and live a lifeless life.

Survival n. the state of continuing to live.

Victory is victory.  Survival is survival.

When we redefine victory as survival, defeat is imminent.

Again, I hope everyone took the time to read about Zig Ziglar’s life and his teachings–both are profound. It is easy to see the similarities in Empire’s leadership philosophy–inspire others to do more than they ever thought possible–and the tenets taught by Ziglar.

If your struggling in life–and we all do at some point–reading and repeating Ziglar quotes and perspectives will only help.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/business/zig-ziglar-86-motivational-speaker-and-author.html?_r=0

Te’o, who opted to stay at Notre Dame instead of entering the NFL after his junior year, was asked about the win and he tearfully screamed “I love this team, I love this team.”
Golson, was asked what the key to their story-book and undefeated season was and responded “unity, unity is our key.”

While the passion these collegiate student-athletes displayed for each other and The Fighting Irish football team was the secret weapon for a fairytale season, their responses also offered sage advice to business leaders striving to win in marketplaces defined by parity.

The magical organization elixir for winning a commoditized market is a corporate culture where the people love the company and are united behind its success.

Are you creating this culture?

When you are attacking your week, grinding through difficult cases or challenging cold-calls, remember that your success helps create the jobs that are vital for our nation’s recovery. When speaking with family, friends, customers, or acquaintances, explain the role you and Empire are playing in helping our nation recover. We create well-paying new jobs.

***Our recent success has led to the creation of many new jobs over the years and it looks like three new members will be joining Empire this week.***

Empire does NOT have the Yankee payroll to support an “A”lbatross. We must live in the now. While past achievements are appreciated and recognized, they are viewed for what they are–in the past. Everyone must deliver definitive value TODAY.

At Empire, the majority of our members are striving to become leaders. Never forget the above requirement. It is never about title, it’s about educating and inspiring those around you to higher performance.

***When an organization makes a leadership succession MISTAKE, that decision sets the organization back 5+ years–business and in the NFL.***

LEAD

What are we?  Procrastinators or professionals?  Our actions define us.

Eleven years ago, our city suffered a devastating blow, so devastating that many doubted we would re-emerge as the greatest city, in the greatest country in the world.  But we did.   The FDNY refused to turn their backs on the people of New York; sticking together they ran into the horror of the blaze in hopes of saving one more person.  Construction crews kept moving the rubble, regardless of air quality; sticking together, they prayed to find just one more person alive.  Average civilians with no other relation to one another, helped carry patriots in need, down flights of stairs to safety, choosing to stick together, over self-preservation.

When the citizens of cities, countries, or organizations stick together, the most devastating adversity will be overcome.

Stick together.

This Labor Day holiday weekend, humbly reflect on the generations who sacrificed for us, humbly reflect on the people who are sacrificing for us now, and humbly reflect on the reason our company, Empire, experiences unparalleled success–we consistently outwork our peers and competitors.

Labor Day is a revered Empire holiday–we earned the holiday celebration.
Thank you, your work rate is what makes Empire–Empire.

Schrage points out the following: Henry Ford did NOT ask customers to buy cars, he asked them to BECOME drivers; Larry Page–Google CEO–doesn’t ask customers to search, he asks them to BECOME more curious, more interested, and smarter; and Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t ask customers to sign up for Facebook but challenges them to become more open, more transparent, and more sharing. Schrage’s book unveils simple, but sage sales and marketing advice: ask customers to become different, to become better. Making customers better, makes better customers.

In our industry, the innovations of G2 and Bioknotless anchors asked our surgeons to become different, to become better. The impact of these two innovations created a orthopedic surgeon customer base that has followed DepuyMitek for over 2 decades. Innovation is an investment in the customer.

While not positioned to have the cultural or financial impact of Ford, Google, or Facebook, The ideology behind PEPPER parallels Schrage’s sage advice. We are not asking customers to sign up for or participate in PEPPER. We are challenging customers to develop a peak performing sales force; become sales experts, excellent communicators and to become the best informed sales leaders. PEPPER makes customers better and therefore, PEPPER will have better more loyal customers.

PEPPER is the conduit to transform sales into a respected professional discipline–true innovation.

