​How often have you asked your child, after he comes home from elementary school, "How was your day?" The typical answer you are likely to get is "Good!" That usually ends the conversation. You are relieved that your child didn't have a bad day. Your child is relieved that he doesn't have to explain what he did in school. Unfortunately, the only way you will find out how well your child is doing in school is when he gets his report card or when you meet with his teachers during the parent-teacher conference. 

Problem

I had this problem with my son when he was in elementary school. I was struggling with the following:

• How do I get him to learn, think, and do? 
• How do I get him to improve his performance in school? 
• How can I get him to become more responsible, accountable, and confident? 
• How can I prevent him from being indifferent toward school? 
• How do I get him to be independent so I don't feel like I am repeating school all over again?
• How do I help him develop success skills?
• How can I make school fun? 

Many parents run into this problem, often leading to heated arguments with the spouse and the child without effective, long-term, practical solutions. Parents are busy with their work and other responsibilities, so they throw money at the problem through their children attending learning centers and tutoring. They are ofen disappointed and frustrated when they see little to no improvement in their childrens' academic performance. 

Money is not the solution; yelling at your children and lecturing them about the merits of education and learning is not the solution. Parents are stressed and often give up and resort to hope and prayer. 

The main problem is that children need motivation to learn, and teaching motivation is hard. It is not a one-day thing; it is an everyday thing predicated on deliberate practice.

I tried two solutions to fix the problem. One worked, and the other didn't. 

Ineffective Short-Term Solution

Some parents, like me, often do this to help their children complete their homework: Do it for them.

Why?

Sitting down with your children and helping them with their homework is a real pain. They hate doing it, and you hate it, too. Also, while helping your children with homework, you quickly realize it takes work. The main reason is that you need to be more motivated, it's time-consuming, and you are tired after a long stressful day at work. Soon, you start to feel that the people who devised the homework are on to you, so they have purposely made it difficult.

Though my son and I were happy we completed the homework; I soon learned that this approach didn't improve his academic performance. 

Effective Long Term Solution

One day, while watching a business report on TV, I learned that Hedge Fund managers are compensated using a 2/20 formula. They get two percent of a fund's managing fees and twenty percent of its profits. 

I turned the percentages into minutes spent helping my son with his schooling; hence, I took two minutes of my son's time at the beginning of the day and twenty minutes of his time after school. Parents can see it as an investment in helping their child succeed in school. 

After some trial and error, I came up with this method, which I call the 2/20 method. It will not make you rich like a Hedge fund manager. Still, it could pay huge dividends in improving your children's academic performance and future success. You don't have to become a "Tiger Mom" or "Eagle Dad" to achieve this.

As explained in Charles Duhigg's book The Power of Habit, your child needs to develop a keystone habit. The keystone habit may not seem like it will achieve what you want to improve, but gradually, it will lead to improvement in many areas you were not directly targeting. Instead of targeting academic improvement head-on, target a keystone habit to improve your child's educational performance.

A good non-academic example of this is explained in Duhigg's book when Paul O'Neil, former Secretary of Treasury under George W. Bush administration, became the CEO of Alcoa. Alcoa's financial performance was poor, as reflected in its stock price. 

So what did O'Neil do? He fostered a keystone habit of focusing on safety since Alcoa had safety issues that resulted in injuries and death. Focusing on this keystone habit not only improved safety but also Alcoa's financial performance.
Can I develop a keystone habit to enhance my son's academic performance?

How does 2/20 work?

The 2/20 method is straightforward. You spend two minutes in the morning before your child goes to school to get a quick update on what your child is expected to do, such as submit his homework, take tests, and what he plans to learn during his school day. If two minutes is too long, make it one or thirty seconds.

The 2/20 method aims to focus your child on his school day rather than having him take the bus to school, attend classes, have lunch, and take the bus back home. In a sense, you are creating a purpose for his school day. The important thing is that this should be only two minutes (or less) in the morning since the kids have little time, and you probably don't have much time either. Furthermore, you want to leave your child out before he heads to school. Your job is to listen and let your child do the talking and have a focus.

When he returns from school and after he has had some time (no more than one hour) to settle down, you want to spend twenty minutes getting an update on what he learned, what homework he has been assigned, whether he has to prepare for any coming tests, and getting a progress report on any projects that are due. Ask him if he needs help, and then leave him alone. Your job is done. 

I discovered that just showing interest for 20 minutes is sufficient for your child to communicate with you about what he did in school, what he is learning, and what he needs to work on. This method provides you with all the necessary information, so there are no surprises. Also, it will get him thinking about how to present his school day to you during the school day. He will be an active student if he knows he has to show it later to you.

Why is 2/20 effective?

