Jarryd Hayne has been on an amazing (and very public) journey from the Australian NRL to the American NFL. No doubt he still has a long way to go.

Regardless of your attitude to Jarryd and the endless publicity, you have to admire the great job he has done prospecting, identifying the opportunity, managing the sale and closing.

While I am sure he would never call himself a sales person, here are a few of the customer centric selling tasks he seems to have done very well.

Deep Market Knowledge

This was no spur of the moment decision. Jarryd travelled to America many times and hung out with NFL players, went to games and observed the culture. He also put in the hard yards with local NFL players in Australia that no one had ever heard of. He did all of this to make sure he had a thorough understanding of the market.

How comprehensive is your market knowledge?

Inside Contact

He hooked up with Reggie Bush. Despite Reggie being ‘the internal competition’, Haynes nature and unique story meant that Reggie was willing to share priceless insights with him. It didn’t stop with Reggie; others also were keen to see him do well.

Do you have an internal coach on your deals?

Great Listening

When given the chance to demonstrate his product, he was always going to do it with passion. The question was had he listened enough to the clients requirements so that he could demo what was required not just what he knew and was good at.

Jarryd described himself as a student cramming to learn the NFL. No doubt he still has plenty to do but he has shown he is keen to keep listening & learning.

Listening is the most powerful sales skill. How well do you listen – or have you prescribed before the client even opens their mouth?

Product Delivery

Ironically after all the hard work leading up to the close of the sale, when it came time to deliver he ‘dropped the ball’. His demo’s had been outstanding but when crunch time came, things did not work out perfectly.

However – there was no spitting the dummy and blaming the wind, the surface or his fellow team members. He took responsibility and got back out there when given the chance and went about trying to do better.

The minute we blame our own organisation for poor product delivery and execution we undermine our own integrity and trust.

Upsold

If you are consistent, trusted and you deliver on your promise then getting follow up sales becomes a whole lot easier. Often they can be bigger than the first deal that got you in the door.

Paradice who backed Hayne said “I met and had a chat with Jarryd. He’s a level headed and unassuming guy. I like people who go out on a limb and put everything on the line and I wanted to associate our brand with that.”

“You couldn’t market someone like Jarryd Hayne without performance,” Paradice said. “Performance comes first and then the marketing. I think a lot of people go around marketing first and then think about performance later.”

Jarryd has already signed several lucrative sponsorship deals and no doubt there are many more to come.

Conclusion

Great sales is not pushy and in your face. It is often quietly confident, showing others your passion and dedication, and teaching them along the way about a different way to do things in such away as to upset the status quo.

Jarryd Hayne has managed to do all this in his own quiet way and achieved something many thought could not be achieved.

How Customer Centric are your sales skills?

2017-01-31T14:24:50+11:00
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