By Tibor Shanto - tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca
A couple of Saturday ago I ran the Night Race™, in Toronto, a lovely 10K through the park at night. (Yes, that’s me in the back). While it is meant to be a straight run, the last two years it has rained all day right up to run time, when the rain stopped, but the mud, the temporary lakes and puddles remained. Being that for long parts of the run you are restricted to the path, you often don’t have a choice about where you run, meaning you can’t always easily “go around” things, and even when you do, being dark you often come up on the challenge too late to see it.
And that’s when you began to see the difference between those who came to run, and those who were out for a stroll in the park, unfortunately in the middle of a pack of those who came to run.
About a third into the run, moving at a good clip, we were herded to a narrow formation given the nature of the path. And right there was huge puddle, ankle deep, no way easy way around it. Many of those who were there to run, kept running through the water, wet socks, mud and all, and kept our pace and rhythm. I unfortunately was stuck behind a “pussycat stroller”, who decided to come to a complete stop, right in the middle of the pack, looking for a way to tippy toe around the puddle, rather than get wet or muddy, after all, brown does not go well with the fuchsia floral pattern of her designer running shirt. True to form, not caring about the impact of her actions on others in the race, she was stopping, and that was that. I am glad to report the guy who did rear-end her, (causing her to go right in the puddle anyways), was fortunately not hurt, and he was able to continue his race losing only a stride or two.
As I continued down the path, it struck me that this reminds of a number of sales people I have worked with, specifically how they choose to face and respond to various situations. How much forethought they put into sales situations, preparation, and having a plan, a contingency plan, and if they are really good, a plan C.
How many times have we seen sales lost not just because of the elements listed above, but the real underlying factor, commitment? This is often the difference between winning and not. How much foresight is required after a day of solid rain to figure out that there may be some puddles; what are you going to do when faced with a puddle; what if you can’t run around the puddle, and you know you can’t fly and suck at the long jump? What would it have taken to just run through the puddle, and continue to the desired result (it’s not like we were doing the Fukushima 10K).
Just seem to remind me that some win, in sales, in races, in whatever, because they bring the attitude of winning – the attitude of a pro; while others are content being the also-ran, settling for what may come – on the job.
In sales, as in other things that count – Play to win or get out of the way!