By having your child talk to you about his school day, he will pay close attention to what he is learning. Also, he will know what he needs to focus on. Here are some benefits you will start seeing with your child:

• Pay more attention in school since he knows he will have to explain it to you later
• Enhance his communication skills
• Commit to what he has to work on since you are showing interest with understanding instead of criticism
• Make school more enjoyable due to achievement
• Develop responsibility, accountability, and confidence
• Improve academic performance
• Take calculated risks in taking on challenges

Avoid interrupting your child when he is presenting his school day. Let him talk. Provide positive feedback at the end. Do not criticize the presentation. If you do, you will shut him down, which is not good for you and him. Be constructive. Ask him how he plans to solve a problem and if he needs help. That's it. It would help if you tried harder to make him responsible, accountable, and confident. After all, he is going to school, not you. 

Initially, he will try to game it, but if you persist with interest, he will realize that you are not there to treat him like a baby but an adult; you will hold him accountable to help him learn and perform well in school. Your child will be more forthcoming and willing to share more than the superficial "good" for all your questions. You will be conversing with your child; sometimes, that is all the push he needs to excel.  

Outcome

This exercise helped me quickly understand what my son was learning in school and was able to help him focus better on areas where he was having difficulties. Finally, the school was not wearing me down.

It also helped my son develop skills for explaining what he had done in school and a habit of summarizing his school day. Though he may not have liked this deliberate exercise and struggled through it, he knew I cared about his education and learning. He eventually started taking the 2/20 method seriously. Perhaps he knew I would not give up, and he had no choice. 

After I started the 2/20 method, I did not have to spend much time with my son with his homework, tests, or even projects. He became responsible, accountable, and confident. I saw a significant improvement in his performance in fifth grade and even more in sixth grade. He soon became independent and informed me whenever he needed help, which was rare.

Patience is Key

I warn you that you will initially get a lot of resistance, but stick to it and be patient. If 20 minutes seems long, start with 10 minutes, then you can increase it to 15 minutes, and eventually settle on 20 minutes. Note you want to stay within 20 minutes so your child knows how to cover everything in 20 minutes or less. Once you start, you will learn how to manage your time and develop an approach that works for you and your child. The one thing you can't afford to do is give up. Even if you get them to do all the talking, that is a big win since kids today do not develop excellent communication skills. 

I stumbled into this totally by accident, and since it worked for me, it may help you if you are having difficulty improving your child's school performance. The 2/20 method requires about 22 minutes daily, during which you will mostly listen and let your child do most of the talking, explaining, and teaching. 

The biggest drawback to this method is that mom and dad must find time to do this. I could do this with my son since I worked from home and tried to take a break around 4 PM for half an hour. But for others, this may not be possible. But it would help if you found time to do this, especially in critical school years from KG through 3rd grade. The earlier you do it, the less time you will have to spend later in your kids' school years. So start early, even as early as KG, but reduce 20 minutes and 2 minutes to 10 minutes and 30 seconds. 

The most important takeaway is that you and your child must commit to this and make it work. Once in motion, you will finally enjoy school as you see your kids enjoying and excelling in school. You will no longer dread attending your child's parent-teacher conference and will be able to inform teachers of all you are doing to help your child. The teacher will be impressed and give you the hard-earned "A" you deserve. 

AI proof your children

You should be worried about AI. AI, at best, will lower pay for many jobs and, at worst, eliminate jobs. So, as a parent, you must start preparing your children early for this uncertain future. You have to be actively involved if you want your children to be successful.

You can't expect teachers to help; even colleges cannot help with this problem. Only you can help your children be successful in the future. The critical skill for success is communication.

According to LinkedIn's most demanded skills, the number one skill is communication. It makes a lot of sense. According to LinkedIn, communication is needed for the following reasons:

• Needed at every level and industry
• Fostering relationships
• Asking questions
• Giving/receiving feedback

The 2/20 method will help your children develop the following communication skills:
Learn to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere, early in life. The 2/20 method will teach them how to connect, influence, and persuade.
Learn how to build relationships with other kids, teachers, and coaches.
Learn how to ask questions and not be afraid.
Learn how to request feedback and even provide constructive feedback to their peers. 

The 2/20 method seems like a lot, but we are in the AI age. We are up against a competition that does not rest and keeps getting better, faster, better, faster. You have to outsmart this foe by being a better human. That means communication. As I say in my book, "Time is Money, Communication is Wealth." It is more accurate than ever, and it must start early. 

Final thoughts 

The 2/20 method is unconventional, so it may be difficult for children. But children are learning things like sports, music, and other extracurricular activities that are just as hard, if not harder, so difficulty is not an excuse not to try this method.

You spend much time from kindergarten to third grade, so this habit develops very early. It may be more challenging if you start later than third grade.

Enable the child to be an active student. All the work should be mostly done at school, and only the challenging work should be brought home for additional time and help. Note that you are not trying to replace the teacher. 

Encourage the child to write a short outline before giving you his 20-minute presentation to organize his thoughts before presenting his school day. Writing is plusing this method.

Your child's best teachers are parents; this method will help them become effective teachers. This method is especially needed today as AI is taking over many jobs, so some core skills must be learned very early to be gainfully employed in the AI age. This method will teach your child how to learn and develop lifelong skills for success.

