- October 20, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Uncategorized, Understanding the Sales Force
My latest sales epiphany happened while I was watching Friday’s American League Championship Series game between the Yankees and the Guardians.
The Guardians went to the bullpen to bring in a relief pitcher and I felt nothing. Wow! If it was the Red Sox, I would have been worried sick that the pitcher they were bringing into the game:
- Sucked all year
- Walks too many guys
- Is prone to giving up home runs
- Pitches worse against the Yankees
- Won’t prevent the Yankees from scoring right here
- Is the worst possible relief pitcher to bring into the game
I would have felt that way regardless of which relief pitcher the Red Sox would have chosen – that’s how I feel in big games.
And that’s when it hit me as if I was hit in the face by a 95 MPH fastball.
My fears are exclusive to the Red Sox and not to any other team – even if I am rooting for the other team! This is huge! And because this is my brain, this article is actually about sales, not baseball!
Is it fair to believe that Sales Leaders want their salespeople to succeed with their big, important sales opportunities as much as I would want the Red Sox relief pitcher to succeed in a big, important game?
If your answer is yes, we have a problem.
Remember, this is playoff baseball and when a salesperson has a critical opportunity, I want the Sales Leader to be thinking, “Oh No! Not that salesperson. Not now. No way. We’re gonna lose. This is awful!”
But most Sales Leaders react more like I did when the non-Red Sox pitcher was brought into the game. Huge opportunity? Important opportunity? One of our mediocre salespeople? Oh well. It will look good in the pipeline. Size of the pipeline doubles overnight. It will look like we’re doing the right things. I’ll have positive news to report to the CEO. We’ll be fine. We’re better than our competition.
No emotion. No fear. No worry. No problem.
That this is not a problem is the problem!
Sales Leaders should root for their salespeople the way I root for the Red Sox. It’s their team the way the Red Sox are my team. It’s their players the way the Red Sox are my players and when you are emotionally invested in your players and your team, you worry like crazy. Just like I did every single time my son came up to bat for the past sixteen years. Except with my son, the worry wasn’t that he would fail, it was worrying to make sure he succeeded. Like Sales Leaders should worry.
[A ramble – I was thinking about how many times I worried that way about my son. He played 12 games a year at age 7 and 8. The next four years he was an all-star which added around a dozen games per year. He played on his middle school team for two of those years which added another 12 games per year. He started playing AAU ball at age 12 which added another 50 games per year through high school. The high school schedule had 24 games per year and his four years of college averaged around 30 games per year. Add another 24 games each summer for the college years and we end up with 708 games. He was a catcher so there were probably 60 games he didn’t play during those 16 years, plus he lost his senior year in high school to COVID, so let’s make it an even 625 games. With an average of 3 at-bats per game, that would be 1,875 times that I worried that way. Wow! I wonder how many years of my life that will impact…]Back to the point of this article.
Sales Leaders don’t worry nearly enough about how each salesperson will perform on each big opportunity. Each opportunity. Each at-bat. Each pitch. Why even bother agreeing to serve in a Sales Leadership role if you are not fully invested in the success of each salesperson. Not just the numbers at the end of the month, quarter or year, or performance to goal, but each and every opportunity. Not “How did you do?” Not “Do you need any help?”
Assuming it’s a qualified opportunity, Sales Leaders should say, “Let’s work together to make sure we do everything possible to:
- With salespeople who love to win: “Win this account (deal, sale, etc.)”
- With salespeople who hate to lose: “Avoid losing this account (deal, sale, etc.)”
Location, location, location is the mantra of real estate professionals. Coach, coach, coach should be the mantra of Sales Leadership professionals.
Come on Sales Leaders, let’s make this happen!
Coach!
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