Nick Saban is considered one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. One of his guiding principles he constantly refers to is the acronym WIN: What’s Important Now. Instead of focusing on everything he defines winning for his team by the most important things right now and focuses them on what of those they can control.
As salespeople, if you want to win, it’s important to know your controllable WIN. Here are three attributes of knowing your WIN:
- What is going on in you industry? Be knowledgeable about current events and news in your industry, whether it’s the big play from the game last night, the newest skin care product, or how inflation could change your industry, you should always know what’s going on in your industry.
- Are you aware of the solutions your product or service is providing to customers? Meaning if your company has a lot of different solutions you to sell to a customer, are you aware of all of them, and what problem they are solving for that customer.
- What is going on within your company that would be beneficial to share with customers, centers of influence or acquaintances?
How can you accomplish those three things?
- To better understand current events and the state of your industry, consume daily relevant newsletters and sources. Read trade publications, your local media outlets, and follow well-known people in the industry. It will be endlessly helpful to know and understand the big story of the day of how industry leaders react to them.
- Your specific Solution:
- Consume your own product – You want to understand your customer’s experience. While this may seem easy and obvious, it positions you as more of an expert.
- Social media – Follow your own product or service on social media.
- Consume competitors – The best way to understand our value proposition is to appreciate and understand your competitions value proposition.
While all of these things seem small, they are small daily adjustments and habits that will help you to win more by focusing on your WIN.
