What is Wrong With Sales?

Many people have a very negative opinion of sales positions. I guess they can't shake the image of becoming Willy Lowman. I can't even remember what Willy sold, it must not have been a great product.

I'll confess, during my job search I avoided all positions that had sales written on them. But the more I think about what is involved in sales, the more I realize that it is often the most important part of a business. Sales means expansion, sales means growth.

As I listened to another one of the Stanford Entrepreneurial Podcasts, I was struck by how frequently the speaker's advice could be followed by taking a sales role. One of the main points of several speeches was, "get in a customer facing role." In other words, put yourself in the position to deal with the client or customer as much as possible. What better way to do this than sales. What better way to shore up your persuasive abilities and on-the-spot small talk than approaching people that don't want to talk to you.

The role of most top executives can be described as sales. The exec that maintains the best relationships and sells the most product/business is going to end up on top.

As usual I want to refer back to the idea that "you are your greatest asset." The idea that you are your own company, complete with your own marketing, finance, sales, and core competencies. So, don't let the sales stereotype bring you down.

Relax Toi and Breathe

I have found that one of the best ways to quickly relax myself and focus again is through a quick breathing exercise.

The breaths you want to take are deep "belly breaths." Inhale through your nose deeply and as your lungs fill allow your belly to expand. Breath in until your lungs and your belly feel expanded. When you exhale you can exhale through either your nose or your mouth. Both the breath in and the breath out are slow and controlled.

The first three breaths think only of having a "calm body."
The next three breaths think only of having a "calm mind."
The last three breaths think "smile" and smile.

It is good to have something specific to think about, otherwise you will be inclined to think of whatever is bothering you. During these nine breaths you have to control all other thoughts and think of nothing else.

Comment and let me know if you find these types of posts worthwhile.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

Have you ever wanted to attend the guest lectures of business leaders? Does taking the risk of starting your own company interest you? Do you like to hear the stories of past successes and failures? Yes, Yes, and of course you do. I've found a Podcast I want to recommend.

You'll need iTunes, then subscribe to Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Podcast. There is a large audio library of lectures from great business minds and innovators.

I especially liked the lecture I listed to today with Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn. He has been involved with several great names in innovation including Paypal, Mozilla, and now LinkedIn. He reiterated a common point that I have taken to heart in the past few years. Each person represents themselves as their own company, their own product. You are in charge of your development and you are in charge of your image. The way our economy is developing makes it more difficult to find just one job and stay at it for a long time. So instead of letting that scare you (which it should a little), embrace the change and make yourself more valuable. If you are curious and work on your own continual education and training then there will always be work for you.

A little more on LinkedIn

The vision of LinkedIn is that it will be your resource to connect with the business world. This will help you maintain contacts and get answers to business related questions. I signed up about 2 days before I heard this Podcast, but I feel I'll be vamping up my LinkedIn profile soon. The profile is kind of like a living resume complete with a network of people to serve as your references. I haven't used the site enough to endorse it, or give a quality review, but I like the idea. I need another social networking site anyways, Facebook just doesn't occupy enough of my time these days... (joke)

Book Review - The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A good work of post-apocalyptic fiction about the survival of a boy (the boy) and his father (the man). The setting of the book is dark, and the mood continually grim. McCarthy does a good job of making you feel the harsh realities of genuine need. The need for food, for warmth, and for peace of mind. From the beginning you are not sure of the intent of the man; the book is so filled with mal-intent and inhumane acts that you are constantly scared for the boy’s wellbeing. Overall the book does a good job of showing what it would be like for a new boy to grow up in a world entirely different from the one his parents lived in. To read the man’s account of a few simple pleasures in life makes you feel fortunate. I felt grateful to be living my lifestyle every time I put this book down. It was calming and temporarily removed my feelings of greed and consumer driven want.

It's a quick read, the story telling is simple but effective. The images come to life and you are drawn into this story.
http://www.amazon.com/Road-Oprahs-Book-Club/dp/0307387895/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-9941008-8468632?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190605077&sr=8-1

I didn't know it until I read that link, but apparently it's on Oprah's book club, yeah!

Colbert's Word on Immigration

This was aired 9/11/07 but I just got around to it. It's funny enough to post.

Erectile Dysfunction

Bill Maher made a really good point on his show Friday night. A clear sign that something is broken in this country is that in 6 years we haven't managed to erect anything at ground zero. I'm stealing Bill's words, but how can we rebuild in Iraq if we can't even rebuild in SoHo. He goes on to point out that the Eiffel Tower was built in 2 years by hand, and by French people!

So I say, what happened to the glorious we'll build it bigger and better Fuck-You-World Freedom Tower? On second thought, maybe it's for the best that it hasn't been built. The last thing I want when I walk through that area is a giant reminder that the US has screwed up so royally under the guise of promoting freedom. In fact, I don't want the Bush administration or any "Loyal Bushies" to have anything to do with a lasting piece of architecture in one of the most prominent skylines. One would think that something as symbolic as a gaping hole in your largest city would be worth a little political capital to cover up. But for once I'm going to take comfort in the incompetence of this administration and enjoy the sunshine that fills the area.

Cortez, The Killer

This Dave Matthews and Warren Haynes song is great. It's a Neil Young cover from 1975.

It comes off of Disc 3 from the Live in Central Park Concert CD. An album that's on the top of my playlist lately.

I highly recommend you acquire a good audio version. But I've got the video for you right here. That would have been a great concert!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITSUF7v2kJE

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Thomas Friedman Interview

He wrote the World is Flat. One of my favorite books. This is a good video, feel free to skip around in the 1 hour interview to find the subjects you are interested in.

Friedman is a great communicator. He's described himself as an English - English translator. I'll just call him a good communicator, he takes difficult subjects and simplifies them. I enjoy the fact that he stakes out position and makes clear concise points.



