1 in 45,000…

A colleague of mine was giving a 3-minute, presentation about his company and his services recently.  He said he is one of 45,000 registered realtors in Colorado.  He went on to acknowledge: 

If you don’t have a friend who is already in the real estate business you must not have many friends. 

                   Justin Phillips 

After his presentation, we got to chatting. His business is not only in a competitive field (Aren’t all small businesses?) but its also hard to differentiate himself from 45,000 others.  As the title of Jack Trout’s book suggests: 

Differentiate or Die ©

Competition and differentiation are challenges any business, large or small, don’t you think?  It can be hard to look in the mirror and see those specific things that make you and your company different from the myriad of others in your industry.  You may not have 45,000 direct competitors, but I bet you have competition nonetheless. 

After all, there are thousands (millions maybe) of product companies; even more service providers.  Only a few of the most creative; perhaps the most clever: have figured out what their differentiation is in the eye of their customers. 

Charles Revlon, the founder of Revlon and an extraordinarily successful entrepreneur, once said about his company: “In the factory Revlon manufactures cosmetics, but in the store Revlon sells hope.” 

Charles Revlon 

We talked through my colleague’s main points of differentiation; those attributes he likes to emphasize with prospective, new clients.  One really stood out to me but not in the way he said it.  One of his credentials is he’s a former, licensed architect.  Well OK, but if you’re like me, that credentialing statement probably stimulated this thought in your mind: 

So what? 

We dwelled on this architect thing for a while.  I wouldn’t let him move on; employing one of my favorite sales coaching approaches I bet my former sales teams remember well (maybe not fondly, but well): 

Let’s go slow here. 

Or, as one architect put it: 

God is in the details. 

                   Mies van der Rohel 

Architectural training (and a license) is what my colleague “has”.  Even better, his area of concentration was in space planning.  But leaving this credential like that probably causes his prospective clients to think: 

So what? 

What do his clients “get”?  How can he better align his differentiation with what prospective clients need?  It reminds me of Patrick Renvoise who said: 

If you're selling drills, your prospects really couldn't care less about the drills.  What they actually want are the holes. 

Our discussion about real estate was coincidentally near and dear to me because my wife and I are in the process of shopping for a new house.  One of the biggest mistakes people make when buying a new house, or buying new furniture for their current house, is discovering after-the-fact that it doesn’t fit!  “It didn’t look that big in the showroom”, is a commonly heard phrase, true?  (And I’m speaking from experience here HaHa!) 

To be clear, we aren’t hiring Justin to be our realtor… we have a lot of friends and one of them is in the business.  But if we were in need of a realtor, we’d lean towards Justin.  Not because of his real estate license (1 of 45,000 in Colorado) but because of his architect license and more specifically his space planning experience. 

That differentiation can help his clients bridge the gap between the furniture showroom and their new house.                       

                                                            GAP 

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

How’s your day been?

It was seven years ago tomorrow.  I was in an earthquake in Mexico City; a 7.1.  How do you work that into casual conversation? 

September 19, 2017 at 1:15 pm local time, a powerful earthquake shook the bejeezus out of my training class; our lunch break; my colleagues; and me!  Thankfully, no one in our group was hurt. 

Unfortunately, there were many in Mexico City and surrounding states that did get hurt; over 200 people killed; hundreds perhaps thousands injured.  According to The Guardian ©: 

It was the second major earthquake to hit Mexico in two weeks and came on the anniversary of the 1985 quake that devastated Mexico City, killing 5,000 people and destroying 10,000 homes. 

In fact, because of that 32^nd anniversary; commemorating the devastation; we actually had an emergency evacuation drill at 11am in 2017; about 2 hours before the real thing hit again! 

During the episode, I was conscious of the fact I was experiencing an earthquake – on the 19^th floor of a hotel no less.  What started out feeling like a freight train passing by causing the table to vibrate, quickly erupted into what seemed like a prolonged period of ferocious shaking.  It knocked me off my feet. 

Those much braver than I were calling out; directing us towards the archway leading into the room.  Firmly they instructed us to move away from the windows; calmly, they reassured us that we will be alright.  Ultimately, we filed out onto the streets joining tens of thousands of others.

