Ties R 4 Sissies

I’m not talking about the neck kind. I’m talkin’ about the fact that somebody wins and somebody loses in Sales.  Unlike in soccer, there is just no such thing as a tie.  Somebody is buying from you OR somebody is buying from the other guy.  There is a winner and a loser.  And it sucks to lose.

Couple more days left in the fiscal year for The Sales Guy and he is guttin’ it out like the best of them. Personally, I think he’s done a wonderful job in the past year BUT if The Sales Guy doesn’t make his number, he’s going to be a loser. All that hard work for the prior 364 days means zilch. 

So why can’t we have ties in Sales?  I mean, unless there is complete obliteration, there MUST be some good found on each side of the deal. Some aspect of each competitor’s solution has to be good enough to keep them in the game for a good fight. And when it comes down to the slugging, if you stay punch for punch til the bitter end, wasn’t the fight itself worth anything at all?  What about HOW you played the game? Isn’t that worth an honorable mention? Couldn’t the Coach come up with a second place medal in the form of 10 grand for the efforts?  After all, it’s not just The Sales Guy who is on the field -- the underperforming back field (product development, marketing, etc) or the late-to-the-game pricing/finance players contributed to the loss. Come on, Coach, pay The Sales Guy for his efforts if you like HOW he played.

Could you imagine what that would do for The Sales Guy’s confidence? NOTHING.  Why? Because winning is everything to The Sales Guy.  

I remember the experience I had “losing” full rights to the class salutatorian honor in 8^th grade. I remember exactly what I was thinking when Ms Arnold told me the news. How did I lose?  Don’t get me wrong, I loved sharing the glory with my best friend but A TIE???  I thought ties ONLY happened in soccer. In my case, I busted my arse for much longer than a fiscal year but time was up and I had lost.  A tie?  Come on.  Like one play during my middle school tenure wasn’t any better or worse than my co-honoree? Could we have a spell-off? Or a grasshopper dissect-a-thon? A clear winner was what we needed. Those were the rules!

Normally, I don’t advocate for rule changes to historic games but I’m pretty sure regular season soccer rules need an uplift. Why teams of fit athletes can’t gut it out until the better team scores to break a tie makes no sense to me.  Why not a shootout at least for EVERY game? As in a sales deal, someone has to make a decision – perhaps a human sacrifice – to determine the winner EVERY time. 

There always needs to be a winner and a loser. Winning gives us a reason to celebrate and losing makes us tougher for the next game.

So, Sales Guy, from the bottom of my heart – have a Powerbar, a cortisone shot, a high-five from a cheerleader, whatever you need at this point - get back on the field for 3 more days and win this thing!  I’ll be waiting at the front door with a bucket of Gatorade to celebrate!