Acknowledgements
When you see a Grammy winner or any other famous person accepting an award get up to give an acceptance speech, a small groan from inside probably rattles around within you. The important truth though is that this person has some true heartfelt thanks for persons that without their help that famous person would not be standing there boring you to tears.
Well, start groaning, or flip the page, as I have many people who have contributed to not only the publication of this book, but also to whom I have become today.
As I say in my seminars and workshops, 90% of the information I share with my clients or share with you in this book I learned from someone else. I have found in my experience that most people I have had the opportunity to work with were much smarter than I, more experienced than I, yet I had the desire and ability to learn from them.
I want to first thank my wife, who is my best friend and business partner. Without her I would still be trying to figure out how to complete the first chapter. Shannon is one of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life, and I am lucky to call her my wife.
I also would like to thank many of the leaders I have had over the past eighteen years. I have been very fortunate to have worked with and learned from great mentors. The lessons they have taught me have enabled much of my corporate and entrepreneur success. Thanks to Mark Hood who took a chance and hired a nineteen-year-old kid to sell life and health insurance. Thanks to Gary Sullivan who took the time to help me create my first real business plan and had the tough conversation with me about what I needed to do to get to the next level. Thanks to Brad Mitchell, who gave me my first management job at twenty-four years of age. He taught me to become responsible for a team and held me accountable to the highest standards. Thanks to Jim Moreland, mentor and friend, who showed me how a team would unconditionally follow a leader. And thanks to all of the other great leaders I have had the opportunity to work with in my career and life.
I would like to thank my parents for everything they have done for me over my lifetime. To my mother, who is my friend and keeps me on the right path, I sincerely thank you. And to my father, who is also my business partner and mentor, offering sound advice and help even when I am not smart enough to ask for it, I offer you my heartfelt thanks and gratitude.
Each of the above mentioned, and more, taught me something I still use in my business today along with many of the ideas I share with you in this book. To the hundreds of team members and peers I have had over the past ten years, thank you for the roads traveled both smooth and rough.
I would like to thank The Trade Group for helping to put together a powerful book.
I would like to thank Joe Calloway, whom I called shortly after I got in the speaking and writing business. He not only offered to help, but believed in me enough to support me.
Lastly, I would like to thank the many friends and family members that have encouraged and believed in me.
Introduction
I remember one Sunday afternoon when my brain started to wander while watching the Dallas Cowboys play the Minnesota Vikings. Instead of arm-chair quarter backing the game, I began thinking about how in the business world we use a lot of sports analogies.
This of course makes sense because there are tons of similarities between a successful football team and a successful sales team. They both must have a great leader, draft the best players every year, practice regularly, focus on the basic fundamentals of blocking and tackling, execute, minimize turn-overs in employees (good ones at least), and lose deals to the competition. They both rely on teamwork, positive mental attitudes, strong belief systems, motivated team members, and so on.
The correlation between sports and business led me to pursue this concept further. After exploring the concept with my business mentors and peers, I ultimately decided to write this book.
I am not a writer by trade. I am, however, a seasoned sales leader, and it is from this experience that I write this book. For fifteen years, I carried a sales bag and led sales teams across the United States. During my tenure, I learned and grew through my experiences in the board room and the streets. I was taught by the greatest school (and I am not referring to the colleges I attended). I was taught by the school of hard work. Some of the greatest professional lessons I learned came from my leaders, peers, employees and customers.
Over the years, I have experienced great success along with failure. Both types of experiences have strengthened me and made me into a better person. But here is how I look at it: as long as I keep trying, I am always moving forward.
I have implemented my playbook for success several hundred times with individuals and teams. Without fail, those who desired success and believed they could be successful – achieved success. It is a phrase that is used too often so that it has become dull and mainstream. But the truth of this entire book (and your success) is: “If you believe you can do it, you will.”
Are There Natural Born Salespeople?
In my professional lifetime I have heard many sales people and sales leaders express their desire to be “as good as someone else, who is a natural born sales person (or natural born leader).” In response, I always asked them, “So, what is stopping you?” And from my experience, the only one acceptable answer to this question is, “Me.” Each one of us is the one that controls our talents, abilities, and (most importantly) success.
But the real truth is that no one is born great at anything. People may have inherent talents, but they must practice to be great at a set skill. Take Tiger Woods, who is not a natural born golfer. Sure he may have been born with talent, but he had to practice and learn how to be the “best golfer in history.”
It is a common misconception that someone is born great. All too often, this belief is used as an excuse for those who are not succeeding rather than a compliment to the ones who are dedicated and willing to practice to be great. It is much easier to say “Joe is a natural born leader” than “I do not want to work as hard as Joe.” Now, I am not saying that some people are not trying to be complimentary in the phrase, but more often than not folks are just using the “natural born” phrase as a self-imposed limitation and excuse.
In the game of basketball, one could easily say that someone can be too short to play. If that is completely true, then what about Spud Webb? He was only 5 feet, 7 inches tall. He played 12 seasons in the NBA and won the slam dunk contest in 1986.
What about Dick Hoyt whose son was born with Cerebral Palsy? Imagine what people told him he could not do. Since 1977, he had been running marathons and competing in Iron Man contests. Then Dick decided to compete with his son by pulling him on a cart from his bicycle, swimming while pulling his son in a boat, and running while pushing him on a cart.
How about great leaders like Samuel M. Walton? He is said to have been one the greatest business leaders of all time – building one of the most powerful retail businesses in history. None of the people that are part of these great success stories were born with this skill or talent to achieve these great feats, but they all became great.
So, I challenge you as you read this book to decide what kind of leader you want to be and follow the key steps of belief, determination, and discipline to achieve your greatness.
Book Structure and Organization
If you are like me, most times when I have purchased or received a book I only get about halfway through
