How Sales is like a Football Game

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Welcome back to this week's edition of Inbound Sales Journey. Your host, Ryan Herman, and this is Gray Mackenzie. We are here with you this week following up the episode we did last week talking about how to use metaphors and analogies and similes. We got into all of them with technical definitions. Just kidding. We did not give technical definitions.

My third grade teacher would be very proud.

Yeah, pretty much glazed over those. Um, but why, why those tools are important and how they can be used in sales and gave a couple examples. So this week we're coming back. I have another metaphor that I wanted to bring to the table and I've got a couple questions for Ryan. And so here's essentially the metaphor for you. Sales is like a football game. And we're going to say American football to clarify here, to hopefully help us out with the analogy. But ultimately, it's like pretty much any, you can draw the analogy between a lot of different sports and sales here. But the general idea is there's a, there's a whole lot of ways that we could get into this and somebody could really write a long post about why these things are exactly like this. You've got the pre game talk ahead of time, which is your crunch time pre call ritual and how you get prepped for the call. That's the strategy session you do during the week. Ryan and I talked about that crunch time ritual two episodes ago here in episode 108. So you can go back and listen to that one and then you've got the kickoff and how well you connect and build rapport during the early portion of that sales call that sets the momentum and sets the tone for the rest of the game. So that's like that kickoff in that first drive. And there's certainly going to be times during the sales process. There's going to be some ebbs and flows sometimes where you give up a big play and then you come back and gain ground and there's, there's always some back and forth. You win some, you lose some. A common sales expression, slash expression for anything in life that happens in, in football as well. Or any sport, unless you happen to go undefeated, which is not ever really happen. But. But anyways, I want to talk about kind of the. So there's a whole bunch of different metaphors to be made here and ways to draw this out. But, Ryan, the question that I had for you was around, how do you know what are the cues that the other team, the prospect gives you during a game, AKA the sales call, for you to know whether you need to let off and play more conservatively or be more aggressive and kind of go right at the prospect? What are the things that let you know what basically what play you're calling? How do you. I guess. How do you know when are the times that you press in really hard and you get aggressive on a sales call? Let's start there.

Press in and get aggressive two times. For me, one would be, if I'm being honest, sometimes when I'm frustrated and things are really, like, dragging on, and I kind of just want to understand, like, are you a real prospect or are we just, like, wasting more and more time? So if we've gone through a couple calls or, you know, I. For me, it's. It's all kind of the same. But I sell most of the sales for do inbound on the software side and then with Guava Box. And there's a lot of similarities, no matter what you're kind of selling there. But, yeah, I think, like, if I feel like time's being wasted, that's one area. Now the other area is the much. Really, honestly, the much more common area, because I feel like I've been pretty lucky with people not wasting too much of my time. And the only way that you really know it and when you're new at sales, this is really difficult and something that you need to master. And I think we did a episode actually maybe in like, season three or four on this. The concept of mini closes, those are my cues to when I know when it's time just to. To call the. The Hail Mary, I guess, if you will. So what I mean by that is throughout the entire sales process, I was.

Gonna go field goal, by the way, for the mini closes. Those are your little scoring drives.

No, no, the. Well, I was gonna make an analogy for the mini closes. The Hail Mary's the. When I'm getting aggressive.

Oh, I got you now. I'm working with you now, so I'll let you carry on with your first down analogy here.

Right. So the mini closes are when you're gaining yardage on the field or I guess when you're kicking field goals. But those are. Yeah, I guess field goals is a great analogy for those. So those are kind of the small wins. Basically, what it comes down to is you should have a pretty good idea towards the end of your sales calls whether they're going to say yes or no. And if you don't, that's probably an indication that you're not using the concept of many closes to really the way that you should be. And frankly, that's what I think separates really good salespeople from people who aren't as good at sales is if you aren't asking the right questions and listening. Well, to have. And having people give you verbal yeses along the way in the sales process. And you're. I mean, I can't even imagine trying to ask for, like, all right, so are we gonna. You know, is this gonna happen or not? If I haven't had any sort of, like, yes, this is the right fit. I mean, there's so many. And it's hard for me to say specifically because everyone kind of has a different style. But it. You should be pretty well figured out with this, with the prospect by the time you're going for the. The hail Mary, Whether or not they're going to say yes or no. I'm pretty confident in it.