Pretty simple–create great habits today.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680410/people-who-eat-breakfast-are-smarter-and-skinnier

Unlike business however, the Olympics has a definitive beginning and end. Last night’s closing ceremony concluded seventeen fantastic days of competition.  Conversely, business does not have a closing ceremony or an off season.   Every day matters in business and everyday is a competition. Business is a grueling and never-ending cycle.

The never-ending business season stands in stark contrast to the sustained intensity of the successful business person and the performance intensity of a gold medal winning Olympian.

Rating intensity on a scale of 1-10, the triumphant Olympic athlete operates at a personal 10 during the competition.  In business with no off-season however, operating at a personal 10 is unsustainable.  Motivated by Olympic euphoria, the delusional business person might crank up the intensity to 10.  Like a runner who sets out too quickly, the euphoric and delusional business person’s intensity quickly fades and falls to the back of the pack.  The short-term business sprinter is inconsistent, unreliable, and frustrating to work with.

Succeeding in business does not require a perfect 10.  In fact, winning in business requires operating, consistently, at an intensity level of 8.   The everyday 8 wins the gold medal in business.

The British cycling team and its first rider, Jaime Staff, took a totally different approach to their team goal of setting the world record in the team cycling sprint at the Beijing Olympics.  Instead of getting caught up in the daunting prospects of winning the gold medal or setting the world record, Jaime Staff approached his training from the following philosophical perspective: accumulation of marginal gains.

Staff confidently believed that breaking down the challenge into smaller, less daunting, marginal improvements would produce a record-breaking performance.

Prior to the Olympics, the fastest ever, single lap in the team sprint was 17.3 seconds. Jaime Staff’s average time around the track 17.4 – 17.5 seconds. One-tenth of a second is an eternity in speed sports such as cycling, swimming, skating, and track.

Staff decided that in order to help secure the gold metal for his team, he had train to circle the track in 17 seconds flat. He analyzed and enumerated all the elements of a winning sprint and sought to improve each by 2.78%.  He trusted that the accumulation of marginal gains in each identified area would result in a record performance and set out to increase his maximum squat by 2.78%, decrease his body fat by 2.78%, and to construct a helmet 2.78% more aerodynamic than his old helmet.

The strategy of finding as many areas as possible to improve his overall time by 2.78% led to subtle changes in riding position, bike and wheel aerodynamics, diet, recovery drinks, etc..  Consequently–and perhaps inevitably–the British cycling team won the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics and Staff had the fastest first lap ever.

Jaime Staff: “When you break it down, it’s actually really small gains in all those small things that when added together make a huge difference.  It just makes it easy.  Really.  It was.  We set a world record, and it was easy, because I put the attention to any bit of detail I could.”

This can be applied to Empire’s goals of achieving professional sales excellence, record-setting corporate sales results, and eye-popping individual sales performances.

In thinking of the areas that can be improved for the mastery of sales, the following come immediately to mind:  communication, activity, product knowledge, competitive product knowledge, appearance, health, energy, strategic targeting, and pre-call preparation.

Let’s apply Jamie Staff’s proven philosophy and pick five areas to improve by 5%.  It seems inevitable that these marginal improvements will produce stronger sales performance, just as they did for Staff and the entire British cycling team.

By adhering to a philosophy of the accumulation of marginal gains, the seemingly impossible outcome gets reduced and subdivided into smaller, more achievable tasks with reasonable improvement goals.  When approached this way, the path to setting records and leaving an unmatched legacy is no longer so daunting.  In fact, the path to legendary performance becomes rational, reasonable, and within reach.

Just as in cycling, the world of sales has experienced dramatic improvement in technology.  The introduction of PEPPER, coupled with traditional CRM (customer relationship management) and comprehensive sales reporting allow us to accurately track the improvements needed in many areas of sales.  Through the rational strategy of accumulating marginal gains, record-setting performance can now be attained through rational and reasonable efforts.

Will you set a record? Will we become the equivalent of the British cycling team in sales?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/sports/olympics/2012-olympics-how-britain-conquered-the-cycling-world.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

– Henry Ford

In the past, sales people were the only conduit a customer had for company product information. The sales person’s control of information created the client’s expectations for a valued sales rep–an affable personality combined with thorough product knowledge.

