Garth's World

Sales Jam, Baby!

2010-03-03T09:40:12-08:00

As any regular reader (there is a large handful of you-thanks, mom!) of my blog knows, the posts where I can tear down the subject are better (at least funnier) than when I am endorsing something Jigsaw related. I like to think that I always retain an edge beyond marketing copy (OK - maybe a jagged ice pick compared to standard corporate speak), but let’s face it, Jigsaw is paying the bills and I can’t lower the boom in public on everything that strikes me as idiotic about my company. Sometimes I have to promote a positive pose while portraying a personal product, person, partner or predicament and entertain myself in other ways - like say using as many “p” words as p-p-possible.

My topic today is one that you are going to hear about in some form every week until the event happens, because it is my baby: the 2010 Jigsaw Sales Jam. Hopefully, the fact that I am so bullish about the whole thing, which is very much a Jigsaw related gig, will not turn off the loyal Garth’s World fan. If so, tune back in after July 13-14, when I will return to ragging on people that say “utilize” instead of “use” because they think it makes them sound more professional. Or maybe August 1^st, because I will need at least 2 weeks to recover from how flat out great this party….er….industry summit is going to be.

First off, let me run down the speaker line-up, which is totally impressive (yes, of course my child is gifted) thanks to the influence of Michael Norton. As the CEO and Founder of CanDoGo, Michael personally knows every sales expert and maven out there. He delivered Cal Ripken Jr, who will kick off the day with a motivational talk about perseverance, which the guy knows from setting the record in baseball for consecutive games started. Then there is Tony Allesandra, Andrea Sittig-Rolf and Bryan Flanagan, all keynote quality sales evangelists, who will impart specific wisdom on how sales people can excel at specific aspects of the sales cycle. Jigsaw member favorites and respected authors Steve Martin (Heavy Hitter Selling) and Jill Konrath (Selling to Big Companies) will be onstage, too. Add in presentations from Jigsaw partners like D&B/Hoovers (I’m still getting used to say these words), Ideahaus, Sales 2.0, Brainshark, Xactly, and an industry keynote from the SVP of Oracle’s CRM practice and any salesperson should leave packed to the gills with strategies and tools to hammer their number for 2010.

For those of you who, like me, have the attention span of a gnat and require a healthy dose of fun (the “E” in business “T&E”) at the few corporate events that you attend, the Sales Jam is going to over deliver on my (seemingly over-) promise. Tuesday afternoon we kick off the Jam with a heavily subsidized (you pay $50 for a $175 round at Harding Park) golf tournament with all the trimmings (I am negotiating a shift driving the beer cart). There is a 1 minute pitch contest that will be judged onstage, with the winners receiving something sweet (I haven’t cooked this up yet, but I have a luxury budget). Jigsaw members that have stacked up huge point totals can redeem them for fabulous prizes at the Not-so-Silent Auction. A lively cocktail party will end the formal event and then buses leave for Fowler’s specialty - a charity poker tournament and open house at Jigsaw’s spiffy new headquarters in San Mateo.

Hell, back in the day when I carried a bag I’d have come just for the golf, Cal Ripken and the poker tournament. Now the high caliber content and concentrated networking opportunities with 1,000 other sales executives and industry pros would attract me. Either way, you’re going to regret missing first Sales Jam.

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The New Dalai Garth

2010-02-11T09:30:26-08:00

Bill Cosby via last.fm

Is it just me, or is 2010 so far all about lousy health? It’s true that I have just spent the last 2 hours wading through a mountain of “Explanation of Benefits” (which is a gross perversion of both words) documents while I attempt to recover from Bill Cosby’s Mushmouth syndrome after a particularly lengthy trip to the dentist. And I have two kids in pre-school and we’re all surviving a “real” east coast winter for the first time, which makes for almost daily visits to the doctor to treat the green plague. So maybe I am not a scientific survey sample. But it seems like everyone I come in contact with (and that’s a ton of people) is stifling coughs, has a raspy voice, or is just completing their third round of antibiotics. The H1N1 didn’t kill everyone all at once; we’re just going to all slowly retreat into self imposed quarantine. Good thing our fearless leaders can agree on a course of action for remedying the situation…OK, enough of that. I assume you don’t come here to listen to me gripe about personal maladies -that’s what Twitter is for. What I really wanted to report on is a topic that is a daily fact of life for the busy salesperson (redundant, I know) and is closely related to poor health: stress.

