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The good times. The bad times. The changin’ times.

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It’s no surprise the late Steve Jobs’ favorite music was written and performed by Bob Dylan and The Beatles. I just finished his biography and it was as compelling a book as Atlas Shrugged.

Anyway, about three months ago I started a column about the 1964 Bob Dylan song, “The times they are a-changin.’” An anthem for those, times and these times. Bob Dylan can write his soul – and touch yours. The times are changing. But for one reason or another I set the column aside.

As I was reading the Walter Isaacson Steve Jobs biography (a book I could NOT put down), I got goosebumps when Jobs got fired from Apple after a decade of it being his creation and child. Devastated, he went home and played the second verse of “The times they are a-changin’” over and over:

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’tcome again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.

I just sat there stunned. The song, one of Jobs’favorites, actually predicted his return, and arguably one of the greatest business comebacks of all time. And the timing of my column. Further proof (as if you needed it) there are no coincidences.

The most chilling of these non-coincidences is that my set aside writing already contained Apple examples of how the world is changed.

So – here are my original thoughts and the added thoughts since I read the Jobs book:

When Dylan wrote about changing times in 1964, it was about societal change. The politics, civil rights, rebellion of kids, music, and a new generation of thought and expression.

The same holds true today, almost fifty years later. It’s brings to mind the French novelist Alphonse Karr’s quote, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.”

EXAMPLE: The t-shirt has been the same since the ’50s. What keeps it popular is the design printed on the front and back. Millions of shirts are sold each year because someone wants the design printed on it.

The picture I want to present to you is the BIG PICTURE of change. Not yoursales plan, or your quota, or your boss, or your comp plan – what I’m offering are life changes that go way beyond sales and race for dollars.

It’s about how technology and your ability to see what is now will affect what is next. Jobs was able to see it and do it because it was his life’s work. But you must intensify your focus (the same way I’m intensifying mine) to see what is next for your industry, your market, and your customers – so there will be a positive impact for your company, your family, and yourself.

The Internet, the smart phone, the tablet, and soon internet TV will become a vital part of our society and world commerce. AKA: sales. Advances over the next decade will dwarf what is available now, and will change markets forever.

The same way trading of shares of stock and insurance policies were turned upside down with the Internet, the same way the iPod changed the way music is played, distributed, and sold, the same way Amazon and eBay became the world’s department store – so will your market evolve. And it will go to the most prepared to understand, create, capitalize, and master the evolution and the quality of products.

A FEW EXAMPLES OF WHAT WAS AND WHAT’S NEXT:

  • The schoolbook is being replaced by the iPad. (Microsoft Word still tells me that iPad is misspelled.)
  • The hardbound book is being taken over by an e-book.
  • The smartphone is smarter than you are – and Siri talks to you. Blackberry owned the market, and sat on it – and lost it. Apple has 500,000 apps. Blackberry has about 10% of that number. Angry Birds is finally among them.
  • The television is flat and cheap. It will soon become your home Internet connection. Someone will own that market. I’m betting Apple. You?
  • Got fax machine? Make me laugh! Or should I say, “LOL” or should I say, “PDF.”
  • Use the Yellow Pages or Google? Bing helps you decide – I decided to use Google.
  • Will cars run on gasoline in ten years?

And with all of that, technology lifecycles are shorter. How have you taken advantage ofthis? And for those of you saying, “I know that.” Ask yourself, “How good am I at that?” and “What am I doing to master that?”

FACT: THE times are changing.
UNKNOWN FACT: How are YOUR times changing?

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Are you burned out or just hating it?

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I just read an article about someone’s totally bogus opinion of ‘job burnout.’ It made me realize some people actually are (or think they are) ‘burned out.’

A quick search on Amazon revealed 580 books that contain the title, or address the subject of, ‘job burn out.’ Yikes!

The article I read proposed a remedy of “do less and you’ll avoid burnout.” It also recommended to avoid excessive workload, don’t be overly accommodating, avoid people who drain your energy, do not overwork yourself, and they threw in job disillusionment. In other words: You’ll still hate it, but you’ll hate it less.

