Winning isn’t everything, but the desire to win is
“Everything’s not going to be perfect. You’re going to have some losses that you’re going to have to bounce back from and some things that are a little unforeseen that you’re going to have to deal with” ~ Tony Dungy.
We all strive to win. Sure, we all fail — the best of us have failed countlessly, and let’s be honest, losing really sucks. I still remember every deal I lost in my career and each lost deal caused pain, but I believe that each loss helped me to do better next time. However, just because you can’t (and don’t) win always doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Being in sales is no different. We work tirelessly to win every deal, and it happens that we lose some, and sometimes it is better to lose.
Sometimes losing a deal is beyond our control, sometimes it is because of a bad decision or a mistake in the sales process and sometimes a deal gets rejected internally for various reasons such as compliance, profitability or because a deal would burn too many internal resources and become disruptive to the corporate strategy. A sale is not an isolated event that happens on its own. It is actually the culmination of a series of actions. Shit happens, and you lose - but it’s ok to lose. But what’s not ok is that you give up on winning.
Winning may not be everything, but what is important is that your desire to win never wanes. In fact, it may be the most important thing. The desire to win has to be in the DNA of every salesperson.
What many sales persons don’t know or choose to forget is that when we are fired up by the very thought of winning, it drives and motivates us in ways we could never explain. It boosts our enthusiasm and our creativity, and for these very reasons, we take to heart the very ethos in sales which is: providing value. Customers purchase our products/services because of the value we provide. When you have the burning desire to win, prospects will feel your enthusiasm and your desire to provide value for them.
Salespeople hate to be told NO, and when they are told NO, they often are blinded by their winning mentality that they don’t learn from these drawbacks. They tend to find excuses or blame it on others. However, every lost deal is an opportunity to learn from the mistakes and to do better next time.
Losing provides drive and purpose, builds character, encourages self-reflection and humility, it pushes you to acquire habits that drive sales performance and it surely makes winning sweeter.
