Why You Must Run Sales Competitions

A well run sales competition can stimulate and motivate both you and your peers like nothing else. Some of you will be lucky enough to work for companies that run great sales competitions. Some of you won’t. But you know what? It doesn’t matter.

Some of the best and most successful sales competitions that I have seen have been set up by the team, for the team. There’s nothing stopping you and your buddies getting together and running your own competitions today!

The best competitions have several key elements present and these include action, excitement, involvement, rewards and fun.

Competitions need to be inclusive, with everyone having an equal shot of winning. If salespeople feel that they have no chance then the competition may well end up demotivating them rather than motivating them!

Elements of your competitions should also be activity based rather than purely performance based. Why? Because you already have a commission structure to reward you for results; your competitions should be linked to the sales behaviours that you need for success.

Copyright Gavin Ingham 2008, extract from Real World Sales Attitude!

Why Tenacity And Persistence Are Essential For Sales Success

Imagine for a second that you have set up a new business selling a new form of consulting service. There’s nothing like it in the marketplace and you are going to have to educate your clients on its worth. After a bit or research you settle on a price and go to visit half a dozen selected clients to get their opinion. Unfortunately, every one of them says that it’s too expensive.

What do you do?

A) Reduce the price to match what they think?
B) Re-evaluate the product and add more benefits?
C) Start negotiating furiously?
D) Visit some more clients?

Let me tell you that when I ask this question of delegates 90%+ of answers fall into the A, B or C categories. Now I admit that there is a lot of information missing here but I believe that the answer is D with maybe a small pinch of C.

Apparently, Colonel Sanders (aka Mr. Kentucky Chicken) was rejected 1012 times before someone bit on his idea! Read the biography of most successful people and you will see as many failures as successes.

Success in sales and business means playing the long game and that means tenacity and persistence. If you keep going after everyone else gives up and goes home then you are going to be successful.

Copyright Gavin Ingham 2008, extract from Real World Sales Attitude!