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As I have written here, salespeople need many attributes in order to succeed. Competitiveness is one of them.
Science understands competitiveness as a biological trait that is part of our survival instinct. It is part of an ongoing biological battle for resources. For example, two plants may battle for a position that gives them greater access to sunlight. Only one plant can occupy the best position.
Because resources are almost always thought of as a zero sum game (if I win, you necessarily lose . . . or vice versa), it has come to be thought of as aggressive. It is thought of as a negative attribute.
As children we are encouraged to play sports and games and to compete. Unless you are involved in high school, college, or professional sports, as we grow older we learn that results are almost always easier to obtain through cooperation, and that life is not a zero sum game; we can create win-win outcomes. The aggressive competitiveness is seen as a negative characteristic.
Sales Is A Zero Sum Game
Salespeople need to be competitive because sales is a zero sum game. If two of us would like to obtain a prospect’s business, one of us will one and the other will lose.
Competitiveness in salespeople manifests itself in beliefs and behaviors. It shows up as the belief that they can win a deal. It shows up as a drive to engage in the competition for scarce resources and to take action. It shows up in their desire to study and understand their competitor’s weaknesses and to exploit those weaknesses.
It shows up as a conviction and a passion to succeed.
Prospects and clients see the competitiveness, the conviction, and the passion as the salesperson’s strong desire to obtain their business. That desire to win, in professional salespeople, turns into a desire to win for the prospect or client. Prospects recognize that the person that competes aggressively is worth having on their team, because they too are engaged in a zero sum game.
Most importantly, this competitiveness manifests itself as a strong desire to win. That natural desire to win drives the salesperson to take action. It drives the salesperson to continue to fight.
Wanting to Win Is Not Enough
The trait that salespeople have is not simply one of wanting to win. Everybody wants to win, and there are a lot of salespeople who would very much like to win a deal.
Wanting to win is a lot like hoping to win. It isn’t strong enough to force the salesperson to action, to move Heaven and Earth to win the deal.
Competitiveness is much more than “wanting to win,” and it borders on “having to win.” Even the most competitive salesperson won’t win every deal. But they will try like Hell. And they will keep trying.
After Self Discipline and Optimism
This is the third attribute in my list of 20 attributes of salespeople. It follows self-discipline because self-discipline is the foundation of all other attributes.
It follows optimism because without the belief that one can win, one is not likely to compete as if they can win. Optimism enables the belief that you can find a way to win; it enables competitiveness.
Competitiveness enables Initiative.
Conclusion
Competitiveness has come to been seen as a negative characteristic. It isn’t.
Sales is a zero sum game. The best salespeople have a competitive nature that allows them to believe that they can win and motivates them to take actions in line with those beliefs.
NOTE: Competitiveness is not aggressive behavior towards human beings. It contains an element of sportsmanship and fair play. It doesn’t mean that we are not obligated to create win-win agreements with our prospects and clients . . . it means we compete for the right to create those win-win agreements.
Questions
1. Am I too comfortable losing deals?
2. Am I competitive enough?
3. Do I believe I can win and act in accordance with those beliefs? Am I taking action?
4. Do my customers and prospects know that I will bring a passion and conviction for results to ensuring they get the outcomes I promise?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Anthony, this is a great post–it’s one that has really caused me to pause and think. I agree with you in many ways, but in some ways, I’m disturbed and concerned about some of the points of emphasis.
Sales is an intensely competitive profession. Personally, though, the focus of my competitiveness has rarely been the competitor. I think the competitiveness comes from a drive to succeed. I want to achieve something for my customer, for my company, and most of all, I want to achieve my own personal goals.
It may sound like wordsmithing, but I don’t mean it this way. I am driven to win, I really don’t care about my competitor, but winning is a personal goal. Somehow if I focus on a zero sum, while I would also be winning, I think the behaviors I might display are different than those I would display by focusing on my personal goal of being successful.
My drive to succeed is performing at the highest level possible. To beat my previous levels of performance, and to succeed. If I only focused on beating the competition, I would hold myself to a lower standard—frankly, it’s easy to beat competitors. I would also be doing my customer a disservice, because I may not be serving them the best.
Before he became a joke, it was interesting to watch Tiger Woods. When he played golf, he focused less on beating the competitors, but on beating himself–raising his own standard of play and performances (at least on the golf course.). Most high performers I see have the same characteristic.
I worry about messages of zero-sum, and the competitive focus on the competitor. Yes, when I am in a deal, I watch the competitor, but frankly I am not obsessed by the competitor. I am obsessed by performing at the highest level I can. Sometimes I lose, most often I win.
Imagine what would happen both in the profession of selling and the value we could create for our customers if we focused our competitive drive on performing at the highest level, rather than simply beating the competitor. Wouldn’t we achieve much more for our customers? Wouldn’t we learn more about ourselves and improve? And, oh by the way, we will beat other high performing sales people.
Thanks for the post, it still has me thinking. As you know, I’ll probably come back to this at some time. Regards, Dave
I agree, Dave. I do what’s best for the customer. I sell my company and my product’s strengths.
