Thursday, December 13, 2012
This blog post comes to us from our Lexington Sales Team Leader Mike Wheatley. He invited a very special guest to the monthly Lexington area sales meeting this morning.
For our monthly sales meeting this week, I invited Brady Lane and his driver, Meredith Lane to demonstrate, in person, the value of a positive attitude and how it can impact everyone around us. Brady is a 10 month old yellow lab with enthusiasm and energy to burn. As I was preparing for our meeting, and trying to think of someone who always demonstrated a positive attitude, dogs-rather than people-came to mind for some reason, so I shot Brady a text to see if would be available to join us.
When I think of Brady’s life, he has many reasons not to rejoice daily: he eats off the floor; he has to go outside to use the bathroom; he bathes with his tongue; he is unwelcome in virtually every business in Lexington; if Meredith doesn’t fill his water bowl, he drinks from the toilet. Despite all this, he wakes up every day with a dog smile, wagging his tail, and bursting with enthusiasm thinking about what the day might bring.
When I sent Brady the invitation text, he didn’t say the meeting was too early, or complain that he hates office meetings, didn’t ask if it pays (although he did ask if there would be snacks). Brady was simply jumping with excitement at the prospect of meeting a room full of strangers and getting to spend time with them.
Why is Brady a great role model for us, as salespeople? Number one is his positive attitude and non-stop enthusiasm, and his firm belief that everyone he meets is a serious buyer for what he is selling. He doesn’t pre-judge the “prospects” he meets based on the car they are driving, the clothes they are wearing, or any other superficial issues. He simply delivers the same great service to everyone he meets.
One of the few things we control each and every day is our attitude. That is a conscious decision we all make and control every single day, and despite all of the outside factors that we allow to impact our attitudes, it really is in our control. The power of positive thinking is well documented in many different situations and case studies…it really does work, but we can easily dismiss it because it’s so simple. My goal for 2013 is simply to be more like Brady.