In the scenario, in which reps control information, when clients become aware of an internal problem or challenge they rely on the sales rep to educate and direct them toward the solutions.  However, the massive increase in publicly available information is beginning to have a dramatic impact on what is required to be a valued sales rep.

In the age of the Internet, reps no longer control product and industry information.  Today easy information access allows clients to do their own problem solving research eliminating the need for the sales person to do it. Armed with preliminary knowledge, they simply contact companies for price quotes and presentations.

This expansion of a client’s ability to research and find solutions is is changingthe requirements that will be demanded for the next generation of sales professional.  The old formula of simply memorizing features and benefits and delivering them with personal charm will not be enough for a 21st century rep to be handsomely rewarded–or even just sustainably employed.

In this changing climate, reps must not only solve problems, but become experts at identifying these problems before the client is even aware of them. The new professional sales rep must possess critical thinking skills to identify institutional problems, then motivate the client to solve the problem. The outgoing personality–charming and charismatic–that was once a must-have has been downgraded to a nice-to-have and the valued rep of the future must master the following:

(1) creative and critical thinking;
(2) corporate balance sheet analysis;
(3) persuasive communication (one-on-one and group); and
(4) the art of negotiation

The medical device industry is a great example for illustrating this impending paradigm shift.  While reps in medical devices are still looked to and valued for their product information, the economics of the industry is forcing the rapid adoption of the shift described above.  The entire continuum of care in medical devices–hospitals, patients, payers (i.e., insurance companies), manufacturers, and the government–is aggressively looking to lower costs.

This mandate to lower costs will force each link in this continuum to solve its own problems instead of relying on the opinion of the device rep.  Much of this change is already in motion, as proven by manufacturers bundling products and services in order to increase revenue and market share within a particular healthcare institution.

This is a win for both the manufacturer and hospital as institution’s exclusive commitment to contract, allows the manufacturer to lower the institution’s average sales price (ASP).  In the exclusive bundling scenario, the healthcare institution lowers its equipment or implant costs substantially and the manufacturer increases revenue, gains market share, and eliminates its competition.  It is critical to note that the bundling strategy effectively marginalizes and by passes the sales rep because exclusivity deal are done at executive levels–not rep levels.

While not all hospitals enter exclusivity deals, they do enter alternative arrangements that are not favorable to old-school sales reps. Seeking to cut costs, institutions unwilling to do exclusive deals have done one or more of the following:

(1) hired 3rd party consultants to make manufacturer selections and negotiate price points;
(2) issued RFP’s that contain a product price request with “no rep coverage;” and
(3) joined consolidated healthcare buying groups that have previous negotiated vendor pricing discounts.

In each instance, the role of the sales rep is circumvented by the ability of others to extract and apply the information that the rep once solely owned.  Once again the savvy clients have discovered the problems and solutions on their own and are now able to solve these problems without the added cost of a sales rep.  Change is coming–in fact, it is already here–and the days of charismatic brochure wielding product pitchers are rapidly fading.

Unfortunately, the majority of medical device reps will become bewildered victims of this paradigm shift instead of proactively preparing to excel in it.  The last two decades have warped the once driven medical device sales entrepreneur into a glorified envelope stuffer–once creative and nimble, the rep now follows the doltish algorithmic formula: the more envelopes stuffed the more money made.  The relative ease with which medical device reps used to experience financial success created a medical device mentality that directly equates opening implants in the O.R. to money earned.

Each implant opened is correlated to commission dollars earned by the rep.  It is this one-to-one mentality, like that of an envelope stuffer, that impedes the inspired drive needed for a rep to properly prepare for this paradigm shift.

The narrowly focused device rep only values activity when it produces commission dollars–an immediate exchange.  Once this mindset permeates a rep, personal development is impossible.  The activities that promote personal development are usually investments with no immediate or guaranteed return.  The commission-obsessed device rep cannot stomach long-term sacrifice of investment in personal development.  For this reason, the majority of medical device reps–i.e., similar to alcoholics who must hit bottom before seeking help–will become victims of this paradigm shift and only begin to change after they have lost their jobs.

