Thank you again and always…

‘Tis the season of thankfulness.  Not that we should wait throughout the rest of the year but certainly November and Thanksgiving remind us of our blessings, don’t you agree?  So before I go any further - permit me to say, “Thank you”! 

Thank you for reading me.  Thank you for commenting on my little ditties.  Thank you for respecting my viewpoints; even those you disagree with.  Thank you for encouraging me to continue.

I am blessed with many people who enrich my life beyond count.  Thankfully, smart people have put counting in the proper perspective: 

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted. 

Albert Einstein

I can’t count all that I am thankful for; nor all of the times I have wanted to thank someone for their kindness.  But I am thankful for sure. 

I’m thankful for living in Denver – most of the time anyway: 

Welcome to Denver: 

The morning rush hour is from 5:00 to 10:00 AM. The evening rush hour is from 3:00 to 7:00 PM.  Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday.

Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere.  Denver has its own version.  The car or truck with the loudest muffler goes next at a 4-way stop.  The truck with the biggest tires goes after that.  Blue-haired, green-haired, or cranberry-haired ladies driving anything have the right of way all of the time.

North and South only vaguely resemble the real direction of certain streets.  University and Colorado are two boulevards that run parallel.  Geometry evidently not working at altitude, these streets intersect south of C470.

Highway 285 runs North, South, East and West and every direction in between; it can be found in every section of the Denver area making navigation very interesting.  You can turn west onto southbound 285; you can turn north onto westbound C470; and you can drive southeast on the Northwest Parkway.  This is why Denver uses the additional driving directions of “out”, “up”, “in”, “down”, and sometimes “over”.

Construction barrels are permanent, and are simply moved around in the middle of the night to make the next day’s drive more challenging.  When you see an orange cone, you must stop and then move ahead slowly until there are no more cones.  There need not be construction, just cones.

If someone has their turn signal on, wave them to the shoulder immediately to let them know it has been accidentally activated.

If it’s 70 degrees, Thanksgiving is probably next week; if it’s snowing, it’s probably the weekend after Memorial Day.

If you stop at a yellow light, you will be rear-ended or cussed-out.  A red light means four more cars can go through.  Not three; not five.  Four.  Never honk at anyone.  Ever.  Seriously.  Never yield at a “Yield” sign.  The yield sign is like an appendix; it once had a purpose but nobody can remember what it was.

Just because a street on the east side of town has the same name as a street on the west side of town doesn’t mean they’re connected. 

Unknown Sage 

Thankfully, we can celebrate with family, friends, food, and fun… maybe even a little football during the Thanksgiving holiday.  Let’s take a few quiet moments to reflect on all we have to be thankful for:

Thank you Lord.  I may never have a lot; but I have always had enough. 

Gary A. Pokorn 

Thank you again and always. 

GAP 

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

Customer burden…

I recently met with the top salesperson for Workday’s mid-market financial planning and analysis software.  Matt’s been  #1 for two years in a row and is tracking towards a threepeat.  I think he thinks the old guy can still hunt so he buys me lunch periodically.

We like debating sales tools, tactics, and techniques.  This time we agreed.  Salespeople get tangled up in their sales process; their bureaucracy; their CRM; their manager updates.  It’s like telling their prospect, “Don’t buy yet, until I update my forecast!”  In the Challenger Sale©:Adamson and Dixon wrote: 

The Customer Burden of Solutions 

… complicated and often rather protracted process requires a huge amount of customer involvement at each stage, placing two kinds of burden on the customer:  The first is time, and the second is timing.  Not only does this dance entail significant customer commitment across a wide range of different stakeholders... but from the customer's point of view, most of this effort comes early, before they see any value.  Really, it's an act of faith on their part that they're going to get anything in return for all of their trouble. 

This has led to something we call “solution fatigue”. 

Matt had just closed a deal; fast; same day fast.  His prospect was ready buy.  He was smart enough to avoid “solution fatigue” and let her.  He updated his CRM, forecast, and manager afterward.  He told me his colleagues would likely have missed the opportunity; slowed things down; consulted their manager; burdened the customer.  To Matt following a structured selling process and speed are not mutually exclusive.  I agreed.

