One Skill I Want My Kids To Have (And How Sales Can Help)
“Get fired early and often!” My dad JLG would exclaim when we were kids. Known as a quote machine, my father has always reveled in a bon mot. But what I think he was telling us even before we could fully grok it was twofold. One: be fearless at the office. A firing might mean we had fought tooth and nail for a new product line. Or that we’d been willing to put our head on the chopping block to develop a new revenue stream. At the end of the day, we’re willing to push the envelope with our creativity and fight for our ideas. The second? An ability to bounce back from getting terminated. This emotional resolve is what I’d like to examine more closely. And one day, transmit it to my own children.
Although sexy in print or on the silver screen, overnight successes don’t exist. It takes grit to make it. Most folks are unwilling to push against their limits, fall down, and get back up. Again. And then again. And then some more. If people were to tell their success stories with total transparency and minute detail, all you’d see was a series of struggles, micro improvements, setbacks, stumbles, contractions, and expansions. Until they’d inch past that finish line we call “SUCCESS”. All romance once assigned to these triumphant journeys would evaporate. We’re left with a tedious sequence of events, with zero sizzle.
Since failure is just part of life and part of getting to success. And getting back up from failure is one of the hardest things in life. I’d love to make sure my kids have that capability.
The successful have learned to have a healthy relationship with failure. Sports offers a clear illustration. A .300 batting average gets you into the Hall of Fame. Around 70% of the time, you go hitless. And yet, you’ve got to dust yourself off, and get back in that batter’s box for another at-bat, after a lonely walk back to the dugout. Steph Curry – widely considered the greatest shooter we’ve ever witnessed in basketball – has a career shooting percentage of 47.3%. Meaning, he misses more than half the shots he takes. And yet, he keeps on shooting. Enthusiastically. The three most decorated male tennis players of all time – Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal – all have won roughly 54% of the points they’ve ever played as professionals. Arguably the three greatest male tennis players we’ve ever seen lose close to half the points they play. And yet, they’re willing to step back up to the line and serve up the next point.
Sales is no different. It’s a stellar training ground for dealing with failure. Having a 40% close rate on the deals in your pipeline is considered excellent at most companies. These are qualified opportunities – in other words, viable deals – and you’re closing less than half of them. And you’re considered a top salesperson! You’re getting to hear “No!” or “Not now!” or radio silence more often than not. How about getting back on the saddle after being hung up on for the 23rd time in a 2-hour cold call blitz? Talk about developing emotional callouses; not allowing rejection to deter you from hitting your number. Or how about being told that your deal fell through because quarterly marketing budgets got reallocated at the last possible second?
Getting intimate with failure is the name of the game. Facing defeat is downright painful. “Why didn’t I manage to get what I wanted? What should I have done better? What can I learn from this?”, you might reflect privately, as you attempt to sort through your latest flop. Part of failing successfully is taking full accountability in what you’re doing, what role you played in the mistake, while also understanding that you can’t control every variable. You might try to contain every possible thing, but you’re going to have to let go and let the chips fall where they may. The serenity prayer says it beautifully.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and Wisdom to know the difference.
To that end, I’ll tell my clients, “I don’t mind us taking L’s (losses) early on. The real crime is not taking lessons from those L’s.” In early-stage startup sales, you’re going to fail even more than in more mature sales organizations. You might not have found repeatability in your sales process. Nor might you have found message-market fit. It’s even more important to take failure as a sign that things must change. We must adapt. But do not let it deter you – or my future children – from getting back up. From taking that bat off your shoulder. Putting that next shot up. Or serving up that next ace.