3 Sales Lessons You Need to Learn From…Tom Brady
“I play a complicated position in an intensely team-oriented game.”
Tom Brady
Disclaimer: I am a lifelong San Francisco Forty-Niner fan. I came of age watching one of the greatest dynasties in the history of sports, and I had the great privilege of watching some of the best to ever play or coach: Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Bill Walsh, Ronnie Lott, and so many more.
But at the top of the list is the great Joe Montana, one of the coolest big-game athletes in any sport. Ever. Joe Montana was talent times toughness times leadership. He was the complete package.
But then along came Tom Brady. And he has challenged me to question the once unthinkable idea that someone could be better than Joe Montana. (I can’t believe I just wrote that.)
Here are three sales lessons we can all learn from Tom Brady…
1. Tom Brady believes he will win
It doesn’t matter who he’s playing or what the situation might be. He just believes he will win.
Now, it’s one thing to believe you’ll win when you’re going up against a soft opponent. But Tom Brady believed he would win Super Bowl LI – with his team down by 25 points in the third quarter.
No one has ever come back from that kind of deficit. But then, no one is Tom Brady. It all started with his belief.
Parenthetically, the Atlanta Falcons lost their collective belief. They were a different team late in the game. You saw it in their spirit and in their body language.
2. Tom Brady leads others to share his beliefs
His confidence is contagious.
If he had become panicky in the third quarter – if he looked frantic and out of control – he could never have inspired his team to rally to the cause.
What can we learn from this?
What we do when our backs are against the wall is infectious. Be careful – people are watching.
3. Tom Brady prepares for the toughest of situations
What happened in Super Bowl LI didn’t happen by chance.
The comeback had been scripted. It was one of the scenarios Brady had visualized before it happened. The groundwork began in film session after film session, in coaching meeting after coaching meeting, and in practice after practice.
How much time do spend preparing to become great at sales? How much time do you spend visualizing sales success? How often do you honest to goodness practice your sales skills?
Want to achieve sales superstardom? Take a few lessons from Tom Brady…the guy knows how to win.
And with that in mind, I tip my hat to the greatest Super Bowl quarterback of all time… Joe Montana. (But, yes, that Brady guy is pretty darned good, too.)
