Black In Business

Dennis Kimbrow has a book called “What Makes the Great, Great? The book may now be out of print but is a facinating topic. One night I was watching ESPN discuss the greatest running back in pro football history. The show discussed Gale Sayers, Jim Taylor, OJ Simpson, Walter Payton and Eric Dickerson. This was prior to some other stars that could enter the conversation today. The last man discussed was refered to as “The Great” Jim Brown.

This was heavy stuff, because all the men discussed had remarkable careers but only one was called great. In the business world, it has been discovered that a mere adjective, Greatone, would take performance to new heights. I tried this with a sales team. Anyone doing over 1 million dollars in new business capital equipment sales would be refered to as great. As in “The Great Jamal Doe.” I was amazed at what an honor this was for the sales team.

We had our people write business plans each year, to discuss how they were to hit their goals. Normally the team would write their goals to be 100% of their goals. After the carrot of being referred to as great was presented, the business plans were written to be “Great.” The outcome was every one was shooting for 200% of goal and as a result we enjoyed record breaking sales, along with having a great time.

The point, the team sold more because they wanted to be great. It is all about the attitude and our hope is to provide stories about people, just like you and I that have the attitude to be great. We want to let everyone know greatness is possible and you are capable. We all can win in business with hard work desire and a competitive sprit.