The Secret To McGregor's Recent Success (and why it's important to sales)

This weekend Conor McGregor, one of the world's most famous sports stars, made a comeback to the UFC after 15 months out of the sport and following a huge loss.

Coming into this fight, A LOT was against him.

Yet he did what not many expected him to do, he came back and (SPOILER ALERT)...

He won!

Now there is one thing that I believe was KEY to this success.

Understanding this one particular thing has the potential to help salespeople maximize their potential. Understanding and focusing on this particular thing could be the key to selling more in 2020.

First, though, I want to quickly run through what Conor McGregor was facing in the lead up to UFC 246...

1) He hadn't had a fight (or trained properly) in over a year

Conor was coming back after a huge break, and even worse, during that break, he hadn't been training properly at all after falling out with his training team.

Imagine taking a year and a half away from sales, and then coming back to make your first cold call or pitch your first deal? Most of us have trouble after just taking 2 weeks off for holiday.

2) He lost his last fight, BADLY

Nearly a year and a half ago Conor lost a fight badly. His fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov couldn't have gone any worse. Not only did Khabib dominate him in every single way, winning the right with ease, but after the fight had ended both teams brawled in the Octagon (ring) showing a severe lack of sportsmanship and resulting in huge fines and bans.

When a salesperson loses a sale, has a bad month or is struggling, it can be hard to push past that and keep going.

3) He's made money, A LOT of money

Conor has come from nothing, literally from having nothing in his bank account to having hundreds of millions. The drive that he had rising up the UFC ranks to get to the top had gone, he had made it to the top, he had made the money, and so a lot of his motivation had gone.

When salespeople have a good month, get a good bonus or earn a good salary, they don't often have the same drive as someone who is really trying to make money.

4) He is now juggling a lot of other priorities

Again back when Conor was rising up the UFC ranks, he was ONLY fighting. That was it, 100% of his energy was in his fighting. Now, however, he is running a hugely successful whiskey business, a huge social media business, clothing line and a host of other businesses as well. Fighting was no longer his priority, it no longer had his full focus.

You see this in sales when salespeople are asked to juggle too many non-sales activities. It results in their focus being taken away from actually selling, often having a big impact on their results.

That's a lot for anyone to deal with.

Imagine facing all of those problems at the same time and wanting to come back and be successful again? It was a near-impossible task, so what did he do?

He realized what was key to overcoming all of those things...

MINDSET.

He realized that if he wanted to overcome all of those challenges and to be able to achieve success after all of that, he needed to overcome it all in his mind.

He had to have the right mindset to win.

So what did he do? He hired THE BEST mindset coach in the world, the one, and only Tony Robbins.

I didn't know that Conor was working with him, it was only when I saw Tony Robbins come into the Octagon after he won (alongside Conor's wife), to congratulate him, that I realized what he had done.

Now let's take a quick moment first to just appreciate HOW expensive this would have been.

Tony Robbins is the best and is so far ahead of his competition it's insane. He hasn't built up a $500 million fortune from being affordable. At a recent event, Tony was paid $1,000,000 just to speak at the event.

Imagine what Conor must have paid to have him as part of his whole fight camp in the build-up to this fight?

A huge cost, or a smart investment?

McGregor is rumored to have made well in excess of $50 million from this fight, and the win will open the doors to potentially over $250 million in future earnings securing potential fights with Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Khabib and more.

Given the huge importance and value in mindset, why is it often overlooked in sales?

Salespeople face many of the same challenges that Conor faced leading up to this fight, yet very few do anything about it. Worse yet, very few sales leaders support their team to overcome those challenges.

Looking back at the challenges McGregor faced, let's look at how a lot of Sales Managers and salespeople deal with similar ones:

Conor hadn't trained properly in over a year...

When was the last time you trained or hired someone to train your sales team? Some sales teams go years without any proper training and then their managers wonder why they're not achieving the results they want them to.

SOLUTION: Sales training is an ongoing thing, not something that you do during their first week in the role, but each and every year. Athletes train every single day, and salespeople should be training on a regular basis to be the best they can be.

Conor lost his last fight badly...

What happens in sales if you miss target or lose a sale? More often than not your sales manager just puts MORE pressure on you. They make you feel bad for not hitting your target, sometimes even threaten you with your job to turn it around.

SOLUTION: Support your team's failures and challenges. Work WITH them to learn from mistakes, bounce back from loss and grow within their roles. Coach your sales team, mentor them, provide them with the support, environment and tools to help them get past losses and challenges.

Conor made a lot of money...

There are a lot of salespeople earning a very good salary which can sometimes remove the drive to go out and sell. There are also salespeople who have a good month or earn a good bonus, and then struggle to sell with the same drive they had before.

SOLUTION: Apart from looking at your salary and commission structure, it's worth looking at how you coach and mentor your sales reps. Regular goal setting can help keep salespeople looking at what they want to achieve each month, tapping into the drive required to achieve success consistently.

Conor was juggling a lot of priorities...

Some salespeople have to juggle a lot in their roles, and a lot of time most of it is not actually a good use of their time. The more you juggle, the less time and focus you give to selling.

SOLUTION: There are so many software solutions out there now for salespeople that take away a lot of those menial tasks, allowing the reps to focus more of their time on selling. Tools such as Outreach, VanillaSoft, Bloobirds and more help salespeople focus so much more of their time on selling.

Let's stop overlooking the importance of mindset in sales...

Sales is tough!

We face challenges each and every day, and if we can start to focus more on our mindset, and if sales leaders can focus more on their team's mindset, perhaps we can all achieve more success in 2020 :)

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog! If you enjoyed this post please click LIKE and click SHARE to share it with your network. If you enjoyed it please do take time to read some of my other recent posts:

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Is Like Going To The The Gym...

Just Pick Up The Phone and Call!

The ABC Of Social Selling

The Modern-Day Sales Prospecting Stack

The 10 Things That Will NEVER Change In Sales

About the author: 

Daniel Disney is one of the world's leading Sales, Social Selling and LinkedIn experts and is the author of the #1 Amazon Best Selling book, "The Million-Pound LinkedIn Message".

Daniel is also a highly in-demand international keynote sales speaker, is the UK's leading sales blogger and is also the Founder and Owner of LinkedIn's most popular sales publication, The Daily Sales. With a global audience of over 500,000+ followers and growing by thousands each week, his content reaches millions of salespeople far and wide.

To inquire about Daniel keynoting or speaking at your company or event, or to find out more about his 1-day and online LinkedIn/Social Selling Masterclass please email [email protected].