Helping A Young Spark Ignite The "Impossible"

What Can A Motivated Teen Achieve?
Ask Bill Gates!

One of my all time favorite quotes is:

"I try to believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
- Lewis Carroll

The belief in the "impossible" is not something I taught myself to do, it just was something I do naturally.  Every morning from the moment I wake up, to the second I finally fall asleep my mind races with ideas of the "impossible."

Today was no different, except for the fact that today I am sharing one of my "impossible" ideas here on my blog so the world can ponder it with me.  This morning my thought was on the youth of the world, and how can we help foster the eager spark of our youth to ignite change in the world.

This idea come from my memories high school.  During that point of my life the last thing I ever cared about was school.  Mainly because I was board out of my mind, and found myself constantly finding fault in the curriculum and teaching methods used.  Looking back, I know what could have cured that was a self set goal, not good grades, but something more tangible.  Something like a real business that I was part of, that my high school experience was built around to support.  Which leads me to my idea:

What would happen if we went to local high schools and started a competition for business ideas, with the top ideas being funded to start, assigned mentors, and their high school class schedules built around the education to support their business interest?  Further more we would design a track for any post high school education and mentoring that would help them continue to support their business ambitions so they can achieve their business goal.  Finally, since the business idea would be their own, they would be building financial security for the future through the equity steak they would have in the organization.

I do not believe there is a single person in the U.S. that can argue that our system of education is suitable to prepare our youth for the world of tomorrow.  This simple idea could be what is needed to help start a new way of education, by allowing a child to be apart of something so much larger than them self, which will provide them guided path to follow for the rest of their life.

So that was my thought.   It does not require government funding as the business could take care of all the cost.  All it would take is the willingness for a few people to come together with me and be willing to believe in the youth of America, and our abilities to mentor them into the leaders of tomorrow.

This idea is fresh and new, and needs your input.  Please feel free to use this as your spark and share your thoughts by commenting below so maybe, we can make this "impossible" idea a real thing.

To The Success & Prosperity of Our Youth!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

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ABC - Always Be Closing

My Favorite Movie Scene
Of All Time!!!!

ABC - Always Be Closing

Meeting & Learning from Tom Hopkins

Sales Training is by far one of the best things any sales person can do for them self. Today I had the hnr and pleasure to see another amazing sales trainer, Tom Hopkins. His method of training is very unique and I know will yet again help me grow my teams sales knowledge and ability to close deals and improve the quality of the deals sold.

From Sales Life Style

Updated ACA Online Video

Very Cool New Web Tool

Have you heard the about one of the newest domain extensions, ".TEL"?  

If not then you are truelly missing out on something simply amazing.  .tel is what the telephone book was to the 19th century.  It is a 1 stop shop to find out anything on a person through one link easily accessed through your cell phone or internet browser.  Check out http://painternetmarketing.com/blog/why-you-should-get-a-dot-tel-domain to learn more about it.

If you want to see a sample visit my new .TEL site at http://salesking.tel on your cell or on your browser.

xoxo

Michael "Sales King!" McMillan

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Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

May a tanker truck full of green beer careen off the road, roll over in your yard, and spill all of its contents into your swimming pool...

xoxo

Michael "Sales King!" McMillan

Happy St. Patty's Day Everyone!!!

From Sales Life Style

Our Puppy Playing

Daisy's First Day Home

Here are a few photos on our new addition to our family.  I will make sure to get more video's and photos up as we take them.

Call Center Metrics Can Boost Quality and Save Money

Summary: There are productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction metrics which can be measured to enhance quality and increase a company bottom line. GoACAnow.com offers call center solutions that can manage inbound or outbound business calls professionally.
________________________________________________________________________

Call center metrics are key performance indicators, and they should focus on business goals and call center solutions. If metrics are analyzed and lined up with strategies, they can boost quality and save an organization money. Metrics monitor a call center’s performance by gathering and analyzing information; there are productivity metrics, quality metrics, and customer satisfaction metrics.

