Football's Pitch Count and the Connection to the Sales Force

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan
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Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

Herm Edwards, currently of ESPN and formerly the Head Coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, was interviewed on WEEI, Boston's Sports Talk Radio station today. He said a couple of things that were quite compelling:

When asked about pro football players that get in trouble, like Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Edwards said he believes in the "12 O'Clock Rule - Nothing good can happen after 12 O'Clock so they have to know their pitch count." That's two simple metrics that lead to winning. Keep track of the time and the number of drinks. Applied to sales, can you name two metrics, that happen off the field, that can prevent ineffective performance?
When asked about tonight's NFL Draft, he said that 265 players will be drafted, 150 will make the opening day rosters, and about 25 of these rookies will be starters for the 32 Pro Teams. He said that all boils down to "coach them and mold them". How many sales managers take that approach with their new salespeople? Not enough. Most train their salespeople for a couple of days, throw them out in the field, set them up for failure, and don't understand why they don't perform.

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Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

About the Author: Dave Kurlan

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Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He 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 (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).
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