I was walking to the coffee machine at work the other day when I noticed a coworker (whom I’d also consider a friend) sitting and staring out the window, clearly in deep thought. I had to stop to see what was at the core of this deep thought. After a few minutes of small talk, the conversation turned serious. “What do you think about trusting the process?” he asked me.
I answered with a cliché phrase that was fairly generic in nature.
“Then what do you think about trusting in that process when it’s not working?”
I was speechless. I now knew the seriousness of his stare. As a commission only sales rep this meant he had a small pipeline and likely no reasonable income coming in.
The fundamentals of my actions in my professional career have primarily been built around 3 core values: People, Passion and Purpose.
So, I inquired him: ”How are the people you’re surrounded with – both the ones you support and the ones who are supporting you?” His reply was fantastic. “My working relationships are solid and integrity is high,” he said with the utmost confidence.
My next question, “Do you still have a passion for what you’re doing? No hyperbole here. Give me a legit answer!”
His reply, again fantastic. “Of course I’m passionate. I genuinely love what I do and still feel that selling solutions is what I’m designed to do. How can I not be passionate about helping people solve problems?”
Finally, I asked, “But is there a purpose beyond money for why you’re here?”
His answer would be a game changer for the final few minutes of our talk and the foundation for what was next.
He said, “I fundamentally believe that what I do accelerates business growth through the enablement of the technology I sell.”
And that was it. The deal was sealed. He was on the right path. And the famous Albert Einstein quote “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” had now proven to be a non-factor in this use case. Purpose trumps strategy every single day, and if he were to find success we needed to change his path to prospect and selling strategy.
The resolution had now become clear and simple. “You can’t continue to go the way you came.” The destination would remain the same but the journey of the customer experience had to be altered. As we continued to talk about different routes to market and roadmaps of solution selling we discovered new and alternative ways to reach prospects, provide business value to the marketplace and a different audience to evangelize his message to. All this would yield different results over time as long as he had the courage, resolve, and strength of character to make it happen; GRIT.
The mobile app WAZE is the perfect metaphor. Put your desired destination in the app and it gives you 3 options: fastest, most direct, and scenic routes. It even gives you times for alternate modes of transportation like walking, bus, or even flying. My colleague had been taking the most direct route every time and doing it with the same mode of transportation. More often than not, his actions would leave him stuck in traffic jams and/or having to navigate construction, all the while not giving notice to the other roads and options to customers.
Problem solved.