Please excuse the excuse circa 328B.C.

In 328B.C Alexander the Greats army had reached the mountain top fortress at Sogdia. It had never been conquered and was thus described as impenetrable, impossible and a waste of time to even attempt....but Alexander was an overachiever (more on that another time) and these descriptions only pushed him to want to defeat this city even more. Coincidentally, this was not the first time Alexander had run into these words, the Phoenician city of Tyre was also described this way and he conquered that, the enemy at Gaugamela had been described thus and he routed it....Alexander had a track record of overcoming the impossible.
Often customers will ask about the difference between reasons and excuses. My mentor and boss Dave Kurlan encourages companies and leaders to develop and adhere to a no excuse policy....but some ask how do I know if something is a reason and not an excuse? Simple look at the context of the conversation.
If Alexander had said " it is too high and rocky, it is too cold, we have never done this before, the men are tired, we will have to climb in dark, by the time we get to the top we will be more tired and they will be waiting for us....so for all of those reasons we cannot do it" he would have been offering an excuse.
An excuse is simply a "reason" presented to justify failure or lack of execution. Instead Alexander took all of those reasons into consideration (he was not an idiot, idiots don't conquer half of the civilized world in ten years) and after considering them all said "but we can do it in spite of those circumstances".
What about your business, company and sales people. We all face factors that might prevent us from accomplishing our objective, if you acknowledge those and then press on in spite of them and succeed then those obstacles remain reasons (often things we would prefer didn't exist and are working on eliminating). An overachiever will find a way to leverage and compensate and work around a weakness. If however you let those reasons become the "why we lost, why I failed, what stopped me performing etc....." then in an instant those reasons have become excuses.
In order to implement and enforce a no excuses mantra in your business you will need to be prepared for a few things.
1. A No excuses policy is not an excuse for management or supervisors to not fix any inadequacies or problems and neither is it an excuse for them to push all responsibility down stream.
2. Honesty and these expectations enforced across the board is a must!
3. Be ready to set the example.

When Alexanders men reached the summit the people were so shocked that the city surrendered. The inhabitants said "these men have wings". Wouldn't it be great to have a culture at your business that forces your competition to think that you and your people have wings?