Southwestern Sales Talk
The grass is green. Birds are chirping. The weather is warming up (no, I’m not talking about climate change) and I can leave the windows open at night. It’s time again for Southwestern Company’s annual Sales School! This year we’re slated to have nearly 2,800 students in for sales training from all over the world.
So here’s a question for Southwestern Company students and alumni: at this time of the year how do/did you feel going into a summer of selling? Everyone I know has a different emotional reaction to the notion of selling books.
What is the best emotional state to be in prior to a sales challenge?
Think back to a time you competed, or remember a time you had to perform. Got it in mind? When you performed well, you probably felt a mixture of positive anticipation and light anxiety. When did this go away? Most athletes will tell you, “when the gun went off” or “when the competition began”. Most performers say their anxiety left when the show began.
If you are all jazzed and excited, but haven’t “counted the cost” and thought through the challenge properly, you’re
overconfident. If on the other hand, you throw up every time you ponder your upcoming event, you’re taking it a bit seriously. Worry is rarely a productive state to be in. There is a happy medium.
Before a good summer, I visualized what I wanted to happen. I reviewed my goals. I got excited about the long range outcome of what the summer sacrifice would entail. I pictured my team in checkout, the awards banquet, where I would be in the superstar book….
I also remembered (briefly) how difficult a Southwestern summer was, how hot it got, how heavy the bag was, how taking a team to the field would pose a multitude of frustrations, how tired I felt…. I’d say I was about 85% excited about the summer challenge and about 15% anxious. It seemed to be a mix that worked for me. I felt ready.
What’s your proper mix? How do you get emotionally prepared for a sales challenge? Think! Is it a vague sense of impending doom or is it an experience you’re leaning into? How can you get excited and prepared to perform?! Share your thoughts and help others.
Since my first summer I tend to get most excited for my team! Which in turn gets me pumped for MY summer. I review their goals with them, I review mine; I go over their “what if’s,” I go over mine. Each time I prepare a student for their first summer it helps me get into summer mentality. And that gets me yes, nervous because I have high goals, yet UBER EXCITED because it’s a BRAND NEW summer and the opportunities are ENDLESS!! Can’t WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!! See you next week in Nashville!
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
April 27th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Wow. A vicious positive cycle you’ve got going there, Lucy!
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ive never been skydiving, but i’d guess the feeling before you jump out of the plane is a lot like the feeling you have as you drive to nashville for sales school: you are well aware that you are about to experience one of the greatest, most impactful, most live-changing experiences ever – yet you can’t help but be slightly terrified.
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Hey Lee
I wanted to share some ideas about what i’m doing with my team so they can have the right expectation about their summer and of course for me – just kind of not forget how hard it is specially with all the rainy days / very hot days….so what we do once a week as a team is that we go out and do some charity knocking – like collecting pens for the kids in Gambia – it hepls the FY Dealers as well just to practise approaching people. And of course the think that helps me the most is when we talk and review our goals when we meet for PC’s – like this sunday what we have as a team bonding activity is that we all are going to make our dream boards together and after that we will make one for our team as well and each one of us will have their personal and team dream board to stick to the wall of their room in HQ during the summer! And I think its always normal to feel really excited about sales school and at the same time little bit scared because its a new summer, new challenge, new opportunities to excel. But that’s what i really like about Southwestern
It’s really going to be again another great summer!!!
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
April 30th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Asya: well done! Great idea with the “dream boards” for your team. All this preparation will pay off. Thanks for your dedication and focus!
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I was amped up, but also worried about those first couple weeks. I knew I would be fine, but had to bring it in sales school to get ready. We would run everywhere in sales school and maybe carry 2 bags or even yell out our sales presentation as we ran down Atrium Way. But most of the hard work preparing was done during the school year, memorizing the sales talk and knowing our books better. It allowed us to focus more on training other people for the best summer possible, while in Nashville.
I trust that Nate & Ron will have some of the best prepared students in sales school. They may not be the loudest, but they are always ready to bring it and swing it.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
May 4th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Well put, sir. Redline is always prepared to execute. They do a great job getting ready.
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In May 2003, preparing for my first summer I was equally excited and anxious. Excited to get out in there, show the world and especially people who doubted me what I could do. Anxious asking myself can I show the world and especially people who doubted me I can walk the talk. There was so much too learn, so many unknowns and I knew they would be so many challenges. What Sales school taught me and what I still use and apply today is simply to ask 3 questions and apply one thought
Ask yourself…
1. What does success look like?
2. Where am I now?
3. What do I need to do to get there?
And the thought…regardless of any and all obstacles “There ain’t no stopping me!”
7 Years on I have travelled the world, have a great job working for a great company and I have experienced so much including managing teams of 20+, leading projects and P&L’s for six figure sums and been responsible for multiple business units. Yet, in the final interview for Diageo 2 years ago, I was asked a range of questions including overcoming obstacles, leading by example and putting in the extra mile and my answers kept coming back to the summer of 2003.
You are about to learn, develop and grow more than you could believe and on top of that if you choice to have a load of fun along the way. With a mixture of envy and admiration I wish you all the best. Remember, if you apply an attitude of nothing can stop me achieving my goal, you know what that goal looks like, where you are now and have a plan for how you are going to get “There Ain’t no stopping you!”
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
May 4th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Thanks for the words of wisdom, John, and congratulations on using what you learned at Southwestern in your career path!
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Lee, last year I was so nervous, it was my first summer, didn’t know what to expect, and I never went cold, but I would question “so this is REALLY what I’m doing for my summer”, I had the “fear of the unknown” this year I am extremely excited, but mainly to see my team so well! I truly believe to have a great second and future summers, it comes down to recruiting. You gave an analogy when you were in Minnesota a few weeks ago, and this is something how it went- most of us are getting super jacked, like were about to jump off a bridge, and were ready to go. some, hopefully few, know its coming but is trying to put if off, or not think about it, (you did some good acting, getting pulled into the tunnel)
but I honestly believe whether you are excited or not, if directly about your goals and effort toward recruiting, at least for me. I know I worked my butt off recruiting, and I cant wait to see them succeed. I mostly prepared them emotionally, and I honestly believe that it gave me proper expectations for my summer as well, not just thinking that this job was easy or forgetting about the things that frustrated me on the bookfield. Having to coach someone on how to handle rain, the heat, going to the next door, no matter, or introducing them to the Common Denominator of Success, only helps you because you are teaching yourself too, and the more people you have on your team, the more you get to talk about, and hear and it, and it makes the summer reality. I am amped for my 2nd summer, and we get to be in sales school this coming sunday! See ya then Lee!
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The sales problem is simple. Most sales people and sales trainers are not aware of the different skill set required when making major sales. There is a huge difference between making that simple sale and making a sale that requires many interviews and meetings.
Most of the old training methods are no longer viable in today’s selling world. It is time all Sales Training people got to understand this. Research done in the late 1970’s have proven this, yet we still keep flogging the age old sales books with the old techniques.
Selling an aircraft has a different skill set than selling the gas to run it!
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