Week 4 Sunday Meeting: Transition to Growth Phase & Get Technical!

OL Prep/Reminders:

• Meeting Details:

  • Remind students of meeting location, time, and theme

  • Encourage students to bring all required materials (everything listed in the prep)

• Sizzler Talk:

  • Start highlighting Sizzler and begin recognizing units

• Call Schedule Update:

  • Revisit and possibly adjust the call schedule, moving the first call from 9:45 PM to 10:00 PM

  • Be prepared to review and distribute copies to the organization

• Prepare Materials:

  • Bring PC Handouts, refreshments/snacks, Families for Education, name/grade cards, and goal cards

OL Meeting:

• HQ Adjustments:

  • Identify if any HQs need to be switched around

• Review SL Meeting Outline:

  • Go over the structure and agenda for the SL meeting

SL Meeting (OL):

• Work Stats on Board:

  • Display SL stats; if hesitant, address privately (could indicate off-schedule behavior)

  • Remit, Remit, Remit!

• Good News:

  • Share successes from both the organization and the company

• Appreciation:

  • Acknowledge their hard work

• Teaching Focus:

  • STATS:

    • Discuss the importance of exceeding 180 Demonstrations and 40+ Customers

    • Tips for averaging 20 Sit Down Demonstrations/day

    • How to make Saturdays more effective and how to generate more demos daily (start earlier, stop later, quick no's, door demos, trial closing)

  • Sales Improvement:

    • Ask SLs to reflect on their personal goals and accountability

    • Encourage them to listen to audios and read in the morning to stay motivated

    • Discuss the importance of finishing strong every day and ensuring they have books available to deliver

  • Ways to Help Rookies Improve:

    • Share the Top Contenders List from the Pacesetter and highlight rookies’ progress

    • Start Sizzler conversations

    • Call or Vox top rookies in other organizations to help with motivation and competition

    • Set up friendly competitions between headquarters or top FYs

How to Hold Excellent Personal Conferences (PCs):

• Preparation:

  • Review the PC Outline thoroughly before meeting with FYs

  • Hold individual PC meetings in a quiet, distraction-free location

  • Ensure FYs know the meeting details ahead of time

• The Approach:

  • Ask them to fill out the PC questionnaire before the meeting if multiple FYs are involved

  • Practice active listening—don’t interrupt!

  • Recognize strengths and areas of improvement

  • Provide constructive feedback, focusing on one key area for improvement each week

Prep/Coach SLs for FY Meeting:

• Assign Roles and PCs:

  • Ensure SLs are aware of the importance of strong Personal Conferences

  • Use the PC Outline to guide them

  • Provide appreciation and encouragement for the leadership team

FY Meeting (AOL holds):

• Welcome:

  • Be enthusiastic!

  • Music, cheering tunnel, and passport stamps

• Good News from OL:

  • Share highlights and positive updates

• Recognition:

  • Acknowledge Hours, Demos, Sits, Customers, Units (first week recognizing), $$ Collected, High Remitters, Low Expenses, Best Saturday, etc.

• Teach:

  • Why It’s Worth It:

    • Emphasize personal growth: strength, skill-building, overcoming fears, and emotional development

  • Getting Technical with the Demo:

    • Focus on how to give great demonstrations consistently

    • Encourage getting 5-7 demos per goal period and making it a challenge to hit 30 demos/day

    • Top SLs share tips on improving demos (e.g., questions, showing sections, trial closing)

  • Getting Technical with Closing and Dealing with Doubts:

    • Relax and close with confidence

    • Use trial closes and create a relaxed buying atmosphere

    • Demonstrate how to handle common objections (e.g., “I can’t afford it,” “I need to talk to my husband”)

  • Getting Technical with Sales Cycle Steps:

    • If your organization needs help with a specific part of the sales cycle, cover it now

    • Have top SLs role-play those steps, with FYs taking notes

Additional FY Advanced Sales Ideas:

• Teach affirmations to stay motivated between doors

  • Examples: "I can, I will, I’m going to…” or “I feel happy, healthy, and terrific!”

• Encourage the group to develop personal affirmations for better focus and energy

Lunch with Group:

• Plan a short activity (park, bowling, lake, etc.)

• Keep it under 2 hours to ensure everyone gets home early

Personal Coaching Sessions:

• Use the PC Week #4 Outline to guide your conversations

Announcements (OL):

• Distribute paperwork and promote the upcoming week

  • Highlight prizes, themes, and Sizzler recognition

Close Meeting (OL):

• Share organizational trends and improvements

• Read an inspiring Joey Franzese story (or an alternative motivational story)

• Reiterate the vision of the organization and encourage everyone to continue pushing towards growth

Personal Conference: Week 4

1. How was your week?

2. Rate your overall effort from 1-100:

   • Why or why not?

3. What is the name of your school district and some cool facts about your community?

4. What is your biggest challenge so far this summer? (Technically or otherwise)

5. What are your goals for this week?

   • Would you like help crystallizing them?

6. How much are you remitting this week?

7. What area can I help you with this week?

Hello there! Let me preface my story and say that you MUST read all the way through it to understand why I truly value my experience selling books. Please listen to all of it or none of it. Some of you sadists may even find pleasure in reading my story. While you will probably laugh profusely at the pure agony I experienced on one summer day, which I have labeled “The Apocalypse,” I am hoping you will be enlightened by the end result of my adventurous journey.

I sold books my first summer in Fayetteville N.C. after my junior year at Miami University in Ohio. The first four weeks were the toughest four weeks of any job I’d ever had. Conveniently, my 1995 Bookmobile picked this time to breakdown and quit on me. The cost to repair my car was over $600 and the parts to fix it would take weeks to arrive at the repair shop. I realized I would have to suck it up and walk for the next couple of weeks. 

