How did a pair of goggles slow Michael Phelps down?
In 2016, when Michael Phelps announced his final retirement from competitive swimming, he was one of the most celebrated Olympic athletes of all time. At the end of his career, he had racked up a tally of 23 Olympic gold medals. The 2008 Beijing Olympics was unexpected in many ways, both for Phelps and the world watching it unfold. The Baltimore Bullet would win 8 golds, one for each event he swam for. But, the 200-meter Butterfly race would become the highlight of his career for a different reason.
Bling Bling, Beijing
Moments after diving in, Phelps had a big problem — his goggles started leaking. With every stroke, the goggles started letting in more water. Phelps knew he was going to eventually swim blind. Spoiler Alert: He won gold with a world record time of 1:52.03.
This was not a stroke of luck, as we would later learn that coach Bob Bowman had trained Phelps for this exact scenario. Talk about an unforeseen circumstance.
Contingency Plans
Salespeople oftentimes deal with sudden changes or unexpected objections which they must overcome by improvising on the spot. It's equal parts trusting what they know and the willingness to dive into uncertainty with unwavering focus on the goal — booking a meeting.
Including the wildest and most unlikely situations in your rehearsals while you prepare for cold calls is a good practice. Best case scenario — it might never happen. Worst case scenario — there is no worst case scenario.
Now, go turn every obstacle into an opportunity. And, don't forget to check your goggles before going for a swim.
"Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has those days." — Hannah Montana.
Let’s be honest. There’s no institutionalized education for salespeople. While that can be helpful in some ways, the lack of structure can be difficult when you’re starting out. Here's one of the common fumbles and how you can overcome it.
Listening > Talking. Shh. Trust us.
Sometimes it can feel that everything you do — the calls, the meetings, the emails — don’t shape into anything solid. That’s because you see all of it as transactional, instead of seeing the stages of your pipeline as stepping stones towards the sale. Remember, your prospect is the center of your entire sale. It’s not a sale if you dump all the information on them at once. Doing the right things at the right time will help lead them further down the?pipeline, and you need to know when the prospect is ready for that.
Think of everything you do in your pipeline as the bricks you’re laying for your prospect to walk into a sale, instead of a transaction by itself. As the master that’s orchestrating this, it’s important to listen to the prospect for cues and signs for when they’re ready for that next step and closer to closing.
领英推荐
This is an excerpt from our blog,?5 Rookie SDR Mistakes And How To Avoid Them.
It's time for a strategic timeout! Check out these tips, tools, and hacks while you prepare to swing for the fences.
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Thanks to Cooby for collaborating with us on this segment this week. Want to feature in our next edition? Get in touch at [email protected]!
Good Introductions, Great Impressions
Here's an example of one of the best, yet somewhat Shady introductions:
Unfortunately, this doesn't work on sales emails. So, here's one of our insightful blogs to help improve your introductions — 10 Unique Sales Email Introductions To Get More Replies
And…?Huddle Break!
It's time to get back into the game! We can't wait to huddle up with you in the next issue. Thank you for subscribing and including us in your timeout between sales.