Champions and Masters
As college basketball NCAA Champions get crowned this week (congrats Louisville), and attention shifts to The Masters (the PGA’s next major golf tournament), competitive people paying attention are enthralled with excellent performances in both wins and losses along the way.
It’s a microcosm of the sales world.
Like sports at any level, it’s a battle out there in the sales arena. Company leadership places bets on recruits (salespeople), coaching staffs (management), and organizational machinery (infrastructure). There is training, practice, strategy, gameplans, adjustments, talent assessment, technique, mechanics, equipment/product, skill essentials, skills development, mental toughness, analysis and reviews. Lots of moving parts that could go awry.
Sports Champions win many games along the way to the top of the heap. Same with Sales Champions. Some small deals (games) – the ones you have to win and are expected to win. Some large deals – the key deals that you need to learn how to win if you’re going to be a Top Producer in your company or industry. The losses in previous rounds (months/quarters/years) are but grooming experiences that go down hard but teach lessons for future success. It’s a rare Sales Super Star who hasn’t had a bitter loss on the way to a championship year.
To stretch the analogy, Sales Champions are also Sales Masters. There are no fluke Sales Super Stars. Top Sales Rookies have a history of previous success. Top Sales veteran producers consistently play an “A Game.” They have mastered selling skills with experiences, knocks, wins and losses that have honed a finely tuned professional selling machine, a literal Sales Master.
Having a championship season and career?
