Unnatural acts…

I was chatting with a friend and former colleague of mine.  He’s still “in the game”.  His company’s sales year runs through May 31^st; just a few hours until “year-end”! 

Year-end in the sales profession?  Always a wild ride!  It brings out many creative (and entertaining) ways sales people try to produce a sense of urgency to close that last-minute deal.  I refer to it as performing “unnatural acts.”  In the retail business the slogan is, “All items must go!”  Laughably, that slogan applies to application software business, too. 

Today the challenge is in the customers’ mind - it’s just May.  That’s why my friend is working so hard to create urgency aka perform unnatural acts.  However, even the ancients knew: 

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. 

Herodotus 

When trying to close that last, year-end deal, what do sales people say when they don’t really have anything meaningful to say?  “Hi Mr. Prospect. I’m just checking in…”  Or, “Ms. Prospect, I’m following up…”  “Checking in”; “Following up”; sounds like a peddler, yes?  Jill Konrath in her book Selling to Big Companies © suggests salespeople avoid this technique: 

Because peddlers can't be trusted, don't peddle!  You hate doing it, and they hate hearing it.

Jill Konrath 

Besides, when the customer is ready to buy they contact us.  They don’t wait for us to “check in”.  

The cadence and psychology around sales year-end has always intrigued me.  At my last company (Oracle) our end-of-year was May 31^st; ADP’s year-end was June 30^th; other companies I’ve worked for it was December 31^st.  In literally every instance, that last month of the sales year always saw a huge uptick in sales - no matter what month of the year.  Lots of unnatural acts being performed I guess.  Truth be told, I performed many myself. 

Customers usually think of “year-end” as… well … the end of the year; December 31^st; New Year’s Eve.  If that’s accurate, why do you suppose customers go along with transacting at a higher volume for salesperson’s sales year-end?  I mean, what’s their “urgency” and where does it come from? 

Could it be stress?  Could “there” for the customer be an end to the rep’s unnatural acts trying to get their business? 

Stress is caused by being "here" but wanting to be "there". 

Eckhart Tolle 

Yes, closing deals on or before the last day of the sale year is stressful. That stress is felt by the sales rep.  Their sales managers are carriers, too! For customers, it’s just another day or in the case of my friend it’s just spring.  Outside of farming, there’s no urgency in the spring, is there?

I wonder (and occasionally laugh)… Is the year-end “sense of urgency” all in the sales reps’ mind?  If so, how do these salespeople operate throughout the rest of the year?  Maybe they’re thinking, “There’s plenty of time to sell my quota.”  Is it only when there is no longer plenty of time that salespeople start to feel that sense of urgency?  And said urgency often brings out said unnatural acts. 

That’s the downside of a companies’ sales years.  In the customers’ eye the “year-end’ part is fabricated.  Worse - when a smart customer finds out it’s our year-end they can hold out their decision until they see the stress get to us.  They wait for salespeople (or our sales managers) to perform unnatural acts. 

                                                            GAP 

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

We remember…

I never served in the military.  I was fearful.  I remember.  It was a time of social upheaval across the country.  It was the era of the Viet Nam War.  It was the last period when we had military conscription, aka “the draft”.  My draft number in 1971 was 271.  I remember. 

Today, I can only imagine the commitment, self-sacrifice, and bravery our country’s veterans must have had to preserve our way of life.  Thankfully members of our armed forces are continuing their commitment on our behalf. 

Monday, we will pause to remember those who served; who sacrificed; who died; for our country; for our freedom.  It is a “day of remembrance”.  According to Wikipedia this history of remembrance goes back 156 years: 

In 1868, General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic called for a "Decoration Day", which was widely celebrated. By 1890, every Northern state had adopted it as a holiday. The World Wars turned it into a generalized day of remembrance, instead of just for the Civil War. 

The battles for our freedom continues.  What are our “weapons” of choice? 

David Major, Course Director for Senior Enlisted Blended Seminar Program for Marine Corps University, taught a leadership class, Law of War and Profession of Arms at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia.  One of the leaders he cites is General Charles C. Krulak: 

The military has a tradition of producing great leaders that possess the highest ethical standards and integrity.  It produces men and women of character. 

Were those the “weapons” you were thinking of?  Ethical standards; integrity; character?  

It’s easy to turn our media-fueled attention towards our country’s leaders.  It’s easy to criticize the behaviors we’re seeing from our elected officials.  Before we get too carried away though, General Krulak offers additional guidance: 

Based on (character), we commit to doing what is right.  We expect such commitment from our leaders.  But most importantly, we must demand it of ourselves. 

