Pundits, Pontificators, et al

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are coming.  What a terrific sports festival for our modern era!  Interestingly, the 2022 Winter Olympic gold medal for women’s figure skating was only recently determined.  Finally, after two years of debate, discussion, and controversy.  I wonder if that’s how the Greeks did it 2,800 years ago? 

America has our own “modern game”.  Did you join in the aftermath?  It was Monday, February 12^th.  Ring a bell?  How about this: It was the day after the most watched television event in history with an estimated 123.7 million viewers.  Actually, the phenomenon I’m referring to started the night before; even before the fans left the stadium. 

Monday February 12^th brought out the rest of the seers; soothsayers; second-guessers, pundits; pontificators; doubters; experts; gurus; quarterbacks of the arm-chair and Monday-morning variety, and (of course) the critics. Some are still grinding on it.  I chuckle about the pontificators: 

“Pontificator” 

in British English 

NOUN a person who pontificates 

Yes, yes, I’m a pontificator, too.  Even so, are these other gurus worth listening to?  All the hoopla reminds me of Dale Carnegie’s pontification: 

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. 

I’m talking about Super Bowl LVIII.  (That’s 58 to us non-Latin-Speaking-Romans).  I get it.  Sports fans, bettors, media, and even the 123.7 viewers have their opinions about whether the Chiefs won the game or the 49ers lost it.  Is Kyle Shanahan an elite NFL head coach who has yet to win a Super Bowl?  Or is he a bumbling idiot who blew the game over a coin flip? 

Shanahan certainly unleashed the “What if’s”.  Especially the “if’s”.  And we all know: 

If the Hamm’s Bear drank Schlitz, there’d be no land of sky blue waters. 

Unknown Sage 

I could join in.  “What if” it turns out that the Kansas City Chiefs are one of the greatest NFL teams ever assembled.  In spite of the Bills Mafia (a favorite fan base of mine), Buffalo couldn’t beat the Chiefs at home.  Not even the Baltimore Ravens with the best regular season record, home field advantage, and the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 2024 could beat KC. 

Personally, I admired Shanahan’s confidence.  Score first; hold KC; and the debate shifts to whether the Superbowl MVP should have been Brock Purdy or Christian McCaffrey.  Oh, Kyle could have doubted; played less aggressively; feared Patrick Mahomes; anticipated the punditry.  But try as they might, the post-game media experts couldn’t get him to say he made a mistake.  He remained confident in the face of criticism just as Michael Treacy wrote about in his book The Discipline of Market Leaders ©: 

            Courage in the face of doubt is essential. 

Oh well, criticism of defeats have been with mankind as long as there has been mankind.  I’m sure you and I face the doubters and second guessers every time a decision we made doesn’t turn out very well.  I’d rather heed the ancients: 

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing; say nothing; and be nothing. 

Aristotle 

Nonetheless, the debate and the criticism continues; especially the criticism in spite of what the ancients might think.  As for the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has published this historical perspective: 

The Original values of Olympism as expressed in the Olympic Charter were to encourage effort, preserve human dignity, and develop harmony.  

Hmmm… No mention of coin flips by a single seer, soothsayer, or pontificator. 

                                                            GAP 

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

Luv rules…

Today is Valentine’s Day – it’s still not too late.  There’s still time to do something special for that special person. 

OK – so I can’t take credit for creating this awesome display of love for my love.  That was someone else’s awesome display of their love for their love.  Can I take “observation credit” for stopping along the roadside while driving through this western Illinois farming community to take the picture?  I think my wife will give me credit for a little kind-hearted, photo-plagiarism because I know she knows: 

Love rules without rules. 

Italian Proverb 

Who says men are oblivious and have no powers of observation?  OK – so a billboard is hard to miss.  Observing that man’s demonstration of love reminds us all that today, no assumptions; no taking her for granted; no obliviousness; no subtleties are allowed.  On Valentine’s Day, we must shout our love for our love from the top of the mountains!  Of course, we hope our women do the same for the men in their lives: 

You know “That Look” women get when they want sex?  Me neither. 

Steve Martin 

Today may be a special day in my marriage, but our relationship over the years has taken constant care (and patience).  Thankfully, my wife has patience: 

Patience strengthens the spirit,

   sweetens the temper,

      stifles anger,

    extinguishes envy,

  subdues pride,

bridles the tongue,

   restrains the hand,

      and tramples upon temptation. 

