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Why the Baseball Analogy Doesn’t Work Anymore

Guest Article By: Steven W. Smith, President, M.I.S. Corporation

My first boss was an old-school sales manager who often used this timeworn “motivational technique” on me and the other salespeople in the company: “A good baseball player has a lifetime batting average of .333,” he’d say, “that means that he fails 66 percent of the time he steps up to the plate. But he keeps on trying and makes millions of dollars!”

I have heard similar analogies from other sales managers in the years since – I guess they think the analogy would motivate salespeople to keep trying, keep knocking on doors, keep picking up the phone, etc.

I don’t think it works anymore. In fact, I don’t think it ever did.

Unlike baseball players, salespeople are not paid 100 percent of the time; they are paid on only the percentage of deals they close. They do not have the luxury of failing countless times and still getting paid. They understand all too clearly that a failure does not earn them any money – only success does.

Does that mean they should give up? Of course not! I just want those “motivators” to stop using the baseball player analogy, because it is not relevant.

Let’s focus on what does work, and that is providing more perceived value than the dollars spent.

If you are going to spend prospects’ time, as well as your own, then make the most of it. Show value from the very beginning. Give them something they don’t already have. Relate a bit of news about their industries, for example. Or provide tips to make their lives easier, either at the office or at home.

To do this, you need to do your homework. You need to know as much as possible about your prospects, their industries, their clients and their competitors. Researching, networking and spending face time with company insiders can help you learn what you need to know to add value – and not just when the prospect has bought what you sell, but from the first meeting. If you add value up front, prospects will know just how valuable you are before you even mention your product or service.

And who knows, maybe baseball players’ averages would increase if they got paid only when they hit the ball.

The Truth Is Almost Never What It Seems

“Bob” and “Joe” are salespeople on a 21-person team where everyone is paid a small salary and commissions. Bob and Joe are great friends, and are the top producers on their team. Together they produce 83 percent of the company’s sales volume and average $250,000 a year in salary and commissions each.

At every monthly meeting they get the pat on the back for being top producers. Depending on which guy wins in any given month, he gets the front-door parking spot for the next month and his picture on the wall.

At the end of the year, one of them always wins the sales trophy and the all-expenses paid trip.

And all the other salespeople scratch their heads in wonder at how these guys seem to pull this off without ever looking like they're doing any work.

Speaking of the rest of the team, the other 19 salespeople produce 17 percent of the company’s sales and average $47,000 a year in salary and commissions. And no matter how many times you've changed people, tweaked compensation, moved managers or begged, this just doesn't seem to change.

Unfortunately, the stockholders and board of directors has noticed. And since you are the executive who built this team, you are the one who was told, “The fat must be trimmed from the sales budget or you’ll be trimmed from the company.”

At this point, which of these two groups would you look at to trim some of that fat?

• 2 salespeople who cost you $500,000 and produce 83 percent of your sales.
• 19 salespeople who cost you $893,000 and produce 17 percent of your sales.

Admittedly this is an absurd question without more facts. But for conversation's sake, which would you choose to let go based on current knowledge? Would it be the producers or the underachievers on the team?

Easy choice, right?

Let’s add another factor to your decision.

Bob and Joe each work a total of one hour and six minutes a day, but the rest of the team works a full day and sometimes more.

Who would you fire now? Any change?

Have I at least piqued your curiosity?

More factors needed? Fine.

Within the 19-person sales group there are three natural leaders, 12 hard-working people two slackers and two rookies.

Between you and me, the slackers are toast. But that's just a short-term fix that doesn't address the real problem. So let’s add a few more factors and increase your understanding of how this happened so you can make a more informed choice.

Your company brokers used goods that come from many sources, and you never know at any given moment what will be for sale tomorrow. You’ve built a bunch of systems to move the inventory through the warehouse, and one of those systems is designed to inform the entire sales team of what’s available, so they can get out there and sell it.

It's a fast-pace sales environment, and everyone, including your customers, knows it.

