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Guest post by: Joe Ippolito Become an Author

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Game Day. Whether it is tennis, football golf, or any sport, Game Day is the day to perform and win. In sales, Game Day is the moment when you interact with a prospect or client. It could be making an initial appointment, conducting a sales call, generating referrals, up-selling or cross-selling existing accounts. To maximize the chances for success, hours of preparation -- including training, coaching and practicing -- pay off.

On your sales team's Game Day, are they still practicing, or are they prepared to win? Do they "wing it" and rely on "personality"? As a sales leader, what type of practice and training do you conduct with your team as they prepare for Game Day?

Practice doesn't just revolve around pricing and account strategy. Practice is about fine-tuning the interpersonal dynamics of a sales call, which include the tactics, techniques, behavior and attitude it takes to push the sales process forward and win new business in today's competitive market.

For example, are your sales people trained to handle the "we're all set" response from their prospects? There are tried and true approaches to this statement. Are your people trained to use them? Have they been coached to develop the proper attitude and self-concept to understand that, most likely, their prospect truly isn't "all set"? Have they learned how to ask the right questions to help the prospect discover for themselves the reasons why they should talk to you? Are they grounded in the behaviors and beliefs that help them control the sales process?

This multi approach strategy demands a complex skill set that an individual develops with the proper training, coaching, and practice. As with any professional competitor, this must be supported by a system for ongoing improvement. Many times sales people will sabotage themselves with their own limited belief system and justify an "all set" with excuses about competition, price, product or service. Or they believe it is all just a numbers game. It's a common, comfortable and safe rut, but the result is the same: They get outsold. If you settle for that, it's game over.

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