The "Fire and Forget" salesperson
Everyone has his or her own idea of what makes up the perfect salesperson.
He or she needs to be knowledgeable, credible, well groomed, and punctual and have
a good sense of social awareness and tact. All these are essential
components of an effective salesperson.
Let me add another component important not only in the field of sales, but
in all fields, professions and practices. That is the ability to be a
self-starter. What I like to call a “fire and forget” salesperson.
A “Fire and Forget” sales person is like the Terminator. They get the
job done without question. You don’t need to constantly remind them of
the task at hand or wonder if they are doing the right thing. You have
confidence that they will do both what you have directed them to do and what
they know needs doing. If you are a sales manager you would give your right
arm to have a sales team made up of people with this level of discipline and
responsibility. If you are a salesperson this should be your goal.
A good illustration of this quality is the article,
A Message to Garcia, which was written by Elbert Hubbard and originally
published in 1899. It is an article extolling the virtues of a true
“Fire and Forget” person who has the wherewithal to act independently and
the initiative to find the answers and directions he needed without constant
supervision and support.
The article describes a mission that needed to be accomplished during the
Spanish-American War. A message needed to be delivered to the
commander of the Cuban resistance but nobody knew how to find him or contact
him. Finally a man appeared who promised to find Garcia. He took
the message and delivered it to Garcia without asking a thousand questions
or making excuses. The article is worth a read and can be found
here.
What we need today are more men who can take a Message to Garcia. They
were hard to find in 1899 and they are still hard to find today.
Sales, and the world of work is dependent on people of strong character who
are willing to take responsibility and to get things done.
Unfortunately we have very few people like that in the world today.
Why?
Business owners and managers complain how hard it is to find good help,
educated workers with a sense of responsibility. It is hard to find
them. At the same time it is often the business owner or manager who
is responsible for this. We often fail to challenge our workers and
employees. We don’t trust them and we don’t give them the chance to
become someone who can deliver a Message to Garcia.
I am amazed when I compare the level of responsibility placed on young
people by the US Military. Here we have people with a modicum of
training who are armed with rifles and placed in charge of equipment worth
hundreds of millions of dollars. Contrast that to the peers of these
young people who are working at low-level jobs where they are neither
trusted nor given any responsibility. There is the disconnect
somewhere. Where is it?
My guess is that it is a failure of three things, leadership, training and
expectations. People want desperately to be led and to do something
exciting and meaningful with their lives. Yes, there are exceptions,
but the vast majority would love to be given a chance. The third
component is training. People need to be trained both in what is
expected of them and in what to do. When all three of these elements
come together people start to do great things.
