08.16.18

5 Sales Lessons from My Summer Vacation — Canada Fishing Trip

by: Tony Cole, Founder & Chief Learning Officer

In June I went on a seven-day fishing trip to Lake McCrae in Ontario, Canada, with three friends. My fishing vacations have always provided me with insights that correlate well to what it takes to be successful in selling. Below are five sales lessons I gleaned from this year’s trip.  

1. Anticipate an unexpected turn of events and prepare ahead.

Lake McCrae, Ontario, is far beyond civilization. There are no people, no stores, no cell towers, and it runs on only generator power for a few months of the year. There is no way to communicate other than by smoke signal, a flare at a passing float plane (if one would happen by) or by portaging three hours back to the lodge should one need help. At my age, I know that bad things often happen, and this inability to communicate in an emergency is beyond my comfort zone. Anticipating the unexpected, I rented a satellite phone so that we could get help or get a message to someone quickly and so that I could talk to my family regularly.

How often have you been surprised by a turn of events during a sales process? What could you have done to anticipate the unexpected and how could you have better prepared to respond? Learn to “click-through,” meaning think through to next steps. Can you provide something of value to the prospect to remind them that you are involved and vested? Can you put yourself in their shoes and perhaps understand and anticipate their process? Are there other people who must be involved? Is there anything you might do to smooth the way?

2. If you change how you view things, you will see something different.

My friend, Gerald, pointed out the structure of the rocks below the surface of the water. When the sun was shining, the water was crystal clear, and I could see in detail where I would be most successful casting, thus I improved my chances for a catch.

If sales people could change how they viewed selling and their view about prospects, they would better understand how to convert a prospect into an opportunity and perhaps, a client. After all, though their problems may all sound the same, the impact is different for each individual and organization. Too often sales organizations focus on the goals or the sales process instead of what Mark Roberge calls the buyer’s journey.

Changing your lens will help you see more clearly what your prospect’s needs are and how they might make a decision.

3. You can’t force big sales to happen.

Late in the afternoon each day, we would travel to a specific spot that we called “The Barrel” because it was like fishing from a barrel. We could always supplement the evening meal if we had not yet caught the licensed-to-harvest size and number of fish. One afternoon at The Barrel, I hooked a giant Northern Pike with gear suited for hooking three-pounders — a Browning Ultralite, six-pound test line, 1/8-ounce jig and three-inch white super fluke. Not wanting to risk losing this monster fish, I set my drag and took my time. It took me 50 minutes to land this catch.

When you happen to uncover an opportunity that is on the upper end of your reach or normal sale, it is unreasonable to expect that the things you do, the processes you normally follow or the systems, resources and methods (equipment) you typically use will work for this out-of-the-norm opportunity. Patience becomes a virtue, and the skill of uncovering the buyer’s journey is critical. New methods and resources might have to be applied to land the big fish. (Like using a net.)

4. Learn from your mistakes and your successes.

Two days later, I hooked another fish about the same size, but I learned from the first big catch and managed to bring this one aboard in 25 minutes. A day later I caught the Granddaddy — a 48-inch Northern Pike and landed him in 20 minutes.

Use your failures and successes to help you determine what you need to keep doing, start doing or more often and perhaps, more importantly — stop doing.

Conducting pre-call and post-call debriefing sessions will provide you opportunities to analyze “why” and “how” you won or lost a sale. Ron Stuart — my good friend from Alliant Insurance Services — used to call this: The Tale of the Sale or The Tale of The Fail.

5. Create more opportunities to make more sales.

My fishing partners have been making this trip for over three decades. They are experienced and rarely get their fishing jigs stuck in the rocks hidden beneath the water. On the other hand, I spent more time re-tying jigs and lures then they did. Subsequently they casted more frequently and caught more fish. One day while fishing at Big Rapids, Bob hauled in fish after fish while I was busy putting new lures on my line. By the time we left Big Rapids, Bob had caught 38 Walleye!

Sales people have lots of reasons — real and imagined — for not picking up the phone, not reaching out to suspects or prospects, not asking for referrals and not attending networking events. It’s really a simple concept — talk to more people, create more opportunities, make more presentations, close more deals! Cast more, catch more!

Read more sales insights on Tony Cole’s blog.