1: “It was a typical diner,” Jeffrey Fox writes in How to Become a Rainmaker.  “There was a counter, booths, and tables.”

The waiters were primarily high schoolers working for the summer. 

“One customer was upset about something,” Jeffrey writes.  “He was angry with one of the young waitresses. He was loud, rude, and nasty.

“Perhaps she had made an error on the bill, or there was not enough … continue reading

1: We are finishing up another school year.

As parent-managers, we want our children to do their schoolwork before they play.  So, we try to motivate them. 

“I incentivize them by threatening to take away their iPhones if I see them using them before their work is done,” Fred Kofman writes in The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership.

“I add a carrot to the stick, promising that … continue reading

1: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.

Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.

This week, we’ve been exploring ideas from Jeffrey Fox‘s terrific book on sales, How to Become a Rainmaker.

2: For the last 16 months, I’ve been leading … continue reading

“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” -John Dewey

1: As leaders, one of our most important roles is to help our team members learn from their experiences.

How do we do that?  

We ask questions.

“There are two questions that we should ask of a salesperson at the end of a call or at the end of the day,” writes Brian Tracy in his … continue reading

1: As leaders, one of our most important roles is to unlock the full potential of each person on our teams.

One of the best ways to release this potential is to organize “Quality Circles,” Brian Tracy writes in his terrific book Sales Management.

This practice involves gathering our team for a specific one-hour time block each week to focus on a single question to drive “continuous and never-ending … continue reading

1: The date was April 1, 1993. Lou Gerstner had just been named CEO of IBM. For decades, IBM had been one of the world’s most admired corporations.

Now, it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Lou had started his career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, one of the world’s largest and most respected consultancies. Soon after taking his new role, he asked his friends at … continue reading

1: What percentage of people’s thinking is emotional?  And what percentage is logical/rational?  

The answer?  “People are 100 percent emotional,” Brian Tracy asks in his book Sales Management.

This week, we’ve been exploring what makes a great sales leader.  (Which is the same thing as what makes a great leader of any type.)

Brian tells us there are two critical leadership qualities.  We’ve looked at the first leadership quality: Clarity.… continue reading

“If you will be hard on yourself, life will be easy on you.  But if you insist on being easy on yourself, life is going be hard on you.” -Zig Ziglar

“Discipline weighs ounces; regret weighs tons.” -Jim Rohn

1: Performing at the highest level requires discipline.

“Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, whether you feel like it or not,” Elbert Hubbard once said.

If … continue reading

1: “Top people go where the standards are the highest,” business philosopher Jim Rohn would say.

If we want to attract and keep people, “treat them like a crack team, with clear standards and disciplines that we insist on every single day,” writes Brian Tracy in his book Sales Management, “The very best salespeople perform at the highest levels when they are working in a tightly organized, well-disciplined sales … continue reading

Results.

I have a new role at PCI.  In addition to being CEO, I am also currently serving as the leader of our outside sales team. Two weeks ago, our longtime leader of that team came to me and expressed a desire to step back from the leadership role.  Prior to starting a search to find our new outside sales leader, I chose to take this role on for a period of … continue reading