Unconscious Competence
WMMM #100 - This week, I share another lesson I picked up in sales training.
Jeff Keplar Newsletter June 14, 2025 5 min read
Debbie likes Mexican food.
She can have Tex-Mex three to four times a week - no problem.
I enjoy it, but not as much or as often as she does.
However, I am guaranteed to get Mexican at least once a week because of our Friday night ritual.
We hit a local place called Tupinamba Cafe.
It's the oldest family-owned Mexican restaurant in the city.
And, for those familiar with the Dominguez family's place in North Dallas, we have no ties to Texas A&M University.
It's an Aggie stronghold on fall weekends.
This past Friday, we were about 15 minutes later than usual and found ourselves with a 20-minute wait.
The place was packed.
As we settled in a spot next to Tupi's large circular bar, a guy approached us.
"Hey, Jeff. It's Rick. Rick from Oracle."
I recognized him immediately.
We were colleagues during my time with Oracle.
I enjoyed his company and recognized him as a motivated and likable person.
We exchanged pleasantries, and I asked him what he was up to.
He is now a CRO with a leader in the virtual event technology market.
As we broke to return to our respective parties, Rick said: "...and Jeff, I read your stuff…all the time."
I said, "Thanks." and that was that.
Today is the 100th edition of Win More, Make More.
Hard to believe.
How did we get here?
The chance encounter with Rick is part of the answer.
I enjoy sharing stories about selling in the enterprise technology space.
I was fortunate to be where I was, when I was, and to work with some incredibly talented people.
My appreciation for our shared experiences continues to grow with time.
Receiving last Friday's unexpected appreciation lets me know that at least some of my content is useful and helpful, if not entertaining.
Thank you all, and I hope you enjoy this week's edition.
Relational-like
I received my first professional sales training in the late 1980s.
Working for a mainframe systems software company required an understanding of the technology.
Software AG had a relational-like database management system called Adabas.
It was "relational-like" because it wasn't relational.
(I hope you see where this is going and why one might need sales training in addition to understanding technology.)
Seriously, a relational DBMS (RDBMS) stored data in tables with rows and columns.
It adhered to the relational model as prescribed in a paper, then a book by E.F. Codd and Chris Date.
Codd and Date were recognized experts in the field.
They were mathematical wizards.
This was all white lab coat stuff back then.
Adabas did not.
It was field-oriented versus the record-based models of the day.
This allowed the user to perform almost any query they could think of.
For bonus points on the "techno-meter," what was Adabas' data structure called?
Inverted-list.
Adabas used an inverted-list approach to enable efficient querying of the stored data.
Most of the early RDBMS entrants of the day, while adherent to the academic model, were slow and inefficient.
Twenty (20) years after Adabas became generally available (GA), a search engine named BackRub would use an inverted list data structure to build its PageRank algorithm.
That search engine is now called Google.
The sales opportunity at Software AG was three-fold:
1- motivate Fortune 1000 buyers to understand why they need a database management system, the cost of inaction, and the benefit of moving now
2- replace the legacy file systems of the incumbent, IBM, with a competitive positioning strategy
3- influence these companies on why Adabas was the best choice over Cullinet's IDMS/R, ADR's Datacom DB, or IBM's new 100% relational database, DB2.
They Sent Us to Camp
To arm its salesforce with the tools to do this, Software AG sent us to camp.
Boot camp.
While at boot camp, we received sales training.
The opening act was a presentation by one of Software AG's first three sales reps in North America.
Michael was a smooth-talking southern Californian.
He gave us the sales presentation he used to close some of Adabas' earliest customers.
It was "the story" that Michael used dozens of times and had made him a small fortune.
The Dewey Decimal System
His story was set in a library, something familiar to people from all walks of life.
Brilliant!
He was dumbing down a highly technical topic for anyone to understand.
Michael masterly told a story about a boy (presumably himself) being assigned his first term paper in school.
One of the desired outcomes of this project was the understanding of how to find books that you will use to do your research.
So Michael walked the audience step-by-step through the boy's trial and error in finding the correct set of reference materials.
Only as he concluded the story was it evident that the library's Dewey Decimal system for organizing books by subject, title, and author was analogous to Adabas organizing a company's data.
Unconscious Competence
We were all enthralled by Michael's command of the subject matter.
Upon his exit from the auditorium, the sales trainer, Dick, took over.
We all wanted copies of Michael's foils. (Powerpoint was not invented yet.)
Someone asked if there was a recording.
Dick assured everyone that they would get the materials.
But he also used that moment to teach.
Dick pulled out an easel and drew two lines: one horizontal (the x-axis) and one vertical (the y-axis).
The y-axis represented time, specifically the number of years of experience one had in selling software.
The x-axis had four categories left to right:
1- Unconscious Incompetent
2- Conscious Incompetent
3- Unconscious Competent
4- Conscious Competent.
The four categories are stages in a learning model.
Unconscious Incompetent refers to a stage where we don't know what we don't know.
We are unaware of our lack of skill or knowledge.
We may not recognize the need to change to improve outcomes.
Conscious Incompetent is where we know what we don't know.
Unconscious Competent is where we have mastered a skill to the point of it becoming automatic.
We perform without thinking.
It's second nature to us.
Often, an Unconscious Competent possesses a rare natural talent.
We find this with world-class athletes - skills that are otherworldly.
Do you remember Andre Agassi having 20/15 eyesight?
Have you seen the Netflix special of Patrick Mahomes' workouts with his fitness coach?
Many top-tier sales professionals are naturals at likability, establishing trust, asking questions, and empowering buyers.
Michael, the early Software AG sales savant, was an Unconscious Competent.
Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson
So why wouldn't unconscious competence be the end game?
If we are so good at something, we perform at the highest level without even thinking about or knowing what we've done.
Everyone has off days.
We all fall into slumps.
Since the Unconscious Competent is unconscious as it relates to what they are doing and why, they are unable to identify a gap in their behavior.
It's also difficult for anyone, unconscious or not, to read the label from inside the bottle.
The Conscious Competent knows how to perform the skill and can do so effectively.
We also can explain what we are doing and why to others.
For these reasons, Conscious Competents are ideal coaches.
We have probably seen where great sellers move into sales management and are not "great" any longer.
We have certainly seen great NBA Hall of Famers like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson struggle to replicate their success on the court in their roles as bench coaches.
Michael's and Magic's coaches during their playing days were Hall of Famers in their own right.
Conscious Competence is the end-game.
We perform at the highest level, knowing what we are doing and why.
We can assess others' behaviors, identify the gaps between where they are and where they need to be, and help them take corrective actions to get there.
Peeling the Onion
Dick had set us up.
We all wanted to "Be Like Mike" er, Michael, the Adabas sales great.
But Michael couldn't help us get there.
Watching his presentation over and over again wouldn't do it.
Dick, the sales trainer, would be our coach for the next few weeks and teach us what to do and why.
It was then up to us to practice our new skills like maniacs if we wanted to master them like Michael.
Lessons Learned
1) Know what to do and why.
2) If you achieve great outcomes but can't explain what you did, get a coach.
3) If you reach conscious competence, help others with what you know.
Thank you for reading,
Jeff
When you think “sales leader,” I hope you think of me.
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I offer my help to investors, founders, sales leaders, and their teams.
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