At exactly 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. every day, the system releases the "new inventory for sale" counts to your entire team. There is a rule that says “Whoever gets a truckload under contract first, wins.” (You want competitive salespeople, so you’ve leveraged competition everywhere.)

Of course, one of the fall-outs of this rule is that salespeople and customers come to agreement too quickly, and occasionally a customer cancels a deal. So your inventory system lets the salesperson tag the inventory as “Under Contract” once they have a verbal order, making it off limits to the rest of the team. But it also allows them to change it to “Contract Canceled” up to 30 minutes later, if the customer doesn't commit to the electronic contract.

Of course, you would rather have contracts that are solid, so each month you reward a family dinner gift certificate to the salesperson with the least amount of canceled contracts.

Something that has always caused you wonder about Bob and Joe, however, is they always seem to have the most canceled contracts. But you’ve always laughed it off, because they are the top two producers in your company and they can afford dinner out whenever they like.

Based on this new intel, have you changed your mind about what fat to trim?

Probably not. But the story isn’t over, is it?

What if you learned Bob and Joe are the top salespeople, because they’ve figured out how to get into the inventory system at 8:57 a.m. and 12:57 p.m. – three minutes earlier than the rest of the team.

Here’s their entire sales process (this gets implemented twice each day):

• 8:57 a.m. – Begin searching inventory for truckloads of the easy-to-move stuff. Note the lot number of every large quantity of the hot items my customers will want right away.
• 9:00 a.m. – Start tagging the best lots with “Under Contract” so the other salespeople can’t get to them.
• 9:05 a.m. – Blast my customers with the inventory list that’s available. Set the starting price and give them a 10-minute window to respond with their best offers.
• 9:15 a.m. – Blast all customers with the current bids and give them one more chance to increase their offers.
• 9:23 a.m. – Close the sales based on best offers received.
• 9:25 a.m. – Change "Under Contract" to “Contract Canceled” on all lots not moved.
• 9:30 a.m. to 12:57 p.m. – Do whatever I want.

Any change in thinking about who you would fire now? Is the fact that Bob and Joe are cheating enough to cross your ethical boundaries?

I’ll admit, it’s a complex choice. On one hand you must congratulate these guys on their creative approach. But on the other, you must wonder what else they might be doing that goes against your ethical standards and beliefs.

And as an executive at the company, your obligations are to your stockholders, your company and the entire team first, and to any single employee last.

Now let me ask you a totally different set of questions that go to the core of the point I'm making.

Suppose you had built your sales team so that everyone was paid a salary to implement the company’s sales systems. And suppose you gave the dinners to the people who found ways to improve the system itself. And suppose you gave bonuses to the entire team whenever the changes they made in the system increased the volume of sales that system produced.

• Would 90 percent of your team be sucking in 64 percent of the team’s salary budget while producing only 17 percent of the result? (Would you even be carrying 21 salespeople.)
• Would Bob and Joe have horded their secrets, or would they have shared them with the team?
• When they shared their ideas with the team, is it possible one of the other team members might have taken the “create a short-window auction” concept and perhaps figured out how to use that concept to move some of the less-desirable product?
• Would you be spending $1.4 million on your sales team's salary?
• Would the stockholders and board of directors be on your ass to trim the fat -- would you even have any fat to be trimmed?
• Would your own job be on the line?

This is but one example in hundreds of why sales commissions must die.

And yes, it's an absolutely true example.

Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Fourty Eight And A Half

Last week while I was channel surfing the car radio for music, I clicked into the middle of a short commentary on how people of different ages treat birthdays. The blips I remember are:

• Youngsters think in quarters, halves and almosts -- three and a half, five and three quarters, almost 10.
• Teenagers think in milestones -- finally a teenager, able to drive, voting (unfortunately, far too few) and being able to legally drink.
• After the age of 21, however, we stop looking to the future as positive and think negatively instead -- "hitting" 30, "breaking" 40, "over the hill" at 50.

As I listened, I thought "How sad but true." Then when the spot ended I hit the next button on the car radio, started singing along to "Knights In White Satin" and went straight into my next train of thought.

