I went to the Smiths on Rancho in Las Vegas after work yesterday. I was heading to a friends place and they’d asked me to pick up a few things. I don’t normally shop at Smiths, there aren’t any near my home.
I found the items I needed (and found shopping there challenging, their layout is really weird) and headed to the check out. There were two people at the checkout – the man ringing up my purchases, and the man bagging them.
The man bagging the groceries was enthusiastic, engaged, polite, and friendly – in short, a delight to speak with. You could tell that the cashier wasn’t thrilled by his banter, though. I even caught a little eye roll. After my groceries were bagged, my new favorite Smith’s employee wished me a good evening and went to help another cashier.
I mentioned to the cashier that I had really enjoyed my interaction with the man bagging the groceries. He sighed, and said “He’s new.”
I said, “So, you’ve been listening to that all day?” and he grimaced and said yes, unfortunately he had.
I said, “But, I’ve only heard it once. And I have to tell you, after a long day at work the last thing I wanted to do was stop at the grocery store. I’m not leaving your store wishing I hadn’t stopped here today, I’m leaving your store with a smile on my face thinking I’ll probably shop here again.”
The cashier looked at me and nodded, but I don’t think he had a new appreciation for the experience.
Grocery shopping sucks. It’s boring and repetitive and necessary. Grocery bagging is even more so. In fact, I know it is, that was my first job out of high school. Your level of enjoyment of any task will always depend on one thing: you. I’ll bet not every customer appreciates the disposition of that happy employee. Some customers likely just want to silently pay for their purchases and leave. Part of being successful at any job is completing tasks in a way that makes you proud and happy. You aren’t going to please everyone all of the time, but you need to be able to complete your tasks in a way that makes your day enjoyable to you.
That happy grocery store employee? A really great example of what good cold calling is all about. Creating a “You’re the most important person I’m talking to today!” experience on every dial. Maintaining your interest and enthusiasm throughout the course of an extremely repetitive day. If that guy wasn’t having the best day ever, he’s a brilliant actor and kudos to him. However, I’ll bet you that his smile was genuine and that he really did care whether or not I left our interaction happier. Authentic engagement makes even the most repetitive of tasks interesting. And a great attitude can even make them fun.
I can teach anyone to cold call. Like any skill, it’s a set of actions completed in a particular order that you break down one by one, and repeat over and over again until you’ve got it right. The one thing I can’t do is teach people to love cold calling. You have to find the joy in your job – any job, bagging groceries or making cold calls or any other thing – all on your own, and hold on to it. It’s one of our core values here at Managed Sales Pros, and I love finding and recognizing it in others. I am going to go back to that Smiths and see if I can convince that man to come work with me. He’d fit in real well here.