Why do people claim they’re burned out? It’s a self-inflicted thought wound based on taking inappropriate action, the false feeling of being overwhelmed and stressed-out, having a negative work atmosphere in general, not really loving your job, not believing in what you do, and having a boss who is somewhere between a jackass and an idiot.

While burnout and stress are real, often they’re self-imposed feelings that you can overcome. Burnout manifests itself in your daily talk until it’s embedded into your psyche. Not good.

START HERE: Begin your self-actualization by asking reality-based questions of yourself. Write down the answers.

QUESTION ONE: Ask yourself how much you love your job?
QUESTION TWO: Ask yourself what’s the BEST part of your job?
QUESTION THREE: Ask yourself what would you rather be doing?
QUESTION FOUR: Ask yourself where would you rather be working that could afford you the same or better opportunity (not just money)?
QUESTION FIVE: Ask yourself if the grass is really greener on the other side of employment?

Being or feeling ‘burned-out’ or ‘stressed-out’ is not a problem; it’s a symptom. ‘Why’ you feel you’re burned out is the heart of the situation.

Once you ask yourself these questions, it’s time to DO SOMETHING POSITIVE ABOUT IT. Relief begins when you identify “cause,” and then continues when you create your own answers and your own truths. And change your thought pattern from burnt-out to ON FIRE!
Action one: Write down what you believe is causing the stressful feelings.
Action two: Write down what you believe the remedy could be.
Action three: Beside each remedy, write down what you or others could be doing.
Action four: Write down the likelihood of these remedies occurring.
Action five: Write down your ideal job or career, and then write down what you have to do or learn to get there.

DECIDE if you are in or out. If in, rededicate yourself to personal excellence. If out, get out quick.

REALITY: Based on your present situation (family, debt, obligations) you may just have to endure it for a while, but if you have identified causes and remedies, calm begins to occur. You have it under control. You’re making decisions.

Your present circumstance has to be measured against your present situation and future hopes and dreams.

Here are a few suggestions for what will take you from “burn out” mode into a more positive and hopeful frame of mind:
1. Start your day with the three most important things you want to accomplish.
2. Cancel all stupid and time-wasting meetings.
3. Stop talking about things that don’t matter, especially other people.
4. Focus on outcome, not just task.
5. Dedicate at least fifteen minutes a day to thinking by yourself.
6. Get rid of three major time wasters (attention diverters):

  • Facebook notifications at work (unless it’s business Facebook)
  • Personal emails and personal calls
  • Negative water fountain chit-chat

7. Go home from work and read instead of watch. Start with my Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude.
7.5 Review your accomplishments at the end of each day – to both praise yourself and challenge yourself. Write them down.

Re-start your personal fire. Give yourself a chance to become ‘BEST’ at your job and your career. Never give in to self-defeat. Decide every day that you can only be your best by doingyour best.

Become BEST not burnt.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Think the ‘write’ way. Do the ‘write’ thing. And all will be well.

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RELAX!

You’ve heard that word since the first time you got angry or upset. Or maybe it’s a word in your head that beacons reality. Pent up frustration, worry, or concern about the present or the future – or both – and nervousness about what’s about to happen in the world, at work, at home, or in your personal life.

RELAX! is easy to say, hard to do.

Here are my secrets for maintaining inner peace and fulfillment in a world filled with distractions, diversions, and distortions:

1. Write down all the crap clogging your brain. Get rid of your mental clutter. As soon as you write the details, you no longer have to dwell on them, or remember them – and your mind is free to think. Try it. It’s amazing and mentally relaxing (almost a relief). The bonus of an uncluttered mind is that ideas and resolutions to your issues and challenges will begin to manifest themselves daily.

2. Write down your present situation. What’s going on in your life right now? What’s the status of all things work, family, friends, life, and self? More amazing than unclogging, writing your present situation actually creates answers to situations that have been bugging you. Oh, and it also helps relax you.

3. Write down your dreams and thoughts. Every one has thoughts of “one day I’ll…,” or “someday I’ll…,” but those words are usually just spoken. REALITY: Those thoughts are just pipedreams until they’re written down, formalized, and crystalized. Writing your dreams will help you see a more clear and focused picture of them.

