Good morning everyone, it’s great to see you all at the Breakroom! This time around it has certainly been one of those sorts of weeks with a lot of ups and downs. It was husband’s birthday so I crafted two separate cakes for him, plus I treated us to getting our ears pierced so that was some of the highs. At the same time, we have been dealing with the fact that our neighbors now seem to have two pickup trucks taking up the street parking so that has been fun. In terms of work, I think I do need to stress to everyone when it comes to timecards and taxes, these are your responsibility. If there is a mistake on your timecard, your tax elections have not been producing taxes, or you forgot to update your direct deposit these are all your fault so you do need to accept the fact that you will need to wait until the next paycheck to see a correction. It feels like we often coddle employees too much in the HR world and employees need to accept their share of the responsibility. Just my weekly rant, for my prompt of the day why don’t you please comment below (you will need to open up the individual post rather than viewing from the Home Page) and share your vent of the week. While I do not believe in people being negative and tearing people down, I do think that it is healthy to get certain struggles off our chests sometime, so let this be your chance! While you think of your biggest headache of the week, lets get down to today’s Breakdown.
Well the day started off with Jan having a meeting with Michael first thing in morning. I understand that she is his boss, but it does seem like she has been coming around a lot more often for. I’m wondering if this has to do with the possible downsizing that we’ve been worrying about (which most people seem to have forgotten about). You know it’s serious because afterwards she actually tasked Pam with keeping a daily log of all of Michael’s actions. I know she has had frustrations with him before, but this really is taking it a to a whole other level to task her with logging everything he does each hour. I also do not understand how she can rationale having an employee do this on their leader, so this is very much a new extreme. Michael does start his morning off strong by having a big sales call for a potential new customer. That being said, he did spend the majority of the call doing his Cosby impression so maybe he was partially productive.
While that is going on at the office, Ryan and Dwight actually went out on a joint sales call. While Dwight might be the Assist (to the) Regional Manager and the best salesman in Dunder Mifflin, he is still a very odd individual and not someone Ryan would normally want to go with. Ryan explained that since he is no longer just a temp, he really needs to decide if he is going commit to the company or he might as well leave. He is choosing to commit to his job as a salesman, and he figures the best way to learn is from the top salesman. Speaking to them afterwards, it truly went exactly as I had expected. Rather than going straight to the call, Dwight brought Ryan over to Schrute Farms where he decided to give him a formal sales initiation. Ryan called it hazing, but perhaps a little of Column A, a little of Column B. While his methods might be odd, he makes some pretty great points. Instead of a lot of research and deep dives, lets instead look at some advice from Dwight Schrute.
You know what your problem is? You know why you haven’t made any sales? Cause you think you know everything. You have to trust that maybe there are other people that can teach you things. Are you ready to learn? Are you ready for the final test?
All too often, we find ourselves believing that we are fully equipped and informed to do something. Sure, there are those times that we really are and we do not need assistance with the topic at hand. But we must learn to recognize when we are struggling an admit that we need help. Sometimes it isn’t even about not knowing something, but rather that someone can still pass along their own information on the subject. Ryan is going to business school and he has read the general theories about business and sales, but he doesn’t have the practical experience behind it. While Dwight didn’t go to school, he has been in the industry and longtime and through trial and error and has perfected his sales technique. In this instance, Ryan should recognize that he came to Dwight for a reason and attempt to learn from his unusual strategies.
Establish time frames. Keep the phrase “real dollars” in their head. And always keep the power in the conversation. That’s why you’re losing them on the cold calls. Cause you say the word please too much. Michael always said, K.I.S.S. Keep it simple, stupid. Great advice, hurts my feelings every time.
Here we have Dwight giving specific information regarding sales. While every sale is different, there are certain strategies which are pretty universal. Customers do not like to deal with estimations, they want to have a clear idea of the timing for their purchases, as well as actual dollar amounts. These help act as promises and guarantees, which will more likely result in a sale because it offers a reason for a customer to trust the produce. Dwight then explains one of Ryan’s weaknesses and that is he not confident in himself and most likely comes off more pleading than eager. There is truth to the fact that we are quicker to trust someone who is confident in themselves because it implies they have confidence in the product. If the salesman is nervous and weak, is it because they do not trust their product? Finally, at the end of the day you always remember KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). If a product is good enough, then the sales pitch really doesn’t need to be that complicated. At the end of the day we care about price, quality, a bit of variety, and ultimately we want to know why this one is better than all others. He is the top salesman in the company, he knows how to sell.
Not everything’s a lesson, Ryan. Sometimes you just fail.
In the end, they make it to the sale and in spite of all the prep Ryan isn’t able to make the sale. Not just that, they told him to his face they didn’t care for him and Dwight gives us some important advice. When we fail, we are compelled to dissect the situation and find out where we went wrong. It is true, that sometimes it is our fault and it can be helpful to figure out how we can do better. But sometimes, we really just fail and there wasn’t anything we could do differently. Perhaps you interviewed for a job and you thought you did so well, and then you don’t get the job offer. Maybe you really did interview well; unfortunately, someone else just happened to have interviewed better with more experience. In these instances, it is so crucial to not let that failure bring us down to the point that we give up. We just have to try that much harder until we succeed.
If you thought a joint sales call with Ryan an Dwight was exciting, you have obviously never experienced the Scranton Business Park on Pretzel Day. That is right, today is the annual day where they bring in a warm pretzel bar where everyone is entitled to one free pretzel with the fixings (they offer both sweet and savory). While everyone gets a tad bit excited, this is the day that Stanley truly comes alive because he straight up looks forward to this day all yearlong. Interestingly enough, Michael also seems to take pretzels as seriously as Stanley does so they are buddies in this. Pam does her best to try to get him to be more productive than just waiting in line for a snack. While that didn’t do the trick, his sugar rush from his sweet pretzel with the works certainly did. He was prepared to revamp the office, closed that big sale from earlier, and ultimately passed out at his desk. But he did close that big sale, and I feel that does help show that while Michael is not without his faults, he does have his strong points.
And that is what happened at the office, perhaps not crazy exciting but I feel like we still got to learn a few things. I hope you all remember those words of wisdom from Dwight and will use them in living your life. Whether it is remembering to not be afraid to accept help, or that sometimes you can do nothing wrong and still fail, life can be tricky and some of us have to work hard to succeed. That being said, it is also important to take time to yourself and I hope you all find some rest and relaxation this weekend. And do not forget that it does happen to be Mother’s Day on Sunday, so I will be planning out a brunch that we’ll be hosting for my mom and family.
With that, I’ll be sure to see you all around the Breakroom!
