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FoxFire!Tuesday, April 16, 2013What Winners Do
A friend of mine, BT, was the winner of multiple national sales awards for a Fortune 200 company over the past decade. Despite his performance, he was unceremoniously laid off last year in a mass downsizing. Within just a couple weeks, he landed a sales position with another company in a related field.
This is remarkable if only because of the enormous number of qualified reps he was competing against for that position. Whereas there used to be a pool of 100 qualified candidates for each job in his industry, due to industry-wide contraction there is now a crowd of 250+ qualified candidates for each position! But that's BT. He's a winner.
Last week I received a text from him, requesting a letter of recommendation. Despite a very good start with his new company, he had been downsized again. I spoke with him today, and he won the interview! That's BT. He's a winner.
In this extraordinary environment, he's been downsized twice but replaced the job within a couple weeks each time!
I've come to realize that all types of people and personalities can be winners. It's not just the outgoing ones or the highly detail-oriented. It's not just the well-connected, although that surely helps. Some people win simply because they put themselves in a position to win.
BT has always had a resume ready, even though he stayed with his first company for twelve years. And he's always aware of what types of products are set to grow. Therefore, when difficulty strikes, he's first to the scene of the next big thing.
Good job, BT. If he gets downsized again, I might hire him myself!
Labels: differentiation, employees, marketing, planning, salesmanship, strategy
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