This past Saturday I went for a bike ride with a salesman I met only two weeks ago. He's considerably younger than me and has been riding all year (I just got back on the bike this month). And while he went easy on me for most of the ride, he did lead me up a couple hills that were more than I wanted for only my third time out. (Yes, I made it, but my lower back still hurts. ;-)

Anyway, after our 20 miles together we parted ways when I turned for my house and he turned for is. And as I drug my sore, tired body up the tiny incline that leads home, I thought "I can do this. After all, I'm 48 and one half."

Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

I Find No Joy In A Balanced Life

About three minutes ago the voice inside my head started arguing about this "balanced life" concept everyone is discussing these days -- especially so since the new year is coming. I remember my train of thought starting with Chinese turtles, but am not entirely sure of the progression from there to balanced lives. However, when the argument subsided, I found myself sitting at my computer, typing this opening paragraph into my "Compose New Post" screen.

I truly have no earthly idea what to say from here, so I'll just turn the keys over to the inner voice and see what happens. (I'll use the speed-writing exercise I explain in my book -- you simply type as fast as you can for five to 10 minutes and then clean up what you've written a bit when you're done.)

The hair on the back of my neck stands up whenever someone says "you must have a balanced life" but I've never stopped to ask myself why. Now I think I know -- balancing is damned hard work. (Ever tried to walk a tightrope?)

Why in the world would anyone wanting a balanced life add the task of creating that balanced life to his to-do list? Seems counter productive to me. Unless, of course, you're one of those folks who thrive on documenting things and making lists.

I'm just not one of those folks.

Yet at the same time, I always seem to be pretty happy -- never stressed beyond that healthy dose of stress that entrepreneurs like me love, great relationship with Cindy, good friends, a cat that will actually sit on my lap and purr. So under the assumption that a balanced life is about being happy, and figuring that I'm usually a pretty happy guy whose life is anything but balanced, then what am I doing right?

In my vernacular, I don't live a balanced life -- I live a blended life. I simply refuse to let time of day, day of week, week of month or month of year determine when I should be doing what.

Want to go for a bike ride at 1 p.m. Tuesday? No problem. Just reschedule the 2 p.m. client meeting and get on the bike.

Need to mow the lawn Friday morning because it's going to rain all weekend? Fine. Just get on the mower and worry about work sometime Saturday, Sunday, Monday -- or whenever you get inspired.

Got a speech tomorrow and still drawing a blank at 8 p.m. today? No big deal. Just put on some coffee and stay up late.

Late getting out those December holiday cards? Just send "Happy January" cards instead.

To me, creating a balanced life is a process of compartmentalizing and scheduling so you force in the right doses of spiritual, family, work, exercise, and so on each week. But to me, forced balance is no balance, because there are few things I hate more than rigid schedules.

So I blend my life instead. Do I occasionally drop a ball? Sure. Have I gained and lost 20 pounds a dozen times? Yep. Has a bike ride ever cost me a sale? Probably.

I simply refuse to care about these little things. And it's the peace of not caring that makes me happy and puts me in the frame of mind to get the big things done.

So I say the hell with the tightrope. Give me the blender instead. (Besides, I've never seen a tightrope make a margarita.)

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Not Everyone Is Broken

This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to hear Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth, present his 90-minute speech "Awakening the Entrepreneur in You -- The E-Myth Revisited." Having read and enjoyed his book several years ago, I was excited in anticipation of learning some new things and glad to finally see the man in person.

Michael was a very engaging speaker who is clearly passionate about his message and his dream. His presentation was well-crafted, spoke to the heart of the problem some entrepreneurs face and included just the right mix of humor to make his points and just the right level of appropriate vulgarity to be real and effective.

Gerber's main message, however, falls woefully short of reality for the vast majority of entrepreneurs. He seems to believe that unless your approach to entrepreneurship is structured as though you were building a business to the scale of McDonnalds or Starbucks, you are broken ("a lunatic" in fact) and are in need of repair. Indeed, he is even trying to redefine the very word entrepreneur -- labeling anyone who does not follow his methods a business owner instead.

