Paychecks Don’t Come to Those Who Just “Play the Game”

Any of us who played youth sports recall hearing someone tell us, “Its not whether you win or lose, its how you play the game”. This may be healthy advice for some ten year-olds however my Little League coach did not subscribe to that philosophy. ..he was out to win. In one case, he exploited our opponent’s inability to field bunts, so he had us bunt five times in a row in the 7th inning of the championship game and we won the contest. He worked with us on our bunting prowess all season long in practice and the tactic won us our third championship. While other coaches boasted they taught their kids how to be good losers, our coaches taught us how to be good winners…a lesson I have successfully carried throughout my life.

If you are a Sales Professional, try using that line with your management after your next loss. Odds are it will fall on deaf ears and in return you will get an earful of “advice” from your manager on how not to lose the next opportunity. No matter if you are a Sales Representative, District Sales Manager or Vice President of Sales, it really doesn’t matter how you play the game (as long as it is within ethical and legal boundaries), it IS whether you win or lose that counts. In today’s challenging economy, there are fewer deals to win or lose, so each one is even more important.

I’ve been in sales-focused positions my entire career…direct sales, partner sales, sales management and competitive sales support. Sales reps generally want more product functionality and lower prices to help them beat the competition, but what they get is “sell what’s in your bag”. If you can’t change the products or prices, what can you control to win more business? The answer is simple…have a better sales strategy. A good portion of your plan should be understanding and anticipating what the competition is going to do the next time you run into them in a sales opportunity. After all, we are all creatures of habit and competitors tend to sell against you the same way each time, so just like my Little League coach, it is up to you to exploit their weaknesses. As I have discussed in my previous blog posts, Win-Loss Analysis is an excellent post-sales diagnostic tool to identify competitive trends and behavior. Is your company using this tool? If not, why not and what would it take for them to implement a program to help the entire sales organization be more successful?