Opportunity isn't knocking.

I see it happen nearly every month, and it just doesn't make sense to me. Inevitably, when the last day of the sales month arrives there are a few sales reps and/or managers short of their goal. It's the result of one or a combination of several factors. Not enough activity, failure to qualify the customer's needs, not talking directly to the decision maker, missing key product features/benefits, and so on.

Here comes the part that I think could be improved upon. Most reps short of quota still have one, maybe two, opportunities left in their funnel.... The opportunities that won't answer their phone or return email messages. Out of ideas, the sales rep decides it's best to camp out in the customer lobby hoping to catch the decision maker and close the business. Sure there is a 1 in 20 chance that the business could close. The down side is the rep is wasting yet anther day not preparing for tomorrow, next week or next month. Additionally any type of credibility the rep has attempted to build as a consultant is gone and replaced by the dreaded used car sales mentality.

Here are a few ideas. Take some time to review how you ended up in this situation. Go to your manager with these ideas. 1) You let yourself and your team down, but.... 2) Here's what went wrong (see above reasons) 3) Have a plan for what you will do differently, starting today. 4) Schedule follow up meetings with your manager to check your improvement.

Ultimately, if you still want to stop by the customer's office that day go in with a plan. Start off by trying a Reverse Look Up on the building. Call the other clients to schedule additional appointments. Second, review the opportunity. Why would they buy from you? What benefits - solutions does your product provide? Should the chance arrive to speak with someone have something better to say than "Have you made a decision yet?"

Good luck and happy selling.

Email Subscription

Today, I added a new email subscription feature to the blog. Bloglet offers a free easy to use subscription. Give it a try.

Welcome to Audioblog

You gotta be kidding me....

Hot or Not meets Google Maps. Before you re-locate check the "hotness" or "notness" of your new city.

Saved from Tiffany

I stay in relatively good contact with several of my closest friends and Fraternity Brothers with a great group email tool, Yahoo Groups. We share marriage and baby announcements, job updates, political debates and a number of other topics that could only be interesting to those who once power walked just to avoid Teeste Flys.

Today, Kirk (leaning back, punching air) informed us we were a part of the "golden age of modern rock." He wrote: ....we were part of some good music times. Have any of you seen SPIN's list of the top 100 albums of the past 20 years? Of that list, exactly 1/3 of the albums were released between 1992-1996, the 4 years we were in college. Throw in our high school years and a full 54% were released during that formative 8-year run. In comparison, the suckers that graduated in 2004 only had 11 of the top 100 albums come out during their college days.

This post couldn't have come any sooner. Just as I began reading the email my yahoo player was starting, I think we're alone now. I need help. Quickly I updated my player with the 75 or so new albums and immediately began to hear some new stuff. Take a listen.

Sun bathing on the course

Finally back, rested and caught up on emails. As expected the trip to the great mid-west was a pleasant break from my regular routine.

Flew into Kansas City on Thursday night. My mother, Teresa (not "the"), and "Granny" Mary Lou met Savanna and I at the airport where they happily took over baby sitting duties for the weekend. My cousin, Travis, had left a car for me as he and his wife, Erica, were catching, for some unknown reason, a Rascal Flatts concert. Erica and I must share the same opinion of the group, she got the weekend started early and paid the price for it well before the concert was over. Travis was a little upset with the situation so I felt obligated to improve his spirits. We tucked (the way two trainers help an injured athlete off the field) Erica into bed and jumped in the car for a 12 to 4 blackjack session at "the boats". We were happier than a lady gillette in a room full of Rockettes. The night was fairly uneventful with the exception of one amusing conversation. I was sitting at the anchor position of $5 table with three other players. When playing "21," I really don't know what I'm doing, I'm just a feel player. Sometimes I hit, sometimes I don't. Well, this was upsetting one of the players. After losing about $60 in chips (everything he had at the time) he announces to the table (looking at me) "I'm going somewhere they know how to play." Uhhh mmmm.... best try Vegas and sit at a table with a minimum larger than $5. I sure was disappointed to let him down.

Our after hours trip to the boats turned out to be not the best idea. Travis, Tyler (Travis' younger brother and my golf partner), and I were not well rested for our 10:30 am tee time at Staley Farms . In addition to the lack of sleep, temperatures reached 100 degrees with a heat index over 110. I honestly didn't know if I was going to make it. The good part was that the course was spectacular. It was in great shape and challenged most parts of my golf game without being unfair.