So there I was – getting ready to walk on Monday of week 5. I was reviewing my maps at our breakfast spot and I picked the exact location where my roommate was to drop me off for the day. We left breakfast and drove to my turf in my roommate’s BRAND NEW 2008 Audi. Now, for your information, Fayetteville is WELL KNOWN for VERY HOT and HUMID weather. Well, that day it was 95 degrees with probably the same percentage humidity. Even more, after fumbling through my maps after being dropped off, I realized I was almost 2 miles from where I’d planned to be. I was in a retirement community. So, I started my long walk and within 10 minutes, I felt like I had jumped in a pool fully clothed.

It was at that moment I received a phone call from my bank saying my account was overdrawn by $400. I had written a check out of the wrong account and was charged a bunch of fees. I thought to myself “OH MY GOD, THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG DAY”. The Pandora’s Box was already wide open. I tried to act on the situation and transform that negative energy into a winning attitude to “find a way”!!! Woooooo!!!! It’s gonna be a great day!!! I worked my tail off the entire morning, but zero people bought a darn thing from me. In fact, people weren’t even letting me in their house to show them the books. I WAS BAKING OUTSIDE ALL MORNING.

I thought about how great it would be to sit down inside someone’s house so I could show them the books and eat my lunch in the soothing atmosphere of a nicely air conditioned house. Well, that wasn’t happening. I had enough of people’s excuses all morning. I was fed up. Finally, I decided to take a well deserved lunch break at 1:00, and by that time the heat index was nearing 110 degrees. My entire body was fried to a crisp (yep I forgot to put on sunscreen that day too). I looked like a boiled lobster. All I wanted to do was eat my lunch in peace. However, there were no trees in the neighborhood for me to hide under except a short tree line that was conveniently guarded by thorn bushes.  UNBELIEVABLE. Literally. This neighborhood did not have one shade tree. Pull up Google Street View and you will see exactly where I was that very day and why in that moment I passionately hated everything: https://goo.gl/maps/va5FNmW7Cnx

There was no place for me to hide and no escape from the sun’s unrelenting fury upon my body. I could almost feel the photons from the sun’s energy penetrating my skull and frying my brain. The only shade I could find was the four inch wide shadow given oh so generously by a mailbox. With a sigh of relief, I unpacked my peanut butter and jelly sandwich with sheer joy because I was starving, but only to find that it had been completely scorched in the heat. The sandwich was HOT when I took it out of my tupperware container. The peanut butter and the jelly were literally baked into the bread. It was as if my sandwich was a cruel metaphor for my current situation – the most miserable sandwich of my life. The banana I packed for the day had turned into slime.

Now keep in mind, I am currently dead broke due to bank fees and car repairs, I had attended private schools my entire life, I had once worked a big boy job at a tech company, and here I am walking around trying to sell kids books DOOR TO DOOR!!! I felt like a loser. So I sat there on the curb underneath the shadow of a mailbox like a hobo eating my sandwich. I ate with my right hand and used my left hand to cover my head with a notebook to shield my face as I watched people in nicely air conditioned vehicles drive past – judging me. I felt really sorry for myself. Everyone was looking at me in disbelief. I even saw a teenage girl smile and point at me as she drove by. She was amused; I wasn’t.

After lunch, things continued as I expected them to: I got swarmed by cockroaches, interrogated by a Green Beret who thought I was scamming people with fake magazine subscriptions, one mom didn’t have time to look at the books because she was too busy “feeding her daughter’s hamsters,” another mom gave me a WARM bottle of water to drink, I ate another lousy peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I encountered a large dog who thankfully had a greater affinity for squirrels versus the sun-seared flesh of a pathetic door-to-door salesman from Ohio.

I persevered through this “great day to be a Bookman” and made $40. While it wasn’t that much money, I EARNED EVERY PENNY. The day was over. I called my roommate to pick me up. He laughed at me demonically as I told him the events of my wonderful day — he had one of his best days so far and made almost $400 while driving around in his air conditioned Audi.

At this point I will bet a billion dollars you’re probably wondering why the #@&$ this was a valuable experience for me. So let me share with you what I learned about that day and my first summer that made this the most valuable experience of my life: 

I LEARNED THAT MY WORST AND HARDEST DAYS DURING MY FIRST SUMMER WERE A DIRECT REFLECTION OF ME – NOT MY SITUATION, NOT MY CIRCUMSTANCES, NOT THE PEOPLE I MET, AND NOT SOUTHWESTERN ADVANTAGE…. ME.

I hope to make this point crystal clear. My bad experiences were stemming from the mental garbage and victim attitude I was carrying around. That bad attitude manifested itself in my results – I finished below average and only made $5,000. But my story wasn’t done yet.

As a certain success principles states, “Either you are growing or you are dying.” That summer I realized that I had bad mental and emotional habits. This eventually became my reason for sticking with Southwestern. I knew the winning environment was the place for me.

The Bookfield does two things REALLY WELL. It will reveal your strengths, but MORE IMPORTANTLY, it will also expose all of your fears and weaknesses. It is at that point when you as an individual will have the OPPORTUNITY to confront those weaknesses or to avoid them. I will promise you one thing, and that is if you decide to identify your fears and weaknesses, and make the effort to confront them, this will be the most rewarding experience in your college career, and one you will certainly never forget. 

After my first summer, I sat down with my DSL and decided to remove my ego from the equation and be coachable. I made over $13,000 my second summer and earned the Person of the Year Award. Plain and simple, the Bookfield works if you decide to work with a winning attitude. I’d encourage you to make the tough decisions, lose your ego, and commit to doing the job the right way. The long-term rewards are well worth the short-term sacrifices.

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