Successful People Surround Themselves With Others Who Complement Them

I hear successful executives say this all the time, "I know what I'm good at and what I'm not good at.  My success depends on finding other people to fill my gaps."

Sales organizations are quick to title their people as "sales executives".  If they are truly executives and want to be successful, then why should it be expected that each one is fully competent in everything necessary to produce a thriving sales organization?  No one is good at all the things necessary to fulfill the sales role including proposal writing, finding new business, giving presentations, relationship building, closing the "golden spike" deal, etc.

I think the compensation system disables sales leaders from doing the right thing with respect to organizing for success.  In most sales situations, team selling is essential.  If companies were able to break down the role into positions just like on a baseball team, there'd be someone playing first base, pitching, driving in runs, etc.  And the right compensation scheme would naturally fit into place.

So, how can we make this happen and not let singular sales rep commission entitlement be the deciding factor?

Good Mission Statements Are Sustainable

Yesterday I read an interesting post on Seth Godins' blog There's nothing wrong with having a plan. Seth's message is that over time plans succeed and fail and need to be updated, but your company's mission should be bullet proof and stable - the beacon that drives your plans. 

So, what should a mission statement include?  Here are some ideas to mull around:

Mission statements define why a company exists. With underpinnings of trust and integrity, a mission statement must address employees, customers and partners, community [online and offline, cause based and industrial categories] and financial results.

• Employee satisfaction based on accomplishment and pride in belonging to something excellent
• Customers and partners value the quality of their experiences with your company as much as they do the products and services they purchase.  It is our goal for them to have an excellent experience throughout their lifetime relationship.  We make it easy for them to do business with us.  Interaction is smooth and easy and we enable communications through the means they prefer.  We provide useful information to them.  We guarantee our work.  We quickly follow up to correct experience gaps.
• A visible member of the community through sponsorships and participation in events.
• Results measured in financial, marketing and operations terms