Swing Your Sword

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. 

60-minutes interview with Coach Mike Leach: www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4697690n

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: 

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“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? 

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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!!