Posted by Jessica Hartman DeVore on Mon, Jun 17, 2013 @ 10:40 AM
Most sales training tells us that we need to uncover the problems, needs and wants of our customers. And of course – that is sound advice to truly being a consultative sales person. It is also sound advice for being a manager, parent or coach.
Many sales people ask similar questions to do this:
What do you like about…..
What don’t you like about or what would you change about if you could…
Are you having any problems with…
What are your biggest challenges…
Customers hear these same questions all the time – so their value to you as a sales person is limited. Customers learn responses to questions (Do you want fries with that? Do you want anything else? Is that all?). You need to differentiate yourself.
And – what if your customer is someone you don’t know well and you are asking about sensitive information? Do you really believe someone who does not know you well is going to open up and give you sensitive information and tell you their problems? In today’s litigious society, and with so many restrictions on sharing patient information, most people are very reluctant to share information, even with people they trust.
How many times have you found out information about a good friend, or their family, and thought – how could I have not known that about them? And they are your friends who did not share problems because they were embarrassed or for other reasons.
Ask any sales manager how their team is doing and you will get the same answer – great. Ask the CEO how the sales team is doing and you are more likely to get the truth. Why – because it is not a direct reflection of their responsibilities on a daily basis. You could ask the sales manager – are you any good at your job? It is the same question..
But you do need sensitive information at times from people you don’t know well. One technique to help with this is COUCHING. Couching is designed to:
Make it o.k. for customers to share their challenge because they are not alone.
Help them understand where you are going since they want to be in control.
Give them genuine compliments to help learn their thoughts/opinions/feelings.
Differentiate you from all the over-used questions they hear every day.
Since we sell an automated CPR device to help improve patient outcomes – a couching question I might use would look something like this:
We know that despite all of our collective efforts, the national average for out of hospital cardiac arrest survival rate is still around 8%. How does that compare with what you are seeing with your patients?
You mentioned that you have been a medic for 15 years. In that time frame, how many changes have we had in the way we do CPR? Could you share with me what the compression to ventilation ratio was when you started? What are your thoughts on these changes?
From a management perspective: In my 20 plus years of sales management, I have never really had a new sales person who was completely confident in their product presentation, even if they turned out to be top performers today. What areas would you like to see your presentation improve?
Your questions should be well thought out, and continually evaluated and tweaked for effectiveness. They should be different for the varying responsibilities of the people you are asking the question. And they should make them think.
Be different. Be better. STOP doing things the same way and break out of those comfort zones and your results will STOP being the same.
Have a great week.
Rob
Rob Bahna
Vice President of Sales
Resuscitation International
Posted by Jessica Hartman DeVore on Wed, Jun 12, 2013 @ 07:44 AM
 |
| Essential Healthcare Management Newsletter |
June 2013 |
| EHM: The Team Continues to Grow |
|
EHM is advancing as a company, growing into a community, and developing as a true leader in healthcare. As we continue to progress, we look back over the past 6 years to identify what we have learned. This is what we know:
- We love what we do.
- We respect who we work with.
- We embrace the opportunity to make a difference..
With that said, we are proud to introduce you to a group of individuals who feel the same way: Mike Bomstad, Colleen Morissette, Margaret Camp, Tom Nolan, and Charity Hudnut.
Life You Can't Wait to Live
Rob Bahna, Vice President of Sales, Resuscitation International
Zig Ziglar has a book out that I read called “Create a Life You Can’t Wait to Live”. I believe it is worth living. One of the big messages in his book is that your Passion and Purpose lead to Peak Performance. Without Passion and Purpose Peak Performance will not last.
In the introduction he says: “Creating a life you can’t wait to live is experienced by living with genuine passion, striving for peak performance, and fulfilling one’s purpose.“
“I don’t care what the field of endeavor is – sports, business, science, medicine, education, ministry, public service – I don’t believe that anyone will perform at his or her peak without passion. Life’s too tough to get to the top without passion. You’re going to fail, be taken advantage of, be disappointed by people you trust, disappoint yourself, run out of resources – almost every day you’re going to encounter a good, solid reason why you ought to give up. And without passion, you just might.”
