"NO DICKHEADS"

Hi, it must be old age , crikey I have been grumpy lately ! As you will know from last week I was more than a little annoyed with the outcome of a recent event. I thought I was getting over it slowly but instead of things calming down they sort of got worse.One phone dies another is born and life continues…right?…..well not quite so I managed to wind myself off the clock until someone finally took the time to figure out a simple solution ! The more I got annoyed the worse it seemed to get and when I eventually calmed down,guess what, things got better….hmmmm I learned something and not for the first time….its not worth the energy loss or the drama!!...when will I get that?

There is always a funny side…just like Clarke Kent I had to find and use a phone box for the first time in over 20 years !!, took a bit of figuring out and cost me ten bucks for a phone card ! Talking about stuff we havent done for a while I sent a card via post last week. I reckon it is exciting sending and receiving mail the old fashioned way. The fun,romance and anticipation is something that will never  be recreated electronically. There is and always will be something special about handwriting a note or card and sending it to someone you know will get a surprise to receive it.It is a cool retro thing to do. Give it a go if you don’t believe me, see how it makes you and the recipient feel. The highlight of the week was undoubtedly half price green lipped mussel night at De Fontein in Mission bay, highly recommend the 1 kg mussel hot pots with your choice of sauce, yum,go on you know you want to !!

I hope you all enjoyed the extra hour of sleep as we said goodbye to daylight saving and look forward to the two short weeks wrapped around the coming Easter weekend,take care, Cheers Jonesey

 Harry and the Hendersons don’t care what time it is, daylight=walk time…NOW!!

We have a simple policy at the ‘Breakers’ it’s the ‘NO DICKHEADS’ policy

I watched a program last week on the Breakers basketballl team where we got a a rare look behind the scenes at the successful franchise. The team policy above I thought said a lot about why this team has been so successful. There are ‘no dickheads’ just a bunch of guys with talent working hard as a team to be the best they can be. From their down to earth owners the Blackwells of Pak n Save fame right through to the local and overseas stars that make up the playing team the ‘winning culture’ we talked about last week is clearly evident.

Unfortunately the winning culture deserted them on Friday night in their first semi final game in Auckland as they went down to Townsville!. The semi final series is the best of three games so the Breakers have now made the job a lot harder. This team is more than capable of winning the semi the hard way just like they did last year and then went on to win the final !!

The Breakers are a classic example of things being harder staying on top than they ever were getting there in the first place, we wish them the best of luck for the coming  week in Townsville.

The ‘no dickheads ‘ policy is a good one we can apply to our own business and personal lives. How many times have we persevered with a difficult or non productive employee instead of dealing firmly but fairly with the situation. Same goes for customers, I know I have resisted the urge to cut difficult,  uncooperative or unrealistic and demanding customers loose. Both have instead tied up valuable company time that could have been more profitably spent developing other staff and customers who wanted to be part of the companies future.

In our personal lives too the ‘no dickhead’ policy would help us to avoid wasting time and energy on people in our lives who are clearly takers not givers….imagine the time we could have saved if we were operating this policy. Good luck out there team and keep a look out for dickheads !!!!!

“If you don’t stand for something, you will stand for anything.” Ginger Rogers

PC Jones !!!

Edition 132 Monday 26th March 2012

Hi, I reckon we are far too PC. It is easy to become that way if you are exposed to it too much or dont give yourself a stiff upper cut occasionally! Failing that there are certain things that happen where you can either be PC or you can tell it like it is. I had one such ‘final straw’ occasion in the last week and I am pleased to say that I chose the ‘tell it like it is’ route. Now it would be fair to say I do like the sound of my own loud voice and that does tend to get up some peoples noses. For every five people that like you there will be five that don’t. As hard as someone like me who loves to be the centre of attention finds this to handle it is accurate in my case. So I happened to find myself exposed to five of the people who clearly have a problem with me and how I do things. This had a profound and deep affect on me but rather than grin and thank them for cutting me down I decided to make my true feelings known instead. This had a liberating affect on me personally as years of grinning and bearing it was released in one foul swoop. I realised that I had been far too accomodating and nice to inferior people that just continued to kick sand in my face. Sadly I had wasted my time towing the line when there are better things to be investing time and energy into. I don’t expect lots of hot air or to be falsly complimented but I do like to have genuine effort fairly acknowledged.

Crikey….that felt good,I think too many of us get treated like we are fools or inferior when we know we are so much better than that and those people who think they can treat us that way. My message to you today fellow ‘upbeat’ tall poppies is “rise up and tell those fools exactly like it is, lead follow or get out of the way because our time is too valuable to have our superior intellect insulted!!!

