How Golf Champ Rory's Trigger Words Will Raise Your Sales
One for the golfing rep.
Process
Spot
Two magic little words for Rory McIlroy.
He teased the sporting press corp during 2014. He’d only share which two words were driving him should he win that week’s major, The Open.
Most of the hacks apparently bet that it was something technical (like ‘shoulder down’). Then there were those who seemed to favour the motivational (‘claret jug’, as per the name of the coveted trophy). And some even thought there’d be a dagger for his former, recently-dumped, tennis-playing fiancée (Miss Wozniacki).
Top prize duly secured, no-one guessed the real duo.
The web widely reported his reveal.
“I feel pressure is very much self-inflicted. You only feel the pressure that you put on yourself. I use a couple little trigger words, and that helps me stay in the moment and stay present and not get ahead of myself or focus on the result. I have a couple little words that I use that just help me, instead of me making a huge deal about the certain shot, it’s just another golf shot.”
Process
“So when I think about process, it’s the process of making a good decision, visualising the shot the way I want to and just making a good golf swing, and that’s really it.”
Spot
“[When putting] I pick a point maybe two or three inches in front of the ball. I just try to roll it over that spot and try to not even think about the outcome or trying to hole a putt because I know if I roll it over my spot, then that’s all I can actually — that’s all I can do — the rest is just sort of there. If it goes in, it goes in. If it doesn’t, then I’ll try and hole the next one.”
With this week’s Masters upon us, I’ve heard Rory asked about these in the run up all over again.
He’s a young man exuding confidence.
It seems they remain part of his shot-making lexicon.
It struck me you could almost take exactly the same pair of words and apply them to a sales call.
Regular readers will know my attitude towards process. Its embrace truly sets the winners apart.
As for spot, well, I did consider how this might map onto the fabled ‘next action’ agreement come meeting-end, whether you’d properly unearthed the real ‘problem’, or if any manner of ‘authority’, ‘decision-making process/team’ and ‘key buying criteria’ had been identified. All valid in their own way.
Yet I don’t feel these are necessarily the best things that can be ‘spotted’.
Add to that any personal incentive…
Perhaps the best spot is something that makes your proposal uniquely the right ‘fit’.
A trait that means this bid is slap bang in the sweet spot of your ideal project. One that produces a perfect customer. One who’s happy. One that re-orders. One that tells all their friends. One that provides product development. One that pays what you are worth.
A good spot indeed.