This is the time of year when fans of professional football go crazy with the frenzy of the playoffs and the anticipation of the Super Bowl. It’s not unlike those television commercial in which the characters can’t get the image of a roast beef sandwich out of their brains, only in this case, the image is a football.
Which is why, in a blog devoted to sales and sales management, it makes perfect sense to draw an analogy with the gridiron. So indulge me, if you will, as I consider the similarities of successful sales efforts to successful football teams.

Proper personnel

It all starts here. Your sales cycles will go nowhere if you don’t have the right personnel on the field. That includes the proper sales reps, who understand how to establish relationships, probe for needs, present solutions and address objections. It includes the proper pre-sales and/or support team members, who know how to address the technical requirements of the customer and provide backup to the sales rep. And it includes the right coaches/managers, who know how to execute the…

Proper game planning and and play calling

Even if you’ve got the most talented team on the field – or, in our case, in the field – they’ll be able to go nowhere without effective game plans and strategy. The right product or service solution may totally miss the mark if it’s improperly positioned. Or presented to the wrong individuals. Or if it doesn’t take into account the traps and blitzes set up by the competition. Good managers help make sales reps even more effective by providing the right solutions at the right price points with the right strategies at the right time in the sales cycle. And by helping direct things from the sidelines, which is how they also influence …

Proper pacing and signal calling

If you’ve got the right people at the line of scrimmage, with the right strategy and the right tactical approach, it’s also important to make the right moves at the right time. This means knowing how to “push back” effectively and appropriately, how to identify and address objections, and how to use trial closes and closing techniques effectively. All of which first requires …

Getting to the Red Zone

Except in the rare occasion of a “Hail Mary” sale, it’s much more common for most sales to be made after a well-planned, methodical drive, or sales cycle. That means moving through the process and down the field by identifying and addressing the impacts of the right decision makers, meeting their needs and helping them understand why your solution is best. Being in position, though, is simply the prerequisite for…

Scoring and Winning

It all ends here, of course. Even if you do everything else right, there are still the intangibles that can prevent you from winning when the final gun goes off. That’s why effective sales teams take nothing for granted and continue to think, analyze and strategize – enabling them to score – even when lesser competitors may take their eye off the ball.

Admittedly, I’m not the first person to compare sales and football, and I won’t be the last. Still, putting our day-to-day work in this type of context can help provide discipline and direction when we otherwise may be included to drift offsides.

So, are you ready for your “championship?”

Mike