Character; integrity; ethical standards; doing what is right; these are the weapons we all must use to protect our freedom.  David Major adds: 

Ethical decision-making reflects a cognitive process by which one makes decisions based on value judgements. While influences such as culture, upbringing, religion, nationality, and organizational culture can shape our ethics, ultimately, values-based decision-making is often a matter of personal choice. 

“A matter of personal choice…”  Back to General Krulak: 

My challenge to you is simple but often very difficult…  wear your armor of integrity… find comfort in its protection… do not become lax.  And always remember that no one can take your integrity from you…  you and only you can give it away! 

Each of us.  It’s our choice.  Only in America can cultures of diversity live together united.  Truly, we have our differences and there is plenty of strife.  Americans have much work to do in the pursuit of a more perfect union: 

In every community, there is work to be done. 

In every nation, there are wounds to heal. 

In every heart, there is the power to do it. 

Marianne Williamson 

Memorial Day enables us to remember; to pause our work; to honor the men and women of our military; especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice: 

Then it’s back to work.  Hopefully, with character; integrity; ethical standards; using personal choice to do what’s right; leveraging value-based decision-making; and more… 

Yes Marianne, “In every heart, there is the power to do it!” 

GAP 

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

Mental Health

Tough topic today… it’s always been a tough topic.  And it takes tough people to deal with it.  According to research: 

Mental health has grown to be an outsized problem in the United States, with 90% of Americans saying it is now a crisis.

Let’s be more aware when we ask someone, “How are you doing?”  If we hear, “I’m doing alright” it can mean so much more.  Like Eric: 

I have known Eric for 48 years May 18th – his birthday.  Over that period Eric’s Mom and Dad have shared some of his most joyous occasions and some of his most upsetting events.  In between these highs and lows Eric would tell you that he has been doing alright.  For Eric, doing alright shows how amazing he truly is. 

You see, Eric is the toughest person I know.  I’ll give you an example.  Close your eyes and return to the happiest day of your life – feel how you felt during your most exhilarating moments.  OK, now think back to how you felt on your saddest, darkest, most depressed day ever.  Set those mental bookmarks in your mind’s eye.  There is an unbelievably wide and powerful range of human emotion, yes? 

For most of us, we migrate from our highest highs to our lowest lows slowly; with long, “recovery” spans of simply feeling average in between.  Unfortunately, Eric is different.  His mood swings back and forth, between euphoric highs and debilitating lows in a matter of minutes - multiple times - every hour!  Now picture your life with his type of mood swings – as if our other challenges aren’t enough to deal with. 

Rapid Cycling – that’s the term for Eric and others who suffer from Bi-Polar Disorder.  Eric lives every day with this unwelcome guest.  Medical science is not much help.  Bi-Polar Disorder is an affliction of the brain, very difficult to properly diagnose and treat.  Trial and error, mostly.  That means people with Bi-Polar Disorder typically wind up dealing with this on their own. 

Most can’t hold down a steady job.  Eric can – and he has consistently been a “go to” person for his company.  He is a skilled tradesman; good with customers; dependable; hard working; shows up no matter what; a positive attitude; an outlook that no job is too tough; that’s Eric.  Most people with Bi-Polar Disorder can’t live independently.  Eric does – and if you met him, you would never know the internal turmoil that lives with him.  He has a pleasant personality; a nice sense of humor; knowledgeable of current events; just like the rest of us. 

But Eric isn’t like the rest of us.  Merely getting up and facing the day; every day; takes enormous strength.  He offers no excuses – never has.  Eric has earned success and experienced failure.  No matter; Eric treats each day anew, the best he possibly can. When you greet him with, “Hi. How you doing?”  you will almost always hear him say, “I’m doing alright”. 

If Eric is tough enough to be “alright” each and every day even though feeling uncontrollable mood swings – should we do any less? 

No, I don’t have Bi-Polar Disorder, but it lives next door. Although I don’t have it, I can see first-hand the toughness Eric has as he lives with it.  Eric is my son and I’m proud of him.  One day I hope to learn the source of his amazing toughness so I too can be, “doing alright”. 

GAP 

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

47 seconds…

May I offer you a test today?  Odds are, you won’t pass.  (To be fair, maybe it’s my writing that will fail.)  On average, it will take 3.2 times the amount of typical attention span to read these 600 words. That’s 151 seconds.  If I were a betting man, I’d bet you won’t make it all the way through before clicking on another screen or app.  Ready?  GO! 

I read an article in the USA Today recently about our shortening attention spans.  Couple that with a Google search that suggests we, on average, read 238 words per minute and the clock is ticking before our urge to switch to something else. 

The article, citing research by Gloria Mark, Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Informatics at the University of California Irvine (that’s a mouthful!), suggests our online attention span has shortened to 47 seconds.  That’s 47 seconds!  Are you still paying attention?  I get it: 

My mind often wanders and sometimes leaves me altogether. 

