me, the side doors slid open, and out jumped four guys asking if my name was Paul. I was thinking, Well, here is where my life ends. But out of desperation, I told them, "Yes, I am Paul." They told me to jump in and we drove away to a gigantic parking lot where there were four or five U-Haul type vans sitting in the parking lot and even more guys standing beside them. They slid up the back door of the U-Haul and there were hundreds upon hundreds of cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other. They pulled out a case and handed it to me. It was heavy and smelled kind of familiar in some ways. The one guy opened the lid of the box that I was holding, and inside there were twenty-four smaller, tall, upright boxes. He pulled one out, opened the lid, and sprayed me with it. Again, my mind went right to, I am getting maced in a parking lot. But all of a sudden, I recognized the smell. It was the male cologne Obsession, but it wasn't in the right box that I knew it to be in. Welcome to the world of boot-leg perfume and cologne sales.
I was instructed to walk around the streets and just start spraying people and asking them to buy a bottle for twenty-five dollars cash. They assured me that I was perfect for the job and I would have so much fun meeting people and learning the town. I didn't care about any of that; what mattered to me was the five bucks per bottle they told me I would get when I came back. After the parking lot pep talk, I was on my way, hitting the streets of Ft. Lauderdale. Of course it was summer, and of course it was in the mid to high eighties with high humidity, and of course the usual daily South Florida rain storm hit, but I was determined to sell. I was hungry to make that money so I could eat, get gas, and start to figure my life out. I knew I wasn't going to just walk up to and start spraying people with a foreign spray; I needed a pitch. I needed something unique. I tried everything from, "Excuse me, you smell great. How would you like to smell better?" "Hey, check this out, I have the latest to hit the cologne world for half the price of retail." "I am a college student at Miami-Dade and we are doing a fundraiser for new soccer uniforms." "Hey, these four guys picked me up in this van and told me to sell this crappy knockoff perfume and they will pay me so I can eat."Want to guess which one worked? The last one. The truth is what worked, and I sold every damn bottle of that crap and at the end of the day, I left with a wad of cash. I spent the day rehearsing and getting comfortable talking to people and in front of people and complete strangers. I made my mistakes before it really mattered, and that is what you have to do if you are in that leadership role. In case you are wondering, yes, I did go back for day two on the streets and actually stuck it out for six months before walking into Bally's Scandinavian Health Club and being offered a real corporate sales job.
My point is this: you can be great at creating PowerPoint presentations and writing reports, but you have to be equally as great, if not better, at delivering the content. You have to be a great showman and make people smile. I learned two valuable life and sales lessons on the streets of South Florida: Don't worry about making the sale; worry about making people smile and the sale will happen naturally. The second was written on a piece of paper hanging over the door of the perfume sales office. Yes, they actually had an office. On that piece of paper, in bold font, was written, SW, SW, SW. . .Next. For the first two weeks, I never noticed it and finally when I did, I asked what it meant and was told, "Some will, some won't, so what, next." As it turns out, this is a saying used in high paced sales to help the sales staff remember that not everyone is going to say yes for what you are selling. The same applies in business everywhere. Not everyone is going to pick up what you are laying down. So let's get back to this rehearsal thing.
You have to get into a room, set a timer, talk out loud, consider filming yourself, and rehearse your material. When I have a presentation to do, I will have rehearsed that at my desk, in my living room, the shower, and in the actual room I am going to deliver it. Practice the art of vocal control and setting the mood with silence or dramatic pauses to emphasize the moments you need to highlight in the presentation. Talk out loud; talk to yourself; exercise your vocal cords so you sound your best. But whatever you do, don't just wing it. Make time to rehearse. By the time you make your pitch or do your presentation, you should have rehearsed it at least a dozen or so times. Like I said in Challenge 2, I love to lie in bed in the morning and visualize my day. I often use that time to rehearse hard discussions or presentation points I need to make that day. The goal is to be so comfortable with this material that you look and sound like a natural. By the time you are in the real world delivering that content, you will have had that discussion multiple times in your mind. Oh, and by the way, when you become so comfortable with the material, the less umm's and ahh's will come flying out of your mouth. You will truly sound like a real professional when you can eliminate those nasty words from your public speaking vocabulary.
By rehearsing, you will also become so familiar with the content that in the event your projector or computer craps out on you, you will be able to keep going with your material. In the fighting world, and yes, I used to be a boxer, the fight is easy. It is the training that is the hard part. Fighters look forward to the actual fight because they have rehearsed their game plan and spent hundreds of hard hours of training that they can't wait to get in the ring. The fifteen-minute or thirty-minute fight is easy compared to the hours of training they have endured. The same applies to all sports and business. It's all about the rehearsal or the practice, making the mistakes up front, and getting ready for your moment to shine. What does every professional sports team do when they win the championship game? They still show up to practice and rehearse. As professional business leaders or aspiring leaders in any field, you still have to show up to practice and rehearse. It's all part of the game.
Challenge 6 (Study Other Businesses That Inspire You)
For those that know me personally, they know I am a die-hard Apple guy. I have iMacs everywhere, every iPhone that has ever been made, and the same with the iPad. I used to be obsessed with watching Steve Jobs deliver his keynotes. I studied everything about them. They were natural, polished, and very effective. I also took an interest in their product videos. They are short, sweet, and perfectly to the point. I wanted to apply that same concept and visualization to everything that I do and create as a leader. I was inspired by Apple. I am also inspired by other non-tech business models as well.
When I coach my employees and volunteers on how to be good at interacting with the public – because let's face it, if you know any first responder type of people, they are very rigid, stern, and might not be the best at being polished for dealing with the public in a fluffy way – most of them don't subscribe to the customer is always right concept. There is no training on customer service in EMT or paramedic school. My approach in correcting that was easy.
I tell all of them to think of the last time they ate at McDonalds and how their customer service experience was and have them compare it to the last time they ate at Chick-fil-A and what that customer service experience was like. All of them tell me that the experience at the chicken place was far better than the burger place. The point of this is to not bash McDonalds. I love McDonalds and spend way more money at McDonalds each year than I do at Chick-fil-A, but there is a difference in the way customers are treated. There is a difference in the overall appearance and attitude of a Chick-fil-A employee versus a McDonalds employee. I would love to know the secret that Chick-fil-A uses to create such an amazing customer service experience for their customers. One of the constant questions I have in my mind is, How do I get my staff to treat the public like Chick-fil-A does?
It is kind of ironic when you go into a business and just sit there with a cup of coffee and take notes of what you see. I do it all the time. I study everything from the branding, to the color scheme, the flow of the employees, and the reaction of the customers. Did you ever go into or walk past an Apple store? They are slammed busy no matter what time of day it is. Having spent hundreds of hours in them myself, I can honestly say I have never seen an irate customer or someone mad that they have to wait. Let's be honest – their stores are boring. It's certainly not Target where there are dozens of aisles to walk up and down to kill time. It is a simplistic concept that makes Apple work. Another question that I will never be able to answer is, I own everything that Apple has made. Why do I find myself playing with the products I already own when I am in their store?
