As a young man, I used to have a large poster board on the back of my bedroom door where I wrote down all the quotes that spoke to me when I read them. One of top ones was the following:
“O snail, climb Mt Fuji. But slowly, slowly”. – Issa
Winning (defined as accomplishing desired and aimed for results) is often portrayed (incorrectly) as a massive and world changing thing that happens suddenly. Think of every poker movie you’ve ever seen, and the showdown between the protagonist and his opponent happens on one hand, with both of them all in, and four aces beating four kings in a dramatic reveal. Think of most football movies and you’ll find a similar plot element, where the underdog beats the favored team because of an 80 yard touchdown pass thrown in the last few seconds of the game. These things happen, and they are very dramatic when they do (my beloved Chicago Bears lost to a hail mary 65 yard touchdown pass thrown in the last 6 seconds of the game on Sunday).
The thing is though, these things are dramatic, and make for good movie moments precisely because they are rare. In fact, they are very rare. Most wins don’t happen this way. Most wins come from a slow trickle of tiny victories along the way. Every poker tournament I’ve ever won or placed in came from the consistent winning of small hands throughout the night, stealing the blinds with a bluff or winning a small pot. The great majority of football games are won or lost because one team consistently wins small battles throughout the game, like delivering blocks effectively, or simply covering someone effectively. Small things matter. The data shows that they actually matter more than the big boom moments we all love to talk about in movies or sports. I see the same thing in investing. My investment group is filled with many people who strategize and execute plans to win big on one stock over one month. The winners are just really consistent at consistently making trades that make them 1 or 2 percent. Stacking up all those wins allows them to net a higher annual yield than all the trophy trade hunters in the group.
Pivoting to sales, I’ll use the example of one of my clients who took a company making $20 million a year, 45% of which came from one client, to making $120 million a year, with no client representing more than 5% of revenue.
In other words, if you want to play the math, don’t think big, think small. Small and steady in your day to day behaviors.
Here’s the hit list of small, consistent wins that will make you a big winner in sales:
– Prospecting Activity. Calls, emails, outreach of any kind. Make a plan on a doable daily dose, and do it EVERY day
– Marketing Activity. Networking, posts on social media, content creation. Consistent small touches to generate buzz and top of mind awareness
– Market knowledge. Finding and reading information that makes you an authority on the industry, people and trends of your trade. Find the areas of opportunity
– Self-Awareness. Reviewing your calls, debriefing, analyzing what you do, in order to spot areas of needed improvement. Constantly challenge your perception of your skills
– Self-improvement. Practice. Role play. Read. Listen to podcasts, attend webinars
– Risk taking. Try new things, new approaches, new materials.
– Modeling. No, not the kind where you walk down the stage dancing to Right Said Fred. The kind where you see someone great do something, and you then try it yourself, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, but leveraging the superior skill of someone else
NONE of these things are dramatic or sexy. They are the blocking and tackling of success. No one ever makes a movie scene showing the hero doing the same small thing 1000 times. But that is what feeds the movie scene where the hero wins.