Dear Pat, running 15^th out of 15 now there is only one way from here bro….we hope!!

I hope you had another cool weekend having time and fun with family and friends, cheers Jonesey!

 Harry and the Hendersons have been a little sensitive around the grumpy man lately especially after the Blues lost in the last minute and after the speech contest meltdown!!

“Whoever said “Its not whether you win or lose that counts, probably lost. M Navratilova

Following on the ‘far too PC’ theme I am not one of those people that say ‘winning isnt everything’ To me winning is everything and I want to do everything in my power to win.

I know you ‘cant win them all’ but if you have the winning attitude towards competing then you will certainly win more than you lose. If however you go into battle or competition without that attitude you will find that more often than not you will be left making up the numbers . The key after losing or failure is to analyse the reasons for the loss and to change the things you have control over so next time you prevent the loss happening again.This applies in business and sport.

I coached a lot of rugby teams from 5 year olds right up to young adults. I placed a huge emphasis on the importance of everyone participating both on and off the field. My philosophy was that we were all an integral part of the team, we played for each other and made sure none of us was a weak link.A team is at all times only as strong as that weakest link. I also instilled the belief that playing the game was supposed to be fun but who ever heard onf anyone enjoying losing !!!

There are similarities between the sporting and business world and they revolve around developing a winning culture. Your success or failure is linked to how badly you want to win and how badly you hate losing. I can remember sitting in a changing room after losing a  championship final and listening to the winning team several rooms away celebrating. Our room was silent and our coach said……listen to this room… the silence of the ‘if onlys’, listen to our opposition that is the sound of success. He then said “ We need to want to win so badly that we never experience the silence of ‘if only’ again.” That my upbeat friends is the difference between success and failure,have a great week!

“Winners expect to win in advance. Life is a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Vince Lombardi

The 'Critical T'

Edition 131 Monday 19th March 2012

Hi,funny stuff happens sometimes…following last weeks note on lotto I inadvertently fell into watching a movie called “It could happen to you” where a NY cop short of money to pay for a coffee offers half of any proceeds from his lottery ticket in his wallet to the waitress. Yip he wins $4m! and the ‘good guy wins the waitress and NY’ story unfolds from there!!

We were out at dinner with family and friends and got talking golfing disasters which was hilarious. On the way out of the restaurant we met a chap coming up the stairs who appeared to have stopped for a rest. I said “having a break mate?” to which he answered, “no , I was just trying to figure out what is wrong with my golf game !” tell me about it mate, how did he know?!(2^nd hand ball anyone?) Im flat out fine tuning my prepared speech contest entry after having been lucky enough to win our club contest from some hot competition. Toastmasters is not only a great environment to develop leadership and communication skills but it also provides opportunities for the competitive amongst us to pit our skills against each other in club, area, division and district competitions. The sky is the limit for those who aspire to be the best they can be with the ultimate prize being the world championship of public speaking contested annually in the U.S.A. Two New Zealanders have achieved that pinnacle of success in the last twenty years, how far could you go?, why not join a club and find out ? !!!! Speaking of being competitive no ‘Upbeat’ would be complete without looking in on those Blues!!!!!....

Dear Pat I know rugby isnt everything (it’s the only thing!) there is a lot to like about the way the Chiefs and the Highlanders are playing at the moment…take a leaf mate. R.I.P. Jock Hobbs (legend).

I hope some funny stuff happened this weekend to you, your family and friends, cheers Jonesey!

 Harry got the jump on the Hendersons when he cleaned up the 2 litre hokey pokey container watching ‘chick flicks’ with his old man  !(not so silly that wily woolly old dog).

“The critical T is to selling what hokey pokey is to icecream” Jonesey

Everyone knows what the ‘critical T ‘ is……….right?...wrong…..not me, well maybe but not completely? I had sort of been doing something like it, more like I was crossing the T without providing it with a stick to cross??? What on earth am I talking about?The critical T is what good sales people should do everytime they visit or sell to a customer.

You see they create a T out of the call by visiting the customer each side and straight across the road from the one they have called on!......ahhhhh the critical T yip I know it you say but…..how many of us footpath pacers are conscientiously drawing the T per call?

 As I have mentioned in a previous episode of the Ssssizzle  I try to make one cold call before or after a planned call but don’t allow sufficient time to complete a T. The gentleman who reminded me of this useful technique sells heat pumps door to door and is highly successful as a result of adopting this approach. He uses the critical T in every case a heat pump is purchased and installed in a residential street. People naturally talk and recommend good quality and service to their neighbours hence the success of this method. Their heat pump installation teams have been expanded several times but still have difficulty keeping up,such is the unprecedented demand for this product.

