What Sales People can learn from Baseball

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

What Sales People can learn from Baseball

As Major League Baseball Spring Training draws to a close and we get ready for opening day in April, I wanted to point out something these players share with sales people.

There have been various quotes on this topic throughout the years, but here's my take on this - Baseball is a sport where its players are considered exceptional by averaging a hit in only 3 out of every 10 at-bats (batting opportunities). This means that 7 out of every 10 times the batter fails to get a hit (unless we are talking about sacrifices – which are a very strategic part of the game and a whole different topic).

Also, the baseball league keeps very specific records for each batter - and they're even broken down by who the pitcher is, the type of pitch thrown, the number of outs, and the number of people currently on base.

There are a lot of similarities here that sales people can learn from baseball:

1. In the sales process, you're probably going to hear "no" more than you hear "yes". This is a very common sales statistic, and understand that every "no" is one step closer to a "yes".
2. Make sure you celebrate every "yes".
3. Track your progress throughout the sales process so you can establish your own batting average. Once you understand your average, you can attempt to improve it.
4. Try different approaches to the same situation (and track them) to see if you have better success.
5. You'll have multiple opportunities each day to further your sales efforts – pick yourself up after you strike-out and get ready for the next opportunity.

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Have a great sales week!

Comments

[Gail Keith]

Hey Mike - I totally connected with this. All business owners have to be sales people. And understanding that the batting average is more about determination and waiting until you have taken the complete 10 swings to run your stats is critical. To many times I see well meaning sales people quit just before they could hit that vein of gold.

Great blog! You have a new fan!