With anxiety and the fear of the unknown, I headed to Vermont last Friday night for the first time since the floods to see for myself what had happened to our house.  Since friends had already walked the property and checked things out, I knew that we were one of the lucky ones and had no damage.  With our road now fully reconstructed, it was now time to venture into the bustling metropolis of Bondville, population 647, at the base of Stratton Mountain. After confirming that the house was okay, I drove to the general store in stunned silence shocked by the surrounding damage that our tiny river had caused ripping out bridges and tossing 100 pound rocks by the hundreds into our field which, at the height of the storm, had been under five feet of water.   

Fearing the worst and assuming that the answer would be “the summer of 2012”, I asked Lorraine, the owner of the general store, when she thought that the bridges, which had been totally washed away between our town and the southern entrance to Vermont off 91, would be repaired.  Totally nonplussed, her answer was proudly “by the end of the month”.    Being the smart guy from Boston, I knew that that she had made an obvious mistake, so I merely asked, “How could that be possible?”, and her one word answer of “volunteers” typified the essence of Vermont:  direct, to the point and just a bit defiant.  

In fact, Lorraine was just a bit wrong.  The reconstruction took just five more days at which time the entire 35 mile road between Bondville and Brattleboro, which had had five bridges totally wash away merely two weeks ago, was back in operation last Wednesday.  A bit bumpy and twisty-turny in a couple of places, but wide open.

The reality is that Vermonters didn’t have any choice in a state where tourism is the industry.  Foliage season contributes 25% of the state’s revenue while the winter provides an additional 50%.  With the calendar working against them and winter on the horizon, Vermonters at the grass roots level of every small town realized that they needed to get something done immediately.  Without waiting for FEMA, large and small contractors, giant earth movers and pickups, pile drivers and sledgehammers and hundreds of volunteers with shovels moved ahead to get it done…and it worked.  Vermont is once again open for business.  A bit bruised and with far too many tragic stories of hard working people losing their houses and all of their belongings, but it’s back in business…just in time for those buses jammed full of leaf peepers from Indiana.   

This spirit of “getting it done” is driving hundreds of Vermonters this month to work 24/7.  Our experience is that same spirit of drive is often the only key differentiator between the average “good” and the overachieving “excellent” salesperson when it comes down to crunch time at the end of the month or the quarter.
Selling anything today is tough work.  Long gone are the days of the relationship sale.  In an environment where value propositions count more than features, where price has been replaced with total cost of ownership, and ROI is the decision metric rather than the number of rounds of golf played with the buyer, these personal attributes of drive, commitment, and “getting it done” are much more critical to sales success than anything else.   

“Getting it done” worked in Vermont, and it will work in your sales organization in these last two weeks of the quarter.  It just takes strength of leadership on our part as managers and a conviction to get it done!

Good Selling!

Jack Derby
Head Coach