Commitment and consistency…

 

I came across a 2017 speech by Denzel Washington - on YouTube of course 😊  He offered compelling words to the next generation in his industry aka the young people:  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBGb40yh4SY).  A few of his statements stood out to me: 

…without commitment you’ll never start…  without consistency, you’ll never finish… 

It made me think about the next generation of technology sales professionals aka the young people.  My company has literally “bet the ranch” on the selling capabilities of our next generation of sellers.  Commitment and consistency will certainly be key elements in their (and our) success. 

I was part of said “next generation”  once - three generations ago LOL!  Throughout my career for myself and for those I have led, managed, mentored, and coached I developed my own “philosophy”: 

            Adversity clarifies commitment 

I took Denzel’s comments about consistency to mean that working at our profession is a career-long requirement.  Working begets consistency; consistency begets opportunities to finish our career; and adversity hardens us for the realities of ups and downs.  Denzel put it this way: 

            Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship. 

If we find ourselves in an “easy” job, that may mean something’s wrong.  I’ve seen too many people throughout my career “switch to glide”.  Either because they feel they’ve mastered their trade or worse, they lose the motivation they had in the beginning.  To keep progressing and succeeding requires we avoid that common “off ramp”:

I once heard someone joke that the road to success is marked with many tempting parking places. 

Harvey Mackay 

Knowing how hard success can be to come by, consistent success is certainly an achievement to be proud of.  I have spoken often about the power of process I learned from a boys’ high school cross country coach in my hometown of Elmhurst, Illinois.  

I didn’t run cross country, but I studied the success of Joe Newton’s York High School teams over the course of 40 years.  It wasn’t his athletes -  he turned over 25% of his runners every year; 100% every 4 years through graduation.  There was something else he did to achieve these amazing results between 1961 and 2000: 

t  Dual meet winning percentage (York vs. one opponent); York won 94% of those meets;      94%!

t  Conference championships (York vs.8-10 other high schools); York won 37 out of 40 years

t  State of Illinois race performance (York vs. all high school teams in Illinois)- York’s results;

Ø  State championships      21 out of 40 years

Ø  State runner-up          10 out of 40 years

Ø  Total Top 5 finishes     37 out of 40 years

Ø  Total Top 10 finishes    39 out of 40 years

t  National competition* - York’s results;          

Ø  National championships   20 out of 40 years

Ø  Total Top 3 finishes     33 out of 40 years    

* As recorded by the “Cross Country US Postal” organization and including more than 10,100 high schools throughout the USA. 

Something else indeed. 

Finally, Denzel cited the Japanese Proverb: 

            Fall down seven times.  Stand up eight. 

I can personally attest to this.  Although beginning without experience, throughout my career I have remained committed, coachable, and tough enough to make it through all of the falling down and standing up parts.

As I witness the passing of my sales profession on to the next generation  of “up and comers”, Denzel’s advice on commitment, hard work and consistency resonated with me.  I hope it does with them, too. 

GAP 

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

“Trusted”?

A few years ago, I read The Speed of Trust © by Stephen M.R. Covey after friend of mine shared his copy from a company training session on team-building. 

“Trust” is a word often (over) used in my profession.  Many salespeople refer to themselves as a “trusted advisor”.  I don’t – I’m a sales professional; and the customer can tell the difference. 

Covey shared this customer perspective:           

I don’t think you have a full trusting relationship until you are actually at the point that you deliver success repeatedly.  When one of my major suppliers says we want to have a trusting relationship, I think, “What a lot of rubbish that is!”  I turn around and say, “I don’t trust you.  I am not going to trust you until you repeatedly deliver success to me.”  

Peter Lowe 

What do you think?  Is it possible that our customers and prospects don’t trust us?  Covey’s research (among many other sources) suggests they don’t.  At least, not until we “repeatedly deliver success…”  

When I first started out in the business my company (ADP) held sales meetings every Tuesday at 5pm (“Roll Call”).  Afterwards, we strolled across the street to a neighborhood “gin mill” (Nancy’s).  Beers; boasts; and weekly war stories were exchanged until closing hour.  That was the setting junior sales reps like me learned the profession from seasoned veterans. 

Except one seasoned veteran, Bob Ackerman.  Bob was one of the top sales reps in our office.  Polished; professional; Bob spoke well; dressed well; showed all the evidence of success.  For my first 6 months on the job, he didn’t have a single conversation with me.  If I approached him, he would literally and rudely walk away.  It would have been easy to say he was impersonal; arrogant; a jerk.  Turned out – just the opposite. 

One Tuesday evening after our sales meeting; 6 months to the week of my start date; Bob approached me with a beer and said, “Gary, great week – congratulations!  Tell me all about it.”  And from that week forward, Bob trusted me. 