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My Resistance to Apple Products

I feel kind of like the blogger that missed the boat, but Apple products are great. You can think of me as the PC guy from the Apple commercials that taped a web cam to his forehead. So, I'll announce it here, I have given up on my stubborn Apple resistance, and decided to embrace the convenience. They seem to have done everything right in the recent past. iTunes is great, iPods work great, and this new iPhone shows promise. My next mp3 player (and maybe phone) will be an Apple product.

A great deal of my annoyance stemmed from the original difficulties of iTunes on the PC and early iPod problems that I watched my brother go through. I got to experience iTunes re-tagging all of my id3 tags to "Kate Ryan - Desenchante" (my favorite song btw). Even years later my resistance/fear of iTunes ran deep enough that I bought a Zune instead of an iPod. [This is what my buddy iJon the Apple Nerd thinks about my Zune].

I still don't see the benefit of owning a mac/power book. My new PC endorsement goes to HP. I think this resistance comes from my ingrained financial conservatism, the same reason I am rarely an early adopter of new tech gadgets. As far as computers are concerned, I don't like to pay a lot of money for all the necessary software. The open source era is upon us, and when it really takes off in the US I think we'll see some major changes in hardware sales. It might even be good for Apple, although I don't know what kind of revenues they generate with their MacOS. (comment if you know). I do know it would cripple their competitor in this arena, Microsoft. In summary, the cost vs utility of Apple computers clouded my judgment about the rest of their products. oops.

I just have to share how impressed I am with iTunes. I enjoy the free podcasts, the ease of use and the bug free functionality it has provided me over these last few weeks. So long Winamp... Way to ruin a great prospect AOL!

So now, after realizing I've missed the boat, I remind myself that in tech there's a boat leaving ever 10 min. I'm taking another step towards appreciating my urban lifestyle, I'm streamlining my media, becoming more efficient and breezing through all the podcasts I can listen to.

Next up. Comments about a God device (like the iPhone), and saying goodbye to TV.

Reading List

As work takes up much more time than it used to in my life, I find myself relying on my magazine subscription and people's reading lists to keep me informed.

Here are a few good articles I've read recently, (and some ideas I searched out to share):

My Empire of Dirt. About a man that turned his small Brooklyn backyard into a farm and managed to feed himself for a month despite it being hit by a tornado. New York Mag

A Silver Lining. The Connection Between Gasoline Prices and Obesity What do you know, another source saying the more you walk the more fit you are. New York Magazine also ran a cover story about "Why New Yorkers Live Longer." It's because they walk, and they walk fast (more or less).

Don't read it all, just know this:

"I find that a $1 rise in gasoline prices lowers the obesity rate by almost 5 percentage points after five years. This result implies that a $1 increase in gasoline prices would reduce obesity by 15% in the U.S., saving 16,000 lives and $17 billion per year. I also provide evidence that the effect occurs both by increasing exercise and by lowering the frequency with which people eat at restaurant."PDF

eBay's Changing Identity It owns Paypal, Stubhub, and Skype. It just recently bought a 25% share in Craigslist. This company has quite a few things going for it Business Week

That's all for now. I misplaced one about the UK Market being dragged down by the global credit crunch. It pointed out how the English are in a bad position with with a low savings rate and an economy very dependent on finance related earnings. It could transfer over to their housing market as well, and they would be in a nice little mess. Couple that with a strong pound vs the dollar (less exports) and you could see their economy taking more drastic hits than the rest of the global market place. Although they seem quite correlated to the US market, to me it seems like the downside is higher than the upside (i.e. US goes down they go down more, but US goes up they don't go up all that much). I don't have any short positions staked out, but I'm sure there are a few good bets to be made here. I'll look into it some more, if you're interested let me know.

Bush on Sovereign Tribes

This is an old video, but I just saw it on Real Time with Bill Maher. He compared Bush to the 17 year old beauty queen that was trying to explain why so many Americans couldn't locate the US on the map. Well she lost, but Bush somehow won (twice). The fact that Bush didn't know what "sovereignty" means is still surprising to me.



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Charlie Rose Federer Interview

Yes, another tennis video. I watch a lot of tennis videos during the majors. This is long (56min) but worth watching. Enjoy!

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Drink Broker's Gin

I stumbled on a Gin tasting at Fermented Grapes (An excellent little Brooklyn wine shop). There I met Andy Dawson, an English character and part owner of Broker's Gin. He ran me through a few of the finer points of Gin making and tasting. His process uses a mix of juniper berries, coriander, nutmeg, etc. -quite normal. Most producers use a basket/sachet in the neck of the still and let the vapors extract the flavor. But these guys do it slightly different, they steep all the fruit and spices in the liquid mixture and boil it to bring out the full flavor of the ingredients.

You taste Gin the same as you would red wine; start at room temperature, smell the aroma, and taste. I was quite surprised how much flavor Broker's had in comparison to Bombay Sapphire, which tasted harsher and more like alcohol.

The selling point for me was the price. About $20 for 750ml. These business savvy fellows sell their bottle at a tidy discount to the other brands (Bombay and Tanqueray). Right now the bottles are only available in a few Manhattan and Brooklyn liquor stores, but I see this brand catching on. Gin and tonic anyone?

Djokovic the Joker

They always call him the joker, this might be why. He's doing a few on court impressions in this video. Gotta love him. They do say imitation is a form of flattery... Djokovic has become very popular on youtube, there's quite few videos of his antics.

Let's see if he can upset Roger Federer tomorrow at the US Open. I'm pulling for the Serbian. He's beaten Fed once this year, 7-6 (7-2) 2-6 7-6 (7-2) in Montreal. At some point in his career I believe he will reach the number 1 spot.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re1cuQ42TIM