Investing in this method is the best thing you can do for your kids. Even if they don't like it, they will give you credit when they are successful; that is your reward for trying this method and sticking to it.

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"The reporter asked, 'why did you play so hard'"
"Because there might have been somebody in the stands today who'd never seen my play before, and might never see me again."
-Joe DiMaggio

I wrote this blog is to show how risky it is to give a high-stakes speech. We could fall into a trap by trying to make this speech great by not being credible and authentic. The proof of this was the speech recently given by the Senator of Alabama, Katie Britt, to respond to President Biden's State of the Union (SOTU).

Britt tried to make her speech memorable with a solid message supported by content and dramatic performance.  Most had never heard of Britt, but now she is one of the most recognizable senators in the US. We can all learn from Britt's speech and avoid the mistakes she made.

The SOTU response was a very risky speech for Britt. She is new to the Senate and has still not yet given a formal speech on the Senate floor, yet she was put on one of the biggest stages (the kitchen, in her case) to respond to the SOTU. The Republican party put her in a very difficult situation. She was given a script and asked to make it come alive with a memorable performance. The performance was certainly memorable, but for the wrong reasons.

All speeches have three basic elements: Message, Content, and Performance, which I cover in my book "Winning Speech Moments."

Before I briefly go into each speech element, the number one rule of giving a speech is not to draw attention to anything that will distract from your message. Britt did not follow this rule and brought attention to things that distracted from her message.  

Message
Britt did have a message. She is giving a response to the SOTU speech, so understandably, it will be partisan. Britt's message was that "President Biden just doesn't get it. He's out of touch. Under his administration, families are worse off. Our communities are less safe, and our country is less secure." Now, she had to ensure that her content supported this message with a steady performance.

Content
The content supported her message by showing that America is in trouble because of President Joe Biden's age, incompetence, and ineffectual leadership. She focused on the American Dream slipping away for many Americans, the border crisis created by President Biden's many executive orders, the failure of the Bidenomics that has caused the inflation to go up, wars brought on by President Biden's foreign policies, the weakness in dealing with China, the influx of fentanyl causing deaths, and overall hopelessness in America. 

Now, if she had put together a decent performance, she would not be famous, and her speech would have been soon be forgotten. Unfortunately, Britt's speech was more memorable than Biden's SOTU speech—and again for the wrong reasons.

On thing in her speech that hurt her credibility was the story she told. Britt told a misleading story about a sex trafficking victim to criticize Biden's border policies. There were two things wrong with this horrific story: One, the woman was abused in Mexico; two, the abuse took place a decade before Biden became president. You can't do that with any speech, let alone a high-stakes speech like the response to the SOTU. Not only will your credibility be destroyed, but perhaps your career, too.

Stories are very important to get your message across, provided they are true.  But with the publicity Britt has received with her misleading story, people will now ask when a story is used in a speech if they just got "britted." 

Performance
Another thing that hurt Britt's speech was her over dramatic performance.  You may have the message and deliver the content without misleading stories. However, you must still provide a performance that supports your message and content. This is where things uravel quickly.
Britt's performance was theatrical at various points in her speech. We were unsure who she was. Was she a senator or a concerned mom? Yes, she is a mom, but the reason she was giving the response was because she is a senator. She is supposed to have insight into policies that a typical mom would not have. Britt did not offer any insights supported by facts; hence, was left with a script where she was a senator acting like a mom in her kitchen, which made her performance unbelievable. She made people think too hard, which is something you don't want to do in any speech.

If you want to give a good speech, leave the acting and comedy to professionals. As I write in my book, you want to err on giving a "smash mouth" speech and don't try to be over the top and gimicky. Your job is to get the message across so people will remember that and nothing else. Be careful with your clothing, jewelry, and stagecraft. You are there to convey a message, not acting in a Hollywood studio. You want convey your message so people can then tell others what your message was. 

Now, I am not saying that Britt's performance had to be boring, but it had to be calibrated based on the stakes at hand. This is a high-stakes speech that very few remember unless it is awful. A lot of damage was done to Britt's credibility and her being a serious senator.

Britt's speech is a learning lesson for all of us.  Giving a high-stakes speech is hard, so don't add more complexity. Getting a base hit is good. But if you try for a home run, you are more likely to strike out.
Here are three simple rules to follow when you are giving a high-stakes speech:

• Nail the message
• Ensure that the content supports your message
• Be yourself

This sounds easy, but as you can see people often try to do too much to a speech and it does not go well. 

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​

​Cloud Giveth

Without the Cloud, businesses can't thrive in today’s economy. The proof is everywhere. The Cloud has helped companies, large or small, become much faster, cheaper, better, and smarter than before. 

Companies don't have a choice about adopting the Cloud. Customers have made that decision for them. Customers demand speed, efficiency, low cost, and excellent experience. The Cloud facilitates this. Companies that are flexible and make customers' lives easier win; companies that don't, unfortunately, get "blockbustered." 

