Most of this post is attributed to my old business friend and associate,
Jim Straw, who has over 50 years of success in various businesses and
is considered one of the top marketing gurus who continues to operate
his business while well into his 80's.
This came to me as part of an email and I thought it appropriate to
post here since motivation or "coaching" is a key factor in the decision
of which Import Export Business training course people select.
Jim's post begins here.....
Here lately, I've been reading a lot about *How to Motivate Your Sales
Team* in the multitude of ezines I receive.
As always, the ideas ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime.
To be quite frank with you, I have never tried to "motivate" any of
my sales people (dealers, associates, affiliates, whatever). I always figured
that those individuals who were "real" would take the bull by the horns
and make the sales to make the money, because ...
In the words of Andrew Carnegie:
"There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not
help themselves. You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless
he be willing to climb himself."
Beyond that, as Frank Tibolt said:
"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a
thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom
generates action."
Rather than wasting my time trying to "motivate" people, I have always
spent my time supporting the efforts of those who were doing something.
So ... please don't wait for me to start
"motivating" you. -- It won't happen. -- But ...
As always, I am here to answer any questions.
Don't be bashful. -- Anytime you have any kind of question, just ASK!
I may not tell you what you want to hear ... like the b.s. artists do
... but, I will tell you the facts of the matter as I know them to be from
my over 50 years hands-on experience in the business community. -- That's
what I'm here for. -- Your success is just as important to me as it is
to you because, when YOU succeed, I succeed, too.
Feel free to pick my brain.
And, remember what Charles Steinmetz said:
"No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions."
I ain't from the government, but I am here to help you.
.....end of Jim Straw's email.
My (Ron Coble's) further comments.......
Although our Importing course and Exporting course and the combo
Import Export Toolkit course offer email consulting for ONE FULL YEAR
that allows you to ask any question you want in that time, many people
opt to pay THOUSANDS of dollars more for the promise of being able
to TALK to someone by phone.
Whether it is an inherent need to have someone "coaching" them or
"motivating" them, they are spending thousands of dollars and untold
hours of precious time on a promise that I have yet to have anyone
tell me helps them reach ANY success in this business.
As Jim mentions in his email text above, the Email consulting that is
offered with our courses will provide you with answers....although they
may not be the answers you are seeking.
For instance, if you submit a question that we know is covered in the
body of the course, then you will receive an answer referencing that
portion so "YOU" may read that section and learn and make your
own decisions accordingly.
Other answers you may not like are when you are so enthusiastic about
a deal offered to you but the answer comes back to stay away from it.
We are not deal killers but if you ask about something that we have
prior knowledge of, that is the answer you will get, we are not going to
tailor our answers to meet your hoped for expectations. Reality is
what it is and sometimes it sucks!
Additionally, you cannot expect someone else to learn ALL the aspects
of a particular deal you are trying to put together so much so that you
are really seeking a confirmation of your decision to move forward or
not. There is NO profit incentive for us to get involved in your deals and
quite frankly we have NO interest in becoming silent partners with
everyone who purchases our "HOW TO" course.
I covered this in a previous post about making "DECISIONS". Making
decisions is what separates the successes from the failures and having
some minimum wage or commission paid rep on the other end of the
phone giving their totally unqualified "OPINION" is a sure recipe for
FAILURE.
It was interesting that I received Jim Straw's email today because I had
been thinking about how MOST people are simply not cut out to get
involved in international trade. They view the business as a "get rich
quick" scheme or "how do I make money" opportunity and it simply is
not suited for that type of mentality, although most purveyors of import
export training would have you believe otherwise.
Hope this post will enlighten those who really have an interest in getting
started in the Import and/or Export business and also help save those
who are in need of constant motivation or who are looking at import
export as a "money making opportunity" from spending their hard earned
money on some useless program that promises to hold their hand while
skipping down the yellow brick road to riches.