Inbound productivity metrics include the number of calls handled, and their timing. Also included are the number of emails handled, and the average time to respond to emails. Inbound productivity metrics comprise the percentage of calls and transactions resolved in the first contact. Outbound productivity metrics include the number of outbound calls and their timing. Productivity metrics for orders and quotes include the number of quotes and proposals, prices of quotes, and dollar amount of items sold. They also identify the number of leads and cross-sell/up-sell opportunities.

Quality metrics involve the accuracy of orders and quotes. They quantify product knowledge, technical knowledge, and communication and problem solving skills. Satisfaction metrics are figured from real time surveys of customers, field sales staff, and partners/distributors.

Analyzing these metrics can show if goals are being met, and if call center solutions are needed. The results will show specific areas that need improvement, and the quality of the call center will improve if new plans are put into practice. Cost analysis including measuring cost per call can save money and increase revenues by implementing improvements where needed.

Answer Center America, Inc. offers high quality call center solutions with their state of the art technology, and professional staffing. GoACAnow.com operates efficiently by analyzing metrics, and can increase a business’ bottom line.



Bio: Grace Enderlein is a freelance writer and editor. “Call Center Metrics Can Boost Quality and Save Money” outlines what metrics measure, and how they can increase quality and save money for call center solutions.

From Sales Life Style

Biggest Loser Tryouts

The weather is snowy and freezing cold. This is what I walked into at 4am to head to NBC tower to stand outside for 5 hours for my 2 minutes to beg for attention to get a spot of Biggest Loser. Now I must admit it was a very interesting day. I got the opportunity to meet Jerry, Stella, &Bernie all previous contenders on the Biggest Loser. Of course this was a big highlight of my day, but Jerry really motivated me to stay in that line. He explained how just 22 weeks prior it was him in the same line doing the same thing. So I think to myself, if a 60 year old man can do this I better be able to at 26. LOL!!!

The entire time waiting concluded with 12 of us sitting at a table and told get our attention in the next 2 minutes by responding to the topic we provide. All I can say is thank you Mom for raising a sales person!!! My background made this a walk in the park for me and my wife. But, I must admit I really felt bad for a few of the other people at my table as they really had no chance, and really need that show.

My wife Steph and I are still praying for a call back in the next 2 days, if not we will not give up and get our video out ASAP! Please prey for us as both of us really need this opportunity as we both really want kids.

From Sales Life Style

Bio: Michael McMillan is the director of Sales & Marketing for Answer Center America, Inc. “Biggest Loser Tryouts” is a review of my trip to NBC tower for the Biggest Loser open casting call. For more information on ACA's services please visit http://www.goacanow.com.

I am Famous!!! LOL

Okay maybe not famous but at least I got myself on a web video. Check it out.

Qtr. 1, Day 1 of 3 ACA Sales Summit

Good Evening Everyone!!!

Well this evening marks the beginning of one of my favorite events in sales, our summit.  Now just to catch all of you up the ACA Sales Summit simply put is a training & creative planning retreat.  This is when I get to sit down with my entire sales force outside of the stress full environment of our office and get them ready for an amazing 1st Quarter.  The entire event last 2 full days with Friday being the first as we leave at noonish from the office and then go out to dinner and talk sales all night. Saturday is our training focused day where we start at 8am and go till 7pm and do nothing but review the basics of what we do.  Finally Sunday we talk strategy and pull out our creative homework we assigned before the summit to share with the team.  

This summit program started 2 years ago and has been such a success that for 2009 we are now moving it from an annual event to a quarterly event.  This is when sales gets focused in on just what we need to do and how we are going to get there.  We create strategy to kill our competition in focused markets or industries and improve on current working strategies already in place.  Basically is similar to sharpening your knife before you butcher an animal.  It makes the whole process that much more enjoyable and smooth.

