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No this is not some feel good seminar I’m talking about, or the latest iteration of the newest yoga, it’s something much deeper than that. Now, I’m not knocking yoga, the health benefits have proven themselves over the years. But, I am talking about something that could significantly improve your business’s bottom line or if you’re not working for yourself, help to catapult you to the top of the corporate ladder. What I am talking about is reading. Wait, before you yawn and move on, let me tell you about how reading, for only a half hour a day helped me to make $7000.00 in just 4 hours.
Years ago, I hired on as a sales rep for the local yellow pages in my area. I knew nothing about selling other than it involved having conversations with people and that you had to smile a lot. At least that’s what I thought. Then I got a call from my mom. My mom is a wonderful woman that is always trying to help me out with any venture I get into. This time she helped me out in a BIG way. She was at a garage sale and she had bought me a book called How to Master the Art of Selling by Tom Hopkins. (A must read if you’re in the sales industry). Not having any sales experience, I decided to start reading it on my lunch break. Fortunately the chapters are not long and you can read them pretty easily in ½ hour or so.
The book had straight forward practical advice that was easy to understand and apply. As I read each chapter, I thought to myself, I’ll try this technique on my next meeting with a client. Lo and behold, it worked! I did this for about two to three week, each time learning more techniques and applying them as I went, until I was done reading the book. The information that I learned was invaluable. I made thousands of dollars because of that book.
Now, not all of it was because of the book, I did sit down and have very good evaluations and training from my boss, and I also grew with experience. But the book gave me the foundation to learn and grow. Oh, and how did I made that 7K in just four hours. It’s because I applied the principles of the book to the last sales day of the campaign.
I got a little lucky, I cold called a prospective client that was working at a real estate brokerage firm who said “come on by”. I was expecting a quick sale for a few dollars and then I would head out to lunch. It turns out this client was starting their own lending company. He wanted to go big in the yellow pages, and by big I mean BIG! He wanted a full page ad, he wanted supplemental ads, he wanted the “tip-on” (a special feature where they apply a 3 x 5 card to the outside cover of the phone book), he wanted it all. And guess what, I helped him get it all. I was in his office for four hours (skipped my lunch) but of course it was worth it, by the time the dust settled my (eventual) commission for that job was just under 7K.
Of course this article is not written to endorse this specific book, but rather to endorse the habit of reading. Reading for ½ hour a day on your lunch break equates to about 10 hours of reading a month or approximately 130 hours of reading a year! Even if you apply this technique only every other day that’s still 65 hours of reading or roughly 13 books! Think of what you’ll learn about your business, or your industry, after reading another 13 books, and that’s if you only do it every other day. You could read another 26 books in a year if you’re disciplined!
The next time you see a book that can help you grow your company, or help you to further your career, and you think “I don’t have time to read this”, think again. Take that 30 minutes and apply it to yourself, invest in your own future. I challenge you right now, go out and find a book that you know you need to read, or take a book that’s been sitting on the shelf collecting dust, and have it start helping you collect dollars. So read on your lunch break, It takes no time away from your day, if helps you to feel better about yourself, it helps you to recharge your batteries in the middle of a stressful day and it could someday bring you a wheel barrel full of money.
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