8 Ways to Translate Tiger Woods' Experiences into Sales Success
8 Ways to Translate Tiger Woods' Experiences into Sales Success
When Tiger was a small boy, his father, Earl, took a very structured approach with Tiger. He would simply say, "There's trouble left and trouble right - where do you want your ball to land?" Tiger would tell him where the ball should land, Earl would tell him to hit it there and Tiger hit it there. I imagine they must have repeated that process thousands and thousands of times. Today, regardless of his previous shot, the lie, the trouble or the odds, Tiger simply asks himself, "where do I want the ball to land?" and he hits it there. Easy.
It is this combination of mental and physical preparation that has made Tiger the greatest golfer of our era and perhaps any era. As the money list shows, even while missing half of last year, Tiger out earned his closest rival by two to one.
So how can you model Tiger Woods' experiences and translate them into sales success?
1. Foundation - professional training/coaching - all of the golf pros not only started with a coach, they all continue to be coached. Sales is no different. My clients continue to learn lessons and nuances well into their fifth year of sales coaching!
2. Practice - professional golfers spend entire days at the range and on the putting green to sharpen and perfect their games. If they can do that, then certainly you can spend a half hour each day practicing.
3. Execute - for professional golfers it is all about executing each shot. For you that means executing each question - having and knowing the questions, when to ask them, how to ask them, inspecting the answers and asking follow up questions. It means identifying those compelling reasons to buy from you - now - to take action. It means qualifying your opportunities and making compelling presentations that are both needs and cost appropriate. And it means flawlessly and patiently closing.
4. Review - like all pro athletes, you must review - debrief - each sales call to identify what you did right and what you did wrong - and correct it - so you can execute on the next call.
5. Set Expectations - as in pro sports, your goals change from year to year. With all pro athletes, the goals get bigger each year because their capabilities improve each year. It should be the same for you! How can you measure whether you are getting better at selling or if you are simply continuing to do what you learned your first two years?
6. Accountability - The great Bobby Jones once called a penalty shot on himself - the ultimate in accountability. For you it means no more excuses, no pointing fingers, no blaming the economy, no blaming your pricing, etc. It's about taking responsibility for not being effective enough when you don't get the business.
7. Endorsements - Tiger made something like $7 million playing golf and over $100 million in endorsements last year. You can earn endorsement money too by getting your customers and clients to endorse you! Testimonials, introductions, referrals, and events. Turn your customers and clients into evangelists!
8. Advice Columns - Most of the top pro golfers write advice columns for magazines, web sites and blogs. You can do that too. Be a source of expertise, information and resources in your industry.
8 Ways to Translate Tiger Woods Experiences into Sales Success - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Kurlan's Website.
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I was reading an article about Tiger Woods in Golf Digest . The article explored whether Tiger would be better or worse after he returned from surgery and rehabilitation on his knee. It went on to detail how effectively he played while injured and in great pain, and how much potential he had to be even better when he could move weight to his left leg. It also went on to describe his many potential distractions. Finally, I read a part of the article that talked about how prepared Tiger is for adversity.
When Tiger was a small boy, his father, Earl, took a very structured approach with Tiger. He would simply say, "There's trouble left and trouble right - where do you want your ball to land?" Tiger would tell him where the ball should land, Earl would tell him to hit it there and Tiger hit it there. I imagine they must have repeated that process thousands and thousands of times. Today, regardless of his previous shot, the lie, the trouble or the odds, Tiger simply asks himself, "where do I want the ball to land?" and he hits it there. Easy.
It is this combination of mental and physical preparation that has made Tiger the greatest golfer of our era and perhaps any era. As the money list shows, even while missing half of last year, Tiger out earned his closest rival by two to one.
So how can you model Tiger Woods' experiences and translate them into sales success?
1. Foundation - professional training/coaching - all of the golf pros not only started with a coach, they all continue to be coached. Sales is no different. My clients continue to learn lessons and nuances well into their fifth year of sales coaching!
2. Practice - professional golfers spend entire days at the range and on the putting green to sharpen and perfect their games. If they can do that, then certainly you can spend a half hour each day practicing.
3. Execute - for professional golfers it is all about executing each shot. For you that means executing each question - having and knowing the questions, when to ask them, how to ask them, inspecting the answers and asking follow up questions. It means identifying those compelling reasons to buy from you - now - to take action. It means qualifying your opportunities and making compelling presentations that are both needs and cost appropriate. And it means flawlessly and patiently closing.
4. Review - like all pro athletes, you must review - debrief - each sales call to identify what you did right and what you did wrong - and correct it - so you can execute on the next call.
5. Set Expectations - as in pro sports, your goals change from year to year. With all pro athletes, the goals get bigger each year because their capabilities improve each year. It should be the same for you! How can you measure whether you are getting better at selling or if you are simply continuing to do what you learned your first two years?
6. Accountability - The great Bobby Jones once called a penalty shot on himself - the ultimate in accountability. For you it means no more excuses, no pointing fingers, no blaming the economy, no blaming your pricing, etc. It's about taking responsibility for not being effective enough when you don't get the business.
7. Endorsements - Tiger made something like $7 million playing golf and over $100 million in endorsements last year. You can earn endorsement money too by getting your customers and clients to endorse you! Testimonials, introductions, referrals, and events. Turn your customers and clients into evangelists!
8. Advice Columns - Most of the top pro golfers write advice columns for magazines, web sites and blogs. You can do that too. Be a source of expertise, information and resources in your industry.
8 Ways to Translate Tiger Woods Experiences into Sales Success - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Kurlan's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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