7 minutes in heaven

This week, I got a new iPad at work.  I took it out of the box, set it up and configured it to work with the sales effectiveness application I’m “in charge of” at work in just under 7 minutes. 

Before I did this, I happened to notice The Sales Guy sitting in our dark “junk room” (formerly known as a garage) completely illuminated by his computer screen.  Looking angelic really.  I was so excited to show him the iPad and my work stuff that I bounded down the hallway into the darkness.  When I got there, he was STILL sitting there staring at a screen that looked like an old school version of Pac-man. At closer glance, it was his CRM system, where he is tracking customer information and opportunities.  I couldn’t help myself, “What the is that mess?”  With his head in his hands, he just groaned, “It’s my piece of sh*t CRM. They made things so complicated. All I need is a freaking quote – 55 fields later, I still don’t have it.” 

He asked me what I was doing so I showed him and all he could say is, “You need to come to my office and tell the how to set this up so I can get more stuff done.  Like have dinner.”  And, at that moment, I realized I think I’m onto something here.  With a lot of help and hard work from my-co-workers, of course. 

This may be the first time I genuinely realized that what I’m doing for work can really help people.  And I’ve struggled for some time feeling like I’m sufficiently smart (you be the judge) and work super hard but that whatever I’ve done has made really no difference where things really need help or count.  If the application I’m working so hard to get into the market really does even a portion of what I think it can, this could mean The Sales Guy (and people like him) get to get more done more quickly and spend more time with their families and doing fun stuff.  Houston, I think I’m entering into a whole new galaxy and I’m ready for it!

Why is it that every time I want to sit down and write something here, I lose exactly what I wanted to say?  Oh, that’s right, because I’m The Sales Guy’s Wife and have too many things going on at once.  But, let me tell you, I have it somewhat easier than The Sales Guy. (Don’t tell him I said that.) 

Just last week, he was in NY for a day, then back to NH, then in OH and then in NJ for a family visit. As I was sitting at the table in the atrium of our hotel gazing up at the elevator yesterday, I realized how comfortable he looked in that vessel.  As if he is used to riding elevators to go from his bedroom (i.e. hotel room) to his kitchen (i.e. Embassy Suites custom omelet station). We live in a ranch house, so there is absolutely no correlation to our home life and the layout of the hotel.  However, unlike our house, The Sales Guy knows EXACTLY where the silverware is at the Embassy and when the milk machine is in need of a refill.  (It’s a given that he doesn’t know where these things are in our house.) In fact, he even offers to “make” our son and me our breakfast if we wish when we are at the Embassy with him. Sounds awesome, right?

Not really. The Embassy has a full staff to take care of the hotel, the food, the guests, etc. When The Sales Guy is on the road, it’s The Sales Guy’s Wife who takes care of the grounds at casa de Meyer, the food, the guests, etc.  But, really, what we miss is The Sales Guy himself and I think he misses us. It’s funny to think about the stereotype I’ve heard for so many years as I work in an industry that enables sales folk.  It’s often said that sales people are self-centered and “in it for me.”  Funny thing is, my perspective is that the best sales people are the ones who are exactly the opposite of this. Always putting the customer’s needs first (because, without that, you can’t create a business case) so that they can satisfy them and, yes, make money. The tough part is, sometimes that comes at the cost of all else, including the higher valued things in life like family. 

So, why am I droning on here?  It’s truly awesome to watch The Sales Guy thrive and, as we move through the second half of yet another quarter of business as well as the second half of summer, it’s a reminder to strike a better balance of work and family.  Because, ultimately, I’ve already bought what The Sales Guy was selling.  J

Still

What’s life like for The Sales Guy’s Wife at the end of a quarter when he has >$500-$1M to close on the table?  Still.  Don’t move an inch. Don’t say anything. Don’t sneeze. Don’t jinx anything.  Just shut up and look pretty.  Tough for me for a number of reasons, including high humidty and repeated bad hair days.

