I chose to start writing this blog 3 years ago. It started A Sales Guy Consulting. I chose to move to Vail from Boston for one season in 1989, and then chose to stay in Colorado. I chose not to got back to Boston. I met my wife in Colorado. I chose to marry Ellen and not any of the other woman. I chose to have 3 kids. ( I didn’t choose to have 3 girls. I wouldn’t choose to change that.) I chose to go back to school after being out for 15 years. I chose not to snowboard. I chose to become a ski instructor. I chose to get my level 1 and level 2 PSIA certifications. I chose to buy a used car instead of a new one. I chose the amount of money in my savings account and I chose to spend what isn’t. I choose to read a book a month. I choose to read only non-fiction. I chose not to go to Chicago this weekend for what I know was a great event with a number of great sales bloggers. (That may have been a bad choice. ) I chose to get up today at 6:00 a.m.  I chose to do this post today, rather than an another one I had in mind. All of these choices have been mine and have framed my life and will continue to frame it. I can’t change that. It’s done. The decisions I make today and tomorrow, just like the decisions above, will shape my life even more.

Everyday we make choices, it’s how life is designed. We can not move through life without choosing. Life is peculiar in that way. From the moment we wake up we construct our day, choice by choice, like masons laying bricks. Each choice setting the foundation for what happens next. Many of our choices seem insignificant and require little thought, but still shape our life.

Our choices bring us closer to some people, and move us further away form others. They get us closer to the things we want and take us further away from those very things. Our choices can be both conscience as well as beneath our awareness. Yet, they are still our choices.  The key is to be as aware as possible of our choices. It’s to know why we are making the choices we do and what we expect to get from them. It’s to be honest with ourselves in assessing the choices we’ve made to date and those we will make tomorrow.

When we are aware of our choices we make more deliberate choices. Deliberate choices fit well into the structure of our life. They get us closer to where we want to go. Making choices without awareness is like rolling the dice, some end up being good for us, others, not so much.

When we are honest with our choices, we can measure them for success. Honesty holds us accountable for our choices. Yes, it was a good choice. No, it wasn’t a good choice. Yes, it was a conscience choice. No, it wasn’t a conscience choice. Yes, I should make that choice again. No, I don’t want to choose that path again.

Life has been given to us to design one choice at a time. We will make billions of choices in our life. Choosing is unavoidable. Being aware of our choices moves us in the right direction. Being honest with our choices, keeps us from moving straying off course.

What time did you get up today? Did you spend time with the kids and your spouse. Did you clean the house? Did you play words with friends. Did you work on Sunday? Did you buy those new shoes? Did you save an extra hundred dollars this month? Did you start blogging? Did you read a new sales book? Did you make an extra 50 calls? Did you go to the gym? What choices do you make? What choices are you going to make today?  Are you going to be aware of them? Are you going to be honest about them?

Our choices are very different when awareness and honesty are added. How do you choose?

Melissa is also extremely detailed oriented. She is excellent at getting things done. Nothing falls through the cracks. Melissa can follow process, manage competing demands and deliver with amazing precision. She’s a workhorse. Melissa is motivated by acceptance. She likes to know she is doing a good job and responds well to praise.  Melissa doesn’t respond well to being overly criticized.

Diego is a driver. He loves the chase. He too likes to be “liked.” Diego is very intelligent and knowledgeable. Diego is affable, fun, and engaging. He leverages his knowledge to position himself with customers and his fellow employees.  Diego isn’t detailed oriented, but will do whatever it takes to get the deal done. Diego is loyal and EXTEMELY coachable. He’s a sponge.  Responsive to feedback and criticism nothing upsets Diego.  He has extremely thick skin. He can take a licking and he keeps on ticking. Diego is known to stretch the truth and can be a kiss-ass, so it’s important to call him out sometimes and to dig deep when you’re looking to get answers.  Diego responds to being told he his doing well. He likes to know he is part of something bigger and is accepted. Being embraced and a part of something special motivate Diego.

Scott has a personality bigger than life. He has an aura that surrounds him. He is EXTREMELY intelligent and even more articulate. Scott absorbs information on the fly and can leverage that information immediately. Scott draws people to him, as he knows what to say to disarm them.  Scott can see the path to a sale 10-20 moves ahead of most people. Scott understands the emotional responses of his prospects and customers better than they do. Scott knows what people are thinking and feeling every second and leverages this sense to precisely engage with them, knowing exactly what responses required to move the sale.

Scott sucks at details. He is easily discouraged when things aren’t going well. Scott hates process. Scott can’t be relied on to deliver consistently. Scott is a roller coaster, with high, highs and low, lows. Scott is very self-centered. Scott brings tremendous energy to the team, but can also bring it down.

