Money Talks - AC/DC

Up for grabs, up for a price

It's a phrase I often use, as well as 'If people buy you, they'll buy the product', especially when I'm speaking to Sales Teams. Having been in Sales for most of my professional life, (as even now I'm my own company salesman) I've had numerous roles where the level of sales and my level of success was due more to my attitude, than to what it was I was endeavouring to sell.

Belief

Sure, during my many jobs in Sales, I worked for some companies where the product wasn't 100% and it was frustrating when things went wrong and customers lost faith and orders vaporised. You'd think that would be really annoying but I remember in one role the product was amazing and only really profitable work was undertaken, but I found it very dull and possibly I enjoyed the harder sell. 

Reward/Ceiling

I'm not sure how much the money mattered if I'm being honest. Okay, there was always a salary to be negotiated and a car with a fin on the back to be decided on within my hierarchy of colleagues, but commission was never a real driver for me and there was always a ceiling on effort to create and effort to maintain a healthy return. I could never comprehend why at one company (where I started from scratch) had a £1M of 'New-to-the-business-sales-target' for my first year of employment, yet after that it went to maintaining that business with a 10% growth for year two. Six months in and £1M under my belt, I'll admit I took my foot off the gas and before the 12 months were up I'd left for something where my creativity and networking delivered the satisfaction I needed from my work.

Tools

Well if you haven’t got the tools for the job, then it's never going to happen. Being stuck at a desk in a noisy environment is never going to deliver. Alternatively having all the tools but not the time to use them is also incredibly frustrating. Even now, when I'm contacted I immediately email or call if there's a number - every time the response is 'my that was quick', and so it should be as in this day and life is so immediate and there's only a matter of moments before the potential lead has moved on or found someone else keener to do the deal.

Knowledge

They say a little knowledge is dangerous and I can remember being a very fresh-faced salesman trying every trick in the book to clinch a deal. My more senior colleagues seemed to breeze their targets and kinda knew whom and when to chase and when to turn down what seemed like a golden opportunity to me as one that was too risky. It's all down to 'Knowledge' - or shall we say 'Experience'. Sadly something that can't be bought - yet 'taught' to a degree. It was certainly 'taught' to me, in double quick time, by watching and adopting the ways and attitudes of those around me that were more successful. A hard lesson.

Eating with your Eyes

Well, in sales we judge the people we engage with by how they look. It's kinda sad in a way but however true. The covering up of arm tattoos, say for someone going for an interview with a London Law-Firm, might seriously affect their chances of employment and you'll know if you've ever bought or sold a house, having bright red walls or psychedelic wallpaper often puts people off. Looking the part matters.

Enthusiasm

Something I've never lacked in but have experienced many times over with people I've met that have just lacked sparkle. Sales is very much a dynamic environment where people should feel they can add their personality and style to a degree but where professionalism is maintained and the value of the brand being sold is upheld and guaranteed. I'm not sure that trying to shape people at the dreaded 'Sales Conference' ever works and I only see these as demotivating for those that aren’t achieving. Empowerment comes from being understood, rather than being undermined and undervalued.

Value

'It's never a Sale until the Invoice is paid' and 'The Customer is King' are both phrases that come to mind when I consider my path through the sales journey. Those values are great to uphold but also salespeople feeling 'Valued' is essential to any company wanting to capitalise on their investment. In business I often see an equal three-way spilt in large sales teams of excellent, average and poor performance groups, with time spent praising the best, ignoring the middle and hoping the non-performing people will mainly leave of their own accord before being pushed. Knowing ones value and where you stand is vital to any customer facing individual.

Rejoice

If you are successful in your current role, rejoice - be happy that you are realising your potential. If you're not is it time to make some changes? To you or the people you have surrounded yourself with.

1050 Marathons - 255 Ultramarathons - 9 Guinness World Records - 15 Marathon des Sables

Silver Machine - Hawkwind

Lyric:- 'You gotta know where I've been'...

Yes, it’s twenty-five years since my first marathon in Telford back in November 1994. And when I asked folk on my SM platforms, what they what they did on Sunday 6^th November 1994, no one could actually say what they were doing that day, they just said they were in a crappy job, probably nursing a hangover or were at University (same kinda thing). You see, I remember the day very clearly as I ran a very triumphant if somewhat annoying 4.04.16 after dying at 20 miles post halfway split of 1.45. I wrote about the experience a couple of years ago…

‘It wasn’t the biggest of road marathons, but I gave it my best. At the halfway point I was going strong and couldn’t see any other runners, so I asked one of the marshals if I was winning! Winning?! He just looked at me like my lights had gone out, like, ‘What?’ Of course, I wasn’t and when I got to 20 miles, I hit the proverbial ‘wall’ and had to jog-walk the last six miles, finishing in in 4 hours 4 minutes 16 seconds.

As for the winning, well in my own way - yes, I had won… as it was just one of those life-defining moments for me. A ‘Ker-ching! As I’d only gone and bloody done it!’ When people asked me, ‘What did you do at the weekend?’ I simply said, ‘Oh, I ran a marathon.’ And they said, ‘Really?’ Because it was quite a big deal back then, especially for the ‘Me’ they’d previously known.’

And after feeling that moment of success, I’ve done it again, and again, and again feeling that same ‘Ker-ching!’moment every time I’ve crossed the finish line – over 1,000 times with some amazing highlights along the way. If you’ve never run 26 miles 385 yards or gone on to push yourself through your limits of human endurance to running Mega-day Ultras, then you won’t understand where I’m coming from. When running huge disatnces, I’ve found out whom I am. What I’m made of and it’s provided me with a framework to build my life around especially when challenged by Guillain-Barre Syndrome in 2016.

If I’m being honest, Telford was a dress-rehearsal for my first London Marathon on 2^nd April 1995. I did it to see if I could actually cover the distance. I wasn’t even sure I’d survive it on the start line. Luckily for me I did, and I know now that my inexperience didn’t limit my ambition. I also know that 26.2 miles isn’t the huge Everest it was once seen as being back then– how times have changed. 

Now, I believe that Anyone that’s reasonably fit and healthy can run or walk 26.2 miles if they really want to – it’s just that not Everyone has the desire. I didn’t prior to Marathon #1 but now it’s second nature. What was once seeing being out of this world or impossible simply isn’t – Anything is possible if you are open to change. 

You just need to desire change to happen and that desire has taken me on an extraordinary journey for the past 25 years’, where have you been on your journey?

1,047 Marathons, 254 Ultras, 9 Guinness World Records, 15 Marathon des Sables
25 Years' Dry & Celebrating 25 Years' of Running Marathons