Category Archives: Five Star 5
The Five Star 5 – “Dinner? Not Again!”
How do you spell sales team dinner? “B.O.R.I.N.G.”
Ok, it is not always boring, but over my career the team dinner concept has been uneventful most of the time. Why not mix it up and plan an event that will be memorable to the team in the future?
If you are having trouble deciding what to do, ask them! Reward the winning creative idea with a gift card.
I can honestly tell you that I barely remember anything that happened at team dinners over the years. But from my list below, I have vivid memories of laughter and fun that will last a life time. You don’t have to make a big splash with an expensive outing for this to be effective. Just try something new to show the team that you are thinking outside the box.
I could blog for a couple of weeks straight sharing stories from participating in these events:
- Weekend retreat at a Sales Manager’s cabin
- Go Cart Racing with the sales team
- Movie Night with the sales team
- Golf outings (many gatherings were at dream locations in the picturesque Rocky Mountains)
- Professional sporting events
The 5 Star Five – Popular Misconceptions About Sales Reps
Over the years, I have realized that there are many misconceptions of what outside sales people do. I wanted to share 5 of the more memorable ones in the latest edition of “The 5 Star Five”.
I need help adding to this list, so if you would like to contribute, please email me at: TimMushey@gmail.com
- Sales reps are entertaining customers all the time – lunches and golf especially
- You just need to be a people person to succeed
- Everyone in sales makes an above average income
- You have the freedom to do whatever you want, when you want
- The best sales people have the most experience
The 5 Star Five – Quotes Submitted By Readers
As promised earlier in the week, here are the best quotes submitted by my readers. This is a follow-up post to “My Favourite Sales Quotes”. Have a great Saturday!
“I ain’t never learned nothin’ while talkin” – President Lyndon Johnson (submitted by Jack Pyle)
“If you can’t then you must” – Tony Robbins (submitted by Murray Osborne)
“Prepare to win, or lose to somebody else who is” – Jeffrey Gitomer (submitted by Michael S. Rickert)
“‘Be and act as if it is inevitable to succeed” – unknown (submitted by Norm Tashe)
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretzky (my favourite)
The Five Star 5 – Sales Leaders
I love lists. I love countdowns. It started with me listening to the “Top 10 at 10” songs on a local AM radio station as a kid, and eventually a variation was born called the “Top 6 at 6”. From there, countdowns seemed to be all over the place. There were tv shows in the 1980’s that counted down the top music videos of the week, and eventually sports shows counted down the best plays of the day, week and eventually year.
When I started to get involved with social media and conducted research on the internet, I realized that lists were prominent there too. I saw one problem. Many of the lists were 10, 25, 50 or even 100 items long! I had no issue with that until I realized that I always got distracted and never finished the lists.
So I felt the need to chime in on the “list phenomenon”, but with my own twist. It will be called,
“The Five Star 5”
I will include my favourites from a specific category, but each list will only be 5 entries long. The difficult part of course is narrowing down some decisions to 5, but that is the beauty of the short, concise list. I want each list to be impactful, short and sweet.
These were the first five people that I followed in the sales space, and I am sure glad that I did. If you are following them already, fantastic! If not, consider this a solid recommendation and follow them at once!
I will note their Twitter names and websites as points of reference:
Paul Castain – Your Sales Playbook; @PaulCastain
Dan Waldschmidt – Edgy Conversations; @DanWaldo
S. Anthony Iannarino – The Sales Blog; @Iannarino
Kelley Robertson – Fearless Selling; @FearlessSelling
Mark Hunter – The Sales Hunter; @TheSalesHunter
Enjoy this list. These guys are awesome!
Sell, Lead, Succeed! 