Showing posts with label www.richardson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label www.richardson. Show all posts

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Being Invincible


This past Wednesday and Thursday, October 13-14, 2010 Richardson held our 4th annual Client Forum the Sofitel Hotel in Philadelphia. It was an exciting day with over 75 clients, partners and staff in attendance. The primary theme was how a high impact learning culture is a proven business driver in today's changed business environment. David Mallon of Bersin & Associates and Peter Ostraw of Aberdeen Group were the key note presenters. Both David and Peter shared insights, data and practices that support the notion of how an organization's culture impacts business results in a direct and predictable manner. Numerous clients, including Mary Slaughter, CLO of Sun Trust Bank shared best practices and success stories of how they transformed their sales cultures to positively impact results and differentiate their organizations from the competition. On Wednesday evening our dinner reception at Amada was a great time, with our guest speaker Vince Papale, former Philadelphia Eagle and subject of Disney's movie "Invincible," inspiring the group with his heart felt and brutally honest words. His authenticity was evident to all. Vince spoke of his incredible million to one odds of making the NFL team's roster as a 30 year old unemployed school teacher who had played only one year of high school football.

I was particularly moved when Vince spoke of the moment he was standing on the field in Veteran's Stadium in 1976 for the "open to the public" try out with hundreds of others, all with the dream to be a Philadelphia Eagle. He shared with us that he wanted when given this opportunity, he wasn't going to waste it. He certainly didn't! What struck me was how relevant Vince's comment was to those of us in business today - when given the opportunity to succeed, be sure you seize it!

I believe that in order to seize your opportunity in today's environment, you must extensively prepare to succeed and when your chance to shine arrives, be sure you remain authentic (i.e be yourself), demonstrate your knowledge of your client's needs, show your conviction to your client's success and let none of your competition stop you. In other words, be Invincible.
I'd like to thank each of our clients and prospects for your commitment to Richardson, your attendance at this year's event and for your participation and contribution. Hope to see you all again in Philadlephia again next year.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Lego Lessons for Salespeople


Over a sunny August weekend at the beach, I watched my 7-year old nephew, Dylan, assemble his birthday present, a Lego Aqua Raiders set. This Lego is way beyond what the simple Lego design I recall. It was aimed at 8 to 14 year olds and consisted of multiple plastic bags filled with complex small shapes, sizes, and colors and two instruction books, totaling 115 pages of small type and diagrams.

In the past, I’ve seen his dad help him with these difficult tasks but he wanted to do this one himself. Intermittently over the course of 3 days he sat whistling and working away at it.

I was astounded to see the concentration and methodology and I realized there was a lesson there for all of us in sales.

Just as he drew from his resources of among the dozens of the little plastic bags filled with tiny parts, salespeople draw from their resources, research, and experience. He used the instruction book to guide him piece by piece and looked ahead to see where each small design would take him. Salespeople’s set of instructions are their knowledge of the sales process, how to lead a call and follow a call plan. And they must think ahead to their goal.

Dylan would test each piece along the way. Salespeople must seek feedback from customers. Whether Legos or sales, tasks and sequence matters.

Dylan was motivated as he completed each piece by his sense of accomplishment and praise from all of us. When he ran into a snag, he backtracked and made adjustments. Salespeople too must get reinforcement and persist.

So some questions for you — When you are working to close a deal, how does your focus and commitment compare? If you run into trouble, can you regroup? Do you keep going to move forward to win the deal and build the relationship?

A note for sales managers: Aqua Raiders could be a good team building exercise. And if the team gets stuck, find a 7-year old.

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