It’s common at Surf-n-Sea in Haleiwa

Eddie Crawford - Store Manager 

At one of our regular manager’s Success Rallies at Surf-n-Sea on a Sunday morning, the manager, Eddie Crawford shared a very interesting story with us. He said that he received a call a while back from a local bank. He said that a very pleasant woman told him that they were doing an Economic Outlook Survey, and asked him if he would answer a few questions. One of the initial questions was, “Looking ahead do you anticipate sales to be the same as last year, down 10%, or down 20%?” Eddie laughed and asked, “Where’s the up option?” Eddie said that she was taken back by his reply and said, “Nobody is answering like that.” A few minutes later she asked about staffing; “Do you plan to maintain the staff you have, cut back by 10% or cut back by 20%?” Eddie again asked, “What about increasing it, that’s what we want to do?” She said, “Oh, I forgot, I’m talking to the optimist.”
Surf-n-Sea survived the Gulf War in 1991. When “911″ hit it was business as usual at Surf-n-Sea while others placed “Going Out Of Business” signs in their windows. When there were two major landslides shutting Haleiwa off from the rest of the island, sales kept right on climbing. Then came the so called recession. Eddie has good cause for his optimism. Sales continue to go up year after year.

Success Rally
I have been meeting with the staff at Surf-n-Sea in Haleiwa for close to 15 years. I have seen (and even caused) many changes in that time frame. One of those changes has been an increase in sales that is close to 10 times from where it was. Another change required a willingness to get outside of their current comfort zone and embrace the system; Pro-Active, No Pressure Selling.

“Aloha”
Salespeople began greeting customers and attending monthly “Success Rallies.” Next was a willingness to provide all new employees with their own copy of Retail Selling Made Easy. The Morning Report then came along, and Surf-n-Sea was one of the very first companies in Hawaii to get it, even in its initial raw form.

Be the Optimist

To enjoy continued sales in any economy,  tune out any negative thinking, and become an optimist like Eddie Crawford, owner Joe Green and the pro-active staff at Surf-n-Sea. It’s Easy! You can do it too.

“Fill it Up”
I seem to be a part of a dying breed of people that prefer and even expect “full service” when buying gasoline. I am so stubborn about this that I absolutely will not pump my own gas! It is becoming a tougher and tougher task to just find a place willing to serve you. I have a perfect record by the way; I have yet to pump it once.

Cosmo-Yajima
If you live in Honolulu, please check out the Cosmo-Yajima SERVICE station at the corner of King and Keaumoku. You will experience true service the way it should be. Besides gas, ask for a hand wash and watch them work out. I actually look forward to needing gas, just to go there. We see too many overweight, overpaid “service station” attendants sitting on their backsides watching people in business suits pump their own gasoline, and then fork over an unreasonable amount of money for it. I have even seen some places that charge you for water and air, and you need to put it in yourself.

The Works
When I pull into a “service station” and say, “Fill it up”, I want a tank of gas as well as my tires, water and oil checked along with all of my windows cleaned. I find the places willing to provide this service, like Yajima are always busy. HELLO!
To read Yelp reviews on them, CLICK HERE and see that I am not alone.

NOTE: I was asked today if I could find this posting from last year sometime. I did and decided to re-post it for anyone who may have missed it. 

“When I was your age…”
This cute message to the younger generation was sent in by one of my “over 30” Blog readers. A friend suggested that I “Blog it,” so here it is. Oh yeah, I “cleaned it up” just a bit, and added the visuals.

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning uphill… barefoot… BOTH ways; “Yadda, yadda, yadda.”
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crapola on kids about how hard I had it, and how easy they’ve got it!
But now that I’m over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today. You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it but you kids today don’t know how good you’ve got it!

So EASY!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves in the card catalogue!! There was no e-mail!! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen! Then had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

So EASY to Rock Out
There were no MP3’s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ’d would usually talk over the beginning and screw it all up!

Hard To Imagine
We didn’t have fancy stuff like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that’s it!
And we didn’t have Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn’t know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances!

So Antiquated!
We didn’t have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘asteroids’, we were a little square! You actually had to use your Imagination!!
And there were no multiple levels or screens; it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder, and faster and faster until you died!

NOT!
You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on television! When it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your backside and walk over to the TV to change the channel, and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. Do you hear what I’m saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rats!

