You Win When Your Team Wins

Salespeople love winning. It’s pretty thrilling when you earn that incentive vacation trip, and it feels great to have your hard work recognized at sales rallies or company meetings. Bask in the glory! You earned it, right?

Sure, you earned it—with help from a huge network of people who have your back!

The sales champions who win year after year, always crushing old sales goals, consistently earning the top awards—they love being in the spotlight. But they never forget this:

You win when your team wins.

When someone points to one of those award plaques and asks, “How did you do it,” it’s vital to tell them about the team of people that helped you make it happen.

The more you recognize your team’s contributions and celebrate their success, the more success you’ll have. For many salespeople, it’s harder than it sounds! It ties in with one of my favorite lessons from 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People: The abundance and scarcity mindsets.

Scarcity vs. Abundance Mindsets

When all eyes are on you, it’s an opportunity to give credit to the team who got you past the finish line. If you’re hoarding the praise—or if you’re filled with jealousy and anger when someone else on your team wins that big incentive—you’re seeing through the lens of scarcity.

If you’re in a scarcity mindset, you feel like you have to succeed before anyone else or there won’t be enough success left for you. You hoard all the recognition and praise because sharing it means you get less. Someone else’s achievement isn’t a cause for celebration—it’s a threat.

But wait! Success, recognition, and praise are not limited resources!

When you recognize that there’s enough praise and success for everyone—and that the success of others doesn’t diminish your own success—you’re looking at things with a mentality of abundance.

No one does it alone

If you’re like most sales professionals, you have more than a handful of people who are supporting you. Your prospector, customer service rep, and other teammates have been in your corner all year, backing up your success.

If you always neglect to mention those people when you’re on stage accepting awards, they’re not going to be backing you up much longer!

It’s so important that you acknowledge your team’s role in your success:

“The only reason I’m able to do this is because I have an army of people who stand beside me.”

“My coach has always had my back and held me accountable.”

“My sales manager has always challenged me to grow.”

“My CSR is amazing, and my assistant is always on top of my scheduling.”

There are always people who are there behind you every day, helping you win. And the more you can share that success—thanking your team, showing gratitude for those who played a part—the more everyone wins.

When you share your success, other people will want to see you win more—and do more to help make that happen.

The most successful superstars win a Grammy, go on stage, and use that moment to thank their teams. You can’t get to the top without a network of people who have your back, support your efforts, and share your goals.

Build a winning team—show appreciation consistently

Sharing your wins, and celebrating your team, isn’t just about that big acceptance speech at the awards ceremony! There are simple things you can do throughout the year to show your team you appreciate them:

• Remember special events like birthdays & anniversaries (even just a text message can be meaningful!)
• At the end of the sales period, take your team out for a celebratory lunch to discuss what worked, thank the team, and acknowledge individual successes.
• Hand-written notes go incredibly far to express gratitude & appreciation.
• Always brag about your team to other people! The praise will come back to them, and their success reflects well on you.
• If you decide to show your appreciation through an incentive for your team—a meal out, a day off, a raise—be sure to follow through and actually do it!

Choose abundance!

Whether you share your wins and show your team your appreciation, or hoard the praise and recognition for yourself—people remember!

They could be a crucial component of your future success. Or, they’ll decide they don’t want to work with someone who takes all the credit.

Ready to leave your ego behind and embrace an abundance mentality? Share your wins with the team, and show them your appreciation year-round. You’ll be surprised how high you—and your team—can go!

Until next time—go sell some stuff!