Curtis will never forget Friday night, May 20th, 2005. The day before his college baseball championships, his father walked into his hotel room to tell him that his brother Silas was killed in a tragic dirt bike accident.
It was devastating!
At the funeral, his dad said something that changed his life forever. We will share in moment what he said, and why it led Curtis to co-author Appreciation Marketing®.
One week after Silas passed away, he started his first REAL JOB, working for Cintas, a Multi-Billion Dollar company. He sold really sexy products like toilet paper, air fresheners, soaps, and floor mats to businesses.
He busted his butt working over 50 hours a week, cold calling and knocking on every door, every store, and every floor.
Curtis never really made money before, and he wanted to travel and have nice things.
What he really wanted was to live an “AND Life” and NOT an “OR Life”.
What he means by that is…instead of getting a new car OR going on Vacation, he wanted to get a new car AND go on vacation.
He NEVER wanted to one day look into his kid’s eyes and say “I’m sorry you can’t go to summer camp with all your friends because mom and I just had to buy a new air conditioner for the house”
Curtis never wanted to miss a Little League game because he had to work. He wanted to Work to Live, NOT Live to Work.
You know what else he wanted? He wanted to order off the left side of the menu when going out to eat. Ordering what he REALLY wanted to eat and not basing his decision on the right side of the menu, THE PRICE!
He wanted to have money so he could have CHOICES.
The pressure at his job was intense…
Pressure of hitting his numbers.
Pressure of feeling he was only as good as his last sale.
Pressure of never feeling good enough because they always wanted more.
He felt pressure to lie about accounts he was working on. Sandbagging accounts was the only way to meet weekly goals. Sandbagging is reporting only a portion of your real numbers, so that some volume rolls into the following week. It was an emotional rollercoaster to be on, and really took a toll on him!
He was making great money, but he was no longer motivated to work. He had hit a wall. He was burnt out. He was depressed, yet still had to pay his bills.
He was at his lowest point, when the number-one salesman noted how stressed he looked, and invited him out to lunch.
He was jealous of Shawn. Shawn bragged about working half the hours Curtis did AND….how he made twice as much money! He came and left the office whenever he wanted, walking with that confident swagger, and driving off in his Mercedes.
Curtis wanted to be Shawn.
While at lunch…Shawn asked Curtis “Who is one of your service drivers in your territory?”
He replied, “One of them is Gary.”
Shawn asked, “Tell me about Gary.”
Curtis replied… “Well…he’s the guy who services the accounts every week after I sell them.” (shaking his head and thinking…DUH!)
Shawn’s answer was, “Do you know that Gary is married, a father of three, likes to go fishing on the weekends, and is currently training for a sprint triathlon?”
Curtis still did not understand what he was getting at. Shawn continued, “Did you also know that Gary sends me all of his referrals, from YOUR territory?”
Curtis was angry! He was about to pop off like a loose cannon….and then it hit him…HE GOT IT. At that moment, Curtis realized the importance of getting to know people for who they ARE… not what they DO.
Shawn cared for people as people.
Shawn had done a massive amount of cold calling earlier in his career, but eventually realized the REAL MAGIC in sales that allowed him to have it all, to actually have a life outside of work.
The REAL MAGIC was EARNING REFERRALS.
This all tied in to what Curtis’s father said at his brother’s funeral…
He put together a plan. He hopped on the Cintas delivery trucks and spent a couple days servicing accounts and getting to know the drivers. He wanted to earn their respect, in hopes of earning referrals from them in the future.
When the drivers discovered a “Coming Soon” or an “Under New Management” sign in a window…Curtis wanted to be the guy who received those referrals because of the relationships he had built! The first one in the door usually gets the business.
Unfortunately, referrals were not happening fast enough for Curtis to hit his numbers. He wasn’t getting those referrals quickly enough. Curtis almost got fired. He was forced to go back to cold calling.
It wasn’t long before everything radically shifted for Curtis and REFERRALS started pouring in. He discovered the power of follow up, using greeting cards to share APPRECIATION. Within a few months He was only working 25 hours a week AND making more money!
He was LIVING for the first time since taking the job. What his dad had shared at his brother’s funeral was, “Silas lived more life in his 23 years than most people do in an entire lifetime.”
And that’s why Curtis decided to quit his Corporate Job 14 years ago to start a marketing agency and launch his speaking career. Every time he speaks to a group of sales professionals, they also want the secret to unlocking the power of referrals, and live a life worth living!
He partnered up with Tommy Wyatt, and together they launched their National Best-Selling book, “Appreciation Marketing®”.
Five years after launching the book, he created a software company called AMcards to help salespeople GRIND LESS and MAKE MORE MONEY by EARNING MORE REFERRALS!
If you have not downloaded the FREE PDF and Bonus Videos on the 7 Most Powerful Referral Secrets, make sure that you do. Just one of the secrets has the potential to help you Explode Your Year and Make Your Career!