Lucas on Grabbing Happiness

 

“If America is the pursuit of happiness, the best way to pursue happiness is to help other people.”

– George Lucas (1944 – )
American film director, producer and screenwriter

Sales evaluation…

Do your actions…

  1. create a positive buzz about you and your work?
  2. make others want you as a part of their team?
  3. make your employer cringe at the thought of losing you to a competitor?
  4. make your customers excited about referring you to their colleagues?

You want your actions to scream value without the need for you to say a word. This is where you want to be – with those in your company and industry – and with those to whom you’re selling.

This is what creates true economic and job security – the value you and your team create for others.

This is care (what it’s all about).

When you have the opportunity over the next few days, set a reminder to review these four questions at the end of each month. Then, give yourself a little (objective) attention by reviewing them and creating an action plan to improve in each area where you feel you should.

Easier said than done… still needs to be done.

Jung on Who You Are

 

“Everything that irritates us
about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

– Carl Jung (1875–1961)

Swiss psychiatrist

Thou shall not interrupt or talk over a prospect or customer.

Have you ever considered how ridiculous it is to do this?

Why does it happen? It could be the excitement of how well your offering meets their need, poor listening training, ego (Let me show you what I know instead of learning what you need!), or just plain rudeness.

Here’s an idea…

When you and your team are talking with your prospects and customers, be sure to drop a small gap of silence in between what they say… and your response – just an extra second or so.

Do it when you’re asking your questions about their challenges and needs and in general conversation. Not only will it improve your rapport, but in many cases, you’ll also enjoy the extra information you learn when the other person continues to talk.

This is thoughtful listening and one of the surest ways to make a better connection with your prospects and customers.

Practice it with your team in your daily discussions. Practice it with your friends and family in your personal discussions.

In your sales efforts, make it your habit.

You’ll be amazed at what you learn.

The SketchUp Halloween Challenge

With Halloween just a few weeks away, nerds here in the Google Boulder office are in a tizzy about their costumes. We take this particular holiday very seriously.

A haunted house I modeled years ago, with two pumpkins by IDW. He modeled them for SketchUp Island’s Pumpkin Patch collection on the 3D Warehouse.

 

This year, we thought it might be fun to host a SketchUp Halloween Challenge for folks who are looking for something to do in their spare time. The nitty gritty:

Categories

There are two: Use SketchUp to model either a jack-o’-lantern or a haunted house. Or both.

How to submit an entry

  1. Upload your model to the 3D Warehouse and make sure it’s publicly-downloadable.
  2. Upload between two and ten images of your model to a public photo sharing site like Picasaweb. You can use any photo sharing site you like, but make sure your images are grouped into an album by themselves. Images should be at least 1000 pixels wide or tall, depending on their orientation.
  3. Fill out the Challenge Submission Form, including links to both your model on the 3D Warehouse and your album of online images.

Judging

On Friday, October 28th, a group of us from the SketchUp team will get together to review the entries. We’ll be looking mostly at the images you submit; models will be examined when we’re picking the top three entries in each category. For an idea of what we’ll be looking for, consider these points:

  • Displays of SketchUp expertise are always impressive.
  • Anything that makes us say (out loud) “How’d he/she DO that?!!” is worth extra points.
  • We don’t want to see anything you wouldn’t show your grandma or your kids.
  • Beverages will almost certainly be involved in the judging process.

Multiple Entries

Submit as many models as you like, but fill out a separate entry form for each one. The more the ghastlier!

Rendering Rules

You can (if you like) include photo-rendered images of your model with the images you submit. You have to have at least one unrendered image, though; we’d like to see your work in its purest, SketchUp-only state.

Deadline

The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM PST on Thursday, October 27th 2011.

Prizes

For fun little modeling challenges like this one, we prefer to keep things simple. Instead of prizes, we’ll publish our favorite entries right here on this blog, on October 31st. The best three models from each of the two categories (pumpkins and houses) will be featured in the November edition of the SketchUpdate newsletter, which goes to millions of people around the world.

Why no fancier prizes? When companies host big, international competitions, it takes months for their lawyers to figure everything out. On top of that, people from certain places (like Quebec and Brazil) end up being excluded because of specific laws that apply only to them. Ugh.

Other Stuff

If you’d like a blank pumpkin to start with, this collection contains a few. Other questions about the Challenge? Please ask ‘em in the Comments for this post.