Posts Tagged ‘fear of failure’
Get Out of the Way of Your Own Sales Success
This week I have been doing some consulting with an east coast firm trying to help them out of a death spiral brought on by a perfect storm-like set of circumstances.
Reviewing the company data, this company built a high quality sales force that frankly I would love to have working for me. This company has amazing reference stories and some raving fans as customers that are more than happy to share their stories on the company’s behalf. While not a major household brand, this company has been involved in building some major sales initiatives and major technology deployments for some instantly recognizable brands.
So what happened?
This company lost some of its swagger and part of its identity over the past year as the economic downturn forced some key clients to close. Some projects lost funding, some account losses were a surprise, and everything negatively impacted cash flow. Compounding the issues are a handful of slow and no-pay accounts that are eating up cash reserves.
But none of those issues were the big problem, only symptoms leading to the problem they have today.
The real underlying problem is that the events that occurred put management in unfamiliar territory, second guessing every decision to the point of making no definitive decisions, and the lack of decisions degraded the situation into one of chaos.
There is nothing wrong with the fundamentals of the business that their existing sales team and customer base cannot help them work through, but they have to make the decision to move forward.
The company reached a point where it could not get out of its own way.
The more I thought about this company and their problem, the more I thought that there was a message here worth sharing with all of you.
When things go wrong we can get caught up in self-analysis that leads to paralysis, trying to figure out what we did wrong or what went wrong with the business model that shook the very foundations of the company.
Stop looking at the storm surrounding you and start looking at the vehicle that is going to get you out of it.
If you find a hole in your boat, fix the hole, don’t sink while trying to figure out how to build a whole new boat while at sea, in a storm. Have some faith in what you have built, have faith in the preparation you have put in, and in the proven processes that you have in place.
Assess problems for what they are, not the horrors that they might become.
Focus on your training. Focus on your experience. Focus on what’s right about what you are doing. I meet so many amazing people running great little companies that have taken for granted how talented they really are.
Are the times real scary for some? Yes. Are these challenges going to kill you? Only if you let them.
Inspire your team and stay focused. Don’t let a short term crisis force you to take your eye off your objectives. Set the vision. Choose a course of action, then do something really crazy like actually taking that course of action and begin building the momentum you will need to overcome every set of obstacles between you and your objectives.
A related story about Thomas Edison¹
1914 could have been called a difficult year for Thomas Edison.
With the onset of World War One, Edison found himself in danger of being compelled to close his phonograph record factory. Edison needed carbolic acid to make the records, and was the largest user of carbolic acid in the United States. Edison’s primary supply was imported from England and Germany, and both countries had placed an embargo on carbolic acid because it was in great demand for making explosives.
With no other sufficient supply available, Edison was faced with one of two choices. Close the factory or invent something that could solve the problem.
Edison chose the latter and invented an alternative method for making carbolic acid synthetically and put crews to work twenty four hours a day to build a carbolic acid production facility. By the eighteenth day the factory was producing carbolic acid, within four weeks it was turning out a ton of it per day.
Crisis averted, but the year was not yet over.
On December 9, 1914, a sixty-seven year old Edison watched as fire fighters fought a blaze that destroyed Edison Industries with a total loss exceeding $2 million and most of Edison’s life’s work. Edison was only insured for $238 because the buildings were constructed of concrete and at the time were thought fireproof.
Charles Edison, former Governor of New Jersey, tells of his concern as he looked for his father during the blaze. “My heart ached for him, no longer a young man, everything being destroyed.” Then he says, “My father spotted me and he called out, ‘Charles, Charles, run get your mother. She will never see anything as beautiful as this fire as long as she lives.”
The next morning, Edison surveyed his charred dreams and crushed hopes. As he stood amid the disaster, Edison was quoted as saying, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.”
Edison followed up that statement with a decision to move forward, and a vision of what needed to be done. Three weeks after the fire Edison Industries was manufacturing phonographs. By December 31st of the following year, 1915, Edison had sold 95,889 phonographs on his way to what would become 845,228 phonographs sold and over 48,000,000 records.²
1.Thomas Edison story from Van Ekeren, Glenn The Speaker’s Sourcebook. New Jersey. Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1988.
2. Edison Industries sales figures from Meadowcroft, W.H. “Quantity of Disc Phonographs and Disc Records Sold.”
Radio-Phonograph Division Accounting Department Report (April 9, 1929) reprinted in The Edison Discography (1926-1929) available from Mainspringpress.com.
