Sales Rep Optimism - Key to Winning

After watching today's 5-minute video on SellingPower.com, I thought about the psychologist's one-sided premise. I'd like to present Side B to complement his hypothesis.  He took the employer-centric view because he wants to sell candidate evaluation services.  He suggests that companies must look for people who have optimism built into their DNA because it can't be taught.  I agree, but I also believe that there are company-centric and transactionally oriented companies like Oracle, HP, EMC, Sprint, Salesforce.com and many others that cause sales reps who are naturally optimistic to suppress this trait because they just can bring themselves to opt-in.

It's likely that an innately optimistic sales person with the necessary professional and technical skills along with a natural competitive drive will produce average results if their company does not possess its own DNA traits that build employee and customer allegiance.  Otherwise, sales reps won't commit their personal resources, only their time and physical energy.  Yuck!

New Paradigm Overexposes Kodak

In the early 1990's who could have imagined that Canon Sure Shots, Blackberries, iPhones and iPads would be looming on the horizon?

Market leaders manage their dynamic product portfolios to keep pace with trends so that new paradigms aren't killers.

Kodak took its eye off the mark.  Now, it will file for Chapter 11 because there remains only small well-defined niches for its best-in-class traditional products.  In fact, in order to raise cash, there's talk about Kodak selling digital imaging patent rights.

Who is being held accountable for all those grandmothers whose shares of Kodak have dropped from $6 to $.75 per share ?  Who was in charge when the paradigm shift began?

Kodak was unwilling to respond to the paradigm shift that wrecked its dynasty.  The same fate sounded the death knell for many product-centric leaders. Polaroid is mostly in the past.  Digital Equipment didn't want to cannibalize its minicomputer business. Tektronix thought its proprietary hi-res graphics technology could never be topped.  Buggy whip manufacturers didn't recognize that they were in the transportation business.

What a great case study for innovators.

Advertisers Use Mediocre Content

If you study "product-centric" ads, you'll notice the same trite phrases and buzz words that everyone else uses. They don't do a good job of setting themselves apart from all the rest.

Media vendors, whose end game is to run the ad [TV, Radio, Print ...], would prefer that clients provide content, but most don't have a content portfolio for them to draw upon.  So, the media vendor scrambles to author content that doesn't differentiate their client from others who are hoping that an undifferentiated market will "buy my stuff".

If you haven't taken the time to continually update your content portfolio to be aligned with your marketing and business development strategy, you are making a big mistake because you won't be able to create a differentiating theme for a well-defined audience and produce measurable results for the call to action you've set as your goal for every promotional campaign.

Deductive Advertising Is Better

Don't invest in inductive advertising [here's my product - figure out what you can do with it].

Instead, only invest in deductive advertising [if you have this problem or opportunity, then this solution is right for you].

Handwritten cards trump e-cards

I don't pay much attention to the growing number of holiday e-cards that I receive from companies or people that have me on their email list. This is an impersonal mass mailing by vendors that go through the motions by using a no effort approach to sending the same e-card to everyone.

However, I read every word in a personally written holiday card.

I consider other types of e-cards such as birthdays or customer anniversaries as nice to receive.  For these I know that their system differentiates me from all the rest of its list.

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