Sales, Service, Sports: Ya Gotta Believe

I love the Seattle Mariners.

They are currently one of the hottest teams in baseball because of team leadership (much to my surprise), believing in themselves, and team chemistry (character).

This excerpt, from today's Tacoma News Tribune, is from one of thousands of articles written every year about how professional sports teams succeed.

Whats gotten into the 40-39 Mariners?

Just about everything.

The chemistry is very good on this team, Hernandez said. We are all in this together the pitching, the defense, the offense. We are together, and if one guy doesn't get it done, the next guy picks him up.

We believe in ourselves, we pick each other up and that the history of this month. That why we're winning.

The same is true for frontline sales and customer service teams, yet the majority of them are still going through the motions. The concept of an entire team of top achievers-that a team must have in professional sports-gets lost in the various forms of the 80/20 Rule that justifies the lack of teams comprised of achievers. Justifies failure to create a unified team focused on being among the best of the best. if not the best!