I thought I did until -

The client called while I was waiting for the rental car shuttle bus. It was not the best atmosphere for a conversation but we had been playing telephone tag for a while and his meeting was approaching so we needed to talk. It turned out to be one of those powerful ah-ha conversations. 

He began by apologizing for being hard to reach. He had been with his son's hockey team at the national championships. Imagine the pride any parent would feel seeing their son playing in the national championships.

"How did they do?", I asked.

"Well, they came in fourth so it was a long ride home. Only the top three places count."

Hey, fourth place in a national championship - that's not bad. And since they are ten-year-olds, they have plenty of time to develop into national champions.

Then he dropped the ah-ha: "They were 25-0 going into the tournament. They were used to winning." These kids had faced twenty-five teams and outplayed them all. At the tournament, they made it to the final four and came out a footnote.

They were winners, not champions!

Do you want winners on your team or champions? What is the difference?

When the baseball season winds down this year, there will be many teams with winning records: more wins than losses. But only two will make it to the Word Series and only one National Champion will emerge.

Champions win the finals - that's the difference. In sales, champions bring in the trophy: the order.

Salespeople often tell me how they broke into a major account, how they quieted an irate customer and other feats of sales daring-do. I listen to their approach because I know I can learn from them. Then I ask an often-uncomfortable question: "How did the sale turn out?"

"Well, we lost it on price." "By the time I straightened everything out, someone higher up had decided to buy from the competition." "We didn't get the order but the customer was really impressed." "The client said we had the best proposal (or PowerPoint!) but, in the end, they went with a competitor."

These are the words of winners, not champions.

Making Champions

Some ideas -