FROM THE PRESIDENT – Greg Adamson
You’re not alone with those ‘haunting’ issues
Fall is a time for spectacular change. Here in the northeastern United States, our entire region transforms from a lush green canopy of leaves to bright yellow, orange and red foliage. People travel from far and wide to “peep” at the leaves changing colors.
In our yearly calendar, we welcome the changing of the seasons with many adjustments, including clothing, activities, sports and even fragrances as stores smell of pumpkin or cinnamon. In New England this year, and perhaps in your part of the world too, retailers couldn’t wait to usher in Halloween. Costumes and candies were lining the grocery store shelves as early as July 5!
The Halloween industry is quite large in America. In 2023, Americans are projected to spend more than $11 billion on Halloween alone.
Some readers will say, “Yes! That’s why it’s my favorite holiday.” Others will say, “Why? Who is buying all that stuff?”
I’ve asked friends who pay to go to haunted houses why they go. The most common answer: “Because it makes me forget about reality for a while.”
You can’t argue with that reasoning, but I’d prefer a good college or NFL game anytime to a haunted house. But that’s why we have a large, diverse economy.
Which brings me back to business, literally. In our topsy-turvy economy, many of us face the same scary themes in our “haunted houses” at work:
- Missed quota numbers
- Backorders
- Supply chain issues
- Expiring patents
- Reimbursement codes
- High turnover of salesforces
- Lack of selling skills
- Delayed launch of key products
- Pressure from marketing or sales leaders who feel there could be a training gap
Your list may include some of the mentioned above, perhaps with some additions or changes. It is not surprising to me if our lists are similar, regardless of which company we work for in our industry. Many of these are industry problems.
Of course, some business problems can be labeled as controllable or uncontrollable. Spending a bunch of time on uncontrollable topics will only cause us to spiral downward. Identifying the controllable items and spending our time and energy on these will bear much more fruit for our departments and companies.
All of this brings me back where we belong, to LTEN.
When times are “scary,” no matter what time of year, leaning on your LTEN colleagues to see how they are handling the same problems you’re facing can be both comforting and educational. The “N” in LTEN stands for “network” for a reason.
I’ve often discovered ideas to help solve some problems by listening to how my LTEN friends are solving these issues at their companies. If you’re not using LTEN resources to connect with people and build your professional support system, now is the time to start.
I urge you to use your LTEN connections – connect via LinkedIn or the LTEN Member Directory to seek other ideas. Start with me if you’d like.
You’ll find things go bump in the night considerably less when you’re not alone.
Until next time…
Greg Adamson is president of the LTEN Board of Directors and executive director, sales training, for Olympus Americas. You can reach out to Greg via email at greg.adamson@olympus.com or through LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-adamson-9b85ba7/.
