SWING YOUR SWORD!
Recruiting, Coaching,
Developing and Training Your Team to Win
(A note to the Reader: This is a piece I wrote for my sales team when we closed out last year and began to focus on the new year. It has been edited from the original document to make it more readable for a general audience.)
As
we close the books on last year – a year in which our area saw double-digit losses
in sales over prior year, we ready ourselves to face a new year. Many of us have overhauled our teams,
streamlined our sales forces and have come out leaner than we were a year ago. But are we better? Are we ready to face a market that is
retrenching and consolidating? Can we
really fight the pricing and reimbursement declines that seem to be a daily
challenge? Can we sell competitively? Can we win in the market with the team we
have on the field?
We
have all tried to attract strong competitive talent to our organization. When we couldn’t get competitive talent, we
went and got kids that had those intangible skills we thought we could mold in
the likeness of a winner. We would
coach, develop and train this talent, but yet too many times we guessed wrong
or simply found after significant investment, that the talent we did attract --
couldn’t cut it. Simply stated, we don’t
always attract the right talent nor put the best team on the field. Some of that goes to product and market
place, but clearly others are winning with the same bag and the same
conditions. What makes them
successful? Usually it boils down to
leadership and talent. How then do we
get better at recruiting, coaching, developing and playing better with the
players we do attract? How do we get the
most out of them? When you can’t find
the best talent, can you still build a great team with lesser talent? I think so --
So
I give you the gift of this book and how it applies to selling: Leading
the Charge in Football and Life – SWING YOUR SWORD by Mike Leach,
former coach of Texas Tech, co-written with Michael Lewis – the author of Moneyball. I have been reading it over the last couple
of weeks and it has inspired me to reflect on my own ability to coach and
develop talent – and ultimately, play more intelligently in our market.
Coach
Leach made a living at Texas Tech, recruiting average talent, and then coaching
and developing this talent into great players and great teams. He sets the right tone, attitude and
expectations – he keeps it simple – then applies an excellent, uncomplicated
scheme to exploit competitive weaknesses.
The
state of Texas produces more four and five star high school football players
than any other state. While schools
like Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M grab the biggest stars in the state,
Texas Tech routinely competes for what’s left after these marquee schools have
filled their ranks with the best players. Before Mike Leach arrived at Texas Tech, the
school offered the least in terms of ‘product’ – poor facilities, small budget
and a low graduation rate. It had
neither tradition, nor a history of consistent winning.
Six
years under Coach Leach changed all that.
He went from the worst graduation rate to the best in college
football. In 2008, the Red Raiders
reached their pinnacle, finishing with a #7 national ranking while beating the
then #1 Texas Longhorns. Recently, Coach
Leach accepted the head coaching position for the Washington State
Cougars.
In
SWING YOU SWORD Coach Leach, used the story of pirates and their swords
to motivate his football players. Coach
Leach explains how pirates viewed their swords the same way football players
should view their bodies: “They took great
pride in their swords, sharpening them just like players do their bodies by
lifting the weights and doing all the drills we do.”
Fortunately,
we don’t have to lift weights to do well selling in our industry. But never-the-less, we do have to ‘sharpen
our sword’—and in our industry, our sword is our people. We have to sharpen them to a fine edge so
that we can win in battle. CALL TO ACTION: How will you swing your sword in the coming year? What are you going to do to improve your
recruiting, hiring, training and developing of your people? What scheme are you going to employ to help
them crack the top companies in our industry?
Here
are a few ideas and insights from Mike Leach extracted from SWING
YOUR SWORD. (These quotes are
not all encompassing – the book is filled with many others.) Each quote is followed by a few questions
designed to get you to think about the quote in the context of your
business. They are not in any particular
order:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“You
need confidence to be successful, but it’s success that breeds confidence. There’s this chicken-or-the-egg deal to the
equation. At some point, you just have
to decide you’re going to be confident.
Then, as you do, you’re going to have more success. “
Are you confident
going into the new year? If not what are you
doing about it? How will you exude
confidence so that you can have more success?
Confidence above all else (not price, selection, quantity, service, etc)
is the reason that your customer buys from you.
How are you and your team instilling confidence everyday that you are
the person that brings greater value?
“Sometimes
you believe that a certain way of doing things is best only to find out later
that it isn’t.”
