Carew Insights

Jeff Seeley
CEO
Carew International, Inc.

I recently did my annual 1300 mile corn tour from Cincinnati to Denver and was listening to an old Dave Matthews Band tune. “We wake up in the morning, do our teeth, bite to eat and we’re rolling… never changes a thing. The week ends, the week begins.” (Dave Matthews, Ants Marching lyrics) It hit me that as sales professionals, we can find ourselves in a dangerously uncomplicated routine.

Particularly during these recent economic woes, we have often put ourselves in the defensive mode, sticking to the safest route, and creating a routine that repeats itself day in and day out. After all, it is tough to be creative and innovative when we’re struggling to keep our heads above water (keeping sales up, trying to meet customer demands) while keeping our heads below the firing line (making sure that we did not risk our position). This approach can quickly become a dangerous habit… taking fewer chances, putting aside exciting ideas until better times or the right moment.

At one point in my journey, I found myself stranded at a BP station in the middle of Illinois. During the 90 minutes I was stationed next to a gas pump, there was never a word exchanged between the other patrons and me; each person coming and going, doing the same thing, the same way and moving on. Again, I recognized life imitating business. As sales professionals, we can fall into this trap of putting our heads down and dutifully marching forward -- doing the same things, the same way, same time, same words, same solutions and on and on without ever realizing we become almost robotic in our sales calls.

But if we do nothing more than sit on the fence trying to be in the right place, but more importantly, trying NOT to be a problem or create issues, we become more of a target than a valued provider. And while this approach is not very inspiring for our customers, it plays right into the hands of our competitors.

We need to shake off the routine and add some excitement to our game. The reality is that we cannot over indulge our customers in terms of the innovation and value we bring to them. More and more evidence is coming forth that, while we are not quite out of the woods from the September ‘08 economic meltdown, we are moving closer to the upward trend. Understanding that the bruises of recent economic troubles are disappearing, but not forgotten, there couldn’t be a better time to get customers focused on the positive. It’s time to take some chances and explore what might be possible, and do so with a re-engaged energy, enthusiasm and love of the art of sales.

(Apologies to Dave Matthews, lyrics from Ants Marching copyright 1994)