Raising Kids – Raising Sellers!

You Have Two Minutes to Get Me in A Good Mood!

(The article I’m sharing with you today was first written nearly two years ago but never sent out to our subscribers. As we are spending time with our son and his family on vacation and watching them raise and guide their children, it reminded me of the similarities of raising kids and managing sellers.)

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my youngest daughter’s “Last First Day of School”. It was just a few days later that my second child and oldest daughter, a 1st-grade teacher, called me on her way to work like she does nearly every morning. Normally, she is in a very good mood and happier than most people are at 7:15 a.m. On this morning, to say the least, she wasn’t! In fact, her first words were, “You have two minutes to get me into a good mood”, and I could tell by the tone, she meant business!

So we talked a bit and in about two minutes, maybe a couple more, she was ready to conquer the day. Shortly after that, I sent her this email and quote to give her one last pep talk.

Later, during her break, she replied with this…

“Thanks, Dad! I am actually having a good day. I am constantly talking to my kids about changing their mindset. Example: If they say, ‘I’m not good at this’, they should actually say, ‘What am I missing?’”. I told them about my morning, and they said, “CHANGE YOUR MINDSET!” Ha-Ha

Love you!”

One of our sayings in our home is, “You have to know what losing tastes like in order to truly enjoy the sweetness of victory”.

Why do I share these stories of my kids? Because it mirrors what we do in sales and management.

If you’re in management, we need to keep an eye out for our reps who might be having a bad day. Invite them in to talk about it and make sure they understand that it’s O.K. to have bad days.

If you’re in sales, you really do need to understand what defeat feels like to truly enjoy the wins. If we won every time, we wouldn’t enjoy or appreciate it nearly as much!

Everyone has “Bad Days”; after all, we are all human.

I hope these two minutes helped make your day a little bit better! Go make it a GREAT Day!