The Sales Archaeologist

Over the weekend I had the chance to see the Iron Lady with Meryl Streep . I am not usually a huge fan of Meryl but I must say she did an excellent job portraying the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and an excellent job bringing the character and qualities to life.

I was actually living in the UK during some of the years when she was in power (I lived there from 1973-1983) so I had real memories of those times.

There were a number of great sales lessons in the movie – clearly MT as she is affectionately referred to in the film possessed a number of qualities that made her the right woman for some of the challenges she faced. If you are a sales person then why not rate yourself on these qualities. If you are a CEO or VP of sales ask the question – how many of my people possess these qualities that show up throughout the film?

• Conviction – she knew what she believed and spoke about it with passion.
• Purpose – she clearly felt that she was doing everything she did in order to help people and to accomplish a bigger purpose.
• Responsibility – notice the scene where she writes letters to the mothers of the dead troops, notice how she willingly carries the blame for other events even though doing this is emotionally taxing on her.
• Big picture/strategic thinker – she was thinking centuries back and decades forward and this showed up time and again in her speeches and her conversations.
• Bravery – just watch how she handles Alexander Haig.
• No Need for Approval – There is a great scene where she is privately addressing her cabinet and she clearly doesn’t care about the polls or future elections and they do. She points out that their need to please will cloud their judgment.

Bottom line - there were numerous times where MT could have backed down and given in. There were times when she plummeted in the approval ratings because she believed that the view of the majority was not necessarily the right answer. She was willing to push back and never avoided controversy. When under pressure she was able to convey her thoughts in a different way but compromise was to her an ugly word.

To this day many people disagree with her policies and her politics. To this day she has those who don’t like her and as the movie made clear in many ways much of that came at a personal cost. But none of that is what I want to focus on today, nor do I want you to focus on that. Just think about the strengths that made her capable of achieving and succeeding against the odds – something all sales people want and need to do!