Without the Cloud, companies can't create innovative business models to penetrate and capture a market from entrenched players. The Cloud is democratic. It allows anyone, anywhere, anytime to target and capture someone's market presence. Besides death and taxes being certain, you can add that someone right now somewhere out there is tirelessly working to disrupt your business with an innovative business model. Today CEOs are no longer paranoid; they are hyper-paranoid.

Without the Cloud, companies can't make money. Companies have to make big investments to leverage the Cloud for both growth and scale. Not a day goes by without you hearing about an upstart becoming a unicorn (achieving a billion-dollar market valuation). The Cloud has created enormous wealth. But the days of “free cash flow” are over.

Cloud Taketh Away

The Cloud allows companies to be on offense in capturing and increasing their market share. But they also have to be very good at playing defense. They have to be competent in defending their cloud environment from cyber attacks.

Just as companies use the Cloud to make money, cybercriminals are also using the Cloud to make money. The cybercriminals know where the money resides. 
Cybercriminals are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in your cloud environment. They know that all they need to do is find one vulnerability, and they hit the jackpot. 

Cyber Insurance

To protect your business, you can do one of two things: Obtain a costly cyber insurance policy to pay off cybercriminals when they hold your business hostage. Or, you can invest in cyber security by proactively identifying potential vulnerabilities as you keep adding new applications, servers, devices, etc., to your cloud environment necessitated by the growth of your business.

You will have to invest in cybersecurity to protect against cyber attacks. Or you will have no alternative but to pay a hefty ransom and stay quiet, so no one knows how vulnerable your cloud environment is to cybercriminals. Companies have to pay a "cloud tax." The only thing you can control is how much you can reduce this tax. 

Reducing Your "Cloud Tax"

You can only reduce your "cloud tax" by using technology. One of the technologies companies are using to proactively identify vulnerabilities in their cloud environment is artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).  
According to Dr. Umesh Hodeghatta, Head of Cybersecurity and AI Solutions at BusinessAnalyticsR, whose company recently implemented an AI/ML based cyber security solution for Walmart, "Exploitation of vulnerabilities can be predicted much more efficiently using AI and ML to protect your cloud environment. Doing this manually is not only time-consuming and laborious, but it's error-prone and ineffective in thwarting cybercriminals. Furthermore, cybercriminals have access to the same technologies, so you must be better, smarter, faster in finding vulnerabilities than they are."  

Companies do have competency in AI and ML, but it is directed toward growing and scaling their businesses, not protecting their cloud environment. Companies simply don't have the expertise in multiple technologies necessary to protect their cloud environment, such as data, AI & ML, and cyber/information security.

Another challenge companies face is that it is difficult to find cyber security experts. According to Bloomberg Radio, there are close to 500,000 open positions in the area of cyber security. So unless you have a large budget, it will be very hard to find the talent you can afford to build out your defense against cyber attacks.

What to Do?

Cyber security is still viewed by many companies as a cost center. However, it needs to be viewed as a business continuity center. For example, suppose your cloud environment's security is breached. You will not only lose money by paying cybercriminals, but, worse, it will tarnish your reputation with customers, partners and investors. That is much more costly than the ransom you have to pay. Ransom payment may be in millions, but shareholder losses can be in tens of  billions.  

If successful, cybercriminals will not only have breached a vulnerability in your cloud environment but exposed your corporate culture of not taking cyber security seriously. You will be made to look foolish and butt of jokes on late night comedy shows. The question you will be left asking as a CEO and CISO is: "Did we do everything possible to protect our cloud environment?" Unfortunately, that question needs to be asked right now and every day moving forward. You have no choice.  It's too late to ask this question after the breach. 

Today, a CEO and a CISO’s  job security depend on their success in staying ahead of the cybercriminals. The best way to stay ahead of cybercriminals is to gain a competitive edge using AI and ML methods to not only ensure business continuity, but keep winning by capturing and growing markets. To be a business champion, companies have to be great on both offense and defense.

If you want to learn more about using AI & ML methods for cyber security, watch this webinar by Dr. Umesh Hodeghatta:
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/16781/372481/applying-machine-learning-in-cyber-securit

If you want to learn how to secure your cloud environment using AI & ML methods in retail, please register for the free BrightTALK event scheduled on September 15th:
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/16781/506802?utm_source=NUSigmaUSquareAnalyticsLab&utm_medium=brighttalk&utm_campaign=506802

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The 2021 US Open came down to two players: Jon Rahm from Spain and Louis Oosthuizen from South Africa.

Jon Rahm played well but needed to make a difficult birdie on the 17th hole and 72nd hole. He did and led by one stroke.

Louis Oosthuizen could beat Rahm if he duplicated that feat or, worse, tied Rahm into a two-hole playoff.

Golf is cruel since good, and bad things happen on the finishing holes of a tournament, which is typically 71st hole and 72nd hole.

Rahm played these two holes flawlessly and put himself in a position to make two birdie putts to lead the tournament.

The only player who could beat Rahm or tie him was Oosthuizen.

