Learning to love the battle — the true heart of a sales professional.
Winning in life and business is a series of successes and failures. A baseball player who fails 70% of the time is considered to be one of the best hitters of all time. Would you believe the professional baseball player who made the most outs in a career is the same guy who has the most hits? Congratulations, Pete Rose!
To be a true professional in the world of sales, we need to be comfortable with failing. In my opinion, this is what separates the great sales people from the also rans. Why? Because winning is so exciting; the noise drowns out the negativity of being turned down. In fact, the real motivation comes from cracking the code of a challenging solution or the art of the deal in becoming the value engager in making the business case that wins the deal.
I read an article about a tennis competitor who, after playing for four hours — hot, sweaty, tired, thirsty, bloodied from falling — was tied in the fifth and final set. The question emerged how he would choose to respond. He could hope to get by and finish gracefully, he could just choke lose and get off the court, he could hang on and hope his opponent would falter, or he could choose to do battle and win. The deeper response, however, was not just to do battle, but to go a step further and choose to love the battle, because it was no longer about winning or losing, but the thrill of the battle. That was when he discovered that in choosing to love the battle, he gained the competitive edge and winning was the natural result.
Coaching question: In your life, what battles do you face? What would it mean to you if you found a way to learn to love the battle?
Human relations principle: “Throw down a challenge.” ~ Dale Carnegie
Onward!
John Rodgers