Turn on the juice

Posted on May 26, 2005 by Dave J.

How does one sustain the energy to do your job sometimes? For all my years of being a salesperson, I’ve found that the surprise of the next incoming call can drive my energy. Even if in a slump, a phone call causes me to automatically ‘turn on’…its a reactionary type of energy.

Now I will be a self-directed marketing manager, and my biggest fear is a loss of energy and excitement. If I start looking for external sources, I’m going to end up annoying co-workers and managers. I have a ‘to do’ list started to help keep me focused, but is it enoug?

Here are some posts I’ve run across lately that help me realize how to not only suvive, but thrive.

Where I’ve been: The lazy salesperson as described by Jim Logan
“Some sales people are afraid to ask for an order. I understand many of their reasons; none are acceptable.”
Reaction: More call-to-actions in all my marketing materials. Help get to the important questions that Jim says need to be asked. They are important questions, regardless of the answers.

Where I am afraid I’ll go: The Curse of the Yawn as warned by Sean Woodruff
“Curse the yawn with something different, imaginative, outstanding in the eyes of your prospect.”
Reaction: We can’t settle for ‘good enough’ customer service or marketing. Turn on the juice and show you care about your customers.

Here’s the full monty with ideas to thrive: Are you fully engaged? from Michael McLaughlin at the new Revenue Roundtable blog:
“3. To achieve full engagement, you have to train yourself in the same deliberate way that elite athletes do.
4. Full engagement is not achieved by conscious will and discipline, but by the use of positive rituals.”
Reaction: Deliberate? Train myself? Wow, can I do that consistantly? Create positive rituals? Yea, I guess I will have to learn how do to this, just like a pro athlete.

Actually, the advice at the Revenue Roundtable sounds a lot like cognitive behavior therapy…you can’t directly control your emotions, but you can control your behavior…then the emotions will adjust.

Do you have behaviors or rituals that help keep you juiced up?

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  • Big Picture Guy

    The extent to which you embrace the marketing role will be the measure of how much excitement you will experience and this as much as anything will determine the success you will achieve. The beauty of marketing is that it is self-energizing. There are many reasons for this:- Marketing embraces the entire business. Managing the marketing function is at the core of managing the business as a whole. Those who miss this point either do not understand their own business or do not understand Marketing.- You need to have a grasp of the business drivers and use them as a basis for decision-making. The decisions you make in Marketing, the programs you create, then serve to drive the business. Marketing takes you full circle. - Selling is tactical. Marketing is both strategic and tactical. Marketing sees the big picture and manages the small details. - There are no boundaries, no geographic limitations. Selling places you in a territory in the field. You are at Ground Zero. In Marketing, you are both at the center looking out at the patchwork quilt of territories and you are in the field. If you cannot reach out from the center and touch those on the fringes, you are not doing your job.- You say that, as a sales rep, each ‘call’ generates its own excitement. In Marketing, you make the call. - Rightly or wrongly, in most companies, reps seldom get to even know the margins, much less take responsibility for them. Marketers own the responsibility for margins (at least at standard cost). If you cannot reach out and influence the margins, you are not doing your job.- Marketers are the champions of change. They spearhead change. They are thus, by definition, leaders. As leaders, they are called upon to demonstrate vision, drive, courage, persistence. There is no question of motivating themselves; the important thing is to motivate others, to build excitement in others, including sales reps and customers.- Marketing is applied creativity. It turns challenges into opportunities. It allows you to think out of the box; it gives you the opportunity to redesign the box itself.- When selling, you have a job to do. In Marketing, you get to create your own job. How much fun is that? I have no doubt that you will have fun and fun generates an energy all its own. Good luck.

  • Big Picture Guy

    The extent to which you embrace the marketing role will be the measure of how much excitement you will experience and this as much as anything will determine the success you will achieve. The beauty of marketing is that it is self-energizing. There are many reasons for this:- Marketing embraces the entire business. Managing the marketing function is at the core of managing the business as a whole. Those who miss this point either do not understand their own business or do not understand Marketing.- You need to have a grasp of the business drivers and use them as a basis for decision-making. The decisions you make in Marketing, the programs you create, then serve to drive the business. Marketing takes you full circle. – Selling is tactical. Marketing is both strategic and tactical. Marketing sees the big picture and manages the small details. – There are no boundaries, no geographic limitations. Selling places you in a territory in the field. You are at Ground Zero. In Marketing, you are both at the center looking out at the patchwork quilt of territories and you are in the field. If you cannot reach out from the center and touch those on the fringes, you are not doing your job.- You say that, as a sales rep, each ‘call’ generates its own excitement. In Marketing, you make the call. – Rightly or wrongly, in most companies, reps seldom get to even know the margins, much less take responsibility for them. Marketers own the responsibility for margins (at least at standard cost). If you cannot reach out and influence the margins, you are not doing your job.- Marketers are the champions of change. They spearhead change. They are thus, by definition, leaders. As leaders, they are called upon to demonstrate vision, drive, courage, persistence. There is no question of motivating themselves; the important thing is to motivate others, to build excitement in others, including sales reps and customers.- Marketing is applied creativity. It turns challenges into opportunities. It allows you to think out of the box; it gives you the opportunity to redesign the box itself.- When selling, you have a job to do. In Marketing, you get to create your own job. How much fun is that? I have no doubt that you will have fun and fun generates an energy all its own. Good luck.