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!

During one particular week in the season, like a shit head, I skipped school. I got caught and was suspended for that Saturday’s football game.  I had to stand on the sidelines, in my game jersey, no pads and watch. It sucked.  It was hard. We lost the game.

The next day, I walked down to my grandfathers house. As usual, he was reading the Sunday Paper. I walked in and started some small talk. He just looked at me and asked; “What happened?”

Apparently, my absence on the field was a bigger deal than I thought. The paper made a point to report I did not play due to a suspension.

I asked my grandfather what he was talking about, knowing clear well what he was asking me.

He looked at me and asked again. “What happened?”

Just as I was about to explain what happened, my grandfather blurted out; “Wait! Don’t tell me. I know. It was your coaches fault!”

I looked at him puzzled and wondered to myself. What is he talking about?

He then said, “Wait, I know! It was your teachers fault!”  He paused and then said, “No, it was your buddy’s fault!” he took a quick breath and quickly said; “It was the schools fault.” He then paused again.  He looked at me for just a brief second, but not long enough for me to say anything and said; “Don’t tell me! I’ll get it!  Because, I know it wasn’t your fault!”

I’ll never, ever, ever forget that day.

So, when you don’t make quota. When you lose the big deal, when you miss the RFP deadline, when you don’t make enough cold calls, when you don’t make Presidents Club, when you lose your best client, when the demo doesn’t go well, when your presentation bombs, don’t worry about it. I know! — It’s not your fault!

Our minds and more importantly our feelings require mistakes to learn.  When mistakes are made our mind reacts physically.

Our minds are constantly searching its surroundings for subtle, predictable patterns we can’t consciously recognize. Our mind, using dopamine nuerons automaticaly detects these predictable patterns and turns them into emotions.  These emotions give us our sense of the world. These emotions give us early clues to what is happening around us BEFORE our conscience mind has time to figure it out. Basically, what is happening is our brains signal expected results before they happen.  Our dopamine neurons are constantly creating patterns based on experience. It’s like an acute, if this, then that, system deep in our subconscious. The subtle patterns identified by the dopamine neurons anchor us in our world and creates predictability.

So what happens when this predictability is broken? What happens if inconsistent messages are picked up by our brains? Our brains take notice and say “hey, this ain’t right, warning, warning,” and quickly send messages in the form of electrical signals from center of the brain called the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC). This signal is called error-related negativity or the “oh shit!” circuit. These signals happen in the background, away from our conscience mind. Our mind tells us something is wrong BEFORE we know something is wrong and before we know why. It’s the shock or sting of predictability being broken where we learn. When our predictable patterns are broken our mind works effortlessly to find the “new” patterns and anchor them into the subconscience. Every time old patterns are broken and new patterns are established in a particular field, the better you will be in that field.

Physicist Neils Bohr once defined an expert as “a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”

When we make mistakes we give the brain a chance to re-establish the predictable outcomes and the associate expectations. The more mistakes we make, the less time our conscience mind needs to spend thinking. The brain already knows what ISN’T going to work.

To be the best sales person you can, to be the best sales leader, the best sales executive, make mistakes. Let your team make mistakes. Push the envelope. Don’t avoid the unfamiliar and charge ahead. Our minds are built to self-correct. Nature built our brains with the understanding that nothing is completely “predictable” giving it the ability to adjust. Like everything else however, it won’t do it all by itself. You have to be willing to learn, to look for your mistakes, to call them out, to accept them and then learn from them. Our mind wants us to and will reward us for doing it.

The next time you are afraid to challenge a customer, to hold your own in a negotiation, or push the envelope, do it. What you’ll learn will be invaluable, that is, until it’s not. And that is how you become and expert.

Do you allow yourself to make mistakes?

Source: How We Decide, John Lehrer

Great is an end game. Once achieved, it’s over. Then what?

Better is infinite. It’s not a static. It can be achieved, but once achieved it calls out to be achieved again. Better is continuous.

I’ve met a lot of great sales people. They know they are great. But, they really aren’t, because they aren’t trying to get better. “I’ve been doing this for years.” “I know this stuff.” “What can some blog teach me.” “I’ve read all the books, there is nothing new.” These are the sayings of the great. Of course, because they’ve arrived. They will make their numbers, they will be one of the best on the team. They’re great, remember.

Those who think they are great rarely get better.

I am a good skier. I’ve been doing it for years. I’m a PSIA Level 2 Certified ski instructor. To almost every person on the mountain I’m a great skier. Not to me. Between this year and last year, I crossed a chasm. I changed something in my skiing that has taken me to an entirely different level. I’ve gotten better. I’m 44 in April and I ski better now than I’ve ever skied in my life. I ski faster and more in control. I can ski more terrain. I can ski it better and more aggressively. It was a frickin’ awesome feeling to cross the chasm and get to the next level. It took a long time. It was hard. I wondered sometimes if I was going to be able to do it. Today, I am a better skier than I have ever been in my life.

(This video was taken when I was 38, 6 years ago. When I look at it now, I cringe. I see all the mistakes and flaws. I’ll put up a new one soon and we’ll see if you can tell a difference)

Am I a great skier now? NO!  Thank god, that would mean my journey is over. I’m a better skier and that is awesome. It means my next journey is just beginning. I’m going to get even better.

