Are You Just A Perimeter Player?
In sports like hockey, football and basketball, certain athletes get tagged with the name “perimeter player”. They mainly shoot from the outside, or in the case of football, only catch the ball near the sidelines. They play it safe, and stay away from the “dirty” dangerous areas. They can still score from the outside, but are missing other opportunities to score.
In sales, most well adjusted reps have the ability to:
- Sell more products to their most satisfied customers
- Sell to a prospect who has all but pulled out a purchase order number and said “I’m buying!”
- Take over and succeed in a territory that is already on “auto-pilot”
That would be described as perimeter play.
What about getting in to the “dirty”, dangerous areas?
These reps have the ability to:
- Put together action plans and succeed in getting struggling accounts back on track
- Get in front of dissatisfied customers, and fix problems face-to-face
- Make difficult decisions to drop underperforming accounts that will never thrive
- Succeed in spite of lack of leadership and never make excuses
My favourite analogy for this type of work is always related to hockey,
“Who is willing to go in to the corner, get hit by a much bigger player, and still come out with the puck?”
The perimeter players, will let up, and watch somebody else complete the difficult tasks.
The perimeter players may still have a long career, but be just average. If you are looking for average, then you must be ok playing it safe. The repeated overachiever, who is always looking to improve never hesitates and welcomes the difficult tasks on route to massive success!
The questions are:
How badly do you want it?
And….
How “dangerous” are you willing to be?
Only you will know the answer. It’s your choice!
Posted on March 20, 2013, in Motivation, Sales, Sales Professionals, Sports Stories and tagged NBA, NFL, NHL, Play It Safe, Selling, Success. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
Great analogy Tim! There are times while playing basketball I catch myself taking too many shots and have to make a conscious effort to take the ball to the basket. Recognizing our shortcomings, or misdirected focus can often be difficult; but rewarding when we make a change.
Hey Chris! Great to see you have recognized this issue with respect to your own basketball game! It is very rewarding when we recognize our shortcomings and finally take a leap of faith and change! Have an awesome Thursday….
Excellent post Tim, I think we all do better when we look forward to tackling the tough tasks.
You bet we do Tina! It is too easy to avoid them, but at the end of the day, completing the tough tasks will help us achieve our goals sooner! Have a great Thursday…
If you want the big reward, you absolutely must do the hard work – keep up the fine job Moosh!!
Thanks for stopping by John! You bet you have to do the hard work! Hope all is well…
Thanks for stopping by over at http://caribbeanbusinesstraveler.wordpress.com/. WordPress recommended I check out this particular blog post and they were right! This a great post indeed, I do find myself playing it safe at work, you’re always afraid you’ll get hit and still not get the puck. I’ll try to be a little more fearless today because average is not what I want to be. Have a great day!
Thanks so much for stopping by to comment on this post! Glad I have inspired you today to be less fearless and escape the average! Looking forward to checking out your blog after work today! Have an awesome Thursday and thanks again…