I also started another “best job in the world” in October of 2010.  I worked at Open Table for a short while.  A great job at a great company. In fact, I’ve been loaded into two great opportunities in the past 10 months.

The numbers don’t lie. The nation’s unemployment rate is high at somewhere near 9.5%.  I’m going to tell you that those statistics won’t change in our lifetime.  You might not agree.  I’m sure that the bulk of the unemployment rate contains jobs that just won’t reappear.  We can blame politicians, but history tells us that Presidents and our congress have little impact on jobs, especially in an immediate way.

We, as a nation, have been bullied into accepting subpar service led by inept call center reps in foreign lands.  It’s not the foreign lands that are the problem.  It’s the little they actually do for us.  It’s the almost nothing they do for our economy.  Companies really don’t care about giving you your credit card balance at 2AM and thanks to our dependence on the Internet, we opened this door many years ago.  When I worked in retail they used to say that “Suzie the sales gal is dead”.  She sure is.  Suzie used to care about digging out ten pairs of white gloves and making sure you had the right pair.  She was incentivized.  She was part of the equation.  Most jobs in America leave out the people that are actually doing them.  Thankfully not mine.

The jobs that won’t return are jobs that our business owners have replicated in other countries or have deleted altogether.  Manufacturing was taken out of the equation in the 1990′s and 2000′s.  Now we are choking on sub-par minimum wage jobs.  The people filling those jobs are not rising up like we did after high school.  There’s a missing middle transition step from those jobs to a professional career.

It’s almost every day I hear someone say they have a fraction of college.  It used to be rare or at least not the norm.  Now so many 23 year olds I meet are just a few semesters into college and full of student loan debt and they’ve stopped. This isn’t the fault of Starbucks.  It’s not the fault of our politicians. It’s the fault of US.  We just give up too early.  So so is just good enough now.  This is also why there are so many unemployed.  So many people think it’s ok to sit home and study Ellen.  I’m not big on who collects unemployment checks because I know the stats on those are highly skewed, but there it’s more the norm now than ever.

If You Want A Job

The jobs I signed on for are sales jobs with forward-thinking, progressive companies that can’t replicate what I do in China or don’t cut back on the top of the funnel.

That’s the point.

Live at the top of the funnel.

Any company has a revenue stream and usually it’s driven by sales teams.  That team can be three people or three thousand people.  But companies will always need revenue builders.  If you aren’t up to sales, think again.  Thanks to a job I really enjoy and excel in, I have recruited numbers of good marketers to LivingSocial, my new sales home.

Sales and marketing jobs come in many different sizes and shapes.  If you connect people needing home loans, you are a sales person.  If you are a bartender, you are a salesperson.  I could even argue your mail carrier can be a salesman.

There are jobs out there.  Understanding the way companies make money and who the players are that bring about revenue, you can make lots of money.  Retooling your approach is the hardest part.  Many people I know are actually ex-sales people and since I’ve come into the gold mine that is my current job, I’ve received a lot of outreach from old high school buddies.  I get them on the phone and after a few minutes I usually realize that they aren’t really up to the real challenge of what work in 2011 is about.  If I work 12 hours today, it’s not enough.  With 10, I can make my quota and a good living.

The so-called unemployment rate is helping employers do one thing.  They are able to perpetuate the mystery of those numbers and make sure everyone is locked into the malaise of “what if” and what lies on the other side of employment.

That’s ok.

I’m a salesman.

Thanks to BCBCBC, I was able to show you. Please take 10 minutes on your coffee/smoke/doobie break and watch this. You might need the full screen mode to get out of my small blog limitations.

Are you a purpose motivator?

You should be.

After hearing this NPR story of the great Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and his little song (and getting whirlpool eyes), it struck me that there will probably be nothing we do in life that is important or will have an impact on others that isn’t accomplished in less than 15 minutes.

– Saying something meaningful to a friend when they are at their lowest.  Giving birth to a child.  Your most critical business speech.  They all happen pretty quickly.

Israel pushed his 500 lbs in to a recording studio one late night to lay down “Over the Rainbow”, his seminal song.  From there, the song carried Hawaiian music to a new and permanent pinnacle.  When Israel died, the capital island of Oahu literally stopped. People complained (probably not islanders) that his lyrics were wrong.  It doesn’t matter does it?  New listeners for this song probably don’t know that there was a previous version.