Yeah, there's no way you're gonna win if you're not putting points on the board the whole time, I think, is what you're trying to.

Bunch of field goals.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. How do you. What are the things that happen in a sales process when you know when to kind of sit back, I guess, play the prevent defense and let the prospect either keep talking or keep pushing, and you become more conservative. Does that question make any sense?

I think so. So sitting back and letting people keep talking is something I do as much as possible, honestly. And the reason is, is because, like, the more that people are talking, like, the better they view the call is going. It seems like, like, the more people talk about themselves, about their company and about all that stuff, like, they. Like everyone likes to talk and have people listen to them and, like, agree that, you know, whatever they're saying is valid. So from that perspective, like, I really like being a good listener is super important. Just from being good at sales. I don't really have a super passive sales style. Not that I'm like, a very aggressive person in the sense of, like, oh, he's like, rushing me into this. But I think that I have more of a style of directness. And this comes back a little bit to the personality episode where we did where I'm bull tiger, which means that I just, like, I can get excited and, like, really like chatting, but I also, like, I'm usually always doing it with a. With a purpose.

Right.

Versus someone who's, like, really analytical and wants to talk through everything like that. Sometimes that I don't connect as well with people like that because I get impatient. And that's where I said in the beginning where I get a little bit more, like, frustrated. Yeah, frustrated and aggressive is just like, that's sometimes when I feel like time's being wasted.

Yeah, sometimes. I was just gonna say sometimes where I sit back and kind of go into the prevent defense or basically just don't give up. Don't give up the big play. Lull them to sleep. These are all metaphorical, of course, is when somebody comes in very aggressive towards the company or towards our process or something. So when someone pushes hard into, typically it's not because of anything that you've done or anything that they've seen or any reason. It's just, like, frustration or aggression. Typically, there's a backstory where they've been hurt before. So if they push into, why is your team all remote? Why aren't you guys all together in person? Like, is that because you're not profit? Like, I've had prospects get really aggressive. Not really, but, like, relatively aggressive for a simple sales call. Right towards, well, why haven't you guys done this? Or why haven't you done that? And those are situations where I think my read now, my initial read in the beginning was, I need to match them. If they're getting aggressive, I get aggressive right back at them. And my read now is completely different, where I kind of sit back and just try and keep asking questions until we get to, well, why would that be a problem? Like what? What? I guess just a little bit more playing. Not playing devil's advocate, but kind of just leading them into what are they trying to say or where is this coming from? What's the underlying concern here? And then once that comes out, that's the point where hopefully, like, you've to some degree lulled them to sleep by letting them continue to vent or continue to go after this. And now here's the point where you intercept and take the play back the other way, where you push hard into with whatever the answer to that objection or that issue is.

Yeah.

So I think that that's, like, one sign to me that it's time to lay back. I Guess it depends on where that happens in the sales conversations. There are still sometimes, if that comes out of absolutely nowhere, then a lot of times we'll dig into more questions there. Or really, I'd say most of the time that's the response. There are some cases where, depending on who that. What the personality style is or the person you're talking to, where you might push back really aggressively, too. But for the most part, if it feels like it's not just a. It's not a norm, it feels like it's not a normal question. It feels like it's almost like aggressive towards you or towards your company or towards the solution you're providing or whatever. That's kind of where I've learned to sit back a little bit and try and get them to keep going, especially and lead themselves. Just using questions to lead them into why what they're trying to get at actually isn't. Isn't the problem that they think it's going to be. And it's actually typically you can. A lot of times you can guide that around to being a big win by leading them through that process.

