Pay attention…

 

I was behind a driver at a stoplight when the arrow turned green the other day.  Because she wasn’t paying attention; I missed the light.  Sound familiar?  

It reminded me of my profession and the coaching I frequently provide my clients.  In the sales profession paying attention is important.  Paying attention starts with good listening skills.  And listening skills are key.  Why?  Because then we will hear the prospect’s specific details.  In the marketplace today, specificity is a killer application.  

I know specificity can be hard.  When things are hard some believe that leads to fatigue.  Have you noticed the buzz about “Zoom Fatigue”?  One great competitor offered this: 

… fatigue makes cowards of us all. 

                   Vince Lombardi 

I choose to believe that paying attention really isn’t that hard and the reasons behind Zoom Fatigue are different.  Another great mind put it this way: 

Fatigue is often caused not by work but by worry, frustration, and resentment.  We rarely get tired when we are doing something interesting and exciting.  

Dale Carnegie 

Sales is a profession that is interesting and exciting!  When we pay attention we listen specifically for the specificity in our prospect interactions.  Prospects prefer buying from the salesperson who is paying attention.  Yogi Berra put it another way: 

You can see a lot by observing.  

I was observing the subject line of another client’s sales-prospecting emails recently.  There are people much smarter than I on the subject of email subject line mastery.  Nonetheless, I mentioned to him that I didn’t think his subject line was very appealing. 

That prompted him to look it up and he agreed.  Reviewing all of his recent email campaigns the emails with that specific subject line were, in fact, the emails least opened.  What’s remarkable about this encounter (to me at least) is my client is actually paying attention to the facts! 

Now before we go any further let me state for the record, I have my own moments.  If my wife was here she would tell you that at home, I don’t “watch” TV; I “become” the TV!  Talk about not paying attention to her; guilty as charged! 

Our lack of attention-paying is obvious to our prospects and clients and spouses (and other drivers), true?  They can tell.  It reminds me of my former colleague who offered this response when it was revealed he wasn’t paying attention during a meeting: 

You only have to tell me twice, once. 

                   Adam Katzenmeyer 

And to Adam’s credit for the remainder of that meeting he kept his word and paid attention. 

I know the challenge is harder today because of technology.  Technology leads to using multiple devices… multiple devices leads to multi-tasking…  and multi-tasking leads to not paying attention.  It’s almost as if “multi-tasking” is some sort of badge of honor – which in the eye of our prospects and customers and spouses (and other drivers) - it is not.  

Never mind there is scientific evidence stating that the human brain cannot multi-task in the first place.  The fact is we are merely switching our attention back and forth really fast across multiple, single-tasks which means (according to the facts)… we’re not paying attention to any one task very long.  Funny thing about facts: 

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.                                 

Aldous Huxley 

Today, may we heed the facts and strive to pay attention at work - and more importantly perhaps – on the road and especially at home. 

GAP 

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

April 20, 1999 never forgotten…

Twenty-two years ago today, my hometown experienced the terror that two teenagers, feeling a sense of desperation and isolation, can bring to their high school, their community and our nation.  It was considered a rare event back then – unfortunately, it has now become all too common:

 

Life is hard and can often seem hopeless for many young people.   If you have a son or daughter; grandchildren; nieces or nephews; or neighborhood kids; reach out to them today.  

Tell them today that you love them and will support them as they try to make their way in the world.  And if they are struggling to make ends meet – give them a few bucks, reassure them.  Today, help them feel they belong.  Give them hope. 

Let’s reverse our society’s violence.  Let’s use our power of compassion to increase the sunlight for those heading towards darkness: 

It takes the sun to create a shadow – accept that the dark and the light live side by side in all of us.  

Chellie Campbell 

It’s not just my hometown of Littleton, Colorado - We are all Columbine: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Seqhcq23M

May you feel peace - and share the power of peace with others - today - especially today - and then every day thereafter! 

GAP

Oh well…

Hey everyone – its income tax week!  Hooray! 

Actually, we’ve been given a Covid extension until May – but who’s counting?  (Other than the IRS!)  Do you think our elected officials are cheering on the sideline as our tax returns flow in?  Oh well.  

Does it ever seem to you that no matter how you complete your income tax return; no matter how much outside, expert advice you leverage; no matter what plans you put in place to lessen your tax impact next year, you still seem to be funding everything? 

On the one hand… 

I dislike the immense level of government spending that takes place today at the federal, state, county, city and even master association level.  The media reminds us of the tremendous waste that seems to occur every day; every way.  Today, with our anytime, anywhere, all-the-time, political action committees – they all have a position on the state of our federal, state, and local taxation, true?  Could it be some of our taxes are funding their messages?  Oh well. 

