It’s summer time. Do you take time and enjoy the summer or do you go out and seek rejection? Hey, I wouldn’t blame anyone for wanting to take time off and enjoy what remains of the summer months. We’re in the dog days of summer and you’ve been canvassing since the early spring. Your canvassers are probably pretty well beat up. And you should take time to enjoy life, but we also have to keep focused on the task at hand.
As the manager or owner it’s up to you to keep the troops motivated and pointed in the right direction. Yes, technically you shouldn’t have to, but it’s human nature for people to get discouraged and derailed. There’s a very small percentage of the population that is self-motivated and you’re part of that small population. If all your canvassers had the same ability as you they wouldn’t remain a canvasser; they’d move up the ladder or go off on their own and start their own business. So you’re responsible for motivating them.
I view managing canvassers like a three-legged stool:
1. You have to work on developing their skill set
2. Next is working on and nurturing the right mind-set
3. Get off your assets… this is the action part, bringing skill set and mind set together
Today I’m going to focus on the mindset. Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way right off the bat. Most people are negative! If left to their own devices they’d view everything in a negative light.
Here’s a statistic that may shock you. We each have 12,367 thoughts per day. Most are automatic and 84% of those thoughts are negative ones. We have a lot of self-talk each day and a lot of it is negative and this is what you have to battle in helping and influencing your people.
I think the quote that best describes the need for regular and frequent motivation was by top sales trainer Zig Ziglar. When told that motivation doesn’t last Zig is quoted as responding with, “Neither does bathing, that’s why I recommend it daily.”
It’s funny, but very true. You’re battling approximately 10,000+ negative thoughts with each of your canvassers on a daily basis. The usual ‘rah rah’ motivational speeches won’t work. This is the missing ‘X’ factor in virtually all coaching; what business are you really in? You’re in the personal development business; developing people to reach higher levels of performance than even they think they can achieve. If your canvassing department is churning and burning people on a regular basis then your department is destined to ultimately fail or you’re going to burn out. In either case, the outcome is not positive. If you’re seeing and/or feeling this then we really need to sit down and look at it and have a discussion to determine the cause. Turnover is common in any business, but 80, 90 or 100% turnover is not normal.
Here’s a statement of fact that I want you to emblazon in your memory, write it down and post it on your bathroom wall so you see it each morning when you’re getting ready each day before going off to motivate your troops.
“I will only be influential in people’s lives when I affect how they think and feel about themselves and the world around them.”
My coaching with a canvasser starts long before I get into the X’s and O’s of the system. Before I start teaching them the scripts and rebuttals, the body language and language tracks I need to find out why that person is there. Why are they doing this job, right now? When I talk with managers and owners and ask them why each canvasser is working I’ll often get, “for the money” or “they were at another job and they like this one better.” When I press on the issue and ask if they really think that’s why they’re there they’ll often confess they don’t really know … and that’s where you need to start. You need to find out why each person is doing what he or she is doing. I mentioned earlier the number of thoughts we have on a daily basis, but unfortunately not a lot of those thoughts are spent asking, “Why am I doing this?” Most people aren’t that introspective. You have to help them get introspective and start asking themselves the ‘why’ question. Yes, in part I’m talking about goal setting. And if you’ve read my past articles on goal setting you know that most goal setting exercises are focused often on the manager setting the goals rather than the canvasser setting them.
“You can have anything in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar
One of my mentors and a guru of self-development is the late Zig Ziglar (who I quote frequently) and his teachings resonate with me because we share similar roots. His research revealed there are 4 reasons why most people don’t set goals.
See if you identify with any of these
1. Most don’t set goals because their self image is so poor
2. Fear of ridicule
3. No goal setting modeling
4. Never taught how to set goals
Zig traveled the world teaching people how to be better and more successful. A question he asked of audiences was what they wanted in life and from all the audiences he determined that most people want the following 8 things.
1. Be happy
2. Be healthy
3. Be prosperous
4. Personally secure
5. Friends
6. Peace of mind
7. Good family relationships
8. Have hope for the future
It doesn’t matter a person’s gender, heritage or ethnicity it boils down to these 8 things and it’s a good starting point for our discussion. From these points you can determine what’s most important to them. Use this as a management tool and you’ll speak to, and reach, people like no other boss or manager ever has.
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
You have to help them to believe and expect the outcome. People don’t stretch their goals and outcomes. People are used to failing and will often set a goal that’s far less than what their ability can carry them to achieve. That’s how you as their mentor and coach should push them to think bigger, to be visionary and then give them the tools to achieve those goals. It’s not until they stretch their goals and vision will people actually grow. It’s like looking at the horizon. You can see only so far, but as you get closer and closer to the horizon you can now see further. You’re objective is to remove doubt, worry and fear from their thought process. I said it earlier; you’re in the personal development business when managing your people. When you help them discover their ‘why’ and get clarity on what their goals really are, you’re able to manage and motivate them with their own visions. No longer do you have to ‘push’ people to do what you want them to do rather keep them focused on what they determined they want. Yes, you helped them recognize and set those goals, but they now own them and are internally motivated, emotionally driven toward them.
We’re coming to the end of summer and your people are likely becoming highly distracted, feeling burnt out and this is the conversation you should have with your people individually and get them refocused and motivated on their goals.
In a study I recently read over 2300 employees were surveyed about how their bosses did and only 30% felt their boss did a good job of managing and motivating them. This is an opportunity to become a great manager.
No one ever gets what he or she wants, they get what they’re committed to and expect to achieve. This is a shift in both philosophy and mind set on your part.
I’ll leave you this month with a true story that I experienced about 8 or so years ago. I was working with a multi-level company and they put canvassers on the road in other cities. This particular time I was working with a group of 5 guys in Atlanta in the summer time. It was hot, the 5 were sharing a hotel room and they’d been traveling for weeks on end so they were feeling the ‘grind’ of the job. To make the work conditions worse, canvassers were required to wear suits and dress shoes and they canvassed for 8 hours a day. One particular day I was walking a neighborhood with one young man and we were talking. Despite the conditions and length of time they’d been on the road and canvassing this young man had a positive attitude… still.
When I talked to him I asked how he was able to stay so positive. He told me in detail what his goal was. He had absolute clarity on what he wanted to achieve and had full expectation of achieving it. I don’t know who trained him, but it hit me that day how valuable it is to help people find clarity on their ‘why’. Not just the ‘why’ on the job, but also the ‘why’ in their life. Someone took a clear interest in this young man and helped him define his reason why. You can do the same. I said it earlier and it’s worth saying again; “No one cares how much you know until they know how much your care.” The biggest reason people will leave a job is because they feel unappreciated and that no one cares about them.
As we get busier and busier we have less and less time to build relationships and bonds with people. Here are 5 areas where you can build a bond with your canvassers.
1. Connection – take the time to talk with others and find points of common interests beyond the workplace
2. Offering support – being present and making time for people to give them the help they need or at least recognize when they need help
3. Opportunity for love – not an intimate love but rather the opportunity to express gratitude and compliment your people for their successes, not matter how small
4. Opportunity for culture – the opportunity to have historical and significant experiences with others
5. Opportunity for influence
These 5 areas actually come from a study. Two decades ago roughly 60% of families sat down to a nightly meal together. Today less than 20% do so. My point is that in this day and age of ‘social’ media we’re becoming less and less connected socially, personally. Take the time to know your canvassers and actually care about them.
If you have questions about this month’s article or would like further assistance in coaching your canvassers you can reach me at cthompson@canvassking.com or call my office direct at (216) 588-1337.
Chris Thompson
The Canvass King