and what a week it was! It began with an amazing head cold and is now resident in my chest, but on its way out. That is awesome. Because I really hate colds.
Spent some time actually out of the city this week, going to St. Louis on Tuesday morning and coming back late Wednesday night. It was a good diversion and has helped me appreciate what I have here a little more. It was a good and productive trip and I'm glad I got to spend some time with Elliott there. He's our rep that covers the St. Louis region and a very balanced man. It's good for me to be around peaceful spirits.
I don't think the office and the job could be more busy than they are right now. Being in our fourth quarter and behind on our number for the year adds a sense of urgency for everyone. It would be nice if that sense of urgency caused us to step back and actually learn that doing the same things the same way may not be the best way to get our numbers up. It would be nice if we'd step back and ask ourselves if we can do anything differently so that we can be more successful. And it would be really nice if the stepping back involved everyone stepping back for a couple of days and asking those questions rather than pressing forward in panic mode.
Sales is a funny thing. Sometimes we think that our product is so good that it should sell itself and that people who decide not to buy it are making a grave mistake. We absolutely don't think that our product is inferior to other products that do pretty much the same thing. And we truly believe that sales is a matter of execution. I think, to some degree, that's all true. Given that, if one has a great product, superior to other products in the space, then sales should result if the sales cycle is executed properly. Why, then, do we get behind and need a huge quarter to come remotely close to our number?
I think that we don't step back enough and look at our execution and we don't look at our product. Because sometimes our product doesn't meet the needs of the prospective customer because they are looking for something that our product doesn't do, or someone else does better. We have a hard time admitting that. And we never step back to look at our execution in sales cycles because the way we do it has always worked in the past. Oops. It's not working now. So we panic because those tried, trusted, and true techniques aren't working right now.
Could it be the sales people? Sure, but honestly that's pretty easy to blame people. If it were people, the solution is easy. But when sales are down across the board, maybe it's not the people. Maybe it's the customers? Maybe they just don't want to buy right now? In an uncertain economy, that's pretty likely. But we still panic. And we still do things the way we always did expecting a different result. The very definition of insanity.
So I'm insanely busy. But I'm insanely busy trying to step back to figure out new and different ways for people to be successful. And that's fun. But it's also very draining of my time and energy. Oh well...
Had a visitor this week. My cousin Renee from Hammond, WI was in town to meet with a vendor she works with, so we met last night for drinks and had dinner tonight. It was wonderful to get caught up with Renee and let her see the #8 train under construction.
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