Are you a great sales person? If so, I am sorry.

Are you a better sales person? No? Then start now. If yes, great! Enjoy it for the day. Because tomorrow, you’re new goal kicks in. — Getting better!

The money quote for me was this:

Sometimes, the reason that you are uncomfortable asking for commitments is that you don’t feel that you created enough value to deserve the commitment

Not feeling you’ve created enough value or can’t create enough value is the worse place a sales person can be and it goes beyond just cold calling. It goes as deep as the company you work for. I know more people than I can count that work for a company where they don’t have enough confidence to ask for a commitment. Why? Because they don’t believe the company and it’s products create enough value.

I have a friend who is a fantastic sales person. She is amazing at what she does. She recently took a job where, after just a few months, she had no confidence in the product. She was losing deals because, at the end of the day, all the company really had to compete on was price and they were not structured to compete on price. She kept losing deals. After only 4 months she had lost all confidence in the company and it’s products. It was time to go.

When looking at your current situation or your next job ask yourself, what type of VALUE does this company and it’s products create. Dig deep.

Digging into the value is where the win is. Knowing the depth and uniqueness of the value can tell you a lot.

Not having confidence that you are creating enough value to ask for a commitment during a cold call can kill your quarter. Not having enough confidence in the company and their products can kill your career.

Do you believe in your company and its products and services. You should. It’s the first and main reason you work there.

Feel good and be happy, this notion is wrong. The luck isn’t in being born with greatness, it’s in finding it. We’re all born with greatness. The luck or the goal is finding our greatness, our Michael Jordan.

Find out what your great at and don’t stop until you do. You owe it to yourself AND the world.

What’s the Michael Jordan in you? Do you know, you shoud!

But, before you jump into the new year and abandon the old, take a look back. Look back and ask; did you achieve your goals? Did you accomplish what you set out to accomplish? Were you the person you wanted to be? What did you learn? How did you grow? What don’t you want to keep doing in 2012? Look back, take an account of the year then look forward.

When we combine our look back with our look forward the view is that much better.

Look back first.

Creating change for the better is rarely accomplished by changing one big thing. It’s done by changing a lot of little things. Lots of little changes add up to big change.

Changing one big thing puts too much pressure on the change. We’re asking too much of one effort, if it fails, there is no back up and we can’t make more than one BIG change at at time. It’s too hard.

We can make lots of little changes. Lot’s of little changes have tentacles that reach out and effect a lot of other little things and all those little things become really big things.

If you want to make big changes for 2012. Don’t make a big change. Make lots of little changes the rest will take care of itself.

We can avoid telling ourselves we messed up. We can avoid saying, “I could have tried harder.” We can never admit it wasn’t our bosses fault. We can avoid acknowledging we are short on patience and have been hard on the kids. We can tell ourselves we haven’t made the cold calls we need to because we are too busy, and not because we don’t like doing it. We can avoid admitting we didn’t do the research we should have done, or that we spent the weekend playing rather than preparing for the biggest presentation of the year.

We can tell ourselves a lot of things. But what we should be telling ourselves is the truth.

We need to be honest with ourselves. The minute we are honest with ourselves, EVERYTHING else magically falls into place.

It doesn’t matter what we tell ourselves, as long as it’s the truth.  The worse lie, is the one we tell ourselves.

The Doer:

The Doer delivers. They meet or exceed expectations regularly. The Doers meet quota, achieve goals, execute and deliver consistently.  The Doers are the backbone to work. The Doers go the extra mile. They have a phenomenal command of the craft. The Doers apply industry known rules and information better than anyone. We rely on the Doers to get things done, run our businesses, sell our products and to move things forward.  The Doers are the engine to work. Doers are good, just not great.

The Innovator:

The Innovator advances the craft. The Innovator brings an intellectual understanding and critique to the craft. The Innovator creates new, alternative processes, methods and approaches. The Innovator dissects current processes and methods looking for ways to improve. The Innovator isn’t happy with the status quo. Innovators add efficiency, accelerate delivery, reduce risk, improve outcomes, minimize latency, and more.  Innovators effect the craft as a whole, not just its delivery.

Innovators don’t deliver. They don’t actually do the work. Innovators are solely focused on advancing or improving the craft, not actually doing it. Innovators are good, just not great.

The Useless:

The Useless are just that, useless.  They can’t deliver and they don’t advance the craft. The Useless are unable to make their goals, don’t improve processes or approaches.  The Useless bring little value. Need I say more?

The Great:

The Great are a rare breed. The Great innovate AND deliver. The Great is the heart surgeon who has a 100% success rate AND created a new procedure to do the surgery that was less invasive and shortened recovery time by weeks.  The Great not only deliver but look to deliver better by innovating.  The Great use innovation to be even better.

The Great are hard to come by. The Great are comfortable doing the work and disrupting the system at the same time. The Great have tremendous vision for what they do. They see what exists as a path to creating more. The Great are creators and executors and attack the craft in that manner. The Great have tremendous command of what exists. They leverage that knowledge and command to push the craft to new levels. The Great don’t accept what exists and are dedicated to expanding their craft to make it better.

Are you a Doer, an Innovator or Great?