I’ve also just finished reading the book, Life is Tremendous by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones. What a great book! I highly recommend it! It’s so good in fact that I’ve asked my kids to read it and then give me a written report on it! Steer clear of negative articles and the wealth of negative stuff out there. There’s so much negative.

What recognition do you get where you work? Some of you might say, “I never get any. I’ve never heard a word of praise from the boss. I haven’t gotten any awards.”

Maybe not, but where do you go Friday after work? A lot of us go to the bank. To do what? To cash our paycheck. That’s recognition.

This is not to negate praise and awards, but it is to say that too often we overlook this simple expression of recognition. The paycheck is recognition that we have a job; that we have done the job, and that management is pleased with our performance or they wouldn’t pay us.

For much of my life, I lived as a thermometer; reacting to everything that came along. Then I tried living as a thermostat, What a positive difference that made not only in my life, but also in my business.

A thermostat sets the temperature and everything has to rise to its level. Personal happiness is connected to a person’s decision to be happy, and whether to react, or raise the level around you. This is a focal point in our “Sell More” seminars, and it’s a characteristic of people who consistently win!

A 102-year-old man was asked on his birthday how he was able to stay positive and happy most of the time. He said, “Each morning I have two choices; I can be mad or I can be happy. I’ve decided to be happy.”

The choice is ours too. Go for it. Be happy!

Make it a great selling day and remember…

"If you don't sell more, you’re out of business!"

Alan W. Altmann

After training literally millions of people over my life time, I believe that people can respond to most any situation that comes along, and we do have a choice in how we react. We can react with anger, with depression, or sadness. That’s what a thermoometer does, it reacts.

When you put a thermometer in your mouth to check your temperature, it simply reacts to whatever the inside temperature of your mouth happens to be, and records it. It reacts. People do that too, and all too often, the result is negative and unhappy.

In the alternative, we can respond with a “Tarzan” battle cry as we tackle the problems of life. We can talk ourselves “out” of anger. We can decide to make the “best” of a bad situation. This is what a Thermometer does!

We can be happy and personally empowered. That’s exactly what a thermometer does. It “sets” the temperature and everyone else needs to “rise” up to that new level!

Make it a great selling day and remember…

"If you don't sell more, you’re out of business!"

Alan W. Altmann

Let’s examine this idea more closely.

#1) The “Sell More” Achiever Decides To Be Happy (And Organized)

That is a quote from Abraham Lincoln. He was right.

Why do people complain? Most likely it is because they have decided to—because they have lost hope.

Why are people pessimists? Probably because they have decided to be.

Why are people unhappy? Because they have decided to be.

Why are people disorganized and sloppy? Because they choose to be that way!

Dale Carnegie told the story of two men who were out chopping wood. One fellow worked hard all day, took no breaks, and only stopped briefly for lunch. The other chopper took several breaks during the day and the woodsman who had taken no breaks was quite disturbed to see that the other fellow had cut more wood than he had.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “Every time I looked around you were sitting down—yet you cut more wood than I did.” “Did you also notice that while I was sitting down, I was sharpening my ax?” his companion asked.

Knowing when to stop, when to take a break, when you’ve had enough sleep, and enjoying the vacation . . . are all like sharpening our axes. We’ll be more productive, empowered and “Sell More,” if we know when to stop working and tend to some other essentials of life.

We cannot be fully empowered if we are out of energy and our stamina is at its lowest point. On a flight home from Dubai recently, I read a motivation magazine. One article dealt with a definition of success. After polling over 2,000 top executives, the results were as follows:

What do you think he’d do extra for you? I suppose that the windows would be cleaner, the chrome more shiny, and the whitewalls whiter because you paid him to go the extra mile.

I remember the time the lawn care company came to my house to give me a price on spraying my lawn for weeds. After he had taken some measurements, he told me the job would cost me $175. I asked him if that was his best price. He said he might be able to shave a little bit off the price. I said, “No. Don’t knock any off. I want to pay you more! I’ll give you $200, but I want you to do the job as if it were your yard.” Earlier in the conversation, he had mentioned that he would be done at about 1:00 pm. However, he was still there at 4:30.

On the job, that means that we’ll think as we do our work. We keep our head in the game and that minimizes mistakes. Also, as we do our work, we think. We think about whether or not there is a better, faster way of doing it.

