I didn’t make the list.
First I am nowhere to be found on the People magazine Sexiest Man in America list and I’m not even an also ran on the Richest Americans list.
I am not on the FBI Most Wanted list.
If there was a Most Enabling List, I’m saying I’d be in the top twenty. I am one hell of a great enabler. No tough love from me, only how much can I help? That’s probably why I’m not on the Richest 400 list.
I know that I coached more than 300 baseball wins for various teams ranging from 12 years old to my semi-pro team. That should put me on some list.
I pitched over 100 wins in several softball leagues before my retirement. Maybe there’s a list for softball pitching wins.
By the way, the Fortune 400 richest people total wealth declined more than $300.0 Trillion this year due to the recession.
Glad I wasn’t part of that loss. I’m too smart to lose that kind of money. I never invested a nickel with Bernie Madoff, so I also avoided that debacle. I must be some kinda genius.
We need a list of the top print salespeople in America. If we had one and if we published the list, competitors would be in a recruiting frenzy trying to steal the top producers to get their “books” of business. I know some salespeople who sell more than $20.0 million annually and even salespeople more who sell north of $10.0 million.
Don’t call me and ask for the names!
All those top producers are some kind of genius’. No different than Tiger Woods, or Payton Manning or Albert Pujols. There are some common factors that led to these athletes’ greatness and the same factors lead to greatness among print salespeople.
I recently discovered these requirements for greatness and they make it so obvious that greatness just doesn’t happen. Someone did the research. It was not me. I heard it on TV and quickly made notes. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the name of the research source. So, if you are reading this, please forgive me.
Okay, are you ready to take notes? These three Greatness Drivers are hard. I’m not going to be giving you some magic elixir.
First, greatness requires practice. Constant, enduring, repeated practice. That’s how they build Navy Seals – practice and more practice.
Eldrick (Tiger) Woods, now 33 years of age, has had an unprecedented career since becoming a professional golfer in the late summer of 1996. He has won 92 tournaments, 71 of those on the PGA Tour, including the 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2005 Masters Tournaments, 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007 PGA Championships, 2000, 2002, and 2008 U.S. Open Championships, and 2000, 2005 and 2006 Open Championships. Butch Harmon, Tiger’s coach said, "He is the best student I ever had. He is like a sponge -- he soaks up information, and he always wants to learn and get better."
Tiger sets his clock at 5:00 AM every day. He has been practicing since the age of two first with his dad, Earl Woods.
You think I’m advocating practicing golf. No. I am proposing that you practice selling by actually making sales calls over and over and over.
Every day.
Every day.
Over and over and over. That’s practice. Critique yourself. Ask yourself, “How can I improve that abomination?” What should I have said? What questions should I have asked?
Many print salespeople make one sales call. Or make one phone call and change the radio station to get some better tunes. Or, they mount their head phones for music on their IPod. Instead, spend fifteen minutes critiquing what you just did on the sales call while it’s fresh in your mind.
Benefit from practice and become your own coach.
The next requirement for greatness is coaching. This is something where the printing industry is woefully inadequate. Most salespeople have no mentor. No guide. No coach. They are on their own.
Payton Manning, quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, and his brother Eli Manning, quarterback for the New York Giants had a great coach, their dad, Archie Manning. Archie was an All-American College quarterback at the University of Mississippi and an NFL quarterback for the New Orleans Saints.
Both Manning brothers have led their teams to Super Bowl victories and were named Most Valuable Player for their respective Super Bowls.
They were coached at an early age by their father. They passed for hours in the front yard. Then from high school through their college careers and now in the NFL, they have had the best coaching available and they continue to seek the guidance of great teachers.
A lack of coaching is the biggest obstacle for print salespeople. We have very few talented sales managers, owners or outside consultants who can coach. Much of what I learned I learned from customers who are great coaches. Many times, as the immodest lout that I am, I asked a customer, “How can I be a better salesperson to help you?” Or, I would ask, “Help me with advice for being a better salesperson that can help you more?” Most human beings find the word “help” irresistible and they will tell you and, thus, they have become your coach.
There are very few, make that less than one set of fingers, of potential coaches in the print communications industry. I know some people who could pave the drive (that translates to “make bunch of money”) if they could figure out how to deliver individual sales coaching and then sell it to printers who would actually pay for the service. These are the same companies that spend tens of thousands of dollars maintaining equipment for which they invested million to purchase and they spend nothing to coach the salespeople they expect to fill that equipment.
Albert Pujols became arguably the best player in baseball with a .334 lifetime batting average through practice, coaching and the final requirement, concentration. He led the National League regular season this year with 47 home runs.
Many fans call him, “The Machine”. The Machine was raised in the Dominican Republic by his grandmother in poverty. Albert and his buddies rarely had a real baseball. They used bats that were taped and nailed together. Gloves were fashioned from milk cartons they had cut to fit their hands. Balls were frequently lemons or limes pulled from the trees in the neighborhood.
Baseballs are hard enough to hit. Can you imagine the concentration required hit a lime that is much smaller than a regulation baseball?
Yep. Pujols, Manning and Woods are all great through practice, coaching and concentration. I believe, no I know, that the great graphics communications salespeople that I know are all great through practice, coaching and concentration.
Write and ask me for my list of sales coaches.
I am way behind answering my e-mail so bear with me and I will send you the rules for Phase II of the Maňana Man Economic Stimulus Plan for Printing Companies.
Now, while I answer your e-mails, letters and phone calls, you practice, coach yourself and concentrate by getting out there and selling something!