I'm sorry Mr. Gerber, but an entrepreneur is "one who organizes, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise," and that includes the hands-in-the-dough pie maker just as exactly as it does the CEO running a global franchise.

The simple fact is that baking pies and running a pie franchise are two entirely different jobs, and unless you're doing the job that fits your passion you will fail. So if your passion is implementing your craft, be it pie baking, applying the law, public speaking, healing others or training dolphins, then you are not broken and you do not need to be fixed. And you should laugh in the face of anyone who would tell you otherwise.

If, on the other hand, your passion is to run a company from afar, building the systems that will allow others to implement the craft, then by all means contact Gerber or his team for help. I'm convinced they have a massive amount of experience in this realm. In fact, in my capacity as founder of Yellow-Tie -- a nonprofit trade association with international goals -- I'll be contacting them myself. (Of course, they may not want me as a client if they read this!)

Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

I Can't Afford It

When you earn a dollar at your "day job," spend it on something that will earn you another dollar (like investing in real estate).

When your investment earns you a dollar, spend it on something you need, or on something you don't need that's great fun.

Live by this discipline your entire life, and money will never be a barrier to your success or your happiness.

Note: To get started, invest 10 percent of every dollar you earn at your day job. Then keep upping the percentage until every day-job dollar gets invested the moment it's earned.

Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Trimming The Fat

In one of last week's visits, I wrote about the importance of measuring things in order to change them, and used my flabby self as an example of how just getting on the scale every day can do wonders.

Several people contacted me and asked what I was actually doing (besides getting on the scale) to lose the weight. So following is a summary of everything I do to lose body fat safely and effectively. (Next visit, I'll show you how these same concepts apply to creating sales success.)

It's Not Rocket Science; It's Simple Math

If you want to lose body fat, do these six things:

1. Weigh yourself every day. (See this post for the reasons.)
2. Throw every diet book you own in the trash. Dieting is the wrong way to lose weight.
3. Every day, eat a nice mix of vegetables and fruit -- the more brightly colored the better -- nuts, meats (unless you're a vegetarian) and carbs. Your body does not need dairy, but feel free to enjoy it if you like it. Just do your best to choose the healthy versions of everything you eat. Anyone past the age of 10 should be able to ascertain what "healthy versions" means. (Basically, if you think of potato chips as a vegetable, then you're in big trouble.)
4. Stay as far away from processed sugar as you possibly can -- don't eat more than 24 grams of sugar in any 24-hour period -- because if you eat it your body will burn that instead of fat. (FYI: A single 12-ounce can of soda has more than 40 grams of sugar, and processed orange juice is almost as bad. (The process of homogenizing fresh juice converts good sugars to bad sugars.) So eat the orange, drink water and leave the homogenized products and garbage soda products on the grocery shelf.)
5. Using the calculator I'll provide below, determine how many calories you are supposed to eat every day to sustain your current body weight. Then in an average week, eat that many calories per day. (Just short yourself six out of seven days if you want to splurge one day every week.)
6. Use exercise to burn off extra calories. (Every time you burn off 3,500 calories that you did not eat, you will lose a pound of body fat.)

Healthy choices. Portion control. Eat the correct amount of decent food every day. And exercise to burn the flab away. Like I said above, it's not rocket science, it's simple math.

Calorie Calculator

First, I am not a fitness trainer. I am not a doctor. I am not a dietitian. I am not a trained or certified expert on this subject in any way, shape or form. I'm just a guy who has been there, done that, and researched along the way.

Second, while you must know the right amount of calories to eat, and eat roughly that amount per day, you do not have to count calories for the rest of your life. Just count them for a couple weeks -- until you have a good feel for the calories in the meals you eat most often. Then count by feel after that, using your morning weigh-in as the measure of how well you did.

Third, the calorie calculator I'm about to give you was developed during the 15 years I spent making every diet mistake in the book, then researching options to find the next diet I could try and fail. It was born out of the frustration of this repeated stupidity, which is why it works.

Fourth, I'm sure there are thousands of people who will tell you this won't work, then ask you to buy their book or sign up for their diet regimen. My suggestion is to save your money and try this first.

