What do Rugby and Sales have in common?

Well, you don’t need 15 players in your sales team, but there are some good lessons to be learned from the way each position plays their part.

It is a huge misconception that hiring an experienced sales person will end your business development woes. One person isn’t going to save your bacon, and even if they could, they need lots of support as well as needing to be able to deliver from a strong foundation (A plan or strategy would be a good start!).

Another misconception is that experienced sales people are good at all parts of their job.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. I say this from having (too many) years of experience managing sales teams, but also looking inward and understanding my own areas of improvement.

The activities required from sales teams range from; market research, lead generation, copywriting, graphic design, cold outreach, meeting service level agreements, social media management, proposal and bid writing, negotiation skills, need-finding, analytics, forecasting, pipeline management, presentation skills and of course, consistent repetition of all of the above. 

And that’s not even an exhaustive list! 

So what has this got to do with Rugby?

An experienced and high performing team of 15 players, each with a specific role and responsibility on the pitch. To do what they are good at in order to deliver the best possible outcome – lots of points, and a win!

Some are fast, some are tall, some are strong, some kick well, some pass well.

Each position plays a part in a finely tuned unit.

If we know that model is proven to work in sport, then why do we insist on asking our best presenter to spend time researching prospect information?

Why are we asking phenomenal proposal writers to make 100 calls or connections each day?

A well structured sales team will have the right experience and competence in the right role, so that the customer gets the best experience and your sales teams see the best results.

We don’t all have the luxury of being able to hire three different roles into a sales team, but do pay some thought to the fact that if your best appointment booker is spending time writing proposals, then that means less appointments are being booked.

We want great results, and to get that we need the right people in the right roles, delivering the right activities.

Now go and get your best kicker onto your conversions! 😉

Ben Bennett is Managing Partner of Second Voice (secondvoice.co.uk) a Brighton-based company focused on enabling founders of B2B companies to accelerate growth through sales and operations. Ben is also a business growth mentor for the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator.

If you’re looking to grow your own company and want impartial advice or support, please reach out to Ben at sbt@secondvoice.co.uk