It was the eve of a key stakeholder workshop for a major sports event.

The organizing committee and the event marketing agency that I was heading were putting the final touches on the room set-up.  Jimmy, the committee's head of communications, was at the lectern rehearsing his presentation.

Corporate buzz here, corporate buzz there, corporate mediocrity everywhere.  It tasted like iceberg lettuce.  Romaine has more character.  Rucola has more meaning.  Baby field greens stand for something.  Iceberg stands for nothing.

The presentation was actually pretty good.  It was the vocabulary that dulled the taste.  "Blah, blah, blah-dee-blah, blah."

Thanks to Harold, my Head of Sales and a witty cynic to boot, I soon came to realize that this mediocrity was the result of an all too popular business word being overused.  Again and again... and again.

"Jimmy, for Gawd's sake... 27 and counting!" Harold called out toward the lectern, and he put another notch on a sheet of scrap paper.  "I only started counting part way through, and you've used the word 'strategy' or 'stra-TEEEE-gic' 27 times!"

It's been over a decade since that strateeeegic rehearsal, but it pops into my mind often... every time I hear The S-Word used when another word would be more effective.

I recently saw a business book title that boasted 251 "strategies" for winning more business with key customers.  I'm sorry, but the concept of "strategy" deserves greater respect than that.  I can't remember 250 strategies.  Maybe you can, but you could never implement them.  You'd live your business life in a dizzying tail spin.

How about 25 strategies and 225 tactics?  Sorry again.  Too complex.  In the fast pace of the Brave New World, I'd fail with the 25.  And so would you.  And so would your sales team.  And therefore, your strategies would fail!

Some business people differentiate between strategies and tactics by saying that strategies are long-term and tactics are short term.  I say there's a correlation to that, but it's not the differentiator.  Others say that strategies are broad and comprehensive while tactics are pointed and focused.  I still think that's a correlator and not a definer.

For me, the real difference between strategies and tactics is the following: strategies contemplate the resources required for effective execution.

If you have to add, reduce or re-deploy resources in order to implement an activity, you're probably talking "strategy."  If you change message points in your presentation while in the taxi to a prospect's office, you're probably talking "tactics."

By overusing The S-Word, we actually dilute its real impact.  And we sound like recycled, mediocre, corporate mush.

By forcing yourself to use The S-Word less frequently, you'll logically force yourself to use other words more frequently... and you'll be more effective in the process.

Try "tactics" or "tactical" for starters.  (After all, the winning skippers of yachting teams recruit superb tacticians.)  Try "approach" or "action plan" or...

You get the point.  By overusing The S-Word, we actually become... less strategic!

Take it from Jimmy.

The next morning at the stakeholder workshop, he made his presentation... and he wowed them.  The stakeholders I spoke to were really impressed, perhaps because he reduced his use of The S-Word to a grand total of ten.

Harold counted every last one of them.  And I noticed that the words "promotion," "programs" and "activities" a lot more.  Not only did Jimmy sound more professional, he actually made a lot more sense.

In fact, he came off like a real... strategist.

For more articles by Jack Vincent visis www.bravenewsales.com

Photo by Joey Ganoza http://www.flickr.com/photos/8998965@N05/

Perfectly timed with my departure from JFK was breaking news about the JetBlue flight attendant, Steven Slater.

Slater reportedly clashed with an unruly passenger throughout Flight 1052, taking a bump in the head from an oversized bag in the process.

The nastiness climaxed as the flight arrived at its destination, JFK, which happens to service the media capital of the world, New York.

So Slater grabbed the mike and announced, "To the passenger who just called me a mother
f-----, f--- you!  I've been in this business 20 years, and I've had it."

When the plane reached the gate, Slater grabbed a few cans of beer from the beverage cart and announced, "I'm outta' here."  He deployed the emergency exit, hopped down the slide, jumped over JFK's security fences and took a cab home!

With many Americans either out of work or accepting declining conditions in order to keep their paychecks, it's no wonder that Slater's "take this job and shove it" performance in New York, New York has earned him folk hero status.

The internet is abuzz with Slater-mania.  A Steven Slater Facebook page is growing virally: 15,000 followers by Tuedsay and 120,000 by Thursday.  You don't need a crystal ball to see that this saga has Saturday Night Live and talk show circuit written all over it.

Good for Slater if he gets a savvy agent and milks this one all the way to a book tour.  In fact, given where he is today, I would advise him to do exactly that.

But the Brave New World messenger in me is going against the popular tide on this one.

No, I'm not going to shout, "He could have hurt somebody!"

Instead I'm going to shout, "Customers deserve better treatment than that!"

I've been an airline passenger more times than I care to count.  I once saw a surly flight attendant growl at a passenger for requesting a second cup of coffee.

