Thursday, May 31, 2012

What do you worry about?

"The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage of weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting." - Hank Aaron

Who has the upper hand in your dealings, your conversations, your negotiations? What is it you worry about before you walk into a meeting, a presentation?

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

What is your motivation?

"One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something." Nolan Ryan

What are you out to prove? What drives you? What is your motivation? What is it that makes you come out and perform to your best ability? How do you keep reaching down day after day to find and grab that motivation and use it?

Is it money? It is ego? Is it a fear of failure? Some deep rooted childhood emotion that forces you to come out swinging? Do you feel backed into a corner and perform at your best when you do? Is it competition? Out to prove you are better than the rest?

What drives you to success? Where is your motivation growing? Do you plan it for the next day? Do you prepare yourself to be motivated with scheduled activities to jumpstart your attitude? Or do you have to do it all over again, from scratch, every day?

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

What opportunity will you create today?

"Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is." Bob Feller

What opportunity will come your way today? What opportunity will you create? What does this new day bring to you, the opportunity to uincover that new client, to speak with someone for the first time, to make a first impression on a new prospect. Today is the first day to call someone you have never tried calling before. Now is your time, now is your opportunity.

Friday, May 25, 2012

What rules do you live by?

"The only thing I believe is this: A player does not have to like a manager and he does not have to respect a manager. All he has to do is obey the rules." - Hall of Fame Manager Sparky Anderson


What rules do you have and follow?

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Passion & Enthusiasm

"It's a great day for a ball game; let's play two!" - Ernie Banks

Passion for a game, for your business, for what you are selling, for your job and life. Enthusiasm for improvement and to do more. Sometimes that is what it takes to put yourself ahead of the next guy, who just may be going through the motions.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Practice your good habits.

“There is no time to fool around when you practice. Every drill must have a purpose. I try to never get away from that…habits are important” -Albert Pujols

What do you do well? Do it over and over again. Do it until it is second nature and you do it all the time for everyone. The rewards will come to you not because you were trying but because of what you were doing naturally.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Sales Management

Baseball is a simple game. If you have good players and if you keep them in the right frame of mind then the manager is a success.
Sparky Anderson

So the question is how do you maintain the right frame of mind for a sales staff?

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Do Not Be Afraid. Strive for better.

"You can't be afraid to make errors! You can't be afraid to be naked before the crowd, because no one can ever master the game of baseball, or conquer it. You can only challenge it." Lou Brock

Do not be afraid to take a chance, to fail, to approach someone, to ask for what you want. Do not be afraid of confrontation, of attitude, of rejection, of disappointment. Do not be afraid to pursue perfection. Though it may be impossible to achieve, it will only bring you closer. Do not be comfortable, complacent, lazy or content. Strive for better and you may be the best.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

"Set your goals high, and don't stop till you get there." -- Bo Jackson

"Set your goals high, and don't stop till you get there." -- Bo Jackson

Every trainer, every coach, every speaker, every boss, everyone speaks of goals. You can find quotes about the subject going back throgh time and see this is a constant theme throughout personal success and motivation. This is not by coincidence. Short term goals, long terms goals, written goals, setting your goals, evaluating your goals....our entire lives are spent climbing, struggling, sometimes leaping from one goal to another. The progress we make, the steps we take, are easier and more fulfilling to us personally if we take the time to measure them, to study them, to write them down, to reward ourselves when we achieve success.

What are you doing now, each day, today, to reach the goals you have for yourself? DO YOU KNOW? Can you answer the question?

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Knuckleball Expectations

"It's like snowflakes -- no two are ever alike." - Jason Varitek on catching a knuckleball.

Expect the unexpected, be prepared for that which cannot be prepared for. Sounds difficult, but the art of the sale is often as challenging as catching a knuckleball. Always different, often unexpected and sometimes completely unpredictable. Sales training is no replacement for experience, and all the experience in the world cannot prepare you for some customers.




Monday, May 14, 2012

It is not just a numbers game...

"If you dwell on statistics, you get shortsighted. If you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end." - Pitcher Tom Seaver

Consistency in effort and attitude will reward you, you will be where you want to be. That is if your activity is quality and focused. Do not practice the same bad behavior over and over. You don't go up to bat just to get your hacks in, just to swing the bat. Approach with a plan, a focus, a goal. Take it the other way....lay a bunt down to move the runner over...drive the pitch to the outfield to sacrifice the runner in from third. Same as with your sales approach, each and every call must have thought, research and an achievable goal. Simply calling to make your numbers of calls, to hit your call quota, is not sales. It is not simply a numbers game. 10 well thought out calls are better than 100 bad ones.