OMG!
And we didn’t have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove … Imagine that!
You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled. You wouldn’t have lasted five minutes way back in 1980!
Regards,
Over 30

“Tips are to be Earned”
This CBS story is about a North Carolina waitress who lost her job at a pizza place after blowing off steam on her Facebook page about a recent $5 tip she got. The article does not mention the amount of the tab or anything about the service given. It does say that a couple sat at their table for three hours, causing her to work an hour later than scheduled.
On more than a few occasions I have had a server explain that he or she was getting off work, and would like to settle the tab, and start a new one with another server.

Attitudes Show
Is it possible that this server showed “attitude” instead and thus “earned” the small tip? It’s hard to say. The restaurant has a company policy banning workers from complaining about customers or making the resturant look bad on a social network, so the firing was apparently in order.
I see a few good things to remember in this story:
-The customer is always right.
-Tips are gratuities given by customers based on the level of service they feel was provided.
-Employees should be aware of and follow company policies.
-Badmouthing a customer publicly is stupid.
-Anger is one letter short of danger.

Have a SENSE of URGENCY
Late last night, while watching TV, my wife asked me to do something with a piece of her art on her website. I got right up and headed to my office. She said, “You don’t have to do it now, just be sure to remember it.” My reply was, “Doing things now is my way of remembering to do them.” It only took me a few minutes to do it. It is so easy to put off doing things that are not urgent, and then when a bunch of them become urgent all at once it’s “stress time.” You may even find yourself in a state where you have so many things to do that you don’t do any of them, or do all of them poorly.

Overload
Things done under stress are just not done as well. That’s one of the things I love about Sundays. That’s my creative day; it’s the day nobody is asking me to do something. It’s the day that I found the “time” to write all of my books. It’s a great day for me to get things done, and done well.
Today’s technology has provided many tools to be organized, and remember to do things. Outlook Reminders for example will put an intended “to do task” in your face as often as you want it to. The problem with these high tech reminders is that they also make procrastination as easy as accomplishment. With the click of a key you can move a task that you wanted to do this morning to tomorrow morning, then the next, and the next, until it becomes urgent and you HAVE TO Do It Now.
In Success Made Easy I say, (something like) “It takes less time to do it than to decide if to do it.” Or, as the late great W. Clement Stone said, “When deciding when to do something, just DO IT NOW!” That works for me. It will for you too. Give it a try. 

It Only Takes One
I continue to hear people “crying the blues”, claiming that people are worried about the economy and not shopping. All you need to do is take a walk through Ala Moana Shopping Center or Waikiki just about any day and you can see evidence to the contrary. It’s the old “half glass of water” thing; how do you see it; half full or half empty? Those seeing it half empty will be “chicken little” busy looking for places to cut expenses in areas where the optimistic will be spending more and thus passing up their competition.
I received e-mail the other day from an AT&T manager who had just read Success Made Easy upon returning to Hawaii from Europe. This is part of what she said:

“Aloha Ron,
Thank you so much for your kind offer to deliver Success Made Easy to the airport before I left. I received it when I arrived home and was able to read most of the book over the weekend. I hope to finish it tonight. I will be recommending this book in my Selling for Success class tomorrow. Reading every day for personal and professional improvement is mandatory for me, and I include this philosophy in my classes. I love the story about Bill Wyland hoping the tough economic times last longer so that he can get all of his competitor’s good locations. That is classic Bill.”

Park It
Further evidence of the spending going on at Ala Moana is seen when trying to find a parking place. Part of that problem is the space set aside for valet parking that is not being used. The parking lot was full when I took this photo. Why drive around for a half hour only to find a parking place in the sun, 100 yards away? Just pull up to the valet here or at Niemen Marcus and let them park it for you while you shop. It’s Easy!

Apple Mania
Perhaps the strongest evidence of all that people are spending money can be seen just about any day or night by peering into the Apple Store where the prices are high, the lines are long and the service is terrific.     

Who Should it Be?

As we go into this special local election the people of Hawaii are deciding who to send to congress. I love to watch the posturing, hear the attacks and in general enjoy the show. But when it comes down to an opinion, I am reminded of something my wise Daddy told me, “In business, never talk about religion or politics.” So, with that advice in mind, I will stop right here!

