TGIM!

You have to BELIEVE in the people around you MORE than they believe in themselves.

It’s really a game.  A match.  A contest.  The contest is FEAR VS. LOVE.

Do you fear they may make a mistake or do you love them enough to coach them?

Do you love them enough to say, you are not ready yet, but I see it in you.  You work at Drexel which means you already rock.  Now it’s time to make you better… follow me.  I can show you and you can do it!  I BELIEVE IN YOU!

Are you stuck in a belief that only YOU can do it, the team is:

JUST ARE NOT READY YET

DON’T CARE AS MUCH AS ME

TOO BUSY TO HELP

or maybe…

THEY ANNOY ME (Your mind is made up, that person IS annoying.  Do you find that thing everyday that annoys you or focus on the positive?  Example:  That laugh he has drives me nuts.  Hey the person is 99.5% awesome, the laugh distracts you… so you ONLY focus on that laugh.  And you tell others too, before you know it everyone hates that laugh…  How foolish.  Leave the laugh behind and find the good!)

How much can you LOVE those around you will have everything to do with how much YOU improve.

Can you find one person on your team and EMPOWER THEM (a sure sign of love) as you coach them through a responsibility?  That person could be a teammate or maybe it’s a vendor.   Could that one person be someone you don’t talk to very often at work because “they annoy you?”   Could YOU have to make a change to LOVE them instead of telling yourself they annoy you.   Find the best in everyone and let them help you… the results will be amazing.

Empowering others IS helping others.

They will appreciate you more.  And you will get closer to your mission.

– Joel Fleischman.  Joel is Head Coach of the solution providers for Drexel Building Supply.  (drexelteam).   You can follow him on twitter:  @JoelmFleischman.   Since 1985, our business success has come from building others UP.

TGIM!

Team,

This one really hits home for me.  Something I know I can do better…

LOVE > WORK

We are a company that is drilled, trained, and motivated by performance.  Where do we stand?  What customer did we wow?  How are our sales?  How is our OTIF?  How is our department?  How can we get better?   What can I do more and better?

But when we measure so much, let’s not forget the LOVE.

LOVE MORE.

“Joel, this is the dumbest one yet, I mean LOVE, this is a friggin’ tough industry.  No time for love.”   My friend, I disagree.

We work with GREAT people.  The BEST of the BEST.

I think, and let’s all try really hard this week, that we should love more…   when we talk with teammates let’s love first.   Be there for them.  They are there for you.  Do not worry about them holding up their end of the bargain, or if they are, or if they will.  I trust they will do more, the more you appreciate them.  The more you care, the more they care.  The more you talk to them AS A PERSON.  Not as a tool to get your job done.  They are A PERSON, not part of your job.

The same for our CUSTOMERS.  They are not “a customer,” or “an order”, “a hassle”, or “a win”,  THEY ARE A PERSON… try the love on them.

How to love at work?   A smile, a handshake, a thank you, a what’s new in your world, a moment to acknowledge you care, beyond the performance and work at hand, maybe you sit down with someone at lunch you never ate with before.

We all know we have work at hand.  Important work.  Stuff to do: stuff that needs to be done now.  MAYBE YOU DON’T HAVE TIME TO APPRECIATE PEOPLE AND GIVE THEM SOME LOVE.

See how dumb that sounds?  No time for love?

This week go love your teammates and everyone around us.  Make it a special effort.

– Joel Fleischman.  Joel is Head Coach of the solution providers for Drexel Building Supply.  (drexelteam).   You can follow him on twitter:  @JoelmFleischman.   Since 1985, our business success has come from building others UP.

TGIM!

Team, what stands us apart from the competition?

It’s being quick, efficient, streamlined, and simply the ability to GSD.

If you can get it done, DO IT.

How do you sight in a gun before you shoot it?  You don’t.

Are we are looking for the perfect result BEFORE we even begin.

READY, FIRE, AIM.

Quite often in the “planning stage” we simply look for excuses why it won’t work.  Start it, do it, figure it out.

