I want to thank Gary Doyle for this blog tonight. He shared this with me today and offered to allow me to post it on my blog. I thought he made some very good points, from someone with knowledge that few of us share.
Gary Doyle:
Dear Jim,
I used to be an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician in the USAF. During that time, in addition to my regular duties, I was tasked to teach about i.e.d.s (improvised explosive devices) plus various scenarios for making, planting, and detonating them with and without booby traps, as well as, how to safely locate, disarm, and dispose of them. I said all that to say this.
The terrorists have already succeeded in part of their plan:
1. They have instilled terror.
2. They have partially crippled our economy by slowing down air travel through this inadequate, costly, and time consuming process of searching people.
3. They have caused us to bunch up in long lines where all that is necessary is for a suicide bomber to get in the middle of the line and blow themselves up inflicting mass causalities without ever getting on a plane.
4. The very expensive x-ray machines emit harmful radiation especially to the operators and are only as good as the operators training and experience is. From what I have seen and read about the overall training of the TSA agents, I would not bet my life on their capabilities.
Let us use some common sense through:
1. Teach the TSA people to criminally profile like El Al Israel Airlines, which requires every passenger to be interviewed by a well-trained agent before check-in. Agents then perform electronic body scans or searches only on those who arouse suspicions during the interview.
El Al is considered the most secure airline in the world, and has experienced only one hijacking in its history. Technology in general can never replace a qualified and well-trained human being.
2. Train pound dogs to sniff out explosives and use them at the airports. You get several benefits from using these dogs, they are very effective at smelling out explosives, you will save a dogs from being euthanized, you will save money, and speed up they process.
3. Handicapped need to be treated in a humane and caring manner by specially trained agents who will have regard for their particular for their situation.
We have given up our 4th Amendment rights in the name of safety and given more power to our government to regulate our lives.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
You have my permission to post this or use it in your blog , all or in part.
Your Servant And Friend in Christ,
Gary
P.S. I have, also, received advanced training at Sandia Laboratories on Special (Nuclear) Weapons. You may not use this P.S.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
A Message To Garcia
One of my favorite stories, a true one, is the story of Getting a Message to Garcia. If you want to know the secret of what makes one person succeed overcoming the same obstacles that hold most people back, the answer is found in this story.
The telling of this story began around the dinner table of Elbert Hubbard, the editor of the Philistine Magazine, in March 1899. The topic of the dinner conversation surrounded the Spanish-American War, with different people suggesting the most significant contribution by different heroes of that war. Most were giving the expected leaders, generals, and politicians, but one of Hubbard's son suggested someone quite different. He suggested that a young Army lieutenant, Andrew Summers Rowan, was the one person most deserving of that title. Rowan's story, captivated Hubbard, who later that evening retired to his den and wrote a little filler story on Rowan and his getting A Message To Garcia as an untitled addition to his magazine that still had a hole that needed to be filled before printing.
Frankly, Hubbard didn't think much more about it, until his magazine's office was inundated with calls and letters requesting a reprint of that little untitled filler article on Rowan and Garcia. The requests were coming so rapidly that they reprinted it as a pamphlet and then a book. It sold more than 40 million copies and was published in 37 different languages. It seemed the world was hungry to hear this message, and should still be today.
Rather than trying to tell you what Hubbard said in his brilliant little filler article that took off like a wild-fire. I want to share it with you exactly as he wrote it. So, you too can embrace it as your own, to remind you daily, what separates those who do, from those who make excuses for not doing. When you read this you will see that the more things change in the world, the more people have always been the same. Each generation seems to have the same excuses, the same weaknesses, and the same rare individuals who show us willing to learn the way.
Enjoy Mr. Elbert Hubbard's article, I hope you find it life-changing!!!
1899
A Message to Garcia
By Elbert Hubbard
In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain & the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba- no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.
What to do!
Some one said to the President, "There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can."
Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by the name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, & in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.
The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?" By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing- "Carry a message to Garcia!"
General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.
No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, & half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, & sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office- six clerks are within call.
Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio".
Will the clerk quietly say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task?
On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:
Who was he?
Which encyclopedia?
Where is the encyclopedia?
Was I hired for that?
Don’t you mean Bismarck?
What’s the matter with Charlie doing it?
Is he dead?
Is there any hurry?
Shan’t I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?
What do you want to know for?
And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia- and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not.
Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your "assistant" that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go look it up yourself.
And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting "the bounce" Saturday night, holds many a worker to his place.
Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply, can neither spell nor punctuate- and do not think it necessary to.
Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?
"You see that bookkeeper," said the foreman to me in a large factory.
"Yes, what about him?"
"Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for."
Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?
We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the "downtrodden denizen of the sweat-shop" and the "homeless wanderer searching for honest employment," & with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.
Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with "help" that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away "help" that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer- but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go.
It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best- those who can carry a message to Garcia.
I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, "Take it yourself."
Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.
Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry & homeless.
Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds- the man who, against great odds has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.
I have carried a dinner pail & worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; & all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.
My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the "boss" is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid off," nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: he is needed, & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.
THE END-
The telling of this story began around the dinner table of Elbert Hubbard, the editor of the Philistine Magazine, in March 1899. The topic of the dinner conversation surrounded the Spanish-American War, with different people suggesting the most significant contribution by different heroes of that war. Most were giving the expected leaders, generals, and politicians, but one of Hubbard's son suggested someone quite different. He suggested that a young Army lieutenant, Andrew Summers Rowan, was the one person most deserving of that title. Rowan's story, captivated Hubbard, who later that evening retired to his den and wrote a little filler story on Rowan and his getting A Message To Garcia as an untitled addition to his magazine that still had a hole that needed to be filled before printing.