I remember an ADP National Account deal I sold to a mining company in Denver.  I completed every selling process step; “Intro Meeting”; “Analysis”; “Demo”; “Price/Proposal”; “Close”; “Order Placement”, all in a single day.  It wasn’t a “One Call Close” but it was a “One Day Close”. 

My prospect was ready to buy.  Even though I didn’t fully understand why, I was willing to follow their lead; their speed; and avoid fatigue!  I updated my CRM, forecast, and manager afterward. 

Lesson learned:  Salespeople can cause delays in deals all on their own.  Be ready!  When the customer is prepared to buy, let 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.

To our cowboys…

I think we would be better off each day if we heeded the advice from Cowboy Ethics © by James P. Owen: 

I have come to realize that anybody can make money; it is much harder to make a difference. 

My son Kevin makes a difference.  He does it the cowboy way; hard work; modest life style; quiet, inner strength.  In 2023, before his 40^th birthday, he achieved what others say is becoming out of reach; the “American Dream”.  He owns a house on 2 acres of property in Wyoming – mortgage free! 

This is birthday present I gave him several years ago.  It's based on his cowboy experiences growing up and opens Chapter VII of by book: 

                        Cowboy Up – You’ll Get Through It! 

Dedicated to the American Cowboy – may we all learn to be more like them.  

Now, I’m no cowboy; but I know one. 

Cowboys are quiet, polite - men of few words; comfortable just listening while others around them bark at the moon nonstop. 

No, I’m no cowboy; but I’ve heard one. 

Cowboys have a reserve of strength far and above the average person – physical strength to be sure; but also great emotional strength. 

I’m definitely no cowboy; but I’ve seen one. 

Cowboys have the ability to remain in control even while every living thing around them, man and beast, spooks in mortal fear. 

True, I’m no cowboy; but I’ve been protected by one. 

Cowboys remain focused even with adrenaline rushing through their veins when they’re bull riding, or racing flat out, one-handed on horseback, to rope an escaping calf. 

Yes, I’m no cowboy; but I’ve lived with one. 

Cowboys are fearless especially at the age of 15 when they look down in the shoot and prepare to mount a bare back bucking bronco at their very first high school rodeo competition. 

Absolutely, I’m no cowboy; but I’ve filmed one looking down that very shoot. 

Cowboys always believe they can.  The cowboy feels that sigh of relief when he’s all twisted up in the dirt, having fallen off a stumbling horse and the rodeo announcer comes on the PA system and says, “Well folks, he’ll have an option for a re-ride.” 

So, I’m no cowboy, but I’ve sat next to his Mother in the stands when we heard that rodeo announcer come over the P.A. System to say, “Well folks, he’ll have an option for a re-ride.” And as the announcer glanced down to the stands to see her reaction he quickly added, “But his Mother says NO!” 

You see, I know a lot about cowboys.  That’s why I’m so sure I’m not one.  No, I’m no cowboy, but my son Kevin is.  And every day I try to be a little bit more like him.

Yes, American Cowboys like my son are still among us - making a difference. 

Happy birthday Kevin!  I love you, Dad. 

GAP 

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

 

Creative accounting…

I returned to Galesburg, Illinois last month for Homecoming weekend.  My major at Knox College was Accounting and Business Administration. Perhaps that started my interactions with creativity during my sales career. 

Walmart's Sam Walton had a few creative interactions, too: 

Nowadays, you hear a lot about fancy accounting methods… but back then we were using the ESP method… It's a pretty basic method: if you can't make your books balance, you take however much they're off by and enter it under the heading ESP, which stands for, “Error Some Place."

I benefited from a creative sales entry at ADP once.  I had booked a large, National Account order right before the end of our fiscal year.  It not only qualified me for President’s Club but it qualified my VP of Sales, as well.  Then the fit hit the shan… 

The customer called me apologetically to cancel the order.  I was crushed.  I informed my VP right away because: 

Bad news does not improve with age. 

D. Michael Abrashoff 

There was no way around it – or so I thought. 

Fast forward to the beach 8 weeks later with my VP of Sales and our spouses.  I asked my boss why that “No Start” didn’t cost me (and him) President’s Club? 

Turns out he, our Controller, and General Manager decided to enter that negative accounting transaction as a “UBV”, unexplained business variance.  

Creative accounting at its best.

                                                            GAP

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