Free sales training? Watch Curling!

I was on LinkedIn last week and I posted a question regarding how to effectively communicate with individuals outside of your generation. I received numerous comments but one response caught my eye. Jeff Howery (Direct Sales Manager @ Toyota Sunnyvale) said the key to his success was his ability to recognize what makes different generations tick. He also gave a great deal of credit to his children for teaching him how to relate to the younger population. Needless to say, Jeff was definitely a continuous learner!

Fascinated by Jeff's point of view, I wanted to thank him for his feedback. I sent Jeff a message on LinkedIn letting him know how much I appreciated his thoughts and how I feel that continuous learning is contagious!

Jeff responded yesterday and ended up giving me one of the best sales "visuals" I have ever received...so I wanted to share it with you!

Jeff said that if you want to learn a few sales strategies...watch Curling!

What is Curling?

In Curling one teammate begins to slide a granite stone down the ice in the direction of the house ( a giant bullseye ). The sport can be compared to shuffleboard on ice! Once the "rock" is sliding down the ice it cannot be touched. The way the team controls it's direction is by sweeping the ice in front of it. The "rock" is ultimately sliding under its own power but it is the job of the sweepers to create clear the path in front of the stone so it arrives at it's desired location. That visual brings us back to the 'ol saying...

"People don't want to be sold...but they love to buy!"

Like in curling, successful sales professional recognize that the goal is not to control the customer but to tailor the path to lead the customer to THEIR desired results!

Our desire in sales is to create an atmosphere that when a sale is final, the customer feels that they arrived to that point on their own volition!

A client that buys will be around forever...but it is only a matter of time before a client, that is "sold", decides to go somewhere else!


Are you focused on creating a path that helps your customers buy?

Thanks for the great feedback Jeff!