While it may be important to know more about my competition than my customer, that knowledge is ONLY used to position my own company and product in the most advantageous position. I NEVER mention the competitor to the customer. I SELL myself, my company, my product, and the value we bring to the table. That establishes the price and then it’s just a matter of time. Either now or later, I know if I have the right customer, I represent the right company, product and price to meet their needs and budget, that customer will do business with me!
It’s funny, I took a personality test before I left the corporate side of the insurance industry into a sales position at my current company. I scored very low on the competitive segment of the test – and I really wasn’t surprised by it. The CEO made me take the test again, and I came in at the same again. He still hired me though.
So far, I was the Producer of the Year out of 30 in 2008 and was in the top 3 out of 30 last year in written premium. However, when I look at how hard I work, I think it’s because of fear, and not because of my desire to win. In this economy, I simply fear losing my job, my house, and everything else.
So, if I was a sales manager, I’d probably pick a lot of competitive people to be on my team, and a lot of people who come from less fortunate backgrounds, that are hungry to succeed in life, and have something to lose. Zero sum – Somebody has to want to win the deal, and somebody has to really fear losing the deal – that would be a good match.
Thought provoking though… Thanks for sharing.
Tom
Anthony, I’m really glad you wrote this post. Competitiveness in selling is an area that is certainly under-leveraged and often misunderstood.
I’ll leave the philosophical aspect of this to you, Dave Brock and Tom. You’ve made excellent points, and I’ve got little to add.
On the other hand, I would like to raise the subject of competitive selling approaches and skills. I was very lucky to have been exposed early on in my sales career to very powerful competitive selling concepts, strategies and tactics. I worked hard and became a very tough competitor. You know I’m not talking about slamming the competition, or what’s equally as ineffective, ignoring them. It’s more (pardon the hackneyed expression) like a chess game played by someone who can literally see five moves ahead.
Any sales training requirements definition or RFP that ESR writes for our clients always includes questions about the trainer’s approach and content in the area of competitive selling. It’s that important.
Anyone who has been through Holden, TAS, and The Complex Sale, as examples, understand where I am going here.
Having a good knowledge of your competitor’s company and products and services is important. Everyone knows that. But analyzing how the other rep in the deal sells on the street, coupled with the ability to build deliberate and specific offensive strategies and defensive counter-strategies with the appropriate supporting tactics and counter-tactics leads to the true meaning of the term, “Outselling your competition.”
Anthony
Great blog! Your discussion above was echoing thoughts I had bouncing around in my head.
I was at a Sales meeting last week with about 60 reps. I had been talking to them all about “making it personal” – ensuring that they really were personally vested in their success – not just in their pocketbook, but also in their heart. Now I’m a very passionate and competitive person – so I have quite a bit of comfort with “kicking some ass”. I was discussing this with one of our top reps and was surprised by her feedback. Like Tom X above, she does not fit the personality type of a typical salesperson. She is very caring, prioritizes making people feel comfortable, and is not competitive. She might just stop short of baking cookies for her competitor after she takes away market share. She was very uncomfortable with the aggressiveness of my “make it personal” message.
The point is – different personality styles may fit for different sales jobs. Stacy is passionate about what she sells – she truly and deeply believes her product helps people and can change lives. Because of that, it allows her to be compelling because she has pure intent – by “selling”, she is really “helping”. Take that same rep and put her in a situation where she is selling a “Me too” product, or one that only has the edge on price – and you would probably have a very low performing rep.
Somewhere earlier today I read a blog that said success was about having the Right People in the Right Job at the Right Time. How true! It’s not really about a zero sum – it’s about harnessing the personality traits of a particular person to allow them to be successful in sales. And – as sales managers, it’s about recognizing that not every good sales person is the right fit for a given job.
Thanks for the mind candy – you really got my wheels turning with this one!
Thanks for the comments, Jen. I agree that there are many styles, all of them valid. I once had two surgeons try to sell me on having a brain surgery at UCLA. They were so enthusiastic about cutting open my skull that they nearly scared me to death. They did frighten me away, and I had the surgery in Cincinnati. But the point I am making in my posts is that we in sales have to behave in accordance with the rules of a zero sum game, someone wins, someone loses. This means lots of things, and you can surely compete and be low key. You can also go out there and kick some ass!
Hope you cookie baker knows that her competitors don’t want her cookies. They are trying to take her clients . . . and they are trying to eat her lunch. She can be low key, and she can make people feel comfortable and she can still compete as if it counts! Lots of people do!
Sometimes we need to call out what is needed in any role. I like your listing of talents. For me competitiveness is a bucket of talents because if we look to the origins of the word “compete” we find it comes from 2 Latin words – com = together + petere = to seek. What talents allow you to seek together?
I recently saw a video on YouTube with a collection of Will Smith’s interviews. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLN2k0b3g70) What was incredible is his testimony to zero sum game. His belief is if both he and someone else are on the same treadmill – these are the outcomes: The other person will jump off or he (Will) will die. With so many salespersons giving up (90%) after making the third contact and with 80% of all sales earned between the fifth and 12th contacts, your post only confirms what is missing in so many salespersons.
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