There are three other things from the book I want to share with you. Many of you have seen or heard them before, but they are worth repeating.
Use your imagination for inspiration. Bruce Barton made an interesting observation: “I don’t like the phrase, 'Never cross a bridge until you come to it'. It is used by too many people as a cloak for mental laziness. The world is owned by men who cross bridges in their imaginations miles and miles in advance of the procession.”
“If you are ever approached by a young man named Kyle Maynard who asks you if you want to wrestle, my advice is, don’t! – even though he has no arms or below the elbows or legs below the knees. Kyle Maynard is a congenital amputee – a condition that affects one in every 2,000 births, but rarely in as extreme a case as Kyle’s. He has only the upper part of both arms and the upper part of both legs, yet he became a championship wrestler in his Georgia high school. The title of his book, No Excuses (September 2005) pretty much says it all. His parents raised him not to make excuses, and he’s made none.
As a kid, Kyle was all about sports. He played goalie in street hockey games with his friends, and even played on a football team in sixth grade. He also started wrestling in the sixth grade – and lost his first thirty-five matches. But by the time he got to high school, it was a different story. He and his father, a former wrestler, had worked out a weight-training program that made all the difference, and he and his coach worked out new moves and holds unique to his physical condition. In his senior year, he won thirty-five matches and lost sixteen. He qualified for the state championships and won his first three matches – but lost his final match (wrestling with a broken nose) in a thriller.”
“Sometimes, all it talks is a word, a phrase, or a thought planted in someone’s mind to change his or her whole life. It truly pays to watch closely what and how you think. It is said that Frank Outlaw expressed the power of thoughts this way:
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch you character; for it becomes your destiny!
Only you can create a life you can't wait to live!
Vanity Metrics: Only a Smidgeon of Social Media Measurement
Marcia Horn Noyes, Accolades PR
The leading complaint from B2B business invested in social media outreach is that metrics are so hard to track to the bottom line. Analytically speaking, these businesses are right when comparing social media outreach to traditional advertising and marketing. Potential clients no longer have one or two avenues that lead them directly to decision. Instead, a clients’ buying trajectory resembles that of a pinball machine with the client being bounced around from one touch point to another, ultimately coming to a buying decision based on all those various conversations.
Many of you have wondered how your social media efforts contribute to your business revenue. Gut feel may tell you they do, but you may also find it difficult to prove to upper management. Quantifying those efforts with vanity metrics of “likes” and “shares” will only scratch the surface of contribution. In many respects, social media outreach is much like the hire of your next entry-level employee; you want that person to be likeable and hold some innovative insight around your business goals, but those qualities mean nothing, if he or she can’t produce.
Producing results from social media that scream SUCCESS in upward sales volume and decreased costs will get marketing initiatives the most play and the highest budget percentage. So, proving to business executives that social media efforts move the needle beyond brand awareness is today’s challenge for B2B marketers.
From Likes to Leads
So what metrics should you start tracking today that will ensure your business continues to drive buying decisions in the digital age? The following business metrics are where the rubber meets the road, and if social media efforts aren’t playing a part in these increases, it’s time to rethink and regroup.
- Overall Sales Volume – if you track units sold, services booked or active subscriptions, to name a few, then you will know whether or not potential clients want to buy what your business is selling.
- Customer Retention – If you are attracting hordes of new clients but not retaining all or most of your core clientele, your business will not scale. Social media conversations can cut problems off at the pass and help your business retain valuable clients.
- Sustained Growth – Here, you want to look at patterns that can be traced. For example, are your existing clients creating new customers for your business, thus providing a pipeline of business?
If you want your social media outreach to significantly affect revenue increases, growth and customer retention, a public relations firm that specializes in integrated communication strategies, like AccoladesPR, can help. We’ll work with you to devise a comprehensive plan that will sync social media initiatives to B2B agendas and that will move your business from “likes” to leads, to lucrative sales.
