Whistle While You Work —DeWese

Mañana Man’s Guide for Longevity, Sales Growth

• Don’t abdicate your training to anyone else, not your owner, not your sales manager and not the Goliath Litho training department, if you work for a big company. Becoming a competent sales professional is your responsibility. Figure out how to get the training. You might start by calling the NAPL or your local PIA affiliate.

• Don’t abdicate your suspect, prospect, customer, client database to anyone else. Let’s review. Suspects are print buyers that appear to need what you sell. Prospects are suspects that you have qualified as needing and buying what you sell, except they are buying from a competitor. Customers buy from you, but you have to chase every job by competing against others. Clients are your friends. Friends are people you do things with. You can depend on your clients’ business because you have a partnership relationship. Your database should be automated, and its design and maintenance should be for your benefit and under your control.

Wait. Let’s stop a minute to add years to our lives. Pick a song you can sing, hum or whistle real good. I’m picking an old Elvis tune. Ignore me and sing your song; now a one, and a two: “Hold me close, hold me tight, make me thrill with delight. I want you, I need you, and I love you with all my hearrrrrt!” I feel great. I’m livin’ long, and I’m livin’ large.

• Next guideline. Get up! Get going and no sleepin’ on the job. Remember the words of Woody Allen when he said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” And I said, “Your car needs to be in a customer’s parking lot, not your employer’s parking lot.” Set work (sales) goals for yourself and try to beat them. Sales goals have to be quantifiable and measured. Decide how many prospect calls you are going to make in one week. Do the same for qualifying suspects.