I didn’t have the stroke that night to ask Bob, “WTF”?  But after a period of time the opportunity arose, and I asked him why he was so cold when I first started.  Turns out – it was a matter of trust. 

You see, Bob was successful during an era when sales rep turnover was even higher than today.  “Draw vs. commission” was the standard compensation plan; no base salary.  A modest weekly draw smoothed cash flow. The draw was deducted from our monthly commission check.  (Trusted – 30 days at a time.)  A classic “What have you done lately?” environment. 

If we didn’t earn enough commissions to cover our draw, the next month the draw was cut in half.  Two months in a row, and the draw was eliminated.  We never got to month three.  Trust without results didn’t go very far back then – still doesn’t.

Bob had seen plenty of sales reps come and fail.  He told me he used to get to know the new people; he used to coach them a little bit; tried to help them out.  When they failed it hurt his feelings.  So rather than continuing to feel hurt, he withdrew; he waited to see if we made it 6 months.  

The moral of Peter and Bob’s stories?  To earn the position of “trusted advisor” we must produce.  Trust doesn’t beget results – it’s just the opposite – results begets trust. 

        GAP 

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

Pressure is privilege…

 

The Denver Broncos recently reported to training camp.  There was the usual sports media attention and hype over the team’s potential and upcoming season.  Since winning the Super Bowl in 2016, the Broncos have not been very competitive.  Of course, our current pandemic is wreaking havoc on all level of sports, recreation, and everyday life so who knows what the 2020-2021 NFL season will bring.

Speaking of “wreaking havoc”, the Denver Broncos’ outside linebacker, Von Miller, has been an All-Pro and Super Bowl MVP defensive force over the years.  However, since 2016 even he has not played to a havoc-wreaking level of expectation.  Often times as leaders and star players go, so does the rest of the team (in business as well as sports). 

During his pre-season interview Von said this year would be different.  He said he has been studying the commitment to greatness other athletes such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had made to lead their teams to multiple championships.  He was inspired.

Von elaborated that in past years he thought being a “quiet leader” was good enough.  Von is known for his laid-back personality and his fun-loving lifestyle away from football.  He felt his leadership responsibility was simply to play his best during the season.  Von said he’s learning greatest requires so much more than that.

If the Broncos expect to compete at a championship level, their best players will have to lead them.  Von is the best of their best.  He acknowledged that the accolades he’s earned with his play on the field have also brought added pressure to lead his team to a higher level of performance.  In the past, he preferred to leave that added pressure to others.  This year?

            Pressure is privilege

It’s true - when you have the talent, ability, and opportunity to lead, that role comes with increased pressure.  To have others follow you is a privilege. 

Here’s one example from someone whose story is inspiring to Von Miller:

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.  I’ve lost almost 300 games.  Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.  I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed. 

                 Michael Jordan

 I worked for an awe-inspiring sales leader once.  Dan Callahan was revered at Integral Systems.  Every employee I met at the company spoke of Dan in a way I had never heard before or since in my entire career; every employee.

I asked Susan Welcome, a manager at Integral about this reverence for Dan.  She told me when the company first started out, Dan was a sales rep.  On more than one occasion Dan along with everyone else at the company knew when he went out on road trip to close a deal if he did not bring back the signed contract AND pre-payment for the software the company would not be able to fund payroll.

Dan “carried” so much more than just the pressure of his sales quota; the fate of his companies’ employees was in the balance on his ability to close deals.  Yet to meet him, he had this calm, youthful, choirboy persona – he never talked about the pressures he faced during Integral’s early years.  He just went about his business of being the best - and leading the best - every single day.  The greats don’t work for just money.  They accept, “pressure is privilege”.

GAP

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

February 1996…

When it was announced Charlie Daniels would be the commencement speaker at UNC-Wilmington…, some students opposed it, questioning the selection of a speaker who didn’t graduate from college. He wrote this 4 months before graduation:

I would like to clear up a few points about my addressing your class at commencement exercises, points which I feel have been distorted by a few overzealous, uninformed, pseudo-journalists.

My professional life is a matter of documented public record and easily obtainable. No need to discuss that.

Having been born in Wilmington, I consider it an honor to be asked to speak to you on one of the biggest days of your lives, and I accepted the honor with gratitude and humility. I cannot speak to you of lofty academic ideals nor scholarly pursuits because I have neither entree nor credential for that world.

The truth is I come to you from the street, from reality, the very same place you’re all headed if you plan to make a living in this ever-changing, difficult, show-me world, and when your college days are just a memory and your diploma hangs beneath dusty glass or some office wall, you will still have to deal with that world on its own terms every working day of your lives.

Let me tell you why I thought I was invited to speak to your graduating class. My career spans almost 40 years and you don’t go through 40 years of hard work and unrelenting competition without learning a few things.

