Transcript of 151st episode of podcast Predictable Revenue

Transcript of 151st episode of podcast Predictable Revenue

Sean O’Shaughnessey   

I’m a big believer in rewards and goals. I love to say, “When I do something good, I need to have a reward.” Or, “When a salesperson does X for me, I need to have the reward.” 

Everybody’s different. Everybody has a different way of doing it. I’ll suggest to some people that you should reward yourself when you close a deal that is 5% of your annual quota. Whatever that means for you. But maybe your deals are bigger, and every deal is 10%. You close 10 deals a year to make your quota, and every deal is 10% or 15%. So you need to adjust that number. At a certain point, you have to say, “I need a reward because I just did good.” Paychecks are great, but rewards are important. 

You can’t really trust your boss for this. I’m a big believer in ‘Don’t Count On Your Boss’ and ‘Don’t Count On Marketing’ to get your job done. You personally have to be responsible for your own success. 

One of my habits is when I close a deal that’s 5% of my annual quota then I get one of the bottles you talked about. I love tequila. I’m a big tequila drinker. And this tequila is called Clase Azul. I’m not trying to sell it. But if you like tequila, it’s a great tequila to try. It is a sipping tequila. Each bottle is hand-painted. It’s not a glass bottle. It’s a porcelain bottle. There are some ridges that they paint in there. If you look at the bottom, all of these little decorations are all different all the way across. If I show you another bottle of the same kind, you’ll see that they’re slightly different. So each one is hand-painted, even though the bottle is exactly the same. 

This bottle is not cheap. This is 750 millimeters or three-quarters of a liter bottle of tequila. I’ve been to a restaurant in New York City and asked them, “Gee, I see you have Clase Azul on the shelf, how much is a shot of that on the rocks?” They said $75. So it’s not a cheap drink. So it’s not a drink that you’re going to drink every day. If it is your daily drink, then you’re really blowing it out of the water, and congratulations to you. It’s my treat. It’s the thing that I do as a treat. 

When I close the deal, and it’s 5%. I do this, I buy this. And I know other people that do other things. Maybe they’ll say, “When I close a deal, that’s 5% or 10% of my quota. I’m gonna take my wife or my spouse out to dinner at this one restaurant, and we never go to that restaurant unless we close that deal.” 

You need to save these things as being special. Never go to that specific restaurant or never buy this bottle without that deal. People may give them to me as gifts, but I will never buy it myself until I get a 5% of my quota deal closed. It’s just the way it is. 

I did have to change that when I became a VP of Sales because now I don’t close deals myself. I have other ways of rewarding myself, but that was definitely how I did when I was a direct salesperson. Only for 5% deals – if it is a 4% deal, I don’t get it. I need to close a 5% deal or better.

The same thing is true for going out for dinner at a special restaurant with your spouse or buying a new suit or a new purse or a new piece of jewelry or whatever. You don’t do that activity unless you close that deal, and you made that happen. 

I’m a firm believer in setting that goal for yourself. Reward yourself. You have to be happy about it. It’s not your annual quota where you’ll get to go to club. That’s all good, but that’s counting on your company to give that to you. You need to personally reward yourself that you are successful. 

This idea is kind of like some programs for losing weight. When you lose that first five pounds or the first ten pounds, then go eat a pizza. It’s the same kind of basic thing. Reward yourself for hard work. Be Successful. Save the bottle and put it up on your shelf. Remind yourself of all those successes. That shelf up with some of my bottles that I’ve won due to 5% deals. I’ve actually got another whole closet full of these by the bar at my house. These bottles are much more important to me than the other acrylic boards that I have been given by employers. Or the plaques that are on my walls or now stuffed into boxes or thrown in the trash.

Colin Stewart 

You can’t drink a plaque. I definitely like the idea of booze. 

Sean, I really appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you so much. One last thing that we always like to do is give you a chance to promote yourself. So we’re going to move to the Cold Call Me section. Set it up for me: Who am I and what are you calling about?

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