What was I talking about….

They say that we live in a “sound bite” age and I could not agree more with this statement. I spend a good deal of time in my current role talking to account executives around the country about what they should focus on to be more successful. In addition there are some times when I really focus on what I need to do to help Vernon be more successful as a company. This all sounds great but then it comes time to put these words in to action….and I can’t remember what I was talking about.

Does this ever happen to you? How do we keep our attention span on one subject so that we can actually accomplish our goals? This is a good question. This morning on my 45 minute commute to the office I proceeded to jot down all the thoughts going through my head. Oh my, what a busy place it is between my ears this morning. You will see what I mean as I list out my random thoughts.

• Why don’t salespeople make more cold calls today?
• Do teenagers ever actually talk on the telephone?
• Why can’t I delegate more things to the people that I work with?
• What do our salespeople offer that cannot be purchased on line? Service, creativity, experience, etc.
• Why doesn’t every salesperson with Vernon sell at least 20 calendar orders per year?
• Do people believe that you have to invest in yourself?
• The Vernon website is fantastic!
• Do negative people realize that they are negative?
• How many of us knew growing up that we wanted to be in the promotional products industry? Chris, Rick, Cameron and Stephanie…your opinions don’t count here!
• At what age can you say what you want and not worry about what others think?
• Why don’t more salespeople recognize what Vernon offers and sign up with us? We are good people…aren’t we?
• Why do salespeople not take advantage of every preferred and accommodation supplier that offers spec samples?
• When do teenagers realize that they do not know everything?
• If salespeople sold the way politicians campaign, no one would ever sell anything and we would all be out of work. Just my opinion…sorry but I am tired of the negative campaigning.
• Is your glass half full or half empty?

OK, now I am pulling into my parking spot at work so I need to shut off the mind and go in and actually get something done. I actually thought about more things but some of them were not appropriate to write down and share.

I think you all get the point here and it is not that Dave is a raving lunatic that needs help. That may be a subject for a different day. My message here is that I recognize that it is extremely difficult to stay focused on the task at hand, no matter what the task is.

Being a successful salesperson in today’s workplace requires discipline on the personal and professional level. An individual must be goal driven and they must be organized. They must have the attention span to list out their goals and to design a game plan on how they will hit their goals.

They need to be able to recognize if they are on track or off track at any given point in time. If they veer off track, and this happens to all of us, they must do what it takes to get back on track and headed in the right direction. They must be willing to learn from others. They must be open to new ideas. They must understand that “my way is not the only way”.

I struggle every day to have my list of things to do (I am a list person). Some days I have a list of lists. I have to prioritize every day. Sometimes priorities change from day to day depending on the circumstances. I have to remember what I am trying to accomplish? What is my end goal? There have been times when I am analyzing numbers when I have forgotten what I was looking to do. This is not good! I need to get back on track.

Think about this as you approach your work today? Is there a plan? Are you all over the place as I was on my ride in this morning? Can you take a few minutes to really think through things? Do you have list? Are you organized?

Only if you take the time necessary to get everything in place do you have a chance to maximize your productivity. I strongly urge each and every one of you to begin your day with some reflection of the day’s goals. It is also a good practice to end it the same way looking back at what you got accomplished and what is on your list for the next morning. Go to bed at night. Get up in the morning and look at the list again. Is it still applicable? It is amazing some times what a good night’s rest will do for your ability to prioritize and plan.

Today my glass is half full! I have a plan. I know what I want to do and I know how I am going to do it! It WILL be a successful day!

I hope your day is successful. Good luck! You have the control.

Truth in Advertising - Does it still exist?

One of the major responsibilities that I have with my organization involves advertising. Our goal is to let people know about The Vernon Company. Yes it involves recruiting but more importantly it involves disseminating information about who we are and who we are not. We go to great lengths to try to dispel misconceptions about our organization.

The ultimate goal is to encourage an individual or a company that is looking at making a change down the road to engage us in conversation. Let's get together and talk. We can talk about what is important to you and what is important to us. We can establish what you need and then compare that to what we offer to see if there might be a match. We can examine the culture of our organization to see if there is a philosophical fit. We are very proud of the messages that we put out there and we are confident that we can stand behind any claims that we make. Can all advertisers make this claim? Heck no!

I am getting more and more peeved at the claims I see in ads from some major companies. When we sit down to discuss ad concepts we are very quick to say that we really do not want to use words like best, most and only. We are honest enough to know that we do not know all there is to know about all the distributors in this industry.

