It was a hot and sunny day. The Sales Ninja team gathered in front of the Extreme Park at Sunway Lagoon everyone was ready to race. We were going to race in Go Karts in this quarterly team building.
We started off with a safety briefing by the Go Kart Marshal. He mentioned that this sport can be dangerous and proper precaution needs to be explained.
And the race starts. Drivers are looking very focused and they are anticipating the green GO lights.
And they’re on their way!
If you get distracted… It’s gonna be FATAL!
There was a case where a driver from a different group was driving at top speed and was somehow distracted and forgot to make a turn at the sharpest bend. He was badly injured where he broke his jaw and fractured his skull. In sales, never get distracted. If you lose focus and forget to do important things like follow up or prospecting, your sales will get killed, horribly!
It’s scary when I was reaching the bend… at top speed!
There is a natural fear that emerges when you are flooring the pedal and you are reaching the bend. Should you slow down or should you drive at top speed? The natural thing to do is to slow down and make the turn safely. The problem with these go-karts is the pick up is slow and once you slow down, it takes time to get back to the top speed. That’s where you will lose out to other racers and get overtaken.
In Sales Ninja, we want a fast and furious team, slow and steady people will not fit in our culture. Likewise in sales, it should be fast and furious! Salespeople are expected to always be aggressive and energetic. If you are slow, other aggressive salespeople will overtake you in an instant.
I don’t just drive… If I do that, I’ll be left behind.
When we all drive our Go Karts, we all want to be number 1. In our minds, we are racing to be the fastest, to overtake all the other racers, and to be number 1. If you plan to drive leisurely, you’ll definitely be left behind. Use this mentality in your sales performance also. If you do sales to pass time, you’ll get left behind. But if you do sales to beat your competitors, you’ll find that it’s more exciting and challenging. Once you become number 1, you’ll feel the pride!
We hit the curb so many times… It’s so hard to drive!
We were new to the track so many of us hit the curb when making the turn. It slowed us down. Getting back to the top speed takes time. But the more we drove on the track, eventually, no one hit it anymore. We’ve gotten familiar with it. Learning a new skill in sales will most likely be met with bumps. But don’t be discouraged, the more you practice and push yourself, you’ll master it and eventually can do it even with your eyes closed.
At the end of the day…
It felt great! 2 of our Sales Ninja staff who had fear of driving due to past accidents actually completed the race and not only that, they raced their hearts out. Do not be distracted or it’ll be fatal. You need to race to win and when even you are met with bumps or problems, you can overcome that by practicing more.