I remember looking out the window and seeing the glass buildings across the plaza actually swaying.  It was surreal.  It reminded me of the scene in movie The Matrix where a helicopter crash caused the façade of a glass office tower to ripple. 

So many had invested so much before the earthquake hit – and after.  Gustavo Moussalli, our Latin American Division Director and the executive sponsor for the class had made a huge commitment to his local partners; coordinating a 3-day enablement class to support their success. 

Gerardo Diez Martinez, our local Channel Manager arranged the meeting rooms and set-up; AV equipment; food and beverage; Gerardo spared no expense to insure we had everything we needed for his partners. 

My colleague Susanna Lagtapon sacrificed time away from her daughter’s 13^th birthday; traveling instead to join us for the class.  Our colleague, Tony Caporal, with cooler head and bravery, prevailed following the earthquake.  He helped us retrieve our laptops and luggage.  (Even stopping at the lobby bar to grab a free beer on his way out of the hotel.)

Our VP, Brian Enright, was our “home base”; coordinating flights out of town; hotel reservations; and anything else he could do to support us from afar. 

And especially Hector Garcia from our long-time partner NetSoft.  Hector insisted on personally driving us to the airport; would not hear of us taking a taxi or a bus.  He would navigate us through the city streets; on constant vigil for our safety.  Three hours to drive us 12 kilometers.  Three hours in the opposite direction from his own home and family – taking us in his care. 

As with all disasters, there were many heroes – named and unnamed.  But that was 2017; Mexico City; and an earthquake.  Today, it’s another crisis; another natural disaster; another conflict. 

We are all thankful for so many first responders and other heroes – named and unnamed.  May God bless them all. 

GAP 

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

Authentic…

A favorite topic of mine today.  A favorite word, too.  I hope you get a chuckle even if the machines don’t.  (I wonder, do machines chuckle?) 

According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the Merriam-Webster “Word of the Year” for 2023 was “authentic”.  The article goes on to add: 

As technology’s ability to manipulate reality improves, we’re all searching for the truth. 

Ahhh yes: truth; authenticity; technology; machines.  All of those machines out to “manipulate reality”.  Take a picture today (with your phone vs. a camera no less) and the little machine inside will manipulate that image just about any way you want.  Yes, yes, I know… still photographs, Gary?  That’s so last century.  Show me the video!  Well, last century Yawed Karim did; in front of the elephants. 

And to think; it all started with a trip to the zoo.  

Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, together with a third friend, Yawed Karim, had come up with the idea at a dinner party in early 2005.  They chose the name during a brainstorming session on Valentine’s Day. 

Over the next few months, they designed it in their garage.  After successfully testing the service in May of 2005 they received funding from a venture capital firm to cover their start-up costs. 

In December of 2005 they opened for business (Month 12).

10 months later (September of 2006, less than 24 months end-to-end) they sold for $1,650,000,000.00! 

Nicolas Carr 

What do you think?  I mean if a 19-second video of zoo animals can lead to billions of dollars, is that reality?  Do we mere mortals stand a chance of finding truth? 

I blame it on that vague and nameless group of very smart people commonly referred to as “programmers”.  Are their programming practices questionable?  I mean, are they “searching for the truth”?  If not, whose accountable if they are “manipulating reality” and bypassing the input editor with bad input? 

Peck's Programming Postulates 

·         If more than one person has programmed a malfunctioning routine, no one is at fault.

·         If the input editor has been designed to reject all bad input, an ingenious idiot will discover a method to get bad data past it. 

Unknown Sage 

How did we succumb to the machines, anyway?  When did we capitulate?  Why?  Capitulate certainly have: 

Western society… has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo:  not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without respect to their human consequences. 

Lewis Mumford 

“Surrender to these novelties unconditionally…”  Welcome to the modern century. 

A lot is being said and even more is being written about the machines; aka artificial intelligence; aka “AI”.  Adding insult to injury, these writings are even being written by the machines about the machines.  (ChatGBT ring a bell?)  Not only that, but now we find ourselves talking to our machines?  You know, “Siri, tell me a joke.” It’s when the machines answer back to our texts, chats, and voices – posing as humans – then I get worried. 

