How Your Selling Can Match Jimmy Connors’ Tennis Court Zones To Volley Home

Just because there’s a thrilling World Cup on doesn’t mean all my ‘sport & selling’ posts have to be about the beautiful game.

The undisputed tennis commentator crown surely belongs to McEnroe.

Yet from nowhere at this year’s Wimbledon there appears Connors.

One nugget I caught from him is how he framed each part of the court.

Behind the base line at the back of the court was his “patience” zone. He also called this the “neutral” area.

Then between the baseline and service line was the “aggressive” zone.

Finally, in the service court up to the net he had his “kill zone”.

His explanation of these mentioned that when patient you stay in the point and look to tee something up if possible. Once stepped in you can really start to open up play. And at the net you should be securing the point with a single, winning shot. Jimmy never wanted to be hitting more than one volley in a rally.

My first Sales thought shuddered at how all those boiler-room style confrontational outfits would love that.

But then I reflected how toned down a touch it could readily apply to a proper win-win solution selling operation.

Three parallel zones do exist. The stable and probing build up, the progressive moves to push forward, and the shot to win.

For instance, these could apply to a funnel-related status, time-periods of your Sales calendar or elements of your prospects’ buying or decision-making cycles.

Whilst this viewpoint wouldn’t constitute your entire process, it does show merit in focusing on staying in the game, gaining momentum and closing.

As an exercise, treat them as three vital, separate entities. To know which one you’re at right now with each live deal in terms of your current stage could also throw up a crucial new perspective.

Do you really want to be forcing your volley at a wrong time, staying behind the baseline when you should have stepped-in, have stepped in too early or be standing mid-court and not going for the lines?