The way Otis had it figured, he’d never fall short of his goal if he never had one. 

Good salespeople tend to have strong personalities, and over the years, I’ve noticed they have traits that define their selling style. You know what I mean: “Bob’s a fireball,” or “Randy’s a smooth operator,” or ‘Mary’s so conscientious.” 

While it may seem counterintuitive, I’ve often found that strengths can sometimes become weaknesses. Detail work is hard on Bob. Randy doesn’t handle confrontations well, and Mary gets stressed out when snafus occur. 

I was trying to figure out what all this said about Otis. Otis’ strong suit was stubbornness; if he had a builder in his sight or an idea in his head, he’d never back off. At a seminar once, he claimed he heard Bill Lee say, “Always call on prospects until they either buy or die.” I had to explain to him that Bill wasn’t giving permission to kill them if you couldn’t sell them.  

It made no sense that Otis resisted my attempts to have him analyze his customers’ sales volume and discuss their thoughts about the next year, so we could determine what his sales goals would be. But I know why he resisted. He didn’t want to give me the satisfaction of scoring a “win.” 

“Setting goals is like putting blinders on—all you do is miss opportunities,” he argued. “Besides, how the heck am I supposed to predict what my customers will spend next year? Who knows, maybe they’ll go out of business instead.” 

“Otis, this is so fundamental that even your kids could come up with a realistic figure,” I replied. I figured maybe this was his soft spot. He had daughters, and if you look up “devotion” in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of Otis. 

“What do you mean?” 

“You read stories to them, and you watch movies with them. Take the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy’s trying to get back home; the scarecrow wants a brain; the tinman wants a heart; and the lion wants courage. So, what did they do? They followed the Yellow Brick Road. You need goals and a plan too.” 

Otis didn’t buy it, but I did find out that appealing to his paternal instincts was as useless as reasoning with him. 

About a month later, Otis took his family on a vacation they had been planning for a year (don’t ask me about the irony—I pointed it out to Otis, and it didn’t make a dent). His girls wanted to go to a ranch and ride horses, so Otis and his wife decided to drive to a horse ranch on a two-week vacation. 

It was an opportunity in the making. “You know, if you were really serious about this ‘no goals’ thing, you’d put your money where your mouth is.” I said. 

“How’s that?” 

“Leave your map at home and navigate by your instinct, the sun, a compass, or all three. There are bound to be interesting side trips, and you don’t want to get so hung up getting there that you miss everything along the way.” He loved it to the point he took it hook, line, and sinker. (Author’s note: this took place in the 1990s, before GPS, Waze, etc.) 

I was taking care of a few of Otis’ larger accounts while he was gone, so I knew he’d check in. I looked forward to following his progress. 

It went beautifully the first week. Otis called in regularly, and he told me about their discoveries—farms in Ohio, caves in Kentucky, lakes in Missouri. “Great suggestion,” he said. “If we stayed on the interstate, we would never have found these places.” 

Then I didn’t hear from him for several days. Finally, he called on a Sunday afternoon. 

Otis told me reluctantly that he drove 5 hours in the wrong direction because, true to his form, he refused to ask for directions. “But we’re back on track now,” he said, “and at the next gas station I’m buying a map!” 

“So where are you?” I asked. 

“Actually, I won’t know until we get back on a paved road and see a sign.” 

Wherever he was, he wasn’t in Kansas anymore. 

(After that trip, Otis, who previously resisted planning, came around in both his work and personal life.) 

Mike McDole has 40+ years of actual LBM experience, including being SVP of a large regional pro-dealer, and is the principal of Firing Line LBM Advisors. He’s also partners with Greg Brooks of the Executive Council on Construction Supply and his LMS. Mike can be reached at 774.372.1367 or Mike@FiringLineLBM.com.