Scott Ragsdale

Ironman New Zealand 2010:  12.59.05

swim:  55.13
bike:  6:37.17
marathon:  5:14.47

I am too tired to do a proper blog, but I wanted to post a short one so my friends and family know I finished.

Although my time is 30 minutes slower than I wanted to go, the head wind was very strong on 90km of the bike, and I ran well the last 12kms to ensure I broke 13 hours so I am satisfiedwith my time.

I will do a complete race report tomorrow.

I am one of those people who is great at starting something, but I often lose in the battle with consistency, ultimately not achieving the end of my goal, but getting very close.

The past 18 months, I have been much more consistent with things in my life,  but I can still become more focused.

It is 19:00 on Friday, I am in bed reading and relaxing … tomorrow at 7:00 am finally my first ironman will begin.

Like all paths to any goal, tomorrow it will come to down to this simple thought:

finish or failure.

www.ironmanlive.com  my race number is #582

I am in New Zealand now getting ready for my first ironman which is this saturday.

Not everyone wants to do an ironman, but surely you have a long term goal which you want to achieve, but up until today you have only “talked” about it.  Even if you have no interest in the ironman, check out the video and reflect on your own personal goal and make it happen.

I have talked about doing an ironman since I can remember … but it wasn’t until last April that I decided to stop talking about it, and focus on making this happen.

March 6th (Saturday), I will finally put my words into action.

Why did Tiger Woods apologise to the world for cheating on his wife?

Tiger is not an elected official.  Decisions he makes have zero impact on nearly 99.9999% of the people in the world…………..

Yet, last week Tiger stood in front of the world media and apologised for “his actions letting us down.”

I do not play golf, therefore, I do not follow golf, however, I have great respect for Tiger Woods and his athletic ability.

To me,  its absurd Tiger Woods had to stand in front of the world and apologise for something which has nothing to do with anything, but himself personally.

Medias around the world have spent the past few days dissecting his apology … and CNN has a poll “do you think Tiger’s apology was sincere?” 

Another example of American media celebrating the failures of man.

I can only sit back and hope that Tiger Woods comes back and dominates the game of golf even more than he does already.

Considering the success I had setting up sales offices at the previous company I worked, and then the success naseba has had in a short period of time, combined with the fact most of our competitors aggressively try to head hunt our sales staff, I believe I have proven to have a good understanding of  ”the sale.”

Over the two years of this blog, I have outlined “some” qualities which I consider to be intrinsic in all great salesmen/women/sales leaders.

• Work ethic – working as hard possible; efficiently, not letting outside distractions or people get in the way of ones job
• Consistency – just about anyone can have a good week, but consistency is the secret to success
• Focus – ensuring nothing distracts one from the sale
• No fear – not afraid to lose the deal if the negotiations are not going the way you want them to go
• Selling only benefit –  not selling fake urgency, but instead focus on using/selling the “benefit” of the product
• Product/industry knowledge – knowing as much about your product and industry as possible
• Taking care of ones clients – ensuring one follows up with their clients, assisting the client as much as possible (anyone can sell a client once; but a great salesmen/women ensure their clients see ROI on their investments so they gain the clients trust and work with them again and again)
• Make it happen attitude – even when times get tough, stick to the basics and make success happen

In 2008, ”LP” touched (nearly) 2 million Euro in sales.
In one month of 2008, including his cushy basic LP made $89,000….

In 2009, due to the crisis, LP sold (only) just over 1.2 million Euro.

This is going to hurt some people’s feelings, but after this week, and what I have witnessed over the 5 years LP has worked for me, I state with certainty that 24 year old LP is the best salesman in our industry.

Instead of reading this and acting like a total bitch (which several readers will do), I strongly suggest we use this post as a way to reflect on ourselves, whether you are in sales or not, whether you work at naseba or not - ideally, this post will help you reflect and you will step up to the next level in whatever you do.

Although I could write a lengthy post, using several examples of brilliant sales achieved by LP over the past 5 years….but to ensure I don’t ramble, I am going to highlight just 3 examples, but each example underscores why LP is the best I have ever seen.

Example 1

In 2008, LP sold a client a 85,000 Euro sponsorship – apparently, the client was happy with his return on investment because LP sold the same client 4 other 50,000 Euro sponsorships on 4 different events over the next 12 months.

Back in October 2009, LP organized a meeting for him and I to meet the Chairman of this company, one of the wealthiest business men in the middle east.

At the very beginning of this meeting, the Chairman said “we do not have anymore budget for 2009″ ….

