The Sales Archaeologist

Even people not raised in the U.K. have heard of William the Conqueror. You know - he brought 10,000 men over the English Channel and then fought the Battle of Hastings becoming the King of England. That was in October of 1066 - but the success of October 1066 had much to do with the events of September 1066! How so?

September was a tough month for William - he made his first attempt to cross the channel and encountered a storm that pushed him back into Normandy. Time was running out for William, rations were low, winter was coming and money was really getting tight. In spite of this he did something quite extraordinary - he doubled the rations for his men! Why?

William decided that his men needed something positive after the disasterous first attempt. He wanted his men to sense that he was confident. He needed his men to be fit and healthy for the fight and quite honestly if he failed because he ran out of rations - well he deserved to fail anyway. The resistance from his knights was fierce, it didn't make sense to them. But in retrospect it worked brilliantly.

So if you are a CEO like William - what are you doing as we face this economic storm? Many are cutting back on benefits and perks, changing compensation plans so that is is more difficult for sales people to succeed, eliminating incentives and of course my personal favorite- eliminating all sales training and development.

So if sales training is to sales people what those rations were to Williams army, then how are well fed are your people? Do you need them to feel confident? Do you need them to be healthy? If you do then certainly the last thing to cut back on is investing in their skills. If anything and considering these economic conditions you might want to double those rations?