Chapter 19.
Focus on the Result,
Not the Excuse

A leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless...someone’s got to make a wake-up call.

—Warren Bennis

If you are a sales manager, you probably run into the same frustrations that Frank conveyed to us when we talked last week.

“I believe I need advice on how to deliver the ‘Just Do It’ message to my people,” Frank said. “I’ve said it every way I can, and I think I’m starting to sound like a broken record. I don’t know why I called you. I thought maybe you were advising your clients to pick up some new book to read, or that you might have some general words of wisdom.”

“What, specifically, is your problem?”

“Half of the people on the team I manage are total non-producers!” he said. “And I keep telling them...it’s not magical...it’s getting the leads...and getting it done.... I’ve said, ‘Just get off your butt, and go get referrals, make 60 to 75 phone calls, visit with eight to 10 potential buyers each week and watch how successful you’ll be.’”

“What’s really missing here?” we asked him. “What’s wrong with your picture? Why aren’t they out there doing what would lead to sales?”

“That’s why I called you. If I knew what was missing, I wouldn’t have called you.”

“Because it isn’t ‘just doing it’ that is missing from the non-producers’ equation. Although we always think it is. What’s really missing runs deeper than that. What’s really missing is the ‘just wanting it.’”

“Oh, I know they all say they want it. They want the commissions and they want the success.”

“They don’t want it, or they would have it.”

“Oh, so you think people get everything they want?”

“Actually, yes they do.”

“Really? I don’t see that.”

“That’s what we humans are all about. We know how to get what we want. We are biological systems designed to do that.”

We talked longer. There was something we wanted Frank to see: Frank’s non-producers are under-producing because they do not want to produce. Not deep down. If you are a manager you must understand that. If you are a non-producer, you must understand that.

Non-producers are simply not focusing all their attention on succeeding at selling. If they were, they would be producers. Even if they say they are focused on results, they’re not. They are in sales because of other reasons...they believe they need the money, maybe, and therefore think they “should be” there.

But they can’t get any intellectual or motivational leverage from “should.” “Should” sets them up for failure because it implies that they are still a child, and that they are trying to live up to other people’s expectations—the expectation of the spouse, family, or society. But there’s no power in that. No focus. No leverage.

Salespeople who do what they think they “should do” all day convert their managers into parents. Then they ageregress into childhood and whine and complain. Even when you try to micromanage their activities, even when you are eloquent in showing them that Activity A leads to Result B (always) and Result B leads to Result C (always), they still do it halfheartedly and search in vain for a new “how to” from other mentors and peers.

Frank now begins to see this form of dysfunction quite clearly, but he still doesn’t know what to do about it.

What Frank needs to manage is the want to, not the how to. Frank needs a quick course in outcome-management because, like most people, he is stuck in the world of processmanagement. The real joy of leadership can only come when you’re getting results.

“Tell me what I, as a manager, ought to do,” he said, after he realized that he already understood this whole idea.

“Once you get the non-producer’s sales goal (plan, quota, numbers) in front of you for mutual discussion,” we said, “you need to draw out and cultivate the ‘why.’ Ask the person, ‘Why do you want this? What will it do for you? What else will it do for you? What’s one thing more it will do for you? If I were to tell you that there were activities that would absolutely get you to this number, would you do these activities? If not, why not? Would you promise both yourself and me that you would do these activities until you hit the number? Why not?’”

If you’re a manager like Frank, please keep in mind that you have people who don’t really want what they are telling you they want, and even they don’t realize that. You know that if they truly wanted to be producers, nothing in the world could stop them.

“Intention Deficit Disorder” is what we have named the dysfunction that is always at the core of non-production. It is not a deficit in technique or know-how. Technique and know-how are hungrily acquired by the person who has an absolute and focused intention to succeed.

The real long-term trick to good management is to hire people who want success. Once you have mastered that tricky art form, you will always succeed. But we get lazy in the hiring process and look for and listen for all the wrong things.

Why do we do this? Why do we miss this crucial lack of desire in the hiring process? This is why: the person we hire really has a big “want to”—but only when it comes to getting the job. They really want the job. However, this is distinctly different than wanting to succeed at the job. These are two completely different goals. So we are hazy in the interviewing process, only half-listening, and we mistake the burning desire to get the job with a burning desire to succeed. It is a completely different and separate thing.

The best managers we have ever trained always took more time and trouble in the hiring process than any of their competitors did. Then, once they had hired ambitious people, they based their management on the management of those people’s personal goals. When sales managers learned to link the activity of cold-calling to the salesperson’s most specific personal goals, cold-calling became something much more meaningful.

These managers were spending their days managing results, not activities. Their positive reinforcement was always for results, not for activities.