Okay, so I’m a country boy at heart. I like tractor pulls. Especially professionally conducted ones, like the one’s put on by the great people at Lucas Oil.
I was way too busy, playing catch up this weekend, to go to the event held in my hometown this Friday and Saturday … so I just went Friday night. If you really knew me, you’d know I was seriously behind to skip a Saturday night of horsepower, green paint jobs and chrome hurtling down the track, throwing dirt and blowing smoke.
The tractors in the image used are from Washington, IN and are owned by the great people at Boyd & Sons. We lived in Washington for a short time and the people there were some of the finest on the planet.
Next Friday night the tractors will be about an hour away from me, in Evansville, IN and I intend to be there to make up for my being too busy to go both nights this past weekend.
So, as with everything else I do in life, I tried to extract some marketing and selling lessons for us all to use, which turns relaxation time into a learning experience, in essence, getting two-fer-one on the hours you spend.
I try to live, work and play hard enough for two people, in essence, living twice as much as the average person.
You may only go around once. Me ? I’m gonna get two lives out of it … if I can.
Try it. Maybe you’ll like it, too.
Anyway, onward to the lessons for today.
Lesson #1: Looking Good’s Not As Important As Performing Well
Every single tractor, even the red one, looked really good. $10,000+ paint jobs are as common as ants at a picnic.
That didn’t get them any extra length on their pulls though, so it wasn’t as important as their performance.
Does your service, product or sales team look better than they perform ? If so, you need to change that quickly, because repeat customers come from performance, not from nice packaging. And repeat sales are more profitable than first-time sales.
Lesson #2: Gender Doesn’t Matter
Some of the competitors at truck and tractor pulls are female. You can’t really tell from a distance and under the helmets and fire suits, and again, it didn’t add one, single inch to their pulls.
Performance is the only unit of measure and you only get one shot at pulling, so you better make sure your performance is as good as it can be.
In sales, it won’t matter if you’re male or female, your performance is all that will matter and in a majority of cases, you’ll only get one shot, so make sure you bring your “A” game.
Lesson #3: Preparation Is Key
I stood behind the starting line, against the chainlink fence, beside the great merchandise vendors from Columbus, IN and watched every puller in lane #2 veer right about 1/4 of the way down the track.
It looked like the track was soft there and the extra grip caused them pull hard to the right.
Every one of them who lined up on the right side of the starting line had to get off the accellerator to keep from crossing the white line and being DQ’d.
If they had been watching closely, they would have known to set up on the far left and then they would have had an advantage on over half the field.
Good intel, or info for you non-military types, is better than luck and usually cheaper than experience.
How can you or your team find out little bits of info that will make a big difference in your bottom line ?
Lesson #4: Sales and Marketing Lesson Are Everywhere
I’m sure you never thought you’d learn sales or marketing lessons from a truck or tractor pull, but you did and it didn’t hurt. Not even a teeny bit.
And you didn’t even have to wear boots, jeans or a Git-R-Done t-shirt to absorb all this here learnin’ !
Try to find a lesson in everyday happening’s and if you’re a content producer, like a blogger or podcaster, share them with the world.
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