Physics has a definition of work. It is force times distance times alignment equals work. Right? Like that is the literal definition of it. And and they call alignment "theta," but it's effectively: Force is your effort, Distance is the results from that effort, and Alignment or Theta is the alignment of the distance that you got to the actual goal that you want. Right? So like if you book a lot of appointments but they don't lead to sales, are you actually aligned? Well, physics would say no work has been done.
Well, in this formula, I think what gets lost is a lot of people focus on volume. They focus on the force. They focus on the effort. And that's because it is a critical variable in the mix. Like it is a it's a really important part of the formula. If you don't have that, you're not going to get the distance and you're not going to know or have alignment with the actual outcome that you want. So you hear a lot about volume, volume, volume, volume, volume.
And there was... I was on LinkedIn the other day and a more junior salesperson, you know in the SDR space, made a post that was essentially along the lines of: "Hey am I the only one who thinks sales training is a joke?" And you know he comes from the SDR world and he starts to outline this thing and you know for all intents and purposes I'd summarize the whole post as, in his words: "The only way to get better as a salesperson, as an SDR, is just dial your face off." Right? Just volume, volume, volume, volume, volume.
And I obviously I have a... I go, "Well, it's one of three variables. That's that's right. But volume is not enough." Right? Like volume... you drive to work every day, doesn't make you a Formula One racer. Right? It's intentional volume. And that's a part of this that I think gets lost.
Now here's the cool part. Somebody I respect a lot in the sales space, Josh Braun, actually responded. And the response I thought was so well written I just want to share it with you because it's a lesson that kind of puts into words a lot of what we're talking about in terms of what is intentional volume, how does alignment work into this. So here's what he said. And it's a... it's slightly longer, take me a couple minutes here but... he says: "If you don't know what good looks like, most reps just make the wrong thing automatic. Take swimming. Drop someone in a pool with no training and they're gonna kick really hard, they'll flail harder, and they'll burn out in about 20 seconds. Put that same person with a coach who adjusts their breathing, their reach, their timing, and suddenly they move further, faster, with less effort. Same person, different technique, totally different results. Sales works the same way. Dialing your face off builds endurance. Training builds efficiency. You need both. Volume reveals your gaps. Technique closes them. Top reps don't just make more calls. They make better calls. Cleaner openers. Sharper questions. Calmer tonality. Stronger awareness of buyer psychology. Those aren't accidents. Those are learned. More dials can make you fearless. Training makes you effective. Reps create rhythm. Coaching creates form. One without the other is how you end up exhausted, not excellent."
And I think what he so eloquently writes here in in my view is the importance of alignment. Yeah, trust me, I've hired a ton of sales trainers that wasn't worth a shit. Right? Like I've paid ten, twenty, thirty thousand dollars for for my sales teams for kind of rah-rah stuff that comes in, never gets fully adopted and incorporated. So yes I I get the the sentiment of the original post like hey, sales training is overrated a lot of times and you know at the end of the day you just gotta put in the reps. You know you can't read your book... you can't read enough books to be a good salesperson at some point you gotta like put the the shit to the ground, right? And that's and that's true. But training is not irrelevant. It's actually what makes it... the the volume that you're putting in and the effort that you're putting in lead to better results. Because it won't automatically.
In the swimming example that he used got here, the coaching, the swim training, like whatever it is... That is where alignment comes in. That is where you make sure that the effort you're putting in and the distance that you're getting actually gets you what you want. And I'll share a real quick example since he mentioned swimming. A summer ago or or so I got caught in a riptide out you know like surfing with my kids. And I'm not a real... I'm not a good surfer clearly. But it's like I also had no experience with riptides. So I get stuck in a riptide and I didn't realize that I'm in a riptide. I just feel like I'm not making progress towards the shore. Now I used to... you know, race triathlons, I can I can swim. So I've got this board and in front of me and I start swimming. I make no progress. I swim harder. I make no progress. Now I start swimming really fucking hard. Make no progress. In fact I'm going backwards. Two surfers came in and they like kind of swoop in from the side. One jumps off a a ledge on on the other piece and one pulls up with a surfboard. They pull me horizontally along the shoreline. If you know, you know. They pull me sideways basically, tow me out, and then we go into the to the shore. And my kids kind of watched the whole thing. They said, "Hey let me just tell you that rip tide right there is pretty bad. And well if you don't have any experience this is how you get out of a riptide: You gotta go sideways. Like you gotta go along the shore. You gotta you gotta go sideways to get out of the riptide and then you can come in." He said, "You you could have swam all day. Like you weren't gonna... you weren't gonna make any progress."
I didn't know that. And maybe the last thing I would have thought of is to swim sideways. But I probably would have burned out trying really hard, putting in a lot of force, and in this case not even making distance. But when you get to that point, the importance of alignment is so critical. And that's where training, or good training, that's where coaching, that's where these other things come into play to make sure that you are getting the bang for your buck and the ROI on your effort. Because the last thing you want to do is dial your face off for three months in a row and then look at the scoreboard and you haven't set a fucking appointment. Or you haven't set an appointment that you get paid on because it doesn't stick. Or you haven't set an appointment that you get paid on because it doesn't convert into, you know, an opportunity or or however that's working for for you at your business. That's not what you want. It's not just effort. It's effort, it's distance, and most importantly it's alignment. Because if it's not aligned with the actual outcome you want, then it doesn't fucking matter. And physics would tell you no work has actually been done. Hope that helps. Adios.