To make use of the calorie calculator, you must know the following:

• Your gender. (Sorry, Ladies, but pound for pound, guys get to eat more than you do.)
• Your height in inches. (I'd like to take this chance to apologize to the non-U.S. folks out there for making them convert their height to inches, so the calculator can convert it right back to centimeters.)
• Your weight in pounds. (Same apology applies for the pounds-to-kilograms requirement.)
• The number of working hours you spend a week sitting, standing and lifting.

It also helps to know how many minutes a week you spend running, walking, cycling or swimming, and at what pace you do each of those things. (But you can figure that out later.)

I set the links below to automatically open the PDF calculators in a separate tab or browser window, so you can read the instructions below as you enter your information into the form in the other window.

• Males should use this calculator.
• Females should use this calculator.

1. After you open your version of the calculator, click on the "0" after "Height In Inches:" That is a form field into which you can type your height in inches. Type your height, then hit the <Tab> key.
2. Type your weight in pounds, then hit the <Tab> key.
3. Type your age, then hit the <Tab> key.

If you scroll down to the top section of Page 2, you'll see a number under Total Caloric Requirements (TCR). That is the number of calories you should ingest each day. For example, I am 71 inches tall. As of this morning, I weighed 188 pounds. And I am 46 years old. My TCR at this point is 2,019.

To Maintain Weight

One major secret to burning body fat is to always eat at least your daily TCR, because if you eat less than your TCR, you'll trigger a starvation reaction, and your body will start hoarding fat instead of burning it. To be absolutely certain to avoid this starvation trigger, include the calories you burn in a normal work week in your TCR calculation.

To do that, scroll to the bottom section of page 1, and enter the number of hours a week you are:

• Sitting. (Your cursor should be on this field.) Type your best guess, and hit <Tab>.
• Standing. Type your best guess, and hit <Tab>.
• Standing/Lifting. Type your best guess, and hit <Tab>.
• Heavy Lifting. Type your best guess, and hit <Tab>.

Be honest! But don't forget the weekend chores like mowing the lawn.

For example, my numbers are:

• Sitting -- 40
• Standing -- 10
• Standing/Lifting -- 10
• Heavy Lifting -- 0

That's an extra 384 calories I can eat every day -- for a daily TCR total of 2,403 -- to maintain my current weight.

To Lose Weight

To lose one pound of body fat, you must eat the right amount of calories (per the TCR number on your chart) then burn 3,500 calories you did not eat! You accomplish that with exercise.

On page 2 of the calculator is a chart showing various levels of running, walking, cycling and swimming. There is a Minutes Of Exercise (MOE) column into which you can type the number of minutes you exercise in each category per week. (Your cursor should be on the top row of this chart.) As you enter your minutes of exercise, it will calculate the approximate calories you'll burn doing that exercise. To ensure you burn at least one pound of body fat per week, do enough exercise to burn 3,500 calories.

My two favorites exercises are cycling and walking. My goal each week is the following:

• Walking 15 min./mile -- 4 hours or 240 minutes = 1,228 calories burned.
• Cycling 15 mph average speed -- 6 hours or 360 minutes = 5,219 calories burned.

Not that I'm ever exact, but in a one-week stretch, if I did eat my exact TCR of 2,403 calories per day, and exercised my exact amount of 4 hours walking and six hours biking during that week, I would burn 6,447 calories. Divide that by 3,500, and you'll see that I'll lose 1.84 pounds of body fat in seven days if I'm perfect. (Which, of course, I never am.)

Adjustments

If you follow the guidelines but don't lose weight, adjust your calories down or your exercise up. Just be sure never to go below the TCR number that is a result of the calculation from your height, weight and age (minus work-related stuff). And remember to eat healthy foods -- the fewer processed foods you eat, the better you'll be.

Ultimate Bottom Line: Losing body fat is not as difficult as all the experts would have you believe. It's simple math and common sense. And anyone who tells you something different, then asks you for your money, should be told to take a hike.

I'll apply this measurement analogy to sales in our next visit. Until then, here's to the wind in your hair, healthy food in your belly and good news on the bathroom scale!

