Southwestern Company Campus Relations

I’m asked on many occasions what the students need to do in the summer to be successful.  Well, there are many answers to that question.  The students are told in interviews that they need to study hard (their sales talk), work hard and be coachable.  If they work on these three elements, they’ll probably have a great summer.  The entire week of Sales School in Nashville is dedicated to teaching them how to be successful on the book field.

As I’ve traveled to various campuses, students ask for tips on how to be more successful, on and off the book field.  One word that I like to concentrate on with them is to have them learn to FOCUS.  We all can learn to be successful and more productive if we can learn to FOCUS.  So, just how do we do that?

On a trip to Canada I met with a young lady, let’s call her Charlotte, and she was interviewing a number of students to find those who might be interested in a summer with the Southwestern Company.  She found that she sometimes lost her concentration in these interviews, one after another all day long.  I think we can all identify with that situation.

I took an umbrella out of my briefcase and asked her to throw it up in the air and catch it.  She did just as I’d told her.  I then asked her what she was thinking when the umbrella was at its apex.  Her reply was, “I didn’t want to drop it.”  I told her that was a very common answer.  Then I said to her that I wanted to disagree and I suggested to her that she wasn’t really thinking of anything at that moment, all she was doing was concentrating on catching the umbrella.  In other words she was completely focused on an action – catching the umbrella.  No thinking was required.  (Thanks to Jim Fannin of Zone Coach for the idea.)

Well, Charlotte played this game throughout the rest of her recruiting season, but then took it a step further when she went to the book field that summer.  Charlotte tied a tennis ball to the rear view mirror in her car.  Every time she parked her car and got out to go knock on another door, she tossed that tennis ball up in the air and caught it.  That gave her the focus she needed to meet her next customer with a very positive attitude.  

Now, guess what?  Would you believe that Charlotte had her best summer yet on the book field that year.  Now, I can’t take credit for Charlotte’s success (although I’d like to) because she was the person out there meeting with the moms and dads of school age kids selling the Southwestern Company books and CD’s.  Well, Charlotte had a great summer and I just received word last week that she had her best week of her entire Southwestern career.  Charlotte learned to FOCUS and has practiced that element in many facets of her life and I’m so happy for her.

How do you focus?  How do you continue to concentrate hour after hour in your job?  You may not have an umbrella or a tennis ball handy, but I’ve often used the pen I have in my hand and toss it up in the air and catch it to grab my attention and get me focused again.  What tips can you share that I could pass along to our (your) students to make them more successful?

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