I have hope, however.  Humans are (finally) starting to question the authenticity of information offered up by AI.  We’re finally realizing that videos can be (and are being) manipulated; deviating from reality; “truth” is not always being taken for granted.  Who knows?  Maybe “authentic” will even repeat as the 2024 Word of the Year. 

I have hope. 

                                                            GAP 

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

Just askin’…

You might ask, “Could it actually be that simple?  Is it scalable?  Can anyone do it?”  Well, I’m not saying its foolproof because of our friend Murphy: 

Murphy's Eighth Corollary: 

It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. 

Unknown Sage 

Nonetheless, IMHO it is a good approach.  It’s certainly worth trying, don’t you think?  Do you believe your customers and prospects will notice when you’re asking; inviting; deferring vs. telling; selling; pushing like so many other salespeople? 

Originality consists of trying to be like everybody else - and failing. 

Raymond Radiguet 

What am I asking about?  I’m asking about asking.  Asking is a wonderful skill for life in general but especially in the sales profession.  Just ask my friend and super star, salesperson, Matt.  If you did he might share this recent experience… 

He asked, “Shall we meet and review your evaluation team’s questions and concerns?”  She thought that might be a good idea.  He asked, “How about a 3pm Zoom for 30 minutes?”  She agreed. 

Matt’s prospect arrived on time but she was obviously disheveled.  He could tell by the tone in her voice that the meeting was not going to go as planned. 

(It was awkward but Matt was fearless, because he knew from experience: 

One can either face reality at the outset or one can disseminate the bad news on the installment plan. 

                             Norman Augustine) 

She said she had the feedback from her team but hadn’t had the time to review it.  She was “fighting fires” all day (and losing!).  He asked, “Do you want to take 15 minutes for a bio-break and collect your thoughts on your team’s notes?  After all, we both had 30 minutes blocked out on our calendars for the meeting.”  Matt offered to simply wait on the Zoom session until she returned.  She expressed appreciation for his thoughtfulness and agreed. 

When his prospect returned to the Zoom session, she was much more relaxed.  Matt asked, “Shall we simply go through your list with the remaining time we have?”  and they did.  It only took 10 minutes; no real “road blocks”; Matt was able to answer a few open items.  Before their scheduled time was up Matt asked, “Do you think we’re good?”  His prospect said, “Yes, I think we’re good.” 

Ahead of reaching the bottom of the hour he asked, “Will you be at your desk for a little while?”  She said she would be.  He asked, “Shall I send over the agreement for your signature?” and she said, “OK”. 

Prior to the close-of-business that day; after what started as a meeting that might not have continued; Matt received a signed order.  Are those the questions you would have asked at that meeting?  

Matt’s good at asking, don’t you think?  Through asking, he’s able to help his prospects navigate complicated purchase processes.  Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon wrote in The Challenger Sale ©: 

… customers place a great deal of importance on a smooth, uncomplicated purchase.  No one wants to work with a supplier that makes any purchase more complicated… 

I asked questions throughout my sales career, too.  Not because I was good at it but because I was comfortable letting my prospects take the lead.  

My comfort with asking questions started over 52 years ago.   Back then I asked perhaps the most important question of my entire life to my most important “prospect”.  She said, “Yes!”.  We’ve been married ever since. 

                                                            GAP 

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

Maybe not…

I was having a bad day the other day.  I know – surprise right?  No one else ever has a bad day.  I’m the only one.  LOL!  Well, maybe not… 

My bad day was one of those particularly frustrating ones where everything seemed to be going wrong.  Been there done that yourself, I bet.  I was going down that path of gloom thinking, I couldn’t; I never could; I never will; I’m not good enough; I’m not loved; I’m not even liked; and other discouraging thoughts.  I don’t like going to that dark place.  Maybe you never do.  Maybe not. 