 Sales is a numbers game , the more calls , the more rejection but more importantly the more wins because on average for every 10 calls we will receive 9 no’s or maybes and 1 yes! The ‘critical T is a brilliant tool for increasing our call and hit rate,remember “Fish where the fish are!”

Why not allow the time to try the T this week, I know I cant wait to……..good luck , have a big one!

Remember my note recently referring to what a great company I thought Mainfreight are , well last week founder Bruce Pleisted turned 70!, and because he has never felt in a better space and attributes that to the success of his baby,Mainfreight, he gave every employee that has been with Mainfreight for over a year $1000 out of his own money (tax free as a gift) to say thanks! AWESOME!

Mainfreight have 5000 employees so that was a huge $5m vote of thanks…….WOW how cool is that!

“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership” H.S.Firestone

The winning code !

Hi,what would you do?, and with the odds heavily stacked against us I havent met many people who don’t love talking about what they would do…..YES if they won Lotto !

I also havent met many people who don’t take a regular lotto ticket each week…..just in case, or having to in order to be ‘in to win’ . It is fun talking and dreaming about what you would do if you were lucky enough to win !. Its especially exciting to imagine winning millions and listing all the stuff you would buy, adding and deleting people from the list of possible recipients?, calculating interst payments and picturing the ongoing lifestyle associated with this stack of ‘passive ‘ income !.It is also cool to buy a ticket from somewhere different or out of town when travelling! Unfortunately this is offset by the ‘coming down’ process on the day you check your unlucky ticket or hear that the big prize went to the Eketahuna Four Square a million miles away ! Never give in folks because ‘someone has to win’….in fact I met a winner on Saturday her name is Yvonne and she is the happy lady at our local lotto counter.She was part of a syndicate that won big 20 years ago($5 lucky dip).Yvonne received $180k and was able to move from her state house where as a solo parent she had raised her two kids for 18 years into her own home. She also had enough left over to buy the kids and herself a car each! It was nice to hear about someone so deserving getting to ‘live the lotto dream’. I promptly upsized my powerball ticket!! I was tempted to get her to kiss the ticket but thought that might be overdoing it !....I am looking forward to the big day and having lots of fun dreaming in the meantime!

Dear Pat and the boys, well done against the Bulls, come home, all is forgiven, well almost all !

I hope you had a happy and possibly ‘lucky’ fun weekend with family and friends, cheers Jonesey!

 Harry and the Hendersons don’t care what your day or the traffic was like they are happy to see you,unconditionally,so don’t even think about being a grump. Perfect perspective!!

A Code for Professional selling….or any profession for that matter….

WHEN DEALING WITH ME:

• You will find honesty and integrity.
• You will be listened to . I will seek to understand.
• You will be told the truth, how it is and as it happens.
• We will be working towards mutual gain.
• You can expect me to follow though on the promises I make.
• You can expect me to be committed to my own personal development.
• You can expect me to be an ambassador for the sales profession.

This is a cool code I came across on the NZ Sales Manager website recently. I was so impressed with it I have printed and laminated it and now carry it with me in my sales portfolio.

I try to read this before every sales call or meeting I have so that it focuses me on my behaviour and the desired outcome. I have sales people who call on me regularly and it is quickly apparent that they are not focused on their actions or objectives. This doesn’t only apply to the sales profession, it applies to every business or personal interaction. If you read the code you will agree that these are things we should all be doing whenever we interact with someone, face to face, by email or phone.

I hope you also find it useful no matter what you do. It is finding and using  stuff like this that serves to focus and continually improve our individual and collective performance. There is a lot of material available to us all like this that we should take more time to read and use. I trust you are able to do so in this case. Good luck, have a safe, fun and successful week.

“The four-way test of the things we think,say,or do….1) is it the truth….2)is it fair to all concerned?…3)will it build goodwill and better relationships?...4)will it be beneficial to all concerned? Rotary International Motto

Having 'balls'

