Peak Performance for 20 Years, The Don'ts
Blog Posted: Monday, August 17, 2009
Achieving championship sales results for a couple years is very challenging. That said, being number one for twenty years in a technology company with an international footprint and a large sales force is another matter entirely. It requires a level of commitment to "turn the impossible into the possible". Since I was fortunate enough to accomplish this I will share some of the things I avoided at all cost.
1) Being influenced by the negative people in my organization. You know the types, the ones who find fault with everyone other than themselves and just one thing goes sideways and it will ruin their entire day. We still need to engage with them and not give the impression that we are better than they are, but we've got to recognize when they are going off the rails, listen to them, and then offer constructive solutions.
2) Complacency when times are good. I have a brother who is in the venture capital business and in his business peoples fortunes' rise and fall dramatically in very short periods of time. "Money has killed more people than bullets by 10,000 to one in this business" I've heard him say more than once. When things are going well and we're feeling fat, dumb and happy - that's the time to gird ourselves for the down times which always follow. And when things look bleak we remember that winter never fails to change to spring or whatever we say to ourselves to cheer ourselves up.
3) Failing to be careful about the details. We must get really good at the minutiae and never drop our guard when it comes to double and triple checking what we are sending to our customers. In the final analysis it is our customer who pays our bills, the rent or mortgage, the groceries, you get the picture.
4) Failing to show up on time for a meeting. The degree of respect we have for our customers is reflected back to us in the form good relations, won business and them telling their friends about us even without us having to pry referrals out of them!
5) Failing to win in the morning. I have this listed in the middle but of all of the things that I identify in the process of achieving the top status for twenty years out of twenty three, this one is the most crucial. When we win on a given morning, the day is ours! Can you imagine if you did this a month straight? How about five or ten years? We will get sick and occasionally and miss a day or two but we've got to have a will of steel when it comes to this point.
6) Failing to keep our presenting skills sharp. "Use it or lose it" as the saying goes. When we practice our presentation we should do it in front of a live audience. I would give it to a customer who wasn't necessarily in a buying position at that point, but who wasn't up to date on all of our current offerings, and at the same time used that as an opportunity to find out how they are doing as people, as friends.
7) Not keeping the mindset of a beginner. "What? I am the only real pro around this place !" you say. Learning from a mentor is the key to continuing to improve, to grow without limit. But chose your mentors carefully. They don't even have to be in sales, they just need to be "World Class" people who can teach the way life should be lived. Another thing a determined and hungry "beginner" does is outworks everyone else.
So these are some of the pitfalls to steer clear of if you want to go for the gold, long term. If you think of briskly flowing water as opposed to fire, that mindset, to keep at it day after day, month after month, will enable you to achieve the sort of ultimate fulfillment you want.
You can take that to the bank.
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