Southwestern Sales Talk

When I wrote, “I decided today to go with the Southwestern Company to wherever the heck it is we’re going to sell books this summer” in my journal on March 27, 1996, I had no idea I’d be with the same company a decade and a half later.  At the time, I just wanted to do something where I could earn some money to help pay for out of state tuition at UNC-Chapel Hill when my scholarship ran out.

This will be the first of a series of entries about why a 32-year-old with the resume and skill set more developed than most 55 year olds would continue to work with the same company he started with as a freshman in college.  Although I can’t speak for them, it may explain why other people enjoy working here as well.   Even if you aren’t interested in why I or anyone else work with Southwestern, you’ll probably like some of the insights I’ll share that I’ve gained from the 50,000+ conversations I’ve had with people as a result of this career.

Is/Do/About:

The above three words outline the framework of an important distinction for defining any organization or activity.

Oftentimes people use them interchangeably or merge them together, but they are not the same.  For instance, I played football in high school.  If someone had never heard of football and asked, “What is football?” most people would say, “A sport where…” and begin do describe the “do” part, as in “what the participants ‘do’.”   By applying the distinction above, understanding organizations and their roles becomes easier and more meaningful:

Football IS a sport.

In football, players DO:

Give up afternoons to wear heavy pads in hot conditions where someone in an authority position tells them what to do for several hours.  Some of these instructions include (but aren’t limited to) running as fast as possible to a location only to turn around immediately and run back to the point from which one has just come until one’s legs feel as if they will fall off, running into another man in such a way that he is unable to move freely or is lying on the ground; slamming one’s body into a very heavy metal object with thin padding, etc. 

What football is ABOUT:

Moving an oblong ball across a painted line and preventing another team from doing the same. 

Anyone who has never played the game or doesn’t understand the game may believe the “about” statement above is true.  In actuality, that statement is just a further description of what one “does” who plays the game.  

Anyone who’s ever played the game or understands the game gets that football is really ABOUT:

Winning, teamwork, discipline, competition, camaraderie, challenge, success, failure, resiliency, mental toughness, breaking belief barriers, setting and achieving goals, personal growth, courage, responsibility, glory, and the list goes on. 

The reason people give up huge portions of their free time to play football, or any other sport, is not because of what you DO.  It’s because of what it’s ABOUT.

The reason I have chosen to stay with Southwestern for nearly a decade and a half is because of what we’re ABOUT:

Southwestern IS: A company started in 1868.  To someone who’s never worked with us before Southwestern is a summer program for college age students.

The students who work with Southwestern DO: Knocking on doors to sell educational stuff far away from the comforts of home for a grueling amount of hours with no guaranteed pay. 

What Southwestern is ABOUT:  Being the best organization in the world at helping young people develop the skills and character they need to achieve their goals in life.

I understand that it may not be glowingly obvious how the “DO” part could possibly connect to the “ABOUT” part.  That’s what I’ll write about in my next entry.  So what about your company?  Can you apply the Is/Do/About formula to it?  What does it look like?  We welcome your comments.

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