Damn The Torpedos
WMMM #114- This week I share a recent experience that uncannily fits the phrase “you can’t make this stuff up.”
Jeff Keplar Newsletter July 25, 2026 5 min read
Just Another Day
On this morning, I cruise through one unremarkable experience after another:
Fill my Yeti with water.
Swallow a couple of vitamins.
Dress myself like I was going for a hike.
Even the neoprene knee sleeves to “warm” the knees ( even with temps exceeding 90 degrees at 7:30 a.m., years of competitive tennis on hard courts have the knees craving warmth - it is 69 degrees in the house)
Earpods for listening to podcasts
Quick stretch of the essential muscles
Grab her collar
And the poop bags
Harness my “grand pup”
Out the door for her morning walk.
Upon our return, she digs into a bowl of her breakfast I’ve placed in front of her.
I freshen up and put on a collared dress shirt over my jeans and tennis shoes.
Fix a double espresso and fill a bowl with some Greek yogurt and a bran muffin.
We have a videoconference to attend.
Today we are the guest speaker at a QBR.
A former colleague is now a sales leader and invited us to share our experience with their current team.
We have prepared an outline to guide our talk.
The prep included a pre-call to get the lay of the land and the objectives from our host.
We click the link to the videoconference.
Everything appears to be working, and we are placed into “the waiting room.”
We are early.
Ch-Ch-Ch Changes
Remember, “on time” is late (Hall of Fame Football Coach Vince Lombardi)
Fifteen minutes early is “on time.”
The top of the hour comes and goes, and we remain waiting for the host to “bring us into the meeting.”
At 5 minutes past, we aren’t worried, but we begin to anticipate being entered into a meeting that is already behind schedule.
What adjustments will we need to make?
As we enter the meeting just before 10 minutes past, we see that everyone is already seated around a table.
It appears that we have “interrupted” a conversation.
The host provides a gracious introduction.
The floor is now ours.
But even when attending another’s QBR, we fall back to a best practice.
We plan to begin by asking questions.
But, before we can utter our meeting calibration words (Do we still have 30 minutes? Has anything changed that I should know about?) our host shifts his eyes from his phone to me and says:
“Jeff, you should know something. The changes in our org continue. My boss resigned last night. I just now learned that I am currently reporting to (name and title withheld out of respect for the situation and to honor professional confidentiality)”
Our host now reports to a sales leader with an organization of over 5,000 people.
He found out just now, looking at his phone as we were about to begin.
Dazed and Confused
I know our host fairly well.
I can tell that this change has him distracted.
He’s had the “rug pulled out from under him,” so to speak.
I reclaim control of the meeting (my 30-minute slot at least)
Suggest that we all introduce ourselves and our roles to begin.
We do so, and now I can at least call out first names so this isn’t just one-way communication.
I want to have a “conversation” with this leadership team.
But after this latest revelation, I suspect their minds are as far away from immersing themselves with me as they can be.
I decided to start by keeping it simple.
I share my view of the best way to handle QBRs.
After participating in hundreds of them as a participant, I explain what I did differently when it was my time to host them.
Less looking backward - can’t undo what has already been done - more looking forward.
What do we want to have happen next (month/quarter) and what has to happen for that to be true?
Focus our behavior on what we can control and accept what we cannot.
I choose to borrow “The Wolf’s” (Harvey Keitel’s character in the movie “Pulp Fiction”) approach to problem-solving as our approach to the next segment.
That entails, with a laser focus on execution, repeating everything that we think we know (or can deduce) about the situation facing the leaders sitting at that table right now.
“Let Me See If I’ve Got This Right…”
Quota - we aren’t where we wanted our attainment to be upon reaching the mid-point of the year.
People - morale is poor; we have experienced turnover and feel that more unplanned attrition is right around the corner
Sales skills - we could do a much better job selling “value”
Product - we struggle revealing the exceptional technology we believe we possess
Organization - we feel like our division, which resulted from an acquisition nearly a decade ago, is now playing “2nd fiddle” to a newly acquired company, so much so that we fear that our group will end up reporting to them.
Anything I missed?
Head Trash
The room gets quiet.
Not unexpected.
When one hears an outsider repeat everything one is saying and thinking in a single breath, it can be quite eye-opening.
We poke for more, but this group is still stunned by the resignation of a leader and the news of 10 minutes ago.
So we use what we’ve got.
We run through all of this feedback, one at a time.
We ask each time: “Does this help you be successful? Make quota? Make money? Get promoted? Grow as a professional?”
The answer is invariably “No” and sometimes “No, but…”
We opine that since the item will not help us accomplish our objectives, we need to treat it as “noise.”
More often than not, the item is something out of our control.
It may make us feel better when we complain about it.
But it won’t get us to where we want to be, and we can’t do anything about it.
So if it isn’t going to help us in any way, and is out of our control, why are we allowing it to distract us?
We group all items in this category and call them “Head Trash.”
An easy-to-remember term that reminds us to discard them and return to those things, which we can control, that will help us make quota, make money, and grow as a professional.
Full Speed Ahead
Let’s start with attaining Quota.
It is certainly something we can control.
Most of the room is below target at mid-year.
Suggest that each leader sits down with their team and maps a path to exceeding the annual goal.
Then ask: “What has to happen for that to be true?”
Determine the answer and ask again, and again, and again.
Next is People.
If we have experienced turnover and our instincts tell us there is more to come, start interviewing immediately.
Build a pipeline in case your instincts are correct.
But, don’t fear turnover.
Plan for it.
Then, immerse yourself with your team and focus on executing the little things with excellence as you work the process set forth for quota attainment.
Sales Skills - Selling Value.
If we have access to funds for training, enroll your team in a value-based selling course.
If not (or even if you do), go visit with your customers and ask them to “value” what your technology does for their business.
Product - Work with your pre-sales tech team to improve what we do and how we communicate it. But, adopt this mantra and always live by it: “We never lose a deal to a demo.” Demos don’t make sales; professional salespeople orchestrate a process that enables sales.
Be accountable.
We are responsible for every sales opportunity.
Organization - There is nothing we can do for nearly every example of organizational politics. Discard this from our minds and focus on executing the little things perfectly.
Time.
We were 3 minutes past the allotted 30 minutes.
The call ended fairly abruptly.
Only time will tell if this session was helpful for that team.
Lessons Learned
1) Look forward - Don’t dwell on past performance (good or bad)
2) Head Trash - get it out of your system, then discard it and focus on what matters.
3) Ask: “What has to happen for that to be true?”
4) We never lose a deal to a demo.
Thank you for reading,
Jeff