To build a sustainable sales career, sales reps must first accept the pending changes to their professional profiles: charisma and product-pitching will not provide sustainable employment.  Professional sales will be more complex and creative than ever before and the valued reps of tomorrow will possess the following:
(1) the skill to alert clients to perceived organizational problems;
(2) the credibility to get clients to expand their viewpoints; and
(3) the knowledge to persuade clients to embrace and follow through on the rep’s insightful discovery.

The financial rewards for competent sales professionals will be more lucrative than ever but these rewards will be reaped only by the elite.

The goal of this leadership article is to provide the facts that define these two diverging leadership approaches.  These facts combined with the resulting impact of each action help us decide which type of leader we are on the path to becoming–inspiring or motivating.

The motivational leader looks to impel and push employees to increase their productivity.  The motivational leader is focused almost exclusively on the end result–i.e., increased production.  These leaders therefore use whatever means necessary to achieve the desired goal.  Motivational leaders use an assortment of techniques to coerce employees to achieve what management wants them to achieve.  While some dangle reward and opportunity as an incentive, more often than not the motivational leader–due to frustration caused by subpar performance–resorts to bribery, fearmongering, and threats.  Incentive-driven, motivational management embraces the philosophies of “carrot and stick,” “cause and effect,” and “the ends justify the means.” Motivational management, which is the prevailing leadership philosophy for business in the 20th century, has been proven effective in causing short-term bursts of activity and for algorithmic (i.e., repetitive) tasks.  However, in jobs that require creative solutions (e.g., sales) the carrot and stick approach both stifles creativity and decreases long-term productivity. (See Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, for more on the problems caused by extrinsic incentives.)

Many sales leaders are ex-athletes who have been exposed to endless motivational half-time speeches during their athletic careers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4uYFUi4BS8). These emotional speeches are specifically designed to ignite the team in order to increase performance in the second half of the game–short burst.  Unfortunately, too many sales leaders regularly incorporate this half-time motivational style into their communication repertoire. Motivation reflects the Kick-in-the-Ass method (KITA), which coaches expertly deploy. The business world, however, is vastly different from high school and college sports; in the business world, KITA has a limited shelf-life.  Business leaders cannot afford to lose their best players every four years.  Unlike high school and college coaches, who lose players to graduation, motivational leadership does not work because it exhausts employees and leads to turnover or tuning out.  Both results are unproductive and create poor long-term performance.

In the famed movie GlenGarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, Blake (played by Alec Baldwin) delivers a memorable and entertaining speech (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7zHF19n2qE&feature=related). He berates the salesmen, calling them losers, tells them to put the coffee down–”coffee’s for closers,” and then explains how the sales contest will work:  first prize–a brand new Cadillac; second prize–set of steak knives; and third prize–you’re fired.  The speech is certainly entertaining–probably the most memorable scene of the movie–and also a vivid example of motivational leadership.  Blake, the ass-kicker, delivers a coercive speech intended to motivate through fear and intimidation.  He offers a reward to the highest performer and a threat to everyone else.  Too many sales leaders emulate the Blake-style rant.  These carrot and stick tirades coupled with leadership’s glorious memories of high school half-time speeches have convinced too many leaders that motivational leadership is the way to go.

The barking-coach style is exhausting for both the leader and the led.  The leader inevitably runs out of verbal ammunition and the staff eventually tunes out the rants and threats.  The word-battered employees look for new jobs, the team’s performance fizzles, and leadership burns out.  Ironically, the rah-rah rallying approach–when it goes on too long–only serves to divide.

Unlike short-sided motivational leadership, inspiring leadership focuses on personal growth, improvement, and optimism.  Inspiring leadership is literally “breathing life into” its followers.  By creating a challenging platform for personal development and improvement, the inspirational leader increases the enthusiasm of both the individual employee and the company.  The more energy and vigor each employee bring to work, the better the company will do.  The best competitive advantage any company can have is a culture of enthusiastic, optimistic, and committed employees.  To achieve the goal of high-performing employees and sustainable corporate performance, leadership must provide the tools and education required to improve performance over the long-term.  Because its vision goes beyond short bursts of increased production,  inspirational leadership successfully maps out a path for sustainable growth.

