Do Your Salespeople Look Like Quarterbacks?

Fall is one of the best times of the year. With football getting back in full swing and being fortunate enough to live in a college town, it seems I can’t go anywhere without bumping into someone as excited as me about the upcoming football season.

This year we have a new coach who I believe has us going in a new and very exciting direction. He is trying to decide on a starting quarterback and I have been carefully trying to follow his process. (I doubt he’ll call and ask my opinion.)

So, with football heavily on my mind, I have been thinking about the similarities of a Quarterback and what a Coach looks for when choosing  his Starter and what we as Sales Managers should look for when choosing our Account Managers and Salespeople.

Besides physical abilities, the skills needed to be a First String Quarterback are very close to the skills that are required to be a Top Performing Account Manager and Salesperson.

A Quarterback must:

• Be able to influence teammates to believe in him and the team
• Have the intelligence to remember and execute all the plays in the playbook
• Be willing to put in the time to prepare for the season and each game
• Have the capacity to quickly adjust to changing circumstances during the game
• Have the mental toughness to handle both wins and losses (touchdowns and interceptions)
• Desire to over-deliver each and every game (not just be average)

As a Sales or Account Manager you can see that the skills of a Quarterback look very much like the skills needed to be successful in Sales.

A Salesperson must:

• Be able to influence customers to believe in them and what they are selling
• Have the intelligence to appropriately implement all of their sales tools as needed
• Be willing to put in the time to prepare for the week and each sales call
• Have the capacity to quickly adjust to changing circumstances in the sales process
• Have the mental toughness to handle both wins and losses (making the sale and getting rejected)
• Desire to over-deliver each and every day (not just be average)

I know I have over simplified the skills needed to be both a Quarterback and a Salesperson but the similarities are remarkable.

I doubt if many Quarterbacks will be reading this article but I don’t think it would take much convincing for a Quarterback to think of himself as Salesperson. Just watch TV this Sunday and see who’s in the Shaving commercials.

What may be the bigger challenge is to get our Account Managers and Salespeople to think of themselves as Quarterbacks.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you would like, please leave a comment below or you can email me at feedback@wewaonthenet.com.

You can also follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WE_Ward.

Now let’s get out there and over-deliver!

Go Tech!