Hi, wheeling and dealing has always been a passion of mine. I am keen to turn a buck out of anything, even something as simple as taking Harry and the Hendersons for a walk has turned into a money making venture ! How so??, well we head for the local golf couse and walk in the rough alongside a couple of holes. The dogs love it off the beaten track and this Jones boy always uncovers a couple of golf balls along the way (record is 5 on one walk to date). So after a month of this I have amassed a pile of golf balls and most are top quality,near new. The commercial plan is to sell these back to the club pro shop who in turn sell them back to their original owners with us all clipping the ticket along the way. A quick calculation based on the return from two holes multiplied by the remaining 16 on the course and this could become quite a lucrative pass time. My thinking was I could hire some kids after school to cover the other holes and maybe the other courses in the district. I would pay them per ball add a margin and on it goes. Another money spinning initiative has been selling roadside inorganic throw aways on trademe. Apart from the buzz of running a trademe auction every little sale adds up, especially when the goods come at no cost. There is real truth in the sayings…..There is “money in muck” and “someones trash is someone elses treasure”. Yes it will take some time to amass enough cash to buy the Kim .com mansion but every high roller has to start somewhere. For me it is the fun aspect more than anything that drives me and the fact that stuff that was headed for the landfill is given another life via my passion for wheeling and dealing…..the perfect environmentally sustainable outcome for a Green Gorilla.

As predicted last week supporting the Blues this season is going to cause health problems so I am close to considering another team (Highlanders looking good) or shock horror possibly even resorting to the ‘minor code’ Warriors as my team this year? If the Blues didn’t come back from South Africa I  don’t think I would be too upset after their feeble start to the season….over it !!

I hope you all survived the ‘weather bomb’ and had some fun with your families and friends over the weekend. Have a cool week , take care, cheers Jonesey.

 Harry and the Hendersons could have told anyone that would listen that the Blues were ugly this season. The canine care union(CCU) is also angling for a slice of the golf ball venture payment action on their behalf !!!! ….crikey ,give an entrepreneur a break !!!  

“Passion drives positive attitude, together they are powerful allies.”  Vince Lombardi

I had to meet a GM last week to interview him as part of an acquisition evaluation project. I was impressed to observe how amazingly passionate this gentleman was about what he and his company were doing.  His passion was infectious and it became quickly apparent that any future involvement with him and his business either directly or via the company we were looking at acquiring would have a high chance of success. It was one of those meetings that you know is going to go well right from the start with the obvious passion driving and creating a positive upbeat attitude toward the opportunity we were discussing. Add to this the fact that we had a lot in common from our business and sporting past and you had a recipe for open and progressive discussion. The result couldn’t have been better with an agreement to work together and a strong endorsement for the acquisition opportunity we are considering.The thing I got the most from this meeting was the obvious effect the passion and positivity had on the proceedings. I know I talk about the benefits of adopting an ‘upbeat’ attitude to everything we possibly can but here was a real life example of how much of a difference doing this can make.It was tremendously satisfying to see this working back towards me and to feel first hand my own reactions to being treated in this manner. I hope that you are all adopting this approach to your business and private lives and noticing the difference it can and does make for you and to others.

“Passion burns bright in the eyes of winners from deep within their soul.” Zig Ziglar

Caffeine and Crunch

                                                      

Edition 128 Monday 27^th February 2012

 Hi,how far would you go for a juicy slice of ginger crunch? I am a sweet tooth, always have been, so no distance would ever be too great to travel in search of such a mouth watering morsel. Such was the case on Sunday as we fired up the recently neglected Suzuki Retro 750cc mean machine and headed off in pursuit of caffeine and crunch !! Its cool adventuring on two wheels with the wind in your face and the road disappearing under the speeding rubber as the motor purrs its approval at being out there where it belongs rather than in the shed keeping Harry and the Hendersons company!

I love my bulletproof Suzuki,yes, it is a midlife toy but one I will never regret indulging myself with !

Another reminder of the mid life meno-pause me was my son Mark turning 29 last week!! 29 !!!!**#? Crikey mate good onya, just don’t tell too many people bro, I know, how about we count it backwards now for the next few years just to avoid that big 30 for a while longer….his thoughts exactly !!!

Speaking of time flying I don’t know about you but I was caught by surprise on the weekend when the Super 15 season ripped into life. I was flicking between the ruggers and the cricket which was bizarre. Looks like it is going to be another tough season for Blues supporters if Friday night is anything to go by? I love you Piri but time to cut down on the pies,bottle milk and doughnuts bro.

I hope you had a great weekend flicking between winter and summer weather and sporting options ad that you got to do some fun stuff with family and friends.

Have a great week as we farewell Feb and welcome March, cheers Jonesey.

 Harry and the Hendersons love chasing sticks and swimming in the local stream on the weekends, now there something you cant do on your precious Suzuki pal !   

“Planet Savers” Green Gorilla mantra

There is something satisfying working in an industry where you get to make a difference everyday.

I used to sell new vehicles in the mid 90’s and whilst it was an amazing adrenaline rush to sell a car I cant say I ever felt that good contributing to the pollution issue in the city by increasing the number of large gas guzzling automobiles on the streets !

