Real World Impact from Reach YOUR Peak!

Normally, I don’t use my blog space to brag or boast about my activities. However, after a sales leader in Texas recently responded so positively about my new book Reach YOUR Peak! Become CEO of Your Success! I had to share it with you. Her passion for the tenets of the book and her usage of the book as the basis for an upcoming sales summit is EXACTLY why I wrote RYP!

During a recent phone conversation with her, she told me the story about how she first heard about me and the book. She is the director of sales for a large publishing company and covers a large region in Texas that includes lots of driving. On a recent trip between Austin and Lubbock, she was listening to podcasts that she’d recorded and one of them included me as a guest on the BE Culture show. (This show is produced in Houston and the guys I worked with on the program are top notch!) She said that when she heard me ask the question “Are you working to survive, or are you working to succeed?” she did a double take, pulled the car over and backed up the recording. She then started listening to the discussion more intently and taking notes while parked on the side of the road.

When she finished the podcast, she resumed her drive, and later that week when she got home she contacted me and asked if she could get an e-book version immediately. After she read it, she contacted me again to ask if she could get a discount for several dozen books to use in her upcoming sales leadership summit. Her plan was to get the books to the participants several weeks before the event and to have them work on assignments before the summit. Since then we have been talking about having me personally involved in the summit with her group and as we were working out the details of doing a WebEx or Skype appearance for me, she relayed the following in a letter to me:

“I have the leadership summit soon and I would love to go over with you what I have planned:

12pm – I have them share what the VOWELS meant to them using the questions you have in the back of each chapter;

1:30pm – We are going to focus on two of the Tools for Success – Personal Branding and Time Management (would love to have you do this session with us via WebEx!)

Mid-afternoon – managing performance discussion using examples they sent me as well as conflict resolution

4pm – We are going to record what they prepared for next week regarding their SWOT analysis and then continue that discussion the next morning over breakfast

I do want to share with you how very impactful your book was for me and I was delightfully surprised even more the personal impact which in turn is impacting me professionally as well. I have had a successful track record at work, but unfortunately intensity was only intense in one of my three areas and your words have put into my mind, my heart and my actions MY OMT (one more thing) of being more balanced for my husband, two sons and the idea that it is ok for me to relax and rest, so thank you!

It has additionally impacted the leaders on my team– when I talk to them they are now referring to setting goals for themselves, changing what they are doing with their reps to set SMART goals and even referring to some “mountain goats” they might face. I had them read the book and assigned reading groups prior to next week to hold one another accountable and it has really been a wonderful experience for my team!”

All I can say is WOW – I’m humbled, thankful and happy that my work, and this book in particular, can have that positive an impact on not only a sales organization, but on the personal relationships that surround it. The way she planned her summit with the book as one of the focal points is spot on for what I imagined when I created RYP. The book has 16 chapters but it’s really 16 mini-workshops because it utilizes To Do Lists at the end of each chapter that involve more interaction, even some 360 degree views, with the reader. Each chapter builds on the one before, like building a house from the ground up. Using RYP as the foundation for a sales training event, series of meetings or the main focus of a summit will yield great results – just like the DOS in Texas did with it!

If you manage a sales team, own a business with a sales force, or are a sales professional looking to move to the next level in your career, you should read and consider using RYP in your next training session or meeting. There are blogs on my site about every chapter of the book, so check it out and if it makes sense, then let’s have a conversation about to putting a program together to help you and/or your team truly Reach their Peak!