Frankly, Hubbard didn't think much more about it, until his magazine's office was inundated with calls and letters requesting a reprint of that little untitled filler article on Rowan and Garcia. The requests were coming so rapidly that they reprinted it as a pamphlet and then a book. It sold more than 40 million copies and was published in 37 different languages. It seemed the world was hungry to hear this message, and should still be today.
Rather than trying to tell you what Hubbard said in his brilliant little filler article that took off like a wild-fire. I want to share it with you exactly as he wrote it. So, you too can embrace it as your own, to remind you daily, what separates those who do, from those who make excuses for not doing. When you read this you will see that the more things change in the world, the more people have always been the same. Each generation seems to have the same excuses, the same weaknesses, and the same rare individuals who show us willing to learn the way.
Enjoy Mr. Elbert Hubbard's article, I hope you find it life-changing!!!
1899
A Message to Garcia
By Elbert Hubbard
In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain & the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba- no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.
What to do!
Some one said to the President, "There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can."
Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by the name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, & in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.
The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?" By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing- "Carry a message to Garcia!"
General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.
No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, & half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, & sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office- six clerks are within call.
Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio".
Will the clerk quietly say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task?
On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:
Who was he?
Which encyclopedia?
Where is the encyclopedia?
Was I hired for that?
Don’t you mean Bismarck?
What’s the matter with Charlie doing it?
Is he dead?
Is there any hurry?
Shan’t I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?
What do you want to know for?
And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia- and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not.
Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your "assistant" that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go look it up yourself.
And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting "the bounce" Saturday night, holds many a worker to his place.
Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply, can neither spell nor punctuate- and do not think it necessary to.
Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?
"You see that bookkeeper," said the foreman to me in a large factory.
"Yes, what about him?"
"Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for."
Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?
We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the "downtrodden denizen of the sweat-shop" and the "homeless wanderer searching for honest employment," & with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.
Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with "help" that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away "help" that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer- but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go.
It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best- those who can carry a message to Garcia.
I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, "Take it yourself."
Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.
Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry & homeless.
Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds- the man who, against great odds has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.
I have carried a dinner pail & worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; & all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.
My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the "boss" is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid off," nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: he is needed, & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.
THE END-
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Presidential Hopefuls 2012
Bang, the race begins! The race for president in 2012 is in full gear, there are more "reasons" to be in Iowa now than most can imagine. If you are a civic or charitable organization in Iowa you can get big name speakers just for the asking, maybe with them asking you to have them.
Like sharks who smell blood in the water, there are going to be at least a dozen big name Republicans getting in line to run against Obama in 2012. There likely will even be Democrats to challenge him in the primary, Hillary for one. The very laws of nature cause challenges to the leaders of the herd when they are injured and weak. It is hard to imagine a more injured and weak president, almost all at his own making.
Republican are licking their chops, with the massive win in the last election, most importantly at the State levels with new GOP governors and statehouses. These new GOP controlled state level power structures will be responsible to redraw the U.S. Congressional District lines. Whoever is in power in 2011 will be able to draw those lines to hold power for at least a decade. Those new governors will make Obama winning in those states very difficult indeed.
With the likelihood of a brand new president starting in 2013, there are some things I want and don't want in that individual. We as a nation are in the worst economic situation we have been in since the Great Depression, and the policies that Obama has used will make things much much worse if they are allowed to stand without total repeal. We can't afford another on the job training situation.
There are many who might run this time that I love their ideology, I am a huge fan of them as people, and as politicians, but I don't want them to run for, or be the next president. Maybe somewhere down the road, not now.
Let's not vote for ANYONE who is in Congress or the Senate for president in 2012. I know that eliminates those like Mike Pence, Michelle Bachmann, Jim DeMint and others. Let's not vote for anyone who has not run a business or state government, we need a hard nosed CEO type who can handle the financial burdens that our nation is facing. We cannot afford anyone who has never had any experience as a Chief Executive with a large organization and huge budget.
Let's look at this election as if WE THE PEOPLE were the human resource dept of the largest economy on the planet who must look at the resume of, and interview the candidates to find the most skilled, and best choice to hire to direct our ship of state and economy. Personally, I would love to see Mitch Daniels, current Governor of Indiana. He is uniquely qualified to clean up his mess. There are others, but few who share his particular skill set.
The biggest challenge with Daniels is that he doesn't want the job, and further his wife REALLY doesn't want it, she hates the life of a politician's spouse. That could be a massive liability for him. However, the very fact that he doesn't want the job, might be the biggest endorsement for him to have it. It has been said that the very fact that someone wants to be president disqualifies them as good candidates.
Whoever we end up voting for, please look at it as if you are interviewing to hire your companies new CEO. Someone you can trust to steward your companies fortunes. It is hard to believe that everyone doesn't understand that is exactly what we are doing every election.
Like sharks who smell blood in the water, there are going to be at least a dozen big name Republicans getting in line to run against Obama in 2012. There likely will even be Democrats to challenge him in the primary, Hillary for one. The very laws of nature cause challenges to the leaders of the herd when they are injured and weak. It is hard to imagine a more injured and weak president, almost all at his own making.
Republican are licking their chops, with the massive win in the last election, most importantly at the State levels with new GOP governors and statehouses. These new GOP controlled state level power structures will be responsible to redraw the U.S. Congressional District lines. Whoever is in power in 2011 will be able to draw those lines to hold power for at least a decade. Those new governors will make Obama winning in those states very difficult indeed.
