I fly a lot. I’m either going to a client meeting, speaking at a conference or visiting a prospective client – all of which requires me to spend time on a plane. To be honest with you, I like it. People come up to me all the time and say, “I bet you just hate all that travel and being on the road.” While it’s not all fun and games (and it’s tiring), it’s also energizing.
Now, most of the time when I travel on a plane, I don’t really engage with others who sit next to me. It’s not that I’m trying to be rude, but there is kind of an unwritten rule with business fliers: “People are busy, don’t bother them.”
But every once in a while, usually when I’m on the final leg of a trip going home and I can relax a little more, I get into conversation with my seatmate. Just a few weeks ago, I was heading home on a long flight. The gentlemen next to me (Tom) turned to me about an hour into the flight and said, “So, tell me what you do?”
That question turned into a three-hour conversation that became one of the best I’ve had in a long time. So good that I wanted to share with you what he said to me and how it relates to your work in fundraising and major gifts. It was such wisdom that I can’t fit it all into one post.
So when I told Tom what I did, he was fascinated. He said, “You know, I totally get what you’re doing with major gift officers, because I’m a sales manager for one of the largest crane manufacturers in the world.” Now I’m intrigued. Cranes? Yeah, you know those massive cranes you see in large cities where they are building skyscrapers? He manages a team of people who sell them.
In all my travels I’ve never actually talked to a sales manager on a plane. I’ve talked to lots of salespeople, but never the manager. I thought this was a unique opportunity to ask a lot of questions, since at Veritus we help many development managers and act as a manager and coach for many MGOs around the country.
Tom was working on some papers, and it looked like he was grading them. I asked him what he was doing. He had just started working at a new company, so he wanted to test all eight of his salespeople about their knowledge of the company, the product, and sales in general, so he could assess his sales team.
He said, “Jeff, you should see their answers; they are just awful. Most of them can’t write. Many of them don’t know the mission of the company and our position in the market, and none of them have the right knowledge of the cranes we sell.”
I thought he was going to start blasting away at them and tell me how he was going to systematically fire every one of them. But then he said this: “I really need to help these good people. They have been totally mismanaged. No one has really sat down with them to assess what they need to be successful. My job is to figure out what makes them tick, how they like to work, and what are they afraid of; then I can work with them to succeed.”
Then he went on to say, “Jeff, I’ve never met a good salesperson who didn’t have a good sales manager. I’m good at what I do. I love it. I love helping people succeed. A bad manager would probably fire all these people. He or she would look at the answers in this test I gave and get totally frustrated. But I look at this and see potential in these people and a challenge for me.”
As I listened to Tom talk, I actually got choked up. I got emotional because what he’s telling me is what Richard and I have been talking about to development managers for many years. Actually hearing a crane sales manager talk about “his people” like this was so inspiring and gratifying.
Tom went on to say, “Do you know that some of my salespeople make twice what I do every year? We sell million-dollar cranes, and they get a good commission on it.” I asked how he felt about that. He said, “I love that they get paid a lot. I couldn’t do what they do. They are really good at making deals and knowing hundreds of people. I’m not great at that. I just want to help these eight people succeed.”
He went on and said, looking me in the eye: “Jeff, I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and almost every one of my former salespeople, even the ones I’ve had to fire, still keeps in contact with me. They know I helped make them successful, and they are still so grateful. It’s like I have family all over the country.”
Wow, I was amazed. I’ve never met anyone who talks about the people they manage like this. Ever. Ever.
My question to you is this: What can you learn from Tom? How good is your organization at caring for your MGOs and development professionals? What kind of environment and culture have you created to help people succeed at your non-profit? What is your attitude toward MGOs who are struggling?
Tom inspired me, and I hope his words have helped you, too. In my next post, I’m going to tell you what he thinks is the best thing you can do to help a salesperson (MGO) succeed, and a lot of other little things you can do to ensure their success.
I think you’ll love it.
Jeff