For nearly 200 years, since its inception, the United States had not lost any major military battles. Though the war in Korea should have given some guidance since it ended up a stalemate, the United States repeated many of the same mistakes in the war in Vietnam. By all accounts, the United States lost that war even though it would not appear that way on paper. As I write this and observe current events, I’m confident that the United States may never learn this lesson. But, with careful study, I’m hoping that we can apply many of these lessons to our sales careers to avoid falling into pitfalls.
Many people in the United States still believe that the Vietnam war was only a decade long. In reality, the war began in 1955 and ended in 1975. The United States invested tens of thousands of lives and many billions of dollars and did not achieve a single intended outcome. Before we can apply these lessons to our sales career, I think it is important to spend a few paragraphs defining the problem. As the old saying goes, “a problem defined is half solved.”
The Major Problems of the Vietnam War
The United States Constitution initially required a declaration of war before committing American troops in conflict. A declaration of war, while tragic, ensures a clear objective in the best possible outcome. Targets are defined and desired outcomes or establish before a single boot hits the ground. The next strategy is created so that things can get back to normal once the victory is achieved. All US wars before Korea were declared wars. The United States campaign in Japan is a great example. The objective was clear. We would bring the battle to the heart of Japan until its Emperor was willing to surrender unconditionally. That happened in 1946.
Any outside observer with a modicum of military prowess would expect the United States to launch a war on Vietnam in the same way. Vietnam was divided into North and South regions. North Korea had accepted aid from China and Russia to become a communist nation. The United States wanted to prevent communism from spreading first to South Korea and then to the continent. One should expect a full-on military offensive into North Korea to raise the American flag overhand its capital. As most of us know, that’s not what happened.
South Vietnam fell to the North in 1975 as the American armies vacated.
Instead, the United States allied itself with the South Korean government. By 1968, the United States committed more than half a million troops and billions of dollars in supplies to aid South Korea. The problem is that South Korea had neither the will to fight nor a clear objective. As a result, our country relegated its troops to patrolling the jungle areas to prevent supplies coming down to aid communist allies in the South Vietnamese territory. According to papers released by the Pentagon after the war, more than 80% of all battles fought during the conflict occurred at the time and place of North Vietnamese choosing. In short, the United States was fighting a defensive war it could not win. It literally could not succeed because there was no objective definition of what winning was.
What Can We Learn and Apply
The above explanation is undoubtedly an oversimplification. Nonetheless, we can glean from it some crucial lessons to apply to our business or our sales career.
Start with an outcome in mind
Let us start at the fundamental level. How much money do you want to earn? One of the best and worst things about the sales profession is choosing what your income will be. Once you know exactly what income level you want to be at, you can start to work backward from that point and determine the activities that you need to do each day to get you to that level. It should be a specific number. Instead of saying I want to make six figures, say, “in 2021, I will learn $115,821.”
Never self-limit
By choosing to fight a defensive war, the United States limited itself to achieving victory. Soldiers and generals were not allowed to take any action necessary to win the war. Many of us have self-limiting behaviors. Some of us may believe that it’s labor rather than value that creates income. Others may feel that their speech is too ineloquent or their bank accounts are too small to succeed. Still, others believe that their lack of connections limits them. Psychologists call these self-limiting activities because they are limitations we put ourselves.
Never work for a company or organization that limits your victory in any way
Anyone who has been in the sales business for a long time has probably worked for a company that limits sales activities. Some companies give leads and territories to specific salespeople and tell others they are limited in where or what they can sell. If you work for a company that limits your sales for upward mobility in any way, it’s time to move on. The talented and successful salesperson has many options.
Your objective needs to be total victory
To have complete victory, you need to have a clear idea of what victory looks like. From my experience, victory looks like preeminence in my field. I will commit to my income objectives and ensure that my name and business are synonymous with the product or service I provide.
Conclusion
Selling can be like warfare. We are never at war with our customers, but we were are at war with external factors. To win this war, we have to be wholly committed to achieving our objectives. Winning is hard enough to do when objectives are defined, and we have the full force of our company supporting us towards those objectives. It is nearly impossible when the objectives remain undefined, and we do not have support from our company. These are the lessons I think we can take from the US involvement in Vietnam.
