Jeffrey Gitomer

I’m at London Gatwick Airport two hours before my flight home to Charlotte. I wandered into the Ted Baker store. I love Ted Baker clothing. I found a few things I liked, but they didn’t have one of the items I wanted in my size. I was assured I could get it online. Great! I completed my purchase, and went to the airline lounge to get on my computer and buy the other item. Easy online access, found what I wanted in less than a minute. But when I went to complete my purchase, I could not find the USA as one of the 40 or so “ship to” country options.

In celebration of our recent Father’s Day, I am reprinting the column I wrote 12 years ago when my father passed away. If your father has passed away, please take the day to remember happy stories and great deeds. If you are lucky, and your father is still alive, be with him to celebrate, thank him, and tell him you love him. Please.

According to www.baseballreference.com, in the 135 years of Major League Baseball, there have been a total of 17,538 MLB players. Out of that 17,538, only 25 of them have hit more than 500 home runs. Of those 25, nearly half are contemporary players who may have used steroids, but the others are among baseball immortals: Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Mel Ott, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Matthews, Ernie Banks, Jimmy Foxx, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Willie McCovey, Reggie Jackson, and Mike Schmidt.

I get a ton of emails asking to solve sales dilemmas. Here are a few that may relate to your job, your life, and (most important) your sales thought process right now:

Many, if not most, salespeople (not you of course) walk into a sale with product knowledge, a few questions, a sales pitch, and hope. This is a strategy that will result in “How much is it?” Bad strategy.

I have no business plan. I have no spreadsheet with five years of projected earnings. There are two reasons: Most business “plans” never come to fruition, and five-year sales projections are about as accurate as political polls.

The leader of a symphony orchestra knows how to play every instrument. He also knows how those instruments blend together to create a symphonic sound. The leader of a choir knows every note that everybody has to sing, and knows how the voices and notes blend together to make harmony. They’re actually called “conductors” – but you know what I mean.

It occurred to me that most people who write about leadership are no longer leaders. Easy for them to espouse their Monday morning philosophy-harder for the leaders under fire to take ” former leader” direction. I just read an article in a business magazine written by a well-known “former leader.” I was horrified. One of the “key” points was that “clarity is the antidote of anxiety”; therefore “clarity” is the main concern of the effective leader. What a bunch of baloney. If you’re a leader, and clarity is your main concern, nothing much is going on.

Simon has autism. Simon loves to win. Actually Simon needs to win, and thrives on coming in first. Simon also HATES to lose, and some of his autistic symptoms manifest themselves when he can’t claim, “I WON!” or even, “I DID IT!”

Walking through Seattle’s Pike Place Market (where the inspiration for the book FISH! came from, and also the location of the original Starbucks), I couldn’t resist the Queen Anne cherries. Huge and just picked. “Give me a half a pound,” I said with positive anticipation of eating them as I walked around. The young woman running the fruit stand obliged, and weighed them.