“The Wright brothers flew right through the smokescreen of impossibility.”
~ Charles Kettering
Tim is a globally renowned speaker and trainer and the best selling author of over 75 books including the international bestseller Soft Sell with sales over one million copies and in 23 languages. Please feel free to forward this Weekly Tip to friends, relatives or co-workers with my compliments. If you would like a lifetime subscription to these Tips for only fifteen dollars give me a call.
OK. So the economy is sucking wind and it’s not your fault. You’ve got a choice – see yourself as a victim or get busy.
Too many people today are bemoaning their troubles due to these uncertain economic times. Let me tell you, having gone through 4 severe economic periods since starting full time as a speaker and trainer in 1973, you ain’t seen nothing. Sure gas prices are high but you don’t have to wait in line for 4 hours to buy 5 gallons.
Yes, there are many other areas of the economy that are struggling but over the past 35 years I have learned a number of valuable lessons from the clients that I worked with during those challenging economic periods. Whether you are in sales, a sales manager or the owner of a company that relies on salespeople to bring in new business each month I can tell you that it may appear as though your choices or options are limited but that may be due to your limited vision, poor attitudes or general life outlook.
Here are just a few of the lessons some of my clients have taught me over the years when it comes to resilience, persistence and creativity during demanding periods:
- Everything passes sooner or later. And as the dust settles there are winners and losers every time. The winners have chosen to get better, wiser and stronger during these difficult times. The losers chose to see everything as out of their control.
- For the past 100 +/- years we have had an economic decline every 8-15 years without exception. The smart folks out there planned for these periods and didn’t act like they had just been broad-sided from out of nowhere.
- The organizations that emerged better equipped to deal with the boom times that followed every economic decline invested in their most valuable asset – their people.
They gave them new skills, they taught them new behaviors and they expanded their horizons with a variety of learning opportunities. - The organizations that emerged less able to take advantage of the boom times that followed (and they always have) cut back, hoarded, criticized, let people go, changed compensation plans and any number of other invalidating actions.
- The organizations that saw this period as an opportunity to learn about themselves; their weaknesses, strengths, dysfunction and problems all ended up far better off later, than their competitors.
- Every organization that failed did so because of a lack of integrity-based planning and an open and honest corporate culture and the willingness to re-invent themselves or their business.
- Organizations that tried to solve their challenges during these, times top-down rather than bottom-up all missed many opportunities to overcome many of the market issues that caused them to lose customers, new business and possibly their reputations as leaders in their industry.
- Salespeople who chose to focus on what wasn’t working rather than what was struggled in every conceivable way.
So, if you are challenged by this current economy I urge you to re-evaluate your perceptions, mindsets, judgments, opinions and attitudes. If you are serious about surviving and even emerging from these times why not hire me to conduct an in-house custom sales/attitude seminar. Sometimes all that people need is a kick in the pants to recharge their attitudes.