Working in the resource recovery and recycling industry is completely different as we get to work with customers to reduce their waste streams and assist them to divert this material away from the landfills . We do this in a number of ways and by reprocessing and recycling various parts of the waste stream. There are the traditional materials that have established commodity trading demand like paper, cardboard, plastic, and steel. We have alligned ourselves with new players in these industries and together with them we are building creditable alternative outlets to the ‘big guys’.

We have talked about the arrogance and the complacency of the big guys and how this has given us an opportunity to get established but we know this wont always be the case. In fact it is getting tougher right now even as I write this to you.

So now we are in the game how do we stay ahead of the tiger who has awoken from his snooze and discovered we have him by the tail !!!!!

That is the exciting part….last week I managed to find outlets and recycling options for a number of waste types that no one had ever dreamed or thought a reuse possible for. As a result of this we are in the box seat for large competitor business because we pushed the envelope and challenged ‘normal’ and the ‘status quo’. No I am not a particularly smart or bright spark just someone who is desperate to win business in a competitive and tight market . I am trying to be smarter than others who may not be driven by the same desperation but who are awakening from their comfort sleep and will soom be getting smarter or copying us…..exciting and scary but that folks is business today!!!

“If you see a ‘bandwagon’ its too late.” Sir James Goldsmith

Battle Scars!

Hi,I love running in the rain although running first thing in the morning these days is a bit more difficult as the days shorten and it is dark again. The dark and the rain conspired last week making vision difficult and I ran into a tree overhanging a narrow walkway!!! Crikey talk about bleed, my use of a daily blood thinner doesn’t help when the skin is broken no matter how big the cut is. Being a bloke I kept going and thought no more about it until I got home.My face and neck were covered in blood and I had to do some quick talking to avert the 111 call to the Westpac helicopter!! Harry and the Hendersons did a good job of cleaning me up, leaving a fresh scar across my cheek and ear! It was more than noticeable and I spent the rest of the day explaining how it happened, as you do ! Saying “I ran into a tree” was weak and suspicious and only fuelled speculation of how I had really received the injury. Its amazing how quickly people notice stuff like that and want to know all the details ! Funny things visual scars, they are telltale signs of bravery, clumsiness, luck or just some close scrapes along the way. Good to know and be able to talk and laugh about.

Last week the tragic suicide of an old school and rugby mate made me think about the other scars, the invisible ones, those we don’t see, the ones that are hidden, those we don’t know about? How many of our family, friends or others around us have invisible scars or internal battles they deal with daily, weekly or monthly that are not obvious or known to us? Made me think long and hard about trying harder to stay in touch and in support with and of friends and family and about how helpless something like his loss made me and others feel. I guess all any of us can ever do is make the most of now, appreciate how lucky we are to laugh and joke about the external scars and hope to have loving support to identify, confront and control the internal ones.

To that vitally important end I hope you all had a magnificent weekend in the sun having fun with family and friends. Have an amazing week, stay fit, focused and take care. Cheers Jonesey !

 Harry and the Hendersons can tell you about real battle scars, how long have you got?

“Entrenched thinking is the enemy of progress” Richard Boock

Most new ideas are firstly condemned as ridiculous;then they are dimissed as trivial.Finally they become what everybody knows. Way back through history there are examples of this being the case before great ideas and massive changes in thinking and direction were accepted and adopted.

So last week I was not daunted when several new ideas, I had, met the same initial fate. They were put forward as a ‘left field’ , ‘out of the box/square’ solution to some age old customer issues.

My ideas are yet to be dismissed as trivial and still a way off becoming what everybody knows but they were certainly right up there in the condemned as ridiculous stakes !!!!

Instead of letting this deter me I have used the initial reaction to provide the motivation to prove my ideas will work. My suggestions came as part of a ‘brainstorming session to work up a sales  strategy for a new customer. There was no way an apples for apples quote would win the business. A complete change of thinking from buyer and seller was required. Fellow brainstromers had clearly left their creativity and that side of their brains at home or in the lift, car or train and it was up to me to bravely go where no recycler had ever been before. So I duly sacrificed myself and laid out my brilliant ideas that had come to me that morning in the shower , the birthplace of many a solution to the problems of the universe!!!! After the laughter had subsided slowly but surely there was a growing feeling of appreciation for a new idea, something to examine for flaws and reasons it wouldn’t work. Someone has to be first, so why not us, we don’t have the business now so what have we got to lose with a refreshingly different ,bold, sassy approach? You get what you pay for and we know they are not happy at the moment so why not. Instead of dismissing it as trivial why not lend your support to make it become what everbody knows……..and they did, how good does that feel !!!!

“Things do not change:We change.” Henry David Thoreau