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YIPPEE!  Football season is here!  Now, outside of the enjoyment I get from watching the game (yes, I know it can be a bit radical, but for now, let's set that aside),  the camaraderie, (and the competitiveness),  the food, the parties and the ambiance,  one can also learn a lot from people that play sports!   For example, in football as in all sports,  they absolutely MUST study their profession (the game itself, the plays, HOW to throw, run, catch, swing, hit, etc.) , study the other team, etc., etc. ,  They MUST practice, MUST know their NUMBERS (wow, think of baseball too!), Be self disciplined (at least on the field), be a team player., and HAVE a great attitude.   In football, as in other sports, they MUST  go ALL out on each and every play, every  single time!  (Like we have to on a sales call)  I know there are MANY other ways Sales and Sports share common ground, but would like to see if anyone would like to share their thoughts on this!  Some professions make a lot of money in life, and obvioulsy sports is one of them... and SO IS SALES.  No other professsion  truly lets you make what you want.  It is up to YOU.  .

Oh, and good luck to all you football fans.  May the best  teams meet in the Super Bowl!

Obrudder, that was cheesie!  Thanks :)

I always considered myself a frustrated football coach when managing a sales team. We had training, goals, competition, kept score, gave awards, practice, celebrations, super stars, dissapointment, team work, fun, this list goes on. The 2 are very much alike

Great topic. I also believe there are a lot of similarities between sports & sales. Here is a example that comes to mind.

1. In the NFL there are approximately 60 offensive plays per team per game. Some are running plays, some are passing. There are high percentage plays, such as a short pass or run (calling on a client and adding an item to an existing order). There are low percentage plays like throwing a Hail Mary pass (trying to close a $500,000 sale on a one call close). They may happen once in a lifetime but if you Understand Numbers, you play the percentages. Now, back to the 60 plays. How many turn into a score (sale)? the answer is 2-4. Maybe a couple of Touchdowns and a couple of Field Goals. As already mentioned the players  practice, roll play and rehearse each play beforehand. (Learning a script, roll playing with an associate or spouse, preparing a presentation, visualizing closing etc.) Now here's the kicker (no pun intended), with all of that practicing can any player know which play will turn into a score? Of course not, but they do go all out on each play. And thats the same with sales: sometimes we have to make 60 telephone calls to get an appointment and speak with 10 decision makers to get 2-4 sales. We have to go all out on each call because we also do not know which one will turn into a sale. There is rejection all over the place. Thats what we get paid to handle. And if we handle we get the sales/scores and the more we make, the more we earn!

GO BUFFALO BILLS!  11-5 and the AFC East Title.

Sports most definitely relate to sales.  They get rejection, set goals, use visualization, use numbers, they aim for the TOP Prize. Also, they are not capped on their on their numbers, the better they play, the more they make, they get incentives, we get higher commissions. They also go after the very top prize!  Winning the game (closing the sale!)

Also, even when it comes to resting and recharging, athletes know they HAVE to recoup, recharge.  They know they cannot constantly work out (close, but not quite), know they have to care for their bodies in healthy ways, understand the value of sleep and rest for improved performance.

In hiring, the best of all examples is training camp, where the rookies are brought in and the veterans are motivated to improve, to at least remain consistent!  They are threatened with the possibility of replacement, so they have to get their game on; they MUST perform their best,.  They are shown, they are replaceable. They Practice, study, strive to improve.  They work on their attitudes and motivation,

That’s why football, baseball, hockey, and basketball have a draft each and every year, to bring in fresh talent  and MOTIVATE their veterans.

Management uses sales techniques, philosophies and skills every way possible. What other profession Motivates their people before they go out on game day (sales day).  Ours does.  Sales! 

We don’t see electricians,  nurses,  reporters, or for that matter, most any other industry, that provides this motivation for themselves and their TEAM, not normally.

 We sales people, managers, sports athletes, we MUST be motivated.  Our careers pay us the best, yet get the most rejection.  We have to want to do what we do, or we won’t make it in our field.  We can’t.  So. Study successful people and do what they do.  Work on your skills and your attitude and do everything you can to stay motivated.  It’s worth it, and the pay is fantastic!

“Become brilliant at the basics”     Vince Lombardi

Vince began every season with his team by saying “Gentlemen, this is a football!”    How cool is that!

“If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today”… Lou Holtz

The sales made from sports to me is the commission.  The commission is the fan showing up for the games, spending money on the ticket.  The (and I know I am Canadian and am humbling myself here, lol) Toronto Maple Leafs don't win alot of games, but they always bring in the money.  The fans love them, even though they can suck, (ouch did I say that).  Sports sells promotional stuff, promotional stuff sells the name of the sport.  It all goes hand in hand.  Great question!

 Funny and interesting that you brought this up. Early August I started writing an article that I need to touch up and try to make better however here is what I have so far.

We all understand how sales relates to sports but lets talk about how sports relates to sales.  Having grown up in Alabama and sold throughout the state I realte to how sports influences sales.  Today on Facebook 1/2 of the comments have been about the Tiger walk (an Auburn tradition), Roll Tide as they play Va. Tech in Atlanta and the University of South Alabama's very first football game ever. 

Living in Alabama it was imperative to know who your customer supported ( you could be kicked out of an office for not realizing they were an Auburn fan), knowing an important play from each game so you could act like you were involved and caring about their team.  Sports are vital in some states and then you can move to South Florida and everyone has a different team (Yankees, Patriots, UF, Fla State, UM, USF,  Dolphins).  The days are a lot easier for someone who doesn't really care about football or baseball.  Go Miami City Ballet & Palm Beach Opera!!