Scott is motivated by acknowledgment. He wants to be seen as the top dog. Admiration drives Scott. He is motivated by how others perceive him. Scott has low self-esteem in spite of his outward confidence. Scott is driven by money and status.

Melissa, Diego and Scott are real people that used to work for me. I knew them well. I knew what they were good at and what they weren’t. I knew what motivated them and what they responded to.  I knew what environments they would succeed in and which they wouldn’t.  I knew what NOT to say to Melissa and what NOT to expect from Diego. I knew where Scott would excel an were he wouldn’t.

Intimately knowing my people gave me an incredible advantage to making my number.

A long time ago, one of my bosses said to me: “Jim you’re easy to manage, all I have to say to you is; I don’t think you can do it, and then you go running off to get it done.” He was right. I respond very well to being challenged and told I can’t do something.

Needless to say, later in my career I had another boss who told my what to do. He rarely let me make my own decisions.  That didn’t work out too well. I don’t respond well to be told how to do my job. This boss had no clue on what motivated me.

What do you know about the INDIVIDUALS on your team? Do you know what makes them tick? Do you know what they are good at? Do you know what motivates them? Do you know what they like and don’t like? How intimately do you know your team?

Know the people on your team.  It’s not enough to have talented people if you can’t use them correctly. You end up wasting your time and their skills.

Do you have leadership intimacy?

EXECUTION!

Wes Welker dropped a pass that him right in the hands. Had he made the catch, it would have given the Patriots a first down on their 20 with only four minutes and thirty second to go, leading by 2.

The Patriots lost.

With only 4 minutes to go and only one time out, the Giants were pinned on their 10 yard line, when Marion Manningham made an unbelievable catch down the sidelines for 45 yards. It was unreal.

The Giants won Super Bowl XLVI

The key to success . . . execution. Those who execute, and get it done win. Those who don’t, well don’t.

Success is that simple. Don’t believe me, ask Welker or Manningham.

Nuff said!

I saw this the other day while skiing.  I couldn’t have said it any better. I’m going to adopt it as my saying of the year.

I can think of a number of times where I worked my ass off to kick someone else’s.

I recall one particular time I read an entire frickin’ 100 plus page master services agreement to “understand” the customer relationship better, only to find neither the customer nor the company were operating to the terms of the agreement and the animosity that was bubbling-up was unnecessary. Reading a 100 plus page Master Services legal document is fucking death, I promise you.

Our customer was threatening to go with our competitor and to stop ordering. After reading the entire agreement (which had been in place for over 4 years) I was able to bring more information and clarity to the table than existed.  I was able to get my organization to move on somethings they had dug in on. I was also able to get the client to recognize their demands were outside the agreement and although we could help them, we weren’t contractually obligated to it.

I remember the first meeting after reading the agreement.  I started the meeting with; “Has anyone read the MSA (Master Services Agreement) lately? Silence. No one had been willing to work their ass off.

Working your ass off so you can kick your competition’s ass is about as good as it gets. Who’s working their ass of to kick yours?  Don’t let it happen!

When is the last time you worked your ass off to kick someone else’s? What happened?

More than any other position, sales has a tremendous amount of autonomy.  Like a CEO, this freedom gives sales people an infinite amount of lattitude in how they are going to attain quota.  Sales is a performance based role, like that of a CEO. Therefore, the best sales people approach sales like a CEO.

Great sales people, like CEO’s

• Leverage others to help them accomplish their goals – they don’t try to do it all themselves.  Great sales people know how to leverage the entire organization. Good and average sales people try to do it all themselves.

This unique trait and talent is something all of us have. It is more prevalent in some of us than others, but we all have it.  The ability to understand how others will respond to us, our actions and information is called Theory of Mind.

Having a theory of mind allows one to attribute thoughts, desires, and intentions to others, to predict or explain their actions, and to posit their intentions. As originally defined, it enables one to understand that mental states can be the cause of—and thus be used to explain and predict—others’ behavior.

Theory of Mind can be likened to empathy.  In many ways empathy is at the core of Theory of Mind. By getting into the shoes, and effectively attributing thoughts, desires, and intentions of others to predict actions requires the ability to look outside of ones own mind and perspective.  This ability explains the some of the art of sales. That elusive part of sales which is impossible to quantify and measure, the part of sales which differentiates between the good and the great. the part of sales we all know exists but can’t put our finger on — much of it comes from the Theory of Mind.

Can Theory of Mind be cultivated?  Can any sales person get it? It appears any can, but requires “social and other experience over many years to bring to fruition.”  I’ve seen the best sales people leverage Theory of Mind brilliantly.  They manage an environment with power and precision, moving everyone in the same direction, ultimately driving the meeting and the sale in their direction of choice.

