When you get out of survival mode, you have a chance to think about how to be successful as you wade through a sea of obstacles.  You will never be remembered unless you can crack the elite.  You have heard about this (Pareto’s Principle) before but now internalize it and …be in the 20%.

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If you are in sales you have most likely heard about the following phrase:

“80% of your production comes from 20% of your sales force”

You may also have heard this phrase:

“20% of your sales activities will generate 80% of your sales results”

I am quite sure that you have heard both of these.  More importantly you should figure out a way to make both of statements work for you.

Before we start examining that, we would like to recognize Vilfredo Pareto (1848 – 1923) of Italy who started this all in 1906.  He used it initially to explain the fact that 80% of the wealth of his country was in the hands of 20% of the population, also known as the rich.  This is called Pareto’s Principle and you may also hear of it as the ’80-20 Rule’.  It is used in everything from sales, to sports, to personal relationships, and of course wealth.

I have found this principal to be correct for the most part and that is why I’d like to take some time to examine it. Stated simply, a small number of are responsible for a large percentage of the effect.  Most examples use a figure of 20 to 80 or 20:80.

It is exact?  Of course not, but it simple and easy to understand that the relationship between what we put in, and what we get out, is not balanced.

Be the Best!

Successful Black sales professionals stand out.  If you are able to perform at a level that makes you a valuable asset to your employer, you are to be commended, as the ‘environmental’ resistance (general economics, racial preference, and racial prejudice) that you encounter is omnipresent.

Being successful is not enough as your objective is to be the best, and that designation does not recognize race.  To be the best, you need to be in the top 20%.  If you are making money that is fine as well, but overall you still need to be in the top 20%.

Strategies to make it there are important.  Remember, whether you are struggling, or currently successful, if you want to change the result, you must change your behavior!

Here are a few activities that will help vault you to the top:

• Become an expert (BSJ 6-27 More on Being an Expert – An Edge for the Black Sales Professional)
• Find prospects through a seminar (BSJ 3-24 – Finding Prospects through a Seminar and BSJ 12-19 – Increase Your Prospect Base)
• Improve and increase your networking (BSJ 2/21- Networking for the Black Sales Professional and BSJ 12-19 Increase Your Prospect Base)
• Ask your best customers for referrals (BSJ 12-10 Increase Your Prospect Base)
• Increase your customer retention (BSJ 5 Random Acts to Lock Down Your Customers)
• Try some new prospecting angles (BSJ 11/28- Tune-Up Your Cold Calling and Phone Etiquette and BSJ 2-10 – 9 Prospecting Tips for the Black Sales Professional.
• Network effectively (BSJ 2-21- Networking for the Black Sales Professional)

Read them and select one or two (or several) and give them a try.

Increase your Effectiveness

The second phrase at the beginning of this document illustrates the 80:20 rule of the Pareto Principle by indicating as stated earlier that what we put into something might not be what we eventually get out.  Put primary priority on the items that increase your effectiveness. Recognize that your efforts need to favor those activities that “make a significant difference”.

Author and self-effectiveness guru Steven Covey urges us to “Put first things first”.  Indicating that you should undertake your activities on the basis of importance rather than urgency.

This would mean that you would spend working hours doing some of your important prospecting, and move your expense account (something I was terrible at) preparation to the evening.  It would mean that you would spend valuable time doing customer problem solving first, relationship building next, then the various and sundry activities that are urgent, but not important.

Below I’ve listed some good suggestions with links to past BSJ posts that will make a difference in moving into or staying in the 20%.

• Be Responsive! (BSJ 1-16 – Responsiveness – The Objective of the Sales Professional)
• Know your compensation system (BSJ  11-16 Know How You Get Paid – Its About That Paper)
• Plan Effectively- Construct a Good Sales Plan (BSJ 11-10 – Solidify Your Sales Plan)
• Communicate and listen effectively (BSJ 11/7 – Make Communications a Strength and BSJ 4-14- Are You Listening to Your Customers?)
• Deepening Customer Relationships (BSJ 1/11 – Deepening Customer Relationships Revisited
• Be your customer’s consultant (BSJ 6/6 – Consultative Selling- An Asset for the Black Sales Professional)
• Be your customer’s expert (BSJ 6/27, More on Being an Expert)

There is a lot of information here, yet the most important part of the process is to recognize the importance of changing something.  If you want to change the results, you must change your behavior.  Remember, ‘you can lie about the numbers, but the numbers don’t lie.’

For 2012 change something! Be the best, and always be effective!

If you are a job applicant, there are things that  you need to do, and this is one of them.  Information on you in the public domain may be true, or it may be false, but it should not be a surprise to you.  Know what exist about you as you should always “be the expert on yourself”.  This post from 2011 spells it out in good detail.  Read it, and do your research!

