DID JAPAN BEAT IRELAND BY ACCIDENT?

IS SALES LIKE SPORT?

There are lots of sporting analogies that apply to sales. Interestingly in my humble view, they are used in motivation, not practice. Sales conferences bring out the sporting hero to WOW their sellers ahead of starting their annual slog to the goal. 

There's the glaring analogy - GOAL! Success in sport and sales is measured in the same language.

But how many lessons that sport can genuinely offer to sales, have stuck or do we attempt to implement for good.

What is an exciting sport to pick as an analogy to sales is rugby (other games available but ideally team sports). 

Why pick a team sport like rugby?

Like sales, there are many moving parts to the engagement; here are the points that make it relevant to sales.

1. It's a situation where there are more than one person on your team, some with specialized roles, others with functions close to your own.
2. There are recognized leaders in the field in your team but note not mangers. At any given time, anyone could be used to lead.
3. There are times when an individual has to give an outstanding performance.
4. Management creates the environment for success and helps coach, prepare, and care for their team ahead of the big event.
5. The "opponents" have many moving parts and roles, and it's not easy to understand that or best to engage. They often won't help you in the process and could activity make it harder for your team.
6. The margins between success and failure are fine.
7. Wellbeing, both physically and mentality are key.
8. Preparation is critical.
9. Roll playing and scenario planning are critical. The one certainty is that with so many people involved things will not go as planned; plays rehearsed will not go to expectation. People will alter course and direction and not necessarily respond as you hoped.
10. Management is there to do the logistics and a lot of "watering and feeding" but are more effective as a coaching team. COACHING is about mental attitude and location, skill enhancement, development of potential, alignment to team objectives, and focus on motivating team and individual performance.

In returning to the question - Did Japan get lucky against Ireland?

I would argue the answer is no. Japan beat South Africa in 2015 in Brighton, so we should not be surprised.

So how did they do it?

1. They prepared well for the engagement and did their homework on their opposite numbers, which is the sales context could be procurement or opposition in the sporting context.
2. They have been practicing for a long time, so they were fit and ready for the encounter. Japan didn't play a competitive game every day, but they trained and replicated the environment for one. (As sellers, how many times do we plan and prepare for and practice a sales meeting? How much role-play, reflection, and anticipation do we employ?)
3. They arranged for multiple responses to their actions. Japan could adapt to the reactions of their opposition. There were no assumptions or programmed what happened in front of them, which is the sales context has the emotional intelligence to change course and conversation based on the flow of the customer. World-class sellers can respond to how their customers behave and engage sympathetically to the prospect persona, and they don't just have one "play" or process.
4. They played as a team and used all the experience of the team to win. Selling is implicitly, if not explicitly, a solo activity, with a sporting analogy often aligned more closely to athletics, but its the supporting network (or wider team) e.g., pre-sales, specialists, operations, delivery, finance and legal that helps win the order. So selling is a team sport, and successful sellers motivate the team around them towards the shared goal.
5. The Japanese management team coached their players; they didn't manage them. They coached for success at the individual level working on;-
6. Mindset (including decision making under pressure).
7. skillset
8. health 
9. fitness
10. energy
11. communication skills

HERE'S THE INTERESTING CONCEPT THEY COACHED INDIVIDUAL & TEAM SUCCESS. THEY WANT EVERY PLAYER (READ SELLER) TO HIT THEIR INDIVIDUAL GOALS AND IN DOING SO HIT THE TEAM & MANAGEMENT GOAL.

There is evidence that if managers coached each individual properly, they would achieve the goal by every seller hitting theirs. The practice of over targetting would disappear, the culture would be very positive, so mental stress would reduce as much as earnings would increase. 

Sellers would stay with their employers longer, and hence client relationships would improve, and the cost of sales would reduce.

So, where does it go wrong for sales when we consider the traits of success as outlined above. 

The pressures of the business mean leaders revert to type and manage and inspect. Consequently, they take ownership of outcomes away from their sellers, as opposed to coaching for success and leaving property of actions with their teams. 

Managers don't run on a pitch to make a tackle!

As a sales professional, would you reflect on this sporting analogy and work harder to embed in your business? Please do let us know.