If Bill Belichick Was Your Sales Manager

This is a Guest Post by Joe Crisara, CEO of ContractorSelling.com.

I have just finished up watching the New England Patriots defeat yet another opponent. After this watching this methodical win the rest of the season looks easy. This team looks to be on the championship march. I began to think… What it would be like if Bill Belichick was your sales manager ?

If he was, I could tell you that you would probably be very successful just because of his track record of putting together a winner year in and year out. Here are some of the characteristics I have observed that you, as sales professionals, could learn from this man:

Never Take the Competition Lightly – After this week’s win against a tough Pittsburgh team, anyone could be tempted to coast or at the very least take the next few teams, in particular against the hapless Miami Dolphins. Not Belichick.

You can bet that he is already building his case to convince his players that EVERY team they play is the best they have ever faced regardless of their record.

You as a sales person could learn from this thinking. Next time you go into the presentation of your options with a customer, you should also, prepare for the worst. Expect your customer to be tough and give you at least 6 objections every time.

If you are waiting for an objection, the worst that could happen is that you’ll be prepared when it happens. The best could be that there are no objections and your customer will just buy without resistance. Remember the lesson you learned in Boy Scouts – “Be prepared”.

Do Your Research -Did you know that Belichick spends 15 to 20 minutes preparing for every press conference ? He prepares talking points, review his statistics and carefully measures what he will say to the press.

Not to mention his legendary status of “knowing” everything he can about the competition so that he can prepare his team for anything that will happen during a game.

You should also think about, research and prepare what you’ll say and do before each and every interaction with your customer. Learning what your customer wants first, why they want it and who they are likely to purchase it from can all be found out before you decide if you should present your solutions.

Self-Deprecation – Bill Belichick is masterful at downplaying his role or significance in any victory that he or his team has achieved. In press conferences he ALWAYS says that he and his team have their work cut out for them and then after they trounce other teams he speaks about how they caught some “lucky breaks” that allowed them to win.

He NEVER takes credit for anything good but always takes responsibility for anything that goes bad.

As a sales professional, it is important to remember that your success is a result of you following a system if success that involves your whole team.

This team includes everyone from the person who answers the phone, to the person who tracks your schedule to the installers, service techs and everyone else in the company.

A smart sales person gives all their teammates all the credit, while taking responsibility themselves for finding ways to improve on calls where they have failed.

Persistence and Tenacity – Genius ? That’s not what they were calling Bill Belichick in Cleveland. Why not ? Four losing seasons in five years. Fans hurled trash and insults. The media resented him. Ownership abandoned him. Players quit on him. Very different from the three Super Bowls in five years Belichick would win with the New England Patriots a few years later. Obviously he nor his teams are quitters.

There’ll be tough times for you in the sales profession as well. Remember you are NEVER failing. Even when you lose a sale you have to find a lesson to learn from it. Never give up by doing things such as blaming customers or fellow employees for your lack of success.

Instead ask for feedback as to what you need to change in order to be the person that WOULD have got the job instead the person who lost it.

Just ask your customer “off the record” what you need to change in your approach to gain their trust. You just might hear the truth if you can handle it.

Respect – Coach Belichick has the respect of the people he wants it from. His teammates, the fans and himself.

Here are some comments made by the people who work with him everyday:

Kevin Faulk: “I wish I had enough time to explain it to you. All in all, Coach Belichick, he’s just a guy that wants to win. And if you’re one of those guys that believes in the same things he believes in — tough guys who are mentally strong and smart — you’re gonna be here.” – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Carl Banks: “I’ve been around some coaches who are so arrogant it’s, ‘Just run my defense and shut up.’ Some guys are so interested in being a genius, they spend all their time trying to put a square inside of a circle. That’s the thing about Bill. He forms a partnership with his players. He listens.” – Los Angeles Times

Tom Brady: “He’s a great leader and he’s a great coach to play for. We all believe in him and we trust him. He always says that he makes decisions based on the best interest of the team. He truly means that.” – Press Conference, October 31, 2007

Tedy Bruschi: “Bill is our coach. We stand behind him, and we want him to know that. We consider ourselves to be a family. And when you single out somebody in our family and criticize him, we rally around him. We say, ‘Come here, you’re one of us.’” – Sports Illustrated

To get the respect of your customers and your teammates is of the utmost importance for you in sales as well. Understand that getting respect is not always pretty. It can mean taking a very lonely position that seems to fly in the face of what is the popular thing to do.

Sometimes letting your customer know that you and your services may NOT be a fit for the both of you can be the very thing that makes customer think that THIS is the kind of person I want to do business with.

If coach Belichick were your sales manager you would be very fortunate indeed. You would feel secure in the knowledge that your manager would give you the best information to help the team and you, succeed every day. Even if it meant that he wasn’t the star of the team.

Sales managers like this know that they are in the business of creating superstars and not in becoming one themselves. Ironically, this very thinking is what will make them great and help them and their teams become true winners.

About the author: Joe Crisara is CEO of www.ContractorSelling.com a website that helps sales professionals present their solutions to create high value that result in more income, better service and higher closing rates. You can go to the site and receive Joe’s FREE SECRET sales tip of the week. Of you can contact Joe by emailing him at joe@contractorselling.com

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