Tag: Mentorship

Are you playing soccer or lacrosse?

(Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)

A few weeks ago I had a virtual chat with my mentor, a CEO of a software company in Silicon Valley. Our discussion focused on competing in a complex enterprise sales cycle. After describing the challenges I was facing, he reflected and asked a simple question: Are you playing soccer or lacrosse?

Interesting.

My exposure to lacrosse is limited to its appearance on ESPN SportsCenter: Top Ten Plays. It wasn’t a sport I went out of my way to watch. And if I were to, I’d have to learn the history, techniques, and rules of the game.

My mentor could see my thoughts drifting, so he rephrased the question:

Are you trying to get your customer to buy in the way you sell, or are you trying to get your customer to buy in the way your competitors sell? In other words, are you playing soccer, or are you playing lacrosse?

My mentor and I both share a passion for soccer, as we both grew up playing and watching it religiously. He knew the analogy would resonate.

The point he was making was although the customer may be intrigued by lacrosse, it didn’t mean they wanted to play it. It could be that my competitor introduced prospects to lacrosse because they got tired of losing at soccer. By playing along or trying to get the customer to buy in the way my competitors sell, I was expending valuable resources instead of investing in my soccer game. If I continued to go down this path, it’d be a severe case of self-deceit because it’s playing a game where the opponent sets all the rules, so I was bound to lose. I had to make a change.




After some deep self-reflection, I worked with my team to refine my approach and strategy. Here are some of the steps I’m taking:

  1. Dedicating additional time to deeply understand my customer’s business outcomes by scouring through financial statements, interviews, press releases, social media, investor decks, etc.
  2. Developing a point of view from the perspective of achieving each business outcome.
  3. Validating and refining that point of view by speaking with key stakeholders within my customer’s organization, from the executive to the executive assistant.
  4. Crowdsourcing feedback and the best ideas from experts within my organization to further refine the strategy.
  5. Applying critical thinking and asking tough questions to earn trust and mutual respect in every interaction.
  6. Proactively sharing ideas to solve business challenges even if there are no complete solutions to offer…yet.

These steps are netting positive results and rekindling the customer’s passion for soccer. The customer is fortifying their defense in preparation to mount a counter attack and score some business goals.

On a side note, Real Madrid, if you’re reading this, I’m patiently waiting for that invitation to try out or a free ticket 🙂 Thanks!

Happy selling!

Stay #CustomerObsessed

39 Sir Alex Ferguson Quotes to Ignite the Champion in You

Growing up in Nigeria, you were either a Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea or Liverpool fan. Manchester United was my team back then, and still is. We consumed football for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When we were not glued to the TV screen cheering on our favorite teams, we were in the streets, often barefoot, practicing the skills we had witnessed.

Sir Alex Ferguson was the mastermind behind Manchester United’s successive years of dominance. In his 39 years at the helm, he led Manchester United to 2 Champions League titles, 17 Domestic League titles, 14 Domestic Cups, and 2 Other European titles. I had the pleasure of reading his book, Leading: Learning from Life and My Years at Manchester United, and below are 39 inspiring quotes in honor of his 39 glory years as manager of Manchester United.

Photo credit: Manutd.com
Photo credit: Manutd.com

Listening

  1. “If you are leading people, it helps to have a sense of who they are- the circumstances in which they were raised, the actions that will draw out the best in them, and the remarks that will cause them to be spooked. The only way to figure this out is by underrated activities: listening and watching.”

Watching

  1. “It sounds simple to say you should believe what your eyes tell you, but it is very hard to do. It is astonishing how many biases and preconceived notions we carry around, and these influence what we see, or, more precisely, what we think we see.”

Discipline

  1. “I always felt that our triumphs were an expression of the consistent application of discipline.”

Work Rate

  1. “When winning becomes a way of life, true winners are relentless.”
  2. “In a perfect world I would have filled every team-sheet with 11 men who had as much determination as talent. But life is not like that, and if I had to choose between someone who had great talent but was short on grit and desire, and another player who was good but had great determination and drive, I would always prefer the latter.”