With the likelihood of a brand new president starting in 2013, there are some things I want and don't want in that individual. We as a nation are in the worst economic situation we have been in since the Great Depression, and the policies that Obama has used will make things much much worse if they are allowed to stand without total repeal. We can't afford another on the job training situation.
There are many who might run this time that I love their ideology, I am a huge fan of them as people, and as politicians, but I don't want them to run for, or be the next president. Maybe somewhere down the road, not now.
Let's not vote for ANYONE who is in Congress or the Senate for president in 2012. I know that eliminates those like Mike Pence, Michelle Bachmann, Jim DeMint and others. Let's not vote for anyone who has not run a business or state government, we need a hard nosed CEO type who can handle the financial burdens that our nation is facing. We cannot afford anyone who has never had any experience as a Chief Executive with a large organization and huge budget.
Let's look at this election as if WE THE PEOPLE were the human resource dept of the largest economy on the planet who must look at the resume of, and interview the candidates to find the most skilled, and best choice to hire to direct our ship of state and economy. Personally, I would love to see Mitch Daniels, current Governor of Indiana. He is uniquely qualified to clean up his mess. There are others, but few who share his particular skill set.
The biggest challenge with Daniels is that he doesn't want the job, and further his wife REALLY doesn't want it, she hates the life of a politician's spouse. That could be a massive liability for him. However, the very fact that he doesn't want the job, might be the biggest endorsement for him to have it. It has been said that the very fact that someone wants to be president disqualifies them as good candidates.
Whoever we end up voting for, please look at it as if you are interviewing to hire your companies new CEO. Someone you can trust to steward your companies fortunes. It is hard to believe that everyone doesn't understand that is exactly what we are doing every election.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Overcoming Telephone Call Reluctance.
Call Reluctance, seems to be one of the most debilitating mental disorders of sales people. It leads to making the phone look like a hundred pound weight, causing sales people to make excuses to themselves and others. Is Call Reluctance the problem, or is it a symptom of the real hidden problem. Could it truly be the fear of failure, fear of rejection, or maybe a lack of belief in yourself, or even your product?
Keep in mind, in business and in life, you can make excuses or you can make money, but you can’t do both.
We are independent commissioned sales people, it is up to us to find out what will make us work to our potential, no one will make us do it but we ourselves.
What can you do? Never underestimate the value of investing in you, as Ben Franklin told us, “If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
Put some positive in your head daily, you are getting a good dose of negative just going through an average day. Make it a habit to read a book on sales skills, or more importantly a positive attitude book for 10 to 15 minutes first thing every morning before starting your day, and again each night before going to bed. Find an idea that you can use right away.
Find a WHY:
1. Why: If your why is big enough the facts don’t count.
When I speak of why, it is retraining yourself to embrace delayed gratification. To reward yourself when you accomplish a goal, this should be everything from small activity goals to large production goals. Each should be set with a reward you will give yourself when you achieve it. Make the goals a stretch but attainable.
Once when I was trying to reach an activity goal that every month seemed just out of reach, I would get close, but never was able to attain it. At the time I was doing a lot of public speaking and several of my friends and I were in kind of an arms race for the coolest neck ties. I was at a men’s store and found a tie that I really wanted, I was so excited, as I was standing in line to purchase it, and it dawned on me that I should set it as a reward for hitting that elusive goal. I had the store put a hold on it for a week until the end of that month, and then went back to work feverishly to accomplish my goal so I could come back and claim my prize. Even though that tie is out of style today, it hangs in my closet, and I find myself admiring it occasionally even now. Why? Because it isn’t a tie, it is a trophy. That is a small thing; I often use a good cigar for the same purpose today.
You can use anything you like, dinner out, a massage, it doesn’t matter what it is as long as it matters to you.
My point is that in most cases fear of the phone is nothing more than allowing the phone to be bigger than your why. If you can learn how to expand your why, you dream, your want, whatever you want to call it until it burns in you, there won’t be any obstacle that you can’t overcome.
You have heard the stories of the swimmers who tried to swim the English Channel but gave up after they had almost made it because the fog had set in and they couldn’t see the shore. And we have heard stories of mountain climbers who gave up just short of the pinnacle due to climbing through a cloud and not being able to see the top. If your target is not mentally visible to you, you can get caught up in the problems and not the reason why you are doing what it is you do.
Picture, if you will, a man looking at his goal or dream, then drop a barrier between them that is too tall for the man to see his dream over it.
When we take our eyes off of our prize we tend to make excuses about what problem is holding us back. However the problem is not the problem, it never has been, and never will be. If it were then no one else who has had that problem would have been able to succeed in doing what you want to do, my guess is that there are always examples of someone doing just that. “I’m too young”, “too old”, “too whatever”, “the people in my area are different”, whatever someone uses as their problem or excuse is being proven wrong by someone who has the same issues but it succeeding. Obstacles are those scary things we see when we take our eyes off our goals.
Growing up on a farm, my dad taught me how to plow a straight line. We would walk off the field and tie a rag to a tree or fence to make the mark, then go to the other side and walk it off to the same distance and then drive to the mark on the other side. You would just keep your eyes on the mark and your line would be perfectly straight. If you looked back and took your eyes off the mark you could see where you would lose the straight line, but if you would simply refocus you would straighten up and reach your goal. This is not a new idea, it is found in the Bible in Luke 9:62 Jesus replied; “Anyone who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is not fit for service in the kingdom of God.” You just need to make sure that the thing you are focusing on is big enough, and means enough to you, that it is more important to you than worrying about the size of the phone.
Now imagine that same man, the same obstacle, but with a much larger dream that can be seen over the top of the obstacle. Because if you build your dream big enough, the facts will no longer count.