Previously,  we used the Blake rant to dramatically depict motivational leadership.  Returning,  Blake’s debasing rant magnifies the sharp contrast between motivational leadership and and inspirational leadership.  Unlike inspirational leaders–Ghandi, King, and Mother Theresa–Blake never provides a path for the salesmen to improve and merely uses threats to increase activity.  This rant is not optimistic and is only focused on the end result.  His goal, a short term burst of activity and the means to this end is the bullying directive–fight for your job or starve.  In truth, how constructive was the Blake rant?  He verbally abuses and mocks all the sales people, reinforcing their inferiority and creates fear by threatening jobs.   Unlike simple-mined bullying, inspirational leadership requires more skill and sensitivity.  The inspirational leader designs and communicates a clear pathway to individual improvement.  Consistently cultivating an atmosphere of optimism and growth, the inspirational leader doesn’t brow beat with fear but instead energizes the team towards common pursuit.  As the team develops and improves, the leader help each member evolve into a stronger and more independent version of him or herself.

We now need to state a frank truth: to inspire, leaders must have accomplished inspiring feats in their own pasts.  When employees have faith in their leader’s legitimacy, the leaders then have the moral authority to lay out the vision, path, and destination that they will achieve together.  It is this horizon-reaching vision that improves the lives of both the individual and the collective.  The inspirational leader never takes a day off–they live, breathe, and communicate this vision continuously.  The inspirational leader embodies the quest and delivers the vision with clarity and certainty.  The inspirational leader makes the destination close enough to see and yet far enough away to willingly endure hardship to reach it.  Although they are not business leaders as such, heroic figures such as Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Theresa are excellent examples of inspirational leadership.

There are contexts in which motivational leadership has a place in the business world–i.e., the year-end push.  But ultimately, motivational leadership has too many deficiencies to be management’s foundational style.  By and large, the overall tone of leadership must be inspirational with motivational leadership sprinkled in at the occasional moment.

Inspirational leaders are inspired and inspiring

These factions can create a challenging and hostile environment and while some new leaders manage to skillfully navigate this minefield through the building of cooperation, and consensus, the majority destroy themselves by becoming frustrated and resorting to authoritarian tactics in order to manage dissent.

For most people starting a new job comes with its share of anxiety and it is no different for new leaders. In fact early job jitters can be amplified for an incoming leader because they are eager to prove that their appointment is justified.  With the best of intentions, they set out on a mission to drive results in a creative and productive business environment.  However, many of these newly minted leaders make the mistake of misinterpreting the resistance of these intransigents as temporary doubt among the rank and file.  This error in judgment is usually a result of inexperience and a failure to see things from others’ perspectives.  The negative impact this resistance has on the new leaders short-term actions leads to irreversible trends in their long-term methodologies.

When appointed, the new leader devises a plan of action, and believes passionately in the validity of the ideas and solutions they put forth.  But the unanticipated level of dissent from the line employees makes implementation of these proposals difficult with each new directive being questioned or opposed by employees who declare the ideas won’t work.  In the face of this opposition, things don’t move at the pace the new leader expects and frustration builds. Ongoing roadblocks are intensified by pressure to perform; inevitably driving the unskilled leader to knee-jerk reactions and authoritarian tactics.

Resorting to the power of their title they threaten subordinates to “do what I tell you to do or else” locking themselves into an “us versus them” culture, creating permanent enemies and compromising their long-term leadership style.  With one move, the flawed leader abandons inclusiveness and demands obedience making it clear they intend to be served rather than to serve.

Ironically, the new leader did not set out to become a top-down dictator, but circumstances and errors in judgment drastically altered their original intentions. Now an authoritarian management style is firmly established and will be resisted by the opposing trenches.

While the undesired authoritarian leadership is primarily due to a lack of transparency in the appointment process and stubborn employee resistance, new leaders must rise above these obstacles.  The most effective new leaders patiently identify the most influential members of the rank and file and engage them.  Getting their feedback on the new vision they sort out the rational and irrational objections.

Through dialogue, the new leader diffuses dissent.  With open-ended communication, the new vision and initiatives become the property of everyone. By considering the opinions of all, the leader demonstrates a willingness to serve rather than to be served, a very important distinction for sustainability.

Accepting that people do not instantly come to the same conclusions, no matter how rational the vision or direction seems, the leader demonstrates patience, flexibility, and a commitment to the collective vision, communicating at all times why this new path makes sense, building confidence and credibility with influential members in the line of command.