During the meeting LP delivered a flawless presentation on naseba, focusing on a congress which was taking place at the end of 09.

The Chairman stopped LP and asked: “how much would it cost me to be a sponsor?”

Now put yourself in the same situation as LP ….

over the past 12 months, you have sold this client 5 times, 4 times a 50K Euro package, and once a 85,000 Euro package….

…..its the worst financial crisis since the great depression and the client started the meeting by saying “I do not have anymore budget for 2009.” …..

However, 30 minutes later the same client asks how much a sponsorship of a 09 event would cost him…..

What would you do?

Most people would have assumed the client could/would not spend much because the client had just said “I do not have budget remaining for 09″ ….

However, LP understands the principle behind the idea “ just about every chairman can find “budget” if they see the benefit and value in what they are buying.”

So LP explained the only sponsorship still available was the “ lead sponsorship” which was 150,000 Euro and sold the benefit of sponsoring so well …. the client said, “I confirm so get me the contract and I will sign.”

We called the office and had the contract put together – within one hour LP had a signed contract for 150,000 Euro.
(the client paid in full 4 days later)

Seriously, how many businessmen/salesmen would have pitched double what a client had ever spent before AFTER the client had just said “I do not have anymore budget.”  …. not to mention, its the worst economic crisis in 90 years.

I admit … if it was me, I would have pitched a smaller sponsorship in the 50,000 Euro range.

Example 2

End of 09, we put a 2010 event on sale on a Monday …. the event was not one of LPs nor an event in his division.

By Friday, the super talented sales leader of the product said to Fabien, “this does not work (yet) because the program is not complete, and we have not confirmed the major partner yet….”

After my conference call with Nic and Fabien, I called LP and asked him if he could prove this product is as good as Nic and I think it is.

On Monday, (the 1st day he had a chance to sell the product) LP sold the co-sponsorship, a 80,000 Euro contract to a new client whom had never worked with naseba before (the package the team was having a difficult time selling was a smaller sponsorship at 29,900 euro)

LP took over this product and sold another 300,000 Euro on it within 6 weeks all at the same time focusing on his own division and team.

The above 2 examples are brilliant, but the 3rd example is something I have never heard of before.

A couple weeks ago, I was having a management meeting with Sophie, Fabien and Nic in my office in Dubai ….

LP knocks on the door of my office and shows us a $100,000 contract for a co-sponsorship from a new client we had never worked with, arguably one of the biggest companies in the middle east.

Nic said jokingly, “only the co-sponsorship???  This company should have been the lead sponsor….”
I laughed and said “LP???  all the money you are making… has it made you soft?”

Of course, we were just teasing him.  I was extremely, happy to finally get this company as a client.

What would you do if you were LP?

I mean …. LP just closed a massive company for $100K and his boss tease him saying its not good enough…
LPs commission from this deal was at least $11,000 maybe more depending on his targets for the month…

Instead of walking away feeling sorry for himself because his boss had teased him (like many people reading this entry would have done) ….

Without Nic or I knowing, LP called the client back and said the co-sponsorship was sold out so he could not accept the contract …. and he blew out the deal.

Within the same week, LP confirmed another company to be the co-sponsor at the same $ value so at the end of the week when I got the weekly report, I assumed it was a holding company who had signed the contract and that is why the famous company name was not listed.
(Nic and Sophie knew the truth, but agreed to give LP a couple weeks before they told me)

Two full weeks later….
LP has not spoken to the first client since he canceled the deal….
And he goes back into this company and repitched the same client for the lead sponsorship, added even more benefit, thus made the potential ROI for the client much greater, but the new investment was for $200,000.

The contract for $200,000 came back last night.

On the drive home from work last night…. I told Sophie that even at the top of my game when I was a salesman in Tokyo or Shanghai, I was not as good as LP is today.

He works more focused than just about anyone I have ever met.

He takes brilliant care of his clients –with the risk of sounding like I am exaggerating; I think he has worked with a majority of his clients more than once, not only doing what he can to ensure they gain an ROI from their investments, but also often sending them expensive cuban cigars or iphones as presents to appreciate their trust.

He does not let outside distractions or negativity get in the way of his goal – which he has told me on several occasions is to be the best.

He studies his clients, industries and partners more than even my business analyst friends who do this for a living

He is not afraid to lose a contract.

He is the 2nd most consistent person who has ever work for me (Nic Watson is the 1st) - and what I mean by “consistent” does not refer to just “consistent sales” but consistency in everything in his life which reflects in the success at his job.

LP is the best salesman in this industry.