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We took a little time to discuss the effects of social media sites (Black Sales Journal – 3/10/2011, Social Media, know the Pitfalls) and what it could do to your employment, as well as your job search.  It can be devastating if you release the wrong information at the wrong time.  Pictures are worth a thousand words, and if you are not judicious in your attempts to show your great vacation, night out with the girls, or guy’s trip to a local gentleman’s club, you could damn your next job.

These are self-inflicted wounds that you can do to yourself, and regret for the rest of your life.  They are definitely avoidable so the more private you lessen the chance of this happening.

As you will see there are other wounds, and these are not necessarily self-inflicted, yet they can have a similar, or more striking effect.

Investigate Yourself

You owe it to yourself to know everything that others can glean about you.  It is a process I call “investigating yourself.”

Here are some ways to go about it:

“Googling” is good when you need an answer to almost any question.  A very simple act now is going to the keyboard and getting hundreds of results.  Quite frankly, we do it without thinking, and usually get the information that we want.  Search engines are imperfect devices that string together the characters of the alphabet and primary numbers to peruse the lexicons of all sorts of databases in order to find like strings of information.  Prospective employers use this tool as well.  What they find can be amazing.  What they find can be menacing as well.

You can be left without any recourse other than to try to explain the product of this search as you may have major difficulty changing it.  With that in mind, it is best to know what is there in its entirety.

Suggestion: “Google”, “Bing”, and “Yahoo” your name and all of its’ variations to determine what information a prospective employer will see when they look you up.  There may be some things you can change; yet you will be armed with a view of what they are going to see.  If you are Milton Jones, and you also see that a Milton Jones from the same city and state was convicted of embezzlement, you have an opportunity to explain that he may be a distant relative, but he is not you.

Credit reporting can be your worst enemy or your best friend.  Are you aware that it is commonplace for a prospective employer to check your credit?  It is explained for you, although in fine print on the packet of information that is completed on line, or physically, as you must give them a signature or approval, and your social security number.  Remember, a terrible credit score might not keep you from getting a job, yet it can be a potential strike against you.  If you are going to have company credit cards, a company vehicle, or need to be bonded, this may present a problem.

Suggestion: Know your score from the three credit reporting agencies (Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian) and have your explanations ready regarding why it is impaired.  If a company is going to trust you with their assets, your story may need to be very solid.  If there are situations like identity theft, you may want to bring information to prove that there was a problem.

Public Information sources carry strong credibility.  The following records can sink you if you don’t have good explanations:

• Police and Arrest Records
• Personal Debt
• Bankruptcy
• Judgments
• Liens

There are things in the above list that comes from circumstances we could not control, and things that, as our grandmother’s used to say, came from trifling behavior.  No matter how they got there, they are potentially on your record, and they may be irremovable, unless they are a mistake.

If they come from disputes that have not been properly adjudicated, you may have some hope, yet search engines as well as public record can find this information.

Suggestion: These are your records so don’t take it lightly.  Find out why, and how these items might be removed.  Review search engines for this as well as the credit records for debt.  You should know if there are any judgments or liens in the public record.  Of course you will know if you have filed bankruptcy.  Know your story, and your circumstances.  You are the expert on you, so reduce it to writing.  I suggest you don’t fabricate some lengthy story, but be able to explain what went wrong.

A Practical Example

While I was a sales manager, I received a call from a local basketball coach who suggested that I consider a basketball star from one of the public universities in Wisconsin.  He was Black, and from the same community I was from, and was supposedly a premier student from the standpoint of grades.

We went through the interview process and I not only thought this individual gave a great interview; he also had a list of references that was exemplary.  Everyone from college professors to past employers thought he had the personality and deportment to be a great employee and to sell.

I completed checking a representative number of his references, and proceeded to gather the rest of the requisite information.  Then came a possible roadblock.  The school would not release to the transcript to me.  We were at a crucial time in the process as I had done a significant amount of work already and I could not check his grades.

I figured that he might have a “past due” that was from not having settled up, so I contacted the candidate and advised that if he wanted to have the opportunity that I presented, he needed to act fast.  It turned out a little different in the end.

The candidate “fessed” up to me under time pressure that he had some library books that were not returned, and that they were holding his transcript until he settled up.  My response was, “if you want this chance, you need to get it solved within the next two days.”  Then it got more involved, and we determined that there were parking fines…numerous parking fines.

This marked the end of this issue, as I removed the candidate from consideration.  This one, more than anything else was an example of ‘trifling’ behavior.  Not returning of a couple of reference books and not making good on some university parking tickets cost this individual a chance at a good opportunity in outside sales with a reputable company, including a car and expense reimbursement.  It was the height of irresponsibility.

Your Access Vs. The Employers Access – A New Age

There was a day that your access to information was limited, and corporate access to information was supreme and penetrating.  Now, there has been a leveling of the field.  Your access to information is penetrating as well.  Business will pay someone to do it, yet you should have enough energy to “be the expert on yourself.”

Do not think for one minute that you are not going to be checked out!

Your comments are welcome.