Recently I received the following comment I thought you would enjoy:

Dear Ms. Francis,

I know many sales professionals who are quick to pass on the blame, and quicker to gloom all the glory, even when a success was achieved through the combined efforts of many. Unfortunately, I have also seen these same individuals catapult out of the sales ranks into management, only to poison junior sales people with that same irresponsible attitude. Further up the food chain, one might have to look long and hard to find a senior corporate executive who not only “talks this talk, but walks this walk,” in terms of taking personal responsibility for the failures of the business they steer; however, as I read your article less than a week after hearing a keynote address by Ann Mulcahy, Chairman and CEO of Xerox, it occurs to me that she is a life-giver.

Since assuming her role five and a half years ago, Xerox has struggled back from the brink of near extinction by seeking solutions rather than scapegoats for its problems, and it is now poised to reclaim its leadership role in the marketplace. I see this as an example of what can be accomplished when one (person or company) directly assumes personal responsibility, actively seeks new solutions to old problems, purposely maintains a positive outlook, and deliberately capitalizes on the momentum of small successes to fuel greater ones.

Thanks for the day-brightener!

Sincerely,
Ruth Ann Kordell

~ Thanks to you too Ruth Ann. You are right about Xerox. they have done a great job motivating their teams and getting back on track. You too by recognizing the power of the law of attraction will also have great success!

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

I have been know to say that “Balance is the battle cry of the mediocre!” Why? Because I believe that people who are striving for balance are striving for the wrong thing. Balance assumes you have limited supply of something in your life – mainly time. I don’t think we should be focusing our energy on time, I believe we should be focusing on energy. Energy is unlimited

Everyone is seeking balance these days. Typically balance is defined as “When I am at work I will work, and when I am at home I want to be at home – away from my work”

Typically people are defining a balanced day as 8 hours at work, 8 hours at home, 8 hours sleeping.

My beef is not with your desire to find a balance between work and play during your waking hours. My beef is where we put their energy during those hours. It frustrates me that while you say you will focus on work at work and play at play, you simply don’t do this. Oh sure, you play while at play, but do you really work, while at work?

For most people “work hard play hard” is a misnomer. Only get half the expression is the reality. Sure, its easy to get the “play hard” right….but be honest, do you really work hard?

• How many personal calls do you take at work?
• How long was your last lunch with your colleagues, or friends
• How much time do you spend gossiping about social issues while at work?
• How often do you run personal errands during business hours
• How much on line surfing or shopping do you do while at work?

I don’t believe in balance in the traditional sense. I believe in choice and energy management. If I chose to focus my energy at work on work, then I chose to leave my work in the office when I go home. When I focus on work at work, I can focus my energy at home on my family. If I chose to focus 4 hours of my energy while at work surfing the Internet looking for a vacation deal then I have chosen to finish my work tonight after dinner. Every choice has a consequence and its not appropriate for us to ignore those consequences because we want a balance of time in our life.

Do you really work while at work? Being at work, IE being in the office is not the same as doing work. Take notice of where you are spending your energy. You will create a balance in your life if you chose to focus your energy of the appropriate task at hand….play or work.

Its not right for employees to demand that their employers leave them alone after 5pm when they are spending working hours on personal issues. Just the same, its not reasonable to assume that employees spend no time on personal issues during the day if their employers don’t given them an evening or a weekend off.

Examine where your energy is at all hours of the day. Make choices that will help you naturally create the balance that you want to achieve in your life. Your perfect balance is unique to you. Its about the choices you make, and the success you want to achieve.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,
~Colleen

I hope everyone was filed with Love Yesterday and that the feeling is spilling over to today….

February being the month of love is relevant to our blog discussion because it takes love to be successful in sales. Love what you sell, Love who you sell it for and love who you sell it too! Speaking of which, how often do you show your customers the love? Do you show them appreciation for your success? After all, if they weren

I’ve been selling and studying sales for 15 years and I just found out this morning that February is National Sales and Marketing month. Go figure!!

To honour this – everyone should be spending some time this month developing their sales skills. I’m curious, how committed are you to becoming better at what you do? Take our poll and I will reveal the results – and what they mean – in a few days.

~ Colleen