There’s an old saying that you “Drive for show; Putt for dough!” While this is certainly true of the game of golf it can also be said for the world of selling. How many times have you given a killer presentation only to fumble when it came to asking for the order? The presentation itself does not guarantee a successful sale. Like golf, you must master all aspects of the selling process to increase the odds of closing the sale.
Many golfers are frustrated at their level of play because just when the driver is starting to feel good in their hands their putter fails them, or their short game. It’s the same for salespeople. The sales call may be going great but then you fumble handling an objection or freeze when asking for the order. Talk about frustrating!
Selling and Golf have one main thing in common; they both rely on flawless, systematic execution to produce satisfactory results. Both are thought of as simple pursuits but are in fact very difficult to accomplish successfully.
They also have other things in common:
- Both are stressful. One wrong move can undo everything you’ve worked hard to achieve.
- Both require mental energy. Steady nerves are the key to the game between the golfer and the course, or the salesperson and the client.
- At the professional level, you have to win to eat. Your pay is dependent on your performance. If you win (close the sale) you get paid and keep your job. If not, you’ll be living on peanut butter sandwiches and sleeping in your car.
- It’s Fun! Golfers and salespeople wouldn’t keep doing it if it weren’t fun.
- They both use a repeatable system for consistent results.
- The top participants were taught a system for success.
Without understanding the basic fact that there actually is a system for sales success most salespeople skip or ignore key components to the sales process. Let me give you an example. In golf, if you were standing on the tee box of a 560-yard, Par 5 hole at your local country club, you wouldn’t take out your putter to use off the tee. Or course not! That would be stupid and foolish. Instead, you would use the club that offered the best chance for getting the ball as far as possible down the fairway; your driver. Next, assuming that your ball landed in the fairway, you would use a fairway wood or long iron while still keeping your putter in your bag. Next would be a short iron for an approach shot. Your putter would only make an appearance when you were somewhere near the green and you wanted to roll the ball in the hole. Good golfers know that there is a systematic approach to golf!
As a professional salesperson you have to understand that there are steps to the selling process as well. If you miss or short-cut these steps you are setting yourself up for failure. What if went into a sales call and before even saying hello, asked for the order? You’re right; you would probably be thrown out of the office. What if you went through the entire presentation and then forgot to ask for the order? Your customer would probably thank you for your time and then buy from someone else.
Let’s face it, if you want to be a good salesperson then you must take the time to learn and execute the proper steps of the sales cycle. These are:
- Planning and/or preparation
- Introduction or opening
- Questioning
- Presentation
- Overcoming objections/negotiating
- The close or closing
- After-sales follow-up
The quicker you strengthen your skills in these key competencies then the faster your sales numbers will grow. Now you can do this by working year after year, struggling to learn by trial and error or you can do what most professionals do; learn from those who came before them. Most people have used or adapted a successful system others have developed rather than struggle themselves.
Golfers have done it for generations. Many professional golfers today use a grip called the “Vardon Grip” that was popularized by the great Harry Vardon at the tail end of the 1800’s over 100 years ago! (Trivia time: What people don’t know is that Harry’s grip was actually invented by a Scottish amateur named John Laidley years before.) The game of golf has become popular because anyone can be taught how to play by those who already know how.
You can be taught how to sell properly! Sales training courses, like Driving Fore Sales Success, teach sales skills that have been used successfully by others for years! Learning from those who have been on the “Fairways of Sales” will ensure that your selling career will flourish and help you break “Par” faster then you ever thought possible.
So I encourage you to take the time right now to learn a sales system so that you can become the “Sales Professional” that I know you were meant to be!
Tony Badea is President of Stonebridge & Pippin, a sales training organization based in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. He is the author and creator of “Driving Fore Sales Success”, a sales training system that uses the systematic approach of golf to teach salespeople that selling utilizes a repeatable process for success. His 22 years of real-world selling and his love of golf make him passionate about what he does. He can be reached at tbadea1636@rogers.com.
© Stonebridge & Pippin 2006
By Tony BadeaSpeaker, Trainer and Author of Driving Fore Sales Success
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