How To Spot A Winner

February 13, 2012 By

Vietnam is wars ago on the American landscape. Nobody associates it with winning, yet it offered one of the best and most perceptive stories about winning I’ve ever heard. It seems General William Westmoreland was once reviewing a platoon of paratroopers in Vietnam. As he went down the line, he asked them a question: “How do you like jumping, son?” “Love it, sir!” was the first answer. “How do you like jumping?” he asked the next. “The greatest experience in my life, sir!” exclaimed the paratrooper. “How do you like jumping?” he asked the third. “I hate it, sir,” he replied. “Then why do you do it?” “Because I wanted to be around guys who love to jump.”

Dennis Connor, the man who put the blocks to Australia and won back the America’s Cup in four straight races, explained in a few words how he did it: “I surround myself with quality people that make me look good.” Winners also know how to bounce back after a hard hit. Connor’s crewman John Grant put it this way: “Dennis likes to know he has people who will make the right moves when things go wrong.” And that’s the right management instinct if you’re at the helm of a twelve-meter yacht or a billion dollar business.

Winners surround themselves with other winners.

A winner knows he’s a winner. He doesn’t need second-raters and yes-men around to feed his ego. He knows he’ll win more, and go farther, with associates who not only can keep up with him but who also are capable of teaching him something.

If you’re about to form a new business connection, whether it’s a job or a joint venture, don’t just look at your opposite number. Look at his subordinates.

Does he trust them? Does he delegate to them? Do they complement his talents by being strong managers while he’s an entrepreneur?

Or are they just his clones? If they’re weak, you have a problem. You’ll not only have your hands full getting anything done your way, you’ll also be completely dependent on your new associate’s personal capabilities and energy. There won’t be quality staff backup. Not a good situation in which to find yourself.

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He Who Burns Bridges Better Be A Damn Good Swimmer

January 30, 2012 By

Real-estate operators are legendary for slow-pay practices, but I know one who hangs them all out to dry. This gentleman–we’ll call him “Bob”–was the son of a milkman. He made a fortune in the trucking business and wound up owning major-league sports franchises on both coasts. To give you an idea of how nimble he was, after he bought his first sports franchise in the Midwest, he also bought– quietly and cheaply–an obscure FM radio station on the West Coast. In a big surprise move, he then shifted the franchise to the Coast and scheduled the game broadcasts exclusively on his new station. Moving not only revived the failing franchise, it also multiplied the value of the station. One move. Two profits.

Bob also owned a chain of hotels. A large, sophisticated New York insurance company held the mortgage on his flagship hotel. One Friday, the insurance company n question, exasperated over years of delayed payments or no payments, sent their man to see Bob. The intrepid rep marched into Bob’s office, threw down a sheaf of legal papers, and announced that as of Monday, the insurance company would take over and operate the hotel.

“That’s fine,” said Bob, “but where will you park the guest’ cars?”

“Why, in the parking lot behind the hotel,” said the insurance company’s man.

“No,” said he, “you won’t be parking them there. I own that parking lot. The minute you take over the hotel, an eight-foot chain-link fence goes around that lot, and in case you haven’t noticed, there isn’t another adequate parking facility you can use within a three-block radius.”

The New York insurance company decided it could live with Bob’s payment practices.
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Filed Under: Best Business Book, best sales book, Decision Making, Ethics, How to Be Successful In Business, How to get more sales leads, How To Improve Sales, Negotiating, Negotiation, Network Building, Networking, Running A Business, Sales, Success, Swim With The Sharks, Top Business Book, Top Sales Book Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

You Can't Solve A Problem Unless You First Admit You Have One

January 23, 2012 By

The Same Goes For Business Problems

Alcoholics Anonymous has used that principle as a starting point to reclaim thousands and thousands of lives. Thousands more are never reclaimed because it’s so hard to change.

Sheer stubbornness has destroyed a lot more bottom lines than new technologies.

There were just as many mean spirited jibes at Coca-Cola for abandoning its original formulas as there were at Ford when it unveiled the Edsel. The difference was that Ford decided it was going to prove the marketplace was wrong and stuck with its mistake far too long. Coca-Cola realized early that while humiliation was inescapable, horrendous losses need not be. It cut its losses, and its mistake cost it a lot less money than stubborn pride cost Ford.