I know there is not much to talk about as far as content today but I promised this 3 day blog will be well worth the read.  So check it out each day as I will make entries each day of the summit and a finial entry Sunday night to wrap up the entire event.  And, since we are taping the whole thing I may even share a small video and pictures with all of you.  

ENJOY!!!

From Sales Life Style

Bio: Michael McMillan is the director of Sales & Marketing for Answer Center America, Inc. “Qtr. 1, Day 1, Sales Summit 2009” IS part 1 of 4 reviewing the ACA Qtr. 1 Sales Summit. For more information on ACA's services please visit http://www.goacanow.com

Learning Never Stops

Tonight I had the great honor and privilege of attending my first ever Toastmasters Meeting.

For those of you not familiar with the organization may I strongly suggest visiting http://www.toastmasters.org to learn more about them and find a local meeting to attend.

I have heard of the Toastmasters for many years but never really took the time to really look into what this organization had to offer me as a sales person, and more so as a leader of my sales team. Toastmasters quite possibly may be one of the single most important goals I am so happy I am accomplishing in 2009 for myself, and almost more importantly for my team and all of my readers. The knowledge I have gained in my first ever meeting alone has made me completely rethink the way in which I perform presentations. I now understand to present correctly it takes a ton of preparation, research, and most importantly PRACTICE!

Now I know many of you are going to say, "Mike I give presentations and run meetings all the time why do I need this silly club?" My answer to you is simple, you may be running these meetings, or giving presentations but, are you performing at the absolute performance? That answer would be no buckaroo!

We have all heard the sayings a million times, guess what here is 1,000,001:

Tiger Woods did not just wake up one day and become the best golfer in the world, he practices, got constructive criticism, and had coaches teach him how to be the best.

Olympic Athletes do not just send in a resume saying they would like to compete in the Olympics. They have to train for years to hone their skills to perfection for the very slim possibility they MAY get picked to compete.

These sayings are things we say but very rarely act on. My primary goal for my self this year was simple, "Become a Better Follower, So I Can Become a Better Leader!" Yeah sounds weird right, that is what I thought when I first wrote it. But, then after reviewing my goals over and over again in December I realized it made perfect sense. I have to first learn how to follow (TRAIN) before I can lead. So this year I am getting myself in front of the experts and begging for teaching and guidance so that I can then become the best leader for my sales force.

In closing always remember if you are a person you thinks you know everything about everything, you are never going to succeed in life. The faster you can come to understand that with continual education comes the success you seek, the faster you will find the happiness you seek.

From Sales Life Style

Bio: Michael McMillan is the director of Sales & Marketing for Answer Center America, Inc. “Learning Never Stops” talks about how the learning process must never end if a person is to be successful. For more information on ACA's services please visit http://www.goacanow.com.

Amazing People

I just completed possibly the best and most amazing training in my life.  Meeting both Jack Daly & Cameron Herold.  I will write much more about all I learned once I can process all of it and get my notes better organized but I had to share right away with all of you just how amazing this training was as it has really helped me refocus and change the way I perform.  Thank you Jack & Cameron!!

From Amazing People I Have Met

From Amazing People I Have Met

Business in 2009

I thought it very important to share a reply to a question I received to everyone. I was asked why I felt that '09 would be a good sales year even though the economy is down. Here was my reply...

The economy is just in a new state. This is when companies that have planned for this down turn are going to take off, and those who did not will go away. For instance my company has been planning for this depression for over 2 years. This is because we didn’t listen to the talking heads and just saw what was going on. This planning allowed us to position our self very well. We now are able to tap a wealth of talent in the job market right now, and go after businesses we knew would be able to get through this bad economy as well as supply us vast amount of business.

Now is when people need to get back to basics and start understanding to be a success you have to work HARD, REALLY HARD! The age of entitlement is gone and the faster people understand this, the faster the economy will turn around.

My secret is simple:

• There is no such thing as quick money!
• The fact you can show up entitles you to NOTHING!