How do you do this? Break it down into parts. First take a look at your big goal, how much money will it take for you to make over and above your living expenses to get it? Then figure out how much you make on one of your average sales, and divide the total you need to make for your expenses and your goal by that amount. Now you know how many sales you need to make per year, divide by twelve and you have your monthly sales goal. Break it down further, what is your average conversion rate for sales appointments to get a net sale? Now you know how many appointments you need to make per month, divide by four and now how many appointments you need per week. Let’s take it down another step, how many calls do you have to make on an average to get an appointment? Now you know how many calls per week you have to make to reach your appointment goals. Break that number down per day and you have a very reachable daily goal. What is wonderful about this type of goal is you are the only one who needs to cooperate to achieve it. It is purely an activity goal, one in which you are in total control.
So set goals for how many calls, how many appointments, how many sales, with rewards for each.
Let’s make the calls:
Set a goal for how many calls you will make per day. Schedule a time to make calls without distractions.
When you are making calls, be sure that you know the purpose of your call. What is your goal in that call, is it to set an appointment? Then understand that is the sale you are trying to make.
Don’t try to sell your product over the phone, sell the appointment, people are not going to make a large purchase over the phone. Since you are not going to sell the product over the phone, you need to learn to build curiosity. Ask questions, learn about the prospect, learn about their situation, and probe for their needs, their concerns, and their areas of pain.
One of the best examples of this was an old television show “Columbo” with Peter Falk. If you would find an old tape and watch him questioning a suspect, you can learn a lot about questioning a client. The goal should be to create a desire in the prospect to know more, to create a level of curiosity that they want satisfied.
Unfortunately far too many sales people think that the more they tell the prospect the more they will want to know. That isn’t true, you have a goal to set an appointment, and they have a goal as well. Their goal is to determine if they want to keep talking with you or eliminate you from their radar. If they feel they have “enough” information to make a decision over the phone, or if they start to feel you are talking about something “too good to be true” you have fallen from the peak of curiosity to the valley of skepticism.
Most of us, who gravitate to sales, have been told all our lives we are “natural” sales people, that we have “the gift of gab.” That can be an asset, but also a liability. There are two basic types of sales people, the Interesting extroverts, and the Interested Introverts. The Interesting Extroverts love to talk, but have to be very careful not to dominate the conversation by “puking” information dumps on the poor client. The Interested Introverts are very good at asking questions, and really listening to the client’s answers. If you will ask enough questions, and pay attention to the answers, the client will virtually sell them selves.
Be sincere, friendly, and relaxed on the phone.
If you are using a script be sure to rehearse it until it sounds natural, think of your client as a good friend and speak in the same manner.
Instead of a script you might find a bullet point list where the questions you want to ask, and the points you want to make are listed so you don’t forget them, this is my favorite technique.
To make your call have more power, allow your humor to come out. Don’t try to be so professional, or so focuses on your list of things you want to say, to not inject some humor. If you can find a joke that makes a point you want to make you have struck gold.
For instance, I used to sell programs that were designed to help people create secondary income streams. One of the jokes I told was, “I want to make sure that when people ask you what you did last night at work that you have something to tell them. You can tell them that you are now an expert on the subject of money, I am going to teach you the essential knowledge of money that will make you and expert. Are you ready, get out your notepads, ‘About money, it is better to have it than not to have it, it is better to have more of it than less of it, and it is better to have it sooner than later.”
Another one was telling a story of how I sold my wife on marrying me, “When I was dating my wife I told her that if she would marry me she would have it all, she would live in the big house on the hill, drive up in her convertible sports car, would never have to clean a toilet in her life, the maid would take care of that, and we would travel the world going to Hawaii and every place she could dream of.” Before you are married this is called dating, after you are married it’s called lying. Then she started asking when any of this was going to happen, when we were ever going to Hawaii. I would tell her we were too young, why do it when you only have a couple weeks of vacation and have to rush around. Why not wait until we are retired and can really afford both the time and money. She then explained it this way, she said just imagine walking down the beach with the ocean rolling in gently tickling our feet as we walk, off in the distance are the sounds of a luau, the smell of tropical flowers dancing in the breeze. Just you and I on a lonely beach the moonlight following us along the water, the most romantic stroll….. then you take your walker and move try to keep it from getting stuck in the sand.” Guys it is better to have it sooner than later.
Jokes like this can suck your client into the moment and drive home a point stronger than a graph and chart. So if you can find a way to incorporate them do so.
98% of all sales are not made on the first call, so follow-through is as critical as any part of the sales process. Follow-through starts on the initial contact, and continues until there is a yes or hard no. It often takes five to ten follow-throughs to a prospect to make the first sale. The prospect may or may not actually say no each time, but every time you follow-through and they don’t buy; it is as if he is saying, you have yet to convince me. Be prepared to be persistent in follow-through and not quit past that 7th no. As Zig Ziglar says, “Timid sales people raise skinny kids.”
Goals for call:
Your primary goal should be to be Detective Columbo and gather information about your prospect. If you ask enough questions, and then listen to them, encouraging them to elaborate, they will tell you how to close them. They will tell you their concerns and their hot buttons. Once you know those, all you have to do is show them how to solve them and you aren’t even selling but helping them get what they want.
What you want to find in your questions are their areas of pain, want, or need. Design your questions to ferret these out. Use tie down questions to help you direct the prospect if they are not forthcoming.
Tie downs are the little questions at the end of a statement to get the small yes from the prospect.
“Our experience shows that one of the biggest concerns of most of baby boomers today is how do they protect themselves and their families from the costs of long term care in case one of them goes to an assisted care facility, wouldn’t you agree?”