EHM Client News
New Clients
We believe trusted partners and productive partnerships are not just a priority – they are a privilege. When it comes to new relationships, EHM energetically commits to proving our worth. We honor your trust and value your commitment. We look forward to creating successful and fulfilling experiences with the following companies:
Compression Therapy Concepts
- CTC was awarded the LIDN agreement
- CTC standardized all of HealthSouth
- CTC converts St. Joseph's Health System, Orange California
- CTC converts HCA North Texas and Continental divisions
DM Systems
- DM Systems resigns with Premier for another three-year agreement
- DM Systems launches its newest product, The Glide. To learn more about the new Heelboot, please click here.
EHM News
FAH Advisory Board
Frank Ripullo II, Managing Partner of EHM, has been asked to join the FAH Exposition Advisory Board. The Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) is the national representative of investor-owned and managed community hospitals and health systems throughout the United States. The FAH membership includes companies or other organizations involved in the delivery of health care services that share a common philosophy of providing high quality, affordable health care through free enterprise.
The basic mission of the FAH is to represent the investor-owned hospital industry before the decision makers of government, business, labor, and society in general; to foster the public good through the creation and delivery of quality health care for all people; and to support the efforts of its members in expanding their ever increasing roles and responsibilities in meeting community health needs.
We hope to see you soon!
You can always find us at www.essentialhm.net
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- CTC was awarded the LIDN agreement (Premier sub group)
- CTC standardized all of HealthSouth
- CTC converts St. Joseph's Health System, Orange California
- CTC converts HCA North Texas and Continental divisions
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Posted by Jessica Hartman DeVore on Tue, Jun 11, 2013 @ 10:25 AM
In my 20 plus years selling into the medical field, I have been fortunate to participate in many of the top sales training programs that have been around for quite some time. I have also been fortunate to teach hundreds of sales people various techniques and strategies to help them handle some of the most difficult obstacles they encounter. And mainly – I have learned from them.
It is my belief however, that every one of us is a sales person if we are to be as successful as we can in our careers, our personal lives, and in other endeavors we choose.
If you work for a non-profit organization, the way to be most successful is to get people to donate their limited resources (time or money) to your organization vs. another. If you are a manager or leader of people, your success will largely be determined by your ability to sell people on your vision and ideas for the best way to accomplish things. The same can be said for parenting, teaching, and coaching in business and beyond.
One of the great coaches of all time was the late John Wooden from UCLA. He developed a Pyramid of Success when he first became a teacher to establish a hierarchy of expectations for those who he worked with.
I have developed a Pyramid of Selling Success using the model Coach Wooden developed.
My pyramid includes the following from bottom to top (the bottom being the base – and most often laying the critical foundation for success:
Attitude and Work Ethic (the main building blocks of success)
Do the Right Thing Every Day (develop good habits - include doing the things you don’t want to right away)
Product/Clinical Knowledge (of the products you are selling and the competitors)
Mutual Accountability/Shorten the Sales Cycle
High Gain Questions (ask questions that are different and really make them think and share)
Engineer Agreement/Control (Build agreement throughout the call so the close is not dramatic)
Gain Customer Commitment (at all phases of the call. People like to buy – but many hate to be sold)
Master the Steps of the Sales Call (never skip steps – there are no shortcuts)
Differentiate (yourself and your organization in as many ways as possible)
WIIFM (focus on What Is In It For Them? Benefits that they acknowledge are the key.)
Build Trust and Credibility (on every call, every time. It is a moving target.)
Confidence (you have to have it in yourself, and they have to have it in you and your product)
Exceed Expectations (in all areas. Under promise and over deliver.)
