Commitment and consistency…

 

I came across a 2017 speech by Denzel Washington - on YouTube of course 😊  He offered compelling words to the next generation in his industry aka the young people:  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBGb40yh4SY).  A few of his statements stood out to me: 

…without commitment you’ll never start…  without consistency, you’ll never finish… 

It made me think about the next generation of technology sales professionals aka the young people.  My company has literally “bet the ranch” on the selling capabilities of our next generation of sellers.  Commitment and consistency will certainly be key elements in their (and our) success. 

I was part of said “next generation”  once - three generations ago LOL!  Throughout my career for myself and for those I have led, managed, mentored, and coached I developed my own “philosophy”: 

            Adversity clarifies commitment 

I took Denzel’s comments about consistency to mean that working at our profession is a career-long requirement.  Working begets consistency; consistency begets opportunities to finish our career; and adversity hardens us for the realities of ups and downs.  Denzel put it this way: 

            Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship. 

If we find ourselves in an “easy” job, that may mean something’s wrong.  I’ve seen too many people throughout my career “switch to glide”.  Either because they feel they’ve mastered their trade or worse, they lose the motivation they had in the beginning.  To keep progressing and succeeding requires we avoid that common “off ramp”:

I once heard someone joke that the road to success is marked with many tempting parking places. 

Harvey Mackay 

Knowing how hard success can be to come by, consistent success is certainly an achievement to be proud of.  I have spoken often about the power of process I learned from a boys’ high school cross country coach in my hometown of Elmhurst, Illinois.  

I didn’t run cross country, but I studied the success of Joe Newton’s York High School teams over the course of 40 years.  It wasn’t his athletes -  he turned over 25% of his runners every year; 100% every 4 years through graduation.  There was something else he did to achieve these amazing results between 1961 and 2000: 

t  Dual meet winning percentage (York vs. one opponent); York won 94% of those meets;      94%!

t  Conference championships (York vs.8-10 other high schools); York won 37 out of 40 years

t  State of Illinois race performance (York vs. all high school teams in Illinois)- York’s results;

Ø  State championships      21 out of 40 years

Ø  State runner-up          10 out of 40 years

Ø  Total Top 5 finishes     37 out of 40 years

Ø  Total Top 10 finishes    39 out of 40 years

t  National competition* - York’s results;          

Ø  National championships   20 out of 40 years

Ø  Total Top 3 finishes     33 out of 40 years    

* As recorded by the “Cross Country US Postal” organization and including more than 10,100 high schools throughout the USA. 

Something else indeed. 

Finally, Denzel cited the Japanese Proverb: 

            Fall down seven times.  Stand up eight. 

I can personally attest to this.  Although beginning without experience, throughout my career I have remained committed, coachable, and tough enough to make it through all of the falling down and standing up parts.

As I witness the passing of my sales profession on to the next generation  of “up and comers”, Denzel’s advice on commitment, hard work and consistency resonated with me.  I hope it does with them, too. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

“Trusted”?

A few years ago, I read The Speed of Trust © by Stephen M.R. Covey after friend of mine shared his copy from a company training session on team-building. 

“Trust” is a word often (over) used in my profession.  Many salespeople refer to themselves as a “trusted advisor”.  I don’t – I’m a sales professional; and the customer can tell the difference. 

Covey shared this customer perspective:           

I don’t think you have a full trusting relationship until you are actually at the point that you deliver success repeatedly.  When one of my major suppliers says we want to have a trusting relationship, I think, “What a lot of rubbish that is!”  I turn around and say, “I don’t trust you.  I am not going to trust you until you repeatedly deliver success to me.”  

Peter Lowe 

What do you think?  Is it possible that our customers and prospects don’t trust us?  Covey’s research (among many other sources) suggests they don’t.  At least, not until we “repeatedly deliver success…”  

When I first started out in the business my company (ADP) held sales meetings every Tuesday at 5pm (“Roll Call”).  Afterwards, we strolled across the street to a neighborhood “gin mill” (Nancy’s).  Beers; boasts; and weekly war stories were exchanged until closing hour.  That was the setting junior sales reps like me learned the profession from seasoned veterans. 

Except one seasoned veteran, Bob Ackerman.  Bob was one of the top sales reps in our office.  Polished; professional; Bob spoke well; dressed well; showed all the evidence of success.  For my first 6 months on the job, he didn’t have a single conversation with me.  If I approached him, he would literally and rudely walk away.  It would have been easy to say he was impersonal; arrogant; a jerk.  Turned out – just the opposite. 

One Tuesday evening after our sales meeting; 6 months to the week of my start date; Bob approached me with a beer and said, “Gary, great week – congratulations!  Tell me all about it.”  And from that week forward, Bob trusted me. 

I didn’t have the stroke that night to ask Bob, “WTF”?  But after a period of time the opportunity arose, and I asked him why he was so cold when I first started.  Turns out – it was a matter of trust. 

You see, Bob was successful during an era when sales rep turnover was even higher than today.  “Draw vs. commission” was the standard compensation plan; no base salary.  A modest weekly draw smoothed cash flow. The draw was deducted from our monthly commission check.  (Trusted – 30 days at a time.)  A classic “What have you done lately?” environment. 

If we didn’t earn enough commissions to cover our draw, the next month the draw was cut in half.  Two months in a row, and the draw was eliminated.  We never got to month three.  Trust without results didn’t go very far back then – still doesn’t.

