Are You Playing to Win?

On tap today: Are you playing to win or just playing?

Good morning!Have you ever had to sell a product that was fundamentally flawed? And that was publicly acknowledged as flawed?My first job out of school I worked in Oakland, CA for a big computer company selling what were then considered small computer systems. (“Small" meaning they only took up the space of half a room and had about one millionth of the computing power of your iPhone.)One of the primary products we had the responsibility sell didn’t perform as specified. A group of unhappy users of that product across the country were running advertisements in the Wall Street Journal, which was religiously read by most of my prospects, soliciting other unhappy customers to join their class action lawsuit against my employer.That made prospecting fun. I’d call on a CEO. “Didn’t I just read about your company in today’s Journal?”What difficult sales situations have you experienced in your career? Drop me a note and let me know. I’ll share some of the most fun examples.Today in the Sales House:Live coaching hour #2 for this week. 11am PT/12pm MT/1pm CT/2pm ET. Members, check your Dashboard, or the #live_events channel on our Slack workspace, for login details. On yesterday’s call, we had strong participation from Australia.On Accelerate! Today:Episode #704 of Accelerate is now live. 7 Levers to Quickly Grow Your Business with my guest Pete Williams. Pete’s an entrepreneur, advisor, marketer, and author of the new book, Cadence: A Tale of Fast Business Growth. Click here to listen to this week’s show.Today’s Sales-Growth Quote:“When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.”- Dalai LamaAre you playing to win or just playing?Harvey Penick was a legendary golf coach from Austin and the teacher for many Hall of Fame golfers. (Full disclosure: I’m a lousy golfer.)The past weekend I heard an interview with one of his students, Hall of Fame golfer, Tom Kite.The interviewer asked Kite if Harvey Penick had focused on teaching the technical aspects of golf.Kite laughed and said no. Penick taught his golfers how to win.We need more of that in sales. More of teaching sellers how to win.In my work with sales teams I see a lot of focus on training methodologies and skills. The technical aspects of sales.Unfortunately I see very little emphasis placed on teaching the practical and tactical aspects of just winning.Yes, sales is about serving. But, ultimately, you can’t serve your buyer with your product or service if you first don’t win their business.I know a lot of well-trained sellers. And a much smaller number of consistent winners.You can have all the skills in the world and still not know how to win.Winning is about the art and craft of selling.It’s about the acquired nuances and learned strategies that spell the difference between winning and losing.Want to learn how to win?In The Sales House you get unlimited access to my SalesCraft™ Academy, where an expanding library of courses will teach you proven strategies and tactics that will help you win.In addition, I’ll personally help you develop your own winning strategies during our live sales coaching hours each week.In addition, members

get unlimited access to our private Sales House Slack-based community, where you’ll share and learn from the experiences of other members.Click here to get started.AndyLearn more about membership.