Most Importantly… 

• If you do not put company first, you will never be successful!
  

To Succeed or Not Succeed

Today I had a sales guy calling me asking me my opinion on how I felt my sales force would do during this depression. I quickly responded, "unlike other industries our team saw this coming for a long time and has positioned our self to not only succeed but clean up." Of course the next question was how do I plan on doing so well in this horrible economy. My response possibly less than what he wanted was, "EXTREMELY HARD WORK!"

I started this entry out with this quick review of this interview because I wanted to comment to the world want it is going to take to get through this depression and come out on top.

To succeed in this bad economy takes a level of work that is so foreign to people in my age group they see it as fiction. The problem with this is that this is the time we need to get back to basics and understand an 8 hour work day is not possible any more. To not only survive but be a winner we need to do everything that is possible to do what is necessary for our businesses success.

If you want to really see the level of dedication it will take, go see you Grandparents, or even better your Great Grandparents if they are still around and ask them what their work ethic was. What you will hear is the same like when you were a child. It will more than likely sound something like my Grandfather told me:

"Boy, my work ethic was simple, I went to work, I never called off 1 day, I worked till the work was done, and I will never stop working till my heart gives out or my boss kicks me out."

That is Dedication! 

That is a Statement of a Winner! 

Are you willing to have that same dedication to your business? If not I can guarantee you with almost no uncertainty you will more than likely fail in this economy and be one of the many losers out there. So starting now stops playing around on the internet and gets your nose into your work and do whatever is necessary to not only fit the status quo, but to be a winner!


Bio: Michael McMillan is the director of Sales & Marketing for Answer Center America, Inc. “To Succeed or Not Succeed” gives a peak into what an employee will need to do in 2009 to not only survive but be a winner. For more information on ACA's services please visit http://www.goacanow.com

From Sales Life Style

New Video Hobby

So today I finally figured out how to use iMovie on my Mac and decided to make a little video.  Take a look at this and let me know what you all think.

2008 Answer Center America, Inc. Posts Aggressive 29 Percent Growth and Seeks Hiring 25 New Employees in January 2009

Chicago, IL – December 29, 2008 – Companies have discovered cost effective call center outsourcing services driving growth of Answer Center America, Inc, one of the nation’s leading call centers, up 29% this year.


Answer Center America, Inc. (ACA) today announced unprecedented growth this year, which has lead to a steady hiring stream of 5-10 employees per month, with current open positions for January 2009 at 25.

With more than 120 specialists on staff, ACA handles nearly six million calls per year. Given the high call volumes, optimal agent performance is critical in providing quality service experiences to ACA’s corporate clients. ACA hires experienced call service agents and trains them internally. ACA services include general call services, inbound call services, and outbound call services, with a broad range of technologies utilized; making it important that both new and current staff is continually trained. The fact that many ACA agents are bilingual – in English, Spanish and French – adds another layer of complexity to hiring and managing the unique skills and proficiency levels of each specialist.

“Last year Answer Center America identified a need for turnkey outsourcing solutions which provide corporations the ability to scale as needed from general workforce management functions to advanced help desk and sales capabilities,” says Mike McMillan, Director of Sales and Marketing, for ACA. “ACA has been working to add services which will help our customers thrive in a tight economy. Take, for instance, the cost savings of outsourcing help desk support. Our Tech Connect service allows for network, server, and PC monitoring and support remotely, and our Instant Connect service enables web chat. These coupled with our Ticketing System for inbound call recording allow customers to cost effectively outsource their entire customer service operation using a customized methodology. Our specialty service, Your Connect enables ACA to customize and virtually mirror the operation of a corporate call center, creating a total savings of 75% - 95% depending on call traffic!”

