Q. Dan,
I have been involved in competitive sports all of my life. As my career in sales progresses, I find myself remembering my coach from High School and applying principles from those activities in my sales job. What do you think of that?
Kathleen, St. Paul, MN
A.
Kathleen, great observation! It may surprise some, but I propose that there are many similarities involved whether you strive to excel at sports or at sales. .
Take, for instance, the game of golf (one of my favorite sports). Bob Rotella, a renowned golf/sports psychologist and author of the book Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect, outlines suggestions to help golfers with their "mental game" on the PGA tour. We'll see in the analysis below that some basic tenets may be held in common.
Bob Rotella's Golf Rules: & Sales Lessons:
GOLF: Free will is a golfer's greatest source of strength and power. Positive attitude makes a great player. People by and large become what they think about themselves. Choosing how to think is a crucial decision. Negative thinking is almost 100% effective.
SALES: You and only you determine your attitude. Customers love positive people. Be positive and surround yourself with positive people!
GOLF: Golfers must learn to quiet their minds, stay in the present and focus on the shot to be played.
SALES: Don't celebrate too early. An order is not an order until: It's booked, you and the company have been paid, it's been delivered, installed/implemented, the customer is happy, the customer continues to buy from you and the customer refers others to you.
GOLF: A sound pre-shot routine is critical.
SALES: Developing a sound pre-call plan for sales calls, presentations and negotiations is vital.
GOLF: Golf is a game played by human beings, therefore, it is a game of mistakes. Successful golfers know how to respond and learn from mistakes.
SALES: Develop a routine for critically analyzing wins and losses. Feeling badly about losing a deal is natural, but think about trying to recover something positive from the experience--learn from it!
GOLF: Golfers must learn to love the challenge when they hit a ball into the rough, trees or sand. The alternatives, anger, fear, whining and cheating, do no good.
SALES: Excelling as a sales professional is not easy. Learn to savor the challenge.
GOLF: Quality of practice is more important than quantity, particularly for better golfers.
SALES: To the sales superstar, the process of becoming better is a never ending quest. There are tons of colleagues, sales books, sales trainers and selling methodologies. Be very selective about your choices; sift through material critically and assess mentors carefully in your search for advice.
GOLF: Great golfers must learn the importance of the training mentality and trusting mentality. Training mentality makes things happen and is used on the practice range to engrain swing mechanics. Trusting mentality lets things happen and is used on the course.
SALES: Sales pros must practice and prepare to insure that during "game time" (your time with customers) your responses and actions come naturally and easily.
GOLF: If a golfer chooses to compete, she must believe she can win.
SALES: Properly qualify opportunities utilizing the BMPCC account qualification strategy before you invest significant corporate and personal scarce resources into an opportunity.
"Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you are always right." Henry Ford
GOLF: On the first tee, a golfer must expect only two things of himself: to have fun, and to focus her mind properly on every shot.
SALES: Do your best and have fun doing it!
GOLF: You must play every significant round with a game plan! Follow a conservative strategy but have a cocky swing!
SALES: For major opportunities you must have a sound strategy (Building Trust, Growing Sales: chapter 4). Even more important than the strategy are the action items/tactics that flow from it.
GOLF: The best way to prepare a plan is to start from the hole and mentally review it backwards.
SALES: Develop a "Critical Event Time Line" for each of your major opportunities. Remember: 3-D: Discover, Document and Drive the customer's buying process starting backward from the customer's critical event.
GOLF: In golf, the bad news for the present champion is that tomorrow is a new day. That is when the competition starts again from scratch. That's the good news for everyone else.
SALES: Unlike most other careers, the selling professional is paid and rewarded based upon the here and now. The past is irrelevant.
Good Luck, and Close 'Em!
About
the Author:
Daniel Adams, author of Building Trust, Growing Sales,
and creator of Trust Triangle Selling™ helps corporations
improve their profits by optimizing the performance of their sales
teams. He is a frequent and popular speaker at national sales
meetings, workshops and association events. You can visit his
web site and read his other articles at http://www.trusttriangleselling.com/.
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