New Sales Lingo Drinking Game
Talking heads are killing me lately…especially as I suffer during my morning exercise. Here’s what I mean (and it starts with this question): What is it about Fox News?
It’s like they called central casting with the following request:
“Infotainment News Station is seeking male and female models: Smoking hot, credibly conversant, pseudo-intellectual male and female models needed to portray newscasters in an ongoing melodrama series. Age range 28 – 38. Models must be able to look slightly naughty, (Sarah Palin-ish, but younger), while spouting economic, political and business terms. Little previous experience necessary. Please bring legshots along with the traditional headshots for the audition.”
For me, the blather creates an overwhelming sense of doom and gloom, but as if it were presented by the Pussycat Dolls. I received a tweet from a friend, Gini Dietrich, who clearly feels the same. She told me about a new drinking game and I’ve modified it just a bit for sales professionals everywhere…
Sales professional drinking game. Take a drink every time you hear the following phrases:
If you can stand up after 60 minutes you may need to seek a good 12-step program because your alcohol tolerance is beyond the beyond.
I did grow up on Ziglar, Napoleon Hill and the other preachers of PMA, (“positive mental attitude” for those who didn’t…). I believe that you must dream big, set goals, find opportunity in everything and believe in the possibilities of people- I guess I am just looking for some place in-between the pundit angst and the crazy-eyed “ignore the data and just hold onto your dreams” options that some of my original mentors gave me. So help me with this- what language is available to those of us who are in the profession? How do we balance the reality that we truly have working knowledge of and the hope that we are basing the next phase of our careers on? Then how do we put it out there in credible ways for the people we spend our time with – clients, prospects, peers and partners – in a way that changes the lexicon of bleakness that we hear as if the needle was stuck on the old 45 rpm record into something more balanced and forward looking. I know that I want to be able to start with that new language right now.
Let me know your ideas. This is a blog worth responding to.
First I think you forgot one term that will surely push any average drinker (even of the finer Vodka’s) over the edge – “…since the Great Depression…”.
I have never been a believer of the gloom and doom or the rosey glasses crowd. My view is that right now we continue to talk about methodical progress. Certainly the amount of, or the nature of this progress has changed but sitting still has never been an option. I heard a commercial for Allstate Insurance the other day which told how they opened their doors in 1931. I am sure that he didn’t expect to blow the doors off on day one, but had a solid business plan that was well executed.
We look at our business, we determine what will have the best chance of succeeding and then focus our efforts. As a vendor to our clients, we use this chance to understand how they will succeed and show them how our products and services will help. Basic block and tackleing has always worked.
1Great topic Tom.
I’ll start by saying this: I think the current state of the economy, as a point of conversation, is a bit like bad weather.
In an office a 30+ associates, and I’m sure I’m not alone, news of imminent bad weather spreads faster than the details of the new opportunity of which you are desperately seeking collective forward action.
For many reasons – (some more relevant than others) People gravitate toward conversations of bad or unfortunate news. Sometimes, nothing bonds folks like a crisis waiting in the wings. The “current downturn in the economy” can certainly qualify as a negative topic.
When I’m asked in conversation “How’s your company doing Eli?” I do my best to answer very honestly, with little assertion of my personal opinion and more with as much fact and example as appropriate. “Well, we’re being effected more or less like most organizations, but we have in place, and are continuing to develop strategic action plans, not simply for survival, but for growth in the current economical environment.”
I try to be careful not to promote a negative or hopeless discussion while also remaining cautious not to convey a position so positive that the content of the conversation loses credibility because I’m “out of touch”.
I think, as business leaders, parents, family members and friends, we can propagate a positive and meaningful outlook in balanced collaboration with a very real awareness of the current economic challenges facing everyone.
Maybe “things are bad” but they could be worse. “lets get to work on our plan and do everything possible within our realm of influence to be successful” – and not let the nagging news of sagging economy paralyze us.
2Pat and Eli- Good to see you up on the boards!
Pat- you score from the 3-point line on “…since the Great Depression…” – I have heard that so many times that even lite-beer would have taken me to my knees.
I really agree with both of you – suck up smog you cough out soot. No reason to be inauthentic about what is going on- but the real question is the focus. Can you focus yourself and the people around you on action.
I have run a few large employee companies, >1000 FTEs, and in each case there was a crisis, the question was “what are we doing RIGHT NOW” and what are we going to be doing in the very near future?” They were not concerned about the long-term anything- the immediate was the concern. I think for all of us- whether we are employed or recently unemployed – Whether our business is in a high-risk position or we feel fairly confident – the issue is our ability to tell people, clients/colleagues/employees/family, what are we doing right now in the world in which we live and what are we doing in the near future. The very tactical answer, even with a lot of sting to it, is what we need to hear and what they need to hear.
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