On the other hand… 

When there is a natural disaster; when we hear of a scientific breakthrough funded by a government grant; or when we simply have a friend or family member in need who receives financial or medical support from a social services program… well, I for one am happy I live in America. 

This time is one time during the year when we total it up.  Sometimes we like the resulting sum; other times we don’t.  Talk about “new math”! 

The Income Tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.

                        Will Rogers 

Question:  If I work from home and my dog barks when the FedEx driver arrives; does she qualify as my receptionist – and can I write-off the cost of her dog food?  No?  Oh well. 

All in all, when I reflect on my financial picture – I am blessed.  How about you?  I suppose it all depends.  Filing income taxes forces us to look at our W-2; our 401k; our IRA; our mortgage interest; our real estate taxes; and all of the other numbers the IRS wants us to look at; and report on.  That’s one way we measure; some years good - some, not so much.  

When we look in the mirror, often our not-so-much years are self-inflicted: 

More and more these days I find myself pondering on how to reconcile my net income with my gross habits.                               

John Kirk Nelson 

We heard growing up that, “Money isn’t everything”.  Does that perspective apply as adults?  Hopefully so.  Our top line income, even when reduced by taxes, still can be more than enough for a man that is easily contented.  Unfortunately, the itch of discontent rears its head all too often.  I mean, how many billions does it take to content our billionaires?  

Nevertheless, it’s not what we make that counts; it’s what we save.  Today, “line of credit” seems to have replaced the importance of savings.  Like our federal government, line of credit means “debt”.  Unlike the Fed, we can’t just print money.  Oh well. 

We are looking forward to 2021 – this will be our best year ever!  We can stay in control of how we define “best” by following the guidance of the world-renowned author and poet, Robert Lewis Stevenson: 

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.                                

And no – the seeds are not tax deductible.  Oh well. 

GAP 

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

What do I know...

I was thinking about Anders Ericsson’s Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise © the other day.  I refer to his views often when speaking with senior, experienced, successful sales professionals.  Anders suggests that experience and success can actually lead to complacency.  IMHO, Complacency begets; over-confidence; over-confidence begets corner-cutting; corner-cutting begets getting our lunch handed to us in competitive situations. 

Anders went on to suggest that people in my profession are actually contributing to the problem: 

When you look at how people are trained in the professional and business world, you find a tendency to focus on knowledge at the expense of skills.  The main reasons are tradition and convenience:  It is much easier to present knowledge to a large group of people than it is to set up conditions under which individuals can develop skills through practice. 

I’ve noticed a more worrisome skill-development deficiency situation recently.  At the other end of the salesperson spectrum… our young and inexperienced salespeople. 

Many of our salespeople seem to just want "the answer".  I wonder if that’s what’s behind Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.... machines actually want to "learn"; our junior sales rep audience just wants the answer – is learning too hard? 

Today, my colleagues are continuously trying to come up with the next enablement tool; presentation; job aide.  Their effort and their creativity are awesome!  Unfortunately, I don’t believe creativity solves the problem.  (And I’m not alone). 

Our company has made a huge investment to develop a consistent, systematic selling motion and our leadership expects our salespeople to acquire the knowledge – and the skill – to leverage these tools, tactics, and techniques.  However, to accomplish that takes practice; repetition; and effort outside of their comfort zone. 

The trouble is, it’s painful to become skillful.  It’s also hard to suppress the creativity sales enablement professionals have when we want to come up with a new and different way of enabling.  That’s the creativity problem I mentioned above.  In the book Softwar ©, Larry Ellison put it this way: 

I wanted to get the 'creativity' out of the sales process.  If you want to be creative, go write a novel. 

I expressed my observation to my Manager this way; if our salespeople can’t read the answer is not to write more books.

Truth be told, I feel this gravitational pull of creativity, myself.  When trying to serve my audience; trying to help them sell; when they struggle and are feeling pain, I too want to offer them more of the “answer.”  Even though I know the answer lies in the effort: 

Mastery is a pain… Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the results of intense practice for a minimum of 10 years.  Mastery-of-sports, music, business - requires effort (difficult, painful, excruciating, all-consuming effort) over a long time (not a week or a month, but a decade). 

              Anders Ericsson 

I wonder if today’s salespeople are willing to perfect their profession through the lengthy, painful path Anders suggests.  I mean, if you were having eye surgery you’d expect your surgeon to have practiced the procedure over and over again before trusting them with your eyes, true?  Does that principle apply to the sales profession? 

I believe buyers prefer to buy from the salesperson who has done this before.  But what do I know?  Maybe our young sellers only need the answers to succeed.  Maybe Google’s machines have already done all the learning for them. 

GAP 

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