4. Find a quiet park or a garden where you can sit and think, read, or write for an hour. Invest quality time with yourself DAILY. This is the most relaxing of all outlets IF you have done the first three things I’ve recommended.

5. Read something positive, and write down the most inspiring quotes. Create a mailing list of important people to share them with. Make sure you acknowledge the author.

6. Mentally go to all the positive places where you’ve been before. Those thoughts will lead you to stories and lessons – write them down right away. Then blog them.

6.5 Blog your thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Blogging not only creates a public avenue for you to publish and express yourself, it also positions you and your views to the world. Your ideas may matter to some people in the world, and the feeling of accomplishment will give you a feeling of personal pride and fulfillment. I have decided that 2013 will be my ‘year of the blog,’ consisting of an intensive, daily effort for me to talk about and video about sales, business, and life. You can see my blog history at www.salesblog.com. Got blog? Air your thoughts to the world!

There are other things you can DO beyond writing to relax…

  • Play with a kid. It’s an amazing elixir for relaxing and having fun.
  • Go shopping for yourself. It makes you feel good to do things for YOU.
  • Make a list of ten people from high school or college you want to reconnect with. Call them, don’t just Facebook them. These are people you knew in your responsibility-free days.
  • Take a walk someplace you’ve never been before. Look around as you walk. Marvel at things. Take a few pictures. Write a few notes. Sit down and soak it in.
  • Book a weekend trip. Make a list of the places you’ll go and the things you’ll do. Often just the action of writing and planning the getaway will change your mood and your thinking, and that can calm you.

GOTTA GET AWAY? Need a vacation? That’s because you’re not relaxing every day. When the ‘need to get away’ is a dominant thought, it’s a symptom, not a problem or a goal. The reality is you’re not relaxing on a daily basis.

RELAXATION REALITY It’s likely you’ll need to make some personal changes if true relaxation is to permeate your life. Avoid negative events, negative things, negative news, and especially negative people.

“Jeffrey I can’t eliminate these things!” you exclaim.

Relax dude, just relax.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Championship aftermath. The first breeds the second.

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The Miami Heat just won the NBA title, and LeBron James, aka ‘King James,’ won the most valuable player award.

He completed a nine-year mission.

A reporter asked him what his first thoughts were. He instantly replied with a HUGE smile, “It’s about damn time.”

As most know, the game of basketball is a team effort and a team victory, but LeBron James’ individual performance ranks as one of the all time greats.

For the next week or two, there will be euphoric celebrations by players and fans alike. Parades, interviews, t-shirts, hats – you name it.

Then it’s time for the reality of ‘next year.’

Think about LeBron’s first eight years. Season after season, no championship. He made the finals twice, but got beat.

Fan discouragement pales in comparison to LeBron’s personal discouragement and frustration from not winning a championship. Pile on the media. Until finally last night… VICTORY!

It seems as though the entire sports world was relieved. Sure, there are plenty of people who don’t have LeBron James on their “like” list, but that’s predominately the result of petty jealously or envy.

In his postgame interview, LeBron talked about his trying to prove others wrong mentality during the finals loss last year, versus his mentality that lead to the win this year. He said, “I just got back to being who I am, just got back to enjoying the game I fell in love with and why I fell in love with it.”

QUESTION: How do you think LeBron is going to play next year?
ANSWER: With the quiet confidence of a champion.

MAJOR CLUE: The first championship is the hardest. (Just like earning the first million is the hardest, and just like winning the first sale is the hardest.)

It’s important for you to understand the confidence that’s instilled in your soul after you make that first big sale. It’s easy to see in others, it’s difficult to see in yourself. The only way you can gain it is to take the responsibility to make it happen – for you.

The Heat won as a team, but I guarantee you LeBron James is sitting there with a personal feeling of accomplishment that can never be explained, only felt.

There’s an old adage that says “there’s no ‘I’ in ‘Team.’” WRONG THINKING! A winning team is made up of superior individuals. Jack Ramsay, one of the greatest coaches of all time, says, “You coach the game and you coach the player.” He left out the word team and won championships because of it.