By Saturday morning we were well rested for our first round of tournament golf. Tyler and I played well, shooting 64, but were a stroke out of first behind 3 teams. That night each team was auctioned off as a side bet for Sunday's round of golf. We were able to purchase our team relatively cheap at $220. Last year a team sold at just over $400. I also bought two other teams, one of which I had no intention to buy, but got stuck with them trying to raise their price. This was foolish.

Sunday didn't start so well. One of the team's I purchased some how got confused, had the time wrong, and missed Sunday's round. So I had my team, a team I didn't want and a team that didn't show up. Lucky Tyler and I made up for it with the way we played. We birdied the first 4 holes, then cooled off a bit with 4 pars. It was time to rally. "Skin it" I called out. You must wear a shirt in the club house but can work on your tan while playing. The ralley call worked, we birdied 9 of the last 10 holes for a 59. It was fun to have a feel for what it is like to be Tiger (aside from playing shirtless). Tyler hits the ball further than nearly.... everyone. He steps up and without much effort hits it 300 to 330, usually down the middle.

If you play golf and haven't visited Tarkio for one of it's two annual golf tournaments, add it to your list of things to do.

Calcutta

Just returned from a quick day trip to Houston. While I was becoming more comfortable with the Houston market, my wife Vanita was busy, with some help, trying to learn the gender of our newest family member. She, rightfully so, was none too happy about me being absent from the event. Turns out the baby is already doing me favors. He or she wouldn't cooperate with the cameras so the news will have to wait until the 10th of August, a date I will be sure and make. I can hardly wait for December 23rd so I can let the little guy/girl know how appreciative I was for the second chance.

Tomorrow evening it's back in the air for one of my favorite weekends. While one of my co-workers, Kerri Sparks, claims her backside holds the title, my home town of Tarkio, MO truely is the "8th Wonder of the World." I'll be returning there with countless others from around the globe for the annual Tarkio Golf Club 2 - Man Calcutta. I hope to bring home a victory and am sure to have several stories to share. Have a great weekend.

It's Offical

It is backwards logic but that's the way things sometime work. Today, I offically became a web blogger when my Blogger T arrived in the mail just 4 short days after it's online purchase. I may finally be forced to throw away "Try your luck with a Phi Gam" to make room for it in the t-shirt drawer.

Knocking on golf's door....is anybody home?

Was there really any doubt at the end of Saturday's British Open who would be Champion? I found little 5 year old Tiger in the Nike Commercial more entertaining than Big Tiger going into his 10th final round of a major with all or a share of the lead. He had 38 putts on Saturday and still shot 1 under. He had 5 eagle putts and St. Andrews only has 2 par 5s. That is just ridiculous, he is too good.

I on the other hand need help. "The game leaves me depressed and delusional, obsessed and self-centered, miserable and consumed with doubt. Yet it also so enthralls and elates me that I can't wait to play again."

A group of my golfing friends had me sign up for My Scorecard, an online handicap system. It is reasonable priced ($9.99/year) and new features can tell you helpful tips about your game. Here's what it has to say about mine:

If you could just get rid of the double(s) you'd be right on down there... Blow-ups are all mental - you already know that you can hit the ball well in most cases. Developing a sound pre-shot routine, avoiding common mental mistakes, and increasing your confidence should help reduce the likelihood of things going awry. And, if you do happen to have that 'blow-up?' Take a minute to regain your mental faculties, and avoid the super-high risk gamble.

it goes on to say....

an alternative to hitting buckets and buckets on the range is do two things: 1) Get a driving lesson, and 2) Focus on the mental aspect of the drive....

What the??? Get a driving lesson? It's like this thing has been riding in the passenger seat of my car since I turned 16.

Le Tour de FairyTale

Lance Armstrong is yet again, "digging into his suitcase of courage." He currently holds a 38 second race lead with just under half of the 21 tour stages remaining. Today, arriving home from work I pondered, at what point did Lance first start taking cycling seriously? 1 month and 8 days shy of her 4th birthday Savanna apparently has a checklist of items she must have before going for a ride.

