In Memoriam: Eddie Murphy’s Career

The other night, my son walked in the room as I was watching Coming to America, the last funny movie staring Eddie Murphy.

Watching the scene below, my son pointed and asked “Whose that?”.

I replied “That’s a comedic genius that decided to waste his talent by taking on any script that was thrown in his direction”.

“But, I thought Dan Aykroyd was a white dude.”

So then I had to explain the difference between comedic genius and riding John Belushi’s coat tails.

Some Language in the Clip is Not Safe for Work.

What happened to Eddie Murphy has happened at IBM, GE, Microsoft, and countless other organizations.

Success. Specifically, a lot of success very early.

IBM, GE, and Microsoft all enjoyed the 800lb gorilla position in their dominant markets for years. However when new competitors and new technologies threaten their positions, their past success had built a collective “ego” that resisted change.

Read the bios of Jack Welch, Andy Grove or Lou Gerstner, and you will find that these men spent the majority of their careers eradicating complacency in their organizations and building a sense of urgency that mandated that change was to be embraced.

One of our Sales Warriors recently changed careers prematurely. He shared that his former employer had the best product on the market, great reputation, and was loved by analysts. However, the way the team sold was very disturbing.

“When I was criticized for doing a needs analysis with a prospect, I knew it was time to go.

The mandated process was to immediately schedule a demo with any prospect, and then show every feature of the system, then ask for the order.

The demos were one size fits all. Every prospect received the same demo.

When we started losing deals because our system was reportedly “too robust”, it confirmed my suspicions that we were overwhelming our prospects with too many details.

When I shared my concerns with our VP of Sales, the response was that I need to get with the program”.

You will usually see this type of mind set in an organization that is benefiting from a first-to-market advantage or has been deemed “the next great thing”. Most who enjoy this experience fail to realize that their good fortune is only temporary.

A couple of warning signs that your sales team is following in the steps of Eddie Murphy:

• They actually believe that “This thing sells itself”

• When asked about target market “We sell to everybody”, which really equals “We have no clue who would buy this”

• When asked about advantages over competitors only replies are “Customer Service” and/or “Lowest Cost of Ownership”

Eddie, if you are reading this, we are rooting for you, but if you are thinking about doing “Coming to America 2″, I will hunt you down and beat you silly with a copy of a George Carlin HBO Special.