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Successful in business? How much did luck, or lack thereof, play in your situation?
One of my mentors long ago made a passing remark to me in connection with a pending reorganization. He said that sometimes letting someone go came down to him not having the time to help the individual. At the time, I thought that he was just being kind to blame it on himself instead of the underperforming employee.
At Funnelcast, we have the perspective of seeing a spectrum of salesperson performances across a variety of companies. And we do a see a lot of variability and salesperson churn in these businesses. This leads me to reflect frequently on my mentor's comment. Was he just being kind? I'm not so sure anymore.
In the classic broadway tune Luck Be a Lady from the show Guys and Dolls, composer and lyricist Frank Loesser eloquently pens a great metaphor for B2B sales. "The pickings have been lush. And yet before this evening is over you might give me the brush." Anyone who has ever worked on a complex sale knows how fickle things can be.
How does a B2B organization with a direct sales force grow? Sometimes the whole company is successful, and most salespeople in those companies are similarly successful. (Let’s call that company S.) But often the company sets aggressive goals, hires to the goal, and only a few salespeople are successful. We see this a lot. And it always results in high salesperson churn. (Let’s call that company C.)
Inquissima haec bellorum condicio est: prospera omnes sibi indicant, aduersa uni imputantur. — Cornelius Tacitus, Agricola 27:1 (~ 98AD) Roughly translated: This is an unfair thing about war: victory is claimed by all, failure to one alone.
So, were the successful ones in company S skilled or was it good luck to be in the right company at the right time? Were the unsuccessful ones in company S bad salespeople or was it their bad fortune? And were the successful ones in company C really that talented or was it the luck of the lottery that they happened to work on the right opportunities? Were there talented people in company C who nevertheless failed due to their circumstances and a few bad breaks?
I know there is an argument that the successful ones continue to be successful in subsequent periods. And there's merit to that. But there are other explanations. We have to ask, is the repeated success due to their skills? Or is it that, once successful, the organization directs those people to work on the most promising situations? (You wouldn't want to give your most important accounts to unproven rookies, or to the lowest performers.) Do others in the organization afford more resources (consciously or unconsciously) to the previously successful ones? And when these people do fail, does the organization cut them more slack than they would for others?
I found this post by video blogger Derek Muller most useful in putting this into perspective. Derek shows that luck can play a much bigger role in success than we think. His point:
Our circumstances and psychology conspire to make us oblivious to our own luck. And this leads successful people to view the world as fair. And those who are less successful than them as less talented, or less hard working. ... What to do if you want to be successful in such a world? I think that the best advice is paradoxical. First, you must believe that you are in complete control of your destiny. And that your success comes down only to your own talent and hard work. But second, you’ve got to know that’s not true—for you or anyone else. You have to remember if you do achieve success that luck played a significant role and given your good fortune, you should do what you can to increase the luck of others.
Let’s be clear, sales and business are performance games. Cutting the bottom third of the sales team to boost productivity is the oldest trick in the sales leader's book. But before you form an opinion about someone's talents or reorganize because of their successes and failures, you should consider the possibilities; and how you can contribute to the success of others.
I'd like to say that our sales math can show you these things: if someone has a super-difficult set of accounts or if they had a few bad breaks. And thereby tell you if under-performers are untalented or just unlucky. I can't. That's very hard and that's your job.
But, you can use our sales math to understand where and when to focus resources to maximize sales. Instead of cutting the bottom, you could help your salespeople sell more by providing the attention and resources when needed. Isn't that your job?
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