Sales Madness: How Being a Sales Rep is Like Playing in the NCAA Tournament
Face-paced, heart-pounding, nerve-wracking, blood, sweat, and tears…
Yes, it’s that wonderful time of the year: March Madness. The NCAA committee has put together the list of 68 men’s college basketball teams invited to play for it all, and now we get to watch it go down on the big screen. (And Spiro users, who close on average 20% more sales with the help of our AI-Powered CRM, can afford to take some time off to enjoy the games.)
If you’re a salesperson, chances are you’re especially drawn to being caught up as to who makes it into the Sweet Sixteen. I tend to think that’s because being a sales rep is like playing in the NCAA Tournament. We like to call that Sales Madness.
Here are 8 similarities between life as a salesperson and March Madness:
1. There’s always an underdog.
Like all the other 16 seeds, South Dakota State has everything to prove. If you’re out there slinging a product that a bigger, more well established company is also peddling, then you can probably relate. You are the underdog. But, with drive, determination, and endurance, you and The Jackrabbits can outplay and out sell your way pretty far in the Big Dance.
2. You have to always be playing at the top of your game.
You never know when the deal will suddenly end and you get beat out by a competitor. If you slack off, the other guy will jump, get all your rebounds, and shut you out. If you show your weakness on the court, or in your sales pitch, your competition will be right behind you to step up and steal your deal.
3. The odds are against you.
Being invited to play in the NCAA tournament is a big deal. In 2016-2017 there were 351 schools playing Division I basketball, but only 68 teams are chosen to play in the tournament. And did you know that in sales, it takes about 8-12 attempts to even reach a prospect by phone? The odds are stacked against you even getting your foot in the door. But perseverance and hard work will pay off!
4. You may have outside factors throw you for a loop.
Players in the tournament travel around the US to unfamiliar courts with thousands of opposing fans rooting against them. It’s loud, it’s big, it’s overwhelming. Same in sales. You may be on the road to Idaho, and get there to find their internet is down and you have to wing your presentation to a roomful of people glaring at you. Don’t lose your cool under pressure. After all, you aren’t playing for a college scholarship.
5. Sometimes it comes down to the bitter end.
You have worked hard all year long on perfecting your pitch, have built rapport, worked the deal, and are feeling good that it will close. But then, things start looking down. The prospect is weighing other options and now it’s the eleventh hour at the end of Q4 and you really need to win this deal. Well, my friend, sometimes it a last second buzzer-beating basket that seals the deal. In sales, and in March Madness, it can all come down to a bitter, nail-biting end.
6. It’s all about playing as a team.
In sales, you can’t win deals if your product actually sucks and you have no marketing budget to help you find solid leads. The bottom line is that it takes effective team building to reach your sales goal. And basketball is no different. Even if you’re Kansas with the Big 12 Player of the Year, Frank Mason, starting for you, you can’t take home the tourney win without 4 other guys on the court playing their hearts out.
7. The unpredictability is a bit predictable.
There are times in sales that you just know it’s going to be stressful and a tad unpredictable. It’s the end of the quarter and you just aren’t sure if you will win that big deal. President’s Club is about to be announced and you worked hard, but will you be hitting the beach in Maui? And there is always at least one crazy upset in March – it’s guaranteed to happen, but a team that barely made it into the tournament all of a sudden has a chance to get into the second round. Sales, and March Madness, both have a predictable sense of unpredictability.
8. Not everyone is cut out for it.
Being in sales is tough. Playing hoops in front of an entire nation on live television is probably even tougher. Not everyone has the heart, sole or talent to be successful in sales, or on the court. It takes a special kind of person to want the highs and lows that come along with winning and losing. Do you have what it takes?
Good luck winning Sales Madness.
