Copyright: mihtiander / 123RF Stock Photo
As I've mentioned too many times, I have won a lot of awards as a sales rep, as a manager, and even as a general manager. And each time usually there is a phone call or interaction to thank me for my wonderful efforts. The conversations are casually dotted with compliments.
"You're a wonderful asset to our team! Thanks for your super human efforts."
"3 times in the last 4 years, you're a great utility man.", I still don't understand that one.
"You are the best employee I have working with me! Thanks so much for all the time you dedicate to your job. Your wife must hate you.", again really inspiring? WTF?
And the next year when my goals or quotas are so far out of reach that it would take a Herculean effort to achieve them, I would find myself at the bottom of the Key Performance Indicator list. Would I ever get a call then? Heck no! And to be honest, that's when I would need a call the most.
A lot of sales reps get down right lucky. I'll admit it. My first year in medical sales, I got lucky. I inherited a territory with a lot of promise and the previous rep was a complete buffoon, so it was easy for me to make President's Club. All I had to do was show up everyday and work half as hard as I did as a manager. It was pretty easy, I have to say. I received all kinds of texts and phone calls, and the president of our division even rode with me, just to see what a great job I was doing. I was honored with all kinds of awards; rookie of the year, best newcomer, President's Club Winner, Rep of the Year.
But the next year, they DOUBLED my quota. I laughed when I got it, and told my boss.
"There's no way I'm going to hit that goal.", and naturally I tried but only got to 90% of goal. I was more proud of that achievement than all the others. Why? Because it was much harder to get to that 90% than the 160% from the previous year. Do you think the division president called me? Mmmm, actually she did. To find out what I was doing wrong? Why was I failing so miserably. Thanks boss?
I needed a bit of encouragement more than the previous year, but it didn't happen. Why not? Because managers have a tendency to focus only on your successes and not your failures. And when you fail poor leaders don't try to help you, they just fire you.
As a leader, when I had a good employee, I strove hard to keep them when they were struggling, because I knew it would pay off in the long run. People at the bottom may in fact need more encouragement than people at the top.
When you're running a marathon and you know you're not going to win, if you see someone struggling, do you help them up? Or do you push them off the course? If you help them up then you'll both finish the race.
SFTD