You Need To Dig For It

If gold could be found lying on the surface, everyone would pick it up. The fact is that you need to dig for it, sometimes deeper than you may want to. The same is true whether prospecting for gold or for new business. There are two kinds of people in the world; there are those who get what they want, and those who take what they get. Guess which one gets the most.
Customer prospects (and gold) are everywhere.

Put On Your “Prospecticles”

The good prospector is always on the look out for new business. Regardless where you might be, chances are there are some good prospects within sight, but you must be looking for them. I have a term; DBWA (Doing Business Walking Around). It is amazing how many people you can meet if you have your “Prospecticles” on while you are anywhere.

W. Clement Stone

Like many people I have walls of framed mementos in my office. Perhaps the most treasured of them all is this 1975 photo of me and W. Clement Stone (May 4, 1902 – September 3, 2002) taken in my Hollywood office (very faded), along with the one of him wearing an oversized “Do It Now” T-Shirt that I sent to him.
“Clem”, as he was affectionately called was a prominent businessman, philanthropist and self-help book author. “Do It Now” was Clem’s motto. While in my office that day he told me this wonderful story.

As Clem was getting into the elevator to go up to his office at Combined Insurance Company of America, a man stepped in and said, “Hey Clem, I’m ready to buy that policy you have been talking to me about”. Clem said, “Okay, I will drop by your office later today to write it up”. The policy was for a million dollars.

By the time the elevator reached the top floor Clem had an idea. He called a spontaneous meeting with his top salespeople and announced, “Just a few minutes ago a man in this building told me that he is ready to sign for a million dollar life insurance policy. I told him that I would come down today and write it up. I’m kind of busy today and was wondering, would any of you like to go take it?” Of course they all raised their hands enthusiastically. Clem then said, “Great, go find him.”

Clem told me that they sold well over a million dollars of insurance that day, in that building, and never found the man. Think about it! This story has stayed with me for the last 36 years. All of those “prospects” were in that building all along while his salespeople were sitting on their hands drinking coffee (or something). The business was right there under their noses. All it took to get them out there “prospecting”, was the assurance that someone would buy. That assurance is always the case.

“I start buying when I run into someone that is selling”
-J. Paul Getty

Clem died at the ripe old age of 100. I hope you will take the time to click and read this story. If you don’t find it inspiring, have someone take your temperature.

It’s at a Premium
Parking at a busy mall is always an issue. Even a bigger issue is shopping revenue. One would think that the business done in the mall is more important than parking control, especially with so many retailers crying the blues about a lack of business. This being said, whenever I go to the mall to shop or to help retailers do more business I always park as far away from the crowded parking lot as I can. I can use the exercise and I don’t like dings in my car doors.

Huh!
You can imagine how upset I was today to find a General Growth Properties bicycle patrolman issuing me a “Courtesy Traffic Notice” at Ala Moana Mall for parking in this spot for “more than four hours.” The rent-a-cop told me that they don’t want store employees parking there all day. I told him that I am not a store employee. He said, “I’m sorry, I am only doing my job, but don’t worry about it, nothing will happen anyway.” Right! 

 “Okay”, “Okay”, “Okay”, “Okay!”

We have all had the experience of sending e-mail out and then wondering if it was received or acted upon. Some people solve this problem by selecting the return receipt option on all e-mail they send. Many people find that to be an annoyance, and some fail to deal with or even open the e-mail simply because of it being there.

Many times you will send e-mail that does not require a reply, yet you still might like to know that it was received. Another annoyance is asking someone to do something, getting back an “okay” which is then responded to with another, and even another “okay”.

When writing E-MAIL ETIQUETTE MADE EASY I asked numerous people for their little “pet peeves” with e-mail. My favorite one came from Jerry Kohl at Brighton. He said, “You don’t have to be the last person to say, “Okay.” This all begins to sound like the proverbial catch 22, where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

I used to have a web master that had a great habit. Whenever I sent e-mail to Regis asking him to do something, I could count on a simple reply letting me know that the task had been accomplished. He would just say, “DONE!” That prevented me from having to keep checking to see if it was done or not.

It all comes down to that basic wisdom most of us had preached to us by our parents: “Treat others the way you would like to be treated yourself.” Don’t leave people hanging, yet on the other hand don’t bombard them with needless e-mail. Answer your e-mail promptly so that it doesn’t pile up. You will be amazed at the reputation you build for yourself in the process.