Transcript:

Have you ever been assigned to a truly bad sales territory? I know, except it turns out it really wasn't that bad of a sales territory, it was the perception of previous sellers and the way they treated that territory that made it bad. And I wonder if the same isn't true for your territory. Sure, maybe there aren't established accounts. Maybe there's some sort of reputation or some competition that you have to overcome to make it a good territory. But inherently, all by itself, maybe the territory isn't what's wrong.

Maybe it's what's been done to that territory by you, your predecessors or even your company. You see, you have to nourish and take care of and support a territory if you want it to support you. Your sales territory is going to be good or bad, better or worse, depending on the amount of time and attention that you give to it. If you want your territory to improve, you'll do some conditioning of it. You'll show your face more often.

You'll involve your company in activities that are relevant to that geographic territory or that set of businesses. You'll become more actively engaged. People will see that you are helping that community or that area or that industry to flourish, and they'll respond in kind. If you want your territory to be a better territory, you've got to look at the things you can do before you can ask the territory to do more for you. And when you turn a territory around, well, then it's really fertile ground because that's all plus revenue.

It's revenue that that territory has never produced before. And that's all upside for you in terms of commission and profitability.

It really is easy to grow just about anything in straw bales, but you have to do a little bit of preparation on its own. Straw isn't the best medium for growing any sort of produce because it's not amended. Even soil has to be amended to have the right nutrients for those poor little plants to get what they need. So getting to a point like this where your plants are flourishing, whether they like the celery on the left go directly into the straw, or whether like these broccoli and cauliflower, they need a little bit of compost and maybe even some dirt when you transplant them.

Getting to that point doesn't start right there. It starts earlier for me. It starts in February when it's still cold outside. We get the straw bales delivered and the first thing we do is heavily water them and then we begin conditioning them. That white stuff you see there in the middle, that is nitrogen, pure nitrogen or urea. And the reason we use that at first about a couple of time over the course of two weeks, spreading it on the straw bales every other day.

The reason we do that is because nitrogen breaks down the middle of the straw bale just enough it decomposes enough to be a really good growing medium. It helps the inside of the straw bale to heat up. And that way the root vegetables, they don't hit a barrier of hard packed straw and the plants with more delicate systems are also able to put those roots down more quickly. Now, later on, we're going to add some other nutrients depending on the needs of the individual plants.

But conditioning the straw before any plant ever goes into it is extremely important. And the same is true with the work that you do, creating fertile ground so that you can grow the business, so that you can grow the people that you're working with is absolutely essential. When you do a really good job of creating the perfect foundation, everything you grow is going to be healthier. It'll grow faster, it'll produce more. It will be glad to be a part of your garden because your garden is where it's being fed.

And in return, when you feed what's in your own garden, your garden will feed you, your garden will have high yield. Your garden will give you everything that you're asking it to give you because you've made it possible. You've planned and you've thoughtfully prepared so that you are able to enjoy the fruits of your labor long term.

Isn't that what it's all about? But it does start with putting people first. Just like in my Straw bale garden, it starts with thinking about the environment that my little vegetables are going to need to have if they're ever to produce and give me delicious results at the end of the season.