But, really, I may be more excited for him than his boss for sure.  I mean, I really do get a second hand high from when he closes big deals. This time though, if it happens (oh geez… must’ve just jinxed him), that means we get to take some vacation time.  Like real vacation time… put down the Blackberry, stop looking at the CRM and, dammit, stop caring about your customers for a few days.  Can’t remember the last time that happened.

For some reason, I only come up with things to say about life as The Sales Guy’s Wife at the end of a quarter, a month or a year.  It’s like I’m the sandbagger of spousal support unless I change that.  Will work on it.. next quarter. 

Crushed

He did it. With his bare hands.  Crushed that measly little number. Like it was just a number. And then April 1 came.  It felt more like February 2 (aka Groundhog Day.)

When the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, the celebration went on for days, months and, oh my gosh, it’s almost been a year.  The Sales Guy got to celebrate for approximately one hour (not even enough time for the backyard fireworks) before he got the news that the great job he did was being rewarded with a territory realignment.  And, of course, we’re talking about the removal of a portion of his territory.  Groundhog Day 2012 feels a lot like Groundhog Day 2011. 

No tact involved in this form of eminent domain by the way. Straight up delivery of the news. “Sir, the government thanks you for taking care of your land but we feel as though someone else can make better use of it. They need the help.”  I’m being as nice as The Sales Guy’s Wife can be here but, come on.  In an elite class for 2012 of, oh say 2 or 3 people on an entire sales force, and you strip the rug.  I guess that is what happens when you can do more with less. 

Good tact, IMHO, would have been to at least have the conversation about, “What the heck did you do Sales Guy this year to rock this world? We wanna know so the sub-par player we’re about to give this domain to can kill it like you did.”  I hate to make an example out of this kind of management but, remember, my passion and day-to-day as an enabler of sales through my own work is to deal with this kind of thing.  Feeling a little like a bird watcher here myself, mr.manager, can’t you see the forest through the trees?  You took a territory away from a top performer so a lower level performer can mess it up if you don’t help him or her FIRST.  I just hope you are paying attention to the day-to-day activities for the next several weeks so you can catch the wrong moves quickly before, oops, the same rep is missing his number with even more ground to cover.

Looking forward to following this adjustment of the plan and cheering on The Sales Guy for another year – or just a little less. Tick tock!

Fireworks

Light them up. Set them off. He’s made his number for the year and, unbelievably, there is still one week left so he can crush it…with.his.bare.hands.   Yep, that’s my Sales Guy not the typical WWE wrestler or Highlander Games athlete we’re talking about here. I’m going to need to bring you up to speed on what life for the Sales Guy and his Wife have been like for past, oh, many months.  We’re all due a galactic celebration.

While it’s going to take me weeks to unfold this story, I’ll just let you know what it was like in the past few weeks. He got to sell, sell, sell vs data enter, data enter, data enter.  Can I just tell you how excited The Sales Guy gets when he gets to sell? It’s mostly contagious energy but he’s also gone well into ‘the zone’ like any good player would do in the final minutes of a game when you’re either on the brink of a big win or huge loss.  The thing is, he hasn’t seemed nervous at all, he’s seemed focused and knows what to do and how to do it.  Yep, I’m as proud of The Sales Guy as I am my son for recognizing the letter “A.” And so we’ll celebrate with some fireworks (New Hampshire backyard style) and if – I mean when – he crushes it, we’ll celebrate Gucci style.

back in the game

Gosh, it's been forever. And here's why. Sales has sucked in the past several months. The Sales Guy is having a tough few months and it has taken its toll on us all. Really, we're doing fine comparatively to sick family/friends, flood victims, etc but I guess I realized over the weekend that when a Sales person is having a tough time selling, they constantly feel like they are failing and they hear a very loud "ticking" in the back of their heads. Constantly. 

I'm sure there are other professions in which you are completely measured numerically but something about Sales makes it ALL about the numbers.  He's looking at numbers of licenses, number of opportunities, number of activities he's logged, etc.  So many....too many.... numbers. It's like he has to be an accountant, a project manager, moonlight as a sales engineer (because God only knows there is only one of them to go around these days) AND The Sales Guy. 