Unknown Sage 

There’s much wild excitement these days about artificial intelligence.  ChatGBT is all the rage when it comes to writing things.  Pretty soon there will be a reading side to AI so machines can write to other machines that read while we humans sit on the sideline and… what?  If we’re no longer writing or reading I guess we’ll simply sit in front of our phone and watch pictures and videos of artificial entertainment fly by – every 47 seconds. 

I understand.  It’s hard to pay attention in “modern” times (and you already passed 47 seconds worth of reading time – still there?).  We face lots of distractions.  And asking someone to give you their “undivided attention” is a fantasy, true?  Based on personal experience, I certainly hope our medical surgeons are able to buck the attention span trend.  Although even in the operating theater machines are playing a larger role:

This phenomena of shortening attention spans was predicted long ago.  The shift of technology in the marketplace to “Cloud Computing” has enabled “more, better, faster” to an amazing degree.  Joe Weinman, when he was the Strategic Solutions Sales VP for AT&T Global Business Services (another mouthful!) in 2008 developed his “10 Laws of Cloudonomics”.  Here’s number eight: 

Cloudonomics Law #8: Dispersion is the inverse square of latency. 

Reduced latency — the delay between making a request and getting a response — is increasingly essential to delivering a range of services, among them rich Internet applications, online gaming, remote virtualized desktops, and interactive collaboration such as video conferencing. However, to cut latency in half requires not twice as many nodes, but four times. For example, growing from one service node to dozens can cut global latency (e.g., New York to Hong Kong) from 150 milliseconds to below 20. However, shaving the next 15 milliseconds requires a thousand more nodes.                                                           

OK. Looking for a machine now to help me understand the math.  But I get it (I think).  We all like things fast; the faster the better.  And we like things easy.  And we’d prefer them to be cheap.  Add those three elements up and what do we get?  Machines. 

AI doesn’t have the need for fast – they’re already fast.  Machines don’t worry about easy because, well, they’re machines.  As far as the money goes, people today seem to be willing to pay almost any amount of bit coins (aka artificial money) for fast and easy so long as it only takes 47 seconds. 

GAP 

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

Moms are special…

My Mom was special - I bet your Mom is (or was) special, too.  Sunday May 12^th is Mother’s Day.  In mind; in memory; or in person; be sure to make it a special day for your Mom.  Sending flowers is not enough.  Make her the center of your attention, even if only for one day.

My wife is a special Mom.  She continues to lovingly mother our grown boys and our grandchildren even while their father worries, “How do I get all of these kids off the payroll?”  But I digress.  She keeps our entire, extended family together. 

Our Moms have a special sense of humor: 

A wife invited some people to dinner.  At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, “Would you like to say the blessing?”  I wouldn’t know what to say”, the girl replied.  “Just say what you hear Mommy say”, the wife answered.  The daughter bowed her head and said, “Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?” 

Unknown Sage                                

Our Moms are special teachers.  Remember the life-long lessons you learned from your Mother?  Back to our Unknown Sage: 

What my Mother taught me: 

My Mother taught me logic;

“Because I said so, that's why.”

My Mother taught me irony;

“Keep laughing and I'll give you something to cry about.”

My Mother taught me about the science of osmosis:

“Shut your mouth and eat your supper!" 

Even Bill Gates has a take (including Mom and Dad in his reference to his parents - and ours): 

Excerpt from Bill Gates' speech to Mount Whitney High School, Visalia, CA: 

Rule 7 - Before you were born, your parents weren't

as boring as they are now.  They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were.  So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. 

Our Moms have a special and immeasurable reservoir of power, true?  My Mom did.  She was stricken with cancer when I was 6 years old.  In fact, I can not remember a time when she was not ill.  The last 15 years of her life were spent undergoing continuous treatments: 

I watched my Mom’s great power, which she needed in order to deal with a new cancer treatment in the late 1960’s that was so unimaginably harsh – that the administration of this treatment was solely based on the primitive science of trial and error – where the doctors’ routine consisted of observing how much of a dose could she tolerate without dying from the treatment. 

It was an experimental treatment back then; offered only as a last resort for terminally ill cancer patients. This wasn’t a cancer cure; just a radical option to extend one’s life another year or two.  It was due to her staying power (and that of many other patients like her) before she finally succumbed in 1974, that has helped pave the way to the development of the commonly used, life-saving cancer treatment we all know today as chemotherapy. 

How many special Moms have died fighting terrible diseases (and brutal treatments) so the rest of us can benefit from the exaggerated term, “modern medicine”? 

Mother’s Day - make it special for your Mom if she’s living; make it special for you through your memories of your Mom if she’s not. 

GAP

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