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Tip
of the Month: September 2007
It's
our choice: Victim or Victor
Dear Friends,
I was in a meeting with an executive last week discussing
company expansion of their sales team when he posed the
following question, "Chuck, where are all the hungry
people?" He was referring to a lack of seemingly
passionate, motivated potential sales prospects that
he had interviewed. About as quick as he said it, I replied
with, "How hungry are you?" It turned out
that it was a perfect opportunity to emphasize the point
that he and his company had been struggling with. The
culture had been experiencing a lot of finger pointing,
blaming, and procrastination. In my view, his question
tied directly to a challenging problem: a lack of personal
accountability.
I'm talking about taking personal responsibility
for achieving goals that aren't that easily achieved.
The above example shows a clear lack of personal accountability.
While I would agree that it is very difficult to find
great salespeople, they are certainly out there. I would
also say that if you use the traditional Craig's
List, Monster.com, bottom fishing approach, odds are
you aren't going to find great salespeople. Think
there are other options? The point is how much REAL work
was going into recruiting top notch people? Want the
truth? An ad or two and wait for the phone to ring. As
a result, I get the "victim" question, "Where
are all the hungry people?" Give me a break.
Here's another example. A sales rep for one of
my clients recently lost a sale that she had been working
on for the past three months. Instead of saying "I
was outsold," I heard about the poor pricing, the
product flaws, and the lack of inside support in getting
the deal done. If I would have stayed to listen long
enough, I would have heard that she lost the deal because
the other company gave it away for free and that's
what her company should have done. She was outsold, period.
It would have been mildly uplifting to have heard, "Darn,
I got beat. Here's how I'm going to avoid
that next time." Finger pointing is a choice, just
as is personal accountability.
The next time I go to point the finger at someone or
something else, I'm going to make my index finger
do a 180 degree turn and point it right into my own chest.
Then I'm going to ask myself the following three
questions:
What could I have done differently?
Where do I need to improve so that next time I put myself
in a better position to win?
What actions can I take right now to make myself better?
Personal accountability is about avoiding the victim
thinking that so many of us have a tendency to fall back
on. It's about taking a stand and saying "NO
EXCUSES!" It's about a mindset that avoids
procrastination and focuses on problem solving, forward
momentum, self improvement, and absolutely killing the
"victim" that
human nature has planted inside many of us.
By the way, there is an easy answer to, "Chuck,
where are all the hungry people?" The answer is, "They're
working. So let's go find them!" |
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