Ask me how to use $425 to make $7-million become $28-million.  

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”  Matthew 7:7-8 (NLT)

In those early days of being appointed to develop and lead the sales side of the small sporting goods company, I realized that this would be a 360-degree type of position.  If we were going to develop into a sales oriented organization, we had to change the fundamental way we approached the market.  The company had been methodically built by advertising products in a newspaper type of industry monthly.  Taking incoming calls from individuals licensed to buy our products.  These individual buyers were being phased out by increasing government regulation.  Our core revenue source was at risk.  The larger market did not know us and did not take us seriously.  For good reason.

– Identifying what needs to be done is the first step.  Doing what needs to be done begins to separate you from the pack.  Doing without being told is the catalyst to leadership.  

My boss, the president of the company at that time, came from a buying background and had minimal sales experience.  Compared to my extensive 3 years of sale experience.  (Insert going into work without tools here.)  There was a magazine publication that reached our target customer base; sporting goods retailers and I asked him if I could have $425 to place a 1/4 page, black & white ad that I would create to see if we would get any response from our desired target market.  After 3-4 months of asking, each time missing the deadline to place the ad, he agreed.  

– If you believe in what you want to do, you will be tenacious and consistent in pursuing the objective.

So I saw a cartoon of a cowboy riding a bucking horse, holding his hand in the air as if saying something.  The cartoon was designed in a way that our company logo fit perfectly under the horse’s rear-end in the image.  I naively and without any intention of trademark violation, cut out that cartoon image and placed it and our logo in the defined area 3.25” x 4.25” of the ad space we had purchased.  (Did I mention that I was now an advertising specialist?). I then wrote the words, “Stop horsing around.” And the copy of the ad said, “If you’re not buying from us, you’re paying too much.”  Included was our non-toll free phone number because I had not been able to convince my boss that more orders would come in if we had a 1-800 number….yet!

– Rome wasn’t built in a day.  But it was built.

After a graphics designer laid the ad out to meet the magazine’s standards, we waited.  Sure enough, two months later an envelope arrived on my desk, containing over 50 inquiries from retailers who had taken the time to fill out the response card in the magazine asking to be contacted by our company as a prospective supplier.  My boss wasn’t happy!  “How are you going to have time to call all of these inquirers, while still unloading trucks, helping pack orders and cleaning up at the end of the day?,” he asked.  He also was not happy that we would be incurring significantly higher phone bills because of all of the outgoing calls I would be making.  He was a very farsighted guy!  I committed to come in early (we opened at 8:00 am), stay late (we closed at 5:00) and cut short my lunch to make the calls.  He grudgingly acquiesced.

– Where there’s a willingness powered by commitment and tenacity, there is a way.

As I made those calls early in the morning, I quickly learned that the best store owners worked early and could typically by reached before 8:00 am Eastern Time and Mountain/Pacific time retailers could be best reached at the 12:00 ET slot.  Let the calls begin.  This was a time period where there was no Internet, no email, no texting.  Sending and accepting faxes was still somewhat in its infancy and was not an allowed way to send legal docs.  The setup of new customers was slow.  Relationship was key.

– Anything worthwhile is worth the effort. Relationships built to last require investment of time, energy and genuine interest.

As I made my way through those initial ad inquiries, I came to the S’s.  A Terry A. from a company in Atlanta called ‘Sportstown’ had inquired.  When I called, he answered and his first comment was life changing for our little company:  “I can’t believe you called me,” Terry said.  He had been submitting these inquiries for months to every advertiser in the magazine and our company was the first to respond.  I learned that Terry was the Buyer at Sportstown for our category of products.  I learned that Sportstown had grown from 7 stores to 17 stores in the last year and had outgrown their existing suppliers.  I learned that they planned to open another 15 stores in the coming 13 months (private equity is awesome and/or selling your soul to the devil).  I learned that Terry needed help.  Our little horse ad was his Calvary coming to save the day.

– You can learn a lot about people and companies if you ask and are willing to listen.  Committing to solving their problem versus slotting them into your model separates you from the pack.

Terry said, “I would like to give your company a try.  I’ll have our new vendor group send all of our documents.”  I then learned that they purchased using Net 30 Day payment terms and he thought a $1-million dollar credit line would suffice to start.  Our company’s terms were COD, cash on delivery, and our really good customers could write a check versus literally paying in cash.  Seriously!

– If you’re chasing giants, don’t bring a mouse trap.  Houston, we have an opportunity.

Imagine my boss’s response when I said we have a prospective customer who wants a million-dollar credit line and 30-day payment terms.  I won’t write what he said.  I will say my work as a sales person, sales manager, advertising specialist were just beginning.  And merchandising manager, marketing manager, IBM AS400 integrator, corporate real estate developer and on, all lay on the near horizon.

– You have to be very ‘stretchy’ to grow exponentially.  Your commitment is often measured by your willingness to overcome pushback from within of the very thing you are tasked with doing.

One call to a buyer who held a very large checkbook changed the trajectory of our little company and of a young kid.  It was indeed time to stop horsing around.  We were moving up from Single-A to Triple-A and the Majors were calling.  

We weren’t ready!

“He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.”  Matthew 8:26 (NIV)