Irrational Persistence

5 Build a Company Woody Allen Would Be Proud Of

“80 percent of life is showing up.”

—Woody Allen

At Garden Fresh we adopted the approach to never “sell” anything. Instead we committed to something more aspirational: to form true strategic partnerships with our customers.

Just as we adopted a strategic approach to building relationships with our customers, though, we also adopted a strategic approach to building our company.

One in which our sales force did not have to “sell” to be effective.

One in which about all they had to do to be successful was show up.

Show up and simply have conversations with our customers, conversations in which we outlined our capabilities instead of talking our product line up, conversations in which we asked questions to learn about our customers’ needs.

We’d listen, then shape a program via our customers’ words, to the extent that a true long-term strategic partnership would naturally, almost inevitably, ensue.

To be able to do that we had to layer into our program more strategic advantages than anyone else in our industry had. Advantages our competitors could not possibly match. That customers could only get from Garden Fresh.

It is the sales force’s responsibility to first secure, then “show up” for the meeting. To have the conversations with their customers.

It is the responsibility of a company’s senior management to ensure that, when they do show up, they have more arrows in their quiver than anyone else the customer will meet.

And those ...