“Hello, thank you for calling the Dallas Cowboys – how may I help you?”

Her voice was sweet, smooth and seasoned with the cutest Texas twang you have ever heard.

“Can you please tell me who is responsible for your game-day entertainment?”, I asked.

I was looking to set up an appointment with the Cowboys when I was going to be down in Dallas meeting with two of our clients: the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers.  I figured I would try to add in the Cowboys as a client to create the Triple Crown of Dallas sports marketing customers.

“That would be Mr. George Hays our Vice President of Marketing.”, she replied in the sweetest of tones.

“May I speak with him please?”

She proceeded to transfer me to Mr. Hays.

Now, anyone who has ever done any cold-calling knows that you rarely, if ever, get the opportunity to speak with your prospect on the first try.  Ninety-nine percent of the time you get voice mail.  The voice mail buys you a little time to think through the message you want to leave, or hang up and try again another time, or go back to the switch-board and ask if he is in the building and can be paged.

So, as I was mulling through my options in anticipation of the multiple rings I was about to encounter, I was shocked into reality by a commanding voice saying, “This is George Hays.”

Yikes, what do I do now?  I wasn’t really expecting this…

Thankfully my communication skills were on auto pilot,

“Hello Mr. Hays, my name is Dave MacLean and I am President of MacLean Sports Marketing.  We are an international sports-marketing agency.  I will be in Dallas meeting with the Stars and the Rangers next month and I was wondering if I could have 30 minutes of your time?”

Then it happened…he asked the most profound question any prospect can ask…it’s the question that every person who sells needs to be able to answer…

And by-the-way, everyone is in “sales”.  Everyone, regardless of your position within an organization, needs to know how to “sell”.  We all need to know how to move other people.  We need to know how to influence people toward a different mindset, attitude, belief or behaviour.

Selling is merely influencing other people – “moving” them.  Teachers and trainers, doctors and dieticians, politicians and parents, receptionists and repairmen, garbage collectors and greens keepers all need to know how to move other people.  Being human involves interacting with other humans and sometimes influencing them to be or do differently.

Every leader is “selling”: communication that’s meant to move people from one mindset to another.

Back to Mr. Hays…here is the question he asked me:

“Dave, how can you help the Dallas Cowboys?”

In other words, “What’s in it for me?”

Whenever we are attempting to move anyone to another position, be it a mindset, attitude, belief or behaviour, we need to be able to articulate how they will benefit from what we are suggesting.

“Well Mr. Hays, we can help you increase the entertainment value for your fans, and increase the revenues of your football club.”, I responded confidently.

“Well then Dave, I think we can meet.”, he said.  And I knew it was game on with the Cowboys.

In ‘sales speak’ Mr. Hays was asking for my USP: my Unique Sales Proposition.  That’s simply a fancy way of saying ‘what’s in it for the customer?’.  It’s really what differentiates you from your competition.  Keep in mind, when you articulate what makes you different it needs to be in terms of how your customer benefits – what’s in it for them.

I would like to suggest that no matter what you are leading, how you are attempting to influence others, or how you are ‘moving’ others (AKA ‘selling’), you would be very prudent to keep in mind Mr. Hays’ question.

How is what you are presenting or proposing going to benefit the people you are leading?  If you cannot answer that question succinctly and specifically then you need to think it through further before you begin to communicate.

Everyone sells, and you will be more effective if you remember Mr. Hays’ Cowboy sales lesson.