Is Selling A Blood Sport?

We are within 100 days of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  I can’t help but think that sports events are a good analogy for the profession of selling.

I’ve been sitting watching some of the curling play-downs that will lead to the selection of the men’s and women’s curling teams that will represent Canada in Russia.  It is very apparent that fitness is central to today’s professional curler.  A conversation with one of the team’s coaches confirmed that the attention to fitness and nutrition is much greater today than previously.  If you’ve curled, you know that beer drinking also plays a large role in the sport!  I’ve also been able to observe some of the practicing that marks the curlers’ preparation.  My most significant observation has to be the accuracy with which these players are able to execute their shots. It is quite amazing. Obviously, much practice has gone into each player’s preparation.

Are we approaching our selling efforts with the same type of preparation and dedication as the curlers?  For those of us who are paid for our selling efforts, we could easily think of ourselves as sales professionals.  But, do we approach our selling in a manner that befits a professional?  Our selling skills might have been learned a long time ago.  Or, perhaps we were thrown into sales with the ‘sink or swim’ approach.  That is, with no formal training whatsoever.  Regardless of our previous preparation, what are we doing as sales professionals to maintain our ‘A’ game?  After all, this is the occupation that we have chosen in which to make a significant investment for our future.

No one forced us to be in sales.  It is a choice that we made for ourselves.  However, are we proactively engaged in improving our selling skills and knowledge?  Are we preparing for the next big game?  Do we further our understanding by observing others, refreshing our formal training or simply reading about the subject?

We may not think about selling as a blood sport, but the reality is that we sell our products and services against competitors.  If our ‘team’ cannot succeed against the competition, then we know which team isn’t going to the ‘Olympics’.  In other words, failure in the marketplace for our company will likely lead to red ink on the P&L statement.

It is also incumbent upon us to maintain our personal performance at the highest level.  Failure to do this could find someone else shooting lead rocks, while we become the spectators.

We should all commit to making annual investments in ourselves that will keep us in the game.

Impending Success

I can’t help but think that fall represents a kind of dash to the finish line for many businesses.  We are starting to think about 2014 but we still have fifteen weeks to hit or miss the targets that we built for ourselves twelve months ago.  Are we up to the challenges that still lie ahead?

I’m off to an upcoming Brian Tracy Sales Certification workshop and I can’t help but wonder how many companies are in need of some sales help.  John Kenneth Galbraith once said that you “can’t expect improved results with unimproved people”.  Furthermore, a Dun and Bradstreet analysis of business success found that “businesses succeed because of high sales; businesses fail because of low sales.  All else is commentary”.  It can’t get much more succinct than that.

When we talk about our sales effort, we  frequently focus on those people that are charged with the responsibility of bringing new sales in through the front door.  Interestingly, anyone involved in a customer touchpoint can impact our sales performance.  The reference to touchpoint means any of a number of occasions when we interact with the customer.  It is possible that some of those interactions are not viewed by us as sales opportunities.  Examples that come to mind include such transactions as invoicing, product delivery and the provision of after sales service.  However, all touchpoints influence our customers and impact their decision to continue their relationship with us in the future or not.  Hence, at a minimum, they are opportunities to influence future sales.  But, do we invest in the training of all employees who can impact our sales performance?  Or do we perhaps tend to think that the selling stops when the purchase order is processed?

The major reason that existing customers decide to leave us is driven by a lack of courtesy displayed towards them.  Really!  In a world where it is tough enough to find customers, you would think we would do everything we can to hold on to the existing ones.  That would suggest that a modicum of sales training should be in your program.

On the new customer front, do we realize that selling is a process that can be taught?  Selling doesn’t need to be the hurdle that we often make it out to be.  There is no magic to the selling process and it isn’t that some are born to it and the vast majority of us simply can’t do it.  The truth is that we are all involved in the selling process, in some form or another, all the time.  We just don’t think in those terms.  Another truth is that we can all get better at it.  Are we doing enough to ensure that happens?

In closing, here is a sobering quotation to ponder: “the company that stops getting better gets worse” or so suggests Phil Kotler, a well renowned marketing professor.