She called for me from her upstairs bedroom just as I opened the door to our house, "Dad, will you help me put this on?" "Sure" I say "What is it." "um, um these" she says, showing herself at the top of the stairs holding her Barbie cycling kneepads. Now this was a first. Not since a few minutes after receiving the Barbie helmet and kneepads do I recall her ever requesting to wear them. I can only assume she is prepared to get serious about her ride.

She brings me the kneepads, I velcro them on making sure the pictures are right side up. At this point she informs me, "There. Now I have everything I need to ride." Can we all assume she went through this mental process before making that statement?

Ballerina Dress - Check
Princess Crown - Check
Magic Wand - Check
Ballerina Slippers - Check
Princess Shoes - Check
Tinkerbell Wings - Check
Barbie Cycling Kneepads - Check

I think we may looking at the next Queen of France.

I'm off to Tangle Ridge Golf Club for a morning 18.

and I thought this was the ground floor?

This evening a good friend and fraternity brother, Ryan Kirk, turned me on to several good sites to help get my blog moving. One site, Technorati is the authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs. (This becomes slightly relevant later in the story.) So I follow Kirk's direction and then proceed to read several "recommended" blogs to help me get a feel for what's out there and draws attention. While doing so I run across a blog for David Sifry, the CEO of (you guessed it) Technorati. Look at the stats he posted today on his blog:

What a couple of months this has been! First, some stats on what's going on in the blogosphere. Technorati is now tracking over 13.3 Million blogs, and 1.3 billion links. We are seeing over 900,000 posts per day on average, which means we're adding about 10 posts per second. We're also seeing about 80,000 new weblogs created each day. That's more weblogs created each day than there were total when I started the service in November 2002. And our search traffic has increased by over 40% month on month for each of the last 4 months. The day of the london bombings we saw over 1.2 Million posts, and had an additional 30% increase in traffic as people turned to weblogs, moblogs, and other citizen's media for instant updates on events in London, survivor accounts, and sharing of deep feelings on the tragedy.

Is that not surprising?

A trip to The Modern

A few weeks ago Savanna and I spent a great Sunday together....

Vanita had several friends in town on this weekend they took the day to go shopping. This left the entire day for Savanna and I to go play.

Following church I allowed for Savanna to pick her favorite restaurant for lunch. Her first choice, Chick-fil-a is closed on Sunday so we opted for one of my favs, Chili's. I had my regular chicken sandwich and Savanna ordered chips with ranch, Mac-n-cheese and when given the choice of fries, corn, or mashed potatoes she choose the taters then restated that she wanted ranch. Even with two bathroom breaks and time to dance next to the table she ate really well. While I paid, Savanna told our waitress she had a nice pink belt. By her reaction, I bet it was the biggest tip the waitress got all day.

Now it was on to The Modern. This was a wonderful recommendation by non other than, my sister, Melanie Freeland. This place is much more impressive than The Kimball Art museum. If you have time, check out the photos of the building provided on the website. Before going inside I told Savanna to go stand under the big "M". She said I'll stand under the first big "M" daddy. Having researched the website I was prepared to pay the $12 cost of admission. However, we were fortunate to learn the first Sunday of the month is always free. We ventured upstairs to visit the Dan Flavin: A Retrospective exhibit. I wasn't sure what to expect from my visit. I kind of had this idea of a bunch of fancy neon lights set up as pictures. Let me tell you, my thoughts were not even close to what was displayed on the entire second floor of the museum. They had room after room, these are big rooms too, with crazy light exhibits. I just started taking pictures. I had both cameras working, the digital and our old cannon rebel. The pictures didn't last long. I was instructed that no pictures were allowed on the second floor. Anyway here is the best of what I was able to take.

Finally we headed home for a community pool party. We had a great time I talked with lots of neighbors and Savanna made several friends in the pool.

Welcome..a tribute "to blog or not to blog"

I'm a professional emailer / phonecaller / meeting runner (aka a communication sales manager). Much time is spent thinking, talking, reading, writing and learning. As a result, I'm am trying to be a piece of the ever entertaining internet revolution.

I was introduced to blogging by FastCompany a little over and year ago and was hooked by Dan Feld. Since then, I've followed additional blogs that keep me enthralled and informed on a number of different topics.

I am fully aware that the world can do without my mindless writings, but I will make a valiant attempt to provide something of value to the reader. Remember you have complete control over whether or not you read this.... here goes.