What
beliefs of yours were challenged last year?
Was there a belief that you held was the best way of doing something
(recruiting, hiring, firing, developing, selling, etc.) only to find out later
is wasn’t?
“In
old Westerns they’ll talk about how killing changes a man. Well, firing or cutting someone does too.”
Who did
you fire or ‘cut’ from your team? How
did it change you, your team or them?
“You’re
either coaching it or allowing it to happen.”
What are
you not coaching that you should be … what are you allowing to happen that you
shouldn’t?
“…
I only experienced it when I was in the head coach role. You’re beyond invested in the program – it’s
your head on the block. It’s amazing the
stuff you’re able to remember, sort out, conceive, and anticipate. It’s also amazing what you’re blind to when
you’re running ahead at full speed toward your goal. You’re just going, going, going and with
that, you assume everybody’s behind you at the same rate.”
As the
head coach of your distributorship, what periodic checks can you employ to
ensure that everybody’s behind you at the same rate?
“It’s
vital to make things more complicated for the opponent.”
Our
opponent is not our customers – it’s our competition. What
you are doing every day to make things more complicated for them?
“One
significant advantage offense has over defense is that the offense runs their
package more than any defense works on defending it. An offense can run the plays that they rep
every day … the defense has to work against a variety of different offenses
through the season… they simply don’t have as much time to fine-tune their
execution as the offense does.”
What
offensive package are you running? How
often do you practice it, role play it?
Are you letting the defense dictate your offense? Our offense is indications specific … we
want to score as often as possible. We
are smaller and leaner than are opponents, so we have to be smarter and more
agile to win. We’ll run our core offense
(our core products) --
every player should know these plays inside and out. We’ll use our differentiating products to
attack the opponent’s defensive scheme, including home field advantage (differentiating products). Then
we’ll use our new products to change up
our offense as we scheme from account to account.
“Being
a great communicator is something I constantly strive to be. The central role of a coach is to reach his
players. I believe that everyone is capable
of great effort … You may not always be capable of great results, but you are
capable of great effort. Anybody can try
hard. A coach has to be able to explain
to his players how they can get the best out of themselves.”
How can
you improve or change your communication next year to get the most effort out of
your team?
“I
want to have a role in the improvement of my players. I don’t buy into the notion that whoever has
the best players automatically wins.
I’ve never believed that, and I never will.”
Do you
hold the opinion that the team with the best players automatically wins? What can you do to improve your players or
change their selling techniques to improve their results?
“It’s
a copout whenever you hear a coach say that they told a player something over
and over and over again, but the guy just won’t do it. It’s your job to hold the player and yourself
accountable. It’s your job to find a way
to make him understand how to do it.”
Think
about a time that you blamed the player and didn’t hold yourself
accountable. What happened? Why?
How will you improve accountability and coaching this coming year?
“The
author Michael Lewis once said to me – and I hadn’t given it much thought till
he pointed it out – that I’m the most curious person he’s ever met. I try to absorb as much as I can because
there’s so much besides football.”
How many
of you eat, sleep and drink your industry only?
What are you doing to stay up on current affairs, sports, history,
science, law and politics etc? How are you building connection points with your customers beyond your industry? How are you imparting this to your
people?
“The
other thing that I appreciate about ___________ is his ability to laugh at
himself, and to see the humor in things where others see only misery. Some people are too closed minded to enjoy
the differences and variety that other people can offer.”
Do you
laugh at yourself? Do you take things
too seriously? How will you make your
job and your agency more fun this year?
How will you open your mind to the differences and variety that your
team offers?
“In
order to coach effectively, you have to be a good people watcher. You have to study their nuances, how they
represent themselves, and how they interact with others … Despite how great
your scheme is or how great your technique, you have to understand that the
players out there executing are people, and all people are different. The better you understand them, the more
effective you can get them to be, the better you’ll be as a team … Discovering
the ideal way to motivate someone is the ultimate challenge for any
leader. It’s gigantic. There is an art to it.”
Besides
increased compensation, do you know what really motivates each member of your
team? How are you getting the most out
of them as individuals and as a team? Is
it working? What can you do better?
“Once
in a while, you come to the realization that nothing you do is going to
motivate a player. On any number of
levels, this type of player is going to hold the rest of the team back, and in
those cases the best thing you can do is get rid of him.”
