Got Milk Run ?

 SalesManUp

Got Milk Run ?

“ Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.” - Winston Churchill

When I was a little boy growing up in Naples Park Florida, I remember when the milkman would deliver milk to our house. One hot humid, sweltering, sweating morning ( did I mention it was sub tropical? ); I met the milk man at the road to collect our normal moo juice, and he actually let me walk into the refrigerated portion of the delivery truck. It was like visiting the North Pole, feeling the refreshing arctic- like air surround me, and the freezing blast swirling about me. It made the morning milk taste that much better. 

The days of the milkman ended with plastic cartons of milk made available at every gas station, grocery store and 7-11. Like gas stations who used to have attendants who ran out to your car and pump gas for you, we became a self-serve culture. The milk man became obsolete, but in some ways he still lives on. Sales people can become like milk men, can't we ? It is so easy to get into a route, like a delivery person, we stay within our comfort zone, calling on the same accounts, the same friendly faces, the same clients who have already said “yes”. Relationship building is vital for long term annuity success, but if we don’t push ourselves out of our comfort zones to knock on new doors, call new prospects , and make some cold calls ; our sales business will eventually dry up and die.

Spencer Johnson wrote a marvelous book about this subject of getting out of our milk run, in his award winning story “ Who Moved My Cheese ?” In Spencer’s true form, he communicates basic principles in a story about two mice that run in a maze. They show up to their typical spot where the cheese has always been, and it is gone! Who moved it ? They don't know. Will the cheese return ? Should we stay or should we go and look for new cheese ? They are faced with a dilemma - they either go out looking for new cheese, or stay where the “market “ has always been, and starve ! ( spoiler alert ) Eventually, one of the mice decides to put on his running shoes and go find the cheese.

At one point in my sales career, I parked where the cheese was and it fed me quite marvelously. Then one day, it moved !  The real estate bubble popped, construction of schools and public buildings came to a screeching halt, and the market that had previously fed me so well dried up and withered. A major client I had serviced for years dropped from a Million in Sales a year to one hundred fifty thousand. My company , at the time, warned me to find new cheese. They put me on a three month probation , and you know what happened ? I was forced out of my comfort zone. I began to knock on new doors and make cold calls. I followed the money trail to clients who were still doing some building. I developed new relationships with people that I had literally ignored previously because I already had all the cheese I needed. I had stopped developing new business. I had fallen into the proverbial milk run ! 

Are you stuck in milk run ? Maybe it’s time to take that milk truck” off road” and explore some new possibilities. What about you ? What is it going to take to move stagnant mediocrity to on fire Business Development? Take a swig of that almond milk, put your running shoes on,  and let's go find the cheese !

“ Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.”  - Brian Tracy

“ I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.”  -  Joel Osteen