Selling Lessons from the Olympics

Sales trainer Gil Cargill writes in his recent newsletter about what Olympic athletes have that sales professionals can get. He begins:

Sales Lessons the Olympics Can Teach Us

This article is not about the heroics, tenacity, courage and perseverance demonstrated by the athletes in Athens nor will I present any analogies comparing the challenges of selling to the challenges of winning the Olympics. Rather, I would like to point out one common fact that extends across all Olympic athletes and certainly applies to all of the athletes that were on the podium last week.

Specifically, all of the winners in the Olympics had coaches -- men and women who are committed to helping the athlete achieve his/her best performance, men and women who can stand on the sidelines and observe the performance of the athlete and then make positive, proactive suggestions, all intended to help the athlete win.

If you are asking yourself what this has to do with sales, here is my point. Sales teams don't have coaches. Who is your coach? What role does a coach play in helping you identify opportunities for improvement within your organization and then coaching you through implementing those ideas?

Sales is every bit as competitive as the Olympics. However, I have found that it is one of the more ironic aspects of business that the most important function in a business -- find, acquiring and keeping customers -- is rarely coached. Some CEOs believe that the salesperson whom they promoted to the rank of sales manager is the de facto coach of the sales team. Unfortunately, this is a flawed strategy.

Very few salespeople go to sales management school before they are asked to take over the responsibility of coaching other salespeople. Look at the failure rate of professional sports players that have gone directly into coaching without any time in the minor leagues to learn their new craft of coaching other athletes.

If your team does not have a coach, you are missing out on revenue and profit dollars. Coaching will help you drive your top and bottom line.

How true! As great as athletes are - even Olympic athletes - they all have coaches. Think about your sales patterns, your process (or lack of) and your revenue patterns. If there is any room for improvement - consider talking with a coach - on a project basis or an ongoing basis -- for one specific area or general improvement.