When I was a student at the University of Florida, I was part of a few organizations. My experience in two of these groups helped me years later as a sales manager. In fact, that experience still helps me today as a trusted advisor to dozens of sales leaders.
I was a member of the Florida Cicerones, the official student ambassadors of UF, and Pi Kappa Alpha, one of the largest fraternities on campus. I was an adequate Cicerone – I attended all the meetings, registered for and performed the required events, and even stayed active past the expected four semesters. However, I never went above and beyond, never took on a leadership role, never really got emotionally engaged. I was just a good member-in-standing.
My membership in my fraternity was much different. I immediately got hooked in the group of students autonomously running an organization that fed 125 kids three meals a day, oversaw a $400k budget, and facilitated a couple dozen programs that made us who we were. It was awesome for me at that time in my life, and I embraced everything about it. (For the record, I wasn’t the guy you’re envisioning from the movies.) Ultimately, I became president of our chapter, and I was often frustrated with the 100 or so guys that just showed up. They paid their bills, showed up for meals and parties, but never really got deeply involved. I couldn’t understand it – how could they not run for an office? How can the possibly skip our big basketball game against our rivals? Why would they miss a chapter meeting?
Well, one day a Cicerone officer was beating me up a little … “Chris, why don’t you run for an office? You’ve got the leadership experience – we could really use you.” I didn’t want to. It wasn’t my thing. I was a good standing member, and that was about all I had in me. That’s why she was a VP and I wasn’t – it just wasn’t in me. It was during that conversation that I realized how hard I had been on the 100 or so guys in my fraternity that were actually very good members. The fraternity just didn’t fit into their lives like it fit into mine, and that’s ok.
As sales managers (or owners of integration companies that manage sales people), we tend to become disappointed with our sales people. “There isn’t a ceiling to their earnings, why the heck aren’t they at the office at 6:00 am every day?” We don’t get it. How could they leave money on the table? “If I were on this comp plan, I’d be working seven days a week.”
Well, you’re not on that comp plan. You own the company, or you’ve proven yourself enough to be promoted to sales manager. Your sales people are not you. If they were you, they wouldn’t be sales people – they’d be business owners or managers. They’ve got other priorities and desires. Some of them are motivated like you and are killing it, but most of them aren’t. Most of them are doing a pretty good job. Guess what? That’s ok.
Please don’t misunderstand what I’m proclaiming here. You should still have high expectations of your sales people and demand top performance. However, as long as they’re hitting their numbers (or coming close and paying for themselves), and they’re a good culture fit, then appreciate them. Yes, you would meet the quota within four months and bring home triple the on-target-earnings… but again, they’re not you. Don’t lose a good performer because you think they should be great. Maybe they don’t care to be great. Maybe they want to make a good living, and have time to spend on other things in their life. That’s ok.
In short, stop driving yourself crazy. Remember what I learned from my experience in college. If you forget that story, remember a simple quote I learned from the Gallup Organization years ago: “You can’t put in what God left out.”
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