Baseball, Sales & MFP's "What Do We Have in Common"?

Right, nine days later my Summer College baseball team on a 5 game winning streak, so what started at 0-6 went to 5-6. However in game 12, found us down 1-0 after 7 innings.   In the top of the 8th we busted out for three runs and took the lead 3-1.  I stayed put with my pitcher because he was getting ground balls and we were making the plays.  The the other team gets a hit, a walk, and we then proceed to make three errors in a row and allow them to tie the game. Our record is now 5-7, guess you figured out how that one ended up.

Errors are a part of the game and no team or player is perfect, it they where there would be no sense in the playing the game, right?

So, this is all to true with sales, everything is going along smooth until, oops, what the heck just happened?  Sales errors can come from talking too much, not listening enough, not knowing your product, publishing the wrong price on a proposal,  or you erred in a certain speed or feature or just trying to bs your way out of a direct question.

The nice thing about errors is that in most cases you can make up for them as long as you're upfront with your customer. Hey, it's a mistake and mistakes are made. You won't see me yelling at my guys during the game for making errors.  But, I will talk to them at the end of the game and tell them that the error was due to a mental mistake, maybe it was not enough concentration, not knowing what the speed the runners have, and not knowing the situation can all lead to mistakes on and off the field.

Over the years, and especially the last couple of years I find my self double and triple checking features, speeds, options, what an MFP can and can't do and also what can and can't be done with the embedded software or third party solutions.  I'm doing my home work and making sure that when we're ready to move forward with an order or a presentation that I won't make the error that could cost us the sale or the game.

The saying is that the game of baseball is 20% skills and 80% mental, dumb ass you gotta think when you're on the field. How true with sales, you gotta think, plan ahead, have what if scenarios.  When you're at the top of your game, it's smooth sailing ahead, when you're making mistakes or making the errors it's a long game or a very rough sales cycle.

So, after all my years I find myself spending more time dotting the i's, crossing the t's to make sure I'm not gonna screw it up in the ninth.  Still, every now and then I find a way to screw something up!!!

BTW, here's neat stuff I never know about "Take Me Out To the Ball Game".

Hope you enjoyed this!

-=Good Selling=-