This focus on the numbers thing is so weird to me. CPAs, CFOs, controllers and bank tellers should agonize over numbers like this. Not The Sales Guy. I honestly believe he just needs to breathe.  There is a reason high performing sales folk hit ruts and, typically, it has little to do with their selling skills. There are outside factors. But, it seems like some sales managers just don't get it. They want their Reps who are in ruts to cold call more, shake trees that have been shaken for months more, call the same customers more... more of the same.  Nothing strategic about that.  Nothing different about that. And typically further depletes the confidence of a Rep in a pothole.

How about a little coaching?  I always found my best and favorite coaches were ones who really knew me. They were the ones who knew when to push me and when to just shut up and let me rest.  There was also a special one in 7th grade who told me not to run inside the orange cones during cross country practice to cut down the distance I was running by a few yards. She said, "You only cheat yourself."  These same coaches made an effort to get to know each player on the team yet run us through all the same drills.  People had different ability levels and drive so the coaches sort of knew how to coach of us once we were done with the simple drills.  Most importantly, they helped me figure out how to make a break through.  They helped me figure out new moves when my brain and body just was otherwise stuck. 

I think The Sales Guy would really benefit from a recommended pitch call and a slap on the ass from Terry Francona these days.  He already knows the drills and he's not running on the inside of the cones.  As we enter into the post-season this Fall on the baseball diamond, I'm hopeful that the coaches in the office are also bearing down with their teams, pushing their players to do their best and I hope they are not afraid to step on the mound with their players. 

For(c)ecast

Imagine the Weather Channel forced Jim Cantore to tell us what we wanted to hear about the forecast rather than allow him to give us his real, educated predictions?  All sorts of things would happen – The Sales Guy may skip out on a trip north for a bluebird ski day, I would take our dog for a walk and be greeted by a funnel cloud, a 747 could take off from Logan Airport on a transatlantic flight and get caught in a storm, etc.  If Jim is anything like the quality chap I think he is, he would never ignore data and would never do this to us.  Forecasting is part of Jim’s job – the good, the bad, the ugly. 

I hadn’t realized until recently how many Sales Managers and Execs may have “happy ears.”  It’s one thing for the ungroomed, inexperienced Rep to mess up a quarterly commit or forecast but good Sales Managers are not supposed to let this happen.  After all, they are the coaches!  And, certainly, you have to trust your well performing Reps when they are committing and they have data to back it up.

The Sales Guy is having an interesting quarter. Remember the whole territory and combined role shift that happened at the start of the fiscal year?  Well, he’s still working on his forecast and he’s a pretty realistic guy. However, seems like he may be in this very situation of being forced to be a bit unrealistic about his forecast.  I don’t get it.  Why would a Sales Manager want a Sales Rep to over commit?  I understand there are “upside” deals but I’d like to think there’s nothing  The Sales Guy is withholding for fun if he does the usual hourly mental calculation of what his commission is going to be for the quarter.  Yet, the manager just doesn’t seem to get it.  Wants him to commit more. For the sake of what?  For reality to hit on June 30?  I guess if your boss doesn’t believe you the only option you may have is to invite him to customer calls for the straight skinny.

It’s nice to be on the buying side for once. In my own situation right now, I’m in the “buyer’s” seat for services for a big project. We must be making the life of the Sales Rep on our deal a living hell because, honestly, we didn’t have a clear timeline or project definition.  How the heck is she forecasting her deal with us?  The good news is we have budget. I almost feel bad knowing exactly what we are doing to this person and her earning potential. But, we’re moving at the pace we need to move at as a business and that’s the whole point.  I wonder what her manager is doing to her?  If her manager is forcing her to commit on our deal, I honestly believe that manager is operating under the same silly model as The Sales Guy’s manager.  And, as a buyer, that’s not going to help me move faster.  What the manager may recommend is something that could actually move the deal along further… like help us build the project plan. 

I wonder what the dynamic of Sales would be like if Reps could operate more like Jim Cantore.  It’s a forecast – he makes his prediction  based on the data he has at hand and then leaves it to Mother Nature to let the rest play out.