Bob had seen plenty of sales reps come and fail.  He told me he used to get to know the new people; he used to coach them a little bit; tried to help them out.  When they failed it hurt his feelings.  So rather than continuing to feel hurt, he withdrew; he waited to see if we made it 6 months.  

The moral of Peter and Bob’s stories?  To earn the position of “trusted advisor” we must produce.  Trust doesn’t beget results – it’s just the opposite – results begets trust. 

        GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Pressure is privilege…

 

The Denver Broncos recently reported to training camp.  There was the usual sports media attention and hype over the team’s potential and upcoming season.  Since winning the Super Bowl in 2016, the Broncos have not been very competitive.  Of course, our current pandemic is wreaking havoc on all level of sports, recreation, and everyday life so who knows what the 2020-2021 NFL season will bring.

Speaking of “wreaking havoc”, the Denver Broncos’ outside linebacker, Von Miller, has been an All-Pro and Super Bowl MVP defensive force over the years.  However, since 2016 even he has not played to a havoc-wreaking level of expectation.  Often times as leaders and star players go, so does the rest of the team (in business as well as sports). 

During his pre-season interview Von said this year would be different.  He said he has been studying the commitment to greatness other athletes such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had made to lead their teams to multiple championships.  He was inspired.

Von elaborated that in past years he thought being a “quiet leader” was good enough.  Von is known for his laid-back personality and his fun-loving lifestyle away from football.  He felt his leadership responsibility was simply to play his best during the season.  Von said he’s learning greatest requires so much more than that.

If the Broncos expect to compete at a championship level, their best players will have to lead them.  Von is the best of their best.  He acknowledged that the accolades he’s earned with his play on the field have also brought added pressure to lead his team to a higher level of performance.  In the past, he preferred to leave that added pressure to others.  This year?

            Pressure is privilege

It’s true - when you have the talent, ability, and opportunity to lead, that role comes with increased pressure.  To have others follow you is a privilege. 

Here’s one example from someone whose story is inspiring to Von Miller:

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.  I’ve lost almost 300 games.  Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.  I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed. 

                 Michael Jordan

 I worked for an awe-inspiring sales leader once.  Dan Callahan was revered at Integral Systems.  Every employee I met at the company spoke of Dan in a way I had never heard before or since in my entire career; every employee.

I asked Susan Welcome, a manager at Integral about this reverence for Dan.  She told me when the company first started out, Dan was a sales rep.  On more than one occasion Dan along with everyone else at the company knew when he went out on road trip to close a deal if he did not bring back the signed contract AND pre-payment for the software the company would not be able to fund payroll.

Dan “carried” so much more than just the pressure of his sales quota; the fate of his companies’ employees was in the balance on his ability to close deals.  Yet to meet him, he had this calm, youthful, choirboy persona – he never talked about the pressures he faced during Integral’s early years.  He just went about his business of being the best - and leading the best - every single day.  The greats don’t work for just money.  They accept, “pressure is privilege”.

GAP

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

February 1996…

When it was announced Charlie Daniels would be the commencement speaker at UNC-Wilmington…, some students opposed it, questioning the selection of a speaker who didn’t graduate from college. He wrote this 4 months before graduation:

I would like to clear up a few points about my addressing your class at commencement exercises, points which I feel have been distorted by a few overzealous, uninformed, pseudo-journalists.

My professional life is a matter of documented public record and easily obtainable. No need to discuss that.

Having been born in Wilmington, I consider it an honor to be asked to speak to you on one of the biggest days of your lives, and I accepted the honor with gratitude and humility. I cannot speak to you of lofty academic ideals nor scholarly pursuits because I have neither entree nor credential for that world.

The truth is I come to you from the street, from reality, the very same place you’re all headed if you plan to make a living in this ever-changing, difficult, show-me world, and when your college days are just a memory and your diploma hangs beneath dusty glass or some office wall, you will still have to deal with that world on its own terms every working day of your lives.

Let me tell you why I thought I was invited to speak to your graduating class. My career spans almost 40 years and you don’t go through 40 years of hard work and unrelenting competition without learning a few things.

My qualifications are humble but extensive and diverse. I’ve stood at the 38th Parallel and looked across into the hostile eyes of the North Korean border guards. I’ve been catapulted from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Adriatic Sea and ridden across the frozen wastes of Greenland on an Eskimo dog sled. I’ve taken a hammer and chisel to the Berlin Wall and performed with symphony orchestras. I’ve had conversations with Presidents and walked the halls of Congress lobbying for legislation in which I believe. I’ve flown on the Concorde and acted in motion pictures.

I’ve seen the royal palaces of Europe and the hovels of Hong Kong.

I’ve seen the Mona Lisa and stared in awe at the timeless works of Vincent Van Gogh.

I’ve gathered cattle in the Big Bend country of Texas and met some of the wisest people I know at campfires in the middle of nowhere. I was privileged to have conversations with Alex Hailey and Louis L’Amour. I’ve appeared with The Rolling Stones, worked in the recording studio with Bob Dylan and two of the Beatles. I’ve been married to the same woman for over thirty years and raised a son who did, by the way, go to college. I’ve kept 20 people gainfully and steadily employed for over 20 years.

I am not a man of letters, I readily admit to that. But is being a man of letters the only thing which qualifies one to speak to a group of men and women who are about to enter the real world? My world.

My address will not be delivered in the beautiful strains of poetry of a Maya Angelou or with the technical expertise of a Tom Clancy, but I can tell you where some of the land mines are hidden, the shortest path to the top of the mountain and the quickest way down. Been there, done that.

          Charlie Daniels

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.