I also talk about several other philosophical pieces when I am talking about selling, motivating and influencing:
People buy on Emotion but justify it logically
People buy for what they imagine something will do for them. (If they can’t imagine the positive impact or avoiding the potential negative impact, they will not take the risk)
Always bring value
Prepare to Win
Never present until you uncover a need
You can help them if they let you
Couch questions to uncover opportunities
Keep learning and improving
In today’s world of mistrust and doubt, selling ideas or products is not easy. And that doesn’t even bring up contracts, GPOs, committees, budgets, the need for clinical documentation and studies, the fear of change, prior negative experiences and all of the
other obstacles we face.
As coach Wooden said, “Success is a peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”
I would be happy to send you a copy of my Pyramid if you just email me. You can modify it to your needs for selling, managing, coaching, teaching, parenting or any other endeavor important to you.
Have a great week.
Rob
Vice President of Sales
Resuscitation International
Posted by Jessica Hartman DeVore on Tue, Jun 04, 2013 @ 10:29 AM
My wife Jenny does volunteer work at a great no-kill animal rescue and adoption center, Save-A-Pet. If you are looking for a worthwile charity or have some extra time to get involved, you can find out more info at
www.saveapetil.org.
I am sure many of you have read this story below - but hopefully it gets us all thinking about how great our pets are and how much they teach us about life and love. The author is unkown.
"Danielle keeps repeating it over and over again. We've been back to
this animal shelter at least five times. It has been weeks now since
we started all of this," the mother told the volunteer.
"What is it she keeps asking for?" the volunteer asked.
"Puppy size!" replied the mother.
"Well, we have plenty of puppies, if that's what she's looking for."
"I know...we have seen most of them," the Mom said in frustration...
Just then Danielle came walking into the office.
"Well, did you find one?" asked her Mom. "No, not this time,"
Danielle said with sadness in her voice. "Can we come back on the
weekend?"
"You never know when we will get more dogs. Unfortunately, there's
always a supply," the volunteer said.
Danielle took her mother by the hand and headed to the door. "Don't
worry, I'll find one this weekend," she said.
Over the next few days, both Mom and Dad had long conversations with
her. They both felt she was being too particular. "It's this weekend or we're not looking any more," Dad finally said in frustration.
"We don't want to hear anything more about puppy size either," Mom
added.
Sure enough, they were the first ones in the shelter on Saturday
morning. By now Danielle knew her way around, so she ran right for the
section that housed the smaller dogs. Tired of the routine, Mom sat in
the small waiting room at the end of the first row of cages.
There was an observation window so you could see the animals during
times when visitors weren't permitted. Danielle walked slowly from
cage to cage, kneeling periodically to take a closer look. One by one
the dogs were brought out and she held each one. One by one she said, "Sorry, you're not the one."
It was the last cage on this last day in search of the perfect pup.
The volunteer opened the cage door and the child carefully picked up
the dog and held it closely. This time she took a little longer.
"Mom, that's it! I found the right puppy! He's the one! I know it!"
she screamed with joy. "It's the puppy size!"
"But it's the same size as all the other puppies you held over the
last few weeks," Mom said.
"No not size ---- the sighs. When I held him in my arms, he sighed,"
she said.
"Don't you remember? When I asked you one day what love is, you told
me love depends on the sighs of your heart. The more you love, the
bigger the sigh!"
The two women looked at each other for a moment. Mom didn't know
whether to laugh or cry. As she stooped down to hug the child, she did
a little of both.
"Mom, every time you hold me, I sigh. When you and Daddy come home
from work and hug each other, you both sigh. I knew I would find the
right puppy if it sighed when I held it in my arms," she said. Then
holding the puppy up close to her face she said, "Mom, he loves me. I
heard the sighs of his heart!"
Close your eyes for a moment and think about the love that makes you
sigh. I not only find it in the arms of my loved ones, but in the
caress of a sunset, the kiss of the moonlight and the gentle brush of
cool air on a hot day. They are the sighs of God. Take the time to stop and listen; you will be surprised at what you hear.
"Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
Have a great week. Find reasons to live these moments.
