Golf is a Lot Like Sales

I have a lot of friends that are sales professionals who would say that golf should be part of the sales process, but analogous to sales? Yes and here is why.

I think everyone would concur that the degree of difficulty associated with differentiating products or services has increased dramatically over the past decade. What once was a clear differentiator for a company is now just another “me too” feature. Yesterdays “a-has” are today’s ticket to the game. The margin of differentiation is now razor thin for many companies; and, given no clear way to differentiate, people will default to price as the tie breaker.

It has always been true, but now more than ever, the sales person can be the clear differentiating factor that tips the scales in favor of your product or service at a slightly higher price. I am not talking about a huge margin of victory that is required to accomplish this. If the sales professional can gain even the slightest of advantage, it might be enough to win the day. This is where the golf analogy comes into play.

Through the month of April, well known golfer Ernie Els was the top money winner on the PGA Tour checking in with a little over $3.1 million in winnings in 2010. An equally well known golfer (although for different reasons) is John Daly. Generally recognized as pro golf’s bad boy, John has earned just under $46,000 in Tour winnings thus far in 2010. I guess that isn’t a huge surprise, but here is where it gets interesting. Through the first 4 months of 2010 Ernie was averaging 69.84 strokes per round of PGA tournament golf. During that same time period John Daly was averaging 71.53 strokes per round. Ernie Els’ average round of golf was only 1.69 strokes per round better than John Daly’s yet he had earned over 67 times as much money! In golf, as in sales, it is pretty clear that even the smallest of differences can make a HUGE impact on financial results.

Can your sales team be a couple of strokes better than the competition? Just like the game where even a couple of strokes can make the difference between winning big and obscurity, a couple of strokes difference between you and your competition may be all that is required. How do you pick up those extra strokes in golf? You hire a coach and you practice, practice, practice. It should be no different in sales. If you are not giving your sales team the opportunity to sharpen their sales skills, coaching them on the process, and allowing them to practice in a safe environment you are missing out on a huge opportunity.

Will your sales team be the Ernie Els of your competitive arena or the John Day? The choice is up to you!

Does Anyone Really C.A.R.E.?

“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Dr. John Maxwell
(A Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books that have sold more than a million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader.)

Business relationships have dramatically changed with the introduction of 24-7 information, global competition and technology that allows rapid innovation and duplication. Combined, these forces all reduce the differentiation of products and services even as solutions become increasingly interconnected and complicated. Layered atop those factors is the heightened sense of risk-aversion in the business world. Add in the churn of functions and roles and suddenly business relationships don’t “feel” the same way they used to. It’s almost as if those relationships have lost their value for both the buyer and the seller. The truth is, relationships are as important as ever, but the dynamics of what makes them valuable have changed.

More than ever, our customers need to know we really care about them, their companies and the future of both. It’s up to us as sales professionals to take the lead with developing our business relationships and we can best do that if we continually and consistently are:

C onfirming what we both (customer and seller) know about each other. Doing so limits those false assumptions we can easily make when we lack the facts about each other and from which we can build a solid business relationship. Typically, this would take place at the beginning of the business relationship, but with time comes change and it could be very beneficial to reconfirm what we think we know, as well.

A sking for information we don’t know about customer. Imagine how flattering it is to our customers for us to demonstrate our sincere interest in them, their business, their products and services, their competition and their customers! Relevant questions do just that and have the effect of paving the way for the possible solutions we might offer.

R evealing what our customer might like to know about us. Once we’ve established an understanding of our customer’s environment, we can begin to consider what appropriate solutions we have that might be of interest to our customers. Targeting solutions to customer needs isn’t new, but effectively doing so is and requires our understanding of more than simple needs. We need to be able to help customers “see around the corner” based upon our expertise, providing a knowledge resource that is very differentiating.

E xpanding the potential benefits available to both of us and our companies. As we learn more about our customers and they learn more about us, we both benefit from an expanded business relationship that holds far greater potential than originally conceived by either of us. As the relationship grows, so does opportunity for both buyer and seller, and that interdependence is a more productive state for both, as well.

Though business is in a constant state of change, the need for customers to know their sales professionals understand the environment occupied by the customer remains constant and our success depends upon our ability to show we really CARE.

“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Dr. John Maxwell (A Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books that have sold more than a million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader.)

Business relationships have dramatically changed with the introduction of 24-7 information, global competition and technology that allows rapid innovation and duplication. Combined, these forces all reduce the differentiation of products and services even as solutions become increasingly interconnected and complicated. Layered atop those factors is the heightened sense of risk-aversion in the business world. Add in the churn of functions and roles and suddenly business relationships don’t “feel” the same way they used to. It’s almost as if those relationships have lost their value for both the buyer and the seller. The truth is, relationships are as important as ever, but the dynamics of what makes them valuable have changed.

More than ever, our customers need to know we really care about them, their companies and the future of both. It’s up to us as sales professionals to take the lead with developing our business relationships and we can best do that if we continually and consistently are:

Confirming what we both (customer and seller) know about each other. Doing so limits those false assumptions we can easily make when we lack the facts about each other and from which we can build a solid business relationship. Typically, this would take place at the beginning of the business relationship, but with time comes change and it could be very beneficial to reconfirm what we think we know, as well.

Asking for information we don’t know about customer. Imagine how flattering it is to our customers for us to demonstrate our sincere interest in them, their business, their products and services, their competition and their customers! Relevant questions do just that and have the effect of paving the way for the possible solutions we might offer.

Revealing what our customer might like to know about us. Once we’ve established an understanding of our customer’s environment, we can begin to consider what appropriate solutions we have that might be of interest to our customers. Targeting solutions to customer needs isn’t new, but effectively doing so is and requires our understanding of more than simple needs. We need to be able to help customers “see around the corner” based upon our expertise, providing a knowledge resource that is very differentiating.

Expanding the potential benefits available to both of us and our companies. As we learn more about our customers and they learn more about us, we both benefit from an expanded business relationship that holds far greater potential than originally conceived by either of us. As the relationship grows, so does opportunity for both buyer and seller, and that interdependence is a more productive state for both, as well.

Though business is in a constant state of change, the need for customers to know their sales professionals understand the environment occupied by the customer remains constant and our success depends upon our ability to show we really CARE.