Sunday, April 29, 2012

BloggeRhythms 4/29/2012

Years ago, I was fortunate enough to be invited to join a sales force comprised of some of the most talented folks in the nation, working for the most successful lessor of equipment that industry had ever seen. And there I naturally gained the opportunity to work-side-by side with some extremely bright and highly intuitive people. 

There were many things that made the job exciting, and the rewards for success were huge compared to most other endeavors, however, the employer knew this quite well and thus, not only expected but demanded stellar results. Consequently, the bargain both sides agreed to upon one's accepting employment was that if the sales results projected weren't achieved by the end of ninety days, the employee was terminated without discussion...no if's, no and's, no but's. Kaput.

Now, as far as the ninety day performance goal was concerned, it didn't just apply to the first three months of acclimation to the job, it was continually adjusted and was reinstated every single quarter down the road, the rationale being that the marketplace didn't ever coast so why should salesmen? And aside from that, there were scads of high-performers elsewhere who'd gladly work their tails off for the chance to join this elite team which was very well known to all, and who would have been delighted to replace a faltering member in a heartbeat or even faster without a scintilla of remorse for the terminated goner.

When I came on board with this organization, my manager was one of the most successful performers in their history, and as I think would be expected, extremely, bright, articulate, clever, well educated and by then, highly experienced to boot. In fact, he was exactly what you'd expect someone to be that was tasked with financing top-of-the-line IBM mainframes and peripheral equipment to some of the most highly recognized businesses in the U.S. High six-figure transactions were every-day routine, with configuration costs going up from there amid a highly competitive market segment. To win in this arena one had to be very, very much better than simply extremely good.

I thought of him today because I clearly remember his early words to me when I inquired about getting acclimated to my new job. He suggested that the best way to understand what our employer -or any other for that matter- wanted was to read the compensation plan in detail. Because within the plan there will be varying degrees of incentive for different types of sales, and obviously the highest amounts will be rewarded for the one's the company wants most. And that factor by itself will tell you where to spend your time wisely. He went on to say that he thought that basic premise was universal and applied to most business situations regardless of type.

Looking back on my manager's theory now, I realize that one of today's economic problems overall is that there's no government plan or incentive to stimulate economic growth or success at all, but instead...all kinds of penalties for failure. In fact, not only is there much more emphasis on penalizing businesses in whatever manner can be contrived, the objective seems to be headed for fining producers first, collecting from them, and forcing them to prove their innocence later. Therefore, the whole dynamic of building a thriving economy is upside down.

So, in summary I guess the solution to productive growth is pretty simple. All government needs to do is put a plan on the table that incents businesses to grow via financial incentive, such as tax breaks or credits for reaching particular goals. And once they do that all they have to do is keep quiet, stay consistent and get out of the way. The success will quickly take care of itself.

That's it for today folks.

Adios

No comments:

Post a Comment