ACA provides a customized call center solution with full scalability, allowing room for anticipated client growth. It also allows call center agents to integrate with client systems and personnel. ACA utilizes technology, which allows for seamless integration with various telephony switches. ACA systems capture and analyze customer/caller interactions, improve workforce performance and optimize service processes. The system allows clients to improve service by scheduling the right agents with the right skills at the right time. ACA helps companies discover business trends, employee and customer behavior patterns, and ensure excellent customer service. ACA plans to continue to improve service offerings to meet the changing economic and technology needs of its clients.


About Answer Center America, Inc.

Answer Center America, headquartered in Chicago Illinois, is a leading provider of 24/7 call center solutions for optimizing employee time and skill sets. Answer Center America delivers high quality and superior customer support necessary for a remote messaging and business solutions. ACA is best known for its multi-layered security support system using state of the art equipment, highly trained professionals and dedicated customer service agents which allows them to provide customized, affordable outsourcing services.

Today, more than 2,500 organizations on 4 continents rely on custom solutions provided by ACA solutions to perform more effectively and competitive in their market. ACA provides a seamless extension of your business custom made for you. Visit us at our website www.goacanow.com.


Media Contact:

Michael C. McMillan
Director of Sales and Marketing
Answer Center America, Inc.
Phone#: (800) 270-7030
Fax#: (800) 971-2110
Email: mikemcmillan@goacanow.com
URL: http://www.goacanow.com
Blog: http://blog.goacanow.com

Baton Down The Hatches Because Here We Go!

T Minus 3 Days, 14 Hours..... and Counting Till 2009

It's the final stretch to get everything you can done and ready for 2009.  Many people have been emailing me asking me for my end of year checklist that I use to get me and my team ready for the next year.  So I figured why not share my response with all of you.  

Instead of sharing my actual check list I thought it would be much more beneficial to share with all of you what questions I ask myself to come up with my check list.  We don't have much time so lets jump right in.

1. What are my top 4 quarterly goals, and what is their priority?  

(What Order Do I Want Them Done In)

2. What are the company's sales goals and forecast models?

a. What process or system do I have in place to track my numbers?

-Have I tested to make sure this systems is working properly?

3. What training do I need to complete with my team before the new year?

(New Service/Products, New Commission or Bonus Structure, etc...)

4. What are my professional goals for my self and how do I plan to complete them?

a. What new group, organization, or club will I join in "09?

- What is my plan to become recognized? (i.e. - Board Member, Award, etc...)

b. What classes or training seminars will I be attending in "09?

- How will they benefit me and my team?

- Are any of them able to be expense or do I need to budget for them personally?

c. What new business outfits am I planning on purchasing for "09?

- Have I budgeted for them?

d. What were my "08 accomplishments?

- Where have I posted these so I see them every day in "09?

e. Have I planned a personal vacation with my wife?

(Make sure to add personal pieces as your personal life can set the tone for your professional)

5.  Do I have any money left in my budget for "08 that I should allocate to a marketing blitz for Jan. "09?

6. What are all the marketing and advertising companies I will be using in "09?

a. What is my contract length with them?

b. How much is the contract?

c. What matrix am I using to track it's success or failure?

You Are Done!!!!

This is a great starting point but  by no means everything for everyone.  With different industries come more or less questions.  The most important thing is to make sure you are asking your self at least the personal goal questions as with out the answers to them you have no direction for the new year.

**One Last Important Note**

Once you have completed answering all of your "09 questions make sure to post them at your desk and on your mirror in your home bathroom.  This way you are reminded of them ever day and can stay focused through out the year.  Also, once you have completed any of the tasks, goals, etc... make sure to check them off so you can see your accomplishments.  This is one of the most important pieces as these types of tasks can be easily forgotten or motivation lost if you do not keep them in front of your face at all times.  

Have a successful & prosperous New Year!!

Bio: Michael McMillan is the director of Sales & Marketing for Answer center America, Inc. “Baton Down The Hatches Because Here We Go!” helps managers and sales people get ready for the new year by getting organized. For more information on ACA's services please visit http://www.goacanow.com.

From Sales Life Style