Lesson Relearned

In a past visit, we discussed courage and the positive effect it can have on your life and business, and I promised to implement an idea -- perhaps crazy? -- I had about direct mail -- to "mail" myself to a talk-radio program director to see whether I could get him to "open me." The ultimate goal would be to create a relationship with this program director who would invite me to be interviewed on one of his programs, because those types of interviews increase your credibility with prospects. (If the radio producer lets you on air, you must be good.)

We'll I've done it. I actually climbed into a box complete with mailing label, "postage" and some humorous warnings like "Do Not Bend" and my favorite "This End Up!" and I walked into a St. Louis radio station to see what they'd do.

And the truly amazing thing is, what I relearned from the experience has little to do with courage, nothing to do with direct mail, isn't even in the neighborhood of creativity and lacks little resemblance to success.

The Package

The stamps were fake.

On the front was "Animated Brochure Enclosed," "Press Here For Audio" and "Do Not Bend."

That's an actual USPS return receipt at bottom right.

On the back was "This End Up!" "Perishable Contents" and "Time-Sensitive Material."

As a leave-behind (just in case I actually got "opened"), I assembled a large envelope containing:

• A cover letter to the producer
• My one-sheet promo for my best presentations
• A reprint of the "Random Thoughts On Courage" article that spawned this silly idea
• A copy of my book

The Delay

Two weeks ago when I wrote the courage article, I said I would package myself "today" and mail myself "tomorrow." This may seem strange, but implementing this little idea has been one of the most nerve-racking things I've done in years. It took me a full two weeks to put it together (instead of the two days I promised), because, like a crack addict rationalizing armed robbery to get his fix, I rationalized any and all delays:

• "I'm just being thorough. You have to be thorough for direct-mail to work."
• "What if this? What if that? I'm trying to get interviewed about creativity and courage. The idea isn't enough to 'sell it.' I've got to have a fantastic looking package too."
• "I've never even listened to one of this radio station's shows. I can't go in without knowing the format, the hosts, the most recent topics. I'd look like an unprepared fool if I did that. I'll spend part of next week learning about the station and listening to its programs."
• "I have a client who needs me. This proposal can't wait. Our new Fortune 1000 division meeting is Saturday, and I'm not prepared. Well, I guess this package-thing will just have to wait."

In other words, I wasted a ton of time with the nervous second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-guessing that cripples many salespeople and keeps them from ever getting the job done. Sure, I'm all for doing homework and being thorough, but at some point thorough becomes avoidance, and a good salesman should be able to spot the difference quickly.

Of course, since I made a public promise to do this, even the pain of doing it eventually became less than the pain of having to admit that I hadn't done it and wasn't planning to, so yesterday I finally executed the plan.

(Side Lesson: To avoid avoidance, tell everyone in the world what you're going to do, and make sure the pain of breaking your word is worse than any pain keeping your word can bring.)

The Final Detour

It's about 20 minutes from my office door to the radio station. Of course, it took me the better part of an hour to get there, because a colleague had just opened a new business and I had to stop in to say, "Hi." Never mind the fact that the two destinations were in opposite directions, or that I could just as easily have stopped by after I had "delivered" myself.

The Drive Downtown

I've been selling, building companies and doing public speaking for more than 30 years. I've built and personally tested prospecting systems where I had to cold-call senior executives at Fortune 1000 companies. I've walked into boardrooms filled with arrogant executives whose missions in life at that moment were to "make this salesman squirm." I've keynoted corporate meetings and conferences, and suffered question abuse from people whose only way of feeling good about themselves is to close their minds to ideas and open their mouths to belittle others.

Yet nothing I can recall over this 30-year stretch ever made me as nervous as that drive downtown.

The Lesson Relearned

When I finally realized just how many butterflies were flitting about my stomach, and stopped to figure out why, the lesson of this experience became clear: Never, ever, under any circumstances, put yourself in a position where one phone call, one knock at one door, one sales appointment, one proposal or one client matters, because when a single thing matters that much, you are almost guaranteed to fail.