Rob
Vice President of Sales
Resuscitation International
Posted by Jessica Hartman DeVore on Mon, May 13, 2013 @ 12:39 PM
Zig Ziglar has a book out that I read called “Create a Life You Can’t Wait to Live”. I believe it is worth living. One of the big messages in his book is that your Passion and Purpose lead to Peak Performance. Without Passion and Purpose Peak Performance will not last.
In the introduction he says: “Creating a life you can’t wait to live is experienced by living with genuine passion, striving for peak performance, and fulfilling one’s purpose.“
“I don’t care what the field of endeavor is – sports, business, science, medicine, education, ministry, public service – I don’t believe that anyone will perform at his or her peak without passion. Life’s too tough to get to the top without passion. You’re going to fail, be taken advantage of, be disappointed by people you trust, disappoint yourself, run out of resources – almost every day you’re going to encounter a good, solid reason why you ought to give up. And without passion, you just might.”
There are three other things from the book I want to share with you. Many of you have seen or heard them before, but they are worth repeating.
Use your imagination for inspiration. Bruce Barton made an interesting observation: “I don’t like the phrase, 'Never cross a bridge until you come to it'. It is used by too many people as a cloak for mental laziness. The world is owned by men who cross bridges in their imaginations miles and miles in advance of the procession.”
“If you are ever approached by a young man named Kyle Maynard who asks you if you want to wrestle, my advice is, don’t! – even though he has no arms or below the elbows or legs below the knees. Kyle Maynard is a congenital amputee – a condition that affects one in every 2,000 births, but rarely in as extreme a case as Kyle’s. He has only the upper part of both arms and the upper part of both legs, yet he became a championship wrestler in his Georgia high school. The title of his book, No Excuses (September 2005) pretty much says it all. His parents raised him not to make excuses, and he’s made none.
As a kid, Kyle was all about sports. He played goalie in street hockey games with his friends, and even played on a football team in sixth grade. He also started wrestling in the sixth grade – and lost his first thirty-five matches. But by the time he got to high school, it was a different story. He and his father, a former wrestler, had worked out a weight-training program that made all the difference, and he and his coach worked out new moves and holds unique to his physical condition. In his senior year, he won thirty-five matches and lost sixteen. He qualified for the state championships and won his first three matches – but lost his final match (wrestling with a broken nose) in a thriller.”
“Sometimes, all it talks is a word, a phrase, or a thought planted in someone’s mind to change his or her whole life. It truly pays to watch closely what and how you think. It is said that Frank Outlaw expressed the power of thoughts this way:
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch you character; for it becomes your destiny!
Have a great week. Only you can create a life you can't wait to live!
Rob
Posted by Jessica Hartman DeVore on Mon, May 06, 2013 @ 11:47 AM
April was a tough month for our family and friends. We lost a 48 year old cousin to cancer. Two friends also lost treasured family members - a 70 year old mom to cancer and a 14 year old daughter in an accident.
Three very different ages, and stages of life. All much too early for those who knew and loved them. And it is such a helpless feeling trying to comfort them, even though our thoughts, prayers and visits do make a difference.
As I was heading to my cousin's funeral, I read an article about a book one young lady put together that collected letters that people wrote to loved ones after they passed away that they wish they would have sent while they were still living.
Sitting at my cousin’s funeral, listening to the very nice Eulogies, it got me thinking about what I might say given the chance to those people who mean so much to me. And it got me thinking about writing a letter to them now, WHILE THERE IS STILL TIME.
So, I am going to try to write down my thoughts and feelings and share them with those people. I even may collect some from people and put them together as examples for others so that they don’t have to write one after someone they love is gone. This is certainly not a new or novel idea, but one that most of us have not done even though we may have thought about it.
14, 48 and 70. Life is a precious gift and we never know how long that gift is going to last for us, or those who matter most to us. Think about what you want to accomplish and your priorities WHILE THERE IS STILL TIME. And let those who matter most to you really know how you feel.
Have a great week.
