by Tech Support | Sep 20, 2012 | Performance, Personal, Sales
Updates
People ask us all the time when we are going to train locally in their area. Next Tuesday and Wednesday we are in our local market teaching about Great Guest Service. I can’t think of a more powerful way to spend a day and a half. Those businesses that set themselves apart by delivery exceptional service are the businesses that are going to thrive and survive. As I stated in the opening of our newsletter, CALL ME and I’ll make you a deal you just can’t refuse! You can grab all the details in the Spotlight of the newsletter today. I hope to see you next week.
Our webinar about how to increase party sales was very exciting. I was thrilled that 228 people attended. We learned that 48% of the people who attended the webinar had a script for selling birthday parties and 52% had no selling system in place. What we know is that when you adopt a program like the “Sales Shopper” program we offer you can double your birthdays. Why don’t you take a minute and go look at www.doublemybirthdays.com to see what I mean. If you meant to attend and life got in the way here’s a link for you to view the recording. We would love you input and feedback about this webinar. We used Prezi instead of Power Point. We had a “sales pitch” at the end. The program was much longer than normal. And we did not get to all the Q & A. Next week, I’ll include a complete document on all the Q & A that we had as a result of this webinar. Please let me know how you felt about this new format. On Monday we will have information about our October Webinar where will be featuring PARTY HOST TRAINING. We hold these free training events the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 2pm CST.
I’m not sure if you know it or not but every training webinar we’ve ever held is stored in our Xpress Training library. We believe this is a powerful training library. In addition to the webinars, you’ll find all of our DVD’s in streaming video, revenue calculators that help you build new packages and products, and a host of forms, training materials, articles, and more. Xpress Training is a month to month subscription resource that is sure to help you provide top training for your team!
Thoughts From My Friend Adwiser the Proprietor
Today’s another day, so get back on track and move closer to your dreams and goals. You can do it. Don’t let yesterday or last week put you off track. You are not the mistakes of your past. You are what you can become.
And it all starts with asking yourself some important questions.
1. Is what I’m going through right now going to be important in 2-5 years or maybe even 2-5 minutes? Am I spending too much time being hurt or mad or ugly about a situation that will mean nothing in the future?
2. What do I really want for myself? I’m not sure people pay much attention to this question but rather they run through life just living it as it is rather than the way they want it to be because there’s been little focus on what they really want!
3. How am I going to make that (Q-2) happen? When you make that great choice of how you want to be then you gotta’ know that you are going to need to take some action.
4. What price are you willing to pay to get there? I’m not sure this means sacrifice but rather engagement. I personally believe the price is too high if you are talking about sacrificing family, friends, or your personal integrity. Anything else is fair game! Pay up.
5. Is your ideal life yours? Or are you trying to live someone else’s life? Stop that. They are busy living their life, live you own. And make sure it’s really what you want to be not some version of what you think someone else thinks you “should” be.
Know that life’s journey has A DESTINATION. That journey is filled with surprise, disappointment, and wonderful experiences.
Take a “mental” snapshot of HOW you LOOK in YOUR LIFE’s PHOTOGRAPH.
Know that you can make it anything you choose to be…
The Adwiser
by Tech Support | Sep 11, 2012 | Guest Services, Performance
How Good Do You Want To Be?
How much time are you willing to put in to being a great server, a top salesperson, an engaged leader, an enthusiastic cashier, a great guest service person, an energetic lane attendant, one exciting party pro, or a fantastic floor guard?
How good do you have to be in order to be considered great? How often do you practice your greatness? Are you playing at the top of your game? Can you celebrate each shift and know that you won because you played your very best?
When you watch a professional athlete you can see their enthusiasm when they win and their pain when they lose. Now maybe you don’t think your job is as glamorous as a famous athlete; but don’t you think it’s possible that your performance could at least make you feel famous about yourself.