When have
you held on to an employee for too long?
How many times have you tried to motivate an employee only to no
avail? What kept you from cutting this
member sooner?
“I
think everyone needs a push. If you’re
driven, you might find ways to push yourself, but you still need an outside
nudge from time to time.”
How do
you nudge each member of your team? How
often do you nudge them? Do you nudge
them only when they make mistakes, when they need encouragement or when they
just had a key win?
“Balancing
personalities is one of the trickiest jobs you have as a coach. It is important to listen to your players,
observe them, really pay attention to the nuances in their actions and
interactions.”
How do
you balance the personalities of your team?
Do you care? Do you really pay
attention and listen to your team members?
Do you pay attention to their actions and interactions?
“We
also wanted to leverage their defense in our favor. I tell my quarterbacks, draw a line down the
center’s a**, and if you see more defenders on one side of that line than the
other, you probably need to go where there are fewer of them.”
Is your
team spending too much time going to accounts where there are more defenders or
are they going where there are few of them?
“On
top of it all, your players respond to your attitude, and regardless of whether
you just had a great play or a bad one, it’s the next play that counts.”
What
attitude are you demonstrating every day?
“You
have to maintain focus, for yourself and for your team. There are always a bunch of things out there
that you can see, but it’s important to not overload your player.”
How do
you keep your team and yourself focused?
Do you have a plan and is it simple?
“I
watched two games from up in the booth.
You can see the game better, but it’s not like you can’t still see the
game pretty clearly from the sideline.
The biggest element I felt like I lost being up in the booth was the
emotional connection to the players.”
Are you a
booth coach or a sideline coach?
“I
find that the most difficult teams to play against are the ones that operate
under a similar philosophy to mine.
They don’t try to make too much happen in any one play. They’re good about executing good plays with
good technique. This mindset usually
comes from the MEDIUM-TALENT teams.”
Does your
team try to make too much happen on every customer call? Do they execute a good sales call or service the product well – using good selling and customer service interaction fundamentals? Can they outsell medium-talent teams?
“…
I do find the term “outside the box” lame, overused, and non-descript. Really, I’m just striving to be open-minded
in my search for solutions. My mindset
is no guts, no glory.”
Are you
open or closed minded in your search for solutions? How often have you picked up the phone and
asked your fellow agents how they are having success?
Mike
Leach on Coach John Wooden: “He’s the one who said the thing that’s going to
impact the score is you doing the best you can, and if you want to change the
score, change yourself.”
How will
you change the score this year?
“Bad
effort is the kiss of death when you’re evaluating someone. Unless you can convince yourself that you’re
the one who can change the guy’s mentality, you don’t need to have him on your
team … Typically really lazy people don’t become hard workers. Avoid underachievers.”
How can
you improve your recruiting and hiring to avoid underachievers?
“There have been several people that I regret not cutting, but I’ve never made a cut that I
regret. There’s a definite quality of
addition by subtraction … If you decide you can’t change them, then ask
yourself, “Can I live with it?” If the
answer is no, you have to cut them.”
Have you
not made a cut that needs to be made?
Can you live with keeping them?
Mike
Leach on Rex Ryan: “Rex told me, “I did
the best in classes that I enjoyed, which is why it’s important to me that my
coaches have the ability to make our players enjoy practices and
meetings.” “Rex has an acronym he likes
to operate by, “KILL – Keep it Likable and Learnable.”
How are
you making your sales efforts, coaching and developing, and training likeable
and learnable? What can you change for the coming year?
Juan
Castillo, Philadelphia Eagles assistant coach:
“For me, it always came down to, ‘What do I have to do to get my guy
better?’ … There is a confidence factor
in me and I see it in Coach Leach. We’re
not scared of being underdogs. We both
have the ‘Why not me?’ attitude and know that when you work hard, good things
happen.”
What are
you doing to make your guys better?
We’re underdogs … are you scared of being so? Do you have a ‘Why not me?’ attitude?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enjoy
the book. Take a couple of weeks to
digest the book and begin to ask these questions I have posed. Take them seriously and earnestly apply the
lessons to your own sales force. Look forward to this coming year ... and SWING YOUR SWORD!!
