For any athlete, at some point you have to listen to your body when it tells you to dial things down a notch.  I don’t sit still very well, so for me this became a transition from team sports to extreme sports.

Mountain climbing is now officially my sport (activity?) of choice.  This is, to say the least, unexpected.  It’s not like I grew up dreaming about traipsing through the Alps.  In fact, I still hate the cold.  Funny how things work out.

Speaking of, I also didn’t grow up dreaming about selling stuff.  Traditional sales never really interested me, even as I began my career.  But, like climbing, sometimes you backdoor your way into places that are surprisingly enjoyable.

As I consider the similarities between these journeys, it’s hard not to recognize the similarities between their destinations as well.  There are more than a few parallels between high-altitude mountaineering and B2B business development.  In fact, looking at the sales cycle through glacier glasses can actually be an enlightening little exercise.

Let’s give it a go.

You, Sales Professional, are the climber.  You’ve worked hard and gotten got a green light from the boss to take a trip.  In sales terms, your funnel’s working and you’ve got a hot lead ready to talk shop.

The key first step in engaging any interested prospect regardless of what sales process you follow is the same as that for any mountaineering trip:  preparation.  We can boil this down into a few key areas.

Determine If You Want Their Business

Your friend suggests a 20,000-foot peak in the Andes.  Are you ready for that?  Can you even afford a jaunt to South America?  If the highest thing you’ve trudged is your three-story condo and you’re saving for college tuition, think twice about committing.

Similarly, considering whether or not to pursue a prospect can save a lot of time, money, and headache.  I’ve turned down a number of potentially-lucrative clients for one reason or another.  For instance, their needs may not have been an exact fit for my services and I didn’t want to disappoint.  Maybe I spotted red flags during our initial chats.  Or, I might have weighed project budget versus time and didn’t like the ROI.

Just because they reached out to you doesn’t mean they’re the ideal customer and that you should expend valuable resources trying to close a bad deal.  They’re sizing you up as discerning buyers, and you should be doing the same thing.

Conduct Market Research

It takes me three months of research before switching deodorant, so you better believe I leave no stone unturned when it comes to planning a mountaineering expedition.  I must’ve checked a dozen sources for Kilimanjaro gear lists ahead of my first climb.  The most popular mountains in the world are guided by umpteen different outfitters, so I always have to prioritize my needs to make the best choice for each trip.  Local customs, currency, transportation, paperwork, vaccinations—such due diligence isn’t optional, it’s very much mandatory.

You may not have to check for typhoid, but walking in cold is unacceptable.  Market research should at least include the following:

• Business: public reports, marketing materials, press, bios
• Industry: trends, competitors, structure
• Network: existing prospect relationships, Board connections, insight from contacts familiar with their team

Put in the Legwork

If you don’t train for extreme mountains, you’re rolling some heavy dice.  Depending on the peak, training can take months.  I can tell pretty quickly who’s put in their time at the gym and who hasn’t.  It’s frustrating since, no matter how hard you worked, the group can only move as fast as its slowest members.  In one case, this nearly cost me a summit.

It’s no different with a sale.  Neither you nor your teammates can skimp on the grunt work no matter how tedious or unglamorous it may be.  This means tailoring your pitches, rehearsing demos, updating your strategy, and so on.

It also means being flexible as dynamics change.  Training with jump ropes and plyometrics may have worked at 24, but leads to pulled muscles and turf toe at 34 (that was fun).  You need to adapt your approach at a micro level—individual prospect, specific industry, etc.—and at a macro level—generational expectations, new sales technology, etc.

As coaching legend Bobby Knight said, “Everybody has the will to win, not everybody has the will to prepare to win.”  All sales reps want to close the deal.  But, the fact that 82% of B2B buyers find them to be unprepared means there’s a lot of opportunity for you to stand out by doing what they’re not behind the scenes.

This preparation lays the foundation for everything that follows on the mountain or in the boardroom.  That’s what we’ll explore in Part 2.

Go to Part 2.