I don’t know a single person who doesn’t have a lot of pride about the things they do well. I coached a ball team when my oldest was 13 and we had 2 twin gals on that team who were amazing. I ask Stephanie (I think it was Steph, they were identical twins) one day why she and her sister Jennifer, seemed to enjoy the game so much. I’ve never forgotten her answer. With a giant smile and a gleam in her eye she said, “Well that’s easy, we’re good at it”! And they were. They practiced a lot, they were the first ones to sign up to go to the batting cages and they missed plays and struck out, and they got better every day. They wanted to play at a high level and they did because they worked at it.
I think that no matter what you do that the kind of drive, passion, and enthusiasm to be the best can inspire you to work enough, practice, enough, to be the very best.
Why would you want to come in second?
Why would you choose to only perform at a mediocre level? We all have the opportunity to be the very best that we can be. So I ask you, are you playing at the top of you game? If not, why not? What would it take for you to give it you all?
Motivating employees-I want X so I have to do Y like crazy right now. A Front-Line employee is probably not planning to be a floor guard, a lane attendant, or a party pro for the rest of their lives. Have you found out what they do want to be? Have you ask them how they see themselves in the world? Check this out with your front line. Connect them to that (gonna be) with the job they are doing now. I believe that helping your team understand how their performance right now is helping them prepare for what will be that potentially you can ignite and inspire performance. I don’t think people want to fail. I do think that sometimes they just can’t find a path to success and they need help!
Consider This: Even if what you do now is not that long term thing you want to do in the future the reality is that somehow the two are connected. Why not get engaged and get the most out of what it is you are doing right now? Win for crying out loud. If you are in the game, it’s a lot more fun when you play to win!
President Ronald Reagan said?
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.”
by Tech Support | Sep 4, 2012 | Leadership
George Bernard Shaw said, “I want to throughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.
I cracked up last week as I was trying to wade through how to get all the things done on my Monday since this Monday was a holiday. Labor day to be exact. Is that a day we celebrate laboring by not working? Gosh I’m confused.
Nonetheless, I’m really happy for the day -no matter what day it is. Maybe that happens when you pass 50. You just become grateful for every day.
Lately I’ve become very interested in all the conversation surrounding working and work ethic. It’s funny to me that we, “the people in my age group,” talk about “kids nowadays.” They just don’t have the same work ethic we did. Are you kidding? And by the way, our parents said the same thing about us.
Young people work different than we do or did in our day. The world is different. I think they value their own time more than we do. We, maybe I should just say I, think that working 10, 12, or 14 hours a day makes me more worthy. I think young people may believe that just makes me crazy. Why can’t WE get it done in 8 hours?
It’s different for all of us. We all work hard on the things we want to work on. For instance, if you love basketball I suspect you spend a lot of time shooting hoops. That doesn’t seem like work at all-unless you are Dirk! (Go Mavs!)
I’m reading a great book called The Talent Code. It’s a tremendous read regarding performance. A friend of mind recommended it to me with the thought that practice doesn’t make perfect but rather practice makes permanent. The Talent Code focuses on deep practice which is the art of trying, making a mistake, correcting, trying again, goofing, trying again…and then getting it right. I’m really over simplifying. Read the book.
Anyway, with this deep practice thought in mind, I can’t help thinking about how much time we may or may not spend with employees. Maybe it’s not their work ethic that challenges performance. After all we want them to be great performers right? If The Talent Code is correct and the skills we are looking for need development through practice, I’m not sure we are giving our employees much opportunity to succeed because we give them so little time to practice. We gotta’ watch those “payroll dollars”.
I think we hire, give an overview of the job, and magically hope we found a superstar! No real practice happens before they are on the job. And God forbid they make a mistake. According to The Talent Code they can’t even get to greatness without goofing it up, correcting, and then maybe getting it right. Do you have a place where people can practice and goof up before they have to do the real job? We call it training at TrainerTainment! AND we happen to think that it requires a lot of on-going effort.
Think about it, with the NFL just starting up, I bet they continue to practice throughout the season. The intensity of the pre-season work out may have been greater than practice will be during the season, but I believe they will practice every week.
In our work, I think we only play. It’s game day every day. We just get in the game and have very little practice time. What do you think?
1
