View from the Mountain

On the road with shiny crocs

It was said of Willie Loman, the salesman, "he's a man way out... in the blue riding on a smile and a shoeshine." Recently I was on the road again as a salesperson for the first time in eight years.

It was a little different than the last time but how I interact with clients will likely never change.

When you are working with people helping them to understand products and services, the only way to differentiate yourself from someone else is your reputation, your knowledge of your product, and what you can understand of your potential customers' needs.

In our always on-line, Internet-driven world, sometimes in the heat of the moment, one's reputation can be ignored but only because few take the time to do any research before declaring their own knowledge superior to all those around them. In the real world when companies and organizations are making significant purchases, they will take the time to adequately research someone before counting on his or her advice.

However, it still amazes me that the Internet has created whole new opportunities for snake oil salespeople. Because too many of us refuse to really understand the technology that underlies our lives, these people selling sub-par services continue to thrive. It is really sad when customers do not see through these folks who can only pretend to know what they are talking about when asked a question.

There is a whole other level of experts who peddle advice to our governments and organizations around the country.  Unfortunately, governments often looking to make certain they make intelligent decisions end up hiring these folks whose only real experience is in convincing others to hire them.  Most can never come up with a single concrete example to demonstrate that they have a clue about what they profess to know.

It is easy to talk about products and services. Taking the next step is much harder.

Actually implementing solutions and making certain that they work as you asserted they would is an entirely different thing.  I will long remember the on-line Adobe salesperson who sold me an upgrade copy of Dreamweaver and assured me that it would upgrade my previous version.  As I downloaded the software, installed it, and discovered it would not work, the only comment she could muster was, "You will have to talk to support about that."

I have never sold anything in my life that I did understand or did not know how to use. To sell a product I have to personally believe it is the best product or service out there and one that I will use for my own needs if I am given the opportunity. I have never sold anything that I don't understand.

Like many salespeople, I have tried to always stand behind my recommendations even if they are for a product that I do not sell. If tell someone a product is wrong for them and it turns out that I made a good recommendation, I am likely to be consulted on the next purchase.

Perhaps of more interest to some is how being on the road has changed in eight years. After the hiatus in my twenty-plus years on the road, I can say far fewer people are traveling to do sales. That is no surprise since being on the road is a very expensive proposition these days especially as products have gotten less expensive.

The Marriott hotels which once seemed like a second home have changed little with the exception that the beds have more pillows and the soap is in a fancier shape. Fortunately I knew enough to bring my own bottles of water since the price of a bottle of water has doubled to $4 per bottle.

In today's world, if you are on the road, you are either working for a very large company or you are selling a very sophisticated product. The exception to the rule is those out there who are only peddling their knowledge.  With those folks, you just have to make certain their knowledge has some basis in reality. While Willie Loman lived on dreams, we have to be able to deliver our dreams if we want to stay in business in today's sophisticated world.

I did shine my leather crocs before leaving and I am riding on the dream that our company can make a difference in the availability of high quality broadband in the United States. If you are interested in the issue, you can read more at more my article, Just How Bad Is Your Internet Connection?

Traveling when you get to my age just makes you even happier to get home than I was in the days when I traveled each week instead of once a year or so.

Relentless Excellence

As my mother used to say, we all have choices in the world and once you have made one of those choices you need to give it your very best.

One of her favorite sayings was that even if I should chose to dig ditches for living, I should strive for being the best ditch digger in the world.

I took mother's advice to heart. Whatever goals I have chosen, I have refused to accept anything less than my personal best in pursuit of them.

Sometimes I have been really good at things when the timing for being truly successful was close to impossible. That has never stopped me from doing my best over the last several decades.

Doing your best and mastering things to the point of being really good at something is actually a recipe for living well. It is also a path to a lot of personal satisfaction. At times the road to that personal fulfillment is paved with a tremendous amount of hard work but I have found it well worth the effort. At this point I cannot live any other way. If I take on a task for someone, they will get my best and only my best.

I have never gotten to the point of abandoning my pursuit of excellent, and I have managed to make it far enough along the road to feel that I can be proud of what I achieved. I have also learned three things.

1. To be really successful at something, your heart has to be in it and you have to really want the result you are chasing.

2. There are times when you need to say "No." If a goal is not important to you personally, you will have a hard time delivering the kind of effort required to achieve the level success that will make you hungry for success the next time.

3. True success is addictive. When you have achieved it, you want to do it again and will be hungry for your next opportunity.

You will know those opportunities for success that fit your skills by the enthusiasm and unstoppable energy that seem to magically arise from within you just as you get to the point that others often turn back. You will have the willpower to make it over the mountain that often defeats people who have learned to accept less of themselves.

Relentless excellence and success is a little like being a wave in the ocean trying to reach beyond the high tide mark. Many waves make the effort but only a few actually throw themselves at the beach with enough power to get beyond the point in the sand where other waves run out of energy and are stopped.

Life is a challenge but our choices can make it better. Success brings an opportunity to live where you want and we have chosen a piece of coastal paradise that lets us have a life without walls for much of the year. That same beautiful environment has taught us to take only pictures and leave only footprints.