I have watched Jack Ramsay coach since 1963. From the time he was a coach at St. Joseph’s College, I have never seen a coach get more out of individual players. When the Portland Trailblazers won the 1977 championship, they had two great players, Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas, coupled with a bunch of mediocre players. They beat the Philadelphia 76ers (one of the greatest teams of all time), and beat them handily. Jack Ramsay was the primary reason. He coached those players to victory and as a result the team won.

Have you reached ‘championship mentality and qualification?’ Ask yourself these questions…

  • What is your confidence level?
  • What is your skill level?
  • How strong is your love of the sales game?
  • How intense is your desire to win? (Or are you still taking the first ‘no?’)
  • What is your anger and or frustration level?
  • How good is your coach?

HERE’S A CLUE: Win one. Win a BIG ONE. Win a big sale, and your confidence level to win the next one cannot be measured. It’s off the chart.

Champions do not start out that way.
First they work their ass off.
Then they win.
You?

(LeBron’s postgame interview – an interview I believe every salesperson on the planet should download and put on their playlist once a day, can be found here http://bit.ly/L48nq7.)

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

What is the value? Where is the value? Who perceives the value?

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You have been making value perceptions and value judgments your entire life.

You may call them decisions, moments of truth, or actions. Intuitively they focus around value – and your perception of it – or the weight you put toward it as these decisions or actions are taken or made.

It’s the same in sales, but in the selling process there are two values of perception and two value judgments. One is the value perception and judgment you make, and the other is the value perception and judgment the customer makes.

Obviously the customer’s value judgment and perception rules the selling process. However, you, the salesperson, have a major impact on how the value is perceived and ultimately how their judgment is made.

Your value judgments come from:

  • How you feel about your company.
  • How you feel about your product.
  • How you feel about yourself.
  • How you feel about the customer and their buying process.

You’ve placed a value on yourself that reflects in your selling skills, your attitude, your belief system, your truthfulness, and your ethics. If you are willing to compromise any of those, you’ll never be a successful salesperson in the long term.

That’s you.

And then there is the customer. Whether they’re an existing customer or a prospect, they’re making all kinds of value judgments about you, your product, and your company – in that order.

Much of their judgment about you is being made during the presentation itself, but as the digital age progresses many of these perceptions and judgments are made way before you (the salesperson) enter the scene.

These days, Mother Google can create preconceived value notions that don’t simply revolve around your product or your price; that’s just one part of the equation. Your personal reputation and your company’s reputation play a major role in the customer’s perception and judgment of value.

MAJOR UPSIDE-DOWN CLUE: Every salesperson uses Google to find more information about the company and the person they are going to meet. That same salesperson NEVER takes the same amount of time to Google themselves to see what the potential customer is finding out about them.

It’s a major mystery to me why salespeople still believe they are invisible. Meanwhile, your reputation (and/or lack of it) is totally available to the customer way before you ever enter their office.

The majority of salespeople, most likely including you:

  • Do not have a business Facebook page.
  • Have never tweeted.
  • Do not have a personal website.
  • Do not have a blog.
  • Do not have a YouTube channel.
  • Have less than 500 LinkedIn connections.

What could they (you) be thinking?

It will take your prospective or existing customers less than one minute to do a complete Internet search on you, and it’s most likely you have never done one on yourself. Your sales hang in the balance.

WRONG THINKING: People with no internet presence, people with no brand presence, and people with little personal reputation will all make the feeble excuse that the customer is only buying price anyway. They (you) are foolishly incorrect.

If your customer is looking to make a value judgment before you arrive, what are they going to find?

NOTE WELL: If a customer is looking to make a value judgment or value perception during your presentation, a good portion of that will occur way before the presentation takes place.

I’ve just given you a re-definition of the word ‘value’ by adding the words perceived (perception) and judgment. These are the words your customer mentally uses as he or she is deciding.

Notice I have not used the words ‘add’ or ‘added’ when referring to the word value, nor will I ever.

Your biggest job as a salesperson is to create you own value and reputation in the marketplace, so that when your prospective customer is looking for information about you, it will credibly be there.

I have listed the value-based elements you need to succeed. I am challenging you that you probably don’t have them, and now it’s time for you to make your own value judgment if it is worth the investment of time to create them.

In my opinion it’s not an option, it’s an imperative.
Show me the value, and I’ll give you the sale.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].