As usual tonight I had the great opportunity to speak with a young salesperson that in two words has “Permanent Potential”! Most people are not even familiar with the term and how it relates to sales and management.

Permanent potential is best described as a person that goes through life with unlimited talents and gifts but never fully realizes them to their fullest. This young person is in my humblest opinion is one of the most naturally gifted sales persons I have ever come across. The problem is that this particular person believes all the press clippings and has stopped learning and growing.

This was not a sudden one time occurrence. Before one can be labeled as a person with permanent potential a track record has to be established. This particular person has burned bridges in the last three stops and has never seen any situation through to its entirety. Most importantly the key ingredient in a person with permanent potential is the inability to take responsibility for any of the failures.

As I explained to this young person, the road to success is filled with the corpses of people with permanent potential. This is not limited to the sales profession, quite the contrary it is in every industry in the world. When you are to big to learn from others and you know more than people 30 years your senior it is time to re-evaluate your attitude.

It is ironic that yesterday’s post was on Mr. Indispensable and yet this person with permanent potential is always released even before him. Imagine that.

“The Specialist” has this tip for all managers and owners of companies…cut your losses with those with “Permanent Potential” and move on, you and your entire Company will prosper in the long run for it. I call it “FOOLS GOLD”!!

“The Specialist”