George Horne 

It’s easier to be patient with the little things I suppose.   But when times get tough, the most convenient person to argue with, vent to, and take our frustrations out on is often our partner, true?  Life seems to move so fast; people seem to be so stressed; the media inundates us with so many sensationalized issues. 

I don’t know; are meaningful, loving partnerships easier or harder to find these days?  With everything racing at a break-neck pace, who’s responsible for maintaining a healthy, loving, long-lasting relationship?  Well, here’s a view from Wyatt Webb: 

You are 100 percent responsible for 50 percent of any relationship. 

Carrying more than ½ the load you say?  Yep – you and my wife, too. 

Thankfully, my wife and I are still in love after all of these years.  We will do something quiet this Valentine’s Day; we enjoy our quiet time together - always have.  We’re blessed with sharing many common interests, so spending time together and “decompressing” from our fast-paced life is a nice retreat. 

Like you, our conversations will span a variety of topics; children; friends; happy memories; love.  Of course, when we’re together we will also synchronize our calendars; debate upcoming projects; disagree on priorities; discuss business; and almost always review our finances.  Yuck!  Necessary I suppose, but not very romantic. 

Yet this Valentine’s Day I will be reminded: 

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. 

Mignon McLaughlin 

So here’s to February 14^th – Valentine’s Day.  May you enjoy it with someone special in your life.  If you’re lucky enough to be in love, may you cherish your quiet time together; sharing common interests; being patient with life’s challenges; relishing the restorative results of romance. 

And if you’re with someone but you’re not yet sure if he or she is “the one”, don’t worry – trust your gut feeling: 

Love is not finding someone you can live with; it’s finding someone you cannot live without. 

Rafael Ortiz 

Love rules without rules on Valentine’s Day – and every day. 

GAP 

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

Super Heroes…

When times get tough for salespeople, I like to seek out Subject Matter Experts for guidance on how to adjust to succeed.  I attended a SMM webinar recently featuring a SME I know, Kendra Lee.  Her premise was: 

Business Owners Are Spending Differently

·         Longer Decision Process

·         Tighter Budgets

·         Continued Challenges Reaching Decision Makers

·         More People Involved In The Decision Process

Her knowledge and experience are stellar.  I enjoyed her perspective and concepts but it left me with an “itch to scratch”.  Too much emphasis on defining the problem and not enough on what to do about it – specific, tactical, actionable, next steps. 

I hate to disagree with a SME (especially someone I know and respect) but… if we believe Business Owners are spending differently in 2024 I think we might consider… thinking again.  Business Owners and Executives have always been challenging to sell to.  The predominance of committee decision-making has always been an obstacle to overcome in B2B selling.  The old adage, “The more things change the more they stay the same.” may just be true, true? 

A copy of the webinar presentation was provided.  Conceptually sound and professionally designed, it just seemed to be missing something.  Then I remembered my favorite super hero… Batman! 

If you think about it, Batman is a super hero who does not possess super powers.  Unlike other super heroes, Batman is just ordinary Bruce Wayne by day.  OK – Bruce Wayne is rich.  But being rich doesn’t equal super-successful selling skills.  I got to thinking, “What would Batman do?” 

Bat Tools are the key to Batman’s super herodom.  If Bat Tools can transform ordinary Bruce Wayne into a super hero, maybe they can for us ordinary salespeople, as well.  Then I remembered… I have Bat Tools!  I’ve been using them throughout my sales career.  I’ve even shared one of those before; my Executive Attention Grid. 

The grid demonstrates how Business Owners prioritize their time and attention.  Align your products/services top-right and you’ll get the Business Owners’ attention; fall into the low-left and you’ll get delegated.  Delegated to committees with the ability to say, “No” but without the authority to say, “Yes”.  Sound familiar? 

I downloaded the sales and marketing planning template offered after the webinar.  Again, excellent concepts but it didn’t strike me as a Bat Tool.  Too conceptual; too incomplete; not specifically actionable,  Then I remembered… I have a Bat Tool for that! 

My “Ideal Target Prospect Profile” has 75 data elements to focus on.  (You can easily modify this Excel template with the data elements applicable to your products/services.)  At every prospect interaction fill in some of the blanks.  Gather enough data and you’ll quickly be able to tell if that prospect is worth prospecting. 

