“You like the part of the game when your dream client says yes” to your “ask.” You must also love the game when your dream client tells you “no.” It’s all part of the game, and no one is undefeated.”
This quote is from an outstanding post I just read by Anthony Iannarino and it compelled me to jump in and write this. Anthony’s post is entitled “Love the Game”, Win or Lose” and I urge you to read it here. The theme of the article is that we need to truly love the sales profession, both the fun parts as well as the grind and the not so great parts.
So, with apologies to those who aren’t fans of the sport, I see a very strong analogy between Sales and (American) football. And even if you don’t particularly care for football, I think the comparison will still resonate with you. For that matter, you can substitute another sport, art, writing, virtually anything you are passionate about and can relate to. Achieving anything worthwhile in any pursuit requires a requisite amount of “blood, sweat and tears”.
When I played football in high school and college (I suspect some of you are thinking: “another dumb jock who went into sales”, but at least I did graduate with an economics degree), there was a lot about it that wasn’t much fun. Think about it; you play one sixty minute game only once a week. That’s fun (even exhilarating) when you win, not so much when you lose. And even when you win, there are high points and low points, great plays and bad mistakes, frustration and celebration, exuberance along with pain and injuries. And what about the rest of the week? For that matter the rest of the year beyond the ten or so games during the season? Lot’s of not so fun stuff. Lots of hard work, grueling conditioning, long draining practices full of seemingly endless repetition, exhausting mental and physical preparation for the next game or next season. You could only afford to celebrate a win briefly over the remainder of the weekend after the game. Monday was back to business, preparing for the next opponent. The practice schedule could be viewed as a grind. Each day of every week repeated in a cadence just like the one the week before: game film review and conditioning on Monday, full contact and lots of conditioning on Tuesday and Wednesday, physically tapering off on Thursday and Friday but the mental preparation intensified. All for the big game on Saturday. Next week, rinse and repeat. So why would anyone endure all this? For “the love of the game”; not just enduring, but embracing the pain and preparation as the necessary price to perform at your best, to enjoy the fruits of a hard earned victory, even a single masterfully executed play. Just like in selling or any other pursuit that is worthwhile, we must embrace and understand the value of the process, not just the good times and the wins.
So for me (and I hope for you) the parallels with Sales are inescapable. It’s the preparation, the practice, learning from our mistakes, the quest to always improve, the discipline of cadence for not so fun activities like prospecting, call planning, opportunity reviews, training; all the things that make the thrill of victory and rewards of success possible. We cannot be truly our best without these things.
What I learned from my football experience is that it is possible for those of us with intractable gifts to “get by” in sales or any pursuit, disdaining or even trying to avoid the unpleasant parts. Some go through the motions or try to “wing it”. But the truly best among us embrace and “love” the whole enchilada, not just the fun stuff. They don’t cut corners, they block their time for important activities that don’t provide immediate gratification, they plan, they review, they practice, they continually study and learn. So the question we need to ask ourselves is “Do we really love the game”? If we cannot answer a resounding “yes”, we should consider another occupation or be content with living in the world of mediocrity and never fulfilling our true potential. And that would be truly a shame and a waste of our precious gifts. Ultimately it is up to us to decide.
