Q&A WITH ANTHONY GARCIA

Q: Can you tell us a little about how you got started and what were some of the early experiences you had?

• I was walking on campus and someone handed me a flyer. In May of 2003 I walked into the Ventura office into a training class, learned everything I needed to know about my knives in three days, and had an amazing fast start. It’s been 12 years since I walked away from the Cutco community and the biggest valuable takeaway is the network and the relationships I experienced.

Q: Were there any particular transformational moments along your Cutco carrier that stand out?

• Anytime I thought about pushing myself was always sports related. So the first time I was in an environment that wasn’t sports related and I needed to push myself was during a two-week PUSH Period and I had a goal to sell $10,000. Although I missed my goal by $1,800, it was the first time I had learned what accountability meant.
• There was one morning I slept in and missed my scheduled time to go to the office and make calls and Sarah, my manager, called my house and my mom answered. She comes into my room angry as heck and asks me if I’m supposed to be at work. I tell her I am and her response is, “Then what are still doing here? Get up and get out.” I had someone counting on me and as a nineteen-year-old that gave me a level of accountability that I’ve never experienced before.

Q: Tells us a little bit about your path after Vector to where you are now.

• I was ready for the next chapter in my life and knew I wanted to progress as a professional sales person. I worked with Paychex Payroll where I spent four years as a sales representative and during my last year I was a Selling Sales Manager, where I managed a team and had my own quota.
• I decided to take a crack at the medical device world that I had been hearing so much about and ended up working for a company that sold medical device implants with other top performers from other sales industries.

Q: What are some of the things that you feel have made people top performers, either for yourself or the people you’ve managed?

• The first one is work ethic that isn’t shown.
• There’s a science to being a professional sales person. The art of selling is evolving and it’s a skill that you always need to be practicing. The best sale takes place when someone doesn’t feel like they’re being sold to.

Q: Tell us some of things people can learn as they read your book.

• S.M.A.R.T. goals are not enough. They’re the foundation that will put you on the right path. The likeliness of success of just having a S.M.A.R.T. goal is very slim. You need to add an E and an R to make it a S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goal.
• Your goal needs to have emotion. The kind of emotion that the thought of not making your goal brings you to tears.

Q: How can people make sure they have goals that drive their emotions.?

• If your goal doesn’t scare you, you’re not emotionally invested. I had made a promise to my family that I would make sure they had opportunities that I didn’t have. I know I could make an average living and live an average life, but that’s not what I promised my child when she was born. That was the biggest emotional investment for me.

Q: Tell us more about the “R” and how that plays in.

• There’s always a rewarding component to every sales goal you hit. The longer you delay your gratification the more rewarding the “R” component of your goal will be.
• I read a concept that said, if you can’t afford to purchase your reward six times, then I can’t afford to purchase my reward.

Q: From a management perspective, how do leaders get the most out of their people?

• It’s a three-part component. There needs to be a vision, having a sense of gratitude, and having a sense of development.
• The first mistake that a leader makes when developing someone is developing them to the organizations goals and missions. While it’s a strong component, it shouldn’t be the only one. I coach people to their goals, not mine.

Q: You also talked about vision and gratitude. Did you want to dissect those a little bit?

• It’s important to show gratitude for more than just making sales goals. Thank your people for just being there.
• It’s something that we can all improve on. There’s times when I missed it and told myself that I really need to get better at it. I have to thank people for being here because they’re here for a specific reason and I want to make sure we uncover that together.

Q: What about the vision component?

• People want to follow a vision that they can see themselves actively partaking in. By painting that vision that there will be peaks and valleys and not all roses and daises, people will buy into it.

Q: How to aspire to change people’s lives, either through your work or through your influence?

• To influence people, I’ve been doing a podcast, coaching, keynoting, and sharing concepts.
• I get excited when people reach out to me with their stories of how they reached their goals.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Accountability is driven when you’re a part of something that’s bigger than yourself and embracing the team aspect when in any sales organization.
• The importance of preparation and the unseen work ethic as well as the ongoing learning to be great at what we do. The science of sales.
• The psychology of hitting goals and bringing emotion to those goals.
• The importance of gratitude and making people feel consistently appreciated.
• The element of development and developing people beyond the goals in the company we have. Help them by coaching them up to their future.

CUTCO/VECTOR TERMS

• FSM – Field Sales Manager
• PUSH Period – A two-week competition where offices and sales reps compete with one another. The idea of PUSH is to push one’s own limits and see what is possible in the sales arena, but more importantly, in personal development and growth.

RESOURCES

• Catapulting Commissions on Apple Podcasts
• Catapulting Commissions on Spotify
• AnthonyPGarcia.com
• Anthony’s social media
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
• Two Ways to Stick With Your New Year Resolutions