It’s easy to have a hard day I suppose.  Afterall, we seem to be surrounded by lots of negativity; daily news; the stock market; social media; weather reports; my Chicago Cubs.  It can’t help but have an impact: 

… research shows that our mindset is under constant assault by an avalanche of negativity… An NIH study recently revealed that on a typical day we experience about 60,000 thoughts.  80%, or 48,000 of our thoughts are negative. 

Gerhard Gschwandtner 

Your thinking is different you say?  Great if that’s the case.  But… maybe not. 

Being the problem solver that I am I tried to think of a way to avoid these feelings before having my next bad day.  Maybe I could even think up a way to avoid having another bad day ever again.  Here’s what I came up with: 

1.  Don’t try so hard.
2.  Don’t try new things.
3.  Don’t meet new people.
4.  Don’t love.
5.  Don’t try to learn.
6.  Don’t buy anything new.
7.  Don’t invest.
8.  Don’t leave home.
9.  Don’t look to the future.
10.  Don’t try to enjoy the present. 

Think my list will work?  Maybe not.  Perhaps I’m not quite the problem solver I thought I was. 

Not wanting to give up, I thought hard about the last time I was perfectly happy and carefree.  I mean, logic is powerful, yes?  Well maybe not: 

Manley's Maxim 

Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence. 

              Unknown Sage 

Turns out the last time I actually had no bad days was a long, long time ago: 

When in your entire life were you the most comfortable?  In the womb.  Now that’s security.  Your own pool, all the food you could possibly want, and no taxes.                              

Tom Hopkins 

So much for that idea.  Maybe I thought, I can use my experience to do a better job of controlling what happens to me throughout each day.  I mean, I’ve succeeded in business and in sales; I’m a good planner; I don’t get lost when driving home from the office (anymore); and I can even find my car in the parking lot (most times).  Then I remembered what Harlan Cleveland suggested: 

If you try too carefully to plan your life, the danger is that you will succeed – succeed in narrowing your options, closing off avenues of adventure that cannot now be imagined.           

So over controlling?  Maybe not.  

I guess I’ll just have to face reality.  That’s what you do, don’t you?  Face reality?  In the real world, not every day is going to be a blue sky and sunshine day: 

Law of Life's Highway: 

If everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.                            

Unknown Sage

 

No, maybe not.  I think I will just have to look for the good even when I’m having a bad day.  You? 

                                                            GAP 

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

Olympian…

Did you enjoy watching the Summer Olympics?  Olympian – who wouldn’t want to have that on their resume?  What can we learn from Olympians that we can apply to our business world?

During Olympic coverage, the sports media poured tons of hyperbole over the gold medal performances.  The spotlight shined on those athletes that failed, too.  Either end of the extreme is good for the ratings business, I suppose. You know:  

The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. 

                   Jim McKay 

But in Olympic competition, not every competitor can win every event; every day.  Their day is a lot like our day, true?  So following the closing ceremonies, what do you suppose Olympians are doing today?  Getting ready for their next competition, I’ll bet. 

Competition is about striving; preparing; competing; beating your personal best.  Winning (or losing) is simply the end result of competition (and preparation), yes?  You and me, we compete in our daily lives, don’t we?  And when we fail, what motivates us to try again?  Here’s Steve Richard’s view: 

            Who motivates you?  You! 

Yes, motivation can be a powerful force for all of us.  Of course, sometimes our family, friends, and mentors can play a big part in helping us leverage the power of motivation to overcome failure and pursue success.  As a sales professional, I advocated “hunting as a pack”.  I learned this approach from Joe Newton, who coached, “running as a pack”. 

You may have read my writings about “Tiger Joe” before.  He was one of the most successful high school boys cross country coaches ever.  Although I was not a runner, he was the person who most influenced my sales career. 

There were many elements to Joe Newton’s competitive approach; the principle of continuous improvement; the ability to earn great success yet go back out every day to compete again; etc.  One key element I remember was his focus on offering positive motivation to his kids.  His key to positive motivation?  Pretty simple, really. 

Every day at every practice, Coach Newton called out every kid by their first name - every day.  Every kid (and most of his teams had 100 runners or more) would hear his coach call him by his first name (or nick name), every day.  Joe Newton coupled this technique with saying at least one positive thing to every kid, too. Every day. 

