Play Big or Go Home!

For the last 21 years, I have been digging deep into the realm of 'change communication'. This includes persuasion, influence, negotiation, sales training, leadership, etc. I have reached a place where I can be picky with whom I work with and find myself very attracted to those customers wanting to ‘Play Big or Go Home!’

I am learning that this is a rare quality and the reason is, it’s not a very comfortable position, because it involves risk and upping the stakes. It’s not a world for everyone. What it is though is a world of integrity to you.

The misunderstanding made is that ‘Play Big or Go Home!’ is associated with X-Games, cage fighting, free climbing, etc. The thought is that it must be an extreme risk of all or nothing.

The reality is ‘Play Big or Go Home!’ is a state of mind about playing to win versus a focus on fear of losing or fear of change. It shows up in how someone plays golf or chess or poker as well as how they work with staff, finances, and customers.

The question to ask is ‘Are you willing to use all your insight, skill, and personality to create the necessary change?’ It’s less about doing the ‘right’ thing and more about doing your thing.

Maybe that’s the easiest way to describe what Adam Sandler brings to the screen. It’s about integrity to be yourself rather than what you think you should be to get by in the world.

The real benefit of mastery of a subject (meditation, golf, sales training) is to bring your unique contribution. The oxymoron of it is the group of individuals willing to jump in with you (work with you) will become smaller. That’s the work of mastery: Willing to stay on the path as others fade away from view. The prize is the state of being; the peace of having left your unique contribution to the world. Just understand the prize is time independent in this world.

Top Salespeople and Training

On another blog, someone posted a comment that 'Top Salespeople don't like to attend training.'

While I find it hard to believe that someone would write such a comment without supporting it with some study reference, I can image that it would come from someone in HR being asked to justify their internal sales training program.

"Top" people (not just salespeople) are always looking for an edge, and understanding, a tool, a perception that will assist them. The Top Salespeople I know are constantly investing in knowledge and are constantly observing how communication affects their results.

I think it would be safe to say that Top Salespeople will leave a training session they aren't getting something from. Here are three common examples of training they might leave:

1. Sales training done by someone with limited sales experience
2. Sales training done by someone with little understanding for the material they are training
3. Vague references with no 'how to': example, 'listen to your customers' without a list of what to listen for!

Why would they leave? Because Top Salespeople understand their most valuable asset is TIME!

P.S. Product training is not sales training, and sales training doesn't require product knowledge.