How Sales is Like Super Mario

Here is a free tip for new sales managers and aspiring sales leaders…get really good at analogies, they will become your friend. I learned this best from my former boss and friend with the Miami Dolphins, Dave Baldwin. Dave is one of the focal reasons behind why I love to teach sport sales so much. He has a gift for connecting the most basic of sales concepts to a parallel that was fun, entertaining and most importantly triggered an “a-ha-moment.” Analogies have become vital in the way I now educate sales professionals. To me, it makes the process much more enjoyable. My analogies tend to take on a “corny” nature and when it comes to corniness, I leave no kernel unturned.

To the surprise of some, top sellers do not have access to a silver bullet, magic bean, or Michael’s Secret Stuff that helps separate them from the rest. No. In fact, what top sellers do best is take their prospects through the buying cycle both more efficiently and confidently. Even if this means they are landing on a NO. One way that they achieve efficiency and confidence… they channel their inner Super Mario.

Commitment + Patience = Mastery

It is common for young sales professionals to begin their career in a sales role and expect instant success. In fact, I felt that way when I was just starting out in Inside Sales with the Pittsburgh Pirates. My thought was that I would go through training, apply it and be successful…sweet plan huh? The true reality was that more often than not my prospects were: a) kicking my teeth in; b) making me feel awkward; c) throwing me for a massive loop (telling me one thing and doing another). Eventually it dawned on me that these occurrences/feelings were completely ordinary and to be expected. The secret in avoiding these feelings wasn’t to have the magic bean but to desensitize myself to vulnerability—I had to embrace my inner Super Mario.

In his New York Times Bestseller, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell discusses what we know to be the 10,000-hour rule. The premise of this rule is that it will take 10,000-hours for one to be deemed an expert in a particular craft (i.e. master chess player, sudoku puzzle solver or jump roper). When broken down, 10,000 hours is the equivalent to 40 hours a week, by 50 weeks a year, by 5 years. That is the level of commitment it will take to achieve mastery in your discipline. Many sales professionals however will decide whether selling is for them just 3-6 months in to their career. This is just about 5%-10% of the way to expert status. Now compare this to our friend Mario. If Mario were to quit his expedition just a fraction of the way through, Princess Peach would have no hope in being rescued.

Act, Adapt, React, Readapt

The key to winning in Mario is rather simple. You must die, die and die again. It is extremely rare to beat any level in the game the first time you play it. There is a plethora of reasons behind this—you may miss a jump, land on a spike or get rolled over by a boulder. Eventually you will begin to see patterns and adjust accordingly because you are keen on how to react. This continues until of course you are victorious in the level you are on. Then guess what? New level—you die a bunch more—get frustrated—throw your controller—react—adapt again—figure things out—and win again! That is Super Mario for you in a nut-shell…and yes, it is also sales 101 for you.

In our pursuit of 10,000 hours there is a lot of failure, learning, failure again and learning again. Instead of bad jumps, spiky things and boulders running you down—it’s hang-ups, awkward silences and objections. These are just the rules to our game. To beat a game like Super Mario it comes down to one precious element…time. Succeeding in sales is the exact same if we are able to learn from our mistakes.

Changing the Course

It would be silly to fall to our demise the exact same way while expecting a different result each time. Although, if we truly examine ourselves we may find ourselves guilty of just that in our sales approach…

• We notice prospects say they are busy and to call back after we ask, _“how are you doing?”  _Yet we continue to ask this question in our introduction to prospects.
• We react to going to a more affordable offering time and time again as soon as the customer objects our initial offering.
• We refrain from asking for a new type of referral if we are unsuccessful the first time.

Therefore, we continue dying in the same way over and over again. The silver lining… we can put an end to this here and now. Instead try the following:

1) Audit Yourself- Reflect on your day. Realize what went right as well as what went wrong and what could have been done differently. Record your thoughts and apply change.

2) Try Something New- Sales is fun if you let it be fun. Experiment with things, challenge yourself, stretch your comfort zones. When trying new techniques or approaches, be sure to give yourself enough of a sample size testing ground to measure your results.

3) Detach Yourself Emotionally- So often as sellers we try and think for the customer based off of their tone and response time. Trust yourself as the expert and trust your true intentions (which should be to help the customer). If you try something that doesn’t stick…laugh it off and move on.

4) Try Again- Pick up the phone and do better the next time. Failure and missteps are how we learn and grow in our profession. It is these lessons that enable us to improve our craft while giving us the context to teach others.

As sales professionals we can all take something away from our friend Super Mario. We will face obstacles early, we will face obstacles often, along the way there will be many moments of gratification and like the game (with the right mindset) selling is rated E—for everyone!

Buona fortuna là fuori (Good luck out there)!

ARV

Adam Vogel is the Senior Director of Training and Development with Sports Business Solutions. For more than five campaigns Adam led successful Inside Sales programs with the New York Mets and Miami Dolphins; directly over-seeing the promotion of 68 sales representatives in to Senior Sales or Services roles in the sport industry. Adam also served as a top revenue producer with the Pittsburgh Pirates as well as spent time with the Houston Astros. For more information on the services Adam can provide for your sales culture, e-mail him today at[email protected]. Thank you for reading!