You can also do an inverted tie down by putting the question at the front of the statement as well.
“Isn’t it true that many people today are worrying about the viability of Social Security long term?”
There are eighteen basic tie-downs you can find useful:
Aren’t they, Aren’t you, Can’t you, Couldn’t it, Doesn’t it, Don’t you agree, Don’t we, Shouldn’t it, Wouldn’t it, Haven’t they, Hasn’t he, Hasn’t she, Isn’t it, Isn’t that right, Didn’t it, Wasn’t it, Won’t they, Won’t you?
Of course there are more that you can add to this list, but this gives you a good idea of how they can work for you. At the front of a statement they inverted tie downs, in the middle they are easily hidden in as an internal tie-down; at the end they are the traditional tie-down. It is best to mix them up and not use too many, no more than three or four per conversation.
There is another way that you can use these, the tag on, where if you prospect makes a positive statement on your product. Prospect, “As crazy as the stock market has been I can see how it makes sense to find a safe place for my retirement money.” You, “Doesn’t it?”
When you make the call keep your goals in mind.
1. An appointment. (When you get the appointment, confirm it, and then send them a handwritten note reminding of it.)
2. Schedule another call. (If you can’t get an in person appointment, book another time for a call to give them more information that you will promise them.)
3. Leave a question unanswered that gives you permission to call them back with the answer.
Bram Stoker in his classic book about vampires “Dracula” said that vampires cannot enter your home without permission. I have always tried to use that thought process as a salesperson. I always seek an invitation to follow-through. In each meeting either in person or by phone, I try to find a question to leave unanswered. “That is a great question, let me look into that. I will call you on_____ after I find out the best answer for you.” That way I am not a “pesky” sales person bugging them, but keeping a promise answering a question that they wanted. You can keep that going forever.
Have fun, lighten up. If no one else has fun, you should at least make sure that you do. If you are having fun, you will continue to make the calls, and the fun will come out in your voice and make you much more effective. Play games with your self.
If possible when making a call to someone you don’t know, and that doesn’t know you, use a third party recommendation. This can be a very loose connection, but it still works.
There was a time when I was on the road as a sales trainer for a company that was recruiting new distributors. One of the things I often added to a seminar was how to overcome fear of the phone and how to make a third party referral call.
I would have a local phone book on a table then would ask for a volunteer from the crowd to come and close their eyes and point to a spot on the page of the phone book. I would then ask the audience to be VERY quiet, and beg them not to laugh. I would then call the number that the volunteer pointed to. When the person answered I would say “Hello Bob, I am expanding my company in the ____ area and someone pointed your name out as someone I should talk to.” I would then start questioning and qualifying the person.
Many times would get an appointment for coffee and where they would bring their resume for an interview. Many times I would get shot down, or I would have no interest in meeting with them. Remember it was a random number out of that city’s phone book. I was happy to have the failures in front of the audience as well; it showed that is just part of the game.
If you have a problem personally saying that someone gave you their name, take your list and have someone in your office hand it to you. Then someone did in fact give you their name. Have fun with it. The idea of a list is to get names on it, and then to get names off of it. If you ever need help building a prospect list, I will be glad to teach you how to add at around a thousand new names of people you already know, or know people you know. That is another seminar.
SW, SW, SW, NEXT! Some Will, Some Won’t, So What, Next!
If you understand that last point, it will liberate you to fail your way to success on the phone.
Call Reluctance in not the problem, it is just a symptom. Find out what your Why is and you can accomplish anything.
Keep in mind, in business and in life, you can make excuses or you can make money, but you can’t do both.
We are independent commissioned sales people, it is up to us to find out what will make us work to our potential, no one will make us do it but we ourselves.
What can you do? Never underestimate the value of investing in you, as Ben Franklin told us, “If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
Put some positive in your head daily, you are getting a good dose of negative just going through an average day. Make it a habit to read a book on sales skills, or more importantly a positive attitude book for 10 to 15 minutes first thing every morning before starting your day, and again each night before going to bed. Find an idea that you can use right away.
Find a WHY:
1. Why: If your why is big enough the facts don’t count.
When I speak of why, it is retraining yourself to embrace delayed gratification. To reward yourself when you accomplish a goal, this should be everything from small activity goals to large production goals. Each should be set with a reward you will give yourself when you achieve it. Make the goals a stretch but attainable.
Once when I was trying to reach an activity goal that every month seemed just out of reach, I would get close, but never was able to attain it. At the time I was doing a lot of public speaking and several of my friends and I were in kind of an arms race for the coolest neck ties. I was at a men’s store and found a tie that I really wanted, I was so excited, as I was standing in line to purchase it, and it dawned on me that I should set it as a reward for hitting that elusive goal. I had the store put a hold on it for a week until the end of that month, and then went back to work feverishly to accomplish my goal so I could come back and claim my prize. Even though that tie is out of style today, it hangs in my closet, and I find myself admiring it occasionally even now. Why? Because it isn’t a tie, it is a trophy. That is a small thing; I often use a good cigar for the same purpose today.
You can use anything you like, dinner out, a massage, it doesn’t matter what it is as long as it matters to you.
My point is that in most cases fear of the phone is nothing more than allowing the phone to be bigger than your why. If you can learn how to expand your why, you dream, your want, whatever you want to call it until it burns in you, there won’t be any obstacle that you can’t overcome.
You have heard the stories of the swimmers who tried to swim the English Channel but gave up after they had almost made it because the fog had set in and they couldn’t see the shore. And we have heard stories of mountain climbers who gave up just short of the pinnacle due to climbing through a cloud and not being able to see the top. If your target is not mentally visible to you, you can get caught up in the problems and not the reason why you are doing what it is you do.
