If you do not understand what I am getting at in today blog - please read yesterday’s blog entry - because I am expanding what was discussed yesterday.
The “Voice” raised a good point of discussion yesterday in an email to me about my blog yesterday…(I replied to his mail in the comments section of yesterday’s blog)
He pointed out that the two best sales performers that ever worked for him: One was sloppy and psycho and the other very smelly.
But I wonder…How many great people did the “Voice” lose because of that great performer … she got lots of sales, but she was also an absolute psycho that everyone in the office despised or the sales woman that got deal consistently, but smelled horribly.
One negative or uninspiring, or messy, or distracting person can destroy the whole.
In Tokyo - When I first started at M.E. there was an australian sales woman who ran the delegate sales floor. I was not on her team and
I was new to the office and the industry so my vision of what was happening was unblurred by personal experience.
But sitting across the office …. I witnessed this woman give her team no support, no training - she did not lead them at all. Each time she got a delegate contract - she would walk around the office telling everyone “I got a deal. I got a deal. I got a deal…”
Imagine… if you were on a sales team and you were not selling because your manager gave you no training… no support…yet each time your manager got a deal she got in your face to make sure you knew about it. “I got a deal…I got a deal…I got a deal…”
… once I started to sell a lot on sponsorship, I ultimately became her Sales Director .. so I got the GM to take the cancer out of the office. As soon as she was taken out - the office exploded with business.
At first my GM was against my idea because Lisa was bringing a couple deals a week - but I talked him into it and the results that my decision was the best were immediate.
I know the psycho the Voice refers to… no joke, an absolute psycho of a sales woman (Hiroko) got more deals than Lisa — but several staff were scared for their lives because of her…
…I kept telling my boss constantly that we were losing much more than we were gaining by having this joker in the office.
Finally - he agreed, she was terminated and like I had predicted — the office exploded with more business than before.
I do not know the “smelly” woman the Voice of Reason was refering to … but apparently the best sales woman he ever had work for him was “smelly” and very sloppy and unattractive…..but she got him the most sales in the office.
I wonder….
how many exceptional sales talents and future leaders either quit or did not take the job because the office enviornment was not exclusive and smelled badly….?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Over the past year or so, I bent my “naseba is not for everyone” ideology to one of a more gentle, softer, understanding… leader — but the team/company is not as exclusive as it was before.
This feeling of being part of something “exclusive” is how we built the company.
Over the past year or so a few people were given 2nd 3rd and in one or two cases 4th chances… but ultimately only to prove my theory before (no 2nd chances) was the right one.
Last year, I was not as possesive of the company culture…. nor ensuring the managers were hiring only the best, nor ensuring that people were focused and as sharp as I expected, if people slacked…they were forgiven and given a 2nd chance
(I never gave 2nd chances before), I allowed a couple of super bitches to float through the company…
As I sit here in my Dubai office working on todays blog, smoking a cigar reflecting…..I think about: “what if I had been recruited to naseba this week….”
My first day…I am all excited….and when I show up for my training school…I discover it is full of sloppy, disheveled uninspiring people.
There is no way I would stay.
How much business or how many great potentials did we lose last year because a few mediocre people were allowed through the door … how much business or great potentials did we lose because of overall sloppiness?
Anyone can hire 10 jimpee’s off the street… but surely “great, talented people” do not want to work with jimpee’s.
Someone from M.E. malaysia posted a comment this morning …. basically saying “you got rid of the 8 recruits, but what about the managers that recruited them???”
This is a great point.
Furthermore….
If you are a leader - then you must lead by example.
Leading by example does not just mean selling … but importantly being their inspiration.
Before Jason Gorud, Paul Northover was my leader …If Paul did not work harder than everyone else - there is no way I would have believed in what he told me.
If Paul had not led me by example to stick to the pitch - there is no way I would have stuck to the pitch.
But equally as important:
If Paul had recruited and allowed “just anyone” jimpee’s to come through the door and sit next to me… there is no way I would have believed in him - and listened to what he said.
I believed in Paul (and ultimately I believed in Jason)- therefore, I followed them.
For all the leaders at naseba, no matter what country you work in right now ….(esp. the ones in Dubai) reflect on todays blog.
If you are going to “pitch” that naseba is exclusive, dynamic and making it happen.
Then stick to the f…ing pitch.
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3 Responses to “stick to the pitch IV”
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April 3rd, 2008 at 8:54 am
There is one point about succesful sloppy, smelly, not-sticking-to-the-pitch people.
Not only can they drag down the atmosphere of the office and make other people quit - or refuse to be hired, but maybe more importantly their attitude can only reflect on everyone else.
How could you have your staff focused, sharp, hard working, sticking to the pitch, when they see that someone doing the exact opposite has the best results in the company?.. How can you train them, convince them than the good way is the opposite of what successful people do?..
Parts of a whole acting at the opposite of what they’re supposed to, yet having better results and being stronger… in biology it has a name, you use it in your post. It’s called a cancer. It causes death by sucking life out of its neighboors - that’s why surgery has to be performed to remove it.
April 4th, 2008 at 4:17 am
The most successful people in the company are the ones that “stick” to the proverbial pitch the most.
the people that fail at naseba are the ones that do not stick to the pitch and or try and do it their way.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:36 am
The proper spelling of the word “gimpee” is ‘jimpie’ … since this is a word that I created, please spell it correctly.