"The Things We Think And Do Not Say. The Future of Our Business..."

"I began writing what's known as a Mission Statement...Fewer Clients, Less Money..."

During the 2011 MPS Conference, at the end of the MPS Expert Panel session titled, The Best MPS Program, I gave a little bit of what I like to call, the Jerry Maguire Experience.

Some of these panels end up being all 'doom and gloom'. You know, people get to say "I did it this way, so you should too" and "change or die", "the sky is falling".

Ken was wrapping up, the urge was there, I couldn't help it.

I wanted - no,  I felt, words were needed. Good words, positive energy let out for the world.

I have no idea if anybody heard what I said or if anyone remembers - and that's okay.  It was about the moment, a chance criss-cross of time and place.

An opportunity like that doesn't come along very often. I seized it.

"So much to say, and no one to listen..."

The words stumbled out and into the air, drifting.

I said,  "Now is the time.  This is the place.  An opportunity to remember.  To remember why you got in this crazy industry in the first place. Those times, the way it felt to get that first sale, install those devices...

To remember what it was like to NOT know. To guess, to make it up as you went along.

To remember when your existence wasn't dictated by the beliefs and dogma of the few.

Do you remember? Do you remember that blind jump, that a Leap of Faith?

To be young, to be amazed, to just...be.

It's here.  It's here for us now.  This very second.  How happy are you with your place in the world? The World is moving."

As much as I love having the mic, I know that the Global 2011 MPS Conference does not approach the scale and gravity of a major motion picture, arguably one of the best American films ever released.

Or does it?

"Breakdown. Breakthrough."

What are we here to discover?  What are the simple pleasures we look for and endeavor to find?

Direction? Validation?  Yes.

It's okay to sell copiers.  It's okay to sell MPS.  It's okay to sell.   It's okay to try and fail.  To tumble.  Get up, do it again.

MPS isn't the end-all, it isn't the only reason to exist - it never has been.  Still, with everybody getting in and as many as 50% failing, what now?

With all the OEMs defining MPS as S1/S2 and reclassifying direct accounts how can we continue?

Touch More.

More Human Touch.  Less PowerPoint.  No more WebEx meetings, toss the 50 slide business summaries.  Instead, press the flesh.  Draw on a napkin.

Do that thing we do as sales professionals, look him in the eye and say "thank you, what more can we do, today?"

"Oddest, most unexpected thing..."

Success and change are hardly the results of design.  Innovation encroaches from another direction; from the left as we look right, from behind as we look ahead. Few ever see it coming.

So it is today.  As some deny the paperless revolution is near, companies like Alaska Air outfit their 1,400 pilots with iPads.  Apple is making the textbook obsolete and banks now accept pictures of checks for deposits.  Your kids, don't call each other anymore, they use their thumbs.

From social media to MpS, everything is new and scarcely predicted - there are no experts - the world is moving faster.  No benchmarks, no 'metrics', no comparison, no rules.

Waiting for the revolution?  It's already here.

"The Me I always wanted to be" - Trust

Trust. It is a very big word and one of the first MPS Conference keynote speaker attempted to rally behind stating, "...Trust is something this industry has got to reclaim."

He is new.  He doesn't see that to reclaim something, one must have first possessed it.

Again, now is the time.  This Great Financial Crisis is secular, not cyclical - everything is changed and in flux. Now is the time to get out and see your clients re-establishing yourself as a trusted advisor, a Business Partner.

Be you.

"I had lost the ability to bullshit, ..."

Our journey continues.

The path is less bumpy when we build partnerships. Partnerships are easier to forge over a foundation of truth.  Can you be true?

Can you lose the ability to bullshit? If not to your prospects, at least with yourself.  Or are you just another shark in a suit?

Can you see the entire ecosystem?

How about instead of optimizing a smidgen of hardware and some toner, you envision Optimizing Everything.

That's right, everything.   Managed Optimization Services. 

"That's how you become great, man. Hang your balls out there."

GET MORE LIKE THIS, IN THE BOOK - HERE.

One of the absolute best reviews of Jerry Maguire.  Started, 4/30/2011

Originally, 5/16/11

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