As part of my recent networking binge I attended a BIG Council meeting last week that featured a Wellness Expert named Dr. Cynthia Ackrill. When I first saw the topic, I instantly had the “yeah, that looks interesting but I don’t have time” reaction that flashes through my brain about 50 times a day. Luckily, the event was hosted by JetPool who promised a tour of their fleet of private jets, so I decided to check it out. What I got in return was well worth the time, and provided me with some follow on suggestions for managing stress that I first listed in Stressed Out Sales Guy.

The main point of the session was that “stress happens,” and is intertwined with traits and lives of even the most successful people. However, it is creating a humungous drag on the economy in terms of health and lost productivity costs. Dr. Ackrill suggested that the first step in combating this trend was for people to recognize and confront the stressors in their individual lives and then implement the “3 R’s of Stress Balancing: Reduce Exposure, Realign Perception, Raise Resilience.” She then went on to demonstrate some amazingly simple and effective breathing exercises- I was shocked to find that the more or less continual ringing in my ears actually tempered during the session!

You can find out all about Dr. Ackrill and her magic cures at www.well-spark.com. Here are a few new ones for me:

Image via Wikipedia
Let go of items based on old stories. (example, being stressed about cleaning the house when you can easily afford a house cleaner - you just don’t get one because your mother always cleaned the house)
Make sure your “authority matches your responsibilities.” I see this imbalance crippling employees at Jigsaw and customer executives alike and it makes us all crazy!
Align your actions with your values - make sure you get the most fulfillment out of the things, activities and relationships that cause you the most stress.
Work on your breathing - yoga, meditation, whatever works for you.
Be mindful of yourself - make a plan, prioritize you, don’t just run around half cocked and ready to blow all the time.

Just like with all educational endeavors (sound familiar, sales training veterans) I’m sure most of this will dissolve into the ether of daily life over time. All I know is that I’m going to keep an eye on my breathing, because my involuntary process is not doing all it can.

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Sales is for Humans

2010-01-21T05:00:00-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Monday I celebrated the legacy of the great Martin Luther King Jr.by going to an afternoon movie (hey, at least I admitted it) called “Up in the Air.” I chose that film for two reasons: A) I read the book-on a plane, no less- and I wanted to see how much Hollywood would water down the sarcasm and satire of the original and B) because I have a man crush on George Clooney. Both inclinations were fully realized, although there was still a high enough concentration of corporate buffoonery for me to be entertained. Also, the screenplay was completely re-written to the point where every scene and character was new, which was a good thing, because the book didn’t bother with simple details like having a plot.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to give into the secret belief that all people who write blogs have that they really would be great film critics if given the audience. Any jack^ss with a gift for synonyms for the word “awesome” could fit that bill. I want to relate an idea in the film that struck the sales person in me as true, and if I can be so bold, important.

The basic story is about a consultant that travels 322 days a year to companies to fire people. His company wants to replace the “inefficiency of the human element of termination notification” with a web conference software and a team of inexperienced people who read from a script while informing the person that have been “let go- never say fire.” Clooney’s character is assigned to show the perky MBA architect of the system the process so she can perfect the simulations of all possible interactions into the workflow of the software. Much dark comedy ensues as she tries to get through the emotional drudgery of canning career employees from drab offices across the Midwest in winter.

Image by jimmyroq via Flickr

This is probably a stretch, but the scenes reminded me of the trend for some companies caught up in the whole Web number.zero technology transformation that are looking to completely replace their outside sales pros with a team of Generation Text (grudging credit to Jeffrey Gittomer) phone jockeys that think Facebook is the only business application necessary to run their work/life amalgam. Don’t get me wrong; I am a Sales 2.0 enthusiast of the highest order. But I firmly believe that face to face interactions will always be the best way to conduct business. Even as air travel becomes more and more unpleasant (we’re probably 5 years away from having to fly naked in hermetically sealed coffins), I think there will always be place for at least a few warm blooded individuals in every company that can put on a suit and convince another person sign on the dotted line.

At least I hope so - because racking up frequent flier miles is fun.