Friday, May 11, 2012

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.". --Confucius

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.". --Confucius

Have you noticed how many people identify themselves as an "expert" in their profession? Most of these people who be far better off admitting what they don;t know instead of going around beating their chest telling everyone what they do know, how they know better than anyone else, how their methodology, process or system is better than anyone else's. Take a look in the mirror. Speaking of mirrors, here is another quote: "Baseball is the only major sport that appears backwards in a mirror." ~George Carlin, Brain Droppings, 1997

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Team Effort

"Only in baseball can a team player be a pure individualist first and a team player second, within the rules and spirit of the game."
Branch Rickey

Is he right? I see sales as primarily an individual effort, but one that requires one to be a team player as well. Support staff, delivery processes, all the characters and cohorts that join with you in supporting a customer. It does take a team to make a happy client, but that strong willed individual leading the way is the salesman responsible for the yes or no at the end of day. I have seen many salespeople make a mistake in not recogning how much of a team effort it takes and what the other members contribute to make everyone a success. Sad really, that so many people are blinded to the efforts of their coworkers and how they contribute to their own good fortunes. Recognize it and your team will be stronger.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Have a plan

"Good hitters don't just go up and swing. They always have a plan. Call it an educated deduction. You visualize. You're like a good negotiator. You know what you have, you know what he has, then you try to work it out." –Dave Winfield

A plan. Negotiation. When you make a call, when you have a conversation, when you meet with that someone. Have an idea in your head about specifically what you want to have happen. What you want to say, what you want them to know about you, what you want to know about them, what you want them to do at the end. Baby steps or big huge giant leaps, move forweard and accomplish a goal that you set forth before the engagement. Have a quality at bat and you will be better off than when you went in.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Today is a new day...

“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is.” Bob Feller

Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. Funny how all the old sayings, the cliches we have heard time and time again, they often are as true today as they were 100 years ago. Today is a new day....Shake it off....Forget the past....So difficult by human nature's standards for many of us to do what we know is best for us. Just like Nike said though, Just Do It. It is the only option, to move forward without remembering or dwelling on the swings and misses, on the NO's we received, on the doors slammed in our faces, Wha do they matter today, for today is a fresh start, a chance to begin again.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Adjust to Survive.

To me, baseball has always been a reflection of life. Like life, it adjusts. It survives everything.
Willie Stargell

People who remain the same confuse me. To change, to challenge, to consistently strive for better is how we have achieved. As humans, as a society, as friends, as baseball players and yes, even as salespeople. A constant adjustment, a tweaking, a slight alteration of course due to the weather in front of you, it is always necessary. You must keep your eyes and ears open to be aware of what needs changing. Look, Listen, and use the intelligence you have to modify your behavior to fit the situation. Choke up on the bat, watch the pitchers eyes, see how the defense if shifting to your left, keep your hands back....

Friday, May 4, 2012

The Darwinism

It's a contest and everything that implies, a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest. - Ty Cobb

You must continue to prove yourself every day. Never stop fighting, to win, to succeed, to be better than your competition. Always remember to strive to be the best and know that your competition is doing the same. To beat them you have to be better, smarter, work harder, try harder, react quicker, think faster, be creative, the better, be the best. To survive and to excel.


Thursday, May 3, 2012

Most games are lost, not won!

Most games are lost, not won! - Casey Stengel

How many times do we make a decision or take action when doing nothing would have been a better choice?

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Winning and Losing

No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference. ~Tommy Lasorda

In life there are situations beyond your control, deals you never have a fair chance at, and times where you miss your target. Even if you are the best at your job whatever it may be, sometimes you will fail. There are also the easy times, the "gimmes", situations so easy, so simple, situations dropped in your lap where you succeed. But the rest lies somewhere in between, and those make you who you are. They define you, as a salesman, as a husband or wife, as a father or mother, as a student or a teacher.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Commandments for Success

Ten Commandments for Success in Baseball
by Joe McCarthy (1949)

# Commandment
1. Nobody ever became a ballplayer by walking after a ball.
2. You will never become a .300 hitter unless you take the bat off your shoulder.
3. An outfielder who throws in back of a runner is locking the barn after the horse is stolen.
4. Keep your head up and you may not have to keep it down.
5. When you start to slide, slide. He who changes his mind may have to change a good leg for a bad one.
6. Do not alibi on bad hops. Anybody can field the good ones.
7. Always run them out. You never can tell.
8. Do not quit.
9. Do not fight too much with the umpires. You cannot expect them to be as perfect as you are.
10. A pitcher who hasn't control hasn't anything.

Old rules from 60+ years ago and they still apply to baseball today. The more things change, the more they stay the same and baseball remains a game of a round ball being hit by a round bat. How many of these commandments apply to everyday life...how many are a recipe for success in any endeavor?