And there's a perfect example with what you're saying and also tying in what we've been talking about with like, metaphors and many closes and things like that. That came to my head when you were talking. And that is because I've had some people get a little bit more aggressive in the beginning, a sales call when I explain our game plan process. And sometimes, you know, they'll say, well, I. Like, I need results quickly. Why don't you start the creating content? Yeah, why don't you start creating content right away? Like, we, we just, like, this is what I want. And so that's when we. It's kind of like, okay, like, pump the br. Like, for me, like, internally, I don't tell them, hey, pump the brakes. But sometimes, no, but I'll pump the brakes. And then I've realized, like, okay, they haven't understood, like, why we do it, so now it's time to educate them on why. So that's when I'll just simply say, or kind of ask them, like you do. Like, why is it so important to you? Or why do you think the best thing is for having content created right away? And then they'll just be like, well, we need results and all this stuff. And so then I'll hit them with the analogy of building a home. And like, just like, do you think that it's good to create content without having a formalized strategy? Right away, or do you see why this is maybe not the best idea compared to this and that right there? Those questions are mini closes. Because then if they say, no, I don't see any value in that, well, fine. Then I'm not gonna waste any more time. And that's perfect. Cause that's what we do. And there's a ton of value in that. And if you now have agreed that there's value in starting with strategy, well, then you've given me my first mini close of as we move forward into closing on the game plan.

Yeah, I think that's. That's a perfect example. And that's one where younger, less mature. Not that I'm mature now, but younger, less mature. Gray would have jumped right in and been like, why would you create content? Like, that's the dumbest thing you could do here. You need to create a strategy verse and try and go logical and just explain to them. But understanding the human nature of nobody wants to. Even though you could logically explain it to them, nobody wants to back off of a point that they just made very strongly and go exactly the opposite direction all by themselves. Everybody wants to uncover that for themselves and figure it out for themselves. So asking them questions and leading them towards where you want them to go is what's ultimately going to be more effective in terms of strengthening the relationship at the same time that you're getting them to the answer that they want. And then once they've made that turn and they've kind of started to get themselves reoriented in the right direction, that's where I find now it's time to really put on the gas and be aggressive and go deep with them.

No huddle.

Exactly. Yeah. Just kind of put the pedal to the metal there and continue to make sure that you get that mini close or touchdown. So cool. I think that's. That's helpful to get a sense for where you feel like the times are where. Like, what are. What are the cues? I guess. So I'd say for. For those of you who are struggling with figuring out and we're all constantly learning about how to handle these sales processes and how to move, but start to understand and identify as you're doing, as you're kind of looking back over and analyzing the calls that you had, understand the opportunities that you had that you got right and that you got wrong, where you probably could have taken a different approach. Start to experiment with this stuff and start to figure out and identify what are the cues for when I answer back with aggression or I get conservative and just keep asking questions and keep prying and prying. Probably the vast majority of the time asking the questions, yeah, makes sense. But that's not always the right play.

And it's very important to understand the difference in someone's personality and just being more of a bull type personality and someone that if you, if they ask you direct questions that seem aggressive and you respond with questions back to them, diffusing the situation, that's going to drive them crazy. Like some people you just need to be direct back to. So if you haven't listened to that episode where we talked about the different personalities and trying to understand that, I think that would be really helpful so that you can. The biggest thing is quickly picking up what type of person is this? Is this out of the ordinary and aggressive personally towards me or is this who they are as a person? Because you're going to have to change your approach depending on.

Yeah, unlike professional sports, you don't have a scouting report ahead of time on what the personality profile is. So you're figuring that out in the first quarter. In that first half, you know, the first 10 minutes of that first call, you're trying to identify who is this person, what's the personality type, what do I need to do to connect with them and to not frustrate them and just so that we can communicate openly and honestly together. So you're kind of scouting that out as the game is getting started, feeling each other out and then you want to make sure you're paying attention to that and customizing the approach based on that from there. Cool.

Wrap it up. Another good one in the books. So next week we are going to be talking about sales business hours. So this is one that has been asked from us how we manage, how long it takes for us to get back to people. Kind of like the team schedule and sales schedule. So we're going to dive into that a little bit. Just trying to have a little bit of balance. And so we're just going to break down what we do. So hopefully you guys will find that helpful. That will be next week. Until then, good luck.

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