Theory of Mind isn’t manipulation, it’s just the opposite. It is understanding and being able to predict how people think, what they want, and how they will respond innately.  It’s being able to get in the head of your prospects and lead them with the information and actions they are most in tuned to.

Selling is both a science and an art. Theory of Mind is a little bit of the science behind the art.

Yes there are rules, guidelines, operating procedures, and suggested approaches on how to do what you do. But, beyond that there is the way YOU do your job. What’s interesting about this is you get to decide.  You get to decide how you are going to do your job. You get to bring more (or less) to the table than is required and that’s what makes each of us different. We get to decide if we are going to bring passion or intensity. We get to decide if we will use more data or better relationships. We get to decide if we will be agents of change or protect the status quo. We get to decide the things in the cracks of our job.  How we do what we do is the mortar. It makes what we do better (or worse).

Knowing how we do what we do is the goal.

How do you do what you do?  If your answer can be found in your company manual, try again.

From business, to sales, to life, leverage quietly sits at the foundation of success or failure.   Leverage let’s us say no.  Leverage let’s us wait.  Leverage gives us more choices.  Leverage puts us in control.

The problem is leverage is like other assets, it needs time to grow and far too often we make decisions undermining our ability to get leverage.

Have you ever cut a deal to make quota because you needed that one last contract to make your numbers?   That’s what happens without leverage.   Where was leverage?  It was absent because months before decisions were made NOT to make more cold calls, NOT to make more appointments, NOT to do more research, not to do more demo’s.   The deal had to be cut because there was no choice. The pipeline wasn’t big enough.  There were no alternatives.  There was only one decision, cut a deal and make quota, or don’t and miss quota.  This is exactly what happens when we don’t have leverage. There are fewer choices, and less control.

We are stuck in jobs we don’t like because we spend so much on STUFF that doesn’t matter that we can’t quit.  We spend our leverage every day, trickle by trickle. We have no leverage to do what we want, to start a new company, or to try something new.  Our leverage was spent on the partying instead of going to college.  Our leverage is being spent in that 65k car instead of a used 10k car.  Our leverage is being spent in a house bigger than we need.  We need leverage to grow, yet we spend it everyday.

It’s no different in business.  Companies can’t expand or grow because they short change their products and customers to save a buck.   Focused on expenses, revenue, and profit in the short term, they provide poor customer service, poor working environments or cultures and don’t create new innovative products.  To meet the demands of “the street” leverage is forfeited quarter after quarter.  After years of focusing on the short-term a threat arises and there is no leverage to combat it.  The company is unable to respond.  Employees are worn to the bone and have little loyalty, customers are looking for an alternative and the products are stale, unable to generate the revenue needed to respond. There is no leverage.

Leverage is critical, yet people, organizations, businesses, and governments squander it little be little everyday.  Focusing on the here and now costs. It costs leverage and not having leverage has an even bigger cost.  Before you make a decision ask yourself, will this create leverage or cost leverage.   The answer matters.

Are SE’s (Sales Engineers) valuable?  The good ones are worth their weight in gold. To me sales engineers have two roles. To address the technical and complex elements of a complicated technical product or service and to build and manage the technical relationships within an account.  It’s that simple.

I’ve had sales engineers in almost every organization I’ve lead.   I’ve been very lucky to work with some of the best.   I wouldn’t be caught dead without a good team of sales engineers.

SE’s are best used with a very technical or complicated product.  Their job is to be the technical subject matter expert.  The best SE’s can and WILL hold their own with the most technical savvy buyers and geeks they meet.   Good SE’s will not only be able to talk the technical talk but also walk the sales walk.   Good SE’s turn the technical discussion into a sales discussion by translating the complexity into problem solving solutions or benefits. They understand how things work and why that’s good for the buyer.  What makes this skill so important is there are real tangible benefits to a technical buyer sales people are not capable of demonstrating.  Without an SE’s ability to translate technical complexity into value, the sale can be lost.  Valuable SE’s are not only technical, but they know how to sell.   I don’t think enough attention is paid to the “sales” aspect of sales engineers. When this happens you get too much technical and not enough sales.

The other area good SE’s shine is relationship building and demand creation.   In many cases SE’s are invited to parties where sales people can’t go. They participate in trials, lab reviews, tests, and more.  SE’s have access to places sales people just can’t get to.  The best SE’s know they have special VIP access and know how to capitalize on it.  They look for opportunities.  They create demand.  They are proactive.  They educate and inform.  They position themselves as experts to be relied on.  Good SE’s make themselves indispensable to customers.

SE’s are critical to complex, technical sales. I don’t think you can be successful in that type of environment with out them.  With that being said, good SE’s are difficult to find.  It’s not enough to be technically sound.  Understanding how to translate technical knowledge into sales opportunities is how SE’s create their value.

Skip the water, YES!   Now, how do I skip the water more often.