A Sales Carpenter

Leadership in Selling

Subject: Sales, Selling, International, Planning

by Victor Antonio

I remember moving my family to Argentina as Vice President of Sales for Latin America.  I was in charge of managing five regional offices, Argentina of course being one of them. 

In the company’s ten year history of selling into Latin America it had never exceeded $14 million (M) in annual sales.  The Argentina office itself had never produced more than $400 thousand (K) in sales.  My task was to increase the sales locally in Argentina, but more importantly throughout Latin America. 

I remember sitting in my office one day, looking out the window and wondering, “How the heck am I going to grow this business with problems in Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico and other hot spots?  “How can I grow this business beyond $14M when no one in the past has been able to do so?”  Forget the movie Sleepless in Seattle, I was “Sleepless in Argentina,” trying to map out a strategy.  How would I make “sales” happen?! ” 

A confession to you the reader: I was scared!  Please don’t tell anyone!

One day while on the phone with a customer, I heard loud noises from across my office building.  After getting off the phone, I opened the window and looked at the shorter building next door.  On the rooftop, I saw several men using a scrapping machine to rip apart the flat roof the size of two tennis courts.  This noise went on for days.

Then one day I noticed the silence.  I looked outside and discovered that the men had finishing stripping the rooftop and were now laying small ceramic tiles.  Given the size of the roof I remember thinking, “That’s going to take them a very long time.”

A few days later to my surprise and amazement I looked outside and saw that they were three-quarters of the way complete.  “Amazing!  How were they able to lay so many small tiles so quickly?” 

Satori,… a moment of enlightenment.

At that very moment, a new mindset was born for building sales.  Instead of focusing in on the enormous task of increasing sales for the entire region (the whole roof), I would focus on building the company’s sales slowly (one ceramic tile or sales office at a time). 

It was this paradigm shift, this Latin American version of eating an elephant one-bite-at-a-time that helped me maintain the patience and sanity needed to grow the business.  I considered each country in Latin America a “tile.”   I set out to make sure that each tile I laid was positioned correctly in the marketplace.  The result?  First year, we hit $14.3M.  Second year $45M.  By the end of the third year, the region’s annual sales had grown to $98M.  The Argentina office itself went from $400K in sales to $5M.

Success, in sales and in life, starts when you break things up into smaller pieces; you begin to feel a sense of control.  And as I began to take action, I began to feel a sense of momentum.  Control and momentum became my engine for success.  And every time I felt overwhelmed or anxious, I thought to myself, “Victor, let’s just lay one tile at a time.”  

Confucius said, “It is not a matter of how fast or slow, but simply a matter of you moving.”  I learned that progress or success never happens overnight, but over time…one tile at time.  I learned how to become a sales ‘carpintero’ (carpenter who builds things).