Salespeople are like athletes; you have to have the grit, the stomach, the persistence and
Salespeople are just like athletes. You have to have the grit, heart and stamina in order to achieve your goals.
perseverance, the nourishment, the zeal, the head and heart to do whatever it takes to reach your goals.
Some days you might feel like a long distance runner, mustering stamina from your big toe to attend one more networking event, make 5 more cold calls, burn the midnight oil or rise earlier than the early bird in order to get those e-mails out, process payments or fill out contracts.
Other days you might feel like an Offensive Lineman getting battered and bruised from “no’s,” “I’ll think about its,” and “I have to reschedule’s…”
In sales, you have to have a lot of the same physical and mental attributes as an athlete.
Imagine climbing Mount Everest. The altitude sickness, the cold, carrying 2 weeks worth of freeze dried meals in baggies. Imagine climbing over snow covered cracks and crevices where one mis-step literally could send you plummeting to your death miles below, if you don’t first freeze to death or stab yourself on a huge piece of ice before you hit the bottom. Kind of makes you feel thankful you’re in sales and your “Everest” is doubling your prospecting efforts and increasing your referrals to sales conversion rate. But you need the same grit and stamina as a climber in order to keep going and to “climb your Everest” in order to reach that goal and feel the “sales high” that achievers experience.
Salespeople have an edge over athletes, which is that we’re not competing for just one first place. There isn’t just one Gold Medal, one Winners Cup or one Super Bowl Trophy. Unless you’re playing a sales game against others to win cash or prizes, your only competition really is yourself. How you can be faster, stronger, smarter, more resilient, more positive, healthier, and an overall better version of yourself today than you were yesterday?
Our next 4 blog posts coming to you every Monday, Wednesday and Friday will contain tips and tricks to improve your prospecting and sales game. You’ll find great ways to save time & money, how to organize the one zillion business cards you’re drowning in and how to efficiently play the F/U Game (ahem….. that stands for Follow Up!) and ultimately how to become a Sales Athlete.