Think About It… the e-book version

by Todd Youngblood

All the really good sales reps I’ve known have invested a lot of energy in constantly improving their skills. The great ones are even more sophisticated. They view their personal talent as just one of three keys to superior achievement.

On May 8, 1954, Parry O’Brien became the first man in history to heave a 16 pound shot more than 60 feet. This was long before the extensive application of physiological and nutritional science; certainly before steroids and other such things. O’Brien did, however, follow one of the most rigorous training regimens known at the time.

He, along with all the other shot-putters, was aware that quickness, coordination to focus all the body’s power into an iron ball and raw physical strength were the essential personal attributes for success in that field. So he worked relentlessly at enhancing those personal skills. Oddly though, he was not the quickest, most graceful or strongest. He used two additional tools.

First, he decided to measure stuff. Stuff beyond just the results produced. He noticed that the top shot putters were all quite tall and realized that a six foot tall athlete (staying within the ring and behind the foul line) could impart energy into the shot through an “acceleration distance” of about ten feet. A six foot six inch tall athlete could do so through ten feet three inches, simply because his arm was that much longer. This “acceleration distance” obviously was an important factor not only for the result (i.e., distance thrown), but also for the shot-putting process.

And that led to his second additional tool – process. Could the shot-putting process be changed to increase acceleration distance, a critical process metric? What would happen if instead of starting out with shoulders parallel to the direction of the throw and hopping across the ring, he made a radical change? What if he started facing directly away from the direction of the throw, glided across the ring, then rotated his upper body around to the “normal” position for the final toss?

What happened was a 15% increase in the acceleration distance; from about 10 up to 11 1/2 feet. Measuring an aspect of the process, then improving it based on that metric enabled him to become the first 60 footer and add 4′ 5″ or 7.5% to the existing world record. He became the best.

Well, best for 3 1/2 years until the taller, faster, stronger guys copied and perfected his improved process.

Today’s shot-putters have continued using process and metrics thinking. O’Brien never thought about the fact that his new process also involved increasing body rotation from 45° to 180°. Others did. Looking at rotation and employing an even more radically different “spin” style (rotating once and half through 540°) increased acceleration distance to over 21 feet. That enabled Randy Barnes to set the current world record of 75 feet 10 1/4 inches. That’s an additional 26% improvement in results over O’Brien’s landmark performance!

Here are the lessons for sales pros:

• Continue to focus on tool #1 – Your personal skills and capabilities can never be too good.
• Figure out your process – What are the critical components? What are the sales equivalents to acceleration distance and rotation?
• Measure – How many, how often, how long, how good for each of those key actions and skills?
• Change – Modify your selling process to improve execution of the key actions (…and the change might be really radical. Even Parry O’Brien never dreamed of all that spinning around!)
• Never stop changing and improving – The competition is relentless. (Parry thought he was hot stuff, till he got beaten by a full 15 feet!)

One last insight… Parry O’Brien’s breakthrough came just two days after Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile barrier. I wonder what processes and metrics Roger was using to support and guide his training? I wonder if all the great ones in all fields of endeavor think skills/process/metrics?