Sales Training Tipss:

Take the ball and run with it. It will be a long shot. Think you can score on this one? Don’t let your team down. Slam dunk!

When you read these phrases, most minds immediately think of a football field, a basketball court, or a hockey rink. Very few, if any, will immediately think of their office environment. Yet these words are becoming more and more pervasive in corporate America today. Projects are run by “teams,” and managers “coach” their employees.

The crucial question is: why are many aspects of making a successful athletic team missing from sales teams?

Following are suggestions for turning your sales force into a winning team:

VISUALIZE SUCCESS

Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re usually right.”

In athletics, the mind is just as important a piece of equipment as the bat, ball, or puck. Successful athletes often visualize their success in the game before ever stepping on the field. Gymnasts visualize each step of their routine perfectly before actually performing each maneuver of the routine.

This technique is as applicable to sales people as it is to athletes. Visualizing success in the sales market is the first step towards making that success a reality. When members of your sales force mentally prepare for each step of the sales process with their customers and visualize a successful outcome, they will appear more prepared and more confident. They will, in fact, be more successful.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

Vince Lombardi began to coach his athletes on the basics first: “This… is a football.”

One rule that every athlete knows is that, if you don’t come to practice, you don’t play. Whether you are Michael Jordan or playing for your high school team, practice is an integral part of your success as an athlete. No basketball player is ever too good not to need practice with shooting free throws. No baseball player is ever too good to stop going to batting practice. No tennis player is ever too good not to need time hitting serve after serve after serve.

Professional athletes practice fundamental skills on a daily basis. This same habit of daily practice applies to the salesperson, as well. The fundamentals of selling and communication are equivalent to dribbling a basketball or serving a tennis ball. You may have the greatest product in the world, but if you have not practiced the basic skills of communication, you will not make a sale. To make successful sales, you must communicate, listen, and connect with your customer. These skills take practice. That is the key to a winning play—the key to a sale.

KEEP SCORE

Vince Lombardi also said, “Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”

Losing is contagious and habit-forming, but the desire to win can make any athlete work longer, harder, and faster all year long for the chance to win one day. It is just as important for a sales team to develop a desire for the “win,” to feel a sense of accomplishment with hard work, and to strive for progress.

Creating a game-like environment in your sales office and fostering a healthy competition among a sales team will help ignite this desire to succeed and will develop a more successful and enthusiastic sales force.

Author: James A. (Jim) Baker
James A. Baker is the Chairman and Founder of Baker Communications. Baker is a sales training and development company specializing in helping client companies increase their sales and profits. He can be reached at 713-627-7700 or jim.baker@bakercommunications.com.