This famous quote has been attributed to the US Army - Ranger Training Manual. The lesson is that as marketers and salespeople you can’t fear action and you should fear inaction; both can lead to failure. As marketers and salespeople I think the phrase must be changed to:
“Anything you do can get you fired, including doing nothing.”
For marketers, there are five certainties that will lead to eventual failure and get you fired:
- Not supporting the sales forecast with lead generation campaigns will get you fired.
- Not having a CRM system in place will lead to failure.
- Not having a marketing automation system will lead to failure
- Not measuring your campaign ROI will lead to failure.
- Not creating qualified leads will lead to failure.
Why it matters:
“Tackling the right problem is the essence of successful action”
Keshavan Nair “Beyond Winning-Handbook For Leadership Revolution”
For Salespeople there are five certainties that will lead to eventual failure and get you fired:
- Not making quota will get you fired.
- Not using the CRM system to YOUR advantage will lead to failure.
- Not following up sales leads will lead to failure.
- Not planning each day’s activities will lead to failure.
- Not copying the sales activities of the most successful salespeople in your company. There are reasons why they are successful.
Note the first item in each category says fired and the rest lead to failure which means
eventually firing unless you comply. I am sure there are more for each discipline, but
these cover the most urgent activities for sales and marketing people.
Aside: I taught at the US Army’s Ranger School (Ft. Benning). I was Infantry in VN and
learned that doing nothing is not an option.
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