In High School I had the dream job of any teenage girl. I galloped racehorses. Animals teach you many life lessons and I thought I would share one that has resonated with me throughout my professional career.
I was a pretty good rider, and like most kids, had more than my own fair share of self-confidence. I had been at this job for about a month, and my employer had gotten a pretty good handle on my ability, where I was lacking and decided I needed a bit of education. The first thing to realize is that in order to learn, I had to recognize what I didn’t know.
One lovely morning at the ripe hour of 6:00 a.m. my lesson began with learning how the racehorse ‘breaks’ from the gate. My teacher for the day was a Quarter Horse gelding named Dust ‘Em. Dusty taught me many lessons in my first few months at the race barn, but on this day it was the importance of humility. The trainers recognized that you don’t put an inexperienced rider on a green horse, you put the green rider on your seasoned campaigner.
Dusty had won many futurities as a 2 and 3 year old and was no slouch in the racing game. He knew the drill. And the trainer, Ron, who was helping me get ready for my first experience ‘breaking’ gave me advice that, of course, I didn’t heed as the amazingly talented rider I was then. The specific guidance he gave me to ‘grab hold of the mane like I’m getting launched off a rocket’ didn’t quite register. I mean, really, I’ve ridden hunter/jumpers and barrel horses and I can stick to anything right?
A quarter horse out of the starting gate is at top speed in 2 strides or about 28 feet. Top speed is about 45 mph. To put this into perspective, it’s like a 0-60 in a car in about 2.5 seconds. They are faster than a dragster. Well, you can imagine what happened. Adreneline is pumping, I’m excited, this is going to be great! The bell rang, the gates opened and Dusty was off! You notice I said Dusty was off. Not we were off. Yup, I experienced a moment like I was in the Wile E. Coyote cartoon with the Road Runner where he is sitting there in midair and then on his way down to eat dirt. There wasn’t a cliff involved, but boy that lesson stung.
What does that have to do with sales you ask? Well, 2014 is a lot like Dusty. It’s off to the races, and many of the people I’m talking to are sauntering their way up to the starting blocks while the year has already left the gate. They think, “I’ll catch up soon, we’re only a couple weeks in.” Considering the first full week back to work was nearly 1 week into the year, you are already 1/52 behind. If you plan on vacation, you are even farther back. Many of us spend more time planning our vacations, weekend and evening plans than we do our sales career. I don’t know about you, but if I don’t get my numbers met, there aren’t many trips on the horizons, and some of those dreams just don’t hit reality.
Typical MO of a business development professional is to begin work each and every day focusing on tasks in front of you that were the result of the previous weeks’ work. And then we start to feel unsatisified, our numbers aren’t quite as high as last month, or perhaps we’d like to make a bit more money. For whatever reason, we are no longer happy with mediocrity. A different destination is desired, which means different action is required. And much like taking a road trip to anew location, you need GPS, maps, directions. We’d like to help you with that. Click here for a free white paper on sales planning for 2014. In the white paper you will receive an outline of developing a comprehensive sales plan, down to the individual tactics to execute. Or you can click here to register for our FREE webinar – Your Sales Plan Kickstart: Game Changing Strategies for 2014 .