The Rolling Stones...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Aug 07, 2012

No question that the Stones are the greatest rock band in music history...and least in my world.  They’ve released 24 studio albums, done nine concert albums and have album sales estimated at more than 200 million worldwide.  But most importantly, they’re still at it, still writing, still rocking and still living large.  As the Stones celebrate their 50th year as a band, and Mick and Keith both turn 70, there are talks of another world tour.  And, if there is, I’m in the front row, as usual.  Never missed a U.S. tour, and I don’t plan to for what might be the last one, but then I said that about both the Steel Wheels and Voodoo Lounge tours.

Rolling Stones & Sales

As you think about your age, whether you’re 30, 45 or 70, just make sure that you’re doing what you love, what excites and inspires you and, of course, what pays you a couple of bucks such that you’re not looking over your shoulder.   I was giving a speech at the Middlesex Bank back in June and made the comment that “I’m a bit older than most of you in the audience” to emphasize a point on the relationship between age, energy and sales productivity, and one of my “friends” commented, “…a bit older? It’s a bit more than a bit”, which produced a big laugh and got me to thinking a lot about age and sales. 

To me as a salesguy out on the street pretty much every day, the issue of age is in one’s head.  Of course, health matters first, but poor health or a debilitating disease can affect us when we’re 20 or 70, and it’s going to take a toll no matter what.  Assuming that we can manage our health in most instances, then age becomes a personal head issue.  I’ve met 40 year old sales people who constantly complain about their job, their boss and their customers.  These people act as if they’re ready to retire, since it sure seems like that’s what they would prefer to be doing rather than getting on the phone and embracing the chase.  And, then there’s warriors like my friend, Jack Falvey, who’s out there every day, giving motivational sales speeches, down in Washington in the morning and having dinner with customers in San Francisco that night.  By now, Jack must be close to a million years old, maybe two, but I never think about Jack’s age or the ages of Warren Buffet, of Henry Kissinger or of the Stones.  All I know is that they’re still out there working and selling hard and still making great music whether it’s on Wall Street, in the studio or in front of their customers.

Sales and AgeAs I become older, I have no intention of stopping what I’m doing.  I love the work we do at the company even more so today in the rapidly changing and challenging world of Sales 2.0 and Marketing 3.0.  I look forward to taking on even more in my teaching at MIT and Tufts, and I love the challenges in my most recent passion of working with very exciting, extremely interesting and extraordinarily bright people at Common Angels.   Add to that, that although we now have many hundreds of customers primarily in New England, I know that we still haven’t sold everyone we could in Cambridge let alone in Providence and Nashua, so every day presents new opportunities.  

Take a minute or three as you hit the beaches or the woods on this last month of what has been a superb summer and think through this issue of age, of your love and passion for what you do and most importantly, what you’re planning to do to improve your skills such that you continue to stay on the competitive edge of both your mental and physical age.

Me?  I’m going to figure out how to get front row Stones tickets again.

Check out Mick and the band viewing their 50 year Stones history

Good selling!

 

Jack
Head Coach
Linked In and Sales

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