Brandon is an adventure-loving entrepreneur, avid rock climber, surfer and musician, and an expert in sales who loves to help others succeed. He formed The Sales Rep Group to share with sales representatives and business owners the insights, tools, and knowledge I have gained that has led to success. He wants to create a new breed of sales representatives and business owners so that together they can carry their message and model through the world and change the way business is done as we know it. He foresees thousands of sales reps breaking away from the old model and view of sales and adapting a new model and lifestyle in which they can eliminate stress, close more sales, and live their lives to the fullest. He simply thinks, lives, and acts differently than most sales representatives and business owners, and this has been the number one reason for his success in pharmaceutical and laboratory sales, as well as in founding and launching my own companies and brands. His motto is “Work to Live. Do Not Live to Work.” Not only is that his mantra, but he believes wholeheartedly that his success comes from keeping his focus on that truth and establishing his business practices around it. He is a creator at heart and believes that whatever you want in life or business is yours for the taking if you simply go against the grain and popular opinion and do things differently.
What are you working on right now?
Currently I am working on launching a brand new company called The Sales Rep Group that is dedicated to training and developing sales representatives to think and act differently by breaking away from the old model of sales.
3 Trends that excite you?
1. Social Media. The way that it helps me stay in touch with customers, friends and business partners is exceptional. It also helps me stay current on things going on in the world. I am able to utilize social media to generate ideas by seeing what people are wishing for, discussing and/or having problems with.
2. Fitness. I love the way that our culture is becoming increasingly focused on fitness and health. This impacts me personally and professionally, because so many of my ideas revolve around adventure and living life to the fullest.
3. Mobile Everything. I have transitioned almost everything I do to a mobile platform. I utilize my iPhone for budgeting, financial management, e-mail, social networking, reading books, listening to music, controlling the TV, booking travel itineraries, sending invoices, paying bills, making international calls, task management, office document editing, photography and videography … everything. I can literally do any work necessary from my mobile device. This makes it possible for me to be productive wherever I am. Catering to this trend in my business ideas is imperative, as as great percentage of my target market is turning 100 percent mobile as well.
How do you bring ideas to life?
The way my mind works, I think of new ideas every day. I have a concrete process to evaluate and bring ideas to life. I write down each idea as I have them, and once per week I then sit down and write out each step that I would need to take to research and/or make that idea happen. By the end of that planning time, I will know who to talk to, where to go and what to do to take each step to make the idea possible. Often in this process, I encounter reasons (whether financial or other reasons) that the idea may not work, which causes me to go back to tweak my plans and process until I find one that works. Ultimately, I never throw an idea out, I just backtrack plans until I find a workable solution. One of the best methodologies I have found is David Allen’s Getting Things Done. I also make sure that I never multitask. I am much more efficient when I work on one task at a time.
What is one mistake you’ve made that our readers can learn from?
One mistake I made is jumping full force into marketing an idea and spending too much money up front. I have learned the importance of spending as little money as possible up front, so that I can stretch my money out over time as I develop a product or idea.
What is one book and one tool that helps you bring ideas to life?
The best book I have read is “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss, and software that is a must have is OmniFocus, which helps me with task management (following David Allen’s Getting Things Done).
What is one idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Something I would love to see happen is a web based, socially enabled, music creation service where musicians throughout the world could collaborate with each other online and record, mix, and release their tracks online.
How do you keep all of your ideas straight, without feeling overwhelmed and/or feeling like you are missing important details?
In order to keep all of my ideas straight, I take advantage of technology and careful calendar planning. I have a scheduled time first thing Monday morning in which I review all the tasks I have for the week, as well as personal goals and a list I call my “Wish List,” which is a list of ideas and things I would like to do. During these planning times, I can decide when to move on certain ideas and even when to add new ones. I keep track of all these ideas as they come up, as well as tasks and projects, by using a task management system called Omnifocus, based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology. Using my iPhone, I can make notes and add things to my wish list or task list on the fly. I record every idea and thought that way. I also use a program called Evernote, which allows me to take snapshots of articles, write up and save e-mail templates and make meeting notes to follow up on later. At the end of every week, I also have a scheduled review time where I look at all new tasks and projects added that week and make sure that I am not missing anything. When it comes to sales and managing clients, I perform the same review process in which I spend time looking at my prospects and deals. I know that with this system I have in place, I am not missing a single thing.
How do you manage your personal life and keep all of your personal interests while being so busy with work? Does your personal life suffer?
I think this question can be answered based on the answer to my professional question about task and idea management. In my opinion, the main thing that causes stress and anxiety with feeling overworked is that our minds are always racing, wondering if we missed something or worrying about what’s next. By having a carefully planned task management and idea tracking system, and knowing that I have scheduled review times, I do not have thoughts stressing me out non-stop. I also make it a priority and have my personal time scheduled, so that I never sacrifice the things that are truly important. My motto is: “Work to Live, Don’t Live to Work.”
Connect:
E-mail: [email protected]
Websites: http://www.
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LinkedIn: Brandon Hensinger
Twitter: @bhensinger
Facebook: Brandon Hensinger, The Alive Sales Rep
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.