Bobrick Show Open
2006 Business Conference

Bobrick Show Open features the first video in this video production series created by Merging Media for the 2006 Bobrick business conference.

Transcript of video:

 Bobrick – 2006 Show Open

Every time you take a person who works for you and make them a little bit better, your whole organization becomes better. People are more secure in their jobs. You make more money. You produce more results. Manufacturers need your services more. Everything around you gets better. If you lead.

Vision with action is a dream. Vision without action, is a nightmare. And, it’s truly what we have to do as a leader of an organization it has to be able to take their ideas. Their dreams that are in their head and find words to make them real. Find action plans to make them real.

The people that work for you, the people that you do care about are dependent upon you leading. If you don’t lead, there lives will not be as good as it can be. Leading can sometimes be behavioral.

It can be very lonely.

You choose to be a leader. You’re never anointed. And you’re never born into leadership. It’s a lot of work, but it’s well worth the payoff.

I’m going to do this, I’m going to pay my price and I’m going to be better because of it. And that’s what keeps making all of us better because we can’t do it alone.

One of the neatest things in the world is to go to the field. When I’m not sure anymore, as an executive, what I need to be doing I go to my rep first. I get in a car. These are normal people that work very hard. And they just have a sense of what’s important. And what isn’t.

When a rep is really good at their job they make it look so easy that for a manufacturer we can sometimes sit in a room and think, we don’t need a rep, they don’t make a difference because he has done just that. He has added value to our business by being a seamless vehicle from us as a manufacturer all the way down to the customer.

He is the center of everything that happens in his geography and when he’s really, really good everybody wants him. And everybody wants his time. And often they waste his time. He has to make hard choices about when not to do a thing. Most people think selling is about what you do. Often, it’s about what you choose not to do.

The burden to lead these people to a place that they wouldn’t necessarily go on their own is ours. It’s our responsibility. It’s the principal’s responsibility every hour of the day.

Cause you see your asset is not that office. Your asset is not even your manufacturer because you know better than I do, that can change. You don’t even have a product normally that you sell. Somebody else makes that product for you. What you have are those people. And the better they are, the more they can do, the more us, the manufacturers, want you and need you.

People inherently want to follow. We need to follow. Not because of anything else than we need a purpose and with the absence of leadership people fill in the blanks. So leaders for us, give us that reason, they give us that path, they give us something to work towards. Without leadership, we create chaos.

Leadership is not just some kind of an abstract idea. It’s a very important part of your business. When done well, you will be a lot more successful. You’re very fortunate. Around you in this room are some of the brightest minds in the rep business. Your associates, your friends in some cases. They will share with you their ideas in this meeting and you will share your ideas. And if you pay really close attention, you’ll learn a lot. And guess what, we at Bobrick are going to learn a lot from you at the same time and we’re looking forward to it. So why don’t we just get it started.