In sales, Bat Tools must be applicable to our real-world selling situations; able to accommodate our particular uniqueness; and they must be actionable.  Bat Tools are tactical.  When Batman is in the midst of some battle, there is no time for conceptual thinking. 

So if you’re concerned about whether you’re prepared to sell the way buyers are buying in 2024, I suggest the first place to look is at your inventory of Bat Tools.  If you don’t have any, email me.  I’ll send you two of mine;  the “Ideal Target Prospect Profile” and the “Executive Attention Grid”.  (I have others.) 

Now look up in the sky… it’s the Bat Signal… that’s your prospects calling.  Gather your Bat Tools and go get ‘em! 

                                                            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’re gonna miss you…

I recommend Sam Walton’s autobiography, Sam Walton Made in America ©.  I never knew about the history of Walmart.  I love reading about the business titans of our time; I love reading about greatness.  Another one of my favorites is Idea Guy ©; Paul Allen’s account of hiring Bill Gates and how they led the herculean effort to create Microsoft. 

The Google Story © was a different story.  Here were a couple of computer scientists, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who simply wanted to sell their search engine intellectual property for $25 million.  After trying and trying, their Stanford University advisor finally told them if they wanted financial gain they would have to start a company.  Reluctantly - unbelievably reluctantly - they launched Google.  The rest as they say is a history of untold riches!  If you google (verb) google (noun) you’ll get, “The term google itself is a creative spelling of googol, a number equal to 10 to the 100th power, or more colloquially, an unfathomable number.”  Yep – unfathomable! 

Another favorite of mine is Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle ©.  This hit particularly close to home for me because I was there during the depiction of chaos during Oracle’s explosive growth period.  My work as an Oracle Financials Application Sales Rep, literally selling version 1.0, was the most wild ride in my entire career!  

Speaking of version 1.0, I can’t remember what software “version” comes first:  alphaware; betaware; visionware; vaporware; or demoware? 

Without a herculean effort Larry almost lost his company.  The stress almost cost me my marriage.  Thankfully, we both came out successful. 

Some of the books I’ve read address great companies (and great people) failing and then resurrecting themselves.  I particularly liked Who Says Elephants Can't Dance © and IBM’s return to greatness.  I love this quote from their then-CEO: 

There were times when we lost money on every PC we sold, and so we were conflicted - if sales were down, was that bad news or good news? 

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. 

Back to Walmart.  Sam Walton stated at the start of his book, there are lots of opinions from others about Walmart; mostly negative.  After reading his firsthand account I have a much better appreciation of what he did to build the Walmart empire and why.  The “why” can be summed up simply to sell what the customer wants, at a good price, and stand behind it.  Who doesn’t want a company to do that?

Business success is certainly not limited to the behemoths.  I remember to this day a story one of my clients told me about one of their clients.  I was the Master Sales Enablement Advisor at Oracle/NetSuite and one of my NetSuite resellers in Kentucky (Oasis Solutions) had one of their clients utter the phrase, “We’re gonna miss you”.  You see, their client just bought NetSuite ERP directly from NetSuite.  The client didn’t realize Oasis also sold NetSuite.  No one had informed the client.  Sam Walton would have frowned on that reseller and probably coaxed them to stay closer to the needs of their customers. 

Afterall, who doesn’t want our vendors, stores, advisors, and other providers to stay close enough to us to understand what we need?  As it turns out, many times greatness doesn’t require the herculean feats of a Bill Gates, Paul Allen, or Larry Ellison.  It's less stressful to pay better attention to our clients. 

                                                            GAP 

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

Mission & Vision…

The Board of Directors of a non-profit organization I serve on is updating our “Mission & Vision Statements”.  This is the first time I’ve served on a Board.  So far, it’s been quite the process.  Truthfully, I’m uncomfortable and a bit amused.  Is that common when developing a Mission Statement?  Here are thoughts from Dave Carpenter:

I’m somewhat handicapped with this initiative.  Our effort to reach a consensus let alone a conclusion pushes several of my buttons and I’m trying to be mindful of those buttons. 

Thankfully, our Board has several experienced business professionals.  We have plenty of knowledge, opinions, and time to discuss (and debate) what our go-forward Mission & Vision Statements should be.  I know this is important to making progress.  I’m a willing follower; but there are those buttons. 