Oosthuizen made two big mistakes from the tee that cost him the tournament. On the 17th hole, he hit his drive out of bounds. Oosthuizen had to take a penalty and proceeded to bogey the hole. If he had hit the ball on the fairway or even put the ball in the rough on the right side, he would have walked away, at worse, with a par. The one place he could not hit it was on the left, and that's where he hit his tee shot. This one mistake cost him the tournament.

On the 18th hole, he hit a drive into the rough. He could not go for the green in two. He had to lay up and try to make an impossible eagle from about 70 yards out. He did get the ball close and birdied the hole and lost by one stroke.

The final score indicates that it was very close. But it wasn't since the drive on the 17th decided the tournament. Once Oosthuizen hit it out of bounds, he had no chance to win.

So what's the lesson here?
You must get off to a great start that puts you in a position to win. This means in a tournament and even every hole you play. Rahm did that and won. Oosthuizen didn't and lost.

To play well in golf, you must hit the drive in the fairway. Then you must hit the next shot on the green. If you do, then you can walk away with a par. But you are also putting yourself in a position to get a birdie. This sounds simple, but you will pay if you don't do that sooner or later. And this is what happened to Oosthuizen on the 17th hole. 

Oosthuizen played well, but it came down to one mistake.  If he makes par on that hole, he would have most likely tied Rahm and anything could happen in a playoff. 

To win a US Open, you not only have to be a complete player, which all pros are, but you have to execute when it matters. That's what separates the winner from the rest. And that's why John Rahm is the 2021 Men's US Open Champion. He could execute on Sunday when others could not. That is the difference between winning and losing at a highly competitive event.

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I highly recommend John P. Davis’ book “How to Get a Sales Job.” It is a short practical book that will give you confidence to do well in your next sales job interview.

John can speak to this topic since he transitioned from working on Wall Street to take an entry level sales job. He brings a lot of depth and breadth to getting a sales job.

Though John’s book is about getting a sales job, I think the book will help people get a non-sales-related job too. You still have to sell to get a job. And this book will teach you how to sell yourself to get a job.

For those pursuing a sales job, this is a must-read book. After reading and studying this book, you will show up, stand out and likely secure an offer. You will have a conversation that will make you look like you know how to sell like a pro and drive revenue. 

Generating sales is a financial heartbeat of most organizations, especially those who engage in business-to-business (B2B) selling. Companies need competent sales professionals to grow. That means they need salespeople who can follow their sales process efficiently and effectively to drive revenue. John P. Davis’s book will help you look like a sales pro companies are looking for. 

The one thing the book emphasizes, which I wholeheartedly agree with, is that interviewing for a sales job is a proxy for doing your job. You must demonstrate your ability to follow the sales process by having a “sales process” to get the job.  

After reading this excellent book, I had a lot of questions for John. I narrowed it to five and sent it to John. Below you will find his answers to my five questions, and he also included three books that have influenced his thinking.

I want to thank John for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer the five questions and provide valuable information to those who want a sales job.

Disclaimer: I did not receive a copy of the book from the author. I purchased my own copy.

Five Questions

Question 1:
When someone wants to switch to a sales job, what kind of questions should one be asking to know whether one is cut out for sales?
 
Perfect question to start. I highlight a lot of this in the first chapter of my book because it’s so common for candidates. Two types of questions come to mind.
 
The first type relates to your compensation. Are you willing to take a pay cut in your base? Do you understand how the commission will work? Do you think you can outperform your peers? Are you willing to start at the entry-level and work your way up?
 
When answering these positively, you start to feel confident that you can make a successful shift into sales. But that’s also when the fear kicks in. You start to wonder why you’d put yourself through such a significant change. You contemplate risk and reward. It’s a lot to digest on your own and difficult to make your decision based on money alone… which brings us to the next type of question.
 
The second type of question is related to your quality of life. Are you done with a 9-5? Do you want to work from home? How cool would it be to take customers to sporting events? Do you want to make your own schedule? Are you tired of working holidays?
 
I found that the quality-of-life questions drove me into sales more than the compensation. Yes, I wanted to make more money, but I wanted a change of pace. I was done with the office, rush hours, and routine. I saw sales as an overall better lifestyle. This dynamic alleviated my fear of pursuing sales because I saw certain rewards outside of pay. The life of a sales professional is unlike any office job out there. It’s hard to resist. Ask yourself these types of questions and see if you’re ready for sales.
 
Question 2:
When someone is interested in making the switch to sales, how should one answer the lack of sales experience?
 
Too many candidates dwell on their own lack of sales experience. They cite it as a reason for not getting into sales, and it’s the first thing an interviewer will dig into. However…
 
Everyone has sales experience. This is the first thing that I teach my clients. Some experience is more obvious than others, but it just takes a bit of critical thinking to figure it out for yourself.
 
Hiring managers are looking for people who have prospected a target group of people, set up a series of meetings, presented pricing, and negotiated contracts. That’s it. If you sold magazines door to door in middle school, you have sales experience. If you run the front desk of a gym, you have sales experience. If you drove for Uber, you have sales experience.
 
