You Don’t?
This was the patriotic response to the anti-establishment campaigns in the 60’s. That same phrase is applicable to your job.

Look Familiar?
Some people drag themselves into the office in the morning looking like cattle going to slaughter, and then running to their cars at the end of the day to be the first ones out of the parking lot. I used to wonder, “Where are they going that’s so exciting?”
I can think of very few things worse than devoting 40 hours a week; more, or even less to a job you don’t enjoy doing. The reality is that life is just too short to spend it any other way than happy. The phrase, “Thank God it’s Friday” is about getting off work the last day of the week. Then there’s “Hump Day” on Wednesday meaning the week is half over. There are two ways to get out of a job you don’t love; quit or get fired. The biggest difference is how it looks on your resume. If you love your company but not your current position, then strive to excel at it and you will get promoted or recruited out of it.

Do YOU?
I’ve heard it said many ways that when you find a job you love, you will never work a day of your life. I find myself looking over my shoulder every day to see if anyone notices that I am not working. By most definitions, I “work” 70 to 80 hours every week, never take days off and have never taken a vacation. If someone were to offer me paid vacation to anywhere in the world, I would ask, “Can I stay right here?” While living in Hawaii makes that attitude a bit easier than elsewhere, I have felt that way no mater where I lived or what I was doing, and yes, I have done my share of menial tasks.
Here’s a list of things you can do and tell yourself that will help you love your job.

-Think back to the day you were looking for a job and landed the one you have. Remember how happy you were to get it?
-Never say, “I have to go to work” because you don’t. Every city has it’s share of homeless and unemployed people, and you are free to join them if you wish. Unless you are serving a prison sentence, you don’t HAVE TO go to work.
-Say, “I GET TO go to work.” Having a job is a privilege and it’s something you decided you wanted, so keep saying that.
-If there is an unpleasant aspect of your job, get it out of the way early while you are still fresh. Keep saying to yourself, “Do It Now!”
-Keep Smiling. You will feel good when you do.

“No” “Stop” “You Can’t”
There are several others of course, but too many times we hear these words and the person saying them is insensitive to their impact.
I went into a fancy coffee shop in an exclusive department store the other day to meet with a client. Upon our arrival I saw that half of the tables were full and the other half empty. As we approached one of the empty tables an employee barked out, “You cannot sit there.” I stood there a bit stunned and as I was calculating my response she said, “We had a leak in the ceiling and needed to close that section.” What’s wrong with this scenario?

Reason First
The fact that we couldn’t use those tables was reasonable; her approach was not. It was only after my initial reaction (negative) to her first words that I knew why we couldn’t sit there. It would have been better if she originally had said, (in a polite tone) “I’m sorry, but we have a water leak from above and had to close off this section.” Not only would I have understood, but I wouldn’t want to sit there. Your first words set the stage; think first, speak later.

Are YOU Hip?
QR Coding has been around for a while, especially in Japan. Anyone with a smart phone can aim it at a QR Code and be sent to a website, YouTube or other presentation. It’s easy to create your own QR Code to add to your print ads, window displays or just about anything. You will soon be seeing QR Codes everywhere. In the size of a postage stamp you can present anything and everything that is web based. I envision QR Codes on coffee cups which will show a tour of the farm and roasting process; on price tags in retail stores with a video telling you more about the product than the salesperson is likely to. The list of possibilities is endless.
To see an example of how QR Codes can aid a business; CLICK HERE:

To create your own QR Codes; CLICH HERE:

And, best of all; it’s all FREE! Give it a shot.

Surf’s Up!
Every year Hawaii features its Triple Crown of Surfing and everyone is hoping for the biggest waves possible.

“And the Winner Is…”
It’s quite an honor to win any of these events and historically the top surfers in the world are there hoping to get this year’s trophy.

Congratulations Joe Green
Joe Green is the owner of Surf-n-Sea, a 15 year client of ours. Joe has many talents. Besides building an enormously successful surf shop in Haleiwa, he is an accomplished surfer himself as well as being a talented musician and song writer. Something that started out as a hobby has become a new venture for Joe; making custom ukuleles. This year the Triple Crown of Surfing commissioned Joe to make custom ukuleles to be given out as trophies.

To see them CLICK HERE:

A few months ago I dropped in on Joe at his North Shore home to see his ukulele workshop. I was amazed to learn how much work goes into this craft, so I made this brief YouTube of the process.

To see it, CLICK HERE: I think you will be amazed too.

It’s in the Fine Print
Headlines (and too many people) will continue to look for problems and in doing so be blind to the opportunities. To name a few:
-This Year’s Black Friday weekend (I hate that name) hit a record $10 Billion in spending.
-Cyber Monday crossed over the $1 Billion mark for the first time.
-This years Honolulu Marathon (next Sunday) will bring in $107,000,000, which is a good million more than last year.
-In Hawaii, November had a 2.3% increase in visitor arrivals and a 15.6% gain in spending over October.
-Bank profits increased to $35.3 Billion in the 3rd quarter; for the 9th consecutive time compared to last year.
-Home sales continue to rise at tens of millions of dollars each.
-Personally, I have many retail clients setting all time records in sales.
And lastly, Men’s Health Magazine named Honolulu as the best place in the country to be happy.

Turn it Around!
Those who are not happy with the state of affairs might be looking through the wrong end of the telescope.

WIIFM?
Whenever asked to do something, most people filter the request through “WIIFM” which stands for “What’s in it For Me?” Unless there’s good answer to that question it many times will not be done. This is true both in parenting as in managing salespeople.

