Becoming a Pro at business Golf
Understanding the Similarities Between Selling and Golf
By Bill Storer
For this month, I would like to discuss some of the similarities between selling and golf.
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Golf |
Selling |
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Pre-Shot Routine |
Pre-Call Planning |
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Visualize the Shot |
Envision the Sales Call |
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Hazards & 0bstacles |
Overcome Objections |
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3 Foot Putt for Par |
Closing the Sale | | |
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1. Let's start with Planning: In selling it's known as pre-call planning and it is used by successful salespeople to do several things. Primarily, it is used to focus ones attention on the clients needs and interests and the solution story that you have to meet those needs. Planning also helps to think through the objectives and the strategies necessary to accomplish the specifics requested by the customer. Unfortunately, I still find many salespeople today who continue to make "Howdy" calls on customers and wonder why they are not seeing their productivity increase. The answer is that they are unprepared for the customers questions or objections and as a result they often walk out of the customers office without an order and even worse have created the wrong perception.
In golf, we call the planning stage the Pre Shot Routine. The point is still the same. To be successful in making a particular shot you can't make a "Howdy Call." You must think it through and focus your mind on the task ahead.
2. Envision the sales call: Good salespeople will always envision themselves making their next sales call. Often they will think back to the last time they met with this customer and what was the result. They might also recall the layout of the office and other details about how the day went. In their minds they will try to anticipate any questions the customer may have and how to answer them. Professional salespeople will also envision the customers personality or style and be able to successfully modify their behavior to meet the customers needs.
In golf it is called visualizing your shot. On the tee a professional will look down the fairway, look for a landing spot in anticipation of the next shot. They will rehearse the shot both in their mind and with their body before the real swing is made. Only when they feel comfortable will they stand over the ball and commit themselves to the shot.
3. Overcoming Objections: Salespeople are always facing customer objections. Some salespeople, because they haven't prepared for the customer contact, will fail to overcome those objections and will unnecessarily create the wrong perception in the customers mind. One method for overcoming questions is to anticipate them before the sales call is made. By knowing or anticipating a customers needs, the competitors weaknesses and the strengths of your company/product, a salesperson is armed with the differential advantages that can answer most customer objections.
Golf creates objections in the form of hazards and obstacles. The professional will do a risk assessment to determine their likelihood for success. Then a decision is made to move ahead based on the percentages. The professional also knows that for most of these obstacles they are confident with their choice because they have spent hours practicing. When you see a professional make the winning shot from deep in a fairway sand trap all of us should know that the professional has made that shot a thousand times in both his mind and in practice. To the professional it is just a part of his/her normal practice routine.
4. Closing the Sale: Perhaps the weakest point of most amateur salespeople is asking the customer to buy. Recently, I read a description of the word selling that appears to minimize the importance of being a good closer. "Selling is the ability to create an irresistibly compelling motivation on the part of the customer to act in the direction of the solution you are presenting." My feeling is that if this definition is not truly understood, one could assume that if a salesperson was good story teller they would be a good salesperson and closing would be just the result of telling a good story. I believe that a salesperson needs to have the right story for the right customer and can deliver the story with confidence during a time when the pressure is on.
Golf also has a Closing stage. That's when a professional under the tremendous pressure of winning or loosing a tournament, maintains their focus and sinks that three foot putt for par on the last hole to win by one stroke. Most amateurs in the game of golf won't make that three foot putt, because they don't know how to close.
In golf or selling, to increase your probabilities for success, it requires you to plan, visualize, stay focused, practice until you are confident and be able to close. This takes practice. Practice on that course which is six inches wide, the space between your ears.