Newly appointed leaders must refrain from the urge to become coercive or authoritarian.  Acute awareness and preparation for stronger than anticipated initial dissent will reduce frustration and help leaders avoid unwise knee-jerk reactions.  Wise leaders will in fact implement sensible suggestions of employees; while leaders may reject other proposals, they will listen to all.  When employees have had their voices heard they are generally more content.

A recent game between Louisiana State and Stony Brook University, was to determine which team would advance to the College Baseball World Series. LSU, ranked number 7 in the nation, is to baseball what Duke is to basketball.  Stony Brook baseball is what Binghamton U is to basketball.

Yet, a small group of believers at this up and coming Long Island College chose to believe in themselves rather than hype. That’s why they play the game!

Stony Brook smashed six-time national champion LSU in the deciding game and is headed to Omaha to play in the College World Series.

We create our own limits.  Where we place these limits determines what is and what is not impossible.  All of the supposed experts would have told you Stony Brook making the College World Series is impossible.  Stony Brook refused to listen.  Apply the same to your life.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-11/stony-brook-of-new-york-upsets-lsu-to-reach-college-world-series.html

Today it is rare to hear leaders describe their team’s sales culture or leadership style as one of sink or swim. However, because many of today’s leaders were born in an era of competition that had different expectations for sales training and development, and because it is natural for them to manage in a similar style and with similar expectations to those they experienced themselves, far too many are still rooted in a sink or swim attitude. Replication of this status quo management style is potentially fatal, because in competitive economies, there needs to be constant improvements in efficiency.  Therefore, it is paramount that sales leaders don’t just alter their management terminology, but upgrade their management practices as well.

The phrase sink or swim is often used with the intention of sending a clear message to potential employees: this is a tough-minded, survival of the fittest sales culture, designed only for the best and most aggressive candidates.  Leadership employs this tired phrase and the dubious philosophy it embodies to challenge candidates’ confidence, daring them to compete in the sales jungle without weapons training.  Originally, this sink or swim mantra was accompanied by another macho phrase, “eat what you kill,” which referred to a 100 percent draw/commission compensation structure.   In most cases, leaders repeat these testosterone-charged phrases to mythologize their own supposed fearless successes and to pump up their egos.

To be a winner in today’s competitive business world, sales organizations must successfully attract and recruit top talent.  Misguided leaders believe that a sink or swim work environment will enable them to do that. However, a minimally supportive sales culture produces the opposite of the intended effect: it attracts and retains only the most desperate and reckless sales people.  To the astute candidate a sink or swim sales culture sends a clear negative message:

(1) Sales leadership lacks the knowledge or will to consistently and effectively train sales people.

(2) Sales leadership has no proven or reproducible training process.

(3) Sales leadership does not value its people or their personal and professional progress.

(4) Sales leadership and the entire sales force are not valued in the company, because this undesirable and unproductive sales culture is permitted to exist.

To attract and recruit the best candidates, organizations and leaders must demonstrate a commitment to the personal and professional development of their people.  A sink or swim message indicates a non-commitment because the leader is essentially saying: I am not investing a minute of my precious time in you, so if you sink it is no sweat off my back.  If you sink, I don’t lose a thing.  But if somehow you learn to swim, then great–I win too.

Attracting top talent requires a carefully designed, nuanced, ongoing training program–using modern technology where applicable–to deepen product knowledge, improve communication skills, and develop a peak performance culture of collaboration.

Some managers are not aware that they foster a sink or swim sales culture.   They earnestly believe they are not sink or swim advocates. After all, their new recruits were taught to swim at a 2-3 week national sales training program. To eradicate sink or swim, leaders must invest their time in building and developing programs to consistently develop their sales people.

A commitment to ongoing training signals to the astute candidate that the organization will provide a viable opportunity to grow, improve, and thrive. As long as versions of sink or swim are an underlying management or development style, sales cannot reach its full potential and value.  Progressive sales leaders embrace the new management paradigm and refuse to fall into the myopic and backward “this is how I was managed” trap. They teach their recruits how to swim in the shifting currents of today’s competitive marketplace.

Become Capable Today