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“The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.”
“The man who makes no mistake does not usually make anything.”
“Lead, follow, or get out of the way”
Image courtesy of jonwashburn.com
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Q&A: Keeping Sales People Motivated During Difficult Times
Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of. If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.
Q: What is the best way to keep a (commercial printing) salesperson engaged and motivated during these tough times?
A: A small dose of Progress taken daily can wipe out a whole room full of “it’s hopeless.” Retreat as needed.
I approach it like the old adage “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
I don’t want my team focused on the big picture Armageddon talk with all of the accompanying noise. Quite the opposite, I want them focused, and therefore engaged on what they need to do each day to keep methodically working toward their goal.
One other thought. How about creating some of your own print business?
I don’t know what objections your sales guys are getting, but I assume one of them is “we don’t have the money right now.”
If you have several small businesses that don’t have the budget to print flyers or marketing materials, but need the exposure, maybe you can bring a different value add.
Maybe you can solve a larger problem for your customer that will allow them to take advantage of your services.
Maybe your sales guys, with a database full of local contacts, can help out the small business community by developing a single marketing piece that features a few companies that are not direct competitors and have a similar target market.
The result could be that the small business gets the marketing they need, at a price they can afford, you have a new unique product, your guys get paid, and you can keep the presses running.
My First Sales Mistake
My first official outside job as an account manager began with an immediate wake up call. I was walked to my new cubicle and directed to have a seat.
“Here is your phone.”
My new boss looked at me, smiled, nodded his head and pointed to a standard beige 12 button hotel phone.
“There are your leads.”
He said, pointing to a phone book.
“Keep track of everything and write your proposals on that. They should have it working later today.”
He said, pointing to a PC on my desk.
With that he was gone and my sales career as an account manager was launched.
I had exactly no idea who I should call or for that matter what I should say if someone answered the phone, except that I was selling computer networking equipment and services.
At that point I made the single smartest decision a young account manager can make.
I flipped the phone book open to a random page, found the first listing and started dialing.
At that point, not realizing it, I made my first mistake as a young account manager as well.
My random page selection had me cold calling bail bond companies to make my technology fortune.
Several calls and an appointment or two later, I learned my first lesson, that bail bond companies were not part of our target market.
The point is do not let the fear of failure or the fear of not having 100% of the details stop you from swinging for the fences.
You ARE going to fail sometimes. You ARE going to get asked a question you do not have an answer to. If you are in this business any time at all, trust me on this, it is going to happen.
Don’t fear failure, accept it. Accept it not because I said it or because it is an old sales adage, accept it because it is as much a part of the business as the shoes on your feet.
New guys call their mistakes failure and get all upset.
I call my mistakes experience. I learn from them and leave the new guys asking “How did he know to do that?” the next time the scenario presents itself, as it almost always does, again.
The Power to “Wing It”
Every sales representative needs to have the ability to wade into an unknown situation with some confidence when all the facts and details are not available to take advantage of opportunities that develop out of no where.
In short everyone in sales should have some skill at winging it.
Let me clarify that by “winging it” I am not talking about creatively lying on the fly or just flat out making things up. That would destroy your credibility and sooner or later, your career.
I am, however, talking about two important factors that in my humble opinion give you the best opportunity to wing it when you have to.
- Knowledge. You can’t wing what you don’t know. You need to develop a complete understanding of your products features, capabilities, AND be able to apply those to real life problems your prospects face. I as a customer could care less that your product is 20% faster this year unless you can explain to me how my business is going to be appreciably better with your new whiz bang super speedy device.
- The ability to Speak on Your Feet. You have got to be comfortable being able to communicate with any one any where at any time. If you are fearful, or caught up in the mechanics of how to speak, you will not have enough brain power left to figure out what to say. If you acquire the ability to speak confidently then you will not have to focus on how to’s of speaking but instead focus on what you are going to say.
Research I have read suggests that the fear of public speaking, or Glossophobia, is the number one global fear.
Some try hypnosis, some try beta blockers though I have no idea why, some try self help books. My recommendation would be to just practice speaking. Join Toastmasters in your area or a community group that will force you to speak.
While some of these methods may work very well, I have a hard time believing that you will get better at speaking without, you know, actually speaking! Even if it is only to yourself in the mirror.
But I digress. The ability to recognize an opportunity for your product or offering and just wade in throwing caution to the wind and “wing-it” will serve you well in a sales career and from my experience, serve you well in almost every other aspect of your life when it is time to speak up.
