The Olympics are on at the moment and medals are being won, with dreams realized and hopes shattered. It got me thinking about which Olympic sport provides the best analogy for Presales: is it the high expectations of the High Jump? The endurance of the Marathon? The flexibility of Gymnastics? The teamwork of Hockey? Or maybe it’s the struggle of Greco-Roman Wrestling?
Perhaps a more useful approach is to draw parallels to the Presales experience from multiple sports and consider what we can learn. Here are a few that came to mind:
Pentathlon – Athletes in the Modern Pentathlon (or Decathlon, Heptathlon, or Triathlon) must be competent across multiple disciplines. They might have a strength as a runner, but also need to perform at a high level as a fencer, shooter, swimmer and horse rider – all in a single day. In the same way, good Presales are masters of multiple events: in a single day they may be giving a presentation, preparing a demo, installing a POC, and responding to an RFP. Presales might have a specialty, but they also need to pay attention to developing their other skills in order to become a strong all-rounder.
Canoeing – Competitors complete the course one at a time and the first person down sets the time you need to beat, while last person down the course knows exactly what is required to win. As Presales in a competitive tender situation, you want to be either the first or the last vendor to present. Go first and you set the bar high, making it hard for the competitors who follow. Go last and you can clear the bar, leaving the customer impressed and your competitors seething. (I realise I’ve mixed my metaphors there by bringing in references to Pole Vault!) In the Olympics, your performance in the heat determines the order in the final. In Presales we can think about the early meetings, presentations and how we respond to the tender as our heats. If we have built good relationships with the customer, that increases our chances of being able to pick out presentation position.
Water Polo – This looks like a rough sport, where the athletes are constantly swimming and physically getting up in each other’s faces. Fitness and endurance is important, and like all team sports the players need to be thinking ahead about their moves and passes. Selling is also a team sport and it’s important to have the right people engaged on a deal. We also need to expect it to get a little tough mentally, if not on the body. Great sales teams plan their moves, keep on swimming and during a meeting they can pass the ball (of talking) smoothly back and forth, to keep the deal moving forward towards the goal.
Swimming Medley Relay – Continuing with teams, medley relays are another example where success relies on every member doing well in their specialist role. There is often the champion swimmer who gets a lot of media coverage, but the best squads have strength in each member of the team. Another thing I have noted about the relays is that some individuals who get the team through the heats do not swim in the final. For the final the coach aims to form the best team possible from the available swimmers. In a Presales world, this might mean some people contributing to an RFP response or an initial demo, while bringing in a more experienced person to take the lead for the final presentation. If you win the deal, one person might get more of the glory, but the whole team wins and gets paid (which sadly makes Presales better off than many Olympians).
One final analogy to touch on is that all Olympic athletes know how to play their game or perform in their event, but regardless of the sport they all have coaches, they all have support teams and they all practice constantly. In Presales our manager is hopefully our coach, providing guidance, helping us fine-tune our skills and cheering us on. Unless you are new, your manager is probably not mandating that you practice regularly, so this is a discipline that needs to be self-motivated.
And in the end, none of us can succeed in Presales without our support teams: our colleagues in Sales, Enablement, Marketing and Professional Services; as well as our family and friends.
Which Olympic Sport do you think provides the best analogy for Presales?
Thoughtful Presales 