Less layers, less people.  Less management.  Do it.  GSD.

Mark Cuban has said

“perfection is the enemy of progress and profitability.”

Now you all know my blogs are not perfect.  Sometimes they are misspelled.  The grammar is off.   But you know what if they were “perfect” I would never get to it.  So I choose almost every Monday to “do it” vs. “thinking about doing it perfectly and never really doing it.”

Now we all know counting loads, taking orders, invoicing and many tasks do have to be perfect.  But plenty of others can be tweaked as we go.

The ready, fire, aim approach requires a positive attitude and a TON of communication.

But we got that don’t we?

– Joel Fleischman.  Joel is Head Coach of the solution providers for Drexel Building Supply.  (drexelteam).   You can follow him on twitter:  @JoelmFleischman.   Since 1985, our business success has come from building others UP.

TGIM… OR IS IT TUESDAY ALREADY?

IS IT JUNE?

YES, YES IT IS!

So, you prospected some accounts this winter.  You lost that job.  Now they won’t return calls.  You even sent them a snarky email!  I mean buy or die right, we will show them!!!

HOLD THE FORT.  HOLD THE FORT.

Do you know how hard it is to break up current relationships, some long term, some very personal… and buy from Team Blue?

Think what you have for breakfast.   I will bet a lot of moola that you eat 1 of 3 choices each breakfast.  Most of you eat exactly the same thing! Even if given many choices… you will normally still eat the one you always eat.   People don’t like change, even if it’s the best for them!…

***

So, now is the time to call… touch base, keep it fun and conversational… don’t stir up past quotes or orders… that will cause friction.  DON’T CHASE PLANS, CHASE RELATIONSHIPS.  Ask how things are going and ask for an appointment to learn a bit more about them (either their sales process or their operations) to see if we can help or guide at all.   And just to let them know we are still an option.  EVERYBODY LOVES OPTIONS.  BE A CONFIDENT 2ND PLACE.

***

LET THEM KNOW WE DON’T DO 2ND PLACE WELL.  It’s just our competitive nature, but that we understand their hesitancy to use us.

Don’t be bitter… angry or even frustrated…and don’t just let it go.  DO NOT USE EMAIL EXCLUSIVELY TO TRY TO GET OVER THE HUMP.  TOO IMPERSONAL!  CALL. OR DO BOTH.

The meeting will be brief and we will leave a bit of information behind (think about a product that might interest them or even better an article you read on trends or the market.)  Ask for the meeting in two weeks (nobody is booked THAT far out).

Incrementally winning.

If we just took care of all the accounts we stirred up this winter… and played a good 2nd place… the return on this will last for years and you won’t have to chase plans…. doesn’t that sound good?

2nd place… you are not waiting for the competition to fail.  You are slowly, steadily replacing them in a natural easy fun way that really makes it easy for the customer to buy from us when we are truly helping them!

How do we help the customer?    EASY.  Learn about them.

And while you are it, do the same for your CURRENT customers.  Are you still finding how to help them more, suggesting ideas, or are you order taking?

You know your products better than them and more importantly you know their competition.  Without giving away trade secrets can you help them with best practices for them or great industry ideas being used.  YOU ARE THE EXPERT.  HELP THEM SUCCEED.

***

“Joel, but I don’t have the time!  I JUST DON’T HAVE THE TIME… I HAVE TO QUOTE/BID/ORDER AND THAT’S MY FULL DAY EVERY DAY.”

Well if you don’t HAVE THE TIME TO BUILD someone will BUILD IT FOR YOU… and then you will have to start the process over and make time for that.

WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT THAN BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS?

If you don’t have the time to relationship build… you are doing this all wrong… talk to me or your store leader or coach and get “uncluttered” and fast.  Our competition is waiting for you to run out of time.

– Joel Fleischman.  Joel is Head Coach of the solution providers for Drexel Building Supply.  (drexelteam).   You can follow him on twitter:  @JoelmFleischman.   Since 1985, our business success has come from building others UP.