My qualifications are humble but extensive and diverse. I’ve stood at the 38th Parallel and looked across into the hostile eyes of the North Korean border guards. I’ve been catapulted from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Adriatic Sea and ridden across the frozen wastes of Greenland on an Eskimo dog sled. I’ve taken a hammer and chisel to the Berlin Wall and performed with symphony orchestras. I’ve had conversations with Presidents and walked the halls of Congress lobbying for legislation in which I believe. I’ve flown on the Concorde and acted in motion pictures.

I’ve seen the royal palaces of Europe and the hovels of Hong Kong.

I’ve seen the Mona Lisa and stared in awe at the timeless works of Vincent Van Gogh.

I’ve gathered cattle in the Big Bend country of Texas and met some of the wisest people I know at campfires in the middle of nowhere. I was privileged to have conversations with Alex Hailey and Louis L’Amour. I’ve appeared with The Rolling Stones, worked in the recording studio with Bob Dylan and two of the Beatles. I’ve been married to the same woman for over thirty years and raised a son who did, by the way, go to college. I’ve kept 20 people gainfully and steadily employed for over 20 years.

I am not a man of letters, I readily admit to that. But is being a man of letters the only thing which qualifies one to speak to a group of men and women who are about to enter the real world? My world.

My address will not be delivered in the beautiful strains of poetry of a Maya Angelou or with the technical expertise of a Tom Clancy, but I can tell you where some of the land mines are hidden, the shortest path to the top of the mountain and the quickest way down. Been there, done that.

          Charlie Daniels

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

Losing…

Leadership at my company and many others have been delivering their fiscal year messages during earnings calls and sales “kick-off” festivities.  For me, working from home and joining via Zoom is not a very festive setting, but I know these leaders are trying their best to raise employee enthusiasm. 

Recently, I was picking up horse manure in the corral (where I do some of my best thinking).  After reflecting on these messages and their tones – I told our horses I was disappointed.  I said it’s hard to be motivational when you “lose”.

From a sales perspective when companies fail to meet their quotas; they lose.  Annual sales quota is a key company mission and there’s a lot at stake.  Miss the number and people lose their jobs.  This past year many people (including my family and friends) at many companies lost their jobs.

It’s easy to talk about winning.  Winning in business, sports, academics, politics, literally all aspects of life has been glorified.  Losing? Well…

“Consul”, n:

In American politics, a person who having failed to secure an office from the people is given one by the Administration on condition that he leave the country.

Ambrose Bierce

Failing to meet sales quotas is easy to blame on the pandemic, maybe even justified.   I know we are all attempting to adjust to today’s reality:

Reality is that stuff which, no matter what you believe, just won’t go away.

David Paktor

The reality about our world is when bad things happen leadership must address it – no matter how difficult:

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones. 

Donald Rumsfeld

In my opinion, too many leadership messages are coming across as 100% spin on losing sales performances.  They’ve stated, “everyone did their best” … “our results were remarkable in light of the pandemic” … “we were winning right up until the end of the year”.  Yep, many companies were winning; right up until the point - where they lost; and then people were fired.

I believe how leaders address losing is more important than how they celebrate winning.  In my opinion I want leaders’ messages to be more serious; less pleasant; more urgent; less “blue sky and sunshine”.  Like all companies, mine is engaged in a desperate economic battle for our very survival.  “Doing our best” may not cut it.

When the pandemic hit Donald Rumsfeld might have said unknown-unknowns cost companies successful sales years.  Today, these are now known-knowns and still extremely difficult; desperate really.  I’m not sure when we will be back to “normal”.

I think we all agree that losing is tough.  But when it happens, I’d like our leaders to address it openly, honestly, and passionately. The phrase “desperate times call for desperate measures” (originating from Hippocrates himself) applies to everyone today, true?

If we’re losing – let’s drop the “look on the bright side” spin and focus on doing whatever needs to be done to win. We can do it!  We must 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.

“Old School” …

I read an article in Sales and Marketing Magazine © by Tim Houlihan, Chief Behavioral Strategist at Behavior Academy.  He bracketed his thought leadership with a couple of opinions about history.  Here’s the first:

In 1450, the printing press was expected to render the brain useless by making memorization obsolete – it didn’t.  In 1600, most people were certain the Earth was the center of the universe – it isn’t.  In 1700, most sailors believed drinking malt whisky cured scurvy – it doesn’t.  In 1985, my sales manager told me that mobile phones (then hard-wired into cars) were only good for one thing: calling your customer to say you’re going to be late.

It’s easy to criticize the mistakes of those who came before us, true?  I mean, part of gaining subject matter expertise is learning from mistakes; ours and others:

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.

                                 

Niels Bohn

It’s not surprising that people today discount the value of historical knowledge and experience.  They cite examples of failure in our companies; our communities; and our country that have failed - and there are many. 

