What Sales Can Learn from the World Cup

[image error] This is the fourth in a series of blog posts on our latest research:  Creating Customer Consensus . To read more, click here.

Well, after a month of drama, suspense, upset, and excitement (and a few suspiciously long “lunch breaks”), the 2014 World Cup is over. It all came down to the final match on Sunday, where Argentina fell to Germany 1-0. Other commentators have noted how Argentina’s offensive players are much more talented than its defensive ones, and indeed, Sunday proved that relying on a good offense, even one led by a player like Lionel Messi, who many believe is one of the best offensive players in the world, is not always enough to win the game.

Sales, too, relies heavily on the offense. And rightfully so. We all want Messis, Neymars, and Ronaldos on our team—star performers with the Challenger skills and commercial insight to get the ball in the goal. We want to stack the rest of the team with skilled Mobilizers who can drive the ball down the field and help out the rep when he or she gets into a tight spot. The hope is that with a strong offense, your reps will make goals and win the game. (Or rather, win deals and make goal.) And often, it does work.

But, like Argentina learned on Sunday, there may be times when a strong offense is not enough. A determined opposition can block and wear down even the strongest of offenses, and without a solid defensive plan, your team is sure to lose in the end.

In the same way, for Sales, a determined opposition—a Blocker in the customer stakeholder group—significantly lowers the chance of you winning the deal. In fact, our latest research discovered that the presence of a Blocker in the customer stakeholder group decreases the likelihood of making a high-quality sale by 47 percent.

It is possible to win the game still when faced with a strong Blocker, it just requires that Sales begins to put some into time building a defensive lineup, in addition to keeping their offense stacked. Our research shows that the best reps strategize a plan for dealing with potential Blockers very early on, instead of waiting until the Blocker has already interfered.

But dealing with Blockers can be tricky, and it’s hard to know what exactly to do in each situation. To help, we’ve developed a new page for CEB Sales members to learn more about how to effectively manage Blockers, including a case study on how to help your reps identify Blockers early on and a tool to help reps and managers determine the most effective strategy for dealing with them.