Sales and sport

If you had to compare an occupation to sport I’d say sales is one of the closest..

Here’s why

-In sport we can review match tape (in sales this is listening to calls on gong)

-In sport we can replicate other elite athletes (in sales this is watching elite sellers on gong calls).

-In sport we can drill live scenarios (in sales this is role-playing scenarios ie negotiations)

-In sport we have scoreboards (in sales leaderboards and quotas)

-In sport athletes switch clubs (for example reps switching companies)

-In sport we can attend courses & clinics (for example 🤟Charles Muhlbauer's DiscoveryCoach.io and Chris Orlob's Pclub.io are incredible)

-Mindset is important, so are rest periods

-We play a lot of games and we don’t win them all

-We can leverage the best coaches

-Consistent practice leads to performance gains over time

-Process is critical to success

-We can apply science

However, one HUGE difference with professional sales and professional sport is with professional sport, athletes train 99% of the time and will only play less than 1%. They spend all their time honing their craft.

In sales, we play (run sales calls) 99% of the time and train less than 1%.

Many athletes train all year round, and only compete a handful of times.

If athletes don’t perform they’ll immediately review tape, course correct, seek out the best coaching, make adjustments. Even amateur athletes don’t stop practicing.

According to the new ebsta report by Q4 2022 71% of sales reps missed quota across 364 of the worlds best companies (61% missed the year before).

There were many reasons for this, many outside of what we can control, economic downturn, companies raising targets - but improving sales acumen is one thing we can.

I might be really way off here but I’m noticing many AE’s who are struggling to hit quota work very long hours each week without a single hour of coaching, reviewing tape or making any adjustments, often just making more dials or told to pickup activity without improving effectiveness.

I really think in sales we can take lessons from sport to improve sales performance and effectiveness

Quoting what 🏄‍♂️ Scott Leese once told when I was bumbling a disco role play - ‘you play how you practice’