Every two years, somewhere in the world we hear the famous words “let the games begin” which signals the start of either the Summer or Winter Olympics, right?
Recently, I was working with a group of sales training professionals and one of those participating in the on-line discussion was a very successful 35 year old business owner from Seattle.
If you have ever managed a professional sales staff, you know it can be a lot like herding cats! By nature, sales professional have to have a certain degree of street smarts as they need to adapt to their prospective clients. Street smarts basically means you must always begin with the end in mind ( the sale) but how you get there may reqiure a certain degree gamesmanship!
I asked this very successful 35 year old how he keeps his sales staff from playing games with him, their sales manager. Here is what he said “It’s simple. They all know the game and that with me,there are no games played”!
I used that method myself just last week and let me just say that it led to some interesting discussions as well as some new understandings within the sales staff that I’m currently involved with.
Save the games for the Olympics- not for your sales manager!
Sandbox Rule #18: Don’t be playing your own games in the sandbox.