Campbell’s spent years developing a new offering in what’s called the “functional food” category. Named Intelligent Quisine (IQ), marketing consultant Sangita Joshi describes it as ” a frozen food line that would help older Americans” needing to modify their diets. It had “great endorsements from the medical fraternity; many trials…and yet it bombed due to poor taste.” Campbell’s acted quickly and regrouped.

Product withdrawals these days don’t have to be just timely. Sometimes they are real time. Bill Gates was demonstrating the introduction of an improved Windows 98 program in front of a slew of journalists and live TV cameras. As the demonstrator touted the program’s virtues, Windows crashed in front of GOD… and Gates! On the monitor appeared the infamous “blue screen of death” and its white-typed error message. The ever quick-witted Bill intervened in a nanosecond with: “That must be why we’re not shipping Windows 98 yet.”

One thing professional stock and commodity traders learn early is that they don’t give away medals for courage in the marketplace. There is only one reward the marketplace has to offer: money.If you’re not making any, bail out. Quickly

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Trust Your Hunches

January 16, 2012 By

My favorite Peanuts character, Charlie Brown, is on the pitcher’s mound psyching himself up: “It’s the last of the ninth. The bases are loaded. there are two outs, and the count is three and two on the batter. If I get him out, we win!” At this point, Charlie is surrounded by his friends and teammates who are shouting, “Throw him a fastball! Throw him a curve!” And so on.

All alone on the pitcher’s mound, Charlie thinks to himself, “The world is filled with people who are anxious to serve in an advisory capacity.”

Decision making is jungle warfare at its worst. Choose well, and you are a hero. Make a bad choice, and your career could be over. Sometimes the choices are so dicey, the options all look alike. Or as Yogi Berra said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

After you’ve done all your homework, when making decisions, I’ve found that you have to trust your gut. Deep down, your gut is likely to know what’s right. Keep track of what instinct tells you to do. It’s amazing how often expert advice sides with your gut.

Psychologist Joyce Brothers advises, “Trust your hunches…They are usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.”

Mackay’s Moral: Don’t be afraid to make a decision. Be afraid not to make a decision. 

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Rain Can Make Your Parade

January 9, 2012 By

Retired Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy is a master of helping those around him visualize victory. He’s been that way ever since his high school playing days, which is one reason I worked so hard to help recruit him for the Minnesota Gophers, where he was a college gridiron star. In fact, I was extremely proud when Tony wrote in his blockbuster 2007 book, Quiet Strength, “Harvey, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

It’s no surprise that his quarterback Peyton Manning is a big believer in practice and preparation. You might recall the constant, relentless, sidewinding rain at the 2007 Super Bowl in Miami between Indianapolis and the Chicago bears. The terrible weather was ideal for the Bears’ running game, but the conditions looked bad for Indianapolis, which plays in a 60-degree indoor stadium.

However, just the opposite happened.The Bears turned the ball over five times and quarterback Rex Grossman bobbled two snaps, losing 10 yards on one to kill a scoring drive. Indianapolis recovered the other fumble. Manning encountered no such game-changing calamities. Why? Every season Manning practices the “wet-ball drill” with the starting center, currently Jeff Saturday. Manning fills a bucket full of water, grabs a football and heads out to the field. He dips the ball into the bucket and practices snap after snap.

Manning said his center hates the wet-ball drill, and he admitted getting a little bored with it himself. But they still do it every year. When asked about the infamous wet-ball drill in the raucous Colts locker room after their Super Bowl win, Saturday laughed and said, “Not my favorite drill. But it paid dividends tonight.

When you visualize, anticipate negatives and how you will overcome them. Then create a practice plan that makes your response instantaneous. At every meeting I hold with my managers, we end with the same exercise. We go around the room, and I ask, what are you going to do to fix the problem? What matters isn’t that a customer pounces on you with an overwhelming objection, for instance. What matters is that you’ll deliver an unbeatable answer with utter confidence when that objection comes sailing at you.

Mackay’s Moral: Anticipating catastrophe is the surest way to avert it.

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The Mackay Elite 8: A List of Life Changing Sales Books

December 28, 2011 By

I’ve consulted top salespeople, sales trainers and booksellers, and all concur that these volumes belong in ever serious salesperson’s collection. All are currently in print and readily available; they appear in no particular order below. These authors have inspired me over the years. I know they’ll help you too.

 


 

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Big Cats: Rarely In The Bag

December 27, 2011 By

Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller once opined, “I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”

I’ll never forget watching the broadcast of The David Susskind Show some years ago. He had on three guests who were self-made millionaires, in their mid-30s. Each had averaged being in a dozen different businesses before hitting it big.