Take your time to identify your own experiences. After that, it’s your job (and your job alone) to convince a sales manager that this experience is transferable. The best way to do this is to stress your ability to learn and your coachability. If you convince someone you have even minimal sales experience and that you’re coachable, you’re halfway home.
 
One thing I’ll say is this – do not ever let someone tell you that you have no sales experience. I was told in an early interview that I’d never sell anything. I did not let that stop me. It was just an inexperienced manager looking for a rep in the late stages of their career instead of a younger and more eager rep to coach.

Question 3:
Do you recommend that if someone wants to work in sales, don’t apply for a job but instead make a cold call or use LinkedIn as if prospecting? Should one show how they would sell by the way they interview from prospecting to close?  
 
I talk about this a lot in my book. There is a full chapter on preferred Contact Methods. This is so important, especially if you want to work for a top-notch sales manager. The best sales managers want to see you in action. They will not read the applications that come in through the company’s website. This is like if you’re trying to sell something to Apple and you fill out a “Vendor Inquiry” form on Apple’s website. You’ll never hear back. Instead, choose the path of action.
 
Demonstrate that you can reach out cold. Demonstrate that you can earn, book and set up a formal meeting. Demonstrate your phone skills and email etiquette. Demonstrate a close. All of this can be done by using LinkedIn, email, and the phone. Relying on a website application may get you an interview or two, but they’ll mostly be with the lethargic sales manager who is looking for a candidate at a good company as opposed to a candidate with a willingness to hunt for new business.
 
I prefer action overreaction all day, every day.
 
Question 4:
If you run a word cloud generator of what the salesperson says in a job interview (both phone and in-person), what five words should show up as having the highest weight?  
 
Customer Relationship, Hunter, Motivated, Hungry, Quota.
 
These five words pop up most. Everyone that I interview talks about how good they are at maintaining customer relationships. This is an interesting point because I don’t care as much for how good you are with customers… I care about how good you are at finding prospective customers. There’s a big difference.
 
Hunter, motivated, hungry… everyone says these in an interview. The problem is that they just repeat them over and over again. Actions speak louder than words. I once had a cold call from a candidate who asked me within 5 minutes if I’d accept an in-person interview. That same candidate tried to close me for the job in the next 5 minutes over the phone. The whole conversation lasted 10 minutes, and I almost hired him. I ended up hiring him later, but the thing is – he didn’t have to stress that he was a hungry, motivated hunter. He demonstrated it to me. Demonstrate these things. Don’t just say them out loud.
 
Quota: Everyone tells me they are over quota or crushed their quota. That is great. Some people talk about it too much. There is a lot to say about quota… if you’re smashing it, why are you leaving? If you are way under quota, why bring it up? My advice on quota is twofold - always tell the truth and get specific.
 
I’ve interviewed reps at 200% of quota who had 1 deal that their manager gave to them when they joined the company. It would happen with or without them. I’ve also interviewed reps at 50% of quota who did 15 transactions on their own from start to finish. This is more impressive in my mind. So just tell the truth and be specific about your sales activity related to quota and less specific about the percentage itself.
 
Question 5:
Bank of America is no longer requiring broker trainees to make cold calls which have been a fundamental part of a sales job in the past. The reason for this change at BofA is that no one picks up the phone anymore. So what prospecting skills do salespeople need today to succeed?
What have you found to be the most effective way to prospect today?  
 
Sales reps don’t call people.
 
They get nervous, they hate it, they think people don’t answer, they don’t know what to say, they post articles on LinkedIn. There are 50 other reasons why reps don’t call people. I hear it all day long. Sales reps just don’t call people anymore. The worst reason is that they “have too many deals in play.” The majority of them use this as an excuse not to cold call.
 
So Bank of America is technically correct. No one picks up the phone anymore. But it’s the sales reps who are at fault, not the prospects.
  
There is no secret sauce here. Prospects still pick up the phone so you still need to call people. Use email as a tool to bring attention to your call. Use LinkedIn to do the same. Use marketing where necessary. But pick up the phone. It works. In an emergency, would you send an email? No, you’d call. My quota is always an emergency, so I call.
 
I will leave you a few key points on cold calling.
 
· Emails can be forwarded around the company, so be careful about sending the wrong message.
· Cold calls cannot be forwarded, so it’s okay to mess up.
· You get more and better information when calling versus emailing.
· People like to talk on the phone.
 
Three Book Recommendations
 
My first recommendation is for anyone in sales or anyone looking to get into sales is “New Sales Simplified” by Mike Weinberg. I have read it a few times, and I always give a copy to the business development rep on my team. It’s the #1 book out there for finding new business and filling the top of your pipeline – frankly, the only thing that matters in sales. And Mike Weinberg is tremendous. Look him up and get his book today.
 
My second recommendation is “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. This is a tremendous story of sales, hustling, and business. He was selling Nike’s out of his basement and competing globally with Adidas. You won’t be able to put it down, and it will help motivate you to do more.
 
