Sales Secrets of Olympic Winners
What are the characteristics of a winner whether in sales or in sports?
A few years ago, I met Olympic kayaker and retired Olympic swimming coach, Bill Jewell at a restaurant. I frantically took notes with a Sharpie on a paper napkin. His ideas were solid gold.
Read on to gain insights from working with top Olympic winners and how the seven characteristics of these winners parallels the seven characteristics of top sales professionals.
Good Lifestyle
Olympic winners always choose a good lifestyle that focuses on their health, well being, and positive mental attitude. They avoid any behavior that can limit their success, including poor food choices, poor attitudes, and negative influences.
Sales winners understand that a good lifestyle supports sharp thinking and physical endurance to be a tough competitor. They choose healthy meals in the face of junk food, positive attitudes in the face of challenges, and forward-looking influences in the face of old sales war stories.
What adjustments do you need to make to your lifestyle to be a consistent winner?
Competitive
Olympic champions are born competitors. They hate to lose and will do anything within their power to win the game. They are always sizing up the competition and making adjustments to their approach to stay on top.
Sales champions step into a competitive situation with excitement and enthusiasm. They act like born competitors. They know the competitors’ strengths and weakness and know how to minimize the strengths and take advantage of the weaknesses.
What do you need to do to become more competitive?
Not Intimidated
Olympic athletes are never intimidated by their competitors. They expect for their opponents to be aggressive and challenge them; it’s part of the game. They often play their own mind games with their competitors. Remember six-time gold medalist, Amy Van Dyken spitting in her competitor’s lane before the sprints in Sydney? Harmless, but intimidating.
Sales professionals aren’t intimidated by their competitors. In sales, the competition can be quite fierce and sometimes quite vicious; it’s part of the sales game.
What do you need to do to never be intimidated by your competitors?
Train, Train, Train
Olympic superstars continuously train. In the world of the Olympics, the difference between a gold medal and no medal can be hundredths of a second. Any physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual edge can make the winning difference so training never stops.
Sales superstars always train and practice. They rehearse their sales presentations until they are flawless. They practice managing objections until they become second nature. They role play executive conversations until they can talk like a peer.
What do you need to practice to improve your ability to be a sales superstar?
Consistent Performance
Olympic medalists perform consistently. They don’t have bad days. Now, some days are better than others, yet they show up for every meet, every practice, and every competition prepared, ready to go, with no excuses. They always race at their best and it shows.
Sales winners consistently perform. Like the winning Olympians, they never have a bad day. They always do what’s necessary to meet their quotas month after month. They are always at their best and their customers count on it, refusing to do business with anybody else.
What do you need to do to increase your sales consistency?
Masters of Strategy
Top Olympians have mastered the strategy of their sport. They know exactly how to plan and then use technique and tactics to bring home the gold. As the game develops, they continue to adapt and adopt to stay the leader of the pack.
Top sales professionals master sales strategies. They know that the average sales person has a bag of tricks but few strategies. Pros adapt and adopt as market conditions change and as competitors try new things. Sales is a moving target and pros track that target.
What do you need to do to improve your strategic sales mastery?
Never-ending Quest for Knowledge
Olympic winners continuously seek knowledge about their game. They read about their competitors. They study videos. They seek out research that can legally enhance their performance. They never stop looking for every way possible to be the best in the world.
Sales winners continuously seek sales and competitive knowledge to be at the top of their industry. They study the competition. They critically study sales training. They study their products. They look for every way possible to be the best in their business.
What do you need to do to continuously learn?
Go do it!
Mark S A Smith
Working with leaders to bring in the right customers, fast.
P.S. If you’d like 15 minutes to talk about how to build your customer acquisition system, go to MarksSchedule.com to set up time to talk.
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