Rob
Posted by Jessica Hartman DeVore on Mon, Apr 29, 2013 @ 10:02 PM
This past weekend, some friends and I kept up an annual tradition of attending Cubs Spring Training Games in Arizona. Here we are getting ready to start the 2013 Major League Baseball season with another Spring Training almost over. You can almost smell the fresh cut grass, hot dogs, peanuts and taste the cold beer as the warm sun hits your face.
On my flight home, I happened to sit next to one of the trainers for the Chicago White Sox. We had an interesting discussion about training philosophies, switching training regimens during the grueling 162 game season in the majors (not including the 30 or so games played in the spring), how much training has changed over the years in baseball, and treating everyone as individuals and adults when it comes to their profession.
You might think that a major league baseball player would understand that physical and mental training are paramount to their success. It only stands to reason that they make more money the better, and longer they perform at the elite levels. He told me they get around 90-95% compliance with their individual off-hours training programs.
When he first told me this, I was thinking, what is wrong with those other 5 – 10%? Don't they know what a great opportunity life has handed them. Then, I started to relate that to my past business experiences with compliance levels to all sorts of initiatives, programs and results. All of the sudden, 90 – 95% compliance sounded pretty darn good.
In baseball each year these elite players spend weeks getting ready to do the one thing that they have been doing all their lives - playing baseball. This year the World Baseball Classic even added another couple of weeks. And then the regular season lasts for 162 games followed by the playoffs.
Why do these elite players - these millionaires, the best of the best, who have been doing this their entire life focus on the fundamentals and basics in Spring Training? The answer is, of course, that to make that elite team it takes tremendous talent and skill. But at that level it also takes hard work and effort to be the best of the best - just like in any field.
How often are you practicing, evaluating and working on the your skills and that of your team? How much do you spend making your team better?
In today's major leagues players spend countless hours studying videotapes to try to gain a competitive advantage on the competition in any way that they can. That includes video of themselves and what they are doing well and need to improve upon. Do you? Are you studying what your competition is doing?
At the end of the day, how far we rise is up to us. We have all seen people with tremendous talent, “all the tools in the world”, succeed and fail. Ask any pro scout about their draft picks and how many have never succeeded despite being labeled a “sure thing” or “can’t miss prospect”.
One of my favorite sayings is the hardest part about climbing to the top of the ladder is fighting through the crowd at the bottom. We choose, each day, how far we are going to climb. Before we know it, each day has added up to a career.
Have a great week. What % are you going to give yourself?
Rob Bahna
Vice President of Sales
Resuscitation International
Posted by Jessica Hartman DeVore on Wed, Feb 20, 2013 @ 01:12 PM
Those of you who know me well were probably aware that my wife Jenny and I made the decision to adopt a daughter from China some 6 years ago. Much of this came after I was fortunate enough to go to China with my sister to bring home her daughter Ella - who is now 7 years old.
You may have seen the recent news about the banning of adoptions from Russia for US Citizens. And this was even before the death of the young man in Texas this week. Unfortunately, the state of adoptions from China, and indeed intercountry adoptions in general, is rather bleak.
Regretfully, after much deliberation and having talked about it for the last year, last week Jenny and I officially sent in our letters withdrawing our adoption for a daughter from China.
While we are very sad that this journey did not end in us becoming parents, we will continue to look for ways to positively impact the lives of others. Ironically, in response to our letter to one of the agencies today – the adoption coordinator sent us a note that had one of our favorite sayings attached.
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded……Emerson
As difficult as it is to let go of one dream, it is just as important to move forward and find the next one. Another friend had sent this story about handling stress and burdens the same day:
A young lady confidently walked around the room while leading a discussion and explaining stress management to an audience with a raised glass of water in her hand.
Everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, 'half empty or half full?'...
She fooled them all .... "How heavy is this glass of water?" she inquired with a smile.
Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.
She replied , "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.
In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."
She continued, "and that's the way it is with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."
"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden - holding stress longer and better each time practiced."
Don't hold your burdens for too long. Carry on. You will be glad you did..
