Good morning!
Growing up in a suburb of Boston, I was an avid Red Sox fan. One of my favorite childhood memories is mowing the lawn on a Saturday morning, taking the T into the city, and sitting in the bleachers (for $1.00) next to my dad. I can still hear him complain about the $0.75 hot dogs. I can still hear the announcer say, “Ladies and gentleman…boys and girls…welcome to Fenway Park.”
The best day of the season for me was Opening Day. That’s initial cap: capital O, capital D. Opening Day. For long-suffering Red Sox fans (mind you, this was the early 70s and we were still generations away from breaking The Curse of the Bambino), it symbolized renewal and gave us all hope. This sales tip will drop right around the time umpires all over the country shout the most exciting 2 words in the game: “Play ball!” and I want to inject a question…
Why don’t we have an Opening Day in sales?
Despite the fact that sales isn’t exactly seasonal and there are no playoffs, it is still cyclical. One can experience slumps and winning streaks, shutouts and go into extra innings to get the win. There are managers and teams and… you get the point.
It’s not hard to get burned out in sales. Prospecting for new business is a seemingly endless process of what feels like shouting into the abyss without any hint the sales needle is moving. A stretch of sales success is typically followed by a stretch of the doldrums thanks to a lack of new business development. I think it would be nice to get off the merry go round, participate in a little spring training (i.e.—skills sharpening activities), and begin anew.
Let’s all line up down the first and third base lines. Let’s listen as an announcer speaks our name. Let’s step forward and acknowledge the applause. Let’s look skyward and drink in the blue sky and the warm sun. And then let’s head back to the dugout (desk), wake up our computer, and start the process anew.
Play ball!
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