Skip to main content

Merry Christmas To You and Yours

I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a bad year. For me personally it began with my father being hospitalized, followed by my own hospital stay (pancreatitis) and then the subsequent passing of my father. A month later, things started to shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Millions of people around the world, and hundreds of thousands here in America, have been infected by the illness. Businesses and financial institutions have suffered, forcing the layoffs, furloughs and terminations of millions of jobs. What we thought was going to be a "V-shaped" recovery in the spring has become a deep financial recession.

As we go through this ordeal there is still hope. Vaccines are now becoming available and my gut tells me that by spring of 2021 we'll start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It won't be a quick recovery, but more like a aircraft carrier trying to make a U-turn. Slow but steady advances. 

I also think that once things get back to normal (whatever that is) we will still have challenges. There will be some changes in the way we do things, like conducting business. The pandemic has created more "virtual" opportunities for businesses. As I've mentioned previously, we were in the process of starting to change months before the virus, but had to expedite things when we realized that traditional networking and sales processes were going to be disrupted. 



With all of this in mind, I have made a list of Christmas wishes for Mr. Claus to take a good look at. 

  1. End the pandemic. The health and welfare of not just the USA but all countries needs to get back to a good place. Not being able to see loved ones, especially those who are already sick or in a facility, is heartbreaking. And it's taking a toll on the healthcare providers too.
  2. Political calm. Our country is severely divided and I honestly don't think it is sustainable. Maybe we need something (not a war) to unify us again. A return to civility would be nice too. In the old days people would say, "I don't agree with you but I'll defend your right to your opinion." People don't say that anymore. It's just, "We're right and you're wrong." That needs to change.
  3. More business opportunities. This is both on a micro and macro level. Of course, I want you all to go to my website to order my book and contact me about speaking to your group. And booking an appointment to talk to me about your insurance needs would be awesome too. But I also want everyone to get back to making money, supporting their families and feeling less stressful about their finances. 

There are a few good things to come out of all of this. Our new appreciation for those frontline workers and caregivers in medical centers and hospitals comes to mind. We learned that we can be very flexible when it comes to ways to do business, from conference calls to no-contact food delivery. We also found out how fragile our economy really is, with people from all backgrounds lined up for food distributions. Perhaps our leaders will consider this in the future. And the residual effects of this will still be with us for years to come.

As we end 2020, let's also remember those who didn't make it as well as those who are still fighting the good fight. Keep your head up and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a safe and healthy New Year!

Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. He's also the author of "You're Going To Be Great At This!", a humorous look at sales. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Telemarketer's Leads - A Dumb Story

For a brief few months I worked as a telemarketer for a small firm owned by a young married couple. The husband was a bit of a hot head and kind of a jerk on occasion, but his wife was nice and had to put up with the guy.  One of their clients was a mobile home company that wanted people to come to the lot and see how awesome their singlewides and doublewides were. As telemarketers we offered incentives like a cooler and camera (back when they weren’t part of your phone) and other assorted giveaways. We got a small commission if we could book the client. My coworkers and I would call from a list of leads that our employers had purchased from someone. These leads were supposedly “qualified” ahead of time, meaning that they had been vetted to meet the needs of the client, the mobile home company. Unfortunately, most of the leads were useless. The people we spoke to didn’t live in the right geographical areas or their incomes were too low.  “Why aren’t you guys closing anyone?” the boss w
Post a Comment
Read more

Planting Seeds Vs. Landmines

Analogies are everywhere in business these days, but the sales profession has some of the best ones. One I have used for years is that when prospecting and marketing for clients, you should be leaving landmines everywhere, because sooner or later, someone will "step on it" and your sales will blow up. Recently, Davan Johnson, a coworker and friend of mine, appeared on my YouTube channel and we discussed prospecting for clients. He used the analogy of "planting seeds" while "preparing for a harvest". I chuckled as I explained that I preferred my more violent analogy. "I'm attaching life insurance applications to the landmine," I said. Feel free to use either analogy when you consider your prospecting plans. Both have the same principle, which is to always look for opportunities to meet people and tell your story.  You never know when one will blossom or explode. Ch ris Castane s is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through
Post a Comment
Read more

How Lame Will Your Holiday Party Be This Year?

Over the years I've worked with, and for, many companies, large and small. And as each of these companies varied in size, structure and philosophy, there was also differences in how they handled the issue of a "holiday" party.  As the Christmas party became a Holiday party (and to be fair, not everyone celebrates Christmas and I can respect that), the parties themselves morphed into several formats, or worse, just disappeared altogether.  One company I worked with left the issue to each location's manager to provide for a small "get together" and a small amount of petty cash could be used for refreshments. Since our location was rather small, the manager would order a few pizzas and provide soft drinks in their home. There was an unofficial "bring your own" policy for alcoholic drinks and we even had a gift exchange.  It was all good and everyone behaved, however each year we would receive some story from the home office about how another location&
Post a Comment
Read more