Have a great week.
Rob Bahna
Vice President of Sales
Resuscitation International
Posted by Jessica Hartman DeVore on Wed, Jan 23, 2013 @ 03:11 PM
We all know how challenging it is in our industries today. One
could argue that there has never been a more challenging time to get the results that are required of us to succeed, and exceed expectations both in the workplace and in our personal lives.
You don’t need me to list the myriad of reasons for not getting the desired results.
And unfortunately, some of those reasons are not in our control. But sometimes we let the line between “reasons” and “excuses” become blurred.
But, today I want to break this all down into simple questions. The key to having them help you is being honest with yourself. Really being honest with yourself, about the answers.
The key questions are:
Do you know what to do?
Do you do it?
Is this a true “reason”?
Is this an “excuse”?
The first two questions are fundamentally important. And the most important thing in using them to help you improve, or help others improve, is to be honest about the answers.
Do you know what to do? Do you have confidence and competence in accomplishing something? And that means breaking things down into the details. If you have the ability to do a good sales presentation because your product knowledge and presentations skills are strong, but you do not have the competence in asking the right open-ended questions to uncover each individual prospects’ true needs, you do not truly know what to do. You know how to do some of it.
Your first job is to figure out what to do. Most training programs are designed to attempt to enable the answer to this first question to be “yes”. But you as individual are the only one who can really determine the answer to that – and get help if you need it. This is the continued learning process that all true professionals need to go through (and continue throughout their career). If you don’t truly know what to do – the rest of the questions don’t really matter.
The answers to the second question are ones that have coaches, managers, parents, spouses, friends and people all over scratching their heads.. You are a bright, talented, intelligent, professional, successful person. Of course if you know what to do, you will do it, right?
You know you should exercise. You know you should limit your intake of junk food. You know what the optimum weight is for your height and body type. You know what foods are healthy. You know you should get the things done on your to do list. You know you should finish (or start) the projects around the house. You know you should be putting away at least a certain percentage of your income to savings each paycheck. You know you should be maximizing your retirement savings in your companies’ 401k plan. You know you should read more and watch television less. You know you should make one more sales call per day to hit the goals you want to hit. You know what your quota/and or objective is for the year. You know you should call that important person and tell them you love them. You know you should do those things you keep putting off.
And since you know all of those things – you naturally do them, right?
So if you don’t, it is either a “reason” or an “excuse”.
In my mind, a reason is something that is legitimately keeping you from doing something. An excuse is not. An excuse is something we all use as human beings to make ourselves feel better about not having a real reason. And that is where the confusion comes in – because we tend to except excuses as reasons – especially from ourselves. We are pretty good at differentiating them for other people…
So, instead of making New Year’s resolutions this year (usually done because we are trying to get rid of excuses), make it your responsibility to hold yourself accountable. Make sure you know what to do, prioritize the importance, and do it. If you do that, and you decide not to do something – it is not really a priority for you. And that should tell you, or the people you love, or the people you work for what they need to know.
Have a great week. Don’t accept excuses – especially from yourself.
Rob Bahna
Vice President of Sales
Resuscitation International
Posted by Jessica Hartman DeVore on Tue, Jan 08, 2013 @ 07:50 AM
DALLAS – January 08, 2013 – (EHM) a healthcare business consulting firm, was chosen by Quotient Biodiagnostics to help secure contracts with group purchasing organizations, integrated delivery networks, and regional purchasing coalitions across the United States.
EHM is a healthcare business development firm, creating demand for the products and services of leading medical suppliers. The group combines corporate accounts strategy and operational infrastructure to meet the needs of their clients. The EHM Team brings over 100 years of healthcare experience to the table and is fully dedicated to changing healthcare for the better.
Quotient Biodiagnostics is a leading blood transfusion products company whose primary focus is to provide top quality blood banking reagents directly to the manual user worldwide. Quotient manufacturers and distributes over 200 products and sells worldwide in over 30 countries.