Hubris – extreme haughtiness or arrogance – wikipedia
This past weekend I was asked to speak at ScottsdaleCamp, put together by Tyler Hurst and D.Patrick Lewis. Asked to speak on Low/No Cost Sales tools and techniques I arrived using a recycled presentation and minimal preparation. I was so confident in my own ability to wing it that I didn’t prepare hardly at all. I put forth a weak presentation that took half the time it should have and probably gave even less value than that.
This post is my apology to Tyler and Patrick, as well as those who attended the presentation as I definitely was not giving my best. Even when doing something like this for a small audience on a volunteer basis, I should have done more preparation. I did my audience and my personal reputation a disservice by getting on stage and dropping the ball.
Lessons taken away from this:
As someone who hates those who over-promise and under-deliver, remember that when you agree to speak you are promising to provide good content.
Just because you have used a slide deck in the past doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t look through it before going on stage with it – refresh yourself and be ready
Even if your audience doesn’t know that you screwed up they’ll know that something was off.
There are certainly times where working for equity is a good idea. Not many of them, but there are some. Usually the person performing the work is taking on nearly all of the risk in this situation, which isn’t tenable for a long term strategy. As someone who works with start-ups and innovators on a regular basis I’ve heard nearly every pitch to get us to work for equity (or partial cash + equity). The one that frustrates me the most is the “I want to make sure we’re all invested in this project’s success” argument.
Listen, I understand that there are plenty of shyster developers and development companies out there. I even get it if you’ve been burned by a few of them before who quit working hard once the check was deposited. But to assume that the only reason that my team would want to be sure to get your product out is that we’ll only get paid if you do, well that’s just demeaning. That is what delineates a real professional from the field – his willingness to work for your success. No amount of equity stake in your idea is going to change that. I’ve seen numerous projects fall apart in an “equity” arrangement because one side lost faith in the other. Just as often as when there was payment changing hands.
If you don’t show enough value in what you’re doing to put some money behind it, no one else will either. If you really value something, and view it as vital to your success you should pay for it. Yes there are reasons why people will work for what amounts to free about 85% of the time – desperation and fear among them – but don’t expect the highest quality guys to work without getting at least their costs covered.
“The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.” – Thucydides
If you’re really in charge of your situation and the world around you, doing what you can – what you choose – is an available option. This requires mental strength and discipline beyond what most are able to maintain. It happens to all of us when we get those feelings of being out of control, being at the whim of the winds of fate.
In sales when you’re struggling and things aren’t closing it is tempting to blame bad luck, random chance or damn near anything but yourself. But if you’re in control, you know that there are cycles that will come around so long as you stay disciplined and focused on the processes that get you there. Processes and metrics work because they allow you to do things that you know work to build success. Just because they aren’t working now after having worked for the past doesn’t mean that they are suddenly out of date.
Go back to basics and remember that sales is easy if you work at it.
Posted by conrey on April 7th, 2010 under Sales •
3 Comments
A simple stall/objection rebuttal for your Wednesday:
Every salesman has heard this one before “Can you just give me a ballpark of what this will cost?” Inwardly you groan. You know that they’re only going to hear the lowest number you say in the range and judge from there. If your low number is in their budget that’s the most they’ll ever want to pay. If your low number is out of their range you’ll never hear from them again. I hate to give “ballparks” because they are not usually worth the air that you expel to say them.
Rather than saying “I can’t give you a ballpark, I don’t know enough” or something similar – I go straight for the disarming move. “Which one do you like, Fenway or Wrigley? Left Field line at Fenway is 305.” This will get at worst a chuckle, if not a real laugh and a tangential conversation. From there you can launch into the “I can’t give you a ballpark number…” and do whatever you need to do to get the information to give a real estimate or bid.
