Neither One of Us Was Going to Quit

I've spent a lot of years telling salespeople that you can't learn much about a customer's business sitting behind a desk.

You've got to get out there. Ask questions. Look around. And sometimes get your shoes a little dirty.

But every once in a while, you need somebody riding along who's just as stubborn as you are.

Let me tell you about Jay.

Years ago, when I was working in Full-Service Truck Leasing and Dedicated Contract Carriage, I decided to spend a day riding with Jay, one of our top account managers.

We headed out of Columbus for a three-hour drive to Pittsburgh to meet with a prospective customer.

Now, Jay had been a pretty accomplished athlete in high school and Division III college sports. Competitive? Oh, you bet.

And I wasn't exactly known for backing away from a challenge myself.

We spent most of the drive talking sports, swapping stories that probably got a little better with every mile, and occasionally remembering we were supposed to be talking business.

We had a good customer meeting and started heading back toward Columbus.

Somewhere along the interstate, we stopped for gas.

While Jay was filling up, I noticed a big warehouse sitting down in a valley, out in the middle of nowhere.

I asked him, "You know who's in that place?"

"Nope."

"Want to find out?"

And off we went.

A cold call on steroids.

When we pulled up, we spotted rental trucks from one of our competitors sitting at the loading docks.

Well, now things were getting interesting.

Except there wasn't anybody around.

No activity in the offices. Nobody hanging around the docks. Doors locked.

A perfectly good reason to get back in the car and head home.

But neither of us was giving up our man card first.

Then we heard a truck fire up. We looked at each other.

Somebody to talk to!

We found a dock worker getting a load of steel ready for delivery the next morning, and we started asking questions.

Who was shipping out of the warehouse? Who made the transportation decisions? Where was the boss located?

Turns out he was in Chicago.

We even learned how our competitor's rental trucks were doing.

And here's something that caught my attention.

The fellow told us he'd never seen anybody from that leasing company come out to the warehouse.

Think about that.

They had trucks sitting at his docks, but as far as he knew, nobody from the company they were renting from had bothered to come see what was happening out there.

We thanked him, got back in the car and started toward Columbus.

But we weren't finished.

We made a call to Chicago on the way home. That conversation eventually turned into business for Jay, not just at that warehouse but at other locations around the country. All because two guys spotted a building in a valley and decided to find out what was going on.

Now, I could tell you this is a story about prospecting, persistence or finding opportunities where other people aren't looking.

And it is.

But there's something else I remember about that afternoon.

We fed off each other's curiosity and competitive nature. When one of us spotted something worth chasing, the other was ready to go after it.

And Jay learned something about me that day, too.

Having a boss who wasn't afraid to get his shoes dirty right alongside you wasn't such a bad way to spend an occasional day on the road. No lectures about sales techniques. No sitting in the passenger seat telling him what he should be doing.

Just two guys working together, asking questions and chasing a deal neither of us knew existed three hours earlier.

Jay landed the business. I got to know one of our best account managers a little better.

And neither of us lost our man card that day.

But here's something worth thinking about.

When was the last time you spent a day working alongside the people who make your business run? Salespeople, mechanics, parts guys, drivers, shop employees. The folks who deal with the problems your reports don't always show.

Not walking through to shake a few hands. Not making an appearance because somebody put it on your calendar.

Actually spending time doing what they do.

And here's the uncomfortable part.

If you showed up tomorrow to work alongside your people, would they be glad to have you there, or would they wonder what the hell you were doing there?

That answer might tell you more about your leadership style than you want to admit.

See you next week…

The journey continues.

— HAMP