5 Ways to Bring Your A Game to Sales with Ann Holm

Jul 15, 2019

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Ann, please give us the Cliff Notes (condensed) version of your career

Ann has been an executive coach for the past 10 past years
Prior to beginning her coaching practice, Ann was a speech pathologist who worked with brain injured patients for 25 years
Ann earned her bachelors and masters in speech pathology at The University of Michigan
Ann and Joe Lynch have a sales coaching/training program that helps transportation and logistics professionals sell more services

Please explain the term "bring your A game"

The term "A game" is typically used in athletics and it means bring your best game, the right attitude, a winning, focused, positive mindset
"A game" is now used broadly and refers to the attitude, effort, and skills required to slay the moment

What is the first way to bring your A game to sales

Leverage your experience with similar clients / similar type of companies
Specialize in a certain market segment like e-commerce or hazardous materials transportation, which will make you an expert in the industry
Research a specific industry and build your knowledge base so that you can feel very confident and comfortable when calling on someone within that industry

What is the second way to bring your A game to sales

More opportunities/more sales leads create a feeling of abundance and confidence
Lots of sales leads helps salespeople feel like they are "on a roll" (positive momentum)
Lots of opportunities brings a certain swagger to a salesperson
Fill up the pipeline and you will feel like you have a margin of error
Having lots of sales leads is like "fresh air" – another chance to make a sale

What is the third way to bring your A game to sales?

Knowing your blind spots – areas of low awareness that may trip you up
Understanding your blind spots is important, but even more importantly, you must have strategies for addressing your blind spots
Strengths and weaknesses are often very closely related
People often have a weakness that is the flip side of their strength
Example: Joe is a good communicator which is helpful (strength) unless he talks too much which becomes a problem (blind spot)
Strengths will get you most of the way there and blind spots will prevent you from winning

What is the fourth way to bring your A game to sales?

Being aware of your emotional state and how it is affecting you positively or negatively is very important
People wrongly assume that emotions can be ignored or buried, but your emotions will impact your sales performance so it important to get in touch with your emotions, especially the negative ones
When you recognize the underlying cause of the emotion, you can take action to address the problem or at least accept/cope with it

What is the fifth way to bring your A game to sales?

Get comfortable (and prepared) when you are not "feeling it" - when you feel tired, uninspired, fearful, intimidated or overwhelmed
In difficult moments, athletes rely on what they practiced, soldiers remember their training and good salespeople will follow their process (if you need a process call Joe Lynch at 517.375.0631 😊)
Waiting for the right moment, when you feel fully inspired and brilliant is a recipe for failure
If you want to feel confident, act confident and your heart and mind will follow your outward actions

Ann, any final thoughts on ways to bring your A game to sales?

You must find ways to act even when you are not feeling confident and positive
Your A game doesn't come like a lightning bolt from the sky, you must learn to create your A game when you need it

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