The attendant stomped away down the aisle... obviously with more important things to do.  The coffee was never served and the passenger was never acknowledged for the rest of the flight.

Some passengers are indeed unruly, and I'm not going to defend them.  But a customer is a customer, and a flight attendant is a customer service rep.

There are best practices for handling jerk customers, and I'm betting 20 bucks that Slater's best practices on Flight 1052 came down to, "It's all about me."  (Stomp, stomp.)

Such high-profile antics might get the average worker or start-up entrepreneur a spot on Good Morning, America.  But I'll bet another 20 bucks they won't 999 times out of 1,000.

And 900 of those times, if you manage customers in the Brave New World the way Slater did on Flight 1052, you'll lose business faster than you can open an emergency exit.

I won't list the ten best ways to handle unruly customers.  I will say, "Don't try this at the home office!"

Worship your customers.  Handle the difficult ones tactfully.

Put up with a little grief and take the high road.  Don't play victim.

If you really, really need to... blacklist a crappy client... quietly... but don't make it all about you.

Which brings me back to Slater.  It's not about you, o.k., Slater?  It's about your customers.

If you ever start up a business, I highly recommend you leverage your folk hero status (if it endures) and leave the day-to-day management to somebody with a customer focus mindset.

And if you ever consider sales, well, resist the impulse and move on quickly.  Navel gazing might be more your style.

Milk this moment in the sun while you can.  It won't last long.  You're just a flash in the proverbial pan.

Beyond that, "See ya' later, Slater!"  You'll never be the role model for Selling in the Brave New World, although something tells me, you're probably not motivated.

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Post Script:  The Wall Street Journal has quoted two Flight 1052 passengers who claim that it was Slater, and not the passenger in question, who was out of line.

(It's Friday, Slater.  You'd better take that Saturday Night Live gig pronto.)

To read more of Jack's articles, visit www.bravenewsales.com

One thing I enjoy about working with companies from different sectors is that it's a fertile source for my own learning.

Sometimes a solution I might develop with one client has applications for other clients, as was the case this week with a program we call "Pull and Load."

A technology components supplier has Area Sales Managers handling the ongoing relationships with customers.

These sales managers have broad, general knowledge across numerous product lines, but they don't have deep expertise in any one specific area.

Enter the specifists.  These are the -- yeah, let's make a joke at their expense -- the nerds.  (Don't be too condescending about nerds.  No one in Silicon Valley is laughing at them.  The nerds are the ones doing the laughing... all the way to the bank!)

The generalists manage today's business with clients, while keeping an ear to the wind for future challenges and needs.  The nerds manage tomorrow's solutions, with a by-product being innovation.  (No sense innovating what the marketplace doesn't want, right?

In the Brave New World, one of your best sources for innovation often comes not just from R&D or the creative department, but from listening to your clients.  Of course, you need to be asking them the right questions, and this is where the specifists are not just geeks, but savvy commercial people, too.

In Pull and Load, the sales generalists "pull" from existing clients, and "load" it on to the nerdy specialists.

Essentially, when the salesperson gets into a conversation regarding a customer's future challenges, he gets as good a brief as his (shallow) generalist mind can handle.  He then provides the brief to the nerd with the deeper (but narrower) mind.  Together, they brainstorm, go back to the customer, and get in to some serious solutions selling.

The company then custom-designs new components for the client's future product specs.  In the process, they innovate for the marketplace at large.

Pull and Load.  Innovate and Sell.

I really like this principle, and I think it has all sorts of applications beyond generalists and specifists.

For example, another company I've worked with struggles finding salespeople in their specialized industry, especially salespeople who can open and close... who can get in to see a lot of new accounts and also close a lot of them.

Some of their salespeople are great openers, and others are great closers.  And therein lies the gap.

And therein lies the rhetorical question: "Why not team up the openers with the closers?"

And this prompts the painful answer: "Because many salespeople are selfish."  (Hey, don't blame me for playing messenger.  If you've been in business for any length of time, you know this is the nature of the beast!)

But, what's worse?  Not opening enough, and not closing enough, and... getting fired?  Or splitting your commissions?

Splitting shouldn't mean "half of the pie."  It should mean half of two pies.  And if it really works, it could mean half of three pies.  You leverage your strengths, and you all sell more!

Make sure you see the forest through the trees.  Take the broader view.  Consider teaming up, leveraging strengths, and selling more.  The openers open more.  They pull, and then they load it on the shoulders of the closers.  The closers close more.  The generalists identify.  The specifists solve.

Pull and Load.  I'm going to play around a lot more with this one.

To read more of Jack's articles, visit www.bravenewsales.com