We offer the BEST Service!

We pay the MOST commissions!

We are the ONLY company to do....(insert your claim here)

Recently I have viewed some ads by Top 40 distributors with blatantly false claims. Does anyone who takes their money ask for proof that their claims are real? I think not as the almighty dollar carries an awful lot of weight.

A recent ad placed by an Ohio based company features a pie chart showing a "traditional" distributor and the fact that they are paid 50 % of the profit while it lays out an example of their organization paying 91 % of the profit to the rep owner. This is a perfect example of mixing apples and oranges because in reality their representation of the "traditional" distributor is accurate (in my opinion) while they fail to mention that they pay the rep owner 91 % of the gross sales revenue, NOT 91 % of the profit! Some of you might say this is NO BIG DEAL but the reality in this example is that they would pay 75 % of the profit to the owner if the order has 36 % gross profit percentage and less if the the GP % was lower. If the order was sold at 20 % they would pay the rep owner 55 % of the profit NOT 91 %! Some people can't handle the TRUTH!

Another company ad (from another Ohio based firm) makes the claim, actually several of them, that they are the ONLY company to do several things. They protect against bad debt and product liability. Nobody else does this, they claim! Really...I don't think this is true! But there is no "fact checker" in this industry. It has to be YOU!

A third company from the great state of Texas finds a way to spin everything in their favor while we hear from many of their reps that they cannot handle some of the most basic functions of the business like processing orders in a timely manner. H-m-m-m? It appears to me in this instance that even the lies are bigger in Texas. This same company is very proud to announce to their world that they have raised another round of venture capital to run their business. This is the third or fourth time. Shouldn't the company be able to survive on its own profits by now? This would be like me announcing to the world that I managed to find another company to give me a credit card or that my current credit company has increased my credit limit. Great news...I have more debt or I owe people more! This doesn't seem to be a good thing to me, but what do I know?

So where does the truth fit in with all these companies? I am not sure! The reality is that they all need to sleep at night. My interest and concern enters into this discussion as we attempt to tell people who we are and how we operate.

To some this may sound like sour grapes and while I understand that, my real intent here is to encourage all advertisers to advertise with integrity. We are very direct when talking to potential candidates looking to learn more about Vernon to be honest and forthcoming. Misleading or hiding information from them that will eventually come out two to three months down the road does no one any good. If presenting the facts in a straight forward manner causes a prospect to decide that Vernon is not for them we are OK with that. We only succeed if the salesperson or business owner who aligns with us succeeds! Having someone on board with us who feels like they were duped, lied to, or misled does nothing positive for our organization.

So if you are reading this what do you do? My suggestion is to do your due diligence up front! You are talking about a career choice. You can not afford to make mistakes because you acted too quickly or it seemed too good to be true. We all know the old adage that if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is! Talk to other reps from the organization. Talk to your supplier friends about the company. Pull a D & B report on the company to see their financial rating. Ask to see their financial reports. Ask to see any contracts or agreements that they might have in place. Find out how you can get out if things do not work out the way you thought. Is there an exit strategy?

Think about what you need and what the company offers.

Everyone loves money ....right? However at the end of the day what you might need is sales support.

Everyone wants to own their own business...right? Really? I am not sure because with ownership comes more responsibility and more pressure and more sleepless nights. In good times certainly a case can be made that ownership means more money but during tough, lean times it can mean more debt, more uncertainty, less sleep and more anxiety medication.

So do your homework! Don't rush into anything. Investigate and compare organizations. Go to meet them. I don't know how a significant producer in this business can make a decision to join a company (even if it is our organization) without going to visit. At Vernon we encourage people to come visit. We will cover the costs for anyone who is seriously considering a change. Even if the visit shows them something that causes them to pass on our organization it is better than them joining and both parties investing a good deal of time in a transition only to part ways three months down the road. We want people to join us for the right reasons. We want people to align with us for the long term! Immediate gratification...sure there is some of that when you make a decision to change but we want to be a home for our sales executives for a long, long time!

We welcome your questions. In fact we encourage them! We hope that you ask lots of questions because there are a lot of loose claims out there in the industry, and you owe it to yourself to work for a company that is honest and ethical first and foremost. Often that begins with the claims that they make in print!

OK, I feel better that I got this off my chest. I should be okay now at least until I open another industry magazine and read that "Company ABC was the first to invent the internet" and that "they are the ONLY company to pay 105 % of the profit in commissions".

I know that we all want to believe that everyone has your best interests at heart but no one should be more concerned about you than you!