Some popular products seem to sell themselves, but the reality is the success began with a process.

The same is true in the business of professional sports, a $60 billion a year industry where some franchises grow into monster brands. 

Sales managers in many industries sometimes use sports themes in their coaching — competitiveness, dedication, and strategy execution, etc. As someone who has trained the sales teams of major sports brands, I see what often separates the winners from the losers.

The problem with selling today is there’s no home-field advantage. The selling game takes place in the buyer’s mind. As the salesperson, you have to determine how much the potential buyer knows or doesn’t know. And even with all the technology, it’s never been more competitive; there are more salespeople interacting directly with customers than ever before.

Here are four concepts to consider when coaching your sales team on today’s more complex playing field.

Forget the better mousetrap 

You don’t necessarily have to build a better mousetrap; you have to do a better job selling your mousetrap. You have to understand there are a lot of new variables in selling. Social media and online information have changed the game. But despite all the new technology, the bedrock of sales remains the same: people selling to people.

Adjust your attitude

Grit is a key component of both championship sports teams and successful sales teams. One notable difference is the relative importance of skill set in each profession. Skill set does not equate to success in sales. Hard work isn’t a skill; it’s a choice. It’s starting early, staying late, and being resilient after rejection. It’s forming the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.

Level the playing field 

Compare the sales process to choosing which game to play in a casino; your odds of closing improve if you keep your sales process simple and tailor the approach to the buyer’s mindset. Otherwise, the salesperson can be as distracted as if in a casino. In sales, we don’t have to be gamblers, but we do have to be odds players. So, you want to play craps rather than the slots.

Find common ground 

Establishing credibility with prospects requires engaging them in a conversation. The first seven seconds are the most critical in getting their attention. If you survive, you have the next 60 seconds to win their interest. To do this you need to see the sale from the buyer’s perspective.

There’s plenty of room for a salesperson’s creativity and a customer’s need for tailored solutions. At the same time, you can use that process repeatedly to provide solutions and compete in a complex world.

Lance Tyson (www.tysongroup.com) is president & CEO of Tyson Group, a sales training, coaching, and consulting company. He is author of “Selling is an Away Game: Close Business and Compete in a Complex World.” 

A key part of any CEO’s or entrepreneur’s role is to make the “right” decisions, and then ensure they are enacted to advance the business. Yet their decisions and actions often miss the mark, frustrating the achievement of their aspirations.

It’s the voice in their head and other invisible factors at work. 

All CEOs and entrepreneurs have habits, beliefs, and motivators — such as fear — that affect what they do, often unconsciously. 

These “hidden growth killers” interfere with a business leader’s ability to make optimal decisions and then see them through via day-to-day choices and actions.

This is why leading your business feels challenging, frustrating, and even maddening at times despite the fact that you generally know what to do and how to do it. Your motivators, habits, and beliefs influence how you think and act.

Any CEO or entrepreneur who ever put off having a critical conversation or justified retaining a poor-performing employee has experienced their own “hidden growth killers” in action.

And it’s not just those at the top who are susceptible. Motivators, habits, and beliefs operate similarly in the minds of your leadership team and every other person you employ. The cumulative cost is staggering.

Fortunately, there are research-backed techniques to counteract the “hidden growth killers” and more consistently align our decisions, choices, and actions with our ultimate aspirations. They include the following:

Reduce fear

Until you identify and debunk your fears, they’re guaranteed to drive your thinking and behavior. There are ways to prevent fear-based decision-making. One is to name a specific fear and explore the logic and realistic probability behind it. In most cases, you’ll realize that it isn’t real enough to warrant changing your thinking and behavior. Next, don’t rush into decisions. If you take the time to gather information and weigh logic more than emotion, you minimize fear-dominated decisions. Finally, you should surround yourself with more accomplished people who are willing and able to challenge you to grow beyond your fears. 

Slow down and get rational 

How we think and what we do are largely the result of habits, some good, some bad. Those habits are engrained and automatic, so one way to overcome negative habits is to slow down. For example, many business leaders are in the habit of being seduced by their own workload. Instead of working on the big picture — such as assessing customer needs or thinking strategically — they become focused on solving something in front of them that seems broken. Rather than give in to that urge, you can slow down and get rational. Compare the value of one activity to another, weighing which has a better long-term payoff. Or determine if someone else could handle the immediate issue and be sure to get over any fear associated with proper delegation.

Leverage your past — both good and bad 

Your interpretation of the past affects how you view the present. Our perception of past events skews either negative or positive, which is why two people often remember the same event differently. If you have a past-positive orientation, your past experience will tend to bolster your confidence. But if your orientation is past-negative, you might approach the same situation with fear and dread. You can better leverage your past by contemplating a few questions. What good came from a bad prior experience? Are there alternative explanations for past events? How else can you look differently at what happened in your past? Shifting your thinking can be the key to your future success.

Be careful that no matter how deliberate you are in your efforts to improve, even the most seasoned CEOs make mistakes and experience setbacks. Remain purposeful and take it in stride. In the virtual marathon that you’re running to scale your business, your willingness to stretch and grow, to do the work, and to stick with it are what really matter.                           

Mark E. Green, author of “Activators: A CEO’s Guide to Clearer Thinking and Getting Things Done” (www.Activators.biz), is a speaker, strategic advisor, and coach to CEOs and executive teams worldwide. He is a core advisor to Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches.