GOING FOR THE GOLD

This month all of the world is focused on the Olympics taking place in Russia. Thousands of athletes have been training for years for the chance to compete and represent their country and hopefully take home a medal signifying they are the best at the sport they have trained so hard to compete in. One slip up and they can lose their chance at that coveted medal.

As I thought about it, I couldn't help but think that we are in our own olympics every day of the year. We compete in the business world and work at securing profitable accounts and then maintaining those accounts. Our medal is keeping satisfied customers, making a profit and building a business we can be proud of. No, they don't play the national anthem everytime we secure an account that our competitor had but they don't have too, we know we won.

To take it a step further, I wonder how many of us really keep training to be the best at our profession. Do we take advantage of educational opportunities that arise to help us increase our professionalism? Do we attend that webinar on that new communication tool? How about the webinar that helps us brush up on our selling skills? How about the webinar put on by a manufacturer introducing a new floor finish or piece of equipment that will reduce labor?

Let's take it a step further. Are we doing the best job we can at training our cleaning techs and supervisors so they can become better professionals at what they do which in turn makes our entire organization more professional? Do you do follow up training with them so they can continue to enhance their professional status?

The olympics you and I compete in every day are a bit different than the ones going on in Russia. You see, we only get one medal---GOLD. We either get the gold or we get no medal. There are no second or third place medals in the competitive business environment we compete in. We either secure the account or we don't. When a prospect calls and says they really liked your proposal and you came in second, you may as well have come in 50th.

Having said that, it becomes even more critical that we do and continue to do the training necessary to WIN at what we do. We have to be sharp every morning when we get up to greet the world and compete in our olympics. There are no silver or bronze medals---only GOLD.

Now is a great time to do a company audit to see if we are performing at the highest level possible. Is our sales proposal a winner? Do we have a winning employee orientation, training and re-training program so we stay at the top? Are we taking advantage of all of the available training programs, workshops and seminars for ourselves so we can lead our organization and have it become the LEADER and remain the leader in our market area. If you consider yourself the leader now, what do you need to do to keep that leader status?

So let's all enjoy the olympics as they play out this month, BUT, be sure you do the things necessary to assure your company is the gold medal winner at what you do. There is no better time than right now to make the changes needed.

As always, we welcome your comments. Don't forget our weekly pod cast at www.tripodcast.com.

Till next time.