However, if historical knowledge and extensive experience is no longer of value then who will we follow, and why?  What do you think of those with “credentials” vs. those with “accomplishments”?  There’s a big difference. 

Here’s Tim other opinion that stood out:

Maybe we’ve met.  Was it at a trade show or a conference?  You said you’ve built a lot of sales incentive programs as a manager, and, not to toot your own horn, but they have worked pretty darn well.  So why read this article?  With 20-plus years and more than 1,500 sales incentive programs under my belt, I’ve got something to share.

What do you think?  Is 20-plus years valuable; or should we discount it?  Is Tim’s experience with 1,500+ programs “Old School”?  If so, is that term a compliment or a criticism?  I wasn’t sure myself.  I found this amusing, etymological debate about Old School (link).

Does your company value experience and the people who possess it?  Does your company believe “old guys” are too Old School to have value?  Is your company engaged in a youth movement?

Lest you haven’t realized - and I don’t know how you couldn’t - but just in case and to set the proper context, I’m definitely Old School with all the trappings…  gray hair; a 4-decade resume; deep historical knowledge; the works.

Yet, I’ve noticed the rise of occurrences at my company and others of this phenomenon cited by none other than our favorite, Unknown Sage:

Success has many fathers while failure is an orphan. 

Russian Proverb

Today, I’m witnessing an increase in people claiming unearned success.  Is this a business world spillover originating from youth sports and participation trophies?  I’d like to believe they mean well.  But is bypassing the time it takes to “earn your stripes” too Old School?

Our Unknown Sage reminds us of Hershiser:

Hershiser's Rule:

Anything labeled new and/or improved, isn't.

And goes on about ungrounded claims of success:

When dog food is new and improved tasting, who tests it? 

Is today’s “Subject Matter Expert” title declared or earned?  If earned, based on what criteria?  If their criteria span history and experience, should their expertise be discounted?

Yes, they have met us Old Schoolers before.  Should they discount our value?  Well… do 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.

The other stuff…

Periodically, I’m asked about first-time, Sales Manager training programs.  It reminds me of our country’s roads and bridges:  Always in need of repair; never enough funding.

Most Sales Manager training programs contain all of the “usual stuff” and most miss this list of the “other stuff”:

1. STOP! - Don’t become a Sales Manager.  I’ve seen too many top salespeople decide they needed a “promotion” and if they don’t get one they leave.  (Yes, speaking from personal experience.)  Too many companies artificially create an environment that if someone is not moving up; they must be moving down.  It’s not true.
2. People are temporary; process is long-lasting.  36 months +/-.  After 36 months if our sales rep is successful, he or she will likely seek a promotion (per above) or will be recruited away.  One of my managers and mentors, Tom McSweeney, taught me; recruit them; develop them; and enjoy them while you have them.
3. People are messy.  I couldn’t avoid my reps telling me I was unfair.  So, I adopted a policy of “Equal Unfairness”.  If everyone felt I was unfair, that meant I was being equally unfair; and equal unfairness is fair.
4. Inspection is a bitch.  A Sales Manager’s primary responsibility is to inspect.  The better we are at inspection, the more our people will dislike it and us.
5. We’re being watched.  Not with an admiring eye, but usually derision. The rep who thought they should have our role; the rep who hates inspection; the other departments who hate sales.  A Sales Manager’s primary responsibility is to lead by example.
6. Missed sales weeks kill the year.  Sales Managers (like many managers) don’t like to quickly and directly address problems.  If we wait until we have open positions, it’s too late.  A Sales Manager’s primary responsible is to continuously recruit.  Your next open position is coming, trust me.
7. I worry less about how we hire; I worry more about how we fire.  Not everyone can do this for a living.  Research suggests Sales Managers develop an accurate, gut feeling about each new hire within 72 hours!  If our new rep is not doing the right things in the right way, we must fire them and recruit another.  Easy to blog about – hard to do in the real world
8. On-boarding…  A Sales Manager’s primary responsibility is to ensure our new rep is properly on-boarded.  That doesn’t mean we do their work – the sales rep is responsible for his or her own success.  The Sales Manager can guide them on the “4 A’s”; “Approach”; “Activity”; “Ability”; and “Attitude”.  If our rep is missing any of the A’s, activate the off-boarding process.
9. Invest in top performers.   Research suggests under-performers likely won’t make it.  Phil Jackson succeeded (where previous coaches failed) with Michael, Koby, and Shaque.  He wasn’t their first coach.  But he was the coach on their first championship teams.
10. How much fun are we to work for?  All work + no fun = What’s up with this guy!  If we’re going to do this for a living let’s have some fun and make some money, in that order.

I know I stated more than one “primary responsibility” above.  So I say again, if you’re a successful sales rep, are you certain a Sales Manager “promotion” (aka more work, less pay) is for you?

I needed continuous, expert mentoring because the Peter Principle remains alive and 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.