.......... A PERSONAL MESSAGE TO THE BOARD ...................
As some of you know, I spent most of my adult life in commission sales. And most of that time was spent in management. For those of you who have experienced a job in sales, it can be incredibly challenging to keep sales people motivated and keep them productive. One of the most challenging things from my perspective as a manager, was that every person you were responsible for, had to face rejection almost daily.
What I didn't comprehend early in my management career, was that most of the adversity and rejection these sales people faced, came from us, the managers. We didn't really understand that the way we managed caused people to focus on failure as opposed to success. It was hard enough to face rejection with a prospect, but at least you wouldn't have to face that prospect again. You could escape from that failure. No harm, no foul other than you needed to overcome it quickly and move on.
No, we dumb managers just couldn't let this failure slide. In our office we had every award, we as managers had earned, hanging on the walls. It was supposed to inspire others to duplicate our success. All it really did was stroke our ego. Those of you who have been in sales know that all it really was is the, "I love me" wall. If I can do it, you can do it too.
Most of us managers would have a huge board where we listed results daily and every sales person would see where they stood. The good sales agent would come into the office, grab a cup of coffee and head straight to the board to admire where he stood in relation to every one else. He might even rib the others as they came into the office, who were below him in sales.
Then came the biggest mistake of all. We would have the lowest person give a sales presentation to the group and the group would critique the talk, all in the name of "constructive criticism" and hopefully make the salesman a better salesman and hoping that others would learn from the experience.
I learned that all those things above created an environment of negativity. Those who weren't at the top very rarely got to the top. It got to a point where you could place the names in order of how they would finish each month, at the beginning of the month. The top agents developed a sense of security and there wasn't any challenge for them to perform at a higher rate. They were number one. I can slack off because nobody is going to beat me. The lower producing agents wouldn't even look at the board. They would hang their heads and hide in their cubicles. And their results would continue to slide.
Then I came across the concept of where you praise a salesman in public, you criticize or critique in private. What a wonderful concept.
I took down every award I had ever earned. My walls were now bare. I took down the production board. No longer would the other salesman know who was producing and who wasn't. Every day I would give public recognition to the top dog and I wouldn't say a word to the lower producers during the sales meeting. They would get private counseling.
When a salesman earned an award, a duplicate award was made and I hung that in my office. I started displaying every award my sales people earned, in my office. When they came into my office it was their awards that stared them in the face. We focused on the positive and we started to set sales records.
It came to a point that everybody, even the lower producers, were producing at a higher rate. The bottom guy was still the bottom guy but he didn't know it. He felt good because his results improved.
It was a great environment and one that I truly miss. Everyone made money and we all helped one another because I allowed them to focus on their strengths instead of their weaknesses.
My last few years in sales I had zero turnover in personnel. This was incredible since other teams would turn over 50% to 100% of their sales force annually. We're talking commission sales. Most people can't handle that kind of work. They realize it's not for them and they quit and I had zero turnover.
Now that my selling days are over, you forget a lot of the things you used to do, things that helped you to become successful. I liked the message board community because it was a place where you could come together with other people and try to learn from each other. Due to my being out of selling trim, I have found myself reverting back to the old days when I didn't manage properly. I forgot that even though cyberspace isn't real, and we will never meet the people we exchange ideas with, there are still real people on the other side of that message. Some of those people take these message boards more seriously than others. For some it's entertainment. For others it's the need to be in touch, to exchange ideas, to achieve a certain level of recognition that they are on the right track.
One of my objectives with starting this message board was to have a place where we could focus on business. There is very little, to no off topic stuff here. I want to focus on business and I want to focus on the success of others. I want to hang your plaque on my wall.
Bragging on this message board isn't frowned upon, it's encouraged. Bragging is good if others can learn from your success. When a salesman had a terrific day, I had him stand up and tell us about it. We applauded his success, not look down upon it as a lack of humility. I used to tell my salesmen, save the humility for church and the outside world. When you step into my office I expect to hear you tell me about your successes today.
Although we can learn from failure, it's hard to monitor what goes on in the other person's life. In the investing world, people have different time frames for holding a stock. What may be a good buy point for one is a good sell point for another.
With the exception of myself, we really don't know where others bought and sold, even though they may have provided an analysis ahead of time. Since there wasn't a public statement that I bought 300 shares of INTC at $23.00, we really don't have a way of monitoring the trade.
If we are to experience a positive and useful message board, I have a favor to ask of everyone. If we are going to learn from failure, focus on my failures. I've got enough of them! Use me as the example. Since my entry and exit points are stated in advance, we know where every trade has gone. The exercise then becomes constructive.
I have been guilty of asking others to explain what I perceived as a failing trade. I was wrong to do that. Just because their strategy differed from mine, it doesn't make it wrong for them.
I'm not afraid of criticism. So I ask, if you must criticize, please do it to me. It's my office and I want others to feel comfortable coming into it, in order to learn from the successes of others. I want others to see your successes hanging on the wall, not your failures.
dabum |
