Last week, I hosted our annual CEO Forum, where we invited just 30 leaders from our customers to come together and talk about their perspective and outlook for the upcoming year. Purposefully, the audience mix is always very broad ranging from heads of government agencies to CEOs of consumer product companies and every possible market in between. Always for me, this is an exciting and entertaining event, as I attempt to facilitate ideas and comments among a diverse and energetic mix of leaders answering a series of broad questions…
What we heard during the discussion, during dinner and then from the after-dinner speaker, who focused his comments on Washington, were two primary concerns/opportunities:
2.
For #1, I’m not sure that anyone can resolve this concern until we’re faced with another Thelma & Louise driving-over-the-cliff-exercise, which will, most probably, continue to kick the proverbial can down the proverbial road. The tough changes will only happen through tough leadership. The walk-away from the dinner was that the peak of the Obama reign is right now, and that both his ratings and his impact will begin to significantly slide over the next two years right up to the time that he becomes just a lame duck for his final two years. No matter which side of the political chasm that one is lined up on today, I think we can all agree that there’s a lack of economic leadership everywhere. It’s a tough situation, especially at a time when business in general is doing much better and optimism is starting to creep back into our vocabulary once again. It’s exactly at this time that the U.S. needs strong leadership.
Which then brought us to the real world (not the fantasyland of Washington) of applying this same desire for strong leadership to our own companies and the question of why it’s so difficult to hire AAA sales leaders? Is it because…
So, while we can’t do much about dealing with the lack of leadership in Washington, we do have the means, especially now at the beginning of the year, to totally control the development of our sales management and the performance of their team. For example, no matter what the size of company, every one of us could very easily…
We have lots of choices, and numerous no/low cost tactics that we could employ, and now’s the time to do something starting this first week in February when we still have time to make a difference on 2013 revenue.
Remember, as you’re watching the Super Bowl this weekend, no one got to New Orleans and became a member of the best performing teams in America by just hoping that their performance would improve. Being the best at the top-most levels of performance, no matter what the business or the sport, “simply” comes down to the selection, the skills training, and the personal development of the team, all orchestrated by the senior manager.
Welcome to 2013...and Good Selling!
January was a real solid month, and it sounds like it's going to be a great year!