It’s amazing how far a simple; “Way to go!” goes.  The motivation Joe Newton stimulated helped his runners, run; every day.  They were motivated to train hard – harder than their competition.  On race day?  They dominated. 

Returning to today’s Olympic theme - perhaps your remember Sebastian Coe.  According to Wikipedia: 

Sebastian Coe won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 meters gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. He set eight outdoor and three indoor world records in middle-distance track events – including, in 1979, setting three world records in the space of 41 days – and the world record he set in the 800 meters in 1981 remained unbroken until 1997. 

The connection to Joe Newton?  Joe was the first high school coach to coach in the Olympics.  His star “pupil”?  Sebastian Coe. 

Back to business - Loren Brockhouse, a former colleague of mine, offered us this link to Inc. Magazine’s “9 beliefs of remarkably successful people” from back in the day. I particularly like Belief #9:

            The extra mile is a vast, unpopulated wasteland. 

Jeff Haden

Way to go Loren! 

GAP 

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

The “demo”…

I’ve worked with many wonderful selling teammates throughout my career.  Their business card titles varied by company; Systems Consultant; Solution Architect; Product Line Specialist; Subject Matter Expert; etc.  Regardless, I benefitted greatly from their knowledge, expertise, and contributions to the deals I sold; we sold.  Of course, the most exciting selling activity was the demonstration: 

Charismatic salespeople vie to win the attention of the visionary with outrageous promises, which heroic sales-support specialists try to illustrate in demos invented more or less on the fly, and which R&D groups agree to make come true under the influence of contagious enthusiasm and too much caffeine. 

Geoffrey A. Moore 

Yep – that was often what my world felt like.  I’d blame it on the prospect.  Those darn prospects.  They could be as stubborn as a cat when it came to demanding a demo customized to their specific business needs.  And that was pretty stubborn as our Unknown Sage knows: 

     Long's Notes 

Never try to out-stubborn a cat. 

Nonetheless, often the first and hardest hurdle I had to overcome in my deals was negotiating with my internal sales teammates when I needed to address the prospect’s request for a custom demo.  Or, as my college classmate put it: 

Coming from an IT background (programming, support, sales, mgmt.), I lived in the culture you describe and we had a saying that the first rule of giving custom demos was “Don’t”. 

David Langston 

So there I’d be between two centers of stubbornness; the prospect and my sales support teammates.  Then along comes my sales manager asking when to expect that deal to close.  I would try to explain my situation, but: 

The definition of "Try" is; 

an explanation of failure in advance. 

Steve Olsen 

The second hurdle to overcome (then and today, too) was the availability and stability of the demo system we were dialing into.  Today, it’s the Internet connection.  Have you ever witnessed a demo when the Internet connection would just grind?  Ever hear the sales side apologize with, “the Internet is slow”?  Back in the day it wasn’t the connection that was the issue; it was the demo system itself!

Don’t worry, I’m not going to claim that things were harder back then.  You know, trudging uphill; in the snow; both ways, et al. 

It may have been hard back then, but I know demos in the marketplace have become increasingly difficult to deliver today.  Not only have the dynamics (aka stubbornness) of prospects and sales support specialists not changed, but we now add in a world where demos are typically conducted virtually vs. in person.  Gone are the days when I could bring the coffee and donuts to help keep my prospects alert.  Especially when my teammate decided to do a “deep dive” on some arcane product feature guaranteed to put everyone to sleep. 

Speaking of which, still with me?  Did you dose off, HaHa!  See what I mean? 

To meet today’s demo challenges, we need to double down on mastering the requisite skills.  Think you’re good with cats and don’t need a little help?  Well OK, but: 

Learn from the skillful:  He that teaches himself hath a fool for his master. 

Benjamin Franklin 

If you believe as I do that the sales demo requires new skills taught by master teachers, take a look at one of my favorites, Julie Nelson.  Maybe she can help you avoid telling your manager your are “trying” to closing that deal. 

                                                            GAP 

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