Picture, if you will, a man looking at his goal or dream, then drop a barrier between them that is too tall for the man to see his dream over it.
When we take our eyes off of our prize we tend to make excuses about what problem is holding us back. However the problem is not the problem, it never has been, and never will be. If it were then no one else who has had that problem would have been able to succeed in doing what you want to do, my guess is that there are always examples of someone doing just that. “I’m too young”, “too old”, “too whatever”, “the people in my area are different”, whatever someone uses as their problem or excuse is being proven wrong by someone who has the same issues but it succeeding. Obstacles are those scary things we see when we take our eyes off our goals.
Growing up on a farm, my dad taught me how to plow a straight line. We would walk off the field and tie a rag to a tree or fence to make the mark, then go to the other side and walk it off to the same distance and then drive to the mark on the other side. You would just keep your eyes on the mark and your line would be perfectly straight. If you looked back and took your eyes off the mark you could see where you would lose the straight line, but if you would simply refocus you would straighten up and reach your goal. This is not a new idea, it is found in the Bible in Luke 9:62 Jesus replied; “Anyone who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is not fit for service in the kingdom of God.” You just need to make sure that the thing you are focusing on is big enough, and means enough to you, that it is more important to you than worrying about the size of the phone.
Now imagine that same man, the same obstacle, but with a much larger dream that can be seen over the top of the obstacle. Because if you build your dream big enough, the facts will no longer count.
How do you do this? Break it down into parts. First take a look at your big goal, how much money will it take for you to make over and above your living expenses to get it? Then figure out how much you make on one of your average sales, and divide the total you need to make for your expenses and your goal by that amount. Now you know how many sales you need to make per year, divide by twelve and you have your monthly sales goal. Break it down further, what is your average conversion rate for sales appointments to get a net sale? Now you know how many appointments you need to make per month, divide by four and now how many appointments you need per week. Let’s take it down another step, how many calls do you have to make on an average to get an appointment? Now you know how many calls per week you have to make to reach your appointment goals. Break that number down per day and you have a very reachable daily goal. What is wonderful about this type of goal is you are the only one who needs to cooperate to achieve it. It is purely an activity goal, one in which you are in total control.
So set goals for how many calls, how many appointments, how many sales, with rewards for each.
Let’s make the calls:
Set a goal for how many calls you will make per day. Schedule a time to make calls without distractions.
When you are making calls, be sure that you know the purpose of your call. What is your goal in that call, is it to set an appointment? Then understand that is the sale you are trying to make.
Don’t try to sell your product over the phone, sell the appointment, people are not going to make a large purchase over the phone. Since you are not going to sell the product over the phone, you need to learn to build curiosity. Ask questions, learn about the prospect, learn about their situation, and probe for their needs, their concerns, and their areas of pain.
One of the best examples of this was an old television show “Columbo” with Peter Falk. If you would find an old tape and watch him questioning a suspect, you can learn a lot about questioning a client. The goal should be to create a desire in the prospect to know more, to create a level of curiosity that they want satisfied.
Unfortunately far too many sales people think that the more they tell the prospect the more they will want to know. That isn’t true, you have a goal to set an appointment, and they have a goal as well. Their goal is to determine if they want to keep talking with you or eliminate you from their radar. If they feel they have “enough” information to make a decision over the phone, or if they start to feel you are talking about something “too good to be true” you have fallen from the peak of curiosity to the valley of skepticism.
Most of us, who gravitate to sales, have been told all our lives we are “natural” sales people, that we have “the gift of gab.” That can be an asset, but also a liability. There are two basic types of sales people, the Interesting extroverts, and the Interested Introverts. The Interesting Extroverts love to talk, but have to be very careful not to dominate the conversation by “puking” information dumps on the poor client. The Interested Introverts are very good at asking questions, and really listening to the client’s answers. If you will ask enough questions, and pay attention to the answers, the client will virtually sell them selves.
Be sincere, friendly, and relaxed on the phone.
If you are using a script be sure to rehearse it until it sounds natural, think of your client as a good friend and speak in the same manner.
Instead of a script you might find a bullet point list where the questions you want to ask, and the points you want to make are listed so you don’t forget them, this is my favorite technique.
To make your call have more power, allow your humor to come out. Don’t try to be so professional, or so focuses on your list of things you want to say, to not inject some humor. If you can find a joke that makes a point you want to make you have struck gold.
For instance, I used to sell programs that were designed to help people create secondary income streams. One of the jokes I told was, “I want to make sure that when people ask you what you did last night at work that you have something to tell them. You can tell them that you are now an expert on the subject of money, I am going to teach you the essential knowledge of money that will make you and expert. Are you ready, get out your notepads, ‘About money, it is better to have it than not to have it, it is better to have more of it than less of it, and it is better to have it sooner than later.”
Another one was telling a story of how I sold my wife on marrying me, “When I was dating my wife I told her that if she would marry me she would have it all, she would live in the big house on the hill, drive up in her convertible sports car, would never have to clean a toilet in her life, the maid would take care of that, and we would travel the world going to Hawaii and every place she could dream of.” Before you are married this is called dating, after you are married it’s called lying. Then she started asking when any of this was going to happen, when we were ever going to Hawaii. I would tell her we were too young, why do it when you only have a couple weeks of vacation and have to rush around. Why not wait until we are retired and can really afford both the time and money. She then explained it this way, she said just imagine walking down the beach with the ocean rolling in gently tickling our feet as we walk, off in the distance are the sounds of a luau, the smell of tropical flowers dancing in the breeze. Just you and I on a lonely beach the moonlight following us along the water, the most romantic stroll….. then you take your walker and move try to keep it from getting stuck in the sand.” Guys it is better to have it sooner than later.
