The Sales Triathlon

By Rick Vohrer, TCV Growth Partner and Sales Coach

Mark Allen, Michael Phelps, Lance Armstrong, Evans Chebet… do you know what they have in common? How about what they do not have in common?

Michael Phelps is an American swimmer who holds the record for the most Olympics medals (28) won by any athlete, including twenty-three gold medals and 13 individual golds. Phelps competed in his first Olympics at the age of 15, as part of the U.S. men's swim team. He was the first American male swimmer to earn a spot on five Olympic teams and made history as the oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic swimming history at age 28.

Lance Armstrong was an American road racing cyclist. He achieved international fame for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005. In 1996, he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal metastatic testicular cancer. After recovering, he returned to cycling in 1998 as a member of the US Postal/Discovery team between 1998 and 2005 when he won his seven Tour de France titles.

In 2022, Evans Chebet became the third man this century to win both the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon. Chebet successfully defended his title at the 2023 Boston Marathon for his third consecutive World Marathon Major victory in a row.

Unless you are an ardent follower of the Ironman World Championships, I suspect you are familiar with the last three but less likely with Mark Allen.

After competing and losing in the Ironman Triathlon Championships six times, Allen emerged victorious in 1989, winning one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world. It was the first of six Ironman victories for Allen, the last coming in 1995 at age 37, making him the oldest winner of the event at that time. Over the course of his racing career, ending in 1996, he maintained a 90% average in the top three place finishes.

To compete in the Ironman competition, which is a special kind of Triathlon, really a series of three (3) events consisting of a 2.4-mile (3.9 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.2 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile (42.2 km) run completed in that order, a total of 140.6 miles (226.3 km), one must be proficient in all three legs of the event. It is considered one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world.

A regular Triathlon is no minor event. The main difference between an Ironman and a triathlon is that an Ironman is one specific kind of triathlon event and a brand, while a triathlon can refer to any type of event that involves swimming, biking, and running. All are a series of marathons. There are no sprints.

Mark Allen did not have to be Michael Phelps to participate in the swimming leg of Ironman, but he did have to be a functional, proficient swimmer. Needing water wings and doing the doggy paddle stroke was not acceptable. He did not need to be Lance Armstrong to participate in the 26+ mile bike race, but he did need to able to ride a bike and endure the 26+ miles. Mark did not have to be Evans Chebet to successfully run the third leg of the Ironman, but he did have to be a proficient long-distance runner. If he trained to be Usain Bolt, a sprinter considered the fastest man in the world, Mark would have trained for the wrong event. Mark needed to train and be proficient in three marathons.

So, what does this have to do with business development and sales? Everything!

Sales is very much a Triathlon, the Sales Triathlon. It consists of three events: PROSPECTING, PRESENTING and CLOSING. Each one is a marathon not a sprint. Each requires you to be functionally proficient to participate. If you are a great prospector but can’t close, you will not cross the finish line. If you are a great presenter and lousy prospector, you will have very few opportunities to present. If you cannot close, you will exhaust yourself on steps one and two but starve because you cannot complete step three. All three legs of the Sales Triathlon require endurance and consistent training if you want to consistently cross the finish line. For many Ironman Triathletes, simply finishing is considered success. The goal is the same for a Sales Triathlete. And to consistently cross ahead of your competition becomes the drive once you master the first goal.

Are you training to be a Sales Triathlete?

The first leg of a triathlon is always the swim. This is for safety reasons as athletes tend to get progressively fatigued throughout the race. It is important that the more difficult disciplines are completed while athletes are still feeling fresh. I do not claim to know tons of Triathletes, but the ones I do know all agree that the toughest leg for them to train for is the swimming. This is analogous to the Sales Triathlon. Prospecting is usually the biggest challenge for most Sales Triathletes. It is the first stage of your pipeline. The other two stages are dependent on successful prospecting. And relying on leads generated by others leaves you vulnerable, risking your economic well-being.

Marketing programs are designed to create leads. Inbound marketing is a business strategy that centers around attracting leads via content and experiences that are created just for them, thereby pulling potential customers to a company. Many companies have allowed their sales teams to become dependent on leads, shifting the “prospecting” leg of the Sales Triathlon away from the sales team. In the process, many sales teams are no longer effective prospectors. If you are dependent on an outside source for leads, what happens when if sales team expands and the quantity of leads is diluted? What happens if the marketing team cannot find talent to create the inbound programs? (Something I hear is a challenge currently). What happens to your pipeline when leads you are depending on others for dry up?

Presenting and the process involved. Like the second stage of the traditional triathlon, is the easiest stage. Once you learn to ride a bike, the rest is simply training for endurance. But one does not get to the second stage without being successful in stage one. Most “sales training” offers ample ways to become effective in presentations. While some processes are better than others, they all can work when methodically applied. Many people not wired for sales can present. The ability to be a functionally effective presenter can be learned. Anyone who understands how to apply their intelligence, is willing to study, learn and practice, can become functionally effective at presenting. It’s like riding a bike.

Stage three, the marathon run. In a traditional triathlon it must be completed within a specified time. There is not an unlimited amount of time to finish. Walking the last leg will not get the participant to the finish line within the time allowed. The runner simply follows their training putting one foot in front of the other over and over and over until they reach the end goal.

How is the CLOSE in the Sales Triathlon similar? The CLOSE is a subject that every sales training course spends tons of time on. But despite the lessons available, not all are effective at it. Some beat the odds by simply adding quantity. Sales is a numbers game after all. If you only close 1% of the opportunities, you just need to chase more opportunities. If this is your way to reach the finish line, you will eventually washout or your sales team leader will suggest you find another means of economic support.

To be consistently successful, the Sales Triathlete must do the same thing over and over and over until they reach the finish line. And that thing is CLOSE on every contact with a prospective customer, client, or buyer. This does not mean a one shot close. What it does mean is that the Sales Triathlete is able to close every contact knowing two things:

1. Exactly WHAT is the next step with this prospect?

2. By WHEN is it going to happen?

If these are not answered, then the contact with the prospect was a waste of time, both yours and theirs. When you have both answers, you have moved the process along. Remember, it is OK if the answer to #1 is “There is no next step” and the answer to #2 is “The when is now!” Not every prospect in your pipeline is going to become a sale. And the sooner you can make that determination, the better. It frees up your time to pursue the ones that are viable.

Your pipeline has potential business in all three stages of the Sales Triathlon. It is unlikely that you can know which opportunities in stage one will get all the way through to the end goal, a sale. But you can predict that the fewer opportunities in stage one will reduce the ones that make it to the finish line. Like the sports triathlete who knows that if he/she does not spend sufficient effort on swimming, if they cannot ride a bike, if they do not train for the run… they will never get to the finish line.

Are you training to be a Sale Triathlete? Do you consistently cross the finish line of the Sales Triathlon ahead of your competition? If you do not have a mentor or coach, perhaps a chat is in order. Feel free to reach out - Rick@TCV-Growth.Partners.