Drive

  1. “For me drive means a combination of a willingness to work hard, emotional fortitude, enormous powers of concentration and a refusal to admit defeat.”

Conviction

  1. “I cannot imagine how anyone, without firm conviction and deep inner beliefs, can be an effective leader.”

Preparation

  1. “…Preparation had a lot more to do with our success than a few fortunate breaks.”
  2. “The way to win battles, wars and games is by attacking and overrunning the opposing side.”
  3. “On our own team, the best players tended to be sticklers for preparation. That’s part of the reason why they were good or great.”

Mentorship

  1. “There is a lot to be said for either picking, or being lucky enough to land, the right mentor. The best ones can change your life.”

Teamwork

  1. “Each player has to understand the qualities and strengths of their team-mates.”

Excellence

  1. “Part of the way you develop excellence in an organization is to be careful about the way you define success.”
  2. “Winning anything requires a series of steps.”

Inspiring

  1. “You don’t get the best out of people by hitting them with an iron rod. You do so by gaining their respect, getting them accustomed to triumphs and convincing them that they are capable of improving their performance.”
  2. “Much of leadership is about extracting that extra 5 percent of performance that individuals did not know they possessed.”
  3. “Unless you understand people, it is very hard to motivate them.”
  4. “Another crucial ingredient of motivation is consistency. As a leader you can’t run from one side of the ship to the other. People need to feel that you have unshakeable confidence in a particular approach. If you can’t show this, you’ll lose the team very quickly.”
  5. “Anyone who is in charge of a group of people has got to have a strong personality….a strong personality is an expression of inner strength and fortitude.”
  6. “People perform best when they know they have earned the trust of their leader.”

Complacency

  1. “Complacency is a disease, especially for individuals and organizations that have enjoyed success.”

Networking

  1. “A network takes time to develop. Part comes through the passage of time, part from the way you treat others and part from reciprocity.”
  2. “It’s easy to forget about the troubles of others but, if you take the time to remember, it goes a very long way.”

Time

  1. “Don’t lie, don’t steal, and always be early.”

Distractions

  1. “I have yet to encounter anyone who has achieved massive success without closing themselves off from the demands of others or forgoing pastimes.”
  2. “If you have two people of equal talent it will be the way in which they marshal their ability that will determine their eventual success.”
  3. “There’s only one way to enjoy a final and that’s to win it. Nobody ever remembers the losers.”

Failing

  1. “At some point in my life the desire and need to win outstripped my fear of failure.”
  2. “There’s some merit in getting defeated – even though I’d never want it to be a habit. Team members who are hungry for victory and take great pride in their performance will be eager to avenge defeat.”

Speaking

  1. “Whether the audience is one person or 75,000, you need to assemble your thoughts, know what you want to emphasize and just say it.”

Boss

  1. “The greatest bosses also take pride in making sure that if employees who have served them well choose to leave, they go on to greater and better things.”

Control

  1. “I just don’t believe that you can get the most out of people if they are perpetually afraid of you.”

Delegation

  1. “My job was to make everyone understand that the impossible was possible. That’s the difference between leadership and management”

Decision Making

  1. “When you are in the football world, and I suspect in almost every other setting, you have to make decisions with the information at your disposal, rather than what you wish you might have.”

Salesmanship

  1. “Any leader is a salesman – and he has to sell to the inside of his organization and to the outside. Anyone who aspires to be a great leader needs to excel at selling his ideas and aspirations to others.”

Compensation

  1. “Bonuses get spent. Medals are forever.”

Negotiation

  1. “If you need one person to change your destiny, then you have not built a very solid organization.”

Arriving

  1. “If you want to build a winning organization, you have to be prepared to carry on building every day. You never stop building – if you do, you stagnate.”

Confidence

  1. “It’s one thing to have confidence in your own abilities. It’s a completely different challenge to instill confidence in others.”