Consider these three ways marginal gains philosophy can make a big difference for salespeople.
The most successful salesman you’ve never heard of helps people ride bikes for a living.
Sir Dave Brailsford is the former director of British Cycling. When he took over the role, the national team was a laughingstock that hadn’t won a gold medal in almost a century. When he left a decade later, they were the most dominant cycling team in world history.
What changed? Everything.
Brailsford is a huge believer in marginal gains philosophy. Instead of making a few big changes, the thinking goes, marginal gains means looking at every possible factor and trying to improve, sometimes by as little as 1%.
For Brailsford, this meant sparing no detail, even beyond the realm of competitive cycling. Like selling the members of his team on the offbeat idea of traveling with a favorite pillow to ensure they were well rested on trips, or persuading adults they needed to relearn how to properly wash their hands to reduce the likelihood of illness.
Salespeople, as much as they might not think so, could stand to learn something from Brailsford, who saw his role as selling any reasonable idea that would help lead to team victory. Our culture is one that often celebrates big goals and brash personalities. Yet as we head into the end of the year with a renewed focus on hitting our numbers, I think we’d be far better off following the advice of a mild-mannered Brit man who built his reputation managing athletes who ride bicycles.
Here are three ways marginal gains philosophy can make a big difference for
salespeople:
1. Rethink winning. You clearly know what a win would look like for you. Set that aside for a moment. Now think of what a win would look like for your customer.
You might say this is cheating, because a win for a customer is far from a marginal gain. But it’s also the most important mindset shift you can make, both for your end-of-year push and for the rest of your career.
I recently asked a group of salespeople to define what winning meant to them. In return, I got the usual responses: hitting my goals, earning my bonus or beating the competition.
The first opportunity for a marginal gain that, when aggregated, will help you meet or exceed your goals is to put yourself second and your customer first. When you think about a win, imagine what it means for them, not you, and then help them achieve their win.
2. Define your differentiated value. Years ago, a customer said something that stuck: You’re leaving a lot of work up to me.
What he meant was that I hadn’t plainly articulated to him the value he would gain by choosing our product. Sure, I’d done a good job of asking questions to understand his needs. But I hadn’t translated that into what it would mean for him.
Once again, the root of the problem was in thinking of myself first, not the person spending money to purchase what I was selling. And it manifested itself in a different kind of failure: not fully articulating how my customer could benefit.
3. Be tenacious. Tenacity in sales often has a negative connotation. Most of us associate it with pushy behavior that’s so often a turn-off when it comes to salespeople.
Yet when viewed through the lens of customer advocacy, tenacity is undoubtedly a plus.
Being tenacious in advocating for a customer means embracing responsibility. It means having a persistence and energy in trying to help them achieve their goals, rather than doing whatever we can do to focus on our own.
It’s the third leg in the stool of marginal gains. And yet each does its job in support of the same person: the customer.
There’s no real reason why your strategy at the end of the year should differ from what it was at the beginning. I know salespeople face tremendous pressure to hit their numbers and what it feels like to work under that strain.
I also know that the first step to relieving that strain, both now and forever, is a shift in mindset. The hunt for marginal gains should be an ongoing process throughout your career. But it should begin by looking beyond your own needs, and focusing instead on those who can help you get even further than you expected.
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