The third recommendation is “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. This is not for the weak of heart. It’s wicked long… but packs a powerful punch. It’s about being productive and why that matters.
  
What John is Working On
 
He is currently working directly with former professional athletes and graduating D-1 student-athletes interested in entry-level sales. Reach out to him for more information, especially if you are an athlete, league representative, or coach. He can be reached at [email protected].

Resources
Please listen to John P. Davis’ appearance on the podcast “Sales Enablement” with Andy Paul:
https://www.ringdna.com/podcasts/how-to-get-a-sales-job-john-p-davis-episode-911
Please check out John P. Davis’ article on Sales Hacker:
https://www.saleshacker.com/how-to-interview-for-sales-jobs/
Please check out John P. Davis’ article on Sales Vane:
https://salesvane.com/sales-job-looking-for-the-highest-paying-job-in-the-world/

Contact Info
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/john-p-davis-548a7b22

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​The 2021 Women's US Open Golf Tournament had a lot of drama. It had Lexis Thompson, who looked flawless halfway on Sunday. At one point, she was leading by five strokes and looked like a sure winner. Philippine's Yuka Saso, playing with Thompson, looked like she was out of the tournament at one point. But in golf, especially the US Open, anything can happen.

And happen it did.

Thompson stopped looking flawless, and Yuka steadied her game. Saso fought her way back and got into a playoff and then beating Japan's Nasa Hataoka in the playoffs to win the Women's US Open.

I think three things were responsible for her win:
1) Copy a great player
2) Stay calm
3) Trust the process

Copy a Great Player
During the broadcast, the announcers on the Golf Channel compared Yuka Saso's swing to that of Rory McElroy, a great player on the men's tour with four majors. From watching the tournament, it was obvious that Saso had a very good repeatable golf swing. To succeed in golf, one needs a solid swing that is repeatable under pressure. And Saso showed this at the end that her swing was well-honed for a major golf tournament.

Saso has never met McElroy, yet from watching the videos, she has replicated her swing that is a carbon copy of McElroy's swing.  Now we can all do this when it comes to writing, speaking, acting, etc.  You just have to reverse engineer it and then see what works and how you can do the same. I think this is an excellent way to become a good speaker.  People who are great at what they do tend to be very open about what they do.  You just have to dissect it and make it your own.  That is what winners do.  Don't try to figure it out yourself.  That is not how greatness works. 

Stay Calm
Saso did not play well in the beginning on Sunday but remained calm. She did not get flustered seeing her opponent was running away with the tournament. Saso could not do anything about Thompson's performance; she could only control her performance.

A winning professional in any situation knows how to stay calm when things are not going well. You do not want emotion to take over your objective on what you have to do to win.

Winning does not care that your feelings are hurt, or you hit a bad shot. Winning does not care what you think. Winning only cares about winning.  You just have to learn to deal with this and become a winner. 

Trust the Process
When Saso was interviewed after she won, she kept saying that she just trusted the process. This indicates that she was well trained mentally. Saso knew she would encounter difficulties but must stick to the process that got her to the US Open and in the final pairings. She did stick to the process and won.

In golf, Winning cares only about who posts the lowest score. You just have to trust the process that will get you that score. You can't abandon what you have done for hours, days, months and years when it matters.  You have to stay faithful to the process and then see if you need to refine it, if necessary.  Sometimes you can do everything right and lose. Occasionally, you can do a lot of things wrong and win. This is life.  Just get over it and see if anything went wrong with your process.  If not, continue to trust it. 

Saso won one of the most prestigious tournaments. We all can learn from how she did it and succeed in something prestigious in our profession. 
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I guide people become independent by making money, growing money and having FU money. If you crave independence, then you should contact me. I focus on thriving on high stakes stage whether it's for a job interview, career advancement, a sales presentation or a high-stakes speech.
I wrote a practical, no-nonsense book on success titled Winning Speech Moments: How to Achieve Your Objective with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere. The main idea of the book is that if you want to succeed in anything, you must create a winning speech moment. That is all people will remember. Just Do IT and WIN!

To get started with executive coaching I offer Intro to Coaching program that consists of two sessions for $300 where I help people answer a simple, yet difficult question: Tell me something about yourself.  You must nail this to make a good first impression.  Let's get this right for you so you can get ahead. 

Get the Free Speech Checklist
Email: [email protected]
​Phone: 732-847-9877
                                                                                         Time is Money, Communication is Wealth

How many times have you heard that you must develop strong relationships to succeed in business?

This was true in the past, but I don't think it is true today. 

The reason for that is that people don't have time, money, or energy to develop business relationships. 

Like Maverick in the movie "Top Gun," people have need for speed. People want things done that is fast, affordable, and well. Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen when people are involved. People slow things down that is if they don't screw up.

How long have you had to wait when you last visited a doctor?

