The Hidden Treasure Beyond the Interview

I find it hard to be able to express my multitude of expertise in a 30-minute zoom interview. The interviewer has canned questions, and they want the most experienced, not the most potential. Yes, there is a difference. Let's be candid; if a person applies for a career that is not on their resume, many have had experience or the know-how and are confident they can be successful.

               I am confident in my skills. One of the most remarkable skills I have is finding commonality with a person who is twenty and then finding commonality with a 75-year-old right after. I can feel, or many say read the temperature of the person's skepticism or acceptance very quickly. I can "dumb Down" some information to make it more manageable for the receiver. I can read the direction of a business before the "experts" discover what I have already adjusted for weeks, if not months before.

               I can see skills, abilities, and opportunities for employees. I see quickly what their inner success story is, and I can create the opportunity to succeed. I have promoted 100s of employees to management from part-time positions or experience that had nothing to do with their current role. I build teams that are like families, where the stronger support the weakest. I am a positive force for my team, find small wins to celebrate, and working hand in hand with the team to overcome complex opportunities. My supervisor has described my ability to assist my team members in succeeding and watching them in action as "an Orchestra of perfection." There is no more incredible thrill for me than to see an individual succeed at a dream. To see my team recognized in the top successes amongst their peers week over week and month over month.

               In 1994 I trained my staff on the relationship selling technique. Each team member knew How to build friendships and commonality while building a bond of trust. Five years ago, I took the Relationship Selling concept to heights never used before. I taught wireless customer service agents how to greet "guests," not customers, and talk a minimum of three minutes to build commonality and then going into why the guest was there. The guests were friends we have not seen for a while to friends that we were meeting for the first time. I taught the staff to think in those terms, and the trust blossomed for the agents far beyond their wildest dreams. The team more than tripled the sales and turned a quiet location into the most significant and fastest-growing site that the company had. In 2020, during a pandemic, I changed how an optical retail location greeted and sold to their customer base. We blew the top off the building.

We went from how we can help you to welcome, and I am glad you stopped in. Then we taught the patient about their prescription, so they felt informed and part of the decision process. We took people from yesterday's trends to new and exciting designs, and the results, well, let's say extraordinary. The location more than doubled multiple glass sales pairs and hit 60% and higher week in and week out. Anti-glare went from 45 to 50% to a whopping 93%. No location in two territories was able to beat those numbers week in and week out. The staff all were in the top five salespeople, and the store hit numbers it had never hit before, competing against stores that had up to ten times the population to utilize as a customer base.

Retention, the most costly expense that is controllable by companies, is the cat that got away. Many companies believe a 60% retention rate is reasonable, but let me tell you that my retention rate is over 90%. I believe in celebrating the individual and celebrating the team. The faithful servant attitude mentor can retain more if two things occur. One, the company must allow the mentor to hire those with the desire, the want to succeed, and two, pay the team enough to enjoy their needed time off. Secondly, the team must go beyond the obvious with each candidate and find the true calling of that employee to have a rich diversity that will accomplish more than a group of robotic employees.

Finally, I am confident that my true happiness will never come from another retail management role, a frontline customer service role, or a sales position for insurance or automobiles. I need to be challenged, need to see growth and opportunity daily. A career opportunity that gives directed autonomy from my supervisor. I am ready to bring my skills. My ability to quickly analyze challenges and learn new techniques promptly put me in a very envious position for any company looking for a true mentor with the servant mindset to bring about success. Who is ready to take the challenge and get me on their team to create more success than they had envisioned?