By Gene Fresco
Zig Ziglar is famous for saying, “You can get anything in life that you want if you help enough other people get what they want.”
When we take the spotlight off ourselves and shine it on someone else, that person responds in incredible ways.
Showing someone that we believe in him or her is often the fuel that person needs to overcome great obstacles and succeed.
Your personnel are the most important asset you have to achieve success in your business. Their motivation for getting the job done can be the “make it or break it” ingredient in success or, unfortunately, failure.
Give praise when it is deserved and be patient when someone fails. Be precise in your instructions about what you want to accomplish and how you want to accomplish it.
Give people the tools necessary to get the job done.
Look ahead to the coming year with optimism and a definite sense of purpose.
Sit down with your personnel and plan the coming year. Get feedback from them about the good and the bad of your business.
Is there enough advertising? Are the hours you are open too early or too late? Do you have the right mix of products to meet the needs of your clientele? What products do your personnel feel you need or don’t need? Which of your personnel are willing to call on clubs, houses of worship or schools? Would sales contests for the salespeople be an additional motivation for them to perform better? Do your personnel have a workstation where they can call prospects?
One of the most successful stores I called on in Dallas was a store where every salesperson had his or her own desk with a phone and computer for his or her personal use.
They were able to sit a customer at the desk and do the paperwork to finalize the sale. They were truly stars. This is the best way to let your personnel act and feel like stars.
As Zig says, help people get what they want and you will get what you want.
I have lived and worked with this attitude and, I must say, I’ve helped many people get what they want. And, I have always gotten what I want.
It’s the same with a customer. You find out what he or she wants to accomplish with music—whether it’s just to have fun or to be a professional musician—and you give him or her the right product to accomplish that goal. It warms my heart when I see a musician on stage with an instrument I sold him or her, and that person has realized a goal…made it a reality.
This is what the music business is all about. We don’t realize how we have influenced people’s lives just by choosing the right instrument for them.
Helping people get what they want gives us what we want. Amazing!
The new year will soon be upon us, and there is a lot of planning to do.
Soon, some of you will be going to the NAMM show. It’s time to sit down with your personnel and formulate plans about what products you want to buy for the coming year.
Use your time wisely. Don’t waste time. Assign projects for each one of your personnel who is going to the show. The guitar person should check out all the new guitars; the piano person should check out the new pianos; the sound person should check out the new innovations in sound. This is serious. The success of your business is dependent upon them doing the right thing! If they don’t, you will be paying for it for the rest of the year.
Bring lots of business cards and give them out generously to sellers, as well as other retailers who might be able to help you out. Of course, get a picture with a star musician that you can hang on your wall in your store.
Let’s make 2013 a banner year. Let’s do everything right and leave nothing to chance. Let’s plan our days, weeks, months and the entire year so we get the results we want, and so we can help our personnel and our customers get what they want.
You’ve got to be in it to win it!
Don’t settle for second best. Be the best music store in town. Have motivated personnel who are proud of the business for which they work…who are stars in your eyes and in their own eyes. Recognition is the second emotion after survival. That is a strong emotion because survival is literally your emotion to stay alive. We all want recognition. When I was starting out as a salesman, my boss would give me a $50 raise just about every other month. But, all he had to do was say, “Gene, you’re doing a great job,” and he would have saved a lot of money. I smile when I pull into the parking lot at a big-box store and see a parking spot that says “Salesperson of the Month.” They know how important recognition is.
Be positive, be energetic, be fair with your personnel and customers, and definitely be a star maker.
I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year and look forward to helping you reach your goals.
Remember, I look forward to your mail. If you have questions about a selling situation, please send it to Dan Ferrisi, Editor, and I will answer it personally. Or, if it’s a problem I think my readers might also have, I might answer it in this column.
I wish you good selling.