All the important stuff is usually made in the mindset of blink.  We live lives and collect all the data we need in little minute pieces. Then you use that energy and knowledge to bring about the results that matter. I’m sure Israel had the power to sing and offer his flavor of this classic way before he tried it.

Trust yourself to do the great things you’re capable of.

What I’ve realized in selling as long as I have is that people don’t like endings.  We are wired to be attached, groom, and be loyal.  It’s hard to end things when you’re any of these.

But it’s imperative we do.

In sales, we have to let go of the duds.  The folks who aren’t buying.

In life, we have to keep our roster lean and mean.  To have enough time for the important ones in our lives.

In close relationships, the one we fail at most, we tend to go much longer with a bad fit. Do we learn?  Do we go there again?  I see this happen to friends. I have done this too but don’t any more.  Burned once, always to be burned.  It’s not true.  It’s not the way it really works and it’s because no one is the same.  You might attract similar people and that has something to do with your side of things.  But overall, there isn’t a “club” of guys out there to always burn gals over and over.

In business overall, it’s important to let go when the place you’re in is not working for you — or them.

I will say that almost every time I’ve let go, I’ve found the results to be so overwhelmingly successful and great for my soul.

These bad connections are like rusty anchors at the bottom of the ocean dragging us down bit by bit.

Cut the chain.

Swim away.

I was getting in the car today in a part of LA that is 15 miles from home.  I had been thinking that I’d call my hair stylist on the way home and try to “sneak in”.  She hates it when I do that .  Nice salon.  Been there for years.  Part of a big brand that I’ve been loyal to for more years.  Do a lot of business gabbing with the owner and I like her. But then I saw a new looking salon across the street. So,  I plugged in more quarters in and jay-walked to see how it checked out.  [I can do that b/c Pasadena got me on a jay-walk recently for $ and I have loaded my jay-walk bank I figure].

I viewed and smelled the scene from afar and then closer and closer.  [yes, smelled.  salons can't smell like old ladies.  they need to smell like cool product] I decided by the modern look and feel, I’d go in.  There was a few signs welcoming walk-ins too.

Met a guy at the counter and he took me in right away.  Anyway, the appointment went well and my baldness was masked and abated for another four weeks.  The guy was cool.  The haircut pretty good. The owner also cool.  She took my notes on a few of my old tricks like “pay what you want” and we discussed in detail how Groupon worked. 

Boy, well worth the effort.

My point of this post is that old thing I harp on all the time.

GET OFF YOUR PLANET.

Basically every success I’ve had has been the result of a planet departure.  Sometimes you go for a day. Sometimes you go for a long time and never come back.  But you gotta continue to go.

Someone I know recently said “Charles, you HAVE to be friends with and know everybody!” I’m glad he said that but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.  Those that get me say “Charles, it’s not the money in the sale that drives you, it’s the sense of the kill and the resulting experience”. 

Exactly. 

I didn’t set out to kill and drag home the info I wanted on Groupon, but it came about because I did what I always [try to] do — be nice and ask questions.  When you ask questions of people, it shows you’re a freaking human and you might care what they have to say.  If they have nothing to say, then there’s no loss but you’ve exercised your manners.

I may never see that salon owner again, but I do know that she will have a “pay what you want” event next Tuesday and do well by it.  It’s so much better to trade information than pay for it.  It was our secret little barter.  That’s exactly what I do.  It has nothing to do about knowing everyone.  Of course those folks are always the ones that call you to get a connection they need. LOL

The people that annoy us the most in life are those people that don’t get out and see what the other side is doing, especially if you have.  If you’re like some I know and you get yourself tangled in a political brawl or a sports team brawl, it’s probably because you – or they — haven’t seen what the other side has done, smelled, felt, and seen with their own eyes.  While these types of conversations are at least 1/2 emotionally driven, you can come out cleaner and smarter by having a sense of opposing EXPERIENCES.  Notice I didn’t say VIEWS.  I can have  very intelligent conversation about Groupon now which I need for current business.  At 3:35 I couldn’t.  Sure, I could have Googled it, but a first hand in person account is something Google can’t replace. [thank goodness]

Get out and scare yourself once a week.  I guarantee it will pay off.

