David Mattson’s list of core concepts for selling starts with Core Concept #1: “You have to learn to fail to win.” The main idea of this concept is that failing is actually a great stepping stone to success. Failure in sales is inevitable. There is no way you will get to close the deal every single time, but that’s okay! Failure can help us learn, and every sales call or experience is an opportunity to get better. The important thing to remember as a salesperson is that you are not defined by your sales success. This is where Mattson’s idea of “real you” vs. “role you” comes in. The key aspect of the idea is that you must separate the real you (personal identity) from the role you (salesperson).
Now you may be asking, “how does this apply to sports? We’re talking about sales here.” This is true. However, think about how much failure is involved in sports. If you are an athlete like me, I am sure you know how it feels to take those failures in practice or in the game to heart. You can start to base your self-worth on your performance in your sport more than anything else. Personally, I struggle to separate the “real me” from the “role me” (athlete). I’ll be honest, I am still learning to fail to win. I know that every swing I miss or ball I fumble helps my brain calculate what to do differently next time, but man…it stinks. As I continue to improve, though, my self-esteem (within the scope of softball) increases. The same thing will happen in a sales environment. The more practice (and failures) you have, the more educated and confident of a salesperson you’ll become.
Who knew there was such a strong connection between sports and sales?
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This is relatable to me as a baseball player here at Grove City. You need to have that next pitch mentality, whether on the mound or in the box. You also need to be able to separate the player you from the person you. Doing this will allow peace of mind outside of your games and let you reset for the following game or practice. Great way of relating sales and sports!
Hey Sydney, I love how you connected Sandler’s rule to sports. Professor English is always telling us the best thing for us to do as young people is to “fail fast.” This way, like you said, we can better calculate what to do next time!
Great post! As an athlete I can 100% say that sales and sports go together because of failure like you mentioned. There is so much failure in sports. As a football player there have been many times where I’ve dropped a pass I should has caught and its so easy to get in your head about what the coaches think and get down on yourself. But it’s important to remember that each experience good or bad can spark growth. And this applies to sales 100%!