Jokes like this can suck your client into the moment and drive home a point stronger than a graph and chart. So if you can find a way to incorporate them do so.
98% of all sales are not made on the first call, so follow-through is as critical as any part of the sales process. Follow-through starts on the initial contact, and continues until there is a yes or hard no. It often takes five to ten follow-throughs to a prospect to make the first sale. The prospect may or may not actually say no each time, but every time you follow-through and they don’t buy; it is as if he is saying, you have yet to convince me. Be prepared to be persistent in follow-through and not quit past that 7th no. As Zig Ziglar says, “Timid sales people raise skinny kids.”
Goals for call:
Your primary goal should be to be Detective Columbo and gather information about your prospect. If you ask enough questions, and then listen to them, encouraging them to elaborate, they will tell you how to close them. They will tell you their concerns and their hot buttons. Once you know those, all you have to do is show them how to solve them and you aren’t even selling but helping them get what they want.
What you want to find in your questions are their areas of pain, want, or need. Design your questions to ferret these out. Use tie down questions to help you direct the prospect if they are not forthcoming.
Tie downs are the little questions at the end of a statement to get the small yes from the prospect.
“Our experience shows that one of the biggest concerns of most of baby boomers today is how do they protect themselves and their families from the costs of long term care in case one of them goes to an assisted care facility, wouldn’t you agree?”
You can also do an inverted tie down by putting the question at the front of the statement as well.
“Isn’t it true that many people today are worrying about the viability of Social Security long term?”
There are eighteen basic tie-downs you can find useful:
Aren’t they, Aren’t you, Can’t you, Couldn’t it, Doesn’t it, Don’t you agree, Don’t we, Shouldn’t it, Wouldn’t it, Haven’t they, Hasn’t he, Hasn’t she, Isn’t it, Isn’t that right, Didn’t it, Wasn’t it, Won’t they, Won’t you?
Of course there are more that you can add to this list, but this gives you a good idea of how they can work for you. At the front of a statement they inverted tie downs, in the middle they are easily hidden in as an internal tie-down; at the end they are the traditional tie-down. It is best to mix them up and not use too many, no more than three or four per conversation.
There is another way that you can use these, the tag on, where if you prospect makes a positive statement on your product. Prospect, “As crazy as the stock market has been I can see how it makes sense to find a safe place for my retirement money.” You, “Doesn’t it?”
When you make the call keep your goals in mind.
1. An appointment. (When you get the appointment, confirm it, and then send them a handwritten note reminding of it.)
2. Schedule another call. (If you can’t get an in person appointment, book another time for a call to give them more information that you will promise them.)
3. Leave a question unanswered that gives you permission to call them back with the answer.
Bram Stoker in his classic book about vampires “Dracula” said that vampires cannot enter your home without permission. I have always tried to use that thought process as a salesperson. I always seek an invitation to follow-through. In each meeting either in person or by phone, I try to find a question to leave unanswered. “That is a great question, let me look into that. I will call you on_____ after I find out the best answer for you.” That way I am not a “pesky” sales person bugging them, but keeping a promise answering a question that they wanted. You can keep that going forever.
Have fun, lighten up. If no one else has fun, you should at least make sure that you do. If you are having fun, you will continue to make the calls, and the fun will come out in your voice and make you much more effective. Play games with your self.
If possible when making a call to someone you don’t know, and that doesn’t know you, use a third party recommendation. This can be a very loose connection, but it still works.
There was a time when I was on the road as a sales trainer for a company that was recruiting new distributors. One of the things I often added to a seminar was how to overcome fear of the phone and how to make a third party referral call.
I would have a local phone book on a table then would ask for a volunteer from the crowd to come and close their eyes and point to a spot on the page of the phone book. I would then ask the audience to be VERY quiet, and beg them not to laugh. I would then call the number that the volunteer pointed to. When the person answered I would say “Hello Bob, I am expanding my company in the ____ area and someone pointed your name out as someone I should talk to.” I would then start questioning and qualifying the person.
Many times would get an appointment for coffee and where they would bring their resume for an interview. Many times I would get shot down, or I would have no interest in meeting with them. Remember it was a random number out of that city’s phone book. I was happy to have the failures in front of the audience as well; it showed that is just part of the game.
If you have a problem personally saying that someone gave you their name, take your list and have someone in your office hand it to you. Then someone did in fact give you their name. Have fun with it. The idea of a list is to get names on it, and then to get names off of it. If you ever need help building a prospect list, I will be glad to teach you how to add at around a thousand new names of people you already know, or know people you know. That is another seminar.
SW, SW, SW, NEXT! Some Will, Some Won’t, So What, Next!
If you understand that last point, it will liberate you to fail your way to success on the phone.
Call Reluctance in not the problem, it is just a symptom. Find out what your Why is and you can accomplish anything.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Bye Bye Brinks 12-12-2007 - 11-5-2010
This is a blog post that maybe no one but me will care about, but of that I couldn't care less. The picture you see as the icon on my blog was my buddy Mister Brinks my Doberman. He was unique, in that after having Dobermans, raising dozens of them, having countless numbers of them come through our house if only as a drop off point for someone to pick up an out of state dog, none of us have ever known one quite like Brinks. His personality was unique to him, so much so, he was the one and only time that we kept a puppy out of one of our litters unplanned just because we became too attached to sell him.