The goal is not to find shortcuts to doing mediocre work; that is not a part of the empowerment technology. But the goal is to find ways of improving the product or service, while at the same time being cost and labor conscious.

The point here is not to try to reinvent the wheel, but to make a better one. This is how companies grow, and mid-level managers get promoted to high-level managers. It’s how CEOs turn companies that are losing money, into companies that are making money.

It’s about thinking more, and thinking bigger. As a motivational speaker and sales trainer, I’ve been sharing this message across the globe for years now, and finally, I think it’s catching on!

Make it a great selling day and remember…

"If you don't sell more, you’re out of business!"

Alan W. Altmann

Disney Land Does the Little Things Well

When I visited Disneyland in California and in Florida, I was impressed by its cleanliness. There were maintenance people liberally sprinkled around Disneyland who carried a broom and a dustpan. Constantly they were sweeping up cigarette butts, popcorn and scraps of paper. They did the little things well.

Excellent sales trainers will testify that this means we do a good job even with the things we’d rather not do that are part of our job, like doing the paperwork after the sale, or filing or reading job-related memos. We do the ”rather-nots” of our job because the company wants us to, or it will benefit the customer, or it will pay off for us as individuals.

The productive employee finds reasons to do the “rather-nots” instead of offering excuses not to do them. Also we can do our best if we will learn to do the little things well. Go to the new car showroom and sit in a new model of your choice. As you sit behind the wheel, what are you looking for? You’re looking at the little things. Are the moldings on straight? Do all the pieces fit? Does the carpeting fit around the doors? Do the doors close correctly? Are there any missing buttons and knobs? We do notice the little things, don’t we?

7) The Productive “Sell More” Achiever Asks For Help

Many a manager has asked, “Why in the world didn’t you call me sooner?” Well, we thought we could work it out. Or we didn’t want anyone to know that we lacked some knowledge. But time is money. And the empowered manager knows that all the time you were trying to figure something out, it was costing him money for your non-productiveness. And when he comes to bail you out, the problem is most likely worse, than had you called for help right away. That’s costly. Remember that knowledge is power, but applied knowledge is even more powerful.

6. The Productive “Sell More” Achiever Does Their Best

I am talking today about pride of workmanship. Most sales trainers have little time for the person who says, “That’s good enough.” That statement implies that if we took more time and paid more attention, we could have done better. Sales trainers and strong leaders know that “good enough” is clearly not!

That’s All I’ll Ever Ask

Some years ago, Winston Lloyd who later became one of America’s top foreign policy experts, began his career as an aide to then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Lloyd relates the story of his first encounter with Kissinger. He presented the secretary with a long awaited report on conflicts in South America. Without even glancing at the report, which Lloyd was handing to him, Kissinger asked, “Is this the very best you can do?” Lloyd stammered a bit, and said there were a few informational gaps. “Take it back,” was all that Kissinger said, and dismissed him.

5. The Productive, “Sell More” Achiever Does It Right

Strange, isn’t it, that there’s always time to do it over? So why not take the time to do it correctly in the first place? Leaders and sales trainers know that success and empowerment in the work place will come by consistently doing the job right.

Many of the major car manufacturers have allowed their assembly line workers to move from one section of the line to another to “follow” the product from start to finish. They don’t give extra pay or extra benefits for those moves. By allowing the employees to be involved from beginning to end, the productivity increases and the employees develop pride in the finished product. At the same time, mistakes and sabotage decrease radically.

4. The Productive “Sell More” Achiever Does It Now

In other words, don’t procrastinate. A person doesn’t need a fire under his or her butt to get moving! Let there be immediate production—no wasted time—no coming to work late—no extended breaks—no missed days of work. All of these interfere with “DOING IT NOW.” That sounds like my dad yelling at me as a kid. Ha! But now that I’m almost 50 and have realized that I’m not the world’s smartest guy, well, it is good advice!

A sales trainer friend of mine, who is a great believer in efficiency, hung up a sign in his office one day. It read, “Do it now.” Within 24 hours the cashier bolted with the contents of the safe, his stenographer eloped with his eldest son, the office boy threw the ink bottle into the electric fan, and the whole office force took the afternoon off. That’s not what we mean by “DO IT NOW.”