Do it For the Customer
Too often salespeople that want to sell more are thinking more of themselves than their customers. The customer will benefit more from the sale than anyone else. When a sale is made, there are a lot of people who benefit; the salesperson, the store or company, the vendor, the landlord, plus the state and country. All of these benefits are monetary. What the customer gets out of the deal will last longer than the money will last for any of the others.

“Mine, No Mine!”
One of the worst things that can happen in sales is salespeople arguing over whose sale it is. Whenever I am asked to referee one of those arguments, I ask, “Who did the customer give the money to?” When you get good service in a restaurant you don’t drop your tip on any old table on your way out.

Teamwork Works!
Those that work together get more done. Here’s a good rule to keep in mind; “The commission on any one sale is never more important than your relationship with your co-worker.” If you make this and the “Customer First” a part of your being, you will succeed more than the selfish people who get it turned backwards.

4.6 Million Visitors a Minute

“Cyber Monday” is a new phenomenon going hand in hand with Black Friday. Last year at this time more than 300 retailing Web sites tracked by Internet monitoring firm Akamai were drawing 4.6 million visitors per minute. Major retailers said that Internet traffic was up more than 80 percent compared to a normal Monday.

Why Monday?

The irony here is that Monday is when a lot of people return to “work” after a four-day Thanksgiving food fest. One might think that a lot of work might be waiting to be done on that Monday, and it is an appalling thought that so many people “shop” while supposedly working. It was estimated that 72 million people would shop sometime during that day.

“Web Surfing” during work hours has become far too commonplace. Have you ever noticed that most workplace computers cannot be seen by passers by? I say, “Turn things around” so that managers can see what their employees are doing on line while “working”, or would that be “micro-managing?”

Recruit Some Help
The reasons to quit smoking are many; staying healthy is at the top of the list. Just about every smoker I know says, “I know that I should quit.” I know from experience that it is easier said than done. I quit 40 years ago and can still remember the battle. In Success Made Easy I quoted myself as saying, “It’s easy to quit smoking; I’ve done it hundreds of times.”
This article in CBS News makes the case that smokers who quit with company do better than those that go at it all alone. Check it out, pass it along, just maybe you will save a life.

Stay Away From Joe

Andy Capp
Cartoonist, Reg Smythe, who created the working class comic strip hero Andy Capp, died of cancer at 81 in 1998. He drew the Andy Capp comic strip for the Daily Mirror for more than 40 years.

Another character in the series was called Joe Btfsplk, a name that is next to impossible to pronounce. Joe served to illustrate how some people are. He walked around with his own private rain cloud over his head, and anyone coming close to him would have some terrible form of bad luck. Because of his reputation Joe was a very lonely and feared little man.
The “Joe’s” in our society today are those people that always have a bad news story to share with you. They are the first ones to tell you about a coming storm, accident on the freeway, problem in their life or, YES the downside of any economical time. And they can bring you “bad luck” if you listen, even worse if you buy in to their negativity.
Someone once told me, “An unwelcome visitor soon departs.” When you run into “Joe”, let him know how unwelcome his tales of woe are and he and his cloud will go rain on someone else.

“Oh Boy; Oh Boy” 

Nobody likes rejection, and nobody gets more of it than a person selling in a jewelry store. Buying jewelry is an emotional decision, and a willing customer can cool off in a heartbeat. You are showing a fine piece and your customer’s head is bobbing up and down like a doll in the back window of the car. She puts it on, looks in the mirror and obviously loves it. You know she is going to buy it. You and she are both smiling approvingly. You are thinking, “Oh boy, oh boy.” Then suddenly she takes it off, her smile goes away and she says, “I need to think about it; I will be back.” Your “Oh boy” feeling fades away as she is ready to walk away. What do you do now? Most people will either bear down and push for the sale, or bail out and hope that she will come back.

“BEARING DOWN”

The “bear down” salesperson says something like, “You know you love it, that’s a great price, you should get it now.” Some even suddenly drop the price thinking that will close the sale.

“BAILING OUT”

The “bail out” salesperson says something like, “Okay, here’s my card, please ask for me when you come back.” She smiles, agrees and heads for the door. You frown and feel depressed. One of these two scenarios plays out every day in jewelry stores across the country. There must be a better way, and there is.

“THE DETECTIVE”

The wise salesperson stops selling at this point and becomes a concerned “detective” looking for the real reason she is not buying it. This salesperson says something like, “Okay, maybe it’s just not the right piece, and if that’s the case, you shouldn’t get it. Let’s take another minute before you leave, and tell me, what is it about this piece that just MIGHT NOT be right?” He or she now simply shuts up and continues looking at the piece. It’s the customer’s turn to talk and you will be surprised how many “confessions” you will get. You will hear things like, “Well to tell you the truth, it’s more than I was planning to spend.” Or, “It just doesn’t look right on me.” or “It’s actually too big.” Or “Too small.”

There’s usually a reason and when you uncover the truth, chances are you can do something to resolve it and make the sale, if not that piece then another one. The truth will set you free; lies paralyze. If the truth is that she really does need to think about it, help her do it while she is in the store. Say, “Do you think it MIGHT BE the right piece?” If the answer is, “Yes” or “Maybe,” say, “Let’s be sure.” and then go back over the features and benefits of the piece looking for what MIGHT BE holding her back. If you cannot find a good reason to NOT buy it, then “SELL IT!” Say, “It looks like we have found the right piece, is there anything we didn’t think about?” If there isn’t, then say, “Let’s do it now.” This is where salespeople are separated from clerks and order takers. The key is doing it for the customer, not for you. When that’s where your heart is, you and the customer both win.

Ron Martin
Success Dynamics, Inc.