Performance | A Sales Guy

The Mind Matters

My daughter Kenna learned to ride her bike last year with out training wheels. She was only 3 years and 10 months old. We were in Venice Beach California on vacation. She was good at it. She took to it right away. I put my hands on the back of her seat, she started to peddle and away she went. It was a big deal. I was so proud of her.

To celebrate we went for a family bike ride. That didn’t go so well. Although she had the physically ability to ride her bike, her mind wasn’t quite there yet. She’d panic when it came to turn or stop. She would freak out if people would get too close to her. Needless to say the celebration ride was less than enjoyable and although she rode her bike the rest of the vacation, it wasn’t with out incident.

When we got home, she asked us to put the training wheels back on. We didn’t, BUT she wasn’t much into riding her bike the rest of the summer, trading it for a scooter or her younger sisters stryder.

This spring everything has changed. Her mental capabilities caught up with her physical abilities.

Now we have a blast. We go for bike rides at least twice a day. She rides off the curbs, over dirt mounds, and peddles as fast as she can. She loves it and so do I. It’s fun riding bikes with her.

I see this in sales and in business all the time.

It’s not enough to have the ability or the skill or even the talent. The mind is required too. Unlike kids, who’s physical ability or talent gets ahead of their developing minds, in adults it’s just plain stubbornness or worse a bad attitude.

If your wondering why that super talented sales guy continually eeks out quota or why that brilliant project manager can never seem to get the project right, it may not be their capabilities, it might be in their head.

Skill, talent, capability are all critical but if the mind isn’t coming along for the ride too, it won’t matter.

The mind matters.

May 30, 2010 | Filed under: Personal Development | View Comments |

When Is Enough, Enough?

College football and sales follow a similar track. In most cases they end their year at the same time. And like sales, the end of the year is the time of reckoning, when everyone asks how many games did you win? A lot of coaches jobs are in real jeopardy this year, most notably Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis and my alma mater University of Colorado’s, Dan Hawkins.

How do you decide when it’s time to send a coach packing? Is it their record that year, or several years? Do you take into consideration other factors, such as schedule strength or years as the head coach? When is it time to kick your coach to the curb?

Letting go a sales person is a similar challenge. How do you decide to let go of a sales person?

Some organizations give sales people one quarter and if they’re not performing, they’re out. Others give a year. Some make the decision on a person by person basis. Determining when it’s time move on is a critical decision of sales leaders.

For me it starts with the circumstances. I want to know what the market is doing. Is it shrinking or growing? I want to understand the track record of the rep. Have they consistently made their number in the past? However the biggest factor for me is their plan and their execution. I pay close attention to what the rep or manager is doing and how they are doing it. I know months in advance if a rep is going to make it, because I will see it in the decisions they make. I watch how they develop their account and sales plans. I focus on their strategy, initiatives and tactics. I evaluate their environmental assessments. I monitor their contingency plans and how they respond to unforeseen changes. I focus more on what they are doing to get results, not just the results.

Determining when enough is enough, is an ongoing process. I will normally know long before the end of the year. Making your number is being deliberate. It’s about execution, and planning. All of which can be observed long before the results are in.

If you’re waiting till the end of the year to decide when enough is enough, you’ve waited too long. The signs are present long before the results are in. You just have to be looking.

November 25, 2009 | Filed under: Business Performance,Hiring/Firing,Sales Leadership | View Comments |