The Sales Swing

Happy 1st Day of Spring Training!  Who is excited?!?

Anyone who has followed the blog for any period of time is painfully aware that I'm a baseball fan.

I started playing softball at the age of four and have many fond memories. Similar to my passion for horses, I believe that the sport ties into lessons for my business and in my personal life. The importance of relying on a team, taking big goals and breaking them down step-by-step, how to play good defense as well good offense, how to swing for the fences but also know when to bunt, are just a few.

Today I want to share just one lesson from my baseball life: the sales swing.

Many entrepreneurs starting out in business try to provide a service for every client. But the reality is that we all have a perfect pitch: that place where we excel, execute on habits and mechanics of our strong swing, and hit a home run every time.

So how do we identify this pitch and look for nothing else?  How do we train our teams to look for their own pitches and understand that their pitch might not be the same, their swing might not look similar, and their batting average might be worse or better than the business owner?

 

1. Know what pitches you like.

What services or products turn you on in your business? Who are you passionate about working with? Identify your sweet spot with what service or product you are passionate about and could talk about or share all day AND who you love and enjoy sharing it with the most. This is your ideal pitch.

 

2.  Know how to identify when you perfect pitch is coming.

Look for where your ideal pitch person spends time, what things happen prior to them considering buying your service or product.

For example, let's say your ideal service is selling homeowner’s insurance.  You identify that you would like to help young females to protect their investment in their first home.   What is happening in this clients' life around the time they would consider buying their first home?  You may idenfity that this client may be spending time thinking about weddings, college graduations, post-graduate options, career advancements or other life events that may occur around the time she considers buying a house.

 

3. Refine and strengthen your swing.

This could mean working with a business coach or Mastermind group for accountability, to help you to not swinging at the wrong pitches, and help identify your perfect pitch. You can also set up a vision board with goals and steps to take (bases if you will) to get to your 'home run'. Keep at it, schedule time to reflect on what is working and what is not, and consider what you can do to tweak your swing to achieve your 'home run' result every time.

Swing for the fences and PLAY BALL!