Like other organizations, our Board would be considered a “committee”.  You see, I’ve never done well with committees.  I’ve always had more of a charge ahead, “let’s get ‘er done” mindset.  However, part of being an appropriate Board member is to participate in our committee decision making approach. 

It didn’t take much of a self-diagnosis.  I understand the source of my discomfort.  To some, a committee decision-making process can sometimes feel like a decision-avoidance process.  And that’s a button many others have felt: 

A committee is twelve men doing the work of one. 

John F. Kennedy 

I know I have those darn buttons.  Throughout my sales career I’ve always been amazed (and oftentimes frustrated) by committee decision making.  It’s going to be all good though.  Each of us is well-meaning and we are volunteering our time and talents for the benefit of the greater organization.  I suppose I have buttons for Mission & Vision Statement development.  I’m not alone with this, particularly in today’s business environment: 

At the top is the mission statement. 

  And it begat the strategy. 

    And the strategy begat the tactics. 

      And the tactics begat the objectives

        that begat the tasks

          that begat the people in cubicles

who no longer beget children because they're working all weekend trying to finish the !@#$-ing assignments they've been given to serve the all-powerful mission statement.                            

Rick Levine 

Reminds me of this “vision” from Elon Musk to “help” his employees work towards the X Mission? 

Much has been said and much has been written about the importance of understanding the Mission & Vision of the company, community, or committee we’re investing our time in these days.  I’m OK with being exposed to this process and learning new skills.  I’m participating to the best of my (limited) ability.  I’m following the lead of my more capable Board members. 

Once we’re through the mission, vision, strategy process, I’ll rev things back up.  I’ll get enthusiastic about the tactical implementation of whatever our outcome is. 

And that includes the “strategy” piece.  Extended discussions about strategy is another one of those darn buttons.  I’m all about execution.   My personal mission, vision, and strategy statements is, “Let’s go sell somebody something - today!”  

A friend and client of mine offered this on LinkedIn: 

1. Comfort is the enemy of progress and achievement.

2. Vision without execution is hallucination. 

3. Prescription without proper diagnosis is malpractice. 

              Michael Meehan 

The good news is I’m out of my comfort zone so maybe I’m making progress.  As to the rest of my committee’s mission, vision, strategy, debate and discussion… Well Dave Carpenter, I’m just trying to make it to the weekend. 

                                                            GAP 

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

Meaning what?

This phrase is attributed to General George S. Patton: 

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

I was chatting with a friend of mine.  OK, “chatting” isn’t what I meant.  He met with me to ask, “What would Gary do?”  So, I should have actually started this piece saying; I was providing professional sales coaching for a friend of mine. 

That happens a lot, true?  I mean – someone says (or writes) one thing but they really mean something else.  In the case with my friend, he recently had a meeting with his sales manager to discuss “Territory Re-Alignment”.  Indeed…  in the sales profession this is a common, annual ritual companies put their salespeople through. 

It goes by many names. Territory Re-Alignment; Territory Equalization; Territory Re-Assignment.  What it actually means is Mr. or Ms. Sales Rep, we are going to shrink your territory. (BTW – raising quota and changing compensation plans often go with “Territory Re-Alignment”.  Thankfully, those extras were not part of my friend’s conversation with his sales manager.) 

There are other business oriented wordsmithing scenarios we are frequently impacted by.  Take price increases.  This century, subscription pricing is all the rage.  I mean – how many emails to you get every day asking you to “sign up” for some product or service that comes with a subscription payment component. 

Here’s one example.  According to Google: 

Today Amazon currently has 200 million Amazon Prime members around the world. If Prime subscribers were a country, it would be the 8th biggest country in the world by population! 

Speaking of our subscriptions and those emails, how did you feel when that notification comes through saying your subscription was now going to include ads?  Of course, for a “Nominal Fee” you could continue your subscription ad free.  Ah yes, “Nominal Fee”.   I use that phrase myself.  What it means is your money gets transferred to the person or entity who used “Nominal Fee”. 

The best phrase I heard around the context of a price increase was used by ADP (the payroll service company) way back in the 1980s.  (I know, Dark Ages!)  ADP was one of the original subscription-priced services.  Similar to all subscription pricing models, it was easy to offer a discount to attract new customers. (Today, that sounds like this, “The NFL Package for FREE!  *First year only”). 

