Merriam Webster formally added "dumpster fire" to their online dictionary this week.  

The 2018 sales sprint begins!

Is your mindset ready? How about the mindset of your sales team?

Are you and your sales team taking the necessary actions that will crush 2018?

Are you and your sales team using proper form?

"Success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan." - Count Galeazzo Ciano (1903-1944), The Ciano Diaries, 1939-1943, Vol. 2.

Long story short.  

Everyone loves winning but few are willing to embrace the journey that includes the requisite failures necessary to win.

There are four failure problems in sales:

• The right kind of failure is not tolerated.
• The right kind of failure does not occur frequently enough.
• The wrong kind of failure is tolerated.
• The wrong kind of failure occurs too often.

Is your sales culture worthy?

Is your sales culture worthy of the love from the best-of-the-best sales professional, the Sales Wolf?

Not so fast...  Don't assume you have a Sales Wolf on your team because it is possible but unlikely.

Reality check - A salesperson who outsells everyone on your sales team is not necessarily a Sales Wolf.

Sales Wolves are rare.

Most everyone wants to win at some level.

What separates Sales Wolves from everyone else is the level they will push themselves to win.

Sales Wolves are absolutely relentless.

When a Sales Wolf loses (which isn't often), they quickly look in the mirror at the cause of their lost sale. They autopsy to see where they can improve. They then make improvements and repeat.

Sales Wolves abhor excuses. They hate posers. They hate wasting time.

Sales Wolves LOVE the hunt and they LOVE results.

"I would do anything for love, but I won't do that..."

As a young entrepreneur I loved to hustle. I delivered newspapers, babysat, mowed lawns and painted houses. 

I never, ever called myself a salesman. If someone asked me what I did, I used the task to describe what I did.

It really wasn't cool to be a salesman back then. In fact, the mental imagery I had in my head regarding the sales profession at the time was of a pushy, arrogant, scheming used car salesman.

Movies like Glengarry Glenn Ross (1992), Used Cars (1980) and Boiler Room (2000) embodied the general mindset about sales at the time. 

Cortés began his impossible conquest by burning the boats. 

For more than 600 years conquerors had unsuccessfuly attempted to colonize the Yucatan Peninsula.

What seemingly made the difference was mindset.

In 1519 Cortés took away the only backup plan he and some 600 Spaniards and 16 or so horses had. He ordered the boats to be burned.

Burn your boats.

Get rid of your backup plan. 

I recently invested in a new vehicle.

It was our fifth from the same dealership in 15 years.

They do business the way I would if I ran a dealership. They are very fair and do not use heavy sales tactics. Their service during and after the sale is exemplary. Clearly there is something in the water at the dealership.

We have had the same salesperson for our last two purchases from this dealership. Since our first purchase with him three years ago he has received a promotion to management. Yet he worked with us through the negotiation, ordering and delivery.

This salesperson clearly loves the vehicles he sells. 

Today is a proud day for my fellow North Dakotan's and North Dakota State University Alumni (Go Bison!).

Carson Wentz just became the number two 2016 NFL draft pick.

Congratulations to my fellow Bismarck, North Dakota native, Carson Wentz for being drafted to the Philadelphia Eagles!

Carson Wentz has the makings to be not just a fantastic quarterback, but also an epic role model.

As a precursor to reading my article, I highly-recommend checking out Carson Wentz's, "How We Play Football In North Dakota".  In it, he shared essential traits that I believe are essential to winning the game of sales.

"May I speak with the business owner?"

The number on my cell phone screen suggested the call was local. When I answered I was met by a long period of silence. Just as I was about to hang up I heard, "May I speak with the business owner?" 

The call was definitely not local.

Click. 

I was so gone. The cold caller had no chance to respond. They didn't deserve my time. Every ounce of my being was behind my pointer finger as I immediately hung up.

I thought to myself how sad as a salesperson it must be to have a:

• Sales job that allows this kind of mindless approach to prospecting.
• Sales manager who does not care to or does not have the skills to provide better script coaching.

Perhaps I should have allowed the call to continue long enough to ask the caller if they have access to LinkedIn in their country.

I wondered how disappointing a sales manager must feel if they are unable find the kind of salespeople capable of thinking beyond such a futile cold calling script.

Is radical candor.

Right now you may be thinking, "Chris... How do "candor" and "Christmas present" fit together?"

Aside from the obvious spiritual meaning, I like to believe the spirit of Christmas is caring about others. You care about the people who count on you, right?

Of course you do.

If you truly care about your colleagues - particularly your subordinates, you will maximize use of candor. It is your moral obligation to tell your colleagues the truth about their performance and how they can improve. 

I have written about the importance of candor previously - "How To Turbo-Charge Your Sales Coaching With Candor".  The best ideas are borrowed from past bosses and excellent books written by visionaries like Jack Welch. I read Welch's powerful book, Winning and it accelerated my thinking.

Recently my thought process about candor was profoundly-accelerated by Kim Scott. Her approach is one that anyone can immediately implement.