He was a big strong boy, 97 pounds of pure muscle, but a gentle giant, we liked to tease that he was Milton the Monster with "Ooops too much tincture of kindness."
Two days ago, we noticed that he wasn't eating as well as he should have, but that too was not unusual for him, he was always one that you had to entice to eat. We now learn that might have been a clue even though he was "as healthy as a horse." Two days ago, his abdomen became swollen and you could tell he wasn't on his game. Took him to the vet the next day, blood tests, and they wanted him back the next day for an ultra-sound. Today that test showed that he had a severe cirrhosis of the liver, beyond repair or even maintenance, and had to be put down. To see him literally fall apart physically in 48 hours was truly shocking. The belief is that he had a condition known as Copper Toxicosis that caused his liver failure. From what we read it appears that he has had it for a while, but was asymptomatic with no signs of the disease that would have tipped anyone off. The vet said if she had given him a physical last week she probably would have sent him home with a clean bill of health.
I am not sure if I find any comfort there yet or not, will probably need to move away from the raw emotion to gain some perspective there.
For those who have breeds that are prone to this I want to post some information on it for you here to be aware of signs. Most show symptoms in time to deal with it, unlike Brinks.
Copper toxicosis most commonly afflicts terriers such as the Bedlington terrier, Skye terrier, and West Highland white terrier. It also affects Dobermans, which isn't that hard to understand, Dobermans come from the Terrier family originally.
Copper toxicosis is caused by excess copper accumulating in the liver. If not controlled can die because too much copper in the system is toxic.
Copper is normally found in the liver, brain, heart, kidney muscle and bones of healthy dogs; however, it is found only in small traces. Copper toxicosis occurs when the liver does not process copper properly, allowing it to build up to abnormal amounts.
Female Dobermans tend to have copper toxicosis more often than males. Initial symptoms indicate liver problems. They can include jaundice, anaemia, anorexia, vomiting, weakness, weight loss, lethargy, depression, dehydration, although some afflicted dogs are asymptomatic. As with any ailment, early diagnosis by a veterinarian allows for a greater chance of recovery.
The only known treatments for copper toxicosis are to reduce the dog’s intake of copper by changing her diet, and anticupric therapy as recommended by a veterinarian.
Many commercial dog foods are high in copper. In human diets, shellfish, chocolate, liver, nuts, legumes and cereals are all rich with copper. These may not seem to be things common to commercial dog food, but one should read the labels and packages. Cereal is often used as a binder or filler in dog food to help those crunchy nuggets stay together for baking, or to thicken canned food.
The use of copper pipes may also add copper to the dog’s water.
When I did my research, I find that we may have contributed to this at least in part. Brinks, as I said often was difficult to get to eat, one of the things that almost always worked was to put peas on it. He loved peas, but they are legumes.
I hope that no one has to deal with this, but now you know what to watch out for.
He was a big strong boy, 97 pounds of pure muscle, but a gentle giant, we liked to tease that he was Milton the Monster with "Ooops too much tincture of kindness."
Two days ago, we noticed that he wasn't eating as well as he should have, but that too was not unusual for him, he was always one that you had to entice to eat. We now learn that might have been a clue even though he was "as healthy as a horse." Two days ago, his abdomen became swollen and you could tell he wasn't on his game. Took him to the vet the next day, blood tests, and they wanted him back the next day for an ultra-sound. Today that test showed that he had a severe cirrhosis of the liver, beyond repair or even maintenance, and had to be put down. To see him literally fall apart physically in 48 hours was truly shocking. The belief is that he had a condition known as Copper Toxicosis that caused his liver failure. From what we read it appears that he has had it for a while, but was asymptomatic with no signs of the disease that would have tipped anyone off. The vet said if she had given him a physical last week she probably would have sent him home with a clean bill of health.
I am not sure if I find any comfort there yet or not, will probably need to move away from the raw emotion to gain some perspective there.
For those who have breeds that are prone to this I want to post some information on it for you here to be aware of signs. Most show symptoms in time to deal with it, unlike Brinks.
Copper toxicosis most commonly afflicts terriers such as the Bedlington terrier, Skye terrier, and West Highland white terrier. It also affects Dobermans, which isn't that hard to understand, Dobermans come from the Terrier family originally.
Copper toxicosis is caused by excess copper accumulating in the liver. If not controlled can die because too much copper in the system is toxic.
Copper is normally found in the liver, brain, heart, kidney muscle and bones of healthy dogs; however, it is found only in small traces. Copper toxicosis occurs when the liver does not process copper properly, allowing it to build up to abnormal amounts.
Female Dobermans tend to have copper toxicosis more often than males. Initial symptoms indicate liver problems. They can include jaundice, anaemia, anorexia, vomiting, weakness, weight loss, lethargy, depression, dehydration, although some afflicted dogs are asymptomatic. As with any ailment, early diagnosis by a veterinarian allows for a greater chance of recovery.
The only known treatments for copper toxicosis are to reduce the dog’s intake of copper by changing her diet, and anticupric therapy as recommended by a veterinarian.
Many commercial dog foods are high in copper. In human diets, shellfish, chocolate, liver, nuts, legumes and cereals are all rich with copper. These may not seem to be things common to commercial dog food, but one should read the labels and packages. Cereal is often used as a binder or filler in dog food to help those crunchy nuggets stay together for baking, or to thicken canned food.
The use of copper pipes may also add copper to the dog’s water.
When I did my research, I find that we may have contributed to this at least in part. Brinks, as I said often was difficult to get to eat, one of the things that almost always worked was to put peas on it. He loved peas, but they are legumes.
I hope that no one has to deal with this, but now you know what to watch out for.
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