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What Sales Can Learn from Golf Company

by Mike Ma

There is a recent 60 Minutes episode in which Scott Pelley travels with a Marine regiment in Afghanistan. I found it enlightening at first as just a general citizen, and then from a business perspective. Sales managers and consultants have made a cottage industry of sales-to-military comparisons, and we can learn a lot from this episode and apply those lessons to our business.

NB: Before I dive in, I'd like to say that in *no way* do I think that sales work is near the same level of import as the work of those in harm's way. This is merely an observation of strategy and tactics.

Consider the following quotes from Lieutenant Colonel Christian Cabaniss, the leader of this particular regiment. Two lessons stood out for me:

1. Success is not defined body count -- Asked how many enemies have been killed so far, Cabaniss said, "I have no idea and it's really irrelevant. [Body count] doesn't tell me that I'm being successful. It doesn't tell me that at all. The number of tips that I receive from the local population about IED's in the area, Taliban in the area, that is a measure of effectiveness."

2. Marines are expected to evaluate the endgame before pulling the trigger -- "It's about a three second decision [if a Marine ought to fire] his personal weapon. The first second is 'Can I?' The next two are 'Should I?' 'What is going to be the effect of my action? Is it going to move the Afghan closer to the government or further away?'"

Can we learn something here? After all, aren't we in a version of a similar situation? Advisors are elusive. Profits have become mountainously difficult. We are looking for the influencers in a corner office who can tip us off to more sales or exposure for our products and firm. Perhaps we should change our game as well?

As we at kasina are in the throes of a number of strategic planning processes, let me take stab at coming up with two comparative industry lessons:

1. Success should no longer be defined as a pure gross sales number
2. Salespeople should be expected to consider profitability when planning their activity

Toward the first point, compensation plans need to be designed to help transform the discussion from the "old game" to the "new game." There needs to be a shift from gross commissions to bonus metrics that we think help our business in good times and bad. I think that Ivy Asset Management paying 20-30% of compensation in activity-based bonuses is a step in the right direction.

To the second point, sales management (and consultants for that matter) needs to work on creating an easy, understandable process that can help wholesalers evaluate the endgame. Some examples may include setting targets to increase the number of new producers in a region regardless of size, converting business from one product to another, or one asset class to another, or conducting more meetings with a pre-established advisor segment of value.

Just like Lt. Col Cabaniss' "three second" idea, we have to think of activity-based metrics that strike the balance between simplicity, effectiveness, and speed. That's our job as managers (and consultants).