I knew that -- I simply cared too much about this one "package," because I wanted to come back to you with a great success story (or at least a great story) to tell.

The Outcome

What actually happened? The "receptionist" is a member of the building's security team. He wouldn't let me in without an appointment, and didn't find the least bit of humor in what I was trying to do.

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Random Thoughts On Courage

Dad began teaching me chess when I was 7 years old. I was 16 before I finally won a game and 22 before I beat him again.

I only recently learned that many of Dad's friends and relatives told him back then that he was a bastard for not letting me win occasionally -- to boost my ego and keep me interested. When I asked him how he responded to them, he told me he always replied, "Winning doesn't build courage. Losing does."

Looking back over the many successes I've had in my life, I can see that the courage to keep trying despite failure after failure was one of the most important things the old coot ever taught me. If it weren't for that lesson, Cindy never would have married me. (I spent seven years asking her for a date before she finally said, "Yes.")

---

Last year a business owner hired me to coach one of his salesmen for six months. In the very first coaching session I asked the salesman, "How much do you want to earn during the next year?"

His smiling response was "$45,000 would be good."

Pausing for a few seconds, I puzzled, "Why not half a million?"

He sat back in his seat, crossed his arms, dropped his eyebrows, lowered his head, scowled just a bit and mumbled, "That'd be okay."

I ended the session and gave his boss back the fee.

I had a similar thing happen with another salesman not long after the first guy, only he practically jumped out of his suit when he said, "That'd be GREAT!"

He hasn't hit half a million yet, but he's getting close.

I simply don't enjoy working with people that lack the courage to dream big. (And I learned the hard way that you can't give people big dreams.)

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It takes less emotional energy to achieve scary-big dreams than it does to achieve puny ones, because courage is self-energizing -- it actually keeps you from tiring or wearing out.

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I'm convinced the difference between a true leader and a pretender is the courage to let those around you take the credit.

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As long as I have my mental faculties, I will continue working. I simply enjoy it too much to retire. There's nothing courageous about this. I just felt like saying it.

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The most important person in my life is my courage partner, because she never lets me hide.

Who's your courage partner?

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Here's a crazy idea. If you have a scary-big dream and the courage to let me push you way out of your comfort zone, I'll make a deal with you.

Write me a one-time, skin-in-the-game check of $15,000 and I'll be your personal courage partner, idea partner, and sales and marketing coach, mentor, trainer, etc., for as long as it takes you to achieve your dream.

I don't care if it takes the rest of my life. I don't care how much energy I have to expend or how many ideas I have to contribute. I'll be your unlimited-access courage partner as long as you stay committed to and passionate about achieving your dream.

And I'll never ask you for another penny ... ever.

The first person to make this leap of faith wins.

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Just writing these thoughts on courage makes me want to try something I've never tried before. (Besides the crazy commitment I just made.)

I was at a National Speakers Association meeting last Saturday, and one of the subjects discussed was creating effective direct-mail pieces that will catch the attention of radio program directors and get them to interview you on the air. (When a professional speaker gets interviewed on a good radio program, it's like bookings in the bank.)

That conversation spawned a really silly question in my mind: "What if the ‘brochure' you ‘mailed' to the program director was actually you?"

Seriously, what if you somehow dressed up like you were a package and "mailed" yourself to the program director?

I can see the writing on the package already:

• Package Contains Courage -- Open At Your Own Risk
• Perishable Contents
• Time-Sensitive Material
• Do Not Bend (This one is my favorite.)
• Press Here For Audio (I like this one too.)

This afternoon I'm going to figure out how to make myself look like a package. Then sometime soon I'm going to walk into a local radio station and see if I can get the program director to "open me."

Best-case scenario, I'll be on the air soon getting interviewed about courage and creativity.

Worst-case scenario, I'll have an amusing story to tell you during a future visit.

That's one really cool thing about courage: It gives you tons of stories to tell.

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Salesman, Salesman

Salesman, Salesman, on the team,
Can't you see just what I mean?
Of your bullshit I am tired,
So close some sales, or you'll get fired.

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association