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Shirley Levine was an incredible educator that I had the pleasure to work with and learn from. She once asked some teachers, “What is your job?”
The teachers responded, “Teach the kids.”
Shirley said, “That is not it.”
The teachers responded with, “Educate the kids,” and similar concepts.
Shirley said, “That is not it either.”
After a while, when the teachers were perplexed, she said, “Your job is to get the kids to learn. There is a big difference. If your job is to teach, once you deliver your great lesson, you are done. If your job is to get them to learn, you are not done after the lesson. You are only done when they learn the material. Also, kids can learn a variety of ways. They can learn on their own, from their peers, from a book.”
I frequently need to remind myself of this concept. I too often get into teaching mode. My eldest daughter reminded me of this hearing me go over one of my presentations. She thought it was bad. I asked why. She said, “I felt like you were talking at me, not involving me. Millennials like to be involved to learn.”
After the initial shock of her dissatisfaction with a presentation I have given for over 25 years, I remembered this quote frequently attributed to Benjamin Franklin: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
Did Benjamin Franklin know about millennials 250 years ago? Or, is it always that we learn best when we are involved? It is much easier to teach than find a way to involve. But who wants easy?
Gary Polson is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman at Cydcor, the market leader in outsourced sales. With more than 25 years of business operations experience in accounting, legal and senior management, Gary has propelled Cydcor to unprecedented achievement with clients, culture and philanthropy since 2001. Under his leadership, Cydcor has increased its revenue more than six-fold since 2001 and has been recognized as “…the most respected sales outsourcing company in the world” by Datamonitor and The Black Book of Outsourcing, and one of the “Best Places to Work” by the Los Angeles Business Journal for eight consecutive years. Gary’s passion for excellence and never-satisfied approach has led Cydcor to earn both industry and employer recognition. With Gary at its helm, Cydcor has built its reputation on maintaining long term relationships with clients by consistently delivering results and by going above and beyond to help Cydcor’s clients gain market share and grow.
Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services, recently led an educational outreach experience project titled Project Launch for DECA Academy of Business students. Pacifica High School’s Academy Developing Entrepreneurial and Corporate Assets (DECA) Academy of Business is a career academy at Pacifica High School in Oxnard, CA. Cydcor introduced students to Project Launch on August 20th, continued with additional training on August 21st, and closed on August 28th with an announcement of program winners.
Cydcor’s Project Launch program has been carefully designed to grow student awareness of three significant career options: Hospitality and Tourism, Accounting and Finance, Marketing and Business. Students engaged in Project Launch learn professional and personal skills that will prepare them for college or the professional workforce.
Cydcor executive leadership and senior staff have partnered with Glen Polson of Creative Product Sourcing in this educational outreach program to once again show our profound commitment to community service.
Cydcor’s Project Launch is a community outreach program designed to give students an opportunity to work on a real-world business problem. Students are engaged in a scenario that requires them to fill a need, fix a problem, or create an idea. It’s an important training experience for students since every professional person has to face these problems on a regular basis—with increasing complexity—as their careers develop.
Each day of the program has been carefully planned by Cydcor volunteers to create a realistic work experience. The program began on August 20th with Glen Polson of Creative Product Sourcing introducing the main challenge of project—a T-shirt design contest that will benefit the D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. The winning design will be sold online and in the D.A.R.E program. This 3-day program includes a second design contest that requires students to create a logo for Project Launch, the 3-day program they’re participating in.
On the first day of this workshop, Cydcor team members provided a 45 minute presentation that allowed students to experience a brainstorming session. It showed the students the skills needed to generate ideas, choose an idea that works, create an action plan, assign tasks, and execute their work plan.
Next day, the students recapped what they learned during the first day. This on-the-spot review was included in the project intentionally to let the students experience the surprises and sudden changes that are part of a real world work situation. In addition, they were introduced to a second challenge – to design the Launch Project Logo.
Students closed the day on a high note with the arrival and focused attention of Cydcor’s President, Gary Polson. He provided insight and advice focused on the importance of engaging in your own education, making the right choices to have a better future, and never giving up no matter the circumstances faced. He encouraged the students to continue to develop their skills and education through opportunities they encounter such as programs like Project Launch.
Many people are natural born salesmen. Building relationships and convincing people of their side of story is something comes easily to them. At Cydcor, we are happy to nurture young talented sales people with a gift for gab and laser focus abilities. However, some great sales people learn their skills from the college experience, for those looking to gain a broader perspective and refine the necessary skills. Here a few ways you can use your college classes to create a successful sales career.
Psychology teaches you about the human mind. You can learn how people will react to the things you say, how to gain trust, and what makes people want to buy your product or services. You can focus your abilities to read people into convincing them to come to your side.
Business will give you a broad overview of management, operations, and communications. Business majors are well rounded and have a solid understanding of how to identify needs and solve problems.
Finance or accounting degrees are useful for understanding numbers and efficiency. Finance majors will still need to focus on people skills but will understand what needs to get done in order to make the business profitable.
Communications is a great modern degree in order to study means and methods of communication. These skills will create savvy social media and email marketers as well as develop a solid understanding of how to get a message across. Communications majors can tap into what is important and popular, and put their particular spin on the situation.
While theater or drama may sound like a strange major for business, some of the best sales skills come from being able to act confident and knowledgeable even in situations where it is not truly the case. Actors know how to be charming and make friends with anyone, and can gain trust easily.
What do you think is helpful for a salesperson to study in college? Learn more about the skills necessary to be a sales rock star on Cydcor’s career page.