TGIM FROM GUEST BLOGGER- BETH PAUTSCH!

Saturday Tim and I went to buy a different car. We were 95% sure what we were going to buy. We ended up buying something different from a different dealer.

What the first salesman did wrong:
He assumed we would buy there since we did last time.
We questioned an engine option and didn’t get much of an answer He didn’t show us new things, just had us sit in his office.
In pricing conversations everything was very vague.
He was apologetic of the pricing and made us feel like this was not a good deal.
We wanted to see what the color looked like and instead of searching their lot for anything that color, he was fine with us going to a different dealer to look and assumed we would come back.

We left without warm fuzzy feelings, but feeling like we were getting screwed over.

We decided to stop somewhere else and this is what that salesman did right:

He introduced himself, offered us a beverage, and let us browse a bit.
He then started with a conversation of asking our wants and needs and what caught our eye.
Before leaving on a test drive he took the time and showed the bells and whistles and how they would be great for us. (Touch and feel) We asked them to get a trade in number on ours while we were on the test drive and he SLOWED THE PROCESS DOWN by saying drive it first to make sure it was right for us, then we would look at numbers.
He fully explained the numbers and made us feel good about our purchase.
The whole team worked together to get us to join “their family”. They talked openly how they not only want this sale but all future sales with us.

Did we get a great deal? Who knows, but we left feeling good about our purchase.

Talk with people.
Make them comfortable.
Ask questions.
Demonstrate products.
Do the work to make it easy for them.
Congratulate them on a great decision.
Let them know you are there for them.
WOW them.
Sales – make it fun for all involved.

Let’s give our customers the warm fuzzies this week!

BP

TGIM!

We Rock!  We Rule!  We are the best, no one else is even close.  I have NO IDEA why anyone wouldn’t buy from Drexel.  All of my customers are SO HAPPY with me.

OH OH.  THIS COULD BE A REALLY BAD THING.

The problem is: Groupthink

What’s Groupthink:  Here’s what Wikipedia says… Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.

Huh?

“Groupthink can happen when the group gets carried away with its brilliance and superiority. At Enron, the executives believed that because they were brilliant, all of their ideas were brilliant. Nothing would ever go wrong. An outside consultant kept asking Enron people, “Where do you think you’re vulnerable?” Nobody answered him. Nobody even understood the question. “We got to the point,” said a top executive, “where we thought we were bullet proof.””  Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Dweck, Carol

Groupthink is when nobody has any new ideas, nobody fails because they don’t take a chance, no one has anything to improve, because you know, we are better than anyone else already!

Further:

“There are so many ways the fixed mindset creates groupthink. Leaders are seen as gods who never err. A group invests itself with special talents and powers. Leaders, to bolster their ego, suppress dissent. Or workers, seeking validation from leaders , fall into line behind them. That’s why it’s critical to be in a growth mindset when important decisions are made.”

I’m afraid this hits a little too close to home at times as we grow.

Team don’t be afraid to be critical OF US, OF EVERYTHING WE DO.  Challenge what we do.  Ask yourself, “If I was the competition this is how I would go after us.”   Leaders ask questions of your team… and really wait for an answer,

“What is Drexel failing at?  What are we doing wrong?”  Or when there is a new idea everyone loves, someone needs to ask “Why will this fail?”

Winston Churchill had  a special team put together to inform him of “the worst news of the day”.  That way he could sleep good at night knowing nothing was being hidden from him.

Look for ideas, new ways.  Don’t wait for Joel to come down from the mountains with tablets like Moses with “the newest and bestest  and awesomest ideas.”  Team, I am not, your leader  is not, any smarter or more talented than you.  Perhaps they have trained more, grinded more and learned more along their journey.  Good chance they are in a rut too.  That’s where maybe you come in and CHANGE THE WORLD.

WE ARE AS A TEAM INCREDIBLY STRONG WITH A GROWTH MINDSET.  A CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT MINDSET.

It’s all about getting a little better everyday and staying hungry with our best efforts… so in a 100 days, 1000 days we are a whole lot better.

Getting better starts today.  Happy Monday!

– 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!

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.

TGIM!!!

Some customers we see every day.  Some we talk to once a month.  Some just email us their orders.  For some we will deal with them only once, or once every ten years.  Sometimes the sale is big.  Sometimes it’s small.

Either way… we owe them a THANK YOU.

Don’t we?   Have you SINCERELY thanked your customers this week?  I mean sincerely.

Oh… not your job?   You do a lot for them, I mean they should be thanking you?   They know you appreciate your business.  You don’t want to sound cheesy…

I completely disagree.

A sincere THANK YOU for them paying your bills, buying your groceries, giving you a job… I think a THANK YOU is the very least we can all do this week.

This week let’s ALL remember to THANK every customer and client that has chosen for this day to give us some of their business.  I mean they have other options.  And they have chosen Drexel to be the place to spend their money.  Pretty cool.

– 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!

Busy busy busy.  Stop.  Stop. Stop.  Seriously.  Take a deep breath and just stop it.  If you think you are too busy to take even 90 seconds to read this…  Stop.  Pause.  Seriously?  You don’t have 90 seconds?

May and Spring… the busiest of our busy season.  SO BUSY RIGHT NOW WE CAN’T BREATHE.  HOLY CRAP AM I BUSY.  I have heard these lines or worse for the 20 years that I worked in this industry every Srping.  Some handle it well, as for others… not so much.  I’m telling you, the choice is yours.  I’ve seen it.  I’ve lived it.

Give your actions meaning

It’s the approach they take each day.  Every day.

Make sure everything you do is defined and can bring measurable success. Don’t settle for less and assume you’re making progress just because you’re moving around. Give your life meaning with action and don’t fake it because you still need to remember how to be yourself. Don’t look busy, be busy.

No one will ever give you an award for being the busiest.

Not your family.  Not your co-workers.  Not your customers.

TGIM!

Do you acknowledge your happiness?

Often times, we don’t recognize our happiness in the moment but instead look back years later saying it was the happiest time of our lives.

Take joy in your current happiness, no matter how small.

What a sad thought of someone walking around happy and not even knowing it.

If you are looking for the perfect job, the perfect day, the perfect role, the perfect family, the perfect income, you will never find it… it doesn’t exist!

If you are always chasing your dream, you might not realize you are currently living it!

“So I conclude there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.” – Ecclesiastes 3:12

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A bit more… The WORLD’S LARGEST shoe store is ON THE INTERNET… Shoes on-line?  I mean crazy… I have to try them on, I have to see them, what about returns, what if I don’t like them… I mean that’s kind of crazy right?  But Zappos.com does it and they do it amazingly well.

Zappos.. the world’s largest shoe store is 100% online and doing extremely well.  (It’s where I buy all my shoes.)  The owner of Zappos, wrote a book about how they did it…

The title… “Delivering Happiness”… I think that’s just awesome.  I think it is something we try to do at Drexel every day too.  Delivering Happiness.  Or wow. wow. wow. as we say here at Drexel.

– 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.