I recently had to get cataract surgery for my eyes, so I had to visit Ophthalmologist's office several times. The average wait time after I arrived at his office was close to one hour. Since it took me one hour to get to his office, I left my house 15 minutes before the appointment and called from my car five minutes before my appointment. I reduced my wait time to just 10 minutes. This is what you have to do when you are dealing with people.

I am currently working with a highly recommended contractor to get work done at my mother's house. I thought I developed a good relationship with him. I was wrong. It was a real pain to get the roofing work done. Then It took me a month after the roofing work was completed to get the attic fan to work. More work is still to be done, and he has gone quiet again. I can get his attention if I go on Google and give him a one-star review.  This is what you have to do when you are dealing with people.

More I work with people, more I want to do business with Amazon. They never fail to provide excellent customer experience. 

Amazon does three things well: responsiveness, relationship, and reliability. I trust Amazon so much that I prefer paying more when I can get items cheaper elsewhere.  Amazon provides excellent customer experience every time.

I can't remember the last time I spoke to anyone from Amazon. They go out of their way to avoid my talking to anyone. I am not looking for relationship with anyone from Amazon; I am looking for just excellent customer experience.  

So are relationships with people important today?

No.

You should look for a relationship built on experience not relationship with people. Companies like Amazon can scale their relationships very fast and it's long lasting. Building relationship with people is time-consuming, unpredictable, and frustrating.

That's why it is very hard for a sales person to be better than Amazon sales. And they do it without salespeople.

So do you really need to spend time building relationships with people to do business?  

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The most important question you can ever ask yourself or someone to make sense of a difficult situation is, "What's going on here?"

Marvin Gaye recorded a famous song asking, "What's going on?" He was trying to get people to make sense of the Vietnam War, poverty, racism, and social justice so people can peacefully take action to effect change. I somehow never paid close attention to the message behind that song. However, I recently understood the importance of this question when I read the modern classic Remains of the Day  by Kazuo Ishiguro.

James Stevens, a high-end butler, is focused on being a great butler for a large house in the book. He doesn't know why the British leaders and the German Ambassador are meeting in the house in the late 1930s. They are meeting to see how the British can appease Adolph Hitler so his army can occupy Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. 

Mr. Cardinal, son of the house owner's friend, visited the owner when the meeting is taking place. He knows what's going on. He asks, "Do you know, Stevens, what's going on here?" To which Stevens replies, "I'm afraid not, sir." 

Stevens did not know, nor was he curious. What was going on in the nearby room would start World War II and ruin his owner's reputation as a Nazi sympathizer. Furthermore, Stevens also did not know nor care that he was about to lose a potential life mate in Miss Kenton, a housekeeper, who was in another room. 

When Stevens got older and had time to reflect, he had regrets of not being attuned to what was going on at that time. But it was too late.

We are all like Stevens. We often don't ask this simple question when we are dealing with a difficult situation. But asking the question makes you live in reality. Unfortunately, for many, living, in reality, is hard. Many prefer to live in a "matrix" where everything looks fine. But later, as they get older, they have regrets about how they could have been so naïve. 

Asking this simple question is hard. But objectively answering it is harder. Doing something about it is the hardest.

So look at some examples where you can ask this question with what's going on around you.

• Why do CNN and MSNBC report on what some hosts on Fox News say or do? 
• Why are Republicans replacing Liz Cheney, a congresswoman from Wyoming, from a leadership position? 
• How did China become an economic power so fast? 
• Why we still have systemic racism? 
• Why do we have a problem with illegal immigration? 
• Why are many countries moving toward nationalism? 
• Why is US debt approaching $28 trillion? 
• Why are women still not equal in most of the world? 

Do you know what's going on in each of the difficult situations above?

First, you have to ask the question. Second, you have to answer it by putting yourself in other people's shoes. Third, what are you going to do about it? You alone can't fix anything, but you can do your part so you don't have any regrets later in life.

For example, my family and I were angry about how George Floyd was killed by the police in Minneapolis in May 2020. We asked the question, "What's going on here?" Though none of us has ever had a bad experience with the police (in fact, we donate every year to the local PBA for the outstanding work they do). Unfortunately, our experience is not the experience for many African Americans and Hispanic Americans.

We showed our support for a change in policing by participating in a local march for change. And we also voted for Joe Biden in November of 2020 since he talked about this issue and wanted to make a change.

Now that Joe Biden is the president, his justice department is bringing civil rights charges against the police who used unnecessary force. In addition, President Biden is working with Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to enact police reform.

We did our part by asking the simple question, "What's going on here?" Thought this question was for a national issue, but it applies to just about anything that requires a change. Change can only happen if you ask, think, act and persist.  

If you don't ask this question, you can't get to the root of the problem. You will end up accepting and mouthing other people's thoughts and opinions. You can't outsource the answer to this question to anyone. You have to do the hard work.

Next time when there is a problem you see in your life, at a company, in a country, or in the world, you may want to spend some time asking, "What's going on here?" After you come up with an answer, you will know how to approach the problem or situation. At the least, you will not have any regrets later that you did not even ask this question when it mattered.

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