Baseball is back! The season just got started, and we’ve already seen some wild and exciting games.
(Now, I know what you’re thinking. Here we go. Another blog with a sports analogy.
Well, you caught me. But stick around just a little longer.)
You see, baseball and sales have a lot in common. Both are driven by numbers, percentages and statistics.
And you can learn a lot of things by studying those numbers, even when it comes to things like success and failure, or rejection and recovery.
Let me show you what I am talking about.
What pitcher has won more games than any other pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball? Even if you didn’t know the answer for sure, you might hazard a lucky guess if you are any kind of a fan at all.
The answer is Cy Young, who won an astonishing 511 games between 1890 and 1911. Yep, that’s the guy whose name is on the award for the best pitcher in each league every year.
Now, this next question is a little trickier. What pitcher LOST more games than any other pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball?
(Drum roll…)
The answer is Cy Young! Between 1890 and 1911, the winningest pitcher in the history of baseball was also the loser a whopping 316 times!
And just to add insult to injury, he also gave up more hits than any other pitcher in history – 7,092 to be exact.
That brings up another record held by Cy Young – most runs given up: 2,147.
Okay, so where I am going with all of this? I am simply trying to point out that the most revered and honored pitcher in the history of baseball also holds all the records for being the biggest LOSER!
But in baseball, just like in sales or in life, even when you lose some, you still have a chance to recover and come out a winner.
Day in and day out, a sales rep’s biggest enemy is rejection.
Hey, you are in sales, not hypnosis or mind control!
Even with all the powerful, amazing and highly effective tools at your disposal these days, sometimes people still say no.
There will be calls – lots of them – in which you absolutely nail your presentation, tailoring every facet to perfectly match the needs and personality of the customer, and at the end he still says NO.
Maybe he actually says it very nicely, as in, “I really appreciate your offer, but I am just not ready to buy today. However, I will keep you in mind. Thanks for calling.”
Still, in the latest update for this customer in your database, this answer still grades out pretty much as “NO!” Rejection is one of the irreversible realities of sales.
Great research, great training, amazing state-of-the-art tools and a great presentation will give you the best possible edge for making a sale, but these things aren’t magic.
Remember, sales is a numbers game.
It is the sales manager’s job to crunch the numbers and tell their sales team that for every X number of calls they can reasonably expect to close X number of sales.
Let’s say the stats for your industry indicate that you can close 30 sales for every 100 calls. That means “only” getting rejected 70 times makes you a winner!
Strange but true, and very hard to get your brain around if you are a new sales rep.
So keep reminding yourself all day, every day, out loud that success isn’t about rejection. It is about perseverance and execution.
Everybody is going to hear a lot of “Nos.” That is normal, natural and to be expected.
Just step up, toe the rubber and make your next pitch.
Just to complete the analogy, perseverance and execution were the keys to Cy Young’s success, too. He holds a few more very telling records.
Most games started – 815
Most games finished – 749
Most innings pitched – 7,354 2/3
Most batters faced – 30,058
Once again, the numbers tell the rest of the story. Cy Young is the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball because he was dedicated to showing up for work everyday and doing his job with courage and excellence.
His career is a testimony to the truth of one of my favorite phrases, “If you don’t quit, you can’t lose.” If you can just get your mind around that, then rejection and failure can be reduced to nothing other than signposts along the road to a life of record-setting successes.
When you hit a rough patch, remember Cy Young, and keep on pitching. You will be a winner if you expect to win.
Baker Communications offers leading-edge sales training solutions for sales makers and sales managers that will help you address the goals and achieve the outcomes addressed in this article. For more information about how your organization can achieve immediate and lasting behavior change that will uncover new opportunities, drive revenue, and boost your bottom line, click here.
