In 2005, I read Dave Kurlan’s book Baseline Selling. Dave took the fundamentals of effective selling and used the baseball diamond and baseball terminology to explain his sales process. Baseball today is essentially the same game that was formalized in New York around 1840, but we know that selling has changed considerably. The baseball analogy is a strong one for developing a milestone-centric sales process with your team. Top producers always follow a consistent process, which is why their pipeline is not full of strikeouts. They are skilled at asking the right questions early in the game to determine if their suspect is truly a prospect, and they only advance them if they qualify to go to second base in the sales process. Here are a few additional tips to help your salespeople drive more home runs.
The Rules of the Game for Your Sales Team
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Take batting practice every day – Practice that first call, how to overcome objections, how to uncover the decision-making process. In other words, pre-call plan.
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Take what the pitcher gives you – Focus on the problem your prospect needs to solve and ask lots of questions. Leave your product briefcase and brochures in the car.
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Swing at YOUR pitch – Just like a batter faces lots of pitches and only a few are ones they can really connect with, you will face many prospects, but only work with those you can truly help.
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Take it base by base – When the 1st base coach is waving for you to keep going, go to second base. When you find out that your prospect has a “must-fix” problem, that doesn’t mean you should try to steal home. Go to second and make sure they have the money to fix the problem. Go to third to make sure they are committed to investing the time, money, or resources to fix the problem. Before you head for home, ensure you can score when you get there – and that means the prospect is committed to making a decision.
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Shake it off – In the first inning, you might strike out, hit into a double play, walk to first, get hit by a pitch, or get stranded on first. You have to shake all of that off because you have 8 more innings to play. Our sales evaluation calls this handling rejection. Anything can happen as long as you keep going and getting at-bats.
In the end, selling is not for the faint of heart, nor is coaching. You and your team will withstand lots of pressure, demands, prospects who are not completely honest with you, rejection, and competition. Follow a sales process, love the process, and the process will love you back.
