Being adaptable is the name of the game
BY MITCH HARPER
Special to The Wholesaler
As I mentioned in last month’s column, there is a lot we can learn a lot from watching professional baseball. In Part I, we discussed “small ball” — a moniker for the National League — and its strategy. This month I’ll share with you the lessons we can learn from the American League. To set the stage, here is a brief understanding of the “big ball” played in the American League.
The American League has one distinct difference from the National League: The pitcher does not have to bat; they call this using a designated hitter. This designated hitter, in fact, does not even have to own a glove because all they do is hit. They are literally on the team because they are hitting specialists. All this translates to more runs being scored in the American League.
During times of plenty and market growth, distributors might need to change our strategy and from small ball to more of a big ball approach.
As I mentioned last month, no matter what the economy is doing, the key is to determine what areas to focus on at any given time. Later in this article are a number you may want to consider. Remember, you only want to focus on one or two — three at the absolute maximum. But before looking at the tactical items to consider, here are the three overriding principles to keep in mind. The idea is to focus more on the run (outcome) rather than the on-base percentage. There will be strikeouts, but also home runs. And know that as you continue long-range planning efforts, the game itself will change so being adaptable is critical.
Long-term people development
We talked last month about development of individuals based upon deficient skill sets. When distributors don’t have a lot of time like in small ball, our efforts must produce immediate measurable results.
In long-term development, distributors must look beyond those specific sales procedure skill sets to education. This is the difference between training and education. In training you want actions to change; in education you want thought process changes. In this area distributors focus on business financial understanding, understanding new markets, deeper account penetration, account strategy development and account measurement. You are building depth in your people when you commit to long-term development. Continuing education at a collegiate level is a great form of this type of development. As business owners and managers, distributors need to secure some form of agreement for any extensive dollar or time investment from the company’s standpoint.
Build bench strength
It seems that during times of expanding economy, turnover increases. With this increase in turnover, distributors are left unexpectedly short handed. Those who have weathered several business cycles know this is going to happen again.
Beyond attempting to keep their people, it is a distributor’s responsibility to build its bench strength. This is accomplished through cross-training, identifying high-potential candidates in the organization, articulating business structure and opportunities to all employees, developing career paths and understanding individual career goals. For your most critical positions, you need to have a back-up plan and person in mind to fill the position should it become available. Once this is in place, there is a document that can serve distributors well when they choose to expand our organizations.
Protect your hitters
In the American League a good designated hitter is worth his weight in gold. Distributors need to not only identify our “hitters,” but equally as important you need to protect them. In baseball teams place other hitters around the designated hitter to ensure they get the chance to do what they do best — hit the ball. Distributors can really learn from this mindset. Can we remove some unnecessary paper work or busy work from these hitters? Are there some business actions you can take that will help them be even stronger hitters? This is where the conversation changes to hunters, farmers, rain-makers, maintainers, etc. You have all heard these terms and in essence they provide ideas for segmenting our sales force. If you have specific sales skills that can be enhanced by changing your process, you need to strongly consider doing so when big ball presents itself.
Swing way — move runners with sticks not steals
In big ball times distributors can afford to take advantage of being more aggressive. More aggressive can mean moving into new industrial channels, bringing in big hitter, and taking on new lines. You must consider this just like any investment. There will be some wins and some losses; your intention and hope in this area should be for the wins to far outweigh the losses. By definition this means that you will see home-runs as well as strikeouts.
The all-time home-run leader Barry Bonds had a total of 12,606 plate appearance. In these plate appearances, he had 762 home runs. As impressive as these numbers are he also had 1,539 strikeouts.
This meant that every 16.54 times that Bonds came to the plate he was going to hit a home run. It also means that every 8.19 times Bonds was at the plate he struck out. This would mean that for each home run Bonds hit, there needed to be people on base in order to compensate for the number of strikeouts. The same holds true for us, as we take swings and chances we must measure wins.
As with anything distributors do in business, most things are not black and white and cut and dry. Most times in your sales strategy you will play a component or two from each of the leagues at any given time.
Remember, business isn’t for the faint of heart – it is hard but rewarding work! Hard work pays off!
Mitch Harper speaks and teaches internationally on sales and marketing. He has served as a senior lecturer at Texas A&M University ad Baylor University in their respective Industrial Distribution programs. Harper received B.S. and Masters degrees in Industrial Distribution from Texas A&M. He also has extensive experience in sales and business development as an executive and business owner. He has founded and sold several companies, in addition to being recognized for his achievements winning the Rotary Newman Award for fastest growing firms (four times) and being a finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (twice). Contact him at mitch@hwpo.com or 979/823-5150, or visit www.hwpo.com.