Thinking today about how the home-based crew — me and you — want 2010 to be as awesome as any cube worker, I thought I’d reach out and look at some loopholes for getting your hitch moving.

It’s January.  Wherever you live in the recent weeks (in the USA), that means sub-zero temps or torrential rains.  That means as you turn away from CNN or whatever your morning grind is, it’s doubly harder to focus on the work at hand.  There are also other January distractions like tax prep to deal with.  But you gotta keep your motor runnin’.

Break up the day in more parts. Instead of the steady lunch at 12, go out at 10 and see a client that you would have seen after lunch.  Then do lunch back at your home office (after all, one of your resolutions was to save money right?)  Then go out again before the witching hour (4 to 5 when your cube worker friends begin to head home) and do another pitch or tweak on an ongoing deal.

Remember that time flies. If you think January is a long slog, just wait until it’s August and you have the finish line right smak in your headlights.  Don’t delay anything becuase “you have time”.  Whatever your professional goals are, they need to be prodded again and again as each day comes about. So, see this:

Break up your projects in more parts. If you are trying to get a big client on the hook work strategically instead of like the US government . You get my drift. I always try to be focused on the details in these things. Stay with it in very small pieces so you don’t get overwhelmed.  If you think it takes six calls and two meetings to create success, then do eight calls, three emails, a tweet once a day, and then jettison the meetings altogether. (i’ll never be pro-meeting if I don’t have to).  The trick here is spreading out the work and volume so it seems, in your mind at least, that you’ve done more.  This is why social media is the call of the day.  It’s a mico offering of your thoughts and ideas. This will ultimately propel you to feel more comfortable with what you’ve accomplished.  It will show when you ultimately have to meet the client and make the final request for the order.

This isn’t just for salespeople btw.  No matter your project — mom working on school function, teacher with deadlines, student working on a big test, speaker getting ready for a conference – it’s all the same.  Today’s world and the success we see by others is done more bit by bit than grandiose plan.  People are led to believe they are overworked but actually you just “feel” that way mostly.  I can take apart your day and fine literally hours of free time.  I’ve done it.  Then all kinds of excuses ensue but basically you’re just a bad organizer.

If your one of the ones out there that the clock just hates, then work on things in a matter not relegated to time in minutes but in days, weeks, and months.  You’re still going to have to meet your goals, but bigger objects on the wall may just help you.

Stick with your big plans for 2010.  I am.

I don’t know how great the book is, but check out this slide presentation.

Good weekend to you.

If you’re over 40, you can still run a great start-up and succeed so says Vivek Wadhwa.

I’ve been chasing sales all month pretty hard and the ones that didn’t stick really came down to organization.  It’s silly that this one premise is a road block but it really is.

The calls I make as a cold-caller are always about trying to find the right time to “catch” the prospect in a place where they listen clearly and make time for me.  But what I realize almost 90% of the time is that they don’t really know what time is good to discuss new options for a good financial product that usually saves time in processing and of course money.  It’s because time is not a captive concept for these people.

They are scattered.  They miss appointments with others.  They go from one crisis to the next never really solving any certain one.  Their stated schedules change each time we talk.  Their people are scattered as the chaos rolls down the organization.  If you are slotted in, you become one more crisis that is subject to delay.  The “wow! I love what you are saying and I want your pricing to show to my boss asap” line is common.  But the spike of greatness is followed by more muddled and missed phone calls that often last months.

The sales I did have were with people that were on the ball and were able to easily see how to consider my offer.  I really disagree more and more with the “timing” mantra and look at how easily I will be heard from someone that doesn’t listen on a regular basis anyway.

I think a salesman’s job doesn’t have anything to do with trying to get his prospect organized.  Priority is another term we all try to figure out and is related to this but if someone doesn’t prioritize ANYthing, then you’re just chasing your tail.

Good sales practices dictates that you offer your proposal in a format that is easy to read and concise and that your product or service should be something that really can improve your prospect’s overall business .  But after that it’s a crap shoot.