveling gives me a sense of importance. What could be more important than my family though. Well I am hoping to slow down on my traveling, but I know that I will always want to get together with my HTG3 friends and mentors. Again it comes down to prioritzation of items in one's life. While it has been difficult to make that choice in the past the decision is getting easier.

Numbers

On my drive through the great state of Kansas (no that is not sarcasim, I really enjoyed it) I had a lot of time to discuss things with my great friend, Mike Fafinski (who has great hair). Sometimes it takes an outsider to make you see things correctly - we seem to fall into our ruts and feel very comfortable there. I asked Mike's input on many things (we had a couple of hours to get to another great friend and mentor of mine, Steve Riat) and with almost every question I asked him he asked how that affected my sales, which is my main focus, no matter what else is put on my plate. He helped me sit down and come up with how important I am to the company, hourly in both sales and margin. That really opened my eyes to using my time effectively. Am I making decisions based upon those numbers? I hadn't up to that point, but I am starting to now. It really opened my eyes to what every hours means to HTS and also to my bottom line. Again, as I stated yesterday, the importance of understanding numbers and what they all mean is something that is going to be a higher goal for me going forward.

Getting Real

Up to this point I travel to a peer group meeting and when asked the tough questions can fall back on "Well I am just a sales guy so I don't deal with that issue". As of August 1st I am now the location manager for the office that I am at, in Ames, Iowa. While this is an exciting move in my career, it does make me a little nervous. I now am more responsible for the day to day operations of the office which has a larger affect on HTS. While I look forward to this new challenge (the CEO of HTS, Arlin Sorensen, a person I respect a lot, calls it my 2.0 phase) I also have started evaluating me. I want to do a great job, like I do in sales, so what will that entail? I read a book a few years back called "Get Real" and I think that is going to be as important to me as my other goal - FOCUS. I was thinking late last night and came up with a list of items that I really need to work on to be a good location manager:
1. Financial Knowledge - after my meeting last week with Mike and Steve, I know this is a big weakness of mine.
2. People Skills - while I am great at building relationships, I am a typical sales person. I want everyone to be my friend. You can't manage or lead this way. Mike gave me some great pointers on the drive to Hays last week and I know I have a long way to work on this. I am glad to know that I can always ask my HTG3 buddies for help and direction on this one.
3. Better Prioritization - again something I am good at, but always with a sales focus. I now need to integrate a staff of 8, a location's profitability, and many other factors.
This is just a beginning list, but I know I will be successful, if I just seek help when I need it.

Hays, Kansas and GroupThink

Well it has been a couple of days since I blogged - I am attempting to improve (especially now that people I know have been made aware of this blog). I have been on the road for the last couple of days doing a GroupThink (I read this term somewhere and think it is great). I got together with two guys I respect a LOT - Steve Riat from Next-tech in Hays (his blog is listed to the side) and Mike Fafinski from Syand Corp in the Minneapolis area. We got together to really do a deep dive on a white board on cloud services (some people refer to these as hosted, but cloud sounds so much more impressive) and how to offer those to our clients. I am amazed and in awe of how Mike and Steve work in with numbers. They are incredible and I hope that maybe some of their smarts wore off on me. We had a great and very productive 24 hours.

I know that if I want to increase my success I need to associate with successful people, and can truely say I did that in depth this week.