In This Issue:

• Does Your Organization Have “Big Bones”? by Dave Anderson
• Archived Articles

• In 2 Weeks - Cracking Into Corporate Accounts
• In 2 Weeks For Management - Rewarding Sales Behaviors You Want Repeated

For Management In 2 Weeks

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• Identify the sales behaviors that you want repeated (and there are only 6!).
• Create a Program that is self motivating, self funding, and self sustaining.
• Have a a supporting Measurement Program that in "real time" (not at the end of the month when the damage is already done...)
• Much more . . .

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"Manager's Minute" Tip

(Article Archive)

Does Your Organization Have “Big Bones”?
by Dave Anderson

I’d like to expand a bit on the concept of fitness I described briefly in the Insider Article, “Kick the Quick-Fix Habit.”

While conditioning your mind; habits and attitude as a leader take constant attention and are necessary to maintain a personal edge, the same is true when it comes to conditioning key aspects of your business in order to make it healthier and more vital. It is just as important to ditch the notion that quick-fixes are helpful organizationally as it is to do so personally.

In order to continue growing your business it’s essential to accept that attempting to become fit for life organizationally carries no assurances that you’ll always succeed. But it’s a far wiser option than putting a band aid on a problem one month; covering it up the next; and then trying one “crash diet” after the other until you’ve become so worn out by inconsistent behaviors and results that you’ve resigned yourself to live with them or justify your unacceptable condition. At this point you start to get the business version of the “I’m just big boned” mindset. I have a quite large Uncle Ralph who rationalizes: “I’m not really overweight or out of shape, I’m just big boned. It’s hereditary.” Perhaps you’ve heard this from someone you know. This excuse is a strategy of surrender and business symptoms of “I’m big boned syndrome” become evident when you whine on about your “unique” market area or how different your challenges are than most of those lucky souls who are more successful than you. After all, they get all the breaks and you’ve been cursed with the “big bones” of business. Following are three common “big boned” style excuses found in organizations. Make sure you’re working for fitness in these areas and haven’t resigned yourself to excuses to explain away your lack of better results. In fact, you may want to discuss the following three points at your next manager’s meeting.

1. We can’t find good people in our area.
   
   Let me assure you that the Creator didn’t curse the area where you live and decide to stop putting talented people there. The fact is that the most successful people already have jobs. Thus, you must become more fit in your business by making proactive recruiting an ongoing discipline and not a knee-jerk reaction to finding yourself short handed. Chapter 1 of my book, Up Your Business explains in greater detail how to accomplish this.
   
2. We don’t train because we’re busy/short staffed/don’t have the budget, etc.
   
   If you only get on the training treadmill after a bad month it’s time to stop crash dieting and make your organization more fit by establishing training as one of the “non-negotiables” in your business. This means that your managers understand that training will be consistent and effective and they will be held accountable for ensuring it takes place: good days or bad days; when it’s convenient and when it is not. There is no cheap ride to greatness and if you’re not willing to pay the price in dollars and time it takes to develop your people then you will pay a far higher price for them remaining ignorant and uninspired.
   
3. The economy is slower in my market place.
   
   If you think what we’re living in today is a bad economy you either have a very short memory or haven’t been in the business world for very long. Please understand that there is a big difference between a down economy and a bad one. Bad economies have 13% inflation; 21% interest rates and 7% unemployment. Some of you remember these times. They weren’t that long ago. You cannot use the economy as a crutch for your lack of greater success when there are so many aspects in your business that you can control each day and do a better job of executing but are failing to do so. Exercises like taking care of the customers you already have rather than whine about the fact there aren’t enough new ones coming through the doors is a good place to start; training your people to maximize each opportunity they see each day rather than let them slip through the cracks in hopes an easier one comes through the door is another task that will bullet proof your business and help condition it for sustainable success.

Think about any “I have big bones” type excuses you’ve either uttered or accepted for your business and resolve to do better. Focus on conditioning and fitness. It’s not a quick fix and takes plenty of work over the long haul to attain. But it’s what keeps you in the game over time and helps you grab the prize while the “big boned” whiners are rubbing their eyes and regaling bored stiff contemporaries with tales of how great things were back in the “good old days.”

© Copyright 1999 - 2007 The Dave Anderson Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

About The Author:
Peak performance author, columnist, trainer, speaker and radio show host for sales, management and leadership, Dave Anderson walks the talk as a leader. He has led some of the most successful retail automotive dealership in the country—the most recent dealer group he led had over $300,000,000 in annual sales—and now gives 150 presentations, workshops and speeches annually on sales and leadership development around the globe.

Dave is author of over 50 training programs on sales, management and leadership including the books, Selling Above The Crowd: 365 Strategies For Sales Excellence and No Nonsense Leadership: Real World Strategies To Maximize Personal & Corporate Potential. Dave authors a monthly leadership column for Dealer magazine, publishes a monthly leadership newsletter and hosts the weekly radio talk show, Dave Anderson’s Learn To Lead Hour. His books, cassettes, videos, newsletter, column, web articles and live presentations pull no punches and provide real world strategies for peak performance in business and in life.

Dave is a member of the National Speaker's Association and is a featured speaker at conventions worldwide.

Dave is president of the Dave Anderson's Learn To Lead and LearnToLead.com, a cutting edge web site providing hundreds of free training resources to thousands of subscribers in over 30 countries.

Contact Information:
The Dave Anderson Corporation
P.O. Box 1119
Los Altos CA 94024
Phone: 800-519-8224
www.learntolead.com
dave@learntolead.com

(Article Archive)

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