Lessons from 1066

From early childhood children all across the U.K have this date pounded into their heads, the notorious battle of Hastings. This was when William of Normandy, later to be known as William the Conqueror (only once proven to be an over achiever of course) defeated Harold, at this point his only rival for the throne of Great Britain(more on that later)
So what lessons can we as business people, as sales professionals gather from something that happened almost 1000 years ago? Here are a few......
#1 Goals - William had his eye on the prize so to speak, for years he had focused on a promise made to him regarding his being the next King and because he had those goals he made -
#2 Preparations - In the years leading up to 1066 this relatively small feudal player built up an army of well trained knights (a new concept in 1066) and also built the ships to get them there and bought the horses for them to ride when they arrived. In addition to his mounted knights his army included Archers, just in case they came in handy - guess what they did!
#3 Compensation - William was not able to fund all of this on his own so interestingly he paid his knights in futures, he promised them different "fiefdoms" on the other side, once the battle was won. This really allowed him to stretch his budget and go into hostile territory with a group of soldiers that were "emotionally vested" and had heard "positive affirmations" regarding their being "duly compensated" for their hard fighting.

So as a Sales Manager, Representative, VP , Director etc.....are your Goals clearly stated? Have you shared those Goals with your people? Have you taken the necessary steps to ensure that those goals can be met? Are you embracing new methods and getting yourself and your team up to speed where necessary?
As a CEO, Owner, President, etc.....Have you accepted the fact that your top performing salespeople will only "fight" if they are duly compensated? Will you "risk a success weighted compensation plan" in order to win the business that will make the payout well worth it? In order to do that you have to be the first to believe in your business! Oh yeah, you also need to build some ships and buy some horses (more on that later)