By Sid Chadwick
“If you could take your experiences and ask to trade them in, the last ones I would trade would be the failures…..Those are the most valuable ones.” …………………………………………………………Jerry Seinfeld
INTRODUCTION:
“
A Rising Tide…lifts all boats.” (A false cliché, whose ship has sailed.)
Our Industry Associations….like to survey - and then publish owners’ economic expectations - for predicting print demand.
Those Surveys are promoting a lie.
Rising Tides…DO NOT… lift all boats.
Today, there are organizations in our great industry that are growing organically, with strong backlogs, while similarly equipped competitors down the street…are starving for work.
I called a prospect today, someone recently listed in ‘The Top 300”. The lady who answered promptly told me, “We’re closing our doors, selling the equipment for anything we can get……all our remaining employees were given a one week notice…We’re history…”
No one closes their doors – with Successful Sales Leadership.
Successful Sales Leadership requires - and provides - relevant, relentless education and training, relentless communications, standards of conduct, accountability, a focus on the mission to create and exceed customers’ expectations, and supportive, collaborative Teamwork - between all departments…for measured continuous improvement.
And perhaps… above all else, a nurtured capacity…To LISTEN….deeply….!
For….
….What can be improved…(Yes, just about everything)…
….What customers want…and need…
….Where a written SOP will improve performance (and costs)…
….Who in our organization really cares about exceeding customers’
Expectations…
….Who in our organization assisted another employee… or
department…that was struggling….
….Who Volunteered for more overtime…to meet a critical, promised
delivery….
….Who offered to draft a rare “Press Check Standard Operating
Procedure”…that led to putting an extra $5,000 on our monthly
bottom line, but also led to additional Agency Press Checks….!
SUMMARY:
A Rising Tide - DOES NOT - lift all boats.
Our great industry’s publications carry monthly and biweekly endless articles about technology….and equipment…..All needed.
However, where’s The Industry commitment to educate and train how to introduce, and communicate the benefits, and demonstrate… to customers…
- What Buyers should expect…. from a Great Supplier Organization….! (Wouldn’t this be a great educational session - at upcoming Trade Shows.)
- What your organization… is capable of producing (while also producing thoughtful, detailed Quotes – in the time they were needed.)
A local CEO was observed to remark to one of our long-term clients: "We look forward to making significant contributions to local charitable organizations, not those with significant missions, but rather those with significant leadership."
“It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”………Invictus (1875), William Ernest Henley
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