A print salesperson told me, “Our pricing and poor quality will prevent me from ever selling $1.0 million in a year. I can never do it.”
I asked the salesperson’s owner how many salespeople in her company sold more than $1.0 million annually. She replied, “Seven of our nine salespeople produce more than $1.0 million. Three of the seven sell more than $2.0 million.”
Seven out of nine never said never.
Think about some of these completely improbably statements.
“All my money is invested with Bernie Madoff. My money returns 10% and is totally safe. Bernie is a genius and is as honest as the day is long. There will never be threat to my money.”
Whoops! Fifty billion dollars has disappeared and Bernie Madoff has confessed to the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.
Or, Twelve months ago, a wealthy business owner told me, “America will never elect an African-American president.”
On January 20, 2009 Barack Obama was inaugurated at the first African-American president.
Here are two more mundane impossibilities.
Or, “The Arizona Cardinals lost all five East Coast games during the 2008 season. The Cardinals can’t handle the jet lag time zone thing. The Charlotte Panthers are undefeated on their home field this year. The Cardinals will never beat Charlotte on their home field in the playoffs.”
Whoops! The Cardinals dominated Charlotte 33-13.
Or, a Philadelphia TV sports reporter said, “The Philadelphia Eagles are out of the playoffs. In order for the Eagles to qualify, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers must lose to Oakland, the Chicago Bears must lose to Houston and the Eagles must defeat the Dallas Cowboys. It will never happen!” There’s that word again – never.
Whoops! On December 28, 2008, Tampa and Chicago lost and the Eagles squeaked by the Cowboys by a score of 44-6 and became a wild card playoff entrant.
And finally, only ten months ago, an economist told me, “The U.S. economy is rock solid and we are in no danger of a recession and certainly not a depression. Never. Never.”
Today that same economist is writing about how he warned of this impending worldwide financial crisis. It is amazing how some economists can be so forgetful and self-serving.
Our PI research team tells us that 78% of my readers are smart enough to see the relevance of these improbable situations to their jobs in print sales. If you are among these smart readers, you can stop reading here and go write up one of the many orders stacked on your desk.
If you are among the 22% who are dumb enough to have said, “How the hell does this stuff about Madoff, Obama, the NFL and the economy relate to my lack of print sales success?
The Madoff victims were victimized and lost it all because they lacked vigilance. Bernie Madoff looked good and was well-spoken and he faithfully sent monthly statements that reported ten percent profits.
This is the lack of vigilance that leads to the loss of a big account. It looks good. You are enjoying strong margins. The work just keeps coming in and you rarely have to see the customer. You rarely ask the client about his level of satisfaction with your service and your quality. You simply don’t care for your client. I mean “care” in the sense that a good nurse cares for a patient or a priest cares for his flock.
Then BAM! It’s gone. You lost your biggest account. Maybe it was your only account. Big Account was so good that you never prospected. There was nothing in the pipeline when you lost Big Account.
From now on, I’m calling lack of vigilance “The Madoff Syndrome”.
Then we have the Barack Obama phenomena. He was elected because he showed up. He was well-prepared. He had a plan. He was well organized. He was well-spoken. He was a superb listener to the opposition even when his opponents were attacking him. He was an attentive listener to voters. He did all these things each time he showed up, and showed up, and showed up and showed up. He was there and when he was there, he performed well and he always outperformed his competition without rancor.
Is there a sales message that led to the Obama impossible victory? There are seven sales messages. I’m going to call them the “Obama Mandates”.
Count them with me. (1.) Show up. (2.) Show up well-prepared. (3.) Show up with a plan. (4.) Show up organized. (5.) Show up and be well-spoken. (6.) Show up and listen. (7.) Keep showin’ up.
The Cardinal’s and Eagle’s unbelievable playoff victories are examples of why I never bet on pro football. Too much can happen that even Las Vegas odds makers can’t foretell. You’ve heard commentators caution that winner usually is the team that makes the fewest mistakes or, in this example, the team that makes the fewest turnovers.
So the lesson here is making sure you have heard and then communicated the job specifications accurately to your plant co-workers.
The Eagles and Cardinals not only had fewer turnovers than their opponents, they also showed up with a plan, executed the plan and they did it with a fire in their bellies. They wanted the win. That fire in the belly in football and in sales is always a critical determinant for success.
The economist who told me there would never be a recession only proves that you should never say never.
If the lousy events of 2008 have you believing that you will never succeed in print sales then memorize the Madoff Syndrome and Obama Mandates.
“The Madoff Syndrome” is lack of caring vigilance where you take your customers for granted.
“The Obama Mandates” begin with (1.) showing up. (2.) Showing up well-prepared. (3.) Showing up with a plan. (4.) Showing up well-organized. (5.) Showing up well-spoken. (6.) Showing up and listening. (7.) Continuing to show up more than your lousy unworthy competitors.
And, finally show up with a fire in your belly.
How else can I conclude? Let’s see. While I think, maybe you should get out there and sell something!
