View as PDF »By the time Susan Ershler decided to climb to the top of Mount Everest in the Himalayas — the highest mountain in the world — she was managing a 100-person sales team and trying to reach a $300 million sales goal for U.S. West, a small telecom company.
She knew achieving both objectives would require daily dedication. To keep focus over the long haul, she wrote down her goals and kept them where she could look at them every day.
He said, 'We're not going to climb it today... We'll get out, climb for a day; and the next day, we'll climb for a day; and after two weeks, we can go for the summit.
For the sales goal, she wrote "$300 million" on the first page of her business journal. Each Monday, Ershler held a meeting with her team by conference call to measure their progress, and she always reiterated the goal of $300 million.
"There are so many things that throw you off track," she says. "Sometimes, a large sale goes sideways or a customer gets angry or you get distracted by your weekly quota. Sometimes, salespeople will come to you and say, 'I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.' I tell them, 'Yes you do. You have it in writing.' " At the end of the year, her team surpassed its goal, hitting 150 percent of its quota.
She used the same technique with her mountain-climbing goal, writing down the height of Mount Everest — 29,035 feet — on a "sticky note" and putting it on her computer. "That number is really high," she admits. "But if you look at it several times a day, it can become doable in your mind."
The Air Up There
Before she started dating veteran mountain- climbing guide Phil Ershler in 1992, Ershler had never climbed before. "I'd never even hiked," she says.
Early in their courtship, he offered to take her up Mount Rainier in Washington State. Climbing to 14,410 feet meant getting used to breathing with limited oxygen and suffering severe headaches (high altitudes can cause the brain to swell slightly).
"You get exhausted," Ershler says. "You're not sleeping right, and you don't feel much like eating or drinking. I found that it was quite emotional. Things that would be very concerning at sea level are extremely concerning up there."
The lows were indeed low, but the highs were exhilarating. "Getting to the top was such a sense of accomplishment," she says. "I was hooked."
Vertical Market
After marrying in 1996, the Ershlers continued to climb the world's most difficult mountains. Eventually, they decided to tackle Mount Everest, with the goal of climbing all seven summits together. A go-getter by nature, Ershler knew big success meant dreaming big.
"What I love about sales is that you're evaluated by your performance. But in the beginning, it can be difficult, because you're starting out at the very bottom," says Ershler, who began her sales career as a customer-service representative. In time, a GTE manager recruited her to sell to major clients.
"I was green," Ershler says. "I came in during the middle of the year, and I still carried a full quota." For nearly a year, Ershler courted the top two law firms without any breakthroughs. GTE moved her to small-business sales. Ershler was crushed, but defeat fueled her desire to land the deal. A couple of months later — a little more than a year after she had set her goal — she made the sale. It was one of GTE's largest equipment sales ever.
"Once that hit, I was moved right back to major accounts," she says.
By 2000, Ershler had completed 31 successful climbs with her husband to summits higher than 14,000 feet, including Mount Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet) near the Kenya border, Mount McKinley (20,320 feet) in Alaska and Mount Aconcagua (22,840 feet) in the Andes. In 2001, the Ershlers set out to conquer Mount Everest. During the climb, however, her husband's eyes began to freeze, and his vision was severely impaired. A mere 1,500 feet from the summit, they decided to turn back. It was a bitter letdown. After taking a couple of months to reflect, there was no question they would try again.
"I'm motivated by someone saying no," Ershler explains. "So, in 2001, we didn't make it to the top. We turned around. Well, in sales, how many times do you put everything into it and work like crazy for a long time, and then, someone tells you no? One of the biggest things that separates the top performers is that they do not accept no."
Climb Every Mountain
After their failed attempt to get to the top of Mount Everest, Ershler trained harder than ever. She spent a full year running and lifting weights on weekdays and hiking trails on weekends. When she couldn't get away from the office, she strapped on a backpack loaded with kitty litter and weights and hit the stairwells of her 32-story office building in downtown Seattle.
"People who saw me and knew what I was doing would laugh and say, 'Hi!'" Ershler says. "Other people would look at me funny. But if you're motivated to climb a mountain, you've got to get used to going uphill with weight on your back, and you've got to do that every day."
"I had a picture in my mind of me standing on the top of Mount Everest," Ershler says. "I thought of that thousands of times in my mind."
In 2002, the Ershlers took on Mount Everest once again. After two grueling months of climbing and camping, they reached the summit on May 16, officially becoming the first couple to climb all seven summits together. "Every emotion I had converged on me," Ershler says. "I remember extreme happiness. I thought, 'Nothing in the world can beat this.'"
Currently, Ershler divides her time between public-speaking engagements and cowriting a book on her mountaineering adventures with her husband. She still speaks enthusiastically about her sales career.
"I loved it," she says. "It's so funny, because when I look back, I remember thinking, 'I don't know if I can do this,' but it turned out to be the best profession I could ever imagine. I loved the client interaction and the recognition. And I loved helping salespeople become top performers. I wanted every one of them to be a part of that club."
Ershler's Tips to Become Top Performers
Support your team. Ershler's dedication to her team was so strong that she called them via satellite phone during her first climb on Mount Everest to check how they were doing and how their deals were coming along. In turn, they charted her progress on a large map. "When you support them 150 percent, they support you," Ershler says. "Their support was the reason I could be gone from my job and still go after my dream."
Practice teamwork. "In sales, you can't be a lone ranger," Ershler says. "A team will always outperform an individual." Use your internal resources and get everyone invested in helping the client. "Involve other departments constantly with the client," she says. "Bring them in on meetings and strategy sessions. Bring them out to meet with clients."
Start small. When Ershler first saw Mount McKinley, she viewed it with alarm. "It's massive," she says. "I turned to Phil and said, 'What have you gotten me into?'" Phil encouraged her to relax. "He said, 'We're not going to climb it today,'" Ershler remembers. "He said, 'We'll get out, climb for a day; and the next day, we'll climb for a day; and after two weeks, we can go for the summit.'"
"What he did was the same thing we do in business," Ershler says. "If you don't break down your objectives, everyone has a tendency to get overwhelmed and walk away. Break it down into small pieces that you feel comfortable accomplishing today or this week, and then take it one piece at a time. More dreams are lost right there because the effort seems too big."