Be a Good Sport

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Be a Good Sport

Got another one from Art to share with you:

This Week's Tip
Sales Success is Similar to Liking
Soccer, for Non-Fans of Soccer

Greetings!

I'm really jazzed about the major sporting events
going on this weekend. I'll be attending the start of
the NCAA men's baseball College World Series here
in Omaha, and closely following the U.S. Open golf
tournament however and whenever I can.

What's that...there's another major sporting event
going on? Oh yeah, that World Cup soccer thing.

Calm down, soccer fans worldwide, I'm toying with
you. I know that is the biggest sporting event in the
world.

However, most guys my age in the U.S, in their
40's and 50's, grew up playing baseball, football,
and basketball, and many of us also got into watching
hockey (congrats Blackhawks!). Then some of us got
into golf--some of us much more than others.

I am one of the bigger sports geeks you'll ever meet.
I have spent more time attending, watching, reading
and talking about all of those sports than I am proud
to admit.

However, with soccer--and I'll include tennis and
NASCAR--there has been zero appeal for me over
the years.

But, I can understand they are tremendously popular
sports, and have rabid fans.

And right now I am really making an attempt to get into
the World Cup. I'm reading everything I can about
the teams, players, history, how players are developed
worldwide, the importance of soccer to other countries
and its citizens, those annoying horns we hear during
the games, etc. I watched the end of the US-England
game (right after I finished playing 18 holes).

I'm not certain I can ever become an avid fan, but I
can respect how others are passionate about this and
want to understand and feel where they are coming from.

What does this have to do with sales?

Well, everything. Let me put a spin on it.

You have certain thoughts, interests, beliefs, and
knowledge about your products and services, why
you think your prospects and customers should buy,
and what YOU want to do.

But, most importantly, YOU are not your customer.

In sales, it does not matter what you want. It needs to
be all about them.

When you let your interests and desires get in the way,
that creates objections. That is, IF you are even able to
get to that point, meaning self-interested salespeople often
don't even get the chance to speak with a prospect,
since their "all about me" calls, emails, and voice messages
are ignored and deleted.

So here's one of the simplest principles of sales success:

Forget about what YOU want. make it all about them. I have a
brief audio tip that goes into a bit more detail on this. I invite
you to join me and take four minutes to listen in.

Go to http://www.TelesalesBlog.com and scroll down in the
post to the audio player to hear the tip.