Building a Competitive Mind

Have I ever told you that I paddle in an outrigger canoe? See, I’ve always wanted to do something on the bay so I joined this club a few years ago. Since my travel schedule isn’t too hectic these days, I have decided to race with this group. Imagine that, me in competitive sports. This is new for me and I just raced in Berkeley this last weekend and was in the novice boat. We came in last place.

I didn’t think I was a competitive person but when I saw all the boats starting on time and watched them all get further and further ahead of me, something happened for me. I started blaming my steersperson for now motivating us enough, I blamed the rest of the team for not having enough power in the boat, I blamed the other boats who had better crews. The truth is that I wasn’t taking it as seriously and got sloppy.

Building a competitive mind takes practice, motivation and focus. Showing up is 50% of it but motivating yourself, preparing, learning the landscape, delivering more than expected, and not thinking about losing is the secret. When I talk with highly competitive salespeople, losing is not even an option.

I’m sure you are hearing lots about the R word- That stands for Recession. Are we officially in one? Have we been in one? Is it happening? Will it get worst? Regardless, it’s important to sell like you’ve never sold before. Get to know your competition and understand what your customers like about your competition. Check out Paul Cherry’s article on Encouraging Customers to Reconsider Existing Vendor Relationships and I’m very impressed with Paul McCord’s article titled, Recognizing Your Biggest Competitor.

Paul writes about the “omnipresent competitor” which is your prospect’s decision to do nothing because of either apathy or indecision. It’s so true that most sales are lost because of indecision than all other sales combined. Remember my favorite definition of salespeople is one where they help people buy. It’s your job to help someone decide to buy and to not confuse them, paralyze them, pressure them, forget about them into deciding to just “hold off” or “build it in-house” instead.