Otis on "Self-Discipline"

I just read a Targeted Journal from one of the Sales Managers we work with and wanted to get this out of my head. I don’t expect this to make perfect sense, but please, bear with me. I sensed a few things, none that I could put a finger on, that both the manager and his team might be “getting smarter than the process” when it comes to asking for the money.

The best running backs in football “trust” the play that is called. Each play is designed to achieve a certain result; to reach a particular spot on the field. The best running backs trust that it will produce the results that it’s designed to produce, and they execute the play with that belief. When they improvise on their assignment, or trust their instincts instead of the play, they reduce the possibility of the play’s success.

Not that improvisation necessarily nullifies the play, but the greatest of athletes will always trust the play FIRST… and then improvise only if the play breaks down or if it reaches the designed spot on the field with the runner still standing.

We can’t let our sales team get used to improvisation as a way of life. Let’s make sure that we discipline ourselves to trust the system first; before we allow ourselves to improvise.

Remember that we ask for the money “so we can take the bike off the market” so we can take the bike off the market. We need a method to confirm his buying decision, and to let the customer know that we believe he has indeed made a buying decision. If at that point he has NOT made that decision, the act of asking for the money will either a) compel him think about whether or not he is indeed ready, possibly resulting in a buying decision, or b) he’ll let us know that he is not ready to buy.

Either result is a good one for the salesperson who is focused on helping the customer to buy. Asking for the money is NOT designed as a slick trick to force somebody into a buying decision. Often the fear of that is what causes guys to improvise and not ask for the money. Once the salespeople understand, believe and operate with the right understanding of process, asking for the money at the right point in the process becomes the best next right thing to do for the customer.

In reality, this may get us an increase in “today” buying decisions over the course of a year, but more importantly, it is consistent with the environment of customer service that we’re trying to educate our customer about. All of our language, our policies, and our actions are congruent in that they are all designed with the intention of rendering it easier to buy from us than it is from the other guys.

So have I written a column here, or did I just produce an unintelligible rant?

Projections, Predictions, and Prognostications

This is a collection of ramblings about measuring and monitoring the right things that will help you maintian your process. Thoughts, please...

There was a radio personality in the town where I grew up that would read the weather at the top of every hour. When he finished reading, he’d play a little drum roll and fanfare thing and then scream, “And now for Kenny’s ‘lookin’ out the window’ forecast!” It never failed to crack me up because it put such perspective on the entire idea of forecasting anything. I remember listening to him one afternoon predicting rain with the report and then make a big deal yelling and fussing that the weather guys were crazy because his ‘lookin’ out the window’ report saw nothing but blue sky and little white puffy clouds.

I took the time to actually look out my window that day… and he was right. It was a perfect “Chamber of Commerce” kind of day. It was indeed blue sky with little white puffy clouds. I realized then that there was a huge difference between projections and reality, no matter how “scientific” or sophisticated the projection mechanism was.

When the weather report predicts a 40% chance of rain they base their prediction on history. The actual formula goes something like this. In all of recorded weather history, when conditions were exactly as we think they’ll be tomorrow at a given time, it rained 40% of the time. They’re basically measuring the past to predict future conditions that they’ll base their prediction on. (You might wanna read that twice)

And for some reason we let these weather predictor guys off the hook when they get it wrong. And they get it wrong a lot! Why on earth do we continue to believe what they tell us? How can we trust anything that predicts what will happen next by measuring what happened yesterday?

A rain gauge can only tell you how much rain you got, not how much rain you’re gonna get!

The best bookies don’t make their bets based on the scores from the previous week’s games. They watch the teams practice if at all possible and they hold off on placing the bet until the last possible moment. That’s the closest they can get to make a real-time projection. What if the star running back got injured in an accident on the way to the game? That won’t show up in the stat sheets.

What if you sold 20 bikes last week and nineteen the week before? Did you do better in week two? Not if your showroom floor was three times as busy in week two than in week one. In fact, you did worse. But your stat sheet (your financials) won’t tell you that. The only thing that’ll tell you that is a real-time look at what’s happening now.

Farmers measure what’s happening now to tell them the weather. Are the cows facing the same direction – right now – right at this very moment? That means it’s gonna rain. Just west of Corvallis, Oregon in the coast mountain range, you’ll see Mary’s Peak. The locals say that if you can see Mary’s Peak, it’s gonna rain. If you can’t see it, well then it’s raining. As silly as it is, it’s at least a real-time look at things.

And that’s where I run out of examples. I need feedback, people. Someone please tell me the message that this brain dump is trying to get across so I can see if I've captured what I wanted to. Thanks for your help.