The Sales Archaeologist

 After traveling half way around the globe last week to train a bunch of sales managers

 I am taking a well deserved vacation this week (at least in my opinion). In my view there is no better vacation than one that involves sun, beach and long lazy naps and that has been the case this week on our annual trip to the outer banks. One more thing - those vacations are always made better by reading a good book or two.

I just started my third book "what the dog saw" by Malcolm Gladwell and I have posted about his books before, they are insightful and offer some really great thoughts 

and new perspectives. In this book he is discussing the power of people that are "inventive" and what it takes to be an innovator. One 

sentence really resonated with me - "all the really great inventions are disruptive". What does that mean?

Well in order 

for an inven

tion to be an invention it has to be new and therefore has to challenge how 

t

hings were done previously. It has to change the paradigm and create a new way of doing things. It has to Disrupt the old way! If it does not then it is probably not a 

real invention

.

Sometimes when we are discussing ways to improve a company's performance and we mention the Sales Force Evaluation we use to help with that - we might get some push back that both the

 taking and the review of the findings might be "disruptive" (of course other synonyms might be used) My new response - GOOD, it should be and if it wasn't then you probably don't need it or shouldn't do it!

Wherever your role puts you in a sales organization don't shy away from something that is disruptive, rather embrace it, seek it out and find it. Behind that door you will find things like improvement and self awareness, personal development and growth and a bunch of o

ther

 really important things. Sales focused individuals need to display the Inventive Mindset.