Fast Track to the Top, with John Barrett

“When I first started working for Xerox, I was given a sales territory in rural Illinois. It was a marvelous environment for selling copiers, if you like to talk to corn. My first sale was to a bull semen factory. I watched the whole process of how they do it. Milking a bull is not for the squeamish. They were so proud of what they do, though my nightmares from the experience persist to this day. They actually gave me a sample of bull semen to take home. I think they bought a copier because they felt sorry for me, because I’m almost sure they didn’t really need one. It couldn’t have been more than a $1,500 sale, but it was totally worth it. I actually stayed in touch with that guy for a long time. He was a really decent human being

My dad was a very charming guy. He had a funny job; he set odds for a racetrack. It was a real job. It’s not like he was a bookie. He was a very hardworking guy, and he passed away when I was young, but I remember him working all the time at a minimum of two jobs. He never made more than $10,000 in any year of his life. While he did not ever really graduate from high school, his moral compass pointed straight north, and he had a doctorate on how to treat people. He was a hero to me and an inspiration.

I try to be a great teacher and that is because I’ve been the recipient of great teaching. Mostly I feel lucky. I’ve always been blessed with great mentors. When I worked at Xerox, I once made a huge mistake. Huge. It probably cost the company the better part of a million dollars. I was mortified. I went to my boss and handed in my resignation. I mean, I was just sick about it. My boss said, ‘What’s this?’ I said, ‘It’s my resignation. I’m done.’ He said, ‘What do you mean, you’re resigning?’ I said, ‘I just lost you nearly a million dollars!’ And he said, ‘Why would I let you go work for somebody else after I spent nearly a million training you?’ He was the first guy I remember so distinctly demonstrating how to conduct yourself under pressure.

To me, there’s an element of sales in everything. When we talk about the honorable profession of sales, one objective is to get the client to treat you like a peer and not be afraid to share their problems with you. When they view you as a peer, they’ll tell you their problems, and your obligation is to provide solutions that truly solve those problems and to pass on what you can’t solve. ‘No’ is my favorite word. Someone asks me, ‘Can you do this for me?’ Unless I am 100 percent certain we have the answer, I say, ‘No,’ and they say, ‘No? Well, what can you do for me?’ Then we look for a solution that does fit. Sometimes that means sending them to a competitor. And that only has to happen once in a relationship. They always come back, because of that trust.

A great way to lead is by example. Personal integrity is absolutely huge in business, and every day you get a chance to show it. We all have choices about how we conduct ourselves and how we treat others. Don’t you love the opportunity to demonstrate personal integrity? For example, somebody calls you, and you have no interest in speaking with this person at all. What do most people do? Blow ’em off. They don’t return the call. I return everybody’s call. I say, ‘Hey, Mark, I got your call. It’s not a likely prospect that we can help you, but I wanted to give you the courtesy of a phone call.’ Or how about shutting up and listening? What better way to demonstrate integrity than to shut up and really listen to what someone has to say?
Leadership has got to be fun. Business has to be fun. You spend too much time on it not to have fun. How do I have fun? I talk to people. We laugh together. Anybody can do this. Just pretend you live inside a Seinfeld episode.

We provide essential services for facilities, and by and large we employ the working poor to execute those services. They’re basically invisible, working for between $7 and $10 an hour. Most are immigrants who want to make a better life. What we hope is that they care and try to do the very best they can. I’ve got to tell you, if you met the people who work in our industry…I mean, sure, we have bad apples, but a vast majority dignify themselves every single day. We had a woman who worked for us at the airport in Detroit. This is a woman who makes $8.50 an hour. She found a purse with $10,000 in cash in it. And she turned it in. Work side by side with an hourly worker who’s just trying to make a better life for their family to restore your faith in humanity.”