What Could Your Sales Team Learn from Professional Sports Teams?
What Could Your Sales Team Learn from Professional Sports Teams?
You might look at the title of this article and ask yourself, “what can I learn from a bunch of millionaires running around a field or court?”
A lot actually.
I think professional sports teams are absolutely fascinating. An entire organization designed and driving to either score the most touchdowns, baskets, or goals. Everyone from the person who drives the team bus, team president, coach, ball boy, athletic trainer, and players all have one goal. Winning. How cool is that?
What sticks out to me the most when I see a professional sports team play is the work that goes on behind the scenes. The untold hours of preparation the team and individual players complete before they ever step foot on the field or court. From workouts, nutrition, stretching, recovery, mental preparation, scrimmages, drills, and film. I’m sure I’m missing a few things, but that’s a long list!
All of this preparation and hard work are done in prep for one goal, to win! Simple as that.
So what can you and I in the sales and business world learn from this?
We can all take inspiration from our favorite teams and athletes and start practicing as the pros do. If you want to make pro money, you have to start practicing like a pro.
That does not mean you have to hire a personal chef, workout three times a day, and start taking ice baths! Most sales teams I work with either do too little practicing or in most cases, none at all. They roll into the office and sooner or later start making calls, sending emails, present demos, and communicate with clients and prospects.
Think about it in terms of a sports team. Every day in your business you have a game to play. The game is to connect with as many prospects as you can and turn them into buyers. That’s your game. And every day you have players that are going straight into the game, no warm-up, no stretching, no making certain that you’re at your absolute best!
You’re leaving the practice to your prospects and customers. These are the very same people that can help you meet your business and financial goals. They’re getting all of your practice reps, and they’re the ones you’re “figuring it out” on! Your prospects and customers are getting your pre-season performance when they should be getting your playoff form.
Stop practicing on your prospects and customers!
Start practicing as a team on each other!
If you’re serious about getting better at something, you have to intentionally practice.
The sales pro knows the importance of practice and they do so regularly. If you don’t know what to practice, I can assure you that the opportunities are ample. You can practice objection handling, pick your top 5 objections you see regularly and practice your best response to each.
But I’m not done…here are some more practice ideas, practice the opening of a conversation, closing a deal, questions that show buying signals, how you’re going to gain commitment, how you’re going to start off a conversation at an event, how you’re going to tie your product to recent industry news, what you can practice is almost endless.
I’ve worked with real sales pros that spend time practicing how they’re going to enter a room and greet prospects. They leave nothing to chance, and they get paid accordingly!
This will not be easy, but it will be worth it. A lot of the teams and salespeople I’ve worked with object vehemently to practicing but with a little time, persistence and exposure they end up loving it. They may not love practicing but they certainly love the confidence they have in every situation, and the increased commission helps!
As the leader of your sales team or company make it a rule that you dedicate time every week perfecting your pitch, product demonstration or even how you make a lead phone call.
In as little as 30 minutes per week spend focused time getting better through practice. As a team this is easy. Break-off into groups of 2 or 3 and concentrate on the following topics:
Work through different objections that you commonly see.
Have someone give their product demo or pitch in front of the group and give feedback.
Listen to a recently recorded demo.
Pitch a new product and critique it as a group.
Don’t get caught up in the “how to practice” part, just execute on the practice.
If you don’t have anyone to practice with, just demonstrate your pitch or whichever area of sales you’re trying to get better at in the mirror, you can even record yourself. It’s awkward the first couple of times but you’ll improve.
If you’ve picked up on the theme of the article here, it’s practice, practice, practice.
Don’t leave the game of sales up to chance. You owe it to your prospects and customers to be the best sales version of yourself. So stop practicing on people that could give you money and introduce a culture of practice into your organization today.