Gold I am not sure how you mean. If it is asking if I smash and bad mouth a competitor the answer is no. If you are asking if I mention my competition  the answer is no. I try to by pass the competition and talk about what I do for them. They are not relevant to what I do for the client.

  How it ties into sports I have never heard a team go out of their way to say we beat this team because they sucked big time and is an easy team to beat up. They will say things that can imply that they are a lousy. The team played hard until the final gun and I am glad that we do not play them again. They have some good athletes and in a few  or next year/s will be tough.

 I have scripted a few replies to the competition that allows me to  by pass them. One of them that I use frequently is;

 I really do not want to talk about another company. However if I thought they could deliver the same profesionalism,quality, product,service and service after the sale I would be there ( slight pause) BUT I am not I am here.

 If I have developed any type of trust this response works. If they seem hesitant I ask them two questions. How do you think I am doing for you? How do you think I will do for you? The answer informs me what I must do to gain their confidence and more trust.

HiringExpert says ...

Rich, ANOTHER great article!

Gold, of course they (sports teams) study their competition!  And yes, In sales we do too.  I NEVER badmouth my competition, NEVER.  I think it is bad business to do so and it is also an unnecessary thing to do.

Lori, I love the analogies! And YES!  It is very ethical do study the comp.  Not only do we NEED to know what they are offering, we also need to know what we or they do diffferent, if anything, and then we can better present our information to the prospect.  How can we ensure that we are the company for them, if we do not know what other companies are offering them?

I understand about bad mouthing but what if your competition is indeed really bad?  what if being honest involves criticism.  What if you resarch your competition and find out they have a problem that want to keep private, let's say it's financial in nature and your prospect is leaning towards them... you know, if they go with them, they will lose money or maybe even go out of business themselves... is mentioning that information considered bad mouthing? 

If the opposing teams qb has an injured shoulder, does the other team say ok, this qb has a weak shoulder so let's try to take it w easy on him... let's not  try to put any pressure on that shoulder because we want to win this game by taking the high road. I'm sure the coach is saying (when the cameras are off and all the nice customer talk isn't being broadcasted) ok, you guys, let's break that guys arm off from the shoulder and feed it back to him through his ass. (maybe not exactly said likte that but along those lines)

Of course, after the game in the interviews, the players all talk about what a great challenge the losing team was and how they played well ... but of course... by saying the truth "the other team just sucked" diminishes the winning teams efforts. it would make them look weak to just say, "man, this was the easiest win we ever had, the competition really sucked."

I think that's why in interviews, pretty much every player gives the same canned answer... it's probably not "professionalism" but marketing that is what dictates their words. I notice this in often with sales people as well as in forums... the "canned, appropriate, expected, book answer". In marketing yourself, you can't afford to take much risk or deviate too far away from the persona you are tryring  to portrey and protect, i understand the thinking behind it but are the similiarities comparrable to the canned answer of the winning or losing team.

in your sales pitch (anyones) do you say what is expected of you? are you the player talking in the interview?

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Gold, beleive me, if you knew me, I PROMISE you would find, I do not do ANYTHING the norm.  I would not in any circumstances let my potential prospect go to a company that I knew was going under.  I would find a way to share the info.  No, I do not think it would be unethical, quite the opposite.  In my mind, I would JUSTIFY, yes I said it, I would justify that I did the RIGHT thing. 

 I like sports, never claimed to be a great speller.  That's Buffalo Bills!

Claudia wouold you come right out and say htye are going out of business or would you say something similar to this. We are not going out of business or filing chatper 13 and plan to be a stable organization for many more years to come. This is not true for other companies in our are /profession? Isn't this informing your client to be aware of the competition?

  We have a company that is a pioneer in the industry and all the other manufactureers of this type of product has copied their design. They haold the patent so all the other  manufactureres must  make it different. I always add this , do you want the real thing or a knockoff? I explain the patent and design and how different they are from the others. I bring to light the difference in  apositive way that informs the client.

 Using Brady as an example you may find a team saying after the game they knew Brady's shoulder hurt and they took advanatge of that fact however they would not say that Brady sucked. Of course you pan to attack the weakest link and you do that by placing your strengths against that weakness.What comes to light  is your strength not the other teams weakness.

WOW!  I owe some of you  an apology!  I could not see all the posts, kept happening in other forums too.  Found out my computer kept taking me back to the older post, so the new ones weren't showing up.  I THINK (not 100% sure) that it has to do with cookies!  I will read all I can and catch up!  Will also have computer girl check it out Tuesday to see what the heck was/is going in, unless anyone here knows!

Hang in there, I will have to do some reading, again, I am gald I discovered this, bec. I didn't mean to come across as rude or non-responsive (will save those behaviors for football games, just kidding!   Really, just kidding, lol!)

Actually, I meant to say

....... and stability of ""THE companies as well"

or I might say:

Mr. Prospect,  As I'm sure you already know, it would not hurt to check out both my and my competitors company, financially as well as any other relative information necessary, into helping you make a safe informed decision.

Mr. Prospect,  You owe it to yourself to verify all you can on my company as well as my competitors, even (or especially) our current and projected finanaces!"

Mr. Prospect, You owe it to yourself to check us all out, as I am sure you are already doing.   However I would like to recommend you also check the financial's and stability of my company as well as my competition."

Right now, my brain is in BBQ mode, lol.  However, I would use something along those lines, worded with what is comfortable for you, to get the point across that something is amiss, or at the minimum, needs further investigation. Just a thought!