Every year ADP would analyze each customer account; their level of discount; and then calculate a price increase for the upcoming year.  But ADP didn’t call it a “Price Increase”.  Instead, they coined the term “Price Realization”.  What on earth does that mean?  Well it meant the reduction or elimination of the promotional discount and raising the subscription price back to the then-current list price.  And that meant the customer was going to pay more. 

This mis-meaning situation is common in other aspects of our daily life.  Take the medical profession.  This is a piece from comedian Brian Regan and his perspective about what doctors mean with the word  “Pressure” . 

Even our household budgeting can get fouled up with something as seemingly straight forward as math symbols: 

Addendum to Murphy's Law: 

In precise mathematical terms, 1+1 = 2, where "=" is a symbol meaning seldom if ever. 

                                  Unknown Sage 

I guess we have to be careful to clarify what people actually mean these days.  And who knows what to expect when the “machines” (aka “AI” aka “Artificial Intelligence”) take over.  What does “Artificial Intelligence” mean, anyway? 

                                                            GAP 

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

Who’s to blame?

Worried about the economy, interest rates, or layoffs in 2024?  Business Owners; if your company’s sales are down, who’s to blame?  

When companies miss their top line revenue and layoffs usually follow.  Not always though: 

Several years ago, a car dealer in St. Petersburg, Florida fired his entire sales force and sales went up twenty six percent. 

Rick Page 

If poor sales performance leads to layoffs, how do we address the problem?  Is it possible sales specialization to blame? 

I’m not a fan of today’s sales specialization or I would say “over specialization”.  It’s much more specialized than “back in my day”.  OK Gary… here it comes… tales from the Dark Ages again?  HaHa!  Fair enough, but hear me out. 

Thinking it’s too hard  aka “too expensive” to hire experienced sales professionals, many companies hire young, inexperienced reps.  They “promote” these new reps into entry level aka “specialized” roles after initial training.  Specialized aka “limited” responsibilities.  These inexperienced reps often perform lead generation/qualification activities on behalf of more senior, experienced sales reps who are also specialized by industry; by prospect size; by product line; or by some other, limited, assignment. 

These senior, experienced sales reps aka “Account Executives” specialize in lead-development and pipeline management aka “deals” vs. customers.  Worse, they’ve lost lead-generation skills aka “prospecting”.  AEs are supported by “Pre-Sales” or other “Subject Matter Experts”.  Lots of specialization going on here, true? 

Poor sales and the proverbial finger pointing begins.  Maybe Marketing is to blame.  Not enough Marketing Qualified Leads aka “MQLs”.  And the debate between marketing and sales continues… 

Some companies invest heavily in sales training and enablement.  So much emphasis that many sales reps - and their managers - don’t personally invest the time and effort it takes to truly become “trained”.  When any of these specialized reps fail, who’s to blame?  Sales training?  Sales reps?  Sales managers? 

Focusing for a moment on those young, inexperienced, new hires coupled with the Department of Unintended Consequences, sales managers receive these reps as “promotes” after their onboarding.  Since the sales manager is not responsible for recruiting, onboarding, and enabling their own sales people, sales managers don’t become skilled in these disciplines.  I ask again, when their sales team fails, who’s to blame?  Recruiting?  Human Resources? 

Then along comes the Account Management Organization; aka “Customer Success Reps”; aka “Farmers”.  AMO reps aren’t “Hunters” so they don’t develop lead-generation skills either.  (See a pattern here?)  Of course, AMO reps must deal with the dissatisfied customer who the AE over-sold.  Since specialized AEs don’t manage the new clients they just over-sold, they don’t develop those professional selling/relationship skills either.  Back to Rick Page: 

If we oversold or under delivered, then it wasn't a sale; it was a lie.  Lying is easy; selling is hard. 

Adding to the matter leaders often don’t inspect what they expect relying instead on that wonderful soundbite “delegate and trust”.  However, when sales performance slips that makes it impossible for them to determine – you guessed it - Who’s to blame? 

I wonder if sales specialization aka “splintering” is to blame.  Does all of today’s specialization get in the way of what the customer really wants?  Mahan Khalsa put it this way: 

Customers want to buy from a business person who sells. 

Sadly, in spite of customer preferences I fear sales specialization is here to stay; at least until the machines aka “AI” take over.  Except perhaps for St. Petersburg, Florida car dealerships. 

GAP 

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