History abounds with such tales of perseverance. Theodore Geisel died in 1991 at the age of 87. Before he died, he wrote 47 books that have sold more than 100 million copies in 18 languages. What most people don’t know about Dr. Cat-In-the Hat Seuss is that he didn’t write his first book until he was 33 and it was rejected by 28 publishers before Vanguard Press picked it up.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it–so fine that we are often on the line itself and do not know it. How many people have thrown up their hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success?

 

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The Slippery Slope

December 12, 2011 By

You can’t know enough about your customers, suppliers, employees, competitors and audiences. Incomplete information can sometimes be riskier than none at all. Here’s an example: Harold got a phone call from Al who asked if he was going to Rotary the next night.

Harold said, “Yes.”

Al said, “I have a big problem. My guest speaker just canceled. Would you be able to speak?”

Harold said, “Sure.”

Al said, “What might you talk about?”

Harold said, “Sex.”

The next day Harold delivered a 45-minute speech and got a standing ovation. He came home and his wife asked him, “What did you talk about?”

Now Harold was smart enough to know that his wife thought he didn’t know anything about sex, so he said, “Skiing.”

The next day Harold’s wife was at the supermarket, and she saw Al’s wife one isle away.

Al’s wife hollered out, “I spoke to my husband and he said your husband gave a great speech at Rotery. He must be terrific.”

Harold’s wife gollered back, “I don’t understand. He’s only done it once and his hat blew off.”

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Arrogance: The 7 Deadly Signs

December 6, 2011 By

Here is my watch ist for the seven deadly signs of salesperson arrogance:

1. “Our product sells itself.”

2. “The only people on our sales team who matter to me are my superiors or at least my equals.”

3. “Who cares that our competitor’s accounting manager is afraid they’ll be taken over and is out looking for a job? I listen to input only from vice presidents and above.”

4. “I don’t need to walk our plant. Leave that to those grunts in manufacturing.”

5. “You’ll never learn a thing from a competitor weaker than you.”

6.”We can always rely on X for a reference. I may not have talked with him for a few months, but he will never forget how we saved his bacon two years ago.”

7. “Customer complaints don’t matter. Those e-mails are just written by oddball cranks.”

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Filed Under: arrogance, Best Business Book, best sales book, How to Be Successful In Business, How to get more sales leads, How To Improve Sales, Running A Business, The Mackay MBA, Top Business Book, Top Sales Book Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

You Gotta Have A Dream!

December 5, 2011 By

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. Robert Fulton had a dream. Henry Ford had a dream. America was built by dreamers. In the movies, the cop always wants to retire to a good fishing lake; the big-city newspaper reporter wants to pack it in and for a small-town newspaper. Dreams like this are part of the American folklore. The military used to sell the dream of retirement after 20 years. Join at 18, see the world and retire at 38.

There are many who have had dreams but have never gotten off their duffs and taken the action step to translate them into reality. How many people have claimed that they had thought of the Hula Hoop or the Pet Rock but just never quite got around to doing anything about it?

Dreams can be great motivators. They can be harmless, like betting a buck or two on the lottery, or they can be dangerously self-deluding. We all know salespeople who spend a lifetime chasing that million-dollar sale with the commission so large they could retire tomorrow–if they could just get over that last tiny hurdle.

Leo was that type of salesperson. He worked on one of those once-in-a-lifetime deals for months, and was so close to finalizing it he ordered a new Lexus LS and made a huge pledge to a charitable organization. All you sales people reading this know that the bigger the sale, the more that can go wrong with it. Something did go wrong, and Leo never closed the deal. Imagine his embarrassment when he had to back out of both his purchase and his pledge.

You should never, and I mean never, spend a commission until the check arrives.

Whatever the dream, whether it’s early retirement, your own business, or a second home, it’s a lot easier to achieve if you approach it as a long-term goal. Dreams are just dreams unless you have a plan. And since many dreams involve big bucks, you need a financial plan, not just a career plan.

Embrace risk, but do so wisely. It takes just as much intelligence and effort to hang on to your money as it does to make it work hard for you. 

Don’t put all your thought and energy into climbing the greasy pole and then taking a casual approach to the money you’re making. Too many people are smart about their careers and dumb about their money. And even career-smart people can ind that their jobs aren’t quite as secure as they thought they were.

Mackay’s Moral: A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a deadline. 

 

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