Page 70 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

if you don’t dress yourself appropriately, what makes you think
that your product is going to sell very well?’ I must have heard this
twenty-eight years ago, but that thirty-minute speech is still stuck
in my head. It made perfect sense to me: after all, I had a budget
for holidays, for my car, so why wouldn’t I have a budget for
myself? Ask yourself what you’re going to invest in you this year.
Should you go on a few more courses? Should you buy a few more
clothes, buy a new pair of shoes? I stopped seeing these things as
purchases, but as part of the investment in ‘me’.
We had sessions on anything that would boost performance, like
reading other people’s body language, or what we could tell from
the way someone shook hands. And when I started to use the
techniques, I was surprised to see that they worked. Things like
sitting on the same side of the desk as someone is more
collaborative and more likely to build consensus.
I also watched Tom closely to see how he ran the business: I had
always known that I wanted to start my own business, and now I
was starting to see what kind of a business I wanted it to be. I was
intrigued by how he was able to motivate people to such an extent,
and how you could turn fairly ordinary performers into dynamic
sellers. To do that, Tom worked hard at charging up the team and
keeping the energy levels high.
The days at Reid Trevena were so well planned to ensure the
momentum was maintained. Every morning there was a team
meeting that got everyone psyched up. Sometimes I would go to
some of the sales meetings just to experience the phenomenal
atmosphere. The team leaders would get their people ready for the
day by boosting their confidence about how well they were going
to do.
‘John, who are you going to call this morning? How many
names have you got? Talk me through the names, John. That’s
terrific, are you going to do better than yesterday?’
‘You bet!’

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