Your weekly disruption

Your weekly thought-provoking exploration into building disruptive capabilities.

Nick Nairn: Playing To Distinctive Strengths

Following last week’s Podcast with James Lane – Superior Sales Disruption Podcast – Episode 2; it was a great pleasure to sit down with Nick Nairn the CEO of Stuart Alexander. Nick has had a decorated career that has spanned many great companies (Bonlac, Pepsi, Frucor amongst many others) and exciting industries. He has held senior positions including Sales Director and many impactful commercial roles.

Download the podcast on iTunes, subscribe or click to listen: Superior Sales Disruption Podcast – Episode 3

If you try something you’re only moderately good at, you’re increasing the risk of failure. A distinctive strength, is something that you do, that others within your sphere do not. Pairing this strength with a need to be met or a problem to be solved gives you the momentum. This focus has ensured that Nick Nairn has become a CEO anyone in the FMCG industry would like to work for.

Download the podcast on iTunes, subscribe or click to listen: Superior Sales Disruption Podcast – Episode 3

Finding Your Why

Leading Teams

It is Not about You

I think I’ve been really blessed and lucky to work for some pretty amazing organizations. PepsiCo are amazing at teaching people the technical skills of sales and you get a really fantastic grounding on what that means. Taking on the Sales Director role at Frucor was probably the first big aha moment for me, where you actually have to work out pretty quickly and it’s no longer about you. And I think that’s probably the biggest turning point you’ll make, especially within probably a sales career, where you might be a pretty good salesperson, but all of a sudden, you’re managing good salespeople, and it can no longer be about you. And I think that’s quite a big turning point. And you do see people over their careers who are unable to make that transition, or unwilling to make that transition. But that really was a big crossroad for me. And I was very fortunate to work for a gentleman named Jonathan Moss who was very strong on knowing who you are, and understanding what your skills and where your development needs are. Because once you know what you need to do, you can then help others. And that was a very powerful message for me.

Make The Leap

I had spent nearly 5 years as Sales Director & I was I was keen to move beyond this and take the opportunity to working on more of a generalist role. It’s difficult to transition from a Sales Director to a Generalist, are equally to find a company who’s willing to make a risk or take a bet on you. But then equally, it is a different transition. So, the opportunity arose for a General Manager role and be become part of the Heineken business. So, it was a natural transition for me. I wanted to test myself to see if I could be something beyond the Sales Director. And that was the main motivation.

Disruption Doesn’t Have To Be Big

I think the number one challenge for a lot of people, as they get asked by their managers or their CEOs, is to be more disruptive or more innovative. What I would really encourage people is disruption or innovation doesn’t have to be big, it can actually be something little, that can actually then roll and form into something that does become disruptive. And don’t be daunted by the challenge, you can just do one thing, slightly different tomorrow. And you’d be amazed where that hits. And I think when you are dealing with a large customer base in Australia, who are equally having to challenge themselves, as the retail landscape changes considerably around them. They’re also seeking partners and suppliers who can help them be disruptive. So, it doesn’t have to be a one-way stream, you can be disruptive together with a customer or brand partner or a supplier.

Zig when they Zag

Frucor has always been a disruptive player within the beverage space up against bigger, entrenched competitors. And it was always a challenge that if we act like our competitors, we will lose – they are bigger, they’ve got more money, they’ve got more people, they’ve got some pretty big, strong impressive brands. So, we actually have to turn up every day like a disruptor. Whilst V the energy drink, embodied this spirit it was the launch of Maximus that resonates the most. Against Gatorade & Powerade, Maximus came in, basically completely captured what we called the armchair sportsman.

Mentors Help You Grow

Finding a Mentor takes time. Whilst mentors can be a formal relationship, these days, it’s more of an informal relationship. People don’t walk in with mentor on their card. It’s just something that you connect with people either directly in your career or even indirectly, which is more powerful. I was always very fortunate I had a number of really good people around me through my career rather than an anointed one as my mentor. You don’t have to keep seeking for that one mentor, like Yoda from Star Wars. There are people around you who you can tap in and tap out with at certain times your career. Which becomes really important depending on what challenge you are facing.

Nick is a great example of playing to distinctive strengths and taking on roles that will accelerate your move up the disruption learning curve. “Career is not actually about titles. And the sooner you can lose the titles and worry about the critical experience that you gain along, that’s what’s going to build your career. So, it’s sitting in a seat in a role when things are good. And in that same seat when things are bad. That’s what’s going to help you along the way.” Various senior commercial roles across some of the best places to work has proved an ideal platform for Nick to land the coveted CEO position at one of Australia’s most admired companies – Stuart Alexander. His dedication to developing talent will ensure that Corporate Australia is in very capable hands.

So many great takeaways from this conversation. Listen to the episode in the player below, or download, subscribe and enjoy it on iTunes.

Download the podcast on iTunes or click to listen: Superior Sales Disruption Podcast – Episode 3

If you want your Sales team to Gamify it’s performance please contact us at https://www.superiorsales.com.au/contact-us/

Next week we are going to delve deeper into the elements of Creating The Game.

If you are looking at running a Sales Game workshop either email Mark at mark.truelson@superiorsales.com.au OR dig for more information at https://www.superiorsales.com.au/storytelling/workshops/

At Superior Sales we build programmes leveraging all the core drivers of capability – organisation, people, process and culture, not just skills. Refer to our white paper at https://www.superiorsales.com.au/storytelling/whitepaper/

At Superior Sales our capability experts work extensively with companies to equip sales teams, and indeed the whole organisation, to deliver a better customer experience. Please get in touch at https://www.superiorsales.com.au/contact-us/

Happy Weekend!